67
68
instructed to reach the Pacific, seek new trade routes, establish relations with the Native American tribes, and to report on the geography, geology, astronomy, zoology, botany, and climate of the west. Jefferson appointed his friend Captain Meriwether Lewis as leader, who in turn appointed his friend Second Lieutenant William Clark to co-command the expedition. Sharing military leadership was against all the normal rules and customs of military protocol, but proved a triumph, with the pair building total trust in each other, thinking as of one mind, and avoiding any major dispute. Clark, more gregarious and steadfast, complimented the rockier personality of Lewis, who was prone to the bouts of depression which would eventually lead to his suicide in the years following the expedition. Lewis and Clark led the corps, starting with 40 men, over 8,000 miles in 28 months, with just a single fatality. They described 178 plants and 133 animals new to western science. They were among the first to chart the Great Plains and Rockies. They made contact with Native American tribes, some of whom had never met people descended from the Old World, in what were generally peaceful diplomatic encounters, aided by their Native American guide Sacagawea, who made the journey with her infant child. At the same time, the meetings were begun by firing a gun, and instructing the tribes that their land was now the possession of the United States, a harbinger of what was to come. A more positive harbinger of the future America was Lewis and Clark’s choice – a credit to their leadership – to put the core decision of the expedition, where to winter on reaching the Pacific Coast before returning east, to a democratic vote. “This was the first vote ever held in the Pacific Northwest. It was the first time
paper labels to head of spine and front cover, marbled paper-covered sides. Housed in a black cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Diagrams to text. Library stamps of “Archiv Bunda” to front free endpaper and first leaf of Vpered no. 1. Extremities and labels worn, cloth a little spotted, some issues evenly browned with light creasing to margins, a few small nicks to fore edges and a few margins trimmed in the binding process. Overall in very good condition. ¶ Christopher Read, Lenin: A Revolutionary Life , 2005. £67,500 [118242] 68 LEWIS, Meriwether, & William Clark. History of the Expedition to the sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Philadelphia: printed by J. Maxwell, published by Bradford and Inskeep; and Abm. H. Inskeep, New York, 1814 The most important exploration of the North American continent, complete with map First edition, complete with the map, of the official account of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the most famous in American history, and an unequalled example of dual leadership. The expedition united for the first time the east and west coast of America, set the path that countless pioneers would follow west, and invigorated the dream of a coast-to-coast nation. President Thomas Jefferson had for many years wished to send an expedition into the uncharted west of America, and with the Louisiana Purchase, almost doubling the size of the young country, he received Congress’s approval. The expedition was
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
51
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker