April 7, 1805
Our vessels consisted of six small canoes, and two large pirogues. This little fleet, although not quite so respectable as those of Columbus or Captain Cook, were still viewed by us with as much pleasure as those deservedly famed adventurers ever beheld theirs.
We were now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand miles in width, on which the foot of civilized man had never trodden… and these little vessels contained every article by which we were to expect to subsist or defend ourselves…
I could but esteem this moment of my departure as among the most happy of my life.
--Meriwether Lewis.
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