420 Life of Audubon. 



some Indians here, who came as passengers with us, and 

 I noticed that when they joined their relatives and friends, 

 they neither shook hands nor exchanged any congratula- 

 tions, I saw no emotion, nothing to corroborate Mr. 

 Catlin's views of savage life. 



" When the boat started, all these Indians followed us 

 along the shore, running on foot, and galloping on horse- 

 back to keep up with us. When we approached the next 

 landing, I saw some of these poor creatures perched on 

 the neighboring banks, while others crowded down to oui 

 landing-place. They belonged to the Iowa and Fox In- 

 dians : the two tribes number about twelve thousand, and 

 their country extends for seventy miles up the river. 



" May 8. To-day we passed the boundary of Missouri, 

 and the country consists of prairies extending back to the 

 inland hills. 



^^ May 9. This evening we arrived at the famous set- 

 tlement of Belle Vue, where the Indian agent, or custom- 

 house officer, as he might better be called, resides. Here 

 a large pack of rascally-looking, dirty, and half-starved 

 Indians awaited our arrival ; and here we paid for five 

 cords of wood, with five tin cups of sugar, and three cups 

 of coffee, all worth twenty-five cents at St. Louis. And 

 we saw here the first plowed ground we had seen since 

 leaving the settlements near St. Louis. 



^^ May 10. Arrived at Fort Croghan, named after an 

 old friend of that name, with whom I hunted raccoons on 

 his father's plantation in Kentucky, thirty-five years be- 

 fore. His father and mine were well acquainted, and 

 fought together with the great General Washington and 

 Lafayette, in the Revolutionary War against ' Merry Eng- 

 land.' The parade-ground here had been four feet under 

 water in the late freshet. 



''''May II. The officers of this post last July were 

 nearly destitute of provisions, and they sent off twenty 



