The expedition struck camp at last, high up on the great river, in the country of the Yanktonnais. The Sioux long had marked its coming, and were ready for its landing. Their signal fires called in the villages to meet the boats of the white men.
They came riding down in bands, whooping and shouting, painted and half naked, well armed--splendid savages, fearing no man, proud, capricious, blood-thirsty. They were curious as to the errand of these new men who came carrying a new flag--these men who could make the thunder speak. For now the heavy piece on the bow of the great barge spoke in no uncertain terms so that its echoes ran back along the river shores. No such boat, no such gun as this, had ever been seen in that country before.
"Tell them to make a council, Dorion," said Lewis. "Take this officer's coat to their head man. Tell him that the Great Father sends it to him. Give him this hat with lace on it. Tell him that when we are ready we may come to their council to meet their chiefs. Say that only their real chiefs must come, for we will not treat with any but their head men. If they wish to see us soon, let them come to our village here."
"You are chiefs!" said Dorion. "Have I not seen it? I will tell them so."
But Dorion had been gone but a short time when he came hurrying back from the Indian village.
"The runners say plenty buffalo close by," he reported. "The chief, she'll call the people to hunt the buffalo."
William Clark turned to his companion.
"You hear that, Merne?" said he. "Why should we not go also?"
"Agreed!" said Meriwether Lewis. "But stay, I have a thought. We will go as they go and hunt as they do. To impress an Indian, beat him at his own game. You and I must ride this day, Will!"
"Yes, and without saddles, too! Very well, I learned that of my brother, who learned it of the Indians themselves. And I know you and I both can shoot the bow as well as most Indians--that was part of our early education. I might better have been in school sometimes, when I was learning the bow."
"Dorion," said Lewis to the interpreter, "go back to the village and tell their chief to send two bows with plenty of arrows. Tell them that we scorn to waste any powder on so small a game as the buffalo. On ahead are animals each one of which is as big as twenty buffalo--we keep our great gun for those. As for buffalo, we kill them as the Indians do, with the bow and with the spear. We shall want the stiffest bows, with sinewed backs. Our arms are very strong."