FORT ORLEANS ON THE MISSOURI. 139 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 



FORT ORLEANS ON THE MISSOURI. 



JOHN P. JONES, KEYTESVILLE, MO 



The exact location of this French fort, or post, is at present unknown, and 

 acn only be determined approximately by locating as near as possible the former 

 home of the Missouris, as all the early French writers who mention it agree that 

 it was near the principal village of that tribe. 



Dumont,* one of the earHest and best of the French annalists, gives an ex- 

 tended account of the erection of the fort, but says nothing positive as to its loca- 

 tion, except that it was in the "vicinity of the Missouris." Du Pratz,t in his 

 Historic^ says : " For some time there has been a French post on an island of some 

 leagues in length opposite the Missouris. The French have established this fort 

 at the east point, and named it Fort Orleans. M. de Bourgmont has been in com- 

 mand there long enough to gain the friendship of the nations of the country near 

 this great river, and to make peace among them." 



M. Bossu, a Captain in the French service, who published two volumes of 

 travels in Louisiana, J mentions the fort as being near the Missouris. In another 

 place he says: "Baron Parneuf, who has been Governor at Fort Orleans, estab- 

 lished in the nation of Missouris, and who knows the nation well, has informed 

 me that they were formerly very warHke, etc." 



From these quotations it will be seen that the fort was unquestionably located 

 near the Missouris, and if we can determine their location, we shall be able to 

 very nearly establish the position of the fort. M. Dutisne, of the Kaskaskias, who 

 visited the Missouris in 17 19, says in his letter to Bienville§ narrating the trip: 

 "It is eighty leagues to the. village of the Missouris by the river of that name." 



Father Charlevoix, one of the best informed of the early writers on Louis- 

 iana, says in his journal under date of October 20, 1721 : "I have just now seen 

 a Missouri woman, who told me that her nation was the first we meet going up 

 the Missouri. It is situated eighty leagues from the confluence of that river with 

 the Mississippi." 



Eighty leagues would make the location of the village, or home, of the Mis- 

 souris near the present mouth of Grand River, in Chariton county, and travelers 

 who ascended the Missouri in the early part of the present century corroborate the 

 statements of M. Dutisne and Father Charlevoix. 



♦Historical Memoirs of Louisiana. By M. Dumont, 2 vols. : Paris, 1753, 

 fHistory de la Louisiana. By Le Page Du Pratz, 3 vols.: Paris, 1758. 



JNew Voyages, etc , containing a relation of the different people which inhabit the environs of the Grand 

 River St. Louis, generally called Mississippi, etc., 2 vols. By M. Bc.'su, Captain in the Marines: Paris, 1768. 

 ^Historical Journal of the establishment of French in Louisiana. By Bernard de La Harpe : Paris, 1831. 



