The president sipped his soup, set down his spoon, and took me by surprise. ‘Gage, what do you know about mastodons?’
I’m afraid I looked blank. ‘Mastodon?’ I cleared my throat. ‘Is that near Macedonia?’
‘Elephants, Ethan, elephants,’ Magnus prompted.
‘The American name is mammoth, while European scientists have suggested mastodon,’ Jefferson said. ‘It’s the name scientists have given to the bones of prehistoric elephants that have been found in Russia and North America. Nearly an entire skeleton has been obtained from the Hudson Valley, and many bones from the Ohio. They dwarf the modern kind. Perhaps you noticed my tusk?’
‘Ah. Franklin mentioned this once. Woolly elephants in America. You know, Hannibal used elephants.’ I was trying to hide my ignorance.
‘Just one mastodon would fill this room to the ceiling. They must have been extraordinary creatures, majestic and magnificent, with tusks like a curved banister.’
‘I suppose so. I encountered a lion once in the Holy Land …’
‘A mere kitten,’ Jefferson said. ‘I have the claws of a prehistoric lion of truly terrifying stature. For some curious reason, the animals of the past were bigger than those now. As for mastodons, no live specimen has been encountered, but then our cold, heavily wooded landscape is not the landscape for elephants, is it?’
‘Certainly not.’ I took a sip of wine. ‘Excellent vintage. Is this Beaujolais?’ I knew Jefferson was something of an obsessive when it came to the grape, and felt safer with a subject I had some practise in.
‘But in the west, beyond the Mississippi, the landscape reportedly opens up. Isn’t that so, Lewis?’
‘That’s the word from the French fur trappers I interviewed,’ the young officer said. ‘Go far enough west, and there are no trees at all.’
‘Like a cold Africa, in other words,’ the president went on. ‘Home only to Indians with their primitive bows, the arrows of which must just bounce off mastodon hide. There are rumours, Gage, that the great beasts might still survive in the west. Is it possible that where civilisation has not penetrated, the giant beasts of the past might still exist? What a discovery to actually find one, and even to capture it and bring it back!’
‘Capture a woolly elephant?’ I was not prepared for this.
‘Or at least sketch one.’ He pushed his bowl aside. ‘Let’s talk business.’ Our congenial host had revealed a new briskness. ‘You might expect me to be cautious about your proposal to look for Norse ancestry, but in fact I’m intrigued by it. Here is an opportunity for all of us. I can help you two look for whatever artefact you’re after, and you can look for my elephants, plus any other natural wonders you might encounter. Magnus,’ Jefferson said, turning to my companion, ‘you’ve come to America to look for signs of Norse exploration, correct?’
‘Aye. I believe my people came here in medieval times to found a utopian community and might possibly have left things of value,’ my companion said with the enthusiasm one gives to a newly discovered soul mate. Having braced for scepticism, he was looking at Jefferson with delight. ‘Ethan, who is an expert in ancient mysteries, has agreed to help me. This would mean a great deal to the pride of my people and perhaps inspire them to seek our own independence from Denmark. From the cradle of liberty I can carry liberty, perhaps.’
‘The ideals of America may infect the world and bring fear to tyrants everywhere, from the czars of the steppes to the pasha of Tripoli.’
‘I have a group, Forn Sior, dedicated to this goal. You’ve heard of it?’
‘“Old Custom”? It really exists?’ The president seemed to know more about Bloodhammer’s group and mission than I did. ‘Why am I surprised? Look at Ethan here, always embroiled in the thick of things. I want you to see the elephant, Gage. I want you to prove it exists.’
I cleared my throat. ‘You support, then, the idea of our going west?’ I’d rather hoped he’d prohibit the entire idea and send me back to Paris.
‘What wonders must lie between the Mississippi and the Pacific!’ Jefferson had the dreamy tone of one who’d never been beyond the Blue Ridge, did his exploring in atlases, and would be pressed to camp in his own yard. If I sound a little cynical, well, I’d been hard-used the past three years. ‘All kind of strange creatures could be out there, rivaling the menagerie already found. There are also rumours of odd volcanoes far up the Missouri. There has been speculation about vast mountains of salt. Not to mention more conventional prizes, such as waterways to cross the continent and furs to supply our commerce. We’ve found the mouth of the Columbia, gentlemen; now we must find its beginning! Geographers speculate it is but a short portage from the source of the Missouri to the source of the Columbia.’
I didn’t like the prospect of volcanoes any more than room-sized mammoths. ‘So you want Magnus and me to find the headwaters?’ I tried to confirm.
‘Actually, I hope to send young Lewis here on an expedition to answer what lies between the oceans. Captain Lewis is my protégé, a lad – well, you’re twenty-six now, aren’t you? – who grew up about ten miles from Monticello and for the last six years has served with the First Infantry Regiment, attaining the rank of captain. I have every confidence in him. But I must persuade Congress to finance an expedition. Plus, there’s a little matter of boundaries and empires. The Spanish stand in our way.’
Here I could earn my dinner. ‘Actually, sir, it is the French.’
Jefferson beamed. ‘Then that rumour is true as well! This is an auspicious start to my presidency.’
‘According to Foreign Minister Talleyrand, a secret agreement was signed the day after the Convention of Mortefontaine conveying the Louisiana Territory back to France,’ I confirmed. ‘The French asked me to inform you. That gives Napoleon Bonaparte an empire in America as big as our own United States, but he’s not at all decided what to do with it. I’m to report back to Paris the condition of Louisiana.’
‘And report to me,’ Jefferson said. ‘We’re as keen as Napoleon. You’re the bridge between nations, Ethan Gage. You can serve Bonaparte and me at the same time. Are he and I at all alike?’
‘In curiosity,’ I assured. ‘The first consul envisions a friendly boundary along the line of the Mississippi and ready American access to the sea via New Orleans.’
‘I’m glad to hear of friendship. We’ve come near war with the Spanish. And yet I see the west beyond the Mississippi as the natural territory of the United States, not the European powers. If Russia can stretch to the Pacific, so can we. A single nation, Ethan, from Atlantic to Pacific!’
First mastodons, now this. ‘What would the United States do with all that land?’
Jefferson glanced out the west-facing windows. ‘Hard to imagine, I admit. I’ve calculated that just filling up the frontier between the Appalachians and the Mississippi will take a thousand years. Yet our population is growing. We have more than five million now, a third of Britain and a fifth of France, and we’re gaining on those nations. That’s what you must impress upon Napoleon, Gage. Mere demographics suggest American hegemony. Do not tempt him with thoughts of American empire!’
‘The French remain obsessed with the British. Talleyrand asked me to scout out their designs and enquire about alliances with the Indians.’
‘So everyone is plotting, with Louisiana as the prize. Tell me, what kind of man is Bonaparte?’