On June 26, 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the mouth of the Kansas and encamped on the north side, where they remained two days. In the journal of those days they referred to the Kansa, and said: "On the banks of the Kanzas reside the Indians of the same name, consisting of two villages, one at about twenty, the other forty leagues from its mouth, and amounting to about three hundred men. They once lived twenty-four leagues higher than the Kanzas [river], on the south bank of the Missouri.... This nation is now hunting in the plains for the buffaloe which our hunters have seen for the first time." (Lewis and Clark, (1), I, pp. 18-19.) A few days later, July 2, after advancing a short distance up the Missouri, above the mouth of the Kansas, they arrived at the site of an ancient village of the tribe. In the journal (p. 20) is this account: "Opposite our camp is a valley, in which was situated an old village of the Kansas, between two high points of land, and on the bank of the river. About a mile in the rear of the village was a small fort, built by the French on an elevation. There are now no traces of the village, but the situation of the fort may be recognized by some remains of chimnies, and the general outline of the fortification, as well as by the fine spring which supplied it with water." Three days later, July 5, 1804, while on the right bank of the Missouri, they "came along the bank of an extensive and beautiful prairie, interspersed with copses of timber, and watered by Independence creek. On this bank formerly stood the second village of the Kanzas; from the remains it must have been once a large town." (Op. cit., pp. 21-22.) The village mentioned by Lewis and Clark as standing on the banks of the Kansas River some 40 league above its confluence with the Missouri may have been the one visited and described by Maj. George C. Sibley during the summer of 1811. Sibley wrote in his journal: "The Konsee town is seated immediately on the north bank of the Konsee River, about one hundred miles by its course above its junction with the Missouri; in a beautiful prairie of moderate extent, which is nearly encircled by the River; one of its Northern branches (commonly called the Republican fork, which falls in a few hundred paces above the village) and a small creek that flows into the north branch. On the north and southwest it is overhung by a chain of high prairie hills which give a very pleasing effect to the whole scene.