"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principal stream of it as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce."
They took along with them fiddler Pierre Cruzatte who entertained both crew and Native Americans they encountered on the way. Apparently, he wasn't much of a hunter though:
"I was in the act of firing on the Elk ... when a ball struck my left thye about an inch below my hip joint... I instantly supposed that Cruzatte had shot me in mistake for an Elk as I was dressed in brown leather and he cannot see very well..."- Meriwether Lewis, August 11, 1806.
Makes me proud to be a fiddler somehow!
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> Makes me proud to be a fiddler somehow!
Well, he oughta'! And not just because of the accident -- or because of all the other important things he did on the expedition -- but also because he's practically one of your homeboys. He first appears in the expedition's journals in St. Charles, and that neighbor of yours claims him as their own. Just ask anyone at the Lewis & Clark Boathouse.
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