DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY ABOUT NEW HARMONY IN INDIANA, AND WINTER
RESIDENCE THERE FROM OCTOBER 19TH, 1832, TO MARCH 16TH, 1833
New Harmony on the Wabash--The
Environs--Forests--Animals--Geological
Formation--Climate--Aborigines--Remains of the former
Population--The present Indians--The White Usurpers--Cultivation
of the Country--Productions--Breed of Cattle--Buffaloes--The
Naturalists at Harmony--Excursions--Fox River--Black River--Long
Pond--The present sanitary State of the Country.
New Harmony was founded by Mr. Rapp, and his Swabian followers, in a
wooded plain on the left or east bank of the Wabash, about fifteen or
twenty miles distant from any other place. As Duke Bernhard of Saxe
Weimar has already spoken on this subject, I need not give any further
account of the history of this settlement; I will only add that Mr.
Owen, a Scotchman, bought the whole of Mr. Rapp, but afterwards
disposed of it to Mr. William Maclure, President of the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.[83] At the time of our visit,
Harmony had fallen into decay, and the people whom Mr. Maclure had
settled there, were in part dispersed. Two sons of Mr. Owen were,
however, still here, and also Mr. Thomas Say, and Mr. Lesueur; the
first, well known as having accompanied Major Long in his two journeys
into the interior, and the second, by his voyage round the world with
Captain Baudin, and the celebrated Piron. Though Mr. Maclure did not
appear to take any active part in the management of Harmony, because
the climate did not agree with him, and he therefore resided in
Mexico, he took care to furnish Mr. Say with a fine library of books
on Natural History, which was constantly enriched with the most
valuable new works published in Europe. He likewise had here a
printing press, a copper-plate press, and an engraver. Mr. Maclure had
purchased in France all the plates of Audebert and Vieillot's splendid
ornithological works, which are preserved in the library.[84] Mr. Say
has undertaken the superintendence of Mr. Maclure's property on the
Wabash, but lives in a very retired manner, devoted to the study of
natural history, and to literary pursuits.
[pg. 75] Harmony is now a large village, with about 600 inhabitants; the
buildings, which are partly of brick, are detached from each other;
the streets are at right angles, broad, and unpaved. The church built
by Mr. Rapp has been transformed into an amateur theatre. The
situation of Harmony is by no means unpleasant. The Wabash, a fine
river, as broad as the Moselle, winds between banks which are now
cultivated, but were lately covered with thick forests. A hilly tract,
covered with woods, bounds the valley of the Wabash, which is
frequently overflowed by the river, and thereby gains in fertility.
The place itself lies rather higher than the valley, surrounded by
orchards, and is not exposed to inundations. The Wabash divides at
Harmony into two arms, the eastern of which is called Cutoff
River,[85] and further down into several branches, forming many wooded
islands, the largest of which are inhabited.
New Harmony,[86] is surrounded on all sides by fields, which are from
600 to 800 paces in diameter; all around are lofty forests, where
settlers have everywhere cultivated detached patches. These people are
generally called backwoodsmen, who live like half savages, without any
education or religious instruction. The forests which they inhabit are
very extensive, and the soil extremely fertile: vegetation is much
more luxuriant than to the east of the Alleghanys; and, therefore, a
short description of the natural productions of the country will not
be out of place here.
Some remarkable peculiarities strike the observer when he looks at the
forests on the Wabash; one of these is the want of evergreens, if we
except the _Viscum flavescens_, _Pursh_, _Bignonia cruciata_,
_Equisetum hyemale_, and _Miegia macrosperma_. The leaves of that
bignonia, for the most part, remain green in the winter, as well as
those of the miegia, and the stalks of the _Equisetum hyemale_, at
least, in mild winters, which often grow to the height of eight or ten
feet in the dry forests. The planes often attain an enormous size, and
are then generally hollow, and divided into several colossal branches.
We measured several of these trees, and found one that was forty one
feet five inches in circumference. The hollow inside was twelve feet
in diameter, so that in our winter excursions we used to light a fire
in it, where we sheltered from the wind. Tall tulip trees shoot up
straight as masts, blossom, and bear seeds at their summits, unseen by
human eye. Maples of great height and circumference, many species of
oak, especially the mossy overcap oak (_Q. macrocarpa_), with its
large acorns, which, at this time, lay on the ground, stand crowded
together. A great many species of trees are mixed together; among them
the _Gymnocladus Canadensis_, or _Guilandina Bonduc_, with its broad
pods, the divers kinds of walnut trees, the _Gleditschia tricanthos_,
with its formidable thorns; and many climbing plants twine round the
trunks, and among them, the most beautiful of all, the _Bignonia
radicans_.
In the forests of Indiana the ground is covered with a thick
undergrowth, fifteen, twenty, or thirty feet high, consisting chiefly
of the papaw tree, the spinewood (_Laurus Benzoin_), and the red bud;
the flowers of the two latter precede the leaf. Under these lower
trees, shrubs cover [pg. 76] the ground. No pine, rhododendron, kalmia,
azalea, magnolia, nor even the chestnut tree, are found in these
forests; but they seem to be especially the native country of the
beautiful catalpa tree, of which it was not known in what part of
America it properly grew wild, and which here attains a considerable
height and size.
These lofty forests re-echo with the hammering of the numerous
woodpeckers; and, during the winter, the scarlet cardinal (_Fring.
cardinalis_) shines in the distance; and the titmouse (_Parus.
bicolor_, and _Atricapillus_), and the nuthatch (_Sitta
Carolinensis_), everywhere seek for insects and nuts.
The inhabitants of these forests would never be in want of an ample
supply of wood for fuel and for timber, if they had been at all
careful. The black walnut and cherry tree wood are the best for
cabinet work; and for fuel, the hickory, which affords more heat than
beech wood. The price of wood, at Harmony, was one dollar for a cord;
but the price is already rising, because the forest in the
neighbourhood of the village is gradually cleared, and the carriage is
more expensive.
There are several kinds of officinal plants in the vicinity of
Harmony; ginseng (_Panax_) grows close by the village, and its roots
are still in request, but not so much as formerly. Another plant of
the woods of Indiana, which is much esteemed, is the spurious Colombo
root; likewise the peppermint, which grows in every part of the United
States. The wax tree (_Myrica cerifera_), of the berries of which the
green, fragrant tapers are made, does not grow in Indiana, but is
found on the whole east coast, from New Jersey to Florida. A kind of
bark, which is now much used, is that of the slippery elm (_Ulmus
rubra_): if chewed, or softened for a moment in water, it dissolves
into a viscous slime, and is found very useful in dressing wounds, as
it is cooling, and allays the inflammation. It is said to have been
applied with success in cholera, and is now sold, in powder, in all
the apothecaries' shops. A teaspoonful of this bark, in boiling water,
makes a very useful beverage, which is sweetened with sugar, and has
the same effect as linseed. Michaux has given a print of this elm, and
it would be desirable to cultivate it in our gardens.
The country on the banks of the Wabash is as interesting to the
zoologist as to the botanist; formerly there were great numbers of the
bison or buffalo of the Anglo-Americans, the elk,[87] bear, and
beaver; but they are now entirely extirpated. The Virginian deer is
still pretty numerous, but is daily becoming more scarce: when Mr.
Rapp first settled here, seventy of these deer were shot, in a day, in
one of the Wabash islands. The wolf is still common, and seems to
differ but little from the European, but is a different species from
the wolf of the prairies of the Missouri; [pg. 77] it is said that there
is a black wolf in the prairies of Illinois, which may, perhaps, be a
distinct species. Of foxes, I saw only the grey, though the red fox is
said to be found here. In the works that treat of the natural history
of North America, there are many errors. The racoon is common in the
forests of Harmony, and is never seen in the daytime; it is hunted in
the night with dogs, which drive it into a tree. It does not sleep
through the winter, for I often obtained it in that season. The
opossum is also common, and lives much in the same manner as the
racoon. The polecat, the otter, and the mink are common; the pine
marten is said to be sometimes seen; the ermine is not rare in the
prairies of Illinois. The marmot, or ground hog, grows to a
considerable size, and is found in the islands of the Wabash; the
musk-rat abounds in all the rivers. The rabbit, as it is called
(_Lepus Americanus_), is nowhere so common as in Europe, yet is found
in all parts of the country. Of squirrels there are many species.
The most interesting of the birds of this part is the wild turkey,
which was formerly extremely numerous, and is still pretty common. A
large cock was sold at Harmony for a quarter of a dollar. A young man
in the neighbourhood, who supplied the place with this delicate game,
had often ten or fifteen hanging about his horse at the same time. The
pheasant or heathcock is found in these forests, but in no great
numbers. The prairie hen is common in the prairies of Illinois, and
comes in large flocks to the neighbourhood of Harmony, as soon as the
cold weather and snow set in. Partridges abound, and so do parrots
(_Psitt. Carolinensis_) which remain here during the winter. No other
kind of parrot seems to bear so great a degree of cold as this. We
often saw them flying about in the forests, feeding on the fruit of
the plane, when Reaumur's thermometer was at 11 deg. below zero. In the
mild climate of the Ohio and Wabash they remain all the year through.
They are amusing birds in a cage, and become very tame.
There are but few species of amphibia in the country about Harmony.
Soft shell turtles and several kinds of _emys_ are numerous, such as
the snapping turtle (_E. serpentina_), likewise _E. geographica_,
_picta_, _pulchella_, &c.
There are several lizards, but no great number of species. The
rattle-snake is seldom seen, this country not being sufficiently dry
and stony; the copper-head, on the contrary, is said not to be rare,
but I cannot speak with certainty. The hognose-snake is very common.
There are many kinds of adder in the Wabash that are not venomous.
The proteus (_Menobranchus lateralis_, Harl.) of the Ohio, and of the
great Canadian lakes, is found in the Wabash. The rude inhabitants
have many superstitious notions and fables respecting several kinds of
animals, especially serpents. Of the glass-snake (_Ophisaurus
ventralis_), which easily breaks to pieces, they say, that when the
pieces are placed together, they immediately unite: they affirm that
the horn-snake, which has a horn or sting at the end of its tail,
takes it in its mouth, and then runs along like a hoop; and that if it
passes a tree it wounds it with its sting, which always makes the tree
die. Mr. Thomas Say was once informed that a [pg. 78] planter had
brought one of these snakes, and would prove the truth of this
assertion. He sent for the man, and found that he had the tail of one
of these snakes carefully wrapped up. Mr. Say asked him whether he
must die if he pricked himself with this horn? The man answered
"undoubtedly." Mr. Say immediately pricked himself with the horn and
drew blood, but was not affected by it; and the impostor, who affirmed
that he had witnessed the effects of the sting, excused himself by
saying that he had been deceived by a neighbour who gave him the
snake. The inhabitants of the country generally believe that venomous
serpents sting both with the tongue and with the tail, that they
fascinate other animals, an old, long since refuted fable, which,
however, is occasionally revived in American journals, with other
stories of a similar kind.
There are many kinds of fish in the Wabash, on the whole the same as
in the Ohio and the Mississippi: the cat-fish is said sometimes to
weigh above 100 lbs. Several species of sturgeon and pikes are found
here; the horn-fish, the buffalo (_Catastomus carpioles_), a large
fish resembling the carp, &c. The remarkable paddle-fish is likewise
met with, but not frequently, nor in all the rivers. Mr. Lesueur has
given it the name of _ptalyrostra_, and has sent several specimens of
it to Paris. This naturalist, during his long residence at Harmony,
has very carefully studied this branch of zoology. He possesses a
large collection of drawings and descriptions of this class, and
specimens, for the most part stuffed. He has presented many of them to
the National Museum at Paris; and it was his intention soon to visit
Europe, and publish his observations on this subject, which will form
an important supplement to the great work of Cuvier and Valenciennes.
The bivalve shells (_Unio_, _Alasmodon_, and _Anodonta_), of which
there are a great many different species, some of them very large and
beautiful, are an interesting portion of the natural productions of
the Ohio, the Wabash, and the tributary streams, especially Fox River.
Several American naturalists have written on this subject. Mr. Say,
who was the first, states the number of species of these bivalves at
forty-four. He would have given descriptions and drawings of all the
species existing in this country, as well on land as in the rivers, in
his natural history of the North American testacea, had not death
called him from this world, too soon for his friends and for science.
He died on the 10th of October, 1834, soon after I had left him in
good health on my second visit to Harmony. This part of the country
has two species of crustacea (_Astacus Bartoni_, Bosc.), and (_Astacus
affinis_, Say), which are here called craw-fish. These are the only
large species of crustacea, but there are many smaller ones. Mr. Say,
by many years' study, made himself fully acquainted with the insects.
It is remarkable that the bee, which was brought to America by the
Europeans, is now common in all the forests; the Indians are said to
call this insect the white-man's fly. Many beautiful butterflies and
moths adorn the woods of Indiana.
The eminences about Harmony are of secondary formation, with a basis
of limestone, and upon that, strata of sandstone, clay-slate and
indurated clay. The land in the neighbourhood of [pg. 79] Harmony is
extremely fertile. The fields are not manured for many successive
years, and produce the finest crops; such land, however, in good
situations, is no longer cheap. The climate is salubrious, and the
inhabitants attain a great age. The winters are generally mild; the
changes of temperature are often very great and rapid. The cholera has
not yet visited this country. We arrived at the season called the
Indian summer, when, with a temperature of +16 deg. to 17 deg. Reaumur,
the atmosphere was gloomy and misty. Most persons experience, at this
season, irregularities in the digestive organs, and head-ache. Poeppig
gives a very accurate account of the North American autumn, and Mrs.
Trollope felt the peculiar effect of this warm autumnal weather on
strangers; it is, however, very remarkable that this state of the
atmosphere in the Ohio Valley quickly put an end to the cholera, on
which Dr. Daniel Drake wrote an essay.[88] The weather in the
wintertime is generally bright and clear; sometimes there are fogs,
and hoar frost, which encrusts the trees with the most beautiful
crystals: parhelia and aurora borealis are frequently seen. On the
14th of December we had a tremendous thunder-storm at daybreak;
Reaumur's thermometer was at +2 deg.; the rain, thunder, and lightning
were equally violent; the latter covered the heavens with a sheet of
fire, and was extremely dazzling; the thunder resembled a discharge of
artillery. We were told that, in the preceding year, 1831, the weather
had been exceedingly unhealthy, and the inhabitants even affirmed that
wounds would not heal.
Like the whole of the interior of North America, the country on the
Wabash has still numerous traces of a very early extinct original
population, of which even the present Indians have no traditions, and
whose remains have been spoken of by many writers. Warden, in his
account of the United States, and more particularly in the great work,
entitled "Antiquites Mexicaines," has mentioned such remains in all
the states, and collected much information on this subject. Here, too,
in the neighbourhood of Harmony, there are ancient tumuli, which,
externally, are exactly similar to those which are everywhere found in
our German forests. Lesueur had examined many of these tumuli, and
sent part of the articles found in them to France. Some of the most
considerable tumuli were found on the spot, near the back of the
village, where Rapp made his churchyard, and which is now planted with
acacias. The bones of the Swabian peasants are here mingled with
those of the aboriginal Indians. Lesueur dug through some of those
tumuli, which are now much levelled, and covered with greensward, and
found a right-angled oblong parallelogram, level at the bottom, formed
of large flat stones, set edgewise, and likewise covered over with
similar stones. Some decayed bones were found in it, of which I
received a considerable number from Mr. Lesueur, and sent them to Mr.
Blumenbach, at Goettingen.[89] This mode of interment is not that of
the present Indians, who themselves affirm that these tumuli were made
by the whites. Most of the skulls which were found were without the
bones of the face, and all were very much decayed. The race of men to
which they belonged were not smaller than those now existing, and,
consequently, afford no evidence of a dwarfish race, which has been
fabulously [pg. 80] ascribed to America. Potsherds were found in many of
the tumuli; they were made of a grey clay, and in general marked with
stripes, or rings; it would appear that they had been moulded in a
cloth, or basket, as they were marked with similar impressions, or
figures. Mr. Lesueur has seen unbroken vessels of this kind, which
were large, very flat, and had figured handles. Broken shells are
frequently found intermixed with the dark grey clay of these vessels.
In one of the tumuli was found, together with the human bones, the
jawbones of an animal of the stag kind; in others, battle-axes,
arrow-heads, and tobacco-pipe heads of clay, different in form from
those now used in Indiana.
One of these pipes was in the shape of a squatting frog, the mouth
serving for the tobacco; some of them are represented in the
accompanying woodcuts.[90] Some of the most interesting articles found
in and near these graves, are the narrow, oblong, square pieces of
flint, which those nations made use of instead of knives. They are
from two to two inches and a half long, and scarcely half an inch
broad; very thin and very sharp on all the four sides. Several of
these knives were discovered near New Harmony, and Mr. Lesueur found
one during my stay there. There is a very remarkable coincidence of
these knives with the perfectly similar instruments of obsidian or
volcanic glass, which are found, even now, in Mexico, some of which
Mr. T. Say brought with him, from his journey to that country, and
wrote a paper respecting them.[91] In the [pg. 81] forty-eighth plate, I
have represented the two kinds of stone knives together, as they seem
to testify the affinity of the aborigines of the interior of North
America with those of Mexico, which is supported by other reasons.
[Illustration: Indian pipes]
About fifteen miles from Harmony, lower down the Wabash, is a part of
the bank known by the name of the Bone Bank, where the river has
partly cut through a hill, or laid it bare, in which there are numbers
of human bones seen imbedded in the bank. Mr. Lesueur sent a perfect
skull from this spot to Blumenbach. An old tree having fallen down on
this place, he saw under the roots an entire human skeleton; this,
therefore, was undoubtedly a burying-place. While the observer deeply
regrets that he is wholly without information respecting these
remarkable remains of antiquity, he feels that the present white
population of North America may justly be reproached for neglecting or
destroying them. Nobody in Harmony was able to give any account of the
names of the Indian tribes who inhabited the country at the time when
this village was founded. One of the first settlers of the country
about Mount Vernon, who had grown up in Kentucky among the Indians,
but had removed, in 1806, to the forests on the Lower Wabash--where at
that time there were no white settlers--had been well acquainted with
the Indians about Harmony, and frequently visited them in their huts.
He was the only man who was able to give me any information about
them. He called them Muskoghe Indians; this name, however, seems to be
incorrect. They lived in this part of the country till 1810; but in
the year preceding the battle of Tippekanoe they all removed, and did
not return. They were not numerous, and lived chiefly about the mouth
of the Wabash, and on the Big Creek.[92] They were a good-looking,
robust race; wore a kind of apron, and had bows and arrows, in the
use of which they were very expert. They had among them thirty or
forty indifferent guns; they smoked Sumach leaves in wooden pipes,[93]
the tube of which was made of cane. Their huts, at the mouth of the
Wabash, were composed of large bundles of reeds, lined inside with
deer-skins. Many of these Indians fastened their pipes to the
tomahawk. Their heads were shorn, with the exception of a tuft at the
back, like the Indians of the Mississippi and Lower Missouri. They
coloured their faces with red paint. To the whites they were friendly,
visited the first settlers in their dwellings, and reposed around
their hearths, especially in bad weather. At that time there were elks
and beavers, yet in no great numbers; but bears and wolves in
abundance. My informant had killed many bears, and great numbers of
wild turkeys.
[pg. 82] The early history of Indiana mentions, as the inhabitants of
this State, when the French first settled here, the Kickapoos,
Musquitons, Potanons, and some other nations, remnants of which are
still to be found at the sources of the Wabash, as well as the
Piankishaws, Miamis, and Viandots. In the year 1804, a treaty was
concluded with them at Vincennes for the purchase of the lands between
the Wabash and the Ohio, after which they emigrated.[94] Some
well-informed inhabitants of Harmony, who, at the time of the Indiana
emigration, when the United States had repeatedly bought land of those
people, saw the several dislodged tribes pass through this country,
assured me that the character of their physiognomy was often
essentially different; and I myself found this confirmed both in North
and South America; though the fundamental features of the American
race are everywhere the same. All these Indians are now totally
extirpated or expelled from Indiana, and the country enjoys the
advantage of being peopled by the backwoodsmen.
The fertile and salubrious country of Harmony has attracted a great
number of settlers, who have begun to thin the great forests of
Indiana. These settlers are usually called backwoodsmen, because they
live in the remote forests. They are a robust, rough race of men, of
English or Irish origin. They dwell very isolated, scattered in the
forests, and but seldom come to the towns, only when business calls
them. There is a school at Harmony where the children learn to read
and write; two dollars are paid quarterly, and the children receive
instruction in the morning and afternoon; but in the country the young
people grow up without any education, and are, probably, no better
than the Indians themselves. In the Western States, the sixteenth
section of the Congress land (_i. e._, land belonging to the
Government) is always assigned for the benefit of the schools, but is
not always employed according to the first intention. At this time
there was in the state of Indiana only one college; it was at Blooming
Town.[95] There was no clergyman at Harmony, and, with the exception
of the meetings of some religious sects, the inhabitants were
destitute of both religious and school instruction. Business, or
festive occasions, bring the backwoodsmen into the town, where they
indulge their love of whisky, which generally retards their return
homeward. They have a good race of horses, and are bold horsemen; even
the women are frequently seen on the saddle, and whole families travel
in this way--man, woman, and child ofttimes mounted on the same beast.
There is nothing characteristic in their costume, like the original
dresses which are met with in the country in Germany; but they wear a
medley, and bad imitation of all the fashions of English towns; caps,
felt and straw hats, frocks, great-coats, plaids, &c. The women, too,
endeavour to imitate the fashions of the towns, wear large hats with
loose veils, and gaudy plaid mantles, which, altogether, have often a
most ludicrous effect in these remote forests. The winter dress of the
men is often not ill chosen, though perfectly novel to a stranger. At
that season they wear great-coats made of the common woollen
horsecloths, white or green, with gay stripes on the collar, cuffs,
and pockets; [pg. 83] nay, some are striped all over like zebras: such a
coat, of the commonest kind, cannot be had here for less than eight or
ten dollars. Noisy parties of these people frequently assemble at the
public-houses of Harmony, gather round the fire, and let the whisky
circulate briskly, while their horses are frequently left the whole
day, standing in the street, amid rain and snow. On Sunday, which is
kept by many of the inhabitants, though there is no divine service,
they are more decently clad, wash their faces, and make some attempt
at putting their hair in order, which hangs dishevelled about their
faces. The young men often went to the chase, others played in the
streets, generally at ball, but a great number remained at their work,
and the peasants and farmers, with their huge wagons, followed their
usual occupations. On certain days, especially when a magistrate, a
president, or a governor was to be chosen, all were gathered together,
for they all take great interest in the government of the country, and
would not, on any account, renounce the privilege which, in their
estimation, makes them important statesmen. On such election days,
whole troops of them ride into the town; the streets are crowded with
their horses, which are tied up, and the whisky-shops resound with
their tumultuous discussions. Every man gives his vote; disputes
arise; and, as in the Polish diets, their excited passions frequently
lead to blows. They are all great politicians, and some of them are
well acquainted with the newspapers. In the winter, as soon as snow
fell, sledge parties commenced at Harmony. Six or eight persons were
on separate seats, two and two together, upon one sledge; others
amused themselves with skating, for which, however, they had not much
opportunity in the winter of 1832-3. There were frequent balls at the
inns; on New Year's Eve they literally danced the whole night through.
Agriculture is still in its infancy about New Harmony, and the people
depend on the extraordinary fertility of the soil. In the immediate
vicinity of the town land is not cheap, having already risen to
fifteen dollars per acre; whereas, at the distance of two miles, there
was still a considerable quantity of Congress land, which might be had
at one dollar per acre. There was a tax of fifty cents, or half a
dollar,[96] on every quarter of a square mile of land. What is called
Congress land, is frequently taken possession of, for a time, by new
comers, who have no right to it. They fell the wood, erect their huts,
and nobody hinders them in their proceedings till the lawful owner
ejects them, who has purchased the land of the Government. A square
mile of [pg. 84] Congress land was still to be had for 100 dollars; but
these lands are subject to the periodical inundations of the Wabash,
when the farmers are obliged to fly with all their effects to more
elevated stations. They have then to look for their cattle in the
great forests, and drive them away; but they cannot always find all
the animals, many of which perish. The fertility of the soil is
increased by these inundations. Congress land which was not exposed to
inundation, could be bought for one dollar twenty-five cents per acre.
This high water is said often to present an interesting scene. Hogs
and other animals, even the opossum, have been found on low trees,
where they had sought protection.
The chief vegetable production of this part of the country is maize,
which grows to the height of twelve or thirteen feet; the ears are
very large and heavy; I found some weighing fourteen to fifteen
ounces, and nearly three inches in diameter, in which I counted above
1,000 grains. They ripen in September, October, November, and
December, and are often left standing through the winter, till wanted
for use. There are fifteen varieties of this important plant; one
kind, called sweet corn, is particularly good when roasted in an
unripe state. It is calculated that the best soil will yield 100
bushels of corn per acre. Very good cakes and bread are prepared of
maize flour, and there are many other ways of dressing it. When
boiled with milk it is called mush. All living creatures in this
country subsist, almost exclusively, on this invaluable production.
When the whites arrived in America numerous Indian tribes subsisted on
it; quadrupeds, birds, nay, even fish, are fond of it. At the places
where the flat boats, laden with maize, land, the fish collect and
assemble in great numbers, and fall an easy prey to the fishermen. At
this time the corn was sold at six and a half cents per bushel at
Harmony; whereas, on the frontiers of Canada, two dollars were paid
for it. Living is, consequently, very cheap on the banks of the
Wabash. The maize is brought to market in large wagons, drawn by four
oxen, and a considerable quantity is thence sent by water carriage.
Other kinds of grain--wheat, rye, barley, and oats--which ripen in
June, are likewise cultivated. Barley is grown for the brewers; and
oats, in considerable quantities, for the horses. Potatoes, too, are
extensively cultivated, but they are by no means so good and mealy as
in Germany. There is a great variety of culinary vegetables. There are
abundance of apples, but not many pears, which do not thrive; peaches
are good, and very productive; quantities fall to the ground, where
they are consumed by the hogs; plums and cherries are rarely grown;
the latter are not so good as in Europe, but very fruitful. The vine
was formerly cultivated, but it is now quite neglected. According to
Warden, cotton is grown at Vincennes, Princetown, and Harmony, but
this does not seem to be the case at present. This plant does not
thrive beyond the 31st degree of latitude. The inhabitants grow hemp
and flax for their own consumption, and some tobacco; bad cigars are
made at Harmony, and, in general, good tobacco is rarely to be met
with in the United States. Maple sugar is manufactured in great
abundance in Indiana. Warden says that, in 1810, 50,000 lbs. [pg. 85]
were made in this State, and, at present, it was worth seven or eight
cents a pound. Many of the inhabitants obtain, in the spring, about
100 lbs. of this sugar. In this part of the country the corn is not
thrashed, but generally trodden out by horses; a very imperfect
process, which appears to have originated in the times of the ancient
Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans.
Next to agriculture the breeding of cattle is an important object
among the backwoodsmen; but is likewise ill understood. The breed of
swine furnishes the principal supply for food and exportation, great
quantities of pork being sent to New Orleans. Mr. Owen had established
a whisky distillery, and fattened the swine on the refuse. About 1,500
barrels of whisky, worth ten dollars a barrel, were made every year in
Mr. Owen's distillery. Great numbers of swine are in the woods of
Indiana, far from all human dwellings, where they grow very fat by the
abundance of oak and beech mast. They are of a reddish brown colour,
with round black spots; there are some quite wild, which anybody is at
liberty to shoot. These animals are never housed, even in the vicinity
of Harmony. We observed them, in our excursions, in the depth of
winter, when the young ones often perish with cold; and we also saw
them eaten by the mothers. Dead swine were lying about in all
directions, partly devoured by others. The negligence and want of
feeling with which the animals are treated, are very great; and,
accordingly, the breed of cattle can never flourish. The cattle, which
are very fine, are kept in the open air day and night, amidst ice and
snow, with which their backs are covered; the same may be said of the
horses; nay, in cold moonlight nights, we saw these animals standing
in the street, near their master's dwelling, as if they hoped to be
let in. The animals are generally fed in the morning with maize, and a
woman usually appears at an early hour, in her plaid, to milk the
cows.
The cattle of this country are large and handsome, very hardy, and do
not differ in figure or colour from those of Germany; no food is given
them in winter but the dry leaves of maize. No clover or other forage
is cultivated, so that the cattle and horses are confined to straw,
the bark of trees, and the green reed, miegia, which forms a thick
underwood in the forests on the Wabash. Everywhere one sees the bark
and twigs gnawed, and even the fruit trees are often damaged in this
manner. Horses and cattle frequently starve to death in the winter. I
was told that the animals gnaw, in preference, the nettle-tree
(_Celtis occidentalis_), the hack-berry (_Celtis crassifolia_), and
the sugar maple. It is remarkable that the swine, which otherwise
refuse no species of fruit, will not touch that of the papaw tree
(_Asimina_). All the beef in this country is of a bad quality,
because, as I have said, no forage is cultivated. In Pennsylvania it
is quite the reverse; there a great deal of clover is grown, and the
beef is, consequently, good. In Indiana pork is said to be much better
and easier of digestion than to the east of the Alleghanys. We saw but
few sheep, and no goats, at Harmony. There were plenty of geese and
domestic fowls, but only a few tame ducks.
The mode of tilling the ground for the different kinds of grain, has
been described by [pg. 86] many travellers; I will therefore merely
observe that the plough is different in its construction from that
used in Germany, and that the oxen are attached to it by a very
peculiar yoke, which consists of a long, thick, crooked piece of wood,
which is laid horizontally over the necks of the two oxen, with two
bows underneath, through which the heads of the animals are put.[97]
[Illustration: Neck-yoke and plow]
My stay at New Harmony, which was at first intended to be only for a
few days, was prolonged by serious indisposition, nearly resembling
cholera, to a four months' winter residence. At any other place in
this country I should have extremely regretted such a loss of time,
but here I derived much instruction and entertainment from my
intercourse with two highly-informed men, Mr. Thomas Say and Mr.
Lesueur, who, during my two months' illness, gave me constant proofs
of kindness, and endeavoured to make our time pass agreeably and
usefully. I received also much kindness from other estimable families,
Messrs. Owen (who were educated by Fellenberg, in Switzerland), Mr.
Maclure and his sister, and Mr. Twigg. My walks and hunting excursions
with the two naturalists were very instructive. Mr. Say's house was in
a garden, where he cultivated many interesting plants of the interior
of Western America. I there saw a large _Maclura aurantiaca_
(Nuttall), the bow or yellow wood, or Osage orange, from the river
Arkansas, of the wood of which many Indian tribes make their bows. It
is a prickly tree, with very tough wood. There was one at St. Louis,
in the garden of Mr. Pierre Chouteau, which did not, however,
flourish.[98] Dr. Pitcher had the kindness to give me some of the
seeds of this tree, [pg. 87] which, however, have not succeeded. In Mr.
Say's garden I likewise saw _Euphorbia marginata_, from Arkansas,
several beautiful _phlox_; and the _Lonicera sempervirens_ was laden
with its ripe fruit. The _Euphorbia marginata_ flourishes exceedingly
well at Bonn, where it was raised from seeds which I brought.
Mr. Say's zoological collection was confined to insects and shells. He
was less anxious to possess a complete collection than to have a good
library, which, thanks to Mr. Maclure, he really possessed, and new
insects and shells were sent to him from all parts of the United
States, which he immediately described. He had a very extensive
correspondence, even with Europe, and received many conchylia, which
he used and compared for his work on American conchology. This work
was entirely got up here in Harmony, for Mrs. Say drew and coloured
the figures very faithfully after nature, which were engraved by an
artist, engaged by Mr. Maclure; the text also was printed there. Mr.
Say's entomological collection was continually damaged by the
rapacious insects, which are much more dangerous and destructive here
than in Europe. The most fatal to the zoological collections, in this
country, besides the common European moth (_Phalaena sarcitella_), are
the _Dermestes lardarius_, _Anthrinus muscorum_, _Dermestes vulpinus_,
_Necrobia violetia_, _Acarus destructor_, and several others, among
which there are some brought from Europe.
Mr. Lesueur's labours were chiefly in the higher orders of the animal
kingdom; he had explored the country in many directions, was
acquainted with everything remarkable, collected and prepared all
interesting objects, and had already sent considerable collections to
France. He was a skilful draughtsman, and his portfolios of drawings,
made during his voyage round the world, and in his residence in
America, afforded us much gratification during the winter. He had paid
great attention to the fishes of the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi,
for which his frequent visits to New Orleans had given him the best
opportunity. His friend Barrabino, who died prematurely in that city,
and took much interest in the sciences, had been of great assistance
to him. It would be a pity if the interesting labours of Mr. Lesueur,
in natural history, were not communicated to the learned world during
his lifetime.
I shall always retain a most pleasing recollection of the excursions
which we made in the neighbourhood of Harmony, with Mr. Say, and to
greater distances, with Mr. Lesueur. One of the most agreeable was
when we sailed down the Wabash, and landed on its wooded islands.
Immediately on the west of the river, is Fox Island, a large thickly
wooded tract, between the Wabash and Fox River.[99] We generally left
Harmony by water, in bright, sunny weather. The Wabash divides into
several arms, forming beautiful romantic islands, covered with tall
forests, partly surrounded by quantities of drift wood. The water of
the river is clear and dark green, and the bottom, which is plainly
seen, is covered with large bivalve shells (_Unio_), as well as with
several kinds of snails. High trees uniformly clothe the shore, and
colossal, wide-spreading planes rise above the dense forests. In some
places there are sand-banks, where shells are [pg. 88] found in
abundance, and where the track of the racoon and the mink, which come
here in the night to seek their food, are imprinted in all directions
on the wet ground. Under the old roots of trees on the bank, which is
from ten to twenty feet high, we saw the burrows of the minks, into
which it had taken a quantity of shells. The common people here think
that this is done by the musk-rat, which is certainly a mistake. The
musk-rat lives on vegetables, and it is only the small beasts of prey
that live on shell-fish. There were various species of ducks, which
rose in flocks before us, and flew rapidly to the undisturbed parts of
the banks. Besides the common wild duck, which was the most numerous,
there were the beautiful wood duck, the blue-winged teal, and the
pintail duck, or sea-pheasant. After proceeding about three quarters
of an hour, we usually landed on Fox Island, on the right bank,
fastened our boat to the trunk of a large fallen tree, and then went
up the steep bank into a thick, lofty forest, where the high reeds
were intersected with small, narrow paths, made by the horses and
cattle of the neighbouring farmers. From our several landing places,
we had to proceed only about 100 steps across the island to the Fox
River, which runs here, for a pretty considerable distance, parallel
to the Wabash, and joins it below Fox Island.[100] The stream is
highly picturesque, with romantic banks, large uprooted trees,
colossal planes, magnificent oaks, hickory, shellbark hickory, &c.
Here grows the lofty _gymnocladus_, with its large, broad pods, and
the beautiful catalpa. _Bignonia radicans_ and _cruciata_ wind round
the trunks, as well as thick, clustering vines (_Hedera quinquefolia_)
and the poison vine. Vast quantities of fallen trees lay in the water,
and, when it was low, often formed a kind of bridge. The trunks of the
plane are very remarkable; they are often so thick that five or six
men cannot span them. When of this size they are generally hollow.
These trees are suffered to grow so old, because they yield but
indifferent timber. Twenty or thirty feet from the ground, the trunk
usually divides into several thick branches, which rise to a very
great height; they have a bark of dazzling whiteness, which forms a
singular contrast with the brown forests, when leafless and bare in
winter. This tree never attains such a thickness and height in Europe,
and hence the white colour of the branches is wanting. The quiet,
lonely Fox River is covered, during the whole day, with numerous
ducks. Whenever we approached cautiously through the reeds, and over
the dry leaves, scattered on the ground, we could immediately fire at
them. The kingfisher (_Alcedo alcyon_), is constantly seen here, and
many species of birds, particularly the blue-crested roller (_Garrulus
cristatus_), came to the water to drink. Unluckily we had no European
hounds, which would have been of great service to us, and thus, from
want of them, we often lost the ducks we had shot. The turkey buzzards
were seen hovering in the air, and, after wet weather, were often
observed sitting in the sunshine, with outspread wings, on the highest
trees. If we shot a bird, and did not immediately pick it up, it was
sure to be devoured by these ravenous creatures. If the buzzards were
driven away, the cunning crows supplied their place. The whole air was
soon filled with these buzzards, hovering round and round, [pg. 89]
while numbers of others sat together on the high trees. If we shot at
them when flying, they immediately vomited; this I likewise observed
in Brazil. We found here some heads of the paddle-fish, which lives in
the stream. If we left the banks of the rivers, and advanced far into
the forests, we had often to clamber over fallen trunks of trees,
covered with moss, and to penetrate through matted reeds, where we
heard the voice of the grey squirrel, and the hammering of the
numerous woodpeckers. Among the entangled climbing plants, we often
saw, throughout the whole winter, the beautiful cardinal, or red-bird;
finches of various kinds; and on the decayed trees, on the ground,
some kinds of _Troglodytes_. Towards the end of autumn, and early in
warm days in February, nay, even in December and January, we often saw
in Fox River, on stones, and old submersed trunks of trees, large
tortoises basking in the sun, which we sometimes shot at with our
fowling-pieces, but we seldom got them. They are very shy, and plunge
into the water as soon as any one approaches.
Towards noon the scattered sportsmen usually re-assembled, with their
booty, round a cheerful fire, under ancient plane trees, on the bank
of Fox River. Our frugal repast, which we had brought with us, was
seasoned by the exercise in the open air, in the fine forests of
Indiana and Illinois. Tortoises, shell-fish, birds, &c., were
deposited in our boat. Mr. Lesueur frequently accompanied us in these
excursions. Once, on the 7th of March, he found, on Fox Island, a
couple of marmots above ground, one of which ran into its burrow,
while the other sought refuge on a low tree, where, however, it was
shot. We then dug for the other, in hopes of finding it, but the
burrow went so far and deep into the ground, that we were forced to
give it up. This circumstance may serve as a proof that the animals
which sleep throughout the winter make their appearance about this
time.
In our excursions we often visited some others of the numerous islands
in the Wabash, being particularly attracted thither by the loud cries
of the wild turkey; their voice is exactly similar to that of the
European turkey. We could hear them scratching among the dry leaves on
the ground, in search of food. If we surprised them, they were
generally too far off for our fowling-pieces, loaded with small shot,
for they ran away with extraordinary rapidity. Turkey Island seemed to
be a favourite place of resort. At the upper end of the island drifted
wood was frequently piled up to such a height, that it was difficult
to clamber over it, and among this wood there were generally many
otters. Here we often found wild turkeys, and even the Virginian deer;
and it is really a fine sight to see a flock of these wild turkeys fly
across the river, or a swarm of wild geese, with loud screams, swim
down the stream. The grey eagle was often seen sitting on the lofty
plane trees, on the bank; and the white-headed eagle hovered in the
air, at a great height.
On another hunting excursion, up the Wabash, we proceeded as far as
Black River,[101] a stream which falls into the Wabash, three miles
from Harmony. On the 5th of January, at eight [pg. 90] o'clock in the
morning, the mercury in Reaumur's thermometer was twelve and a half
degrees above freezing point, and the fish leaped above the surface
of the water as in summer. Near some small log-houses the people were
employed in felling the high trees, and our boatmen observed that
those new settlers had taken possession of this Congress land without
any right to do so. Such irregularities are very frequent here; thus,
for instance, they cut down large trees on Mr. Maclure's property for
making their flat boats, and yet nobody calls them to account. These
are the backwoodsmen of Illinois and Indiana. On the high banks of the
river we observed in the forest a mink-trap. It nearly resembles, in
miniature, the great bear-trap; is covered on all sides with
brushwood, so that the animal can enter only at a certain place. The
Black River, which, in some parts, is wide and expanded, was now
rather narrow and shallow, the water of a pure green colour. The
bottom consists chiefly of sand or clay; it is contracted at the
mouth, where a quantity of sand has accumulated, and where poplars and
lofty planes grow; colossal vines wound round their trunks, of which
we cut off one that was very thick, as a specimen. While our boatmen
were engaged in this work, and in looking for shell-fish, we advanced
several miles up the stream, where we met with frequent obstacles in
the forest. The large dry leaves of the planes made such a rustling,
that we could seldom get near the ducks, numbers of which were
swimming on the stream. I collected on the bank the beautiful
orange-coloured seeds of the _Celastrus scandens_, and several others.
We generally returned home with ducks and other birds, but we were
unsuccessful in our chase of the wild turkeys, of which we sometimes
saw whole flocks fly across the Wabash. Many an hour we passed in
these forests, watching for ducks and birds of prey; where, while we
stood concealed in a hollow plane, the small birds sometimes flew
almost into the face of the sportsman, or settled on his gun.
In order to explore the forests of Harmony, in the southern direction,
Mr. Say took me to a neighbouring estate of Mr. Maclure, on Rush
Creek, through a romantic, lofty forest, where very fine tulip trees,
with thick and high trunks, as straight as a ship's mast, and very
rough bark, were growing. This tall, splendid tree bears its fine
large flowers only at the very summit. The wood is of a greenish pale
yellow colour, and is used by cabinet makers. The red-headed
woodpecker was almost the only bird that was seen here. The whole
track consists of steep hills, separated by small valleys, on which we
particularly observed the ancient tumuli of the aboriginal inhabitants
of these forests. Passing through a valley we came to Rush Creek,
which we crossed by a very ruinous bridge of branches of trees, to the
opposite bank, where _Hydrangea arborescens_ grew. Several species of
maple grow here, which have certainly not been properly distinguished
and classed. Their trunks, covered with rough bark, are often not to
be spanned by three men, and they grow perfectly straight. Near the
junction of the Rush Creek and the Wabash, we came to the small
log-house of a tenant of Mr. Maclure, where the woman was engaged in
domestic employments, while the children were picking bones, probably
[pg. 91] of wild turkeys, with which they ate maize bread. In front of
the house lay large blocks of catalpa wood, which, when fresh cut, is
of a brownish yellow colour, and emits a peculiar smell. We were told
of a stream in the neighbourhood, the water of which was said to have
killed many persons. We visited this dangerous water, which is very
cold, but does not appear to have any peculiar ingredients. One of our
party, who had often drunk of it, without injury, affirmed that those
men had not been killed by the water, but by whisky; probably,
however, death was caused by drinking this excessively cold water when
they were overheated.
In a dense forest, some miles to the north-west of Harmony, was a
narrow pond, or, rather, long, broad ditch, called Long Pond, which,
at certain seasons of the year, is connected with Fox River, to which
we sometimes made excursions. Beyond the Wabash, in this direction,
the forest has a sandy soil, which, however, is soon succeeded by a
rich clay. A man well acquainted with the country was our conductor;
we were obliged to force our way through the closely-matted reeds,
where there was no path, and our clothes were completely torn by them.
On all sides we heard the bells of the oxen and horses, and our guide
easily found his own beasts, which knew his voice. He had wished me to
take a compass, which was not done, and we, in fact, twice lost our
way, in consequence; for it is not easy to discover one's latitude in
such thick, bewildering reed forests. Woodpeckers and squirrels were
the usual fruits of our excursions in this wilderness. After passing a
couple of isolated habitations, we came to a hollow in the forest,
about a mile long, and full of water. This was the Long Pond, in which
many varieties of water plants were growing.
Our guide had taken a hatchet and a basket, in order to dig up the
roots of a yellow-flowering _Nymphaea_,[102] which was growing in
luxuriance, and which he intended to employ as a poultice to a swelled
face. The surface of the water was covered with an elegant plant,
_Azolla Caroliniana_ (Wild), which formed mossy verdant spots, and is
here found on all standing water. The cardinal and the blue-crested
roller frequented this place; and near a field of maize, in the
forest, I saw large flocks of parrots, of which we often shot many
with great ease. They were not shy, and soon re-assembled after our
shot had dispersed them. Their manner and note much resembled those
of the long-tailed paroquet of Brazil.[103] With a shrill cry they
flew rapidly from tree to tree, when their beautiful bright green
colour was seen to great advantage. Mr. Bodmer has given a very
faithful representation of one of these flocks.[104] They eat the
fruit of the planes; and if we did not disturb them, they sat in a
row, close together, to warm themselves in the faint beams of the
January sun. We sometimes found a great number of turkey buzzards
collected about the carcass of a dead animal; some sitting crowded on
the high trees, others hovering in the air; but it was not easy to get
at them. We occasionally met with horses, which, in these [pg. 92]
wildernesses, familiarly approach those who happen to pass, in the
hope of receiving salt from them. On our return home we were often
gratified with the view of a splendid fiery evening sky on the Wabash;
the lofty crowns of the forest trees appeared to burn, while the
snow-white stems of the tall planes assumed a roseate tint, and
reflected their beauty in the smooth surface of the water.
The winter which we passed at Harmony was, on the whole, mild.
Woodpeckers, pigeons, thrushes, the great lark, the cardinal, the
blue-bird, and many others, were seen in the orchards during the whole
winter. The coveys of partridges lay in the fields of maize, or the
thorn hedges, sheltered and protected from the cold. There were often
very warm days in the middle of winter. On such a day, the 31st of
January, I found, at noon, the thermometer being +5 deg. R., at the
foot of a thick plane tree, a great number of the red and black spotted
lady-bird, which were half frozen. Tortoises were seen, on warm days,
during the whole winter. In the middle of February, a great number of
the white maple, called also the soft or swamp maple, were in blossom
in the forests; and, towards the end of that month, the song of many
birds resounded through the woods and orchards. Flights of cranes
passed over. The _Arabis bulbosa_ (Muehlenb.) blossomed, as well as the
hazel, yet there were still some cold days. The Americans have a
proverb--"When winter comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb,"
and _vice versa_. This winter, however, the cold had not set in early.
At the beginning of March we had frost. On the 2nd of March, at eight
in the morning, Reaumur's thermometer was at -16 deg.; and at twelve
o'clock at noon, -9 deg. Small pieces of water were frozen over; the
ducks, especially the pintail ducks, which were now constantly
disturbed in the Wabash, by the navigation and by the sportsman,
sought for small pieces of open water; and when they were driven from
these, repaired to the woods or the maize fields. The blackbird and
the robin sought their scanty food on the banks of the brooks. Many
species of animals were, however, in motion at the beginning of March.
Numbers of tortoises appeared; the note of the owl was heard in the
forests, even in the daytime; the wood-snipe fluttered about, and the
young leaves of the _sambucus_, and the flowers of the _corylus_, gave
an enlivening appearance to the forest. The voice of the turtle-dove
was heard as early as the 8th of February; insects buzzed about;
flocks of migratory pigeons flew towards the north and east; and on
the 9th, the first steam-boat went up the Wabash.
We had satisfactory accounts of the sanitary state of the southern and
western parts of the United States. At Cincinnati the violence of the
cholera had abated at the commencement of the Indian summer; on the
Ohio it had generally ceased; and St. Louis, by the latest reports,
was perfectly healthy. Mr. Bodmer, who had made an excursion to New
Orleans, in December and January, found the cholera still there, but
it had greatly abated; and I therefore resolved to make preparations
for proceeding on our journey, as soon as our collections were packed
up and sent off.
FOOTNOTES:
[83] Robert Owen (1771-1858) was a prominent English socialist and
propagandist. Rising from the ranks of workingmen, by shrewd business
capacity he acquired a fortune, which he devoted to the improvement of
the conditions of working people, and to the spread of principles of
co-operation and education. His factory and schools at New Lanark,
Scotland, became famous, and were visited by eminent reformers. He was
also instrumental in securing the first Factory Act, protecting the
rights of children. In 1825 he purchased New Harmony, Indiana, for the
purpose of establishing a co-operative community. Owen's connection
with this experiment was dissolved about 1828, although his sons
remained on the property many years. The latter years of his life were
entirely devoted to theoretical discussion, erratic journalism, and
socialistic experimentation. He is considered the founder of the
co-operative movement in England.
William Maclure (1763-1840), a wealthy merchant, geologist, and
philanthropist, made an unsuccessful attempt (1819) to found an
agricultural school at Alicaut, Spain, for the benefit of the poorer
classes. In 1824 he went with Robert Owen to New Harmony and took
charge of the educational department. The following year, however,
together with a hundred and fifty followers, he withdrew to found
Macluria. Later, they purchased the New Harmony establishment, and for
a short time conducted a school of industry destined to early failure.
In 1827, because of failing health, he went to Mexico, where he died
(1840).--ED.
[84] Jean Baptiste Audebert (1759-1800), an eminent French painter,
engraver, and naturalist, published _A Natural History of Apes,
Lemurs, and Galeopitheci_, with numerous plates (1800), and _A History
of Humming Birds, Fly Catchers, Jacamars and Promerap_ (1 vol., 1802).
Audebert at his death left unfinished several works on birds,
subsequently edited by Vieillot and Destray.--ED.
[85] See Plate 8, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[86] See Plate 25, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[87] _Cervus major_, or _Canadensis_. I have retained the American
name of elk for this animal, but it must not be confounded with the
elendthier (_Cervus alces_), which is sometimes called elk, in
Prussia. The name wapiti, given to it by the English, which is derived
from one of the Indian languages, ought never to be used, because it
is scarcely known to anybody, even in America.--MAXIMILIAN.
[88] Edward Poeppig (1798-1868) was educated as a naturalist at
Leipzig. He travelled in Cuba and the United States (1822-24), and
subsequently went to South America, returning to Germany in 1832. In
1845 he was elected professor of zoology at the University of Leipzig
and died in 1868. He wrote _Reise in Chila, Peru und auf dem
Amazonenstromer_ (Leipzig, 1835-36), and _Landschaftliche Ansichten
und erlaeuterude Darstellungen aus dem Gebiete der Erdbunde_ (Leipzig,
1838).
For Mrs. Trollope, see Wyeth's _Oregon_, in our volume xxi, p. 44,
note 24; for Doctor Drake, see Flint's _Letters_, in our volume ix, p.
121, note 61.--ED.
[89] For a brief sketch of Lesueur, see our volume xvi, p. 138, note
60.
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) was a distinguished professor
in the University of Goettingen. As a recognition of his ability, he
was in 1812 elected secretary of the Royal Society of Sciences.--ED.
[90] Mr. Lesueur sketched these from memory, having parted with the
originals.--MAXIMILIAN.
_Comment by Ed._ See opposite page for illustration of Indian pipes.
[91] See the "Disseminator" for 1831. Say writes--"Some arrow-heads
and knives made of flint were found in the same tumulus, which are
perfectly like those often found on the surface. These arrow-heads are
generally known, but the instrument which probably served as a knife,
deserves more particular consideration. It is from an inch and a half
to two inches and a quarter long, from three-tenths to seven-tenths
broad, and has two edges; in shape it resembles the obsidian knives of
the ancient Aztecks, or, perhaps, of the Tultecks, of which we found a
great many near the Mexican city of Chalco, and of which there are
engravings in one of the last numbers of 'Silliman's Journal.' We have
compared several specimens of flint and obsidian knives, and found
them as perfectly alike as if they had been made by the same artist,
and as the difference of the material allows. If we cannot decide how
far this fact may serve to confirm the hieroglyphic accounts of the
emigration of the Aztecks and Tultecks from north to south, it seems,
however, to strengthen the conjecture that the remote ancestors of the
present Mexicans erected the tumuli and walls which are spread in such
numbers over this country, and of the origin of which the present race
of red men have no tradition." These obsidian knives are likewise
represented in one of the early volumes of the French Academy, but
Warden does not mention them in his "Antiquites Mexicaines." He puts
the question, whether the people of the Ohio Valley may not have been
a colony of the ancient inhabitants of Palenque? The old tumuli of
Harmony appear, at least, to belong to a kindred race. On this obscure
but highly interesting subject, see Alex. V. Humboldt, "Voy. au Nouv.
Cont." t. iii. p. 155, &c.--MAXIMILIAN.
[92] This must have been a wandering band either of Sauk and Foxes
(the latter of whom often were entitled "Musquake") or of Mascoutin.
The Indian title to this region had been extinguished in 1804; see
note 92, _post_. Possibly they were Potawatomi, several of whose
chiefs bore names resembling these.
An account of the battle of Tippecanoe is given in Evans's _Tour_, in
our volume viii, p. 286, note 131.--ED.
[93] Some of the southern tribes of the North American Indians still
use such wooden pipes. I have seen such belonging to the Cherokees,
which were in the shape of a bear. The opening for the tobacco was on
the back, and the tube fixed near the tail.--MAXIMILIAN.
[94] For the Kickapoo and Mascoutin (Masquiton) Indians, see Croghan's
_Journals_, in our volume i, p. 139, note 111; for the Potawatomi
(Potanons), _ibid._, p. 115, note 84. The Piankeshaw and Miami are
respectively noted in our volume i, p. 142, note 115; p. 27, note 24.
The Wyandot (Viandots) were the Huron; see our volume i, p. 29, note
26.
Two treaties--the first with the Delawares, signed August 18, 1804;
the second with the Piankeshaw, August 27, 1804--were concluded by
William Henry Harrison at Vincennes. By these treaties all the
southwestern portion of Indiana below the Vincennes tract already
ceded, became the property of the United States. See W. H. Smith,
_History of Indiana_ (Indianapolis, 1897), pp. 230-233.--ED.
[95] Bloomington, the seat of Monroe County, Indiana, was laid out by
Benjamin Park, July 12, 1818.
By the two acts of March 26, 1804, and April 16, 1816, Congress
granted two townships of land, subsequently located in Gibson and
Monroe counties "for the use of a seminary of learning." The
territorial legislature on November 9, 1806, established in the
borough of Vincennes "an university to be known by the name and style
of the Vincennes University." The attempt proved a failure, and the
land was transferred to the Indiana Seminary created on January 20,
1820. The latter was, on January 24, 1828, raised to the dignity of
Indiana College, and on February 15, 1838, to Indiana University.--ED.
[96] The other taxes were at this time the following:--1. Poll-tax,
thirty-seven and a half cents per head, per annum. 2. Land-tax,
according to the quality of the land; in Illinois, one and a half
cents per acre on land of the best quality. 3. Watch-tax, twenty-five
cents on a silver watch, and half a dollar on a gold watch. 4.
Horse-tax, thirty-five cents on every horse above three years old.
Twenty-five cents on every pair of draught oxen. This was the case in
Indiana; in Illinois, a tax of half a dollar, on the value of 100
dollars for every head of cattle above three years old. All grocers
who sell sugar, coffee, and spirituous liquors, pay a tax in Indiana,
as well as publicans. The landlord of the inn at which we lodged, paid
a tax of ten dollars per annum. All these taxes are levied by the
Government of the State, and are liable to be changed.--MAXIMILIAN.
[97] See p. 175, for illustration of neck-yoke and plow.--ED.
[98] In the splendid work, "Genus Pinus," by my lamented friend, A. B.
Lambert, Esq., Vice-President of the Linnean Society, lately deceased,
there is a plate and an interesting account of this tree. Mr. Lambert
states that "it was introduced into England by Lord Bagot, from seeds
received from the celebrated naturalist, Mr. Correa de Serra, then
ambassador of Portugal to the United States. Lord Bagot has two fine
trees in his conservatory, and was so good as to give me plants of it,
which are now growing in my conservatory at Boyton."--H. EVANS LLOYD.
[99] Fox River, a bayou of the Big Wabash River, in the eastern
portion of Philip Township, White County, Illinois, cuts off about six
miles of territory, known as Fox Island.--ED.
[100] See Bodmer's view of this junction, Plate 38, in the
accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[101] See Evans's _Pedestrious Tour_, in our volume viii, p. 192, note
45.--ED.
[102] This _Nymphaea_ had, in January, thrown out short pedunculi, near
to its tuberculous root, at some depth below the water, from which
thick, round, yellow flower-buds had sprouted. The arrow-shaped leaves
were green, but, at this time, at a great depth under water.--MAXIMILIAN.
[103] The parroquet (or parrakeet), a diminution of the Spanish
_perico_, meaning parrot, is the term applied to many small varieties
of parrots, especially to the long-tailed East Indian and Australian
species of the genus _Palaeorius_. At the opening of the nineteenth
century they were quite numerous in the southern portion of the United
States; but they have now disappeared, save in the wilder portions of
Indian Territory and Florida. See Cuming's _Tour_, in our volume iv,
p. 161, note 108.--ED.
[104] See Plate 38, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.