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[Illustration: POTOSI _alias Mine a Burlon_.]
SCENES
AND
ADVENTURES
IN THE
Semi-Alpine Region
OF THE
OZARK MOUNTAINS OF MISSOURI
AND ARKANSAS,
WHICH WERE FIRST TRAVERSED BY DE SOTO, IN 1541.
BY HENRY ROWE SCHOOLCRAFT.
PHILADELPHIA:
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.
1853.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by
HENRY ROWE SCHOOLCRAFT,
in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court
for the District of Columbia.
Dedication.
~~~~~~~~~~~
_To the Memory_
OF
DE WITT CLINTON,
LATE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, &C. &C. &C.,
AN EARLY FRIEND, DURING THE YEARS DEVOTED TO THESE EXCURSIONS
INTO THE GREAT AREA OF THE WEST;--
A MAN WHO WAS EMINENT IN VARIOUS WALKS OF LIFE;--
WHO, BY HIS EXALTED FORECAST, WISE COUNSELS, AND STEADY POLICY,
CONTRIBUTED TO THE HIGHEST BENEFITS AND RENOWN OF HIS
NATIVE STATE;--
THESE RECORDS OF INCIDENTS OF EXPLORATORY TRAVEL,
ARE DEDICATED WITH THE SINCEREST SENTIMENTS OF RESPECT AND REGARD
FOR HIS CHARACTER AND NAME,
WHICH I EVER ENTERTAINED FOR HIM WHILE LIVING,
AND CONTINUE TO CHERISH NOW THAT HE IS DEAD.
HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
PREFACE.
These early adventures in the Ozarks comprehend my first exploratory
effort in the great area of the West. To traverse the plains and
mountain elevations west of the Mississippi, which had once echoed the
tramp of the squadrons of De Soto--to range over hills, and through
rugged defiles, which he had once searched in the hope of finding mines
of gold and silver rivalling those of Mexico and Peru; and this, too,
coming as a climax to the panorama of a long, long journey from the
East--constituted an attainment of youthful exultation and
self-felicitation, which might have been forgotten with its termination.
But the incidents are perceived to have had a value of a different kind.
They supply the first attempt to trace the track of the Spanish
cavaliers west of the Mississippi. The name of De Soto is inseparably
connected with the territorial area of Missouri and Arkansas, which he
was the first European to penetrate, and in the latter of which he died.
Four-and-thirty years have passed away, since the travels here brought
to view, were terminated. They comprise a period of exciting and
startling events in our history, social and political. With the
occupancy of Oregon, the annexation of Texas, the discoveries in
California, and the acquisition of New Mexico, the very ends of the
Union appear to have been turned about. And the lone scenes and
adventures of a man on a then remote frontier, may be thought to have
lost their interest. But they are believed to possess a more permanent
character. It is the first and _only_ attempt to identify De Soto's
march west of the Mississippi; and it recalls reminiscences of scenes
and observations which belong to the history of the discovery and
settlement of the country.
Little, it is conceived, need be said, to enable the reader to determine
the author's position on the frontiers of Missouri and Arkansas in 1818.
He had passed the summer and fall of that year in investigating the
geological structure and mineral resources of the lead-mine district of
Missouri. He had discovered the isolated primitive tract on the sources
of the St. Francis and Grand rivers--the "Coligoa" of the Spanish
adventurer--and he felt a strong impulse to explore the regions west of
it, to determine the extent of this formation, and fix its geological
relations between the primitive ranges of the Alleghany and Rocky
mountains.
Reports represented it as an alpine tract, abounding in picturesque
valleys and caves, and replete with varied mineral resources, but
difficult to penetrate on account of the hostile character of the Osage
and Pawnee Indians. He recrossed the Mississippi to the American bottom
of Illinois, to lay his plan before a friend and fellow-traveller in an
earlier part of his explorations, Mr. Ebenezer Brigham, of
Massachusetts, who agreed to unite in the enterprise. He then proceeded
to St. Louis, where Mr. Pettibone, a Connecticut man, and a
fellow-voyager on the Alleghany river, determined also to unite in this
interior journey. The place of rendezvous was appointed at Potosi,
about forty miles west of the Mississippi. Each one was to share in the
preparations, and some experienced hunters and frontiersmen were to join
in the expedition. But it turned out, when the day of starting arrived,
that each one of the latter persons found some easy and good excuse for
declining to go, principally on the ground that they were poor men, and
could not leave supplies for their families during so long a period of
absence. Both the other gentlemen came promptly to the point, though one
of them was compelled by sickness to return; and my remaining companion
and myself plunged into the wilderness with a gust of adventure and
determination, which made amends for whatever else we lacked.
It is only necessary to add, that the following journal narrates the
incidents of the tour. The narrative is drawn up from the original
manuscript journal in my possession. Outlines of parts of it, were
inserted in the pages of the Belles-lettres Repository, by Mr. Van
Winkle, soon after my return to New York, in 1819; from whence they were
transferred by Sir Richard Phillips to his collection of Voyages and
Travels, London, 1821. This latter work has never been republished in
the United States.
In preparing the present volume, after so considerable a lapse of time,
it has been thought proper to omit all such topics as are not deemed of
permanent or historical value. The scientific facts embraced in the
appendix, on the mines and mineralogy of Missouri, are taken from my
publication on these subjects. In making selections and revisions from a
work which was at first hastily prepared, I have availed myself of the
advantage of subsequent observation on the spot, as well as of the
suggestions and critical remarks made by men of judgment and science.
A single further remark may be made: The term Ozark is applied to a
broad, elevated district of highlands, running from north to south,
centrally, through the States of Missouri and Arkansas. It has on its
east the striking and deep alluvial tract of the Mississippi river, and,
on its west, the woodless buffalo plains or deserts which stretch below
the Rocky Mountains. The Osage Indians, who probably furnish origin for
the term, have occupied all its most remarkable gorges and eminences,
north of the Arkansas, from the earliest historical times; and this
tribe, with the Pawnees ("Apana"), are supposed to have held this
position ever since the days of De Soto.
WASHINGTON, January 20, 1853.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION Page 13
CHAPTER I.
Junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi--Difficulty of Ascending
the latter with a Barge--Its turbid and rapid Character--Incidents
of the Voyage--Physical Impediments to its Navigation--Falling-in
Banks--Tiawapati--Animals--Floating Trees--River at Night--Needless
and laughable Alarm--Character of the Shores--Men give out--Reach
the first fast Lands--Mineral Products--Cape Girardeau--Moccasin
Spring--Non-poetic geographical Names--Grand Tower--Struggle to
pass Cape Garlic. 22
CHAPTER II.
Pass Cape Garlic--Obrazo River--Cliffs--Emigrants--Cape St. Comb
--Bois Brule Bottom--Paroquet--Fort Chartres--Kaskaskia--St.
Genevieve--M. Breton--The Mississippi deficient in Fish--
Antiquities--Geology--Steamer--Herculaneum--M. Austin, Esq., the
Pioneer to Texas--Journey on foot to St. Louis--Misadventures on
the Maramec--Its Indian Name--Carondelet--St. Louis, its fine Site
and probable future Importance--St. Louis Mounds not artificial--
Downward Pressure of the diluvial Drift of the Mississippi. 32
CHAPTER III.
Resolve to proceed further West--Night Voyage on the Mississippi
in a Skiff--An Adventure--Proceed on foot West to the Missouri
Mines--Incidents by the Way--Miners' Village of Shibboleth--
Compelled by a Storm to pass the Night at Old Mines--Reach Potosi
--Favourable Reception by the mining Gentry--Pass several Months
in examining the Mines--Organize an Expedition to explore Westward
--Its Composition--Discouragements on setting out--Proceed,
notwithstanding--Incidents of the Journey to the Valley of Leaves. 43
CHAPTER IV.
Horses elope--Desertion of our Guide--Encamp on one of the Sources
of Black River--Head-waters of the River Currents--Enter a
romantic Sub-Valley--Saltpetre Caves--Description of Ashley's Cave
--Encampment there--Enter an elevated Summit--Calamarca, an unknown
Stream--encounter four Bears--North Fork of White River. 54
CHAPTER V.
Descend the Valley--Its Difficulties--Horse rolls down a Precipice
--Purity of the Water--Accident caused thereby--Elkhorn Spring--
Tower Creek--Horse plunges over his depth in Fording, and destroys
whatever is deliquescent in his pack--Absence of Antiquities, or
Evidences of ancient Habitation--a remarkable Cavern--Pinched for
Food--Old Indian Lodges--The Beaver--A deserted Pioneer's Camp--
Incident of the Pumpkin. 65
CHAPTER VI.
Abandon our Camp and Horse in search of Settlements--Incidents of
the first Day--Hear a Shot--Camp in an old Indian Lodge--Acorns
for Supper--Kill a Woodpecker--Incidents of the second Day--
Sterile Ridges--Want of Water--Camp at Night in a deep Gorge--
Incidents of the third Day--Find a Horse-path, and pursue it--
Discover a Man on Horseback--Reach a Hunter's Cabin--Incidents
there--He conducts us back to our old Camp--Deserted there without
Provisions--Deplorable State--Shifts--Taking of a Turkey. 74
CHAPTER VII.
Proceed West--Bog our Horse--Cross the Knife Hills--Reach the
Unica, or White River--Abandon the Horse at a Hunter's, and
proceed with Packs--Objects of Pity--Sugar-Loaf Prairie--Camp
under a Cliff--Ford the Unica twice--Descend into a Cavern--
Reach Beaver River, the highest Point of Occupancy by a Hunter
Population. 83
CHAPTER VIII.
Obstacle produced by the Fear of Osage Hostility--Means pursued to
overcome it--Natural Monuments of Denudation in the Limestone
Cliffs--Purity of the Water--Pebbles of Yellow Jasper--Complete
the Hunters' Cabins--A Job in Jewellery--Construct a Blowpipe from
Cane--What is thought of Religion. 93
CHAPTER IX.
Proceed into the Hunting-Country of the Osages--Diluvial Hills and
Plains--Bald Hill--Swan Creek--Osage Encampments--Form of the
Osage Lodge--The Habits of the Beaver--Discover a remarkable Cavern
in the Limestone Rock, having natural Vases of pure Water--Its
geological and metalliferous Character--Reach the Summit of the
Ozark Range, which is found to display a broad Region of fertile
Soil, overlying a mineral Deposit. 101
CHAPTER X.
Depart from the Cave--Character of the Hunters who guided the
Author--Incidents of the Route--A beautiful and fertile Country,
abounding in Game--Reach the extreme north-western Source of White
River--Discoveries of Lead-ore in a Part of its Bed--Encamp, and
investigate its Mineralogy--Character, Value, and History of the
Country--Probability of its having been traversed by De Soto in
1541. 109
CHAPTER XI.
Severe winter Weather on the Summit of the Ozarks--False Alarm of
Indians--Danger of my Furnace, etc., being hereafter taken for
Antiquities--Proceed South--Animal Tracks in the Snow--Winoca or
Spirit Valley--Honey and the Honey-Bee--Buffalo-Bull Creek--Robe
of Snow--Mehausca Valley--Superstitious Experiment of the Hunters
--Arrive at Beaver Creek. 115
CHAPTER XII.
Descend White River in a Canoe--Its pure Water, Character, and
Scenery--Places of Stopping--Bear Creek--Sugar-Loaf Prairie--Big
Creek--A River Pedlar--Pot Shoals--Mouth of Little North Fork--
Descend formidable Rapids, called the Bull Shoals--Stranded on
Rocks--A Patriarch Pioneer--Mineralogy--Antique Pottery and Bones
--Some Trace of De Soto--A Trip by Land--Reach the Mouth of the
Great North Fork. 120
CHAPTER XIII.
Detention at the Mouth of the Great North Fork--Natural History of
the Vicinity--Great Blocks of Quartz--Imposing Precipices of the
Calico Rock--A Characteristic of American Scenery--Cherokee
Occupancy of the Country between the White and Arkansas Rivers--
Its Effects on the Pioneers--Question of the Fate of the Indian
Races--Iron-ore--Descent to the Arkansas Ferries--Leave the River
at this Point--Remarks on its Character and Productions. 128
CHAPTER XIV.
Ancient Spot of De Soto's crossing White River in 1542--Lameness
produced by a former Injury--Incidents of the Journey to the St.
Francis River--De Soto's ancient Marches and Adventures on this
River in the search after Gold--Fossil Salt--Copper--The ancient
Ranges of the Buffalo. 134
CHAPTER XV.
Proceed North--Incidents of the Route--A severe Tempest of Rain,
which swells the Stream--Change in the Geology of the Country--
The ancient Coligoa of De Soto--A primitive and mineral Region--
St. Michael--Mine a La Motte--Wade through Wolf Creek--A Deserted
House--Cross Grand River--Return to Potosi. 142
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE WEST.
Two Letters, addressed to the Hon. J. B. Thomas, U. S. Senate,
Washington. 146
APPENDIX.
MINERALOGY, GEOLOGY, AND MINES.
1. A View of the Lead-Mines of Missouri. 153
2. A Catalogue of the Minerals of the Mississippi Valley. 198
3. Mineral Resources of the Western Country. A Letter to Gen.
C. G. Haines. 215
GEOGRAPHY.
1. Missouri. 222
2. Hot Springs of Washita. 231
3. Memoir of White River. 233
4. List of Steamboats on the Mississippi River in 1819. 239
ANTIQUITIES AND INDIAN HISTORY.
1. Articles of curious Workmanship found in ancient Indian Graves. 241
2. Ancient Indian Cemetery found in the Maramec Valley. 243
INTRODUCTION.
De Soto, in 1541, was the true discoverer of the Mississippi river, and
the first person who crossed it, who has left a narrative of that fact;
although it is evident that Cabaca de Vaca, the noted survivor of the
ill-fated expedition of Narvaez in 1528, must, in his extraordinary
pilgrimage between Florida and the eastern coasts of the gulf of
California, have crossed this river, perhaps before him; but he has not
distinctly mentioned it in his memoir. Narvaez himself was not the
discoverer of the mouth of the Mississippi, as some persons have
conjectured, inasmuch as he was blown off the coast and lost, east of
that point. The most careful tracing of the narrative of his voyage in
boats along the Florida shore, as given by De Vaca, does not carry him
beyond Mobile bay, or, at farthest, Perdido bay.[1]
De Soto's death frustrated his plan of founding a colony of Spain in the
Mississippi valley; and that stream was allowed to roll its vast volume
into the gulf a hundred and thirty-two years longer, before it attracted
practical notice. Precisely at the end of this time, namely, in 1673,
Mons. Jolliet, accompanied by James Marquette, the celebrated
enterprising missionary of New France, entered the stream at the
confluence of the Wisconsin, in accordance with the policy, and a plan
of exploration, of the able, brave, and efficient governor-general of
Canada, the Count Frontenac. Marquette and his companion, who was the
chief of the expedition, but whose name has become secondary to his
own, descended it to the mouth of the Arkansas, the identical spot of De
Soto's demise. La Salle, some five or six years later, continued the
discovery to the gulf; and Hennepin extended it upward, from the point
where Marquette had entered it, to the falls of St. Anthony, and the
river St. Francis. And it is from this era of La Salle, the narrators of
whose enlarged plans, civic and ecclesiastical, recognised the Indian
geographical terminology, that it has retained its Algonquin name of
MISSISSIPPI.
It is by no means intended to follow these initial facts by recitals of
the progress of the subsequent local discoveries in the Mississippi
valley, which were made respectively under French, British, and American
rule. Sufficient is it, for the present purpose, to say, that the thread
of the discovery of the Mississippi, north and west of the points named,
was not taken up effectively, till the acquisition of Louisiana. Mr.
Jefferson determined to explore the newly acquired territories, and
directed the several expeditions of discovery under Lewis and Clark, and
Lieut. Z. M. Pike. The former traced out the Missouri to its sources,
and followed the Columbia to the Pacific; while the latter continued the
discovery of the Mississippi river above St. Anthony's falls where
Hennepin, and perhaps Carver, had respectively left it. The map which
Pike published in 1810 contained, however, an error of a capital
geographical point, in regard to the actual source of the Mississippi.
He placed it in Turtle lake, at the source of Turtle river of upper _Lac
Cedre Rouge_, or Cass lake, which lies in the portage to Red lake of the
great Red River of the North, being in the ordinary route of the fur
trade to that region.
In 1820, Mr. Calhoun, who determined to erect a cordon of military posts
to cover the remotest of the western settlements, at the same time that
he despatched Major Long to ascend to the Yellowstone of the Missouri,
directed the extreme upper Mississippi to be examined and traced out to
its source. This expedition, led by Gov. Cass, through the upper lakes,
reached the mouth of Turtle river of the large lake beyond the upper
cataract of the Mississippi, which has since borne the name of the
intrepid leader of the party. It was satisfactorily determined that
Turtle lake was not the source, nor even one of the main sources, of the
Mississippi; but that this river was discharged, in the integrity of its
volume, into the western end of Cass lake. To determine this point more
positively, and trace the river to its source, another expedition was
organized by the Department of War in 1832, and committed to me. Taking
up the line of discovery where it had been left in 1820, the river was
ascended up a series of rapids about forty miles north, to a large lake
called the Amigegoma; a few miles above which, it is constituted by two
forks, having a southern and western origin, the largest and longest of
which was found[2] to originate in Itasca lake, in north latitude 37 deg.
13'--a position not far north of Ottertail lake, in the highlands of
HAUTEUR DES TERRES.
So far as the fact of De Soto's exploration of the country west of the
Mississippi, in the present area of Missouri and Arkansas, is concerned,
it is apprehended that the author of these incidents of travel has been
the first person to identify and explore this hitherto confused part of
the celebrated Spanish explorer's route. This has been traced from the
narrative, with the aid of the Indian lexicography, in the third volume
of his Indian History (p. 50), just published, accompanied by a map of
the entire route, from his first landing on the western head of Tampa
bay. Prior to the recital of these personal incidents, it may serve a
useful purpose to recall the state of geographical information at this
period.
The enlarged and improved map of the British colonies, with the
geographical and historical analysis, accompanying it, of Lewis Evans,
which was published by B. Franklin in 1754, had a controlling effect on
all geographers and statesmen of the day, and was an important element
in diffusing a correct geographical knowledge of the colonies at large,
and particularly of the great valley of the Mississippi, agreeably to
modern ideas of its physical extent. It was a great work for the time,
and for many years remained the standard of reference. In some of its
features, it was never excelled. Mr. Jefferson quotes it, in his Notes
on Virginia, and draws from it some interesting opinions concerning
Indian history, as in the allusion to the locality and place of final
refuge of the Eries. It was from the period of the publication of this
memoir that the plan of an "Ohio colony," in which Dr. Franklin had an
active agency, appears to have had its origin.
Lewis Evans was not only an eminent geographer himself, but his map and
memoir, as will appear on reference to them, embrace the discoveries of
his predecessors and contemporary explorers, as Conrad Wiser and others,
in the West. The adventurous military reconnoissance of Washington to
fort Le Boeuf, on lake Erie, was subsequent to this publication.
Evans's map and analysis, being the best extant, served as the basis of
the published materials used for the topographical guidance of General
Braddock on his march over the Alleghany mountains. Washington, himself
an eminent geographer, was present in that memorable march; and so
judicious and well selected were its movements, through defiles and over
eminences, found to be, that the best results of engineering skill, when
the commissioners came to lay out the great Cumberland road, could not
mend them. Such continued also to be the basis of our general
geographical knowledge of the West, at the period of the final capture
of fort Du Quesne by General Forbes, and the change of its name in
compliment to the eminent British statesman, Pitt.
The massacre of the British garrison of Michilimackinac in 1763, the
investment of the fort of Detroit in the same year by a combined force
of Indian tribes, and the development of an extensive conspiracy, as it
has been termed, against the western British posts under Pontiac,
constituted a new feature in American history; and the military
expeditions of Cols. Bouquet and Bradstreet, towards the West and
North-west, were the consequence. These movements became the means of a
more perfect geographical knowledge respecting the West than had before
prevailed. Hutchinson's astronomical observations, which were made under
the auspices of Bouquet, fixed accurately many important points in the
Mississippi valley, and furnished a framework for the military narrative
of the expedition. In fact, the triumphant march of Bouquet into the
very strongholds of the Indians west of the Ohio, first brought them
effectually to terms; and this expedition had the effect to open the
region to private enterprise.
The defeat of the Indians by Major Gladwyn at Detroit had tended to the
same end; and the more formal march of Colonel Bradstreet, in 1764,
still further contributed to show the aborigines the impossibility of
their recovering the rule in the West. Both these expeditions, at
distant points, had a very decided tendency to enlarge the boundaries of
geographical discovery in the West, and to stimulate commercial
enterprise.
The Indian trade had been carried to fort Pitt the very year of its
capture by the English forces; and it may serve to give an idea of the
commercial daring and enterprise of the colonists to add, that, so early
as 1766, only two years after Bouquet's expedition, the leading house of
Baynton, Wharton & Morgan, of Philadelphia, had carried that branch of
trade through the immense lines of forest and river wilderness to fort
Chartres, the military capital of the Illinois, on the Mississippi.[3]
Its fertile lands were even then an object of scarcely less avidity.[4]
Mr. Alexander Henry had, even a year or two earlier, carried this trade
to Michilimackinac; and the English flag, the symbol of authority with
the tribes, soon began to succeed that of France, far and wide. The
Indians, finding the French flag had really been struck finally,
submitted, and the trade soon fell, in every quarter, into English
hands.
The American revolution, beginning within ten years of this time, was
chiefly confined to the regions east of the Alleghanies. The war for
territory west of this line was principally carried on by Virginia,
whose royal governors had more than once marched to maintain her
chartered rights on the Ohio. Her blood had often freely flowed on this
border, and, while the great and vital contest still raged in the
Atlantic colonies, she ceased not with a high hand to defend it,
attacked as it was by the fiercest and most deadly onsets of the
Indians.
In 1780, General George Rogers Clark, the commander of the Virginia
forces, visited the vicinity of the mouth of the Ohio, by order of the
governor of Virginia, for the purpose of selecting the site for a fort,
which resulted in the erection of fort Jefferson, some few miles (I
think) below the influx of the Ohio, on the eastern bank of the
Mississippi. The United States were then in the fifth year of the war of
independence. All its energies were taxed to the utmost extent in this
contest; and not the least of its cares arose from the Indian tribes who
hovered with deadly hostility on its western borders. It fell to the lot
of Clark, who was a man of the greatest energy of character, chivalric
courage, and sound judgment, to capture the posts of Kaskaskia and
Vincennes, in the Illinois, with inadequate forces at his command, and
through a series of almost superhuman toils. And we are indebted to
these conquests for the enlarged western boundary inserted in the
definitive treaty of peace, signed at Paris in 1783. Dr. Franklin, who
was the ablest geographer among the commissioners, made a triumphant use
of these conquests; and we are thus indebted to George Rogers Clark for
the acquisition of the Mississippi valley.
American enterprise in exploring the country may be said to date from
the time of the building of fort Jefferson; but it was not till the
close of the revolutionary war, in 1783, that the West became the
favorite theatre of action of a class of bold, energetic, and patriotic
men, whose biographies would form a very interesting addition to our
literature. It is to be hoped that such a work may be undertaken and
completed before the materials for it, are beyond our reach. How
numerous this class of men were, and how quickly they were followed by a
hardy and enterprising population, who pressed westward from the
Atlantic borders, may be inferred from the fact that the first State
formed west of the Ohio river, required but twenty years from the treaty
of peace for its complete organization. Local histories and cyclical
memoirs have been published in some parts of the West, which, though
scarcely known beyond the precincts of their origin, possess their chief
value as affording a species of historical material for this
investigation. Pioneer life in the West must, indeed, hereafter
constitute a prolific source of American reminiscence; but it may be
doubted whether any comprehensive work on the subject will be
effectively undertaken, while any of this noble band of public
benefactors are yet on the stage of life.
The acquisition of Louisiana, in 1803, became the period from which may
be dated the first efforts of the United States' government to explore
the public domain. The great extent of the territory purchased from
France, stretching west to the Pacific ocean--its unknown boundaries on
the south, west, and north--and the importance and variety of its
reputed resources, furnished the subjects which led the Executive, Mr.
Jefferson, to direct its early exploration. The expeditions named of
Lewis and Clark to Oregon, and of Pike to the sources of the
Mississippi, were the consequence. Pike did not publish the results of
his search till 1810. Owing to the death of Governor Meriwether Lewis, a
still greater delay attended the publication of the details of the
former expedition, which did not appear till 1814. No books had been
before published, which diffused so much local geographical knowledge.
The United States were then engaged in the second war with Great
Britain, during which the hostility of the western tribes precluded
explorations, except such as could be made under arms. The treaty of
Ghent brought the belligerent parties to terms; but the intelligence did
not reach the country in season to prevent the battle of New Orleans,
which occurred in January 1815.
Letters from correspondents in the West, which were often published by
the diurnal press, and the lectures of Mr. W. Darby on western and
general geography, together with verbal accounts and local publications,
now poured a flood of information respecting the fertility and resources
of that region, and produced an extensive current of emigration.
Thousands were congregated at single points, waiting to embark on its
waters. The successful termination of the war had taken away all fear of
Indian hostility. The tribes had suffered a total defeat at all points,
their great leader Tecumseh had fallen, and there was no longer a basis
for any new combinations to oppose the advances of civilization.
Military posts were erected to cover the vast line of frontiers on the
west and north, and thus fully to occupy the lines originally secured by
the treaty of 1783. In 1816, Mr. J. J. Astor, having purchased the
North-west Company's posts, lying south of latitude 49 deg., established the
central point of his trade at Michilimackinac. A military post was
erected by the government at the falls of St. Anthony, and another at
Council Bluffs on the Missouri. The knowledge of the geography and
resources of the western country was thus practically extended, although
no publication, so far as I am aware, was made on this subject.
In the fall of 1816, I determined to visit the Mississippi valley--a
resolution which brought me into the situations narrated in the
succeeding volume. In the three ensuing years I visited a large part of
the West, and explored a considerable portion of Missouri and Arkansas,
in which De Soto alone, I believe, had, in 1542, preceded me. My first
publication on the results of these explorations was made at New York,
in 1819. De Witt Clinton was then on the stage of action, and Mr.
Calhoun, with his grasping intellect, directed the energies of the
government in exploring the western domain, which, he foresaw, as he
told me, must exercise a controlling influence on the destinies of
America.
In the spring of 1818, Major S. H. Long, U. S. A., was selected by the
War Office to explore the Missouri as high as the Yellowstone, and,
accompanied by a corps of naturalists from Philadelphia, set out from
Pittsburgh in a small steamer. The results of this expedition were in
the highest degree auspicious to our knowledge of the actual topography
and natural history of the far West, and mark a period in their
progress. It was about this time that Colonel H. Leavenworth was
directed to ascend the Mississippi, and establish a garrison at the
mouth of the St. Peter's or Minnesota river. Early in 1820, the War
Department directed an exploratory expedition to be organized at
Detroit, under the direction of Lewis Cass, Esq., Governor of Michigan
Territory, for the purpose of surveying the upper lakes, and determining
the area at the sources of the Mississippi--its physical character,
topography, and Indian population. In the scientific corps of this
expedition, I received from the Secretary of War the situation of
mineralogist and geologist, and published a narrative of it. This
species of public employment was repeated in 1821, during which I
explored the Miami of the Lakes, and the Wabash and Illinois; and my
position assumed a permanent form, in another department of the service,
in 1822, when I took up my residence in the great area of the upper
lakes.
It is unnecessary to the purposes of this sketch to pursue these details
further than to say, that the position I occupied was favorable to the
investigation of the mineral constitution and natural history of the
country, and also of the history, antiquities, and languages and
customs, of the Indian tribes. For a series of years, the name of the
author has been connected with the progress of discovery and research on
these subjects. Events controlled him in the publication of separate
volumes of travels, some of which were, confessedly, incomplete in their
character, and hasty in their preparation. Had he never trespassed on
public attention in this manner, he would not venture, with his present
years, and more matured conceptions of a species of labor, where the
difficulties are very great, the chances of applause doubtful, and the
rewards, under the most favorable auspices, very slender. As it is,
there is a natural desire that what has been done, and may be quoted
when he has left this feverish scene and gone to his account, should be
put in the least exceptionable form. Hence the revision of these
travels.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Vide Narr. of Cabaca de Vaca, Smith's Tr., 1851.
[2] 291 years after De Soto's discovery, and 159 after Marquette's.
[3] MS. Journal of Matthew Clarkson, in the possession of Wm. Duane,
Esq., Philadelphia.
[4] Ibid.
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
CHAPTER I.
JUNCTION OF THE OHIO WITH THE MISSISSIPPI--DIFFICULTY OF
ASCENDING THE LATTER WITH A BARGE--ITS TURBID AND RAPID
CHARACTER--INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE--PHYSICAL IMPEDIMENTS
TO ITS NAVIGATION--FALLING-IN BANKS--TIAWAPATI--ANIMALS
--FLOATING TREES--RIVER AT NIGHT--NEEDLESS AND LAUGHABLE
ALARM--CHARACTER OF THE SHORES--MEN GIVE OUT--REACH THE
FIRST FAST LANDS--MINERAL PRODUCTS--CAPE GIRARDEAU--
MOCCASIN SPRING--NON-POETIC GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES--GRAND
TOWER--STRUGGLE TO PASS CAPE GARLIC.
I reached the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi on the last day
of June, 1818, with feelings somewhat akin to those of one who performs
a pilgrimage;--for that Algonquin name of Mississippi had been floating
through my mind ever since boyhood, as if it had been invested with a
talismanic power.
The reading of books of geography, however, makes but a feeble
impression on the mind, compared to the actual objects. Born on one of
the tributaries of the Hudson--a stream whose whole length, from the
junction of the Mohawk, is less than two hundred miles--I had never
figured to myself rivers of such magnificent length and velocity. I had
now followed down the Ohio, in all its windings, one thousand miles; it
was not only the longest, but the most beautiful river which I had ever
seen; and I felt something like regret to find it at last swallowed up,
as it were, by the turbid and repulsive Mississippi. The latter was at
its summer flood, and rushed by like a torrent, which seemed to be
overcharged with the broken-down materials of half a continent.
De Soto had been the first European to gaze upon this heady mass of
waters, urging downward everything that comes within their influence,
and threatening to carry even their own banks into the gulf. We came, in
a large, heavily-manned barge, to the very point of the influx of the
Ohio, where Cairo is now located. It was early in the afternoon; but the
captain of our craft, who was a stout-hearted fellow, of decision of
character and a full-toned voice, deemed it best to come-to here, and
wait till morning to grapple with the Mississippi. There were some old
arks on the point, which had been landed in high water, and were now
used as houses; but I retained my berth in the barge, and, after looking
around the vicinity, amused myself by angling from the sides of the
vessel. The only fish I caught was a gar--that almost single variety of
the voracious species in these waters, which has a long bill, with sharp
teeth, for arousing its prey, apparently, from a muddy bottom. The
junction of two such streams as the Ohio and Mississippi, exhibits a
remarkable struggle. For miles, along the eastern shores of the
Mississippi, the clear blue waters of the Ohio are crowded to the banks;
while the furious current of the former, like some monster, finally
gulps it down, though the mastery is not obtained, I am told, till near
the Chickasaw bluffs.
Early in the morning (1st July), the voice of the captain was heard, and
the men paraded the sides of the deck, with their long poles shod with
iron; and we were soon in the gurgling, muddy channel, struggling along
its eastern shore. The men plied their poles with the skill of veterans,
planting them as near the margin of the channel as possible, and placing
the head of the pole against the shoulder, while they kept their footing
by means of slats nailed across the footway. With every exertion, we
made but five miles the first day. This slowness of ascent was, however,
very favorable to observation. I was the only passenger on board, except
two adventurers from the Youghioghany, in Western Pennsylvania, who had
freighted the barge, and were in the position of supercargoes. Such
tugging and toiling I had never before seen. It seemed to me that no set
of men could long stand it. The current ran as if it were charged with
power to sweep everything down its course. Its banks were not proof
against this impetuosity, and frequently fell in, with a noise and power
which threatened to overwhelm us. This danger was often increased by the
floating trees, which had fallen into the stream at higher points. And
when, after a severe day's toil, the captain ordered the boat to be
moored for the night, we felt an insecurity from the fear that the bank
itself might prove treacherous before morning.
Nothing in the structure of the country appeared to present a very fixed
character. The banks of the river were elevated from ten to fifteen feet
above the water, and consisted of a dark alluvium, bearing a dense
forest. When they became too precipitous, which was an indication that
the water at these points was too deep for the men to reach bottom with
their poles, they took their oars, and crossed to the other bank. When
night came on, in these damp alluvions, and darkness was added to our
danger, the scene was indeed gloomy. I remember, this evening, we tried
most perseveringly to drink our tea by a feeble light, which appeared to
be a signal for the collection of insects far and near, who, by their
numbers and the fierceness of their attacks, made it impossible to bring
our cups to our mouths without stopping to brush away the fierce and
greedy hordes of mosquitoes. Amongst the growth, cane and cotton-wood
were most conspicuous.
I had a specimen of boatman manners to-day, which should not certainly
be a subject of surprise, considering the rough-and-ready life and
character of that class. Having laid down on the top deck of the barge a
mineralogical specimen to which I attached value, and gone temporarily
away, I found, on my return, that it had been knocked to pieces by one
of the men, who acted, probably, like the boy who broke the fiddle, "to
get the music out" of it. On expressing my disapproval of this, to one
who evidently had not the most distant idea of the scientific value of
"a stone," he made some trite remark, that "there was more where this
came from," and then, stretching himself up at his full length of six
feet, with sinews which had plainly become tense and hard from the use
of the setting-pole, he exclaimed, "Help yourself!"
July 2d. The toils of this day were similar to those of the last. It was
a perpetual struggle to overcome the force of the current by poles
placed in the bed, and, when that became too deep, we sought for
shallower shores. We encountered the same growth of trees along the
banks. The land became somewhat more elevated. The insects were in such
hordes, that it was amazing. We proceeded but about six miles to-day,
and they were miles of incessant toil.
July 3d. To the ordinary dangers and efforts of this day, were added the
frequent occurrence of snags and sawyers, or planters--terms which
denote some of the peculiar impediments of Mississippi navigation. The
captain of our craft, who was a courageous and vigilant man, was
continually on the look-out to avoid these dangers, and put-to, at
night, at the foot of a large cane-covered island, by which he avoided,
in some measure, the sweep of the current, but was yet in jeopardy from
falling-in banks. He requested me, in this exigency, to take a pole,
and, from the bow, sound for bottom, as we crossed the river, to avoid
shoals. This I did successfully. We estimated our ascent this day at
seven miles.
July 4th. The perils and toils of the crew did not prevent their
remembrance of the national anniversary; and the captain acknowledged
their appeal in the morning by an extra measure of "old Monongahela." We
then set forward against the wild, raging current. From the appearance
of the wild turkey and large grey squirrel ashore, it is probable that
we are passing out of the inundated region. In other respects, the face
of the country and its productions appear the same. After ascending
about six miles, when the time approached for looking out for a place to
moor for the night, a storm of wind suddenly arose, which dashed the
water into the barge. We put ashore in haste, at a precipitous bank of
an island, which fell in during the night very near to us, and put us in
momentary peril. To leave our position in the dark, would be to take the
risk of running afoul of snags, or encountering floating trees; but as
early as the light appeared on the morning of the 5th, we left the spot
immediately, crossing to the western bank. By diligence we made eight
miles this day, which brought us to the first settlement at Tiawapeta
bottom, on the Missouri shore. This is the first land that appears
sufficiently elevated for cultivation. The settlement consists of six or
eight farms, where corn, flax, hemp, potatoes, and tobacco, are
abundantly raised. The peach and apple-tree also thrive. I observed the
papaw and persimmon among the wild fruits.
July 6th. The downward movement of the water, and its gurgling and rush
as it meets with obstacles, is very audible after the barge has been
fastened to the shore for the night, when its fearful impetuosity,
surcharged as it is with floating wrecks of forest life, is impressive
to the listener, while night has thrown her dark pall over the scene.
Early in the morning, the oarsmen and polemen were at their masculine
toils. I had feared that such intense application of muscle, in pushing
forward the boat, would exhaust their strength; and we had not gone over
three miles this day, when we were obliged to lay-by for the want of
more competent hands. The complaining men were promptly paid, and
furnished with provisions to return. While detained by this
circumstance, we were passed by a boat of similar construction to our
own, laden with planks from Olean, on the sources of the Alleghany
river, in New York. This article had been transported already more than
thirteen hundred miles, on its way to a market at St. Louis, where it
was estimated to be worth sixty dollars per thousand feet.
While moored along this coast, the day after we had thus escaped from
the treacherous island, we seemed to have taken shelter along a shore
infested by wild beasts. "Grizzly bear!" was the cry at night. We were
all alarmed by a snorting and disturbance at the water's edge, a short
distance below us, which, it was soon evident, proceeded from a _large_,
light-colored, and furious animal. So far, all agreed. One of our
Pennsylvanians, who had a choice rifle, prepared himself for the attack.
The captain, who had no lack of resolution, and would, at any rate, have
become bold by battling the Mississippi river for six or seven days, had
some missiles; and all prepared to be useful on the occasion. As I
carried nothing more deadly than a silver crucible and some acids, I
remained on the upper deck of the barge. From this elevation I soon saw,
by the dim moonlight, the whole party return, without having fired a
gun. It turned out that the cause of this unusual disturbance was a
large white hog, which had been shot in the head and snout with
swan-shot, by some cruel fellows, the preceding day, and came at night
to mitigate its burning and festering wounds by bathing in the river.
July 7th. Having procured some additional hands, our invincible captain
pressed stoutly forward, and, at an early hour, we reached the head of
Tiawapeta bottom, where a short stop was made. At this point, the bed of
the Mississippi appears to be crossed by a chain of rocks, which oppose,
however, no obstruction to its navigation. Such masses of it as appear
on shore, are silico-carbonates of lime, and seem to belong to the
metalliferous system of Missouri. About half a mile above the
commencement of this chain, I observed, at the foot of an elevation near
the water's edge, a remarkable stratum of white aluminous earth, of a
rather dry and friable character, resembling chalk, and which, I
afterwards observed, was extensively used by mechanics in Missouri as a
substitute for that article. Masses, and in some instances nodules, of
hornstone, resembling true flint, are found imbedded in it; yet it is
not to be confounded with the chalk formation. It yields no
effervescence with nitric, and is wholly destitute of carbonic, acid.
Portions of the stratum are colored deeply by the red oxide of iron.
Scattered along the shores of the river at this place, I observed large,
angular masses of pudding-stone, consisting chiefly of silicious pebbles
and sand, cemented by oxide of iron.
I now began to breathe more freely. For seven days we had been passing
through such a nascent region, down which the Mississippi swept at so
furious a rate, that I never felt sure, at night, that I should behold
another day. Had the barge, any day, lost her heading and got athwart
the stream, nothing could have prevented the water from rushing over her
gunwales, and sweeping her to destruction. And the whole district of the
alluvial banks was subject to be momentarily undermined, and frequently
tumbled in, with the noise and fury of an avalanche, threatening
destruction to whatever was in the vicinity.
Owing to the increased firmness of the shore, and the reinforcement of
hands, we ascended this day ten miles. We began to feel in better
spirits.
July 8th. The calcareous and elevated formation of rocks, covered with
geological drift, continued constantly along the Missouri shore; for it
was this shore, and not the Illinois side, that we generally hugged.
This drift, on ascending the elevations, consisted of a hard and reddish
loam, or marly clay, filled with pebble-stones of various kinds, and
fragments and chips of hornstone, chert, common jasper, argillaceous
oxide of iron, radiated quartz, and quartz materials, betokening the
disruption, in ancient eras, of prior formations. The trees observed on
the diluvial elevations were oaks, sassafras, and, on the best lands,
walnut, but of sparse growth; with a dense forest of cotton-wood,
sycamore, and elm, on the alluvions. On ascending the river five miles,
we came to the town of Cape Girardeau, consisting of about fifty wooden
buildings of all sorts, with a post-office and two stores. We were now
at the computed distance of fifty miles above the influx of the Ohio. We
went no farther that day. This gave me an opportunity to explore the
vicinity.
I had not yet put my foot ashore, when a fellow-passenger brought me a
message from one of the principal merchants of the place, desiring me to
call at his store, and aid him in the examination of some drugs and
medicines which he had newly received. On reaching his store, I was
politely ushered into a back room, where some refreshments were
handsomely set out. The whole thing was, in fact, designed as a friendly
welcome to a professional man, who came neither to sell nor buy, but
simply to inquire into the resources and natural history of the country.
At this trait of hospitality and appreciation in a stranger, I took
courage, and began to perceive that the West might be relied on.
I found the town of Cape Girardeau situated on an elevation of rich,
red, marly soil, highly charged with oxide of iron, which is
characteristic of the best arable soils of the mine country. This soil
appears to be very readily dissolved in water, and carried off rapidly
by rains, which furnishes a solution to the deep gulfs and gorges that
disfigure many parts of the cultivated high grounds. If such places were
sown with the seeds of grass, it would give fixity to the soil, and add
much to the beauty of the landscape.
July 9th. We resumed our journey up the rapid stream betimes, but, with
every exertion, ascended only seven miles. The river, in this distance,
preserves its general character; the Missouri shores being rocky and
elevated, while the vast alluvial tracts of the Illinois banks spread
out in densely wooded bottoms. But, while the Missouri shores create the
idea of greater security by their fixity, and freedom from treacherous
alluvions, this very fixity of rocky banks creates jets of strong
currents, setting around points, which require the greatest exertions of
the bargemen to overcome. To aid them in these exigencies, the
_cordelle_ is employed. This consists of a stout rope fastened to a
block in the bow of the barge, which is then passed over the shoulders
of the men, who each at the same time grasp it, and lean hard forward.
July 10th. To me, the tardiness of our ascent, after reaching the rock
formations, was extremely favorable, as it facilitated my examinations.
Every day the mineralogy of the western banks became more interesting,
and I was enabled daily to add something to my collection. This day, I
picked up a large fragment of the pseudo pumice which is brought down
the Missouri by its summer freshets. This mineral appears to have been
completely melted; and its superficies is so much enlarged by vesicles
filled with air, and its specific gravity thereby so much reduced, as to
permit it to float in water. We encamped this evening, after an ascent
of seven miles, at a spot called the Moccasin Spring, which is contained
in a crevice in a depressed part of the limestone formation.
July 11th. This day was signalized by our being passed by a small
steamer of forty tons burden, called the Harriet, laden with merchandise
for St. Louis. Viewed from our stand-point, she seemed often nearly
stationary, and sometimes receded, in her efforts to stem the fierce
current; but she finally ascended, slowly and with labor. The pressure
of the stream, before mentioned, against the rocky barrier of the
western banks, was found, to-day, to be very strong. With much ado, with
poles and cordelle, we made but five miles.
July 12th. We passed the mouth of Great Muddy river, on the Illinois
shore, this morning. This stream, it is said, affords valuable beds of
coal. The name of the river does not appear to be very poetic, nor very
characteristic, in a region where every tributary stream is muddy; the
Mississippi itself being muddy above all others. But, thanks to the
Indians, they have not embodied that idea in the name of the Father of
rivers; its greatness, with them, being justly deemed by far its most
characteristic trait.
About two miles above this locality, we came to one of the geological
wonders of the Mississippi, called the Grand Tower. It is a pile of
limestone rocks, rising precipitously from the bed of the river in a
circular form, resembling a massive castle. The height of this
geological monument may be about one hundred feet. It is capped by some
straggling cedars, which have caught a footing in the crevices. It
might, with as much propriety as one of the Alps, be called the Jungfrau
(Virgin); for it seems impossible that any human being should ever have
ascended it. The main channel of the river passes east of it. There is a
narrower channel on the west, which is apparently more dangerous. We
crossed the river below this isolated cliff, and landed at some
cavernous rocks on the Illinois side, which the boatmen, with the usual
propensity of unlettered men, called the Devil's Oven. We then recrossed
the river, and, after ascending a distance along the western shore, were
repulsed in an attempt, with the cordelle, to pass Garlic Point. The
captain then made elaborate preparations for a second attempt, but again
failed. A third effort, with all our appliances, was resolved on, but
with no better success; and we came-to, finally, for the night, in an
eddy below the point, having advanced, during the day, seven miles. If
we did not make rapid progress, I had good opportunities of seeing the
country, and of contemplating this majestic river in one of its most
characteristic phases--namely, its summer flood. I pleased myself by
fancying, as I gazed upon its rushing eddies of mud and turbid matter,
that I at least beheld a part of the Rocky mountains, passing along _in
the liquid state_! It was a sight that would have delighted the eyes of
Hutton; for methinks the quantity of detritus and broken-down strata
would not have required, in his mind, many cycles to upbuild a
continent.
Mountains to chaos are by waters hurled,
And re-create the geologic world.