tions, together with all necessary expenses, will constitute an item in the disbursements of the $20,000, and to be deducted from that sum, leaving the balance to be disposed of, in your discretion, to the tribes with whom you may hold treaties, to carry into effect the object contemplated by the

act.

The appropriation will be put at your disposal in any manner which you, may direct, in whole or in part, either by the acceptance and payment of your bills, or by remittance. Should you draw bills, any premium which you may sell them for will form an item to the credit of the appropriation, and will be accounted for by you in your returns.

You will be careful in keeping separate the disbursements under the two divisions of the duties which are assigned to you, and your returns will be accompanied by your certificate of honor, that the sums which you may have disposed of, have been disposed of as stated in your accounts, and that the time which you may charge for yourselves and Secretary, is that in which you were actually engaged in carrying into effect the objects connected with this branch of your commission.

To BENJAMIN H. REEVES,
GEORGE C. SIBLEY &

*PIERRE MENARD,

Commissioners, &c.

I have, &c. &c. &c.

JAMES BARBOUR.

No. 2.

Secretary of War to Messrs. Reeves, Sibley, and Menard, Commis

sioners, &c.

DEPARTMENT OF WAR,

March 16, 1825.

GENTLEMEN: The two-fold duties which are assigned to you, of treating with Indian tribes, and marking a road from the boundary line of the United States to the frontier of Mexico, will require to be kept distinct in your disbursements in carrying each into effect, with the view of confining to the two branches of this Department the correspondence and the accounts relating to each: to that of the Engineer Department, those which relate to a survey and marking the road, and the disbursements made in the execution of this branch of your trust; and to the Office of Indian Affairs, those which relate to treaties with the Indian tribes, and the disbursement of the appropriation made by Congress for this object. The sum of $10,000 is appropriated to defray the expenses of surveying and marking the road. Your disbursements under this head of appropriation will embrace your own pay as Commissioners, which is fixed, for this branch of your service, at $5 each per day, whilst actually engaged in surveying and marking the road, and for the pay of a surveyor, chain-carriers, markers, and hunters, and all other necessary expenses. The appropriation is in no event to be exceeded.

* Col. Menard declined accepting, and Thomas Mather was appointed in his place.

The object of the act of Congress is specific: no instructions, in detail, are necessary, therefore, to be given, except in making your report in full in your field notes and plat of the road, in which you will be full and explicit in remarking upon the district of country through which you may pass, the rivers and creeks which may cross it, &c. &c. The form of making up and vouching your accounts will be the same as is directed to be observed in my letter of this date, relating to the treaties which you may enYour ter into with the tribes through whose country the road may pass compensation as Commissioners will be, as you are informed, $3 each, and $5 per day for your Secretary, whilst actually engaged in treating with the Indians, and $5 a day for each Commissioner, whilst actually engaged in surveying and marking the road.

It is in the meaning of these instructions to allow you SS a day each, whilst engaged in the twofold duties assigned to you, and $5 a day for a Secretary whilst engaged in treating with the Indians.

There is no compensation for a Secretary provided for in the estimate upon which the appropriation is made for surveying and marking the road. I have, &c.

TO BENJ. H. REEVES,

GEORGE C. SIBLEY, and

PIERRE MENARD,

Commissioners, &c.

JAMES BARBOUR.

NOTE.-P. Menard having resigned, and Thomas Mather, Esq. having been appointed by the President in his stead, he will be governed, accordingly, by the foregoing instructions.

By order.

THO. L. McKENNEY.

Report of the Commissioners on the road from Missouri to New Mexico. October, 1827.

To the Hon. JAMES BARBOur,

Secretary of War, Washington City.

SIR: The undersigned, Commissioners appointed by the President to carry into effect the act of Congress, passed on the 3d day of March, 1825, "to authorize the President of the United States to cause a road to be marked out from the Western frontier of Missouri to the confines of New Mexico," have, after some unavoidable delays, fully completed the duties assigned them, and now do themselves the honor to lay before you, for the information of the Government, the following report.

Anxious to execute the intentions of Congress promptly, the Commis sioners did not lose a moment, after the receipt of your communication dated the 16th of March, 1825, (announcing their appointment, and conveying to them instructions,) in making suitable preparations for the work before them, aware that the season would be far advanced before they could collect their men and the necessary equipment on the frontier, and that they would probably be obliged to encounter the extreme heat of Summer, and the still greater inconveniencies of the prairie flies. These apprehensions

were fully realized; for it was not till the 17th of July that the enterprise could set forward from Fort Osage, the point fixed on for the commencement of the proposed road; and the journey, for the first 160 miles, was attended throughout with difficulty and embarrassment, arising chiefly from the annoyance of the green flies of the prairies, which obliged the party to travel much in the night, frequently leaving the direct route in order to find shelter from the flies, during the day, in the small groves that are seen here and there, scattered like little green islands over the plains. This irregular way of travelling not only harassed the horses and mules excessively, but rendered a satisfactory view and survey of the country impracticable at the time, and a subsequent examination necessary.

The only intervening tribes of Indians whose consent it was deemed incumbent upon the Commissioners to obtain by treaty to the marking out and free use of the road, were the Great and Little Osages and the Kansas; and, as it was known to be most agreeable to the wishes of the chiefs and head men of those tribes (who were consulted by Mr. Sibley on the subject. at St. Louis, in June) to meet the Commissioners at some convenient places on their route from Fort Osage to the Arkansas river, it was believed to be unnecessary to postpone the survey and examination of the route through the territory claimed by those tribes, these being at most preliminary operations, necessary to the ultimate location and marking out of the road.

On the 10th and 16th days of August, the Commissioners met successively, by appointment, full deputations of the chiefs and head men of the Osages and Kansas; and, after carefully explaining the object and wishes of the Government, so as to be perfectly well understood by them, concluded and signed the treaties that have been already reported to, and duly ratified by, the competent authorities.

Having thus completed their negotiations with the "intervening tribes of Indians" within the limits of the United States, the Commissioners proceeded with their survey and examination, without any further interruption, to the boundary line between the United States and Mexico, at the point (as nearly as they had the means to ascertain it) where the 100th degree of longitude West from London intersects the Arkansas river; which point is in North latitude 37° 47' 37"; is distant from Fort Osage by the survey as now corrected three hundred and eighty-six and forty-three eightieth and a half miles; and which they reached on the 11th day of September.

When the Commissioners set out from Fort Osage, they entertained the expectation of being able to carry their surveys and examinations quite through to the frontier settlements of New Mexico, before the Winter set in, so as to enable them to locate and mark out the road as they returned home early the next ensuing Summer, and to this end were all their preparatory arrangements made, and all their exertions pointed. And they were fully justified in indulging this expectation, by the assurance of your letter, that measures have been taken to obtain the co-operation or consent of the Mexican Government, which it was hoped would be effected in time to prevent any delay at the boundary line, and by the well founded belief that the Government of Mexico would promptly accede to a measure which was obviously quite as much, if not more to her advantage, than to that of the United States.

Great was the disappointment of the Coinmissioners, therefore, when, on their arrival at the line, they were obliged to suspend their operations for want of the expected authority to proceed through the Mexican Territory.

They waited until the 20th of September, in the daily hope that they might receive the permission to go on with their survey, but in vain, and the season being now so far advanced, it was believed that, go which way they might, there was but barely time left to reach the settlements before the setting in of the Winter, especially with reduced and tired horses and mules. It was obviously necessary, therefore, to determine immediately what to do, and promptly to set about it. After much deliberation, the Commissioners at length concurred unanimously in adopting the following plan of procedure. That one of them, accompanied by the Surveyor and a sinall party of the hired men, should proceed to New Mexico as expeditiously as possible, to find Winter quarters at or near the city of Santa Fé. The other two Commissioners, with all the remainder of the men and equipment, should return to Missouri as speedily as they could. That, if the Government should so direct, the two Commissioners returning should join the other in New Mexico as early as practicable the ensuing Summer, while the one in New Mexico should possess himself of such information within his reach, as might be desirabie, to enable the Board properly to locate the road, or, in any event, that portion of it within the limit of the United States. it being considered indispensably necessary for the Commissioners to possess some previous knowledge of the country, and the route between the Arkansas and the frontier settlement of New Mexico, to enable them even to make a definitive location of the Eastern section of the proposed road.

This arrangement was considered, at the time it was adopted, decidedly the best one that could be made; and subsequent events have proven that it was the only one that could have been carried into effect, by which the Commissioners could possibly have completed the road, even as soon as they have done it. It has also been the means of reducing the expense somewhat that was necessarily attendant on the unlooked for delay of the Mexican Government.

To Mr. Commissioner Sibley was assigned the duty o. proceeding to Santa Fé, it being understood that he was to remain in New Mexico no longer than 'till the 1st of July, unless he should have substantial reasons to justify a longer stay.

On the 22d September, the two parties took leave of each other, and proceeded on their respective journeys. The returning party completed theirs early in November. The other arrived safely at San Fernando, in the valley of Tau, on the 31st day of October.

Very soon after his arrival, Mr. Sibley inquired of the Governor of the Territory, (resident at Santa Fe,) if the Government of Mexico had taken any order in relation to the road; and was answered, that none had beer communicated to him. Mr. Sibley immediately addressed a note to Mr. Poinsett, informing him of the progress already made by the CommissioTMers, stating the serious inconvenience, and expense of delay, and urging hm to obtain the necessary order, if possible, in time to enable the Commissoners to complete the road early the next Summer. This note was despatched to Mexico in a few days, under the Governor's envelope, by the monthly courier, was duly received by Mr. Poinsett, who answered by return of the courier that he had not been able to effect any arrangement with the Govern ment at Mexico for the continuance of the road through the territory of that Government, but entertained hopes that he should soon obtain one. Mr. Sibley also addressed Gov. Narbona on the subject, verbally, and by ote, who professed himself to be most favorably inclined towards the es

n

tablishment of the projected road, and promised to represent to his Government his views of its importance, which he said he could strikingly set forth in the fact, that the trade from Missouri already yielded an annual revenne of twenty thousand dollars, besides many other great advantages.

Notwithstanding these flattering hopes and promises, no order was received from Mexico on the subject of the road, until the 16th June, 1826, when Mr. Sibley received a note from Mr. Poinsett, informing him, that, on the 13th of May, he had obtained from the President of the Mexican States, an order to the Governor of the Territory of New Mexico, "to permit Mr. Sibley, Commissioner of the United States, to make an examination of the western part of the road from Santa Fé, to Missouri, without marking or cutting it out, or establishing any works of any class;" and on the same day, Mr. Sibley received an official notification to the same effect from Governor Narbona.

Although this permission fell very far short of what might have been reasonably expected, and could not indeed have been deemed sufficient to warrant the Commissioners in accepting it, without further instructions, if it had been communicated and received otherwise than it was; yet, from the knowledge Mr. Sibley possessed of the country through which "the Western part of the road" must pass, he did not entertain a moment's doubt as to the propriety of its being accepted and acted on by the Commissioners, all the circumstances being duly considered.

The following extract of a letter from Mr. Sibley to Mr. Poinsett, dated "Valley of Taus, in New Mexico, June 19, 1826," will sufficiently illustrate his views (and those of all the Commissioners) on this subject. "This very restricted permission would avail the Commissioners but little indeed, if it were not for the fact, that there is no "marking" or "cutting out" or any "works" necessary, or indeed practicable to be done on any part of the Road within the Mexican Territory. From the crossing of the Arkansas to this valley, and to Santa Fe, the road will not pass over timbered land exceeding one mile in the whole, and that is so scattered and open, that it can be passed without the least difficulty with carriages, with no other labor than removing a few logs, poles, &c.; and as it will be labor and time lost to attempt to mark out" the road by any artificial means that the Commissioners can devise and effect, we shall probably no otherwise mark it, than by furnishing a chart of the route, founded upon an accurate examination and survey, upon which will be noted, with great care, all the prominent land marks already set up by the hand of nature, which are numerous, and now serve as admirable guides to the traveller. Any artificial hillocks or mounds thrown up, unless of much greater magnitude than our limited means will justify, would be destroyed in a very short time, by the immense herds of buffaloes that are continully passing to and fro over the plains; and what they might be unable to destroy, would assuredly be levelled by the roving bands of Indians, who are always sufficiently inclined to commit wanton mischief. I have no objection, then, myself, and I presume the other Commissioners will have none, to proceed with the "examination" as permitted; inasmuch as we can effect every thing under that permission that we could do if it were as ample as our Government wished and expected. It is certain that, if the Commissioners shall determine to proceed as above suggested, their report of the road will be such as to make it entirely unnecessary for the Government of the United States ever to take any further order or interest in the matter. I have deemed it proper for me to communicate to you these facts for your information."