In late September of 1805, three young Nez Perce saw several strangely dressed men coming from the ridge to the southeast and hid, but the men found two of them behind this site. The boys led the strangers to their village on a small rise to the north, where, with the warriors away, they were met cautiously. The strangers were in poor condition and scarcely able to defend themselves. In his journal entry of September 20, 1805, William Clark wrote that about 1 mile from the lodges he met three boys, found two after they ran and hid, gave them small pieces of ribbon, and sent them ahead to the village, where a man came out with great caution, conducted him to a large lodge said by signs to be that of the great chief, and gave them a small piece of buffalo meat, some dried salmon berries, and roots called Pas she co, or quamash. For the Nez Perce, this meeting marked the beginning of change in their way of life, and for the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, it meant survival.