23, 1806.

President Jefferson's reply was dated October 20 of that year.

In his letter the President expressed his "unspeakable joy" at the safe return of the expedition.

He said that the unknown scenes in which they had been engaged and the length of time during which no tidings had been received from them "had begun to be felt awfully." It may seem strange to modern readers familiar with the means for rapid travel and communication that no news from the explorers, later than that which they sent from the Mandan country, was received in the United States until their return, two years and four months later.

But mail facilities were very scanty in those far-off days, even in the settled portions of the Mississippi Valley, and few traders had then penetrated to those portions of the Lower Missouri that had just been travelled by Lewis and Clark.