Lewis's prospectus, 1807
It had been the intention of Lewis and Clark to publish
their own journals; they had presented no official detailed
report
to the government, it being left with them by
Jefferson, as we shall see,
to make such literary use
of their material as they saw fit. During the
year
following the return, and the one in which Gass's Journal had
appeared, Lewis issued a prospectus announcing the speedy
publication of the official narrative by C. & A. Conrad, of
Philadelphia. The first volume was to contain the "narrative
of the
voyage," the second to be devoted chiefly to an account
of "the Indian
nations distributed over that vast region," and
the third "exclusively to
scientific research." Apart from this,
was to be published "Lewis and
Clark's Map of North
America, from longitude 9 west to the Pacific Ocean,
and
between 36 and 52 north latitude, with extensive marginal
notes,
dimensions five feet eight inches by three feet ten
inches, embracing all
their late discoveries, and that part of
the continent heretofore the
least known."[31]
