I am, dear General,
Your obedient servant,
[Signed] Z. M. Pike.
Gen. James Wilkinson.
Art. 10. Letter, Pike to Wilkinson. ([Orig. No. 10], pp. 40-42.)
Camp Independence, near the Osage Towns,
Aug. 28th, 1806.
Dear General:
You will no doubt be much surprised to perceive by the date of this letter that we are still here; but we have been unavoidably detained by a variety of circumstances.
I had the happiness to receive your express the day of my arrival, the bearer having arrived the night before, and have attended particularly to its contents.
On the 19th inst. I delivered your parole to Cheveux Blanche, and on the 21st held a grand council of both towns, and made the necessary communications and demands for horses, on the subjects of making peace with the Kans, accompanying me to the Panis, [and Wilkinson] down the Arkansaw, and [to ascertain] if there were any brave enough to accompany me the whole voyage.
They requested one day to hold council in the villages, previous to giving an answer. It was three before I received any; their determination was as follows: From the Grand Osage village, or [that of] Cheveux Blanche, we are accompanied by his son, and Jean La Fon [Le Fou], the second chief of the village, with some young men not known, and he furnishes us four horses.