OCR Text |
Show 86 That there are errors in these sketches is not to be b d b t l·n all cases out of my own personal dou te ' u d tl b t 1 d I have endeavore to procure 1e es ~now e t~e which I have faithfully related ; and I am 1nforma IOn, . · confident any errors that do ~xtsthare t~o undlmd. portant to affect the object for which t ey are mten e , I am, sir, &c. (Signed) JOHN SIBLEY. (;eneralll. I>earborn. NA'l'CBl'fOCHI!.S, April 5, 1805. SECRETARY OF WAR. SIR, YOU request me to give you some account of Red river, and the country adjacent: I will endeavor to comply with your request, to the best of my know-ledge and capacity. My personal know ledge of it is S" 'N' • only from its mouth to about 70 or 80 miles above ... f 1 • ~ Natchitoches, being, by the court;e of the river, near 400 miles. After that, what I can say of it is derived ,._ t-from information from others, on whose veracity I have great reliance; principally from Mr. Francis Grappe, who is my assistant and Interpreter of Indian languages; whose father was a French officer, and superintendent of Indian affairs, at a post, or station, occupied by France, where they kept some soldiers, and had a factory, previous to the ce5sion of Louisiana to Spain, situate nearly 500 miles, by the course of the river, above Natchitoches, where he, my iuform. ant was born, and lived upward;:) of 30 ye~1rs; his time, during which, being occupied alternately as an assistant to his father, an Indian trader and hunter, with the advantage of some learning, and a very retentive memory, acquired an accurate knon:ledge of the river, as well as the languages of all the different Indian tribes in Louisiana, which, with his having been Indian interpreter for the Spanish government for many years past, and (I believe) deservedly esteemed by the Indians, and all others, a man of strict inte .. gri~y, has, for many years, and does now possess their enttre confidence, and a very extensive influence over !hem; and I have invariably found, that whatever mformation I have received from hi1n, has been confirmed by every other intelligent person, having a knowledge of the same, with whom I have conversed. |