To Thomas Jefferson from William Dunbar, 1 June 1804
From William Dunbar
Natchez 1st. June 1804
Dear Sir
I am honored with your letter of the 15th. of April, accompanied by the instructions for the person who is to conduct the expedition up the Red river: I have already informed you in my last of the difficulty of finding a person here duly qualified, & should we in the end be obliged to accept of a person of moderate talents, it will probably in that case be proper to reserve the chief command for Doctor Hunter.
I have now the pleasure of enclosing you my remarks respecting the theory of rivers: by a letter from mr. Vaughan, I find that my paper on the Missisippi concludes the 6th. Vol: of transactions, I had no idea that it could have appeared so soon, or I should not have been so dilatory in transmitting the apendix; as it now comes too late, you will be pleased to forward it or not as you think proper; Were it not a degree of intrusion on my part, I would solicit, when perfectly at leisure, your opinion respecting my remarks.
Understanding that the mail is closing I have been obliged to hurry over this letter.
With the highest respect I have the honor to be Your most obedient servant
William Dunbar
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 12 July and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: see below.
my last: Dunbar to TJ, 13 May.
TJ did forward Dunbar’s appendix to his “Description of the river Mississippi and its Delta, with that of the adjacent parts of Louisiana.” It was read at the 5 Oct. meeting of the American Philosophical Society and appeared in the second part of the sixth volume of the society’s Transactions (, Proceedings, 22, pt. 3 [1884], 362; , Transactions, 6 [1809], 191-201).