Before they left the mountains, the captains said:
"We will divide our party.
Then we can go different ways.
Then we shall see more of the country east of the Rocky Mountains."
So Captain Lewis and nine men started in a straight line to the Falls of
the Missouri.
Captain Clark and the others went more to the South.
Sacajawea went with Captain Clark.
The two parties promised to meet again down on the Missouri.
They said good-bye to each other on July third.
On the next day, Captain Clark wrote that they had a good Fourth of July
dinner.
They had fat deer and roots.
Then they went on until time to sleep.
They had no time to dance now.
They were going home.
Captain Lewis and his men pushed on all day.
He did not write that they thought of the Fourth of July.
Captain Clark sent ten men down the Missouri River the way they had
come West.
He went with Sacajawea and ten other men across to the Yellowstone
River.
Sacajawea found the way for him.
She also found roots good to eat.
Captain Clark wrote that she was of "great service" to him.
Captain Clark's party went down the Yellowstone River to the Missouri
River.
Here they met two white men.
These were the first white men besides themselves that they had seen for
a year and four months.
They were glad to hear news from the East.
Soon after they met these white men, Captain Lewis and the other
soldiers came down to them.
This was in August.
Captain Lewis had been shot by one of his best men.
The man thought that Captain Lewis was an elk, because his clothes were
brown.
The man was very sorry for having shot him.
Captain Lewis soon got well.
The soldiers were happy to be together again.
They forgot their troubles.
They went down the Missouri, singing.
[Illustration: THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE AS DRAWN BY CAPTAIN LEWIS IN HIS
JOURNAL]
They were glad they had gone West.
They had taken the country for the Americans.
They had made friends with the Indians.
They knew where food could be found.
They knew about the animals and plants.
Now other people could find the way from the maps the captains had made.
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