Graduated from Harvard College (1800), he became a Congregational
minister, and in 1815 went as a missionary to the Far West. Until
1822 his headquarters were at St. Charles, Missouri; in that year he
descended the Mississippi in a flatboat and settled in Louisiana,
conducting a seminary on Lake Pontchartrain. Ill health compelled him
to return to the North (1825), and thereafter he gave his attention
to literature. For three years he edited the _Western Review_ at
Cincinnati; but later, removing to New York (1833), conducted the
_Knickerbocker Magazine_. In addition to publishing a number of
romances and biographies of Western life, he was the author of two
well-known books on the West: _Recollections of the Last Ten Years
Passed in the Valley of the Mississippi_ (1826), and _Condensed History
and Geography of the Western States_ (1828).--ED.
[2] Josiah Stoddard Johnston was born in Salisbury, Connecticut
(1784), but when a small boy removed with his parents to Washington,
Kentucky. He was graduated from Transylvania University (1805), and
soon after began the practice of law in Alexandria, a frontier village
of Louisiana. Gaining reputation as a lawyer, he served as district
judge from 1812-21, was elected to the 17th congress, and in 1823
became a member of the federal senate, where he supported a protective
tariff and the other measures advocated by Henry Clay. In 1833,
Johnston was killed in the explosion of the steamboat "Lyon," on Red
River.--ED.
[3] James Riley (born in Connecticut, 1777, died at sea, 1840) was
a sea captain, who experienced some romantic adventures. In 1815 he
sailed from Hartford on the brig "Commerce," was shipwrecked on the
coast of Africa, and for eighteen months held as a slave by the Arabs
until ransomed by the British consul at Mogadove. In 1817, Anthony
Bleecker published from Riley's journals _An Authentic Narrative of the
Loss of the American Brig Commerce, on the Western Coast of Africa, in
the Month of August, 1815 ... with a Description of Tombuctoo_. The
book had a wide circulation both in England and America, but until
other survivors of the vessel returned and confirmed the account, was
popularly supposed to be fictitious. In 1821 Riley settled in Van Wert
County, Ohio, founding the town of Willshire, and in 1823 was elected
to the legislature. He resumed a seafaring life (1831), and an account
of his later voyages and adventures was published by his son (Columbus,
1851).--ED.
[4] This station, five miles northeast of Lexington, had been
established in 1779 by four Bryan (later, Bryant) brothers from North
Carolina, one of whom married a sister of Daniel Boone. It contained
about forty cabins in 1782 when, August 16, it was attacked by a force
of Canadians and Indians under the leadership of Simon Girty. Failing
to draw the men out of the stockade, as had been planned, the Indians
besieged the station until the following day, when they withdrew. For
a full account, see Ranck, "Story of Bryant's Station," Filson Club
_Publications_, xii.--ED.
[5] For a brief sketch of Colonel Benjamin Logan, see A. Michaux's
_Travels_, volume iii of our series, p. 40, note 34.--ED.
[6] An account of the battle of the Blue Licks may be found in Cuming's
_Tour_, in our volume iv, pp. 176, 177.--ED.
[7] This expedition, to avenge the battle of the Blue Licks and the
attack on Bryant's Station, rendezvoused at the mouth of the Licking. A
force of a thousand mounted riflemen under George Rogers Clark marched
thence against the Shawnee towns in the neighborhood of the present
Chillicothe. These were completely destroyed, the expedition meeting
with no resistance.--ED.
[8] A footnote cannot do justice to the services of General George
Rogers Clark in Western history. Born in Albemarle County, Virginia
(1752), he became a surveyor on the upper Ohio. Serving in Dunmore's
campaign in 1774, the following year he settled in Kentucky. Returning
to Virginia to urge upon the legislature the conquest of the Illinois
territory, he was made a lieutenant-colonel and authorized to raise
troops for the undertaking. June 24, 1778, he set out from the Falls
of the Ohio, upon his memorable campaign, capturing Kaskaskia July 4,
and Vincennes the following February. See Thwaites, _How George Rogers
Clark won the Northwest, etc._ (Chicago, 1903). The attack upon the
Shawnee towns in 1782 was his last important work; an expedition up
the Wabash against Detroit, was undertaken in 1786; but part of the
troops mutinied, and Clark was forced to turn back before reaching
his destination. He died at his sister's home, "Locust Grove," near
Louisville, in February, 1818.--ED.
[9] The war with the Sauk and Foxes was part of the general War of
1812-15. These Indians had in 1804 signed a treaty at St. Louis, by
which they surrendered all their lands in Illinois and Wisconsin. But
the cession was repudiated by the Rock River band of the united tribes,
who eagerly joined with the British in the hope of saving their hunting
grounds. The noted warrior Black Hawk accepted a commission in the
British army.--ED.
[10] For the early history of St. Charles, see Bradbury's _Travels_,
volume v of our series, p. 39, note 9.--ED.
[11] Cap-au-Gris is situated on the Mississippi a few miles above the
mouth of Cuivre River. In 1812 Fort Howard was erected near that point,
for the protection of the Missouri frontier; its name was in honor of
the governor, Benjamin Howard. Fort Howard was a shipping port of some
importance until the advent of the railroads into that region, but it
now exists only in name. The event here related was an attack upon Fort
Howard by Black Hawk and his band, immediately after the siege of Fort
Meigs (July, 1813).--ED.
[12] Fort Bellefontaine was established (1805) by General James
Wilkinson, governor of Louisiana, on the site of an old Spanish fort
named Charles the Prince. It was on the Missouri River, four miles
above its junction with the Mississippi, and was occupied by United
States troops until the construction of Jefferson Barracks in 1827.
For further details, see Thwaites, _Original Journals of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition_, v, p. 392, note 2.--ED.
[13] Thomas McNair was a son of Robert, a blacksmith living at Troy,
about eighteen miles west of Cap-au-Gris; and a nephew of Alexander
McNair, governor of Missouri (1820-24). The family had emigrated to St.
Louis from Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, about 1800.--ED.
[14] As Pattie obtained his discharge in 1813, he must have yielded his
command to Lieutenant John McNair, brother of Thomas, who was stationed
at Cap-au-Gris during the latter part of the war. See Goodspeed,
_History of Lincoln County, Missouri_ (Chicago, 1888), p. 224.
The Sauk and Foxes signed a treaty of peace in May, 1816, wherein
they acknowledged the cession of 1804; but the consequent removal
across the Mississippi was one of the causes of the Black Hawk War
(1832).--ED.
[15] Gasconade River rises in southern Missouri, and flowing northeast
empties into the Missouri about a hundred miles above the latter's
junction with the Mississippi.--ED.
[16] Newport, now Dundee, is a small town on the Missouri, at the mouth
of Buffalo Creek, some sixty miles above St. Louis.--ED.
[17] This was an important place during the fur-trading era. It was
more commonly known as Bellevue, and was situated about nine miles
above the mouth of the Platte. The first post was established about
1810, and soon passed into the control of the Missouri Fur Company,
under Joshua Pilcher--hence the name of Pilcher's Post. For a sketch of
Pilcher, see James's _Long's Expedition_, in our volume xiv, p. 269,
note 193.--ED.
[18] Chariton was about two hundred and twenty miles up the Missouri,
at the mouth of Chariton River. In 1818 the sale of government land
began in that region, and the town sprang up with extraordinary
rapidity. Many lots in St. Louis were exchanged for lots in Chariton,
but the site of the latter is now a farm.--ED.
[19] This was Cabanne's Post, nine or ten miles (by land) above Omaha.
It was established about 1822 for the American Fur Company, by J. P.
Cabanne. He remained in charge until 1833, and soon thereafter the
company moved its trading station to Bellevue.--ED.
[20] Silvester Pratte was born in St. Louis (1799), the son of Bernard
Pratte, a partner in the American Fur Company. He did not return from
this expedition, but died in New Mexico; see _post_.--ED.
[21] For the early history of Council Bluffs, see Brackenridge's
_Journal_, volume vi of our series, p. 78, note 28.--ED.
[22] For Elkhorn River, see James's _Long's Expedition_, in our volume
xiv, p. 240, note 182.--ED.
[23] For the Pawnee Indians, consult Brackenridge's _Journal_, in our
volume vi, p. 61, note 17.--ED.
[24] This is not the stream now known as the Little Platte, for which
see James's _Long's Expedition_, in our volume xiv, p. 174, note 141.
Possibly it was Maple Creek, a stream which rises in the southern
part of Stanton County, Nebraska, and flowing westward through Dodge
County joins the Elkhorn nearly opposite the town of Fontenelle. At
the time of Major Long's expedition (1820), all the Pawnee villages
were situated within a few miles of each other, on the Loup fork of the
Platte (see volume xv of our series, pp. 144-149), while Pattie finds a
Republican Pawnee village within a day's march of the Elkhorn. Probably
this was but a temporary village, as Colonel Henry Dodge (1835) and
later travellers describe the location on the main Platte (see _Senate
Doc._, 24 Cong., 1 sess., 209). Pattie is also the only person who
mentions more than one Republican Pawnee village. It seems likely
that he erroneously classed as Republican the other Pawnee villages,
excepting that of the Loups (which he mentions separately)--namely, the
Grand and the Tapage villages.--ED.
[25] The definiteness with which Pattie gives his dates, lends to
his account an appearance of accuracy, which an examination of the
narrative does not sustain. By his own enumeration of days after
leaving Council Bluffs, this should be August 8. There is no indication
that Pattie kept a journal, or that he wrote any account of his travels
before reaching California.--ED.
[26] For the Pawnee Loups see Bradbury's _Travels_, volume v of our
series, p. 78, note 44. An account of the visit of the Pawnee chiefs to
Washington may be found in Faux's _Journal_, volume xii of our series,
pp. 48-52.--ED.
[27] This is the golden eagle (_Aquila chrysaëtos_). The tail-feathers
are about a foot long, and were especially prized by the Indians for
decorative purposes.--ED.
[28] This animal is not, correctly speaking, an antelope, but
constitutes a separate family. The scientific name, _Antilocapra
americana_, was assigned to it (1818) by the naturalist Ord, upon data
furnished by Lewis and Clark.--ED.
[29] For the Cheyenne Indians, see Bradbury's _Travels_, volume v of
our series, p. 140, note 88.--ED.
[30] Pattie is altogether too far north and west to meet the Osage
River. The distance from the Platte makes it fairly certain that he was
on the Republican fork of the Kansas. This stream rises in Colorado,
and flows eastward across the arid plains of southern Nebraska as far
as longitude 98°; it there enters the state of Kansas, and following a
southeasterly course unites with the Smoky Hill River at Junction City,
to form the Kansas. Its name arose from the fact that the village of
the Republican Pawnee was located upon it until about 1815, when these
tribesmen joined the Pawnee upon the Platte.--ED.
[31] For a brief description of the Arikara Indians, see Bradbury's
_Travels_, volume v of our series, p. 127, note 83.--ED.
[32] Pattie's geography is confused by his apparent ignorance of the
Kansas and its branches. Hyde Park is probably a tributary of the
Republican--possibly Beaver Creek, which rises in western Kansas and
flowing northeasterly discharges into the Republican in Harlan County,
Nebraska.--ED.
[33] The journals of Lewis and Clark contain a good description
of the prairie dog (_Cynomys_ or _arctomys ludovicianus_). See
Thwaites, _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_,
index.--ED.
[34] A short account of the Crow Indians may be found in Bradbury's
_Travels_, in our volume v, p. 226, note 121.--ED.
[35] Pattie is still among the tributaries of the Kansas. This must be
the dividing ridge between the sources of the Republican and Smoky Hill
rivers.--ED.
[36] This is the grizzly bear (_Ursus horribilis_), described
satisfactorily for the first time by Lewis and Clark, who also called
it the white bear.--ED.
[37] Smoky Hill River, the main southern fork of the Kansas, takes its
rise in Colorado, and receiving numerous tributaries in its eastward
course of nearly four hundred miles, unites with the Republican, to
form the Kansas, about one hundred and twenty miles from the mouth of
the latter.--ED.
[38] In Cheyenne County, Colorado.--ED.
[39] For the Comanche Indians, see James's _Long's Expedition_, in our
volume xvi, p. 233, note 109.--ED.
[40] Ietans (Iotans) is another name for the Comanche, the latter being
originally the Spanish appellation. See James's _Long's Expedition_, in
our volume xiv, p. 223, note 179.--ED.
[41] The Navaho Indians are closely related to the Apache, both
belonging to the Athabascan family. At this time they numbered nearly
ten thousand people, their territory being west of the Rio del Norte,
between the San Juan River and latitude 35°. Their manner of life was
more settled than that of the Comanche and Apache; and the blankets
they manufacture have gained a wide notoriety. They are now located,
to the number of about one thousand five hundred, on the Navaho
reservation in northwest New Mexico.--ED.
[42] Manifestly a slip, since the subsequent dates show that it was the
fifth of October.--ED.
[43] For the Cimarron River, see Nuttall's _Journal_, volume xiii of
our series, p. 263, note 203.--ED.
[44] San Fernandez de Taos was one of two small Spanish towns in the
fertile valley of Taos, about seventy-five miles northeast of Santa Fé.
This valley formed the Mexican boundary for those who came up Arkansas
River, and crossed to New Mexico from the north. The first Spaniard
to settle in Taos valley, so far as records show, came about the
middle of the eighteenth century; for his story, see Gregg's _Commerce
of the Prairies_, in our volume xx. Fernandez de Taos is at present
the seat for Taos County, with a population of fifteen hundred. See
_Report of the Governor of New Mexico to the Secretary of the Interior_
(Washington, 1903), p. 287.
The Indian pueblo of Taos, discovered in 1541 by Barrionuevo, one
of Coronado's lieutenants, lies about three miles northwest of San
Fernandez, and has had a varied history. A Franciscan mission was
established here before 1617, when was built the church which suffered
bombardment from the American army in 1847. The great Pueblo revolt of
1680 was largely fomented at Taos; and again, in 1837, a half-breed
from Taos, José Gonzales, was the leader of a revolt against the
Mexican government. There is still a community of Indians at this
pueblo, where in 1847 the final stand was made against Price's
army.--ED.
[45] The Rio del Norte rises in the San Juan mountains, in southwestern
Colorado. Closely hemmed in by mountains, it flows almost directly
south as far as El Paso, where it reaches the plains and thence forms
the western boundary of Texas. From El Paso it is called the Rio
Grande, or Rio Bravo.--ED.
[46] Pattie could not have passed the town of Albuquerque, as that
is seventy-five miles south of Santa Fé. He probably means Abiquiu,
a town on the Chama, a western affluent of the Rio del Norte, and
on the well-known trail leading from Santa Fé to Los Angeles,
California. Pike passed down the valley of the Rio del Norte (1807),
and his descriptions of places and of Mexico are as a whole valuable.
See Coues, _Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_ (New York, 1895),
ii.--ED.
[47] This was the mission of St. Thomas de Abiquiu.--ED.
[48] Santa Fé is one of the oldest towns within the present limits of
the United States. The site was first visited by Coronado in 1541; but
the founding of the town was the work of Oñate, who established the
colony of New Mexico in 1598. The date of the founding of Santa Fé
is uncertain, owing to the destruction of the records by the revolt
of 1680; but it was sometime between 1605 and 1609. By 1630, Santa
Fé had one thousand inhabitants; its first church was built on the
site of the present cathedral, in 1622-27; the ancient governmental
palace, still existing, dates from the seventeenth century. In 1680 the
Spaniards were expelled, but twelve years later returned under Diego de
Vargas. From that time to the present, Santa Fé has been continuously
inhabited. In the eighteenth century, French traders found their way
thither, and by the early nineteenth the American trade began. In 1822,
the Mexican standard was raised over the town, and in 1846 General
Stephen W. Kearny secured its surrender to the United States. Santa
Fé has always been the capital of the territory. It has now (1905) a
population of about eight thousand. At the time of Pattie's visit the
governor of New Mexico, the first under republican rule, was Bartolome
Baca.--ED.
[49] The Rio Pecus is the largest branch of the Rio Grande. Rising in
the Santa Fé mountains immediately east of Santa Fé, and following a
south-southeast course for about eight hundred miles, it enters the Rio
Grande in latitude 29° 41'. The name is derived from an old pueblo,
situated on one of the mountain tributaries about twenty-five miles
southeast of Santa Fé. In 1540 this was the largest Indian village in
New Mexico, containing a population of about two thousand souls; but
the United States troops in 1846 found it desolate and in ruins. A
small modern village has grown up near the ancient site.--ED.
[50] This small town, presumably to the east of Santa Fé, cannot be the
well-known San Juan, on the Rio del Norte opposite the mouth of the
Chama River and about thirty miles north of Santa Fé. This latter San
Juan was made the capital of New Mexico by Oñate in 1598-99, and so
remained until the founding of Santa Fé.--ED.
[51] "The Gila was known to the whites before the Mississippi
was discovered; it was long better known than the Rio Grande and
down to the present century was far better known than the Rio
Colorado."--(Coues, _Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_, ii, p. 374.) The
first name, Rio del Nombre de Jesus, was given to it by Oñate in 1604;
the present name dates from 1697. The stream heads in the mountains of
western New Mexico, and traversing Arizona empties into the Colorado
at Fort Yuma (32° 43' north latitude). See _post_, notes 54,
63.--ED.
[52] This name, meaning succor, was given by Oñate to the Indian pueblo
of Teipana, about eighty miles south of Albuquerque, because of the
supplies of maize furnished by the inhabitants on his expedition up the
Rio del Norte (1598-99). The old pueblo was destroyed in 1681, and the
modern town founded in 1817. It is now the seat of Socorro County, and
contains over 1,500 inhabitants. The home of the Spanish ex-governor
and his daughter must have been in the neighborhood of the present city
of Albuquerque, the largest town in New Mexico. Pattie's course quite
closely followed the line of the Santa Fé railroad.--ED.
[53] The mines were the well-known "Santa Rita de Cobre," in the
western angle of the Sierra de Mogoyon, near the headwaters of the Gila
and about one hundred miles west of the Rio del Norte. Mexicans began
to work them in 1804. They proved very profitable (see _post_, p. 350),
although the difficulty of obtaining supplies was great, owing to the
plundering Apache. In 1838 these Indians entirely cut off the supply
trains, and the mines were abandoned. They were for a time (1851) the
headquarters of the boundary commission for the United States and
Mexico. See Bartlett, _Personal Narrative of Explorations_ (New York,
1854), i, pp. 226-239. Mining was resumed in 1873; the property is now
operated by the Santa Rita Company, and is among the best equipped
mines in the territory.--ED.
[54] The present name of this stream, one of the initial forks of the
Gila. The confluence is in Arizona, a few miles over the New Mexican
border.--ED.
[55] The Rocky Mountain sheep (_Ovis montana_) was well described by
Lewis and Clark.--ED.
[56] There are at least three varieties of mesquit-tree (_prosopis_)
in New Mexico and Arizona. It is related to the acacia and locust; and
the fruit, consisting of ten or twelve beans in a sweet, pulpy pod, is
gathered by the Indians, pounded in a mortar, and made into bread. A
prolific tree will yield ten bushels of beans in the hull. The Comanche
also concoct an intoxicating drink from this bean.--ED.
[57] The maguey is the American aloe (_Agave americana_). The Mexicans
and Indians cut off the leaves near the root, leaving a head the size
of a large cabbage. The heads are placed in the ground, overlaid with
earth, and for a day a fire is kept burning on top of them; they are
then eaten, tasting something like a beet. The roasted heads are also
placed in a bag made of hides, and allowed to ferment, producing the
liquor known as "mescal."--ED.
[58] For the method of making a "cache," see Thwaites, _Original
Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_, index.--ED.
[59] This is apparently the giant cactus (_Cereus giganteus_). The
height to which it grows varies with the nature of the soil, the
average being from twenty to thirty feet.--ED.
[60] The Apache were long the scourge of New Mexico, Arizona, and
northern Mexico. Living by plunder alone, they systematically robbed
and killed Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans. They belong to the
Athabascan family, and comprise many tribes and sub-tribes. At present
they number about six thousand souls, and are located on five different
reservations.--ED.
[61] The Red is here used as one of the rather infrequent names for the
Colorado.--ED.
[62] The Mexican province of Sonora had then nearly the same boundaries
as now, save for a northern strip--the Gadsden Purchase--which was
transferred to Arizona in 1803. Along its northern frontier stretched
a line of five forts, to protect the ranches and villages from Apache
raids. The tribe of Indians which behaved so treacherously towards
the French companions of Pattie were the Papago (Papawar), who still
inhabit this region, being herdsmen in southern Arizona and northern
Sonora. See Bandelier, "Final Report of Investigations among the
Indians of the Southwestern United States," American Archæological
Institute Papers, American Series, iii, pp. 250-252.--ED.
[63] This river is still called the Black, but more frequently
the Salt. It is a considerable fork of the Gila, uniting with it
a short distance below Phoenix, Arizona. The left branch of the
Salt is the Verde, the principal river of central Arizona. Pattie's
geography is correct in describing the source of these two great
streams.--ED.
[64] The habitat of the Hopi Indians (the more commonly-used Moki is
an opprobrious nickname), has been the same for two hundred years--a
plateau in northeastern Arizona, about fifty miles from the Little
Colorado River. They are of Shoshonean stock, but became separated from
their kindred and established themselves in six pueblos, forming the
Tusayan confederacy. A seventh village was later added, composed of
Tañoan Indians from the Rio Grande. These pueblos were visited by Don
Pedro de Tobar, a lieutenant of Coronado, in 1540. In 1599 they gave
their formal allegiance to Juan de Oñate, who six years later again
visited their country. They appear to have taken part in the rebellion
of 1680, being reconquered in 1692-94. A delegation visited Santa Fé in
1700, and Garces is known to have travelled to their villages in 1776.
With the rise of the Apache the Hopi were necessarily cut off from
contact with the New Mexicans, which accounts for their surprise at the
appearance of Pattie's comrades. For their present habits and customs,
consult Bandelier, "Final Report," _op. cit._, iii, iv; also Bourke,
_Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona_ (New York, 1884).--ED.