Note 20 — Front matter

In Thwaites’ edition of Lewis & Clark (Original Journals, VI, 91-92, 1905) the number is given as “200 warriors or 400 souls, eighteen leagues up Platte river on the S. E. side, although they formerly lived on the Missouri above the Platte.” When the traders first knew the Iowa the band consisted of about 800 souls. Their principal points of commerce were Robidoux’s Post at Black Hills, the present site of St. Joseph, Missouri, and at Council Bluffs, though not as extensively at the latter. See Chittenden, The American Fur Trade, p. 874, and also The Henry and Thompson Journals, Coues ed., for an account of Robidoux’s dealings. Maximilian’s Travels, Vol. 1, p. 257 note, has a valuable reference.