[III-14] That is, the main party, whom Pike starts off to-day with their guide, in advance of himself, Corporal Bradley, Mr. "L'Rone," and the two young Chips. named Buck and Beau. This would be inferred from the above text, and is confirmed by that of 1807, p. 43, which says that "the men were marched" Feb. 18th, and Pike with others was "to follow afterwards." I have no clew as yet to the identity of this "L'Rone." He seems to have been the guide whom Mr. M'Gillis provided, as Pike says on the 21st, when this man was bundled back again, that he had then no guide. But in that case, who or what was the Reale named on the 21st? (See [this name] in Index.)
[III-15] Pike is on a Pine River route from Leech l. to Lower Red Cedar l., and goes across country on a general course about S. S. E., in Cass Co. This much is clear; but this region is none too well known, and my own information does not suffice me to attempt identification of the many small lakes he crosses till he comes to the large Whitefish l. in the course of Pine r. I doubt that we have data which enable anyone to trail him with confidence. The multiplicity of lakes and streams of the Pine River connections affords in fact several ways when the water is open, and when everything was frozen over Pike did not necessarily take any one of the usual routes. The air-line distance is some 55 m.; but he traveled much further, as he blundered on the way and struck the Mississippi too low down—at the mouth of present Dean cr. See [note47], p. 135, and forward, where Pike describes his Pine River journey.
[III-16] Not identified; but not to be confounded with the great Sandy l. or Lac du Sable on the other side of the Mississippi, which Pike reached Jan. 8th and left Jan. 20th: see [note49], p. 138.
[III-17] Whitefish or Fish l., as it is still called, is the largest body of water into which Pine r. expands, but by no means to be considered as its source. Several large streams fall into it, and the largest one of these is properly regarded as the continuation of Pine r. This lake begins only about 10 m. (air-line) from the Mississippi. Nicollet names it Kadikomeg l.; two smaller ones, lower down on Pine r., he names Plympton and Davenport. Three of this same connection are now Cross, Pine, and Gear. We know exactly where Pike is to-day; though his account of what appear to be two? or three? N. W. Co. houses on this lake is not as clear as we could wish.
[III-18] On the up-voyage we figured out camp of Jan. 1st, 1806, to have been between Dean and Hay crs.; the present pat coincidence confirms the former independent determination: see [note47], p. 134. From Whitefish l. Pike forged ahead of his party, accompanied by Boley, Buck, and Beau, and bore away from Pine r. direct for Lower Red Cedar l. He struck one of the little lakes connected with Dean cr., followed this creek down to its mouth, and recognized this point on the Mississippi as being a mile below where he had seen the Chippewa canoes turned up Jan. 1st. Dean cr. empties 3½ m. direct, exactly 5 m. by the river, below Hay cr., about up to the mouth of which he goes to camp to-night, and easily makes the N. W. Co. house to-morrow. Some points I did not present in my former note on this locality are these: Between Dean and Hay crs., and just W. of the "guide meridian" which, N. of the Mississippi, marks the separation of the 4th and 5th meridian systems of survey, is a very nearly straight stretch of the river for 2 m., nearly E. and W. This was known to the old voyageurs as the Grande Avenue. Its W. end is 1¾ m. above Dean cr.; its E. beginning is at a sharp turn of the river ½ m. below (N. N. E. of) the mouth of Hay cr., 2¾ m. scarcely E. of N. of the mouth of Cedar r.; Pine Knoll is on this turn. At the end of the first ½ m. ascending the Avenue, the range line between Ranges 27 and 28 (of the 4th M.) strikes the Mississippi from the S., and ends there; this range line is also the inter-county line between Crow Wing and Aitkin cos. Rounding the bend at Pine Knoll and going less than ½ m., one comes to the section line of Sects. 1 and 13, T. 136, R. 25, 5th M.; this is ⅛ m. from the mouth of Hay cr., and from this point upward Aitkin Co. is on both sides of the river. Pike's camp of the 24th was within a small fraction of a mile from the point thus indicated.
[III-19] The first chief of the Sandy Lake Chippewas of Pike's time is called on his [table] Catawabata, De Breche, and Broken Teeth. The French form is intended for Dent Breche, and I suppose the more usual term for a person with broken teeth would be Brèche-dent. I have seen the word printed as "Brusha." The native name is rendered Cadiwabida by Schoolcraft, who speaks of him in 1832 as among the dead patriarchs of his tribe. W. W. Warren renders this more correctly Kadowaubeda; while Neill, with unusual inaccuracy on his part, speaks of Catawatabeta the Breche, in one place, and Kadewabedas, Breche, Breché-dent, or Brechedent, in others. This man was living in July, 1828, when he visited Sandy l.; he was then the oldest Chippewa chief, having been a small boy at the time of the capture of Fort Mackinac in 1763.
[III-20] Doc. No. 9, p. 23 of App. to Pt. I of the orig. ed; to be found [beyond] in the present ed.
[III-21] See [note43], p. 131, Dec. 29th. It will not often be necessary to recheck mileages on the down-voyage, now fairly under way. "Pine Ridge" is hardly a named locality, though capitalized as such. It is close to White Bear Skin r., the discharge of Duck and Swamp lakes, near which we set camp of Dec. 29th, 1805. For a still closer indication of the present camp, take the diminutive Half Moon l., near the W. bank of the river. The point of the pine ridge is opposite that.
[III-22] There is difficulty in adjusting the discrepant records of Mar. 3d and 4th with those of Christmas week, 1805: see back, [Dec. 17th]-25th, and notes there. The party were then toiling by Crow Wing r., between Ripley and Brainerd; Pike did not keep with his men, and some of the discrepancies may be due to actual difference between his movements and theirs. Pike also says, Dec. 23d, that he was scarcely able to make his notes intelligible. The two records contradict instead of corroborating each other. Thus, Dec. 17th has it that the two-barrel cache (pork and flour) was made that day, not the 19th, as above said; and it was at or near Ripley. Dec. 20th one barrel of flour was buried; the party were then so close on to Crow Wing r. that Pike got there early next morning. He did not leave Crow Wing r. till after he had taken the latitude there, on the 24th. Meanwhile, his men were struggling up to this river. It is really a small matter, of no more than some 16 m. direct, or 20 m. by the Mississippi, and thus hardly worth dwelling on; but I like to be accurate when I can. Pike was camped at Brainerd Dec. 26th and Mar. 2d; he raised his one-barrel cache of Dec. 20th, near Crow Wing r., on Mar. 3d, and continued on down to the Nokasippi, which had been passed on or about Dec. 18th, not 21st, as above; on Mar. 4th he came to the two-barrel cache which he had made on Dec. 17th, not 19th, as above said, when he was in the vicinity of Ripley; he continues to-day past Ripley, past his three days' camp of Dec. 14th, 15th, and 16th, above Olmsted's bar, and fetches up to-night opposite his camp of Dec. 13th, in the vicinity of Topeka. Mar. 5th finds him at his stockade on Swan r. The camp of Mar. 3d, at the Nokasippi r., is an absolutely fixed point, as this is the only river that falls in from the E. hereabouts. "Pine Camp" of the above paragraph is the place where he was camped for three days, Dec. 14th, 15th, 16th, in the vicinity of Olmsted's bar.
[III-23] "Between Pine creek and the post" is a slip for "between Pine camp and the post"; for the post was on Pine creek (Swan r.). The December camps passed Mar. 5th were four: Dec. 12th, at or near Fletcher cr.; Dec. 11th, near Little Elk r.; Dec. 10th, at Little Falls (city); Dec. 9th, just above Swan r., on the other side of the Mississippi. The salute had been ordered by letter from Grant's house on Lower Red Cedar l.: see back, [Feb. 26th]. For "Killeur Rouge" see [note24], p. 118.