Chapters ix, x, and xi, General Description of the Country, and
Observations on the Mineralogy and Geology, reprinted from
Volume III of London edition, 1823
Calculations of Observations by Long and Swift, reprinted from
Part II, Volume II, Philadelphia edition, 1823
Vocabularies of Indian Languages, by Say, reprinted from Volume
II, Philadelphia edition, 1823
EXPEDITION FROM PITTSBURGH TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
[PART IV]
{124} CHAPTER I [IX][1]
Journey from Belle Point to Cape Girardeau--Cherokee
Indians--Osage War--Regulator's Settlements of
White River.
The opportunity afforded by a few days residence at Fort Smith,
was seized for the purpose of ascertaining, by several successive
observations, the latitude and longitude of the place. The results
of several observations of the sun's meridian altitude, and of lunar
distances, had between the 14th and 19th September, give for the
latitude of Belle Point, 34° 50´ 54˝, and for the longitude 94° 21´
west of Greenwich.[2]
On the 19th, Captain Bell left the fort to proceed on his way to Cape
Girardeau,[3] accompanied by Dougherty and Oakly, two of the engagees
whose services were no longer required. On the 20th, Doctor James
and Lieutenant Swift departed in company with Captain Kearny,[4] who
had visited the post in the discharge of his duties as inspector and
pay-master. It was the design of this party to descend the Arkansa to
the Cherokee agency, and to proceed thence to the hot springs of the
Washita.
On the 21st, the party, now consisting of Major Long, Messrs. Say,
Seymour and Peale, accompanied by Wilson, Adams, Duncan, and Sweney,
the other soldiers being left at the fort, commenced their journey
towards Cape Girardeau. We took with us five horses and five mules,
two of the latter being loaded with packs. Captain Ballard kindly
volunteered his services as guide, and, attended by a servant,
accompanied us the first day's journey on our march.
{125} Our route lay on the south side of the Arkansa, at considerable
distance from the river, and led us across two small creeks--one called
the Mussanne or Massern, and the other the Vache Grasse.[5] The latter
stream has a course of several miles, but during the dry season,
discharges very little water. The small path we followed lay for the
most part through open woods of post oak, black jack, and hickory,
occasionally traversing a narrow prairie. In these open plains, now
covered with rank grass and weeds, we discovered here and there some
traces, such as a skull or a hoof of a bison, indicating that the
undisputed possession of man to these regions had been of a very recent
date.
It was near five o'clock when we arrived at the solitary cabin of a
settler, and though we found no inhabitant about the place, we halted,
and encamped near the spring. Our horses were scarce unsaddled, when a
man, who seemed to be the occupant of the house, came up, and informed
us, that half a mile further on our way, we should find a house and
good accommodations. Accordingly, we again mounted our horses, and
rode on to "Squire Billingsby's," as our destined host was entitled,
where we met a very hospitable reception.[6] As the night approached,
we observed that several young women and men, the sons and daughters
of the family, disappeared, going to the cottages of the neighbours
(the nearest of which seemed to be the one we had passed) to spend the
night, that they might leave their beds for our use. Our hospitable
landlord had many swarms of bees, some of which had been taken from
the neighbouring forests. Wishing to make the addition of some honey
to the bountiful table spread for our entertainment, he went with a
light, and carefully removing the top of one of the hives, took out
as much of the comb as he wished, and then replaced the top without
killing or injuring the bees. In this manner, he assured us, honey may
{126} at any time be taken without destroying the insects, who will, if
the season admits, speedily make up the deficiency thus produced. Some
feather beds having been given up by their ordinary occupants expressly
for our use, we could not well avoid accepting the accommodation thus
offered, but instead of proving an indulgence, we found the use of them
partook more of the nature of a punishment. We spent an unquiet and
almost sleepless night, and arose on the following morning unrefreshed,
and with a painful feeling of soreness in our bones, so great a change
had the hunter's life produced upon our habits. Those of the party who
spread their blankets, and passed the night on the floor of the cabin,
rested much more pleasantly.
On the succeeding morning, Captain Ballard returned to Belle Point, and
we resumed our journey, accompanied by one of the sons of our landlord,
who undertook to guide us on our way, until we should fall in with
a path which we might continue to follow. We passed through a hilly
country, crossing two creeks, heretofore called the Middle and Lower
Vache Grasse. At the distance of four or five miles from the Arkansa,
on each side, the country is broken and mountainous, several of the
summits rising to an elevation of near two thousand feet above the
surface of the water. Several trees which stood near our path had been
in part stripped of their bark, and the naked trunks were marked with
rude figures, representing horses, men, deer, dogs, &c. These imperfect
paintings, done with charcoal, and sometimes touched with a little
vermilion, appeared to be historic records, designed to perpetuate,
or at least to communicate the account of some exploit in hunting, a
journey, or some similar event. We have already remarked, that this
method of communication is sufficiently understood by the Indians, to
be made the vehicle of important intelligence.
A little before sunset we arrived at a settlement on the stream, called
Short Mountain Bayou. The little {127} cabin we found occupied by two
soldiers belonging to the garrison, who were on their return from the
settlement at Cadron, whither they had been sent with letters on our
arrival at Fort Smith, Cadron being the nearest post-town. We had
expected letters from our friends by the return of the express, but
were disappointed.[7]
The soldiers informed us, that the house in which they had quartered
themselves for the night, had been for a week or two deserted, since
its proprietor had died, and his wife, who was sick, had been removed
to the nearest settlement. The place is called the Short Mountain
Settlement,[8] from a high ridge of sandstone, a little to the
north-west, rising in the form of a parallelogram to an elevation of
about twelve hundred feet.[9] Its sides are abrupt, and in many places,
particularly towards the summit, perpendicular. The summit is broad
and nearly tabular, being covered with small trees, among which the
red cedar, or some other ever-green tree, predominates. The plantation
is somewhat elevated on a rocky eminence, at a little distance from
the creek, but it is surrounded on all sides, save one, by the heavily
wooded low grounds, in which we are to look for the causes whose
operation have made it so soon desolate. Short Mountain Bayou, if we
may judge from the depth and width of its channel, and the extent of
its low grounds, is a large stream, or rather one which drains an
extensive surface, but at this time it exhibited a succession of green
and stagnant pools, connected by a little brook, almost without any
perceptible current. On the surface of these pools, we saw the floating
leaves of the nymphæa kalmiana, some utricularias, and other aquatic
plants.
{128} September, 23d. After leaving the wide and fertile bottoms
of the Short Mountain Bayou, our path lay across high and rocky
hills, altogether covered with woods. The upland forests are almost
exclusively of oak, with some little intermixture of hickory, dogwood
and black gum. They are open, and the ground is in part covered with
coarse grasses.
At noon we arrived at the Cherokee settlements on Rocky Bayou, and were
received with some hospitality at the house of the metif chief, known
by the name of Tom Graves. Though entirely an Indian in his character
and habits, he has the colour and features of an European, and it was
not without some difficulty we could be made to believe that he was
in reality allied by birth to the people among whom he holds the rank
of a chief. His house, as well as many we passed before we arrived at
it, is constructed like those of the white settlers, and like them
surrounded with enclosed fields of corn, cotton, sweet potatoes, &c.,
with cribs, sheds, droves of swine, flocks of geese, and all the usual
accompaniments of a thriving settlement.
Graves, our landlord, though unable to speak or understand our
language, held some communications with us by means of signs,
occasionally assisted by a black girl, one of his slaves, who
interpreted the Cherokee language. He told us, among other things, that
the Osages do not know how to fight; that the Cherokees were now ready
to give up the Osage prisoners, if the Osages would deliver into their
hands the individuals who had formerly killed some of the Cherokees,
&c. He has shown his admiration of military prowess, by calling one of
his children Andrew Jackson Graves. He treated us with a good degree
of attention, and showed himself well acquainted with the manner of
making amends by extravagant charges. Our dinner was brought in by
black slaves, and consisted of a large boiled buffaloe fish, a cup of
coffee, corn bread, {129} milk, &c. Our host and his wife, of unmixed
aboriginal race, were at table with us, and several slaves of African
descent were in waiting. The Cherokees are said to treat their slaves
with much lenity. The part of the nation now residing on the Arkansa,
have recently removed from a part of the state of Tennessee. They are
almost exclusively agriculturists, raising large crops of corn and
cotton, enough for clothing their families, which they manufacture in
their own houses.
After dinner we proceeded a few miles, taking with us one of Graves's
sons as a guide, who led us to a place affording good pasture for our
horses. Here we encamped.
September 24th. From the settlement of the Cherokees, at Rocky Bayou,
our route lay towards the south-east, across the succession of rocky
hills, sparingly wooded with oak, intermixed with the cornus porida,
attaining an unusual magnitude.
As we descended towards the Arkansa, we perceived before us the cabins
and plantations of another settlement of Cherokees. Passing near a
wretched and neglected tenement, we observed a white man, who appeared
to be the occupant, and called upon him to direct us to the place
where, as we had been told, the river could be forded. It was not until
we had repeated our request several times, that he seemed disposed to
give any attention. He then approached at a snail's pace, and setting
himself down upon the ground, drawled out his direction, terminating
each word with a long and hearty yawn. The depression and misery which
seemed written on his features, and the sallowness of his complexion,
convinced us that disease, as well as native indolence, had some share
in occasioning the apparent insolence he had shewn, and cured us of any
wish we might have felt to reproach him.
Following a winding pathway, which led through deep-tangled thickets
and heavy cane-brakes, we {130} arrived at the ford, and crossing
without difficulty, halted at the settlement of Walter Webber,[10] a
young chief of the Cherokees.
Here we found the gentlemen of our party who had left the garrison
before us.
The chiefs of the Cherokee nation had called a grand council, to meet
at Point Pleasant the day after our arrival there, to adopt measures to
forward the negotiations for peace with the Osages, with whom they had
been at variance for many years. The origin of the quarrel, existing
between these powerful and warlike nations, is by some referred to the
period of the American revolution, when the Osages killed a number of
refugees, who had fled to them for protection. Among these were some
Cherokees, some Indians of mixed breed, and it is said some Englishmen,
to whom the success of the American arms rendered unsafe a longer
residence in the country then occupied by the Cherokee nation. Whether
the outrage thus alleged against the Osages was in fact committed, it
is not at this time easy to determine. It appears, however, agreeably
to the information we have been able to collect, that of late years the
Cherokees have almost uniformly been the aggressors, while the abuses
of the Osages, so loudly complained of, both by the Cherokees and the
Whites, have been acts of retaliation. A large number of Cherokees
now live on the south side of the Arkansa, upon lands claimed by the
Osages; and all the Cherokees of the Arkansa are in the habit of
hunting and committing depredations upon the Osage hunting grounds. In
1817, the Cherokees, with a number of Delawares, Shawnees,[11] Quapaws,
and eleven American volunteers, the whole amounting to about six
hundred men, made an irruption into the territory of the Osages, having
previously taken measures to quiet the suspicions of their enemies, by
occasional messages, professing a peaceable disposition on their part.
When they had arrived near the village, they {131} sent a deputation to
the Osages, concealing at the same time their numbers and their hostile
intention, and inviting Clermont, the chief, to a council which they
proposed to hold at a little distance from the town. Clermont being
absent on a hunt with the young men of his village, an old Indian,
and one in high standing with his people, was appointed to act in
his stead, and commissioned to conclude a peace with the Cherokees,
according to the wish they had expressed by their messengers. But what
was his surprise, when, on arriving at the spot designated as that at
which the council was to be held, instead of a few chiefs and old men,
as had been represented, he found himself surrounded by the whole armed
force of the Cherokees. He was seized and put to death on the spot. The
design of this act of perfidy had been to effect the destruction of
Clermont, the bravest and most powerful of the Osages. The Cherokees
then proceeded to the attack of the town, where, on account of the
absence of the efficient men, they encountered little resistance. A
scene of outrage and bloodshed ensued, in which the eleven Americans
are said to have acted a conspicuous and a shameful part. They fired
the village, destroyed the corn and other provisions, of which the
Osages had raised a plentiful crop, killed and took prisoners between
fifty and sixty persons, all old men, women, and children. Four of
these prisoners, who had been since held in captivity by the Cherokees
east of the Mississippi, had been brought to Point Pleasant, by a
metif called Captain Rogers, and a consultation was now to be held,
concerning the manner of restoring them to the Osages.
In the winter of 1817-18, some of the leading men of both nations had
been summoned to a council at St. Louis, by Governor Clark, for the
purpose of negotiating a peace. By the treaty then made, the Cherokees
had agreed to relinquish the prisoners in question, in consideration
of which they were to be {132} allowed the privilege of hunting in the
country north of the Arkansa, as high as the Grand river or Six Bulls,
and on the south side as high as they pleased.[12] The stipulated
surrender of the prisoners not having been made, a party of Osages,
who were hunting on Red river, some time in the ensuing winter, fell
in with three Cherokee hunters, and whom they murdered by way of
retaliation. This circumstance tended to widen the breach between them,
till at length both parties were resolved on war, which was for the
present prevented by the interference of Governor Miller, and by the
check imposed by the presence of an armed force at Belle Point, on the
frontiers of the two nations. At the time of our visit, it was hoped
the influence of Governor Miller would effect the establishment of a
permanent peace. The first of the ensuing month (October) had been
appointed for the surrender of the prisoners, and Governor Miller was
said to be then on his way to Belle Point, to ensure the fulfilment of
the conditions stipulated between the contending parties. The Osages
were to give up the men concerned in the murder on Red river, in
exchange for the women and children then prisoners with the Cherokees.
The Cherokees were taught the culture of cotton many years since, by
Governor Blount[13] of North Carolina, who offered them a stipulated
price per pound, for all they would deliver at the trading-house.
They were for several years paid regularly for their cotton; but the
factor at length refusing any longer to receive it, they complained
to Governor Blount, who advised them to manufacture it into clothing
for their own use, which they consented to do, on condition of being
furnished with a person to give the requisite instruction. They
now raise considerable quantities of cotton, and many of them are
comfortably clad in garments of their own manufacture.
The introduction of a considerable degree of civilization among the
Cherokees, has been attended {133} with the usual consequence of
inequality in the distribution of property, and a larger share of the
evils resulting from that inequality, than are known among untutored
savages. Encroachments upon the newly-established rights of exclusive
possession have been frequent, and have rendered the numerous class
of the poor among the Cherokees troublesome neighbours, both to the
wealthy of their own nation, and to those of the white settlers in
their vicinity who had any thing to lose. But wealth seldom finds
itself destitute of the means of protection. Three bands of regulators,
or troops of light horse, as they are sometimes called, are maintained
among the Cherokees, consisting each of ten men well armed and
mounted, and invested with an almost unlimited authority.[14] A few
days previous to our arrival at Point Pleasant, a young man had been
apprehended by one of these bands of regulators, on suspicion of
horse-theft. On examination, the supposed delinquent proved stubborn
and refractory, whereupon the captain ordered the infliction of
fifty lashes; and this not seeming to produce the desired effect, an
additional fifty was commenced, when the culprit confessed himself
guilty, and disclosed the whole transaction, in which he had been
concerned. We were called upon for advice in the case of the Osage
prisoners, a young woman and three children labouring under an attack
of intermitting fever. The young woman we found sitting upon the
floor in a little cabin, near the trading-house, and crying bitterly,
not more, as we were informed, on account of ill-health, than of
her reluctance to return to the Osages. She had been long among the
Cherokees, whose customs she had adopted, and among whom she had formed
attachments.
Tikatok's village, which we passed on the 25th, is situated on the
Illinois Bayou,[15] about seven miles above Point Pleasant. It
consists of no more than {134} five or six cabins, but is the residence
of the venerable Tikatok, who, since the death of Tallantusky in 1817,
has been considered the principal chief of this portion of the Cherokee
nation. He has been a distinguished benefactor to his people, and is
familiarly known by the name of "The Beloved." The Cherokees who live
at and about this village, and those settled at a distance from the
Arkansa, generally are less subject to fevers than those who reside on
the river bottoms. At a little distance above the village we left the
Illinois, and proceeded across the wilderness towards Little Red river,
on our route to Cape Girardeau. Two or three scattered plantations,
occupied by Cherokees, occur in the country between Point Pleasant and
Little Red river, where we arrived on the 28th. This river has a deep
rocky channel, sixty or one hundred yards in width, at the point where
we crossed it, which is distant about eighty miles from its confluence
with White river. It had at this time scarcely a perceptible current,
and in many places might be crossed on foot without wading. It is,
however, like most of the rivers of this region, subject to great and
sudden floods, which, in several instances, have drowned the cattle,
and destroyed and swept away the crops of those who were settled along
the banks. From the marks left by the last flood upon the banks, we
perceived that the range, from high to low water, could not be less
than sixty feet. From Stanley's settlement on Little Red river, it is
about thirty-six miles north-east to Harding's ferry on White river.
Here are numerous settlements of Whites; but notwithstanding the
country is hilly and profusely irrigated with numerous rapid streams,
the inhabitants have almost without exception a sickly appearance.
Harding's ferry is about four hundred miles distant from the confluence
of White river and the Mississippi.[16] White river is navigable for
keel-boats at high water to this place, and during a considerable
portion of the year, they {135} may ascend one hundred miles farther.
It is here about three hundred yards wide. Its water is remarkably
clear, and flows with a moderate current over a gravelly or stony-bed.
Near Harding's ferry, on the south side of White river, is the
Chattahoochee mountain,[17] of about two thousand feet elevation,
somewhat surpassing any other point in its vicinity. The top of this
mountain marks the north-eastern angle of the Cherokee boundary, as
established by General Jackson's treaty. The eastern boundary of the
tract, ceded by that treaty to the Cherokees, runs in a straight line
from the top of the Chattahoochee to the mouth of Point Remove or Eddy
Point creek, which enters the Arkansa about thirty miles above Cadron.
This line coincides nearly with the eastern limit of the mountainous
region. Many small portions of valuable land are included in the
territory lately ceded to the Cherokees, but by far the greater part
is mountainous and barren, and unfit for cultivation. White river
has its source in the Ozark mountains, near the 94th degree of west
longitude, and about the 36th degree north latitude, in the same
district, from which descend, on the south-west the Illinois river of
Arkansa, and on the north the Yungar Fork of the Osage. The average
direction of its course is nearly due east parallel to the Arkansa,
crossing about four degrees of longitude to its confluence with Black
river, in latitude 350° 15´, then turning abruptly south, it flows
through 1º 15´ of latitude to its bifurcation, and the confluence of
its eastern branch with the Mississippi in 34 degrees north.[18] Below
the point where it receives the Black river from the north, and even at
the Chattahoochee mountains, near one hundred miles above that point,
White river is little inferior, either in the width of its channel, or
in its volume of water, to the Arkansa under the same meridian. When
we have had occasion to mention among the people of White river, that
we {136} had crossed the Arkansa at the Rocky Mountains, more than one
thousand miles to the west, the question has been repeatedly put to us,
"Where did you cross White river?" Those who have known only the lower
portions of both rivers, consider them as nearly of equal length,
and as heading near each other; whereas the entire extent of country
drained by White river, compared to that of the Arkansa, is as one to
six nearly. Three miles above its confluence with the Mississippi,
White river divides into two branches, the lesser of which, turning
off at right angles, flows south-west, with a current sometimes equal
to three miles per hour, and falls into the Arkansa at the distance
of four miles and a half. It is said the current flows through this
communication alternately to and from the Arkansa, according as the
water in that river is higher or lower than in White river. Major Long
entered the Arkansa through this cut-off on the 13th of October 1817,
and it has been passed more recently by Mr. Nuttall,[19] in 1819. In
both these instances the current flowed from White river towards the
Arkansa. The mouth of that branch of White river which communicates
immediately with the Mississippi is situated fifteen miles above
the mouth of the Arkansa,[20] and is about two hundred yards wide.
The current is very gentle, and the water deep. Though perfectly
transparent, it is of a yellowish colour. The banks are low, and
subject to periodical inundations. The soil near the mouth of White
river is an intermixture of clay and fine sand, the clay predominating,
and the whole of a reddish tinge.
Numerous settlements have heretofore been formed on the lands
contiguous to White river, and several in the portion above the
Chattahoochee mountain on the south side; but all these lands having by
treaty been surrendered to the Cherokees, many whites {137} have been
compelled to withdraw, and leave their farms to the Indians. The tract
of land ceded to the Indians by the treaty above alluded to, is for
the most part rocky and barren. Some of the tributaries of White river
have extensive and fertile bottoms, but the greater part of the country
watered by this river, is mountainous and unfit for cultivation. At
MacNeil's ferry, where the road from Little Rock on the Arkansa to
Davidsonville, in Lawrence county, crosses White river, the bottoms
are wide, and as fertile as any of those on the Arkansa.[21] Here the
miegia and the papaw attain their greatest perfection, and the soil is
found well adapted to the culture of corn, cotton, and tobacco. At the
point formed by the confluence of White and Black rivers, is a portion
of land of a triangular form, and bounded by sides about fifteen miles
in extent, which, in the excellence of its soil, as we were informed
by the surveyors, is surpassed by none in the western country. There
are considerable portions of the upland soil of White river, where the
profuse supply of streams and springs of excellent water, the elevation
and comparative healthfulness of many situations, and the vicinity of
navigable rivers and other local advantages, make amends for the want
of exuberant fertility in the soil. The same remark is applicable to
the country south of the Arkansa, where are extensive tracts of hilly
and rocky soils, which seem admirably adapted to the culture of the
vine and the olive. In every part of the Ozark mountains, there are
vallies, and small portions of land within the hills, having a deep
and fertile soil, covered with heavy forests of oak, ash, hickory,
and in some places with the sugar maple, and abounding in excellent
water. The labour of a few years will be sufficient to convert these
tracts into productive farms, but the inconvenience resulting from the
difficulty of communication and access to the different {138} parts of
the country, will for a long time retard their settlement.
In several parts of the Arkansa territory we were shewn dollars, which
were believed to have been coined in some of the upper settlements of
White river; and it has been currently reported, that mines of silver
exist, and are wrought there. It appears, however, upon examination,
that much spurious coin is here in circulation; and it is probable that
the White river country owes its present reputation for mineral wealth
to the successful labours of some manufacturer of imitation dollars.
Since the time of De Soto, it has been confidently asserted by many
who have written concerning Louisiana, that mines of gold and silver
exist in that part of the country of which we are speaking. In an old
map, by Du Pratz, a gold mine is placed somewhere near the confluence
of the Illinois and the Arkansa; a silver mine on the Merameg, and he
says, "I myself saw a rivulet whose waters rolled down gold dust."[22]
We are informed by Schoolcraft, that granite exists about the sources
of the St. Francis, which are near those of White river.[23] Of the
extent and character of this formation of granite, we have not yet
been able to form any very definite ideas; it is, however, by no means
improbable, that to its plates of yellow and white mica, we are to
look for the origin of the fabulous accounts of the precious metals in
those regions. Like the country of the gilded king, the El Dorado of
South America, it is probable the gold and silver mines of the Arkansa
territory will recede, before the progress of examination, first into
the wildest and most inaccessible parts, and at length disappear
entirely. We by no means intend to assert, that the region in question
will not prove of immense importance, on account of its mineral
treasures; valuable mines of lead and iron are certainly frequent in
many parts of it. And we can assign no reason why silver {139} and
other metals should not be found in the argillite with quartzy veins,
and in the other rocks of the transition period, which we know to
exist in these mountains. We only intend to give it as our opinion,
that there has as yet been no foundation in actual discovery for the
belief that such mines do exist.
The bed of White river, at the place where we crossed it, is paved
with pebbles and fragments of a yellowish white petrosiliceous stone,
intermixed with rounded masses of transparent quartz, and sometimes
with pieces of calcedony. Its water is uncommonly transparent, and
this, with the whiteness of its bed, and the brisk motion of the
current, gives it an aspect of unusual beauty. The banks are high, and
in many places not exposed to inundation. Dense and heavy forests of
sycamore and cotton-wood stretch along the river, disclosing here and
there, at distant intervals, the solitary hut and the circumscribed
_clearing_ of the recent settler. Some who have been no more than two
or three years resident upon their present farms, and who commenced in
the unbroken forests, have now abundant crops of corn and pumpkins,
with large fields of cotton, which is said to equal in quality that of
the uplands of Georgia and Carolina. Few attempts have hitherto been
made to cultivate any grain, except Indian corn, though the soil is
thought to be in many places well adapted to wheat, barley, oats, &c.
The maize cultivated in the Arkansa territory, and in the southern and
western states, generally is the variety called the ground seed, having
a long and compressed kernel, shrivelled at the end when fully ripe;
and crops are not uncommon yielding from sixty to ninety bushels per
acre. In all the uplands, the prevailing growth is oak. At the time
of our journey, the acorns were falling in such quantities, that the
ground for an extent of many acres was often seen almost covered with
them. Many recent settlers, indulging the disposition to indolence
which seizes upon almost every man who {140} fixes his residence in
these remote forests, place as much dependence upon the crop of mast
as on the products of their own industry. Vast numbers of swine are
suffered to range at large in the forests, and in the fall of the year,
when they have become fat by feeding on the acorns, they are hunted and
killed like wild animals, affording to the inhabitants a very important
article of subsistence. It is remarked also, that the venison becomes
fat somewhat in proportion as acorns are abundant. Turkeys, which are
still vastly numerous in the settlements of White river, feed upon
them, but are said to grow poor in consequence.
Sweet potatoes[24] are produced in great perfection in many parts of
the Arkansa territory, and are but too much cultivated and eaten, their
constant use as an article of food being little beneficial to health.
The common or _Irish potatoe_, as it is here universally called,
succeeds but indifferently, and few attempts are made to cultivate it.
A few of the roads which traverse the country from the Mississippi
to the upper settlements of Red river and the Arkansa, have been
sufficiently opened to admit the passage of waggons. On these are seen
many families migrating from Missouri to Red river, and from Red river
to Missouri. The first settlements in the wilderness are most commonly
made by persons to whom hardihood and adventure have become confirmed
and almost indispensable habits, and who choose to depend upon the
chase, and the spontaneous products of the unreclaimed forest, rather
than submit to the confinement and monotony of an agricultural life.
They are therefore, of necessity, kept somewhat in advance of those
settlers who intend a permanent residence in the situations they first
occupy. Removing from place to place with their cattle, horses, and
swine, they confine themselves {141} to one spot no longer than _the
range_ continues to afford a sufficient supply of the articles most
necessary to life. When the canes are fed down and destroyed, and the
acorns become scarce, the small corn-field and the rude cabin are
abandoned, and the _squatter_ goes in search of a place where all the
original wealth of the forest is yet undiminished. Here he again builds
his hut, removes the trees from a few acres of land, which supplies
its annual crop of corn, while the neighbouring woods, for an extent
of several miles, are used both as pasture and hunting grounds. Though
there is in this way of life an evident tendency to bring men back to a
state of barbarism, we have often met among the rudest of the squatters
with much hospitality and kindness. Near White river, we called at a
house to purchase food for ourselves and our horses, but having no
silver money, our request was refused, although we offered the notes of
the bank of Missouri, then in good credit. In a few miles we arrived
at another cabin, where we found every member of the numerous family
sick with the ague and fever, except one young girl. But here they
were willing to furnish every refreshment their house afforded. There
were at this time very few houses, particularly in the settlements
about White river, which did not exhibit scenes of suffering similar
to those in the one of which we were now the reluctant guests. We have
seen some instances, where, of a family of eight or ten, not a single
individual was capable of attending to the services of the household,
or of administering to the wants of his suffering relatives. In these
instances we thought it better to pitch our tents at a little distance,
and intrude ourselves no farther than was necessary to procure corn and
other indispensable supplies.
On the evening of September 30th, we halted at a little rivulet called
Bayou Curæ.[25] The dwelling of our landlord consisted, as is commonly
the case in the new settlements, of a single room, with beds in {142}
two or three of the corners. We were cordially invited to make use
of the beds, though it would have been at the expence of rendering
it necessary for our host, his wife, and daughters, to sleep upon
the floor of the same room. We accordingly spread our blankets, and
deposited ourselves around the hearth, while the family occupied their
usual stations. On the first of October we arrived at the ford of
Strawberry river, a tributary entering the Big Black, not far from the
confluence of the latter with White river, and about fourteen miles
beyond, at the ford of Spring river, a parallel stream. Both of these
are rapid and beautiful rivers, possessing all the peculiarities, as
to the abundance, transparency, and purity of their waters, usually
observed in those rivers which traverse elevated and mountainous
districts. The entire length of Spring river is said to be but about
one hundred and forty miles; yet in the quantity of water which it
discharges, it more than twice exceeds the Canadian, having a course
of more than nine hundred miles. It is said to have its principal
source in a spring of uncommon magnitude. Spring river unites with
another, called Eleven Point, near the little town of Davidsonville,
the seat of justice for Lawrence county, and flows thence nearly due
east, two or three miles to its junction with Big Black. The country
around Davidsonville is hilly, having a deep and fertile primary soil,
and abounding in heavy forests. The sources of Eleven Point, we have
been told, are in eleven large springs, and are near those of Spring
river.[26]
To those who have been long accustomed to the thirsty regions of the
Missouri, the Platte, and the Upper Arkansa, it is somewhat surprising
to meet in tracts, having nearly the same elevation, and resting to
a great extent on rocks of a similar character, so great a number of
large streams crowded into such narrow compass.
{143} Is it not probable, that a large portion of the water falling
in rains upon the extensive plains at the eastern side of the Rocky
Mountains, may sink through the loose and porous soil, till at length,
meeting with some compact stratum, it may be collected into rills, and
even considerable streams, which, descending along the surface of this
stratum in the direction of the general inclination of the country,
at length meet with the nucleus of the Ozark mountains, traversing
the secondary strata like a mineral dike, and are consequently made
to appear in the form of large springs? Whether any course of this
kind operates to supply the unusual profusion of water with which this
hilly tract is irrigated, must be for others to decide. The fact is an
established one.
Black river originates in an elevated part of the Ozark mountains,
between 37° and 38° north latitude, and between 90° and 91° west
longitude. From the same tract descend, on the north, the waters of
the Merameg; on the north-east, those of Big river;[27] on the east
and south, those of the St. Francis and Black river; and on the west,
those of the Osage and the Gasconade. By an examination of the map
which accompanies this work, it will be seen that the direction of the
watercourses clearly indicates the existence of an elevated ridge,
running from the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi, on the
north-east, to the junction of the Arkansa and the Canadian on the
south-west. On the north-western side of this ridge, we observed the
Osage, the Grand river, the Verdigrise, and even the Arkansa, inflected
from that due eastern course, which the tributaries of the Mississippi
and Missouri on the west incline to pursue; and coming near its base,
we find the Illinois river of the Arkansa, and the Yungar Fork of
Osage, running in opposite directions, and nearly at right angles to
the general course of the Canadian, the Arkansa, the Main Osage, and
Konzas.
The Illinois, and the great eastern tributary of the Osage, {144}
receive numerous streams from the western slope of the Ozark mountains,
but they traverse a region hitherto very imperfectly known. It appears,
however, that these two rivers drain all the north-western side of
the mountainous range in question. Black river runs nearly parallel,
that is, from north-east to south-west, along the south-eastern side
of the range. Its sources are in the district of the lead mines, and
at no great distance from those of the Merameg and the St. Francis.
Its course is at first south-east, about sixty or one hundred miles;
then turning to the south-west, it receives in succession from the
south-eastern side of the mountains, the Little Black, the Currents,
Fourche De Thomas, Eleven Point Spring, and Strawberry rivers, uniting
at length with White river, in latitude 35° 15´. As far as hitherto
known it receives no considerable tributary from the east.[28] About
the sources of Black river reside the Peola or Peoria Indians, who
are said to number about fifty warriors. Parallel to this river, and
from twenty to sixty miles distant on the east, is the St. Francis,
a larger river, but one in many respects resembling Black river.
It rises in the high lands, about one hundred miles to the westward
of St. Genevieve in Missouri, and receiving, before it leaves the
hills, Bear Creek, Castor, White water, and numerous other streams,
it descends toward the south-east, soon entering the extensive swamp
which stretches from New Madrid on the Mississippi, along the base of
the mountains, to the Arkansa.[29] We have been informed by some of
the inhabitants of the counties of Cape Girardeau and Madison, that in
this swamp the St. Francis is so much obstructed with rafts, and so
lost among islands, that its course can with difficulty be traced. It
is well known that in the lower part of its course it is so obstructed
by a large raft, as not to admit the passage of the smallest boats.
Its confluence with the Mississippi is about three hundred and five
miles below the Ohio, and eighty above the mouth of White {145} river.
Running parallel both to the Mississippi and White river, and at no
great distance from either, the St. Francis can have no very large
tributaries; indeed we know of none on either side which deserve the
name of rivers. We have no very definite information respecting the
great swamp in which the St. Francis is said to lose itself soon after
leaving the hills; the accounts of the hunters, and of some settlers
who have seen it, agree in representing it as almost impassable,
covered with heavy forests of cypress, and wholly unfit to become
the residence of men. This swamp, and the country about the sources
of Black river and the St. Francis, appear to be near the centre of
the region so powerfully affected by earthquakes in the year 1811. The
fertile lands, on the upper branches of the St. Francis, are not very
extensive, and are all more or less subject to inundation by the sudden
overflowing of the streams. On this account they cannot be considered
as of great value for agriculture; but the wealth which this region
possesses in its mines, renders it one of the most important parts of
ancient Louisiana.
On the 8th October we arrived at Jackson, the seat of justice for the
county of Cape Girardeau, and, after St. Louis and St. Charles, one of
the largest towns in Missouri.[30] It lies about eleven or twelve miles
north-west of the old town of Cape Girardeau, on the Mississippi, and
is surrounded by a hilly and fertile tract of country, at this time
rapidly increasing in wealth and population. Jackson is what is called
a thriving village, and contains at present more than fifty houses,
which, though built of logs, seem to aspire to a degree of importance
unknown to the humble dwellings of the scattered and solitary settlers,
assuming an appearance of consequence and superiority similar to that
we immediately distinguished in the appearance and manners of the
people. Our horses, having never been accustomed to such displays of
magnificence, signified great reluctance to enter the {146} village.
Whips and heels were exercised with unusual animation, but in a great
measure without effect, until we dismounted; when by dint of coaxing,
pushing, kicking, and whipping, we at length urged our clownish animals
up to the door of the inn.
Fifteen miles north of Jackson, on a little stream called Apple creek,
reside about four hundred Indians, mostly Delawares and Shawnees. At
the time of our visit the head of a Shawnee, who had been concerned in
the murder of a white woman, was to be seen elevated on a pole by the
side of the road leading from Jackson to the Indian settlement of Apple
creek. It was related to us that the crime, for which this punishment
had been inflicted, was committed at the instigation of a white man.
The murderer was demanded of the Shawnees by the people of Jackson, and
being at length discovered by the Indians, and refusing to surrender
himself, he was shot by his own people, and his head delivered up,
agreeable to the demand.
It is painful to witness the degradation and misery of this people,
once powerful and independent; still more so to see them submitting
to the unnecessary cruelties of their oppressors. We have not been
informed by what authority the punishment above mentioned was inflicted
upon a whole community for the crime of one of its members, and we are
sorry to have occasion to record a circumstance so little honourable to
the people of Missouri.
A miserable remnant of the Shawnee, Delaware, and Peola tribes, with a
few Chickasaws and Cherokees, were at this time scattered through the
country, from the Mississippi at the mouth of Apple creek westward to
the sources of Black river. They were, however, about to remove farther
west, and many of them were already on their way to the country about
the upper branches of White river, where, by becoming intruders upon
the territories of the Cherokees, it may be expected their speedy and
entire extinction will be insured.[31]
{147} The road from White river joins that from the upper settlements
on the St. Francis, at some distance beyond Jackson. Castor and White
water are two beautiful streams, traversing the country west of
Jackson. They run towards the south, and soon after their confluence
enter the great swamp through which they find their way to the St.
Francis.
The district of the lead mines, situated near the sources of the
Merameg, the Gasconade, and the St. Francis, has been repeatedly
described. The best accounts of it are in the works of Bradbury,
Brackenridge, Stoddart, and Schoolcraft.[32] To those accounts we have
to add a few observations respecting the rocks and soils of the region,
a considerable part of which we have seen and examined as attentively
as circumstances would admit. But as discussions of this kind have
little interest for the general reader, we propose to give at the
end of the work such remarks as we have had the opportunity to make
connected with the mineralogy of this interesting territory.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Chapter ix in volume iii of the original London edition.
For the following topics mentioned in this chapter, see Nuttall's
_Journal_, volume xiii of our series: Massern (note 181), Vache Grasse
(164), Cadron (133), Short Mountain (162), Rocky Bayou (158), metif
(114), Quapaw Indians (84), Osage-Cherokee hostilities (155), Governor
William Clark (105), Governor James Miller (214), Tallantusky (148),
Cherokee treaty (145), Point Remove (139), White River Cut-Off (72),
Little Rock (123), roads through Arkansas (126), gold and silver in
Arkansas (128).--ED.
[2] Later observations give the following results: latitude 35° 23´
14˝; longitude 94° 25´ 52˝.--ED.
[3] In the Missouri county of the same name, on the Mississippi, a
hundred and forty miles below St. Louis. It is one of the oldest towns
in the state. For historical sketch, see André Michaux's _Travels_, in
our volume iii, note 154.--ED.
[4] Stephen W. Kearney (1794-1848), of New Jersey, left his studies
in Columbia College at the outbreak of the War of 1812-15, to enter
the army as first lieutenant of the Thirteenth Infantry. A year later
he was made captain for bravery at Queenstown Heights. Being retained
at the close of the war, he was at the beginning of the Mexican War a
colonel of dragoons. He led the Army of the West which marched from
Bent's Fort to New Mexico, and later assisted in the conquest of
California. In 1846 Kearney was breveted major-general, and appointed
governor of California. Afterwards, he joined the army in Mexico, and
there contracted the disease which resulted in his death.--ED.
[5] The word Massern, applied by Darby as a name to the hills of the
Arkansa territory, near the boundary of Louisiana, and by Nuttall,
to the mountains at the sources of the Kiamesha and the Poteau, is
supposed to be a corruption of _Mont Cerne_, the name of a small
hill near Belle Point, long used as a look-out post by the French
hunters.--JAMES.
[6] "Squire" Billingsley came from middle Tennessee to Arkansas in
1814, and after a year passed at Cadron, settled on the Mulberry, in
Franklin County, where he lived two years. When by the terms of the
treaty with the Cherokee the white settlers were compelled to abandon
this settlement, Billingsley removed to the Vache Grasse. He was a
member of the first territorial legislature. See Nuttall's _Journal_,
in our volume xiii, note 162.--ED.
[7] Short Mountain Creek rises in south central Logan County, on the
slope of the mountain of this name, and pursues a north-easterly course
to the Arkansas.
When Fort Smith was first established, mail was brought from Arkansas
Post by soldiers detailed for that duty. The trip by water consumed
three weeks.--ED.
[8] The deserted house occupied by the soldiers appears to have been
the only one in this so-called settlement. There were, however, other
settlers not far distant. John Tittsworth and two sons located near
Short Mountain as early as 1814. A number of immigrants are said to
have come to the county soon after the New Madrid earthquake (1812),
and when the Cherokee were placed in possession of the north side of
the Arkansas, others came in from that region. See Nuttall's _Journal_,
in our volume xiii, note 162.--ED.
[9] It may be proper to remark, that the elevation of none of the Ozark
mountains having been ascertained, the estimates which we have made are
only to be considered as approximating towards the truth.--JAMES.
[10] Webber lived near the mouth of Illinois Creek, in Pope County.--ED.
[11] For the Delaware Indians, see Post's _Journals_ in volume i of
our series, note 57; for the Shawnee, Weiser's _Journal, ibid._, note
13.--ED.
[12] This treaty was dated October 6, 1818. Article 3, which grants the
hunting privileges, reads as follows: "The Osages do hereby grant to
the Cherokees and their allies an undisturbed passage to the hunting
country, with permission to occupy and hunt on all the lands which
they claim south of the Arkansas river." See _American State Papers_,
"Indian Affairs," ii, p. 172.--ED.
[13] For sketch of William Blount, see André Michaux's _Travels_, in
our volume iii, note 95.--ED.
[14] Mr. John Rogers, a very respectable and civilized Cherokee, told
me that one of the regulators happening to have a relation who had been
repeatedly guilty of theft, and finding him incorrigible, he destroyed
his eyesight with a penknife; saying, "As long as you can see you will
steal; I will, therefore, prevent your thefts by the destruction of
your sight." Nuttall's Travels into the Arkansa Territory, p. 135.,
to which work the reader is referred for an interesting sketch of the
history, and of the present condition of the Cherokees. We think it
unnecessary to dwell longer upon a subject which has been so frequently
discussed.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ See reprint in our volume xiii, p. 190.
[15] Illinois Bayou is a large creek draining Pope County, on the
north side of the river. Near the Indian village, Dwight Mission was
established in 1820 (see Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume xiii, note
148). By inference, Point Pleasant was at the creek's mouth.--ED.
[16] The waters of Little Red River are gathered from creeks heading
in Van Buren, Searcy, and Stone counties. The main stream traverses
Cleburne and White counties; it is navigable by small boats for about
fifty miles. The route of the party from Illinois Creek to White River
lay through the present counties of Pope, Van Buren, the north-west
corner of Cleburne, and the adjoining portion of Stone; they probably
crossed Little Red River near Clinton, seat of Van Buren County. The
permanent occupation of this region by whites dates from the removal of
the Cherokee (1825), and little record remains of earlier settlements.
Harding's (Harden's) Ferry was near the present Stone-Independence
county boundary; the proprietor's house stood on the right bank of the
river, ten miles above Batesville, seat of Independence County.--ED.
[17] The treaty specified Shield's Ferry, on White River, as the
locus of the north-eastern corner of the Cherokee reservation. A bold
headland on the south side of the river, five miles above Batesville,
still known as Shield's Bluff, is pointed out by residents as the point
where the Cherokee line began. This bluff rises about six hundred feet
above the river.--ED.
[18] The geographical position of the sources of White River is
accurately given in the text, but the statement is surprising, that
"the average direction of its course is nearly due east parallel to
the Arkansas." From its origins in Washington and Madison counties, in
north-western Arkansas, the river flows north, entering Barry County,
Missouri, and traversing Stone and Taney counties before leaving that
state. In Arkansas, its direction is south-east to the confluence with
the Black, and thence almost south to the Mississippi.
The sources of Black River are in Reynolds and Iron counties, Missouri;
its course is nearly south.--ED.
[19] Nuttall's Travels, p. 65.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ Page 98 of our reprint.
[20] The confluence of White river with the Mississippi, has been said
to be "situated fifty miles above the mouth of the Arkansa." It has
also been asserted, that its bifurcation is at "about thirty miles
above its junction with the Mississippi." See _Schoolcraft's_ View
of the Lead Mines of Missouri, p. 248-253. There is, however, little
reason to fear, that errors of this sort, upon a subject so familiarly
known, will obtain general currency. In the same work, the length of
White river is said to be thirteen hundred miles.--JAMES.
[21] This road crossed White River a few miles, perhaps ten, below
Batesville. The St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad follows the line
of the old road, although somewhat to the eastward.
The site of Davidsonville was chosen in the autumn of 1815; it was at
the mouth of Spring River (see _post_, note 26). The town was seat of
Lawrence County until 1829; but after the removal of the court to a
rival village, it declined and became extinct.--ED.
[22] The mine of Merameg, which is silver, is pretty near the
confluence of the river which gives it name, which is a great advantage
to those who would work it, because they might easily, by that means,
have their goods from Europe. It is situate about 500 leagues from the
sea. _Du Pratz_' Louisiana, vol. i, p. 294.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ The reference is to volume i of the London edition of
1763; the quotation in the text is from _ibid._, pp. 362, 363.
[23] P. 213.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ Granite from quarries in Iron County, Missouri, was
used in the construction of the capitol at Springfield, Illinois, of
the custom houses at St. Louis and Cincinnati, and of other important
works.
St. Francis River rises in St. François County, Missouri, a few miles
east of the sources of Black River. The mention of White River in the
text is a slip of the pen. The whole course of the St. Francis is
parallel to that of Black River and lower White River. It falls into
the Mississippi at the north-east corner of Phillips County, Arkansas.
[24] The tuberous roots of the convolvulus batatas of Linnæus.--JAMES.
[25] Now Cura Creek, which falls into the Black from the west, in
north-eastern Independence County.--ED.
[26] Strawberry River is a considerable stream, which unites with Black
River on the southern line of Lawrence County. It flows from Izard
County across Sharp, and the south-west portion of Lawrence. Some of
the earliest settlers in this region occupied its fertile bottom lands
as early as 1810-12.
The chief source of Spring River is known as the Mammoth Spring of
Fulton County; it is near the Missouri boundary, in the north-eastern
corner of the county. The water issues from an opening a hundred and
twenty feet in circumference, at the rate of nine thousand barrels per
minute. An apparent boiling is produced by gas in solution. Myatt's
Creek and South Fork, branches of Spring River which are longer but
convey less water, rise beyond the state line, traverse Fulton County
in a south-easterly direction, and join the main stream near the Sharp
County line. Thence the course is south-east across Sharp County, and
along the Randolph-Lawrence county boundary to Black River.
Eleven Point River rises in Howell County, Missouri, crosses Oregon
County, and thence flows south through Randolph County, Arkansas.--ED.
[27] Big River originates in Iron County, Missouri, near the sources
of Black River; it pursues a devious course, traversing Washington,
St. François, and Jefferson counties, and falls into the Merameg
about thirty miles above the confluence of the latter with the
Mississippi.--ED.
[28] Little Black River heads in Carter County, Missouri; it is a
tributary of the Currents, although the combined stream is sometimes
called Little Black.
Currents (Current) River rises in Texas County, Missouri, and flows
first north-east then south-east, traversing Shannon, Carter, and
Ripley counties, in that state, and portions of Clay and Randolph
counties in Arkansas. It joins Little Black in Clay. Currents River
rivals Black River itself in size.
There are many variants of the name of the stream here called Fourche
De Thomas. The Philadelphia edition has Thomas' river or fork;
elsewhere it is given indifferently as Fourche à Thomas, Fourche à
Dumas, and Fourche Dumas, while a recent map has Fouche or Dumaz. It
heads in Ripley County, Missouri, and flows south. Pocahontas, seat of
Randolph County, Arkansas, is just below its mouth.
In addition to those mentioned, Black River receives a few small
western tributaries above the Missouri line--among them, Cane Creek in
Butler County, and Logan's Creek in Reynolds County.--ED.
[29] Dr. James did not possess accurate information relative to these
watercourses. Bear Creek is a Wayne County, Missouri, branch of Castor
River. The latter rises in St. François County and loses itself in the
swamp near the state line. Whitewater rises near Castor, but flows as
far east as Cape Girardeau County, below which it is known as Little
River. It also enters the swamp; the St. Francis receives the overflow
from the swamp district, where the waters of many streams mingle. The
New Madrid earthquake caused a general subsidence of the surface in
this region, and altered the courses of many waterways.--ED.
[30] Jackson was laid out in 1815. Its selection as county seat was
a severe blow to the older town of Cape Girardeau; but the growth of
river trade, after steam-boat navigation became regular, restored the
latter's ascendency. The population of Jackson in 1818 was about three
hundred; at present it numbers a thousand.--ED.
[31] The Peoria Indians were an Algonquian tribe of the Illinois
family. The French explorers found them on the Illinois River, in the
vicinity of the present city of Peoria; but early in the eighteenth
century, hard pressed in war, they joined the kindred Cahokia and
Kaskaskia near the villages of the same names. The remnant of the
tribe, numbering about two hundred, is established on the Quapaw
Reservation in Indian Territory.--ED.
[32] Bradbury's Travels in the Interior of America, p. 258, 2d edition
[our volume v, p. 248]. Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 390.
Stoddart's Sketches of Louisiana, p. 390.--JAMES.
{148} CHAPTER II {X}[33]
Hot Springs of the Washita--Granite of the Cove--Saline
River
We return to give a hasty account of an excursion from Point Pleasant,
in the country of the Cherokees, to the hot springs of the Washita.
On the morning of the 25th, our little party, consisting of Captain
Kearney, Lieutenant Swift, and myself, having taken leave of our
companions, recrossed the Arkansa from Webber's, and proceeded on our
journey without a guide.
Having mistaken the route we had been directed to follow, we were
bewildered during a considerable part of the day, wandering about
through a fertile country without settlements, and so covered with
dense forests as to render the travelling exceedingly harassing.
Towards evening we arrived at a settlement of Cherokees, where we
engaged a guide to conduct us to the trace leading to the springs. For
this service we paid him two dollars. At night we encamped in an open
forest of oak, where we found a sufficient supply of grass for our
horses. The hills south of the Arkansa range from N.E. to S.W. , their
sides are sometimes nearly naked, but more commonly covered with small
and scattered trees. Several kinds of oak, and the chinquapin (castanea
pumila, Ph.) attaining the dimensions of a tree, are met with in the
sandstone tracts. We distinguished here, in the uplands, two separate
varieties of soil. That just mentioned, based upon a compact hard
sandstone, and bearing forests of oak, and another resting upon a white
petrosiliceous rock, with fragments of which it is much intermixed.
This latter is often covered {149} with pine forests. The most common
species, yellow pine (P. resinosa,) attains unusual magnitude. The
rigida, and some other species occur, but are not frequent. We also
observed several species of vaucinum, the mitchella, the kalmia
latifolia, hamamelis virginica? cunila mariana, and many other plants
common to this region and the Alleghany mountains.
There are no settlements between those of the Cherokees about Derdonai
on the Arkansa and the hot springs. The blind path which we followed
traverses a rugged and mountainous region, having considerable
resemblance, except in the want of parallelism in the ranges, to the
sandstone portions of the Alleghanies. As the weather was rainy we felt
the inconvenience of travelling in the wilderness and encamping without
tents. On the 28th we arrived at the hot springs. The country near
these, on the north and north-west, is high and rocky. The sandstone,
which extends from the Arkansa to within a few miles to the springs,
becomes, as you go south, something inclined, and apparently of a
more ancient deposition, until it is succeeded by a highly inclined
primitive argillite. Both these rocks are traversed by large veins of
white quartz. They are inclined towards the south, and the argillite at
a great angle. In some localities it is but indistinctly slaty in its
structure, and its laminæ are nearly perpendicular.
It contains extensive beds of a yellowish white siliceous stone,
which is often somewhat translucent, and resembles some varieties
of hornstone. Its fracture is a little splintery, and sometimes
largely conchoidal; it is of a close texture, but the recent surface
is generally destitute of lustre. It is this rock which affords the
stones called Washita oilstones. It may, with propriety, be denominated
petrosilex. This name is, however, to be understood as having the
application given it by Kirwan,[34] who uses it to designate the
fusible varieties of the hornstone of {150} Werner, and not the several
varieties of compact felspar to which it has been sometimes applied.
In passing from the hot springs, north-east to the lead-mine country,
about the sources of the Merimeg, this rock is found to be intimately
connected, and to pass by minute and imperceptible gradations, into
the flint rock of that district, which is decidedly secondary, and of
contemporaneous origin with the compact limestone which it accompanies.
About the hot springs it is not distinctly stratified, but occurs in
very extensive masses, sometimes forming the body of large hills, and
is marked by perpendicular seams and fissures, often placed very near
each other.
The hot springs of the Washita are in north latitude 34° 31´, and west
longitude 92° 50´ 45˝,[35] near the base of the south-eastern slope of
the Ozark mountains, and six miles north of the Washita. They have been
erroneously represented as the principal sources of that river, which
are more than one hundred miles distant.[36]
We have been informed that these remarkable springs were unknown, even
to the American hunters, until the year 1779. At that time, it is said,
there was but one spring discharging heated water. This is described as
a circular orifice, about six inches in diameter, pouring out a stream
of water of the same size, from the side of a perpendicular cliff,
about eight feet from its base. This cliff was situate then, as it is
now, along the eastern side of a small creek, but was at a greater
distance from the stream than at present. At another place, near the
top of the mountain, which rises abruptly towards the east, the heated
water is said to have made its appearance near the surface of the
ground, in a state of ebullition, and to have sunk and disappeared
again upon the same spot. It is probable these representations {151}
are in a great measure fabulous; all we are to understand by them
is, that the gradual augmentation of the thermal rocks, which are
constantly forming about the springs, has changed the position, and
perhaps increased the number of the orifices.[37]
These springs were visited by Hunter and Dunbar in 1804, and the
information communicated by them, as well as much derived from other
sources, together with an analysis of the waters, has been placed
before the public by Dr. Mitchell.[38] They have been subsequently
examined by Major Long, in January 1818, from whose notes we derive
much of the information we have to communicate respecting them. They
are about seventy in number, occupying situations at the bottom and
along one side of a narrow ravine, separating two considerable hills
of clay-slate. A small creek enters the ravine from the north by two
branches, one from the north-west, and the other from the north-east,
flowing after their union nearly due south, and blending with the water
of the springs, increasing rapidly in size, and acquiring so high a
temperature, that at the time of our visit the hand could not be borne
immersed in it. After traversing from north to south the narrow valley
containing the springs, this creek meanders away to the south-east,
and enters the Washita at the distance of eight or ten miles. All the
springs are within a distance of six hundred yards below the junction
of the two brooks, and all, except one, on the east side of the creek.
We subjoin a note, containing some particulars observed by Major Long
at the time of his visit in 1818.[39]
During the winter the steam which rises from the springs is condensed
to a white vapour, which is often visible at a great distance.
The water of the springs is limpid and colourless, and destitute,
when cooled, of either taste or smell, {152} and, according to the
analysis of Dr. Mitchell, purer than ordinary spring water. It however
deposits, as it comes in contact with the air, a copious sediment,
which has gradually accumulated until it has become an independent
rock formation of considerable extent. This rock appears to consist
of flint, lime, and a little oxide of iron. It is often of a porous or
vascular texture, and the amygdaloidal cavities are sometimes empty and
sometimes contain very delicate stalactites. Hæmatitic iron ore occurs
disseminated in every part. Also extensive caverns, sometimes filled
with a bright red metallic oxide. Dr. Wilson, who has been some time
resident at the springs, informed us, that the continued use of the
water occasions salivation, from which it has been commonly inferred
that mercury exists in the water in solution.[40]
The time of our visit to the springs being one of very unusual drought,
the quantity of water was somewhat less and the temperature higher than
ordinary. The time required to boil eggs, as much as they usually are
for the table, was fifteen minutes. In the same time a cup of coffee
was made by immersing our kettle in one of the springs.[41]
A number of baths have been made, by hollowing out excavations in the
rock, to which the hot water is constantly flowing. By cutting off or
increasing the supply the temperature can be regulated at pleasure;
over some of these are built small log cabins, and in the neighbourhood
are twenty or thirty huts, occupied at some seasons of the year by
persons who resort hither for the benefit of the waters.
Three miles north-east from the hot springs is a large fountain of
water, of the ordinary temperature, forming the source of the small
stream already mentioned as flowing down from that direction. It rises
from the summit of a little knoll, six or eight feet in diameter, and
divides into two streams, one of which flows towards the east, the
other towards the west. Both, however, unite at the base of the knoll,
and {153} the brook flows thence south-west, between two petrosiliceous
hills, to its confluence with another from the north-west, to form the
hot spring creek. The quantity of water discharged by this spring can
scarcely be less than from eighty to one hundred gallons per minute.
Immediately on the south rises a large hill, and the elevation of the
spring itself, above the level of the highest of the thermal springs,
is thought to be not less than one hundred and fifty feet. The water is
transparent, but has a perceptible metallic taste, and deposits upon
the stones over which it flows a copious rust-like sediment. The spring
is known in the neighbouring settlements as the "poison spring," a name
which we were told it had received from the following circumstance,
said to have taken place many years since. A hunter who had been
pursuing a bear, and was much exhausted with heat and fatigue, arrived
at this spring in the middle of the day, and finding the water cool,
and not unpleasant to the taste, drank freely of it, but immediately
afterwards sickened and died. His death was occasioned, probably, not
by any deleterious quality in the water, but by the disease commonly
induced by drinking too largely of cold water when the body is heated.
The neighbouring inhabitants, however, imputed the hunter's death to
some supposed poisonous property in the spring. Not long afterwards a
discontented invalid, residing at the hot springs, came to a resolution
of putting a period to his own life. This he concluded to bring about
by drinking the water of the poison spring. He accordingly repaired
to it, and after drinking as much as he could, filled his bottle, and
returned home. Instead of dying, as he had expected, he found himself
greatly benefited by his potation. Notwithstanding this discovery of
the sanative quality of the water the spring still retained its former
name. It is however used without apprehension, and is much resorted to
by people who visit the warm springs.
{154} About two miles to the north-east of this spring, a little to
the left of the road leading to the settlement of Derdonai, is the
principal quarry from which the Washita oilstones are procured. It
is near the summit of a high and steep hill of the petrosiliceous
rock already mentioned. The oilstones are found in the perpendicular
seams or fissures of the rock, from which they are detached with
little difficulty, having, as they are dug from the quarry, nearly the
requisite shape and size. They are then carried by hand, or thrown to
the foot of the precipice, whence there is an easy transportation of
ten or twelve miles to the Washita. By this river they descend to New
Orleans, and some have been carried thence to New York, where they
are known as the Missouri oilstones. These stones are said not to be
inferior in quality to the oilstones from Turkey.
In the immediate neighbourhood of the hot springs we observed a number
of interesting plants. The American holly (ilex opaca) is a conspicuous
and beautiful tree in the narrow vallies within the mountains. The
leaves of another species of ilex (I. cassine), the celebrated cassine
naupon frequent about the springs, are there used as a substitute
for tea. The angelica tree (aralia spinosa, Ph.) is common along the
banks of the creek, rising to the height of twelve to fifteen feet,
and bending beneath its heavy clusters of purple fruit. The pteris
atropurpurea, asplenium melanoraulon, A. ebeneum, and other filices
are found adhering to the rocks. In the open pine woods the germandia
pectinata, considered as a variety of G. pedicularia, is one of the
most conspicuous objects.
The sources of the Washita are in a high and broken part of the Ozark
mountains, in north latitude 34° 15´, and between 93° and 94° west
longitude, and sixty or an hundred miles south-west of the settlement
of Cadron on the Arkansa. From the same mountainous district descend
towards the north-east the Petit Jean and Le Fevre, tributaries to the
Arkansa; on {155} the north-west the upper branches of the Poteau;
on the south-west the Kiamesha; and on the south-east the Mountain,
Cossetot, Rolling Forks, and other streams, discharging into Little
river of Red river.[42] The principal source of the Washita is said
to be very near that of the Fourche Le Fevre, and to descend towards
the west from the same hill, out of which flow the upper branches of
the Le Fevre towards the east. These particulars are, however, of
little importance, except as serving to illustrate the character of
that portion of the country. The whole of that region is strictly
mountainous, and its numerous streams are rapid and circuitous, winding
their way among abrupt and craggy hills, so thinly covered with pine
and post oak, that the sober gray of the sandstone is often the
prevailing colour of the landscape. The hills, at the sources of the
Poteau and the Kiamesha, abound in clay-slate, and a slaty petrosilex
destitute of organic remains.[43] It is remarked by hunters, that the
most remote and elevated sources of all the rivers of this region are
joined in or near extensive woodless plains. As far as this is the
case, it would seem to prove that the existing inequalities of the
surface have been produced almost entirely by the currents of water
wearing down and removing extensive portions of the horizontally
stratified rocks. In districts where secondary rocks only are found,
as in the country of the Ohio, there appears little difficulty in
attributing this origin to all the hills; and even in the mountainous
district under consideration, as the most recent rocks, and those of
horizontal stratification, occupy the highest portions of the hills,
we may perhaps be allowed to suppose they formerly covered a much
greater extent of country than at present, overlaying those strata of
more ancient deposition, which now appear upon the declivities of the
mountains. It cannot escape {156} the remark of any person who shall
visit the range of country, which we call the Ozark mountains, that the
direction of the ridges, (particularly of those where sandstone is the
prevailing rock,) conforms to the course of the principal streams.
None of the tributaries to the Washita, above the hot springs, have
hitherto been explored. The Little Missouri and the Fourche-au-Cadeau,
enter it in succession from the west, in the course of a considerable
bend which it makes to the south, after receiving the waters of Hot
Spring creek.[44] These two streams run mostly in a mountainous
country, though some fertile lands and some settlements occur on each.
On the Little Missouri, Hunter and Dunbar found the maclura, a tree
confined to fertile soils. The first considerable stream entering
the Washita from the north is the Saline, rising in three principal
branches, twenty or thirty miles north-west of the hot springs. The
road from Derdonai to the springs crosses these streams near their
sources, in an extremely rugged and mountainous region. The Saline,
like the Washita itself in this part, and the other tributaries already
enumerated, is liable to great and sudden floods, and also to great
depression in seasons of drought. Originating in a mountainous tract,
and in the continuation of the range so profusely supplied with springs
in the country about the sources of White river, we might expect that
the Washita would be fed by numerous and unfailing fountains. It
appears, however, to derive the greater part of its supplies from the
water of rains, and consequently to rise and fall according to the time
of year and the state of the weather. Where Major Long crossed the
Washita, on the 31st December 1817, six miles south-west of the hot
springs, the river was one hundred and fifty yards wide, about four
feet deep, and extremely rapid.
In the latter part of October 1820, at the time of our journey, the
Washita at Keisler's settlement, about fifteen miles below the springs,
was something {157} less than one hundred yards in width, flowing
in a deep and unequal channel over a bed of clay-slate. The water
is here ten or fifteen feet deep in many places, and the currents
scarce perceptible; as we looked down upon the river from the elevated
banks it appeared like a quiet lake, and the unusual blackness of
the waters suggested the idea of its great depth. Little groups of
naked rocky islands were disclosed here and there in different parts
of the channel. On examination we found the apparent dark colour of
the water to depend upon the complexion of the rocks which form the
bottom and sides of the bed, they being principally of a dark-coloured
argillite; and not only these, but the small fragments of quartz and
other whitish stones, had acquired, from lying in the water, a peculiar
tinge of dark brown. We expected to find an incrustation covering the
surfaces of these stones, but upon examination the colouring matter
seemed inseparably blended with the rock itself. The water, seen by
transmitted light, was entirely transparent, and had no perceptible
saltness.
At the distance of five or six miles south-east from the hot springs,
on the road leading towards the town of Little Rock, on the Arkansa,
commences a tract of land, having a fertile soil and a beautiful
situation, and extending to the Washita. Some parts of this region
afford exceptions to the remark generally applicable to Arkansa
territory, that the best soils are found in the alluvion of the
rivers. Some extensive districts of primary soil along the base of the
mountains are of a quality rarely surpassed in fertility, bearing heavy
forests of oak, ash, and sugar maple, which attain here to greater size
than we have seen in other parts of the United States.
We arrived about sunset on the 28th at Keisler's plantation,[45] where
we made application for permission to spend the night. This was readily
granted, though, as is often the case in such remote and solitary
habitations, the house was not in the most complete {158} readiness
for the accommodation of travellers. A quantity of Indian corn was
immediately gathered in the adjoining field, a part of it given to our
horses, and a part prepared for our own supper. During the green-corn
season, which is a time of jubilee and rejoicing among the agricultural
Indians, and scarcely less so with many of the white settlers, those
who live remote from corn mills use no other bread than such as we now
saw prepared, within the space of an hour, from the standing corn. Such
ears are selected as are fit for roasting, and the corn grated from the
cob by means of the side of a tin lanthorn, or some portion of an old
coffee-pot, perforated with several holes. In this state it forms a
soft paste, which, with the addition of a little salt, is spread upon
a heated stone or an iron pan, and baked before the fire. Our supper
consisted of bread of this sort, bear's meat, and coffee--a treat
worthy the attention of an epicure.
The Cove is a valley commencing among the mountains at no great
distance to the east of the hot springs, and containing a small rivulet
which enters the Washita six or eight miles below Keisler's.[46]
This valley is bounded towards the west by loamy hills, disclosing
at intervals cliffs and ledges of clay-slate and petrosilex. In the
lowest part of this valley, at a place called Roark's settlement, we
discovered a bed of granite forming the basis of a broad hill, which
rose by a very gradual ascent towards the east. We were directed to
the examination which brought us acquainted with the existence of this
rock by the representation of Roark, that in his corn field, not far
from the house, was a bed of plaister of Paris. Being conducted to
the spot, we found a quantity of loose granitic soil, that had been
raised from a shallow excavation, and was intermixed with numerous
large scales of talc. The examination had been carried a few feet below
the surface, and had terminated upon the granite in question. Having
collected {159} several beautiful masses of an aggregate of felspar,
talc and quartz, we returned to the house where our breakfast was in
preparation. Being informed by our landlord that blue vitriol, native
copper, and other interesting minerals, had been formerly discovered
near the sources of the little brook that ran past the house, we
delayed our journey some time, that we might continue our examination.
In following the brook towards its sources, we were much gratified in
finding an extensive bed of native magnet, which seemed to be embraced
in the granite. Not far distant the same rock contained large masses
of pyrites and of bluish green mica. In these we readily perceived the
blue vitriol and native copper mentioned by our host. In some places
we found the bed of the brook paved almost exclusively with detached
schorls. We collected also several other interesting imbedded minerals.
More extensive examinations will hereafter show this spot to be one
among the most interesting in America to a mineralogist. The great
depth of soil resting upon this formation of granite prevented our
examining it at as many points as we could wish; also from ascertaining
to our satisfaction its extent, and its connexion with the neighbouring
rocks. It appears, however, at several points in an area of fifteen or
twenty acres, and always in place. We saw not a single detached mass
at any distance. This may be owing in part to the perishable structure
of the granite, and in part to its being surrounded on all sides by
more elevated rocks of slate or sandstone. On the summit of the hill a
grave had recently been dug. In the granitic soil which lay about it
we saw many fragments of pyrites, also uncommonly large and beautiful
laminæ of talc intermixed with scales of mica. These two minerals
are, we think, rarely found in such intimate connexion, yet retaining
so perfectly their distinctive characters, as in the instance under
consideration. The talc in some instances forms an integrant part of
the granite, and {160} we have seen it blended with mica in the same
specimen.
The road, leading towards the Little Rock on the Arkansa, passes from
the granite of the Cove over a coarse hard sandstone, embracing beds of
conglomeratic or puddingstone, and in many respects closely resembling
some of the varieties of the old red sandstone of the Alleghany
mountains. Towards the east the surface of the country rises gradually,
and the sandstone, without giving place to any other stratum, becomes
more micaceous and slaty, and at length assumes all the characters of a
sandstone accompanying coal.
In the afternoon of the 29th we arrived at Lockhart's settlement, on
the Saline Fork of the Washita. The soil of some of the bottom lands
along this stream is not inferior to any we have seen west of the
Mississippi. It is well watered, and abounds in excellent timber. Pine
and oak are intermixed with the ash, hickory, and sugar maple. Here
are some well cultivated gardens, and extensive plantations of corn,
cotton, and tobacco. Mr. Lockhart and his family, who are emigrants
from North Carolina, consider the climate more agreeable than that of
the country they came from, and have continued, during a residence of
several years, to enjoy good health. We could not fail to attribute
this remarkable exemption from disease, in a great measure, to the
regularity, neatness, and good order of their domestic economy.
October 30th. In crossing some broken ridges of sandstone, which occupy
the high and uninhabited tract between the vallies of the Arkansa
and Washita, we followed the obscure path communicating between the
settlements on the Saline and the town of Little Rock. As we were
descending from one of these ridges our attention was called to an
unusual noise, proceeding from a copse of low bushes on our right,
at a few rods from the path. On arriving at {161} the spot we found
two buck deer, their horns fast interlocked with each other, and both
much spent with fatigue, one, in particular, being so much exhausted
as to be unable to stand. As we perceived it would be impossible they
should extricate themselves, and must either linger in their present
situation until they died of hunger, or were destroyed by the wolves,
we despatched them with our knives, not without having first made an
unavailing attempt to disentangle their antlers. Leaving their bodies
in the place where we had killed them, we called at the cabin of a
settler, which we found within a few miles, and requested him to go
back and fetch the venison for the use of his family.
From the occasional occurrence of the skulls of deer and elk with the
horns interlocked with each other, and from the fact above mentioned,
it appears that the contests of these animals at the rutting season
often prove fatal to both parties. From the form of the horns, and the
manner of fighting, it seems probable they must often be entangled with
each other, and when this is the case both fall an easy prey to the
wolves.
The Saline has an entire length of about one hundred and fifty miles,
running all the way nearly parallel to the Washita, to its confluence
near the latitude 33° north. After entering the state of Louisiana, the
Washita receives from the east the Barthelemi, the Boeuf, the Macon,
and the Tensa, all of which, having their sources near the west bank
of the Mississippi, may be considered as inosculating branches of that
river, since at times of high floods they are fed from the Mississippi.
The western tributaries are the Saluder, Derbane, and Ocatahoola,
deriving their sources from a spur of the Ozark mountains, which, in
the northern part of Louisiana, divides the broad alluvial valley of
Red river from that of the Mississippi. About twenty miles south-west
from the confluence of the Tensa, Washita, and Ocatahoola, {162}
the latter expands into a considerable lake, and sends off a branch
to Red river. Indeed the Washita might, without great impropriety,
be considered as entering the Mississippi at the point where its
waters unite with those of the Ocatahoola and Tensa. The periodical
inundations cover the country westward to this point, and even in
times of low water the channels communicating with the Mississippi are
numerous. From this point there is an uninterrupted connexion, through
a system of lakes and watercourses, stretching along parallel to the
Mississippi, about thirty miles distant, and communicating, through the
river and lake Atchafalaya, with the gulf of Mexico, at a point more
than one hundred and fifty miles west of the principal debouchure of
the Mississippi.[47]
FOOTNOTES:
[33] For the following topics mentioned in this chapter, see Nuttall's
_Journal_, in our volume xiii: Derdonai (note 146), Hot Springs (135),
Hunter and Dunbar (211), Petit Jean River (140), Le Fevre (119, 132),
Poteau River (169), roads in Arkansas (126), Kiamichi River (177),
Saline of Ouachita (125).--ED.
[34] Richard Kirwan (1733-1812), an Irishman, ranked as one of the
most brilliant scientific thinkers of his time. His studies included
chemistry, geology, mineralogy, and agriculture. Many of his writings
were translated into other languages.--ED.
[35] Hunter and Dunbar.--JAMES.
[36] The sources of Ouachita River are near the western state line in
Polk County.--ED.
[37] "There are four principal springs rising immediately on the east
bank of the creek, one of which may be rather said to spring out of
the gravel bed of the river; a fifth, a smaller one than that above
mentioned, as rising on the west side of the creek; and a sixth of
the same magnitude, the most northerly, and rising near the bank of
the creek; these are all the sources that merit the name of springs,
near the huts; but there is a considerable one below, and all along
at intervals the warm water oozes out, or drops from the bank into
the creek, as appears from the condensed vapour floating along the
margin of the creek, where the drippings occur." This extract from the
"Observations" of Hunter and Dunbar, when compared with our account,
will show that some changes have happened in the number and position of
the springs, since the time of their visit in 1804.--JAMES.
[38] See the New York Medical Repository.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ Samuel Latham Mitchill (1764-1831), "the Nestor of
American science," began the publication of the _New York Medical
Repository_ in 1797. He was a member of the faculty of Columbia College
from 1792 to 1801; later he was professor in the College of Physicians
and Surgeons of New York City (1808-26), and in Queen's College
(1826-30). He served several terms in the New York legislature, and
from 1801 to 1813 was in Congress, part of the time in the Senate.
[39] On the 1st of January, 1818, the thermometer, in the air, at
sunrise, stood at 24°, at 2 P.M. 49°, at sunset 41°.
Immersed in the water of the creek, below the springs, at 61º.
In spring No. 1. being the lowermost on the creek, 122°,
water discharged, 4 gallons per minute.
No. 2. A few feet from No. 1, 104°, discharges 1 gallon
per minute.
No. 3. Twenty-five yards from the last, 106°, discharges
two gallons per minute.
No. 4. Six yards above the last, 126°, discharges 2
gallons per minute.
Temperature of a spring issuing from the ground, at a considerable
distance up the side of the hill, 64°.
Springs, No. 5, 6, and 7, 126°, 94°, 92°. These rise very near each
other, the warmest being more elevated than the rest; the three
discharge about 8 gallons per minute.
No. 8. Issuing from the ground, fifty feet above the level of the
creek, uniting, as it rises, with another at 54°; temperature of the
mixture, 128°, discharge of the two, 10 gallons per minute.
No. 9. Rising on the point of a small spur, sixty feet above the level
of the creek, 132°, discharges two gallons per minute.
No. 10. Forty feet above the creek, 151°, discharges 10 gallons per
minute. Green bushes in the edge of this, which is the hottest spring.
No. 11. Three feet above the creek, 148°, discharges 12 gallons per
minute.
No. 12. Twenty yards above the last, 132°, discharges 20 gallons per
minute.
No. 13, 14, 15. Near the last, 124°, 119°, 108°, discharges each 4
gallons per minute.
No. 16, 122°, discharges 2 gallons per minute.
No. 17. The uppermost on the creek, 126°.
No. 18, 126°; 19, 128°; 20, 130°; 21, 136°; 22, 140°. All these are
large springs, and rise at an elevation of at least 100 feet above
the creek. In the same area are several others, and what is more
remarkable, several cold ones. In any of the hot springs I observed
bubbles rising in rapid succession, but could not discover any
perceptible smell from them. Not only confervas and other vegetables
grow in and about the hottest springs, but great numbers of little
insects are seen constantly sporting about the bottom and sides.
Temperature of the water of the creek, above the springs, 46°. The
entire quantity of water flowing in the creek after it receives the
water of the hot springs, may be estimated at from 900 to 1000 gallons
per minute.--JAMES.
[40] Wilson must have been one of the transient residents common at
this period; the first permanent settlers did not come until 1826 or
1828.--ED.
[41] The temperature was, however, no more than sufficient to raise the
mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer to 160°. It has been represented by
Bringier, in a paper published in Silliman's Journal, that "the heat of
the water is 192° Fah." On what observations this assertion rests we
know not. See "The American Journal of Science and Arts," Vol. iii. No.
I. p. 29.--JAMES.
[42] Little River rises in north-western Polk County, crosses the state
line into Indian Territory, and re-enters Arkansas to separate Sevier
and Little River counties; it falls into Red River at the south-east
corner of the latter county. Rolling Fork and Cossetot rise in southern
Polk County and flow south through Sevier. Mountain Fork is one of
several small streams the waters of which unite in Indian Territory to
form Little River.--ED.
[43] Nuttall's Travels, p. 150.--JAMES.
_Comment by Ed._ Page 211 of reprint in our volume xiii.
[44] Ouachita River pursues an easterly course until it enters Hot
Springs County; then it turns sharply to the south-west, changing
direction again on leaving the county, and flowing south-south-east
until it enters Louisiana.
Fourche-au-Cadeau (now contracted to Caddo Creek) heads in Montgomery
County, and flowing south-east meets the Ouachita on the northern
line of Clark County. Cadeau is a corruption of Cadaux. Both words
are French, the former meaning a gift, the latter being the plural of
the name of an Indian tribe (Caddo in English) whose range included
southwestern Arkansas. The stream is called Fourche des Cadaux (Fork of
the Caddos) in Dunbar and Hunter's "Description of the Washita River"
(_American State Papers_, "Indian Affairs," i, p. 731).
At the south-east corner of Clark County is the mouth of the Little
Missouri, which rises on the Polk-Montgomery county line, traverses
Pike, and forms the southern line of Clark.--_Ed._
[45] The permanent occupation of this region, outside of the village
at the Hot Springs, hardly began before the middle of the nineteenth
century; earlier comers were mostly hunters and trappers, who
"squatted" for a time and then passed on. It is uncertain whether the
individuals mentioned were of this class or were permanent settlers;
their names are not in local histories. Any spot containing even a
single habitation was by courtesy styled a "settlement."--ED.
[46] The village of Cove Creek, on the line between Garland and Hot
Springs counties, marks the entrance to this valley.--ED.
[47] James did not base this description of watercourses in Louisiana
on personal observation, yet it is fairly accurate. A few comments may
be added. Macon River is a tributary of the Tensas; their confluence
is several miles from the Ouachita, east of the hill called Sicily
Island. Opposite the mouth of the Tensas is that of the Ocatahoola
(Little River); below this point the Ouachita is called Black River
(_Rivière Noire_), a name given by the French on account of the dark
appearance, due to depth, overshadowing forests, and a black sand
bottom. The expansion of Little River is Catahoula Lake, in the county
of the same name; its depth fluctuates from mere marsh to about fifteen
feet. The Derbane is now Bayou Corney, a branch of which is still
Bayou D'Arbonne; its mouth is nearly opposite that of the Barthelemi
(Bartholomew). The Saluder is apparently Bayou Loutre (Otter), a
short distance above Bayou Corney. Lake Atchafalaya (Grand Lake), an
expansion of the river of the same name, is a few miles from the Gulf
coast, north of Atchafalaya Bay. Recently an effort has been made to
force all of the current of Red River into the Mississippi, by damming
the Atchafalaya.--ED.
CHAPTER III {XI}[48]
Red River--Exploring Expedition of 1806--Return to
the Arkansa--Earthquakes
The Red river of Louisiana enters the Mississippi from the west,
in north latitude 31° 5´,[49] and in 16° 35´ west longitude from
Philadelphia. From the Mississippi to the mouth of Black river (as
the Washita is called below the confluence of the Ocatahoola and
Tensa) is twenty-six miles by water. The aggregate width of Red river,
for this distance, is from three hundred to three hundred and fifty
yards. The depth of the water in summer varies, according to the
actual measurement of Messrs. Freeman and Humphrey, from eighty-four
to forty-two feet, the range from extreme high to low-water is from
twenty-five to thirty feet, and the banks are elevated from fourteen
to twenty-five feet above the surface of the river at low-water. At
no great distance, on each side, is a second alluvial bank, rising a
few feet higher than the immediate bank of the river. Back of this the
surface is elevated nearly to high-water mark, but descends gradually
towards the lakes and swamps, which occur along both sides of the
valley of the river. In the wet season the lower part of Red and Black
rivers are lost in an extensive lake, covering the country from the
Mississippi westward near one hundred miles to the settlement of the
Avoyelles.[50]
The distinction made by Du Pratz, between the country on the south and
that on the north side of Red river, appears to be strictly applicable
only to {164} the part lying below the point where Red river enters the
immediate valley of the Mississippi.[51]
Above the confluence of Black river the bed of Red river immediately
contracts to one hundred and twenty yards, which is its average width
from this point to the rapids seventy-two miles above: the current
becomes in a corresponding degree more rapid, running with a velocity
of from two and a half to three miles per hour, at a moderate stage
of water, in the early part of summer. The average depth in this
section is stated at from eighteen to twenty feet, at a time when the
water is twenty-one feet below its maximum of elevation. The banks
are generally bold and steep on one side or the other, and often on
both. The bottom lands are level and exceedingly fertile, but bear
the marks of periodical inundation. The forests of the lower section
of Red river differ little from those of the Mississippi and the
Arkansa. White gum, cotton-wood, pecan, locusts, white oak, mulberry,
sycamore, hackberry, and cypress occupy the low grounds, while the low
and scattered hills are covered with pine, intermixed with a small
proportion of oak and hickory. The only portion of the low lands in
any sort fit for cultivation is a narrow strip immediately on each
bank, commencing a little above the mouth of Black river, and enlarging
upwards; but even here the settler is not secure, as uncommon swellings
of the river sometimes lay the whole under water. Aside from this, the
extreme insalubrity of the air, occasioned by the vicinity of extensive
swamps, stagnant ponds, and lagoons, tends to retard the progress of
settlements in this quarter.
At the rapids the river spreads to three hundred yards in width. The
banks are thirty feet high, and never overflowed. Here has for many
years been a settlement. The soil of the neighbouring country is
extremely fertile.[52] A bed of soft sandstone, or indurated clay,
crosses the river, causing a fall of ten feet {165} in fifty yards.
"This stone, when exposed to the air, becomes as hard as freestone; but
under water it is found as soft as chalk. A channel could, with very
little labour or expense, be cut through any part of the bed of the
river, and need not be extended more than two hundred yards. It appears
to me that twenty men, in ten days, with mattocks only, could at low
water open a channel sufficiently wide and deep for all the barges that
trade in this river to pass with safety and ease."[53] Three quarters
of a mile above this rapid is another, very similar in extent and
magnitude.
Thirty miles above the rapids we find the river divided into two beds,
each having a high bold bank. The right-hand channel contains about one
third of the volume of water of the whole river. They separate from
each other four or five miles below Natchitoches, and unite again here,
forming an island sixty miles long and five wide.
The right-hand branch is called by the French Rigolet Bon Dieu, and the
other Old river. Another island, commencing one-fourth of a mile below
Natchitoches, extends parallel to that above mentioned, thirty-four
miles and a half; this is about four miles wide. The current, in all
the branches which lie between these islands and the main-shore, is
rapid, but not equally so. The description already given of the valley
of the river is applicable to this portion; on each side the surface
descends from the river, terminating in a line of pools and cypress
swamps, which extend along the base of the bluff. Settlements were
here somewhat numerous in 1806. The small cottages are placed near the
bank of the river, and the cultivated lands extend back but a little
distance. "The inhabitants," says Freeman "are a mixture of French,
Spanish, Indian, and Negro blood, the latter often predominating."[54]
{166} The separation of the water of the river into three distinct
branches, each confined within high and steep banks, raised twenty
and even thirty feet above the medium elevation of the water, and
their reunion, after traversing severally an extent of sixty and
thirty miles, might at first view appear a matter of curious inquiry;
but upon the slightest investigation it will be discovered that this
whole country adjacent to the river has been made or raised to its
present elevated position by frequent inundation and depositions from
the water. This evidently appears from the great quantities of timber
frequently seen as you ascend the river, deposited as low as low-water
mark, under steep banks of different heights from twelve to thirty feet.
Red river takes its name from the colour of its water, which is in
time of floods of a bright red, and partakes more or less of this
colour throughout the year. There can be no doubt the colouring matter
on which this tinge depends is derived from the red sandstone of the
salt formation already described when speaking of the sources of the
Canadian river of Arkansa, although no person qualified to give a
satisfactory account of the country has hitherto traced Red river to
that formation. We propose to add some brief notices of this important
river, derived from the unpublished materials of the exploring party
sent out by the government of the United States in 1806; also from
the notes of Major Long, who visited the upper settlements in 1817;
not neglecting such additional information from the works of Darby,
Nuttall, and others who have written of Louisiana, as may appear
deserving of confidence.
Red river was explored at a very early period by the French, but their
examinations appear to have extended no farther than to the country
of the Natchitoches and the Cadoes;[55] and although subsequent {167}
examinations have a little enlarged our acquaintance with its upper
branches, we are still unfortunately ignorant of the position of its
sources. Three years after the cession of Louisiana to the United
States, a small party, known by the name of the "Exploring Expedition
of Red river," and consisting of Captain Sparks, Mr. Freeman, Lieut.
Humphrey, and Dr. Custis, with seventeen private soldiers, two
non-commissioned officers, and a black servant, embarked from St.
Catherine's landing, near Natchez, on board several barges and small
boats, with instructions to ascend Red river to its sources.[56] On the
3d of May 1806 they entered Red river, expecting to be able to ascend
with their boats to the country of the Pawnee Piqua Indians. Here it
was their intention to leave their boats, and packing their provision
on horses which they should purchase of the Pawnees, they were to
"proceed to the top of the mountains," the distance being, as they
believed, about three hundred miles.
On the 19th of May they arrived at Natchitoches, distant from the
Mississippi 184 miles 266 perches, measured by log-line and time. At
this place they delayed some days; and having received information that
their progress would be opposed by the Spaniards, they resolved to
increase the strength of their party by retaining a detachment which
had been ordered by the secretary at war to join them at Natchitoches,
"for the purpose of assisting the exploring party to ascend the river
to the upper end of the Great Raft, and to continue as far afterwards
as might appear necessary to repel by force any opposition they might
meet with." Accordingly, twenty men were selected from the garrison at
Natchitoches, and, under the command of Lieutenant Duforest,[57] joined
the exploring {168} party. They were now thirty-seven in number aside
from the officers, and were furnished with a supply of flour sufficient
for nine months' provision. On the 2d of June they left Natchitoches,
and proceeded towards their destination. The journal of their tour
by Mr. Freeman, which has been obligingly put into our hands by
General D. Parker,[58] is extremely circumstantial, and embraces much
valuable information. We make use of it, without particular reference,
whenever we have occasion to speak of that part of Red river visited
by the expedition. On the 7th of June the party were overtaken, near
a small village of Natchitoches and Paskagoulas,[59] by an Indian
guide and interpreter, whom they had hired at Natchitoches. He brought
a letter from Dr. Sibley,[60] the Indian agent, giving information
that a detachment of Spanish troops were already on their march from
Nacogdoches,[61] with a design to intercept the exploring party. At
the distance of one hundred and two miles above Natchitoches they
left the bed of the river, turning out through one of those numerous
communications called Bayous, which connect the principal channel with
those lateral chains of lakes, pools, swamps, and marshes, which extend
along the sides of the valley. Their design in leaving the river was
to avoid that singular obstruction to the navigation called the Great
Raft, having been informed by Mr. Toolan, an old and respectable French
inhabitant, that it would be impossible for them to pass through it.
They had already encountered three similar obstructions, through which
they had made their way with extreme toil, by loosening and floating
out the logs and trunks of trees, that had been piled upon each other
in such numbers as to fill the bed of the river from the bottom,
usually at the depth of thirty feet, and rising three or four feet
above the surface of the water.
The Bayou Datche, as the part of the river is called into which they
entered, conducted them to a {169} beautiful lake called Big Broth.[62]
It is thus described by Mr. Freeman. "This beautiful sheet of water
extends, from the place we first entered it, seventy miles in a
north-westerly direction; and, as far as we saw it, is beautifully
variegated with handsome clumps of cypress trees thinly scattered in
it; on the right-hand side it is bounded by high land, which ascends
from the surface of the water, and at the distance of one hundred yards
is elevated about forty feet, and covered with forests of black oak,
hickory, dogwood, &c.; soil good second-rate. It is bounded on the
left by a low plain covered with cypress trees and bushes. The depth
of water is from two to six feet. High-water mark ten feet above the
present surface. It is called by the Indians _Big Broth_, from the
vast quantities of froth seen floating on its surface at high water.
The passage out of this lake is by a very difficult communication,
through bayous, into another very handsome lake of about one mile wide
called Swan lake, and so on, through long crooked bayous, lakes, and
swamps, full of dead standing timber." Having made their way for many
days along this chain of lakes, they were at length anxious to return
to the river. After searching several days for a passage, and finding
their pilot incapable to direct them, they resolved to wait while they
could send messengers by land to the Coashatay village,[63] and procure
a guide. The return of this messenger brought them some information
calculated to aid in extricating themselves from the labyrinth of
lakes in which they were bewildered, also the promise of the Coashatay
chief, that he would join the party himself, and conduct them to the
river. This promise, however, it was not his intention to fulfil.
The party therefore, on the 20th of June, resumed their search for a
passage, returning some distance on their route. {170} On the 25th
they discovered a narrow and obstructed channel, through which, after
removing several rafts, trees, &c. they found their way into the river.
"Thus," says the journal of the expedition, "after fourteen days of
incessant fatigue, toil and danger, doubt and uncertainty, we at length
gained the river above the Great Raft, contrary to the decided opinion
of every person who had any knowledge of the difficulties we had to
encounter."[64]
The distance from Natchitoches to the point where the party entered
Red river, above the Great Raft, is two hundred and one miles by the
meanders of their route. Above the Raft the river is two hundred
and thirty yards wide, thirty-four feet deep, and has a very gentle
current. The banks are ten or twelve feet high. On the north side the
lands rise considerably at a little distance, and are covered with
heavy forests of oak, poplar, and red cedar. At the Coashatay village,
about twenty miles above the Great Raft, the commander of the exploring
party received information, by an express, from the chief of the
principal village of the Cadoes, which is thirty miles farther to the
west, "that about three hundred Spanish dragoons, with four or five
hundred horses and mules, were encamped near that village, with the
design to prevent the further progress of the Americans." The Coashatay
and Cadoe Indians of this part of Red river are an agricultural
half-civilized people, like the Cherokees.[65]
On the 1st of July a messenger arrived at the encampment of the party,
near the Coashatay village, giving information of the near approach
of the Cadoe chief, with forty young men and warriors of his village.
About noon they made their appearance on the opposite bank of the
river, and kept up, for a few minutes, an irregular firing by way
of salute. This was returned both from the camp and the village, in
a manner highly gratifying to the Cadoe party. The {171} customary
ceremonies used in meeting Indians being past, an exchange of
complimentary speeches followed.
The Cadoe chief expressed great uneasiness on account of the Spaniards
who were encamped near his village. Their commandant, he said, had
come to see him, had taken him by the hand, and asked him, if he
loved the Americans; he answered, he did not know what to say, but if
the Spaniards wished to fight the Americans, they might go down to
Natchitoches, and fight them there; but they should not shed blood
in his territories. He said he was pleased with what he had heard
respecting the designs of the exploring party; he wished them to go
on and see all his country, and all his neighbours. "You have far to
go, and will meet with many difficulties, but I wish you to go on. My
friends, the Pawnees, will be glad to see you, and will take you by
the hand. If you meet with any of the Huzaa's (Osages), and kill them,
I will dance for a month. If they kill any of your party, I will go
with my young men and warriors, and we will be avenged for you." The
soldiers belonging to the expedition having paraded in open order and
single file, the forty young Cadoes commenced on the right of the line,
and marching towards the left, shook each man by the hand in the most
earnest manner. When their leader had reached the other extremity of
the line, they instantly placed themselves in a corresponding line,
about three paces distant, and their partizan or principal warrior
delivered a short address to the serjeant.
"Here we are," said he, "all men and warriors shaking hands together,
let us hold fast, and be friends for ever." It was said by the
interpreter he prefaced his observation by saying, he was glad to see
that his new brothers had the faces of men, and looked like men and
warriors.
After a delay of a few days the Cadoe chief, professing the most
friendly disposition towards the exploring {172} party, withdrew with
his young men to his own village. On the 11th of July the officers of
the party, having as yet no certain knowledge of the designs of the
Spaniards, re-embarked on board their little fleet, and began to ascend
Red river from the Coashatay village, having engaged the Cadoe chief to
watch the motions of the Spanish troops, and to give timely notice of
any thing interesting to the expedition. The river, above the Coashatay
village, became very crooked and wide, and the water was so low that
the boats were often aground, though they drew no more than from
sixteen to twenty inches of water.
On the 26th of July, in the afternoon, three Indians appeared on the
sand-beach, who were found to be the runners sent from the Cadoe
chief, agreeable to previous engagement. They brought information
that the Spaniards had returned to Nacogdoches, for a reinforcement
and new instructions; that six days since they had arrived at the
Cadoe village, about one thousand strong; that they had cut down the
United States' flag in the Cadoe village, and had said, it was their
intention to destroy the exploring party. They had taken from the
Cadoe village two young men to conduct them to a handsome bluff, a
few miles above where they were now encamped, to await the arrival
of the party. The Indian messengers, and the Cadoes who had remained
with the party, appeared much alarmed, and intreated the commanding
officer to return, saying, if they met the Spaniards, not one would
come back alive. The distance to the Spanish camp was three days'
journey. On the following day the party made a deposit of some of their
most important papers, with a small stock of ammunition, provisions,
and astronomical instruments in a retired place, that they might not
be entirely destitute of resources after the contemplated rencontre
with the Spaniards should have taken place. At sunset, on the 28th
of July, as they were {173} about to encamp, they heard several guns
a-head of them, which left no doubt that they had arrived near the
Spanish camp. On the ensuing morning Captain Sparks, Mr. Freeman, and
a favourite Indian, walked a-head of the boats, along the sand-beach,
with their guns in their hands. The Indian soon discovered some tracks,
ran hastily up among the bushes on the bank, and then returning, made
signs that the Spaniards were there. The party was now halted, the arms
examined, and put in readiness for immediate action; then all went on
board the boats, and they continued their ascent, as if they had known
nothing of the Spanish troops. The advanced guard which the Indian
had discovered consisted of twenty-two men, stationed a mile and a
half below the encampment of the main body. On seeing the boats they
fled instantly, and hid themselves in the woods, leaving behind their
clothes and provisions.
On turning the next bend they commanded a beautiful view of the river,
extending about a mile, with steep banks on both sides, and level sand
beaches, occupying more than half the bed of the river. On one of
these, at the distance of half a mile, they discovered a sentinel, and
soon afterwards saw a detachment of horse gallop from thence through
the small cotton-wood bushes near the next bend of the river, and
shortly after return to their former station. As it was now the middle
of the day, the exploring party halted according to custom, and kindled
fires to prepare their dinner.
About half an hour after they had halted, a large detachment from the
Spanish camp were seen riding down the sand-beach, enveloped in such a
cloud of dust that their numbers could not be accurately estimated. The
soldiers belonging to the exploring party were sent to take possession
of a thick cane brake on the immediate bank of the river, at a short
distance above the boats, to be in readiness, should there be occasion,
to attack the advancing party on {174} their flank. A non-commissioned
officer and six men were sent still farther up the river, and ordered
to be in readiness to assail the Spaniards in the rear.
The advancing party of horse came on at full speed, and neglecting
the first challenge of the two sentinels stationed at some distance
in advance of the boats. When the sentinels cried "halt" the second
time, they cocked their pieces, and were in the act of presenting them
to fire, when the Spanish squadron halted, and displayed on the beach
about one hundred and fifty yards distant. Their officers moved slowly
forward, and were met by Captain Sparks, whom the Spanish commandant
politely saluted, and a parley ensued, which continued about
three-quarters of an hour. The Spaniards being greatly superior in
numbers, and expressing a determined resolution to fulfil their orders,
which were to prevent, at all hazards, the farther progress of the
exploring expedition, the officers of that party reluctantly consented
to relinquish their undertaking. The spot where this interruption took
place is two hundred and thirty miles by water above the Coashatay
village, consequently six hundred and thirty-five miles above the mouth
of Red river.[66]
Below this point it appears the river and the country lose, in a
great measure, the peculiar characters which belong to the region of
recent alluvial lands near the mouth of the river. Swamps, bayous,
and lagoons, are less frequent; the forests are more open, the trees
smaller, and the soil less fertile and open; meadows more frequent here
than below. A portion of Red river above, between this point and the
upper settlements,[67] is but imperfectly known.
The average direction of Red river, as far as it has been hitherto
explored, from the confluence of the Kiamesha, in latitude 33° 30´,
to its junction with the Mississippi in 31° 5´, is from north-west
to south-east. Above the Kiamesha it is supposed to flow more
directly from west to east. The streams tributary {175} to Red river
are comparatively small and few in number. Above the Washita the
principal are the Little river of the south and the Little river of
the north,[68] both entering near the north-western angle of the state
of Louisiana, and both hitherto little known. The next in order is
the Kiamesha, rising in the Ozark mountains, opposite the Poteau, and
entering Red river about one thousand miles from the Mississippi. The
Kiamesha has been explored from its sources to its confluence by Major
Long, who first visited it in 1817. The country about the sources of
this river is mountainous, being broken into numerous irregular peaks
and ridges, of an old ferruginous sandstone, with its stratifications
highly inclined towards the south. The timber in the mountainous
country is the yellow pine, intermixed with red, white, and mountain
oak, the small chesnut, the American box or hop hornbeam (ostrya
virginica), the red cedar, &c.
In the low lands, towards Red river, all the forest trees common to
the valley of the Arkansa are found, with the addition of the maclura,
which is now so rare about the Arkansa that it can scarcely be said
to make a part of the forests there. Extensive prairies exist on the
lower part of the Kiamesha, some of which command delightful views
of the surrounding country. Before you lies the great valley of Red
river, exhibiting a pleasing variety of forests and lawns; beyond
rises the gentle slope of the Ozark mountains, imprinting the broad
outline of their azure summits upon the margin of the sky. At the
mouth of the Kiamesha, Red river is about two hundred yards wide. Its
course is meandering, forming points alternately on the right and left,
terminating in sand-bars, covered with red mud or clay, deposited from
the water of the river. In its lowest stage the river may be forded at
any place, so that a person may pass along the bed, as in the Canadian,
by travelling on the sand-bars, and occasionally crossing the water
{176} between them. The soil and climate of Red river are said to be
peculiarly adapted to the culture of cotton. The crop sometimes yields
twenty-five hundred pounds of seed-cotton per acre, and this of a
quality inferior to none, except the Sea island.
Of the Vaseau, or Boggy Bayou, and the Blue river, two considerable
streams tributary to Red river, next above the Kiamesha, we have little
information. They appear to enter like what are called the north and
south forks of the Canadian, near the foot of the western slope of
the Ozark mountains. Above these the principal tributary is the Faux
Ouachita, or False Washita, from the north, which has been described to
us (by Mr. Findlay, an enterprising hunter, whose pursuits often led
him to visit its banks), as bearing a very near resemblance to the
Canadian river of Arkansa.[69]
We are as yet ignorant of the true position of the sources of Red
river; but we are well assured the long received opinion, that its
principal branch rises "about thirty or forty miles east of Santa Fé,"
is erroneous.
Several persons have recently arrived at St. Louis in Missouri, from
Santa Fé, and, among others, the brother of Captain Shreeves, who gives
information of a large and frequented road, which runs nearly due east
from that place, and strikes one of the branches of the Canadian, [and]
that at a considerable distance to the south of this point in the
high plain is the principal source of Red river. His account confirms
an opinion we had previously formed, namely, that the branch of the
Canadian explored by Major Long's party, in August 1820, has its
sources near those of some stream which descends towards the west into
the Rio Del Norte, and consequently that some other region must contain
the head of Red river. From a careful comparison of all the information
we have been able to collect, we are satisfied that the stream on
which we encamped on the 31st of August [July] is the Rio Raijo [Rojo]
of Humboldt, {177} long mistaken for the source of the Red river of
Natchitoches, and that our camp of September [August] 2d was within
forty or fifty miles east from Santa Fé. In a region of red clay and
sand, where all the streams have nearly the colour of arterial blood,
it is not surprising that several rivers should have received the same
name; nor is it surprising that so accurate a topographer as the Baron
Humboldt, having learned that a Red river rises forty or fifty miles
east of Santa Fé, and runs to the east, should conjecture it might be
the source of the Red river of Natchitoches. This conjecture (for it
is no more) we believe to have been adopted by our geographers, who
have with much confidence made their delineations and their accounts
correspond to it.[70]
In relation to the climate of the country on Red river we have received
little definite information. The journal of the Exploring Expedition
contains a record of thermometric observations for thirty-six days,
commencing with June 1st, 1806, and extending to July 6th. These
were made between Natchitoches and the Coashatay village; and the
temperature, both of the air and the water of the river, are noted
three times per day, at 6 a.m. and 3 and 9 P.M. They indicate a climate
extremely mild and equable. The range of atmospheric temperature is
from 72° to 93° Fah. that of the water from 79° to 92°. The daily
oscillations are nearly equal, and the aggregate temperature rises
slowly and uniformly towards midsummer.
From Lockhart's settlement on the Saline river of Washita to Little
Rock on the Arkansa, is a distance about twenty-five miles. As we
approached the Arkansa, we found the country less broken and rocky than
above. The soil of the uplands is gravelly and comparatively barren,
producing almost exclusively scattered forests of oak, while along the
streams are small tracts of extremely fertile bottom lands. In some of
the vallies, however, the cypress appears filling extensive swamps, and
imparting a gloomy and {178} unpromising aspect to the country. This
tree is well known in all the southern section of the United States,
to indicate a low and marshy soil, but not universally one which is
irreclaimable. It is rarely if ever met with north of the latitude
of 38°. In many respects, particularly in the texture, firmness, and
durability of its wood, and in its choice of situation, it resembles
the white cedar[71] of the northern states, but far surpasses it in
size, being one of the largest trees in North America. "There is,"
says Du Pratz, "a cypress tree at Baton Rouge, which measures twelve
yards round, and is of prodigious height." In the cypress swamps, few
other trees, and no bushes are to be seen, and the innumerable conic
excrescences called knees, which spring up from the roots, resembling
the monuments in a church-yard, give a gloomy and peculiar aspect to
the scenery of those cypress swamps. The old error of Du Pratz, with
regard to the manner of the reproduction of the cypress, is still
maintained by great numbers of people who never heard of his book. "It
renews itself," says he, "in a most extraordinary manner:--A short time
after it is cut down a shoot is observed to grow from one of its roots,
exactly in the form of a sugarloaf, and this sometimes rises ten feet
high before any leaf appears; the branches at length rise from the
head of this conical shoot."[72] We have often been reminded of this
account of Du Pratz, by hearing the assertion among the settlers, that
the cypress never grows from the seed; it would appear, however, that
he could have been little acquainted with the tree, or he would have
been aware that the conic excrescences in question spring up and grow
during the life-time of the tree, but never after it is cut down.
At Little Rock, a village of six or eight houses, we found several of
the members of a missionary family {179} destined to the Osages. They
had exposed themselves during the heat of summer to the pestilential
atmosphere of the Lower Mississippi and Arkansa; and we were not
surprised, when we considered their former habits, to find they had
suffered most severely from their imprudence. They had all been
sick, and two or three of their number had died; the survivors, we
understood, were on the recovery. They had been some time at Little
Rock, the water in the Arkansa having fallen so low as to render their
further ascent impracticable.[73]
The village of Little Rock occupies the summit of a high bank of
clay-slate on the south-west side of the Arkansa. Its site is elevated,
and the country immediately adjoining, in a great measure, exempt from
the operation of those causes which produce a state of the atmosphere
unfavourable to health. It is near the commencement of the hilly
country, and for a part of the year will be at the head of steam-boat
navigation on the Arkansa. The country in the rear of the projected
town is high, and covered for the most part with open oak forests.
October 3d. We left Little Rock at an early hour, taking the road
towards Davidsonville. This led us for about four miles through the
deep and gloomy forests of the Arkansa bottoms. Here we saw the ricinus
palma christi growing spontaneously by the road side, and rising to the
height of twelve or fourteen feet. We arrived at Little Red river by
about nine o'clock, the distance from the Arkansa being not more than
eight or nine miles. In the high and rocky country about White river,
we fell in with the route which had been pursued by Major Long and his
party, and following this, we reached Cape Girardeau a few days after
their arrival. The distance from Belle Point to Little Rock by the way
of the hot springs is two hundred and ten miles, from Little Rock to
Cape Girardeau three hundred; in the whole, five hundred and ten miles.
{180} Major Long's notes of a tour in the Arkansa territory contain
tables of meteorological observations, showing the variations of
temperature from September 30th, 1817, to January 31st, 1818. The
country in which these observations were made, is that between the
Arkansa at Fort Smith, and the Red river at the mouth of the Kiamesha,
about the hot springs of the Washita, the settlement of Cadron, &c.
Here we find in the month of January the mercury at zero, and shortly
after at 58°, a degree of cold that would not discredit the climate
of Moscow, and a rapidity of change and violence of vicissitude to
compare with the ever-varying temperature of the Atlantic states. We
might expect in the latitude of 34°, and in a region placed along the
south-eastern slope of a moderately elevated range of mountains, a mild
and equable climate. But almost every portion of the territory of the
United States seems alike exposed to the influence of the western and
north-western winds, refrigerated in their passage over the wide and
frozen regions of the Rocky Mountains, and rushing down unobstructed
across the naked plains of the great desert, penetrating with almost
unmitigated rigour to the Atlantic coast. It is proper to remark, that
the winter of 1817-18 was considered one of unusual severity in the
Arkansa territory. From the accounts of Hunter and Dunbar, it appears,
that in December 1804 the weather was much milder in the same portion
of country. An alligator was seen in December many miles above the
confluence of the Saline Fork, and even at the hot springs many plants
were in flower, and the ground in the woods had considerable appearance
of verdure. We have been assured by emigrants from North Carolina, that
the winter temperature of the country, about the upper branches of
the Washita, is more mild and equable than that of the corresponding
latitudes on the Atlantic coast.
{181} On the 12th October the exploring party were all assembled
at Cape Girardeau. Lieutenant Graham, with the steam-boat Western
Engineer, had arrived a day or two before from St. Louis; having
delayed there some time subsequent to his return from the Upper
Mississippi. In the discharge of the duties on which he had been
ordered, Lieutenant G. and all his party had suffered severely from
bilious and intermitting fever.
A few days subsequent to our arrival at Cape Girardeau, the greater
number of those who had been of the party by land, experienced severe
attacks of intermitting fever; none escaped, except Captain Bell, Mr.
Peale, and Lieutenant Swift. Major Long and Captain Kearney, who had
continued their journey immediately towards St. Louis, were taken ill
at St. Genevieve, and the latter confined some weeks. The attack was
almost simultaneous in the cases of those of the party who remained
at Cape Girardeau; and it is highly probable we had all received the
impression which produced the disease nearly at the same time. The
interruption of accustomed habits, and the discontinuance of the
excitement afforded by travelling, may have somewhat accelerated the
attack. We had observed that we had felt somewhat less than the usual
degree of health, since breathing the impure and offensive atmosphere
of the Arkansa bottoms about Belle Point, and there we have no doubt
the disease fastened upon us. In every instance, we had the opportunity
of observing, the attack assumed the form of a daily intermittent.
The cold stage commenced with a sensation of languor and depression,
attended with almost incessant yawning, and a disinclination to motion,
soon followed by shivering, and a distressing sensation of cold. These
symptoms pass off gradually, and the hot stage succeeds. The degree of
fever is usually somewhat proportioned to the violence of the cold fit,
the respiration becomes full and frequent, the face flushed, the {182}
skin moist, and the patient falls into a heavy slumber; on awaking,
after some time, extreme languor and exhaustion are felt, though few
symptoms of fever remain. This routine of most uncomfortable feelings,
commencing at nine or ten in the morning, occupied for some time the
greater part of our days. Late at evening, and during the night, we
suffered less. Intermitting fevers are of such universal occurrence in
every part of the newly-settled country to the west, that every person
is well acquainted with the symptoms, and has some favourite method of
treatment. A very common practice, and one productive of much mischief,
is that of administering large draughts of whiskey and black pepper
previous to the accession of the cold stage. Applications of this
kind may sometimes shorten the cold fit, but the consequent fever is
comparatively increased, and the disease rendered more obstinate. The
Peruvian bark is much used, but often so injudiciously as to occasion
great mischief.
Cape Girardeau, formerly the seat of justice for a county of the same
name, is one of the oldest settlements in Upper Louisiana, having been
for a long time the residence of a Spanish intendant or governor.
Occupying the first considerable elevation on the western bank of
the Mississippi, above the mouth of Ohio, and affording a convenient
landing for boats, it promises to become a place of some little
importance, as it must be the depôt of a fertile district of country,
extending from the commencement of the great swamps on the south-east
to the upper branches of the St. Francis. The advantages of its
situation must be considered greater than those of the settlements of
Tyawapatia and New Madrid, which are not sufficiently elevated. It is
at the commencement of the hilly country, extending up the Mississippi
to the confluence of the Missouri, north-west of the Gasconade and
Osage rivers, and south-west to the province of Texas. Two or three
miles below Cape {183} Girardeau the cypress swamps commence,
extending with little interruption far to the south.
The town comprises at this time about twenty log-cabins, several of
them in ruins, a log-jail no longer occupied, a large unfinished brick
dwelling, falling rapidly to decay, and a small one finished and
occupied. It stands on the slope, and part of the summit of a broad
hill, elevated about one hundred and fifty feet above the Mississippi,
and having a deep primary soil resting on horizontal strata of compact
and sparry limestone. Near the place where boats usually land is a
point of white rocks, jutting into the Mississippi, and at a very low
stage of water producing a perceptible rapid. These are of a white
sparry limestone, abounding in remains of encrini and other marine
animals. If traced some distance, they will be found to alternate with
the common blue compact limestone, so frequently seen in secondary
districts. Though the stratifications of this sparry limestone are
horizontal, the rock is little divided by seams and fissures, and would
undoubtedly afford a valuable marble, not unlike the Darling marble
quarried on the Hudson.
The streets of Cape Girardeau are marked out with formal regularity,
intersecting each other at right angles; but they are now in some parts
so gullied and torn by the rains, as to be impassable; in others,
overgrown with such thickets of gigantic vernonias and urticas, as
to resemble small forests. The country, back of the town, is hilly,
covered with heavy forests of oak, tulip-tree, and nyssa, intermixed
in the vallies with the sugar-tree and the fagus sylvatica, and on the
hills, with an undergrowth of the American hazel, and the shot-bush
or angelica tree. Settlements are considerably advanced, and many
well-cultivated farms occur in various directions.