First Across the Continent
First Across the Continent
by Noah Brooks
The Story of
The Exploring Expedition of Lewis
and Clark in 1804-5-6
Chapter I
A Great Transaction in Land
The people of the young Republic of the United States were greatly astonished, in the summer of 1803, to learn that Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, had sold to us the vast tract of land known as the country of Louisiana. The details of this purchase were arranged in Paris (on the part of the United States) by ...