Settlement of Cote Sans Dessein—Mouths of the Osage—Manito Rocks—Village of Franklin

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The left bank of the Missouri at the confluence of Loutre Creek is precipitous, terminating a group of hills which can be distinguished running far to the north-east. Towards the river these fall off in perpendicular precipices, whose bases are concealed in a dense growth of trees and underwood. From their summits huge masses of rock have fallen; and some of these are of such magnitude, that their summits rise above the surrounding forest. One standing opposite the head of the island next above Loutre, is marked with numerous rude drawings, executed by the Indians; some representing men with the heads of bisons, spears, arrows, bows, &c. Half a mile above this rock the Gasconade enters the Missouri from the south. The sources of this river are in the hilly country, near those of some of the larger tributaries of the Yungar fork of the Osage; its waters are transparent, and its current rapid. Traversing a rocky and broken country, it has not the uniformity of current common to many of the branches of the Missouri, but is varied by numerous cataracts and[pg137] rapids, affording convenient stations for water-mills. Some saw-mills have already been erected; and from them a supply of pine-timber is brought to the settlements on the Missouri, that tree being rarely met with here, except in the hilly country. The Gasconade is navigable for a few miles. As might be expected, a projected town is placed at the confluence of this {74} river and the Missouri, and is to be called Gasconade.[103]

Above the Gasconade, the aspect of the shores of the Missouri is the same as below, except that the hills are discontinued on the left side, and make their appearance on the right, extending along eight or nine miles; above this both shores are low bottom grounds.

Having received on board Mr. Say and his companions, we left Loutre Island on the 3d of July; and passing in succession the mouths of the Gasconade, Bear Creek, the Au Vase, and other tributaries, we anchored on the evening of the 5th, above the little village of Cote Sans Dessein.[104] This place contains about thirty families, mostly French, occupying as many small log cabins, scattered remotely along the left bank of the river. Nearly opposite[pg138] the village is the lower mouth of the Osage. Just above the town is the elevated insular hill, which has given name to the place; it extends about eight hundred yards, parallel to the bank of the river, and terminates at a small stream called Revoe's Creek. Back of the hill is a marsh, discharging a small stream of water into the creek. The site of the settlement of Cote Sans Dessein is remarkable on account of the fertility of the soil, the black mould extending to the depth of about four feet. The soil is very rich for twenty or thirty miles, in the rear of the village; but the uncertainty of the titles, arising from the conflicting claims, founded on the basis of pre-emption, New Madrid grants, and the concession of a large tract opposite the mouth of the Osage, made by the Spanish authorities in favour of Mr. Choteau, still operates to retard the increase of population. [105]

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At the time of the late war the inhabitants of this settlement, relying on mutual protection, did not retire, but erected two stockades, and block-houses for their defence; the Sauks, assisted by some Foxes and Ioways, having by a feigned attack and {75} retreat, induced the greater part of the men to pursue them, gained their rear by means of an ambuscade, and entering the village, raised their war-cry at the doors of the cabins. The women and children fled in consternation to the block-houses. At this juncture a young man was seen, who would not abandon his decrepit mother, even though she entreated him to fly and save his own life, leaving her, who could at best expect to live but a few days, to the mercy of the savages. The youth, instead of listening to her request, raised her upon his shoulders, and ran towards the stockade, closely pursued by the Indians. They fired several times upon him, and he must have been cut off had not a sally been made in his favour.

After killing the villagers who had fallen into their hands, the Indians proceeded to attack the lower stockade. The block-house at this work was defended by two men, and several women. On hearing the war-cry, this little but determined garrison responded to it in such a manner as to communicate to the Indians the idea that the block-house contained a considerable number of men. They, therefore, proceeded to the attack with caution. In the first onset, one of the two men received a mortal wound, which made him incapable of further exertion—the other continued to discharge the guns at the besiegers, they being loaded and put into his hands by the women. One mode of attack, adopted by the Indians, had nearly proved successful. They threw burning torches upon the[pg140] roof, which was several times on fire; but the women, with admirable presence of mind, and undaunted intrepidity, ascended to the top of the building and extinguished the flames. This scene continued during the entire day; and at evening, when the assailants withdrew, a small portion only of the roof remained; so often had the attempt to fire the building been repeated. The loss sustained by the enemy was never correctly {76} ascertained; it has since been stated by an Indian, that fourteen were killed and several wounded, but many are of opinion that two or three only were killed.

We saw the hero of this affair at the block-house itself, now converted into a dwelling; but he did not appear to be greatly esteemed, having perhaps few qualities except personal intrepidity to recommend him.[106] Cote Sans Dessein contains a tavern, a store, a blacksmith's shop, and a billiard table.

The Cane[107] is no where met with on the Missouri; but its place is in part supplied by the equisetum hiemale, which, remaining green through the winter, affords an indifferent pasturage for horned cattle and horses: to the latter, it often prove deleterious. The inhabitants of St. Genevieve placed their horses upon an island covered with rushes, where great numbers of them shortly after died; but it was observed that such as received regularly a small quantity of salt remained uninjured. Of a large number of horses, placed on an island near the mouth of the Nishnebottona,[108] to feed upon this plant, no less than twenty[pg141] were found dead at the end of five days. May not the deleterious properties of the equisetum hiemale depend, in some measure, on the frozen water included in the cavity of the stalk?

We were told the cows on this part of the Missouri, at certain seasons of the year, give milk so deleterious as to prove fatal, when taken into the stomach; and this effect is commonly attributed to a poisonous plant, said to be frequent in the low grounds, where it is eaten by the cattle. They have a disease called the milk sickness: it commences with nausea and dizziness, succeeded by headache, pain in the stomach and bowels, and finally, by a prostration of strength, which renders the patient unable to stand; a general torpor soon ensues, succeeded {77} by death. It is a common belief that the flesh of animals, that have eaten of this poisonous weed, is noxious, and that horses are destroyed by it.

We have heard it remarked by the inhabitants of the Ohio below the rapids, that the milk of cows running at large in August is poisonous; and this they do not fail to attribute to the effect of noxious plants; and in some places they point out to you one, and in another place another vegetable, to which they assign these properties. The inhabitants generally seem to have no suspicion that milk, unless it is poisoned, can be an unwholesome article of diet; and we have been often surprised to see it given to those labouring under fever. Throughout the western states, and particularly in the more remote settlements, much use is made of butter-milk, and soured milk in various forms; all of which they sell to travellers. Below Cote Sans Dessein we paid, for new milk, twenty-five cents per gallon, and for soured milk, eighteen and three-fourth cents. At[pg142] that place twenty-five cents per quart were demanded by the French settlers. It is commonly remarked that the French, as well as the Indians, who have been long in the immediate vicinity of the whites, charge a much higher price for any article than the Anglo-Americans, under the same circumstances. Emigrants from the southern states prefer sour milk; and the traveller's taste in this particular, we have often observed, forms a test to discover whether he is entitled to the opprobrious name of Yankee, as the people of the northern and eastern states rarely choose sour milk. We have found that in some of the sickliest parts of the valley of the Mississippi, where bilious and typhoid fevers prevail, through the summer and autumn, the most unrestrained use is made of butter, milk, eggs, and similar articles of diet. Dr. Baldwin was of opinion that the milk sickness of the Missouri did not originate from any deleterious vegetable substance eaten by the cows, but {78} was a species of typhus, produced by putrid exhalations, and perhaps aggravated by an incautious use of a milk diet.

During the few days we remained at Cote Sans Dessein, Dr. Baldwin, though suffering much from weakness, and yielding perceptibly to the progress of a fatal disease, was able to make several excursions on shore. His devotion to a fascinating pursuit stimulated him to exertions for which the strength of his wasted frame seemed wholly inadequate; and it is not, perhaps, improbable that his efforts may have somewhat hastened the termination of his life.

Between Loutre Island and Cote Sans Dessein compact limestone occurs, in horizontal strata, along the sides of the Missouri valley. It is of a bluish white colour, compact structure, and a somewhat concoidal fracture, containing [Pg 143]few organic remains. It alternates with sandstones, having a silicious cement.[109] These horizontal strata are deeply covered with soil, usually a calcareous loam, intermixed with decayed vegetable matter.[pg144]

July 6th.—Soon after leaving the settlement of Cote Sans Dessein, we passed the upper and larger mouth of the Osage river. Here, to use the language of the country, a town has been located, and the lots lately disposed of at St. Louis, at various prices, from fifty to one hundred and eighty dollars each. [110] Within the limits of this town is a considerable hill, rising at the point of the junction of the two rivers, and running parallel to the Missouri. From its summit is an extensive view of the village of Cote Sans Dessein, and the surrounding country.

The river of the Osages, so called from the well-known tribe of Indians inhabiting its banks, enters the Missouri one hundred and thirty-three miles above the confluence of the latter river with the Mississippi. Its sources are in the Ozark mountains, opposite those of the White river of the Mississippi, and of the Neosho, {79} a tributary of the Arkansa. Flowing along the base of the north-western slope of a mountainous range, it receives from the east several rapid and beautiful rivers, of which the largest is the Yungar, (so named, in some Indian language, from the great number of springs tributary to it,) entering the Osage one hundred and forty miles from the Missouri.

In point of magnitude the Osage ranks nearly with the Cumberland and Tennessee. It has been represented as navigable for six hundred miles; but as its current is known to be rapid, flowing over great numbers of shoals and sand-bars, this must be considered an exaggeration. In the lower part of its course it traverses broad and fertile bottom lands, bearing heavy forests of sycamore and cotton[pg145] trees. We may expect the country along the banks of this river will soon become the seat of a numerous population, as it possesses in a fertile soil and a mild climate, advantages more than sufficient to compensate for the difficulty of access, and other inconveniences of situation.

The northern bank of the Missouri, for some distance above the confluence of the Osage, is hilly. Moreau's Creek enters three miles above; and at its mouth is Cedar Island, where we anchored for the night. This island is three miles long, and has furnished much cedar timber for the settlements below; but its supply is now nearly exhausted.[111]

In the afternoon of the following day we were entangled among great numbers of snags and planters, and had a cat-head carried away by one of them. In shutting off the steam on this occasion, one of the valves was displaced; and as we were no longer able to confine the steam, the engine became useless, the boat being thus exposed to imminent danger. At length we succeeded in extricating ourselves; and came to an anchor near the entrance of a small stream, called Mast Creek by Lewis and Clarke.[112]

{80} At evening dense cumulostratus and cirrostratus clouds skirted the horizon: above these we observed a comet bearing north-west by north. Above the mouth of the Osage, the immediate valley of the Missouri gradually[pg146] expands, embracing some wide bottoms, in which are many settlements increasing rapidly in the number of inhabitants. The Manito rocks, and some other precipitous cliffs, are the terminations of low ranges of hills running in quite to the river. These hills sometimes occasion rapids in the river, as in the instance of the Manito rocks; opposite which commences a group of small islands stretching obliquely across the Missouri, and separated by narrow channels, in which the current is stronger than below. Some of these channels we found obstructed by collections of floating trees, which usually accumulate about the heads of islands, and are here called rafts. After increasing to a certain extent, portions of these rafts becoming loosened, float down the river, sometimes covering nearly its whole surface, and greatly endangering the safety, and impeding the progress, of such boats as are ascending. The group above mentioned is called the Thousand Islands.

Nashville, Smithton, Rectorsville, and numerous other towns of similar character and name, containing from one to half a dozen houses each, are to be met with in a few miles above the Little Manito rocks. Almost every settler, who has established himself on the Missouri, is confidently expecting that his farm is, in a few years, to become the seat of wealth and business, and the mart for an extensive district. [113]

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The banks of the Missouri, in this part, present an alternation of low alluvial bottoms and rocky cliffs. Roche À Pierce Creek is a small stream entering nearly opposite another, called Splice Creek, a few miles above the Manito rocks. Here is a range of rocky cliffs, penetrated by numerous cavities and fissures, {81} hence called by the French boatmen, Roche a PiercÈ, and giving name to the creek.[114] These rocks we found filled with organic remains, chiefly encrinites. About eight or ten miles above this point the Missouri again washes the base of the rocky hills, which bound its immediate valley. The rocks advance boldly to the brink of the river, exhibiting a perpendicular front, variegated with several colours arranged in broad stripes. Here is a fine spring of water gushing out at the base of the precipice; over it are several rude paintings executed by the Indians. These cliffs are called the Big Manito rocks, and appear to have been objects of peculiar veneration with the aborigines, and have accordingly received the name of their Great Spirit.

It is not to be understood that the general surface of the country, of which we are now speaking, is traversed by continuous ridges, which, in their course across the valley of the Missouri, occasion the alternation of hill and plain; which to a person ascending the river, forms the most conspicuous feature of the country. The immediate valley of the Missouri preserves great uniformity in breadth, and is bounded on both sides by chains of rocky bluffs rising from one to two hundred feet above the surface of the included valley, and separating it from those vast woodless plains[pg148] which overspread so great a part of the country. Meandering from right to left along this valley the river alternately washes the base of the bluffs on either side, while, from a person passing up or down the stream, the heavy forests intercept the view of the bluffs, except at the points where they are thus disclosed. Opposite the Big Manito rocks, and the island of the same name, is the Little Saline river, on the left side; and three or four miles above, on the opposite side, a stream called the Big Manito Creek.[115] Here we passed the night of the 12th July. About midnight so violent a storm arose that we were {82} compelled to leave our encampment on shore, the tent being blown down, and to seek shelter on board the boat. Though the storm did not continue long, the water fell to the depth of one inch and an half.

After taking in a supply of wood, we departed on the morning of the 13th, and the same day arrived at Franklin. This town, at present, increasing more rapidly than any other on the Missouri, had been commenced but two years and an half before the time of our journey. It then contained about one hundred and twenty log houses of one story, several framed dwellings of two stories, and two of brick, thirteen shops for the sale of merchandize, four taverns, two smiths' shops, two large team-mills, two billiard-rooms, a court-house, a log prison of two stories, a post-office, and a printing-press issuing a weekly paper. At this time bricks were sold at ten dollars per thousand, corn at twenty-five cents per bushel, wheat one dollar, bacon at twelve and a half cents per pound, uncleared[pg149] lands from two to ten or fifteen dollars per acre. The price of labour was seventy-five cents per day.

In 1816 thirty families only of whites, were settled on the left side of the Missouri, above Cote Sans Dessein. In three years, their numbers had increased to more than eight hundred families.

The Missouri bottoms about Franklin are wide, and have the same prolific and inexhaustible soil as those below. The labour of one slave is here reckoned sufficient for the culture of twenty acres of Indian corn, and produces ordinarily about sixty bushels per acre, at a single crop. In the most fertile parts of Kentucky, fifteen acres of corn are thought to require the labour of one slave, and the crop being less abundant, we may reckon the products of agriculture there, at about one third part less than in the best lands on the Missouri. Franklin is the seat of {83} justice for Howard county. It stands on a low and recent alluvial plain, and has behind it a small stagnant creek. The bed of the river, near the shore, has been heretofore obstructed by sand-bars, which prevented large boats from approaching the town; whether this evil will increase or diminish, it is not possible to determine; such is the want of stability in every thing belonging to the channel of the Missouri. It is even doubtful whether the present site of Franklin will not, at some future day, be occupied by the river, which appears to be at this time encroaching on its bank. Similar changes have happened in the short period since the establishments of the first settlements on the Missouri. The site of St. Anthony, a town which existed about thirteen years since, near Bon Homme, is now occupied by the channel of the river. Opposite Franklin is Boonsville, containing, at the time[pg150] of our visit, eight houses, but having, in some respects, a more advantageous situation, and probably destined to rival, if not surpass, its neighbour.[116]

Numerous brine springs are found in the country about Franklin. Boon's Lick, four miles distant, was the earliest settlement in this vicinity, and for some time gave name to the surrounding country. Some furnaces have been erected, and salt is manufactured, in sufficient quantities to supply the neighbouring settlements. Compact limestone appears to be the prevailing rock, but it is well known that the coal-beds, and strata of sand-stone, occur at a little distance from the river.[117] We visited one establishment for the manufacture of salt. The brine is taken from a spring at the surface of the earth, and is not remarkably concentrated, yielding only one bushel of salt to each four hundred and fifty gallons. Eighty bushels are manufactured daily, and require three cords of wood for the evaporation of the water. The furnace consists of a chimney-like funnel, rising obliquely along the side of a hill, {84} instead of the vertical and horizontal flues, commonly used in these manufactories. The fire being kindled in the lower orifice of this, the ascent of the air[pg151] drives the flame against forty or fifty iron pots, inserted in a double series; to these the water is conveyed by small pipes. The banks of the ravine in which this spring rises, still retain the traces of those numerous herds of bisons, elk, and other herbivorous animals, which formerly resorted here for their favourite condiment.

While at Franklin, the gentlemen of the exploring party received many gratifying attentions, particularly from Gen. T. A. Smith, at whose house they were often hospitably received, and where they all dined by invitation on the 17th of July.[118] Here we met several intelligent inhabitants of the village, and of the surrounding country, from whose conversation we were able to collect much information of the character of the country, and the present condition of the settlements.

Mr. Munroe, a resident of Franklin, related to us, that being on a hunting excursion, in the year 1816, he remained some time on a branch of the Le Mine river, where he found the relics of the encampment of a large party of men, but whether of white troops, or Indian warriors, he could not determine. Not far from this encampment, he observed a recent mound of earth, about eight feet in height, which he was induced to believe must be a cachÈ, or place of deposit, for the spoils which the party, occupying the encampment, had taken from an enemy, and which they could not remove with them on their departure. He[pg152] accordingly opened the mound, and was surprised to find in it the body of a white officer, apparently a man of rank, and which had been interred with extraordinary care.

The body was placed in a sitting posture, upon an Indian rush mat, with its back resting against some logs placed around it in the manner of a log house, enclosing {85} a space of about three by five feet, and about four feet high, covered at top with a mat similar to that beneath. The clothing was still in sufficient preservation to enable him to distinguish a red coat, trimmed with gold lace, golden epaulets, a spotted buff waistcoat, finished also with gold lace, and pantaloons of white nankeen. On the head was a round beaver hat, and a bamboo walking stick, with the initials J. M. C. engraved upon a golden head, reclined against the arm, but was somewhat decayed where it came in contact with the muscular part of the leg. On raising the hat, it was found that the deceased had been hastily scalped.

To what nation this officer belonged, Mr. Munroe could not determine. He observed, however, that the button taken from the shoulder, had the word Philadelphia moulded upon it. The cane still remains in the possession of the narrator, but the button was taken by another of his party.

In relation to this story, Gen. Smith observed, that when he commanded the United States' troops in this department, he was informed of an action that had taken place near the Le Mine, in the Autumn of 1815, between some Spanish dragoons, aided by a few Pawnee Indians, and a war party of Sauks and Foxes. In the course of this action, a Spanish officer had pursued an Indian boy, who was endeavouring to escape with a musket on his[pg153] shoulder, but who finding himself nearly overtaken, had discharged the musket behind him at random, and had killed the officer on the spot. The skirmish continuing, the body was captured, and recaptured several times, but at last remained with the Spanish party. This may possibly have been the body discovered by Mr. Munroe, but by whom it was buried, in a manner so singular, is unknown.

About the middle of July, the summer freshets in the Missouri began to subside at Franklin. On the {86} 17th the water fell twelve inches, though in the preceding week more than two inches of rain had fallen. We were informed that the floods had continued longer this year, and had risen higher than usual, owing to the unusual quantities of rain that had fallen.