“I congratulate you most cordially on your perseverance and ultimate success in reaching the Yellowstone by _steam_, and the future historian of the Missouri will preserve for you the honorable and enviable distinction of having accomplished an object of immense importance, by exhibiting the practicability of conquering the obstructions of the Missouri, considered till almost the present day insurmountable to steamboats, even among those best acquainted with their capabilities. You have brought the Falls of the Missouri as near, comparatively, as was the River Platte in my younger days.” The experiment thus inaugurated grew into a regular business. The American Fur Company sent up one or more boats every spring, as long as it continued in the business. In the spring of 1833 it sent up two boats, the _Yellowstone_ and the _Assiniboine_. It was this year that Maximilian, Prince of Wied, went up and spent several months at Forts McKenzie, Clark, and Union.[20] The _Assiniboine_ went above Fort Union for some distance, thus making another advance toward the head of navigation. It was caught in this advanced situation by low water, and was compelled to remain there all winter. [Sidenote: AN EARLY LOGBOOK.] A most interesting and valuable relic of these early steamboat days has survived in the form of a journal, or logbook, covering the voyages from 1841 to 1847 inclusive. It is all in French except that for the year 1847. It is very complete, and exhibits in the clearest detail the manner of life which existed on the Missouri River steamboat in those early days. Captain La Barge was pilot on some of these voyages, and we shall now note a few of the interesting incidents with which he was connected, for they furnish a living picture of a condition of things which has long since ceased to exist. CHAPTER XII. VOYAGE OF 1843. The voyage of 1843 is known in more complete detail than any other in the history of the river. There are two complete journals of it--the Sire logbook, just referred to, and the published journal of the great naturalist, Audubon, who was one of the passengers. Captain La Barge himself gave the present author his full recollections of the trip. There were in all about one hundred passengers, besides some Indians returning to their country from a visit to St. Louis. The passenger list included the usual picturesque variety, but its most conspicuous and noteworthy feature was, of course, the presence of Audubon and his party of scientists. Captain Joseph Sire was master of the boat and Captain La Barge pilot.