“A Report of an Exploration of the Country Lying between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains on the Line of the Kansas and Great Platte Rivers,” by John Charles Frémont, March 1, 1843, page 6

These pages recount the party’s fording of the Kansas River near present-day Topeka on June 14, 1842, four days after setting out just west of the Missouri border. After riding and driving the animals across, the party used their inflatable rubber boat to ferry their provisions.

On the seventh and last trip, Frémont describes how the boat capsized spilling carts, boxes, and barrels into the water. Most were recovered; but almost the entire provision of coffee was lost—a loss that would be often and mournfully remembered.

The first nineteen pages of the report, including these, are in the hand of Jessie Benton Frémont.

National Archives, Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers