It took the party a full month to make the portage. They were worn to the bone by the hard labor, scorched by the sun, and frozen by the night winds.
"We must go on!" was always the cry.
All felt that the summer was going; none knew what might be on ahead.
At the cost of greater and greater toil they pushed on up their river above the falls, until presently its course bent off to the south again. They passed through a country of such wealth as none of them had ever dreamed of, but they did not suspect the hidden treasures of gold and silver which lay so close to them on the floor of the mountain valleys. What interested them more was the excitement of Sacajawea, who from time to time pointed out traces of human occupancy.
"My people here!" said she, and pointed to camp-fires. "Plenty people come here. Heap hunt buffalo!" She pointed out the trails made by the lodge-poles.
"She knows, Will!" said Lewis, once more. "We have a guide even here. We are the luckiest of men!"
"Soon we come where three rivers," said Sacajawea one day. They had passed to the south and west through the first range of mountains--through that Gate of the Mountains near to the rich gold fields of the future State of Montana. "By and by, three rivers--I know!"
And it was as she had said. The men, wearied to the limit by the toil of getting the boats upstream by line and setting pole, at last found their mountain river broken into three separate streams.
"We will camp here," said the leader. "We are tired, we have worked long and hard!"
"My people come here," said Sacajawea, "plenty time. Here the Minnetarees struck my people--five snows ago that was. They caught me and took me with them, so I find Charbonneau among the Mandans. Here my people live!"
Without hesitation she pointed out that one of the three forks of the Missouri which led off to the westward--the one that Meriwether Lewis called the Jefferson.
And now every man in the party felt that they were on the right path as they turned into that stream; but at the Beaver Head Rock--well known to all the Indians--they went into camp once more.
"Captains make medicine now," said Sacajawea to Charbonneau, her husband.
For once more the captains hesitated. There were many passes, many valleys, many trails. Which was the way? The men grew sullen again.
They lay in camp for days, sending out parties, feeling out the way; but the explorers always came back uncertain. It was Clark who led these scouting parties now, for Lewis was well-nigh broken down in health.