tance of ten miles the next morning and then camped on the eastern shore. Here they remained for five days. They explored the country in all directions and sent for the surrounding Indians to meet them in a council at a point farther up the river. While they were here dispatches and maps were prepared to be sent to the president. July 27th they swam their horses to the Nebraska side and continued the journey northward.
   The camp of July 30th was at Council Bluff, This is the most important camp-ground of the Lewis-Clark expedition within the state. Subsequently (1819) it became the site of the first military post established in Nebraska. There is no doubt that the recommendation of this site by the captains, Lewis and Clark, determined the location of what was afterward known as Camp Missouri, Fort Atkinson, and finally Fort Calhoun. The importance of this camp warrants a quotation from that part of the journal describing Council Bluff:

   . . . The land here consists of a plain, above the high water level, the soil of which is fertile, and covered with a grass from five to eight feet high, interspersed with copses of large plums and a currant like those of the United States . . . Back of this plain is a woody ridge, about seventy feet above it, at the end of which we formed our camp. This ridge separates the lower from a higher prairie, of a good quality, with grass, of ten or twelve inches in height and extending back about a mile to another elevation of eighty or ninety feet, beyond which is one continued plain. Near our camp we enjoy from the bluffs a most beautiful view of the river, and the adjoining country. At a distance varying from four to ten miles, and of a height between seventy and three hundred feet, two parallel ranges of high land afford a passage to the Missouri which enriches the low grounds between them. In its winding course, it nourishes the willow islands, the scattered cottonwood, elm, sycamore, lynn and ash, and the groves are interspersed with hickory, walnut, coffeenut and oak. The meridian altitude of this day (July 31) made the latitude of our camp 41^o 18' 1.4" . . . We waited with much anxiety the return of our messenger to the Ottoes . . . Our apprehensions were at length relieved by the arrival of a party of about fourteen Ottoe and Missouri Indians, who came at sunset, on the 2nd of August, accompanied by a Frenchman who resided among them and interpreted for us. Captain Lewis and Clark went out to meet them, and told them that we would hold a council in the morning . . . [Here follows an account of the council in detail.] The incidents just related, induced us to give this place the name of the Council-bluff; the situation of it is exceedingly favorable for a fort and trading factory.
   There were fourteen Indians present at this council, six of whom were chiefs. They were all Otoes and Missouris who formed one tribal organization at a later date, and presumably at that time.
   After concluding the council they moved up the river five miles and encamped August 3d. On the 4th of August they continued the voyage and came to "a trading house on the south, (Nebraska side) where one of our party passed two years trading with the Mahas." This too brief paragraph is important in disclosing that there were white traders in Nebraska prior to 1804. The camp of August 4th was also on Nebraska soil, but the exact point is not determined.
   The next sojourn in Nebraska was on the 11th of August, when they paused to examine "Blackbird's grave." The description given is worthy of repetition here:

   We halted on the south side, for the purpose of examining a spot where one of the great chiefs of the Mahas, named Blackbird who died about four years ago of the small-pox, was buried. A hill of yellow soft sandstone rises from the river in bluffs of various heights till it ends in a knoll about three hundred feet above the water; on the top of this a mound of twelve feet diameter at the base, and six feet high, is raised over the body of the deceased king, a pole of about eight feet high is fixed in the center; on which we placed a white flag, bordered with red, blue and white.
   August 13th they reached a spot on the Nebraska side where "a Mr. Mackay" had a trading house in 1795 and 1796 which he called Fort Charles. This same day men were sent out to the old Maha village with a flag and a present, in order to induce them to come and hold a council with us. They returned at twelve o'clock next day, August 14. After crossing a prairie covered with high grass, they reached the Maha

in upper right-hand corner appears the monument erected by order of the legislature of Tennessee, over the grave of Captain Lewis, Lewis county, Tennessee. Reproduced from The Trail of Lewis and Clark, by courtesy of Olin D. Wheeler, editor. In the center and upper left hand corner are three views of the monument of Captain Clark in Belle Fontaine cemetery, St. Louis. The two lower cuts represent the bowlder (sic) at Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, commemorating the first council with the Indians on Nebraska soil.

creek, along which they proceeded to its three forks, which join near the village; they crossed the north branch and went along the south; the walk was very fatiguing, as they were forced to break their way through grass, sunflowers, and thistles, all above ten feet high, and interspersed with wild pea. Five miles from our camp they reached the position of the ancient Maha village; it had once consisted of three hundred cabins, but was burnt about four years ago, soon after the small-pox had destroyed four hundred men, and a proportion of women and children. On a hill in the rear of the village, are the graves of the nation; to the south of which runs the fork of the Maha creek; this they crossed where it was about ten yards wide, and followed its course to the Missouri, passing along a ridge of hill for one and a half miles, and a long pond between that and the Missouri; they then recrossed the Maha creek, and arrived at the camp, having seen no tracks of Indians or any sign of recent cultivation.

    Probably the first large Nebraska "fish story" originated on August 16th, when a seine was improvised with which over four hundred fish were taken from the Omaha creek. August 13th they made a camp near the old Omaha village and remained until August 20th. At this point another council was held with the Otoes and Missouris, who were then at war with the Omahas and very much afraid of a war with the Pawnees. After concluding this council they continued their journey, and the next day (August 20th) Sergeant Floyd, died and was buried on the Iowa side near the Floyd river.
   On August 21st the camp was made on the Nebraska side; also on the 23d. On the 24th of August they came to the Nebraska volcano, a bluff of blue clay where they say the soil was so warm they could not keep their hands in it. These volcanic phenomena were probably due to the action of water, at times of inundation, on iron pyrite, setting free sulphuric acid, which in turn attacked limestone, producing heat and steam. Similar phenomena have been observed in the same locality in very recent years. This night camp was made in Nebraska, and mosquitoes were numerous. On August 25th camp was made very near the Cedar-Dixon county line. August 28th a camp was made in Nebraska, a little way below where Yankton now stands. The Yankton Sioux had been called here for a council, and on August 31st the council was concluded. While the expedition was in camp here a number of Sioux chiefs arranged to accompany Mr. Durion to Washington.
   On the 1st of September they again set sail; on the 2d they stopped to examine an ancient fortification which must have been on section 3, 10, or 11, in the bend of the river and quite near the bank. September 3d they camped again on Nebraska soil, and the next day they reached a point just north of the Niobrara river. September 7th the last camp in Nebraska was pitched six miles south of the north line.
   On the return trip down the Missouri river the expedition reached the northeastern corner of the present Nebraska on Sunday, August 31, 1806, and left the southeast corner on the 11th of September, having made the uneventful journey in twelve days. The up-stream passage of this part of the route had required fifty-seven days.

   Pike's Explorations. On the 15th of July, 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike's party consisting of two lieutenants, one surgeon, one sergeant, two corporals, sixteen privates, and an interpreter, sailed from Belle Fontaine, four miles above the mouth of the Missouri river on the famous expedition which resulted in the discovery of Pike's Peak. The object of the expedition, which was sent out by General James Wilkinson, then commander-in-chief of the army of the United States, and also governor of the territory of Louisiana, was ostensibly, and in fact partially, to establish friendly relations with the Indians of the interior, but it is supposed also to gain information about the Spaniards, who, since our acquisition of Louisiana, out of which they felt they had been cheated by Napoleon, had been in a menacing attitude towards the Americas.
   The route of Pike's expedition was up the Missouri river to the mouth of the Osage river, then up this stream to the Osage village at a point near its source. Here the party abandoned their bateau and took a northwesterly course across the country, reaching the

Sergeant Charles Floyd, the first soldier of the United States to die west of the Mississippi river, was a son of Chas. Floyd, Sr., a grandson of Wm. Floyd, and was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, between 1780 and 1785. He was one of the "nine young men from Kentucky" who joined Lewis and Clark at Louisville in the fall of 1803, was formally enlisted April 1, 1804, and appointed one of the three sergeants of the expedition. Sergeant Floyd was taken ill August 19, 1804, died the following day, and was buried on "Floyd's Bluff," on the Iowa side of the Missouri river near the place of his death. His grave was marked by a cedar post properly inscribed. In 1857, when Floyd's grave was endangered by the river, his remains were removed 600 feet farther east. In 1895 the Floyd Memorial association was organized, and a monument erected at a cost of about $15,000, which was dedicated May 30, 1901. The shaft occupies a commanding position, three miles southeast of Sioux City, on the top of Floyd's Bluff -- the highest of the range of hills -- about 600 feet from the Missouri river, and 115 feet above low-water mark. The monument is of the style of an Egyptian obelisk; the underground foundation is a monolith of concrete 22 feet square at the base, 13 feet 6 inches at the top, and 11 feet deep. This is surmounted by a base course of solid stone 2 feet high, and 10.92 feet square. The shaft is 100 feet 2 1/2 inches in height 9.42 feet square at the bottom, and 6.28 feet square at the top. It is a masonry shell of Kettle river sandstone, the core of solid concrete.

Republican river at a point which has not been determined even approximately; and that interesting question is now the subject of investigation by specialists. The party camped on an eminence on the north side of the river, opposite the Pawnee village, and circumstances favor the conclusion that they were within the present bounds of Nebraska, notwithstanding that in 1901, a monument to mark the northern limit of Pike's route, was erected within the Kansas line about four miles south of Hardy, Nebraska. Pike's visit to the Republican Pawnees had been preceded a short time before by the expedition of the Spanish Lieutenant Maygares, who had traveled from Santa Fe with about six hundred soldiers and over two thousand horses and mules; but Pike says that about two hundred and forty men and the horses that were unfit for service were left at the crossing of the Arkansas river. The beaten down grass plainly disclosed to Pike their line of march in the Pawnee neighborhood. This Spanish expedition had been sent to intercept Pike and also to establish friendly relations with the Indians, and the American party found a Spanish flag flying over the council lodge of the Pawnees. These incidents, together with the fact that Pike was detained in New Mexico, virtually a prisoner, illustrates the indefiniteness of the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase at the time and the insolence of Spain, not yet conscious of her decaying condition, toward the young republic. The contrast between Pike's little party and the considerable Spanish army which had just passed, inspired insolent behavior on the part of the Pawnees, which led the intrepid American explorer to give vent to his feelings in his journal: "All the evil I wished the Pawnees was that I might be the instrument in the hands of our government to open their eyes and ears, and with a strong hand convince them of our power." It would no doubt have given the indomitable but persecuted Pike much satisfaction to know that within a very few years the insolent Spaniard, then invading American territory, would be pushed off the continent finally by American aggression. Pike himself was killed in battle in our war of 1812, but his services had been recognized and rewarded by promotion in 1795.

   Explorations of Crooks and McLellan. In 1807 Ramsey Crooks and Robert McLellan, two of the most famous and intrepid explorers of the Northwest, formed a partnership, and in the fall of the year started up the Missouri river with an expedition comprising eighty men fitted out on shares by Sylvester and Auguste Chouteau. On the return of Lewis and Clark in 1806, they brought with them to St. Louis, Shahaka, the chief of the Mandans, on the way to Washington for consultation with President Jefferson and under promise of safe escort back to his home. The next summer Ensign Nathaniel Pryor, who had been a sergeant in the Lewis and Clark party, undertook to escort the chief up the river. The command consisted of fourteen soldiers in all, but it was united with a party of thirty-two men led by Pierre Chouteau. When they attempted pass the lower Arikara village, the Indians attacked them and drove them back, and on their return they met Crooks and McLellan, who then turned back and established a camp probably near Bellevue, where they remained until the spring of 1810. Lisa had safely passed the Arikaras before these parties arrived, and whether true or not, the charge that he inspired the Arikara attack is a concession to his ability and influence as well as an illustration of his reputation for intrigue.

   Astorian Expedition. Commerce led to the first exploration and civilized occupation in the Northwest, including Nebraska. The French had led in exploration and fur trade until the British wrested Canada from them in 1762, and Frenchmen continued to carry active commercial traffic in this region, St. Louis, then a French town, as their principal base. But about the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a state of actual hostility between English and American traders. The discovery of the mouth of the Columbia river in 1792 by Captain Gray of the American trading ship Columbia, was an important factor in the long dispute over the Oregon boundary. In 1810, John Jacob Astor, of New York, organized the Pacific Fur Compa-

ny, a partnership including himself, Alexander McKay, Duncan McDougal, Donald McKenzie, David Stuart, Robert Stuart, and Wilson Price Hunt, for the purpose of colonization and trade at the mouth of the Columbia river. Astor was encouraged in his enterprise by the federal government. The partners named with the exception of Hunt, sailed in the ship Tonquin in September, 1810, and founded Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia river in the spring of the following year. In October of 1810 Mr. Hunt started up the Missouri river with a party in three boats to reach Astoria by the overland route. The expedition came to the mouth of the Nodaway river in November, and went into winter quarters, though Hunt returned to St. Louis, where he spent the winter. He reached the winter camp again on the 17th of the following April, and a few days later the party set sail. It consisted of about sixty men, five of them partners in the enterprise, and they embarked in four boats. On the 28th of April they breakfasted on an island at the mouth of the Platte river, and they halted for two days on the bank of the Missouri, a little above the mouth of Papillion creek, and therefore on or near the site of Bellevue. In Irving's account of this journey no mention is made of any settlement at this point; but he set the example of writing enthusiastically of the beauty of the landscape, which has been assiduously practiced by travelers and settlers over since. On the 10th of May the party arrived at the Omaha Indian village, situated, by their measurement, about two hundred and thirty miles above their Bellevue encampment. On the 12th of June they arrived at the village of the Arikara Indians, about ten miles above the mouth of the Grand river, now in northern South Dakota. From this point they proceeded by land to the Columbia river, which they reached some distance below the junction of the Lewis and Clark river. They followed down the Columbia in canoes, and reached Astoria on the 15th of February.
   Lisa, who represented the Missouri Fur Company, jealously watched the operations of the new Pacific Fur Company, and his successful attempt to overtake Hunt resulted in a famous keel boat race. Lisa explains that this desperate exertion was caused by a desire to pass through the dangerous Sioux country in Hunt's company for greater safety; but it seems likely that his primary object was to prevent Hunt from establishing advantageous trade relations with any of the Indians on the upper river. Lisa traveled with great rapidity, at an average rate of eighteen miles a day, and overtook Hunt's party.
   There were twenty-six men on Lisa's boat and it was armed with a swivel mounted at the bow. Twenty men were at the oars.

PIERRE CHOUTEAU, JR.

A master mind in the early fur trade

   Brackenridge, who, according to Irving, was "a young, enterprising man, tempted by motives of curiosity to accompany Mr. Lisa," gives an account of the starting of the party:
   We sat off from the village of St. Charles on Tuesday, the 28th of April, 1811. Our barge was the best that ever ascended this river, and manned with stout oarsmen. Mr. Lisa, who had been a sea captain, took much pains in rigging his boat with a good mast and main top sail, these being great helps in the navigation of this river . . . We are in all twenty-five men, and completely pre-