152 NAREATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION, 



paniment over the water, and ever and anon guns were fired. 

 All this was done that the enemy might be apprised of the ap- 

 proach of the delegation in the boldest and most open manner. 

 It was eight or nine miles to the post, near the influx of the St. 

 Peter's, and long before we reached Col. Leavenworth's camp, which 

 occupied a high bluff, the attention of the Sioux was arrested by 

 their advance, and it was inferable from the friendly answering 

 shouts which they gave, that the mission was received with joy. 

 Although we had known nothing of the movement which pro- 

 duced the pictographic letter found on a pole at the Petite Eoche, 

 above Sac River, it was, in fact, regarded by the Dacotas as an 

 answer to that letter. And the Chippewa chief, and his followersi 

 were received with a salute by the Sioux, by whom they were 

 taken by the hand, individually, as they landed. 



Col. Leavenworth, the commanding officer, received the ex- 

 pedition in the most cordial manner, and assigned quarters for 

 the members. Gov. Cass was received with a salute due to his 

 rank. We learn that the post was established last fall. Orders 

 for this purpose were issued, as will be seen by reference to the 

 Preliminary Documents^ p. 35, early in the spring. The troops 

 destined for this purpose, were placed under the orders of Col. 

 Leavenworth, who had distinguished himself as the commander 

 of the ninth and twenty-second regiments, in the war of 1812, 

 They left Detroit in the spring (1819), and proceeding by the way 

 of Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, where garrisons were left, 

 they ascended to the mouth of the St, Peter's, in season to erect 

 cantonments before winter. The site chosen, being on the allu^ 

 vial grounds, proved unhealthy, in consequence of which the cani 

 tonment was removed, in the spring of 1820, to an eminence and 

 spring on the west bank of the Mississippi, about a mile from 

 the former position. 



