of the United States; of our wish to be neighbourly, friendly, and
useful to them, and of our dispositions to a commercial intercourse
with them; confer with them on the points most convenient as mutual
emporiums, and the articles of most desirable interchange for them
and us. If a few of their influential chiefs, within practicable
distance, wish to visit us, arrange such a visit with them, and
furnish them with authority to call on our officers on their
entering the United States, to have them conveyed to this place at
the public expense. If any of them should wish to have some of
their young people brought up with us, and taught such arts as may
be useful to them, we will receive, instruct, and take care of
them. Such a mission, whether of influential chiefs, or of young
people, would give some security to your own party. Carry with you
some matter of the kine-pox; inform those of them with whom you may
be of its efficacy as a preservative from the small-pox, and
instruct and encourage them in the use of it. This may be
especially done wherever you winter.

"As it is impossible for us to foresee in what manner you will be
received by those people, whether with hospitality or hostility, so
is it impossible to prescribe the exact degree of perseverance with
which you are to pursue your journey. We value too much the lives
of citizens to offer them to probable destruction. Your numbers
will be sufficient to secure you against the unauthorized
opposition of individuals, or of small parties; but if a superior
force, authorized, or not authorized, by a nation, should be
arrayed against your further passage, and inflexibly determined to
arrest it, you must decline its further pursuit and return. In the
loss of yourselves we should lose also the information you will
have acquired. By returning safely with that, you may enable us to