The territory of Iowa was still disputed for by squatters and Indians.  These latter, who exceeded the whites in number, belonged to a great tribe, both turbulent and warlike, the Saxes and the Foxes.  They were at peace with the Government at the time I speak of, but a deputation of their chiefs, numbering thirty or forty, came on board our boat, on their way to Washington, where they desired to lay their grievances before the President.  They arrived on board in full war paint, their faces painted half red and half yellow, and their heads dressed, like a cuirassier’s helmet, with horsehair and big feathers, their bodies naked, but hung about with baubles, their legs thrust into leather breeches, and big blankets over all.  Their squaws were with them.  They were ugly, but the men were splendid, with the most resolute and impassive countenances.  They behaved with the greatest dignity while on board, and never showed any excitement except just as we were passing by the confluence of the Missouri with the Mississippi.  Whether it was some superstitious feeling that attached itself to that spot, or the impression made on them by the grandeur of the scene, the meeting of the two great rivers forming a sort of lake, lighted up by a splendid sunset, I know not, but they all assembled in the stern of the boat, and repeated a sort of invocatory prayer.  It was a perfect picture.

I did no more than pass through St. Louis, already a large town and the capital of Ohio.  An accident happened to us as we were going up the Ohio ("La Belle Riviere” of our forefathers), such as does not occur nowadays, when the Federal Government has caused the engineer regiments, which add to their other functions those of our “ponts et chaussees,” a simple and economical plan, worthy of general imitation, to clear the rivers of their different obstructions.  We were snagged.

Herewith I explain the expression and the fact.  As a consequence of inundations and falling in of banks and such like, many big trees had, from time immemorial, been carried down the American rivers.  Many of these trees had ended by catching in the river beds by their roots.  Stripped of their branches, and sharpened to a point by the action of the water, and bent sloping by the current, they formed, as it were, huge invisible subaqueous chevaux de frise, on which steamers going up stream frequently impaled themselves, and this often to the destruction of the ship and great loss of life.  We ran against one of these trees, somewhat sideways luckily for us, but it stood up on end, and amid a frightful noise, and a little momentary consternation, carried away one paddle box and wheel.  A snag is only one of the numerous sources of accident in American river navigation.  But one soon gets accustomed to the carelessness of danger which characterises the Americans, and on the whole travelling on their river steamers is very pleasant.  The sleeping cabins are invariably clean and comfortable.  On certain boats some are very elegant.  I have seen wedding cabins, that is to say cabins decorated all over with mirrors and brilliantly lighted up, intended for couples on their wedding journey.  And truth compels me to state that the strict regularity of these honeymoon couples is not too severely inquired into.