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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