3 June: About noon we went on board the steamboat Metamora. Messrs. Chouteau, Lamont, and Ortley accompanied and escorted us. We [went] swiftly down the beautiful Mississippi. The riverbanks were clad now in the most sumptuous green; the grassy elevations and forests alternated with rocks. Before nightfall we reached Chester [Illinois]. The night was dark; we put ashore.