President Jefferson's Instructions to
Meriwether Lewis • June 20, 1803*

"…The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as, by It's course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, … may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent for the purposes of commerce.

"Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take <careful> observations of latitude and longitude, at all remarkeable points on the river, & especially at the mouths of rivers, & other places and objects …

"…The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting the line you will pursue, renders a knolege of those people important. You will therefore endeavor to make yourself acquainted, as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey shall admit, with the names of the nations and their numbers;

• the extent and limits of their possessions;
• their relations with other tribes or nations;
• their language, traditions, monuments;
• their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war, arts, & the implements for these;
• their food, clothing, and domestic accommodations;
• the diseases prevalent among them, & the remedies they use;
• moral & physical circumstances which distinguish them from the tribes we know;
• peculiarities in their laws, customs & dispositions;
• and articles of commerce they may need or furnish, & to what extent ...
   

"Other objects worthy of notice will be

• the soil & face of the country, it's growth & vegetable productions, especially those not of the U.S;