N3825

Lewis & Clark Expedition - Bicentennial

Fred's Anecdotal Note

Toussaint Charbonneau

The Corps of Discovery Heads West

On April 7, 1805, the expedition was ready to Ieave Fort Mandan and head west into the unknown. In a letter to President Jefferson that would retum to St. Louis in the keelboat under Corporal Warfington (also leaving that day), Lewis wrote, "I can foresee no material or probable obstruction to our progress, and entertain therefore the most sanguine hopes of complete success. Every individual of the party are in gootl health, and excellent sperits; zealously attached to the enterprise, and anxious to proceed. With such men I have everything to hope and but little to fear. "

A last minute addition to the party was Toussaint Charbonneau. Bom near Montreal, he had been a fur trapper with the Northwest Company. He then lived among the Indians, and the captains wanted him as an interpreter. As it turned out, Lewis would later describe him as "a man of no peculiar merit." Due to inability and panic, he nearly was responsible for the loss of the white pirogue in two separate incidents. Lewis wrote that Charbonneau was "perhaps the most timid waterman in the world."

The keelboat would take back selected plants, animals, Indian artifacts, Ietters, joumals, and reports. The party heading west would consist of six canoes and the red and white pirogues. At his camp on the first night out, Lewis wrote, "This little fleet altho' not guite so respectable as those of Columbus or Capt. Cook, were still viewed by us with as much pleasure as those deservedly famed adyenturers ever beheld theirs. "

As poor a recruit as Toussaint Charbonneau would prove to be, history would smile kindly on the fortuitous decision to hire him for traveling along with him would be his infant son Baptiste (who had been delivered by Lewis) and his young Indian wife. Her name was Sacajawea.