Sacagawea
At journey's end, Lewis would describe the interpreter Toussaint Charbonneau as "a man of no particular merit". But of his wife, Sacagawea he wrote that she "diserved a greater reward for her attention and services on that rout than we had in our power to give her." |
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Lewis wrote of the birth of Sacagawea's son, Baptiste (later nicknamed "Pompy" by Clark) in his journal:
11th February Monday 1805 - About five oClock this evening one of the wives of Charbono was delivered of a fine boy. It is worthy of remark that this was the first child which this woman had boarn, and as is common in such cases her labour was tedious and the pain violent; Mr. Jessome informed me that he had freequently administered a small portion of the rattle of the rattle-snake, which he had assured me had never failed to produce the desired effect, that of hastening the birth of the child; having the rattle of the snake by me I gave it to him and he administered two rings of it to the woman broken in small pieces with the fingers and added to a small quantity of water. Whether this medicine was truly the cause or not I shall not undertake to determine, but I was informed that she had not taken it more than ten minutes before she brought forth. |
 Listen to author Stephen Ambrose on Sacagawea (RealAudio Format)
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