CHAPTER III {XI} [48] Red River--Exploring Expedition of 1806--Return to the Arkansa--Earthquakes

The Red river of Louisiana enters the Mississippi from the west, in north latitude 31° 5´,[49] and in 16° 35´ west longitude from Philadelphia. From the Mississippi to the mouth of Black river (as the Washita is called below the confluence of the Ocatahoola and Tensa) is twenty-six miles by water. The aggregate width of Red river, for this distance, is from three hundred to three hundred and fifty yards. The depth of the water in summer varies, according to the actual measurement of Messrs. Freeman and Humphrey, from eighty-four to forty-two feet, the range from extreme high to low-water is from twenty-five to thirty feet, and the banks are elevated from fourteen to twenty-five feet above the surface of the river at low-water. At no great distance, on each side, is a second alluvial bank, rising a few feet higher than the immediate bank of the river. Back of this the surface is elevated nearly to high-water mark, but descends gradually towards the lakes and swamps, which occur along both sides of the valley of the river. In the wet season the lower part of Red and Black rivers are lost in an extensive lake, covering the country from the Mississippi westward near one hundred miles to the settlement of the Avoyelles.[50]

The distinction made by Du Pratz, between the country on the south and that on the north side of Red river, appears to be strictly applicable only to {164} the part lying below the point where Red river enters the immediate valley of the Mississippi.[51]

Above the confluence of Black river the bed of Red river immediately contracts to one hundred and twenty yards, which is its average width from this point to the rapids seventy-two miles above: the current becomes in a corresponding degree more rapid, running with a velocity of from two and a half to three miles per hour, at a moderate stage of water, in the early part of summer. The average depth in this section is stated at from eighteen to twenty feet, at a time when the water is twenty-one feet below its maximum of elevation. The banks are generally bold and steep on one side or the other, and often on both. The bottom lands are level and exceedingly fertile, but bear the marks of periodical inundation. The forests of the lower section of Red river differ little from those of the Mississippi and the Arkansa. White gum, cotton-wood, pecan, locusts, white oak, mulberry, sycamore, hackberry, and cypress occupy the low grounds, while the low and scattered hills are covered with pine, intermixed with a small proportion of oak and hickory. The only portion of the low lands in any sort fit for cultivation is a narrow strip immediately on each bank, commencing a little above the mouth of Black river, and enlarging upwards; but even here the settler is not secure, as uncommon swellings of the river sometimes lay the whole under water. Aside from this, the extreme insalubrity of the air, occasioned by the vicinity of extensive swamps, stagnant ponds, and lagoons, tends to retard the progress of settlements in this quarter.

At the rapids the river spreads to three hundred yards in width. The banks are thirty feet high, and never overflowed. Here has for many years been a settlement. The soil of the neighbouring country is extremely fertile.[52] A bed of soft sandstone, or indurated clay, crosses the river, causing a fall of ten feet {165} in fifty yards. "This stone, when exposed to the air, becomes as hard as freestone; but under water it is found as soft as chalk. A channel could, with very little labour or expense, be cut through any part of the bed of the river, and need not be extended more than two hundred yards. It appears to me that twenty men, in ten days, with mattocks only, could at low water open a channel sufficiently wide and deep for all the barges that trade in this river to pass with safety and ease."[53] Three quarters of a mile above this rapid is another, very similar in extent and magnitude.

Thirty miles above the rapids we find the river divided into two beds, each having a high bold bank. The right-hand channel contains about one third of the volume of water of the whole river. They separate from each other four or five miles below Natchitoches, and unite again here, forming an island sixty miles long and five wide.

The right-hand branch is called by the French Rigolet Bon Dieu, and the other Old river. Another island, commencing one-fourth of a mile below Natchitoches, extends parallel to that above mentioned, thirty-four miles and a half; this is about four miles wide. The current, in all the branches which lie between these islands and the main-shore, is rapid, but not equally so. The description already given of the valley of the river is applicable to this portion; on each side the surface descends from the river, terminating in a line of pools and cypress swamps, which extend along the base of the bluff. Settlements were here somewhat numerous in 1806. The small cottages are placed near the bank of the river, and the cultivated lands extend back but a little distance. "The inhabitants," says Freeman "are a mixture of French, Spanish, Indian, and Negro blood, the latter often predominating."[54]

{166} The separation of the water of the river into three distinct branches, each confined within high and steep banks, raised twenty and even thirty feet above the medium elevation of the water, and their reunion, after traversing severally an extent of sixty and thirty miles, might at first view appear a matter of curious inquiry; but upon the slightest investigation it will be discovered that this whole country adjacent to the river has been made or raised to its present elevated position by frequent inundation and depositions from the water. This evidently appears from the great quantities of timber frequently seen as you ascend the river, deposited as low as low-water mark, under steep banks of different heights from twelve to thirty feet.

Red river takes its name from the colour of its water, which is in time of floods of a bright red, and partakes more or less of this colour throughout the year. There can be no doubt the colouring matter on which this tinge depends is derived from the red sandstone of the salt formation already described when speaking of the sources of the Canadian river of Arkansa, although no person qualified to give a satisfactory account of the country has hitherto traced Red river to that formation. We propose to add some brief notices of this important river, derived from the unpublished materials of the exploring party sent out by the government of the United States in 1806; also from the notes of Major Long, who visited the upper settlements in 1817; not neglecting such additional information from the works of Darby, Nuttall, and others who have written of Louisiana, as may appear deserving of confidence.

Red river was explored at a very early period by the French, but their examinations appear to have extended no farther than to the country of the Natchitoches and the Cadoes;[55] and although subsequent {167} examinations have a little enlarged our acquaintance with its upper branches, we are still unfortunately ignorant of the position of its sources. Three years after the cession of Louisiana to the United States, a small party, known by the name of the "Exploring Expedition of Red river," and consisting of Captain Sparks, Mr. Freeman, Lieut. Humphrey, and Dr. Custis, with seventeen private soldiers, two non-commissioned officers, and a black servant, embarked from St. Catherine's landing, near Natchez, on board several barges and small boats, with instructions to ascend Red river to its sources.[56] On the 3d of May 1806 they entered Red river, expecting to be able to ascend with their boats to the country of the Pawnee Piqua Indians. Here it was their intention to leave their boats, and packing their provision on horses which they should purchase of the Pawnees, they were to "proceed to the top of the mountains," the distance being, as they believed, about three hundred miles.

On the 19th of May they arrived at Natchitoches, distant from the Mississippi 184 miles 266 perches, measured by log-line and time. At this place they delayed some days; and having received information that their progress would be opposed by the Spaniards, they resolved to increase the strength of their party by retaining a detachment which had been ordered by the secretary at war to join them at Natchitoches, "for the purpose of assisting the exploring party to ascend the river to the upper end of the Great Raft, and to continue as far afterwards as might appear necessary to repel by force any opposition they might meet with." Accordingly, twenty men were selected from the garrison at Natchitoches, and, under the command of Lieutenant Duforest,[57] joined the exploring {168} party. They were now thirty-seven in number aside from the officers, and were furnished with a supply of flour sufficient for nine months' provision. On the 2d of June they left Natchitoches, and proceeded towards their destination. The journal of their tour by Mr. Freeman, which has been obligingly put into our hands by General D. Parker,[58] is extremely circumstantial, and embraces much valuable information. We make use of it, without particular reference, whenever we have occasion to speak of that part of Red river visited by the expedition. On the 7th of June the party were overtaken, near a small village of Natchitoches and Paskagoulas,[59] by an Indian guide and interpreter, whom they had hired at Natchitoches. He brought a letter from Dr. Sibley,[60] the Indian agent, giving information that a detachment of Spanish troops were already on their march from Nacogdoches,[61] with a design to intercept the exploring party. At the distance of one hundred and two miles above Natchitoches they left the bed of the river, turning out through one of those numerous communications called Bayous, which connect the principal channel with those lateral chains of lakes, pools, swamps, and marshes, which extend along the sides of the valley. Their design in leaving the river was to avoid that singular obstruction to the navigation called the Great Raft, having been informed by Mr. Toolan, an old and respectable French inhabitant, that it would be impossible for them to pass through it. They had already encountered three similar obstructions, through which they had made their way with extreme toil, by loosening and floating out the logs and trunks of trees, that had been piled upon each other in such numbers as to fill the bed of the river from the bottom, usually at the depth of thirty feet, and rising three or four feet above the surface of the water.

The Bayou Datche, as the part of the river is called into which they entered, conducted them to a {169} beautiful lake called Big Broth.[62] It is thus described by Mr. Freeman. "This beautiful sheet of water extends, from the place we first entered it, seventy miles in a north-westerly direction; and, as far as we saw it, is beautifully variegated with handsome clumps of cypress trees thinly scattered in it; on the right-hand side it is bounded by high land, which ascends from the surface of the water, and at the distance of one hundred yards is elevated about forty feet, and covered with forests of black oak, hickory, dogwood, &c.; soil good second-rate. It is bounded on the left by a low plain covered with cypress trees and bushes. The depth of water is from two to six feet. High-water mark ten feet above the present surface. It is called by the Indians Big Broth, from the vast quantities of froth seen floating on its surface at high water. The passage out of this lake is by a very difficult communication, through bayous, into another very handsome lake of about one mile wide called Swan lake, and so on, through long crooked bayous, lakes, and swamps, full of dead standing timber." Having made their way for many days along this chain of lakes, they were at length anxious to return to the river. After searching several days for a passage, and finding their pilot incapable to direct them, they resolved to wait while they could send messengers by land to the Coashatay village,[63] and procure a guide. The return of this messenger brought them some information calculated to aid in extricating themselves from the labyrinth of lakes in which they were bewildered, also the promise of the Coashatay chief, that he would join the party himself, and conduct them to the river. This promise, however, it was not his intention to fulfil. The party therefore, on the 20th of June, resumed their search for a passage, returning some distance on their route. {170} On the 25th they discovered a narrow and obstructed channel, through which, after removing several rafts, trees, &c. they found their way into the river. "Thus," says the journal of the expedition, "after fourteen days of incessant fatigue, toil and danger, doubt and uncertainty, we at length gained the river above the Great Raft, contrary to the decided opinion of every person who had any knowledge of the difficulties we had to encounter."[64]

The distance from Natchitoches to the point where the party entered Red river, above the Great Raft, is two hundred and one miles by the meanders of their route. Above the Raft the river is two hundred and thirty yards wide, thirty-four feet deep, and has a very gentle current. The banks are ten or twelve feet high. On the north side the lands rise considerably at a little distance, and are covered with heavy forests of oak, poplar, and red cedar. At the Coashatay village, about twenty miles above the Great Raft, the commander of the exploring party received information, by an express, from the chief of the principal village of the Cadoes, which is thirty miles farther to the west, "that about three hundred Spanish dragoons, with four or five hundred horses and mules, were encamped near that village, with the design to prevent the further progress of the Americans." The Coashatay and Cadoe Indians of this part of Red river are an agricultural half-civilized people, like the Cherokees.[65]

On the 1st of July a messenger arrived at the encampment of the party, near the Coashatay village, giving information of the near approach of the Cadoe chief, with forty young men and warriors of his village. About noon they made their appearance on the opposite bank of the river, and kept up, for a few minutes, an irregular firing by way of salute. This was returned both from the camp and the village, in a manner highly gratifying to the Cadoe party. The {171} customary ceremonies used in meeting Indians being past, an exchange of complimentary speeches followed.

The Cadoe chief expressed great uneasiness on account of the Spaniards who were encamped near his village. Their commandant, he said, had come to see him, had taken him by the hand, and asked him, if he loved the Americans; he answered, he did not know what to say, but if the Spaniards wished to fight the Americans, they might go down to Natchitoches, and fight them there; but they should not shed blood in his territories. He said he was pleased with what he had heard respecting the designs of the exploring party; he wished them to go on and see all his country, and all his neighbours. "You have far to go, and will meet with many difficulties, but I wish you to go on. My friends, the Pawnees, will be glad to see you, and will take you by the hand. If you meet with any of the Huzaa's (Osages), and kill them, I will dance for a month. If they kill any of your party, I will go with my young men and warriors, and we will be avenged for you." The soldiers belonging to the expedition having paraded in open order and single file, the forty young Cadoes commenced on the right of the line, and marching towards the left, shook each man by the hand in the most earnest manner. When their leader had reached the other extremity of the line, they instantly placed themselves in a corresponding line, about three paces distant, and their partizan or principal warrior delivered a short address to the serjeant.

"Here we are," said he, "all men and warriors shaking hands together, let us hold fast, and be friends for ever." It was said by the interpreter he prefaced his observation by saying, he was glad to see that his new brothers had the faces of men, and looked like men and warriors.

After a delay of a few days the Cadoe chief, professing the most friendly disposition towards the exploring {172} party, withdrew with his young men to his own village. On the 11th of July the officers of the party, having as yet no certain knowledge of the designs of the Spaniards, re-embarked on board their little fleet, and began to ascend Red river from the Coashatay village, having engaged the Cadoe chief to watch the motions of the Spanish troops, and to give timely notice of any thing interesting to the expedition. The river, above the Coashatay village, became very crooked and wide, and the water was so low that the boats were often aground, though they drew no more than from sixteen to twenty inches of water.

On the 26th of July, in the afternoon, three Indians appeared on the sand-beach, who were found to be the runners sent from the Cadoe chief, agreeable to previous engagement. They brought information that the Spaniards had returned to Nacogdoches, for a reinforcement and new instructions; that six days since they had arrived at the Cadoe village, about one thousand strong; that they had cut down the United States' flag in the Cadoe village, and had said, it was their intention to destroy the exploring party. They had taken from the Cadoe village two young men to conduct them to a handsome bluff, a few miles above where they were now encamped, to await the arrival of the party. The Indian messengers, and the Cadoes who had remained with the party, appeared much alarmed, and intreated the commanding officer to return, saying, if they met the Spaniards, not one would come back alive. The distance to the Spanish camp was three days' journey. On the following day the party made a deposit of some of their most important papers, with a small stock of ammunition, provisions, and astronomical instruments in a retired place, that they might not be entirely destitute of resources after the contemplated rencontre with the Spaniards should have taken place. At sunset, on the 28th of July, as they were {173} about to encamp, they heard several guns a-head of them, which left no doubt that they had arrived near the Spanish camp. On the ensuing morning Captain Sparks, Mr. Freeman, and a favourite Indian, walked a-head of the boats, along the sand-beach, with their guns in their hands. The Indian soon discovered some tracks, ran hastily up among the bushes on the bank, and then returning, made signs that the Spaniards were there. The party was now halted, the arms examined, and put in readiness for immediate action; then all went on board the boats, and they continued their ascent, as if they had known nothing of the Spanish troops. The advanced guard which the Indian had discovered consisted of twenty-two men, stationed a mile and a half below the encampment of the main body. On seeing the boats they fled instantly, and hid themselves in the woods, leaving behind their clothes and provisions.

On turning the next bend they commanded a beautiful view of the river, extending about a mile, with steep banks on both sides, and level sand beaches, occupying more than half the bed of the river. On one of these, at the distance of half a mile, they discovered a sentinel, and soon afterwards saw a detachment of horse gallop from thence through the small cotton-wood bushes near the next bend of the river, and shortly after return to their former station. As it was now the middle of the day, the exploring party halted according to custom, and kindled fires to prepare their dinner.

About half an hour after they had halted, a large detachment from the Spanish camp were seen riding down the sand-beach, enveloped in such a cloud of dust that their numbers could not be accurately estimated. The soldiers belonging to the exploring party were sent to take possession of a thick cane brake on the immediate bank of the river, at a short distance above the boats, to be in readiness, should there be occasion, to attack the advancing party on {174} their flank. A non-commissioned officer and six men were sent still farther up the river, and ordered to be in readiness to assail the Spaniards in the rear.

The advancing party of horse came on at full speed, and neglecting the first challenge of the two sentinels stationed at some distance in advance of the boats. When the sentinels cried "halt" the second time, they cocked their pieces, and were in the act of presenting them to fire, when the Spanish squadron halted, and displayed on the beach about one hundred and fifty yards distant. Their officers moved slowly forward, and were met by Captain Sparks, whom the Spanish commandant politely saluted, and a parley ensued, which continued about three-quarters of an hour. The Spaniards being greatly superior in numbers, and expressing a determined resolution to fulfil their orders, which were to prevent, at all hazards, the farther progress of the exploring expedition, the officers of that party reluctantly consented to relinquish their undertaking. The spot where this interruption took place is two hundred and thirty miles by water above the Coashatay village, consequently six hundred and thirty-five miles above the mouth of Red river.[66]

Below this point it appears the river and the country lose, in a great measure, the peculiar characters which belong to the region of recent alluvial lands near the mouth of the river. Swamps, bayous, and lagoons, are less frequent; the forests are more open, the trees smaller, and the soil less fertile and open; meadows more frequent here than below. A portion of Red river above, between this point and the upper settlements,[67] is but imperfectly known.

The average direction of Red river, as far as it has been hitherto explored, from the confluence of the Kiamesha, in latitude 33° 30´, to its junction with the Mississippi in 31° 5´, is from north-west to south-east. Above the Kiamesha it is supposed to flow more directly from west to east. The streams tributary {175} to Red river are comparatively small and few in number. Above the Washita the principal are the Little river of the south and the Little river of the north,[68] both entering near the north-western angle of the state of Louisiana, and both hitherto little known. The next in order is the Kiamesha, rising in the Ozark mountains, opposite the Poteau, and entering Red river about one thousand miles from the Mississippi. The Kiamesha has been explored from its sources to its confluence by Major Long, who first visited it in 1817. The country about the sources of this river is mountainous, being broken into numerous irregular peaks and ridges, of an old ferruginous sandstone, with its stratifications highly inclined towards the south. The timber in the mountainous country is the yellow pine, intermixed with red, white, and mountain oak, the small chesnut, the American box or hop hornbeam (ostrya virginica), the red cedar, &c.

In the low lands, towards Red river, all the forest trees common to the valley of the Arkansa are found, with the addition of the maclura, which is now so rare about the Arkansa that it can scarcely be said to make a part of the forests there. Extensive prairies exist on the lower part of the Kiamesha, some of which command delightful views of the surrounding country. Before you lies the great valley of Red river, exhibiting a pleasing variety of forests and lawns; beyond rises the gentle slope of the Ozark mountains, imprinting the broad outline of their azure summits upon the margin of the sky. At the mouth of the Kiamesha, Red river is about two hundred yards wide. Its course is meandering, forming points alternately on the right and left, terminating in sand-bars, covered with red mud or clay, deposited from the water of the river. In its lowest stage the river may be forded at any place, so that a person may pass along the bed, as in the Canadian, by travelling on the sand-bars, and occasionally crossing the water {176} between them. The soil and climate of Red river are said to be peculiarly adapted to the culture of cotton. The crop sometimes yields twenty-five hundred pounds of seed-cotton per acre, and this of a quality inferior to none, except the Sea island.

Of the Vaseau, or Boggy Bayou, and the Blue river, two considerable streams tributary to Red river, next above the Kiamesha, we have little information. They appear to enter like what are called the north and south forks of the Canadian, near the foot of the western slope of the Ozark mountains. Above these the principal tributary is the Faux Ouachita, or False Washita, from the north, which has been described to us (by Mr. Findlay, an enterprising hunter, whose pursuits often led him to visit its banks), as bearing a very near resemblance to the Canadian river of Arkansa.[69]

We are as yet ignorant of the true position of the sources of Red river; but we are well assured the long received opinion, that its principal branch rises "about thirty or forty miles east of Santa FÉ," is erroneous.

Several persons have recently arrived at St. Louis in Missouri, from Santa FÉ, and, among others, the brother of Captain Shreeves, who gives information of a large and frequented road, which runs nearly due east from that place, and strikes one of the branches of the Canadian, [and] that at a considerable distance to the south of this point in the high plain is the principal source of Red river. His account confirms an opinion we had previously formed, namely, that the branch of the Canadian explored by Major Long's party, in August 1820, has its sources near those of some stream which descends towards the west into the Rio Del Norte, and consequently that some other region must contain the head of Red river. From a careful comparison of all the information we have been able to collect, we are satisfied that the stream on which we encamped on the 31st of August [July] is the Rio Raijo [Rojo] of Humboldt, {177} long mistaken for the source of the Red river of Natchitoches, and that our camp of September [August] 2d was within forty or fifty miles east from Santa FÉ. In a region of red clay and sand, where all the streams have nearly the colour of arterial blood, it is not surprising that several rivers should have received the same name; nor is it surprising that so accurate a topographer as the Baron Humboldt, having learned that a Red river rises forty or fifty miles east of Santa FÉ, and runs to the east, should conjecture it might be the source of the Red river of Natchitoches. This conjecture (for it is no more) we believe to have been adopted by our geographers, who have with much confidence made their delineations and their accounts correspond to it.[70]

In relation to the climate of the country on Red river we have received little definite information. The journal of the Exploring Expedition contains a record of thermometric observations for thirty-six days, commencing with June 1st, 1806, and extending to July 6th. These were made between Natchitoches and the Coashatay village; and the temperature, both of the air and the water of the river, are noted three times per day, at 6 a.m. and 3 and 9 P.M. They indicate a climate extremely mild and equable. The range of atmospheric temperature is from 72° to 93° Fah. that of the water from 79° to 92°. The daily oscillations are nearly equal, and the aggregate temperature rises slowly and uniformly towards midsummer.

From Lockhart's settlement on the Saline river of Washita to Little Rock on the Arkansa, is a distance about twenty-five miles. As we approached the Arkansa, we found the country less broken and rocky than above. The soil of the uplands is gravelly and comparatively barren, producing almost exclusively scattered forests of oak, while along the streams are small tracts of extremely fertile bottom lands. In some of the vallies, however, the cypress appears filling extensive swamps, and imparting a gloomy and {178} unpromising aspect to the country. This tree is well known in all the southern section of the United States, to indicate a low and marshy soil, but not universally one which is irreclaimable. It is rarely if ever met with north of the latitude of 38°. In many respects, particularly in the texture, firmness, and durability of its wood, and in its choice of situation, it resembles the white cedar[71] of the northern states, but far surpasses it in size, being one of the largest trees in North America. "There is," says Du Pratz, "a cypress tree at Baton Rouge, which measures twelve yards round, and is of prodigious height." In the cypress swamps, few other trees, and no bushes are to be seen, and the innumerable conic excrescences called knees, which spring up from the roots, resembling the monuments in a church-yard, give a gloomy and peculiar aspect to the scenery of those cypress swamps. The old error of Du Pratz, with regard to the manner of the reproduction of the cypress, is still maintained by great numbers of people who never heard of his book. "It renews itself," says he, "in a most extraordinary manner:—A short time after it is cut down a shoot is observed to grow from one of its roots, exactly in the form of a sugarloaf, and this sometimes rises ten feet high before any leaf appears; the branches at length rise from the head of this conical shoot."[72] We have often been reminded of this account of Du Pratz, by hearing the assertion among the settlers, that the cypress never grows from the seed; it would appear, however, that he could have been little acquainted with the tree, or he would have been aware that the conic excrescences in question spring up and grow during the life-time of the tree, but never after it is cut down.

At Little Rock, a village of six or eight houses, we found several of the members of a missionary family {179} destined to the Osages. They had exposed themselves during the heat of summer to the pestilential atmosphere of the Lower Mississippi and Arkansa; and we were not surprised, when we considered their former habits, to find they had suffered most severely from their imprudence. They had all been sick, and two or three of their number had died; the survivors, we understood, were on the recovery. They had been some time at Little Rock, the water in the Arkansa having fallen so low as to render their further ascent impracticable.[73]

The village of Little Rock occupies the summit of a high bank of clay-slate on the south-west side of the Arkansa. Its site is elevated, and the country immediately adjoining, in a great measure, exempt from the operation of those causes which produce a state of the atmosphere unfavourable to health. It is near the commencement of the hilly country, and for a part of the year will be at the head of steam-boat navigation on the Arkansa. The country in the rear of the projected town is high, and covered for the most part with open oak forests.

October 3d. We left Little Rock at an early hour, taking the road towards Davidsonville. This led us for about four miles through the deep and gloomy forests of the Arkansa bottoms. Here we saw the ricinus palma christi growing spontaneously by the road side, and rising to the height of twelve or fourteen feet. We arrived at Little Red river by about nine o'clock, the distance from the Arkansa being not more than eight or nine miles. In the high and rocky country about White river, we fell in with the route which had been pursued by Major Long and his party, and following this, we reached Cape Girardeau a few days after their arrival. The distance from Belle Point to Little Rock by the way of the hot springs is two hundred and ten miles, from Little Rock to Cape Girardeau three hundred; in the whole, five hundred and ten miles.

{180} Major Long's notes of a tour in the Arkansa territory contain tables of meteorological observations, showing the variations of temperature from September 30th, 1817, to January 31st, 1818. The country in which these observations were made, is that between the Arkansa at Fort Smith, and the Red river at the mouth of the Kiamesha, about the hot springs of the Washita, the settlement of Cadron, &c. Here we find in the month of January the mercury at zero, and shortly after at 58°, a degree of cold that would not discredit the climate of Moscow, and a rapidity of change and violence of vicissitude to compare with the ever-varying temperature of the Atlantic states. We might expect in the latitude of 34°, and in a region placed along the south-eastern slope of a moderately elevated range of mountains, a mild and equable climate. But almost every portion of the territory of the United States seems alike exposed to the influence of the western and north-western winds, refrigerated in their passage over the wide and frozen regions of the Rocky Mountains, and rushing down unobstructed across the naked plains of the great desert, penetrating with almost unmitigated rigour to the Atlantic coast. It is proper to remark, that the winter of 1817-18 was considered one of unusual severity in the Arkansa territory. From the accounts of Hunter and Dunbar, it appears, that in December 1804 the weather was much milder in the same portion of country. An alligator was seen in December many miles above the confluence of the Saline Fork, and even at the hot springs many plants were in flower, and the ground in the woods had considerable appearance of verdure. We have been assured by emigrants from North Carolina, that the winter temperature of the country, about the upper branches of the Washita, is more mild and equable than that of the corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic coast.

{181} On the 12th October the exploring party were all assembled at Cape Girardeau. Lieutenant Graham, with the steam-boat Western Engineer, had arrived a day or two before from St. Louis; having delayed there some time subsequent to his return from the Upper Mississippi. In the discharge of the duties on which he had been ordered, Lieutenant G. and all his party had suffered severely from bilious and intermitting fever.

A few days subsequent to our arrival at Cape Girardeau, the greater number of those who had been of the party by land, experienced severe attacks of intermitting fever; none escaped, except Captain Bell, Mr. Peale, and Lieutenant Swift. Major Long and Captain Kearney, who had continued their journey immediately towards St. Louis, were taken ill at St. Genevieve, and the latter confined some weeks. The attack was almost simultaneous in the cases of those of the party who remained at Cape Girardeau; and it is highly probable we had all received the impression which produced the disease nearly at the same time. The interruption of accustomed habits, and the discontinuance of the excitement afforded by travelling, may have somewhat accelerated the attack. We had observed that we had felt somewhat less than the usual degree of health, since breathing the impure and offensive atmosphere of the Arkansa bottoms about Belle Point, and there we have no doubt the disease fastened upon us. In every instance, we had the opportunity of observing, the attack assumed the form of a daily intermittent. The cold stage commenced with a sensation of languor and depression, attended with almost incessant yawning, and a disinclination to motion, soon followed by shivering, and a distressing sensation of cold. These symptoms pass off gradually, and the hot stage succeeds. The degree of fever is usually somewhat proportioned to the violence of the cold fit, the respiration becomes full and frequent, the face flushed, the {182} skin moist, and the patient falls into a heavy slumber; on awaking, after some time, extreme languor and exhaustion are felt, though few symptoms of fever remain. This routine of most uncomfortable feelings, commencing at nine or ten in the morning, occupied for some time the greater part of our days. Late at evening, and during the night, we suffered less. Intermitting fevers are of such universal occurrence in every part of the newly-settled country to the west, that every person is well acquainted with the symptoms, and has some favourite method of treatment. A very common practice, and one productive of much mischief, is that of administering large draughts of whiskey and black pepper previous to the accession of the cold stage. Applications of this kind may sometimes shorten the cold fit, but the consequent fever is comparatively increased, and the disease rendered more obstinate. The Peruvian bark is much used, but often so injudiciously as to occasion great mischief.

Cape Girardeau, formerly the seat of justice for a county of the same name, is one of the oldest settlements in Upper Louisiana, having been for a long time the residence of a Spanish intendant or governor. Occupying the first considerable elevation on the western bank of the Mississippi, above the mouth of Ohio, and affording a convenient landing for boats, it promises to become a place of some little importance, as it must be the depÔt of a fertile district of country, extending from the commencement of the great swamps on the south-east to the upper branches of the St. Francis. The advantages of its situation must be considered greater than those of the settlements of Tyawapatia and New Madrid, which are not sufficiently elevated. It is at the commencement of the hilly country, extending up the Mississippi to the confluence of the Missouri, north-west of the Gasconade and Osage rivers, and south-west to the province of Texas. Two or three miles below Cape {183} Girardeau the cypress swamps commence, extending with little interruption far to the south.

The town comprises at this time about twenty log-cabins, several of them in ruins, a log-jail no longer occupied, a large unfinished brick dwelling, falling rapidly to decay, and a small one finished and occupied. It stands on the slope, and part of the summit of a broad hill, elevated about one hundred and fifty feet above the Mississippi, and having a deep primary soil resting on horizontal strata of compact and sparry limestone. Near the place where boats usually land is a point of white rocks, jutting into the Mississippi, and at a very low stage of water producing a perceptible rapid. These are of a white sparry limestone, abounding in remains of encrini and other marine animals. If traced some distance, they will be found to alternate with the common blue compact limestone, so frequently seen in secondary districts. Though the stratifications of this sparry limestone are horizontal, the rock is little divided by seams and fissures, and would undoubtedly afford a valuable marble, not unlike the Darling marble quarried on the Hudson.

The streets of Cape Girardeau are marked out with formal regularity, intersecting each other at right angles; but they are now in some parts so gullied and torn by the rains, as to be impassable; in others, overgrown with such thickets of gigantic vernonias and urticas, as to resemble small forests. The country, back of the town, is hilly, covered with heavy forests of oak, tulip-tree, and nyssa, intermixed in the vallies with the sugar-tree and the fagus sylvatica, and on the hills, with an undergrowth of the American hazel, and the shot-bush or angelica tree. Settlements are considerably advanced, and many well-cultivated farms occur in various directions.

Two or three weeks elapsed previous to Major Long's return from St. Louis; when, notwithstanding his ill health, he left Cape Girardeau immediately, as {184} did Captain Bell, both intending to prosecute, without delay, their journey to the seat of government.

About the 1st of November, Messrs. Say, Graham, and Seymour had so far recovered their health, as to venture on undertaking a voyage to New Orleans on their way home. They left Cape Girardeau in a small boat, which they exchanged at the mouth of the Ohio for a steam-boat about to descend the Mississippi. Mr. Peale, who had escaped the prevailing sickness, accompanied them, leaving only Dr. James and Lieut. Swift with the steam-boat Western Engineer at Cape Girardeau. Lieut. Swift had received instructions, as soon as the water should rise sufficiently, to proceed with the boat to the Falls of Ohio, where it was to remain during the winter.

Early in November, the frosts had been so severe at Cape Girardeau, that the leaves were fallen, and the country had assumed the aspect of winter. On the 9th, at four P.M. the shock of an earthquake was felt. The agitation was such as to cause considerable motion in the furniture and other loose articles in the room where we were sitting. Before we had time to collect our thoughts and run out of the house, it had ceased entirely; we had therefore no opportunity to form an opinion of its direction. Several others occurred in the time of our stay at the Cape, but they all happened at night, and were all of short duration. "Shakes," as these concussions are called by the inhabitants, are in this part of the country extremely frequent, and are spoken of as matters of every day occurrence.[74] Several houses in and about Cape Girardeau have formerly been shaken down, forests have been overthrown,[75] and other considerable changes produced by their {185} agency. Their effect upon the constantly varying channels and bars in the bed of the Mississippi must doubtless be very important.

These concussions are felt through a great extent of country, from the settlements on Red river and the Washita to the falls of Ohio, and from the mouth of the Missouri to New Orleans. Their great extent, and the very considerable degree of violence with which they affect not only a large portion of the valley of the Mississippi, but of the adjacent hilly and mountainous country, appear to us most clearly to indicate that they are produced by causes far more efficient and deep-seated than "the decomposition of beds of lignite or wood-coal situated near the level of the river, and filled with pyrites," according to the suggestion of Mr. Nuttall.[76] It has been repeatedly asserted, that volcanic appearances exist in the mountainous country between Cape Girardeau and the hot springs of the Washita, particularly at the latter place; but our observation has not tended to confirm these accounts; and Hunter and Dunbar, who spent some time at the hot springs, confidently deny the existence of any such appearances in that quarter. Reports have been often circulated, principally on the authority of hunters, of explosions, subterraneous fires, blowings and bellowings of the mountains, and many other singular phenomena, said to exist on the Little Missouri of Washita, and other parts of the region of the hot springs; but it is easy to see that the combustion of a coal-bed, or some other affair of equal insignificance, may have afforded all the foundation on which these reports ever rested. But though no traces of existing or of extinct volcanoes should be found in any part of the country affected by these earthquakes, it is not therefore necessary to go in search of some cause unlike those which in {186} other parts of the earth are believed to produce similar effects.

On the morning following the earthquake above mentioned, a fall of snow commenced, and continued during the day; towards evening it fell mixed with hail and rain, and covered the ground to the depth of about six inches.

The rain continued for some days, the mercury ranging from 40° to 48° and 50°, a temperature and state of weather as little grateful to an ague-shaken invalid as any weather can be. The snow which fell on the 10th remained on the ground until the 15th, when it had nearly disappeared, and a succession of bright days followed. The air was now filled with countless flocks of geese, sandhill cranes, and other migratory birds on their passage to the south. The migrations of the ardea canadensis afford one of the most beautiful instances of animal motion we can any where meet with. These birds fly at a great height, and never in a direct line, but wheeling in circles, they appear to float without effort on the surface of an aerial current, by whose eddies they are borne about in an endless series of revolutions. Though larger than a goose, they rise to so great an elevation as to appear like points, sometimes luminous, and sometimes opaque, as they happen to intercept or reflect the rays of the sun; but never so high but their shrill and incessant clamours may be heard.

While at Cape Girardeau we were induced, from motives of curiosity, to attend at the performance of some ceremonies by the negroes, over the grave of one of their friends, who had been buried a month since. They were assembled round the grave, where several hymns were sung. An exhortation was pronounced by one, who officiated as minister of the gospel, who also made a prayer for the welfare of the soul of the deceased. This ceremony, we are told, is common among the negroes in many parts of the {187} United States: the dead are buried privately, and with few marks of attention; a month afterwards the friends assemble at the grave, where they indulge their grief, and signify their sorrow for the deceased, by the performance of numerous religious rites.

On the 22d of November, having been informed the Ohio had risen several inches, Lieut. Swift determined to leave Cape Girardeau with the steam-boat on the following day. Dr. James had so far recovered as to be able to travel on horseback; and immediately set forward on the journey to the Falls of Ohio, intending to proceed by the nearest route across the interior of Illinois.

The immediate valley of the Mississippi, opposite the little village of Bainbridge, ten miles above Cape Girardeau, is four miles wide, and exclusive of the river, which washes the bluffs along the western side. Upwards, it expands into the broad fertile and anciently populous valley, called the American bottom; on the east, it is bounded by abrupt hills of a deep argillaceous loam, disclosing no rocks, and rather infertile, bearing forests of oak, sweet gum, tupelo, &c. The road crossing the hilly country between the Mississippi and the village of Golconda on the Ohio passes several precocious little towns, which appear, as is often the case in a recently settled country, to have outgrown their permanent resources. The lands, however, are not entirely worthless; and on some of the upper branches of the Cache, a river of the Ohio, we passed some fertile bottoms, though they are not entirely exempt from inundation at the periodical floods. The compact limestone about Golconda, near the sources of Grand Pierre creek, and near Covedown rock, contains beautiful crystals of Derbyshire spar; sulphuret of lead also occurs in that vicinity, as we have been informed, in veins accompanying the fluate of lime.[77]

On arriving at Golconda, Dr. James had become so much indisposed, by a recurrence of fever and {188} ague, as to be unable to proceed. This circumstance, with others, induced Lieut. Swift to leave the steam-boat, for the winter, at the mouth of Cumberland river. After a delay of a few days, he continued his journey towards Philadelphia on horseback.[78]

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Having thus traced the progress of the exploring party to their final separation, we shall add some discussions concerning the countries west of the Alleghany mountains, of a more general description than deemed compatible with the humble style of a diary, which we thought convenient to be retained in our narrative.

The following paper, from Major Long, comprises, moreover, the results of many observations made on various journeys previous to those detailed in the foregoing account, and in parts of the country remote from those traversed by the expedition.

[48] For the following topics mentioned in this chapter, see Nuttall's Journal, in our volume xiii: William Darby (note 181), Caddo Indians (103), Little Rock (123).—Ed.