f the United
States, announcing his arrival, was dated Sept. 23, 1806. President
Jefferson's reply was dated October 20 of that year. In his letter the
President expressed his "unspeakable joy" at the safe return of the
expedition. He said that the unknown scenes in which they had been
engaged and the length of time during which no tidings had been received
from them "had begun to be felt awfully." It may seem strange to modern
readers familiar with the means for rapid travel and communication that
no news from the explorers, later than that which they sent from the
Mandan country, was received in the United States until their return,
two years and four months later. But mail facilities were very scanty
in those far-off days, even in the settled portions of the Mississippi
Valley, and few traders had then penetrated to those portions of the
Lower Missouri that had just been travelled by Lewis and Clark. As we
have seen, white men were regarded with awe and curiosity by the natives
of the regions which the explorers traversed in their long absence. The
first post-office in what is now the great city of St. Louis was not
established until 1808; mails between the Atlantic seaboard and that
"village" required six weeks to pass either way.

The two captains went to Washington early in the year following their
arrival in St. Louis. There is extant a letter from Captain Lewis,
dated at Washington, Feb. 11, 1807. Congress was then in session, and,
agreeably to the promises that had been held out to the explorers, the
Secretary of War (General Henry Dearborn), secured from that body
the passage of an act granting to each member of the expedition a
considerable tract of land from the public domain. To each private
and non-commissioned officer was given three hundred acres; to Captain
Clark, one thousand acres, and to Captain Lewis fifteen hundred acres.
In addition to this, the two officers were given double pay for their
services during the time of their absence. Captain Lewis magnanimously
objected to receiving more land for his services than that given to
Captain Clark.

Captain Lewis resigned from the army, March 2, 1807, having been
nominated to be Governor of Louisiana Territory a few days before. His
commission as Governor was dated March 3 of that year. He was thus
made the Governor of all the territory of the United States west of the
Mississippi River. About the same time, Captain Clark was appointed a
general of the