ual emporiums, and
the articles of most desirable interchange for them and us. If a few of
their influential chiefs, within practicable distance, wish to visit
us, arrange such a visit with them, and furnish them with authority to
call on our officers, on their entering the United States, to have them
conveyed to this place at the public expense. If any of them should
wish to have some of their people brought up with us, and taught such
arts as may be useful to them, we will receive, instruct, and take care
of them."

As it could not be foreseen in what manner the travelers would be
received by the Indians, whether with hospitality or hostility, Captain
Lewis was told to use his own discretion as to persevering with the
enterprise in the face of opposition; and he was also told that should
he succeed in getting through to the Pacific, he might choose his own
means for getting back again,--shipping by way of Cape Horn or the Cape
of Good Hope, if chance offered; or, in the absence of such
opportunity, returning overland. A precious liberty, truly, when read
in the light of the facts! The instructions concluded with this frank
paragraph:--

"As you will be without money, clothes, or provisions, you must
endeavor to use the credit of the United States to obtain them; for
which purpose open letters of credit shall be furnished you,
authorizing you to draw on the executive of the United States, or any
of its officers, in any part of the world in which drafts can be
disposed of, and to apply with our recommendations to the consuls,
agents, merchants, or citizens of any nation with which we have
intercourse, assuring them in our name that any aids they may furnish
you shall be honorably repaid, and on demand."

As events transpired, that paragraph was almost ironical. A letter of
credit directed to the Man in the Moon would have served quite as well.

The two redoubtable captains were to be soldiers, sailors, explorers,
geographers, ethnologists, botanists, geologists, chemists, diplomats,
missionaries, financiers, and historians; also cooks, tailors,
shoemakers, hunters, trappers, fishermen, scouts, woodcutters,
boatbuilders, carpenters, priests, and doctors. From the time they left
St. Louis, in May, 1804, until they returned to that place, in
September, 1806, the men were cut off from civilization and all its
aids, and left to work out their own salvation. Not for one moment were
they dismayed; not in a single particul