er of influential chiefs, or of young
people, would give some security to your own party. Carry with you
some matter of the kine-pox; inform those of them with whom you may
be of its efficacy as a preservative from the small-pox, and
instruct and encourage them in the use of it. This may be
especially done wherever you winter.

"As it is impossible for us to foresee in what manner you will be
received by those people, whether with hospitality or hostility, so
is it impossible to prescribe the exact degree of perseverance with
which you are to pursue your journey. We value too much the lives
of citizens to offer them to probable destruction. Your numbers
will be sufficient to secure you against the unauthorized
opposition of individuals, or of small parties; but if a superior
force, authorized, or not authorized, by a nation, should be
arrayed against your further passage, and inflexibly determined to
arrest it, you must decline its further pursuit and return. In the
loss of yourselves we should lose also the information you will
have acquired. By returning safely with that, you may enable us to
renew the essay with better calculated means. To your own
discretion, therefore, must be left the degree of danger you may
risk, and the point at which you should decline, only saying, we
wish you to err on the side of your safety, and to bring back your
party safe, even if it be with less information.

"As far up the Missouri as the white settlements extend, an
intercourse will probably be found to exist between them and the
Spanish posts of St. Louis opposite Cahokia, or St. Genevieve
opposite Kaskaskia. From still further up the river the traders may
furnish a conveyance for letters. Beyond that you may perhaps be
able to engage Indians to bring letters for the government to
Cahokia, or Kaskaskia, on promising that they shall there receive
such special compensation as you shall have stipulated with them.
Avail yourself of these means to communicate to us, at seasonable
intervals, a copy of your journal, notes and observations of every
kind, putting into cypher whatever might do injury if betrayed.

"Should you reach the Pacific ocean, inform yourself of the
circumstances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may
not be collected as advan