Crescent, Houston Co., Minn., close to the border of Winona Co.--not
that he says he camped on the W. side, but he would naturally select
that side in preference to the other, where the various outlets of La
Crosse and Black rivers make such a snicarty. La Crescent is curiously
so called, apparently in rivalry with La Crosse, and perhaps by some
individual who thought he knew what La Crosse means, and was minded to
suggest by the Turkish emblem that the star of the new place was in
the ascendant and the town bound to grow. Thus far, however, it has
been more of an excrescence from La Crosse than a crescence of itself.
_Crosse_, in French, does not mean "cross," but the game of hockey,
shinny, or bandy, and the crooked stick or racket with which it is
played. Pike describes the game beyond, under date of Apr. 20th, 1806.
The F. word for "crescent" is _croissant_. The beautiful Prairie à la
Crosse was so called by the French because the Indians used to play
ball there when they felt safe; and when the enemy appeared they could
scoop holes in it and scuttle into them in a few minutes. The river
which laves this ball-ground on the N. became La Rivière de la Prairie
à la Crosse, which we naturally shorten into La Crosse r. Pike says la
Cross and le Cross, usually. I have seen it spelled Crose. Lewis and
Clark's map of 1814 letters "Prairie La Crosse R." Long has in one
place Prairie de la Cross. Featherstonhaugh turns the phrase into Ball
Game r. It was probably by accident that Long once gave it as La Croix
r.; for he is careful in his statements, and his editor, Keating, is
scholarly. This slip is particularly unlucky, as it is liable to cause
confusion with St. Croix, name of the large river higher up on the
same side. The city of La Crosse was started on the edge of the plain,
immediately over the river, and gave name to the county of which it
became the seat. Two of the islands which the city faces are Grand and
La Plume, respectively 1¼ and ¾ m. long. Close above La Crosse r.--in
fact, connected with one of its mouths at the place where the town of
North La Crosse was planted--is Black r. This has a long history. La
Salle speaks of it as R. Noire and Chabadeba [Beaver], in his letter
of Aug. 22d, 1682; R. Noire appears on Franquelin's map, 1688;
Hennepin has it under the Sioux name Chabedeba or Chabaoudeba, and the
like, translated Beaver r. Franqulin locates a certain Butte
d'Hyvernement, or wintering-hill, at the mouth of R. Noire; Menard and
Guerin are said to have ascended the latter in 1661. The most
remarkable things about the mouth of Black r. are the extraordinary
length of its delta and the great changes which this has experienced
within comparatively few years. The waters of Black r., though it is
not a very large stream, have found their way into the Mississippi
from La Crosse upward for 12 m. or more. There are now a number of
openings, though the principal one is the lowermost, nearest La
Crosse. Nicollet, writing about 1840, gives this as the "new mouth" of
the Sappah or Black r. (Sapah Watpa of the Sioux), and calls the next
one Broken Gun channel. This is rendered by F. Casse-Fusils in
Beltrami, II. p. 178, who recites the gun-breaking incident. This
channel now opens opposite the mouth of Dakota cr., which falls in
under Mineral bluff, at a place called Dakota. The main former
debouchment seems to have been at a point about 12 m. direct above La
Crosse, through what is now known as Hammond's chute. In Pike's time
the mouth was evidently high up, for he does not pass it till the
13th. The present (or recent) channel is turbid and sloughy for some
miles up from its contracted opening into the Mississippi, reminding
one of the similar but more pronounced expansion of St. Croix r. above
its mouth. The width of the delta, or its extent sideways from the
Mississippi, averages between 3 and 4 m., inclusive of a higher piece
of ground it incloses, called Lytle's prairie or terrace; this is 4¼
m. long and 20-30 feet above high-water mark; Half Way cr. comes
around its lower end. The vicissitudes of Black r. may be among the
reasons why exact identification of some places about its mouth in the
early French writers is not easy. Speaking with reserve, and ready to
stand corrected by anyone who knows more than I do about it, I do not
see why the traditional Butte d'Hyvernement may not have been Mt.
Trempealeau. As for the extent of the Black River basin, this is long
enough to begin in Taylor Co., where waters separate in various
directions, and to run through Clark and Jackson cos.; thence the
river separates La Crosse from Trempealeau Co. till it reaches the
town of New Amsterdam; after which the river enters its delta in La
Crosse Co., and the county line runs 5 or 6 m. to the Mississippi on a
parallel of latitude.
[I-56] From La Crosse to the town of Trempealeau is reckoned 19 m. by
the channel; the mountain is 3 m. further by the same way. Pike was
advanced beyond La Crosse when he started from La Crescent, and his 21
m. no doubt set him snug under the famous hill whose F. name snagged
him when he reached it. This is not the mountain which "deceives"
(_trompe_) in the water, as by mirage or reflection of itself
reversed; but one which rises so abruptly from the water's edge that
it seems to bathe, or at least to soak its feet, in the water, and was
therefore called by the French la Montagne qui Trempe à l'Eau--a
clumsy phrase which we have reduced to Mt. Trempealeau, Mt. Trombalo,
and various other terms not less curious. There is a notable
assortment of names along the river. On decamping and crossing the
bounds of Houston Co. into Winona Co., Minn., Pike comes to the Rising
Sun--though his course is about N., and we are not informed whether
this name advertises a certain stove-polish, or is meant to throw in
the shade both the Turkish crescent and the Christian cross. E. of
Rising Sun is Minnesota isl., on the Wisconsin side. A few miles
further is a place in Minnesota by the Teutonic name of Dresbach, at
the head of Dresbach's isl.; 1½ m. further is a town with the Siouan
name Dakota; while E. of these (across the Black r. delta in Wis.) is
a place called Onalaska, suggestive of Captain Cook's voyage to the
Aleutian isls. One Winter used to have his ldg. on the Wis. side, 2½
m. above Dakota, and in the vicinity of the place where Black r.
debouched in Pike's time--Winter's ldg. being a singular verbal
coincidence, almost like a pun upon the old name of hibernation (Butte
d'Hyvernement), which appears on the earlier pages of Mississippian
history. At 3 m. above Winter's ldg. stands Richmond, which was
established under Queen's bluff on the Minn. side. Both of these names
suggest English Colonial history of the times when a certain country
was named Virginia--certainly not to quiz one of the greatest women who
ever graced a crown, but to emphasize a diplomatic euphemism. The
"highest hill" in this vicinity is Queen's bluff, also known as Spirit
rock--not that called Kettle hill by Long in 1817; its elevation was
determined by Nicollet to be 531 feet, but was reduced to 375 feet by
later measurements. The town of Trempealeau, in the Wis. co. of that
name, is midway between Richmond and the mountain; but before Pike
reached the latter, he passed on his left the site of Lamoille, Minn.,
built under the bluff, about 300 feet high, between two creeks whose
names are Trout and Cedar. It is really wonderful how much history is
hidden--or revealed--in mere names. Personal and local words are the
most concrete facts of history. If, for example, those which appear in
this paragraph were set forth at full length in proper historical
perspective, we should have a perfect panorama of scenes and incidents
along 20 m. of the river for 200 yrs. The myrionymous molehill on the
river, which has been dignified by the name of a mountain because there
are no mountains to speak of in Wisconsin or Minnesota, and which has
been belittled by a set of phrases so absurd that it could not be further
ridiculed if one were to call it Mt. Trombonello, or Mt. Trump Low, or
Mt. Tremble Oh, or Mt. Soak-your-feet-in-mustard-water-and-go-to-bed-oh,
has not only conferred titles on a town and a county in Wisconsin, but
also on the river which washes its foot, and which is known by one of
the most unique circumlocutory phrases to be found in geographical
terminology: La Rivière de la Montagne qui Trempe à l'Eau, of the
French; River of the Mountain, etc., Pike; Mont. q. t. à l'E. r.,
Owen; Mountain Island r., Nicollet; Bluff Island r., Long--and so on
through all the chimes that can be rung out of paraphrase. It is now
usually called Trempealeau r., and forms the boundary between this and
Buffalo cos. The Sioux name of the mountain is rendered Minnay
Chonkahah, or Bluff in the Water, by Featherstonhaugh. A more frequent
form of this is Minneshonka. The Winnebago name is given as
Hay-me-ah-chan or Soaking mountain in Hist. Winona Co., 1883. The
island on which the mountain rests has a corresponding series of
names.
Pike passed to-day the place where was once situated an old French
fort, which has lately been unearthed alongside the Chic., Burl. and
N. R. R. The site is on the S. half of the S. E. quarter of Section
20, Township 18 N., Range 9 W., 1¾ m. above the village, and 1½ m. below
the mountain, of Trempealeau. It was discovered by T. H. Lewis, July,
1885, and by him examined in Nov., 1888, and again in Apr., 1889: see
his article, Mag. Amer. Hist., Sept., 1889, and separate, 8vo. p. 5,
with three cuts, and postscript dated Feb. 22d, 1890. See also T. H.
Kirk, Mag. Amer. Hist., Dec., 1889, article entitled, "Fort Perrot,
Wisconsin, established in 1685, by Nicholas Perrot," with reference to
the evasive Butte d'Hyvernement, or wintering-hill of the Franquelin
map, 1688. The separate of Mr. Lewis' article is entitled, "Old French
Post at Trempeleau, Wisconsin." "Fort Perrot," as a name of this
establishment, must not be confounded with the one often so called on
Lake Pepin.
[I-57] A meaningless phrase as it stands, and one open to various
rendering, as L'Aile, L'Ail, or L'Île. Pike's text of 1807, p. 12, has
L'aile; Long's of 1807, as printed in Minn. Hist. Coll., II. Part 1,
2d ed. 1890, p. 175, has Aux Aisle; Beltrami's, II. p. 180, gives aux
Ailes. "The site of Winona was known to the French as La Prairie Aux
Ailes (pronounced O'Zell) or the Wing's prairie, presumably because of
its having been occupied by members of Red Wing's band," Hist. Winona
Co., 1883. It is easily recognized by Pike's vivid description: see
next note. Long, _l. c._, calls it "an extensive lawn," and notes the
situation on it in 1817 of an Indian village, whose chief he calls
Wauppaushaw by a rather unusual spelling of the native name of La
Feuille. Forsyth, 1819, names it Wing prairie.
[I-58] From his camp in the vicinity of Trempealeau and Lamoille towns,
a little below the Mountain which, etc., Pike makes it 21 m. to-day
and 25 m. to-morrow to a point opp. the mouth of Buffalo r. He is
therefore to-day a little short of halfway between Trempealeau and
Alma. From Trempealeau to Fountain City is 20 m. by the channel; from
Fountain City to Alma is 22 m. Pike camps to-day at Fountain City,
Buffalo Co., Wis., immediately below the mouth of Eagle cr. The island
at the head of which he breakfasted, and where Frazer's boats came up,
was No. 75, which separates the Homer chute, also called Blacksmith
slough, from the rest of the Mississippi. Though narrow, this is, or
lately was, the steamboat channel. Opposite is town of Homer, Winona
Co., Minn., under Cabin bluff (most probably Kettle hill of Long). At
1½ m. above Homer, on the same side, is the town of Minneopa. Here the
bluffs recede from the river; here Pike left his boats for an
excursion on the hills. The "Prairie Le Aisle," which he first
crossed, is in Burris valley. The highest point of the hills which he
ascended for his prospect is called the Sugarloaf. Standing there
to-day, we overlook Winona, seat of the county, and at the foot of the
hills between us and the town is Lake Winona, nearly 2 m. long,
discharging into Burris Valley cr. Looking E. from the Sugar-loaf,
down-river, we perceive that the Mountain which, etc., is simply a
point of the bluffs which stands isolated in the delta of Trempealeau
r. To our left of it as we look, and beyond it eastward, stretches the
high prairie between the delta just said and that of Black r. Rambling
further along the hills back of Winona we come to Minnesota City, at a
break in the bluffs through which a rivulet finds its way into Crooked
slough. From this spot Fountain City is in full view, 3½ air-miles off
on a course N. by E., under Eagle bluff, on the other side of the
river. A portion of these bluffs is probably that called Tumbling Rock
by Forsyth in 1819. We could keep along the hills till they strike the
river about 5 m. further. But Mr. Frazer is anxious to get back to the
boats; very likely Bradley and Sparks are also. So we descend into the
bottom from Minnesota City, flounder across some sloughs, and on
reaching the W. bank of the Mississippi, we signal to our men to come
over in a canoe and ferry us to Fountain City.
[I-59] Fountain City to Alma, 22 m. Camp opp. Alma, in Wabasha Co.,
Minn., amid the intricacies of the Zumbro delta. For many miles above
and below this place--from Chippewa r. down to Winona, say 40 m.--the
Father of Waters, like the father of Shem, Ham, and Japhet, if we can
credit the chronicles of that ancient mariner, gets himself in very
bad form. He reels along as if he would like to take both sides of the
bluffs at once. Great skill has been shown by engineers in trying to
steer him in the way he should go; much money has been spent in
throwing out jetties like friends at each elbow of the staggering
patriarch, to mend his ways; some of his worst lurches have been
dammed as a matter of necessity, and all of them have been otherwise
objurgated as a matter of course by every steamboat captain. The late
General G. K. Warren, who was intrusted with the responsible duty of
surveying the river with reference to the improvement of navigation,
makes a most accurate observation in his preliminary Rep., Ex. Doc.
No. 57, 2d Sess. 39th Congr., p. 19: "It is often remarked, 'What a
slight thing will cause a change of the river.' But it is erroneous to
infer from this that it is easy to make it change as we wish. Effects
are often accumulating unobserved during a state of unstable
equilibrium. A slight cause then disturbs this, and marked changes
take place. But it is exceedingly superficial to attribute the whole
effect to this last cause." In consequence of the great changes in the
river, both natural and artificial, since the days of Pike, we must
not assume the present or quite recent details to be those of Pike's
time; nor should we presume to speak censoriously regarding the
identification of such things as Carver's supposed fortifications of
1766-67. Within the bounds of the solid, if not eternal hills, through
which the water has excavated its trough, we have the great river safe
enough. But these bounds are some miles apart, and between them all is
in the "unstable equilibrium" of which the eminent engineer just cited
speaks. The result is incessant shiftiness or shiftlessness, not only
as regards the sloughy bottoms and snicarties themselves, but in
respect of the sands which accumulate in various places and form banks
or terraces which sometimes take such shapes as to be easily mistaken
for artificial mounds. The cardinal principle of sound archæology is
to assume every mound to be a natural formation until it is proven to
be the work of man. One of the most notable historical instances in
point is that of the "fortifications" at Bon Homme, on the Missouri
r., which deceived even so accurate an observer as Captain Clark: see
L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 103, _seq._, and pl. Some of the present or
quite recent water-ways in the vicinity of Fountain City are those
known as Pap chute, Betsy, Haddock, and Rollingstone sloughs,
Horseshoe bend, and Fountain City bay, into which Eagle cr. falls,
under Eagle bluff. The hills then come to the river on the Minnesota
side, and so continue past Mt. Vernon to Minneiska. One of the boldest
of these headlands is called Chimney Rock. Some have an altitude of
450 feet. On the other side the bluffs recede above Fountain City,
break to give passage to Eagle c., start again about 2½ m. from the
river, and thence upward approach gradually till they strike the river
at Alma. The space between these hills and the river bottom is partly
filled by a sand terrace for about 9 m., with an average width of a
mile. On the edge of the upper one of these banks is Buffalo City, 2
m. above which a place was started by the name of Belvidere. The
boundary between Winona and Wabasha cos. comes on a parallel of
latitude to the river at Minneiska, a town named for the river at
whose mouth it is situated, under high bluffs, facing the lower part
of Summerfield or Summerfield's isl., which is 4 m. long. This river
is Pike's "Lean Clare," clearly by typographical error, as he
elsewhere has Riviere l'Eau Clair, almost right, and correctly
translates the phrase by Clear r. and Clear Water r. This is also
White Water r. of Long and others, at present the usual alternative
name of Minneiska r.; Miniskon r., Nicollet; Miniskah r., Owen;
Minneska r., Warren; and so on with the forms of the Indian word.
Clear r. comes into the bottom between the Minneiska bluffs and a
certain isolated hill to the northward, in the vicinity of which Clear
r. is still or was lately connected with one of the lowest sluices of
the Zumbro r. This last is what Pike calls riviere Embarrass (river
Embaras, ed. 1807, p. 13). The French named it Rivière aux Embarras,
from the difficulty they found in attempting to navigate it, and we
have made Zumbro out of this embarrassment. Nicollet calls it Wazi Oju
r., in which he is followed by Owen and others. Its delta extends
practically from Minneiska to Wabasha, a distance of 20 m. by the
Mississippi channel. The opening which Pike takes as the mouth is the
lower one, as he passes it before camping opp. Alma. This delta
incloses one long, narrow sand terrace, continuous for 9 m., and
several similar but smaller banks, as well as an extensive system of
sloughs and islands. The West Newton chute and accompanying islands
are among these; and Pike's camp was at the head of this chute,
directly opposite Alma and the mouth of Buffalo r. The history of this
river dates back to 1680 at least: R. des Bœufs, Hennepin, map,
1683; River of Wild Bulls, Hennep., Engl. transl.; Bœufs R.,
Lahontan, map; Buffaloe or Buffalo r., Pike, Long, Nicollet, Owen,
etc.; Beef r., Warren and others; _cf._ also, R. de Bon Secours of the
early F. writers, whence Good Help r. by translation. Some connect the
two names, as R. des Bœufs ou de Bon Secours, as if the supply of
beef had been a great relief. There were plenty of buffaloes on this
part of the Mississippi in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
and indeed down to some early years of our own. But they were
exterminated or driven off soon after Fort St. Anthony (Snelling) was
built in 1819. Fort St. Antoine appears in earliest connection with
the river. Its own mouth has no doubt been fixed since prehistoric
times by the solid Alma bluffs around which it sweeps into the
Mississippi. But the delta of Chippewa r., whose main discharge is by
a contracted opening 9½ direct miles above the mouth of Buffalo r.,
extends between these two points, and is meandered by the intricacies
of Beef slough, which such competent professional opinion as Warren's
pronounces to have once divided the main Chippewa: Ex. Doc. No. 57,
etc., p. 13. "The Chippeway river had a large lateral gorge like that
of the St. Croix to fill up before reaching the valley of the
Mississippi, and it now joins the Mississippi by a very complete set
of delta streams, beginning about 15 miles above its mouth. There was
a time when the mouth now known as Beef slough was about equal to the
main Chippeway. In their growth each kept along the bluffs or sides of
the gorge they were filling up, raising their immediate banks and
leaving a depression between them. The bank which the present
Mississippi finally put across the delta was not then there, and large
trees grew up on this intermediate space. The delta having finally
reached the Mississippi, the water was more rapidly raised in Lake
Pepin. This intermediate space was closed up on its third side by the
new forming bank of the Mississippi, and became a lake. The trees in
it then perished, and their submerged parts, preserved by the water,
remain standing in the lake at this time [July 31st, 1865]. This place
is known as Stump lake, and this name it bore among the aboriginal
Sioux (Chan-poksa-m'dé). The lower of these two delta mouths became
obstructed and dammed up by the new forming banks of the Mississippi;
the lower part of it then filled up, and it finally broke through its
own banks into Stump lake, so that it now issues therefrom in several
much obstructed channels, almost entirely useless to navigation....
The Trempealeau and Black rivers repeat the operation of the Chippeway
on a smaller scale, the Wisconsin probably on a greater, other streams
doing the same in proportion to their size." In this view of Beef
slough as an obstructed channel of the Chippewa, Beef or Buffalo r. is
simply an affluent of the Chippewa, precisely as the Minneiska is of
the Zumbro, or La Crosse of Black r.; and other such cases of
originally distinct rivers falling into the Mississippi as one by
their deltopoetic processes could easily be cited.
[I-60] "Grand Encampment" is a phrase in use since Carver's Travels
first appeared. Carver first came to Lake Pepin Nov. 1st, 1766. Those
who wish to verify the fact will find it on p. 34 of the Phila. ed. of
1796, which is commoner and therefore more accessible than any of the
earlier ones; the London princeps, 1778, is a rare book; the place is
p. 54 of this ed. On p. 35, Carver says the place was "some miles
below Lake Pepin." This left the location in the air, especially as he
does not say which side of the river; and various authors have raised
such a fog about it that we might be excused if we failed to find it
anywhere. By Pike as above, the place is between Buffalo r. and
Chippewa r.; he starts late, noons on the spot, and gets into Lake
Pepin at dusk. On his return voyage, Apr. 15th, 1806, he stops at the
place; he makes it on the right (west) bank, 9 m. below Lake Pepin.
When Long comes by, in 1823, his boat-party camps opposite the mouth
of Buffalo r., just as Pike did yesterday; on the 30th of June they
find themselves "a few miles" below L. Pepin, and much concerned to
discover Carver's "fortifications": see Keating, I. pp. 276-78. The
upshot of their long discussion is the conclusion that Carver did
really see what he says he saw, but that the works he described were
not at the Grand Encampment, where they found no fortifications. But
this is clearly a non sequitur, or a lucus a non, or a petitio
principii, or an argumentum ad hominem, or whatever may be the logical
definition of an illogical syllogism. It misses the point. The
question is not one of identifying Carver's locality; the question is
whether what he saw there was an artificial work or a natural
formation. The place can be pointed out with the point of a pin stuck
through the map, provided the topography has not changed too much for
that during the century; for the point which now points to Carver's
location is Point Teepeeota of the U. S. survey chart. The point
above, at which Major Long's boat-party landed an hour or two later
that day, and "which appeared to correspond with the description" of
Carver's place, though "their search here was likewise unsuccessful"
(p. 278), is the present site of Wabasha--the place where Nicholas
Perrot is thought to have landed in 1683, and built a log fort, the
first thing of the kind in all that country, afterward marked on some
maps as Fort Perrot. Teepeeota pt. is the projecting end of the long
narrow sand-drift or sand terrace already mentioned as extending 9 m.
or more in the delta of the Zumbro; it strikes the Mississippi
immediately below the Middle mouth of the Zumbro, and in fact
determines the position of that opening. Teepeeota pt. is 4½ m. direct
above Alma, somewhat more than 5 m. by the channel; it is 3 m. direct
below Wabasah, a little more by the channel; it is 6 m. below the
upper mouth of Chippewa r., say 7 by the channel. The Indian name
would be more correctly rendered Tipiotah--_tipi_ meaning a lodge or
dwelling (such as is called "wigwam" in novels, but seldom so on the
spot) and the rest of the word denoting multitude; the paper-town
there, called Tepeeotah City, went up in smoke, 1859. The island off
Teepeeota pt., but a little lower down, is now called Grand Encampment
isl. Of the accuracy of this identification I do not see how there can
be any question, though time has modified the contour details in the
course of nature, as well as in the course of the engineering work
done there of late years. These fortifications of the river against
its own sands are doubtless the only ones of any magnitude that have
ever been made on the spot, before or since Carver; though there was
nothing to hinder the Sioux from scooping holes in the sand-drift and
scuttling into them when the Chippewas came in sight, as we know they
did at Prairie La Crosse and elsewhere. Under these circumstances, I
think the gentlemen of Major Long's party were as unjust to themselves
in doubting their own identifications (in which they were supported by
Hart, Rolette, and others who knew about the place), as they were to
Carver in saying, p. 277: "No gentleman of the party would be willing
to ascribe to Carver a scrupulous adherence to truth, (personal
observation having convinced them all of the many misrepresentations
contained in his work)." If this is meant to charge Carver with
willful misrepresentation, I think it is unjust as well as ungenerous.
Carver mistook a natural for an artificial work--so did William Clark,
to the extent of drawing one to a scale and describing it in the terms
of military science--so have done many professional archæologists.
Carver made mistakes, like the rest of us; he was often loose about
distances, dimensions, and such things; he believed more things that
were told him than a less honest and more wary wayfarer would have
taken to be true; but I think that he drew a short bow for so long a
journey, had no occasion to deceive anyone but himself, and always
intended to tell the truth as it seemed to him--in short, I do not see
how his good faith can be seriously questioned. I accept Carver's
statements, as I do those of Pike, Long, and other honest persons, for
what they may prove to be worth.
[I-61] R. des Sauteurs, etc., of the French, _i. e._, River of the
Chippewas, with all the uncounted variations of the latter word, from
such forms as Ouchipouwaictz to the present Chippewa, Chippeway, or
Chipeway. Pike's 1807 text has Sautiaux r., p. 13. Beltrami has
Cypewais in text, Cypoway on map. Present usage among geographers
favors two _p's_ and no _y_; the ethnologists incline rather to
Ojibwa. This one of the major tributaries of the Mississippi now falls
in by its main upper mouth 1½ m. below the end of Lake Pepin, from the
N., nearly at a right angle; it is somewhat bottle-nosed--that is,
with a contracted orifice of a turgid body of water, though the
dilation is not so great as in the case of the St. Croix. The general
character of the delta has been already discussed in connection with
Beef slough. Pike has this on his right all the way from Alma to L.
Pepin. On his left he passes Grand Encampment isl. and dines near
Point Teepeeota, already described as the point of that sandbank I
should wish to call Carver's Terrace. He next comes to Wabasha, seat
of the Minnesota county of that name, so called from the celebrated
Sioux chief of whom we read much in Long, I. p. 272, and elsewhere;
his name is there spelled Wapasha, and his village was at that time
not on this spot, but lower down (Winona). The site of Wabasha
duplicates the situation at Point Teepeeota; it is in the Zumbro
delta, below the Upper Zumbro outlet, on the point of a sand-bank
identical in formation with Carver's Terrace, though much
smaller--under 3 m. in length, and less than a mile wide. Passing
Wabasha, Pike comes 2 m. to the town now called Read's Landing, at the
uppermost point of the Zumbro floodplain, almost opposite the mouth of
Chippewa r. Nicollet marks "Roques," _i. e._, Augustin Rocque's
trading-house, in about the right position, _i. e._ at present site of
Wabasha, where Rocque's old chimney was evidence in 1884. This person,
whose last name might be spelled with a _g_ as well as his first, very
likely lived on more than one spot in the course of his career.
Featherstonhaugh informs us that "Ruque's" Indian name was
Wajhustachay, and that his house stood on the edge of a high prairie,
50 feet from the water, at S. E. end of L. Pepin, right bank, opp.
Chip. r.; which fits in only with the site of present Read's Landing.
Here the C., M. and St. P. R. R. bridged the Miss. r. in '82 (Act of
Congr., Mar. 28th, '82). As indicated in an earlier note, the Chippewa
is one of the main waterways between the Mississippi and the Great
Lakes; the connection will be more particularly noted hereafter.
Carver went this way in June or July, 1867, after he had wintered up
the St. Peter. For some distance from its mouth this river separates
Pepin from Buffalo Co.
[I-62] Apparently a misprint: Alma to Read's Landing, near the foot of
Lake Pepin, 12 m. by the crooked channel; thence to Wakouta, near the
head of the lake, is only 25 m., and Pike is not yet halfway through.
He says himself that he made 3 m. further to Sandy pt., and then 18 m.
up to Cannon r. He undoubtedly ran for shelter from the gale at or
near Stockholm, Pepin Co., Wis. The channel is or has lately been
along the Minnesota side to Lake City, crossing obliquely to the other
side in passing Stockholm, then leaving for the Minn. side to reach
Point No Point, and so on up this side to Wakouta, Red Wing, and
Cannon r. "_Le lac est petit, mais il est malin_": I faithfully copy
this venerable Jo Miller, and am ready to agree that the lake is not
big, but bad. It is reckoned about 21 m. long, averaging about 2½
broad; thus it is merely a dilation of the Mississippi, like that of
the St. Croix and some other Mississippian tributaries, though on a
larger scale. The Chippewa r. was concerned in the formation of Lake
Pepin, and the two have had some reciprocal effect. General Warren's
opinion may be here cited, Ex. Doc. No. 57, 1866-67, p. 11: "In order
to better understand the formation of the present bottom-land valley,
and comprehend the existing state of things, we must go back to the
time when, by the elevation of the continent above the ocean, the
present rivers, like the Wisconsin and Chippeway, began to flow into
the channel formed by the present Mississippi bluffs. As soon as the
sediment brought down by their waters had filled up the lateral chasm
by which they joined the Mississippi, this sediment would begin to
obstruct the flow of the Mississippi water, force its channel to the
opposite side, and narrow and dam it back till the water gained
sufficient force to carry the sediment down the valley. The continual
sorting out of this sediment would leave the heavier particles behind,
so that this bar would continually increase in elevation and form a
lake above. There are evidences of the effect of the Wisconsin in
making such a dam in the neighborhood of Prairie du Chien, also by
other affluents above their mouths, which lakes have since been filled
up. In the case of the Chippeway and Lake Pepin this effect still
remains, the affluents above the Chippeway not having been able to
fill up the lake which was formed. It seems almost impossible to doubt
that this is the origin of Lake Pepin, and there are evidences in the
shape of the sand and boulder spits along the Mississippi bluffs above
Lake Pepin, such as are only formed now in it and Lake St. Croix,
which indicate that the lake formerly extended up much higher than
now.... The river now enters Lake Pepin by three principal mouths, and
the land of the delta gently slopes down to and under the water. It
has advanced very slowly, if at all, since first visited by white men.
The largest sized cottonwood trees, dying of old age, are found on the
islands within two miles of the head of the lake. The small willows on
the low and extreme points seem of an almost uniform size and age; and
are small more, perhaps, from the unfavorable condition in which they
are placed than from want of time to grow since the land was formed.
The bottom in the shoal places at the head of Lake Pepin is composed
of soft mud, and not of sand. It seems probable that nearly all the
other islands of the Mississippi were formed in similar lakes by
advancing deltas, until finally the lakes were filled up. Lake Pepin
has almost no current, and deepens gradually down to near the point of
entrance of the Chippeway, and then rapidly shoals and narrows to form
again the flowing river." Lake Pepin is curved on itself, more so than
the old-fashioned Italic letter _ſ_, there being a bend in the middle
reach which is oblique between the straight and approximately parallel
reaches at the two ends--say W. N. W. and E. S. E., then N. and S.,
then nearly W. and E. The lake nearly fills the space between the
bluffs in which it is embedded, but there are several pieces of arable
bottom-land in places where the bluffs recede, furnishing the sites of
a corresponding number of settlements, mostly at points where creeks
or brooks fall in between gaps in the hills. Such are Pepin and
Stockholm, Pepin Co., Wis.; Maiden Rock City and Bay City, Pierce Co.,
Wis.; Lake City, Wabasha Co., Minn.; Florence, Frontenac, and Wakouta
or Wacouta, Goodhue Co., Minn. Maiden Rock City is under the line of
bluffs, about 400 feet high, to several of which the Winona legend
attaches; but this town is at the mouth of Rush cr., and thus nearly 5
m. by the railroad above that bluff to which the names of Maiden's
Rock, Maiden's Head, and Lover's Leap more particularly belong. This
is directly opposite Sandy point, and only about 2 m. by rail above
the village of Stockholm; being that one of the series of quite
similar bluffs which has a remarkable vertical escarpment, at a point
where there is little room to spare for the track between the talus at
its foot and the lake shore. A good view is obtained as the cars
recede from it. Rush cr. is mapped both by Pike and by Nicollet,
without name; it seems to be that called Porcupine-Quill cr. by
Schoolcraft, and is perhaps Marchessau r. of Featherstonhaugh. A
similar stream, also mapped by Pike and by Nicollet, without name, and
now known as Pine or Mill Pine cr., falls in 1½ m. below Rush cr.
Three other small streams, known as Bogus cr., Lost cr., and Roaring
r., fall in below Stockholm on the Wisconsin side; on which side, near
the head of the lake, at the place called Bay City, is Isabel cr. (the
Clear Water cr. of Nicollet, and perhaps the Rocher Rouge r. of
Featherstonhaugh). On the Minnesota side a creek falls in below and
another above Lake City; Wells cr. (the Sandy Point cr. of Pike, and
the Sand Point r. of Nicollet), falls in at the point indicated by
these names, a mile or more below Frontenac; while at Wacouta we find
a stream mapped by Nicollet without name, formerly called Bullard's
and now known as Ida cr. The most prominent part of the Minnesota
shore, where the channel sweeps around the convexity of the bold
headland, is fittingly called Point No Point--as the up-bound
passenger discovers when the boat rounds it. This is immediately above
Frontenac, opp. Maiden Rock City, and about the junction of the middle
with the upper reach of the lake. This body of water is between two
States and four counties. The line between Pepin and Pierce cos.,
Wis., strikes it at or near Maiden Rock City; that between Wabasha and
Goodhue, Minn., comes to the lake below Frontenac, about Lake City.
Lake Pepin is commonly said to have been "discovered by Hennepin" in
1680. This statement is exactly one-third right and two-thirds wrong,
and does a double injustice, because it ignores two of the three white
men who were simultaneously on the spot. These were: 1. Michael
Accault, the bourgeois or leader of the party, who afterward
flourished under the style of Le Sieur d'Accault, d'Acau, d'Ako,
Dacan, etc. 2. His man Antoine Auguelle, commonly called Le Picard, or
Picard du Gay. 3. His ecclesiastical functionary Louis Hennepin, a
monk of the Franciscan order, whom La Salle got rid of by sending him
along with Accault and Auguelle, when this Chaas trading-party started
from Fort Crèvecœur on the Illinois r., Feb. 29th, 1680; they
reached the Miss. r. at the mouth of the Illinois, Mar. 7th, 1680, and
came to Lake Pepin in June of that year. It is a pity that the
reverend father's vanity, servility, and envy prevented him from
sticking to his ghostly trade; but he was ambitious of authorship,
like many another religious worldling, and jealous of La Salle. So he
set about a book for the glory of a trinity composed of Louis
Hennepin, Louis XIV., and God. It has made much trouble for
geographers and historians, who would willingly have waited for all
the information that it contains till this should have been imparted
by some less bigoted, less bombastic, and more veracious chronicler
than this Recollect priest, who recollected a good many things that
never happened, and forgot some of those that did occur. Hennepin is
the able philologist who discovered that the Indians called their
solar deity by the name of the then King of France, and who followed
up this discovery by naming the whole country Louisiana. He is the
same unscrupulous courtier who represents the king's arms to have been
cut in the bark of an oak west of Lac des Assenipoils, ca. lat. 60°
N.: see his map, place marked "Armes du Roy telle quel^le sont
grauée sur l'escorce d'vn Chesne a lendroit marqué--A". The tree may
be there yet, but the monk never was. Lahontan's fables are
entertaining, like La Fontaine's; Hennepin's are a bore. When this
little Louis is not wheedling the great Louis, he is apt to be
whining; he was troubled with gumboils, from dental caries, and did
not always remember the excellent injunction he received from Father
Gabriel--_viriliter age et comfortetur cor tuum_; which an Englishman
might freely render, "Be a man and keep your courage up." This
missionary lachrymosely named the lake, to which Accault, Auguelle,
and himself were taken by the Indians, Lac des Pleurs, a phrase which
appears in Engl. transls. of his book as Lake of Tears, "which we so
named," as Shea's text reads, p. 198, "because the Indians who had
taken us, wishing to kill us, some of them wept the whole night, to
induce the others to consent to our death"--_hinc illæ lacrymæ_.
Hennepin, by the way, says further, _ibid._: "Half a league below the
Lake of Tears, on the south side, is Buffalo river." This would make
R. aux Bœufs = Chippewa r.: see note 59, p. 58, for some
bearings on the case. The obscurity of the origin of the name Lake
Pepin has not been cleared up, so far as I know. Lesueur came here
Sept. 14th, 1700, and "Pepin" is found in La Harpe's MS. relation of
Lesueur's journey of July 12th-Dec. 13th, 1700. It is unlikely that
this name, by whomever given, was bestowed with direct reference to
any person of the Carlovingian dynasty; they were all dead and gone
ages before the lake was discovered, when nobody but historical
researchers took any interest in those defunct monarchs. St. Croix's
and St. Pierre's rivers were certainly named for contemporaneous
individuals, and so probably was Lake Pepin. There were a number of
Frenchmen by the name of Pepin, Papin, etc., in the country in later
years, and some one or more of them may have come before 1700. Carver
first came here Nov. 1st, 1766; he notes the remains of an old F.
factory, "where it is said Capt. St. Pierre resided." Old Ft. St.
Antoine may have been on the lake rather than at the mouth of R. des
Bœufs ou de Bon Secours; and the lake was once called Lac de Bon
Secours, or Bonsecours, a phrase which has been translated Lake Good
Help and Lake Relief. Fort Beauharnois was built on the lake, after
Sept. 17th, 1727, when La Perriere du Boucher landed on Pointe au
Sable or elsewhere; the exact site is unknown. This was an extensive
and substantial structure, and was named in honor of the then Governor
of Canada; it included a mission-house which the ecclesiastical
functionaries of Boucher's outfit called St. Michael, after an
archangel of that denomination. This was the fourth French
establishment; the other three having been Fort L'Huillier, 1700,
built by Lesueur, on the Blue Earth r., a branch of St. Pierre's; the
fort on Isle Pelée, below Hastings, by Lesueur also, in 1695; and the
fort below the foot of Lake Pepin, at or near present Wabasha, built
by Perrot, 1683.
[I-63] To a position 1½ m. below present Frontenac, Goodhue Co., Minn.,
about the mouth of Sand Point r. of Nicollet, now called Wells cr.;
this is below present Point No Point, and Frontenac is between. The
county was named by the Legislative Assembly of Minnesota, in 1853,
for James M. Goodhue, b. Hebron, N. H., Mar. 31st, 1810, came to St.
Paul, Minn., Apr. 18th, 1849, founded the Pioneer newspaper, d. 8.30
p. m., Friday, Aug. 27th, 1852: see his obit. by E. D. Neill, Minn.
Hist. Soc. Coll., I (orig. ed. 1850-56), 2d ed. 1872, pp. 245-53.
[I-64] Pike calls him Murdock Cameron on Apr. 12th: see that date; text
of 1807 has Mordock Cameron, p. 59 and p. 64: see also L. and C., ed.
1893, pp. 239, 1222. This is the same Cameron of whom Featherstonhaugh,
Canoe Voyage, etc., I. 1847, p. 314, speaks at length, and whose death
in 1811 is given as follows: "Passed a place on the right bank [of St.
Pierre's r., above the Waraju] where Milor [F.'s voyageur] buried his
bourgeois, a Mr. Cameron, in 1811. He was an enterprising, sagacious
Scotchman who had amassed a good deal of property by trafficking with
the Indians;... and whilst upon one of his expeditions he was taken
ill in his canoe, was landed, and died in the woods." Fgh. does not
hint at foul play here; for the suspicions in the case, see Long, as
cited in my L. and C. Cameron was buried on a bluff near Lac qui
Parle, the lake where his trading-post was, and "Cameron's grave" has
continued to be an identified spot from that day to this. Cameron's
name appears as that of one of the four witnesses to Pike's Sioux
treaty of Sept. 23d on one of the manuscript copies of that document
before me. The "Milor" mentioned here was a Canadian French half-breed
who became very well known as a resident of Mendota, Minn., where he
died about 1860, "after a long life full of adventure and daring
exploits," as J. F. Williams says, Minn. Hist. Coll., I. 2d. ed. 1872,
p. 375.
[I-65] Those of a sentimental turn who may like to have the
full-rounded legend of the maiden Winona will find the romance related
in a scholarly yet sympathetic vein by Prof. Keating, in Long of 1823,
pub. 1824, I. pp. 280-85. Beltrami, II. p. 183, calls the girl
Oholoaïtha, her lover Anikigi, comparing the pair to the muse of
Mitylene and Phaon. Whether the tragic event is fact or fancy is
another question I see no use of raising. There is no inherent
improbability in the case; any girl could have thrown herself over the
rock with more ease than she had climbed it for that purpose, and
suicide is not less frequent among squaws than various other peoples
of both sexes. In the case of Indian women the most usual causes are
said to be grief, anger, and revenge, though in some cases the
suicidal resolve is more deliberate, and rather a matter of social
etiquette or of a religious code than of emotional insanity. I
understand that hanging is the customary method of taking one's self
off; and that the smallest tree which will answer the purpose is
preferred, because it is an article of belief that the ghost thus
discarnated must drag the instrument of death about for a period, and
a woman naturally prefers to lighten the load as much as possible.
Supposing Winona to have taken the fatal leap, it is reasonable to
infer from the faith in such affairs that she is there yet, chained to
the rock like another Andromeda; for the bluff is too big for her to
budge an inch, even with the assistance of a possible Perseus. There
is unimpeachable precedent for her performance in the classics, not
entirely dissociated from the name and fame of the gifted poetical
archetæra Sappho; and rocks reputed to be the scenes of lovers' leaps
abound in history and geography.
[I-66] That much-named river, whereto hangs a tale of great length.
Pike here has the right name of it, though it is now usually called
Cannon r., by perversion of the French Rivière aux Canots: Cano,
Canot, Canon, Canow r. of various writers; Riviere au Canon, Canoe r.,
Cannon r., Pike, _passim_; Canon r., Long's map; Eamozindata or High
Rock r., Long's text, 1824, I. p. 263; Inyan Bosndata r., Natural
Obelisk r., Standing Rock r., Lahontan r., Cannon r., Nicollet, text
and map. It is commonly supposed that the stream marked R. aux Raisins
on Franquelin's map of 1688 is this river, and I see no objection to
this identification; for though the name is suspiciously like a
mistake for R. aux Racines, the river is laid down as above the
Chippewa, and can hardly have been intended for Root r. The main
question is whether R. Morte and R. Longue (Long r.), Lahontan,
1686-87, are names to be added to the synonyms of this stream. The
Baron Lahontan, "Lord Lieutenant of the French colony at Placentia in
Newfoundland," gives an account of himself on the Miss. r. in Letter
XVI. of his book, pp. 104-141 of the English ed., Lond., 1735. This
letter is "Dated at Missilimakinac, May 28th, 1689, containing an
Account of the Author's Departure from, and Return to Missilimackinac.
A Description of the Bay of Puante, and its Villages. An Ample
Description of the Beavers; followed by the journal of a remarkable
Voyage upon the Long River, and a Map of the adjacent Country."
According to this relation Lahontan came by the Fox-Wisconsin route to
Prairie du Chien Oct. 23d, 1686, thus hard upon the heels of Accault's
party, who had Hennepin along: "On the 3d [of Nov.] we entered the
Mouth of the Long River, which looks like a lake full of Bull-rushes;
we found in the middle of it a narrow Channel," etc. He continued his
journey, on paper if not on the river, and returned to the Mississippi
Mar. 2d, 1687; dropped down to the Missouri Mar. 17th; went up the
Missouri to the Osage r.; down the Missouri to the Mississippi again
Mar. 25th; down the Mississippi to the Wabash, and back up to the
Illinois Apr. 7th; up the Illinois to Fort Crêvecœur Apr. 16th;
arrived at "Chekakou" Apr. 24th; and made Michilimackinac soon
afterward. The whole _crux_ of Lahontan's relation is in his Long r.,
which he professes to have ascended a great distance to the countries
of the Eororos, Esanapes, and Gnacsitares, where he also got wind of
equally peculiar people called Mozeemlek and Tahuglauk. The main
feature of his map is the "Morte or River Longue," represented as
larger than that portion of the Mississippi which he traces, and as
heading in a great lake which connects across high mountains by
numerous large streams with another great river which runs off his map
due W. _De te fabula narratur._ But there is nothing to forbid us to
suppose that Lahontan went up to or toward, or even ascended, some
such stream as Cannon r., and then simply tacked this on to St.
Peter's r. by hearsay. We must in justice observe that all he
professes to know about Long r. above the point he says he ascended it
he acknowledges he got from the natives; and he is careful to separate
his map into two parts by a heavy line lettered "The Division of the
Two Maps," _i. e._, his own and one "drawn upon Stag-skins by y^e
Gnacsitares." Such a piece of patch-work would easily make his Long r.
out of Cannon or some similar stream, run on to the whole course of
St. Peter's above the Mankato or Blue Earth r. Fortunately we have
little to do with the Baron's crazy-quilt, but I must here quote
Nicollet, because he sees reason to believe that Lahontan really did
ascend Cannon r., and has signalized his conclusion by naming it
Lahontan r. on his map. Though the gentle Nicollet's quality of mercy
was never strained, yet his judgments, even his special pleadings,
deserve always the most respectful consideration. Nicollet says, in
substance, Rep. pp. 20, 21, that he was forced to this conclusion
after surveying the Undine region; that the principal statements of
the Baron "coincided remarkably well with what I have laid down as
belonging to Cannon river.... His account, too, of the mouth of the
river is particularly accurate"; the objection that the Baron says
that he navigated Long r. in November and December, when it is usually
frozen, is in part overcome by the fact that it is one of the last to
freeze, and the last resort of the wild fowl; and while he must
convict the Baron of "gross exaggeration of the length of the river,"
of its numerous population, and other pretended information, he would
conclude "that if La Hontan's claims to discoveries are mere fables,
he has had the good fortune or the sagacity to come near the truth."
As this musty old straw has never been threshed over to find any more
grains of wheat in it than Nicollet believed he had garnered, no one
else is likely in the future to make more of it than this; and our
alternative seems to be to accept Nicollet's results, or _noll. pros._
the whole case. I incline to the former, partly from my habitual
inclination to account for as many historical names as possible,
partly because I have so much confidence in Nicollet. It does not seem
to have occurred to him that his view of the case would be
strengthened by the original though probably not new suggestion I have
made, to the effect that fables of the St. Peter, tacked on to some
facts of Cannon r., would explain Lahontan's Long r.
[I-67] The present town of Redwing or Red Wing, Goodhue Co., Minn.,
commemorates this chieftain, and preserves the site of his village
with entire exactitude. Pike's tabular statement, bound in this work,
calls him Talangamane, L'Aile Rouge, and Red Wing; his tribe, Minowa
Kantong, Gens du Lac, and People of the Lakes. Beltrami, II. p. 186,
makes one Tantangamani "the unnatural father of the unhappy
Oholoaïtha." "Major Long arrived on the evening of the 30th [of June,
1823] at an Indian village, which is under the direction of Shakea,
(the man that paints himself red;) the village has retained the
appellation of Redwing, (aile rouge,) by which this chief was formerly
distinguished," Keating's Long, I. p. 251, where the name which Pike
renders "Talangamane" is given as that of Red Wing's son, Tatunkamene,
and translated Walking Buffalo. "The Redwing chief is, at present
[1823], very much superannuated, but he is still much respected on
account of his former distinguished achievements," _ibid._, p. 260.
More about him to come in Pike, beyond.
[I-68] Frontenac to Red Wing, some 13 miles by present channel, whence
it is a couple of miles further to the head of the island opp. Cannon
r. camp. Pike coasts the Minnesota shore till he finishes with the
lake at the mouth of Bullard's or Ida cr., a streamlet that makes in
at a town called after the chief Wakouta, Wacouta, Wakuta, etc. Here
he enters one of the channels by which the Mississippi finds its way
into the lake, no doubt the middle one, then as now the main one,
which, however, soon joins the south one; the north channel is
narrower, crookeder, shoaler, and connected with some expansions known
as Upper and Lower lakes and Goose bay. The town of Red Wing is
situated on the S. side of a sharp bend the river makes in coming from
the Cannon, on a plain under bluffs that nearly encompass the town;
one of these is specially notable as the isolated elevation forming a
conspicuous landmark on the very brink of the river. This is Barn
bluff, or Barn mountain, so named by tr. of F. La Grange; it is ¾ of a
mile long and 345 feet above low water mark; "upon the highest point
of the Grange. Major Long, who ascended it in 1817, observed an
artificial mound, whose elevation above its base was about five feet,"
Keating, I. p. 296. Nicollet made the altitude 322 feet, with
commendable caution; Owen gave 350 feet, almost correctly. This word
_Grange_ is often found as Gange: thus Beltrami has in text, p. 189,
mountain of the Gange, and Gange r.; latter also on map, and I suppose
Ganges r. could be found, even at this distance from India. About the
mouth of Cannon r., opp. Pike's camp, there was a place called
Remnichah; both Nicollet and Owen chart Remnicha r. or cr. as a stream
falling in close to the mouth. While Remnicha or Hhemnicha was a name
of Red Wing's village, it also covered the whole tract from Barn bluff
to Cannon r. Mr. A. J. Hill informs me of "a small ravine or coulée
which ran through Red Wing's village, and in 1854, when I lived there,
was called the Jordan. It only headed a few blocks back, and is now
doubtless a sewer or filled up." So Nicollet's Remnicha r. is that now
known as Hay cr., above which a certain Spring cr. makes in on the
same side. Present town of Trenton, Pierce Co., Wis., is about a mile
above camp.
[I-69] Discovery of the St. Croix r. is commonly attributed to
Accault's party, already mentioned as consisting of himself, Auguelle,
and Hennepin, prisoners in the hands of the Sioux at the time. The
date is 1680; day in question. According to La Salle's letter of Aug.
22d, 1682, written at Fort Frontenac, in Margry's Relations, II. p.
245 _seq._, it was very shortly after the 22d of April, 1680, when the
Indians who were carrying them off had come up the Mississippi to 8
leagues below the falls of St. Anthony, and then determined to finish
their journey by land to their village at Mille Lacs. As the St. Croix
is more than 24 m. below Minneapolis, this party must have passed its
mouth about the date said. The Memoir of Le Sieur Daniel Greysolon Du
Luth to the Marquis of Seignelay, 1685 (Archives of the Ministry of
the Marine), states that in June, 1680, he entered a river 8 leagues
from the end of Lake Superior, ascended it, made a half league
portage, and fell into "a very fine river," which took him to the
Mississippi r. This was the St. Croix, which Du Luth thus certainly
descended to its mouth at that time. He heard of the captivity of his
countrymen with indignation and surprise, hired a Sioux to show him
where they were, and rescued them; he says that he put them in his
canoes and carried them to Michelimakinak, whence, after wintering
there, they set out for the settlements Mar. 29th, 1681. It is quite
possible that before the great triangular duel which La Salle, Du
Luth, and Hennepin managed to arrange among themselves over the
operations of 1680, the St. Croix was seen by the missionary Menard,
who in 1661 may have reached the Mississippi by way of the St. Croix
or some other way, and was soon after lost. Marquette is not in
question here, as he came by the Wisconsin to the Mississippi and went
down the latter. So with any other person who reached the Mississippi
prior to 1680. Excepting the Menard matter, which is uncertain, the
case narrows to Accault's party and Du Luth, within some weeks of each
other, late spring and early summer of 1680; the facts appear to be
that the former first passed the mouth of the St. Croix, and the
latter first descended this river. Hennepin first named the river R.
de Tombeau, Descr. Louis., 1683, map; this is translated Tomb r., as,
_e. g._, Shea's Hennepin, 1880, p. 199, where we read: "Forty leagues
above [Chippewa r.] is a river full of rapids, by which, striking
northwest [read N. E.], you can proceed to Lake Condé [L. Superior], as
far as Nimissakouat [in Margry Nemitsakouat, in the Nouv. Déc.
Nissipikouet, being the Bois Brûlé] river, which empties into that
lake. This first river is called Tomb river because the Issati [Sioux]
left there the body of one of their warriors, killed by a rattlesnake,
on whom, according to their custom, I put a blanket." Some translate
Grave r. On Franquelin's map, 1688, the St. Croix is lettered R. de la
Magdelaine, though a certain Fort St. Croix appears about its head; by
whom it was first called Magdalene r. I am not informed. Lahontan's
map shows nothing here; he was too full of his fabulous Long r. to
concern himself much with real rivers. Next come Lesueur and his
people, 1695; he had first reached the Mississippi in 1683, and on
this his second appearance (his third being in 1700) they built the
trading-house called Fort Lesueur on Pelée isl., just below the mouth
of the St. Croix, as already noted. His editor, so far as this trip is
concerned, is the clever carpenter Penicaut, a sensible,
fair-and-square man. Just here comes in the question of the first
application of the _name_ St. Croix. The river was already so called
and the name in use before 1700; thus, Nicolas Perrot's prise de
possession, a document dated at Fort St. Antoine, May 8, 1689,
mentions the Rivière-Sainte-Croix. The Carte du Canada ou de la
Nouvelle France, par Guillame de L'Isle, Paris, 1703, traces the river
and letters it "L. & R. Ste. Croix," _i. e._, as some have translated
it, Lake and River Holy Cross; said lake being, of course, the
dilation of the same bottle-nosed river, which issues from a
contracted orifice, but is a mile or two wide higher up. But whatever
the theological proclivity to suppose this name to have been given for
the usual instrument of the execution of Roman malefactors, later put
by the Emperor Constantine on his banner, and afterward used for other
purposes, it is certain that the Christian crucifix is not directly
implied in the name. It is a personal designation, connoting one
Sainte Croix or Saint Croix, a trader named in La Harpe's MSS. of
Lesueur's third voyage as a Frenchman who had been wrecked there; for
we read: "September 16 he [Lesueur] passed on the east a large river
called Sainte-Croix, because a Frenchman of that name was shipwrecked
at its mouth." Hennepin names Sainte Croix as one of six men who
deserted La Salle. A letter written in June, 1684, by Du Luth to
Governor De la Barre (who succeeded Frontenac in 1682), states that
the writer had met one Sieur de la Croix and his two companions. This
case resembles those of La Crosse r. already noted, and St. Pierre r.,
noted beyond. It may be summed in the statement that St. Croix r., St.
Pierre r., and Lake Pepin, were all three so named for persons, by
Lesueur or his companions, not earlier than 1683 and not later than
1695; best assignable date, 1689. The river has also been called
Hohang or Fish r. (_cf._ Sioux Hogan-wanke-kin). The character of St.
Croix's r. as a waterway to the Great Lakes is elsewhere discussed.
This stream now forms the boundary between Wisconsin and Minnesota
from its mouth to beyond 46° N., where it splits up into small streams
in Burnett Co., Wis. Its general course is not far from S.--it is due
S. for many miles before it falls into the Mississippi; which latter,
for a great distance above their confluence, has a general bearing S.
E. Immediately at the mouth of the St. Croix, on the E., is Prescott,
Pierce Co., Wis., the site of which was once recommended by Long for a
military post; on the W. is Point Douglas, Washington Co., Minn.; and
across the Mississippi, a very little higher up, is Hastings, seat of
Dakota Co., Minn., at the mouth of Vermilion r. The above-mentioned
dilation of the river into Lake St. Croix extends some 30 m. up from
its mouth; and as far above this lake as an Indian ordinarily paddled
his canoe in a day was the long-noted Sioux-Chippewa boundary, at a
place which became known as Standing Cedars. Thus the river did duty
in Indian politics before it set bounds to our Minnesota and
Wisconsin. This lake was often called Lower St. Croix l., in
distinction from the sizable body of water at the head of the river
known as Upper St. Croix l. For the route thence by Burnt r. to Lake
Superior, see a note beyond.
[I-70] Especially as it leaves us in the lurch for mileage of the 19th.
But we can easily overhaul him before he gets to St. Paul, which is
only 30 river-miles from Prescott (mouth of St. Croix r.). He did not
go far above this river; for he makes it 26½ + 8 = 34½ m. to the Sioux
village, which latter was close to the present city limits of St.
Paul. If we must set a camp for him, it may be assigned to Hastings,
Dakota Co., Minn., 2½ m. above Prescott, Pierce Co., Wis., and 18½ m.
below Newport, Washington Co., Minn., in the vicinity of which he will
camp to-morrow. "Tattoo," at which the blunderbuss was fired, is not a
place, as the context and capitalization might suggest, but a certain
military call which is habitually sounded in garrisons and camps in
the evening before taps. It marks the hour when the soldiers are
supposed to retire to their quarters for their devotions before the
lights are put out at taps, and when the officers settle down in
earnest for the night's poker. In approaching the St. Croix from his
camp opposite Cannon r., Pike has bluffs off his right nearly all the
way, and the town of Diamond Bluff, Pierce Co., Wis., is at the point
where they first reach to the river, a mile and a half above the mouth
of Trimbelle r., right, and 11 m. below Prescott. On the left the
bluffs are off the river all the way, and for most of this distance
Vermilion slough, running under the bluffs, cuts off an island 11 m.
long and at its widest near 3 m. broad. The lower outlet of the slough
is below Trimbelle r.; the middle opening is only 3 m. below Prescott;
the upper one is at Hastings. The bottom-land of the principal island
has several bodies of water, one of them called Sturgeon l.,
discharging separately from the main slough; and is traversed
lengthwise by a sand-bank 6 m. long, which may be called Lesueur's
Terrace. For this Prairie or Bald isl. is no doubt that formerly known
as Isle Pelée, on which was built Fort Lesueur, 1695. The middle
opening of Vermilion slough is in common with a lower outlet of
Vermilion r. This is Rapid r. of Long, and Rivière Jaune of the
French; "R. Jaune" appears on Franquelin's map, 1688. The upper
discharge of this river is at Hastings, and thus above the mouth of
the St. Croix; Lake Isabel is a small sheet between the river and the
town. The Minnesota county line between Goodhue and Dakota strikes the
Mississippi just 1¼ m. below the lower mouth of Vermilion r. At the
mouth of the St. Croix the Mississippi ceases or rather begins to
separate Wisconsin from Minnesota; so that henceforth Pike proceeds in
the latter State.
[I-71] Hastings to Newport, 18½ m. by the channel; camp a mile and a
half beyond this, vicinity of present Red Rock, Washington Co., at the
point on the small strip of prairie where the Sioux had their
celebrated red medicine-stone; this was the "large painted stone" Pike
observed. It gave name to Red Rock, having meanwhile become a
historical object. We read in Long, I. p. 287: "a stone which is held
in high veneration by the Indians on account of the red pigment with
which it is bedawbed, it is generally called the painted stone.... It
is a fragment of syenite, which is about four and a half feet in
diameter.... The Indians frequently offer presents to the Great Spirit
near this stone," etc. The party found near the stone an eagle's
feather, roots of _Psoralea esculenta_, and willow sticks painted red;
they secured a fragment of the idol for their mineralogical
collection. At the time of this visit (1823) there was an Indian
burying-ground a short distance above--in sight from the spot--if that
place can be called a burying-ground where the bodies are not buried
in the ground but scaffolded in the air; a mode of disposition of the
dead which might be called hypsitaphy, in distinction from bathytaphy
or ordinary underground interment. See Pike's remarks on Sioux burial
on the 21st. To reach the sacred spot, hallowed by association with
the deepest religious emotions of the untutored aboriginal mind, Pike
left Hastings, where the river was bridged by the C., M. and St. P. R.
R. in 1871 (Act of Minn. Legisl., Feb. 7th, 1867), and soon passed the
site of Nininger, Dakota Co., a small town built at the lower point of
a steep bluff which fronts the river's edge on the S., at the mouth of
the rivulet which serves as the upper discharge of Lake Rebecca or
King l.--in fact the whole bottom on his left is an island 2¾ m. long,
extending from Hastings to Nininger, being cut off by the slough of
which King l. is a dilation. On the right, in Washington Co., bluffs
front the river for a mile or more, to the lower opening of Boulanger
slough, which cuts off an island 2½ m. long. The immediate frontage of
the Nininger bluffs on the river is less than a mile, for they recede
at the lower opening of Nininger slough. The river thus winds from
side to side of its bed, with alternation of bluffs and bottom on each
side. Above Nininger slough the river makes a great loop to the left;
the whole irregular curve is subtended on the right by Grey Cloud
slough, about 4 m. long direct, and longer by its meanders, thus
cutting off Grey Cloud isl., of the same length, and over 2 m. wide in
some places; town site Grey Cloud, Washington Co., on the river bank
on this island, which also presents at its northern end a limestone
rock, 50 to 75 feet above low-water mark, and a mile or more long;
this is probably the Medicine Wood of Forsyth, 1819. Near the middle
of the loop, on the other side, is the _nominis umbra_ site of Pine
Bend, Dakota Co., where the river runs under the hills. This loop was
formerly called Détour de Pin or des Pins, whence its modern names
Pine bend and Pine turn. The hills border the river pretty closely for
5 m. further, to Merrimac, opposite which is an island of the same
name; within 1½ m. of this on the right hand, opposite an island of
its own name, is Newport, Washington Co.
[I-72] Newport to St. Paul--to a steamboat ldg. about the foot of
Wabasha or Robert st.--is 8½ m. by the channel, and considerably more
than halfway up to Pike's camp on the island at the mouth of St.
Peter's or the Minnesota r. Thus, though Pike calls to-day's voyage
"24 miles," it is nearer 14. One who then swept around the bold bend
of the river at St. Paul saw a germ of that great metropolis in the
humble Sioux village, though only prescience could have divined what
time would make of the site above it. A later account than Pike's is
given in Keating's Long's Exp. of 1823, pub. 1824, I. p. 289: "Passed
an Indian village consisting of ten or twelve huts, situated at a
handsome turn on the river, about 10 miles below the mouth of the St.
Peter; the village is generally known by the name of the Petit
Corbeau, or Little Raven, which was the appellation of the father and
grandfather of the present chief. He is called Chetanwakoamene (the
good sparrow-hunter). The Indians designate this band by the name of
Kapoja, which implies that they are deemed lighter and more active
than the rest of the nation." This was a band of Mdewakantonwan Sioux
(the Minowa Kantong of Pike), for which, as well as for the celebrated
chief himself, see notes beyond. The term which Keating renders Kapoja
is now Kaposia, as a designation of the locality of South Park, a
place on the west bank of the river; but the old Sioux village was on
the east bank, below Frenchman's bar, in the low ground formerly
called by the French Grand Marais, rendered by Beltrami Great March
(for Great Marsh, II. p. 197), and now rejoicing in the epithet of
Pig's Eye marsh or lake. Pig's Eye was the soubriquet of one Peter
Parrant, a whisky-seller who squatted on the bottom in 1838, below
Carver's Cave in the Dayton bluff. The whole region about the mouth of
St. Peter's r. had been a Sioux focus and stamping-ground for
generations before any of the localities thereabouts received names
from us. The curious origin of the name St. Paul for the present
capital was in this wise: The limits of the military reservation about
Fort Snelling were authoritatively fixed in 1839. The whisky-traders,
loafers, and squatters about the place became so troublesome that the
U. S. Marshal of Wisconsin was directed to remove all such intruders,
who were given till next spring to decamp; and on May 6th, 1840, the
troops were called out to complete the eviction by the destruction of
cabins. In the words of E. D. Neill, Minn. Hist. Soc., II. Part 2,
1864, 2d ed. 1881, p. 142: "The squatters then retreated to the
nearest point below the military reserve, and there they became the
inglorious founders of a hamlet, which was shortly graced with the
small Roman Catholic chapel of St. Paul, the name of which is retained
by the thrifty capital of Minnesota, which has emerged from the
groggeries of 'certain lewd fellows of the baser sort.'" The chapel
above mentioned was built by Rev. Lucian Galtier, on what is now
Catholic block; it fronted on Bench street. It was dedicated Nov. 1st,
1841. The first marriage bans were those of one Vital Guerin,
described as "a resident of St. Paul;" and thus the priest named the
place as well as the house, although it was also called for a time St.
Paul Landing, because some stores had been put up close by, which
caused steamboats to stop there. In 1848, when Minnesota acquired
Territorial organization, and the capital was fixed at St. Paul, no
such place could be found on ordinary maps; it was some obscure
settlement, supposed to be somewhere about the mouth of St. Peter's
r., or in the vicinity of St. Anthony's falls, perhaps at a place
known as White Rock, or Iminijaska, where some bluffs were more easily
discernible than any village. Even down to 40 years ago, or a little
before 1858, when Minnesota acquired statehood, St. Paul had only
replaced tepees with a sprinkling of log cabins; and people scrambled
up the bluff by digging their toes into the ground. The site of the
city is one which would hardly have been anticipated as such; nor
would the original features of the locality be easily recognized now
after all the grading and terracing that has been done to convert the
stubborn hills and intractable hollows into a beautiful city of over
190,000 inhabitants. But all this was to be, and is well worth all
that it cost. Among the natural features which should be noted in this
connection, especially as they have given rise to conflicting
historical statements, are Carver's Great Cave in Dayton's bluff, and
Nicollet's New (Fountain) Cave, halfway thence to Fort Snelling; but
for these, as well as for a third cave close to Carver's, see a note
beyond, at date of Apr. 12th, 1806, when Pike's text brings the matter
up.
[I-73] Jean Baptiste Faribault, b. Berthier, Lower Canada, 1774, d.
Faribault, Minn., Aug. 20th, 1860, being at the time the oldest white
resident of the present State. Jean Baptiste was the youngest one of
10 children of Bartholomew (who was b. in Paris and came to Canada in
1754); he was in business in Quebec 1790-97, at the latter date
entered the employ of J. J. Astor as an agent of the N. W. Co., and
was engaged in the Indian trade at various points in the Mississippi
region for about 50 years, for the most part on his own account. One
of the posts he established was at the mouth of the Minnesota r.,
where Pike found him. In 1814 he married a half-breed daughter of
Major Hause (then Superintendent of Indian Affairs), by whom he had
eight children. His Indian name was Chahpahsintay, meaning Beaver
Tail. His eldest son, Alexander, founded the present town of
Faribault, Minn. Mr. J. B. Faribault "espoused the cause of the U. S.
during the war of 1812, and lost many thousand dollars thereby, as
well as narrowly escaping with his life on several occasions. He
labored all his life to benefit the red man, teach him agriculture and
the arts of industry, and protect his interests. He had an unbounded
influence over them; his advice was never disregarded. He was
prominent at all treaties, and rendered the U. S. many valuable
services," says J. F. Williams, Minn. Hist. Coll., I. 2d ed. 1872, p.
377: see also _ibid._, p. 468. An extended memoir of Faribault, by
General H. H. Sibley, occupies pp. 168-79 of III. of the Minn. Hist.
Coll., 1874.
[I-74] The history of the discovery of St. Peter's r., off the mouth of
which Pike is now camped, is involved in some obscurity, which modern
research has not wholly cleared up, though the main facts have
probably been certified. (1) It has been conceded since Carver's time
that Hennepin missed the river. Discovery has not been traced back of
Lesueur's time. Lesueur was first on the Mississippi hereabouts in
1683; next in 1695, when he built on Pelée isl., just below the St.
Croix; and again in 1700; both these rivers are noted in the treatise
of Nicolas Perrot, and before 1700 the river of St. Pierre had been so
named. (2) Charlevoix's account, Hist. N. Fr., Paris, 1744, IV. pp.
165, 166, is in substance: In 1700 Lesueur, sent by D'Iberville to
establish himself in the Sioux country and take possession of a
copper-mine _que le Sueur y avait découverte_, had already discovered
there, some time before; ascended St. Peter 40 leagues to Rivière
Verte (now Blue Earth r.) which comes in on the left hand as you go
up; ascended this Green r. 1 league; built a fort and wintered there,
1700-1; in April, "1702," for which read 1701, went up Green r. ¾
league to his mine and in 22 days got out over 30,000 lbs. of ore, of
which 4,000 selected lbs. were sent to France; there was a mountain of
this mineral 10 leagues long, etc. (3) The Amer. Philos. Society's
copy of the MS. of Bénard de la Harpe is carefully digested by Keating
in Long's Exp., I. pp. 317-322. This MS. is entitled: "Journal
historique concernant l'établissement des Français à la Louisianne,
tiré des mémoires de Messrs. d'Iberville et de Bienville, etc., par M.
Bénard de la Harpe." The original of this copy was in the hands of Dr.
Sibley, who certifies to the correctness of the copy in a note
annexed, dated Natchitoches, Oct. 29th, 1805. Some of the contents of
this MS. are: (_a_) Lesueur and d'Iberville, with 30 hands, reached
the mouth of the Mississippi Dec., 1699. Lesueur was sent there by M.
l'Huillier, fermier général, under orders to establish himself at a
place near the sources of the Mississippi, where he had _previously_
discovered a green ore, _i. e._, in 1695. The substance of the 1695
discovery is: Lesueur built a fort on an island (Isle Pelée, now
Prairie isl.) in the Mississippi over 200 m. above the Illinois, by
order of Count Frontenac; and the same year he went to Montreal with
the Chippewa chief Chingouabé and the Sioux chief Tioscaté, the latter
the first of his nation that ever was in Canada, and received very
kindly by the authorities in view of what they hoped to make out of
his country. With this Sioux chief Lesueur had intended to reascend
the Mississippi in 1696; but the former died at Montreal after 33
days' illness. Lesueur, thus released from an obligation to go back
with the chief to the country where he had discovered the ore,
determined to go to France to ask leave to open mines; this voyage he
made, and had his permit in 1697. June, 1697, he embarked at La
Rochelle for Canada; was captured by the British on the Newfoundland
banks and carried to Portsmouth; after peace, returned to Paris for a
new commission, which was issued to him in 1698; went to Canada with
this; various obstacles threw him back to Europe; and meanwhile part
of the men whom he had left in charge in 1695 abandoned their posts
and proceeded to Montreal. Thus operations on the mines were suspended
from 1695 to 1700, for Lesueur and d'Iberville, with their 30 workmen,
as we have seen, only reached the mouth of the Mississippi in Dec.,
1699. (_b_) The MS. we are following states, under date of Feb. 10th,
1702, that Lesueur was that day come to the mouth of the Mississippi
with 2000 quintaux of blue and green earth. This he certainly had got
on his tour of Dec., 1699-Feb., 1702, from and back to the mouth of
the Mississippi, and he had got it from the mine he opened and worked
on Rivière Verte or Blue Earth r., the principal branch of St.
Peter's. The MS. contains a narrative of this tour from July 12th to
Dec. 13th, 1700. It appears that Lesueur moved as follows: July 13th,
mouth of the Missouri; Sept. 1st, mouth of the Wisconsin; Sept. 14th,
mouth of the Chippewa (on one of whose branches he had found a 60-lb.
mass of copper during his previous journey); same day, Lake Pepin, so
designated in the MS.; 16th, passed La Croix r., so called from a
Frenchman wrecked there; 19th, entered St. Peter's r.; Oct. 1st had
ascended this for 44¼ leagues, and then entered Blue r., so called for
the color of the earth on its banks; started an establishment at or
more probably near the mouth of Blue r., at what the MS. gives as lat.
44° 13' N.; Oct. 14th, finished the works, which were named Fort
L'Huillier; Oct. 26th, went to the mine with three canoes, which he
loaded with colored earth taken from mountains near which were mines
of copper, samples of which L'Huillier had assayed at Paris in 1696.
Lesueur wintered there, 1700-1, and, as we have seen, was back to the
mouth of the Mississippi Feb. 10th, 1702. (_c_) From these historical
data Keating in Long, 1823, I. p. 320, infers that St. Peter's and the
Blue (Blue Earth) rivers were those streams which Lesueur had ascended
in 1695, which date is consequently assigned to the discovery, without
reference back to 1683. This inference is made "from the circumstance
that they are mentioned as well known, and not as recently discovered;
and more especially from the observation of la Harpe, that the eastern
Sioux having complained of the situation of the fort [L'Huillier],
which they would have wished to see at the confluence of the St. Peter
and Mississippi, M. le Sueur endeavoured to reconcile them to it. 'He
had foreseen,' says la Harpe, 'that an establishment on the Blue river
would not be agreeable to the eastern Sioux, who are the rulers of all
the other Sioux, because they were the first with whom the French
traded, and whom they provided with guns; nevertheless, as this
undertaking had not been commenced with the sole view of trading for
beavers, but in order to become thoroughly acquainted with the quality
of the various mines _which he had previously discovered there_
[italics Keating's], he replied to the natives that he was sorry he
had not been made sooner acquainted with their wishes, &c., but that
the advanced state of the season prevented his returning to the mouth
of the river.' No mention is made in this narrative of the stream
being obstructed with ice, a circumstance which, had it really
occurred, would, we think, have been recorded by de la Harpe, who
appears to have been a careful and a curious observer, and who
undoubtedly saw le Sueur's original narrative." (4) On the foregoing
data Nicollet, Rep. 1843, p. 18, has some judicious remarks in fixing
Lesueur's locality with precision: "On the left bank of the Mankato
[Green, Blue, or Blue Earth r.], six miles from its mouth, in a rocky
bluff composed of sandstone and limestone, are found cavities in which
the famed blue or green earth, used by the Sioux as their principal
pigment, is obtained. This material is nearly exhausted, and it is not
likely that this is the spot where a Mr. Lesueur (who is mentioned in
the Narrative of Major Long's Second Expedition, as also by Mr.
Featherstonhaugh) could, in his third voyage, during the year 1700,
have collected his 4000 pounds of copper earth sent by him to France.
I have reason to believe that Lesueur's location is on the river to
which I have affixed his name, and which empties into the Mankato
three-quarters of a league above Fort L'Huillier, built by him and
where he spent a winter. This location corresponds precisely with that
given by Charlevoix, whilst it is totally inapplicable to the former.
Here the blue earth is abundant in the steep and elevated hills at the
mouth of this river, which hills form a broken country on the right
side of the Mankato. Mr. [J. C.] Fremont and myself have verified this
fact: he, during his visit to Lesueur river; and I, upon the locality
designated by Mr. Featherstonhaugh, where the Ndakotahs formerly
assembled in great numbers to collect it, but to which they now seldom
resort, as it is comparatively scarce--at least so I was informed by
Sleepy-eye, the chief of the Sissitons, who accompanied me during this
excursion." (5) Featherstonhaugh's remarks, Canoe Voyage, etc., I. p.
280 and p. 304, seem to me less judicious than likely to make the
judicious grieve; in fine, they are singularly obtuse to have come
from so British a man and so clever a story-teller. He heads a page in
caps, "THE COPPER-MINE, A FABLE;" he has in text, "finding the
copper-mine to be a fable"; again: "that either M. le Sueur's green
cupreous earth had not corresponded to the expectations he had raised,
or that the whole account of it was to be classed with Baron
Lahontan's" fables, etc. This sort of talk would befog the whole
subject, were it not obvious that it has no bearing whatever upon the
historico-geographical case we are discussing. The question is _where_
Lesueur went, and _when_ he got there--not at all what he found there.
It is obtuse, I say, because unintentionally misleading, for F'gh to
say that, when he reached the bluff whence the pigment had been taken,
"Le Sueur's story lost all credit with me, for I instantly saw that it
was nothing but a continuation of the seam which divided the sandstone
from the limestone ... containing a silicate of iron of a
blueish-green color." In the first place, F'gh was not at exactly the
right spot, which Nicollet has pointed out. Secondly, though Lesueur
should have been mistaken or mendacious about any copper-mine being in
that region--though he should not have collected 30,000 lbs. of ore in
22 days, or even a gunny-sack full of anything in a year--though the
mountains should shrink to bluffs, and the whole commercial features
of the case turn into the physiognomy of the wild-cat--that would not
affect the historical and geographical facts, viz.: Lesueur ascended
the St. Peter's to the Mankato, and this as far at least as its first
branch, thus exploring both these rivers in 1700. Item, he had been to
if not also up the river of St. Pierre in 1695; and it had been known
since his first voyage in 1683. (6) As to the name Rivière St. Pierre,
or de St. Pierre, which we have translated St. Peter, or St. Peter's
r., the former obscurity of its origin has, I think, been almost
entirely cleared up. Keating's Long, 1824, I. p. 322, has: "We have
sought in vain for the origin of the name; we can find no notice of
it; it appears to us at present not unlikely that the name may have
been given by le Sueur in 1795 [slip for 1695], in honor of M. de St.
Pierre Repantigni, to whom La Hontan incidentally alludes (I. p. 136)
as being in Canada in 1789 [_i. e._, 1689]. This person may have
accompanied le Sueur on his expedition." Keating does not cite in this
connection the remark of Carver, ed. 1796, p. 35: "Here [at Lake
Pepin] I discovered the ruins of a French factory, where it is said
Captain St. Pierre resided, and carried on a very great trade with the
Naudowessies [Sioux], before the reduction of Canada." This person was
Jacques Le Gardeur St. Pierre, who in 1737 commanded the fort on Lake
Pepin (Fort Beauharnois). One Fort St. Pierre was built at Rainy l.
late in 1731; J. Le G. St. Pierre was there in 1751: for extended
notice of him, see Neill, Macalester Coll. Cont., No. 4, 1890, pp.
136-40. His father was Captain Paul St. Pierre, who was sent to the
French post (Maison Françoise) at La Pointe (Chaquamegon bay) in 1718.
Nicollet, Rep. 1843, p. 68, cites Carver, and states: "I have no
hesitation in assigning its [the name's] origin to a Canadian by the
name of De St. Pierre, who resided for a long time thereabouts." The
name appears for the first time in Perrot's report, of the date 1689,
which is also the most probable date of naming the St. Croix r. and
Lake Pepin. The only question left is, whether the river was not named
to compliment _Pierre_ Lesueur himself. Whoever the St. Pierre whose
name the river bears may prove to be, the name is a personal one,
which we should not have translated into English St. Peter; for it
certainly has nothing to do with the legendary saint so styled, whose
career is connected with the crowing of cocks three times more than
with the course of any river. Had the stream been named by some priest
for such a sadly overworked patron as the apocryphal first Bishop of
Rome, we should have heard all about it in the Jesuit Relations or
elsewhere. (7) The suggestion that the name St. Pierre is a perversion
of _sans pierres_ ("without stones"), may be dismissed as too good to
be true; for it is a settled principle of sound philology that the
easiest etymologies are the most likely to have been invented to fit
the case, _ex post-facto_. (8) As to native names, Nicollet says,
_l. c._: "The name which the Sioux give to the St. Peter's river is
_Mini-sotah_; and to St. Peter's, as a station [Mendota],
_Mdote-mini-sotah_. The adjective _sotah_ is of different translation.
The Canadians translate it by a pretty equivalent French word,
_brouillé_--perhaps most properly rendered into English by _blear_;
as, for instance, _mini sotah_, blear water, or the entrance of blear
water. I have entered into this explanation, because the word _sotah_
really means neither clear nor turbid, as some authors have asserted;
its true meaning being readily found in the Sioux expression
_ishta-sotah_, blear-eyed.... The Chippeways are more accurate; by
them, the St. Peter's river [is called] _Ashkibogi-sibi_, the Green
Leaf river." It occurs to me that the distinction Nicollet draws would
correspond to _translucent_, as distinguished on the one hand from
colorless or transparent water, and on the other from opaque or turbid
water. I may also refer to the old medical term, _gutta serena_, for
forming cataract of the eye, when clear vision is obscured by a degree
of opacity that does not entirely exclude light. As applied to water,
Sioux _sotah_ may be about equivalent to Greek γλαυκός, Latin
_glaucus_, variously rendered "gray," "bluish-green," etc., and
Nicollet's "blear-eyed" be equivalent to what was called _glaucoma_
(γλαύκωμα). Notice what Pike says above of the color of the
water; but it must be added that, when he speaks of the Mississippi as
"remarkably red," we must understand only a reddish-yellow hue of its
shoal portions, imparted by its sands; and by "black as ink," only the
darker color of deeper places where the sands do not show through. The
name Mini-sota has a number of variants: for example, Carver, who
wintered on it Nov., 1766-Apr., 1767, has "the River St. Pierre,
called by the natives the Waddapawmenesotor"; with which compare
Watapan Menesota of Long, Watpàmenisothé of Beltrami, and the title of
Featherstonhaugh's diverting book, "A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay
Sotor," etc. It has become fixed of late years, since an Act of
Congress, approved June 19th, 1852 (Stat. at Large, X. p. 147),
decreed that the noble river should bear the name of the State through
which it flows. (9) The Minnesota r. appears on various old maps of
Louisiana (not on Hennepin's, 1683). Franquelin's, 1688, traces it
without any name, but letters it with the name of the Indians, "Les
Mascoutens Nadouescioux," _i. e._, Sioux of the Prairie, Gens du Large
of the French, collectively, as distinguished from Gens du Lac. De
L'Isle's map, 1703, has "R. St. Pierre."
CHAPTER II.
ITINERARY, CONTINUED: ST. PAUL TO LEECH LAKE, SEPTEMBER 22D,
1805-JANUARY 31ST, 1806.
_Sunday, Sept. 22d._ Employed in the morning measuring the river. About
three o'clock Mr. Frazer and his peroques arrived; and in three hours
after Petit Corbeau, at the head of his band, arrived with 150
warriors.
They ascended the hill in the point between the Mississippi and St.
Peters, and gave us a salute, _a la mode savage_, with balls; after
which we settled affairs for the council next day. Mr. Frazer and
myself took a bark canoe, and went up to the village, in order to see
Mr. Cameron. We ascended the St. Peters to the village, and found his
camp. He engaged to be at the council the next day, and promised to
let me have his barge. The Sioux had marched on a war excursion; but,
hearing by express of my arrival, they returned by land. We were
treated very hospitably, and hallooed after to go into every lodge to
eat. Returned to our camp about eleven o'clock, and found the Sioux
and my men peaceably encamped. No current in the river.[II-1]
_Sept. 23d._ Prepared for the council, which we commenced about twelve
o'clock. I had a bower or shade, made of my sails, on the beach, into
which only my gentlemen (the traders) and the chiefs entered. I then
addressed them in a speech, which, though long and touching on many
points, had for its principal object the granting of land at this
place, falls of St. Anthony, and St. Croix [river], and making peace
with the Chipeways. I was replied to by Le Fils de Pinchow, Le Petit
Corbeau, and l'Original Leve. They gave me the land required, about
100,000 acres, equal to $200,000, and promised me a safe passport for
myself and any [Chippewa] chiefs I might bring down; but spoke
doubtfully with respect to the peace. I gave them presents to the
amount of about $200, and as soon as the council was over, I allowed
the traders to present them with some liquor, which, with what I
myself gave, was equal to 60 gallons. In one half-hour they were all
embarked for their respective villages.
The chiefs in the council were: Le Petit Corbeau, who signed the
grant; Le Fils de Pinchow, who also signed; Le Grand Partisan; Le
Original Leve, war-chief; gave him my father's [General Wilkinson's]
tomahawk, etc.; Le Demi Douzen, war-chief; Le Beccasse; Le Bœuf que
Marche.
It was somewhat difficult to get them to sign the grant, as they
conceived their word of honor should be taken for the grant without
any mark; but I convinced then it was not on their account, but my
own, that I wished them to sign it.[II-2]
_Sept. 24th._ In the morning I discovered that my flag was missing
from my boat. Being in doubt whether it had been stolen by the
Indians, or had fallen overboard and floated away, I sent for my
friend, Original Leve, and sufficiently evinced to him, by the
vehemence of my action, by the immediate punishment of my guard
(having inflicted on one of them corporeal punishment), and by sending
down the shore three miles in search of it, how much I was displeased
that such a thing should have occurred. I sent a flag and two carrots
of tobacco, by Mr. Cameron, to the Sioux at the head of the St.
Peters; made a small draft of the position at this place; sent up the
boat I got from Mr. Fisher to the village on the St. Peters, and
exchanged her for a barge with Mr. Duncan. My men returned with the
barge about sundown. She was a fine light thing; eight men were able
to carry her. Employed all day in writing.
_Sept. 25th._ I was awakened out of my bed by Le Petit Corbeau, head
chief, who came up from his village to see if we were all killed, or
if any accident had happened to us. This was in consequence of their
having found my flag floating three miles below their village, 15
miles hence, from which they concluded some affray had taken place,
and that it had been thrown overboard. Although I considered this an
unfortunate accident for me, I was exceedingly happy at its effect;
for it was the occasion of preventing much bloodshed among the
savages. A chief called Outard Blanche[II-3] had his lip cut off, and
had come to Petit Corbeau and told him, "that his face was his
looking-glass, that it was spoiled, and that he was determined on
revenge." The parties were charging their guns and preparing for
action, when lo! the flag appeared like a messenger of peace sent to
prevent their bloody purposes. They were all astonished to see it. The
staff was broken. Then Petit Corbeau arose and spoke to this effect:
"That a thing so sacred had not been taken from my boat without
violence; that it would be proper for them to hush all private
animosities, until they had revenged the cause of their eldest
brother; that he would immediately go up to St. Peters, to know what
dogs had done that thing, in order to take steps to get satisfaction
of those who had done the mischief." They all listened to this
reasoning; he immediately had the flag put out to dry, and embarked
for my camp. I was much concerned to hear of the blood likely to have
been shed, and gave him five yards of blue stroud, three yards of
calico, one handkerchief, one carrot of tobacco, and one knife, in
order to make peace among his people. He promised to send my flag by
land to the falls, and make peace with Outard Blanche. Mr. Frazer went
up to the village. We embarked late, and encamped at the foot of the
rapids. In many places, I could scarce [almost] throw a stone over the
river. Distance three miles.[II-4]
_Sept. 26th._ Embarked at the usual hour, and after much labor in
passing through the rapids, arrived at the foot of the falls [of St.
Anthony, in the city of Minneapolis], about three or four o'clock;
unloaded my boat, and had the principal part of her cargo carried over
the portage. With the other boat, however, full loaded, they were not
able to get over the last shoot, and encamped about 600 yards below. I
pitched my tent and encamped above the shoot. The rapids mentioned in
this day's march might properly be called a continuation of the falls
of St. Anthony, for they are equally entitled to this appellation with
the falls of the Delaware and Susquehanna. Killed one deer. Distance
nine miles.[II-5]
_Sept. 27th._ Brought over the residue of my lading this morning. Two
men arrived from Mr. Frazer, on St. Peters, for my dispatches. This
business of closing and sealing appeared like a last adieu to the
civilized world. Sent a large packet to the general, and a letter to
Mrs. Pike, with a short note to Mr. Frazer. Two young Indians brought
my flag across by land; they arrived yesterday, just as we came in
sight of the falls. I made them a present for their punctuality and
expedition, and the danger they were exposed to from the journey.
Carried our boats out of the river as far as the bottom of the hill.
_Sept. 28th._ Brought my barge over, and put her in the river above
the falls. While we were engaged with her, three-quarters of a mile
from camp, seven Indians, painted black, appeared on the heights. We
had left our guns at camp, and were entirely defenseless. It occurred
to me that they were the small party of Sioux who were obstinate, and
would go to war when the other part of the bands came in. These they
proved to be. They were better armed than any I had ever seen, having
guns, bows, arrows, clubs, spears, and some of them even a case of
pistols. I was at that time giving my men a dram, and giving the cup
of liquor to the first, he drank it off; but I was more cautious with
the remainder. I sent my interpreter to camp with them to wait my
coming, wishing to purchase one of their war-clubs, which was made of
elk-horn, and decorated with inlaid work. This, and a set of bows and
arrows, I wished to get as a curiosity. But the liquor I had given him
beginning to operate, he came back for me; refusing to go till I
brought my boat, he returned, and (I suppose being offended) borrowed
a canoe and crossed the river. In the afternoon we got the other boat
near the top of the hill, when the props gave way, and she slid all
the way down to the bottom, but fortunately without injuring any
person. It raining very hard, we left her. Killed one goose and a
raccoon.
_Sunday, Sept. 29th._ I killed a remarkably large raccoon. Got our
large boat over the portage, and put her in the river, at the upper
landing. This night the men gave sufficient proof of their fatigue, by
all throwing themselves down to sleep, preferring rest to supper. This
day I had but 15 men out of 22; the others were sick.
This voyage could have been performed with great convenience if we had
taken our departure in June. But the proper time would be to leave the
Illinois as soon as the ice would permit, when the river would be of a
good height.
_Sept. 30th._ Loaded my boat, moved over, and encamped on the island.
The large boats loading likewise, we went over and put on board. In
the meantime I took a survey of the Falls, Portage, etc. If it be
possible to pass the falls at high water, of which I am doubtful, it
must be on the east side, about 30 yards from shore, as there are
three layers of rocks, one below the other. The pitch off either is
not more than five feet; but of this I can say more on my return. (It
is never possible, as ascertained on my return.)
_Oct. 1st._ Embarked late. The river at first appeared mild and
sufficiently deep; but after about four miles the shoals commenced,
and we had very hard water all day; passed three rapids. Killed one
goose and two ducks. This day the sun shone after I had left the
falls; but whilst there it was always cloudy. Distance 17 miles.[II-6]
_Oct. 2d._ Embarked at our usual hour, and shortly after passed some
large islands and remarkably hard ripples. Indeed the navigation, to
persons not determined to proceed, would have been deemed
impracticable. We waded nearly all day, to force the boats off shoals,
and draw them through rapids. Killed three geese and two swans. Much
appearance of elk and deer. Distance 12 miles.[II-7]
_Oct. 3d._ Cold in the morning. Mercury at zero. Came on very well;
some ripples and shoals. Killed three geese and one raccoon [_Procyon
lotor_]; also a brelaw,[II-8] an animal I had never before seen.
Distance 15½ miles.[II-9]
_Oct. 4th._ Rained in the morning; but the wind serving, we embarked,
although it was extremely raw and cold. Opposite the mouth of Crow
river [present name] we found a bark canoe cut to pieces with
tomahawks, and the paddles broken on shore; a short distance higher up
we saw five more, and continued to see the wrecks until we found
eight. From the form of the canoes my interpreter pronounced them to
be Sioux; and some broken arrows to be the Sauteurs. The paddles were
also marked with the Indian sign of men and women killed. From all
these circumstances we drew this inference, that the canoes had been
the vessels of a party of Sioux who had been attacked and all killed
or taken by the Sauteurs. Time may develop this transaction. My
interpreter was much alarmed, assuring me that it was probable that at
our first rencounter with the Chipeways they would take us for Sioux
traders, and fire on us before we could come to an explanation; that
they had murdered three Frenchmen whom they found on the shore about
this time last spring; but notwithstanding his information, I was on
shore all the afternoon in pursuit of elk. Caught a curious little
animal on the prairie, which my Frenchman [Rousseau] termed a prairie
mole,[II-10] but it is very different from the mole of the States.
Killed two geese, one pheasant [ruffed grouse, _Bonasa umbellus_], and
a wolf. Distance 16 miles.[II-11]
_Oct. 5th._ Hard water and ripples all day. Passed several old Sioux
encampments, all fortified. Found five litters in which sick or
wounded had been carried. At this place a hard battle was fought
between the Sioux and Sauteurs in the year 1800. Killed one goose.
Distance 11 miles.[II-12]
_Sunday, Oct. 6th._ Early in the morning discovered four elk; they
swam the river. I pursued them, and wounded one, which made his escape
into a marsh; saw two droves of elk. I killed some small game and
joined the boats near night. Found a small red capot hung upon a tree;
this my interpreter informed me was a sacrifice by some Indians to the
_bon Dieu_. I determined to lie by and hunt next day. Killed three
prairie-hens [pinnated grouse, _Tympanuchus americanus_] and two
pheasants. This day saw the first elk. Distance 12 miles.[II-13]
_Oct. 7th._ Lay by in order to dry my corn, clothing, etc., and to
have an investigation into the conduct of my sergeant [Kennerman],
against whom some charges were exhibited. Sent several of my men out
hunting. I went toward evening and killed some prairie-hens; the
hunters were unsuccessful. Killed three prairie-hens and six
pheasants.
_Oct. 8th._ Embarked early and made a very good day's march; had but
three rapids to pass all day. Some oak woodland on the W. side, but
the whole bottom covered with prickly-ash. I made it a practice to
oblige every man to march who complained of indisposition, by which
means I had some flankers on both sides of the river, who were
excellent guards against surprises; they also served as hunters. We
had but one raccoon killed by all. Distance 20 miles.[II-14]
_Oct. 9th._ Embarked early; wind ahead; barrens and prairie. Killed
one deer and four pheasants. Distance 3 miles. [Camp between Plum
creek and St. Augusta.]
_Oct. 10th._ Came to large islands and strong water early in the
morning. Passed the place at which Mr. [Joseph] Reinville and Mons.
Perlier [?] wintered in 1797. Passed a cluster of more than 20 islands
in the course of four miles; these I called Beaver islands, from the
immense sign of those animals; for they have dams on every island and
roads from them every two or three rods. I would here attempt a
description of this wonderful animal, and its admirable system of
architecture, were not the subject already exhausted by the numerous
travelers who have written on this subject. Encamped at the foot of
the Grand [Sauk] Rapids. Killed two geese, five ducks, and four
pheasants. Distance 16½ miles.[II-15]
_Oct. 11th._ Both boats passed the worst of the rapids by eleven
o'clock, but we were obliged to wade and lift them over rocks where
there was not a foot of water, when at times the next step would be in
water over our heads. In consequence of this our boats were frequently
in imminent danger of being bilged on the rocks. About five miles
above the rapids our large boat was discovered to leak so fast as to
render it necessary to unload her, which we did. Stopped the leak and
reloaded. Near a war-encampment I found a painted buckskin and a piece
of scarlet cloth, suspended by the limb of a tree; this I supposed to
be a sacrifice to Matcho Maniton [_sic_], to render their enterprise
successful; but I took the liberty of invading the rights of his
diabolical majesty, by treating them as the priests of old have often
done--that is, converting the sacrifice to my own use. Killed only two
ducks. Distance 8 miles.[II-16]
_Oct. 12th._ Hard ripples in the morning. Passed a narrow rocky place
[Watab rapids], after which we had good water. Our large boat again
sprung a leak, and we were again obliged to encamp early and unload.
Killed one deer, one wolf, two geese, and two ducks. Distance 12½
miles.[II-17]
_Sunday, Oct. 13th._ Embarked early and came on well. Passed [first a
river on the right, which we named Lake river (now called Little Rock
river) and then] a handsome little river on the east, which we named
Clear river [now Platte]; water good. Killed one deer, one beaver, two
minks, two geese, and one duck. Fair winds. Discovered one buffalo
sign. Distance 29 miles.[II-18]
_Oct. 14th._ Ripples a considerable [part of the] way. My hunters
killed three deer, four geese, and two porcupines. When hunting
discovered a trail which I supposed to have been made by the savages.
I followed it with much precaution, and at length started a large bear
feeding on the carcass of a deer; he soon made his escape. Yesterday
we came to the first timbered land above the falls. Made the first
discovery of bear since we left St. Louis, excepting what we saw three
miles below St. Peters. Distance 17 miles.[II-19]
_Oct. 15th._ Ripples all day. In the morning the large boat came up,
and I once more got my party together; they had been detained by
taking in the game. Yesterday and this day passed some skirts of good
land, well timbered, swamps of hemlock, and white pine. Water very
hard. The river became shallow and full of islands. We encamped on a
beautiful point on the west, below a fall [Fourth, Knife, or Pike
rapids] of the river over a bed of rocks, through which we had two
narrow shoots to make our way the next day. Killed two deer, five
ducks, and two geese. This day's march made me think seriously of our
wintering ground and leaving our large boats. Distance five
miles.[II-20]
_Oct. 16th._ When we arose in the morning found that snow had fallen
during the night; the ground was covered, and it continued to snow.
This indeed was but poor encouragement for attacking the rapids, in
which we were certain to wade to our necks. I was determined, however,
if possible, to make la riviere de Corbeau [now Crow Wing river], the
highest point ever made by traders in their bark canoes. We embarked,
and after four hours' work became so benumbed with cold that our
limbs were perfectly useless. We put to shore on the opposite side of
the river, about two-thirds of the way up the rapids. Built a large
fire; and then discovered that our boats were nearly half-full of
water, both having sprung such large leaks as to oblige me to keep
three hands bailing. My Sergeant Kennerman, one of the stoutest men I
ever knew, broke a blood-vessel and vomited nearly two quarts of
blood. One of my corporals, Bradley, also evacuated nearly a pint of
blood when he attempted to void his urine. These unhappy
circumstances, in addition to the inability of four other men, whom we
were obliged to leave on shore, convinced me that if I had no regard
for my own health and constitution, I should have some for those poor
fellows, who were killing themselves to obey my orders. After we had
breakfasted and refreshed ourselves, we went down to our boats on the
rocks, where I was obliged to leave them. I then informed my men that
we would return to the camp, and there leave some of the party and our
large boats. This information was pleasing, and the attempt to reach
the camp soon accomplished.
My reasons for this step have partly been already stated. The
necessity of unloading and refitting my boats, the beauty and
convenience of the spot for building huts, the fine pine trees for
peroques, and the quantity of game, were additional inducements. We
immediately unloaded our boats and secured their cargoes. In the
evening I went out upon a small but beautiful creek [_i. e._, Pine
creek of Pike, now Swan river[II-21]] which empties into the falls [on
the W. side], for the purpose of selecting pine trees to make canoes.
Saw five deer, and killed one buck weighing 137 pounds. By my leaving
men at this place, and from the great quantities of game in its
vicinity, I was insured plenty of provision for my return voyage. In
the party [to be] left behind was one hunter, to be continually
employed, who would keep our stock of salt provisions good. Distance
233½ [about 111] miles above the falls of St. Anthony.
_Oct. 17th._ It continued to snow. I walked out in the morning and
killed four bears, and my hunter three deers. Felled our trees for
canoes and commenced working on them.
_Oct. 18th._ Stopped hunting and put every hand to work. Cut 60 logs
for huts and worked at the canoes. This, considering we had only two
felling-axes and three hatchets, was pretty good work. Cloudy, with
little snow.
_Oct. 19th._ Raised one of our houses and almost completed one canoe.
I was employed the principal part of this day in writing letters and
making arrangements which I deemed necessary, in case I should never
return.
_Sunday, Oct. 20th._ Continued our labor at the houses and canoes;
finished my letters, etc. At night discovered the prairie on the
opposite side of the river to be on fire: supposed to have been made
by the Sauteurs. I wished much to have our situation respectable
[defensible] here, or I would have sent next day to discover them.
_Oct. 21st._ Went out hunting, but killed nothing, not wishing to
shoot at small game. Our labor went on.
_Oct. 22d._ Went out hunting. About 15 miles up the [Pine] creek saw a
great quantity of deer; but from the dryness of the woods and the
quantity of brush, only shot one through the body, which made its
escape. This day my men neglected their work, which convinced me I
must leave off hunting and superintend them. Miller and myself lay out
all night in the pine woods.
_Oct. 23d._ Raised another blockhouse; deposited all our property in
the one already completed. Killed a number of pheasants and ducks,
while visiting my canoe-makers. Sleet and snow.
_Oct. 24th._ The snow having fallen one or two inches thick in the
night, I sent out one hunter, Sparks, and went out myself; Bradley, my
other hunter, being sick. Each of us killed two deer, one goose, and
one pheasant.
_Oct. 25th._ Sent out men with Sparks to bring in his game. None of
them returned, and I supposed them to be lost in the hemlock swamps
with which the country abounds. My interpreter, however, whom I
believe to be a coward, insisted that they were killed by the
Sauteurs. Made arrangements for my departure.
_Oct. 26th._ Launched my canoes and found them very small. My hunter
killed three deer. Took Miller and remained out all night, but killed
nothing.
_Sunday, Oct. 27th._ Employed in preparing our baggage to depart.
_Oct. 28th._ My two canoes being finished, launched, and brought to
the head of the rapids, I put my provision, ammunition, etc., on
board, intending to embark by day. Left them under the charge of the
sentinel; in an hour one of them sunk, in which was the ammunition and
my baggage; this was occasioned by what is called a wind-shock.[II-22]
This misfortune, and the extreme smallness of my canoes, induced me to
build another. I had my cartridges spread out on blankets and large
fires made around them. At that time I was not able to ascertain the
extent of the misfortune, the magnitude of which none can estimate,
save only those in the same situation with ourselves, 1,500 miles from
civilized society; and in danger of losing the very means of
defense--nay, of existence.
_Oct. 29th._ Felled a large pine and commenced another canoe. I was at
work on my cartridges all day, but did not save five dozen out of 30.
In attempting to dry the powder in pots I blew it up, and it had
nearly blown up a tent and two or three men with it. Made a dozen new
cartridges with the old wrapping-paper.
_Oct. 30th._ My men labored as usual. Nothing extraordinary.
_Oct. 31st._ Inclosed my little work completely with pickets. Hauled
up my two boats, and turned them over on each side of the gateway, by
which means a defense was made to the river. Had it not been for
various political reasons, I would have laughed at the attack of 800
or 1,000 savages, if all my party were within. For, except accidents,
it would only have afforded amusement, the Indians having no idea of
taking a place by storm. Found myself powerfully attacked with the
fantastics of the brain called ennui, at the mention of which I had
hitherto scoffed; but my books being packed up, I was like a person
entranced, and could easily conceive why so many persons who had been
confined to remote places acquired the habit of drinking to excess and
many other vicious practices, which have been adopted merely to pass
time.
_Nov. 1st._ Finding that my canoe would not be finished in two or
three days, I concluded to take six men and go down the river about 12
miles [vicinity of Buffalo cr. (Two Rivers)], where we had remarked
great sign of elk and buffalo. Arrived there about the middle of the
afternoon. All turned out to hunt. None of us killed anything but
Sparks, one doe. A slight snow fell.
_Nov. 2d._ Left the camp with the fullest determination to kill an
elk, if it were possible, before my return. I never had killed one of
those animals. Took Miller, whose obliging disposition made him
agreeable in the woods. I was determined, if we came on the trail of
elk, to follow them a day or two in order to kill one. This, to a
person acquainted with the nature of those animals, and the extent of
the prairies in this country, would appear, what it really was, a very
foolish resolution. We soon struck where a herd of 150 had passed.
Pursued and came in sight about eight o'clock, when they appeared, at
a distance, like an army of Indians moving along in single file; a
large buck, of at least four feet between the horns, leading the van,
and one of equal magnitude bringing up the rear. We followed until
near night, without once being able to get within pointblank shot. I
once made Miller fire at them with his musket, at about 400 yards'
distance; it had no other effect than to make them leave us about five
miles behind on the prairie. Passed several deer in the course of the
day, which I think we could have killed, but did not fire for fear of
alarming the elk. Finding that it was no easy matter to kill one, I
shot a doe through the body, as I perceived by her blood where she lay
down in the snow; yet, not knowing how to track, we lost her. Shortly
after saw three elk by themselves near a copse of woods. Approached
near them and broke the shoulder of one; but he ran off with the other
two just as I was about to follow. Saw a buck deer lying on the grass;
shot him between the eyes, when he fell over. I walked up to him, put
my foot on his horns, and examined the shot; immediately after which
he snorted, bounced up, and fell five steps from me. This I considered
his last effort; but soon after, to our utter astonishment, he jumped
up and ran off. He stopped frequently; we pursued him, expecting him
to fall every minute; by which we were led from the pursuit of the
wounded elk. After being wearied out in this unsuccessful chase we
returned in pursuit of the wounded elk, and when we came up to the
party, found him missing from the flock. Shot another in the body; but
my ball being small, he likewise escaped. Wounded another deer; when,
hungry, cold, and fatigued, after having wounded three deer and two
elk, we were obliged to encamp in a point of hemlock woods, on the
head of Clear [Platte] river. The large herd of elk lay about one mile
from us, in the prairie. Our want of success I ascribe to the
smallness of our balls, and to our inexperience in following the track
after wounding the game, for it is very seldom a deer drops on the
spot you shoot it.
_Sunday, Nov. 3d._ Rose pretty early and went in pursuit of the elk.
Wounded one buck deer on the way. We made an attempt to drive them
into the woods; but their leader broke past us, and it appeared as if
the drove would have followed him, though they had been obliged to run
over us. We fired at them passing, but without effect. Pursued them
through the swamp till about ten o'clock, when I determined to attempt
to make the river, and for that purpose took a due south course.
Passed many droves of elk and buffalo, but being in the middle of an
immense prairie, knew it was folly to attempt to shoot them. Wounded
several deer, but got none. In fact, I knew I could shoot as many
deer as anybody; but neither myself nor company could find one in ten,
whereas one experienced hunter would get all. Near night struck a lake
about five miles long and two miles wide. Saw immense droves of elk on
both banks. About sundown saw a herd crossing the prairie toward us.
We sat down. Two bucks, more curious than the others, came pretty
close. I struck one behind the fore shoulder; he did not go more than
20 yards before he fell and died. This was the cause of much
exultation, because it fulfilled my determination; and, as we had been
two days and nights without victuals, it was very acceptable. Found
some scrub oak. In about one mile made a fire, and with much labor and
pains got our meat to it; the wolves feasting on one half while we
were carrying away the other. We were now provisioned, but were still
in want of water, the snow being all melted. Finding my drought very
excessive in the night, I went in search of water, and was much
surprised, after having gone about a mile, to strike the Mississippi.
Filled my hat and returned to my companion.
_Nov. 4th._ Repaired my mockinsons, using a piece of elk's bone as an
awl. We both went to the Mississippi and found we were a great
distance from the camp. I left Miller to guard the meat and marched
for camp. Having strained my ankles in the swamps, they were extremely
sore, and the strings of my mockinsons cut them and made them swell
considerably. Before I had gone far I discovered a herd of 10 elk;
approached within 50 yards and shot one through the body. He fell on
the spot; but rose again and ran off. I pursued him at least five
miles, expecting every minute to see him drop. I then gave him up.
When I arrived at Clear [Platte] river, a deer was standing on the
other bank. I killed him on the spot, and while I was taking out the
entrails another came up. I shot him also. This was my last ball, and
then only could I kill! Left part of my clothes at this place to scare
the wolves. Arrived at my camp at dusk, to the great joy of our men,
who had been to our little garrison to inquire for me, and receiving
no intelligence, had concluded we were killed by the Indians, having
heard them fire on the opposite bank. The same night we saw fires on
the opposite shore in the prairie; this was likewise seen in the fort,
when all the men moved into the works.
_Nov. 5th._ Sent four of my men with one canoe, loaded with the
balance of nine deer that had been killed; with the other two, went
down the river for my meat. Stopped for the deer, which I found safe.
Miller had just started to march home, but returned to camp with us.
Found all the meat safe, and brought it to the river, where we pitched
our camp.
_Nov. 6th._ At the earnest entreaties of my men, and with a hope of
killing some more game, I agreed to stay and hunt. We went out and
found that all the elk and buffalo had gone down the river from those
plains the day before, leaving large roads to point out their course.
This would not appear extraordinary to persons acquainted with the
nature of those animals, as the prairie had unluckily caught fire.
After Miller left the camp for home, Sparks killed two deer, about six
miles off; and it being near the river, I sent the three men down with
the canoe, to return early in the morning. It commenced snowing about
midnight, and by morning was six inches deep.
_Nov. 7th._ Waited all day with the greatest anxiety for my men. The
river became nearly filled with snow, partly congealed into ice. My
situation can more easily be imagined than described. Went down the
river to where I understood the deer were killed; but discovered
nothing of my men. I now became very uneasy on their account, for I
was well aware of the hostile disposition of the Indians to all
persons on this part of the Mississippi, taking them to be
traders--and we had not yet had an opportunity of explaining to them
who we were. Snow still continued falling very fast, and was nearly
knee-deep. Had great difficulty to procure wood sufficient to keep up
a fire all night. Ice in the river thickening.
_Nov. 8th._ My men not yet arrived. I determined to depart for the
garrison, and when the river had frozen, to come down on the ice with
a party, or, if the weather became mild, by water, with my other
peroques, to search for my poor men. Put up about ten pounds of meat,
two blankets, and a bearskin, with my sword and gun, which made for me
a very heavy load. Left the meat in as good a situation as possible.
Wrote on the snow my wishes, and put my handkerchief up as a flag.
Departed. My anxiety of mind was so great that, notwithstanding my
load and the depth of the snow, I made into the bottom, above our
former hunting-camp, a little before night. Passed several deer and
one elk, which I might probably have killed; but not knowing whether I
should be able to secure the meat if I killed them, and bearing in
mind that they were created for the use and not the sport of man, I
did not fire at them. While I was endeavoring to strike fire I heard
voices, and looking round, observed Corporal Meek and three men
passing. Called them to me, and we embarked together. They were on
their march down to see if they could render us any assistance in
ascending the river. They were much grieved to hear my report of the
other men, Corporal Bradley, Sparks, and Miller.
_Nov. 9th._ Snowed a little. The men carried my pack. I was so sore
that it was with difficulty I carried my gun; fortunately they brought
with them a pair of mockinsons, sent me by one of my soldiers, Owings,
who had rightly calculated that I was bare-foot; also a phial of
whisky, sent by the sergeant; were both very acceptable to me. They
brought also some tobacco for my lost men. We experienced difficulty
in crossing the river, owing to the ice. Moved into the post my
command, who were again encamped out, ready to march up the river. Set
all hands to making sleds, in order that the moment the river closed I
might descend, with a strong party, in search of my lost men. Issued
provisions, and was obliged to use six venison hams, being part of a
quantity of elegant hams I had preserved to take down, if possible,
to the general and some other friends. Had the two hunters not been
found, I must have become a slave to hunting in order to support my
party. The ice still ran very thick.
_Sunday, Nov. 10th._ Continued making sleds. No news of my hunters.
Ice in the river very thick and hard. Raised my tent with puncheons,
and laid a floor in it.
_Nov. 11th._ I went out hunting. Saw but two deer. Killed a remarkably
large black fox. Bradley and Miller arrived, having understood the
writing on the snow, and left Sparks behind at the camp to take care
of the meat. Their detention was owing to their being lost on the
prairie the first night, and not being able to find their deer.
_Nov. 12th._ Dispatched Miller and Huddleston to the lower
hunting-camp, and Bradley and Brown to hunting in the woods. Made my
arrangements in camp. Thawing weather.
_Nov. 13th._ Bradley returned with a very large buck, which supplied
us for the next four days.
_Nov. 14th._ It commenced raining at 4 o'clock a. m.; lightning and
loud thunder. I went down the river in one of my canoes, with five
men, in order to bring up the meat from the lower camp; but after
descending about 13 miles, found the river blocked up with ice.
Returned about two miles and encamped in the bottom where I had my
hunting-camp on the 1st inst. Extremely cold toward night.
_Nov. 15th._ When we meant to embark in the morning, found the river
full of ice and hardly moving. Returned to camp and went out to hunt,
for we had no provision with us. Killed nothing but five prairie-hens,
which afforded us this day's subsistence; this bird I took to be the
same as grouse. Expecting the ice had become hard, we attempted to
cross the river, but could not. In the endeavor one man fell through.
Freezing.
_Nov. 16th._ Detached Corporal Meek and one private to the garrison,
to order the sleds down. No success in hunting, except a few fowl. I
began to consider the life of a hunter a very slavish life, and
extremely precarious as to support; for sometimes I have myself,
although no hunter, killed 600 weight of meat in one day; and I have
hunted three days successively without killing anything but a few
small birds, which I was obliged to do to keep my men from starving.
Freezing.
_Sunday, Nov. 17th._ One of my men arrived; he had attempted to make
the camp before, but lost himself in the prairie, lay out all night,
and froze his toes. He informed us that the corporal and the men I
sent with him had their toes frost-bitten, the former very badly; that
three men were on their way down by land, the river above not being
frozen over. They arrived a few hours before night. Freezing.
_Nov. 18th._ Took our departure down the river on the ice, our baggage
on the sled. Ice very rough. Distance 12 miles. Freezing.
_Nov. 19th._ Arrived opposite our hunting-camp about noon. Had the
meat, etc., moved over. They had a large quantity of meat. I went out
and killed a very large buck. Thawing.
_Nov. 20th._ Departed to return to the stockade, part of our meat on
the sled and part in the little peroque, the river being open in the
middle. Killed four deer. Thawing. Distance five miles.