Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/121

113 mine has been discovered north of these mountains, on a branch of the Arkansas river. Indians and hunters likewise report, that in these mountains there are several silver mines.

It has been already mentioned, that Ozark Post and village is on the Arkansas, fifty miles above its mouth. At this post an Ensign's command is stationed, which is a detachment from the Captain's company, at Fort Pickering. The village contains about sixty families, chiefly hunters and traders; many of them the mixed breed of Indian and white, and all of them intolerably lazy and indolent. But the soil is exceedingly rich, producing every thing committed to it in great luxuriance. Twelve miles above this station is the village of Ozark, or Arkansas Indians, and six miles further are two more large villages. Their warriors are computed at one hundred and thirty, and about seven hundred inhabitants. They are friendly to all nations, except the Osage. Although they speak the same language, they are at perpetual war with each other. There are some smaller villages father [sic] up; and at the distance of about forty or fifty miles, the hills begin to rise on the south side; and about three hundred miles further, they become lofty, inaccessible mountains.

On the head waters of the Arkansas, a band of Osage Indians reside, who have separated from that nation on the Osage river. Their village is large, and their hunting ground a most excellent 10*