68 The Winning of the West 



subsistence and to see that their march was not dis- 

 covered by any straggling Frenchman or Indian. 

 The first fifty miles led through tangled and pathless 

 forest, the toil of traveling being very great. After 

 that the work was less difficult as they got out among 

 the prairies, but on these great level meadows they 

 had to take extra precautions to avoid being seen. 

 Once the chief guide got bewildered and lost him- 

 self; he could no longer tell the route, nor whither 

 it was best to march. 20 The whole party was at 

 once cast into the utmost confusion ; but Clark soon 

 made the guide understand that he was himself in 

 greater jeopardy than any one else, and would for- 

 feit his life if he did not guide them straight. Not 

 knowing the man, Clark thought he might be treach- 

 erous ; and, as he wrote an old friend, he was never 

 in his life in such a rage as when he found his troops 

 wandering at random in a country where, at any 

 moment, they might blunder on several times their 

 number of hostile Indians ; while, if they were dis- 

 covered by any one at all, the whole expedition was 

 sure to miscarry. However, the guide proved to be 

 faithful; after a couple of hours he found his bear- 

 ings once more, and guided the party straight to 

 their destination. 



On the evening of the fourth of July 21 they 



20 Even experienced woodsmen or plainsmen sometimes 

 thus become lost or "turned round," if in a country of few 

 landmarks, where they have rarely been before. 



21 So says Clark; and the Haldimand MSS. contain a letter 

 of Rocheblave of July 4th. For these campaigns of 1778 I 

 follow where possible Clark's letter to Mason as being nearly 



