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Maury and the Missouri A short time after the founding of the Loyal Land
Company, Maury read Joshua Fry's copy of Daniel Coxe's A Description
of the English Province of Carolana that espoused symmetrical geography. The Coxe Map and book described a
"powerful" Missouri River flowing into the Mississippi and providing an easy
route to the Pacific Ocean and in turn a Passage to India (Allen 60). This
"passage" to the West and beyond aroused the enthusiasm of Maury and the other
members of the Loyal Land Company, many of whom served on the Fredericksville Parish
vestry board. James Maury wrote of the plans, "Some persons were to be sent in search of that river Missouri, if
that be the right name of it, in order to discover whether it had any communication with
the Pacific Ocean. When it is considered how far the eastern branches of that immense
river [Mississippi], extend eastward, and how near they come to the navigable, which empty
themselves into the sea that washes our shores to the east, it seems highly probable that
its western branches reach as far the other way, and make as near approaches to rivers
emptying themselves into the ocean west of us, the Pacific Ocean (Allen 60)." In 1753, they acted on their enthusiasm by planning an expedition up the Missouri all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Thomas Walker would lead the journey, but unfortunately, it never took place due to the start of the French and Indian war.
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