From Pittsburgh, Lewis writes a letter thanking Clark for joining the Western Expedition. He asks Clark to find interpreter John Conner, and to stop 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.] |
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- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).