Brave Companions
Chapter One
Journey to the Top of the World
On a morning in May 1804, there arrived at the
White House by Baltimore coach, and in the
company of the painter Charles Willson Peale, a
visitor from abroad: an aristocratic young
German, age thirty-four, a bachelor, occupation
scientist and explorer. And like Halley's comet
or the white whale or other such natural
phenomena dear to the nineteenth century, he
would be remembered by all who saw him for the
rest of their days.
He had come to pay his respects to the president
of the new republic, Thomas Jefferson, a fellow
"friend of science," and to tell him something
of his recent journeys through South and Central
America. For the next several weeks he did
little else but talk, while Jefferson, on their
walks about the White House grounds; or James
Madison, the secretary of state; or the clever
Mrs. Madison; or Albert Gallatin, the secretary
of the treasury; or those who came to dine with
the president or to do business with him,
listened in awe.
The young man, they found, was a naturalist, an
astronomer, a geographer, a geologist, a
botanist, an auth ... read full excerpt from: Brave Companions ebook
