TRANSCRIBER NOTES
The text includes Original Edition page numbers in { }.
Footnotes in the text are in [ ].
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Obvious typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected
after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and
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Early Western Travels
1748-1846
Volume XVIII
Early Western Travels
1748-1846
A Series of Annotated Reprints of some of the best
and rarest contemporary volumes of travel, descriptive
of the Aborigines and Social and
Economic Conditions in the Middle
and Far West, during the Period
of Early American Settlement
Edited with Notes, Introductions, Index, etc., by
Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D.
Editor of "The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents," "Original
Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition," "Hennepin's
New Discovery," etc.
Volume XVIII
Pattie's Personal Narrative, 1824-1830; Willard's Inland Trade
with New Mexico, 1825, and Downfall of the Fredonian
Republic; and Malte-Brun's Account of Mexico.
[Illustration: (Publisher's logo)]
Cleveland, Ohio
The Arthur H. Clark Company
1905
COPYRIGHT 1905, BY
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Lakeside Press
R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY
CHICAGO
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XVIII
PREFACE. _The Editor_ 9
PERSONAL NARRATIVE during an Expedition from St. Louis,
through The Vast Regions between that place and the Pacific
Ocean, and thence back through the City of Mexico to Vera
Cruz, during journeyings of six years; in which he and his
Father, who accompanied him, suffered unheard of Hardships
and Dangers, had Various Conflicts with the Indians,
and were made Captives, in which Captivity his Father died;
together with a Description of the Country, and the Various
Nations through which they passed. _James O. Pattie_, of
Kentucky, edited by _Timothy Flint_.
Copyright notice 24
The first Editor's Preface. _Timothy Flint_ 25
Author's Introduction 29
Text 37
The first Editor's Note. _Timothy Flint_ 325
Inland Trade with New Mexico. _Doctor Willard_, edited by
_Timothy Flint_ 327
Downfall of the Fredonian Republic. _Doctor Willard_, edited by
_Timothy Flint_ 365
Mexico. Some Account of its Inhabitants, Towns, Productions,
and Natural Curiosities. _Conrad Malte-Brun_ 370
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME XVIII
Facsimile of title-page, Pattie's Narrative 23
"Rescue of an Indian Child" 57
"Mr. Pattie wounded by an Indian Arrow" 161
"Shooting Mr. Pattie's Horse" 185
"Messrs. Pattie and Slover rescued from Famish" 217
"Burial of Mr. Pattie" 243
PREFACE TO VOLUME XVIII
Upon the return, in 1806, of the Lewis and Clark exploring expedition,
the first successfully to penetrate from the Mississippi River to the
Pacific Ocean, the Western imagination was aroused by visions of wealth
to be acquired from commercial relations with the Indians of the far
Northwest. Fur-trading expeditions were accordingly soon dispatched
up the Missouri and its tributaries; and, throughout several years,
the equally rich opportunities for Southwestern Indian commerce and
exploration were neglected.
Far to the Southwest lay the Spanish settlements of New Mexico,
isolated islands of a sluggish civilization. Practically all of their
imports were brought in by way of the Gulf of Mexico and Vera Cruz,
thence travelling a difficult road of over fifteen hundred miles from
the coast, making their cost almost prohibitive to the mixed race
of Spaniards and Mexicans who dwelt in the valleys of the upper Rio
Grande. Yet within easy reach of their frontier lay one of the chief
commercial peoples of the age, to be reached over a wilderness road
passing for the most part across level plains, watered by numerous
streams--the upper tributaries of the great western affluents of the
Mississippi. The common interests of these people and of the Americans
lay in an interchange of commodities; but the government of New Spain
looked with hostile suspicion upon the aggressive, vigorous race that
was even then forcing its borders. Behind the prospect of profit for
the overland Southwest trader, loomed the possibility of a gruesome
Spanish prison, and confiscation of the adventured goods.
After Zebulon M. Pike returned (1807) with his account of arrest and
detention in Santa Fé and Chihuahua, no American trader appears to
have sought this region for five years. A party then outfitting from
St. Louis was seized at the New Mexican frontier, hurried to an inland
dungeon, and kept in durance nine miserable years. News of this harsh
treatment, and of the revolutionary movement which was upheaving the
social structure of all New Spain, proved sufficiently deterrent to
keep any organized expeditions from risking the hazard of the Southwest
trade, until the third decade of the nineteenth century. More favorable
reports being then received, several caravans were fitted out, and the
real history of the Santa Fé trail began.
Among the early merchants of St. Louis, the name of Bernard Pratte,
near relative of the Chouteaus and Labbadies, was connected with
important fur-trading enterprises. In the summer of 1824 Pratte's
eldest son headed a caravan destined for the Santa Fé, his party being
rendezvoused at the company's post upon the Missouri, not far from the
present site of Omaha. There, while waiting for its final equipment,
the expedition was reinforced by four free-traders who had left their
home upon the Gasconade River, the frontier of Missouri settlement,
and with a small outfit had ascended the river to this point, bent on
trading and hunting upon its upper waters. Barred from their enterprise
by the lack of an authoritative license for dealing with the Indians,
the little band were easily persuaded to join Pratte's party. Two of
these recruits were the heroes of our tale--Sylvester Pattie and his
son James Ohio.
For three generations the Patties had been frontiersmen. Restlessly
they moved onward as the border advanced, always hovering upon the
outskirts of civilization, seeking to better their condition by taking
up fresh lands in untilled places, and remorselessly fighting the
aborigines who disputed their invasion. They longed unceasingly for new
adventures in the mysterious West, that allured them with its strange
fascination. Brave, honest, God-fearing, vigorous in mind and body,
dependent on their own resources, for food and for defense chiefly
dependent on the familiar rifle, the Patties belonged to that class of
Americans who conquered the wilderness, and yearly pushed the frontier
westward.
The career of the grandfather and father of our author, as in simple
phrase he relates it in his Introduction, is typical of those of the
founders of Kentucky, and the early settlers of the rich valley of
the Missouri. To have early emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky, to
have aided in the defense of Bryant's Station, and to have served
under Colonel Benjamin Logan, and the still more renowned Kentuckian,
George Rogers Clark, was unquestionable guaranty to the proud title of
pioneer. It was typical, also, that the grandfather, having acquired
some local fame and position, and attained the rank of magistrate, the
father, tiring of Kentucky, should, like the Boones, join the stream
of emigration to Missouri. There, history repeated itself. The War of
1812-15 breaking out, the frontier blockhouses must again withstand
the assaults of savages. Lieutenant Pattie's relief of Cap-au-Gris,
upon the Missouri, takes rank with Logan's Revolutionary exploits at
St. Asaph's. The war ended, and the country filling up, "Mr. Pattie,
possessing a wandering and adventurous spirit," once more removed to
the utmost borders of civilization, and built a mill upon the rapid
Gasconade. Here he was in a fair way to prosperity, when domestic
affliction sent him forth into the wilderness, taking with him his
eldest son, who "inheriting the love of a rifle through so many
generations, and nursed amid such scenes, he begged so earnestly of
his father that he might be allowed to accompany the expedition, that
he prevailed." Thus began that long series of adventures, so full
of hazard and suffering that their unvarnished narration would seem
the invention of romance, did not one often find counterparts in the
experiences of other Western wanderers.
Recruited to the number of a hundred and sixteen, Pratte's caravan
advanced first toward the Pawnee villages of the Platte. Because of
his long experience in border warfare, Sylvester Pattie was now chosen
commander, and thereafter arranged the details of march and guard.
The Pawnee were inclined to be friendly, their chiefs having recently
visited the Great Father at Washington; but in rescuing an ill-treated
native child, captured by them on a recent raid against a hostile
tribe, the whites were nearly embroiled with these pirates of the
plains. Securing the little waif, also some Indian guides, the Pawnee
were left behind August 11, 1824, and the advance to the Southwest
begun. Day after day the party toiled across the plains, their journey
filled with stirring incident. Once, prepared to fight a band of from
six to eight hundred well-mounted Comanche, the whites were rescued by
a rival tribe of horsemen, who, "with a noise like distant thunder,"
swept in between the hostile lines, and won the battle for them. Again,
amid a vagrant party of Indians, the father of the little captive
suddenly appeared, and presented the captain of the expedition with
tokens of his gratitude for the rescue. Upon the twentieth of August,
buffalo were first encountered; and twenty days later, on the ridge
between the waters of the Kansas and the Arkansas, young Pattie was
introduced to that then formidable enemy, the grizzly bear. From that
time forward, these fierce creatures attacked the camp almost nightly;
on one occasion, a member of the party was caught and so maimed by a
grizzly that he shortly after died of his wounds.
On the twentieth of October the caravan reached the mountains, and
after a difficult crossing descended into the attractive valley of
Taos, the New Mexican frontier. Pattie was surprised at the primitive
life and customs of the inhabitants of New Mexico, of which in a few
unadorned sentences he gives us a vivid picture. Passing on to Santa
Fé, the ancient capital, our adventurers were just in time to join
a punitive expedition against a hostile band of Indians, wherein the
junior Pattie had the good fortune to rescue from the hands of the
savages a charming young Spanish maiden, daughter of a former governor
of the province. The gratitude of the fair captive and of her father
was profusely expressed, and their friendship proved of lasting value
to the gallant narrator.
Obtaining permission from the New Mexican government to trap upon the
Gila River, the Patties organized a small party for that purpose.
Leaving Santa Fé on November 22, they passed down the Rio del Norte to
Socorro, and then struck across country to the Gila, visiting en route
the famous copper mines of Santa Rita. The trip extended through nearly
five months, and the hunters were probably the first Americans to visit
the upper valley of the Gila. Many of the natives having never seen
a white man, fled at their approach; but others were more bold, and
viciously attacked them with their arrows. James's appearance upon his
return to the New Mexican settlements was so haggard that the rescued
Spanish girl shed tears upon observing his plight.
Securing fresh supplies, the party set out to bring in their buried
furs from the Gila, only to find that the Indians had discovered and
rifled their cache; thus had their hardships and sufferings gone for
naught. Returning to the mines, they succeeded in repelling an attack
thereon by hostile Apache, and in wringing from them a treaty which
ensured the peaceful working of the deposits; whereupon the Spaniards
rented these works to Sylvester Pattie, whose American methods enabled
him to derive from them a profit unknown to their former operators. But
the tranquil life at Santa Rita proved too monotonous for the younger
Pattie. He was seized with "an irresistible desire to resume the
employment of trapping," and despite paternal remonstrances set out
January 26, 1826, with a few companions, for the Gila valley, where he
had already suffered and lost so much.
During the following eight months, the range of the trappers' journey
was wide. Passing down the Gila to its junction with the Colorado, they
ascended the banks of the latter stream, seeing in its now world-famous
cañons only walls of highly-colored rock that debarred them from the
water's edge. Crossing the continental divide, probably at the South
Pass, they emerged upon the plains, and once more hunted buffalo in
their native habitat. Turning north to the Big Horn and Yellowstone,
the adventurers pursued a somewhat ill-defined course, coming back
upon the upper Arkansas, and crossing to Santa Fé, where Pattie was
again deprived of the harvest of furs gathered with such wearisome
labor--this time by the duplicity of the Spanish governor, who claimed
that the young man's former license did not extend to this expedition.
After once more visiting the gentle Jacova, his young Spanish friend,
Pattie sought his father at Santa Rita. Delaying there but three days
for rest, he set forth upon another excursion afield--this time to
Sonora, Chihuahua, and other provinces of northern Mexico, returning by
way of El Paso, and reaching the mines by the middle of November.
The winter and spring were spent in occasional hunting excursions,
and in visits to the Spanish haciendas. In the spring, a new turn was
given to the fortunes of the Patties, by the embezzlement and flight
of a trusted Spanish subordinate, through whom were lost the savings
of several years. Forced to abandon their mining operations, father
and son sought to rehabilitate themselves by another extended trapping
expedition, and set forth with a company of thirty, again in the
direction of the Gila.
Engagements with hostile Indians were of frequent occurrence. Early in
November, many of their party having deserted and all of their horses
being stolen, the remainder built themselves canoes, and embarked upon
the river. Communication with the natives being only possible through
the sign language, our adventurers misunderstood their informants to
declare that a Spanish settlement existed at the mouth of the Colorado;
and in expectation of here finding succor, they continued down that
great waterway to its mouth. There they met with nothing but deserted
shores, and tidal waves which seriously alarmed and disturbed these
fresh-water voyagers. Finding the ascent of the swift current beyond
their powers, they had now no recourse but to bury their store of furs,
and strike across the rugged peninsula of Lower California toward
the Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast. The story of their
sufferings in the salt lakes and deserts of this barren land is told
with more vigor than delicacy. Arrived at a Dominican mission on the
western slope of the mountains, the weary travellers were received with
suspicion rather than hospitality. Being placed under surveillance,
they were forwarded to San Diego, then the residence of the governor of
the Spanish settlements of California.
We now come to a most interesting portion of Pattie's book--his
residence in California, in the time of the Mexican régime, and his
report of conditions and events in the "land of the golden fleece."
According to his account, he and his companions were at first treated
with severity, being imprisoned at San Diego for lack of passports,
and there detained for many months. The elder Pattie died in his cell,
without being permitted to see the son for whose presence he had
piteously pleaded in his latest hours. Young Pattie's hatred for the
Mexican governor was not unnatural; but the consequent bitterness of
expression quite distorts his narrative. A Mexican tradition reports
that the Patties were received by the inhabitants with wonder, and
treated kindly; also that the elder Pattie embraced the Catholic faith
before his death, and expressed his appreciation of the hospitality
shown them. We may infer even from the son's statements, since his
chief anathemas are reserved for the officers and the priests, that the
unofficial population disapproved of the governor's measures.
Pattie was at last released, in recognition of his services as an
interpreter, and in order that he might vaccinate the natives of the
missions, among whom a smallpox epidemic had broken out. The adventurer
now set forth up the coast, stopping in turn at each mission and
presidio, and presenting us with a graphic picture of the pastoral life
of the neophytes and rancheros. Arrived at San Francisco, he pushed on
to the Russian fort on Bodega Bay, returning to Monterey in time to
describe and participate in the Solis revolt of 1829. Here he consorted
with the small American colony, and in his narrative probably magnifies
his own part in this affair, which, seen through the mists of memory,
bulked larger than the facts would warrant. At Monterey he encountered
his old enemy, Governor Echeandia, who with apparent surprise found his
former captive among those who had aided in suppressing the revolt.
Proffered Mexican citizenship, Pattie represents himself as showering
reproaches on the governor for the indignities he had suffered. Advised
by his new friends to make a formal statement of his injuries, and the
losses suffered by refusal to permit the securing of his furs, Pattie
embarked for Mexico in May, 1830, together with the revolutionists
who were being sent to the capital for trial. Upon his departure he
conveys his impressions of Alta California in a few striking sentences:
"Those who traverse it [the California coast] ... must be constantly
excited to wonder and praise. It is no less remarkable for uniting the
advantages of healthfulness, a good soil, a temperate climate, and
yet one of exceeding mildness, a happy mixture of level and elevated
ground, and vicinity to the sea." He then proceeds to animadvert
upon the inhabitants and the conduct of the mission padres in their
treatment of the natives. The companions of his long and adventurous
journey he left settled among the Mexicans; most of them made
California their permanent home.
At the City of Mexico, Pattie visited the American diplomatic
representative, also the president of the republic, but failed to
obtain satisfaction for his losses or injuries. On the way to Vera
Cruz, Pattie's travelling party met with an incident then common
to travel in Mexico--being halted by the outlawed followers of the
recently-deposed president, their arms seized, one of their number
hanged, and the remainder relieved of their valuables. From Vera Cruz
our adventurer found passage to New Orleans; thence, through the kindly
help of compatriots, who loaned him money for the steamboat passage,
he ascended the Mississippi to Cincinnati and his early Kentucky
home. Here the narrative closes. The only clue we have in reference
to his after life, is the one given by H. H. Bancroft, the historian,
who thinks he was again in San Diego, California, after the American
advent.[1]
When poor Pattie arrived in Cincinnati, August 30, 1830, he not only
was penniless, but long incarceration in Mexican prisons had broken his
health and spirits. The tale of his adventures was doubtless received
with slight credence by his simple relatives. But the Reverend Timothy
Flint, the young editor of the _Western Monthly Review_ of Cincinnati,
who was already enamored of stories of Western pioneering, prevailed
upon Pattie to write an account of his curious experiences. Thus
originated the _Personal Narrative_, which we now republish in full for
the first time.[2]
Pattie appears to have written from memory, without the aid of notes
taken on the journey--a fact which accounts for the occasional
discrepancies in dates, and the obvious confusion of events. Upon the
whole, however, the narrative impresses the reader with a sense of its
verity, and has the charm of simplicity and vigor. The emendations of
the editor, we are assured, were chiefly in the matters of orthography
and punctuation, "with the occasional interposition of a topographical
illustration, which my acquaintance with the accounts of travellers
in New Mexico, and published views have enabled me to make." It is
probable that we thus owe to Flint most of the descriptions of scenery,
for there is abundant textual evidence that Pattie was not possessed of
a poetic fancy. To expand the dimensions of the book, Flint added an
article on "Inland Trade with New Mexico," composed chiefly of extracts
from the journal of a Doctor Willard, who in May, 1825, set out from
St. Charles, Missouri, with an overland party bound for Santa Fé.
Thence, practicing medicine on the way, he visited Chihuahua and the
northeastern provinces of Mexico, ending his journey at Matamoras. This
article, together with another by the same author, on the "Downfall
of the Fredonian Republic," also included in the volume, had appeared
three years before in Flint's magazine. The volume closes with an
extract on Mexican manners and customs, from Malte-Brun's _Géographie
universelle_.
A thrilling tale of pure adventure, ranging all the way from encounters
with grizzly bears, and savages who had never before seen a white man,
to a revolution in a Latin-American state, Pattie's narrative has long
been a classic. Its chief value to the student of Western history
depends upon the vast extent of country over which the author passed,
the ethnological data which he presents, especially in relation to the
Southwestern tribes, and his graphic picture of the contact between
two civilizations in the Southwest, with the inevitable encroachments
of the more progressive race. One sees in his pages the beginnings of
the drama to be fought out in the Mexican War--the rich and beautiful
country, which excited the cupidity of the American pioneer; the
indolence and effeminacy of the inhabitants, which inspired the virile
backwoodsmen's contempt; and the vanguard of the American advance,
already touching the Rockies, and ready to push on to the Pacific.
The Spanish-American official, displaying his little brief authority,
but irritated the restless borderer, whose advent he dreaded, and
whose pressure finally proved irresistible. As a part of the vanguard
of the American host that was to crowd the Mexican from the fair
northern provinces of his domain, Pattie's wanderings are typical, and
suggestive of more than mere adventure. His book is well worthy of
reproduction in our series.
The present Editor is under obligations to Louise Phelps Kellogg,
Ph.D., and Edith Kathryn Lyle, Ph.D., for assistance in preparing this
volume for the press.
R. G. T.
MADISON, WIS., July, 1905.
FOOTNOTES to Preface:
[1] Bancroft, _History of California_, iii, p. 171, note 44.
[2] The first edition was published at Cincinnati in 1831; this is,
however, less commonly seen than one dated 1833. Both are, however,
from the same plates, and differ only in date and style of title-page
and form of copyright clause. We follow the earlier edition, in these
respects. In 1847, one Bilson published a book in New York under the
title, _The Hunters of Kentucky; or, the trials and toils of traders
and trappers during an expedition to the Rocky Mountains, New Mexico
and California_, in which much of Pattie's narrative was incorporated
verbatim. _Harper's Magazine_, xxi, pp. 80-94, also gives a résumé of
Pattie's adventures, with slight embellishments.
PATTIE'S PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC AND IN
MEXICO JUNE 20, 1824--AUGUST 30, 1830
Reprint of the original edition: Cincinnati, 1831
[Illustration: (Facsimile of Title-page, Pattie's Narrative )]
THE
PERSONAL NARRATIVE
OF
JAMES O. PATTIE,
OF
KENTUCKY,
DURING AN EXPEDITION FROM ST. LOUIS, THROUGH THE VAST REGIONS
BETWEEN THAT PLACE AND THE PACIFIC OCEAN, AND THENCE BACK
THROUGH THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ, DURING JOURNEYINGS
OF SIX YEARS; IN WHICH HE AND HIS FATHER, WHO
ACCOMPANIED HIM, SUFFERED UNHEARD OF HARDSHIPS
AND DANGERS, HAD VARIOUS CONFLICTS WITH THE INDIANS,
AND WERE MADE CAPTIVES, IN WHICH
CAPTIVITY HIS FATHER DIED; TOGETHER
WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY,
AND THE VARIOUS NATIONS THROUGH
WHICH THEY PASSED.
EDITED BY TIMOTHY FLINT.
CINCINNATI:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN H. WOOD.
1831.
DISTRICT OF OHIO, TO WIT:
[Illustration: (small logo with L. S. in the center)]
Be it Remembered, that on the 18th day of Oct., Anno Domini 1831;
John H. Wood, of the said District, hath deposited in this office,
the title of a Book, the title of which is in the words following,
to wit:
"The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie, of Kentucky, during an
expedition from St. Louis, through the vast regions between that
place and the Pacific ocean, and thence back through the city of
Mexico to Vera Cruz, during journeyings of six years; in which he
and his father who accompanied him, suffered unheard of hardships
and dangers; had various conflicts with the Indians, and were made
captives, in which captivity his father died, together with a
description of the country, and the various nations through which
they passed."
The right whereof he claims as proprietor, in conformity with
an act of Congress, entitled "An act to amend the several acts
respecting copyrights."
_Attest_, WILLIAM MINER,
_Clerk of the District_.
EDITOR'S PREFACE[1]
It has been my fortune to be known as a writer of works of the
imagination. I am solicitous that this Journal should lose none of
its intrinsic interest, from its being supposed that in preparing it
for the press, I have drawn from the imagination, either in regard
to the incidents or their coloring. For, in the literal truth of the
facts, incredible as some of them may appear, my grounds of conviction
are my acquaintance with the Author, the impossibility of inventing a
narrative like the following, the respectability of his relations, the
standing which his father sustained, the confidence reposed in him by
the Hon. J. S. Johnston,[2] the very respectable senator in congress
from Louisiana, who introduced him to me, the concurrent testimony
of persons now in this city, who saw him at different points in New
Mexico, and the reports, which reached the United States, during the
expedition of many of the incidents here recorded.
When my family first arrived at St. Charles' in 1816, the fame of the
exploits of his father, as an officer of the rangers, was fresh in the
narratives of his associates and fellow soldiers. I have been on the
ground, at Cap au Gris, where he was besieged by the Indians. I am not
unacquainted with the scenery through which he passed on the Missouri,
and I, too, for many years was a sojourner in the prairies.
These circumstances, along with a conviction of the truth of the
narrative, tended to give me an interest in it, and to qualify me in
some degree to judge of the internal evidences contained in the journal
itself, of its entire authenticity. It will be perceived at once, that
Mr. Pattie, with Mr. McDuffie, thinks more of action than literature,
and is more competent to perform exploits, than blazon them in eloquent
periods. My influence upon the narrative regards orthography, and
punctuation {iv} and the occasional interposition of a topographical
illustration, which my acquaintance with the accounts of travellers
in New Mexico, and published views of the country have enabled me to
furnish. The reader will award me the confidence of acting in good
faith, in regard to drawing nothing from my own thoughts. I have found
more call to suppress, than to add, to soften, than to show in stronger
relief many of the incidents. Circumstances of suffering, which in many
similar narratives have been given in downright plainness of detail,
I have been impelled to leave to the reader's imagination, as too
revolting to be recorded.
The very texture of the narrative precludes ornament and amplification.
The simple record of events as they transpired, painted by the hungry,
toil-worn hunter, in the midst of the desert, surrounded by sterility,
espying the foot print of the savage, or discerning him couched behind
the tree or hillock, or hearing the distant howl of wild beasts, will
naturally bear characteristics of stern disregard of embellishment.
To alter it, to attempt to embellish it, to divest it of the peculiar
impress of the narrator and his circumstances, would be to take from
it its keeping, the charm of its simplicity, and its internal marks of
truth. In these respects I have been anxious to leave the narrative as
I found it.
The journalist seems in these pages a legitimate descendant of those
western pioneers, the hunters of Kentucky, a race passing unrecorded
from history. The pencil of biography could seize upon no subjects of
higher interest. With hearts keenly alive to the impulses of honor and
patriotism, and the charities of kindred and friends; they possessed
spirits impassible to fear, that no form of suffering or death could
daunt; and frames for strength and endurance, as if ribbed with brass
and sinewed with steel. For them to traverse wide deserts, climb
mountains, swim rivers, grapple with the grizzly bear, and encounter
the savage, in a sojourn in the wilderness of years, far from the
abodes of civilized men, was but a spirit-stirring and holiday mode of
life.
{v} To me, there is a kind of moral sublimity in the contemplation of
the adventures and daring of such men. They read a lesson to shrinking
and effeminate spirits, the men of soft hands and fashionable life,
whose frames the winds of heaven are not allowed to visit too roughly.
They tend to re-inspire something of that simplicity of manners, manly
hardihood, and Spartan energy and force of character, which formed
so conspicuous a part of the nature of the settlers of the western
wilderness.
Every one knows with what intense interest the community perused
the adventures of Captain Riley,[3] and other intrepid mariners
shipwrecked and enslaved upon distant and barbarous shores. It is far
from my thoughts to detract from the intrepidity of American mariners,
which is known, wherever the winds blow, or the waves roll; or to
depreciate the interest of the recorded narratives of their sufferings.
A picture more calculated to arouse American sympathies cannot be
presented, than that of a ship's crew, driven by the fierce winds
and the mountain waves upon a rock bound shore, and escaping death
in the sea, only to encounter captivity from the barbarians on the
land. Yet much of the courage, required to encounter these emergencies
is passive, counselling only the necessity of submission to events,
from which there is no escape, and to which all resistance would be
unavailing.
The courage requisite to be put forth in an expedition such as that in
which Mr. Pattie and his associates were cast, must be both active and
passive, energetic and ever vigilant, and never permitted to shrink,
or intermit a moment for years. At one time it is assailed by hordes
of yelling savages, and at another, menaced with the horrible death
of hunger and thirst in interminable forests, or arid sands. Either
position offers perils and sufferings sufficiently appalling. But fewer
spirits, I apprehend, are formed to brave those of the field,
'Where wilds immeasurably spread,
Seem lengthening as they go.'
than of the ocean, where the mariner either soon finds rest beneath its
tumultuous bosom, or joyfully spreads his sails again to the breeze.
INTRODUCTION
The grandfather of the author of this Journal, was born in Caroline
county, Virginia, in 1750. Soon after he was turned of twenty-one, he
moved to Kentucky, and became an associate with those fearless spirits
who first settled in the western forests. To qualify him to meet the
dangers and encounter the toils of his new position, he had served in
the revolutionary war, and had been brought in hostile contact with the
British in their attempt to ascend the river Potomac.
He arrived in Kentucky, in company with twenty emigrant families, in
1781, and settled on the south side of the Kentucky river. The new
settlers were beginning to build houses with internal finishing. His
pursuit, which was that of a house carpenter, procured him constant
employment, but he sometimes diversified it by teaching school. Soon
after his arrival, the commencing settlement experienced the severest
and most destructive assaults from the Indians. In August, 1782, he was
one of the party who marched to the assistance of Bryant's station,[4]
and shared in the glory of relieving that place by the memorable defeat
of the savages.
Not long afterwards he was called upon by Col. Logan[5] to join a party
led by him against the Indians, who had gained a bloody victory over
the Kentuckians at the Blue Licks.[6] He was present on the spot, where
the bodies of the slain lay unburied, and assisted in their interment.
During his absence on this expedition, Sylvester Pattie, father of the
author, was born, August 25, 1782.
In November of the same year, his grand-father was summoned to join a
party commanded by Col. Logan, in an expedition against the Indians at
the Shawnee towns, in the limits of the present state of Ohio.[7] They
crossed the Ohio just below {viii} the mouth of the Licking, opposite
the site of what is now Cincinnati, which was at that time an unbroken
forest, without the appearance of a human habitation. They were here
joined by Gen. Clark[8] with his troops from the falls of the Ohio, or
what is now Louisville. The united force marched to the Indian towns,
which they burnt and destroyed.
Returning from this expedition, he resumed his former occupations,
witnessing the rapid advance of the country from immigration. When the
district, in which he resided, was constituted Bracken county, he was
appointed one of the judges of the court of quarter sessions, which
office he filled sixteen years, until his place was vacated by an act
of the legislature reducing the court to a single judge.
Sylvester Pattie, the father of the author, as was common at that
period in Kentucky, married early, having only reached nineteen. He
settled near his father's house, and there remained until there began
to be a prevalent disposition among the people to move to Missouri.
March 14, 1812, he removed to that country, the author being then eight
years old. Born and reared amidst the horrors of Indian assaults and
incursions, and having lived to see Kentucky entirely free from these
dangers, it may seem strange, that he should have chosen to remove a
young family to that remote country, then enduring the same horrors of
Indian warfare, as Kentucky had experienced twenty-five years before.
It was in the midst of the late war with England, which, it is well
known, operated to bring the fiercest assaults of savage incursion upon
the remote frontiers of Illinois and Missouri.
To repel these incursions, these then territories, called out some
companies of rangers, who marched against the Sac and Fox Indians,
between the Mississippi and the lakes, who were at that time active
in murdering women and children, and burning their habitations
during the absence of the male heads of families.[9] When Pattie was
appointed lieutenant in one of these companies, he left his family at
St. Charles' where he was then residing.[10] It may be imagined, that
the condition of his wife was sufficiently lonely, as this village
contained but one American {ix} family besides her own, and she was
unable to converse with its French inhabitants. His company had several
skirmishes with the Indians, in each of which it came off successful.
The rangers left him in command of a detachment, in possession of
the fort at Cap au Gris.[11] Soon after the main body of the rangers
had marched away, the fort was besieged by a body of English and
Indians. The besiegers made several attempts to storm the fort, but
were repelled by the garrison.--The foe continued the siege for a
week, continually firing upon the garrison, who sometimes, though not
often, for want of ammunition, returned the fire. Lieutenant Pattie,
perceiving no disposition in the enemy to withdraw, and discovering
that his ammunition was almost entirely exhausted, deemed it necessary
to send a despatch to Bellefontaine,[12] near the point of the junction
of the Missouri and Mississippi, where was stationed a considerable
American force. He proposed to his command, that a couple of men should
make their way through the enemy, cross the Mississippi, and apprize
the commander of Bellefontaine of their condition. No one was found
willing to risk the attempt, as the besiegers were encamped entirely
around them. Leaving Thomas McNair[13] in command in his place, and
putting on the uniform of one of the English soldiers, whom they had
killed during one of the attempts to storm the fort, he passed by
night safely through the camp of the enemy, and arrived at the point
of his destination, a distance of over forty miles: 500 soldiers were
immediately dispatched from Bellefontaine to the relief of the besieged
at Cap au Gris. As soon as this force reached the fort, the British and
Indians decamped, not, however, without leaving many of their lifeless
companions behind them.
Lieutenant Pattie remained in command of Cap au Gris, being essentially
instrumental in repressing the incursions of the Sacs and Foxes, and
disposing them to a treaty of peace, until the close of the war.[14] In
1813 he received his discharge, and returned to his family, with whom
he enjoyed domestic happiness in privacy and repose for some years. St.
Louis and St. Charles {x} were beginning rapidly to improve; American
families were constantly immigrating to these towns. The timber in
their vicinity is not of the best kind for building. Pine could no
where be obtained in abundance, nearer than on the Gasconade, a stream
that enters on the south side of the Missouri, about one hundred and
fifty miles up that river. Mr. Pattie, possessing a wandering and
adventurous spirit, meditated the idea of removing to this frontier and
unpeopled river, to erect Mills upon it, and send down pine lumber in
rafts to St. Louis, and the adjoining country. He carried his plan into
operation, and erected a Saw and Grist Mill upon the Gasconade.[15] It
proved a very fortunate speculation, as there was an immediate demand
at St. Louis and St. Charles for all the plank the mill could supply.
In this remote wilderness, Mr. Pattie lived in happiness and
prosperity, until the mother of the author was attacked by consumption.
Although her husband was, as has been said, strongly endowed with the
wandering propensity, he was no less profoundly attached to his family;
and in this wild region, the loss of a beloved wife was irreparable.
She soon sunk under the disorder, leaving nine young children. Not long
after, the youngest died, and was deposited by her side in this far
land.
The house, which had been the scene of domestic quiet, cheerfulness
and joy, and the hospitable home of the stranger, sojourning in these
forests, became dreary and desolate. Mr. Pattie, who had been noted
for the buoyancy of his gay spirit, was now silent, dejected, and
even inattentive to his business; which, requiring great activity and
constant attention, soon ran into disorder.
About this time, remote trapping and trading expeditions up the
Missouri, and in the interior of New Mexico began to be much talked
of. Mr. Pattie seemed to be interested in these expeditions, which
offered much to stir the spirit and excite enterprize. To arouse him
from his indolent melancholy, his friends advised him to sell his
property, convert it into merchandize and equipments for trapping and
hunting, and to join in such an undertaking. To a man born and reared
under the circumstances {xi} of his early life--one to whom forests,
and long rivers, adventures, and distant mountains, presented pictures
of familiar and birth day scenes--one, who confided in his rifle, as a
sure friend, and who withal, connected dejection and bereavement with
his present desolate residence; little was necessary to tempt him to
such an enterprise.
In a word, he adopted the project with that undoubting and unshrinking
purpose, with which to will is to accomplish. Arrangements were soon
made. The Children were provided for among his relations. The Author
was at school; but inheriting the love of a rifle through so many
generations, and nursed amid such scenes, he begged so earnestly of his
father that he might be allowed to accompany the expedition, that he
prevailed. The sad task remained for him to record the incidents of the
expedition, and the sufferings and death of his father.
COMMENCEMENT OF THE EXPEDITION
I pass by, as unimportant in this Journal, all the circumstances of
our arrangements for setting out on our expedition; together with
my father's sorrow and mine, at leaving the spot where his wife and
my mother was buried, the place, which had once been so cheerful,
and was now so gloomy to us. We made our purchases at St. Louis. Our
company consisted of five persons. We had ten horses packed with traps,
trapping utensils, guns, ammunition, knives, tomahawks, provisions,
blankets, and some surplus arms, as we anticipated that we should be
able to gain some additions to our number by way of recruits, as we
proceeded onward. But when the trial came, so formidable seemed the
danger, fatigue, distance, and uncertainty of the expedition, that not
an individual could be persuaded to share our enterprize.
June 20, 1824, we crossed the Missouri at a small town called
Newport,[16] and meandered the river as far as Pilcher's fort,[17]
without any incident worthy of record, except that one of our
associates, who had become too unwell to travel, was left at Charaton,
the remotest village on this frontier of any size.[18] We arrived at
Pilcher's fort, on the 13th day of July. There we remained, until the
28th, waiting the arrival of a keel boat from below, that was partly
freighted with merchandize for us, with which we intended to trade with
the Indians.
On the 28th, our number diminished to four, we set off for a trading
establishment eight miles above us on the Missouri, belonging to
Pratte, Choteau and Company.[19] In this place centres most of the
trade with the Indians on the upper Missouri. Here we met with
Sylvester, son of Gen. Pratte,[20] who was on his way {14} to New
Mexico, with purposes similar to ours. His company had preceded him,
and was on the river Platte waiting for him.
We left this trading establishment for the Council Bluffs, six miles
above.[21] When we arrived there, the commanding officer demanded to
see our license for trading with the Indians. We informed him, that
we neither had any, nor were aware that any was necessary. We were
informed, that we could be allowed to ascend the river no higher
without one. This dilemma brought our onward progress to a dead stand.
We were prompt, however, in making new arrangements. We concluded to
sell our surplus arms in exchange for merchandize, and change our
direction from the upper Missouri, to New Mexico. One of our number
was so much discouraged with our apparent ill success, and so little
satisfied with this new project, that he came to the determination to
leave our ranks. The remainder, though dispirited by the reduction of
our number, determined not to abandon the undertaking. Our invalid
having rejoined us, we still numbered four. We remained some time at
this beautiful position, the Council Bluffs. I have seen much that is
beautiful, interesting and commanding in the wild scenery of nature,
but no prospect above, around, and below more so than from this spot.
Our object and destination being the same as Mr. Pratte's, we concluded
to join his company on the Platte.
We left the Bluffs, July 30th, and encamped the night after our
departure on a small stream, called the Elkhorn.[22] We reached it at a
point thirty miles S. W. from the Bluffs. The Pawnee Indians sometimes
resort upon the banks of this stream. The country is so open and bare
of timber, that it was with difficulty we could find sufficient wood to
cook with, even on the banks of the river, where wood is found, if at
all, in the prairie country.
Early the next morning we commenced our march up the bottoms of the
stream, which we continued to ascend, until almost night fall, when we
concluded to cross it to a small grove of timber that we descried on
the opposite shore, where we encamped {15} for the night, securing our
horses with great care, through fear that they would be stolen by the
Indians.
In the morning, as we were making arrangements to commence our march,
we discovered a large body of Indians, running full speed towards us.
When they had arrived within a hundred yards of us, we made signs, that
they must halt, or that we should fire upon them. They halted, and
we inquired of them, as one of our number spoke their language, to
what nation they belonged? They answered the Pawnee.[23] Considering
them friendly, we permitted them to approach us. It was on our way, to
pass through their town, and we followed them thither. As soon as we
arrived at their town, they conducted us to the lodge of their chief,
who posted a number of his warriors at the door, and called the rest of
his chiefs, accompanied by an interpreter. They formed a circle in the
centre of the lodge. The elder chief then lighting a pipe, commenced
smoking; the next chief holding the bowl of his pipe. This mode of
smoking differed from that of any Indians we had yet seen. He filled
his mouth with the smoke, then puffed it in our bosoms, then on his
own, and then upward, as he said, toward the Great Spirit, that he
would bestow upon us plenty of fat buffaloes, and all necessary aid on
our way. He informed us, that he had two war parties abroad. He gave
us a stick curiously painted with characters, I suppose something like
hieroglyphics, bidding us, should we see any of his warriors, to give
them that stick; in which case they would treat us kindly. The pipe was
then passed round, and we each of us gave it two or three light whiffs.
We were then treated with fat buffaloe meat, and after we had eaten, he
gave us counsel in regard to our future course, particularly not to let
our horses loose at night. His treatment was altogether paternal.
Next morning we left the village of this hospitable old chief,
accompanied by a pilot, dispatched to conduct us to Mr. Pratte's
company on the Platte. This is one of the three villages of the
Republican Pawnees. It is situated on the little Platte River,[24] in
the centre of an extensive prairie plain; having near{16} it a small
strip of wood extending from the village to the river. The houses are
cone-shaped, like a sugar loaf. The number of lodges may amount to six
hundred.