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Title: The Making of the Great West - 1512-1883
Author: Drake, Samuel Adams
Language: English
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Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Footnote 1 in the section "DEATH AND BURIAL OF DE SOTO" is missing.
There are two [7] anchors for Footnote 7 in the section "SWORD AND
GOWN IN CALIFORNIA".
There are two [3] anchors for Footnote 3 in the section "THE LOST
COLONY: ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS". The second appears to be a printer's
error.
No map was identified in the text showing the Santa Fé and Oregon
trails.
No section was found referring to the "Edmunds Bill".
The following alternate spellings were identified and retained:
practise and practice
Pekitanoüi and Pekitanoui
Clarke and Clark
Compte and Comte
Nicolet and Nicollet
Cortes and Cortez
Chicasaw and Chickasaw
New-England and New England.
[Illustration: CARTIER TAKING POSSESSION FOR FRANCE.]
THE
MAKING OF THE GREAT WEST
1512-1883
BY
SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE
_WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS_
London
GIBBINGS & COMPANY, LTD.
18 BURY STREET, W.C.
1894
COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
PRESSWORK BY BERWICK & SMITH, BOSTON, U.S.A.
PREFACE.
"_Time's noblest offspring is the last._"
This history is intended to meet, so far as it may, the want for brief,
compact, and handy manuals of the beginnings of our country.
Although primarily designed for young people, the fact has not been
overlooked that the same want exists among adult readers, to whom
an intelligent view of the subject, in a little space, is nowhere
accessible.
For the purpose in hand, the simplest language consistent with clearness
has been made use of, though I have never hesitated to employ the right
word, whenever I could command it, even if it were of more than three
syllables.
As in the "Making of New England," "this book aims to occupy a place
between the larger and lesser histories,—to so condense the exhaustive
narrative as to give it greater vitality, or so extend what the narrow
limits of the school-history often leave obscure as to supply the
deficiency. Thus, when teachers have a particular topic before them, it
is intended that a chapter on the same subject be read to fill out the
bare outlines of the common-school text-book.
"To this end the plan has been to treat each topic as a unit, to
be worked out to a clear understanding of its objects and results
before passing to another topic. And in furtherance of this method,
each subject has its own descriptive notes, maps, plans and pictorial
illustration, so that all may contribute to a thorough knowledge of the
matter in hand. The several topics readily fall into groups that have
an apparent or underlying connection, which is clearly brought out."
In this volume, I have followed up to its legitimate ending the work
done by the three great rival powers of modern times in civilizing
our continent. I have tried to make it the worthy, if modest, exponent
of a great theme. The story grows to absorbing interest, as the great
achievement of the age,—of the Anglo-Saxon overcoming the Latin race,
as one great wave overwhelms another with resistless force.
Under the title of "The Great West," the present volume deals mostly
with the section lying beyond the Mississippi. Another is proposed, in
which the central portion of the Union will be treated. The completed
series, it is hoped, will present something like a national portrait of
the American people.
CONTENTS.
GROUP I.—THREE RIVAL CIVILIZATIONS.
I. The Spaniards.
PAGE
AN HISTORIC ERA 1
DE SOTO'S DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 10
DEATH AND BURIAL OF DE SOTO 18
THE INDIANS OF FLORIDA 20
HOW NEW MEXICO CAME TO BE EXPLORED 28
"THE MARVELLOUS COUNTRY" 39
FOLK LORE OF THE PUEBLOS 45
LAST DAYS OF CHARLES V. AND PHILIP II. 53
SWORD AND GOWN IN CALIFORNIA 55
II. The French.
PRELUDE 67
WESTWARD BY THE GREAT INLAND WATERWAYS 71
THE SITUATION IN A.D. 1672 80
COUNT FRONTENAC 84
JOLIET AND MARQUETTE 85
THE MAN LA SALLE 93
LA SALLE, PRINCE OF EXPLORERS 99
DISCOVERY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI 105
THE LOST COLONY: ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS 109
IBERVILLE FOUNDS LOUISIANA 118
FRANCE WINS THE PRIZE 123
LOUIS XIV. 130
III. The English.
THE BLEAK NORTH-WEST COAST 132
HUDSON'S BAY TO THE SOUTH SEA 136
THE RUSSIANS IN ALASKA 140
ENGLAND ON THE PACIFIC 143
QUEEN ELIZABETH 147
_Interlude._
WHAT JONATHAN CARVER AIMED TO DO IN 1766 149
JOHN LEDYARD'S IDEA 153
A YANKEE SHIP DISCOVERS THE COLUMBIA RIVER 156
THE WEST AT THE OPENING OF THE CENTURY 162
GROUP II.—BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN IDEA.
I. America for Americans.
ACQUISITION OF LOUISIANA 171
A GLANCE AT OUR PURCHASE 175
II. The Pathfinders.
LEWIS AND CLARKE ASCEND THE MISSOURI 184
THEY CROSS THE CONTINENT 191
PIKE EXPLORES THE ARKANSAS VALLEY 198
NEW MEXICO IN 1807 205
GOLD IN COLORADO.—A TRAPPER'S STORY 208
THE FLAG IN OREGON 211
LOUISIANA ADMITTED 1812 214
III. The Oregon Trail.
THE TRAPPER, BACKWOODSMAN, AND EMIGRANT 215
LONG EXPLORES THE PLATTE VALLEY 219
MISSOURI AND THE COMPROMISE OF 1821 223
ARKANSAS ADMITTED 1836 227
THOMAS H. BENTON'S IDEA 227
WITH THE VANGUARD TO OREGON 233
TEXAS ADMITTED 241
_Interlude._
NEW POLITICAL IDEAS 246
IOWA ADMITTED 248
THE WAR WITH MEXICO 248
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO 251
TAKING OF CALIFORNIA 256
THE MORMONS IN UTAH 264
GROUP III.—GOLD IN CALIFORNIA, AND WHAT IT LED TO.
I. The Great Emigration.
EL DORADO FOUND AT LAST 271
SWARMING THROUGH THE GOLDEN GATE 276
THE CALIFORNIA PIONEERS 279
CALIFORNIA A FREE STATE 285
ARIZONA 288
II. The Contest for Free Soil.
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE 290
KANSAS THE BATTLE-GROUND 295
THE BATTLE FOUGHT AND WON 299
TWO FREE STATES ADMITTED 307
III. The Crown of the Continent.
GOLD IN COLORADO, AND THE RUSH THERE 308
THE PACIFIC RAILROADS 315
KANSAS, NEVADA, NEBRASKA, AND COLORADO
ADMITTED 320
THE RECENT STATES 322
THE WORK OF EIGHTY YEARS 326
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
TAKING POSSESSION FOR FRANCE _Frontispiece_
SPANISH ARMS 1
SHIP OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 2
ISABELLA OF SPAIN 3
MEDAL OF CHARLES V. 5
PONCE DE LEON 6
BALBOA DISCOVERING THE PACIFIC 8
FRENCH MAP OF 1542. FROM JOMARD 10
DE SOTO 11
SOLDIER OF 1585 12
CUBAN BLOODHOUND 14
DEPARTURE OF THE SPANIARDS 16
BURIAL OF DE SOTO 19
FLORIDA WARRIOR 21
PALISADED TOWN 23
A FLORIDA INDIAN'S CABIN 24
MAKING A CANOE 25
A CHIEFTAIN'S GRAVE 26
PROCESSIONAL FANS 27
ROCK INSCRIPTIONS, NEW MEXICO 29
MAP, NEW MEXICO. ROUTE OF SPANISH INVADERS 31
JUNCTION OF THE GILA AND COLORADO 34
ORGAN MOUNTAINS 36
EL PASO DEL NORTE 38
A PUEBLO RESTORED 41
ACOMA 43
CASA GRANDE, GILA VALLEY 44
RUINS OF PECOS 47
CEREUS GIGANTEA 49
PUEBLO IDOLS 50
HIEROGLYPHICS, GILA VALLEY 51
MAP, CALIFORNIA COAST 55
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE 57
DRAKE SAILS AWAY 58
OLD MAP SHOWING DRAKE'S PORT 60
CARMEL MISSION CHURCH 61
SPANISH MAP OF 1787, SHOWING MISSIONS,
PRESIDIOS, AND ROUTES 63
MAP FROM ARCANO DEL MARE, 1647 64
SHIPS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 68
A WOOD RANGER 70
CHAMPLAIN 72
A PORTAGE 73
TOTEM OF THE FOXES 76
FRENCH COSTUMES 77
FOX RIVER 78
LOUIS XIV. 82
MARQUETTE'S MAP 86
WILD RICE 87
TOTEM OF THE ILLINOIS 89
WAR CANOE, FROM LAHONTAN 90
THE CALUMET 91
LA SALLE 94
MAP SHOWING LA SALLE'S EXPLORATIONS 95
WAMPUM BELT 102
SIOUX CHIEF 107
SIOUX TOTEM 108
SUGAR PLANT 120
MAP SHOWING DELTA OF THE MISSISSIPPI
AND ADJACENT COAST 122
BIENVILLE 124
FRENCH SOLDIERS 126
NEW ORLEANS, 1719 129
ABANDONED HUT, NORTH-WEST COAST 133
HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S HOUSE, LONDON 135
HUDSON'S BAY SLED, LOADED 136
INDIAN MASK, WEST COAST 139
SEALS, ST. PAUL'S ISLAND 140
RUSSIAN CHURCH, ALASKA 141
SNOW SPECTACLES, ALASKA 144
INDIAN CARVING 144
INDIAN GRAVE, NORTH-WEST COAST 155
QUEEN ELIZABETH 148
FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY 151
INDIAN BURIAL SCAFFOLD 152
MAP, MOUTH OF COLUMBIA RIVER 157
MEDAL, SHIPS COLUMBIA AND WASHINGTON 159
AN OREGON BELLE 161
A FLAT-BOAT 164
ON THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI 167
A LOUISIANA SUGAR-PLANTATION 176
FRENCH SETTLEMENTS: GERM OF ST. LOUIS 177
OLD CONVENT, NEW ORLEANS 179
MAP, ST. LOUIS AND VICINITY 180
CHOUTEAU'S POND, ST. LOUIS 181
ROCK TOWERS NEAR DUBUQUE 182
MOUNTAIN GOAT, OR BIG-HORN 185
INDIANS MOVING CAMP 186
A MANDAN 188
MANDAN SKIN BOATS 190
GATE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 193
CATCHING SALMON, COLUMBIA RIVER 196
MAP ILLUSTRATING LIEUT. PIKE'S
EXPLORATIONS 199
INDIAN BURIAL-PLACE 200
PIKE'S PEAK 202
THE YUCCA-TREE; SPANISH BAYONET 205
CHURCH, SANTA FÉ, WITH FORT MARCY 207
AN EMIGRANT'S CAMP 217
MAP ILLUSTRATING LONG'S EXPLORATIONS 220
PRAIRIE-DOG VILLAGE 221
DIGGING IN THE RIVER FOR WATER 222
STATUE OF BENTON 229
FORT LARAMIE 235
AMOLE, OR SOAP-PLANT 237
SAN ANTONIO 242
THE ALAMO 244
SAMUEL HOUSTON 245
MEXICAN CART 249
MEXICAN ARASTRA, FOR GRINDING ORES 250
PUEBLO WOMAN GRINDING CORN 253
BOY AND DONKEYS 254
PUEBLO OF TAOS 255
BIG TREE 257
MAP SHOWING STATES AND TERRITORIES
ACQUIRED FROM MEXICO 259
CALIFORNIA INDIANS AND TULE HUT 260
EL CAPITAN, YOSEMITE 262
SALT-LAKE CITY AND TABERNACLE 265
SUTTER'S MILL 272
TWO MINERS 274
THE GOLDEN GATE 276
CHINESE LAUNDRYMAN 277
A FATHER 280
MOUNT SHASTA 281
ON THE OREGON TRAIL 282
SAN FRANCISCO IN 1849 283
EARLY COIN 284
HYDRAULIC MINING 286
CHICKEN-VENDER 287
MISSION SAN XAVIER DEL BAC, NEAR TUCSON 289
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS 291
A SQUATTER'S IMPROVEMENTS 296
STREET, KANSAS CITY, 1857 297
LAWRENCE, KANSAS 298
THE FERRY, LAWRENCE, KANSAS 300
A SQUATTER MOVING HIS CLAIM 301
MUD FORT, LAWRENCE 303
JOHN BROWN 304
JOHN BROWN'S CABIN 305
GATE, GARDEN OF THE GODS 309
HUMORS OF THE ROAD 310
DENVER IN 1859 311
OVERLAND STAGE—IN CAMP 311
GOING IN 312
COMING OUT 312
OFFICE OF "ROCKY-MOUNTAIN NEWS," DENVER 312
COLORADO CITY, 1859 313
QUARTZ STAMPING-MILL 314
QUAKER GUN AT STAGE STATION 315
PONY EXPRESS AND OVERLAND STAGE 317
TRACK-LAYING, PACIFIC RAILROAD 319
REAPING-MACHINE 327
GROUP I.
THREE RIVAL CIVILIZATIONS.
"_True History, henceforth charged with the education of the People,
will study the successive movements of humanity._"—VICTOR HUGO.
I.
THE SPANIARDS.
AN HISTORIC ERA.
"_And from America the golden fleece_
_That yearly stuffs old Philip's treasury._"
_Marlowe's Faustus._
The story we have to tell was the problem of the sixteenth century, and
is no less the marvel of the nineteenth. Put in the simplest possible
form, the riddle to be solved in every palace of Christendom was, "How
is the discovery of a new world going to affect mankind?"
[Illustration: SPANISH ARMS.]
To make the whole story clear, from beginning to end, calls for an
effort to first put ourselves in relation with that remote time,—its
thought, its interests, its aims and civilization. Let us try to do this
now, at this time, when from our standpoint of achieved success we may
calmly look back over the field, and see clearly the causes which have
led up to it in orderly succession.
In the very beginning we see three rival civilizations. We see different
nations, each of which is putting forth efforts to grasp dominion in,
or stamp its own civilization upon, the New World in despite of the
other. We see civilization apparently engaged in defeating its own
ends. Naturally, then, our first interest centres in the combatants
themselves. Who and what are these Old World gladiators, who, in making
choice of the New for their arena, have stripped for the encounter?
[Illustration: SHIP OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.]
Great affairs were engaging the attention of the civilized world,
so great that nearly all Europe was up in arms. It was the era of
unsettled conditions,—of old jealousies and animosities revived, of new
opportunities and new adjustments created by them. But among the nations
of Europe power was very differently distributed from what we see it
to-day. Spain, not England, was acknowledged mistress of the seas.
Not yet had England wrested that proud title from her ancient rival in
the greatest naval battle of the century. Drake and Frobisher had not
been born. Hawkins was a lad, strolling about the quays of his native
seaport. Who, then, should dispute with Spain dominion of the seas?
The royal standard of Spain had indeed floated very far at sea. Columbus
had borne it even in sight of the shores of Mexico; but, though he had
given to Spain a new world, he, the man of his century, did not succeed
in finding his long-sought strait to India, and so had died without
seeing the one great purpose of his life accomplished.
[Illustration: ISABELLA OF SPAIN.]
Yet Columbus, so to speak, was a lever of Archimedes,[1] for with the
greatness of his idea he had moved both the Old World and the New. The
Old was thrown into commotion because of his discoveries and what they
implied to mankind, the New thrilled with the new life that stirred in
her bosom. Spain at once stepped forward into the front rank of nations.
How strange and striking are the events that have flowed from this one
idea working in one man's brain! And where, in all the history of the
world, shall we look for their equal?
By the time Columbus had returned to Spain, the Portuguese mariner,
Diaz, had also discovered the Cape of Good Hope. Upon this these two
proud and powerful nations, Spain and Portugal, agreed to divide between
themselves all the unknown lands and seas to the east and to the west
of a meridian line which should be drawn from pole to pole, one hundred
and seventy leagues west of the Azores. All other nations were thus to
be excluded from the New World.[2]
Having first secured a solid foothold in the Antilles,[3] through
Columbus and his discoveries, Spain early threw out her expeditions
into Florida (1512) and Mexico (1519). The one was the logical result
of the other, for St. Domingo and Cuba now assumed distinct importance,
as stations, whence it was easy to move forward upon new schemes of
conquest. In the harbors of these islands the Spaniards could refit
their ships or recruit their crews after the long ocean voyage from
Europe. Cuba, especially, became an arsenal of the highest military
importance, which Spain took great pains to strengthen.
So at the very outset, Spain held this great advantage over her
competitors. She possessed a naval station conveniently situated for
making descents upon the adjacent coasts, which none of them was able
to secure for themselves.
Columbus died in 1506; Ferdinand, King of Spain, whose name by the
accident of time is linked in with that of Columbus, had also died;
and now Charles, who shortly was crowned Emperor of Germany, began his
most eventful reign. The period it covers is one of the most momentous
in modern history, and as great occasions commonly bring forth great
men, so those monarchs who then ruled over the peoples of Europe were
worthy of the time in which they lived. Charles was himself one of the
greatest of these monarchs. Francis I. of France was another; Henry
VIII. of England another. Hence we have felt justified in saying, as we
did at the beginning of this chapter, that our starting-point was fixed
in an historic era; for every thing betokened that as between such men
as these were the struggle was to be a contest of giants.
[Illustration: MEDAL OF CHARLES V.]
During this reign the conquests of Mexico and Peru took place. During
this reign Spain was raised to such a height of greatness as had never
before been known in her history. Europe looked on in wonder to see
these grand schemes of conquest being carried on three thousand miles
away, while Spain's powerful neighbors were kept in awe at home. The
English poet Dryden, who wrote a play upon the conquest of Mexico, makes
Cortez and Montezuma hold the following dialogue, Cortez offering peace
or war:—
_Mont._ Whence, or from whom dost thou these offers bring?
_Cortez._ From Charles the Fifth, the world's most potent king.
Other nations would gladly have shared the riches of the New World with
the conquerors, but Spain haughtily warned away intruders, meaning to
keep the prize for herself alone.
It was then that Francis I. demanded to be shown that clause in the will
of Adam disinheriting him in the New World. But Spain was too formidable
to be attacked on the seas. On the land, the two great rivals met at
Pavia, where the pride of France was laid so low that after the battle
was over, Francis wrote to his mother the memorable words, so often made
use of in like emergencies, "Madam, all is lost except honor."
The pre-eminent grandeur of Spain, at this period, shines out all the
clearer by comparison with the inferior attitude of England, not only as
a military power, but in respect of peaceful achievement. By the light
Spain carried in the van of discovery other nations moved forward, but
at a distance indicating their respect for the dictator of European
politics.
[Illustration: PONCE DE LEON.]
It is worth our remembering that in the efforts made to obtain a
foothold upon the mainland, or _terra firma_,[4] as the Spaniards then
called it, the territory of the United States may claim precedence in
the order of time. Before Cortez landed in Mexico, Ponce de Leon had
discovered and named Florida. Therefore Florida was the first portion
of the North-American continent to receive the baptism of a Christian
name.[5]
Although, under this name of Florida, Spain first claimed every thing in
North America, it was the great central region lying about the tropics
to which her explorers first turned their attention.
Cortez landed on the Gulf Coast, unfurled his banner of "blood and
gold," set fire to his ships,[6] to let his followers know that for him
and them there was no retreat, and marched on into the heart of Mexico.
Two initial points are thus fixed from which to continue the story of
Spanish domination in the New World, Florida and Mexico.
Then again, having at last found their way across the Isthmus of Darien
to the South Sea[7] (1513), the Spaniards in a measure ceased from their
persistent and useless search for an open water-way to India. Cortez
presently hewed out another road, with the sword, across Mexico, to this
great western ocean. His achievement was quickly followed up by Ulloa
(1539), Cabrillo (1542), and other Spanish navigators, who were sent by
Cortez or the Viceroy to extend discovery up the coast. They coasted the
Gulf of California, first called the Vermilion Sea, and sailed beyond
it, as high as 30° North latitude.
So thanks to Cortez, Spain had secured the much-coveted way to India
at last. Yet when he came home to his native country, the king demanded
of those about him who Cortez was. "I am a man," said the conqueror of
Mexico, "who has gained your majesty more provinces than your father
left you towns."
Supreme on land and sea, Spain pushed on her conquests abroad without
hinderance. If such deeds as hers had so irritated the self-love of a
rival prince, how must they have stirred the blood of all those daring
spirits by whom Charles was surrounded, and who burned to distinguish
themselves in the service of their liege lord and sovereign. In America,
men said the making of a new empire had begun. If that were so, it meant
that men of energy, ambition and capacity, the kind of men on whom
fortune waits to bestow her choicest favors, should seek her there.
[Illustration: BALBOA DISCOVERING THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
"Silent upon a peak in Darien."—KEATS.]
But Mexico and Peru were already won. When, therefore, the Spaniards
began to look about them for new worlds to conquer, their eyes fell upon
Florida. It is true that all those who had set forth upon this errand
met with nothing but disaster.[8] A spell seemed hanging over this land
of flowers. The Spaniards had indeed, with much pomp, planted a cross,
strangely proclaiming themselves masters of the country; yet, without
power to hold a foot of ground, this cross stood a monument to their
failures, as its inscription seemed an epitaph to their presumption.
FOOTNOTES
[1] LEVER OF ARCHIMEDES. The saying attributed to this
celebrated mathematician of ancient times, that if they would
give him a fulcrum for his lever he would move the world, is
often employed in one or another sense as a figure of speech.
[2] POPE ALEXANDER VI. confirmed the act of partition by a
special decree, called a bull.
[3] ANTILLES, an early name of the West Indies.
[4] TERRA FIRMA, literally meaning firm land; a name first
used by the Spaniards to distinguish the American continent,
or that part first discovered, from the West India Islands.
[5] CHRISTIAN NAME, from its discovery on Easter Sunday,
_Pascha Floridum_—Flowery Easter.
[6] BURNING ONE'S SHIPS has passed into a proverb often used
to illustrate some act of extraordinary hardihood, by which
one puts it out of his power to draw back from an undertaking.
Cortez only followed the example of the Emperor Julian in
ancient Rome, and of William the Conqueror in England.
[7] SOUTH SEA. The Pacific Ocean was so first called.
[8] DISASTER befell the attempt of Narvaez upon Florida in
1528. Look it up.
DE SOTO'S DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.[1]
"_One may buy gold at too dear a price._"—_Spanish._
If we look at the earliest Spanish maps on which the Gulf of Mexico
is laid down, not only do we find the delta of a great river put in
the place where we would expect to see, on our maps of to-day, the
Mississippi making its triumphal entry into the sea, but the map-makers
have even given it a name—Rio del Espiritu Santo—meaning, in their
language, the River of the Holy Ghost.
[Illustration: FRENCH MAP OF 1542. FROM JOMARD.]
That this knowledge ought not to detract from the work of subsequent
explorers is quite clear to our minds, because the charts themselves
show that only the coast line[2] had been examined when these results
were put upon parchment. The explorers had indeed found a river, and
made a note of it, but had passed on their way without so much as
suspecting that the muddy waters they saw flowing out of the land before
them drained a continent. Had they made this important discovery, we
cannot doubt their readiness to have profited by it in making their
third invasion of Florida. So the discovery, if it can be called one,
had no practical value for those who made it, and the country remained
a sealed book as before. We cannot wonder at this because La Salle
subsequently failed to find the river when actually searching for it,
though he had seen it before.
With 600 men, both horse and foot, thoroughly equipped and ably led,
Hernando de Soto[3] set sail from Havana in May, and landed on the
Florida coast on Whitsunday[4] of the year 1539.
[Illustration: DE SOTO.]
De Soto did not burn his ships, like Cortes, but sent them back to
Havana to await his further orders. These Spaniards had come, not as
peaceful colonists, looking for homes and a welcome among the owners of
the soil, but as soldiers bent only upon conquest. De Soto, as we have
seen, had brought an army with him. Its camp was pitched in military
order. It moved at the trumpet's martial sound. Two hundred horsemen
carrying lances and long swords marched in the van. With them rode
the Adelantado, his standard-bearer and suite. Behind these squadrons
marched the men of all arms—cross-bowmen, arquebusmen, calivermen,
pikemen, pages and squires, who attached themselves to the officers in
De Soto's train—then came the baggage with its camp-guard of grooms and
serving-men: and last of all, another strong body of infantry solidly
closed the rear of the advancing column, so that whether in camp or
on the march, it was always ready to fight. In effect, De Soto entered
Florida sword in hand, declaring all who should oppose him enemies.
[Illustration: SOLDIER OF 1585.]
De Soto enforced an iron discipline, never failing, like a good soldier,
himself to set an example of obedience to the orders published for the
conduct of his army. In following his fortunes, it is well to keep the
fact firmly in mind that De Soto was embarked in a campaign for conquest
only.
Toward the unoffending natives of the country the invaders used force
first, conciliation afterwards. As in Mexico and Peru, so here they
meant to crush out all opposition,—to thoroughly subjugate the country
to their arms. De Soto had served under Pizarro, and had shown himself
an apt pupil of a cruel master. The Indians were held to have no rights
whatever, or at least none that white men were bound to respect. Meaning
to make slaves of them, the Spaniards had brought bloodhounds to hunt
them down, chains with iron collars to keep them from running away, and
wherever the army went these poor wretches were led along in its train,
like so many wild beasts, by their cruel masters. On the march they were
loaded down with burdens. When the Spaniards halted, the captives would
throw themselves upon the ground like tired dogs. When hungry they ate
what was thrown to the dogs. So far as known, Hernando de Soto was the
first to introduce slavery,[5] in its worst form, into the country of
Florida, and in this manner did this Christian soldier of a Christian
prince set up the first government by white men begun in any part of
the territory of the United States.
The Spaniards were seeking for the gold which they believed the country
contained. At the first landing, a Spaniard,[6] who had lived twelve
years among the Florida Indians, was brought by them into the camp among
his friends. The first thing De Soto asked this man was whether he knew
of any gold or silver in the country. When he frankly said that he did
not, his countrymen would not believe him. The Indians, when questioned,
pointed to the mountains, where gold is, indeed, found to this day.
Though he did not believe him, De Soto took the rescued man along with
him as his interpreter.
[Illustration: CUBAN BLOODHOUND.]
It was said, and by many believed, that somewhere in Florida stood a
golden city, ruled over by a king or high priest who was sprinkled from
head to foot with gold-dust instead of powder. This story was quite
enough to excite the cupidity of the Spaniards, who grew warm when
speaking of this city as the El Dorado,[7] or city of the Gilded One.
Such fables would not now be listened to by sensible people, but in
the time we are writing of they were firmly believed in, not only by
the poor and ignorant, but by the greatest princes in Christendom, as
well. No doubt they helped to fill De Soto's ranks. Lord Bacon tells
us that in all superstitions wise men follow fools, and as this was a
superstitious age, we can readily believe him. The great, the prolific,
the true mines of the country, the cultivation of the soil, was not
thought of by these soldiers of fortune who followed De Soto into
Florida.
This ill-starred expedition is memorable rather for its misfortunes than
because of any service it has rendered to civilization. Most graphically
are these shadowed forth in the death and burial of De Soto himself,
and in that sense they will stand for all time on the page of history
as a memorial to what men will dare and suffer for greed of gold. In
any other cause the expedition would be worthy an epic.
Although composed of the best soldiers in the world, with a valiant and
skilful captain for its leader, the little army became so hopelessly
entangled, so utterly lost in the primeval wildernesses, that to this
day it has never been possible to trace out the true course of that
fatal march.[8] Wherever he could hear of gold, thither De Soto led his
weary and footsore battalions. When baffled on one side, he turned with
rare perseverance to another. And though they were being wasted in daily
combats, though famine and disease followed them step by step through
swamp and everglade, over mountains and rivers, still, with wondrous
fatuity, De Soto pushed ever on. Like an enchantress his El Dorado had
lured him on to his destruction.
For about two years De Soto and his companions wholly passed from
the knowledge of men. A miserable remnant of this once gallant band
then made their way to the coast, not indeed as conquerors, but as
fugitives.[9]
[Illustration: DEPARTURE OF THE SPANIARDS.]
Just where these years were passed is not clear. Long ago time
obliterated all traces of the invaders' march. So the clew is lost. Yet
we do know that one day in May, 1541, two years after its first landing,
the army halted on the banks of an unknown river almost half a league
broad. One of the soldiers says of it, that if a man stood still on the
other side it could not be discerned whether he was a man or no. The
river was of great depth, and of a strong tide which bore along with
it continually many great trees. All doubt vanishes. This could be no
other than the "Father of Waters" itself.
FOOTNOTES
[1] MISSISSIPPI RIVER first mentioned (Indian). The name
is variously spelled by early writers. "Father of Waters,"
or "Great Father of Waters," is the accepted meaning. Most
probably the _Espiritu Santo_ of the earliest known Spanish
map of Florida (1521), of Sebastian Cabot's (1544); and _St.
Esprit_ of the one given in the text, though the Mobile may
be meant. De Soto's people seem first to have called it _Rio
Grande_ or Great River. This disaster brought exploration
in this quarter to a full stop for forty years, when it was
resumed by the French, of whose efforts we shall presently
speak. The river then appears on a map of the explorer Louis
Joliet (1674) under its present name, though there spelled
"_Messasipi_." From this time the name superseded all others.
[2] GULF COAST of Florida is laid down with tolerable
accuracy on a map of 1513 (Ptolemy, Venice). Garay examined
it in 1518. By 1530 (Ptolemy, Basle) the Gulf Coast had
obtained quite accurate delineation. The Gulf, itself, being
the highway for ships bound to Mexico and Yucatan, was well
known to Spanish sailors. Erelong it became an exclusively
Spanish sea on which no other flag was allowed.
[3] HERNANDO DE SOTO is described by one of his followers
as "a stern man of few words, who, though he liked to know
and sift the opinions of other men, always did what he liked
himself, and so all men did condescend unto his will."—_Rel.
Portugall._
[4] WHITSUNDAY, or Whitsuntide, a festival of the Christian
Church commemorating the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the
apostles.
[5] SLAVERY, a certain type, it is true, existed among
the Indians of this continent, who held their captives in
semi-servitude, though the condition was totally different, in
that the captive was considered eligible for adoption into the
family and tribe of his master. Among the Indians the question
of social equality had nothing to do with their policy toward
their prisoners, or such as refused to become incorporated
with themselves.
[6] A SPANIARD who came with Narvaez to Florida, named Juan
(John) Ortiz.
[7] EL DORADO. Bear this name in mind. We shall meet with it
again.
[8] THAT FATAL MARCH. The one clew to the route De Soto
took in his wanderings up and down what are now the Gulf
States, is found in the names of various Indian nations whose
countries he traversed. Thus the names Apalache, Coça (Coosa),
Tuscaluca (Tuscaloosa), and Chicaça (Chicasaw) are so many
landmarks. But no precise data remain from which to lay down,
with reasonable accuracy, a journey which extended over at
least eight or ten states, covered thousands of miles, and
occupied years in making. De Soto's crossing place is placed
on Pownall's (Eng.) official map of 1755 at or near Osier
Point, on the east bank, now corresponding with the north-west
corner of the State of Mississippi and De Soto County. On
a map of 1775, it is fixed on the thirty-fourth parallel,
some distance below the ancient village of the Arkansas, or
"Handsome Men."
[9] As FUGITIVES, De Soto's followers, under command of
Moscoso, his successor, built themselves boats, in which
they descended the Mississippi to the coast, finally reaching
Tampico, in Mexico, "whereat the viceroy greatly wondered."
DEATH AND BURIAL OF DE SOTO.
"_By a Portugall of the Company._"
"The Gouernour felt in himselfe that the houre approached, wherein
he was to leaue this present life, and called for the Kings Officers,
Captaines and principall persons. Hee named Luys de Moscoso de Aluarado
his Captaine generall. And presently he was sworne by all that were
present, and elected for Gouernour. The next day, being the one and
twentieth of May, 1542, departed out of this life, the valorous,
virtuous, and valiant Captaine, Don Fernando de Soto, Gouernour of
Cuba, and Adelantado of Florida: whom fortune aduanced, as it vseth
to doe others, that he might have the higher fall.[1] Hee departed in
such a place, and at such a time, as in his sicknesse he had but little
comfort: and the danger wherein all his people were of perishing in that
countrie, which appeared before their eyes, was cause sufficient, why
euery one of them had neede of comfort, and why they did not visite nor
accompanie him as they ought to have done. Luys de Moscoso determined
to conceale his death from the Indians, because Ferdinando de Soto had
made them beleeue, that the Christians were immortall; and also because
they tooke him to be hardy, wise, and valiant: and if they should knowe
that hee was dead, they would be bold to set upon the Christians, though
they liued peaceably by them.
"As soon as he was dead, Luys de Moscoso commanded to put him secretly
in an house, where he remayned three dayes: and remouing him from
thence, commanded him to be buried in the night at one of the gates of
the towne within the wall. And as the Indians had seene him sick, and
missed him, so did they suspect what might be. And passing by the place
where he was buried, seeing the earth moued, they looked and spake one
to another. Luys de Mososco vnderstanding of it, commanded him to be
taken up by night, and to cast a great deale of sand into the Mantles,
wherein he was winded vp, wherein he was carried in a canoa, and throwne
into the midst of the riuer. The Cacique of Guachoya inquired of him,
demanding what was become of his brother and lord, the Gouernour: Luys
de Moscoso told him, that he was gone to Heauen, as many other times he
did: and because he was to stay there certaine dayes, he had left him
in his place. The Cacique thought with himselfe that he was dead; and
commanded two young and well proportioned Indians to be brought thither;
and said, that the vse of that countrie was, when any Lord died, to
kill Indians, to waite vpon him, and serue him by the way: and for that
purpose by his commandement were those come thither: and prayed Luys de
Moscoso to command them to be beheaded, that they might attend and serue
his Lord and brother. Luys de Moscoso told him, that the Gouernour was
not dead, but gone to Heauen, and that of his owne Christian Souldiers,
he had taken such as he needed to serue him, and prayed him to command
those Indians to be loosed, and not to vse any such bad custome from
thenceforth."
[Illustration: BURIAL OF DE SOTO.]
THE INDIANS OF FLORIDA.
_Indian High Priest. "Old prophecies foretell our fall at hand.
When bearded men in floating castles land,
I fear it is of dire portent._"—_Dryden's Indian Emperor._
De Soto's invasion of Florida is, we think, most memorable for what
it has preserved touching the manners and customs of the Indians with
whom the Spaniards dealt in such evil sort. In this light only has
it historic value. Though incomplete as to details it is our earliest
portrait of this singular people, as they existed a full century before
New England was settled, and so marks a definite limit of history whence
to date that knowledge from.
Yet when we shall have gone so far back in the history of this primitive
race as the beginning of the sixteenth century, nothing is found in
their manners, customs or traditions, as they have come down to us,
which would go to confirm the theory that the ancestors of these people
were more civilized than themselves. The little they seem to have known
about it belongs to the very infancy of art, not to its growth out of
lower conditions. These Indians knew how to make beads of the pearl
oyster. So did those of New England know how to make shell wampum. The
Florida Indians could weave cloth of the fibre of wild hemp and dye it
prettily; they could tan, dress, and decorate deerskins; had found out
how to mould rude earthen vessels and bake them in the sun. In some of
these things they certainly surpassed their brethren of New England,
though their arms and implements are quite like those used farther
north. Then inasmuch as all the tools they had to work with were of
the rudest sort, being shaped out of stone or bone, so the making of
most things cost them a great deal of time and labor, and hence the
mechanical arts in use among them were such only as spring from the
first and most pressing wants of a people, as is everywhere the case in
the history of primitive man.[1]
[Illustration: FLORIDA WARRIOR.]
It must be borne in mind that what we are told about these Florida
Indians is written by their enemies. Therefore, when their courage is
praised, we feel that they must have deserved it. Perhaps what most
astonishes us about the narratives themselves is the cold-blooded way in
which they recount the slaughter made of these Indians, who seem hardly
to have been considered in the light of human beings.
It would seem as if the ill-repute of the Spaniards must have gone
before them, for upon nearing the Florida shore the invaders saw smokes
everywhere curling above it, which they soon found were lighted for the
purpose of warning the inhabitants to be on their guard.
The first Indians met with were instantly set upon by De Soto's
horsemen, who had nearly killed John Ortiz before they discovered him
to be a Christian like themselves. Though in doubt what the landing
of so many white men could mean, these Indians were loyally bringing
Ortiz as a peace-offering to the Spanish camp. It is worth while to
remember this, since on the part of the Spaniards the first act was one
of violence and intimidation.
Therefore, whenever the Spaniards approached an Indian town, the
inhabitants fled from it in terror; and so in order to procure guides
to lead them, or porters to carry the baggage, while on the march, De
Soto found himself obliged to seize by force such Indians as his own men
could lay hands upon. On these he put chains and caused them to bear the
burdens of his soldiers. If possible, a chief was kidnapped to be held
a hostage for the good conduct of his tribe. No Spaniard was therefore
safe outside his encampment.[2]
Again, the Spaniards plundered the villages they entered of whatever
they stood in need, just the same as if they were in a conquered
country. If they wanted corn they took it; if they found any thing of
value they helped themselves, without making any show of paying for it.
In consequence, the exasperated Indians everywhere obstructed De Soto's
march so far as it lay in their power to do so; and on the other hand,
in proportion to the resistance he met with, De Soto treated the natives
with greater or less severity. We know these Indians therefore, for men
of courage, since in defence of their homes and liberties they could
fight with naked breasts against men in armor, and with bows and arrows
against fire-arms.[3]
[Illustration: PALISADED TOWN.]
So that by the time De Soto arrived at the Mississippi, he had lost over
a hundred men and most of his horses.
What such treatment would be likely to lead to is easily foreseen.
Most surely it sowed the seeds of future hostility to the white man
broadcast. His cruelty became a tradition. The Indian has a long memory
and is by nature revengeful. From having looked upon the whites as gods,
gifted with all good and beneficent things, the Indian quickly perceived
them to be a cruel people filled with avarice, and bent on destroying
him. His worst enemies could do no more. And thus the two races met each
other in the New World.
We should not omit to mention here one of the strangest things that fell
out in the whole course of the expedition. When the Spaniards came to
the town of Quizaquiz, where they made some stay, Indians flocked there
from distant villages in order to see for themselves what manner of
people had come among them; for they said it had been foretold them by
their fathers' fathers that men with white faces should come and subdue
them, and now they believed the prophecy had come true.
[Illustration: A FLORIDA INDIAN'S CABIN.]
In appearance, the Indian villages and towns we're everywhere much the
same. The houses were little round cabins, built of wooden palings,
sometimes thatched with palm leaves, sometimes with canes or reeds laid
on the roof in the manner of tiles. The better to resist the fierce
Gulf winds, they were built low on the ground. In the colder climates,
the walls would be smeared over with clay. The only difference to be
perceived between the cabins of the common sort and the dwellings of
the chief men was that they were larger and more roomy residences, with
sometimes a gallery built out over the front, under which the family
could sit in the heat of the day.
Every little knot of cabins would have one or more corn-cribs close
beside it. This was a loft or granary set up in the air on poles,
exactly in the manner now practised by the whites, and for the like
purpose of storing up maize or Indian corn which was universally
cultivated. Only for the supplies of maize everywhere found, both the
Spaniards and their horses would soon have starved, as corn[4] became
their only article of food, and ofttimes they had to go hungry for want
of it.
[Illustration: MAKING A CANOE.]
Men and women wore mantles woven either of the bark of trees or of a
wild sort of hemp which the Indians knew how to dress properly for the
purpose. They also understood the art of tanning and dyeing such skins
as were obtained in the chase, which they also made up into garments.
Two of these mantles made a woman's usual dress. One was worn about
them, hanging from the waist down, like a petticoat or gown, the other
would be thrown over the left shoulder with the right arm bared, after
the manner of the Egyptians. The warriors wore only this last mantle,
which allowed them free use of the right arm in drawing forth an
arrow from the quiver, or in bending the bow. When dressed up in his
head-gear of feathers, and wearing his ornamented mantle flung across
his shoulder, bow in hand, and carrying his well-filled quiver at his
back, the Indian warrior made no unpicturesque figure, even beside the
heavily-armed white man, for he was of a well-proportioned and muscular
build, with good features, an eye like the eagle's, and a bearing which
told of the manhood throbbing beneath his dusky skin.
[Illustration: A CHIEFTAIN'S GRAVE.]
The Indians of Florida worshipped both a god of good and evil. They also
made sacrifice to both spirits alike. In some places they worshipped and
sacrificed to the sun as the great life-giving principle; in others they
had a curious custom when any great lord died, of sacrificing living
persons to appease or comfort his spirit with the offering of these
other spirits who were to serve him and bear him company in the happy
hunting-grounds.
Some tribes kept their dead unburied for a certain time in a rude sort
of pantheon, or temple, dedicated to their gods.[5] Over this a strict
watch was kept to guard against the intrusion of evil spirits who were
supposed to lie in wait, in the form of some prowling beast of prey.
This custom sprung from a belief that the spirits of the dead revisited
their mortal bodies at times.
Besides maize, pumpkins, beans, and melons, whatever natural fruits the
country produced the Indian lived on. He hunted and fished. The summer
was his season of plenty, the winter one of want, sometimes of distress,
but in the semi-tropical region, bordering upon the Gulf, his wants were
fewer and more easily supplied, and hence, as a rule, life was freer
from hardship than in more northern climes.
[Illustration: PROCESSIONAL FANS.]
The stronger nations made war upon the weaker, but treaties were
duly respected. The vanquished were compelled to pay tribute to the
conquerors or join themselves with some stronger tribe than their own.
The languages differed so much with different nations, that De Soto
found he must have a new interpreter for every new nation he visited;
nevertheless the Indians quickly learned to speak the Spanish tongue. In
public the people behaved with great propriety, showed respect for their
rulers, and often confounded De Soto, who pretended to supernatural
powers, by the shrewdness of their replies. For instance, when the
Spaniard gave out that he was the child of the sun, a Natchez chief
promptly bid him dry up the river, and he would believe him. In some
places the Indians greeted the Spaniards with songs and music. Their
instruments were reeds hung with tinkling balls of gold or silver. When
the chieftain, or cacique, went abroad in state, men walked by his side
carrying screens elegantly made of the bright plumage of birds. These
were borne at the end of a long staff.
The Spaniards found the fertile parts of the country everywhere crowded
with towns, and very populous. But they did not find the gold[6] they
coveted so much. They called the Indians a people ignorant of all the
blessings of civilization, but to their honor be it also said, they were
free from the vices by which it is accompanied and degraded.
FOOTNOTES
[1] PRIMITIVE MAN. All the articles named as being found in
common use among the Florida Indians have been taken from the
burial mounds which exist in the States of Ohio, Georgia,
North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, etc. And all are
more or less referred to as so many evidences of an extinct
civilization.
[2] NARVAEZ pursued the same policy, and met with like
treatment.
[3] FIRE-ARMS of that period were very clumsy weapons indeed.
The arquebus was a short hand-gun, the caliver longer, and
with the help of a slow-match could be fired from a rest. Only
a certain proportion of the infantry were thus armed; the rest
carried pikes.
[4] CORN. The Indians' corn-mill was a smooth round hole worn
in the rock. A stone pestle was used. The coarse meal mixed
with water or tallow, or both, was then wrapped in leaves,
and baked in hot ashes.
[5] BURIAL PLACES. Upon finding one of these receptacles
for the dead, a Franciscan of Narvaez' company, who declared
the practice idolatrous, caused all the bodies to be burnt,
thereby much incensing the natives.
[6] GOLD. Hearing the Spaniards always asking for gold, the
natives shrewdly made use of it to rid themselves of these
unwelcome visitors, by sending them farther and farther away.
In reality the Indians had almost none of the precious metals,
but the finding of a few trinkets among them seems to have
dazzled De Soto's eyes.
HOW NEW MEXICO CAME TO BE EXPLORED.
_"Northward, beyond the mountains we will go,_
_Where rocks lie covered with eternal snow."_
In the disasters of Narvaez and De Soto, the movement from the side
of Florida towards the West had met with an untimely check. But,
strangely enough, it made progress in another quarter through these very
misfortunes.
For while De Soto was vainly seeking for gold on that side, his
countrymen were bestirring themselves in the same business in a quite
different direction, as we shall see.
[Illustration: ROCK INSCRIPTIONS, NEW MEXICO.]
At this time it was Don Antonio de Mendoza who was the emperor's viceroy
in Mexico. Now Mendoza aimed to gain distinction with his sovereign by
being the first who should discover and make known to the world, all the
unexplored region lying north of Mexico, which was accounted as rich as
any yet known to the Spaniards. Most of all, perhaps, Mendoza wished to
find the land's end in that northern direction, as by doing so he would
complete the work of putting a girdle round the continent, and gain the
glory of it for himself.
Various efforts were making to do this both by land and sea.[1] And
curiously enough these efforts came from the West.
For the purpose in hand Mendoza had with him in Mexico two or three
survivors[2] of Narvaez' expedition, who, in the most wonderful manner,
had made their way overland through the unknown regions of the North,
from Florida into Mexico. These men told the viceroy, Mendoza, that
the natives who dwelt among the mountains to the north were a very rich
people, who lived in great cities and had gold and silver in abundance.
Mendoza also held captive some Indians whose homes were in that far-away
country, which he was now meditating how to conquer.
Yet two important obstacles met Mendoza at the start. In the first
place, the unknown country, which the Spaniards vaguely knew by the
name of Cibola,[3] could be reached only through mountain defiles, so
rugged and inaccessible that men questioned whether it could be reached
at all. Nature had admirably adapted it for defence. Clearly, then, a
few resolute men might easily defend their country against a host, and
the Spaniards having reason to expect the most determined resistance
found a twofold hinderance in their way.
The second obstacle, the Spaniards had created for themselves, by
making slaves of all natives taken in arms. Rather than be slaves the
Indians had fled into the mountain fastnesses. As their fear of the
Spaniards was very great, these fugitives secreted themselves in the
most inaccessible places, choosing rather to live like wild beasts than
be branded like cattle with hot irons, and nursing their hatred of their
oppressors. Not venturing to come down into the open valleys where they
would be at the mercy of their conquerors, these unhappy people lived
in caves, or in stone dwellings perched high among the rocks, where they
could at least breathe the air of liberty unmolested. Those who formerly
lived in the valleys had also fled to the mountains when they heard of
the Spaniards' coming. So the Spaniards would have to contend not only
with nature, but with a brave and a hostile people, if they attempted
to subdue them.
[Illustration: NEW MEXICO.—ROUTE OF SPANISH INVADERS.]
Considering that great difficulties are often overcome or results
accomplished by simple means, the viceroy took a poor barefooted
friar[4] from his cell, gave him one of Narvaez' men for a guide, and
with a few natives of the country sent him out to explore the unknown
wilds. Upon reaching Culiacan, which was the most northerly place the
Spaniards had made their way to, the captive Indians were sent ahead
with messages of peace and good-will to the distrustful natives, who
took good care to keep out of the way.
These promises of peace induced a great many of the natives to come
down from the mountains; and once there they were easily won over with
gifts and kind words, and in gratitude for the promise not to capture
and enslave them as they had done, told the Spaniards to go and come
as freely as they chose. The natives were then sent home to spread the
news among their brethren.
The way being thus opened, the friar and his party set forth by one
route, while still another party, led by Vasquez de Coronado,[5] went
forward by a different one, on the same errand. Of the two parties, that
of the friar alone succeeded in penetrating far into the country, and
the information he brought back now reads more like a story from the
Arabian Nights than the sober record of one already well versed in the
country and people, such as Mendoza says he believed Father Marco to be.
Yet the father is thought to have reached Cibola, or Zuñi, which was the
object of his journey, when the murder of his negro guide caused him to
hasten back with all speed to the Spanish settlements.
So these attempts, as well as a second made by Coronado in the following
year, were fruitless in every thing except the formal act of taking
possession of the country, and the acquisition of some imperfect
geographical knowledge about the valleys of the Colorado,[6] the
Gila,[7] and the Rio Grande del Norte.[8] About all we can say of them
is that the explorers went through the country.
As in Florida, so here a long period of inaction followed these
failures. In both cases the Spaniards had come and seen, but not
conquered. The Mississippi flowed on untroubled to the sea, the heart
of the continent still kept its secret fast locked in the bosom of its
hills. But we know now that the gold and silver the Spaniards craved so
much to possess were there waiting for the more successful explorers.
It is forty years before we again hear of any serious effort made to
search out the secrets of this land of mystery. The Church then took
the matter in hand. It was wisely decided that the best way to conquer
the people was to convert them. Accordingly two pious Franciscans set
out from the Spanish settlements in New Biscay[9] on this errand. This
time they penetrated into the country by the valley of the Rio Grande,
under protection of a few soldiers, who, after conducting the fathers
to a remote part of this valley, left them to pursue their pious work
alone, and themselves returned to New Biscay. Hearing nothing from these
missionaries, those who had sent them fitted out an expedition in the
following year—1582—to go in search of them. This rescuing party brought
back a more exact knowledge of the country and people than had so far
been obtained through all the many explorers put together.
[Illustration: JUNCTION OF THE GILA AND COLORADO.]
In proportion as they advanced up the Rio Grande, these explorers
found everywhere very populous towns. The people lived well and
contentedly. Some were found who had even kept the faith taught them
by Christians,[10] long ago, but in general they worshipped idols in
temples built for the purpose. In the natives themselves the Spaniards
remarked a wide difference. Some went almost naked, and lived in poor
hovels of mud covered with straw thatch. Others, again, would be clothed
in skins, and live in houses four stories high. Often the natives
showed the Spaniards cotton mantles skilfully woven in stripes of white
and blue, of their own making and dyeing, which were much admired. It
seemed for the most part a land of thrift and plenty, for the towns were
populous beyond any thing the Spaniards had ever dreamed of. And the
farther north the explorers went, the better the condition of the people
became. Finding themselves in a land much like Old Mexico, in respect
of its mountains, rivers, and forests, the explorers gave it the name
of New Mexico.
One of the greatest towns visited, called Acoma,[11] contained above
six thousand persons. It was built upon the level top of a high cliff,
with no other way of access to it than by steps hewn out of the solid
rock which formed the cliff. The sight of this place made the Spaniards
wonder not a little at the skill and foresight shown in planning and
building these natural fortresses, which nothing but famine could
conquer. All the water was kept in cisterns. But this was not all the
aptitude these people showed in overcoming obstacles or supplying needs.
Their cornfields lay at some distance from the town. In this country
it hardly ever rains. So the want of rain to make the corn grow was
supplied by digging ditches to bring the water from a neighboring stream
into the fields. We therefore see how conditions of soil and climate
had taught the Indians the uses of irrigation.[12]
Turning out of the valley of the Rio Grande, to the west, the explorers
at length came to the province of Zuñi, where many Spanish crosses were
found standing just as Coronado had left them forty years before. Here
our Spaniards heard of a very great lake, situated at a great distance,
where a people dwelt who wore bracelets and earrings of gold. Part of
the company were desirous of going thither at once, but the rest wished
to return into New Biscay in order to give an account of all they had
seen and heard. So only the leader with a few men went forward, meeting
everywhere good treatment from the natives, who in one place, we are
told, showered down meal before the Spaniards, for their horses to tread
upon, feasting and caressing their strange visitors as long as they
remained among them.
[Illustration: ORGAN MOUNTAINS.]
These explorers returned to Old Mexico in July, 1583, by the valley
of the Pecos,[13] to which stream they gave the name of River of Oxen,
because they saw great herds of bison[14] feeding all along its course.
Out of these discoveries and reports came new attempts to plant a
colony on the Rio Grande. Nothing prospered, however, until 1598, when
Juan de Oñate[15] invaded New Mexico at the head of a force meant to
thoroughly subdue and permanently hold it. Oñate was named governor
under the viceroy. These Spaniards established themselves on the Rio
Grande, not far from where Santa Fé now is. Most of the village Indians
submitted themselves to the Spaniards, whose authority over them was,
at best, little more than nominal, though the roving tribes, the fierce
Apaches and warlike Navajoes, never forgot their hereditary hatred to
the Spaniards, with whom they kept up an incessant warfare.
With this expedition came a number of Franciscan missionaries who, as
soon as a town was gained over, established a mission for the conversion
of the natives. In 1601 Santa Fé was founded and made the capital. In
thirty years more the Catholic clergy had established as many as fifty
missions which gave religious instruction to ninety towns and villages.
New Mexico had now reached her period of greatest prosperity under
Spanish rule. For fifty years more the country rather stood still than
made progress. The Spaniards were too overbearing, and the old hostility
too deep, for peace to endure. Then, the system of bondage which the
Spaniards brought with them from Old Mexico, and most unwisely put in
practice here, bore its usual bitter fruit. Determined to be slaves no
longer, in 1680 the native New Mexicans rose in a body, and drove the
invaders out of the country with great slaughter. Upon the frontier of
Old Mexico the fugitives halted, and then founded El Paso del Norte,
which they considered the gateway to New Mexico, and so named it. It
took the Spaniards twelve years to recover from this blow. By that time
little was left to show they had ever been masters of New Mexico. But
a new invasion took place, concerning which few details remain, though
we do know it resulted in a permanent conquest before the end of the
century.
[Illustration: EL PASO DEL NORTE.]
As far back as 1687 Father Kino had founded a mission on the skirt of
the country lying round the head of the Gulf of California, to which the
Spaniards gave the name of Pimeria.[16] It will be noticed that once
again they were following up the traces of Father Marco and Coronado.
When the Spaniards took courage after this defeat, and again entered New
Mexico, Kino (1693) founded other missions in the Gila country which in
time grew to be connecting links between New Mexico and California, in
what is now Arizona.[17]
FOOTNOTES
[1] BY LAND AND SEA. As rivals, both Cortez and Mendoza
strove to be beforehand with each other. Cortez despatched
Ulloa from Acapulco, northward, July, 1539. Alarcon, sailing
by Mendoza's order in 1540, goes to the head of the Gulf of
California, and so finds the Colorado River, while a land
force, under Coronado, marched north to act in concert with
Alarcon.
[2] SURVIVORS OF NARVAEZ' EXPEDITION (FLORIDA, 1528). The
chief among these was Alvar Nuñez, sometimes called Cabeça
de Vaca (literally cow's head), who had been treasurer to the
expedition of Narvaez.
[3] CIBOLA. The Zuñi country of our own day. Supposed to be
derived from Cibolo, the Mexican bull, and therefore applied
to the country of the bison. Cibola is on an English map of
1652 in my possession. Zuñi is thirty miles south of Fort
Wingate.
[4] POOR BAREFOOTED FRIAR was Marco de Niza (Mark of Nice),
a friar of the Franciscan order. For a long time his story
was doubted. It is, in fact, an exaggerated account of what
is, clearly, a true occurrence.
[5] VASQUEZ DE CORONADO. (See note 1.)
[6] COLORADO (Co-lor-ah´-doe) Spanish, meaning ruddy or red.
First called _Tizon_, meaning a firebrand.
[7] GILA, pronounced Hee'la.
[8] RIO GRANDE DEL NORTE, Spanish, Great River of the North.
Usually called, simply, Rio Grande.
[9] NEW BISCAY. Northernmost province of Mexico, capital
Chihuahua (Shee´wah´wah).
[10] BY CHRISTIANS. Cabeça de Vaca and his companions.
[11] ACOMA, one of the seven cities of Cibola; forty-five
miles south of old Fort Wingate.
[12] IRRIGATION. Without it, it would hardly be possible to
raise crops in New Mexico to-day.
[13] VALLEY OF PECOS. East of, and parallel with that of the
Rio Grande.
[14] BISON. Cabeça de Vaca is the first to mention this
animal. One is said to have been kept as a show in Montezuma's
garden, where the Spaniards saw it for the first time. See
note 3.
[15] JUAN DE OÑATE. Hopeless confusion exists concerning the
proper date of this invasion.
[16] PIMERIA essentially corresponds with Arizona. It took
this name from the Pimos Indians of the Gulf.
[17] ARIZONA, or Arizuma, a name given by the Spaniards to
denote the mineral wealth of Pimeria, where silver and gold
were said to exist in virgin masses. Silver ores were, in
fact, discovered by the Spaniards at an early day. Originally
part of Senora (Sonora), Old Mexico.
"THE MARVELLOUS COUNTRY."
"_Antiquity here lives, speaks, and cries out to the
traveller, Sta, viator._"—_V. Hugo, The Rhine._
Mention has been made of the towns which the Spaniards came to in the
course of their marchings up and down the country. Men had told them,
in all soberness, that far away in the north-west seven flourishing
cities,[1] wondrous great and rich, lay hid among the mountains.
We remember that their first expeditions were planned to reach these
seven cities. Now, when, at last, the Spaniards did come to them, these
wonderful cities proved to be large, but not rich, full of people,
though by no means such as the white men expected to see there.
Though sorely vexed to think they had come so far to find so little, the
Spaniards were very much astonished by the appearance of these cities,
the like of which they had never seen before. So these cities hid away
among desert mountains were long remembered and often talked about.
But these cities were not cities at all, as the term is now understood.
Instead of many houses spread out over much ground, the builders plainly
aimed at putting a great many people into a little space. Yet the cities
they built were neither simply walled towns, nor simply fortresses, but
a skilful combination of both.
In the open plain they commonly consisted of one great structure
either enclosed by a high wall, or else so built round it that wall and
building were one.
On the other hand, if the pueblo[2] stood upon a height, the houses
would be built all in blocks, and have streets running through them,
though in other respects the manner of building was everywhere the same.
In either case, this style of architecture made them look less like the
peaceful abodes of peaceful men, than the strongholds of a warlike and
predatory race, whence the inmates might sally forth upon their weaker
neighbors, just as the lords of feudal times did from the rock-built
castles of the Rhine. It is plain they had grown up out of the necessity
for defence, as every thing else was sacrificed to its demands, and we
know that necessity is the mother of invention.
The single great house, in which all the inhabitants lived together,
is perhaps the most curious. Let us suppose this to be a three-story
building, parted off into from sixty to a hundred little rooms, with
something like a thousand people living in it. Could the outer wall be
taken away, the whole edifice would look like a monstrous honeycomb,
and in fact the pueblo was nothing else than a human hive, as we shall
presently see.
[Illustration: A PUEBLO RESTORED.]
Now the city of Acoma is one of those which are built upon a height.
The builders chose the flat top of a barren sandstone cliff, containing
about ten acres, which rises about three hundred feet above the plain.
In New Mexico such table-lands are called _mesas_, from _mesa_, the
Spanish word meaning table. Therefore, while no one knows its age, or
history, all agree that Acoma must go far back into the past. Acoma was
so strongly built that to-day it looks hardly different from what it
did when the Spaniards first saw it, perched on the top of its rock, in
1582.
We see then in the builders of Acoma a people gifted with a much higher
order of intelligence than the Red Indian, who is always found living
in huts, or hovels, of the rudest possible kind. The wild Indian always
carries his house about with him, and so is ever ready, at a moment's
notice, to
"Fold his tent, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away."
The sedentary Indian sometimes patterned his after the burrowing
animals, like the beaver, and sometimes after the birds of the air, like
the sparrow.
Now to describe Acoma itself. It consists of ranges of massive buildings
rising in successive tiers from the ground. The second story is set
a little back from the first, and the third a little back from the
second, so leaving a space in front of each range of buildings for
the inhabitants or sentinels to walk about in, in peaceful times, or
send down missiles upon the heads of their enemies in time of war. By
running up the outer wall of each story, for a few feet higher than
this platform, the builders made what is called a parapet in military
phrase, meant for the protection of the defenders. There were no doors
or windows except in the topmost tier. Acoma, then, was a castle built
upon a rock.
It would seem that only birds of the air or creeping things could gain
admittance to such a place. Indeed, there was no other way for the
inhabitants themselves to enter their dwellings except by climbing up
ladders set against the outer walls of the building for the purpose.
In this manner one could climb to the first platform, then to the
second, but could not get in till he came to the roof, through which he
descended by a trap door into his own quarters.
[Illustration: ACOMA.]
The whole collection of buildings being divided by partition walls
into several blocks, each containing sixty or seventy houses, is,
practically, the apartment hotel of to-day. The material commonly used
was adobe,[3] or bricks dried and hardened in the sun. Such a building
could not be set on fire or its walls battered down with any missiles
known to its time.
We see then that the Pueblo Indians must have had enemies whom they
feared,—enemies at once aggressive, warlike, and probably much more
numerous than themselves. How well they were able to meet these
conditions, their houses show us to this day.
[Illustration: CASA GRANDE, GILA VALLEY.]
Living remote from the whites, these people, like those of Old Zuñi,
have kept more of their primitive manners, and live more as their
fathers did, than those do who inhabit the pueblos of the Rio Grande,
where they have been longer in contact with Europeans. Forty years
ago they knew only a few Spanish words, which they had learned when
Spaniards held their country. In a remarkable manner, the people have
kept their own tongue and nationality free from foreign taint. From this
fact we are led to think them much the same people that they were long,
long ago.
There are other buildings in the country of the Gila, called _Casas
Grandes_,[4] or Great Houses, which are quite different from those
described in this chapter, but were apparently built for a similar
purpose of defence.
FOOTNOTES
[1] SEVEN CITIES. See preceding chapter.
[2] PUEBLO, Spanish for town or village.
[3] ADOBE, Spanish. The same material is much used throughout
New Mexico, Arizona, California, Utah, and Colorado.
[4] CASAS GRANDES, or Casas Montezumas. Lieut. Emory, U.S.A.,
thus describes one seen on the Gila: "About the noon halt
a large building was seen on the left. It was the remains
of a three-story mud house, sixty feet square, and pierced
for doors and windows. The walls were four feet thick. The
whole interior of the building had been burned out and much
defaced." Casa Grande is on a map of 1720; is on the Gila.
FOLK LORE OF THE PUEBLOS.
While professing Christianity, the Pueblo Indians have mostly kept
some part of the idolatrous faith of their fathers. Thus the two have
become curiously blended in their worship. We often see the crucifix,
or pictures of the Virgin hanging on the walls of their dwellings, but
neither the coming of the whites, nor the zeal of missionaries could
wholly eradicate the deeply grounded foundations of their ancient
religion. The little we know about this belief, in its purity, comes to
us chiefly in the form of legendary lore, although since the Zuñi have
been studied[1] with this object we have a much clearer conception of
it than ever before.
By this uncertain light we find it to be a religion of symbols and
mysteries, primarily founded upon the wondrous workings of nature for
man's needs, and so embodying philosophy growing out of her varied
phenomena. Therefore sun, moon, and stars, earth, sky, and sea, and
all plants, animals, and men were supposed to bear a certain mystical
relation to each other in the plan of the universe. Instead of one
all-supreme being, the Zuñi worshipped many gods each of whom was
supposed to possess some special attribute or power. Some were higher,
some lower down in the scale of power.
The phenomena of nature, being more mysterious, were thought to be more
closely related to the higher gods. If there was drought in the land,
the priests prayed for rain from the housetops, as the Prophet Elijah
did in the wilderness. Each year, in the month of June, they went up to
the top of the highest mountain, which they called the "Mother of Rain,"
to perform some secret ceremony touching the coming harvest. And because
rain seldom falls in this country, they made earnest supplication to
water, as a beneficent spirit, who ascended and descended the heavens
in their sight, and to the sun as the twin deity in whom lay the power
of life and death,—to ripen the harvest or wither all living things away
into dust.
Like the ancient Egyptians, of whom they constantly remind us, the Zuñi
believed animals possessed certain mystic powers, not belonging to man,
so investing them with a sacred character. Beasts of prey were supposed
to have magic power over other animals, hence the bear stood higher in
the Zuñi mythology than the deer or antelope. The Indians call this
magic power medicine, but the Zuñi gave it form to his own mind—the
substance of a thing unseen—by making a stone image of the particular
animal he had chosen for his medicine, which he carried with him to war
or the chase as a charm of highest virtue. We call this fetich-worship.
Each pueblo had one or more close, underground cells[2] in which
certain mysterious rites, connected, it is believed, with the worship
of the people, were solemnized. We are told that, at Pecos, the priests
kept watch night and day over a sacred fire, which was never suffered
to go out for a single moment, for fear some calamity would instantly
happen to the tribe. It is also said that when Pecos was assaulted and
sacked by a hostile tribe, the priests kept their charge over the sacred
fire while the tumult of battle raged about them. And when, at length,
the tribe itself had nearly died out, the survivors took the sacred
fire with them to another people, beyond the mountains, where it is kept
burning as the symbol of an ever-living faith.
[Illustration: RUINS OF PECOS.]
Another legend goes on to say that an enormous serpent was kept in a den
in the temple of Pecos to which on certain occasions living men were
thrown as a sacrifice. Both legends would seem to point to Pecos as a
holy place, from which the priests gave out instruction to the people,
as of old they did from the temples of the heathen gods.
The tradition of the origin of the Zuñi, as told by Mr. Cushing, is
almost identical with that held by the Mandans of the Upper Missouri.
Each says the race sprung from the earth itself, or rather that the
first peoples lived in darkness and misery in the bowels of the earth,
until at length they were led forth into the light of day by two
spirits sent from heaven for their deliverance, as the Zuñi say, or by
discovering a way out for themselves, as the Mandans say.[3]
A tradition of the Pimos[4] Indians makes a beautiful goddess the
founder of their race. It says that in times long past a woman of
matchless beauty resided among the mountains near this place. All the
men admired and paid court to her. She received the tributes of their
devotion, grain, skins, etc., but gave no favors in return. Her virtue
and her determination to remain secluded were equally firm. There came
a drought which threatened the world with famine. In their distress
the people applied to her, and she gave them corn from her stock, and
the supply seemed endless. Her goodness was unbounded. One day as she
was lying asleep a drop of rain fell upon her and produced conception.
A son was the issue, who was the founder of the race that built these
structures.
But Montezuma[5] is the patriarch, or tutelary genius, whom all the
Indians of New Mexico look to as their coming deliverer.
One tradition runs that Montezuma was a poor shepherd who tended sheep
in the mountains. One day an eagle came to keep him company. After a
time the eagle would run before Montezuma, and extend its wings, as if
inviting him to seat himself on its back. When at last Montezuma did so,
the eagle instantly spread its wings and flew away with him to Mexico
where Montezuma founded a great people.
Ever since then the Indians have constantly watched for the second
coming of Montezuma, and thenceforth the eagle was held sacred, and has
become a symbol among them. He is to come, they say, in the morning, at
sunrise, so at that hour people may be seen on the housetops looking
earnestly toward the east, while chanting their morning prayers,
for like the followers of Mahomet, these people chant hymns upon the
housetops. Although beautiful and melodious these chants are described
as being inexpressibly sad and mournful.
[Illustration: CEREUS GIGANTEA.]
In person the people are well formed and noble looking. They are honest
among themselves, hospitable to strangers, and unlike nomads, are wholly
devoted to caring for their crops and flocks. They own many sheep. They
raise corn, wheat, barley and fruit. One pueblo raises corn and fruit,
another is noted for its pottery, while a third is known for its skill
in weaving.
But after all, these Pueblo Indians are only barbarians of a little
higher type than common. Whenever we look closely into their habits
and manners, we are struck with the resemblances existing among the
whole family of native tribes. If we assume them to have known a
higher civilization they have degenerated. If we do not so assume, the
observation of three centuries shows them to have come to a standstill
long, long ago.
* * * * *
PUEBLO CUSTOMS. When the harvest time comes the people abandon their
villages in order to go and live among their fields, the better to watch
over them while the harvest is being gathered in.
[Illustration: PUEBLO IDOLS.]
Grain is threshed by first spreading it out upon a dirt floor made as
hard as possible, and then letting horses tread it out with their hoofs.
It is then winnowed in the wind.
The woman, who is grinding, kneels down before a trough with her stone
placed before her in the manner of a laundress's wash-board. Over this
stone she rubs another as if scrubbing clothes. The primitive corn-mill
is simply a large concave stone into which another stone is made to fit,
so as to crush the grain by pressure of the hand.
The unfermented dough is rolled out thin so that after baking it may be
put up in rolls, like paper. It is then the color of a hornet's nest,
which indeed it resembles. Ovens, for baking, are kept on the housetops.
The processes of spinning and weaving, than which nothing could be more
primitive, are thus described by Lieut. Emory, as he saw it done on the
Gila, in 1846.
"A woman was seated on the ground under one of the cotton
sheds. Her left leg was turned under with the sole of the foot
upward. Between her great toe and the next a spindle, about
eighteen inches long, with a single fly, was put. Ever and
anon she gave it a dexterous twist, and at its end a coarse
cotton thread would be drawn out. This was their spinning
machine. Led on by this primitive display, I asked for their
loom, pointing first to the thread, and then to the blanket
girded about the woman's loins. A fellow who was stretched
out in the dust, sunning himself, rose lazily up, and untied
a bundle which I had supposed to be his bow and arrows. This
little package, with four stakes in the ground, was the loom.
He stretched his cloth and began the process of weaving."
But these self-taught weavers were behind their brethren of the pueblos,
whose loom was of a more improved pattern. One end of the frame of
sticks, on which the warp was stretched, would be fastened to the floor,
and the other to a rafter overhead. The weaver sat before this frame,
rapidly moving the shuttle in her hand to and fro, and so forming the
woof.
[Illustration: HIEROGLYPHICS, GILA VALLEY.]
Pottery was in common use among them as far back as we have any
account of the Pueblo Indians. Jars for carrying and holding water were
always articles of prime necessity, though baskets of wicker-work were
sometimes woven water-tight for the purpose.
* * * * *
PUEBLO GOVERNMENT. Each pueblo is under the control of a head chief,
chosen from among the people themselves. When any public business is to
be transacted, he collects the principal chiefs in the underground cell,
previously mentioned, where the matter that has brought them together
is discussed and settled.
The pueblos also have officers, corresponding with the mayor and
constables[6] of a city, whose business it is to preserve order. In
every pueblo there is also a public crier who shouts from the housetops
such things as it may concern the people at large to know.
In some of the pueblos there is an abandoned Spanish mission church of
unknown antiquity. The one at Acoma has a tower forty feet high with
two bells in it, one of which is lettered "San Pedro, A.D. 1710." The
church at Pecos is a picturesque ruin.
FOOTNOTES
[1] ZUÑI HAVE BEEN STUDIED by Mr. F. H. Cushing, who joined
the tribe for the purpose.
[2] UNDERGROUND CELLS, Spanish _Estufas_, were circular,
without doors or windows, and had a kind of stone table, or
altar, in them. One at Taos was surrounded with a stockade,
and entered through a trap-door.
[3] THE MANDANS SAY that the roots of a grape-vine, having
penetrated into their dark abode, revealed to them the light
of the upper world. By means of this vine, half the tribe
climbed to the surface. Owing to the weight of an old woman
the vine broke, leaving the rest entombed as before.
[4] THE PIMOS live along the Gila, having moved up from
the Gulf Coast within fifty years. They are a pastoral and
agricultural people.
[5] MONTEZUMA of the traditions is not the Montezuma of
Spanish-conquest celebrity.
[6] MAYOR AND CONSTABLE. The first is called an al´cal´de,
the second an al´gua´zil.
LAST DAYS OF CHARLES V. AND PHILIP II.
We have here reached the high-water-mark of Spanish advance into
territory now embraced within the United States. The moment seems well
chosen in which to take a parting look at the two great men of their
age, whose talents and energy had builded an empire so vast that, when
the master-hand was taken away, it tottered to its fall.
LAST DAYS OF CHARLES V. Charles V. is thought to have hastened his death
by the indulgence of so strange a whim, that one is led to doubt the
soundness of his intellect.
He chose, now in his lifetime, to have his own funeral obsequies
performed. For the purpose he laid himself down in his coffin which
the monks then lifted on their shoulders and bore into the church. When
the bearers had set the coffin down in front of the altar, the solemn
service for the dead was chanted, the Emperor himself joining in all
the prayers said for the repose of his soul. In the hush which followed
the last office paid to the illustrious dead, all the attending monks
passed silently out of the church, leaving Charles to pray alone in his
coffin.
"The chamber in the Escurial Palace where Philip II. died is that in
which he passed the three last years of his life, nailed by the gout
to a sofa. Through a narrow casement, his alcove commanded a view of
the high altar of the chapel. In this manner, without rising, without
quitting his bed, he assisted every day at the holy sacrifice of the
mass. His ministers came to work with him in this little chamber, and
they still show the little wooden board which the king made use of when
writing, or signing his name, by placing it upon his knees."
TOMBS OF CHARLES AND PHILIP. "At the right and left of the altar, at
the height of about fifteen feet, are two large parallel niches hollowed
out in the form of a square. The one at the left is the tomb of Charles
V., that at the right of Philip II. At the side of Philip II., who is on
his knees in the attitude of prayer, are the prince, Don Carlos, and the
two queens whom Philip successively espoused, all three also on their
knees in prayer. Underneath, one may read in letters of gold:
PHILIP II., KING OF ALL THE SPAINS,
OF SICILY, AND OF JERUSALEM,
REPOSES IN THIS TOMB, WHICH HE
BUILT FOR HIMSELF WHILE LIVING.
"THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. is also represented on his knees in the act of
prayer. He too is surrounded by a group of kneeling personages who are
identified in the inscription, of which we give only part.
TO CHARLES V., KING OF THE ROMANS,
HIGH AND MIGHTY EMPEROR, KING OF
JERUSALEM, ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA,
HIS SON PHILIP.
"All these statues are of gilt bronze, of a grand style and admirable
effect. Those of the two sovereigns, above all, with their armorial
mantles, are of a severe magnificence."—_Alex. Dumas, the Elder._
SWORD AND GOWN IN CALIFORNIA.
California is the name[1] given in an old Spanish romance to a fabulous
island of the sea lying out toward the Indies.
After a time, the Spaniards found out that what they had supposed to be
a large island[2] was really a peninsula, so the name presently spread
to the mainland.
Cabrillo[3] sailed yet higher up, and others higher still, till the
work of tracing the coast as far as Cape Mendocino[4] itself was
completed.
[Illustration: CALIFORNIA COAST.]
Spanish power in the New World received now and here its first serious
check, though possibly little was thought of it at the time, in Europe.
Like David before Goliath, little England confronted the bully of Europe
where least expected, with menace to her great and growing empire of
the West.
The greatest seaman of his age, Francis Drake, whose name was the terror
of Spaniards everywhere, had passed the Straits of Magellan with one
little vessel, into the Great South Sea, which Balboa discovered and
claimed for Spain. Stopping at no odds, one day fighting and the next
plundering, Drake kept his undaunted way a thousand leagues up the
coast. His ship being already full-freighted with the plunder of the
ports at which she had called, Drake thought to shorten the way back to
England by sailing through the North-east Passage,[5] so outwitting
the Spaniards who were keeping vigilant watch against his return
southward,—for his men were but a handful against a world of foes, and
his ship too precious to be risked in fight. So Drake sailed on into
the north. He sailed as far as the Oregon coast, when the weather grew
so cold that his men, who were come from tropic heats, began to murmur.
Drake was therefore forced to put his ship about and steer south again,
along the coast, looking for a harbor as he went, to refit his ship in.
Finding this harbor[6] in 38°, the Golden Hind dropped anchor there on
the 17th of June, 1579, showing a flag which had never before been seen
in that part of the world.
Drake lay quietly at anchor in this port for five weeks. During all
this time the natives came in troops to the shore, drawn thither to see
the strange bearded white men who spoke in an unknown tongue, and kept
the loud thunder hid away in their ship. It is even said that the king
of that country took the crown off his own head, and put it on Francis
Drake's in token of submission. All this and much else is fully and
quaintly set forth in the narrative of Master Fletcher, who was Drake's
chaplain on board the Golden Hind.
Before leaving this friendly port, Drake took formal possession of the
country by setting up a post, to which a plate of brass was fixed, with
Queen Elizabeth's name engraved on it.
The white cliffs of the coast that rose about him, would seem to have
recalled to Drake's mind those of Old England, for he gave the name
of New Albion to all this great land he had merely coasted. We should
not forget that Elizabeth herself afterwards said of such acts that
"discovery is of little worth without actual possession."
[Illustration: SIR FRANCIS DRAKE.]
Having planted this thorn in the side of the Spanish Empire of the
West, Drake merrily sailed away for England by way of the Cape of Good
Hope.[7]
Spain complained. Elizabeth listened with impatience. When the Spanish
ambassador insisted on his master's sole right to navigate the western
ocean, the Queen lost her temper. She roundly told Mendoza that "the
sea and air are common to all men." Yet the claim itself shows what
mighty hold Spain had on the other powers. In eight years the question
was fought out in the English Channel with all Europe for spectators.
Spain was so sure of victory, that the popular feeling even got into
the nursery rhymes of the day. A child is supposed to be saying,
"My brother Don John
To England is gone,
To kill the Drake,
And the queen to take,
And the heretics all to destroy."[7]
[Illustration: DRAKE SAILS AWAY.]
Drake had perhaps done as much as any man to bring about the issue. He
was there in the thick of the fight.[8]
So the spell of Spanish invincibility was broken at last. Spain was no
longer mistress of the seas.
Next on her brilliant roll of navigators, comes Juan de Fuca, who (1592)
discovered the straits that now bear his name. Spain still wanting a
harbor in which the Manila galleons could refit when homeward bound,
Sebastian Vizcaino (1602-1603), sometimes called "the Biscayner,"
entered the haven of San Diego, and that of Monterey,[9] which he then
named, as he also did the one lying within Point Reyes, called by him
Port San Francisco.[10] Exploration of this coast then ceased for a
century and a half.
The real advance into California (1768), like all other Spanish
movements on this continent, originated in a half-monkish, half-military
plan for the conquest, conversion and civilization of the country.
Enough was known of its soil and climate to show how far both exceeded
the sterile steppes of New Mexico, where Spanish advance had already
reached its farthest limit, and like a stream that meets an obstacle
in its path, was turned into another channel. For where plants grow and
rivers flow, God has fixed the abodes of men.
This movement began[11] from the missions of Lower California. It was
designed to extend the system by which Spain had first conquered, and
since ruled, Mexico into the unoccupied and little-known province of
Alta, or Upper, California. The viceroy was to furnish soldiers, the
president-prelate of the Franciscan order, missionaries.
Thus coast batteries and forts were to be built for the defence of the
best harbors, as well as to sustain the missions themselves, so forming
a line of military strength along the coast sufficient to repel assault
by sea or land, while the mountains behind them would be a barrier
between the missions and the wild tribes who lived in the great valleys
beyond. One arm was to seize upon and firmly hold the country in its
grasp, while the other should gradually bring it into subjection to
the Catholic faith. Then, with clerical rule once established, civil
order was to come in. Therefore the first essential thing was to build
a fort, and the second a church. In this way it was proposed to make
rallying-points for civilization of these missions,[12] although the
plan founded an oligarchy and nothing else.
[Illustration: OLD MAP, SHOWING DRAKE'S PORT.]
The Spaniards did not mean to till the soil themselves, but to make
the Indians do it for them. Setting this scheme at work, a Franciscan
mission was begun at San Diego in July, 1769. The next year another was
established at Monterey. From these missions explorers presently made
their way out to the valley of the San Joaquin, and even as far north as
the great bay of San Francisco (1772), which took to itself, a little
later, the name of the old Port San Francisco, with which it must not
be confounded.
[Illustration: CARMEL MISSION CHURCH.]
In 1776 the Mission of San Francisco was founded. Monterey being the
chief settlement, the governor's official residence was fixed there;
and now, so late as the period of American Independence, we have the
machinery for civilization in California fairly set in motion.
The plan which the founders had proposed to themselves also included
the building-up of pueblos, which should be located in suitable places
outside the missions, though actually meant for their support, and
therefore in a sense dependencies of them. But these pueblos were to be
inhabited by Spanish colonists only. One was thus begun (1777) at San
José, and a second (1781) at Los Angeles. Here then are plants of two
distinct types in the growth of the country,—native vassals and foreign
freemen.
As, one by one, missions were created, the native Californians were told
they must come and live in them, and submit themselves to the fostering
care of the fathers, who would teach them how to live as the whites did,
and make known to them the blessings of Christianity, so that their
children might exceed their fathers in knowledge, and as they were a
docile, submissive and indolent people, they mostly obeyed the order
unresistingly, and were set to work building houses, tilling the soil,
or tending flocks or herds belonging to the missions, into which it was
the aim of the fathers to draw all the wealth of the country.
These pious fathers, however, thought more of converting the Indian
than of making a man of him. It is true they baptized and gave him a
Christian name, but they held him in servitude all the same. The system
looked to keeping him a dependant rather than rousing his ambitions,
or showing him how he might better his condition. For instance, the
Indian could hold no land in his own right. His labor went to enrich
the mission, not himself. He was fed and clothed from the mission. He
was a mere atom of society, a vassal of the Church, and was so treated.
Men and women were put in the stocks or whipped at the pleasure of their
masters, just the same as in slave plantations. If an Indian ran away,
he was pursued and brought back by the military. The missionaries found
him free, but took away his liberty. In short, spite of all the romance
thrown round him, and though his condition was somewhat better than it
had been in times past, yet when all is said, the mission Indian was
hardly more than a serf. Still the work of the missions so prospered
that by the end of the century there were eighteen of them with 13,500
converts. But at this time there were 110 more than 1,800 whites in the
country, or only one hundred to a mission.
[Illustration: SPANISH MAP OF 1787, SHOWING MISSIONS, PRESIDIOS, AND
ROUTES.]
Such, briefly, were the Spanish missions of California, which undertook
a noble work, not nobly done, which kept the word of promise to the ear
and broke it to the hope.
If we look at the commercial policy of the province, and it is what we
should most naturally turn to next, we shall find almost no business
transacted with the outside world. Once a year the Manila galleon came
to Monterey and took away the furs that had been collected there.
Spain's policy shut out all other nations from her colonies, and to
the same extent shut the colonies in. So foreign vessels were forbid to
enter her ports at all. To this fact we owe the meagre and unfrequent
reports of what was going on in the country, nor was it till 1786 that
the world learned something of its true condition and worth.
[Illustration: MAP FROM ARCANO DEL MARE, 1647]
In that year a French discovery ship put into Monterey. Her commander
was La Peyrouse,[13] whom Louis XVI. had sent to the Pacific to look
into the fur trade of the north-west coast, and who, after touching
there, had come down the coast to refit in a Spanish port. La Peyrouse
used the six weeks of his stay in Monterey to such purpose that we owe
to him the first and only intelligent view of California had up to this
time.
As a matter of course, communication with the neighbor provinces was
mostly carried on by sea. There was a little trade with San Blas, and
so with Old Mexico, but it was long before the way was opened to New
Mexico by crossing the Colorado desert. One of the fathers, in 1776,
set out from San Gabriel for the Colorado River, passing safely over
the route now followed by the Southern Pacific Railway. Afterwards, a
little trade sprung up between the provinces, but the way was long and
the road beset with dangers.
The first American vessel to enter a California port was the ship Otter
of Boston, in 1796. She was an armed trader, carrying a pass signed by
Washington, of whom it was doubtful if the Californians had even so much
as heard, though they admitted the Otter to trade with them.
The Spaniards had found the natives singularly free from the vices of
civilization, but intermingling of the two races soon led to mingling
of blood, and subsequent growth of an intermediate class half Spanish
and half Indian, so combining certain traits of both without the native
vigor of either.
FOOTNOTES
[1] CALIFORNIA THE NAME, as applied to the peninsula, first
appears in Preciados' diary of Ulloa's voyage.
[2] CALIFORNIA AN ISLAND on English maps so late as 1709 (H.
Moll, "Present State of the World").
[3] CABRILLO'S VOYAGE is reprinted in the Report of the
Wheeler Exploring Expedition.
[4] CAPE MENDOCINO. Bancroft ("The Pacific States") thinks
the name was given in honor of the viceroy Mendoza.
[5] NORTH-EAST PASSAGE here, or North-west Passage from the
Atlantic side, was a thing firmly believed in by the sailors
of all nations.
[6] DRAKE'S HARBOR is not satisfactorily identified.
Authorities differ. Some, like Admiral Burney, believe the
present port of San Francisco to have been Drake's anchorage;
others, like Bancroft, maintain this to be wholly improbable,
and think Old Port San Francisco, under Point Reyes, was the
place. See Fletcher's account, "The World Encompassed," or
Bancroft's Monumental History.
[7] DRAKE'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. A chair made from his
ship was presented to the University of Oxford.
[8] THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA of Philip II., 1588.
[9] MONTEREY, literally King's Mountain.
[10] PUNTA DE LOS REYES, or Kings' Point.
[11] BEGAN FROM LA PAZ.
[12] MISSIONS were founded with funds given by benevolent
persons, at the solicitation of the monks. A royal grant was
sometimes the foundation. They were invariably named in honor
of a saint. The buildings usually formed a square, enclosed
by a high wall, one end being occupied by the church, while
the apartments of the friars, granaries, storehouses, etc.,
occupied the remaining sides.
[13] LA PEYROUSE, an officer of the French navy who had
gallantly fought in our war for independence. He lost his life
among the islands of the New Hebrides, on one of which his
ship was thrown, not a soul surviving to tell the tale.
II.
THE FRENCH.
PRELUDE.
After the discovery of America by Columbus, the French were among the
first to turn their attention to this side of the Atlantic, not so much
to make conquests in the spirit of universal dominion, as the Spaniards
were doing, as to seek new outlets or new sources of supply for their
commerce and fisheries.
Spain, as we have seen, forced other nations to follow her lead at a
respectful distance. With one foot planted in Europe and the other in
America, she bestrode the Atlantic as the colossus of the age.
But the newly awakened spirit of discovery would not down at the bidding
of prince or pontiff, let him be never so great or so powerful. Once
aroused it was sure to find ways by which some part of the benefits to
accrue to mankind from this grand discovery should not be monopolized
by a single nation. We might even say that all the nations of Europe
instinctively felt this to be their opportunity,—the opportunity of the
human race.
France had the ships, and France had the sailors. Sir Walter Raleigh
tells us—and surely he is an unbiassed witness—that in Cæsar's time the
French Bretons were the best sailors in the world. Were we disposed to
call in question their right to this title at a later day,—the time of
Columbus, Cabot, Cortereal, and Magellan,—what can be said of their
boldly setting sail across an unknown ocean, like the Atlantic, in
vessels not larger than a modern oyster-boat?
Yet the names they left behind them in their adventurous voyages make
it certain that these Basque and Breton fishermen pushed their way into
the Gulf of St. Lawrence soon after Cabot carried home to England the
news that he had been in seas alive with codfish.
[Illustration: SHIPS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.]
The knowledge thus gained pointed with unerring finger to the St.
Lawrence as the open door through which French discoverers should pass
into the spacious interior of our broad continent, though never, in
their wildest flights of fancy, could they have conceived what lay
beyond this door. So accident rather than choice led them on through
the colder region of the north. And while the Spaniards had missed the
Mississippi, a more fortunate chance led Frenchmen to find it by a very
different, though no less certain, route. To them be the honor of the
achievement!
Just as the march of Spanish civilization is traced in the names given
by explorers of that nation, so, in like manner, those conferred by
Frenchmen shall direct us in the lines by which they journeyed onward
toward the setting sun.
Although Jacques Cartier[1] ascended the St. Lawrence so early as
1534-35, it was not till Champlain founded Quebec (1608), that the work
of settling a French colony in Canada began in earnest. But even here,
at Quebec, three hundred miles from the ocean, the great river poured
its undiminished floods out of the wilderness beyond, and it bore its
greatness on its face.
Astonished to find themselves only on the threshold, as it were, of the
continent, the adventurous pioneers caught their first glimpses of its
undoubted grandeur. That they were dazzled by it, is something we may
easily conceive.
Whence came this silent river, this daily riddle for men to guess, and
whither would it lead them? In what far country would its tiny tributary
rills be found? Did they lie hid among the feet of far-off mountains,
over-peering all the land like hoary giants, or gush forth from the
bosom of some vast plain? Was it indeed the road to India?[2]
To such questions as these the future must make answer. All believed
it would lead to India. But Champlain and those who, like him, looked
at things broadly and deeply, were convinced that whoever should hold
that river throughout its course would be masters of the continent it
undoubtedly drained. And as Frenchmen ever loyal to their king and
country, whose glory they would see increased, they purposed making
here, in the wilderness, a NEW FRANCE which some day, perhaps, should
rival, if not eclipse, the old.
To this work the French brought one qualification peculiarly their own.
It was this. Of the three nations who have contended for control in our
country, none have so readily adapted themselves to the original people
as the French have. None have so thoroughly respected their feelings and
prejudices. And none have so easily won their confidence, or so fully
commanded their services.
[Illustration: A WOOD RANGER.]
Moreover, the French being rather traders than colonists in the true
sense, because in Canada the fur trade[3] was chiefly looked to,
and colonization was thought unfavorable to it, exploration became
the profession, we might say, of many who trained themselves for it
by living among the Indians, studying their language, their habits,
learning how to use the paddle, making long canoe voyages, and so
inuring their bodies to the toil and hardship of savage life. While the
English remained in their villages, the French wandered everywhere.
If we add to this that the French are a nation of explorers, in whom
discovery speedily develops into a passion, we shall get at the true
animating spirit which carried them so far into the interior, whether
as simple traders, soldiers, or missionaries.
The world could ill spare one of its pioneers. They are heralds of
civilization following the guiding star of its destiny.
FOOTNOTES
[1] JACQUES CARTIER ascended the St. Lawrence as high as
Montreal (Royal Mount), which he named for the mountain back
of the city.
[2] THE ROAD TO INDIA was no less the goal of early French
explorers than with those of other nations.
[3] THE FUR-TRADE of Canada, rather than agriculture
or fisheries, was considered its truest source of wealth
because it gave immediate returns, and was thought to be
inexhaustible. Hence it became the engrossing occupation of
the inhabitants. It was granted first to De Monts, then to
others who undertook to colonize Canada at their own cost.
WESTWARD BY THE GREAT INLAND WATERWAYS.
"I hear the tread of pioneers
Of nations yet to be."—Whittier.
From Quebec Champlain pushed on up the river to the island of Montreal,
where he established a trading-post. Hither came the Hurons of the
lake to barter their furs for French goods. They came by way of Lake
Nipissing and the Ottawa. These Indians told the French all about their
country, and the way to it. One of them showed Champlain an ingot of
copper, and described the way his people refined it from the native ore.
Interpreters began to study the Indian dialects, and eager traders to
push out farther and farther into the wilderness for the sake of larger
gains.
But the route to the west was not without perils which the French found
it hard to overcome. Two great rival families of savages were divided
from each other by the St. Lawrence and the Lakes. Those living north
of the river may be included in the general name of Hurons;[1] those
on the south were called Iroquois.[2] The two waged perpetual war with
each other, drawing to them kindred or tributary tribes. In an evil hour
Champlain had taken part with the Hurons, so identifying the French, in
the minds of the Iroquois, with their worst enemies.
[Illustration: CHAMPLAIN.]
If to natural obstacles be added the enmity of a most valiant people,
whose country stretched along the whole southern shore of Lake Ontario,
who controlled the portage round the Falls of Niagara, and were
undisputed masters of the lake itself, we shall go forward with some
idea of the impediments to peaceful exploration and of the consummate
folly which had put this stumbling-block in the way of it.
We know that before 1612 Champlain had informed himself quite thoroughly
about Lake Ontario, because we find the lake outlined on his map of that
year. For a like reason we judge him to have known of the Niagara River
and Falls.[3] But that way the Iroquois lay.
This state of things forced exploration into a quite different channel.
The French now had to take the roundabout and difficult way through
the country of the friendly Hurons, their allies, or in other words to
reach Lake Huron by making a canoe voyage up the Ottawa, across Lake
Nipissing, and thence down French River to the lake, instead of going
through the open waters of Lakes Ontario and Erie.
[Illustration: A PORTAGE.]
In 1615 Champlain brought some Franciscan missionaries to Quebec, one of
whom made his way up the Ottawa to Lake Huron a little before him. In
1626 came the Jesuit Fathers,[4] who brought the zeal of their order
to the cause of evangelizing the Indians. Then Richelieu,[5] who held
the reins of the monarchy in his hands, founded his famous Company of
New France, to whom the King not only granted full powers of government,
but also a monopoly of the fur trade, so turning Canada over to private
hands.
An unprosperous beginning, however, awaited the new order of things.
Civil war had broken out in France. Richelieu was beleaguering the
heretics of La Rochelle when England mingled in the fray. In 1629 the
English took Quebec from the French, and did not restore[6] it again
till 1632.
At this time the conquerors had carried Champlain to England, a prisoner
of war. He returned to Quebec in 1633, again in chief command, though
soon (1635) to die at his post, greatest among all the explorers of his
time.
With Champlain's death,[7] a new force came into the cause of discovery
and conversion, for since the coming of the Jesuits the two were
henceforth to go hand in hand.
At the pleasure of the general of the order, its missionaries might be
sent with scrip, staff, and wallet to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Like John the Baptist in the wilderness, we find them living on such
scant fare as nature supplied. Their beds were the bare ground. Under
a canopy of green boughs they reared the altar of their humble missions
for the worship of the ever-living God. Thus in exile and in want, they
began their ministrations among the rude peoples of the wilderness
because God and the Blessed Virgin had given them this pious work to
do. Their food was often more nourishing to the imagination than the
body, yet when compared with what they might expect at the hands of the
Iroquois, hunger counted for little, since these barbarians of the New
World burnt a missionary alive with the same zest that Christians of
the Old did a heretic.
Men willing to undertake such duties, undergo such hardships, live such
lives, are sure to leave their impress on any country. We shall find
they did so on ours.
On their part the savages truly wished for knowledge of the white man's
God, who they were told, and believed, was able to raise them up out of
their lowly condition and make them rich and powerful like the whites.
So much, at least, of the Jesuits' teachings they could comprehend.
No long time elapsed before these Jesuits made their way to the Hurons
of the lake, and here (1634) they established their first missions.
Some say that in this same year a French trader, named Jean Nicolet,[8]
made his way as far west as the Green Bay of Lake Michigan. There is
hopeless confusion about the date, but none as to the fact of his being
the first white man to set foot in what is now the State of Wisconsin.
When Nicolet got back to Quebec, he told the missionaries there that
he had been on a river which would have taken him to the sea, had he
kept on as he was going but three days longer. Hearing this story, the
fathers believed themselves on the eve of no less a discovery than the
long-sought outlet to India.
Although the Spaniards said little about the discoveries they were
making on that side, they could not prevent some knowledge of what they
were doing in New Mexico and on the Pacific from leaking out through the
Jesuits who were themselves concerned in all these discoveries, and so
were better informed than others in regard to their progress.
But from the year 1640, when the missionaries so certainly thought
the key to the South Sea was in their hands, on to 1650, or one whole
decade, the Iroquois gave the French and their allies other work to do
at home. Hardly could the French consider themselves safe in their fort
at Montreal, much less venture abroad upon new schemes of discovery. In
vain the missionaries cried out upon the Iroquois as the great scourge
of Christianity. In vain the elements were invoked to destroy them.
The heathen were at the doors of their monasteries, the Dutch[9] were
behind the Iroquois, urging them on, and the future of New France looked
gloomy indeed.
[Illustration: TOTEM OF THE FOXES.]
Finally (1650) the Iroquois carried the war into the heart of the Huron
country itself. The Hurons fought well, but were soon overpowered and
driven from their villages into perpetual exile. Some fled to the east,
some to the west, thereby becoming so thoroughly dispersed as never more
to be a united nation.
With brief periods of cessation from active warfare, which were rather
truces than peace, war raged until 1661, and as the Iroquois now
commanded all the routes to the west, the French were effectually shut
out from the Great Lakes for the time being.
[Illustration: FRENCH COSTUMES.]
A brighter day dawned at last. In 1660 some Lake Superior Indians
arrived at Quebec in their canoes. When they were ready to go back,
they offered to take a missionary home to live with them. It was a
terrible journey, but the offer could not be neglected. Accordingly one
was sent back in their company, but died in no long time after reaching
their country, of misery and want. The Indians then asked for another
missionary. The next to go was Father Allouez,[10] who set out in the
summer of 1665 in company with some returning savages. Nothing was heard
of him for nearly two years. He had about been given up for lost when
he appeared at Quebec bringing strange tidings indeed. On the southern
shore of Lake Superior, in the forest, among savage hordes, he had set
up a mission. He had been much among the neighbor tribes, and had seen
and talked with the dreaded Sioux, who proudly told him their country
reached to the end of the world. They also told him of a great river,
which he supposed must "fall into the sea by Virginia." The father wrote
down the name as the Sioux pronounced it,—Messipi.[11]
Following in the footsteps of Allouez (1668), Fathers Dablon[12] and
Marquette[13] were sent to the mission at the foot of Lake Superior.
Afterward Dablon founded that at Sault St. Marie. With Dablon, Allouez
(1670) made a journey from Green Bay up Fox River to Winnebago Lake,
which they crossed. Going still farther on, they reached the head
waters of the Wisconsin, which was then found to be a tributary of the
Mississippi.
[Illustration: FOX RIVER.]
Thus, in the course of a few years, the Jesuits had planted missions
at La Pointe, on Lake Superior, at Sault St. Marie, its outlet,
at the Straits of Michilimackinac, and Green Bay. All were first
fishing-places, next missions, and then outposts of civilization in the
western world.
In the spring of 1671, with much ceremony, the French took formal
possession of Sault St. Marie, the lakes Huron and Superior, and all
the country as far as the western sea. In token of sovereignty a cross
of wood was reared with the arms of France fixed upon it. Amid volleys
of musketry, and shouts of "God save the king!" France thus proclaimed
herself mistress of the Great West.
FOOTNOTES
[1] HURONS, or Wyandots, occupied the east shore of Lake
Huron and contiguous country between this and Lake Simcoe.
"Their women were their mules."—_Champlain._ The Wyandots now
live in Kansas, and are civilized.
[2] IROQUOIS, called so by the French; by the English,
Five Nations, and subsequently Six Nations. The confederated
Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Senecas, to whom the
Tuscaroras of North Carolina being joined, made the sixth.
They attributed their origin to five different handfuls of
seed, sowed by the Creator.
[3] NIAGARA RIVER is properly laid down. That Champlain
knew of the FALLS, is evident from the words "_Saut d'eau_,"
meaning waterfall, which he has put down not quite where they
belong, but not far out of the way.
[4] THE JESUITS, or Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius
Loyola, 1534. The brothers were vowed to chastity, poverty
and obedience. See Encyclopædia; also article Jesuit's Bark,
or Cinchona.
[5] RICHELIEU, at this time minister of Louis XIII.
[6] DID NOT RESTORE Quebec till the arrears of Queen
Henrietta's dowry (queen of Charles I.) had been paid in full.
"How strange are the freaks of destiny! Mary de Medicis, widow
of Henry IV., exiled and abandoned, had a daughter, Henrietta,
widow of Charles I., who died at Cologne, in the house where,
sixty-five years before, Rubens, her painter, was born."—_V.
Hugo._
[7] CHAMPLAIN, SAMUEL DE, the father of Canada, and first
among French explorers in the New World, ought to be held
in high esteem by Americans. The work he did was for all
time. A man of sterling qualities; of resources; of solid
judgment; never effervescent, sometimes headstrong, yet prompt
to act in emergencies. Though not noble, he had a chivalric
nature united with capacity for affairs. His _Voyages_ is a
storehouse of information concerning Canada and New England.
[8] JEAN NICOLET has become the subject of much
discussion. The evidence fixing his visit in 1634 is wholly
circumstantial, therefore unsatisfactory. But it is by no
means improbable. I was first inclined to doubt the whole
story as told by Father Vimont, thinking he might have been
imposed upon, but it bears the stamp of genuineness. The
Father wrote in 1640, hence Nicolet must have gone to Green
Bay earlier. No one disputes his claim to be the first white
who visited that region. See _Jesuit Relations_ of 1640.
[9] THE DUTCH then occupied New York, with a fort and trading
post at Albany. They were competitors of the French for the
fur trade, and therefore natural allies of the Iroquois, to
whom they sold guns to be used against the French. After New
York became an English Colony (1664) the English pursued the
same policy of confining the French to the north shore of Lake
Ontario.
[10] FATHER CLAUDE ALLOUEZ, in the _Jesuit Relations_.
[11] MESSIPI, first mentioned under its present name. Mostly
pronounced to-day as here spelled.
[12] FATHER CLAUDE DABLON arrived in Canada, 1655. In 1668
he went with Marquette to the Mission of St. Esprit on Lake
Superior. Afterward he founded that of S. St. Marie.—_Jesuit
Relations._
[13] FATHER JAMES MARQUETTE came to Canada 1666. His going
west was in the nature of a re-enforcement to those earlier
missionaries who had prepared the way. He died while returning
from a journey to the Illinois towns in 1675, or after that
made with Joliet the previous year. Marquette, Mich., is named
for him.
THE SITUATION IN A.D. 1672.
Since the day of Champlain's death New France had been wofully
misgoverned. Men who, like him, would be willing to give their best
efforts and best years to building up the colony, in singleness of
purpose, were not forthcoming. Champlain left no successor. Speaking
generally, the post of governor was calculated at what it would be
worth to the holder. Sometimes it was sold outright, sometimes given
in payment of services, or again to some needy favorite as a means to
repair his ruined fortunes. Hence most governors looked upon Canada as
a place to get rich in, just as the better sort of merchants looked to
making fortunes, and then going home to France as quickly as possible
to enjoy them. Where everybody thought about the country only as a place
of temporary sojourn and nobody as a home, it is evident there could be
no feeling of permanence.
Meanwhile, the short-sighted policy of continually drawing upon the
natural resources of Canada, without making the loss good, may be
compared with stripping mountains of their forests. Under this policy
the colony was like a man who is slowly bleeding to death.
But it was now the age of Louis XIV., who, if sometimes a hard master,
possessed the rare gift of bringing round him men of superior abilities.
Once more let us glance at the two leading monarchies of Europe, and
see if their relative attitude, one to the other, has been in any wise
altered since Pavia.
Under Charles V., Spain menaced Europe with universal dominion; under
Philip II. and Philip III., she had lost the Low Countries; under Philip
IV., Portugal; under Charles II., Burgundy and Flanders. History offers
few examples of such rapid decline.
The characters of these sovereigns may be summed up as follows: Charles
V. was a great general and great king. Philip II. was a king only.
Philip III. and Philip IV. were not even kings. Charles II. could hardly
be called a man. This dotard, at thirty-nine, passed his time in making
and destroying his will. Choosing rather to ally his house with France
than Germany, Charles made a French prince his heir. It was to this
prince that Louis XIV., in embracing him, made use of the memorable
words, "There are no longer any Pyrenees."
It was then, as we have said, the age of Louis XIV. and of French
supremacy in continental affairs.
In our continent Spain was already playing a secondary part. A more
vigorous hand had seized the standard of discovery, and was now bearing
it onward to victory.
It had gone all the way from the humble Jesuit mission at the foot
of Lake Superior to France, that the greatest river of America was as
good as found,—the greatest, because all admitted that only its head
streams could have been touched, while it was seen that its course
must of necessity lie on one or the other side of the mountains of New
Mexico,—toward the Gulf of Mexico or the Vermilion Sea. But on which
side they could not tell.
Of course there were two opinions. Some favored one, some the other,
but either belief announced the river of the continent. Whoever should
first plant themselves at its mouth, would inevitably control its whole
course. And so the idea took root in the minds of the statesmen and
geographers of the time, who set about trying to map out the destiny of
the future empire.
[Illustration: LOUIS XIV.]
The shrewdest among the French explorers did not believe that the
Mississippi and Colorado could be the same, or that the great river
flowed into the South Sea. Father Allouez, as we have seen, thought
otherwise. In any case an incentive had been found for more earnest
effort, with more definite aims. There began to be, in America, a really
national question.
So it was that step by step that great mysterious river which had so
long flowed through men's brains, grew at last into definiteness, though
still waiting for the veil of centuries to be lifted.
So far America had been the orange to be squeezed by whoever should
possess it. Louis, like the rest, no doubt looked more to the revenue he
hoped to get from New France, than to the mere glory of extending his
dominions in that quarter, though he was also ambitious of doing this.
Yet for either purpose he must have suitable agents, while his political
aims in Europe would be furthered by crippling the English and Spanish
colonies in America. The English were to be hemmed in on the seaboard,
while the Spaniards would find themselves checked from advancing beyond
the limits they already occupied.
When the royal arms of France were raised at Sault St. Marie, New
England was pushing out toward the east, not the west. No English could
be found west of the Hudson. No word of English had been heard beyond
Lake Ontario. There was not yet a Pennsylvania. Virginia lay east of the
Blue Ridge; the Carolinas were but recently settled; Florida was hardly
more than a Spanish military post.
In all times large views demand large men for their execution. In
looking about him for a governor who ought to be more of a soldier than
politician, less a courtier than a man of action, though something of
both, the king's eye fell upon Count Frontenac, whose rule somewhat
resembled that of his august master, in the attempted concentration of
all power in himself.
In 1672 Colbert, the prime minister, wrote to the intendant of Canada
that his majesty wished him to give his attention to the discovery
of the South Sea. The wish being the same as a command, the intendant
sought for a fitting agent to carry it into effect.
COUNT FRONTENAC.
Louis de Buade, Compte de Frontenac, showed little loss of physical or
mental vigor outwardly, though at seventy incessant wear and tear had
begun to tell on a constitution and will of iron. His eye had not lost
its fire, nor his step its elasticity, but a deep crease between the
brows gave a look of care to his face, and bespoke the power and habit
of concentrated thought. His complexion was florid, his moustache,
imperial, and eyebrows, white as snow. Notwithstanding a certain cast of
sensuality there, the face, if not noble, had that decided distinction
about it which impressed the beholder with the idea that he was in the
presence of no ordinary man. Men called him the savior of Canada, for
he had been sent at a most critical moment to retrieve, if possible,
the blunders, the incapacity of his predecessor, Denonville. Crafty,
supple, acute, he was the very man to comprehend Indian diplomacy, to
penetrate or baffle Indian duplicity, or by a politic act to disarm
the hostility of these wily adversaries. At the same time, he not only
knew when and where to strike the most deadly blows, but how to draw
from success in war the most important, the most fruitful results. The
Iroquois, who waged incessant and destructive warfare against Canada,
called him the great Onontio. He had not disdained to join an Indian
war-dance, in which he was the first to strike the war-post with his
hatchet. He harangued his savage allies in their own sententious and
highly imaginative rhetoric, imitated their own methods of war, and even
their atrocities in roasting prisoners alive,—to the end, perhaps, that
the Indians might admire in him the qualities which they most valued in
themselves.
JOLIET AND MARQUETTE.
"_Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war._"
In Louis Joliet,[1] Talon, the intendant,[2] found the man he wanted.
Joliet promised to see the mouth of the Mississippi before he came back
to give an account of himself, and being already a veteran explorer, no
less was expected of him than that he would keep his word.
We remember that exploration and conversion were now always to go hand
in hand. One of the Jesuit missionaries at the Lakes was therefore
named by his superior to go along with Joliet. This was Father James
Marquette. Father Marquette was then in charge of the mission at
Michilimackinac, where Joliet found him impatiently expecting his
coming, for ever since Marquette had heard the Indians talk about the
great river, the wish to make a pilgrimage to it had lain next his
heart. He prayed the Virgin to obtain for him this boon, and his prayer
had been granted at last. Marquette had also heard of the Missouri, and
the natives who dwelt in prodigious numbers along its banks. All these
things he was anxious to see with his own eyes in order to know how far
the truth would agree with what had been told him. He was impatient to
carry the gospel among all these lost tribes, to whom he felt himself
called by special appointment of Heaven.
The explorers set out from Mackinac[3] in May, 1673, in two canoes.
They were seven men in all. Coasting Lake Michigan[4] till they came to
Green Bay, they entered Fox River, crossed Lake Winnebago, and on the
7th of June reached the Mascoutin Village, where to Marquette's great
joy a cross[5] was standing unharmed among the wigwams to signify that
Christians had already been there.
They had now reached the farthest limit of previous exploration. So far
as known no traveller had gone beyond this spot.
[Illustration: MARQUETTE'S MAP.]
At this place the explorers took Indian guides. Setting out again on the
10th, they forced the canoes slowly along through shallow waters, choked
with wild rice, which grew so tall about them as almost to meet above
their heads, till they could go no farther. Then lifting the canoes from
the water, the explorers bore them on their shoulders across the prairie
to the Wisconsin, upon which they again launched them.
"They glided calmly down the tranquil stream, by islands choked with
trees and matted with entangling grape-vines, by forests, groves and
prairies, the parks and pleasure-grounds of a prodigal Nature; by
thickets and marshes and broad bare sandbars; under the shadowing
trees, between whose tops looked down from afar the bold brow of some
woody bluff. At night the bivouac—the canoes inverted on the bank, the
flickering fire, the meal of bison flesh or venison, the evening pipes,
and slumber beneath the stars; and when in the morning they embarked
again, the mist hung on the river like a bridal veil, then melted before
the sun, till the glassy water and the languid woods basked breathless
in the sultry glare."
[Illustration: WILD RICE.]
On the 17th of June, Marquette and Joliet reached the site of Prairie
du Chien. Here the Wisconsin was swallowed up in the broad current
of a mightier stream whose dark waters swept by without pause, like
something conscious of its power. No sooner had they looked than the
eager explorers knew it for the object of their hopes and prayers. A few
vigorous strokes of the paddles, and they were floating on its majestic
tide lost in wonder and praise, for the half had not been told them.
There could be no mistake. The long-sought Mississippi had been found
again.
With cautious strokes and watchful eyes the canoes were steered
southward. Sometimes sailing in the dark shadows of overhanging forests
where danger might lurk unseen, again gliding on through sunny prairies,
unfolding vistas of quiet beauty to the view, the delighted explorers
kept on their venturous course. It was a voyage which threw around them
the charm of an exceeding loveliness.
Now and then the party would land to cook a hasty meal, but not knowing
what sort of people they might meet with, they dared not sleep on shore.
So at nightfall the canoes were anchored off in the stream. For a whole
week they floated on in a primeval solitude. No sign of the hand of
man was to be seen about them. No human voice was raised in welcome or
in warning. All was silent as at the creation. Herds of bison, grazing
along the banks, raised their shaggy heads to gaze in wonder at the
passing travellers, but in all this time nothing in human form appeared
to molest them.
One day the explorers saw footprints upon the shore. Consulting
together, they resolved to follow them. Leaving the canoes in charge of
their men, Joliet and Marquette set out. The path led to a village whose
inhabitants sallied forth at the strange white men's halloo, amazed to
see them there. The chief men offered the peace-pipe. Marquette asked
them what people they were.
"We are the Illinois," was the ready reply. Then the two Frenchmen knew
they were among friends[6] who would tell them what they wanted to know
about the river below—what people they were likely to fall in with,
and whether friendly or not. The Illinois feasted the strangers, and
spread buffalo-robes for them to sleep on, but urged them not to think
of descending the river farther on account of the demon which guarded
the passage.
Going back to their comrades, with the whole village for an escort,
the explorers pushed off again on their voyage. First they passed the
Illinois, with its remarkable rocks. Next the Missouri,[7] child of
the mountains, poured its turbid flood into the clear waters of the
Mississippi with such impetuous force as to cut its way through to the
opposite bank, so giving its own dull hue to the whole stream.
[Illustration: ILLINOIS.]
Getting clear of all dangers, the adventurous voyagers next passed
the mouth of the Ohio, or Beautiful River. Day after day they floated
on between forests of cypress, only once meeting with Indians by the
way, till they had descended as far as the mouth of the Arkansas, when
suddenly a fleet of war canoes was seen putting off from the shore
to cut them off. In vain Marquette waved the calumet,[8] which the
Illinois had given him to be his safeguard, and which among savages is
the symbol of peace. The young warriors fitted their arrows and bent
their bows. In another moment the explorers would have been riddled with
arrows, but for the timely arrival of the elders who called out to the
young men to stay their hands. With these the French now held a parley,
and having made known their pacific intentions, were suffered to land
and were kindly treated.
With the help of one among them who understood a little of the Illinois
tongue, Marquette was able to make his purpose to reach the sea
understood. He now learned that this was not the principal town of the
Arkansas nation. That was eight or ten leagues farther down the river.
So the next day the Frenchmen went on to the greater town,[9] where
they hoped to learn all they wished to know.
Strangely enough, the explorers had now reached the very point made
memorable by the coming of De Soto a century and a half earlier. And as
if his fate had cast a spell over the spot where they stood following
the course of the great river with their eyes till it was lost in the
distance, neither Joliet nor Marquette was destined to pass beyond it.
[Illustration: WAR CANOE, FROM LA HONTAN.]
Here the Indians gave the explorers a feast, while holding a council
upon the question whether they could or could not proceed with safety.
In return the whites distributed gifts among the Indians. These Indians
had little food except corn, of which they raised three crops each year.
In addition to this, they gave their visitors dog's flesh to eat, as a
mark of honorable treatment. Although they had knives and hatchets of
European make, and could mould rude earthenware pots and jars to cook
their food in, these people were of lower condition than those who lived
higher up the river, although from symmetry of form they were known as
the "handsome men." The men went entirely nude; the women wore skins
about their loins.
They told Marquette that the people lower down would never let him pass
through their country; that they were a people who had fire-arms and
knew how to use them. This made them so formidable to their neighbors,
that these Arkansas dared not hunt the buffalo in that country, though
the plains there were alive with them.
[Illustration: THE CALUMET.]
Such ill reports touching the obstacles in the way of further progress
decided the explorers to turn back, although the Indians said the sea
was only ten journeys distant. They were too few to fight. Their capture
would most surely frustrate the whole purpose of the expedition. All
felt that this chance should not be risked. They had at least gone far
enough to settle the vexed question about the outlet to the sea. All
indications pointed to the Gulf of Mexico.
It is evident that the explorers took counsel of their own wishes,
perhaps of their own fears, in making their decision to go back. Be that
as it may, Joliet had not kept his promise to Talon.
On the 17th of July the explorers began their long journey homeward.
They were weeks making their way back to the Illinois, into which they
turned their canoes, knowing it would shorten the journey. Ascending
this river to the Indian town of Kaskaskia, the party procured guides
who conducted them to Lake Michigan.
FOOTNOTES
[1] LOUIS JOLIET had studied for the priesthood, which he
renounced to become a trader. Talon sent him to Lake Superior
to search for the copper-mines of which the French heard so
much. Though unsuccessful in this, Joliet collected much
information which subsequently proved of service to his
employers. He made a map showing his discoveries at the time
of his trip with Marquette, who also made the one inserted
in the text, on which the Mississippi is called River of the
Conception, though Joliet, on his map, calls it Colbert River,
after the celebrated minister of Louis XIV.
[2] TALON, the intendant, was one of the most sagacious
advocates of the French movement into the Far West. He wished
to establish a French port at the mouth of the Mississippi,
to check the Spaniards.
[3] MACKINAC is the shortening of the original lengthy word
which is pronounced as if spelled Mackinaw.
[4] LAKE MICHIGAN was first called Lake of the Illinois. This
name often appears on maps of the last century, though the
present one superseded it in time. It is not needful to give
all the different titles given by different explorers. Their
name is legion.
[5] A CROSS. Doubtless one erected by Fathers Dablon and
Allouez; see preceding chapter.
[6] AMONG FRIENDS, because they had articles of French make,
showing them to have intercourse with French traders. The
village referred to is supposed to have been at the mouth of
the Des Moines.
[7] THE MISSOURI is first identified by Marquette, who
calls it Pekitanoüi on his map. The Indians told him that by
following it he might go to the sea, referring probably to
the Platte and Colorado route to the Gulf of California.
[8] THE CALUMET, or peace-pipe. "Men do not pay to the crowns
and sceptres of kings the honor Indians pay to the calumet;
it seems to be the god of peace and war, the arbiter of life
and death. Carry it about you and show it, and you can march
fearlessly. There is a calumet for peace and one for war,
distinguished only by the color of the feathers with which
they are adorned, red being the sign of war. They use them
also for settling disputes, strengthening alliances, and
speaking to strangers."—_Marquette._
[9] THE GREATER TOWN, according to Marquette's map, was then
on the east bank.
THE MAN LA SALLE.
"_Eagles fly above, but sheep flock together._"—_Spanish._
The Mississippi had now been struck at two points. Its course had been
explored for six hundred miles, glimpses of its greatness had been
caught, its mysteries partly solved. A man of greater mark now put his
hand to the completion of what Marquette and Joliet had left unfinished.
Robert Cavelier de la Salle[1] was no simple explorer, having some
little education, like Joliet, or pious missionary, whose sole object
was to make proselytes, like Marquette.
La Salle was a man of far different mould. In him the man of brains,
of ideas, of resources, of unbending will, were all joined in one. He
was a serious man,—a man of heroic patience, whose highest qualities
shone forth brightest in moments of supreme trial. Disaster, calumny,
treachery, disease, assailed by turns, but could never crush his
indomitable spirit. Whether he stood alone amid the wreck of his
projects, or was confronted by unforeseen perils, his fortitude never
forsook him. Although rather stern than indulgent toward his men, there
was that in him which commanded respect and obedience; more, La Salle
did not desire. He was the master-spirit of his own enterprises—the
originator and executor of them—not the simple agent of other men's
schemes. From a study of the man, in the light of what he aimed to do
and what he actually achieved, we should say that, "Where there's a will
there's a way," was the inspiration of La Salle's efforts, and unique
maxim of his career.
[Illustration: CAVELIER DE LA SALLE.]
But La Salle had his drawbacks also. Naturally thoughtful and reserved
he lived too much apart, in himself, to be a good companion in the
wandering republic of which he was the head, though his followers
learned to look up to him if they could not love him. He could not
unbosom himself to his inferiors, nor could they understand that mixture
of pride and reserve which wrapped him about like a garment. What they
took for austerity of manner was the absorption of the man in himself.
Those who knew him best would have followed him to the end of the world,
but La Salle was so constituted that few could know him. Of all this La
Salle, himself, was unconscious. His responsibilities were too great,
his cares too many, for indulgence in trivial things. With minds like
Louis XIV., Colbert or Frontenac, the case was different. La Salle
impressed them as no ordinary man could. So when the possibility of
getting control of our continent by stretching a chain of French posts
from Quebec to the St. Lawrence unfolded itself to his mind, in its
grandeur, the King at once saw in La Salle the fittest man for the work.
And La Salle knew no such word as fail.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING LA SALLE'S EXPLORATIONS]
La Salle was one of those who in the beginning believed the Mississippi
flowed into the Vermilion Sea. If we may put faith in appearances, his
original idea was not so much to descend the great river to its mouth,
as to make his way across the continent to the great South Sea, and so
to reach China and Japan. And the name of La Chine,[2] which La Salle
gave his own residence, at Montreal, really seems an indication of what
was then uppermost in his mind.
This is instructive as showing how slowly geographical knowledge of the
westward half of the continent unfolded itself.
As we have said, Cavelier de la Salle was a man of one idea, practical
in some things, visionary in others, but in pursuit of a purpose as
steadfast as fate.
In 1666, at twenty-three, he found himself in Canada. He took up his
residence at the upper end of the island of Montreal, where the St.
Lawrence is broken up into rapids which to this day bear the name of La
Salle's residence, La Chine.
Here La Salle quietly spent three years, hearing the while from the
Indians who came to La Chine, all sorts of strange stories about the
vast region toward the setting sun, and the people who lived in it.
We have seen the missions already firmly established on the Great
Lakes. Joliet and Marquette had reached the Mississippi by one route
and returned by another and different one, leading them through the
heart of the great Illinois nation, to whom Marquette believed himself
specially called. His labors among this people had left an impression
highly favorable to those who might come after him.
It was from the Iroquois, who came to visit him at La Chine, that La
Salle first heard of the Ohio. The passion for discovery seems to have
found swift and intense development in him. He was young, ambitious and
eager for adventure. La Salle was only twenty-six when he resolved to
go in search of the Ohio.
Immediately he sold La Chine to procure an outfit. In the summer of
1669 he set out for the Iroquois country where we lose sight of him
altogether. Yet, while no itinerary of his journey remains extant, his
claim to have discovered the Ohio is conceded by his rival, Joliet.
Meanwhile, Frontenac, that man of action, was not idle. He was bent on
opening the direct road to the western lakes, peaceably if he could,
forcibly if he must, but at any rate to open it. To this end he now
showed the Iroquois that he was not afraid of them by building a fort
at Kingston,[3] which was called, in his honor, Fort Frontenac. This
post gave the command of Lake Ontario to the French. It was at once a
check and a menace to the Iroquois, who saw the mastery of the lakes
slipping away from them but could not prevent it. Through his favor with
Frontenac, La Salle secured from the king a grant of Fort Frontenac,
which, in his hands, became not only an important trading-post, but the
base of future contemplated discoveries. Here La Salle brooded over the
projects which were to make him famous not for a day, but for all time.
For ten years more La Salle is found repairing his fortunes, maturing
his plans, acquiring information, or studying Indian dialects. The Gulf
of Mexico was to be reached, and a French port and colony established
there into which all the trade of the river should flow. Thus the
Mississippi, in French hands, was to be a wedge dividing the Spaniards
in Florida from the Spaniards in New Mexico. Possessed of the two great
waterways of the continent—the St. Lawrence and Mississippi—France was
to take the first place in America. When all was ready La Salle laid
his plans before the King.
In his memorial La Salle forcibly contrasts the barren soil, dense
forests and harsh climate of Canada, with the fertile soil, sunny
prairies and genial climate of the West. He describes it as being a
country possessed of every thing requisite for planting flourishing
colonies; and as one thoroughly familiar with it. Its native products,
its abundance of fish and game, its pleasant streams, are all dwelt
upon without the exaggeration with which explorers usually embellish
their reports. In La Salle's view the facts were all-sufficient for his
purpose.
In thus seeking the enlargement of French empire at the expense of
Spain, La Salle had found a congenial field for his talents—a purpose
which lifts him above the rank of a mere explorer or trader. It is true
he expected to find riches and honor for himself, yet these were things
which, of necessity, hinged upon the success of the scheme as a whole,
not of a part.
Impressed by La Salle's representations, Louis granted him a patent for
those regions he proposed to discover, with power to build forts and
govern therein for the term of five years. La Salle was to do all this
at his own cost, looking to his monopoly of trade to reimburse himself.
So he set about borrowing money right and left. Never generous, the King
limited himself to giving La Salle the opportunity he asked for.
While in Paris, on the business of the patent, La Salle became
acquainted with an Italian officer, named Tonty, who afterward served
him with rare fidelity in his various expeditions. Upon La Salle's
return to Quebec, Father Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan friar, sought and
obtained leave to join him. And thus matters stood in September, 1678.
FOOTNOTES
[1] DE LA SALLE: literally "Of the Hall." Born at Rouen,
France, 1643: Cavelier is the family name.
[2] LA CHINE (China). Name of village and rapids at the head
of the island of Montreal.
[3] KINGSTON, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, near its
outlet.
LA SALLE, PRINCE OF EXPLORERS.
La Salle's plans included the following details. A vessel had been built
at Frontenac for the navigation of Lake Ontario, so doing away with the
tedious canoe voyages of the past. This brought the western missions
one step nearer Montreal. Next, the Niagara River was to be seized upon
and held, as Frontenac had been, by building a fort at its mouth. The
next step would be the construction of a vessel, above the falls, to
navigate the western lakes. With this done the real point of departure
for the Mississippi would be removed to Lake Michigan, and the delay and
fatigue of previous expeditions saved to the present one. Such were the
essential features of La Salle's plan.
Accordingly La Salle set about building the fort at Niagara[1] and the
vessel above the falls, during the winter of 1679. In a word, he was
perfecting his communications as he went along.
In August La Salle embarked on board his new vessel and hoisted sail. It
was the first which had ever ploughed the waters of Lake Erie. In due
season he reached Michilimackinac, whence, after some stay, he again
sailed for Green Bay. Here La Salle landed his people and goods. The
Griffin was sent back to Niagara, for the supplies La Salle wanted, with
order to return without delay to the rendezvous. With fourteen men La
Salle then started in canoes on his journey to the Mississippi.
Various adventures signalled the progress of the explorers along the
shores of Lake Michigan, as far as the mouth of the St. Joseph, which
had been chosen for the final point of departure. The autumn season was
well advanced. Already the north wind blew keen and cold across the
lake. The canoes were tossed about on a stormy sea, which broke with
violence against the inhospitable coast, threatening shipwreck if they
approached it. Often the canoes would be swamped in the surf when the
rising sea made it dangerous to keep the lake. Often the explorers threw
themselves on the frozen ground at night, wet to the skin and famishing
with hunger.
Reaching the St. Joseph, La Salle set his men to work building a fort,
while he anxiously waited the coming of Tonty, who had been ordered to
join him at this place. At last Tonty came. Winter had now set in. In
the first days of December the united party paddled up the St. Joseph,
crossed over the portage to the Kankakee, descended it to the Illinois,
reaching at length the great Illinois town,[2] numbering, by actual
count, four hundred and sixty lodges.
To their great disappointment the town was deserted, all the Illinois
having gone to hunt the buffalo, as their custom was at this season
of the year. It was a heavy blow to La Salle, who had expected to get
guides and a supply of food here, as well as to recruit his men. The
explorers however obtained a supply by opening the _caches_[3] in which
the Illinois kept their winter store.
Somewhere below Peoria Lake, La Salle fell in with the Illinois, who
told him all the fables they could invent in order to prevent his going
on, for it seems they had some inkling his doing so would be prejudicial
to them in the future.
The Mississippi, they said, was beset by men of fierce aspect who would
kill them all, its waters infested with serpents, alligators and like
monsters lying in wait to devour them, while the river itself finally
plunged into a raging whirlpool in which they and their canoes would be
swallowed up.
Although La Salle treated these silly tales with the contempt they
deserved, they took effect upon his men, six of whom deserted on the
spot. The explorers wintered among these Illinois in a fort which La
Salle significantly named Crèvecœur.[4]
The name tells its own story. On the lakes they had been nearly drowned.
On the march they had often gone hungry, La Salle with the rest. Treason
was with him in his own camp, danger in that of the Illinois. His own
men had tried to poison him. And now, to cap the climax of misfortune,
no word had come of the Griffin[5]—the Griffin on which hung all hope
of successfully continuing their search.
But nothing could shake the resolve of La Salle. Sending Father Hennepin
to explore the lower course of the Illinois, the chief left Tonty in
charge of Fort Crèvecœur, while he himself set out for Frontenac in
order to learn what had become of the Griffin, and bring back the things
he must have before it would be possible to stir from Fort Crèvecœur
again.
We need not follow him on this remarkable journey, itself no mean
exploit.
La Salle had not yet reached the Mississippi. In August, 1680, he again
left Montreal with this object. Again he made his way to the Illinois
village. This time heaps of charred and blackened rubbish, strewed
with mangled bodies, met his eyes. During his absence the Iroquois had
wreaked their vengeance upon the Illinois, as already they had done upon
the Hurons.
[Illustration: INDIAN WAMPUM BELT.]
Where was the faithful Tonty? What had become of him? After La Salle's
departure, his men rose against Tonty, plundered the fort of what was
worth taking, demolished it, and went off in a body, leaving Tonty to
shift for himself.
But where was he? La Salle found Crèvecœur in ruins, and the place a
solitude.
In despair La Salle searched the river to its mouth, so reaching
the Mississippi at last, but without finding the least trace of his
lieutenant. On every side fate seemed conspiring for his defeat.
Still undaunted, for the third time La Salle set out in the autumn of
1681. In a wonderful manner Tonty had made his escape from the Iroquois,
and rejoined his chief on the lakes. This time the expedition passed
through the Chicago River to the Illinois, and thence down to the
Mississippi, which was reached on the 6th of February.
After a short stay here the little fleet of canoes resumed the long
voyage before them. On the 24th, the explorers landed near the Third
Chickasaw Bluff to hunt. Here they built a stockade which was called
Fort Prudhomme.[6]
Few incidents marked the passage of the explorers through the countries
of the Arkansas, Tensas[7] and Natchez nations, till the Frenchmen
reached the neighborhood of the Quinipissas, when they were shot at from
the canebrakes along the banks, though without receiving any hurt.
Knowing he was among a multitude of foes, La Salle prudently refrained
from returning the fire.
On the 6th of April, the explorers found the river branching out before
them in three streams. Which to take, they knew not. That there should
be no mistake about it, La Salle took the westernmost himself, Tonty
the middle, and another the eastern branch. Presently some one dipped
up a cupful of water to drink. It proved to be brackish to the taste.
La Salle knew now he was nearing his goal.
At last the canoes glided past the outermost point of low, reedy land,
out upon the broad bosom of the Gulf.
Landing not far above the mouth of the river, La Salle caused the arms
of France to be set up at that place, and then and there, on the ninth
day of April, 1682, he took formal possession of the country watered by
the Mississippi. It was in the name of Louis XIV. that he did so, in
whose honor La Salle declared the name of this vast acquisition to be
Louisiana.
Yet in no long time we find Louis writing with his own hands words like
these: "Like you,"—he is addressing M. de La Barre,[8]—"I am persuaded
that the discovery of the Sieur de La Salle is very useless; and it
is necessary hereafter to prevent similar enterprises which can have
no other result than to debauch the people by the hope of gain, and to
diminish the revenue from the beaver."
FOOTNOTES
[1] FORT AT NIAGARA, on the east side of Niagara River,
"a little below the mountain-ridge of Lewiston;" came into
possession of United States, 1796.
[2] GREAT ILLINOIS TOWN. First known to the whites as
Kaskaskia (see chapter "Joliet and Marquette"); its site
corresponds with the village of Utica, on the Chicago and R.
I. Railway, five miles east of La Salle.
[3] CACHES, French for hiding-places. The word is naturalized
in the West. A pit, or Indian barn, in which grain, etc., was
stored. The custom, universal among the Indians, was adopted
by white hunters and traders in their expeditions.
[4] CRÈVECŒUR, French, broken-hearted.
[5] THE GRIFFIN should have brought back cables, anchors,
sails, etc., for a vessel to be built on the Illinois, in
which La Salle purposed sailing down to the Gulf. Though the
vessel was built, the purpose came to naught for reasons given
in the text.
[6] FORT PRUDHOMME is on early maps. So named for one of La
Salle's men who wandered away and was lost in the woods. La
Salle left a few men here to await his return.
[7] TENSAS. The customs of these people were identical with
those described under the caption of "Florida Indians," as
seen by De Soto's men, which see. They kept a sacred fire
burning. (Refer to legend of Pecos, New Mexico Indians, for
analogy of customs in this respect.) Tensas County, La., was
the home of these Indians. La Salle also visited the Natchez
town, near the site of the present city of Natchez, where he
saw the same religious rites performed as among the Tensas.
[8] DE LA BARRE had succeeded Frontenac as governor of
Canada. He was La Salle's enemy.
DISCOVERY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI.
It will be remembered, that, when La Salle found himself so
unfortunately stopped among the Illinois, his active mind was promptly
casting about for something to be achieved elsewhere. This object he
found in the Upper Mississippi, which he determined should be explored
in his absence, so interlocking his own discoveries with those of Joliet
and Marquette. Two of his people were accordingly sent to perform this
duty, with whom went Father Hennepin,[1] the Franciscan missionary
before spoken of.
The party set out from Fort Crèvecœur on the last day of February, 1680,
while at the same time La Salle was starting northward for Lake Ontario.
As historian of the expedition, Hennepin's vanity has led him to claim
the leadership for himself, while he accuses La Salle of meaning to get
rid of him,[2] in the same breath. We know, however, from La Salle
that neither is true. La Salle was much too good a judge of character
not to see through the friar after so long trial of him, though,
knowing him to be capable, he gave him the chance of being useful. For
the expedition itself, it is certain La Salle had it much at heart.
Touching Hennepin's narrative, La Salle dryly says the friar "spoke more
according to his wishes than what he knew," or, in the familiar phrase,
was in the habit of drawing on his imagination for his facts.
Hennepin himself seems to have been that singular anomaly, seldom met
with in real life, a brave braggart, whose self-conceit and arrogant
self-assertion stand forth in strong contrast with the modesty and
patience always shown by La Salle when he is speaking of his own
achievements. And it is further characteristic of the two men, that
while one felt he could afford to wait for time to do him justice,
the other sought the cheap glory to be had by sounding his own praise
abroad, even when exposure was certain to follow. So that nothing
Hennepin has written can be accepted as true, without other evidence to
substantiate it. The more is the pity! But the exaggerations of all our
early chronicles show that they were penned by men influenced by the
passions or rivalries of the time, often so distorting what is true as
to make it fit the particular end they may have had in view. To this
lamentable want of integrity may be attributed the fact that history
has so often to be re-written.
For six weeks the explorers plied their paddles against the current
of the Mississippi unmolested. One day when they had drawn their canoe
on shore to repair it, the Frenchmen were suddenly surrounded by a war
party of Sioux[3]—the very people of all others whom they most wished
to avoid.
In a moment the whites were made prisoners. The scowling looks and
threatening gestures of their captors boded them no good. Hennepin
proffered the peace-pipe. It was snatched from his hand. When he began
muttering prayers aloud, the Indians angrily signed to him to be silent,
thinking he was preparing some charm to overpower them with, but they
let him chant the same prayers, he says, thinking there could be no
sorcery or medicine in song. Presently the Sioux began their homeward
journey, thus making it clear to the Frenchmen that their future
discoveries must be made as captives.
In nineteen days the party landed near the site of St. Paul.[4] From
here the trail was struck leading to the Sioux villages, which were
reached after five days of hard marching and harder usage at the hands
of the Sioux warriors.
Here the prisoners were separated, Hennepin going to an aged chief who
adopted him as his own son. So they passed the winter among the Sioux.
In the following summer, when the Sioux went on their annual buffalo
hunt, they took the three Frenchmen along with them. This was the
prisoners' opportunity for regaining their liberty, and they hastened
to make use of it. La Salle had promised to send word of himself to
them at the mouth of the Wisconsin, and they knew he would not fail
them. Telling the Sioux their friends were coming, loaded with gifts,
the greedy Sioux were easily induced to let Hennepin and one other go
down the river to meet them alone and unguarded. One Frenchman remained
behind with the Sioux as a hostage for the others.
The two whites began their descent of the river, carrying their canoe
round the Falls of St. Anthony,[5] to which Father Hennepin gave this
name, till, after many adventures, Lake Pepin[6] was reached.
[Illustration: SIOUX CHIEF.]
To their consternation, the travellers were overtaken at this point
by a party of Sioux who had followed their prisoners so closely, as
hardly to lose sight of them, and now pushed on ahead to the Wisconsin.
Finding neither traders[7] nor goods there, as they had been led to
expect, the Sioux paddled back again in bad humor to the place where
the whites had remained. After being soundly rated for the cheat they
had practised, the unlucky whites were forced to turn about and go back
again as they came.
After some longer stay among the Sioux, the captives were found by some
French traders who had made their way from Lake Superior, through the
Sioux country, to the Mississippi. Hearing of the three white men, while
on the way, these traders had kept on from village to village, till they
reached the one in which Hennepin and his companions were detained, and
ransomed them out of the hands of the savages.
[Illustration: SIOUX TOTEM.]
At the head of the rescuing party was one Du Lhut, or Duluth, for whom
the city of Duluth is named, as Lake Pepin is also said to have been
named for another of this party. Thus, in St. Anthony's Falls, Lake
Pepin, and Duluth we have a group of names commemorating the men of La
Salle's exploring party, as well as the exploration itself.
All the Frenchmen now returned to the Sioux villages at Mille Lac
together.
They finally made their way back to the French settlements by the
Wisconsin and Green Bay route, as Marquette had done before them, and
the Sioux[8] also for many generations had travelled to the great
lake.
FOOTNOTES
[1] FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN, a Récollet, or Franciscan
friar, published his _Description of Louisiana_, 1683, with
subsequent editions, under various titles, 1697, 1698, etc.
While his exaggerations make it difficult to separate what is
true from what is false, yet his writings are an indispensable
part of the History of the Great West.
[2] GET RID OF HIM, by exposing him to be scalped among
hostile Indians.
[3] SIOUX, properly Dacotahs, may be nominally divided in
two great bodies by the Mississippi River. Those living on
the east side were Eastern Sioux, those on the west, Western
Sioux. Their country reached from the westernmost tributaries
of the Mississippi to Lake Superior. In power, they were
to the West what the Iroquois were to the East—the scourge
of weaker nations. The Sioux ceded their lands east of the
Mississippi to the United States, in 1837, living on the St.
Peter's till the massacres of 1862-63 drove them thence.
[4] ST. PAUL, nine miles below the Falls of St. Anthony,
capital city of Minnesota, settled about 1840; Benjamin
Gervais, the first settler.
[5] FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY. St. Anthony of Padua was
Hennepin's patron saint. The Sioux were in the habit of
hanging buffalo-robes on the trees as offerings to the spirit
of the waters. Minneapolis is the growth of the water-power
of these falls, having increased from 2,564 in 1860, to 46,000
in 1880.
[6] LAKE PEPIN, a broadening of the Mississippi, about
twenty-five miles long. There is a pretty Indian legend
connected with Maiden's Rock in the lake, told in Mrs.
Eastman's Legends of the Sioux.
[7] LA SALLE asserts that the Jesuits told the men he
had engaged to do this that the friar had been killed, so
preventing them from going.
[8] THE SIOUX ALSO. Recall the fact stated earlier, that
Marquette fell in with the Sioux at or about Green Bay.
THE LOST COLONY: ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS.
Thus, in 1682, La Salle had secured an empire for France, and at last
found a legitimate field for his own ambition. His Louisiana comprised
every thing between the Alleghanies and Rio Grande, the Gulf of Mexico
and Hudson's Bay. Upon opening the maps of the time we find the English
crowded into the comparatively narrow limits extending from the eastern
slopes of the Appalachian range to the sea, the Spaniards occupying
those between the Rio Grande and Gulf of California, while the whole
great heart of the continent, including portions of Carolina and
Florida, with its magnificent system of waterways, is covered by the
names New France and Louisiana.
But La Salle himself, the man of large and luminous views, had now
reached the high-water-mark of his achievements. The wave which owed
its impetus to his active brain, expended its force with his life.
Upon his return voyage up the Mississippi the explorer fell sick. He
was taken to Fort Prudhomme, the one built by his order on the way
down, where he lay for months a helpless invalid, chafing under the
inaction thus forced upon him. As soon as he felt strong enough to bear
the journey, La Salle proceeded on to Michilimackinac, where he was no
sooner arrived than he set about the work of rebuilding the trading-post
on the Illinois, in room of the one his treacherous followers had
destroyed in his absence.
This was to be his half-way house to the Mississippi. Here he trusted
to gather a colony alike capable of drawing to itself all the trade
of a vast tributary region, as of defending itself and his allies, the
Illinois, against the incursions of the Iroquois.
But La Salle's greater project for securing the results of his
discoveries, by planting a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi,
henceforth looked to reaching that point by sea and not by land. To
transport every thing overland from Quebec to the Gulf was of course
impracticable. No one knew this better than La Salle himself, yet he
also foresaw the importance of keeping the way to Canada open if the
colony at the Gulf was to thrive. To this end the fort on the Illinois,
and that at the Chickasaw Bluff, were but incidents.
After establishing himself strongly on the Illinois, La Salle went to
France in order to lay his projects before the King.
In consequence of a rupture with Spain he found the court well disposed
to listen to his proposals. These contemplated the building of a fort
sixty leagues above the mouth of the Mississippi, which La Salle assumed
would draw around it, as to a common centre, all the neighbor tribes.
Gifts and good usage had already disposed these tribes favorably toward
the French, while the Spaniards had already alienated them by harsh
treatment. With their help La Salle asserted that the conquest of
New Biscay,[1] with its rich silver-mines, would be an easy matter,
because there were not more than four hundred Spaniards in all that
province.
The plan met instant favor. To enable La Salle to carry it out, four
vessels were given him instead of the two he asked for. A naval officer
by the name of Beaujeu was assigned to command them at sea. La Salle set
himself to work with his usual energy. Soldiers, priests and colonists,
arms, munitions and stores, were provided in sufficient number or
quantity to put the colony on its feet at once.
Long before the ships were ready to sail from Rochefort, La Salle and
Beaujeu had quarrelled. Beaujeu overrated himself, and underrated La
Salle. Often betrayed by those he trusted most, La Salle's naturally
suspicious nature led him to distrust every one, above all Beaujeu, who
constantly ridiculed him and his schemes to his friends. So La Salle's
reserve gave offence to Beaujeu, who grew sulky, and was at no pains
to conceal his dislike for the whole affair. Here then at the very
outset the seeds of disaster were sowed. It was under such unpromising
conditions that the fleet set sail in July, 1684, for the Gulf of
Mexico.
Three of the vessels reached St. Domingo in two months, with a large
number of sick on board, of whom La Salle himself was one. The fourth
had been taken at sea by Spanish buccaneers, thus depriving the
colonists of the tools and provisions with which she was loaded.
Upon La Salle's recovery from what came near proving a fatal illness,
the fleet again put to sea, though it was now November, and much
precious time had been lost.
Steering westward into the Gulf, they made their landfall on New
Year's Day, but when La Salle went on shore to look about him, he could
discover no sign of the great river he was in search of. The colonists
were upon a low, flat coast, without natural landmarks to guide them,
or knowledge of the longitude of the place they were seeking, or of the
currents which the Gulf sets in motion. No wonder, then, that La Salle
failed to recognize any part of the inhospitable coast before him.
Finding no trace of the Mississippi, and as the failure to do so was
every day productive of disputes between himself and Beaujeu, La Salle
resolved to land where he was, notwithstanding his belief that he had
gone too far to the westward. He was, in fact, at the time of taking
this resolution, on the coast of Texas, more than four hundred miles
from the Mississippi.
Almost at the moment of landing, La Salle's storeship, which contained
the greater part of his provisions, grounded, and became a wreck; it
is said, through the carelessness or treachery of her master, who also
was on bad terms with La Salle. Indeed, from first to last La Salle's
enemies seem to have exerted themselves to ruin him with a zeal that,
if honestly employed, would easily have insured the success of all his
plans.
This disaster, taken with the fact that he knew not where he was, would
have staggered any one but La Salle. His dispirited people were huddled
together on the sands, among the bales and boxes saved from the wreck,
out of which they made themselves a temporary intrenchment and shelter,
for like vultures who scent their prey from afar, hostile Indians
hovered about the encampment, watching their chance to cut off any who
should stray away from its protection.
Yet misgiving for the success of an enterprise so disastrously begun,
was turned into dread when the colonists learned that they were nowhere
near their actual destination. La Salle, indeed, tried to put heart
in them by pretending to believe otherwise, but a little time soon
dispelled this fallacy. He, however, took the best means of quieting
discontent by setting every one at work. Beaujeu had sailed away after
promising much, but performing little else. The colonists now had much
more to fear from the Spaniards, than the Spaniards from them. Yet for
La Salle nothing remained but to make the best of the situation until
he should have time to look it fairly in the face.
Meanwhile, the essential thing to be done was to get his people housed
in a situation which should admit of their living in some comfort and
security, as the place where they first landed was alike destitute of
wood, water and comfortable lodging.
He therefore chose a site on the Lavaca River,[2] two leagues above
its entrance into Matagorda Bay. To this place the colonists removed
themselves and their goods, and under the energetic direction of La
Salle, whose previous training now stood him in good stead, they set
about building themselves a home in this out-of-the-way corner of the
world. As it rose from the soil, the ever-loyal La Salle named it St.
Louis,[3] in honor of his sovereign.
The summer was hot and sickly. Death was soon busy among the colonists,
those who ate wild fruits imprudently suffering first of all. Now
and then the Indians would kill some straggling hunter. Thus, in one
or another form, death lurked about them. And beneath these apparent
dangers, in which all shared alike, smouldered the embers of unreasoning
discontent which certain of La Salle's followers were always fanning
into a flame.
Having seen his people comfortably housed, and in condition to defend
themselves, the indefatigable La Salle now turned his attention to the
prime purpose of his expedition, with the certainty of the needle to its
pole, for all he had so far done was merely a step in this direction.
There was no time to lose.
Although it is not clear why La Salle should determine to march
overland, rather than make search along the shores, the character of
the Gulf coast affords a possible clew. This is described by Mr. Cable
as follows: "Across the southern end of the State,"—he is speaking
now of Louisiana,—"from Sabine Lake to Chandeleur Bay, with a north
and south width of from ten to thirty miles, and an average of about
fifteen, stretch the Gulf marshes, the wild haunt of myriads of birds
and water-fowl, serpents and saurians, hares, raccoons and wildcats,
deep-bellowing frogs, and clouds of insects, and by a few hunters whose
solitary and rarely frequented huts speck the wide green horizon at
remote intervals."
It was now October, 1685. With fifty men La Salle set out for the river
he had discovered only to lose again. Those who staid behind, lived
on buffalo-meat,[3] turtles, oysters, fish, and wild fowl which the
prairies or lagoons around them plentifully supplied in their season.
In March, the exploring party came back unsuccessful and in rags. They
had wandered far, but had not found the Mississippi. One crowning
disaster now befell these exiles. Up to this time they had kept one
little vessel of their fleet with them, which was to take them to the
Mississippi so soon as its exact situation should be discovered. This
vessel, in which their sole dependence lay, was now lost.
In desperate situations, desperate measures are alone to be availed of.
La Salle's resolve was heroic. He determined to make a last effort to
reach the Mississippi and the lakes. Indeed, there was now no hope of
obtaining relief nearer than Canada, therefore to Canada he must go,
leaving the colonists to await his return.
For this purpose La Salle chose twenty men, with whom he again set
out from the fort on the 22d of April, 1686. Each man carried his own
pack and weapons, and as the little band filed out upon the prairie,
the hopes of the lost colony went forth with them in their desperate
venture.
But these hopes sunk low when La Salle came back with only eight of the
twenty who had gone with him. The explorers had penetrated as far as
the country of the Cenis Indians,[4] when sickness and desertion had
so crippled their strength as to make further progress hopeless for the
time. They, however, procured some horses from the Indians which were
brought back to the fort.
No other resource being open, La Salle once more essayed the task
before him. In the straits in which he and his people were placed, his
splendid qualities for leadership shine out of the gloom like a guiding
star. The resources of the colony were nearly exhausted in fitting out
previous parties, but the scanty stores were ransacked anew to equip
those who were to be the saviors of the rest. The horses which La Salle
had brought in were loaded with baggage and ammunition. All was ready.
A midnight mass was solemnly said. La Salle spoke a few hopeful words
to those who were to endure a suspense perhaps even greater than his
own, and then, mastering his own feelings, he turned away to join his
followers,—the forlorn hope of the expiring colony.
On the 15th of March, 1687, the hunters who were out killed a buffalo.
The party therefore halted till the meat could be brought into camp.
Here it was that the hatred, long nursed in secret, openly revealed
itself in murder. Misery always begets quarrels, but in this case the
sole incitement was revenge. La Salle had the unhappy faculty of making
enemies, of whom his worst ones were then close at hand, and plotting
for his life. A quarrel about the meat hastened the work on. Those
who were faithful to La Salle became the conspirators' first victims.
Three of these, whom La Salle had sent over to the hunters' camp, were
butchered while they slept.
La Salle himself was encamped six miles distant from the place where
these murders were committed. Growing uneasy at the long absence of
the men he had sent away, he started with an Indian guide for their
camp. A friar named Douay also accompanied him. This friar noted in La
Salle's talk and manner the presentiment of coming evil. On reaching
a point which he supposed to be near the hunters' camp, La Salle fired
his musket as a signal. One of the conspirators showed himself, while
the others lay hid in the long prairie-grass unobserved. La Salle fell
into the snare thus set for him. While advancing toward the decoy, whose
insolent replies angered him, La Salle constantly neared the ambuscade.
Suddenly a shot was fired. When the smoke cleared away, La Salle was
seen stretched lifeless upon the prairie. He was quite dead.[5] The
bullet had gone through his brain.
Thus, in the prime of life, fell Robert Cavelier de La Salle, and thus
again must history record its indignant protest in the death of a man
of highest intellectual force, whose worth to the world was monumental
as compared with that of the vulgar assassin who slew him.
NOTE.—THE COLONISTS AT ST. LOUIS, except three or four who
were carried into captivity, were all massacred by the
Indians. A Spanish expedition in 1689 found the place a
solitude. Those who escaped subsequently related what had
occurred. Although this was the first white colony to be
founded in Texas,[6] in itself it was an accident, no less
productive of results, because it led the Spaniards to occupy
the country in order to keep out intruders like La Salle.
Geographical knowledge was also remarkably extended.
FOOTNOTES
[1] NEW BISCAY. Refer to chapter "New Mexico."
[2] LAVACA RIVER, also called by the French La Vache (the
cow).
[3] ST. LOUIS. This name was some time preserved in
connection with St. Bernard, or MATAGORDA BAY. Not to be
confounded with St. Louis of the Illinois.
[4] CENIS INDIANS occupied the east bank of the Trinity,
toward Red River.
[5] THE MURDER is located at a point nearly midway between
the Brazos and Trinity Rivers, on a map in the author's
possession, and not far from the old Spanish trail between
Nacodoches and the Presidio del Norte. After the murder, the
survivors went forward to the Cenis villages. In a quarrel
about the plunder, two of the ringleaders, Duhant and Liotot,
were killed by their confederates. This left the way open for
Joutel, the two priests, Cavelier (La Salle's brother), and
Douay, with three others, to continue their attempt to reach
the Mississippi. Those implicated in La Salle's murder, dared
not return to the settlements. With Indian guides the river
was struck at the Arkansas villages, where the fugitives met
with two of Tonty's men, who helped them on their way. Tonty
had been down the river on a fruitless search for La Salle.
[6] TEXAS. The name, in its present orthography, occurs at
this time in connection with La Salle's colony, but is first
found in "A Briefe Relation of Two Notable Voyages" (Hakluyt
iii. 464), made first by the friar Augustin Ruiz, in 1581, to
the Tiguas Indians, and next by Antonio de Espejo in 1583.
Shortened to Tejas (Tahas), the name was easily turned into
Texas, its present rendering.
IBERVILLE FOUNDS LOUISIANA.
Where La Salle had sowed, others were to reap, yet so comprehensive
were his plans, so well matured, so entirely feasible withal, that what
followed was but the natural result of his efforts. La Salle was like
the general who falls in the moment of victory. All honor then to his
name![1]
Therefore while we record his failure, individually, to do all he
purposed in this, his last expedition, the success which came later was
due to the master mind of La Salle. We shall not find, in any explorer
of his time, so original a mind united with such rare gifts for doing
the work to which he devoted himself.
For a time, the project of colonizing Louisiana[2] quietly slept.
It was then revived by a naval officer named Iberville,[3] who thus
became, in a manner, heir to La Salle's projects.
Iberville promised to rediscover the mouth of the Mississippi, and hold
it afterward by building a fort at its mouth, just as La Salle would
have done if he had lived to carry out his schemes.
Although it had slumbered long, the moment the project was renewed
by so capable a man as Iberville, every intelligent Frenchman saw
its importance. The minister Ponchartrain approved it directly it was
broached to him, the more because he knew that if any man could succeed
in what he undertook, Iberville would.
Iberville had seen much service in Canada, Hudson's Bay and
Newfoundland. Being himself a naval officer of rank, he would command
his own ships, and not be hampered by a divided command, or the jealousy
of a rival, which had proved such a formidable stumbling-block to La
Salle.
As the war was now over, Iberville wished to distinguish himself by some
worthy action done in the interests of peaceful conquest.
Two ships were therefore got ready, which sailed from Rochefort in
October, 1698, and anchored at St. Domingo[4] in December. Sailing
thence they fell in with the Florida coast January 27. A bay opened
before them. Iberville wished to put into this port, but on attempting
to do so he found it in the possession of three hundred Spaniards from
Vera Cruz, whose commander forbade his landing there. This place was
called Pensacola.[5]
Fearing the Spaniards were on the same errand[6] with himself,
Iberville at once made sail for the westward, hugging the shores as
closely as possible in order not to miss the river among the mists which
commonly hang over and hide it from view. Finding in Mobile Bay a harbor
where his ships could safely ride, while he himself continued the search
along the shore in boats, Iberville came to an anchor there.
Very shortly his exploring parties came to the Pascagoula River, where
they found many savages living. From this river they pushed on through
the intervening lagoons that everywhere intersect this shallow shore,
till, on the 2d of March, the Mississippi itself was entered through
one of its numerous passes.
Sailing on up the river, Iberville passed first one populous town and
then another, receiving everywhere a cordial welcome from the savages,
yet doubting within himself whether he was on the true Mississippi,
till one day a chief brought him a letter[7] which Tonty had left for
La Salle thirteen years before, when, after searching for his chief in
vain, this trusty comrade had turned back for the Illinois.
After mentioning that he had found La Salle's cross thrown down, and
had set up another in a better place, the letter concludes by saying,
"It is a great chagrin to me that we are going back without finding you,
after having coasted the Mexican (Louisiana) shore for thirty leagues,
and the Florida twenty-five."
[Illustration: SUGAR PLANT.]
This letter having removed all Iberville's doubts, he fell down the
river again, and having nowhere found, within sixty leagues of the Gulf,
a proper place to begin a settlement on, he turned back to the Bay of
Biloxi, where a spot was chosen and the ground marked out for one.
After seeing the establishment at Biloxi well under way, Iberville
took ship for France. He was back again early in January, 1701. During
his absence an English corvette had sailed twenty-five leagues up the
Mississippi to a point where the river sweeps grandly round to the east.
At this place her captain was warned back by the French, from which
circumstance the bend received the name of the English Turn, which it
has ever since borne.
Iberville also learned that English traders from Carolina[8] had
penetrated into the Chickasaw country above him. Finding himself
menaced both by sea and land, and delay dangerous, Iberville shut up the
entrance from sea by mounting some cannon near the mouth of the river.
The century turned noiselessly on its hinges with no other
establishments in all this great domain of Louisiana except that planted
by La Salle on the Illinois, and the one at Biloxi.
In 1701 Iberville began a settlement at Mobile. The next year he
erected storehouses and barracks on Dauphine Island[9] for permanent
occupation. In a few years this island became the general headquarters
of the Louisiana colony. Nothing worthy of the name, however, existed
before 1708. Up to this time the handful of colonists lived on what
was sent them from France, or obtained by trading French goods with the
savages. They sowed wheat, but found the climate too damp for growing
it with success. They also began the planting of tobacco, which did so
well that its culture presently became a mainstay of the colony.
[Illustration: MOUTHS OF THE MISSISSIPPI, AND ADJACENT COASTS.]
But while Iberville had thus gained a foothold, in what might be called
a good strategic position for approaching the Mississippi, either from
sea or through Lake Ponchartrain, he was actually but little nearer than
the Spaniards at Pensacola, who kept a watch on all his movements. Never
did nature seem more persistently thwarting the schemes of men than in
the attempt of these Frenchmen to enter upon what they considered their
rightful inheritance.
FOOTNOTES
[1] LA SALLE'S NAME is perpetuated in many places in the
United States, notably in a city and county of Illinois.
[2] COLONIZING LOUISIANA quietly slept, partly, but not
wholly, in consequence of war between England and France.
[3] IBERVILLE, LE MOYNE DE, was one of eight brothers, all
eminent in the annals of Canada. He was considered one of the
greatest sailors France has produced. In 1685 he assisted
in expelling the English from Hudson's Bay. Afterward he
took part in the defence of Quebec by Frontenac; destroyed
Pemaquid; and took St. John's, Newfoundland. As a commander
he was almost uniformly successful. Iberville's name is
perpetuated in a town and parish of Louisiana.
[4] ST. DOMINGO, or Hayti, had been seized by French
buccaneers, 1630. The French government took possession of the
island, 1677, thus establishing a _dépôt_ for their operations
in the Gulf of Mexico.
[5] PENSACOLA (Indian). A place of much historic interest.
First discovered, according to the Spaniards, by Narvaez,
then by Maldonado, one of De Soto's captains. It received
several Spanish names, notably that of Santa Maria de Galve,
but finally retained that of the neighboring tribe of savages.
[6] ON THE SAME ERRAND. That the Spaniards knew of the
Mississippi is clear from their having given it the name
Iberville afterward found so apt when ascending it,—Rio de
los Palissades,—a title suggested by the enormous rafts of
uprooted trees which the river brought down and left stranded
at its mouth.
[7] TONTY'S LETTER was left in the forks of a tree where
the Indians found it. It may be seen in full in Charlevoix,
ii. 259.
[8] ENGLISH TRADERS from Carolina were pushing their way
across the Appalachians. Many French Protestants who had fled
from their country on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
were settled in South Carolina, and it was feared the English
would attempt to settle a colony of them in Louisiana.
[9] DAUPHINE, originally Massacre Island.
FRANCE WINS THE PRIZE.
"_A soldier, fire, and water, soon make room for themselves._"
Iberville died at Havana in 1706, leaving his uncompleted work to his
younger brother, Bienville,[1] who set vigorously about it.
Many believed Natchez to be the best point on the river for founding a
settlement. Natchez therefore assumed importance to French plans for
the future. But Natchez was the principal seat of a powerful nation
whose enmity it would be impolitic to arouse by making forcible entry
upon their lands. An opportunity soon offered itself, however, which
Bienville quickly took advantage of.
[Illustration: BIENVILLE.
FOUNDER OF NEW ORLEANS, 1718.]
In the first place some outrages committed by the Natchez upon passing
traders gave Bienville the pretext he sought for building a fort at
their village, which was promptly done (1714).
These people being overawed, the next step taken was the building of
a fortified house at Natchitoches,[2] on the Red River, as a check
to the Spaniards, who, already, were working their way east from the
Rio Grande toward the Mississippi, partly to overawe the troublesome
Comanches, and partly to engross the Indian trade of that region for
themselves. Thus early in its history the Mississippi and its commerce
were become a bone of contention between English, Spaniards and French.
Again the folly of farming out the trade of a whole country to a single
individual, which had been tried in Canada with such bad effects, was
repeated here in Louisiana. This monopoly was granted (1712) to Anthony
Crozat for twenty-five years. Like all speculators, Crozat aimed to
make the most in the shortest time, letting the future of the colony
take care of itself. He was to control, absolutely, all that came into
the colony or went out of it. Agriculture was neglected and trade only
encouraged. And all trade was monopolized by Anthony Crozat. This was
the penny wise, pound foolish, colonial system of France, adopted
with the purpose of putting a little money into the royal treasury
at a nominal saving to it of certain sums required for maintaining
its authority in the colony. This policy turned the colony into a
trading-post, and the people themselves into dependants of Crozat.
When Crozat entered upon his exclusive privileges there were but
twenty-eight families in the whole province, of whom not more than
half were actual settlers, the rest being either traders, innkeepers or
laborers, who had no fixed residence.
The roving traders, or _Coureurs de Bois_,[3] bartered French goods
with the Indians for peltries and slaves, which were sold in the
settlements. It was found that tobacco, indigo, cotton and rice could be
profitably cultivated, but none except slaves were employed in tilling
the soil, which, indeed, is comparatively worthless in the neighborhood
where the colonists first located themselves. Consequently only such
things as would help to eke out a subsistence—such as corn, vegetables
and poultry—were cultivated at all. In a word, the colony literally
lived from hand to mouth. Instead of growing stronger and richer, of its
own robust growth, it grew, if possible, weaker and poorer by reason of
a policy, or system, under which no colony has ever thrived.
Little inducement was held out for the colonist to identify himself
with the country, or feel that he and it must grow up together. He was a
sojourner in a strange land. He could never hope to get rich by trade,
since every thing must pass through the hands of Crozat's agents, at a
price fixed by them.
This was by no means the whole weakness of Louisiana in her infancy.
Perhaps the primary evil lay in the fact that so far the French neither
controlled access to the Mississippi, in the place where they were,
or had formed any settled plan for securing that solid foothold on its
banks which alone could render them masters of the situation.
Crozat's failure was, in the nature of things, foreordained. His scheme,
indeed, proved a stumbling-block to the colony and a loss to himself.
In five years (1717) he was glad to surrender his monopoly to the crown.
[Illustration: FRENCH SOLDIERS.]
From its ashes sprung the gigantic Mississippi Scheme of John Law,[4]
to whom all Louisiana, now including the Illinois country, was granted
for a term of years. Compared with this prodigality Crozat's concession
was but a plaything. It not only gave Law's Company proprietary rights
to the soil, but power was conferred to administer justice, make peace
or war with the natives, build forts, levy troops and with consent of
the crown to appoint such military governors as it should think fitting.
These extraordinary privileges were put in force by a royal edict, dated
in September, 1717.
The new company granted lands along the river to individuals or
associated persons, who were sometimes actual emigrants, sometimes
great personages who sent out colonists at their own cost, or again
the company itself undertook the building up of plantations or lands
reserved by it for the purpose. One colony of Alsatians was sent out
by Law to begin a plantation on the Arkansas.[5] Others, more or
less flourishing, were located at the mouth of the Yazoo, Natchez and
Baton Rouge. All were agricultural plantations, though in most cases
the plantations themselves consisted of a few poor huts covered with
a thatch of palm-leaves. The earliest forts were usually a square
earthwork, strengthened with palisades about the parapet.
The company's agricultural system was founded upon African slave
labor.[6] Slaves were brought from St. Domingo or other of the West
India islands. By some their employment was viewed with alarm, because
it was thought the blacks would soon outnumber the whites, and might
some day rise and overpower them; but we find only the feeblest protest
entered against the moral wrong of slavery in any record of the time.
Negroes could work in the fields, under the burning sun, when the whites
could not. Their labor cost no more than their maintenance. The planters
easily adopted what, indeed, already existed among their neighbors.
Self-interest stifled conscience.
The new company wisely appointed Bienville governor. Three ships brought
munitions, troops, and stores of every sort from France, with which to
put new life into the expiring colony.
It was at this time (February, 1718) that Bienville began the foundation
of the destined metropolis of Louisiana. The spot chosen by him was
clearly but a fragment of the delta which the river had been for ages
silently building of its own mud and driftwood. It had literally risen
from the sea. Elevated only a few feet above sea-level, threatened with
frequent inundation, and in its primitive estate a cypress swamp, it
seemed little suited for the abode of men, yet time has confirmed the
wisdom of the choice.
Here, then, a hundred miles from the Gulf, on the alluvial banks of the
great river, twenty-five convicts and as many carpenters were set to
work clearing the ground and building the humble log cabins, which were
to constitute the capital, in its infancy.
The settlement was named New Orleans,[7] in honor of the Regent,
Orleans, who ruled France during the minority of Louis XV.
Up to this time it was supposed that large ships could not cross the
bar, at the river's mouth, but upon sounding the channel, enough water
was found to float one of the company's ships, which then sailed up to
New Orleans. From this day, the river may be said to have been fairly
open to commerce with the outside world. As respects the passage up and
down, it had practically become an every-day excursion for the Canadian
voyageurs who, with the Indians, had so long formed its floating
population. These adventurers now drew up their canoes, along the bank,
at New Orleans, whose promiscuous assemblage of Indians, habitants,
convicts, soldiers and priests, they joined.
Father Charlevoix, the historian of New France, thus describes New
Orleans as he saw it in 1721:—
"The most just idea I can give you is to imagine two hundred
persons who have been sent to build a city, and who are
encamped on its banks. This city is the first which one of the
greatest rivers of the world has seen rise on its borders.
It is composed of a hundred barracks placed without much
order, a large storehouse built of wood, two or three houses
which would not adorn a poor village in France, and part of
a wretched barrack which they have been willing to lend the
Lord, for his service, and of which He had scarcely taken
possession when He was thrust out and made to take shelter
under a tent."
[Illustration: NEW ORLEANS, 1719.]
In the cluster of French names,—Louisiana, New Orleans, Ponchartrain,
Iberville and Maurepas,—the great personages who bore a conspicuous part
in the founding of Louisiana are fittingly perpetuated.
From Quebec to New Orleans, from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, a line
of posts, half-military, half-religious, had sprung up in La Salle's
footsteps. France had won the prize.
FOOTNOTES
[1] BIENVILLE, from his long and useful association with
the province, was called the "Father of Louisiana."
[2] NATCHITOCHES became an important strategic point with
reference to the Spaniards in Texas, who had founded missions
at San Antonio and a post at Nacodoches.
[3] "COUREURS DE BOIS, or Wood Rangers, are French or
Canadese, so called from employing their whole life in
the rough exercise of transporting merchandise goods to
the lakes of Canada and to all the other countries of that
continent in order to trade with the savages. And in regard
that they run in canoes a thousand leagues up the country,
notwithstanding the danger of the sea and enemies, I take it
they should rather be called Runners of Risks than Runners of
the Woods."—_Baron la Hontan._
[4] JOHN LAW of Edinburgh was made comptroller-general
of the finances of France, upon the strength of a scheme
for establishing a bank, and an East India and Mississippi
Company, by the profits of which the national debt of France
was to be paid off. In 1716 he opened his bank, and the
deluded of every rank subscribed for shares both in the bank
and company. A. de Pontmartin calls it the "idolatry of the
golden calf." Voltaire relates that he had seen Law come to
court with dukes, marshals and bishops in his train. The
imaginary riches of Louisiana furnished the basis for the
scheme. At first the shares went up. In 1720 the inflated
bubble exploded, spreading ruin everywhere. Law himself died
in poverty. It infused a spasm of prosperity in Louisiana,
soon to be followed by reaction which brought every thing to
a standstill. Consult any good encyclopædia.
[5] ON THE ARKANSAS, but very soon removed lower down the
river. These Germans were pioneers of free labor in Louisiana.
They became the market gardeners for New Orleans.
[6] SLAVERY. Negro slavery was then established in the
Spanish and English American colonies.
[7] NEW ORLEANS was regularly laid out in 1720. It was
protected from inundation by an embankment called a levee.
LOUIS XIV.
Louis XIV. was not only, as Richelieu, powerful, but he was majestic;
not only, as Cromwell, great, but in him was serenity. Louis XIV.
was not, perhaps, genius in the master, but genius surrounded him.
This may lessen a king in the eyes of some, but it adds to the glory
of his reign. As for me, as you already know, I love that which is
absolute, which is perfect; and therefore have always a profound
respect for this grave and worthy prince, so well-born, so much loved,
and so well-surrounded; a king in his cradle, a king in the tomb;
true sovereign in every acceptation of the word; central monarch of
civilization; pivot of all Europe, seeing, so to speak, from tour to
tour, eight popes, five sultans, three emperors, two kings in Spain,
three kings of Portugal, four kings and one queen of England, three
kings of Denmark, one queen and two kings of Sweden, four kings of
Poland, and four czars of Muscovy appear, shine forth and disappear
around his throne; polar star of an entire age, who, during seventy-two
years, saw all the constellations majestically perform their evolutions
round him.—V. HUGO. _The Rhine._
III.
THE ENGLISH.
THE BLEAK NORTH-WEST COAST.
"_War with the world and peace with England._"—_Spanish._
We should expect to find a race of sailors pushing discovery on their
own element.
With English mariners of the seventeenth century, the belief in a
North-west Passage to India was an inherited faith. Cabot led discovery
in this direction. It became, almost exclusively, a field for the brave
and adventurous of this nation who, from year to year, spreading their
tattered sails to the frozen blasts of the Polar Sea, grimly fought
their way on from cape to headland, in desperate venture, lured by the
vain hope of finding the open waters of their dreams lying just beyond
them. It is a story of daring and peril unsurpassed. Many a noble
ship and gallant crew have gone down while attempting to solve those
mysteries which the hand of God would seem forever to have sealed up
from the knowledge of man.
Among others the brave and ill-fated Henry Hudson,[1] in 1610, sailed
through the straits leading into the bay now bearing his name, where his
mutinous crew wickedly abandoned him to die of cold or hunger, or both.
Afterward, Hudson's Bay was repeatedly visited by English navigators
whose discoveries all went to confirm the prevailing belief in an open
polar sea. One of them even took a letter from his own king for the
Emperor of Japan. In view of the suffering to which all were alike
subject, these "frost-biting voyages" might be said to show more heroism
than sound practical wisdom, yet with the riches of the Indies spread
out before their fancy, and all England to applaud their deeds, the best
of England's sailors were always ready to peril life and limb for the
prize. All who came back told the same tale,—of seas sheeted in ice,
suns that never set, lands where nothing grew, cold so extreme that
all nature seemed but a mockery of the all-wise design of the Creator
Himself.
[Illustration: ABANDONED HUT, NORTH-WEST COAST.]
Sir Thomas Button followed up Hudson's discoveries in 1612. He wintered
at the mouth of Nelson's River, so named by him, after finding farther
progress to the westward barred by the coast, where he had hoped to find
it opening before him.
It was soon found that the bleak and desolate region enclosing Hudson's
Bay was rich in fur-bearing animals, whose skins bore a great price
in Europe, and the reports brought back from that far-off land gave a
certain Frenchman named Grosselier the idea of planting a fur-trading
colony there. He at once went to the minister with his plan. The
minister, however, would not listen to him. Grosselier then went to
Prince Rupert,[2] who was staying at Paris, to ask for the aid he
wanted. Struck with the scheme, the prince became its patron. A ship was
sent out, with Grosselier, in 1668, which reached the head of James'
Bay,[3] where Fort Charles was built. The next year, Prince Rupert,
and seventeen others, were incorporated into a company, with power
granted them to make settlements and carry on trade in Hudson's Bay.
In this way the since famous Hudson's Bay Company obtained a monopoly
of the fur-trade of all that region, which afterward proved so valuable
to it. Its powers were most ample. It could hold and convey land, fit
out ships, erect forts, or make war with the peoples of that country,
but all this was to be done in its character as a trading-company; and
though it had a resident governor, the central authority was kept in
the company, in London, who continued to direct its affairs.
In the earlier years of its existence the Hudson's Bay Company had
a hard struggle for life. We know that French traders formerly had
dealings with the natives of that dreary inland sea. Jealousy now
prompted them to try to drive the English thence by force, and so get
rid of their rivalry. To this end repeated attacks were made upon the
English factories,[4] which were taken and retaken, first by one and
then by another assailant. Even in time of peace the French had not
scrupled to assault these remote posts, so unwilling were Canadians to
see the English gain a foothold in that quarter.
These invasions were quieted at last by the treaty of Utrecht (1713),
which left the English in possession of what they had battled with foes
of every sort to secure for themselves.
[Illustration: HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S HOUSE, LONDON.]
Communication had with the natives, who were nomads, taught the
English how to make distant journeys, and gradually, with their aid,
to penetrate farther and farther into the interior. But to live in the
country at all, they had, in a great measure, to adapt themselves to the
natives' way of life, and to make journeys they had to adopt the rude
conveyances found in use among them.
FOOTNOTES
[1] HENRY HUDSON. The same who discovered and named Hudson
River of New York.
[2] PRINCE RUPERT, of Bavaria, commanded the cavalry of
Charles I. during the Civil War (1642): after the Restoration
he devoted himself to scientific pursuits.
[3] JAMES' BAY. Like Davis, Baffin, Hudson, etc., the name
is that of an arctic navigator. It opens at the bottom of
Hudson's Bay.
[4] THE ENGLISH FACTORIES, at that time, were Forts Nelson,
Albany, Hayes and Rupert.
HUDSON'S BAY TO THE SOUTH SEA.
"_Many a shoal marks this stern coast._"
The Hudson's Bay Company's grant was meant to promote the discovery of
a North-west Passage to India: so the people of England, in giving away
such large privileges, expected this would be done without delay.
But the company, at first, made little or no effort in this direction.
It was chiefly occupied with making money, and making it from the start.
Hence every thing was made to work to that end.
[Illustration: HUDSON'S BAY SLED, LOADED.]
England did not know what she was doing when she created this monopoly.
Ignorance led to delusion, and delusion to the inconsiderate granting
away of an empire. It was thought the company would explore and settle
its grant, and thus England would reap the benefits without spending a
penny. The company, on the other hand, meant to do nothing of the sort,
unless driven to it by popular clamor. Then it would do as little as
it could. Colonization was fatal to the fur-trade, and the company was
an association of fur-traders, nothing else. Hence, given a warehouse
in London, a ship to carry goods back and forth, a port and factory at
Hudson's Bay, a score or more of trading-posts scattered here and there
over a vast extent of territory, to which the hunters could bring furs
and get goods at the company's price, and we have, briefly told, the
whole machinery of this giant monopoly. In dealing with the outside
world it pursued a policy of Spanish exclusion and silence. It was not
making history, but money.
Yet the company was all the time building better than it knew, for even
the coming and going of its own traders gradually enlarged geographical
knowledge of the country, so smoothing the way for the future.
From time to time the natives who came to the factories showed specimens
of copper ore, which they said came from the Far Off Metal River of
the North. The English traders consequently named it the Coppermine.
It became an object with them to find the mine, or mines, whence these
specimens had been taken. The governor accordingly (1769) sent one of
his most trusty men into the unknown wilderness in search of them.
Taking with him some Indian guides, and living as they lived, that is
to say one day fasting and the next feasting, as game was found plenty
or scarce, Samuel Hearne only succeeded in getting to the Coppermine
after making three attempts to do so. His story is a wondrous record
of persevering endurance. He found the sacred character of the calumet
everywhere acknowledged, even by the most degraded tribes. When they had
once smoked together the stranger was as safe from injury or insult as
in his own house, though nothing could exceed the curiosity which his
white skin, blue eyes and light hair, all so different from their own,
caused among the Indians he met in his journey.
The Coppermine was found to run into the Arctic Ocean, instead of
Hudson's Bay, as Hearne supposed it did when he first set out, but no
copper could be discovered worth the taking of such a journey to look
for, as his. Hearne came back (1772) at the end of a year and a half,
having established the shore line of the northern ocean at a point where
land only was supposed to be. This was considered a great geographical
discovery. Thus, year by year, a little was added here and a little
there toward completing an accurate map of the north coast line.
In 1789, a Scotch trader, named Alexander Mackenzie, had been living
for eight years past at Fort Chipewyan.[1] This was a station nearly
central between Hudson's Bay and the Pacific. Mackenzie was an explorer
by instinct. He determined to cross the continent. Once he had made up
his mind, no thought of hardship could deter him. His course through the
Slave River and lakes led him to the river now bearing his own name,—the
Mackenzie River. Down this stream the intrepid traveller floated in his
frail canoe, to its outlet upon the frozen Arctic Sea.
During his trip, Mackenzie questioned the Indians of this river about
the unknown country lying beyond the great western wall of mountains,
but found they could tell him little except that the people of that
country were so exceeding fierce no stranger durst go among them. But
Mackenzie knew the Pacific was there, and meant to reach it.
He first moved up from Fort Chipewyan to the east foot of the mountains,
so as to get a better start. He wintered here. In the spring (1793),
he was ready to set out again. One large, strong canoe, which held
all the provisions, and which two men could carry with ease, enabled
the travellers to work their slow and toilsome way up the swollen
mountain torrents into the highest defiles, from which they sprung. As
the explorers advanced, the stream they were ascending became more and
more choked up with rocks or fallen trees, and more and more broken by
cascades and rapids. It was often necessary to carry the canoe round or
drag it over these obstructions, though at the cost of such toil that
the men grew disheartened and wished to turn back, thinking the task
a hopeless one. Unsparing of himself, Mackenzie put courage into the
downhearted, and after a short rest all were ready to go on again.
[Illustration: INDIAN MASK, WEST COAST.]
Falling, at length, among the Indians who dwelt among the mountains,
Mackenzie found that the rest of the journey would be much shortened
by leaving his canoes and proceeding by land. He therefore continued
his way by land, constantly meeting with natives who lived sumptuously
on the salmon that the streams everywhere produced in great abundance
and perfection. Mackenzie soon found he had nothing to fear from these
people. They fed and sheltered his men in their villages, and willingly
helped him on his way. The fatigues and anxieties of the journey were
nearly past, for on the 23d of July, 1793, the party of white men
arrived on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, near the Straits of Fuca.
Although, in relating the adventures of Mackenzie, we have gone somewhat
before our story, the doing so is essential to its design, as subsequent
chapters will show.
FOOTNOTE
[1] FORT CHIPEWYAN was at the foot of ATHABASCA LAKE, midway
between the mountains and Hudson's Bay.
THE RUSSIANS IN ALASKA.
"_Heaven is high and the Czar distant._"
Referring to what Drake had done for England, and De Fuca for Spain,
the one tacking a name to the coast here, the other there, we find
little for more than a century going to show that Europeans thought the
discoveries of either worth following up.
What do we then see? Not Spain, not England putting forth a steady hand
to grasp the prize each already claimed as its own, but a new power,
coming not from the East, but from the West. It is a power hardly known
in Europe. It is Russia.
[Illustration: SEALS, ST. PAUL'S ISLAND.]
The Czar Peter, Peter the Great in history, determined to know whether
the two grand continents, Asia and America, were joined in one, or
separated by a northern ocean. Peter died before the orders given
for this purpose could be carried out, but Catherine, his empress and
successor, sent Captain Behring[1] of the royal navy to execute them.
Sailing from Kamschatka (1728), Behring followed the coast of Asia round
to the north-west, finding open water everywhere, and so determining
the separation of the continents. In a second voyage (1741) he put out
to sea, this time falling in with the American coast, discovering Mt.
St. Elias and the Aleutian archipelago.
During this voyage Behring's vessel was thrown upon an island and
wrecked, and he himself died miserably there, but some of his sailors
built themselves a vessel out of the wreck, in which they succeeded
in getting back to Kamschatka, bringing with them the furs of the
sea-otters and foxes they had killed and eaten while living upon the
desert island.
[Illustration: RUSSIAN CHURCH, ALASKA.]
From the time of these discoveries, Russian adventurers, who were
little better than daring freebooters, crossed over the narrow seas to
the Aleutian Isles, to kill the sea-otters for their fur, thus opening
between them and Ochotsk, and between Ochotsk and the Chinese frontier,
next Siberia, by means of caravans, a trade in the valuable furs for
which these islands are so famous.
In time, these roving traders were followed by a few actual colonists,
who were brought over from Siberia or Kamschatka to aid in establishing
permanent trading-posts[2] at suitable points. But the country
possessed no other resources except its fur-trade. The early traders
had cruelly oppressed the natives, hence the first colonists were looked
upon as enemies, and treated as such by them. Some missionaries of the
Greek Church were also sent over to care for the souls of these poor
people, who before had no knowledge of Christianity.
There were no elements of thrift in this colony, consequently it could
never make healthy progress. At best the people were little better than
vassals, while the Indians were hardly more than slaves. The land is
too cold for agriculture. The people have but one occupation, that of
seal-hunting.
The fur-trade was at first conducted by private persons, but eventually
the control passed to one large company, sanctioned by the crown under
the form of The Russian American Company, with headquarters first at
Kodiak and then at Sitka.[3]
This company claimed the whole coast of America, on the Pacific, with
the adjacent islands, from Behring Straits southward to, and beyond,
the mouth of the Columbia River.
FOOTNOTES
[1] BEHRING STRAITS, and Sea, take their name from this
navigator,—Vitus Behring, or Bering. According to a map
published by the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, Behring
touched his farthest southerly point on our coast closely
under the sixtieth parallel, at what is called, on some maps,
Admiralty or Behring's Bay. His consort Tchirikow's track
is extended to 55° 36´. In the narrowest part of Behring's
Straits it is only thirty-six miles from Asia to America,
showing how slight were the obstacles to communication, as
compared with the three thousand miles separating America from
Europe.
[2] PERMANENT TRADING-POSTS were begun on Oonalaska about
1773, and Kodiak 1783. In 1789 there were eight of these
posts, with two hundred and fifty Russians. A Russian post
was also established at St. Michael's, Norton Sound.
[3] SITKA was founded to check the encroachments of the
Hudson's Bay Company. Alaska was purchased by the United
States in 1867, during the presidency of Andrew Johnson.
ENGLAND ON THE PACIFIC.
"_Ye mariners of England!_"—_Campbell_.
England's conquest of Canada[1] (1763) put a wholly new face upon the
situation in America. She was now, beyond dispute, the foremost power
of this continent.
Hardly had the echoes of this conflict died away, when a new power
arose to contend with England for what she had just torn from the
grasp of France. This was her own American colonies, whose people had
now been driven to take up arms (1775) against the mother country, in
defence of their dearest political rights. So England gained Canada,
but lost her own colonies. She wrested power from France, only to see
it snatched from her own grasp in the moment of victory, though, after
all, it was no less a victory for the English-speaking race over all
her Latin-speaking rivals. It must be seen that events like these would
have far-reaching effects in shaping our history.
Yet while the conflict with her colonies was going on, and both parties
were in the thick of the actual fighting, England was putting forth
efforts to control the commerce of the North-west Coast.
For this purpose it would be essential to have accurate surveys of
all important harbors and sounds, in order to select sites for future
settlements, and above all of any navigable rivers flowing from the
east out upon the coast, that might afford a practicable route into the
interior, and so connect this coast with the settlements of the Hudson's
Bay Company.
With this end in view, two discovery ships were sent out (1776), in
command of Captain James Cook,[2] with orders to search the coast of
New Albion for any navigable river north of the forty-fifth parallel.
England clearly meant to re-assert her claim to sovereignty,[3] set
up so long ago in her behalf by Sir Francis Drake.
On board Cook's ship were two persons with whom our story will have to
deal. One was Midshipman Vancouver, the other Corporal Ledyard of the
marines.
[Illustration: SNOW SPECTACLES, ALASKA.]
Cook first discovered and named the Sandwich Islands.[4] Shaping his
course thence for the American coast, he fell in with (1778) and named
Cape Flattery.[5] Steering now northward with the coast always in
sight, Cook at length found a broad basin, which the Indians called
Nootka, and which has since been known as Nootka Sound.[6] The ships
lay here all the month of April, refitting, and getting ready for the
coming cruise in the arctic seas, which Cook was instructed to explore
for the wished-for passage into Hudson's Bay.
[Illustration: INDIAN CARVING.]
Except for their propensity to steal, which nothing could control,
Cook found the natives of Nootka a friendly people, though they were
no longer abashed in the presence of white men, or afraid of their
loud-roaring cannon, as in the time of Drake. Many wore brass or silver
trinkets. Most of them had tools of iron which they had made for
themselves, and could use with skill. Passing ships would therefore
seem to have brought these tribes into unfrequent communication with
Europeans, so that Cook's coming neither surprised nor intimidated them;
while the articles in their possession acquainted him with the fact
that other navigators had passed that way before him, perhaps with views
similar to his own.
Upon again setting sail, Cook was blown off the coast by contrary winds.
When he again saw it, he was far to the north of Nootka. He saw and
named Mt. Edgecumbe as he sailed; then Mt. St. Elias rose in solitary
grandeur before them, giving Cook notice that he was now crossing the
track of the Russian discoverers.
[Illustration: INDIAN GRAVE, NORTH-WEST COAST.]
The ships continued to skirt the coast until its westward trend forced
them to put about, and steer south-west, along the shores of the Alaskan
peninsula. Cook had missed both the Columbia River and the Straits of
Fuca, thus losing his one chance for making known to the world the great
water systems of the north Pacific.
Getting clear of Alaska, Cook came to Oonalaska, of the Aleutian group,
which he doubled. Then, finding the coast beyond him to bend in the
desired direction, again he sailed on through Behring's Straits into
the Arctic Ocean as far as Icy Cape (70° 29´), at which point his ships
were stopped by ice. Finding he could go no farther, he put about and
returned to Oonalaska, where, in October, he anchored.
From this anchorage Corporal Ledyard was sent on shore in search of
the Russian traders, then known to be living on the island, whom he
found, and brought back with him to the ships. Getting little from
these people, for want of interpreters, Cook sailed back to the Sandwich
Islands, where the natives of Owyhee treacherously killed him while he
was on shore.
The furs which Cook's sailors obtained from the natives of Nootka, in
exchange for knives, buttons and other trifles, were sold at Canton,
China, for more than ten thousand dollars. This was the beginning of a
trade between Nootka and Canton, which, during the next decade, was the
means of bringing many British vessels to the North-west Coast.
It is instructive to remember that, at the very time when the American
colonies were throwing off their allegiance, Cook was quietly exploring
the North-west Coast, in the interests of peaceful expansion, which, in
the end, was to inure to the benefit of those colonies.
FOOTNOTES
[1] CONQUEST OF CANADA was the result of the Seven Years'
War in Europe. Nearly all the powers were involved in it. When
peace was made, all that France held east of the Mississippi
River, under the names Louisiana or Canada, except New
Orleans, was given up to England. New Orleans, with all that
France claimed west of the Mississippi, had already (1762)
been privately ceded by France to Spain.
[2] JAMES COOK entered the navy as a cabin boy. He stood
at the head of English navigators since Drake. The government
kept his discoveries secret till after the close of the war.
To their honor, all the belligerents gave orders that he
should not be molested by their forces.
[3] HER CLAIM TO SOVEREIGNTY. It was known in England,
before Cook sailed, that Spanish navigators were again working
their way up the coast. (See voyages of Juan Perez 1774, Bruno
Hector and Bodega 1775, in Bancroft.) The Spaniards knew the
value of the fur seal in commerce.
[4] SANDWICH ISLANDS, so named for the Earl of Sandwich,
then first lord of the Admiralty.
[5] CAPE FLATTERY, on the mainland, at the south entrance
to the Straits of Fuca, and landmark of those straits.
[6] NOOTKA SOUND, Vancouver Island. Taken possession
of by Spain, 1789. The English navigators Cook, Meares
and Vancouver, being unable to find another good harbor
between Cape Mendocino and Cape Flattery, hit upon Nootka
as possessing the requirements of a port for their nation.
Upon this a quarrel arose with Spain, which claimed Nootka
in virtue of prior discovery. In the end Spain was obliged
to relinquish Nootka to England. VANCOUVER, who gave his
name to the large island to which Nootka Sound belongs,
reached the coast April, 1792, near Cape Mendocino, but
strangely missed the Columbia River, though he carefully
looked for any opening in the coast line, which he declared
to be unbroken from Mendocino to Cape Flattery. Vancouver's
surveys were to fill the gap left open by Cook when he was
blown off the coast. His passage through the Straits of Fuca
had been anticipated by Captain Kendrick, of the American
sloop "Washington," in 1790, thus first verifying the
long-disputed fact of the existence of those straits.
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
Though Elizabeth was so well calculated to govern with ability, and
even with that glory and advantage to her people which England had
never witnessed under any of its preceding sovereigns;—though her
administration was so vigorously and equitably exercised, and all her
plans and negotiations so ably and successfully conducted;—though, in
short, she was equally revered and obeyed, as a sovereign, at home, and
she was feared and respected abroad;—yet was Elizabeth a very weak and
silly woman in trifling concerns. She seemed a Goliath in the conduct of
the mighty affairs of empires; but dwindled into a very woman, when the
color, fancy, or fashion of a dress became the topic. Nor was she free
from the little petty vexations, jealousies, and rivalship of beauty,
so natural to her sex. Indeed, it appears that she hated and envied her
cousin, the beautiful Mary of Scots, less on account of her pretensions
to the crown, than for her superior charms. When Mary sent Sir James
Melville to London, to endeavor to establish a good understanding with
Elizabeth, he was instructed by Mary to sound her cousin on subjects
that would interest her rather as a woman than a queen. "He accordingly
succeeded so well," says Hume, "that he threw that artful princess
entirely off her guard, and made her discover the bottom of her heart,
full of those vanities, and follies, and ideas of rivalship, which
possess the youngest and most frivolous of her sex. He talked to her
of his travels, and forgot not to mention the different dresses of the
ladies in different countries; and she took care thenceforth to meet
the ambassador every day apparelled in a different habit; sometimes she
was dressed in the English garb, sometimes in the French, sometimes in
the Italian; and she asked him which became her most? He answered, the
Italian,—a reply that he knew would be agreeable to her, because that
mode showed to advantage her flowing hair, which he remarked, though
more red than yellow, she fancied to be the finest in the world. She
desired to know of him what was reputed to be the best color of hair;
she asked whether his queen or she had the finest color of hair; she
even inquired which of them he esteemed the fairest person,—a very
delicate question, and which he prudently eluded, by saying that her
majesty was the fairest person in England, and his mistress in Scotland.
She next demanded which of them was tallest. He replied, his queen.
'Then she is too tall,' said Elizabeth, 'for I myself am of a just
stature.'"
[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH.]
It is a saying, that the greatest heroes are not so in the opinion of
their valets; and it may with equal truth be said of this celebrated
princess, that, however she might appear a great heroine to the world,
she was still nothing more than a frail woman in the eyes of those
who best knew her private and undisguised thoughts, feelings and
actions.—_Anon._
INTERLUDE.—WHAT JONATHAN CARVER AIMED TO DO IN 1766.
It so happened, that after the conquest of Canada, an American, and
veteran of that war, named Jonathan Carver, conceived the idea of
crossing the continent by way of the Great Lakes and tributaries of the
Mississippi. After attentively studying the French maps, and reading
the accounts of Hennepin and Lahontan, he believed this could be done.
Carver's avowed purpose was, first, to ascertain the breadth of the
continent. If successful in reaching the Pacific, he meant to have
proposed to the English government the establishment of a permanent
port on that coast. He was convinced that this was the true way to the
discovery of the North-west Passage, which Drake had attempted so long
ago, justly reasoning that it would be easier to sail from the west than
from the east, while the loss of time consequent upon the long voyages
from England, with the delays and perils incident to Arctic navigation,
would be much lessened by having such a dépôt as he proposed. And it
would also greatly facilitate communication between Hudson's Bay and
the Pacific.
Carver thought further, that a settlement on that side of the continent
would not only open up new sources of trade, and, to use his own
words, also "promote many useful discoveries, but would open a way for
conveying intelligence to China and the English settlements in the East
Indies with greater expedition than a tedious voyage by the Cape of Good
Hope, or the Straits of Magellan, would allow of."
Whether it originated in his own brain or not, so far as known, Carver
was the first boldly to set before the English people the idea of going
across the American continent to India,—the idea that has eventually
solved the whole problem.
Convinced that his undertaking was practicable, Carver started from
Michilimackinac in September, 1766, in company with some traders who
were going among the Sioux by the old route leading through Green
Bay, Fox River and the Wisconsin. What he could learn about the upper
tributaries of the Mississippi seems to have determined Carver to fix
his final starting-point somewhere about the Falls of St. Anthony.
These falls were reached on the 17th of November. When Carver came to
the point overlooking them, his Indian guide surprised him by beginning
to chant aloud an invocation to the spirit of the waters. While doing
this he was stripping off first one, then another, of his ornaments,
and casting them from him into the stream. First he threw in his pipe,
then his tobacco, then the bracelets he wore on his arms and wrists, and
lastly his necklace and ear-rings. When he had thus divested himself of
every article of value he possessed, the Indian concluded his prayer of
adoration with which his propitiatory offerings were so freely joined.
Carver's journey, in this direction, ended at the River St. Francis.
Returning south he ascended the St. Peter's, or Minnesota River, by his
own account, for a distance of two hundred miles, to the villages of
the Sioux with whom he passed the winter.
[Illustration: FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY.]
But after thus penetrating far into what is now the State of Minnesota,
Carver found himself unable to proceed. The gifts that were to be
sent after him, and which were essential to securing a safe-conduct
among the Indian nations on his route, did not come. No alternative
therefore remained but to go back to Prairie du Chien, the great Indian
trading-mart of all that region, where the explorer finally gave up
the attempt to go west at this time. He then returned to Canada by way
of the St. Croix and Lake Superior, bringing with him the information
gained by a seven months' residence among the Sioux.
Carver's Travels were published in England in 1778, ten years after
his return, although his notes and maps had been in the government's
possession for some years, permission to publish them having been
refused him.
[Illustration: INDIAN BURIAL SCAFFOLD.]
It is here that we first find the name of Oregon,[1] given to the
great river of the Pacific slope. Carver speaks of it repeatedly as "the
river of the West that falls into the Pacific Ocean."
This explorer afterward (1774) decided to renew the effort to cross
America, his indicated route being up the St. Peter's to its head,
thence across to the Missouri, up this stream to its source, and, after
discovering the source of the "Oregon or River of the West, on the other
side the summit of the dividing highlands," to descend it to the sea.
His purpose was frustrated by the war between England and the colonies.
He has, however, put on record his opinion touching the future of the
great Mississippi valley. This is his prophecy:
"To what power or authority this new world will become
dependent, after it has arisen from its present uncultivated
state, time alone can discover. But as the seat of empire,
from time immemorial, has been gradually progressive towards
the west, there is no doubt but that at some future period,
mighty kingdoms will emerge from these wildernesses, and
stately palaces, and solemn temples, with gilded spires,
reaching the skies, supplant the Indian huts whose only
decorations are the barbarous trophies of their vanquished
enemies."
FOOTNOTE
[1] OREGON. What were Carver's sources of information about
this river? The Sioux told Father Charlevoix forty odd years
earlier (1721), that by going up the Missouri, as high as
possible, a great river would be found running west, into
the sea. Carver, we know, had read Charlevoix's work. Yet the
Sioux may have told him the same story, which he so constantly
reiterates in his own narrative, and we know it to be a true
story. Substantially, Carver followed the same route which
Marquette, Hennepin, and others had before him. This may have
cast doubts upon the validity of all he has given, as of his
own knowledge. But the main facts came within the ken of so
many persons, who could have stamped them as spurious, but
did not, that we think their validity must be granted.
But what is the origin of the name OREGON first used by
Carver? Here we are all at sea. Bonneville says the word comes
from Oregano, which he asserts to have been the early Spanish
name for the Columbia River country—derived from oreganum,
the botanical name for the wild-sage plant, or artemisia.
This seems hardly conclusive. Again, we know the Spaniards
gave the name Los Organos (Organ Mountains) to a range of
the Sierra Madre, so it is possible they may have applied it
indefinitely to the whole chain, north of New Mexico. But the
Sioux could hardly have known of either derivation, or Carver
have invented the name.
JOHN LEDYARD'S IDEA.
CORPORAL JOHN LEDYARD'S[1] fancy had been taken captive by the
exploits of Captain Cook, which for a time fairly renewed the enthusiasm
Drake's bold dash into the far South Sea had created so long before.
Ledyard was a born explorer. Every thing he saw while under Cook's
command was jotted down from day to day in his diary. He was
quick-witted, restless, and ambitious of making his way in the world,
nor was he slow to see the advantage that the north-west coast offered
to whomsoever should be first in the field. But Ledyard had been wearing
King George's uniform, though himself an American, whom thirst for new
scenes had led to enlist under a hostile flag. When, however, after his
return to England, Ledyard was sent out to America, rather than fight
against his country he deserted.
His mind was filled with crude projects for securing the commerce of the
north-west coast, not for England, but for America, and America was now
a free republic. So he had imbibed at least the spirit of what is now
known as the Monroe Doctrine.
Ledyard first tried to get American merchants to fit out a ship for him.
Failing in this he went to France, thinking to secure there the help he
wanted.
It happened that while Ledyard was trying to get up a company to carry
on his schemes, Louis XVI. was fitting out La Peyrouse to follow
up Cook's track in the Pacific, and so make good what that eminent
navigator had failed to make complete.
Ledyard importuned everybody. Haunting those who would listen to him,
borrowing money first from one and then another in order to live,
sometimes without a crown in his pocket, always repulsed, but never
despairing, the would-be explorer woke and slept on his one ever-present
idea.
"I die with anxiety," he says to a friend, "to be on the back of the
American States, after having penetrated to the Pacific Ocean. There
is an extensive field for the acquirement of honest fame. The American
Revolution invites to a thorough discovery of the continent. It was
necessary that a European should discover America, but in the name of
love of country let a native explore its resources and boundaries. It
is my wish to be that man."
Thomas Jefferson was, at this time (1785), our minister to France,
"in every word and deed the representative of a young, vigorous and
determined state." Ledyard often sought his counsel and aid. Struck
by Ledyard's uncommon devotion to his one idea, Jefferson said to him
one day, "Why not go by land to Kamschatka, cross over in some of the
Russian vessels to Nootka Sound, fall down into the latitude of the
Missouri, and penetrate to and through that to the United States?"
This conversation curiously shows us that, at the time the American
Union was first formed, more was known about Kamschatka than about
the region lying between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean.
Through Siberia, at least, there was a travelled route, while from the
Mississippi to the Pacific there was none. The conversation is therefore
an instructive starting-point in the history of our country.
Although the enterprise itself failed to bear fruit at this time, the
coming together of these two men, one of whom became the apostle of the
American idea in its broadest sense, was like the striking together of
flint and steel. Fire followed it. Ledyard had the best knowledge of
the subject. Ledyard pointed out the way. Ledyard had given Jefferson
something to ponder, which, in his sagacious mind, soon grew to a
question of highest national importance.
Ledyard eagerly agreed to make the trial, provided that the Russian
Government would give its consent. This being granted, the explorer
set out for Kamschatka; but at Irkutsk, in Siberia, he was stopped and
turned back, in consequence of the jealousy of the Russian-American
Company, whose headquarters were at Irkutsk, and who feared their
interests would be endangered if this daring stranger were permitted to
pass into their territory.
From this time Ledyard's personal history ceases to be associated with
that of the Great West. But he was the first to perceive, perhaps dimly,
what was shortly to become, with a broader growth, the ruling idea of
American statesmen.
FOOTNOTE
[1] JOHN LEDYARD was a native of Groton, Conn.; (born 1751,
brother of Colonel William, who fell in the defence of Groton,
1781). John went first to Dartmouth College to be fitted as
an Indian missionary. In those primitive days the students
were called together by the blowing of a conch-shell. Though
quick and apt to learn, Ledyard hated study. He preferred
climbing the mountains about the college. In four months
he ran away. He, however, returned, but finding the rigid
discipline no less irksome than before, made his escape in a
canoe, in which he floated down the Connecticut River, from
Hanover to Hartford, one hundred and forty miles. Ledyard was
proud, sensitive, impulsive, and restive under correction or
restraint. Finding his purpose to enter the ministry thwarted,
in a fit of resentment he shipped for the Mediterranean as
a common sailor before the mast. This voyage was Ledyard's
preparation for service under Cook. He was in turn theological
student, sailor, soldier, explorer, and in his make-up all
these characters were combined to produce a thorough-going
explorer.
A YANKEE SHIP DISCOVERS THE COLUMBIA RIVER.
With the close of the Revolutionary War, the commercial spirit of our
countrymen began to re-assert itself in deeds which should stamp them
for all time as worthy sons of worthy sires. Far back, even when the
colonies were but a few feeble settlements strung along the Atlantic
seaboard, few people had shown greater enterprise in seeking avenues
for commerce than they.
[Illustration: MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER.]
This was especially the case with the New-England colonies. War
had ruined their commerce, but with the coming of peace the shrewd
New-England merchants were on the lookout for new outlets, since nowhere
could ships be so cheaply built, while the population largely got their
living either on or from the sea. Besides this, they had a brand-new
flag of their own, of which they were justly proud, and which they
wished to see afloat on the most distant seas.
The discoveries made on the north-west coast by England, though kept
secret till after the close of the war, were by no means unknown to our
merchants and sailors, in whom the laudable desire to profit by every
avenue the ocean might throw open to honest enterprise and skill, was
inspired and increased by a condition of national freedom.
It was at this time that certain merchants of Boston formed (1787)
a partnership for beginning a trade between the north-west coast and
China. They fitted out the ship "Columbia," of two hundred tons, and
sloop "Washington," of ninety tons burden, with trading-goods, which
the masters were to barter for furs with the Indians, sell the furs
at Canton, and with the proceeds buy teas for the home-market. Large
profits were expected. As the United States was a new power at sea,
and her flag little known, the masters were provided with passports, to
certify they were honest traders sailing under an honest flag.
The owners, however, looked somewhat farther than a mere trading
voyage would suggest. They had in mind the establishment, under the
national authority, of permanent factories, somewhat similar to those
of the Hudson's Bay Company. Looking to this end, their masters, John
Kendrick and Robert Gray, were instructed to buy lands of the natives,
to build storehouses or forts, or make such other improvements on these
lands as would insure their permanent tenure to the owners. In so far
as occupation by any white people was concerned, the territory lying
between Cape Mendocino and the Straits of Fuca was known to be vacant,
though, out of England, Spain was thought to have the best claim to it.
Kendrick and Gray were therefore directed to begin operations on this
unexplored strip of coast, not only as traders, but as explorers of an
undiscovered country.
Less could not well be said of these voyages, because of the importance
they subsequently assumed in the dispute between England and the
United States about their respective boundaries, but we will leave that
question now to take its proper turn in the story, and go back to the
voyages themselves.
[Illustration: COIN STRUCK FOR THE VOYAGE.]
Both vessels[1] reached Nootka in the early autumn of 1788. Having
made her cargo, the "Columbia" set sail for Canton, sold her furs for
teas, with which she returned to Boston in August, 1790, thus first
carrying the flag quite round the world.
This time the Bostonians did not throw the tea overboard as they had
once done, when it came seasoned with an odious tax. A quite different
reception was given to the "Columbia" as she sailed up the harbor with
the stars and stripes fluttering at her mast-head, after an absence
of nearly three years. As she passed the Castle, the "Columbia"
fired a national salute, which the fortress immediately returned. The
loud-booming cannon brought the inhabitants in crowds to the wharves to
see what ship was receiving such honorable welcome. As the "Columbia"
rounded to, in the inner harbor, the people shouted, the cannon
pealed, as if the occasion were one worthy of public commemoration
and rejoicing. It was, indeed, felt to be the breaking away from old
despotisms which a colonial condition had so long imposed, while the
track round the globe was not yet so much travelled, or so well known,
as to make the "Columbia's" voyage seem any less a great achievement.
It happened that the "Columbia" had touched at Owyhee, the royal
residence of the king of the Sandwich Islands. Captain Gray persuaded
the king to let the crown prince go with him to the United States.
The prince was royally welcomed in Boston, and safely returned to his
native land, so bringing about a friendliness between Americans and the
islanders, of much benefit to commerce in the future.
Although the owners had lost money[2] by the venture, they were
public-spirited men, and determined on making a second trial. The
"Columbia" was therefore again fitted for sea, and in June, 1791, was
again breasting the waves of the North Pacific. During this second
voyage, Captain Gray saw the mouth of a river, into which, however, he
did not sail, because the surf broke with violence quite across it.
He, however, carefully noted down the latitude in his log; but when,
shortly after, he fell in with Vancouver, that officer doubted what Gray
told him about this river. It could not be there, he thought, since he
himself had carefully searched without finding it.
After parting company with Vancouver, Gray sailed south, with the
intention of knowing more about the river in question. When the entrance
was sighted, the "Columbia" was boldly steered for it with all sails
set. She safely ran in between the breakers, into a broad basin which
no keel but hers had ever ploughed before, and without anchoring held
her onward course fourteen miles up the river, surrounded by a swarm of
canoes, among which the stately ship moved a leviathan indeed.
When the anchor was let go, Captain Gray found himself quietly floating
on the bosom of a large freshwater river, to which, upon quitting it,
he gave the name of his ship,—the Columbia.[3]
[Illustration: AN OREGON BELLE.]
As a result of these voyages, the direct trade between the North Pacific
and China fell almost exclusively into the hands of American traders.
British merchants were restrained from engaging in it by the opposition
of their East India Company. Russian vessels were not admitted into
Chinese ports. We find the British explorer, Mackenzie, speaking
with much ill-humor about this state of things, which, nevertheless,
only goes to prove the energy and skill of American merchants and
ship-masters, who, from the first voyages of the "Columbia," were known
to the Indians of the north-west coast as Bostons, because these vessels
hailed from that port.
FOOTNOTES
[1] BOTH VESSELS. The "Washington," being a sort of tender
to the "Columbia," coasted about Vancouver Island and Straits
of Fuca. In pursuance of his instructions, her master bought
large tracts of land from native chiefs, from whom he took
regular deeds. Copper coins, and medals struck for the
purpose, were also given to the natives. Kendrick was the
first to collect sandalwood as an article of commerce.
[2] THE OWNERS LOST MONEY. "All concerned in that enterprise
have sunk fifty per cent of their capital. This is a heavy
disappointment to them, as they had calculated, every owner,
to make an independent fortune."—_Letter to General H. Knox._
[3] THE COLUMBIA RIVER. The entrance was sighted by Heceta
(Spaniard), 1775, who called the northern promontory St.
Roque. This name was soon given, on Spanish maps, to a river
St. Roque, flowing out into Heceta's inlet, who says, "These
eddies of the water caused me to believe that the place is the
mouth of some great river." He did not, however, attempt to
enter. Captain Meares (1788), in searching for this River St.
Roque, ran into the inlet, but, seeing nothing but breakers
ahead, left it under the conviction that there was no such
river. On this account he called the northern promontory Cape
Disappointment. The southern point was named by Gray, Point
Adams.
THE WEST AT THE OPENING OF THE CENTURY.
"_America now attains her majority._"
At the close of the Revolutionary War, almost nothing was known in
the American colonies about the country lying to the west of the
Mississippi. The sources of the Missouri[1] were unknown even to
French traders. Nobody knew that a great sister river carried the snows
of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, or that the head waters of these
two noble streams lay coiled about the feet of the same lofty chain.
Where, then, should we locate the West? Possibly central along the
eastern base of the Alleghanies, certainly remote at Pittsburg, and
perhaps reaching its vanishing-point somewhere about the Dark and Bloody
Ground of Kentucky. Among a host of foes civilization stood at bay here,
but would take no backward step.
France opened the way from east to west. France and England fought for
the primacy of the continent, and England won. Defeated France gave up
the idea of maintaining herself in America, and secretly ceded to Spain
what the war had left her west of the Mississippi, as a bankrupt might
convey his property out of the reach of his most pressing creditor.
When the Colonies revolted, France saw her way to make them, like the
cat in the fable, pull her chestnuts out of the fire. It is no part of
a king's trade to set up a republic. France played her own game,[2]
played it astutely and to the end. When the Colonies, with her help,
achieved their independence, she showed them, much to their wonder, for
they were fresh to the tricks of diplomacy, that in politics there is
no more friendship than in trade, or rather that politics is a game in
which the best player wins.
In view of what it had cost her to give up Louisiana, in the first
place, not only in loss of territory, but national prestige, it is
perhaps not strange that when, as our ally, France was in turn a victor,
she should be found trying to get back Louisiana for herself. To do this
she had to play a double game, with the help of Spain, while that power
stood ready in the background to take any thing that came in her way.
These two gamesters wished to restore what we should call the old
balance of power, thus confining the United States nearly in the limits
they had occupied as colonies. To her honor, England would not listen
to their seductive pleadings. Not that she loved her revolted subjects
more, but that she loved her old rivals less. When John Jay gave their
schemes to the light of day, it was seen France had never meant we
should be a power among the nations—only a little republic. In the end
England's pride prevailed over the sting of wounded self-love. Instead
of dictating the terms of peace, as she had meant to do, France had to
see herself shut out from Louisiana, for good and all, while Spain, the
Mephistophiles of American affairs, recovered Florida from England, so
excluding the United States from access to the Gulf of Mexico either
by the seaboard or the Mississippi River. What was now left of French
Louisiana, as it existed previous to this war, presented the anomaly of
a colony of French people living under the Spanish flag.
[Illustration: A MISSISSIPPI FLAT-BOAT.]
In effect, John Jay had urged upon England that blood is thicker than
water. Franklin said, "Let us now forgive and forget." And so the
Anglo-Saxon spirit prevailed.
With independence achieved, the United States gained, as we have seen,
all the territory, except Canada, which England had conquered from
France. At a single stride her frontier had reached the Mississippi on
the west and the Great Lakes on the north.
Before the war, of which this was the grand sequel, a thin stream of
English immigrants, chiefly from Virginia and North Carolina, under the
lead of Daniel Boone, had crossed the mountains of North Carolina into
Kentucky. This movement was central in what is commonly known as the
Blue Grass Region, of which Lexington may be considered the pivot.
After the war, a second and larger emigration, chiefly from New England,
crossed over the Alleghanies to the head of navigation on the Ohio,
whence it moved down that river to the Muskingum, and was central
about Marietta. Here, then, we have two separate streams of population,
belonging to the same sturdy Anglo-Saxon race, though originating in
different sections of the young Republic, each taking along with it to
its new home in the West the customs and traditions of its own section,
and guided by instinct or destiny upon lines which, ere long, were to
divide slave from free States.
By an Act of Congress, known in history as the Ordinance of 1787, all
that great block of wilderness country, into which this last emigration
was setting, became one political division under the name of the
North-west Territory.[3] The Act creating this territory also provided
for making three States from it, and most wisely forbade that slavery
should ever exist within its borders. Thus it was that the Ohio came
to be not only a physical, but a political, dividing-line between the
sections, which, now that the law of the land had fixed a limit slavery
should not overstep, came to be designated as North and South, not, as
formerly, from geographical situation only, but because the line had
been thus sharply drawn between free and slave institutions. Each was
now on trial before the world; each was now to show what it could do for
human progress, under its own institutions, with its own means, and on
its own chosen ground.
It would seem as if this splendid acquisition of ours, this North-west
Territory, now constituting the great heart and seat of power in the
American Union, might well have filled the fullest measure of patriotic
desire for territorial expansion. It was to be, however, but the cradle
of a newer and more robust growth, as the original States had been
for that just beginning at the centre. It was an empire in itself,
comprising all those States now enclosed between the Mississippi, the
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the Great Lakes. Yet this whole tract held,
in 1792, no more than ten thousand whites, settled in widely scattered
spots, among sixty-five thousand wild Indians.
These widely scattered spots were the new settlements at Marietta and
Fort Harmar on the Muskingum, Cincinnati and Fort Washington on the
Ohio, Clarksville at the Falls of the Ohio, with the old French posts
of Vincennes on the Wabash, Kaskaskia on the river of the name, and
Fort Chartres and Cahokia on the Mississippi. Over this vast tract
a score of military posts held the Indians in check, and formed the
kernels of future settlements. Along the line of the Great Lakes,
and contrary to treaty stipulations with her, England still held the
key-points,—Niagara, Miami, Detroit, Michilimackinac,—thus restricting
the movement of our citizens from east to west on that line, and so
shutting them out from the lucrative Indian trade of the Far West.
Let us now look at the section south of the Ohio.
[Illustration: ON THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI.]
Kentucky was made a State in 1792, and Tennessee in 1796. All south of
Tennessee and west of Georgia was formed (1798) into the Mississippi
Territory. On the east, or American, shore of the Mississippi,
settlement was mostly confined to the places mentioned in "The Founding
of Louisiana" as villages. None had outgrown this condition. Most were
simply plantations. Population had increased (1785) to thirty-eight
thousand persons, chiefly by the coming-in of refugees from Nova Scotia
and St. Domingo. And blacks were already numerous enough to cause
uneasiness among the planters. The cultivation of cotton and sugar was
growing to importance; but the Spaniards at New Orleans wanted all the
water to their own mill, as the proverb has it, which meant nearly the
same thing as closing the river to American trade altogether.
The Falls of the Ohio had already begun to assume importance both as
a depot and shipping-point. They were a natural stopping-place for
all boats going up or down the river. Hence Louisville had grown up
above the falls as the port of a remarkably thrifty cluster of inland
settlements which had taken the place of the primitive stations of the
first settlers.
On both sides of the Ohio the Indians made a determined stand against
the coming in of white settlers. But bravely as they fought, their
power was so broken in many bloody conflicts, that they were, at length
(1794), glad to sue for peace. Shorn of power, they were now confined
within narrower limits. England gave up (1795) the lake fortresses. All
roads to the West being now open, they were speedily thronged by an army
of settlers.
FOOTNOTES
[1] THE SOURCES OF THE MISSOURI. About the time Mackenzie
crossed the mountains (see chapter "Hudson's Bay to the
Pacific"), an employee of the North-west Company, named
Fidler, is reported to have gone from Fort Buckingham to the
head of the Missouri. Traders from St. Louis ascended the
river at this period, but how far is uncertain.
[2] FRANCE PLAYED HER OWN GAME. It is notorious that
the French minister, Vergennes, intrigued with the British
minister, Shelburne, outside the knowledge of the United
States Commissioners. See "Life of Lord Shelburne."
[3] NORTH-WEST TERRITORY was ceded to the General Government
by the States to provide a means for paying off the debt
incurred during the war. In thirty years it had half a million
people. Connecticut reserved a strip along Lake Erie to
herself.
GROUP II.
BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN IDEA.
AMERICA FOR AMERICANS.
"_America, is therefore the land of the future._"—HEGEL.
I.
AMERICA FOR AMERICANS.
ACQUISITION OF LOUISIANA.
"_I have given England a rival that will humble her
pride._"—_Napoleon._
We have now done with that part of French Louisiana lying east of the
Mississippi. It is now blossoming all over with incipient civilization
in the form of log cabins, trading-posts, cross-roads, hamlets, and
schoolhouses.
From 1793 to 1799 our old ally France, now become a republic, was
trying first to cajole, then to bully us into taking up her quarrel with
England. She even went to the length of demanding tribute-money from us
as the price of peace, and, upon a refusal, of ordering our minister out
of her territory. Our remonstrances were treated with disdain, our ships
captured, and our flag fired upon at sea, without even the formality of
a declaration of war. This conduct drove us into making reprisal. After
one or two of her frigates had been beaten in fight by ours, France grew
more pacific toward us, and again cultivated friendly relations with a
power she had seemed to despise, until the reply "Millions for defence,
but not a cent for tribute,"[1] warned her that America would never
yield a principle to threats.
Let us now turn to Spain. In 1795 this power had made a treaty which
secured to us the right of storing[2] American goods at New Orleans,
pending shipment abroad, thus making the river so far free for our
commerce.
In 1800 Napoleon had come to the head of the French nation. Ambition
to restore the ancient sovereignty of France over Louisiana led him
to propose to Spain the exchange of Tuscany for it. Spain accepted the
offer, and in 1800-1801 treaties of cession were signed, but not made
public, because war with England was probable, and Napoleon wished
to make his title good on the spot with the bayonets of his soldiers,
before England could know of it. Therefore for the present Spain kept
possession of Louisiana in trust for France.
Just here some grave international questions arose. Our rapid growth in
the West gave Spain uneasiness. It certainly was putting her possessions
in peril. In consequence she showed such an unfriendly spirit toward
us as to keep the West in a state of chronic irritation.[3] It even
disposed the West to listen to plans for separating her from the East,
which Spain would gladly have aided in, and so was fast breaking up the
feeling of national unity so essential to keep alive in the Republic.
Suddenly, without previous notice, the Spanish intendant at New Orleans
revoked the right of deposit. The act shut the only door by which
the people of Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois could get to the sea. It
exasperated them to such a point that they begged the General Government
to drive the Spaniards out of the Mississippi for good and all.
In Thomas Jefferson the people of the West found a more sagacious
advocate. The cession could not long remain a secret. It was soon known
in the United States; but instead of calming the people, the change
of masters revived their fears, since it was felt that Napoleon, whose
exploits filled Europe with alarm, would prove more difficult to deal
with than Spain, whom nobody feared.
Such was the situation presented to Mr. Jefferson. Fortunately for its
solution, national pride and national policy do not always go hand in
hand.
Our minister, Livingston,[4] a very able man, was told to bring the
Louisiana question to Napoleon's attention, and to do it in such a
way as to leave no doubt in his mind that the United States could not
remain an idle looker-on while New Orleans was being bought and sold.
She had too much at stake. Napoleon's army was getting ready to sail
for Louisiana. There was no time to lose.
Mr. Livingston did not stop with the suggestion to sell New Orleans to
us. He went further, and proposed the cession of all Louisiana above
the Arkansas and east of the Mississippi. He did it with true republican
frankness, never hesitating to press home upon Napoleon's advisers the
dilemma which the possession of Louisiana must offer to their choice.
"What will you do with Louisiana? Would you have England wrest it from
you? Her navies have driven yours from the seas. Do you wish to force
the United States into joining with England, against you? England would
gladly give us what we ask, as the price of our help."
France was on the eve of war with England. But for this we should
hardly have had Louisiana so easily. There was no assurance felt that
the fleet Napoleon destined for Louisiana would ever reach the Balize.
Napoleon wanted money. It was true, national pride might be hurt by
the sacrifice, but it was most important, at this crisis, not to make
an enemy of the United States; and Napoleon foresaw that no foreign
power could long hold the mouth of the Mississippi, and have peace with
those States. That conviction was decisive in its effects. He declared
for the sale of Louisiana, outright, in these words: "I will not keep
a possession which would not be safe in our hands, which would embroil
our people with the Americans, or produce a coldness between us. I will
make use of it, on the contrary, to attach them to me, and embroil them
with the English, and raise up against the latter, enemies who will some
day avenge us."
Napoleon would not even wait for Mr. Monroe to arrive, after making up
his mind, but sent at once for Mr. Livingston, and opened the matter
with him on the spot. So little had our ablest statesmen, Mr. Livingston
excepted, touched the root of the matter, that, when Mr. Monroe did
come, with powers from Congress to treat for the cession of New Orleans
and the Floridas only, Napoleon surprised him with this master-stroke of
policy which not even Mr. Jefferson had foreseen. And thus a treaty[5]
for the whole of Louisiana was concluded on our part without adequate
powers.
The price agreed upon was eighty million francs, the equivalent of
twenty million dollars. Of this sum sixty were to be paid in money. The
remaining twenty were to be retained by the United States as indemnity
for damage done to our commerce under the orders of the Directory. In
this way the nation became the trustee for what is known as the French
Spoliation Fund. The principle was now laid down, that free ships make
free goods. When they had signed the treaty, the commissioners arose
and shook each other's hands. "We have lived long," said Livingston,
"but this is the noblest work of our lives." Mr. Jefferson's efforts to
bring about the geographical and political unity of the United States
were thus far completely successful.
FOOTNOTES
[1] "MILLIONS FOR DEFENCE." This celebrated sentiment,
uttered by our minister, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, was
echoed throughout the Union.
[2] THE RIGHT OF DEPOSIT allowed the landing and storing of
merchandise, going to foreign markets, until such time as it
could be put on board ship. Without it, the tobacco, corn,
flour and lumber of the West would have been excluded from
the markets of the world.
[3] STATE OF CHRONIC IRRITATION. Increased by Spain's
dilatory action in settling our southern boundary, her refusal
to give up Natchez, etc., as provided for under the treaty of
1795. In view of this attitude, the United States concentrated
troops on the Mississippi with the intention of seizing New
Orleans. England stood ready to do the same thing in case of
a rupture with Spain.
[4] LIVINGSTON, ROBERT R., one of the signers of the
"Declaration," deserves the name of the author of the
Louisiana purchase.
[5] TREATY SIGNED April 30, 1803; sent to the United States
May 13; ratified Oct. 21, seven senators voting against it on
the ground that the question should be first submitted to the
whole people.
A GLANCE AT OUR PURCHASE.
Hitherto Louisiana has played the part of a football in European
politics. The curtain is now to rise upon a far different scene.
For fifteen millions the United States obtained more territory than the
original thirteen had started out with.
As we have shown in a previous chapter, our people had more than enough
land already, and few men were wise enough, in that day, to forecast
our national greatness in the future; but at last the Mississippi in
all its course was ours, and the one question of highest moment to the
West was settled in our favor,—settled definitely and forever.
With what actual materials for progress, in nation-building, did the
United States set up her rule over Louisiana? The answer will show
what the French and Spaniards had done in two centuries or more of
intermittent effort.
[Illustration: A LOUISIANA SUGAR PLANTATION.]
Two rather large towns, twelve hundred miles apart, held about one-third
its whole population, and controlled all its trade. The first, New
Orleans, was the commercial port for the Mississippi Valley and its
products. The second, St. Louis, was a fur-trading post with its chief
outlet in Canada. One had a mixed population of from eight thousand to
ten thousand, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Americans and blacks; the other
did not have more than twelve hundred people, all told, many of whom
were boatmen, who passed much of their lives afloat on the rivers
or domesticated among roving tribes. In both, the French were most
numerous, but taking all Louisiana together, there were nearly, if
not quite, as many slaves as white people, although, as compared with
the Indians then occupying this vast territory, the whites were only a
handful.
[Illustration: FRENCH SETTLEMENTS: GERM OF ST. LOUIS.]
At the date of cession to the United States, New Orleans had perhaps
fourteen hundred houses, mostly built of wood and uniformly homely. Two
hours would have laid the whole of it in ashes. In the best part, a few
houses were built of brick, some one, some two stories high, with the
open galleries running round the outside, one is accustomed to see in
the tropics; yet though it had been burned over so recently as 1794,
New Orleans was little bettered in the rebuilding, showing, as before,
a collection of hurriedly built barracks and dwellings, among which the
Hotel de Ville and Parochial Church, alone, gave a certain metropolitan
character to this city of wood and shingles.
Though spacious, the streets were unpaved, dirty, and ill-kept. No
drainage could be had, and every thing was thrown into the street.
Summer heats quickly developed epidemic fevers. It followed that New
Orleans had the name of being the most unhealthy city in the United
States.
Besides the church and Hotel de Ville, or City Hall, there were
a military hospital, charity hospital, and nunnery,—all equally
inconspicuous in point of architectural design. There was also a theatre
in which a company, whom the revolt had driven from St. Domingo, acted
plays for the gratification of the Creole population.
Going north, Natchitoches on Red River, and Arkansas Post on the
Arkansas, may be considered outposts of the country immediately
dependent upon New Orleans. Each tapped the Indian trade of its river.
The first was a thriving, the second a poor village. We next come upon
a group of settlements, constituting what was known, under French and
Spanish rule, as Upper Louisiana, with St. Louis for its emporium.
Chief among these were New Madrid,[1] Cape Girardeau, St. Genevieve,
Carondelet, and St. Charles. The population, all told, counting from the
Arkansas to the Missouri, and including St. Louis, numbered about six
thousand, of whom at least a thousand were slaves, with a sprinkling of
half-breed French-Indian trappers besides.
St. Louis had arisen out of the transfer of the east bank of the
Mississippi to Great Britain. Rather than live as aliens, under English
laws, many French settlers went with Pierre Laclede,[2] across the
Mississippi, to a place already nicknamed by them Pain Court, where, in
February, 1764, they founded a new town with the name of St. Louis, in
honor of Louis XV.
[Illustration: OLD CONVENT, NEW ORLEANS.]
These people were mostly French Canadians,—either traders, trappers,
or voyageurs, who still kept up their trading connection with
Canada,—though a sprinkling of Spaniards and Americans became
incorporated with them, so making St. Louis a city of many tongues
like New Orleans. In both, an American could fancy himself in a foreign
country, among foreigners. But while New Orleans had grown up under the
worst conditions, in respect of situation and climate, St. Louis began
her career under the best of both. At New Orleans people lived, as it
were, on a floating island which the Mississippi might deluge with her
floods. St. Louis was laid out on a spacious terrace, elevated above
the united floods of the Missouri and Mississippi. Besides its high
and healthy situation, the spot chosen by the founders of St. Louis for
their future city was the best one to be found next south of the mouth
of the Missouri River. That the whole Indian trade of the upper country
was destined to be poured into the lap of the infant metropolis, was
early foreseen and soon realized by its sagacious founders.
[Illustration: ST. LOUIS AND VICINITY.]
Of St. Louis in its infancy we lack adequate description. It was a
palisaded village of the pattern so often described in these pages.
During the Revolutionary War (1780) it withstood the assault of a
marauding party sent against it from the Lakes, but lost some of its
inhabitants whom the enemy carried off into captivity. At this time it
had one hundred and twenty houses with eight hundred inhabitants, who
owned and bred many cattle. While a few houses were of stone, the major
part were mean, and the streets narrow and dirty. With the cession it
began to grow apace.
[Illustration: CHOUTEAU'S POND, ST. LOUIS.]
When Father Charlevoix, the Jesuit historian of New France, descended
the Mississippi in 1721, he found some miners at work on the Meramec,
under authority of Law's Company. While searching for silver the miners
struck galena ore which from that time began to be a source of wealth
to the province, the lead product mostly going down the river to New
Orleans.
[Illustration: ROCK TOWERS NEAR DUBUQUE.]
In that part of the Louisiana purchase comprised within the States of
Iowa and Minnesota, the North-west Company[3] of Montreal continued
to monopolize the Indian trade till after the cession. It had posts
on Sandy Lake and Leech Lake. Prairie du Chien had grown to a hamlet.
Julien Dubuque, a French trader, who had first gone there from Canada,
obtained permission to work the lead-mines where the city of Dubuque
now stands, and had settled there.
FOOTNOTES
[1] NEW MADRID. Shortly after the Revolutionary War, Baron
Steuben and other officers of rank obtained from the Spanish
authorities of Louisiana a grant of land on which they
proposed founding a military colony. Under this authority
New Madrid was laid out on a great scale in 1790, by Colonel
George Morgan of New Jersey. The Spanish governor Miro,
however, disconcerted these plans by building a fort there.
The place was nearly destroyed by the earthquakes of 1811-12.
CAPE GIRARDEAU and ST. GENEVIEVE were ports of shipment for
the lead-mines of the interior. The latter is called the
oldest settlement in Missouri (1755). ST. CHARLES, twenty
miles up the Missouri, had been settled by Blanchette, 1769.
[2] PIERRE LACLEDE came up from Lower Louisiana in 1763 to
start a fur-trade west of the Mississippi, going first to St.
Genevieve, subsequently to Fort Chartres. The two brothers
Auguste and Pierre Chouteau were with him. He held a trading
license from the governor of Louisiana.—_Nicollet-Edwards._
[3] NORTH-WEST COMPANY, the great rival of the Hudson's
Bay Company; formed by the union (1784) of rival interests;
Frobisher and McTavish, managers; did business by the way of
the Grand Portage, Fond du Lac, Leech Lake, etc.
II.
THE PATHFINDERS.
LEWIS AND CLARKE ASCEND THE MISSOURI.
_"To lose themselves in the continuous woods_
_Where rolls the Oregon."_
Mr. Jefferson had never forgotten his talk with Ledyard at Paris. It
was the key-note of future projects. Even before Louisiana was ours,
he began to take steps for having it explored, partly with the view
of ascertaining its real value, but chiefly to determine whether the
Missouri and Columbia Rivers would afford a practicable overland route
for commerce with the Pacific. Should they do so, the discovery of
the century would be made. It was the very first step taken to open a
road across the continent under national auspices, and, as such, has
historic importance, going far beyond the aimless wanderings of a few
migratory fur-traders, who, thus far, were the sole geographers of this
interesting region.
Except that they took their rise somewhere in the great Rocky Mountain
chain, next to nothing was known about the higher sources of the
Missouri. Something, indeed, was learned from the French traders who
had been making canoe voyages up the Missouri for many years. These
adventurers had pushed their way into the Osage, the Kansas, and the
Platte. To them we owe the names these streams bear to-day, which are
derived, the Platte[1] alone excepted, from the tribes inhabiting
their banks. For the same reason the great Missouri[2] itself was
given this name by the French explorers because they were ignorant of
its existing Indian name.
From their known activity and restlessness of character, we should
expect to find evidences of the presence of Frenchmen everywhere in
a region they had possessed for centuries. We do find that the most
adventurous had ascended not only as high as the Yellowstone,[3]
but had even found their way into the Black Hills, so establishing an
important landmark for after-comers. Indeed, both the Yellowstone and
the Black Hills owe their names to these pioneers.
[Illustration: MOUNTAIN GOAT.]
But the knowledge thus gained was, at best, little better than what
would be disclosed by the mirage of the prairies themselves. It was
vague, mostly inaccurate, and often quite upside down.
Therefore, while an occasional trapper or trader might be met with
on the Missouri, no habitation of civilized man existed in all its
magnificent valley, if we except the French settlements begun near its
mouth. This state of things is all the more striking because it comes
within the memory of living men.
Beyond their regular villages, which could be moved at a few hours'
warning, the Indians of this valley had no fixed habitations, but roamed
the wide, treeless prairies in savage freedom, like wandering Arabs
of the desert, carrying their skin-tents on the backs of their shaggy
little ponies about with them from camp to camp.
These rovers of the prairies had the same barbaric picturesqueness, the
same wild and free manners, the same thieving propensities, as the Arab.
Like him, the Indian of the plains set the greatest value on his horse,
which, though subdued to his rider's will, was yet as untamed as he.
[Illustration: INDIANS MOVING CAMP.]
Once a year the whole village struck its tents, and started off on its
annual buffalo-hunt. On the eve of departure, a solemn dance was held
and offerings made to the god of the chase, without whose help they
believed the hunt would be in vain. Their hunting camps were pitched at
some favorite spot, where grass grew and water could be had. Here they
lived in savage luxury on the buffalo-meat which the hunters brought in
from the chase. When enough meat had been obtained for their winter's
supply, they rode back to their villages, and with singing and dancing
celebrated the success of the hunt. Thus they hunted, ate, slept, and
waged continual war with each other. This was all their life.
Of the Columbia[4] nothing certain was known. More was known, even
in America, about the Nile. It was thought, however, that its highest
streams would be found interlocked with those of the Missouri, about
the feet of the same great mountain chain. Should this prove true,
a practicable passage from one to the other through these mountains
might be discovered; yet while nothing actual was known about them the
difficulties were felt to be so uncommon, that none but men of tried
courage would be found equal to them. Clearly it was to be no holiday
journey. Just what obstacles lay in the explorer's way, what means of
living the country would afford, what sort of people would be met with,
were questions no one had so far attempted to solve.
Mr. Jefferson set about solving them. He looked about him for the man
to do the work. His first choice fell upon his own secretary, Captain
Meriwether Lewis,[5] "of courage undaunted," at whose request Captain
William Clarke[6] was invited to make one of the party. Clarke
accepted the offer with great glee. Both were young men, both had seen
service on the frontiers, both were Virginians, and both gave heart and
soul to the enterprise in hand.
Though its objects were less scientific than political, the young
explorers were commanded to carefully note down every thing of interest
about the countries and nations they were going to pass through—what
were the natural products of the one, or the numbers, disposition and
manners of the other.
It was to be a long voyage to begin with—two thousand miles at the
least. The best the Government could do was to provide a keel-boat,
fifty-five feet long, drawing three feet, carrying one large square sail
and twenty-two oars. A half deck at bow and stern formed forecastle
and cabin, the middle being left open for the rowers. This vessel, we
see, was but a modification of the galley of ancient times, and quite
like those used by the Spaniards in exploring our coasts two centuries
before.
Thus equipped the party started down the Ohio on their long journey to
the Pacific.
The Spaniards had not yet given up St. Louis to us when the expedition
reached there, in the autumn of 1803. It therefore went into winter
quarters on the American bank of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of
the Missouri.
[Illustration: A MANDAN.]
It was the middle of May before the voyage up the Missouri could begin.
With sail and oars, the deeply laden keel-boat was forced slowly along
against a swift yellow tide, which ever and anon hurled floating trees
athwart its course, or brought it to a standstill on some hidden
sand-bar. Compared with it, the navigation of the Ohio was but a
pleasure-trip. The Platte, however, was reached late in July. Not far
above, the explorers landed to hold a council with the Otoes, for which
reason they gave the place the name of Council Bluff.
In the last days of October, 1804, they halted for the winter at the
Mandan villages, sixteen hundred miles from the Mississippi. So far
the journey had been only fatiguing. Its real difficulties were just
beginning.
The winter was spent in making ready for the coming season's work, in
hunting and exploring, and in talks with the Indians, from whom it was
now learned that after many days' journey toward the setting sun, the
white men would come to a gorge wondrous deep and wild, where the whole
river plunged foaming down with thunderous roar. They even spoke with
veneration of the solitary eagle which had built her nest in a dead
cottonwood tree, among the mists of the cataract itself.
With the early spring (1805) the party again set out in good health and
spirits. Before doing so Captain Lewis sent back all but the bravest
and strongest men, as he was now about to enter a region roamed over
by predatory savages, whose friendship would be best secured by being
always ready to fight them, for though brave, they would seldom attack
a well-armed party of whites unless the advantage was on their own side.
As they went on, each day found the navigation of the river growing more
and more difficult. Sometimes they were forced to drag their canoes
slowly along with the aid of towlines, or again to push them over
shallow places or through dangerous rapids with poles. Their hunters
kept them supplied with venison, bear and buffalo meat, which they were
now mostly to live on for months to come.
The Yellowstone was reached and passed. On the 26th of May the party
came in sight of the Rocky Mountains,—a long line of snowy summits
nestling among clouds. By the end of the month they were skirting the
Black Hills, or _Côte Noire_ of the French traders. The river grew
swifter now, and its bed thickly sown with rocks. Since leaving the
Mandan villages no permanent habitations had been seen, though the
travellers often came upon traces of some transient encampment where
the ground would be strewed with the remnants of savage feasts. While
the men were wearily dragging the boats on at a snail's pace through the
river shallows, Captains Lewis and Clarke would be scouting the country
in advance, rifle in hand. Whenever a bluff was climbed to gain a
wider view, thousands upon thousands of buffaloes would be seen quietly
feeding on the prairies, far as the eye could reach. Then at the evening
halt, round the camp-fires, the events of the day would be noted down,
its difficulties talked over, and the chances for the morrow discussed,
over the joints of venison or bear-meat the hunters had brought in. At
dark sentinels were posted. Relaxation gave way to discipline. Fresh
logs were thrown on the blazing fires. The men stretched themselves on
the ground in their blankets, and soon forgot the fatigues of the day.
At dawn the camp was again astir.
[Illustration: MANDAN SKIN-BOATS.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] PLATTE is French for low or flat. Long says it derives
its name from the fact of being broad and shallow.
[2] THE MISSOURI. So says Charlevoix. Marquette calls it
Pekitanoui, on his map. It was not unfrequently called the
Great River of the Osages.
[3] YELLOWSTONE is English for Roche Jaune, the old French
name. BLACK HILLS were Côte Noire.
[4] THE COLUMBIA. Vancouver had ascended it (1792), one
hundred miles from the sea.
[5] CAPTAIN MERIWETHER LEWIS, afterwards governor of
Louisiana, committed suicide in a fit of depression.
[6] CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLARKE kept a journal of the expedition.
Brother of General George Rogers Clarke. Lewis also kept a
diary.
THEY CROSS THE CONTINENT.
On the 13th of June, while scouting in advance of his party, Captain
Lewis saw, in the distance, a thin cloudlike mist rising up out of the
plain. To him it was like the guiding column which led the Israelites
in the desert. Not doubting that it was the Great Fall, which the
Mandans had told him about, and of which he was in search, Captain Lewis
hastened toward it. He soon heard it roar distinctly, and in a few hours
more stood on the brink of the cataract itself. The Indians had told him
truly. Not even the eagle's nest was wanting to make their description
complete.
He was the first white man who had ever stood there, and he calls it a
sublime sight.
Thirteen miles of cascades and rapids! At headlong speed the Missouri
rushes down a rocky gorge, through which it has torn its way, now
leaping over a precipice, now lost to sight in the depths of the
cañon,[1] a thousand feet below the plain, or again, as with recovered
breath, breaking away from these dark gulfs into the light of clay and
bounding on again. No wonder the discoverer stood forgetful of all else
but this wondrous work of nature!
Much valuable time was lost in getting the boats and baggage round these
falls. To pass them was impossible. It was necessary to build carriages
on which the boats were dragged by hand a distance of eighteen miles,
before they could be launched again.
But after all this had been done the boats were found unsuited to the
navigation of the river above them, and so new ones had to be hewed
out of the trees growing on the banks, which could better withstand
the buffeting of the rocks. In these the party again embarked, and
on the 19th of July found themselves just entering a deep gorge of
the mountains, five miles long, through which the river wound its way
between walls of rock that rose a thousand feet above their heads. They
named this awful cañon the Gate of the Rocky Mountains.
Boat navigation was now nearly at an end. Every day the scouts were
sent out in search of roving Indians from whom they might get horses
and guides to cross the mountains. But no Indians could be found. A
well-beaten trail had been followed high up into the hills, but lost
again among defiles so narrow and stony, that when the scouts came back
they said no horseman could go through them. So these great mountains,
which so long had been to them a guide and landmark, now seemed sternly
forbidding their farther progress.
Yet at all risks horses and guides must be had. Telling his men he
would not come back till he had found them, Captain Lewis set out on his
forlorn search, knowing that on him depended the success or failure of
the expedition. The men remained encamped where he left them.[2]
While engaged in this search, Captain Lewis, on the 12th of August,
reached the highest source of the Missouri. At three thousand miles
from its mouth it dwindled to a mountain brook. Passing thence over
the dividing ridge, he came upon the waters of what proved to be
the Columbia. So within a few hours he drank of the waters of both.
Following the stream down the mountain, with fresh hope, it led him to
a village of the Shoshones or Snake Indians.[3]
[Illustration: GATE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.]
No shipwrecked wanderer on an unknown sea ever looked with more
eagerness on a rescuing sail than Lewis did upon this uncouth and
squalid habitation in the wilderness. The Indians would not believe
he had crossed the mountains on foot and without guides. At length,
however, some of them agreed to go back with him, and these having found
his story true, horses and guides were furnished for the white men's
use.
Thus equipped, the party began the passage of the mountains, following
the obscure windings of a trail known only to the Indians themselves.
They found it a hard march. Sometimes it led them through a wild cañon
strewed with stones for miles together. Sometimes the caravan would
be painfully climbing some slippery height, or skirting the edge of a
precipice where a single false step would have flung horse and rider
headlong to the bottom of the ravine.
But these active little horses, which the Indians rode without saddle
or bridle, unshod and ill-fed as they were, did their work to the
admiration of the white men. Though they frequently slipped and fell
with their burdens, they would quickly scramble to their feet again with
the agility of mountain goats.
Almost a month was thus spent in getting through the mountains. Snow
fell, and water froze among those rocky heights. On some days five miles
would be the most they could advance. On others they could scarcely go
forward at all. The plenty they had enjoyed in the plains gave way to
scarcity or worse. Seldom could the hunters bring in any thing but a
pheasant, a squirrel, or a hawk, to men famishing with hunger and worn
down by a hard day's tramp. The daily food mostly consisted of berries
and dried fish, of which every man got a mouthful, but none a full meal.
When a horse gave out he was killed and eaten with avidity. The men grew
sick and dispirited under incessant labor for which want of nourishing
food rendered them every day more and more incapable. In short, every
suffering which cold, hunger, and fatigue could bring, was borne by
these explorers.
Ragged, half-starved, and foot-sore, but upheld by the courage of their
leaders, the explorers came out on the other side of the mountains less
like conquerors than fugitives.
Their guides led them on, past many streams, till they came to one on
which they were told they might safely embark. It was the Kooskooskee.
This was about four hundred miles from the place where they had left
their boats on the other side of the mountains. They had struck one of
the southern affluents of the Columbia.
Here the party built canoes in which they began to descend the river,
leaving their horses with the Nez Percés Indians[4] to keep against
their return. In three days this stream led into a larger one to which
they gave the name of Lewis River. In seven, they reached the junction
of a larger branch coming from the north, which they named the Clarke.
They were now fairly afloat upon the great river itself. Down this they
paddled till they came to the point where the Columbia in a series of
mad leaps breaks through the lofty Cascade chain.[5] These too were
safely passed.
It was now late in October. All along the explorers had found camps
pitched on the borders of the rivers, for the Indians of this region
lived wholly on salmon, like the tribes Mackenzie had fallen in with
on Frazer River. Wherever the river was broken by rapids a noted
fishing-place would be found, so the travellers were now in a land of
plenty; but the farther they fell down, the more squalid the Indians
became, and of meaner looks and stature. Had these people shown
themselves unfriendly, Lewis and Clarke might never have reached the
ocean, for the valley was everywhere very populous.
[Illustration: CATCHING SALMON, COLUMBIA RIVER.]
Since leaving the cascades, evidences of approach to the sea multiplied.
Up to that point no fire-arms had been seen among the Indians. Many
now had guns, and showed themselves more and more presuming toward the
white men. They traversed the river in great war canoes, having images
set up at the stem and stern, like the vikings of old. But our men did
not fear them. They were already more than half Indians themselves in
dress, looks and habits of life. They had learned to eat dog-meat, and
to make their beds wherever the night found them.
Soon the tides were observed. On the 7th of November the roar of the
breakers was heard in the distance. They had reached their goal at last.
A most inhospitable welcome awaited the explorers. They had struck the
coast in the rainy season. The floods drove them from their first camp
on the north side, to the south side of the river, where they set to
work building themselves winter quarters. The little clump of cabins was
named Fort Clatsop, from the tribe on whose land it stood, with the flag
the explorers had brought waving over it. Here the winter was passed.
In March, 1806, the explorers began their journey home. At the Falls of
the Columbia they bought horses which took them to the place where their
own had been left. From here they travelled on an east line through the
mountains till the head of Clarke's River was struck. The party was then
divided. One band under Lewis crossed the mountains to the head-waters
of the Maria River, while the other, under the lead of Clarke, passed
them lower down, so reaching the sources of the Yellowstone, down which
they floated to the place of rendezvous.
FOOTNOTES
[1] CAÑON. Spanish for ravine or gorge; pronounced,
_kan-yon_. The word has been naturalized in the West.
[2] ENCAMPED ON THE MISSOURI, at the head of the Jefferson
River.
[3] SHOSHONES, or SNAKES, occupied the country west of the
mountains and south of the Salmon River. They had a custom of
taking off their moccasins when meeting a stranger and wishing
to show amity.
[4] NEZ PERCÉS, or Pierced Noses, lived about the waters of
the Kooskooskee and Lewis, next north of the Shoshones.
[5] CASCADE MOUNTAINS take their name from the cascades
formed by the Columbia in its passage through them.
PIKE EXPLORES THE ARKANSAS VALLEY.
_PIKE'S PEAK A LANDMARK_.
In the course of an expedition made to the Upper Mississippi, in the
years 1805 and 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike[1] had shown such
aptitude for the work of an explorer, that he was immediately chosen
to lead another to the sources of the Arkansas. Pike was directed to
go through the country of the Osages, with whom the Kansas nation was
then at war, and, after effecting a peace between them, "to ascertain
the direction, extent, and navigation of the Arkansas and Red Rivers."
In pursuance of these orders Pike left St. Louis in July, 1806, for
the Osage villages, in row-boats which made about fifteen miles a day,
his men living on the bears, deer, and turkeys killed along the banks.
Turning into the Osage River, the Indian villages were reached about the
middle of August, and Pike here began mounting his party for the long
land journey before him.
Having accomplished this, the party set out for the Pawnee villages on
the Platte. Near the Grand Osage Village, Peter Chouteau,[2] a French
trader, had a trading-house, which was the last sign of civilization
the explorers would see until the Spanish settlements of New Mexico were
reached.
Tents were struck Sept. 1. The exploring party rode away in high
spirits, accompanied by a numerous train of warriors who, in this way,
did honor to those whom they considered their guests.
[Illustration: MAP ILLUSTRATING LIEUTENANT PIKE'S EXPLORATIONS.]
After following the Osage for some distance Pike struck across the
country to the Neosho, a tributary of the Arkansas. As he rode on across
the dividing ridge the prairies of Kansas broke on his sight like a
scene of enchantment. He seemed discovering a corner of paradise itself.
From the Neosho, Pike passed over to the Smoky Hill Fork of the Kansas,
and thence to the Republican, meaning to proffer friendship to the
Pawnees, whose evil reputation, however, boded no good to his mission.
[Illustration: INDIAN BURIAL-PLACE.]
When he came to their villages the Pawnees had just been visited by an
embassy sent from New Mexico to sow distrust, if not enmity, toward the
Americans. The Spaniards had come with three hundred men, by the side
of whom Pike's twenty-three looked small indeed, and to the Pawnees
indicated the number of warriors each nation had at its command. They
were therefore at no pains to hide their disdain.
Pike found them in this temper. Knowing it would never do to show fear,
he hoisted his flag in the chief town to let them see that sour looks
and uncivil words could not turn him from his purpose of making them
show respect for the government of the United States, even if they felt
a preference for the Spaniards.
His mission in this quarter having failed, Pike turned back to the
Arkansas, which was reached on the 18th of October. At this point
Lieutenant Wilkinson was sent down the river, while Pike himself began
the work of tracing it to its source. When he had done this, Pike
meant to cross over to the head of Red River and then descend it to
Natchitoches, so completing the work laid out for him, which, we have
seen, was partly diplomatic and partly geographical in its nature; for
the government wished to have the natives not only keep peace toward us,
but among themselves. So we at least set out in our new purchase with
a sound Indian policy.
Thus Pike's explorations would take in all the great central region
lying between the waters of the Red and Platte Rivers and the Rocky
Mountains, which to-day is perhaps the most fertile and populous of all
the Great West.
But Pike's plans were doomed to meet failure, and he himself to
sufferings which a man of weaker mould would have sunk under. As it
was, they served to bring out those splendid qualities which raised him
to the rank of general at the age of thirty-three, and made his name
renowned in our military annals.
On the 15th of November he came in sight of the lofty Spanish Peaks.
Soon the diminishing river he was following buried itself among the
hills, where it was lost to view. Thinking thus to get a better idea
of the country round him, Pike set out on a prospecting tour, in the
course of which he climbed the elevated peak now so fitly bearing his
own name, and saw the matchless view outspread from its summit.
Winter had now set in. Day by day difficulties multiplied. The streams
were frozen up or buried in snow-drifts, so that it was next to
impossible to follow them into the ravines which gave them birth. Where
to look for the sources of Red River, Pike knew not. Decoyed among
the hills, till all bearings were lost, his search for it was in vain.
Beaten back, but not dismayed, he then spent days in trying to recover
the trail made by the Spaniards in going from Santa Fé to the Platte.
It was obliterated by frost and snow. Baffled everywhere, his party
wandered to and fro like lost men, often without food or shelter, but
directed and encouraged to new efforts by their unconquerable leader.
[Illustration: PIKE'S PEAK.]
At last, when nearly spent, the party reached the banks of a stream
which Pike believed to be the one he was in search of. One can hardly
realize to-day this desperate struggle for life as taking place among
the pleasure-grounds of Colorado.
Men and animals being broken down with fatigue, and all in danger of
perishing for want of the necessaries of life, Pike resolved to send
to Santa Fé for the help without which he could not stir from the place
where he then was. Dr. Robinson offered himself to go on this errand. He
was one of the strongest men of the party, and second only to Pike as a
hunter. The hopes of the explorers went with him. When he had gone, all
who could still work were set to building a block-house, for shelter or
defence.
One day while Pike was out hunting, two strangers rode up to him. They
had come from Santa Fé. Robinson had safely arrived, and would soon be
heard from. Feeling no mistrust of them, Pike took these strangers back
to his camp. To his surprise he then learned that he was but two days'
journey from Santa Fé.
These visitors had not been gone many days when a squadron of Spanish
horse rode up to the block-house. The officer in command then notified
Pike that he was encamped on the Rio Grande, on Spanish ground. It was
now clear that the first visitors were sent to spy out Pike's place of
retreat, while this force followed on to take the Americans prisoners.
It also came to light that they were suspected of having a design to
seize the province[3] of New Mexico.
Pike went to Santa Fé to explain why he was found trespassing on Spanish
territory, but was held as a prisoner with his men, whose appearance, as
he describes it, is the best proof of the hardships they had undergone
while lost in the mountains. He says,—
"When we presented ourselves at Santa Fé, I was dressed in a pair of
blue trousers, moccasins, blanket-coat, and a cap made of scarlet cloth
lined with fox-skins, and my poor fellows in leggings, breech-cloths,
and leather coats. There was not a hat in the whole party. Our
appearance was extremely mortifying to us all, especially as soldiers;
and although some of the officers would frequently say to me, that
'Worth made the man,' yet the first impression made on the ignorant is
hard to eradicate; and greater proof cannot be given of the ignorance
of the common people here than their asking if we lived in houses, or
camps like the Indians, or if we wore hats in our country."
After a brief detention, the explorers were sent back to the United
States, under armed escort, by way of El Paso, San Antonio and
Natchitoches. Pike's papers were taken from him, so depriving the world
of the interesting details which at that time were eagerly sought for,
but now had to be supplied largely from memory.
At the same time that Pike was engaged in these explorations, parties
were sent up the Red and Washita Rivers, with the view of enlarging the
scope of his undertaking.[4]
FOOTNOTES
[1] ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE, born New Jersey, 1779.
He was killed while leading an attack on York (Toronto),
Upper Canada, in 1813, having then reached the grade of
brigadier-general. His expedition to the upper Mississippi
in 1805-6 was to take formal possession of the country, and
to notify the British intruders of the North-West Company to
leave it. Its objects were chiefly political and military.
At this time Pike bought of the Indians the ground on which
Fort Snelling stands, the post being named for Colonel Josiah
Snelling, a distinguished officer of the United States army.
[2] AUGUSTE and PIERRE (PETER) CHOUTEAU. (See note 2,
"Acquisition of Louisiana.") Founders of St. Louis with
Laclede. Auguste was in charge of the party that commenced
operations here. In time the brothers became the greatest
fur-traders of the West. The post among the Osages was in
charge of Peter, who was subsequently made United States agent
to that nation.
[3] A DESIGN TO SEIZE THE PROVINCE. The Spanish authorities
had been warned to be on their guard against the filibustering
expedition of Aaron Burr. They thought Pike's appearance
on their frontier part of Burr's scheme, and professed to
believe the exploration a cloak for hostile intentions. Burr's
conspiracy, broadly speaking, though it forms an interesting
episode, has no place in the plan of this volume. Its history,
however, should be read by every student.
[4] RED and WASHITA were explored by Dunbar, Hunter and
Sibley.
NEW MEXICO IN 1807.
Although, in its main objects, Pike's expedition seems unfruitful of
results, we owe to his capture an interesting account of New Mexico, as
he saw it at that time.
"The village of the Warm Springs or Aqua Caliente," he tells us, "at a
distance presents to the eye a square enclosure of mud walls, the houses
forming the wall. They are flat on top, or with very little ascent on
one side, where spouts carry off the water of the melting snow and rain,
when it falls, which, we were told, had been but once in two years.
[Illustration: THE YUCCA-TREE: SPANISH BAYONET].
"The houses were all of one story, the doors narrow, the windows small,
and in one or two houses there were talc lights. This village had a mill
near it, situated on the little creek of the same name, which made very
good flour. The population consisted of perhaps five hundred Indians,
civilized, but of much mixed blood.
"Here we had a dance which is called the fandango, but there was one
other, which was copied from the Mexicans, and is now danced in the
first societies of New Spain, and has even been introduced at the court
of Madrid.
"The greatest natural curiosity is the warm springs, of which there are
two, each affording sufficient water for a mill-seat. They appeared to
be impregnated with copper, and were more than 33° above blood-heat.
From this village, the Indians drove off two thousand horses at one
time, when at war with the Spaniards.
"St. John's (San Juan) was also enclosed by a mud wall, and probably
contained one thousand souls; its population also chiefly consisted
of civilized Indians, as indeed do all the villages of New Mexico, the
whites not forming the one-twentieth part of the inhabitants.
"The house-tops of this village, as well as the streets, were crowded
when we entered it. At the door of the public quarters, we were met by
the priest. When the officer in charge of my escort dismounted, and
embraced him, all the poor creatures who stood around strove to kiss
the ring or hand of the holy father. My men were taken to the quarters
provided for them, and I went to the priest's, who offered me coffee,
chocolate, or whatever else he had, and bid me consider myself at home
in his house.
"Santa Fé, the capital, is situated along the banks of a small creek,
which comes down from the mountains, and runs west to the Rio del Norte.
Although it is but three streets in width, it is about a mile long.
Seen from a distance, I was struck with the resemblance to a fleet of
flat-boats floating down the Ohio in the spring. There are two churches,
whose fine steeples form a striking contrast to the squalid appearance
of the houses around them.
"In the centre is the public square, or plaza, one side of which forms
the flank of the soldiers' square, which is closed and in some degree
defended by round towers in the angles, which flank the four curtains:
another side of the square is formed by the palace of the governor, his
guard-houses, etc. The third side is occupied by the priests and their
suite, and the fourth by the Chapetones who reside in the city. The
houses are generally only one story high, with flat roofs, and have a
very mean appearance on the outside, though some are richly furnished,
especially with plate. The supposed population is four thousand five
hundred souls. On our entering the town, the crowd was very great,
and followed us to the government house. When we dismounted, we were
taken through various rooms, the floors of which were covered with
buffalo-robes, bear-skins, or those of other animals, to a chamber where
we waited for some time, until his excellency appeared."
[Illustration: CHURCH, SANTA FÉ, WITH FORT MARCY.]
In going down the valley into Texas, Pike gained some insight into the
traffic carried on between Old and New Mexico, and of its regulated
movements.
"We passed the encampment," he continues, "of the caravan, going out
with about fifteen thousand sheep for the other provinces, from which
they bring back merchandise. This expedition consisted of about three
hundred men, chiefly citizens, who were escorted by an officer and forty
soldiers. They come together at Ciboletta in February, and separate
there on their return in March. A similar expedition goes out in the
autumn. At other times of the year no citizen travels over the road, the
couriers alone excepted. At the pass of the Rio del Norte, the couriers
meet and exchange packets, when each returns to his own province. We
met a caravan of fifty men and probably two hundred horses, loaded with
goods for New Mexico.
"Saturday morning, March 21, we arrived at the Paso del Norte, through
a mountainous country. We put up at the house of Don Francisco Garcia,
who is a wealthy merchant, and planter. He had, in the neighborhood,
twenty thousand sheep and one thousand cows. We were received in a most
hospitable manner, by Don Pedro Roderique Rey, the lieutenant-governor,
and Father Joseph Prado, the vicar of the place. This was by far the
most flourishing town we had so far been in."
GOLD IN COLORADO.
_A Trapper's Story._
Pike found but one American living in Santa Fé. This man had been a
trapper, accustomed to the wild and free life of the plains, and this
was the story he told.
James Pursley was a Kentuckian who had gone in 1799 to St. Louis, lured
by the thirst for adventure for which men of his class willingly give up
all the comforts of civilized life. He was one of those men who, like
Daniel Boone,[1] thought it time to move on when he could no longer
fell a tree so that its top would lie within a few yards of the door of
his cabin.
So in advance of the explorer comes the trapper of the West, who, while
flying from civilization, is actually paving the way for its coming in
spite of himself.
In 1802, with two companions, Pursley left St. Louis, and travelled
west to the head of the Osage, where they made a successful hunt. From
thence the trappers started for the White River of Arkansas, meaning to
go down to New Orleans with their peltries, but while getting ready for
the long voyage the Indians stole their horses from them.
The hunters pursued the robbers to their villages. The horses were
there, but the Indians would not give them up. Seeing an Indian riding
on his horse, Pursley ran up to him, and with his hunting knife ripped
open the horse's bowels. The incensed savage instantly ran to his lodge
for his gun. It missed fire. Pursley then sprang upon him with his
drawn knife in his hand. The Indian took refuge in a lodge filled with
children and squaws. The chiefs were so struck with the bravery of the
"mad Americans," as they called them, that they gave them back their
horses again.
Pursley and his comrades then returned to the place where they had
hid their peltry, meaning to go to St. Louis by land, but when they
were near the Osage, their horses were again stolen. Hewing themselves
a canoe out of a log, they paddled down the Osage without further
misadventure till they came to its mouth, when the canoe overset, and
the whole year's hunt was lost. They, however, managed to save their
powder and guns.
In the Missouri they met a French trader going up to the Mandan country.
Pursley at once engaged to go with him for the voyage.
On reaching their destination, Pursley was sent out on a hunting and
trading trip with some friendly Paducas and Kiowas, they taking with
them a few trading goods. In the ensuing spring, while hunting at the
sources of the Platte, they were driven into the neighboring mountains
by hostile Sioux. Pursley estimated their number at two thousand, with
ten thousand animals. Well was this nation called the Scourge of the
Great Plains!
Knowing themselves to be on the borders of New Mexico, it was decided
that Pursley, with a few others, should go to Santa Fé in order to learn
if the Spaniards would give them good treatment if they came there to
trade.
The Spanish governor having promised them good treatment, the Indian
deputies went back to their bands, but rather than again risk capture
by the cruel Sioux, Pursley thought best to stay where he was, among
a civilized people. He arrived at Santa Fé in June, 1805, and had been
following the carpenter's trade ever since. Lieutenant Pike describes
him as a man of strong natural sense, of dauntless courage, and the
first American who had penetrated so far into the wilds of Louisiana.
Among other things, Pursley told Lieutenant Pike "that he had found gold
on the head waters of the Platte, and had carried some of the virgin
ore about with him in his shot-pouch for months; but being in doubt
whether he should ever again behold the civilized world, and having
wholly discarded all the ideal value with which mankind has stamped that
metal, he threw the sample away; that he had imprudently mentioned it
to the Spaniards, who had frequently importuned him to go and show them
the place, though, conceiving it to lie in our territory, he had always
refused, and was fearful that his doing so might prove an obstacle to
his leaving the country."
This man little dreamed that after lying dormant half a century, the
discovery of which he thought so little would one day be the making of
a great State.
FOOTNOTE
[1] DANIEL BOONE went from Kentucky to Missouri in 1794,
while it was yet a Spanish province. The Spanish governor
allotted him ten thousand acres in the District of St.
Charles, and also made him syndic of the district. The same
want of forecast which had exiled him from Kentucky lost
him this grant. In his old age he was compelled to appeal
to Congress for relief, that body granting him one thousand
arpents of land in the District of St. Charles. In 1811 he was
still following the business of a trapper. A traveller saw
him returning home, at eighty-four years of age, with sixty
beaver-skins. He was then a hale old man. Boone County and
Booneville, Mo., are named for him.
THE FLAG IN OREGON.
We have seen that Mr. Jefferson's plan for securing the commerce
of the Great West needed two things for its success. One was a road
across the continent. This had been found. The other want was a port
on the Pacific. When this had been met, not only would the resources of
Louisiana lie open to East and West, but the way to India be found, and
the unity of America secured for all time.
As emigration was only just beginning to cross the Mississippi, it
scarcely weighed in the balance with commerce, but was as sure to follow
it as grass to grow or water run.
Our Government having thus cleared the way, the St. Louis traders were
not slow to avail themselves of it. In 1808 they organized the Missouri
Fur Company, which immediately sent an agent into the coveted territory,
where he set up a trading-house known as Post Henry on the Lewis River.
John Jacob Astor, a merchant of New York, conceived the idea of carrying
out the whole scheme as formulated in Mr. Jefferson's mind, not as a
monopolist, protected by Government with exclusive privileges, but as
a private person, who undertakes an enterprise on his own judgment, and
backs it up with his own means.
Mr. Astor was a shrewd and careful merchant who had grown very wealthy
from the profits of the fur-trade. He had the money. He knew the price
of a beaver or an otter skin in every market of the world. He had the
whole A B C of commerce at his fingers' ends. Uniformly successful in
whatever he undertook, his judgment inspired confidence in others, as
superior business tact is sure to do; hence Mr. Astor had no difficulty
in securing partners in his enterprise. It was seen that the key
to success lay in the hands of whoever should first occupy the rich
fur-bearing valleys of the Columbia River.
There was nothing niggardly about this princely merchant's preparations,
once he had made up his mind to embark in the adventure. Every thing
was conceived on a most liberal scale, and nothing was left to chance.
One company of agents, clerks, and laborers was sent round Cape Horn,
with orders to begin a station at the Columbia River, should they first
arrive on the ground. Another company, numbering sixty persons, either
agents, trappers, guides, or interpreters, went from St. Louis up the
Missouri and Yellowstone, and so across the great snowy range into the
Columbia basin.
This was in 1810. The next year Mr. Astor despatched a second ship to
the Columbia with further supplies of men and means.
The Tonquin, the pioneer ship, arrived in the Columbia before the
overland party did. A site was chosen ten miles up the river, on the
south side, and the work of erecting a trading-post begun at once, so
that when the advance of the overland party reached it (January, 1812),
in the utmost destitution, they found relief within its walls.
In honor of its projector the builders called their settlement Astoria.
Its history was destined to be brief but eventful. In the first place,
the rivalry of the British North-west Company soon made itself felt.
Its agents spread themselves out over the upper Columbia waters, so
intercepting the Indian trade. Then news was brought to the factory, of
the taking of the Tonquin and massacre of her crew by the Indians, with
whom she was trading, near the Straits of Fuca.
The ship Beaver, with the third detachment, arrived out in May, 1812.
She, too, sailed on a trading-voyage up the coast. A party was sent out
from Astoria, at this time, to establish a trading-post on the Spokane
River, which, with one already begun at Okonagon, was the second this
company had formed in the interior.
In June, 1812, war broke out between England and the United States. It
was January before the people at Astoria heard of it. Finding themselves
cut off from help on the one side, and threatened with capture on the
other, Astor's agents sold the property to the North-west Company, into
whose hands it thus passed, not without suspicion of collusion on the
part of the sellers. This was in October, 1813.
In this way an enterprise which had been sagaciously planned, backed
with abundant means, and had passed through the preliminary stage
of trial to assured success, came to an inglorious end because the
Government lacked means to protect it. And so Americans were ousted from
Oregon, and Englishmen put in possession, which was much like giving
the wolf the wether to keep.
LOUISIANA ADMITTED.
Louisiana came into the Union in 1812, so making it the eighteenth State
in the order of succession, as it was the first formed of any portion
of the territory we had acquired west of the Mississippi. Louisiana is
therefore the corner-stone of the new Great West.
Louisiana came in at the beginning of a period of strife and bloodshed.
England made a most desperate effort to seize New Orleans, with
intent to obtain control of the Mississippi, or at least to gain a
vantage-ground from which she could dictate terms to the United States.
The fortune of war, however, went against her in the bloodiest battle
of the time. Peace was already made when it was fought, so making the
effort as useless as it was costly and heroic.
III.
THE OREGON TRAIL.
THE TRAPPER, THE BACKWOODSMAN, AND THE EMIGRANT.
Ever since the expedition of Lewis and Clarke, the head waters of the
Missouri had been frequented by hunters, trappers, and traders. These
men threaded every nook and corner of the wilderness in pursuit of a
livelihood, and, rude geographers as they were, the remotest mountain
solitudes were fast yielding up to them the secrets they had held since
the creation of the world.
Let us begin with a portrait of the trapper as drawn from life by Mr.
Irving:—
"When the trade in furs was chiefly pursued about the lakes
and rivers, the expeditions were carried on in bateaux and
canoes. The voyageurs or boatmen were the rank and file in
the service of the trader, and even the hardy men of the
North were fain to be paddled from point to point of their
migrations.
"A totally different class has now sprung up,—the
'mountaineers,' the traders and trappers that scale the
vast mountain chains, and pursue their hazardous vocations
amidst their wild recesses. They move from place to place
on horseback. The equestrian exercises, therefore, in which
they are engaged, the nature of the countries they traverse,
vast plains and mountains, seem to make them physically
and mentally a more lively race than the fur-traders and
trappers of former days. A man who bestrides a horse must be
essentially different from a man who cowers in a canoe. We
find them, accordingly, hardy, lithe, vigorous and active;
extravagant in word, in thought, and deed; heedless of
hardship, daring of danger, prodigal of the present, and
thoughtless of the future.
"The American trapper stands by himself, and is peerless for
the service of the wilderness. Drop him in the midst of the
prairie, or in the heart of the mountains, and he is never
at a loss. He notices every landmark, can retrace his route
through the most monotonous plains or the most perplexed
labyrinths of the mountains. No danger nor difficulty can
appal him, and he scorns to complain under any privation."
Behind the trapper, though it might be at a great distance, came the
backwoodsman. This man was a product of American growth, of continued
expansion of territory, but never the voluntary agent of civilization.
He was more like the foam blown from the crest of its ever-advancing
wave.
The true backwoodsman was one, who, like Daniel Boone, fled at the
approach of his fellow-men. He was a recluse from choice. He has always
hung on to the skirts of civilization, though he scorned to become part
of it, or profit by its advantages or comforts.
This man made a little clearing, built himself a rude cabin of logs,
and lived by hunting. When he first heard of a new purchase he hastened
to it, but as soon as another was made he shouldered his rifle and his
pack, and without regret turned his back upon the home he had scarcely
made habitable when this new fit of restlessness sent him forth in
search of another. In this manner, his lonely clearing made smooth the
way for the coming settler. Thus the backwoodsman's life was passed far
from the haunts of men. Free from all desire to better his condition in
any ennobling sense, he had no higher aspiration than to live apart,
no thought of becoming an instrumentality in the hand of progress. In
his habits and way of life he was more like an Indian than a civilized
being, for the only school he had been educated in was nature's, and his
tastes or instincts led him rather downward than upward in the scale of
human effort.
[Illustration: AN EMIGRANT'S CAMP.]
Behind the backwoodsman, like the vanguard of an army taking the field,
came the emigrant. The tread of his oxen, and print of his wagon-wheels,
followed close in the blazed footpath of the departing pioneer. On foot
he trudged at the head of his worldly possessions, as light of heart as
the birds singing in the forest around him. In the wagon his household
utensils would be stowed away, with wife and little ones, while his
bronzed and barefooted boys, on foot and in homespun, drove the cows and
hogs along the road behind it. At nightfall the wagon would be drawn
up by the side of some limpid brook, the animals turned loose to crop
the tender grass, while with an armful of fagots, gathered close at
hand, the goodwife was soon busy cooking a frugal supper of bacon and
potatoes, over the embers of their camp-fire. In this way the emigrant
sometimes travelled week after week, and month after month, before
finding a place of abode to suit him.
This man had come to stay. When he had found a situation to his mind,
he set about felling trees for his cabin. On the Missouri, where the
first settlers chiefly came from Tennessee and Kentucky, this dwelling
was usually two houses, built a little apart from each other, each
containing but one room, and joined together only by the roof, so
leaving an opening in the centre, where the family usually sat in the
heat of the day. The chimneys were built of sticks, plastered with
clay, and stood at the outside of the building, as the fashion is in
the Southern States. There was little difference between the dwellings
of rich and poor. In these humble abodes the first generation grew up
to man's estate to find themselves to-day the founders of an empire.
Unlike the backwoodsman, the settler had come to better his
condition,—to grow up with the country, not abandon it with the first
token of progress. Here he lived content. He broke up his forty acres
of prairie land, fenced and planted it, and from its fertility soon
reaped an abundant harvest of corn and potatoes, which with his swine
and poultry, furnished more than food enough for his wants. Though the
comforts of life were scarcely attainable in a wilderness, he had the
necessaries, and could say, with our gracious poet, to the dweller in
cities,—
"How canst thou walk in these streets, who hast trod the green
turf of the prairies?
How canst thou breathe in this air, who hast breathed the sweet
air of the mountains?"
LONG EXPLORES THE PLATTE VALLEY.
From the summit of Pike's Peak, Pike, the explorer, had looked down upon
regions watered by four great rivers,—the Platte,[1] Arkansas, Rio
Grande and Colorado. Into those dark gorges he had recklessly plunged.
But he had scarcely done more than confirm the position of the great
landmark, which nature has placed at the head of these great rivers.
War with England had put a stop to exploration for a time, but with
peace it was determined to know if the Platte would not afford a better
route than the roundabout one Lewis and Clarke had followed to the
Pacific. It was thought depressions might exist where this river issued
from the mountains, so giving access to the country on the other side,
by a way less formidable to the traveller than had yet been found.
With this object in view, Major Long[2] was sent to the Missouri in
1819 by President Monroe. As he was a man of scientific attainments,
a more thorough and critical report was expected from him than his
predecessors had so far furnished.
Long's journey marks a distinct era in the ways of travel; for while
Pike had used row-boats, Long ascended the Missouri in a steamboat built
for the purpose at Pittsburg, and named the "Western Engineer." In this
vessel he made the voyage to Council Bluffs.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING LONG'S EXPLORATIONS.]
In going up the Missouri, Long found the most populous settlements
growing up in the neighborhood of St. Charles, in what is now Callaway
County, and in that part lying between the Osage and Chariton. Above
the Chariton only a horse-path, called a trace, led northward to Council
Bluffs.
In all these primitive settlements superior wealth would be indicated by
the number and size of the corn-cribs, smoke-houses, etc., but nothing
resembling the barn found on every farm in the Northern States entered
into the make-up of these frontier homesteads.
After spending the winter in camp near Council Bluffs, Long passed on
his way into the Platte, to the village of the Otoe nation, situated
about forty miles above the confluence of the Platte with the Missouri.
Going thence he entered the Pawnee country, finding there a more
friendly welcome than Pike had met with, but, like him, getting an
impression of savage chivalry and independence, the like of which he had
found nowhere else. The braves of this nation hung out their war-shields
in the village streets, as the cavaliers of old were accustomed to
display theirs before their tents, so that every passerby might know
who the occupant was by his device.
[Illustration: PRAIRIE-DOG VILLAGE.]
Long's party turned down the South Fork of the Platte, and reached the
mountains in July, 1820, after making a journey of nearly a thousand
miles since leaving the Missouri.
In one place this traveller has noted down how they had passed by a
large and uncommonly beautiful village of the prairie marmot, covering a
grassy plain of about a mile square. As they came toward it, this spot
happened to be covered with a herd of some thousands of bisons. On the
left were a number of wild horses, and immediately in front twenty or
thirty antelopes, and about half as many deer. As it was near sunset the
light fell obliquely upon the grass, giving an additional brilliancy
to its dark verdure. The little inhabitants of the village were seen
running playfully about in all directions, and when the travellers got
near them, they sat erect on their burrows, and gave a short, sharp bark
of alarm.
A scene of this kind comprised most of what was beautiful and
interesting to the passing traveller in the wide unvaried plains of the
Missouri and Arkansas.
Before leaving this interesting region, Dr. James, the botanist and
historian of the expedition, ascended the high mountain now known as
Long's Peak (July 13). Turning south, Long's party soon struck the
waters of the Arkansas, near Pike's Peak, from whose summits they
saw the great plain they had crossed, "rising as it receded until it
appeared to mingle with the sky."
[Illustration: DIGGING IN THE RIVER-BED FOR WATER.]
From this point, the explorers descended the valleys of the Arkansas
and its largest tributary, the Canadian, to Fort Smith, and from
thence through the growing settlements of the territory,[3] to
the Mississippi, visiting, by the way, the famous Hot Springs of the
Washita. The upper waters of the Arkansas and Platte were reported
by them to lie in sandy wastes unfit for occupation by civilized man.
Often the explorers would have to dig in the bed of the river to get
water, while the arid appearance of every thing around, caused by the
disappearance of the rivers[4] beneath their own sands, the want
of wood and absence of game, stamped the whole region as one on which
nature had set the seal of perpetual barrenness and desolation.
The sum of these discoveries had traced out, as it were, the larger
veins through which emigration, the life-blood of the country, was
ultimately to flow.
FOOTNOTES
[1] THE PLATTE was called Nebraska by the Otoes, whence
comes the name of the State in which it chiefly lies. Some
authorities make the Indian word mean the same thing as the
French, or flat and shallow, which describes it well.
[2] MAJOR STEPHEN HARRIMAN LONG had been assistant professor
of mathematics at West Point. He afterwards (1823-24) explored
the Upper Mississippi. Journal of the first expedition
published in 1823, of the second 1824.
[3] ARKANSAS TERRITORY was formed in 1819, capital LITTLE
ROCK, then a village built on a bluff near the beginning of
the hilly region. The name comes from a rock in the river
exposed at low water. FORT SMITH was a new military post.
Other settlements were scattered along the Arkansas from the
White River Cut-off to Belle Point, and on Red River as far
as the Kiamesha. Though numerous, Long says all were small.
Besides these, the CHEROKEES were also forming settlements on
the Arkansas about Cadron, which Long often found superior, in
respect of the comforts of life, to those of the whites. These
people were the vanguard of their nation, to which Government
had ceded lands in Arkansas Territory, and was removing from
Georgia beyond the Mississippi. They owned black slaves, the
same as the whites. They raised considerable cotton, which
they wove into cloth for their own use.
[4] DISAPPEARANCE OF THE RIVERS. Long's party travelled
more than a hundred miles along the dry bed of the Arkansas
without once seeing water. Of course they hastened on through
this desert with all speed.
MISSOURI, AND THE COMPROMISE OF 1821.
Far back, when the original States were yet colonies, and while the
people of Massachusetts were solemnly deliberating how to deliver
themselves from oppression, a letter was read to the body to whom this
grave question had been committed, asking it to consider the state of
the negro slaves in the province.
These men had just said they were called rebels because they would not
be slaves. The dilemma was thus presented to them, either to make good
their declaration, or limit its application to themselves. After some
debate the matter was dropped, but the plea for a principle had been
uttered, the appeal to men's consciences taken, and as some secret
cause, working beneath the waters, gives notice of the agitation below
by sending up bubbles to the surface, so this question of slavery
continued at intervals to prick the conscience of the people, and
confront them at every turn with its warning.
The North had got rid of slavery. It had done more. Its voice had
excluded slavery from the great North-West. But the South owed its
growth to slave labor, and wherever her people went to found new States
they carried their slaves with them. It was inevitable, that, whenever
free and slave labor should meet on the same ground, a conflict must
arise between them, though statesmen were anxious to avert the coming
on of strife as long as possible.
It is hard to stay the march of events, or confute the logic of time.
Even as far back as the beginning of the Union, men had foreseen the
coming storm, with foreboding, yet these men were no wiser than the
Massachusetts men of 1774; for at the time of the Union slavery might
have been so restricted that it would eventually have died out in the
land, or a way provided for the gradual emancipation of the blacks.
Such steps were indeed talked of, but not consummated. So the nation was
allowed to drift on, and the two opposing systems were left to work out
their own results.
In 1819 Missouri asked for admission into the Union. Her doing so,
with a constitution recognizing slavery, proved a rock of danger to
the Republic, the wisest statesmen found it hard to steer clear of. It
provoked violent opposition at the North, and equally vehement support
in the South. Under French rule the people of the nascent State held
slaves. Those who had since come in were mostly from slaveholding
States, and wanted to have slavery recognized as part of their social
and political system.
They demanded this, not as a privilege, but as a right guaranteed
to them by the Constitution itself, in which property in slaves was
distinctly recognized. So they stood firm for what they considered their
rights, defending slavery from the charge of immorality, or inhumanity
of man to man, as men would the most righteous cause.
The North contended, broadly, that slavery was a crime, discountenanced
by Christian people and enlightened thought everywhere, of which the
nation should purge itself. It was said that the idea of a nation being
free, when it countenanced holding men in bondage, was a mockery of
freedom. Many construed the ordinance of 1787 to have forbidden, if not
in its letter, at least in spirit, the formation of slave States out
of newly acquired territory. But these men did not propose to interfere
with slavery in the States where it already existed.
Around these two differing ideas the men of the North and South
clustered themselves. Underlying all, and governing all, was the
conviction that a check to the extension of slavery meant a check to
the political power of the South itself. This view made the South a
unit, while in the North public sentiment was divided, for many there
deprecated agitation of the question, as the entering wedge which should
split the Republic asunder.
When, therefore, Congress took up the bill for the admission of
Missouri, the opponents of slavery met it with the condition that
no slaves should afterward be brought into the new State, while all
children, born in it subsequent to its admission, should be free at
the age of twenty-five years. In time this condition would have made
Missouri a free State.
The matter was hotly debated. Of the twenty-two States then constituting
the Union, ten were slave States. Two ominous phrases began to be heard.
One was "State rights," the other "Balance of power." In the violence
of party strife, patriotism was lost sight of.
The House of Representatives refused to admit Missouri without the
condition; the Senate refused to do so with it. So Missouri was not
admitted at this time.
With the two houses thus divided, it was apparent that no new State
could be admitted, since the Southern party, having control of the
Senate, would not vote to admit a free State so long as Missouri was
kept out, and Maine was then ready to come in as a free State.
As neither party would yield, the more moderate, or timid, men of each
tried to find some intermediate ground where the factions could come
together, each giving up something for the sake of restoring harmony
to the country. Finally a settlement was reached. Maine came in a free
State. Missouri was admitted with slavery, but with the restriction
attached that her southern boundary should thenceforward be the limit
north of which no new slave States should be formed. Thus the line
between freedom and slavery was first strictly drawn on the parallel of
36° 30´, but with a slave State above it. The first battle between the
two warring systems had been fought, and slavery had won. The North had
got a line, but the South had won a State.
ARKANSAS ADMITTED 1836.
Arkansas was admitted into the Union in 1836, as a slave State,
retaining the name it had been given as a Territory, when formed from
the Louisiana purchase,—a name originating with the once powerful nation
Marquette found seated on the banks of the Mississippi. Thus three slave
States had been made out of French Louisiana.
THOMAS H. BENTON'S IDEA.
"_There is the East! There lies the road to India._"
Lawyer, soldier and politician, but not yet a statesman, Thomas H.
Benton went from Tennessee to Missouri after the war with England was
over. Though St. Louis was yet only a large village, it was the focus
of the activities of the Great West. Mr. Benton saw it was the place
for a rising man to grow up in, and accordingly he settled there.
In St. Louis Mr. Benton found an aristocracy of fur-traders, whose
attachment for their own usages and old form of government bound them
together. They kept their own language and manners. With many it was a
point of honor never to learn English at all. In all things they were
as distinctively French as the French people of Canada are to-day. Thus
this scion of refinement had been grafted on a rude frontier life,
but would not assimilate with the coarser elements thrown upon it by
emigration from the States.
By the side of this middle-class (_bourgeois_) aristocracy stood the
Catholic clergy, with its traditions of the old _régime_ in Canada, its
proud record of discovery and missionary work among the barbarians of
these Western wilds, whose every stream and fountain had its story of
zeal and heroism to tell.
This was society at the core. The clergy was its rock of support. Boys
were taught in the parish school, and girls in a nunnery. So education
was as much in the keeping of the Church as religion itself. Nations may
change, but the Roman Church never abandons its people or its objects.
Around this foundation was grouped the community of French Creoles,
whom the great fur companies employed and who were their dependants.
And around them clustered again an increasing population of American
adventurers, coming mostly from the Southern States in search of a
living, for whom St. Louis was the magnet which attracts to itself the
scattered atoms of society far and near.
Outside of St. Louis, Missouri owed her rapid growth to the in-coming
of actual settlers. In 1816 only thirty families were found on the left
bank of the Missouri, above Callaway County. In three years the number
had increased to eight hundred families. Here was the real bone and
sinew of the State.
Mr. Benton found the American Fur-Trading Company sending forth its
yearly caravans over the great plains to the mountains, and from the
mountains, through passes known only to the Indians and fur-traders,
into Sonora, New Mexico and Oregon. Since the way was beset by hostile
Indians, these caravans went armed to the teeth. The same Indians might
fight them one day and trade the next. In time, the passing to and fro
of these traders had marked out well-beaten paths up the Arkansas and
the Platte, which presently came to be known on the frontier as the
Santa Fé Trail and Oregon Trail.[1]
At bottom the St. Louis fur-traders were not more friendly to
colonization than the English fur-traders, but they were quite as eager
to push their business into Oregon, conceiving they had the best right
there, as the English companies were to keep them out of it so that they
themselves might reap all the profit; and so there was rivalry and ill
blood between them.
[Illustration: STATUE OF BENTON.]
Mr. Benton was energetic, ambitious and self-reliant, qualities which
soon identified him with the thought and interests of the people
among whom he had cast in his lot in life. Thoroughly Southern in his
feelings, he had borne an active part in making Missouri a slave State,
and when that result was accomplished the people sent him to the United
States Senate as a reward for his zeal in their behalf.
When the war with England was over, our Government wished to have
the boundary between our own and the British possessions defined and
settled. Though proposed to be run on the forty-ninth parallel it
had never been done, and in buying Louisiana we inherited a dispute
which, so long as that vast region was unexplored and unknown, had
slept, but was now become a source of irritation and danger between
England and the United States. The Columbia River and its basin[2]
were the bone of contention. Both wanted them. Neither would give them
up. Since Astoria[3] had been sold, the Hudson's Bay and North-west
Companies had held uninterrupted possession of the whole country, to the
exclusion of our own ships and traders, whose interests had suffered in
consequence; but as England would not yield her pretensions peaceably,
the people of the Atlantic coast were unwilling to go to war about a
region so remote, the more so because they were just recovering from
the effects of the one lately ended, and felt that they would be the
greatest sufferers if war again broke out between the two nations.
So the two countries compromised their differences by agreeing to hold
Oregon in common, first for ten years (1818-1828), and afterward from
year to year. All this time England was growing stronger in Oregon, and
the United States losing the hold her citizens had first obtained there,
for though it was neutral ground on paper, the English with their free
access by land and sea were able to shut out our traders, and did so.
This state of things was humiliating to the West. It was as though the
nation were eating humble-pie rather than offend England. Continual
agitation of the question served to keep up a feverish feeling about
Oregon, but since Major Long had said it was of no use to think of
cultivating the land between the meridian of Council Bluffs and the
Rocky Mountains, it seemed settled that nobody but fur-traders would
want to cross this desert while so much fertile land remained vacant
in the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys. If settlement must stop at the
edge of this desert, then the idea of geographical unity vanished, and
Oregon would, in truth, be worth little to us. Mr. Benton, himself, was
at one time of this opinion.
So when Mr. Benton wanted the Government to take Oregon with an armed
force, he was told it was not worth the trouble, for Oregon could never
become a State if we did.
There was another element to the dispute, which found much favor in the
West. This was Mr. Monroe's declaration that no European power would
be allowed to subdue or overturn the independent governments of our
continent. This was a notice to England that she could not have Oregon.
It has since been known as the Monroe Doctrine,[4] and so Mr. Monroe
became the author of a national policy.
Mr. Benton mastered all the details of the vexatious Oregon question.
The interests of his constituents were at stake. His patriotism was
aroused. He felt equal disgust with the artifices by which England kept
us out of Oregon, as with the cautious spirit of the East, which counted
the cost of every thing beforehand, less, it seemed to him, in the
spirit of statesmanship, than for what it would be worth at the present
moment.
It should not be forgotten, however, that New England enterprise had
first made known the resources of our possessions on the Pacific.
In fine, Mr. Benton made himself the champion of the growing West. He
had already become, in a sense, the trustee of Mr. Jefferson's pet
scheme of a great overland highway to India, which, indeed, proved
too great for the time that wise man lived in, but only waited for the
people to grow up to it. Mr. Benton knew from Mr. Jefferson's own lips
what results had been hoped for, but not realized,—how the best-laid
plans had been thwarted, or suffered to sleep the sleep of oblivion,—and
the Missouri senator had gone away from his memorable interview more
than ever impressed with the greatness of the mission he was henceforth
to take upon himself as Mr. Jefferson's disciple.
England managed, in one or another way, to delay a settlement just
forty-nine years. A few Americans had gone into Oregon, but as yet they
were only a handful. In 1832 Captain Bonneville[5] took the first
wagon train across the Wind River chain into the Green River Valley,
thus proving the mountains were practicable for vehicles. The same year
Nathaniel J. Wyeth[6] led a party all the way from New England to
Fort Vancouver, after a journey lasting seven months, in which some of
his men were killed by the Blackfeet. In 1834 and 1835 some American
missionaries[7] were sent out to Oregon, one of whom, Marcus Whitman,
was to figure largely in its history. In the following year Dr. Whitman
went through to Fort Walla Walla with a wagon, thus doing what had been
declared impossible. Yet up to the close of 1841 not quite a hundred
and fifty Americans, in all, had settled in Oregon, though the Oregon
Trail was largely shorn of its terrors by the intrepidity of these
real pathfinders. For his part, Dr. Whitman saw clearly, that, since
diplomacy was purposely hindering it, emigration must step in and settle
the question who should have Oregon. And Dr. Whitman was not only a man
of clear sight, but of action.
FOOTNOTES
[1] SANTA FÉ TRAIL and OREGON TRAIL. Independence was long
the farthest white settlement in Missouri, and consequently
became the starting point. So far the Missouri River could be
followed. See map. Westport, and finally Kansas City, grew
from this cause. As settlements extended up the river, the
main trails were struck from many points, as Fort Leavenworth,
St. Joseph, Council Bluffs, etc.,—like trunk roads with many
branches.
[2] THE COLUMBIA AND ITS BASIN. England claimed that Drake
and Cook had first discovered and taken possession of Oregon,
which then included the present Oregon, Idaho, Washington and
part of Montana. In 1671 Saint Lusson, at Sault Ste. Marie,
had taken possession of all the country west to the South Sea
for France. (See preceding chapters.) Whatever rights France
acquired became ours by purchase from her. But Spain had the
better title on the Pacific. She, however, relinquished to
us, on the cession of the Floridas, in 1819, all north of
42°, the present north line of California. We thus became
possessed of all rights either power had laid claim to north
of that parallel. The north boundary, between Louisiana and
the British Possessions, was supposed to be fixed by the
Treaty of Utrecht (1713) at the forty-ninth degree.
[3] ASTORIA was restored to us (1818), after much wrangling,
but the Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Vancouver,
ninety miles up the Columbia, so cutting off Astoria from the
upper valleys. It was burnt to the ground in 1821, except a
few huts.
[4] THE MONROE DOCTRINE. "The American Continents, by the
free and independent condition they have assumed and maintain,
are not to be considered as subjects for colonization by
European powers."
[5] CAPTAIN BONNEVILLE'S adventures are related by
Washington Irving.
[6] NATHANIEL J. WYETH established Fort Hall on Lewis River,
in what is now Idaho. The Hudson's Bay Company at once set up
a rival post called Fort Boisé below it, so compelling Wyeth
to sell out to it or be ruined by its competition.
[7] THESE MISSIONARIES were Revs. Jason and Daniel Lee
sent by the Methodist denomination, and Revs. Samuel Parker
and Marcus Whitman sent by the American Board. The Methodist
mission was at the Dalles, the other at Walla Walla. This was
the first introduction of Protestant missions among the Oregon
tribes.
WITH THE VANGUARD TO OREGON.
"_This army does not retreat!_"
Emigration was to be our army of occupation in Oregon. In this
conviction Mr. Benton was looking about him for the means to set it
in motion, when he chanced to meet Lieutenant John C. Fremont, of the
topographical engineers, who had just returned from surveying the Upper
Mississippi, with Nicollet.[1]
Mr. Benton wanted the Oregon route surveyed in aid of emigration to the
Lower Columbia. The subject led to an intimacy between the two men, in
the course of which Fremont fell in love with Mr. Benton's daughter
Jessie, whom a little later he married, so uniting his fortunes with
the distinguished senator's family, as well as his plans.
It resulted in sending Fremont (1842) to find out whether the South
Pass[2] of the Rocky Mountains, the usual crossing-place, would best
accommodate the coming emigration.
This was the very first step taken by our Government in aid of
emigration to Oregon. Hitherto it had reflected the prevailing belief
in the worthlessness of Oregon for any such purpose. We were, at this
time, thick in the dispute with England about the boundary, and so the
expedition was rather assented to, in deference to Western men, than
authorized as a Government measure.
St. Louis is no longer to be considered as a starting-point for the
mountains. Already this had gone three hundred and fifty miles west.
Fremont's journey therefore began at the little village of Kansas,[3]
now a city larger than any then existing west of the Alleghanies, but
then only a landing for Chouteau's trading-post, ten miles up the Kansas
River. From this place, early in June, Fremont's party set out for the
mountains. Kit Carson of Taos, a famous hunter, was their guide.
For most of the way Fremont's wagons only followed in the track of
those that had gone before them, sometimes with guides, but oftener
without them. The road was plain, and led over ground where vehicles
pass everywhere with ease, except when gullies or streams cross their
path. So Fremont's men journeyed on quite at their ease. At nightfall
the wagons were drawn together in a circle, thus forming an enclosed
and barricaded camp, in which the travellers pitched their tents.
Fremont went up the Kansas valley as far as the Big Blue, crossing
thence over to the Platte, which was now to be his guide for the rest
of his journey.
[Illustration: FORT LARAMIE.]
Now and then Fremont would come across the abandoned camp of some Oregon
emigrants, who thus seemed piloting him on, instead of he them.
At the forks of the Platte the party was divided, Fremont himself going
down the South Fork, to St. Vrain's Fort,[4] while the rest kept on
up the North Fork, to Fort Laramie,[5] where Fremont presently joined
them again.
When firewood grew scarce the men would have to make their fires of
dried buffalo-dung, as the Arabs of the desert do with that of the
camel.
At Laramie, Fremont learned that the mountains beyond swarmed with
Indians, who were out on the war-path, and had declared the road shut to
the whites. But Fremont went on to the South Pass, which was found to
rise by so gradual an ascent that the exploring party hardly knew when
they had reached its summit.
In the valley beyond this pass, the explorers rested. Before turning
back, Fremont himself, with a few others, made their way into the
mountains and up to the summit of the high peak now known by his name,
which rose, the monarch of all in this region, 13,570 feet above the
sea. In this way the three greatest landmarks of the Rockies make
memorable the names of three explorers, Pike, Long and Fremont.
While Fremont did little that had not been done already, his careful
record of distances, fords, camping-places where grass, wood and water
could be had, was just what outgoing emigrants needed to know, and so,
immediately, they began to go forward with confidence. It was besides a
token that Government had taken hold of the matter at last, and would,
it was thought, now foster and protect the emigration.
Fremont said it would be necessary to have permanent military posts at
Laramie, St. Vrain's and Bent's Fort, to keep the Indians from killing
our people, as they passed through their country. Until this should
be done the road could not be called safe. But he did the most for
emigration in correcting the popular error about the barrenness of the
great plains, to which Major Long gave currency, and which everybody to
this time had believed. He showed that where the buffalo roamed in such
vast herds, and found food, could not be a desert, for the wild grass
they lived on would certainly keep the emigrants' cattle, while no man
need starve in the midst of such abundance of wild game as constantly
roved these plains before their eyes. It was much to have all these
things set down in an orderly manner by some friendly hand, and with the
seal of Government authority. Fremont did this as it had not been done
before.
Fremont's first expedition met with such favor that he was immediately
sent on a second (1843), and much more important one. This time he was
to begin at the South Pass, and go through the Lower Columbia country.
He was well on his way when the War Department suddenly recalled him to
Washington, but Mrs. Fremont took the responsibility of suppressing the
order until the explorer was too far off for it to reach him.
[Illustration: AMOLE, OR SOAP-PLANT OF THE PLAINS.]
At the moment of starting from the Missouri, Fremont met a large
party of emigrants who were going to California under the lead of J.
B. Childs. This party took with them that modern civilizing engine,
a saw-mill, ready to be put up on reaching the Sacramento. As Fremont
moved west, trains of wagons were seldom out of sight. The great march
had begun in earnest.
Fremont decided to explore the mountains in the neighborhood of St.
Vrain's Fort to see if they would afford a practicable passage on
a more direct east-and-west line than the old way up the Platte. He
therefore struck into them, north of Long's Peak, and by following
the Cache-à-la-Poudre[6] River came out on the other side, where his
journey of the previous year had ended. From here he passed on into the
valley of Bear River, and so on to the Great Salt Lake,[7] which he
also explored.
From Salt Lake, Fremont went north to the Hudson's Bay Company's post
at Fort Hall, striking the Oregon Trail again by the way. The explorers
divided here, part going back to the States and part down the river with
Fremont. Fort Boisé[8] they found was only an ordinary dwelling-house.
Going on they next came to the mission Dr. Whitman had founded among the
Nez Percés, near Walla Walla. It then consisted of but one adobe house,
though more were going up around it. Its cornfields and potato-patches,
which Dr. Whitman had cleared and planted, were a pleasant sight to men
worn down with travel and fasting, but not more so to Fremont than the
little colony of emigrants now collected here after their long march of
two thousand miles,—men, women and children,—all in robust health, and
all regaling themselves with Dr. Whitman's potatoes.
Fort Walla Walla marks an important strategic point in the early
movement of emigration to Oregon. Situated only nine miles below the
junction of the two great branches of the Columbia, it was thus also
planted at the meeting of two great trans-continental routes of travel,
one coming from the United States by way of the South Pass, the other
from Hudson's Bay by way of Lake Athabasca and the mountain passes near
it. For such of the emigrants as chose to go on by water, Walla Walla
was the end of their long overland journey. Fremont found a large body
of emigrants, under the lead of Mr. Jesse Applegate, building bateaux
here to go down the river in.
But the British trading-post lay on a sandy plain, where scarce a blade
of grass or a shrub grew. Dr. Whitman had chosen a pleasant and fertile
nook, not far from the fort, where emigrants might recruit themselves
among friends; for at the fort itself every effort was made to turn
them back or send them into California. Thus everywhere, except at the
missions, emigrants found this Oregon Trail a hard road to travel, for
our Government left them to the mercy of the Hudson's Bay Company's
agents, who hindered them in every way, or failing to stop them, charged
exorbitantly for every thing furnished.
Finding emigration would increase in spite of them, this company chose
to save itself by bringing in British emigrants from the Red River of
the North. It meant to occupy the best lands, as it had the best trading
sites. The first colony was on the Upper Columbia when Dr. Whitman heard
of it. If Oregon were to be saved to us, there was not a moment to lose.
He instantly started for Washington with the news of this threatened
invasion.
Dr. Whitman's ride to St. Louis, by way of Santa Fé, will ever be
memorable in the annals of Oregon, as well for its perils as for what
it accomplished. He found our Government had just signed the Ashburton
Treaty,[9] by which Oregon was still left out in the cold, without
a boundary or the protection of our laws or flag. His great energy,
however, enabled him to get together on the frontier an emigrants' train
of two hundred wagons with which, as the leader of an army, he started
back in the spring. It was these people whom Fremont had seen setting
out, had tracked a thousand miles on their way, and finally come up with
at their journey's end. As the Government would not lead, it now had to
follow the people's grand march for the Pacific.
With fresh horses Fremont pushed on down the left bank of the Columbia
to the Dalles, Mount Hood towering in the distance. Here the whole river
rushes through a long and narrow trough of rock, with so swift a tide
that in the season of high water boats cannot stem it.
A few miles below, Fremont emerged from the sterile and inhospitable
region through which he had been travelling, upon a green spot in the
valley, where, among groves of noble forest-trees, the Methodist mission
had reared its two dwellings, its one schoolhouse, and its barn, cleared
ground for planting, gathered to it a colony of Indians for instruction
in the ways and religion of the whites, and so dropped in the wilderness
the seed of Christian civilization.
From the Dalles, Fremont sailed down the river to Vancouver, finding
here still more emigrants, most of whom were waiting to cross over into
the fertile Willamette Valley, which was then their land of promise.
At this point Fremont's journey ended. His explorations had now
connected with surveys conducted by Captain Wilkes from the Pacific
coast. Fremont therefore turned homeward again, taking with him the most
exact knowledge of the country traversed, so far obtained.
FOOTNOTES
[1] J. NICOLAS NICOLLET had first established the sources of
the Mississippi. He had returned from exploring a considerable
part of Minnesota and Dakota.
[2] THE SOUTH PASS cuts the south part of the Wind River
chain.
[3] KANSAS CITY took its name thus early from its
neighborhood to the Kansas River (though in Missouri), which
has led many to suppose it is in Kansas.
[4] ST. VRAIN'S FORT, a fur-trading post, in communication
with Santa Fé by way of Taos. Under the mountains, seventeen
miles east of Long's Peak.
[5] FORT LARAMIE, first called Fort William (Sublette),
built by Robert Campbell about 1835, since named from the
Laramie Fork, near which it stands. Its walls were ranges
of adobe houses, in the Spanish style, with bastions at the
corners. The house tops or roof formed a banquette, on which,
again, was set a row of palisades.
BENT'S FORT, on the Arkansas, established by Charles Bent,
was the third of these remote posts, for which the above
description will suffice.
[6] CACHE-À-LA-POUDRE. French, hiding-place for the powder.
[7] SALT LAKE was known to early Spanish explorers (see
p. 37); had been often visited, but not explored. Ashley
of Missouri, who led a party of trappers to the heads of
the Colorado in 1823, built the next year a trading-house
near Salt Lake. See also Bonneville's account. Fremont's
explorations disclosed the existence of a great interior
basin between the Rockies and Sierra Nevada, whose waters fall
into Utah and Salt Lakes instead of reaching the Columbia or
Colorado.
[8] FORT BOISÉ. French, meaning wooded.
[9] ASHBURTON TREATY settled our north-eastern boundary with
England, and carried the parallel 49° to the Rocky Mountains,
but not beyond. In 1846 a second treaty carried it to the
Pacific.
TEXAS ADMITTED.
Mexico threw off her allegiance to Spain in 1821. Not till then did the
Spaniards in Mexico abandon their policy of excluding all foreigners
from their soil; but the example set them by the United States, with the
feeling born of freedom from the Spanish yoke, brought about a change of
policy in this regard, and Americans were invited to settle in Texas on
the most generous terms. No stronger instance is found of the influence
exerted by free institutions from without upon the hereditary prejudices
of a whole people. It confessed a failure nobly.
When Texas was thus thrown open to emigration her settlements were few
and scattered. Habitual timidity or indolence had restricted them to
the neighborhood of fortified posts or missions.[1] The chief ones
were San Antonio, Goliad, Refugio and Nacodoches, and around these small
parcels of land had been brought under cultivation. But the missions
themselves, which had formed the groundwork of Spanish occupation, were
fallen into irremediable decay. The Indians who had been gathered into
them by the monks had dwindled away until the missions were mostly
depopulated. Here, as in California, experience had shown that the
natives could not exist under the shadow of the whites. Civilization
wasted them away.
[Illustration: SAN ANTONIO.]
To induce settlers to come into Texas, they were offered exemption from
all taxes for the space of ten years.
Among the first to avail themselves of these offers was Stephen F.
Austin, of Durham, Conn. Acting under a grant of lands made by the
Mexican authorities to his father, Austin began a settlement on the
Brazos in 1821, which later became the capital of the State, of which
he was the foremost founder.
Emigration poured in from the Lower Mississippi Valley,—from Louisiana,
Arkansas, and Mississippi,—and even the older States contributed to
swell the tide. The law forbade slavery, but many brought negroes with
them and held them in spite of it. Many were adventurers who held law
in little estimation, or found in Texas a convenient asylum from the
pursuit of their creditors. Others were poor people whom the liberal
offers of the Mexican Government lured from their homes in the hope of
bettering their condition. Though sound at the heart, in no long time
Texas had won for itself an unenviable name throughout the Union as the
chosen home of lawless men, through its worst elements rising to the
top.
Our Government had long coveted Texas, and had made two unsuccessful
attempts to buy it of Mexico, considering it as an integral part of Old
Louisiana, to which we had a sort of right by the prior discovery of La
Salle.
Texas, which the Spaniards had weakly settled and feebly governed,
declared herself independent of Mexico in 1835. When this revolt took
place there were more Americans than people of Spanish blood in Texas,
so bringing over to the Texan cause the warm sympathy and active aid of
a large part of the American people.
The conflict was short and bloody. After meeting reverses at Goliad
and the Alamo,[2] the Texans won their independence by defeating the
Mexican army at San Jacinto,[3] in 1836. General Samuel Houston, the
Texan leader, was subsequently made president of the Republic of Texas,
which then set up for itself upon the model of the United States.
In no long time Texas applied for admission to the Union. Too weak to
maintain herself as an independent power, her interests were now at one
with the South. Her soil, climate, and productions were much the same.
Her population was largely derived from that source, and owned to like
feelings and prejudices with their brethren of that section. The South,
therefore, favored the admission of Texas, not only for these general
reasons, but because it would add a slave State to the Union, as, since
Missouri and Arkansas had come in, there was no more territory, except
Florida, open to slavery under the interdicted line of 36° 30´.
[Illustration: THE ALAMO.]
For this very reason the growing anti-slavery sentiment of the North
strongly opposed the admission of Texas. It was further opposed on
the ground that as Mexico had not yet acknowledged the independence of
Texas, so unfriendly an act toward Mexico would lead to war. Moreover,
Texas was of such vast extent, compared with other States, that the bill
for its admission allowed the making of four more new States out of it,
so opening the door of the Union not to one, but several slave States
in the future.
[Illustration: SAMUEL HOUSTON.]
But the North and South did not separate themselves into two distinct
political factions, or their citizens stand wholly together, on this
Texas question. With many it was simply a question of national policy or
expediency. It was championed by the Democratic party, which believed
in the "manifest destiny" of the Union to control the whole continent,
while the Whig party was conservative, and its opposition was based on
the grounds already given, which many thought equivalent to national
dishonor. Southern men were in both parties, and Northern men in both.
Each party nominated a Southern man for President upon this issue. This
question was carried to the people in the next national election (1844),
when Clay, the Whig candidate, and opponent of annexation, was defeated,
and Polk,[4] the Democratic candidate and its advocate, elected. The
Congress therefore admitted Texas to the Union, Dec. 29, 1845.
FOOTNOTES
[1] TEXAS MISSIONS were established by Franciscan monks
as follows: In 1690, that of San Francisco on the Lavaca
River, at Fort St. Louis (see "La Salle's Colony"); St. John
the Baptist was founded on the Rio Grande, same year. In
1714, those of San Bernard and Adaes, fifteen miles west of
Natchitoches. In 1715, Mission Dolores, west of the Sabine;
one near Nacodoches, and another near the present town of
San Augustine. The mission and fortress of San Antonio de
Valero was soon after founded near the present city of San
Antonio. In 1721, one was located at the crossing of the
Neches; another on the Bay of St. Bernard, called Our Lady
of Loretto; and a third, called La Bahia (the Bay), at the
lower crossing of River San Antonio. In 1730, the Church of
San Fernando, San Antonio, was founded; in 1731, the mission
of La Purissima Concepcion, near the same place. All these
missions were secularized in the latter part of the eighteenth
century.—_Baker, Texas Scrap-Book._
[2] THE ALAMO (Spanish for poplar-tree), was a chapel used
in connection with the Mission San Antonio de Valero. Here one
hundred and forty-four Texan revolutionists, under W. Barrett
Travis, were besieged (1836) by superior Mexican forces under
Santa Anna. The insurgents held out ten days, when the Alamo
was stormed, and all of its brave defenders put to death.
David Crockett of Tennessee was among the slain. The event has
been commemorated by a shaft bearing the legend: "Thermopylæ
had its messenger of defeat, the Alamo had none."
[3] SAN JACINTO is a small village near Galveston Bay. The
decisive battle was fought April 21, 1836.
[4] JAMES K. POLK, of Tennessee. His nomination was the
first public news ever sent by telegraph in the United States.
Morse's new line was just completed between Baltimore and
Washington.
INTERLUDE.—NEW POLITICAL IDEAS.
"_Truth crushed to earth will rise again._"—_Bryant._
As yet any direct attack upon slavery was unpopular in the North. The
two antagonistic ideas of limiting or extending it were now running a
neck-and-neck race for controlling power; but attachment for the Union
itself was stronger at the North than at the South, whose people had
been taught to consider it a compact to be kept only during the pleasure
of the several States, or so long as their interests were promoted
by it. This doctrine was never taught in the North. The prevailing
sentiment there was attachment for the Union, "one and indivisible;"
while the South, under different teachings, was weighing its worth in
the balance with slavery.
One new and potent element, however, had come into the controversy.
At the North a little band of men pledged to work for the immediate
emancipation of the slave, and deeply in earnest, had begun a warfare
that ere long was to shake the Union to its foundations. Though few in
numbers, they were both hated and feared. At the North they were called
fanatics, at the South abolitionists. At the North they were mobbed,
at the South a reward offered for their heads. The North apologized for
them, the South demanded they should be put down. But though they were
thus held up to public detestation, as enemies of the Union, by both
sections, these men felt that they stood for a great and holy principle,
which surely must triumph in the end. It made them strong. It made them
respected. They were led by William Lloyd Garrison of Massachusetts,
whose name is now spoken in the land with as much honor as it once was
with bitter scorn and hatred.
Slavery was to be openly attacked through the printing-press, the
platform, and the right of petition. The two first agencies would reach
the people, and the last their representatives in Congress. Garrison
declared in his paper "The Liberator," that he would be heard; and he
was heard, though not till he had been dragged through the streets of
Boston with a halter round his neck. In Congress, as the outcome of
this agitation, John Quincy Adams presented many petitions, praying for
the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade in the nation's capital,
the District of Columbia. He was assailed with a storm of indignation.
Congress would not receive the petitions. They continued to come in
by the hundred, some bearing thousands of names. All were refused
a hearing. The venerable Adams,—"the Old Man Eloquent,"—then in his
sixty-fifth year, was declared an incendiary unworthy of a seat in the
Capitol, and a resolution to expel him was even introduced; but his
brave stand for the right of petition made a hundred friends for the
anti-slavery cause where one had been before.
IOWA ADMITTED.
Iowa was the first free State to be formed out of the Louisiana
purchase. She had been admitted with Florida in 1845, but her people,
being dissatisfied with the boundaries Congress had prescribed, refused
to ratify the Act, so delaying her admission until the next year 1846.
THE WAR WITH MEXICO.
"_You can do any thing with a bayonet but sit on it._"
Those who said war would follow the annexation of Texas were right.
It was soon seen that Mexico would not sit down quietly under her loss
of territory, or lightly pass over the affront to her national honor.
They who reckoned on her doing so forgot that if the Spanish race is
indolent, it is also brave.
When nations are resolved on war a pretext is soon found for it.
Texas had brought with her into the Union a dispute with Mexico about
her western boundary. She claimed to the Rio Grande, while Mexico
claimed to the Nueces,[1] thus leaving in question a tract one hundred
miles wide, extending between these rivers.
It is true the tract itself was worth little to either party, it being
mostly barren prairie land, but in a military view the Rio Grande
offered much the strongest line of defence, and for this reason Texas
wanted her boundary fixed on it.
[Illustration: MEXICAN CART.]
A Spanish proverb says, "Force without forecast is little worth."
Mexico was quietly massing troops along the Rio Grande, in the disputed
territory, to be ready to fight, while sounding England to see if she
would not help her against the United States. England was too wise to
do so openly, but stood ready to take advantage of whatever the chance
of war might throw in her way. As Mexico owed England money it was
thought England would take California as soon as fighting began, both
as security for the debt, and to get possession of a Pacific port,
which we were preventing her from doing in Oregon, and would prevent
in California. On the other hand, if war broke out, our Government had
determined to take California itself and at once. So something more than
a question of boundary was depending on war with Mexico.
If now Mexico had chosen to give up the boundary in dispute, without
a fight, there is no telling how the decision might have affected the
future of the United States. The question is perhaps, itself, the best
apology we can find for the war.
The quarrel having thus become ours, troops were sent to the Lower Rio
Grande to hold possession. The Mexicans brought forces to oppose them,
and fighting began. After driving back the Mexicans at Palo Alto, and
Resaca de la Palma, our forces crossed the Rio Grande into Mexican
territory. General Zachary Taylor commanded on this line.
[Illustration: MEXICAN ARASTRA, FOR GRINDING ORES.]
War being thus begun, steps were taken to push it by assembling an
army of fifty thousand volunteers, and plans laid to invade Mexico
at different points. In Generals Scott, Taylor, and Wool, we had able
leaders, but the men they had under them were mostly new to war, being
hastily levied and sent off into the field before they could be properly
trained in the use of arms.
In the North the war was unpopular.[2] Its coming was foreboded and
its consequences viewed with alarm. That section therefore looked on
with indifference until the actual fighting roused the national spirit.
Then the people, in general, heartily desired the success of our arms,
though they still deprecated the war itself.
On the other hand, in the South, and particularly the South-west, the
war was hailed with enthusiasm. The people there did not stop to inquire
whether its aims were such as should control the acts of one powerful
nation toward its weaker neighbor, but gave it unstinted support from
the first. In Texas the war spirit was fully aroused by the promise of
meeting her old enemy on more equal terms.
The war soon developed the larger issues we have pointed out. So though
sometimes called "a little war," it is seen that the contest with Mexico
was being waged for a large stake.
FOOTNOTES
[1] THE NUECES had been the acknowledged line between the
provinces of Coahuila and Texas, before the latter achieved
her independence, as shown by maps of the time.
[2] THE WAR UNPOPULAR. Placards calling for volunteers were
posted in the streets, headed with the words "Ho for the Halls
of the Montezumas!" The attempt of the administration party
to kindle a war spirit, however, fell flat.
The regiment raised in Massachusetts was not even cheered when
passing through the streets of Boston on its way to the front,
and on its return home its flags were refused a place in the
State Capitol.
But in Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi the war
fever ran so high that fifty thousand men could have been
furnished by these States alone. In some districts the rush
was so great that it was feared there would be too few whites
left to keep the negroes quiet.
CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO.
While the heaviest fighting was going on in Old Mexico, the Government
easily took possession of New Mexico and California, by means of
expeditions organized on the remote frontiers.
New Mexico was wanted for the emigration to the Pacific. If we were to
have California we must also have the right of way to it. In the hands
of the Spaniards, New Mexico barred access to the Pacific so completely
that the oldest travelled route was scarcely known to Americans at all,
and but little used by the Spaniards themselves.
If now we consult a map of the United States it is seen that the
thirty-fourth parallel crosses the Mississippi at the mouth of the
Arkansas, cuts New Mexico in the middle, and reaches the Pacific
near Los Angeles. It was long the belief of statesmen that the great
tide of emigration must set along this line, because it had the most
temperate climate, was shorter, and would be found freer from hardship
than the route by way of the South Pass. This view had set on foot the
exploration of the Arkansas and Red rivers. But if we except the little
that Pike and Long had gathered, almost nothing was known about it.
Yet the prevailing belief gave New Mexico, as related to California, an
exceptional importance.
These considerations weighed for more than acquisition of territory,
though the notion that New Mexico contained very rich silver-mines
undoubtedly had force in determining its conquest. Otherwise it was
held to be a poor country, with little arable land, mostly mountainous,
and scarcely fertile in the valleys, while in consequence of its great
elevation the winters were severe.
Thus New Mexico seemed placed by Nature as a half-way house may stand
alone at the summit of a mountain pass with deserts upon either side.
It offered a place for the refreshment of the nation's travellers. At
best it was only a thin wedge of semi-civilization driven north into
barbarism as far as Spanish power could send it, but this force had
spent itself long ago, and New Mexico now lay a stumbling-block in the
path of progress, in contented isolation. Our Government determined to
remove the obstruction.
With this object General Kearney marched from Fort Leavenworth in June,
1846, for Santa Fé, at the head of a force[1] of which a battalion of
Mormons formed part. After subduing New Mexico, Kearney was to go on to
California, and with the help of naval forces already sent there, for
the purpose, conquer that country also.
[Illustration: PUEBLO WOMAN GRINDING CORN.]
It is worth while to dwell a moment upon one feature of this expedition,
if only for its singularity. The Mormons were to be paid off in
California, were to turn the sword into a ploughshare and settle in
the country, and had therefore been allowed to take their families and
property with them. They were seen when setting out on the march by Mr.
Parkman, who thus describes them: "There was something very striking in
the half-military, half-patriarchal appearance of these armed fanatics,
thus on their way with their wives and children to found, it might be,
a Mormon empire in California.
"In the morning the country was covered with mist. We were always early
risers, but before we were ready the voices of men driving in the cattle
sounded all around us. As we passed above their camp, we saw through the
obscurity that the tents were falling, and the ranks rapidly forming;
and, mingled with the cries of women and children, the rolling of the
Mormon drums and the clear blast of their trumpets sounded through the
mist.
"From that time to the journey's end, we met almost every day long
trains of government wagons, laden with stores for the troops, crawling
at a snail's pace towards Santa Fé."
[Illustration: BOY AND DONKEYS.]
General Kearney marched by the Upper Arkansas, to Bent's Fort,[2] and
from Bent's Fort over the old trail through El Moro and Las Vegas, San
Miguel and Old Pecos, without meeting the opposition he expected, or
at any time seeing any considerable body of the enemy. On the 18th of
August, as the sun was setting, the stars and stripes were unfurled over
the palace of Santa Fé, and New Mexico was declared annexed[3] to the
United States. Either the home government thought New Mexico quite safe
from attack, or, having decided to reserve all its strength for the main
conflict, had left this province to its fate.
After organizing a civil government, and appointing Charles Bent of
Bent's Fort, governor, General Kearney broke up his camp at Santa Fé,
Sept. 25. His force was now divided. One part, under Colonel Doniphan,
was ordered to join General Wool in Chihuahua. A second detachment was
left to garrison Santa Fé, while Kearney went on to California with
the rest of the troops. The people everywhere seemed disposed to submit
quietly, and as most of the pueblos soon proffered their allegiance to
the United States Government, little fear of an outbreak[4] was felt.
Before leaving the valley, a courier was met bearing the news that
California also had submitted to us without striking a blow. This
information decided General Kearney to send back most of his remaining
force, while with a few soldiers only he continued his march through
what is now Arizona for the Pacific.
[Illustration: PUEBLO OF TAOS.]
Near his point of departure from the Rio Grande, a deputation of the
Apaches came to have a talk with the general. These hereditary foes of
the Spaniards were lost in wonder at seeing the order and celerity with
which our cavalry obeyed the bugle-call of "boots and saddles,"—the
order to mount for the march. The pent-up wrath of three hundred years
broke forth among them in hot words. "You have taken New Mexico, and
will soon take California," they said. "Go, then, and take Chihuahua,
Durango, and Sonora. You fight for land. We care nothing for land. We
fight for the laws of Montezuma and for food. The Mexicans are rascals,
and we will kill them all!"
Leaving this force to make its slow way down the Gila, and across the
sandy desert of Lower California, we will now inquire what had happened
to wrest California from Spanish rule without bloodshed.
FOOTNOTES
[1] GENERAL STEPHEN WATTS KEARNEY'S FORCE consisted of
two batteries of artillery (Major Clark commanding), three
squadrons of dragoons (Major, afterward General, Sumner),
Doniphan's and Price's (afterward General C. S. A.) Missouri
regiments, and the Mormon Battalion (Colonel P. St. George
Cooke). It was called the Army of the West.
[2] BENT'S FORT (two hundred miles south-east of Denver)
was all-important to the success of this campaign. It was a
large quadrangle with adobe walls and bastions, similar to
Fort Laramie (refer to description of Fort Laramie). Named
for Charles Bent, its founder.
[3] NEW MEXICO ANNEXED. General Kearney's act was premature.
This could be done only by Act of Congress.
[4] NO OUTBREAK EXPECTED. But a general one began at Taos,
January, 1847, with a massacre of Americans, Governor Bent
being one of the victims. It was quelled by Colonel Price, who
took Taos. The old church of Taos was occupied by insurgents,
who were driven out by Kit Carson and St. Vrain.
THE TAKING OF CALIFORNIA.
The courier who had been stopped by General Kearney was Kit Carson,
Fremont's old guide. Carson[1] was on his way to Washington with
despatches from Commodore Stockton and Captain Fremont.
A few words will explain how Fremont came to be in California at so
critical a time. While trying to make his way back to the States,
through the Sierras, he had been forced to recross their snows into
the Sacramento Valley, and had descended this valley, which was found
uninhabited, save by Indians, to Sutter's Fort,[2] where means were
furnished him to continue his journey homeward.
Delighted with the country, he had made so favorable a report of it that
he was again sent out (1845) for the purpose of finding the shortest
route for a railroad to the Pacific, and especially to the neighborhood
of San Francisco Bay.
When Fremont set out, war with Mexico was thought to be near at hand.
Our Government coveted California for several reasons. For one thing,
our whale-fishery in the Pacific had grown to be a great business, in
which twenty thousand sailors and two hundred thousand tons of shipping
were employed. This interest therefore wanted California, because the
port of San Francisco was the only one in the North Pacific not blocked
up by a sand-bar, like that which renders the mouth of the Columbia so
difficult of access.
Moreover, a considerable emigration[3] had already found its way into
California, whose fine climate and fertile soil these people praised
so much to their friends at home, that many were already on the road,
and more preparing to follow them. Unknown to themselves they were
to be the founders of a new commonwealth. And even at this early day
Government and people were talking of a Pacific railroad, as a thing of
coming necessity, and the more sanguine believers in "manifest destiny"
thought as many as fifteen thousand Americans would be settled in Oregon
and California during their lifetime. Thus we had important commercial
views touching California, and we were throwing into it what might be
considered in the light of the vanguard of an army of occupation. We
had won Texas in this way, and would win Oregon too.
[Illustration: BIG TREE.]
It became a prime object with President Polk to secure California,
peaceably if we could, forcibly if we must. Mexico was first asked to
sell it, but refused. Our Government then began a secret negotiation
through the American consul[4] at Monterey, which aimed to bring
about the voluntary secession of California from the Mexican Republic
altogether, and the setting-up instead of an independent government
there under our protection. But if this plan failed—and it did not
succeed—every thing was made ready to take California by force of arms.
There was also fear lest England might try to obtain in California what
she was about to lose in Oregon, namely, a Pacific seaport. Her ships
were in those waters. Mexico owed England money, as we have said. How
far this fear was well founded, is not clear; but that it was felt
there can be no doubt, for we find Mr. Buchanan, our Secretary of
State, instructing our consul at Monterey that "the United States would
vigorously interpose to prevent California becoming a British or French
colony."
In furtherance of these views our squadron in the Pacific had orders to
take possession of the chief ports of the country, so soon as war should
begin.
Fremont therefore started on his third expedition across the continent
well informed of the general policy of the Government toward California.
For the rest, his work was to be done wholly on Mexican ground, which,
being taken with the other elements of the case, of itself seems plainly
foreshadowing the views of the Government.
On this journey, Fremont crossed from the head of the Arkansas into
Utah, and from the Utah Desert to the Humboldt Mountains and River, both
of which he named at this time for the great German scientist. From here
he again struck the Sierra Nevada, which he crossed, as before, into
the Sacramento Valley.
[Illustration: STATES AND TERRITORIES ACQUIRED FROM MEXICO.]
Upon reaching the vicinity of Monterey, Fremont was ordered out of the
country by the Mexican authorities. Intrenching himself on a hill, back
of Monterey, he hoisted the American flag, and bade defiance to the
order. Finding the Mexicans would not attack him, he marched northward
up the Sacramento Valley as far as Klamath Lake unmolested, save by
Indians with whom he had several combats.
At this place, Fremont was overtaken by a messenger who had come across
Mexico with despatches from the Government. It is thought Fremont was
unofficially advised to make the most of any opportunity that should
present itself. At any rate, he seems to have thought the time was
come for him to drop his character of explorer and turn his presence in
California to account. He therefore set out at once for Sutter's Fort,
where he could be near the American settlers, who were living in the
lower part of the valley or about the Bay of San Francisco. Fremont thus
became the rallying-point for his countrymen in California, and their
protector.
[Illustration: CALIFORNIA INDIANS AND TULE HUTS, SACRAMENTO VALLEY.]
This was in June, 1846. Rumors of war were now flying thick and fast.
The Californians were quarrelling among themselves over questions
then dividing the Mexican nation. The American settlers were thrown
into more or less alarm by the threats made to drive them from the
country. We had ships-of-war at San Francisco and Monterey, but their
commanders hesitated to act until it was known the two nations were at
war. The settlers put an end to all indecision by raising the flag of
revolt themselves. On the 14th these settlers seized Sonoma, a military
post lying to the north of San Pablo Bay. They immediately proclaimed
California an independent republic. Upon this Fremont put himself at
their head. He marched first to Sonoma, and next to the Presidio of San
Francisco, whose garrison fled at his approach. By these prompt acts
all the country lying north of the Bay of San Francisco fell into the
hands of the insurgents.
These events were followed by the raising of an American flag over
Monterey, July 7, by Commodore Sloat. The same thing was done by his
order at Yerba Buena and Sonoma. As soon as he heard of it, Fremont
also hoisted the flag at Sutter's Fort. He then marched for Monterey,
where the ships Savannah, Congress, Cyane, and Levant were lying with
their guns commanding the town. An English line-of-battle ship was also
anchored in the basin of Monterey, and another at Yerba Buena. With
whatever intentions they had come, they had arrived just too late.
In this manner what is known as the Bear Flag Revolution, from the
settlers' having borne a bear on their standard, began and ended with
Fremont for its central figure. Without him it would never have been
possible. But for him the conquest would not have come when it did, but
it would have come.
Commodore Stockton, an energetic officer who succeeded Sloat, now took
active steps for putting down all armed resistance to the United States.
Fremont's battalion,[5] now mustered into the service of the United
States, but until then acting independently, was sent to San Diego on
board the Cyane. No resistance was met with at San Diego. Fremont then
marched on Los Angeles, the actual capital, which he entered in company
with a force led by Commodore Stockton from San Pedro, on the coast.
The Californians nowhere made a stand, but fled to the mountains rising
behind Monterey.
California having thus fallen so easily into our hands, steps were at
once taken to quiet it. Civil officers were appointed to administer the
government. The inhabitants were promised protection so long as they
kept peace, while, as if to clinch what had been done already, numbers
of emigrants were coming down into the Sacramento Valley from the north,
and coming to stay.
[Illustration: EL CAPITAN, YOSEMITE.]
An insurrection in the south put an end to this state of things. In
a little time the interior country was again overrun. While it was
in progress, General Kearney was heard from. After making one of the
longest marches on record, he had arrived near San Pasqual, where the
insurgents were found in some strength. A fight took place in which
Kearney's overmatched force was roughly handled, and for a time hemmed
in by foes. The Californians were themselves in turn defeated at San
Gabriel and the Mesa, and meeting Fremont coming to attack them from
Santa Barbara, gave themselves up to him.
The war on the Pacific coast was thus ended, while that on the Atlantic
was still in progress. General Taylor had taken Monterey, and later
fought the battle of Buena Vista, which was obstinately contested. A
second army under General Scott landed at Vera Cruz, and, with the aid
of the fleet, took the castle of San Juan de Ulloa. This army then began
its victorious march for the City of Mexico, winning battles at Cerro
Gordo, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec. Having overcome all
opposition, the capital was entered, and the war ended Sept. 14, 1847.
By the treaty of peace, which followed (Feb. 2, 1848), the United States
acquired New Mexico and California, for which fifteen millions were
paid. Mexico also gave up her claim to the territory east of the Rio
Grande. That river on the east, and the Gila on the west, now formed
the southern boundary of the United States, from the Gulf of Mexico to
the junction of the Gila with the Colorado. From thence a straight line
extended it to the Pacific, so as to include the port of San Diego.
FOOTNOTES
[1] CARSON'S HOME was at Taos, and he knew the country
thoroughly. He had promised Fremont to go to Washington in
sixty days, and had already killed or worn out thirty mules
when he met Kearney.
[2] SUTTER'S FORT. Captain John A. Sutter was by birth a
Swiss. He came from Missouri to California in 1838-39, and
made the first settlement in the valley on a tract granted him
by the Mexican Government in consideration of his keeping the
Indians in check. To this end he built a fort, and armed it
with guns bought of the abandoned Russian Colony at Bodega.
The fort was a quadrangular structure, built of adobe,
mounting twelve guns, and capable of containing a thousand
men, though Fremont found in it but thirty whites, and forty
Indians whom Sutter had domesticated. It stood on the banks
of a creek running to the American River. Vessels ascended to
within two miles of it. Fremont found in Sutter's Fort a base
ready prepared for his operations against the Californians.
Though holding a Mexican commission, Sutter soon joined the
American party himself. The fort is perhaps best known in
connection with the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, now
Coloma, fifty miles above it. Sutter lived here independently,
raising large crops and herds with Indian laborers. His
extensive grant was called New Helvetia, and included the site
of Sacramento City. Except this, the Spaniards had neither
post nor settlement in the great basin of California.
[3] DE MOFRAS, a Frenchman who visited California, estimates
its whole white population in 1842 at only five thousand, of
which three hundred and sixty were Americans, and about six
hundred natives of other countries.
[4] THE AMERICAN CONSUL was Thomas O. Larkin, a native of
Charlestown, Mass., who went to California in 1832. He was the
first and only American consul in that country, and performed
his duties so well as to win the confidence of all parties.
"To him, perhaps more than to any other man, the country
is indebted for the acquisition of that territory."—_W. W.
Morrow._
[5] FREMONT'S BATTALION. "Fremont rode ahead, a spare,
active-looking man.... He was dressed in a blouse and
leggings, and wore a felt hat. After him came five Delaware
Indians who were his body-guard, and have been with him in
all his wanderings. The rest, many of them blacker than the
Indians, rode two and two, the rifle being held by one hand
across the pommel of the saddle."—_Lieutenant Walpole, R.N._
THE MORMONS IN UTAH.
The Mormons, or Latter Day Saints[1] as they prefer to call
themselves, have been mentioned in a former chapter. They are a
religious community whose teachings differ widely from those of
any other Christian body in the land. For one thing, they allow
polygamy,[2] which is not only repugnant to the moral sense of the
great body of Christian people, but to the laws as well.
Driven from Missouri (1838), and from Illinois ten years later, their
leaders cast about for some place of refuge, so remote that persecution
could not reach them, and where they might practise their religious
forms freely. Like most religious sects the Mormons seemed to thrive
upon persecution, for their numbers were constantly increasing under it.
[Illustration: SALT LAKE CITY AND TABERNACLE.]
It was at this time that Fremont's description of the region about the
Great Salt Lake arrested the attention of Brigham Young, the Mormon
patriarch. Fremont had said the valley of Bear River, a tributary
of this lake, made "a natural resting and recruiting station for
travellers." Its bottoms were extensive, water excellent, timber
sufficient, and soil well adapted to the grains and grasses suited to
so elevated a region. The great lake would furnish exhaustless supplies
of salt. And he gave it as his opinion, that cattle and horses would
thrive where grass and salt were so abundantly provided by nature. With
these advantages he recommended it for civilized settlement.
Upon this, the Mormons, who were farmers and graziers, decided to
form themselves in one great caravan, and travel to this Great Salt
Lake. They started out with one hundred and forty-seven people and
seventy-three wagons. On the 24th of July, 1847, as the caravan slowly
wound down the Wasatch Mountains, the exiles saw the plain of their
New Jerusalem stretching out before them, but when they reached it they
found nothing growing upon it but sage-bushes.
They however laid out their city[3] at the foot of the hills, on a
river which, as it runs from Utah Lake to Salt Lake, intercepts the
streams coming down the eastern hills. The Mormons called this river the
Jordan, because of some fancied resemblance to the river of Palestine.
Finding all so barren about them, these people took counsel of the
experience of their neighbors, the Pueblo Indians, who for want of
wood build their houses of adobe, and for want of rain raise crops by
watering them artificially. Thus Salt Lake soon grew out of an arid
plain to be a city of gardens and running streams.
In setting forth the advantages of the Utah Basin, Fremont had described
a portion of the neighbor republic of Mexico, with which we were then
at peace, and in making it their home the Mormons had been moved by a
desire to go outside the limits of the United States, but were strangely
brought back within them again when California was ceded to us.
Though shut out from the world, this strange colony steadily grew in
strength and numbers. The Mormon Church had sent out its missionaries
to make converts in other lands, for in the Union its doctrines were
detested, and the community itself looked upon as little better than
outcasts. So the increase was mostly from this source. Hence it was
natural that the Mormon body should have in it less of the spirit of
national feeling than other communities, and grow more and more away
from the Union by reason of its isolation and the teachings of its
rulers.
These teachings were embodied in a hierarchy, or, in other words,
Church and State were one with the Church above the civil authority.
The bishops, chief priests, and elders were the actual rulers, who both
made and gave the law, and each member of the society gave a tenth of
his living to the support of the Church. All who did not conform to the
Mormon faith were denied any share in civil affairs. Thus the Mormons
had set up in Utah[4] a little republic of their own, which, in
effect, excluded other citizens of the Union from a full share in its
privileges. Though a republic in name it was a despotism at the root.
In short, the Mormons had gone to Utah to found a society for themselves
alone, in which none but their own people should find a welcome.
It followed that the Mormon state was looked upon as an element of
danger, rather than strength, to the Union, for the place where it was
founded was a natural stronghold from which the authority of the nation
might be set at defiance, as soon happened.
Flourishing only by reason of their isolation, the Mormons looked with
little favor upon the passing emigration, though they drew much benefit
from it. They could sell their cattle, grain, horses and other supplies
to the emigrants at high prices, but the steady march of these people
toward the west threatened the security they wished to enjoy apart
from the world. Though always hostile to the great westward movement,
and sometimes resorting to violence to stay it, the Mormons have been
made to contribute to its success, not indeed as free agents, but as
instruments in the hands of destiny. Formidable only in their seclusion,
they have presented the anomaly of a handful of people throwing
themselves before the wheels of progress. Though no longer formidable,
they have done a notable work in making productive what was before
considered an uninhabitable desert.
FOOTNOTES
[1] THE MORMON SECT was founded by Joseph Smith, a native
of Vermont (1805), who claimed direct revelation from God,
and in 1830 put forth the Book of Mormon, or Mormon Bible, as
of Divine inspiration. The same year the Mormon Church began
at Manchester, N.Y. Smith's authority was absolute, like that
of the Pope, and could continue only by apostolic succession.
The Mormons went first to Ohio, next to Jackson County, Mo.,
then to Nauvoo, Ill., where Smith was killed by a mob (1844).
They had little settlements at the Pueblo of the Arkansas and
at Fort Bridger.
[2] POLYGAMY, or plurality of wives. The Mormons claim to
practise it in accordance with a revelation of the Divine
will. It is however now made an offence by United States laws
framed to reach it. (See the Edmunds Bill.)
[3] THEIR CITY, elevated almost a mile above the sea,
"was located mainly on the bench of hard gravel that slopes
southward from the foot of the mountains toward the lake
valley. The houses—generally small and of one story—have a
neat and quiet look, while the uniform breadth of the streets
(eight rods) and the 'magnificent distances' usually preserved
by the buildings (each block containing ten acres, divided
into eight lots, giving each householder a quarter of an acre
for buildings, and an acre for a garden) make up an _ensemble_
seldom equalled. Then the rills of bright, sparkling, leaping
water which flow through each street give an air of freshness
and coolness which none can fail to enjoy."—_Horace Greeley._
[4] UTAH is the name of an Indian tribe, said to mean "those
who dwell on the mountains." It was formed into a Territory,
1850. "The great basin, six hundred miles by three hundred,
seems to have been a vast inland sea. The immediate valley
in which Salt Lake lies is much its best portion, and with
irrigation the soil is very productive."—_A. D. Richardson._
But for polygamy, Utah would long ago have been a State in
the Union.
GROUP III.
GOLD IN CALIFORNIA, AND WHAT IT LED TO.
"_There is nothing in the world so sound as American
society._"—GOLDWIN SMITH.
I.
THE GREAT EMIGRATION.
EL DORADO FOUND AT LAST.
"_It is always the unexpected that happens._"
What El Dorado[1] had been to the active imaginings of De Soto's
Spaniards, was now to become a reality that would startle the world
from its long forgetfulness. The world believed they had been chasing a
phantom which lured them to their death. One seeks in vain to know why
Nature at last revealed the secret she had so long kept hid from those
who had sought but not found, to disclose it to others who had found
without seeking.
The war was scarcely ended[2] which gave us California, when a scene
took place there of far-reaching moment to mankind. Words can hardly
describe it. For a time it seemed the overturning of all laws governing
the acquisition and distribution of wealth, if it were not to put the
common laborer on a level with the millionaire, and so revolutionize
society itself. When we consider what has followed in its train, the
story itself seems tame indeed.
[Illustration: SUTTER'S MILL.]
Captain Sutter had been having a saw-mill built for him fifty miles
above his fort, on the south fork of the American River, which is here
a swift mountain stream. One evening, when all within the fort wore its
usual quiet, a horseman rode up in hot haste, and asked to see Sutter
alone. This was James W. Marshall, one of Sutter's men, who had charge
of the mill above. Seeing by his manner that something unusual was
the matter, Sutter led the way into his private room, and turned the
key in the lock. With much show of mystery, Marshall then handed his
employer a packet, which being opened, was found to contain a handful
of yellow metal, in flakes or kernels, which he said he had taken from
the mill-race, and asserted to be gold. By the light of a candle the two
men bent over the little heap of shining particles in eager scrutiny.
Sutter would not believe it was gold. Marshall was sure it could be
nothing else. Aquafortis was then tried without effect. The metal was
next weighed with silver, in water. All doubt was removed. It was indeed
gold, yellow gold, that Marshall had found.
His story, briefly told, was to this effect. They had started the mill,
when the tail-race was found too small to carry off the water. In order
to deepen it the whole head of water was then let into the race, thus
washing it out to the required depth. It was while looking at the work
the water had done, that Marshall saw many shining particles lodged in
crevices of the rocks, or among the dirt the water had carried down
before it. All at once it flashed upon him that this might be gold.
Gathering up what he could without risk of detection, he had started
off for the fort without making his discovery known to any one.
Sutter saw his happy pastoral life of the past on the point of
vanishing. He made an idle effort to keep the discovery secret, at least
till he could set his house in order. It was soon known in the household
and at the mill. From this little mountain nook it was borne on the
wings of the wind to the sea-coast, and from the sea-coast to the four
quarters of the globe.
Captain Sutter's men[3] deserted him in a body. The American settlers
and Indians of the neighborhood next caught the infection. Gold was
quickly found at a point midway between Sutter's Fort and Mill, called
the Mormon Diggings,[4] on Feather River, and in the gulches above
the mill site. From these districts the first miners began to straggle
down to San Francisco with pouches of gold-dust in their possession. Men
who had hardly known what it was to have a dollar of their own suddenly
lived
"Like an emperor in their expense."
The effect was magical. Within a short three months most of the houses
in San Francisco and Monterey were shut up. Blacksmiths left their
anvils, carpenters their benches, sailors their ships. Soldiers were
every day deserting from the garrisons of San Francisco, Sonoma, and
Monterey. The two newspapers[5] then printed in the country suspended
their issue indefinitely. Everybody was off for the mines, and nothing
else was talked of but gold.
[Illustration: TWO MINERS.]
Consul Larkin thus describes the scene at the Mormon Diggings in June,
1848: "At my camping-place I found forty or fifty tents, mostly occupied
by Americans, strewn about the hillsides next the river. I spent two
nights in company with eight Americans, two of whom were sailors, two
carpenters, one a clerk, and three common laborers. With two machines
called cradles, these men made fifty dollars each per day. Another miner
had washed out, with a common tin pan, gold to the value of eighty-two
dollars in a single day."
Mr. Larkin thought there were then about one thousand people, mostly
foreigners, actually working in the mines, whose daily gains would
amount to at least ten thousand dollars. And he even ventured to hint
that at this rate gold enough would be produced in a single year to
repay what California had cost the nation.
Colonel Mason, the military governor, adds what he saw while making
a tour of inspection to the new placers: "Along the whole route mills
were lying idle, fields of wheat were open to cattle and horses, houses
vacant, and farms going to waste. At Sutter's there was more life and
business. Launches were discharging their cargoes at the river, and
carts were hauling goods to the fort, where were already established
several stores, a hotel, etc. Captain Sutter had only two mechanics in
his employ, whom he was then paying ten dollars a day. Merchants pay him
a monthly rent of one hundred dollars per room; and while I was there
a two-story house in the fort was rented as a hotel for five hundred
dollars a month."
FOOTNOTES
[1] EL DORADO. Refer to p. 14 for the origin of this name.
[2] THE WAR HARDLY ENDED. Confusion exists as to the precise
date of the gold discovery. Larkin says, on the spot, January
or February. Hittell, a well-informed writer, says January 19.
Royce, January. Bancroft is not accessible as I pen this note.
[3] CAPTAIN SUTTER'S MEN. Some of those who were either in
his employ or under his military command, became wealthy and
influential citizens of the State. Among them John Bidwell,
Pearson B. Reading, Samuel J. Hensley, and Charles M. Weber
may be named.
[4] MORMON DIGGINGS. The Mormons who were found here by Mr.
Larkin in June, probably came into California overland with
Colonel Cooke, or with Samuel Brannan by sea in July, 1846.
Governor Mason reports them as preparing to go to Salt Lake.
See Note 5.
[5] THE TWO NEWSPAPERS. The "Californian" (later "Alta
California"), first published in Monterey, then in San
Francisco; founded 1846 by Walter Colton and Robert Semple;
edited by Semple after its removal to San Francisco. The
"California Star," founded by Samuel Brannan early in 1847,
was merged with the "California." See Note 4.
SWARMING THROUGH THE GOLDEN GATE.[1]
Meanwhile the area of the gold-fields was being rapidly enlarged on all
sides by new discoveries. Each day had its story of the finding of some
richer placer for which a general rush was made. As time wore on, gold
was found in all the streams which cut their way through the foothills
of the great Sierra.[2] By midsummer four thousand people, half of
whom were Indians, were washing for gold as if it had been the only
employment of their lives.
By this time too the first guarded statements made about the extent
and richness of the gold-fields gave place to predictions as bold as
they were hard to believe. For instance, Governor Mason, who had been
over-cautious at first, soon had no hesitation in saying that there was
more gold in the country than would pay the cost of the war a hundred
times over.
[Illustration: THE GOLDEN GATE.]
It is true that flour was worth fifty dollars a barrel, at the mines,
and a common spade ten dollars, but when even the poor and degraded
Indians of the rancherias[3] could afford the luxuries of life, the
cost of necessaries was of little account to men who thought four golden
ounces only a fair return for a day's labor.
This is the story of only a few short months,—the preface, as one might
say, to the larger history. It was yet too soon for the discovery to
be known in the United States, but the time was drawing near when it
would be the one all-engrossing topic in every hamlet from Maine to
Florida. Meanwhile it spread to all the shores and isles of the Pacific.
Dark-visaged Kanakas from the Sandwich Islands, swarthy Peruvians and
Chilenos, added their thousands to the already composite character of
the population of the land of gold. From the Russian Possessions in
the north, from the Sandwich Islands in the midst of the Pacific, the
wondrous tale was speeding on to China and the Australian Isles. Then
with the autumnal rains the first chapter of this history of marvels
was closed for a brief season.
[Illustration: CHINESE LAUNDRYMAN.]
Authentic reports of the gold discovery first appeared in the public
prints of the Atlantic States in the autumn. In December, President
Polk gave Governor Mason's and Consul Larkin's reports to the country.
From these sources the story was taken up and multiplied through the
myriad channels of public and private intelligence, until the name of
California became a household word throughout all the length and breadth
of the land. Talismanic word! It was soon to entice a million men from
their homes to seek their fortunes among the gulches of the wild Sierra.
Rarely in the history of the world has society been so deeply stirred
to its centre. It was like an electric shock that is felt throughout
the whole social organization. First there was the numbness of wonder,
then the fever of unwonted excitement. How to get to this land of
gold, was now the one absorbing question of the hour. Near a thousand
leagues of barren plains and desert mountains lay between it and the
settled frontier. These could only be crossed after grass had grown in
the spring. A still longer ocean journey must be made by crossing the
Isthmus of Darien, over the trail struck out by the viceroys when Spain
held the keys of the East; or, if the voyage were to be made round Cape
Horn, the distance would be more than quadrupled. But the thought of
these vast distances to be traversed seemed only to add to the general
impatience to surmount them. The temper of the public mind was such
that it would bear any thing but delay. Soon ships were fitting out in
every port[4] of the Union for Tampico or Vera Cruz, for Chagres, and
for the long voyage round Cape Horn. In the seaports nothing was heard
but the note of preparation. On the frontier caravans were everywhere
forming to go forward with the appearance of the first blade of grass
above ground. "Ho for California!" was the cry borne on every breeze
that wafted ship after ship out over the wide ocean with her little
colony of gold-seekers. "Ho for California!" was the watchword of those
who were braving the perils of a winter journey across the Sierras.
And "California!" was still the answer of other bands that were wending
their way across the Cordilleras, in paths first traced by Cortez and
his comrades, to Acapulco, San Blas or Mazatlan on the Pacific. All
roads seemed leading to the Golden Gate. El Dorado was found at last.
FOOTNOTES
[1] THE GOLDEN GATE. "Approaching from the sea, the coast
presents a bold outline. On the south the bordering mountains
come down in a narrow ridge of broken hills, terminating in a
precipitous point, against which the sea breaks heavily. On
the northern side, the mountain presents a bold promontory,
rising in a few miles to a height of two or three thousand
feet. Between these points is the strait—about one mile broad
in its narrowest part, and five miles long from the sea to the
bay. To this gate I gave the name of _Chrysopylae_, or Golden
Gate, for the same reason that the harbor of Byzantium was
called _Chrysoceras_, or Golden Horn."—_Fremont._ This was
prior to the gold discovery. The old Presidio was at the end
of the southerly point.
[2] ONE VAST GOLD-FIELD. Most of the tributaries of the
Sacramento and San Joaquin were soon tapped, and search was
even made among the sources of these rivers in the belief that
gold existed there in virgin masses, from which the particles
found lower down had been worn by water. Eager prospectors
soon carried exploration from the Trinity in the north, to
King's River in the south.
[3] INDIANS OF THE RANCHERIAS were employed in large numbers
by the whites to wash gold for them. With willow baskets fifty
Indians washed out in one week fourteen pounds (avoirdupois)
of gold.
[4] IN EVERT PORT. "A resident of New York coming back
after an absence of three months (this was in January) would
be puzzled at seeing the word 'California' everywhere staring
him in the face, and at the columns of vessels advertised to
sail for San Francisco."—_New York Tribune._
THE CALIFORNIA PIONEERS.
Although we have seen much doing there in the previous year, and the
earliest comers were the true pioneers, the great rush to the gold
region took place in 1849, upon the first news being spread throughout
the States. It is therefore from that year that the history of the gold
fever is usually dated.
So great was the demand for shipping, that even old whale-ships were
fitted up to carry three or four hundred passengers round Cape Horn.
Even these were quickly crowded with emigrants. But ere long the demand
for vessels that would show greater speed gave rise to new models in
ship-building; and to this cause we owe the fast clipper ships which
sometimes sailed from New York to San Francisco in eighty-seven days.
At first it was much the fashion for men to go in companies formed in
their own neighborhoods. Those who could not go themselves would club
together and send a substitute, as men may own shares in a ship or a
machine, the substitute being allowed to keep a certain share of the
profits of his own labor.
[Illustration: A FATHER.]
Then, again, a novel appearance was given to the streets of our seaport
towns by the daily presence in them of men dressed in red woollen
shirts, slouch hats, and cowhide boots,—men wearing pistols and dirks,
or carrying rifles,—whom it was not easy to know for peaceful citizens
just turned out of their farms or workshops or counting-houses. Nor
was the emigration confined to the bone and sinew of society only.
Men of every walk in life were drawn into it. A scholar might have
a day-laborer for his companion. Larkin has told us how this worked
in the mines. The one purpose to dig for gold quickly put all on an
equal footing, for in making labor the sole means of wealth, as in the
beginning it was, the common laborer had become the peer of the most
learned scholar in the land. Hence every ship and every caravan carried
its little republic of equality. And hence society seemed going back
into its original elements, as if gold were the magnet attracting all
else to itself.
[Illustration: MOUNT SHASTA.]
The sailing of many ships, full freighted with eager gold-seekers,
was followed in the early spring by the march of thousands across the
plains. Like colonies of migratory ants the long line of wagons crept
along the roads leading to the South Pass and Rio Grande. At Salt Lake
City, which we have just seen founded, the weary emigrants tarried a
while to recruit their failing animals for the dreaded passage of the
desert; then to the road again to struggle ever on through the parched
valleys, where their gaunt beasts died of thirst, or up the granite
sides of the Sierras, where they dropped from exhaustion, till the
Sacramento Valley was reached at last, and Shasta Peak burst on their
enraptured sight. Hundreds perished by the way, and long after the march
for gold in 1849 might be traced by the abandoned wagons or dead animals
that strewed its path.
Many reached Panama by way of the Chagres River, whose course led up
to the mountain chain dividing the waters of the Atlantic from those
of the Pacific. Day by day a motley fleet of dug-out canoes might
have been seen toiling with pole and oar against the swift current
of this mountain stream. At the head of boat navigation, in an open
spot, under the high mountains, a few cocoanut palms lifted tufts of
graceful foliage above a clump of miserable huts, whose owners were of
mixed Spanish and Indian blood. This was on the route the Spaniards had
discovered in 1513. This was Gorgona.
[Illustration: ON THE OREGON TRAIL.]
Taking mules at Gorgona the emigrants crossed the mountains to the
Pacific, which they here closely approach. At the ancient city of
Panama, interesting only as a specimen of that older civilization which
had run its course, several thousand Americans[1] were soon waiting
for vessels to take them on to California. Every crazy hulk that would
float had been taken up by earlier comers. So these people had to stay
at Panama through the sickly season, though the deadly fever of the
country was daily thinning their ranks of the bravest and best. Thus
months of weary waiting must pass before these people could set foot in
the land of gold.
When they did reach it[2] they found San Francisco[3] a city
of tents and shanties scattered about a group of barren, wind-swept
sand-hills. In the basin below, formed by the curving shore, a fleet of
deserted ships rode at anchor. Farther off rose the little island of
Yerba Buena,[4] and still farther, beyond the leagues of glittering
water, the rugged wall of the Coast Range grandly enclosed the bay in
its encircling arm.
[Illustration: SAN FRANCISCO IN 1849.]
To this picture now add the hurry and confusion which the beach showed
at all hours of the day, and we shall get a rapid glimpse at the humble
beginnings of the destined mart of the Pacific. Those tents on the beach
were the warehouses of the future metropolis; those on the hills were
the abodes of its wealthiest citizens.
Should we follow the swarm of boats seen every hour pushing off from
the beach for the mines, they would lead us to the two great inland
waterways of the country. On the spot where Sutter had made his
landing-place another city had sprung into being. This was Sacramento.
On the San Joaquin, where Weber had made a home in 1844, Stockton was
growing up. These were the two great depots for the mines north and
south.
[Illustration: EARLY COIN.]
By the beginning of the new year (1849) the population of California had
run up to twenty-five thousand. The winter months, or, as we should say
of this region, the rainy season, everywhere brought great suffering to
the badly-housed and ill-fed emigrants, many of whom reached the mines
in a state of destitution. There were many things even gold could not
buy or wealth command. Men who had both were glad to get acorns to live
on. Many died this first winter. With the coming of spring the depleted
ranks were more than filled by new arrivals, and when January came round
again the pioneers of 1849 were a hundred thousand.
FOOTNOTES
[1] TWO THOUSAND AMERICANS. "In settling an island the
first building erected by a Spaniard will be a church; by
a Frenchman, a fort; by a Dutchman, a warehouse; and by an
Englishman, an alehouse." To this it should be added that
an American would start a newspaper. The detained Americans
having found at Panama an unused printing-office started a
paper called the "Star," of which John A. Lewis of Boston was
editor.
[2] WHEN THEY DID REACH IT. The schooner Phœnix was a
hundred and fifteen days making the passage; the Two Friends,
five and a half months going from Panama to San Francisco.
[3] SAN FRANCISCO: named for St. Francis of Assisi, founder
of the Franciscan order, which founded the California
missions. See legend of his preaching to the birds. The
Mission of San Francisco was situated two miles from the
landing-place on the bay, where the present city of the name
was begun. At this landing a custom-house was established, and
the place called Yerba Buena (see Note 4). The missionaries
chose the little Dolores Valley because it was the sunniest
and warmest part of the peninsula.
[4] YERBA BUENA; first name of San Francisco (see Note 3);
meaning good herb: now continued in the island. A vine with
a small white flower, common to California.
CALIFORNIA A FREE STATE.
The United States did not set up a Territorial government in California
at once, but put military governors over it, who continued the old laws
of Mexico in force. What these were, only the native people could know.
They had not yet been translated into English. Many, indeed, derided
the idea of being governed by laws made for Spaniards. Instead, then,
of being clothed with power to enact laws suited to the new and strange
conditions growing out of the gold discovery, with society unformed, or
breaking to pieces about them, the people of California found themselves
living almost without law, except such as imperative need compelled them
to make and enforce for themselves. This state of things could have but
one result among a people hastily thrown together from all parts of the
earth, most of whom were law-abiding, but many the outcasts of society.
It led to confusion, lawlessness, and crime. In the annals of the State
it is usually called the interregnum, from the Latin word signifying a
suspension of the regular functions of government.
Therefore, as the actual laws remained either mostly unknown, or were
held in little esteem, the people conformed to them only so far as to
give the officers or courts they chose among themselves Spanish names.
They everywhere took the law into their own hands, establishing such
local laws, or usages having the force of laws, as their situation would
seem to give warrant for.
Thus, the miners determined for themselves how much room each man
should have to dig in; and they established in their camps rude codes
of justice by which the worst crimes usually met with prompt punishment.
If, for instance, a man committed murder, he would be tried on the spot
by a miners' court, hastily summoned for the purpose. Trials of this
sort were generally conducted in an orderly manner, and seldom failed
of doing justice, but they were always felt to be a departure from the
usages of civilized people, and in so far a going-back toward barbarism.
[Illustration: HYDRAULIC MINING.]
Much disorder brings with it much order. Informed of all the evils to
which this state of affairs gave rise, Governor Riley, in 1849, called
the people to meet in convention for the forming of a State government.
The delegates accordingly assembled in September at Monterey. They
framed a constitution, on the plan of the free States, prohibiting
slavery; for as labor was to be the corner-stone of the State, the men
of 1849 would not degrade free labor by competition with slave-labor. In
November the constitution was ratified by the people; and in December
the officers elected under it met at San José to fully organize the
State government.
[Illustration: CHICKEN-VENDER.]
The petition of California to be a free State was strongly resisted by
the Southern men in Congress, who had hoped it would come in as a slave
State. Once again it brought up the whole subject of slavery extension.
Eventually the struggle gave rise to another compromise by which
California came in as a free State (1850), the slave-trade was abolished
in the District of Columbia, and the Fugitive Slave Law passed, mainly
by the efforts of Henry Clay. The execution of the last-named law roused
the indignation of the North as nothing had ever yet done. Resistance
to slavery extension was now become the dominant question there in
politics, in literature, and in the pulpit. The doctrine that the people
of a territory alone should have the right to decide whether they would
have slavery or not had been urged with much force by Senator Douglas in
the case of California; and thus popular sovereignty, as it was called,
now first brought together the moderate partisans of slavery, those
indifferent to its extension, and those who believed such a settlement
as Mr. Douglas proposed would lift the question out of party agitation,
and so put a stop to the threats of secession, which was the bugbear of
all who loved the Union.
ARIZONA.
A dispute having arisen with Mexico about the boundary the war had
established, President Pierce settled it by buying the territory in
question (1853) for ten millions of dollars. General James Gadsden
negotiated its transfer, and for him it was called the Gadsden Purchase.
The United States thus acquired the strip of country lying between the
Gila River and the present southern boundary of Arizona. Prior to its
purchase it had formed part of the Mexican State of Sonora. Mr. Gadsden
exerted himself to secure with it the port of Guaymas on the Gulf of
California, but was not sustained by Congress in his effort to do so.
At the period of its cession to us Arizona was practically unknown
except to hunters and trappers or to the few who had read the accounts
of the early Spanish explorers. Mr. Gadsden was ridiculed for making
the purchase, and Congress censured for squandering the people's money
upon an arid waste destitute of sufficient wood and water to sustain
a population of civilized beings. The failure of the Spaniards to
found any considerable settlements was dwelt upon. Stories of mines of
fabulous wealth that Arizona held locked up in her mountains had indeed
come down from a remote time, and were more or less current abroad, but
few believed in them, or could see any compensating advantage to accrue
to us for the millions Congress had spent. Government, however, caused
the territory immediately to be surveyed with the view of settling the
question whether we had or had not been cheated in making the purchase.
[Illustration: MISSION SAN XAVIER DEL BAC, NEAR TUCSON.]
II.
THE CONTEST FOR FREE SOIL.
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE.
At the period now reached by our story the political sense of the
people, in all things touching the national life, was represented by
the Whig and Democratic parties. There was yet another body formed to
prevent the coming in of any more slave States, and therefore called the
Free-Soil party. This last party had only come into being since the war
with Mexico, and was not yet strong enough to successfully cope with the
older ones for control in national affairs; but it was growing stronger
every day.
Neither of the two great parties was divided by geographical lines. Both
called themselves national parties, but since the extension of slavery
was become the vital question of the hour, the Whig party was losing
ground to the Free-Soil party, which indeed mostly grew up from the
defection of those Whigs who determined henceforth to stand with the
opponents of slavery until that question should be settled forever. So
while the Whig party was strongest in the free States, it was beginning
to go to pieces because it no longer represented the growing feeling
against slavery in those States, though it was still led by able
statesmen like Daniel Webster, whom the country had always looked to in
the past for safe counsel and guidance through all the perils of party
strife.
The Democratic party, on the contrary, being most numerous in the
slaveholding States, was more firmly united than ever by the agitation
about slavery, which their great leader, Calhoun, had told them could
only be maintained by being extended, and could only be extended by
becoming aggressive.
[Illustration: STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.]
Here, then, we have the political situation after the admission of
California, in a nutshell. In the South the Democratic party stood
solid and defiant in support of slavery extension; in the North it
favored popular sovereignty, as defined by Mr. Douglas. The Free-Soil
party declared its purpose to oppose the making of any more slave
States, and under the lead of Sumner of Massachusetts, Chase of Ohio,
and Seward of New York, prepared to make head against its formidable
opponents. The Whigs were now looked upon as the party of vacillation,
weakness, and compromise. Though in nominal opposition to the Democrats,
its leadership was no longer trusted, because it was felt to have
surrendered the one principle[1] on which the coming struggle
inevitably would turn.
The Democratic party succeeded in electing Franklin Pierce[2] to the
Presidency, for the term running from 1853 to 1857.
His administration is chiefly memorable for the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, by which two new Territories were formed of the
Louisiana Purchase, and thrown open to settlement. In framing this
Act its authors left it to the people to choose for themselves whether
they would have slavery or not, as Douglas urged they should; and in
order that they might do so, the compromise of 1820 was set aside.
This measure was largely the work of Mr. Douglas, who, arguing that the
people are sovereigns, viewed a reference of the slavery question back
to them, as the only true way of settling the agitation about it. It had
a certain fair-play look that won many to its support in the North. In
this form Congress passed the Act, May 30, 1854.
To repeal the Missouri Compromise, was held by many at the North and
some at the South,[3] to be a violation of the pledge so sacredly made
to the whole people, not to admit slavery north of 36° 30´. We shall
see what it led to.
Let us look first at the new Territories as the organic Act found them.
From the Missouri on the east, they reached to the Rocky Mountains on
the west. They contained the most fertile lands of the public domain.
The great thoroughfares to Oregon, California, and New Mexico, traversed
them in their whole length, so making it clear, even at this early day,
that the great movement of the people from east to west must be along
the lines of these thoroughfares, strewing its pathway with populous
cities and towns as it went.
Already we have led the explorers through this magnificent land. Through
them much knowledge had been gained of its natural features, its fine
climate, and of the unequalled fecundity of its soil. The West was
its neighbor and knew most about it. The East knew it only through the
accounts of Pike, Long, and Fremont, from the reports of emigrants, or
in the stories of travel written by Irving, Latrobe and others, all of
which gave it a kind of romantic interest with their readers.
Upon the virgin soil of Kansas the fragments of many of the one-time
powerful red nations of the East had been colonized. Here, at last,
we meet again the Wyandots of Lake Huron,[4] the Delawares of
Pennsylvania, the Sacs and Foxes, Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Shawnees,
Kickapoos, Piankeshaws and other warlike peoples whose race as nations
had been run. To this point they had at length been rolled back by the
ever-advancing tide of white emigration. They probably far outnumbered
the original owners of the soil,—the Missouris, Kansas, Otoes, Pawnees,
Osages,—and all maintained their tribal organization unimpaired within
the limits Government had set for them. Here these wrecks of once
powerful peoples peacefully lived on the bounty of the nation which had
told them Kansas was to be their permanent home.
Among most of these tribes missions and schools had been planted by
various religious denominations. One of the richest and seemingly
most prosperous ones was that founded by the Methodists[5] among the
Shawnees, who were half-civilized, and also held a few slaves.
To protect its emigrants who were constantly passing over the great
routes toward the Pacific, Government had established the military posts
of Fort Leavenworth[6] on the Missouri, Fort Riley at the junction of
the two chief branches of the Kansas, and Fort Kearney on the Platte.
Fort Scott was also founded in the south, on the road leading to the
Indian Territory.
Set against these new Territories were two States,—one slave and the
other free. It was thought that Kansas would mostly take her settlers
from Missouri, and so easily be a slave State, while Nebraska in a like
manner would become a free State through the influence of Iowa, its
neighbor. Moreover the soil and climate of Kansas were thought favorable
to the employment of slave labor, while Nebraska was considered to lie
north of the line beyond which such labor could be made profitable.
Hence it was to Kansas that the efforts of those favoring slavery
were turned; and as the best part of it was occupied by Indians, their
removal or restricting within smaller tracts was provided for, so making
way for the coming settlement.
FOOTNOTES
[1] SURRENDERED THE PRINCIPLE. The two great Whig leaders,
Webster and Clay, advocated the compromise measures of 1850.
Clay was a Southern man, though no slavery propagandist, like
Calhoun; but Webster, a Northern man, disappointed many of his
constituents, and lost his old influence over them from that
time onward.
[2] FRANKLIN PIERCE was a native of New Hampshire, a lawyer
by profession, who had served in the Mexican War. He was not
in the front rank of Democratic statesmen, but was selected
as a compromise candidate, after thirty-five ballots had been
divided between Cass, Douglas, and Buchanan.
[3] SOME IN THE SOUTH. Benton of Missouri and Houston of
Texas opposed the repeal.
[4] WYANDOTS OF LAKE HURON. Look back to "Westward by the
Great Waterways." For the other tribes, see index.
[5] METHODIST MISSION. This was a mission of the Methodist
Church South. Other missions of this denomination were planted
among the Omahas, Kickapoos, Kansas, and Delawares. The
Baptists and Quakers also had missions among the Shawnees,
the Baptists to the Delawares, and the Catholics (St. Mary's)
among the Kansas.
[6] FORT LEAVENWORTH, founded by Colonel Henry Leavenworth,
1827, for whom it is named. It was the great frontier
dépôt of supply for the other military posts on the Santa
Fé and Oregon routes, which were converted into military
roads by Government. Forts Riley, Kearney, and Scott, were
similarly named for General Bennet Riley (military governor
of California), General Stephen W. Kearney (conqueror of New
Mexico), and General Winfield Scott (conqueror of Old Mexico).
KANSAS THE BATTLE-GROUND.
When Congress decreed that freedom and slavery should compete for
control in Kansas, the decision reminds us of the judgement given by
the wise king of history, who, having to decide which of two mothers a
child belonged to, ordered one of his guards to cut it in two with his
sword, and give the half to each claimant.
In this contest Congress and the President stood with the South. The
law-making power had first removed every restriction to making Kansas a
slave State, and now the executive branch was to appoint governors[1]
over the people who should go there to live, and give orders to the
military commanders to aid them when called upon to do so.
There was another very potent means working to the same end, which
in the hands of lawless men proved a serious obstacle to the peaceful
going-in of settlers from the free States. The great avenue of travel
into the disputed territory was the Missouri River, whose banks were
already lined with a population holding many slaves, and therefore
easily aroused to active enmity by the fear that the planting of a free
State next their border would cause their negroes to run away, and so
deprive them of their property. Moreover, as we have already said, the
Missourians had confidently looked upon Kansas as theirs whenever it
should be opened to settlement, and could not bear the thought of having
it snatched from them by a people whose politics they detested, and
whose presence they feared.
Under these conditions the movement of settlers into Kansas began at
the North and South. It was no peaceful march of peaceful citizens
under the protecting hand of the nation, but was turned by sectional
rivalry into a political crusade. Public meetings were held all over the
North and South to encourage the going of the adventurous young men of
both sections, as in time of war. Sectional passions were aroused and
inflamed. Large sums were raised in the churches to arm these emigrants
for the conflict which it was clear must take place sooner or later.
So the war of the sections that so long had threatened the national
peace was begun at last. Congress had left the question to the people
to settle, less in the spirit of statesmanship than as a way out of
the difficulty; and the people, seeing that its peaceful settlement was
impossible, were getting ready to fight it out, not with the ballot as
Douglas believed they would, but as men who are convinced that force,
and force only, can decide the justice of their cause.
[Illustration: A SQUATTER'S IMPROVEMENTS.]
Missourians began the settlement of Kansas. June, 1854, Leavenworth[2]
was laid out two miles below the fort of that name. Another town
was also begun twenty-five miles farther up the Missouri, and named
for Senator Atchison[3] of Missouri. These two, with St. Joseph on
the north and Kansas City on the south, not only controlled all the
river-front of Kansas, but the roads leading into it as well, as St.
Joseph and Kansas City were the established starting-points for crossing
the plains, from which the great overland routes diverged. Missouri
settlers also shortly began a third town, in the Kansas Valley, to which
they gave the name of Lecompton,[4] and soon made it the capital of
the Territory.
Thus the North entered the conflict to obtain control of Kansas under
every disadvantage which remoteness, prior occupation, or unyielding
determination to exclude all who did not favor slavery, could bring into
it.
[Illustration: STREET, KANSAS CITY, 1857.]
New England was the focus of anti-slavery thought and action, to
which the rest of the North undoubtedly looked for leadership. It was,
therefore, in New England that active steps for throwing free-State
settlers into Kansas first originated. This was effected through an
association known as the New-England Emigrant Aid Company,[5] which
was the parent or forerunner of many similar ones subsequently organized
throughout the free States. The New-England Company acted with much
method. It formed little colonies which were put under competent
leaders, were furnished with farming-tools, and even took out saw-mills
for the making of new settlements. Some colonists took their families
along with them, but most of the first comers were single men whom the
desire to see Kansas a free State, rather than a thoughtless spirit
of adventure, took from the orderly communities of the Far East. To
this work they confidently went forth accompanied by the prayers and
good wishes of their friends and neighbors, though as little used to
the rude encounter with border men and border life as the two kinds of
civilization each presented in itself were removed one from the other.
[Illustration: LAWRENCE, KANSAS.]
These emigrants made a lodgement in the Kansas Valley, where they
founded Lawrence[6] (August, 1854), Topeka, Manhattan, and Wabaunsee.
Later settlements were begun along the Osage waters, of which Osawatomie
was the chief, and most famous in the annals of Kansas.
The directing head of this free-State movement on the spot was Charles
Robinson, than whom no more fitting representative of the spirit of
his mission, or one possessed of the ability to make head against the
multiplied difficulties of time and place, could well have been chosen.
FOOTNOTES
[1] GOVERNORS OF KANSAS. In four years Kansas had five
governors; viz., Reeder, Shannon, Geary, Walker, and Denver.
Reeder refused to enforce the bogus Territorial laws, and was
removed. Shannon tried to put down the free-State movement,
but resigned in despair. Geary fell into line with it, had his
life threatened, and fled the Territory in disguise. Walker
proved too honest to sustain fraudulent voting, and left the
Territory when he found himself deserted by those who sent
him there. Denver found the controversy practically settled
in favor of a free State. Kansas was therefore not inaptly
called the "graveyard" of governors.
[2] LEAVENWORTH is finely enclosed by a high ridge on the
west which forms a natural amphitheatre. Its site is hardly
surpassed by that of any city of the Missouri Valley. Its
vicinity to the fort soon made it the first commercial city of
Kansas, as it was the most populous. Kansas missed the golden
opportunity for having a great city within her own borders.
[3] SENATOR DAVID R. ATCHISON was the head of the
pro-slavery movement on the spot. Atchison was the residence
of Senators Samuel C. Pomeroy and John J. Ingalls, and is now
a thriving city.
[4] LECOMPTON took its name from Samuel D. Lecompte, Supreme
Territorial Judge of Kansas.
[5] NEW-ENGLAND EMIGRANT AID COMPANY was a chartered
organization under the laws of Massachusetts. Its history
is being written by Eli Thayer, one of its earliest
promoters. The men who composed it were representative of the
anti-slavery sentiment at large, rather than as politicians.
All were of unimpeachable character. Their colonies were the
embodiment of the New-England idea, as interpreted by the
motto of Massachusetts, "_Ense petit placidum sub libertate
quietam_:"—
"This hand, the rule of tyrants to oppose,
Seeks with the sword fair freedom's soft repose."
[6] LAWRENCE, named for Amos A. Lawrence of Massachusetts.
THE BATTLE FOUGHT AND WON.
It was the doom of slavery that it should require the destruction of
every thing that stood in its way. This being conceded, a resort to
lawlessness—more especially on the part of a rude population like that
of the Missouri border—was sure to follow the attempt to set up a free
commonwealth in Kansas.
From the moment the organic Act became law, the future of Kansas was
ever and foremost a national question. The Southern leaders had told
the Missourians, if they would not see political power wrested from
the South, they must secure Kansas to slavery at any cost. The North
had met the challenge in the words of Senator Seward, who said, "Come
on, then, gentlemen of the slave States! Since there is no escaping
your challenge, I accept it in behalf of freedom. We will engage in
competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to
the side that is stronger in numbers, as it is in the right."
[Illustration: THE FERRY, LAWRENCE, KANSAS.]
The people of Western Missouri, of whom glimpses have been given
in former chapters, were typical American borderers, rude of manner
and speech, scarcely touched by the refining influences of the older
East, open-handed and hospitable to a fault, but capable of committing
brutal excesses when their passions were aroused, as they now were by
the overwrought appeals of their most trusted leaders to make an end
of abolitionism, if they would not see it become a menace to their
domestic peace,—an incitement to insurrection or ceaseless turbulence
along their border. Their character may be guessed from the name which
in a spirit of bravado they took from their opponents' mouths,—that
of border ruffians. They were expert with the rifle, daring riders,
accustomed to out-of-door life from infancy, and hardened by experiences
drawn from the vicissitudes of frontier life, into the bone of a
self-asserting Americanism of the Davy Crockett school. Then, inasmuch
as public opinion justified the settlement of private quarrels with the
pistol or bowie-knife, the taking of life was held cheaply as compared
with communities where the enforcement of law is the safeguard of
the citizen. Add to this the frontiersman's habitual scorn for those
reared in cities, or who shunned a resort to violence in support of
their principles, and we have the measure of those adversaries whom the
free-State men of the North were to face on their own ground, and with
their own weapons in their hands.
[Illustration: A SQUATTER MOVING HIS CLAIM.]
The events flowing from this state of things may be briefly summed up.
While the free-State movement was steadily gaining ground by the
coming-in of actual settlers, the Missourians made determined efforts
to stay it, first by seizing upon the government of the Territory, and
next by intimidating or driving out all who opposed their lawless acts.
Thus an election for members of the Territorial Legislature (March,
1855) was controlled by Missourians who, in the most open manner, came
into the voting precincts with arms, cast their ballots unchallenged,
and then went home again to Missouri, so returning a law-making body
by unlawful votes. This Legislature enacted laws establishing slavery.
The free-State men refused to recognize it or its laws. They proceeded
to form a constitution[1] prohibiting slavery, with which they
asked admission into the Union. They also elected State officers, and
a legislature which they meant to put in operation if worst came to
worst. Meantime they organized themselves to repel force with force if
necessary. All those who were opposed to making Kansas a slave State,
now came together as the free-State party.
This party, which had just elected Charles Robinson governor, refused to
pay taxes, obey writs, or in any way abide by the acts of the so-called
bogus legislature. The pro-slavery party declared this treason. Congress
rejected the Topeka Constitution, the House voting for its admission,
the Senate against it.
In consequence of the rescue of a free-State man from the hands of the
sheriff, Lawrence was soon besieged by a large force of Missourians,
assembled under color of law, but in reality invaders of the Territory.
The people of Lawrence prepared to make a sturdy defence by building
earth-forts at all the approaches to the town, in which men armed with
Sharpe's rifles were constantly stationed. Seeing them determined to
fight, the Missourians left without venturing to attack them.
Finding the free-State men thus firm, the other party next invoked the
judicial power to aid them in breaking up the combination made against
the enforcement of illegal laws. Governor Robinson and many other
free-State leaders were indicted for treason[2] by a grand jury,
acting upon instruction of the chief justice, who defined the acts
of the free-State men as levying war against the Federal Government.
Robinson and others were arrested and imprisoned. Some of the leaders
escaped out of the Territory.
[Illustration: MUD FORT, LAWRENCE.]
Bills of indictment had also been found against the two newspapers
printed at Lawrence, as well as the hotel in which the free-State men
were in the habit of holding their meetings. These were declared public
nuisances. Under the color of law, an armed posse proceeded to Lawrence,
threw the presses into the river, gutted the hotel, and burned Governor
Robinson's house to the ground. This took place May 20, 1856.
The next act of the actual government was the calling-in of
United States troops to disperse the free-State legislature, which
met at Topeka, July 4. All these proceedings had aroused the keenest
interest throughout the Union, and while in Kansas opposition
to oppression was momentarily quelled, it was acquiring greater
strength[3] in all the free States.
[Illustration: JOHN BROWN.]
Among the free-State men were some who believed such acts as had been
committed at Lawrence called for reprisals in kind. Of these, James
H. Lane[4] obtained a wide notoriety; but the animating spirit was
undoubtedly John Brown of Osawatomie,[5] who held that the policy
of submission was all wrong, and that the pro-slavery men too must
be made to fear for their own safety before peace could be had. He
avowed himself in favor of giving blow for blow. This idea found much
favor with the fighting portion of the free-State men. On the question
of slavery, Brown's mind was surely unsettled by the all-engrossing
idea that slavery was a thing of violence which must die a violent
death. To bring this about was now the one purpose of his life, and
in pursuit of it he was as inexorable as fate. For its accomplishment
he possessed certain qualities that make either the hero or martyr
according as the purpose is weighed by history. An iron will, religious
fervor amounting to fanaticism, were joined to a calm but resolute
courage which no danger could daunt or turn from its purpose. He was
a seventeenth-century Puritan of the Cromwellian stamp—a man of iron
belonging to an iron age.
Brown soon had the border in terror of his deeds. The blows he struck
were swift, secret and deadly. It was now the pro-slavery men who were
driven out or assassinated, or had their homes fired at dead of night.
Men sent to take him were themselves taken and held as prisoners. These
acts led to retaliation, retaliation to fresh outrages, and for a time
Kansas was given over to violence.
[Illustration: BROWN'S LOG HOUSE.]
Believing Congress would admit them to the Union, the slavery party
also formed a State Constitution at Lecompton, the capital. But an
election for a new legislature had overwhelmingly defeated them, thus
giving control of the Territorial body to the free-State men at last.
So the Lecompton men now saw no hope for themselves except in their
State Constitution. As they refused to submit the whole instrument to
the people, the free-State men refrained from voting for or against
the single proposition of "slavery" or "no slavery," seeing they must
get the detested Constitution in any event. The returns showed the old
determination still strong to fasten slavery on the people against
their will. A large majority was obtained for the Constitution by
stuffing the ballot-boxes with fraudulent votes. Of six thousand and odd
votes (6,226), nearly half (2,720) were illegally cast. The Lecompton
Constitution was, however, sent to Congress by President Buchanan with
his approval. In Congress it provoked a stormy debate, was sent back
to the people of Kansas for final ratification, and by them decisively
rejected at the polls, August, 1858.
Though Kansas was kept out of the Union three years longer, her attitude
in respect to slavery was now so little doubtful that the pro-slavery
men gave up the contest in despair.
To maintain their cause with the country at large, and make it one
on which the opponents of slavery could unite, the free-State men of
Kansas lived for a time nearly in chaos rather than forfeit the name
of law-abiding people. In this they showed admirable self-restraint.
To maintain themselves in Kansas they were forced to adopt the tactics
of their assailants at last, and deal blow for blow. Cultured people
were roughened by this sort of life. It made them reckless. It weakened
respect for law, even with the law-abiding. It brought material progress
to a standstill, and engendered lifelong enmities among men who were to
live together as neighbors. Social improvement was put back years. The
very existence of a conflict had the tendency to bring bad men to the
front, whose influence proved a hinderance to the settling of order in
the State. The contest in Kansas proved Douglas wrong and John Brown
right, in so far as the question of peaceful competition for the soil
was involved in it. In a national sense it was therefore but the prelude
to the great Civil War of the century.
FOOTNOTES
[1] CONSTITUTION PROHIBITING SLAVERY, known in history as
the Topeka Constitution. The State finally came into the Union
under a Constitution framed at Wyandotte in 1859, ratified
October of that year at the polls.
[2] INDICTED FOR TREASON. The courts were supported by
Federal troops with whom the free-State men would not risk
a conflict. Robinson and other "treason prisoners" suffered
several months' imprisonment. It was a clever plan for
depriving the free-State party of its leaders.
[3] ACQUIRING STRENGTH. Since its publication in 1852,
people everywhere had been reading Mrs. H. B. Stowe's "Uncle
Tom's Cabin," a book which perhaps did more to consolidate
public opinion against slavery, by directing attention to its
worst evils, than all the political discussions of the time
put together. In this view it deserves a place in the train of
events following upon the compromises of 1850. Another episode
of like tendency was the assault made on Senator Sumner by
Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina, in the Senate Chamber,
arising out of the Kansas troubles (1856). Still another was
the decision of Justice Taney in the case of Dred Scott, a
slave, declaring that slavery had a right to exist everywhere
in the public domain until forbidden by State laws.
[4] JAMES H. LANE of Indiana had served with credit in
the Mexican War. He came to Kansas a pro-slavery man, but
soon joined the free-State party, in which he obtained much
influence—perhaps more than any man in it. Lane was a born
leader of men. This explains his advancement in the face
of the other fact that he never had the confidence of other
eminent free-State leaders. With the agricultural settlers
he was strong. Lane's great popularity elected him to
the United States Senate from Kansas. In the Rebellion he
commanded a brigade. His public and private integrity have
been equally called in question. Though once the popular hero
of his day, Lane was the product of abnormal conditions and
died with them.
[5] OSAWATOMIE is a jumbling together of Osage and
Pottawatomie.
TWO FREE STATES ADMITTED.
Minnesota came into the Union in 1858, and Oregon in 1859, thus
strengthening it by the addition of two young and sturdy commonwealths,
both of which were primeval wildernesses within the memory of men now
living.
III.
THE CROWN OF THE CONTINENT.
GOLD IN COLORADO, AND THE RUSH THERE.
It had long been predicted by those most familiar with the general
characteristics of the Rocky Mountains, that eventually they would be
found rich in mineral wealth. One of the earliest and most sanguine
advocates of this idea was Colonel William Gilpin of Missouri, whose
predictions, when viewed in the light of later knowledge, seem like the
gift of prophecy. Reports were indeed more or less current at Salt Lake
of the finding of gold among the mountain streams of the Great Basin, as
far back as 1848, but all search for it was discouraged by the Mormon
leaders as tending to bring upon them a swarm of adventurers whose
presence would inevitably work the ruin of their isolated republic, and
so render all previous toil and hardship of no avail. We have seen that
such reports had reached the Mormons in California, who were preparing
to go to Salt Lake in consequence of them.
Then, the existence of rich silver-mines among the mountains of New
Mexico, which the Spaniards had been working for an unknown period of
time, in the rudest possible way, was a thing of common knowledge from
the time of La Salle, though the secrecy observed in regard to them
effectually shut out inquiry as to whether the business were profitable
or not. But California was so long the goal of all seekers after gold,
that it was not until her gold-fields began to give out, and people
began to ask "What next?" that the great backbone of the continent, over
which the emigration had rushed so long and heedlessly, suddenly stopped
them with the question, as one might say, "Why not search me?"
[Illustration: GATE, GARDEN OF THE GODS.]
The first report of the finding of gold at the eastern base of the Rocky
Mountains reached the Missouri River in July, 1858, but did not gain
much credit till several months later. By October, however, the fever
was at its height on the frontier, and had made some progress toward the
east. Though several parties started out from the border towns of Kansas
and Missouri, the lateness of the season prevented many from going
at this time. Meanwhile, however, reports continued to come in, each
seemingly well authenticated and more conclusive, as to the main fact
that gold existed in paying quantity not far from the foot of Pike's
Peak. The region where report located the discoveries therefore took to
itself the name of this magnificent mountain, whose sides were vaguely
supposed to be veined with the precious metal found in the sands of the
Platte.
After much prospecting, the ground along Cherry Creek, a small tributary
of the South Platte, was fixed upon as one promising the best results to
the miner. It accordingly became a base for future operations which were
to be pushed up into the heart of the mountains. First known simply as
Cherry Creek, the camp of the earliest comers soon took to itself the
name of Denver City,[1] from James W. Denver, governor of Kansas, of
which this gold region then formed part.
[Illustration: HUMORS OF THE ROAD.]
With the coming of spring, and opening of navigation on the Missouri,
emigrants began to pour into the various points of departure for the new
gold region. From Omaha to Independence unprecedented bustle prevailed
all along the border. Many started off on a journey of seven hundred
miles on foot. Some put their worldly goods in hand-carts to which they
harnessed themselves. One man is said to have trundled a wheelbarrow
from Kansas City to Cherry Creek. Most emigrants, however, went in
wagons over the now well-marked roads of the pioneers, and by night the
prairies were lighted up far and near with their camp-fires.
[Illustration: DENVER IN 1859.]
[Illustration: OVERLAND STAGE.—IN CAMP.]
In view of the rush to Pike's Peak, the firm of Russell, Majors &
Waddell, which had for years transported supplies to the military posts
of Kansas, Utah, and New Mexico, now put on a line of daily coaches from
Leavenworth to Denver, which were run up the Republican, and thence
to the Platte. Thus, after the Indian pony, the trapper's caravan,
the explorers' and emigrants' cavalcade, comes at last the modern
stage-coach with its promise of greater things to follow in its track.
On the 21st of May the first coach reached Leavenworth on its return
from the mountains, bringing only a few thousand dollars in dust; but in
that month John H. Gregory, an old Georgia miner, found rich deposits
of gold in the mountains among the headwaters of Clear Creek. This
discovery established the value of Colorado as a gold-bearing region.
[Illustration: GOING IN.]
When visited in 1859 the Gregory Diggings were found in a gulch along
which log cabins, tents and camps, hastily covered in with boards or
pine boughs, were scattered for miles. There were then five thousand
people in them, and more were coming in every day.
Here the experiences of California life were repeated. Some men were
taking out two hundred dollars a day; others who worked equally hard did
not get five dollars a day for their labor. It resulted that a stream
of confident and cheerful ones were constantly going in, while not a
few who had failed to find fortune in the diggings were as constantly
coming out, crestfallen and in rags.
[Illustration: COMING OUT.]
In 1859 Denver had about one thousand people, who lived in three hundred
rough-hewn log houses. Very few of them had glass windows, or doors, or
other floors than the bare ground. Hearths and fireplaces would be built
of adobe, as in New Mexico, and chimneys of sticks laid crosswise one on
the other, with the interstices filled with mud, as the New-Englanders
of 1630 were accustomed to make theirs. As no rain falls except during
the summer months, life in the open air caused little discomfort to
people who, being obliged to make the most of every thing, easily
learned to do without what are called luxuries.
[Illustration: OFFICE OF "ROCKY-MOUNTAIN NEWS," DENVER.]
Picturesquely set up among these homely dwellings of the whites, one
saw many skin lodges. These belonged to a band of Arapaho Indians, who
had thus pitched their camp in the heart of the growing city. Golden
City in the north and Colorado City in the south were soon founded. The
first was an intermediate point on the route to the Gregory Diggings;
the second was started at the foot of Pike's Peak, near to the famous
_Fontaine qui bouille_,[2] or Boiling Spring, and on the route to
Santa Fé.
[Illustration: COLORADO CITY, 1859.]
In a few months more Denver had grown to a city of brick and frame
buildings, with two theatres, a mint coining the gold of its own mines,
and rival daily newspapers. It had quite reached the second stage of
development of frontier cities.
[Illustration: QUARTZ STAMPING-MILL.]
The surface, or placer, diggings of Colorado were soon exhausted, but
in their place belts of gold mixed with quartz were struck all the way
from Pike's Peak in the south to Long's Peak in the north. Above this
gold belt, rich silver ores were sometimes found on the very summits
of the mountains. These discoveries soon changed mining from a pursuit
in which every one could engage, and which had drawn such numbers into
Colorado in the beginning, to the larger operations of capital, with
all the appliances modern science brings to its aid.
FOOTNOTES
[1] DENVER CITY. Green Russell, a Georgian, with a company
of gold-seekers, pitched the first camp on Cherry Creek in the
summer of 1858. They called it Auraria after a mining town of
Georgia. The party which named Denver City came with General
Larimer, of Leavenworth, Kan., in the winter of 1858-59. The
gold region first formed a county of Kansas called Arapaho,
though distant six hundred miles from Junction City, then the
nearest settlement of Kansas. The nearest post-office was Fort
Laramie, two hundred and twenty miles north of Denver.
[2] FONTAINE QUI BOUILLE, French. "The three fountains
bubbling up from the ground, and not boiling with heat,
are strongly impregnated with soda." They were visited and
described by Pike, Long, Fremont, and others.
THE PACIFIC RAILROAD.
_In time of war prepare for peace._
In about half a century we have seen the great body of the nation moving
more than five hundred miles westward. It has moved forward like an army
taking the field, planting its outlying settlements before it at all
strategic points, the possession of which was essential to the success
of its peaceful mission. This army has marched at the rate of ten miles
a year, mostly along the thirty-ninth parallel, to which the advantage
of soil and climate was its infallible guide. Its destination was the
Pacific Ocean.
[Illustration: QUAKER GUN AT STAGE STATION.]
We have also witnessed the occupation of the Pacific coast, the rise
of two great States there whose people were already stretching their
hands out toward the East as if to hasten its coming. The genius of
civilization hovered over and directed this grand march, which never
halted but to re-form its lines and go forward again with stately tread.
We have further seen a third body firmly plant itself among the
fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains, whose mission was to extend its own
civilization both to the East and West, as the pebble which is dropped
into a pool sends out its ever-broadening circle upon the surface of the
waters. Thus the people of New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, were already
throwing out little colonies into the later Territories of Nevada,
Arizona, Idaho, and Montana. Thus these Territories were the heralds of
the coming East. And in this manner the vigorous West had secured in
advance the strongholds which, in a physical sense, impeded the march
toward the Pacific.
As it went forward, the East brought all the appliances of civilization
with it, and set them working all along the line. In 1859[1] the
locomotive and telegraph reached the eastern frontier of Kansas. There
was now a gap of two thousand miles remaining to be closed up between
the Missouri and the Pacific. How to bridge this over, and by so doing
bring widely separated sections together, was a question now assuming
national importance in men's minds.
The West demanded it should be done without more delay; the older
sections responded in the spirit of national progress.
Private enterprise had already accomplished something toward the desired
object. In the summer of 1859 the same energetic firm that had sent the
first stage-coach across the wastes of Western Kansas to Denver, put on
a pony express[2] to run between the Missouri River and the Pacific.
Stations were established twenty-five miles apart on the open prairie,
where fresh animals and riders were kept ready saddled and equipped for
the road. Mounted on his hardy little Indian pony, the courier rode with
whip and spur to the next station, where, whether by night or day, he
stopped only long enough to snatch a mouthful, mount a fresh pony, and
secure his letter-pouch behind him. He then dashed on again at the top
of his speed. Though one of the oldest known methods of carrying news,
the difficulties were here such as seldom have been overcome. By dint of
hard riding, despatches were sometimes delivered in Denver in less than
three days, and in Sacramento in eight days, from the time of setting
out.
The Butterfield Overland Stage Company[3] established between St.
Louis and San Francisco (1859) was a more serious undertaking. It ran
coaches every day in the year, over the longest stage-route in the
world, traversing a distance of near three thousand miles from end to
end.
[Illustration: PONY EXPRESS AND OVERLAND STAGE.]
Even such achievements as these were regarded as make-shifts which
the coming railway should set aside. That and that only would solve
the problem how permanently to unite and hold together such remote
sections of the Union. In the East the country has always been settled
before railways were built: in the West railways are expected to
bring settlement with them, or even to go before it in a case like the
present one. But without a country to support it, the proposed Pacific
Railway[4] was something too vast for private enterprise to grapple
with. From the time it was first talked of, the enterprise, therefore,
assumed a national character and importance.
But the slavery question had now brought on a national crisis. Too long
it had hung over the land like a storm-cloud that is to overwhelm it
with ruin. The election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency (1860) was
followed by the secession of most of the slave-holding States (1861),
secession by civil war, and civil war by the abolition of slavery in
the land. All the resources of the country being needed to carry on the
war, it would seem, at first sight, no time could be worse chosen for
pressing the claims of the Pacific Railway than when men so doubted and
feared for the nation itself.
The people, however, thought otherwise, and they were to rule. Indeed,
at the moment the Union was most seriously threatened with dissolution,
the idea of binding the Great West more firmly to it seemed dictated by
a wise forecast, since, if remoteness were to be an element of weakness
to the nation, then the sooner that remoteness were done away with, the
better for its security.
Congress made liberal offers of moneys and lands, and work began both in
California (1862) and Nebraska[5] (1863). The route from the Missouri
first begun followed the old emigrant trail up the Platte Valley, thence
crossing the mountains into the Utah Basin, where the road from the west
was expected to join it. As the Platte Valley is nearly a dead level
from the Missouri to the mountains, the work went on rapidly over this
part of the line. Twelve thousand men were employed on it. In front
gangs of laborers shovelled up the loose earth to form the embankment;
after these came the tie-layers and track-layers; who were again closely
followed by the locomotive, with the cars in which the workmen slept
and ate since leaving the settlements behind them.
When the track neared the Black Hills, the Indians tried to stop its
farther progress. They looked upon its coming as destined to drive away
the buffalo from their old feeding-grounds, and so starve them out of
their country. In this belief they attacked the laborers, tore up the
tracks, and so harassed the builders that the work could only go on
under the protection of United States soldiers. Some well-meaning people
thought it wrong thus to invade the Indians' hunting-grounds for any
purpose whatsoever, and Wendell Phillips rejoiced that they had risen
in defence of them. Said he, "All hail and farewell to the Pacific
Railroad! Haunt that road with such dangers that none will dare use it!"
[Illustration: TRACK-LAYING, PACIFIC RAILROAD.]
The work, however, steadily went on. On the 10th of May, 1869, the
two ends came together at Promontory Point, Utah, and with impressive
ceremonies the Pacific Railway was opened to the traffic of the world.
The way to the Indies had been found. Senator Benton's prophecy was
fulfilled.
FOOTNOTES
[1] THE LOCOMOTIVE REACHED St. Joseph, Mo., over the
Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. The telegraph came up the
Missouri River from St. Louis. The telegraph crossed the
plains in advance of the railroad.
[2] PONY EXPRESS followed the old Platte route, _via_ Forts
Kearney, Laramie, the South Pass, Fort Bridger, to Salt Lake.
[3] BUTTERFIELD OVERLAND COMPANY'S route went through the
Indian Territory, Texas, and Arizona, with a branch line
coming from Memphis, Tenn., _via_ Fort Smith, Ark. The coaches
ran day and night, ordinarily making the trip in twenty-five
days.
[4] THE PACIFIC RAILWAY. A bill authorizing it was carried
through Congress in 1859. It provided for three great lines,
namely, the Northern, Southern, and Central, all of which
have been built. The coming on of civil war checked the
enterprise at this time. Government had already caused all
the practicable routes to be surveyed. As far back as 1846
Lieutenant Emory noted down the practicability of the route
up the Arkansas, down the Rio Grande and Gila to San Diego
or Los Angeles, while on the march for California. This is,
practically, the Southern Pacific route of to-day.
[5] CALIFORNIA AND NEBRASKA routes. That begun in California
is called the Central Pacific. The one leaving Omaha is
the Union Pacific. Both lines have many branches. On the
California side the first passenger train reached the top of
the Sierra, Nov. 30, 1867. The Union Pacific did not push its
work until the war was nearly over. By the autumn of 1866 it
was forty miles west of Fort Kearney. By the time the Central
Pacific was in the Truckee Valley (140 miles built), the Union
Pacific was at the Black Hills (500 miles built). Brigham
Young built a portion of the road in Utah.
KANSAS, NEVADA, NEBRASKA AND COLORADO ADMITTED.
Kansas came into the Union (1861) as the seceding States went out.
Though peaceful progress was arrested by the war, which kept most of
her able-bodied men in the field, she, the youngest State, did her part
bravely and well in that memorable conflict of arms, by the side of
the older ones. She kept the name of the nation which had dwelt along
her great river before the coming of the white men. With the cessation
of civil strife began an era of prosperity, hardly paralleled in the
history of the nation, and owing, chiefly, to the fertility of her soil,
which has raised her to the front rank of agricultural States.
NEVADA[1] may be said to have sprung from the side of California,
though originally forming part of Utah. For a time it was known only as
Washoe, from the Indians living about the east foot of the great Sierra.
A little surface gold was found here as early as 1850 by emigrants who
carried the news to California. Their report brought a number of eager
gold-seekers into the gulches around what has since grown up to be
Virginia City, and it was while searching for gold that rich silver ores
were discovered early in 1859, on Mount Davidson. Here on the eastern
slope of this mountain, near the newly discovered silver lode, the
town of Virginia began with a few log huts. In sixteen years it had a
population of twenty-five thousand. In 1864 Nevada was admitted to the
Union.
NEBRASKA[2] in soil and climate is quite like Kansas, though somewhat
less fertile. Though opened to settlement at the same time Kansas
was, emigration was mostly directed to the latter State by the slavery
excitement. In 1861 the area of Nebraska was much reduced by the forming
of Dakota, though it is still larger than all New England. Omaha,[3]
Plattsmouth, and Nebraska City grew up as outfitting points for the
commerce of the plains. All were villages in 1857. As the railway
system of Iowa unerringly directed itself toward the Platte, Omaha,
the capital, grew in importance; but when the terminus of the Pacific
Railway was fixed there, its future was assured. From this time onward
the progress of Nebraska was marked. In 1867 it came into the sisterhood
of States.
COLORADO was named for the great river which rises among its mountains.
It was formed (1861) of portions taken from New Mexico, Utah and Kansas.
Besides its mineral wealth, the raising of sheep and cattle has grown
to be a great industry. In 1876 Colorado was admitted to the Union.
FOOTNOTES
[1] NEVADA, Spanish for "snowy," is aptly called "The Desert
State." Except lead and silver it produces little or nothing.
Carson, the capital, is named for Fremont's old guide. Though
silver-mines were also opened in the Reese River District
(Austin) the chief mineral deposits were found about Virginia
City. A great rush set in there from California, where the
excitement about Washoe quite rivalled, for a time, that of
1849. Here are the great Comstock, Gould and Curry and other
rich silver lodes. This explains why population is chiefly
concentrated in one spot in the west of the State. California
is its natural outlet. In sixteen years the Comstock mines
yielded over two hundred million dollars in silver bullion.
[2] NEBRASKA. When I visited Nebraska (April, 1858), a few
settlements were begun on the Nemaha, Saline, Big Blue, and
Elkhorn, but all would not have made one good-sized town. The
great tide of western travel set through Independence, Kansas
City, Leavenworth and St. Joseph. In 1872 the London _Times_
openly discouraged emigration to Nebraska, urging the Red
River country instead. Western Nebraska is unfertile.
[3] OMAHA is six hundred miles from St. Louis by the
Missouri River, five hundred from Chicago, and 1,898 from San
Francisco. It has a charming site. In 1866 its population had
risen to eight thousand.
THE RECENT STATES.
It is at least worthy of notice, in following out the law governing
the movement of our people from east to west, that the great block of
wilderness country which Lewis and Clarke first explored should be the
last settled. The course their explorations took passes through Dakota,
Montana, Idaho and Washington to the Pacific Ocean.
The reason for this long pause between the first and last acts in the
story of the Great West is found in the fact that later exploration soon
determined in favor of the Platte Valley, as the one affording by far
the shortest way through the centre of the continent.
Therefore the new States, just named, are mostly an outgrowth of the
more central region in which the great body of emigration has first
settled. It may be further remarked, that in those Territories where
gold and silver occur, settlement was nearly simultaneous.
IDAHO,[1] like Nevada, grew up from the discovery of gold and silver
in her borders. The finding of these precious metals goes no farther
back than the summer of 1862. These were placer deposits. A year later
quartz lodes, rivalling in richness those of Colorado, were brought
to light. Soon the old Hudson's Bay post of Fort Boisé[2] was turned
into a thrifty town. The mineral find rapidly extended along the Salmon,
Boisé, and Clearwater Rivers. In the south, Idaho City sprung up on the
Boisé; in the north, Lewiston on the Clearwater was settled. In 1860
Idaho scarcely had any white people: in 1863 they were sufficiently
numerous to entitle them to have a Territorial government.
WASHINGTON[3] is another rib taken from the side of the older Oregon,
whose boundaries so fortunately gave us the magnificent harbors embraced
by Puget Sound. Here therefore is the natural terminus of the Northern
Pacific Railway,[4] which comes from Duluth and St. Paul, crosses the
tier of States now under consideration, and reaches Tacoma by way of
the Lower Columbia. Washington was made a State in 1889.
MONTANA.[5] About all known of this Territory in 1860 was that
it contained two important military posts: Fort Benton at the head
of navigation on the Missouri, and Fort Union near the mouth of the
Yellowstone. But in 1861 gold was found in a gulch lying at the head of
the Jefferson Fork of the Missouri. Population rushed in. Here Bannack
City was founded. As with Colorado and Nevada, so here the surface
diggings were quickly worked out. In 1862 Virginia City was founded
as the successor of Bannack; and in 1863 Helena as the successor of
Virginia, and supply-point for the mines of the Blackfeet country.
Montana was organized as a Territory in 1864. A year later there were
but four post-offices, at which tri-weekly mails were received, while
but one newspaper was printed in the Territory. Yet even at this
early day, when mining engrossed the attention of nine-tenths of the
population, it was seen that the agricultural resources of Montana were
very great, and since the building of the Northern Pacific Railway along
the Yellowstone, that valley has become to Montana what the Willamette
is to Oregon. Montana was admitted to the Union in 1889.
DAKOTA has signally demonstrated its capacity for supporting large
populations, either by raising grain crops or live stock, for which
the wild grasses of the plains furnish abundant pasturage. Divided by
the Missouri in the centre, and bounded on the east by the Red River of
the North, Dakota has come to be a great wheat-producing region in its
eastern half, and a cattle-growing one in its western. Made a Territory
in 1861, Dakota came into the Union as two States (North Dakota and
South Dakota) in 1889.
WYOMING contains in its north-western corner the wonderful Yellowstone
Park, which Congress with wise forecast has set apart for the benefit
and instruction of mankind. At no distant day this remarkable and
picturesque region bids fair to become the chosen playground of the
nation.
Thus the Great American Desert, which only to have crossed was once
thought a feat worthy of being handed down to posterity, whose length
and breadth were vividly portrayed as never meant to be inhabited by
man, is now everywhere supporting large and prosperous populations.
It is but just to add that the Mormons first disproved this popular
fallacy by making their homes in the heart of the desert, which
imperfect knowledge first led them to choose, and necessity afterward
forced to make trial of. These people have therefore done a work
as remarkable in its way as that performed by the early New-England
colonists.
It should further be added, that the occupation of these Territories,
notably Montana and Dakota, was productive of serious conflicts with
the Indians, who fought to the death for the preservation of their
last hunting-grounds. The Sioux war of 1876 was caused by the rush
of gold-seekers into the Black Hills, which the Sioux had reserved to
themselves. They attacked the whites, to whose aid soldiers were sent.
One band led by General Custer perished to a man on the Little Big-Horn,
in battle with confederate Indians, led by Sitting Bull, a Sioux chief.
FOOTNOTES
[1] IDAHO. Indian, said to signify "shining mountains," more
fully interpreted by some to mean "gem of the mountains."
Originally part of Oregon. The Territory contains the great
falls of the Shoshone, or Snake, or Lewis River. Fremont's
Peak is its great landmark on the east.
[2] BOISÉ (see p. 241) became a government post upon our
occupation of Oregon. The capital was first fixed at Lewiston,
then removed to Boisé.
[3] WASHINGTON. Besides the excellence of its harbors,
Washington is noted for its inexhaustible forests, thus making
it a great lumber-producing region. In the eastern part wheat
is grown, and there are good grazing lands.
[4] NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY unites the railway and water
systems of the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi with the
Pacific. It is the route forecast by Jona. Carver in 1766.
(See p. 149.)
[5] MONTANA. The name is simply descriptive of a mountainous
region. Fort Benton was named for Thomas H. Benton. From
this point returning trappers or traders were in the habit of
floating down the river to St. Louis in canoes before the day
of steamboats. Fort Union was a trading-post established with
reference to the Yellowstone Valley route to the mountains.
THE WORK OF EIGHTY YEARS.
Our story closes with the national domain completed within limits
grander than even the sagacious Jefferson had hoped for. Though "peace
hath her victories," peaceful development, such as has followed the
settlement of grave political questions, affords fewer materials for
history than the stirring records of war, or the annals of political
strife.
The West shared with the East in the drain made upon its resources
by the Secession War. Its recovery from the effects of that war has,
however, been so marked that to-day all traces of it are nearly effaced
from its outward and inward life. National unity is no longer a thing of
territorial expansion, as with the statesmen of Jefferson's and Benton's
time, but now means a perfect union of the whole people in the cause of
progress, and for the welfare of mankind. In that peaceful conflict the
once hostile sections are now engaged with a praiseworthy emulation.
The child who was born when Lewis and Clarke set out for the Pacific,
may now be the living witness to what we have called the marvel of the
nineteenth century. It is true, much of the rapid progress of the Great
West is due to the development of its extraordinary mineral wealth,
by which masses of population have been suddenly moved upon particular
points, so forcing settlement beyond its legitimate growth.
There have been, however, other potent agencies at work to the same
end. Foremost among these, always keeping in mind the constantly
improving facilities for moving emigrants into the West, come the great
improvements made in mechanical arts. And first of all we should class
the reaping-machine, invented by Cyrus H. McCormick, which is thought
to have advanced the line of civilization westward many miles each year.
Without this invention, what was an uninhabited and unproductive region
forty years ago would hardly have been converted into the granary of the
continent, with its millions of people, its marvellous productiveness,
and its growing weight in the nation. In the East small farms are the
rule; in the West, the exception. The difference, at least, seems to be
largely owing to the grass-mower, and grain-reaping machines that were
unknown to agriculturists of a former generation, though allowance must
be made for the better conditions of soil, which more generally adapt
it for cultivation. Great bodies of fertile lands, such as exist in the
States of Kansas and Nebraska, are unknown in the East.
[Illustration: REAPING-MACHINE.]
Then the building of the Pacific railways has contributed greatly to
the rise of the West. Munificently endowed by Government with moneys and
lands, the sale of the latter to settlers became an instant and potent
means to the building-up of the unoccupied country. In its pre-emption
and homestead laws the Government has also offered unusual privileges
to all who wished to settle on the vacant public domain; thus putting
within the reach of men of small means, the most valuable and productive
farming lands in the world. In this respect no government has done so
much for its middle-class population as ours. And no population has more
quickly returned to the giver the benefits it has received.
One other active means to the making of the Great West should not be
overlooked. Passing by the explorers, whose names are familiar, we
come to a class of men whose work was no less important in its way.
Trained journalists like Horace Greeley, Samuel Bowles, Albert D.
Richardson, Henry Villard, Thomas W. Knox, and William Phillips, did
much to make the West known to the East in all its aspects, whether
political, social, or economical, so depicting its inside and outside
life to a multitude of readers, many of whom became actual emigrants in
consequence.
These combined agencies, all working together in harmony, have produced
extraordinary results. For instance, at the time we bought it all
Louisiana, counting from New Orleans to the Missouri, had only about
forty-five thousand people. In 1880, under not quite eighty years
of American rule, it had over eleven millions, or more than twice as
many as all the States had when Louisiana was ceded to us. The whole
population of French and Spanish Louisiana did not equal that of
Minneapolis, St. Paul, or Kansas City at the present time, neither of
which had a single settler at the date of cession.
Spain thought to control the continent with a few soldiers and
missionaries. Her civilization, barbaric in its origin, is mediæval
rather than modern. In America it could rise no higher than its source.
Mexico and Cuba, two of its earliest conquests, show what it has been
able to do in the New World in three hundred and fifty years of rule.
France frittered away her opportunities in schemes too vast for the
time or the means appointed for their accomplishment. It is the story of
force without forecast. Her explorers overran the country, but left few
substantial footmarks behind them. One reads French names everywhere,
but sees no cities founded. The policy of France, like that of Spain,
looked more to getting a revenue from America than colonizing it. Hence
every avenue of individual effort was made to lead back to the royal
exchequer.
Now let the man who is not yet fifty years old take down the geography
he studied when a schoolboy, and put his finger in the middle of the
State of Iowa. He will have touched the border of that Great American
Desert whose story we have been telling him.
INDEX.
Acoma visited and described by the Spaniards, 35, 39 (_note_);
further description, 42, 43;
mission church of, 52.
Adams, John Quincy, defends the right of petition, 248.
Alamo, The, 243, 246 (_note_).
Alaska, settlements in and purchase of, by the United States, 142
(_note_).
Aleutian Archipelago discovered, 141;
beginnings of the fur-trade at, 141;
settlements, 142 (and _note_).
Allouez, Fr. Claude, goes to Lake Superior, 77;
goes with Dablon to the Wisconsin River, 78.
American Fur Company organized, 212.
Apaches of New Mexico, 255.
Arizona, missions in, 38;
the name, 39 (_note_).
Arizona bought of Mexico, 288, 289.
Arkansas nation, Joliet and Marquette visit them, 89;
towns, 90, 92 (_note_);
called "handsome men," 91.
Arkansas Post in 1803, 178.
Arkansas River, settlement begun on, 127.
Arkansas Territory settlements (1819), 222, 223 (_note_).
Arkansas admitted to the Union, 227.
Ashburton treaty, 239, 241 (_note_).
Astor, John Jacob, plans an establishment on the Columbia, 212.
Astoria founded, 213;
sold, 214, 230, 233 (_note_).
Atchison, David R., 299 (_note_).
Atchison, Kan., founded, 296, 299 (_note_).
Austin, Stephen F., goes to Texas, 242.
Behring, Vitus, sails on a voyage of discovery, 140, 142
(_note_);
determines the separation of the continents, 140;
death, 141.
Bent, Charles, governor of New Mexico, 254.
Bent's Fort, 241 (_note_), 254, 256 (_note_).
Benton, Thomas H., 227;
sent to the Senate, 229;
identified with the Oregon question, 231;
meets Fremont, 234.
Bienville, 123, 130 (note);
made governor, 128;
founds New Orleans, 128.
Bison, The, first mentioned, 36, 39 (_note_).
Black Hills located, 185.
Boone, Daniel, leads emigrants to Kentucky, 165, 211 (_note_).
Bonneville, Benjamin L. E., visits Oregon, 232, 233 (_note_).
Boundary of the United States, rectified by the war with
Mexico, 263.
Brown, John, in Kansas, 304, 307 (_note_).
Butterfield Overland Stage Company, 317, 320 (_note_).
Button, Sir Thomas, in Hudson's Bay, 133.
Cabrillo's voyage, 65 (_note_).
Cache-à-la-Poudre River, 238, 241 (_note_).
California, the name, 55, 65 (_note_);
coast explored, 55-59;
missions founded, 59-63;
commercial policy under Spanish rule, 64, 65;
coveted by the United States, 256;
why, 257;
emigration to, 263 (_note_);
we fail to buy it, 258;
or separate it from Mexico, 288;
England suspected of coveting it, 258;
the American settlers seize the government, 261;
the flag raised at Monterey, 261;
conquered, 262;
in revolt again, 262;
subdued, 263;
Mexico cedes it to the United States, 263;
gold discovered, 272;
rush for the mines, 274;
newspapers of, in 1848, 274, 275 (_note_);
effect on the country, 278, 279 (_note_);
routes to, 280, 281, 282, 284 (_note_);
commerce opened with the interior, 283;
population in 1849, 284;
under military government, 285;
the interregnum, 285;
miners' courts, 286;
State government formed, 287;
struggle in Congress, 287;
admitted to the Union a free State, 287;
Pacific Railroad in, 318, 320 (_note_).
Calumet, The, 89;
virtue of, 92 (_note_).
Canada, conquest of, 146 (_note_).
Cape Flattery named, 144, 146 (_note_).
Cape Mendocino, 65 (_note_).
Carson, Christopher, 234;
stopped by Gen. Kearney, 256, 263 (_note_).
Carver, Jonathan, his idea, 149;
gets to the Mississippi, 150;
ascends the Minnesota, 151;
his "Travels," 152.
Cenis Indians, 116, 117 (_note_).
Champlain, Samuel de, founds Quebec, 69;
at Montreal, 71;
hears about the Great Lakes, 71, 72;
a prisoner, 74, 79 (_note_).
Charles V. (of Spain), events of his reign, 4-8;
last days of, 53, 54;
his character, 81.
Childs, J. B., on the way to Oregon, 237.
Chouteau, Peter, 198, 204 (_note_).
Cibola, Father Marco goes to, 32, 39 (_note_).
Clarke, William, explores Louisiana, 187, 191 (_note_). _See_
Lewis.
Clarke's River (Ore.) named, 197.
Clay, Henry, defeated on the Texas issue (1844), 245.
Colorado, gold in, 208;
discoveries on Cherry Creek, 309;
Denver City founded, 310;
great rush of gold-seekers, 310;
stage-route established from the Missouri, 311;
discoveries on Clear Creek, 312;
Gregory, 312;
other settlements, 313;
surface diggings give out, 314;
but gold quartz struck, 314;
a State, 322.
Colorado River explored, 33;
the name, 39 (_note_).
Colorado Desert crossed, 65.
Columbia River missed by Cook, 145;
and Vancouver, 146 (_note_);
discovered, 161, 162 (_note_), 191 (_note_);
a bone of contention, 230, 233 (_note_).
Columbia, the ship, 160, 161, 162 (_note_).
Columbus, Christopher, fails to find the way to India, 3;
result of his discoveries, 3;
his death, 4.
Cook, James, sent to the Pacific, 143, 146 (_note_);
discovers Sandwich Islands, 144;
names Cape Flattery and Mount Edgecumbe, 144, 145;
tries to sail east to Hudson's Bay, 145;
his death, 146.
Coppermine River explored, 137.
Coronado, Vasquez de, explores New Mexico, 32, 39 (_note_).
Cortez, Hernando, in Mexico, 7;
reaches the Great South Sea, 7.
Council Bluffs, visited and named, 188;
Long winters there, 221.
Coureurs de Bois, 125, 130 (_note_).
Crozat, Anthony, his monopoly, 124, 126.
Cuba, importance of, to Spanish conquests in America, 4.
Custer, George A., killed in battle, 325.
Dablon, Fr. Claude, founds mission at Sault Ste. Marie, 78, 80
(_note_).
Dakota, great progress in, 324.
De Fuca, Juan, discovers Straits of Fuca, 59.
Dubuque, Julien, in Iowa, 183.
Denver City founded, 310;
in 1859, 313, 314 (_note_).
Denver, James W., 299 (_note_), 310.
De Soto, Hernando, lands in Florida, 11;
his army, 11, 12;
cruel conduct toward the natives, 13, 14, 22;
his wonderful marches, 15, 17 (_note_);
escape of his followers, 16;
death and burial, 18;
described, 17 (_note_).
Douglas, Stephen A., author of "Popular Sovereignty," 288.
Drake, Sir Francis, reaches California, 56;
takes possession, and names it New Albion, 57;
his port, 66 (_note_).
El Dorado. The Spaniards seek it in Florida, 14;
the Indians mislead them, 28 (_note_).
El Paso del Norte founded, 37;
in 1807, 208.
Elizabeth of England, her character, 147.
England claims the North-west coast, 146 (_note_);
loses her American colonies, 165.
Falls of St. Anthony named, 107, 109 (_note_);
Indian superstition about, 151.
Fire-worship, 46.
Florida discovered and named, 6;
its extent, 6, 7;
initial point, 7, 9 (_note_);
De Soto invades it, 11;
Indians of, 20-28;
ceded back to Spain, 164.
Fontaine qui bouille, 314 (and _note_).
Fort Boisé, 233 (_note_);
Fremont there, 238, 241 (_note_);
made capital of Idaho, 323, 325 (_note_).
Fort Chipewyan, 138, 139 (_note_).
Fort Crèvecœur, 101, 104 (_note_).
Fort Hall, 233 (_note_), 238.
Fort Kearney, Neb., 294.
Fort Laramie, 235, 241 (_note_).
Fort Leavenworth, 293, 294 (_note_).
Fort Prudhomme, 103, 104 (_note_).
Fort Riley, Kan., 293.
Fort Scott, Kan., 294.
Fort Smith, 223 (_note_).
Fort Walla Walla, 238.
France contends with Spain for dominion, and is defeated, 6;
cedes Louisiana to Spain, 163;
plays her own game, 168 (_note_);
attitude hostile toward us, 171;
sells us Louisiana, 174.
Free-soil party formed, 290.
Fremont, J. C., meets Senator Benton, 234;
sent to explore South Pass, 234;
ascends Fremont's Peak, 236;
what he accomplished or recommended, 236;
corrects the popular error about the Great Desert, 236;
sent to the Lower Columbia, 237;
finds a new pass through the Rockies, 238;
explores Great Salt Lake, 238;
in California, 256;
is there again as war is impending, 258;
ordered out of the country, 259;
heads the American settlers in a revolt against the Mexican
Government, 260.
Fremont's Peak ascended, 236.
French Spoliation Fund, its origin, 174.
Frontenac (Louis de Buade) Comte de, made governor of Canada, 83;
his character, 84;
builds a post on Lake Ontario, 97.
Garrison, William Lloyd, leads anti-slavery men, 247.
Gilpin, William, predicts mineral wealth of Rocky Mountains, 308.
Golden Gate named, 279 (_note_).
Gray, Robert, first sails into the Columbia River, 161, 162
(_note_).
Great American Desert described by Long, 223;
its bearing on the Oregon question, 231;
Fremont corrects the popular error, 236;
its present condition, 325, 329.
Great Salt Lake first mentioned, 35.
Great Salt Lake explored by Fremont, 238, 241 (_note_).
Gregory Diggings, Col., 312.
Gregory, John H., finds gold on Clear Creek, Col., 312.
Gulf of California, missions on, 38.
Gulf of Mexico, early knowledge of, 10, 17 (_note_);
coasts described, 114.
Hearne, Samuel, goes to Coppermine River, 137.
Hennepin, Fr. Louis, 99;
sent by La Salle to explore the Lower Illinois, 101;
described, 105, 106;
ascends the Upper Mississippi, 105;
taken by Sioux, 106;
names Falls of St. Anthony, 107;
released by French traders, 108;
his account of his explorations, 109 (_note_).
Hot Springs of the Washita, 222.
Houston, Samuel, made president of Texas, 243.
Hudson, Henry, 132, 135 (_note_).
Hudson's Bay explored, 132, 133.
Hudson's Bay Company formed, 134;
its early struggles, 134;
intent of the grant, 136.
Humboldt Mountains and River named, 258.
Hurons, 71, 72;
driven from Lake Huron, 76, 79 (_note_).
Iberville, Le Moyne de, 118, 123 (_note_);
arrives at Pensacola, 119, and Mobile Bay, 119;
in the Mississippi River, 120;
gets a letter from La Salle, 120;
forms settlements in Biloxi Bay and Mobile, 121;
death, 123.
Idaho, 323, 325 (_note_).
Illinois nation, Joliet and Marquette among, 88.
INDIANS OF FLORIDA, earliest accounts of them, 20;
arms and implements, 21;
singular tradition about the whites, 24;
villages, 24, 25;
dress, 25, 26;
worship, 26;
mode of life, 27.
INDIANS OF NEW MEXICO, their houses and villages, 34, 35,
40-43;
folk-lore, 45-49;
customs, 50;
government, 52;
Pimos Indians, 39 (_note_).
INDIANS OF GREAT LAKES, Hurons, 71-72;
Iroquois, 72.
INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA, do honor to Drake, 56;
as inhabitants of missions, 61-64;
in mines, 279.
INDIANS OF HUDSON'S BAY, 137.
INDIANS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND, 144 (_note_).
INDIANS OF NORTH-WEST TERRITORY, 168.
INDIANS OF OREGON, 194-196, 197 (_note_);
missions among, 233 (_note_).
INDIANS OF KANSAS, 293.
INDIANS OF TEXAS, 242.
INDIANS OF GREAT PLAINS, 186, 221.
(_See_ also under various tribal names.)
Iowa admitted to the Union, 248.
Iroquois, 72;
they block up Lakes Ontario and Erie to the French, 76;
conquer and disperse the Hurons, 76, 79 (_note_).
Isthmus of Darien crossed by Balboa, 7.
Jefferson, Thomas, moves to unravel the Mississippi question,
172;
sets exploration of Louisiana on foot, 184;
sends Lewis and Clarke to the Pacific, 187.
Jesuit missionaries in Canada, 74, 79 (_note_).
Joliet, Louis, sent to find the Mississippi River, with
Marquette, 85;
reaches it, 87;
visits the Illinois, 88;
reaches the Arkansas nation, 90;
turns back, 91, 92 (_note_).
Kansas explored by Pike, 200.
Kansas, parties to the struggle over, 290;
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, 292;
described, 292;
adapted to slave labor, 294;
first advantages with the party of slavery, 295;
emigration to, 296;
first settlements in, 296;
Free-State settlements, 298, 299 (_note_);
Missourians seize Territorial government, 302;
Topeka Constitution, 302;
Lawrence besieged, 302;
Free-State leaders held for treason, 303;
Lawrence suffers from outrages, 303;
Free-State legislature dispersed, 303;
Free-State leaders, 304;
in a state of anarchy, 305;
Lecompton Constitution formed, 305;
defeated, 306;
ballot-stuffing, 306;
admitted to the Union, 320.
Kansas City, beginnings of, 234, 241 (_note_).
Kearney, Stephen W., marches to New Mexico, 252;
takes possession, 254;
goes on to California, 255, 256 (_note_);
beaten at San Pasqual, 263.
Kendrick, John, sails through the Straits of Fuca, 147
(_note_), 158.
Kentucky admitted to the Union, 167.
Kino, Fr. Eusebius, founds missions, 38.
La Chine, origin of name, 96, 99 (_note_).
Laclede, Pierre, founds St. Louis, 179, 183 (_note_).
Lake Michigan, 92 (_note_).
Lake Pepin, 107, 109 (_note_).
Lake Superior Indians at Quebec, 77.
Lane, James H., 304, 307 (_note_).
La Peyrouse, 64, 66 (_note_).
Larkin, Thomas O., 264 (_note_);
describes gold discovery, 274, 275.
La Salle, Robert Cavelier de, described, 93, 94;
goes in search of the Ohio, 97;
Frontenac his friend, 97;
plans a colony at mouth of the Mississippi, 98;
gets a patent from Louis XIV., 98, 99 (_note_);
builds a fort and vessel on Niagara River, 99;
sails for Green Bay, 100;
starts hence for the Mississippi River, and descends the
Illinois, 101;
winters among the Illinois, 101;
returns to Frontenac, 101;
again sets out, 102;
finds Crèvecœur in ruins and deserted, 102;
makes a third attempt, 103;
builds Fort Prudhomme, 103;
reaches the Gulf and takes possession of Louisiana, 103, 104;
goes to France, 111;
sails for the Mississippi River, 112;
lands on the coast of Texas, 112;
a chapter of disasters, 113;
builds Fort St. Louis on Lavaca River, 113;
sets out for the Mississippi, 115;
is killed, 117 (and _note_);
name honored, 123 (_note_).
Law, John, his Mississippi scheme, 126, 130 (_note_).
Lawrence, Kan., founded, 298, 299 (_note_);
besieged, 302;
destruction of property at, 303.
Leavenworth, Kan., founded, 296, 299 (_note_).
Lecompton settled, 297, 299 (_note_);
pro-slavery party form a State constitution at, 305.
Ledyard, John, 144, 145;
his idea, 153, 156 (_note_);
a deserter, 154;
goes to France, 154;
Jefferson's advice taken, 155;
attempts to reach the north-west coast by way of Kamschatka,
and fails, 156.
Lewis, Meriwether, explores Louisiana, 187, 191 (_note_);
ascends the Missouri, 188;
among the Mandans, 189;
reaches the Great Falls, 191;
sets out across the mountains, 192;
brings back guides and horses, 194;
sufferings in the mountains, 195;
reaches Lewis River, 195;
descends the Columbia, 195;
and reaches the sea, 197.
Lewis River (Snake River of Oregon), named, 195.
Little Rock, 223 (_note_).
Livingston, Robert R., opens negotiations for the purchase of
Louisiana, 173, 175 (_note_).
Long, Stephen Harriman, sent to explore the Platte Valley, 219;
ascends the Missouri in a steamboat, 219, 223 (_note_);
winters near Council Bluffs, 221;
goes down the South Platte to the mountains, 222;
thence by the Canadian to Fort Smith, 222;
pronounces the Great Plains a desert, 223.
Long's Peak ascended, 222.
Louis XIV., beginning of his reign, 81;
its character described, 130 (_note_).
Louisiana, the name, 104;
La Salle's colony, 109, 123 (_note_);
Iberville's colony, 118;
under Crozat, 125;
under Law, 126;
settlements begun, 127;
ceded to Spain, 163;
upper settlements, 166;
lower settlements, 167;
ceded to the United States, 174;
settlements and population in 1803, 176-183;
a State, 214.
Louisville founded, 168.
Mackenzie, Alexander, discovers the Mackenzie River, 138;
reaches the Pacific, 139.
Mandan tradition, 39 (_note_).
Marco de Niza explores New Mexico, 32, 39 (_note_).
Marquette, Fr. James, goes to Lake Superior, 78, 80 (_note_);
goes with Joliet to find the Mississippi River (_see_ Joliet).
Marshall, James W., discovers gold in California, 272.
Mendoza, Antonio de, sends explorers into New Mexico, 32.
McCormick, Cyrus H., his reaping-machine, 327.
Meramec lead-mines, 182.
Mexico, conquest of, 5;
an historic initial-point, 7.
Mexico, war with her, 250 (_note_);
it is unpopular in the North, 251 (_note_);
peace and its results, 263.
Minnesota explored by Hennepin, 105-107;
by Carver, 150-152;
posts in, 183;
by Pike, 198;
by Nicollet and Fremont, 234, 241 (_note_);
admitted to the Union, 307.
Mississippi River, The, nearly discovered, 10;
De Soto finds it, 16;
name, 17 (_note_);
the Sioux describe it, 78, 80 (_note_);
acquires a first importance with the French, 82;
fables about, 89;
explored by Joliet and Marquette, 85-92;
by La Salle, 103, 104.
Mississippi Territory formed, 167.
Missions in New Mexico, 37;
in California, 60-64, 66 (_note_);
on Lake Huron, 74, 75;
Lake Superior, 77, 78, 79;
Oregon, 233 (_note_), 238, 240;
Texas, 246 (_note_);
Kansas, 293.
Missouri, settlements in, 1819, 219;
struggle over her admission as a State, 223-227;
her growth, 228.
Missouri Compromise, the, 226;
set aside, 292, 294 (_note_).
Missouri River first mentioned, 89, 92 (_note_);
its sources unknown, 1783, 162, 168 (_note_), 185, 191
(_note_).
Monroe Doctrine enunciated, 231, 233 (_note_).
Montana, 323, 325 (_note_).
Monterey visited, 59;
mission at, 61;
name, 66 (_note_).
Montezuma, 48, 52 (_note_).
Mormons as soldiers, 253;
rise of the sect, 268 (_note_);
decide to go to Salt Lake, and why, 266;
their city, 266, 268 (_note_);
their growth, 267;
and creed, 267;
in California, 273, 275 (_note_).
Mormon Diggings, 273, 274, 275 (_note_).
Moscoso, Luis de, succeeds De Soto and saves his men, 17
(_note_), 18.
Mount St. Elias discovered, 141.
Natchez Indians, 123, 124.
Natchez, its importance to Louisiana, 123;
fort at, 124.
Natchitoches occupied by French, 124, 130 (_note_).
Nebraska, Act forming the Territory, 292;
not adapted for slave labor, 294;
Pacific Railroad begun in, 318, 320 (_note_);
growth of, 321;
admitted to the Union, 321, 322 (_note_).
New England Emigrant Aid Company, 297, 299 (_note_).
New Madrid, 178, 183 (_note_).
New Mexico first explored by Marco de Niza and Vasquez de
Coronado, 32;
fallacies concerning it, 30;
obstacles in the way, 30;
second exploration, 33;
third do., 33, 34;
villages and people described, 34, 35;
named, 35;
colonized, 37;
missions in, 37;
native insurrection in, 37;
new invasion, 38;
native cities described, 40-44;
in 1807, 205-208;
its importance to emigration, 251, 252;
Kearney sent to take it, 252;
yields without fighting, 254;
insurrection at Taos, 256 (_note_);
ceded to the United States, 263.
New Orleans founded, 128, 130 (_note_);
described by Charlevoix, 129;
in 1803, 177, 178;
attempt of England to seize, 214.
Nevada, rise of, 321;
a State, 321, 322 (_note_).
Nez Percés mission, 238.
Niagara River and Falls, 74, 79 (_note_);
seized by La Salle, 99, 104 (_note_).
Nicolet, Jean, at Green Bay, 75, 79 (_note_).
Nootka Sound, 146 (_note_).
North-west Company, 183 (_note_).
North-west Territory formed and slavery excluded, 165;
area and population, 166, 168 (_note_).
Northern Pacific Railway, 323, 325 (_note_).
Nueces River, 249, 251 (_note_).
Ohio River a boundary between slave and free States, 165.
Omaha, 321, 322 (_note_).
Ordinance of 1787, 165.
Oregon, name first mentioned, 152, 153 (_note_).
Oregon, first American establishments in, 212, 213;
rivalries of the fur-traders, 229;
quarrel with England about boundary, 230;
public opinion about Oregon, 231;
various settlements in, 232, 233 (notes);
effort to keep Americans out of, 239;
Dr. Whitman's heroic efforts to win Oregon for us, 239;
Ashburton treaty, 239;
Willamette Valley being settled, 240;
admitted to the Union, 307.
Oregon trail, 229, 233 (_note_);
Fremont explores, 234, 235;
hard travelling it, 239.
Pacific Ocean, or Great South Sea, reached by Balboa and
Cortez, 7.
Pacific Railroad talked of, 257;
on the frontier, 316;
authorized, 320 (_note_);
begun during the civil war, 318;
attacked by Indians, 319;
completed, 319;
effect on the growth of the Great West, 327.
Pensacola, 119, 123 (_note_).
Peter the Great attempts discoveries in the North-West, 140.
Philip II. (of Spain), last days of, 53, 54;
his character, 81.
Pierce, Franklin, elected President, 292, 294 (_note_).
Pike, Zebulon M., explores the Arkansas, 198, 204 (_note_);
in Kansas, 200;
among the Pawnees, 200;
ascends Pike's Peak, 202;
lost in the mountains, 203;
taken to Santa Fé, 203.
Pike's Peak ascended and named, 202;
first name for Colorado gold-mines, 309.
Pimeria, 38, 39 (_note_).
Platte River, 185, 191 (_note_).
Platte Valley, Long explores it, 219.
Polk, James K., 246 (and _note_).
Ponce de Leon, Juan, discovers Florida, 6.
Pony express, 316, 320 (_note_).
Prairie du Chien, Joliet at, 87;
Jonathan Carver at, 152;
in 1803, 183.
Prince Rupert founds Hudson's Bay Company, 134, 135 (_note_).
Pursley, James, discovers gold in Colorado, 210.
Quebec founded, 69;
taken, 75.
Robinson, Charles, in Kansas, 299;
indicted for treason, 302, 307 (_note_).
Russian American Company, 142.
St. Charles (Mo.), 183 (_note_).
San Diego visited, 59;
mission at, 61.
St. Domingo, 119, 123 (_note_).
St. Genevieve, 183 (_note_).
San Francisco, mission founded, 61.
San Francisco in 1849, 282, 284 (_note_).
Santa Fé founded, 37;
in 1807, 206;
taken by Gen. Kearney, 254.
Santa Fé Trail, 229, 233 (_note_).
San Jacinto, 243, 246 (_note_).
St. Lawrence River, route of French discovery and settlement, 68;
ascended by Cartier and Champlain, 69, 71 (_note_);
the key of the continent, 69.
St. Louis, rise of, 179;
in 1803, 181, 182;
in 1816, 227.
St. Louis of Texas (La Salle's colony), 114, 117 (_note_).
St. Paul, 107, 109 (_note_).
St. Vrain's Fort, 235, 241 (_note_).
Sacramento City founded, 283.
Salt Lake City laid out, 266, 268 (_note_).
Sandwich Islands, discovered, 144;
named, 146 (_note_).
Sault Ste. Marie, possession taken of the Great West by
France, 79.
Scott, Winfield, conquest of Mexico, 263.
Sitka founded, 142 (_note_).
Sioux, first meeting with whites, 77;
Hennepin among, 106, 107, 109 (_note_).
Sioux War (1876), 325.
Slavery introduced by De Soto into Florida, 13;
as practised by the Indians, 17 (_note_);
African slavery in Louisiana, 127, 130 (_note_);
excluded from the North-west Territory, 165;
admitted to Missouri, 223-227;
in Texas, 243, 244;
become a sectional issue, 246;
party formed to antagonize it, 247;
petitions against, refused by Congress, 248;
struggle over the admission of California, 287;
contest in Kansas, 289.
Southern Pacific Railway, 65.
South Pass, Fremont sent to explore it, 234, 241 (_note_).
South Sea, The. _See_ Pacific Ocean.
Spain, mistress of the seas, 2;
what Columbus did for, 3;
divides with Portugal dominion in the East and West, 3, 4;
sends expeditions to Florida and Mexico, 4;
reign of Charles V., 4-8;
her invincibility broken, 59, 66 (_note_);
gives up Vancouver Island to England, 146 (_note_);
claim to north-west coast, 159;
gets back Louisiana, 163;
and Florida, 164;
shuts up New Orleans to our commerce, 172, 175 (_notes 2
and 3_);
loses Mexico, 241.
Steamboat first navigates the Missouri, 219.
Stockton, Robert F., 261;
conquers California, 262.
Stockton, Cal., founded, 283.
Straits of Fuca discovered, 59;
explored, 146 (_note_).
Sutter's Fort, 256, 263 (_note_);
Fremont's headquarters at, 260.
Taylor, Zachary, commands in Mexico, 250, 263.
Tennessee admitted to the Union, 167.
Terra Firma, 9 (_note_).
Texas, 118 (_note_); _see also_ St. Louis of Texas;
Americans invited to, 241;
in 1821, 242, 246 (_note_);
emigration, 2;
and its character, 243;
revolts against Mexico, 243;
conquers her independence, 243;
applies for admission to the Union, 244;
is opposed by the North, 245;
but comes in, 246;
her boundary in dispute, 249.
Topeka Constitution, 307 (_note_).
Utah, 267, 268 (_note_).
Vancouver, George, 146 (_note_).
Vizcaino, Sebastian, enters San Diego and Monterey, 59.
Washington Territory, 323, 325 (_note_).
Webster, Daniel, his attitude toward slavery in new States,
291, 294 (_note_).
Whitman, Marcus, founds a mission in Oregon, 232, 233 (_note_),
238;
his memorable ride to St. Louis, 239.
Wilkes, Charles, explores north-west coast, 240, 241 (_note_).
Willamette Valley settled, 240.
Wisconsin, first white man in, 75, 79 (_note_).
Wisconsin River found to be a tributary of the Mississippi, 78.
Wyeth, Nathaniel J., in Oregon, 232, 233 (_note_).
Wyoming Territory, 324.
Yellowstone Park, 324.
Yellowstone River, 185, 191 (_note_).
Yerba Buena, 282, 284 (_note_).
Young, Brigham, 265.
Zuñi visited by Spaniards, 35, 39 (_note_).
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Making of the Great West - 1512-1883" ***
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