volume xxi, p. 131, note 7.--ED.

[8] Columbia and Rocheport are noted in our volume xxi, p. 133, note 8; Boonville, _ibid._, p. 89, note 59. Palmer probably crossed the Missouri at Boonville. Townsend went by a similar route from St. Louis to Boonville. See his _Narrative_ in our volume xxi, pp. 125-134.--ED.

[9] Marshall was in 1839 set off as the county seat of Saline, and in 1900 had a population of 5086. It was named in honor of the chief justice of the United States, who died shortly before the incorporation of the town.--ED.

[10] For Independence see our volume xix, p. 189, note 34. Gregg gives a much fuller description of this town as an outfitting place, than does our present author; _ibid._, pp. 188-192.--ED.

[11] On the bounds of this territory, see our volume xxi, p. 50, note 31.--ED.

[12] Walkarusa Creek rises in several branches in Wabaunsee County, and flows east through Shawnee and Douglas into Kansas River. The crossing of the Oregon Trail was almost directly south of Lawrence. The trail thence followed the divide between the creek and river to about the present site of Topeka. During the Free Soil troubles in Kansas, a bloodless campaign (1855) along this creek toward Lawrence was known as the "Walkarusa War."

Kansas River is noted in our volume xiv, p. 174, note 140.--ED.

[13] For the Kansa Indians see our volume v, p. 67, note 37; also our volume xxviii, p. 140, note 84. Wyeth notes their village in his _Oregon_, our volume xxi, pp. 48, 49.--ED.

[14] For this stream see De Smet's _Letters_ in our volume xxvii, p. 197, note 74.--ED.

[15] This was probably a local publication of the journal or notes of William Gilpin, who went to Oregon with Frémont's party in 1843. Gilpin was a Pennsylvanian, appointed cadet at West Point in 1834. Two years later he became lieutenant in the 2nd dragoons, and saw frontier service, resigning from the army in 1838. He accompanied Frémont as far as the Dalles of the Columbia, and passed the winter of 1843-44 in the Willamette valley, returning overland to the states in 1844. As an intelligent observer his reports on the Oregon country were much sought (see _Niles' Register_, lxvii, p. 161). Gilpin afterwards served in the Mexican War, and earnestly urged the building of a Pacific railway. In 1861 he was appointed first territorial governor of Colorado, in recognition of "his services as an explorer of the Great West," and lived until 1894.--ED.

[16] Stephen Hall Meek was a brother of Colonel Joseph Meek so well known as an Oregon pioneer (see our volume xxviii, p. 290, note 171). Stephen began his career as a trapper under Captain Bonneville in 1832, and accompanied Joseph Walker to California in 1833-34. He was in the Willamette valley in 1841, where he purchased of Dr. John McLoughlin the first lot sold on the site of Oregon City. In 1842 he guided the emigrant caravan from Fort Laramie. His unfortunate experience in attempting a "cut off" with a party of emigrants in 1845 (related _post_ by Palmer), discredited his abilities as a guide. At the time of the gold excitement (1848-49) he returned to California, where he made his later home in Siskiyou County.--ED.

[17] Little is known of Dr. Presley Welch save as related by Palmer--that he was from Indiana, was chosen captain of the caravan, and was without authority after the formation of the independent companies. H. H. Bancroft (_History of Oregon_, i, p. 612) notes that he was candidate for governor in 1846. George H. Himes, assistant secretary of the Oregon Historical Society, writes to the Editor: "In all my efforts to make a roll of Pioneers by years, I have not so far been able to find anything about Dr. Welch; hence I conclude he either left the country at an early date or died soon after his arrival here."--ED.

[18] For this stream see our volume xxi, p. 149, note 20. Townsend also describes the same Kansa village, _ibid._, pp. 148, 149.--ED.

[19] The Big Vermillion is now known as the Black Vermillion, an eastern tributary of the Big Blue, in Marshall County, Kansas. The usual crossing was near the site of the present town of Bigelow. Bee Creek is a small stream in Marshall County. The Big Blue is noted in our