iv
friends, who conceived that an extract from them would be acceptable to the public, especially those interested, or who wish to become interested, in a country so rapidly increasing in population, have induced him to consent to this publication.
Information of those parts of the country which lie west of the Mississippi was collected principally from very respectable officers of the army. Several of these officers were so obliging as to favour the writer with liberty of making extracts from journals which they had kept, while marching in different parts of the country, or commanding at particular posts.
On passing with the troops from Kentucky to New Orleans, Mr. Le Raye applied to the writer for a passage with him in the boat under his immediate command. This gentleman, who is a native of Canada, had been engaged, for several years, in trading with the Indians, on the river Saskashawan, northwest of the Lake of the Woods; but, in the year 1801, he determined to turn the course of his business to the river Missouri. Unfortunately, on his first adventures he was taken captive by a band of Sioux Indians, with whom he
