A Forced March Was Now Necessary For The Explorers, And They Set Out As
Speedily As Possible, Well Knowing That
The Indians would be on their trail.
By three o'clock in the afternoon of that day they had reached
Tansy
River, now known as the Teton, having travelled sixty-three miles.
They rested for an hour and a half to refresh their horses,
and then pushed on for seventeen miles further before camping again.
Having killed a buffalo, they had supper and stopped two hours.
Then, travelling through vast herds of buffalo until two o'clock
in the morning, they halted again, almost dead with fatigue;
they rested until daylight. On awaking, they found themselves
so stiff and sore with much riding that they could scarcely stand.
But the lives of their friends now at or near the mouth of Maria's River
were at stake, as well as their own. Indeed, it was not certain
but that the Indians had, by hard riding and a circuitous route,
already attacked the river party left at the falls.
So Captain Lewis told his men that they must go on, and, if attacked,
they must tie their horses together by the head and stand together,
selling their lives as dearly as possible, or routing their enemies.
The journal now says: -
"To this they all assented, and we therefore continued our route
to the eastward, till at the distance of twelve miles we came near
the Missouri, when we heard a noise which seemed like the report of a gun.
We therefore quickened our pace for eight miles farther, and,
being about five miles from Grog Spring, now heard distinctly
the noise of several rifles from the river.
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