Description Of A Journey And Visit To The Pawnee Indians, Who Live On The Platte River, A Tributary To The Missouri (ePub)

Excerpt: Having in the course of the winter written letters of inquiry to Mr. Samuel Allis, teacher of a government-school for Pawnee children, and Major Barrow, U. S. agent for the Pawnees, both residing at Bellevue, and having received letters from both, of an encouraging nature, we left Westfield on the morning of April 22d, on our intended trip. Br. Paul Oehler accompanied us to Weston, in order to take the wagon back, which was to convey us thither. Passing by the Baptist mission station, Briggs? Vale, where we called in a few minutes, we soon struck the prairie, which we kept till our arrival at Fort Leavenworth, about twenty-four miles from Westfield. This is a very pretty prairie, undulating, and at places quite broken, with here and there a high bluff or mound, rising above the surrounding country. ?Pilot Bluff,? a few miles from Leavenworth, stands picturesque in the prairie, and affords a beautiful prospect. We passed a company of infantry in the prairie, traveling from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Gibson. The quartermaster at the fort, Mr. Ogden, with whom Br. Oehler was previously acquainted, received us very courteously, and gave us a letter of introduction to the quartermaster at Fort Kearney, in case we should be obliged to go that way on our return home and need any assistance.?Fort Leavenworth is eligibly situated on a high prairie, near the bank of the Missouri, about 35 miles above the mouth of Kansas River.