Brackenridge's Journal of a voyage up the river Missouri in 1811;

Front matter

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Preface

The following is the Journal of a voyage, of four or five months, on the Missouri river, beyond the settlements. The voyage was undertaken in the spirit of adventure, which characterises so many of our countrymen, and with little or no expectation of profit or advantage. The accounts received from different persons had greatly excited my curiosity. The conversation of Manuel Lisa, a man of an ardent and enterprising character, and one of the most celebrated of those who traverse the Indian country, had inflamed my mind with the desire of attempting something of a similar nature. I set off with the intention of making a summer excursion, as a simple hunter, unprovided with the means of making mathematical observations, but little [iv] acquainted with any of the branches of natural history, and without once imagining that I should ever publish the result of my observations. Afterwards, having published a volume, under the title of "Views of Louisiana," the present Journal was placed in the appendix. But having been at first written in a loose and careless manner, the style, I fear, notwithstanding the corrections it has undergone, stUl retains too much of its original defect. There are certainly many things which might be omitted; there are also topics, which the reader will be disappointed in finding untouched : to this, I must answer, that having already entered into a variety of details, in something like a regular and systematic work, it would be improper to repeat them here.

The author aims at no higher ambition, than to afford some amusement to his fellow-citizens, by a simple detail of the incidents of his tour. On one subject, however, he hopes this Httle volume will not be useless to the public; that is, in conveying something like an exact idea of the extent to which the immense regions west of the Mississippi are susceptible of population. This is a consideration [v] to the statesman of no small moment. In developing the resources of a great empire, destined in twenty-five years hence, to contain twenty millions of souls, a correct estimate of the amount of its habitable territory is surely not unimportant. It is with this view chiefly, that I have been induced to publish this Journal in a separate volume, as in this way it will have a tendency to produce a more general acquaintance with a portion of our country, so vast in extent and so interesting in its character.

Set ofif to return — Battle of buffaloes — Fort Clark — Arrival

at St. Louis ---. 146