We do not know what route would have been followed if this suggested expedition had been carried out. But since Jefferson in his "Notes "shows a very clear knowledge of the route to Santa Fe, with the distance from New Orleans, it was possibly his idea that California should be entered from the south. Still, we are free to assume that his interest in the " river that runs westwardly "might have determined that the expedition should ascend the Missouri, in the hope of reaching California along the course of some unknown River of the West, such as Carver represented as entering the Pacific below the forty-fifth parallel.
Jefferson and Ledyard; their plan of exploration failed. However that may be, it is certain that thereafter Jefferson gave his attention consistently to the problem of finding a connection from the Missouri to the Pacific, or the reverse. In 1786 he collaborated with John Ledyard, who had been a corporal on Cook's flagship, a project for exploring from the Pacific eastward to the Missouri and thence to the United States. Ledyard was then in Paris, where he tried unsuccessfully to secure support for his commercial scheme which included a fur trade on the Northwest Coast, and a trade in Chinese goods at Canton. Jefferson believed him well qualified for exploring ventures, although recognizing that he had "too much imagination." He requested the Russian government to grant Ledyard permission to cross Siberia. Ledyard was to go to Kamtschatka, cross from there in some Russian
