Read Ebook: The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike Volume 2 (of 3) To Headwaters of the Mississippi River Through Louisiana Territory and in New Spain During the Years 1805-6-7. by Coues Elliott Pike Zebulon Montgomery

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THE ARKANSAW JOURNEY.

ITINERARY: UP THE MISSOURI AND OSAGE RIVERS, AND THROUGH KANSAS TO THE PAWNEE VILLAGE ON THE REPUBLICAN RIVER, JULY 15TH-SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1806, 357-416

ITINERARY, CONTINUED: FROM THE PAWNEE VILLAGE THROUGH KANSAS AND COLORADO TO PIKE'S PEAK, OCTOBER 1ST-NOVEMBER 30TH, 1806, 417-459

ITINERARY, CONCLUDED: IN THE MOUNTAINS OF COLORADO ON HEADWATERS OF THE ARKANSAW AND RIO GRANDE, DECEMBER 1ST, 1806-FEBRUARY 26TH, 1807, 460-510

PIKE'S DISSERTATION ON LOUISIANA, 511-538

WILKINSON'S REPORT ON THE ARKANSAW, 539-561

CORRESPONDENCE, 562-594

ITINERARY, CONCLUDED: THROUGH TEXAS TO NATCHITOCHES ON THE RED RIVER OF LOUISIANA, JUNE 1ST-JULY 1ST, 1807, 690-717

OBSERVATIONS ON NEW SPAIN, 718-806

CORRESPONDENCE, 807-839

CONGRESSIONAL REPORT AND ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTS, 840-856

PIKE'S EXPEDITIONS.

ITINERARY: UP THE MISSOURI AND OSAGE RIVERS, AND THROUGH KANSAS TO THE PAWNEE VILLAGE ON THE REPUBLICAN RIVER, JULY 15TH-SEPT. 30TH, 1806.

Tuesday, July 15th, 1806. We sailed from the landing at Belle Fontaine about 3 o'clock p. m., in two boats. Our party consisted of two lieutenants, one surgeon, one sergeant, two corporals, 16 privates and one interpreter. We had also under our charge chiefs of the Osage and Pawnees, who, with a number of women and children, had been to Washington. These Indians had been redeemed from captivity among the Potowatomies, and were now to be returned to their friends at the Osage towns. The whole number of Indians amounted to 51.

We ascended the river about six miles, and encamped on the south side behind an island. This day my boat swung around twice; once when we had a tow-rope on shore, which it snapped off in an instant. The Indians did not encamp with us at night. Distance six miles.

One of our Pawnees did not arrive until late; the other had communicated his suspicions to me that the Oto, who was in company, had killed him: he acknowledged that he proposed to him to take out their baggage and return to St. Louis. The real occasion of his absence, however, was his having followed a large fresh trace up the Gasconade a considerable distance; but finding it led from the Missouri, he examined it and discovered horses to have been on it; he then left it, joined ours, and came in. This being generally the route taken by the Potowatamies, when they go to war against the Osage, it occasioned some alarm. Every morning we were awakened by the mourning of the savages, who commenced crying about daylight, and continued for the space of an hour. I made inquiry of my interpreter with respect to this, who informed me that this was a custom not only with those who had recently lost their relatives, but also with others who recalled to mind the loss of some friend, dead long since, and joined the other mourners purely from sympathy. They appeared extremely affected; tears ran down their cheeks, and they sobbed bitterly; but in a moment they dry their cheeks and cease their cries. Their songs of grief generally run thus: "My dear father exists no longer; have pity on me, O Great Spirit! you see I cry forever; dry my tears and give me comfort." The warriors' songs are thus: "Our enemies have slain my father ; he is lost to me and his family; I pray to you, O Master of Life! to preserve me until I avenge his death, and then do with me as thou pleaseth."

I then left Baroney with one boat, and proceeded with the other. We were called ashore by three young Indians, who had killed some deer; and, on putting them on board, gave them about one or two gills of whisky, which intoxicated all of them. It commenced raining about one o'clock, and continued incessantly for three hours, which obliged us to stop and encamp. One of our men, Miller, lost himself, and did not arrive until after dark. Killed five deer, one turkey, and one raccoon. Distance 14 miles.

To-day in our tour I passed over a remarkably large rattlesnake, as he lay curled up, and trod so near him as to touch him with my foot, he drawing himself up to make room for my heel. Dr. Robinson, who followed me, was on the point of treading on him, but by a spring avoided it. I then turned round and touched him with my ramrod, but he showed no disposition to bite, and appeared quite peaceable. The gratitude which I felt toward him for not having bitten me induced me to save his life. Killed four deer. River rises 13 inches. Rain continues.

Immediately after our encampment a thunder-storm came on, which blew overboard my flag-staff and a number of articles of my clothing, which were on top of the cabin, and sunk them immediately. Being much fatigued and the bank difficult of ascent, lay down in the cabin without supper and slept all night. It continued to rain. The man I left on shore arrived on the opposite bank in the night, having killed two deer, but was obliged to leave the largest behind. Finding he was not to be sent for, he concealed his gun and deer, and swam the river.

The chief then requested that Lieutenant Wilkinson and Dr. Robinson might be permitted to accompany them by land, to which I consented. Wrote a letter to Cheveux Blanche, by Lieutenant Wilkinson. When we parted, after delivering the Indians their baggage, Sans Oreille put an Indian on board to hunt, or obey any other commands I might have for him. We stopped at eleven o'clock to dry our baggage. Found our biscuit and crackers almost all ruined. Put off at half past four o'clock, and encamped at three-quarters past five o'clock. Distance 15 1/2 miles.

We to-day passed the place where the chief called Belle Oiseau, and others, were killed. The Belle Oiseau was killed by the Sacs in the year 1804, in a boat of Manuel de Liza, when on his way down to St. Louis, in order to join the first deputation of his nation who were forwarded to the seat of government by Governor Lewis. A particular relation of the event, no doubt, has been given by that gentleman. This chief had a son who accompanied me to the Pawnee nation, and whose honorable deportment, attachment to our government, amiableness of disposition, and the respect and esteem in which he was held by his compeers, entitle him to the attention of our agents to his nation.

The son-in-law spoke as follows: "I am come to give you the news of our village, which is unfortunate for us, our chief having assembled his young men and warriors and proposed to them to furnish horses, etc. They have generally refused him; but I, who am the principal man after Cheveux Blanche, will accompany you." The son: "Our young men and warriors will not take pity on my father, nor on me, nor on you, and have refused to comply with your request; but I will accompany you with two horses to carry provision for your voyage." The interpreter: "The Cheveux Blanche was ashamed to bring you this answer, but will again assemble his village and to-morrow come and give you the answer." I replied: "That I had made the demand without explanation, merely to let the Osage act agreeably to their inclination, in order that we might see what disposition they would exhibit toward us; but why do I ask of their chiefs to follow me to the Pawnees? Is it for our good, or their own? Is it not to make peace with the Kans? To put their wives and children out of danger? As to their horses which they may furnish us with, I will pay them for their hire; but it is uncertain whether I can pay them here, or give them an order on the Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis; but this I do not now wish them to be made acquainted with."

In about five miles we struck a beautiful hill, which bears south on the prairie; its elevation I suppose to be 100 feet. From its summit the view is sublime to the east and southeast. We waited on this hill to breakfast, and had to send two miles for water. Killed a deer on the rise, which was soon roasting before the fire. Here another Indian wished to return and take his horse with him; which, as we had so few, I could not allow, for he had already received a gun for the use of his horse. I told him he might return, but his horse would go to the Pawnees.

We marched, leaving the Osage trace, which we had hitherto followed, and crossed the hills to a creek that was almost dry. Descended it to the main river, where we dined . The discontented Indian came up, and put on an air of satisfaction and content.

Lieutenant Wilkinson was attacked with a severe headache and slight fever. One of my men had been attacked with a touch of the pleurisy on the 18th, and was still ill. We were informed by an Osage woman that two of the Indians were conspiring to desert us in the night and steal some of our horses, one of whom was her husband. We engaged her as our spy. Thus were we obliged to keep ourselves on our guard against our own companions and fellow-travelers--men of a nation highly favored by the United States, but whom I believe to be a faithless set of poltrons, incapable of a great and generous action. Among them, indeed, there may be some exceptions.

In the evening, finding that the two Indians above mentioned had made all preparations to depart, I sent for one of them, who owned a horse and had received a gun and other property for his hire, and told him "I knew his plans, and that if he was disposed to desert, I should take care to retain his horse; that as for himself, he might leave me if he pleased, as I only wanted men with us." He replied "that he was a man, that he always performed his promises, that he had never said he would return; but that he would follow me to the Pawnee village, which he intended to do." He then brought his baggage and put it under charge of the sentinel, and slept by my fire; but notwithstanding I had him well watched.

When we arrived within about three miles of the village, we were requested to remain, as the ceremony of receiving the Osage into the towns was to be performed here. There was a small circular spot, clear of grass, before which the Osage sat down. We were a small distance in advance of the Indians. The Pawnees then advanced within a mile of us, halted, divided into two troops, and came on each flank at full charge, making all the gestures and performing the maneuvers of a real war charge. They then encircled us around, and the chief advanced in the center and gave us his hand; his name was Caracterish. He was accompanied by his two sons and a chief by the name of Iskatappe. The Osage were still seated; but Belle Oiseau then rose, came forward with a pipe, and presented it to the chief, who took a whiff or two from it. We then proceeded; the chief, Lieutenant Wilkinson, and myself in front; my sergeant, on a white horse, next with the colors; then our horses and baggage, escorted by our men, with the Pawnees on each side, running races, etc. When we arrived on the hill over the town we were again halted, and the Osage seated in a row; when each Pawnee who intended so to do presented them with a horse and gave a pipe to smoke to the Osage to whom he had made the present. In this manner were eight horses given. Lieutenant Wilkinson then proceeded with the party to the river above the town, and encamped. I went up to our camp in the evening, having a young Pawnee with me loaded with corn for my men. Distance 12 miles. As the chief had invited us to his lodge to eat, we thought it proper for one to go. At the lodge he gave me many particulars which were interesting to us, relative to the late visit of the Spaniards.

I will attempt to give some memoranda of this expedition, which was the most important ever carried on from the province of New Mexico, and in fact the only one directed N. E. to the Pawnees--of which see a more particular account hereafter. In the year 1806 our affairs with Spain began to wear a very serious aspect, and the troops of the two governments almost came to actual hostilities on the frontiers of Texas and the Orleans territory. At this time, when matters bore every appearance of coming to a crisis, I was fitting out for my expedition from St. Louis, where some of the Spanish emissaries in that country transmitted the information to Majar. Merior and the Spanish council at that place, who immediately forwarded the information to the then commandant of Nacogdoches, Captain Sebastian Rodreriques who forwarded it to Colonel Cordero, by whom it was transmitted to the seat of government. This information was personally communicated to me, as an instance of the rapid means they possessed of transmitting information relative to the occurrences transacting on our frontiers. The expedition was then determined on, and had three objects in view:

After the chiefs had replied to various parts of my discourse, but were silent as to the flag, I again reiterated the demand for the flag, adding "that it was impossible for the nation to have two fathers; that they must either be the children of the Spaniards, or acknowledge their American father." After a silence of some time an old man rose, went to the door, took down the Spanish flag, brought it and laid it at my feet; he then received the American flag, and elevated it on the staff which had lately borne the standard of his Catholic Majesty. This gave great satisfaction to the Osage and Kans, both of whom decidedly avow themselves to be under American protection. Perceiving that every face in the council was clouded with sorrow, as if some great national calamity were about to befall them, I took up the contested colors, and told them "that as they had shown themselves dutiful children in acknowledging their great American father, I did not wish to embarrass them with the Spaniards, for it was the wish of the Americans that their red brethren should remain peaceably around their own fires, and not embroil themselves in any disputes between the white people; and that for fear the Spaniards might return there in force again, I returned them their flag, but with an injunction that it should never be hoisted again during our stay." At this there was a general shout of applause, and the charge was particularly attended to.

FOOTNOTES:

Belle Fontaine or Bellefontaine is the name of the large cemetery in the environs of St. Louis, where William Clark lies buried; and probably few persons now living know its proper geographical connotation. The cemetery is four miles from the Court House, and ten miles further is the place whose name was given to the burying-ground on the road thither, after its original designation as the Rural Cemetery. Belle Fontaine was a place on the south bank of the river, 14 m. north of St. Louis, in what is now St. Ferdinand township of St. Louis Co. . Before there was any such "place," or locality, Belle Fontaine was the French name of the creek which falls in there, which had been called Ferdinand by the Spanish, and which became known to the English as Cold Water creek, there being a fine large spring under the bluffs, close to the Missouri. This, however, was washed away by the encroachment of the river. We find the latter name in Lewis and Clark, who made the first camp of their expedition on Green isl., opposite the mouth of the creek, May 14th, 1804. There was nothing then at the place that was soon to become forever notable as the spot where was built the first military post ever established in the newly acquired territory of Louisiana. Much early history attaches to the locality, some of which may be here epitomized, mainly on the basis of Billon's Annals. In 1768, when St. Louis was but begun, Captain Rios arrived with 25 soldiers under orders from Count Ulloa to establish Spanish authority in the region where things were at a standstill, if not in distraction. Rios was persona non grata in the infant St. Louis; he withdrew, and selected Belle Fontaine as a suitable location for a post. Late in 1768 he there built a fort which he called Fort Prince Charles in honor of the son of his king and heir apparent to the Spanish throne. In 1769 Rios left with his men; in 1770 Piernas came. The Spanish presidio was soon turned into a commercial factory or trading-post. On Sept. 10th, 1797, Governor Zenon Trudeau granted to Hezekiah Lord a concession of 1,000 arpents of land on Belle Fontaine or Cold Water cr.; and on the site of the former Spanish fort Lord built a house and mill. He died in 1799; his estate was sold in partition in 1803, when 600 arpents were bought by William Massey. In 1805, General James Wilkinson selected the place for a military establishment, and United States troops were first cantoned in temporary quarters during the winter of 1805-6. This was the original Cantonment Belle Fontaine. On April 20th, 1806, General Wilkinson purchased from Massey, on behalf of the United States, five acres of ground with the improvements, called Belle Fontaine, with the use for five years of the ground on which had been located the cantonment, and upon these five acres established a permanent post. In July, 1806, he purchased the rest of the tract of 500 arpents, which was conveyed to the United States in Mar., 1809. Belle Fontaine was really the parent of Jefferson Barracks; for, after the establishment of Forts Atkinson, Snelling, and others on the Missouri and Mississippi frontiers, it lost its importance from a military point of view, and was abandoned for the site of the present Jefferson Barracks. This in 1825; on July 4th of which year Colonel Talbot Chambers, with four companies of the 1st United States Infantry, evacuated Belle Fontaine and proceeded to the new site which had been selected, though the place remained for some ten years in charge of a military storekeeper, Major John Whistler. General Lewis Cass, Secretary of War under Van Buren, ordered it to be sold at public auction in 1836. It was bought by Jamison Samuel, Dunham Spalding, H. N. Davis, and E. L. Langham, who laid out a paper town that never came to anything. Agriculture finally reclaimed Belle Fontaine after the military occupancy; it was bought for a farm by the late Dr. David C. Tandy of St. Louis, whose son, Robert E. Tandy, now or lately did live there. The old road can still be traced in part over ground where it ran more than a century ago.

The roster of the party, with some of the most notable particulars, is as follows:

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS .

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS .

PRIVATES .

CIVILIANS .

Of these persons--

Lieutenant Wilkinson, Sergeant Ballenger, and Privates Boley, Bradley, Huddleston, and Wilson descended the Arkansaw and reached New Orleans in February, 1807.

Private Kennerman deserted.

Dr. Robinson left Captain Pike at the post on Conejos r., and went to Mexico on his own account.

Captain Pike, Sergeant Meek, Corporal Jackson, Privates Brown, Carter, Dougherty, Gorden, Menaugh, Miller, Mountjoy, Roy, Smith, Sparks, Stoute, and Interpreter Vasquez were escorted in separated parties to Mexico by Spanish dragoons. Of whom--

Captain Pike, Privates Brown, Gorden, Menaugh, Roy, and Stoute were escorted back to the United States, and reached Nachitoches on or about July 1st, 1807; while--

Sergeant Meek, Corporal Jackson, Privates Carter, Dougherty, Miller, Mountjoy, Smith, and Sparks, and Interpreter Vasquez, were still detained in Mexico at the time of Pike's return, and are not accounted for in his narrative.

The 51 Indians, which raised to 74 the total of persons who left Belle Fontaine, were all dropped at their respective destinations, and no others were permanently attached to the party which reached the Rocky mts.

Past present Jamestown ldg. to Carbunker's pt., off which the large Pelican isl. now separates Car of Commerce bend from Pelican bend.

See L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 6, and Pike's Dissertation, etc., beyond. The village was then the seat of justice of the District of St. Charles, Louisiana Territory, as it is now of St. Charles Co., Mo. The Wabash, St. L. and Pac. R. R. bridged the Mo. r. here; opposite is Bon Fils station; also Brotherton. St. Charles was not so called till 1784; the place had been known as Les Petites C?tes, where the hunter Blanchette settled about 1770: note 41, p. 214. In to-day's journey Pike passed the place known as Piper's ldg.: see the mark "Ferry" on his map. The principal point was the coal hill on the south, then known as La Charbonni?re, now Charbonnier pt. A present or recent place of ferriage is Music's or Hall's; some of the landings are Heagler's, Kemp's, and Orick's or Orrick's; some of the present islands above the Pelicans are Charbonnier or Mullanphy, Holmes, and Vingt-une. There was a marsh or lake on the N. side, 5 or 6 m. below St. Charles, which the French called Marais Croche, Crooked marsh; some maps now make it Marie Croche l.

M. de Lisa was one of the most noted Missourian Indian traders in those days. This is certainly not the last, and probably not the first, time he played exactly that trick. Pike has a good deal to say of him further on: see also L. and C., pp. lxxix, 62, 242, 256, 443, 1153, 1154, 1232, where my notes refer to further information in Brackenridge's Travels and Irving's Astoria. Lisa was at one time associated with Captain Clark in the fur-trade.

One of the two letters Pike wrote to Wilkinson formed No. 3 of the App. to Pt. 2 of the orig. ed. See beyond, where it is given.

See L. and C., ed. 1893, pp. 2, 8, 1182, 1211; also, p. 1257, where Charette's cr. and village are given, showing this to be a personal name. We come to the place presently.

This letter formed No. 4 of the App. to Pt. 2 of the orig. ed. It is given beyond.

This mileage would set Pike about Cottleville ldg., on the N., though I hardly think he got quite so far. He passed Fee Fee and Cr?vecoeur creeks on the S., latter discharging from Cr?vecoeur l.; Little Duckett and Big Duckett creeks, near together, on the N.; Catfish isl., behind which is Howard bend, into which Bon Homme or Good Man's r. falls, about opposite the middle of Green's bottom, N., 3 1/2 m. long, separated by Green's chute from Bon Homme isl., next above which comes Bacon's or Post's isl., and then Cottleville ldg. If Pike reached this place, he was 44 m. from the mouth of the Missouri, according to recent charts.

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