Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/222



a remarkable bank, rising abruptly from the brink of the river to an elevation of about one hundred and fifty feet. It had two important military advantages—security and complete command of the river. It was three miles above the mouth of the Boyer river coming in from the Iowa side. The camp was made on a narrow beach covered with woods reaching to the river, back of which rose a bluff near two hundred feet high. The slope from the bluff to the camp was gradual and easy of ascent. Here an abundance of stone, wood and water was found, and shelter from the bleak north and west winds. A council was held here with the Ottoe Indians, bands of the Ioways, the Missouris and Pawnees.

The principal Ioway chief at this council was Wang-ew-aha, or Hard Heart, who had been engaged in over fifty battles, in seven of which he had commanded. He was regarded as the bravest and most intelligent of all of the Ioways. Beaver seem to have been plenty in the vicinity of the camp, as sixty were caught by an Ioway chief on the Boyer, and ten Omaha Indians brought in more than two hundred taken on the Elk Horn. Game in the vicinity consisted of bison, elk, deer, antelope, wolves, wild turkey, otter, beaver and rabbits.

After making preparations for the winter encampment, Major Long left Lieutenant Graham in command and, descending the Missouri in a canoe, went to Washington. Returning in the spring he left St. Louis on the 4th of May, 1820, with a small party to make an overland journey to his camp at Council Bluffs, traveling by the compass on as direct a line as practicable. From the mouth of the Chariton to Grand River, the party passed through a few settlements but the remainder of the trip was through an unexplored region. They soon emerged from the forests upon a prairie. Major Long writes:

“Upon leaving the forest there was an ascent of several miles to the level of a great woodless plain. These vast plains, in which the eye finds no object to rest upon, are first seen with surprise and pleasure, but their