"Undaunted Courage" by Stephen E. Ambrose

I purchased "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen E. Ambrose some time ago when I had planned to go on Road Scholar's Lewis & Clark trek from St. Louis, Missouri to Astoria, Oregon this September. I was hit with a lot of bills the last couple months so I decided to go on two less expensive trips instead - Road Scholar's Las Vegas and Road Scholar's Victoria, BC.

I started reading "Undaunted Courage" yesterday. I always thought that William Clark, who was four years older than Meriweather Lewis, was the "leader" of the expedition. However it was Meriweather Lewis that President Jefferson gave the task of finding a waterway across the newly acquired Louisana Territory to the Pacific.

Lewis and Clark complemented each other. Meriweather Lewis was a hunter and outdoorsman. He would often venture out in the middle of the night in the dead of winter with only his dog, Seaman, to go hunting. Even at an early age, he was interested in natural history, which would develop into a lifelong passion. His mother taught him how to gather wild herbs for medicinal purposes. Clark was a tough woodsman accustomed to command. He was a better terrestrial surveyor/mapmaker than Lewis and a better waterman. In general, in areas in which Lewis was shaky, Clark was strong, and visa versa.