-
"Captain Lewis, With Nine Men, Is To Pursue The Most Direct
Route To The Falls Of The Missouri, Where Three
Of his party
[Thompson, Goodrich, and McNeal] are to be left to prepare carriages
for transporting the baggage and canoes
Across the portage.
With the remaining six, he will ascend Maria's River to explore
the country and ascertain whether any branch of it reaches as far north
as latitude 50'0, after which he will descend that river to its mouth.
The rest of the men will accompany Captain Clark to the head
of Jefferson River, which Sergeant Ordway and a party of nine men
will descend, with the canoes and other articles deposited there.
Captain Clark's party, which will then be reduced to ten men
and Sacajawea, will proceed to the Yellowstone, at its nearest approach
to the Three Forks of the Missouri. There he will build canoes,
go down that river with seven of his party, and wait at its mouth till
the rest of the party join him. Sergeant Pryor, with two others,
will then take the horses by land to the Mandans. From that nation
he will go to the British posts on the Assiniboin with a letter
to Mr. Alexander Henry, to procure his endeavors to prevail on some
of the Sioux chiefs to accompany him to the city of Washington.
. . . . . . . . .
The Indians who had accompanied us intended leaving us in order
to seek their friends, the Ootlashoots; but we prevailed on them
to accompany Captain Lewis a part of his route, so as to show him
the shortest road to the Missouri, and in the mean time amused
them with conversation and running races, on foot and with horses,
in both of which they proved themselves hardy, athletic, and active.
To the chief Captain Lewis gave a small medal and a gun,
as a reward for having guided us across the mountains; in return
the customary civility of exchanging names passed between them,
by which the former acquired the title of Yomekollick,
of White Bearskin Unfolded."
Chapter XXIV
The Expedition Subdivided
On the third of July, accordingly, Captain Lewis, with nine of his men
and five Indians, proceeded down the valley lying between the Rocky and
the Bitter Root ranges of mountains, his general course being due northwest
of Clark's fork of the Columbia River.
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