They seem a
handsome, well-knit race. But they are idle and lacking in ambition, and
for that reason are being crowded out of business by the active, thrifty
American merchants, to whom, we observe, they are not quite friendly.
Such was the New Orleans of 1803, a human oasis in a waste of forest,
which made up the greater part of the new territory. There were, to be
sure, in this trackless wilderness a few French villages near the mouth of
the Missouri River. Traders from the British camps in the north had found
their way as far south as these villages, but the great prairies had not
been explored, and the Rocky Mountains were yet unknown.
LEWIS AND CLARK'S EXPEDITION
Before the purchase was made Jefferson had planned an expedition to
explore this region, and Congress had voted money to carry out his plan.
Two officers of the United States army, Captain Meriwether Lewis and
Captain William Clark, brother of George Rogers Clark, were put in command
of the expedition.
They were to ascend the Missouri River to its head and then find the
nearest waterway to the Pacific coast. They were directed also to draw
maps of the region and to report on the nature of the country and the
people, plants, animals, and other matters of interest in the new lands.
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