314 EXPEDITION TO THE 



independent measures. It has been thought that, having 

 been born on the JNIississippi, and therefore within the ac- 

 tual limits of the United States, he ought not to have join- 

 ed the British during the late war. In extenuation, it ought 

 to be remembered, that he was of Canadian origin ; that all 

 the French traders have uniformly considered themselves 

 as British subjects; and that the trade upon the upper 

 Mississippi was entirely in their hands. His separation 

 or, as it has been termed, his desertion from the Hudson 

 Bay Co.'s service has also been objected to ; but we be- 

 lieve there were grounds of complaint on both sides, and 

 having heard him commended by those who were inte- 

 rested on neither side of the question, we are unwilling to 

 believe that any blame attaches to him in this transaction. 

 We found him uniformly faithful, intelligent, and as vera- 

 cious as any interpreter we ever had in our company. 



Mr. Joseph Snelling, son of the Colonel, volunteered 

 to accompany the expedition as an assistant guide and in- 

 terpreter; for which situation he had qualified himself by 

 a winter's residence among the Indians ; his services were 

 accepted. Thus reinforced, the party amounting in the 

 aggregate to thirty-three persons, took leave of the officers 

 of the garrison by whom they had been kindly received ; 

 by none more so, than by Colonel Snelling and Lieutenant 

 Nathan Clark ; who hospitably entertained the party during 

 their stay at the fort. In order to examine both the river 

 and the adjacent country, the party was divided ; Major 

 Long ascended in a boat with Messrs. Keating, Seymour, 

 and Renville. A corporal, twelve soldiers, and the black 

 boy accompanied them. The men were divided into four 

 canoes, in which the bulk of the stores and provisions was 

 embarked.* 



♦An Italian whom we met at Fort St. Anthony attached himself to 



