"\'\ '' "■ 



r/IE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 



467 



nr pouches filled 

 ferent sizes ; and 

 ites the fact that 

 In a word, they 

 y in the manner 



ground, and they 

 ravvn underneath; 

 ping movements, 

 fast as forwards, 

 culty in replacing 

 tnd you may see 

 5 for a minute or 

 verely, and do not 

 or assailants with 

 [1 they fight among 

 nose in the manner 

 , the slow walk of a 

 on the rump, using 

 L^hat like a squirrel. 

 :ath the breast, and 

 earth. They clean 

 Rats, Squirrels, etc. 

 ;r drank anything, 

 \ them on potatoes, 

 lonstantly to make 

 |but in vain. They 

 "tc, and the rascals 

 [o bits, so that I was 

 td. In one instance 

 washerwoman, and, 

 pieces, one of the 

 lb, with fortunately 

 ,ung on till I shook 

 ,r, where it lay as i( 

 well as ever in less 



than half an hour. They gnawed the leather straps of my 

 trunks during the night, and although I rose frequently to 

 stop their work, they would begin anew as soon as I was 

 in bed again. I wrote and sent most of the above to 

 John Bachman from St. Louis, after I had finished my 

 drawing of four figures of these most strange and most 

 interesting creatures. 



And now to return to this day: When we reached 

 Glasgow, we came in under the stern of the *' John Auld." 

 As I saw several officers of the United States army I 

 bowed to them, and as they all knew that I was bound 

 towards the mighty Rocky Mountains, they not only re- 

 turned my salutations, but came on board, as well as 

 Father de Smet.^ They all of them came to my room 

 and saw specimens and skins. Among them was Captain 

 Clark,'^ who married the sister of Major Sandford, whom 

 you all know. They had lost a soldier overboard, two 

 had deserted, and a fourth was missing. We proceeded 

 on until about ten o'clock, and it was not until the 2d of 

 May that we actually reached Independence. 



May 2. It stopped raining in the night while I was 



i sound asleep, and at about one o'clock we did arrive at 



Independence, distant about 379 miles from St. Louis.^ 



[Here again was the "John Auld," putting out freight for 



I the Santa F6 traders, and we saw many of their wagons. 



' P. J. de Smet, the Jesuit priest, well known for his missionary labors 

 I among various tribes of Indians in the Rocky Mountains, on the Columbia 

 1 River, and in other parts of the West. His work entitled " Oregon Missions 

 land Travels over the Rocky Mountains in 1845-46" was published in New 

 I York by Edward Dunigan in 1847. On p. 39 of this book will be found 

 Imentlon of the journey Father de Smet was taking in 1843, when met by 

 lAudubon. — E. C. 



' Captain Clark of the U. S. A. 



• The distance of Independence from the mouth of the Missouri is abont 

 I376 miles by the Commission charts. In 1843 this town was still, as it 



I had been, the principal point of departure from the river on the 

 iSanta Yi caravan route. Trains starting hence went through Westport, 

 iMo., and so on into the " Indian Territory." — E. C. 



