Part 15 (1/2)
_The river Missouri._
Previously to the commencement of the expedition commanded by Mr. Pike, the government of the United States had directed arrangements to be made for examining the Missouri, from its mouth to its source; thence exploring the vast and dreary range of mountains, which form the highest land in the centre of that part of the American continent; and afterwards, of descending, by some one of the rivers which flow westward, to the Pacific ocean. This formidable undertaking was committed to captains Lewis and Clarke, two officers, in the American army, who were, in every respect, qualified for the arduous duties which it required; and who had, under their command, a party of forty-two soldiers and boatmen. Its professed object was to ascertain the possibility of opening an inland communication, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; but the American government had also in view the obtaining of information, respecting the country of Louisiana, which they were desirous of possessing, and which has since been ceded to them by France.
_Narrative of a voyage from St. Louis to the source of the Missouri.
From the travels of Captains_ LEWIS _and_ CLARKE.
The party having embarked in three boats, set out from St. Louis, on the 14th of May, 1804; and, for several days, they proceeded without interruption. Early in the morning of the twenty-fourth, they ascended a difficult rapid, called the _Devil's Race-ground_, and narrowly escaped having one of their boats upset. Beyond this place, they met two canoes, laden with furs, which had been eight weeks on their voyage from the Mahar nation, about seven hundred miles distant. On the banks of the river was much timber, consisting of cotton-wood, sycamore, hickory, and white walnut.
On the 1st of June, they pa.s.sed the mouth of the _Osage river_, which falls into the Missouri, at the distance of a hundred and thirty-three miles from its junction with the Mississippi. This stream gives name to a nation of Indians which inhabit its banks. The _Osage Indians_ are, in their persons, well formed: they reside in villages, and, having made considerable progress in agriculture, they seem less addicted to war than their northern neighbours.
Beyond the Osage river, the southern bank of the Missouri was low, and covered with rushes; and occasionally with oak, ash, and walnut-trees.
On the north, the land was, in some places, rich, and well adapted to agriculture. Near the mouth of _Big Manitou Creek_, the voyagers met a raft, formed of two canoes joined together. On this, two French traders were descending, from the river Kanzes: it was laden with beaver-skins, which they had collected during the winter. Not long afterwards, captains Lewis and Clarke landed, to examine a singular limestone rock, which was nearly covered with inscriptions and uncouth paintings of animals; but they found the place occupied by a nest of rattlesnakes, and left it. In several parts of their voyage, they pa.s.sed canoes, boats, and rafts laden with furs.
In many places the river was bordered with prairies or swampy meadows, on which grew several kinds of fruit, such as mulberries, plums, wild apples, raspberries, and strawberries. Numerous herds of deer were seen, pasturing in the plains, or feeding on the young willows of the river.
Near the mouth of the _Kanzes_, the Missouri is about five hundred yards wide. On the south, the hills or highlands approach within a mile and half of the sh.o.r.e; but, on the north, they are several miles distant; and the country, on all sides, is fine. In some places the navigation was interrupted by sand-banks, and in others, by the remains of trees which had fallen into the water. On the second of July, the whole surface of the stream, for a considerable distance, was covered with drift wood. This had probably been occasioned by the giving way of some sand-bank, which had before detained the wood, as it floated down the stream.
The weather was now so hot that some of the men experienced from it great inconvenience; but the air was occasionally cooled by showers. In the evenings the voyagers often landed and encamped, for the purpose of pa.s.sing the night on sh.o.r.e. In that part of the river at which they arrived on the 16th, the width, from bank to bank, was about a mile; but the water was so shallow that they could perceive the remains of fallen timber scattered quite across the bottom. The Missouri is here wider than it is below, where the timber, which grows on its banks, resists the power of the current.
On the 21st of July the voyagers reached the mouth of the great _river Platte_. Captains Lewis and Clarke ascended it for about a mile, and found the current very rapid; rolling over sands, and divided into several channels, none of which, however, appeared to be more than five or six feet deep.
At this place they encamped for several days, in order to dry their provisions, make some oars, prepare an account and make maps of the country through which they had pa.s.sed. The game they saw here were chiefly deer, turkeys, and grouse; and they obtained an abundance of ripe grapes. During the nights they were much annoyed by wolves. The country behind their camp was a plain, about five miles in extent, one half covered with wood, and the other dry and elevated.
Not far from this place was a settlement of the _p.a.w.nee Indians_; a race which had once been extremely numerous, but which now consisted of only four bands, comprising, in the whole, about one thousand four hundred persons.
On the 30th of July, the commanders of the expedition directed an encampment to be formed on the southern bank of the river, for the purpose of their waiting the arrival of the chiefs of the Ottoe Indians, with whom an interview had been appointed to take place. From an elevated station near the camp, they had a beautiful view of the river and of the adjoining country. The hunters abundantly supplied them with deer, turkeys, geese, and beavers; and they were well supplied with fish.
A party of fourteen _Ottoe_ and _Missouri Indians_, came, at sunset, on the 2d of August, accompanied by a Frenchman who had resided among them and acted as an interpreter. The next morning an awning was formed with the mainsail of the largest vessel; and, under this, Captains Lewis and Clarke received them. A speech was made to these Indians, announcing that the territory which they inhabited had been ceded to the American government, and advising them respecting their future conduct towards the Americans. They promised obedience, requested permission to trade with the Americans, asked for a supply of arms, and solicited the mediation of the voyagers, between them and the Mahars, with whom they were then at war. The chiefs were each presented with a medal, to be worn round his neck, some paint, garters, and cloth ornaments of dress: to these were added a canister of gunpowder, a bottle of whiskey, and a few other articles.
Not long after the ceremonies of the council had concluded, the voyagers again embarked. The hills which now extended along the river, were nearly fifteen miles asunder: those on the north were clad with a considerable quant.i.ty of timber; but those on the south had only some scattered trees in the ravines or narrow valleys.
On the 5th of August they pa.s.sed round a peninsula; and, having encamped on the north side of it, Captain Clarke, in pursuing some game, about three hundred and seventy yards from the camp, found himself at a point of the river which they had already pa.s.sed, and which, by water, was distant nearly twelve miles. Some miles beyond this, on traversing a part of the country, to reach one of the Indian villages, the vegetation was so luxuriant, that the men, who had been sent to explore it, were forced to break their way through gra.s.s, sunflowers, thistles, and other plants, more than ten feet high. This village had once consisted of three hundred huts; but, about four years before the voyagers were here, it had been burnt, in consequence of the small-pox having destroyed four hundred of the men, and a great number of women and children. On a hill behind the village were seen the graves of the nation.
The accounts which the voyagers received of the effects of the small-pox among these Indians, were most distressing. They had been a military and a powerful people; but, when they saw their strength wasting before a malady which they were unable to resist, their phrensy was extreme. They burnt their village; and many of them put to death their wives and children, in order to save them from so cruel an affliction, and that they might all go together to the unknown and better country.
A party of _Ottoe_ and _Missouri Indians_ with whom the voyagers had an interview after this, were almost naked, having no covering, except a cloth round their middle, and a loose blanket or buffalo robe thrown over their shoulders.
In one place Captain Lewis noticed that the hills which extended to the edge of the river on the south side, contained alum, copperas, cobalt, (having the appearance of soft isingla.s.s,) pyrites, and sand-stone: the two first very pure. In another cliff, seven miles distant, he observed an alum rock, of dark brown colour, containing, in its crevices, great quant.i.ties of cobalt, cemented sh.e.l.ls, and red earth. The appearance of these mineral substances enabled him to account for some disorders of the stomach with which his men had of late been much afflicted. They had been in the habit of dipping up the water of the river inadvertently, and drinking it; and he had now no doubt but the sickness was occasioned by a sc.u.m which covered its surface along the southern sh.o.r.e. Always after this the men agitated the water, so as to disperse the sc.u.m, before they drank of it, and these disorders ceased.
The soil of a plain over which the two commanders and some of the men walked, on the 25th, was exceedingly fine; and was enc.u.mbered with but little timber, except immediately on the banks of the Missouri. They found delicious plums, grapes, and blue currants. The musquitoes, and other insects which here abounded, seem, however, to have occasioned them some inconvenience.
On the 29th they were joined by five chiefs and seventy men of the _Yanktons_, a tribe belonging to the Sioux Indians. The camps or huts of this people are of a conical form: they are covered with buffalo robes, painted with various figures and colours, and have an aperture at the top for the smoke to pa.s.s through. Each hut is calculated to contain from ten to fifteen persons, and the interior arrangement is compact and handsome: the kitchen or place for cooking is always detached. Captain Lewis delivered to these people a speech containing, as he says, the usual advice and counsel with regard to their future conduct towards the government and the ”great father” (as the Indians are taught to call the president) of the United States. He gave to the grand chief a flag, a medal, a certificate, a laced uniform coat of the United States artillery corps, a c.o.c.ked hat and a red feather; and to the other chiefs medals, tobacco, and clothing. Among the inferior men were distributed knives, tobacco, bells, tape, binding, and other articles of trifling value. After this the Indian chiefs, and Captains Lewis and Clarke, smoked together the pipes of peace. These chiefs begged the strangers to have pity on them, as they were very poor; to send traders to them, as they wanted powder and ball: they were also anxious to be supplied with some of ”the great father's milk,” by which they meant rum, or other ardent spirits. This people are stout and well proportioned, and have a peculiar air of dignity and boldness: they are fond of decorations, and use, for this purpose, paint, porcupine-quills, and feathers. Some of them wear a kind of necklace of white bear's claws, three inches long, and closely strung together round their necks. They had among them a few fowling-pieces, but they were, in general, armed with bows and arrows.
Beyond the village of the Yanktons the country, on both sides of the river, was low, and, for the most part, dest.i.tute of timber; but, in some places, it was covered with cotton-wood, elm, and oak. The weather had been intensely hot; but, in the beginning of September, the wind was violent, and the weather cold and rainy. On the second of this month, the hunters killed four elks, and the whole party was supplied with an abundance of grapes and plums, which grew wild near the river. They this day observed, on the south side of the Missouri, the remains of an ancient Indian fortification, formed chiefly of walls of earth.
On the 7th of September the weather was very cold. The voyagers, this evening, encamped at the foot of a round mountain, about three hundred feet in height, which, at a distance, had the appearance of a dome. In this part of the country the hunters chiefly killed elks, deer, and squirrels: and they occasionally brought in beavers, porcupines, and foxes. On the 12th they pa.s.sed an island covered with timber; and they had great difficulty in struggling through the sand-bars, the water being both rapid and shallow. The weather was now becoming so cold, that it was requisite to give out flannel-s.h.i.+rts to the men; and several animals were killed, for the sake of their skins to cover the boats. In many places the strong current of the river had worn away the banks, to considerable extent.
An interview took place, on the 25th, with some chiefs of the _Tetons_, a tribe of the Sioux Indians: nearly the same ceremonies and agreements were used and entered into, as with the preceding tribes; and similar presents were made. They promised obedience to the ”great father,” but they soon showed how little dependance could be placed on the promises of uncivilized nations. As they were going away, a party of them endeavoured to seize one of the boats, declaring that they had not received presents enough. On being told they should receive no more, they drew their arrows from their quivers, and were bending their bows, when the swivel-gun in one of the boats was levelled at them. Perceiving from this that the most determined resistance would be made, they at length ceased from their claims.
On the ensuing day these Indians approached the banks of the river, accompanied by their wives and children, and by a great number of their friends. Their disposition now seemed friendly, and the voyagers accepted an invitation to remain, during the night, on sh.o.r.e, to witness a dance which was preparing for their entertainment.