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ORIGINAL PREFACE, i-iv

MEMOIR OF ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE, xix-cxiv

THE MISSISSIPPI VOYAGE.

ITINERARY: ST. LOUIS TO ST. PAUL, AUGUST 9TH-SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1805, 1-81

ITINERARY, CONTINUED: ST. PAUL TO LEECH LAKE, SEPTEMBER 22D, 1805-JANUARY 31ST, 1806, 82-151

ITINERARY, CONCLUDED: LEECH LAKE TO ST. LOUIS, FEBRUARY 1ST-APRIL 30TH, 1806, 152-215

WEATHER DIARY OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 216-220

CORRESPONDENCE AND CONFERENCES, 221-273

COMMERCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 274-286

GEOGRAPHY OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 287-336

ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 337-354

VOCABULARY OF MISSISSIPPIAN PLACE-NAMES, 355, 356

PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION.

To the Public:

Books of travels, journals, and voyages have become so numerous, and are so frequently impositions on the public, that the writer of the following sheets feels under an obligation to explain, in some measure, the original circumstances that led to the production of this volume. Soon after the purchase of Louisiana by an enlightened administration, measures were taken to explore the then unknown wilds of our western country--measures founded on principles of scientific pursuits, combined with a view of entering into a chain of philanthropic arrangements for ameliorating the condition of the Indians who inhabit those vast plains and deserts. His Excellency, Meriwether Lewis, then a captain of the first regiment of infantry, was selected by the President of the United States, in conjunction with Captain C. Clarke , to explore the then unknown sources of the Missouri, and I was chosen to trace the Mississippi to its source, with the objects in view contemplated by my instructions; to which I conceived my duty as a soldier should induce me to add an investigation into the views of the British traders in that quarter as to trade, and an inquiry into the limits of the territories of the United States and Great Britain. As a man of humanity and feeling, I made use of the name of my government to stop the savage warfare which had for ages been carried on by two of the most powerful nations of aborigines in North America. Why I did not execute the power vested in me by the laws of the country, to ruin the British traders and enrich myself, by seizing on the immense property of the North West Company, which I found in the acknowledged boundary of the United States, will be explained by my letter to Hugh M'Gillis, Esq., to whom I own eternal gratitude for his polite and hospitable treatment of myself and party.

In the execution of this voyage I had no gentleman to aid me, and I literally performed the duties of astronomer, surveyor, commanding officer, clerk, spy, guide, and hunter; frequently preceding the party for miles in order to reconnoiter, and returning in the evening, hungry and fatigued, to sit down in the open air, by firelight, to copy the notes and plot the courses of the day.

On my return from the Mississippi voyage, preparations were making for a second, which was to be conducted by another gentleman of the army; but General Wilkinson solicited as a favor that which he had a right to command, viz., that I would agree to take charge of the expedition. The late dangers and hardships I had undergone, together with the idea of again leaving my family in a strange country, distant from their connections, made me hesitate; but the ambition of a soldier, and the spirit of enterprise which was inherent in my breast, induced me to agree to his proposition. The great objects in view by this expedition, as I conceived in addition to my instructions, were to attach the Indians to our government, and to acquire such geographical knowledge of the southwestern boundary of Louisiana as to enable our government to enter into a definitive arrangement for a line of demarkation between that territory and North Mexico.

In this expedition I had the assistance of Lieutenant James Wilkinson, and also of Dr. John H. Robinson, a young gentleman of science and enterprise, who volunteered his services. I also was fitted out with a complete set of astronomical and mathematical instruments, which enabled me to ascertain the geographical situation of various places to a degree of exactitude that would have been extremely gratifying to all lovers of science, had I not been so unfortunate as to lose the greater part of my papers by the seizure of the Spanish government.

With respect to the great acquisitions which might have been made to the sciences of botany and zo?logy, I can only observe that neither my education nor taste led me to the pursuit; and if they had, my mind was too much engrossed in making arrangements for our subsistence and safety to give time to scrutinize the productions of the countries over which we traveled, with the eye of a Linnaeus or Buffon; yet Dr. Robinson did make some observations on those subjects, which he has not yet communicated. With respect to the Spanish part, it has been suggested to me by some respected friends that the picture I drew of the manners, morals, etc., of individuals generally of New Spain, if a good likeness, was certainly not making a proper return for the hospitality and kindness with which those people honored me. Those reasons have induced me to omit many transactions, and draw a veil over various habits and customs which might appear in an unfavorable point of view, at the same time that I have dwelt with delight on their virtues.

There have not been wanting persons of various ranks who have endeavored to infuse the idea into the minds of the public that the last voyage was undertaken through some sinister designs of General Wilkinson; and although this report has been amply refuted by two letters from the Secretary of War, published with this work, yet I cannot forbear, in this public manner, declaring the insinuation to be a groundless calumny, arising from the envenomed breasts of persons who, through enmity to the general, would, in attempting his ruin, hurl destruction on all those who, either through their official stations or habits of friendship, ever had any connection with that gentleman.

As a military man--as a soldier from the time I was able to bear arms--it cannot be expected that a production of my pen can stand the test of criticism; and I hope, by this candid appeal to the justice and indulgence of the learned, to induce them to spare their censure if they cannot award their praise.

The gentleman who prints this work knows under what a variety of disadvantages it has gone to the press. At a distance during its publication, and engaged in my professional duties, it was impossible to give to it that attention which, in order to reach its proper degree of correctness, such a work necessarily would require.

Z. M. PIKE.

FOOTNOTE:

The publisher owes it to truth, and to Colonel Pike, to state that he very much doubts whether any book ever went to press under so many disadvantages as the one now presented to the public. Some of those disadvantages must be obvious to every man who reads the work; but there are many others of a nature not sufficiently interesting for publication, yet of sufficient magnitude to retard the work, embarrass the publisher, and impose more anxiety than has fallen to his lot in the various books which he has published. It is, however, confidently believed that, notwithstanding all those circumstances, the Journal and its Appendixes will be found particularly interesting and pregnant with important information.

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.

Pike's expeditions were the first military and the second governmental explorations which were pushed to any considerable extent in our then newly acquired territory of Louisiana. The name and fame of the brilliant young soldier who impersonated the authority of the United States over all the ground between British and Spanish possessions are thus inseparably linked with those of Lewis and Clark in the beginning of our history of the Great West--a West so great that it reached from the Mississippi to the Pacific. The two movements were similar in scope and plan; both were in the nature of claiming possession of property; they were alike fruitful of permanent good results; but they differed entirely in the circumstances under which each was devised, and to a marked degree in their respective purposes. Lewis and Clark's enterprise originated with the President of the United States; and though both of the men to whom that most memorable exploration was confided were officers of the regular army, their military organization was entirely subservient to affairs of state, being simply designed to secure the most efficient discipline in the discharge of certain civilian duties. Jefferson had invested heavily in real estate; the Louisiana purchase had been made with the people's money; he naturally wished to know what sort of a bargain he had made with Napoleon; so he sent Lewis and Clark to explore the vast extent of country he had bought. While their faces were still fixed on the setting sun, which for them still dipped behind the shining snow-caps, Pike set forth on his first journey northward; while they were homeward bound from the South Sea by way of the mighty Missouri and the rugged Roche Jaune, he was pressing on his second way toward the Mexican mountains. Both his expeditions originated with the commander-in-chief of the army; both were as strictly military in method as in purpose. Pike was the simon-pure and simple soldier, who had been ordered by his general to carry our flag among British traders and Sioux, Ojibways, and other Indians of the Northwest, in the first instance; in the second place, to display that emblem of authority among the Osages, Pawnees, and Comanches, and plant that standard of the republic on the still disputed boundary of New Spain in the Southwest. All else that he accomplished was incidental to Wilkinson's main aim. How daring were Pike's exploits, these volumes testify. Their moral effect was enormous; their results proved far-reaching; and some of these are still in evidence of intrepid adventure pushed to successful issue.

If the record of Pike's expeditions be overshadowed by the history of still greater and partly prior achievement, we may remember that its luster is dimmed only in comparison with the incomparable story of Lewis and Clark. If this witness of arduous duty ardently done in the service of his country stand dumb before that startling tragedy which set the seal of sacrifice upon a devoted life, we may reflect that such a consummation of noble aspirations but capped the climax of unswerving patriotism and unwavering fidelity to lofty ideals when it transfigured the already celebrated explorer into a national hero and a popular idol. Pike's personality is not less picturesque than is his career unique; our interest in his character becomes vivid as we study its manifestations, and perhaps even outgrows that regard we may bestow upon those of his achievements which have passed into permanent history. The present volumes tell his own story, in his own way; they are autobiographical in all that relates to the principal incidents and most stirring scenes of his life, before that final catastrophe which turned the tide of international warfare. If the narrative never halted at the point of an unaccustomed pen it would not be Pike's, and it would lack a certain quality which not even a Biddle could impart to the more polished and finished history of Lewis and Clark. It now seems probable that both books will endure, side by side, so long as any interest in the beginnings of our Great West finds a place in the hearts of the people.

Pike anticipated Lewis and Clark by about four years in bringing the results of his partly simultaneous explorations before the public. Since the first appearance of his work, there has never been a time when it has not been cited by scholars as an original authority in the many matters of historical, geographical, ethnological, and related interests of which it treats. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that Pike has never been so widely or so well known as he deserves to be in his double character of traveler and author. The soldier could hardly desire greater fame than fell to the happy lot of the hero of York, victorious in death; but what of his life? Who was this General Pike before that? Who was Lieutenant or Captain Pike--where did he go exploring--what did he discover--how should we know? In searching contemporaneous records of the War of 1812 for biographical data in the preparation of the Memoir which introduces these volumes, it was always the great soldier--General Pike--whom I found, with scant recognition, if anything more than mere mention, of the still greater explorer--the youthful, the dashing and winning, the ardent and enthusiastic lieutenant, who dreamed of glory till his dream came true. The fact would seem to be that Pike's death on the field of battle, under exceptionally thrilling circumstances, obscured rather than accentuated those earlier exploits which set his title to fame in the clearest and truest light. Probably no good general would have failed in what Pike accomplished on the day of his death; but how many subalterns in their twenties have won imperishable renown by achievements in the field of exploration? One purpose I had in view in preparing a new edition of this work will have been subserved if I have succeeded in eliminating a certain popular aberration, in calculating aright the parallax of Pike as viewed from different standpoints, and in thus placing his name in proper historical perspective.

Nearly or quite all that an editor might be expected to say in his preface concerning the subject-matter of his author will be found to have been said already in one place or another in the course of the extensive and minute commentary which appears upon almost every page of the present edition. Nevertheless, so few are the persons who have any clear or coherent ideas on the subject of Pike's performances, that it will be to consult the convenience of most readers who may take up this book to give here a brief statement of his journeyings.

Pike conducted two entirely separate and distinct expeditions. One of them, in 1805-6, was from St. Louis by way of the Mississippi to the headwaters of this river, and return--for the most part by the same way he went. This round trip, which I have called the "Mississippi Voyage," forms Pt. 1 of his book. The other expedition was taken westward from St. Louis into the interior parts of the then Louisiana, to the sources of the Arkansaw river, and among the Rocky mountains of present Colorado. In so far as Pike protracted this exploration of his own volition, it forms Pt. 2 of his book, which I have designated the "Arkansaw Journey." But at one point in the course of this journey Pike was captured by the Spaniards, and conducted against his will by a roundabout way through Mexico to the then Spanish-American boundary between Texas and Louisiana. This episode, unflattering to Pike's sensibilities, if not wholly unforeseen by him, he saw fit to make the subject of Pt. 3 of his book; I have entitled it the "Mexican Tour."

The secret which underlay Pike's ostensible instructions from General Wilkinson, and the mystery which is supposed to have enshrouded his movements on this portion of his second expedition, are fully discussed in my notes, at various points in Pike's narrative or in my Memoir, where the subject obtrudes. Without going into any particulars here, it is to be said simply that Pike may have been ordered to proceed to Santa F?--or as near that capital of Spanish New Mexico as he could go with the force at his command--without being informed of whatever ulterior designs the general of the army may have entertained.

At this point the author's narrative ends abruptly, so far as any itinerary of his movements is concerned. We are not even told what became of the men who did not accompany him to Natchitoches--those who were left behind when he started from the Rio Conejos, either at that point, or in the Wet Mountain valley, or on the Arkansaw. It had been understood, and was fully expected, that they were all to follow him through Mexico under Spanish escort. It is probable that they did so, and that all were finally restored to the United States. But at the last word we have on the subject from Pike himself, eight persons were still detained in Mexico.

If the reader will now turn to p. xxxvi, he will find there and on some following pages an analysis of the original edition of Pike's work, together with an exposition of the wholly exceptional editorial difficulty of reproducing such a complicated affair in anything like good book form. The author, like many another gallant soldier, versed in the arts of war, was quite innocent of literary strategy, though capable of heading an impetuous assault upon the parts of speech. He may have acquired an impression, by no means confined to his own profession, that a book is made by putting manuscript in a printing-press and stirring it about with a composing-stick, which, like a magic wand that some kind fairy waves in an enchanted castle, will transfigure the homeliness of the pen into a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Pike seems to have labored under some such delusion in preparing his copious materials for the press, and no one appears either to have advised him in these premises or to have revised the proofs. The result was innumerable errors, both of the writing and of the printing, most of which might have been eliminated with due care.

The determination to edit Pike with the omission of nothing whatever which the work originally contained, and to preserve as far as seemed reasonably possible the shape in which it came from his own hand, involved a problem whose solution was one of no ordinary difficulty. The division of the book into three Parts was perfectly sound, and by all means to be preserved. The main departure from Pike's plan that seemed to be required was simply to bring each Appendix into direct connection with its own Part, and set it in uniform typography, as being of equal value and interest with the itinerary. Having made these transpositions, I found it an easy matter to introduce chapter-heads which should co-ordinate the whole of the contents. Each of the three itineraries could be conveniently divided into three chapters, covering as many stages of the several journeys; and in like manner it was found that the contents of each of the three Appendixes could be naturally grouped under a few heads, thus carrying out the plan of chaptering the whole book. To effect this result required no change whatever in the course of the itineraries, and in the appendicial matters involved only some few unimportant transpositions, mainly for the purpose of rearranging the official correspondence in the chronological sequence of the letters and other documents of which it consisted. But even in this small matter I have been at the pains of pointing out the position which each separate piece occupied in the original edition--perhaps with needless scrupulosity. A glance at the tables of contents of this edition will show how well or ill the remodeling has been done.

The transpositions thus effected, together with the repeatedly broken and sometimes blank pagination of the original, made it obviously impossible to indicate in this edition the former numeration of the pages. Otherwise, in editing Pike's text, I have been guided by the same principles which I applied to my recent redaction of Lewis and Clark. I do not think that any editor may feel free to rewrite his author. It would be an unwarrantable liberty to sacrifice an author's individuality upon the altar of literary style. And especially in the case of an old book--one whose intrinsic merits survive what are "the defects of its qualities," and thus cause it to reappear in a new guise--is it desirable that the reader should feel sure he is offered a genuine text. At the same time, the essentials of genuineness are different from its factitious ear-marks, and may be preserved with fidelity by an editor who, nevertheless, feels free to disregard non-essentials. Pike's is both a rare and a curious book; yet we need not venerate its abounding misprints, or burn the incense of admiration in the face of its frequently solecistic grammar, or even kowtow to its peculiar punctuation. Such things as these are assuredly among the non-essentials of a pure text, always amenable to editorial revision, and always open to the welcome attentions of a friendly printer. But for the rest, as I lately said on a similar occasion, "I have punctiliously preserved the orthography of proper names in all their variance and eccentricity; and wherever I have amplified any statement in the text, or diverted the sense of a passage by a hair's breadth, square brackets indicate the fact."

A few words may be expected in this connection upon the new matter, by the introduction of which the single volume of Pike has been extended to three volumes, thus more than doubling the original text. I have seldom, if ever, studied a work whose author seemed to me in so great need of an interpreter. Pike was not always precise in his statements of fact, and sometimes failed to convey his own meaning with entire lucidity. Much was thus left to be supplied by the imagination of the reader, or to be clarified by the exercise of his critical faculties, whether or no he were sufficiently informed in the premises to follow his author intelligently. In subjecting the text to a scrutiny, perhaps exceptionally close and rigid, I have desired in the first place to inform myself of the exact significance which the author intended his words to have, thus putting myself as nearly as possible in his place, and always, as I trust, in full sympathy with him, however diverse from his views any of my own opinions may have been. Coming to such understanding of the work in hand--one whose accomplishment is now nearly a century old--my duty seemed to be to criticise the subject-matter from the standpoint of to-day, however copious might prove to be the additional information required, or to whatever extent the resulting commentary might be protracted. This part of my work is represented by the notes with which the present edition has been freighted, and which are typographically distinguished from the main text. These notes bespeak their own variety and perhaps comprehensiveness; but of their value or interest it is not for me to express any opinion.

Aside from this main exercise of an editorial function to the best of my ability, I have been induced to add another to the several good memoirs of Pike which we already possessed--notably Whiting's and Greely's. In the preparation of this I have been able to avail myself of much hitherto unpublished documentary material and other sources of information which have not before been utilized for this purpose. Under the circumstances of its present connection this biography could be prepared with little regard to Pike as an explorer, for these volumes cover all such ground; and thus I could dwell for the most part upon other aspects of his life and character, such as those which led up to his conspicuous adventures, and especially those of the War of 1812 which closed with his death a career of military honor and renown.

At the time when Pike first appeared in print, it was the fashion to regard an index to a book rather as an elegant superfluity, or a luxury of leisurely authorship, than as the imperative obligation and absolute necessity which we now find it to be, whenever anything else than fiction or poetry becomes a candidate for public favor. Pike has never been indexed before; and many who now see how lengthy is the list of proper names of persons, places, and other things, may for the first time become aware of the extent and variety of information of which this author's work has proved to be either the prolific source or the pregnant occasion.

ELLIOTT COUES.

FOOTNOTE:

Since these words were penned Mr. Hill has made the long portage, alas! His death occurred at St. Paul, on the 15th inst.

MEMOIR OF

ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE.

BY ELLIOTT COUES.

The best Life of Pike we have had is that which was prepared by Henry Whiting and published in 1845 in Jared Sparks' Library of American Biography, vol. xv. , pp. 217-314. This excellent memoir might be now reproduced, were it not mainly occupied with the account of those expeditions to which these volumes are devoted, and thus for the most part superfluous in the present connection. It still continues to be a main source of our information concerning the events of Pike's life before and after those exploits of 1805-7 which immortalized his name, and is particularly valuable in all that relates to his closing career, as the biographer was himself a distinguished soldier and competent military critic.

But I have much new matter to offer, derived from a thorough examination of the archives of the War Department, which include many original and hitherto unpublished documents in Pike's case, from diligent search among contemporaneous records of the war of 1812-15, and from various other sources.

The Pike family resided in New Jersey for several generations. One Captain John Pike acquired his military title in Indian warfare. Zebulon Pike, the father of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, had been a captain in the Revolutionary army, and had served in the levies of 1791, when he was made a captain of infantry Mar. 5th, 1792; he was assigned to the Third sub-Legion Sept. 4th, 1792, and to the 3d Infantry Nov. 1st, 1796; he became major Mar. 21st, 1800, and was transferred to the 1st Infantry Apr. 1st, 1802; he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel July 10th, 1812, and honorably discharged June 15th, 1815. He died July 27th, 1834. His son, Zebulon Montgomery, was born at Lamberton, afterward a south part of Trenton, N. J., Jan. 5th, 1779.

During Zebulon Montgomery's childhood his parents removed to a place in Bucks Co., Pa., near the Delaware river, and thence to Easton, Pa. Whiting says that he was remembered by some of his schoolmates who were living in 1845, "as a boy of slender form, very fair complexion, gentle and retiring disposition, but of resolute spirit. Instances are mentioned in which his combative energies were put to a test, which would reflect no discredit upon his subsequent career." He had only a common school education, which appears to have been as slight in quality as it was short in duration, though he was at one time under the tuition of a Mr. Wall, a person of local repute in mathematics. He entered the army as a raw, shy country youth, of the most slender acquirements in any direction, whose main making of a man was ambition.

The records of young Pike's earliest military service are variant in some particulars not of much consequence. In one of his letters, printed beyond, p. lxv, he says that he entered the army when he was 15 years old. This would be in or about 1794, and doubtless refers to his cadetship. According to his biographer, he entered his father's company as a cadet, date not given; was commissioned as an ensign of the 2d Infantry Mar. 3d, 1799; promoted to be a first lieutenant in the same regiment Apr. 24th, 1800, and arranged to the 1st Infantry in 1802. In Heitman's Historical Register it appears that Zebulon Montgomery Pike, of New Jersey, was first appointed from New Jersey to be a second lieutenant of the 2d Infantry, Mar. 3d, 1799; was next promoted to be first lieutenant of the same regiment, Nov. 1st, 1799; and then transferred to the 1st Infantry, Apr. 1st, 1802. Whatever may have been the facts in the discrepant cases of the earlier dates, there is no uncertainty from April 1st, 1802, when the name and rank became First Lieutenant Z. M. Pike, 1st Regiment of U. S. Infantry. It was as such that this young officer was first detailed for detached service in the exploration of the Mississippi, by order of General James Wilkinson, dated from the Commanding General's headquarters at St. Louis, Mo., July 30th, 1805.

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