MERIWETHER LEWIS. 393 "nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direc- tion ; careful as a father of those committed to his charge, "yet steady in the maintenance of order and discipline ; "habituated to the hunting life ; guarded by exact observa- tion of vegetables and animals of his own country against "losing time in the description of objects already pos- "sessed ; honest; disinterested; liberal; of sound under- standing, and with a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that "whatever he should report would be as certain as if seen "by ourselves ; with all these qualities as if selected and "implanted by Nature in one body for this special pur- pose, I could have no hesitation in confiding the expedi- tion to him." Captain Lewis selected for his assistant, William Clark, of Louisville, Kentucky, brother of General George Rogers Clark. This selection was approved, and Clark was com- missioned as captain in the regular army, and assigned second in command of the expedition. On the 20th of June, 1803, the President signed "In- structions to Meriwether Lewis, Esquire, Captain of the "First Regiment of Infantry of the United States of "America." The instructions show that the President at this time had no knowledge of the source of the Missouri, the Columbia, and the Colorado rivers, or of the moun- tains, or of the country beyond. On the 1st day of July there came from Paris that astonishing news that the commissioners had purchased the whole of Louisiana. This did not change the plans or the instructions of the President. ]t rather hastened the expedition than otherwise. Lewis had intended visit- ing his mother before starting. He wrote her on the 3d of July, " Day after to-morrow I shall set out for the west- ern country. I had calculated on the pleasure of visiting you, but circumstances have rendered it impossible."
