On the 24th of June Clark's boats put out from shore, and shot the falls at the very moment that there was a great eclipse of the sun, at which the frontiersmen wondered greatly, but for the most part held it to be a good omen.
Clark had weeded out all those whom he deemed unable to stand fatigue and hardship; his four little companies were of picked men, each with a good captain.

[Footnote: The names of the four captains were John Montgomery, Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helm, and William Harrod.

Each company nominally consisted of fifty men, but none of them was of full strength.] His equipment was as light as that of an Indian war party, for he knew better than to take a pound of baggage that could possibly be spared.
He Meets a Party of Hunters.
He intended to land some three leagues below the entrance of the Tennessee River, [Footnote: At the old Fort Massac, then deserted.

The name is taken from that of an old French commander; it is not a corruption of Fort Massacre, as has been asserted.] thence to march on foot against the Illinois towns; for he feared discovery if he should attempt to ascend the Mississippi, the usual highway by which the fur traders went up to the quaint French hamlets that lay between the Kaskaskia and the Illinois rivers.

Accordingly he double-manned his oars and rowed night and day until he reached a small island off the mouth of the Tennessee, where he halted to make his final preparations, and was there joined by a little party of American hunters, [Footnote In his "Memoir" he says "from the States"; in his letter to Mason he calls them "Englishmen," probably to show that they were not French, as they had just come from Kaskaskia.