23d. — Yesterday  evening  we  reached  our  encampment  at
Rock  Independence,  where  I  took  some  astronomical  observa-
tions. Here,  not  unmindful  of  the  custom  of  early  travelers
and  explorers  in  our  country,  I  engraved  on  this  rock  of  the
Far  West  a  symbol  of  the  Christian  faith.  Among  the  thickly
inscribed  names,  I  made  oil  the  hard  granite  the  impression  of
a  large  cross,  which  I  covered  with  a  black  preparation  of
India-rubber,  well  calculated  to  resist  the  influence  of  wind
and  rain.  It  stands  amidst  the  names  of  many  who  ha^'e  Ions
since  found  their  way  to  the  grave,  and  for  whom  the  huge
rock  is  a  giant  gravestone.
One  George  Weymouth  was  sent  out  to  Maine  by  the
Earl  of  Southampton,  Lord  Arundel,  and  others ;  and  in  the
narrative  of  their  discoveries,  he  says :  "  The  next  day  we
ascended  in  our  pinnace  that  part  of  the  river  which  lies  more
to  the  westward,  carrying  with  us  a  cross — a  thing  never
omitted  by  any  Christian  traveler — which  we  erected  at  the
ultimate  end  of  our  route."  This  was  in  the  year  1605  ;  and
in  1842  I  obeyed  the  feeling  of  early  travelers,  and  left  the
impression  of  the  cross  deeply  engraved  on  the  vast  rock  one
thousand  miles  beyond  the  Mississippi,  to  which  discoverers
have  given  the  national  name  of  Rock  Indej)endence.
In  obedience  to  my  instructions  to  survey  the  river  Platte,
if  .possible,  I  had  determined  to  make  an  attempt  at  this  place.
