rom our perspective, none of their tons of supplies, not even
the guns, powder, and bullets with which they fed themselves,
were ultimately as important as the pens, ink, and paper they
carried, and protected from the elements. Although the lists of
stores purchased in Philadelphia show only a few "papers" of
powdered ink; the captains must have bought more, perhaps in St.
Louis. It is one of those curious little paradoxes of history
that so little is known of the story of ink because so little
has been written about it. Ink of some sort was invented around
2500 BC, consisting of a pigment or dye, sometimes the carbon
residue from oil-burning lamps, which was dissolved or dispersed
in a liquid glue or gum, molded into sticks, and allowed to dry.
The process of grating a stick and mixing the powder with just
the right amount of water was the critical step. Temperature, of
course, had a lot to do with the flow of ink, and not just in
wintertime. The morning of August 21, 1805, signaled the
occurrence of the ann