Part 19 (2/2)

The flag of our republic had not yet advanced

Those who h about flags or treaty rights They concerned themselves rather with possession Let any who liked observe the laws The strong eneral codex of adventure and full-blooded, roistering life The world was young Buy land? No, why buy it, when taking it was so eneral lust of conquest, this Saxon zeal for new territories, must have been that inspiration of Thomas Jefferson in his venture of the far Northwest He saw there the splendid vision of his ideal republic He saw there a citizenry no longer riotous and roistering, not yet frenzied or hysterical, but strong, sober, and constant His was a glorious vision Would God we had fully realized his dreas afloat here or there in the Western country then, and none knehat land rightly belonged under any of the three

Indeed, over the heart of that region now floated all the three banners at the saeneration actual governor if not actual owner of all the country beyond the Mississippi, so far as it had any governreat seaport, New Orleans, settler of the valley for a generation; and that of the new republic only just arriving into the respect of men either of the East or the West--a republic which had till recently exacted respect chiefly through the stark deadliness of its fighting and ame in which these two boys, Meriwether Lewis and Willia

And with the superb unconsciousness and self-trust of youth, they played it with dash and confidence, never doubting their success

The prediction of Willias, autocratic Spain was not disposed to yield De Lassus, Spanish co travelers go beyond St Louis, even so far as Charette He ht or not, he had ruled so long--had not only been sold by Spain to France, but that the cession had been duly confirmed; and, furthermore, he must be sure that the cession by France to the United States had also been concluded forh from the plains country, yes--but this was a different --it nity was not thus to be shaken, not to be hurried All must wait until the formalities had been concluded

This delayleaders of the expedition were obliged to make the best of it they could

Clark formed an encampment in the timbered country across the Mississippi from St Louis, and soon had hisMeanwhile he picked up more men around the adjacent land regiment; Cruzatte, Labi+che, Lajeunesse, Drouillard and other voyageurs for watermen They made a hardy and efficient band

Upon Captain Lewis devolved most of the scientific work of the expedition It was necessary for him to spend much time in St Louis, to complete his store of instruments, to extend his own studies in scientific matters Perhaps, after all, the success of the expedition was furthered by this delay upon the border

Twenty-nine --forty-five in all, counting assistants ere not officially enrolled Their equipment for the entire journey out and back, of more than two years in duration, was to cost them not er equip of the richest empire of the world!

But now this ar before it of two of the greatest flags then known to the world It already had seen the retiree which Burr and Merry and Yrujo had so dreaded was now about to be driven home The country must split apart--Great Britain must fall back to the North--these other powers, France and Spain, must make way to the South and West

The army of the new republic, under two loyal boys for leaders, pressed forward, not with drums or banners, not with the roll of kettledrulorious war The soldiers of its ranks had not even a uniform--they were clad in buckskin and linsey, leather and fur They had no trained fashi+on of h They were not drilled into the perfection of trained soldiers, perhaps, but each could use his rifle, and kne far was one hundred yards

The boats were coreat West--froes Keel boats ca a thousandback news from New Orleans Broadhorns and keel-boats and sailboats and river pirogues passed down

The strange, colorful life of the little capital of the West went on eagerly St Louis was happy; Detroit was glum--the fur trade had been split in half Great Britain had lost--the furs noent out down the Mississippi instead of down the St Lawrence A world was in the ; and over that disturbed and divided world there still floated the three rival flags

Five days before Christ of France fluttered down in the old city of New Orleans They had dreaded the fleet of Great Britain at New Orleans--had hoped for the fleet of France They got a fleet of A rifles and leathern garments, who came under paddle and oar, and not under sail

Laussat was the last French co onto his dignity up the Missouri River beyond St

Louis, still clung to the sovereignty that Spain had deserted And across the river, in a little row of log cabins, lay the new ar--an army of twenty-nine men, backed by twenty-five hundred dollars of a nation's hoarded war gold!

It was a time for hope or for despair--a time for success or failure--a time for loyalty or for treason And that army of twenty-nine men in buckskin altered the map of the world, the history of a vast continent

While Meriwether Lewis gravely went about his scientific studies, and Williaay St Louis belles, when not engaged in drilling hiscaeese honked northward in reen betimes

The men in Clark's encampment were almost mutinous with lust for travel But still the authorities had not co of Spain floated over the crossbars of the gate of the stone fortress, last stronghold of Spain in the valley of our great river

March passed, and April Not until the 9th of May, in the year 1804, were matters concluded to suit the punctilio of France and Spain alike Now came the assured word that the republic of the United States intended to stand on the Louisiana purchase, Constitution or no Constitution--that the governht On this point Mr Jefferson was fir the soldiers of Spainthe fortifications of the old post stood at parade when the drums of the Americans were heard One company of troops, under command of Captain Stoddard, represented our army of occupation Our real army of invasion was that in buckskin and linsey and leather--twenty-nine men; whose captain, Meriwether Leas to be our official representative at the ceremony of transfer

De Lassus choked with emotion as he handed over the keys and the archives which so long had been under his charge