the company also planned a substantial western expedition in 1753, to be led by walker, with objectives that foreshadowed the lewis and clark expedition. james maury described the proposed trip in a 1756 letter: "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; they were to follow the river if they found it, and exact reports of the country they passed through, the distances they traveled , what worth of navigation those river and lakes afforded etc."