To Meriwether Lewis, esquire, captain of the first regiment of
infantry of the United States of America:
"Your situation as secretary of the president of the United States,
has made you aquatinted with the objects of my confidential message of
January 18, 1803, to the legislature; you have seen the act they passed,
which, though expressed in general terms, was meant to sanction those
objects, and you are appointed to carry them to execution.
"Instruments for ascertaining, by celestial observations, the geography
of the country through which you will pass, have already been provided.
Light articles for barter and presents among the Indians, arms for your
attendants, say from ten to twelve men, boats, tents, and other
traveling apparatus, with ammunition, medicine, surgical instruments and
provisions, you will have prepared, with such aids as the secretary at
war can yield in his department; and from him also you will receive
authority to engage among our troops, by voluntary agreement, the
attendants above mentioned; over whom you, as their commanding officer,
are invested with all the powers the laws give in such a case.
"As you movements, while within the limits of the United States, will be
better directed by occasional communications, adapted to circumstances
as they arise, they will not be noticed here. What follows will respect
your proceedings after your departure form the United States.
"Your mission has been communicated to the ministers here from France,
Spain, and great Briton, and through them to their governments; and such
assurances given them as to its objects, as we trust will satisfy them.
The country of Louisiana having ceded by Spain to France, the passport
you have from the minister of France, the representative of the present
sovereign of the country, will be a protection with all its subjects;
and that from the Minister of England will entitle you to the friendly
aid of any traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen to meet.
"Object of Your Mission"
"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and
such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with
the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado,
or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable
water-communication across the continent, for the purposes of commerce.
"Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take observations
of latitude and longitude, at all remarkable points on the river, and
especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at islands, and other
places and objects distinguished by such natural marks and characters,
of a durable kind, as that they may with certainty be recognized
hereafter. The courses of the river between these points of observation
may be supplied by the compass, the log-line, and by time, corrected by
the observations themselves. The variations of the needle, too, in
different places, should be noticed.
"The interesting points of the portage between the heads of the
Missouri, and of the water offering the best communication with the
Pacific ocean, should also be fixed by observation; and the course of
that water to the ocean, in the same manner as that of the Missouri.
"Your observations are to be taken with great pains and accuracy;
to be entered distinctly and intelligibly for others as well as
yourself; to comprehend all the elements necessary, with the aid of the
usual tales, to fix the latitude and longitude of the places at which
they were taken; and are to be rendered to the war-office, for the
purpose of having the calculations made concurrently by proper persons
within the United States. Several copies of these, as well as of your
other notes, should be made at leisure times, and put into the care of
the most trust worthy of your attendants to guard, by multiplying them
against the accidental losses to which they will be exposed. A further
guard would be, that one of these copies be on the cuticular membranes
of the paper-birch, as less liable to injury from damp than common
paper.
"The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting
the line you will pursue, renders a knowledge of those people important.
You will therefore endeavor to make yourself acquainted, as far as a
diligent pursuit of your journey shall admit, with the names of the
nations and their numbers;
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"The extent and limits of their possessions;
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"Their relations with other tribes or nations;
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"Their language, traditions, monuments;
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"Their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting,
war, arts, and the implements for these;
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"Their food, clothing, and domestic accommodations:
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"The diseases prevalent among them, and the remedies they
use;
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"Moral and physical circumstances which distinguish them from
the tribes we know;
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"Peculiarities in their laws, customs, and dispositions;
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"And articles of commerce they may need or furnish, and to
what extent.
"And, considering the interest which every nation has in
extending and strengthening the authority of reason and justice among
the people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knowledge you
can of the state of morality, religion, and information among them; as
it may better enable those who may endeavor to civilize and instruct
them, to adapt their measures to the existing notions and practices of
those on whom they are to operate.
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"Other objects worthy of notice will be;
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"The soil and face of the country, its growth and vegetable
productions, especially those not of the United States;
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"The animals of the country generally, and especially those
not known in the United States;
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"The remains and accounts of any which may be deemed rare or
extinct;
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"The mineral productions of every kind, but more particularly
metals, lime-stone, pit-coal, and saltpeter; saline’s and mineral
waters, noting the temperature of the last, and such circumstances
as may indicate their character;
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"Volcanic appearances;
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"Climate, as characterized by the thermometer, by the
proportion of rainy, cloudy, and clear days; by lightning, hail,
snow, ice; by the access and recess of frost; by the winds
prevailing at different seasons; the dates at which particular
plants put forth, or lose their flower or leaf; times of appearance
of particular birds, reptiles or insects.
"Although your route will be along the channel of the Missouri, yet
you will endeavor to inform yourself, by inquiry, of the character and
extent of the country watered by its branches, and especially on its
southern side. The North river, or Rio Bravo, which runs into the gulf
of Mexico, and the North river, or Rio Colorado, which runs into the
gulf of California, are understood to be the principal streams heading
opposite to the waters of the Missouri, and running southwardly. Whether
the dividing grounds between the Missouri and them are mountains or flat
lands, what are their distance from the Missouri, the character of the
intermediate country, and the people inhabiting it, are worthy of
particular inquiry. The northern waters of the Missouri are less to be
inquired after, because they have been ascertained to a considerable
degree, and are still in a course of ascertainment by English traders
and travelers; but if you can learn any thing certain of the most
northern source of the Mississippi, and of its position relatively to
the Lake of the Woods, it will be interesting to us. Some account too of
the path of the Canadian traders from the Mississippi, at the mouth of
the Ouisconsing to where it strikes the Missouri, and of the soil and
rivers in its course, is desirable.
"In all your intercourse with the natives, treat them in the most
friendly and conciliatory manner which their own conduct will admit;
allay all jealousies as to the object of your journey; satisfy them of
its innocence; make them acquainted with the position, extent,
character, peaceable and commercial dispositions of the United States;
of our wish to be neighborly; friendly, and useful to them, and of our
dispositions to a commercial intercourse with them; confer with them on
the points most convenient as mutual emporiums, and the articles of most
desirable interchange for them and us. If a few of their influential
chiefs, within practicable distance, wish to visit us, arrange such a
visit with them, and furnish them with authority to call on our officers
on their entering the United States, to have them conveyed to this place
at the public expense. If any of them should wish to have some of their
young people brought up with us, and taught such arts as may be useful
to them, we will receive, instruct, and take care of them. Such a
mission, whether of influential chiefs, or of young people, would give
some security to your own party. Carry with you some matter of the kine-pox;
inform those of them with whom you may be of its efficacy as a
preservative from the small-pox, and instruct and encourage them in the
use of it. This may be especially done wherever you winter.
"As it is impossible for us to foresee in what manner you will be
received by those people, whether with hospitality or hostility, so is
it impossible to prescribe the exact degree of perseverance with which
you are to pursue your journey. We value too much the lives of citizens
to offer them to probable destruction. Your numbers will be sufficient
to secure you against the unauthorized opposition of individuals, or of
small parties; but if a superior force, authorized, or not authorized,
by a nation, should be arrayed against your further passage, and
inflexibly determined to arrest it, you must decline its further pursuit
and return. In the loss of yourselves we should lose also the
information you will have acquired. By returning safely with that, you
may enable us to renew the essay with better calculated means. To your
own discretion, therefore, must be left the degree of danger you may
risk, and the point at which you should decline, only saying, we wish
you to err on the side of your safety, and to bring back your party
safe, even if it be with less information.
"As far up the Missouri as the white settlements extend, an
intercourse will probably be found to exist between them and the Spanish
post of St. Louis opposite Cahokia, or St. Genevieve opposite Kaskaskia.
From still further up the river the traders may furnish a conveyance for
letters. Beyond that you may perhaps be able to engage Indians to bring
letters for the government to Cahokia, or Kaskaskia, on promising that
they shall there receive such special compensation as your shall have
stipulated with them. Avail yourself of these means to communicate to
us, at seasonable intervals, a copy of your journal, notes and
observations of every kind, putting into cipher whatever might do injury
if betrayed.
"Should you reach the Pacific ocean, inform yourself of the
circumstances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may not
be collected as advantageously at the head of the Missouri (convenient
as is supposed to the waters of the Colorado and Oregon or Columbia) as
at Nootka Sound, or any other point of that coast; and that trade be
consequently conducted throughout the Missouri and United States more
beneficially than by the circumnavigation now practiced.
"On your arrival on that coast, endeavor to learn if there be any
port within your reach frequented by the sea vessels of any nation, and
to send two of your trusty people back by sea, in such way as shall
appear practicable, with a copy of your notes; and should you be of
opinion that the return of your party by the way they went will be
imminently dangerous, then ship the whole, and return by sea, by the way
either of Cape Horn, or the Cape of Good Hope, as you shall be able. As
you will be without money, clothes, or provisions, you must endeavor to
use the credit of the United States to obtain them; for which purpose
open letters of credit shall be furnished you, authorizing you to draw
on the executive of the United States, or any of its officers, in any
part of the world, on which draughts can be disposed of, and to apply
with our recommendations to the consuls, agents, merchants, or citizens
of any nation with which we have intercourse, assuring them, in our
name, that any aids they may furnish you shall be honorably repaid, and
on demand. Our consuls, Thomas Hewes, at Batavia, in Java, William
Buchanan, in the Isles of France and Bourbon, and John Elmslie, at the
Cape of Good Hope, will be able to supply your necessities, by draughts
on us.
"Should you find it safe to return by the way you go, after sending
two of our party round by sea, or with your whole party, if no
conveyance by sea can be found, do so; making such observations on your
return as may serve to supply, correct, or confirm those made on your
outward journey.
"On reentering the United States and reaching a place of safety,
discharge any of your attendants who may desire and deserve it,
procuring for them immediate payment of all arrears of pay and clothing
which may have incurred since their departure, and assure them that they
shall be recommended to the liberality of the legislature for the grant
of a soldier's portion of land each, as proposed in my message to
congress, and repair yourself, with your papers, to the seat of
government.
"To provide, on the accident of your death, against anarchy,
dispersion, and the consequent danger to your party, and total failure
of the enterprise, you are hereby authorized, by any instrument signed
and written in your own hand, to name the person among them who shall
succeed to the command on your decease, and by like instruments to
change the nomination, from time to time, as further experience of the
characters accompanying you shall point out superior fitness; and all
the powers and authorities given to yourself are, in the event of your
death, transferred to, and vested in the successor so named, with
further power to him and his successors, in like manner to name each his
successor, who, on the death of his predecessor, shall be invested with
all the powers and authorities given to yourself. Given under my hand at
the city of Washington, this twentieth day of June, 1803."
Thomas Jefferson
President of the United States of America
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