Page:Whitman's Ride through Savage Lands.djvu/32

20 To see her fair memorial stand

Among the honored names that be—

Her face toward the sunset, still—

Her finger lifted toward the sea!

"Beside you on Fame's pedestal,

Be hers the glorious fate to stand—

Bronzed, barefoot, yet a patron saint,

The keys of empire in her hand!

The mountain gates that closed to you

Swung open, as she led the way,—

So let her lead that hero host

When comes their glad memorial day!"

The heroic explorers of a century ago richly earned the honors they are now to receive, and wherever and whenever the names of Lewis and Clark are spoken or written in honor there also should be the name of Sacajawea, the Indian girl of the wilderness.

Thus the crowning success of the great expedition which gave the United States its second strong legal claim to the whole grand Oregon country was shared by the brave, true, diplomatic Sacajawea ("the bird-woman"). Readers of the complete story to follow will not need to be reminded that the heroes and heroines who thirty years later braved danger and death to save beautiful Oregon to the Union were only making sure the grand work thus inaugurated.

In course of time vessels on voyages of discovery drifted around Cape Horn, sailed up the long