364 The Winning of the West 



eventful. They had difficulties with the Sioux of 

 course, but they held them at bay. They killed game 

 in abundance, and went down-stream as fast as sails, 

 oars, and current could carry them. In September, 

 they reached St. Louis and forwarded to Jefferson 

 an account of what they had done. 



They had done a great deed, for they had opened 

 the door into the heart of the far West. Close on 

 their tracks followed the hunters, trappers, and fur 

 traders who themselves made ready the way for the 

 settlers whose descendants were to possess the land. 

 As for the two leaders of the explorers, Lewis was 

 made Governor of Louisiana Territory, and a couple 

 of years afterward died, as was supposed, by his 

 own hand, in a squalid log cabin on the Chickasaw 

 trace though it was never certain that he had not 

 been murdered. Clark was afterward Governor of 

 the Territory, when its name had been changed to 

 Missouri, and he also served honorably as Indian 

 agent. But neither of them did anything further 

 of note; nor indeed was it necessary, for they had 

 performed a feat which will always give them a 

 place on the honor roll of American worthies. 



While Lewis and Clark were descending the Co- 

 lumbia and recrossing the continent from the Pa- 

 cific coast, another army officer was conducting 

 explorations which were only less important than 

 theirs. This was Lieut. Zebulon Montgomery 

 Pike. He was not by birth a Westerner, being 

 from New Jersey, the son of an officer of the Revo- 

 lutionary army ; but his name will always be indeli- 



