SOURCE OF ST. PETEr's RIVER. 139 



CHAPTER IV. 



Carey mission-house. Lake Michigan. Chicago. 



THE only person worthy of note, whom the party met 

 at Fort Wayne, besides those already alluded to, was Cap- 

 tain Riley, the same gentleman who has amused the 

 world by an account of his sufferings in Africa. He has 

 formed a settlement on St. Mary river, fourteen miles 

 above Fort Wayne, which he has called Willshire, in honour 

 of the British consul who redeemed him from captivity. 

 The spot which he has selected is said to be the only one 

 that affords a water-power witliin fifty miles of Fort Wayne ; 

 from which circumstance it will probably increase in im- 

 portance. The party made arrangements to cross the wil- 

 derness, of upwards of two hundred miles, which separates 

 this place from Chicago ; they fortunately met here the ex- 

 press sent from the latter place for letters, and detained 

 him as a guide. His name was Bemis, and wc have great 

 pleasure in stating, that of all the United States' soldiers who, 

 at various times, accompanied the expedition in the capa- 

 city of escort or guide, none behaved himself so much to 

 their satisfaction as this man. On the 29th of May, the 

 party left Fort Wayne, the cavalcade consisted of seven 

 persons, including the soldier, and a black servant, called 

 Andrew Allison ; there were in addition two horses loaded 

 with provisions. The first day the party travelled but 

 twenty miles, and encamped on the bank of a small stream 

 known by the name of Blue-grass ; this is the last of the tri- 

 butaries to the Mississippi which are met with in Indiana ; 

 all the streams which we crossed during the ensuing five or 



