Note I-70 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: UP THE MISSOURI AND OSAGE RIVERS, AND THROUGH KANSAS TO THE PAWNEE VILLAGE ON THE REPUBLICAN RIVER, JULY 15TH-SEPT. 30TH, 1806.

Finishing the journey to the Pawnee Republic village, whence the great river on which it was situated took its name. Its ultimate sources are in Colorado, like those of the Smoky Hill r. Its main course then cuts off the extreme N. W. corner of Kansas, by running through Cheyenne Co.; whereupon the stream enters Nebraska, and skirts the southern border of this until it dips into Kansas across the N. border of Jewell Co., whence it continues E. into Republic Co., turns S. in this to Cloud Co., E. through this to Clay Co., and S. E. through this to Geary Co., where it is joined by the Smoky Hill, as already noted. The whole journey thus made from the Osages to the Pawnees foots up, by Pike's distances, about 350 m. In a letter to the Secretary of War he calls it "375"; but this is simply offhand. He also claims that his Osages led him roundabout 100 m. through their fear of the "Kans." Pike's land mileages seem to me more correct than those excessive ones he assigns to his navigation. I suppose this journey to have been between 300 and 325 m.

I must emphasize here the fact that I have failed in every attempt to locate the precise site of the Pawnee village. One would suppose it well known; I find that it is not, and have yet to discover the ethnographer or geographer who can point it out. Correspondence addressed to persons now living in the vicinity was as fruitless as my exploration of the sources of official knowledge in Washington, where several friends interested themselves in my behalf to no purpose. I know of no closer indication than that afforded by Gregg's map of 1844. This letters "Old Pawnee Village" on the S. bank of the Republican, halfway between long. 98° and 99° W., and thus, as I judge, about opposite the present town of Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb. Gregg runs the Republican entirely S. of lat. 40° N., i. e., in Kansas; but the place where Pike struck it was certainly in that portion of its course which runs in Nebraska, just over the Kansas line. Gregg in fact gives his river a recognizable northward convexity along here, and if it does not overreach 40°, that is a fault of absolute, not relative, position. We are here much less concerned with latitude than with longitude. The river is running approximately from W. to E., in Webster Co., and the main point is how far W. the village was, as that would affect details of the route from the last point at which I have been able to locate Pike. It will be necessary to discover the exact situation of the Pawnee village before the cloud over the end of this journey can be dispelled, and the beginning of the journey from the village to Great Bend on the Arkansaw can be set in a clear light. For the present I can only tentatively assume longitude 98° 30´ W. (See Scandia, in the Index.)