Klem—The History of Science in St. Louis. 89 
terprise, which contemplated the organization of the fur 
trade from the Great Lakes to the Pacific and by way of 
the Sandwich Islands to China and India. He founded at 
the mouth of the Columbia river a settlement, named As- 
toria, which was to serve as a central depot. However, 
this gigantic undertaking was frustrated through a series 
of disasters and Astoria seized and oceupied by the Brit- 
ish in 1812. To carry out his scheme, Mr. Astor organ- 
ized two expeditions, one to go by sea and the other by 
land along the route followed by Lewis and Clark. The 
overland expedition left St. Louis under the leadership | 
of Wilson P. Hunt, of St. Louis. Two naturalists availed 
themselves of this opportunity to visit the upper Mis- - 
souri, John Bradbury and Thomas Nuttall. 
Bradbury* had been commissioned in 1809 by the 
Botanical Society of Liverpool to make some researches 
into the plant life of the United States. It was then 
quite the fashion among botanists to collect living plants 
and cultivate them in gardens, many eventually finding 
their way to Europe. 
Arriving in this country during the summer of 1809, 
Bradbury, having letters of introduction to Jefferson, 
visited the latter at Monticello. Acting upon Jefferson’s 
advice, he decided to make St. Louis the center of his 
explorations instead of New Orleans, as he had orig- 
inally intended. He arrived in St. Louis on the last day 
of 1809, and, after the necessary inquiries and prepara- 
of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814; or, The first Ameri- 
can settlement on the Pacific. 1854 
Chittenden, H. M. The Aviertonn fur trade of the far west. 1: 
163-246. 1902. 
® Bradbury, John. Travels in the interior of America in the years 
1809, 1810, pte 1811. 2nd ed. 1819. 
C. W. Transylvania Jour. Med. 34: 12-13. 1836. 
Britten, Jas., and Boulger, G. S. Biographical index to British and 
Irish Botaniats. 21. 1893. 
Thwaites, R.G. Bradbury’s travels in the interior of America 1809- 
1811. Early Western Travels 1748-1846. 5: ; 
Spaulding, Perley. A biographical history of botany at St. Louis, 
Missouri. Pop. Sci. Month. 1908: 493-495. 
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