Imagine one such ball where the hostess and her daughter pepper the gentlemen with questions that they gladly answer which in turn reveals a great deal of information about the expedition in a short amount of time. Period music can be added for effect. Sacagawea appears in a pantomime sequence.
15 actors (only 3 female) plus extras. 22-25 mins.
Look for a package deal that includes this script under the Historical Scripts category.
Excerpt:
MADELINE: It is truly WE who are honored with your presence Captain
Lewis. But let us please get far from these unimportant words of
etiquette and let us talk of your marvelous adventures! I dare say…
I will not rest until I have heard every word of your journey!
ORDWAY: Since our journey took us two and a half years to complete,
I do not believe we could even begin to tell it all in one evening!
LEWIS: Ma’am, allow me to introduce Sergeant John Ordway, a soldier
from New Hampshire and next in command after Clark and myself.
ORDWAY: (Bows) Ma’am.
LEWIS: And while I am at it, I should introduce everyone. Of course
you know Captain William Clark: My oldest and dearest friend and my
closest comrade on this expedition…equal in command with myself.
This is Sergeant Patrick Gass. He is an Irish carpenter from
Pennsylvania.
MADELINE: Did you build anything of significance?
GASS: Well Ma’am, I was the main builder of three forts along our
journey: Camp Dubois, Fort Mandan and Fort Clatsop.
LEWIS: This is George Drouillard, he is good at sign language which
helped in communicating with Indians…
DROUILLARD: Also, my mother was an Indian.
CRUZATTE: As was mine!
LEWIS: … and Drouillard is our best shot.
MADELINE: Best shot?
DROUILLARD: Game, ma’am. I shot a good many animals for our food.
John here, he cooked it all up good and prepared it for us.
LEWIS: Our best fisherman was Private Silas Goodrich over here. He
caught a lot of Bass, Trout, Catfish and Salmon.
MADELINE: Salmon? I’m not familiar with that fish.
GOODRICH: They are plentiful on the other side of the mountains.
We… none of us cared for the flavor much. The meat is orange in
color, and we tired of it quickly. At times there was nothing else
to eat, so we would trade with the Indians for dog.
CAROLINA: You ate dogs?
LEWIS: Perhaps I should finish the introductions. This is Private
Joseph Whitehouse. He is a tailor from Virgina. He showed us all
how to make our own clothes, as they would wear out quite quickly
during the journey. And that young man over there who spoke earlier
is Private Pierre Cruzatte, our great fiddler. He kept us
entertained with much music, singing and dancing.
ORDWAY: He is also the reason that Captain Lewis has a limp. He
accidentally shot him in the leg.
CRUZATTE: (Wearing a patch over one eye) It was indeed an accident.
My vision is not the best as you can see. Captain Lewis thought we
were under attack by Blackfoot Indians. I finally admitted that I
had been the one to shoot him. I guess I will never be able to
overcome that.
MADELINE: I dare say not. Well…it is so nice to meet all of you.
How many men actually were in your expedition?
CRUZATTE: We started out with about four dozen, didn’t we?
MADELINE: Started out? Didn’t everyone make it?
CLARK: Ma’am. We lost only one to death. Sergeant Charles Floyd
died along the way…early on. He was gravely ill, and I don’t think
there was anything anyone could do. We sent some of the men back
with reports of the journey and presents for President Jefferson.
MADELINE: Oh, do tell me what they were!
CLARK: Mostly specimens…plants and animals that we discovered on the
way. 122 species of animals and 178 plants…all new to science.
MADELINE: I want to hear more about that, but the men who completed
the entire journey… how many was that?
CLARK: 33 in the corps, Ma’am. 34 if you count Seaman, Meriwether’s
Newfoundland dog.
MADELINE: How could your wives be without you for such a long time?
LEWIS: Oh! We are all unmarried men…and all accustomed to the woods.
MADELINE: Oh, ALL unmarried! Did you hear that, Carolina? You’ve
met my daughter, Carolina?
CAROLINA: Mother! (Curtsies to the men) Just call me Caroline.
Otherwise we will think you are talking about a state! (They laugh)
ORDWAY: Do you have any questions Miss Caroline?
CAROLINA: Oh, I don’t know. I love hearing about the Corps of
Discovery. We knew you were out there, and there was no word of
you for such a long time. I must say we were more than a little
worried. I feared that you had all been killed by savage Indians.
I guess my question would be how you managed to keep from being
killed?
ORDWAY: If I would be allowed to answer that, I will say that for
the most part, the Indians that we met were more friend than enemy.
The Mandan, the Shoshone, the Nez Perce… all very friendly and very
helpful to us. I would have to let Captain Lewis or Mr. Drouillard
tell you about the Blackfoot.
CAROLINA: (To Drouillard) Yes! Do tell us about the black foot!
DROUILLARD: The Blackfoot…an Indian tribe ma’am.
CAROLINA: Do they have black feet?
DROUILLARD: No, it’s just their name. We were on our way back.
Captain Lewis wanted to try a new way and see if he could make a
better map. He took a few men and left the others. We met some
Blackfoot Indians and at first we were cordial. We ate together and
talked. But during the night, one of them tried to steal my gun.
In the fight, I ended up stabbing him. Before we were done fighting
and the rest had run off…we had killed two of them. One of them shot
at Captain Lewis and just missed him.
LEWIS: I felt the bullet pass my head. That is not a part of the
journey that I am very proud of.
PARKER: You were only protecting yourselves against the savages.
LEWIS: Yes, but the majority of the natives is not savages. We
found them very helpful. When greeting them, we would lay down our
guns to show that we meant no harm. We would bring to them gifts
and little peace medals from the president, and offer them our flag.
We let them know that there was a new great leader in the East who
wanted what was best for them.
CLARK: When the Indians could see that we were peaceful, then they
would be also. But the biggest help of all came from one Indian
woman. Her name was Sacagawea, (suh-CAW-guh-WEE-uh) which means,
“Bird Woman”… and she was the wife of our interpreter who we hired to
travel with us. His name was Toussaint Charbonneau, a
French-Canadian fur trader.
LEWIS: A man of no particular merit and perhaps the most timid
waterman in the world. The man couldn’t swim…
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