_Sept. 16th._ Embarked late, as I wished Mr. Frazer to overtake me,

but came on very well. His canoes overtook us at dinner, at the grand

encampment [7½ miles[I-60]] below Lake Pepin. We made the sandy

peninsula on the east at the entrance of Lake Pepin, by dusk; passed

the Sauteaux [Chippewa[I-61]] river on the east, at the entrance of the

lake. After supper, the wind being fair, we put off with the

intention to sail across; my interpreter, Rosseau, telling me that he

had passed the lake twenty times, but never once in the day; giving as

a reason that the wind frequently rose and detained them by day in the

lake. But I believe the traders' true reason generally is their fears

of the Sauteurs, as these have made several strokes of war at the

mouth of this river, never distinguishing between the Sioux and their

traders. However, the wind serving, I was induced to go on; and

accordingly we sailed, my boat bringing up the rear, for I had put the

sail of my big boat on my batteau, and a mast of 22 feet. Mr. Frazer

embarked on my boat. At first the breeze was very gentle, and we

sailed with our violins and other music playing; but the sky afterward

became cloudy and quite a gale arose. My boat plowed the swells,

sometimes almost bow under. When we came to the Traverse

[crossing-place], which is opposite Point De Sable [Sandy point], we

thought it most advisable, the lake being very much disturbed and the

gale increasing, to take harbor in a bay on the east. One of the

canoes and my boat came in very well together; but having made a fire

on the point to give notice to our boats in the rear, they both ran on

the bar before they doubled it, and were near foundering; but by

jumping into the lake we brought them into a safe harbor. Distance 40

miles.[I-62]

_Sept. 17th._ Although there was every appearance of a very severe

storm, we embarked at half-past six o'clock, the wind fair; but before

we had hoisted all sail, those in front had struck theirs. The wind

came on hard ahead. The sky became inflamed, and the lightning seemed

to roll down the sides of the hills which bordered the shore of the

lake. The storm in all its grandeur, majesty, and horror burst upon

us in the Traverse, while making for Point De Sable; and it required

no moderate exertion to weather the point and get to the windward side

of it. Distance three miles.[I-63]

There we found Mr. Cameron,[I-64] who had sailed from the prairie

[Prairie du Chien] on the 5th; he had three bark canoes and a wooden

one with him. He had been lying here two days, his canoes unloaded and

turned up for the habitation of his men, his tents pitched, and

himself living in all the ease of an Indian trader. He appeared to be

a man of tolerable information, but rather indolent in his habits; a

Scotchman by birth, but an Englishman by prejudice. He had with him a

very handsome young man, by the name of John Rudsdell, and also his

own son, a lad of fifteen.

The storm continuing, we remained all day. I was shown a point of

rocks [Maiden Rock, 400 feet high[I-65]] from which a Sioux maiden

cast herself, and was dashed into a thousand pieces on the rocks

below. She had been informed that her friends intended matching her to

a man she despised; having been refused the man she had chosen, she

ascended the hill, singing her death-song; and before they could

overtake her and obviate her purpose she took the lover's leap! Thus

ended her troubles with her life. A wonderful display of sentiment in

a savage!

_Sept. 18th._ Embarked after breakfast. Mr. Cameron, with his boats,

came on with me. Crossed the lake, sounded it, and took an observation

at the upper end. I embarked in one of his canoes, and we came up to

Canoe river,[I-66] where there was a small band of Sioux under the

command of Red Wing, the second war chief in the nation. He made me a

speech and presented a pipe, pouch, and buffalo skin. He appeared to

be a man of sense, and promised to accompany me to St. Peters [the

Minnesota river]; he saluted me, and had it returned. I made him a

small present.[I-67]

We encamped on the end of the island, and although it was not more

than eleven o'clock, were obliged to stay all night. Distance 18

miles.[I-68]

_Sept. 19th._ Embarked early; dined at St. Croix[I-69] river. Messrs.

Frazer and Cameron having some business to do with the savages, we

left them at the encampment; but they promised to overtake me, though

they should be obliged to travel until twelve o'clock at night. Fired

a blunderbuss for them at Tattoo. The chain of my watch became

unhooked, by lending her to my guard; this was a very serious

misfortune.[I-70]

_Sept. 20th._ Embarked after sunrise. Cloudy, with hard head winds; a

small shower of rain; cleared up in the afternoon, and became

pleasant. Encamped on a prairie on the east side, on which is a large

painted stone, about eight miles below the Sioux village. The traders

had not yet overtaken me. Distance 26½ miles.[I-71]

_Sept. 21st._ Embarked at a seasonable hour; breakfasted at the Sioux

village on the east side [near St. Paul,[I-72] capital of Minnesota].

It consists of 11 lodges, and is situated at the head of an island

just below a ledge of rocks [Dayton bluff, in the city]. The village

was evacuated at this time, all the Indians having gone out to the

lands to gather fols avoin [folle avoine, wild rice: see note 44,

page 39]. About two miles above, saw three bears swimming over the

river, but at too great a distance for us to have killed them; they

made the shore before I could come up with them. Passed a camp of

Sioux, of four lodges, in which I saw only one man, whose name was

Black Soldier. The garrulity of the women astonished me, for at the

other camps they never opened their lips; but here they flocked around

us with all their tongues going at the same time. The cause of this

freedom must have been the absence of their lords and masters. Passed

the encampment of Mr. Ferrebault [Faribault[I-73]], who had broken his

peroque and had encamped on the west side of the river, about three

miles below St. Peters [under the bluff below Mendota]. We made our

encampment on the N. E. point of the big [Pike's] island opposite

[Fort Snelling or] St. Peters.[I-74] Distance 24 miles.

The Mississippi became so very narrow this day, that I once crossed

in my batteaux with forty strokes of my oars. The water of the

Mississippi, since we passed Lake Pepin, has been remarkably red; and

where it is deep, appears as black as ink. The waters of the St.

Croix and St. Peters appear blue and clear, for a considerable

distance below their confluence.

I observed a white flag on shore to-day, and on landing, discovered

it to be white silk; it was suspended over a scaffold, on which were

laid four dead bodies, two inclosed in boards, and two in bark. They

were wrapped up in blankets, which appeared to be quite new. They were

the bodies, I was informed, of two Sioux women who had lived with two

Frenchmen, one of their children, and some other relative; two of whom

died at St. Peters and two at St. Croix, but were brought here to be

deposited upon this scaffold together. This is the manner of Sioux

burial when persons die a natural death; but when they are killed they

suffer them to lie unburied. This circumstance brought to my

recollection the bones of a man I found on the hills below the St.

Croix; the jaw bone I brought on board. He must have been killed on

that spot.

FOOTNOTES:

[I-1] Roster of the party: 1. Lieutenant Z. M. Pike, 1st lieut. 1st

regt. U. S. Infantry, comdg.--2. Non-comm. officers: (1) Sergeant

Henry Kennerman; (2) Corporal Samuel Bradley; (3) Corporal William E.

Meek.--3. Privates: (1) John Boley; (2) Peter Branden; (3) John Brown;

(4) Jacob Carter; (5) Thomas Dougherty; (6) William Gorden; (7)

Solomon Huddleston; (8) Jeremiah Jackson; (9) Hugh Menaugh; (10)

Theodore Miller; (11) John Mountjoy; (12) David Owings; (13) Alexander

Roy; (14) Patrick Smith; (15) John Sparks; (16) Freegift Stoute; (17)

David Whelply. This detail for detached service was made July 1st,

1805; returned Apr. 30th, 1806, without change, excepting Bradley

promoted, _vice_ Kennerman reduced to the ranks. Voyage of the 9th was

between St. Louis Co., Mo., and Madison Co., Ill., past Caberet's isl.

to camp on Illinois side at head of Chouteau's isl.

The above roster of the Mississippi Expedition is derived from the

Return of Persons, etc., which formed a part of one of the Papers

accompanying a Congressional Committee Report which was given as No.

6, pp. 64-68 of the Appendix to Part 3 of the orig. ed. of this work.

It appears in full, in its proper connection, at or near the end of

the main text of the present edition.

The letter of instructions from General Wilkinson, dated St. Louis,

July 30th, 1805, in obedience to which Lieutenant Pike proceeded upon

the Mississippi Expedition, likewise formed one of the Papers

accompanying the same Congressional Committee Report. It was given

nowhere else in the orig. ed. of this book; though the corresponding

instructions Pike received for his second (Arkansaw) Expedition were

prefixed to the main text of his narrative. The Mississippi order

appears in full, in its original position, near the end of the main

text of the present edition.

[I-2] Or Du Bois r., Madison Co., Ill., notable in history as that at

whose mouth Lewis and Clark had their winter camp of 1803-4, whence

their expedition started May 14th, 1804. At this date it was said to

be opp. the mouth of the Missouri; it is now opp. the large Mobile

isl. and the Missouri enters 2 m. below Wood r., through the Amazon

bend.

[I-3] In undertaking to follow a traveler, the first thing to ascertain

is his "personal equation"--_i. e._, the probable error of his

mileages. Pike traveled entirely by his watch, and all his distances

are guesses based upon rate of progress--so many hours, so many miles.

The way to approximate accuracy in this matter is to take him between

two fixed points whose actual distance apart is ascertained, see what

he makes of this, and adjust him accordingly. From St. Louis to

Keokuk, by the present usual steamboat channel of the Miss. r., is

202¼ m.; say to the foot of Des Moines rapids, roundly 200 m. Pike's

figures, as nearly as these can be got at, make this distance about

250 m. Hence we must discount his mileages 20 per cent., or one-fifth,

as a rule. Taking one thing with another--changes in the channel in

the course of the century, good or bad water, Pike's own feelings,

errors of manuscript or print, etc., we shall find this deduction to

work well; with the aid of such topographical data as we have, it will

enable us to set most of his camps pretty closely. On the 10th, Pike

gets left to bivouac on the bank at a point in Jersey Co., Ill.,

opposite Portage des Sioux, Mo., his barge being storm-bound somewhere

above Alton, Ill., perhaps in the vicinity of Clifton or Randolph. The

distance between Alton, first notable point above the Mo. r., and

Grafton, last notable point below the Illinois r., is 16 m. Besides

Alton and Clifton, places passed on the N. side are Shields' branch,

Hop Hollow, Falling Rock cr., and Piasa cr.--some of the present isls.

above Mobile isl. are Maple, Ellis, Search's, Piasa, and Eagle's

Nest--the latter off Portage des Sioux.

[I-4] Portage des Sioux (or de Sioux) is that place in St. Charles Co.,

Mo., where the Mo. r. comes nearest to the Miss. r. before their

confluence. It was the site of an early settlement on the S. bank of

the Miss. r., one François Saucier having first built on the spot,

1769 or 1770; the village was already there in Pike's time, and still

perpetuates the old F. name of the hostile Sioux's crossing-place

(_ca._ 1780) between the two great rivers, also called Sioux Portage

or Portage of the Sioux: see Beck's Gaz.; or Wetmore's, p. 254.

[I-5] First great tributary of the Miss. r. above the Mo. r., falling

in at Calhoun pt., Calhoun Co., Ill., opp. Camden, Jersey Co., Ill.;

Mason's isl. the largest one of several more in the Miss. r. just

below the mouth of the Ill. r. In coming S. the Miss. r. makes a great

bend E. and then nearly N. to the confluence, whence it turns again to

a course approx. coincident with that which the Ill. r. holds; hence

Pike's remark that the one might be mistaken for a part of the other.

The river has had many names; the present is in form a French plural,

_sc._ Rivière des Illinois, _sc._ of the people who lived on

it--Illin, Illini, Illinoct, Illinoac, Illinoet, Illiniwek, Illeni,

Illenois, Ilinois, Islinois, Islenois, etc. Pike's map has Illenois;

Franquelin's, 1688, R. des Ilinois. Another aboriginal name, Theakiki,

Teakiki, etc., whence Kankakee, was applied to one of the branches of

this river. The Ill. r. sometimes shared the name St. Louis with the

Mississippi and the Ohio. It was called R. de Seignelay by Hennepin,

in compliment to the marquis of that name; and once known as the

Divine r. The importance of this river as a water-way from the Great

Lakes to the Mississippi is second only to that of the Wisconsin, and

would be first if the long projected connection of St. Louis with

Chicago by water were made. The use of these two rivers for this

purpose was originally almost simultaneous; for Joliet and Marquette

reached the Miss. r. from Green bay by the Wisc. r. June 15th or 17th,

1673, came down the Miss. r. past the mouth of the Ill. r. in July

that year, continued down to or near the Arkansaw, turned up the Miss.

r. July 17th, reached the Ill. r., and went up the latter to L.

Michigan, Aug.-Sept., 1673. One of Joliet's maps, 1674, clearly shows

the Wis. r. and Ill. r. connections of the Miss. r. with L. Michigan

and Green bay respectively. Michael Accault's party, consisting of

himself, Antoine Auguelle, and L. Hennepin, dispatched by La Salle

from Fort Crêvecœur on the Ill. r., Feb. 29th, 1680, reached its

mouth Mar. 7th, 1680; La Salle did the same himself Feb. 6th, 1682.

The latter--one of the very greatest men in the early history of

American discovery and exploration--came upon the Ill. r. in Dec.,

1679, and made the first French establishment on Lower Mississippian

waters in Jan., 1680, at the Illinois village Pimetoui, close to

present Peoria.

[I-6] Among the islands (or their modern representatives) past which

Pike struggled may be named Perry, Squaw, Enterprise, and Iowa; the

present channel is W. of all these excepting Squaw, taking through

Hatchet chute to Rock ldg. and Milan, Calhoun Co., Ill. That island

whose foot is now nearest 6 m. from the Illinois r. is Dardenne; but

camp was more probably a mile short of this, where is now Bolter's

isl., as it is called--properly Boulder's.

[I-7] About 21 m., Bolter's isl. to the Four Brothers, at Cap au Grès.

The present run of the principal islands is: Dardenne, Two Branch,

Criminal, Peruque, Sweden, all below the mouth of Buffalo, Copper or

Cuivre r. Dardenne cr. falls in on the left hand going up, right bank,

opp. the island of that name; it appears as Dardonne on Owen's map.

Peruque cr. occupies a corresponding position opp. Peruque and Sweden

isls.; Nicollet's map has Perruque. R. au Cuivre or aux Bœufs of

the French, Copper and Buffalo r. of others ("Quiver" r. of Lewis and

Clark's map, 1814), is a large stream which courses from Montgomery

into Lincoln Co., Mo., and then, with its Big cr. branch, separates

the latter from St. Charles Co.; it falls into Cuivre slough, which

cuts off Cuivre isl., 3 m. long. At the upper end of this slough is

the mouth of the creek mapped by Nicollet as M^cLean's, now as Bob,

Bobb, Bobs, Bobbs, etc., cr. Some of the named places along the river

are Brock's, Dixon's, Fruitland, Thomason's, Beck's, Two Branch,

Martin's, Hastings, Beech's, and Bogtown--all insignificant, mostly

mere landings, and all in Calhoun Co., Ill., excepting Beck's. Pike's

Four Brothers are represented by islands Nos. 499, 500, 501, and 502,

of late surveys, not now abreast; all are small, and the largest one

is called Sarah Ann. Pike's "beautiful cedar cliff" is Cap au Grès

rock, opposite a hamlet of the same name in Lincoln Co., Mo.; Dogtown,

Ill., is under the cliff. The phrase is commonly rendered Cap au Gre

or Cap au Gris, by mistaking F. grès, a noun, meaning sandstone, for

F. _gris_, adj., gray. Long of 1817, as pub. 1860 and again 1890, has

a Little Cape Gris; Beltrami, II. p. 196, renders Great Cape Gray. The

exact distance to this place from Grafton is 27 m.; from Alton, 43 m.;

from St. Louis 66 m.

[I-8] Cap au Grès to Hamburg, Calhoun Co., Ill., 22 m.; river crooked,

and channel still more so; late start and much obstruction; Pike may

hardly have reached Hamburg, but was in that vicinity, and we may set

him there, in the absence of any datum for greater precision. The

"vast" number of islands he passed have their modern representatives

in such as: Sandy, 2½ m. long, with Turner's near it; Stag and Maple,

abreast; Sterling; Westport, 3½ m. long, with Kickapoo and Kelly's

alongside it. Along this whole way, on the left hand going up, in

Lincoln Co., Mo., runs a long slough approx. parallel with the river.

This is the discharge of Bryant's cr., which approaches the river opp.

Hamburg, gets from the hills and runs in the bottom down to Sandy

isl.; it is called Bayou au Roi on some maps, Bayou Roy on others.

Nicollet charts it with his usual accuracy, but without name. The

principal places passed are the villages of Sterling and Westport,

Lincoln Co., Mo.; Gilead, back up on the hill, in Calhoun Co., Ill.;

lesser ones are the landings, wood-piles, or what-not, called Asbury,

Turner's, Hogtown, and Red's. The St. L., Keok. and N. W. R. R. runs

in the bottom along the bayou; stations Foley, Apex, Elsberry, and

Dameron.

[I-9] _Polyodon spatula_, or _Spatularia spatula_, the paddlefish, also

called spoon-billed cat or duck-billed cat, common in Mississippian

waters. It sometimes attains a length of 5 or 6 feet; the shape

resembles that of the sturgeon, but the skin is scaleless, like a

cat's. One of the Relations ascribed to Hennepin, and pub. 1697,

speaks of this fish as the "long-beaked sturgeon," and says it was

spawning Apr. 24th. Hennepin doubtless became acquainted with it when

he was first on the Mississippi, under Accault, in 1680: see, _e. g._,

Shea's Tr. of Henp., 1880, p. 359.

[I-10] Doubtless one of the brothers mentioned in Lewis and Clark: see

ed. 1893, pp. 1209, 1236, 1243.

[I-11] From Hamburg to Clarksville is 14½ m., Louisiana or

Louisianaville, 24½; Pike went about 20, say to Krider's bend, and his

camp was on an island which we may take to be that now called

Krider's, 6 m. above Clarksville, 4 m. below Louisiana. The

"continuation of islands" is now the following in ascending series,

omitting about a dozen small ones; Mosier's or Mozier's, and Howard's,

together, the former 1¾ m. long; Tilden's; McCoy's or Cock; Slim and

Grimes, the former 3¼ m. long; Coon, 1 m.; Carroll's or Carle's, 1¾;

Amaranth, small; Eagle, 1 m.; Clarksville, 2 m., opposite the town;

Pharr's, 1¾ m.; and Krider's, 1 m. Above Mosier's isl. and ldg., on

the E., is the outlet of Hamburg bay, 3½ m. above the town; Bay cr.

falls into it. Behind Slim isl. is the chute of that name, into which

falls the large creek called Guin's, Guinn's, Gwin's, etc.; and at the

head of the island is the mouth of Ramsey's cr., another large one.

These streams are both in Pike Co., Mo.; and as soon as Pike passes

opposite Clarksville he has Pike Co., Ill., on his right, so that he

sails many miles with a county of his own on each side. Clarksville,

Mo., is something of a town, on the edge of the river, under the hill

around which Calumet cr. comes to fall in just above; and 3 m. higher

comes Little Calumet cr. on the same side. Opposite Clarksville is the

lower opening of that immense slough whose character is not less

remarkable than its name. This runs for more than 30 m. alongside the

river, clear through Pike Co., Ill., and into Adams Co., forming a

maze of channels which intersect one another and thus cut off various

islands, besides opening into the Mississippi at several places; some

of these lesser sloughs are called Spring Lake, Atlas, Cocklebur,

Swift, Coon, Mud, Five Points, Crooked, Running, and Swan. This

collateral water-course also receives a series of creeks, among which

are those called Big or Big Stew, Six Mile, Honey or Hadley, Ashton or

Fall, and Harkness. This whole affair is commonly called the Snicarty

or Sny Carte; it is Suycartee Slough on Owen's map, and has other

variants too numerous to recount. All these words or phrases are

perversions of F. Chenal Écarté, lit. cut-off channel. For this and

the corresponding formation of the name Sniabar or Snibar, given to a

creek and town in Missouri, see my note, N. Y. Nation, Jan. 19th,

1893, and Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, p. 29. The embankment built to

defend the river from the slough is known as the Sny levee.

[I-12] About 20 m., setting Pike in the vicinity of Cincinnati, Pike

Co., Ill.; camp perhaps a little beyond this town, but just about

opposite the boundary between Pike Co., Mo., and Ralls Co., Mo. On the

Illinois side we have nothing worthy of note but the snaky Snicarty,

back of which are the villages Atlas and Rockport. But the Missouri

side offers some interesting things. On decamping from Krider's isl.,

Pike passes in quick succession two creeks, Louisiana and Salt river,

all on his left, all within 6 m. 1. Pike elsewhere cites both these

creeks, and says the first of them is the one he calls Bar r.; this is

now Buffalo cr., falling in 2 m. below Louisiana; the bar at its

mouth, whence the name, is present Buffalo isl. 2. The next creek is

that immediately above, whose mouth is Louisiana; this is called Noir

cr. on most of the maps before me, but Bear cr. on the latest G. L. O.

map; which name the natives prefer I am not informed. 3. Louisiana is

quite a town, which dates back to Nicollet's time, at least, as he

marks it on the beautiful map he made before 1840. The Chic. and Alton

R. R. bridges the river at the mouth of Noir or Bear cr. This was

built 1872-73 (Act of Congr., Mar. 3d, 1871); the town or station Pike

is on the Illinois side, opp. Louisiana. The C. B. and Q. R. R. sends

a branch here; the St. L., Keok. and N. W. R. R. also runs through

Louisiana. 4. Next is Salt r., which Pike elsewhere calls Oahahah, and

others Auhaha, 2 m. above Louisiana. This seems to have been known

long before the time Pike's remark would suggest; if I mistake not, it

is laid down on some maps before 1700. It is a large river; the French

were along here in 1680-90, and I can put my finger on an old F.

Rivière au Sel. Salt r., with its branches, is big enough to water

five or six modern counties, before it falls in through Pike Co.

Present islands in Pike's course of to-day, from Salt r. upward, are

Angle, South, and North Fritz between Hickory chute and Scott's ldg.,

Atlas, Blackbird, and Denmark, between a couple of Snicarty openings

and Mundy's ldg. or Ashburn sta.; then the very large Gilbert's isl.,

2½ m. long, which lies between Gilbert's and Tompkins' ldg. on the

Missouri side, and Cincinnati ldg. on the other. A good deal of

engineering work was done at this bad place to close Gilbert's chute

and throw the main channel over against the Illinois side.

[I-13] Cincinnati Landing, Pike Co., Ill., to Hannibal, Marion Co., Mo.,

12 m. direct, and not much more by river, as its course is quite

straight. The Frenchman's house, 4 m. beyond which Pike went to camp,

was a germ of Hannibal, sown under the handsome hill, just above a

little run which Nicollet and Owen both map as Bear cr., opposite

Hurricane isl. This place is mapped by Pike as Hurricane Settlement;

he speaks of it again under date of Apr. 26th, 1806. It is now a

notable railroad center; the Wabash R. R. built the bridge in 1871

(Act of Congr., July 25th, 1866). On the Illinois side there was a

place called Douglasville, which seems to have been a forerunner of

the town or station Shepherd; while Hannibal itself has also the St.

L., Keok. and N. W. R. R. skirting the Miss. r., the Hann. and St.

Jo., the St. L. and Hann., and the Mo., Kas. and Tex. To reach this

then French embryo, Pike proceeded with present Pike Co., Ill., on his

right the whole way, but with Ralls Co. on his left, to past Saverton

in the latter county, and so on to Marion Co., Mo. He passed the

positions of the islands now called Taylor's, Cottel's, King's, and

Glasscock's; and after he had interviewed the Frenchman he went on

past the present position of the mouth of Bayou St. Charles, off which

are Turtle, Glaucus, and other islands, to camp in Marion Co., Mo.,

about where the present boundary between Pike and Adams cos., Ill.,

strikes the river--that is to say, opposite Armstrong isl., near the

beginning of the Snicarty. The St. Charles or Charles is old in

history; I have seen the name ascribed to Hennepin, 1680, but have not

myself so found it. Pike's Hurricane isl. is probably not now

determinable, if existent, unless he means a large tract of

bottom-land opposite Hannibal, isolated by the Snicarty. Glasscock's

isl. is now or was lately the only well-founded island on the river

near the mouth of Bear cr. It is said in Holcombe's Hist. Marion Co.,

1884, p. 902, that an island opposite the mouth of Bear cr.

disappeared in 1849. Judge Thos. W. Bacon, who came to Hannibal in

1847, informs me _in lit._ Mar. 21st, 1894, that he remembers no such

island; "there was a sand-bar visible at low water just above the

mouth of Bear cr., and it disappeared long ago, but no such fugitive

formation could properly be termed an island. Along the N. front of

the site of Hannibal was once an incipient island--a sand-bar with

growing willows extending from the N. end almost to the mainland. This

gradually disappeared except at the lower end, where it prolonged and

merged into a granite gravel bed or bar visible at low water, which

was dredged away by the government." Pike is probably mistaken in

using the name Hurricane in the present connection. There were a

Hurricane ldg., isl., and cr. lower down, in Lincoln Co.; but Judge

Bacon informs me he never heard the name applied to Hannibal. Nor is

it true that this town was ever called Stavely's ldg., except as a

piece of fugitive sarcasm in the newspapers of a rival town, arising

in the habit of one John W. Stavely, a saddler of Hannibal, who used

to haunt the landing when steamers arrived. It could not well have

been first known as a "landing," because the first steamer to arrive

there, the Gen. Putnam, Moses D. Bates, master, came in 1825, while

Hannibal was platted in 1819 by its present name, shortly after Pike

Co. was organized (Dec. 14th, 1818). The classical term is said to be

traceable to Antoine Soulard, surveyor-general, who is also said to

have named Fabius r. for the great Roman cunctator. But this is

dubious; old forms Fabas and Fabbas suggest Sp. _fabas_ beans. Bay St.

Charles was called Scipio r., as attested by the hamlet of Port Scipio

at its mouth.

[I-14] This stretch of "39" m. needs to be warily discussed. The whole

distance from Hannibal to Keokuk by the river channel is only 61 m. Pike

makes it from his camp of the 16th to that of the 19th 39 + 23 + 4 = 76

m.; he also started from a little above Hannibal on the 17th, and did

not quite make Keokuk on the 19th; for he only got to the foot of the

Des Moines rapids after breakfast on the 20th. The whole way would

have been about 80 of his miles against say 60 of actual travel, or

the proportion of 4:3, as already noted, p. 2; and we may confidently

set him down on the 17th halfway between Hannibal and Keokuk. Now from

Hannibal to La Grange is 30 m. and from La Grange to Keokuk is 31 m.;

La Grange, Lewis Co., Mo., at the mouth of Wyaconda r., is the

required location of camp of the 17th. This is 10 m. above Quincy, the

seat of Adams Co., Ill., one of the best known cities on the river,

though not as old as some of them. The C. B. and Q. R. R. bridged the

river just above the city in 1867-68; a West Quincy grew up on the

Missouri side, and the present importance of the place requires no

comment. A very short distance above Quincy Pike passes from Marion

into Lewis Co., Mo. But the most important point of this day's voyage

is one to which the above text does not even allude. Pike elsewhere

speaks of a certain Jaustioni river, as the then boundary between the

U. S. and the Sac nation, 7 m. above the Frenchman's house at

Hurricane Settlement, on the W. side; and he traces this river on his

map by the name Jauflione. Now there are five large streams which

enter the Miss. r. on the W. within 3 m. of one another, by four

separate mouths, in Marion Co., say 2 to 5 miles below W. Quincy, and

the proportionate distance above Hannibal. They are now known as (1)

South Two Rivers; (2) North Two Rivers; (3) a branch of the

latter--these three emptying practically together, just below Fabius

isl.; (4) South Fabius; and (5) North Fabius rivers, which fall into a

slough whose two mouths are opposite Orton's isl. Pike has left us no

data to decide which of these he means by Jaustioni or Jauflione,

especially as the positions of the several outlets have no doubt

changed since 1805. They are all at present, or were very recently,

considerably more than the "seven" miles above Hannibal, being

entirely beyond the Bayou St. Charles, itself about 7 m. long. Pike's

queer names, Justioni or Jaustioni, and Jauflione (latter in early

text, 1807, p. 4, and on map), are found also as Jeffreon, and usually

as Jeffrion. Some form of the name, the meaning of which I have never

learned, endured for many years; thus Jauflione r. appears in Morse's

Univ. Gaz., 3d ed. 1821, p. 350, though it had mostly disappeared from

ordinary maps of about that date. The river thus designated has a

history which will bear looking up. Judge Thos. H. Bacon of Hannibal

refers me to certain documents bearing on French Colonial history to

be found in Amer. State Papers, VI. 1860, pp. 713-14, and 830-34, also

repub. in Holcombe's Hist. Marion Co., 1884. On p. 834 is: "July 10th,

1810. Board met. Present John B. C. Lucas, Clement B. Penrose, and

Frederick Bates, Commissioners. Charles Gratiot, assignee of Mathurin

Bouvet, claiming 84 arpents of land front on the Mississippi river and

in depth from the river back to the hills in the district of St.

Charles.... The Board order that this claim be surveyed, provided that

it be not situated above the mouth of the River Jeffrion conformably

to the possession of Mathurin Bouvet," etc. As Bouvet's claim was

ultimately confirmed to Gratiot, Jeffrion r. must have been above Salt

r. The next considerable river above Salt r. is that one of the "Two

Rivers" called South r.; but this is hardly 30 m. long, and an Act of

Dec. 31st, 1813, describes Jeffrion r. as over 30 m. long. The next

one is North Two Rivers; undoubtedly it is this one which was known as

the Jeffrion in Territorial days. When the region was first settled it

was called the Two Rivers country, and the title of a certain Two

Rivers Baptist Association preserves this designation. The Governor of

Louisiana Territory was required to divide it into districts (Act of

Congr., Mar. 26th, 1804, sec. 13); Holcombe's Hist. Marion Co., p. 37,

says that Governor Wm. Clark by proclamation reorganized the districts

into counties Oct. 1st, 1812; and doubtless the Jeffrion would be

there again in mention. Bouvet's settlement on Bay Charles is

unquestionable in location; it was described as about 34 leagues above

St. Louis, and was a place with which the commissioners must have been

officially acquainted. In history B. Charles is nearly a century older

than St. Louis, and it was for many years a better known locality.

Present North r. is the only one that answers the historical and

geographical requirements of the north one of Two Rivers of early

Territorial times and of the Jeffrion r. of French Colonial days.

Holcombe, p. 148, gives an account of Kentucky prospectors on the

Jeffrion in 1817. The name of the Sac chief Black Hawk occurs in

connection with an incident on Two Rivers in 1812. But the most

satisfactory and in fact a conclusive identification of North Two

Rivers with the Jauflione is derivable from the terms of our treaty

with the Sacs and Foxes of 1804. This will be found in Statutes at

Large, VII. p. 84, _seq._: A Treaty between the United States of

America and the United Tribes of Sac and Fox Indians, made Nov. 3d,

1804, ratified Jan. 25th, 1805, and proclaimed Feb. 21st, 1805. Among

the "articles of a treaty made at St. Louis in the district of

Louisiana between William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana

territory and of the district of Louisiana [etc., etc.] of the one

part, and the chiefs and head men of the united Sac and Fox tribes of

the other part," there is one defining the boundary thus: "ARTICLE 2.

The general boundary or line between the lands of the United States

and of the said Indian tribes shall be as follows, to wit: Beginning

at a point on the Missouri river opposite to the mouth of the

Gasconade river; thence in a direct course so as to strike the river

Jeffreon at the distance of thirty miles from its mouth, and down the

said Jeffreon to the Mississippi," etc., etc. In company with Mr.

Robert F. Thompson of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Washington I

made a special examination of maps in his office with reference to

this point, and among them found one, prepared for office use in

determining boundaries indicated in the terms of Indian treaties, on

which the boundary in mention had been drawn from the Missouri

opposite the mouth of the Gasconade directly to a point supposed to be

30 m. up the _North_ Two Rivers, which I had on other grounds

determined the Jauflione or Jeffreon to be. This river empties in

Fabius township, in the N. W. ¼ of Sect. 3, T. 58 N., R. 5 W.,

Marion Co., Mo.

On this extraordinary cession see a note by L. C. D[raper] in Minn.

Hist. Coll., III. Part 2, p. 143, 1874.

At the upper end of St. Charles bayou, called Bayou chute, a couple of

miles below Two Rivers, was the site of a place that rejoiced on paper

in the name of Marion City. They started a railroad there, were liable

to wash-outs, and inspired Charles Dickens' idea of his quizzical

"Eden." If one would like to see how uncounted "cities" were laid out

in gaudy prints--some consisting in a hovel or two, some without even

that--let him look over Featherstonhaugh's diverting relations of the

'30's, when he traveled in these parts, then overrun with a set of the

neediest, greediest, and most unscrupulous landsharks that ever lived

on calomel, whisky, and the gullibility of their fellows. Marion City

is located on one of the maps before me, but not on any of the others.

A little above it are Fabius and Orton isls., already mentioned, and

opposite these is Ward's isl., larger than either of the other two. A

couple of miles above Quincy begins the group of Cottonwood isls.,

opposite a large horseshoe-shaped slough which seems to be an old

cut-off of the river; it is connected with the Fabius r. outlets, and

receives Durgan's (_i. e._, Durkee's) cr. At Quincy is the lower

outlet of a very extensive snicarty, 12 or 15 m. direct, and much more

by its sinuosities; this begins at Canton (above La Grange) and

connects at various points with Canton chute, itself some 10 m. long.

La Grange, where Pike camps, was so called from the hill under which

it nestled, and the English of which would be Barn hill. The original

settlement was named Wyaconda or Waconda, from the river at whose

mouth it was made; thus Nicollet's map marks Wiyakonda instead of La

Grange, preserving the Indian name of the place. This river is a large

one which, with its branches, traverses Scotland and Clark cos. before

entering Lewis Co. Before settlement a certain tract of country below

La Grange had been called Waconda prairie, or in some similar form of

the Indian word, as Wacondaw of Maj. Thos. Forsyth, 1819; and this is

what Pike's map presents as the "Small Prairie."

[I-15] About two-thirds of the way from La Grange to Keokuk--say to Fox

prairie, at the mouth of Fox r., site of Gregory's Landing, Clark Co.,

Mo. The principal place passed is Canton, Lewis Co., Mo., 7 m. above

La Grange, opposite the head of Canton chute. Some other places that

were started, such as Satterfield, would be hard to find on a

latter-day map. Tully is now practically a part of Canton; Tully isl.

exists, 3 or 4 m. above Canton, and Satterfield's creek is a branch of

Fox r. Near there, one Dodd kept for some years a woodyard on the

Illinois side, and the steamboat channel among the sand-bars and

islands in his vicinity acquired the name of Dodd's crossing.

[I-16] About 10 m., from Gregory's ldg. to "the point of a beach" within

the present city limits of Keokuk, Lee Co., Ia., immediately above the

mouth of Des Moines r., which for some distance separates the States

of Missouri and Iowa; opposite is Hancock Co., Ill. The place where

Pike got sawyered was very likely between Hackley's and Fox isls. The

place is a bad one; there has been a good deal of engineering work

done in damming Hackley's chute, and jettying the channel over to the

other side. Fox r. (once called R. Puante, whence also Stinking cr.)

is not mentioned by Pike in the present connection; but he speaks of

it elsewhere, and lays it down on his map without name, marking an

Indian village on the Illinois side between its mouth and that of Des

Moines r. The present or a very recent arrangement of its discharge is

by Fox slough, a small snicarty that begins at Alexandria and runs 5

m. down to Gregory's ldg. This cuts off a piece of bottom which the

railroad traverses between the points said, besides Fox and several

lesser islands.

[I-17] For the origin of this name, involving a spurious etymology by

association with Trappist monks, see Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, p. 20.

The always careful and accurate Nicollet made the matter quite plain:

see his Rep. 1843, p. 22. Some form of the old Indian name is used by

the earliest French travelers in these parts. One of the oldest maps I

have seen, dressée par J. B. Franquelin dans 1688 pour être presentée

à Louis XIV., letters R. des Moingana, and marks the Indian village of

Moingoana. One of Joliet's maps has Moeng8ena. Joliet and Marquette

passed its mouth going down the Miss. r. in 1673, on or about June

25th; Accault, Auguelle, and Hennepin passed it going up the Miss. r.

early in 1680. Besides the many early variants of the phrase which

settled into Des Moines, we find R. of the Outontantas, 8tantas,

8t8ntes, Otentas, etc., R. of the Peouareas, Paotes, etc., R. of the

Maskoutens, etc., Nadouessioux, etc. This is the largest river Pike

has come to since he left the Illinois, and the only tributary of the

Missouri which he charts with any detail; he lays it down with 20 of

its branches, and marks the positions on it of old Forts Crawford and

St. Louis. We observe that he calls it De Moyen; and this gives

occasion for a blunder not less amusing than to call it Trappist r.

would be. For our hero was ambitious of French scholarship, and on

consulting his dictionary to find out about _moyen_, he set the stream

down as _Means_ r. in his French-English vocabulary of geographical

names. Another author, or his printer, got it Demon r. Beltrami, 1828,

renders Le Moine and Monk r. Pike's editor of the early text, 1807,

has des Moines, p. 4. The stream is a large and very important one,

too much so to be entered upon in a mere note like this; but I may

observe that it is historically less significant than those of similar

extent on the Illinois and Wisconsin side of the Mississippi, because

several of the latter were highways during the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries. The mouth of the Des Moines became of course the

scene of early settlement, but not all the places started there

survived. Nicollet's map shows three--Keokuck, Montebello, Warsaw.

Owen's, somewhat later, has also Nassau and Churchville, immediately

at the debouchure, where there came to be also a Buenavista.

Publishing in 1847, but having written of 1835, the always

entertaining Featherstonhaugh speaks of "a sorry settlement on the

left bank, called Keokuk, after a celebrated Sauk chief, inhabited

altogether by a set of desperados"--a diagnosis which will no doubt be

better relished by the Hamiltonians, Varsovians, and Alexandrians than

by the present polished Keokukites. He should have made one exception,

however, for he found there the famous George Catlin, Nov. 4th, 1835:

see his book, II. p. 42. Besides Keokuk, Lee Co., Ia., at the foot of

the rapids above the mouth of the Des Moines, the three places which

have grown into urban reality are: Hamilton, Hancock Co., Ill.,

directly opposite Keokuk; Warsaw, Hancock Co., Ill., 2 m. below the

mouth, and directly opposite this, Alexandria, Clark Co., Mo. Three

States as well as three counties thus met here. Pike continues with

Illinois on his right, but now has Iowa instead of Missouri on his

left.

Fort Edwards was a position of importance for some years. This

military post was built on the east side of the Mississippi, 3 m.

below the foot of the rapids, and directly opposite the two islands

which divided the outlet of the Des Moines into three channels. Half a

mile S. W. from the fort was Cantonment Davis, its precursor,

abandoned when the works were completed. The locality is practically

Warsaw. A full description of this establishment, as it was at the

time of Long's visit in August, 1817, is given in his report, as

printed in Minn. Hist. Col., II. Part 1, 1860; 2d ed. 1890, pp. 77-80.

It had been building since June, 1816, and was not quite finished in

1817.

[I-18] Some light--at least that light in which he was regarded--is

thrown on Mr. Ewing by a letter before me from General James Wilkinson

to General Henry Dearborn, Secretary at War, dated St. Louis, Dec. 3d,

1805: "In a former letter you have asked me who this Ewing was? I can

give you no further Information than that I found Him in a place,

which He is utterly unqualified to fill--He is I understand placed at

the River Desmoin, to teach the Indians the Arts of Agriculture, but

has I believe given but a wretched example--This is I think the Third

visit he has made since my arrival to this place, and I expect his

disbursements which are supplied by Mr. Chouteau may exceed

expectation--He appears to be a young man of innocence, levity &

simplicity--without experience or observation."

[I-19] The rapids named from their situation above the mouth of Des

Moines r. have also been known as the Lower rapids, in distinction

from those higher up about the mouth of Rock r. These formidable

obstacles to navigation have been overcome by modern engineering

skill, but Pike's curt notice of the channel is clearly recognizable.

The river was bridged by the Wabash road between Hamilton and Keokuk,

in 1869-70 (Act of Congr., July 25th, 1866); the town lock and chain

are within a mile or so of the bridge. Then succeed the English,

Lamalee, and Spanish chains, and the Upper chain at the head of the

rapids. The distance is about 11 m. Sandusky, Ia., was located between

the English and Lamalee chains; Nashville, Ia., at the Spanish chain;

Solferino, Ia., above the last; at or near one of these last two is

Galland, Ia.; and on the Illinois side is a place called Sonora. On

that side Cheney cr. falls in at Hamilton, and higher up are two

others, known as Golden's and Quarry Sugar, but which used to be

called Wagoner's and Larry's; while on the Iowan side Price's cr.

falls in at the middle lock, Lamalee's at Sandusky, and several

smaller ones at various points. The railroad and canal hug the Iowan

side. At the head of the rapids the river makes a sharp bend; in the

concavity of this bend stands Nauvoo, Ill., originally a Mormon

settlement; it used to be called also Commerce. This is the place

where Mr. Ewing had his establishment when he entertained Pike; the

latter charts it as "U. S. Agricultural Estab^t." The Sac village

opposite was on the site of the present town of Montrose, Ia. A large

creek runs through this town. There are some islands at the head of

the rapids, between Nauvoo and Montrose, one of which, No. 401 of the

Miss. Surv. chart, is called Montrose. At the head of the bend, still

opp. Nauvoo, is the lower end of Dobson's slough, which receives a

stream charted by Nicollet and Owen as Sugar cr., but later dedicated

to his Satanic majesty by the name of Devil's or Big Devil cr., called

by Beltrami Manitou cr. Devil's isl. is the name of the large tract,

nearly 4 m. long, which is isolated by Dobson's slough, certain

sections of which latter are known as Big River and Potter's.

[I-20] James Wilkinson: see elsewhere for this letter, which formed Doc.

No. 1, App. to Pt. 1. of the orig. ed. of this work. Pike's 5 or 6 m.

takes him past Dobson's slough and Devil's or Sugar cr. and isl., and

the sand-bar on which he camped is now represented by Niota isl., 2½

m. long, or one of the small ones close by. The locality is the

well-known one of the city of Madison, or Fort Madison, seat of Lee

Co., Ia. Opposite this city, in Hancock Co., Ill., are two little

places, one called Niota, and the other Appannose (Nicollet),

Appanoose (G. L. O. map), Appanooce (Miss. Surv. chart), etc. A

certain creek which falls in by Niota and is known as Tyson's cr.

seems to be the never-identified one which Lewis and Clark mapped in

1814 as Sand Bank cr.

A history of Lee Co., pub. Chicago, 1879, says that the city of Fort

Madison was so called from the old fort and trading-post of that name.

The author speaks of the tradition that this establishment was built

by Zachary Taylor, when this distinguished general, afterward

president of the United States, was a lieutenant in the army; and

attempts to refute this tradition by an appeal to the War Department

for the facts in the case. But unluckily, the information he derived

from this source was erroneous; for the Hon. Geo. W. McCrary, then

secretary of war, told him that the adjutant-general of the army

reported to him (McCrary) that Fort Madison was erected by Pike in

1805. Whereas, besides imperishable renown, Pike erected nothing in

1805 but his stockade on Swan r., and various patriotic flag-poles.

The difference between selecting or recommending a site for a fort,

and building one on that site, is obvious at sight. But Pike did not

even select or recommend this spot for a fort, the lowest one of

several which he did pick out being at Burlington: see next note. Z.

Taylor was a 1st lieut. of the 7th Infantry in 1808, appointed from

Ky.; which fact, as far as it goes, supports the tradition. The

Andreas Hist. Atl. of Ia. has it that the fort for which the town was

named was built in 1808; evacuated and burned by hostile Indians, 1813

(qu. 1812?). On Monday, Aug. 4th, 1817, when Long visited the ruins of

Fort Madison, there was nothing left but some old chimneys, a covert

way leading from the main garrison to some sort of an elevated outwork

in the rear, and a number of fruit-trees on the ground which had been

a garden: see Minn. Hist. Soc. II., Part 1, 1860, 2d ed. 1890, p. 75.

In the fall of 1832 one Peter Williams settled on the present site of

the town. The old trading-house there was called Le Moine factory. The

old fort stood close to the river, and as I judge within a third of a

mile of the present State penitentiary.

[I-21] About 18 m., to a position above the mouth of Skunk r., a little

below the Burlington bluffs; he calls it 5¼ m. to the locality he

presently describes with particularity, and which will be recognized

as the site of Burlington, seat of Des Moines Co., Ia. After passing

Madison on his left, with Niota and Appanoose on his right, he goes up

by Pontoosuc and Dallas, both in Hancock Co., Ill., and then has

Henderson Co., Ill., on his right. Further up, on the left, Lee Co. is

separated from Des Moines Co., Ia., by Skunk r. This is a large

stream, whose present pleasant name translates the Indian word

rendered Shikagua by Nicollet, and Shokauk by Featherstonhaugh; Lewis

and Clark map it as Polecat r. Beltrami, 1828, calls it Polecat r. and

River of the Bête Puante. Green Bay is a small place in Lee Co., on a

sort of slough which discharges into the river behind Lead isl., and

which is called Green bay. This is connected in some way, which for me

remains occult, with a creek called by Nicollet Lost cr.; it is a part

of the intricate waters between Skunk r. and that stream which runs

through Madison past the State penitentiary, where the bridge that was

built in 1887-88 strikes the Iowa side. Jollyville was a place on the

same waters, but seems to have been lost like the creek. Some of the

islands besides Lead, the present positions of which Pike passed, if

not these islands themselves, are now known as Dutchman, Hog, Polk,

Thompson, Peel, and Twin, the latter at the mouth of Skunk r. His camp

I suppose to have been about on the spot where one Sauerwein used to

keep his woodyard, about halfway between Twin isls. and the mouth of

Spruce (or Spring) cr. This is nearly opp. the middle of the great

island now called Burlington, formerly Big, being 7 m. long, separated

from the Illinois mainland by Shokokon slough, on which there is or

was a place called by this latter name. A number of creeks make into

this slough, among them those called Dug Out, Honey (Camp cr. of

Nicollet and Owen), and Ellison's. A place called Montreal started

near Ellison's cr., but does not seem to have survived. What Pike maps

as "Sand bank Creek," at a place he calls "Sand Bay," seems to be Dug

Out cr., or the next one below, which falls into the slough behind

Thompson's isl., near Dallas City.

[I-22] This is the prairie through which meanders Henderson r., 6 m.

above Burlington. The Sac village was on its north bank. The prairie

and the village are lettered on the map as per text; the river is

shown there, without name; the Burlington bluffs are delineated,

marked "Positions for a Fort." The present city was built across the

mouth of Hawkeye cr., a rivulet which makes in above the steepest part

of the bluff, where the Flint hills recede a little from the river; it

extends to the larger Flint cr. or r., at whose mouth it may be said

to be situated. Across the Mississippi is East Burlington, Ill., at

the head of Shokokon slough; the bridge which the C., B. and Q. R. R.

built in 1867-68 spans the river and connects the two places. There

are numerous islands above Burlington, the principal of which are

O'Connell's, Rush, and Otter. Above Henderson r. there is nothing of

special note till we reach Oquawka, seat of Henderson Co., Ill.,

reckoned 13 m. by the channel above Burlington. Pike omits his

customary mileages to-day, but did not get beyond Oquawka, which is at

the head of the prairie on which he camped; for here begin some steep

banks, known before and since Pike's day as the Yellow banks. He marks

them on his map, and they are mentioned by the same name in Forsyth's

narrative of 1819.

[I-23] We are not told which side of the river this was, and the

sentence is otherwise ambiguous, as all streams hereabouts are

branches of the river. We know he means a bayou or slough, by

following which he expected soon to regain the Mississippi ahead of

his boats, and I suppose that Huron slough, on the Iowa side, led him

astray. The slough itself is not long, merely cutting off Huron and

some smaller islands for four miles; but this receives Iowa slough,

which meanders toward the river, and so would take Pike and Bradley

away from the river if they followed it up. This supposition is

strengthened by Pike's using the word "savannah," which with him means

rather marsh or bog than prairie, and he would hardly have applied it

to the better ground on the Illinois side if he had gone there and

been misled by Henderson r. Moreover, he continues to camp on the west

side, as he would naturally do after loss of the two men who went to

find his dogs; and also he expected to recover the men at the place

above where the hills first come down to the river, which is at

Muscatine, Ia. He does not say who these men were; they were not

recovered till Sept. 1st, at Dubuque.

[I-24] This mileage is excessive, as are all those hence to Rock Island

or Davenport, the distance of which by the channel is 70 m. from

Oquawka, though Pike makes it 92. Moreover, the distance from Oquawka

to New Boston, directly opposite the mouth of the Iowa r., is only 18

m., and Pike remains below the Iowa r. to-day. What with sloughing it,

losing his dogs, and waiting for his men, he did not get much beyond

Keithsburg, Mercer Co., Ill., which we may safely take as to-day's

datum-point. This is built under a bank at the mouth of Pope's cr.,

and so far answers the requirements of Pike's camp opposite it. The

situation is in Louisa Co., Ia., but a little distance over the

boundary of Des Moines Co. Excepting Keithsburg, no notable point is

passed to-day. A place called Huron was started on the slough of that

name, but it never came to anything. Huron isl. is called Thieves'

isl. on some maps. The large one (No. 355) opp. Keithsburg, and

crossed by the railroad, is separated from the Iowan side by Black

Hawk slough.

[I-25] Pike delineates "Sand Bank" on his map directly opposite the

mouth of Iowa r. This is the site of New Boston, Mercer Co., Ill. The

bank comes immediately upon the river with a frontage of 2 m., and

Edwards r. falls in at the foot of the bank, 3½ m. above Pope's r. At

New Boston the Mississippi turns sharply, so that the mouth of Iowa r.

is rather on the S. than W.; and the bank on which is the town recedes

northward, leaving low ground between itself and the Mississippi,

watered by the ramifications of Sturgeon bay, Illinois slough, Swan

lake, etc. This is what Pike means by his "Sand-bank prairie on the E.

side." As to that "marked Grant's prairie," I should observe that no

such name appears on the map as published; Pike referred to his

immense original draft in water-colors, now preserved in the War

Department, and from which the small printed map was reduced with the

omission of too many details. What he means by Grant's prairie is the

lowlands on the Iowa side before you come to Muscatine, which is the

point where the hills first reach the river-side. Compare Apr. 26th,

1806. Grant's prairie is now known as Muscatine isl., being virtually

cut off by Muscatine slough, whose lower mouth is hardly 2 m. above

the Iowa r., though the upper entrance is at Muscatine--a distance of

some 18-20 m. At one point this slough dilates into a body of water

which is now called Keokuk lake, but which was charted by Nicollet as

"L. Maskuding or in the Prairie." Here are obviously the origin and

meaning of the name "Muscatine." The town now so called was once known

as Bloomington. I suspect that "Grant's" prairie in Pike may be

intended for _Grande_ prairie; thus Beltrami calls it Grande Prairie

Mascotin, II. p. 196, and Forsyth has Grand Mascoutin. There was a

place started by the name of Port Louisa on the Iowan side of the

river, near one of the openings of Muscatine slough; but it seems to

have disappeared after bequeathing the name to the county, whose seat

is now Wapello. As to Pike's "28" miles to-day, that is best disposed

of by observing that to-morrow he drags his boat "nine miles, to where

the river Hills join the Mississippi," _i. e._, to Muscatine. So he

camps on the Iowan side, a certain distance below Muscatine. We shall

not be far out if we set him exactly on the boundary between Louisa

and Muscatine cos., opp. the lower end of Blanchard's isl., behind the

middle of which Copperas or Copper cr. falls in on the Illinois side.

The great Iowa r. should not be passed without remark. For the name in

its extreme fluidity, see Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, p. 20. Some still

more singular forms of the word than those there noted reach us from

the time when the French writers and cartographers used the figure 8

for the letters _ou_; so that "Iowa" was liable to appear as Ay8ay

(Ayouay), or in some such form: Neill cites forms sing. and pl. as

Aye8ias, Ayo8ois, Ayooues, Ayavois, Ayoois, Ayouez, Ayoes, Aaiaoua, to

which I can add Aiavvi; another series of words flows from the

introduction of J or j: thus Pike, early text, 1807, p. 5, has Jowa,

and I have noticed also Ajoe, Jaway, Joway, Jowah, etc. Beltrami,

1828, has Yawoha, Yahowa, and Yawowa. This river-system waters a great

portion of the State, on courses S., S. E., and E. Pike says elsewhere

that in ascending it 36 m. you come to a fork, the right-hand branch

of which is called Red Cedar r. Waiving any question of distance, this

is correct; and moreover, Red Cedar is the larger of the two forks,

though by a very unusual freak of nomenclature the united stream Iowa

takes the name of the lesser fork. He further says that Red Cedar r.

branches out 300 m. from its mouth; which triple forking is "called

the Turkey's foot." This term seems to have lapsed; the situation is

in Black Hawk Co., above Cedar Falls, and one of the turkey's toes is

called Shell Rock r. The notable town of Cedar Rapids is lower down,

in Linn Co. The confluence of Iowa r. proper with Red Cedar is at

Fredonia, Louisa Co.; Pike's map represents this by the

pitchfork-shaped object, though it is not lettered with any name. He

marks a village of Iowas "about 10 miles up," on the "right" bank,

_i. e._, on the right-hand side going up, left bank. Iowa r. presents the

anomaly of a great river with nothing to speak of at its mouth (New

Boston is across the Mississippi). "Iowa City" seems never to have got

much beyond its original wood-pile, and a similar "city" which

Nicollet charts by the name of Black Hawk would be hard to find now.

There is, however, a little place called Toolsboro, under the hill on

the left bank, 2 m. above the mouth of the Iowa.

[I-26] Pirogues: see L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 4. Pike uses this form

consistently. The most amusing variant of the word I have noticed

occurs in Shea's Hennepin's Descr. Louisiana, Eng. tr., 1880, p. 156,

where we read, "a number of parrakeets and about eighty cabins full of

Indians," and an editorial note informs us that "the French printer

put peroquets, but Margry's Relation gives the real word, 'pirogues,'

'canoes.'"

[I-27] The distance between Muscatine and Rock Island is 28 or 29 m. by

the channel. As Pike has 6 or 8 m. to go before reaching Muscatine,

makes "28½" to-day, and "22" to-morrow, we can confidently set him

down to-night halfway between these two places--say vicinity of

Montpelier, Muscatine Co., Ia., 4 or 5 m. below Buffalo, Ia., and

Andalusia, Ill. There is no specially notable point in this whole

stretch, after Muscatine is passed; the most of a place is Fairport,

Ia., 3 m. above Tahma or Sweetland cr. Several places that were

started seem to have died young, if they were not stillborn; we find

on older maps such as Geneva, somewhere between Muscatine and Fairport

on the Iowa side, and Wyoming, apparently in the same position as

Fairport now is. Between Muscatine and Fairport the river is or was

recently divided into Drury slough, Wyoming slough, and Hersey chute

betwixt these. Pine cr. falls in on the Iowan side, 2½ m. above

Fairport. Opposite Fairport the long Andalusia slough opens, running

down on the Illinois side all the way from Andalusia, a distance of 9

m. Pike's camp was probably on the Iowan side (still in Muscatine

Co.); across the river he has Rock Island Co., Ill.

[I-28] Actually about 16 m., to one of the most definite locations of

the voyage thus far, in the heart of the present city of Davenport,

seat of Scott Co., Ia., and directly opposite Rock Island, seat of

Rock Island Co., Ill. Soon after passing present site of Montpelier,

Pike went from Muscatine into Scott Co., Ia. Next are the two towns

directly opposite each other, of Buffalo, Ia., and Andalusia, Ill.;

the former is marked N. Buffalo on Nicollet's map; the other is called

Rockport on Owen's map, or Rockport was then where Andalusia is now.

Linwood, Ia., is a small place 2 m. above Buffalo; and 3 m. above this

was the site of Rockingham, Ia. This last was started directly

opposite the mouth of Rock r., but never flourished. In fact there is

probably no place on the Mississippi where more mushroom towns have

been projected on paper by unscrupulous speculators than about the

mouth of Rock r.; and we observe that they mostly had resounding

names, well known in other parts of the world. A certain

Stephensonville is marked on Nicollet's map, apparently in the present

position of the city of Rock Island. In the mouth of Rock r. is a

triangular island, dividing the two outlets, and opposite this is

Credit isl. (No. 312), 1½ m. long. Pike's camp in Davenport was

probably about opposite the lower point of Rock isl., 2½ m. long; this

is No. 307 of the Engineers' chart, and its lower end was utilized for

the bridge built in 1869-72 by the C., R. I. and P. R. R. (Act of

Congr., July 26th, 1868).

La Rivière de Roche, or à la Roche, of the French, which Pike and

others call Stoney or Stony and Rocky or Rock r., and which is now

known by the latter name, is the second largest in Illinois. It arises

in Wisconsin, in the region S. of Lake Winnebago, leaves that State at

Beloit, and holds a general S. W. course through Illinois to the

Mississippi. It used to be called Kickapoo r.--a name traceable to R.

des Kicapous of Franquelin's map, 1688. Pike gives its source as near

Green bay of L. Michigan, and ascribes a length of 450 m., 300 of them

navigable. His map letters "The largest Sac Vill." on its S. side near

the mouth, about the present position of Milan, and delineates the

extensive rapids of the Miss. r., above its mouth, which the text of

the 28th describes. Rock r. afforded one of the five or six principal

waterways between the Great Lakes and the Miss. r., the connection

being made above the Horicon marshes by portage from the small stream

which falls into L. Winnebago at Fond du Lac. But this way was less

eligible than the Fox-Wisconsin route.

[I-29] See Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, pp. 1202, 1203, 1211. James Aird

and his brother George were among the Sioux traders at the mouth of

the Minnesota or St. Pierre r. in 1803 and thereafter; others

similarly engaged then and there were Archibald Campbell, Duncan

Graham, and Francis M. Dease.

[I-30] Davenport, Ia., to Le Claire, Ia., 16 m. by water; Rock Island,

Ill., to Port Byron, Ill., 17 m.; actual extent of the rapids somewhat

less than either of these distances. The chains, in ascending series,

are called Lower, Moline, Duck Creek, Winnebago, Campbell's, St.

Louis, Crab Island, Sycamore, Smith's, Upper. The principal islands

are: Rock, No. 307, 2½ m. long, with the little ones called Papoose

(No. 308), Benham's, and Sylvan, alongside; Campbell's, opp.

Watertown, Ill.; Spencer's, opp. Hampton, Ill., on the Iowan side; and

Fulton's. A number of creeks make in on both sides; among them are

Duck, Crow, and Spencer's, on the Iowan side, and the one on the

Illinois side which falls in by Watertown, name unknown to me. The

rapids were formerly guarded by Fort Armstrong, occupying an eligible

site on the extreme lower end of Rock isl. A good account of this

post, as it was in 1817, is found in Long's Expedition of that year,

printed in 1860 and reprinted in 1890, in Part I of II. of the Minn.

Hist. Coll., pp. 67-73. The places on the Illinois side are: Moline,

3½ m. above Rock Island; Watertown, 5 m. above Moline; Hampton, 1 m.

above Moline; Rapids City, 4½ m. above Hampton; Port Byron, 1 m.

further; land distances less than by river-channel. On the Iowan side,

between Davenport and Le Claire, are places called Gilberttown or

Gilbert, opp. Moline, and Valley City or Pleasant Valley, opp.

Hampton. Pike does not say where he camped at the head of the rapids;

but it was no doubt at Le Claire, as the channel ran on the Iowan

side.

[I-31] This Fox Indian village is located on Pike's map, but without

name. It was on the Iowan side, above the rapids--not at Le Claire,

but somewhat further up, at or near present town of Princeton, Scott

Co., Ia. Forsyth in 1819 speaks of "the Little Fox village, 9 miles

above the rapids." A mile above Princeton, on the Illinois side, is

Cordova, marked Cordawa on Owen's map, and Berlin on Nicollet's.

[I-32] At 4 m. above Cordova, Pike passed on the left or Iowan side a

river whose name is perhaps the most remarkable thing about it:

Wabisapencun, Pike's map; Wabisipinekan, Pike's text, further on;

Wabisapincun, Lewis and Clark's map of 1814; Wapisipinacon, Long's;

Wabezipinikan, Nicollet's; Wabesapinica, Featherstonhaugh's;

Wapsipinicon, Owen's and U. S. Eng'rs'; Wapsipinecon, G. L. O. No two

original authors agree, and when one tries to copy another he is

liable to be foiled by his printer. But the river runs on just the

same, through several Iowan counties, on a general S. E. course,

approximately parallel in most of its extent with Red Cedar r. It also

does duty as the boundary between Scott and Clinton cos., Ia., along

most of their apposed extent. There are several islands about its

mouth; one of them is called Adams. Opposite the mouth of the W----n

r., for a space of about 8 m. along the Illinois side of the

Mississippi, the hills recede, leaving a low place in which the body

of water known as Marais d'Osier, or Lake Willowmarsh, is situated:

see Pike's map, in the interval between his "High Prairie" (ending at

Cordova) and his "Rocky Hills" (beginning about Albany). Beltrami, II.

196, calls this Marais d'Ogé, and says it was "inhabited by a savage

of the same name"! Beltrami's bosom friend, Major Long, has a still

more startling rendition of the phrase, as Mer a Doge, in Minn. Hist.

Coll., II. Part 1, 1860, 2d ed. 1890, p. 67. It appears as Mare de Oge

on an Illinois atlas before me. From Le Claire to Albany is 18 m.;

Pike probably did not get quite so far as this, but for convenience of

keeping tally we will assume that he did, and set him on the lower

point of the great Beaver isl. (No. 291), at the mouth of Comanche

slough, directly opposite Albany, Whiteside Co., Ill.; nearest place

on the other side is Comanche or Camanche, Clinton Co., Ia. Beaver

isl. is 3 m. long, and extends up to Clinton, the county seat.

[I-33] The distance by river-channel from Albany to Dubuque is reckoned

72 m. Pike's figures are 43 + 31½ + 25 = 99½ m. The required reduction of

mileage is about one-fourth off; applying which to the "43" m. of the

30th, we find Pike somewhere in the vicinity of Apple r., and may most

conveniently set him at its mouth. Decamping on the 30th, he first

made the stretch of Beaver isl., past Cedar and Cat-tail crs., right,

and came to Clinton. The original name of this city, or of its site,

was New York; both these terms seem to point back to the time when

Governor Dewitt C. Clinton was popular. The river was spanned here by

the bridge built by the C. and N. W. R. R. in 1864-65, utilizing

island No. 290. Two or three miles above stand, facing each other,

Lyons, Clinton Co., Ia., and Fulton, Whiteside Co., Ill.; around the

other side of the hill N. of Fulton, Otter cr. falls in. The line of

hills on the Iowan side comes to the river a mile above Lyons, but at

once recedes again, leaving along the river-side what is called the

Pomme de Terre, Potato, or Ground Apple prairie, at the head of which

Elk r. or cr. falls in, 8 m. above Lyons. The recession of the hills

on the Illinois side from Fulton is much greater for a space of 16 m.,

where there is low ground for some miles back from the river, sloughy

the whole way near the river, and thus making various islands, the

largest of which are called Fulton and Savanna. Near the head of

Fulton isl. is a little place named Thompson, in Carroll Co., Ill. The

line of Whiteside and Carroll cos. strikes the river about halfway

between Fulton (town) and Thompson. On the Iowan side, the line of

Clinton and Jackson cos. is between Elk r. and Sabula. The latter

town, or its site, used to be called Charleston. It naturally grew

after 1881, when the C., M. and St. P. R. R. built the bridge here,

under Act of Congr., Apr. 1st, 1872. The site of Sabula is called

Prairie du Frappeur, Beltrami, II. p. 196, where it is said to have

been "inhabited by a savage of that name." Before crossing the river,

the track ran for a couple of miles on Savanna isl., at the head of

which Plum r. falls in; and immediately above this point is Savanna,

Carroll Co., Ill., 2½ m. from Sabula. The high ground comes close to

the river at Savanna, but on the Iowan side there is sloughy bottom

for 4 m. above Sabula, all this lowland being known as Keller's isl.;

above this, higher ground comes to the river-side at Keller's bar.

Rush or Big Rush cr. falls in on the Illinois side 5 m. above Savanna,

and 2 m. further is the mouth of La Pomme or Apple r., nearly up to

the boundary between Carroll and Jo Daviess cos., Ill. One Arnold used

to have his landing a mile below Apple r., about where we suppose Pike

to have camped.

[I-34] Whatever the exact distance represented by this mileage, we have

to set the Expedition down in a very unhealthy place to-night, as will

presently appear. Soon after decamping from Apple r.,--that is, in 5

miles' distance by the channel, Pike passes on his left a notable

stream, which he elsewhere calls the Great Macoketh. This is Makokety

r. of Nicollet, Maquoketa r. of others, whose name is now usually

spelled Makoqueta. This is also the designation of the county seat of

Jackson, situated upon the river. It falls in opposite Sand prairie,

about where the line between Carroll and Jo Daviess cos. strikes the

river. The "beautiful eminence on the W." which Pike observed is

Leopold hill, near Bellevue, Jackson Co., Ia. This town existed before

Nicollet's map was made, as he marks it by name. The locality called

Chéniere by Beltrami II. 196, was hereabouts. He gives it on the W.,

10 m. above his R. la Pomme. The hills begin to approach the river

four or five miles below Bellevue, and so continue with little

interruption to Dubuque. The trough of the river is similar on the

Illinois side, but the hills do not hug the river so closely, leaving

a stretch of sloughy bottom, especially at the delta of the Galena r.

This is the insalubrious place of encampment. The Galena was long

named, and is still sometimes called, Fever r. The same slough by

which it discharges receives Smallpox cr.; and on the Iowan side,

opposite Harris slough, which is the upper end of the Fever delta, a

creek falls in known as Tête du Mort, or Tête des Morts. It must have

been a choice region of saturnine and miasmatic poisons, as the

victims of lead-palsy and ague-cake who lived on Fever r. had the

option of moving down on Smallpox cr. or over to Death's-head cr. The

place to avoid is pointed out to Mississippian tourists by Pilot Knob,

an isolated eminence on the prairie near the variolous creek, 3 m. S.

of the city of Galena, which is about the same distance up the febrile

stream. The cranial creek is said to have been so named on account of

the number of skulls which resulted from an Indian fight there. On

this point Beltrami, 1828, II. p. 160, has "a place called the

Death's-heads; a field of battle where the Foxes defeated the

Kikassias [Kaskaskias?], whose heads they fixed upon poles as trophies

of their victory. We stopped at the entrance of the river la Fièvre, a

name in perfect conformity with the effect of the bad air which

prevails there." Nor do I know what terrors may be hidden under the

name of Sinsinawa cr., which makes in a mile or two higher up, on the

Illinois side. Two of the sloughs at the delta are called respectively

Harris' and Spratt's; a third is Stone slough. One Gordon established

a ferry here, many years ago, and a place on the Iowan side, close to

the boundary between Jackson and Dubuque cos., is still known as

Gordon's ferry. Regarding the nomenclature of Galena r., we should not

omit to cite here Keating's Long's Exp. of 1823, published 1824, I. p.

212, where it is stated that Smallpox cr. and Fever r. are the same:

"a small stream, called by the Indians Mekabea Sepe, or Small-pox

river; it is the Riviere de la Fievre, which is said to enter the

Mississippi opposite to Dubuque's mines." Probably not much weight

attaches to this observation, which Major Long only made

parenthetically, and evidently at second-hand information, in speaking

of a badger which his party had killed and cooked; though it is also

quite possible that Galena r. once rejoiced in both names, one of

which was later conferred upon the small creek which enters its delta.

That Long knew the Galena as La Fièvre r. is certain, for he uses the

latter name, though without any accent, in the narrative of his voyage

of 1817, in speaking of reaching it on Monday, July 28th, of that

year. See Minn. Hist. Coll., II. Part 1, 1860; 2d ed. 1890, p. 66. It

appears that Long's MS. of his voyage of 1817 was placed in Prof.

Keating's hands when the latter was preparing for publication the

history of Long's Expedition of 1823. This source of information was

freely drawn upon; in fact, I do not see that Prof. Keating did not

fully avail himself of this opportunity to editorially embody in the

narrative of 1823 the whole substance of the 1817 materials, in so far

as Major Long went over the same ground in the two expeditions. But

the earlier narrative contains considerable matter not pertinent to

the later one, inasmuch as Major Long in 1817 traversed a long section

of the Mississippi that he did not retrace in 1823. On this particular

account, as well as for more general reasons, it was desirable and

eminently fitting that Long's Expedition of 1817 should be published;

and that was first done in long after-years by my friend, the late

Rev. Edw. D. Neill, the veteran Minnesota historian, who received the

MS. for this purpose from Dr. Edwin James, then of Burlington, Ia.

(who d. Oct. 28th, 1861). As originally published under Dr. Neill's

careful editorship, the article was entitled: "Voyage in a Six-Oared

Skiff to the Falls of Saint Anthony in 1817. By Major Stephen H. Long,

Topographical Engineer United States Army," and formed Part 1 of Vol.

II. of the Minn. Hist. Coll., 1860 (about 80 pages); 2d ed. 1890,

half-title and introductory note by E. D. N., one leaf; journal, pp.

9-83; map and appendix, prepared by A. J. Hill, pp. 84-88. Major

Long's movements of 1817 occupied 76 days, of which the journal here

printed covers the period from July 9th to Aug. 15th, both inclusive,

or 38 days; as it picks up Major Long after his return to Prairie du

Chien from a tour of the Fox-Wisconsin portage, takes him from that

Prairie to the falls, and returns him to Bellefontaine, near the mouth

of the Missouri. The objects of this voyage were to meander the upper

Mississippi and take its topography, with special reference to the

selection of military sites. It was performed in a boat furnished by

Governor William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis.

Its most important single result was the speedy occupation of the

mouth of St. Peter's r. for a military post, at first called Fort St.

Anthony, and in 1824 named Fort Snelling; but the narrative is replete

with matter of permanent historical and scientific interest. Major

Long was a conscientious, competent, and well-equipped explorer, as

all three of his important and memorable expeditions attest. The

present expedition is the only one of which we have the account from

his own pen, as Dr. James and Prof. Keating, respectively, were the

authors of the other two. Stephen Harriman Long, of New Hampshire, was

appointed from that State a second lieutenant of Engineers Dec. 12th,

1814, and brevetted major of Topographical Engineers Apr. 29th, 1816,

though his actual majority in that corps was not reached till July

7th, 1838. He became colonel Sept. 9th, 1861, was retired June 1st,

1863, and died at Alton, Ill., Sept. 4th, 1864.

[I-35] This Dubuque matter formed a part of Doc. No. 2 of App. to Part 1

of the orig. ed., p. 5, and will be found beyond: see Chap. v. Art. 3.

The document was transmitted to General Wilkinson by Pike from Prairie

du Chien.

[I-36] Chippewas, or Ojibways--of whom Pike has much to say in this

volume. The French nickname he uses, found also as Saulteurs,

Saulteux, Saltiaux, Sautiers, Saltiers, Soutors, Soters, etc., was not

given because these Indians were better jumpers than any others, but

because the band of Chippewas whom it originally designated lived

about the Sault de Sainte Marie, or St. Mary's falls, of Lake

Superior. The term afterward became synonymous with Chippewas or

Ojibways in a broad sense. On the map of Champlain's Voy., Paris,

1632, the Sault is marked du Gaston, for the brother of Louis XIII.,

and there located between Mer Douce and Grand Lac, _i. e._, between

Lakes Huron and Superior. The chute seems to have been first heard of

about 1616-18, from one Étienne Bruslé, or Stephen Broolay. In 1669,

when the Jesuits reached the place, they changed the name to

compliment the B. V. M. There is no doubt that Ojibwa or Ojibway is

preferable to Chippewa or Chippeway, as a name of the tribe; but the

latter is best established, both in official history and in geography,

and may be most conveniently retained. These are the same word,

etymologically, and are mere samples of the extraordinary profusion of

forms in which the name exists. Very likely 50 different combinations

of letters could be produced, some of them bearing little resemblance

to one another. The meaning of the name is in chronic dispute. The

linguistic sages seem to be agreed that the word has something to do

with _puckering_; but whether it refers to the place which is puckered

up between the two lakes above said, or to the way the moccasins of

these Indians were puckered along a peculiar seam, or to the habits of

these Indians of torturing with fire till the skins of their prisoners

were puckered by burning to a crisp, are questions much agitated. The

learned Anglojibway, Hon. W. W. Warren, historian of his tribe, takes

the latter view, saying: "The word is composed of _o-jib_, 'pucker

up,' and _ub-way_, 'to roast,' and it means, 'to roast till puckered

up.'" Mr. Warren adduces also the name Abboinug, literally Roasters,

given by the Ojibways to the Sioux, from the same horrid practice. He

says that the Ojibways, as a distinct tribe or people, denominate

themselves Awishinaubay. Probably the best account we possess of these

Indians is that given in the Minn. Hist. Coll., V. of which is almost

entirely devoted to the subject (pp. 1-510, 1885). This consists of

Warren's history, based on traditions, and of Neill's, based on

documents. The two thus admirably complement each other, and are

preceded by a memoir of Warren, by J. Fletcher Williams.

[I-37] Our name of these Siouan Indians comes from their Algonkin

appellation, which reached us through an assortment of French forms

like Ouinipigou (as Vimont, Relation, 1640), etc., several of which

have served as the originals of place-names now fixed in current

usage. The term Puants, meaning Stinkers, was the French nickname. It

is found as Puans, Pauns, Pawns, Paunts, etc., originated very early,

and was much in vogue. On the old map cited in the foregoing note

appears the legend "La Nation des Puans," though these Indians, with

their Green bay, are marked on it N. instead of S. of Lakes Superior

and Huron. The Stinkards gave occasion for a Latin synonym, as seen in

the phrase "Magnus Lacus Algonquiniorum seu Lacus Fœtentium" of De

Creux's map, Hist. Canada, Paris, 1664. They were also called Gens de

Mer, Sea People. Jean Nicolet of Cherbourg in France, in the service

of Champlain's Hundred Associates, believed to have been the first

white man to enter Green bay, in July, 1634, calls them by their own

name of themselves, which he renders Ochunkgraw, and which later

acquired a variety of forms: see note 44, p. 39, and Butterfield's

Disc. N. W., 1881, _passim_, esp. p. 38.

[I-38] Pike did not get far from Dubuque, if he left at 4 p. m. He

probably stopped at the first convenient place to camp above the

bluff, in the vicinity of Little Makoqueta r.--perhaps on the spot

where Sinipi, Sinipee, or Sinope was started. In bringing him up to

Dubuque from the Galena delta we have not much to note: Suisinawa,

Sinsinawa, or Sinsinniwa r., right; Menomonee cr., right, and Catfish

cr., left, between which is Nine Mile isl.; Massey, Ia., town at

Dodge's branch; East Dubuque, Ill., rather below the large city of

Dubuque. This is the oldest establishment in Iowa, as the Canadian

Frenchman Julien Dubuque came there in 1788; extinction of Indian

title and permanent settlement not till 1833; town incorporated 1837;

city charter, 1840; pop. 3,100 in 1850: for the rest, see any

gazetteer or cyclopedia. With this day's journey Pike finishes

Illinois, which has been on his right all the way, and takes Wisconsin

on that side; but Iowa continues on his left. The interstate line runs

on the parallel of 42° 30' N., which cuts through Dubuque.

[I-39] From Dubuque to Cassville is only 30 m., and Pike was somewhat

advanced beyond Dubuque when he started. "The mouth of Turkey river,"

opp. which he camped, is of course a fixed point; and this shows the

required reduction of his "40" miles to somewhat under 30.

Determinations like these would be proof, were any needed, of the

proposition advanced at the start, that the set of mileages with which

we have to deal require a discount of 20 to 25 per cent. as a rule. In

making his "two short reaches," Pike passed his Little Macoketh, the

Little Makoqueta r., on his left, and the extensive slough on his

right which receives the discharges of Platte and Grant rivers. He

maps the former river: see the unnamed stream on the left, where "M^r.

Dubuques Houfe" and "Lead Mines" are lettered. The other two rivers

are not laid down; they run in Grant Co., Wis. Beltrami, II. 196, has

a locality on the W. said to be 16 m. above Dubuque's mines, and to be

called Prairie Macotche, "from the name of a savage who inhabited it."

This item is no doubt imaginary; but Macotche is clearly the same word

as Makoqueta. Pike's "long reach" is the 15 m. or more where the river

is straight; it begins about Specht's Ferry (opp. which the Potosi

canal was dug for an outlet of Grant r.) and extends to Turkey r. On

the left, about halfway along this stretch, is the town of Waupeton

(Wahpeton, Warpeton, etc.), at or near which the boundary between

Dubuque and Clayton cos. strikes the Mississippi; the town of

Buenavista, Clayton Co., Ia., is 3½ m. higher, between Plum and

Panther crs. On the right a snicarty 11 m. long connects Grant r. with

Jack Oak slough, at the head of which Cassville is situated, at the

mouth of Furnace cr., and obliquely opposite the mouth of Turkey r.

Some places which started along the river have failed, or changed

their names; I do not now find Osceola, which maps mark near the mouth

of Platte r.; nor Lafayette, which started about the present site of

Potosi, and is now marked by some dilapidated chimneys you will

observe when the C., B. and Q. train stops at a sort of station there;

nor Frenchtown and Finlay, both on the Iowan side, the latter at the

mouth of a creek called Bastard on a map of 1857; nor Frankford, at or

near Buenavista; nor Winchester, about the mouth of Turkey r. Whether

by accident or design, Grant r. is lettered "Le Grand R." on

Nicollet's map. The Fox village, whose women and children were so

frightened at the sight of the Americans, is marked by Pike on the N.

side of Turkey r., near its mouth, about where Winchester seems to

have stood. Present Turkey R. Junction of the C., M. and St. P. R. R.

is on the other side. This stream is "Turkies" r. of Beltrami, II. p.

196.

[I-40] Probably 19 m., Cassville to Clayton, Ia., whence he could go

comfortably for breakfast to Wyalusing, Wis., or still nearer the

Wisconsin r. Above the mouth of Turkey r. the Miss. r. is divided into

two courses, called the Casville slough on the Wisconsin side and the

Guttenberg channel on the Iowan side. The latter is the broadest

course, but the former is, or was some years ago, the main channel.

The two come together 10 m. above Cassville, and a mile or two above

Glen Haven, Wis. Guttenberg, Ia., is 8 m. above Cassville, at the

mouth of Miners, Miner's, or Miners' cr.; it seems to have been

formerly called Prairie La Port, as marked on Nicollet's map. Buck or

Back cr. falls in a mile above. Approaching Clayton the banks are high

and abrupt on the Iowan side, but on the other the hills recede,

leaving a sloughy bottom into which several creeks empty, one of them

Sandy cr., which comes by a sort of sand-bank. In this vicinity there

was a place called Cincinnati, Wis., which seems to have disappeared,

like another called Kilroy, on the Iowan side. Owen's map marks

Killroy, a Clayton Co. map of 1857 has Keleroy, and Nicollet lays down

the sizable creek near which it appears to have been situated, now

known as the Sny Magill. The distance from Clayton to Wyalusing is 3

m.; thence it is about the same to the Wisconsin r.

[I-41] R. des Ouisconsins on Hennepin's map, 1683, and thus near the

modern form, though in the plural for the Indians and with _ou_ for

the letter _w_ that the F. alphabet lacks; in Hennepin's text,

_passim_, Ouscousin, Oviscousin, Onisconsin, Misconsin, etc.,

according to typesetter's fancy; Ouisconsing, Misconsing, etc., in La

Salle, and there also Meschetz Odeba; Miscou, Joliet on one of his

maps, Miskonsing on another; Ouisconching, Perrot; Ouisconsinc,

Lahontan's map; Ouisconsing, Franquelin's map, 1688; Ouisconsin,

Carver; variable in Pike; Owisconsin and Owisconsing in Beltrami;

Wisconsan, consistently, in Long; Wisconsin in Nicollet, and most

writers since his time. Were it not for La Salle's appearance on the

Illinois r. in 1680, and his sending Hennepin down it to the

Mississippi, when he dispatched Michael Accault and Antoine Auguelle

from Fort Crêvecœur to trade with the Chaas, the Wisconsin would

rank first in historical significance as a waterway to the Mississippi

from the Great Lakes; and such priority of date is offset in favor of

the Wisconsin as the best and most traveled route from the lakes to

points below the Falls of St. Anthony. It was already an Indian

highway when it was first known to the whites, and did not cease to be

such when the paddle was exchanged for the paddlewheel. A pretty full

account of the Fox-Wisconsin route will be rendered beyond in this

work. There are accounts of white settlements, or at least

trading-posts, at Prairie du Chien about 1755; but white men may have

lived in this vicinity, if not upon the spot, long before that, for

Franquelin's map of 1688 locates a certain Fort St. Nicolas in what

appears to be the position of P. du Chien, as well as I can judge.

Moreover, Joliet and Marquette reached the Mississippi r. by way of

the Fox-Wisconsin, June 15th or 17th, 1673. Our most definite

information, however, dates from Oct. 15th, 1766, when Carver came to

the spot. He reached it by the Fox-Wisconsin route, went up the

Mississippi as high as the river St. Francis, wintered 1766-67 up the

St. Peter, returned to P. du C. in the summer of 1767, went up the

Mississippi again to the Chippewa r., and by that river back to the

Great Lakes in July, 1767. He called the place Prairie le Chien; at

the time of his visit it was "a large town containing about 300

families," with houses well built after the Indian fashion, and a

great trade center for all the country roundabout. Carver also called

the place Dog Plains. This is plain as a transl. of the F., and nobody

doubts what Prairie du Chien denotes; what it connotes, however, or

its actual implication, is another question which has been much

mooted. Pike states elsewhere in this work that the place--which, by

the way, he seldom if ever calls Prairie du Chien, but de Chein, des

Cheins, etc.--was named for Indian_s_ who lived here, known as

Reynards, etc., and would translate this F. nickname either Fox, Wolf,

or Dog; in one place he has Dog's Plain. But Wolf or Dog does not seem

to have been the name used for this tribe, which, when they were not

called Ottagamies (or by some form of that word) were either the

Reynards of the French or the Foxes of the English and Americans.

Beltrami, II., p. 170, has that "it takes its name from an Indian

family whom the first Frenchmen met there, called Kigigad or Dog." The

whole weight of evidence is on the side of a personal name in the

singular number. Long states that P. du C. was named after an Indian

who lived there and was called the Dog. This may bear on Pike's

statement, and the latter may be explicable upon the understanding

that it refers to certain Indians, not necessarily of the Reynard

tribe, who were called Dog Indians, _i. e._, The Dog's Indians.

Nicollet marks the Indian town by the Chippewa name, Kipy Saging;

Schoolcraft renders this Tipisagi, with reference to the treaty of

Prairie du Chien. At the time of Long's 1823 visit the village had

about 20 dwelling-houses besides the stores, most of them old and some

decaying; the pop. was about 150. He located the place as in lat. 43°

3' 31" N., long. 90° 52' 30" W.; magn. var. 8° 48' 52" E. Long

speaks of one Mr. Brisbois, who had long resided there; of Mr. Rolette

of the Am. Fur Co.; and of Augustin Roque, a half-breed and

whole-fraud, to whom we shall refer again. Fort Crawford began to be

built July 3d, 1816, by the troops under the command of

Lieutenant-Colonel William S. Hamilton of North Carolina, who had

attained that rank in the 3d Rifles Feb. 21st, 1814, and who resigned

from the army March 8th, 1817; it would hold four or five companies,

but was a mean establishment, poorly built on a bad site, too near

Rousseau channel and the Kipy Saging slough. Long relates that in 1822

the fort as well as the village was inundated, so that the water stood

three or four feet deep on the parade ground and ran into the

officers' quarters and the barracks, forcing the garrison to camp for

a month on higher ground. One of the blockhouses of the fort was built

on a mound which was large enough to have supported the whole

establishment, though only the stockade ran up to it. Through the

attentions of Wm. Hancock Clark of Detroit, Mich., I am in possession

of a water-color picture of the fort, roughly but tellingly done by

his illustrious grandfather, William Clark, who with Governor Lewis

Cass effected the important treaty of P. du C., Aug. 19th, 1825. This

measures 18 × 15 inches, and shows a part of the stockade straggling

up to that one of the blockhouses which was on the hill or mound, as

described by Long. The general effect upon the beholder is to suggest

something of a cross between a penitentiary and a stockyard, but

unsafe for criminals and too small for cattle. The remains are extant,

and may be observed about 40 rods W. of the railroad track, half a

mile S. of the station of the C., B. and Q. This Fort Crawford must

not be confounded with the earlier one of the same name, built in 1812

or sooner, at the N. end of the town, close to Rousseau channel. This

site was near the positions of the two early French settlements, as

distinguished from the later one that grew up S. of the site of the

second Fort Crawford. Our actual settlement, continued on as the

Prairie du Chien of to-day, only dates from 1835 or thereabouts, after

the cessation of Indian hostilities in that quarter; the town is now

the seat of Crawford Co., Wis. It is in the very S. W. corner of the

county, which is separated from Grant Co. by the Wisconsin r. The

bridge across the Mississippi to N. McGregor was built in 1873-74 and

altered in 1888; C., M. and St. P. R. R.; Act of Congr. legalizing,

June 6th, 1874. Notwithstanding its prominent situation, its

distinguished history, and its comparative antiquity, Prairie du Chien

has never amounted to much, and probably never will. There is nothing

the matter with the place--the trouble is with the people. The place

to-day cuts a lesser figure than it did in Pike's time, when it was

our extreme frontier post in that direction, and it continued to be

such until Fort St. Anthony (Snelling) was built. A part of the

difficulty is ecclesiastical; no priest-ridden community can expect to

keep up with the times. Prairie du Chien is an antique curio,

comparing with the rest of Wisconsin very much as Quebec does with

Ontario--and for similar reasons.

[I-42] The bluff W. bank of the Miss. r., opp. P. du C., was later

called Pike's mountain; which, says Long's MSS. of 1817, No. I, fol.

37, as cited by Keating, 1824, received its name from having been

recommended by the late General Pike, in his journal, "as a position

well calculated for the construction of a military post to command the

Mississippi." But this recommendation is nowhere made in Pike's

journal: it is made in a letter which Pike wrote to General Wilkinson

from P. du C., this date of Sept. 5th, as the above text says, and

which formed in the orig. ed. Doc. No. 2 of the App. to Part I--the

same that covered the Dubuque report. The particular hill that Pike

picked out does not differ from the general range of bluffs which

extend on that side of the river for several miles, all of about the

same elevation. But to be particular, it was that hill which stands

between McGregor and N. McGregor. The original settlement of McGregor

was called in the first instance McGregor's landing. This was 1½ mile

below N. McGregor, built at the mouth of the creek that comes down by

Pike's mountain. This stream used to be known as Giard or Gayard r.

(latter on Pike's map), and these were common spellings of the name of

a person otherwise known as Gaillard, of mixed French-Indian blood,

said to have been, with Antaya and Dubuque, one of the three first

white settlers at Prairie du Chien, and by Long to have died suddenly

during the latter's expedition up the Wisconsin r. The present name of

the creek is Bloody Run, which may easily have acquired if it did not

deserve the designation in some one or more of the uncounted fierce

collisions of this blood-brued region. But tradition, if not authentic

history, ascribes the origin of the sanguinary title to the Nimrodic

exploits of the celebrated Captain Martin Scott, a mighty hunter who

used to kill so much game in that vicinity that he was said to have

made this stream literally run with blood. But so much used to be told

about Captain Scott--on whom was fathered in those parts the story of

the coon which promised to come down if he would not shoot, elsewhere

connected with the name of Davy Crockett--that the legends concerning

him may pass for what they may be worth. The mouth of this creek is 3

m. below that of Yellow r., and the boundary between Clayton and

Allamakee cos. strikes the Mississippi between the two, though very

near the mouth of the latter.

[I-43] See note _anteà_, p. 5, where the phrase Cap au Grès is

mentioned. Pike's term Petit Gris, elsewhere Petit Grey, would be

preferably rendered Petit Cap au Grès, in the peculiar system of

phonetics which our Parisian friends are wont to enjoy. This Little

Sandstone bluff extends up the Wisconsin in the direction of

Bridgeport. A small creek which comes down a break in the bluff, and

empties into the N. side of the Wisconsin a mile above its mouth, is

also named Petit Gris or Grès. There was also a Grand Grès in that

vicinity--to judge from a creek I find on some maps by the name of

Grandgris--perhaps the branch of the Wisconsin now known as Kickapoo

r. Pike's recommendation of the Petit Grès as a military site was

never acted upon.

[I-44] I think Pike never once hits what a grammarian would consider the

proper way to write this phrase. Wherever he happens upon it, the

gender or the number gets awry. The hitch in pluralizing seems to be

because the first _s_ is sounded before the initial vowel of the next

word, but the last _s_ is silent, because the French seldom articulate

their letters at par. _Folle avoine_, literally "fool oat"--a phrase

also reflected in the Latin term _avena fatua_--is the Canadian French

name of the plant known to botanists as _Zizania aquatica_, and to us

common folks as wild rice, wild oats, water-rice, water-oats, Indian

or Canadian rice or oats, etc. My friend Prof. Lester F. Ward, whom I

desired to prepare the botanical definitions for the Century

Dictionary, and who did write them, with the assistance of Mr. F. H.

Knowlton, after the lamented death of Prof. Sereno Watson, Prof. Asa

Gray's successor at Cambridge, defines _Zizania_ as "a genus of

grasses, of the tribe _Oryzeæ_. It is characterized by numerous narrow

unisexual spikelets in a long, loose androgynous panicle, each

spikelet having two glumes and six stamens or two more or less connate

styles." This would be news to the Menominees, though these Indians

subsisted so largely upon the seeds of the plant that the French

called them les Folles Avoines, and the English knew them as the

Rice-eaters. This rice grows in profusion in all the lacustrine

regions of the N. W., and is regularly harvested by all the Indians of

that country, to be sold or bartered as well as eaten by them. Its

great size, its purplish spike-like heads when ripe, and its

omnipresence, render it one of the most conspicuous products of the

region. The Indians do not cut the stalk as we reap our cereals,

because the loose grains fall so readily that the easiest way to

gather them is to simply shake or beat them into a canoe. As to the

polyglot council which Pike held with the Puants, we may hope without

believing that the Winnebagoes were deeply impressed by the

combination of New Jersey and Canadian French which fell upon their

ears through the Dakotan tongue. It is true that the Winnebagoes come

of Siouan stock, and so have some linguistic affinity with the Sioux;

but the dialect they acquired is conceded by all philologists to be

peculiar to themselves, and peculiarly difficult to utter. The

Winnebago spoken at this council was probably as different from the

Dakotan as Latin is from its cognate Greek, or even as Pike's French

was from that spoken in Montreal or Paris. The Winnebagoes call

themselves by a name which is rendered Otchagra by Long, Howchungera

by Featherstonhaugh, Hotcañgara by Powell; also Ochungarand,

Hohchunhgrah, and in various other ways which authors prefer and

printing-offices permit: see note 37, p. 31. Since Charlevoix they

have been known as Puans, Puants, or Stinkers--and they deserve to be.

Their vernacular is noted for the predominance of the growler or

dog-letter _r_, _litera canina_ of the Latin grammarians.

[I-45] Billon's Ann. St. Louis, 1804-21, pub. 1888, p. 382, is obviously

in error in stating that Pierre Rousseau embarked with Pike at St.

Louis; for here we have him first hired at P. du C. I know nothing

further of the man; but he is doubtless the one from whom Rousseau

channel of the Miss. r., which runs past P. du C. on the Wis. side, as

distinguished from the main steamboat channel past McGregor on the

Iowan side, derived its name.

[I-46] Joseph Reinville or Renville was the name of two persons, father

and son, former French-Canadian, latter half-breed by a Sioux squaw of

the village of Petit Corbeau or Little Raven (Kaposia). Long extolls

him for ability and fidelity as an interpreter, remarking that he had

met with few men that appeared "to be gifted with a more inquiring and

discerning mind, or with more force and penetration," Keating, Exp. of

1823, I. p. 312. Reinville naturally acquired great influence over the

Indians, and when the British decided to use such allies in the war of

1812-14, he was selected by Colonel Robert Dickson as the man who

could be most relied upon to command the Sioux. In his military

capacity he received the rank, pay, and emoluments of a captain in the

British army, and distinguished himself as well by humanity as by

gallantry in war. After this he entered the service of the H. B. Co.;

left it, relinquishing also his British pension, and returned to his

old trading-post near the sources of Red r., where he established the

successful Columbia Fur Co. Reinville had that energy and independence

which enabled him to decide for himself and act upon his decisions; he

therefore made bitter enemies as well as warm friends, whose judgments

of his character and conduct were, of course, as diverse as their

feelings for or against him. Reinville was born at Kaposia, near St.

Paul, about 1779, and died in March, 1846: see sketch of his life by

Rev. E. D. Neill in Minn. Hist. Soc. Coll., I., 2d ed. 1872, pp.

196-206.

[I-47] This Frazer I do not doubt was a relative of the Robert Frazer,

Frazier, Fraser, etc., who accompanied Lewis and Clark. The latter was

a "Green Mountain boy," and it is highly improbable that two unrelated

Frazers came from Vermont to the Western frontiers in the beginning of

this century. But I can only conjecture what their degree of kinship

was. One Joseph Jack Frazer cut a figure in early Minnesota history,

if we may judge from the sketches of his life and adventures which ran

through the columns of the St. Paul Pioneer, about 1866 or 1867, from

the pen of General Henry Hastings Sibley. In this connection I may be

permitted to note the fact, not generally known, that Robert Frazer

was one of several annalists of that famous expedition, who went so

far as to issue a MS. prospectus of a book he was going to publish

about it, with Captain Lewis' own sanction. But this project failed

for lack of subscribers to what any publisher would now be glad to

accept, could the MSS. be found. See Prof. James D. Butler's review of

my L. and C., N. Y. Nation, Oct. 26th and Nov. 2d, 1893.

[I-48] Pike's was luckier than Long's boat-party of 1823, which started

from P. du C. as Pike did, but did not get much above Yellow r. It

consisted of Thomas Say, the subsequently distinguished naturalist;

Prof. W. H. Keating; Mr. Samuel Seymour, the artist; the rascally

interpreter Roque or Rocque; and Lieutenant Martin Scott, the latter

in command of a corporal and his squad of eight soldiers. These men

tapped a keg of liquor, and got too drunk to navigate--the crew did, I

mean, for it is well known that officers never drink. Yellow r. is

present name of the stream consistently so called since it ceased to

be R. Jaune of the French régime; it has been already mentioned as

falling in on the W., 3 m. above Bloody Run and N. McGregor. Three

miles higher, on the same side, is Paint cr., or Painted Rock cr.,

near a place full of historic interest; for at one point along the

almost unbroken bluffs is the steep escarpment which became known to

the F. as Roche Peinte, or Rochers Peints, and which continues to be

called Painted Rock or Rocks, from the Indian pictographs with which

it was adorned for ages. Beltrami gives it as Pointed Rock, II. p.

196. High places of all sorts, whether the elevation be phallic or

terrene, have always been regarded as great medicine by the untutored,

from the days of the priests of Baal, Moloch, or Jahveh, to those of

the similar shamans and marvel-mongers of Lo. Such theological

jugglery is reflected in the present name of Waucon or Waukon

Junction, near the mouth of Paint cr., where the Chic., Dub. and Minn.

R. R., meandering the river, sends the Waukon branch to Waukon, seat

of Allamakee Co., Ia. A town, or something that tried to be one, by

the prosaic name of Johnsonsport, is to be found on some maps at the

mouth of Paint cr. About 4 m. above Waukon Junction is a place called

Harper's Ferry, suggestive of Virginian emigration. The bluffs hug the

Iowan bank closely to Paint cr. The opposite side is low for some

miles back, with sloughs or bayous known as Marais, Courtois, Sioux,

etc., into which drain several creeks, among them one called

Fisher's--no doubt for the gentleman who entertained Pike--and another

named Pickadee; both these are received in Sioux bayou. But above

Paint cr. the channel runs, or recently did run, on the Wisconsin

side, having an intricate snicarty on the other, whose various courses

are known as Seaman's slough, Big Suck-off, Gordon's bay, Martell's

lake, Center, Harper, St. Paul, Crooked, Ferry, etc., sloughs.

Wherever the channel was in Pike's time, he says that he camped on the

W. side, and I suppose at a point about opposite present town of

Lynxville, Crawford Co., Wis., which is reckoned 17 m. above P. du C.

by comparatively recent hydrographers. To reach this place he passed

Trout cr., which falls in on the right hand nearly opp. Painted Rock,

and the site of Viola, at the mouth of Buck cr., also on the right.

[I-49] Say Island No. 142, or head of No. 143, for a present location

which exactly fits, being on E. side, 4 or 5 m. below mouth of Upper

Iowa r., and opp. De Soto, Wis., on the border of Crawford and Vernon

cos. The camp itself is of little consequence, in comparison with the

notable points passed to reach it, at Pike's Cape Garlic and in that

vicinity. At the head of Harper and Crooked sloughs the channel runs

under the Iowan bluffs to Lansing, Allamakee Co., Ia., 12½ m. from

Lynxville. On the Wisconsin side for the same distance is a remarkably

labyrinthic snicarty, whose principal run is called Winneshiek slough,

upon which is Ferryville, Crawford Co., Wis., at or near the mouth of

Sugar cr. The series of creeks which fall into these sloughs is as

follows, in ascending order: Kettle, above Polander hollow; Copper,

above Cumming's hollow; Buck (duplicating a name: see last note); the

Sugar cr. just said; and Rush, above Ferryville. The river sweeps

under the bold Iowan headlands, two prominent points of which became

known as Cape Garlic and Cape Winnebago--one from the alliaceous plant

growing there, and the other from the incident about to be cited;

while two of the four streams which fall in through four breaks on

these bluffs were correspondingly called Garlic r. or Cape Garlic cr.,

and Winnebago r. or Cape Winnebago cr. Authors differ as to which is

which; I make the following determinations: 1. At the point where the

main channel of the Mississippi divides into Crooked and Harper

sloughs, 8 m. below Lansing, and near where Heytman had his landing, a

large creek falls in. This is properly Garlic r.--the one on which the

town of Capoli is situated. _Capoli_ means Cape Garlic, being a

perversion of the F. Cap à L'Ail--a phrase that has been peculiarly

unlucky at the hands of compositors and engravers; even on Nicollet's

map it stands by accident Cap a' Lail, though the eminent geographer

himself was un Français de France, whose mother-tongue was academic.

Beltrami, II. p. 197, expands the phrase to Cape à l'Ail Sauvage. 2.

Three miles above the mouth of Capoli cr. a rivulet falls in between

two eminences; the lower one of these is present Capoli bluff,

formerly Cap Puant or Cape Winnebago; the upper one is now called

Atchafalaga bluff, formerly Cap à l'Ail or Cape Garlic; the rivulet

just said is Pike's Garlic r. 3. At 4½ m. higher, through a recess in

the highlands falls in the stream now called Village cr., which

Nicollet maps as Cape Winnebago cr. This is the one on which the town

of Village Creek is situated, 3 m. up. Its mouth is exactly a mile

below the mouth of Coon or Clear cr., on which Lansing is situated,

under Mt. Hosmer--this "mountain" being that part of the bluffs which

is isolated between the two creeks just said to fall in a mile apart.

With thus much by way of geographical determinations, I must leave to

someone more familiar than I am with the local traditions or actual

history of the place, to identify the exact scene of the following

incident, given in Keating's Long's Exp. of 1823, pub. 1824, I. p.

266: "Two remarkable capes or points were observed on the right bank

of the Mississippi below Iowa river; the lower one is designated by

the name of Cape _Puant_, because at a time when the Sioux and

Winnebagoes (_Puants_) were about to commence hostilities, a party of

the latter set out on an expedition to invade the territory of the

Sioux and take them by surprise; but these being informed of the

design, collected a superior force and lay in ambush near this place,

expecting the arrival of their enemies. As soon as the Winnebagoes had

landed, the Sioux sallied from their hiding-places, pressed upon them

as they lay collected in a small recess between the two capes, drove

them into the river, and massacred the whole party. Garlic cape, just

_above_ [italics mine] this, strikes the voyager by the singularity of

its appearance. In shape it represents a cone cut by a vertical plane

passing through its apex and base; its height is about four hundred

feet." I suppose the "small recess" of this recital to be that between

present Capoli (lower) and present Atchafalaga (upper) bluffs,

respectively former Cape Winnebago (lower) and former Cape Garlic

(upper) bluffs.

[I-50] La Feuille is a name which Pike rarely, and only by accident,

spells correctly. But in writings of the period it was extremely

variable, being found even as Lefei, Lefoi, Lefoy, La Fye, etc. This

French term commonly appears in English as The Leaf, sometimes Falling

Leaf, and is conjecturally a translation of the native name of the

hereditary chiefs of the Kioxa (Kiyuksa) band of Sioux. This has

usually been rendered Wabasha or Wapasha, and explained as derived

from _wapa_, leaf, and _sha_, red. In one place Long has Wauppaushaw.

In Riggs and Pond's Dakota dictionary the name is given as Wapahasha,

and etymologized as from _wapaha_, a standard, and _sha_, red. In

Minn. Hist. Coll., I. 2d ed. 1872, p. 370, J. Fletcher Williams

surmises the origination of the name in the chieftainship of the

Warpekutes, otherwise Leaf Shooters--though why the tribe was so

called, and whether the English term is a proper version of the

aboriginal name, seem never to have been satisfactorily shown. Such

forms of the chief's name as Wabashaw and Wapashaw, etc., are common,

besides which there are some odd and rare ones; _e. g._, Beltrami, II.

p. 180, has: "The Great Wabiscihouwa, who is regarded as the Ulysses

of the whole nation." Three chiefs named Wabasha are known to us in

history. Wabasha I. was famous during the Revolutionary war. Wabasha

II. was his son, and the latter is the one of whom Pike, Long,

Beltrami, and many others speak. He was already a great chief in

Pike's time, who grew in credit and renown with years. He was seen in

1820 by General Henry Whiting, who describes him as a small man with a

patch over one eye, who nevertheless impressed everyone with respect,

and whose profile was said to resemble that of the illustrious Condé.

"While with us at Prairie du Chien," says Whiting, "he never moved, or

was seen, without his pipe-bearer. His people treated him with

reverence. Unlike all other speakers in council, he spoke sitting,

considering, it was said, that he was called upon to stand only in the

presence of his great father at Washington, or his representatives at

St. Louis." He was not a warrior, believing that Indians could prosper

only at peace with one another and with the whites, and declared that

he had never been at war with the latter, though many of his young

men, against his advice, had been led astray in the war of 1812. His

son, Wabasha III., resided at the village below Lake Pepin until 1853,

and in 1872 was living on the Niobrara Reservation.

[I-51] To go up to the mouth of Upper Iowa r., for the conference with

Leaf's band of Sioux, who received the Expedition with almost touching

warmth, as Pike goes on to narrate. His map letters "Upper Iowa

River," and marks "Sioux Vill." on the S. side near the mouth. Pike's

text of 1807, p. 7, has Jowa: Beltrami has Yahowa in text, Yawowa on

map: for other forms see note 25, p. 22. The river is a large one

which, with its tributaries, drains a N. E. portion of Iowa and some

adjoining Minnesota land. The river discharges by a set of sloughs in

such intricate fashion that it is not easy to locate its principal

mouth with entire precision, to say nothing of where it was at Pike's

visit; recent hydrographic surveys, on the scale of a mile to the

inch, show the largest opening at a point exactly 2½ m. S. of the

inter-State line between Iowa and Minnesota, which runs to the

Mississippi on the parallel of 43° 30' N., through the village of New

Albin, on Winnebago cr., and cuts through Lost slough. Assuming this

position, which is probably right within a fraction of a mile, Pike is

precisely opposite the place where was fought the decisive battle of

Bad Axe, notable in history as finishing the second Black Hawk war.

Black Hawk was the most celebrated chief during the Sac and Fox war,

b. about 1768, at the Sac vill. near the mouth of Rock r. in Illinois,

d. on the Des Moines, in Iowa, Oct. 3d, 1838. In the campaign of 1832

the Indians were defeated on the Wisconsin r. July 21st, by Colonel

Henry Dodge, and again Aug. 2d by General Henry Atkinson. Zach. Taylor

had become colonel of the 1st Infantry Apr. 4th, 1832, and had his

hdqrs. at Fort Crawford, P. du Chien. He moved his forces under

General Atkinson, and caught the Indians opposite the mouth of Upper

Iowa r., as they were preparing to cross the Mississippi; the battle

of Bad Axe was fought, the hostiles were defeated, and their

organization was broken up. Colonel Taylor returned to P. du Chien

with the troops he commanded, and soon afterward received the formal

surrender of the Sac chieftain, whose sagacity was as great as his

courage. Black Hawk was sent by Taylor, with about 60 of his people,

as a prisoner of war to General Winf. Scott, and with some of them was

confined for a while in Fortress Monroe; released June 5th, 1833. The

first stream of any size, on the Wisconsin side, above the scene of

action was named and is still called Bad Axe. A place above Battle cr.

and Battle isl., very near the battle-field, if not actually on the

spot, was started by the name of Victory, which it still bears. This

is directly on the river-bank, at the mouth of a rivulet which makes

in there, about a mile below the spot where one Tippet had his

landing. Tippet's place was nearly opposite the Iowa-Minnesota State

line, and 1½ m. S. of the lower mouth of Bad Axe r. As the price of

their defeat the S. and F. Inds. were obliged to surrender a large

tract of land, about 9,000 sq. m., along 180 m. of the W. bank of the

Mississippi, and, perhaps, 50 m. broad; this became known as the Scott

or the Black Hawk purchase, and later as the Iowa district; it was

attached to the Territory of Michigan for judicial purposes in 1834,

and the separate Territory of Iowa was made July 4th, 1838.

[I-52] By the river channel barely over the Iowa State line into Houston

Co., Minn., obliquely opposite Tippet's landing, and about a mile

below the mouth of Bad Axe r., which falls in on the Wisconsin side.

Pike continues to have Wisconsin on his right until he crosses the

mouth of St. Croix r.

I suspect that the _Upper_ Iowa r., which Pike has just left, has a

longer historical record than that with which it is generally

credited. Franquelin, 1688, maps a large river above the Wisconsin and

below Root r., thus apparently in the position of the Upper Iowa. He

letters Indians on it as Peoueria and Tapoueri. Perrot's Ayoës r.

seems to be the same, as is certainly the Ioua r. of Lewis and Clark's

map, 1814. Long has Little Ioway r. in 1817, and Upper Iaway r. in

1823.

[I-53] This is not very definite--perhaps Pike forgot to wind up his

watch after the Sioux affair. But we shall be about right to set him

down at Brownsville, Houston Co., Minn.; this is below Root r., which

he passes to-morrow, and within convenient reach of the place, 3 m.

beyond La Crosse, to which he comes on that rainy day. Starting from

the State line, as already said, he first rounds Bad Axe bend, at the

mouth of Bad Axe r., and then comes to the town of Genoa, 8¼ m. above

Victoria. Genoa used to be called Bad Axe; but they do not seem to

have fancied the name, or perhaps the Victorians crowed over them, and

told them stories about George Washington and his little hatchet, so

it was changed. Bad Axe r. is also found with the F. name Mauvaise

Hache: _e. g._, Beltrami, II. p. 178. A mile above Genoa the river

divides in two courses, inclosing an irregularly oval cluster of

islands 6½ m. long; that on the Minnesota side is Raft channel, which

runs part of the way under bluffs; the one on the Wisconsin side,

which is or was lately the steamboat way, is Coon, Raccoon, or Racoon

slough, with a creek of these names coming in about its middle, 3 and

2 m. above Britt's and Warner's ldgs., respectively. The hills are

some miles back on this side, with a break where Coon cr. comes in,

and so continue all the way to Prairie La Crosse. Brownsville is at

the mouth of Wild Cat cr., 1½ m. above the place where the two courses

of the river reunite, or rather begin to separate; and this town is 21

m. by the river-channel above Victoria--for Coon slough is very

crooked. Britt's ldg. became the site of a place called Bergen; and

one by the name of Stoddard is on the slough a little above Coon cr.,

about opp. Brownsville. The Wisconsin county line between Vernon and

La Crosse comes to the river between Stoddard and Mormon creeks.

[I-54] R. aux Racines of the French; Racine or Root r., the latter name

now most used, though in the case of a well-known Wisconsin city the

F. word persists as the name. Nicollet calls it Hokah or Root r., and

so does Owen. The Franquelin map of 1688 marks a certain R. des

Arounoues, which some authors identify with Lahontan's semi-mythical

R. Morte or Longue, and refer both to Root r.; but this is

questionable. Long speaks (I. p. 247) of Root r. as having its Dakotan

name Hoka, and being supposed to be the same as the Rivière Long or

Rivière Morte of Lahontan, I. p. 112, called by Coxe in 1741, p. 19

and p. 63, Mitschaoywa and Meschaouay. He utterly discredits the

Baron's "180 leagues" of this river, as well as his fabulous nations

"Eokoros," "Essanapes," and "Gnacsitares." Without prejudice to the

perennial question, which it would be a pity to settle now, whether

the Baron was a knave or a fool, or most likely both, it may be

observed that Major Long is mistaken in supposing his Hoka or Root r.

to be the one which Lahontan represents himself to have gone up; for

if he went up any real river, that is Cannon r., as Nicollet urges,

and would clinch his argument by calling it Lahontan r.: see beyond.

Hokah, Racine, or Root r.--to use all three of the sure names--is a

large stream which runs E. through several of the lower tier of

Minnesota counties, and falls in through Houston Co., 3½ m. directly

S. of La Crosse, though the distance is more than this by the winding

river-channel. Mormon cr. comes into the slough on the Wisconsin side

opposite Root r., immediately below La Crosse prairie. The slough on

the Minnesota side above Root r. is called Broken Arrow--and this, by

the way, is connected with a certain small Target lake; so that no

doubt some actual incident gave rise to both these names. This lake is

the outlet of Pine cr.