[140] The Kansas River and its tributaries drain most of the state of the same name. It heads in the prairies of eastern Colorado, and joins the Missouri at the point where the latter enters the State of Missouri. It is still sometimes called the Kaw. The name appears in various forms on early French maps—as Cans, Rivière des Kancés, Rivière des Quans, etc.— Ed.
[141] The Little Platte (which the French called Petite Rivière Platte, or Little Shallow River), rises in southern Iowa and flows south to its confluence with the Missouri in Platte County. Its mouth is now opposite Diamond Island, for the channels of the two rivers have, in their shifting, been brought together several miles above the old confluence. The abandoned lower channel is still visible.
Diamond Island is near the Kansas side of the Missouri, on the line between Leavenworth and Wyandotte counties.
When Lewis and Clark passed this spot in 1804, the two smaller islands of the group called Three Islands had but recently appeared. They are opposite the mouth of Nine Mile Creek, five or six miles below Leavenworth. The principal member of the group is Spar Island.
The Four Islands are in front of Leavenworth, and one of the largest has the same name as the city.—Ed.
[142] Isle au Vache (Isle des Vaches, Isle de Vache, Buffalo Island), now Cow Island, is on the line between Atchison and Leavenworth counties.
Wyly Martin, a Tennesseean, had been captain in the 3d Rifle regiment at the close of the War of 1812-15, and after an honorable discharge in 1815, had been reinstated the same year. He was transferred to the 6th Infantry in 1821, and resigned two years later.
Lewis and Clark note the site of the Kansa village and French fort. The former stood in a valley between two high elevations, and the latter was on another elevation a mile in the rear. They found few traces of the village, but there remained the general outline of the fortifications and some ruins of chimneys. It was near this spot that Fort Leavenworth was established, in 1827. See Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 37.—Ed.
[143] For the early history of the Kansa, see Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 37.—Ed.
[144] White Plume became the chief of the tribe, and some fifteen years later was still in power. Catlin, in North American Indians (London, 1866), ii, p. 23, described him as urbane and hospitable, and of portly build.—Ed.