Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/132

122 from its mouth. This river comes from the south, meanders, for a great distance, through a fine, rich country, and is two hundred and fifty yards wide, where it enters the Missouri. The Kanzas have about three hundred warriors and thirteen hundred souls. They are commonly at war with all nations, except the Ottoes, with whom they have intermarriages. The limits of the country they claim is unknown; they hunt on the upper part of the Kanzas and Arkansas rivers. They live in their villages, from about the fifteenth of March to fifteenth of May, and again from the fifteenth of August to the fifteenth of October; the rest of the year they devote to hunting. At present, they are a dissolute, lawless, banditti; frequently plundering traders, and committing depredation on people ascending and descending the Missouri.

The Missouri nation live on the south side of the river Plate, fifteen leagues from its mouth. They are the remnant of the most numerous nation, inhabiting the Missouri when first known to the French. Their ancient principal village was situated in an extensive plain, on the northern bank of the Missouri, just below the mouth of Grand river. Frequent wars with the Saukees and Renars, and repeated attacks of the small pox, have reduced them to about eighty warriors, and a state of dependance on the Ottoes. They are about three hundred souls. They have a just claim to an extensive and fertile country, and yet