He was indeed a most excellent man; and none was ever more beloved and respected by his friends. Somewhat cold and coy towards strangers, but of the sweetest affability when ripened into acquaintance. Of Attic pleasantry in conversation, always good humored and conciliatory. With a sound and logical head, he was well read in the law; and his opinions when consulted, were highly regarded, presenting always a learned and sound view of the subject, but generally, too, a listlessness to go into its thorough development; for being heavy and inert in body, he was rather too indolent and careless for business, which occasioned him to get a smaller proportion of it at the bar than his abilities would otherwise have commanded. Indeed, after his appointment as Attorney General, he did not seem to court, nor scarcely to welcome business. In that office he considered himself equally charged with the rights of the colony as with those of the crown; and in criminal prosecutions exaggerating nothing, he aimed at a candid and just state of the transaction, believing it more a duty to save an innocent than to convict a guilty man. Although not eloquent, his matter was so substantial that no man commanded more attention, which, joined with a sense of his great worth, gave him a weight in the House of Burgesses which few ever attained. He was liberal in his expenses, but correct also, so as not to be involved in pecuniary embarrassments; and with a heart always open to the amiable sensibilities of our nature, he did as many

good acts as could have been done with his fortune, without injuriously impairing his means of continuing them. He left no issue, and gave his fortune to his widow and nephew, the late Edmund Randolph.

MERIWETHER LEWIS.1

Meriwether Lewis, late Governor of Louisiana, was born on the 18th of August, 1774, near the town of Charlottesville, in the county of Albemarle, in Virginia, of one of the distinguished families of that State. John Lewis, one of his father's uncles, was a member of the King's Council before the revolution; another of them, Fielding Lewis, married a sister of General Washington. His father, William Lewis, was the youngest of five sons of Colonel Robert

1TO MR. PAUL ALLEN, PHILADELPHIA.

MONTICELLO, April 13, 1813.

SIR,-In compliance with the request conveyed in your letter of May 25th, I have endeavored to obtain from the relations and friends of the late Governor Lewis, information of such incidents of his life as might be not unacceptable to those who may read the narrative of his western discoveries. The ordinary occurrences of a private life, and those also while acting in a subordinate sphere in the army in a time of peace, are not deemed sufficiently interesting to occupy the public attention; but a general account of his parentage, with such smaller incidents as marked early character, are briefly noted, and to these are added, as being peculiarly within my own knowledge, whatever related to the public mission, of which an account is now to be published. The result of my inquiries and recollections shall now be offered, to be enlarged or abridged as you may think best, or otherwise to be used with the materials you may have collected from other

sources.

His

Lewis of Albemarle, the fourth of whom, Charles, was
one of the early patriots who stepped forward in the
commencement of the revolution, and commanded one
of the regiments first raised in Virginia, and placed
on continental establishment. Happily situated at
home with a wife and young family, and a fortune
placing him at ease, he left all to aid in the liber-
ation of his country from foreign usurpations, then
first unmasking their ultimate end and aim.
good sense, integrity, bravery, enterprise and remark-
able bodily powers, marked him an officer of great
promise; but he unfortunately died early in the revo-
lution. Nicholas Lewis, the second of his father's
brothers, commanded a regiment of militia in the
successful expedition of 1776, against the Cherokee
Indians, who, seduced by the agents of the British
government to take up the hatchet against us, had
committed great havoc on our southern frontier, by
murdering and scalping helpless women and children
according to their cruel and cowardly principles
of warfare. The chastisement they then received
closed the history of their wars, prepared them for
receiving the elements of civilization, which, zeal-
ously inculcated by the present government of the
United States, have rendered them an industrious,
peaceable and happy people. This member of the
family of Lewises, whose bravery was so usefully
proved on this occasion, was endeared to all who
knew him by his inflexible probity, courteous disposi-
tion, benevolent heart, and engaging modesty and

manners.

He was the umpire of all the private differences of his county, selected always by both parties. He was also the guardian of Meriwether Lewis, of whom we are now to speak, and who had lost his father at an early age. He continued some years under the fostering care of a tender mother, of the respectable family of Meriwethers of the same county, and was remarkable even in his infancy for enterprise, boldness and discretion. When only eight years of age, he habitually went out, in the dead of the night, alone with his dogs, into the forest to hunt the raccoon and opossum, which, seeking their food in the night, can then only be taken. In this exercise no season or circumstance could obstruct his purpose, plunging through the winter's snows and frozen streams in pursuit of his object. At thirteen, he was put to the Latin school, and continued at that until eighteen, when he returned to his mother, and entered on the cares of his farm, having, as well as a younger brother, been left by his father with a competency for all the correct and comfortable purposes of temperate life. His talent for observation, which had led him to an accurate knowledge of the plants and animals of his own county, would have distinguished him as a farmer; but at the age of twenty, yielding to the ardor of youth, and a passion for more dazzling pursuits, he engaged as a volunteer in the body of which were called out by General Washington, on occasion of the discontents produced by the excise taxes in the western parts of the United States; and

from that situation he was removed to the regular service as a lieutenant in the line. At twenty-three he was promoted to a captaincy; and always attracting the first attention where punctuality and fidelity were requisite, he was appointed paymaster to his regiment. About this time a circumstance occurred which, leading to the transaction which is the subject of this book, will justify a recurrence to its original idea. While I resided in Paris, John Ledyard of Connecticut arrived there, well known in the United States for energy of body and mind. He had accompanied Captain Cook in his voyage to the Pacific ocean, and distinguished himself on that voyage by his intrepidity. Being of a roaming disposition, he was now panting for some new enterprise. His immediate object at Paris was to engage a mercantile company in the fur trade of the western coast of America, in which, however, he failed. I then proposed to him to go by land to Kamschatka, cross in some of the Russian vessels to Nootka Sound, fall down into the latitude of the Missouri, and penetrate to and through that to the United States. He eagerly seized the idea, and only asked to be assured of the permission of the Russian government. I interested in obtaining that from M. de Simoulin, M. P. of the Empress at Paris, but more especially the Baron de Grimm, M. P. of Saxe-Gotha, her more special agent and correspondent there, in matters not immediately diplomatic. Her permission was obtained, and an assurance of protection while the course of the voyage