[Illustration: Meriwether Lewis.]
In May, 1804, the little company of forty-five men left St. Louis and
started up the Missouri River, passing the scattered settlements of French
creoles. After eleven days they reached the home of Daniel Boone, the last
settlement they passed on the Missouri. Leaving that, they found no more
white settlers and very few Indians. But the woods were alive with game,
so there was no lack of food.
[Illustration: William Clark.]
Late in October they arrived at a village of Mandan Indians situated at
the great bend of the Missouri River, in what is now known as North
Dakota. Deciding to winter here, they built huts and a stockade, calling
the camp Fort Mandan. The Mandans were used to white men, as the village
had been visited often by traders from both north and south.
Although the Indians gave them no trouble, the explorers suffered greatly
from cold and hunger, game being scarce and poor in the winter season.
When spring came the party, now numbering thirty-two, again took up the
westward journey. All before them was new country. They met few Indians
and found themselves in one of the finest hunting-grounds in the world.
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