These inaccessible spots secure them from
all their enemies, and their only danger is in wandering among these
precipices, where we would suppose it scarcely possible for any animal
to stand; a single false step would precipitate them at least five
hundred feet into the water.
"At one and one fourth miles we passed another single cliff on the left;
at the same distance beyond which is the mouth of a large river emptying
from the north. It is a handsome, bold, and clear stream, eighty yards
wide--that is, nearly as broad as the Missouri--with a rapid current,
over a bed of small smooth stones of various figures. The water is
extremely transparent; the low grounds are narrow, but possess as much
wood as those of the Missouri. The river has every appearance of being
navigable, though to what distance we cannot ascertain, as the country
which it waters is broken and mountainous. In honor of the Secretary of
War we called it Dearborn's River."
General Henry Dearborn, who was then Secretary of War, in Jefferson's
administration, gave his name, a few years later, to a collection of
camps and log-cabins on Lake Michigan; and in due time Fort Dearborn
became the great city of Chicago. Continuing, the journal says:
"Being now very anxious to meet with the Shoshonees or Snake Indians,
for the purpose of obtaining the necessary information of our route,
as well as to procure horses, it was thought best for one of us to go
forward with a small party and endeavor to discover them, before the
daily discharge of our guns, which is necessary for our subsistence,
should give them notice of our approach.
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