“ Indians. of the astronomical and geographical papers, if the Comm( ^~ e) e will be so good as to give me a statement, I will, as soon as a Secretary at war is appointed, propose to him to have made, at the public expence, the requisite calculations, to have the map corrected in it’s longitudes and latitudes, engraved and published on a proper scale: and I will ask from Gen ^l. Clarke the one he offers, with his corrections. with respect to the zoological, vegetable & mineralogical papers & subjects, it would perhaps be aggreable to the Philosophical society to have a digest of them made, and published in their transactions or otherwise. and if it should be within the views of the historical committee to have the Indian vocabularies digested and published, I would add to them the remains of my collection. I had thro’ the course of my life availed myself of every opportunity of procuring vocabularies of the languages of every tribe which either myself or my friends could have access to. they amounted to about 40. more or less perfect. but in their passage from Washington to this place, the trunk in which they were was stolen and plundered, and some fragments only of the vocabularies were recovered. still however they were such as would be worth incorporation with a larger work, and shall be at the service of the historical comm ( ^~ e) e, if they can make any use of them. permit me to request the return of Gen ^l. Clarke’s letter and to add assurances of my high respect & esteem.

" P. S. with the volumes of MS. journal, m( ^~ r) s Barton delivered one by mistake I suppose, which seems to have been the journal of some botanist. I presume it was the property of D ^r. Barton, & therefore forward it to you to be returned to m ( ^~ r) s Barton.”

On April 16 of the following year, 1818, Nicholas Biddle sent all the Lewis manuscripts to William Tilghman, the Secretary of the Historical Committee of the Philosophical Society at Philadelphia. His accompanying letter is in the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress: “I have the pleasure of depositing with the Historical committee, the papers & books which accompany this letter, in compliance with the request of Governor Clark in his letter to me of the 10 ^th of Oct 1816, transmitted by M ^r Jefferson . . .”

Meriwether Lewis, 1774-1809, was a native of Albemarle County, Virginia. In 1795 he enlisted in the regular army, and in 1796 was commissioned a lieutenant.

In his Life of Captain Lewis, prefixed to Volume I, Jefferson relates how the idea of this expedition grew, beginning with the frustrated attempt of Ledyard in 1788, Jefferson’s own proposal to the American Philosophical Society in 1792 leading to the employment of André Michaux, with its abortive outcome, and finally to this expedition of 1803, led by Meriwether Lewis. Lewis is then described by Jefferson as being of courage undaunted; possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing by impossibilities could divert from its direction; careful as a father of those committed to his charge, yet steady in the maintenance of order and discipline; intimate with the Indian character, customs, and principles; habituated to the hunting life; guarded, by exact observation of the vegetables and animals of his own country, against losing time in the description of objects already possessed; honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound understanding, and a fidelity to truth so scrupulous, that whatever he should report would be as certain as if seen by ourselves. Jefferson adds with all these qualifications, as if selected and implanted by nature in one body for this express purpose, I could have no hesitation in confiding the enterprise to him.

On the return of the expedition, Lewis and Clark set out for Washington which they reached in February 1807, when Congress was in session. That body granted to the two chiefs and their followers the donation of lands which they had been encouraged to expect in reward of their toil and dangers. Captain Lewis was soon after appointed governor of Louisiana, and captain Clarke a general of its militia, and agent of the United States for Indian affairs in that department.

At the end of his account, Jefferson describes Lewis’s death as suicide. He mentions James Neelly, the United States agent to the Chickasaw nation, who was with Lewis at the time, and whose letter to Jefferson on this occasion is in the Jefferson papers in the Library of Congress. The acknowledgment of Paul Allen to Jefferson at the end of his Preface reads: To give still further interest to the work, the editor addressed a letter to Mr. Jefferson, requesting some authentic memoirs of captain Lewis. For the very curious and valuable information contained in his answer, the public, as well as the editor himself, owe great obligations to the politeness and knowledge of that distinguished gentleman.

William Clark, 1770-1838, was born in Caroline County, Virginia. For four years Clark was an army officer under General Wayne, and his military experience made him acquainted with the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. Clark’s qualities and frontier experiences were an invaluable asset to this expedition, and in addition he was the map maker and the artist, being responsible for the drawings of the birds, fish and animals