Pittsburgh, PA Meriwether Lewis thanks William Clark for joining the Western Expedition and asks him to find interpreter John Conner and hold off engaging recruits until he arrives in Louisville.
Replica Military Barge
© 2013 by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Lewis’s barge was nowhere as complete as this replica of a small military barge. See Building the Barge.
Lewis to Clark
Pittsburgh August 3rd 1803.
Dear Clark.
. . . I feel myself much gratified with your decision; for I could neither hope, wish, or expect from a union with any man on earth, more perfect support or further aid in the discharge of the several duties of my mission, than that, which I am confident I shall derive from being associated with yourself.
The articles of every discription forming my outfit for this expedition have arrived in good order; my boat only detains me, she is not yet completed . . .
The water is low, this may retard, but shall not totally obstruct my progress being determined to proceed through I should not be able to make greater speed than a boat’s length pr. day.
I am pleased to heare that you have engaged some men for this service, your contract with them had better be with the condition of my approval, as by the time I shall arrive more will have offered themselves and a better scelection may of course be made . . . .
If you can not learn that Conner has gone on to Massac Kaskaskais or Illinois, . . . I think it best for you to hire a man to go to the Delleware [Lenape Delaware] Town and enquire after him, you may offer him three hundred dollars a year and find him provisions and clothing.
Your sincere friend & Obt. Servt.
Meriwether Lewis[1]Lewis to Clark in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 115–17.
Hooke’s Approval
Washington August 3d. 1803
Sir
I have the honour of enclosing a letter from Capn. Lewis which came open to me, I have given permission to Lt. Hook to accompany Capt. Lewis.
with respectfull concideration I am Sir Your Huml Servt,
H. Dearborn[2]Henry Dearborn to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-41-02-0103 accessed 13 June 2022. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas … Continue reading
Notes
| ↑1 | Lewis to Clark in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 115–17. |
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| ↑2 | Henry Dearborn to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-41-02-0103 accessed 13 June 2022. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 41, 11 July–15 November 1803, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014, p. 140.] |
