On August 31, 1803, Lewis made the first entry in his journal. The journals kept by Lewis, Clark, and several other members of the Corps of Discovery have become extremely valuable pieces of American history. These journals contain the primary records of all that the men of the expedition encountered during their travels.
President Jefferson wrote a letter to Meriwether Lewis on June 20, 1803, detailing all that he hoped, and expected, the expedition would accomplish. The journals would be the most important record of the journey, and Jefferson's concern for them is evident in his instructions to Lewis:
"Your observations are to be taken with great pains & accuracy to be entered distinctly, & intelligibly for others as well as yourself, to comprehend all the elements necessary, with the aid of the usual tables to fix the latitude & longitude of the places at which they were taken, & are to be rendered to the war office, for the purpose of having the calculations made concurrently by proper persons within the U.S. Several copies of these as well as of your other notes, should be made at leisure times, & put into the care of the most trustworthy of your attendants, to guard by multiplying them against the accidental losses to which they will be exposed."
It is important to note that the spelling and punctuation within the journals, as well as in the letters between the men, are not always consistent, or what we would consider correct today. Like many Americans at the time, neither Lewis nor Clark had much formal education, resulting in some very creative spelling and punctuation. Also, English as a written language was still developing, and spelling was only beginning to become standardized. The idea of writing one word the same way every time it was written was still rather new. Clark, for instance, spelled the word "Sioux" at least 27 different ways. Noah Webster's first dictionary was not published until 1806, too late to be of use to the journal-keepers of the expedition.
The unusual spelling in the journals, and the sometimes difficult-to-read handwriting, has caused some confusion over the years. For many years, it was thought that the name of Lewis's dog was "Scannon," rather than "Seaman." Historians are still unable to agree on the spelling and pronunciation of Sacagawea's name: Lewis and Clark spelled it at least 17 different ways in their journals.
