34 
INSTRUCTIONS TO LIEUTENANTS GROYER AND MULLAN. 
No. 5. 
Fort Benton, Upper Missouri, 
September 5, 1853. 
Dear Sir: With a select party of seven men and sixteen animals, you are assigned to the 
duty of reconnoitring the Blackfoot trail to the St. Mary’s village, and of the route from that 
point to the Ivootenaies post. You will then return to this point and make the survey of the 
upper Missouri, from the Falls, to connect with Lieutenant Donelson’s survey, which extended 
some distance above Fort Union. You will then return from Fort Union, and reconnoitre the 
country between the Milk and Missouri rivers. At Fort Benton you will get up a dog train 
and cross the mountains in the winter, make the best of your way to Puget sound, and report 
to me at Olympia. 
In the reconnaissance to the St. Mary’s village observe carefully camping grounds, the general 
practicability of the route for wagons, the particular difficulties, and how they are to be over¬ 
come, and send back by two of your voyageurs, II. Beaubien and Cadotte, a report in relation to 
the same—instructing them to deliver the report to myself or the officer in charge of the main 
train. Also give information as to whether a depot has been established by Lieutenant Saxton 
at the Flathead village, and the provisions and animals in store there. 
The object in going to the Kootenaies post is two-fold: First, to open the communication with 
Captain McClellan; and second, to open a connexion with the Hudson’s Bay posts, in order to 
draw upon them for supplies for the prosecution of the survey west of the mountains, in the 
event Lieutenant Saxton has failed to establish a depot at the St. Mary’s village. 
Upon your return I shall be able to give some general instructions in relation to the survey 
of the Missouri and the remaining work assigned to you. 
It is important that I should meet Captain McClellan at the St. Mary’s village, about the 
25th of September. If practicable, get word to him to this effect. 
Truly yours, 
ISAAC I. STEVENS, 
Governor of Washington Territory , in Command of Exploration. 
Lieut. C. Grover, 
4 th Artillery , U. S. Army , Fort Benton , Upper Missouri. 
After the above letter was written— 
Note. —Very full verbal instructions were given to Lieutenant Grover, that should he meet 
Lieutenant Saxton, either on the way or at St. Mary’s, to return immediately and apprize me 
of such fact. In case Lieutenant Saxton had not established the depot at St. Mary’s, he was to 
push forward to the Ivootenaies post, and from that point fit out, by the assistance of the Hud¬ 
son’s Bay Company, an express with a note to Captain McClellan, asking him, if practicable, to 
meet me on the 25th September, at the village of St. Mary’s. After which Lieutenant Grover 
was to return at once to Fort Benton. 
No. 6. 
Fort Benton, Upper Missouri, 
September 8, 1853. 
Dear Sir: With a select party, consisting of the Piegan guide, (the White Crane,) Mr. Bose, 
Mr. Burr, and two voyageurs, you will visit the Flathead camp, on the Muscle Shell river, 
about one hundred miles south of this place; and procuring the most intelligent and reliable 
Flathead guides, you will make your way to the St. Mary’s village, exploring the best pass to 
that point from the headwaters of the Missouri river. You will collect every possible inform¬ 
ation as to routes, streams, prominent land-marks, and characteristic features of country; 
