He eventually married both girls.
Joins the "Corps of Discovery"
In 1803, Jefferson and the U. S. Congress authorized a "Voyage of Discovery" by which a group of men would explore the territory between the Mississippi and Columbia Rivers and attempt to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson's secretary and confidante, Lewis, and Lewis's friend Clark were assigned to lead the corps of explorers. The expedition of some 45 men left St. Louis, Missouri, on May 14, 1804. They arrived at the Mandan and Hidatsa villages near the mouth of the Knife River in North Dakota on October 26, 1804. There, they built cabins in a clearing below the villages and settled in for the winter.
On November 4, 1804, Clark wrote in his journal: "a Mr. Chaubonie [Charbonneau] interpreter from the Gross Ventre nation came to see us ... this man wished to hire as an interpreter." Clark's field notes for the same day state that both Charbonneau and Sacajawea were hired: "a french man by name Chabonah who speaks the Big Belley language visited us, he wished to hire and informed us his 2 Squaws were Snake [Shoshone] Indians, we engaged him to go on with us and take one of his wives to interpret the Snake language." Lewis and Clark realized that they would need someone to help interpret and help secure supplies from the Shoshone when they passed through their territory.
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