Chapter I (2)

[I-5] First great tributary of the Miss. r. above the Mo. r., falling in at Calhoun pt., Calhoun Co., Ill., opp. Camden, Jersey Co., Ill.; Mason's isl. the largest one of several more in the Miss. r. just below the mouth of the Ill. r. In coming S. the Miss. r. makes a great bend E. and then nearly N. to the confluence, whence it turns again to a course approx. coincident with that which the Ill. r. holds; hence Pike's remark that the one might be mistaken for a part of the other. The river has had many names; the present is in form a French plural, _sc._ Rivière des Illinois, _sc._ of the people who lived on it--Illin, Illini, Illinoct, Illinoac, Illinoet, Illiniwek, Illeni, Illenois, Ilinois, Islinois, Islenois, etc. Pike's map has Illenois; Franquelin's, 1688, R. des Ilinois. Another aboriginal name, Theakiki, Teakiki, etc., whence Kankakee, was applied to one of the branches of this river. The Ill. r. sometimes shared the name St. Louis with the Mississippi and the Ohio. It was called R. de Seignelay by Hennepin, in compliment to the marquis of that name; and once known as the Divine r. The importance of this river as a water-way from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi is second only to that of the Wisconsin, and would be first if the long projected connection of St. Louis with Chicago by water were made. The use of these two rivers for this purpose was originally almost simultaneous; for Joliet and Marquette reached the Miss. r. from Green bay by the Wisc. r. June 15th or 17th, 1673, came down the Miss. r. past the mouth of the Ill. r. in July that year, continued down to or near the Arkansaw, turned up the Miss. r. July 17th, reached the Ill. r., and went up the latter to L. Michigan, Aug.-Sept., 1673. One of Joliet's maps, 1674, clearly shows the Wis. r. and Ill. r. connections of the Miss. r. with L. Michigan and Green bay respectively. Michael Accault's party, consisting of himself, Antoine Auguelle, and L. Hennepin, dispatched by La Salle from Fort Crêvecœur on the Ill. r., Feb. 29th, 1680, reached its mouth Mar. 7th, 1680; La Salle did the same himself Feb. 6th, 1682. The latter--one of the very greatest men in the early history of American discovery and exploration--came upon the Ill. r. in Dec., 1679, and made the first French establishment on Lower Mississippian waters in Jan., 1680, at the Illinois village Pimetoui, close to present Peoria.

[I-6] Among the islands (or their modern representatives) past which Pike struggled may be named Perry, Squaw, Enterprise, and Iowa; the present channel is W. of all these excepting Squaw, taking through Hatchet chute to Rock ldg. and Milan, Calhoun Co., Ill. That island whose foot is now nearest 6 m. from the Illinois r. is Dardenne; but camp was more probably a mile short of this, where is now Bolter's isl., as it is called--properly Boulder's.

[I-7] About 21 m., Bolter's isl. to the Four Brothers, at Cap au Grès. The present run of the principal islands is: Dardenne, Two Branch, Criminal, Peruque, Sweden, all below the mouth of Buffalo, Copper or Cuivre r. Dardenne cr. falls in on the left hand going up, right bank, opp. the island of that name; it appears as Dardonne on Owen's map. Peruque cr. occupies a corresponding position opp. Peruque and Sweden isls.; Nicollet's map has Perruque. R. au Cuivre or aux Bœufs of the French, Copper and Buffalo r. of others ("Quiver" r. of Lewis and Clark's map, 1814), is a large stream which courses from Montgomery into Lincoln Co., Mo., and then, with its Big cr. branch, separates the latter from St. Charles Co.; it falls into Cuivre slough, which cuts off Cuivre isl., 3 m. long. At the upper end of this slough is the mouth of the creek mapped by Nicollet as M^cLean's, now as Bob, Bobb, Bobs, Bobbs, etc., cr. Some of the named places along the river are Brock's, Dixon's, Fruitland, Thomason's, Beck's, Two Branch, Martin's, Hastings, Beech's, and Bogtown--all insignificant, mostly mere landings, and all in Calhoun Co., Ill., excepting Beck's. Pike's Four Brothers are represented by islands Nos. 499, 500, 501, and 502, of late surveys, not now abreast; all are small, and the largest one is called Sarah Ann. Pike's "beautiful cedar cliff" is Cap au Grès rock, opposite a hamlet of the same name in Lincoln Co., Mo.; Dogtown, Ill., is under the cliff. The phrase is commonly rendered Cap au Gre or Cap au Gris, by mistaking F. grès, a noun, meaning sandstone, for F. _gris_, adj., gray. Long of 1817, as pub. 1860 and again 1890, has a Little Cape Gris; Beltrami, II. p. 196, renders Great Cape Gray. The exact distance to this place from Grafton is 27 m.; from Alton, 43 m.; from St. Louis 66 m.

[I-8] Cap au Grès to Hamburg, Calhoun Co., Ill., 22 m.; river crooked, and channel still more so; late start and much obstruction; Pike may hardly have reached Hamburg, but was in that vicinity, and we may set him there, in the absence of any datum for greater precision. The "vast" number of islands he passed have their modern representatives in such as: Sandy, 2½ m. long, with Turner's near it; Stag and Maple, abreast; Sterling; Westport, 3½ m. long, with Kickapoo and Kelly's alongside it. Along this whole way, on the left hand going up, in Lincoln Co., Mo., runs a long slough approx. parallel with the river. This is the discharge of Bryant's cr., which approaches the river opp. Hamburg, gets from the hills and runs in the bottom down to Sandy isl.; it is called Bayou au Roi on some maps, Bayou Roy on others. Nicollet charts it with his usual accuracy, but without name. The principal places passed are the villages of Sterling and Westport, Lincoln Co., Mo.; Gilead, back up on the hill, in Calhoun Co., Ill.; lesser ones are the landings, wood-piles, or what-not, called Asbury, Turner's, Hogtown, and Red's. The St. L., Keok. and N. W. R. R. runs in the bottom along the bayou; stations Foley, Apex, Elsberry, and Dameron.

[I-9] _Polyodon spatula_, or _Spatularia spatula_, the paddlefish, also called spoon-billed cat or duck-billed cat, common in Mississippian waters. It sometimes attains a length of 5 or 6 feet; the shape resembles that of the sturgeon, but the skin is scaleless, like a cat's. One of the Relations ascribed to Hennepin, and pub. 1697, speaks of this fish as the "long-beaked sturgeon," and says it was spawning Apr. 24th. Hennepin doubtless became acquainted with it when he was first on the Mississippi, under Accault, in 1680: see, _e. g._, Shea's Tr. of Henp., 1880, p. 359.

[I-10] Doubtless one of the brothers mentioned in Lewis and Clark: see ed. 1893, pp. 1209, 1236, 1243.

[I-11] From Hamburg to Clarksville is 14½ m., Louisiana or Louisianaville, 24½; Pike went about 20, say to Krider's bend, and his camp was on an island which we may take to be that now called Krider's, 6 m. above Clarksville, 4 m. below Louisiana. The "continuation of islands" is now the following in ascending series, omitting about a dozen small ones; Mosier's or Mozier's, and Howard's, together, the former 1¾ m. long; Tilden's; McCoy's or Cock; Slim and Grimes, the former 3¼ m. long; Coon, 1 m.; Carroll's or Carle's, 1¾; Amaranth, small; Eagle, 1 m.; Clarksville, 2 m., opposite the town; Pharr's, 1¾ m.; and Krider's, 1 m. Above Mosier's isl. and ldg., on the E., is the outlet of Hamburg bay, 3½ m. above the town; Bay cr. falls into it. Behind Slim isl. is the chute of that name, into which falls the large creek called Guin's, Guinn's, Gwin's, etc.; and at the head of the island is the mouth of Ramsey's cr., another large one. These streams are both in Pike Co., Mo.; and as soon as Pike passes opposite Clarksville he has Pike Co., Ill., on his right, so that he sails many miles with a county of his own on each side. Clarksville, Mo., is something of a town, on the edge of the river, under the hill around which Calumet cr. comes to fall in just above; and 3 m. higher comes Little Calumet cr. on the same side. Opposite Clarksville is the lower opening of that immense slough whose character is not less remarkable than its name. This runs for more than 30 m. alongside the river, clear through Pike Co., Ill., and into Adams Co., forming a maze of channels which intersect one another and thus cut off various islands, besides opening into the Mississippi at several places; some of these lesser sloughs are called Spring Lake, Atlas, Cocklebur, Swift, Coon, Mud, Five Points, Crooked, Running, and Swan. This collateral water-course also receives a series of creeks, among which are those called Big or Big Stew, Six Mile, Honey or Hadley, Ashton or Fall, and Harkness. This whole affair is commonly called the Snicarty or Sny Carte; it is Suycartee Slough on Owen's map, and has other variants too numerous to recount. All these words or phrases are perversions of F. Chenal Écarté, lit. cut-off channel. For this and the corresponding formation of the name Sniabar or Snibar, given to a creek and town in Missouri, see my note, N. Y. Nation, Jan. 19th, 1893, and Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, p. 29. The embankment built to defend the river from the slough is known as the Sny levee.

[I-12] About 20 m., setting Pike in the vicinity of Cincinnati, Pike Co., Ill.; camp perhaps a little beyond this town, but just about opposite the boundary between Pike Co., Mo., and Ralls Co., Mo. On the Illinois side we have nothing worthy of note but the snaky Snicarty, back of which are the villages Atlas and Rockport. But the Missouri side offers some interesting things. On decamping from Krider's isl., Pike passes in quick succession two creeks, Louisiana and Salt river, all on his left, all within 6 m. 1. Pike elsewhere cites both these creeks, and says the first of them is the one he calls Bar r.; this is now Buffalo cr., falling in 2 m. below Louisiana; the bar at its mouth, whence the name, is present Buffalo isl. 2. The next creek is that immediately above, whose mouth is Louisiana; this is called Noir cr. on most of the maps before me, but Bear cr. on the latest G. L. O. map; which name the natives prefer I am not informed. 3. Louisiana is quite a town, which dates back to Nicollet's time, at least, as he marks it on the beautiful map he made before 1840. The Chic. and Alton R. R. bridges the river at the mouth of Noir or Bear cr. This was built 1872-73 (Act of Congr., Mar. 3d, 1871); the town or station Pike is on the Illinois side, opp. Louisiana. The C. B. and Q. R. R. sends a branch here; the St. L., Keok. and N. W. R. R. also runs through Louisiana. 4. Next is Salt r., which Pike elsewhere calls Oahahah, and others Auhaha, 2 m. above Louisiana. This seems to have been known long before the time Pike's remark would suggest; if I mistake not, it is laid down on some maps before 1700. It is a large river; the French were along here in 1680-90, and I can put my finger on an old F. Rivière au Sel. Salt r., with its branches, is big enough to water five or six modern counties, before it falls in through Pike Co. Present islands in Pike's course of to-day, from Salt r. upward, are Angle, South, and North Fritz between Hickory chute and Scott's ldg., Atlas, Blackbird, and Denmark, between a couple of Snicarty openings and Mundy's ldg. or Ashburn sta.; then the very large Gilbert's isl., 2½ m. long, which lies between Gilbert's and Tompkins' ldg. on the Missouri side, and Cincinnati ldg. on the other. A good deal of engineering work was done at this bad place to close Gilbert's chute and throw the main channel over against the Illinois side.

[I-13] Cincinnati Landing, Pike Co., Ill., to Hannibal, Marion Co., Mo., 12 m. direct, and not much more by river, as its course is quite straight. The Frenchman's house, 4 m. beyond which Pike went to camp, was a germ of Hannibal, sown under the handsome hill, just above a little run which Nicollet and Owen both map as Bear cr., opposite Hurricane isl. This place is mapped by Pike as Hurricane Settlement; he speaks of it again under date of Apr. 26th, 1806. It is now a notable railroad center; the Wabash R. R. built the bridge in 1871 (Act of Congr., July 25th, 1866). On the Illinois side there was a place called Douglasville, which seems to have been a forerunner of the town or station Shepherd; while Hannibal itself has also the St. L., Keok. and N. W. R. R. skirting the Miss. r., the Hann. and St. Jo., the St. L. and Hann., and the Mo., Kas. and Tex. To reach this then French embryo, Pike proceeded with present Pike Co., Ill., on his right the whole way, but with Ralls Co. on his left, to past Saverton in the latter county, and so on to Marion Co., Mo. He passed the positions of the islands now called Taylor's, Cottel's, King's, and Glasscock's; and after he had interviewed the Frenchman he went on past the present position of the mouth of Bayou St. Charles, off which are Turtle, Glaucus, and other islands, to camp in Marion Co., Mo., about where the present boundary between Pike and Adams cos., Ill., strikes the river--that is to say, opposite Armstrong isl., near the beginning of the Snicarty. The St. Charles or Charles is old in history; I have seen the name ascribed to Hennepin, 1680, but have not myself so found it. Pike's Hurricane isl. is probably not now determinable, if existent, unless he means a large tract of bottom-land opposite Hannibal, isolated by the Snicarty. Glasscock's isl. is now or was lately the only well-founded island on the river near the mouth of Bear cr. It is said in Holcombe's Hist. Marion Co., 1884, p. 902, that an island opposite the mouth of Bear cr. disappeared in 1849. Judge Thos. W. Bacon, who came to Hannibal in 1847, informs me _in lit._ Mar. 21st, 1894, that he remembers no such island; "there was a sand-bar visible at low water just above the mouth of Bear cr., and it disappeared long ago, but no such fugitive formation could properly be termed an island. Along the N. front of the site of Hannibal was once an incipient island--a sand-bar with growing willows extending from the N. end almost to the mainland. This gradually disappeared except at the lower end, where it prolonged and merged into a granite gravel bed or bar visible at low water, which was dredged away by the government." Pike is probably mistaken in using the name Hurricane in the present connection. There were a Hurricane ldg., isl., and cr. lower down, in Lincoln Co.; but Judge Bacon informs me he never heard the name applied to Hannibal. Nor is it true that this town was ever called Stavely's ldg., except as a piece of fugitive sarcasm in the newspapers of a rival town, arising in the habit of one John W. Stavely, a saddler of Hannibal, who used to haunt the landing when steamers arrived. It could not well have been first known as a "landing," because the first steamer to arrive there, the Gen. Putnam, Moses D. Bates, master, came in 1825, while Hannibal was platted in 1819 by its present name, shortly after Pike Co. was organized (Dec. 14th, 1818). The classical term is said to be traceable to Antoine Soulard, surveyor-general, who is also said to have named Fabius r. for the great Roman cunctator. But this is dubious; old forms Fabas and Fabbas suggest Sp. _fabas_ beans. Bay St. Charles was called Scipio r., as attested by the hamlet of Port Scipio at its mouth.

[I-14] This stretch of "39" m. needs to be warily discussed. The whole distance from Hannibal to Keokuk by the river channel is only 61 m. Pike makes it from his camp of the 16th to that of the 19th 39 + 23 + 4 = 76 m.; he also started from a little above Hannibal on the 17th, and did not quite make Keokuk on the 19th; for he only got to the foot of the Des Moines rapids after breakfast on the 20th. The whole way would have been about 80 of his miles against say 60 of actual travel, or the proportion of 4:3, as already noted, p. 2; and we may confidently set him down on the 17th halfway between Hannibal and Keokuk. Now from Hannibal to La Grange is 30 m. and from La Grange to Keokuk is 31 m.; La Grange, Lewis Co., Mo., at the mouth of Wyaconda r., is the required location of camp of the 17th. This is 10 m. above Quincy, the seat of Adams Co., Ill., one of the best known cities on the river, though not as old as some of them. The C. B. and Q. R. R. bridged the river just above the city in 1867-68; a West Quincy grew up on the Missouri side, and the present importance of the place requires no comment. A very short distance above Quincy Pike passes from Marion into Lewis Co., Mo. But the most important point of this day's voyage is one to which the above text does not even allude. Pike elsewhere speaks of a certain Jaustioni river, as the then boundary between the U. S. and the Sac nation, 7 m. above the Frenchman's house at Hurricane Settlement, on the W. side; and he traces this river on his map by the name Jauflione. Now there are five large streams which enter the Miss. r. on the W. within 3 m. of one another, by four separate mouths, in Marion Co., say 2 to 5 miles below W. Quincy, and the proportionate distance above Hannibal. They are now known as (1) South Two Rivers; (2) North Two Rivers; (3) a branch of the latter--these three emptying practically together, just below Fabius isl.; (4) South Fabius; and (5) North Fabius rivers, which fall into a slough whose two mouths are opposite Orton's isl. Pike has left us no data to decide which of these he means by Jaustioni or Jauflione, especially as the positions of the several outlets have no doubt changed since 1805. They are all at present, or were very recently, considerably more than the "seven" miles above Hannibal, being entirely beyond the Bayou St. Charles, itself about 7 m. long. Pike's queer names, Justioni or Jaustioni, and Jauflione (latter in early text, 1807, p. 4, and on map), are found also as Jeffreon, and usually as Jeffrion. Some form of the name, the meaning of which I have never learned, endured for many years; thus Jauflione r. appears in Morse's Univ. Gaz., 3d ed. 1821, p. 350, though it had mostly disappeared from ordinary maps of about that date. The river thus designated has a history which will bear looking up. Judge Thos. H. Bacon of Hannibal refers me to certain documents bearing on French Colonial history to be found in Amer. State Papers, VI. 1860, pp. 713-14, and 830-34, also repub. in Holcombe's Hist. Marion Co., 1884. On p. 834 is: "July 10th, 1810. Board met. Present John B. C. Lucas, Clement B. Penrose, and Frederick Bates, Commissioners. Charles Gratiot, assignee of Mathurin Bouvet, claiming 84 arpents of land front on the Mississippi river and in depth from the river back to the hills in the district of St. Charles.... The Board order that this claim be surveyed, provided that it be not situated above the mouth of the River Jeffrion conformably to the possession of Mathurin Bouvet," etc. As Bouvet's claim was ultimately confirmed to Gratiot, Jeffrion r. must have been above Salt r. The next considerable river above Salt r. is that one of the "Two Rivers" called South r.; but this is hardly 30 m. long, and an Act of Dec. 31st, 1813, describes Jeffrion r. as over 30 m. long. The next one is North Two Rivers; undoubtedly it is this one which was known as the Jeffrion in Territorial days. When the region was first settled it was called the Two Rivers country, and the title of a certain Two Rivers Baptist Association preserves this designation. The Governor of Louisiana Territory was required to divide it into districts (Act of Congr., Mar. 26th, 1804, sec. 13); Holcombe's Hist. Marion Co., p. 37, says that Governor Wm. Clark by proclamation reorganized the districts into counties Oct. 1st, 1812; and doubtless the Jeffrion would be there again in mention. Bouvet's settlement on Bay Charles is unquestionable in location; it was described as about 34 leagues above St. Louis, and was a place with which the commissioners must have been officially acquainted. In history B. Charles is nearly a century older than St. Louis, and it was for many years a better known locality. Present North r. is the only one that answers the historical and geographical requirements of the north one of Two Rivers of early Territorial times and of the Jeffrion r. of French Colonial days. Holcombe, p. 148, gives an account of Kentucky prospectors on the Jeffrion in 1817. The name of the Sac chief Black Hawk occurs in connection with an incident on Two Rivers in 1812. But the most satisfactory and in fact a conclusive identification of North Two Rivers with the Jauflione is derivable from the terms of our treaty with the Sacs and Foxes of 1804. This will be found in Statutes at Large, VII. p. 84, _seq._: A Treaty between the United States of America and the United Tribes of Sac and Fox Indians, made Nov. 3d, 1804, ratified Jan. 25th, 1805, and proclaimed Feb. 21st, 1805. Among the "articles of a treaty made at St. Louis in the district of Louisiana between William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana territory and of the district of Louisiana [etc., etc.] of the one part, and the chiefs and head men of the united Sac and Fox tribes of the other part," there is one defining the boundary thus: "ARTICLE 2. The general boundary or line between the lands of the United States and of the said Indian tribes shall be as follows, to wit: Beginning at a point on the Missouri river opposite to the mouth of the Gasconade river; thence in a direct course so as to strike the river Jeffreon at the distance of thirty miles from its mouth, and down the said Jeffreon to the Mississippi," etc., etc. In company with Mr. Robert F. Thompson of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Washington I made a special examination of maps in his office with reference to this point, and among them found one, prepared for office use in determining boundaries indicated in the terms of Indian treaties, on which the boundary in mention had been drawn from the Missouri opposite the mouth of the Gasconade directly to a point supposed to be 30 m. up the _North_ Two Rivers, which I had on other grounds determined the Jauflione or Jeffreon to be. This river empties in Fabius township, in the N. W. ¼ of Sect. 3, T. 58 N., R. 5 W., Marion Co., Mo.

On this extraordinary cession see a note by L. C. D[raper] in Minn. Hist. Coll., III. Part 2, p. 143, 1874.

At the upper end of St. Charles bayou, called Bayou chute, a couple of miles below Two Rivers, was the site of a place that rejoiced on paper in the name of Marion City. They started a railroad there, were liable to wash-outs, and inspired Charles Dickens' idea of his quizzical "Eden." If one would like to see how uncounted "cities" were laid out in gaudy prints--some consisting in a hovel or two, some without even that--let him look over Featherstonhaugh's diverting relations of the '30's, when he traveled in these parts, then overrun with a set of the neediest, greediest, and most unscrupulous landsharks that ever lived on calomel, whisky, and the gullibility of their fellows. Marion City is located on one of the maps before me, but not on any of the others. A little above it are Fabius and Orton isls., already mentioned, and opposite these is Ward's isl., larger than either of the other two. A couple of miles above Quincy begins the group of Cottonwood isls., opposite a large horseshoe-shaped slough which seems to be an old cut-off of the river; it is connected with the Fabius r. outlets, and receives Durgan's (_i. e._, Durkee's) cr. At Quincy is the lower outlet of a very extensive snicarty, 12 or 15 m. direct, and much more by its sinuosities; this begins at Canton (above La Grange) and connects at various points with Canton chute, itself some 10 m. long. La Grange, where Pike camps, was so called from the hill under which it nestled, and the English of which would be Barn hill. The original settlement was named Wyaconda or Waconda, from the river at whose mouth it was made; thus Nicollet's map marks Wiyakonda instead of La Grange, preserving the Indian name of the place. This river is a large one which, with its branches, traverses Scotland and Clark cos. before entering Lewis Co. Before settlement a certain tract of country below La Grange had been called Waconda prairie, or in some similar form of the Indian word, as Wacondaw of Maj. Thos. Forsyth, 1819; and this is what Pike's map presents as the "Small Prairie."

[I-15] About two-thirds of the way from La Grange to Keokuk--say to Fox prairie, at the mouth of Fox r., site of Gregory's Landing, Clark Co., Mo. The principal place passed is Canton, Lewis Co., Mo., 7 m. above La Grange, opposite the head of Canton chute. Some other places that were started, such as Satterfield, would be hard to find on a latter-day map. Tully is now practically a part of Canton; Tully isl. exists, 3 or 4 m. above Canton, and Satterfield's creek is a branch of Fox r. Near there, one Dodd kept for some years a woodyard on the Illinois side, and the steamboat channel among the sand-bars and islands in his vicinity acquired the name of Dodd's crossing.

[I-16] About 10 m., from Gregory's ldg. to "the point of a beach" within the present city limits of Keokuk, Lee Co., Ia., immediately above the mouth of Des Moines r., which for some distance separates the States of Missouri and Iowa; opposite is Hancock Co., Ill. The place where Pike got sawyered was very likely between Hackley's and Fox isls. The place is a bad one; there has been a good deal of engineering work done in damming Hackley's chute, and jettying the channel over to the other side. Fox r. (once called R. Puante, whence also Stinking cr.) is not mentioned by Pike in the present connection; but he speaks of it elsewhere, and lays it down on his map without name, marking an Indian village on the Illinois side between its mouth and that of Des Moines r. The present or a very recent arrangement of its discharge is by Fox slough, a small snicarty that begins at Alexandria and runs 5 m. down to Gregory's ldg. This cuts off a piece of bottom which the railroad traverses between the points said, besides Fox and several lesser islands.

[I-17] For the origin of this name, involving a spurious etymology by association with Trappist monks, see Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, p. 20. The always careful and accurate Nicollet made the matter quite plain: see his Rep. 1843, p. 22. Some form of the old Indian name is used by the earliest French travelers in these parts. One of the oldest maps I have seen, dressée par J. B. Franquelin dans 1688 pour être presentée à Louis XIV., letters R. des Moingana, and marks the Indian village of Moingoana. One of Joliet's maps has Moeng8ena. Joliet and Marquette passed its mouth going down the Miss. r. in 1673, on or about June 25th; Accault, Auguelle, and Hennepin passed it going up the Miss. r. early in 1680. Besides the many early variants of the phrase which settled into Des Moines, we find R. of the Outontantas, 8tantas, 8t8ntes, Otentas, etc., R. of the Peouareas, Paotes, etc., R. of the Maskoutens, etc., Nadouessioux, etc. This is the largest river Pike has come to since he left the Illinois, and the only tributary of the Missouri which he charts with any detail; he lays it down with 20 of its branches, and marks the positions on it of old Forts Crawford and St. Louis. We observe that he calls it De Moyen; and this gives occasion for a blunder not less amusing than to call it Trappist r. would be. For our hero was ambitious of French scholarship, and on consulting his dictionary to find out about _moyen_, he set the stream down as _Means_ r. in his French-English vocabulary of geographical names. Another author, or his printer, got it Demon r. Beltrami, 1828, renders Le Moine and Monk r. Pike's editor of the early text, 1807, has des Moines, p. 4. The stream is a large and very important one, too much so to be entered upon in a mere note like this; but I may observe that it is historically less significant than those of similar extent on the Illinois and Wisconsin side of the Mississippi, because several of the latter were highways during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The mouth of the Des Moines became of course the scene of early settlement, but not all the places started there survived. Nicollet's map shows three--Keokuck, Montebello, Warsaw. Owen's, somewhat later, has also Nassau and Churchville, immediately at the debouchure, where there came to be also a Buenavista. Publishing in 1847, but having written of 1835, the always entertaining Featherstonhaugh speaks of "a sorry settlement on the left bank, called Keokuk, after a celebrated Sauk chief, inhabited altogether by a set of desperados"--a diagnosis which will no doubt be better relished by the Hamiltonians, Varsovians, and Alexandrians than by the present polished Keokukites. He should have made one exception, however, for he found there the famous George Catlin, Nov. 4th, 1835: see his book, II. p. 42. Besides Keokuk, Lee Co., Ia., at the foot of the rapids above the mouth of the Des Moines, the three places which have grown into urban reality are: Hamilton, Hancock Co., Ill., directly opposite Keokuk; Warsaw, Hancock Co., Ill., 2 m. below the mouth, and directly opposite this, Alexandria, Clark Co., Mo. Three States as well as three counties thus met here. Pike continues with Illinois on his right, but now has Iowa instead of Missouri on his left.

Fort Edwards was a position of importance for some years. This military post was built on the east side of the Mississippi, 3 m. below the foot of the rapids, and directly opposite the two islands which divided the outlet of the Des Moines into three channels. Half a mile S. W. from the fort was Cantonment Davis, its precursor, abandoned when the works were completed. The locality is practically Warsaw. A full description of this establishment, as it was at the time of Long's visit in August, 1817, is given in his report, as printed in Minn. Hist. Col., II. Part 1, 1860; 2d ed. 1890, pp. 77-80. It had been building since June, 1816, and was not quite finished in 1817.

[I-18] Some light--at least that light in which he was regarded--is thrown on Mr. Ewing by a letter before me from General James Wilkinson to General Henry Dearborn, Secretary at War, dated St. Louis, Dec. 3d, 1805: "In a former letter you have asked me who this Ewing was? I can give you no further Information than that I found Him in a place, which He is utterly unqualified to fill--He is I understand placed at the River Desmoin, to teach the Indians the Arts of Agriculture, but has I believe given but a wretched example--This is I think the Third visit he has made since my arrival to this place, and I expect his disbursements which are supplied by Mr. Chouteau may exceed expectation--He appears to be a young man of innocence, levity & simplicity--without experience or observation."

[I-19] The rapids named from their situation above the mouth of Des Moines r. have also been known as the Lower rapids, in distinction from those higher up about the mouth of Rock r. These formidable obstacles to navigation have been overcome by modern engineering skill, but Pike's curt notice of the channel is clearly recognizable. The river was bridged by the Wabash road between Hamilton and Keokuk, in 1869-70 (Act of Congr., July 25th, 1866); the town lock and chain are within a mile or so of the bridge. Then succeed the English, Lamalee, and Spanish chains, and the Upper chain at the head of the rapids. The distance is about 11 m. Sandusky, Ia., was located between the English and Lamalee chains; Nashville, Ia., at the Spanish chain; Solferino, Ia., above the last; at or near one of these last two is Galland, Ia.; and on the Illinois side is a place called Sonora. On that side Cheney cr. falls in at Hamilton, and higher up are two others, known as Golden's and Quarry Sugar, but which used to be called Wagoner's and Larry's; while on the Iowan side Price's cr. falls in at the middle lock, Lamalee's at Sandusky, and several smaller ones at various points. The railroad and canal hug the Iowan side. At the head of the rapids the river makes a sharp bend; in the concavity of this bend stands Nauvoo, Ill., originally a Mormon settlement; it used to be called also Commerce. This is the place where Mr. Ewing had his establishment when he entertained Pike; the latter charts it as "U. S. Agricultural Estab^t." The Sac village opposite was on the site of the present town of Montrose, Ia. A large creek runs through this town. There are some islands at the head of the rapids, between Nauvoo and Montrose, one of which, No. 401 of the Miss. Surv. chart, is called Montrose. At the head of the bend, still opp. Nauvoo, is the lower end of Dobson's slough, which receives a stream charted by Nicollet and Owen as Sugar cr., but later dedicated to his Satanic majesty by the name of Devil's or Big Devil cr., called by Beltrami Manitou cr. Devil's isl. is the name of the large tract, nearly 4 m. long, which is isolated by Dobson's slough, certain sections of which latter are known as Big River and Potter's.

[I-20] James Wilkinson: see elsewhere for this letter, which formed Doc. No. 1, App. to Pt. 1. of the orig. ed. of this work. Pike's 5 or 6 m. takes him past Dobson's slough and Devil's or Sugar cr. and isl., and the sand-bar on which he camped is now represented by Niota isl., 2½ m. long, or one of the small ones close by. The locality is the well-known one of the city of Madison, or Fort Madison, seat of Lee Co., Ia. Opposite this city, in Hancock Co., Ill., are two little places, one called Niota, and the other Appannose (Nicollet), Appanoose (G. L. O. map), Appanooce (Miss. Surv. chart), etc. A certain creek which falls in by Niota and is known as Tyson's cr. seems to be the never-identified one which Lewis and Clark mapped in 1814 as Sand Bank cr.

A history of Lee Co., pub. Chicago, 1879, says that the city of Fort Madison was so called from the old fort and trading-post of that name. The author speaks of the tradition that this establishment was built by Zachary Taylor, when this distinguished general, afterward president of the United States, was a lieutenant in the army; and attempts to refute this tradition by an appeal to the War Department for the facts in the case. But unluckily, the information he derived from this source was erroneous; for the Hon. Geo. W. McCrary, then secretary of war, told him that the adjutant-general of the army reported to him (McCrary) that Fort Madison was erected by Pike in 1805. Whereas, besides imperishable renown, Pike erected nothing in 1805 but his stockade on Swan r., and various patriotic flag-poles. The difference between selecting or recommending a site for a fort, and building one on that site, is obvious at sight. But Pike did not even select or recommend this spot for a fort, the lowest one of several which he did pick out being at Burlington: see next note. Z. Taylor was a 1st lieut. of the 7th Infantry in 1808, appointed from Ky.; which fact, as far as it goes, supports the tradition. The Andreas Hist. Atl. of Ia. has it that the fort for which the town was named was built in 1808; evacuated and burned by hostile Indians, 1813 (qu. 1812?). On Monday, Aug. 4th, 1817, when Long visited the ruins of Fort Madison, there was nothing left but some old chimneys, a covert way leading from the main garrison to some sort of an elevated outwork in the rear, and a number of fruit-trees on the ground which had been a garden: see Minn. Hist. Soc. II., Part 1, 1860, 2d ed. 1890, p. 75. In the fall of 1832 one Peter Williams settled on the present site of the town. The old trading-house there was called Le Moine factory. The old fort stood close to the river, and as I judge within a third of a mile of the present State penitentiary.

[I-21] About 18 m., to a position above the mouth of Skunk r., a little below the Burlington bluffs; he calls it 5¼ m. to the locality he presently describes with particularity, and which will be recognized as the site of Burlington, seat of Des Moines Co., Ia. After passing Madison on his left, with Niota and Appanoose on his right, he goes up by Pontoosuc and Dallas, both in Hancock Co., Ill., and then has Henderson Co., Ill., on his right. Further up, on the left, Lee Co. is separated from Des Moines Co., Ia., by Skunk r. This is a large stream, whose present pleasant name translates the Indian word rendered Shikagua by Nicollet, and Shokauk by Featherstonhaugh; Lewis and Clark map it as Polecat r. Beltrami, 1828, calls it Polecat r. and River of the Bête Puante. Green Bay is a small place in Lee Co., on a sort of slough which discharges into the river behind Lead isl., and which is called Green bay. This is connected in some way, which for me remains occult, with a creek called by Nicollet Lost cr.; it is a part of the intricate waters between Skunk r. and that stream which runs through Madison past the State penitentiary, where the bridge that was built in 1887-88 strikes the Iowa side. Jollyville was a place on the same waters, but seems to have been lost like the creek. Some of the islands besides Lead, the present positions of which Pike passed, if not these islands themselves, are now known as Dutchman, Hog, Polk, Thompson, Peel, and Twin, the latter at the mouth of Skunk r. His camp I suppose to have been about on the spot where one Sauerwein used to keep his woodyard, about halfway between Twin isls. and the mouth of Spruce (or Spring) cr. This is nearly opp. the middle of the great island now called Burlington, formerly Big, being 7 m. long, separated from the Illinois mainland by Shokokon slough, on which there is or was a place called by this latter name. A number of creeks make into this slough, among them those called Dug Out, Honey (Camp cr. of Nicollet and Owen), and Ellison's. A place called Montreal started near Ellison's cr., but does not seem to have survived. What Pike maps as "Sand bank Creek," at a place he calls "Sand Bay," seems to be Dug Out cr., or the next one below, which falls into the slough behind Thompson's isl., near Dallas City.

[I-22] This is the prairie through which meanders Henderson r., 6 m. above Burlington. The Sac village was on its north bank. The prairie and the village are lettered on the map as per text; the river is shown there, without name; the Burlington bluffs are delineated, marked "Positions for a Fort." The present city was built across the mouth of Hawkeye cr., a rivulet which makes in above the steepest part of the bluff, where the Flint hills recede a little from the river; it extends to the larger Flint cr. or r., at whose mouth it may be said to be situated. Across the Mississippi is East Burlington, Ill., at the head of Shokokon slough; the bridge which the C., B. and Q. R. R. built in 1867-68 spans the river and connects the two places. There are numerous islands above Burlington, the principal of which are O'Connell's, Rush, and Otter. Above Henderson r. there is nothing of special note till we reach Oquawka, seat of Henderson Co., Ill., reckoned 13 m. by the channel above Burlington. Pike omits his customary mileages to-day, but did not get beyond Oquawka, which is at the head of the prairie on which he camped; for here begin some steep banks, known before and since Pike's day as the Yellow banks. He marks them on his map, and they are mentioned by the same name in Forsyth's narrative of 1819.

[I-23] We are not told which side of the river this was, and the sentence is otherwise ambiguous, as all streams hereabouts are branches of the river. We know he means a bayou or slough, by following which he expected soon to regain the Mississippi ahead of his boats, and I suppose that Huron slough, on the Iowa side, led him astray. The slough itself is not long, merely cutting off Huron and some smaller islands for four miles; but this receives Iowa slough, which meanders toward the river, and so would take Pike and Bradley away from the river if they followed it up. This supposition is strengthened by Pike's using the word "savannah," which with him means rather marsh or bog than prairie, and he would hardly have applied it to the better ground on the Illinois side if he had gone there and been misled by Henderson r. Moreover, he continues to camp on the west side, as he would naturally do after loss of the two men who went to find his dogs; and also he expected to recover the men at the place above where the hills first come down to the river, which is at Muscatine, Ia. He does not say who these men were; they were not recovered till Sept. 1st, at Dubuque.

[I-24] This mileage is excessive, as are all those hence to Rock Island or Davenport, the distance of which by the channel is 70 m. from Oquawka, though Pike makes it 92. Moreover, the distance from Oquawka to New Boston, directly opposite the mouth of the Iowa r., is only 18 m., and Pike remains below the Iowa r. to-day. What with sloughing it, losing his dogs, and waiting for his men, he did not get much beyond Keithsburg, Mercer Co., Ill., which we may safely take as to-day's datum-point. This is built under a bank at the mouth of Pope's cr., and so far answers the requirements of Pike's camp opposite it. The situation is in Louisa Co., Ia., but a little distance over the boundary of Des Moines Co. Excepting Keithsburg, no notable point is passed to-day. A place called Huron was started on the slough of that name, but it never came to anything. Huron isl. is called Thieves' isl. on some maps. The large one (No. 355) opp. Keithsburg, and crossed by the railroad, is separated from the Iowan side by Black Hawk slough.

[I-25] Pike delineates "Sand Bank" on his map directly opposite the mouth of Iowa r. This is the site of New Boston, Mercer Co., Ill. The bank comes immediately upon the river with a frontage of 2 m., and Edwards r. falls in at the foot of the bank, 3½ m. above Pope's r. At New Boston the Mississippi turns sharply, so that the mouth of Iowa r. is rather on the S. than W.; and the bank on which is the town recedes northward, leaving low ground between itself and the Mississippi, watered by the ramifications of Sturgeon bay, Illinois slough, Swan lake, etc. This is what Pike means by his "Sand-bank prairie on the E. side." As to that "marked Grant's prairie," I should observe that no such name appears on the map as published; Pike referred to his immense original draft in water-colors, now preserved in the War Department, and from which the small printed map was reduced with the omission of too many details. What he means by Grant's prairie is the lowlands on the Iowa side before you come to Muscatine, which is the point where the hills first reach the river-side. Compare Apr. 26th, 1806. Grant's prairie is now known as Muscatine isl., being virtually cut off by Muscatine slough, whose lower mouth is hardly 2 m. above the Iowa r., though the upper entrance is at Muscatine--a distance of some 18-20 m. At one point this slough dilates into a body of water which is now called Keokuk lake, but which was charted by Nicollet as "L. Maskuding or in the Prairie." Here are obviously the origin and meaning of the name "Muscatine." The town now so called was once known as Bloomington. I suspect that "Grant's" prairie in Pike may be intended for _Grande_ prairie; thus Beltrami calls it Grande Prairie Mascotin, II. p. 196, and Forsyth has Grand Mascoutin. There was a place started by the name of Port Louisa on the Iowan side of the river, near one of the openings of Muscatine slough; but it seems to have disappeared after bequeathing the name to the county, whose seat is now Wapello. As to Pike's "28" miles to-day, that is best disposed of by observing that to-morrow he drags his boat "nine miles, to where the river Hills join the Mississippi," _i. e._, to Muscatine. So he camps on the Iowan side, a certain distance below Muscatine. We shall not be far out if we set him exactly on the boundary between Louisa and Muscatine cos., opp. the lower end of Blanchard's isl., behind the middle of which Copperas or Copper cr. falls in on the Illinois side.

The great Iowa r. should not be passed without remark. For the name in its extreme fluidity, see Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, p. 20. Some still more singular forms of the word than those there noted reach us from the time when the French writers and cartographers used the figure 8 for the letters _ou_; so that "Iowa" was liable to appear as Ay8ay (Ayouay), or in some such form: Neill cites forms sing. and pl. as Aye8ias, Ayo8ois, Ayooues, Ayavois, Ayoois, Ayouez, Ayoes, Aaiaoua, to which I can add Aiavvi; another series of words flows from the introduction of J or j: thus Pike, early text, 1807, p. 5, has Jowa, and I have noticed also Ajoe, Jaway, Joway, Jowah, etc. Beltrami, 1828, has Yawoha, Yahowa, and Yawowa. This river-system waters a great portion of the State, on courses S., S. E., and E. Pike says elsewhere that in ascending it 36 m. you come to a fork, the right-hand branch of which is called Red Cedar r. Waiving any question of distance, this is correct; and moreover, Red Cedar is the larger of the two forks, though by a very unusual freak of nomenclature the united stream Iowa takes the name of the lesser fork. He further says that Red Cedar r. branches out 300 m. from its mouth; which triple forking is "called the Turkey's foot." This term seems to have lapsed; the situation is in Black Hawk Co., above Cedar Falls, and one of the turkey's toes is called Shell Rock r. The notable town of Cedar Rapids is lower down, in Linn Co. The confluence of Iowa r. proper with Red Cedar is at Fredonia, Louisa Co.; Pike's map represents this by the pitchfork-shaped object, though it is not lettered with any name. He marks a village of Iowas "about 10 miles up," on the "right" bank, _i. e._, on the right-hand side going up, left bank. Iowa r. presents the anomaly of a great river with nothing to speak of at its mouth (New Boston is across the Mississippi). "Iowa City" seems never to have got much beyond its original wood-pile, and a similar "city" which Nicollet charts by the name of Black Hawk would be hard to find now. There is, however, a little place called Toolsboro, under the hill on the left bank, 2 m. above the mouth of the Iowa.

[I-26] Pirogues: see L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 4. Pike uses this form consistently. The most amusing variant of the word I have noticed occurs in Shea's Hennepin's Descr. Louisiana, Eng. tr., 1880, p. 156, where we read, "a number of parrakeets and about eighty cabins full of Indians," and an editorial note informs us that "the French printer put peroquets, but Margry's Relation gives the real word, 'pirogues,' 'canoes.'"

[I-27] The distance between Muscatine and Rock Island is 28 or 29 m. by the channel. As Pike has 6 or 8 m. to go before reaching Muscatine, makes "28½" to-day, and "22" to-morrow, we can confidently set him down to-night halfway between these two places--say vicinity of Montpelier, Muscatine Co., Ia., 4 or 5 m. below Buffalo, Ia., and Andalusia, Ill. There is no specially notable point in this whole stretch, after Muscatine is passed; the most of a place is Fairport, Ia., 3 m. above Tahma or Sweetland cr. Several places that were started seem to have died young, if they were not stillborn; we find on older maps such as Geneva, somewhere between Muscatine and Fairport on the Iowa side, and Wyoming, apparently in the same position as Fairport now is. Between Muscatine and Fairport the river is or was recently divided into Drury slough, Wyoming slough, and Hersey chute betwixt these. Pine cr. falls in on the Iowan side, 2½ m. above Fairport. Opposite Fairport the long Andalusia slough opens, running down on the Illinois side all the way from Andalusia, a distance of 9 m. Pike's camp was probably on the Iowan side (still in Muscatine Co.); across the river he has Rock Island Co., Ill.

[I-28] Actually about 16 m., to one of the most definite locations of the voyage thus far, in the heart of the present city of Davenport, seat of Scott Co., Ia., and directly opposite Rock Island, seat of Rock Island Co., Ill. Soon after passing present site of Montpelier, Pike went from Muscatine into Scott Co., Ia. Next are the two towns directly opposite each other, of Buffalo, Ia., and Andalusia, Ill.; the former is marked N. Buffalo on Nicollet's map; the other is called Rockport on Owen's map, or Rockport was then where Andalusia is now. Linwood, Ia., is a small place 2 m. above Buffalo; and 3 m. above this was the site of Rockingham, Ia. This last was started directly opposite the mouth of Rock r., but never flourished. In fact there is probably no place on the Mississippi where more mushroom towns have been projected on paper by unscrupulous speculators than about the mouth of Rock r.; and we observe that they mostly had resounding names, well known in other parts of the world. A certain Stephensonville is marked on Nicollet's map, apparently in the present position of the city of Rock Island. In the mouth of Rock r. is a triangular island, dividing the two outlets, and opposite this is Credit isl. (No. 312), 1½ m. long. Pike's camp in Davenport was probably about opposite the lower point of Rock isl., 2½ m. long; this is No. 307 of the Engineers' chart, and its lower end was utilized for the bridge built in 1869-72 by the C., R. I. and P. R. R. (Act of Congr., July 26th, 1868).