Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 6).djvu/51

 much amongst the whites, and spoke French well. I here learned the cause of Lisa's anxiety to overtake the party of Hunt. Lisa was apprehensive that Hunt would do him some ill office with the Sioux bands; that in order to secure his own passage through these, he would represent the circumstance of their own trader being on his way with goods for them. Should this happen, we might expect to be detained in the country, or perhaps robbed. Besides, we supposed that by this augmentation of Hunt's party, which consisted of about eighty men, we should be so formidable as to impose respect upon the savages, and compel them to relinquish their designs.

The Cote sans Dessein is a beautiful place, situated on the N. E. side of the river, and in sight of the Osage. It will in time become a considerable village. The beauty and fertility {30} of the surrounding country cannot be surpassed. It is here that we met with the first appearance of the prairie, on the Missouri, but it is handsomely mixed with wood land. The wooded country on the N. E. extends at least thirty miles, as far up as this place, and not less than fifteen on the other side. The name is given to this place from the circumstance of a single detached hill, filled with limestone standing on the bank of the river, about six hundred yards long, and very narrow. The village has been established about three years; there are thirteen French families, and two or three of Indians. They have handsome fields in the prairie, but the greater part of their time is spent in hunting. From their eager inquiries after merchandise, I perceived we were already remote from the settlements.

We continued under way, with a light breeze, but scarcely sufficient to waft the barge of itself, without the aid of oars.—Handsome wooded upland, S. W. side, gently sloping to the river, and not rocky. For many reasons, I would prefer these situations to the bottom, where the soil is richer.