At half past ten on the morning of April 10, the travelers left St. Louis aboard the American Fur Company steamer Yellow Stone. The next day they arrived at St. Charles, Missouri, approximately twenty-five miles above the mouth of the Missouri River, where Pierre Chouteau and several women passengers disembarked to return by coach to St. Louis. Kenneth McKenzie and Major John Dougherty, Indian agent from Bellevue, came aboard for the next leg of the voyage upriver. Above St. Charles on April 12 the steamer made its way past Bonhomme Isle.