Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led thirty-three people on the most dangerous journey west from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. Those leaders commanded the Corps of Discovery through starvation in the Rockies, created peace between natives and white men, and achieved an unparalleled exploration that mankind has never repeated. Meriwether Lewis was born on August 18, 1774, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Lewis was an avid outdoorsman in his childhood; he spent his time hunting and exploring. After his childhood exploring, he became more comfortable with being out away from civilization. At an experienced age of 20, Lewis fought against the Whiskey Rebellion: a group that protested the taxation of whiskey. He stayed in the army for six …show more content…
Jefferson imagined that if we helped them now, they would not want to attack us in a state of war. Jefferson also wanted them to learn their culture so we could negotiate with them. Clark was very good with communicating with others to try and learn some Indian languages. The communication between the Indians was complicated to learn, but they did eventually learn who was a friend and who was a foe. After the debriefing was completed, Lewis and Clark joined up with the others of the group and headed out into uncharted territory. The Corps of Discovery left out of St. Charles, Missouri on May 21, 1804, headed west in a long boat called a keelboat. The group went up the Missouri river until June when they entered the Platte River. The group has not encountered any humans besides themselves in over a month. The Corps continued up the river, and on August 2nd, the group met the first Indians. The Indians were a group of Oto and Missouri Indians who were indeed friendly. The Corps exchanged gifts with the Indians, but they warned about the Sioux up north. President Jefferson had told Lewis and Clark of their power in the west and how they should go about meeting the …show more content…
As the boat tipped Sacagawea frantically grabbed as many journals from the river as she could. All of this history could have been lost if Sacagawea did not retrieve the journals from the water. Now our leaders were eager to lay eyes on the Rocky Mountains. They knew that it would hinder the progress of them. In the last week of May, they saw the enormous mountains and just began to realize how much of a challenge they had in store. In early June the journeyers came to a major decision: south or west. There was a divide in the river, and the leaders thought that they should go south, but the others disagreed. They could not make the wrong choice. They thought that they could use scouting parties, but they did not come back with answers. The party decided to go south after many debates. The group found five falls; however, they were supposed to find one. This means that they would need to spend much more time than initially planned. The group would have to travel around dangerous waters for over a month. As they traveled, the pressure of the size of the Rocky Mountains grew more and