| OCR Text |
Show .( I) APPENDIX TO PART II. sail of the line with Jerome Bonaparte at 1\tlartinique. I consitlet· them lo~t. Your children have l>een indisposed ; but Mrs. Pike writes you. She appears well. 1\ly regards to your associates, aml may ( ~od proLCcl you. (Signed) /,icntcnant Pike. -·- [ No. 10. J J. 'VILKINSON. Camjl IndtjJcude1lcc, ncm· t/1c Osage Tu'luu s, August 28, 1806. DEAlt GENERAL, You will no doubt be much surprised to p.ercci ve by the date of this letter, that we are still here; but we have been unavoidably detained by :1 variety or circumstances. I had the happiness to t•eccive yolll' express the day or my ar· rival, the bearer having arrived the night before, and have attended particularly to its contents. On the 19th insl. I delivered yom jwrolc to the Cheveux Dlanchc, and on the 21st held a grand council of both towns, and made the necessary communications and demands for horses, on the subject of making peace with the Kans, accompanying me to the Panis, down the Arkansaw, aml if thct·e was any bra·ue enough to ac· company me the whole voyage. . They requested one day to hold council in the villages prev~ous to ~iving an answer. It was three before I received any; thcll' dctct·mination was as follows :-From the Grand Osa(Je village, or the Chcveux Blanche we arc accompanied by his son, and Jean La Fon, the second chief of the village, with some young men not known, ancl he furnishes us four horses. The Little Osage sends the brother of the chief (whom I really find to be the thit·cl chief of the villa~c) and some young men ~tn· known, and furnishes &ix horses!! This is their present promtsc, but four of the ten arc yet deficient. \ •Vith these I am m0rely capa· blc of transporting out· mct·chandise and ammunition. I shull pur· chase two more, for which I find we shall be obliged to pay extra· vagant prices. , I sincct·ely believe that the two chiefs, JVhitc Jlait· and U1 ' TViml, have exerted all thci1· influence; but it must be but littk Al'PENDIX TO PART IT . 41 when they could only procure ten horses out of seven or eight ln111• drcd. I have taken an exact survey of the rivet· to this pl::tce, notin ~~ particular streams, &c. a protracted copy of which lieutenant \Vilkinson forwards by this opportunity. Since om· an·:val here I have ascertained the variation of the compass to be 6° 30' E. the latitude, by means of several observations, 37° 26' 17" N. and by an obsct·vution of three different nights, obtained two imme1·sions of Jupitct·'s ~ate.llites, which wiJl enable us to ascertain every geog-raphical o:)jcct In VIeW. On the same night I anived ncar the village, th ere was ~ Mr. Baptist Duchouqucttc, alias Larme, with two men, in a small can.oe arrived and went immediately to the lodge of th · \Vhitc Hau·, whose conduct, with that or out· resident in terpreter, appcat·s (in my estimation) to have changed since I sent licut nant 'V.ilkinson to demand to sec Baptist's passport, if he had one : .if not, to bri~g him to camp-which was done. I dctalncd him two Jays, unul I had made an enquiry of White Hair, who said he had merely mentioned him that Labardie wa~ coming with n quantity of g?ods. Finding I could sub£tantiatc nothin~ mot·e criminal against h1m than his having entered the Indian boundaries without a pass· port, and not being able to send him back a prisoner, detained hint sufficient time to alarm him, and then took his d position (a copy of which is inclosed to the attomey-gencral), and wrote Dt·. Brown on the occasion, and requested h.im to cntet· a prosecution against these men. Bat·t·oncy infot·ms me that he has not the least doubt but-was at the bottom of this embassy, althoug·h in the name of , as aftct· the arrival of Baptist, the Indians frequently spoke of _ -and declared, if he had come he could have obtained horses plenty. Our interpreter, also (Maugrainc ), I do believe to be a perfect crcatme of : he has almost positively refused to accompany me (although I read your order on the subject), alledg-ing he Was only engaged to inteq)l'et at this place, notwithstanding he wcut last year to the Adcansaw for Ml'. Chouteau without difl!cul~y. I have not yet determined on the line of conduct to be pursued with him but believe , on 1u ·s g1· v·m g a posl· tt· vc ref·u sal, I shall usc military law.' What the result will be is uncertain; but to be thus lmlvcd by a scout~dt·et, will be lessening the dignity of out· g-ovel'l1mcnt. Tic is :ma•r ne cl ·t n t o a powerful fami· ly, and appears, next to the \,.hi t< llatr, to have the most influence in the Grand viJbge. The g-cuc r.!l |
