"Our observatory tent being worn out by the military, who had no tents when they arrived at Natchez, I was now under the necessity of erecting a wooden building for that purpose; which I began on the 2d of May, and with the aid of four men finished on the 4th, and set up the clock, and large zenith sector; but the weather being unfavorable, the course of observations was not began till the 6th, and was completed on the 16th." On the 21st he was joined by Captain Minor and on the 26th by Dunbar. June 1st Gayoso, who succeeded on the death of Carondelet, came with his suite and examined the line as determined; but he then returned to New Orleans, leaving Minor to represent him. Ellicott in the 5th volume of the American Philosophical Society Transactions (reprinted as an appendix to his Journal) quotes from Dunbar the following account of the establishment of the point on the Mississippi River:-- "On the 28th of July, the line then approaching the 10th mile, and learning that the waters of the inundation were retired within the banks of the Mississippi, so that the lands were become sufficiently dry to give firm footing to the labourers, the astronomer for his Catholic Majesty taking upon himself the extending of the line through the river low ground to the eastern margin of the Mississippi. The party allotted for this service did accordingly encamp at the point D, pushing the line forward. Judging the present a convenient position for verifying the direction of the line, the astronomer for His Catholic Majesty established his observatory near the point D, and made ____observations with the circular instrument placed in the direction of the tangent____. "The line being extended to the margin of the Mississippi on the 17th of August, the measurement from the point D, was found to be 2 miles and 180 perches English measure, (or 2111.42 French toises.) At the distance of 1 and 2 miles at the points X and Y, were erected square posts surrounded by mounds of earth, and at a distance of 88 French feet from the margin of the river, and in the parallel of latitude was erected a square post 10 feet high surrounded by a mound of eight feet in height. On this post is inscribed on the south side a crown with the letter R underneath; on the north U. S., and the west fronting on the river, Agosto 18th, 1798. Lat. 31° N. In erecting the mile post, due regard was paid to the quantity of the offsets." Their second camp was at Little Bayou Sara. Thence on their progress at first was slow on account of the cane, twenty to thirty-five feet high, matted with vines, and the many short, steep hills, besides the rainy weather. They hardly averaged a quarter of a mile per day. The Choctaw Indians, through whose country they passed, never disturbed the party, however, therein contrasting with the Creeks beyond Mobile River the next year.