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Show 30 APPENDIX TO PART II. On the 1Oth, about noon, I passed the Grand Saline, or th~ Newsc<tukefonga, which is a reddish color, thou~;h its watet' is very clear. About two days march up this rirer, you find the prairie gr.tss on the S. \V. side incrusted with salt, and on theN. E. bnnk, fresh water sprin~s, ancl lakes abounding with fish. This salt the Arkansaw Osa~es, obtain by scrapinr~ it oil' of the prairie with a turkey's wing into ~ wooden trencher. The rivet· does not dcri,·c its name from its saline properties, but the quantities that may ahvay~ be fo1md on its banks, and is at all seasons of the year potable. On the 20th m the aftcmoon, we passed another saline with water cr1u tlly as red a tile .N'ewu'<uketonga, and more strongly im· prcgnatec! with s<dt. After ctH·ountcring every hardship, to which a voyage is subject in small canoes, at so inclen1cnt a season of the yc~11·, I arrived on the 23d inst. in a storm of hail and snow, at the wintering camp of Cashescgra, or" Big Track," chief of the Osag-es, who reside on Verdigric;,c rivet·s. On the following clay I gave him your talk, and received his reply, which it is untwccssa.t·y to recou11t fully, as it was merely a description of his porcrty and misct·able situation. He howe\'et· said, that he had been infornted, the United States in4 tended erecting- factories, on the Osage river, and that he was anxious to have one ncar to his own villa~c, and for the purpose, he was willing to give the United States the tract of country lying between the V crdigrise and Grand rivers. A factory "ith a garrison of troops stationed there, would answer the double purpose of keeping jn 01 clcr those Indians, who urc the most desperate and profligate part of the whole nation, and more fullr impressing them with an idea of our consequence, and g:1ining more fmnly their friendship. It also would tend to presct·vc harmony among the Ch.tctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, and Os<~ges of the tht ee difl'ercnt villages, who arc in a constant state of warfare, and further it would pt·erent the Osag-es making excursions into the country of the poor and peaceably disposed Cacldoes, and mi~ht have some efT'ect in confining the arliards to their own territorial limits. On the 27th I passed the rnouths of the V crdigrise and Grand rivers, the formct· being about a 1tUndrcd, <mel the latter one hundred ~ntl thirty yards wide; those streams enter within a quarter of a mile of each oth er. Below the mouth of Grand rivet·, commence the r~,pids, which cqntinue for several hundred miles down the Ar· / About 58 or 60 miles up the Verdigrise, is situate the Osage i llagc. This band some four or five years since, were led hy tlw APPENDIX TO PART II. 31 chief Cashesegra, to the waters of the At·kansaw, at the J'e<'lucst of Pierre Chouteau, for the purpose of secunng their trade. J'hc exclusi-ve tmdr of the Osage 1·i-ve1·, having at that time been purchased from the panish governor, by :\lanuel Lisa, of St. Louis, but though Cashcscg ra be the nominal leader; Clermont, o1· the Builder of 1'own.r;, is the greatest warrior, and most inllucntial man, and is now more firmly att:.tchcd to the intel'l'Sls of the 1\mericnns, than any other chief of the nation. He is the lawful soverL" ign of the Grand Osa~cs, but his hereditary right was usurped by Pahuska, or White .flair, whilst lern1ont was yet an inf<~nt. \Vhitc ILtir, in fact, is a chief of Chouteau's creating: as well as c,,sllcscgr.,, and neither have the powet·, ot· disposition to restrain tboi!' youn~ men fi'Om the perpetration of an impropct· act, fearing least they should render themselves unpopulat'. On the 29th I passscd a fall of ncar seven feet perpendicular, and at e\'ening was \'i~ited by a scout from an O sage war party, and received from them a m an by the name of i\l'Farlanc, who b;,<l been trapping up the P ottoe. \Vc passed ubout t~oon this day, the mouths of the rivet· des Illinois, which e11tcrs ou the N. E. s ide, and the Canadian rivc1·, which puts in from the S. \\. The latter river is the main branch of the Arkansaw, and is equally as lar.rc. On the S I st I passed the m outh of Pottoe, a dec p, though narrow stream, which puts in on the S. \V. and al~o the river au "Millieu" that enters from theN. E. On the evening of the 6th January l reached the plantation of a M1·. Labommc, and was U10I'e iuhospitably u·eated than by the savages themselves. On the 8th passed the two upper Arkansaw or Quapaw villages, and on the 9th, after passing- tlte lower quapaw town, and a settle· mcnt of Chactaws, anivcd at the post of A rkansaw. The sul'fucc of the couuu·y bet ween the Osage towns aNI the Pawnee villa;;e is generally broken anclu<l kcd; the soil sttl'ile, and abounding· with !lint and lime stones. As you approach the waters of the Kan~cs, it becomes billy ~md sandy ; the same may be said of the country between the Pa wnce village ancl the i\ r kansaw, but aftct• passing the ridge which separates the waters of the Kanses and Ar~ kansaw, the ~\ll'Ltcc becomes more J'Cgular and I·~-; <;tolley. Below the Verdig-risc, the ::;bores of the Ar k:.wswi arC' ~cne· rally lined with cane, and conscc1ncntly rich bottotn.;. f wJs iu '(wm· c~l by the Indians th,tt the conn try to the not·th west of the (}sage VIllage, abounds with valuable lead mines, but l co,tld lll<lkc 110 di:;. tovcry of any hocly of miucral. 13 , |