Chapter III (1)

Departure from Shippingsport--Velocity of the
current--Troy--Owensville--Indigence of the
hunting emigrants--Mounds--Evansville--The Diamond
island--Shawneetown--Grandeur of the river and the uncultivated
state of the surrounding country--Fort Massac--Arrival at the
mouth of the Ohio--Delayed by the ice of the Mississippi--A
visit from the Delaware and Shawnee Indians--Observations on
their mutual jealousy and improvidence.

On the 7th, towards evening, I left Shippingsport in the flat-boat which I had purchased, accompanied by an elderly gentleman and his son, who intended to proceed to New Orleans. The river had now taken a sudden and favourable rise of eight or ten feet perpendicular. We floated all night, keeping an alternate watch, and before the expiration of 24 hours, on the 8th, the current alone had carried us without labour near 80 miles! We accompanied another vessel of the same kind, and, for mutual convenience, our boats, according to custom, were lashed together side by side, thus also facilitating our progress by obtaining a greater scope of the current.

9th.] We continued at the same rate, floating along without any labour, except that of occasionally rowing out from the shore, or avoiding submerged trunks of trees, called snags or sawyers, as they are either stationary or moveable with the action of the current; by the French they are called _chicos_. In the night {38} we passed the town of _Troy_, an insignificant handful of log-cabins, dignified by this venerable name; here we stopped a few minutes to unload some salt, which, in consequence of the scarcity, incident to the low stage of water, sold at four dollars per bushel. Nearly all the salt which supplies this country descends the Kanhaway.

On the 10th we arrived at Owensville,[42] more commonly called Yellow Banks, from the ochraceous appearance of the argillaceous friable bank of the river. This is another insignificant cluster of log-cabins, and the seat of a county. Flour sold here at 10 dollars per barrel. In consequence of the want of mills, they depend altogether on the upper country for their supplies of this important article. Mills are much wanted, and, in order even to obtain corn-meal, every one has to invent something of the kind for himself. At this place the store-keepers were busily collecting pork for the market of New Orleans, at the rate of five dollars per hundred, in exchange for dry-goods and groceries. No other produce appeared in this place. No orchards are yet planted, and apples were worth one dollar and a half the bushel.

We floated as usual till towards midnight, but the north-west wind arising, at length put a stop to our progress. Having proceeded about 18 miles below Owensville, we endeavoured to land on the Kentucky side, but, in the attempt, ran an imminent risk of grounding on an extensive bar; with considerable labour we rowed our unmanageable flat to the opposite shore, where we found deep water, and a good harbour from the wind.

11th.] About day-break we were accosted by a backwoods neighbour, anxious for a dram of whiskey, which we had foreseen and provided for. We were detained all day by the wind, and the hunters went out in quest of turkeys. The improvidence of these hunting farmers, is truly remarkable: annually {39} mortgaging their produce for the meanest luxuries of civilized life; still destitute of flour, of the produce of the orchard, of country spirits, and, indeed, of coffee and sugar for a great part of the year; at the same time, that they might become independent, with even moderate industry.

Potatoes are very indifferent in this country, but pulse and all kinds of grain excellent and productive.

Here, at Mountplace [43] as it is called, there are two or three Indian mounds, upon one of which our visitor had built his house, and in digging had discovered abundance of human bones, as well as several stone pipes, and fragments of earthen ware.

12th.] About 9 o’clock, we pushed out and proceeded. Towards evening, 15 miles from Hendersonville,[44] in Indiana, we passed a small town called Evansville,[45] apparently a county seat, by the appearance of a court house. We continued to float throughout the night, which was very fine and moonlight, but cold, the thermometer being down at 20°. We passed Henderson in the night, and, about 5 o’clock in the morning of the 13th, came in sight of the large and beautiful broad island, called the Diamond, with the river, on either side of it, apparently a mile in breadth. At two intervals of 10 miles each, we had passed two other islands, and about one o’clock, found ourselves carried by good fortune, and at an easy rate, opposite to the Wabash[46] and its island, which mark the commencement of the territory of Illinois.

From Owensville, cane begins to be tall and abundant. The prospect of an approaching storm caused us to come to shore at an early hour, where we remained for the night, having our boat tied to a stout branch or stem of the _Borya acuminata_,[47] which grows here in abundance, and is nearly as thorny as a {40} sloe bush, sending up many straight stems from the same root.

14th.] We rode over to Shawneetown,[48] a handful of log cabins, with some of them shingled, commanding an agreeable view of the river, but not situated beyond the reach of occasional inundation. I learned, on inquiry, that Mr. Birkbeck’s settlement[49] was not so unhealthy as had been reported, and that it was continually receiving accessions of foreigners. After floating some distance, we came up with three other flat boats, and lashing to them proceeded all night. The river is here very wide and magnificent, and checquered with many islands. The banks at Battery Rock, Rock in the Cave,[50] and other places, are bold and rocky, with bordering cliffs. The occidental wilderness appears here to retain its primeval solitude; its gloomy forests are yet unbroken by the hand of man, they are only penetrated by the wandering hunter, and the roaming savage.

15th and 16th.] Got down below Fort Massac,[51] and remained ashore most part of the night, being detained by the wind. On the night and morning of the 15th, the thermometer fell to 10°. In a cypress swamp, near to the shore, grew the _Gleditsia monosperma_ and the _Cephalanthus_, with pubescent leaves and branchlets, which grows in Georgia and Louisiana, also the _Asclepias parviflora_.

17th.] Between 2 and 3 o’clock in the afternoon, we arrived at the mouth of the Ohio, and were considerably mortified on perceiving the Mississippi to be full of floating ice. Governed by the conduct of the boats which we had for three days accompanied, we came to on the Kentucky shore, and remained in company with several other boats, this and the whole of the following day.

The summit of the bank, at the foot of which we had landed, was surmounted by an almost impenetrable and sempervirent cane brake; we measured several {41} canes upwards of 30 feet in height. These wilds afford but little gratification to the botanist, their extreme darkness excluding the existence of nearly every herbaceous plant. Among the trees, we still continue to observe the coffee bean (_Gymnocladus canadensis_), now loaded with legumes, the seeds of which, when parched, are agreeable to eat, but produce a substitute for coffee greatly inferior to the _Cichorium_.

The whole country here, on both sides of the Mississippi and the Ohio, remains uninhabited in consequence of inundation, and abounds with various kinds of game, but particularly deer and bear, turkeys, geese, and swans, with hosts of other aquatic fowls; though, with the exception of the white pelican, they are such as commonly exist in many other parts of the Union.

While amusing ourselves on the 17th, we were visited by a couple of the Delaware Indians, and shortly after by a hunting party of Shawnees,[52] who reside some miles west of St. Louis. I invited one of them into our cabin, and prevailed upon him to take supper, with which he appeared to be well satisfied and grateful. On the following day, a number of the Shawnees came with our evening guest, and desired to purchase gun-powder. They behaved with civility, and almost refused to taste of spirits, but their reluctance was at length overcome by some of our neighbours, and the night was passed at their camp with yells and riot. Although the Delawares and Shawnees are proximately allied to each other, yet we perceive the existence of that jealousy among them, which has ever been so fatal to the interest of the aborigines, from the conquest of Cortes to the present moment. The Delawares cautioned me against the Shawnees, among whom they were continually hunting, and stigmatized them as rogues; I found them, however, all equally honest in their dealings, as far as I had any intercourse with them; still the history {42} of the Shawnees, on many occasions, has long proved the truth of the character which is given of them by the Delawares. Scarcely any of the Indian tribes have migrated so often and so far, as the restless and intriguing Shawnees; who, since their first discovery on the banks of the Savannah, in Georgia, have, in the space of a century, successively migrated through the western states to the further bank of the Mississippi. Ever flying from the hateful circle of civilized society, which, probably in their own defence, they have repeatedly scourged, so as, indeed, to endanger their safety; averse to agriculture and systematic labour, they still depend upon the precarious bounty of the chase for their rude subsistence. Retreating into the forests of the western interior, according to their own acknowledgment destitute of lands, they are reduced to the misery of craving the favour of hunting ground from the Cherokees and Osages,[53] excepting the uninhabitable wilds of the Mississippi, which, as in former times, still continue the common range of every tribe of native hunters.

These Indians possess the same symbolical or pantomimic language, as that which is employed by most of the nations with which I have become acquainted. It appears to be a compact invented by necessity, which gives that facility to communication denied to oral speech.

FOOTNOTES:

[42] Now Owensborough, seat of Daviess County, Kentucky. The original name of the place was Rossborough, but it was rechristened in honor of Abraham Owen, who fell at Tippecanoe. The shore from which the name Yellow Banks was derived, is from twelve to twenty feet in height. The undermining of these banks by the river frequently engulfs trees, and sometimes even drives people from their dwellings.-ED.

[43] Mountplace is not shown on modern maps. From the distances given by Nuttall, the site must be quite near Newburg, Indiana, opposite Scuffletown, Kentucky.-ED.

[44] Nuttall must mean Henderson, Kentucky, the words “in Indiana” referring to the location of Evansville, about twelve miles above. Henderson, incorporated in 1810, is the seat of Henderson County, and was at this time Audubon’s residence; it was in 1818 that the botanist Rafinesque visited him there. See note 175, in Cuming’s _Tour_, volume iv of our series.-ED.

[45] Evansville, the seat of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, was named for General Robert M. Evans, of Gibson County, Indiana. It was founded (1814) on ground donated by Hugh McGary, famous as a Kentucky pioneer, who had for several years possessed lands in this region. McGary was one of the leaders in the disastrous Battle of the Blue Licks. See Cuming’s _Tour_ in our volume iv, note 120.-ED.

[46] For sketch of Wabash River, see Croghan’s _Journals_, in our
volume i, note 107.-ED.

[47] Now _Forestiera acuminata_.--NUTTALL.

[48] For sketch of the site of Shawneetown, see Croghan’s _Journals_,
volume i of our series, note 108.--ED.

[49] On Birkbeck, see various references in our volume x.--ED.

[50] Rock-in-the-cave (Cave-in-Rock). See Cuming’s _Tour_, in our
volume iv, note 180.--ED.

[51] For sketch of Fort Massac, see André Michaux’s _Travels_, volume
iii of our series, note 139.--ED.

[52] On the Shawnee, see Weiser’s _Journal_, in our volume i, note
13.--ED.

[53] See _ibid._, note 33, for the Cherokee; for the Osage, see
Bradbury’s _Travels_, our volume v, notes 22, 107.--ED.

{43} CHAPTER IV

Embark amidst the ice of the Mississippi--Run aground on
Wolf’s island in attempting to land--relieved from this
situation--but find ourselves again involved in it, and are
imposed upon by the extortion of a neighbouring voyager--Pass
the Iron banks--Cypress--Solitude of the country--New
Madrid--Oscillations of the earth still frequent--Point
Pleasant--Vestiges of the great earthquake--The Little
Prairie settlement almost destroyed by it--The Canadian
reach--A dangerous and difficult pass of the river--The
first Chicasaw Bluffs--Additional danger and uncertainty of
the navigation--Stratification of the Bluff--A dangerous
accident--The second Chicasaw Bluffs--Observations on their
stratification.

19th.] This morning, after breakfast, our more than usually timid neighbours and ourselves ventured into the floating ice of the Mississippi, which we soon found to be less formidable than we had imagined, though still not without some danger of drifting imperceptibly or unavoidably upon some sunken tree, of which there are no small abundance throughout the bed of the Mississippi. Carried upon these by the rapid current, our boats might be staved or entirely overturned, accidents which not infrequently happen to those who give way to negligence or incaution.

About half an hour before sun-set, our company came to alongside a breaking sand-bar, where lay also two other boats; governed by their example we attempted to land, but floated by the current to a distance below, and here, unfortunately, attempting to make a landing, and trusting too confidently to the lightness of our boat, we were instantly carried upon a shallow and miry bar. I was sensible of the dilemma {44} into which we had fallen, and lost no time to plunge into the water, though at the point of freezing, attempting, but in vain, to float off the boat by a lever. The effort was beyond my strength, and after remaining in the water nearly an hour, I had reluctantly to submit to our situation. At length, two boatmen offered their assistance, for the consideration of five dollars, with which I complied, and in a few moments we again floated. They took us in the dark about 100 yards further down, and there made a landing. I still felt suspicious of our situation, notwithstanding their assurances of safety: and at day-light, we found ourselves (in consequence of the rapid falling of the river) as far as ever grounded upon the bar; to obviate which, all our strength and ingenuity availed nothing. The boatmen also, who had assisted us the preceding night, and put us off our guard by false assurances, now passed us with indifference, and denied us the assistance which they had promised. We immediately commenced unloading, and had proceeded pretty far in our labour, when we were visited by the owner of a neighbouring boat, who, pretending to commiserate our situation, offered to assist us gratuitously; and hearing how we had been cheated out of five dollars, expressed his dislike at any boatman having acted with such want of fellow-feeling. We had scarcely time to breakfast, before our yankees arrived with two skiffs; and one of them now assured us that we should never be able to get off until the rise of the river; though, as appeared in the sequel, merely with the friendly view of putting a good price upon his services. The other, instead of the gratuitous assistance which he had offered, made a tender of his services at three dollars. At length, like genuine Arabs, they demanded the value of eight dollars, with which I was reluctantly obliged to comply. After about ten minutes further unloading, a lever placed under the bow, set us readily afloat {45} in one minute; so much had these kind gentlemen deceived us, as to our real situation. They now also refused to fulfil the bargain of assisting us to reload, until brought to some sense of duty by remonstrance.--I shall not indeed soon forget Wolf’s island, and its harbour of sharpers.

20th.] The day was far advanced when we got off, and after floating 10 miles we moored for the night, taking care to have deep water.

The land appears low and uninhabited on every side, except at the Iron-banks[54] (called Mine au Fer by the French) we passed yesterday, and which are cliffs of friable and argillaceous earth, the upper bed being ferruginous, beneath which occurs a very conspicuously-coloured band of pink clay about 12 inches thick, and below are white beds of the same material, improperly considered chalk.

The Cyprus (_Cupressus disticha_) which continues some distance along the Ohio above its estuary, is here much more common, and always indicates the presence of annual inundation and consequent swamps and lagoons, but we do not yet meet with the long moss (_Tillandsia usneoides_), a plant so characteristic of the prevalence of unhealthy humidity in the atmosphere.

21st.] We commenced our voyage at the dawn of day, and continued to float along without interruption. The river here appears truly magnificent, though generally bordered by the most gloomy solitudes, in which there are now no visible traces of the abode of man. It is indeed a sublime contrast to the busy hum of a city, and not altogether destitute of interest. In the course of the day we passed a number of capacious islands, but all as they ever were from their creation, and most of them even without names, the property of any one who will assume the possession; but they are in general, I suspect, annually submerged by inundation.

{46} This evening we were 10 miles above New Madrid, and moored opposite to one of the islands which had been convulsed by the earthquake of 1811.

22d.] We commenced our voyage early, and arrived before noon at New Madrid.[55] We found both sides of the river unusually lined with sunken logs, some stationary and others in motion, and we narrowly avoided several of considerable magnitude.

New Madrid is an insignificant French hamlet, containing little more than about 20 log houses and stores miserably supplied, the goods of which are retailed at exorbitant prices: for example, 18 cents per pound for lead, which costs seven cents at Herculaneum; salt five dollars per bushel; sugar 31¼ cents per pound; whiskey one dollar 25 cents per gallon; apples 25 cents per dozen; corn 50 cents per bushel; fresh butter 37½ cents per pound; eggs the same per dozen; pork six dollars per hundred; beef five dollars. Still the neighbouring land appears to be of a good quality, but people have been discouraged from settling in consequence of the earthquakes, which, besides the memorable one of 1811, are very frequently experienced, two or three oscillations being sometimes felt in a day. The United States, in order to compensate those who suffered in their property by the catastrophe, granted to the settlers an equivalent of land in other parts of the Territory.

The site of the town, as we learn from La Vega, the historian of Soto, bears unequivocal marks of an aboriginal station; still presenting the remains of some low mounds, which, as usual, abound with fragments of earthen ware.[56]

23d.] We proceeded about six miles, and came to at another small French hamlet called Point Pleasant. {47} Here I saw the Catalpa (_Catalpa cordifolia_) in the forests, apparently indigenous, for the first time in my life, though still contiguous to habitations.

This place and several islands below were greatly convulsed by the earthquake, and have in consequence been abandoned. I was shown a considerable chasm still far from being filled up, from whence the water of the river, as they say, rushed in an elevated column. The land is here of a superior quality, but flat, and no high grounds have made their appearance since we passed the Iron-Banks, no rock is any where to be seen; the banks of the river are deep and friable; islands and sand-bars, at this stage of the river connected with the land, are almost innumerable. In the midst of so much plenty provided by nature, the Canadian squatters[57] are here, as elsewhere, in miserable circumstances. They raise no wheat, and scarcely enough of maize for their support. Superfine flour sold here at 11 dollars per barrel.

The dresses of the men consist of blanket capeaus, buckskin pantaloons, and mockasins.

25th.] Christmas-day. We left Point Pleasant,[58] and floated along without encountering any material obstacle, except glancing against an enormous moving log (or sawyer), which for the moment threw us into terror. Indeed the submerged trees become more and more numerous.

In the evening we arrived at the remains of the settlement called the Little Prairie, where there is now only a single house, all the rest, together with their foundations, having been swept away by the river, soon after the convulsion of the earthquake, in consequence (as the inhabitants say, and as they also affirm in New Madrid) of the land having sunk 10 feet or more below its former level.[59]

{48} 26th.] After continuing about 10 miles below the Little Prairie, we were detained for the remainder of the day by the commencement of a storm, which towards evening increased to violence, and continued so throughout the night. I felt under some apprehension that we should break our cable, and so be cast away upon some of the many snags and sawyers which obstruct the river.

27th.] Towards noon, the north-west wind moderating, we continued as usual, and proceeded about 12 miles through a portion of the river filled with islands and trunks of trees. No habitations whatever appeared since we left the Little Prairie.

28th.] Proceeded a few miles, to the head of the 25th island, as marked in the Pittsburgh Navigator,[60] and remained about four hours, waiting the abatement of the wind, which did not permit us to proceed in safety. Our company did not appear inclined to advance towards the Canadian reach until the following morning; but not wishing to spend any time unnecessarily, we continued about five miles further.

29th.] Proceeding at day-break, we looked with apprehension for the dangers described by the Navigator, but passed along with so little difficulty as almost to doubt our actual situation. A few miles below, however, we observed the river contracted within a narrow space by a spreading sand-bar (or island), and planted almost across with large and dangerous trunks, some with the tops, and others with the roots uppermost, in a perpendicular posture. The water broke upon them with a noise which I had heard distinctly for two miles, like the cascade of a mill-race, in consequence of the velocity of the current; with all our caution to avoid them, the boat grazed on one, which was almost entirely submerged, and we received a terrific jar. All day we had experienced uninterrupted rain, but it was now pouring down in torrents. About two o’clock in the afternoon, as soon {49} as the fog had cleared away, we perceived ourselves again moving towards the field of danger. I counted, in the space of a minute, about 100 huge trees fixed in all postures, nearly across the whole river, so as scarcely to leave room for a passage. We proceeded towards a bank of willows on the Louisiana side, thinking to land for the night, in consequence of the unremitting and drenching rain, but found it impracticable, by reason of the rapid current. At length we descended to water which had the appearance of an eddy, and here I was strongly urged to land, in which attempt the boat would, in all probability, have been sunk amidst a host of snags and half-concealed trunks which lined the shore. With all our exertions in rowing off, we but narrowly escaped from being drawn into the impassable channel of a sand island which spread out into the river, presenting a portion of water resembling a sunken forest. The only course which we had left appeared no less a labyrinth of danger, so horribly filled with black and gigantic trunks of trees, along which the current foamed with terrific velocity--Scylla on one hand, and more than one Charybdis on the other. Fortunately, however, our voyage was not destined to end here, and, after an hour’s drenching amidst torrents of rain, we at length obtained a landing place about 10 miles above the first Chicasaw Bluffs.[61] On the point of one of these bars at Flour island, we observed the wreck of two large flat boats which we supposed might have been lost during the earthquake. Nothing still appeared on every hand but houseless solitude, and gloomy silence, the inundation precluding the possibility of settlement.

30th.] We proceeded as soon as the dense fog this morning would permit, but could not ascertain our situation any longer by the vague trifling of the Navigator,{50} and after proceeding some distance at the beck of the current, came in sight of Flour island. Here the Navigator says, “the channel is on the right side, but some prefer the left,” but the very sight of the right-hand channel was to me sufficient, and finding the main body of the river carrying us to the left, I felt satisfied to go farther round rather than venture through such a horrid pass, which indeed resembled a submerged forest, and through which no flat boat, I should suppose, could ever proceed with safety, however deep might be the water. That we had got a passable channel to the left, I was fully satisfied on perceiving the intersection of the first Chicasaw Bluffs or hills, all the high lands of the Mississippi being uniformly washed at their base by a deep and rapid current. Here we landed for a few moments, to survey those hills, the only ones we had seen since leaving the Iron banks. The ascent was steep, and the elevation between 2 and 300 feet above the level of the river. These banks appeared to consist of a stratified, ferruginous, and bluish sandy clay, probably a disintegrated sandstone, which it perfectly resembled to the eye, though altogether friable to the touch. In some places, lower down the river, we observed masses of ferruginous conglomerate blackened by the atmosphere, the pebbles chiefly hornstone, and some of them quartz. The _debris_ of which this conglomerate consists is entirely adventitious, or unconnected with the existing rocks, which form the basis of this ancient deposit.

At this place, we saw the first cabin since our departure from the Little Prairie. On approaching the 34th island from the mouth of the Ohio, which presents itself rounding, and nearly in the middle of the river, we had at first determined to take the left-hand side, set down by the Navigator as the channel, but finding ourselves to float very slowly, we rowed a little, and then submitted to the current. It was soon {51} observable, that we drifted towards the right-hand channel, though much the narrowest, and my companion advised that we should keep the left, especially as it was the nearest, and as the wind accompanied by rain blew strongly up the river. However, on finding still that the current drew to the right, even against the wind, and having arrived at the commencement of the bar of the island, I determined, at all events, to keep to the right. At length, after considerable labour, we landed at a neighbouring cabin, and were informed that the left channel had not in places more than 12 inches of water, being nearly dry, and almost destitute of current. Here, again, we made a fortunate escape. We also learnt, that not more than two days ago, a flat boat was sunk by the snags, which filled the right-hand channel of Flour island.

At this place, we met with two or three families of hunters, with whom were living some individuals of the Shawnees and Delawares. They had lately caught an unusual abundance of beaver in the neighbourhood, and were anxious to barter it for whiskey, though scarcely possessed either of bread or vegetables. Amongst their furs, I also saw a few skins of the musk-rat, (_Arctomys monax_, L.) which are never met with further to the south.

31st.] We continued our voyage as usual at daylight, and floating with a brisk current down the right side of the 34th island, had nearly cleared ourselves of a host of snags and sawyers, when at last, puzzled on which side of one of these terrific objects to steer, we unfortunately struck it with considerable force, and the young man who accompanied us (the son of Mr. G.), an amiable youth of 16, was precipitated headlong into the river, together with the steering oar, which was suddenly jerked off by the snag; our boat was at the same instant careened over so far, as at first to appear overturning, but I instantly had the satisfaction to see that she was free, had received no {52} injury, and that Edwin on this emergency could swim, and, though much alarmed, had come within our reach, and got safely on board. As to our steering oar it remained across the snag, and was now become a sawyer; working horizontally upon the back of the black and fearful trunk which had so justly thrown us into consternation.

The wind springing up against us, we came to under the second Chicasaw Bluff, and had time to examine and contemplate these romantic cliffs, now doubly interesting after such a monotonous and cheerless prospect of solitary brakes and enswamped forests. This fasçade, or perpendicular section, precisely of the same materials and consistence as that of the Iron banks above, continues, I think, uninterruptedly for near two miles, and is about 150 feet high. The uppermost bed (all of them as nearly horizontal as may be), 12 to 20 feet thick, commencing immediately below the present vegetable loam, consists of a yellowish, homogeneous, now friable, sandy, and argillaceous earth, which is succeeded by a thinner and more ferruginous bed; below occurs a layer or band of _pink_-red clay, now and then variegated with white specks, and, though constant in its appearance and relative position, no where exceeding 18 inches in thickness; below again occur ferruginous earths and clays more or less sandy, then a bed of a brownish-black colour, and about 18 inches in thickness, which, on examination, I found to be lignite, or wood-coal, containing less bitumen than usual, and so distinctly derived from the vegetable kingdom, exhibiting even the cross grain of the wood, as to remove all doubts of its origin. To the taste it was sensibly acid, and smelt in burning like turf. Beneath this coal, and in connection with it, occurs a friable bed of dark-coloured argillaceous and sandy earth, in which I could very distinctly perceive blackened impressions of leaves of an oak, like the red oak and the willow oak, with {53} _Equisetum hiemale_ or Shave-rush, and other vegetable remains, not much unlike the black beds of leaves which occur along the banks of the Ohio, but much more intermingled with earth. In this bed also occur masses or nodules of a hard and very fine-grained light gray sandstone, bordering almost upon hornstone, likewise charged with vegetable remains, resembling charred wood, together with leaves of oaks and of other forest trees. Nearly on a level with the present low stage of the river, there was a second bed of this coal, more interrupted than the first in its continuity, though constant in its locality, no less in some places (like basins) than 8, 12 or 15 feet in thickness. Below, clays again succeeded, and terminated the visible stratification.

In two or three places, I observed that the mud, which was very deep, had been boiling up into circular masses like fumeroles, and have no doubt, but that the decomposition of this vast bed of lignite or wood-coal, situated near the level of the river, and filled with pyrites, has been the active agent in producing the earthquakes, which have of late years agitated this country. The deposition of vast rafts of timber, thus accidentally brought together by the floods of the river, are continually, even before our eyes, as I may say, accumulating stores of matter, which, in after ages, will, no doubt, exert a baneful influence over the devoted soil, beneath which they are silently interred! How much has the vegetable kingdom to do with the destiny of man! The time, though slowly, is perhaps surely approaching, which will witness something like volcanic eruptions on the banks of the Mississippi. The inhabitants frequently, and almost daily, experience slight oscillations of the earth: I have even witnessed them myself while descending the river.

FOOTNOTES:

[54] The bluffs called Iron Banks are on the Kentucky side of the river, about twenty miles below the mouth of the Ohio. They are eighty to a hundred and twenty feet in height. From their brownish color, the early explorers supposed them to contain rich deposits of iron, whence the name; but the amount of the metal is negligible.--ED.

[55] For New Madrid, see Cuming’s _Tour_, our volume iv, note
185.--ED.

[56] See the Appendix, and the account of De Soto’s incursion.

In the immediate vicinity of the town I met with _Bœbera glandulosa_, _Erigeron (Cænotus) divaricatum_, _Verbena stricta_, _V. Aubletia_, _Croton capitatum_, and _Helenium quadridentatum_. On the banks of the river _Oxydenia attenuata_ and the _Capraria multifida_ of Michaux.--NUTTALL.

[57] Such as cultivate unappropriated land without any species of
title.--NUTTALL.

[58] Point Pleasant is on the Missouri side of the river, ten miles below New Madrid, and eighty below the mouth of the Ohio. This place should not be confused with the site of the battle of Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha.--ED.

[59] For a historical account of this country, once thickly inhabited by the natives, see the abridged relation of its discovery, and pretended conquest, by Ferdinand de Soto, in the APPENDIX.--NUTTALL.

[60] For comment on the _Pittsburgh Navigator_, see Cuming’s _Tour_,
in our volume iv, note 43.--ED.

[61] Called by the first French settlers the Cliffs of
Prud’homme.--NUTTALL.

{54} CHAPTER V

Pass the third Chicasaw Bluff--Dangers of the navigation,
and solitude of the country--The fourth Bluff of the
Chicasaws--Lignite prevalent--Chicasaw Indians--St. Francis
river--depopulation of the neighbouring country--Trees
of the alluvial forest--Destruction of the Big Prairie
settlement--Scrub grass--Difficulties of the navigation--Changes
of the soil, produced by the agency of the river--A visit from
three of the Arkansa Indians--A dense fog over the river; the
cause of it--Arrival near the mouth of the Arkansa and White
river.

January 1st, 1819.] We proceeded slowly, in consequence of adverse wind; and at length, came in sight of the third Chicasaw Bluff,[62] quite similar in appearance and conformation with that of the second above described. The 35th island of the Navigator intervened betwixt us and the cliff, there being no water to the left of it; the channel at this stage of the river, was completely choked up by a bed of sand.

We came to for the night on a sand-bar, opposite the centre of the island, resembling an Arabian desert, and scattered in every direction with lignite or bovey coal, washed probably from the basis of the Bluffs. The shore of the island was horribly strewed with the wreck of the alluvial forest, brought down by the overwhelming current of the river at its highest stage, and thrown confusedly together in vast piles.

In the course of the day, we stopped awhile at a Shawnee camp, and bartered for some venison and wild honey, which they had in plenty. The honey, according to the Indian mode, was contained in the skin of a deer taken off by the aperture of the neck, {55} thus answering, though very rudely, the purpose of a bottle.

On the 2d, we passed the “Devil’s Race-ground,” as it has been very formidably termed, but observed no obstructions in the river equal to that at Plumb point, where we saw the wrecked boats. We observe, however, every day, wrecks of flat boats, drifted along the shores. We continued to the lower end of the “Devil’s Elbow,” and again found the difficulty greatly exaggerated. The whole surrounding country still continues a desolate wilderness, abandoned to inundation, presenting impenetrable cane brakes and gloomy forests: none of the trees, however, attain that enormous magnitude, which they so frequently present along the borders of the Ohio. This appearance may perhaps be attributed, in part, to the perpetual revolutions of the soil, occasioned by the overwhelming force and inundations of the river.

A dog lost in the forest, and perishing with hunger, came up to the bank of the river, yelling most piteously; but would not enter our skiff, which was sent for it, and continued to follow us for some distance, but the danger of the shore, and the rapidity of the current, rendered our endeavours to assist the miserable animal perfectly useless, and, after some time, he fell back, stopped and yelled, till he reluctantly disappeared.

3d.] We proceeded only a few miles in consequence of the wind, and came to at the point of a sand-bar, seven miles above the fourth Bluff. Here we observed a flat-boat lying aground, and dry upon the bar, for want of precaution in landing during the falling state of the river.

4th.] This morning we descended to the fourth Chicasaw Bluffs,[63] and, after endeavouring in vain to proceed, were obliged to desist for the wind, and come to under fort Pickering.[64] The strata are here again similar to those of the second Bluffs, even the {56} seam of pink clay occurs, and near the level of the river we likewise perceive the lignite in a bed of about six feet thickness; but not probably continuous. Along the shore we saw masses which looked precisely like burnt logs, but all this coal, at length, blazes in the fire, and gives out, as usual, a smoke partaking of the odour of coal and turf.

We found a store here for the supply of the Indians and the settlers of the neighbourhood, besides that of the United States. The advance upon articles sold to the natives is very exorbitant: for example, a coarse Indian duffell blanket four dollars, whiskey, well watered, which is sold almost without restraint, in spite of the law, two dollars per gallon, and every thing else in the same proportion. Yet the Indians get no more than 25 cents for a ham of venison, a goose, or a large turkey.

On visiting a neighbouring encampment of the Chicasaws, we found many of them in a state of intoxication. They are generally well dressed, extravagantly ornamented, and, from the fairness of many of their complexions, and agreeable features, appear to have profited by their intercourse with the whites. Several of them possessed some knowledge of English, and a considerable number are making advances towards civilization. General Jackson purchased from them a tract of land, said to be of more than 300 miles extent, and bounded by Wolf river, a small stream which enters the Mississippi at the commencement of the Bluffs.[65] On the river lands I here first noticed the occurrence of _Brunichia_, _Quercus lyrata_, and _Carya aquatica_ (_Juglans_, MICH.)

On the 5th we passed President island, of considerable magnitude, contiguous to which there is a rapid current. The left channel was now choked up with sand at its entrance. Here we again observed a settlement of two or three families. In the evening we came to alongside a sand-bar or willow island, at {57} least so in high water, though now connected with the land by a dry sand-bar, like many other of the transient islands noticed in the Navigator. We, at length, began to observe a rise in the bed of the river.

6th.] To-day we saw a few widely-scattered log-cabins along the bank,[66] and came within 14 miles of the mouth of St. Francis.

7th.] We proceeded by the left channel of St. Francis island, and found it very shallow and difficult, abounding with snags and bars, upon one of which lay a flat-boat aground, which had been detained here 12 days. We endeavoured to make a landing at the uppermost house of the settlement, near the mouth of the St. Francis, but found the water much too rapid; we succeeded, however, in eddy water half a mile below, but found a considerable difficulty in ascending the broken bank.

I made some enquiries respecting the Arkansa, 95 miles from hence. The Osages[67] bear a very bad character with these hunting farmers, of whom we saw but two individuals, and one inhabited house, excepting that we had first endeavoured to make. This settlement appears to be nearly abandoned, and very undeservedly. I walked out two or three miles into the woods, and found the land considerably elevated above the reach of inundation, and of a good quality. Nearly opposite island 60, a few miles below, we were informed of the existence of hills within a quarter of a mile of the river.

How many ages may yet elapse before these luxuriant wilds of the Mississippi can enumerate a population equal to the Tartarian deserts! At present all is irksome silence and gloomy solitude, such as to inspire the mind with horror.

I was greatly disappointed to meet with such a similarity in the vegetation, to that of the middle and northern states. The higher lands produce black ash, elm (_Ulmus americana_), hickory, walnut, maple, {58} hackberry (_Celtis integrifolia_, no other species), honey-locust, coffee-bean, &c. On the river lands, as usual, grows platanus or buttonwood, upon the seeds of which flocks of screaming parrots were greedily feeding,[68] also enormous cotton-wood trees (_Populus angulisans_), commonly called yellow poplar, some of them more than six feet in diameter, and occasionally festooned with the largest vines which I had ever beheld. Here grew also the holly (_Ilex opaca_), _A plectrum hiemale_, (_Ophrys hyemale_, LIN.), _Botrychium obliquum_, and _Fumaria aurea_. Nearly all the trees throughout this country possessing a smooth bark, are loaded with misletoe (_Viscum verticillatum_).

8th.] About a mile below the place where we spent the last night, is the settlement called the Big Prairie, consisting of three or four log-cabins, and two families, but in a state of abandonment since the shock of the earthquake, which the inhabitants assert to have produced a depression of the ordinary level, that exposed the settlement to inundation; and, in fact, by a sudden encroachment of the river, which carried off the land for more than a quarter of a mile in breadth, all the habitations, except the two now surviving, were swept into the river. About a mile and a half below commences the 60th island of the Navigator; the right channel was now choked up with sand at its outlet. A little distance below we landed at a store to purchase some necessaries. Considerable tracts of good and elevated land, once numerously peopled by the natives, appear in this quarter, over which the conspicuous devastations of a hurricane now added horror to solitude.

The scrub-grass or rushes, as they are called here (_Equisetum hiemale_), from about 50 to 60 miles above, to this place, appear along the banks in vast fields, and, together with the cane, which is evergreen, {59} are considered the most important, and, indeed, the only winter fodder for all kinds of cattle. The cane is unquestionably saccharine and nutritious, but the scrub-grass produces an unfavourable action on the stomach, and scours the cattle so as to debilitate and destroy them if its use be long continued.

We proceeded, without any accident worthy of remark, about six miles, below the “Little Round island,” noticed in the Navigator, which from its uncommon aspect affords a pretty good local object for the boatmen. While passing the island we were accosted by some, to us, suspicious characters, mimicking distress to draw us to land, but in vain. We had been well assured of the existence of gangs of pirates occasionally occupying these solitudes.

9th.] We continued, as usual, soon after day-break, and were about to stop by reason of the wind, when it unexpectedly abated, so far as to prevent us, and we proceeded to the _Three Islands_, as they ought to be called for the sake of distinction, and which are not intelligible as the 62d and 63d of the Navigator. These islands lie nearly parallel, and present themselves at the commencement of a left hand bend in the river. Two of them which first appear are small willow islands, with adjoining sand-bars. The channel of the first was now dry; that of the second smooth, but apparently shallow. The principal insulated forest is crescent-formed like Flour island, or deeply and circularly indented on the right-hand side. We had proceeded past the two willow islands nearly to the principal one, when we perceived, unexpectedly, that the greater part of the river was pouring along with headlong velocity between the main and second willow island. To the left, the channel round the third island appeared broad and shallow, indeed nearly deserted by the river. We now entered the torrent almost too late for precaution, which, towards the main island, the side to which we had been inadvertently {60} drawn, was planted full of black and fearful logs. It was only with the utmost exertion that we saved ourselves (by rowing out towards the bar) from the fate of some unfortunate boatmen, which presented itself to us with more than usual horror. This was a large flat-boat, which hung upon the trunk of an implanted tree, by which it had been perforated and instantly sunk.

We passed islands 64 and 65, and came to the shore in the bend opposite the middle of 66, which appeared to be about three miles in length. From New Madrid to this place the river appears singularly meandering, sweeping along in vast elliptic curves, some of them from six to eight miles round, and constantly presenting themselves in opposite directions. The principal current pressing against the centre of the bend, at the rate of about five miles per hour, gradually diminishes in force as it approaches the extremity of the curve. Having attained the point or promontory, the current proceeds with accumulating velocity to the opposite bank, leaving, consequently, to the eddy water, an extensive deposition in the form of a vast bed of sand, nearly destitute of vegetation, but flanked commonly by an island or peninsula of willows. These beds of sand, for the most part of the year under water, are what the boatmen term bars. The river, as it sweeps along the curve, according to its force and magnitude, produces excavations in the banks; which, consisting of friable materials, are perpetually washing away and leaving broken and perpendicular ledges, often lined with fallen trees, so as to be very dangerous to the approach of boats, which would be dashed to pieces by the velocity of the current. These slips in the banks are almost perpetual, and by the undermining of eddies often remarkable in their extent. To-day we witnessed two horrid sinkings of the bank, by each of which not less than an acre of land had fallen in a day or two {61} ago, with all the trees and cane upon them, down to the present level of the river, a depth of 30 or 40 feet perpendicular. These masses now formed projecting points, upon which the floating drift was arrested, and over which the current broke along with more than ordinary velocity. Just after passing one of these foaming drifts, we narrowly escaped being drawn into a corresponding eddy and vortex that rushed up the stream, with a fearful violence, and from which we should not have been easily extricated. I now sufficiently saw the reason why the flat-boats were always kept out from the shore, and towards the bars which occupy the opposite side of the river.

The encroachments in the centre of the curves of the meanders, proceeding to a certain extent, at length break through and form islands, in time the islands also disappear, and so the river continually augmenting its uncontroulable dominion over the friable soil, alternately fills up one channel, and more deeply excavates or forms another, in proportion to the caprice of the current.

In regard to landing, eddy or silent water is constantly to be found beyond the point of the bends or curves of the river. The bars are also generally safe, when sufficiently high, and the water deep. In such situations, the counter current, though inconsiderable, affords also a singular facility to vessels which are ascending.

A rude cabin, which we passed to-day, was the only habitation we had seen for 30 miles.

This evening we were visited by three young men, a boy, and a squaw of the Osarks, a band of the Quapaws[69] or Arkansa Indians. Their aspect was agreeable, their features aquiline, and their complexion comparatively fair; my first impression was that they somewhat resembled the Osages. Their errand was whiskey, and I regretted that it was not possible to satisfy them without it. They drank healths in {62} their own language, and one of them could mumble out a little bad English. They informed me, partly by signs, that their company was about five or six families or fires, as they intimated, out on a hunting excursion. I was sorry to find that they were beggars, and that one of them proved himself to be a thief.

10th.] This morning we left the 66th island, opposite the middle of which we came to last evening, but found our situation hazardous from the sliding in of the bank around, and which might easily have involved us in difficulty. By the time we had proceeded about a mile and a half along the bend or right hand channel of 67 and 68, which lie opposite to each other, a fog sprung up, so very dense as to render our situation amidst almost unseen obstacles extremely dangerous. We had no alternative but rowing over to the bar of the island on our left, in which attempt we at length succeeded, not, however, without a risk of grounding. Here we lay until towards evening, when we proceeded to the termination of the 68th island, and made an indifferent landing. On exposing the thermometer to the air, it rose and remained at 62°. In the water it fell to 42°; the difference being 20°, which readily accounted for the dense fog that exclusively enveloped the river. This coldness of the water was no doubt occasioned by the thawing of ice in the upper part of the river, or some of its more considerable tributary streams, in consequence of which, the vapours of the moist and warm air were perpetually precipitated over it. The air, of unequal temperature, now and then felt extremely warm.

On the 11th we were again detained by the fog and heavy rain, but turned out about 10 o’clock. After proceeding opposite the commencement of the 69th island we stopped in consequence of the fog. Here, on ascending the bank, I found the woods almost impenetrably laced with green briars (_Smilax_), {63} supple-jacks (_Œnoplia volubilis_), and the _Brunichia_, and for the first time recognised the short-podded honey-locust (_Gleditscia brachycarpa_), a distinct species, intermediate with the common kind (_G. triacanthos_), and the one-seeded locust (_G. monosperma_), differing from _G. triacanthos_ in the persisting fasciculated legumes, as well as in their shortness and want of pulp.

We proceeded a few miles further amidst torrents of rain, and were again obliged to land in consequence of the fog. Here we met with two hunters, who informed us of the existence of a considerable settlement on the banks of White River.[70]

The wind springing up in the evening from the northwest, the thermometer fell to 52°, and the water to 40°, from which time the dense fog that had exclusively enveloped the river began to disperse, and in the night we had a storm.

12th.] Coming along the bend of the 71st island, we struck upon an enormous planter, or immoveable log, but again escaped without accident. About noon we landed at Mr. M’Lane’s,[71] a house of entertainment. Here I was advised to proceed with my small cargo and flat-boat to the port of Osark, on the Arkansa, by the bayou,[72] which communicates between the White and Arkansa rivers, in both of which it was now conjectured there was back-water from the Mississippi. Concluding upon this measure, I hired a man at five dollars to assist me, and parted here with Mr. G---- and son, who soon, to my satisfaction, got a further passage on board a flat-boat. The idea of so soon arriving on the ground which I more immediately intended to explore, did not fail to inspire me with hope and satisfaction.

FOOTNOTES:

[62] For historical sketch of site of the third bluff, see Cuming’s
_Tour_, our volume iv, note 188.--ED.

[63] For sketch, see _ibid._, note 189.--ED.

[64] For note on Fort Pickering, see _ibid._, note 192.--ED.

[65] For brief statement regarding the purchase, see _ibid._, note
190.--ED.

[66] There is no record of a compact or permanent settlement at this date near the mouth of the St. Francis. There were scattered settlers as early as 1800, for John Patterson was born in that year not far above Helena.--ED.

[67] For the Osage Indians, see _ante_, note 53.--ED.

[68] Their most favourite food in the autumn is the seeds of the
cuckold bur (_Xanthium strumarium_).--NUTTALL.

[69] For the Quapaw, see _post_, note 84.--ED.

[70] Local historians mention an early settlement at Crockett’s
Bluff, on White River, which may be the one here referred to.--_Ed._