War Department, Feb. 24th, 1808.
Sir:
In answer to your letter of the 22d instant, I can with pleasure observe, that although the two exploring expeditions you have performed were not previously ordered by the president of the United States, there were frequent communications on the subject of each between General Wilkinson and this department, of which the president of the United States was from time to time acquainted; and it will be no more than what justice requires to say that your conduct, in each of those expeditions, met the approbation of the president; and that the information you obtained and communicated to the executive, in relation to the source of the Mississippi and the natives in that quarter, and the country generally, as well on the Upper Mississippi as that between the Arkansaw and the Missouri, and on the borders of the latter extensive river to its source and the country adjacent, has been considered highly interesting in a political, geographical, and historical view. And you may rest assured that your services are held in high estimation by the president of the United States; and if any opinion of my own can afford you any satisfaction, I very frankly declare that I consider the public much indebted to you for the enterprising, persevering, and judicious manner in which you have performed them.
I am, very respectfully, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
[Signed] H. Dearborn.
[Secretary at War.]
Captain Zebulon M. Pike.
Sketch of an Expedition made from St. Louis, to explore the internal parts of Louisiana, by order of his Excellency, General James Wilkinson. (Orig. No. 13, pp. 73-77.)
I embarked at Belle Fontaine, on the Missouri, near its confluence with the Mississippi, with a command of one lieutenant, one doctor (a volunteer), two sergeants, one corporal, 17 [16] privates, and one interpreter;[VI'-2] having under my charge eight or ten Osage chiefs who had recently returned from a visit to the city of Washington, together with about 40 men, women, and children of the same nation, redeemed from captivity from another Indian nation; and two Pawnees who had likewise been to the city of Washington [making a total of 51 Indians].
We ascended the Missouri river to the river of the Osage, up which we ascended to the Osage towns, and arrived on or about the 18th of August [[p. 385]], and delivered to their nation in safety their chiefs, women, and children, with speeches to the nation.