Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/95

Rh the fur traders, who afterwards sold his interest to William Sublette. He informed us that Mr. Sublette expected to start from Lexington, Missouri, about May 1. Mr. Mackenzie kindly arranged for us to go up the Missouri River on the steamboat "Otto," which went up two hundred and sixty miles. As we steamed away from Saint Louis we passed a company of soldiers sailing up the Mississippi on their way to fight the Black Hawk Indians, where Chicago now stands. After we had gone about one hundred miles up the Missouri we struck a big sand bar, extending across the river. Our boat drew six feet of water and here was but three feet. The boat could do nothing except keep her nose in the sand bar and wait until the sand had washed away. This was pretty tedious and most of us got tired, and going ashore, walked on to Lexington, reaching there before the boat did. When we stopped for food or lodging we were hospitably received and fed.

An extract from a letter of his printed in the New Hampshire Statesman from Lexington, gives Mr. Ball's impression of Missouri at that early date:

LEXINGTON, Missouri, April 29, 1832. Yesterday I walked thirty miles over prairies. Although somewhat rolling, it has the appearance of a vastness like the ocean. The river bottoms are wooded, as are also the hills, extending a few miles back. There is much cottonwood (a kind of poplar) on the islands and river banks. By the way, islands are constantly forming in the Missouri River, and as rapidly as they emerge above the surface the cottonwood tree springs up spontaneously. The bottoms are skirted with limestone bluffs, which continue for a few miles, and are again broken. This region affords a rich field for botany. Vegetation begins to spring forth but it is not as forward as I expected. The season is said to be late. Grass on the prairies is from six to twelve inches high, except where it has been burned over (as it mostly has been) and there it is not as thick; still fine herds of cattle of a hundred head or more are seen grazing upon it.

There is not a sufficient supply of good water, nor should I think it very healthy from the circumstances of the people. The bed of the Missouri is a quicksand, mixed with soil. The water is the color of well-creamed coffee. After drinking it and shutting the mouth one can feel the grit. But still thus it flows eternally on at four knots per hour.

Here we take our final outfit, which done we start forth, leaving civilization and all the comforts of social life behind us. It will be necessary to obtain forty or fifty horses to carry our goods and ourselves part of the time. Our path launches off on a prairie south of the river