CHAPTER IV.
EXCURSION TO THE SIOUX COUNTRY. (1)
First knowledge of the Sioux - Nicollet and Fremont - Acrobatic explorations - Notes on the country - Loss of vessel with mission supplies - Lights and shadows of life among the natives - Surreptitious baptism of children - Blackbird, the great Omaha chief - The recent smallpox epidemic - Honorable reception among the Yankton Sioux - Return downstream in a canoe - First experience of out-door life.
On the 29th of April I went on board the American Company's steamboat, which makes every year the voyage from St. Louis to the Yellowstone river to furnish the Indians of those countries with whatever they need and bring down their furs in return. The year 1839 has been a very favorable one: they have obtained about 45,000 buffalo robes, besides an immense number of skins of deer, elk, antelope, beaver, otter, wildcats, etc. To my great joy I found on board the celebrated Mr. Nicollet, (2) whom I had had the honor of knowing for a long time. He is a French mathematician, well known in his own country, and I think in Belgium too, by literary men. This respectable gentleman has been traveling in the United States for seven or eight years.
(1) Fragmental journal in French of voyage of Father De Smet in 1839, from Council Bluffs to the Sioux country. Hitherto unpublished.
(2) Jean Nicolas Nicollet, born Cluses, Savoy, July 24, 1786. Came to United States, 1832, to study physical geography of North America. Explored the southern states and the great basin of the Red, Arkansas and Missouri rivers. In 1836 to sources of the Mississippi. Determined position and elevation of many important points, and collected history and dialects of Indian nations and productions and natural history of the country. On his return to Washington he was engaged by the War Department to visit the far west and make a map and reports. He died in Washington September 11, 1843. See letters from him, pp. 1549 and 1552.