Transcriber’s Note: For the most part, we must assume that what was
printed is a verbatim transcript of Fowler’s appalling spelling, but
a few corrections for what appeared to be certain printing errors are
detailed at the end.
I.
AMERICAN EXPLORERS SERIES.
Fowler’s Journal.
[Illustration: REPRODUCTION OF A PAGE OF JACOB FOWLER’S ORIGINAL
MANUSCRIPT. THE ABOVE INCLUDES FACSIMILE OF THE ONLY AUTOGRAPH
SIGNATURE OF MAJOR FOWLER, THE NAMES OF HIS PARTY, ETC., ETC.]
THE JOURNAL
OF
JACOB FOWLER
_NARRATING AN ADVENTURE_
FROM
ARKANSAS THROUGH THE INDIAN TERRITORY,
OKLAHOMA, KANSAS, COLORADO,
AND NEW MEXICO,
TO THE
SOURCES OF RIO GRANDE DEL NORTE,
1821-22
EDITED, WITH NOTES
BY
ELLIOTT COUES
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
FRANCIS P. HARPER
1898
COPYRIGHT, 1898,
BY
FRANCIS P. HARPER
DEDICATED
TO
REUBEN T. DURRETT, A. M., LL. D.,
NESTOR OF KENTUCKY HISTORIANS
AND
PRESIDENT OF THE FILSON CLUB,
IN ADMIRATION OF HIS PERSONAL CHARACTER AND IN
REMEMBRANCE OF PLEASANT HOURS PASSED
IN HIS HOSPITABLE HOME.
INTRODUCTION.
Jacob Fowler is an unknown author whose work has never before been
heralded beyond the private circles of his friends, relatives, and
descendants. The editor of his Journal has therefore a man as well as a
book to introduce to the public. Being responsible for the appearance of
the latter in print, he will presently say something on that score. But
first let us hear from Colonel R. T. Durrett, of Louisville, Ky., the
owner of the manuscript now published, who will speak for its author:
LOUISVILLE, KY., _Dec. 4, 1897_.
DR. ELLIOTT COUES, _Washington, D. C._
I have your letter, My Dear Doctor, in which you request me
to tell what I may know about the Journal you found among my
manuscripts when you were my guest last year, and which you
have determined to include in your admirable series of Western
Americana. I am sorry to have to say that I do not know much
of this manuscript or its author. The little I know, however,
will be cheerfully contributed to an undertaking which is
to place a Kentucky manuscript from my collection among the
publications which, under your editorship, have added so much
to our literature of discovery, exploration, and adventure.
The author of this Journal is Major Jacob Fowler. His name is
not attached to the Journal, and does not appear on any of
its pages in such a way as to indicate authorship. Yet it is
well understood among his numerous descendants now living in
Kentucky and other States that he is the author. I obtained the
manuscript some years ago from Mrs. Ida Symmes Coates, daughter
of the late Americus Symmes, now residing at her country seat
near Louisville. Mrs. Coates is a great-granddaughter, on the
maternal side, of Jacob Fowler. The manuscript descended to
her in a direct line from her mother, Frances Scott, who was a
granddaughter of Jacob Fowler, and who had obtained it in the
same way from her mother, Abigail Fowler, the only daughter
of Jacob Fowler. The manuscript has thus come down to us in
a direct line, and is the unquestionable work of Major Jacob
Fowler.
When Mrs. Coates gave me this manuscript she remarked that
although her great-grandsire was a very well educated man,
he wrote a very bad hand, and that I might be puzzled now and
then in getting at his meaning. I found this to be true, and
would not like to say that I succeeded in interpreting all of
his modern hieroglyphics. When I placed the manuscript in your
hands I felt sure that Lewis and Clark, Pike, and Henry and
Thompson, as well as other explorers, had made you so familiar
with the country gone over by Major Fowler, that you could
with comparative ease master its chirographic difficulties. In
this I was right; but I do remember how, with your constantly
replenished pipe, you sat in my library, and smoked and puzzled
over this manuscript. A distinguished host once assured his
guest that the more raw turnips he ate, the more water he would
drink, and that the more water he drank, the more turnips he
would eat. With a touch of similarity, you smoked and read,
and read and smoked, with manifest indications of successful
or unsuccessful interpretations of the text, as your puffs
were rapid or slow. It might be hard to say whether you smoked
most or read most, but you finally mastered the manuscript;
and whether you did so by smoking out the uninterpretable
hieroglyphics, or got rid of them by other means, does not
matter. While a cloud of smoke may not seem to be the best
means of clearing up the obscurity of a manuscript, it is the
known result here considered, if not the philosophy of its
action.
Pioneers by the name of Fowler were early in Kentucky, and
some of them were the owners of large bodies of land. In 1783,
Alexander Fowler entered 10,000 acres on the Little Kentucky
river; and in 1784, John Fowler, who was the first member of
Congress from Ashland District, located 1536 acres on Brush
creek and on the dividing ridge between Pitman’s creek and
Robertson’s run. I do not know whether Jacob Fowler was of the
family of these Fowlers, but he was certainly akin to them
in so far as the love and ownership of lands were concerned.
Besides other possessions, he owned 2000 acres of the site of
the present city of Covington, Kenton Co., Ky. He was one of
the pioneers of what afterward became the county of Kenton,
before the city of Covington was incorporated. A census of
the male inhabitants of this locality shows him to have been
residing here in 1810, with his sons Edward and Benjamin. Had
he been permitted to retain these Covington lands, he might
have become a multi-millionaire. His kind heart, however, led
him to become the indorser of those who made a clean sweep
of his fine estate. A large double brick dwelling house,
handsomely furnished, in the midst of ample grounds, planted
with trees and shrubbery, flowers and blue-grass, went with
his lands to pay the debts of others. Had he written his name
as indorser as illegibly as he wrote the names of others in his
Journal, there might have been some ground for what lawyers
call the plea of _non est factum_, to clear him of liability.
But such was not the case, and his security for others swept
away his large estate.
Major Fowler was born in New York, in 1765, and came to
Kentucky in early life, a fine specimen of physical manhood,
fully equipped for the office and duties of a surveyor. His
surveying instruments were the best of their day, and elicited
no little envy from those who used the common Jacob’s staff and
compass, and chain of the times. He had the reputation of being
an accomplished surveyor, and did much in this line for the
United States government. His surveying extended to the great
plains and mountains of the far West, before civilization had
reached these distant wilds. He was there when wild animals and
wilder savages were the only tenants of the wilderness.
Major Fowler married the widow Esther Sanders, _née_ de Vie,
of Newport, Ky. She was of French descent, and a lady of great
beauty and accomplishments. She made his home one of happiness
and hospitality. She sometimes accompanied him on his surveying
expeditions and bore domestic charms to the tent in which they
lived, as she did to the palatial mansion at home. She was a
woman of fine business capacity, who, when her husband was not
at home, attended to his affairs, and especially to his farm in
the suburbs of Covington. Here fine stock and abundant crops
owed much to her constant care and supervision. The grapes
that grew on the place were made into wine and the apples into
cider, in accordance with the knowledge she had inherited from
her French ancestors. Her great-grandchildren of to-day tell
of the life of the camp, when she was with her husband in his
surveying expeditions. The tent floor was nicely carpeted;
a comfortable bed invited repose after the toil of the day;
dainty china, bright cut glass, and shining silverware,
handsome enough to be preserved as family heirlooms by their
descendants, were used on the camp table. It was something of
Parisian life in the dreary wilderness.
Major Fowler died in Covington in the year 1850. His life as
a surveyor and explorer in the West subjected him to many
hardships, but a constitution naturally vigorous was preserved
with care until he reached his eighty-sixth year. He has
numerous descendants in Kentucky, Ohio, and other States, some
of whom occupy high social positions. Mrs. Coates, to whom I
am indebted for this manuscript Journal, is, in the paternal
line, the granddaughter of Captain John Cleve Symmes, author of
the “Theory of Concentric Spheres,” 12mo. Cincinnati, 1826,
and great-grandniece of Hon. John Cleve Symmes, a member of
Congress from New Jersey, who purchased of the United States
government that vast body of land in the State of Ohio, lying
on the north bank of the Ohio river between the two Miamis.
With the knowledge and consent of her father, the late Americus
Symmes, she gave me the manuscript in the belief that I would
make some good use of it. After thinking for a time that I
would place it among the Filson Club Publications, I changed my
mind and turned it over to you to be published. I think this is
the best use I could have made of the manuscript, and I shall
now wait with impatience until I see your work published in the
best style of Francis P. Harper, and read your ample notes and
comments, which I doubt not will be after the inimitable manner
of your Lewis and Clark, your Pike, and your Henry and Thompson.
Truly,
R. T. DURRETT.
The MS. which I received from Colonel Durrett is entitled: “memorandom
of the voige by land from fort Smith to the Rockey mountains”—and is the
most like those mountains of any I have ever undertaken to overcome. My
eminent friend does not exaggerate the difficulty of deciphering the
characters which he aptly styles “hieroglyphics,” and which have hitherto
kept this writing a sealed book. The text begins verso of the title,
and ostensibly runs pp. 1-264, but pagination is once skipped and twice
duplicated. The folios may be called of square note-paper size, nearly
that of a small quarto book—8 × 6½ inches for pp. 1-180, but larger,
nearly 9 × 7, for the rest. The ragged edges make exact measurements
impracticable, Father Time’s paper-mill having turned out a deckel-edged
product, so fashionable nowadays. The sheets, of four pages or two folios
each, are gathered in 16-page packets, the outsides of which are now much
soiled—indeed, the rough, unruled surfaces are all darkened with the dust
of three-quarters of a century, and the ink is faded to match the same
subdued monotone, except in places where it recedes to the vanishing
point. The writing is upon both sides of the paper; and the whole effect,
if it could be facsimiled, would be a bibliomaniac’s dream of delight.
At first sight, this manuscript appears illegible; no one can read it
off-hand. Nevertheless, this writing proves readable upon sufficient
study of the alphabetic characters which Fowler invented to suit himself,
like that classic old Theban Cadmus, or his modern imitator, Cherokee
Sequoiah. I managed to master it under the agreeable circumstances of my
visit to Louisville, to which my host on that occasion has so pleasantly
alluded in the letter printed above; and after that my secretary also
proved herself equal to the task when she took the matter in hand to copy
for the press. There are hardly a dozen words in which doubt attaches to
a single letter, and probably not half as many have proven altogether
illegible.
Fowler wrote a large sprawling hand, as may be judged by the fact that
only 174 of these small open pages are required to print his 264 folios,
with my 176 notes. He commonly conforms to the requirements of dotted
_i_ and crossed _t_, but otherwise strikes out for himself in the
formation of letters. His most original invention is an _r_ which would
puzzle Œdipus, as it is always a careful _n_; most of his short-stroke
characters look alike in their resemblance to bends of the Arkansaw
river on a map, and his long strokes seem as if they had been struck by
lightning. The incessant capitals are flourished elaborately, and not
confined to initial letters. Fowler is also fond of capping little words,
as if he thought they needed such help to hold up their heads with big
ones, and equally apt to begin proper names, sentences, and paragraphs
with lower-case letters. This style of composition appears on the printed
page, which faithfully imitates every peculiarity of the original which
can be set with an ordinary font of type. The syntax is the sort which
has been happily called “dash dialect”—Fowler has no other punctuation
than the dash, excepting a sporadic period here and there, usually
misplaced, and an occasional stab at the paper which is neither one
thing nor another, and may therefore be overlooked. His spelling speaks
so well for itself in print that little need be said on that score. Its
entire originality, its effusive spontaneity, its infinite variety, will
charm the reader while it puzzles him, and make the modern manufacturer
of Dialect despair of his most ingenious craft. Aside from sheer slips
of the pen, by which Fowler often misses letters, as in writing “campe,”
“caped,” “capped,” or “capted” for _camped_, there is a particular point
to which I may call attention as the most characteristic—in fact, the
diagnostic—feature of his composition. It is that habitual omission of
final _y_ which makes the definite article do duty for the third personal
pronoun nominative; and when this is followed by a misspelled verb
simulating a noun, some curious locutions result. Thus, “the Road” stands
for _they rode_; “the Ware,” for _they were_; “the Cold,” for _they
could_; “the Head,” for _they had_; “the Maid,” for _they made_—and so
on, to the end of the book.
But it is needless to pursue this alluring theme; the reader may turn
to the text which follows this feeble preface so strenuously, and see
for himself with what a _tour de force_ our ingenious author managed to
evade what we now call good grammar. I have found more than one reason
for transferring this curious copy to type with the utmost verbality,
literality, and punctuality of which the compositor is capable. In the
first place, it tickled my fancy so that I wished others to enjoy the
same sensation—for is it not said that our joys are doubled by sharing
them, as our sorrows are halved by the same process? Again, to prolong
these pleasantries, I may say that I thought this would be a good
way to show that awesome deference which I ought to feel for certain
captious critics of former works with which my name is associated, whose
green-eyed strabismus has seen me in the light of entirely too good an
editor—that is to say, who have complimented me by their censure for
making my authors too intelligible, too attractive, and altogether too
readable, by the way I dressed them for the press.
So I determined to submit the pure text of Fowler’s Journal to the
discernment of competent critics of literary wares, as well as to the
lack of that quality in fussy fault-finders, and let everybody see how
some manuscript looks when it is printed just as it is written. I do not
vaunt this specimen as unique in any respect except the handwriting,
a sample of which is reproduced. The article is much like others of
Fowler’s times and circumstances; it is only a little off the average
syntax and orthography of that period, with a few more capitals and
dashes than were then usual. I know authors of our own day whose copy
would turn out a good deal like Fowler’s if the printer did not fix it
up for them. They are mostly the ones who damn instead of blessing the
artists of the art preservative of arts. Few women, for example, can
spell quite like the dictionaries; fewer still can punctuate properly;
and fewest of all persons of either sex in the world are those authors,
even among professional literarians, who would like or could afford
to see themselves set up in print exactly as they write themselves
down. There is said to be a day coming when the secrets of all hearts
shall be revealed, the wicked shall tremble, and they shall say to the
mountains, “fall on us”—or words to that effect. I cite the passage from
early memory, not having the author in hand, and have not verified the
quotation; but I will risk anything of that sort, provided the day never
comes when the secrets of the printing office shall be revealed. I am at
peace with my God, my neighbor, and myself; but—I am an author.
If we turn from the form to the substance of Fowler’s Journal, and ask
to see the bill of lading, curious to know what useful or valuable
information is contained in so singular a vehicle of conveyance, it may
be confidently said that this “prairie schooner” is well freighted for a
“voige” on the highway of Americana; for the cargo is a novel and notable
contribution to our knowledge of early commercial venture and pioneering
adventure in the Great West. It is simply a story of the trader and
trapper, unsupported by the soldier, unimpeded by the priest, and in no
danger from the politician. The scene is set in the wilderness; the time
is when pack-animals are driven across the stage, before the first wheels
rolled over the plains from the States to Santa Fé; and the actors have
very real parts to perform.
From the respective dates of Pursley, of Lalande, and of Pike, whose
several travels were among the first if not the earliest overland from
the United States to the Spanish settlements, on the part of American
citizens—from the opening years of the century to the 1821-22 of
Fowler—various parties were on the Arkansaw in what are now Kansas and
Colorado. But the records of where they went or what they did? That is
the question. Ezekiel Williams, James Workman, Samuel Spencer, sole and
shadowy survivors of Coyner’s “Lost Trappers,” are only uneasy spirits
flitting from the Missouri to Mexico and California in an apocryphal
book, never materializing out of fable-land into historical environment.
Wherever other American trappers or traders may have gone on the Arkansaw
or even the Rio Grande in those days, and whatever they may have done,
Fowler was first to forge another sound link in the chain which already
reached from Pike to Long. The latter’s justly celebrated expedition
came down the Arkansaw and the Canadian in 1820. Pike ascended the
main river from its great bend to its sources in 1806, the same year
that his lieutenant, Wilkinson, descended this stream from the point
where he parted from his captain. For the lower reaches of the river we
have Thomas Nuttall’s Journal of Travels into the Arkansa Territory,
during the year 1819, and various other accounts. But I know of no
record, earlier in date than Fowler’s, of continuous ascent of the
river from Fort Smith to the present position of Pueblo in Colorado. He
meandered the whole course of the Arkansaw between the points named,
except his cut-off of a small portion by the Verdigris trail. One of
his men, Lewis Dawson, who was killed by a grizzly bear at the mouth
of the Purgatory—and who, let us hope, left that place for happier
hunting-grounds—may not have been the first white American buried in
Colorado soil; but the record of a prior funeral would be far to seek.
Whose was the first habitable and inhabited house on the spot where
Pueblo now stands? Fowler’s, probably; for Pike’s stockade was hardly a
house, and Jim Beckwourth came twenty years after Fowler. The Taos Trail
from Santa Fé through the Sangre de Cristo Pass to the Arkansaw at Pueblo
was well known to the Spaniards when Fowler’s party traversed it in the
opposite direction; but we have no American itinerary of that passage
at an earlier date than his. When Fowler ascended the Rio Grande to Hot
Spring creek in the San Juan range, he followed a Spanish road; but never
before had an American expedition been so near the sources of that great
river Del Norte, and not till many years afterward did any such prolong
Fowler’s traces upward. The greater part of Fowler’s homeward journey
from Taos to Fort Osage will doubtless prove as novel to his readers
as it was unexpected by his editor. South of the Arkansaw, his trail
was neither by the way he had gone before, nor by either of those roads
which were soon be established and become well known; for he came neither
by the Cimarron nor the Raton route, but took a straighter course than
either, between the two, over Chico Rico Mesa and thence along Two Butte
creek to the Arkansaw on the Kansan-Coloradan border. Again, when Fowler
left the Arkansaw to strike across Kansas, he did not take up the direct
route which caravans were about to blaze as the Santa Fé Trail from
Missouri through Council Grove to Great Bend; but went a roundabout way,
looping far south to heads of the Whitewater and Verdigris rivers before
he crossed the Neosho to make for the Missouri below the mouth of the
Kansas.
This bare outline of the way Fowler went in twice crossing the Plains, to
and from the Rocky mountains, suffices to show that, taken as a whole,
it was not only the first but also the last such itinerary of which we
have any knowledge; for if this route has since been retraversed in its
entirety, time has obliterated all sign of such an adventure.
Another point is to be scored in connection with Fowler’s unique
performance. The date is a critical one in the history of the whole
subject. That elusive “Red river” which Pike sought in vain in 1806 was
only the year before Fowler found by Long to be the Canadian fork of the
Arkansaw, instead of that separate tributary of the Mississippi which
Long imagined he was descending till he reached its confluence with
the same stream which the other detachment of his party followed down.
Just at the time when Long had finished his exploration, and Fowler was
leading his people home from their wide wandering, the Santa Fé trade
was taking definite shape. Like every other such enterprise, this one
went through its tentative stages of hesitancy and disconcert, before
its final organization as a regular industry; and if any year can be
named as that of complete equipment for the business, it is that of 1822.
Fowler was thus a factor in the beginnings of a commerce which grew by
what it fed upon to the immense proportions it had acquired when it was
checked by the troubles of 1846.
Whatever be deemed the merit or demerit of Fowler’s work as a whole,
viewed in the light of a contribution to the history of Western adventure
in connection with the fur trade, I can attest the coherency and
consequence of the narrative now before us. The author tells a plain,
straightforward story, and never fails to make it intelligible. He never
loses the thread of his discourse, never tangles it into an irrelevant
skein, and holds himself well in hand through all the asperities he
experienced. He is a reasonable sort of a writer, if not a very ready
one. I have had little trouble in trailing him from start to finish,
for all that compass-points uncorrected for magnetic variation, and
distances chained only in the sensations of a tired traveler, are not
among the “constants of nature”—especially in the mountains; and I am
satisfied that his route is laid down correctly in my notes. The sign
is a little dim here and there, in some of the cross-country laps, but
we never lose it. Fowler had the good eye for topography to be expected
of a professional surveyor, and I only wish that some other persons
whose peregrinations I have had occasion to follow had exercised powers
of observation equal to those which Fowler displayed under arduous
exigencies of trade and travel.
Thus far by way of introducing to the public the hitherto unknown author
of a new contribution to Americana, which I hope may find that favor
which I believe it deserves.
The task of copying Fowler’s Journal _v. l. p._ was intrusted to an
expert, Mrs. Mary B. Anderson, to whom acknowledgments are due for the
result. The copy was made in my absence from home last summer, during
which the lady was left entirely to her own resources in making out the
manuscript; and subsequent critical comparison of the transcription with
the original served mainly to show its beauty as well as accuracy. The
Index is also her careful handiwork.
E. C.
1726 N STREET, WASHINGTON, D. C., _January 1, 1898_.
MEMORANDOM OF THE VOIGE BY LAND FROM FORT SMITH TO THE ROCKEY MOUNTAINS.
thorsday 6th Sept 1821
We Set out from fort Smith[1] on the arkensaw and Crossing that River
pased threw a bottom of Rich Land Well timbered and much Kaine[2]—thence
over Low Ridges the land poor and in some places Rockey—at 30 miles
crosed the tallecaw[3] a Crick about 150 feet Wid Large bottoms on bothe
Sides and at ten miles farther Crosed the Illinios[4] River about 80 yds
Wide and about one mile farther Stoped for the night at Beens[5] Salt
Workes—this is the Second night Since We left the fort—the Workes one
Small Well With a few kittles about 55 gallons of Watter make a bushil
of Salt and the Well afords Watter to boil the kittles about three days
in the Weake Been and Sanders Has permission of the govem [government]
to Worke the Salt Spring—the Sell the Salt at one dollar per Bushil—from
Heare We pased over Some High poor Hills Some valleys and Some pirarie
lands about twenty miles to a large bottom Well Covered in parts With
Caine and Well timbered—threw Which We pased about Eight miles to grand
River or Six bull.[6] this is fine bold Streem of Clear Watter about 150
yd Wide Which We forded but not Without Some doupts—the Watter Runing
With great force—about one mile above the mouth of this River is the
mouth of the virdegree[7] a River of about one Hundred yds Wide deep
and muddy at the mouth and up it to the Rapids about four miles Wheare
there is a trading House. but we Stoped at the trading Hous of Conl Hugh
glann[8] about mile up the VII degree Wheare We Remained till the 25th
Sept makeing a Raingment for our gurney to the mountains—Heare five of
our Hunters Left us and Went Home this Sircumstance much dispereted more
of our men—tho We Still determined to purced—and on the 25th of Sept
1821 We found our Selves 20 men in all[9] and under the Command of Conl
Hugh glann With mager Jacob Fowler Robert Fowler Battis Roy Battis Peno
george Duglas Nat Pryer —— Bono —— Barbo Lewis Dauson —— Taylor Richard
Walters —— Ward Jesey vanbeber —— Slover —— Simpson —— Maxwill —— Findley
Battis moran and Pall a black man the property of mager Fowler we Head
thirty Horses and mules Seventen of Which traps and goods for the Indean
traid—and Each man mounted on Horsback—We Left the traiding House in the
afternoon—North 50 West about five miles to a Small Crick Which Runs West
in to the virdegree—the Bottom between the Six bull and verdegree is High
and Rich Well timbered With Some Caine and is about one and a Half miles
Wide to the Hills—from What We Cold Learn there is no Caine above this
on the arkensaw—We pased to day Some Pirarie Cirted With Wood land Some
timber on the Crick it Rained Hard We Packed up our goods and Covered
them With Skins to keep them dry and Piched our tents for the night—Conl
Hugh glann Haveing Left us and gon by the mishenerys,[10] and to meet us
Some Wheare a Head—
26th
We Set out Early along the Road Leading to the osage vilege[11] threw
fine Pirarie Lands a little Rolling and Scirted With timber the ground is
Black and Rich and the vew the most delightfull We this day maid 20 miles
threw the Rain Which Continued all day at night Camped on a Crick about
50 feet Wid Runs West With an Extensive Beed of Stone Coal in its bottom
there is Some Wood along the Crick but the Cuntry is mostly Pirarie a
little Rolling Scirted With groves of timber Heare the Rain Continued all
night—Heare one of our Hunters—Slover Lay out all night but Came in in
the morning
27th
We Set out Early along the path threw the Pirarie—timber still to be seen
in groves and along the Branches—We maid 20 miles and Camped on a Small
Crick Well timbered—Heare we found Findley He Left us 2 days ago—and was
Heare waiting for us this day was Clear and pleesent Robert Fowler killed
a Large Buck—one Hors gave out was left
28th Sept 1821
Rained all day we Remained in Camp—
29th
the Weather Clear We Set out Early and was Soon over taken By Conl glann
and soon after in Sight of the osage vilege. Heare We Ware delited With a
vew of a nomber of Hills or mounds[12] nearely of the Same Hight. from
70 to 80 feet but of diferent Shapes Some Round and pointed like a Stack
others squair and flat. and the top of one neare the vilege Contains
about 15 acres of Rich Black land—and great part of the Bluff faced With
a parpendickler Rock—so that with but little labour a few men might keep
off a large armey—Heare is one of the most delight full peace of Cuntry I
Have Ever Seen—of Rich lime stone land mixed With Wood lands the Pirarie
is more Exstensive than Woods—
Heare We find not one sole in or about the vilege the Indeans are all gon
a buffelow Hunting and are not Exspected to return till in the Winter.
We find our Jurney to this place one Continued Corse North 50 W Heare
we Crosed the virdegree and got on Higher grounds and Nearly Covered
With Rocks in Some places and Steered North 70 West 10 miles to a small
Crick[13] Runing South and Well timbered—Heare We Camped for the night—We
Seen this day Some Wild Horses. game is scars We this day find our
Horses two Heavey loaded and Concluded to leave part [of their loads]
30th Sept 1821
We this morning Berryed or Cashed [cached] as the french Call it 32 Bever
traps 2 Cases of tobaco and fifty pounds of Brass Wier on the West Bant
of the Creek 200 yds above the large Road and 50 below the small path on
Which is a Connu [canoe] marked on an oack
october 1th 1821
We Set out Early and Stered North 50 West to the little virdegree[14]
Wheare a large Indean Road Crosse it this River is about 30 yds Wide With
Clear Watter and High Banks—and large inCampment on the East Side. Heare
we Crossed to the West Side and followed the North forke of the Road
about one mile to another Branch of the Same River but Not more than ten
Steps Wide both Streems Running South With Rich timbered bottom be tween
the boath—after pasing this forke We Stered the Same Corse threw Roling
Pirarie ten miles to a mound. to the North and East the Cuntry is a
little Rolling mostly Pirarie With timber along the Branches on our left
the mountains or High Hills appeer at from four to five miles distance
Heare to avoid the Hills Which Continu on our left We Steered N 30 West
six mill [miles] and Camped on the little virdegree—Peno Went off to Hunt
in the fore part of this day and did not Return—
2nd october 1821
We set out Early and pased over High Leavel Pirarie lands North 45 West
three miles to the High Hills Crossing a small Bransh Runing North at the
futt of them—We after Some time gained the top of the Hills and found the
Cuntry Rolling and partly timbered and partly Pirarie at twelve miles
farthe We Crossed the little virdegree again and Camped on the North Bank
Heare Duglass got lost in the Evenings Hunt and lay out all night
3rd october 1821
this morning our Horses Ware much Scattered and took us till a late our
to Collect them—Duglass found the Way to Camp—and Peno Came in With Some
veneson Haveing Killed three deer—Heare we found a large Indean Road
going up the Crick and Crossing some of its Branches South 30 West and
the Hills being High We followed the Road. the lands poor With Short oack
and Hickory for about fifteen miles Wheare the Cuntry begins to appear
With fine Rich Piraries Well bordered With Wood lands of a good quality
We this day got one deer and Some turkeys game is getting more plenty—We
maid 20 miles and Camped on a Small Crick Running South—[15]
4th october 1821
We Set out Early and at three miles Crossed a Crick 50 feet Wide Running
No 45 West—and at about three miles farther in an open Pirarie We found
a large Buffelow Bull lying dead Soposed to be killed by the Indeans
We now begin to Hope Soon to kill Some Buffelow our Selves as we Have
nothing With us but Salt only What We kill our Selves. Heare We find
our Selves in an oppen and Exstensive Pirarie Scarsly a tree to be Seen
but as We prograss We find Sign of Buffelow We See some deed and Some
Caberey[16]—in the Evening on our left We Seen Ward one of our men on
Hors back Running a buffelow Some of [us] put off to asist Him but He
killed the large Buffelow Bull before We over took Him—after takeing What
meet We Wanted—We Went on makeing 23 miles and Camped on a River about
50 yds Wide Running West Soposed to be the Bad Salean[17]—the Watter is
Clear and deep at this place Some Sign of Bever our Corse this day is
North 60 West—
the Pirarie threw Which We passed this day is nearly leavel With a Rich
Black Sandey Soil there is no other Rock Except that of limestone Which
only appeer in Spott on the Sides of Branches and on the top of Some of
the Highest ground—for there is no Hills Heare there is Some timber
along the branches
5th october 1821
We Set out Early Crossing the River a little below our Camp Wheare there
is a good ford and at about two miles Crossed a large Crick 100 feet Wide
it Corse South East and about 10 miles Crosed a Crick 50 feet Wide all
So Running South East Heare the Pirarie is a little more Roleing—and at
18 miles Crosed a crick—and 19 miles inCamped[18] on a Crick the West
forke of the Same the meet Below Wheare We Crosed—Heare the Cuntry Still
Continues to be a little Roleing the land Rich the limestone appeers
in some places along the Bluffs Which are not High or Steep Hear We
seen great nombers of Poor Buffelow Bulls and Blame our Hunters for not
killing fat Cowes When there is not one to be seen
5th october 1821 [continued]
for We Cold not tell them apart at So great a distance and it Was in vain
for our Hunters to tell us there Was no Cows among So many Buffelow as
We Cold See at all most any time Corse this No 50 West 19 miles—
6th october 1821
We set out Early over Butifull High Pirarie leavel and Rich and at Eight
miles West We fell on the arkensaw River[19] Heare there is plenty of
timber all a long the River on both Sides as far as We Cold See We are
now out of meet and Blameing our Hunters for not finding Buffelow Cows
the Have neglected to kill the Bulls When the Cold and the are not so
plenty as the Ware and We beleve Have been latly drove off by the Indeans
as the are now shy.
6th octor 1821 [continued]
We now steered north leaveing the [Arkansaw] River on our lefft Hand
Beleveing the High Hill and Bluffs Near the River Wold be difequal to
pass With loaded pack Horses—at 6 miles over High Rich lime stone Pirarie
We Camped on a Crick[20] 60 feet Wide Wheare We killed Some turkeys in
the Evening—We Ware all So informed by Some of the party that Indeans
Ware Camped at no great distance—
7th october 1821
We moved West up along neare the [Arkansaw] River over Some High Rockey
Bluffs and threw a large Sandy bottom to the bank of the River makeing
five miles and Camped near the Indeans from them got Some dryed meet
Corn Beens and dryed Pumkins for [which] We paid them In Such artickels
as the wanted—these are the osage Indeans and the first We met With on
our Route the [they are] frendly the Weather is now giting Cold With High
Winds Cloudey and Rained threw the night—the timber in the bottoms and
Hill Sides is a king [kind] of Jack oak and very low Cotten Wood and
Willow groes along the River—we stoped at this place for the purpose of
purchasing Horses Haveing left two be Hind and three more unfitt for
Survice makes us bad of for Horses and the prospect of provetions is not
promesing as We Heare the Indeans are Camped for alonge Way a Head of us
threw Wheare We must pass let [left] one Horse With an Indean—
8the october 1821
We moved up the River N 45 West two miles and Camped the Rain Still
Continues Heare Conl glann purchased one Poor Hors at a High price and
Highered one Indean to go along With us Some of the Hands killed 10
turkeys
9th octr 1821—
We Set out Early and Steered north leaveing the River at Right angles
over Riseing butifull Pirarie three miles to White[21] River about 70 yᵈˢ
Wide Running West into the arkensaw this River Has a Continued grove of
timber all alonge its Cores [course] as far as We Cold see and the land
Rich—We Crosed this River leaveing it on our Right and up it at Eight
miles Camped on the South West Side for the purpos of purchasing Horses
Sucseeded in Swoing [swapping] two and purchasing two at a High price—the
Indeans advise us to Cross the arkensaw and Steer West Corse and strike
the arkensaw at the big timber Near the mountains but the Season is late
and Want of Wood and Watter Renders it a Hazous undertakeing—the Indeans
Say it is about two days travel to the little arkensaw—the Hunters
Brought in four deer one very fine Buck the first good meet We Have Head
the land on this Creek is Rich and Well timbered along the bottoms the
Bluffs furnis abundance of lime Stone for all purposes of Building and
fenceing—and is Capeable of makeing one of the finest Settlements in the
united States—there being a nomber of the best of Springs
10th octr 1821
We purchased yesterday one small Hors and one to day—But when We gethered
up our Horses to move off Robert Fowlers Horse Was mising—all tho He Was
With the Rest in the morning—We Conclude the Indeans Have Hiden Him in
the Woods and leave Peno to Sarch for Him and to fetch up Barbo left Sick
With Him—all so left a Blanket to give the Indean that find or Return the
Horse
11th octr 1821
We Set out Early leaveing [Walnut Creek] on the Wright and Steering N 25
West fifteen miles over High Pirarie to a small Crick and Camped[22] Near
its mouth yesterday Peno Returned With the Sick man but With out the lost
Hors the Hors is no doupt Stolen and With the knoledge of the Chiefs.
these last Indeans appeer more unfriendly and talk Sasy and bad to us
but this Is to be Exspected as the Come from the upper vilege and are
Said to be a Collection of the Raskals from the other vileges
12th october 1821
Cloudey and Rains a little We Set out Early North 60 West fifteen miles
over a Rich low Ridge there is Scarcly a tree or a Stone to be Seen and
Hole land Covered With tall grass there is all along Whight River and on
this Ridge much sign of Buffelow but the Indeans Have drove them off—We
Camped on Small Branch[23] Near the arkensaw River
13th octor 1821
We Set out Early up the River Leaveing it on our left at a Bout 14 miles
Crossed a Small Crick on which is a large Beed of the Plaster of Paris
at 20 miles We Camped on the Bank of the little arkensaw[24]—one Indean
Cheef and two young me[n] viseted us at Camp and stated the Ware [they
were] glad to see us Whitemen and frends—as they Had Seen or Heared Some
of our men Last Evening and Soposed them be Paneys [Pawnees] and their
Enemies on which acoumpt the Head [they had] all left their Camp and Hid
them Selves in the timberd lands on the River—
14th oct 1821
We Set out Early Crossing the little arkensaw and steering West at 12
miles Came to the Banks of the arkensaw thence up the River North 70
West We Camped on the [left] Bank[25] With out trees—We yester left one
Horse He gave out—and this morning discharged the Hiered Indean—the
Cuntry Continues fine the land leavel and Rich the timber is plenty on
the little arkensaw and Some for a few miles up the main River but Heare
there is no timber or Willowes on the River Buffelow Bulls still appeer
But no Cows and we are now Satisfyed of the Caus of the Hunters not
killing any of that Speces no Sign of deer. tho We seen some turkeys last
Evening
15the octobr 1821
We set out at our ushal time up the River No 80 West and Stoped at
the mouth of a bold sreem of Watter 70 feet Wide[26]—but We Ware Soon
alarmed by the Hunters Comming and Haveing Some Indeans on Hors Back and
soposed to be in pursute of them—We Emedetly move up the River Crossing
the Crick to some Sand Knobs on the River Bank about 400 yds above the
mouth of the Crick—there being no timber We maid a Brest Worke of our
Bagage and Remained the balence of the [day] Waiting the arivel of the
Indeans—but none appeered—Some Buffelow Bulls Ware killed to day We kept
the Horses tyed up all night—yesterday the Sand Knobs appeer at about ten
miles distance on our Right Hand and run Perellel With the River
Some Scatering trees appeer on the Knobs—
16th october 1821
We Set out Early and maid ten miles up the River the Sand Knobs still on
the Right We Sent out Some Hunters to kill a Cow but the Remained out
all night We Ware much alarmed for their safety—no mee meet for Suppe or
Brackfest—our Corse No 70 West and Camped on the River[27]
17th octr 1821
We Continued up the River North 65 West 15 miles and Camped on the Bank
Scarcly a tree to be Seen—We this day pased the Head Spring[28] of the
Crick at the mouth of Which We Camped on the 15th this [is] a large
butifull Spring about three miles from the River on the north Side and
in a leavel Rich Pirarie the Sand Hills appeer all a long on the South
Side and near the River—the are not more then 60 or 70 feet High and the
Cuntry leavel beyound them to a great distance those on the north about
the Same Hight and Several miles from the River[29]—Which is from two to
400 yds Wide—With large Sand bars and low Islands this is its general
Carecter as fare as We Have seen it
18th octr 1821
We Set out at our ushal time at ten miles pased a point of Rocks and
a Hoop wood tree on them—to our Right and almost one mile from the
River—and at [illegible] there is Some Cotten Wood trees along the
River—at 18 miles We Camped[30] on the Bank Without trees—Some Islands
in the River the Higher grounds aproch nigher the River but Loos the
appeeren of Sand Hills on the north
19th octr 1821
We set out at the ushal time and at 8 miles West We pased a point of
Red Rocks about 600 yds from the River and at Eleven miles Crosed the
paney[31] River about one and a Half miles above its mouth this is a
deep bold Streem 50 feet Wide of Running Watter Banks High and about 80
feet Wide at the top Heare is ash Walnut Elm and Cottenwood over to this
place Was West—this is the Second Streem We Have Crosed Since pasing the
little arkensaw—We found a good ford [across Walnut Creek] and Steered
South 50 West Six miles to the Bank of the River—the land leavel as fare
as the Eye Can see. Some Cottenwood on the Banks and Some Bushis. the
Red Rock is evidently a volcanic production is porous like pomestone but
heavier than common Sand stone—Back from the river 5 miles the Hunters
reports very Large quantities of pomestone on the side of a hill which
appears to them to be half blown off (Hill) by some cause—The sand and
gravel thrown up by the Prarie Squarrels [_Cynomys ludovicianus_] is
precisely the same of that in the river for 5 or 8 miles distance from
the river See great nombers of buffelow and Elks one of the Hunters
killed three Cows but Haveing no Horse With Him the meet Was left out and
lost Except a few pounds He Carryed in on His back—
20th octobr 1821
We Steered South 40 West and at nine miles Crosed a Crick[32] 40 feet
Wide a bold Running streem about one futt deep and a few trees up it In
sight. at ten miles We Camped on the River Bank in a low Bottom—at about
three miles the ground Rises a little So as to form low Hills large
Hords of Buffelow In Sight the Sand Hills Still appeer on the South Side
of the River and to appeerence distetute of vigetation as the are Bald
While those on the north are a Hard Black Soil With Some progecting
Rocks and Covered With vigetation mostly a Short grass Something like
Blew grass—on the morning of the 18th Findley mounted his [horse] took
With Him His Blankets and Crossed the River to the South Side for the
purpose of killing a Boffelow Cow Since Which time We Have Heard nothing
of Him—yesterday morning Sent Back two men to look for Him—the Have not
Returned—We are afraid Findley is lost by going two fare out in the Sand
Hills We Exspect to Stop in about two days to Rest our Horses and Wait
for Findley to Come up—
21st Octr 1821
We set out at the ushal Hour and at Seven miles pased a point of Rocks on
Which stands two trees about 600 yds from the River—and seven and a Half
miles Came to a deep and mudey Crick[33] 100 feet Wide Heare Some of our
Horses Run to drink and Ware Swomped With their loads and Ware forsed
to be pulled out—We Went [up] it about Half a mile and Crossed over and
Camped about three miles up it—Findley[’s] mair gave out this day and Was
left We maid We maid ten miles this day South 50 West—this is a butifull
Running Streem With many fine Springs along its Banks—the Hunters killed
two Fatt Cows We Have now plenty of good meet—the two men Returned but
no word of Findley—a point of Hills or Rocks appeers at seven miles
distance near the River Bareing South 35 W—We gave this the name of
Buffelow Crick[34] from one of our Horses Being Swomped With the meet of
a Buffelow on Him and these anemels Being very plenty Heare
22nd octr 1821 monday
We Set out Early and at 7 miles pased the point mentioned yester day a
bout one from the River at fifteen miles Camped on the Bank of the River
about three miles to the left of our line of march about 4 miles Back of
our Camp We Crossed a Branch[35] of Bold Running Watter 30 feet Wide—no
timber Wheare We lay the men Waided over and geathered drift Wood for the
night the Hunters killed one fatt Buffelow Some Cotten Wood on the South
Side of the River above and below the Camp—the Sand Hills Still appeer
on that Side the sand Hills aproch nier the River With Some Cotten Wood
trees on them—Findley Returned
23rd octr 1821 tusday
We Set [out] at the ushal Hour South 10 West up the River maid ten miles
and Camped in a low Bottom the Sand Hills Continue on the South—very
leavel on the north for a great distance Back no timber on the north
Side for the last two days march Emence Hords of Buffelow all traveling
to the north While those we pased a few days ago Ware traveling to the
South—We see maney Wild Horses—we Exspect [Indians are?] near us to the
South Which moves the Buffelow to the north the Islands and sand bars
still Continue But no bever We Head a fine feast last night on four fatt
Buffelow Cowes
24th octr 1821 Wensday—
We Set out Early and at Seven miles the River Was 2½ miles to the left
and at Eleven miles We maid the lower Eand of an Island on Which there
is timber but none on Ither Side—the main Chanel is on the South Side
Hear the High land aproch the River on both Sides—on the north Side there
apperes a Whightis [whitish] Rock of Considerable Exstent the River makes
Hear a Short Bend to the Right—the Cuntry Heare is a little Rolling But
the land Rich and Butifull—no Wheare two steep for the Waggon or the
plow. Heare at the uppe Eand of this Island the Bluff aproches the River
and is the first above the little arkensaw—that that Shews it Rocky—on
this Island there is good food for the Horses—and We Con Cluded to lay By
one day to mend our mogesons and Rest our Horses as many of there Backs
Ware Sore oing to the carelesness of the men the Horses are Poor and We
Exspect that [some] of them Will not be able to Rech the mountains
25th octobr 1821
We Exspored the Cuntry for a few miles Round and on an Island about three
miles above us found an Indean fort Which might Contain about 60 men this
fort Is maid nearly Round and Built of logs layed on Each other—and is
about two years old and must Have been built By a War party Which did
not occupy it long—tho it Has been Inhabetid not more than two or three
Weaks ago by Some People—the Haveing used fyer and left the Spit on Which
the Head [they had] Roasted meet—above this Island a streem[36] of Bold
Running Watter one Hundred and fity feet Wid puts in on the South Side—no
timber at its mouth but timber appeers about two miles up it—its Cors is
South 25 West—the Sand Hills Conting above this Crick but appers in a
long Continued Ridge
26th october 1821 Friday
We Set out Early and Crossing the River to the South Side Steered our
Corse West and Crossing the [Mulberry] Crick mentioned yesterday at six
miles and Crossing a point of low land leaveing the River a bout 3 miles
to the Right in the Bend and at twenty miles[37] Stoped on an Island Well
Clothed With timber Heare Was all so an old Indean Fort Smaller than the
other and Had been used by the Same pursons that Head lately been at the
other We Heare Con Clude them to be White men there Horses being Shod—We
Have as yet Head but three nights of frost and no Ice—We Have not Seen
one tree on Ither Side of the River the only apper on the Islands and
nothing there but Cotten Wood—at this Island the main Chanel Is on the
north Side
Satterday 27th octr 1821