Left St Peters. Taking the two varieties in the mass, the Indians must
be acknowledged the most perfect gentlemen in America, particularly in
their deportment. It was with regret that I parted with my friends in
the fort, my kind host, Mr Sibley, and my noble-minded warrior Sioux.
I could have remained at St Peters for a year with pleasure, and could
only regret that life was so short, and the Mississippi so long.
There is, however, one serious drawback in all America to life in the
woods, or life in cities, or every other kind of life; which is the
manner, go where you will, in which you are pestered by the mosquitoes.
Strangers are not the only sufferers; those who are born and die in the
country are equally tormented, and it is slap, slap, slap, all day and
all night long, for these animals bite through everything less thick
than a buffalo's skin. As we ascended the river they attacked us on the
crown of the head--a very unusual thing,--and raised swellings as large
as pigeons' eggs. I must have immolated at least five hundred of them
upon my bump of benevolence. Whatever people may think, I feel that no
one can be very imaginative where these animals are so eternally
tormenting them. You meditate under the shady boughs of some
forest-king (slap knee, slap cheek), and farewell to anything like
concentration of thought; you ponder on the sailing moon (slap again,
right and left, above, below), always unpleasantly interrupted. It
won't do at all: you are teased and phlebotomised out of all poetry and
patience.
It is midnight, the darkness is intense, not even a star in the heavens
above, and the steamboat appears as if it were gliding through a current
of ink, with black masses rising just perceptible on either side of it;
no sound except the reiterated note of the "Whip poor Will," answered by
the loud coughing of the high-pressure engine. Who, of those in
existence fifty years ago, would have contemplated that these vast and
still untenanted solitudes would have had their silence invaded by such
an unearthly sound? a sound which ever gives you the idea of vitality.
It is this appearance of breathing which makes the high-pressure engine
the nearest approach to creation which was ever attained by the
ingenuity of man. It appears to have respiration, and that short, quick
respiration occasioned by exertion; its internal operations are
performed as correctly and as mechanically as are our own; it is as
easily put out of order and rendered useless as we are; and like us, it
can only continue its powers of motion by being well supplied with
aliment.
Ran up Fever River to Galena, the present emporium of the Mineral
Country. There is an unpleasant feeling connected with the name of this
river; it is, in fact, one of the American translations. It was
originally called Feve, or Bean River, by the French, and this they have
construed into Fever. The Mineral district comprehends a tract of
country running about one hundred miles North and South, and fifty miles
East and West, from the River Wisconsin to about twenty miles south of
Galena. It was purchased by the American Government about fifteen years
ago, the northern portion from the Winnebagos, and the southern from the
Sioux and Fox Indians. The Indians used to work the diggings to a small
extent, bringing the lead which they obtained to exchange with the
traders. As may be supposed, they raised but little, the whole work of
digging and smelting being carried on by the squaws. After the land was
surveyed a portion of it was sold, but when the minerals made their
appearance the fact was notified by the surveyors to the government, and
the remaining portions were withdrawn from the market. A licence was
granted to speculators to dig the ore and smelt it, upon condition of
their paying to the government a percentage on the mineral obtained.
Those who found a good vein had permission to work it for forty yards
square on condition that they carried the ore to a licensed smelter.
This occasioned a new class of people to spring up in this speculative
country, namely, _finders_, who would search all over the country for
what they called a good _prospect_, that is, every appearance on the
surface of a good vein of metal. This when found they would sell to
others, who would turn _diggers_; and as soon as these finders had spent
their money, they would range over the whole country to find another
_prospect_ which they might dispose of. But although it was at first
supposed that the government had retained all the mineral portion of the
district in its own hands, it was soon discovered that nearly the whole
country was one continued lead mine, and that there was an equal supply
of mineral to be obtained from those portions which had been disposed
of. Lead was found not only in the mountains and ravines, but under the
surface of the wide prairies. As the lands sold by government had not
to pay a percentage for the lead raised from them, those who worked upon
the government lands refused to pay any longer, asserting that it was
not _legal_. The superintendent of government soon found that his
office was a sinecure, as all attempt at _coercion_ in that
half-civilised country would have been not only useless but dangerous.
The government have gone to law with their tenants, but that is of no
avail, for a verdict against the latter would not induce them to pay.
The cause was not attempted to be tried at Galena, for the government
knew what the decision of the jury would have been, but it is contested
at Vandalia. It is three years since the mines have paid any
percentage, and the government are now advised to sell all their
reserved lands, and thus get rid of the business. How weak must that
government be when it is compelled to submit to such a gross violation
of all justice. The quantity of mineral found does not appear to affect
the quality of the soil, which is as fine here, if not finer, than in
those portions of Wisconsin where the mineral is not so plentiful. The
quantity of lead annually smelted is said to amount to from 18,000,000
to 20,000,000 lbs. Galena is a small town, picturesquely situated on
the banks of the river, but very dirty.
Ioway, the new district opposite to Wisconsin, on the western banks of
the Mississippi, has, in all probability, a large proportion of metal
under its surface. When it was in the possession of the Sioux Indians,
they used to obtain from it a considerable portion of lead, which they
brought down to barter; and I am inclined to think, that to the north of
the Wisconsin river, they will find no want of minerals, even as high up
as Lake Superior, where they have already discovered masses of native
copper weighing many _tons_: and on the west side of the river, as you
proceed south, you arrive at the iron mines, or rather mountains of
iron, in the Missouri.
After you proceed south of Prairie du Chien, the features of the
Mississippi river gradually change; the bluffs decrease in number and in
height, until you descend to Rock Island, below which point they are
rarely to be met with. The country on each side now is chiefly composed
of variegated rolling prairies, with a less proportion of timber. To
describe these prairies would be difficult; that is, to describe the
effect of them upon a stranger: I have found myself lost, as it were;
and indeed sometimes, although on horseback, have lost myself, having
only the sun for my guide. Look round in every quarter of the compass,
and there you are as if on the ocean--not a landmark, not a vestige of
any thing human but yourself. Instead of sky and water, it is one vast
field, bounded only by the horizon, its surface gently undulating like
the waves of the ocean; and as the wind (which always blows fresh on the
prairies) bows down the heads of the high grass, it gives you the idea
of a running swell. Every three or four weeks there is a succession of
beautiful flowers, giving a variety of tints to the whole map, which die
away and are succeeded by others equally beautiful; and in the spring,
the strawberries are in such profusion, that you have but to sit down
wherever you may happen to be, and eat as long as you please.
We stopped at Alton, in the State of Missouri, to put on shore three
thousand pigs of lead. This town has been rendered notorious by the
murder--for murder it was, although it was brought on by his own
intemperate conduct--of Mr Lovejoy, who is now raised to the dignity of
a martyr by the abolitionists. Alton is a well-built town, of stone,
and, from its locality, must increase; it is, however, spoilt by the
erection of a penitentiary with huge walls, on a most central and
commanding situation. I read a sign put out by a small eating-house,
and which was very characteristic of the country--
"Stranger, here's your chicken fixings."
Four miles below Alton, the Missouri joins its waters with the
Mississippi; and the change which takes place at the mingling of the two
streams is very remarkable--the clear pellucid current of the upper
Mississippi being completely extinguished by the foul mud of the other
turbid and impetuous river. It was a great mistake of the first
explorers, when they called the western branch, at the meeting of the
two rivers, the Missouri, and the eastern the Mississippi: the western
branch, or the Missouri, is really the Mississippi, and should have been
so designated: it is the longest and farthest navigable of the two
branches, and therefore is the main river.
The Falls of St Anthony put an end to the navigation of the eastern
branch, or present upper Missouri, about nine hundred miles above St
Louis; while the western branch, or present Missouri, is navigable above
St Louis for more than one thousand two hundred miles.
The waters of the present upper Mississippi are clear and beautiful; it
is a swift, but not an angry stream, full of beauty and freshness, and
fertilising as it sweeps along; while the Missouri is the same
impetuous, discoloured, devastating current as the Mississippi continues
to be after its junction--like it, constantly sweeping down forests of
trees in its wild course, overflowing, inundating, and destroying, and
exciting awe and fear.
As soon as you arrive at St Louis, you feel that you are on the great
waters of Mississippi. St Louis is a well-built town, now containing
about twenty thousand inhabitants, and situated on a hill shelving down
to the river. The population increases daily; the river a-breast of the
town is crowded with steamboats, lying in two or three tiers, and ready
to start up or down, or to the many tributary navigable rivers which
pour their waters into the Mississippi.
In point of heat, St Louis certainly approaches the nearest to the
Black Hole of Calcutta of any city that I have sojourned in. The lower
part of the town is badly drained, and very filthy. The flies, on a
moderate calculation, are in many parts fifty to the square inch. I
wonder that they have not a contagious disease here during the whole
summer; it is, however, indebted to heavy rains for its occasional
purification. They have not the yellow-fever here; but during the
autumn they have one which, under another name, is almost as fatal--the
bilious congestive fever. I found sleep almost impossible from the
sultriness of the air, and used to remain at the open window for the
greater part of the night. I did not expect that the muddy Mississippi
would be able to reflect the silver light of the moon; yet it did, and
the effect was very beautiful. Truly it may be said of this river, as
it is of many ladies, that it is a candle-light beauty. There is
another serious evil to which strangers who sojourn here are subject--
the violent effects of the waters of the Mississippi upon those who are
not used to them. The suburbs of the town are very pretty; and a few
miles behind it you are again in a charming prairie country, full of
game, large and small. Large and small are only so by comparison. An
American was asked what game they had in his district? and his reply
was, "Why, we've plenty of _baar_ (bear) and deer, but no _large_ game
to count on."
There is one great luxury in America, which is the quantity of clear
pure ice which is to be obtained wherever you are, even in the hottest
seasons, and ice-creams are universal and very cheap. I went into an
establishment where they vended this and other articles of refreshment,
when about a dozen black swarthy fellows, employed at the iron-foundry
close at hand, with their dirty shirt-sleeves tucked up, and without
their coats and waistcoats, came in, and sitting down, called for
ice-creams. Miss Martineau says in her work, "Happy is the country
where factory-girls can carry parasols, and pig-drivers wear
spectacles." She might have added, and the sons of Vulcan eat
ice-creams. I thought at the time what the ladies, who stop in their
carriages at Gunter's, would have said, had they behold these Cyclops
with their bare sinewy arms, blackened with heat and smoke, refreshing
themselves with such luxuries; but it must be remembered that _porter_
is much the dearer article. Still the working classes all over America
can command not only all necessary comforts, but many luxuries; for
labour is dear and they are very well paid. The Americans will point
this out and say, behold the effects of our institutions; and they fully
believe that such is the case. Government has, however, nothing to do
with it; it is the result of circumstances. When two years' exertion
will procure a clever mechanic an independence, the effects will be the
same, whether they labour under a democratic or a monarchical form of
government.
Bear cubs (I mean the black bear) are caught and brought down to the
cities on this side of the river, to be fattened for the table. I saw
one at Alton about a year old, which the owner told me was to be killed
the next day, having been bespoken for the feast of the 4th of July. I
have eaten old bear, which I dislike; but they say that the cub is very
good. I also saw here a very fine specimen of the grizzly bear (Ursus
Horridus of Linnaeus). It was about two years old, and although not so
tall, it must have weighed quite as much as a good-sized bullock. Its
width of shoulder and apparent strength were enormous, and they have
never yet been tamed: Mr Van Amburgh would be puzzled to handle one of
them. The Indians reckon the slaying of one of these animals as a much
greater feat than killing a man, and the proudest ornament they can wear
is a necklace of the grizzly bear's claws.
I for myself, must confess, that I had rather be attacked by, and take
my chance with, three men than by one of these animals, as they are
seldom killed by the first or even the second bullet. It requires
numbers to overcome them. The largest lion, or Bengal tiger, would
stand but a poor chance, if opposed to one of these animals full grown.
One of the gentlemen employed by the Fur Company told me, that he once
saw a grizzly bear attack a bull buffalo, and that, at the first
seizure, he tore one of the ribs of the buffalo out of his side, and
eventually carried away the whole carcass, without much apparent effort.
They are only to be found in the rocky mountains, and valleys between
them, when the game is plentiful.
Visited the museum. There were once five large alligators to be seen
alive in this museum; but they are now all dead. One demands our
sympathy, as there was something Roman in his fate. Unable to support
such a life of confinement, and preferring death to the loss of liberty,
he committed suicide by throwing himself out of a three-storey-high
window. He was taken up from the pavement the next morning; the vital
spark had fled, as the papers say, and, I believe, his remains were
decently interred.
The other four, never having been taught in their youth the hymn, "Birds
in their little nests agree," fought so desperately, that one by one
they all died of their wounds. They were very large, being from
seventeen to twenty-one feet long. One, as a memorial, remains
preserved in the museum, and to make him look more poetical, he has a
stuffed negro in his mouth.