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Show • • 28th CoNGREss, 2d ,S'ession. • rro Colonel J. J. AnEnT, [SENATE.] [ 174 J l{ E P 0 R 'f . WA HINGTON, llfarch 1, 1843. CltiPf of t!te Corps of 1'opog1·apltical Rngineers: Sm: Agreeably to your orders to explore a11d report upou tho country between the frontiers of :Missouri and tlte ~outh Pa sin t!Je Rocky mountains, and on the line of the Kansas and Great Platte rivers, I sat out from \Vashington city on the 2d day of .1\Iay, 1 12, a11d arrived at t. Loui ·,by way of New York, the .22d of May, where the necessary preparations wer completed, and the expeditioll coullnenced. 1 proceeded in a steamboat to Chouteau s Jandi11g, about four hundred miles by water from St. Louis, and near the mouth of the Kansas river, whence we procecued twelve miles to Mr. Cypriau Chouteau s tradiug IJOusc, where we completod our fi.ual arrangements for the expedition. Bad weather, which iu terfercd witl1 astro11owica I o hservations, ucla yed us several day::; i11 the early part of June at this post, w!Jicll is on the right bauk of tile Kawms river, about ten rniles above the mouth, and six beyond the western bouiH]ary of Missouri. Tile sky cleared ofi at length, and we were cuabled to determine our position, iu lo11gitude 91° 25' 46 ", and latitude 39° 5' 57". Tile elevation above the sea is about 700 feet. Our camp, in the mean time, pre~entcd au auimatcd and bustling scene. All were busily occupied in completing the 11ccc::~sary arrangement~ for our campaign in the wilderness, and profiti11g by this short delay on the v~rge of civili:tatiou, to provide ourselves with all the little csscJJtials t'J comfort -i11 the uomadic life we were to Joad for the ensuing snmmc1 • mouths. Gradually, IJOwevcr, every thing- tlw 11Utleriel oftbe camp, meu, hor ·es, alld eveu mules-settled iJJto its place, and by the lOth we were r~ady to depart; uut, before we mount our hor~es, I will give a short description of the party wJth which I performed this service. J had collected in the neighborhood of St. Louis twenty-one men, priu-cipally Creole aud Canadian vo,yugclt?·s, who had hecome familiar with / prairie life in the service of the fur companies ill the ludiau country. Mr. Charles Preus.s, a native of Germany, was my assistant in the topograplu-eal part o[ the survey. L. Maxwell, of Kaskaskia, had been eJJgaged as huutcr, and Christopher Carson (more familiarly known, for his exploits in the mountains, as Kit Carsou) was our guide. The persons engaged m St. Louis were: Clement Lambert, .J. B. L'Espcrancc, .J. B. Lefl~ vre, Benjamin Potra, Louis Gouin, J. B. Dum6s, Basil Ln.jcuuc~se, Fran ) ois Tessier, l3enjamiu Cadotte, J oscph Clf·meut, Da11iel Simonds, Leonard B 'llOit, Michel .J\IIorly, Baptiste Bemier, Ilouorc Ayot, Frau~ois Latulippe, Fran9ois Badeau, Louis Menard, Joseph Ruelle, lVloisc Chardonuais, A ugustc J anisse, Rapbael Proue. |
