HKB
best communication with the Pacific ocean, should also be fixed by observation; and the course of that water to the ocean, in the same manner as that of the Missouri.
"Your observations are to be taken with great pains and accuracy; to be entered distinctly and intelligibly for others as well as yourself; to comprehend all the elements necessary, with the aid of the usual tables, to fix the latitude and longitude of the places at which they were taken; and are to be rendered to the war-office, for the purpose of having the calculations made concurrently by proper persons within the United States. Several copies of these, as well as of your other notes, should be made at leisure times, and put into the care of the most trust-worthy of your attendants to guard, by multiplying them against the accidental losses to which they will be exposed. A further guard would be, that one of these copies be on the cuticular membranes of the paper-birch, as less liable to injury from damp than common paper.
"The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting the line you will pursue, renders a knowledge of those people important. You will therefore endeavour to make yourself acquainted, as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey shall admit, with the names of the nations and their numbers;
"The extent and limits of their possessions;
"Their relations with other tribes or nations;
"Their language, traditions, monuments;
"Their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war, arts, and the implements for these;
"Their food, clothing, and domestic accommodations;
"The diseases prevalent among them, and the remedies they use;
"Moral and physical circumstances which distinguish them from the tribes we know;
"Peculiarities in their laws, customs, and dispositions;
"And articles of commerce they may need or furnish, and to what extent.
"And, considering the interest which every nation has in extending and strengthening the authority of reason and justice among the people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knowledge you can of the state of morality, religion, and information among them; as it may better enable those who may endeavour to civilize and instruct them, to adapt their measures to the existing notions and practices of those on whom they are to operate.
"Other objects worthy of notice will be--
"The soil and face of the country, its growth and vegetable productions, especially those not of the United States;
"The animals of the country generally, and especially those not known in the United States;
"The remains and accounts of any which may be deemed rare or extinct;
"The mineral productions of every kind, but more particularly metals, lime-stone, pit-coal, and saltpetre; salines and mineral waters, noting the temperature of the last, and such circumstances as may indicate their character;
"Volcanic appearances;
"Climate, as characterized by the thermometer, by the proportion of rainy, cloudy, and clear days; by lightning, hail, snow, ice; by the access and recess of frost; by the winds prevailing at different seasons; the dates at which particular plants put forth, or lose their flower or leaf; times of appearance of particular birds, reptiles or insects.