This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... among the spurs of the Blue Ridge, and in this way accounts for his habits of hardihood in after life. Mr. Jefferson was doubtless ignorant of the removal of Mrs. Marks and her Lewis children to Georgia, and wholly ignorant of the early life of Meriwether Lewis, who had spent all of his coon-hunting days in Georgia, where Indians were the only game that the white man could afford to hunt, or at school, where coons were not to be found. It is more than probable that Meriwether Lewis was never on a coon hunt in his life. It is true that he was inured to hardships and accustomed to danger in his boyhood, and that this had much to do with shaping his character in after life; but it is to the Indian, and not to the coon and opossum, that we must look for the explanation of this fact . After the death of Colonel Marks, "Aunt Marks" returned to Locust Hill, Albemarle county, Virginia, and shortly after her return Meriwether Lewis entered the United States army. He volunteered in 1794, with the troops called out to suppress the whiskey rebellion, and in 1795 entered the regular army. He was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1800, and in 1801, when Mr. Jefferson was inaugurated president, he became his private secretary, and in 1803, upon the recommendation of the President was appointed to take command of the exploring expedition, which has become a part of our country's history as the expedition of "Lewis and Clark." The scope of this work will not admit of historical or biographical reference, except of the briefest character, and therefore this notice of Meriwether Lewis will be closed with a quotation from instructions which accompanies his appointment, and which will show the purport and scope of the undertaking, together with extracts...