Gass's Journal
A year later
(early in 1807), only a few months after the return
of the party, there
was published at Philadelphia the first detailed
report of the entire
tour; being the journal of Sergeant
Patrick Gass, an observant man, whose
rough but generally
accurate notes had been
expanded with small regard
to literary style, by
an Irish schoolmaster, named David
McKeehan, of Wellsburg, West Virginia.
This little volume of
about 83,000 words,[30]
with its
curiously crude illustrations, was
reprinted in London in 1808, while new
American editions appeared
at Philadelphia in
1810, 1811, and 1812, and a French
translation at Paris in 1810. It is
now, in any form, a rarity.
