110 Expedition to the 



tered, and at length disappear almost entirely, the country, 

 at its sources, being one immense prairie. 



We sailed from the mouth of the Konzas on the 13th 

 of August. Numerous sandbars occur in the Missouri 

 above that point, and these occasioned us some delay. The 

 water having fallen several feet, we had less velocity of 

 current to contend against, but found it more necessary 

 to keep in the channel, and could not so often take advan- 

 tage of the eddy currents, below the points and along the 

 shore. 



A party of white hunters were encamped on the Missou- 

 ri, not far above the Konzas. In the rudeness of their de- 

 portment and dress, they appeared to us to surpass the Sava- 

 ges themselves. They are usually the most abandoned and 

 worthless among the whites, who adopt the life of wander- 

 ing hunters : frequently they are men whose crimes have 

 excluded them from society. 



Eighteen miles above the Konzas river, and five above 

 the Little Platte, is a large island, which from its 

 rhombic form, has received the name of Diamond island. 

 The principal channel is on the north side. It is difficult 

 to pass, being much obstructed by sandbars. Four miles 

 above this is a small group, called the Three Islands ; and 

 two miles further another cluster, known as the Four Isl- 

 ands, and by the French as the Isles des Pares, or Field Is- 

 lands. At each of these places, as in the neighbourhood of 

 islands generally, the navigation is difficult. 



The site of an old village of the Konzas, and the remains 

 of a fortification erected by the French, were pointed out a 

 few miles below Isle au Vache. This island, which lies 

 about one hundred miles above Fort Osage, was the win- 

 tering post of Capt. Martin's detachment, destined to pro- 

 ceed in advance of the troops ordered to the Missouri. 

 Captain Martin, with three companies of the rifle regiment, 

 left Bellefontain in September 1818, and arrived at Isle au 



