June 9. I went to Mr. Lander’s camp, and examined the crossing, which I find to be practicable, and the work well done.
June 10. I returned to Lieutenant Grover’s camp, which was beautifully situated on the north bank of the Osakis or Sauk River, about two miles from its mouth. The grass was indifferent and backward, but, with half rations of oats, abundant for the animals; water excellent. In honor of the Secretary of War, we named it Camp Davis. Lieutenant Du Barry arrived this afternoon with his party, as did the small trains of Doty and Simpson. A very severe thunderstorm, with heavy rain for about five hours, occurred at night, amounting in the rain-gauge to 6.1 inches.
My acquaintance with the voyageurs, thus far, has impressed me favorably. They are thorough woodsmen, and just the men for prairie life also, going into the water as pleasantly as a spaniel, and remaining there as long as needed; stout, able-bodied, and willing to put their shoulders to the wheel whenever necessary; no slough or bog deters them.
Camp Davis, two miles west of the Mississippi River,
June 10, 1853.
My dearest Wife,—We are getting on finely. Camp Pierce was broken up on Monday, and in five days we have gone up the river seventy miles, and the bulk of the party is now west of the Mississippi. Yesterday I rode forward twenty-six miles to the crossing of the Sauk River to make arrangements for the advance of the civil engineer party. I had previously traveled rapidly from St. Anthony to Sauk Rapids in a carriage, passing all the parties on the road. It was a beautiful ride all the way, and I had a most interesting companion in Pierre Boutineau, the great guide and voyageur of Minnesota. He is famous as a buffalo-hunter, is a Chippewa half-breed, and surpasses all of his class in truthfulness and great intelligence. Not only is he experienced in all the vicissitudes of travel and frontier life, being the hero of many interesting events, but he has the broadness of view of an engineer, and I am confident he will be of the greatest service to us in finding our way. At the Falls of St. Anthony, where he resides, he is greatly esteemed, and is known throughout the Territory. I breakfasted with him Monday morning, and was delighted with the affection and respect with which he inspired his whole household. There was his old Indian mother; his four children by his first wife, a half-breed; his second wife and babe; his sister; his brother and wife; and the wife of an absent brother. We all sat down to a breakfast of two roasted sucking-pigs, eggs, beefsteak, etc. He is a natural gentleman, and in his family I saw exhibited the most refined and courteous manners.
He drove a pair of very spirited horses, and on the road, seeing some plover, he called them to him and shot one. He understands, as Mr. Sibley in Washington told me, everything from shooting a bird or paddling a canoe to hunting buffalo, and conducting a large party through a long extent of difficult country. I have also secured Menoc, the best hunter of the Territory. He joins the party to-morrow, and will in ten days be able to supply us with deer and elk.
June 12. Messrs. Osgood and Kendall reached camp this morning with the barometers and india-rubber boats. At St. Louis I was telegraphed that many of the barometers had been broken, and they could not be supplied short of New York. They were absolutely indispensable. I sent Mr. Kendall there immediately, and in thirty days the boats and instruments were made and brought to my camp, eighty miles on our way. Mr. Everett also arrived about noon to-day. I regretted to observe that many of his animals were in very bad condition. Of our whole number some forty were disabled, and eight or ten so much so as to give very little hope that they could do any further service. I refused, however, to sell even these to the many applicants who expressed a willingness to take them off our hands below the cost of purchase. Assembling both officers and men to-day, I caused to be read the camp regulations, which I had prepared for the government of the party, and made a short address, in which I informed them that every man would be expected to look to the safety of his comrades; that all alike, whether soldier or civilian, would be expected to stand guard, and in case of difficulties to meet them promptly. I exaggerated the difficulties which lay before us, and represented that the country through which they would pass was intersected by bogs, marshes, and deep morasses; that rivers were to be forded and bridged, mountains and valleys to be crossed; that the first one hundred and eighty miles of the journey was reported to be through a continuous marsh, barely practicable, where every man would have to go through mud and water and apply his shoulders to the wheel; that in ten days we would reach the Indian country, where heavy guard duty would have to be performed to protect property and preserve lives; that still farther on we would probably be compelled to force our way through the country of the Blackfoot Indians, a tribe proverbially treacherous and warlike, that then the snows of the mountains would have to be overcome, and that every man would be expected to follow wherever he might be led; that no one would be sacrificed, nor would any one be subjected to any risk which I would not freely incur; and that whoever was not willing to coöperate with us had better at once retire. After these remarks the camp regulations were read by Mr. Kendall, and my views were cordially approved. I dispatched Lieutenant Grover with a picked party of fifteen men, with instructions to reconnoitre the country north, and in the vicinity of White Bear Lake.
June 13. Continuing the project of sending off the train in detached parties, and thus gradually breaking up the camp, much of the day was spent in preparing a party to be placed in charge of Dr. Suckley. All was effected by four P.M., when his party, consisting of Belland the guide, Menoc the hunter, a cook, Corporal Coster, and two dragoons, with two led horses and two led mules, two men in charge of them, Belland’s riding horse, and a Pembina cart in charge of Henry Boulieau, started from camp. He was instructed to follow Lieutenant Grover’s trail in easy marches, looking carefully to his animals, and paying particular attention to the collections in natural history.
To-day I issued an order creating assimilated rank in the expedition, by which certain gentlemen of the party were appointed to the grade of lieutenant, and others to the grade of non-commissioned officer, for convenience in detailing guard. By this course the relative position of each man was fixed; and, whether in the main or detached parties, it was known whose duty it was to give orders in case of necessity. Military organization is in some degree indispensable, and the idea of an escort has been entirely abandoned. All are soldiers in the performance of guard duty, and the soldiers accompanying us are on fatigue duty, and not merely to escort us by day and to stand guard at night. Several of the Pembina carts purchased by Dr. Borup arrived in camp to-day. They are made entirely of wood, having no iron at all about them, very roughly constructed, and the wheels usually wrapped with rawhide or buffalo skin in place of an iron tire, to prevent their cutting through the marshy ground so extensive between here and Pembina. They are drawn by horses, oxen, or mules, one person usually driving from two to six carts, and when loaded they will carry from six to eight hundred pounds. They look as if made for only one trip, and the creaking of the wheels on the wooden axle does not give the idea of their standing much service. Their first appearance, to those of the party unaccustomed to the sight, with the oxen harnessed in them, caused much merriment, and as they moved over the prairie, the singular noise produced by their wheels assured us that, with such an accompaniment, no need existed for any musical instrument or players, for these discoursed most sweetly.
“There is no such thing as an escort to this expedition. Each man is escorted by every other man,” begins this order. It required each man habitually to go armed; arms to be inspected morning and evening; no march on Sundays, on which days thorough inspection of persons and things to be made, and each man to bathe his whole person; each member of the scientific corps to take care of his own horse, and to take from and place in the wagons his own personal baggage; no firing on the march; personal baggage reduced to twenty-five pounds per man. By the strict enforcement of these stringent but salutary regulations, and the extreme care with which all were required to treat the animals, Governor Stevens conducted the entire expedition without the loss of a man, save one who shot himself by accident, and the animals actually improved on the march.