The suggestion of Ledyard to explore Oregon became the germ of the voyages of Lewis and Clark. It appears that, in 1792, Mr. Jefferson proposed the subject to the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia.[2] It is not known that its action resulted in anything practical. After Mr. Jefferson himself, however, came to the presidency, in 1801, he called the attention of Congress to the matter. Louisiana had been acquired, under his auspices, in 1803, which furnished a strong public reason for its exploration. To conduct it, he selected his private secretary and relative, Merriweather Lewis, of Virginia; Captain William Clark was named as his assistant. Both these gentlemen were commissioned in the army, and the expense thus placed on a public basis. Captain Lewis left the city of Washington, on this enterprise, on the 5th of July, 1803, and was joined by Captain Clark west of the Alleghanies. Having organized the expedition at St. Louis, they began the ascent of the Missouri River on the 14th of May, 1804. They wintered the first year at Fort Mandan, about 1,800 miles up the Missouri, in the country of the Mandans. Crossing the Rocky Mountains the next year, and descending the Columbia to the open shore of the Pacific, they retraced their general course to the waters of the Missouri, in 1806, and returned to St. Louis on the 23d of September of that year. (_Lewis and Clark_, vol. ii. p. 433.) [2] Lewis and Clark. To explore the Missouri to its source, and leave the remote summits of the Mississippi untouched, would seem to have ill-accorded with Mr. Jefferson's conceptions. It does not appear, however, from published data, that he selected the person to perform the latter service, leaving it to the military commandant of the district. (_Life of Pike_, Sparks's _Amer. Biog._ vol. xv. pp. 220, 281.) General Wilkinson, who had been directed to occupy Louisiana, appears to have made the selection. He designated Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike. This officer left Bellefontaine, Missouri, on the 9th of August, 1805, with a total force of twenty men, at least four months too late in the season to reach even the central part of his destination, without an aid in the command, without a scientific observer of any description, and without even an interpreter to communicate with the Indians. That he should have accomplished what he did, is altogether owing to his activity, vigilance, and enterprise, his knowledge of hunting and forest life, and his well-established habits of mental and military discipline. Winter overtook him, on the 16th of October, in his ascent, when he was about one hundred and twenty miles (as now ascertained) above the Falls of St. Anthony.[3] Severe cold, snow, and ice, rendered it impossible to push his boats further. Devoting twelve days in erecting a blockhouse, and leaving his heavy stores and disabled men in charge of a non commissioned officer, he proceeded onwards, on snow shoes, with small