Ambrose seldom asked questions that he was unable to answer. Yet in Undaunted Courage, he asked the same question, not once but three times: How could a relatively small expedition of soldiers and hunters travel so formal dress parade to greet them with uniforms brushed and the Stars and Stripes flying overhead. They presented the chiefs with gifts, and Clark would make a speech welcoming them into the family of the great white father in Washington. And then, according to Sgt. Ordway, “ … Capt. Lewis Shewed them the air Gun. Shot it Several times.”

There are 39 passages in the journals where Lewis runs through the same routine. Each nearly always ends with the same observation. On writing about the airgun the journals record the reactions as having “astonished the nativs,” and “the air gun asttonished them verry much,” as well as:

Capt. Lewis. Aug. 17, 1805. “[W]e communicated to them fully the objects which had brought us into this distant part of the country ... [W]e made them sensible of their dependance on the will of our government for every species of merchandize as well for their defence & comfort; and apprized them of the strength of our government. … [W]e also gave them as a reason why we wished to petrate the country as far as the ocean to the west of them was to examine and find out a more direct way to bring merchandize to them. … that it was mutually advantageous to them as well as to ourselves that they should render us such aids as they had it in their power to furnish in order to haisten our voyage and of course our return home. … I also shot my air-gun which was so perfectly incomprehensible that they immediately denominated it the great medicine.”

When meeting new groups of Indians, Lewis had the above routine worked out. Most importantly, he showed them the airgun because it amazed them to great wonderment. It was Lewis’s parlor trick—his slight of hand to intimidate the Indians into thinking that the explorers were even more powerful than they seemed. The Indians, to whom Lewis never exposed the full contents of his boat or any of his supplies, never knew if the expedition had one or 40 airguns.

To think that 30 or so explorers could lay down 22 shots with great accuracy within seconds must have impressed the Indians into a state of cooperation. Lewis traveled the west with an ace up his sleeve in the form of the repeating airgun. Only the Girardoni air rifle is capable of obtaining the results that Lewis got from the Indians. The party was never molested in force, and all but one man returned to St. Louis in 1806.

To answer Ambrose’s question, Lewis & Clark survived the trip, explored the West, added to the map of the United States twice its previous territory and made friends of the Indians by following the golden rule of diplomacy—peace through superior firepower! (Or at least the perceived impression of superiority.)