Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were great explorers who were assigned to an exciting expedition. Actually Lewis was assigned first by President Jefferson to explore the West of the continent and to find a passageway to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis then decided to take Clark along with him. Around this time Lewis was 23 and Clark was a few years older. Lewis had many talents but one of his best discovering new species and sketching them in his book or diary. Clark also had many talents but one of his best was sketching and mapmaking. This expedition started around 1804. About half way through the expedition they traded with the Shoshone Indians for a sixteen year old pregnant woman who they called Sacagawea. She later gave birth to a boy to be named Jon Baptiste. Sacagawea slowly became a very important part of the expedition. She helped Lewis and Clark by identifying good plants to eat and when the boat tipped over she retrieved the most important items. The expedition was successful and took about two years roundtrip covering about 8000 miles. They became nationwide heroes and went on to govern the land.

There were some similarities and some differences between the explorer I researched, Samuel de Champlain, and Lewis and Clark. Some similarities are that they were both explorers and they both became governors of the land they explored or founded. Besides those two similarities Champlain and Lewis and Clark were both very, very different. Here are the ways they are different. For one thing Lewis and Clark explored land that had never been explored by there own kind before but my explorer just founded a city on land that had already been explored before and tagged along on other peoples expeditions. Also Lewis and Clark traveled over a large range of space where Champlain traveled from France to Canada and back and forth. Another difference is that Lewis and Clark traveled with many people along with him while Champlain mostly traveled with the colonists he brought to his new city, Quebec. The last difference that I am aware of is that Lewis and Clark traveled with an Indian companion while Champlain did not.