Pres. Jefferson wanted to know which tribes were friends to each other and which were enemies...........to see how he could exploit them.......make them fight each other............where they were...........how many of them where such and such a place, etc...............

"The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting the line you will pursue, renders a knolege of these people important. You will therefore endeavor to make yourself acquainted, as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey shall admit,
with the names of the nations & their numbers;
      the extent & limits of their possessions;
      their relations with other tribes or nations;
      their language, traditions, monuments;
      their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war, 
      arts, & the implements for these;
      their food, clothing, & domestic accommodations;
      the diseases prevalent among them, & the remedies they use;
      moral and physical circumstance which distinguish them
      from the tribes they know; 
      peculiarities in their laws, customs & dispositions;
      and articles of commerce they may need or furnish, & to what extent.

"And considering the interest which every nation has in extending & strengthening the authority of reason & justice among the people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knolege you can of the state of morality, religion & information among them, as it may better enable those who endeavor to civilize & instruct them, to adapt their measures to the existing notions & practises of those on whom they are to operate.

"Other objects worthy of notice will be 
     the soil & face of the country, it's growth & vegetable 
     productions, especially those not of the U.S. 
     the animals of the country generally, & especially those 
     not known in the U.S.  the remains & accounts of any which 
     may be deemed rare or extinct; 
     the mineral productions of every kind; but more particularly 
     metals, limestone, pit coal & saltpetre;
     salines & mineral waters, noting the temperature of the last
     & such circumstances as may indicate their character; 
     volcanic appearances; 
     climate as characterized by the thermometer, by the 
     proportion of rainy, cloudy  & clear days, by lightening, hail, 
     snow, ice, by the access & recess of frost, by the winds, 
     prevailing at different seasons, the dates at which particular
     plants put forth or lose their flowers, or leaf, times of 
     appearance of particular birds, reptiles or insects.

"Altho' your route will be along the channel of the Missouri, yet you will endeavor to inform yourself, by inquiry, of the character and extent of the country watered by its branches, & especially on it's Southern side. The North river or Rio Bravo which runs into the gulph of Mexico, and the North river, or Rio colorado which runs into the gulph of California, are understood to be the principal streams heading opposite to the waters of the Missouri, and running Southwardly. Whether the dividing grounds between the Missouri & them are mountains or flatlands, what are their distance from the Missouri, the character of the intermediate country, & the people inhabiting it, are worthy of particular enquiry. The Northern waters of the Missouri are less to be enquired after, because they have been ascertained to a considerable degree, and are still in a course of ascertainment by English traders & travellers. But if you can learn anything certain of the most Northern source of the Mississippi, & of it's position relative to the lake of the woods, it will be interesting to us. Some account too of the path of the Canadian traders from the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Ouisconsin river, to where it strikes the Missouri, and of the soil and rivers in it's course, is desirable