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The intention of Captain Lewis was to reach the river sometimes known as
Maria's, and sometimes as Marais, or swamp. This stream rises near the
boundary between Montana and the British possessions, and flows into the
Missouri, where the modern town of Ophir is built. The men left at the
great falls were to dig up the canoes and baggage that had been cached
there the previous year, and be ready to carry around the portage of
the falls the stuff that would be brought from the two forks of the
Jefferson, later on, by Sergeant Ordway and his party. It will be
recollected that this stuff had also been cached at the forks of the
Jefferson, the year before. The two parties, thus united, were to go
down to the entrance of Maria's River into the Missouri, and Captain
Lewis expected to join them there by the fifth of August; if he failed
to meet them by that time, they were to go on down the river and meet
Captain Clark at the mouth of the Yellowstone. This explanation is
needed to the proper understanding of the narrative that follows; for we
now have to keep track of three parties of the explorers.
Captain Lewis and his men, having travelled northwest about twenty miles
from the great falls of the Missouri, struck the trail of a wounded
buffalo. They were dismayed by the sight, for that assured them that
there were Indians in the vicinity; and the most natural thing to expect
was that these were Blackfeet, or Minnetarees; both of these tribes are
vicious and rascally people, and they would not hesitate to attack a
small party and rob them of their guns, if they thought themselves able
to get away with them.
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