290 Memorial of Gcoi'ge Drown Goode. 



It is related b}^ Jefferson, in his Memoranda of Conversations, that 

 Judge Breckenridge, of Kentucky, told him in 1800, that Michaux was 

 not only a botanical agent of the French, but a political emissary, and 

 that he held a commission as commissary for an expedition against the 

 Spaniards, planned by Genet, in connection with a plot to gain posses- 

 sion of the eastern Mississippi Valley for France.' 



In 1803, [continues Jefferson,] the act of establishing trading houses with the 

 Indian tribes being about to expire, some modifications of it were recommended 

 to Congress by a confidential message of January 18, and an extension of its views to 

 the Indians on the Missouri. In order to prepare the way, the message proposed 



in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, XXVI, No. 129, p. 4: 

 The French government was anxious at this time to introduce into the royal planta- 

 tions the most valuable trees of eastern North America, and Michaux was selected 

 for this undertaking. He was instructed to explore the territory of the United 

 States, to gather seeds of trees, shrubs, and other plants, and to establish a nursery near 

 New York for their reception, and afterwards to send them to France, where they 

 were to be planted in the Park of Rambouillet. He was directed also to send game 

 birds from America with a view to their introduction into the plantations of Ameri- 

 can trees. Michaux, accompanied by his son, then fifteen years old, arrived in New 

 York in October, 1785. Here, during two years, he made his principal residence, 

 establishing a nurser}% of which all trace has now disappeared, and making a num- 

 ber of short botanical journeys into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. 

 The fruits of these preliminary explorations, including twelve boxes of seeds, five 

 thousand seedling trees, and a number of live partridges, were sent to Paris at the 

 end of the first year. 



Michaux's first visit to South Carolina was made in September, 1787. He found 

 Charleston a more suitable place for his nurseries, and made that city his headquar- 

 ters during the rest of his stay in America. 



Michaux's journeys in this country after his establishment in Charleston are 

 detailed in the Journal [printed in the place already referred to] . They cover the 

 territory of North America from Hudson's Bay to the Indian river in Florida, and from 

 the Bahama islands to the banks of the Mississippi river. His ambition to carry 

 out his instructions was equaled only by his courage and industry. The historj^ of 

 botanical exploration records no greater display of fortitude and enthusiam in the 

 pursuit of knowledge, than Michaux showed in his journey to the headwaters of 

 the Savannah river in December, 1788, when his zeal was rewarded by the discovery 

 of Shortia or in the return from his visit to Hudson's Ba}-. The hardship of his last 

 journey even did not satisfy his cravings for adventure and discovery; and shortly 

 after his return he laid before the American Philosophical Society a proposition to 

 explore the unknown region which extended beyond the Missouri. His proposition 

 was well received. The sum of five thousand dollars was raised by subscription to 

 meet the expenses of the journey; all arrangements were made and he was about to 

 start when he was called upon by the Minister of the French Republic, latelj' arrived 

 in New York, to proceed to Kentucky, to execute some business growing out of the 

 relations between France and Spain with regard to the transfer of L,ouisiana. 



It was this suggestion of Michaux, no doubt, [says Sargent in concluding this 

 reference,] which led Mr. Jefferson, who had regarded it with great favor, to send a 

 few years later the first transcontinental expedition to the .shores of the Pacific. 



Professor Sargent, like Doctor Gray, has evidently not been in possession of the his- 

 tory of Jefferson's early interest in this matter. 



'Jefferson's Writings, ed. T. J. Randolph, IV, pp. 513, 514. 



