, 1862-09-13

bia--by GAIT. JonN MULLAN, u. S. A.
While the main parties in boats rowed pad
died and steered against the rapid and dangerous
current, smaller parties we're kept on land on
either bank, some to hunt, some to explore, and
others to keep look 1ut for rowing bands OF
Indians bordering the Missouri. No opportunity
was ever lost to impress upon the Indian the
character and power of our government. and a
rigid adj erence to rigid rules was the tenor of
each days movements and thus did this small,
d fearless party move silently and harmessly
through bands of hundreds of savages without ac-
cident or moestation.
As we have seen, whenever the hand of death
dealt stern blow at their number, the occasion
was availed of to mark the spot and treasure his
memory by giving to the locality the name of
their late companion. Incidents of this character,
together with daily words OF encouragement to
each and every member of the party. and will
lingness on the part Of the commanders to be the
eremost in abors of toll and privation, tended to
stimulate the men. and, with single exception,
during this period of their journeying, all were
contented and cheerful. The first portion Of the
journey was, therefore, marked with bold success,
rapid movements-and from which they augured
pleasant and successful termination of their la
bors. Occupied day by day in their labors of
map max ing, converting robes and furs into COM
Portable garments, and hides and skins into boots
and shoes, the winter passed rapidly and pleas
antly; and when the genial season of spring had
unclasped the icy fetters of winter, they once
more equipped for their onward march.
From their winter abode small party sent
on their return to st. Louis to carry back their
maps and reports; while the remainder were to
seek the mountain source whence the Missouri
river flowed. The early days of April, 1905,
Therefore, again find our explorers upon the turbid
waters of the Missouri, along which they toiled
until tie long days of midsummer brought them
in sight of the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky
range. This was picture which for twelve
months had haunted their vision, and to which all
had looked forward with anxious expectation.-
Beyond this range lay region unknown to the
geography of the world, and, with all the enthu-
siasm of adventurers and explorers, they felt
new impetus to action in their desire to move be-
yond the icy and snowy barriers. They had now
assembled to the great falls of the Missouri, where
the river, partaking of the wild character of the
mountains whence it flows, comes boiling and surg
ing over rocks and cliffs for 800 feet rushing with
frightful speed in its haste to join the great father
of waters, in its to its reservoir of the
Here, too, was grand picture hidden away in
the center of our country and upon which, for the
first time the eye of the explorer had ghzed, and
which even to-day has been visited by but few,
either for pleasure for profit. When the day
arrives when tourists and seekers of the grand and
beautiful shall turn their footsteps towards the
great central section of our country for all
that adds to our pleasure or gives us additional
insight into the mighty works of wise Creator
no spot will furnish more inviting picture than
the Great Falls of the Missouri river 1t is here
we find the great Niagara of the nortf west where
yet may be built up the palaces and mansions of
the great and the rich, and where CONNER
cial mart may yet send, in one direction, uia The
yet clear waters fthe Missouri the costly fabrics
of China and Japan; and, by the other, via the
continuous iron rail to the Pacific, the rice, the
sugar, the tobacco, and manufactured cotton of
our production to our neighbors across yonder
ocean.
But we will not indulge in the pleasant visions
of the present speculatons of the future, found
ed though they be, on well based data but will
still accompany Lewis and Clark, who, with the
made the portage of the falls of the Missouri, and
! followed its wndings for three thousand miles to
its very sources in the Rocky mountains; where
stream of bold proportions at its mouth, has mar
rowed itself to so small thread at its source that
one of the men in his enthusiasm, with one foot
on either bank, exclaimed that he " thanked God
he had lived to hestride the Missouri river!"
Arriving at this point of the journey, their more
perous movements now began. They had nav-
gated this bold river in Macnac boats and canoes
until further navigation was impracticable, and
from whence a new character of transportation
must be had. They were now at permanent
landmark of their route at the Three Forks OF
the Missouri, which they called respectively, the
Jefferson, Madison, and Galatin Forks, after the
President, the Secretary of State, and the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, of the frs; Cabinet of the
present century. They had recently passed whot
might have been properly termed "iourth fork,
and which, in honor of the then Secretary of War,
still bears the name of Dearborn river.
They had now reached the homes Of the noun
tain Snakes, tribe of aborgnes as treacherous
then as now. and with whom 1t became necessary
to treat and parIey relative to their onward move
ments. They had with them an Indian by the
name of Chabonneau," whose wife a Snake
woman, captured many years before by the Sioux
of the praries Lewis and Clark feared lest these
mountain tribes, suspicious and doubtful of the
true objects of their movements, might be but lily
disposed to assist them in emergencies and had
it not been for circumstance as fortunate as it
was novel, verify believe that the labors of these
men might have been brought, here and then, to
most disastrous termination, and the expedition
sumnarily ended.
AS it was, the Indians, on learning Of their pres
ence in the country. kept shy and aloof and every
hill top became telegraph signal to warn the In
aians for miles around, of new era and a new
enemy in their nations history. 1t was only by q