to New Orleans and encamped just outside the walls of the city three days before, and sent a messenger asking for a conference in which they might arrange for the transfer. On the 20th, the Americans marched into the city, led by the commissioners, and were received by Laussat. The French commander delivered to Claiborne the keys of the city. The French flag descended from the staff in the square and was replaced by the American flag. There was no very great enthusiasm because the people had nothing to do about making the change and they did not know what it might mean for them. They were somewhat reassured when they were told that they were to remain undisturbed in their property and religion, and that there was to be no interference with slavery.

Claiborne, who became governor of Lower Louisiana, was honest, but without tact, and never understood the people he governed. Wilkinson, then head of the American army, was governor of all Upper Louisiana. There was friction between the government and the natives for many years. It was a place where sedition grew, but the coming in of great numbers of Americans, the gradual adjustment to new conditions, and the conviction that prosperity depended upon union with the United States at length reconciled the people to the change of ownership.

Amos Stoddard was, at the time of the treaty of cession, the constituted agent of the French republic in Upper Louisiana, and in the name of the republic received possession of that province on the 9th of March, 1804, and the next day transferred it to the United States. Stoddard was appointed first civil commandant of Upper Louisiana and was commissioned to exercise the powers and prerogatives of the Spanish lieutenant-governor of that province.

CHAPTER XIII

EXPLORATION OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE

JEFFERSON'S interest in the far West antedated the Louisiana Purchase at least to the time when he was in Paris as minister to France in 1785. Here he met John Ledyard, of Connecticut, a brave, daring explorer who had accompanied Captain Cook on his voyage to the Pacific. Ledyard was in Paris trying to organize a fur trading company in western North America, but he failed to interest men in his project.

Ledyard was far ahead of other men in his conception of America's future greatness. After his voyage with Cook, he was anxious to secure the trade of the northwest for America rather than have it go to England. The Revolution seemed to him to open the way for an exploration of this country; he believed that the resources and boundaries should be explored by an American and he was anxious to be the one to do it. He had frequent interviews with Jefferson, who proposed to him to go by land to Kamchatka, cross in a Russian vessel to Nootka Sound, then go down to the latitude of Missouri River and from that point penetrate into the interior of the continent. Ledyard consented on condition that permission be secured from the Russian government. This was readily obtained and Ledyard, entering upon this difficult journey, passed the winter two hundred miles from Kamchatka. When he was ready to start on his voyage in the spring, he was prevented by officers of the Russian empress, who had changed her mind and would not allow him to proceed. He was carried back to

Poland and left to himself. He never fully recovered from the hardships of the journey, but his adventurous spirit would not let him rest, and he died in 1788 in Egypt, while about to make an expedition to discover the headwaters of the Nile.

Jefferson made a second attempt, which met with no better success. In 1792, he proposed to the American Philosophical Society that some competent person be engaged to attempt the expedition in the opposite direction, that was, to ascend the Missouri, cross the Rocky Mountains, or Stony Mountains, as they were then called, and descend by the nearest river to the Pacific. This was a hazardous undertaking through hostile Indian country, and to avoid exciting suspicion among the Indians it was decided that the explorer should be accompanied by only a single companion. Meriwether Lewis volunteered, but a man better suited for scientific observation, Mr. Andre Michaux, a botanist and an author of scientific works, offered himself and was accepted. He had proceeded as far as Kentucky when an order from the French minister recalled him and he was compelled to pursue his botanical work elsewhere and the expedition was given up.

After the purchase was consummated, Jefferson sent a communication to Congress conveying such information as was then available about the new possession. It was an interesting document, full of most remarkable statements; but these hardly exceeded the real wonder of the country. Jefferson was correct as to the information he had collected about the immense prairies covered with buffalo, and of land so fertile that it brought forth the necessaries of life almost spontaneously. The report told of Indians of great stature and of bluffs that were carved by the hand of nature into the semblance of great towers. The most curious statement in this strange document was about the Mountain of Salt. This mountain was said to be one hundred and eighty miles long, forty-five miles wide, and all of white, glittering salt, with salt rivers flowing from cavities at the base.