SIR:--In pursuance of your instructions, to connect the reconnoisance
of 1842, which I had the honor to conduct, with the surveys of
Commander Wilkes on the coast of the Pacific ocean, so as to give a
connected survey of the interior of our continent, I proceeded to the
Great West early in the spring of 1843, and arrived, on the 17th of
May, at the little town of Kansas, on the Missouri frontier, near the
junction of the Kansas river with the Missouri river, where I was
detained near two weeks in completing the necessary preparations for
the extended explorations which my instructions contemplated.
My party consisted principally of Creole and Canadian French, and
Americans, amounting in all to thirty-nine men; among whom you will
recognise several of those who were with me in my first expedition, and
who have been favorably brought to your notice in a former report. Mr.
Thomas Fitzpatrick, whom many years of hardship and exposure, in the
western territories, had rendered familiar with a portion of the
country it was designed to explore, had been selected as our guide; and
Mr. Charles Preuss, who had been my assistant in a previous journey,
was again associated with me in the same capacity on the present
expedition. Agreeably to your directions, Mr. Theodore Talbot, of
Washington city, had been attached to the party, with a view to
advancement in his profession; and at St. Louis had been joined by Mr.
Frederick Dwight, a gentleman of Springfield, Massachusetts, who
availed himself of our overland journey to visit the Sandwich Islands
and China, by way of Fort Vancouver.
The men engaged for the service were: Alexis Ayot, Francis Badeau,
Oliver Beaulieu, Baptiste Bernier, John A. Campbell, John G. Campbell,
Manuel Chapman, Ransom Clark, Philibert Courteau, Michel Crelis,
William Creuss, Clinton Deforest, Baptiste Derosier, Basil Lajeunesse,
François Lajeunesse, Henry Lee, Louis Menard, Louis Montreuil, Samuel
Neal, Alexis Pera, François Pera, James Power, Raphael Proue, Oscar
Sarpy, Baptiste Tabeau, Charles Taplin, Baptiste Tesson, Auguste
Vasquez, Joseph Verrot, Patrick White, Tiery Wright, Louis Zindel, and
Jacob Dodson, a free young colored man of Washington city, who
volunteered to accompany the expedition, and performed his duty
manfully throughout the voyage. Two Delaware Indians--a fine-looking
old man and his son--were engaged to accompany the expedition as
hunters, through the kindness of Major Cummins, the excellent Indian
agent. L. Maxwell, who had accompanied the expedition as one of the
hunters in 1842, being on his way to Taos, in New Mexico, also joined
us at this place.
The party was generally armed with Hall's carbines, which with a brass
twelve-pound howitzer, had been furnished to me from the United States
arsenal at St. Louis, agreeably to the orders of Colonel S.W. Kearney,
commanding the third military division. Three men were especially
detailed for the management of this piece, under the charge of Louis
Zindel, a native of Germany, who had been nineteen years a
non-commissioned officer of artillery in the Prussian army, and
regularly instructed in the duties of his profession. The camp equipage
and provisions were transported in twelve carts, drawn each by two
mules; and a light covered wagon, mounted on good springs, had been
provided for the safer carriage of instruments. These were:
One refracting telescope, by Frauenhofer. One reflecting circle, by
Gambey. Two sextants, by Troughton. One pocket chronometer, No. 837, by
Goffe, Falmouth. One pocket chronometer, No. 739, by Brockbank. One
syphon barometer, by Bunten, Paris. One cistern barometer, by Frye and
Shaw, New York. Six thermometers, and a number of small compasses.
To make the exploration as useful as possible, I determined, in
conformity to your general instructions, to vary the route to the Rocky
mountains from that followed in 1842. The route was then up the valley
of the Great Platte river to the South Pass, in north latitude 42°; the
route now determined on was up the valley of the Kansas river, and to
the head of the Arkansas river, and to some pass in the mountains, if
any could be found, at the sources of that river.
By making this deviation from the former route, the problem of a new
road to Oregon and California, in a climate more genial, might be
solved; and a better knowledge obtained of an important river, and the
country it drained, while the great object of the expedition would find
its point of commencement at the termination of the former, which was
at that great gate in the ridge of the Rocky mountains called the South
Pass, and on the lofty peak of the mountain which overlooks it, deemed
the highest peak in the ridge, and from the opposite side of which four
great rivers take their rise, and flow to the Pacific or the
Mississippi.
Various obstacles delayed our departure until the morning of the 29th,
when we commenced our long voyage; and at the close of a day, rendered
disagreeably cold by incessant rain, encamped about four miles beyond
the frontier, on the verge of the great prairies.
Resuming our journey on the 31st, after the delay of a day to complete
our equipment and furnish ourselves with some of the comforts of
civilized life, we encamped in the evening at Elm Grove, in company
with several emigrant wagons, constituting a party which was proceeding
to Upper California, under the direction of Mr. J.B. Childs, of
Missouri. The wagons were variously freighted with goods, furniture,
and farming utensils, containing among other things an entire set of
machinery for a mill which Mr. Childs designed erecting on the waters
of the Sacramento river, emptying into the bay of San Francisco.
We were joined here by Mr. Wm. Gilpin of Mo., who, intending this year
to visit the settlements in Oregon, had been invited to accompany us,
and proved a useful and agreeable addition to the party.