Lewis, Clark, & Sacagawea: A Love Triangle in the Louisiana Territory

Chapter II: Camp Dubois and the Journey up the Missouri River

This chapter just kind of transitions the characters into the expedition – as filler to get things started, but I still hope you like it :) Vote and comment at the end! Pwease!

**Clark's POV**

             We took Sacagawea to Camp Dubois, a military camp on the eastern side of the Mississippi River in the Illinois Territory. The men that would travel with us on our journey, thirty three of them, to be exact, were also stationed here, and had been training while Lewis and I had been traveling. It would be our official starting point.

            It didn't take a genius to figure out that Sacagawea hated Camp Dubois. I couldn't really blame her. The camp was a massive, hulking structure of sharpened wooden poles and dirt. It was filled with men, who were constantly training. All day long the sound of guns cracking echoed around the clearing where the camp was located. At every gun's bang, Sacagawea would drop her head and cover her ears with her hands.

            At Camp Dubois, we split up. Sacagawea stayed there, in the only private room in the whole camp, usually reserved for Sergeant John Ordway, who ran the camp. Ordway was none too happy about giving up his cushy quarters to a savage, of all people, but we couldn't let a young woman like Sacagawea in the barracks with the other young men. Some of them hadn't seen a female in months. I didn't want to leave her there, and neither did Lewis, but we figured that the places we were going were no places for an Indian woman.

            Lewis traveled around to Cahokia and St. Louis, finding any information he could about the Louisiana Territory. He talked to cartographers and collected maps, none of which looked remotely the same and probably weren't accurate. He spoke to other explorers and the trappers that had journeyed into the unknown lands to figure out what plants and animals we might encounter.

            Meanwhile, I went to recruit men from the Kaskaskia tribe. None volunteered, which didn't surprise me, but made me angry for traveling such a distance for nothing. I traveled to Fort Massac as well, where two able bodied men joined the expedition.

            We met back at Camp Dubois about two weeks later. According to Ordway, Sacagawea hadn't left the room she'd been assigned except to relieve herself and get food. I felt instantly guilty for leaving her there. She didn’t deserve that kind of torment.

            On May 14th, when both Lewis and I were at Dubois, along with Sacagawea and all the men that would make up the Expedition, we began our trip. I brought with me York, my black slave I’d owned since I was little. We’d been companions as children, but now he was a huge, strong man of few words. We set out on the Missouri River, in fourteen wooden boats. Twelve of the boats carried three people in each, and the other two were tethered to the rear boats and floated along filled with our supplies. Horses would not be necessary or convenient for this leg of the journey.

            Sacagawea traveled in a boat with Lewis and me, since we figured she'd be more comfortable with us then people she'd never met before. Lewis's giant hunting dog, Sam, was in the boat with us.

            "You don't need to worry at all." Lewis said reassuringly to her, patting her on the knee like a child. She only looked back at him, her eyes wide. "The men have been told not to touch you, or bother you if you don't want to talk."

            "I'm a translator." she said dully. "Don't I need to talk?"

            "Only if you want to." Lewis answered.

            "It's not men that I am scared of." Sacagawea said after a moment's pause. "It's white men."

            "Well, are you scared of Clark and I?" Lewis asked.