On Nov. 27, 1803, Lewis and Clark camped near the lower portion of Horse Island, then located below the mouth of the Kaskaskia River at the start of a sharp bend in the Mississippi River. When the party reached Horse Island, Capt. Meriwether Lewis left William Clark in charge of the keelboat and pirogues while he went ashore to walk six miles to Fort Kaskaskia, an American Army post on high ground east of the Kaskaskia River opposite the village of Kaskaskia. Clark and the rest of the men pushed their boats into the Mississippi and worked around the long, difficult Coco Bend. A thick morning mist prevented Clark from making latitude calculations with his sextant, though he observed highlands along the Missouri shore. At 1 p.m. the party passed Joseph Donahoe's landing, where boats loaded salt from the salt works on Saline Creek, and two hours later they passed Saline Creek itself, where both salt works and a thriving settlement stood. After rounding Coco Bend, they pulled up to Kaskaskia Landing on the Illinois shore; across the river stood the former west bank community of Old Ste. Genevieve, locally called "misar," which had been relocated after disastrous floods in the 1780s. Lewis and Clark remained at Fort Kaskaskia for several days to select suitable men for the expedition. Captains Amos Stoddard and Russell Bissell, stationed at the fort, had been ordered by Secretary of War Henry Dearborn to assist Lewis in choosing recruits from their companies. Among the 12 soldiers added there were John Ordway and Patrick Gass, both of whom later became sergeants in the expedition. Their addition enlarged the upstream-bound party to between 21 and 23 men who would soon form part of the Pacific-bound Corps of Discovery. While at the fort, the captains also obtained provisions, including 75 pounds of gunpowder. Lewis left Kaskaskia on Dec. 5 and rode to Cahokia, Ill., to meet Spanish officials in St. Louis, while Clark and the rest of the party had departed two days earlier with the slower boats to rendezvous with Lewis at Cahokia.