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Preface to Volumes XXII-XXIV.
Early trans-Mississippi exploration was undertaken largely in the interests of science. The great expedition of Lewis and Clark (1804-06) was, both in conception and plan, a scientific excursion. Bradbury and Brackenridge voyaged up the Missouri (1811) in search of rare plants and animals, Nuttall sought the Arkansas (1819) on a similar errand. Long's expedition (1819-20) was entirely scientific, both in organization and objects; while Townsend crossed the continent with Nathaniel Wyeth (1834) to secure a harvest of rare birds in the mountains and beyond. In the early nineteenth century, scientific collection was the chief object of ambition among thoughtful explorers — to secure for the world a complete catalogue of its plants and animals was worth much toil and hardship, heroic endeavor, and mighty daring. To such, the still unknown regions of the New World offered strong attractions. There were in the trans-Mississippi and in South America, spread out upon mountains and prairies and bordering far-flowing streams, fresh races of barbarians yet uncontaminated by civilized contact, beasts of prey, birds of brilliant plumage, and unknown plant species.
Among those to whom this call of the New World came clearly, was a German savant, prince of a small house in Rhenish Prussia. Even while upon Napoleonic battle-fields, he felt a desire for the wilderness, and news of the victory of Waterloo reached him upon the far-distant rivers of Brazil. His later journey to North America was but the completion of a purpose formed in early boyhood. Alexander Philip Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuwied, was
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born in the quaint capital of his little Rhenish sovereignty in September, 1782. The eighth child of the reigning Fried-rich Karl, natural aptitude for study early marked his career for that of a scholar. Nevertheless, in obedience to the call of patriotism, he entered the Prussian army and was present at the battle of Jena. Soon thereafter he was captured and for some time suffered imprisonment. Exchanged and returned to Neuwied, he continued the scientific pursuits which had long interested him; but a fresh military crisis called him once more into service, in which he rose to a major-generalship, won the honor of the iron cross at Chalons, and entered Paris with the victorious army in 1813. Reminiscences of this warlike experience came to him twenty years later in the Missouri wilderness, when he notes that the song of the Assiniboin warriors before Fort McKenzie resembled that of the Russian soldiers heard in the winter of 1813-14.While successful as a soldier, at heart Maximilian was a searcher for knowledge. In his boyhood his mother had encouraged his love for natural history, and under the direction of his tutor he had begun a collection that was creditable to a youth. Later, in his university course, he came under the influence of the celebrated Professor Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, and as a favorite pupil absorbed from him a keen desire to contribute to the world's stock of knowledge. Throughout what leisure he could snatch in the Napoleonic campaigns, the young prince was planning a scientific expedition to Brazil, and no sooner was he finally released from martial duties than he made preparations that culminated, early in 1815, in a departure for that country. Joined in South America by two German scholars who had preceded him thither, the trio spent two years in the tropical forests of that country, studying its flora and fauna, and above all the native races. After the return
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to Germany, Maximilian's succeeding years were spent in arranging his collections and preparing for publication the results of his journey. His Reise nach Brasilien in den Jahren 1815 bis 1817 (Frankfurt, 1820-21) was soon translated into French, Dutch, and English; later appeared Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte von Brasilien (Weimar, 1825-33), designed to accompany the atlas of ninety plates, entitled Abbildungenen zur Naturgeschichte Brasiliens (Weimar, 1822-31). The publication of these works gave Maximilian an honored place among scientists, and proclaimed his ability as an exploring naturalist.By 1831 the prince was engaged in preparations for his second great enterprise — a visit to North America, including a scientific exploration of the trans-Mississippi region. Embarking on an American packet at Helvoetsluys, May 17, 1832, our traveller arrived in Boston amid the salvos of artillery ushering in the anniversary of American independence.
Maximilian was accompanied on this voyage by a young Swiss artist, Charles Bodmer, whom he had engaged to paint primitive landscapes in the New World, together with portraits of its aborigines. The artist's work proved eminently successful, as evidenced by the rare quality of the plates engraved from his sketches, which we reproduce in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv. Bodmer — born in Zurich in 1805 — had studied in Paris; after his excursion to America with Maximilian, he returned to his former haunts, finally settling with the artist colony at Barbizon, in the forest of Fontainebleau, where he became a successful landscapist, and received medals of honor at the salons of 1851, 1855, and 1863, and in 1876 the ribbon of the legion of honor. One of his canvases was purchased by the French government for the Luxembourg gallery. His son Henri, also a painter, was recently exhibiting in the
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Paris salons. During the winter spent at Fort Clark, Bodmer experienced several adventures. At one time he was for several hours lost upon the prairie; again, his paints and oils congealed in the zero-blasts of the Dakotan winter. His interest in his task, however, was unwearied; by cajolery, bribery, and rare patience he secured sittings from famous Indian chiefs, faithfully presenting their portraits to the world in the full equipment of savage finery, thus giving us an unexcelled gallery of Indian types and costumes.In addition to this admirable artist — in some respects perhaps the most competent draughtsman who has thus far sought to depict the North American tribesmen — Prince Maximilian was accompanied by his faithful jäger Dreidoppel, who had been with him in Brazil, and who rendered efficient service on the Missouri hills and prairies.
"There are," our author tells us in his preface, "two distinct points of view" from which the traveller may study the United States — he may consider its present conditions and its future prosperity; its resources, population, immigration, and "gigantic strides of civilization." Maximilian's own purpose, however, was to collect data concerning the remnants of its aboriginal population, and the primitive state of its fields and forests; these he sought to observe and to perpetuate both in description and drawing. The America of the Eastern states had therefore slight charm for our traveller, his object being to reach the frontier as soon as was consistent with his scientific purposes.
Tarrying briefly in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, communities which he describes in a few terse sentences, he sought the forests of Pennsylvania for preliminary experience in the simpler phases of woodcraft and hunting, as well as to visit the German immigrants settled in this region. He had expected to journey westward by way of the Great Lakes, but the appearance of cholera at Detroit
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and Buffalo made this plan impractical; instead, he visited the Moravians at Bethlehem, and made a leisurely journey through northern Pennsylvania, inspecting the coal mines and the geological structures. In the early autumn the prince and his two companions reached Pittsburg, but there finding the water in the Ohio too low for navigation, they went overland to Wheeling, where they embarked (October 9) for the descent of the river. At Louisville, they found that the cholera scourge had preceded them, whereupon with but a brief stay they continued their voyage to the Wabash, where they turned aside to visit the colony of naturalists settled at the Indiana town of New Harmony.For some years Maximilian had been in correspondence with Thomas Say, the entomologist, who had accompanied Major S. H. Long's expedition, and was now managing the property of William Maclure, president of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, who had purchased Robert Owen's communistic settlement on the Wabash, founded in 1825. Owen's two sons, Robert Dale and William, were still in the vicinity, together with Charles Alexander Lesueur, a French naturalist of repute. Even more attractive than the society of the scientists was the presence of a good library of Americana and natural history, at that time probably the best west of the Atlantic seaboard. Here, therefore, on the banks of the Wabash, our naturalist contentedly spent the winter of 1832-33, preparing for his journey into the Far West, and studying the antiquities and natural sciences of America. During these months, Bodmer made a voyage to New Orleans, but returned in time to set forth with his patron, March 16, 1833. After a steamboat journey to the mouth of the Ohio and up the Mississippi, they arrived at St. Louis before the departure for the interior of the usual spring caravans of the Western fur-traders.
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At this entrepôt of the wilderness trade, Maximilian presented letters to its prominent citizens, and was invited by General William Clark to accompany a deputation of Sauk and Foxes, headed by Keokuk, on a visit to the imprisoned Sauk chiefs, Black Hawk and his confrÄres, at Jefferson Barracks. The interest with which Maximilian regarded these first North American barbarians whom he had come so far to see, is well expressed in the narrative. Black Hawk he describes as a "little old man, perhaps seventy years of age, with grey hair, and a light yellow complexion, a slightly curved nose, and Chinese features, to which the shaven head, with the usual tuft behind, not a little contributed." The meeting between the prisoners and their free countrymen appeared to the prince most affecting.Maximilian had desired to visit the Rocky Mountains and their inhabitants, and accordingly planned to join one of the annual fur-trading caravans that, under the auspices of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, set off for their rendezvous in the heart of the Cordilleras. From this purpose he was dissuaded by General Clark, Major Benjamin O'Fallon, and other St. Louis folk cognizant with the situation. They represented to the illustrious traveller that these caravans avoided rather than sought the Indians; and that if they met, the encounter was apt to be hostile rather than friendly. It would also be extremely difficult to transport any extensive collections of fauna and flora by the land route. They thereupon advised a visit to the American Fur Company's trading posts on the Missouri via that company's annual steamboat, a plan which met the approval of the scientist and his companions.
The tenth of April, 1833, the travellers boarded the "Yellowstone," on its third trip to the posts of the upper Missouri. Before parting with Major O 'Fallon, the latter gave them
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a manuscript map copied from one prepared during the Lewis and Clark expedition by Clark himself, the topographer of that famous exploring party. This chart was constantly used by the prince. His narrative recites the daily routine and incidents of the river voyage on the outward route. By April 22 the steamer had reached Fort (then Cantonment) Leavenworth, and ten days later they were at Bellevue, just below the present Omaha. It was not until the eighteenth of May that the prince's party was greeted by their first sight of buffalo, and by the last of that month they had arrived at Fort Pierre, the company's main post among the Sioux. Here our travellers were transferred from the "Yellowstone" to her sister steamer, the "Assiniboine," a newer, larger boat with, however, a lighter draught; the latter was to continue to the upper river, while the "Yellowstone " returned to St. Louis.Slowly the party steamed up the river, past the Sioux territory and the Arikara villages into the land of the Mandan and the Minitaree, where on June 18 they were landed at the company's Fort Clark, just below a Mandan village several miles above the present Bismarck, North Dakota. Tarrying here but one day, the steamer continued its journey to the mouth of Yellowstone River, where Fort Union was reached on the twenty-fourth of June. After spending two weeks at this point, Maximilian and his suite were transferred to a keel-boat, and continued their voyage to Fort McKenzie, on Maria's River, among the treacherous Blackfeet.
Here, during a stay of two months, the German naturalist was initiated into the mysteries of the fur-trade, came to understand the jealousies and rivalries of Indian tribes, and witnessed a battle before the stockade of the fort, between Blackfeet and Assiniboin warriors. Because of this intertribal quarrel and the consequent restlessness and
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untrustworthiness of the neighboring barbarians, it was deemed inexpedient by the fur-traders for the travellers to advance farther into the Rockies, and Maximilian had need to content himself with such glimpses of the mountain ranges as could be had from the bluffs of Maria's River, and the upper reaches of the Missouri. The "Assiniboine " having long since departed on the home trip, the chief factor at Fort McKenzie built a barge for the princely visitor, upon which Maximilian embarked (September 14), together with a small crew of voyageurs, two cages of live bears, and several animal pets.Since wintering in the mountains had proved impracticable, our author determined to occupy the long cold months now at hand with the most interesting aborigines of the upper river. For this purpose he selected the Mandan and Minitaree, both because of their settled habitations and of the interest that these tribes had awakened in previous travellers. Known first to the early French explorers, it was from their villages that the Vérendrye brothers had in 1742 set forth on their explorations toward the "Shining Mountains." Located at the upper bend of the Missouri, they were readily accessible to British traders of the Assiniboin and Saskatchewan valleys, who were found as habitués in their villages by Lewis and Clark, in 1804-05. Accordingly Maximilian requested permission of the American Fur Company officials to pass the winter at Fort Clark, the Mandan post. McKenzie accommodatingly ordered to be built for the famous traveller a small house within the stockade, and every facility to be given him for making records of the neighboring tribesmen. In company with Toussaint Charbonneau, Lewis and Clark's former interpreter, the German visitor attended various ceremonies, dances, and feasts, took many portraits of the chiefs, and studied the manners and customs, and myths and superstitions of this
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vanishing race. The latter part of the winter the prince suffered with a serious attack of scurvy, from which, however, he recovered in time to set forth for the lower country on the breaking up of the ice.By the eighteenth of May he was once more at Fort Leavenworth. After brief visits at St. Louis and New Harmony, he journeyed eastward by way of the Ohio Canal and Lake Erie, stopped to wonder at the majesty of the Falls of Niagara, and on July 16, 1834, embarked at New York on the Havre packet for the Old World. A large portion of his collections were left behind at Fort Pierre, to be forwarded with the season's furs by the annual steamer. A fire occurring on the "Assiniboine," but few of these natural history specimens ever reached him, and one object of the prince's American visit was thereby frustrated.
An interesting reminiscence of the visit of Prince Maximilian is found in the journals of Alexander Culbertson, a young fur-trade clerk who accompanied the scientist from Fort Union to Fort McKenzie. Culbertson says: "In this year an interesting character in the person of Prince Maximilian from Coblentz on the Rhine, made his first appearance in the upper Missouri. The Prince was at that time nearly seventy years of age [fifty-five], but well preserved, and able to endure considerable fatigue. He was a man of medium-height, rather slender, sans teeth, passionately fond of his pipe, unostentatious, and speaking very broken English. His favorite dress was a white slouch hat, a black velvet coat, rather rusty from long service, and probably the greasiest pair of trousers that ever encased princely legs. The Prince was a bachelor and a man of science, and it was in this latter capacity that he had roamed so far from his ancestral home on the Rhine. He was accompanied by an artist named Boadman [Bodmer] and a servant whose name was, as near as the author has been able to ascertain
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its spelling, Tritripel [Dreidoppel] . . . McKenzie subsequently visited him in his palace at Coblentz, where he lived in a style befitting a prince, and was received with great cordiality and entertained with lavish hospitality. He inquired whether the double barrelled gun and the meershaum had reached their destination, as he had remembered his promise and forwarded them soon after his return to Europe. They had not, and never were received, for it subsequently appeared that the vessel in which they were shipped was lost; so they are probably now among the ill-gotten hoards of the Atlantic."The years immediately following the prince's return to Europe were spent in preparing the results of his journey for the press. This proved to be his last foreign expedition, but he nevertheless continued absorbed with studies and consequent collections at his native place until death removed him in 1867. A few months before that event he wrote an interesting letter in English to the artist George Catlin, whose account of Mandan religious ceremonies had been discredited by many. The prince therein speaks of reviving the "quite forgotten recollections of my stay among the Indian tribes of the Missouri, now thirty-three years past," and says that not only does he know "most of the American works published on the American Indians," but he possesses many of them.
The narrative of Maximilian's North American journey was first published in German, having been written, as the author says, for foreigners rather than Americans, its title being Reise in das Innere Nord-America in den Jahren 1832 bis 1834 (Coblentz, 1839 - 41), and its form two handsome
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quarto volumes, with an atlas of Bodmer's remarkable engravings. A French edition in three volumes, with the atlas, appeared at Paris in 1840-43. The Englished version, undertaken by H. Evans Lloyd, was issued in London in 1843, in one quarto volume. This latter translation we here reprint for the first time. In addition we have included in the Appendix to our volume xxiv, the twenty-three Indian vocabularies, one of the glories of the German original, which feature has never been reproduced in any other of the translated editions. Carefully recorded and scientifically collated by a trained observer and scholar, they form a contribution to American philology now impossible to duplicate. But five years after Maximilian's visit to the upper river, smallpox broke out among the tribes, and carried its ravages to such an extent that bands once powerful were reduced to scanty remnants. The Mandan were at the time reported to be absolutely annihilated; a few, however, are still living on Fort Berthold reservation, in North Dakota. Maximilian's observations are the more valuable because made in the plenitude of that tribe's power and prosperity, before their diminished numbers made them subservient to the invading fur-traders.In addition to the vocabularies, and unique in the present English edition, we present Maximilian's account of the Indian sign language, his catalogues of birds for both the Missouri and Wabash river valleys, and a summary of his meteorological observations on the upper Missouri. All of these were omitted from the London edition of 1843. It has been our purpose to give to American readers the entire scientific as well as narrative product of the prince's famous expedition.
While the chief value of the present work lies in its ethnological significance, it is highly interesting as an historical description of natural conditions west of the Mississippi,
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seventy years ago. The author's style is simple, natural, and unforced, rather the expression of the scientific than of the literary type of mind. A traveller of today, gliding across the plains and along the windings of the Missouri in a palace-car, may follow the pages of Maximilian and the plates of Bodmer, and thus obtain as clearly as words and pictures can express, an accurate presentation of the trans-Mississippi region in 1833. These volumes are thus a fitting supplement to the work of the prince's great progenitors, the American explorers, Lewis and Clark.In preparing this volume for the press, the Editor has had throughout the valuable assistance of Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph.D., who in turn has been aided by Clarence Cory Crawford, A.M. The translations from the German, not given by Lloyd, have been made for the present reprint by Asa Currier Tilton, Ph.D., chief of the department of maps and manuscripts in the Wisconsin Historical Library.
R. G. T.
MADISON, WIS., November, 1905.
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Author's Preface.
IMMENSE additions have been made of late years to our knowledge of the extensive continent of North America. A large portion of that country, which, only a few years ago, was covered with almost uninterrupted primeval forests, and a scanty, scattered population of rude barbarians, has been converted, by the influx of emigrants from the Old World, into a rich and flourishing State, for the most part civilized, and almost as well known and cultivated as Europe itself. Large and flourishing towns, with fine public institutions of every kind, have risen rapidly, and every year adds to their number. Animated commerce, unfettered, unlimited industry, have caused this astonishing advance of civilization in the United States. The tide of emigration is impelled onwards, wave upon wave, and it is only the sterility of the North-west than can check the advancing torrent.
We already possess numerous accounts of these daily-increasing States, and there are many good statistical works on the subject. We have even excellent general works on the physical state of this continent, among which Volney's "Tableau du Climat et du Sol des Etats Unis," holds a high rank.
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For this reason I have endeavoured, in the following work, to supply this deficiency to the best of my ability, and have aimed rather at giving a clear and faithful description of the country, than at collecting statistical information. Hence these travels are designed for foreign, rather than for American readers, to whom, probably, but few of the details would be new.
There are two distinct points of view in which that remarkable country may be considered. Some travellers are interested by the rude, primitive character of the natural face of North America, and its aboriginal population, the traces of which are now scarcely discernible in most parts of the United States; while the majority are more inclined to contemplate the immigrant population, and the gigantic strides of civilization introduced by it. The account of my tour through a part of these countries, contained in the following pages, is chiefly intended for readers of the first class. I have avoided the repetition of numerous statements which may be found in various statistical publications; but, on the contrary, have aimed at a simple description of nature. As the United States were merely the basis of my more extensive undertaking, the object of which [vi] was the investigation of the upper part of the course of the Missouri, they do not form a prominent feature, and it is impossible to expect, from a few months' residence, an opinion on the social condition and character of that motley population.
The indulgent reader, following the author beyond the frontier of the United States, will have to direct his attention to those extensive plains — those cheerless, desolate prairies, the western boundary of which is formed by the snow-covered chain of the Rocky Mountains, or the Oregon, where many tribes of the aborigines still enjoy a peaceful abode; while their brethren in the eastern part of the continent are supplanted,
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extirpated, degenerated, in the face of the constantly increasing immigration, or have been forced across the Mississippi, where they have for the most part perished.The vast tracts of the interior of North-western America are, in general, but little known, and the government of the United States may be justly reproached for not having done more to explore them. Some few scientific expeditions, among which the two under Major Long produced the most satisfactory results for natural history, though on a limited scale, were set on foot by the government; and it is only under its protection that a thorough investigation of those extensive wildernesses, especially in the Rocky Mountains, can be undertaken.
In my description of the voyage up the Missouri, I have endeavoured to avail myself of the assistance of an able draughtsman, the want of which I so sensibly felt in my former travels in South America. On the present occasion I was accompanied by Mr. Bodmer, who has represented the Indian nations with great truth, and correct delineation of their characteristic features. His drawings will prove an important addition to our knowledge of this race of men, to whom so little attention has hitherto been paid.
After mature consideration, I have judged it desirable to throw the account of my voyage on the Missouri itself into the form of a journal, as the daily notices were numerous, but the variety very trifling; so that the patience of the reader will unfortunately be tried a little in this part of the narrative. In those uninhabited, desert countries the traveller
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has nothing but the description of the naked banks of the river, and the little diversity they afford, interrupted at times by the adventures of the chase, and occasional meetings with Indians; the reader will therefore excuse many observations and unimportant descriptions, which would have been omitted if the materials had been richer in variety. I need still more indulgence with respect to many observations on natural history, but for this the loss of the greater part of my collections will be a sufficient excuse. The cases containing them were delivered to the Company, to be put on board the steamer for St. Louis, but not insured; and, when the steamer caught fire, the people thought rather of saving the goods than my cases, the contents of which were, probably, not considered to be of much value, and so they were all burnt. This may be a warning to future travellers not to neglect to insure such collections.Though the main object of my journey, namely, to pass some time in the chain of the Rocky Mountains, was defeated by unfavorable circumstances, I should have been able, but for the loss of my collections, to communicate many new observations, especially in the department of zoology, which are now more or less deficient. The accounts of the tribes of the aborigines, and [vii] especially of the Mandans and Manitaries, are more complete, because I spent a whole winter among them, and was able to have daily intercourse with them. Authentic and impartial accounts of the Indians of the Upper Missouri are now especially valuable, if the information that we have since received is well founded, namely, that to the many evils introduced by the Whites among those tribes, a most destructive epidemic — smallpox — has been added, and a great part of them exterminated: according to the newspapers, the Mandans, Manitaries, Assiniboins, and Blackfeet have been swept away except a small remnant. The
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observation of the manners of the aborigines is undoubtedly that which must chiefly interest the foreign traveller in those countries, especially as the Anglo-Americans look down on them with a certain feeling of hatred. Hence we have hitherto met with little useful information respecting the Indians, except in the recent writings of Edward James, Long, Say, Schoolcraft, M'Kenney, Cass, Duponceau, Irving,Several men, of great eminence in the learned world, have had the kindness to contribute to the publication. President Nees Von Esenbeck has undertaken the determination and
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description of the plants which I brought home;31
Translator's Preface.
THE author, in his Preface, gives so full an account of the objects and results of his travels in the interior of North America, that it would have been unnecessary for me to prefix any observations of my own, were it not for some circumstances, connected with the translation, which seem to require explanation.
The prospectus of the German original announced that the work would consist of two large quarto volumes, accompanied by a portfolio of above eighty beautifully coloured copper-plates, executed by eminent artists at Paris, from the original drawings. Some specimens of the plates having been brought to London, were so much admired by many competent judges, that Messrs. Ackermann were induced to agree with the Paris publisher for a limited number of copies of the plates; and as it might justly be presumed that the English purchasers would be desirous of having the narrative of the travels, it was resolved to publish a translation compressed into a single volume. By selecting, however, a page of a large size, the translator has been able to retain all the most interesting parts, omitting only minute details of the measurements of animals, &c. All the chapters illustrative of the manners, customs, traditions, and superstitions of the Indians are given without abridgment, and these, as the author justly observes, are by far the most attractive and valuable portions of the work. The papers in the Appendix, giving an account of the plants collected, are also inserted entire, and have been kindly revised by my friend Sir William Hooker.
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The principal omission is that of the very extensive vocabularies of the languages of the different Indian tribes.
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The numerous Indian proper names are, of course, written in the original as pronounced in German. It has been thought best to leave them unchanged, merely requesting the reader to observe, in general, that the consonants are pronounced as in English; only that ch is guttural, as in the Scotch word loch; that sch is pronounced sh, and that the vowels have the same sound as in French, ah, a, ee, o, oo.
The author alludes, in his Preface, to the recent fearful ravages which have been caused among the Indian races by the small-pox. The origin and extent of these ravages will be seen from the following very affecting letter on the subject:
[ix] "New Orleans, June 6,1838. — The southern parts of the United States, particularly Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana, are as healthy as can be wished; there has been no appearance of the yellow fever, and even at the Havannah only a few isolated cases have occurred. During the autumn, winter, and spring, the small-pox has carried off many victims among the whites, and thousands of the Indians; but it has now wholly disappeared in the territory of the Union, in consequence of a general vaccination of persons of all ages. On the other hand, we have, from the trading posts on the western frontier of the Missouri, the most frightful accounts of the ravages of the small-pox among the Indians, The destroying angel has visited the unfortunate sons of the wilderness with terrors never before known, and has converted the extensive hunting grounds, as well as the peaceful settlements of those tribes, into desolate and boundless cemeteries. The number of the victims within a few months is estimated at 30,000, and the pestilence is still spreading. The warlike spirit which but lately animated the several Indian tribes, and but a few months ago gave reason to apprehend the breaking-out of a sanguinary war, is broken. The mighty warriors are now the prey of the greedy wolves of the prairie, and the few survivors, in mute despair, throw themselves on the pity of the Whites, who, however, can do but little to help them. The vast preparations for the protection of the western frontier are superfluous: another arm has undertaken the defence of the white inhabitants of the frontier; and the funeral torch, that lights the red man to his dreary grave, has become the auspicious star of the advancing settler, and of the roving trader of the white race.The small-pox was communicated to the Indians by a person who was on board the steam-boat which went, last summer, up to the mouth of the Yellow Stone, to convey both the government presents for the
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Indians, and the goods for the barter trade of the fur dealers.The disorder communicated itself to several of the crew of the steam-boat. The officers gave notice of it to the Indians, and exerted themselves to the utmost to prevent any intercourse between them and the vessel; but this was a vain attempt; for the Indians knew that presents and goods for barter were come for them, and it would have been impossible to drive them away from the fort without having recourse to arms. Two days before the arrival of the steam-boat, an express had been received at the trading fort, 2000 miles west of St. Louis, with the melancholy news of the breaking-out of the small-pox on board; this was immediately communicated to the Indians, with the most urgent entreaties to keep at a distance; but this was as good as preaching to the winds. The survivors now lament their disobedience, and are as submissive as the poor dogs which look in vain in the prairie for the footsteps of their masters. The miserable remnants of the Indians implore us not to abandon them in their misfortune, and promise, if we will take pity on them, never more to disobey our commands. "The disease first broke out about the 15th of June, 1837, in the village of the Mandans, a few miles below the American fort, Leavenworth, from which it spread, in all directions, with unexampled fury.
The character of the disease was as appalling as the rapidity of the propagation. Among the remotest tribes of the Assiniboins from fifty to one hundred died daily. The patient, when first seized, complains of dreadful pains in the head and back, and in a few hours he is dead: the body immediately turns black, and swells to thrice its natural size. In vain were hospitals fitted up in Fort Union, and the whole stock of medicines exhausted. For many weeks together our workmen did nothing but collect the dead bodies and bury them in large pits; but since the ground is frozen we are obliged to throw them into the river. The ravages of the disorder were the most frightful among the Mandans, where it first broke out. That once powerful tribe, which, by accumulated disasters, had already been reduced to 1500 souls, was exterminated, with the exception of thirty persons. Their neighbours, the Bigbellied Indians, and the Ricarees, were out on a hunting excursion at the time of the breaking-out of the disorder, so that it did not reach them till a month later; yet half the tribe was already destroyed on the 1st of October, and the disease continued to spread. Very few of those who 35
were attacked recovered their health; but when they saw all their relations buried, and the pestilence still raging with unabated fury among the remainder of their countrymen, life became a burden to them, and they put an end to their wretched existence, either with their knives and muskets, or by precipitating themselves from the summit of the rock near their settlement. The prairie all around is a vast field of death, covered with unburied corpses, and spreading, for miles, pestilence and infection. The Bigbellied Indians and the Ricarees, lately amounting to 4000 souls, were reduced to less than the half. The Assiniboins, 9000 in number, roaming over a hunting territory to the north of the Missouri, as far as the trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company, are, in the literal sense of the expression, nearly exterminated. They, as well as the Crows and Blackfeet, endeavoured to fly in all directions, but the disease everywhere pursued them. At last every feeling of mutual compassion and tenderness seems to have disappeared. Every one avoided the others. Women and children wandered about in the prairie seeking [x] for a scanty subsistence. The accounts of the situation of the Blackfeet are awful. The inmates of above 1000 of their tents are already swept away. They are the bravest and the most crafty of all the Indians, dangerous and implacable to their enemies, but faithful and kind to their friends. But very lately we seriously apprehended that a terrible war with them was at hand, and that they would unite the whole of their remaining strength against the Whites. Every day brought accounts of new armaments, and of a loudly expressed spirit of vengeance towards the Whites: but the small-pox cast them down, the brave as well as the feeble; and those who were once seized by this infection never recovered. It is affirmed that several bands of warriors, who were on their march to attack the fort, all perished by the way, so that not one survived to convey the intelligence to their tribe. Thus, in the course of a few weeks, their strength and their courage were broken, and nothing was to be heard but the frightful wailings of death in the camp. Every thought of war was dispelled, and the few that are left are as humble as famished dogs. No language can picture the scene of desolation which the country presents. In whatever direction we go, we see nothing but melancholy wrecks of human life. The tents are still standing on every hill, but no rising smoke announces the presence of human beings, and no sounds but the croaking of the raven and the howling of the wolf interrupt the fearful silence. The above accounts do not complete the terrible intelligence which we receive. There is scarcely a doubt that the pestilence will spread to the tribes in and beyond the Rocky Mountains, as well as to the Indians in the direction of Santa Fé and Mexico. It seems to be irrevocably written in the book of fate, that the race of red men shall be wholly extirpated in the land in which they ruled the undisputed masters, till the rapacity of the Whites brought to their shores the murderous fire-arms, the enervating ardent spirits, and the all-destructive pestilence of the small-pox.36
According to the most recent accounts, the number of the Indians who have been swept away by the small-pox, on the western frontier of the United States, amounts to more than 60,000."
The general correctness of the melancholy details given in the above letter has been confirmed to me by several travellers who have visited these nations since they were desolated by this awful epidemic. The almost total extinction of these tribes greatly enhances the value and importance of the full and interesting particulars imparted by his Highness.
H. EVANS LLOYD.
CHARTERHOUSE SQUARE,
May 1st, 1843.
37
Chapter I
Voyage — Boston — Festival of Independence — The American inns — Charlestown — Monument on Bunker's Hill — Cambridge — New England Museum — Pawtucket — Providence — Embark on board the Boston — Voyage to New York — Fine view of that city.
VOYAGES to North America are become everyday occurrences, and little more is to be related of them than that you met and saluted ships, had fine or stormy weather, and the like; here, therefore, we shall merely say that our party embarked at Helvoetsluys, on board an American ship, on the 17th of May, in the evening, and on the 24th saw Land's End, Cornwall, vanish in the misty distance, and bade farewell to Europe.
Even when we were in latitude 48° 40', and for several days afterwards, we had very unfavourable weather and violent storms, which were succeeded, on the 10th of June, by calms. On such days, shoals of dolphins crowded round the ship, and some men got on the bowsprit to throw the harpoon at them. The mate was at length so fortunate as to drive his harpoon through the body of one of these monsters
38
of the deep, an event which was hailed with loud cheers. By the aid of several sailors the heavy prey was drawn upon deck. The animal, after it was wounded, made desperate efforts to free itself, and the harpoon had nearly given way, when the fish was secured by a rope thrown under the pectoral fins.[2] On the following day we had some of the flesh dressed as steaks, which we found to be very good; indeed, we preferred them to all other meat. I did not know, at that time, that I should soon find dog's flesh relishing! It is necessary to remove the blubber immediately; because, if this precaution be neglected, the flesh contracts a taste of train oil. The liver in particular is excellent.
On the same day we were to the south of the bank of Newfoundland, and, therefore, steered in nearly a northerly direction. On the 19th we were in a thick fog. White and other petrels flew round us, with some gulls, and birds resembling sea swallows, with a forked tail. We sounded, but found no bottom. On the 20th, however, we were on the bank, where, at half-past eight in the morning, the temperature of the air was +5 ź° Reaumur, and that of the water, +2 ž°. At two in the afternoon, with thick fog, the temperature of the air was +8°; that of the water, +4°. We then had a calm, and sounded in thirty-five fathoms. Large whales and flocks of sea-birds showed that we were on the bank. A hook and line being thrown out, we caught a fine cod, from whose stomach clams were taken, which served as a bait for other fish. We were on the middle of the lower point of the great bank, when large dolphins, quite black, called by the Americans blackfish, swam rapidly past in long lines, alternating with porpoises, which threw up white foam as they leaped and tumbled on the waves. A diver was shot while swimming, and flocks of black petrels hovered round us. A dead calm succeeding, a boat was put
39
out to give chase to the latter. Fat was thrown out to entice the birds, and many of the little black petrel, (Procellaria Pelagica), were shot, and also some of the birds, called by Charles Bonaparte,40
Sublime repose prevailed in this extensive and grand scene, our ship alone was in a state of activity. Various preparations were made for the approaching landing, while we Europeans looked eagerly at the distance. I had hoped in vain for a sight of the famous sea serpent; it [3] would not shew itself. I had, in the sequel, opportunities to speak with several American naturalists on the subject, but they all looked upon the story as a fable.
The moon rose in the utmost splendour, and lighted up the unagitated surface of the sea, and the fishing-boats which lay at anchor. Before midnight we saw Boston lighthouse, and soon afterwards several other such lights on the coast, which are a most welcome sight, and increase the impatience of the stranger in a remote quarter of the globe.
The following day (4th of July), on which I landed for the second time in the New World, was the anniversary of the day on which America proclaimed its independence. Early in the morning, the salutes of artillery resounded from the coasts, which we now saw clearly before us. In the centre, in the direction of the city of Boston, was the white lighthouse, with its black roof, on a small rocky island,
41
of the towns and villages, presented a most charming scene in the splendour of the morning sun. At length the long-expected pilot came on board, and in the bay, on our right, we saw the city of Boston, and many steam-boats before it. The sea had no longer the blue colour, but the green tinge which it has on all coasts, and was covered with medusÄ, and the leaves of the sea grass, which grows on these shores. The heat was very great, 18° in the shade, by Reaumur's thermometer, on board the ship, when we cast anchor at India Wharf, Boston, on the forty-eighth day of our voyage. The temperature in this oblong basin, which is surrounded with large magazines of naval stores, was by no means agreeable at the moment of our arrival; we, therefore, left the ship as soon as possible, and repaired to the Commercial Coffee House, where we took up our quarters.Boston, an extensive city, with above 80,000 inhabitants,
42
observe only European trees, such as Lombardy poplars, Babylonian willows, syringa hibiscus, chestnuts, elms, &c., and it was with much difficulty that I found some stems of the catalpa, which was just then on the point of flowering, and some other native trees. Besides the little grass plots, planted with flowers, in the front of the houses, there are, in Boston, many plantations and avenues of very tall and shady elms, which, like the same species in England, are remarkably vigorous and flourishing. Among these avenues, the principal is that called the Commons, where there were fireworks in the evening of the 4th of July.Washington-street is looked upon as the finest and longest street in Boston; its length is nearly equal to that of the whole city. Here, as in the first cities of Europe, there are numerous fine and elegant shops, with the most costly articles; and the productions of the West Indies. Cocoa-nuts, oranges, bananas, &c., are nowhere to be found so fresh, and in such perfection as in the seaports of North America. On account of the celebration of this day, most of the shops were closed; but then the entire population seemed to throng the streets, and the gay crowd was very interesting to strangers, as it was not difficult to catch the general features. Though a great part of the Americans have much of the English stamp, there are, however, some essential differences. The peculiar character of the English countenance seems to have disappeared in America, in the strange climate; the men are of a slenderer make, and of taller stature; a general expression of the physiognomy seems to be wanting. The women are elegant, and have handsome features, but frequently a paleness, which does not indicate a salubrious climate, or a healthy judicious way of living.
43
trimmed with black or green ribbons, were in general use. Cloth was much worn, and everything was according to the newest English and French fashions. Among the busy throng were a great number of negroes, who, in the Northern and Eastern States, have been made free. Not far from the public walks was a small narrow street, almost entirely inhabited by negroes and their hybrids. The stranger in Boston looks in vain for the original American race of the Indians. Instead of its former state of nature, this country now shows a mixture of all nations, which is rapidly proceeding in the unjustifiable expulsion and extirpation of the aborigines, which began on the arrival of the Europeans in the New World, and has unremittingly continued.After we had enjoyed a hasty view of the city, we returned to our inn, where we had an opportunity of making ourselves acquainted with many new customs, differing from those of Europe. It must be confessed that the arrangements in the large and much frequented inns of [5] the great towns in the United States, are, in many respects, inferior to those of Europe. The rooms are very small, and all have beds in them: parlours, that is, rooms without beds, must be hired separately. The hours for meals are fixed — three times in the day; and the signal is usually given, two or three times, by ringing a bell. In general, a number of persons habitually take their meals in these inns; they besiege the house before the appointed time arrives, and, when the signal is given, they rush tumultuously into the eating-room; every one strives to get before the other, and, for the most part, the crowd of guests is far too great, in proportion to the number of the black attendants. Then every one takes possession of the dish that he can first lay his hands on, and in ten minutes all is consumed; in laconic silence the company rise from table, put on their hats, and the busy gentlemen hasten away, whom you see all the day long posted before
44
the inns, or at the fire-side in the lower rooms, smoking cigars and reading the colossal newspapers. The hat, which the Americans seldom lay aside, except in the company of the women, is always taken off at table, which is certainly no small exertion in this land of perfect liberty, as Captain Morell expresses it.45
held in contempt by the Americans, who so highly estimate the dignity of man, and form a rejected caste, like the Parias in India.At the approach of evening, on the 4th of July, the whole population of Boston was in motion; but the streets were soon entirely deserted, and all the inhabitants had collected in the promenade, called the Commons. The sight was highly interesting. An extensive piece of ground, covered with green sward, stretches in a gentle slope to the water, and is surrounded by avenues of lofty, shady elms. Numerous paths cross each other in the centre, and here there is a gigantic elm, with a wide-spreading crown, measuring from thirty to forty paces in diameter. We regretted that the great crowd of people rendered it impossible to approach this fine tree, on [6] this busy evening. All Boston, rich and poor, was here assembled, in the most elegant dresses. Groups were sitting, or lying in the grass; rows of tables and little stalls were set out, where there was a real oyster feast, in which the people indulged to an extent that rendered the appearance of the tables anything but inviting. As it grew dark, there was a very indifferent display of fireworks, on the eminence, in honour of the day, the expense of which was defrayed by subscription. Several companies of city militia had previously paraded the streets; they are all volunteers, who equip themselves, and that in a very superior manner; but their uniforms are very gay and motley, as may be expected, where every one is left to follow his own taste. Each company, or troop, had a different uniform — one red, another blue, and, in part, richly embroidered with gold. There were very few men in a company. It seemed very strange that the musicians, who preceded them, were, for the most, in plain clothes of all colours, with round hats. "The Yankee-doodle," the favourite popular song of the Americans, was heard in different directions; and it is much
46
to the credit of this motley assemblage, that there was no impropriety of conduct or unseemly noise. The effect of the light on the mixed crowd of whites and negroes was very interesting, and we enjoyed the scene till the coolness and damp of the night air made us retire to our inn.On the following morning, the shops were opened, and Boston resumed its usual appearance of commercial activity. Our baggage was put on board a schooner bound to New York, to which city I wished to go by land. Our next excursion was to the monument on Bunker's Hill, from which there is the best view of the surrounding country.
Early in the morning we got into our carriages, and drove rapidly through the streets, refreshed by the cool morning breeze, where many wagons were arriving with the productions of the environs. We noticed vehicles of various descriptions, with four or two wheels, often with an awning of linen, or leather, open at the sides, and drawn by two or four horses. The drivers, generally in a white summer dress, with straw hats, sit on a bear skin, which is here worth eight or ten dollars. On the causeway, out of the city, the dust was troublesome, but a number of water-carts (like those used in the streets of London) were already preparing to water the road.
Boston is joined to the continent by a narrow tongue of land, at the two sides of which creeks, or bays run into the land. Over these creeks there are several long wooden bridges, made to draw up in the middle, one of which leads, in a north-west direction, to the neighbouring town of Charlestown; another, more to the south, to Cambridge, where there is a college, or university. All these places have been described by several travellers. We took the road through Charlestown, to the Navy Yard, close to which is the eminence on which the Bunker's Hill monument is erected. The hill is called Breed's Hill, and immediately beyond it is
47
Bunker's Hill, where the English troops were posted during the battle fought in 1775. The Americans were repulsed, and lost their leader, who was a physician. The monument in memory of this action [7] has been begun on the foremost, or Breed's Hill. The granite (Quincy granite) employed in it is found in the neighbourhood, and is of a grey colour.It was intended, originally, that this monument should be 210 feet high; it is now meant to be only 180 feet high. What is already done is a pyramid between fifty and sixty feet in height, which was covered with a temporary wooden roof. Withinside, a convenient stone staircase leads to the top, and from the small windows in the roof, there is an incomparable view over the city of Boston, Charlestown, the two inlets, the long bridges, the Bay of Boston, with its diversified islands, and the ships with their white swelling sails, coming from, and bound to, all parts of the world. Looking into the country, there is an alternation of verdant hills, numerous villages, and dark woods; the whole forming a highly picturesque landscape. Cattle were grazing near the monument, on the green hill; a well-dressed boy was employed in milking the cows.
From Bunker's Hill we went to Cambridge, and had, on this road, the first sight of an American landscape. Meadows, partly covered with arundinaceous plants, corn-fields, and European fruit trees, alternated with small thickets and groves. The apples that grow here are said to be yellow, and not particularly good; they are chiefly used to make cider. On almost all these fruit trees we saw caterpillars' nests of extraordinary size, they being often a foot and more in diameter.
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The butterfly which produces them must be in vast numbers, and it is surprising that more care is not taken to destroy them. The road was bordered with trees, as is generally the case here; we observed Celtis occidentalis, Lombardy poplars, partly lopped, and not growing to any great height. The thickets consisted of oaks, with various deeply indented leaves, in general of a beautiful shining green; different kinds of walnut, ash, and elm, which always attain a great height here, and, where they stand free, the stems are clothed with thick boughs down to the ground. The low thickets were of a bright green, and in adjacent meadows, which were partly marshy, grew plants, much resembling those of Europe, such as Ranunculus, Pyrethrum, several with white flowers of the genus Syngenesia; both a white clover and a red clover, common with us, seemed to be generally cultivated, as well as potatoes, corn, and maize. This part of the country has, on the whole, the European character — like England, for instance — but it is even now more wooded, and pines of different kinds give a variety: the population, too, is distributed in a different manner. In one of the nearest thickets, a little songster (Sylvia Ästiva), and some other birds, reminded me that I was not in Europe, but on the borders of the northern part of the New World, and the beautiful Icterus Baltimore flew to the higher thickets; and I very well distinguished its black and bright red plumage. These new objects gave [8] us great pleasure, and we only regretted that we could not immediately pursue them. On the summit of the gentle eminences we came to Cambridge College, which is very agreeably situated on a verdant lawn, shaded with trees, and surrounded by avenues of elms, Weymouth pines, maples, ash, planes, and other shady trees. The buildings stand separately; and in all the gardens of the neat habitations, we observed, in general, European plants — the rose, syringa, hibiscus, and but few American49
plants of which the trumpet tree was not then in blossom. My visit might have been very interesting if I had known that Mr. Nuttal,On our return to Boston, we visited many of the curiosities of the city, which are enumerated in various works. Among them I mention only the New England Museum,
Boston, however, has much that is worthy of notice, and numerous excellent institutions, respecting which the many descriptive works may be consulted, which treat on the subject more in detail than a passing traveller can do.
50
As my time was limited, I took places in a stage-coach that was to set out at noon for Providence, from Bunker's coach-office, at the Marlborough hotel. The establishment of stage-coaches, and the mode of travelling in this country, have been accurately described by Duke Bernhard of Saxe Weimar;The causeway was a good, solid, broad road, paved in some places, and very dusty at this dry season; it led over low hills and plains. Near the city there is a great number of pretty, and some elegant country houses; and as they became less numerous, they were succeeded by the houses of the farmers and planters, which are spread over the whole country. All these farm-houses are slightly built, boarded, and roofed with shingles; often grey, of the natural colour of the wood; but many of those belonging to the richer class are neatly painted, and variously ornamented. The walls, even of large buildings of this kind, are extremely thin, and one would think they [9] must be too slight for the cold winters of this country. It seems quite inconceivable that, throughout the United States, you find only open fireplaces; and very rarely good stoves, against which the Americans are prejudiced, because they are not aware of their great superiority. The business of the occupant is painted on the house in large letters, as in England and France.
The road by which we travelled was often bounded by hedges, or by walls of blocks of granite, or other kinds of stone, on which plantain, elder, stagshorn, sumach, &c., were growing. In the low marshy meadows were willows,
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a kind of reed mace, cotton grass, rushes, and, in the water, adder's tongue. Near the road, the hills, which here and there gradually rise to a great elevation, are covered with shrubs and trees, among which we noticed some firs, mixed with the other trees.Juniper trees, from fifteen to twenty feet high, grew in all these woods, partly as underwood. In the low grounds, near the road, we observed luxuriant tufts of various kinds of oak, walnut trees — some with large shining leaves, chestnuts, now in blossom, and many other kinds of trees cultivated in European gardens. Wild vines, with the under side of the leaves whitish, twine round many of the bushes; but, in these northern parts, they do not attain a great height. These thickets alternate with open tracts of land, where the peasants, tanned by the powerful American sun, wearing large straw hats, were busily employed in making hay.
However small and poor the dwellings, we still saw at the windows, and before the doors, the women, most elegantly and fashionably dressed, engaged in their household employments. In this land of freedom, nobody, of course, will allow his neighbour to have an advantage over him; hence we often see silk gowns, and the newest fashions of all kinds, in laughable contrast with the poor little habitations. Small country carts pass the traveller, in which, beside the owner, who drives, sits a country lady, handsomely attired, who looks like a copy of some journal des modes. The dress of the countrymen is, in general, not so fine, but is, in some degree, according to the man's circumstances.
We were much pleased with some thick forests of oak, with beautiful glossy (often deeply indented) leaves, of a great variety of forms. Forests, consisting wholly of the Weymouth pine, alternated with the oak. The trunks were large, but the height of the tree was not great in proportion. Among them there was always a number of dead trees;
52
others had a quantity of bearded moss hanging on them; in a word, though so near to the habitations of man, and in a cultivated country, they had more of the wild character of unreclaimed nature than our European forests. In many places there were openings into dark forests, to a great distance; and, now and then, into lovely valleys, with a lake or a river, where the white buildings had a very picturesque appearance, contrasted with the dark woods and the green meadows. Mr. Bodmer, however, was not satisfied with all these landscapes: he had expected to find, at once, in America, forms differing from those of Europe; but these must be looked for under another zone; for, in [10] North America, the general character of the vegetation resembles that of Europe. In some parts, we remarked in the meadows large stones, something like those in Westphalia, or in the Westerwald, in Germany.We changed horses at three places, at one of which we had dinner, which, as in England, was ready when the passengers arrived. The regulations here have an advantage over those in most parts of Europe, inasmuch as fees are nowhere given, so that you cannot be molested by the importunity of the driver: on the other hand, the coachman dines at the same table as the passengers. You are, however, pretty secure against the conversation of unpolished people, because the Americans are usually mute at table.
Towards evening we reached Pawtucket, a neat town on the river of the same name, in the state of Massachusetts. The place has manufactures of various kinds, and is animated by trade and industry. The river empties itself into Narraganset bay, and is said to have falls of fifty feet. We soon travelled the few miles from this place to Providence. The evening being fine, the journey was very pleasant: the road was full of stages, cabriolets, farmers' wagons, and smart country ladies, whose veils on their large fashionable
53
hats waved in the wind; they were generally seated in little chaise carts, the seats of which were covered with bear skins.At Providence, which we reached before night, we put up at Franklin House, a respectable inn. A crowd of idle gentlemen and other curious persons stared at us, and laughed in our faces, when they found, by our pronunciation, that we were foreigners. We had to pass some days here, waiting for the return of a steam-boat from New York; we therefore employed this interval in exploring the town and neighbourhood.
Providence is a busy town, the capital of the state of Rhode Island, and situated on an arm of the sea. It is built partly on sandy hills, partly on the low ground next the sea, has some good new streets, and a brisk trade, as appears from the many ships at anchor. There is no want of handsome shops, and several public buildings deserve notice; such as twelve churches, several colleges, and other public institutions, which I forbear to enumerate. In the churches the singular style of the architecture calls for censure: — they are of brick, with steeples variously ornamented, but often painted with glaring colours; for instance, the lower part reddish brown, with the frames of the windows and of the doors white; the upper part bright yellow with white. There is a considerable degree of luxury at Providence. The women appear in the streets in the most expensive dresses; and the country ladies (farmers' wives), whom I have so often mentioned, dressed in silk, and wearing large straw bonnets and veils, bring milk to market in little carts. This love of finery is quite a characteristic trait in the American people; but it is, at the same time, an indication of prosperity; for it is true that, in this country, there are neither poor nor beggars; and if you see people doing nothing, they are generally new comers from Europe. Negroes and their coloured descendants
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are more numerous here than in Boston and the northern parts.[II] The next day was Sunday, in the observance of which the Americans are very scrupulous. All the people, with their books under their arms, proceeded to the churches, the bells of which were very slowly tolled. The streets were quite still on this day, and all the shops closed; but, then, numerous carriages and cabriolets, filled with finely-dressed people, were in motion. We strolled about the surrounding country, which, in general, has a dead and rather sterile appearance. Here, too, we saw, almost exclusively, European trees and flowers in the gardens; there were, however, some peculiar to the country, among which the magnolia was now in blossom.
Intelligence had been received from New York that the cholera had broken out there, and that numbers of the inhabitants were leaving the city. On the arrival of the Boston steam-boat, the Captain confirmed this unwelcome news, which, however, did not deter us from embarking in this fine vessel for New York. On the 8th of July, in the afternoon, we went on board the steam-boat, which had above 100 passengers. The Boston was a large, handsome vessel, about the size of a frigate. It had three decks; in the lower part was the large dining and sleeping room, where above 100 persons were very well provided for. On the middle deck there was a cabin for the ladies, with twenty-four beds. The numerous attendants were negroes and mulattoes of both sexes, all free people. The vessel had two low-pressure engines, which are thought to be less dangerous than the high-pressure engines, though the Americans affirm the contrary. On the upper deck was a pavilion, with glass windows, in which, when the weather was unfavourable, the company could sit and enjoy the prospect.
When all the passengers were on board, one of the engines
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was set to work, and when we got further from shore, the other also. The low, sandy coast, partly covered with trees, where towns alternated with forests, quickly disappeared. The sky was dark and cloudy, and a cool, fresh breeze blew. We reached the strongly fortified town of Newport, where many small vessels lay at anchor. The place is distinguished by three forts, and other fortifications, and a lighthouse. When twilight set in we were already in sight of the open sea, which, however, remained visible for a short time only, because we steered to the right, into the channel between the continent and Long Island.On the morning of the 9th of July, the sky was gloomy, and the sea much agitated. On our left we had the coast of Long Island, which, in general, is not high, but has some more elevated parts, with an alternation of sand, bushes, and brushwood. Some very picturesque and diversified inlets run into the land. The channel becomes gradually narrower, and the beauty of the landscape increases in the same proportion. One narrow place is called Hellgate: there are here many rocky islets covered with sumach bushes (Rhus typhinum). At length, turning round a point of the continent, a new and most picturesque scene presented itself. We were in what is called the East River, an arm of the sea, open towards New York, which is connected with the Hudson or North River, one of the most beautiful rivers in North America. At the conflux [12] of both, lies the city. The banks of the East River are like an English park, shaded by beautiful copses and groups of lofty trees: the ground was clothed with the brightest and most luxuriant verdure, with tall tulip trees, planes, Babylonian willows, Lombardy poplars, and many others, alternating with green meadows, where there are neat, and often elegant country-houses; and the eye is charmed by many fine prospects and a great diversity of scenery. Passing the Navy Yard, which
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is situated on a point of land, the great city of New York, with its innumerable masts, lies before you. As you approach and enter the broad and extensive piece of water formed by the conflux of the East and North Rivers, you see the whole mass of houses, with countless ships, which line both the banks to a considerable distance, with a forest of masts, to which few other cities can present a parallel. The steamer landed us at a spot where, notwithstanding the heavy rain, there was a great crowd of people collected. Porters, black workmen, and coachmen in abundance, with loud cries, and much importunity, offered their services; and we immediately proceeded to the American Hotel, a considerable inn, in one of the handsomest squares in the city.57
Chapter II.
New York — Bloomingdale — Hoboken — New Brunswick — Trenton — Bordentown — Philadelphia — Fair Mount, with the water-works — Stay at Bordentown — Park of the Count de Survilliers — Excursions in the forests — Return to Philadelphia.
NEW YORK is but little inferior to the capital cities of Europe, with the exception of London and Paris. It has, at present, 220,000 inhabitants, and its commerce is so extensive, animated, and active, that, in this respect, it is scarcely surpassed by any. There are so many descriptions of this great city, that to say much on the subject would be merely repetition. The first impression that it made on me was very striking, on account of the beauty of its situation. In the interior the style of building resembles that of many English cities. It has one remarkably fine street, called the Broadway, which traverses its whole length; other parts are old, and not so handsome. In the Broadway, which is the favourite resort of the fashionable world, is an uninterrupted line of shops, but little inferior to those of London and Paris. The city is extremely animated, and people of all nations carry on business here. We were assured that the population had been diminished, in a few days, by the emigration of 20,000 of the inhabitants, who had fled to other towns for fear of the cholera.
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lamentable disease had been very fatal in Canada, and had now penetrated into the Northern States of the Union: it was raging in Albany, on the Hudson, at Detroit, and on the great lakes, so that it seemed as if it would defeat our project of beginning our journey to the interior by that route. This had been my plan, in which the recommendations of our worthy countryman, Mr. Astor,The house at which Mr. Schmidt resides in the summer, is charmingly situated on the banks of that picturesque river, the Hudson, seven miles from the town. The pretty dwelling-house, with a veranda all round, covered with passion flowers, honeysuckles, the red trumpet flower, and other beautiful climbing plants, stands on a verdant lawn, shaded by lofty trees, among which we observed the finest kinds of this country, the trunks of which were slender, and straight as pillars. The park extends to the Hudson, where the tall sassafras, tulip, oak, walnut, and other trees,
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protected us by their shade; while the large steam-boats, rapidly passing on the bright surface of the Hudson, had a very picturesque effect. Mr. Schmidt had the kindness to afford us an admirable view of what is called the island of New York. Near Bloomingdale is a large and very well conducted lunatic asylum, from the lofty roof of which we enjoyed an inexpressibly beautiful, extensive, and interesting prospect of the whole country. From this spot we overlooked the East and North Rivers, the broad bend of the latter, and its high banks towards Albany; to the north, dark forests, with detached dwellings and country seats; and, in all directions, luxuriant green thickets, towns, villages, and handsome country-houses. At our feet, contrasting with that rich and noble view, full of variety and life, we looked down on the buildings and court-yards of the hospital, in which we could observe the patients; while, in another enclosed space, Virginian deer were sporting and playing. This asylum is a very excellent establishment, and contains a great number of patients: the physician resides in the house, and was so good as to show us over it. New York has many such useful institutions, — hospitals, poorhouses, and houses of correction, in which latter the young, who may still be reclaimed, are not mixed with the old, hardened offenders, but are kept apart. There is an asylum for the deaf and dumb, &c.Our returning from Bloomingdale, in the evening, was extremely agreeable, the weather being delightful. In the dark thickets and woods were swarms of fire-flies; and from the marshes and pools came the croakings of the frogs, with which we were not yet familiar; but we did not hear that of the celebrated bull-frog.
The most beautiful spots and environs of New York are indebted for the attraction of their views, to the variety of the waters surrounding the city: thus, for instance, at the end
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of the Broadway, is the Castle Garden, formerly a circular fort, the walls of which are converted into a public walk. From the wall itself is a fine prospect of the noble harbour, the neighbouring city, the banks, the opposite coast, and the broad river, where ships of every kind and of all nations are coming and going. Another favourite place of resort is the garden at Hoboken, the name of which indicates its Dutch origin, for it is well known that the Dutch founded the first considerable settlement in this place, numerous traces of which still remain. [15] The communication with Hoboken is by means of a steam-boat. The garden extends along the banks of the Hudson, and the lofty trees and thickets are pleasing and interesting to the stranger. The tall hickory and other kinds of walnut trees had now their fruit half grown. Storax trees (Liquidambar styraciflua), with their maple-like leaves, grow very high and straight, Gleditschia triacanthos and inermis, with wild vines, climbing round them; and many other fine forest trees afford protection against the heat of the summer. Many European trees and shrubs, too, have been planted here. Thus we saw a hedge of whitethorn, the growth of which, however, was stunted by other wood. Many birds, whose notes were unknown to us, were heard in these shades. On my first visit to New York, I was interested by some collections of natural history; for instance, two museums, one of which, belonging to Mr. Peale, is, however, much inferior to that of his brother at Philadelphia. Being anxious to see Philadelphia, I hastened to set out for that city, and left New York, where the cholera was daily spreading more and more.On the 16th, at six in the morning, I embarked on board the Swan steam-boat, which was so crowded with passengers that there was scarcely room to sit down. On our left we had Staten Land; but we soon turned to the right, into the river Raritan, on which New Brunswick is situated.
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New Brunswick is a village, consisting of many straggling streets, where all the passengers landed from the steam-boat, and took their seats in stage-coaches, drawn by four horses, which were standing ready to receive them. The heat was great, the company very mixed, and I had the misfortune to have noisy and disagreeable companions. A long hill, with steep sides, which appears to consist of a reddish clay, extends along the water-side to New Brunswick. On the eminence above the town it was naked and rather sterile; the road was bad, and we were roughly jolted as we drove rapidly along. Meadows, fields of clover, rye, oats, and maize succeeded each other in the vicinity of the habitations, as well as plantations of European fruit trees, full of large caterpillar's nests, but flourishing in the greatest luxuriance. The beautiful red trumpet flower partly covered the sides of the houses, about which Italian poplars and Babylonian willows were frequently planted; the latter are often very high and spreading. The cattle are partly without horns. Sheep and swine were numerous.
While we were changing horses at Kingston, negro and other children offered milk, little cakes, and half-ripe fruit for sale, of which a great deal was bought. Some German peasants, lately arrived from Europe, who were welcomed by their relations, previously settled in the country, completely filled a couple of stages, and were not a little merry, in their low German language, at which Americans laughed heartily. From this place the country was rather woody. Here and there were fine forests, the shade of which was very refreshing in this hot weather. The growth of timber was very fine. A pretty wild rose blossomed among the bushes in the meadows. Oak, sassafras, walnut, chestnut, plane, and tulip trees, displayed their luxuriant foliage of various and often glossy green. The tulip trees, when young, are distinguished by [16] their pyramidal shape and beautiful
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light green leaves; they were at this time covered with their seed vessels, which were full-grown, but not ripe. The branching phytolacea, and the thorn-apple with its large white flowers, which were now open, as well as several plants brought from Europe, grew in abundance by the roadside, also species of sumach, partly entwined with wild vine; and in the forest was underwood of Rhododendron maximum. We passed rapidly through Prince Town, and arrived at Trenton, on the Delaware, a straggling town, lying among thickets, on the low banks of the river. A long, covered wooden bridge led to the opposite bank of this broad river, which was animated by ships and boats. Such colossal, covered wooden bridges are very common in the United States; and many travellers have already described the construction of these useless masses of timber. From Trenton, we hastened over a sandy tract to another place on the river, opposite to which is Bordentown, and at a short distance lay the steam-boat, Trenton, ready to convey us down the river to Philadelphia. We descended the fine river Delaware, the low, verdant banks of which are covered with many towns, settlements, and country houses; here and there, too, with forests of oaks, &c., and of a kind of pine (pinus rigida).This city extends a great way along the right bank of the Delaware, but has by no means so beautiful and striking an effect as New York. It is large and regularly built; the long, straight streets crossing each other at right angles. The modern part of the city is handsome, consisting of lofty brick buildings, ornamented in the English fashion; but the
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older parts of Philadelphia consist of low, mean houses. It is very judicious that, in hot weather, an agreeable shady walk is formed by awnings spread before the houses, and that the streets are well watered. The water-works are at Fairmount, where there is a basin, from which pipes convey the water to every part of the city.The streets which run at right angles to the Delaware are called by the names of different kinds of trees — Mulberry Street, Walnut Street, Chestnut Street, &c: the streets which cross them are numbered, First Street, Second Street, Third Street, &c. Chestnut Street, without doubt the finest, is full of life and traffic. A part of it has, in the middle, a shady avenue of lime trees; and, besides, there are, in many of the streets, rows of trees which do not yet afford much shade. Splendid shops, in almost uninterrupted succession, line the streets, and you find here all the manufactures and produce of the other quarters of the globe. The ancient, injudicious practice of having the churchyards in the towns is still retained in America. They are filled with great numbers of whitish monuments, of various forms, often planted with high trees, and lie quite exposed to view, being separated from the street only by an iron railing. Philadelphia has a considerable number of public buildings, especially many churches and meeting-houses of [17] different religious denominations, most of which are extremely plain brick buildings, without any external ornaments whatever. This country has no history like the Old World, and therefore we look in vain for the ancient Gothic cathedrals, and those awe-inspiring monuments of past ages, from which the traveller in Europe derives so much pleasure and instruction. Besides the churches, the principal buildings are the State House, where the independence of the country was proclaimed on the 4th of July, 1776, the United States Bank, the Bank of Pennsylvania, the Exchange, the University
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and the Medical College, the Mint, some hospitals, the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, and many others, which it would lead us too far to mention here.Philadelphia would make a more striking impression if we could find a spot commanding a view of the whole; but as it lies in the plain between the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill, which unite five miles below the city, no such spot is to be found.
It is well known that this city was founded, in 1682, by William Penn, a Quaker, who concluded, under an elm tree, which recently fell down from age, a convention with the Delaware Indians, the proprietors of the soil, by which they ceded to him a tract of land. Philadelphia, literally "the city of the brethren" (Quakers), contains people from all the nations of Europe, especially Germans, French, and English. In some parts of the city, German is almost exclusively spoken. In the year 1834, the population consisted of 80,406 whites, and 59,482 people of colour. I arrived in Philadelphia at an unfavourable moment, for the cholera had already manifested itself also in that city. Letters of introduction from Europe procured me a kind reception in some houses; but, on the other hand, I had not an opportunity of becoming acquainted with several scientific gentlemen, because, being physicians, they were now particularly engaged. Professor Harlan, M. D., well known to the learned world as an author, was of the number.
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He took me to the water-works at Fair Mount, one of the most interesting spots near the city, which are indeed worth seeing. The road led past the House of Correction, where young offenders, who are still capable of being reclaimed, are confined. On the bank of the river, there are buildings in which large wheels set in motion the machinery by which the water is raised to the reservoirs, on an eminence about eighty feet high, whence the pipes are carried to all parts of the city. The rocky eminence, from which a fine, clear spring rises, is provided with stairs and balustrades, and adorned with elegant pavilions, which command a view of the water-works, and of the beautiful valley of the Schuylkill. It is a favourite promenade, and daily resorted to by numbers of persons, as they can have all kinds of refreshments there. Beautiful plants, the catalpa, plantain, &c., grow among the rocks with great luxuriance, being watered by the springs. We crossed the great bridge over the Schuylkill, to return to the city, where I made but a short stay, because my fellow-travellers were still detained at New York, waiting for our baggage from Boston. As [18] all the roads were crowded with fugitives from New York, it was not a favourable moment for travelling; I therefore resolved on an excursion to Bordentown, in order to obtain some little knowledge of the forests of New Jersey.I left Philadelphia, on board the Burlington steam-boat, about noon, and arrived at Bordentown between four and five o'clock. At this place are the estates of the Count de Survilliers (Joseph Buonaparte), who had but lately sailed for Europe.
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is about 300 paces from the village, near to the high road, and near, also, to the iron railway from Amboy to Camden, opposite to Philadelphia.67
Among the thick blackberry bushes, entwined with vines, by the road-side, I observed the little striped squirrel, which doubtless climbs to get at the fruit.At ten o'clock, the heat was already so intense that I returned to the inn, where I arrived very much fatigued. This house is very pleasantly situated on an eminence above the Delaware, at the place where the steam-boats arrive, and from which there is a fine view of the arm of the river, and the adjacent lowland, covered with woods and thickets. A great ornament of this landscape is the white garden-pavilion of Count Survilliers, which rises above the thick groves on the left bank of the Delaware, above Bordentown. In the cool of the evening I usually went to this park. The house itself is a pretty building, on a lawn near the waterside, where oleander and orange plants are placed. The park is very shady, and extends along the Croswick Creek, towards which the bank forms a steep, wildly wooded declivity. In this wood there was likewise a thick undergrowth of Rhododendron maximum, now in full blossom. On an eminence immediately above the river, stands a kind of tower, several stories high, upon a terrace, from the gallery of which is a fine and extensive view over the low, wooded country, and the arms of the river. From this place winding paths lead through the gloomy forest of [19] pine trees, of different varieties, where many birds, of kinds unknown to me, were flying about. The cat bird (Turdus felivox, Vieill.), whose voice has a slight resemblance to that of a cat, was very numerous in this place. From the top of the wooded bank a sort of bridge has been carried out, a great height above the river, and a square place furnished with seats, from which you overlook the whole country. An old Canadian pine stands at the edge of the bank, some branches of which we carried off, by way of memorial. The view from this place is remarkably beautiful; to the right and left extends
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the river, or rather broad brook, which, at the feet of the spectator, is covered with water plants. The yellow-blossomed NymphÄa adversus, and the beautiful Pontederia cordata grow here in great abundance. There was plenty of occupation for the botanist and the ornithologist, and the sportsman would have reason to be satisfied, for in the neighbouring thickets there were deer (Cervus virginianus), and hares (Lepus Americanus), which frequently crossed our path.On my return to Bordentown, I found before the door of the inn a number of gentlemen lying in more than easy positions on the benches; the chief subject of conversation was the cholera, which filled the whole country with terror.
It was precisely the hottest part of the summer, and it was scarcely possible to protect one's self against the swarms of European flies, which are very numerous. On this account there are, in the inns, negroes and mulattoes, who attend at table and give the company rest from those troublesome insects, and, at the same time, cool air, by fanning them with fans, made of feathers, often those of the peacock. Fans are, in fact, an article of luxory, and are purchased in the towns; they are made of the tail feathers of the wild turkey, the crane, or the swan, of palm leaves, &c. It was so hot in the day-time, that it was hardly possible to leave the house; and the cholera, therefore, spread rapidly in New York. In this sultry season, the evenings were really refreshing, and gave new life both to men and animals. When it became dusk, luminous insects flew about, and the crickets chirped in notes like those in Europe, but in more rapid succession.
On the following day I visited other places and woods in
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the vicinity of Bordentown. The town itself is built in the country fashion, with regular, broad, unpaved streets or roads, and the houseslie detached from each other, shaded by rows of trees: this is very necessary, for now, at 10 o'clock in the morning, Fahrenheit's thermometer, in the cool passage of the inn, was at 73°. The avenues of trees in the town consisted of robinia, paper-mulberry, large-leaved poplars, which exude an aromatic gum, weeping willows, and Syrian mallow, which latter grow to the height of ten and evn fifteen feet. These plants, with their beautiful flowers, flourish here in much greater perfection than in Germany. In the gardens we observed monarda (Oswego tea), [20] the Indian cress (tropÄolum), purple convolvulus, buckthorn (Lycum Europeum), the climbing trumpet flower, vine, catalpa, larkspur, &c.From Bordentown I sometimes passed beyond the iron railroad, and penetrated into the neighbouring forest. Five or six species of oak, several kinds of walnut trees, beeches, chestnuts, and dogwood, formed the thick wood, the undergrowth of which consisted of Rhododendron maximum, kalmia, rhus, and tall juniper.
On the 23rd of July I left Bordentown, and returned to Philadelphia, as our baggage had not yet arrived from Boston. I made use of this interval to examine the museum of Mr. Titian Peale, which contains the best collection of natural history in the United States. There is the fine large skeleton of the Ohio elephant (Mastodon, Cuv.), and likewise most of the animals of North America, pretty well stuffed. Among them I noticed, especially, the bison, the bighorn or wild sheep of the rocky mountains, the prairie antelope (Antilocapra Americana Ord.), the elk (Cervus major, or Canadensis) the grisly bear (Ursus ferox), and others. Mr. Peale, the owner, accompanied the expedition under Major Long to the Rocky Mountains, where he procured part of these specimens
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himself.As the study of the aboriginal nations of America had peculiar attractions for me, I searched the shops of all the booksellers and printsellers, for good representations of that interesting race; but how much was I astonished, that I could not find, in all the towns of this country, one good, that is, characteristic representation of them, but only some bad or very indifferent copper-plates, which are in books of travels! It is incredible how much the original American race is hated and neglected by the foreign usurpers. Only a few eminent men, who have felt this reproach and defect, are now exerting themselves to rescue from oblivion the neglected materials, scarce as they now are, after it has become next to impossible to collect anything complete respecting the history of many exterminated Indian tribes. Messrs. Morse, Smith Barton, Edwin James, Say, Duponceau, Schoolcraft, Cass, Mc Kenney, and some others, are an honourable exception in this respect. A fine work, with coloured lithographic plates, was contemplated at Philadelphia, which deserves encouragement; it was to give the history of the
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several Indian tribes, with portraits of their chiefs, for which the Government was ready to furnish all the materials in its possession. It seems that this important publication has at length been carried into execution.72
Chapter III.
View of the Country — Population of German Origin — Freiburg — Residence there — The Rocky Valley — Excursions — The Colony of the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem — Residence there — Excursions.
ALL the members of our party had now joined, and, though our baggage was not yet arrived from Boston, I resolved, in order to make myself acquainted with the interior of Pennsylvania, to take up my abode in the settlement of the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem. I had previously paid a visit to the place, and found it very favourably situated for our object. On the 30th of June [July], before daybreak, in the finest weather and bright moonlight, we drove through the long streets of Philadelphia, and passed the churchyards, with their white, ghost-like monuments and tombstones. The day broke when we got out of the city. On both sides of the road were country houses, alternating with fields, enclosures, gardens, and parks; and high trees of various kinds were everywhere planted by the road-side. We passed through Germantown, a scattered village, and, by eight o'clock, arrived at Chestnut Hill, where the passengers usually breakfast. The inn was rather uncleanly, and the coffee so bad, that a portly Quaker in our company would not take this beverage, of which he was otherwise very fond. At table we were molested by innumerable European flies, though a servant girl took great pains to drive them away, by waving a large green bough over our heads.
The whole country, as far as Bethlehem, and much farther, is chiefly inhabited by the descendants of German emigrants,
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who all speak an indifferent low German, and say that they rather converse in German than in English. The appearance of the country in this part is not particularly pleasing. Fields of potatoes, clover, oats, and maize as high as a man, alternate with meadows and little thickets, and all the fields are surrounded with hedges or wooden fences. At Montgomeryville, the horses are changed a second time, and the road becomes more diversified. [22] The habitations of the country people are generally small, often rather poor, frequently composed of boards, covered with shingles; sometimes they are merely great block-houses, like the cowkeeper's cottage in Switzerland. These cottages are surrounded with little gardens, in which there are various kinds of European plants, such as the hollyhock, hibiscus, larkspur, balsam, &c. The Hibiscus Syriacus was everywhere in blossom, in the greatest beauty. I have never seen this fine plant so high and vigorous, or its flowers so large and splendid, in Europe, as here. They are of three varieties of colour — white, purple, and bright pink, the latter by far the most beautiful. In general, the trees and shrubs in this country are very vigorous. The vegetative power increases the more you advance towards the south, and the prodigious fertility of the soil remains long unimpaired, even after it has been stripped of its primeval forests.The country, as we advanced, was gradually more and more wooded. We drove through fine young woods of slender oaks, walnuts and chestnuts, ash, sassafras, beech, tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica), and other tall trees, all, with the exception of a single spot, without any underwood or young trees, which is a proof that there is no intention of perpetuating these woods for future use. In many parts they are on the way to total destruction, for they contain neither timber fit for felling, nor young plants; and if it is thought fit in future to raise timber in these ruined forests, the country people
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must be checked in their love of destruction, and forest laws and regulations introduced. It is fortunate for Pennsylvania that the rich coal mines have been discovered. There was a very agreeable succession of woods and meadows, and we saw great numbers of the beautiful red-headed woodpecker, which, when it spreads its wings, displays a large surface as white as snow. It is often seen sitting on the fences where the ground squirrel and the reddish squirrel, with dark lateral stripes (Sciurus Hudsonius), frequently resort. The first, in particular, is seen in great numbers about all these fences, running backwards and forwards on them. The birds which we particularly remarked were the robin, the blue bird, the fox-coloured thrush, the goldfinch, the turtle-dove, &c. The Caprimulgus Virginianus, which the Americans call the night hawk, was flying about in a meadow in bright sunshine. I have seen these birds everywhere, flying about in numbers, in the daytime, like Azaras Nacunda in Brazil. This species, too, shows, when on the wing, the white transverse stripes which are observed in many species in that country. Crows and blackbirds are common, but there are very few birds of prey, which are far more numerous in Brazil. The forests in this part of the country become more lofty; the crowns of the trees spread wider, and afford a thicker shade. Travelling by a road which runs alternately through corn-fields, meadows, and agreeable eminences, we arrived at Freiburg, a straggling village, almost wholly inhabited by descendants of German emigrants. We stopped here a couple of days, to make excursions in the forests, and took up our quarters in a tolerably good country miller's house, close to which a Jew had set up his store.On the 1st of August, conducted by my obliging neighbour, the German Jew, and some [23] others of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, we made an excursion to the Rocky Valley, which was represented to us as very well worth
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seeing. We proceeded through meadows and between fences for about half a league, and often saw the large prairie lark (Alauda magna, Linn.; Sturnella, Vieill.), which usually sits on the ground, on the grass, or on the branch of a shrub, and, when scared, often lights on the pines. Its song is short, and not disagreeable. This handsome bird is shy of the sportsman, and flies away betimes, when it may immediately be recognized by its short, outspread tail, the side feathers of which are white. Our path lay past isolated farm-houses, most of the inhabitants of which spoke German, and we then reached the forest, where we shot many fine birds. We next passed by several lonely log or block-houses, before the doors of which the children, many of them very poorly and dirtily dressed, were at play, and seemed to be the only possession of the inhabitants. The sky was overcast, and it rained, while the weather was very warm, which obliged us to visit the cool draw-wells of the peasants. From this place the forest was more and more filled with blocks of primitive rocks, mixed with hornblende and quartz, and these blocks lay about irregularly, some of them very large, and covered with various kinds of lichens. In this wild wooded spot, our guides could not tell where they were, till a German peasant showed us the rather hidden path, which could hardly be distinguished among the many blocks of stone. The AckÄa racemosa, with its long spikes of white flowers, was growing everywhere, four or five feet high, like the Digitalis purpurea, in the mountain forests on the Rhine.The wood now became thicker, and fuller of brushwood. We reached the bed of a stream, now dry, likewise quite filled with blocks of stone, which we followed, leaping from block to block, till we came in sight of the place called the Rocky Valley. Here, on a gentle hill, is a free prospect through the forest up the stream, where prodigious masses of great blocks of stone were so piled up, one over another,
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that a tract, from 150 to 200 paces in breadth, appears quite covered with them, exactly like similar heaps of stone, especially basalt, in Germany, some of which are found in the countries on the Rhine, where they are called beilsteine. No shrub or blade of grass can grow among these boulders, and the rain, which continued to fall, made them so slippery that it was dangerous to climb over them. No living creature was to be seen in this wilderness, nor, as I said before, was there any vegetation. These blocks seem to have been accumulated and piled up by some impetuous torrent, and it is said that, at the season of the year which is less hot and dry, the sound of water running under the stones is heard.From this place we returned to the habitation of the German peasant who had showed us the way, where we refreshed ourselves with brandy-and-water. The inmates of the house were, in part, engaged, sitting under the shade of the trees, in cutting shingles, which they sold. They were much astonished at our double-barrelled guns, with percussion locks and safety caps. There are now scarcely any wild animals in these forests; hardly any but the grey fox, the [24] Pennsylvania marmot (ground hog, or wood chuck), the grey and the red squirrel, have escaped the love of destruction of the invaders.
On our return to Freiburg, I found our countryman, Dr. Saynisch, of Bethlehem, whom I had previously met with. He is a naturalist, and, being well acquainted with this part of the country, was able to give me much interesting information concerning it. He stopped a couple of days with us, and we set out on a shooting excursion the same afternoon.
On the 2nd of August, early in the morning, we left Freiburg, in the most beautiful weather, and our host drove us in his dearborn (such is the name given to a small covered
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vehicle), and two spirited horses, to Bethlehem, the road to which afforded us much pleasure. The country is very agreeable: meadows, corn-fields, habitations, and copses succeeded each other on the side of low hills; and the fine valley, called, by the inhabitants, Upper Sakena, is remarkably fertile. The road was here and there shaded by large trees, and a small pond was extremely interesting to us; for, besides many curious birds, we saw tortoises everywhere on the banks, and on old stumps in the water, which, however, were very shy, and plunged below the surface as soon as we approached them. In the sultry heat of noon, we reached the Moravian settlement, Bethlehem, where we put up at a German inn.This settlement is built on the top and the side of a hill, at the foot of which the Monocasa brook joins the Lecha (Lehigh). The Lecha is celebrated for its picturesque valley, which is at first wild and wooded, and lower down, fruitful and well cultivated. At present, Bethlehem is no more than a village, but it is rapidly increasing, and has already some pretty considerable streets, which, however, are still unpaved. The church is a large, neat, light building, quite in the plain style of the German churches of this sect, and gives the place a pretty appearance, being situated nearly at the top of the hill. Another large building is the girls' school, which has a shady garden, planted with timber trees, the
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lower part of which is on the Monocasa, where flowers of many kinds attract the little humming-birds. The lower part of the village, consisting of but a few houses, one of which is the inn where we lodged, and where there is a long wooden bridge over the Lecha, is situated in Lehigh county; and the large upper part, in the county of Northampton, the boundary line of the two counties passing through the place. Like all the settlements of the industrious brethren, Bethlehem has a number of different trades, mechanics and field-labourers. New settlers are continually arriving, and it will, in time, become a place of importance. The inhabitants are, for the most part, Germans; but there are likewise many English, and divine service is performed in the church in German and English alternately, and most of the inhabitants speak both languages. The country about Bethlehem is agreeable and diversified; the climate very healthy. Large woods alternate in the vicinity with the fields of the inhabitants, and a canal, from the coal district of Mauch Chunk to the Delaware, gives animation and support to the country by the numerous boats that navigate it. All kinds of [25] European field and garden plants are cultivated here, and likewise maize; they have even begun to plant vines; but what is called the Alexander grape, yields a rather acid beverage, which they usually sweeten with sugar. We were told that much better wine is produced in the country about Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, near York. Fruit does not seem to thrive so well in the United States as in Europe: the peach, however, may, perhaps, be excepted.I became acquainted with the directors of this colony: Mr. V. Schweinitz, well known in the literary world as a distinguished botanist, Mr. Anders the bishop,
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Mr. Seidel. All these gentlemen received me in a very friendly manner, and Mr. Seidel, in particular, showed me much kindness. Dr. Saynisch lived in the same house with me, and I derived great benefit from his knowledge of the country. Our whole time at Bethlehem was devoted to excursions in the neighbouring country. Opposite the place, on the other side of the Lecha, is a range of mountains, or moderate hills, beautifully wooded, which afforded a great variety of pleasant walks. The mountains are covered with picturesque forests of oak, walnut, and other timber trees, under which there is, generally, a thick covert of tall Rhododendron maximum, which was still adorned with its magnificent large tufts of flowers. In these dark shades we soon learned to distinguish the notes of the different birds, among which was the flame-coloured Baltimore bird, which we recognized, at a distance, by its splendid plumage, when it was flying to its remarkable pendent nest, of which we saw several. The Lecha, the bottom of which was covered with naked blocks and masses of stone, is adorned by picturesque islands, some of them of considerable extent, to which we made many interesting excursions. Numerous kinds of aquatic plants grow in the water; and among these plants we saw numbers of tortoises. Mr. Bodmer made a very characteristic drawing of this wood and water scenery.80
in this country grow vigorously, and entirely exclude the sun's rays. The ground is clothed with many fine plants: the beautiful Lobelia cardinalis, which is common in all this part of the country, was in blossom on the banks, as well as many other plants.This beautiful forest was peopled by a great variety of birds; besides those above-mentioned, we saw, in the crowns of the highest trees, the bright red Tanagra, the black and red Baltimore bird, the humming-bird, with reddish-brown eyes; the greenish heron, and the ash-coloured king-fisher, flew up from the stones on the bank. Whenever we were overtaken by a shower of rain on these lovely islands, we took shelter in the hollow trunks of old plane trees, of which there is one capable of holding ten persons. In these cool shades we did not much feel the heat of the summer, but it was very oppressive in the town; at nine o'clock in the evening the temperature of our apartment was 18° Reaumur (72 Ë° Fahrenheit), and there were frequent thunder-storms. At noon the temperature in the cool passages of our house was at 23° or 24° Reaumur (86° Fahrenheit).
[26] We made frequent excursions to these charming islands; and Mr. Bodmer, who went thither every day to complete his sketch of the forests, generally came back laden with tortoises (Emys odorata and picta) and other amphibia, or fresh water shells. This Emys picta is one of the most beautiful kinds of this family in Pennsylvania: there is certainly no country in which tortoises are so numerous, and of such a variety of species, as North America.
The banks of the Lehigh, chiefly covered with high woods, differ from the more open banks of the Monocasa, where extensive thickets of reed and reed mace (Typha) are the abode of the beautiful red-shouldered Oriole. The little shrub-like oak (Quercus chincapin) grows in abundance on the hills that border this stream. We made other interesting
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visits to the wooded Lecha mountains, on the north or northeast bank of that river, below Bethlehem. They are thickly covered with high timber and much underwood, and from their summits there is a fine prospect over the whole of the surrounding hilly country. The chestnut trees have been very much thinned in these forests, as the wood is highly valued, not for fuel, as it is light and porous, but for fences, because it is said to remain uninjured in the ground for sixty years.The splendid bright red Tanagra was not uncommon in these forests; but we now met with none that were quite red, because the old males put on, towards autumn, the plain olive-coloured plumage of the females. Many of these fine birds had still bright red spots, which showed that they were undergoing a change in their plumage. Only a couple of species of the genus Tanagra, which are so numerous in the Brazilian forests, are found in all North America; but the manner and mode of living of these animals are everywhere the same. They are quiet birds, not remarkable for their song, but make up for this deficiency by the splendour of their plumage. The small hare (Lepus Americanus) and the grey squirrel were almost the only quadrupeds we saw in these woods; but of the class of amphibia there were many kinds. The larger wild animals have almost wholly disappeared. All North America was formerly one interminable forest, only there were what are called prairies in the western parts beyond the Alleghany mountains; but all Pennsylvania, a state comprising 44,500 square miles, was a primeval forest, which was thinned in a short time by the numerous settlers who flocked to this country. The larger species of game disappeared in the same ratio; and in the immediate vicinity of Bethlehem there are now not even any deer. It was mentioned to me as a very rare occurrence, that a bear had been seen here two years before,
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and was immediately pursued, but in vain, by the hunters. Some small animals still live in these forests, which, however, are not to be found except at night; among these are the opossum (Didelphys Virginiana) and the skunk (Mephitis Americana). The first is not frequently met with in these parts; the latter, on the contrary, is not uncommon.In order to catch the skunk, our hunters went by night to the Lecha mountains, and searched the forest with hounds, and almost always attained their object. The dogs killed the animal by biting it, and were sometimes a little perfumed. It has been reported that they [27] avoid the smell; but I can testify that we did not meet with any confirmation whatever of this statement. In fact, the stories told of the offensive smell of this animal are rather exaggerated, for an European polecat is often nothing behind the skunk in this disagreeable quality. The hunters brought home a half-grown skunk alive, and we kept it in a box in the garden, where it was very tame and quiet, and never emitted the slightest smell. We opened the box, and let it run about at liberty. It is only when alarmed that the skunk is offensive to the olfactory nerves. The hollow trees in these forests were the abode of the pretty flying squirrel, which, however, is not to be seen in the daytime. The banks of the river are inhabited by the musk-rat, which is often seen swimming, and is sometimes taken in the fishing nets.
One of our usual walks, during our stay at Bethlehem, was up or down the banks of the Mauch Chunk canal. This canal is divided from the Lecha by a dam, on which grow many fine plants, about which numbers of humming-birds were fluttering. In my whole journey through North America, I nowhere found these pretty birds so numerous as here. They hummed about the yellow flowers of the broad-leaved tree primrose (Oenothera), of the violet Asclepias incarnata (swallow wort), of the Impatiens fulva, with its deep orange-coloured
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flowers, &c., and we shot many of these little creatures, among ten of which we found, at the most, one male, with deep red throat. The dam was bordered with stones at the sides; and among them were numbers of the striped ground squirrel. Tall thistles are the constant resort of the goldfinches, which picked the woolly seeds from the flower heads. At some mills, on an island near the road, there was a grove of tall trees, the dark shades of which were animated by many interesting birds, especially the beautiful Baltimore bird and the flycatcher (Muscicapa ruticilla), which is distinguished by the same colours, and is frequent here. Under the old stems, and from the roots of the trees on the bank, the great bull-frogs leaped into the water, however softly and cautiously we approached. Their deep, hollow note was not heard so much in this season, as in the spring and the beginning of the summer. I nowhere saw these frogs so numerous as here in Pennsylvania.Opposite to these hills, on the other bank of the Lecha, was a wood of very tall, old trees, the airy, shady crowns of which were inhabited by birds of more different kinds than any other place in this neighbourhood. From that wood we always returned loaded with booty. There, too, we observed interesting butterflies, such as Papileo turnus, the beautiful black and blue philenor, and other species. The thick hedges near the houses were the resort of numerous cat-birds. The fishing-hawk hovered over the river, watching for prey, and we often saw the three-striped viper (Coluber sirtalis) glide among the grass.
To the north and north-west of Bethlehem the woods consist of oaks without any underwood, the cattle having their pasture there. All these interesting excursions greatly increased our collections; and the Rev. Mr. Seidel, who had a good library, and a taste for the study of Nature, had the kindness to provide us with the necessary literary assistance.
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We lived here [28] very agreeably in the society of well-informed men and fellow-countrymen, and our residence at the extremity of the place, close to the woods and fields, afforded us the most favourable opportunity for our researches and labours; and our landlord, Mr. Wöhler, from Westphalia, did everything in his power to assist us in our occupations. This, in some degree, indemnified me for the deplorable loss of time occasioned by the delay in the arrival of our baggage. I should have reached the Western States long before, if I had not been obliged to wait for those indispensable articles. During our stay here, we often saw German emigrants arrive, almost all of whom were from Würtemberg, Baden, or Rhenish Bavaria. In the most lamentable condition, without money, without the slightest knowledge of the country or the language, they were going to meet their precarious fate. They were generally refused admittance at the English inns, and then Wöhler, not without considerable expense, took on him to forward them on their journey.We received news from Philadelphia that the cholera had rather abated; it had entirely spared Bethlehem and its vicinity. The canal colliers gave me an opportunity of sending my collections to New York, which I did in the beginning of September. The Flora of the country had then produced its white, yellow, or purple autumnal flowers; the golden rod, sunflower, Eupatorium, and some kinds of Aster were in blossom, and the white flowers of the Clematis Virginiana.
The weather now remained very uniformly hot during the whole of July and August, with occasional thunder-storms; and if the summers in the United States are usually of this temperature, as we were assured, they are more equally hot, and for a longer time, than that season is in Germany. In order to make myself acquainted with Nazareth, the other
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settlement of the Moravian brethren, I drove there in company of the Rev. Mr. Seidel. It is ten miles from Bethlehem. On the road to it lies Altoona, consisting of some scattered habitations, and afterwards, on approaching the Monocasa, Hecktown. Nazareth is a pleasant place, with some unpaved streets, and has a gymnasium for the education of young clergymen. All the masters are Germans, but their instructions are given in the English language. The building seems to be old, and not very spacious. From the roof there is a fine, extensive prospect to the blue hills on the banks of the Delaware, and to the verdant, wooded banks of the Lecha. The gymnasium has a small cabinet of natural history. The church is not so large as that at Bethlehem, but can be easily warmed in the winter. A little beyond the garden, which has many shady walks, is the churchyard, where the flat, square tombstones, with short inscriptions, lie in regular rows, near to each other. The names of the brethren interred here show that most of them were Germans. There is a very fine prospect from the higher part of this churchyard. The greensward is here thickly covered with European thyme. Nazareth has about 350 inhabitants, and sixty youths in the gymnasium. There are in the place a good inn, shops of various kinds, &c. Mr. Herrman,86
surprised us by an unexpected visit, returned direct from Nazareth to his own residence. The view of these Pennsylvanian landscapes would be much more agreeable if the numerous wooden fences did not give them a stiff, unnatural character. Some idea may be formed of the number of these fences from the fact that, in the short distance of ten miles, persons going on foot, direct from Bethlehem to Nazareth, have to climb over twenty-five of these fences.87
Chapter IV.
Easton on the Delaware — Morris Canal — View of the Blue Mountains — Delaware Gap — Dutotsburg — Chestnut Hill — Sach's Public house on the Pokono — Height of the Pokono — Long Pond -- Tonkhanna Creek — Tobihanna Creek — Inn of the Widow Sachs — Saw-mill on the Tobihanna, with the Bear-trap — Stoddart's Ville on the Lehigh — Shade Creek — Bear Creek — Extensive View of the Mountains — Wilkesbarre in the Valley of Wyoming, or Susquehannah Valley — Falls of Solomon Creek — Hanover Township — Neskopeck Valley — German Settlers — Lausanne — Neskihone or Neskihoning Valley — Picturesque Scenery on the Lehigh — Mauch Chunk.
In order to make ourselves acquainted with the interior of Pennsylvania, and the Alleghany mountains, which are the most interesting part of that state, we left Bethlehem early in the morning, on the 23rd of August, in a light, covered carriage, driven by our landlord, Wöhler, who was well known in all this country. Dr. Saynisch and Mr. Bodmer accompanied me. I left my huntsman behind to look after our affairs at home. The country was enveloped in fog, as had been generally the case for some time past, till the sun dispelled it. We took the road to Easton, where the fields were partly cleared, and covered with stubble, partly planted with clover, maize, potatoes, and buckwheat, which was just in flower. The ground was gently undulating, with an alternation of fields, and woods of walnut and oak. This country belongs to the secondary limestone formation; where-ever the ground was broken up, limestone was seen, and in the woods were several limekilns, the produce of which was lying on the fields in large heaps, to be spread over them for
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manure. Isolated farm-houses are scattered along the road. They are slightly built of wood, many of them very small; but there are a great number of wealthy planters in this State. The little gardens of these houses were generally planted with European flowers, and on the road-side in the hedges, the kermes-oak and juniper abounded, and their berries attracted numbers of thrushes. Horses and horned cattle are very numerous, and the first, which are often of a very good breed, are left, day and night, at liberty in the meadow, and little trouble is taken about them. [31] The peasants are very bold in riding and driving, never use drags to their wheels, but drive down the hills full trot. In the hot and dry season, this country is often in want of water, and even the cisterns made by the farmers then become dry, so that the cattle must frequently be driven five or six miles to water. This arid tract is called by the inhabitants, in their German language, "das Trockene land," the dry land.We now saw, on our right hand, the heights on the banks of the Lehigh, covered with verdant forests, which we were again approaching. The double call of the Perdix Virginiana et Marylandica, called, by the Americans, quail or partridge, sounded in the clover fields; the ground squirrel ran along the fences; the red-headed woodpecker flew from tree to tree; and plants of various kinds, Verbascum thapsus (great mullein), Antirrhinum linaria (the common toadflax), Phytolacea, Rhus typhinum (Virginian sumach), Eupatorium purpureum, golden rod, &c., grew by the road-side; the dwelling houses were surrounded with large orchards, and the apple trees were loaded with small yellow apples of an indifferent kind, and immense caterpillars' nests covered many of the branches. A great deal of cider is made, but the culture of fruit seems to be, in general, in rather a backward state. The cherry trees, too, were covered at this time with their small, bad fruit, which, as in Europe, was eagerly
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sought after by numbers of birds. After travelling twelve miles, we arrived at Easton, a small town with a population of 2,000 inhabitants, the capital of Northampton county, situated at the conflux of the Delaware and the Lehigh. We alighted at the inn with many country people, and immediately set out to take a walk in the town, while breakfast was preparing. The streets of Easton cross each other at right angles; they are not paved, excepting a footway on the sides, paved with bricks; the largest of them runs with a gentle declivity to the Delaware. In a square in the highest part stands the Court-house. The buildings in the place are, in general, only two stories high; and the most interesting spot is the terrace, near the bridge over the Delaware. This bridge is 600 English feet long, has three arches, is quite closed, covered with a strong roof, and has fifteen glass windows on each side; it is painted yellow, and the building of it, like all similar undertakings in the United States, was a private speculation, and brings in thirty per cent., a toll being paid.We crossed this bridge, and walked down the river, till we came opposite to the spot, immediately below the town, where the Lehigh, issuing from its picturesque valley, between the rocky hills covered with pines and other trees, falls into the Delaware. Near to the former, on the same side, is the mouth of the Mauch Chunk canal; and on the other side of the Delaware begins the Morris canal, leading to New York.
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purple flowers, tall Virginian junipers, a verbena, and other plants; and the three-striped viper darted through the low bushes.[32] Returning to the inn, we loaded our guns and proceeded on our journey. As soon as we were out of the town, we went up the Delaware on the right bank, and crossed a bridge to Bushkill, a picturesque stream, flowing between lofty shady trees, on banks richly covered with a variety of plants. From this spot the way becomes extremely romantic and agreeable. It leads close by the bright mirror of the river, which may be full 200 paces broad, in the shade of the dark forest of plane, oak, tulip, walnut, chestnut, and other trees; and on the left hand rises the steep rocky wall, covered with many interesting plants, which are protected by the shade of the trees. The river soon becomes broader, and we came to isolated habitations situated in shady groves. We stopped at one of them to send a messenger, on horseback, back to Bethlehem, where the drawing materials, of which we had so much need, had been forgotten.
The rocks often came so close to the bank of the river, that there was scarcely room for two carriages to pass each other: lofty forest trees afforded a welcome shade. In many places the rock stood out. Dr. Saynisch struck off with his hammer some fine pieces of saussurite (Hornstone), and talc, with mica; but a slate formation soon succeeded, and we were glad that we had taken good specimens of the preceding. Continuing our way, in the shade, by the banks of the river, we frequently came to other steep rocks, till the wilderness
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again gave way to human habitations, where we stopped at the White House to water our horses and take some refreshment. From this place the country was more diversified. The road still runs by the side of the river, which was animated by boats, and by numbers of ducks and geese. The Mudrun creek here issues in a very picturesque manner, between high trees, from a small side valley. A little farther on, we left the Delaware to ascend some pretty high hills. We proceeded along the side valley of Martin's creek, in which there are some spots of marshy meadow, where the splendid Lobelia cardinalis, which is usually found on the banks of all these rivers, attracted the eye by its deep red flowers. We then passed a naked lateral defile, where stubble, and clover fields, and woods, which we saw at a distance, reminded us of some parts of our own country. The road led over the heights, alternately gently ascending and descending till we came to the little village of Richmont, where we watered our horses, which suffered from the great heat, and ascended a considerable eminence, on which there is a mean looking church, called Upper Mount Bethel. We then proceeded through a more elevated plain, where, on the left hand, in a north-west direction, is a near prospect of the Blue Mountains, which form the first chain of the Alleghany.This first chain is said to be only 2,000 feet above the level of the sea; but it extends here further than the eye can reach, and is uniformly covered with verdant, primeval forests. It runs in the direction from north to south, and has no characteristically shaped peaks, or remarkable forms, so that there is nothing picturesque in the total effect. With the exception of some parts, especially the beautiful Catskill mountains, most of the landscapes of North America are characterized by this want of striking outlines, and this constitutes the great difference between them and [33] the views in Brazil, where the mountains and the outlines of the horizon are almost
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always marked by the most striking forms, as is usual in primitive mountains.In the chain before us, we remarked an opening in a northerly direction, where the Delaware breaks through; this is called the Delaware Water Gap, or the Delaware Gap. It is twenty-three miles from Bethlehem, and was the place of our destination to-day. We were now two miles from it. After passing the little town of Williamsburg, we saw before us, almost in all directions, luxuriant verdant woods, and eminences rising behind each other. As our horses hastened to the valley, the height of the mountains seemed to increase. At length the bright Delaware appeared before us, and we soon reached its banks. The river here forms the boundary of Warren County in New Jersey. On the opposite side we perceived a large glasshouse, managed by Germans, called Columbia Glasshouse, where many who have possessed it have already become bankrupts.
As we approached this defile, we observed a water-snake swimming in the river, which suffered itself to be carried down with the stream, but disappeared as soon as we approached. We procured one on the following day, as they are not uncommon here.
We had now reached the mountain chain, which rose bold and steep on both sides, and at every step became more and more contracted. Just before the defile, or gap, is an inn, behind which, at the distance of hardly a couple of hundred paces, runs the steep rocky wall of grauwacke and clay slate, here the predominant kind of rock. This high wall is crowned on the summit with pines, and covered at the base with various other trees, while the middle part is naked and rugged. At the foot of the mountains are luxuriant fields and meadows, in which the fine cattle were grazing. From this spot the rocky wall approaches nearer and nearer to the river, the banks of which, rude and desolate, are covered
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with many broken trunks of trees confusedly thrown together, many of which were still lying in the water. This is the effect of the rising of the river, and the breaking-up of the ice in spring, which had caused more extensive damages in the spring of 1832 than on any former occasion within the memory of man. Where the banks of the river are flat and sandy, thickets of young planes often supply the place of the willows on the banks of our European rivers. The plane — called by the German inhabitants water maple, or water beech; by the Anglo-Americans, buttonwood, or sycamore — flourishes particularly near the water, or in low, moist situations, where it attains its colossal growth in perfection. These young planes, on the bank, were almost entirely stripped of their bark by the action of the water.The inn, Delaware Gap, is supposed to be 600 feet higher than Philadelphia, and the steep wall of rock behind it is elevated 600 or 700 feet above it. We might have stopped here for the night, but, as it was early, we preferred passing the Gap. The road now led immediately along the bank of the river, and then obliquely upwards on the steep wooded western rocky wall. The savage grandeur of the scenery is very striking. The forest has underwood of [34] various kinds, where numbers of interesting plants attracted our attention. Picturesque rocks, over which water trickles, covered with various coloured mosses, lichens, and beautiful ferns, stand between the trunks of the trees, and form shady nooks, caverns, seats; while all the forest trees of this country, mixed with pines, particularly the hemlock spruce fir, and the Weymouth pine, make a dark wilderness that inspires a feeling of awe.
The valley of the Gap leaves the river just room enough to force its way between the steep walls of rock; and, if you turn and look back in this interesting ravine, you see against a steep-wooded height what is called the Indian ladder.
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There are several islands in this part of the river, which are partially stripped of their wood by the action of the current, but some of them have pretty lofty trees on them. At the distance of about a mile from the narrowest part of the Gap, we reached a lonely house, where a man, six feet high, and very corpulent, came to meet us; he was of German descent, and his name was Dietrich. He would willingly have received us for the night in his small public-house, but there was no accommodation for our horses, and we therefore proceeded on our journey. In a short time we reached an eminence, at the turn of the rocky wall, where the solitary dwelling of a Frenchman, named Dutot, is built on a steep rock, high above the river. From this place the valley becomes more open, and the mountains less steep as you recede from the Delaware. A bad road leads over some eminences to a large open place in the woods, forming a hollow, where the poor little village, Dutotsburg, consisting of twelve or thirteen scattered dwellings, is situated. Here we took up our night's lodging in a tolerable public-house, which is also the post-office for the stages, and is kept by a farmer named Broadhead.We had scarcely taken a little rest, when a poor old man entered, who was the first person that had settled in this part of the country; his name was Dutot, and the village was called after him. He was formerly a wealthy planter in St. Domingo, and possessed 150 slaves; but, being obliged to fly during the revolution, had purchased a considerable piece of land here on the Delaware, and commenced building Dutotsburg. He had previously lost part of his property by the capture of ships, and his speculations here too seem to have failed. The property melted away, and the last remnant of his possessions was sold. He had built houses and sold them, so that he might be called the founder of the whole of Dutotsburg; yet, after all this, he is reduced to a
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state of great poverty, and his situation excites the compassion of travellers who pass that wayAs the country about Delaware Gap was highly interesting to me, we remained here on the following day, the 24th of August. We were early in motion, when the rising sun beautifully illumined the mountains. Our guide, Wöhler, had accompanied young Broadhead on a shooting excursion in the woods; the rest of us went different ways, each with his gun, till breakfast time. Near the village, a small stream, the Cherry Creek, meandered through the thickets and meadows, where numbers of birds came to drink, while the report of the fowling-pieces of our sportsmen [35] echoed from the neighbouring wood. After our return, I accompanied old Dutot to see his house and his family. He himself had nearly forgotten his native language, and his family knew nothing of it. We found in this house a delightful view into the ravine of the Delaware below, and afterwards took the way to the romantic wild tract which we passed through on the preceding evening. Several plants were here pointed out to me, to the roots of which the inhabitants of the country ascribe great medicinal virtues; for instance, the snake root, perhaps Aristolochia serpentaria, which is said immediately to stanch the most violent bleeding of any wound; and, above all, the lion's heart (Prenanthes rubicunda), which is commended as a sovereign remedy against the bite of serpents. Old Dutot related a number of successful cures which he had performed with this root. This plant has a tall flower stem with many flowers, and large arrow-shaped leaves; its root is partly tuberous, partly long, pretty large, and branching, of a reddish yellow colour, and contains a milky juice. It is boiled with milk, and two table-spoonfuls are taken as a dose. The swelling, caused by the bite of the reptile, is said speedily to disappear, after chewing the root. The
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Delaware Indians,97
arrowheads and axes of flint; but all these things were disregarded and thrown away, nor had Dutot anything remaining but a thin, smoothly polished stone cylinder, with which those Indians used to pound their maize. I was filled with melancholy by the reflection that, in the whole of the extensive state of Pennsylvania, there is not a trace remaining of the aboriginal population. O! land of liberty!Our excursion was extended to the public-house situated on the other side of the Delaware Gap, where we found a live specimen of the red fox of this country (Canis fulvus, Desm.), which we had not before met with. Loaded with plants, and other interesting objects, we returned to [36] Broadhead's house, where all the persons of our party successively arrived, each with something interesting. Some boys brought me the beautiful water-snake which we had seen on the preceding day. Mr. Bodmer had taken a faithful view of the Gap, near Dietrich's public-house.
We left Broadhead's on the 25th of August, early in the morning. The place which we wished to reach on this day is called the Pokono, and is the most elevated point of the first chain of the Alleghanys or Blue Mountains. Our road led in a south-westerly direction, along Cherry Creek, through a pleasant valley diversified with meadows, thickets, and woods, and gradually ascending.
As we rose higher and higher over gentle hills, we met a disagreeable, raw, cold wind, and reached, on the elevated plain, an isolated church, with a few habitations round it. On our asking the name of the place, a person, pretty well dressed, said, "he did not himself know the name of the place; the clergyman, a German, came, about once in a month, from Mount Bethel, to preach here."
On reaching the top, we saw before us the highest ridge of the Blue Mountains, the summit of which, as I have said, is called Pokono, where an unbroken tract of dark forests
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covers the whole wilderness. We gradually advanced towards a more bleak and elevated region, where pines and firs more and more predominated. On an elevated plain we were surrounded, as far as the eye could reach, with woods or thickets of low oaks, from which numbers of slender, half-dried, short-branched pines (Pinus rigida) shot up. These pines originally formed the forest — the oaks, only the underwood; but the former have, for the most part, perished in the fires, with which the settlers have, in the most unwarrantable manner, without any necessity whatever, destroyed these primeval forests. On a part of the highland, cleared of wood, through which the road passes, we saw a row of new wooden houses, and at once perceived that timber is the source of the subsistence of the inhabitants. Boards, planks, shingles, everywhere lay about, and large quantities are exported. Shops, where most of the common necessaries of life were sold, had already been established in this new settlement.From this place, called Chestnut Hill, from the abundance of chestnut trees in the forests, the road declines a little, and you see, on all sides, numerous saw mills, which prepare for use the chief product of the country. The outside cuts of the pine and firs were piled up in large stacks; scarcely any use is made of them, and they may be bought for a trifle. We had to pass five or six times the windings of Pokonbochko Creek, the banks of which are agreeably bordered with thickets of alder, birch, willow-leaved spirÄa, and the Lobelia cardinalis. A great number of skins of different animals were hung up at the house of a tanner, such as grey and red foxes, racoons, lynxes, &c., which led us to ask what beasts of the chase were to be met with, and we learned that deer and other large animals are still numerous. Rattlesnakes abound in these parts; they showed us many of their skins stuffed, and one very large one was hung up on the
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[37] gable end of a house. Some persons eat these dangerous serpents from a notion that, when dressed in a certain manner, they are an effectual remedy against many diseases.We had here a foretaste of the wild scenery of North America, which we might expect to find in perfection, in uninterrupted primeval forests on the Pokono; we, therefore, did not stop here, but hastened to the less inhabited, more elevated, and wilder region, where the mixture of firs in the forest already began to preponderate. We halted, and took our dinner at an isolated public-house, kept by a man of German origin, whose name is Meerwein. Forests surrounded the verdant meadows about the house, in which woodcocks were numerous. In a little excursion in the forest I saw splendid bushes of Rhododendron maximum, kalmia, Andromeda, Rhodora canadensis, Ceanothus vaccinum; and in the shade of the first, Orchis ciliata, with its beautiful orange-coloured flowers, which is found also nearer to Bethlehem.
The entertainment in this solitary house was pretty good and reasonable; all the inmates, except one man, were Germans. If we had stopped for the night, they would have gone out for us with their guns, as deer and pheasants abound in the forests. Having taken the opportunity of forwarding our collections to Bethlehem by the stage which passed the house, we proceeded on our journey. From this place the road continues to ascend, traversing a fine thick wood, frequently crossing the stream. An undergrowth of scrub oak and chestnut is spread uniformly, and without interruption, over the whole country, the pines, as already mentioned, rising above it, most of which have suffered by fire; for in the dry season these woods have often been destroyed by extensive conflagrations, which have generally been caused by the negligence of the wood-cutters and hunters. Even now, clouds of smoke rose at a distance,
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and announced a fire in this great lonely wilderness. The high road is here carried directly through the forest; it is, for the most part, laid with wood, covered with earth, which requires carriages with good springs.When you have nearly reached the most elevated part of this wilderness, and look back, you have a grand prospect. Lofty ridges rise one above another in a narrow valley, all covered with dark forests, and, on the right and left, high walls of rock close the valley. We soon reached the highest summit of the Pokono, or second chain of the Blue Mountains, which, as I have said, forms the most easterly of the Alleghanys.
Mr. Moser, a young botanist, had accompanied us from Bethlehem, and I undertook with him an excursion to a neighbouring lake on the top of the Pokono, while Dr. Saynisch prepared the birds that had been killed, and our other hunters went out to look for stags and woodhens.
We proceeded about half an hour along the high road, when we perceived the summit of the Pokono, and then turned to the right towards an old decayed cottage, where oxen were grazing among the thick bushes, and followed a scarcely perceptible path through the wilderness. We crossed a valley, with thickets and scorched pines rising above them, where the ground was covered with various kinds of plants. An old path led us half a league over an eminence; after which we [38] found a valley, where the lake, called Long Pond, is situated, surrounded by low reeds and rushes, among pine woods and various interesting shrubs. On the narrow lake we found a small boat, in which Mr. Moser pushed about to botanize. He procured in this manner the pretty blue flowering Pontederia lanceolata, a red flowering utricularia, nymphÄa, &c. Though this wilderness was perfectly lonely, we did not see any water-fowl, and, in fact, very little animal life, so that the botanist finds much more
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employment than the zoologist. The lake is about a mile long, has but little open or clear water, and receives its supply from the Tonkhanna Brook. When Mr. Moser reached the bank again, he called to me that he was very near a rattlesnake, the rattle of which he had distinctly heard; but, though we looked diligently, we could not find the animal which we had long wished to possess, because the ground was so thickly overgrown with plants. One of the sons of Mr. Sachs, our landlord, had been lately bitten by a rattlesnake while fishing, and they affirmed that he was soon cured by tea made of the bark of the white ash, which is said to be an infallible antidote to the bite of serpents.At noon, while we were all taking some repose, we were suddenly alarmed. A mink, or minx (Mustela vison), a small beast of prey, resembling the European lesser otter, had had the boldness to attack, in broad daylight, the poultry that were about the house, and was shot. Our hunters had had no success, a single pheasant being all they had procured.
In the afternoon Mr. Bodmer joined us, having been driven hither by Broadhead. We immediately went out to look in the neighbourhood of the Sand springs
We made but little addition to our ornithological collections, scarcely anything having been killed but the whip-poor-will (Caprimulgus Virginianus), which is very numerous in all these forests. Day had scarcely dawned on the 17th of August, when our whole company was in motion to go seven miles to the house of another Sachs (a near relation of our host), whose widow lived there. For about a
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mile the wood retains the same character, the firs then attain a greater height, and are closer together. The wood had been cleared around some houses, and Phytolacea, Verbascum, and Rhus typhinum, which occupy all the uncultivated spots in Pennsylvania, immediately sprang up. The small habitations were built entirely of wood, and generally painted a reddish brown. In some places we observed traces of fire: the low scrub oaks were scorched and black, and were putting forth shoots from the stumps and roots. At times we had an extensive view of the mountains, uniformly clothed with dark pine forests, everywhere high tops and ridges, and all around black woods. The Canadian and the Virginian pine were high and close together, especially in the valleys. The soil in this part is not very fertile, and requires to be well manured. All is forest and wilderness, and bears, deer, and other wild animals abound. [39] The Tonkhanna meanders picturesquely between thickets, and the Lobelia cardinalis was in blossom on its banks. Bull-frogs appeared here, as on the banks of the Lehigh at Bethlehem, and the same species of butterflies as are found there. Not far from this place we came to a second very romantic brook, the Tobihanna, over which a short, covered bridge is thrown, and about 300 paces further, reached the lonely habitation of the Widow Sachs, in a desert spot without wood, where we were to pass the night.Mrs. Sachs gave us tolerable quarters, and I immediately sent for the most expert hunters of the neighbourhood, in order, if possible, to procure a bear or a stag. Three or four men came who were ready to go for a remuneration. One of them had but a few days before, met with two bears and their young, among the bilberry bushes, and shot two of them. I obtained from him a fine large skin of one of them, and several interesting stags' horns.
The part of the country in which we now were was so
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lonely, wild, and grand, that we immediately took our fowling-pieces to ramble about. The Tobihanna,104
hindered us from penetrating far into this wilderness. A dark, damp shade received us here in the heat of the day, and the three-striped viper, of which there are [40] numbers under the old, decayed trunks, frequently fled as we advanced. Rattlesnakes are said to be less common than in the parts which we had before visited. Birds were not numerous in the deep recesses of these forests; only the hammering of the woodpeckers resounded in the awful wilderness. In places where there was much underwood, very thick stems of rhododendron, often from ten to twenty feet high, formed an intricate, impenetrable thicket. It was now perfectly dark, and we found the most beautiful natural arbours. The Kalmia latifolia, too, grew to the height of eight or ten feet. This country was so wild and attractive that I resolved to stop another day. To the north-east of the solitary dwelling of the Widow Sachs, was a fine beech forest, among the underwood of which pheasants were pretty numerous. We procured some of them, but I could not yet succeed in obtaining a stag or a bear.On the 28th of August we undertook an excursion to see the bear-trap,Bear-trap in which one of those animals had been caught two or three days before. The man who owned this trap lived on the road between Tonkhanna and the Tobihanna, both of which flow into the Lehigh. He had appointed his house for our rendezvous, where we saw the skin of the bear, lately taken, nailed up against the gable end to dry. The saw-mill of our bear-catcher lay in a rude valley, to the south-west of the road. We came to this saw-mill, in a solitary valley, on the Tonkhanna, which rushes, roaring and foaming over rocks covered with black moss, between old broken pines, in a true primeval wilderness. In this retreat for bears, prickly smilax, brambles, and other thorny plants, tear the strongest hunting dress, and leather alone resists these enemies. At every step we had to clamber over fallen
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trunks of trees, to the injury of our shins, which were almost always bleeding. We found our guide, who, though it poured of rain, took his rifle, and went before, to lead us to the bear-trap.The trap was in a place rather bare of thick stems, between young pines, and made of large logs, in such a manner that a young bear might be taken alive in it. It consisted of two round stems lying flat on the grounds between which two others, which are supported by a prop, are made to fit, and fall down when the prop is touched.
After a hasty sketch had been made of the bear-trap, we set out on our return; I very much regretted leaving the magnificent wilderness. On the way we found a fine viburnum, with large reddish leaves, and the Oxalis acetosella, which grew in abundance among the moss and decaying trunks of trees. The loud hammering of the woodpeckers resounded in this forest, and we shot the great spotted woodpecker
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of this country, which very much resembles our Picus major; for dinner we had bear's flesh, which we thought resembled mutton.When I returned to the house of Sachs, I found the hunters, whom I had hired, in no little confusion. One of them, in particular, after receiving his wages for the first day, had remained in the public-house the whole night and the following morning. Stretched at length on a table, he had slept off the effects of his drunken fit, talked big, and found here a willing audience, a number of drinkers of whisky being collected in this place. Brandy drinking is far more common among the lower classes in America than with us; and here, on the Pokono, this bad habit was peculiarly prevalent among the country people. Not far from Tobihanna Creek there was a small wooden house, ten or twelve feet square, with a little iron stove (see the view of the Tobihanna Bridge), in which a school was kept. The stalls for cattle, swine, and sheep, are, for the most part, cages, the bars of which being pretty wide apart, the cold winter wind blows freely through them; nay, many of them had half fallen to pieces. The swine, which ran about in great numbers, had a triangular yoke round their necks to hinder them from getting through the fences. In all this part of the country, garden vegetables are raised in beds, or rather boxes, filled with mould, elevated on four posts. The seeds are sown in these boxes, and the young plants not transplanted till they have acquired a certain growth, otherwise they would be destroyed by the insects. Maple sugar is not made here, because the tree does not grow in sufficient abundance. The [42] chief occupation of the settlers, in this part, is the making of shingles, which are manufactured from the Weymouth pine. We were assured, that these peasants steal the greater part of the wood for their shingles, in the forests belonging to greater landowners,
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who live at a distance, and have no keepers to protect their property. One workman can make in a day 300 or 400 shingles, which are sold on the spot for half-a-dollar per 100. They are sent to all the neighbouring country, in large wagons drawn by four horses. At Bethlehem, forty-two miles from Pokono, the best shingles were sold, at that time, for eleven dollars per 1,000. These shingles are of two kinds; the German, made by Germans, who first manufactured them in this way, which are considered to be the best, and the English; the former are equally thick at both edges, the latter thicker at one side than the other. Many persons, whose horses are not otherwise employed, come here and fetch shingles.On the 29th of August we continued our journey through forests that extended, without interruption, on all sides. After crossing a bridge over the little brook called Two-miles-run, we came to an open spot in the forest, where the great village of Stoddartsville is built on the Lehigh, which at this place is still an inconsiderable stream. The environs of the place are still wild. Stumps of trees, cut or sawed off two or three feet from the ground, were everywhere seen, and this newly-cleared spot was still covered with wild plants. As you come down the hill, you look directly into the street of the place, to which some neat and pretty houses give a very striking effect in this wilderness. We continued our journey over wooded eminences, where bears and stags are said to be still numerous. Having passed Bear Creek and Ten-miles-run Creek, we soon reached the Pokono, or highest summit of the Blue Mountains, and began gradually to descend. In the forests through which we now passed, the firs began to give way to other timber trees, and the woods are again more burnt and ruined, frequently consisting only of shoots from the stumps of oaks, chestnuts, maples, and sassafras trees, with single pines everywhere rising above
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them, as the palms in Brazil do, above the lower Dicotyledones.On one of the next eminences, we came to another lofty point, whence we had the most extensive view, backwards and forwards, that we had yet enjoyed in these mountains. Towards the north-west lies the beautiful valley of Wyoming, through which the Susquehannah flows; and backwards, in the opposite direction, a rude prospect of wood and mountain, where peak rises above peak, and the eye ranges over an uninterrupted extent of immense forests. It is said to have been ascertained, by actual measurement, that this spot is 1,050 feet above the level of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, our time would not allow us to take a drawing of this grand prospect. From this place we began to descend into the valley of the Susquehannah, where the woods assume a more cheerful character, the firs being soon entirely succeeded by the oak, chestnut, and other timber trees. The road resembles an avenue, overshadowed by lofty oaks, tulip, chestnut, walnut, beech, hornbeam, birch, maple, elm, nyssa, and other trees, growing very close [43] together. Here we already see the formation of the conglomerate — the precursor of the coal district, which we now enter. When we had descended rather more than half way down the declivity of the mountain, we were taken about 200 paces to the right of the road, to be surprised by the beautiful prospect of the valley of Wyoming, or the Susquehannah. A group of rocks of conglomerate rises, isolated in the forest, and, on ascending it, you have a magnificent view. The broad and extensive valley, covered with towns and detached houses, alternates agreeably with forests and fields; the river flows through its whole length, and at our feet lay the pretty town of Wilkesbarre, the streets of which we could overlook. It is manifest, at a glance, that the whole of the valley was formerly covered with a thick primeval forest, for strips of wood everywhere traverse the fields.
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Proceeding on our journey we came to a solitary public-house, where we met with a rattlesnake. I bought it, and it was put into brandy, as a live creature of this kind is not the most agreeable travelling companion. This snake had been kept three weeks in a box, and had not taken any nourishment whatever, so that it moved its rattle but faintly when it was irritated. As it was a very large and handsome specimen, I paid two dollars and a half for it. The landlady, a very corpulent personage, was in a very light morning dress when she concluded the bargain with me, and not being able to give me change, she immediately threw on her Sunday clothes, to follow our carriage on foot, and settle the account at Wilkesbarre. Her head was adorned with a large fashionable straw hat; she had a silk gown, and a silk parasol, which she might very well have spared, protected her tanned face from the sun. It was remarkable that, heavy as she was, she reached the town as soon as we did, though we had half a league to go. Wilkesbarre, in Lucerne county, is a place with about 1,200 inhabitants, with three churches, a court-house, a bank, &c.
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which there will be occasion to speak in the sequel. For the purpose of conveying the coals by water, a canal has been dug, which was not quite completed, and which is to form a communication between the coal mines and the Susquehannah. On the other side of the river the great Pennsylvania canal is already finished, which connects Pennsylvania with Maryland by means of the Susquehannah.[44] The inn at which we put up at Wilkesbarre was kept by a German, named Christ, who recommended to our notice some interesting points in the environs; and we, therefore, did not take the usual road at the bottom of the valley, but soon turned aside from the Susquehannah, into a wild, lateral valley, in which there are fine waterfalls. At less than a league from Wilkesbarre, we reached, at the foot of the mountain, a wild, thickly-wooded ravine, where we soon heard the roaring of Solomon Creek. Near a mill, the owner of which is General Ross,
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picturesque cascades over smooth, perpendicular black rocks, covered with moss, forming a basin below, in a thick forest of pine and other timber. There are two cascades, one above the other, of which the second is the largest; then comes the last and highest, where the water, conducted from the mill directly across the ravine, falls perpendicularly, about the height of a house, over a steep rock. It was, unfortunately, too late, when we arrived, to make a drawing of this interesting scene. We asked for accommodation for the night in the mill, which is a roomy house; but our countryman (this man's mother was born in Germany) could not, or would not, receive us. They gave us some of the water of the stream to drink, which had a strong taste of iron and sulphur. As it was not possible to find a lodging in the neighbourhood, we were advised to proceed three miles to the top of the mountain, which we, indeed, accomplished, but had nearly had reason to repent of our resolution.The road ascends on the left rocky bank of Solomon Creek, in a thick forest, over rough ground, so that we constantly had the steep precipice on the right hand. There was no room for two carriages to pass; luckily, carriages are rare in this remote wilderness. As we had been told that there was abundance of wild animals, we loaded our fowling-pieces with ball. We now turned to ascend in a wooded defile, where a couple of solitary miserable dwellings, built of trunks of trees, scarcely left room for a small field or a little garden overgrown with weeds. While the road became more and more rude, and obstructed by the vegetation, twilight set in, and it was only with the greatest efforts that our horses could draw the carriages among rocks and fallen trunks of trees, and nothing but the greatest care prevented them from being overturned. We met several peasants, with their axes and guns, returning from their work in the woods: they were
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robust, savage-looking, powerful men, whose sudden appearance in such a lonely spot might elsewhere have excited suspicion. There are no robbers in these parts; at least, I never heard of any, but it must be owned that the place is extremely well suited to them. The beautiful cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) grew in such abundance in the swampy parts of the wood, as to form a fine red carpet. The Chelone obliqua, with its white flowers, was likewise very common.At length the moon rose bright and clear to relieve us from our unpleasant situation, and cheered by her friendly beams the gloomy path of the wanderer. When we reached the summit the road divided into two branches, of which we were so lucky as to choose the right one. At [45] length, about nine in the evening, we had the pleasure of seeing a light; and a lonely house, in an open spot, lay before us. On our knocking, the door was slowly opened. We entered a poor hut, where two women — one an elderly person, the other younger — were sitting by the fireside. The master of the house, whose name was Wright, was not at home. The two women were very tall, and were smoking, quite at their ease, small clay pipes. They were not a little surprised at so late a visit, but soon stirred up the fire, and set on water. Our frugal supper, consisting of coffee and potatoes, was soon finished, and we lay down in our clothes on tolerable beds, placed in a large unfurnished room, which in this country are almost always made for two persons. This house belongs to Hanover township; the settlement itself had not yet any name. Only English was spoken here. Not far from the house the Wapalpi Creek ran through the thickets towards the ravine.
The night was soon passed, and at six in the morning we proceeded on our journey. In order to take a view of the Falls of Solomon Creek, Mr. Bodmer left us, and returned to the mill, with the intention of joining us again at
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Bethlehem, by taking another road. John Wright, brother to our host, lived three miles off, in a little rude valley, where we intended to breakfast. Some men, who were going to hay-making, with their guns and dogs, met us. The inhabitants of these woods generally take their guns when they go to their work, as they frequently have opportunities of killing some large game. They have powerful dogs, resembling our German bloodhounds, brown or black, with red marks; or striped like the wolf, and sometimes, but seldom, their ears are cropped. These dogs are used in chasing the bear or the stag.In a romantic wooded valley we reached the solitary dwelling of John Wright, where we halted. The mistress of the house, who, with a little boy, was alone at home, gave us a very friendly reception, and prepared us a breakfast with coffee; all very clean and good for this retired spot. In the course of conversation we learned that she was of German descent, and born at Tomaqua.
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bridges of beams over which were, for the most part, so rotten, [46] and in such bad condition, that horses and carriages could not pass without danger. We saw no human beings or dwellings on this road, nor any animals except some small birds and frogs. After this rather monotonous journey, we were glad to descend into the Nescopeck Valley, and reached it, at the mill of one Bug, of German descent, where we refreshed, ourselves with milk and brandy. The Nescopeck Creek, a pretty considerable stream, which turns several mills, flows through this beautiful wooded valley. This district belongs to Sugarloaf township, in Lucerne county.After we had watered our horses, and the miller had questioned us about his native Germany, we crossed the bridge over the stream, ascended the mountain on the other side, and reached an inn on the summit, from which it is eighteen miles to Wilkesbarre. Proceeding from this place, we crossed the valley of the little Nescopeck Creek, which is covered with lofty trees, then passed the little Black Creek, and afterwards came to a high mountain wall, with a beautiful wood of various forest trees, which the inhabitants, who are mostly of German origin, call the Bocksberg. German is everywhere spoken here.
From the mill, the way leads through a thick underwood of shrub-like oaks, with a few higher trees, and we soon reached the high road from Berwick, in the Susquehannah Valley, along which we proceeded to Mauch Chunk, where two stage-coaches pass daily.
We took this road, and soon came to an inn, kept by a German named Anders, who likewise had a saw-mill. The host had, a short time before, caught an old she-bear in a trap, and in the three following days her three cubs, which he sold to travellers passing that way. The point where we now were is called the Hasel Swamp; and, proceeding
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onwards, we passed Pismire Hill, where rattlesnakes are said to abound. We observed, too late, a very large animal of this kind dead in the road, one of the wheels of our carriage having crushed the head of the snake, which was otherwise in a good state of preservation. My driver laid it in a natural position by the road-side, and I have no doubt that it was again knocked on the head by some other traveller. The marshy tract through which the Beaver Creek flows, is called Beaver Meadow, and is covered with willow bushes. It is probable that beavers may have formerly been numerous here, at least the place is quite suited to them; but those harmless animals have been long since extirpated. We came next to a considerable eminence, called Spring Mountain, which we ascended, and then rapidly descended, always through a thick forest, where we observed, on both sides of the way, the Grauwacke formation. On reaching the bottom of Spring Mountain we entered a wide valley, both the steep sides and bottom of which are covered with thick woods, only thinned a little round the habitations. In the middle of the valley, directly before us, six or seven buildings, in a broad street, formed the village of Lausanne, five or six hundred paces below which the Quackack Brook flows through the valley. A Jew keeps here a public-house and shop, where we met likewise with newspapers.[47] Beyond Lausanne is a high mountain, called Broad Mountain, up which the road is carried in an oblique direction. Trees and shrubs form everywhere a very thick but ruined forest, in which there is scarcely any serviceable timber. The view back over the extensive and wild valley of Lausanne was extremely interesting. One can hardly fancy this sublime and rude country without its aboriginal red inhabitants. The wide and hollow valley is everywhere covered with dense forests; and the little village of Lausanne is scarcely to be seen amidst the dark green foliage.
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On the Broad Mountain we find again the same formation of conglomerate, which I have before mentioned; the beds of coal are at a small distance. On the side which we descended the wood is more beautiful, the trees taller than on the edge of the mountain; oaks, chestnuts, and other trees, were very vigorous and luxuriant. Several planters have formed detached settlements here, among whom an Irishman was pointed out to us, who had lately been arrested on an accusation of murder, but had been since set at liberty.The Neskihone or Neskihoning Valley, into which we now descended, is wide, and enclosed by very high, far-extending walls of rock, everywhere covered with thick woods, in which some small cultivated patches are here and there seen. Along the right, or southern wall, an iron railroad has been laid down, which forms a communication between one of the coal mines of the Mauch Chunk Company, on the Rumrun Creek, and Mauch Chunk. It runs down into the valley of the Lehigh, which it follows to the last-named place. The appearance of the valley is very wild and picturesque; the Neskihone, which you pass at a saw-mill, flows at the bottom of it, and then turns to the left into the beautiful valley of the Lehigh, into which the Neskihone empties itself. The Lehigh comes on the left hand, out of a deep, extremely wild mountain valley, or dark glen, the entrance to which is entirely concealed by lofty, steep wooded mountains. Its glassy surface shines, half hid by tall shady oaks, beeches, and chestnuts; and the whole is one of the most interesting scenes that I met with in Pennsylvania. The road from this place to the Lehigh Valley is agreeably shaded by high trees, and on the banks of the river there are several dwelling-houses and inns. In a quarter of an hour we reached Mauch Chunk, now celebrated as the central point of the Lehigh coal district.
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Chapter V.
Mauch Chunk — The Coal Mines — Lehighton — Mahoning Creek and Valley — Gnadenhütten, a destroyed Colony of the Moravian Brethren — Weissport — Lehigh Gap — The Devil's Pulpit — Berlin — Crytersville — Howard Town — Schoner's Town — Last Residence in Bethlehem.
MAUCH CHUNK is a village of about 200 houses, in the deep and narrow Lehigh Valley. The houses form almost one row only, and a small street in the lateral valley of the Mauch Chunk stream. This place has sprung up since the discovery of the very rich coal mines in the vicinity. The Lehigh Company employs from 800 to 1000 workmen, and supplies the whole surrounding country with the very fine coals obtained here. Several iron railroads, leading to the works, have already been made, canals dug to export the coals in numerous barges, great works erected, a large and capital inn established in the valley of the Lehigh, and mills of various kinds built; and travellers ought by no means to neglect this highly interesting spot. This deep and wild valley, which is enclosed on every side by wooded mountains from 800 to 1000 feet high, has become, within a few years, a scene of action and profitable industry, which will soon render this spot one of the most remarkable in Pennsylvania. The principal work, to which an iron railroad has been made, lies on a considerable eminence, nine miles from Mauch Chunk. On the 31st of August, we visited this interesting spot.
As the railroad runs up along the declivity, it has been
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necessary to cut it obliquely; it is, therefore, narrow, with only one line; and places, at certain intervals, to allow two carriages to pass. For the convenience of travellers who wish to see the works, a stage-coach has been established, which is drawn up by two horses. Our company assembled at the inn, and ascended, by a steep path, from the town, to the iron railroad, which runs a little above the village. The [49] railroad stages are light carriages, with four low wheels, and seats for eight persons; they are covered at top, and open at the sides. The wheels are of iron, and have a groove, which fits into the rail, and runs upon it. The driver sits in front, and has a long tin horn, which he blows, to announce his approach to such as may be coming in the opposite direction; in the other hand he holds, in the descent, the machine with which the carriage is stopped when necessary. This contrivance consists of a pole, at the lower end of which there is a stuffed leather cushion, which, by moving the pole, is brought close to the wheels, and by its friction checks the rapidity of the motion. As a train of coal-wagons was expected, we slackened our pace. The two stages were fastened together, and though both were quite full of passengers, a couple of horses drew them up with great ease. We had not proceeded far, when we heard the rolling of a train of coal-wagons. It was interesting to see the black train advance, and dart by us with the rapidity of an arrow. These are built of strong beams and planks; each contains two tons of coals, and forty-five wagons go at the same time, which carry 90 tons; they run five times a day, thus 450 tons, or 25,200 bushels, are brought down to Mauch Chunk daily. Every fifteen wagons are fastened together by strong iron bands, and in the middle of this train is a man who holds a chain in his hand, by means of which he can check the rapidity of the motion, or even stop it entirely. Four or five hundred paces behind the first column comes the second,121
and then, at an equal distance, the third, and after these, seven wagons, in each of which there are four mules, with provender, and a bridge for them to get in and out. Their heads are turned to the front, and they eat quietly, as they descend. These mules are to draw up the empty coal wagons.It was interesting to see the thundering column approach us, and then hasten by. As soon as it had passed, our horses trotted up the mountain, which could not be attempted, except on an iron railroad. The road runs along the rocky wall, always through a forest, where single settlers have here and there built their little wooden dwellings. Cattle were feeding in the neighbourhood, whose bells we heard in the woods. The valley at our left hand was very wild and romantic. Both the high mountain and the valley below, in which the Mauch Chunk flows, are clothed with a forest of fir and other timber, and wild vines twine about the bushes by the road-side. The number of miles is marked on white boards nailed to the trees. When we reached the top we came to an inn, which had a small park with Virginian deer. The fawns of these deer were still spotted a little at the end of August.
As soon as our company had rested a little, and taken some refreshment, as it was very hot, we got again into our carriage, and proceeded, this time without horses, to the coal mines, about ten minutes from our inn, to which the railroad declines a little. You reach these interesting works by a deep section of the upper stratum of sandstone, and then enter the pits, which may be 300 paces long, 150 wide, and 30 feet deep; quite open at top, having been gradually sunk to that depth. 112 men were at work in and about these mines, and 130 mules were employed [50] in conveying the coals, which stand out, shining, and with a beautiful play of colours; in some places they are of better
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quality than in others. They are detached partly with iron crows, partly by gunpowder, broken into pieces with pickaxes, and loaded in the wagons. From one part of the mine to another there are little railroads, on which boxes with four wheels run like what is called the dog (hund), in our German mines, in which refuse and rubbish are removed. In this manner high heaps of rubbish have arisen about the pits, which extend further and further into the valley. In some parts of the works there are impressions of antediluvian plants, of which we found some interesting specimens. The labour of seeking, in a stooping attitude, was particularly disagreeable on this day, which was hotter than any that preceded it. When we returned from the works to our inn, the thermometer, at twelve o'clock, and in the house, was at 96°; to which we must add that the mine is 1,460 feet above the level of the sea. There was not a breath of air stirring, and everybody found the heat extremely oppressive.To return to Mauch Chunk we again got into our carriage, but had now no need of horses; the driver shoved the carriage a few steps, leaped into his seat, and we immediately proceeded faster than a horse could gallop. We had travelled the greater part of the way in seventeen minutes, when we were obliged to halt, in order to let a train of wagons, returning, pass us, which detained us about twenty minutes; we then proceeded with the rapidity of an arrow, and travelled the whole distance of eight miles in thirty-two minutes. When we had reached the bottom we hastened to see the place where the wagons are unloaded.
At the end of the iron railroad is a building on the eminence, in which there is a large windlass, with an endless rope, which with one part lowers a loaded coal wagon, on an obliquely inclined iron railroad, down the mountain, while the other part draws up an empty wagon from below. The distance from the windlass to the place on the iron
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railway, where the wagons deposit the coals in a large shed, is above 700 feet.The road from Mauch Chunk through the Lehigh Valley, which we took, on the 31st of August, in the evening, is agreeable and diversified. A violent thunder-storm had passed over the valley, and had poured down torrents of rain, the traces of which were everywhere visible. We proceeded along the right bank of the river, in a rather sandy road, shaded by old trees. On [51] our right hand we had at first the steep wooded mountain, where Rubus odoratus and other beautiful plants grew amongst rude rocks. The mountains then recede, and fields, meadows, and detached dwellings, succeed.
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We came to Lehighton, where the sign of the inn was conspicuous afar off.
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GOTTLIEB AND CHRISTINA ANDERS,
WITH THEIR CHILD JOHANNA;
MARTIN AND SUSANNAH NITSCHMANN;
ANN CATHARINE SENSEMANN;
LEONHARD GATTERMEYER;
CHRISTIAN FABRICIUS, CLERK;
GEORGE SCHWEIGERT;
JOHN FREDERIC LESLY; AND
MARTIN PRESSER;
WHO LIVED HERE AT GNADENHÜTTEN, UNTO THE LORD, AND LOST THEIR LIVES IN A SURPRISE FROM INDIAN WARRIORS,
NOVEMBER 24TH, 1755.
"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints."
PSALM CXVI. 15.
1788, AND. W. BOVER, PHILADELPHIA.
On the lands at Gnadenhütten, which still belong to the Brethren, several farmers reside, among whom there is a singular female of no ordinary education, and, as it is said, of high rank, [52] whose real name is not known. She is said to have come from Germany, it is supposed from the principality of Lippe. Her sole employment is agriculture; she performs all manual labour herself, milks her cows, to which she has given names, and which she has tamed. She has rented a piece of land from the Brethren, which Mr. Von Schweinitz, as director of the council, let to her.
Near the issue of the Mahoning, or Mahony Valley, a wooden bridge has been built, in a picturesque situation, over the Lehigh. It is surrounded on all sides by fine lofty trees, and on the right hand the wooded eminences of the Mahony Valley overlook it. From this place we came to a level, open part of the valley, where a few scattered dwellings
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bear the name of Weissport.Night set in, and the moon showed us, in the Blue Mountains before us, a deep cleft, called the Lehigh, or Lecha Gap, where that river passes through the mountain chain. At the Gap we halted at an isolated, but very good inn, kept by a man named Craig, son of the General of that name. He spoke both English and German, and we were very well accommodated in his house.
On the 1st of September we visited the Lehigh Gap, the mountains on the north side of which are low, rocky, and wooded. A projecting portion is called the Devil's Rock. Near the buildings there are great heaps of limestone thrown up, which is obtained from a mountain in the Mahony Valley. The lime is of bad quality, but serves very well for mortar. It contains a number of small bivalve shells. About eight o'clock we left the Lehigh Gap, and took the road to Bethlehem, where we arrived at noon, having passed through Berlin, Cryterville, Howard Town, and Schoner's Town.
Our baggage, which we had so long expected from Boston, arrived at length on the 4th of September, and as Mr. Bodmer rejoined us on the 10th, I should have thought of proceeding on our journey, did not the traveller often depend on accidents, which render it impossible to fix anything for certain. Mr. Bodmer, desiring to finish a drawing that he had begun, undertook a second visit to the Delaware Gap, and on this occasion was severely wounded by the bursting of his fowling-piece, which compelled us again to defer our
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departure. On our hunting excursions, we now saw the country in its autumnal dress. Night frosts had already set in, and the mornings were foggy, till the sun had risen pretty high, when a hot day followed. Most of the birds of passage were gone; no swallows were to be seen, and the wild pigeons passed by in large flocks. On a walk to Allentown,The accounts of the progress of the cholera, which we daily received, were not favourable. In New York and Philadelphia, and more especially at Baltimore, the disorder was extremely dangerous; it had also spread in the country about the great lakes, and on Hudson's River, and had extended from Detroit to the Mississippi and Ohio. It seemed impossible to avoid it; I therefore chose the route down the Ohio, intending to make the Mississippi, in the following spring, the basis of our excursions into the Western wilds or the Indian country. We took leave of our friends at Bethlehem, and set out in the first instance for Pittsburg.
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Chapter VI.
Allentown — Reading — Lebanon — Harrisburg — Mexico — Mifflin Town — Valley of the Juniata — Huntington — Alexandria — Yellow Springs — The Summit — Ebensburg — Hunting parties — Wild Scenery of the Alleghanys — Laurel Hills — Conomaugh Valley — Blairsville — New Alexandria on the Loyalhanna — Pittsburg — Situation of the Town — Economy, Mr. Rapp's Settlement on the Ohio — Remarkable natural productions of that river.
VIOLENT thunder-storms, accompanied with heavy rains, had taken place during the night before I left Bethlehem, early in the morning of the 17th, with the stage from Easton to Reading. Mr. Bodmer remained behind for some days, on account of the injury done to his hand. At day-break we reached Allentown, where we changed both carriage and horses, and passed the Cedar Creek, which was much swollen. The thunder-storm had not changed the temperature of the air. All this country was covered with plantations of maize, clover, and buckwheat, and detached farm-houses were numerous. The clover was often sown, as among us, with the corn. The ears of the maize were partly cut off, and the stalks tied up in bundles. The maize becomes ripe here in October. We halted very often at the post-houses, where the horses are always watered. As soon as the stage arrives, the large leather bag containing the letters is thrown down, and the correspondence for places further on the road is put in. We were here on a calcareous soil, and many lime-kilns were burning in the neighbourhood. Flocks of birds, of many kinds, appeared ready to depart; Papilio plexippus flew about the hedges. The Datura, with purple blossoms, and the Phytolacea, with ripe black berries, dark red stems
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and branches, grow on the road-side, and about the houses.In Maxatawny township we addressed the inhabitants in the German language, who answered us at once in the same, and we heard German names all the way to Pittsburg. After passing Sackoma Creek, we arrived at ten
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o'clock at Kutztown, eighteen miles from Bethlehem, where we breakfasted. The heat being very great, the dust was extremely annoying, for the thunder-storm, which had passed over Bethlehem, had not extended to this part of the country. The cattle sought protection against the sun, in the shade of single trees, or in the orchards. Large stacks of corn, six, eight, or ten together, stood in rows by the fences. On the right hand ran the Oli Mountains, beautiful verdant wooded eminences, which are connected with the Lehigh Mountains. About noon we had travelled the thirty-six miles to Reading, where we were obliged to stop one day, because the stage had already left.Reading is a very pretty town on the Schuylkill, with 6,000 or 7,000 inhabitants; it has seven churches, and a new one was just then building. There are about 400 negroes and people of colour. Some of the streets were not paved in the middle, but have on the sides a pavement of bricks for the foot passengers, planted with acacias, planes, poplars, and other trees. All these towns are rapidly increasing. The cholera had already carried off many persons here, but the inhabitants would not confess this. We saw a funeral procession returning home, in which there were several women on horseback; the veils on their large fashionable hats fluttered in the wind, and gave this caravan of Amazons a singular appearance. Much fruit is grown in the neighbourhood, and the apples are good, but not the plums. Peaches thrive very well; we saw whole wagon-loads of them brought into Reading, around which the people crowded to buy, while the children stole them.
[56] On the 18th of September it was with very great difficulty that we got places in the stage, the travellers being very numerous. After we had passed Kakusa Creek, we came to Womelsdorf, founded by Germans, fourteen miles from Reading, where we stopped to dine, and then proceeded
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over Dolpahaga Creek, to Lebanon County, which is in a tract diversified with eminences and wooded mountains. On this road we several times passed the Union Canal, which goes from Baltimore to Pittsburg, is very nearly completed, and is said to have cost 18,000,000 of dollars. After we had passed the River Swatara, which runs into the Susquehannah, we continued our journey in a dark but fine evening; the crickets and grasshoppers chirped all around; but their note is by no means so loud as that of those in the Brazils. At length we perceived a number of lights before us, and came to Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, the end of our journey to-day.Harrisburg is a small town, with only 5,000 inhabitants, situated between the Susquehannah and the Union Canal. It has broad streets crossing each other at right angles; but many of the buildings are of wood, for which they are now, however, gradually substituting better ones of brick. Rows of trees are planted in front of the houses. The inn at which we put up was in a square, which they were just covering with broken stones. Here, too, is the market-hall, a long roofed building supported by pillars, in which the productions of the country are exposed for sale, as in most of the towns in the United States. Harrisburg, being the capital of the state, is the residence of the Governor. The state-house is built on a gentle eminence on the canal, near the town, and with its two wings is a very considerable building, with a colonnade and a cupola supported by pillars. Another interesting point of the town is the view of the Susquehannah, which is very broad here, and forms an island. A long bridge, covered at top, and enclosed at the sides, is built over each arm of the river. One of these bridges is about 600 paces in length. In the first there are twenty-three glass windows, and it has two pillars on shore, and five in the river. There are colossal bridges of this kind in
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the United States; and there is one further down the Susquehannah, which is one and a quarter mile and four rods in length, and has fifty-two pillars. The view from this bridge up the river is peculiarly beautiful. Verdant wooded islands adorn its surface, which is broad, but it was at this time very shallow. There are 500 negroes and people of colour. Germans are met with everywhere, and we were told that an able German physician lived here.The defective arrangements of the post-houses obliged us to stop here three days, and it was not till the 21st of September, in the evening, that we could leave the town to continue our journey during the night. We passed the Susquehannah, and the Juniata, which comes from the Alleghany Mountains, and flows into it. On the 22nd, at day-break, we were at the little village of Mexico.
Mexico is in Mifflin County, forty miles from Harrisburg. Three miles further is the village of Mifflin Town, the capital of the county, where they were just building a new townhall. The Union Canal, which connects Philadelphia and Baltimore with Pittsburg, in general follows the [57] same direction as the river Juniata, near which it often runs at a greater elevation, and sometimes is even carried over it. The river is here about as broad as the Lehigh, but was at this time very shallow. Beyond Mifflin Town it receives the Los Creek. From this place we observed in the valley many robinias, which grow very high and vigorous, as well on the mountain, which is rather dry, as by the water-side; vines as thick as a man's arm twine round the trunks, and frequently rise to the very summit. The nettle tree (Celtis) grew in great abundance, and the maples were just assuming their red tinge. The picturesque forest is intermingled with Canadian pines, many of which are quite blighted and withered. The valley now became wilder and more romantic; on the right hand rose a high precipice, covered
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with holders, fragments of rock, mouldering trunks, and the finest trees of the country, forming a real wilderness. A very narrow part of the valley, where we watered our horses at an insulated house, bears the name of the Long Narrows; and the steep wooded mountain, on the south bank of the river, is called Blacklog Mountain; it is said to be the haunt of bears and stags. The cattle belonging to the log-houses were grazing among the rocks. After some time the valley grew more open, and at a wider spot, near the road, which descended towards the defile of James Creek, was a group of lofty and slender robinias, on which a flock of tame turkeys were sitting. These birds resemble in colour the wild ones which are common in this country; they often go into the forests, where they breed, and come home again with their young ones. After passing Kishikokinas Creek, we reached, at a broad part of the valley, the village of Louis Town, in which there are some considerable houses. The country people were ploughing and harrowing their fields; and I may here observe, that, in all Pennsylvania, they never employ oxen in these operations, but horses only, of which they have great numbers. The plough is rather different from that of Germany.Beyond Louis Town we saw a number of horsemen, assembled for the fox-chase. The fox was caught in a trap, then let loose at a certain spot, and hunted with many dogs, as in England. In a district diversified with forests and cultivated fields, we came to Waynesburg, a small town agreeably situated in a valley. The forests began to assume their autumnal tints; the maples, the dogwood (Cornus Florida), and the sumach, were partly red; the walnut trees, and the hickory, yellow, which gave great variety to the landscape. Near some habitations we observed weeping willows of extraordinary size. The surrounding mountains were covered with forests, into which we penetrated to ascend the first
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ridge of the Western Alleghanys. The road, which is, for the most part, in bad condition, rose obliquely on the side of a rude picturesque precipice. Except a pheasant, which flew past us, we saw but few living objects. Advancing into the valley we again came to the Juniata, over which the canal is here carried by an aqueduct, supported by four pillars. In this part of the river there are several dams, such as we had seen in the Lehigh, near Bethlehem, with this difference that here they are triple. For this purpose, rows [58] of stones, piled one upon another, are laid across the river, forming, in the direction of the stream, acute angles, where a basket is placed, in which the fish are collected.At a place where three valleys meet stands the village of Huntingdon,
Ebensburg, the capital of Cambria County, is an inconsiderable place, consisting of wooden buildings, forming not much more than one broad, unpaved street, but has a
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townhouse and a pretty large church. The inhabitants, about 300 or 400 in number, are of English, Irish, and some of German extraction. The surrounding country is very mountainous and woody, and is said to abound in all sorts of game, as indeed the many skins of lynxes, racoons, martens, and minks, fastened against the houses, prove; bears, stags, and wolves, are said not to be uncommon, as lofty and dark forests surround the town within a couple of hundred paces. Ebensburg derives some profit from the numerous wagons, drawn by two, four, or six strong horses, that pass through it on the high road to Pittsburg.Our hunting excursions in this rude country were very interesting. We proceeded first in a northern direction into the forest, which we found to be quite a primeval wilderness. The mountains rise peak above peak, with deep ravines, where pines, beeches, chestnuts, birches, maples, and walnut trees of various kinds, form a gloomy forest, and fallen and decayed trunks check your advance at every step; cool, sylvan brooks rushed foaming through all the denies, and we had continually to cross them on natural bridges, formed by the fallen trunks of trees. Such old trunks are covered with a whole world of mosses, lichens, fungiwood, sorrel, ferns, &c; nay, even young shoots of maple, beeches, and tulip trees, had taken root on them. We clambered over the trunks, went round the fallen giants of the forest, and found everywhere, on the ground, traces of the numerous squirrels (Sciurus cinereus), in the remains of fruit and shells, especially, of the chestnut.
But there was also an interesting wilderness in the opposite direction. Here a very extensive fall of timber had been commenced — a gigantic labour, as in Brazil, where the wood is burnt afterwards, as soon as it is sufficiently dry. The sturdy woodcutters were of German extraction, and spoke German. From this place a dark narrow path led
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through an old pine forest, where [59] the little creeping Michella repens, here called ground berry, with its beautiful red berries, grew among the moss, and often covered the ground. Several small runs and muddy ditches crossed the forest, over which I walked or rode on trunks of trees that served as bridges; in doing which my clothes suffered not a little. Woodpeckers abounded here, especially the great black woodpecker (P. pileatus), which we had not seen before. It is nearly as large as a crow, and its splendid bright red tuft is conspicuous at a great distance. They were very shy; knocked and hammered on the dead pine trees, which stood like the ruins of a colonnade, and were pierced and bored by their strong bills. This fine large bird is called here, and in general, woodcock. A young man who lived in the forest, some miles off, told me that bears, stags, and other wild animals, were very numerous, particularly the pheasant, or cock of the wood (Tetrao umbellus), one of which we shot. There is a saw-mill here, among the lofty pines, on an arm of Conomaugh Creek, in a wild, lonely spot. The owner was not a little astonished at my double-barrelled percussion gun. After we had spent two days here in exploring the woods, our travelling companions, Dr. Saynisch and Mr. Bodmer, at length joined us, on the 26th, but as the latter still had need of rest, on account of his wound, we took their places, and set out immediately for Pittsburg.Seven miles from Ebensburg is the place which is looked upon as the boundary of the Alleghanys, properly so called; here begins the ridge called the Laurel Hills, for these mountains consist of several parallel chains, many of which have distinct names. The forest now assumes a different character. Oaks of various species succeed the pines and beeches; the forest is not so high, rude, and thick, and from an elevated spot on the road there is a fine view as you look back on the long wooded chain of the Alleghanys.
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The traveller soon sees before him a deep and wide valley in which the Conomaugh River flows, and beyond it a long ridge, covered with verdant woods, called the Chestnut Ridge, in which there is a gap, through which both the river and the canal pass. The eminences are uniformly wooded, and the chestnut and chestnut oak appear to predominate. We changed horses at Further Laurel Hill, and at Amagh, and then passed the gap. In the meadows and fields, the stumps of the trees that had been cut down were still standing, for the whole country was formerly one unbroken forest. The habitations were few in number, and, at the same time, small and wretched. We were told that this part of the country is chiefly inhabited by Irish, who are bad managers, and addicted to drinking. A better character is given to the settlers of German origin, and they are said frequently to possess well cultivated farms.
In the woods of this district, we everywhere remarked that the tops of the branches, for about a foot or a foot and a half, were hanging down and withered, which is caused by a kind of cricket (locust, Cicada septem decem, Linn.). This insect, which, as is well known, appears only once in seventeen years, but then, like the cockchafer with us, in prodigious numbers, had abounded [60] in Pennsylvania in 1832, and in many places was a real scourge; it does not, however, appear everywhere at the same time. But a few weeks before, they were so numerous in these forests, that the noise they made almost overpowered the human voice. On examining the withered twigs, we found the bark, as it were, ripped open in many places, the wood quite dry, and in the sap, a whitish substance, which consists of the eggs of the insect.
As we drove rapidly down the hills, we saw before us the extensive valley of the Conomaugh, for the most part covered with woods, and gently rising on all sides, in which, a little
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higher up, the small town of Indiana is situated. We stopped at a lonely inn by the road-side, watered our horses, and hastened forwards. On every side we saw extensive forests, and from the next eminence looked down into another valley, in which the Conomaugh runs by the town of Blairsville, a pretty little place, with many respectable houses, and a very good inn, in a broad main street, which runs directly across the valley. The country is hilly, or mountainous, well cultivated, and with neat farm-houses scattered around. From this place, it is ten miles to New Alexandria, a village with tolerably good wooden houses, many of which are painted. Beyond it runs the Loyalhanna, a small stream, which was at this time very shallow, with a covered bridge over it. At nightfall we reached New Salem, then Millersburg, and about midnight, Pittsburg.Pittsburg is an old, large, but by no means handsome town, celebrated for its manufactories and brisk trade, and has been described by many travellers. The town itself has 12,000 inhabitants; but with the suburbs, its population is estimated at 24,000 souls, including many Germans, some of whom are respectable merchants. Coal mines in the immediate neighbourhood (a part of which is now on fire), afford an ample supply of fuel for the numerous steam-engines, stoves, &c. The style of building in the town is everything but uniform, neat brick houses being mixed with small wooden ones. The streets are ill-paved, dirty, and badly lighted; some of them, however, are modern and regular; and the new edifices are handsome and elegant. There are many iron works, nail manufactories, glasshouses, cotton
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manufactories, &c, in many of which, steam-engines are employed, of which, as we were told, there are above 100 at work, which are likewise made here.This town lies on the tongue of land between the rivers Monongahela and Alleghany, which, by their union, form the Ohio; this river is not very considerable here; yet, at certain seasons, when the water is high, it is navigable by steam-boats, of which I counted sixteen on the banks of the Monongahela. Over the Alleghany there is a covered bridge, 500 paces in length, which has, on each side, an additional covered footpath; and a covered aqueduct, of the same length, is likewise carried across the river. A similar long and colossal bridge is built over the Monongahela.
The situation of Pittsburg itself is not very pleasing, but there are interesting points in the environs. As I was furnished with very good letters of recommendation, several of the inhabitants of Pittsburg endeavoured to make my stay there agreeable. Messrs. Volz and Von Bonnhorst [61] (the latter of whom had been an officer in the Prussian army) were extremely kind to me. Mr. Lambdin, possessor of a museum which was yet in its infancy, likewise gave useful recommendations and instructions.
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Pittsburg on the 29th, passed the great Alleghany bridge, and the suburb, and drove by the large new House of Correction, towards the Ohio.Economy has been described, in its leading features, by Duke Bernard of Saxe Weimar;
The rapidity with which these settlements sprung up, amidst thick forests, proves the judgment and prudence of their founder. The order introduced at Economy is admirable; nobody is seen in the streets during the day; all the inhabitants are usefully employed; young men and
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women, and also the children, are distributed among the several manufactories, where they work and receive no wages, but all their wants are amply provided for, free of cost. They are cleanly and neatly dressed in their Swabian costume, and nothing but German is spoken amongst them. The possessions and the revenues of the whole establishment are the joint property of the community, every inhabitant having placed his property in the common fund. Mr. Rapp and his adopted son are the directors, and the only complaint is, that no account is given of the management, and that the government of the institution is rather too dictatorial. Be this as it may, it cannot be denied that the arrangement and direction of this artificial society are admirable, and do honour to the founder. Mr. Rapp has established several important manufactories with steam-engines; even silks are manufactured from silk produced on the spot. The mulberry plantations and the management of the silk-worms are under the especial care of Mr. Rapp's grand-daughter. The manufactories alone are said now to yield an annual profit of 20,000 dollars. Several large buildings have been erected for a cotton and a woollen cloth manufactory, a mill, an inn, where the accommodations are very good and reasonable, &c. Everything they want is raised or made by themselves. They have extensive corn fields and vineyards, and breed great numbers of [62] cattle. Mr. Rapp has erected a large building, with a great saloon in the upper story, where the inhabitants meet on festive occasions, and where they have musical entertainments. In the lower story of this building, a cabinet of natural history has been commenced, in three rooms, which already contains some very interesting specimens.After we had viewed all these objects, and had been led by Mr. Rapp, jun., through the manufactories, we went to the dwelling-house of the director of the establishment, and met with a very friendly reception from his family, who
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were dressed entirely in the manner of the country people of Würtemberg. They told us they would never deviate from their old national manners, and would always remain Germans, which we were very glad to hear. Soon afterwards, the founder of the establishment, Mr. Rapp, came in. He was a vigorous old man, of venerable appearance, with white hair and a long beard. We supped with him, drank very good wine produced here, and, in conclusion, were entertained by six or seven girls and a young man, who is the schoolmaster, and is said to be well informed, with singing and playing on the piano. We here became acquainted with Mr. Ehrmann of Mannheim, an agreeable, well-educated man, whose wife is likewise a very interesting person, and who was engaged in establishing a manufactory near Economy.On the following day we viewed the park, in which there were seventeen Virginian deer. Most of them had already got their winter coat; some were still a little red: they cast their horns in March. As it was Sunday, the people assembled, at nine in the morning, in the church, which has neither pulpit nor organ. The men sat on the right hand of the preacher, the women on the left; the older persons in front, the young people a little way back. Mr. Rapp's family had the first place. When the congregation were assembled, old Mr. Rapp entered with a firm step, seated himself at a table which was on a raised platform, and gave out a hymn, which was sung in rather quick time. After a prayer delivered standing, he preached on a text from the bible, in a bold, figurative style, well suited to country people, and with very animated gesticulation. After the sermon some verses were sung, and Mr. Rapp delivered a prayer, which the congregation repeated after him, sitting. The word Amen was always repeated by the whole congregation. In the afternoon we took a very cordial farewell
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of the worthy family of Mr. Rapp, and set out on our return.The country about Pittsburg has some zoological rarities, specimens of which my travelling companions had collected during my absence. Among them are, in particular, many interesting fresh water shells of the Ohio. Several American naturalists have written on these Bivalve testacea; and there is, probably, no other country so rich in beautiful and manifold productions of this kind. On their excursions in the neighbouring islands in the Ohio, they met with trees of colossal size, and especially a maple, that measured twenty French feet in circumference at the height of twelve feet from the ground, where it divided into four thick parallel stems, from which [63] the branches issued. Among the remarkable and interesting natural productions of these rivers, we must mention the soft shell turtles of the Americans (Trionyx, Aspidonectes, Wagl.), of which there are two or three species. They grow to a great size, and are often seen in the markets. Another very remarkable animal, which is very numerous here, is the great Alleghany salamander (Menopoma, Harlan), which is here called alligator, and of which I obtained many specimens alive, so that Mr. Bodmer was able to make an accurate drawing from the life. Then there is the Triton lateralis, Say., or Menobranchus lateralis, Harlan, which differs from the preceding by the tufts at the gills, which remain even in old age. America is well known to abound in these singular enigmatical animal forms, which are nearly akin to the European Proteus, or Hypochthon.
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Chapter VII.
Cannonsburg — Wheeling — Embarkation in the Nile Steam-boat — Marietta, on the Muskingum River — Indian Antiquities — Flat-boats — Gallipolis — Portsmouth, at the mouth of the Scioto River — Cincinnati — Big Miami River, which forms the boundary between Ohio and Indiana — Louisville, on the Falls of the Ohio — Horse-races --Embarkation in the Waterwitch Steam-boat — The Cholera on Board — Mount Vernon — Landing — Journey by Land to New Harmony.
THE Ohio, called by the French La Belle RiviÄre, was at this time too shallow at Pittsburg to be navigated by steamboats, and we were therefore obliged to go by land to Wheeling,
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of them have catkins (amenta), and it is the foliage, which assumes in the autumn so great a variety of colours.On the next eminence, the road leaves the river, and turns to the south-west. Strata of coal appear in some places, and workmen were busy in removing the earth above them. We frequently met with European emigrants, most of them in their peasant's dress, with faces burnt by the sun, and carrying their children. The country consists of high hills and forests, and we frequently saw the robinia, pseud-acacia, which is partly planted for the sake of its timber, potatoes, [65] clover, and corn, which was now in the ear. A great deal of fruit is cultivated here, and the farmers were just reaping the maize. The farm-houses are all slightly built of wood, with the chimney on the outside, to avoid the danger of fire. As the sun shone with intense heat, the birds were all life, twittering on the high trees, where the loquacious blackbirds flew about in companies. The woods, presenting a beautiful mixture of yellow, vermilion, purple and green, gave us much pleasure, and we reached Chattier or Shirtee Creek, which, after numerous windings, falls into the Ohio, near Wheeling. We proceeded along its valley, where colossal planes and elms, as well as robinia and willows, afforded a welcome shade. We had passed several covered bridges before we reached Cannonsburg, eighteen miles from Pittsburg, where we changed horses, and, as usual in all such places in the United States, were gazed at by the curious and the idle. There is a college here for young divinity students. We now traversed the valley of the Chattier Creek, where the plane trees were very lofty and spreading. They were covered with their round fruit, from which the Americans have given the tree the name of button-wood.
At noon we reached Washington,
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the country presented an alternation of forests and fields, where stumps of trees showed that the whole country east of the Mississippi was a primeval forest. We found an ample variety in the splendid woods, where the lime (Tilia grandifolia), with its colossal leaves, was not uncommon, and the willow-leaved oak (Quercus phellos), was likewise in great abundance, the foliage of which resembles our white willow, but the bark and fruit are exactly like those of the oak. After passing a village called Alexandria, or more properly Alexander we reached the boundary of the state of Pennsylvania, and entered Virginia, which last state has a narrow strip of land on the eastern bank of the Ohio. The land here is said to be fruitful, and very well cultivated, though we did not immediately perceive this in the narrow valley of the Wheeling Creek, through which we drove. We saw numbers of young oxen, all brought for sale from the state of Ohio, where the breeding of cattle is very extensive. Many of these oxen had uncommonly large horns, others none at all. It was a beautiful moonlight evening when we passed the Mean Creek, which joins that above-mentioned, and both together forming Wheeling Creek. At this place, not far from the road-side, there is a pillar erected in honour of Mr. Henry Clay, who had been very instrumental in the opening of this road. The night prevented our taking a view of it. From an eminence we saw before us numerous lamps in Wheeling, and the Ohio sparkling in the light of the moon, and then took up our quarters at an inn at that place. Wheeling is a rapidly improving town, containing 5,200 inhabitants, where at this time they were building whole streets, and is situated on a ledge of the mountain, on the bank of the Ohio. On the summit there is not much147
more than one broad, unpaved street, with footpaths of bricks: shops of all kinds were already opened. The Ohio at this place is about as broad as the Moselle near its mouth. The banks are moderately high wooded mountains, the uncultivated places in which are often overgrown with Datura. Two [66] steam-boats were expected on the 9th of October, and at noon we embarked on board the Nile, a small vessel, because steamers of a large size cannot come so high up the river. Our large or lower cabin had sixteen beds, the upper cabin being appropriated to the women. The river was, at this time, very low, and its banks, from forty to fifty feet high, consisted of yellowish red clay and strata of sand.The traces of the great inundation of the preceding spring were everywhere visible in uprooted trees, thrown one over the other. The water at that time overflowed the lower stories of the houses of Wheeling; whereas it was now so low, that our boat was obliged to stop for the night. Early on the following morning, however, the 10th of October, we passed Elizabeth Town. On the banks of the river lay pirogues, composed of the trunk of a tree hollowed out, like those in Brazil, and small habitations were scattered in the lofty and picturesque forests. A little field of maize generally surrounded these dwellings, and the recently felled trees indicated that it was a new settlement. The eminences on the banks of the Ohio are, in general, rounded, steep, wooded hills, separated by valleys or ravines. In many places stacks of wood were piled up for the steam-boats, and some was already in boats. We arrived at New Town, on the right bank, at the mouth of the Sunfish Creek, a village with only eight houses, which was not yet marked on Tanner's map.
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the Ohio, we saw the white-headed eagle soaring in the air, while the kingfishers flew about the banks, and the note of the black crow sounded in the tall forests. Near the village of Sistersville, on the right bank, in the state of Ohio, the sand-banks in the river were covered with the yellow blossoms of some plant, which, however, I was not able clearly to distinguish; but it was an autumnal flower, and the wind reminded us of the approach of the cold season, blowing quantities of leaves from the forest, in some places entirely covering the surface of the water with them. Towards noon, the sun shone bright, and the gay tints of the forest appeared more lovely than ever; colossal planes, maples, tulip trees, beeches, elms, ashes, limes, walnuts, and other trees, grow to a great height, and beneath their shade we saw many rustic bridges, or planks, thrown picturesquely across the little brooks. The trunks of the trees, covered with the Hedera quinquefolia, which made them look like scarlet columns, and the varied tints of the foliage, charm the beholder. All along the Ohio, Mississippi, and Lower Missouri, the papaw tree (Asimina triloba Dunal) grows as underwood. Its fruit, resembling a small cucumber, was now ripe, and great quantities were brought on board our steamer. This tree has a beautiful light green, large, smooth leaf, and violet brown flower, which grows isolated, but it does not attain a greater height than between twenty and thirty feet. The fruit has a pleasant taste, but the smell is disagreeable. It contains a whitish, juicy pulp, and twelve thick black kernels.149
A heavy fall of rain was very welcome to us, the water in the river being so low that our boat frequently grounded. At a narrow part of the river we came to the village of Newark, and then to the mouth of the Muskingum River, at the town of Marietta, which was founded in 1788.
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settlers. Thus Marietta is built just on the fore part of the Indian works, and many of them are no longer to be seen. It is much to be lamented that the government of the United States suffers all this to be done without any attempt to prevent it. It looks on unmoved, while the plough continues from year to year the destruction of these remains of ages long since past, the only historical monuments of this country. Schultz gave, in 1820, a ground plan of the ramparts near Marietta, as Smith Barton and Warden did more recently; and Mr. Thomas Say made a sketch of them in 1815, which he communicated to me. A great part of them has been since ploughed over.From Marietta we came to the Island of Muskingum, and then to Vienna Island; opposite to which, on the left bank, lies the village of Vienna. Swallows, which had long since left Pennsylvania, were still flying about here. We everywhere heard accounts of the great flood in the Ohio, when the steam-boats were on a level with the second story of the houses in Marietta.
We saw tall forest trees, among the thick branches of which the river had deposited beams and other pieces of wood.
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On the 11th October the weather was fairer, but very cool. The appearance of the bank was the same as before — an unbroken, thick forest, with here and there some little settlements. We reached, at an early hour, the Little Hocking River, which comes from the state of Ohio. Ducks, particularly teal, flew past us, and we observed, also, many other birds of passage on their flight. Near Shade Creek, the banks of the river consisted of stratified, rocky walls, which appeared to be Grauwacke slate;
The woods in the valley of the Ohio are more lofty and luxuriant than on the other side of the Alleghany Mountains; vines twine round the trees, and present a faint image of the woods of warmer countries. The kingfisher was common; the swallows had not yet taken their flight, and in some places the sandpiper was seen upon the bank. In the vicinity of the houses were cattle, horses, swine, large sheep,
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and numerous flocks of European geese and ducks; here too, the papaw tree was sometimes planted in rows. The river increased in breadth, but not in depth, of which we had the proof before us, for a flat boat had run aground, and the people stood in the water, trying to get it afloat. In this part of the country there are, in the state of Ohio, many Swiss colonists, who are much commended for their industry. The soil is extremely fruitful, and needs no manure. The dwellings of these people are small log-houses, exactly like the huts in Switzerland. Towards noon, before we reached Point Pleasant, we saw, in many places on the Ohio, considerable coal-pits, the sulphureous smell of which was perceptible in the steamer; many boats lay ready to take in cargoes; negro children were sitting in groups on the bank, near their extensive plantations of maize. These people are free in the state of Ohio. After we had passed Point Pleasant, a village on the left bank, where fine forests cover the low bank of the great Kenhava River, which here falls into the Ohio, we reached, in about twenty minutes, Gallipolis, on the right bank, an old French colony, the inhabitants of which still speak the French language.The sun disappeared behind the hills on the bank; the evening sky was clear and serene, and the bright mirror of the Ohio extended unruffled near Racoon Creek, where we saw large flocks of ducks. We intended to continue our voyage during the night; but, about nine o'clock, we
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struck violently on a sand-bank, near the Indian Guyandot River, where there is a small village of the same name, and, as a thick fog arose, we lay to, six miles below Guyandot.On the 12th of October, in the morning, a dense fog covered the river, and the thermometer was, at half-past six o'clock, at 10° Reaumur, above zero. We passed the mouth of Symes Creek, and then Burlington, a small scattered village in Lawrence County, where our boat struck upon some stones, and was thrown a little on one side. On the left bank was Cadetsburg, [69] with Big Sandy Creek, then Hanging Rock, a small village, where most of the iron utensils for the whole of Ohio are shipped. The situation of the place is picturesque, surrounded with forests and rocks. On the left, or Kentucky bank, we passed Greenupsburg, a row of seventeen or eighteen small houses, on the high bank. The inhabitants, in order to attract the notice of the vessels that pass by to their public-houses, stores, or shops, have set up posts, with boards painted white, on which their trade, &c., is described in very large letters. The beech woods on this part of the river were remarkably fine, their foliage green and yellow. On our right hand was the little Scioto River; we then came to the village of Portsmouth, at the mouth of the Scioto River, on the Ohio bank, where the celebrated Ohio Canal begins, which connects that river with lake Erie. At this place we took on board a number of European emigrants, among whom were many Germans, with their baggage, beds, and other effects, and many children. The negroes brought provisions for sale; one of them had a number of fowls, all of which escaped, and caused no little amusement. From this place, fine forests covered the bank, in which were tall poplars (Populus Angulata, or Canadensis),
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which I had not before observed. Here, too, I noticed some interesting forms of mountains, which in general are very rare in this country. Most of the summits are round, some broad, but very few pointed. Towards evening we came to the village of Rockville,On the 13th, at daybreak, the landscape was obscured by rain. We had passed, during the night, Adamsville, Manchester, Aberdeen, Ripley, Vanceburg, Maysville, and Augusta, and were now off the village of Neville, where the Helen Mar steam-boat lay near us, to take in wood. We then came to Moscow, then to Point Pleasant, and on the
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right bank to New Richmond.Cincinnati, the most important and flourishing town of the West, with more than 36,000 inhabitants, was at this time visited by the cholera, which, as we were assured by a physician who came to our vessel, carried off, on an average, forty persons daily. I therefore resolved not to stop now, but to visit this town on my return; our baggage was transferred to the Portsmouth steamer, which was just about to depart; and at noon we reached the mouth of Big Miami River.
On the 14th of October, we had pleasant sunshiny weather. The river had become considerably broader, when we came to Six-miles Island, a beautiful island six miles from Louisville. [70] We had passed several places during the night,
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and likewise the celebrated Big-bone Lick,Fossil bones
We soon reached Louisville, a considerable town, with 12,000 inhabitants, which in 1800 had only 600.
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usually equally conceited and unpolished, and make observations, as soon as they discover a foreigner, either by his incorrect pronunciation of English, or by his dress. This American conceit is to be attributed partly to their excessive patriotism, and partly to their ignorance, and want of acquaintance with other countries.When the dinner-hour was come, such a crowd of gentlemen had assembled before the house, that, at the ringing of the second (dinner) bell, the dining-room was in a manner carried by storm. All rushed impetuously into the room, every one making good use of his elbows, and in ten minutes all these people had dined and hastened out again. Mr. Wenzel, a German merchant, to whom I had letters, had the kindness to show me the town and neighbourhood. Louisville has the appearance of being likely soon to become an important town, and many new houses were, in fact, building. The streets are long, broad, and straight, crossing each other at right angles, and the situation on the Ohio is very favourable for trade. Handsome, showy shops are common here, as in all the towns of the United States, and elegance of dress characterizes everywhere, even in the smallest places, the inhabitants of this country, the great object of whose efforts is the acquisition of wealth. As it was Sunday, the various sects of the population were flocking to their respective places of worship; afterwards, many of them were driving out in their gigs. There were already above thirty hackney carriages, partly belonging to negroes, of whom only the far [71] smaller portion are free in the state of Kentucky. The state of oppression in which the negro slaves live in North America, makes them corrupt and knavish, which travellers often have occasion to learn by their own experience. At Louisville, the cholera had already appeared. Five persons, most of them negroes, were carried off the day before our arrival, and a general panic had seized the inhabitants.
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Mr. Wenzel took us to a spot which was intended for horse-races, an institution quite new in the Western States. A society had purchased a beautiful level spot of ground, surrounded with woods, and about four miles in circumference. This place was surrounded with palisades, with several stands in the centre, and stables in the neighbourhood for the horses. The horses of Kentucky are considered to be the best in the country; the stallions which were to run, and some of which had come from a distance, seemed to be mostly of a very good breed, not large, but well built. The first races were to continue the whole of the next week. This institution will, doubtless, have a good effect in improving the breed of horses, and afford the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood both advantage and amusement.
In the afternoon we left Louisville to embark at Portland, below the town, on account of the Falls of the Ohio, that now cannot be navigated past the town, and therefore a canal has been made, where, by the aid of five sluices, the boats are raised twenty-two feet. Those who land at Louisville embark again at Portland, where there is generally a great number of steam-boats, among which we chose the Water-witch, bound to New Orleans.
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of Louisville in Kentucky, and New Albany in Indiana,At nightfall our engine was repaired, and we proceeded on our voyage, and on the morning [72] of the 17th reached the village of Brandenburg, on the Kentucky bank, which is here rocky, and marked with horizontal white stripes, or strata. The mountains were rounded and covered with wood. In Indiana the forest was cleared in some places for plantations, which afforded a view into the picturesque interior; for on these cleared spots the tall forest trees stood, as in the primeval forests in Brazil, like columns crowded together. This dense forest was interrupted for a short space by the towns of Leavenworth and Rome, in Indiana, and Stevensport in Kentucky; the two last with some indifferent buildings. From this part the country had no great variety, the forests being seldom interrupted. The
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islands were bordered with willow bushes, with tall trees in the middle. On the bank where the rock was exposed, on account of the low water in the river, we observed singular forms produced by the action of the stream. They consisted of round or elliptical stratified masses, which gradually decreased in breadth, so that the whole looked like a truncated pyramid rising in terraces. Before night we reached Cloverburg, in Kentucky, and lay to till the stars or the moon should appear.On the 18th, at half-past six o'clock in the morning, the thermometer was +16° Reaumur, with rain, and wind, and a clouded sky. We reached at an early hour the little place of Rockport,
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we left Cincinnati, and which is not found to the west of the Alleghanys. The Ohio, though the water was extremely low, was still very broad and beautiful, its wooded banks rather low. French Island, and some others, covered with bushes and lime trees, lay quite dry, surrounded with a large sand-bank. It was discovered that we had the cholera on board. A man from Kentucky had declared himself ill early in the morning, and was dead before eleven o'clock, though the Captain employed all the remedies in his power. He was quite well in the evening, had played at cards all night, and did not complain till towards morning. A coffin was made of some planks; the vessel lay to on the bank, which was steep, and the bell was rung while the body was conveyed on shore and buried. Many of our passengers landed to see the funeral; others were extremely alarmed, and, meantime, took a walk.After the funeral was over, and a white board, with the name of the deceased, had been set up on the grave, the bell called the passengers on board; in half an hour we reached Evansville on the Indiana bank; soon afterwards Pigeon Creek; above this, on the other bank, the Green River, and subsequently the village of Henderson.
Towards midnight we reached Mount Vernon,
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we landed, intending to proceed, the next morning, to New Harmony, to visit the naturalists at that place. After passing the night at an indifferent inn, I set out for New Harmony, on the 19th of October, in the morning. I had been indisposed, as well as my huntsman, since I left Louisville, and was not in a mood properly to appreciate the fine, lofty forests of Indiana, the road through which was very bad and rough; the last part of the forest was remarkably grand and wild: vines and other climbing plants hung down from the old trees. The Amorpha fruticosa frequently formed the underwood. At some of the isolated dwellings of the farmers, racoon skins were hung up to dry, and the beautiful large feathers of the wild turkey were scattered on the ground. After having passed, in the most oppressive heat, the Big Creek, which flows between the wooded hills, we soon reached the fertile valley of the Wabash, near to which New Harmony is built.163
Chapter VIII.
New Harmony on the Wabash — The Environs — Forests — Animals — Geological Formation — Climate — Aborigines — Remains of the former Population — The present Indians — The White Usurpers — Cultivation of the Country — Productions — Breed of Cattle — Buffaloes — The Naturalists at Harmony — Excursions — Fox River — Black River — Long Pond — The present sanitary State of the Country.
NEW HARMONY was founded by Mr. Rapp, and his Swabian followers, in a wooded plain on the left or east bank of the Wabash, about fifteen or twenty miles distant from any other place. As Duke Bernhard of Saxe Weimar has already spoken on this subject, I need not give any further account of the history of this settlement; I will only add that Mr. Owen, a Scotchman, bought the whole of Mr. Rapp, but afterwards disposed of it to Mr. William Maclure, President of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
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fallen into decay, and the people whom Mr. Maclure had settled there, were in part dispersed. Two sons of Mr. Owen were, however, still here, and also Mr. Thomas Say, and Mr. Lesueur; the first, well known as having accompanied Major Long in his two journeys into the interior, and the second, by his voyage round the world with Captain Baudin, and the celebrated Piron. Though Mr. Maclure did not appear to take any active part in the management of Harmony, because the climate did not agree with him, and he therefore resided in Mexico, he took care to furnish Mr. Say with a fine library of books on Natural History, which was constantly enriched with the most valuable new works published in Europe. He likewise had here a printing press, a copper-plate press, and an engraver. Mr. Maclure had purchased in France all the plates of Audebert and Vieillot's splendid ornithological works, which are preserved in the library.[75] Harmony is now a large village, with about 600 inhabitants; the buildings, which are partly of brick, are detached from each other; the streets are at right angles, broad, and unpaved. The church built by Mr. Rapp has been transformed into an amateur theatre. The situation of Harmony is by no means unpleasant. The Wabash, a fine
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river, as broad as the Moselle, winds between banks which are now cultivated, but were lately covered with thick forests. A hilly tract, covered with woods, bounds the valley of the Wabash, which is frequently overflowed by the river, and thereby gains in fertility. The place itself lies rather higher than the valley, surrounded by orchards, and is not exposed to inundations. The Wabash divides at Harmony into two arms, the eastern of which is called Cutoff River,New Harmony,
Some remarkable peculiarities strike the observer when he looks at the forests on the Wabash; one of these is the want of evergreens, if we except the Viscum flavescens, Pursh, Bignonia cruciata, Equisetum hyemale, and Miegia macrosperma. The leaves of that bignonia, for the most part, remain green in the winter, as well as those of the miegia, and the stalks of the Equisetum hyemale, at least, in mild winters, which often grow to the height of eight or ten feet in the dry forests. The planes often attain an enormous size, and are then generally hollow, and divided into several colossal branches. We measured several of these trees, and found one that was forty one feet five inches in
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circumference. The hollow inside was twelve feet in diameter, so that in our winter excursions we used to light a fire in it, where we sheltered from the wind. Tall tulip trees shoot up straight as masts, blossom, and bear seeds at their summits, unseen by human eye. Maples of great height and circumference, many species of oak, especially the mossy overcap oak (Q. macrocarpa), with its large acorns, which, at this time, lay on the ground, stand crowded together. A great many species of trees are mixed together; among them the Gymnocladus Canadensis, or Guilandina Bonduc, with its broad pods, the divers kinds of walnut trees, the Gleditschia tricanthos, with its formidable thorns; and many climbing plants twine round the trunks, and among them, the most beautiful of all, the Bignonia radicans.In the forests of Indiana the ground is covered with a thick undergrowth, fifteen, twenty, or thirty feet high, consisting chiefly of the papaw tree, the spinewood (Laurus Benzoin), and the red bud; the flowers of the two latter precede the leaf. Under these lower trees, shrubs cover [76] the ground. No pine, rhododendron, kalmia, azalea, magnolia, nor even the chestnut tree, are found in these forests; but they seem to be especially the native country of the beautiful catalpa tree, of which it was not known in what part of America it properly grew wild, and which here attains a considerable height and size.
These lofty forests re-echo with the hammering of the numerous woodpeckers; and, during the winter, the scarlet cardinal (Fring. cardinalis) shines in the distance; and the titmouse (Parus. bicolor, and Atricapillus), and the nuthatch (Sitta Carolinensis), everywhere seek for insects and nuts.
The inhabitants of these forests would never be in want of an ample supply of wood for fuel and for timber, if they had been at all careful. The black walnut and cherry tree wood are the best for cabinet work; and for fuel, the
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hickory, which affords more heat than beech wood. The price of wood, at Harmony, was one dollar for a cord; but the price is already rising, because the forest in the neighbourhood of the village is gradually cleared, and the carriage is more expensive.There are several kinds of officinal plants in the vicinity of Harmony; ginseng (Panax) grows close by the village, and its roots are still in request, but not so much as formerly. Another plant of the woods of Indiana, which is much esteemed, is the spurious Colombo root; likewise the peppermint, which grows in every part of the United States. The wax tree (Myrica cerifera), of the berries of which the green, fragrant tapers are made, does not grow in Indiana, but is found on the whole east coast, from New Jersey to Florida. A kind of bark, which is now much used, is that of the slippery elm (Ulmus rubra): if chewed, or softened for a moment in water, it dissolves into a viscous slime, and is found very useful in dressing wounds, as it is cooling, and allays the inflammation. It is said to have been applied with success in cholera, and is now sold, in powder, in all the apothecaries' shops. A teaspoonful of this bark, in boiling water, makes a very useful beverage, which is sweetened with sugar, and has the same effect as linseed. Michaux has given a print of this elm, and it would be desirable to cultivate it in our gardens.
The country on the banks of the Wabash is as interesting to the zoologist as to the botanist; formerly there were great numbers of the bison or buffalo of the Anglo-Americans, the elk,
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is daily becoming more scarce: when Mr. Rapp first settled here, seventy of these deer were shot, in a day, in one of the Wabash islands. The wolf is still common, and seems to differ but little from the European, but is a different species from the wolf of the prairies of the Missouri; [77] it is said that there is a black wolf in the prairies of Illinois, which may, perhaps, be a distinct species. Of foxes, I saw only the grey, though the red fox is said to be found here. In the works that treat of the natural history of North America, there are many errors. The racoon is common in the forests of Harmony, and is never seen in the daytime; it is hunted in the night with dogs, which drive it into a tree. It does not sleep through the winter, for I often obtained it in that season. The opossum is also common, and lives much in the same manner as the racoon. The polecat, the otter, and the mink are common; the pine marten is said to be sometimes seen; the ermine is not rare in the prairies of Illinois. The marmot, or ground hog, grows to a considerable size, and is found in the islands of the Wabash; the musk-rat abounds in all the rivers. The rabbit, as it is called (Lepus Americanus), is nowhere so common as in Europe, yet is found in all parts of the country. Of squirrels there are many species.The most interesting of the birds of this part is the wild turkey, which was formerly extremely numerous, and is still pretty common. A large cock was sold at Harmony for a quarter of a dollar. A young man in the neighbourhood, who supplied the place with this delicate game, had often ten or fifteen hanging about his horse at the same time. The pheasant or heathcock is found in these forests, but in no great numbers. The prairie hen is common in the prairies of Illinois, and comes in large flocks to the neighbourhood of Harmony, as soon as the cold weather and snow set in. Partridges abound, and so do parrots (Psitt. Carolinensis)
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which remain here during the winter. No other kind of parrot seems to bear so great a degree of cold as this. We often saw them flying about in the forests, feeding on the fruit of the plane, when Reaumur's thermometer was at 11° below zero. In the mild climate of the Ohio and Wabash they remain all the year through. They are amusing birds in a cage, and become very tame.There are but few species of amphibia in the country about Harmony. Soft shell turtles and several kinds of emys are numerous, such as the snapping turtle (E. serpentina), likewise E. geographica, picta, pulchella, &c.
There are several lizards, but no great number of species. The rattle-snake is seldom seen, this country not being sufficiently dry and stony; the copper-head, on the contrary, is said not to be rare, but I cannot speak with certainty. The hognose-snake is very common. There are many kinds of adder in the Wabash that are not venomous.
The proteus (Menobranchus lateralis, Harl.) of the Ohio, and of the great Canadian lakes, is found in the Wabash. The rude inhabitants have many superstitious notions and fables respecting several kinds of animals, especially serpents. Of the glass-snake (Ophisaurus ventralis), which easily breaks to pieces, they say, that when the pieces are placed together, they immediately unite: they affirm that the horn-snake, which has a horn or sting at the end of its tail, takes it in its mouth, and then runs along like a hoop; and that if it passes a tree it wounds it with its sting, which always makes the tree die. Mr. Thomas Say was once informed that a [78] planter had brought one of these snakes, and would prove the truth of this assertion. He sent for the man, and found that he had the tail of one of these snakes carefully wrapped up. Mr. Say asked him whether he must die if he pricked himself with this horn? The man answered "undoubtedly." Mr. Say immediately pricked himself
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with the horn and drew blood, but was not affected by it; and the impostor, who affirmed that he had witnessed the effects of the sting, excused himself by saying that he had been deceived by a neighbour who gave him the snake. The inhabitants of the country generally believe that venomous serpents sting both with the tongue and with the tail, that they fascinate other animals, an old, long since refuted fable, which, however, is occasionally revived in American journals, with other stories of a similar kind.There are many kinds of fish in the Wabash, on the whole the same as in the Ohio and the Mississippi: the cat-fish is said sometimes to weigh above 100 lbs. Several species of sturgeon and pikes are found here; the horn-fish, the buffalo (Catastomus carpioles), a large fish resembling the carp, &c. The remarkable paddle-fish is likewise met with, but not frequently, nor in all the rivers. Mr. Lesueur has given it the name of ptalyrostra, and has sent several specimens of it to Paris. This naturalist, during his long residence at Harmony, has very carefully studied this branch of zoology. He possesses a large collection of drawings and descriptions of this class, and specimens, for the most part stuffed. He has presented many of them to the National Museum at Paris; and it was his intention soon to visit Europe, and publish his observations on this subject, which will form an important supplement to the great work of Cuvier and Valenciennes.
The bivalve shells (Unio, Alasmodon, and Anodonta), of which there are a great many different species, some of them very large and beautiful, are an interesting portion of the natural productions of the Ohio, the Wabash, and the tributary streams, especially Fox River. Several American naturalists have written on this subject. Mr. Say, who was the first, states the number of species of these bivalves at forty-four. He would have given descriptions and
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drawings of all the species existing in this country, as well on land as in the rivers, in his natural history of the North American testacea, had not death called him from this world, too soon for his friends and for science. He died on the 10th of October, 1834, soon after I had left him in good health on my second visit to Harmony. This part of the country has two species of crustacea (Astacus Bartoni, Bosc.), and (Astacus affinis, Say), which are here called craw-fish. These are the only large species of crustacea, but there are many smaller ones. Mr. Say, by many years' study, made himself fully acquainted with the insects. It is remarkable that the bee, which was brought to America by the Europeans, is now common in all the forests; the Indians are said to call this insect the white-man's fly. Many beautiful butterflies and moths adorn the woods of Indiana.The eminences about Harmony are of secondary formation, with a basis of limestone, and upon that, strata of sandstone, clay-slate and indurated clay. The land in the neighbourhood of [79] Harmony is extremely fertile. The fields are not manured for many successive years, and produce the finest crops; such land, however, in good situations, is no longer cheap. The climate is salubrious, and the inhabitants attain a great age. The winters are generally mild; the changes of temperature are often very great and rapid. The cholera has not yet visited this country. We arrived at the season called the Indian summer, when, with a temperature of +16° to 17° Reaumur, the atmosphere was gloomy and misty. Most persons experience, at this season, irregularities in the digestive organs, and head-ache. Pöppig gives a very accurate account of the North American autumn, and Mrs. Trollope felt the peculiar effect of this warm autumnal weather on strangers; it is, however, very remarkable that this state of the atmosphere in the Ohio Valley quickly put an end to the cholera, on which Dr.
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Daniel Drake wrote an essay.Like the whole of the interior of North America, the country on the Wabash has still numerous traces of a very early extinct original population, of which even the present Indians have no traditions, and whose remains have been spoken of by many writers. Warden, in his account of the United States, and more particularly in the great work, entitled "Antiquités Mexicaines," has mentioned such remains in all the states, and collected much information on this subject. Here, too, in the neighbourhood of Harmony, there are ancient tumuli, which, externally, are exactly similar to those which are everywhere found in our German forests. Lesueur had examined many of these tumuli, and sent part of the articles found in them to France. Some of the most considerable tumuli were found on the spot, near the back of the village, where Rapp made his churchyard, and which is now planted with acacias. The bones of the
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Swabian peasants are here mingled with those of the aboriginal Indians. Lesueur dug through some of those tumuli, which are now much levelled, and covered with greensward, and found a right-angled oblong parallelogram, level at the bottom, formed of large flat stones, set edgewise, and likewise covered over with similar stones. Some decayed bones were found in it, of which I received a considerable number from Mr. Lesueur, and sent them to Mr. Blumenbach, at Göttingen.One of these pipes was in the shape of a squatting frog, the mouth serving for the tobacco; some of them are represented
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in the accompanying woodcuts.177
of the interior of North America with those of Mexico, which is supported by other reasons.About fifteen miles from Harmony, lower down the Wabash, is a part of the bank known by the name of the Bone Bank, where the river has partly cut through a hill, or laid it bare, in which there are numbers of human bones seen imbedded in the bank. Mr. Lesueur sent a perfect skull from this spot to Blumenbach. An old tree having fallen down on this place, he saw under the roots an entire human skeleton; this, therefore, was undoubtedly a burying-place. While the observer deeply regrets that he is wholly without information respecting these remarkable remains of antiquity, he feels that the present white population of North America may justly be reproached for neglecting or destroying them. Nobody in Harmony was able to give any account of the names of the Indian tribes who inhabited the country at the time when this village was founded. One of the first settlers of the country about Mount Vernon, who had grown up in Kentucky among the Indians, but had removed, in 1806, to the forests on the Lower Wabash — where at that time there were no white settlers — had been well acquainted with the Indians about Harmony, and frequently visited them in their huts. He was the only man who was able to give me any information about them. He called them Muskoghe Indians; this name, however, seems to be incorrect. They lived in this part of the country till 1810; but in the year preceding the battle of Tippekanoe they all removed, and did not return. They were not numerous, and lived chiefly about the mouth of the Wabash, and on the Big Creek.
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a kind of apron, and had bows and arrows, in the use of which they were very expert. They had among them thirty or forty indifferent guns; they smoked Sumach leaves in wooden pipes,[82] The early history of Indiana mentions, as the inhabitants of this State, when the French first settled here, the Kickapoos, Musquitons, Potanons, and some other nations, remnants of which are still to be found at the sources of the Wabash, as well as the Piankishaws, Miamis, and Viandots. In the year 1804, a treaty was concluded with them at Vincennes for the purchase of the lands between the Wabash and the Ohio, after which they emigrated.
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who, at the time of the Indiana emigration, when the United States had repeatedly bought land of those people, saw the several dislodged tribes pass through this country, assured me that the character of their physiognomy was often essentially different; and I myself found this confirmed both in North and South America; though the fundamental features of the American race are everywhere the same. All these Indians are now totally extirpated or expelled from Indiana, and the country enjoys the advantage of being peopled by the backwoodsmen.The fertile and salubrious country of Harmony has attracted a great number of settlers, who have begun to thin the great forests of Indiana. These settlers are usually called backwoodsmen, because they live in the remote forests. They are a robust, rough race of men, of English or Irish origin. They dwell very isolated, scattered in the forests, and but seldom come to the towns, only when business calls them. There is a school at Harmony where the children learn to read and write; two dollars are paid quarterly, and the children receive instruction in the morning and afternoon; but in the country the young people grow up without any education, and are, probably, no better than the Indians themselves. In the Western States, the sixteenth section of the Congress land (i. e., land belonging to the Government) is always assigned for the benefit of the schools, but is not always employed according to the first intention. At this time there was in the state of Indiana only one college; it was at Blooming Town.
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both religious and school instruction. Business, or festive occasions, bring the backwoodsmen into the town, where they indulge their love of whisky, which generally retards their return homeward. They have a good race of horses, and are bold horsemen; even the women are frequently seen on the saddle, and whole families travel in this way — man, woman, and child ofttimes mounted on the same beast. There is nothing characteristic in their costume, like the original dresses which are met with in the country in Germany; but they wear a medley, and bad imitation of all the fashions of English towns; caps, felt and straw hats, frocks, great-coats, plaids, &c. The women, too, endeavour to imitate the fashions of the towns, wear large hats with loose veils, and gaudy plaid mantles, which, altogether, have often a most ludicrous effect in these remote forests. The winter dress of the men is often not ill chosen, though perfectly novel to a stranger. At that season they wear greatcoats made of the common woollen horsecloths, white or green, with gay stripes on the collar, cuffs, and pockets; [83] nay, some are striped all over like zebras: such a coat, of the commonest kind, cannot be had here for less than eight or ten dollars. Noisy parties of these people frequently assemble at the public-houses of Harmony, gather round the fire, and let the whisky circulate briskly, while their horses are frequently left the whole day, standing in the street, amid rain and snow. On Sunday, which is kept by many of the inhabitants, though there is no divine service, they are more decently clad, wash their faces, and make some attempt at putting their hair in order, which hangs dishevelled about their faces. The young men often went to the chase, others181
played in the streets, generally at ball, but a great number remained at their work, and the peasants and farmers, with their huge wagons, followed their usual occupations. On certain, days, especially when a magistrate, a president, or a governor was to be chosen, all were gathered together, for they all take great interest in the government of the country, and would not, on any account, renounce the privilege which, in their estimation, makes them important statesmen. On such election days, whole troops of them ride into the town; the streets are crowded with their horses, which are tied up, and the whisky-shops resound with their tumultuous discussions. Every man gives his vote; disputes arise; and, as in the Polish diets, their excited passions frequently lead to blows. They are all great politicians, and some of them are well acquainted with the newspapers. In the winter, as soon as snow fell, sledge parties commenced at Harmony. Six or eight persons were on separate seats, two and two together, upon one sledge; others amused themselves with skating, for which, however, they had not much opportunity in the winter of 1832-3. There were frequent balls at the inns; on New Year's Eve they literally danced the whole night through.Agriculture is still in its infancy about New Harmony, and the people depend on the extraordinary fertility of the soil. In the immediate vicinity of the town land is not cheap, having already risen to fifteen dollars per acre; whereas, at the distance of two miles, there was still a considerable quantity of Congress land, which might be had at one dollar per acre. There was a tax of fifty cents, or half a dollar,
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called Congress land, is frequently taken possession of, for a time, by new comers, who have no right to it. They fell the wood, erect their huts, and nobody hinders them in their proceedings till the lawful owner ejects them, who has purchased the land of the Government. A square mile of [84] Congress land was still to be had for 100 dollars; but these lands are subject to the periodical inundations of the Wabash, when the farmers are obliged to fly with all their effects to more elevated stations. They have then to look for their cattle in the great forests, and drive them away; but they cannot always find all the animals, many of which perish. The fertility of the soil is increased by these inundations. Congress land which was not exposed to inundation, could be bought for one dollar twenty-five cents per acre. This high water is said often to present an interesting scene. Hogs and other animals, even the opossum, have been found on low trees, where they had sought protection.The chief vegetable production of this part of the country is maize, which grows to the height of twelve or thirteen feet; the ears are very large and heavy; I found some weighing fourteen to fifteen ounces, and nearly three inches in diameter, in which I counted above 1,000 grains. They ripen in September, October, November, and December, and are often left standing through the winter, till wanted for use. There are fifteen varieties of this important plant; one kind, called sweet corn, is particularly good when roasted in an unripe state. It is calculated that the best soil will yield 100 bushels of corn per acre. Very good cakes and bread are prepared of maize flour, and there are many other
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ways of dressing it. When boiled with milk it is called mush. All living creatures in this country subsist, almost exclusively, on this invaluable production. When the whites arrived in America numerous Indian tribes subsisted on it; quadrupeds, birds, nay, even fish, are fond of it. At the places where the flat boats, laden with maize, land, the fish collect and assemble in great numbers, and fall an easy prey to the fishermen. At this time the corn was sold at six and a half cents per bushel at Harmony; whereas, on the frontiers of Canada, two dollars were paid for it. Living is, consequently, very cheap on the banks of the Wabash. The maize is brought to market in large wagons, drawn by four oxen, and a considerable quantity is thence sent by water carriage. Other kinds of grain — wheat, rye, barley, and oats — which ripen in June, are likewise cultivated. Barley is grown for the brewers; and oats, in considerable quantities, for the horses. Potatoes, too, are extensively cultivated, but they are by no means so good and mealy as in Germany. There is a great variety of culinary vegetables. There are abundance of apples, but not many pears, which do not thrive; peaches are good, and very productive; quantities fall to the ground, where they are consumed by the hogs; plums and cherries are rarely grown; the latter are not so good as in Europe, but very fruitful. The vine was formerly cultivated, but it is now quite neglected. According to Warden, cotton is grown at Vincennes, Princetown, and Harmony, but this does not seem to be the case at present. This plant does not thrive beyond the 31st degree of latitude. The inhabitants grow hemp and flax for their own consumption, and some tobacco; bad cigars are made at Harmony, and, in general, good tobacco is rarely to be met with in the United States. Maple sugar is manufactured in great abundance in Indiana. Warden says that, in 1810, 50,000 lbs. [85] were made in this State, and, at present, it was worth seven or eight cents184
a pound. Many of the inhabitants obtain, in the spring, about 100 lbs. of this sugar. In this part of the country the corn is not thrashed, but generally trodden out by horses; a very imperfect process, which appears to have originated in the times of the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans.Next to agriculture the breeding of cattle is an important object among the backwoodsmen; but is likewise ill understood. The breed of swine furnishes the principal supply for food and exportation, great quantities of pork being sent to New Orleans. Mr. Owen had established a whisky distillery, and fattened the swine on the refuse. About 1,500 barrels of whisky, worth ten dollars a barrel, were made every year in Mr. Owen's distillery. Great numbers of swine are in the woods of Indiana, far from all human dwellings, where they grow very fat by the abundance of oak and beech mast. They are of a reddish brown colour, with round black spots; there are some quite wild, which anybody is at liberty to shoot. These animals are never housed, even in the vicinity of Harmony. We observed them, in our excursions, in the depth of winter, when the young ones often perish with cold; and we also saw them eaten by the mothers. Dead swine were lying about in all directions, partly devoured by others. The negligence and want of feeling with which the animals are treated, are very great; and, accordingly, the breed of cattle can never flourish. The cattle, which are very fine, are kept in the open air day and night, amidst ice and snow, with which their backs are covered; the same may be said of the horses; nay, in cold moonlight nights, we saw these animals standing in the street, near their master's dwelling, as if they hoped to be let in. The animals are generally fed in the morning with maize, and a woman usually appears at an early hour, in her plaid, to milk the cows.
The cattle of this country are large and handsome, very
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hardy, and do not differ in figure or colour from those of Germany; no food is given them in winter but the dry leaves of maize. No clover or other forage is cultivated, so that the cattle and horses are confined to straw, the bark of trees, and the green reed, miegia, which forms a thick underwood in the forests on the Wabash. Everywhere one sees the bark and twigs gnawed, and even the fruit trees are often damaged in this manner. Horses and cattle frequently starve to death in the winter. I was told that the animals gnaw, in preference, the nettle-tree (Celtis occidentalis), the hackberry (Celtis crassifolia), and the sugar maple. It is remarkable that the swine, which otherwise refuse no species of fruit, will not touch that of the papaw tree (Asimina). All the beef in this country is of a bad quality, because, as I have said, no forage is cultivated. In Pennsylvania it is quite the reverse; there a great deal of clover is grown, and the beef is, consequently, good. In Indiana pork is said to be much better and easier of digestion than to the east of the Alleghanys. We saw but few sheep, and no goats, at Harmony. There were plenty of geese and domestic fowls, but only a few tame ducks.The mode of tilling the ground for the different kinds of grain, has been described by [86] many travellers; I will therefore merely observe that the plough is different in its construction from that used in Germany, and that the oxen are attached to it by a very peculiar yoke, Neck-yoke and plow which consists of a long, thick, crooked piece of wood, which is laid horizontally over the necks of the two oxen, with two bows underneath, through which the heads of the animals are put.
My stay at New Harmony, which was at first intended to be only for a few days, was prolonged by serious indisposition, nearly resembling cholera, to a four months' winter residence.
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At any other place in this country I should have extremely regretted such a loss of time, but here I derived much instruction and entertainment from my intercourse with two highly-informed men, Mr. Thomas Say and Mr. Lesueur, who, during my two months' illness, gave me constant proofs of kindness, and endeavoured to make our time pass agreeably and usefully. I received also much kindness from other estimable families, Messrs. Owen (who were educated by Fellenberg, in Switzerland), Mr. Maclure and his sister, and Mr. Twigg. My walks and hunting excursions with the two naturalists were very instructive. Mr. Say's house was in a garden, where he cultivated many interesting plants of the interior of Western America. I there saw a large Maclura aurantiaca (Nuttall), the bow or yellow wood, or Osage orange, from the river Arkansas, of the wood of which many Indian tribes make their bows. It is a prickly tree, with very tough wood. There was one at St. Louis, in the garden of Mr. Pierre Chouteau, which did not, however, flourish.Mr. Say's zoological collection was confined to insects and shells. He was less anxious to possess a complete collection than to have a good library, which, thanks to Mr.
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Maclure, he really possessed, and new insects and shells were sent to him from all parts of the United States, which he immediately described. He had a very extensive correspondence, even with Europe, and received many conchylia, which he used and compared for his work on American conchology. This work was entirely got up here in Harmony, for Mrs. Say drew and coloured the figures very faithfully after nature, which were engraved by an artist, engaged by Mr. Maclure; the text also was printed there. Mr. Say's entomological collection was continually damaged by the rapacious insects, which are much more dangerous and destructive here than in Europe. The most fatal to the zoological collections, in this country, besides the common European moth (PhalÄna sarcitella), are the Dermestes lardarius, Anthrinus muscorum, Dermestes vulpinus, Necrobia violetia, Acarus destructor, and several others, among which there are some brought from Europe.Mr. Lesueur's labours were chiefly in the higher orders of the animal kingdom; he had explored the country in many directions, was acquainted with everything remarkable, collected and prepared all interesting objects, and had already sent considerable collections to France. He was a skilful draughtsman, and his portfolios of drawings, made during his voyage round the world, and in his residence in America, afforded us much gratification during the winter. He had paid great attention to the fishes of the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi, for which his frequent visits to New Orleans had given him the best opportunity. His friend Barrabino, who died prematurely in that city, and took much interest in the sciences, had been of great assistance to him. It would be a pity if the interesting labours of Mr. Lesueur, in natural history, were not communicated to the learned world during his lifetime.
I shall always retain a most pleasing recollection of the
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excursions which we made in the neighbourhood of Harmony, with Mr. Say, and to greater distances, with Mr. Lesueur. One of the most agreeable was when we sailed down the Wabash, and landed on its wooded islands. Immediately on the west of the river, is Fox Island, a large thickly wooded tract, between the Wabash and Fox River.189
fallen tree, and then went up the steep bank into a thick, lofty forest, where the high reeds were intersected with small, narrow paths, made by the horses and cattle of the neighbouring farmers. From our several landing places, we had to proceed only about 100 steps across the island to the Fox River, which runs here, for a pretty considerable distance, parallel to the Wabash, and joins it below Fox Island.190
to drink. Unluckily we had no European hounds, which would have been of great service to us, and thus, from want of them, we often lost the ducks we had shot. The turkey buzzards were seen hovering in the air, and, after wet weather, were often observed sitting in the sunshine, with outspread wings, on the highest trees. If we shot a bird, and did not immediately pick it up, it was sure to be devoured by these ravenous creatures. If the buzzards were driven away, the cunning crows supplied their place. The whole air was soon filled with these buzzards, hovering round and round, [89] while numbers of others sat together on the high trees. If we shot at them when flying, they immediately vomited; this I likewise observed in Brazil. We found here some heads of the paddle-fish, which lives in the stream. If we left the banks of the rivers, and advanced far into the forests, we had often to clamber over fallen trunks of trees, covered with moss, and to penetrate through matted reeds, where we heard the voice of the grey squirrel, and the hammering of the numerous woodpeckers. Among the entangled climbing plants, we often saw, throughout the whole winter, the beautiful cardinal, or red-bird; finches of various kinds; and on the decayed trees, on the ground, some kinds of Troglodytes. Towards the end of autumn, and early in warm days in February, nay, even in December and January, we often saw in Fox River, on stones, and old submersed trunks of trees, large tortoises basking in the sun, which we sometimes shot at with our fowling-pieces, but we seldom got them. They are very shy, and plunge into the water as soon as any one approaches.Towards noon the scattered sportsmen usually re-assembled, with their booty, round a cheerful fire, under ancient plane trees, on the bank of Fox River. Our frugal repast, which we had brought with us, was seasoned by the exercise in the open air, in the fine forests of Indiana and Illinois.
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Tortoises, shell-fish, birds, &c., were deposited in our boat. Mr. Lesueur frequently accompanied us in these excursions. Once, on the 7th of March, he found, on Fox Island, a couple of marmots above ground, one of which ran into its burrow, while the other sought refuge on a low tree, where, however, it was shot. We then dug for the other, in hopes of finding it, but the burrow went so far and deep into the ground, that we were forced to give it up. This circumstance may serve as a proof that the animals which sleep throughout the winter make their appearance about this time.In our excursions we often visited some others of the numerous islands in the Wabash, being particularly attracted thither by the loud cries of the wild turkey; their voice is exactly similar to that of the European turkey. We could hear them scratching among the dry leaves on the ground, in search of food. If we surprised them, they were generally too far off for our fowling-pieces, loaded with small shot, for they ran away with extraordinary rapidity. Turkey Island seemed to be a favourite place of resort. At the upper end of the island drifted wood was frequently piled up to such a height, that it was difficult to clamber over it, and among this wood there were generally many otters. Here we often found wild turkeys, and even the Virginian deer; and it is really a fine sight to see a flock of these wild turkeys fly across the river, or a swarm of wild geese, with loud screams, swim down the stream. The grey eagle was often seen sitting on the lofty plane trees, on the bank; and the white-headed eagle hovered in the air, at a great height.
On another hunting excursion, up the Wabash, we proceeded as far as Black River,
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freezing point, and the fish leaped above the surface of the water as in summer. Near some small log-houses the people were employed in felling the high trees, and our boatmen observed that those new settlers had taken possession of this Congress land without any right to do so. Such irregularities are very frequent here; thus, for instance, they cut down large trees on Mr. Maclure's property for making their flat boats, and yet nobody calls them to account. These are the backwoodsmen of Illinois and Indiana. On the high banks of the river we observed in the forest a mink-trap. It nearly resembles, in miniature, the great bear-trap; is covered on all sides with brushwood, so that the animal can enter only at a certain place. The Black River, which, in some parts, is wide and expanded, was now rather narrow and shallow, the water of a pure green colour. The bottom consists chiefly of sand or clay; it is contracted at the mouth, where a quantity of sand has accumulated, and where poplars and lofty planes grow; colossal vines wound round their trunks, of which we cut off one that was very thick, as a specimen. While our boatmen were engaged in this work, and in looking for shell-fish, we advanced several miles up the stream, where we met with frequent obstacles in the forest. The large dry leaves of the planes made such a rustling, that we could seldom get near the ducks, numbers of which were swimming on the stream. I collected on the bank the beautiful orange-coloured seeds of the Celastrus scandens, and several others. We generally returned home with ducks and other birds, but we were unsuccessful in our chase of the wild turkeys, of which we sometimes saw whole flocks fly across the Wabash. Many an hour we passed in these forests, watching for ducks and birds of prey; where, while we stood concealed in a hollow plane, the small birds sometimes flew almost into the face of the sportsman, or settled on his gun.193
In order to explore the forests of Harmony, in the southern direction, Mr. Say took me to a neighbouring estate of Mr. Maclure, on Rush Creek, through a romantic, lofty forest, where very fine tulip trees, with thick and high trunks, as straight as a ship's mast, and very rough bark, were growing. This tall, splendid tree bears its fine large flowers only at the very summit. The wood is of a greenish pale yellow colour, and is used by cabinet makers. The red-headed woodpecker was almost the only bird that was seen here. The whole track consists of steep hills, separated by small valleys, on which we particularly observed the ancient tumuli of the aboriginal inhabitants of these forests. Passing through a valley we came to Rush Creek, which we crossed by a very ruinous bridge of branches of trees, to the opposite bank, where Hydrangea arborescens grew. Several species of maple grow here, which have certainly not been properly distinguished and classed. Their trunks, covered with rough bark, are often not to be spanned by three men, and they grow perfectly straight. Near the junction of the Rush Creek and the Wabash, we came to the small log-house of a tenant of Mr. Maclure, where the woman was engaged in domestic employments, while the children were picking bones, probably [91] of wild turkeys, with which they ate maize bread. In front of the house lay large blocks of catalpa wood, which, when fresh cut, is of a brownish yellow colour, and emits a peculiar smell. We were told of a stream in the neighbourhood, the water of which was said to have killed many persons. We visited this dangerous water, which is very cold, but does not appear to have any peculiar ingredients. One of our party, who had often drunk of it, without injury, affirmed that those men had not been killed by the water, but by whisky; probably, however, death was caused by drinking this excessively cold water when they were overheated.
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In a dense forest, some miles to the north-west of Harmony, was a narrow pond, or, rather, long, broad ditch, called Long Pond, which, at certain seasons of the year, is connected with Fox River, to which we sometimes made excursions. Beyond the Wabash, in this direction, the forest has a sandy soil, which, however, is soon succeeded by a rich clay. A man well acquainted with the country was our conductor; we were obliged to force our way through the closely-matted reeds, where there was no path, and our clothes were completely torn by them. On all sides we heard the bells of the oxen and horses, and our guide easily found his own beasts, which knew his voice. He had wished me to take a compass, which was not done, and we, in fact, twice lost our way, in consequence; for it is not easy to discover one's latitude in such thick, bewildering reed forests. Woodpeckers and squirrels were the usual fruits of our excursions in this wilderness. After passing a couple of isolated habitations, we came to a hollow in the forest, about a mile long, and full of water. This was the Long Pond, in which many varieties of water plants were growing.
Our guide had taken a hatchet and a basket, in order to dig up the roots of a yellow-flowering NymphÄa,
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manner and note much resembled those of the long-tailed paroquet of Brazil.The winter which we passed at Harmony was, on the whole, mild. Woodpeckers, pigeons, thrushes, the great lark, the cardinal, the blue-bird, and many others, were seen in the orchards during the whole winter. The coveys of partridges lay in the fields of maize, or the thorn hedges, sheltered and protected from the cold. There were often very warm days in the middle of winter. On such a day, the 31st of January, I found, at noon, the thermometer being +5° R., at the foot of a thick plane tree, a great
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number of the red and black spotted lady-bird, which were half frozen. Tortoises were seen, on warm days, during the whole winter. In the middle of February, a great number of the white maple, called also the soft or swamp maple, were in blossom in the forests; and, towards the end of that month, the song of many birds resounded through the woods and orchards. Flights of cranes passed over. The Arabis bulbosa (Mühlenb.) blossomed, as well as the hazel, yet there were still some cold days. The Americans have a proverb — "When winter comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb," and vice versa. This winter, however, the cold had not set in early. At the beginning of March we had frost. On the 2nd of March, at eight in the morning, Reaumur's thermometer was at — 16°; and at twelve o'clock at noon, — 9°. Small pieces of water were frozen over; the ducks, especially the pintail ducks, which were now constantly disturbed in the Wabash, by the navigation and by the sportsman, sought for small pieces of open water; and when they were driven from these, repaired to the woods or the maize fields. The blackbird and the robin sought their scanty food on the banks of the brooks. Many species of animals were, however, in motion at the beginning of March. Numbers of tortoises appeared; the note of the owl was heard in the forests, even in the daytime; the wood-snipe fluttered about, and the young leaves of the sambucus, and the flowers of the corylus, gave an enlivening appearance to the forest. The voice of the turtle-dove was heard as early as the 8th of February; insects buzzed about; flocks of migratory pigeons flew towards the north and east; and on the 9th, the first steam-boat went up the Wabash.We had satisfactory accounts of the sanitary state of the southern and western parts of the United States. At Cincinnati the violence of the cholera had abated at the commencement of the Indian summer; on the Ohio it had
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generally ceased; and St. Louis, by the latest reports, was perfectly healthy. Mr. Bodmer, who had made an excursion to New Orleans, in December and January, found the cholera still there, but it had greatly abated; and I therefore resolved to make preparations for proceeding on our journey, as soon as our collections were packed up and sent off.198
Chapter IX.
Mount Vernon — Mouth of the Wabash — Shawneetown — Battery Rock — Cave-in-Rock — Cumberland River — Tenessee River — Mouth of the Ohio — Cape Girardeau — Grand Tower — St. Genevieve — Merrimack River — Vide Poche — Kahokia — St. Louis — Sac and Fox Indians — Meeting of the Black Hawk with his Countrymen at Jefferson Barracks — The American Fur Company — Preparations for the Journey up the Missouri.
AFTER taking leave of our friends at Harmony, who, during a residence of four months, had given us unvarying proofs of kindness and hospitality, we set out on horseback early in the morning of the 16th of March, leaving our baggage to be conveyed by the Ohio. The day was fine, and, rejoicing in the warm spring sun, we reached the hills that bounded the valley of the Wabash. We were immediately surrounded by lofty forests, and cast a farewell look on the cheerful country which had so long sheltered us. Perched on the top of the maple, oak, and tulip tree, the robin poured forth his morning song. The turtle-dove was cooing with her sweet low moan, and the shrill voice and hammering of the woodpeckers resounded on every side. In Europe the soft note of the turtle is not heard till spring is more advanced, and the trees are clothed with verdure. Many trees were covered with buds; those of the dog-wood were particularly forward, the beautiful white flowers of which appear before the leaves; this is the case with many of the trees of this country. We passed Rush Creek, on the eminences near which grow many sugar-maple trees, the juice of which was tapped, and had in some of them already ceased to flow. At the lower part of all the trunks, we
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found small tubes of elder inserted, from which the insipid sweetish juice ran into the troughs placed below them. It is said to flow in great abundance, when hot spring days are succeeded by cold frosty nights. We soon reached what is called a sugar camp in the forest; it is a hut, in the floor of which four kettles are fixed for boiling the juice. This [94] hut contains likewise large troughs, in which the juice from the smaller, placed at the trees, is collected. Such a hut, with the maples growing around it, is called a sugar camp, and the quantity of sugar produced depends on the number of maples in the vicinity. Many camps furnish in one spring 300, 500, or even 1000 lbs. of sugar, which is crystallized in loaves. It is brown, but very sweet, and has no disagreeable flavour. We refreshed ourselves with the juice in the small troughs, which our horses drank greedily.The people in the isolated dwellings in the forest were partly engaged in burning the timber. Many of the small wooden houses of these peasants were without windows; glass windows are quite a luxury, and the only light enjoyed in the daytime is admitted by the open door. We saw in all these dwellings, very wide, large beds. We crossed the Big Creek, a considerable stream, with rising banks, by a wooden bridge; here we saw many piles of oak bark, which is sold to the tanneries. At noon, the weather being excessively hot, we reached Mount Vernon, on the Ohio.
In this little scattered place, with about 600 inhabitants, among whom there are five medical men, about one third of the buildings are of brick; the town-hall stands in an open square. The Ohio, which we immediately visited, had now a much more striking appearance than at our first visit in the autumn. It is considerably broader than the Rhine, and it is said that it often rises thirty feet higher — up to the very thresholds of the buildings standing on the bank. The view both up and down the river was beautiful.
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The immediate environs of Mount Vernon consist of damp marshy forests; hence the water is very bad, and the inhabitants prefer even that of the Ohio. The temperature at noon was now very warm; 14° Reaumur.We were obliged to wait a couple of days in this little town for a steam-boat, to go down the river. The rushing noise of the steamers often called us to the river, but they were mostly going up, and disappeared at Diamond Island. At last, on the 18th of March, about ten in the morning, two steam-boats appeared, of which the largest, the Napoleon, did not stop; while the smaller one, the Conveyance, took us in.
Shawneetown or Shawaneetown is a hamlet lying along the banks of the river, and containing from 600 to 700 inhabitants. The best buildings are some inns, shops, and the post-office. The tribe of the Shawnee Indians formerly dwelt in this country, and were succeeded by some Delawares, who have been long since expelled or extirpated. Arrow-heads of flint, as well as the bones, &c., of these people, are frequently found in the neighbourhood. The Shawnees were said to have previously dwelt on the Savaney River, on the coast of Florida, and afterwards lived for about sixty-five years in the state of Ohio. They consisted, according to Dr. Morse, of four tribes: — 1. The Piqua; 2. The Maguachake; 3. The Kiskopokoke, to which the celebrated prophet, Elsquataway, and his distinguished brother, Tecumseh, belonged. They were very warlike. In [95] 1806 they settled near Greenville, in the State of Ohio, and their subsequent history is well known. They afterwards went to the country about Tippecanoe. 4. The
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Chillicothes, who live in the vicinity of the town of that name; these, and further accounts of these people, are to be found in Dr. Morse, and other writers.Twelve miles inland from Shawneetown are the celebrated salt works on Saline River,
On the morning of the 19th, the weather being warm, and the sky clouded, we embarked in the Paragon steamboat.
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river was at this time nearly of the same colour as the Rhine, when clear. After passing the mouth of the Saline River, we reached, on the right, or Illinois bank, the long flat bank of rocks known by the name of Battery Rock.Towards noon we reached Golconda Island, twenty and a half miles from Cave-in-Rock, [96] and then Golconda in Illinois, a small town, with a few white buildings, in which they were erecting a court-house, and which is the seat of the tribunals of Pope County. Near Sister Islands we
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met the Brunswick steamer, which had in tow two large flat boats, full of horses, which were being conveyed from Mount Vernon to New Orleans. The owners of the horses have to pay above 500 dollars for the voyage. Opposite Cumberland Island is the mouth of the Cumberland River, which comes from Kentucky, and falls into the Ohio, at an acute angle. This river is not so large as the Wabash. A small village, called Smithland, is built at the mouth, which reminded me of a little Brazilian villa, the houses, mostly one story high, lying in a row by the water-side.At this place the Paragon took in wood and provisions. Not far from Smithland is the mouth of the Tenessee River, which is said to be more considerable than the Cumberland, and to have a course of 1,200 miles. The little village, Paduca, on the left bank of the Ohio, appeared to have much traffic, and a number of new shops had been built. The Western Pilot of the year 1829 does not mention this place — a proof of its recent origin. From hence we came to the spot where Fort Massac formerly stood, stones of which are still found.
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green colour, and a race of large long-legged sheep were grazing on it. We lay to for the night.Early in the morning of the 20th of March we approached the mouth of the Ohio, where it falls into the Mississippi, 959 miles from Pittsburg, and 129 ž miles from St. Louis. The tongue of land on the right, which separates the two rivers, was, like the whole of the country, covered with rich woods, which were partly cleared, and a few houses erected, with an inn and store, and the dwelling of a planter, where we took in wood. In this store we saw, among heaps of skins, that of a black bear, lately killed, of which one of the three cubs, a very comical little beast, had been kept alive. This young bear had on his breast a semicircle of white hair. The settlement, at which we now were, has no other name than Mouth of the Ohio.
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poplar and willows bending over the water. On the right hand, in particular, were romantic forest scenes; a wilderness of fallen trees, which the floods and storms had thrown and piled upon each other, like an abatis. Parasite plants wound round the trees, and matted them together; while, further on, rose the picturesque terraces of the wood-covered bank. There being many snags (trunks lying in the water) in the river, we could only proceed by daylight. The islands, covered with high poplars, were generally bordered with thickets of willow, which had now no appearance whatever of green, but looked of a bright yellowish red, from the colour of their branches. Gleams of sunshine [97] sometimes cast over these willow thickets a fine red glow, and gave them a very original appearance. Large quantities of drifted wood were frequently seen on the points of the islands towards the current. The water being very low, we were obliged to take soundings, and yet our vessel proceeded five or eight hours against the stream. The O'Connell steam-boat had run aground in this place, and its people were employed in landing the cargo, consisting chiefly of lead.206
miserable fire-place; the man was just returned, with a boy, from the forest; the two other children looked unhealthy, weak and pale; one of these girls was employed in planting onions in a small patch of newly-prepared ground. A couple of oxen, five or six young hogs, and some Muscovy ducks, were feeding about the cottage. Immediately behind, and close to it, commenced the magnificent, dense, and lofty forest, which we resolved at once to explore, and there very sensibly felt the heat of the spring, because the wind could not penetrate. The underwood of the forest consisted of the spicewood (Laurus benzoin), which grows to the height of ten and fifteen feet; its bark is highly aromatic, and it was covered with small yellow blossoms, which appear before the leaves, and resemble those of our cornelian cherry. The abundance of these flowers gives to the underwood a lively tint, which strikes the eye at a distance. Large, lofty trees, overgrown with climbing plants, formed the forest on the Mississippi, and the ground was covered with a delicate yellow flowering plant (Corydalis flava, N.) In the front of the cottage, which was close to the bank, stood a tree, about which a beautiful Bignonia radicans entwined; and the turkey buzzards hovered high in the air above the forest.As we proceeded on our voyage, the wind was so high, and it raised the waves and the sand so excessively, that we sought the protection of the opposite bank. We passed many islands, several of which give a great insight into the formation of the banks of the Mississippi. One of them, especially, showed, at a certain place, a bank which had sunk down, where we perceived layers of large trunks of trees, heaped one upon another, the tops of which were visible. On such foundations the river throws its sand, willows and poplars grow up, by the leaves of which good earth is formed, and, in the end, lofty forests of hard wood
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arise. Though the Paragon drew only five feet of water, we were often aground; the wind laid the vessel a little on the side, the crew shoved with poles, sounded, stopped the engine, then made the vessel go backwards [98] and then sidewards, and so got afloat again. Little villages were seldom seen on this part of the banks of the Mississippi; however, we came to the village of Commerce,On the 21st of March we reached Cape Girardeau, an ancient French settlement, now a large scattered village, which, as we were told, had of late much improved. Beds of limestone appeared on the bank, and heaps of it were
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piled up; it contains many shells. After passing Devil's Island, we found in the river a sunk steam-boat, which was now quite broken up; many of these vessels passed us. The spicewood was everywhere in flower in the forests on the bank, and it is said that its appearance indicates a fine soil. The pretty narrow-leaved willow, on the contrary, was still covered with its last year's dry leaves. We passed by the villages of Bainbridge and Harrisburg, and then came to that part of the river which is called Hanging-Dog-Bend, where the Mississippi is wide and beautiful. Various strata and ravines are observed in the wooded calcareous mountains; such a stratified rock, cleft perpendicularly, has the name of Devil's Tea-table; other rocks resembled round towers standing close to each other, all crowned with wood, where the turkey buzzard resorted.209
strangely formed rocks are standing, full of clefts and ravines, the foremost of which is called the Devil's Bake-oven, and is covered at the summit with pines. The Grand TowerThe morning of the 22nd of March was serene; the sight of the rising sun from the poop of the vessel was truly magnificent; as the flaming disk of the king of day rose above the woody banks of the Mississippi, the waves formed by the rapid course of the vessel glowed with the most resplendent colours; the wild geese and ducks, frightened by our Paragon, hastened away with rustling wings; the kingfisher was frequent on the shrubs. Near St. Mary River we ran
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aground, but were not long delayed by this accident. The cords of wood for the steam-boat were lying ready piled up on the bank, stating the price and the quantity. The village of Chester, in Illinois, where we took in wood, was quite a new settlement, consisting at present of but a few houses. Among the limestone and wood on the bank, we shot a beautiful lizard (Agama undulata, Daud.), which is said to attain a considerable size, especially on the river St. Peter. The buds of the red oak were very forward. At noon the weather was excessively warm, and on the river the thermometer was +11Ë° Reaumur. We saw the mouth of the Kaskaskia River, on the Illinois bank, six miles up which Kaskaskia is situated, one of the oldest French settlements on the Mississippi.211
[100] of trees were lying in the water. Before us we saw St. GeneviÄve,On the morning of the 23rd of March, the sun shining very brightly, strange forms of rock, alternating with high forests, appeared on the banks of the river; on the left, or western bank especially, the walls of rock were cleft by rude
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valleys, from which a small stream generally issued. Single pines are scattered in the woods; on the right bank, on the skirts of the forest, is a row of poplars, of perfectly equal height, but the planes are not so high as those we have before seen. We passed the place where Fort Chârtres formerly stood.We passed by the settlement of Selma, and the village of Herculaneum;
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barracks, on the left bank, where the 6th regiment of regular infantry was in garrison, and the flag of the United States was hoisted. These barracks were interesting at this time, because the celebrated Indian chief, Black Hawk, was imprisoned in them. Before night, we passed the French settlement of Vide-Poche, or Carondelet, founded about 100 years ago, a large scattered village, the inhabitants of which are reported to be not very industrious. The neighbouring hills are covered with low oak bushes. We passed the night nearly opposite Kahokia, and on the morning of the 24th of March, to our great joy, beheld the town of St. Louis.St. Louis is a rapidly increasing town, with 6,000 or 8,000 inhabitants, on the western bank of the Mississippi, about 1,200 miles from New Orleans, and 1,134 miles from Pittsburg. It is built on a rather bare, gently rising, and not very elevated part of the banks; forms two streets parallel to the river, besides many houses lying on the summit in the prairie, where building seemed to be proceeding rapidly. On this upper part there are churches and other considerable buildings, of which the town has many of different
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kinds; and the highly favourable situation, in the centre, of the trade of the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri, will soon make it one of the most important places in the west. St. Louis was originally founded by the French; at first there was only a fort, and it was not till 1764 that the building of the town commenced, which in 1816 contained about 2,000 inhabitants. Persons were still living — for instance, M. Chouteau — who had the wood felled on the spot where the buildings of the town now stand.St. Louis was the more interesting to us, at this moment, because we had, here, the first opportunity of becoming
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acquainted with the North American Indians in all their originality; for the office for all the Indian affairs of the west is at St. Louis, under the direction of General Clarke, celebrated for his journey with Captain Lewis to the Rocky Mountains and Columbia River, who has the title of superintendent of Indian affairs.218
I was introduced by the kindness of Duke Bernhard of Saxe Weimar, had very obligingly informed me of the meetings or councils which he held with the Indians, and we had the pleasure of being able thoroughly to observe and study these remarkable people. Quarters were assigned them in a large magazine near the harbour, to which we immediately repaired. We saw already on the beach a collection of the populace, and amidst the crowd of curious spectators, distinguished the strange dark brown figures, enveloped in red, white, or green blankets. We did not come up to them till they were in the house, and the first sight of them, which did not a little surprise me, convinced me at once of their great affinity to the Brazilians, so that I cannot hesitate to consider them as belonging to the same race.219
as has been generally assumed, which is also the case with the Brazilians. MeyenIt may be observed here, with Von Humboldt and Meyen,
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may be mentioned, which must have been very remarkable among the ancient tribes of Mexico, as is proved by the old monuments of that, historically, most interesting country. Though this similarity appears to indicate an affinity of the Mexicans with more northern nations, a similar conformation was found here and there in South America also; as Duperrey221
exposed to the air and sun. Pike, and some other travellers, pretend to have found the Mongol physiognomy among the North American Indians, especially the Pawnees and the Sioux;From this digression on the general conformation of the North Americans, we return to our narrative.
The Saukies and Foxes had shaved their hair off the whole head except a small tuft behind, the greater part of which was cut short, like a brush, and which terminated in a thin braid, to which was fastened the chief ornament of the head, the deer's tail, which is a tuft of hair from the tail of the Virginian stag, white, with some black hair, the white part being dyed red with vermilion.
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in an ingenious manner, with some strings and pegs of wood, to the tuft of hair at the back of the head; and in the middle of it, concealed between the hair, is a small piece of carved wood, to which a small bone box is affixed, into which a large eagle's feather is fastened, projecting horizontally behind; this feather is often dyed with vermilion, and is the characteristic distinction of a brave warrior. He who has become renowned for horse-stealing, which, according to their notions, is a heroic exploit, fastens to the tip of this feather the rattle of a rattlesnake. The whole deer's tail, when it is not worn, is rolled up in the form of a thick ball, fastened with leather straps, and kept in this manner, that the hair may remain smooth, and in the proper position. Mr. Bodmer took an admirable likeness of Watapinat (eagle's nest), a handsome Fox Indian, wearing this head-dress.223
The women are small and thickset; most of them have large round heads, and broad, flat, round faces. They let their hair grow naturally, part it on the forehead, and tie it together, at the back of the head, in a short, thick bunch, which is bound round with red and green ribbon. A few old men had not shaved their heads; but in winter it is said that these Indians let their hair grow, to protect them against the cold. Both sexes had their faces more or less painted red: the Saukies mostly red, in different designs; the Foxes, red and yellow, or red, white, and black. The manner of painting depends on the taste of the individual; nearly all of them had red circles round the eyes and ears, and red stripes down the cheeks, the rest of the face being left of the natural colour. They use, for this purpose, vermilion, which they obtain from the merchants. The Fox Indians had often the whole head painted red; a yellow or white stripe on the forehead, and the mouth and chin with the figure of a yellow hand, or else quite black. A tall, handsome Saukie Indian, called Massica (the tortoise), had a bold, fierce countenance, and an aquiline nose; his cordiality was very striking; his brown eyes sparkled, and his white teeth looked quite dazzling, contrasted with the dark brown face, which had a good deal of red paint on it. On his forehead he wore a band of otter skin, which was fastened behind the head, and then fell down in two long stripes to the ground. He had attached a black and white eagle's feather to his deer's tail, and was covered with a large red blanket. Mr. Bodmer has given a very good likeness of this handsome man in Plate 36, but without his head-dress, in order to show the manner in which the tuft of hair was cut. Many of these people wore coloured calico shirts, and all used the Indian leather leggins, which come down to the shoes, and are ornamented at the ankles with leather fringes. They are fastened, with leather straps, above the girdle. They also wear a piece of woollen cloth, generally striped blue and white, round the
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waist, which is fastened under the girdle. The girdle and knee bands were often very elegantly adorned with glass beads, and in the former is a sheath, similarly ornamented, for a large, broad, and very sharp knife, which they obtain, by barter, from the merchants, and employ for various purposes, especially for cutting up game, and scalping their enemies. The shoes, generally called mocassins, are made of soft, tanned buckskin, and the upper edge turned down below the ankle. These people wear them very plain, without any ornament. Many of them had fastened swan skins, with the down, or that of polecats, much marked with white, below their knees, the long hairy tail of which hung down to the ground, or to the ankle. Most of them had no other covering, on the upper part of the body, under their blankets; and [106] many wore brass necklaces and bracelets. The men, who were between thirty and forty in number, never appeared without their arms; they carried tomahawks,225
hand, and never laid them aside. The women, like those of Brazil, carried their bundles on their backs, with a leather strap passing over the forehead; they had their children with them, some of whom were in very convenient cradles. They all had very neat bast mats, ornamented with black figures, on which they slept, and some had, likewise, bear skins. Their travelling sacks, or bags, in which they had all their effects, were of the same material.The chief or leader of the Indians assembled here, was the Saukie chief, Kiokuck, a slender man, of the middle size, with agreeable features, not very different from those of an European, though of a darker colour. He wore a coloured calico shirt, and, on his breast, a large medal, which he had received from the President of the United States; and likewise wore a figured handkerchief round his head, and was wrapped in a green blanket. He carried in his hand a calumet, ornamented with feathers. His face was not painted, his ears not disfigured, and it was affirmed that he was not of pure Indian origin. He wore brass rings round his neck and wrists.
The dwelling-place of these Indians is on the western banks of the Mississippi, about Rock River and Rock Island, where the agent appointed for them by the government resides. In 1805 they sold, to the United States, their territory on the east of the Mississippi; still claiming a large tract of land, which extends from the upper Jowa River, along the west bank of the Mississippi, down to the river Des Moines, and further back to the Missouri.
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They live sociably in villages, in permanent arched huts, and it is said that they can muster 1,600 warriors (according to Dr. Morse, however, only 800),The French and English find much more difficulty than the Germans, in pronouncing all the Indian languages of North America, with which I have become acquainted. It was highly interesting to us, to observe so many of these Indians together. They were by no means grave and still; on the contrary, they were very cheerful, and often laughed heartily. If one went up to them familiarly, and spoke to them, many of them had a very agreeable, friendly expression; others were cold, and appeared, to us, hostile. Several repeated, with pleasure, the words of their language, and were very willing to have their portraits drawn, for which they always required a present. At last they were so annoyed by the importunity of the motley crowd, that we could have no more intercourse with them. They sold many of their effects, for which they received money, which they soon disposed of, but always examined whether it was genuine or false. There were some grave, dignified men among them, who
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carefully observed what was passing around them. Of these, I especially noticed Watapinat and Massica.General Clarke invited us to a small assembly, which he was to hold in his house with the Indians. We accordingly repaired thither. This meeting took place in the apartments, which are ornamented with a highly interesting collection of arms and utensils, which the General had procured on his extensive travels with Captain Lewis.
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had expressed the wish that their brethren might soon be set at liberty, because their wives and children at home were suffering hunger and distress. Upon this the General advised them, when Black Hawk and his associates should be set at liberty, to keep a watchful eye over them. On this condition he would intercede for the prisoners. We were invited by the General to accompany him, on the [108] following day, on board the WarriorOn the 26th of March we found the Indians already on board the Warrior, which was hired for this excursion; others of these original figures, wrapped in their red blankets, were walking on the beach. We had provided cigars and other trifles, by which we soon gained their confidence. Massica, the tall young Saukie Indian, was the most interesting among them. As soon as General Clarke came, the anchor was weighed, and the Warrior proceeded down the Mississippi. The Indians assembled on the fore part of the ship, to sing: the bleak wind was much felt by many of them, as they wore no covering under their blankets, yet they always remained on deck. Below, in the after hold of the vessel, they had a fire, at which they boiled and roasted the provisions that were given them. They examined, with much attention, the steam-engine, the hissing and roaring of which interested them extremely. They formed groups of different kinds; many were busy in improving the painting of their faces, at their small looking-glasses; others were smoking their pipes in philosophical ease; and others lay asleep on the floor, wrapped in their blankets. They very readily
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acquiesced, whenever we asked them to sing; their chorus-singing was remarkable; it rises and falls, now loud now low, often quavering, yet, on the whole, not inharmonious; and though it has some resemblance with that of the Botocudos, in Brazil, it was by no means so rude and savage. Sometimes they shouted aloud, and generally ended their song with their war-whoop — a shrill cry, in which they cause the voice to quaver, by holding the hand before the mouth.About ten o'clock the Warrior approached Jefferson barracks, where the inhabitants had assembled on the shore to see the Indian deputation land. The Indians sung a wild chorus, rattling their weapons, and, as soon as they had landed, marched in procession, led by their chiefs, to the heights, where the barracks formed a quadrangle, open to the river, enclosing a large space. General Clarke introduced us to General Atkinson, the commandant of the place;
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tuft behind, not a little contributed.We then examined the barracks, in which four companies of the 6th regiment were quartered. The hospital is a detached building; the surrounding country is open prairie;
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in the vicinity of the buildings, however, it is covered with a wood of slender oaks, without underwood, and from the eminence is a very agreeable prospect over the river. General Atkinson invited us to dinner, and introduced us to his family. At three o'clock we again embarked on the Warrior with all the Indians, and reached St. Louis late in the evening.As it was my intention to travel through the interior of the western part of North America, and, if possible, the Rocky Mountains, St. Louis was unquestionably the most proper basis for such an enterprise. The question was, whether it was more advisable to go by the caravans by land to Santa FÄ, or to proceed by water up the Missouri? Captain Stewart (of Grand Tully), an English traveller, with whom I had become acquainted at St. Louis, was on the point of setting out by land by the caravan, and it would have been agreeable to me to travel in his company;
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to prefix a few words respecting this American Fur Company. The first regular company of this kind in the United States was the Michilimakinack Fur Company, established in 1790. Its capital belonged chiefly to some persons in Canada; but as foreigners were not allowed to trade with the Indians in the United States, some citizens of the latter gave it the sanction of their names.233
and violent opposition and rivalry arose between the three companies, which continued till 1826.In British North America, two great fur companies were founded at an earlier period — the North-west, and the Hudson's
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Bay Company, which for a long time were at open war with each other, but afterwards joined, and still exist under the name of the Hudson's Bay Company.At St. Louis I had become acquainted with several very interesting persons; Major Ofallon, having been formerly agent of the Indian nations on the Missouri, was well acquainted with the country, and assisted me with his advice, as well as Major Dougherty,
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the Upper Missouri, and was now on the point of proceeding on board the steamer to Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellow Stone River. Both gentlemen received me with great politeness, and readily acceded to my request.Our necessaries for this journey,
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these persons, who were well acquainted with the Indian territory, were to accompany us up the Missouri to their several stations. Major Ofallon, whom we visited at his pleasant country seat, near St. Louis, had the kindness to furnish me with the map of the course of the Missouri, by Lewis and Clarke, on a large scale.Before we left St. Louis, another deputation of Saukie Indians arrived from the Lower Missouri, who held councils with General Clarke. They came down the Missouri in long double canoes. Among them were several very strong, robust men, who, when they were in liquor, were dreadfully savage and wild. One of their most distinguished warriors, who was remarkable for a curved nose, exactly such as we see in the Mexican sculptures, suffered severely from consumption; his family seemed much concerned about him; the women sat around him and lamented. The time passed rapidly in observing these interesting people, till the 10th of April, which was the day fixed for our departure.
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Chapter X
Departure from St. Louis — The Engagés, or Voyageurs — St. Charles — Gasconade River — Osage River — Jefferson City — Boonville and Franklin — Arrow Rock — Chariton — Grand River — Battle of the Missouri Indians — Fire Prairie — Dangerous place and situation of the vessel — Fort Osage — The Osages — Liberty — Quicksands — Konzas River — Boundary of the United States --The Konzas Indians — Pilcher 's Expeditions — Little Platte River — Dwelling of the Joways — Diamond Island — Cantonment of Leavenworth.
ON the 10th of April, at eleven o'clock, all our company having collected, the Yellow Stone left St. Louis; Mr. Pierre Chouteau, and several ladies of his family, accompanied us to St. Charles.
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of them are French Canadians, or descendants of the French settlers on the Mississippi and Missouri.The appearance of the river above St. Louis did not differ from that already described. The red-bud (Cercis Canadensis) appeared as underwood in the forests, covered with dark red blossoms before the appearance of the leaves, which form red stripes along the shore, and make a pleasing contrast with the young, bright green leaves of the willows. At noon, Reaumur's thermometer on board was at +17Ë°. We had soon passed the 16Ë miles to the mouth of the Missouri,
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the stream they generally have a naked, sandy point, with layers of thick, heavy timber; young willows grow first, then poplars, and, lastly, hard timber. In many places in the forests, and between the willows, we observed the high rushes (Equisetum hyemale) which are said to be injurious to the horses, unless salt is given them with it.Next morning we reached St. Charles, on the N. E. shore, one of the oldest French settlements on the Missouri, consisting of about 300 houses, where the massive church, with its low tower, has a very good appearance. The environs of this scattered village are rather bare, but there were many European fruit trees in blossom. Most of the houses are built of wood, but a modern part of the place is of brick. On an eminence rising behind it, stands an old stone tower, which formerly served as a defence against the Indians. We lay to, opposite St. Charles, where Messrs. Mc Kenzie and Dougherty joined us, and M. Chouteau and his family took leave, and returned to St. Louis. After stopping a few hours, we continued our voyage till a storm of wind filled the air with sand, from the sand banks, and compelled us to stop after twelve o'clock, above the whirlpool, called Remoux á Baguette;
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peach trees were in blossom; among the strange forms of the rocks, I saw one flattened at the top like a table, on a thin stem, and quite isolated. The country is here pretty well peopled, and game is rather rare in the forests, at least we were told that stags, bears, and wild turkeys were not often found there. The people settle on the eminences, rather than below on the bank of the river, where the air is [114] said to be less salubrious. The inundations of the river form marshes on the low grounds, which, being protected from the sun by the surrounding trees, produce fevers. Flint, in his History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley,241
on the right bank, where a cheerful fire of large logs was soon made, round which our engagés assembled and chatted incessantly in French. We spent part of the night with Messrs. Mc Kenzie, Dougherty, and Sanford, under the canopy of the starry heavens, while a couple of clarionets, on board the vessel, played Scotch airs and the famous "Yankee-doodle."On the morning of the 13th of April, the weather was serene and cool, the thermometer, at eight in the morning, +5° Reaum., and at noon, +9°. We had lain to, for the night, near Otter Island,
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of the buck-eye trees (Pavia) which grew in great abundance.From Ctôe-Sans-Dessein, you soon come to Jefferson City, on the south bank of the Missouri, the capital, as it is called of the State of Missouri, where the governor resides.
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a plain brick building of moderate size. The gentle eminences, on which the place was built about ten years ago, are now traversed by fences, and the stumps of the felled trees are everywhere seen.The morning of the 14th of April was clear but cool; at 8 o'clock +8°, a thick mist rising from the river. On a wooded eminence, on the left hand, at some distance from the bank, is a high, isolated rock, which stands like a tower in the forest. Major Dougherty, once passing this place with some Joway Indians, was told by them, that there was a tradition among their ancestors, that this rock was formed of the dung of a race of bisons, which lived in heaven, but they themselves no longer believed this fable. The Manito rocks, two isolated blocks, about fifty feet high, which have been mentioned by many travellers, appear below, on the bank of the river. They are mentioned in the account of Major Long's Expedition, which contains much information respecting the Missouri, as far as Council Bluff, to which I refer. We learn from that work, that almost all these calcareous rocks of the Missouri contain organic remains, encrinites, &c. On the rocks, which are divided by ravines into broad rounded shapes, like towers, the Virginia red cedar grows, and falcons build their nests. We see here on the rocky walls red spots, strokes and figures, remaining from the times when the Indians dwelt here: two towering overhanging rocks, in which there are several caves, put me in mind of the ruins of the castle of Heidelburg. Just before dinner we reached Rockport, a village founded two years ago, on the Manito River, six miles up which river Columbia is situated.
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this whole country was in the possession of the Indians. After passing Manito and Bonne Femme Creek, we stopped at the village of Boonville on the left bank, opposite which is Old Franklin.On the following morning (April 15th), proceeding on our voyage, we passed little Arrow Rock, and found a very fertile and rather populous country. Near the mouth of Chariton River, there are several islands, covered with willows, poplar, and hard timber. The river here makes a considerable bend; the numerous sand banks did not permit us to proceed in a direct line, but compelled us to take the narrow channel, at the outer edge of the bend, and to take soundings continually, being in great danger of striking against the snags. Some parts of the banks were rent in a remarkable manner by the rapid stream, when the water was high. In many places, large masses, fifteen or eighteen feet in height, had sunk down, with poplars thirty or forty feet high, as well as entire fields of maize, and piles of timber, which form together a wild scene of devastation, to which the broken poplars not a little contributed.
The drift wood on the sand bank, consisting of the trunks
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of large timber trees, forms a scene characteristic of the North American rivers; at least I saw nothing like it in Brazil, where most of the rivers rise in the primeval mountains, or flow through more solid ground. On the banks which we now passed, the drifted trunks of trees were in many places already covered with sand; a border of willows and poplars was before the forest, and it is among these willow bushes that the Indians usually lie in ambush, when they intend to attack those who tow their vessels up the river by long ropes. At five o'clock in the afternoon we reached the mouth of Grand River, which was then very shallow, almost as broad as the Wabash. The Yellow Stone nearly run aground at the mouth of this river, and stirred up the sand so as to discolour the water. The Joway Indians dwelt on the Grand River till 1827, when they removed to Little Platte River.We lay to, for the night, beyond Waconda Creek.
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de Boeuf, which, doubtless, has its name from the caps, with ox horns, which the Indians, who formerly dwelt here, wore in their dances. Some highly dangerous submerged snags left only a very narrow channel open for our vessel. At ten [117] o'clock we came to some excessively dangerous parts, where our vessel frequently struck, and we were obliged to stop the engine, and to push by poles. The vessel stuck fast in the sand, and it was necessary to fasten it to the trees on the bank till it could be got afloat again. At this point the great forests begin to be interrupted by open places, or prairies, and we were at the part called Fox Prairie, where the Saukie and Fox Indians, and, perhaps, some other nations,To-day we saw, for the first time, from the deck of our vessel, the prairies of the Lower Missouri covered with luxuriant young grass, but the air was misty, and bounded our prospect. In the afternoon we took in fuel at Webb's warehouse; the river was here again covered with wood, which so greatly impeded our progress, that we were obliged to
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lay to for the night, seven miles above Webb's warehouse. In the morning of the 17th we saw only an uninterrupted forest; in the course of the day we again encountered much danger from the quantity of snags, which, in some places, scarcely left a channel of ten feet in breadth; but our pilot steered, with great dexterity, between all these dangers, where many a smaller vessel had been wrecked. During this hazardous navigation, we were all on deck, anxiously expecting the result, but everything went off well. We afterwards sounded, sought another channel, but proceeded very slowly, so that we only passed Fire Prairie,Our engine was broken, so that we could not proceed till the next morning (18th April). On that morning I had the misfortune to break my last Reaumur's thermometer, so that, henceforth, all the observations of the temperature are according to Fahrenheit's scale. Some of my people, attracted by the cries of the wild turkeys, were tempted to land, but returned without having met with any success. I happened to have taken no piece with me, which I much regretted, for a wild turkey-cock came out of a bush about ten paces from me, and stood still, looking at me, while his splendid feathers shone in the sun. Vegetation was rather backward. A large flock of sandhill cranes, taking their course to the north-east, filled the air with their cries; their note is very similar to that of the European crane. After the people had returned on board, at the repeated summons of the bell, we proceeded on our voyage, but were soon obliged to take soundings, and to saw off some dangerous snags; we then landed twenty men on a sand bank, to tow the [118] steamer, but their efforts broke the rope, and they all tumbled one
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upon another, to the great amusement of those on board. By way of precaution, our vessel was fastened to a large tree, which proved our safety, for the rudder was soon afterwards deranged, and rendered unserviceable. It was repaired about two o'clock, but we soon run aground on a sand bank, where we were obliged to remain all night, in a rather unsafe situation, for the current, on the bank, was very strong, and we could not fasten the vessel to anything, so that we might easily have been carried down the stream; the river, however, continued to subside. On the morning of the 19th a flat boat was procured, to lighten our vessel, by landing a part of the cargo, which was piled up in the wood, on the bank, and covered with cloths. Mr. Bodmer made a faithful sketch of this scene.At four o'clock in the afternoon, the crew had got the steamer off the sand bank into deeper water, on the right, a little below the mouth of Fishing Creek.
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are peaceably disposed towards the Americans; and the Fur Company have trading posts in their territory. The whole tract, from the Osage River, through which we have passed, was formerly theirs, but they sold a part of it to the United States, and they are now entirely forced back into the prairies, on the river Arkansas.We lay to, for the night, a short distance below Fort Osage. On the 20th, in the morning, Blue Water River was hid from us, by a long island, on the steep banks of which large snags, covered with sand and earth, projecting very far, formed a threatening point.
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a thick carpet of verdure, chiefly consisting [119] of the leaves of the May-apple (Podophyllum), everywhere covered the mountains. The papaw trees were just opening their buds. This is about the northern limit for the growth of this tree. Some keel-boats were lying here, belonging to the Fur Company of Messrs. Ashley and Soublette, which was just established as a rival to the American Fur Company.251
the Missouri. Mr. Mc Kenzie had sent for him to steer our vessel up the river, and he fully justified his reputation. He was likewise a sportsman, and brought us several turkeys which had been lately shot. Before evening we became acquainted with the quicksands of the Missouri. These are sand banks which are so soft that one immediately sinks in them. We saw an ox, which went deeper at every motion, while nobody could afford it any assistance.On the next morning (21st April), we reached the mouth of the river Konza, or Konzas, called by the French, RiviÄre des Cans, which is not quite so broad as the Wabash, and was now very shallow. Its clear green water was distinguished by a well-defined, undulating line, from the muddy stream of the Missouri. The steam-boat has navigated the Konzas about seven miles upward, to a trading-post of the American Fur Company, which is now under the direction of a brother of Mr. P. Chouteau.
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these parts. Among them were the Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, &c., &c.Proceeding 90 or 100 miles up the river, you come to the villages of the Konzas (Cans, of the French), the best accounts of whom are given by Mr. Say in the narrative of Mr. Long's travels.
We were now in the free Indian territory, and felt much more interested in looking at the forests, because we might expect to meet with some of their savage inhabitants. We examined the country with a telescope, and had the satisfaction of seeing the first Indian, on a sand bank, wrapped in his blanket; but our attention was soon called to the obstacles on the river: we avoided one dangerous place, where the Missouri was so full of trunks of trees that we were forced to put back; but at noon, when the thermometer was at 75°, we got among drift wood, which broke some of the paddles of our wheels, so that it was necessary to stop the engine. Forty-two of our men, most of whom had been out with their fowling-pieces, came on board. Among them was Dr. Fellowes, a young physician, going to the cantonment at Leavenworth.
The underwood of the forest consisted chiefly of Laurus benzoin and Cercis Canadensis; the ground was covered with Equisetum hyemale, from one and a half to two feet high. Limestone everywhere stood out; large blocks of it
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were on the bank. The Little Platte River here falls into the Missouri. On the northern bank, seven miles up that river, are the villages of the Joway Indians, who speak the same language as the Ottowas.The next morning, 22nd of April, was warm and cheerful, the thermometer being at 64Ë° Fahrenheit, at half-past seven o'clock. About six, we passed several islands, separated by narrow channels, where our pilot steered so close to the left bank that the hens which we had on board flew to the land.
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mounted and armed militia, who are well acquainted with Indian warfare.We were stopped at this place, and our vessel searched for brandy, the importation of which, into the Indian territory, is prohibited;
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Chapter XI.
Dangerous place, Wassoba-Wakandaga — Independence River — Blacksnake Hills, with Roubedoux Trading House — The Joways and Saukies — Nadaway River — Wolf River — Grand Nemahaw River — Country of the Half-breeds — Nishnebottoneh River — Little Nemahaw River — Violent Storm — Weeping-water Creek — La Platte River — Belle Vue, Dougherty's Agency — The Omaha Indians — Their Dance — Council Bluffs — Boyer's Creek — Little Sioux River — Blackbird Hills — Floyd's Grave — Big Sioux River — Joway River — Vermilion Creek — Jacques River — The Punca Indians — Meeting with the Assiniboin Steamer.
THE Yellow Stone left the cantonment at five in the afternoon of the 22nd of April, and we soon reached the narrow part of the river called, by the Osages and Konzas, Wassoba-Wakandaga (Bear-Medicine).
The next morning, 23rd of April brought us a storm, with thunder, but without lightning. Early in the morning a large branch of a tree, lying in the water, forced its way into the cabin, carried away part of the door case, and then broke off, and was left on the floor. After this accident, when one might have been crushed in bed, we came to Cow Island, where, in 1818, some troops, on their way to Council Bluff,
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were overtaken by the frost, and obliged to pass the winter.257
On the 24th we saw the chain of the Blacksnake Hills, but we met with so many obstacles in the river that we did not reach them till towards the evening. They are moderate eminences, with many singular forms, with an alternation of wooded and open green spots. Near to the steep bank a trading house has been built, which was occupied by a man named Roubedoux, an agent of the Fur Company.
When the steam-boat lay to, between 500 or 600 paces from the trading house, some of the engagés of the company came on board, and reported that the Joway Indians, whose village was about five or six miles distant, had made an incursion into the neighbouring territory of the Omahas, and killed six of these Indians, and brought in a woman
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and child as prisoners, whom they offered for sale. Major Dougherty, to whose agency the Joways belong, immediately landed to rescue the prisoners, accompanied by Major Bean and Mr. Bodmer, but they returned, at eleven o'clock at night, without having accomplished their object, because the Joways, fearing his reproaches, had completely intoxicated both themselves and their prisoners.On the forenoon of the following day, the 25th, we passed the mouth of the Nadaway River,
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masses of the flower of the Cercis. The canal between Nadaway Island and the cantonment is called Nadaway Slew, at the end of which we saw the remains of some Indian huts. In a dark glen in the forest, we observed a long Indian hut, which occupied almost its whole breadth, and must have served for a great number of persons. The bald eagle had built its nest on many of the high trees on the bank. In some places we saw smoke rising in the forest; in others, the trees and the ground were burnt quite black. Such fires are sometimes caused by the Indians, in order to escape the pursuit of their enemies, and sometimes, also, by the agents of the fur traders. We were told that the forest was green, this year, a fortnight earlier than usual. We saw everywhere pairs of the beautiful Anas sponsa, which came out of the holes in the bank, where they doubtless had their nests. Before dusk we reached the mouth of Wolf River, where an eagle had built her nest. The Oto Indians, mixed with some Missouris, live in these parts, on the west bank of the Missouri.On the following morning, April 26th, we saw great numbers of water fowl, and many wild geese with their woolly young; the parents never abandoned them, even when our people shot at them. The care and anxiety which these birds shewed for their young interested us much. We came to the mouth of the Grand Nemahaw river in a beautiful romantic country, from which, to the Little Nemahaw, the territory of the people called Half-breeds extends. Among the Omaha, Oto, Joway, and Yankton (Sioux) Indians, there lived from 150 to 200 of their descendants by white men, to whom they assigned this tract of land as their property. They had taken this resolution two years before, but had not yet carried it into execution. The land was given
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by the Otos to whom it belonged, and the other tribes bore part of the expenses. Towards noon, when the thermometer was at 27°, we again, several times touched the bottom, near Tarkio [125] River, but without receiving any injury. Picturesque forests alternate with the verdant alluvial banks of the river, and Indian hunting huts were everywhere seen, but no inhabitants. One may travel thousands of miles along this river without seeing a human being. From the mouth of the Nishnebottoneh to Council Bluffs, there is a narrow green prairie before the chain of hills; the mouth itself is between lofty trees on the east bank. In the wood below, Major Dougherty once killed twenty elks, all belonging to one troop. They had divided, and part broke into the ice in the river, where they fell a prey to the Otos who pursued them. Beavers formerly abounded in this river, but they are now extirpated. When the evening sun, gradually sinking behind the tall forest, illumined the whole country, we had a lovely view of the chain of hills, variously tinged with brilliant hues of violet, pink, and purple, while the broad mirror of the river and adjacent forest shone as if on fire. Silence reigned in these solitudes, the wind was hushed, and only the dashing and foaming of our steamboat interrupted the awful repose. We were disagreeably roused from our reverie by our vessel striking against the snags in the river. We passed the night near Morgan's Island, not far from which there was formerly a trading house for the Oto Indians, but it no longer existed.The next morning, proceeding on our voyage, we plainly
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observed in the steep banks of the river, the alternate strata of clay and sand, with a thick layer of fertile black mould at the top, and, about eight feet below the surface, a black stratum of bituminous coal, or coal slate, which we were, however, unable to examine closely. On the bank we saw what are called pumice stones, which are pieces of the rock of the Upper Missouri, changed by fire, and brought down by the river; the Indians use this pumice stone to smooth their tanned and hardened skins. At the mouth of the Little Nemahaw River, the Missouri was very shallow. Our vessel having received several violent shocks by striking, and a storm, accompanied by heavy rain, arising, we ran aground, about noon, on a sand bank, and were obliged to put out a boat to take soundings, but the wind, which blew with increasing violence from the open prairie on the south-west, drove us further into the sand bank. Every moment it became more furious; our vessel lay almost on her side, which the people endeavoured to counteract by fastening her with strong cables to the trees lying in the water. After dinner several of our hunters went on shore, but the boat had scarcely returned, when the storm suddenly increased to such a degree that the vessel appeared to be in imminent peril. One of our chimneys was thrown down, and the foredeck was considered in danger; the large coops, which contained a number of fowls, were blown overboard, and nearly all of them drowned. As they got upon the sand banks they were afterwards taken up, with other things which we had been obliged to throw overboard; our cables had, happily, held fast, and, as the wind abated a little, Captain Bennett hoped to lay the vessel close to the bank, which was twenty feet high, where it would be safe [126] but the storm again arose, and we got deeper and deeper into the sands. Some of our hunters and Mr. Bodmer appeared on the bank, and wanted to be taken on board, but the boat could not262
be sent, and they were obliged to seek shelter from the storm in the neighbouring forests. Mr. Mc Kenzie, and other persons acquainted with the Missouri, assured us they had never encountered so violent a storm in these parts. After four o'clock, however, the wind abated, and the boat was dispatched to pick up the articles we had lost.On the following day we were obliged to lighten the ship before we could proceed, by landing the wood which we had taken in the previous day, and many other articles. Our vessel, however, soon ran aground again, and as we could not proceed, we made the vessel go backwards to the right bank, where we passed the night. In the preceding year the Yellow Stone had been detained five days at this place. Towards evening a flock of above 100 pelicans, flying northwards, passed over us. Their flight was in the form of a wedge, and sometimes of a semicircle. On the 29th, we found sufficient water, and proceeded; a still larger flock of pelicans induced our engagés to make use of their rifles, and they winged one of the birds, which strutted about on the shore, but we could not venture to take it. At half-past seven, A.M., we were at a place called the Narrows of Nishnebottoneh; here, about thirty miles from its mouth, this river comes so near to the Missouri, that between both there is an interval of only 200 paces. The appearance of the chain of hills beyond the Nishnebottoneh is very remarkable.
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met with. By a general agreement the Otos, Joway, Fox, and Saukie Indians hunt this country in common. Having been on shore for some time, I was returning to the vessel when the pilot called out that there was a rattlesnake very near me, the rattle of which he heard; I looked, and immediately found the animal, and having stunned it with some slight blows, I put it into a vessel in which there were already a live heterodon and a black snake, where it soon recovered. The three agreed very well together, but were afterwards put into a cask of brandy to go to Europe. This rattlesnake was of the species Crotalus tergeminus, first described by Say, which is very common on the Missouri. The water being too shallow, it was necessary partly to unload the vessel on a sand bank, and to stop for the night. On the morning of the 30th, many attempts were made to move from this spot; we sounded, put out thirty men, but were at last obliged to return to the place where we had passed the night. Messengers were then sent up the river to endeavour to procure a keelboat; meanwhile all our hunters went ashore. I found in the vicinity traces of the Indians, and large traces of wolves in the sand. A storm drove us back to the vessel, and soon drenched us with a torrent of rain. Our hunters killed a wild goose, a wood duck, and an owl, and brought a [127] black snake with them; one of them had broken off a piece of poison vine, by which his hands and face were much swollen; but the people here do not much mind such accidents, though the swelling frequently lasts many days.The 1st of May set in with rain and a clouded sky; the forests were dripping wet; during the night we had observed some fireflies. Numerous flocks of two kinds of swallows passed us, flying to the north. About noon a white catfish was caught by one of the lines which we had thrown out; a second broke the strong line as we were drawing it
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up. The first we had caught weighed sixty pounds, and we soon took another weighing sixty-five pounds, and a third weighing 100 lbs, in the jaws of which was the hook of the line that had been broken. In the stomach of this and the other cat-fish were found large pieces of pork, the bones of fowls, &c., feet of geese, all refuse from the vessels; and likewise the entire gills of another large fish. A great number of leeches were attached to the gills of these fish. It is only on the Upper Missouri that this fish attains so large a size.On the following morning the Missouri had risen a little. In the neighbouring thickets some birds were singing, or rather twittering, and there was nothing like the loud concert which, at this season of the year, animates the European forests. The Yellow Stone did not set out till near eleven o'clock. In the afternoon we came to some almost perpendicular hills on the bank, the base of which consisted of violet, the middle of bluish grey, the upper part of yellow red clay. In some places a whole colony of swallows had built against them. About the place where Weeping-water Creek opens, among beautiful thickets, before the green hills of the prairies, we met with great obstructions, and were several times obliged to put the vessel back. We reached Five Barrel Islands, in a broad part of the river, just when the evening sun gave a peculiar charm to the verdant landscape.
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at hand at Belle Vue. He was a man who had much experience in the trade with the Indians, and had often visited the Rocky Mountains. As he was shortly to undertake an expedition to the mountains, with a body of armed men, he turned back with us.Early on the morning of the 3rd of May, we came to the hill called by the Otos and Omahas — Ischta Maso, or Ischta Manso (the iron eye). It is rather higher than the neighbouring hills, and a small stream of the same name runs from its side into the Missouri.
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in the afternoon we reached M. Fontenelle's dwelling, consisting of some buildings, with fine plantations of maize, and verdant wooded hills behind it. A part of the plantations belongs to the government. The prairie extends beyond the hills. The land is extremely fertile; even when negligently cultivated, it yields 100 bushels of maize per acre, but is said to produce much more when proper care is bestowed on it. The cattle thrive very well, and the cows give much milk, but some salt must now and then be given them. M. Fontenelle expected to possess, in a few years, 5,000 swine, if the Indians did not steal too many of them. The government of the United States bought of the Indians a great tract of land to the east of the Missouri, extending to Big Sioux River, but have hitherto left them in possession of this land.Belle Vue, Mr. Dougherty's post, is agreeably situated. The direction of the river is north-west. Below, on the bank, there are some huts, and on the top the buildings of the agents, where a sub-agent, Major Beauchamp, a blacksmith, and some servants of the company, all lived with their families, who attend to the plantations and affairs of the company. These men were mostly married to women of the tribes of the Otos and Omahas; all, on our landing, immediately came on board. Their dress was of red or blue cloth, with a white border, and cut in the Indian fashion. Their faces were broad and coarse, their heads large and round, their breasts pendent, their teeth beautiful and white, their hands and feet small and delicate. Their children had dark brown hair, and agreeable features. Belle Vue was formerly a trading post of the Missouri Fur Company, on the dissolution of which it was bought by M. Fontenelle, who parted with it to the government, and was appointed
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to the agency of the Otos, Omahas, Pawnees, and Joways.[129] It was near this place that a marauding party of twelve Joways lately crossed the river, and pursued a defenceless company of Omahas, who had just left Belle Vue; and, having overtaken them three miles off, killed and plundered all of them, except some who were desperately wounded, and whom they believed to be dead. The victors returned by another way. A woman and a child recovered. Major Dougherty took leave of us at Belle Vue, intending to go to the Omahas, and appease the vengeance of that tribe. About five in the afternoon we also left, and were proceeding along the west bank, when we met two Mackinaw
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by a boat which we had sent before. On the same bank we suddenly saw three Omaha Indians, who crept slowly along. They were clothed in buffalo robes, and had bows, with quivers made of skin, on their backs. About the nose and eyes they were painted white.Among these Indians there was a woman who had been severely wounded; namely, the well-known Mitain, who is spoken of in Major Long's "Travels to the Rocky Mountains," as an interesting instance of maternal affection, but without mentioning her name. She and her child had received many severe wounds, but were so fortunate as not to be scalped.
On the morning of the 4th of May, at half-past seven o'clock, the thermometer was at 69ž°. We had all round us beautiful low prairie hills, before which was alluvial land, thrown up by the [130] river, covered with fine grass. The river had risen an inch during the night. The noise and smoke of our steamer frightened all living creatures; geese and ducks flew off in all directions. There was formerly a village of the Joway Indians at this place, the inhabitants of which, on the death of their chief, returned to their countrymen further down. On the left bank there were whole tracts covered with dead poplars, which had been killed by
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the fires caused by the Indians in the forest and prairie. We soon saw the white buildings of Mr. Cabanné's trading post, which we saluted with some guns, and then landed.We were very glad to see, at the landing-place, a number of Omaha and Oto Indians, and some few Joways, who, in different groups, looked at us with much curiosity; all these people were wrapped in buffalo skins, with the hairy side outwards; some of them wore blankets, which they sometimes paint with coloured stripes. In their features they did not materially differ from those Indians we had already seen, but they were not so well formed as the Saukies. Many of them were much marked with the small pox. Several had only one eye; their faces were marked with red stripes: some had painted their foreheads and chins red; others, only stripes down the cheeks. Few only had aquiline noses, and their eyes were seldom drawn down at the corners; generally speaking, their eyes are small, though there are exceptions. They wore their hair loosely hanging down their backs; none had shaved their heads; and, on the whole, they looked very dirty and miserable. The countenances of the women were ugly, but not quite so broad and flat as those of the Foxes and Saukies; their noses, in general, rather longer. Their dress did not differ much from that of those Indians, and they wore the same strings of wampum in their ears. The men carried in their hands their tobacco pipes, made of red or black stone (a hardened clay), adorned with rings of lead or tin, which they generally obtain from the Sioux, at a high price.
This trading post consists of a row of buildings of various sizes, stores, and the houses of the engagés, married to Indian women, among which was that of Mr. Cabanné, which is two stories high. He is a proprietor of the American Fur Company, and director of this station.
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very kindly, and conducted us over his premises. From the balcony of his house was a fine view over the river, but the prospect is still more interesting from the hills which rise at the back of the settlement. Between the buildings runs a small stream, with high banks, which rises from a pleasant valley, in which there are plantations of maize for the support of the inhabitants. Mr. Cabanné had planted fifteen acres of land with this invaluable grain, which yield, annually, 2,000 bushels of that corn, the land here being extremely fertile. The banks of the stream are covered with fine high trees, and many of the plants were in flower, especially the beautiful blue lychnis, the white oak, &c. A high wind prevailed throughout the day, but, within doors, the weather was warm, 78° at four o'clock. Our vessel remained here the whole day, and we were besieged all the time by Indians, who caused a very disagreeable heat in our cabins. Among [131] them was a Joway, called Nih-Yu-Máh-Ni (la pluie qui marche), who sold us several articles of his dress. Mr. Bodmer made a sketch of the boy of an Omaha, whom the father first daubed with red paint. He took vermilion in the palm of the hand, spat upon it, and then rubbed it in the boy's face. The head of this boy was shaved quite smooth, excepting a tuft of hair in front, and another at the back.273
Indians a rattlesnake in brandy, and they gave me to understand that a child had lately been bitten by one of these animals, and died in consequence. The little child, lately wounded by the Joways, was brought to us; the wounds, though they had not been dressed and covered, were almost healed.We spent a very pleasant evening with Mr. Cabanné; sitting in the balcony of his house, we enjoyed the delightful temperature and the fine scene around us. The splendid sky was illumined by the full moon; silence reigned around, interrupted only by the noise of the frogs, and the incessant cry of the whip-poor-will, in the neighbouring woods, till the Indians assembled round the house, and, at the request of Mr. Cabanné, performed a dance. About twenty Omahas joined in it; the principal dancer, a tall man, wore on his head an immense feather cap, like those of the Camacans in Brazil, but larger and of less elaborate workmanship, composed of long tail and wing feathers of owls and birds of prey;
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white, ornamented at the handle with the skin of a polecat.The Omahas, or, as some erroneously call them, Mahas, were formerly a numerous tribe, but have been much reduced by frequent wars with their neighbours; the smallpox, too, has committed dreadful ravages, and there are now but few vigorous young men among them. Their language differs from that of the Otos, Missouris, and Joways;
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there is, however, an affinity between them. The best and most complete accounts of the Omahas are given by Mr. Say in his Narrative of Major Long's "Expedition to the Rocky Mountains," to which I would refer my readers.On the 5th of May, the Yellow Stone left Cabanné's trading house; the weather was warm [133] and serene; we passed the mouth of Boyer's Creek on the east bank, where the Missouri makes a bend, and saw the ruins of the former cantonment, or fort, at Council Bluffs.
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but the scurvy carried off 300 of the garrison in one winter. Mr. Sandford, who had rejoined us, once found here the large grinders of a mastodon, which are now in the possession of General Clarke, at St. Louis.At twelve at noon, we ran aground, but happily sustained no damage, at a dangerous place, where the left bank was blocked up with many snags, and which is called the Devil's Race-ground. The country was low and uniform till we again reached the hills, which were rather bare of wood, but of grotesque form, and covered with a fine verdant carpet. Near the mouth of the Soldier River, an engagé met us, who brought letters from the Assiniboin steamer. We went on pretty well till the evening, when we got upon a sand bank, and then made the vessel fast for the night; after which our people exerted themselves to get off the bank, in the midst of a storm of thunder and lightning.
The steamer was got afloat by daybreak on the 6th. On both sides there was alluvial soil, thickly covered with willows and poplars, mixed, in some places, with other trees. Here we saw, on a sand bank, two large wolves, which seemed to look at us with surprise. The Omaha Indians hunt on both banks of this part of the river; they are said to be the most indolent, dull, unintellectual, and cowardly of the Missouri Indians. At two in the afternoon we landed on the prairie, which was covered with tall trees, and forty or fifty of our men immediately began to hew down wood for fuel; there was abundance of grass, but not a single flower, which was caused by the prairie having been set on fire; black burnt wood was scattered about, and the ground itself was discoloured in places by the effects of the fire.
From this place the country becomes more and more level, and bare of wood, and the eye roves over the boundless prairie. Behind a willow-tree I saw some remains of Indian huts, in front of one of which a pole was set up, with
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a piece of red cloth attached to the top. The forest, which had been inundated, was likewise destitute of flowers; numerous traces of stags were everywhere seen. During the night a man deserted, whom Mr. Mc Kenzie had some time before put under arrest for having uttered vehement threats. The 7th day of May, the anniversary of our [134] departure from Germany, was very fine. We soon reached the chain of hills on the left bank, at a place where the yellow limestone rock was nearly perpendicular, and in which innumerable swallows had built their nests; these are called Wood's Hills, and do not extend very far. On one of them we saw a small, conical mound, which is the grave of the celebrated Omaha chief, Washinga-Sahba (the blackbird). In James's Narrative of Major Long's Expedition, is a circumstantial account of this remarkable and powerful chief, who was a friend to the white man: he contrived, by means of arsenic, to make himself feared and dreaded, and passed for a magician, because he put his enemies and rivals out of the way when it suited him. An epidemical smallpox carried him off, with a great part of his nation, in the year 1800, and he was buried, sitting upright upon a live mule, at the top of a green hill on Wakonda Creek. When dying, he gave orders that they should bury him on that hill, with his face turned to the country of the white men.278
(the great elk), of whom Godman, in his Natural History, has given a good portrait. He lives on the Horn River, which falls into the La Platte, about twenty miles above its mouth.On the following day (the 8th of May) we came to Floyd's Grave, where the sergeant of that name was buried by Lewis and Clarke. The bank on either side is low. The left is covered with poplars; on the right, behind the wood, rises a hill like the roof of a building, at the top of which Floyd is buried. A short stick marks the place where he is laid, and has often been renewed by travellers when the fires in the prairie have destroyed it. A little further up is Floyd's River, and on Floyd's Hills there were a few fir trees, over which the kite hovered in the air.
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At noon, with a temperature of 75°, there was such a violent wind, that the fine sand from the banks penetrated into the innermost parts of our vessel; the broad river was so agitated by the wind, that the pilot could not distinguish the sand banks, and we were obliged to lie to. In a small meadow in the woods we saw the giant footsteps of the elks, and likewise of the common [135] stag, which we would willingly have followed had not a rising tempest compelled us to return on board. Vivid lightning flashed in the horizon, the rain soon poured down in torrents, and at night a storm arose which, at midnight, raged with such fury, that we might have felt some alarm, had not our vessel been so well protected by the bank. The storm frequently forced open the doors of the upper cabin, and the rain beat into the room. Towards daybreak the tempest returned with increased violence; the flashes of lightning and the claps of thunder were incessant during the twilight, and everybody thought that the vessel must be struck.
The 9th of May set in with rain, a cloudy sky, and high wind; the thermometer, before so high, fell, at half-past seven o'clock, to 56°. When the storm had passed over, our vessel quitted the place where it had taken shelter. We passed along wild, desolate banks, then a green prairie, by a chain of steep hills, partly bare, partly covered with forests, or with isolated fir trees and picturesque ravines, with dark shadows, into which the close thicket scarcely allowed the
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eye to penetrate. We here saw, for the first time, a plant which now became more and more common; namely, the buffalo-berry-bush (Sheperdia argentea, Nutt), with pale, bluish-green, narrow leaves. At the mouth of the Joway River, which runs into the Missouri, on the south bank, at a very acute angle, clay-slate appeared to stand out on the bluffs, divided into narrow, horizontal strata, the lower of which were blackish-blue, and those above of yellowish-red colour.We continued our voyage, but soon lay to at the prairie, on the right bank, because Mr. Mc Kenzie wished to form a plantation at this place. The whole plain was covered with high, dry grass. On the bank of the river there was a fine border of tall timber trees, in which the turtle-dove cooed, and flocks of blackbirds were flying about. The hills of the prairie were covered with the finest verdure, and the singular forms of the hills afforded us an interesting
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subject of observation on the otherwise uniform appearance of the country. We halted for the night near the high trees that bordered the prairie, where there were numbers of ducks and plovers. As soon as it was dark, the young men set fire to the dry grass of the prairie, to give us the pleasure of seeing how the fire spread, but the attempt did not fully succeed, because there was [136] no wind. Mr. Mc Kenzie left some men here, with agricultural implements, to make a plantation; among them was one François Roi, of Rheims, whose name gave occasion to many innocent jokes, and we deliberated what name should be given to the kingdom he was going to found.On the following day, the 10th, we had been exactly four weeks since we left St. Louis. At the spot where we now were, it is said that large herds of buffaloes are seen in the winter, but we had not yet met with one of these animals. The character of the country was much changed; it is, for the most part, naked, and without woods. The trees which are found here are no longer lofty and vigorous, as on the Lower Missouri; yet the wild vines are still seen climbing on the bushes, though this, too, entirely ceases further up the river. Near the mouth of Vermilion Creek, the green hills of the prairie approach very near the water; and here we saw, on the back of one of the hills, a grave surrounded with poles, which was that of some Sioux Indians, who had been killed by lightning in a violent thunder-storm. At the mouth of the stream we saw wild ducks and geese, of which a pair of the latter, with six young ones, anxiously endeavoured to escape us. The female remained faithfully with her young ones, while the male flew away.
The morning of the following day (the 11th of May) brought us to the mouth of Jacques River, which was concealed from our view by a sand bank. The steep banks, which in Lewis and Clarke's map are called Calumet Bluffs,
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have deep ravines, and are of an ash-grey colour at the base, and yellow above. We reached the island called by those travellers Sego Island, where we found very little water, and then came to Lewis and Clarke's White Bear Bluffs, of which Mr. Bodmer made a drawing.283
on the left or southern bank, a number of Indians, between fifteen and twenty of whom rolled down the hills. As our people did not seem very desirous of having anything to do with them, and contented themselves with looking at them through a telescope, we took advantage of the fine weather to make an excursion into the prairie.The chain of hills, bounding the valley of the Missouri on the north, crossed the verdant prairie, in a straight line, at a distance of about 1,000 paces from the river. The appearance of this chain was singular, with perpendicular, yellow, calcareous walls, which indicated that the [137] river must, formerly, have flowed in that direction; and the cylindrical hollow marked the ancient bed of the river. In the prairie itself there were many pools of water, and we found several interesting plants, among which were some with long roots like carrots, especially the yellow flowering Batschia longiflora (Pursh.), and the Oxitropis Lamberti B. The great yellow-breasted lark (Sturnella, Vieill.), was everywhere seen in pairs, and its short, coy call, and its pleasing, whistling note, were heard from every side. Besides these, we saw the prairie hen, and the great long-billed curlews (Numenius longirostris), of which we shall speak hereafter. Skeletons of buffaloes were scattered in the plain, especially many skulls, but very few of which were entire.
When I returned to the vessel, I found there three Punca Indians, the chief of the tribe Shudegacheh,
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men, tall, and well-proportioned, with strongly-marked features, high cheek-bones, aquiline noses, and animated dark hazel eyes. Their hair hung down as far as the shoulders, and part of it lower; that of the chief was shorter, and fastened together in a plait. The upper part of the body of these Indians was naked, only they wore round the neck an ornamented band, and had a large slit in their ears: from those of the chief an ornament of shell work was suspended. His beard below the chin consisted of scanty hairs, which had been suffered to grow very long.The Puncas, as they are now universally called, or as some travellers formerly called them, Poncaras, or Poncars, the Pons of the French, were originally a branch of the Omahas, and speak nearly the same language. They have, however, been long separated from them, and dwell on both sides of Running-water River, and on Punca Creek, which Lewis and Clarke call Poncara. They formerly lived, like the Omahas, in clay huts, at the mouth of the river, but their powerful enemies, the Sioux and the Pawnees, destroyed their villages, and they have since adopted the mode of life of the former, living more generally in tents made of skins, and changing their place from time to time. Their external appearance and dress do not much differ from those of the Omahas. They are said to have been brave warriors, but have been greatly reduced by war and the smallpox. According to Dr. Morse's report, they numbered, in 1822, 1,750 in all; at present the total amount of their warriors is estimated at about 300.
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with here, has set up eight or nine leather tents, at the mouth of Basil Creek,As Major Bean was agent of the Puncas, they came to speak to him. The chief had formerly received, through the agent, a large silver medal of President Madison, which he wore suspended round his neck. On the face of all these medals, which are given as a distinction to the Indian chiefs, there is the bust of the President, and, on the reverse, two clasped hands, with a suitable inscription.
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He acted as interpreter, and communicated to me some words of the Punca language.The morning of the 12th of May was cold, there having been a hoar frost during the night. The Indians sat upon the bank, wrapped in their buffalo skins, as represented in the subjoined woodcut.
[139] While the Yellow Stone remained stationary, the Assiniboin attempted to pass the shallow place on the river, during which time the hunters went into the prairie. The Indians had a conference with their agent, in which the chief expressed a wish that their great father (the President) would send them several articles, particularly agricultural implements. The attitude and gestures of the speaker were graceful; his right arm and shoulder were bare, while he gesticulated with his hand; and his fine, manly countenance was very expressive. As he had not put on his leggins, we observed, on his muscular calves, two tattooed stripes crossing each other, X; otherwise, he was neither tattooed nor painted. Some of these Indians had been inoculated with the smallpox by a surgeon, whom Major Bean had taken to them the year before, and who had inoculated 2,600 Indians, of different tribes. Many of them had manifested distrust on this occasion; and, when he offered to perform the operation, said, "Now we are well; if we should become sick it will be time enough to submit to the operation." Shudegacheh had on the upper part of his arm a large, round scar, which he is said to have burnt into his flesh with his tobacco-pipe, on the death of a relation. Major Bean presented to the Indians, in the name of the Government, tobacco, powder, and ball, and the chief received a fine blanket. Mr. Mc Kenzie observed to him, that "the Puncas furnished too
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few skins, and did not plant maize enough; it was not possible to purchase anything of them;" to which he replied, that "there was no unity among his people; that they lived too scattered, and, therefore, he could not superintend them, and keep them to work." At noon, the thermometer being at 67°, our hunters returned, without having seen anything of consequence, except a couple of large curlews. The boats, which had been sent out to take soundings, likewise came back, and great exertions were made to lighten the steamer, by transferring part of the cargo to the Maria keel-boat. At length, at two o'clock, we were able to weigh anchor, and run awhile down the river, which was done with such rapidity that the Indians became giddy, and sat down on the floor. In this manner we turned round a sand bank, and proceeded upwards, along the south coast of the river, and in twenty minutes were opposite the huts of the Punca Indians. They lay in the shade of a forest, like white cones, and, in front of them, a sand bank extended into the river, which was separated from the land by a narrow channel. The whole troop was assembled on the edge of the bank, and it was amusing to see how the motley group crowded together, wrapped in brown buffalo skins, white and red blankets — some naked, of a deep brown colour. The little children, with their protuberant bellies,290
on the left bank. The flames rose from the forest to the height of 100 feet — fiery smoke filled the air: it was a splendid sight! A whirlwind had formed a remarkable towering column of smoke, which rose, in a most singular manner, in graceful undulations, to the zenith. Afterwards we came to steep hills, behind which is Manoel's Creek, so called from Manoel Lisa, a Spaniard, who formerly carried on the fur trade in these parts.
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Chapter XII
Running-water River (l'eau qui court) — Punca Creek — Remarkable Mountains — Cedar Island — Delay caused by the insufficient Depth of the Water — First Sight of Buffaloes and Antelopes — Burning Mountain — Black Strata of bituminous Coal — Bijoux Hills -- Prairie Dogs — Shannon, or Dry River — White River — Ruins of Cedar Fort — Fort Look-out (Sioux Agency) — Visit to it — The Dacotas of the Branch of the Yanktons — Wahktageli — Big Bend, or Grand Détour — Medicine Hills — Teton River — Fort Pierre — Stay there — The Tetons, a branch of the Dacotas or Sioux.
ON the morning of the 13th of May, the Yellow Stone passed the mouth of the Running-water River (l'eau qui court),
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prairies. In this neighbourhood are many villages of the prairie dogs (Arctomys ludoviciana, Ord.), in the abandoned burrows of which, rattlesnakes abound. It has been affirmed that these two species of animals live peaceably together in these burrows; but observers of nature have proved that the snakes take possession of abandoned burrows only, which is in the usual course of things. Deep [142] gullies traverse the summits of the banks, above which the turkey buzzards were hovering. On a sudden, three Punca Indians appeared and hailed us; they were wrapped in their buffalo skins, and carried their bows and arrows on their shoulders. One of them had a very singular appearance, having bound up the hair of his head, so that it stood quite upright. Though they made signs to us to take them on board, we did not stop, but renounced the pleasure of more closely observing these interesting people. The trees on the edge of the prairie, by which we passed, were old, thick, and low, with their summits depressed and cramped. They were the resort of the Carolina pigeon, which is found all along the banks of the river. The red cedars, in particular, were stunted and crippled, often thicker than a man's body in the trunk, and very frequently wholly withered. The swallows' nests — numbers of which were built against the steep banks — were not yet inhabited. We were unable, on account of the shallowness, to reach a fine grove of poplars on the right bank, and proceeded along the hills of the left bank, which were seventy or eighty feet in height, where the red cedar abounded, and we stopped to fell a number of these trees. A wild lateral ravine here opened to the Missouri, up the steep sides of which our wood-cutters climbed, and cut down the cedars, which were loaded with their black berries. The wood of this tree emits a very aromatic scent, and it is much used by the steam-boats for fuel, because it supplies a great deal of steam, and the berries, as we were told, are eaten by293
the Indians for certain medicinal purposes. At the bottom of the narrow ravine, there was a thicket of elm, cedar, bird-cherry, clematis, celtis, celastrus, vine, and other shrubs; and the neighbouring lofty verdant hills of the prairie produced many beautiful plants, among which was Stanleya pinnatifida, with its splendid long bunches of yellow flowers. Returning to our vessel, when the bell gave the signal for departure, we found one of the three Punca Indians whom we had seen in the morning. He had taken advantage of our slow progress to overtake us. His hair hung down to his shoulders, and was tied together in a queue. His countenance was good-natured and friendly; he wore a buffalo robe, had a bow and arrows on his back, and, in his hand, a large hussar sabre, which he had received as a present. Major Bean gave him some tobacco, powder, lead, and ball; and after he had satisfied his craving appetite he returned, well satisfied, to his comrades. In the afternoon the country was by no means attractive, rather flat, and not so verdant; our vessel sustained many violent shocks. The chain of hills, in the distance, appeared in more and more singular forms, partly resembling ramparts and batteries, and then again perfectly flat, like table-land. An isolated, round, conical eminence, which is called the Tower, stands on them.Upon an island, to which we came, was a real wilderness; the beavers had formed a kind of abattis, by felling poplars; another island was remarkable because there is a hot spring opposite to it, on the main land, the water of which has no mineral taste. On the left bank, about five or six miles below Cedar Island, we observed the remains of Indian huts. Mr. Mc Kenzie had met here, in the preceding year, a camp
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of the Punca Indians. On the steep banks were coloured stripes, or regular strata; some black, doubtless bituminous coal, others reddish brown, and, in several places, burnt black. Some parts had burnt very lately, and, in many places, had fallen in. Unhappily we were not able more closely to examine these remarkable strata. We fastened the vessel for the night to the western coast; and the lightning was very brilliant.On the following day, the 15th of May, we saw in the thickets, behind which the prairie extended, many traces of an Indian camp; heads of elks, stags, and other animals, were scattered about; the marks of horses' feet were everywhere visible; and a practicable trodden path led through the thickets. At noon, when the thermometer was at 77°, the Assiniboin again passed us, and, with the keel-boat Maria, vanished from our sight. At four in the afternoon, we reached the place where we had stopped the preceding night, with the help of the keel-boat, which had returned, and at length succeeded in getting forward; but again had a storm of thunder and lightning. The whole country, beyond the banks, consisted of hills, rising one above the other; some covered with verdure, some of a yellowish colour, mostly without life and variety. While the lightning flashed from the dense black clouds, we again overtook the Assiniboin, which had landed its wood-cutters to fell some cedars on the steep mountain. We, too, landed 300 paces further up, to cut down cedars for fuel. At this place there was the narrow deep ravine of a small stream, now dry, in which we caught a pale yellow bat, and saw some snakes, and the scattered bones of buffaloes. We climbed from the bottom of the ravine up the singular [144] eminences of the prairie, and collected some interesting plants, particularly the wild turnip. Two species of cactus were not yet in blossom; they are, probably, not sufficiently known
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to botanists. One of them has been taken for the Cactus opuntia; and Captain Back,On the following morning, the 16th of May, having passed a village of the prairie dogs, we reached, at nine o'clock, the Cedar Island, which is said to be 1,075 miles from the mouth of the Missouri.
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of the island is covered with a dark forest of red cedars, of which we immediately felled a good number. Their beautiful violet-coloured wood is traversed towards the edge by white veins, and is found very fit for ship-building. We crossed, with great pleasure, this wilderness of lofty cedars, the rough bark of which peels off of itself, and hangs down in long slips; many of them were withered, others broken and thrown down, or lying on the ground, covered with moss and lichens. The notes of numerous birds were heard in the gloom of this cedar forest, into which no ray of the sun could penetrate. Here, too, we found everywhere traces of the elks and stags, and saw where they had rubbed off the bark with their antlers. This may be considered as the limit to which the wild turkey extends on the Missouri. It is true that this bird is, now and then, found higher up, even on the Yellow Stone River; but these are exceptions, for beyond this place the woods are too open and exposed. The Indians, on the Upper Missouri, very readily barter for the tails of these fine birds, to use them as fans and ornaments, and Mr. Mc Kenzie, accordingly, took a good supply with him.On account of the high wind we were obliged to stop longer than we intended at Cedar Island, and took advantage of the delay to send out our hunters with their fowling-pieces. They brought back some birds, and a quadruped which was new to me. The wood-cutters had found, in a hollow tree, a nest of the large wood-rat, with four young ones. This fine animal has a tuft of hair at the end of its tail, and sometimes the whole tail is covered with hair. In colour and shape it resembles our Norway rat, and has not yet been mentioned as found on the Missouri, unless a couple of passages in Lewis and Clarke's Travels, which say, "very large rats were found here," refer to it.
[145] On the morning of the 17th we saw the first antelopes, or cabris, half a dozen of which fled over the
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hills, but at so great a distance that we could not well distinguish them; we, however, subsequently had the pleasure of seeing one of these animals stop so long on the summit of the bank that we could very plainly observe it nearer at hand. It gazed for a long time at the steamer, appeared to be alarmed, trotted away, then stopped again, and disappeared behind the hills. The antelope becomes more and more common in this part of the country, and we saw several to-day, but the wishes of our hunters were disappointed. The Indians use the skin of these animals for clothing, but they are not very eager in the chase of the antelope, except where the buffalo is scarce. As, on sounding the channel, only four feet of water were found, the steamer was moored to the bank, and we took our fowling-pieces. With difficulty we penetrated through the thickets of poplar and willow on the bank, where the large tracks of the elks and of the Virginian deer were everywhere deeply imprinted in the soft soil. We then reached the prairie, which is perfectly level, and extends for 300 or 400 paces to the hills. It was covered with high grass, and clusters of many different plants. Our people traversed the prairies in all directions, looking for the pomme blanche, which was very common. Near the thickets we saw the pretty Carolina pigeon, seeking its food on the ground, but, when we approached, all the birds immediately flew out of the prairie, and sought refuge in the recesses of the thickets. We had a fine, starlight, cool evening.On the 18th we saw the first buffaloes that we had met with on this voyage. Several of our hunters were immediately landed to pursue them. They ascended into a ravine, and disappeared behind the hills. We also landed, at noon, when the thermometer was at 68°. Beyond the thickets on the bank, there were some old isolated trees in the prairie, in which, as well as in the tall plants, bushes, and grass,
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there were numerous birds. During the day, the mosquitoes (Tipula) were so troublesome in the wood, that we could scarcely load our pieces; it is said that, in the height of summer, this nuisance is still more intolerable. The buffalo hunters returned to the vessel at the same time with us; they had, indeed, missed their object, but had killed a large buck antelope, as well as a great many prairie dogs, the heads of which were all mutilated by the rifle balls. As these little animals retreat to their burrows, on the approach of any strange object, and only put out their heads, the Americans, with their long rifles, generally hit them in this part: they are a favourite food among them. Our men brought back the skin and the head, as well as the flesh of the antelope which they had killed: they likewise brought me a fine grey eagle and a serpent (Col. eximus). The river being so shallow, we were not able to proceed on the following day, and continued our excursions on shore. I often passed my time in the lofty and shady forest which extended beyond the willow thickets on the banks, at the border of the open prairie. Sitting on an old trunk, in the cool shade, I could observe at leisure the surrounding scene. I saw the turkey buzzards, that hovered above the hills, contending against the high wind, while a couple of falcons frequently made a stoop at them, doubtless to defend [146] their nest. A couple of ravens likewise flew about them. The red-eyed finch, the beautiful Sylvia Ästiva, the Sylvia striata, and the wren, flew around me, the latter singing very prettily. If I passed beyond the prairie hills, I found the ground, on the long-extended ridge, covered with the blue flowers of the Oxitropis Lamberti (Pursh.), which grew in tufts about a foot high. There, too, I saw dens of the foxes and wolves. I saw a fine bird which we had not before met with, namely, the prairie hen (Tetrao phasianellus), a pair of which rose before me, and of which I first shot the cock. These birds are found300
in considerable numbers from this place up to the Rocky Mountains. In the daytime we suffered great heat in these excursions, while there was also a high wind, and the ground was hard and dry; the soles of our shoes became so polished on this ground and the hard dry grass, that it was difficult and fatiguing to walk on the slopes. We were forced to remain here many days, because the water was very shallow, and, during this time, we had several violent thunder-storms. It is a peculiarity of this part of the country that, in spring, rain, storms, and tempests prevail, while the summer and autumn are, in general, very dry. All the small streams in the extensive prairies then dry up, and there is a general want of water, except in the vicinity of the large rivers.On the 21st of May it was so cool that we were obliged to have fires in the cabins; the river had risen a little, and we endeavoured to proceed. Captain Pratte, of the Assiniboin, came on board with a man named May, a beaver hunter, who had left Fort Union, on the Yellow Stone, in March. He confirmed the account of the murder of the three men by the Arikkaras, and added the still more alarming intelligence, that thirteen of the Company's engagés had been killed by the Blackfoot Indians. He said that the herds of buffaloes had left the Missouri, and had been followed by the Sioux Indians, so that we must expect to see only a few of them on the river. The keel-boat of the Assiniboin had taken part of our cargo on board on the 22nd, and, as there was rather more depth of water, the Yellow Stone had been got afloat, after a delay of five days in this shallow place. We happened to be on the hills when the bell summoned us on board, and hastened as quickly as possible to the bank, but came too late, and were compelled to follow the vessel for a couple of hours, clambering over fragments of stone, pieces of rock, to creep through thickets full of thorns and burrs, or to wade through morasses; and not till eleven
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o'clock did we get on board. The hills on both sides of the river were of singular forms; some of them were crowned with rocks resembling ancient towers and ruins. The eminences had some dark spots, caused by black shining strata of coal. Many of these strata had been on fire, and one of them was extinguished only last year, after having burnt more than three years. Such a thick stratum of bituminous coal ran in a well-defined stripe on both sides of the river, at an equal elevation, along all the hills, as far as the eye could reach; and it is not difficult to follow this stratum for many hundred miles; it is only interrupted, at intervals, by ravines. Some lofty hills, hereabouts, are called Bijoux Hills, after a person of that name, who resided here many years.302
The surface consists of clay of various colours, partly resembling lithomarge; plates and fragments of foliated gypsum were scattered around, and seemed to stand out in the clay. When we reached the bare sterile heights which belong to the black burnt stratifications, I found the soil quite different from what it had appeared to me when I looked at it from below. The whole consists of a clay, which has undergone the effects of fire, and is partly burnt black on the surface. We saw no living creatures on these bare heights, except the finch (Fringilla grammaca), first described by Say. Several caves or dens of wolves, foxes, and marmots, were observed in the declivities of the hills. Between four and five o'clock, the keel-boat having been sent on before, the Yellow Stone proceeded along the northeast bank. Near the Shannon, or Dry River, the sun sank behind the poplar wood on the bank, and we lay to for the night. From the Shannon, the mouth of which is on the west side, the territory of the Sioux nations is reckoned to extend up the Missouri. On the east bank, as I have observed, it begins much sooner.
At five o'clock, on the following morning, the 25th of May, we had already reached the White River,
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stands isolated before the bank; it is seventy or eighty feet high, and 150 feet long. In the course of the day we came to a place where an Arikkara village had formerly stood, on the ridge of the hills, which was destroyed by the Sioux, and the inhabitants expelled. Opposite to this was Fort Lookout, where the French Fur Trading Company had a post. A little further up the river we saw, on the hills, some burying-places of the Sioux Indians; most of them were formed of a high platform, on four stakes, on which the corpse, sewn up in skins, lies at full length; others consisted of stakes and brushwood, like a kind of hedge, in the middle of which the deceased is buried in the ground. We were told that the son of a chief was buried in one of the latter, in a [148] standing posture. On a point of land, at the left hand, round which the Missouri turns to the west, we saw the buildings of Sioux Agency; the Yellow Stone saluted the post with several guns, and was welcomed to the fort by the hoisting of a flag, while the whole population, about fifty in number, chiefly consisting of Sioux Indians, were assembled on the beach. We greeted our friends Major Bean and Mr. Bodmer, and proceeded a mile further, to an extensive forest, where we took in wood, and stopped for the night. In order to get acquainted with the Sioux, in whom I took so much interest, I returned, in a heavy rain, through the bushes and high grass, to the agency, where Major Bean received me very kindly, though his dwelling, according to the fashion of the place, was rudely constructed, and he was incommoded by too many visitors.Sioux Agency, or, as it is now usually called, Fort Lookout, is a square, of about sixty paces, surrounded by pickets, twenty or thirty feet high, made of squared trunks of trees, placed close to each other, within which the dwellings are built close to the palisades. These dwellings consisted of only three block-houses, with several apartments. Close to
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the fort, in a northern direction, the Fur Company of Mr. Soublette had a dwelling-house, with a store; and, in the opposite direction, was a similar post of the American Fur Company.The Dacotas, as they call themselves, or the Sioux of the French, called by the Ojibuas or Chippeways, Nandoesi (which has been corrupted into Nadowassis), are still one of the most numerous Indian tribes in North America. Pike stated their number at 21,575 souls, and they are still reckoned at 20,000; nay, some even affirm, that they are still able to furnish 15,000 warriors, which seems rather too high an estimate. Major Long, who gives much information respecting this people, calculates their number at 28,100, of which 7,055 are warriors, the nation possessing 2,330 tents, which agrees pretty nearly with the statements we received on the Missouri. If we add the Assiniboins, who are of the same origin, and who are estimated at 28,000, we shall have for all the Dacotas, 56,100 souls, of whom 14,055 are warriors, and the number of their tents 5,330. Major Long is of opinion that they cannot be calculated at less than 25,000 souls, and 6,000 warriors; 20,000 is, therefore, not too high an estimate.
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The territory which they inhabit extends from Big Sioux River, between the Missouri and the Mississippi, down the latter to Rock River, and northwards to Elk River; then westwards, in a line which includes the sources of St. Peter's River, and reaches the Missouri below the Mandan villages, stretches down it, crosses it near Heart River, and includes the whole country on the western bank, to the Black Hills about Teton River, as far as Shannon River. The Sioux are divided into several branches, which all speak the same language, with some deviations. [149] Three principal branches live on the Missouri, viz., the Yanktons, or Yanktoans, the Tetons, or Titoans, and the Yanktonans, or Yanktoanons. The Mende-Wakan-Toann, or the people of the Spirit Lake, and some others, live on the Mississippi. All these branches together are, as Major Long says, divided by the traders into two great classes — the Gens du Lac and the Gens du Large; i.e., those who live near the Spirit Lake, and are now chiefly found on the banks of the Mississippi, and those who roam about in the prairies. The Yanktoanons are said to constitute one-fifth of all the Dacotas, and the Tetons the half of the whole nation.
The Dacotas roam as far as the territory of the Puncas, over the Black Hills, to the Arkansa, and westwards to the Rocky Mountains, into the territory of the Crows, on the Yellow Stone River, &c. Pike makes them, as well as the Pawnees, descend from the Tartars; but many objections may be made to this notion, as the affinity of the North Americans and the people of Asia is not proved, and the resemblance between them appears to be very limited. In general, these Indians have more strongly-marked countenances
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and higher cheek-bones than many other tribes on the Missouri, nor are their features so regular or pleasing, yet there is no considerable difference in their physiognomy. Bradbury says they are much inferior in stature to the Osages, Mandans, and Puncas, and by no means so robust; but this assertion must be very much restricted, because there are many tall men among the Dacotas. The Yanktons live in Sioux Agency, or the furthest down the Missouri, among which tribe we now were. All these Dacotas of the Missouri, as well as most of those of the Mississippi, are only hunters, and, in their excursions, always live in portable leather tents. Only two branches of them are exceptions to this rule, especially the Wahch-Pe-Kutch, on the Mississippi, who cultivate maize and other plants, and therefore live in fixed villages. All these Indians have great numbers of horses and dogs, the latter of which often serve them as food. The Dacotas, on the Missouri, were formerly dangerous enemies to the Whites. Bradbury calls them blood-thirsty savages; whereas now, with the exception of the Yanktonans, they bear a very good character, and constantly keep peace with the Whites. Pike seems to have too high an idea of their valour; at least, this is the opinion now entertained on the Missouri. Such of these Indians as reside near the Whites, are frequently connected with them by marriages, and depend on them for support. They then become negligent hunters, indolent, and, consequently, poor. This was partly the case at Sioux Agency, where they rarely possessed more than two horses. One of the most considerable men among them, wholly devoted to the Whites, was Wahktageli, called the Big Soldier, a tall, good-looking man, about sixty years of age, with a high aquiline nose, and large animated eyes. Besides him, there were several elderly, and some slender young men of this nation, here. They had, in general, a rather narrow, oval countenance, narrow, long eyes,
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and aquiline, or straight, well-formed noses; their colour was a dark brown. They wore their hair hanging down long over the shoulders, and often plaited en queue; the older men, however, let it hang loosely, cut off a little below the [150] neck, and turned back from the forehead. Younger people generally wore it parted, a large lock hanging down on the nose; young men had the upper part of the body only wrapped in their large white or painted buffalo hides. They had long strings of blue and white wampum shells in their ears; some of them wore one, two, or three feathers, which were partly stripped till towards the point.Mr. Bodmer having expressed a wish, immediately on the arrival of the Big Soldier, to paint his portrait at full length, he appeared in his complete state dress. His face was painted red with vermilion, and with short, black, parallel, transverse stripes on the cheeks. On his head he wore long feathers of birds of prey, which were tokens of his warlike exploits, particularly of the enemies he had slain. They were fastened in a horizontal position with strips of red cloth. In his ears he wore long strings of blue glass beads, and, on his breast, suspended from his neck, the great silver medal of the United States. His leather leggins, painted with dark crosses and stripes, were very neatly ornamented with a broad embroidered stripe of yellow, red, and sky-blue figures, consisting of dyed porcupine quills, and his shoes were adorned in the same manner. His buffalo robe was tanned white, and he had his tomahawk or battle-axe in his hand.
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out ornaments, naked, and the upper parts of their bodies not at all painted, but only wrapped in their buffalo robes. On their backs they carried their quivers, which were made of leather, in which their arrows are kept; they carry their bows in their hands.The features of the women resembled, on the whole, those we have already described, yet their faces, for the most part, were not so broad and flat as those of the Saukies, or Musquake women, and some were even pretty. The tents of the Sioux are high pointed cones, made of strong poles, covered with buffalo skins, closely sewed together. These skins are scraped on both sides, so that they become as transparent as parchment, and give free admission to the light. At the top, where the poles meet, or cross each other, there is an opening, to let out the smoke, which they endeavour to close by a piece of the skin covering of the tent, fixed to a separate pole standing upright, and fastened to the upper part of the covering on the side from which the wind blows. The door is a slit, in the front of the tent, which is generally closed by another piece of buffalo hide, stretched upon a frame.
We paid a visit to Wahktageli in his tent, and had some difficulty in creeping into the narrow, low entrance, after pulling aside the skin that covered it. The inside of this tent was [152] light, and it was about ten paces in diameter.
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Buffalo skins were spread on the ground, upon which we sat down. Between us and the side of the tent were a variety of articles, such as pouches, boxes, saddles, arms, &c. A relation of the chief was employed in making arrows, which were finished very neatly, and with great care. Wahktageli immediately, with much gravity, handed the tobacco-pipe round, and seemed to inhale the precious smoke with great delight. His wife was present; their children were married. The conversation was carried on by Cephier, the interpreter kept by the Agency, who accompanied us on this visit. It is the custom with all the North American Indians, on paying a visit, to enter in perfect silence, to shake hands with the host, and unceremoniously sit down beside him. Refreshments are then presented, which the Big Soldier could not do, as he himself stood in need of food. After this the pipe circulates. The owner of a neighbouring tent had killed a large elk, the skin of which the women were then busily employed in dressing. They had stretched it out, by means of leather straps, on the ground near the tent, and the women were scraping off the particles of flesh and fat with a very well-contrived instrument. It is made of bone, sharpened at one end, and furnished with little teeth like a saw, and, at the other end, a strap, which is fastened round the wrist. The skin is scraped with the sharp side of this instrument till it is perfectly clean.310
panniers, under which the little children are protected against sun and rain, by spreading blankets and skins over them. Smaller articles are conveyed by the dogs, as we shall relate in the sequel. Many of the Sioux are rich, and have twenty or more horses, which they obtained originally from the Spaniards on the Mississippi, and the frontier of New Mexico on the Oregon, but which are now found in great numbers among the several Indian nations. One of their most important employments is to steal horses, and the theft of one of these animals, from another nation, is considered as an exploit, and as much, nay more honoured than the killing of an enemy. The dogs, whose flesh is eaten by the Sioux, are equally valuable to the Indians. In shape they differ very little from the wolf, and are equally large and strong. Some are of the real wolf colour; others black, white, or spotted with black and white, and differing only by the tail being rather more turned up. Their voice is not a proper barking, but a howl, like that of the wolf, and they partly descend from wolves, which approach the Indian huts, even in the daytime, and mix with the dogs.Among the peculiar customs of the Sioux is their treatment of the dead. Those who die [153] at home are sewed up, as I have before stated, in blankets and skins, in their complete dress, painted, and laid with their arms and other effects on a high stage, supported by four poles, till they are decomposed, when they are sometimes buried. Those who have been killed in battle are immediately interred on the spot. Sometimes, too, in times of peace, they bury their dead in the ground, and protect them against the wolves by a fence of wood and thorns. There were many such graves in the vicinity of the Sioux Agency, among which was that of the celebrated chief, Tschpunka, who was buried with his full dress and arms, and his face painted red. Very often, however, they lay their dead in trees; and we saw,
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in the neighbourhood of this place, an oak, in which there were three bodies wrapped in skins. At the foot of the tree there was a small arbour, or shed, made of branches of poplar, which the relations had built for the purpose of coming to lament and weep over the dead, which they frequently do for several days successively. As a sign of mourning, they cut off their hair with the first knife that comes to hand, daub themselves with white clay, and give away all their best clothes and valuable effects, as well as those of the deceased, to the persons who happen to be present. The corpse of a young woman had been enveloped in skins about a week before, and placed between the branches of the oak, with six pieces of wood under it; and a little higher in the tree there was a child. Guided by the obliging interpreter, we viewed everything remarkable in the Sioux agency, which, indeed, is confined to the Indians and their mode of life. Major Bean had the kindness to accommodate us for the night.We passed the 26th of May here, when Mr. Bodmer finished his very capital likeness of Wahktageli. The elk, killed by the Indians, furnished us with fresh meat, and we considered ourselves very well off. In the afternoon, Messrs. Mc Kenzie and Sandford came from the Yellow Stone to visit us, and we returned on board in the evening.
The following morning (27th) was cool, windy, and cloudy, and, at half-past seven, the thermometer at only 54°. It was so cold that we had fires in our cabins the whole day. Major Bean had the courtesy to present me with the complete dress of the Big Soldier, an interesting souvenir of the friendly reception we had met with in his house. The Assiniboin passed us rapidly in the afternoon, and we followed. A well-known Sioux chief, called Tukan Haton, and, by the Americans, the Little Soldier, was on board with his family, intending to accompany us to Fort PiÄrre, on the Teton
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River. These Indians were in mourning for some of their relations lately deceased; their dress was, therefore, as bad as possible, and their faces daubed with white clay. The Big Soldier also paid us a visit previous to our departure. He had no feathers on his head, but only a piece of red cloth. After receiving some food he took leave, and we saw the grotesque, tall figure stand for a long time motionless on the beach. As the vessel proceeded very quickly, our Indians laid down their heads as a sign that they were giddy, but they were soon relieved, as the water became shallow. We lay to not far above the stream which [154] Lewis and Clarke call the Three Rivers.Early on the 28th, part of the goods had been put into the keel-boat, to lighten the steamer, which was accomplished by eight o'clock. From this place to the Big Bend of the Missouri is fifteen miles, before reaching which we came to an island, which has been formed since Lewis and Clarke were there. The same stratum of coal, which I have before mentioned, ran along the hills, and was visible at a great distance. We soon overtook the Assiniboin, and reached the Big Bend which the Missouri takes round a flat point of
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land; following the course of the river, it is twenty-five miles round, while the isthmus is only one mile and a half across.On the 29th, we were nearly at the end of the Big Bend, and stopped, at seven o'clock in the morning, to cut down cedars. Here we ascended the lofty, steep hills, which were partly bare, and burnt black, and from which we had a view of the whole bend of the river. To the south, we saw the tops of the Medicine Hills, which are about eight miles from the Medicine Creek, on the west bank.
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espied a canoe, with four men in it, which touched at a sand bank; a boat was put out, and brought back two of the strangers, who proved to be Mr. Lamont, a member of the Fur Company, and Major Mitchell, one of their officers, and Director of Fort Mc Kenzie, which is situated near the falls of the Missouri.315
the mouth of the Teton River, or the Little Missouri, which the Sioux call the Bad River. It rises in the Black Hills, and has a long course, with many windings; but is said, however, to be straight for 150 miles from the mouth. In this part of the Missouri are vast sand banks, on which we saw a numerous flock of pelicans. These birds, however, only stop here on their passage, and do not build their nests. The river is very wide at the mouth of the Teton, and has extensive low prairies, with a border of poplars and willows. The French Fur Company had formerly a fort just above the mouth of the Teton, which was abandoned when the Companies joined, and another built further up, which was called Fort Teton; this, too, was abandoned;316
in sight of the Fort, to the great joy of all on board: the colours were hoisted, both on the steamer and on the fort, which produced a very good effect between the trees on the bank; a small village, consisting of thirteen Sioux tents, lay on the left hand. Our steamer first began to salute with its cannon, which was returned from the shore by a running fire of musketry, and this was answered from our deck by a similar very brisk fire. Before we reached the landing-place, we perceived an isolated, decayed old house, the only remains of Fort Tecumseh,317
eleven days. As soon as we set foot on land, we proceeded, accompanied by numbers of persons, to the Fort, to which there is a straight road of about a quarter of a mile. We put up at Mr. Laidlow's house, where we rested beside a good fire.[156] Fort PiÄrre is one of the most considerable settlements of the Fur Company on the Missouri, and forms a large quadrangle, surrounded by high pickets,
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the verdant prairie is very extensive, animated by herds of cattle and horses; of the latter, Fort PiÄrre possessed 150, and of the former, thirty-six, which afforded a sufficient supply of milk and fresh butter. Indians, on foot and on horseback, were scattered all over the plain, and their singular stages for the dead were in great numbers near the Fort; immediately behind which, the leather tents of the Sioux Indians, of the branches of the Tetons and the Yanktons, stood, like a little village; among them the most distinguished was the tent of the old interpreter, Dorion, a half Sioux, who is mentioned by many travellers, and resides here with his Indian family.Near the fort we roused, in the thickets, a Virginian deer, and saw wolves, in the middle of the day, prowling about in the prairies; but we could not get near them, and fired at them in vain with our rifles. Round an isolated tree in the prairie I observed a circle of holes in the ground, in which thick poles had stood. A number of buffalo skulls were piled up there; and we were told that this was a medicine, or charm, contrived by the Indians in order to entice the herds of buffaloes. Everywhere in the plain we saw circles of clods of earth, with a small circular ditch, where the tents of many Indians had stood. This time we visited the Indian tents uninvited; in that which we first entered there were several tall, good-looking men assembled; the owner
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of the tent was a man of middle-size; his complexion very light, and his features agreeable. His wives were dressed very neatly, and were remarkably clean, especially the one who appeared to be the principal; she wore a very elegant leather dress, with stripes and borders of azure and white beads, and polished metal buttons, and trimmed as usual at the bottom with fringes, round the ends of which lead is twisted, so that they tinkle at every motion. Her summer robe, which was dressed smooth on both sides, was painted red and black, on a yellowish white ground.322
Indians, which they make, in various forms, of the red indurated clay, or stone.The pipe has a long, flat, broad wooden tube, which is ornamented with tufts of horse-hair, dyed red, yellow, or green, and wound round with strings of porcupine quills of divers colours. We looked at the women as they were at work. For the shoes which they made they had softened the leather in a tub of water, and stretched it in the breadth and length with their teeth. In the middle of the hut was a fire, over which the kettle was suspended by a wooden hook; they now all use iron kettles, which they obtain from the traders. Before most of the tents poles were placed, leaning against each other, to which gaily-painted parchment pouches were hung, and likewise the medicine-bags, as they are called, in which the medicine, or charms, are preserved, and which they open and consult only on solemn or important occasions, such as campaigns and the like. Here, too, were suspended the bow and quiver of arrows, spears, and a round shield of thick leather, with a thin cover, also of the same material. In another tent the women were dressing the skins, either with a pumice-stone, or with the before-described toothed instrument, which was here entirely of iron. They then pulled the skin over a line, in all directions, backwards and forwards, to make it pliable.
The Sioux at Fort PiÄrre were in general slender, sometimes muscular-men, of middling stature, though some of
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them were tall. They had oval faces, with prominent cheekbones, slightly-curved and well-formed noses; the inner angle of the eye often drawn down. Their faces were painted red, some with white rings round the eyes, and others with a black point on the forehead, or a white circle with a black point on each cheek. Some had strings of wampum in their ears, but the greater part of them strings of white or blue glass beads, and round their necks an elegant, and frequently broad necklace, embroidered with white beads. The neck and breast of several were marked with dark blue tattooed stripes, or only with some small figures. These Indians let their hair grow as long as possible, and plait it behind in a long tail, which is ornamented with round pieces of brass, and often hangs down to a great length, as among the Chinese. Many of the Dacotas have three such tails, one behind, and one at each side, for the Indians on the Upper Missouri take much pride in long hair, whereas those in the country lower [159] down the river, cut it short. Some wore feathers in their hair, which are tokens of their exploits, and are determined with great precision, according to the merit of the wearer. The annexed figure of a Dacota shows the manner in which the hair is divided into plaits.The women wore their hair hanging down, naturally parted on the middle of the head, and the parting painted red. Their robes were coloured red and black. Their shoes are neatly ornamented with various figures made of dyed porcupine quills. I purchased several Dacota shoes; and, among them, a pair, on the upper part of which the figure of a bear's footstep was very neatly embroidered in bright colours.
The Sioux, who live on Teton River, near Fort PiÄrre,
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are mostly of the branch of the Tetons; though there are some Yanktons here. The former are divided into five branches, and the latter into three.327
over small hoops, and hung on the top of the tent-poles. He who takes a prisoner wears a particular bracelet. These Indians frequently possess from thirty to forty horses, and are then reckoned to be rich. The tents are generally composed of fourteen skins, each worth two dollars. We were told, that wealthy people sometimes have eight or nine wives, because they are able to support them. The Sioux do not understand the treatment of diseases, but generally cure wounds very well. Before their death, they usually determine whether they will be buried, or be placed on a stage, or in a tree.There was, among the Dacotas at this place, a young Punca Indian, whose name was Ho-Ta-Ma, a handsome, friendly man, who often amused himself with different games; frequently he was seen with his comrades playing at what was called the hoop game, at which sticks, covered with leather, are thrown through a hoop in motion. In the daytime the Indians were often seen galloping their horses, mostly riding on their bare backs: sometimes they ran races, as Mr. Bodmer has represented.
During our stay here, on board the vessel, we were continually besieged by Indians, who did not move from the spot. Our time was, therefore, divided between these visitors and our excursions into the prairie. On the 2nd of June, 7,000 buffalo skins and other furs were put on board
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the Yellow Stone, with which it was to return to St. Louis. We took this opportunity of sending letters to Europe: the Assiniboin was assigned us for the continuation of the voyage. The weather, at this time, was very unfavourable; it rained at a temperature of 57°, and we were obliged to have a fire in our cabin throughout the day. The Assiniboin had already taken our baggage on board, but still lay on the east bank, for an attempt to bring it over to our side had failed, because the water was too low. In the afternoon, when we visited Mr. Laidlow in the fort, six Sioux, from the prairie, arrived on horseback, whose horde, of 200 tents, was at the distance of a [161] day's journey. They brought word that, two days' march from the fort, there were numerous herds of buffaloes. Among these new comers there were some elderly men; the plaits of their hair were wound about with strips of skin, and their faces were painted red; their bodies were fleshy, which was a proof that they had suffered less from hunger than those in the fort. They paid a visit first to the Assiniboin, and then to Mr. Laidlow, who gave them food and tobacco. Mr. Lamont, who had taken leave of us to-day, to go by the steam-boat to St. Louis, embarked with some of the Company's clerks: he was saluted with several cannon shot, and before evening the Yellow Stone rapidly descended the river. While Messrs. Mc Kenzie, Sandford, and Mitchell took up their abode in the fort, we went on board the Assiniboin, from which I made, on the 4th of June, an interesting excursion into the prairie, in order to make myself acquainted with the eastern bank.I left the vessel at half-past seven o'clock, the thermometer being at 59°, and immediately ascended the steep eminences, of which the lower were covered partly with bright green, partly with dry, yellow grass, and the higher ones bare, with the surface frequently blackened by fire. A path, trodden
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by the elks to the river, led me to the highest summit, from which I had a pleasing prospect of the opposite bank and the fort. It lay, clearly delineated, in the extensive verdant plain, bounded by a singular chain of hills; and I again distinguished, half way up the mountains, the black stripe of the extensive stratum of coal. At noon it was warm and I returned much heated, the thermometer being at 72°. We received a visit from six or seven newly arrived Tetons, whom the interpreter, Dorion, introduced to us. They were particularly interested by the steam-boat, and, after they had very minutely examined it, they were served with dinner and pipes. The dinner chiefly consisted of bacon, which the Indians do not like; [162] they, however, swallowed it, in order that they might not appear uncourteous. Among them was a Teton, named Wah-Menitu (the spirit, or god, in the water), and who had such a voracious appetite, that he devoured everything which the others had left; his face was painted red; he had a remarkably projecting upper lip, and an aquiline nose much bent. In his hair, which hung in disorder about his head, with a plait coming over one of his eyes or nose, the feather of a bird of prey was placed horizontally; but observe that he had a right to wear three. Mr. Bodmer, who desired to draw this man's portrait, gave him some vermilion, on which he spat, and rubbed his face with it, drawing parallel lines, in the red colour, with a wooden stick.330
Chapter XIII.
Singular conformation of the Country — Traces of Fire — Chayenne Island and River — Former abode of the Arikkaras — The Woodcutters alarmed by the Indians — Cabris or Antelopes — Wolves and other Animals — Little Chayenne River — Abundance of Game — Traces of the Beaver, and of the breaking-up of the Ice — Moreau's River — Grand or Wetarko River — Rampart River — The two abandoned Villages of the Arikkaris — La Butte au GrÄs — La Butte de Chayenne — Murder of Whites by the Arikkaras — Cannon-ball River, with its Sand-stone Balls — Heart River — La Butte Carrée — Interview with the Yanktonans — Fort Clarke, near the Mandan Villages — The Mandans — The Crows.
OUR departure was delayed till ten o'clock on the 5th of June, when three guns were fired, and we left the fort. The Assiniboin was perfectly equipped for the voyage up the river, and had sixty men on board. Mr. Mc Kenzie had remained behind in the fort, but overtook us at noon with Mr. Laidlow, who was desirous to accompany us a little way. We had stopped at an island called, by the Canadians, Isle au Village de Terre, because, on the other side of the channel which divides it from the continent, there was formerly a village of the Sioux. This island was covered with an almost impenetrable thicket of narrow-leaved willows, which was so dense and entangled, that one of our large dogs caught an elk calf alive; we heard its moaning, but were not able to find it. The next morning the thermometer was at 66Ë°. We were obliged to unload some goods, and to lighten our vessel, and our hunters brought us many interesting objects, particularly several birds, among which was the grey butcher-bird (Lanius excubitoroides), of which
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Richardson gives a representation, and which we had not met with before. Though antelopes and a white wolf had approached very closely to them, our hunters had not been able to kill any large animals. The addition to our Flora was very considerable. The hills all consisted of clammy, greasy, sterile clay, which was burnt on the surface, and covered with pieces of stone; and in many places we observed on them round masses, which looked as if they had been [164] melted and formed by fire. We stayed here till noon on the 7th of June, when we again proceeded with an agreeable temperature of 77Ë°. We ran aground several times, and at last took in our goods, which we had deposited on the left bank. This delay gave us time to make an excursion. In company with Mr. Bodmer, I ascended the slippery, very steep eminences along the river, the singular shapes of which often appeared to form perfect craters. The earth and stones everywhere indicated that they had undergone change by fire. The earth was hard, friable, with many crevices — the stones brown, blackish, and often looking like scoriÄ. This clay, when wet, is exceedingly clammy and tough. The conical summits, most of which were perfectly round and pyramidal, were most singularly formed. At the top there were always very regular, parallel, horizontal rings; the lower parts of the pyramid had perpendicular furrows, or clefts, as the annexed woodcut shows.332
transverse stripes of verdure, and often they are entirely bare. The climbing up these high, slippery ascents in the heat of the day was rather fatiguing. When we came into the clefts between the pyramids, we found the ground, in general, slimy, and so adhesive that we were almost compelled to leave our shoes behind. In such places, some old red cedars, groups of the bird cherry, ashes, roses, &c., were nourished by the moisture. Near the hills, and in the plain, a cactus, with roundish, flat joints, grew in abundance. It was not yet in blossom, and I cannot say whether it is the plant taken, by Nuttall, for Cactus opuntia; probably it is Cactus ferox. We found many traces of antelopes and of herds of buffaloes. The latter had everywhere trodden broad paths on their way to the river to drink. No beast of the chase presented itself as an object for our rifles, and, as the sun was going down, we set out on our return. On the way we [165] found the horns of an elk, with twelve antlers, and it was late before we reached the Assiniboin. On the 8th of June, in the morning, we received a farewell visit from Mr. Laidlow, and then saw Mr. Fontenelle's party, consisting of sixty men and 185 horses, pass along over the hills. They rode in our sight through the stream called, by the Anglo-Americans, Breechcloth Creek, and, by the Sioux, Tscheh-ke-na-ka-oah-ta-pah.333
a high wind arose, so that we could not reach the mouth of the Chayenne till about seven o'clock on the following morning, after passing Chayenne Island. The country about the mouth of this river is open, the chain of hills low, and the banks covered with forests. At its mouth, and for some way up on both sides of the Missouri, the Arikkaras formerly dwelt, till they were driven further up by the Sioux, and, at length, wholly retired from the banks of the Missouri.We made but slow progress to-day; and at two o'clock, after our boats had taken soundings in all directions, we remained fast aground, and had burnt all our fuel, so that we had to send wood-cutters into the forests on the left bank. In about half an hour the boats suddenly returned, bringing word that hostile Indians had been seen in the forest, and the wood-cutters had, therefore, refused to begin their work. To give them courage, and to protect them during their work, all hands on board, that could be spared, armed themselves with rifles and muskets, and, to the number of twenty-six persons, immediately went on shore. They formed a line of outposts behind the trees, under whose protection
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the wood-cutters pursued their work. But they were not disturbed, for the Indians had retired, or it had been a false alarm. We lay to for the night on the west bank; a strong wind had risen, with a pretty high temperature, which continued till the following morning, the 10th of June. Early on that day we reached an island, which appears to be that called, by Lewis and Clarke, Caution Island, where a couple of white wolves gazed at us without appearing to be at all afraid. In the afternoon, we came to the mouth of Little Chayenne River, on the east bank.Opposite to the mouth of Otter Creek,
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uninhabited loghouse, 180 steps from which runs a pretty river, called Moreau's River, from a man of that name who passed the night here with a Chayenne Indian woman, who had been taken by the Arikkaras and escaped.The two villages of this tribe are on the west bank, very near each other, but separated by a small stream. They consist of a great number of clay huts, round at the top, with a square entrance in front, and the whole surrounded with a fence of stakes, which were much decayed, and in many places thrown down. It is not quite a year since these villages had been wholly abandoned, because their inhabitants,
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who were extremely hostile to the Whites, killed so many Americans, that they themselves foresaw that they would be severely chastised by the United States, and therefore preferred to emigrate. To this cause was added, a dry, unproductive season, when the crops entirely failed; as well as the absence of the herds of buffaloes, which hastened their removal. It is said that these Indians now roam about on the road from St. Louis to Santa Fé, and the late attacks on the caravans are ascribed to them.The Arikkaras, or, as they are called by the Mandans, Rikkaras or Rees, Les Ris of the Canadians, are a branch of the Pawnees, from whom they long since separated. Their language, which is very easy for a German to pronounce, is said to be a proof of this affinity. Their number is supposed to be still 4000 souls, among whom 500 or 600 are able to bear arms. The wife of La Chapelle, the interpreter for that nation, was an Arikkara; she had a round full countenance, and rather delicate small features, with a very light yellowish complexion. It is affirmed that the women of this nation are the handsomest on the Missouri. Manoel Lisa, a well-known fur trader, had formerly built a trading house in this country, of which nothing now remains; though the place is still called Manoel Lisa's Fort.
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to-day more verdant and pleasant than yesterday. A mountain, with some remarkable summits, called La Butte au GrÄs, gave it some diversity. Here we suddenly saw, on the bank, a man, who fired his musket three times, and at first took him for an Indian; but another soon appeared, in a small leathern boat, and we learnt that both were engagés or travellers of the Company, who were dispatched from the Upper Missouri, with letters for Mr. Mc Kenzie. We took them in, and the little leathern boat was left lying on the beach. In the distance, on the left, there was a chain of mountains, with numerous summits, near which Cannon-ball River flows; and, nearer to the Missouri, a chain of flat hills, level at the top, with many clefts, called La Butte de Chayenne.On the 14th, in the morning, the sky was clouded, and the wind very bleak. On the west bank of the river a ravine was shown us, where, seven or eight years before, the Arikkaras had shot seven white men, who were towing a loaded Mackinaw boat up the river.
After we had passed an island, which is not marked in Lewis and Clarke's map, we observed two isolated table mountains in the prairie, on the west bank, which are not far from Cannon-ball River; and we then came to an aperture
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in the chain of hills, from which this river, which was very high, issues.On the 15th, the river had risen nine inches, and brought down much wood and foam, which was expected, for it is reckoned that, in the month of June, the Missouri is twice much swollen from the melting of the snow in the Rocky Mountains. The weather was serene and warm. As early as half-past five o'clock we saw, on the eastern bank, a chain
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of table hills, quite flat at the top, which extends to a pretty considerable distance. The river turns, to the westward, towards this interesting chain, which is called the Mountains of the Old Mandan Village, because, at the place where it is traversed by the river, such a village is said to have formerly stood. At nine o'clock we stopped on the western bank to repair the damage the vessel had sustained, which gave our hunters time to make an excursion a few miles into the prairie. Towards eleven o'clock the bell gave the signal for departure. The current of the river was now very strong, so that we could proceed but slowly. We came to the site of the old Mandan village, which was situated, at the foot of the hills, in a fine meadow near the river; some poles, that were still standing, were the only remains of it; there was no village here at the time of Lewis and Clarke's journey. Dry, yellow grass now covered the place which had once been the scene of busy Indian life: only a colony of swallows, that had built their nests in the neighbouring hills, gave some animation to the scene. We were now in the territory of the Indian tribe of the Mandans.340
the steamer. Mr. Harvey had killed a black-tailed or mule deer.341
willow thickets, on the bank, a very fine buffalo bull stood within half musket-shot; our people fired, but to no purpose. Soon after, we saw, in the prairie, two more very large animals of this species; and, in the course of the day, perceived a great number of them. The river brought down several dead buffalo cows. A little before the mouth of Lewis and Clarke's Hunting Creek,342
silence first, calling out that they were come with peaceable intentions, and wished to be taken on board. Ortubize, the interpreter, telling us that they were Sioux, of the branch of the Yanktonans, we conferred some time with them, while a kind of bridge of planks was thrown across to the shore. Twenty-three, for the most part tall men, came on board, and were made to sit down, in a row, on one side of the large cabin. They came from a camp of the Yanktonans, consisting of 300 tents, which was in the neighbourhood; they generally lived on the banks of the Chayenne, which falls into the Red River, near the Devil's Lake, and the sources of St. Peter's River.343
trimmings, such as the traders are used to give, or to sell to such chiefs as they desire to distinguish. In his hand he had the wing of an eagle for a fan.After we had smoked with these Yanktonans all round, the chief opened, before Mr. Mc Kenzie, a bag, with old pemmican (dry meat powdered), by way of present, and then rose to make a speech. After shaking hands, successively, with all persons present, he said, with much gesticulation, and in short sentences, between which he appeared to be reflecting, "that the whole body of the 300 huts was under the principal chief, Jawitschahka; that his people had been formerly on good terms with the Mandans, but had been at variance with them for about a year, on account of the murder of a Sioux, and now wished to make peace again; that with this view [171] they had sent three of their people to the Mandan villages, but did not know the result; and, therefore, were very desirous of the mediation of Mr. Mc Kenzie; that they happened to be near the river, when they perceived their father's ship, and were come to visit him; that to be able to supply the Fur Company with more beaver skins, they wished to have liberty to hunt on the Missouri, and on that account peace with the Mandans was of importance to them. They hoped, therefore, that Mr. Mc Kenzie would intercede for them, and allow them to accompany him." The answer was — "That if, like the other tribes of their nation, who lived constantly on the Missouri, they would, in future, conduct themselves properly, and never kill white men, he would attempt all that lay in his power; but he bade them consider what would be the best for them, whether to come on board with him, or to go alone by land to the Mandan villages, as he did not know how they might be received by the young men of the Mandan tribe." These Indians showed us a beautiful skin of a young, white, female buffalo, which they intended as a present for
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the Mandans, by whom such skins are highly valued. They had already sent them a white buffalo calf. Our visitors were afterwards taken into another apartment, where refreshments were set before them, and they were lodged for the night. The next morning, however, they went ashore, and proceeded to Fort Clarke on foot. During the night there was a violent tempest, and the next morning, the 18th June, was gloomy, damp, and windy. We left at an early hour the place of the meeting, from which it was twelve miles to Fort Clarke. The Yanktonans, keeping in sight of us, walked through the prairie, where they frightened a herd of ten or twelve wolves, which had long amused us by their gambols. At half-past seven we passed a roundish island covered with willows, and reached then the wood on the western bank, in which the winter dwellings of part of the Mandan Indians are situated; and saw, at a distance, the largest village of this tribe, Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, in the vicinity of which the whole prairie was covered with riders and pedestrians.345
before the fort, against the gently sloping shore, where above 600 Indians were waiting for us. Close to the beach, the chiefs and most distinguished warriors of the Mandan nation stood in front of the assembly of red men, among whom the most eminent were Charata-Numakschi (the wolf chief), Mato-Topé (the four bears),346
submitted to these Indians, but the latter, after long deliberation, replied that they could not possibly accept these proposals of peace, because the Yanktonans were much too treacherous; that, however, no harm should now be done to them, and that they might depart unmolested.Most of the Indians in our cabin were stout, tall men, except Mato-Topé, who was of middle stature, and rather slim. I shall have occasion to say more, in the sequel, of this brave and distinguished chief. They had their weapons, such as muskets, bows, war clubs, and battle axes, in their hands, and also fans of eagles' wings, and wore buffalo robes, which, on the inner side, are painted reddish-brown, or white, and adorned with coloured figures. They let their hair hang down at length, considering it as an ornament. Sometimes it is divided into plaits, and daubed with a reddish clay. However, I refrain, at present, from describing these Indians, of whom I shall have occasion to speak more at length. The Mandans, Manitaries, and Crows, of which tribe there were now seventy tents about the fort, differ very little from each other in their appearance and dress; they are, however, taller than the Indians on the Missouri whom we had before seen, and their features more regular than those of the Sioux.
We soon went on shore, and examined the numerous assemblage of brown Indian figures, of whom the women and children, in numerous groups, were sitting on the ground; the men, some on horseback, some on foot, were collected around, and making their observations on the white strangers. Here we saw remarkably tall and handsome men, and fine dresses, for they had all done their utmost to adorn themselves. The haughty Crows
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mounted warriors, with their diversely painted faces, feathers in their long hair, bow and arrows slung across their backs, and with a musket or spear in their hands, the latter of which is merely for show, were a novel and highly interesting scene. This remarkable assembly gazed at the strangers with curiosity, and we conversed with them by signs, but soon proceeded to the fort, which is built on a smaller scale, on a plan similar to that of all the other trading posts or forts of the Company. It is about the size of the Sioux Agency, but more rudely constructed. Immediately behind the fort there were, in the prairies, seventy leather tents of the Crows, which we immediately visited.The tents of the Crows are exactly like those of the Sioux, and are set up without any regular order. On the poles, instead of scalps, there were small pieces of coloured cloth, chiefly red, floating like streamers in the wind. We were struck with the number of wolf-like dogs of all colours, of which there were certainly from 500 to 600 running about. They all fell upon the strangers, and it was not without difficulty that we kept them off by throwing stones, in which [173] some old Indian women assisted us. We then proceeded about 300 paces in a north-west direction from the fort, up the Missouri, to the principal village of the Mandans, Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush.
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called Ruhptare, consisting of about thirty-eight clay huts, which we could not then visit for want of time. In the immediate vicinity of the principal village, the stages on which these Indians, like the Sioux, place their dead, lay scattered.Around them were several high poles, with skins and other things hanging on them, as offerings to the lord of life, Omahank-Numakshi, or to the first man, Numank-Machana.
The view of the prairie around Fort Clarke was at this time highly interesting. A great number of horses were grazing all round; Indians of both sexes and all ages were in motion; we were, every moment, stopped by them, obliged to shake hands, and let them examine us on all sides. This was sometimes very troublesome. Thus, for example, a young warrior took hold of my pocket compass which I wore suspended by a ribbon, and attempted to take it by force, to hang as an ornament round his neck. I refused his request, but the more I insisted in my refusal, the more importunate he became. He offered me a handsome horse for my compass, [174] and then all his handsome clothes and arms into the bargain, and as I still refused, he became
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angry, and it was only by the assistance of old Charbonneau, that I escaped a disagreeable and, perhaps, violent scene. On returning to the steamer we there found a numerous company of Indians, some smoking, others wrapped in their blankets, and asleep on the floor.Mr. Sandford, the sub-agent of the Mandans, Manitaries, and Crows, had a conference with Eripuass (the rotten belly), the distinguished chief of the latter. We accompanied Mr. Sandford to this meeting. Eripuass, a fine tall man, with a pleasing countenance, had much influence over his people; being in mourning he came to the fort in his worst dress, his hair cut close, and daubed with clay. Charbonneau acted as interpreter in the Manitari language. Mr. Sandford recommended to the chief continued good treatment of the white people who should come to his territory, hung a medal round his neck, and, in the name of the government, made him a considerable present of cloth, powder, ball, tobacco, &c., which this haughty man received without any sign of gratitude; on the contrary, these people consider such presents as a tribute due to them, and a proof of weakness. The Crows, in particular, as the proudest of the Indians, are said to despise the Whites. They do not, however, kill them, but often plunder them. At nightfall we visited Eripuass in his tent. The whole camp of the Crows was now filled with horses, some with their foals, all which had been driven in, to prevent their being stolen. This nation, consisting of 400 tents, is said to possess between 9,000 and 10,000 horses, some of which are very fine. The dogs were partly taken into the tents, and we were less exposed to their attacks than in the day time, yet still we had to fight our way through them. The interior of the tent itself had a striking effect. A small fire in the centre gave sufficient light; the chief sat opposite the entrance, and round him many fine tall men, placed according to their rank, all with
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no other covering than a breech-cloth. Places were assigned to us on buffalo hides near the chief, who then lighted his Sioux pipe, which had a long flat tube, ornamented with bright yellow nails, made each of us take a few puffs, holding the pipe in his hand, and then passed it round to the left hand. After Charbonneau had continued the conversation for some time in the Manitari language, we suddenly rose and retired, according to the Indian customs.The Crows are called by the Mandans, Hahderuka, by the Manitaries, Haideroka; they themselves call their own tribe Apsaruka. The territory in which they move about is bounded, to the north or north-west, by the Yellow Stone River, and extends round Bighorn River, towards the sources of Chayenne River and the Rocky Mountains. These Indians are a wandering tribe of hunters, who neither dwell in fixed villages, like the Mandans, Manitaries, and Arikkaras, nor make any plantations except of tobacco, which, however, are very small. About six years ago, the Crows are said to have had only 1,000 warriors, at present they are reckoned at 1,200. They roam about with their leather tents, hunt the buffalo, and other wild animals, and have many horses and dogs, which, however, they never use for food. They are said to possess more [175] horses than any other tribe of the Missouri, and to send them in the winter to Wind River, to feed on a certain shrub, which soon fattens them. The Crow women are very skilful in various kinds of work, and their shirts and dresses of bighorn leather, embroidered and ornamented with dyed porcupine quills, are particularly handsome, as well as their buffalo robes, which are painted and embroidered in the same manner. I shall speak, in the sequel, of their large caps of eagles' feathers, and of their shields, which are ornamented with feathers and paintings,
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their weapons very well, and with much taste, especially their large bows, covered with the horn of the elk or bighorn, and often with the skin of the rattle-snake. I have represented a beautiful quiver of this nation, adorned with rosettes of porcupine quills.Though the Crows look down with contempt upon the Whites, they treat them very hospitably in their tents, yet their pride is singularly contrasted with a great propensity to stealing and begging, which makes them very troublesome. They are said to have many more superstitious notions than the Mandans, Manitaries, and Arikkaras; for instance, they never smoke a pipe when a pair of shoes is hung up in their tent; when the pipe circulates none ever takes more than
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three puffs, and then passes it in a certain manner to his left-hand neighbour. They are skilful horsemen, and, in their attacks on horseback, are said to throw themselves off on one side, as is done by many Asiatic tribes. They have many bardaches,As among all the Missouri Indians, the Crows are divided into different bands or unions. A certain price is paid for admission into these unions and their dances, of which each has one peculiar to itself, like the other Missouri tribes; on which occasion the women are given up to the will of the seller in the same manner, as will be more particularly mentioned when speaking of the other tribes. Of the female sex, it is said of the Crows, that they, with the women of the Arikkaras, are the most dissolute of all the tribes of the Missouri.
This people have a superstitious fear of a white buffalo cow; when a Crow meets one he addresses the sun in the following words: "I will give her (i. e. the cow) to you." He then [176] endeavours to kill the animal, but leaves it untouched, and then says to the sun, "Take her; she is yours." They never use the skin of these white buffalo cows, as the Mandans do, of which I shall, by-and-by, speak at length. The most sacred objects in the eyes of this people are the sun, the moon, and tobacco, that is, the leaves of the genuine tobacco (Nicotiana); and, therefore, all their children wear a small portion of this herb, well wrapped up, round their necks, by way of amulet.
They do not bury their dead in the ground, but, like the Mandans, Manitaries, Sioux, and Assiniboins, lay them on stages in the prairie.
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point of death, was very apprehensive and uneasy in her mind lest she should be interred in the ground, according to the custom of the Whites. This was her sole concern, though she did not otherwise express any fear of death; as soon as she was made easy on this point, she died perfectly satisfied.356
Chapter XIV.
Ruhptare, the second Village of the Mandans — The Villages of the Manitaries on the Knife River — Interview with the Manitaries — Winter Villages of that Nation — Remarkable Hills — Mountain L'Ours qui Danse — Little Missouri River — Territory of the Assiniboins — Kiasax and Matsokui, two Blackfeet Indians — The Grizzly Bear — Interview with the Assiniboins — The Bighorn — Muddy River, Lewis and Clarke's White Earth River — Yellow Stone River — Fort Union.
ON the 19th June, the Assiniboin left Fort Clarke, with a high, cold wind, and clouded sky; the thermometer, at nine in the morning, being at 60Ë°. The chiefs, and other Indians, had come on board, and also Kiasax, a Blackfoot Indian, who wished to return to his own people. The country, on the south bank, appeared to us to have some resemblance with many parts on the banks of the Rhine; but, on the right bank, there soon appeared those singular hills, resembling fortifications. At ten o'clock, we came to Ruhptare, the second Mandan village, on the south bank, which is situated in a plain a little higher than the river. All the inhabitants, in their buffalo dresses, were collected on the bank, and some had taken their station on the tops of their huts to have a better view: the whole prairie was covered with people, Indians on horseback, and horses grazing. In the low willow thickets on the bank, the brown, naked children were running about; all the men had fans of eagles' feathers in their hands. The village was surrounded with a fence of palisades; and, with its spherical clay huts, looked like a New Zealand Hippah. Here, too, there were high
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poles near the village, on which skins and other things were hung, as offerings to the lord of life, or the sun, and numerous stages for the dead were scattered about the prairie. As we proceeded, the whole population accompanied us along the steep bank on foot and on horseback, followed by many of their large wolf dogs. The [178] country was pretty open and flat. We saw before us the fine broad mirror of the river, and, at a distance on the southern bank, the red mass of the clay huts of the lower village of the Manitaries, which we reached in half an hour. The Missouri is joined by the Knife River, on which the three villages of the Manitaries are built. The largest, which is the furthest from the Missouri, is called ElÅh-SÅ (the village of the great willows); the middle one, Awatichay (the little village), where Charbonneau, the interpreter, lives; and the third, Awacháwi (le village des souliers), which is the smallest, consisting of only eighteen huts, situated at the mouth of Knife River.358
wore his hair tied together in a knot upon his head. Mato-Topé (the four bears), the eminent Mandan chief, whom I have before mentioned, and Cháratá-Numákshi (the chief of the wolves), were also present; and I purchased from the former his painted buffalo dress, which had hitherto been his medicine (i. e. charm), which he highly valued as a souvenir of his brother, who had been shot by the enemy. Our cookery pleased them much; they were fond of coffee, and sugar was a great delicacy; but they cannot make maple sugar like the Indians in the woody country, because the trees are neither numerous nor strong enough to produce this article.When we turned our eyes from the dark brown inhabitants to the surrounding scenery, we saw, on the banks, grey hills, with level prairies and willow thickets next the river, and the country, in general, was rather flat than mountainous. The hills were partly depressed at the top — a feature which is almost peculiar to these hills. At noon the sun burst forth, and the thermometer was at 76°, with a high wind. The south bank of the river was now animated by a crowd of Indians, both on foot and on horseback; they were the Manitaries, who had flocked from their three villages to see the steamer and to welcome us. The appearance of this vessel of the Company, which comes up, once in two years, to the Yellow Stone River, is an event of the greatest importance to the Indians; they then come from considerable distances to see this hissing machine, which they look upon as one of the most wonderful medicines (charms) of the white men. The sight of the red-brown crowd collected on the river side, for even their buffalo skins were mostly of this colour, was, in the highest degree, striking. We already saw above a hundred of them, with many dogs, some of which drew sledges, and others, wooden boards [179] fastened to their backs, and the ends trailing on the
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ground, to which the baggage was attached with leather straps. The Indians hastened through the willow thicket, and, altogether, stood opposite to us on the steep, low, sandy bank, where they were so crowded that we, every moment, expected to see the sand give way.The most attractive sight which we had yet met with upon this voyage, now presented itself to our view. The steamboat lay to close to the willow thicket, and we saw, immediately before us, the numerous, motley, gaily painted, and variously ornamented crowd of the most elegant Indians on the whole course of the Missouri. The handsomest and most robust persons, of both sexes and all ages, in highly original, graceful, and characteristic costumes, appeared, thronged together, to our astonished eye; and there was, all at once, so much to see and to observe, that we anxiously profited by every moment to catch only the main features of this unique picture. The Manitaries are, in fact, the tallest and best formed Indians on the Missouri, and, in this respect, as well as in the elegance of their costume, the Crows alone approach them, whom they, perhaps, even surpass in the latter particular. Their faces were, in general, painted red, in which the North Americans agree with the Brazilians, and many other South Americans; their long hair hung in broad flat braids down their backs; on the side of each eye, they had hanging, from the forehead, a string of white and blue beads, alternating with tooth shells, and their heads were adorned with feathers, stuck in the hair.
The expression of their remarkable countenances, as they gazed at us, was very various; in some, it was cold and disdainful; in others, intense curiosity; in others, again, good-nature and simplicity. The upper parts of their bodies were, in general, naked, and the fine brown skin of their arms adorned with broad, bright bracelets of a white metal. In their hands they carried their musket, bow and battle-axe;
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their quivers, of otter skin, elegantly decorated, were slung over their backs; their leggins were trimmed with tufts of the hair of the enemies whom they had killed, with dyed horse-hair of different colours, and with a profusion of leather fringe, and beautifully embroidered with stripes of dyed porcupine quills, or glass beads, of the most brilliant colours. These handsome, robust men, showing their remarkably fine white teeth as they smiled, gave free expression to their feelings; and the unnatural and ugly fashions, as well as the different costumes of the white people, probably afforded ample matter for satirical observations, for which these children of nature have a peculiar turn. All these Indians were dressed in their very finest clothes, and they completely attained their object; for they made, at least upon us strangers, a very lively impression. Many of them were distinguished by wearing leather shirts, of exquisite workmanship, which they obtain by barter from the Crows. Several tall, athletic men were on horseback, and managed their horses, which were frightened by the noise of the steam-boats, with an ease which afforded us pleasure. Urging them with their short whips in the manner of the Cossacks, with the bridle fastened to the lower jaw, they, at length, pushed the [180] light, spirited animals through the willow thicket, till they reached the river, where these fine bold horsemen, resembling the Circassians, with their red-painted countenances, were regarded with great admiration. Many of them wore the large valuable necklace, made of long bears' claws, and their handsomely-painted buffalo robe was fastened round the waist by a girdle. In general they had no stirrups, but sat very firmly on the naked backs of the horses, and several rode on a saddle resembling the Hungarian saddle. Among the young women we observed some who were very pretty, the white of whose sparkling hazel eyes formed a striking contrast363
with the vermilion faces. I regret that it is impossible, by any description, to give the reader a distinct idea of such a scene, and there was not sufficient time for Mr. Bodmer to make a drawing of it. The following winter, however, afforded us an opportunity, in some measure, to supply this deficiency.The chiefs of the Manitaries came on board for a short time; among them were old Addi-Hiddisch (the road maker), Péhriska-Rúhpa (the two ravens), Lachpizí-Sihrish (the yellow bear), and several others, and with them the Blackfoot Kiasax, in his best dress, who was to make the voyage along with us. He was accompanied by his Manitari wife, who carried a little child, wrapped in a piece of leather, fastened with straps. She wept much at parting from her husband, and the farewell scene was very interesting. While this was going on, an Indian, on the shore, was employed in keeping off the crowd with a long willow rod, which he laid about the women and children with a right hearty good will, when, by their curiosity, they hindered our engagés and crew in loosening the vessel from the shore. The vessel, however, was ready to start; Mr. Kipp, Charbonneau, the interpreter, and the Manitari chiefs, took leave, and hastened to land, on which the Assiniboin proceeded rapidly up the Missouri. The Indians followed us, for a time, along the bank; about thirty of them formed an interesting group on horseback, two sometimes sitting on the same beast. As the willow thickets on the banks ceased, we had a good view of the prairie, where many Indian horsemen were galloping about; herds of horses fled from the noise of the vessel. The friends and relations of Kiasax and Matsokui — for we had taken another Blackfoot on board — followed the vessel longer than any of the others; they frequently called to them, and nodded farewell, to which Kiasax answered with a long
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wooden pipe, upon which he played a wretched piece of music.365
cones, or angular, like fortifications. Many of these pyramids are perfectly regular, and stand on a broad basis, furrowed by the water; some are square, and others regularly flattened. The strata of bituminous coal extend along the base of most of them; all these singularly-formed rocks have, doubtless, been elevated by the action of subterraneous fire. The evening sun illumined the grotesque pyramidal hills, and their shadows gave us a clear idea of their forms. The northern declivity of the mountains was partly covered with bushes; the southern, almost always naked and bare. Towards nightfall we passed the winter village of the Manitaries,366
On the following morning, the 20th of June, we perceived, in a forest on the bank, fifteen Indians, and soon afterwards four large elks, which would have been a welcome prey to the hunters, had they been aware of their being so near. One of the strata of black coal on the generally flat hills of this part of the country had lately been on fire; we did not, however, perceive any smoke.
[182] After ten o'clock, having taken in fuel, we came to singular hills, flattened at the top, which are called L'Ours qui Danse, because it is said the Indians here celebrate the bear dance, a medicine feast, in order to obtain success in the chase.
Continuing our voyage, we saw the buffaloes hasten away, and moored our vessel at twilight to some trees on the north bank. All over the plain there were deeply trodden paths of the buffaloes. On the morning following, the 21st, the river had risen considerably, and brought down trunks of
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trees, branches, &c., which covered the surface, and gave our vessel some violent shocks: strips of wood, and desolate hills, without any vegetation, appeared. On the southern bank we came to a green spot at the mouth of the Little Missouri,368
We lay to about three miles below Goose Egg Lake. A white wolf accompanied the steam-boat as it proceeded. We came to the canal which joins Goose Egg Lake to the Missouri, which I was unable to examine, as the steamer did not stop. Here the river makes a great bend, which, as well as that near Fort Lookout, is called by some Canadians Le Grand Détour.369
whom we had sent out. They were covered from head to foot with blood, and hung about with game, having killed two elks. The effect of the current and the wind upon our vessel continued for a long time. It was often thrown against the alluvial bank, so that the deck was covered with earth, and the track of our vessel clearly marked along the clayey sand bank. After four o'clock we stopped at a narrow verdant prairie in front of the hills, to fell wood: several pretty plants, among which was a juniper with the berries still green, were found here. The cat bird, the wren and blackbird animated the thickets, and we observed also the great curlew (Numenius longirostris). A very large elk horn of twelve antlers had been found; a number of them lie about in all the forests and prairies, of which no use is made. In the afternoon we saw in the prairie of the north bank a large grizzly bear, and immediately sent Ortubize and another hunter in pursuit of him, but to no purpose. Soon after we saw two other bears, one of a whitish, the other of a dark colour, and our hunters, when they returned, affirmed that they had wounded the largest. Harvey had shot an elk, and brought the best part of it from a great distance, and with considerable exertion, to the river. From this place upwards, the grey bear became more and more common; further down the river it is still rare. Brackenridge says, it is not found below the [184] Mandan villages, but this is not quite correct. Near the prairie where we saw the bears, is the mouth of White Earth River, called by Lewis and Clarke, Goat-pen River.370
traps for the beavers. Harvey had the good fortune to catch, during the night, a young beaver, which he brought on board alive, on the following morning, the 23rd. The iron trap had broken one of the legs of the little beaver, and with all our care we could not keep it alive. The surrounding country on the banks of the Missouri, which is here very broad, again showed the singularly formed angular hills flattened at the top like tables: several pretty prairies, in which the white artemisia and other beautiful plants grew, extended at the foot of the eminences, on the declivity of which the buffalo berry and the creeping juniper were common; henceforward the clay cones were partly burnt as red as bricks, which was a clear proof of their origin. Many of them had parallel horizontal stripes, projecting a little, of harder sandstone strata, which had resisted the influence of the elements more than the intermediate strata of clay and sand.The vessel laying to, about eleven o'clock, near a wood on the south bank, we suddenly perceived on the north bank some Indians, who immediately called to us. They were the first Assiniboins that we had met with; they sat upon the bank waiting for the boat which Mr. Mc Kenzie sent to them. After a short pause they came on board the steamer, and proved to be Stassága (le brecheux), who was well known to Mr. Mc Kenzie, with seven of his people of the branch called by the French, Gens des Filles.
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he had strings of blue and white glass beads; round his neck a collar of bears' claws; the upper part of his body was wrapped in a red woollen shirt; his legs were quite bare, but he had a pair of handsomely embroidered leggins which he put on when his people left the vessel. He was wrapped in a buffalo robe, and had in his hand a musket, and an eagle's wing for a fan. Another robust man had smeared his face, about the eyes, with white clay. The rest of these Indians were neither well formed nor well dressed, but dirty and slovenly. Their hair hung in disorder about their heads; some of them had made it up into three plaits; their legs were mostly bare; only a couple of them had leggins. One of them, with a Jewish physiognomy, wore a white wolf skin cap. Some of them were marked with two parallel tattooed black stripes from the neck down the breast; the upper parts of their bodies were naked, but they were wrapped in buffalo robes. Most of them had guns, and all, without distinction, bows and arrows, the latter in a quiver or bag made of skin, to which also the case for the bow is attached, as shown in the woodcut.As the Assiniboins are a branch of the Sioux, Ortubize was able to act as interpreter. They were made to sit down round the great cabin, and the pipe circulated; they likewise [185] received abundance of food, which seemed to please them much. They said that since they came to these parts in the spring, they had suffered much from want of food, buffaloes being scarce. They intended shortly to leave this part of the country, but the chief wished to go with us to Fort Union, which we allowed him to do. After they had been shown about the vessel, the steam-engine of which greatly excited their attention, though they suppressed any mark of surprise, they were landed in a lofty poplar grove on the north bank.
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After dinner, we proceeded along the side of a prairie, where we heard the note of the great curlew. The valley of the river was bounded on both sides by very remarkable whitish-grey, obliquely stratified ridges, with singular spots of red clay, and bushes in the ravines; at their feet was the prairie, covered with pale green artemisia; and on the tongues of land, at the windings of the Missouri, there were fine poplar groves, with an undergrowth of roses in full bloom, buffalo-berry bushes, and many species of plants. On the mountains we again saw naked rounded cones of earth, as if they had been thrown up by moles, and, on the tops of some of them, a little turret, or cone, while their sides were rounded by the rain water, or marked with parallel perpendicular furrows.
On our further progress up the river, we saw, for the first time, the animal known by the name of the bighorn, or the Rocky Mountain sheep, the Ovis montana of the zoologists. A ram and two sheep of this species stood on the summit of the highest hill, and, after looking at our steamer, slowly retired. These animals are not frequent hereabouts, but we afterwards met with them in great numbers. We here took on board some cord wood, which the different trading posts had employed their engagés to get ready for the steamboat.
On the 24th, in the morning, we found the banks wooded, and beyond the thickets were the chain of hills, in the middle of which were strata of the colour of red bricks. Cones of that colour, and sometimes detached grey figures, with a red base, crowned the heights. Many varied colours showed that these eminences must have undergone the action of fire. About eight o'clock we came to the mouth of Muddy River (the White Earth River of Lewis and Clarke), which issues from a thicket on the north bank.
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saw smoke on the bank, and, soon afterwards, some Assiniboins, one of whom fired three shots to attract our attention: others soon came up, and we took them on board. They were robust men, with high cheek-bones, well dressed, all in leather shirts, their legs mostly bare, and their hair hanging smooth about their heads; one of them took off the leather case of his bow, and wrapped it round his head like a turban, so that a little tuft of feathers, at one end of it, stood upright. Following the numerous windings of the Missouri, from one chain of hills to another, we reached, at seven o'clock in the evening, the mouth of the Yellow Stone, a fine river, hardly inferior in breadth to the Missouri at this part. It issues below the high grey chain of hills, and its mouth is bordered with a fine wood of tall poplars, with willow thickets. The two rivers unite in an obtuse angle; and there [186] is a sudden turn of the Missouri to the north-west; it is not wooded at the junction, but flows between prairies thirty or more miles in extent. Herds of buffaloes are often seen here; at this time they had left these parts: we saw, however, many antelopes. At the next turn of the river, towards the right hand, we had a fine prospect. Gentle eminences, with various rounded or flat tops, covered with bright verdure, formed the back-ground; before them, tall poplar groves, and willow thickets on the bank of the river, whose dark blue waters, splendidly illumined by the setting sun, flowed, with many windings, through the prairie. A little further on lay Fort Union, on a verdant plain, with the handsome American flag, gilded by the last rays of evening, floating in the azure sky, while a herd of horses grazing animated the peaceful scene.374
As the steamer approached, the cannon of Fort Union fired a salute, with a running fire of musketry, to bid us welcome, which was answered in a similar manner by our vessel. When we reached the fort, we were received by Mr. Hamilton, an Englishman, who, during the absence of Mr. Mc Kenzie, had performed the functions of director,
The Yellow Stone, being one of the principal affluents of the Missouri, receives several considerable streams, of which the following are the chief: --
1. The Bighorn River (La Grosse Corne).
2. The Little Bighorn River (La Petite Grosse Corne).
3. The Tongue River (La RiviÄre Ä la Langue).
4. The Powder River (La RiviÄre Å la Poudre).
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The Yellow Stone is called, by the Canadians, La Roche Jaune. Warden calls it Keheetsa, but I do not know where he got this name. Lewis and Clarke say it has no name. The names given it by most of the Indian nations signify Elk River.
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Chapter XV.
Description of the Fort and its Vicinity — Its Inhabitants, and the Fur Trade on the Upper Missouri — The Indian Branch of the Assiniboins, the original Possessors of this Spot.
THE erection of Fort Union was commenced in the autumn of 1829, by Mr. Mc Kenzie, and is now completed, except that some of the edifices which were erected in haste are under repair. The fort is situated on an alluvial eminence, on the northern bank of the Missouri, in a prairie, which extends about 1,500 paces to a chain of hills, on whose summit there are other wide-spreading plains. The river runs at a distance of scarcely fifty or sixty feet from the fort, in the direction from west to east; it is here rather broad, and the opposite bank is wooded. The fort itself forms a quadrangle, the sides of which measure about eighty paces in length, on the exterior. The ramparts consist of strong pickets, sixteen or seventeen feet high, squared, and placed close to each other, and surmounted by a chevaux-de-frise. On the south-west and north-east ends, there are blockhouses, with pointed roofs, two stories high, with embrasures and some cannon, which, though small, are fit for service. In the front of the enclosure, and towards the river, is the well-defended principal entrance, with a large folding gate. Opposite the entrance, on the other side of the quadrangle, is the house of the commandant; it is one story high, and has four handsome glass windows on each side of the door. The roof is spacious, and contains a large, light loft. This house is very commodious, and, like all the buildings of the inner quadrangle, constructed of poplar wood, the staple
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wood for building in this neighbourhood. In the inner quadrangle are the residences of the clerks, the interpreters, and the engagés, the powder magazine, the stores, or supplies of goods and bartered skins, various workshops for the handicraftsmen, smiths, carpenters, &c., stables for the horses and cattle, rooms for receiving and entertaining the Indians; and in the centre is the flag-staff, around which several half-breed Indian hunters had erected their leathern tents. A cannon was also placed here, with its mouth towards the principal [188] entrance.Fort Union is one of the principal posts of the Fur Company, because it is the central point of the two other trading stations, still higher up, towards the Rocky Mountains, and having the superintendence of the whole of the trade in the interior, and in the vicinity of the mountains. One of these two trading stations, called Fort Cass, is 200 miles up the Yellow Stone River, and is confined to the trade with the Crow tribe; the other, Fort Piekann, or, as it is now called, Fort Mc Kenzie, is 850
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as the steamers cannot often go up to Fort Union, they despatch keel-boats, to supply the various trading posts with goods for barter with the Indians. They then pass the winter at these stations, and in the spring carry the furs to Fort Union, whence they are transported, in the course of the summer, to St. Louis, by the steamers.The Company maintains a number of agents at these different stations; during their stay they marry Indian women, but leave them, without scruple, when they are removed to another station, or are recalled to the United States. The lower class of these agents, who are called engagés, or voyageurs, have to act as steersmen, rowers, hunters, traders, &c., according to their several capabilities. They are often sent great distances, employed in perilous undertakings among the Indians, and are obliged to fight against the enemy, and many of them are killed every year by the arms with which the Whites themselves have furnished the Indians. Some of the agents of the Fur Company winter every year in the Rocky Mountains.
The proprietors of the American Fur Company were Messrs. Astor, at New York, General Pratte, Chouteau, Cabanné, Mc Kenzie, Laidlow, and Lament; the three latter had a share [189] in the fur trade on the Upper
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Missouri only. Wild beasts and other animals, whose skins are valuable in the fur trade, have already diminished greatly in number along this river, and it is said that, in another ten years, the fur trade will be very inconsiderable. As the supplies along the banks of the Missouri decreased, the Company gradually extended the circle of their trading posts, as well as enterprises, and thus increased their income. Above 500 of their agents are in the forts of the Upper Missouri, and at their various trading posts; and, besides these individuals, who receive considerable salaries (for it is said that the Company yearly expend 150,000 dollars in salaries), there are in these prairies, and the forests of the Rocky Mountains, beaver and fur trappers, who live at their own cost; but whose present wants, such as horses, guns, powder, ball, woollen cloths, articles of clothing, tobacco, &c. &c., are supplied by the Company, and the scores settled, after the hunting season is over, by the furs which they deliver at the different trading posts. Many of these, when not employed in hunting, live at the Company's forts. They are, for the most part, enterprising, robust men, capital riflemen, and, from their rude course of life, are able to endure the greatest hardships.During the summer, the Company send out, under the direction of an experienced clerk, a number of strong, well-armed, mounted men, who convey the necessary goods and supplies, on pack-horses, to the trading stations, at a distance from the river; they always observe and enforce the required conditions of the Indians, and not unfrequently come to blows with them. These expeditions have to support themselves by the chase, consequently the men must be good hunters, as they subsist almost exclusively on what they procure by their guns. Besides the forts which I have so often named, the Company has also small winter posts, called log-houses, or block-houses, among the Indians, quickly
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erected, and as quickly abandoned: to these the Indians bring their furs, which are purchased, and sent, in the spring, to the trading posts. The American Fur Company has, at present, about twenty-three, large and small, trading posts. In the autumn and winter the Indian tribes generally approach nearer to these posts, to barter their skins; while in the spring and summer they devote themselves especially to catching beavers, for which they receive every encouragement from the merchants, who lend or advance them iron traps for the purpose.The animals, whose skins are objects of this trade, and the annual average of the income derived from skins, may be pretty well ascertained from the following statement:
1. Beavers: about 25,000 skins. They are sold in packs of 100 lbs. weight each, put up separately, and tied together. There are, generally, about sixty large skins in a pack; if they are smaller, of course there are more skins. A large beaver skin weighs about two pounds — sometimes more. The usual price is four dollars a pound.
[190] 2. Otters: 200 to 300 skins.
3. Buffalo cow skins: 40,000 to 50,000. Ten buffalo hides go to the pack.
4. Canadian weasel (Musetela Canadensis): 500 to 600.
5. Martin (pine or beech martin): about the same quantity.
6. Lynx; the northern lynx (Felis Canadensis): 1,000 to 2,000.
7. Lynx; the southern or wild cat (Felis rufa): ditto.
8. Red foxes (Canis fulvus): 2,000.
9. Cross foxes: 200 to 300.
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10. Silver foxes: twenty to thirty. Sixty dollars are often paid for a single skin.
11. Minks (Mustela vison): 2,000.
12. Musk-rats (Ondathra): from 1,000 to 100,000.
13. Deer (Cervus Virginianus and macrotis): from 20,000 to 30,000.
Beyond Council Bluffs, scarcely any articles are bartered by the Indians — especially the Joways, Konzas, and the Osages — except the skins of the Cervus Virginianus, which is found in great abundance, but is said to have fallen off there likewise very considerably.
The elk (Cervus Canadensis, or major), is not properly comprehended in the trade, as its skin is too thick and heavy, and is, therefore, used for home consumption. The buffalo skin is taken, as before observed, from the cows only, as the leather of the bulls is too heavy. The wolf skins are not at all sought by the company, that is to say, they do not send out any hunters to procure them; but, if the Indians bring any, they are bought not to create any dissatisfaction, and then they are sold at about a dollar a-piece. The Indians, however, have frequently nothing to offer for barter but their dresses, and painted buffalo robes.
The support of so large an establishment as that at Fort Union requires frequent hunting excursions into the prairie;
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and Mr. Mc Kenzie, therefore, maintained here several experienced hunters of a mixed race, who made weekly excursions to the distance of twenty or more miles into the prairie, sought the buffalo herds, and, after they had killed a sufficient number, returned home with their mules well laden. The flesh of the cows is very good, especially the tongues, which are smoked in great numbers, and then sent down to St. Louis. The colossal marrow-bones are considered quite a delicacy by the hunters and by the Indians. The consumption of [191] this animal is immense in North America, and is as indispensable to the Indians as the reindeer is to the Laplanders, and the seal to the Esquimaux. It is difficult to obtain an exact estimate of the consumption of this animal, which is yearly decreasing and driven further inland. In a recent year, the Fur Company sent 42,000 of these hides down the river, which were sold, in the United States, at four dollars a-piece. Fort Union alone consumes about 600 to 800 buffaloes annually, and the other forts in proportion. The numerous Indian tribes subsist almost entirely on these animals, sell their skins after retaining a sufficient supply for their clothing, tents, &c., and the agents of the Company recklessly shoot down these noble animals for their own pleasure, often not making the least use of them, except taking out the tongue. Whole herds of them are often drowned in the Missouri; nay, I have been assured that, in some rivers, 1,800 and more of their dead bodies were found in one place. Complete dams are formed of the bodies of these animals in some of the morasses of the rivers; from this we may form some idea of the decrease of the buffaloes, which are now found on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, where they were not originally met with, but whither they have been driven.Besides the buffalo, the hunters also shoot the elk, the deer, and, occasionally, the bighorn. The former especially
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are very numerous on the Yellow Stone River. All other provisions, such as pork, hams, flour, sugar, coffee, wine, and other articles of luxury for the tables of the chief officers and the clerks, are sent from St. Louis by the steamer. The maize is procured from the neighbouring Indian nations. Vegetables do not thrive at Fort Union, which Mr. Mc Kenzie ascribes to the long-continued drought and high winds.The neighbourhood around Fort Union is, as I have observed, a wide, extended prairie, intersected, in a northerly direction, by a chain of rather high, round, clay-slate, and sand-stone hills, from the summits of which we had a wide-spreading view over the country on the other side of the Missouri, and of its junction with the Yellow Stone, of which Mr. Bodmer made a very faithful drawing.
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Expedition to St. Peter's RiverThe scene of destruction, which has often been mentioned, namely, the whitening bones of buffaloes and stags, recurs everywhere in the prairie, and the great dogs of the fort frequently seek for such animal remains. Between the hills, there are, sometimes, in the ravines, little thickets of oak, ash, negundo maple, elm, bird-cherry, and some others, in which many kinds of birds, particularly the starling, blackbird, &c., build their nests. The king-bird and the red thrush are likewise found. Of mammalia, besides those in the river, namely, the beaver, the otter, and the muskrat, there are, about Fort Union, in the prairie, great numbers
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of the pretty little squirrel, the skin of which is marked with long stripes, and regular spots between them (Spermophilus Hoodii, Sab.), which have been represented by Richardson and Cuvier. The Anglo-Americans of these parts call it the ground squirrel; and the Canadians, l'écureuil Suisse. From its figure and agility, it is a genuine squirrel, and, therefore, rather different from the true marmot arctomys. The burrows, in which these animals live, are often carried to a great extent underground. The entrance is not much larger than a mouse hole, and has no mound of earth thrown up, like those of the prairie dogs. Besides these, there are several kinds of mice, particularly Mus leucopus. The flat hills of the goffer are likewise seen; this is a kind of large sand rat, living underground, of which I did not obtain a specimen.Not far above and below the fort there were woods on the banks of the Missouri, consisting of poplars, willows, ash, elm, negundo maple, &c., with a thick underwood of hazel, roses, which were now in flower, and dog-berry, rendered almost impassable by blackberry bushes and the burdock (Xanthium strumarium), the thorny fruit of which stuck to the clothes. In these thickets, where we collected many plants, the mosquitos were extremely troublesome. In such places we frequently heard the deep base note of the frogs; and in those places which were not damp, there were patches of two kinds of solidago; likewise Gaura coccinea (Pursh.), and Cristaria coccinea, two extremely beautiful plants; and, on the banks of the river, the white-flowering Bartonia ornata (Pursh.), and the Helianthus petiolaris (Nutt.), which were everywhere in flower, &c. &c.
[193] In the forest, a pretty small mouse was frequent, as well as the large wood rat, already mentioned. Of birds, there are some species of woodpeckers, the Carolina pigeon, numerous blackbirds (Quiscalus ferrugineus), thrushes, several
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smaller birds, the beautiful bluefinch, first described by Say, the American fly-catcher, and several others. The whip-poor-will is not found so high up the Missouri. The river does not abound in fish; it produces, however, two species of cat-fish, and soft shell turtles, but which are not often caught.The climate about Fort Union is very changeable. We had often 76° Fahrenheit, and storms of thunder and lightning alternating with heavy rains. Other days in the month of June were cold, the thermometer falling to 56°. Winds prevail here the greater part of the year, and therefore the temperature is usually dry. The weather, while we were there, was uncommonly rainy. Spring is generally the wettest season; the summer is dry; autumn the finest time of the year; the winter is severe, and often of long continuance. The snow is often three, four, or six feet deep in many places, and then dog sledges are used, and the Indians wear snow shoes. The winter of 1831-1832 had been remarkably mild in these parts. The Missouri had scarcely been frozen for three days together; but the spring, however, set in very late. On the 30th of May, 1832, the forests were still without verdure; and there was, in that month, such dreadful weather, that an Indian was frozen to death in the prairie: a snow storm overtook him and a girl, who escaped with one of her feet frozen. In general, however, the climate is said to be very healthy. There are no endemic disorders, and the fine water of the Missouri, which, notwithstanding the sand mixed with it, is light and cold, does not a little contribute to make the inhabitants attain an advanced age. There are no physicians here, and the people affirm they have no need of them. Persons, whom we questioned on the subject, said, "We don't want doctors; we have no diseases." In the preceding spring, however, there had been more sickness than usual on the Missouri, and at the
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time of our visit, the approach of the cholera was feared. Colds are, probably, the most frequent complaints, the changes in the temperature being sudden, the dwellings slight and ill built, and the people exposing themselves without any precaution.Fort Union is built in the territory of the Assiniboins, of whom a certain number generally live there. At this time they had left, because the herds of buffaloes were gone to a distant part of the country. The Assiniboins are real Dacotas, or Sioux, and form a branch which separated from the rest a considerable time ago, in consequence of a quarrel among them. They still call themselves by that name, though they seem generally to pronounce it Nacota. They parted from the rest of the tribe, after a battle which they had with each other on Devil's Lake, and removed further to the north. The tribe is said to consist of 28,000 souls, of whom 7,000 are warriors. They live in 3,000 tents; the territory which they claim as theirs, is between the Missouri and the Saskatschawan, bounded by lake Winipick on the north, extending, on the east, to Assiniboin River, and, on the west, to Milk River. The English and Americans sometimes [194] call them Stone Indians, which, however, properly speaking, is the name of only one branch.
The Assiniboins are divided into the following branches or bands:
1. Itscheabiné (les gens des filles).
2. JatonabinÄ (les gens des roches). The Stone Indians of the English. Captain Franklin, in his first journey to the Frozen Ocean, speaks of these Indians, and observes that they are little to be depended upon.
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3. Otopachgnato (les gens du large).
4. OtaopabinÄ (les gens des canots).
5. Tschantoga (les gens des bois). They live near the Fort des Prairies, not far from Saskatschawan River.
6. Watópachnato (les gens de l'age).
7. Tanintauei (les gens des osayes).
8. Chábin (les gens des montagnes).
In their personal appearance the Assiniboins differ little from the true Sioux; those whom we saw were, perhaps, on the whole, not so tall and slender as the Sioux. Their faces are broad, with high cheeks, and broad maxillary bones. They frequently do not wear their hair so long as the Sioux; many of them have it scarcely hanging down to the shoulders; some, however, let it grow to a great length, and braid it in two or three tails; nay, some let it hang like a lion's mane over their faces and about their heads. Several wore round white leather caps, others feathers in their hair, or a narrow strip of skin fastened over the crown. A remarkable head-dress is that with two horns, of which I shall have to speak in the sequel. They paint their faces red, or reddish-brown, and, when they have killed an enemy, quite black: the hair in front is often daubed with clay; the upper part of the body is seldom naked in winter time, when they wear leather shirts, with a large round rosette on the breast, which is embroidered with dyed porcupine quills, of the most vivid colours; and they have often another exactly similar ornament on their back. The sleeves of these leather shirts are adorned with tufts of their enemies' hair. The outer seam
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of the leggins, as among all the other tribes, has an embroidered stripe of coloured porcupine quills, and trimmed in the same manner with human or dyed horsehair. In the summer time the upper part of the body is often naked, and the feet bare, but they are never without the large buffalo robe, which is often curiously painted. Their necklaces and other ornaments are similar to those of the other nations which have already been described. They, however, very frequently wear the collar of the bears' claws, but not the long strings of beads [195] and dentalium shells, which are used by the Manitaries. Most of the Assiniboins have guns,390
The Assiniboins being hunters, live in movable leather tents, with which they roam about, and never cultivate the ground. Their chief subsistence they derive from the herds of buffaloes, which they follow in the summer, generally from the rivers, to a distance in the prairie; in the winter, to the woods on the banks of the rivers, because these herds, at that time, seek for shelter and food among the thickets. They are particularly dexterous in making what are called buffalo parks, when a tract is surrounded with scarecrows, made of stones, branches of trees, &c., and the terrified animals are driven into a narrow gorge, in which the hunters lie concealed, as represented and described by Franklin, in his first journey to the Frozen Ocean.
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from hunger. They eat every kind of animals, except serpents; horses and dogs are very frequently killed for food, which is the reason why they keep so many, particularly of the latter.In comparison with the other nations, the Assiniboins have not many horses; their bridles and saddles are like those of the Manitaries. The rope of buffalo hair, which is fastened to the [196] lower jaw as a bridle, is always very long, and trails on the grass when the animal is not tied up. Many have large parchment stirrups in the shape of shoes, and all carry a short whip in their hand, generally made of the end of an elk's horn, and gaily ornamented. Their dogs are of great help to the women in their heavy work; and they are loaded with the baggage in the same manner as among the Manitaries.
In general, the Assiniboins have the customs as well as the superstitious notions of the Sioux; for an account of which, Major Long's "Expedition to St. Peter's River," may be consulted. They keep on good terms with the Fur Company, for their own interest; they are, however, horse-stealers, and not to be trusted; and when one meets them alone in the prairie, there is great danger of being robbed. Smoking is a favourite enjoyment with them, but, as they live at a distance from the red pipe clay, the bowls of their pipes are generally made of a blackish stone, or black clay, and are different in shape from those of the Dacotas.
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before mentioned, or the leaves of the bear-berry (Arbutus uva ursi), mixed with genuine tobacco. To clean their pipes they make use of a painted stick, bound round with quills, dyed of various colours, and with a neat tassel at the end of it,Many games are in use among these Indians; one of these is a round game, in which one holds in his hand some small stones, of which the others must guess the number, or pay a forfeit. This game is known also to the Blackfeet. Another is that in which they play with four small bones and four yellow nails, to which one of each sort is added; they are laid upon a flat [197] wooden plate, which is struck, so that they fly up and fall back into the plate, and you gain, or lose, according as they lie together on one side, and the stake is often very high.
Among the amusements and festivities are their eating feasts, when the guests must eat everything set before them, if they will not give offence. If one of the guests is not able to eat any more, he gives his neighbour a small wooden stick, and the plate with food, the meaning of which is that he will make him a present of a horse, on the next day, if he will undertake to empty the plate; and the young men do this in order to gain reputation. The Assiniboins are brave in battle, and often very daring. They frequently steal into the villages of the Mandans and Manitaries, shoot the inhabitants in or near their huts, or steal their horses.
They believe in a creator, or lord of life (Unkan-Tange), and also in an evil spirit (Unkan-Schidja), who torments people with various disorders, against which their sorcerers or physicians (medicine men) use the drum and the rattle to expel the evil spirit. Like the Crees and several other tribes, they believe that thunder is produced by an enormous bird, which some of them pretend to have seen. Some
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ascribe lightning to the Great Spirit, and believe that he is angry when the storm is violent. They believe that the dead go to a country in the south, where the good and brave find women and buffaloes, while the wicked or cowardly are confined to an island, where they are destitute of all the pleasures of life. Those who, during their lives, have conducted themselves bravely, are not to be deposited in trees when they die, but their corpses are to be laid on the ground, it being taken for granted that, in case of need, they will help themselves. Of course they are generally devoured by the wolves, to secure them from which, however, they are covered with wood and stones. Other corpses are usually placed on trees, as among the Sioux, and sometimes on scaffolds. They are tied up in buffalo hides, and three or four are sometimes laid in one tree.The language of the Assiniboins is, on the whole, the same as that of the Sioux, altered by their long separation, and the influence of time and circumstances. Like them, they have many gutturals and nasal tones; in general, however, it is an harmonious language, which a German pronounces without difficulty.
nts
Notes.
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864) was a well-known traveller, ethnologist, and historian. Born in New York, he studied at both Middlebury and Union colleges. His first tour to the West was in 1817-18, when he made a collection of minerals in Missouri and Arkansas. In 1820 he accompanied Cass's western expedition, and the following year acted as secretary of the Indian Commissioners at Chicago. In 1822 he was made Indian agent at Mackinac, where he resided for seventeen years, having married a descendant of a Chippewa chief. In 1837 he was promoted to superintendency of the Northern department, whence he resigned (1841) to devote himself to literary work. In 1847 Congress authorized the publication of a work upon Indian tribes, to which Schoolcraft devoted the latter portion of his life. It appeared as Historical and Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (Philadelphia, 1851-57). Schoolcraft belonged to many learned and historical societies, received a medal from the French Institute, and was in his day the chief authority on American Indians. Besides the work already cited, he published much, chief of which is Personal Memoirs (Philadelphia, 1851); Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Source of the Mississippi River in 1820, resumed and completed by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake in 1832 (Philadelphia, 1855).
Thomas Lorraine McKenney (1785-1859) was superintendent of trade with the Indian tribes, 1816-24. In the latter year he was made head of the bureau of Indian affairs in the war department, also serving frequently as treaty commissioner. The work to which reference is here made is Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes (Baltimore, 1827).
Lewis Cass (1782-1866) had unusual opportunities for contact with the tribesmen. After taking a prominent part in the War of 1812-15, he was for eighteen years governor of Michigan Territory. His contributions to Indian bibliography were a series of articles published in the North American Review, xxvi-xxx (1828-30).
Peter Stephen Duponceau (1760-1844) was a Frenchman who came to America during the Revolution. Settling at Philadelphia, he became a member of the American Philosophical Society, and contributed to its Transactions several articles on the structure and grammar of Indian languages. — Ed.
Robert Göppert (1800-1884) was a botanist and palÄontologist. First studying medicine at Breslau and Berlin, he was professor of botany in the university at the former place (1831-39). In 1852 he was chosen director of the botanical gardens at Breslau, where he remained until his death. — Ed.
Arend Friedrich August Wiegmann (1802-41) was for a time professor of zoölogy at Berlin. He founded (1835) Archivs fur Naturgeschichte. — Ed.
Comment by Ed. See Wyeth's \ Oregon, in our volume xxi, p. 44, note 24.
Before coming to Pennsylvania, John D. Anders (1771-1847) had charge of the Moravian church at Berlin, where his great ability attracted much attention among the students of the university. In 1827 he was appointed to preside over the northern district of the American Moravian church. This position he held until 1836, when he was elected to the supreme executive board of the Unitas Fratrum. — ED.
In 1840 the total mileage of canals in Pennsylvania was twelve hundred and eighty; of which four hundred and thirty-two were owned by private companies; the total mileage of railroads in the same year was seven hundred and ninety-five. See Henry F. Walling and O. W. Gray, New Topographical Atlas of the State of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1872), p. 30. — ED.
Comment by Ed. Gnadenhütten was a mission established (1746) by the Moravians for their converts among the Delaware Indians; it was placed under the charge of Martin Mack.
New Salem (or Salem), in the same county, twenty-five miles east of Pittsburg, was laid out in 1833.
Many early western travellers give descriptions and historical accounts of Pittsburg. See particularly Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, pp. 242-255. — ED.
Economy, an Ohio River town, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, seventeen miles northwest of Pittsburg, was settled by the Harmonites in 1825. The property of the community is now quite valuable, but in 1902 the membership was only eight. Celibacy has been encouraged and new members have not been solicited, and the property is now in the hands of a single trustee. — ED.
Henry S. Tanner (1786-1858), a resident of Philadelphia, engraved and published atlases and separate maps. Worthy of mention are the New American Atlas (Philadelphia, 1817-23), The World (1825), Map of the United States of Mexico (1825), Map of the United States of America (1829). Tanner was a member of the geographical societies of London and Paris, made numerous contributions to periodicals, and published the American Traveller (Philadelphia, 1836), Central Traveller (New York, 1840), New Picture of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1840), Description of the Canals and Railroads of the United States (New York, 1840), and View of the Valley of the Mississippi (Philadelphia, 1832). — ED.
Caleb Atwater (1778-1867) went to Ohio in 1811, served several years in the legislature of that state, and was appointed Indian commissioner under Jackson. He published A Tour to Prairie du Chien (1831), Western Antiquities (1833), Writings of Caleb Atwater (1833), and History of Ohio (1838).
Christian Schultz, Travels on an Inland Voyage through the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and through the territories of Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi and New Orleans: performed in the years 1807-1808 (New York, 1810).
David Baillie Warden (1778-1845) was for many years United States consul at Paris. He was much interested in antiquities and published Recherches sur les Antiquités de l'Amérique Septentrionale (Paris, 1827); also earlier A Statistical, Political, and Historical Account of the United States of North America (Edinburgh, 1819). — ED.
Shade Creek rises in Atkins County, flows southeast through Meigs County, and enters the Ohio about twenty-one miles below Blennerhassett's Island. — ED.
For Guyandotte River, see Woods's English Prairie, in our volume x, p. 229, note 33. — ED.
Burlington, in the southwestern extremity of Ohio, was once the seat of Lawrence County.
Catlettsburg, here incorrectly written Cadetsburg, is the seat of Boyd County, Kentucky. See Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, p. 155, note 103.
The Sandy, or the Big Sandy, River (not creek), formed by the junction of Tug and Levisa forks, flows north to the Ohio River, separating the states of Kentucky and West Virginia. It drains an area of four thousand square miles, and is navigable for small steamboats to a distance of a hundred miles.
Hanging Rock, named for a high sandstone escarpment, is on the right bank of the river, three miles below Ironton.
For Greenupsburg and Governor Greenup, see Woods's English Prairie, in our volume x, p. 229, note 34.
Concerning the historic importance of the Scioto River, see Croghan's Journals, in our volume i, p. 134, note 102; and for the Ohio Canal, see Flint's Letters in our volume ix, p. 96, note 44.
Rockville, Adams County, Ohio, was laid out in 1830. — ED.
For the early history of Manchester, Ohio, and its founder, General Nathaniel Massie, see Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, p. 160, note 107.
Aberdeen, Brown County, Ohio, was laid out by Nathan Ellis in 1816.
For Ripley, see Woods's English Prairie, in our volume x, p. 233, note 41; for Vanceburg, see Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, p. 165, note III; for Maysville, see A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 35, note 23; and for Augusta, see Flint's Letters, in our volume ix, p. 148, note 69.
Neville, in Clermont County, Ohio, was settled by John Gregg in 1795.
The "Helen Mar" steamboat (88 tons) was built at Cincinnati in 1832; it was reported as being out of commission in 1837.
Moscow, Clermont County, Ohio, was laid out by Owen Davis (1816); and Point Pleasant, five miles farther down the river, in the same county, was platted in the same year by Joseph Jackson for its proprietor, Henry Ludlow.
For New Richmond, see Flint's Letters, in our volume ix, p. 148, note 70. — ED.
The "Water Witch" (120 tons) was built at Nashville in 1831, being sunk near Plaquemine, Louisiana, two years later. — ED.
Leavenworth, named for Messrs. S. M. and J. Leavenworth, is the seat of justice in Crawford County, Indiana. It was located in 1818.
Rome, Perry County, Indiana, was laid out (May, 1818) by one Cummings, and named Washington; in the fall of the same year the name was changed to Franklin; when it was made the county seat in 1819, it was given its present name. See History of Warrick, Spencer, and Perry Counties, Indiana (Chicago, 1885).
Stevensport was incorporated in 1825. Cloverport, originally Jossville, was established in 1828. — ED.
Owensboro (incorrectly written Owenburg) is the seat of justice for Daviess County, Kentucky. Originally called Rossborough, the name was later changed to that now used, being given in honor of Colonel Abraham Owen, killed in the battle of Tippecanoe. The town was incorporated February 3, 1817. — ED.
For Henderson, see Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, p. 267, note 175. — ED.
William Maclure (1763-1840), a wealthy merchant, geologist, and philanthropist, made an unsuccessful attempt (1819) to found an agricultural school at Alicaut, Spain, for the benefit of the poorer classes. In 1824 he went with Robert Owen to New Harmony and took charge of the educational department. The following year, however, together with a hundred and fifty followers, he withdrew to found Macluria. Later, they purchased the New Harmony establishment, and for a short time conducted a school of industry destined to early failure. In 1827, because of failing health, he went to Mexico, where he died (1840). — ED.
For Mrs. Trollope, see Wyeth's Oregon, in our volume xxi, p. 44, note 24; for Doctor Drake, see Flint's Letters, in our volume ix, p. 121, note 61. — ED.
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) was a distinguished professor in the University of Göttingen. As a recognition of his ability, he was in 1812 elected secretary of the Royal Society of Sciences. — ED.
Comment by Ed. See opposite page for illustration of Indian pipes.
An account of the battle of Tippecanoe is given in Evans's Tour, in our volume viii, p. 286, note 131. — ED.
Two treaties — the first with the Delawares, signed August 18, 1804; the second with the Piankeshaw, August 27, 1804 — were concluded by William Henry Harrison at Vincennes. By these treaties all the southwestern portion of Indiana below the Vincennes tract already ceded, became the property of the United States. See W. H. Smith, History of Indiana (Indianapolis, 1897), pp. 230-233. — ED.
By the two acts of March 26, 1804, and April 16, 1816, Congress granted two townships of land, subsequently located in Gibson and Monroe counties "for the use of a seminary of learning." The territorial legislature on November 9, 1806, established in the borough of Vincennes "an university to be known by the name and style of the Vincennes University." The attempt proved a failure, and the land was transferred to the Indiana Seminary created on January 20, 1820. The latter was, on January 24, 1828, raised to the dignity of Indiana College, and on February 15, 1838, to Indiana University. — ED.
The reference is to Dr. Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826), Report to Secretary of War on Indian Affairs (New Haven, 1822), the result of a tour among the Western tribes in 1820. — ED.
The book here referred to is Samuel Cumings' Western Pilot, containing Charts of the Ohio River and of the Mississippi from the Mouth of the Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico, accompanied with Directions for navigating the same, and a Gazetteer or Description of Towns on their Banks, Tributary Streams, etc., also a variety of Matter interesting to Travelers and all concerned in the Navigation of these Rivers (Cincinnati, 1828, 1829, 1834).
For a brief sketch of Fort Massac, see A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 73, note 139. — ED.
The Maramec (often pronounced and written Merrimac) River finds its source in Dent County, Missouri, and flowing northeast joins the Mississippi nineteen miles below St. Louis. Its estimated length is a hundred and fifty miles, draining a territory rich in mines of copper, iron, and lead. — ED.
Carondelet, named for Baron Carondelet, Spanish governor of Louisiana in 1791, was formerly a village in St. Louis County, Missouri; but in 1860 it was merged with the First Ward of St. Louis, under the name of South St. Louis.
For Cahokia, see A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 70, note 135. — ED.
For the fate of the Natchez, consult Nuttall's Journal, in our volume xiii, p. 303, note 226.
The Botocudo are a Tapuyan tribe of southeastern Brazil. — ED.
Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen was a German botanist who voyaged around the world in 1830-32. Upon his return he was called to a chair at Berlin, but died prematurely in 1840 at the age of thirty-eight. He published many memoirs in scientific journals, and in 1834-35 an account of his world-wide voyage. — ED.
Comment by Ed. Referring to D. B. Warden, Recherches sur les Antiquities de l'Amérique Septentrionale. The stream where the antique vase was found, was Caney Fork of Cumberland, in central Tennessee.
Comment by Ed. See Plate 81, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.
Watapinat, a Fox Indian, is cited as being here portrayed. This drawing could not, however, be engraved; and so another Musquake (Fox) Indian, Wakassasse was pictured. — MAXIMILIAN (in German edition).
By the French Company Maximilian intends a firm composed of Papin, Cerré, and Picotte, which in 1830 sold out to the American Fur Company. Its career was but about three years long. — ED.
For Kenneth McKenzie see Wyeth's Oregon, in our volume xxi, p. 45, note 25. The winter of 1834-35 McKenzie paid a visit to Prince Maximilian in his German home, where he was received with much hospitality and brought news to his host of recent affairs on the Missouri, which the latter reports in the appendix to the German edition of his work, ii, p. 616. — ED.
Jonathan L. Bean, of Pennsylvania, was government sub-agent (1827-34) for the Sioux. — ED.
Pinckney was a small village, the seat of Montgomery County (1818-24), but now in Warren County, where a township still retains the name, the site of the town having long since been washed away. — ED.
For a brief sketch of Sublette see our volume xix, p. 221, note 55 (Gregg).
General William Henry Ashley was born in Virginia in 1778. Soon after the beginning of the nineteenth century he went to Missouri, settling first at Ste. GeneviÄve, later in St. Louis, and embarking in various mercantile enterprises. In 1816-17 he surveyed in the state, and the knowledge thus obtained permitted him to make heavy investments for some English capitalists, which laid the foundation of his fortune. In 1820 he was elected lieutenant-governor, and during his term (1820-24) began his fur-trading exploits, from which he derived profit and fame. His title came as leader of the state militia, in whose development he was much interested. In 1831 he was appointed to a vacant seat in Congress, being re-elected thereto two successive terms. He died at St. Louis in 1838. — ED.
For Major Bennett Riley see our volume xix, p. 185, note 25 (Gregg). — ED.
Five Barrel Islands are laid down on early maps; with changes in the river's bed, they are now swept away. — ED.
This fort at Council Bluffs was not on the site of the Iowa town of that name, but some miles higher up the river, on the Nebraska bank, near the village now known as Fort Calhoun, in Washington County. The name was first applied to the bluffs by Lewis and Clark, who held here (1804) an important council with chiefs of neighboring tribes. The United States post was built by a detachment under Colonel Henry Atkinson, when embarked on the famous Yellowstone expedition of 1819. The means of transportation proving inadequate, the troops never reached the Yellowstone, but formed at this point Camp Missouri, where during the winter of 1819-20 much sickness prevailed. The fort was finally christened Atkinson, for its founder, and was so known to the government. The local name was Fort Calhoun — whether in honor of the then secretary of war, or for a soldier who was the first to be here buried, is disputed. On the building of Fort Leavenworth, the troops were removed thither. See note 204, ante, p. 253. — ED.
Dr. John D. Godman (1794-1830) was a Marylander who in 1814 participated in the defense of Fort McHenry. Later studying medicine, he was a professor of anatomy at several colleges, retiring finally to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where he devoted himself to scientific pursuits. His best known work was American Natural History (Philadelphia, 1828).
By Horn River our author intends Elkhorn, for which see our volume xiv, p. 240, note 182. — ED.
Bernard Pratte, jr., was born in upper Louisiana, December 17, 1803. He was sent to Kentucky to be educated, and upon his return embarked in the fur-trade with his father. Being particularly interested in navigation, he went on the "Yellowstone's" early voyages, in this instance taking command of the "Assiniboine;" see his recollections in J. T. Scharf, History of St. Louis (Philadelphia, l883), i. p. 675. He was a member of the Missouri assembly in 1838, and mayor of St. Louis for two terms (1844-46). In 1850 he retired to a farm near Jonesboro', Montgomery County, where he died in 1887. — ED.
Comment by Ed. This Indian was also painted by Catlin. See Smithsonian Institution Report, 1885, ii, p. 64.
White, a South Dakota river, entering the Missouri in Lyman County, from the west. — ED.
Colonel David D. Mitchell was a Virginian by birth (1806), who early entered the fur-trade — first as a clerk, later as a partner in the American Fur Company. In 1832 he built the first fort for that company among the Blackfeet (see our volume xxiii), and was for some time in charge at Fort Clark, where Larpenteur speaks of him as "very much of a gentleman." In 1841, Mitchell was chosen superintendent of Indian affairs for the Western Department, with headquarters at St. Louis — a position which he filled until 1852. Joining the volunteer service for the Mexican War, he was chosen lieutenant-colonel of Colonel Sterling Price's regiment, and advanced first to New Mexico and later to Chihuahua with Colonel Alexander Doniphan. Mitchell died in St. Louis in 1861. — ED.
Comment by Ed. The first white person to visit the Pipestone quarries in southwest Minnesota was the artist George Catlin, who in 1836 obtained permission from the Indians to inspect this sacred spot. The mineral has since been called "catlinite," from his name. There are, however, other quarries in Dakota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
Comment by Ed. See p. 347, for illustration of antlers of deer. Antlers of deer
The reference is to D. B. Warden, Statistical, Political, and Historical Account of the United States of North America (Edinburgh, 1819), i, p. 93. — ED
Comment by Ed. Reference is made to the burning of the "Assiniboine." See note 179, ante, p. 240.
Comment by Ed. See p. 361, for illustration of pipe for warlike expeditions. Pipe for warlike expeditions