t. Beyond Cedar island, are some others of a smaller extent, and
at seven miles distance a creek fifteen or twenty yards wide, entering
from the north, and known by the name of Cedar creek. At seven and a
half miles further, we passed on the south side another creek, which we
called Mast creek, from the circumstance of our mast being broken by
running under a concealed tree; a little above is another creek on the
left, one mile beyond which we encamped on the southern shore under high
projecting cliffs. The French had reported that lead ore was to be found
in this place, but on examining the hills, we could discern no
appearance of that mineral. Along the river on the south, is a low land
covered with rushes, and high nettles, and near the mouths of the
creeks, supplied with oak, ash, and walnut timber. On the north the land
is rich and well situated. We made seventeen and a half miles this day.
The river is falling slowly. We continued our route the next morning
early: a small creek called Lead creek, on the south; another on the
north, known to the French by the name of Little Good Woman's creek, and
again Big Rock creek on the south were the only streams we passed this
morning. At eleven o'clock we met a raft made of two canoes joined
together, in which two French traders were descending, from eighty
leagues up the river Kanzas, where they had wintered, and caught great
quantities of beaver, but had lost much of their game by fires from the
prairies. They told us that the Kanzas nation is now hunting buffaloe in
the plains, having passed the last winter in this river. Two miles
further, we reached on the south Little Manitou creek, which takes its
name from a strange figure resembling the bust of a man, with the horns
of a stag, painted on a projecting rock, which may represent some spirit
or deity. Near this is a sandbar extending several miles, which renders
the navigation difficult, and a small creek called Sand creek on the
south, where we stopped for dinner, and gathered wild cresses and tongue
grass from the sandbar. The rapidity of the currents added to our having
broken our mast, prevented our going more than twelve and a half miles.
The scouts and hunters whom we always kept out, report that they have
seen fresh tracks of Indians. The next morning we left our camp, which
was on the south side, opposite to a large island in the middle of the
river, and at five miles reached a creek on the north side, of about
t