34 INSTRUCTIONS TO LIEUTENANTS GROVER AND MULLAN. 



No. 5. 



FORT BEXTON, UPPER MISSOURI, 



September 5, 1853. 



DEAR SIR: With a select party of seven men and sixteen animals, you are assigned to the 

 duty of reconnoitring the Blackfoot trail to the St. Mary s village, and of the route from that 

 point to the Kootenaies post. You will then return to this point and make the survey of the 

 upper Missouri, from the Falls, to connect with Lieutenant Donelson s survey, which extended 

 some distance above Fort Union. You will then return from Fort Union, and reconnoitre the 

 country between the Milk and Missouri rivers. At Fort Benton you will get up a dog train 

 and cross the mountains in the winter, make the best of your way to Puget sound, and report 

 to me at Oiympia. 



In the reconnaissance to the St. Mary s village observe carefully camping grounds, the general 

 practicability of the route for wagons, the particular difficulties, and how they are to be over 

 come, and send back by two of your voyageurs, H. Beaubien and Cadotte, a report in relation to 

 the same instructing them to deliver the report to myself or the officer in charge of the main 

 train. Also give information as to whether a depot has been established by Lieutenant Saxton 

 at the Flathead village, and the provisions and animals in store there. 



The object in going to the Kootenaies post is two-fold : First, to open the communication with 

 Captain McClellan; and second, to open a connexion with the Hudson s Bay posts, in order to 

 draw upon them for supplies for the prosecution of the survey west of the mountains, in the 

 event Lieutenant Saxton has failed to establish a depot at the St. Mary s village. 



Upon your return I shall be able to give some general instructions in relation to the survey 

 of the Missouri and the remaining work assigned to you. 



It is important that I should meet Captain McClellan at the St. Mary s village, about the 

 25th of September. If practicable, get word to him to this effect. 



Truly yours, 



ISAAC I. STEVENS, 

 Governor of Washington Territory, in Command of Exploration, 



Lieut. C. GROVER, 



4:th Artillery, U. S. Army, Fort Benton, Upper Missouri. 



After the above letter was written 



NOTE. Very full verbal instructions were given to Lieutenant Grover, that should he meet 

 Lieutenant Saxton, either on the way or at St. Mary s, to return immediately and apprize me 

 of such fact. In case Lieutenant Saxton had not established the depot at St. Mary s, he Avas to 

 push forward to the Kootenaies post, and from that point fit out, by the assistance of the Hud 

 son s Bay Company, an express with a note to Captain McClellan, asking him, if practicable, to 

 meet me on the 25th September, at the village of St. Mary s. After which Lieutenant Grover 

 was to return at once to Fort Benton. 



No. 0. 



FORT BENTON, UPPER MISSOURI, 



September 8, 1853. 



DEAR SIR: With a select party, consisting of the Piegan guide, (the White Crane,) Mr. Rose, 

 Mr. Burr, and two voyageurs, you will visit the Flathead camp, on the Muscle Shell river, 

 about one hundred miles south of this place; and procuring the most intelligent and reliable 

 Flathead guides, you will make your way to the St. Mary s village, exploring the best pass to 

 that point from the headwaters of the Missouri river. You will collect every possible inform 

 ation as to routes, streams, prominent land-marks, and characteristic features of country; 



