40 REUBEN GOLD THWAITES. ever, was only partly responsible fretted the great man. December 6, 1813, he wrote to Baron von Humboldt, "You will find it inconceivable that Lewis's journey to the Pa- cific should not yet have appeared ; nor is it in my power to tell you the reason. The measures taken by his sur- viving companion, Clark, for the publication, have not answered our wishes in point of dispatch. I think, how- ever, from what I have heard, that the mere journal will be out within a few weeks in two volumes, 8vo. These I will take care to send you with the tobacco seed you de- sired, if it be possible for them to escape the thousand ships of our enemies spread over the ocean. The botan- ical and zoological discoveries of Lewis will probably ex- perience greater delay, and become known to the world through other channels before that volume will be ready. The Atlas, I believe, waits on the leisure of the engraver." 23 Nearly a hundred years have elapsed, and we still await its publication. Three years later (1816) we find Jefferson instituting a search for the manuscript journals of the explorers, with a a view of placing them in the archives of the American Philosophical Society. He writes (April 26) 24 to Prof. Joseph F. Correa da Serra, botanist, then holding mem- bership in the society, asking him, in the cause of science, to interest himself in the matter, and describing in some detail the character of the documents with which he was himself familiar, for he had handled them at Monti- cello. These papers, he informs Da Serra, "are the prop- erty of the government, the fruits of the expedition under- taken at such expence of money and risk of valuable lives. They contain exactly the whole of the information which it was our object to obtain for the benefit of our own coun- try and of the world, but we were willing to give to Lewis 23 Ford, IX, p. 433. 24 The original MS. of this letter is in the possession of the society.
