468 AUDUBON 



Of course I exchanged a hand-shake with Father de 

 Smet and many of the officers I had seen yesterday. 

 Mr. Meeks, the agent of Colonel Veras, had 148 pounds 

 of tow in readiness for us, and I drew on the Chouteaux 

 for ^30.20, for we were charged no less than \2\ to 25 

 cts. per pound; but this tow might have passed for fine 

 flax, and I was well contented. We left the "Auld," 

 proceeded on our way, and stopped at Madame Chouteau's 

 plantation, where we put out some freight for Sir William 

 Stuart. The water had been two feet deep in her house, 

 but the river has now suddenly fallen about six feet. At 

 Madame Chouteau's I saw a brother of our friend Pierre 

 Chouteau, Senr., now at New York, and he gave me some 

 news respecting the murder of Mr. Jarvis. About twenty 

 picked men of the neighborhood had left in pursuit of the 

 remainder of the marauders, and had sent one of their 

 number back, with the information that they had remained 

 not two miles from the rascally thieves and murderers. 

 I hope they will overtake them all, and shoot them on 

 the spot. We saw a few Squirrels, and Bell killed two 

 Parrakeets. 



May 3. We ran all last night and reached Fort Leav- 

 enworth at six this morning. We had an early break- 

 fast, as we had intended to walk across the Bend; but 

 we found that the ground was overflowed, and that the 

 bridges across two creeks had been carried away, and 

 reluctantly we gave up our trip. I saw two officers who 

 came on board, also a Mr. Ritchie. The situation of the 

 fort is elevated and fine, and one has a view of the river 

 up and down for some distance. Seeing a great number 

 of Parrakeets, we went after them ; Bell killed one. Un- 

 fortunately my gun snapped twice, or I should have killed 

 several more. We saw several Turkeys on the ground 

 and in the trees early this morning. On our reaching 

 the landing, a sentinel dragoon came to watch that no 

 one tried to escape. 



