It was triangular in
shape, the two converging walls consisting of barracks with a loopholed
bastion at the apex, the base being a high wall of strong pickets where
sentry kept constant guard. Hitherto Captain Lewis had been able to
secure the services of French trappers as interpreters with the Indians;
but the next year he was going where there were no trappers; and now he
luckily engaged an old Nor'wester, Chaboneau, whose Indian wife,
Sacajawea, was a captive from the Snake tribe of the Rockies.[1] On
Christmas morning, the stars and stripes were hoisted above Fort Mandan;
and all that night the men danced hilariously. On New Years of 1805, the
white men visited the Mandan lodges, and one _voyageur_ danced "on his
head" to the uproarious applause of the savages. All winter the men
joined in the buffalo hunts, laying up store of pemmican. In February,
work was begun on the small boats for the ascent of the Missouri. By the
end of March, the river had cleared of ice, and a dozen men were sent
back to St. Louis.
At five, in the afternoon of April 7, six canoes and two pirogues were
pushed out on the Missouri. Sails were hoisted; a cheer from the
Canadian traders and Indians standing on the shore--and the boats glided
up the Missouri with flags flying from foremost prow. Hitherto Lewis and
Clark had passed over travelled ground. Now they had set sail for the
Unknown. Within a week they had passed the Little Missouri, the height
of land that divides the waters of the Missouri from those of the
Saskatchewan, and the great Yellowstone River, first found by wandering
French trappers and now for the first time explored.
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