Chapter III (4)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

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

FOOTNOTES:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[117] _Cupressus disticha._--NUTTALL.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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