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Historian Patrick Spero shares the story of André Michaux, one of the most accomplished scientific explorers of North America before Lewis and Clark.

Michaux's work took him from the Bahamas to Hudson Bay, and it is likely that no contemporary of his had seen as much of the continent. But in 1793, Michaux found himself thrust into the middle of a vast international conspiracy when the revolutionary French government conscripted him as a secret agent and tasked him with organizing American frontiersmen to attack Spanish-controlled New Orleans, seize control of Louisiana, and establish an independent republic in the American West.