trees which had lately fallen into the river, and the danger to be apprehended from others, which seemed to have but a slender hold, rendered our situation extremely disagreeable. Towards evening a canoe with six or seven men passed on the other side, but we were unable to distinguish them. At this place I measured a cotton-wood tree, which was thirty-six inches in circumference; they grow larger on the lower parts of this river than perhaps any where else in America. The bluffs, in the course of this day appeared higher, but not so abrupt or rocky.
Saturday, 6th. Having passed a small willow island, we found ourselves beyond the hills on the S. W. side. At 11 o'clock the wind became so high that we were compelled to stop, as it blew directly down the river. This is Boon's settlement—about sixty miles from St. Charles. A number of plantations at the edge of the bottom.[1] The wind abated in the evening, we proceeded a few miles further and encamped.
Sunday[* , missing] 7th. Water rising. Crossed to the S. W. side, and encountered a very swift current, {16} at the head of a willow island. The difficulty of this navigation is not easily described. Made Point Labadie, so called from a French trader, who formerly wintered here. Forty years ago this was thought a distant point on the Missouri, at present there are tolerable plantations every where through the bottom. The carcases of several drowned buffaloes passed by us; it is said that an unusual number of them have been drowned this year—some have been seen floating on the river at St. Louis. Upwards of forty were counted on the head of an island, by a gentleman who lately descended the river
- ↑ This was the settlement known as the Femme Osage, made by the sons and several friends of Daniel Boone, upon land granted to the latter (1795) by the Spanish governor, Don Trudeau. The plantations extended for several miles along the Femme Osage Creek. Bradbury (see vol. v of our series) met Boone some distance farther up the river.—Ed.
