Note I-4 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: ST. LOUIS TO ST. PAUL, AUGUST 9TH-SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1805.
Reading edition
Portage des Sioux (or de Sioux) is that place in St. Charles Co., Mo., where the Mo. r. comes nearest to the Miss. r. before their confluence. It was the site of an early settlement on the S. bank of the Miss. r., one François Saucier having first built on the spot, 1769 or 1770; the village was already there in Pike's time, and still perpetuates the old F. name of the hostile Sioux's crossing-place (ca. 1780) between the two great rivers, also called Sioux Portage or Portage of the Sioux: see Beck's Gaz.; or Wetmore's, p. 254.