vessel to Nootka Sound, and penetrate eastward to the Missouri.^ Ledyard, however, got no farther than Siberia, when he was turned back by officials of the Russian government.^
The Michaux project; Jefferson's instructions to Michaux. Jefferson's paternal relation to the American Philosophical Society afforded an opportunity, in 1793, to promote another attempt to discover the overland route to the Pacific. Andre ^Michaux, a famous French botanist, who was already somewhat familiar with parts of western America, sought the encouragement of that society and was offered financial aid upon condition that he "explore the country along the Missouri, and thence westwardly to the Pacific Ocean." In his instructions to Michaux Jefferson wrote.^ "As a channel of communication between these states and the Pacific Ocean the Missouri, so far as it extends, presents itself under circumstances of unquestioned preference. It has therefore been declared as a fundamental object of the subscription (not to be dispensed with) that this river shall be considered and explored as a part of the communication sought for. . . . You
1 This plan seems impossible except on the theory that JetTerson and Ledyard believed in a west flowing river which interlocked with the Missouri, as did Carver's River of the West, or Oregon.
2 Jefferson, in 1821, stated that the Empress of Russia refused permission to Ledyard, deeming the plan entirely chimerical, but that he undertook to cross Siberia without official sanction and thus subjected himself to arrest and forcible return.
8 Writings, Federal Edition, VII, 208-209.
