On the 9th, we set out early, and reached a cliff of rocks, called the Arrow Rock, near to which is a prairie called the Prairies of Arrows, and Arrow creek, a small stream about eight yards wide, whose source is in the adjoining prairies on the south.  At this cliff the Missouri is confined within a bed of two hundred yards; and about four miles to the south east is a large lick and salt spring of great strength.  About three miles further is Blackbird creek on the north side, opposite to which, is an island and a prairie inclosing a small lake.  Five miles beyond this we encamped on the south side, after making, in the course of the day, thirteen miles.  The land on the north is a high rich plain.  On the south it is also even, of a good quality, and rising from fifty to one hundred feet.

The next morning, 10th, we passed Deer creek, and at the distance of five miles, the two rivers called by the French the two Charatons, a corruption of Thieraton, the first of which is thirty, the second seventy yards wide, and enter the Missouri together.  They are both navigable for boats:  the country through which they pass is broken, rich, and thickly covered with timber.  The Ayauway nation, consisting of three hundred men, have a village near its head-waters on the river De Moines.  Farther on we passed a large island called Chicot or Stump Island, and encamped on the south, after making ten miles.  A head wind forced us to remain there all the next day, during which we dried the meat we had killed, and examined the surrounding country, which consists of good land, well watered, and supplied with timber:  the prairies also differ from those eastward of the Mississippi, inasmuch as the latter are generally without any covering except grass, whilst the former abound with hazel, grapes and other fruits, among which is the Osage plum of a superior size and quality.  On the morning of the 12th, we passed through difficult places in the river, and reached Plum creek on the south side.  At one o’clock, we met two rafts loaded, the one with furs, the other with the tallow of buffaloe; they were from the Sioux nation, and on their way to St. Louis; but we were fortunate enough to engage one of them, a Mr. Durion, who had lived with that nation more than twenty years, and was high in their confidence, to accompany us thither.  We made nine miles.  On the 13th, we passed at between four and five miles, a bend of the river, and two creeks on the north, called the Round Bend creeks.  Between these two creeks is the prairie, in which once stood the ancient village of the Missouris.  Of this village there remains no vestige, nor is there any thing to recall this great and numerous nation, except a feeble remnant of about thirty families.  They were driven from their original seats by the invasions of the Sauks and other Indians from the Mississippi, who destroyed at this village two hundred of them in one contest, and sought refuge near the Little Osage, on the other side of the river.