and a part of the Sauks and Foxes; with the Konzas they are and long
have been on the most intimate and friendly terms; with the Sauks and
Foxes they are at present barely at peace. All their chiefs (except
Clermont) are very weak and unpopular. Many of their great war captains
are in opposition to their chiefs, and have powerful influence in
their respective tribes. Of these are 'The Duck,' 'Big Wolf,' and
'John L. Foe,' of the Great Osage; 'Sansoreille,' 'Big Soldier,' and
'The Soldier of the Oak,' of the Little Osage.[126] Their council
are very much distracted by the jealousies and intrigues of the
principal warriors, and for want of energy and decision in the chiefs.
When I left them last spring, my impressions were, that the Osages
were generally disposed to be at peace with us, but they were very
much dissatisfied and displeased, and losing their former unbounded
confidence in us, in consequence of what they alleged to be a failure
on the part of the United States to fulfil the treaty existing between
them and the United States. My opportunities for observation and
inquiry concerning the temper and disposition of those Indians were
very good, and were not neglected. And my acquaintance with the Osages
being very general (extending almost to every individual), and of long
standing (upwards of eight years), enables me to speak confidently of
them.
"In the year 1804 the President of the United States gave his promise
to a number of Osage chiefs, then on a visit at Washington, to
establish for them a trading-house on the plan authorized by a law of
{110} congress. In 1806 the President repeated the same promise to
another deputation of Osage chiefs then here. In 1808 the President
ordered the establishment to be made, and accordingly in October
of that year it was made. So far this was a gratuitous act of the
government; but in the following month it assumed a very different
character. On the 8th November 1808 Peter Choateau (the U. S. agent
for the Osages), arrived at Fort Clark.[127] On the 10th he assembled
the chiefs and warriors of the Great and Little Osages in council, and
proceeded to state to them the substance of a treaty, which he said
Governor Lewis had deputed him to offer the Osages, and to execute with
them. Having briefly explained to them the purport of the treaty, he
addressed them to this effect (in my hearing) and very nearly in the
following words: 'You have heard this treaty explained to you; those
who now come forward and sign it shall be considered the friends of
the United States, and treated accordingly; those who refuse to come
forward and sign it shall be considered enemies of the United States,
and treated accordingly.' The Osages replied in substance, 'that if
their Great American Father wanted a part of their land, he must have
it; that he was strong and powerful, they were poor and pitiful. What
could they do? He had demanded their land, and had thought proper
to offer them something in return for it. They had no choice; they
must either sign the treaty, or be declared the enemies of the United
States.'
"The treaty was accordingly signed on the same day; and so much were
the Osages awed by the threat of Mr. Choateau, that a very unusual
number of them touched the pen; many of whom knew no more the purport
of the act than if they had been an hundred miles off; and I here
assert it to be a fact, that to this day the treaty is not fairly
understood by a single Osage.
"Thus, the trading-house which had been established gratuitously, in
conformity with the earnest {111} solicitations of the Osage chief,
and repeated promises of the President, was made a part of the price
of the lands acquired under that treaty of the United States. In April
1810 this treaty was ratified and confirmed by the Senate, and was
duly proclaimed by the President of the United States to be a law of
the land. The Osages complained of the delay which took place between
its signature (from which time it was binding on them) and the payment
of the first and second annuities, which were not made till September
1811. The trading-house was kept up and well supplied until early in
June 1813, at which time the establishment was by order broken up,
and has been discontinued ever since, contrary to the expectations
and entirely against the consent of the Osages, who considered the
trading-house as the only benefit they had acquired by the treaty.
"No complaints have been made against the Osages from the signature of
the treaty till after the trading-house and garrison were withdrawn
from Fort Clark; since that time a party of the Great Osages murdered
one of our citizens, and the murderers were promptly demanded
(agreeably to the treaty) by Governor Clark, and would have been
surrendered, if Mr. Choateau (who was sent after them) had performed
his duty. Several other important things are promised the Osages
in the treaty. A mill, ploughs, and other implements of husbandry,
a blacksmith to mend their guns, ploughs, &c. and block-houses to
defend their towns. In short, they were induced to believe, that an
establishment was to be perfectly kept up near their towns, which
should afford them a ready market at all times for their furs and
pelts, encourage and assist them in acquiring habits of civilization,
and protect them from their surrounding enemies. A mill and one
block-house have been built at an enormous expense, and a blacksmith
has been fixed; all at the town of the Great Osages. The mill, I
believe, is of {112} some use to those few who are near it. The
blacksmith (although expensive to government) is not of the smallest
service. The block-house is only useful to the traders who sometimes go
to that village.
"All of them would be extremely useful, if properly placed and taken
care of; but detached as they are from the agency, and unconnected with
an establishment such as was originally contemplated at Fort Clark,
they are at present of very little use.
"These facts, concerning the Osage treaty, are stated merely to show
that we have not dealt justly with the Osages, and to infer from them,
that unless immediate steps are taken to recover that confidence
and respect which those Indians once had in the United States, the
inevitable consequence will be, their decided and active hostility
against the settlements of the Missouri, and those back of the lead
mines. British emissaries had repeatedly attempted to engage the Osages
in their service previous to the evacuation of Fort Clark, but without
effect. The leading men have often declared to me their determination
'never to desert their American Father as long as he was faithful
to them.' At a time when we were under serious apprehensions of an
attack on Fort Clark, the warriors of the Little Osages offered their
services to me to defend the post. In less than two months after those
declarations and offers of service Fort Clark was evacuated, and the
Osage establishment abandoned, without any notice or apology for so
very extraordinary and unnecessary an act. Thus were the Osages left
(I may truly say) in the arms of the British agents. How far those
agents have succeeded in weaning them from their growing attachment
to the United States I am unable to say; they have had full scope for
their arts, and it would be idle to suppose they have not made some
progress.
"Of all the Missouri Indians, the Osages were the least accessible to
British influence, from their {113} strong attachment to the French.
They had acquired a _French_ prejudice against the English, which,
since my acquaintance with them, has rather increased than diminished.
Such are the Osages, and such our relations and political standing with
them.
"To put an end to the difficulties now existing between the United
States and those people, and to relieve our frontier from the
additional weight and destructive effects of their hostility, I beg
leave to propose the following plan:--
"The Osage treaty should be immediately carried into complete effect,
and measures promptly adopted to engage the Osages in the service of
the United States: with this view, and to effect the latter important
object, it will be necessary to make an establishment near the Osage
towns, to consist of a trading-house, armourer, or blacksmith, and
mill; the trading-house to be constantly supplied with a sufficient
quantity of suitable Indian goods, to be furnished to the Osages (and
such other Indians as the Osages may associate with them in the service
of the United States, and request to be furnished,) on liberal terms,
either in barter for their furs and pelts, payment of their annuities,
payment for their services, and such occasional presents as the
safety of Indian affairs may authorize or require. This store should
constitute an ample fund always in their country, and always accessible
to supply all their wants, and promptly to discharge all their just
demands against the United States. During the continuance of the war
40,000 dollars per annum would be requisite. In peace from 10 to 15,000
would be sufficient.
"This establishment should be so regulated in its details as to prevent
frauds and abuses, restore confidence among the Osages, and produce
the most satisfaction to them, and benefit of the United States. In
peace the net profits of the trade will more than defray the whole
expense. In war those profits will very much diminish the expense. This
establishment {114} should be under the direction of a responsible
and confidential agent, who should also be charged with the local
superintendence of Indian affairs within the proper sphere of his
agency.
"A strong stockade fort and garrison should be fixed in the
neighbourhood of the Indian establishment, under such police and
regulations as should effectually prevent any clashing between the
military and Indian departments, and solely to be confined to military
purposes. A system of espionage to be adopted and put into operation
at this establishment, and extended as far as possible among the
surrounding Indian nations."
The Osages of the Oaks, or Clermont's band, were separated from the
other bands, and fixed in their present situation, chiefly, it is
said, through the influence of Mr. Choteau, previously to the cession
of the territory to the American government. The monopoly of the
Missouri trade having been granted to Mr. Manuel Lisa by the Spanish
authorities, Mr. Choteau, a rival trader, could no longer traffic with
them on the waters, or within a certain distance of the Missouri. He
therefore managed to separate a considerable portion of the nation from
the interest of his rival, and induced them to establish a town near
the Arkansa, of the trade of which river he enjoyed the monopoly.
At a short distance we crossed a small creek which issues from a spring
of water. The prairie is now very fertile, interspersed with pleasing
groves of oak, and swelling, on either hand, and in the distance, into
remarkable pyramidal and conical hills, of which the summits are rocky.
The spice-wood (laurus benzoin) and the pecan (carya olivæformis) first
occurred to-day. Our distance, twelve miles.
{115} CHAPTER XIV {VIII}[128]
Verdigrise River--Mr. Glenn's Trading-house--New Species of
Lizard--Neosho or Grand River--Salt Works--Large Spider--Illinois
Creek--Ticks--Arrival at Belle Point.
Monday, 4th. The face of the country exhibited the same appearance as
that of yesterday's journey, until we arrived at a dense forest, which
we supposed to margin the Verdigrise river, or Was-su-ja of the Osages.
There being no trace to direct us, we were obliged to penetrate the
intricate undergrowth as we might, and after a tedious and laborious
passage of something more than three miles, we attained, probably by
a somewhat circuitous route, the river which we had so long vainly
sought. At our crossing-place the stream was probably eighty yards
wide, and one foot in depth, running with a brisk stream over a rocky
bed, though above and below, as far as we examined, the depth of water
is much more considerable. This river is more rapid and pellucid than
any tributary we had passed on this side of the mountain streams, and
during the season of floods its volume is augmented by the tribute of
those ravines over which we passed on the 30th ultimo.
Late in the afternoon, we struck the Osage trace, leading from their
village to the trading establishment, at the confluence of the
Verdigrise, whither we now direct our course. Our evening encampment
was at a small ravine, in which were some plum bushes, bearing
fruit, yet unripe, of a fine red colour, and, without the slightest
exaggeration, as closely situated on many of the branches as onions
when tied {116} on ropes of straw for exportation. Distance, seventeen
miles three quarters. Extreme heat, 90 degrees.
Tuesday, 5th. At ten o'clock we arrived at Mr. Glenn's trading-house,
near the Verdigrise, about a mile above its confluence with the
Arkansa. We were hospitably received by the interpreter, a Frenchman,
who informed us that Mr. Glenn was absent on a visit to Belle Point. In
reply to our inquiries respecting the best and shortest route to the
place of destination, two Americans who were present assured us, that
there was a path the whole distance so obvious as not to be mistaken,
and that they were so much occupied, as to be unable to spare any one
to pilot us. Unfortunately, however, for our informant, a military cap,
which was now discovered suspended from a beam, betrayed him to be a
soldier, belonging to the garrison of Belle Point, temporarily employed
at this place. When asked by what right he entered into any other
engagements whilst in the service of the United States, he replied
that he had the permission of his officers; but as he could not show
a certificate, he was ordered to join our suit forthwith as a guide,
and to assist with the pack-horses. The interpreter informed us, that
the distance to the town of the Osages of the Oaks is about fifty-five
miles; from thence to the village of the second band of Osages, called
the Great Osages, situated near the head waters of Osage river, more
than fifty miles; thence to the village of the third band, called
Little Osages, situated on the Neosho or Grand river, three miles;
he assured us, that Clermont had then four wives and thirty-seven
children; a number, doubtless, unprecedented amongst the North American
Indians, and which may probably be attributed to this chief by mistake.
We also learned, that at the distance of twenty-five miles was a
copious salt spring, lately worked with the permission of the Indians;
but at present it is abandoned, and the apparatus removed. Mr. Nuttall,
in his interesting Journal of Travels in the Arkansa territory, has
given {117} an excellent account of this saline. It produced, agreeably
to his statement, under the management of the company, one bushel of
salt from eighty gallons of water, and one hundred and twenty bushels
were manufactured in a week.[129]
A beautiful species of lizard[130] (agama), is occasionally met with
in this territory. It runs with great swiftness. The form of its
scales, their arrangement and proportions, considerably resemble those
of polychrus marmorata, with the exception of the caudal ones, the
series of which are equal, and the scales near the tip of the tail only
are mucronate. A band over the shoulders somewhat resembles that of
stellio querto paleo.
In addition to our usual fare, served upon the earth, we here enjoyed
the luxury of wild honey and Indian corn, or maize bread, spread upon a
table; and felt perhaps a little of that elation which the possession
of a new coat communicates to the beau, when we found ourselves mounted
on stools and benches around it.
The sassafras (laurus sassafras) occurred this morning; and soon
after our departure from the trading-house, we saw the cane (miegia
macrosperma), and were soon involved in a dense cane brake. Here we
were hardly fanned by a breath of air, and during the prevalence of
the extreme heat of the day, which was 96 degrees, the state of the
atmosphere was extremely oppressive. A short ride brought us to the
Neosho, or Grand river, better known to the hunters by the singular
designation of the Six Bulls.
It enters the Arkansa very near to the confluence of the Verdigrise,
and at the ripple, which offers us a facility of crossing, is about
eighty yards wide, the water clear, above and below moving with a
gentle current, and its bed and shores paved with large pebbles. At
the entrance of the opposite forest, our guide, to whom the direct
and very obvious path was supposed to be so familiar, now became
bewildered, and {118} after reconnoitring to his heart's content
amongst the entangled briers, vines, and nettles, ushered us into a
trace which conducted to an old Indian encampment, and terminated
there. Further progress was in a great measure intercepted by the cane
brake, which not presenting any path, obliged us to break our passage
with much labour. The dusk of the evening found us still pursuing a
devious course through a world of vegetation impenetrable to the eye,
vainly seeking a spot upon which an encampment could be fixed, when,
to our unspeakable joy, and without previous intimation, the prairie
of Bayou Menard[131] appeared suddenly before us. The timber of these
bottoms is large and various. The extreme heat of the day, 96 degrees.
Distance, eighteen miles.
Our pleasure at first seeing civilized white men was of no ordinary
kind; it appeared as though we had already arrived at our own homes and
families, in anticipation of Belle Point, which had hitherto seemed the
utmost boundary and terminus of our pilgrimage.
Wednesday, 6th. A fine morning, and, as on the days of the first
instant, and 30th ultimo, no dew had fallen. Crossed the ravine at
the head of Bayou Menard, and ascended the elevated hills, clothed
with small oaks, and arrived at a branch of Greenleaf Bayou about nine
o'clock; a distance of eight miles.[132]
A slight shower of rain fell in the afternoon; and during our ride
we first observed the dogwood (cornus florida). In the evening, we
arrived at Mr. Bean's salt works. These are situated on a small creek
which flows into the Illinois creek about a mile below, and are at the
distance of about seven miles from the Arkansa. Mr. Bean commenced his
operations in the spring, and has already a neat farm-house on the
Illinois, with a considerable stock of cattle, hogs, and poultry, and
several acres in Indian corn. Near the springs he has erected a neat
log-house, and a shed {119} for the furnace; but his kettles, which
were purchased of the proprietors of the Neosho establishment, were not
yet fixed. He assured us that the water was so far saturated as not to
dissolve any perceptible quantity of a handful of salt that was thrown
into it. On the side of a large well, which he had sunk to collect
the salt water, and perhaps two feet from the surface of the soil, he
pointed out the remains of a stratum of charcoal of inconsiderable
extent, through which they had penetrated, and which to a by-stander
was a certain proof that these springs had been formerly worked by
the Indians. But as no other appearances justified this conclusion, a
greater probability seems attached to the idea, that during some former
conflagration of the prairies, the charred trunk or branches of a tree
was here imbedded. Another agent, however, of sufficient efficacy to
operate this carbonization of wood, resides in the sulphuric acid,
liberated by the decomposing pyritous rocks, so abundant here.
Whilst waiting with a moderate share of patience for our evening
meal of boiled pumpkins, one of the children brought us a huge hairy
spider, which he carried upon a twig, that he had induced the animal
to grasp with its feet. Its magnitude and formidable appearance
surprised us. The boy informed us that he had captured it near the
entrance of its burrow, and that the species is by no means rare in
this part of the country. Not having any box suitable to contain it,
nor any pin sufficiently large to impale it, we substituted a wooden
peg, by which it was attached to the inside of a hat. This species so
closely resembles, both in form, colour, and magnitude, the gigantic
bird-catching spider of South America,[133] that from a minute survey
of this specimen, which is a female, we cannot discover the slightest
characteristic distinction. But as an examination of the male, {120}
comparatively with that of the avicularia, may exhibit distinctive
traits, we refrain from deciding positively upon the species. This
animal had been previously mentioned by Mr. Nuttall, in his recent
and interesting account of his travels in this region.[134] Distance,
twenty-four miles.
Thursday, 7th. The Illinois is called by the Osages _Eng-wah-condah_,
or _Medicine Stone Creek_. At our fording place near the Saline, it is
about sixty yards wide, with clear water and pebbly shores, like those
of the Neosho. We proceeded on, through a country wooded with small
oaks, and interspersed with occasional small prairies, and crossed a
deep ravine called Bayou Viande.[135] The Bayous, as they are named
in this country, unlike those of the lower portion of the Mississippi
river, are large and often very profound ravines or watercourses,
which, during the spring season, or after heavy rains, receive the
water from the surface of the prairies, and convey it to the river;
but in the summer and early autumn, the sources being exhausted, the
water subsides in their channels, occupying only the deeper parts of
their bed, in the form of stagnant pools, exhaling miasmata to the
atmosphere, and rendering their vicinity prejudicial to health.
The extreme temperature of the day was 93 degrees, but it was rather
abruptly reduced by a strong wind from the S. E., which brought up
a heavy rain, with much thunder and lightning, and continued to
drench us until the evening, when, after a ride of fourteen miles, we
encamped at Bayou Salaison or Meat-salting Bayou.[136] At our mid-day
refectory, we were much annoyed by great numbers of small ticks, that
were excessively abundant amongst the grass, and crawled by dozens up
our leggings. Wherever they effected a lodgement upon the skin, their
numerous punctures would cause an intolerable itching sensation, that
bid defiance to repose. In the evening, in addition to the needful
process of drying our {121} clothing and blankets, we had ample
employment in scratching and picking the pestiferous arachnides from
our bodies. On entering the water, the disagreeable sensation seemed
to be mitigated for a time, only to be augmented on our return to the
atmosphere. Mosquitoes, which were also abundant, were readily expelled
from our tents by the smoke of burning wood; but the ticks, otherwise
constituted, frustrated our endeavours to obtain the necessary rest and
sleep during the night.
These ticks are of two different species, and, in common with
other species inhabiting different parts of the United States, are
distinguished by the name of _seed ticks_, probably on account of
their small size when compared with others of the same genus.
The larger of the two kinds[137] may be compared, in point of
transverse diameter, to the head of a small-sized pin; but the other
one is so much smaller, as to elude the sight, except on minute
inspection.
The Cherokee Indians frequently visit this vicinity on hunting
excursions; and our guide informs us, that a hunting-party of that
nation is at present situate at the mouth of this Bayou, at the
distance of two miles and a half from our camp.
Friday, 8th. The face of the country presents the same appearance with
that we passed over yesterday, offering in the arrangement of forest
and fertile prairie, many advantageous sites for plantations, of which
one is already established at the confluence of Big Skin Bayou.
During the afternoon's ride, the country was observed to be more hilly.
Soon after the occurrence of the greatest heat of the day, which was 91
degrees, several showers of rain fell, accompanied with distant thunder.
On a naked part of the soil, gullied out by the action of torrents
of water, we beheld a hymenopterous or wasp-like insect (sphex)
triumphantly, but laboriously, dragging the body of the gigantic
spider, {122} its prey, to furnish food to its future progeny. We
cannot but admire the prowess of this comparatively pigmy victor, and
the wonderful influence of a maternal emotion, which thus impels it to
a hazardous encounter, for the sake of a posterity which it can never
know. Distance, nineteen miles.
Saturday, 9th. Pursued our journey, with every hope of reaching the
place of rendezvous appointed by Major Long before noon. Since passing
Bayou Viande, we have observed the country on either side of our path
to be distinguished by extremely numerous natural elevations of earth,
of some considerable degree of regularity. They are of a more or less
oval outline, and their general dimensions may be stated at one hundred
feet long, by from two to five feet in greatest height. Their existence
is doubtless due to the action of water. Should the rivers Platte and
Arkansa be deprived of their waters, the sand islands of their beds
would probably present a somewhat similar appearance.
An Indian, who observed us passing, hallooed to us from a distance, and
expecting some important communication, we waited some time until he
came up. He proved to be a Cherokee, dressed much in the manner of the
whites, and not a little infected with the spirit of an interrogator,
common, no doubt, to those with whom he has been accustomed to
associate, and therefore probably regarded by him as a concomitant of
civilization. We left him to his own surmises respecting our object
and destination, and soon arrived at the path which strikes off for
the river. After passing a distance of two miles through a cane brake,
we passed a hut and small farm belonging to a soldier of the garrison,
and were shortly on the strand of the river, with the long-sought Belle
Point before us. We were soon ferried over, and were kindly received
on the wharf by Captain Ballard and Mr. Glenn. The former gentleman
was at present invested with the command, in consequence of {123} the
temporary absence of Major Bradford, on a visit to St. Louis. His
politeness and attention soon rendered our situation comfortable,
after a houseless exposure in the wilderness of ninety-three days. The
greatest heat of the day was 91 degrees, and distance travelled nine
miles.
The Arkansa, below the great bend, becomes more serpentine than it is
above, and very much obstructed by sand-bars and islands, either naked
or clothed with a recent vegetation; they are but little elevated
above the water, and are covered to some depth during the prevalence
of floods in the river. At Belle Point, and some distance above, these
islands almost wholly disappear, but the sandy shores still continue,
and are, as above, alternately situated on either side of the river,
as the stream approaches or recedes from the opposite river bottoms.
The colour of the water was now olive green. All the red colouring
matter, with which it is sometimes imbued, is contributed by streams
entering on the southern side. The current of the Arkansa is much less
rapid than that of the Platte, but the character of these two rivers,
in a great degree, corresponds in their widely spreading waters of but
little depth, running over a bed of yielding sand. The rise of the
waters at Belle Point takes place in the months of March and early in
April, with a less considerable freshet in July and August. But to this
place navigation is seldom practicable, for keel-boats, from the month
of August to February inclusive, though the autumnal freshet of October
and November frequently admits their passage.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Chapter viii of volume ii of the original London edition.--ED.
[2] It is well known that water, in which carbonic acid is dissolved,
has the power of holding in solution a portion of lime, somewhat
proportioned in quantity to the acid. In this instance, the water
no sooner comes in contact with the atmosphere than it parts with a
portion of its fixed air, consequently loses the power of holding in
solution the lime which is immediately deposited. The lime may perhaps,
in this instance, be derived from the cement of the sand-rock.--JAMES.
[3] The "boiling spring" is the site of Manitou Springs, now a famous
watering place, from which millions of bottles of the water are
annually shipped. Carbonate of lime composes nine-tenths of the mineral
matter in solution. From this point the cogwheel railroad ascends
Pike's Peak.--ED.
[4] Pinus flexilis. N. S.--JAMES.
[5] It is related in Du Pratz's History of Louisiana, p. 71, that in
the year 1724, a large tribe of Indians, called Padoucas, resided in
several villages on the heads of the Konzas river; that they removed
thence to the sources of the Platte: here they are said still to exist.
See Brackenridge's Views, p. 147. Lewis and Clarke's Map, &c. But these
accounts need confirmation.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ See volume xiv, note 179.
[6] There is some uncertainty as to the peak which Pike ascended.
Dr. Elliott Coues thinks he reached high ground between Mount Rosa
and Cheyenne Mountain, approaching from the south. See _Pike's
Expeditions_, pp. 454, 455, notes 46, 47. These peaks are eight or ten
miles southeast of Pike's.--ED.
[7] Notes referring particularly to this grasshopper, and to many other
insects, and many other animals, collected on the Platte and about the
mountains, were subsequently lost in the robbery committed by three of
the soldiers, who deserted from the party in the country of the Osages.
It is on this account that the name of the insect alluded to cannot be
given, as it is now impossible to identify the specimen.--JAMES.
[8] As late as 1870 the Indians continued to make offerings to the
manitou of the springs. There is an Indian legend which accounts for
the effervescence and taste of the water as follows: Two hunters having
come to the springs, the less successful, in envious anger, seized
his rival while drinking, and held his head beneath the water until
he expired. Thereupon a vapor arose, and there appeared a spirit who
struck the murderer with his war club, dashing his brains into the
spring and rendering the waters bitter.--ED.
[9] The Colorado Midland now ascends Fountain Creek, east and north of
the peak, approximating the line of this bison path. The stage road to
the peak also ascends this cañon about four miles to Cascade, where it
turns west, going around the northern and northwestern slope of the
mountain.--ED.
[10] Boiling Spring (now Fountain) Creek unites with Monument Creek
(see preceding volume, note 146) at Colorado Springs, to form Fountain
River. The map does not show Boiling Spring Creek, but applies the
name to Fountain River and its other branch, Monument Creek, to which
it gives an exaggerated length. Fountain River was called La Rivière
de la Fontaine qui Bouille (River of the Boiling Spring), from the
Manitou springs already described; the French name, in various forms,
has generally been preferred to the English. Frémont calls the stream,
in more correct French, "Fontaine-qui-bouit," and "Fontaine River" is
still sometimes used. The city of Pueblo is situated at its confluence
with the Arkansas; Pike called this confluence "grand forks."--ED.
[11] Lieutenant Swift's trigonometrical measurement of the elevation
of Pike's Peak was quite accurate. If to his calculation of 8,507½
feet above the plain the correct elevation of the latter be added, the
sum is within a few feet of the now accepted height; but, as in Pike's
measurement, the result was invalidated by an erroneous estimate of the
height of the plain (3,000 feet instead of about 5,700). The latitude
and longitude as calculated for this camp afford another instance
showing the error in the observations made by the expedition. The
correct figures for Colorado Springs are 38° 49′ 41.67″ north latitude,
and 104° 49′ 15.10″ longitude west of Greenwich.--ED.
[12] Giovanni Ignazio Molina was born in Chili, of Italian parents, in
1740. When the Jesuits were expelled from that country (1767) he joined
their order and went to Italy, where he became a priest and teacher.
His _Compendio di Storia geografica naturale e civile del Chili_
(Bologna, 1776) was translated into the principal European languages,
and an American edition was published under the title _Geographical,
Natural, and Civil History of Chili_ (Middletown, Connecticut, 2 vols.,
1808).
Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot was a French zoölogist and author of
voluminous works on ornithology. Among his writings was _Histoire
naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique septentrionale, depuis
Saint-Dominigue jusqu' à la baie d'Hudson_ (Paris, 1807 and annually
thereafter).--ED.
[13] Pike wrote in his journal: "Nov. 24th [1806]. Early in the
morning we cut down 14 logs, and put up a breast work, five feet high
on three sides and the other thrown on the river" (see Coues, _Pike's
Expeditions_, p. 452). The structure stood on the south side of the
Arkansas, a little above where the mouth of Fountain River was at
that time; but the exact spot cannot be identified, as the course of
the river has since changed considerably. Long's party looked for it,
however, in an entirely wrong place. Their course southwest from the
camp on Fountain River brought them to the Arkansas several miles above
its mouth (near Turkey Creek); besides which, they were on the wrong
side for Pike's old redoubt.--ED.
[14] The point here reached by Bell's party is the site of Cañon
City, Fremont County, at the lower end of the Grand Cañon of the
Arkansas, better known as the Royal Gorge, through which now passes
the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The railroad engineers triumphed
over the obstacles which to our party seemed to render the cañon almost
impassable, by lowering tools, materials, provisions, mules, and men
into the chasm by ropes attached to the overhanging cliffs. In one
place it was found necessary, for want of a road-bed in the narrow
gorge, to suspend the track by bridgework anchored to the mountain side.
Pike's route from Cañon City to the upper Arkansas and back has been
much discussed; however, he did not go through the Royal Gorge. Dr.
Coues thinks that he went north from Cañon City, up Oil Creek, crossing
the dividing ridge at its source and passing into South Park, to the
South Platte River. Thence he crossed South Park to the westward, and
penetrated the Park Range to the upper Arkansas, which he explored,
mistaking it for Red River. Descending the river, the party scattered
near the upper end of Royal Gorge, and passed around it by various
routes through the mountains. Pike himself essayed the passage of the
cañon on the frozen river, but was compelled to abandon the channel
when about half-way through it. The party reached the site of Cañon
City, which it had left December 10, 1806, on January 5, 1807. See
Coues, _Pike's Expeditions_, pp. 464-478.--ED.
[15] "From information derived from the Indians and hunters who have
frequently visited this part of the country, as also from the account
given by Pike, relative to this peak, it appears that no person,
either civilized or savage, has ever ascended to its summit, and
that the ascent was deemed utterly impracticable. Dr. James having
accomplished this difficult and laborious task, I have thought proper
to call the peak after his name, as a compliment to which his zeal and
perseverance, together with the skilful attention with which he has
examined its character and productions, give him the fairest claim.
Pike has indeed given us notice that there is such a peak, but he only
saw it at a distance; the unfavourable circumstances under which he
came into its neighbourhood preventing his arrival even at its base. He
attempted to ascertain its altitude, but it is believed his estimate
is very erroneous." Ext. from Maj. Long's MS. Notes of July 15th,
1820.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ Height of Pike's Peak generally accepted as correct,
14,147 feet; Pike's estimate, 18,581. See _ante_, note 11. Pike wrote
in his journal: "I believe no human being could have ascended to its
pinical;" but it must be borne in mind that he reached the region late
in November, when the difficulty of the ascent is immensely greater
than at the season (July) when James's party made their successful
attempt. The claim of Dr. James to the honor of being the first to
reach the summit remains undisputed; but the peak has long since ceased
to bear his name. When Frémont visited Colorado in 1843 he adopted the
present appellation, which he found in local use among the traders, and
the rival name soon fell into disuse by cartographers.
[16] Jean Louis Leclerc Buffon (1707-88), was keeper of the Royal
Gardens and Museum in Paris, and compiler of a large portion of
the forty-volume work entitled _Histoire Naturelle, Générale et
Particulière_ (Paris, 1749-1804), which was completed, after his death,
by Lacépède (see _post_, note 26). Buffon is noteworthy for having
anticipated the theory of evolution.--ED.
[17] Genus _Sciurus_, L.--S. _quadrivittatus_, SAY.--_Head_ brownish
intermixed with fulvous, and with four white lines, of which the
superior one on each side passes from the tip of the nose immediately
over the eye to the superior base of the ear; and the inferior one
passes immediately beneath the eye to the inferior base of the ear;
_ears_ moderate, semi-oval, incisores reddish-yellow; _back_ with four
broad lines, and alternate mixed black and ferruginous ones; _sides_
fulvous, beneath whitish; _tail_ moderate, hair black at base, then
fulvous black in the middle, and paler fulvous at tip; _beneath_
fulvous with a submarginal black line; _thumb_ of the anterior feet a
prominent tubercle.
Length from the nose to the base of the tail 4¼ inches.
------ of the tail 3
------ of the hair at the tip of the tail 1 nearly.
--JAMES.
[18] Genus _Sciurus_, L.--S. _lateralis_, SAY.--_Above_ brownish
cinereous intermixed with blackish; on each side of the back a dull
yellowish-white dilated line, broader before, margined above and
beneath with black, originating upon the neck anterior to the humerus,
and not attaining the origin of the tail; no appearance of a vertebral
line; thigh, neck anterior to the tip of the white line, and top of the
head tinged with ferruginous; _orbits_ whitish; _tail_ short, thin,
with a submarginal black line beneath; _nails_ of the anterior feet
elongated: _thumb tubercle_ furnished with a broad nail; _sides_ dull
yellowish-white; _beneath_ pale, intermixed with blackish.--JAMES.
[19] Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844) began the collection of
animals for the Jardin des Plantes, and after 1794 was the collaborator
of Cuvier. He was a prolific writer, and previous to Long's expedition
had prepared a _Catalogue des Mammifères du Muséum national d'Histoire
naturelle_ (1813).--ED.
[20] _Hirundo lunifrons_, SAY.--_Above_ brownish-black, more or less
varied with violaceous on the back and wing-coverts; _top of the head_
exclusively blackish-violaceous, a large white frontal lunule; _bill_
black; _rump_ and _tail coverts_ pale ferruginous; _chin_, _throat_,
and _neck_ beneath, dark ferruginous extending in a narrow band upon
the hind head; _breast_ pale rufous ash; _axillæ_ and _inferior wing
coverts_ dirty brownish; _shoulders_ dull whitish, with small black and
pale ferruginous spots; _belly_ and _vent_ flanks white, obsoletely
dashed with brown; _inferior tail coverts_ dusky, margined with white;
_tail_ entire, not surpassing the tips of the wings, the exterior
feather margined with white on the inner web; _wing_ and _tail-shafts_
brown above, white beneath; _the tail feathers_ in some lights have a
slightly-banded appearance. Length 5½ inches.--JAMES.
[21] Genus _Coluber_.--C. _testaceus_, SAY.--Pale sanguineous, or
testaceous above, beneath sanguineous immaculate. Pl. 198. Sc. 80?
This is a large species equal in size to the C. _constrictor_. It moves
with great rapidity, and in general form and size it resembles C.
_constrictor_. The scales are large. A specimen is in the Philadelphia
Museum.--JAMES.
[22] _Emberiza amœna_, SAY.--_Head_ and _neck_ bluish green; _back_
brownish black more or less intermixed with blue and a little brown
ferruginous; _rump_ pure blue; _smaller wing coverts_ dull blue, brown
at base, and tipped with white, forming a band; _greater wing coverts_
blackish, tipped with white, forming a narrow band; _wing_ and _tail
feathers_ blackish-brown with blue exterior margins; _belly_, _inferior
tail coverts_ and _lower part of the breast_ white; _superior portion
of the breast_ pale ferruginous; _neck_ bright green; _bill_ and _feet_
pale.--JAMES.
[23] Genus _Crotalus_, LIN.--C. _confluentus_, SAY.--Brownish, varied
with greenish-yellow, a triple series of brown spots, the anterior
vertebral ones confluent, and the posterior ones separated into bands.
_Body_ brownish cinereous, varied with greenish yellow; a triple series
of fuscous spots; dorsal series consisting of about forty-four large
transversely oblong oval spots, each widely emarginate before and
behind, and, excepting the posterior ones, edged with greenish-white,
the ten or twelve anterior ones, crowded and confluent, those of the
thicker part of the body separate, those near the cloaca and upon the
tail united with the spots of the lateral series, and forming bands;
lateral series, spots rounded, opposite to those of the back; between
the dorsal and lateral series is a series of obsolete, fuliginous
spots, alternating with those of the two other series; _head_ above
scaly, scales of the superior orbits, and of the anterior margin,
larger and striated; _beneath_ yellowish-white, immaculate. Plates of
the body 179; of the tail 27.--JAMES.
[24] Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (1759-1828) visited the United
States in 1796; later he taught at the Versailles Zoölogical Garden. It
is uncertain as to which particular work is here referred to.
François Marie Daudin, whose specialty was reptiles, wrote _Histoire
naturelle, générale et particulière des Reptiles_ (Paris, 1802-04),
which is probably the work cited.--ED.
[25] Genus _Ameiva_.--A. _tessellata_, SAY. Tesselated lizard.--The
back and sides of the body and neck are marked by nine or ten
longitudinal lines, and eighteen or twenty transverse ones, dividing
the whole surface in a tesselated manner, the interstitial quadrate
spaces being black; these lines are light brown on the back, and
assume a yellow tint on the sides; the scales of these portions of the
body are very small, convex, and rounded; _the top of the head_ is
olivaceous, covered by plates arranged thus: 2 with an intermediate
small one at their tips; 1, 2, 1, the largest, 2, and 3; superior
orbits of the eyes with four plates, of which the two intermediate ones
are much the largest; _belly_ bluish white; _throat_ and _neck_ tinged
with yellow, and covered with somewhat larger scales than those of the
back; _anterior feet_ yellowish within, and covered with minute scales;
on the exterior and posterior sides greenish white with confluent
black spots and large scales; _posterior feet_ behind greenish white
with confluent black spots and minute scales; the anterior side
yellowish covered with large scales; pores of the thigh very distinct
and prominent; _tail_ elongated, rounded above, light brown, with a
few lines of black spots near the base; _beneath_ yellowish white
immaculate, the scales carinated, and placed in transverse series.
Total length 1 foot, tail 8½ inches.--JAMES.
[26] Bernard Germain Étienne de la Ville, Count de Lacépède
(1756-1825), became Buffon's assistant in the Jardin du Roi about
1784, and continued the _Histoire naturelle_ after the latter's death.
Lacépède entered politics under Bonaparte, and was successively senator
(1799), grand chancellor of the Legion of Honor (1803), and minister of
state (1809). After the Restoration, he was made a peer.--ED.
[27] The distance travelled since leaving Royal Gorge indicates Beaver
Creek, in eastern Fremont County, as probably the one here called
Castle Rock Creek.--ED.
[28] Another name for the Nez Percés. See Franchère's _Narrative_, in
our volume vi, note 145.--ED.
[29] This description of the two species of bears occurs under date of
May 3, 1806. See _Original Journals of Lewis and Clark Expedition_, v,
p. 65.--ED.
[30] On Lahontan see J. Long's _Voyages_, in our volume ii, note 3;
also Lahontan, _Voyages in North America_ (Thwaites, ed., Chicago,
1904).--ED.
[31] John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewelder (1743-1823) was a Moravian
evangelist to the Indians of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and later a United
States Indian agent. He was a careful student of aboriginal speech
and customs, especially those of the Delaware, and was the author
of several works on these subjects. Previous to this time he had
published: _Account of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian
Nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States_
(Philadelphia, 1818).--ED.
[32] Vid. Trans. of the New York Literary and Philosophical
Society.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ New York, 1815, p. 19. De Witt Clinton (1769-1828),
the great promoter of the Erie Canal, was governor of New York from
1817 until his death, with the exception of one two-year term,
beginning in 1822. The address referred to was delivered May 4, 1814;
he was at that time president of the Literary and Philosophical Society.
[33] Grizzly bear (_Ursus horribilis_, ORD).--_Hair_ long, short on the
front, very short between and anterior to the eyes, blacker and coarser
on the legs and feet, longer on the shoulders, throat, and behind the
thighs, and beneath the belly, and paler on the snout; _ears_ short,
rounded; _front_ arquated, the line of the profile continued upon the
snout, without any indentation between the eyes; _eyes_ very small,
destitute of any remarkable supplemental lid; _iris_ burnt sienna
or light reddish brown; _muffle of the nostrils_ black, the sinuses
very distinct and profound; _lips_, particularly the superior one,
anteriorly extensile, with a few rigid hairs or bristles; _tail_ very
short, concealed by the hair. The hair gradually diminishes in length
upon the leg, but the upper part of the foot is still amply furnished;
_teeth, incisores_ six, the lateral one with a tubercle on the lateral
side; _canines_ large, robust, prominent; a single false molar behind
the canine, remaining _molares_ four, of which the anterior ones are
very small, that of the upper jaw particularly, that of the lower jaw
resembling the second false molar of the common dog; _anterior feet_,
claws elongated, slender _fingers_, with five suboval naked tubercles
separated from the palm, from each other, and from the base of the
claws by dense hair; _palm_ on the anterior, half naked, transversely
oval; base of the palm with a rounded naked tubercle, surrounded by the
hair; _posterior feet_ with the sole naked, the nails moderate, more
arquated, and shorter than the anterior ones.
The nails do not in the least diminish in width at the tip, but they
become smaller towards that part only from diminishing from beneath.
"Testicles suspended in separate pouches, at the distance of from two
to four inches from each other." Lewis and Clarke.
They vary exceedingly in colour, and pass through the intermediate
gradations from a dark brown to a pale fulvous, and a grayish.
Dimensions (from the prepared Specimen).
ft. in.
Length from the tip of the nose to the origin of the tail 5 2
Trunk of the tail (exclusive of the hair at tip) 1¾
From anterior base of the ear to the tip of the nose 12
From anterior canthus of the eye to the tip of the nose 6
From orbit of the eye ¾
From between the eyes 4⅖
Ears from their superior base 3
Longest claw of anterior feet 4⅕
Shortest ditto 2¾
Longest claw of the hind feet 3
Shortest ditto 1¾
Hair at tip of tail 4½
Length of the hair top of the head 1¾ to 2
beneath the ears 2½ to 3½
neck above--about 3
shoulders above 4½
throat 4
Belly and behind the anterior legs--longest hairs 6
--JAMES.
[34] Both the St. Charles (San Carlos) and its branch, the Greenhorn,
rise in the Wet Mountains, far to the north of Spanish Peaks. The line
between Pueblo and Huerfano counties follows this range for a few
miles, as does also the line between the latter county and Custer.
Thence the range trends northward through Custer County. Greenhorn
Mountain is the southern peak of this chain. The Spanish Peaks are two
isolated mountains on the southern line of Huerfano County.--ED.
[35] The stream to which James dedicates this fanciful etymology is
the Huerfano (Orphan) River of the Spanish. "Wharf" is apparently
a corrupted contraction. Booneville is opposite the mouth of this
stream. The river rises on the slopes of the Sangre de Cristo range, in
Huerfano Park, and flows east and northeast through the county of the
same name. For the arrest of Chouteau's hunters, see preceding volume,
note 134.--ED.
[36] _Tyrannus verticalis_, SAY.--_Head_ above pure pale plumbeous;
_vertex_ with a bright orange spot; _back_ pale plumbeous, very
slightly tinged with olivaceous; _wings_ brown; tertials margined
exteriorly with white; inner webs of the primaries towards the base
whitish, narrowed at their tips, the first feather remarkably so; _tail
coverts_ and _tail_ deep brown black; exterior web of the lateral tail
feather white; a dusky line before the eye; _chin_ whitish; _neck_
beneath, colour of the head; _breast_, _belly_, and _inferior tail
coverts_ bright yellow; _bill_ furnished with clusters above, and each
side at base; _superior mandible_ perfectly rectilinear above, from the
base to near the tip, where it rather suddenly curves much downward.
Total length 8 inches; bill from the anterior edge of the nostrils to
tip 11/20 of an inch.--JAMES.
[37] There are no fewer than fifteen peaks within the state of Colorado
which exceed Pike's Peak in altitude.--ED.
[38] The results of several sets of observations gave us the position
of this encampment, 38° 12′ 22″ north latitude, and 103° 46′ 15″ west
longitude from Greenwich, or 26° 46′ 15″ from Washington.--JAMES.
[39] Thomas Pennant (1726-98) was the author of _British Zoölogy_
(London, 1766), _History of Quadrupeds_ (1781), and other works on
natural science. Those mentioned were held in high estimation, and
passed through several editions.--ED.
[40] Pike's "First Fork" is Purgatory River, as given on the map (see
_post_, note 47). Eighteen miles above the mouth of the Purgatory would
fix the camp of July 21-23 near Timpas Creek, which flows northeast
through Las Animas and Otero counties to the Arkansas, near the present
town of La Junta. The camp was, however, probably several miles farther
up the Arkansas, as the party had that morning passed the Huerfano,
about sixty miles above the Purgatory, and had travelled twenty-six
miles during the day.--ED.
[41] See volume xvii.--ED.
[42] R. _Tagetes_, JAMES.--Hirsute stem much branched, somewhat
grooved; radical leaves subentive, spatulate, linear, or pinnatified;
cauline leaves interruptedly pinnatified; the divisions irregular
in form and position, but usually linear branches alternate or
scattered; peduncles grooved short, few-flowered terminal; ray florets
[5/8] recurved red brown; disk dark brown, receptacle columnar, but
proportionably much shorter than that of R. columnaris, to which
species the one under consideration is allied. Plant about twelve
inches high, growing in clusters, and having, by its numerous
branches and finely divided leaves, a remote resemblance to anthemis
cotula.--JAMES.
[43] This is a part of the Santa Fé trail. The trail forked at Bent's
Fort, between the Purgatory and Timpas Creek, one branch ascending
the Arkansas to the Huerfano, which it followed to the base of the
mountains, thence running south to a pass opposite Taos, in New Mexico,
some distance north of Santa Fé; the other ran southwest between
Purgatory River and Timpas Creek, through the Raton Mountains of
southern Colorado. For the trail east and north of Bent's Fort, and its
early history, see _post_, note 108.--ED.
[44] This was the Purgatory, which they reached the day after.--ED.
[45] Since Long's party pursued a course slightly east of south for
thirty-six miles, they must have reached the Purgatory near the
northern boundary of Las Animas County. Chaquaqua Creek, just above the
town of Bent Cañon, is probably the one followed when the party left
the main stream.--ED.
[46] Genus _Sciurus_. S. _Grammurus_, SAY.--Line-tailed squirrel.
_Body_ cinereous, more or less tinged with ferruginous; _fur_ very
coarse, much flattened, canaliculate above, plumbeous or blackish at
base, then whitish or ferruginous, tip brownish; above the neck and
shoulders the whitish is prevalent; from the middle of the back, the
sides and the exterior surface of the legs, the ferruginous colour
prevails, the terminal brown of the fur being obsolete; superior
and inferior orbits of the eye white; _tail_ moderate, whitish, fur
triannulate with black, the base and tip of each hair being whitish,
_beneath_ whitish tinged with ferruginous; _thumb tubercle_ armed;
_iris_ burnt umber; _pupil_ black.
Length to the origin of the tail, 11½ inches.
of the tail, 9
--JAMES.
[47] This tributary of the Arkansa, designated on the old maps as the
"First Fork," is known among the Spaniards of New Mexico, as the river
of the souls in purgatory. We emerged from the gloomy solitude of its
valley, with a feeling somewhat akin to that which attends escape from
a place of punishment.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ The Philadelphia edition adds, after the words "First
Fork," "as we learned from Bijeau." The Spaniards had two names for the
river--Rio Purgatorio and Rio de Las Animas. The French equivalent of
the former was Rivière Purgatoire, which appears sometimes in English
in corrupted form, Picket-wire. The stream is of considerable size,
heading on the slopes of the Culebra Range, near the state boundary,
and flowing northeast across Las Animas, and corners of Otero and Bent
counties.
[48] See p. 171 [p. 260 of our volume xv].--JAMES.
[49] Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749-1817), for forty years an instructor
in the Mining Academy of Freiberg, Saxony, was perhaps the most
renowned geologist and mineralogist of his time; but his system of
classification long since proved defective in the light of wider
research.--ED.
[50] See Bradbury's Travels, p. 161, second edition.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ See p. 165 of the reprint, in our volume v.
[51] From a subsequent comparison of the direction of several water
courses which descend from this elevated district, we have been induced
to consider the creek mentioned in the text as one of the most remote
sources of the great northern tributary of the Canadian river.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ This stream was more probably the Cimarron, which
heads near the source of the Canadian, in the Raton Mountains, which
form the watershed between these two rivers and the Purgatory. The
Cimarron flows eastward just south of the Colorado line. The upper
waters of the North Fork of the Canadian are also in northeastern New
Mexico, south of the Cimarron, but it is a smaller stream, and heads
farther east. On Cimarron River, see Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume
xiii, note 203.
[52] The stream in question was not a branch of Red River, but, as
appears later, a tributary of the Canadian branch of the Arkansas (see
Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume xiii, note 188). The course of the
party after leaving the Purgatory carried them east of that portion
of the Canadian which flows south near the base of the mountains, and
brought them to some creek which joins the Canadian near the Texas
line. A stream in this locality, presumably the one descended, has
been named Major Long's Creek. The map is therefore wrong in placing
the route of the party along the portion of the upper course of the
Canadian, which is thereon marked "Rio Mora" (Raspberry River).
Moreover, the Mora is not the main stream of the Canadian, as the map
indicates, but a tributary from the west.
The sources of Red River lie near the Texas boundary, in the Staked
Plains, south of the Canadian. Long's expedition was the third
ineffectual effort of the federal government to discover them. In 1806,
Captain Richard Sparks attempted to ascend the river, but was stopped
by Spanish cavalry (see chapter iii in our volume xvii). In the same
year Lieutenant Z. M. Pike ascended the Arkansas with instructions to
find the head of the Red and descend that stream. He mistook for the
Red, first the Arkansas itself and then the Rio Grande, and like Sparks
was prevented by the Spaniards from carrying his exploration to a
successful close. Red River was not explored to its sources until 1852,
when it was ascended by a party under Capt. Randolph B. Marcy, of the
Fifth Infantry. An expedition under General McLeod, which left Austin,
Texas, in June, 1841, and was captured by Mexicans, is thought to have
visited the sources of Red River, but it furnished no topographical
data which could be relied on.
Long's party approached within perhaps a hundred and fifty miles of
Santa Fé.--ED.
[53] Since our return to Philadelphia, the following description of
the animal has been drawn out from the dried skin, which, however, is
so much injured by depredating insects, that it has not been judged
proper to mount it entire. The head has therefore been separated from
the remaining portion of the skin, and may be seen in the Philadelphia
Museum, placed under the foot of a prairie wolf (canis latrans, SAY),
which has been well prepared by Mr. T. Peale.
_Cervus Macrotis_, SAY.--Antlers slightly grooved, tuberculated at
base; a small branch near the base, corresponding to the situation and
direction of that of C. _Virginianus_; the curvature of the anterior
line of the antlers is similar in direction, but less in degree, to
that of the same deer; near the middle of the entire length of the
antlers, they bifurcate equally, and each of these processes again
divides near the extremity, the anterior of these smaller processes
being somewhat longer than the posterior one; the ears are very long,
extending to the principal bifurcation, about half the length of
the whole antler; the lateral teeth are larger in proportion to the
intermediate teeth than those of the C. _Virginianus_ are; eye-lashes
black; the aperture beneath the eye is larger than that of the species
just mentioned, and pervious; the hair also is coarser, and is
undulated and compressed like that of the elk (C. _major_); the colour
is light reddish-brown above; sides of the head, and hair on the fore
portion of the nose above, dull cinereous; the back is intermixed with
blackish tipped hairs, which form a distinct line on the neck, near
the head; the tail is of a pale reddish cinereous colour, and the hair
of the tip of the tail is black; the tip of the trunk of the tail is
somewhat compressed, and is beneath almost destitute of hair; the hoofs
are shorter and wider than those of the _Virginianus_, and more like
those of the elk.
Inches
Length from the base of the antlers to the origin of
the basal process 2
of the basal process, 2½
from the basal process to the principal
bifurcation, 4½ to 5
from the principal bifurcation to the two other
bifurcations respectively, 4½ to 5½
terminal prongs of the anterior branch, from 4 to 4½
of the posterior branch, from 2¼ to 3
from the anterior base of the antlers to the tip
of the superior jaw, 9¼
from the anterior canthus of the eye to the tip
of the jaw, 6¼
from the base of the antler to the anterior canthus, 3
of the ears, more than 7½
of the trunk of the tail, 4
of the hair at the tip of the tail, from 3 to 4
This is probably the species mentioned by Lewis and Clarke, vol. i. p.
77, under the name of black-tailed deer, and more frequently in other
parts of the work, by that of mule deer. It is without doubt a new
species, not having been hitherto introduced into the systems.--JAMES.
[54] John Melish, _Map of United States with contiguous British and
Spanish Possessions_ (Philadelphia, 1816); for biographical sketch, see
Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, note 129.--ED.
[55] More commonly called Pawnee Picts; now probably represented by
the Wichita, a remnant of which still exists on the Kiowa agency in
Oklahoma. They had no connection with the Piqua Indians, and, according
to some authorities, bore no resemblance, either in language or
customs, to the Pawnee of the Platte. Others regard them as an offshoot
of the Grand Pawnee. Indeed, the history of the tribe is somewhat of
a puzzle. The name suggests the belief held by some (e.g., Stoddard,
in _Sketches of Louisiana_) that there was a race of Welsh origin on
Red River. The Pawnee Picts were sometimes called "White Pawnee,"
suggesting the same belief. They were intimately associated with the
Comanche. Their name in their own language was Toweeahge, of which
variant forms are Towiache, Towcash, and Toyash. As late as 1877 their
home was still on the Washita. The site of their village at the time
of Long's expedition is uncertain; probably it was not permanent. John
Sibley (_American State Papers_, "Indian Affairs," ii, p. 731) located
it (1806) thirty or forty miles above the False Washita; while Melish's
map of 1816 places it opposite the mouth of Boggy River. The Indians
of this region seem to have had intercourse with the Spaniards from an
early date. One Brevel, born among the neighboring Caddo, told Sibley
(1805) that he had visited Santa Fé forty years previous.--ED.
[56] G. _linifolia_, NUTTALL'S Manuscript.--Stem erect, sparingly
branched, smooth leaves, smooth sessile, alternate linear lanceolate
entire, with the midrib translucent. Flowers in a terminal crowded
spike; after flowering the rachis extends itself, and in the ripened
fruit the spike is scattered; nut triquetrous, much shorter than the
linear bractea.
The flowers are white, having in the calyx a tinge of brownish purple.
They are about as large as those of G. coccinnea. The plant is three or
four feet high, the leaves small and short, and the stem slender.
This is the fifth species of gaura we have met with west of the
Mississippi. The G. biennis of the Eastern States has not hitherto been
found here.--JAMES.
[57] The entire courses of both streams lie within the state of Texas;
they head in the Staked Plains and flow southeast to the Gulf. The
Colorado (Blood Red) was named Brazos del Dio (Arms of God) by a
Franciscan monk; but the Mexicans confused the streams and exchanged
the names.--ED.
[58] The misinformation was not necessarily given intentionally. Many
of the rivers of the southwest are colored red, and the Mexicans
habitually called them Rio Colorado (Blood Red River). Especially was
the Canadian so known; the upper Red seems to have been called Rio
Negro. The Indians borrowed the Spanish nomenclature.--ED.
[59] Alexander Wilson (1766-1813), the son of a Scotch weaver, came
to Philadelphia in 1794. After working as printer, weaver, peddler,
and schoolmaster, his natural love for the sciences, quickened by
the acquaintance of William Bartram, led him (1804) to begin the
excursions and collections which resulted in the _American Ornithology_
(Philadelphia, 9 vols., 1808-14). Much of the plate work for these
volumes was personally prepared by Wilson. His death was due to
exposure in swimming a stream to capture a rare bird.--ED.
[60] Charles Alexander Lesueur (1778-1857) was the author of numerous
studies of molluscs and reptiles, which were published in various
scientific journals. During a residence at Philadelphia (1815) he was a
contributor to the _Journal_ published by the Academy of Sciences. Upon
returning to France, he became curator of the Havre museum.--ED.
[61] This is Dry River, in Texas, a short distance above the Antelope
Hills, of Oklahoma. It is noted by Lieut. J. H. Simpson (1849).--ED.
[62] This is a portion of the country famed for the supposed cure of
consumption.--ED.
[63] On this day the party probably crossed the line between Texas and
Oklahoma. The Antelope Hills lie south of the river at this point.--ED.
[64] For the same reasons it is practically impossible to follow the
progress of the party; the camping places can only be approximated from
the longitude indicated on the map, which is thirty to fifty miles too
great for the western area, but substantially correct at the mouth of
the Canadian.--ED.
[65] The magnetic variation was here from 12° to 13° east.--JAMES.
[66] The Washita (an Indian word meaning either "male deer," or
"country of large buffaloes") should be distinguished from the river in
Arkansas (Ouachita) near the sources of which are the Hot Springs (see
Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume xiii, note 125). The Washita, which,
as the text states, is the chief northern tributary of Red River, rises
in the "pan-handle" of Texas and flows east and southeast, roughly
parallel with the Canadian. Its confluence with the Red is between the
ninety-sixth and ninety-seventh meridians. At the western boundary of
Oklahoma, the Washita approaches within fifteen miles of the Canadian;
farther east, the approximation of its tributaries is so close as, in
one place, scarcely to admit the passage of a single wagon.--ED.
[67] The latitude of this point was ascertained by Major Long, in
December, 1819, to be a few minutes below 34° north.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ On the Kiamesha (Kiamichi) see Nuttall's _Journal_, in
our volume xiii, note 177.
[68] Just east of the ninety-ninth meridian, the Canadian almost
touches the thirty-sixth parallel, and then turning southeast passes
below the thirty-fifth, turning northeast again near the ninety-sixth
meridian. The party is now near the bend to the southeast; the map
probably shows them on the nineteenth too far along the southeast
course. The stream flowing southeast was doubtless a tributary of the
Washita. Gypsum (sulphate of lime) occurs in great abundance along
the Canadian, especially between the ninety-ninth and one hundredth
meridians. Near the ninety-ninth meridian begins a wooded district
known as the Cross Timbers; it varies in width from five to thirty
miles, and is four hundred miles in length, extending from the Arkansas
to the Brazos.--ED.
[69] This elegant centaurea has a head of flowers nearly as large as
that of the cincus lanceolatus, so commonly naturalized in the East.
Some specimens from seeds, brought by Major Long, have flowered in Mrs.
Peale's garden, near Germantown. The plant will be easily naturalized,
and will be found highly ornamental.--JAMES.
[70] Chapter i in volume iii of the original London edition.--ED.
[71] Later explorations proved that the divide between the Red and
Canadian was well supplied with springs.--ED.
[72] In places where the absence of crocodiles permits people to enter
the river, Humboldt and Bonpland observed, that the immoderate use of
baths, while it moderated the pain of the old stings of zanceadores,
rendered them more sensible to new. By bathing more than twice a day,
the skin is brought into a state of nervous irritability, of which no
idea can be formed in Europe. It would seem as if all feeling were
carried towards the integuments. _Humboldt's_ Personal Narrative, vol.
v. p. 105.--JAMES.
[73] These are the three largest tributaries of the Arkansas from the
west. The Ne-sew-ke-tonga is the modern Cimarron; the Negracka is the
Salt Fork. The Cimarron is between the other two, in size as well as
place; the Canadian is largest and most southerly. All united with the
Arkansas between the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh parallels. The two
smaller streams between the Cimarron and Negracka, named Saline Creek
and Strong Saline on the map, are now respectively known as Black Bear
and Red Rock creeks.--ED.
[74] Ampelopsis quinquefolia of Michaux.--JAMES.
[75] The name is a corruption of the French _aux arcs_ (with bows),
applied to the Indians of Missouri and Arkansas. The hills here meant
are known as the Shawnee Hills, from the Indians of that tribe, who
later had villages on the Canadian about a hundred and twenty-five
miles from Fort Smith.--ED.
[76] See Cuming's _Tour_, in our volume iv, note 108.--ED.
[77] Strobilaria of Nuttall, belonging to the heteromorphous genus
phytolithus of Martin.--JAMES.
[78] Probably Sand (sometimes called Topofki) Creek. The much larger
Little River, entering from the other side a few miles below, is not
mentioned.--ED.
[79] Ulmus americana and ulmus alata.--JAMES.
[80] _Maclura Aurantiaca_, NUTTALL.--A description of this interesting
tree may be seen in Mr. Nuttall's valuable work on the Genera of North
American Plants, vol. ii. p. 233. That description was drawn from
specimens cultivated in the garden of Mr. Choteau, at St. Louis, where,
as might be expected, the tree did not attain its full size and perfect
character. In its native wilds, the Maclura is conspicuous by its showy
fruit, in size and external appearance resembling the largest oranges.
The leaves are of an oval form, with an undivided margin, and the
upper surface of a smooth shining green; they are five or six inches
long, and from two to three wide. The wood is of a yellowish colour,
uncommonly fine and elastic, affording the material most used for
bows by all the savages from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains.
How far towards the north its use extends we have not been informed;
but we have often seen it among the lower tribes of the Missouri, who
procure it in trade from the Osages and the Pawnees of Red river. The
bark, fruit, &c. when cut into, exude a copious, milky sap, which soon
dries on exposure, and is insoluble in water; containing, probably,
like the milky pieces of many other of the urticæ, a large intermixture
of caotchouc, or gum elastic. Observing this property in the milky
juice of the fruit, we were tempted to apply it to our skin, where it
formed a thin and flexible varnish, affording us, as we thought, some
protection from the ticks.
The fruit consists of radiating, somewhat woody fibres, terminating
in a tuberculated and slightly papillose surface. In this fibrous
mass the seeds, which are nearly as large as those of a quince, are
disseminated. We cannot pretend to say what part of the fruit has
been described as the "pulp which is nearly as succulent as that of
an orange; sweetish, and perhaps agreeable when fully ripe." In our
opinion, the whole of it is as disagreeable to the taste, and as unfit
to be eaten as the fruit of the sycamore, to which it has almost as
much resemblance as to the orange.
The tree rises to the height of twenty-five or thirty feet, dividing
near the ground into a number of long, slender, and flexuous branches.
It inhabits deep and fertile soils along the river valley. The Arkansa
appears to be the northern limit of the range of the maclura, and
neither on that river, nor on the Canadian, does the tree or the fruit
attain so considerable a size as in warmer latitudes. Of many specimens
of the fruit examined by Major Long, at the time of his visit to Red
river, in 1817, several were found measuring five and an half inches in
diameter.--JAMES.
[81] Pike was the first to describe as a desert the fine grazing
lands of the Great Plains; Long and Pike agreed in thinking them
providentially placed to keep the American people from ruinous
diffusion. The myth of the Great American Desert lived for half a
century.--ED.
[82] The South Fork of the Canadian is a much smaller stream than the
map indicates. Its sources are in the Shawnee Hills, not far west of
the ninety-sixth meridian, near those of Boggy River, a tributary of
the Red.
On the sources of the North Fork, see _ante_, note 51.--ED.
[83] Journal of Travels into the Arkansa Territory, by Thomas Nuttall,
&c. page 200.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ See reprint of Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume
xiii, p. 265, and note 204.
[84] This tree, the populus angulata of Pursh, has received its
common name from the downy cotton-like appendage to the seed, which
being ripened and shed in May, or the beginning of June, is then seen
floating in the air in great quantities, and often proves somewhat
troublesome to the eyes and noses of persons who are much in the
open air. Baron Humboldt in speaking of the unona aromatica of South
America, says, "Its branches are straight, and rise in a pyramid nearly
like those of the poplar of the Mississippi, falsely called Lombardy
poplar." Pers. Nar. vol. v. p. 163. As far as our observation has
extended, the poplar most common in the country of the Mississippi,
and indeed almost the only one which occurs, is the angulata, very
distinct from the populus dilatata, the Lombardy poplar of our streets
and yards, which is not a native of this country. The branches of the
cotton-wood tree are not very numerous, particularly where it occurs
in forests, as is the case on the Mississippi, below the confluence
of the Missouri, and in the alluvial lands of most of the rivers in
the United States, and show less tendency to arrange themselves in a
pyramidal form than those of almost any other tree. In the open country
west of the Mississippi, where, in the distance of one hundred miles,
some dozens of cotton-wood trees may be found scattered, their tops
are peculiarly low and straggling, as is the case with individuals
of the same species which have grown in open fields, and by the road
sides in various places. This tree is, perhaps, as widely distributed
as any indigenous to North America, extending at least from Canada to
Louisiana, and from the Atlantic to the lower part of Columbia river.
It is, however, so peculiarly frequent in every part of the country
watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, that it may, with
as little absurdity as usually attends names referring to locality,
be called the Mississippi poplar. It is probable, that nearly one
half of the whole number of trees in the recent alluvial grounds or
bottom-lands of the Mississippi and its tributaries, are of this
species. Whether it was considered by Humboldt as identical with the
Lombardy poplar of our streets, we cannot decide.
The cotton-wood varies in magnitude in proportion to the fertility of
the soil; and on the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Arkansa, it attains
the size of our largest forest trees. It is sometimes exceeded in
girth, and in the number and extent of its branches, by the majestic
sycamore; but in forests where the two are intermixed, as is commonly
the case, it is seen to overtop all other trees. A cotton-wood tree
mentioned in the journal of the exploring party who ascended Red river
in 1806, and spoken of as one of many similar trees standing in a corn
field three or four days' journey above Natchitoches, measured one
hundred and forty-one feet and six inches in height, and five feet
in diameter. [_Freeman's_ MS. Journal.] Though we have not actual
admeasurements to compare with this, we are of opinion that many trees
on the Arkansa would rather exceed than fall short of these dimensions.
The cotton-wood affords a light and soft timber, not very durable,
except when protected from the weather. Before expansion, the buds of
this tree are partially covered with a viscid, resinous exudation,
resembling that so conspicuous on the buds of the populus balsamifera,
and diffusing in the spring and the early part of summer an extremely
grateful and balsamic odour.--JAMES.
[85] This estimate of distances is excessive, unless sinuosities of the
trail are included, but this is not clear from the text. The distance
from Fort Smith to the western boundary of Texas, near where the party
reached the Canadian proper, is less than six hundred miles; to Santa
Fé, less than eight hundred miles. If the length of Major Long's
Creek be added, the estimate is still more than a hundred miles too
great.--ED.
[86] For Point Sucre and Cavaniol Mountains and the Poteau River, see
Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume xiii, notes 167, 169.--ED.
[87] For the Arkansas Cherokee, see _ibid._, note 145.--ED.
[88] We have adopted this name from the author of the "Manual of
Botany," as a substitute for that of the 1712 genera of Persoon, which
has been so severely censured by President Smith in Rees's Cyclopedia.
It is equally appropriate with the old name, and contains no offensive
allusion.--JAMES.
[89] At this time, Hugh Glenn had a trading-house about a mile above
the mouth of the Verdigris. See Nuttall's _Journal_, volume xiii of
our series, note 35. Whether there was another person named Robert, or
whether the name is an error, is uncertain.--ED.
[90] For sketch of Major William Bradford see _ibid._, note 166.
James H. Ballard was appointed from Maryland (1813) as second
lieutenant in the Thirty-sixth Infantry. He was transferred to the
Rifle Regiment in 1815, and two years later made captain. In 1821 he
was transferred to the Second Infantry, and died in 1823.--ED.
[91] Thomas A. Smith entered the army in 1803, from Georgia, on
an appointment as second lieutenant of artillerists. In 1808 he
became captain in the rifles, and was promoted successively to
lieutenant-colonel (1810), colonel (1812), and brigadier-general
(1814). On the reorganization of the army in 1815 he was retained as
colonel in the Rifle Regiment, with brevet rank of brigadier-general.
He resigned in 1818. See volume xiv, note 118.--ED.
[92] Nuttall's Travels into the Arkansa Territory, p. 144.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ Page 202 of the reprint in volume xiii of our series.
[93] Skin (sometimes called Big Skin) Bayou is a small northern
tributary of the Arkansas, which debouches about ten miles above Fort
Smith. The Six Bulls is the Neosho (or Grand) River. For the Verdigris,
Illinois, and Neosho, see Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume xiii,
notes 189, 192, 193.--ED.
[94] The country traversed by the Canadian, explored for the first
time by Long's party, soon became familiar to traders through the
increasing intercourse with the Mexican provinces; but it was not again
examined under government auspices until 1845, when Lieut. James W.
Abert, detached by Frémont near Bent's Fort on the upper Arkansas,
crossed to the Canadian somewhat west of Long's route, and descended
it, visiting _en route_ the sources of the Washita. For his report
see Senate Document No. 438, Twenty-ninth Congress, first session. In
1849, Lieut. J. H. Simpson surveyed a route for a road from Fort Smith
to Santa Fé, and the map accompanying his report shows in considerable
detail the course of the Canadian. See Senate Executive Document No.
12, Thirty-first Congress, first session.--ED.
[95] The following six chapters are from the pen of Mr. Say.--JAMES.
[96] In contradistinction from Spaniards, near whose frontier these
Indians rove.--JAMES.
[97] The Spanish-American frontier was, during this whole period,
the scene of almost constant friction, and several filibustering
expeditions invaded Texas during the first two decades of the century.
In 1811 Bernardo Gutierrez, a Mexican refugee, and Augustus Magee,
an ex-officer of the United States army, led a force into eastern
Texas, seized Nacogdoches, and drove the Spanish troops in confusion
across Trinity River. On some such exploit as this--possibly this very
one--the Indians doubtless based their story. During the year of Major
Long's expedition, another man of the same patronymic (James Long, a
Natchez merchant) led another party into Texas, but achieved slight
success. See Garrison, _Texas_ (Boston, 1903). An article in _Niles'
Register_ (xix, p. 133), speaking of the Comanche, says: "These Indians
consider themselves the most powerful nation in the world, and _next to
them_, the _Americas_ (as they call the people of the United States).
But, since Long's defeat, they rank Spain before America, considering
Long _to have the command of all the United States_."--ED.
[98] We do not know that any writer has visited these Indians since the
expedition of Mr. Bourgmont, Commander of Fort Orleans of the Missouri,
which took place in the year 1724. They were then, and have since
continued to be, distinguished collectively by the name of Padoucas.
Du Pratz informs us, that they were then very numerous, "extending
almost two hundred leagues; and they have villages quite close to the
Spaniards of New Mexico." And that "from the Padoucas to the Canzes,
proceeding always east, we may now safely reckon sixty-five and a half
leagues. The river of the Canzes is parallel to this route." From this
statement of the course and estimate of the distance to the country
of the Padoucas, it is evident, that at this day these Indians do not
habitually wander in that direction so near to Missouri as they then
did, owing probably to the hostilities of the more martial nations
residing on that river.--JAMES.
[99] _Bufo cognatus._--Fuscous, with cinereous lines; _head_
canaliculate, groove abbreviated before. _Body_ above, dark brownish,
papillous, the papillæ and their basal disks black; they are more
numerous, prominent, and acute, on the sides and legs; not prominent on
the back. A vertebral cinereous vitta, from which an oblique cinereous
irregular line is drawn from the vertex to the side behind the anterior
feet; another double one from the middle of the back to the posterior
thighs. _Sides_ and _legs_ with irregular cinereous lines. _Head_ with
a groove, which hardly extends anteriorly to the line of the anterior
canthus of the eyes; verrucæ behind the eyes, moderate; _superior
maxilla_ emarginate; _beneath_ granulated.
Length from the nose to the cloaca, 3¾ inches. A specimen is placed
in the Philadelphia museum.--JAMES.
[100] The Arrapaho, or Rappaho nation, is known to the Minnetarees of
the Missouri, by the name of E-tâ-léh, or Bison-path Indians.--JAMES.
[101] The intoxicating bean is the fruit of a variety of mesquite tree
(_prosopis glandulosa_), which is common in the semi-arid districts
of the Southwest. It bears a pod similar to that of the locust, to
which it is related, containing eight to twelve beans. The Indians use
the bean as food for themselves and their horses, as well as in the
preparation of an alcoholic drink.--ED.
[102] Amongst the herds of these animals, we frequently saw flocks of
the cow bunting (_emberiza pecora_). The manners of this bird, in some
respects, are very similar to those of the _Tanagra erythroryncha_ of
Lord Stanley, in Salt's travels; flying, and alighting in considerable
numbers on the backs of the bisons, which, from their submission to
the pressure of numbers of them, seem to appreciate the services they
render, by scratching and divesting them of vermin. This bird is here,
as well as in the settlements, remarkably fearless. They will suffer us
to pass very near to them, and one of them to-day, alighted repeatedly
on the ground near our horses' feet: he would fly along our line, and
balance himself on his wings, to gratify his curiosity, within striking
distance of a whip.--JAMES.
[103] This is the first notice of any of the natural features along
the route since the division of the expedition two weeks previous, and
two hundred and fifty miles up stream. The Great Bend of the Arkansas
begins in Ford County, Kansas, and culminates in Barton County. The
chord of this great arc is nearly a hundred and twenty-five miles long.
Above the bend the country north of the river is flat, while to the
south it is hilly, causing the deflection of the stream toward the
northeast.--ED.
[104] See preceding volume, note 134.--ED.
[105] "Demun's Creek" is Pawnee River, flowing eastward from Finney
County and emptying into the Arkansas at the present town of Larned,
Pawnee County, on the west side of the Great Bend. Eight miles above
its mouth is the site of Fort Larned, established in 1859.--ED.
[106] Ash Creek, Pawnee County.--ED.
[107] At the culmination of the bend is the mouth of Walnut Creek,
which is a large stream flowing east from Lane, across Ness, Rush, and
Barton counties, and reaching the Arkansas four miles below the town of
Great Bend, seat of Barton County. A small tributary of Walnut Creek,
called Little Walnut, debouches four miles from the Arkansas; possibly
the party confused the two streams.--ED.
[108] At this point Pike reached the Arkansas in October, 1806, on his
way to the Rocky Mountains from the Pawnee village on Republican River.
Here, also, the Santa Fé trail reached the Arkansas. From Independence
and Kansas City the trail followed the divide between the Arkansas
and Kansas, crossing the headwaters of the tributaries of the former.
Above the Great Bend, the main route followed the river to Bent's Fort,
where it forked as already described (see _ante_, note 43). A branch of
the trail crossed the river in Gray County, Kansas, and traversed the
semi-desert region to the southward, to the upper Cimarron; this branch
was known as the Cimarron route. The use of the Santa Fé trail dates
from time immemorial, but for purposes of trade was long precarious.
It was of considerable commercial importance from the early twenties
to the age of railroad building; in some years the value of the goods
carried amounted to nearly half a million dollars. See volumes xix and
xx of our series.--ED.
[109] The Comanche (a word of Spanish origin, but of unknown meaning)
were of Shoshoni stock, and roamed a vast territory extending from
western Texas and Kansas to the foot of the mountains. They were fierce
and predatory, and superb horsemen. Notwithstanding bloody wars and the
ravages of small-pox, the tribe numbered probably about ten thousand
at the middle of the nineteenth century. A remnant of about fourteen
hundred of these tribesmen now lives on the Kiowa reservation, in
Oklahoma.--ED.
[110] We have since learned, from Major O'Fallon, that _Ietan_, the
distinguished Oto partizan, had informed him, within a few days of this
date, that he had just then returned from a war excursion in company
with a small party of Otoes that he led. And the narration of his
adventures satisfactorily proved, that it was he and his party that
reduced the Ietan war-party to the condition in which they presented
themselves to us.--JAMES.
[111] Cow Creek, the largest tributary of the Arkansas between Walnut
Creek and the Little Arkansas. It flows from Barton County southeast
across Rice County; Hutchinson, seat of Reno County, is at its
confluence with the river. The Santa Fé trail crossed the headwaters of
several of its tributaries not far from the Great Bend.--ED.
[112] The chief branch of the Little Arkansas heads near the northern
line of Rice County, traverses the northeast corner of Reno County, and
joins several smaller creeks in Harvey County. Thence its course is
almost south; Wichita, Sedgwick County, is at its mouth.--ED.
[113] Probably Chisholm's Creek, a small Sedgwick County stream.--ED.
[114] Bell's party mistook the Nennescah (Nenescah, Nenesquaw, an
Indian word meaning "good river") for the Negracka, which on the map is
given the alternate name of Red Fork. Lieutenant Wilkinson's detachment
of Pike's expedition made the same mistake in 1806; their report may
have misled Bell's party. The Negracka is much farther south, but the
members of the party were confused relative to their whereabouts from
this time until shortly before they arrived at the Verdigris. The
Nennescah drains most of the area inclosed by the Great Bend; Whitman,
Sumner County, is at its mouth. The Negracka is now often called Salt
Fork; the name Red Fork applies more properly to the Cimarron. The
names, locations, and relative sizes of the western tributaries of the
Arkansas between Great Bend and the Canadian made up a cartographical
puzzle which resisted solution for another generation.--ED.
[115] This is the modern Walnut Creek, formerly called Whitewater
River. Its course is nearly south through Butler and Cowley
counties; Arkansas City is near the confluence. This creek should be
distinguished from the stream of the same name mentioned _ante_, note
107.--ED.
[116] Now Grouse Creek; its course lies almost wholly within Cowley
County, and its mouth is almost on the line separating Kansas and
Oklahoma. The map is far from accurate in showing the tributaries of
the Arkansas in this region. The Nennescah is much nearer to Walnut
Creek than to the Little Arkansas; while the Negracka and all the other
western streams marked on the map are south of the Kansas boundary
(the thirty-seventh parallel). Slate Creek, in Sumner County, Kansas,
was evidently mistaken for the Strong Saline (now Red Rock Creek,
Oklahoma); but there is no tributary from the west, above Walnut
Creek, corresponding to the Saline (Black Bear) Creek of the map. The
cartographer appears to have forced matters here.--ED.
[117] Doubtless (Big) Beaver Creek, in the Kansa reservation.--ED.
[118] Being now opposite the mouth of the Negracka, or Salt Fork of the
Arkansas, for which five days previous they had mistaken the Nennescah,
Bell's men naturally infer that they are at the Cimarron, to which
alone the names used in the text were ever applied; it is much larger
than the "considerable stream" noted. Its confluence is, on a straight
line, some fifty miles farther down, about midway between the present
camp and the mouth of the Verdigris. By abandoning their route along
the immediate bank of the Arkansas on the twenty-eighth, the party
missed the Cimarron.--ED.
[119] The path of the party on August 23 and 24 followed an eastward
bend of the river, beginning at the northwest corner of the Pawnee
Reservation. Several creeks enter along this bend, the most important
of which now bear the names of Buck and Gray Horse.--ED.
[120] The creek nearly opposite the camp of the twenty-seventh, unnamed
on the map, is Saline (Black Bear) Creek, which the party thought had
been passed far up stream.--ED.
[121] The route of the party on the twenty-ninth and thirtieth probably
led them across the upper course of Hominy Creek, a tributary of the
Verdigris, flowing parallel with the Arkansas. They evidently mistook
it for a tributary of the Arkansas; the map shows such a tributary
crossed on the twenty-ninth, but there is none at the place indicated.
This supposition is borne out by the misconception relative to the
direction of the ravine crossed on the thirtieth; this depression may
have been the dry course of the same creek. The stream visible from the
elevated ground was either the Verdigris or Bird Creek, which unites
with Hominy Creek on the Osage-Cherokee boundary.--ED.
[122] This stream was the Cimarron, then known as the Nesuketonga, or
Grand Saline, opposite which the party thought they had encamped on the
twenty-first. The point at which they again reached the Arkansas was
probably near the Osage-Cherokee line, about twenty miles below the
mouth of the Cimarron.--ED.
[123] For sketch of the Osage Indians, see Bradbury's _Travels_, in our
volume v, note 22. On Clermont, see _ibid._, note 108, and Nuttall's
_Journal_, in our volume xiii, note 195.--ED.
[124] See description of this custom in Bradbury's _Travels_, in our
volume v, p. 63.--ED.
[125] The Arkansas band of the Osage were known by the French name
of _Osage des Chênes_ (Osage of the Oaks). Chancers is evidently a
corruption of _chênes_.--ED.
[126] For sketch of White Hair, see Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume
v, note 108; and Nuttall's _Journal_, our volume xiii, note 194. John
L. Foe (Watchawaha; called Jean La Fou by the French) was White Hair's
son-in-law, and second chief of the Grand Osage. Sans Oreille (Without
Ears, Indian name Tetobasi) was first soldier of his tribe as early as
Pike's visit in 1806. He and Big Soldier (Has-ha-ke-da-tungar) were in
a company of Indians whom Pike escorted to their homes. Part of these
tribesmen had visited Washington as delegates of their nation, and some
had lately been ransomed by the United States from captivity among the
Potawatomi. Lieutenant Wilkinson, of Pike's command, accompanied them
to the Little Osage village in August, 1806, and among his entertainers
on the occasion of that visit was The Soldier of the Oak. This cognomen
is a translation of his French name (Le soldat du chêne), given, it is
said, on account of a desperate fight with several assailants, during
which he sheltered himself behind an oak. His portrait, painted upon
the occasion of a visit to Washington in 1805 or 1806, is published in
McKenney, _Indian Tribes_, ii, p. 169.--ED.
[127] Peter Chouteau, more commonly known by his French name of Pierre,
and his elder brother Auguste, were founders of St. Louis. They long
were partners in the Indian trade, and their sons also attained
prominence in the various fur companies. In 1804, President Jefferson
appointed Pierre as agent to the Indians west of the Mississippi. The
treaty referred to may be found in _American State Papers_, "Indian
Affairs," i, p. 763; the date was November 10 instead of 8; and the
nomination was submitted to the senate January 16, 1810. Fort Clark was
an earlier name for Fort Osage, for which see Bradbury's _Travels_, in
our volume v, note 31; also our volume xiv, note 136.--ED.
[128] Notes on the following topics mentioned in this chapter may be
found in Nuttall's _Journal_, volume xiii of our series: Verdigris
River (note 193), Hugh Glenn (35), Neosho River (192), Illinois River
(189).--ED.
[129] See reprint of Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume xiii, pp. 243,
244.--ED.
[130] _Agama collaris._--_Scales_ of the back, neck, and head
beneath, anterior legs, and superior and posterior portions of the
posterior legs, small, slightly convex, mutic, rounded, or a little
oblong, obsoletely arranged in transverse lines; those of the abdomen
and breast larger, slightly hexagonal or quadrate, and distinctly
arranged in transverse lines; those of the tail rather smaller than
the abdominal ones, arranged in bands, quadrate, mutic towards the
tip of the tail, oblong, carinated, and acute; front, middle of the
head, vertex, and anterior portion of the inferior jaw, with scales
approaching the size of plates; _colour_, back with five or six dusky,
broad bands, alternating with narrow fulvous bands, which have each a
series of yellow or cinereous spots; a few spots are also scattered on
the dusky bands; _sides_ greenish-yellow; _sides of the neck_ fulvous,
more or less varied with brilliant vermilion red, a deep black band,
and another on the shoulder, both obsolete above, and terminating near
the anterior legs; _beneath_ pale; _posterior thighs_ with a series
of pores; _eyes_ silvery, pupil round, black; tail long, tapering,
cylindrical. Length from nose to cloaca 4 inches, tail 5⅖ inches. A
specimen is deposited in the Philadelphia museum.--JAMES.
[131] Bayou Menard (Manard) is a small stream which flows into the
Arkansas three or four miles below the Neosho. A short distance above
its mouth it unites with Four Mile Creek. The town of Manard is now
situated on its east bank.--ED.
[132] The name Greenleaf Bayou is still borne by this stream, but on
many maps it is marked Gruitch (or Grautch) Creek. The town of Bluffs,
on the Iron Mountain Railroad, stands near its mouth, which is about
twenty miles below the Neosho.--ED.
[133] Mygale avicularia.--JAMES.
[134] See our reprint, p. 180.--ED.
[135] The name of Bayou Viande (meaning Meat Bayou) has been corrupted
to Vine Creek.--ED.
[136] This is the correct orthography; the meaning is, more accurately,
Salted Meat Bayou. See Nuttall's _Journal_, note 187.--ED.
[137] _Ixodes molestus._--_Body_ reddish brown, punctured, orbicular
very slightly approaching ovate; _scutus_ rounded or sub-angular,
hardly attaining the middle of the body, and with two distinct,
indented, longitudinal lines; _tergum_, with about four dilated, black,
distinct radii behind the middle; margin from near the middle of the
side, with ten or twelve impressed, acute, equal, equidistant lines,
which do not crenate the edge or upper surface. Length rather more than
1/20 of an inch.--JAMES.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
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Obvious typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected
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and consultation of external sources.
Inconsistent spelling of a word or word-pair within the text has
been retained. For example, southeast south-east; gray grey;
prairie dog prairie-dog.
Spelling has been left as found in the original text, except for
those changes noted below. Note that some names are spelled
differently in the main text and in a footnote; this difference
is retained (for example, Le Sueur and Lesueur).
Pg 5 'Cottonwood' changed to 'Cotton-wood' for consistency.
Pg 5 'Thunderstorm' changed to 'Thunder-storm' for consistency.
Pg 28 and 29 'Viellot' changed to 'Vieillot' for consistency.
Pg 30 'sand-stone' changed to 'sandstone' for consistency.
Pg 76 'harrassed' changed to 'harassed'.
Pg 118 'abcesses' changed to 'abscesses'.
Pg 237 New paragraph after comma, left unchanged.
Pg 247 'S.W.' changed to 'S. W.' for consistency.
Pg 251 'Nesuhetonga' changed to 'Nesuketonga'.
Footnote 13 'Epeditions' changed to 'Expeditions'.
Footnote 51 'the' inserted before 'Canadian'.