24 May: Rain in the morning; warm. At seven thirty, 69°F [20.6°C]. The wind was out of the east. It cleared. We heard a partridge (quail) call on the beach. After eight o’clock we sailed past Columbia on the left below the mouth of the Manitu River [Moniteau Creek], a small river the size of the Wiedbach that flows out of picturesque forest banks. On the bank before the scattered town stood a large amount of cut wood, stacked for the steamboats. Individual tall trees—cottonwood and Platanus—covered the beach. The beautiful Bignonia radicans, now without flowers, entwined one of those trees with its strong stems. On the ground, Amorpha fruticosa bloomed; [it] was, however, in poor condition, because of the caterpillars. In the rocks of the forest, the cardinal (Fringilla cardinalis) appeared, red as a beet. Strong vines [were] entangled [around] the tall forest trunks. Curious people who had heard about our bears gathered in a crowd—but we departed and did not wait for them. The sky was cloudy, but the rain had stopped.

At noon, 90°F [32.2°C]. Later we saw the village of Marianne to our left. Beautiful rocks and uninterrupted forest adorned the banks all day long. About six o’clock [we arrived] at Jefferson City, the capital of the state of Missouri, where Governor Duncan [sic] lives. [It is] a small town built in a scattered fashion that has some nice brick houses. The house of the governor, though not large, has the best location—just above the bank with a view of the river. Cows grazed beside the house. The ground between houses in this village had not been cleared yet. Weeds grew high, and rock as well as dirt piles lay around; Datura grew everywhere in these wild, [uncleared] places. Hogs and cattle [roamed] between the houses of this town, which was [still] in the process of being built. We stopped here for a while to buy some provisions, but we could get just salt pork, biscuits, and whiskey. [There] were only a few schoolbooks in the so-called bookstore.

After half an hour, we sailed on. It was 12 miles to Cote Sans Dessein. A short distance farther downriver, we put ashore at the plantation of a certain Ramsey. Many Negroes were gathered on the bank; we bought chickens from them. Opposite the Osage River, we went ashore on the left bank and stayed overnight.