140 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Lewis and Clarke,* who ascended the river in 1804, mention the village as 

 follows : " On the 13th we passed a bend of the river and two creeks on the north 

 called the Round Bend Creeks, f Between these two creeks is the prairie in which 

 once stood the ancient village of the Missouris. Of this village there remains no 

 vestige, nor is there anything to recall this great and numerous nation except a 

 feeble remnant of about thirty families. Opposite the plain there was an island 

 and a French fort, but there is now no appearance of either, the successive inun- 

 dations having probably washed them away, as the willow island which is in the 

 situation described by Du Pratz is small and of recent formation." 



Mr. John Bradbury,| an English traveler who ascended the Missouri in 181 1, 

 says in his book under date of April 2,1811: " We this day passed the site of a 

 village on the northeast side of the river, once belonging to the Missouri tribe. 

 Four miles above it are the remains of Fort Orleans, formerly belonging to the 

 French. It is 240 miles from the mouth of the Missouri." There seems to be a 

 discrepancy between the statements of Mr. Bradbury and those of Lewis and 

 Clarke as to the remains of the fort. I do not believe that there could have been 

 as late as 181 1 any traces of its former existence visible, neither do I think it was 

 located four miles above the village. Lewis and Clarke, following Du Pratz, 

 expected to find the island on which it stood directly opposite the site of the vil- 

 lage. Du Pratz was never up the Missouri, and had no personal knowledge of 

 the position of the fort. I infer that he intended to convey the idea that the 

 island was near the Missouris rather than directly opposite to them. About eight 

 miles by the river course, down stream from the old village, there is now and has 

 been ever since the country was surveyed by the Government, a large island, and 

 on this I believe Fort Orleans was situated. 



Mr. H. M. Breckenridge, § who ascended the Missouri river in iSii, gives 

 in his journal a table of distances from the mouth of the Missouri, and at 236 

 miles he says : "Ancient village of the Missouri Indians, near which formerly 

 stood Fort Orleans." 



The foregoing extracts, I think, show conclusively that the Missouris were 

 located about 240 miles up the Missouri river from its mouth, and that Fort 

 Orleans was in their immediate vicinity. The erection of Fort Orleans has been 

 ascribed by some writers |1 to the fears of the French awakened by the Spanish 

 expedition of 17 19, which was destroyed by the Missouris. This could not have 

 been the cause. Information of that expedition did not reach New Orleans until 



'•'Lewis and Clarke, History of the Expedition to the Sources of the Missouri, etc. Paul Allen edition, 2 

 vols : Philadelphia, 1814. 



fNow called Palmer's Creek, after a noted character in the early history of Grand River Valley, who once 

 resided near it. 



JTravels in the Interior of America, 1809, 1810, 1811, with a Description of Upper Louisiana. By John 

 Bradbury: Liverpool, 1817. 



jViews of Louisiana, with a Journal of a Voyage up the Missouri river in 1811. By H. M. Breckenridge : 

 Pittsburg, Pa. , 1814. 



|[Notably Stoddard in his Sketches of Louisiana, published at Philadelphia in 1812, and whose ideas have 

 been copied by succeeding writers. 



