LEWIS, Meriwether.

Compiled from previously published sources, this 'Apocryphal' narrative remained a prime source of information about the Lewis and Clarke expedition until the official account was published in 1814.

A close reprint of the Philadelphia edition of the same year (Erickson 4a.1), with the omission of Jefferson's recommendation, changes to the publisher's introduction, and with the omission of the plates. 'Shows judicious cuts in extraneous material. The delay in publishing an official account of the expedition left a reporting vacuum filled in 1809 by a pair of almost identical volumes published anonymously in Philadelphia and London ... These volumes played fast and loose with copyrights and did not provide an adequate account of the promised 'Travels of Capts. Lewis and Clarke'. However they did ... provide accounts borrowed from various published sources, of Native American tribes in Canada and the northern and southern United States. This was the first attempt to assemble one volume a range of authentic ethnographic material covering the continent. The accompanying map is the first to include locations described by Lewis and Clarke.' (Erickson).