Letters of Peter H. Burnett.
409
[From New York Herald, January 6, 1845.]
Linnton, Oregon Territory, 1844.James G. Bennett, Esq.—
Dear Sir: In my former communication I gave you some account of our trip as far as Elm Grove, fifteen miles from the rendezvous. On the twenty-fourth of May we crossed the Walkalusia, a tributary of the Kansas, about twenty yards wide, clear running water, over a pebbly bed. We let our wagons down the bank (which was very steep) with ropes. There was, however, a very practicable ford, unknown to us, about one hundred yards above. We here saw three Potawotomie Indians, who rode fine horses, with martingales, bridles, and saddles. We found very few fish in this stream. On the twenty-sixth of May we reached Kanzas River, which was too high to ford; and we prepared a platform, by uniting two large canoes together and commenced crossing on the 29th. On the 27th we held a meeting, and appointed a committee of three to make arrangements for crossing the river. The committee attempted to hire Pappa's platform (a Frenchman who lived at the crossing, ) but no reasonable arrangement could be made with him. Before we had finished our platform, some of the company made a private arrangement with Pappa for themselves, and commenced crossing. This produced great dissatisfaction in camp. On the 28th Pappa's platform sank, and several men, women, and children came near being drowned, but all escaped with the loss of some property. As yet no organization, and no guard out. Wagons still coming in rapidly. On the thirtieth of May two Catholic missionaries to the Flathead Indians arrived and crossed the river. The Kansas is here a wide stream, with sandy banks and bottom. I suppose it to be about a quarter mile wide at this point. The water was muddy, like that of the Missouri River. We finished crossing on the thirtyfirst of May. Our encampment was on Black Warrior Creek; very uncomfortable, as our stock were constantly sticking fast in the mud upon its banks. On the first of June we organized the company, by electing Peter H. Burnett commander in chief and Mr. Nesmith orderly sergeant. On the 4th we crossed Big Sandy, a large creek with high banks. Last night we had a hard rain. Last evening we saw several of the Kanzas chiefs, who visited our encampment. Our usual mode of encampment was to form a hollow square with the wagons. When we organized we had about one hundred and ten wagons and two hundred and sixty- three men, all able to bear arms. On the 5th we crossed the East Fork of Blue, a large creek, and a tributary of the Kanzas, and on the 6th, in the evening, we crossed the West Fork of Blue, a small river, about fifty yards wide. Contrary to our expectations, we found it fordable, by propping up our wagon beds with large blocks of wood. We encamped for the night on a level prairie, dry and beautiful. In the night we had an immense thunderstorm, and
