The government party gave their comrade powder, lead, and other articles that would be useful to him. Is this not evidence that he was in the best possible standing with the company? Indeed, he was an admirable embodiment of the American scout. He was a person of sturdy, athletic frame, above the average height. He was physically quick, alert, enduring, a fine shot, the ideal frontiersman. His greatest asset was an extraordinary coordination of thought and action. This balance, combined with an abundance of energy, made Colter particularly dynamic. Patient and loyal, he performed his duties faithfully. In tribute to him a creek tributary to the Clearwater River, near Lapwai, had already been named Colter Creek. In numerous references to him his associates did not once hint of any mean or selfish act. He was constantly possessed by good temper, and he was of the open-countenanced Daniel Boone type cast.[27] Surely Colter was fully qualified for high adventure because he was, indeed, a two-fisted man with the sinews of a bear and the surefootedness of a cougar. He was wholly unafraid of wild animals, savages, or elements. From August until the spring of 1807, this trio of Dickson, Hancock, and Colter trapped and traded along the upper Missouri. Then Colter gathered his pelts and started for St. Louis in a canoe. At the mouth of the Platte River, toward the end of June, he met Manuel Lisa.[28] They also struck up a friendship and bargain. Colter was still set for adventure and his new friend had such an assignment. In this meeting the strongest and boldest of the early American trappers of the West met the greatest Missourian trader. Upon hearing Manuel Lisa’s plans, the travel and weatherworn Colter turned westward for the second time, as a member of the Lisa party. Manuel Lisa proposed the establishment of posts on both sides of the Continental Divide. His plan was to send men along the course of every stream and out among the wandering tribes of Indians, until the commerce of the entire country was in the control of the Missouri Company. He had with him some of the most intrepid Kentucky and Tennessee hunters, rawboned backwoodsmen with their long-barrelled flintlocks, which they usually carried across their knees while on the boat. It was a larger undertaking than any before, and he needed fighters who were experienced and daring from the start.