346 The Winning of the West 



individual settlers. The National Government was 

 making its weight felt more and more in the West, 

 because the West was itself becoming more and 

 more an important integral portion of the Union. 

 The work of exploring these new lands fell, not to 

 the wild hunters and trappers, such as those who 

 had first explored Kentucky and Tennessee, but to 

 officers of the United States Army, leading parties 

 of United States soldiers, in pursuance of the com- 

 mand of the Government or of its representatives. 

 The earliest and most important expeditions of 

 Americans into the unknown country which the na- 

 tion had just purchased were led by young officers of 

 the regular army. 



The first of these expeditions was planned by Jef- 

 ferson himself and authorized by Congress. Nomi- 

 nally its purpose was in part to find out the most 

 advantageous places for the establishment of trading 

 stations with the Indian tribes over which our gov- 

 ernment had acquired the titular suzerainty; but in 

 reality it was purely a voyage of exploration, 

 planned with intent to ascend the Missouri to its 

 head, and thence to cross the continent to the Pa- 

 cific. The explorers were carefully instructed to re- 

 port upon the geography, physical characteristics, 

 and zoology of the region traversed, as well as upon 

 its wild human denizens. Jefferson was fond of 

 science, and in appreciation of the desirability of 

 non-remunerative scientific observation and investi- 

 gation he stood honorably distinguished among the 

 public men of the day. To him justly belongs the 



