officers named Renaudon; but he was stopped by ice and returned to Fort Bourbon.[1]
Even before the negotiations undertaken with France for the sale of Louisiana, President Jefferson dreamed of making an examination of the upper waters of the Missouri in order to assure himself whether it was possible to reach the Pacific Ocean, either by the Columbia or Colorado rivers, and to establish direct and practical communication for commerce across the American continent. In his message of January 18, 1803, the President submitted for the approval of Congress the names of Captains Lewis and Clark as being the most likely to fulfil this mission, and here it may be remarked that the treaty of the Louisiana Purchase was signed on the 30th of April of the same year.[2]
This sale, forever to be deplored, took place by virtue of a decree of the First Consul, on April 3, requiring the sum of seventy-five million francs, payable by the United States. Of this sum, nearly 30 millions were used to indemnify the citizens of the Union who had claims against us for the capture of neutral ships in previous wars. The remainder was delivered in specie into the hands of the French commission and on December 23, 1803, the prefect of New Orleans, M. de Laussat, made the official transfer of the whole of Louisiana to the American governor, Mr. Claiborne. If the cabinet of France committed an irreparable error, thaj; of Washington gave proof of the wisest foresight; it hastened to terminate so advantageous an affair, and contracted without delay a loan, at six per cent, to acquit itself toward us. Thus for the miserable sum of nine million dollars France lost her last possession on the New Continent, this province which gave her command, to the south and west, of the Gulf of Mexico and the Spanish vice-royalty, while on the north, by the upper waters of the Mississippi, she reached Can-
