first attention where punctuality and fidelity were requisite,
he was appointed paymaster to his regiment."

That is about all that is definitely known of Lewis's family and early
life. It is not much; but it suffices to show that he came of fine,
fearless stock, mettlesome and reliant,--the sort of stock that brings
forth men of action. The invertebrate vanity of blood is kept out of
this story, in accord with the democratic belief of the time that a
strong man's ancestors are what he himself makes them. They may have
done their part well, but it remains for him to put the finishing
touches to their reputation. Given a few sturdy souls, quick and
willing to serve in time of need, and that was enough of family
distinction. Behavior, rather than pedigree, made the Lewis character.

When Captain Lewis was appointed to command the expedition, he had
served Mr. Jefferson for two years as private secretary. Concerning his
fitness for public duties, Mr. Jefferson wrote:--

"I had now had opportunities of knowing him intimately. Of courage
undaunted; possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which
nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction;
careful as a father of those committed to his charge, yet steady in
the maintenance of order and discipline; intimate with the Indian
character, customs, and principles; habituated to the hunting life;
guarded, by exact observation of the vegetables and animals of his
own country, against losing time in the description of objects
already possessed; honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound
understanding, and a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that whatever
he should report would be as certain as if seen by ourselves--with
all these qualifications, as if selected and implanted by Nature in
one body for this express purpose, I could have no hesitation in
confiding the enterprise to him. To fill up the measure desired, he
wanted nothing but a greater familiarity with the technical
language of the natural sciences, and readiness in the astronomical
observations necessary for the geography of his route. To acquire
these, he repaired immediately to Philadelphia, and placed himself
under the tutorage of the distinguished professors of that place,
who, with a zeal and emulation enkindled by an ardent devotion to
science, communicated to him freely the information requisite for
the p