On the 20th, in the afternoon, we passed another Saline [river[V-13]] with water equally as red as that of the Newsewketonga, and more strongly impregnated with salt.
After encountering every hardship to which a voyage is subject in small canoes at so inclement a season of the year, I arrived on the 23d inst., in a storm of hail and snow, at the wintering-camp of Cashesegra or Big Track, [or Big Foot] chief of the Osages who reside on Verdigrise river.
On the following day I gave him your talk and received his reply, which it is unnecessary to recount fully, as it was merely a description of his poverty and miserable situation. He however said that he had been informed the United States intended to erect factories on the Osage river, and that he was anxious to have one near to his own village; and for that purpose he was willing to give the United States the tract of country lying between the Verdigrise and Grand [Neosho] rivers. A factory, with a garrison of troops stationed there, would answer the double purpose of keeping in order those Indians, who are the most desperate and profligate part of the whole nation, more fully impressing them with an idea of our consequence, and gaining more firmly their friendship. It also would tend to preserve harmony among the Chactaws, Creeks, Cherokees, and Osages of the three different villages, who are in a constant state of warfare; further, it would prevent the Osages making excursions into the country of the poor and peaceably disposed Caddoes, and might have some effect in confining the Spaniards to their own territorial limits.
On the 27th I passed the mouths of the Verdigrise and Grand [Neosho[V-14]] rivers, the former being about 100 and the latter 130 yards wide; those streams enter within a quarter of a mile of each other. Below the mouth of Grand river commence the rapids, which continue for several hundred miles down the Arkansaw.
About 58 or 60 miles up the Verdigrise is situate the Osage village.[V-15] This band, some four or five years since, were led by the chief Cashesegra [Big Foot] to the waters of the Arkansaw, at the request of Pierre Chouteau, for the purpose of securing their trade, the exclusive trade of the Osage river having at that time been purchased from the Spanish governor by Manuel Lisa of St. Louis. But though Cashesegra be the nominal leader, Clermont, or the Builder of Towns, is the greatest warrior and most influential man, now more firmly attached to the interests of the Americans than any other chief of the nation. He is the lawful sovereign of the Grand Osages; but his hereditary right was usurped by Pahuska or White Hair [Cheveux Blancs], while Clermont was yet an infant. White Hair, in fact, is a chief of Chouteau's creating, as well as Cashesegra; and neither has the power or disposition to restrain their young men from the perpetration of an improper act, fearing lest they should render themselves unpopular.
On the 29th I passed a fall [Webber's] of near seven feet perpendicular. At evening I was visited by a scout from an Osage war party, and received from them a man by the name of M'Farlane, who had been trapping up the Pottoe [Poteau]. We passed about noon this day the mouths of the river des Illinois,[V-16] which enters on the N. E. side, and of the Canadian[V-17] river, which puts in from the S. W. The latter river is the main branch of the Arkansaw, and is equally large.
On the 31st I passed the mouth of the Pottoe,[V-18] a deep though narrow stream which puts in on the S. W., and also the river au Millieu [Milieu[V-19]], that enters from the N. E.
On the evening of the 6th of January I reached the plantation of a Mr. Labomme, and was more inhospitably treated than by the savages themselves.
On the 8th I passed the two upper Arkansaw or Quapaw[V-20] villages, and on the 9th, after passing the lower Quapaw town, and a settlement of Chactaws, arrived at the post of Arkansaw.[V-21]