John Newman. Did not go through. Was punished and sent back. Others enrolled in the party: Chief Hunter George Drouillard (called “Drewyer”) of Kaskaskia and St. Louis. Part French, part Indian. Went through. Head Boatman Pierre Cruzatte of St. Louis. Went through. Boatman François Labiche of St. Louis. Went through. Boatman ―――― Liberté of St. Louis. Deserted. Trader Baptiste Lepage of the Mandan Indian town. Enlisted there to take the place of the deserter Liberté. Went through. Trader Toussaint Chaboneau of the Mandan Indian town, where he was living with the Minnetarees. Enlisted as interpreter. Went through. Sa-ca-ja-we-a the Bird-woman, his Sho-sho-ne Indian wife, aged sixteen. Went through. Little Toussaint, their baby. Went through. ENGAGED FOR PART OF THE TRIP At St. Louis: Corporal Warfington and six privates, to go as far as the first winter’s camp. Nine French boatmen, to go as far as the first winter’s camp. On the way up from St. Louis: Trader Pierre Dorion, to go as far as the Sioux. I MAKING READY When in 1801 Thomas Jefferson became third President of the United States the nation was young. The War for Independence had been won only twenty years previous. George Washington himself had been gone but a year and four months. The Capitol was being erected on the site that he had chosen. And the western boundary of the nation was the Mississippi River. Beyond the Mississippi extended onward to the Rocky Mountains the foreign territory of Louisiana Province. New Orleans was the capital of its lower portion, St. Louis was the capital of its upper portion. It all was assumed to be the property of Spain, until, before President Jefferson had held office a year, there spread the rumor that by a secret treaty in 1800 Spain had ceded Louisiana back to France, the first owner. Almost another year passed. The treaty transferring Louisiana Province from Spain to France seemed to be hanging fire. The Spanish flag still floated over New Orleans and St. Louis. Then, in October, 1802, the Spanish governor at New Orleans informed the American traders and merchants that their flat-boats no longer might use the Mississippi River. New Orleans, the port through which the Mississippi River traffic reached the Gulf of Mexico, was closed to them. From the west to the east of the United States swelled a vigorous cry of indignation against this decree that closed the Mississippi to American commerce. Hot words issued, threats were loudly spoken, and the people of the Ohio Valley, particularly, were ripe to seize New Orleans and re-open the big river by force of arms.