volume iii, note 132.--ED.

[89] Le Page Du Pratz went to Louisiana in 1718 with a colony of eight hundred men sent out by John Law’s West India Company. He was a planter there for sixteen years, and travelled extensively through the territory, being overseer of the public plantations under the Company, also after the crown resumed control. The French original of his _History of Louisiana_ appeared in 1758, being Englished and published in London in 1763; second edition 1764.--ED.

[90] Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, p. 61.--NUTTALL.

_Comment by Ed._ Father Zénobe Membré, a Recollect friar in La Salle’s Company, reported to his superior: “I cannot tell you the civility and kindness we received from these barbarians.... They are so well formed that we were in admiration at their beauty.” See Parkman, _La Salle_, p. 279.

[91] Various interpretations of the meaning of _Lenno Lenapi_ have been given. _Lenno_ means genuine or real, and _Lenapi_ signifies male. The combination denoted a race of eminent antiquity, valor, and wisdom, and may best, perhaps, be rendered in English as “manly men.” The character thus boastfully ascribed to themselves by the Delawares was apparently confirmed by the name “grandfather” applied to them by kindred tribes. _Illini_ is the Illinese equivalent of _Lenno_. See Schoolcraft, _History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes_ (Philadelphia, 1851–57), v, p. 1360; vi, p. 177.--ED.

[92] Charlevoix, Hist. p. 306, 307. Lond. Ed.--NUTTALL.

[93] Michigamies was the name given by the French to several tribes of Algonquian stock who lived on Lake Michigan. The designation sometimes included the Mascoutin, or Fire-Indians, and the Illinese. See Croghan’s _Journals_, volume i of our series, note 111.--ED.

[94] Du Pratz, Hist. Louisiana, p. 318.--NUTTALL.

[95] See _post_, note 110.--ED.

[96] A ceremony similar to this, was also, according to Adair, practised among the Creeks.--NUTTALL.

[97] For an exhaustive account of the customs of the kindred Omaha, see Dorsey, “Omaha Sociology,” in _Report_ of Bureau of Ethnology, 1881–82, iii, pp. 205–370.--ED.

{90} CHAPTER VII

Departure from Arkansas--Indian villages--Mooney’s settlement--Curran’s settlement--Interview with the Quapaw chief--The Pine Bluffs--Soil, climate, and productions--The Little Rock--Roads--Mountains--Vegetation--The Mamelle--Cadron settlement--Tumuli--Soil and climate--Pecannerie settlement--Mountains--Cherokees--The Magazine mountain--Dardanelle settlement--Manners and customs of the Cherokees--Their war with the Osages.

From Arkansas to the Cadron, a distance of about 300 miles by water, I now understood there existed a considerable line of settlements along the north border of the river, and that the greatest uninhabited interval did not exceed 30 miles. Though the spring was premature, and the weather still subject to uncomfortable vicissitudes, the want of society and of employment induced me to embrace the earliest opportunity of continuing my journey into the interior of the territory, where I hoped to find additional employment and gratification in my researches connected with natural history. For this purpose I again embarked on the river in a large skiff, which was proceeding to the Baird’s-town settlement;[98] but as most of our company were fond of whiskey, the only beverage in the country, except water or milk, it was difficult to get them parted from their companions and conversation; however, after many efforts to make a start, we at last got off, though merely to make one or two miles, so as to be disengaged, at any rate, for the morning. Our encampment was a sand-bar or beach, skirted by willows, and though in itself a situation by no means interesting, yet far from disagreeable {91} to him who can enjoy the simple fare of the hunter, and the calm and unsullied pleasures of nature.

On the following day (_February_ the 27th) we proceeded about 21 miles, or seven points up the river, and in some places against a current of considerable velocity, which had been augmented by a southern freshet, communicating a muddiness and chocolate-brown colour to the stream. In the evening, to avoid the attacks of musquitoes, we again chose a sand-beach for our place of encampment.

In the course of the day we passed the outlet of the bayou, or rather river, Meta,[99] which diagonally traverses the Great Prairie, also two Indian villages on the south bank, which continues to be the Quapaw line as far as the Little Rock. The first was the periodical residence of a handful of Choctaws, the other was occupied by the Quapaws. On this side of the river there appeared to be considerable bodies of very fertile land elevated above inundation.

The peach-trees, now in bloom, were considerably disseminated beyond the immediate precincts of the Indian villages, and seemed to be almost naturalized, but, in common even with the wild fruits of the country, they are occasionally robbed of fruit by the occurrence of unseasonable frosts.

On the 28th, after ascending about 13 miles, we arrived at the settlement begun by colonel Mooney,[100] consisting of three or four families. I was here very hospitably entertained by Mr. Davison. Near this house, and about 200 yards from the river, there was a fine lake of clear water, of considerable extent, communicating with the river by a bayou, which enters a few miles below. Its bed appeared to be firm and sandy. The neighbouring land was of a superior quality, either for corn or cotton, but all conditionally held on the uncertain claim of Messrs. Winters. Notwithstanding the extent of inundated lands, the climate was considered unusually healthy, and the {92} soil, with but little labour, capable of insuring a comfortable independence to the cultivator.

_March_ 1st.] This morning a slight white frost was visible, though, yesterday and the day before, the thermometer rose, at noon, to 70°, and the Red-bud (_Cercis canadensis_) was commonly in flower. We proceeded about 10 miles, and encamped opposite to an island; the water now falling as rapidly as it had risen. Leaving the boat, and walking through the woods, I was surprised to find myself inadvertently at the Quapaw village we had passed yesterday, situated upon a small prairie, constituting the isthmus of a tongue of land, which, six or seven miles round, was here scarcely half a mile across. Endeavouring now to obtain a nearer route to the river, than that of returning by the path, I found myself in a horrid cane-brake, interlaced with brambles, through which I had to make my way as it were by inches. The delay I thus experienced created alarm among my companions, who fired three guns to direct me to the spot where they waited, and where I soon arrived, pretty well tired of my excursion.

2d.] A slight frost appeared again this morning. We proceeded slowly, passing in the course of the day three points of land, one of which was about six miles, the others three each, and in the evening encamped a mile below Morrison’s bayou. Nearly opposite to this stream there was another village of the Quapaws, containing about 15 cabins, and called, by the French, ville de Grand Barbe, from their late chief, who, contrary to the Indian custom, wore a long beard. It stands on the edge of the forest, surrounded by good land, and elevated above the overflows.

3d.] To-day we arrived at Curran’s settlement, consisting of six families, who had chosen for their residence a body of very superior land. From 1000 to 1500 pounds of cotton have been produced upon the acre, and of a staple no way inferior to that of Red {93} river. As to maize, it is as luxuriant as possible. But what most recommended this settlement, in my estimation, was the unequivocal appearance of health and plenty. We landed for the night nearly opposite what is called the Old River, four miles above Curran’s, an elliptic curve of the river, 11 miles in circuit, cut off at the isthmus in the course of a single night, as was witnessed by a French trader encamped on the spot, who fled in terror from the scene of devastation. On the borders of this bend, now become a lake, and which explains the origin of similar bodies of water along this river, there were three families now settled.

4th.] The middle of the day, and early part of the afternoon, felt warm and sultry as summer. About noon I arrived at the cabin of Mr. Joseph Kirkendale, four miles above the cut-off in the river, where I tasted nearly the first milk and butter which I had seen since my arrival on the banks of the Arkansa. This farm, like those below on Old River, was situated upon a small and insulated prairie or open and elevated meadow, about 15 miles from the Great Prairie. The drought which was experienced last summer throughout this territory, proved, in many places, nearly fatal to the crops of corn and cotton, so that the inhabitants were now under the necessity of importing maize for provision, at the rate of one dollar and a quarter per bushel.

At Mr. Kirkendale’s I had an interview with the principal chief of the Quapaws, who landed here on his way down the river. His name, to me unintelligible, was Ha-kat-ton (or the _dry man_).[101] He was not the hereditary chief, but received his appointment as such, in consequence of the infancy of the children of the Grand Barbe. His appearance and deportment were agreeable and prepossessing, his features aquiline and symmetrical. Being told that I had journeyed a great distance, almost from the borders of the great lake of salt water, to see the country of the Arkansa, {94} and observing the attention paid to me by my hospitable friend, he, in his turn, showed me every possible civility, returned to his canoe, put on his uniform coat, and brought with him a roll of writing, which he unfolded with great care, and gave it me to read. This instrument was a treaty of the late cession and purchase of lands from the Quapaws, made the last autumn, and accompanied by a survey of the specified country. The lines of this claim, now conceded for the trifling sum of 4000 dollars in hand, and an annuity of a thousand dollars worth of goods, pass up White river, until a south line intersects the Canadian river of Arkansa, then continuing along the course of this river to its sources, afterwards down Red river to the great Raft, and thence in a north-east direction to point Chicot, on the Mississippi, and so in a north-west line to the place of commencement, near White river. Their reservation (situated exclusively on the south bank of the Arkansa) commences at the post or town of Arkansas, and continues up that river to the Little Rock, thence in a southern direction to the Washita, which continues to be the boundary, to a line intersecting the place of commencement. To this deed were added the names of no less than 13 chiefs. This tract contains probably more than 60,000 square miles. Such are the negociating conquests of the American republic, made almost without the expense of either blood or treasure![102]

Hakatton informed us, that he had lately returned from the garrison, where, in concert with a fellow chief and the commander, they had succeeded in rescuing from bondage some unfortunate prisoners and females of the Caddoes,[103] of whom about 15 or 20 had been killed by the Osages. The former reside on the banks of Red river, into whose territory the Osages occasionally carry their depredations. This chief warned me from trusting myself alone amongst the {95} Osages, who, if they spared my life, would, in all probability, as they had often done to the hunters, strip me naked, and leave me to perish for want. But in his nation, he took a pride in assuring me, if I was found destitute, I should be relieved to the best of their ability, and conducted, if lost, to the shelter of their habitations, where the stranger was always welcome. His late journey to the seat of government, appeared to have inspired him with exalted ideas of the wealth and power of civilized society.

To my inquiries, respecting the reputed origin of the O-guah-pas,[104] he answered candidly, that he was ignorant of the subject; and that the same question had been put to him at St. Louis, by governor Clarke.[105]

This morning I observed the wife of the chief, preparing for her family a breakfast from the nuts of the Cyamus (or Nelumbium). They are first steeped in water, and parched in sand, to extricate the kernels, which are afterwards mixed with fat, and made into a palatable soup. The tubers of the root, somewhat resembling batatas or sweet potatoes, when well boiled, are but little inferior to a farinaceous potatoe, and are penetrated internally and longitudinally, with from five to eight cavities or cells.

5th.] We were again visited by the Quapaw chief, who appeared to be very sensible and intelligent, though much too fond of whiskey. I took an opportunity to inquire of him, whether the Quapaws considered smoking as in any way connected with their religion, to which he answered, that they merely regarded it as a private gratification or luxury; but that the Osages smoked to God, or to the sun, and accompanied it by a short apostrophe: as, “Great Spirit, deign to smoke with me, as a friend! fire and earth, smoke with me, and assist me to destroy mine enemies, the Caddoes, Pawnees, Mahas, &c.! my dogs and horses, smoke also with me!”

Among the most remarkable superstitious ceremonies {96} practised by the Quapaws, is that which I now found corroborated by Hakatton. Before commencing the corn-planting, a lean dog is selected by the squaws, as a sacrifice to the Indian Ceres, and is, with terrific yells and distorted features, devoured alive. This barbarous ceremony, which we derided, he assured us gravely, was conducive to the success of the ensuing crop. After the harvest of the maize, and subsequent to the Green-corn Dance, they have also a succession of dances and feasts, which they support like our Christmas mummers, by going round and soliciting contributions.

The Quapaws are indeed slaves to superstition, and many of them live in continual fear of the operations of supernatural agencies.

* * * * *

On the 7th, we proceeded to Mr. Morrison’s,[106] a few miles distant, but did not accomplish it until the succeeding morning, in consequence of the prevalence of a violent storm from the south-west.

On the 8th, I remained at Mr. Morrison’s farm, agreeably situated on a small prairie, contiguous to the river, surrounded with an extensive body of good land, continuing a considerable distance from the bank. These small prairies often appear to have been the sites of ancient Indian stations.

A number of Quapaw canoes passed down the river, and several drunken Indians, accompanied by Paspatoo, their chief, now 75 years of age, were straggling about in quest of whiskey, which if not _prohibited_, would, in all probability, be less plentifully supplied.

The adjoining forest was already adorned with flowers, like the month of May in the middle states. The woods, which had been overrun by fire in autumn, were strewed in almost exclusive profusion with the _Ranunculus marilandicus_, in full bloom, affording, with other herbage, already an abundant pasture {97} for the cattle. Towards evening, Mr. Drope, with his large and commodious trading boat of 25 tons burthen, passed this place on his way to the garrison, with whom I was to embark on the following morning.

9th.] I walked about four miles to Mr. Dardennes’, where there were two families residing on the bank of the river, which is agreeably elevated, and here I had the satisfaction of joining Mr. Drope. Lands of the same fertile quality as that on the border of the river, extend here from it for eight miles without interruption, and free from inundation. The claim of Winters’ still continues up to an island nearly opposite Mr. Lewismore’s, but the survey of all this land, now ordered by Congress, seems to imply the annihilation of this claim, which for the benefit of the settlement ought promptly to be decided.

Four miles above Dardennes’, commences the first gravel-bar, accompanied by very rapid water.

10th.] We now passed Mr. Mason’s, 18 miles above Dardennes’, where likewise exists an extensive body of rich and dry land, along the borders of Plum bayou.[107] We encamped at the upper point of the sand-beach, about three miles above Mason’s, on the margin of a small and elevated prairie, which, from the abundance of Chicasaw plum bushes forming a grove, I fancied might have been an ancient aboriginal station. The day was exceedingly wet, accompanied with thunder, which had continued with but little intermission since the preceding night.

11th.] Passed Mr. Embree’s, and arrived at Mr. Lewismore’s.[108] Six miles above, we also saw two Indian villages, opposite each of those settlements. The land is here generally elevated above the inundation, and of a superior quality; the upper stratum a dark-coloured loam, rich in vegetable matter.

The Indians, unfortunately, are here, as usual, both poor and indolent, and alive to wants which they have {98} not the power of gratifying. The younger ones are extremely foppish in their dress; covered with feathers, blazing calicoes, scarlet blankets, and silver pendents. Their houses, sufficiently convenient with their habits, are oblong square, and without any other furniture than baskets and benches, spread with skins for the purpose of rest and repose. The fire, as usual, is in the middle of the hut, which is constructed of strips of bark and cane, with doors also of the latter split and plaited together.

The forest was already decorated with the red-bud, and a variety of humble flowers. A species of _Vitis_,[109] called the June grape, from its ripening at that early period, was also nearly in blossom. It does not appear to exist in any of the eastern states; in leaf it somewhat resembles the _vigne des batures_ (or _Vitis riparia_ of Michaux), while the fruit, in the composition of its bunches, and inferior size, resembles the winter grape.

We spent the evening with major Lewismore Vaugin,[110] the son of a gentleman of noble descent, whose father formerly held a considerable post under the Spanish government.

Fifteen miles above this place, Monsieur Vaugin informed me of the remains of an aboriginal station of considerable extent, resembling a triangular fort, which the Quapaws on their first arrival in this country say, was inhabited by a people who were white, and partly civilized, but whom, at length, they conquered by stratagem. The hunters possess an opinion, by no means singular, that this embankment is of antediluvian origin.

12th.] This morning we met captain Prior[111] and Mr. Richards, descending with cargoes of furs and peltries, collected among the Osages. The former {99} was one of those who had accompanied Lewis and Clarke across the continent. Six miles above Mr. Vaugin’s, at Monsieur Michael Le Boun’s,[112] commences the first appearance of a hill, in ascending the Arkansa. It is called the Bluff,[113] and appears to be a low ridge covered with pine, similar to the Chicasaw cliffs, and affording in the broken bank of the river the same parti-coloured clays. Mr. Drope remained at the Bluff, trading the remainder of the day with the two or three metif[114] families settled here, who are very little removed in their habits from the savages, with whose language and manners they are quite familiar. In the evening, a ball or dance was struck up betwixt them and the _engagées_. The pine land is here, as every where else, poor and unfit for cultivation. Over this elevated ground were scattered a considerable number of low mounds.

13th.] To-day I walked along the beach with Mr. D., and found the lands generally dry and elevated, covered with cotton-wood (_Populus angulisans_), sycamore (_Platanus occidentale_), maple (_Acer dasycarpa_), elm (_Ulmus americana_), and ash (_Fraxinus sambucifolia_ and _F. platicarpa_). We observed several situations which appeared to have been formerly occupied by the Indians. A canoe of the Quapaws coming in sight, we prevailed on them to land, and, during the interval of our boat’s arriving, I amused myself with learning some of their names for the forest trees. While thus engaged, I observed, that many of their sounds were dental and guttural, and that they could not pronounce the _th_. In the evening we came to a little above the second Pine Bluff.

14th.] We proceeded to Mons. Bartholome’s,[115] where Mr. D. stayed about two hours. Mons. B. and the two or three families who are his neighbours are entirely hunters, or in fact Indians in habits, and pay no attention to the cultivation of the soil. These, with two or three families at the first Pine Bluffs, are the {100} remains of the French hunters, whose stations have found a place in the maps of the Arkansa, and they are in all probability the descendants of those ten Frenchmen whom de Tonti left with the Arkansas, on his way up the Mississippi in the year 1685.[116] From this place we meet with no more settlements until our arrival at the Little Rock, 12 miles below which, and about 70 from hence, by the meandering course of the river, we again meet with a house. We proceeded about eight miles from Bartholome’s, and about sun-set came in sight of another pine bluff of about 100 feet elevation, and a mile in length. On the right hand bank the land appeared fertile and elevated. Near our encampment there was a small lake communicating with the river by a bayou. The horizontal beds of clay in this cliff or precipice are precisely similar to those of the Chicasaw Bluffs.

15th.] The land appeared still, for the most part, on either bank, elevated above inundation. Some cypress[117] clumps, however, were observable on the Quapaw side. On the opposite we saw a cluster of Hollies (_Ilex opaca_), which were the first we had seen any way conspicuous along the bank of the river. The forests every where abound with wild turkeys, which at this season are beginning to be too poor for food. We came about 16 miles above the last pine bluff, and were there detained the remainder of the evening by the commencement of a strong south-west wind, which in the night veered round to the north-west. The land on the Indian side, contiguous to the river, abounded with thickets of Chicasaw plum-trees, which appear to have overgrown the sites of Indian huts and fields, but, except in a few elevated places, the first alluvial platform or terrace is subject to inundation. The second bank, where the large cane commences, is, however, free from water. The {101} right side of the river appeared universally high, and rich cane land with occasional thickets and openings.

Throughout this country there certainly exists extensive bodies of fertile land, and favoured by a comparatively healthy climate. The cultivation of cotton, rice, maize, wheat, tobacco, indigo, hemp, and wine, together with the finest fruits of moderate climates, without the aid of artificial soils or manures, all sufficiently contiguous to a market, are important inducements to industry and enterprize. The peach of Persia is already naturalized through the forests of Arkansa, and the spontaneous mulberry points out the convenience of raising silk. Pasturage at all seasons of the year is so abundant, that some of our domestic animals might become naturalized, as in Paraguay and Mexico; indeed several wild horses were seen and taken in these forests during the preceding year.

The territory watered by the Arkansa is scarcely less fertile than Kentucky, and it owes its luxuriance to the same source of alluvial deposition. Many places will admit of a condensed population. The climate is no less healthy, and at the same time favourable to productions more valuable and saleable. The privations of an infant settlement are already beginning to disappear, grist and saw-mills, now commenced, only wait for support; and the want of good roads is scarcely felt in a level country meandered by rivers. Those who have large and growing families can always find lucrative employment in a country which produces cotton. The wages of labourers were from 12 to 15 dollars per month and boarding, which could not then be considered as extravagant, while cotton produced from five to six dollars per hundred weight in the seed, and each acre from 1000 to 1500 pounds.

16th.] At sunrise the thermometer was down to 28°, and the wind at north-west. This sudden transition, after such a long continuance of mild weather, {102} felt extremely disagreeable, and foreboded the destruction of all the fruit in the territory. This morning we passed the fifth Pine Bluff, and the last previous to our arrival at the Little Rock; the fasçade was about the same height and of the same materials as the preceding. Among the pebbles of a gravel beach which I examined were scattered a few fragments of cornelian, similar to those of the Missouri, and abundance of chert or hornstone containing organic impressions of entrocites, caryophillites, &c. here and there were also intermingled a few granitic fragments, which, if not more remotely adventitious, had probably descended from the mountains.--We proceeded to-day about 17 miles.

17th.] This morning we had the disagreeable prospect of ice, and the wind was still from the north-west, but abating. To-day we progressed about 20 miles. The sixth point we passed, since our encampment of the preceding night, was called the Eagle’s Nest, which is here seen situated on the opposite side of the bend before us, of six miles in circuit, and only about 100 yards across at the isthmus.

The almost uninterrupted alternation of sand-bars in the wide alluvial plain of the Arkansa afford, as on the Mississippi, great facilities to navigation, either in propelling the boat by poles, or towing with the cordelles. As the bars or beaches advance, so they continually change the common level of the river, and driving the current into the bend with augmenting velocity, the curve becomes at length intersected, and the sand barring up the entrances of the former bed of the river, thus produces the lakes which we find interspersed over the alluvial lands.

In the present state of the water, which is remarkably low, considering the rains which have fallen, it is difficult to proceed with a large merchant boat more than 18 or 20 miles a-day.

{103} 18th.] We now passed an island or cut-off two miles long, and forming a point four or five miles round. Near its commencement we were again gratified with the sight of a human habitation.

Although the lands along the bank of the river here, appear elevated above the inundation, yet, betwixt the lower settlement and Mr. Twiner’s, where we now arrived, the surveyor found considerable tracts subject to the overflow, and in one place a whole township so situated. On the opposite side, or Indian reservation, the hills approach within six or eight miles of the river, and, like most of the southern pine lands, promise but little to the agriculturist, but the intermediate alluvion is as fertile as usual. The Great Prairie,[118] as I am told, on our right, lies at the distance of about 18 or 20 miles; the intermediate space, unbroken by hills, must necessarily afford an uninterrupted body of land little removed from the fertile character of alluvial.

Towards evening we arrived at Monsieur La Feve’s,[119] where two families reside, at the distance of about eight miles above Mr. Twiner’s; these are also descendants from the ancient French settlers.

19th.] This morning we met with a boat from the garrison, commanded by lieutenant Blair, on his way to Arkansas. We also passed Trudot’s island, and Mr. D. stopped awhile at the elder La Feve’s, for the purposes of trade. Monsieur F. by his dress and manners did not appear to have had much acquaintance with the civilized world. In the evening, we arrived at the house of Mr. Jones, where we were very decently entertained.

20th.] Two miles further lived Mr. Daniels,[120] in whose neighbourhood a second family also resided. The land in this vicinity appeared to be of a very superior quality, and well suited for cotton. Some of it, obtained by the grant of the Spaniards, and since confirmed by the United States, is held as high {104} as ten dollars the acre. From this place proceeds the road to St. Louis, on the right, and Mount Prairie settlement, and Natchitoches on Red river, on the left. From all I can learn, it appears pretty evident that these extensive and convenient routes have been opened from time immemorial by the Indians; they were their war and hunting-paths, and such as in many instances had been tracked out instinctively by the bison in their periodical migrations. It is in these routes, conducted by the Indians, that we are to trace the adventurers De Soto and La Salle, and by which we may possibly identify the truth of their relations.[121] From the appearances of aboriginal remains around Mount Prairie we may safely infer the former existence of the natives on that site, and it appears also probable, that this must have been the fertile country of the Cayas or Tanicas described by La Vega, a people who are at this time on the verge of extermination.[122]

The distance from Mr. Daniels’, on the banks of the Arkansa, to Red river, is believed to be about 250 miles. The Great Prairie, bearing from hence to the north-east, is said to be 40 miles distant, and there is likewise a continuation of open plains or small prairies, from hence to the Cadron settlement. White river lies about 100 miles distant to the north.

In the course of the day we passed the sixth Pine Bluff, behind which appeared the first prominent hill that occurs to view on the banks of the Arkansa. The fasçade or cliffs, in which it terminates on the bank of the river, is called the Little Rock,[123] as it is the first stone which occurs in place. The river, no longer so tediously meandering, here presents a stretch of six miles in extent, proceeding to the west of north-west. In the evening we arrived at Mr. Hogan’s,[124] or the settlement of the Little Rock, opposite to which appear the cliffs, formed of a dark greenish coloured, fine-grained, slaty, sandstone, mixed with {105} minute scales of mica, forming what geologists commonly term the _grauwacke slate_, and declining beneath the surface at a dip or angle of not less than 45° from the horizon. The hills appear to be elevated from 150 to 200 feet above the level of the river, and are thinly covered with trees.

There are a few families living on both sides, upon high, healthy, and fertile land; and about 22 miles from Hogan’s, there is another settlement of nine or ten families situated towards the sources of Saline creek of the Washita,[125] which enters that river in 33° 27′; this land, though fertile and healthy, cannot be compared with the alluvions of the Arkansa; notwithstanding which, I am informed, they were receiving accessions to their population from the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The great road to the south-west, connected with that of St. Louis, already noticed, passing through this settlement, communicates downwards also with the post of Washita, with the remarkable thermal springs near its sources, about 50 miles distant, and then proceeding 250 miles to the settlement of Mount Prairie on Saline creek of Red river, and not far from the banks of the latter, continues to Natchitoches.[126] The whole of this country, except that of the hot-springs, which is mountainous, consists either of prairies or undulated lands thinly timbered, and possessed of considerable fertility.

21st.] For three or four nights past, we experienced frost sufficient to destroy most of the early grape, plum, popaw, and red-bud bloom. At 6 o’clock this morning, the thermometer was down to 22°. In the distance of two miles we arrived at the younger Mr. Curran’s, nearly opposite to whose house appeared gentle hills, presenting along the bank of the river beds of slate dipping about 45° to the north-west. About two miles above, commence on the right bank of the river, the first hills, or rather mountains, {106} being not less than 4 or 500 feet high, and possessing a dip too considerable to be classed with the secondary formation. Their character and composition refer them to the transition rocks, and, as far as I have had opportunity to examine, they appear, at all events, generally destitute of organic reliquiæ. Similar to what we had already examined, they are a stratum of slate made up of the detritus of more ancient rocks, and frequently traversed with crystalline quartzy veins. I cannot, in fact, perceive any difference betwixt this rock and that of the greater part of the Alleghany mountains in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and particularly those which are of like inconsiderable elevation. About eight miles from Mr. Curran’s, appeared again, on the left, very considerable round-top hills, one of them, called the Mamelle,[127] in the distance, where first visible, appeared insulated and conic like a volcano. The cliffs bordering the river, broken into shelvings, were decorated with the red cedar (_Juniperus virginiana_), and clusters of ferns.

After emerging as it were from so vast a tract of alluvial lands, as that through which I had now been travelling for more than three months, it is almost impossible to describe the pleasure which these romantic prospects again afforded me. Who can be insensible to the beauty of the verdant hill and valley, to the sublimity of the clouded mountain, the fearful precipice, or the torrent of the cataract. Even bald and moss-grown rocks, without the aid of sculpture, forcibly inspire us with that veneration which we justly owe to the high antiquity of nature, and which appears to arise no less from a solemn and intuitive reflection on their vast capacity for duration, contrasted with that transient scene in which we ourselves only appear to act a momentary part.

Many of the plants common to every mountainous and hilly region in the United States, again attracted my attention, and though no way peculiarly interesting, {107} serve to show the wide extension of the same species, under the favourable exposure of similar soil and peculiarity of surface. To me the most surprising feature in the vegetation of this country, existing under so low a latitude, was the total absence of all the usual evergreens, as well as of most of those plants belonging to the natural family of the heaths, the rhododendrons, and the magnolias; while, on the other hand, we have an abundance of the arborescent _Leguminosæ_, or trees which bear pods, similar to the forests of the tropical regions. Here also the _Sapindus saponaria_, or soap-berry of the West Indies, attains the magnitude of a tree.

On the banks of the river, near the precise limit of inundation, I met with a new species of _Sysinbrium_, besides the _S. amphibium_, so constant in its occurrence along the friable banks of all the western rivers. This plant, which is creeping and perennial, possesses precisely the taste of the common cabbage (_Brassica oleracea_), and, from its early verdure, being already in flower, might perhaps be better worth cultivating as an early sallad, than the _Barbarea americana_, or winter sallad.

22d.] From Mr. Blair’s, at which place and in the neighbourhood Mr. D. spent the remainder of the day, I proceeded down the river about eight miles, in order to examine the reported silver mine of that place. My route along the banks of the river lay through rich and rather open alluvial lands, but, in many places, not free from transient inundation.

The pretended silver-mine is situated about one mile below White Oak bayou or rivulet. The search appears to have been induced by the exposure of the rocks in the bank of the river, which present indeed an appearance somewhat remarkable. The dip of the strata, about 45° to the north-west, and the whole texture of the rock, is similar to that which we have already noticed. The principal and lowest stratum, {108} is a dark coloured, sandy, but fragile slate-clay; the upper beds are a fine-grained, siliceous sandstone, containing grains of mica, and occasionally traversed with veins of quartz. In one of these veins, about a foot in breadth, were abundance of rock crystals, scattered over with round masses or imperfect crystals of a white and diaphanous talc, collected into radii, each plate forming the segment of a circle.

I was for some time unable to ascertain the character of the pretended ore of silver, as the whole concern lay abandoned. I observed, however, that the slags of their furnace betrayed a considerable proportion of iron in their operations, and at length I discovered a heap of what appeared to have been the ore, containing pyrites, some of the crystals of which were cubic, like those so common around Lancaster (Pennsylvania), in the chlorite slate. Whether these pyrites did indeed contain silver or not, I could not absolutely determine, though nothing extraordinary could reasonably have been expected from their very common appearance and unequivocal character. On showing these specimens to the neighbours, they informed me, that the pyrites was the ore in question, while others asserted it to be sulphur, and considered the siliceous matrix as the silver ore. It did not, however, to the microscope betray the smallest metallic vestige which could be taken for silver. Like all the rest of this rock, it indeed contained abundance of magnetic iron-sand, which on the disintegration of the stone, appeared scattered along the strand of the river. Upon the whole, I am inclined to believe that some imposition had been practised upon the ignorance and credulity of those who were enticed into this undertaking. Monsieur Brangiere is the person who first made the experiment, or attempted to bring the project into execution.

Ever since the time of Soto, reports concerning the discovery of precious metals in this territory have {109} been cherished; we see them marked upon the maps, and although the places are easily discoverable, the gold and silver they were said to afford has entirely vanished like a fairy dream. It is indeed averred that about 60 dollars worth of silver were obtained from this rock, but that it was relinquished in consequence of the labour exceeding the profits. A furnace and several temporary sheds proved that some earnest attempts had been made, either really or fictitiously, to obtain silver. If any silver was obtained, it may be considered as connected with the magnetic iron-sand, which at St. Domingo and in India is found occasionally mixed with gold and silver.[128]

Du Pratz, after animadverting on the visionary reports of the wealth of this territory, himself adds; “I found, upon the river of the Arkansas, a rivulet that rolled down with its water, gold-dust.” “And as for silver mines, there is no doubt but that they might be found there, as well as in New Mexico, on which this province bordered.”[129]

Near to these hills reported to afford silver, I observed two low aboriginal mounds, though the situation did not appear favourable to the residence of the natives.

23d.] Mr. D. remained nearly the whole day at J. Piat’s,[130] where a second family also resides, as well as a third on the opposite side of the river, and several others in the vicinity. About a quarter of a mile above Piat’s I amused myself in sketching a view of the romantic hills that border the river, and which are not less than 5 to 800 feet high, with the strata inclined about 45° to the south-east.

In the afternoon I crossed the river, and ascended to the summit of these lofty cliffs of slaty and siliceous sandstone, where, from an elevation of about 600 feet, I obtained a panorama view of the surrounding country, {110} checquered with low mountains running in chains from the north of west to the south of east. The meanders of the river appeared partly hid in the pervading forests of its alluvial lands, still fertile and expansive. To the west, the lofty, conic, and broken hill called the Mamelle now appeared nearly double the elevation of that on which I stood, probably more than 1000 feet in height. Two miles above, it presented the appearance of a vast pyramid, hiding its summit in the clouds. In this direction opened an extensive alluvial valley, probably once the bed of the river, which from hence makes a general curve of about 20 miles towards the north. These mountains appear to be connected with the Mazern chain of Darby, as they continue from hence towards the sources of the Pottoe of Arkansa, and the Little river, and Kiamesha of Red river.[131]

Amidst these wild and romantic cliffs, and on the ledges of the rocks, where, moistened by springs, grew a cruciferous plant, very closely allied, if not absolutely the same, with the _Brassica napus_ or the Rape-seed of Europe, and beyond all question indigenous.

24th.] After taking a second sketch of the Mamelle mountain, from a different point of view, I proceeded to join the boat, and crossed a poor and rocky Pine hill. Here the sandstone is scarcely slaty, and, as usual, more or less ferruginous. Crossing the bayou Palame (or rather rivulet), I joined the boat at Mr. Gozy’s, in whose neighbourhood there were also two other families. This evening we proceeded nearly to the termination of Grand island, which is four miles in length.

25th.] About a mile below Grand island, on our left, the hills again come in upon the river, presenting the most romantic cliffs. In one place particularly, an unbroken fasçade not less than 150 feet of slaty sandstone presents itself, the lamina of which, about 12 or {111} 18 inches in thickness, dipping to the south-east, are elevated at an angle of near 80° from the horizon, and altogether resemble the basis of some mighty pyramid. In four miles further we passed the outlet of Fourche La Fève, said to proceed in a western direction for 200 miles, and to take its sources in the mountains of the Pottoe.[132] A north-western range of hills here in the whole distance border the river, the strata of which, still lamellar, dip north-north-east, and are inclined about 45°. This evening, at Mr. Montgomery’s, the Cadron hills appear before us, at the distance of about six miles.

26th.] A strong north-west wind arose in the night, accompanying a rise in the river of two and a half feet, and a current of the velocity of four or five miles per hour.

On the 27th we arrived at the Cadron settlement,[133] containing in a contiguous space about five or six families. Mr. M’Ilmery,[134] one of the first, is at present the only resident on the imaginary town plot. A cove of rocks here affords a safe and convenient harbour, and a good landing for merchandize.

No village or town, except Arkansas, has yet been produced on the banks of this river, though I have no doubt, but my remarks may ere long be quoted and contrasted with a rising state of more condensed population. Town-lot speculations have already been tried at the Cadron, which is yet but a proximate chain of farms, and I greatly doubt whether a town of any consequence on the Arkansa will ever be chosen on this site. Some high and rich body of alluvial lands would be better suited for the situation of an inland town, than the hills and the rocks of the Cadron. Modern cities rarely thrive in such romantic situations. There is scarcely a hundred yards together of level ground, and the cove in which Mr. M’Ilmery lives is almost impenetrably surrounded by tiresome and lofty hills, broken into ravines, with small rills of water. It {112} is true, that here may be obtained a solid foundation on which to build, without danger of dislocation by the perpetual changes and ravages of the river, but in an agricultural settlement something more is wanting than foundations for houses.

The Cadron was at this time in the hands of four proprietors, who last year commenced the sale of town-lots to the amount of 1300 dollars, and the succeeding sale was appointed to take place in the approaching month of May.

What necessity there may be for projecting a town at this place, I will not take upon myself to decide, but a house of public entertainment, a tavern, has long been wanted, as the Cadron lies in another of the leading routes through this territory. It is one of the resorts from St. Louis, and the settlements on White river, as well as to the hot springs of the Washita,[135] and the inhabitants of Red river. From Arkansas to this place, about 150 miles by land, there is a leading path which proceeds through the Great Prairie.

To those southern gentlemen who pass the summer in quest of health and recreation, this route to the hot springs of the Washita, which I believe is the most convenient, would afford a delightful and rational amusement.

In the course of the day I amused myself amongst the romantic cliffs of slaty sand-stone, which occupy the vicinity of the Cadron. Here I found vestiges of several new and curious plants, and among them an undescribed species of _Eriogonum_, with a considerable root, partly of the colour and taste of rhubarb. The _Petalostemons_, and several plants of the eastern states, which I had not seen below, here again make their appearance. The _Cactus jerox_ of the Missouri, remarkably loaded with spines, appears to forebode the vicinity of the Mexican desert.

The dip of the strata is here south-east, and the mountains, generally destitute of organic remains, {113} pass off in chains from the north of west to the south of east.

28th.] The river still continued rising. This morning I walked out two or three miles over the hills, and found the land, except in the small depressions and alluvion of the creek, of an inferior quality, and chiefly timbered with oaks and hickories thinly scattered. Ages must elapse before this kind of land will be worth purchasing at any price. Still, in its present state, it will afford a good range of pasturage for cattle, producing abundance of herbage, but would be unfit for cotton or maize, though, perhaps, suited to the production of smaller grain; there is not, however, yet a grist-mill on the Arkansa, and flour commonly sells above the Post, at 12 dollars per barrel. For the preparation of maize, a wooden mortar, or different kinds of hand or horse-mills are sufficient. Sugar and coffee are also high priced articles, more particularly this year. In common, I suppose, sugar retails at 25 cents the pound, and coffee at 50. Competition will, however, regulate and reduce the prices of these and other articles, which, but a few years ago, were sold at such an exorbitant rate, as to be almost proscribed from general use. There is a maple in this country, or rather, I believe, on the banks of White river, which has not come under my notice, called the sugar-tree (though not, as they say, the _Acer saccharinum_), that would, no doubt, by a little attention afford sugar at a low rate; and the decoctions of the wood of the sassafras and spice bush (_Laurus benzoin_), which abound in this country, are certainly very palatable substitutes for tea.

It is to be regretted that the widely scattered state of the population in this territory, is but too favourable to the spread of ignorance and barbarism. The means of education are, at present, nearly proscribed, and the rising generation are growing up in mental darkness, like the French hunters who have preceded {114} them, and who have almost forgot that they appertain to the civilized world. This barrier will, however, be effectually removed by the progressive accession of population, which, like a resistless tide, still continues to set towards the west.

Contiguous to the north-eastern, or opposite declivity of the chain of hills, which flank the settlement of Mr. M’Ilmery, I observed in my ramble, a considerable collection of aboriginal tumuli, towards the centre of which, disposed in a somewhat circular form, I thought I could still discern an area which had once been trodden by human feet;--but, alas! both they and their history are buried in impenetrable oblivion! their existence is blotted out from the page of the living! and it is only the eye which has been accustomed to the survey of these relics, that can even distinguish them from the accidental operations of nature. How dreary is this eternal night which has overtaken so many of my fellow-mortals!--a race, perhaps brave, though neither civilized nor luxurious, and who, like the retreating Scythians pursued by Darius, made, perhaps, at last, an obstinate resistance around their luckless families, and the revered tombs of their ancestors!

* * * * *

Besides these tumuli scattered through the forests, there are others on the summits of the hills, formed of loose stones thrown up in piles. We have no reason to suppose, that these remains were left by the Arkansas; they themselves deny it, and attribute them to a people distinct and governed by a superior policy.

29th and 30th.] Still at Mr. M’Ilmery’s, during which time the weather has been cold and stormy.

The United States have now ordered the survey of all the alluvial and other saleable lands of the Arkansa, which are to be ready for disposal in about two years from the present time. One of the surveyors, Mr. Pettis, was now laying out the lands contiguous to the {115} Cadron into sections. Another surveyor is also employed in the Great Prairie, and proceeding, at this time, from the vicinity of Arkansas to this place. The poorer and hilly lands, generally, are not yet thought to be worth the expense of a public survey. Some of these surveys, however, extend as far to the north as the banks of White river. Mr. P. obtains three dollars per mile, for surveying the river lands, which are extremely difficult, from the density and extent of the cane-brakes, and the multiplicity of lagoons or portions of the deserted channel of the river, which, as we have had already occasion to remark, are still continually forming.

These fine cotton lands have not altogether escaped the view of speculators, although there is yet left ample room for the settlement of thousands of families, on lands, which, except the few preemption rights, will be sold by the impartial hand of the nation, at a price as reasonable as the public welfare shall admit of, which has heretofore been at the rate of two dollars the acre, and as no lands on this river are now surveyed and offered for sale, but such as are considered to be of the first and second rate, there can consequently be no room left for imposition, and though there is, indeed, a considerable proportion of inundated land unavoidably included, yet in general, as I understand from the surveyor, there will be in almost every section, a great portion of elevated soils.

The preemption rights, as they are called, are a certain species of reward or indemnification for injuries sustained in the late war, and afforded to such individuals only, as had made improvements in the interior of the territories, prior to the year 1813. Such individuals, if able to pay, are entitled to one or more quarter sections, as the lines of their improvements may happen to extend into the public lines when surveyed, of one or more such plots or fractional sections of land. These rights have been bought {116} up by speculators, at from 4 or 500 to 1000 dollars, or at the positive rate of from 3 to 10 dollars the acre, including the price of two dollars per acre to the United States; a certain proof of the growing importance of this country, where lands, previous to the existence of any positive title, have brought a price equal to that of the best lands on the banks of the Ohio, not immediately contiguous to any considerable town. The hilly lands, which have not been thought worthy of a survey, will afford an invaluable common range for all kinds of cattle, while the alluvial tracts are employed in producing maize, cotton, tobacco, or rice. I must, here, however, remark by the way, that there exists a considerable difference in the nature of these alluvial soils. They are all loamy, never cold or argillaceous, but often rather light and sandy; such lands, however, though inferior for maize, are still well adapted for cotton. The richest soils here produce 60 to 80 bushels of maize per acre. The inundated lands, when properly banked so as to exclude and introduce the water at pleasure by sluices, might be well employed for rice, but the experiment on this grain has not yet been made, on an extensive scale, by any individual in the territory, although its success, in a small way, has been satisfactorily ascertained. Indigo is occasionally raised for domestic use, but would require more skill in its preparation for the market. Indeed, as yet, the sum of industry calculated to afford any satisfactory experiment in agriculture or domestic economy, has not been exercised by the settlers of the Arkansa, who, with half the resolution of the German farmers of Pennsylvania, would ensure to themselves and their families comfort and affluence.

After the most diligent inquiries concerning the general health of this country, I do not find any substantial reason to alter the opinion which I have already advanced. I am, however, firmly persuaded, {117} that the immediate banks of the Arkansa, in this respect are to be preferred to the prairies, and I can only account for this remarkable circumstance, by the unusual admixture of common salt, or muriate of soda, in its waters, which prevents it from becoming dangerously putrid in the neighbouring ponds and lagoons; and I would farther recommend its use to the inhabitants in preference to any fountain water, however convenient. The pellucid appearance of the water, in most of the lagoons which have come under my notice, is, in all probability, attributable to this circumstance.

I was indeed informed that instances of the ague were known at some seasons, but that this disease had been principally confined to those who were destitute, through indolence or accidental poverty, of the proper means of nourishment, and who, after its commencement, neglected the aid of medicine. A better proof, than the general healthy appearance of the inhabitants, and the total absence of doctors, whose aid must of course be unnecessary, need not be adduced in favour of the prevailing salubrity of the banks of the Arkansa.

From Mr. M’Ilmery, I learn that there exists very considerable tracts of fertile land, along the banks of La Feve’s creek, which proceeds in a south-west direction towards Red river for about 200 miles, deriving its source with Little river of the latter, as well as with another contiguous stream of the Arkansa, called Petit John, and likewise with the Pottoe. It is also said to be navigable near 100 miles, and possessed of a gentle current.

From Mr. Pettis, the surveyor, I obtained two small specimens of the oil-stone, or hone of the Washita. It is a siliceous slaty rock, of a conchoidal and sometimes splintery fracture, bordering on hornstone; some of it is as white as snow, and it splits so evenly as to afford hones without any additional {118} labour. Occasionally it appears divided by ferruginous illinitions, presenting muscoid ramifications in relief, but scarcely discolouring the surface. It feebly absorbs oil or water, and then becomes somewhat diaphanous. It is infusible by the common blowpipe.[136]

31st.] This evening we proceeded to David M’Ilmery’s, about three miles above the Cadron, who lived about a mile and a half from the bank of the river, at the head of a small alluvial plain or prairie, apparently well calculated for a superior farm. While passing through this prairie, I observed five deer feeding, and passed almost without disturbing them.

Wild cats of two kinds, both striped and spotted, as well as panthers, bears, and wolves (black and grey), are in considerable abundance in this country. The bison (improperly called buffaloe) is also met with occasionally in the distance of about a day’s ride towards the Washita.

The inhabitants were just beginning to plough for cotton, an operation here not very laborious, except when breaking up the prairies, as the soil is friable and loamy.

In a small prairie adjoining, where a second family were residing, a single tree of the bow-wood (or _Maclura_) existed, having a trunk of about 18 inches diameter.

_April_ 1st.] The Arkansa after a sudden rise had now commenced again to fall; its inundations being chiefly vernal, taking place from February to May, are less injurious than those of the Missouri and Mississippi, which occur in mid-summer, and are consequently unavoidably injurious to the advancing crops. This circumstance also tends to prove, that no considerable {119} branch of this river derives its source within the region of perpetual snow, which dissolves most in the warmest season of the year, and that its inundations are merely the effect of winter rains; its rising and falling, from the same cause, is also much more sudden than that of the Missouri.

About eight miles from the Cadron, we passed Mr. Marsongill’s,[137] pleasantly situated on the gentle declivity of a ridge of hills, which commence about a mile from the river. Three miles further, we passed Mr. Fraser’s, the commencement of the Pecannerie settlement. Here, at the distance of more than 12 miles, the hills of the Petit John appear conspicuous and picturesque. In three miles more, seven or eight houses are seen, situated along either bank of the river, and sufficiently contiguous for an agreeable neighbourhood.

From the Cadron upwards, the falls of the rivulets afford conveniences for mills. A grist-mill did not, however, as yet exist on the banks of the Arkansa, though a saw-mill had been recently erected.[138]

2d.] Mr. D. proceeded about eight miles above Fraser’s, and remained the rest of the afternoon nearly opposite to the bayou or rivulet of point Remu,[139] from whence, on that side, commences the Cherokee line. Here the hills again approach in gentle declivities, presenting beds of black slaty siliceous rock (grauwacke slate), inclined about 60° south-east. Both banks of the river in this distance are one continued line of farms. Some of the cabins are well situated on agreeable rising grounds; but the nearer, I perceive, the land is to the level of inundation, the greater is its fertility. The highest grounds are thin and sandy, so much so, that occasionally the Cactus or prickly-pear makes its appearance.

3d.] Still opposite point Remu. On this side of the river, where Mr. Ellis now resides, an agreeable site for a town offers, but the landing is bad. A few {120} miles back there are not less than 14 families scattered over the alluvial land. There were also a number of families settled along the banks of the Remu. Adjoining Mr. Ellis’s there was a small sandy prairie, over which I found Cactus’s and the _Plantago gnaphaloides_ abundantly scattered. I am informed that there are considerable quantities of this poor and sandy land, though not in any one place very extensive, and immediately surrounded with richer lands which have been, and are yet skirted by the overflow. With slight banking, these lands, not too deeply submerged, will one day be considered the best for all kinds of produce, but more particularly maize and rice.

4th.] A storm of wind sprang up during the night from the south-west, and continued so as to retard us, after proceeding with difficulty about six miles, in which distance we arrived at the house of Mr. Tucker, situated at the base of a lofty ridge of broken hills, not less than 6 or 700 feet high, presenting an alternation of terraces and cliffs, and continuing in a north-west direction nearly the same height for about eight miles. This range is known by the same name as that of the contiguous rivulet, the Little John,[140] some Frenchman probably who first discovered it. At the south-east end I found the ascent very steep, and which, like most considerable chains, was at this extremity the highest and most precipitous. From the summit a vast wilderness presented itself covered with trees, and chequered with ranges of mountains, which appeared to augment and converge towards the north-west. To the east a considerable plain stretches out, almost uninterrupted by elevations. From the south-west I could enumerate four distinct chains of mountains, of which the furthest, about 40 miles distant, presented in several places lofty blue peaks, much higher than any of the intermediate and less broken ridges. I thought that this ridge tended somewhat towards the Mamelle, whose summit at this distance {121} was quite distinct, though, at the lowest estimate, 40 miles distant. To the north-east the hills traverse the river, and are in this quarter also of great elevation, affording sources to some of the streams of White river, and to others which empty into the Arkansa. Over the vast plain immediately below me, appeared here and there belts of cypress, conspicuous by their brown tops and horizontal branches; they seem to occupy lagoons and swamps, at some remote period formed by the river. As it regards their structure, the lower level of the hills was slaty, the tabular summits a massive, fine-grained sandstone, containing nodules of iron ore. In one place I also saw one of those gigantic tessellated zoophytic impressions,[141] which indicate the existence of coal. The dip of the sandstone is inconsiderable, and to the north-west. Towards the southern extremity of the ridge which I ascended, there are several enormous masses of rock so nicely balanced as almost to appear the work of art; one of them, like the druidical monuments of England, rocked backwards and forwards on the slightest touch. On the shelvings of this extremity of the mountain, I found a new species of _Anemone_.

As we proceeded in the boat, towards the level of the river, and about a mile below the entrance of the Petit John, we could perceive a slaty and partly horizontal bed of matter, in which there were distinct indications of coal.

5th.] We passed the outlet of the Petit John, a rivulet about 200 miles long, deriving its source with the Pottoe and other streams in the Mazern mountains. Here the hills turn off abruptly to the south, and for four or five miles border the rivulet, which, for some distance, keeping a course not very far from the Arkansa, approaches within 10 miles to the south-east of the Dardanelle settlement. At the distance of {122} about five miles from the first Cherokee village, called the Galley, Mr. D. and myself proceeded to it by land. The first two or three miles presented elevated and rich alluvial lands, but in one or two directions bordered by the back-water. At length we arrived at the Galley hills, a series of low and agreeable acclivities well suited for building. Here the Cherokees had a settlement of about a dozen families, who, in the construction and furniture of their houses, and in the management of their farms, imitate the whites, and appeared to be progressing towards civilization, were it not for their baneful attachment to whiskey. Towards the level of the river a darkish bed of slate-clay appeared, having a dip of not more than 10 to 15°; beneath which occurred a slaty sandstone, containing a little mica, and somewhat darkened apparently by bitumen. It likewise abounded with organic reliquiæ, among which were something like large alcyonites, sometimes the thickness of a finger, but flexuous instead of rigid, and collected together in considerable quantities; also, a moniliform fossil allied to the Icthyosarcolite of Desmarest, though not very distinctly, being equally flexuous with the above, and fragments resembling some species of turrilites, but no shells of any other description, besides these, were visible.

The insects which injure the morel cherry-tree so much in Pennsylvania, I perceive, here occasionally act in the same way upon the branches of the wild cherry, (_Prunus virginiana_).

6th.] This morning the river appeared rapidly rising to its former elevation, being nearly bank full, almost a mile in width, and but little short of the Mississippi in magnitude. The current was now probably four or five miles in the hour, and so difficult to stem, that after the most laborious exertions since day-light, we were still in the evening five miles below the Dardanelle, having made only about 10 miles {123} from the Galley. We have had the low ridge, which originated this fanciful name, in sight nearly the whole day. On the same side of the river, but more distant, a magnificent empurpled mountain occupies the horizon, apparently not less than 1000 feet high, forming a long ridge or table, and abrupt at its southern extremity. From its peculiar form it had received the name of the Magazine or Barn by the French hunters.[142] It strongly resembles the English mountain in the north of Yorkshire, called Pendle-hill, familiar to me from infancy, and by which all the good wives in the surrounding country could foretel the weather better than by the almanac.

Along either bank the lands are generally elevated and fertile, and pretty thickly scattered with the cabins and farms of the Cherokees, this being the land allotted to them by congress, in exchange for others in the Mississippi Territory, where the principal part of the nation still remain.

I was considerably disappointed in learning that Mr. D. had relinquished the idea of proceeding to the garrison, with whom I had entertained the hope of continuing my passage, without interruption or additional delay.

7th.] Both banks of the river, as we proceeded, were lined with the houses and farms of the Cherokees, and though their dress was a mixture of indigenous and European taste, yet in their houses, which are decently furnished, and in their farms, which were well fenced and stocked with cattle, we perceive a happy approach towards civilization. Their numerous families, also, well fed and clothed, argue a propitious progress in their population. Their superior industry, either as hunters or farmers, proves the value of property among them, and they are no longer strangers to avarice, and the distinctions created by wealth; some of them are possessed of property to the amount of many thousands of dollars, have houses handsomely {124} and conveniently furnished, and their tables spread with our dainties and luxuries.

They say, that their language is perfectly distinct from that of every other spoken by the aborigines.[143] Yet the Delawares, according to Mr. Heckewelder, considered them as their descendants.

The following notice of them occurs in La Vega’s history of the incursion of Ferdinand de Soto, as early as the year 1541. Seven days’ journey from Cutifachiqui, which is stated to be 430 Spanish leagues, or 860 miles from the bay of Apalache, and in a direction of from south-west to north-east, De Soto arrived in a province called Chalaque (evidently the same people now called Cherokees, as they call themselves Chalakee). The country they then occupied was said to be sterile, and affording but little maize, that they fed upon spontaneous roots and herbs, which they sought in the wilds, and upon the animals of the forest, hunted with bows and arrows. In their manners they were gentle, and went habitually naked. Their chief sent as a present to De Soto a couple of deer skins, and their country abounded with wild hens (probably the Prairie hen, _Tetrao cupido_). In one town they made him a present of 700 of these birds, and he experienced the like liberality in several other of their towns.[144]

They were acquainted with this country prior to their removal, but never laid any claim to it. It was merely the resort of their renegadoes and wandering hunters. The number who have now emigrated hither are about 1500. The unsettled limit of their claim in this country, has been the means of producing some dissatisfaction, and exciting their jealousy {125} against the agents of government. One of their principal chiefs had said, that rather than suffer any embarrassment and uncertainty, he would proceed across Red river, and petition land from the Spaniards. The Cherokees, with their present civilized habits, industry, and augmenting population, would prove a dangerous enemy to the frontiers of the Arkansa Territory. As they have explicitly given up the lands which they possessed in the Mississippi Territory, in exchange for those which they have chosen here, there can be no reason why they should not immediately be confirmed, so as to preclude the visits of land speculators, which excite their jealousy. A serious misunderstanding will probably arise at their ejectment from the south side of the river, which has, I believe, been concluded on by the government. Although the power of the natives is now despised, who can at this time tell, what may grow out of this nation of the aborigines, who, by wisely embracing the habits and industry of the Anglo-Americans, may in time increase, and become a powerful and independent nation, subject by habit to a monarchial form of government.

We find mention, as already remarked, of the Cherokees (under the name of Chalaque) by Garcilasso de la Vega, who found them living near the Apalachian mountains, and speaks in contempt of their poverty and population. At this time, however, they amount to between 12 and 13,000 souls, and are in a promising way of advancing beyond all the other aborigines in strength and population. From examining the oldest histories and maps, it appears that a portion of this nation also occupied the sea-coast of South Carolina, where, according to a tradition still extant, they first saw the white people approach in ships, near to the present site of the city of Charlestown. They requested, say they, a small portion of land, which was readily granted, but at length encroached {126} upon us, until we had to cross the mountains, and now even the banks of the Mississippi.[145]

Arriving in the afternoon at Mr. Raphael’s, who keeps a store for the supply of the Cherokees, I hastened to examine the neighbouring ridge of rocks, which originated the name of the Dardanelle, or as it is here more commonly called Derdanai, both by the French and Americans.[146] The fires which commonly take place among the dry herbage, and which had but recently been in action, prevented me from making any botanical collections, and I amused myself by ascending the ridge, which, at the first approach, appeared to be inaccessible. At length I gained the summit, which, at the highest point on the bank of the river, might be about 300 feet. The rock was a massive sandstone, with the laminæ elevated towards the south-east, at an inclination of near 60°, and, in many places intricately traversed with seams of ferruginous matter, presenting, by their numerous intersections, an almost tessellated or retiform appearance. In some specimens, the interstices were perfectly rhomboidal, and separated into rhombic fragments. Several enormous and romantic blocks were scattered along the margin of the river, and on some of them small trees were growing. From the summit opened another sublime view of the surrounding country. Again to the south and south-west, I could distinguish three of the four chains of mountains, which were visible from the high hills of the Petit John, and still, to my surprise, distinctly appeared the Mamelle, though, by water, near upon 100 miles distant, and not less than 60 by land, which would appear to argue an elevation more considerable than that which I had at first imagined. The Magazine mountain to the west, though, at first, apparently so near, is not less than 10 miles distant, looking, if any thing, more considerably elevated than the Mamelle, and probably not less than 1200 feet high. In this point of view, it appears {127} isolated, gradually descending into the plain, and accumulating in magnitude to the north-west; it here descends rather more abruptly, though the highest point is still to the south, where it appears to rise in broken fasçades unconnectedly with the auxiliary ridge.

8th.] From the Cherokees I understood that there still exists some portion of the Natchez, who live with the Choctaws, near Mobile river. It would be interesting to learn, what affinities their language possesses with that of the existing nations. The Chetimachas of bayou Placquimine, said by Du Pratz to speak the same language, and to be a branch of the same people, might also afford some information concerning the Natchez and their connections.[147]

In the evening, we crossed to the right-hand cliff of the Dardanelle, where Mr. D. again renewed his trade with the Indians and their retailers. I embraced this opportunity to make one of my usual rambles, and found an extraordinary difference in the progress of vegetation here, exposed to the south and sheltered from the north-western wind. Proceeding leisurely towards the summit of the hill, I was amused by the gentle murmurs of a rill of pellucid water, which broke from rock to rock. The acclivity, through a scanty thicket, rather than the usual sombre forest, was already adorned with violets, and occasional clusters of the parti-coloured Collinsia. The groves and thickets were whitened with the blossoms of the Dogwood (Cornus florida). The lugubrious vociferations of the whip-poor-will; the croaking frogs, chirping crickets, and whoops and halloos of the Indians, broke not disagreeably the silence of a calm and fine evening, in which the thermometer still remained at 70°; and though the scene was not finished in the usual style of rural landscape, yet to me it was peculiarly agreeable, when contrasted with the dull monotony of a gloomy and interminable forest, {128} whose solitude had scarcely ever been cheered by the voices or habitations of men.

9th.] In the forenoon, I proceeded to Mr. Webber’s, along the hills of the Dardanelle, which border the right bank of the river, opposite to which, a contiguous ridge and similar cliffs also appear, forming, as it were, a wide chasm traversed by the river. The approach of these hills to either bank, like vast portals, probably originated the name of this place. Walking along the margin of the continued precipice which bordered the river, I observed a brownish animal quickly retreating into its burrow, which in size appeared to be little short of that of a mole. On rolling away a fragment of rock, I succeeded in discovering that the object of my pursuit was an enormous spider, no less than four inches from the extremity of one foot to that of the other, and two inches from head to tail, covered with long brown hair; the eyes six in number and minute, the mouth not discoverable, but in the place of jaws, as in the Monoculi, two of the six pair of feet, of a strong cartilaginous texture, very short and retracted together, each terminated by a simple hooked claw, and internally lined with a row of minute teeth for mastication. In fact, it entirely resembled those gigantic tropical spiders, which we see exhibited in museums.

The rocks, like many others which we had now seen, are still arenilitic, and apparently destitute of organic remains. From the enormous dislocated masses and gaping chasms which here border the precipice, I am strongly inclined to believe, that this ridge had, at some period, been convulsed by an earthquake.

In the course of my inquiries concerning minerals, I was told of the existence of a silver mine, somewhere along the banks of White river, but though the opinion is a very prevalent one, it is necessary to receive it with caution. Fragments of pyrites, as {129} usual, have been shown to me for precious ores, and the true statement of their value, so contrary to sanguine expectation, is often treated as an imposition to conceal their importance.

Mr. Walter Webber, a metif, who acts as an Indian trader, is also a chief of the nation, and lives in ease and affluence, possessing a decently furnished and well provided house, several negro slaves, a large, well cleared, and well fenced farm; and both himself and his nephew read, write, and speak English. Yesterday, while passing along the bank of the river, I observed with pleasure the fine farms and comfortable cabins occupied by the Indians, and found them very busily employed felling trees, and clearing their grounds preparatory to the seedtime. The failure, however, of last year’s crops, in consequence of the dry weather, was severely felt, and more particularly in consequence of the arrival among them of many ill-provided families of emigrants from the old nation.

In the evening, the brother of their late principal chief Tallantusky,[148] arrived here, accompanied by his wife and two or three other Indians. He last year took leave of the old nation in the Mississippi territory, and embarked with the emigrants, who are yet far from forming a majority of the nation. Being a half Indian, and dressed as a white man, I should scarcely have distinguished him from an American, except by his language. He was very plain, prudent, and unassuming in his dress and manners; a Franklin amongst his countrymen, and affectionately called the “beloved” father. Sensible to the wants of those who had accompanied him in his emigration, he had confidently expected a supply of flour and salt from Mr. Drope, all of which articles had, however, been sold below, excepting a small quantity reserved for the chief himself. He could have sent, he said, some of his people down to the mouth of the river, to purchase maize and flour, but that it would interrupt them {130} in preparing their fields for the ensuing crop. Mr. D., who had in the Mississippi territory become acquainted with Jolly,[149] the chief, tells me that his word was inviolable, and that his generosity knew no bounds, but the limitation of his means.

11th.] Returning from my rambles to-day, chiefly in quest of insects, I picked off my skin and clothes more than 50 ticks (_Acarus sanguisugas_), which are here more abundant and troublesome than in any other part of America in which I have yet been. Many of the same kinds of insects, common to the banks of the Missouri, and, indeed, to most parts of the United States, are also found in this territory.

From the hills in the vicinity of Mr. Webber’s, I obtained a fine view of the Magazine mountain, and now found that it was connected with a range of others, proceeding for many miles a little to the north of west. The side which here presents itself, appeared almost inaccessibly precipitous.

15th.] This afternoon, I had again the pleasure of seeing the brother of the late governor Lewis, now Cherokee agent, whom I had first met with at fort Mandan, on the Missouri.[150] From him I learn, that the progress of civilization among the Cherokees, is comparatively modern; that Nancy Ward,[151] called by way of eminence and esteem “the beloved,” first introduced among them the domesticated cow. From her have sprung several men of distinction in the nation, by whose influence and example the condition of their Indian brethren has been ameliorated. Her advice and council borders on supreme, her interference is allowed to be decisive even in affairs of life and death.

From the civilized Cherokees, with whom alone I could conveniently hold converse, I found it extremely difficult to acquire any knowledge, either of the traditions, opinions, or ancient customs of their nation. The humiliating details of former poverty, {131} ignorance, and superstition, tended to wound the feelings of those, who, besides the advantages, had also imbibed the pride and luxury of Europe. If the Cherokees had only discarded their superstitions, and retained their social virtues, besides acquiring habits of industry, we might indeed congratulate them on the change of their condition; but, unfortunately, with the superior intelligence, conveniences, and luxuries of civilization, have also been acquired that selfish attachment to property, that love of riches, which, though not really intrinsic, have still the power to purchase sinister interest, and separate the condition of men, and hence arises that accumulation of laws and punishments, from which the patriarchal state of those we call savages was so happily exempt. No legal snares were laid for the heedless; no gallows erected for the guilty; no contest arose for wealth or power. Every tribe was but a single family; their aged chief and his venerable associates were as fathers, governors, and advisers. Their young men considered themselves as brothers. No one was rich while the others were poor; and they considered nothing of value that was not essentially useful. As their frugal wants were almost spontaneously supplied, they were strangers alike to poverty and affluence; they boasted not of possessions; and were habitually hospitable to strangers. Scarcely sensible of want, they were alive to friendship and undissembled passions. Their pride, confined to personal excellence, was always checked by the emulation of superior worth, sanctioned and acknowledged by the approbation of the aged.

Almost unrestrained by artifice or moral education, we should, perhaps, expect the man of nature to become the prey of passion, like the irrational creation. Yet so nicely balanced, in every situation, is the proportion of good and evil allotted to humanity, that one stage of society has but little advantage over another. {132} Nature is not a cruel demon, nor delights in the accomplishment of destruction. Those who are fed by her frugal bounties are but seldom hurried into excess; indeed, the nations of America were stigmatized with apathy, so great was their command of the social passions, and their magnanimity under suffering. But the dire hatred which they bore their enemies, was a lasting proof of the strength of their affections, and mutual attachment. They felt for each other as members of the same family, as sons of the same father; a band of brothers mutually bound to defend and revenge the cause of each other, by a just and undeviating system of retaliation.

Their affection for those, whom time or casualty removed from the social circle, was as great and sincere, as extravagant demonstration could possibly declare. Among the Cherokees and others, the dead were not only accompanied by the choicest things which they had valued in life, but even, if a chief or father, interred in the house which had been his habitation, and which was thenceforth devoted to ruin and desolation. So awful even was the inanimate body then considered, that all who had immediately attended the interment, or touched the corpse, refrained from the company of their wives and families, for the space of seven days and nights.

* * * * *

In no part of North America have we ever met with that kind of irrational adoration called idolatry. All the natives acknowledged the existence of a great, good, and indivisible Spirit, the author of all created being. Believing also in the immortality of the soul, and in the existence of invisible agencies, they were often subjected to superstitious fears, and the observance of omens and dreams, the workings of perturbed fancy. By these imaginary admonitions, they sometimes suffered themselves to be controlled in their most important undertakings, relinquishing every {133} thing which was accidentally attended by any inauspicious presage of misfortune.

As among the Asiatics, and other imperfectly civilized nations, the condition of the female sex bordered upon degradation. Considered rather as objects of pleasure and necessity, than as rational companions, several of them often lived together in the house of the same husband. However custom might have tolerated this habit, we are happy to find that civilization tends to its abolition. Polygamy among the Cherokees, without any legal restraint, will, in time, be spontaneously abandoned, as their conjugal attachment appears to be strong and sincere.

Marriage among the Cherokees, as with most of the natives, was formerly consummated with very little ceremony. When a young man became enamoured, it was the custom modestly to declare his desire to marry through the medium of some female relative, who exclusively conferred with the mother, the father never interfering. If the mother agreed, and thought well of the proposal, it was immediately made known. If not, she put off making a direct answer by a reference to her brother or eldest son. Consent being obtained of the mother, the bridegroom without much further conference with the bride, was then told where she lay, and thenceforward admitted to her bed.

From some cause or other, it appears, that the women of the Cherokees frequently made use of means to promote abortion, which at length became so alarming, as to occasion a resort to punishment by whipping.

In all stages of society regulations have existed, either as controling customs, or written laws, whereby the conduct of men with each other was limited and restrained. A system of equity was established, more or less strictly according with justice, as influenced by exterior circumstances; thus life was claimed for {134} life, and objects wrested from the weak or unsuspecting, restored by the interference of moral power vested in superiors and rulers. Among the Cherokees and other Indians of North America, the conviction of natural justice went so far as frequently to draw no distinction of punishment betwixt manslaughter and murder. Governed also by the idea of a general fraternity existing throughout a tribe of people, the brother of a murderer, or even his nearest relative was not secure from the fatal avenger, in the absence of the principal. In consequence of this, it sometimes happened that the brother became the executioner of his brother or nearest relative, who had committed a murder, in order to save himself from vengeance. He who had taken away the life of another, either by malice or accident, was also occasionally suffered to redeem it, by obtaining and presenting to the injured party, a scalp or a prisoner of the enemy, as they were satisfied in any way to obtain life for life.

An institution, I believe unparalleled in the policy of the northern natives, except among the Cherokees and Creeks (and which has been quoted by Mr. Adair[152] in order to prove an affinity with the Jews), was the existence of a town of refuge, inhabited by the supreme chief, in which no blood was suffered to be shed, and into which those who had committed manslaughter and other crimes were suffered to enter on excusing themselves or professing contrition.

With the inequality of fortune which civilization has introduced among the Cherokees, we find also a severity in their legal punishments, to which they were formerly strangers. Out of their salaries now received from government, they appropriate a certain sum towards the support of a police, whose duty it is to punish those who are guilty of crimes against the public. A man who has for the first time been convicted of horse-stealing, receives a punishment of 100 lashes, and for the second offence 200, thus increasing {135} the punishment for every additional offence. For stealing a cow 50 lashes were inflicted, and so on, in proportion to the value of the property stolen.

Mr. John Rogers,[153] a very respectable and civilized Cherokee, told me that one of the regulators happening to have a relation who had been repeatedly guilty of theft, and finding him incorrigible, he destroyed his eye-sight with a penknife, saying, “as long as you can see you will steal, I will therefore prevent your thefts by the destruction of your sight.” Dissatisfied with this system of punishment, many of the poor renegadoes fled from the bosom of the Cherokee nation, and came to the banks of the Arkansa and Red river. The same punishment for theft will now, however, probably be established also in this territory.

The former preparation of the warrior, among the Cherokees, was more calculated to inspire fortitude under suffering than courage in the field. The chief was ever attentive to the admonition of dreams and omens. They sung the songs of war, and imposed upon themselves the most rigid fasts and mortifying ablutions, at all seasons of the year, in order to obtain a favourable omen for their departure. Day after day these privations and voluntary sufferings were continued with fearful austerity, and those who might express a wish for relaxation were desired to leave the society.

* * * * *

The arrival of the Cherokees in this country did not fail, as might have been foreseen, to excite the jealousy of the Osages, within whose former territory they had now taken up their residence. Major Lovely, the first agent appointed to reside among the Cherokees of the Arkansa, on his arrival held a council with the Osages at the falls of the Verdigris, and about 60 miles distant from their village. Some quarrel, however, about two years ago arising between the two nations, {136} the Osages way-layed 12 or 14 of the Cherokees and killed them. On this occasion, the Cherokees collected together in considerable numbers, and ascended the river to take revenge upon the Osages, who fled at their approach, losing about 10 of their men, who either fell in the retreat, or becoming prisoners, were reserved for a more cruel destiny. The Cherokees, now forgetting the claims of civilization, fell upon the old and decrepid, upon the women and innocent children, and by their own account destroyed not less than 90 individuals! and carried away a number of prisoners. A white man who accompanied them (named Chisholm),[154] with a diabolical cruelty that ought to have been punished with death, dashed out the brains of a helpless infant, torn from the arms of its butchered mother! Satiated with a horrid vengeance, the Cherokees returned with exultation to bear the tidings of their own infamy and atrocity.[155]

It appears, to me, to have been the duty of the superintendent of Indian affairs to have apprehended that white man, and delivered him over to the government for trial and punishment. Without some interference of this kind, and indeed a cognizance of the conduct of every white man found permanently dwelling among the Indians, it will not be possible for a traveller or a merchant to go amongst these people without incurring the greatest personal risk, as their revenge is but too often indiscriminate in its object; neither can the security of the frontier settlements ever be rendered certain, until these wanton and unprovoked cruelties of the whites, and their piratical wars, be prevented.

Two or three families of the Delawares are now living with the Cherokees, who appeared to be very poor, and addicted to intoxication. Another remnant of these unfortunate people, once so considerable, is also about to be transferred from the state of Ohio to the {137} banks of the Arkansa, where, it is to be hoped, they will enjoy amidst domestic tranquillity the superior advantages of civilization.

17th.] My rambles to-day were rewarded with the discovery of a new genus, of the class Tetradynamia or Cruciferæ, allied to _Ricotia_ and _Lunaria_. In the evening I visited Mr. Rollins, the agent for Indian trade, who treated me with politeness and hospitality.

FOOTNOTES:

[98] Beards Town appears in Finley’s Atlas of 1826 just west of Little Meto Creek, thirty-five or forty miles above the Post, but it disappears from later maps. Beards Town was opposite the modern village of Heckatoo.--ED.

[99] Big Bayou Meto is the first important northern tributary of the Arkansas. It now forms part of the boundary between Jefferson and Arkansas counties. Little Bayou Meto is a few miles farther up.--ED.

[100] Daniel Mooney was one of the earliest settlers in Arkansas after the cession to the United States. His name appears on the records of Arkansas County as early as 1804. In 1814 he was appointed sheriff by William Clark, then governor of Missouri Territory, of which Arkansas was still a part.--ED.

[101] The name of this chief is preserved in the village of Heckatoo. Heckatoo (Heketon, in correspondence of Indian agent) removed with his tribe to Indian Territory and died there. His successor was a half-breed named Sarrasin, who in his old age returned to his native country, and persuaded Governor William F. Pope (1829–35) to allow him to die in his former home.--ED.

[102] This treaty was signed by William Clark and Auguste Chouteau, commissioners for the United States, on August 24, 1818, and ratified by the Senate December 23. Nuttall does not give the boundaries quite correctly. The cession line passed up the Arkansas and the Canadian Fork to the source, thence south to Red River, and down its middle to the “Big Raft,” thence directly to a spot on the Mississippi thirty leagues in a straight line below the mouth of the Arkansas. All claims to lands north of the Arkansas and east of the Mississippi were also abandoned. The reservation, lying within the limits specified, was bounded by a line running due southwest from Arkansas Post to the Ouachita, thence up the river and the Saline Fork to a point directly southwest from Little Rock, from that point to Little Rock, and down the right bank of the Arkansas to the point of beginning. See _American State Papers: Indian Affairs_, ii, p. 165. This reservation was ceded by the treaty of November 15, 1824.--ED.

[103] The name is a corruption of _ká-ede_, meaning chief. There are three groups of the Caddo family; the northern is represented by the Arikara of North Dakota; the middle, principally by the Pawnee of southern Nebraska; and the southern, by the Caddo, Wichita, Kichai, and other tribes. The home of the southern group included southwestern Arkansas, eastern Texas, and most of Louisiana.--ED.

[104] Another name for the Quapaw. See _ante_, p. 122.--ED.

[105] William Clark, the brother of George Rogers Clark, who conquered the Northwest during the Revolutionary War, and the associate of Meriwether Lewis on the famous transcontinental expedition of 1803–06, was born in Virginia in 1770. He entered the army in 1792, and shared in several Western campaigns, notably that of Wayne in 1794–95. In 1796 he left the service on account of ill health, and became a hunter and trapper. After the expedition to the Pacific coast, Clark was stationed at St. Louis as Indian agent and brigadier-general of militia. In 1813 he became governor of the Missouri Territory, which at first included Arkansas. Upon the admission of Missouri to statehood, he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs, and remained at St. Louis in this capacity until his death, in 1838.--ED.

[106] Few settlers had entered this region prior to Nuttall’s journey, and most of these were thinly scattered along the river. Many of the English names which Nuttall mentions on the following pages are those of men who had settled on the river, in Jefferson County, during the year or two preceding his visit. Morrison was on the south bank. The Dardennes, or Dardennis, and the Masons, mentioned below, were on the north side.--ED.

[107] Plum Bayou, not shown on ordinary maps, flows southeast through the centre of the north half of Jefferson County, roughly parallel to the river, which it enters six miles above New Gascony. Most of its course is through the township of the same name. A village called Plum Bayou is near the northwest corner of the county, four or five miles north of the source of the stream.--ED.

[108] Nuttall doubtless means Major Lewismore Vaugine, mentioned a few lines below.--ED.

[109] The infertile plant cultivated in the vicinity of the city of London, has received the name of _Vitis odoratissima_, by the gardeners, an epithet which does not express any peculiar character.--NUTTALL.

[110] Although Vaugine was for several generations a prominent name in the Southwest, and is still borne by the township in Jefferson County in which the county town is located, it is difficult to distinguish the different individuals who possessed it. It was borne by one of the French officers who remained in Louisiana after its cession to Spain; and it was the name of another Frenchman who emigrated to New Orleans late in the eighteenth century, removed later to Arkansas Post, and finally settled, as farmer and trader, four miles below Pine Bluff, where he died in 1831, aged sixty-three years. As the latter served as major in the War of 1812–15, he is probably the Major Lewismore Vaugine of the text; but his relationship to the first mentioned does not appear. Other members of the family were prominent in Jefferson County as late as the close of the War of Secession.--ED.

[111] Nathaniel Prior (sometimes spelled Pryor and Pryer) enlisted under Lewis and Clark as a private, being later appointed sergeant. In 1807, then an ensign, he was appointed to escort to his home the Mandan chief Shahaka (“Big White”), who had visited Washington at the request of the explorers. Prior’s party were fired upon by the Sioux, and compelled to return to St. Louis; it was not until September, 1809, that Shahaka could be returned to his people--this time escorted by an expedition under Pierre Chouteau. Prior continued in the regular army until 1815, at which time he was a captain.--ED.

[112] According to local histories, the first permanent white settler at this point was Joseph Bonne, a French trapper and hunter, who came about 1819.--ED.

[113] This bluff is the site of the town of Pine Bluff, seat of Jefferson County. The town was laid out about 1837, and incorporated in 1848; but the county was organized in 1829, the court being from the beginning held at the “Bluff.” For ten years there served as court-house a house which Bonne built in 1825, on the river bank between Chestnut and Walnut streets of the present town, on land which has since caved into the river. When built, it was near the camp of the Quapaw chief Sarrasin (see _ante_, note 101).--ED.

[114] Metif, from French _métif_, meaning of mixed breed; specifically, the offspring of a white and a quadroon.--ED.

[115] Ambrose Bartholomew was one of the early settlers on the north bank of the river.--ED.

[116] See _ante_, note 85; also Cuming’s _Tour_, volume iv of our series, note 195. The date of this visit of Tonty is not exactly known, but it was in the spring of 1686. He left Illinois to seek La Salle in February, and left Texas for the return journey on Easter Monday. He was again in Illinois on June 24.

Other settlers at Pine Bluff besides Bonne were John Derresseaux and one Prewett. The preponderance in this neighborhood of settlers of French blood is indicated not only by the names of persons, but also by the fact that New Gascony is the name of one of the oldest towns.

It is said that the first white man in Jefferson County was Leon Le Roy, one of Tonty’s men, who deserted from the Post in 1690. He was held in captivity for fourteen years by the Osage, and when he escaped was captured and adopted by the Quapaw, whom he taught the use of firearms. When the Quapaw treaty of 1818 was made, one chief gave the commissioners, as an emblem of friendship, a gun said to be the one which Le Roy had a century earlier taught the Quapaw to use. This weapon is preserved in the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington.--ED.

[117] _Cupressus disticha._--NUTTALL.

[118] Great Prairie, or Grand Prairie, as it is usually called, is the low upland north of the Arkansas. The tract especially designated by this name is about ninety miles long and from ten to fifteen wide, and roughly runs parallel to the river.--ED.

[119] Peter Lefevre, a French Canadian, settled in the fall of 1818 on the north side of the river about six miles below Little Rock. Descendants still dwelt upon the identical spot a few years ago. The name is common in the early history of this section. In corrupted form it is preserved in Fourche la Fave Creek, which flows eastward through Perry County.--ED.

[120] About the year 1814, Wright Daniels located on the north side of the river, four miles below Little Rock. Robert Jones came to the same neighborhood in 1818.--ED.

[121] See _post_, note 126.--ED.

[122] The Cayas of La Vega are the modern Kansa.--ED.

[123] Called La Petite Rochelle by the French, to distinguish it from the larger rocky promontory two miles farther up the river. A few settlers located here as early as 1818. Little Rock became the capital of the territory in 1821, and the same year it was proposed to rechristen it Arkopolis. Although never officially adopted, this name appears on some old maps.--ED.

[124] Edmund Hogan, from Georgia, was said to be the first permanent settler of Pulaski County. Upon the organization of the county in 1819, he was appointed justice of the peace.--ED.

[125] The Saline joins the Ouachita a few miles from the southern boundary of Arkansas, but its headwaters are in Saline County, which joins Pulaski on the west. This river should be distinguished from the Saline branch of Little River, a tributary of the Red. The settlement here referred to was near the point where the road to Hot Springs crossed the Saline. It was begun (1815) by William Lockert (or Lockhart), from North Carolina; other families came in 1817. See James, _Expedition_, volume xvii of our series, p. 300 (original pagination).--ED.

[126] Nuttall’s description of the course of the road below Little Rock is confusing. By the thermal springs he means the site of Hot Springs, where the road forked. The eastern branch followed the Ouachita to the side of the modern town of Monroe, seat of Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, where was Nuttall’s “post of Washita;” thence it ran southwest to Natchitoches, on Red River, an old French mission town, founded in 1714, now the seat of Natchitoches Parish. The other branch ran almost directly south to Natchitoches, and on Darby’s map of 1816 is marked, “Trace from Natchitoches to Hot Springs.”

Mount Prairie was not on the headwaters of the Saline Fork of the Ouachita where Nuttall’s map places it. The name suggests the old French “upper settlement” on Red River, which was near the old Caddo village, situated in Long Prairie, south of Red River, about fifty miles above Little River. In this prairie was a hill which the Indians regarded with superstitious veneration. However, the settlements on Red River, near the mouth of the Kiamichi, are probably meant (see _post_, notes 182, 184). The trail from St. Louis to Little Rock, which passed through Cape Girardeau, Missouri, was followed by Major S. H. Long on his expedition into Arkansas (1810). Members of Long’s exploring party of 1819–20, who followed this “great road” from the Saline to Little Rock, called it then an “obscure path.”--ED.

[127] The Mamelle is at the mouth of a stream which is still marked on the maps as the Maumelle, a corruption of the original. The name was not infrequently applied by the French to hills of breast-like form. This peak is now called “The Pinnacle.”--ED.

[128] A granitic formation is exposed in central Arkansas, extending from Pulaski County to Pike. Argentiferous galena is found throughout this area, but is especially rich around Silver City in Montgomery County. The Spaniards left numerous old diggings as evidence of their knowledge of the existence not only of lead, but of more valuable metals. At one time considerable quantities of silver were obtained from lead mines a few miles north of Little Rock. A gold “craze” was caused in 1809 by the finding of a nugget in the same neighborhood where Nuttall places the silver mine.--ED.

[129] Hist. Louisian. p. 219, London Edition.--NUTTALL. _Comment by Ed._ Second London edition (1764).

[130] Major James Pyeatt and his brother Jacob came from North Carolina in wagons in 1807, and the settlement which grew up about them was called Pyeattstown. It was twelve miles above Little Rock, but has disappeared. Here resided for a time James Miller, first governor of Arkansas Territory. See _post_, note 214.--ED.

[131] The Mamelle terminates a range of hills to which it gives name (known locally as the Maumelle Mountains). North of this lies the valley of Fourche la Fave River, and between this valley and that of the Arkansas rises another range of hills. See _post_, note 181.--ED.

[132] The name of this stream is derived from Lefevre, the name of a French family prominent in early Arkansas history (see _ante_, note 119). The sources of the stream are near the western boundary of the state, in Scott County; its headwaters are only a few miles from those of Little River, a tributary of the Red, and those of the Ouachita lie between; it flows slightly to the north of east.--ED.

[133] The site of Cadron settlement was the mouth of Cadron Creek, thirty-eight miles above Little Rock, in Faulkner County. In 1820 it was made the seat of justice for Pulaski County against the wishes of Governor James Miller, who favored Pyeattstown, his own residence. In time Cadron fell into decay, and it has now disappeared from the map.--ED.

[134] John McElmurray settled at Cadron prior to 1818. In the spring of that year he had for neighbors Benjamin Murphy, Harvey Hager, and families named McFarland and Newell.--ED.

[135] Hot Springs, now the famous health resort in Garland County. The spot was widely known among the Indians, and De Soto, led on by their reports, probably visited it in 1542. Summer parties of wealthy planters began to frequent the region early in the nineteenth century, and to such visits were doubtless due the well-marked roads from Natchitoches, described above (see _ante_, note 126). The town of Hot Springs is of late growth; it was a mere village in 1860. A tract of four square miles surrounding the springs was purchased in 1877 by the government, and is now a national park.--ED.

[136] For a further account of this mineral, which appeared to be undescribed, see a note in the Essay on the Geological Structure of the Valley of the Mississippi, which I published in the first part of the second volume of the Journal of the Academy of the Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.--NUTTALL.

[137] The name may be a corruption of Massengill. Two brothers of this name, who had been Tories during the American Revolution, drifted into the region in 1818, and soon passed on before the advancing tide of civilization. On the Pecannerie settlement and the character of its people, see _post_, pp. 280–281.--ED.

[138] If the date given by local authorities is correct, Nuttall is wrong in asserting that no grist-mill had been set up prior to his visit. William and John Standlee are said to have erected a grist- and saw-mill in 1818, the first within the present limits of Faulkner County.--ED.

[139] Or Point Remove, whose name is derived from the action of the current. For the boundary of the Cherokee reservation, see _post_, note 145.--ED.

[140] The Little John (or Petit Jean) enters the Arkansas at the northeast corner of Yell County. Tradition says that the stream is named for a Frenchman of small stature, named Jean, who was here killed by the Indians.--ED.

[141] A Strobilaria, more commonly considered as a species of Phytolite.--NUTTALL.

[142] Magazine Mountain rises two hundred and eighty feet above the level of the stream. It terminates on the river in the headland called the “Dardanelle,” to be described a few pages below.--ED.

[143] Charlevoix also remarks, “I cannot find out to what language the Cherokees belong, a pretty numerous people, who inhabit the vast meadows between the Lake Erie, and the Mississippi,” and adds, that the Iroquois make war with them. Hist. Journal, p. 115, London Ed.--NUTTALL.

[144] Purchas’s Pilgrims, vol. IV., p. 1539.--NUTTALL.

[145] It is not now believed that the Cherokee ever occupied the Carolina coast. It is more probable that they came from the north, a century or two before De Soto visited them. Their traditions and the researches of archæologists indicate that their original home was northwest of Lake Superior, whence they migrated southeast, coming up the Ohio and the Kanawha valleys, and finally descending the Great Valley of the Appalachians to their historic seat. They are thought to have built, _en passant_, the mounds of the Ohio region.

The removal policy was a gradual development. Even before the close of the eighteenth century--soon, in fact, after the treaty of Hopewell (1785)--bands began to cross the Mississippi; and as the pressure of white population increased the migration was facilitated by treaties. In 1803, President Jefferson suggested the desirability of removing the tribe beyond the river, and the Act of 1804, dividing the Louisiana Purchase, appropriated $15,000 for this purpose. In 1809, Jefferson encouraged a part of the tribe which was discontented with existing conditions to send a delegation to inspect lands on the Arkansas, with a view to exchanging their old range for a new one in that region. The exchange was not consummated until 1817, by which time the migration of families and small parties had swelled the number in Arkansas to two or three thousand. The treaty of July 8, 1817, gave the Arkansas Cherokee a tract lying between the White and Arkansas rivers, bounded on the east by a line running northeast from Point Remove on the Arkansas to Shield’s Ferry on White River, and on the west by a parallel line starting from Table Rock, just above Fort Smith. This reserve was surrendered in 1825 for seven million acres in Indian Territory. The main body of the eastern Cherokee were removed to the Territory under a treaty made in 1835.--ED.

[146] Derdanai, or “Dardonnie,” is said to mean “sleep with one eye.” The name and the appearance of the rocks suggest the Dardanelles, whence, it is alleged, the modification of the name to Dardanelle. The Cherokee agency was located on this site in 1820; but the town proper dates from the coming, some years later, of white settlers ejected from Indian lands. The modern town of Dardanelle is the most important commercial town on the river between Little Rock and Fort Smith.--ED.

[147] When first encountered by whites in 1560, the Natchez occupied a considerable tract on the east side of the Mississippi. Their chief village was near the site of the modern Natchez. According to their own traditions, they came from the Southwest, and their customs--worship of the sun, human sacrifices, etc.--indicate a connection with the Indians of Mexico and Yucatan. The men were of large stature, few being under six feet. The tribe soon acquired dissolute habits from the whites, and rapidly dwindled in numbers. Hostilities with the French began in 1715, and continued intermittently until 1740. The Choctaw and Chickasaw became involved, the former as allies of the French, and the latter, incited by the English, as allies of the Natchez. The final result of the wars was the extinction of the Natchez as a distinct tribe, although a remnant long persisted among the Chickasaw and Muskogee; in 1835 this remnant numbered three hundred souls.

The Chetimachas were a small tribe which dwelt on Lake Grand, in southern Louisiana.--ED.

[148] Tallantusky (Tollontuskee, Tollunteeskee, Tolontusky, Talootiske, etc.) was one of the chiefs who signed the treaty of October 25, 1805, at Tellico, Tennessee. This rewarded Tallantusky and another chief, Doublehead, by certain secret reservations; and for this and further abuses of his power Doublehead was afterwards slain by decree of other chiefs of his tribe. To Tallantusky is due the establishment of the first mission among the Cherokee of Arkansas. While visiting the eastern Cherokee in 1818, he met an officer of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and invited him to send missionaries to his people. As the result, Cephas Washburn and Alfred Finney, accompanied by their families, established Dwight mission, opposite Dardanelle, in the spring of 1820. The station was named in honor of Timothy Dwight, the president of Yale College, and a pioneer organizer of the mission board.

Tallantusky’s brother, here mentioned, was Jolly the chief, referred to in the text a few lines below. See following note.--ED.

[149] John Jolly (Oolooteka), brother of Tallantusky, and his successor as chief, had removed from the mouth of the Hiawassee, in Tennessee. There young Samuel Houston, famous later as the emancipator of Texas, had won his friendship and been adopted as his son. After the Arkansas Cherokee had removed to Indian Territory, Houston settled near Jolly (1829), and married his niece, Talihina, daughter of a half-breed named Rogers. See _post_, note 153.--ED.

[150] Reuben Lewis. See Bradbury’s Travels, volume v of our series, note 93--ED.

[151] Nancy Ward was born about 1740. Her father was a British officer, and her mother a sister of the principal chief of the Cherokee. The Indians believed her to be the inspired mouthpiece of the Great Spirit, and allowed her a voice in their councils with the power of deciding the fate of captives. She was friendly to the whites, and several times saved captives from death. In 1776 she warned the settlers of the Holston and Watauga rivers of the hostile plans of her kinsmen, and in 1781 represented her tribe in seeking peace from the frontiersmen. She is described as tall, erect, and beautiful, with prominent nose, regular features, clear complexion, long, silken black hair, large, piercing black eyes, and an imperious yet kindly air.--ED.

[152] See Long’s _Voyages_, our volume ii, note 31.--ED.

[153] James Rogers signed the treaty of July 8, 1817, as one of the deputies of the Cherokee on the Arkansas. Whether he is the John Rogers here referred to does not clearly appear. John Rogers figures during the difficulties with the Osage, as the person charged with the task of bringing Osage captives from the Cherokee east of the Mississippi, not long after Nuttall’s visit. Samuel Houston’s wife, Talihina, was the daughter of a half-breed named Rogers, quite possibly the person mentioned in the text.--ED.

[154] John D. Chisholm was one of the deputies who signed the treaty of July, 1817, on behalf of the Arkansas Cherokee. Whether or not he was the person guilty of the crime referred to, is uncertain.--ED.

[155] It would be impracticable to give here a full history of the difficulties between the Cherokee and Osage. They began with the advent of the first Cherokee bands in Western Arkansas, for the Osage claimed the land. A treaty of peace between the two tribes was made at a council held at St. Louis in October, 1818, but it proved ineffective. In the summer of 1820, Governor James Miller, of Arkansas Territory, made a second unsuccessful effort to pacify the tribes. The United States government compelled them to conclude a treaty of peace in 1822, but petty depredations continued long after.--ED.