already provided. Light articles for barter and presents among the
Indians, arms for your attendants, say for from ten to twelve men,
boats, tents, and other travelling apparatus, with ammunition,
medicine, surgical instruments, and provisions, you will have
prepared, with such aids as the secretary at war can yield in his
department; and from him also you will receive authority to engage
among our troops, by voluntary agreement, the number of attendants
abovementioned; over whom you, as their commanding officer, are
invested with all the powers the laws give in such a case.

"As your movements, while within the limits of the United States,
will be better directed by occasional communications, adapted to
circumstances as they arise, they will not be noticed here. What
follows will respect your proceedings after your departure from the
United States.

"Your mission has been communicated to the ministers here from
France, Spain, and Great Britain, and through them to their
governments; and such assurances given them as to its objects, as
we trust will satisfy them. The country of Louisiana having been
ceded by Spain to France, the passport you have from the minister
of France, the representative of the present sovereign of the
country, will be a protection with all its subjects; and that from
the minister of England will entitle you to the friendly aid of any
traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen to meet.

"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and
such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication
with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan,
Colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and