History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark, 1804-5-6

DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-second day of January, in the thirty-eighth year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1814, Bradford & Inskeep, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:

"History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky Mountains, and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed during the Years 1804-5-6, by order of the Government of the United States. Prepared for the press by Paul Allen, Esquire."

In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled "An act for "the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, "to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned." And also to the act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an aet, entitled, “ An ❝act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and "books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein men❝tioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.”

DAVID CALDWELL, Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania.

Facsimile of original copyright notice.

PUBLISHERS' NOTE.

TOTWITHSTANDING that in America few names are more

NOT

familiar upon the tongue than Lewis and Clark, it is a singular fact that a full and adequate account of what they did has long been almost unattainable. The published work of 1814 has quite disappeared from the market. The fragmentary accounts that preceded this edition have become very rare, as also the various foreign presentments, English, Dutch, German, and French. The noble reprint which appeared in 1893, prefaced, annotated, and supplemented in every needful way by Dr. Elliott Coues, a work of great bulk and cost, is entirely out of print.

The lack thus existing, felt now more and more as the centenary of the great exploration draws near, the present edition has been planned to fill. The text used is that of the 1814 edition, which must hold its place as the only account approaching adequacy. On its appearance, it at once superseded the broken narratives that had gone before; and Dr. Coues, the latest and most eminent of the editors of Lewis and Clark, after listing in an exhaustive bibliography of the subject a large number of works, pronounces it the only text worthy of attention.

This new edition, then, is a reprint of the Biddle text of 1814 complete. Its bulk is not increased by annotation, but it has been carefully supervised by Dr. James K. Hosmer, a specialist in matters pertaining to Western history. Dr. Hosmer has prepared a careful analytic Index, a feature which the original edition lacked, and furnished an Introduction giving the events which led up to the great expedition, and the vast development that has flowed from it, in a way to make plain the profound significance of the achievement. Fac-similes of all the maps of the 1814 edition are given, together with new reproductions of the best extant portraits of the heroes of the enterprise.

The publishers take pleasure in offering this work to the reading public, in the hope that it may fill all requirements and become the standard popular edition of this great American classic.

September 1, 1902.