[I-12] The "point to the south" which Pike passes I take to be that opp. Cottlebaum's ldg., at the mouth of Ridenour or Fiddle cr., at the head of the difficult place called Devil's Race-ground by Lewis and Clark: see ed. of 1893, p. 8. This is a couple of miles above St. Albans, at the 55th river-mile point of recent surveys. The bluffs continue a mile or so, and then, at the mouth of Labadie's cr. or slough, begins the extensive Labadie's bottom on the S., for the Missouri crosses over to the bluffs on the N., and continues on that side to the town of Augusta, St. Charles Co. Thence the channel runs obliquely by the Augusta and Hinkley bends, between Labadie's and Hancock's bottoms, to the S. side again. Here, at Mung's or South Point isl., is the lower end of the "long reach," N. W., in which Pike says he camped. We set him on the S., at the mouth of Dubois or Wood cr., where there is now a place called South Point. This is directly opposite the line between St. Charles and Warren cos. on the N.; it is about 2 m. below Washington, Franklin Co., and at the 67th mile-point from the mouth of the Missouri. Pike maps the stream in the right place, but by the wrong name of "Ash R."
[I-13] The proper name of the interpreter, whom Pike usually calls "Baroney," was A. F. Baronet Vasquez. He was b. St. Louis, 1783; his wife was Emily Faustine Parent. He was the son of Benito Vasquez (b. 1750) and Julia Papin (married Nov. 27th, 1774), and was the fifth child of 12 they had. He appears in army registers as Barony Vasquez, appointed to be an ensign in the 2nd Infantry Dec. 12th, 1808; transferred to 1st Infantry Oct. 31st, 1810; commissioned as second lieutenant Mar. 4th, 1811; promoted to a first lieutenancy July 30th, 1813; and resigned Oct. 1st, 1814. See also a letter about him in my [Memoir of Pike, anteà].
[I-14] See [note7, p. 361]. La Charette is still the name of the stream, and of the extensive bottom on the N. side through which the river seeks the Missouri. But the settlement once so called is not to be found by this name on modern maps. Instead of this we have Marthasville (3 m. N. of which stands still the house in which Daniel Boone died), a village about a mile from the Missouri, and nearly midway between the points where La Charette cr. and Tuque cr. respectively enter the bottom. Marthasville appears on maps of 50 years ago, as for example, on Nicollet's, 1843. Gass calls the place St. Johns where he camped May 25th, 1804; it then had seven houses: see L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 8. St. Johns is now the name of the largest one of a cluster of islands and sand-bars in an expanded part of the Missouri, between the mouth of La Charette cr. on the N. and of St. Johns or Bourbeuse cr. on the S., 2 m. and more above the town of Washington, Franklin Co. Pike maps "St. Johns R." correctly between his "Ash R." (error for Wood or Dubois cr.) and his "Bay R." (error for Bœuf r.). Washington is the most notable place Pike passes to-day; it is now quite a town, large enough to have started a place opposite itself, called North Washington, on Lac's pt. in Warren Co. Here is where, at the 69th river-mile point, a creek falls in on the N.; it is commonly called Tuque cr., though Sheet III. of the Mo. R. Comm. charts has "Duke" as the name. It looks like a French word, but whether it be a personal name, or derived from Toque or Turque, does not appear. It is one of two creeks which L. and C. speak of passing on the N., May 25th; the other one of these has never been identified. But there is an old lake bed, or something of the sort, a couple of miles back of North Washington, in Hancock's bottom, under the bluffs, and I imagine this once discharged about opp. Dubois or Wood cr.—say at Rieskamp's place, on the boundary between St. Charles and Warren cos. Tuque cr. itself seems to have had more than one outlet, in the course of the several miles it meanders the low land and separates Hancock's bottom from La Charette.
[I-15] Originally Docs. Nos. 5 and 6, p. 33 and p. 36 of the App. to Pt. 2. They are given [beyond].
[I-16] To camp at New Haven, Franklin Co., a considerable town which has grown up of late years at the place formerly known as Miller's ldg., on the S., a little below Pinckney pt. Passing through Charette bend, beyond Patton's pt. and ldg., Pike comes to the mouth of the Rivière au Bœuf of the French, now Bœuf or Buffalo r., which falls in on the S. behind Bœuf, Buffalo, or Shelton's isl., about a mile below Dundee station of the Mo. Pac. R. R. This is the stream by error lettered "Bay R." on Pike's map. On rounding Emily and Miller bends, Pike comes to his camp, say at the 85th river-mile point of late surveys. Here he is 1½ m. below a place which was charted by Nicollet in 1843 as Griswold, and which may be found on maps of but few years ago, but has since disappeared. On the N., opp. Griswold, was a place called Pinckney or Pinckneyville, seat of Warren Co. about 1825, and there is still a hamlet of the same name in the vicinity. The Shepherd r. which the above text mentions falls in about a mile above Griswold and the same below the present R. R. station Etlah. This is Shepherd's cr. of L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 9, but is oftener now called Berger r. or cr. I am told by R. J. Holcombe that the word is not the common F. noun berger, a shepherd, but a personal name, probably of the old German pioneer Caspar Burger, a founder of the colony there; if so, it should not have been translated into English. The word is mangled into "Boeger" on the beautiful chart of the Mo. R. Comm. It is a pity that so many cases as bad as this one mar the lettering of such fine draughtsman's work as Mr. D. W. Wellman's. Berger's or Burger's cr. comes into the bottom 2 m. above its mouth, and is there joined by Little Berger's or Burger's cr., which runs about 4½ m. in the bottom before its confluence; the two thus make what is known as Berger's (i. e., Burger's) bottom nearly an island, 6 or 7 m. long.
[I-17] On rounding Pinckney pt. through the bend of that name, Pike passes the mouth of Berger's cr., opp. Yeager's ldg., crosses to the N. side of the Missouri, and sails along with Berger's bottom on his left for several miles; he goes by Whitehouse's isl., near which L. and C. were camped May 26th, 1804, and on finishing with Berger's bottom, reaches a place on the N. called Bridgeport. This is pretty old for a Missouri River town; we find it located more than 50 years ago, and it still exists in name, but has never amounted to much. Opp. Bridgeport is Bates' isl., 2 m. long, the largest one of several at the head of Berger's bottom. In the vicinity of Bridgeport several small creeks fall in on the N. Three of these are called Lost cr., Massas (qu. Massey's?) cr., and Malhern (qu. Malheur?) cr. Excepting Lost cr., these fall into Chenal à Loutre or Otter slough; and this snicarty cuts off a very large piece of bottom known as Île à Loutre or Otter isl. L. and C. speak of this as nearly 10 m. long, and say that it was one of the most fertile in the whole river. The details of the river bottom along here seem to have altered a good deal since 1804, and even since Long's time; the upper end of the slough is now a little above Hermann, near McGirk's isl. and ldg., cutting the island down to a total length of not over 7 m. The slough itself is very narrow, and hardly more than a sluggish creek, like a good many others that meander bottoms before they discharge. L. and C. speak of three creeks which fall in behind Otter isl., and one of these as having the same name. This is Rivière à la Loutre of early F. settlers, now Loutre, Louter, or Luter r., and Otter r., very curiously lettered on the Mo. R. Comm. map, as "L'Outre"—a form which only needs an accent to be decidedly outré. Pike maps the stream as "Otter Riv." He proceeds by Otter or Loutre Island bend to a mile or so above Hermann, and camps on the S. In finishing the bend just named he passes on the S. the county line between Franklin and Gasconade, which cuts through Bates' isl., and then on the N. the line between Warren and Montgomery cos., which cuts the upper part of Otter isl. at the lower point of Hermann isl., opp. the town of this name. This is now quite a place, and more than 50 years old. It is situated across the mouth of Rivière aux Frênes of the F., commonly called Frene cr. and Ash cr., but uncommonly appearing as "Frame" cr. on the Mo. R. Comm. map. Pike does not map Ash cr., though it is given under this name by L. and C.: for the stream he marks "Ash R." by mistake, see [note12, p. 363].
Loutre isl. is quite historic. A number of Americans and some French families settled there in 1805; first child born was Jacob Grosjean (name corrupted to Groshong); one b. 1806 became the local celebrity known as "old man Patton," living in 1884. Fort Clemson was built by Capt. Clemson about 1808, and maintained till after the war of 1812-15. From 1808 to 1816 there was quite a colony, whence were drawn the settlers for Boone's Lick, Howard Co. On the N. mainland the colonists, when the war broke out, were killed in part, and the rest driven to the island to be "forted up" till the peace. Fort Clemson was a Rangers' hdqrs. in the war, and from this post Capt. James Callaway, grandson of Daniel Boone, set out in March, 1815, on the expedition up Loutre r., during which he and others were killed. Daniel Boone's Spanish grant from Gov. Delassus was about 15 m. up the Loutre, and included a salt spring—the original and only genuine "Boone's Lick"; Boone's adopted son Van Bibber kept a tavern there, where Washington Irving stopped some time in the '30's; it is now reputed a medicinal spring in the little village Mineola, near Danville, seat of Montgomery Co.
[I-18] Passing McGirk's ldg. and isl. N., Cole's or Coles' cr., S., Rineland and Kallmeyer's ldgs., S., to the mouth of the Gasconade, which falls in on the S., opp. Cuyler's pt., 107⅓ m. up the Missouri: see L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 9. This is much the largest tributary of the Missouri thus far reached; Pike elsewhere allows it 200 yards' width at the mouth, and navigability at times of 100 m. He also notes that the Sac boundary started opp. its mouth: see [note14, p. 11]. Gasconade City is a place on the tongue of land that makes into the Missouri on the upper side of the Gasconade; being a mere village or hamlet, is as appropriately named as the river itself, which got its name from the way some persons bragged about their exploits when they returned to St. Louis. Beck's Gaz. speaks of pine which was cut and rafted down, but there has been none for 60 years within 150 miles.
[I-19] One of these letters, given [beyond], formed No. 7, p. 36, of the App. to Pt. 2. of the orig. ed.
[I-20] Pike's map marks no camp for the 26th. The distance between Gasconade and Osage rivers is exactly 30 m. by the channel. Pike says he goes 15 m. to-day; I doubt that he went so far if he did not leave the Gasconade till 6.30 p. m. But to take the record on its face would be to set him a mile above Fisher's ldg., on the S., in the vicinity of the hamlet called Chamois, in Osage Co. On decamping and ferrying over the Gasconade, Pike first passed the mouth of Bailey's cr. (Deer cr. of L. and C.), on the S., whence the channel took him obliquely to Bluffton on the N., 5 m. above the Gasconade. The bluffs border the river for about 4 m. along here, and at one place in them is the cave which used to be known as Montbrun's Tavern: see L. and C., l. c. At 1 or 1½ m. above Bluffton the line between Montgomery and Callaway cos. comes to the Missouri just about opp. the line between Gasconade and Osage cos. on the S.; this last strikes the river-bottom just where Bailey's cr. also does. At 5 m. above Bluffton is Portland, Callaway Co., before reaching which Pike passes Little Tavern and Big Tavern creeks, which are a mile apart, on the N., and both opp. Portland isl., 2 m. long; while a mile above Portland is the mouth of Logan cr. On the S. along here is a creek whose mysteries I have never been able to fathom. This is Rush cr. of L. and C., l. c., given by them as 4 m. above Montbrun's Tavern, on the S. It is called Greassy cr. by the Mo. R. Comm., and Greasy cr. by the U. S. G. S.; the latter name is probably correct. It comes into the bottom in the vicinity of Chamois, about the 121st river-mile point, meanders down for several miles, and finally discharges behind Portland isl., somewhere between the 117th and 115th m. of the Mo. R. Comm.