At the time, I see the girl. She keeps silent. "Of course, without the help of our Indian friend, we wouldn't have made it Thank you, miss."

I clean the rain off my face. Most explorers hope to find land, but Meriwether Lewis and I, William Clark, came all the way from St. Louis to reach the Pacific Ocean. I turn around and face the rest of our ship members.

I look back at the Pacific and notice that Meriwether looks unhappy. I truly can understand why. We had hoped to see Asian trading ships at sea, but there are no ships anywhere. We planned to sail home by sea. Maybe the ships will come soon. If not, we'll have to go back the same way we came.

"We did it!" I shout, putting up our flag. Everyone cheers as loudly as waves hitting the rocks. "We've paddled upstream, walked a long way over snowy mountains, and faced hunger and many other dangers."