The story begins at Fort Massac on the Ohio River, where young Hugh is a recent army recruit. Having been brought up on the river (his father is a boat-builder), he knows a good deal about boats and boating, and for this reason he is selected by Captains William Clark and Meriwether Lewis to join their Corps of Discovery. Sent by President Jefferson to discover what lay within the newly acquired territories westward of what only recently had become the United States of America, and to find an overland route through that territory to the Pacific Ocean, Lewis and Clark choose the best men they can find for this important, difficult, and dangerous job. Men of various abilities and experiences are selected to start the journey down the Ohio River (the easy part) and then up the Mississippi to where it meets the mighty Missouri River. Since that...