{124} CHAPTER I [IX] [1] Journey from Belle Point to Cape Girardeau--Cherokee Indians--Osage War--Regulator's Settlements of White River.
The opportunity afforded by a few days residence at Fort Smith, was seized for the purpose of ascertaining, by several successive observations, the latitude and longitude of the place. The results of several observations of the sun's meridian altitude, and of lunar distances, had between the 14th and 19th September, give for the latitude of Belle Point, 34° 50´ 54?, and for the longitude 94° 21´ west of Greenwich. On the 19th, Captain Bell left the fort to proceed on his way to Cape Girardeau, On the 21st, the party, now consisting of Major Long, Messrs. Say, Seymour and Peale, accompanied by Wilson, Adams, Duncan, and Sweney, the other soldiers being left at the fort, commenced their journey towards Cape Girardeau. We took with us five horses and five mules, two of the latter being loaded with packs. Captain Ballard kindly volunteered his services as guide, and, attended by a servant, accompanied us the first day's journey on our march. {125} Our route lay on the south side of the Arkansa, at considerable distance from the river, and led us across two small creeks—one called the Mussanne or Massern, and the other the Vache Grasse. It was near five o'clock when we arrived at the solitary cabin of a settler, and though we found no inhabitant about the place, we halted, and encamped near the spring. Our horses were scarce unsaddled, when a man, who seemed to be the occupant of the house, came up, and informed us, that half a mile further on our way, we should find a house and good accommodations. Accordingly, we again mounted our horses, and rode on to "Squire Billingsby's," as our destined host was entitled, where we met a very hospitable reception. On the succeeding morning, Captain Ballard returned to Belle Point, and we resumed our journey, accompanied by one of the sons of our landlord, who undertook to guide us on our way, until we should fall in with a path which we might continue to follow. We passed through a hilly country, crossing two creeks, heretofore called the Middle and Lower Vache Grasse. At the distance of four or five miles from the Arkansa, on each side, the country is broken and mountainous, several of the summits rising to an elevation of near two thousand feet above the surface of the water. Several trees which stood near our path had been in part stripped of their bark, and the naked trunks were marked with rude figures, representing horses, men, deer, dogs, &c. These imperfect paintings, A little before sunset we arrived at a settlement on the stream, called Short Mountain Bayou. The little {127} cabin we found occupied by two soldiers belonging to the garrison, who were on their return from the settlement at Cadron, whither they had been sent with letters on our arrival at Fort Smith, Cadron being the nearest post-town. We had expected letters from our friends by the return of the express, but were disappointed. The soldiers informed us, that the house in which they had quartered themselves for the night, had been for a week or two deserted, since its proprietor had died, and his wife, who was sick, had been removed to the nearest settlement. The place is called the Short Mountain Settlement, {128} September, 23d. After leaving the wide and fertile bottoms of the Short Mountain Bayou, our path lay across high and rocky hills, altogether covered with woods. The upland forests are almost exclusively of oak, with some little intermixture of hickory, dogwood and black gum. They are open, and the ground is in part covered with coarse grasses. At noon we arrived at the Cherokee settlements on Rocky Bayou, and were received with some hospitality at the house of the metif chief, known by the name of Graves, our landlord, though unable to speak or understand our language, held some communications with us by means of signs, occasionally assisted by a black girl, one of his slaves, who interpreted the Cherokee language. He told us, among other things, that the Osages do not know how to fight; that the Cherokees were now ready to give up the Osage prisoners, if the Osages would deliver into their hands the individuals who had formerly killed some of the Cherokees, &c. He has shown his admiration of military prowess, by calling one of his children Andrew Jackson Graves. He treated us with a good degree of attention, and showed himself well acquainted with the manner of making amends by extravagant charges. Our dinner was brought in by black slaves, and consisted of a large boiled buffaloe fish, a cup of coffee, corn bread, {129} milk, &c. Our host and his wife, of unmixed aboriginal race, were at table with us, and several slaves of African descent were in waiting. The Cherokees are said to treat their slaves with much lenity. The part of the nation now residing on the Arkansa, have recently removed from a part of the state of Tennessee. They After dinner we proceeded a few miles, taking with us one of Graves's sons as a guide, who led us to a place affording good pasture for our horses. Here we encamped. September 24th. From the settlement of the Cherokees, at Rocky Bayou, our route lay towards the south-east, across the succession of rocky hills, sparingly wooded with oak, intermixed with the cornus porida, attaining an unusual magnitude. As we descended towards the Arkansa, we perceived before us the cabins and plantations of another settlement of Cherokees. Passing near a wretched and neglected tenement, we observed a white man, who appeared to be the occupant, and called upon him to direct us to the place where, as we had been told, the river could be forded. It was not until we had repeated our request several times, that he seemed disposed to give any attention. He then approached at a snail's pace, and setting himself down upon the ground, drawled out his direction, terminating each word with a long and hearty yawn. The depression and misery which seemed written on his features, and the sallowness of his complexion, convinced us that disease, as well as native indolence, had some share in occasioning the apparent insolence he had shewn, and cured us of any wish we might have felt to reproach him. Following a winding pathway, which led through deep-tangled thickets and heavy cane-brakes, we {130} arrived at the ford, and crossing without difficulty, halted at the settlement of Walter Webber, Here we found the gentlemen of our party who had left the garrison before us. The chiefs of the Cherokee nation had called a grand council, to meet at Point Pleasant the day after our arrival there, to adopt measures to forward the negotiations for peace with the Osages, with whom they had been at variance for many years. The origin of the quarrel, existing between these powerful and warlike nations, is by some referred to the period of the American revolution, when the Osages killed a number of refugees, who had fled to them for protection. Among these were some Cherokees, some Indians of mixed breed, and it is said some Englishmen, to whom the success of the American arms rendered unsafe a longer residence in the country then occupied by the Cherokee nation. Whether the outrage thus alleged against the Osages was in fact committed, it is not at this time easy to determine. It appears, however, agreeably to the information we have been able to collect, that of late years the Cherokees have almost uniformly been the aggressors, while the abuses of the Osages, so loudly complained of, both by the Cherokees and the Whites, have been acts of retaliation. A large number of Cherokees now live on the south side of the Arkansa, upon lands claimed by the Osages; and all the Cherokees of the Arkansa are in the habit of hunting and committing depredations upon the Osage hunting grounds. In 1817, the Cherokees, with a number of Delawares, Shawnees, In the winter of 1817-18, some of the leading men of both nations had been summoned to a council at St. Louis, by Governor Clark, for the purpose of negotiating a peace. By the treaty then made, the Cherokees had agreed to relinquish the prisoners in question, in consideration of which they were to be {132} allowed the privilege of hunting in the country north of the Arkansa, as high as the Grand river or Six Bulls, and on the south side as high as they pleased. The Cherokees were taught the culture of cotton many years since, by Governor Blount The introduction of a considerable degree of civilization among the Cherokees, has been attended {133} with the usual consequence of inequality in the distribution of property, and a larger share of the evils resulting from that inequality, than are known among untutored savages. Encroachments upon the newly-established rights of exclusive possession have been frequent, and have rendered the numerous class of the poor among the Cherokees troublesome neighbours, both to the wealthy of their own nation, and to those of the white settlers in their vicinity who had any thing to lose. But wealth seldom finds itself destitute of the means of protection. Three bands of regulators, or troops of light horse, as they are sometimes called, are maintained among the Cherokees, consisting each of ten men well armed and mounted, and Tikatok's village, which we passed on the 25th, is situated on the Illinois Bayou, Near Harding's ferry, on the south side of White river, is the Chattahoochee mountain, Numerous settlements have heretofore been formed on the lands contiguous to White river, and several in the portion above the Chattahoochee mountain on the south side; but all these lands having by treaty been surrendered to the Cherokees, many whites {137} have been compelled to withdraw, and leave their farms to the Indians. The tract of land ceded to the Indians by the treaty above alluded to, is for the most part rocky and barren. Some of the tributaries of White river have extensive and fertile bottoms, but the greater part of the country watered by this river, is mountainous and unfit for cultivation. At MacNeil's ferry, where the road from Little Rock on the Arkansa to Davidsonville, in Lawrence county, crosses White river, the bottoms are wide, and as fertile as any of those on the Arkansa. In several parts of the Arkansa territory we were shewn dollars, which were believed to have been coined in some of the upper settlements of White river; and it has been currently reported, that mines of silver exist, and are wrought there. It appears, however, upon examination, that much spurious coin is here in circulation; and it is probable that the White river country owes its present reputation for mineral wealth to the successful labours of some manufacturer of imitation dollars. Since the time of De Soto, it has been confidently asserted by many who have written concerning Louisiana, that mines of gold and silver exist in that part of the country of which we are speaking. In an old map, by Du Pratz, a gold mine is placed somewhere near the confluence of the Illinois and the Arkansa; a silver mine on the Merameg, and he says, The bed of White river, at the place where we crossed it, is paved with pebbles and fragments of a yellowish white petrosiliceous stone, intermixed with rounded masses of transparent quartz, and sometimes with pieces of calcedony. Its water is uncommonly transparent, and this, with the whiteness of its bed, and the brisk motion of the current, gives it an aspect of unusual beauty. The banks are high, and in many places not exposed to inundation. Dense and heavy forests of sycamore and cotton-wood stretch along the river, disclosing here and there, at distant intervals, the solitary hut and the circumscribed clearing of the recent settler. Some who have been no more than two or three years resident upon their present farms, and who commenced in the unbroken forests, have now abundant crops of corn and pumpkins, with large fields of cotton, which is said to equal in quality that of the uplands of Georgia and Carolina. Few attempts have hitherto been made to cultivate any grain, except Indian corn, though the soil is thought to be in many places well adapted to wheat, barley, oats, &c. The maize cultivated in the Arkansa territory, and in the southern and western states, generally is the variety called the ground seed, having a long and compressed kernel, shrivelled at the end when fully ripe; and crops are not uncommon yielding from sixty to ninety bushels per acre. In all the uplands, the prevailing growth is oak. At the time of our journey, the acorns were falling in such quantities, that the ground for an extent of many Sweet potatoes A few of the roads which traverse the country from the Mississippi to the upper settlements of Red river and the Arkansa, have been sufficiently opened to admit the passage of waggons. On these are seen many families migrating from Missouri to Red river, and from Red river to Missouri. The first settlements in the wilderness are most commonly made by persons to whom hardihood and adventure have become confirmed and almost indispensable habits, and who choose to depend upon the chase, and the spontaneous products of the unreclaimed On the evening of September 30th, we halted at a little rivulet called Bayou CurÆ. To those who have been long accustomed to the thirsty regions of the Missouri, the Platte, and the Upper Arkansa, it is somewhat surprising to meet in tracts, having nearly the same elevation, and resting to a great extent on rocks of a similar character, so great a number of large streams crowded into such narrow compass. {143} Is it not probable, that a large portion of the water falling in rains upon the extensive plains at the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, may sink through the loose and porous soil, till at length, meeting with some compact stratum, it may be collected into rills, and even considerable streams, which, descending along the surface of this Black river originates in an elevated part of the Ozark mountains, between 37° and 38° north latitude, and between 90° and 91° west longitude. From the same tract descend, on the north, the waters of the Merameg; on the north-east, those of Big river; The Illinois, and the great eastern tributary of the Osage, {144} receive numerous streams from the western slope of the Ozark mountains, but they traverse a region hitherto very imperfectly known. It appears, however, that these two rivers drain all the north-western side of the mountainous range in question. Black river runs nearly parallel, that is, from north-east to south-west, along the south-eastern side of the range. Its sources are in the district of the lead mines, and at no great distance from those of the Merameg and the St. Francis. Its course is at first south-east, about sixty or one hundred miles; then turning to the south-west, it receives in succession from the south-eastern side of the mountains, the Little Black, the Currents, Fourche De Thomas, Eleven Point Spring, and Strawberry rivers, uniting at length with White river, in latitude 35° 15´. As far as hitherto known it receives no considerable tributary from the east. On the 8th October we arrived at Jackson, the seat of justice for the county of Cape Girardeau, and, after St. Louis and St. Charles, one of the largest towns in Missouri. Fifteen miles north of Jackson, on a little stream called Apple creek, reside about four hundred Indians, mostly Delawares and Shawnees. At the time of our visit the head of a Shawnee, who had been concerned in the murder of a white woman, was to be seen elevated on a pole by the side of the road leading from Jackson to the Indian settlement of Apple creek. It was related to us that the crime, for which this punishment had been inflicted, was committed at the instigation of a white man. The murderer was demanded of the Shawnees by the people of Jackson, and being at length discovered by the Indians, and refusing to surrender himself, he was shot by his own people, and his head delivered up, agreeable to the demand. It is painful to witness the degradation and misery of this people, once powerful and independent; still more so to see them submitting to the unnecessary cruelties of their oppressors. We have not been informed by what authority the punishment above mentioned was inflicted upon a whole community for the crime of one of its members, and we are sorry to have occasion to record a circumstance so little honourable to the people of Missouri. A miserable remnant of the Shawnee, Delaware, and Peola tribes, with a few Chickasaws and Cherokees, were at this time scattered through the country, from the Mississippi at the mouth of Apple creek westward to the sources of Black river. They were, however, about to remove farther west, and many of them were already {147} The road from White river joins that from the upper settlements on the St. Francis, at some distance beyond Jackson. Castor and White water are two beautiful streams, traversing the country west of Jackson. They run towards the south, and soon after their confluence enter the great swamp through which they find their way to the St. Francis. The district of the lead mines, situated near the sources of the Merameg, the Gasconade, and the St. Francis, has been repeatedly described. The best accounts of it are in the works of Bradbury, Brackenridge, Stoddart, and Schoolcraft. For the following topics mentioned in this chapter, see Nuttall's Journal, volume xiii of our series: Massern (note 181), Vache Grasse (164), Cadron (133), Short Mountain (162), Rocky Bayou (158), metif (114), Quapaw Indians (84), Osage-Cherokee hostilities (155), Governor William Clark (105), Governor James Miller (214), Tallantusky (148), Cherokee treaty (145), Point Remove (139), White River Cut-Off (72), Little Rock (123), roads through Arkansas (126), gold and silver in Arkansas (128).—Ed. When Fort Smith was first established, mail was brought from Arkansas Post by soldiers detailed for that duty. The trip by water consumed three weeks.—Ed. Comment by Ed. See reprint in our volume xiii, p. 190. Harding's (Harden's) Ferry was near the present Stone-Independence county boundary; the proprietor's house stood on the right bank of the river, ten miles above Batesville, seat of Independence County.—Ed. The sources of Black River are in Reynolds and Iron counties, Missouri; its course is nearly south.—Ed. The site of Davidsonville was chosen in the autumn of 1815; it was at the mouth of Spring River (see post, note 26). The town was seat of Lawrence County until 1829; but after the removal of the court to a rival village, it declined and became extinct.—Ed. Comment by Ed. The reference is to volume i of the London edition of 1763; the quotation in the text is from ibid., pp. 362, 363. Comment by Ed. Granite from quarries in Iron County, Missouri, was used in the construction of the capitol at Springfield, Illinois, of the custom houses at St. Louis and Cincinnati, and of other important works. St. Francis River rises in St. FranÇois County, Missouri, a few miles east of the sources of Black River. The mention of White River in the text is a slip of the pen. The whole course of the St. Francis is parallel to that of Black River and lower White River. It falls into the Mississippi at the north-east corner of Phillips County, Arkansas. The chief source of Spring River is known as the Mammoth Spring of Fulton County; it is near the Missouri boundary, in the north-eastern corner of the county. The water issues from an opening a hundred and twenty feet in circumference, at the rate of nine thousand barrels per minute. An apparent boiling is produced by gas in solution. Myatt's Creek and South Fork, branches of Spring River which are longer but convey less water, rise beyond the state line, traverse Fulton County in a south-easterly direction, and join the main stream near the Sharp County line. Thence the course is south-east across Sharp County, and along the Randolph-Lawrence county boundary to Black River. Eleven Point River rises in Howell County, Missouri, crosses Oregon County, and thence flows south through Randolph County, Arkansas.—Ed. Currents (Current) River rises in Texas County, Missouri, and flows first north-east then south-east, traversing Shannon, Carter, and Ripley counties, in that state, and portions of Clay and Randolph counties in Arkansas. It joins Little Black in Clay. Currents River rivals Black River itself in size. There are many variants of the name of the stream here called Fourche De Thomas. The Philadelphia edition has Thomas' river or fork; elsewhere it is given indifferently as Fourche À Thomas, Fourche À Dumas, and Fourche Dumas, while a recent map has Fouche or Dumaz. It heads in Ripley County, Missouri, and flows south. Pocahontas, seat of Randolph County, Arkansas, is just below its mouth. In addition to those mentioned, Black River receives a few small western tributaries above the Missouri line—among them, Cane Creek in Butler County, and Logan's Creek in Reynolds County.—Ed. |