"Soon we see the mountains!" insisted Sacajawea.
And at last, two months out from the Mandans, Lewis looked westward from a little eminence and saw a low, broken line, white in spots, not to be confused with the lesser eminences of the near by landscape.
"It is the mountains!" he exclaimed. "There lie the Stonies. They do exist! We shall surely reach them! We have won!"
Not yet had they won. These shining mountains lay a long distance to the westward; and yet other questions were to be settled ere they might be reached.
Within a week they came to yet another forking of the stream. A strong river came boiling down from the north, of color and depth much similar to that of the Missouri they had known. On the left ran a less turbulent and clearer stream. Which was the way?
"The north wan, she'll be the right wan, Capitaine," said Cruzatte, himself a good voyageur.
Most of the men agreed with him. The leaders recalled that the Mandans had said that the Missouri after a time grew clear in color, and that it would lead to the mountains. Which, now, was the Missouri?
They found the moccasin of an Indian not far from here.
"Blackfoot!" said Sacajawea, and pointed to the north, shaking her head.
She insisted that the left-hand river was the right one; but, unwilling as yet to rely on her fully, the leaders called a council of the men, and listened to their arguments.
They knew well enough that a wrong choice here might mean the failure of their expedition. Cruzatte had many adherents. The men began to mutter.
"If we go up that left-hand stream we shall be lost among the mountains," one said. "We shall perish when the winter comes!"
"We will go both ways," said Meriwether Lewis at length. "Captain Clark will explore the lower fork, while I go up the right-hand stream. We will meet here when we know the truth."
So Lewis traveled two days' journey up the right-hand fork before he turned back, thoughtful.
"I have decided," said he to the men who accompanied him. "This stream will lead us far to the north, into the British country. It cannot be the true Missouri. I shall call this Maria's River, after my cousin in Virginia, Maria Woods. I shall not call it the Missouri."
He met Clark at the fork of the river, and again they held a council. The men were still dissatisfied. Clark had advanced some distance up the left-hand stream.
"We must prove it yet further," said Meriwether Lewis. "Captain Clark, do you remain here, while I go on ahead far enough to know absolutely whether we are right or wrong. If we are not right in our choice, it is as the men say--we shall fail! But where is Sacajawea?" he added. "I will ask her once more."