[90] For this trader and his post, see our volume xxii, p. 257, note 210.—Ed.
[91] See our volume xxii, p. 253, note 204, for the persons and places mentioned in this paragraph.—Ed.
[92] The eastern boundary of the Indian country, which was also the western boundary of Missouri, consisted of a line running directly north and south through the middle of the channel of the mouth of Kansas River. In 1824 commissioners were appointed to survey the western and southern line of Missouri, and in 1830 this was adopted as the boundary of the Western Territory (see our volume xxi (Wyeth), p. 50, note 31). This boundary is, however, nearly thirty miles (by the river) below Fort Leavenworth. Probably Maximilian confused this with the boundary of Fort Leavenworth military reservation.
The treaty of 1832 with the Kickapoo tribe arranged for their removal to a tract southwest of the Missouri, situated about Fort Leavenworth; see Indian Treaties (Washington, 1837), pp. 532-535.
Major Morgan was not the military officer who accompanied Long's expedition, referred to by Maximilian, ante (our volume xxii, p. 260). The one here mentioned was a trader and early settler near Fort Leavenworth—probably Alexander G. Morgan, who in 1831 was postmaster at the fort.—Ed.
CHAPTER XXXI
VOYAGE FROM THE CANTONMENT OF LEAVENWORTH TO PORTSMOUTH, ON THE MOUTH OF THE OHIO RIVER, FROM MAY 18TH TO JUNE 20TH
Little Platte River—William's Ferry—The Mormons, a Religious Sect—St. Charles—Land Journey to St. Louis—Residence there—The Indian Barrows—Mouth of the Ohio—New Harmony—Journey to Vincennes and Louisville on the Ohio—Cincinnati—Portsmouth.
On the afternoon of the 18th of May, I left the Cantonment of Leavenworth amid a very heavy rain, which continuing on the 19th I lay-to, and made my people light a fire on shore, to warm themselves, and dry their clothes. As soon as we had left Little Platte River, I observed numerous isolated settlements, from which others had taken their rise. At Portage l'Independence, I saw Mr. Soublette, who had been ill for some time.[93] As I had very recently visited his trading post on the upper Missouri, I was enabled to give him the most recent intelligence respecting it. He has always been engaged in the fur trade; in the first instance, in opposition to the American Fur Company; subsequently, however, in connection with it; he was now waiting for the steam-boat, Oto,[94] intending to go by it to St. Louis.
About five o'clock we reached the landing-place of Liberty, but I did not make any stay there. Descoteaux here fell in with one of his acquaintances, a Canadian beaver hunter, and begged permission to leave me; I did not wish to detain the man, and accordingly set him on shore with all his furs and skins. At nightfall we came to a settlement called William's Ferry, or Charaton-Scatty; here, on the northern bank, we lay-to for the night, under shelter of a lofty umbrageous forest.[95] We passed the 20th on the same spot, our boat having received some injury, and we accordingly had it repaired; at the same time we caused our effects to be dried, as they had been thoroughly drenched by the rain.