A journal of travels into the Arkansa Territory

Proceed from the garrison to the Pecannerie settlement—Hot-springs of the Washita—Phenomena of the seasons.

In consequence of sickness, and an extreme debility, which deprived me of the pleasure of my usual excursions, I remained at the garrison until the 16th of October. A nervous fever had now for ever separated me from the agreeable company of Dr. Russel, and amongst my associates in affliction were numbered two missionaries, who had intended to proceed to the Osages. One of them, (Mr. Viner), after the attacks of a lingering fever, paid the debt of nature.

From July to October, the ague and bilious fever spread throughout the territory in a very unusual manner. Connected apparently with these diseases, was one of an extraordinary character. It commenced by slight chills, and was succeeded by a fever, attended with unremitting vomitings, accompanied with blood, and bloody fœces. Ejecting all medicine, it became next to impossible to administer internal relief. The paroxysms, attended with excruciating pain, took place every other day, similar to the common intermittent. One of the soldiers who descended with us, was afflicted in this way for the space of six days, after which he recovered. On the intermitting days he appeared perfectly easy, and possessed a strong and craving appetite. I was credibly informed {214} that not less than 100 of the Cherokees, settled contiguous to the banks of the Arkansa, died this season of the bilious fever.

On the 3d of November, I at length got down in a perogue of the garrison as far as Major Wilborne’s in the Pecannerie settlement. Here, though the bilious fever and ague had been unusually prevalent, no instance of mortality had taken place.

In this settlement there was a succession of heavy rains down to the month of September. Above, we had experienced no rain beyond the month of June. Perhaps the unusual prevalence of rain, on the banks of the Arkansa, might have been conducive to the extraordinary sickness of this season. As a proof of the locality of this rain, the river was now so exceedingly low, that no boats drawing more than 10 or 12 inches of water could possibly navigate it from the Dardanelles to the Verdigris. All along the banks, the clay and pebbles of the beaches were whitened with an efflorescence of salt (muriate of soda), deposited from the water of the red freshes. We also remarked that all the sandstone rocks, scattered confusedly on the borders of the river, blacken by exposure, and assume a metallic tinge, probably arising from an admixture of manganese.

The Pecannerie, now the most considerable settlement in the territory, except Arkansas, derived its name from the Pecan nut-trees (Carya olivæformis), with which its forests abound; in a few years it will probably form a county, containing at this time about 60 families, all, in regard to circumstances, living in a state of ignorance and mediocrity of fortune: many of them indeed were renegadoes from justice who had fled from honest society, to seek refuge in these fertile alluvial forests, where, indulging themselves in indolence, they become the pest of their more industrious and honest neighbours, and are encouraged in their dishonest practices by the laxity of the laws, and {215} the imperfect manner in which they are administered. Thus the settlement was now oppressed by gangs of horse thieves, who carried their depredations even among the neighbouring savages.

The soil throughout this settlement, after three or four years working, is found to be extremely favourable for the growth of cotton, as appeared by the crops of the present year, but the price was fallen to 3 dollars per cwt. in the seed, with little or no demand, so that the settlers, for want of a market, were really indigent, and most of them lived in a very poor and uncomfortable manner. The alluvial lands, here about two miles wide, are flanked by a range of wooded hills, and a somewhat broken country of considerable fertility.

A number of families were now about to settle, or rather take provisionary possession of the land purchased from the Osages, situated along the banks of the Arkansa, from Frog bayou to the falls of the Verdigris; a tract in which is embraced a great body of superior alluvial land. But, to their disappointment, an order recently arrived, instructing the agent of Indian affairs to put the Cherokees in possession of the Osage purchase, and to remove them from the south side of the river. It appeared, from what I could learn, that the Osages, purposely deceived by the interpreter, at the instigation of the Shoutous, had hatched up a treaty without the actual authority of the chiefs, so that in the present state of things a war betwixt the Cherokees and the Osages is almost inevitable, unless the latter relinquish the banks of the Arkansa, as Messrs. Shoutou wish them. The Osages in a recent council said, they would have no objection to dispose of their lands, provided the whites only were allowed to settle upon them.⁠[209]

I understand that the hot springs of the Washita are situated about a mile from that river, contiguous to the {216} bank of a brook. At the springs, a ridge of between five and six hundred feet, from whence smoke had been seen to issue, appears, by the massive rocks that fill this stream, to have been broken through, or undermined by its torrents. Many thermal springs, besides those employed by visitors, are seen boiling out of the side of the hill, and mingling with the cool water of the brook. The principal fountain, issuing from amidst huge masses of black rocks, apparently bituminous and calcareous slate in thick laminæ, has a stream of near a foot in diameter at its orifice, and hot enough to boil eggs or fish; a steam arises from it as from water in a state of ebullition, attended with a considerable discharge of bubbles. It is only after mixing with the cool water of the brook, at some distance from this spring, that it becomes of a temperature in which it is possible to bathe. There is, however, a kind of rude inclosure made around the spring, as a steam bath, which often probably debilitates, and injures the health of ignorant and emaciated patients. Major Long,⁠[210] who visited these springs in the month of January, found their temperature to vary from 86° to 150° of Fahrenheit. Hunter and Dunbar⁠[211] ascertained the temperature of five different springs, to be at 150°, 154°, 140°, 136°, and 132°. The water, as near Onondago, in the state of New York, at the tepid baths of Natlock in Derbyshire, and in many parts of Italy, charged with an excess of carbonic acid, holding lime in solution, deposits a calcareous tufa, which incrusts leaves, moss, or any other substance which it meets in its course, to the great surprise of the ignorant, who commonly pronounce them petrifactions. Indeed, the exploring party of the Washita assert, that a mass of calcareous rock, 100 feet perpendicular, had been produced by this aqueous deposition. Eruptions of argillaceous mud in small quantities have also been observed, which in time become considerably indurated.

{217} Among the more remarkable features of the autumnal season in this country, is the aspect of the atmosphere, which in all directions appears so filled with smoke, as often to render an object obscure at the distance of 100 yards. The south-west winds at this season are often remarkably hazy, but here the effect is greatly augmented by the burning of the surrounding prairies, annually practised by the savages and whites, for the benefit of the hunt, as the ground is thus cleared of a heavy crop of withered grass, prepared for an early vegetation in the succeeding spring, and also assisted in its growth by the stimulating effects of the alkaline ashes. Indeed, ever since the beginning of September, the prairies had appeared yellow and withered, with a prevailing mass of dying vegetation. The autumnal Asters and Solidagos, are but a faint gleam of the mid-summer splendour of these flowery meadows. Throughout this territory, there are no grasses nor other vegetables of consequence in agriculture (except the cane), which retain their verdure beyond the close of September. ’Tis true, that in the sheltered alluvions, verdure may be protracted, and it is here that the cattle, left to nature, now seek their food, and, as the winter advances, finally repair to the sempervirent cane brake. That delightful and refreshing verdure one naturally expects to see in a garden, regales not the eye of the Arkansa farmer beyond the vegetating period assigned by nature. From the month of September to February (except in the lowest and richest alluvions), every enclosure, in common with the prairies, appears a dreary waste of withered herbage, with the exception of the biennial turnip, the radish, and the cabbage, which still retain their freshness. The month of February, however, scarcely closes before vegetation again commences, and the natural meadows, thickets, and alluvions, in March, are already enamelled with the flowers of May.

{218} The aridity of the autumnal atmosphere, which becomes more and more sensible as we advance towards the west, or recede from the ocean, may be perceived to modify many of the natural productions of the country, and deserves to be studied by those who reside on the spot. Amongst the Cucurbitaceæ, every species of melon, which attain such enormous bulk and perfection east of the Mississippi, are here often of diminutive size, notwithstanding the heat of the climate; and by the increasing dryness of the air, the plants, full of young fruit, wither and prematurely die. The diminution of the forest, and at length its total disappearance, is also, in all probability, attributable to the same source of infertility.

The natural phenomena of the seasons appear no less corroborative of a distinction of climate betwixt the eastern and western territories. From the Pecannerie settlement eastward, heavy rains were experienced for most part of the summer down to the beginning of September; while from the garrison upwards, scarcely any rain except the slightest flying showers had fallen since the month of June. It might, indeed, be reasonably conjectured, that the further any country was removed from the ocean, the great reservoir of rains, and the more it was elevated above that level, the more it would have to depend upon the winter or rainy season for irrigation; and that, in such a country, rain can hardly be expected in the summer, especially if the temperature be elevated. Facts bear out these conjectures, for the higher we ascend toward the great platform of the Andes, the more arid becomes the climate; and at length, approaching the mountains, nothing is to be seen but a barren and desert region, tantalized with numerous streams, which flow only in the winter, and then with such force and velocity, as to tear up frightful ravines, and, sweeping away thousands of acres of friable materials, which to a considerable depth constitute the more ancient {219} incumbent soil, leave behind, upon the denuded plains, colossal masses insulated in the most fantastic forms, so as to appear like piles of artificial ruins. Such is the appearance of the saline plains of the Arkansa, and many extensive tracts towards the sources of the Missouri, from Fort Mandan westward to the basis of the Northern Andes.