22 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



ouasas to the west a quarter southwest, they have a pit of rock salt. M. Dutisne 

 planted here .the royal arms, Sep, 27th, 1719, but he ran the risk of his life, for 

 this nation came near killing him at the instigation of Osages, who told them he 

 only went there to make war upon them and carry them off as slaves. He pro- 

 posed to them to go to the Padoucas, but they objected because they were 

 enemies. They told him that the Mentasf were several days journey from the 

 Osages on the southwest side." 



The meager facts concerning the Osages and Pawnees given by the writer, 

 are very acceptable, as they are the first recorded by any traveler from personal 

 observations among them. We can but regret their paucity, as it would be inter- 

 esting to know something of the manners and customs of these nations from 

 visitors at their villages, before they had become contaminated by associating 

 with the whites. At this time, the Osages had several villages on the Osage riv- 

 er, but Dutisne only gives the number of wigwams and warriors in one of them ; 

 in point of fact they were one of the most numerous tribes in the Mississippi Val- 

 ley, and remained so for a hundred years. 



From the text, it is hardly possible to locate the "pit of rock salt" or saline 

 where Dutisne raised the French standard, but I am inclined to believe that it 

 was within the present limits of the Indian Territory. From the Osages to the 

 Pawnees, it was one hundred and twenty miles to the northwest, but only thirty- 

 six miles across White river ; this would locate the Pawnees in southeastern 

 Kansas. Two day's travel in a southwesterly direction from the Pawnees, the pit 

 of rock salt was located, and this distance, I think, would bring it south of the 

 Kansas line. 



De Lisle, in his map published in 1720, locates four villages of Pawnees on 

 White river. Du Pratz, in the map accompanying his work, locates them on the 

 same river, but nearer its source. 



FORT ORLEANS. WHERE WAS IT? 



G. C. BROADHEAD. 



The Spaniards recognized the importance of the Missouri river, and that the 

 establishment of a post on that river, would tend to confine the French east of 

 the Mississippi ; with this end in view they projected a plan to conquer the Missouri 

 Indians, who then lived on the banks of the Missouri a short distance above the 

 mouth of the Kansas river, and also to plant a colony there. The Missouri 

 Indians were on friendly terms with the French. 



We are informed that a large caravan to form a colony started from Santa Fe 

 in 1720, and marched in pursuit of the Pawnee village, who at that time were at 

 war with the Missouris. Being somewhat bewildered on the route, they reached, 

 as they supposed, a Pawnee village, but which was a Missouri village. They 



'■'One 01 the Arkansas tribes, and is located on early maps near the mouth of White river. 



