=The Journey.= With about forty-five men and three boats Lewis and Clark started up the Missouri River in the spring of 1804. Two horsemen rode along the bank to hunt and bring in game, which was to go far toward supplying provisions for the expedition. After a five weeks’ journey they reached the mouth of the Kansas River, and encamped that night on the present site of Kansas City, Kansas. From there they continued up the Missouri River where it forms the present boundary line of Kansas, along the border of what has since become Leavenworth, Atchison, and Doniphan counties. Their account of the journey describes the country through which they passed and the different Indian tribes and villages they saw. It speaks of an Indian tribe as “hunting on the plains for buffalo which our hunters have seen for the first time.” Again we read, “Pecan trees were this day seen, and large quantities of deer and wild turkey.” By July 4 they had reached a point not far from the present city of Atchison. They did not have the means for much of a celebration, but their observance of the day included the firing of “an evening gun” and the naming of two streams, Fourth of July Creek, and Independence Creek. Independence Creek still retains its name. A week later they passed the fortieth parallel, which afterward became the northern boundary of Kansas, and continued on their way to the Pacific. =Pike’s Expedition.= In 1806 another exploring party was sent out in command of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, a young lieutenant in the army. He was instructed to ascend the Missouri River, visit the various Indian tribes in the Kansas country, go west until the frontier of New Mexico was reached, then south toward the source of the Red River which he was to descend to the Mississippi, and thence to St. Louis, the starting point. The journey did not, however, follow just this route. =Pike Visits the Osage Indians.= The Osage Indians lived in the eastern part of Kansas, south of the Kansas River. At their villages Pike purchased supplies for the overland journey. From there he went west and then northwest toward the Pawnee village which is believed to have been within the bounds of what is now Republic County.