In early July 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition moved up the Missouri River past the hardest stretch between the Grand and Kansas rivers, but heat and a strong current still made progress difficult. Sgt. Charles Floyd wrote on July 3 that the water was so strong the party could hardly stem it, and two days later the keelboat spun around three times, twice on shifting sand and once on floating driftwood called embarras. On the evening of July 4, 1804, the party camped at a stream on the west bank that they named Independence Creek, where William Clark admired the beautiful open plains, hills, valleys, grass, and scattered trees of the tallgrass prairie landscape of western Missouri and eastern Kansas. The camp at Independence Creek was also the site of an old and extensive abandoned Kansa Indian village, the second abandoned Kansa village site the expedition had seen in recent days. To trade with the Kansa, the French had built a trading post that the boats passed on July 3; Sgt. John Ordway recorded that a French merchant from St. Louis founded it. Near the trading post, Clark found a very fat and gentle horse apparently lost by Indians, and it was added to the three used by the hunters. To celebrate the Fourth of July, the party ended the day with a discharge from the bow piece and an extra gill of whiskey, giving each man a half-pint. The expedition carried hundreds of pounds of Indian trade goods because it expected to meet many Indian nations on the way to the Pacific Ocean. Under President Thomas Jefferson's plan, its mission was to befriend tribes, make peace among them, announce that the American president was their new leader after the purchase of Louisiana Territory, and lay a foundation for exclusive fur trade within the territory. Reciprocal gift-giving was essential for relations with Indians, the expedition expected to trade for food and supplies, and Lewis and Clark needed to impress future trading partners with the quality and quantity of their goods. Lewis bought most of the trade items in St. Louis and Philadelphia, but in the end the expedition fell short and had little of value to offer in trade on the 1806 return to St. Louis.