DOVER BOOKS ON TRAVEL, ADVENTURE
JEWISH TRAVELLERS IN THE MIDDLE AGES, Elkan Nathan Adler (ed.). (25397-X)
AMERICA AS SEEN BY ITS FIRST EXPLORERS: THE EYES OF DISCOVERY, John Bakeless. (26031-3)
FIRST FOOTSTEPS IN EAST AFRICA, Richard F. Burton. (25475-5)
THE GOLD-MINES OF MIDIAN, Richard F. Burton. (28739-4)
THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA, Richard F. Burton. (28618-5)
PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF A PILGRIMAGE TO AL-MADINAH AND MECCAH, Richard F. Burton. (21217-3, 21218-1) Two-volume set
WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA, Richard F. Burton. (26890-X)
THE DISCOVERY OF THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMEN, Howard Carter and A.C. Mace. (23500-9)
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO, Pedro de Castaeda, et al. (26308-8)
TRAVELS IN PERSIA, 1673-1677, Sir John (Jean) Chardin. (25636-7)
FIRST VOYAGE TO AMERICA: FROM THE LOG OF THE SANTA MARIA, Christopher Columbus. (26844-6)
THE EXPLORATIONS OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK IN THE PACIFIC, Captain James Cook. (22766-9)
THE MAKING OF A SAILOR, Frederick Pease Harlow. (25613-8)
THE FOUR VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS, Cecil Jane (ed.). (25626-X)
A HISTORY OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. (21268-8, 21269-6, 21270-X) Three-volume set
THE CRUISE OF THE SNARK, Jack London. (41248-2)
SHIPWRECKS IN THE AMERICAS, Robert F. Marx. (25514-X)
AROUND THE WORLD SINGLE-HANDED, Harry Pidgeon. (25946-3)
MAGELLANS VOYAGE, Antonio Pigafetta. (28099-3)
THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO: THE COMPLETE YULE-CORDIER EDITION, Marco Polo; Sir Henry Yule; and Henri Cordier. (27586-8, 27587-6)
THE EXPLORATION OF THE COLORADO RIVER AND ITS CANYONS, John W. Powell. (20094-9)
ADVENTURES AT SEA IN THE GREAT AGE OF SAIL, Elliot Snow (ed.). (25177-2)
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Manufactured in the U.S.A.
This Dover edition is an unabridged republication of the four-volume edition published by Francis P. Harper in 1893. The fourth volume of the Harper edition consisted of illustrations and the Index; in this Dover edition five illustrations and the Index are appended to Volume III, and the remaining illustrations are arranged on large plates inserted at the end of Volumes I and II.
9780486120539
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-15500
Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501
Dedication.
To the People of the Great West:
Jefferson. gave you the country. Lewis and Clark showed you the way. The rest is your own course of empire. Honor the statesman who foresaw your West. Honor the brave men who first saw your West. May the memory of their glorious achievement be your precious heritage ! Accept from my heart this undying record of the beginning of all your greatness.
E. C.
HISTORY OF THE EXPEDITION
UNDER THE COMMAND OF
LEWIS AND CLARK ,
To the Sources of the Missouri River, thence across the Rocky Mountains and
down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, performed during
the Years 180456, by Order of the
GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
A NEW EDITION,
FAITHFULLY REPRINTED FROM THE ONLY AUTHORIZED EDITION OF 1814, WITH COPIOUS
CRITICAL COMMENTARY, PREPARED UPON EXAMINATION OF UNPUBLISHED
OFFICIAL ARCHIVES AND MANY OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION,
INCLUDING A DILIGENT STUDY OF THE
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT JOURNALS
AND
FIELD NOTEBOOKS OF THE EXPLORERS,
TOGETHER WITH
A New Biographical and Bibliographical Introduction, New Maps
and other Illustrations, and a Complete Inder,
BY
ELLIOTT COUES.
Late Captain and Assistant Surgeon, United States Army,
Late Secretary and Naturalist, United States Geological Survey,
Member of the National Academy of Sciences, etc.
IN FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
NEW YORK.
FRANCIS P. HARPER.
1893.
Title page of the Harper edition of 1893 (see page vi).
PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.
L EWIS AND CLARKS Expedition from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean was the first governmental exploration of the Great West. The History of this undertaking is the personal narrative and official report of the first white men who crossed the continent between the British and Spanish possessions. When these pioneers passed the Rocky mountains, none but Indians had ascended the Missouri river to the Yellowstone, and none had navigated the Columbia to the head of tide-water. The route was from Illinois through regions since mapped as Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. The main water-ways on the Atlantic side of the mountains were the Missouri and Yellowstone ; on the Pacific side, Lewis river, the Kooskooskee, and the Columbia. The Continental Divide was surmounted in three different places, many miles apart. The actual travel by land and water, including various side-trips, amounted to about one-third the circumference of the globe. This cost but one life, and was done without another serious casualty, though often with great hardship, sometimes much suffering, and occasional imminent peril. The discipline of the party was perfect. The comparatively youthful and inexperienced captains developed the qualities of ideal leaders, dauntless, resourceful, indefatigable, vigilant, absolute in command, solicitous for the welfare of their men, and imposing no privation unshared by themselves. The duration of the journey was from May, 1804, to September, 1806; and from April, 1805, to August, 1806, all communication with the world was suspended. The story of this adventure stands easily first and alone. This is our national epic of exploration, conceived by Thomas Jefferson, wrought out by Lewis and Clark, and given to the world by Nicholas Biddle.
Perhaps no travelers tale has ever been told with greater fidelity and minuteness, or has more nearly achieved absolute accuracy. Our heroes proved also model journalists. The imagination of Defoe, which evolved a fiction with startling verisimilitude, has been matched by those acute powers of actual observation which gave us what we may call the Robinson Crusoe of fact.
It is singular that this History, which has held its own for nearly a century as a standard work of reference, has never before been republished in full, nor ever until now been subjected to searching and systematic criticism. The more closely it is scrutinized, in the light of our present knowledge, the more luminous it appears. The severest tests which contemporaneous criticism can apply serve mainly to develop its strength and worth. The printed narrative would carry easily twice as much commentary as is now put upon it; for it continually challenges and solicits the editorial pen, even without reference to those manuscript records which have proved a very mine of new wealth.
