[I-40] Several points require attention in this long course, whatever its actual length may have been. 1. Passing Osceola in the forenoon, Pike reaches his "Grand Fork," i. e., the confluence of Sac r. with the Osage, at noon. This is clear, and the distance seems about right from the place where I set his camp of the 15th. But the streams he charts on this course, below the forks, are not more easily disposed of than was the "East" r. 2. Thus, on the same side as "East" r., about halfway from this to the forks, he lays down two small streams from the W., the lower of which he names Light cr. There are in fact several such; and it may be reasonable to assume that by Light cr. Pike means the largest of them. This is the one now called Gallinipper cr., which falls in a mile below Osceola, and which is now meandered for a few miles by both the Kansas City, Clinton, and Springfield R. R., and the Kas. Cy. and Southern R. R. 3. After rounding the bend above described, and passing the Bear cr. there said, Pike passes two creeks on his left, from the S., one of which he charts by the name of Lime r. This probably answers to the stream now called Wablo, or Weablo, or Weaubleau cr. The other one of the two is Brushy cr. But the identification of Lime r. with Weaubleau cr., and of Light with Gallinipper, throws both out of relative position, and introduces a difficulty which can only be done away with by supposing an error of the map. 4. Osceola is the seat of St. Clair Co., on the left hand going up river, 3 or 4 m. below the mouth of Sac r. This village is notable as a point up to which steamboats used to come, especially during our Civil War; it was burned in Sept., 1861, by "Jim" Lane (James Henry Lane, b. Lawrenceburg, Ind., June 22d, 1814, committed suicide at Leavenworth, Kas., July, 1866); pop. lately 331. 5. Two of the little crosses which usually mark Pike's camps are superfluous for the 14th-16th. One I cannot account for; the other evidently marks the spot where Bel Oiseau was killed, as there is the legend "Beloiseau Kill'd." Pike usually calls him Belle Oiseau; but the French noun is of the same gender as the Indian himself. He was also known as Beautiful Bird. 6. The Sac is about as large as the Osage at their confluence; it runs on an average due N. course from Lawrence, through Dade and Cedar, into St. Clair Co. We are told by the old pioneer "Jack" Beard that the river was so called because a party of Sacs (probably of the Missouri River band) camped on it about 1820; in the fall of 1861 Sterling Price's rebel army were on this river for several weeks. 7. Camp is set on the left bank or right hand of the Osage, above Salt cr., right, and just below the mouth of the stream from the N. called Mine r. in the text, but lettered "Mire Cr." on the map. This is the Little Monegan, Monegau, or Monegaw cr.; the place called Monegaw Springs is in the vicinity. (The name may be preferably Monega, Osage word for "wolf.")
[I-41] Legended "Chouteau's" on the map, where the cross × also does duty for to-night's camp, two miles higher up. The spot can be identified by the coal bank and shoal mentioned, though the "41½" m. assigned for the day's journey take us beyond the confluence of the Little Osage, and we see by tomorrow's itinerary that we are still half a day's sail short of that point. Pierre Chouteau's place was known in Spanish records as Fort Carondelet, and was built about 1790 at what is now called Halley's Bluff named for Col. Anselm Halley. It was an actual fortification with mounted swivels, which Lieut. Wilkinson speaks of in his Report (given beyond); but it was only maintained for a few years. The post is twice noticed in the Hist. of Vernon Co., 1887, by R. I. Holcombe, who informs me that he went over the ground, including Blue Mound, Timbered Hill, and other places in the vicinity, and that some old caches in the sandstone may still be seen. 1. In the course of to-day's voyage the map shows a large stream, unnamed, falling in from the N., on the right-hand or left bank. This is evidently intended for Big Monegan or Monegaw cr.; place called Dollie at its mouth. 2. Higher up, on the other side, another nameless cr. is charted, from the S. This is Beshaw, better called Clear, cr.; quite large, coming from Barton, through Vernon, past the N. W. corner of Cedar, into St. Clair Co. 3. Above this, Pike has two traces, both from the N., unnamed. One of these doubtless represents Panther or Painter cr., in Bates Co. Here the Mo., Kan. and Tex. R. R., a branch of the Mo. Pac. R. R., crosses the Osage between Rockville on the N. and Schell City on the S. of that river. These places are 4 m. apart. A mile or two below this crossing the Osage now forms a circle circumscribing a large round island, nearly a mile in diameter, which may have been a bend in Pike's time. Several smaller streams than those just named fall into the Osage on either side, in the course of a few miles, as Miller, McKenzie, Shaw, Willow, and Lady's. The "10 French houses" Pike speaks of were opp. the mouth of Lady's cr. (named for one Wm. Lady). Camp was on the N. W. side of the Osage, near Lady's cr., and thus in the vicinity of Papinsville (old Harmony Mission).
[I-42] A most important point in this itinerary, for here is the junction of the Little Osage with the main stream, which latter Pike now leaves to proceed up the former to the villages, and so on into Kansas, etc. He elsewhere says: "The three branches of the [Osage] river, viz.: the large east fork [i. e., Sac r., lying E. of where he now is], the middle one up which we ascended [i. e., Little Osage], and the northern one [i. e., main Osage]." The present confluence is at the point where Bates and Vernon cos. begin or cease to be separated by the meanders of the Osage; for the Little Osage runs in Vernon Co., and the main Osage, above the confluence, runs in Bates. There is a conspicuous mound in the prairie, a short distance S. of this "second fork," giving name to Blue Mound township. Both forks head beyond (W. of) the Missouri State line, in Kansas, in which State the main Osage r. bears the name of Marais des Cygnes. The "large drift" in the Little Osage which stopped the boats is marked and so legended on the map, a short distance above the forks. It seems to have been above the mouth of Muddy cr., which falls in from the N. within 2 m. of the forks, and was probably about the place where there is now some marshy ground on the W. side, opposite Horseshoe l. The latter is a mile long around the curve, and discharges by a short stream into the Little Osage, from the S., between the forks and the mouth of Muddy cr. Doubtless it was once the bed of the river. Close by this lake, an eastward bend of the Little Osage receives a creek from the S.; and beyond this was the Grand Osage village, close to which Pike established what he calls Camp Independence, on the E. side of the river, near the confluence of Marmiton or Marmaton r. This stream falls in from the S., and is rather larger than the Little Osage; in fact, it forms with the latter the main forks. The Marmiton receives Drywood cr. a few miles above its confluence with the little Osage. The name of this river is apparently the F. word marmiton, scullion, from marmite, pot or kettle; the settlers pronounce it "Mommytaw." For other features of the locality we may note that the river bottoms are here below the 750-foot contour line, which represents the general level of the surrounding prairie; and that there is an isolated mound or butte of 850 feet or more on the E. side of the Marmiton and close to this river, at the first bend it makes eastward. The Marmiton is otherwise notable in the present connection, as Pike's further route goes between it and the Little Osage.
[I-43] A letter received from General Wilkinson by this express formed Doc. No. 9 of the App. to Part 2.
[I-44] Joseph Browne, who in 1806 was first Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in and for the District of St. Louis, appointed by Governor and General Wilkinson Tuesday, Mar. 18th, 1806; in 1807 he was Territorial secretary, and sometimes acting governor. He was succeeded by Frederick Bates, appointed secretary by Jefferson, May 7th, 1807: see L. and C., p. 1236. The "Babtiste Larme" of the above paragraph is elsewhere called by Pike "Mr. Baptist Duchouquette alias Larme." Billon's Annals of St. Louis for 1764-1804, pub. 1886, p. 437, has "Jno. B. Duchouquette, usually called Batiste Lami." Among the signers of a paper relating to the erection of a Roman Catholic church in St. Louis, Oct. 30th, 1819, is found "Batiste × Duchouquete" (his mark). The alias occurs in various forms, as Lamie, Lamy, Lamme, etc. J. B. D. was son of François Lafleur Duchouquette and Céleste Barrois; b. about 1760, d. May, 1834; married Marie Brazeau, St. Louis, 1798.
[I-45] The village of the Little Osage Indians was about 6 m. higher up and on the other (west) side of the river of the same name. Marmiton r. falls in between where the two villages were. These were so well-known to the traders and others in Pike's time that he does not take the trouble to say exactly where they were; nor are we favored with the precise location of Camp Independence, "near the edge of the prairie." But there is of course no question of the exact site of a village which stood for more than a century: see for example Holcombe's Hist. Vernon Co. Hundreds of Osages were buried on the mound, to which their descendents used to come from Kansas to cry over them, as late at least as 1874. Among the remains rested those of old White Hair himself, until his bones were dug up and carried off by Judge C. H. Allen of Missouri. In the vicinity of the upper village is now a place called Arthur, where the Lexington and Southern Div. of the Mo. Pac. R. R. comes south from Rich Hill, Bates Co., and continues across both Little Osage and Marmiton rivers; a mile W. of its crossing of the former, on the S. of that river, is the present hamlet called Little Osage. All Pike's positions of Aug. 18th-Sept. 1st are in the present Osage township.
[I-46] This census of the Grand Osage village was contained in a letter which in the orig. ed. formed Doc. No. 12 of the App. to Pt. 2, being a folded table opp. p. 52, with a tabular "recapitulation" on p. 53. The matter is given [beyond].
[I-47] Three letters from Pike to Wilkinson which went by this express formed Docs. Nos. 10, 11, 12 of App. to Pt. 2. One of them is dated from "Camp Independence," by which we learn the name Pike gave his station: see [beyond].
[I-48] So far as the white men are concerned, the party is identical with that which left Belle Fontaine (see the roster, [pp. 358-360]), excepting Kennerman, deserted, which reduced the privates from 16 to 15, and further excepting the additional interpreter, one Noel alias Maugraine. (Mr. George Henry, who is left here, was engaged after the start, and therefore does not affect this count.)
[I-49] By "Grand Osage fork" Pike means the stream on which was the Grand Osage village, i. e., Little Osage r. By "fork of the Little Osage" his actual implication is Marmiton r., near which was the Little Osage village—though the phrase happens to be verbally applicable, as the Marmiton is the fork of the Little Osage r. Pike's course "N. 80° W." at the start would seem to conflict with the dot-line on his map; but this is simply due to faulty projection of the streams: see [next note]. Observe also that the course of Sept. 1st is simply a swing-around to the mouth of the Marmiton, whence Pike revisits the Grand Osage village. There is no camp-mark for this day; the first + set is camp of the expedition of Sept. 2d, before Pike had rejoined his party.