Several of the Indians about Council Bluff, to whom our proposed route had been explained, and who had witnessed our preparations, affected to laugh at our temerity, in attempting what they said we should never be able to accomplish. They represented some {115} part of the country, through which we intended to travel, as so entirely destitute of water and grass, that neither ourselves nor our horses could be subsisted while passing it. Baron Vasquez,[71] who accompanied Captain Pike, in his expedition to the sources of the Arkansa, assured us there was no probability we could avoid the attacks of hostile Indians, who infested every part of the country. The assault which had been recently made by a party of the Sauks and Foxes, upon a trading boat belonging to Messrs. Pratte[72] and Vasquez, on the Missouri, above Council Bluff, in which one man was killed, and several wounded, had at this time spread considerable terror among those in any degree exposed to the hostilities of the Indians. [71] A. F. Baronet Vasquez accompanied Pike as interpreter. He was the fifth child of Benito Vasquez, a Spaniard, who came to St. Louis in 1770, at the age of twenty, in the capacity of a subordinate military officer. His mother, Julia Papin, was a French Canadian, daughter of Pierre Papin. Baronet Vasquez, born in 1783, was in 1808 appointed ensign in the United States army; he left the service in 1814, at which time he was a first lieutenant of infantry. Pike usually calls Vasquez "Baroney," and his name is so given in the army registers.—ED. [72] Bernard Pratte was engaged in the fur-trade for many years, yet available information concerning him is scanty. When Astor retired from the American Fur Company (1834), the business of its Western Department was sold to the St. Louis firm of Pratte, Chouteau and Co. Pratte withdrew in 1838, but in 1842 reappeared as the head of the rival firm of Pratte, Cabanne and Co. In 1819, Pratte and Vasquez had a post above Council Bluffs, perhaps nearly opposite the site of the present town of Onawa, Iowa. See Chittenden, _American Fur Trade_, pp. 364, 366, 367, 951. The Vasquez associated with Pratte was a brother of "Baroney," probably Benito, Jr.—ED. With these prospects, and with the very inadequate outfit above described, which was the utmost our united means enabled us to furnish, we departed from Engineer Cantonment, at 11 o'clock, on the 6th of June.[73] [73] The route followed by the expedition, from Missouri River to the site of Denver, became later the well-known route of the overland stage, and is now essentially the line of the Union Pacific Railroad.—ED.