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Show .1 IJt..:! ~ G , t :J • • • ;• ,, MESSAGE. If(' ' TO THE SENATE AND ROUSE OI• REPRESENTATIVES 01 'rHJ!. UNITED STATES. IN pursuance of a measure proposed to oongrest by a message of January 18th, one thousand eight hundred and three, and sanctioned by their appro .. priation for carrying it into execution, captain Meriwether Lewis, of the first regiment of infantry, was appointed, with a party of men, to explore the river Missouri, fron1 its mouth to i1s source. and, crossi11g the highlands by the shortest portage, to seek the best water comnmnication thence to the Pacific ocean; cmd lieutenant Clarke was appointed second in command. They were to enter into conference with the Indian nations on their route, with a view to the establishment of commerce ·with them. They entered the Missouri May fourteenth, one thousand eight hundred and four, aud on the first of Novt 1nber took up their winter quarters near the Mandan towns, 1609 miles above the mouth of the river, in latitude 47° 21' 4 71 north, and longitude 99° 24' 4511 west from Green• wich. On the eighth of April, one thousand eight hundred and five, they proceeded up the river in pursuance of the objects prescribed to them. A letter of the preceding d:1y, April seventh, from captain Lewis, is herewith communicated. During his stay among the Manclans, he had been able to lay down the l\llissouri, according to courses and distances taken on his passage up it, corrected by frequent observations or longitude and latitude; and to add to the actual surrey of this portion of the river, a general rrwp of the country between the Mississippi and Pacific, fi·om the thirty -fourth to the fifty -fourth de- .:.\ |