EXPLORATIONS - Opening the American West: Lewis and Clark an

EXPLORATIONS - Opening the American West: Lewis and Clark and the Corps¹ of Discovery
By Paul Thompson

Broadcast: Wednesday, November 23, 2005

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VOICE ONE:

This is Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Shirley Griffith, with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we continue our story of Lewis and Clark. Their exploration in the early eighteen hundreds led to the opening of the American West.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Last week we told how President Thomas Jefferson suggested the trip to his private secretary Meriwether Lewis. The president said Lewis and a group of men should travel northwest up the Missouri River as far as possible and then continue west to the Pacific Ocean. The explorers were to report about the land, people, animals and plants they found.

Lewis asked his friend William Clark to join the group. Clark accepted and the two men agreed to act as equal leaders of the group they named the Corps of Discovery. Their trip began on May fourteenth, eighteen-oh-four.

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VOICE TWO:

It was one hundred sixty-four days into the trip. Lewis and Clark had traveled about two thousand four hundred twenty kilometers when they were stopped by the cold winter weather. They named their winter home Fort² Mandan. Mandan was the name of an Indian tribe³ that lived nearby.

VOICE ONE:

At Fort Mandan, Lewis and Clark met French Canadian hunter Toussaint Charbonneau. He was living with the Indians. He asked to join the Corps of Discovery. He also asked if his Indian wife could come too. Her name was Sacagawea. She was pregnant⁵. Lewis and Clark agreed to let them join their group for two reasons. The first was that Charbonneau spoke⁶ several Indian languages. The second concerned Sacagawea. She came from the Shoshoni tribe that lived near the Rocky Mountains in the far West.

 
Lewis and Clark meet Sacagawea
She had been captured⁷ as a young girl by another Indian tribe. Lewis and Clark knew that no Indian war group ever traveled with women. They knew that Sacagawea's presence⁸ with them would show Indians that the Corps of Discovery did not want to fight. Sacagawea gave birth to her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, on February

eleventh, eighteen-oh-five. The baby, too, would make the long trip to the Pacific Ocean. He was the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery.

VOICE TWO:

In early April, the Corps of Discovery prepared to travel west. The smaller group of soldiers that had aided them during their trip to Fort Mandan prepared to return south to Saint⁴ Louis. The soldiers took the larger of the three boats the group had used to follow the Missouri River. They also took Lewis and Clark's first maps, animals, plants and reports to President Jefferson. These reports provided⁹ much detail about the land and what was on it. For example, Lewis used more than one thousand words to tell about one bird.

Today, visitors to President Jefferson's home in the southeastern state of Virginia can see many things collected by Lewis and Clark. Animal heads and weapons made by the Mandan Indian tribe

are among them.

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VOICE ONE:

The Corps of Discovery again moved up the Missouri River as soon as the warm weather of spring began to return. Lewis wrote of seeing thousands of animals: American bison, deer, huge elk¹⁰ and very fast antelope¹¹. Lewis saw thousands of animals all feeding together.

VOICE TWO:

Lewis and Clark soon decided¹² to leave behind important information, plants and things collected from Indians. They were having problems carrying everything they were gathering¹³. They also decided to leave extra food behind. They did this by digging a deep hole and burying everything to protect it from animals. They would do this again and again on their way west. They would collect everything on their return trip.

VOICE ONE:

The explorers soon reached an area where a series of waterfalls blocked passage on the river. This area is near the modern city of Great Falls, Montana. Here, the Corps of Discovery pulled the boats from the water and took them over land to the river. They carried the boats almost thirty kilometers. To make the trip easier, they made wooden wheels for their boats. Later they buried the wheels with more food and things they had collected.

VOICE TWO:

On July twenty-fifth, eighteen-oh five, Meriwether Lewis and two other men saw a small river that was flowing to the west. All rivers before had flowed east or southeast. Lewis correctly guessed he had reached the line that divides the North American continent. Rain falling to the west of the imaginary¹⁴ line becomes rivers that flow to the Pacific Ocean.

Rain that falls to the east of the line forms rivers that flow to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf¹⁵ of Mexico. Meriwether Lewis became the first American to cross this continental¹⁶ line. At that point, Lewis could tell from the huge mountains he saw ahead that they would find no waterway across the continent. A lot of the trip would have to be over land.

VOICE ONE:

Meriwether Lewis met two Shoshoni Indian women in this same area. About sixty men from the tribe quickly arrived riding horses. They were dressed and painted for war. It was something that few white men ever saw -- a Shoshoni war party prepared to fight. Lewis made peace signs. There was no trouble.

VOICE TWO:

Two days later, Clark arrived with the main group. The Corps of Discovery met with the Indians. At the meeting, Sacagawea began to cry as she looked at the Shoshoni chief, Cameahwait. Cameahwait was her brother. She had not seen him since she was kidnapped many years before.

Lewis and Clark could communicate with the Shoshoni Indians.

But it was not easy. Sacagawea would listen to the Shoshoni. She would then speak to her husband, Charbonneau, in the Hidatsa language. He would speak in French to a soldier in the group, Francis Labiche, who then spoke in English to Lewis. It took a long time, but it worked.

The Corps of Discovery decided to leave the boats and continue west on horses. Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark trade for horses. She also helped them find an Indian guide to lead them. His name was Toby. It was already the month of September when they reached the high mountains. It was also extremely cold. The explorers began to suffer from a severe lack of food. They were forced to kill and eat several of their horses.

VOICE ONE:

In October they found the huge Columbia River. High winds and rain slowed the group's progress. On November seventh, they reached the Pacific Ocean. Clark recorded that five hundred fifty-four days had passed since they left their camp at Wood River near Saint Louis. They had traveled six thousand six hundred forty-eight kilometers.

VOICE TWO:

For several days the Corps of Discovery camped in an area that is now the extreme southern part of the state of Washington. But the hunting was poor. Indians told them the hunting would be better across the Columbia River. Lewis and Clark decided to hold a vote and let the Corps of Discovery decide. The Corps of Discovery voted to move south across the river into what is now the state of Oregon.

William Clark's black slave York and the Indian guide Sacagawea

were included in the vote. History experts say this was the first free, democratic¹⁷ election¹⁸ west of the Rocky Mountains. And they say it was the first time in American history that a black slave and a woman voted in a free election.

VOICE ONE:

The explorers quickly built a camp of wooden buildings on the Columbia River. They would stay there during the winter months between eighteen-oh-five and eighteen-oh-six. They named the buildings Fort Clatsop. "Clatsop" was the name of a nearby group of friendly Indians. The area of Fort Clatsop is very near the present city of Astoria, Oregon. Visitors to that area today can walk through a copy of Fort Clatsop that was built in nineteen fifty-five.

VOICE TWO:

The group stayed at Fort Clatsop for four months. It rained all but twelve days. During the long winter months, the explorers hunted and preserved food. They used animal skins to make new clothes and shoes. They also studied the Indians, fish, animals and lands near the area of the fort. Clark made extremely good maps of the area. Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the other members of the Corps of Discovery were prepared for their return trip to Saint Louis. That

will be our story next time.

((THEME))

VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to the Special English program, Explorations. This is Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Shirley Griffith. Our program today was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Join us again next week on the Voice of America as we finish our story of Lewis and Clark and the land they explored.

1 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

2 fort   

n.要塞，堡垒，碉堡

参考例句：

• The fort can not be defended against an air attack.这座要塞遭到空袭时无法防御。
• No one can get into the fort without a pass.没有通行证，任何人不得进入要塞。

3 tribe   

n.部落，种族，一伙人

参考例句：

• This is a subject tribe.这是个受他人统治的部落。
• Many of the tribe's customs and rituals are as old as the hills.这部落的许多风俗、仪式都极其古老。

4 saint   

n.圣徒；基督教徒；vt.成为圣徒，把...视为圣徒

参考例句：

• He was made a saint.他被封为圣人。
• The saint had a lowly heart.圣人有谦诚之心。

5 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 captured   

俘获( capture的过去式和过去分词 )； 夺取； 夺得； 引起（注意、想像、兴趣）

参考例句：

• Allied troops captured over 300 enemy soldiers. 盟军俘虏了300多名敌方士兵。
• Most of the rebels were captured and disarmed. 大部分叛乱分子被俘获并解除了武装。

8 presence   

n.出席；到场；存在

参考例句：

• Her presence lent an air of respectability to the occasion.她的到场使那种场合增添了崇高的气氛。
• His presence is indicative of his willingness to help.他的出席表示他愿意帮忙。

9 provided   

conj.假如，若是；adj.预备好的，由...供给的

参考例句：

• Provided it's fine we will have a pleasant holiday.如果天气良好，我们的假日将过得非常愉快。
• I will come provided that it's not raining tomorrow.如果明天不下雨，我就来。

10 elk   

n.麋鹿

参考例句：

• I was close enough to the elk to hear its labored breathing.我离那头麋鹿非常近，能听见它吃力的呼吸声。
• The refuge contains the largest wintering population of elk in the world.这座庇护所有着世界上数量最大的冬季麋鹿群。

11 antelope   

n.羚羊；羚羊皮

参考例句：

• Choosing the antelope shows that China wants a Green Olympics.选择藏羚羊表示中国需要绿色奥运。
• The tiger was dragging the antelope across the field.老虎拖着羚羊穿过原野。

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

13 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

14 imaginary   

adj.想象中的，假想的，虚构的，幻想的；虚数的

参考例句：

• All the characters in this book are imaginary.此书中的所有人物都是虚构的。
• The boy's fears were only imaginary.这小孩的恐惧只是一种想象。

15 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

16 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

17 democratic   

adj.民主的；民主主义的，有民主精神的

参考例句：

• Their country has democratic government.他们国家实行民主政体。
• He has a democratic work-style.他作风民主。

18 election   

n.选举，选择权；当选

参考例句：

• There is no doubt but that he will win the election.毫无疑问，他将在竞选中获胜。
• The government will probably fall at the coming election.在即将到来的大选中，该政府很可能要垮台。