In addition to these twenty-seven men there were seven soldiers and nine voyageurs who started only to go to the Mandan villages on the Missouri, where the party intended to spend the first winter.

They embarked in three large boats, abundantly supplied with arms, powder, and lead, clothing, gifts for the Indians, and provisions.
The starting point was St.Louis, which had only just been surrendered to the United States Government by the Spaniards, without any French intermediaries.

The explorers pushed off in May, 1804, and soon began stemming the strong current of the muddy Missouri, to whose unknown sources they intended to ascend.

For two or three weeks they occasionally passed farms and hamlets.

The most important of the little towns was St.Charles, where the people were all Creoles; the explorers in their journal commented upon the good temper and vivacity of these _habitants_, but dwelt on the shiftlessness they displayed and their readiness to sink back towards savagery, although they were brave and hardy enough.