98 GEORGE BRYCE: OUTLINES OF 
(5) Three Great American Expeditions—The American Government, during the first 
quarter of this century, sent out three important expeditions, all connected with the settle- 
ment of the boundary line between the newly-acquired territory of Louisiana and the 
British possessions. The undefined territory of Louisiana was annexed to the United 
States in 1803. 
I. Lewis AND CLARK. 
The object of this expedition was to explore the Missouri country, and cross the 
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast. 

1804.—May 14—Captains Lewis and Clarke, of the Army of the United States, with 
twenty or thirty soldiers and a dozen voyageurs, entered the mouth of the 
Missouri. By November, the expedition, having travelled some sixteen hundred 
miles, reached the country of the Mandans, who are dwellers underground, cul- 
tivate the soil, and make pottery. [A remnant still survives. They have been 
called the “ white-bearded Sioux.”] The explorers were here visited by British 
traders from Souris River. 
1S05.— Aug. 18—The head waters of the Missouri, three thousand miles from the 
“mouth, were reached. Horses were got, and after traversing for sixty miles 
through the mountains, a most difficult country, a navigable river, the Lewis, 
so called from the commander, “was descended by canoes and the Columbia 
gained. They thus reached, on Nov. 15, the Pacific Ocean, by wary of the 
Columbia River. Here they spent the winter in Fort Clatsop. 
1806.—March 23.—The return journey was begun, one party ascending Clarke River. 
On Sept. 23, the reunited party arrived at St. Louis, fired a salute, and going on 
shore, received a most hearty and hospitable welcome from the “ whole village.” 
IJ. Lieur. ZEBULON M. PiKe. 
1805.— Aug. 9—Lieut. Pike, of the U.S. Army, with twenty soldiers, left St. Louis to 
ascend the Mississippi to find its sources. Sept. 4, Prairie du Chien was reached. 
Oct. 1, the party left the Falls of St. Anthony. 
1806.—Feb. 1—The expedition had arrived at Otter Tail, Red Cedar, Red Lake, etc. 
“The country,” says Pike, has the appearance of “an impenetrable morass or 
boundless savannah.” On the 13th, the latitude of the source of the Mississippi 
was found to be 47° 42’ 40”. David Thompson, the astronomer of the North- 
West Company, had, in 1798, taken the same observation and made it 47° 38’. 
Lieut. Pike, having descended the Mississippi, arrived at St. Louis April 30. 
[Norr.—Lieut. Pike took part in the war between Canada and the United States, as 
Major Pike. He was, unfortunately, killed by the blowing up of a magazine at York, 
being struck in the breast bya heavy stone, April, 1813.] 
