I have taken the liberty of inclosing a letter to Mrs. Pike to your care. My compliments to Lieutenant Wilkinson, and the tender of my highest respects for your lady, with the best wishes for your health and prosperity.
I am, General,
Your obedient servant,
[Signed] Z. M. Pike.
General Wilkinson.
Art. 2. Letter, Pike to Wilkinson. (Orig. No. 2, pp. 2-4.)
Prairie du Chien, Sept. 5th, 1805.
Dear General:
I arrived here day before yesterday, and found my interpreter gone in the employ of Mr. Dickson. I then endeavored to gain information relative to crossing the falls; and amidst the ignorance of the Canadians, and all the contradiction in the world, I have learned it is impossible to carry my large barge round the shoot [chute]. I have therefore hired two Schenectady barges, in which I shall embark day after to-morrow, with some expectation and hope of seeing the head of the Mississippi and the town of St. Louis yet this winter.
I have chosen three places for military establishments. The first is on a hill about 40 miles above the river de Moyen rapids, on the W. side of the river, in about 41° 2´ N. latitude. The channel of the river runs on that shore; the hill in front is about 60 feet perpendicular, nearly level on the top; 400 yards in the rear is a small prairie fit for gardening; over on the E. side of the river you have an elegant view on an immense prairie, as far as the eye can extend, now and then interrupted by clumps of trees; and, to crown all, immediately under the hill is a limestone spring, sufficient for the consumption of a regiment. The landing is good and bold, and at the point of the hill a road could be made for a wagon in half a day. This place I conceive to be the best to answer the general's instructions relative to an intermediate post between Prairie de Chien and St. Louis; but if its being on the W. bank is a material objection, about 30 miles above the second Sac village at the third yellow bank on the E. side is a commanding place, on a prairie and most elegantly situated; but it is scarce of timber, and no water but that of the Mississippi. When then thinking of the post to be established at the Ouiscousing [mouth of Wisconsin river], I did not look at the general's instructions. I therefore pitched on a spot on the top of the hill on the W. side of the Mississippi [at or near McGregor, Clayton Co., Ia.], which is —— feet high, level on the top, and completely commands both rivers, the Mississippi being only one-half mile wide and the Ouiscousing about 900 yards when full. There is plenty of timber in the rear, and a spring at no great distance on the hill. If this position is to have in view the annoyance of any European power who might be induced to attack it with cannon, it has infinitely the preference to a position called the Petit Gris on the Ouiscousing, which I visited and marked the next day. This latter position is three miles up the Ouiscousing, on a prairie hill on the W. side, where we should be obliged to get our timber from the other side of the river, and our water out of it; there is likewise a small channel which runs on the opposite side, navigable in high water, which could not be commanded by the guns of the fort, and a hill about three-quarters of a mile in the rear, from which it could be cannonaded. These two positions I have marked by blazing trees, etc. Mr. Fisher of this place will direct any officer who may be sent to occupy them. I found the confluence of the Ouiscousing and Mississippi to be in lat. 43° 28´ 8´´ N.
The day of my arrival at the lead mines, I was taken with a fever which, with Monsieur Dubuque's having no horses about his house, obliged me to content myself with proposing to him the inclosed queries [[Art. 3]]; the answers seem to carry with them the semblance of equivocation.