[I-13] Cincinnati Landing, Pike Co., Ill., to Hannibal, Marion Co., Mo., 12 m. direct, and not much more by river, as its course is quite straight. The Frenchman's house, 4 m. beyond which Pike went to camp, was a germ of Hannibal, sown under the handsome hill, just above a little run which Nicollet and Owen both map as Bear cr., opposite Hurricane isl. This place is mapped by Pike as Hurricane Settlement; he speaks of it again under date of Apr. 26th, 1806. It is now a notable railroad center; the Wabash R. R. built the bridge in 1871 (Act of Congr., July 25th, 1866). On the Illinois side there was a place called Douglasville, which seems to have been a forerunner of the town or station Shepherd; while Hannibal itself has also the St. L., Keok. and N. W. R. R. skirting the Miss. r., the Hann. and St. Jo., the St. L. and Hann., and the Mo., Kas. and Tex. To reach this then French embryo, Pike proceeded with present Pike Co., Ill., on his right the whole way, but with Ralls Co. on his left, to past Saverton in the latter county, and so on to Marion Co., Mo. He passed the positions of the islands now called Taylor's, Cottel's, King's, and Glasscock's; and after he had interviewed the Frenchman he went on past the present position of the mouth of Bayou St. Charles, off which are Turtle, Glaucus, and other islands, to camp in Marion Co., Mo., about where the present boundary between Pike and Adams cos., Ill., strikes the river—that is to say, opposite Armstrong isl., near the beginning of the Snicarty. The St. Charles or Charles is old in history; I have seen the name ascribed to Hennepin, 1680, but have not myself so found it. Pike's Hurricane isl. is probably not now determinable, if existent, unless he means a large tract of bottom-land opposite Hannibal, isolated by the Snicarty. Glasscock's isl. is now or was lately the only well-founded island on the river near the mouth of Bear cr. It is said in Holcombe's Hist. Marion Co., 1884, p. 902, that an island opposite the mouth of Bear cr. disappeared in 1849. Judge Thos. W. Bacon, who came to Hannibal in 1847, informs me in lit. Mar. 21st, 1894, that he remembers no such island; "there was a sand-bar visible at low water just above the mouth of Bear cr., and it disappeared long ago, but no such fugitive formation could properly be termed an island. Along the N. front of the site of Hannibal was once an incipient island—a sand-bar with growing willows extending from the N. end almost to the mainland. This gradually disappeared except at the lower end, where it prolonged and merged into a granite gravel bed or bar visible at low water, which was dredged away by the government." Pike is probably mistaken in using the name Hurricane in the present connection. There were a Hurricane ldg., isl., and cr. lower down, in Lincoln Co.; but Judge Bacon informs me he never heard the name applied to Hannibal. Nor is it true that this town was ever called Stavely's ldg., except as a piece of fugitive sarcasm in the newspapers of a rival town, arising in the habit of one John W. Stavely, a saddler of Hannibal, who used to haunt the landing when steamers arrived. It could not well have been first known as a "landing," because the first steamer to arrive there, the Gen. Putnam, Moses D. Bates, master, came in 1825, while Hannibal was platted in 1819 by its present name, shortly after Pike Co. was organized (Dec. 14th, 1818). The classical term is said to be traceable to Antoine Soulard, surveyor-general, who is also said to have named Fabius r. for the great Roman cunctator. But this is dubious; old forms Fabas and Fabbas suggest Sp. fabas beans. Bay St. Charles was called Scipio r., as attested by the hamlet of Port Scipio at its mouth.
[I-14] This stretch of "39" m. needs to be warily discussed. The whole distance from Hannibal to Keokuk by the river channel is only 61 m. Pike makes it from his camp of the 16th to that of the 19th 39 + 23 + 4 = 76 m.; he also started from a little above Hannibal on the 17th, and did not quite make Keokuk on the 19th; for he only got to the foot of the Des Moines rapids after breakfast on the 20th. The whole way would have been about 80 of his miles against say 60 of actual travel, or the proportion of 4:3, as already noted, p. 2; and we may confidently set him down on the 17th halfway between Hannibal and Keokuk. Now from Hannibal to La Grange is 30 m. and from La Grange to Keokuk is 31 m.; La Grange, Lewis Co., Mo., at the mouth of Wyaconda r., is the required location of camp of the 17th. This is 10 m. above Quincy, the seat of Adams Co., Ill., one of the best known cities on the river, though not as old as some of them. The C. B. and Q. R. R. bridged the river just above the city in 1867-68; a West Quincy grew up on the Missouri side, and the present importance of the place requires no comment. A very short distance above Quincy Pike passes from Marion into Lewis Co., Mo. But the most important point of this day's voyage is one to which the above text does not even allude. Pike elsewhere speaks of a certain Jaustioni river, as the then boundary between the U. S. and the Sac nation, 7 m. above the Frenchman's house at Hurricane Settlement, on the W. side; and he traces this river on his map by the name Jauflione. Now there are five large streams which enter the Miss. r. on the W. within 3 m. of one another, by four separate mouths, in Marion Co., say 2 to 5 miles below W. Quincy, and the proportionate distance above Hannibal. They are now known as (1) South Two Rivers; (2) North Two Rivers; (3) a branch of the latter—these three emptying practically together, just below Fabius isl.; (4) South Fabius; and (5) North Fabius rivers, which fall into a slough whose two mouths are opposite Orton's isl. Pike has left us no data to decide which of these he means by Jaustioni or Jauflione, especially as the positions of the several outlets have no doubt changed since 1805. They are all at present, or were very recently, considerably more than the "seven" miles above Hannibal, being entirely beyond the Bayou St. Charles, itself about 7 m. long. Pike's queer names, Justioni or Jaustioni, and Jauflione (latter in early text, 1807, p. 4, and on map), are found also as Jeffreon, and usually as Jeffrion. Some form of the name, the meaning of which I have never learned, endured for many years; thus Jauflione r. appears in Morse's Univ. Gaz., 3d ed. 1821, p. 350, though it had mostly disappeared from ordinary maps of about that date. The river thus designated has a history which will bear looking up. Judge Thos. H. Bacon of Hannibal refers me to certain documents bearing on French Colonial history to be found in Amer. State Papers, VI. 1860, pp. 713-14, and 830-34, also repub. in Holcombe's Hist. Marion Co., 1884. On p. 834 is: "July 10th, 1810. Board met. Present John B. C. Lucas, Clement B. Penrose, and Frederick Bates, Commissioners. Charles Gratiot, assignee of Mathurin Bouvet, claiming 84 arpents of land front on the Mississippi river and in depth from the river back to the hills in the district of St. Charles.... The Board order that this claim be surveyed, provided that it be not situated above the mouth of the River Jeffrion conformably to the possession of Mathurin Bouvet," etc. As Bouvet's claim was ultimately confirmed to Gratiot, Jeffrion r. must have been above Salt r. The next considerable river above Salt r. is that one of the "Two Rivers" called South r.; but this is hardly 30 m. long, and an Act of Dec. 31st, 1813, describes Jeffrion r. as over 30 m. long. The next one is North Two Rivers; undoubtedly it is this one which was known as the Jeffrion in Territorial days. When the region was first settled it was called the Two Rivers country, and the title of a certain Two Rivers Baptist Association preserves this designation. The Governor of Louisiana Territory was required to divide it into districts (Act of Congr., Mar. 26th, 1804, sec. 13); Holcombe's Hist. Marion Co., p. 37, says that Governor Wm. Clark by proclamation reorganized the districts into counties Oct. 1st, 1812; and doubtless the Jeffrion would be there again in mention. Bouvet's settlement on Bay Charles is unquestionable in location; it was described as about 34 leagues above St. Louis, and was a place with which the commissioners must have been officially acquainted. In history B. Charles is nearly a century older than St. Louis, and it was for many years a better known locality. Present North r. is the only one that answers the historical and geographical requirements of the north one of Two Rivers of early Territorial times and of the Jeffrion r. of French Colonial days. Holcombe, p. 148, gives an account of Kentucky prospectors on the Jeffrion in 1817. The name of the Sac chief Black Hawk occurs in connection with an incident on Two Rivers in 1812. But the most satisfactory and in fact a conclusive identification of North Two Rivers with the Jauflione is derivable from the terms of our treaty with the Sacs and Foxes of 1804. This will be found in Statutes at Large, VII. p. 84, seq.: A Treaty between the United States of America and the United Tribes of Sac and Fox Indians, made Nov. 3d, 1804, ratified Jan. 25th, 1805, and proclaimed Feb. 21st, 1805. Among the "articles of a treaty made at St. Louis in the district of Louisiana between William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana territory and of the district of Louisiana [etc., etc.] of the one part, and the chiefs and head men of the united Sac and Fox tribes of the other part," there is one defining the boundary thus: "Article 2. The general boundary or line between the lands of the United States and of the said Indian tribes shall be as follows, to wit: Beginning at a point on the Missouri river opposite to the mouth of the Gasconade river; thence in a direct course so as to strike the river Jeffreon at the distance of thirty miles from its mouth, and down the said Jeffreon to the Mississippi," etc., etc. In company with Mr. Robert F. Thompson of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Washington I made a special examination of maps in his office with reference to this point, and among them found one, prepared for office use in determining boundaries indicated in the terms of Indian treaties, on which the boundary in mention had been drawn from the Missouri opposite the mouth of the Gasconade directly to a point supposed to be 30 m. up the North Two Rivers, which I had on other grounds determined the Jauflione or Jeffreon to be. This river empties in Fabius township, in the N. W. ¼ of Sect. 3, T. 58 N., R. 5 W., Marion Co., Mo.
On this extraordinary cession see a note by L. C. D[raper] in Minn. Hist. Coll., III. Part 2, p. 143, 1874.
At the upper end of St. Charles bayou, called Bayou chute, a couple of miles below Two Rivers, was the site of a place that rejoiced on paper in the name of Marion City. They started a railroad there, were liable to wash-outs, and inspired Charles Dickens' idea of his quizzical "Eden." If one would like to see how uncounted "cities" were laid out in gaudy prints—some consisting in a hovel or two, some without even that—let him look over Featherstonhaugh's diverting relations of the '30's, when he traveled in these parts, then overrun with a set of the neediest, greediest, and most unscrupulous landsharks that ever lived on calomel, whisky, and the gullibility of their fellows. Marion City is located on one of the maps before me, but not on any of the others. A little above it are Fabius and Orton isls., already mentioned, and opposite these is Ward's isl., larger than either of the other two. A couple of miles above Quincy begins the group of Cottonwood isls., opposite a large horseshoe-shaped slough which seems to be an old cut-off of the river; it is connected with the Fabius r. outlets, and receives Durgan's (i. e., Durkee's) cr. At Quincy is the lower outlet of a very extensive snicarty, 12 or 15 m. direct, and much more by its sinuosities; this begins at Canton (above La Grange) and connects at various points with Canton chute, itself some 10 m. long. La Grange, where Pike camps, was so called from the hill under which it nestled, and the English of which would be Barn hill. The original settlement was named Wyaconda or Waconda, from the river at whose mouth it was made; thus Nicollet's map marks Wiyakonda instead of La Grange, preserving the Indian name of the place. This river is a large one which, with its branches, traverses Scotland and Clark cos. before entering Lewis Co. Before settlement a certain tract of country below La Grange had been called Waconda prairie, or in some similar form of the Indian word, as Wacondaw of Maj. Thos. Forsyth, 1819; and this is what Pike's map presents as the "Small Prairie."
[I-15] About two-thirds of the way from La Grange to Keokuk—say to Fox prairie, at the mouth of Fox r., site of Gregory's Landing, Clark Co., Mo. The principal place passed is Canton, Lewis Co., Mo., 7 m. above La Grange, opposite the head of Canton chute. Some other places that were started, such as Satterfield, would be hard to find on a latter-day map. Tully is now practically a part of Canton; Tully isl. exists, 3 or 4 m. above Canton, and Satterfield's creek is a branch of Fox r. Near there, one Dodd kept for some years a woodyard on the Illinois side, and the steamboat channel among the sand-bars and islands in his vicinity acquired the name of Dodd's crossing.
[I-16] About 10 m., from Gregory's ldg. to "the point of a beach" within the present city limits of Keokuk, Lee Co., Ia., immediately above the mouth of Des Moines r., which for some distance separates the States of Missouri and Iowa; opposite is Hancock Co., Ill. The place where Pike got sawyered was very likely between Hackley's and Fox isls. The place is a bad one; there has been a good deal of engineering work done in damming Hackley's chute, and jettying the channel over to the other side. Fox r. (once called R. Puante, whence also Stinking cr.) is not mentioned by Pike in the present connection; but he speaks of it elsewhere, and lays it down on his map without name, marking an Indian village on the Illinois side between its mouth and that of Des Moines r. The present or a very recent arrangement of its discharge is by Fox slough, a small snicarty that begins at Alexandria and runs 5 m. down to Gregory's ldg. This cuts off a piece of bottom which the railroad traverses between the points said, besides Fox and several lesser islands.
[I-17] For the origin of this name, involving a spurious etymology by association with Trappist monks, see Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, p. 20. The always careful and accurate Nicollet made the matter quite plain: see his Rep. 1843, p. 22. Some form of the old Indian name is used by the earliest French travelers in these parts. One of the oldest maps I have seen, dressée par J. B. Franquelin dans 1688 pour être presentée à Louis XIV., letters R. des Moingana, and marks the Indian village of Moingoana. One of Joliet's maps has Moeng8ena. Joliet and Marquette passed its mouth going down the Miss. r. in 1673, on or about June 25th; Accault, Auguelle, and Hennepin passed it going up the Miss. r. early in 1680. Besides the many early variants of the phrase which settled into Des Moines, we find R. of the Outontantas, 8tantas, 8t8ntes, Otentas, etc., R. of the Peouareas, Paotes, etc., R. of the Maskoutens, etc., Nadouessioux, etc. This is the largest river Pike has come to since he left the Illinois, and the only tributary of the Missouri which he charts with any detail; he lays it down with 20 of its branches, and marks the positions on it of old Forts Crawford and St. Louis. We observe that he calls it De Moyen; and this gives occasion for a blunder not less amusing than to call it Trappist r. would be. For our hero was ambitious of French scholarship, and on consulting his dictionary to find out about moyen, he set the stream down as Means r. in his French-English vocabulary of geographical names. Another author, or his printer, got it Demon r. Beltrami, 1828, renders Le Moine and Monk r. Pike's editor of the early text, 1807, has des Moines, p. 4. The stream is a large and very important one, too much so to be entered upon in a mere note like this; but I may observe that it is historically less significant than those of similar extent on the Illinois and Wisconsin side of the Mississippi, because several of the latter were highways during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The mouth of the Des Moines became of course the scene of early settlement, but not all the places started there survived. Nicollet's map shows three—Keokuck, Montebello, Warsaw. Owen's, somewhat later, has also Nassau and Churchville, immediately at the debouchure, where there came to be also a Buenavista. Publishing in 1847, but having written of 1835, the always entertaining Featherstonhaugh speaks of "a sorry settlement on the left bank, called Keokuk, after a celebrated Sauk chief, inhabited altogether by a set of desperados"—a diagnosis which will no doubt be better relished by the Hamiltonians, Varsovians, and Alexandrians than by the present polished Keokukites. He should have made one exception, however, for he found there the famous George Catlin, Nov. 4th, 1835: see his book, II. p. 42. Besides Keokuk, Lee Co., Ia., at the foot of the rapids above the mouth of the Des Moines, the three places which have grown into urban reality are: Hamilton, Hancock Co., Ill., directly opposite Keokuk; Warsaw, Hancock Co., Ill., 2 m. below the mouth, and directly opposite this, Alexandria, Clark Co., Mo. Three States as well as three counties thus met here. Pike continues with Illinois on his right, but now has Iowa instead of Missouri on his left.
Fort Edwards was a position of importance for some years. This military post was built on the east side of the Mississippi, 3 m. below the foot of the rapids, and directly opposite the two islands which divided the outlet of the Des Moines into three channels. Half a mile S. W. from the fort was Cantonment Davis, its precursor, abandoned when the works were completed. The locality is practically Warsaw. A full description of this establishment, as it was at the time of Long's visit in August, 1817, is given in his report, as printed in Minn. Hist. Col., II. Part 1, 1860; 2d ed. 1890, pp. 77-80. It had been building since June, 1816, and was not quite finished in 1817.
[I-18] Some light—at least that light in which he was regarded—is thrown on Mr. Ewing by a letter before me from General James Wilkinson to General Henry Dearborn, Secretary at War, dated St. Louis, Dec. 3d, 1805: "In a former letter you have asked me who this Ewing was? I can give you no further Information than that I found Him in a place, which He is utterly unqualified to fill—He is I understand placed at the River Desmoin, to teach the Indians the Arts of Agriculture, but has I believe given but a wretched example—This is I think the Third visit he has made since my arrival to this place, and I expect his disbursements which are supplied by Mr. Chouteau may exceed expectation—He appears to be a young man of innocence, levity & simplicity—without experience or observation."
[I-19] The rapids named from their situation above the mouth of Des Moines r. have also been known as the Lower rapids, in distinction from those higher up about the mouth of Rock r. These formidable obstacles to navigation have been overcome by modern engineering skill, but Pike's curt notice of the channel is clearly recognizable. The river was bridged by the Wabash road between Hamilton and Keokuk, in 1869-70 (Act of Congr., July 25th, 1866); the town lock and chain are within a mile or so of the bridge. Then succeed the English, Lamalee, and Spanish chains, and the Upper chain at the head of the rapids. The distance is about 11 m. Sandusky, Ia., was located between the English and Lamalee chains; Nashville, Ia., at the Spanish chain; Solferino, Ia., above the last; at or near one of these last two is Galland, Ia.; and on the Illinois side is a place called Sonora. On that side Cheney cr. falls in at Hamilton, and higher up are two others, known as Golden's and Quarry Sugar, but which used to be called Wagoner's and Larry's; while on the Iowan side Price's cr. falls in at the middle lock, Lamalee's at Sandusky, and several smaller ones at various points. The railroad and canal hug the Iowan side. At the head of the rapids the river makes a sharp bend; in the concavity of this bend stands Nauvoo, Ill., originally a Mormon settlement; it used to be called also Commerce. This is the place where Mr. Ewing had his establishment when he entertained Pike; the latter charts it as "U. S. Agricultural Estabt." The Sac village opposite was on the site of the present town of Montrose, Ia. A large creek runs through this town. There are some islands at the head of the rapids, between Nauvoo and Montrose, one of which, No. 401 of the Miss. Surv. chart, is called Montrose. At the head of the bend, still opp. Nauvoo, is the lower end of Dobson's slough, which receives a stream charted by Nicollet and Owen as Sugar cr., but later dedicated to his Satanic majesty by the name of Devil's or Big Devil cr., called by Beltrami Manitou cr. Devil's isl. is the name of the large tract, nearly 4 m. long, which is isolated by Dobson's slough, certain sections of which latter are known as Big River and Potter's.
[I-20] James Wilkinson: see elsewhere for this letter, which formed Doc. No. 1, App. to Pt. 1. of the orig. ed. of this work. Pike's 5 or 6 m. takes him past Dobson's slough and Devil's or Sugar cr. and isl., and the sand-bar on which he camped is now represented by Niota isl., 2½ m. long, or one of the small ones close by. The locality is the well-known one of the city of Madison, or Fort Madison, seat of Lee Co., Ia. Opposite this city, in Hancock Co., Ill., are two little places, one called Niota, and the other Appannose (Nicollet), Appanoose (G. L. O. map), Appanooce (Miss. Surv. chart), etc. A certain creek which falls in by Niota and is known as Tyson's cr. seems to be the never-identified one which Lewis and Clark mapped in 1814 as Sand Bank cr.
A history of Lee Co., pub. Chicago, 1879, says that the city of Fort Madison was so called from the old fort and trading-post of that name. The author speaks of the tradition that this establishment was built by Zachary Taylor, when this distinguished general, afterward president of the United States, was a lieutenant in the army; and attempts to refute this tradition by an appeal to the War Department for the facts in the case. But unluckily, the information he derived from this source was erroneous; for the Hon. Geo. W. McCrary, then secretary of war, told him that the adjutant-general of the army reported to him (McCrary) that Fort Madison was erected by Pike in 1805. Whereas, besides imperishable renown, Pike erected nothing in 1805 but his stockade on Swan r., and various patriotic flag-poles. The difference between selecting or recommending a site for a fort, and building one on that site, is obvious at sight. But Pike did not even select or recommend this spot for a fort, the lowest one of several which he did pick out being at Burlington: see next note. Z. Taylor was a 1st lieut. of the 7th Infantry in 1808, appointed from Ky.; which fact, as far as it goes, supports the tradition. The Andreas Hist. Atl. of Ia. has it that the fort for which the town was named was built in 1808; evacuated and burned by hostile Indians, 1813 (qu. 1812?). On Monday, Aug. 4th, 1817, when Long visited the ruins of Fort Madison, there was nothing left but some old chimneys, a covert way leading from the main garrison to some sort of an elevated outwork in the rear, and a number of fruit-trees on the ground which had been a garden: see Minn. Hist. Soc. II., Part 1, 1860, 2d ed. 1890, p. 75. In the fall of 1832 one Peter Williams settled on the present site of the town. The old trading-house there was called Le Moine factory. The old fort stood close to the river, and as I judge within a third of a mile of the present State penitentiary.
[I-21] About 18 m., to a position above the mouth of Skunk r., a little below the Burlington bluffs; he calls it 5¼ m. to the locality he presently describes with particularity, and which will be recognized as the site of Burlington, seat of Des Moines Co., Ia. After passing Madison on his left, with Niota and Appanoose on his right, he goes up by Pontoosuc and Dallas, both in Hancock Co., Ill., and then has Henderson Co., Ill., on his right. Further up, on the left, Lee Co. is separated from Des Moines Co., Ia., by Skunk r. This is a large stream, whose present pleasant name translates the Indian word rendered Shikagua by Nicollet, and Shokauk by Featherstonhaugh; Lewis and Clark map it as Polecat r. Beltrami, 1828, calls it Polecat r. and River of the Bête Puante. Green Bay is a small place in Lee Co., on a sort of slough which discharges into the river behind Lead isl., and which is called Green bay. This is connected in some way, which for me remains occult, with a creek called by Nicollet Lost cr.; it is a part of the intricate waters between Skunk r. and that stream which runs through Madison past the State penitentiary, where the bridge that was built in 1887-88 strikes the Iowa side. Jollyville was a place on the same waters, but seems to have been lost like the creek. Some of the islands besides Lead, the present positions of which Pike passed, if not these islands themselves, are now known as Dutchman, Hog, Polk, Thompson, Peel, and Twin, the latter at the mouth of Skunk r. His camp I suppose to have been about on the spot where one Sauerwein used to keep his woodyard, about halfway between Twin isls. and the mouth of Spruce (or Spring) cr. This is nearly opp. the middle of the great island now called Burlington, formerly Big, being 7 m. long, separated from the Illinois mainland by Shokokon slough, on which there is or was a place called by this latter name. A number of creeks make into this slough, among them those called Dug Out, Honey (Camp cr. of Nicollet and Owen), and Ellison's. A place called Montreal started near Ellison's cr., but does not seem to have survived. What Pike maps as "Sand bank Creek," at a place he calls "Sand Bay," seems to be Dug Out cr., or the next one below, which falls into the slough behind Thompson's isl., near Dallas City.
[I-22] This is the prairie through which meanders Henderson r., 6 m. above Burlington. The Sac village was on its north bank. The prairie and the village are lettered on the map as per text; the river is shown there, without name; the Burlington bluffs are delineated, marked "Positions for a Fort." The present city was built across the mouth of Hawkeye cr., a rivulet which makes in above the steepest part of the bluff, where the Flint hills recede a little from the river; it extends to the larger Flint cr. or r., at whose mouth it may be said to be situated. Across the Mississippi is East Burlington, Ill., at the head of Shokokon slough; the bridge which the C., B. and Q. R. R. built in 1867-68 spans the river and connects the two places. There are numerous islands above Burlington, the principal of which are O'Connell's, Rush, and Otter. Above Henderson r. there is nothing of special note till we reach Oquawka, seat of Henderson Co., Ill., reckoned 13 m. by the channel above Burlington. Pike omits his customary mileages to-day, but did not get beyond Oquawka, which is at the head of the prairie on which he camped; for here begin some steep banks, known before and since Pike's day as the Yellow banks. He marks them on his map, and they are mentioned by the same name in Forsyth's narrative of 1819.
[I-23] We are not told which side of the river this was, and the sentence is otherwise ambiguous, as all streams hereabouts are branches of the river. We know he means a bayou or slough, by following which he expected soon to regain the Mississippi ahead of his boats, and I suppose that Huron slough, on the Iowa side, led him astray. The slough itself is not long, merely cutting off Huron and some smaller islands for four miles; but this receives Iowa slough, which meanders toward the river, and so would take Pike and Bradley away from the river if they followed it up. This supposition is strengthened by Pike's using the word "savannah," which with him means rather marsh or bog than prairie, and he would hardly have applied it to the better ground on the Illinois side if he had gone there and been misled by Henderson r. Moreover, he continues to camp on the west side, as he would naturally do after loss of the two men who went to find his dogs; and also he expected to recover the men at the place above where the hills first come down to the river, which is at Muscatine, Ia. He does not say who these men were; they were not recovered till Sept. 1st, at Dubuque.
[I-24] This mileage is excessive, as are all those hence to Rock Island or Davenport, the distance of which by the channel is 70 m. from Oquawka, though Pike makes it 92. Moreover, the distance from Oquawka to New Boston, directly opposite the mouth of the Iowa r., is only 18 m., and Pike remains below the Iowa r. to-day. What with sloughing it, losing his dogs, and waiting for his men, he did not get much beyond Keithsburg, Mercer Co., Ill., which we may safely take as to-day's datum-point. This is built under a bank at the mouth of Pope's cr., and so far answers the requirements of Pike's camp opposite it. The situation is in Louisa Co., Ia., but a little distance over the boundary of Des Moines Co. Excepting Keithsburg, no notable point is passed to-day. A place called Huron was started on the slough of that name, but it never came to anything. Huron isl. is called Thieves' isl. on some maps. The large one (No. 355) opp. Keithsburg, and crossed by the railroad, is separated from the Iowan side by Black Hawk slough.
[I-25] Pike delineates "Sand Bank" on his map directly opposite the mouth of Iowa r. This is the site of New Boston, Mercer Co., Ill. The bank comes immediately upon the river with a frontage of 2 m., and Edwards r. falls in at the foot of the bank, 3½ m. above Pope's r. At New Boston the Mississippi turns sharply, so that the mouth of Iowa r. is rather on the S. than W.; and the bank on which is the town recedes northward, leaving low ground between itself and the Mississippi, watered by the ramifications of Sturgeon bay, Illinois slough, Swan lake, etc. This is what Pike means by his "Sand-bank prairie on the E. side." As to that "marked Grant's prairie," I should observe that no such name appears on the map as published; Pike referred to his immense original draft in water-colors, now preserved in the War Department, and from which the small printed map was reduced with the omission of too many details. What he means by Grant's prairie is the lowlands on the Iowa side before you come to Muscatine, which is the point where the hills first reach the river-side. Compare Apr. 26th, 1806. Grant's prairie is now known as Muscatine isl., being virtually cut off by Muscatine slough, whose lower mouth is hardly 2 m. above the Iowa r., though the upper entrance is at Muscatine—a distance of some 18-20 m. At one point this slough dilates into a body of water which is now called Keokuk lake, but which was charted by Nicollet as "L. Maskuding or in the Prairie." Here are obviously the origin and meaning of the name "Muscatine." The town now so called was once known as Bloomington. I suspect that "Grant's" prairie in Pike may be intended for Grande prairie; thus Beltrami calls it Grande Prairie Mascotin, II. p. 196, and Forsyth has Grand Mascoutin. There was a place started by the name of Port Louisa on the Iowan side of the river, near one of the openings of Muscatine slough; but it seems to have disappeared after bequeathing the name to the county, whose seat is now Wapello. As to Pike's "28" miles to-day, that is best disposed of by observing that to-morrow he drags his boat "nine miles, to where the river Hills join the Mississippi," i. e., to Muscatine. So he camps on the Iowan side, a certain distance below Muscatine. We shall not be far out if we set him exactly on the boundary between Louisa and Muscatine cos., opp. the lower end of Blanchard's isl., behind the middle of which Copperas or Copper cr. falls in on the Illinois side.
The great Iowa r. should not be passed without remark. For the name in its extreme fluidity, see Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, p. 20. Some still more singular forms of the word than those there noted reach us from the time when the French writers and cartographers used the figure 8 for the letters ou; so that "Iowa" was liable to appear as Ay8ay (Ayouay), or in some such form: Neill cites forms sing. and pl. as Aye8ias, Ayo8ois, Ayooues, Ayavois, Ayoois, Ayouez, Ayoes, Aaiaoua, to which I can add Aiavvi; another series of words flows from the introduction of J or j: thus Pike, early text, 1807, p. 5, has Jowa, and I have noticed also Ajoe, Jaway, Joway, Jowah, etc. Beltrami, 1828, has Yawoha, Yahowa, and Yawowa. This river-system waters a great portion of the State, on courses S., S. E., and E. Pike says elsewhere that in ascending it 36 m. you come to a fork, the right-hand branch of which is called Red Cedar r. Waiving any question of distance, this is correct; and moreover, Red Cedar is the larger of the two forks, though by a very unusual freak of nomenclature the united stream Iowa takes the name of the lesser fork. He further says that Red Cedar r. branches out 300 m. from its mouth; which triple forking is "called the Turkey's foot." This term seems to have lapsed; the situation is in Black Hawk Co., above Cedar Falls, and one of the turkey's toes is called Shell Rock r. The notable town of Cedar Rapids is lower down, in Linn Co. The confluence of Iowa r. proper with Red Cedar is at Fredonia, Louisa Co.; Pike's map represents this by the pitchfork-shaped object, though it is not lettered with any name. He marks a village of Iowas "about 10 miles up," on the "right" bank, i. e., on the right-hand side going up, left bank. Iowa r. presents the anomaly of a great river with nothing to speak of at its mouth (New Boston is across the Mississippi). "Iowa City" seems never to have got much beyond its original wood-pile, and a similar "city" which Nicollet charts by the name of Black Hawk would be hard to find now. There is, however, a little place called Toolsboro, under the hill on the left bank, 2 m. above the mouth of the Iowa.
[I-26] Pirogues: see L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 4. Pike uses this form consistently. The most amusing variant of the word I have noticed occurs in Shea's Hennepin's Descr. Louisiana, Eng. tr., 1880, p. 156, where we read, "a number of parrakeets and about eighty cabins full of Indians," and an editorial note informs us that "the French printer put peroquets, but Margry's Relation gives the real word, 'pirogues,' 'canoes.'"
[I-27] The distance between Muscatine and Rock Island is 28 or 29 m. by the channel. As Pike has 6 or 8 m. to go before reaching Muscatine, makes "28½" to-day, and "22" to-morrow, we can confidently set him down to-night halfway between these two places—say vicinity of Montpelier, Muscatine Co., Ia., 4 or 5 m. below Buffalo, Ia., and Andalusia, Ill. There is no specially notable point in this whole stretch, after Muscatine is passed; the most of a place is Fairport, Ia., 3 m. above Tahma or Sweetland cr. Several places that were started seem to have died young, if they were not stillborn; we find on older maps such as Geneva, somewhere between Muscatine and Fairport on the Iowa side, and Wyoming, apparently in the same position as Fairport now is. Between Muscatine and Fairport the river is or was recently divided into Drury slough, Wyoming slough, and Hersey chute betwixt these. Pine cr. falls in on the Iowan side, 2½ m. above Fairport. Opposite Fairport the long Andalusia slough opens, running down on the Illinois side all the way from Andalusia, a distance of 9 m. Pike's camp was probably on the Iowan side (still in Muscatine Co.); across the river he has Rock Island Co., Ill.
[I-28] Actually about 16 m., to one of the most definite locations of the voyage thus far, in the heart of the present city of Davenport, seat of Scott Co., Ia., and directly opposite Rock Island, seat of Rock Island Co., Ill. Soon after passing present site of Montpelier, Pike went from Muscatine into Scott Co., Ia. Next are the two towns directly opposite each other, of Buffalo, Ia., and Andalusia, Ill.; the former is marked N. Buffalo on Nicollet's map; the other is called Rockport on Owen's map, or Rockport was then where Andalusia is now. Linwood, Ia., is a small place 2 m. above Buffalo; and 3 m. above this was the site of Rockingham, Ia. This last was started directly opposite the mouth of Rock r., but never flourished. In fact there is probably no place on the Mississippi where more mushroom towns have been projected on paper by unscrupulous speculators than about the mouth of Rock r.; and we observe that they mostly had resounding names, well known in other parts of the world. A certain Stephensonville is marked on Nicollet's map, apparently in the present position of the city of Rock Island. In the mouth of Rock r. is a triangular island, dividing the two outlets, and opposite this is Credit isl. (No. 312), 1½ m. long. Pike's camp in Davenport was probably about opposite the lower point of Rock isl., 2½ m. long; this is No. 307 of the Engineers' chart, and its lower end was utilized for the bridge built in 1869-72 by the C., R. I. and P. R. R. (Act of Congr., July 26th, 1868).
La Rivière de Roche, or à la Roche, of the French, which Pike and others call Stoney or Stony and Rocky or Rock r., and which is now known by the latter name, is the second largest in Illinois. It arises in Wisconsin, in the region S. of Lake Winnebago, leaves that State at Beloit, and holds a general S. W. course through Illinois to the Mississippi. It used to be called Kickapoo r.—a name traceable to R. des Kicapous of Franquelin's map, 1688. Pike gives its source as near Green bay of L. Michigan, and ascribes a length of 450 m., 300 of them navigable. His map letters "The largest Sac Vill." on its S. side near the mouth, about the present position of Milan, and delineates the extensive rapids of the Miss. r., above its mouth, which the text of the 28th describes. Rock r. afforded one of the five or six principal waterways between the Great Lakes and the Miss. r., the connection being made above the Horicon marshes by portage from the small stream which falls into L. Winnebago at Fond du Lac. But this way was less eligible than the Fox-Wisconsin route.
[I-29] See Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, pp. 1202, 1203, 1211. James Aird and his brother George were among the Sioux traders at the mouth of the Minnesota or St. Pierre r. in 1803 and thereafter; others similarly engaged then and there were Archibald Campbell, Duncan Graham, and Francis M. Dease.
[I-30] Davenport, Ia., to Le Claire, Ia., 16 m. by water; Rock Island, Ill., to Port Byron, Ill., 17 m.; actual extent of the rapids somewhat less than either of these distances. The chains, in ascending series, are called Lower, Moline, Duck Creek, Winnebago, Campbell's, St. Louis, Crab Island, Sycamore, Smith's, Upper. The principal islands are: Rock, No. 307, 2½ m. long, with the little ones called Papoose (No. 308), Benham's, and Sylvan, alongside; Campbell's, opp. Watertown, Ill.; Spencer's, opp. Hampton, Ill., on the Iowan side; and Fulton's. A number of creeks make in on both sides; among them are Duck, Crow, and Spencer's, on the Iowan side, and the one on the Illinois side which falls in by Watertown, name unknown to me. The rapids were formerly guarded by Fort Armstrong, occupying an eligible site on the extreme lower end of Rock isl. A good account of this post, as it was in 1817, is found in Long's Expedition of that year, printed in 1860 and reprinted in 1890, in Part I of II. of the Minn. Hist. Coll., pp. 67-73. The places on the Illinois side are: Moline, 3½ m. above Rock Island; Watertown, 5 m. above Moline; Hampton, 1 m. above Moline; Rapids City, 4½ m. above Hampton; Port Byron, 1 m. further; land distances less than by river-channel. On the Iowan side, between Davenport and Le Claire, are places called Gilberttown or Gilbert, opp. Moline, and Valley City or Pleasant Valley, opp. Hampton. Pike does not say where he camped at the head of the rapids; but it was no doubt at Le Claire, as the channel ran on the Iowan side.
[I-31] This Fox Indian village is located on Pike's map, but without name. It was on the Iowan side, above the rapids—not at Le Claire, but somewhat further up, at or near present town of Princeton, Scott Co., Ia. Forsyth in 1819 speaks of "the Little Fox village, 9 miles above the rapids." A mile above Princeton, on the Illinois side, is Cordova, marked Cordawa on Owen's map, and Berlin on Nicollet's.
[I-32] At 4 m. above Cordova, Pike passed on the left or Iowan side a river whose name is perhaps the most remarkable thing about it: Wabisapencun, Pike's map; Wabisipinekan, Pike's text, further on; Wabisapincun, Lewis and Clark's map of 1814; Wapisipinacon, Long's; Wabezipinikan, Nicollet's; Wabesapinica, Featherstonhaugh's; Wapsipinicon, Owen's and U. S. Eng'rs'; Wapsipinecon, G. L. O. No two original authors agree, and when one tries to copy another he is liable to be foiled by his printer. But the river runs on just the same, through several Iowan counties, on a general S. E. course, approximately parallel in most of its extent with Red Cedar r. It also does duty as the boundary between Scott and Clinton cos., Ia., along most of their apposed extent. There are several islands about its mouth; one of them is called Adams. Opposite the mouth of the W——n r., for a space of about 8 m. along the Illinois side of the Mississippi, the hills recede, leaving a low place in which the body of water known as Marais d'Osier, or Lake Willowmarsh, is situated: see Pike's map, in the interval between his "High Prairie" (ending at Cordova) and his "Rocky Hills" (beginning about Albany). Beltrami, II. 196, calls this Marais d'Ogé, and says it was "inhabited by a savage of the same name"! Beltrami's bosom friend, Major Long, has a still more startling rendition of the phrase, as Mer a Doge, in Minn. Hist. Coll., II. Part 1, 1860, 2d ed. 1890, p. 67. It appears as Mare de Oge on an Illinois atlas before me. From Le Claire to Albany is 18 m.; Pike probably did not get quite so far as this, but for convenience of keeping tally we will assume that he did, and set him on the lower point of the great Beaver isl. (No. 291), at the mouth of Comanche slough, directly opposite Albany, Whiteside Co., Ill.; nearest place on the other side is Comanche or Camanche, Clinton Co., Ia. Beaver isl. is 3 m. long, and extends up to Clinton, the county seat.
[I-33] The distance by river-channel from Albany to Dubuque is reckoned 72 m. Pike's figures are 43 + 31½ + 25 = 99½ m. The required reduction of mileage is about one-fourth off; applying which to the "43" m. of the 30th, we find Pike somewhere in the vicinity of Apple r., and may most conveniently set him at its mouth. Decamping on the 30th, he first made the stretch of Beaver isl., past Cedar and Cat-tail crs., right, and came to Clinton. The original name of this city, or of its site, was New York; both these terms seem to point back to the time when Governor Dewitt C. Clinton was popular. The river was spanned here by the bridge built by the C. and N. W. R. R. in 1864-65, utilizing island No. 290. Two or three miles above stand, facing each other, Lyons, Clinton Co., Ia., and Fulton, Whiteside Co., Ill.; around the other side of the hill N. of Fulton, Otter cr. falls in. The line of hills on the Iowan side comes to the river a mile above Lyons, but at once recedes again, leaving along the river-side what is called the Pomme de Terre, Potato, or Ground Apple prairie, at the head of which Elk r. or cr. falls in, 8 m. above Lyons. The recession of the hills on the Illinois side from Fulton is much greater for a space of 16 m., where there is low ground for some miles back from the river, sloughy the whole way near the river, and thus making various islands, the largest of which are called Fulton and Savanna. Near the head of Fulton isl. is a little place named Thompson, in Carroll Co., Ill. The line of Whiteside and Carroll cos. strikes the river about halfway between Fulton (town) and Thompson. On the Iowan side, the line of Clinton and Jackson cos. is between Elk r. and Sabula. The latter town, or its site, used to be called Charleston. It naturally grew after 1881, when the C., M. and St. P. R. R. built the bridge here, under Act of Congr., Apr. 1st, 1872. The site of Sabula is called Prairie du Frappeur, Beltrami, II. p. 196, where it is said to have been "inhabited by a savage of that name." Before crossing the river, the track ran for a couple of miles on Savanna isl., at the head of which Plum r. falls in; and immediately above this point is Savanna, Carroll Co., Ill., 2½ m. from Sabula. The high ground comes close to the river at Savanna, but on the Iowan side there is sloughy bottom for 4 m. above Sabula, all this lowland being known as Keller's isl.; above this, higher ground comes to the river-side at Keller's bar. Rush or Big Rush cr. falls in on the Illinois side 5 m. above Savanna, and 2 m. further is the mouth of La Pomme or Apple r., nearly up to the boundary between Carroll and Jo Daviess cos., Ill. One Arnold used to have his landing a mile below Apple r., about where we suppose Pike to have camped.
[I-34] Whatever the exact distance represented by this mileage, we have to set the Expedition down in a very unhealthy place to-night, as will presently appear. Soon after decamping from Apple r.,—that is, in 5 miles' distance by the channel, Pike passes on his left a notable stream, which he elsewhere calls the Great Macoketh. This is Makokety r. of Nicollet, Maquoketa r. of others, whose name is now usually spelled Makoqueta. This is also the designation of the county seat of Jackson, situated upon the river. It falls in opposite Sand prairie, about where the line between Carroll and Jo Daviess cos. strikes the river. The "beautiful eminence on the W." which Pike observed is Leopold hill, near Bellevue, Jackson Co., Ia. This town existed before Nicollet's map was made, as he marks it by name. The locality called Chéniere by Beltrami II. 196, was hereabouts. He gives it on the W., 10 m. above his R. la Pomme. The hills begin to approach the river four or five miles below Bellevue, and so continue with little interruption to Dubuque. The trough of the river is similar on the Illinois side, but the hills do not hug the river so closely, leaving a stretch of sloughy bottom, especially at the delta of the Galena r. This is the insalubrious place of encampment. The Galena was long named, and is still sometimes called, Fever r. The same slough by which it discharges receives Smallpox cr.; and on the Iowan side, opposite Harris slough, which is the upper end of the Fever delta, a creek falls in known as Tête du Mort, or Tête des Morts. It must have been a choice region of saturnine and miasmatic poisons, as the victims of lead-palsy and ague-cake who lived on Fever r. had the option of moving down on Smallpox cr. or over to Death's-head cr. The place to avoid is pointed out to Mississippian tourists by Pilot Knob, an isolated eminence on the prairie near the variolous creek, 3 m. S. of the city of Galena, which is about the same distance up the febrile stream. The cranial creek is said to have been so named on account of the number of skulls which resulted from an Indian fight there. On this point Beltrami, 1828, II. p. 160, has "a place called the Death's-heads; a field of battle where the Foxes defeated the Kikassias [Kaskaskias?], whose heads they fixed upon poles as trophies of their victory. We stopped at the entrance of the river la Fièvre, a name in perfect conformity with the effect of the bad air which prevails there." Nor do I know what terrors may be hidden under the name of Sinsinawa cr., which makes in a mile or two higher up, on the Illinois side. Two of the sloughs at the delta are called respectively Harris' and Spratt's; a third is Stone slough. One Gordon established a ferry here, many years ago, and a place on the Iowan side, close to the boundary between Jackson and Dubuque cos., is still known as Gordon's ferry. Regarding the nomenclature of Galena r., we should not omit to cite here Keating's Long's Exp. of 1823, published 1824, I. p. 212, where it is stated that Smallpox cr. and Fever r. are the same: "a small stream, called by the Indians Mekabea Sepe, or Small-pox river; it is the Riviere de la Fievre, which is said to enter the Mississippi opposite to Dubuque's mines." Probably not much weight attaches to this observation, which Major Long only made parenthetically, and evidently at second-hand information, in speaking of a badger which his party had killed and cooked; though it is also quite possible that Galena r. once rejoiced in both names, one of which was later conferred upon the small creek which enters its delta. That Long knew the Galena as La Fièvre r. is certain, for he uses the latter name, though without any accent, in the narrative of his voyage of 1817, in speaking of reaching it on Monday, July 28th, of that year. See Minn. Hist. Coll., II. Part 1, 1860; 2d ed. 1890, p. 66. It appears that Long's MS. of his voyage of 1817 was placed in Prof. Keating's hands when the latter was preparing for publication the history of Long's Expedition of 1823. This source of information was freely drawn upon; in fact, I do not see that Prof. Keating did not fully avail himself of this opportunity to editorially embody in the narrative of 1823 the whole substance of the 1817 materials, in so far as Major Long went over the same ground in the two expeditions. But the earlier narrative contains considerable matter not pertinent to the later one, inasmuch as Major Long in 1817 traversed a long section of the Mississippi that he did not retrace in 1823. On this particular account, as well as for more general reasons, it was desirable and eminently fitting that Long's Expedition of 1817 should be published; and that was first done in long after-years by my friend, the late Rev. Edw. D. Neill, the veteran Minnesota historian, who received the MS. for this purpose from Dr. Edwin James, then of Burlington, Ia. (who d. Oct. 28th, 1861). As originally published under Dr. Neill's careful editorship, the article was entitled: "Voyage in a Six-Oared Skiff to the Falls of Saint Anthony in 1817. By Major Stephen H. Long, Topographical Engineer United States Army," and formed Part 1 of Vol. II. of the Minn. Hist. Coll., 1860 (about 80 pages); 2d ed. 1890, half-title and introductory note by E. D. N., one leaf; journal, pp. 9-83; map and appendix, prepared by A. J. Hill, pp. 84-88. Major Long's movements of 1817 occupied 76 days, of which the journal here printed covers the period from July 9th to Aug. 15th, both inclusive, or 38 days; as it picks up Major Long after his return to Prairie du Chien from a tour of the Fox-Wisconsin portage, takes him from that Prairie to the falls, and returns him to Bellefontaine, near the mouth of the Missouri. The objects of this voyage were to meander the upper Mississippi and take its topography, with special reference to the selection of military sites. It was performed in a boat furnished by Governor William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis. Its most important single result was the speedy occupation of the mouth of St. Peter's r. for a military post, at first called Fort St. Anthony, and in 1824 named Fort Snelling; but the narrative is replete with matter of permanent historical and scientific interest. Major Long was a conscientious, competent, and well-equipped explorer, as all three of his important and memorable expeditions attest. The present expedition is the only one of which we have the account from his own pen, as Dr. James and Prof. Keating, respectively, were the authors of the other two. Stephen Harriman Long, of New Hampshire, was appointed from that State a second lieutenant of Engineers Dec. 12th, 1814, and brevetted major of Topographical Engineers Apr. 29th, 1816, though his actual majority in that corps was not reached till July 7th, 1838. He became colonel Sept. 9th, 1861, was retired June 1st, 1863, and died at Alton, Ill., Sept. 4th, 1864.
[I-35] This Dubuque matter formed a part of Doc. No. 2 of App. to Part 1 of the orig. ed., p. 5, and will be found beyond: see Chap. v. Art. 3. The document was transmitted to General Wilkinson by Pike from Prairie du Chien.
[I-36] Chippewas, or Ojibways—of whom Pike has much to say in this volume. The French nickname he uses, found also as Saulteurs, Saulteux, Saltiaux, Sautiers, Saltiers, Soutors, Soters, etc., was not given because these Indians were better jumpers than any others, but because the band of Chippewas whom it originally designated lived about the Sault de Sainte Marie, or St. Mary's falls, of Lake Superior. The term afterward became synonymous with Chippewas or Ojibways in a broad sense. On the map of Champlain's Voy., Paris, 1632, the Sault is marked du Gaston, for the brother of Louis XIII., and there located between Mer Douce and Grand Lac, i. e., between Lakes Huron and Superior. The chute seems to have been first heard of about 1616-18, from one Étienne Bruslé, or Stephen Broolay. In 1669, when the Jesuits reached the place, they changed the name to compliment the B. V. M. There is no doubt that Ojibwa or Ojibway is preferable to Chippewa or Chippeway, as a name of the tribe; but the latter is best established, both in official history and in geography, and may be most conveniently retained. These are the same word, etymologically, and are mere samples of the extraordinary profusion of forms in which the name exists. Very likely 50 different combinations of letters could be produced, some of them bearing little resemblance to one another. The meaning of the name is in chronic dispute. The linguistic sages seem to be agreed that the word has something to do with puckering; but whether it refers to the place which is puckered up between the two lakes above said, or to the way the moccasins of these Indians were puckered along a peculiar seam, or to the habits of these Indians of torturing with fire till the skins of their prisoners were puckered by burning to a crisp, are questions much agitated. The learned Anglojibway, Hon. W. W. Warren, historian of his tribe, takes the latter view, saying: "The word is composed of o-jib, 'pucker up,' and ub-way, 'to roast,' and it means, 'to roast till puckered up.'" Mr. Warren adduces also the name Abboinug, literally Roasters, given by the Ojibways to the Sioux, from the same horrid practice. He says that the Ojibways, as a distinct tribe or people, denominate themselves Awishinaubay. Probably the best account we possess of these Indians is that given in the Minn. Hist. Coll., V. of which is almost entirely devoted to the subject (pp. 1-510, 1885). This consists of Warren's history, based on traditions, and of Neill's, based on documents. The two thus admirably complement each other, and are preceded by a memoir of Warren, by J. Fletcher Williams.
[I-37] Our name of these Siouan Indians comes from their Algonkin appellation, which reached us through an assortment of French forms like Ouinipigou (as Vimont, Relation, 1640), etc., several of which have served as the originals of place-names now fixed in current usage. The term Puants, meaning Stinkers, was the French nickname. It is found as Puans, Pauns, Pawns, Paunts, etc., originated very early, and was much in vogue. On the old map cited in the foregoing note appears the legend "La Nation des Puans," though these Indians, with their Green bay, are marked on it N. instead of S. of Lakes Superior and Huron. The Stinkards gave occasion for a Latin synonym, as seen in the phrase "Magnus Lacus Algonquiniorum seu Lacus Fœtentium" of De Creux's map, Hist. Canada, Paris, 1664. They were also called Gens de Mer, Sea People. Jean Nicolet of Cherbourg in France, in the service of Champlain's Hundred Associates, believed to have been the first white man to enter Green bay, in July, 1634, calls them by their own name of themselves, which he renders Ochunkgraw, and which later acquired a variety of forms: see note44, p. 39, and Butterfield's Disc. N. W., 1881, passim, esp. p. 38.
[I-38] Pike did not get far from Dubuque, if he left at 4 p. m. He probably stopped at the first convenient place to camp above the bluff, in the vicinity of Little Makoqueta r.—perhaps on the spot where Sinipi, Sinipee, or Sinope was started. In bringing him up to Dubuque from the Galena delta we have not much to note: Suisinawa, Sinsinawa, or Sinsinniwa r., right; Menomonee cr., right, and Catfish cr., left, between which is Nine Mile isl.; Massey, Ia., town at Dodge's branch; East Dubuque, Ill., rather below the large city of Dubuque. This is the oldest establishment in Iowa, as the Canadian Frenchman Julien Dubuque came there in 1788; extinction of Indian title and permanent settlement not till 1833; town incorporated 1837; city charter, 1840; pop. 3,100 in 1850: for the rest, see any gazetteer or cyclopedia. With this day's journey Pike finishes Illinois, which has been on his right all the way, and takes Wisconsin on that side; but Iowa continues on his left. The interstate line runs on the parallel of 42° 30´ N., which cuts through Dubuque.
[I-39] From Dubuque to Cassville is only 30 m., and Pike was somewhat advanced beyond Dubuque when he started. "The mouth of Turkey river," opp. which he camped, is of course a fixed point; and this shows the required reduction of his "40" miles to somewhat under 30. Determinations like these would be proof, were any needed, of the proposition advanced at the start, that the set of mileages with which we have to deal require a discount of 20 to 25 per cent. as a rule. In making his "two short reaches," Pike passed his Little Macoketh, the Little Makoqueta r., on his left, and the extensive slough on his right which receives the discharges of Platte and Grant rivers. He maps the former river: see the unnamed stream on the left, where "Mr. Dubuques Houfe" and "Lead Mines" are lettered. The other two rivers are not laid down; they run in Grant Co., Wis. Beltrami, II. 196, has a locality on the W. said to be 16 m. above Dubuque's mines, and to be called Prairie Macotche, "from the name of a savage who inhabited it." This item is no doubt imaginary; but Macotche is clearly the same word as Makoqueta. Pike's "long reach" is the 15 m. or more where the river is straight; it begins about Specht's Ferry (opp. which the Potosi canal was dug for an outlet of Grant r.) and extends to Turkey r. On the left, about halfway along this stretch, is the town of Waupeton (Wahpeton, Warpeton, etc.), at or near which the boundary between Dubuque and Clayton cos. strikes the Mississippi; the town of Buenavista, Clayton Co., Ia., is 3½ m. higher, between Plum and Panther crs. On the right a snicarty 11 m. long connects Grant r. with Jack Oak slough, at the head of which Cassville is situated, at the mouth of Furnace cr., and obliquely opposite the mouth of Turkey r. Some places which started along the river have failed, or changed their names; I do not now find Osceola, which maps mark near the mouth of Platte r.; nor Lafayette, which started about the present site of Potosi, and is now marked by some dilapidated chimneys you will observe when the C., B. and Q. train stops at a sort of station there; nor Frenchtown and Finlay, both on the Iowan side, the latter at the mouth of a creek called Bastard on a map of 1857; nor Frankford, at or near Buenavista; nor Winchester, about the mouth of Turkey r. Whether by accident or design, Grant r. is lettered "Le Grand R." on Nicollet's map. The Fox village, whose women and children were so frightened at the sight of the Americans, is marked by Pike on the N. side of Turkey r., near its mouth, about where Winchester seems to have stood. Present Turkey R. Junction of the C., M. and St. P. R. R. is on the other side. This stream is "Turkies" r. of Beltrami, II. p. 196.
[I-40] Probably 19 m., Cassville to Clayton, Ia., whence he could go comfortably for breakfast to Wyalusing, Wis., or still nearer the Wisconsin r. Above the mouth of Turkey r. the Miss. r. is divided into two courses, called the Casville slough on the Wisconsin side and the Guttenberg channel on the Iowan side. The latter is the broadest course, but the former is, or was some years ago, the main channel. The two come together 10 m. above Cassville, and a mile or two above Glen Haven, Wis. Guttenberg, Ia., is 8 m. above Cassville, at the mouth of Miners, Miner's, or Miners' cr.; it seems to have been formerly called Prairie La Port, as marked on Nicollet's map. Buck or Back cr. falls in a mile above. Approaching Clayton the banks are high and abrupt on the Iowan side, but on the other the hills recede, leaving a sloughy bottom into which several creeks empty, one of them Sandy cr., which comes by a sort of sand-bank. In this vicinity there was a place called Cincinnati, Wis., which seems to have disappeared, like another called Kilroy, on the Iowan side. Owen's map marks Killroy, a Clayton Co. map of 1857 has Keleroy, and Nicollet lays down the sizable creek near which it appears to have been situated, now known as the Sny Magill. The distance from Clayton to Wyalusing is 3 m.; thence it is about the same to the Wisconsin r.
[I-41] R. des Ouisconsins on Hennepin's map, 1683, and thus near the modern form, though in the plural for the Indians and with ou for the letter w that the F. alphabet lacks; in Hennepin's text, passim, Ouscousin, Oviscousin, Onisconsin, Misconsin, etc., according to typesetter's fancy; Ouisconsing, Misconsing, etc., in La Salle, and there also Meschetz Odeba; Miscou, Joliet on one of his maps, Miskonsing on another; Ouisconching, Perrot; Ouisconsinc, Lahontan's map; Ouisconsing, Franquelin's map, 1688; Ouisconsin, Carver; variable in Pike; Owisconsin and Owisconsing in Beltrami; Wisconsan, consistently, in Long; Wisconsin in Nicollet, and most writers since his time. Were it not for La Salle's appearance on the Illinois r. in 1680, and his sending Hennepin down it to the Mississippi, when he dispatched Michael Accault and Antoine Auguelle from Fort Crêvecœur to trade with the Chaas, the Wisconsin would rank first in historical significance as a waterway to the Mississippi from the Great Lakes; and such priority of date is offset in favor of the Wisconsin as the best and most traveled route from the lakes to points below the Falls of St. Anthony. It was already an Indian highway when it was first known to the whites, and did not cease to be such when the paddle was exchanged for the paddlewheel. A pretty full account of the Fox-Wisconsin route will be rendered beyond in this work. There are accounts of white settlements, or at least trading-posts, at Prairie du Chien about 1755; but white men may have lived in this vicinity, if not upon the spot, long before that, for Franquelin's map of 1688 locates a certain Fort St. Nicolas in what appears to be the position of P. du Chien, as well as I can judge. Moreover, Joliet and Marquette reached the Mississippi r. by way of the Fox-Wisconsin, June 15th or 17th, 1673. Our most definite information, however, dates from Oct. 15th, 1766, when Carver came to the spot. He reached it by the Fox-Wisconsin route, went up the Mississippi as high as the river St. Francis, wintered 1766-67 up the St. Peter, returned to P. du C. in the summer of 1767, went up the Mississippi again to the Chippewa r., and by that river back to the Great Lakes in July, 1767. He called the place Prairie le Chien; at the time of his visit it was "a large town containing about 300 families," with houses well built after the Indian fashion, and a great trade center for all the country roundabout. Carver also called the place Dog Plains. This is plain as a transl. of the F., and nobody doubts what Prairie du Chien denotes; what it connotes, however, or its actual implication, is another question which has been much mooted. Pike states elsewhere in this work that the place—which, by the way, he seldom if ever calls Prairie du Chien, but de Chein, des Cheins, etc.—was named for Indians who lived here, known as Reynards, etc., and would translate this F. nickname either Fox, Wolf, or Dog; in one place he has Dog's Plain. But Wolf or Dog does not seem to have been the name used for this tribe, which, when they were not called Ottagamies (or by some form of that word) were either the Reynards of the French or the Foxes of the English and Americans. Beltrami, II., p. 170, has that "it takes its name from an Indian family whom the first Frenchmen met there, called Kigigad or Dog." The whole weight of evidence is on the side of a personal name in the singular number. Long states that P. du C. was named after an Indian who lived there and was called the Dog. This may bear on Pike's statement, and the latter may be explicable upon the understanding that it refers to certain Indians, not necessarily of the Reynard tribe, who were called Dog Indians, i. e., The Dog's Indians. Nicollet marks the Indian town by the Chippewa name, Kipy Saging; Schoolcraft renders this Tipisagi, with reference to the treaty of Prairie du Chien. At the time of Long's 1823 visit the village had about 20 dwelling-houses besides the stores, most of them old and some decaying; the pop. was about 150. He located the place as in lat. 43° 3´ 31´´ N., long. 90° 52´ 30´´ W.; magn. var. 8° 48´ 52´´ E. Long speaks of one Mr. Brisbois, who had long resided there; of Mr. Rolette of the Am. Fur Co.; and of Augustin Roque, a half-breed and whole-fraud, to whom we shall refer again. Fort Crawford began to be built July 3d, 1816, by the troops under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel William S. Hamilton of North Carolina, who had attained that rank in the 3d Rifles Feb. 21st, 1814, and who resigned from the army March 8th, 1817; it would hold four or five companies, but was a mean establishment, poorly built on a bad site, too near Rousseau channel and the Kipy Saging slough. Long relates that in 1822 the fort as well as the village was inundated, so that the water stood three or four feet deep on the parade ground and ran into the officers' quarters and the barracks, forcing the garrison to camp for a month on higher ground. One of the blockhouses of the fort was built on a mound which was large enough to have supported the whole establishment, though only the stockade ran up to it. Through the attentions of Wm. Hancock Clark of Detroit, Mich., I am in possession of a water-color picture of the fort, roughly but tellingly done by his illustrious grandfather, William Clark, who with Governor Lewis Cass effected the important treaty of P. du C., Aug. 19th, 1825. This measures 18 × 15 inches, and shows a part of the stockade straggling up to that one of the blockhouses which was on the hill or mound, as described by Long. The general effect upon the beholder is to suggest something of a cross between a penitentiary and a stockyard, but unsafe for criminals and too small for cattle. The remains are extant, and may be observed about 40 rods W. of the railroad track, half a mile S. of the station of the C., B. and Q. This Fort Crawford must not be confounded with the earlier one of the same name, built in 1812 or sooner, at the N. end of the town, close to Rousseau channel. This site was near the positions of the two early French settlements, as distinguished from the later one that grew up S. of the site of the second Fort Crawford. Our actual settlement, continued on as the Prairie du Chien of to-day, only dates from 1835 or thereabouts, after the cessation of Indian hostilities in that quarter; the town is now the seat of Crawford Co., Wis. It is in the very S. W. corner of the county, which is separated from Grant Co. by the Wisconsin r. The bridge across the Mississippi to N. McGregor was built in 1873-74 and altered in 1888; C., M. and St. P. R. R.; Act of Congr. legalizing, June 6th, 1874. Notwithstanding its prominent situation, its distinguished history, and its comparative antiquity, Prairie du Chien has never amounted to much, and probably never will. There is nothing the matter with the place—the trouble is with the people. The place to-day cuts a lesser figure than it did in Pike's time, when it was our extreme frontier post in that direction, and it continued to be such until Fort St. Anthony (Snelling) was built. A part of the difficulty is ecclesiastical; no priest-ridden community can expect to keep up with the times. Prairie du Chien is an antique curio, comparing with the rest of Wisconsin very much as Quebec does with Ontario—and for similar reasons.
[I-42] The bluff W. bank of the Miss. r., opp. P. du C., was later called Pike's mountain; which, says Long's MSS. of 1817, No. I, fol. 37, as cited by Keating, 1824, received its name from having been recommended by the late General Pike, in his journal, "as a position well calculated for the construction of a military post to command the Mississippi." But this recommendation is nowhere made in Pike's journal: it is made in a letter which Pike wrote to General Wilkinson from P. du C., this date of Sept. 5th, as the above text says, and which formed in the orig. ed. Doc. No. 2 of the App. to Part I—the same that covered the Dubuque report. The particular hill that Pike picked out does not differ from the general range of bluffs which extend on that side of the river for several miles, all of about the same elevation. But to be particular, it was that hill which stands between McGregor and N. McGregor. The original settlement of McGregor was called in the first instance McGregor's landing. This was 1½ mile below N. McGregor, built at the mouth of the creek that comes down by Pike's mountain. This stream used to be known as Giard or Gayard r. (latter on Pike's map), and these were common spellings of the name of a person otherwise known as Gaillard, of mixed French-Indian blood, said to have been, with Antaya and Dubuque, one of the three first white settlers at Prairie du Chien, and by Long to have died suddenly during the latter's expedition up the Wisconsin r. The present name of the creek is Bloody Run, which may easily have acquired if it did not deserve the designation in some one or more of the uncounted fierce collisions of this blood-brued region. But tradition, if not authentic history, ascribes the origin of the sanguinary title to the Nimrodic exploits of the celebrated Captain Martin Scott, a mighty hunter who used to kill so much game in that vicinity that he was said to have made this stream literally run with blood. But so much used to be told about Captain Scott—on whom was fathered in those parts the story of the coon which promised to come down if he would not shoot, elsewhere connected with the name of Davy Crockett—that the legends concerning him may pass for what they may be worth. The mouth of this creek is 3 m. below that of Yellow r., and the boundary between Clayton and Allamakee cos. strikes the Mississippi between the two, though very near the mouth of the latter.
[I-43] See note anteà, p. 5, where the phrase Cap au Grès is mentioned. Pike's term Petit Gris, elsewhere Petit Grey, would be preferably rendered Petit Cap au Grès, in the peculiar system of phonetics which our Parisian friends are wont to enjoy. This Little Sandstone bluff extends up the Wisconsin in the direction of Bridgeport. A small creek which comes down a break in the bluff, and empties into the N. side of the Wisconsin a mile above its mouth, is also named Petit Gris or Grès. There was also a Grand Grès in that vicinity—to judge from a creek I find on some maps by the name of Grandgris—perhaps the branch of the Wisconsin now known as Kickapoo r. Pike's recommendation of the Petit Grès as a military site was never acted upon.
[I-44] I think Pike never once hits what a grammarian would consider the proper way to write this phrase. Wherever he happens upon it, the gender or the number gets awry. The hitch in pluralizing seems to be because the first s is sounded before the initial vowel of the next word, but the last s is silent, because the French seldom articulate their letters at par. Folle avoine, literally "fool oat"—a phrase also reflected in the Latin term avena fatua—is the Canadian French name of the plant known to botanists as Zizania aquatica, and to us common folks as wild rice, wild oats, water-rice, water-oats, Indian or Canadian rice or oats, etc. My friend Prof. Lester F. Ward, whom I desired to prepare the botanical definitions for the Century Dictionary, and who did write them, with the assistance of Mr. F. H. Knowlton, after the lamented death of Prof. Sereno Watson, Prof. Asa Gray's successor at Cambridge, defines Zizania as "a genus of grasses, of the tribe Oryzeæ. It is characterized by numerous narrow unisexual spikelets in a long, loose androgynous panicle, each spikelet having two glumes and six stamens or two more or less connate styles." This would be news to the Menominees, though these Indians subsisted so largely upon the seeds of the plant that the French called them les Folles Avoines, and the English knew them as the Rice-eaters. This rice grows in profusion in all the lacustrine regions of the N. W., and is regularly harvested by all the Indians of that country, to be sold or bartered as well as eaten by them. Its great size, its purplish spike-like heads when ripe, and its omnipresence, render it one of the most conspicuous products of the region. The Indians do not cut the stalk as we reap our cereals, because the loose grains fall so readily that the easiest way to gather them is to simply shake or beat them into a canoe. As to the polyglot council which Pike held with the Puants, we may hope without believing that the Winnebagoes were deeply impressed by the combination of New Jersey and Canadian French which fell upon their ears through the Dakotan tongue. It is true that the Winnebagoes come of Siouan stock, and so have some linguistic affinity with the Sioux; but the dialect they acquired is conceded by all philologists to be peculiar to themselves, and peculiarly difficult to utter. The Winnebago spoken at this council was probably as different from the Dakotan as Latin is from its cognate Greek, or even as Pike's French was from that spoken in Montreal or Paris. The Winnebagoes call themselves by a name which is rendered Otchagra by Long, Howchungera by Featherstonhaugh, Hotcañgara by Powell; also Ochungarand, Hohchunhgrah, and in various other ways which authors prefer and printing-offices permit: see note37, p. 31. Since Charlevoix they have been known as Puans, Puants, or Stinkers—and they deserve to be. Their vernacular is noted for the predominance of the growler or dog-letter r, litera canina of the Latin grammarians.