ad some idea of the
country, and so also they had beyond here as far as the mouth of the
Yellowstone--that's two hundred and eighty-eight miles above here. But
beyond the mouth of the Ro' Jaune--it even then was called Roche Jaune,
or Yellow Stone, by the early French _voyageurs_--it was said the foot
of white man never then had passed. There was no map, no report or rumor
to help them. If they had a guide, it couldn't be a white man.

"Now among the Mandans they found a man called Chaboneau, or Charboneau,
a Frenchman, married to two Indian women, one of whom was Sacagawea. He
had bought her from the Minnetarees, where she was a captive.

"Just think how the natives traveled in those days! You know the
Sioux hunted on the upper Platte, as far as the Rockies. Well, this
Minnetaree war party had been west of the Rockies, or in the big bend
of the Rockies, at the very head of the Missouri River, among the
Shoshonis. They took Sacagawea prisoner when she was a little girl,
and brought her east, all the way over to Dakota, here. But she was
Indian--she did not forget what she saw. She knew about the
Yellowstone, and the Three Forks of the Missouri.

"Well now, whether it was because Chaboneau, the new interpreter, wanted
her along, or whether Lewis and Clark figured she might be useful,
Sacagawea went along, all the way to the Pacific--and all the way back
to the Mandans again. Be sure, her husband did not beat her any more,
while they were with the white captains. In fact, I rather think they
made a pet of her. They found they could rely on her memory and her
judgment.

"So the real guide they had in the nameless and unknown country was a
Shoshoni Indian girl. It looked almost like something providential, the
way they found her here, ready and waiting for them--the only possible
guide in all that country. And to-day, such was the chivalry and justice
of those two captains of our Army--and such the chivalry and justice of
the men of Oregon and the enthusiasm of the women of Oregon--you may see
in Portland, near the sea to which she helped lead our flag, the bronze
statue of Sacagawea, the Indian girl. That, at least, is one fine thing
we have done in memory of the Indian.

"And within the last two or three years a bronze statue of Meriwether
Lewis and William Clark has been erected at Charlotteville, Virginia,
near the home of Meriwether Lewis--that was at Ivy station, to-day only
a scattered settlement. And away down