From the Yellowstone she sped into the broad Missouri, and then there was clear sailing. There was a deeper channel and more confidence. A few minutes were lost at Buford. Everybody at the fort was beside himself. The boat was crowded with inquirers, and their inquiries were not half answered when the steamer was away. At Berthold a wounded scout was put off, and at Fort Stevenson a brief stop to tell in a word what had happened. There was no difference in the speed from Stevenson to Bismarck. The same desperate rate was kept up to the end. They were approaching home with something of that feeling which always moves the human heart. At eleven o’clock on the night of the 5th of July they reached Bismarck and Fort A. Lincoln. One thousand miles in fifty-four hours was the proud record.” [71] Charles Larpenteur, who was interpreter for the Commission in their negotiations with the Assiniboines at Fort Union, says in his journal, “The great Peace Commission was a complete failure.” Such was the general sentiment along the valley. [72] The _Montana Post_ is authority for the statement that this voyage of the _Octavia_ was the quickest ever made from St. Louis to Fort Benton. [73] See footnote at end of chapter xxxviii. [74] On the 13th of June, 1902, Congress passed an Act abolishing the Missouri River Commission, and virtually abandoning the river as a commercial highway. On the 17th of the same month it passed an act inaugurating a government policy of reclamation of the arid lands. This policy will eventually result in an extensive use of the waters of the Missouri in irrigation. INDEX. A Abraham Lincoln, Fort, 386, 387 Arrival of _Far West_ at, 390 Agency system, 362 Agents, Indian, situation of, 360 Alder Gulch, discovery of, 271 _Amanda_, the, impressed by Peace Com. of 1866, 405 American Fur Company, questionable methods of, 25, 43, 59, 64, 135, 159, 183, 215, 290, 320, 329, 343, 344, 360 sells its business on the river, 239, 260 sends steamboat to Fort Benton, 218 Annuities, delivery of, in 1863, 301 Annuity system, abuses of, 177, 359, 360 Anthony, Col. R. D., 254 Appropriations for improving the Mo. r., 421–3 Aricara Indians, Ashley’s fight with, 5 Army, the, in Indian affairs, 365 et seq. Arrival of steamboat at trading post, 132 Ash Hollow, battle of, 367 Ashley, Gen. W. H., 5, 8 transports furs by bullboat, 101 _Assiniboine_, the, ascends Mo. r. to Poplar r., 139, 218 Assiniboine Indians, 352 break peace with Blackfeet, 228 Astor, John Jacob, 134, 138 Astorian expedition, 107 Atkinson, Gen. Henry, takes expedition to Yellowstone in 1825, 376, 383 Aubrey, Felix X., ride of, 114 Audubon the naturalist and the black squirrel, 150 on board the _Omega_, 141 et seq. unpopularity of, 150 B Bad Axe, battle of, 24 Bad lands, first military expedition through, 375 Bailey, pilot of the _Spread Eagle_, 1863, 290, 291