INTRODUCTION

The Story of Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark
For Young Americans

PAGE 1 OF 8

  The exploration of the Mississippi River was accomplished by the French a little more than two hundred years ago. La Salle, in 1682, was the first white man to trace the course of that great stream to the place where its waters flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Landing upon an island at the mouth of the river, he set up the arms of France, and took possession of the country in the name of King Louis XIV.
  
To the entire region drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries he gave the name of Louisiana, in honor of the king. "This region included the greater part of what is now the United States. It extended from the Alleghany Mountains to the Rockies, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
  
The French made a few settlements and established trading-posts at different places along the Mississippi; but they never advanced far into the country that bordered it on the west. The whole of that vast region remained an unknown land.

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