Chapter 2

When the canoes were ready, the party started up the river above the Falls. As they reached the mountains, the river grew narrow. It was not deep, but it was rapid. The soldiers had to pull the canoes with ropes. The river did not run straight. One day the men dragged the canoes twelve miles. Then they were only four miles from where they had started. They had to walk in the river all day. Their feet were cut by the rocks. They were ill from being wet so much. It was hot in the day and cold at night. They had no wood but willow. They could not make a good fire. But they had enough to eat. Then the river grew very narrow. The canoes could not go up it. The soldiers put the canoes under water with rocks in them. They made another cache. In it they put skins, plants, seeds, minerals, maps, and some medicines. Captain Lewis and some men went ahead. They were looking for Indians. They wanted to buy some horses. After a time the river grew so narrow that a soldier put one foot on one bank and his other foot on the other bank. Then he said, "Thank God, I am alive to bestride the mighty Missouri." Before this, people did not know where the Missouri began. A little way off was the beginning of the mighty Columbia River. The soldiers reached this place in August. Captain Lewis was very happy as he drank some cold water from the beginnings of these two rivers. Captain Clark and the other men were coming behind. Sacajawea was with them. They had all the goods and walked slowly.

a nise grease pound bread mixed pow der hun gry mush roast ed tastes um brel la yamp

SACAJAWEA FINDS ROOTS AND SEEDS.

Far up on the Missouri, Sacajawea knew the plants that were good to eat. The captains and soldiers were glad that she did. They had only a little corn left, and there were not many animals near. Sacajawea told Captain Clark all about the yamp plant, as her tribe knew it. It grew in wet ground. It had one stem and deeply cut leaves. Its stem and leaves were dark green. It had an umbrella of white flowers at the top of the stem. The Indian women watched the yamp until the stem dried up. Then they dug for the roots. The yamp root is white and hard. The Indians eat it fresh or dried. When it is dry, they pound it into a fine white powder. The Indian women make the yamp powder into a mush. Indian children like yamp mush as much as white children like candy. It tastes like our anise seed. The soldiers liked the yamp mush that Sacajawea made. Sacajawea also made a sunflower mush. She roasted sunflower seeds. Then she pounded them into a powder and made a mush with hot water. She made a good drink of the sunflower powder and cold water. She mixed the sunflower powder with bear grease and roasted it on hot rocks. This made a bread the soldiers liked very much. Without Sacajawea the soldiers would have been hungry. They did not know the plants. Some plants would kill them. But Sacajawea knew those good to eat.

meet sang sucked own short taken

SACAJAWEA'S PEOPLE.

One day near the head of the Missouri, Sacajawea stopped short as she walked. She looked hard to the West. She saw far away some Indians on horseback. She began to dance and jump. She waved her arms. She laughed and called out. She turned to Captain Clark and sucked her fingers. This showed that these Indians were her own people. She ran ahead to meet them. After a time a woman from the Indians ran out to meet Sacajawea. When they came together, they put their arms around each other. They danced together. They cried together. This woman had been Sacajawea's friend from the time when they were babies. She had been taken East by the same Indians that took Sacajawea. On the way East she got away from these Indians. She found her way home. She had been afraid she would never see Sacajawea again. Now they were happy to meet. They danced and sang and cried and laughed with their arms around each other.

broth er sent tied sell shells

SACAJAWEA'S BROTHER.

The party went with Sacajawea's people to their camp. Captain Clark was taken to the chief's house. The house was made of a ring of willows. The chief put his arms about Captain Clark. He made him sit on a white skin. He tied in his hair six shells. Each one then took off his moccasins. Then they smoked without talking. When they wanted to talk, they sent for Sacajawea. She came into the house and sat down. She looked at the chief. She saw that he was her brother. She jumped up and ran to him. She threw her blanket over his head. She cried aloud in joy. He was glad to see her. He did not cry nor jump. He did not like to show that he was glad. Sacajawea told him about the white men. She said they wanted to go across the Rocky Mountains to the Big Water in the West. She did not know the way across the mountains. The Indians could help them. They could sell them horses and show them the way across the steep mountain tops.

Ca me ah wa it kind

Sacajawea said the white men had many things the Indians would like. If they found a good way over the mountains, the white men would send these things to the Indians each summer. Sacajawea said the white men were kind to her and her baby. If they had not taken care of her when she was ill, she would not have seen her brother again. Her brother said he was glad that the white men had been kind to her. He would help them over the mountains. He would talk to his men about it. He said to Captain Clark: "You have been kind to Sacajawea. I am your friend until my days are over. You shall own my house. You shall sit on my blanket. You shall have what I kill. You shall bear my name. My name belonged to me only, but now it is yours. You are Cameahwait." After that, all this tribe called Captain Clark "Cameahwait."

Ah hi e! death oars pleased bought nev er sad dles

SACAJAWEA'S PEOPLE WILL SHOW THE WAY.

Cameahwait told his people how good the white men were. He told them what good things they had. He said, "If we sell them horses and take them over the mountains, they can get back soon. No goods will come to us until they go back to their home. If we do not help them, they cannot cross the mountains. They do not know the way. They cannot carry food enough. They will meet death in the mountains. Then we shall never get their goods. Shall we help them, my brothers?"

And the people said, "Ah hi e! Ah hi e!" That means, "We are pleased." They got horses to carry the goods. They could not get enough horses to give the men to ride. The captains bought a horse for Sacajawea to ride. The soldiers made saddles from the oars tied together with pieces of skins. Then they started up the steep mountain.

heard must to-night slipped

THE INDIANS TRY TO LEAVE THE WHITES.

When they were in the mountain tops, Sacajawea overheard some Indians talking. They said: "We do not want to go across the mountains with the whites. We want to go down to the plains and hunt buffalo. We are hungry here. On the plains are many buffalo. We must hunt them now for our winter food. We do not care for the white men's goods. Our fathers lived without their goods. We can live without them. We will go off to-night and leave them. They will meet death in the mountains. In the Spring we can come back and get their goods."

Sacajawea went to Captain Lewis. She told him what she had heard. He called the chiefs together. They smoked a pipe together. Sacajawea slipped a piece of sugar into Cameahwait's hand. As he sucked it, she said, "You will get this good thing from the white men if you are friends with them."

gone land word keep prom ise yes

Then Captain Lewis said, "Are you men of your word?"

The Indians said, "Yes."

He said, "Did you not promise to carry our goods over the mountains?"

The Indians said, "Yes."

"Then," he said, "why are you going to leave us now? If you had not promised, we would have gone back down the Missouri. Then no other white man would come to your land. You wish the whites to be your friends. You want them to give you goods. You should keep you promise to them. I will keep my promise to you. You seem afraid to keep your promise."

The chiefs said, "We are not afraid. We will keep our promise."

They sent out word to all their men to keep their promise. Captain Lewis thanked Sacajawea. If she had not told him, the Indians would have gone off in the night. The whites would have been left in the steep Rocky Mountains with no horses and no way of getting food.

stiff Pa cif ic O cean melt sharp trip

CROSSING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

The trip across the mountains was very hard. The mountain tops were steep. There was no road. The ground was made of sharp rocks. The horses slipped and fell down. The men's feet were cut and black and blue. It rained many days and snowed nights. They had no houses. Before they could start on each day, they had to melt the snow off their goods. The men grew stiff from the wet and the cold. The only way they could get warm was to keep on walking. They had little food. They had only a little corn when they started across the mountains. This was soon gone. There were no animals, no fish, and no roots on the way. They had to kill their horses. They had only horsemeat to eat. The soldiers grew sick. Some could hardly stand. But they did not want to turn back. They knew the Indians could find the way down to the Columbia River. Then they could get to the Pacific Ocean without the Indians. So they went on.

sud den ly fun salm on watch

AT THE COLUMBIA RIVER.

At last they got across the mountains and down on the Columbia River. The Indians who had showed them the way went home again. There were other Indians near the Columbia. These Indians gave the men salmon and roots. They ate so much that they were ill. The captains and all the soldiers were ill. But they started to make canoes to ride down the Columbia. They did not get well. So they bought some dogs. They cooked the dogs and ate them. For days they could eat only dog. The Indians laughed at them for eating dog. They said, "Dogs are good to watch the camp. They are not good to eat. We do not eat them. What poor men these must be to eat dog!" Suddenly the captains fired off their guns and a soldier played the fiddle. Then the Indians stopped laughing. They had never heard a gun before. They had never before heard a fiddle. They thought the white men must be wonderful people to have guns and fiddles. They wished to be friends with such wonderful people. So they did not make fun of them any more.

full grass stones

HOW THE INDIANS DRIED SALMON.

The soldiers left their horses here on the Columbia River. They asked the Indians to keep them until they should come back from the West. Then they started down the river in canoes. On the Columbia, the party saw some Indians drying salmon. They opened the fish. Then they put it in the sun. When it was well dried, they pounded it to powder between two stones. Then they put it into a basket. The basket was made of grass. It had dried salmon skin inside. The Indians pounded the powdered salmon down hard into the basket. When a basket was full, they put dried salmon skin on the top. Then the basket was put where it would keep dry. The salmon powder would keep for years. Only one tribe of Indians knew how to make it well. The other tribes bought it from them. All the tribes liked it. The white men, too, liked it.

gath ered ar row head sum mer wap pa to pond toes

THE WAPPATO.

The party found a root new to them on the lower Columbia. The Indians called it wappato. Captain Clark called it arrowhead. The wappato grew all the year. The Indian women gathered it. A woman carried a light canoe to a pond. She waded into the pond. She put the canoe on the water. With her toes she pulled up the wappato from the bottom of the pond. The woman caught it and put it in the canoe. She was in the water many hours, summer and winter. When her canoe was full, she put it on her head and carried it home. She roasted the wappato on hot stones. It tasted very good. The soldiers said it was the best root they had tasted. The Indian women used to put some wappato in grass baskets and sell it to the tribes up the river.

anx ious cheer ful view break ing dis tinct ly shores

TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

The party went down the Columbia River in canoes. It was a hard trip. It rained all the time. Each day the men were wet to the skin. They had to carry their goods around some rapids. They could not be very cheerful. One day it stopped raining for a little time. The low clouds went away. The party saw that the river was very wide. They rowed on. Then they saw the great ocean lying in the sun. They became very happy. They cheered and laughed and sang. They rowed on very fast. Captain Lewis wrote in his book: "Ocean in view! O! the joy! We are in VIEW of the Ocean, this great Pacific Ocean, which we have been so long anxious to see. The noise made by the waves breaking on the rocky shores may be heard distinctly."

half for got jour ney troub les

THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

The party saw that they had come to the end of their journey. They had come 4,134 miles from the mouth of the Missouri River. It had taken them a year and a half to come. But now they forgot their troubles. They forgot the times they had been hungry. They forgot their cut feet and their black and blue backs. They forgot the bears and the snakes and the mosquitoes. They saw the Pacific Ocean before them. They sang because they were the first white men to make this journey. They did not care for the troubles going back. They knew that they could go home faster than they had come. And they sang together, "The Ocean! The Ocean! O joy! O joy!"

beach blub ber line thun der Clat sop salt whale sand

SACAJAWEA ON THE OCEAN BEACH.

The party made a winter camp at the mouth of the Columbia River. They called it Fort Clatsop. The Indians near-by were the Clatsop tribe. These Indians gave the whites some whale blubber. They said that a whale was on the ocean beach. Captain Clark and some men got ready to go to see it. Sacajawea came to Captain Clark and said, "May I go, too? I have come over the mountains with you to find the Great Water and I have not been to it yet. Now I would see the Big Animal and the Great Water, too." Captain Clark was glad to have her go. He wrote in his book that this was the only time she asked for anything. She took her baby on her back and walked with Captain Clark. When she got near the ocean, she was afraid. The noise seemed to her like thunder. She always had been afraid of thunder. When she saw the waves, she was afraid they would come over the earth. She had never before seen any big body of water. She had seen only rivers and ponds. The ocean looked very big. She would not go near the waves. Then Captain Clark showed her the high water line. He told her that the waves would not go over that line. She sat down on the sand with her baby in her lap. She watched the waves a long time. Then she was not afraid. She walked out to the waves. When they came to shore, she ran before them. She let them come over her feet. She took some ocean water in her hand and tasted it. She did not like its salt taste. But she did like to run after the waves.

bags oil wood en eight y pork trough

THE WHALE.

Captain Clark and his party walked all day before they came to where the whale lay. The waves had carried it up on the shore. It was a very big animal. It was longer than most houses. It was eighty feet long. The Indians were cutting it up. They put the meat into a large wooden trough. Then they put hot stones into the trough. The hot stones melted out the oil. The Indians put the oil into skin bags. They used it to eat with roots and mush. They did not wish to sell the oil. But after a time, they did sell some oil to Captain Clark. They sold him some blubber, too. The blubber was white and looked like pork fat. The soldiers cooked some and ate it. They liked it very much. Sacajawea was happy to see the whale. She walked all around it. She made her baby to look well at it. She told him he might never see one again. The baby did not care for the whale, but he laughed because Sacajawea laughed.

beau ti ful robe sor ry belt sea-ot ter wear

SACAJAWEA'S BELT.

The Clatsop chief came to Fort Clatsop to see the captains. He had on a robe made of two sea-otter skins. The skins were the most beautiful the captains had yet seen. They wanted the chief to sell the robe. He did not want to sell it, as sea-otters are hard to get. They said they would give him anything they had for it. Still he would not sell it. Sacajawea saw him looking at her blue bead belt. She had made this belt from beads Captain Clark had given her. She used to wear it all the time. She said to the Clatsop chief, "Will you sell the robe for my belt?" He said, "Yes, I will sell it for the chief beads." The Indians called blue beads "chief beads." Sacajawea thought a little time. Then she gave her belt to him. He put it around his neck. He gave her his sea-otter robe. She gave it to Captain Clark for a present. She was sorry to give up her belt. The captains had no more blue beads to give her to make another. But she was glad to give Captain Clark the beautiful sea-otter skins.

boiled crust five pairs burned filled kegs treat

AT FORT CLATSOP.

At Fort Clatsop, the captains wrote in their books. They wrote about all they had seen coming to the Pacific. They wrote about things near Fort Clatsop. They made maps of the land near the Missouri River, in the Rocky Mountains, and on the banks of the Columbia. Some of the men hunted. They made the skins of animals into clothes and moccasins. They made between three and four hundred pairs of moccasins. They saved these to wear on the way home. Five soldiers were sent down to the ocean beach to make salt. Each had a big kettle. They filled the kettles with ocean water. They burned a fire under the kettles day and night. In time, the water all boiled away. A crust of salt was left on the inside of the kettles. The soldiers gathered this salt into wooden kegs. It took seven weeks to make enough salt for their journey home. Captain Lewis wrote, "This salt was a great treat to many of the party." He liked salt very much. Captain Clark wrote that he did not care if he had salt or not.

hand ker chief un der wear wea sel mer ry wak en wel come

On Christmas Day, 1805, the soldiers got up without making any noise. They fired their guns all at one time to waken the captains. Then they sang an old Christmas song. Then they wished the captains "Merry Christmas." They gave each other presents. Captain Clark wrote that he had twelve weasel tails, some underwear, some moccasins, and an Indian blanket for his Christmas presents. He gave a handkerchief or some little present to each man. There was no snow and no ice, but there was much rain. The soldiers had to stay in their log fort all day. They had only poor elk, poor roots, and some bad dried salmon for dinner. But they were cheerful. They danced and sang into the night. On New Year's Day, they fired their guns to welcome in the New Year. They had more to eat than on Christmas Day. The captains wrote, "Our greatest pleasure to-day is thinking about New Year's, 1807. Then we shall be home."

game or der let ters stol en

THE START HOME.

In March, the elk left the woods near Fort Clatsop. The soldiers could not get enough to eat. The captains said, "It is time to start home." They bought a canoe with a soldier-coat and some little things. They took another canoe from the Clatsops for some elk meat that the Indians had stolen. They had not many things left to get food and horses with on the way home. But their guns were in good order. They had good powder and balls. They could kill game on the way. They cut up their big flag into five robes. They could sell them robes for food. The captains gave the Clatsops letters to give to any white men who should come there. These letters told about the party's trip out West. They told how they were going back East. The Clatsops promised to give these letters to the first white men who should come. Then the party said good-bye to the Clatsops. This was in the month of March. They started up the Columbia River, singing. They were happy because they were going home.

awl nee dles skeins Cho pun nish ounce thread knit ting-pin rib bon ver mil ion

AT CAMP CHOPUNNISH.

On the way up the Columbia, the soldiers killed game. They gave some to the Indians for roots. They came to the foot of the mountains in May. There was too much snow then for them to cross They made a camp near the Chopunnish Indians. They called it Camp Chopunnish. They sent out to get the horses they had left when camping there before. They tried to get enough food to last them over the mountains. Many of the Indians were ill. Captain Clark gave them medicine. They gave him food and horses for the medicine. Captain Lewis talked with the Indian chiefs all day. They promised to let some young Indians show the way over the mountains. The captains gave each soldier some of their goods and sent him out to get food. Captain Lewis wrote that each man had "only one awl and one knitting- pin, half an ounce of vermilion, two needles, a few skeins of thread, and a yard of ribbon." Two of the men took their goods with them in a canoe. The canoe turned over. They lost all their goods. They just saved their lives.

bot tles bush els pris on ers' base box es but tons raft ra ces

Two other men went up the river with their goods on a horse. The horse slipped down a steep bank into the river. He got safe to the bank across the river. An Indian made him swim back to the two soldiers. On the way, most of the goods were lost. The paint melted, and the horse's back was all red. The Indians on the bank across the river saw what the soldiers wanted. They loaded some roots and bread on a raft. They tried to cross to the soldiers. A high wind sent the raft on a rock. The raft turned over. The roots and bread were lost. Then the captains and men felt unhappy. They cut the buttons from their clothes. They gathered up all the bottles and medicine boxes they had. With these things, two soldiers went out to get food. They got three bushels of roots and some bread. The other men hunted. They dried some meat, and gave some to the Indians for roots. They became good friends with the Chopunnish Indians. They used to run fast races together. Both soldiers and Indians could run fast. The soldiers took sides and played prisoners' base.

ear ly sec ond fold ed means Yo me kol lick la ter

OVER THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS GOING HOME.

The party wanted to start over the mountains in early June. The Indians were not ready to go with them then. The party started to go without the Indians. They could not find food for the horses. There was snow all over the ground. They had to turn back and camp where there was grass. A week later the Indians were ready to go with them. They started a second time. The Indians showed them the way. They found food for the horses each night. The trip across the mountains was not so hard as it had been the year before. Now the snow covered all the sharp rocks. The snow was so hard that the horses could walk on it. Now they had enough food. All the men had horses. They went many miles each day. All were happy. One of the Indians liked Captain Lewis so much that he gave him his name, "Yomekollick."

This means "White Bear-skin Folded." The Indians thought their names were the best thing they could give to any one.