Rocky Mountains. 307 



They were now thirty-seven in number, aside from the 

 officers, and were furnished with a supply of flour sufficient 

 for nine months' provision. On the 2nd June, they left 

 Natchitoches and proceeded towards their destination. The 

 journal of their tour, by Mr. Freeman, which has been obli- 

 gingly put into our hands by Gen. D. Parker, is extremely 

 circumstantial, and embraces much valuable information. 

 We make use of it without particular reference whenever we 

 have occasion to speak of that cart of Red river explored by 

 the party. On the 7th of June, they were overtaken near a 

 small village of Natchitoches and Paskagoulas, by an Indian 

 guide and interpreter, whom they had hired at Natchitoches. 

 H§ brought a letter from Dr. Siblt^y, the Indian agent, giving 

 information that a considerat)Ie body of Spanish troops were 

 already on their marcH from Nacogdoches, with a design to 

 intercept the exploring party. At the distance of one hun- 

 dred and two miles above Natchitoches, they left the bed of 

 the river turning out through one of those numerous com- 

 munications called bayous, which connect the principal chan- 

 nel with those lateral chains of lakes, pools, swamps, and 

 marshes, which extend along the sides of the valley. Their 

 design, in leaving the river, was to avoid that singular ob- 

 struction to the navigation, called the Great Ra^^t, having 

 been informed by Mr. Toolan, an old and respectable 

 French inhabitant, that it would be impossible for them to 

 pass through it. They had already encountered three simi- 

 lar obstructions, through which they had made their way with 

 extreme toil, by loosening and floating out, the logs and trunks 

 of trees, that had been piled upon each other in such numbers 

 as to fill the bed of the river from the bottom, usually at the 

 depth of thirty feet, and rising three or four feet above the 

 surface of the water. 



The Bayou Datche, as the part of the river is called into 

 which they entered, conducted them to a beautiful lake 



