On August 24, a sharp bend in the river showed
them the little home fort which they had left four months before. The
joy of the _voyageurs_ fairly exploded. They beat their paddles on the
canoe, fired off all the ammunition that remained, waved flags, and set
the cliffs ringing with shouts.

Mackenzie spent the following winter at Chipewyan, despondent and
lonely. "What a situation, starving and alone!" he writes to his
cousin. The hard life was beginning to wear down the dauntless spirit.
"I spend the greater part of my time in vague speculations. . . . In
fact my mind was never at ease, nor could I bend it to my wishes.
Though I am not superstitious, my dreams cause me great annoyance. I
scarcely close my eyes without finding myself in company with the dead."

The following winter Mackenzie left the West never to return. The
story of his travels was published early in the nineteenth century, and
he was knighted by the English king. The remainder of his life was
spent quietly on an estate in Scotland, where he died in 1820.

[Illustration: The Mouth of the Mackenzie by the Light of the Midnight
Sun.--C. W. Mathers.]

CHAPTER XI

1803-1806

LEWIS AND CLARK

The First White Men to ascend the Missouri to its Sources and descend the
Columbia to the Pacific--Exciting Adventures on the Canons of the
Missouri, the Discovery of the Great Falls and the Yellowstone--Lewis'
Escape from Hostiles

The spring of 1904 witnessed the centennial celebration of an area as
large as half the kingdoms of Europe, that has the unique distinction of
having transferred its allegiance to three different flags within
twenty-four hours.

At the opening of the nineteenth century Spain had ceded all the region
vaguely known as Louisiana back to France, and France had sold the
territory, to the United States; but post-horse and stage of those old
days travelled slowly. News of Spain's cession and France's sale reached
Louisiana almost simultaneously. On March 9, 1804, the Spanish grandees
of St. Louis took down their flag and, to the delight of Louisiana, for
form's sake erected French colors. On March 10, the French flag was
lowered for the emblem that has floated over the Great West ever
since--the stars and stripes. How vast was the new territory acquired,
the eastern states had not the slightest conception. As early as 1792
Captain Gray, of the ship _Columbia_, from Boston, had blundered into the
harbor of a vast