All of the remainder of that year was spent in preparation. In the summer the two captains set out for St. Louis, and not until they
Captain Meriwether Lewis
Statue at the Lewis and Clark Exposition, 1903
reached the Ohio River did they learn of the purchase of Louisiana by the American government. They secured the services of forty-one persons, all told—soldiers, guides, boatmen, and hunters—and encamped for the winter on the east bank of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Missouri.
The 9th of May, 1804, was set for the formal transfer of Louisiana from Spain to France and from France to the United States, and Jefferson desired Lewis and Clark to remain at St. Louis for that ceremony, which they did. Therefore, it was not until three o'clock in the
