mill which Mr. Childs designed erecting on the waters of the Sacramento
river, emptying into the bay of San Francisco.

We were joined here by Mr. Wm. Gilpin of Mo., who, intending this year to
visit the settlements in Oregon, had been invited to accompany us, and
proved a useful and agreeable addition to the party.


JUNE.


From Elm Grove, our route until the third of June was nearly the same as
that described to you in 1842. Trains of wagons were almost constantly in
sight; giving to the road a populous and animated appearance, although the
greater portion of the emigrants were collected at the crossing, or
already on their march beyond the Kansas river. Leaving at the ford the
usual emigrant road to the mountains, we continued our route along the
southern side of the Kansas, where we found the country much more broken
than on the northern side of the river, and where our progress was much
delayed by the numerous small streams, which obliged us to make frequent
bridges. On the morning of the 4th we crossed a handsome stream, called by
the Indians Otter creek, about 130 feet wide, where a flat stratum of
limestone, which forms the bed, made an excellent ford. We met here a
small party of Kansas and Delaware Indians, the latter returning from a
hunting and trapping expedition on the upper waters of the river; and on
the heights above were five or six Kansas women, engaged in digging
prairie potatoes, (_psoralea esculenta_.) On the afternoon of the
6th, whilst busily engaged in crossing a wooded stream, we were thrown
into a little confusion by the sudden arrival of Maxwell, who entered the
camp at full speed at the head of a war party of Osage Indians, with gay