[24] It seems to the writer useless to spend time and space in attempting to place exactly Clark's camping-spots. He has made several exhaustive schedules of these camps and all the contradictions discussed pro and con. At best, any outline of camps must be purest conjecture, and therefore not authoritative or really valuable. In certain instances the camping-spots are definitely fixed by contemporaneous records. Only these will be definitely described in this record--the others being placed more or less indefinitely. [25] In possession of the Kentucky Historical Society; first published in the _Louisville Literary News_, November 24, 1840; see English's _Conquest of the Northwest_, vol. i, pp. 568-578, from which our quotations are made. [26] _Draper MSS._, xxv J, fols. 37, 57, 58, 77. [27] _Id._, fol. 78. [28] _Id._, fol. 77. [29] _Id._ [30] _Id._ [31] _Id._, xxiv, fols. 6-8. [32] _Id._, xxv, fol. 50. [33] Volney's _A View of the Soil and Climate of the United States of America_ (Brown's translation) 1808, pp. 339-341. [34] These are the _Memoir_ and the _Letter to Mason_ previously described. [35] No explanation of "Cot plains" was offered to Mr. Draper by his Illinois correspondents. If the present writer be allowed a pure guess it would be that "Cot" was the American spelling of the French _Quatre_, "four;" "Cot plains" would then be a "Four Mile Prairie" east or northeast of Skillet Creek. The Clay County route cut off a corner of Romaine Prairie just here--which may have been known as "Four Mile Prairie" in earliest days. It is not known that such was the case. [36] See Appendix B. [37] _Draper MSS._, xxv J, fol. 112. Clark's men marched two leagues before reaching "Sugar Camp." Mr. English's map (_Conquest of the Northwest_, vol. i, p. 313) and Bowman's _Journal_ are therefore utterly at variance. [38] _Draper MSS._, xxv J, fol. 91. [39] The British Fort Sackville. [40] Referring to the fact that Hamilton was accused of buying scalps of Americans from the Indians. The shrewdness of this communication is conspicuous, the result of the experiences at Kaskaskia. [41] English's _Conquest of the Northwest_ vol. i, p. 572. [42] The author bases his remarks wholly on the belief, it will be observed, that Clark crossed the Little Wabash east of Clay City. [43] See note 10. [44] An interesting English version of Embarras--denoting the Creole pronunciation. On Hutchins's old map of 1768 the Embarras is called the "Troublesome River"--see map, p. 35. [45] The western branch of the Bonpas, or the Fox? [46] All efforts to find any locality bearing this name have failed. Possibly it was a double bend of the Little Wabash, east of Clay City, which may resemble an ox yoke. "Ox Bow" is not an uncommon name for such reverse curves of rivers in several of our states. [47] A well-known salt spring lies just west of the McCauley settlement crossing of the Little Wabash.--_Draper MSS._, xxv J, fol. 25.