its leader a twenty-nine-year-old Virginian, Captain
Meriwether Lewis, who had chosen as his co-captain a
red-headed artillery officer, Lieutenant William Clark.
Their instructions were "to explore the Missouri
River, and such principal streams on it, as, by its
course and communication with the waters of the Pa-
cific Ocean. . . . may offer the most direct and prac-
ticable water-communication across the continent, for
the purposes of commerce." They were also to make
geographic and scientific observations; to ascertain the
routes of Canadian traders in their traffic with the
Indians; to determine the feasibility of collecting furs
at the source of the Missouri and transporting them
downstream; and to cultivate friendship and trade
with the natives.

The over-all design of the Lewis and Clark expedi-
tion has been aptly summed up by Bernard De Voto:
"It was to fill in a space in the map of the world that
had been blank white paper up to now, and to add to
the heritage of the Republic and of mankind as much
knowledge as might prove possible."

"I Set out at four o'clock P.M., in the presence of many of the
neighboring inhabitants, and proceeded on under a jentle brease
up the Missouri. . . ." So in part reads the first entry in a classic
American document, the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expe-
dition ^* . Dated Monday, May 14, 1804, this entry was written by
Clark, for Captain Lewis was detained in St. Louis by business.

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