University of Virginia Library

Preface

THE story of the expedition of Lewis and Clark is one of surpassing interest. These men, with their faithful followers, were the first white men who crossed the continent of North America between the regions occupied by the Spanish and those of the people of English descent. They were the first to explore the valleys of the Upper Missouri, the Yellowstone, and the Columbia and its tributaries. Many of the red men who inhabited those pathless wildernesses looked for the first time on pale-faces when they saw these adventurous discoverers.

The narrative of this expedition, official and personal, has lived through many vicissitudes. Taking no account of the messages to Congress, sent in by President Jefferson and giving some account of the doings of Lewis and Clark (and subsequently used as a basis for other and apocryphal publications), the first authoritative narrative of the expedition was not published until 1814, although the expedition occupied parts of the years 1804-5-6, and the public demand for the story, both in this country and in Europe, had already stimulated the production of many versions, more or less fraudulent and imperfect. The tale of trials and disappointments attending the first publication

of this remarkable book is one of many of the histories of struggling book-making and authorship. The author and editor of that first work was Nicholas Biddle, of Philadelphia, and it was finally given to the world with the name of Paul Allen on its titlepage as editor.

This edition was republished in London, Dublin, Germany, Holland, New York, and Paris during years ensuing. Altogether, there have been about forty imprints of the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The two latest of these are those of Harper and Brothers, edited by Archibald M'Vickar, and published in 1847 ; and that edited by Dr. Elliott Coues, and published by Francis P. Harper, New York, 1893. Dr. M'Vickar's work is long since out of print. That of Dr. Coues, comprised in four volumes and limited to an edition of one thousand copies, can now be obtained with difficulty and at considerable expense. It is hoped that the present version of the story of the expedition, told as fully as possible in the language of the heroic men who modestly penned the record of their own doings and observations, will be acceptable to many readers, especially to young folks, who will here read for the first time a concise narrative of the first exploring expedition sent into a wilderness destined to become the seat of a mighty empire.

The author and editor of these pages is indebted for suggestions in the footnotes written by Dr. Coues, a gentleman whose wide experience as an explorer of the West

and as naturalist, military man, and geologist admirably fitted him for the laborious task which he imposed upon himself and which he performed with painstaking fidelity. And it may be added that the author-editor of the present volume, having been himself an early pilgrim across the great plains, has been able to add a little to the notes which now appear to be needful to the full understanding of the narrative of Lewis and Clark's expedition.