CONTENTS OF VOLUME XIV
| [Preface to Volumes XIV-XVII. The Editor] | 9 |
| Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, performed in the Years 1819, 1820. By order of the Hon. J. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, under the command of Maj. S. H. Long, of the U. S. Top. Engineers. Compiled from the Notes of Major Long, Mr. T. Say, and other Gentlemen of the Party. [Part I, being chapters i-x of Volume I of the London edition, 1823.] Edwin James, Botanist and Geologist to the Expedition | |
| [Dedication] | 33 |
| [Preliminary Notice [from Philadelphia edition, 1823] | 35 |
| Text: | |
| [CHAPTER I]—Departure from Pittsburgh. North-western slope of Alleghany Mountains. Rapids of the Ohio | 39 |
| [CHAPTER II]—The Ohio below the Rapids at Louisville. Ascent of the Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio to St. Louis | 77 |
| [CHAPTER III]—Tumuli and Indian graves about St. Louis, and on the Merameg. Mouth of the Missouri. Charboniere. Journey by land from St. Charles to Loutre Island | 108 |
| [CHAPTER IV]—Settlement of Cote Sans Dessein. Mouths of the Osage. Manito Rocks. Village of Franklin | 136 |
| [CHAPTER V]—Death of Dr. Baldwin. Charaton River, and Settlement. Pedestrian Journey from Franklin to Fort Osage | 153 |
| [CHAPTER VI]—Mouth of the Konzas. Arrival at Wolf River. Journey by land from Fort Osage to the Village of the Konzas | 171 |
| [CHAPTER VII]—Further Account of the Konza Nation. Robbery of Mr. Say's Detachment by a War-party of Pawnees. Arrival at the Platte | 199 |
| [CHAPTER VIII]—Winter Cantonment near Council Bluff. Councils with the Otoes, Missouries, Ioways, Pawnees, &c. | 221 |
| [CHAPTER IX]—Animals. Sioux and Omawhaw Indians. Winter Residence at Engineer Cantonment | 250 |
| [CHAPTER X]—Account of the Omawhaws. Their Manners, and Customs, and Religious Rites. Historical Notices of Black Bird, Late Principal Chief | 288 |
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME XIV
PREFACE TO VOLUMES XIV-XVII
The present volume and the three which succeed it are devoted to a reprint of Edwin James's Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, performed in the Years 1819, 1820, . . . under the Command of Maj. S. H. Long. This exploration was the outcome, and almost the only valuable result, of the ill-starred project popularly known at the time as the Yellowstone expedition, which had been designed to establish military posts on the upper Missouri for the several purposes of protecting the growing fur-trade, controlling the Indian tribes, and lessening the influence which British trading companies were believed to exert upon them.[1] The movement gave rise to great expectations, for interest in our Western territories was already keen; it was confidently hoped that an era of rapid development was about to open in the trans-Mississippi region, under government initiative and protection. [2]
As originally planned, the scientific observations of the expedition were to be conducted by a company of specialists under the command of Major Long, to whom detailed instructions were issued by Secretary of War Calhoun.[3] The military branch, under Colonel Henry[pg010] Atkinson,[4] was set in motion in the autumn of 1818, and a considerable body of troops passed the following winter near the present site of Leavenworth, Kansas. In the spring of 1819, however, defects in the plans began to hamper the execution of the enterprise. Those were the early days of steam navigation, and the waters of the Missouri had not yet been stirred by paddle-wheels. Prudence counselled that the success of the movement should not be staked on the behavior of steamboats in untried waters. Nevertheless, the authorities decided against the old-fashioned keel-boats recommended by Atkinson;[5] in arranging for transportation, a further blunder was made in engaging a contractor without competition or adequate securities. The service proved entirely inefficient, and it was not until late in September of 1819 that the troops were concentrated at Council Bluffs, where, perforce, a halt was made for the winter.
The scientific members of the expedition had meanwhile assembled at Pittsburg, and on May 5, 1819, they began the descent of the Ohio in the steamer "Western Engineer."[6] Stephen Harriman Long, the chief of this party, was born at Hopkinton, New Hampshire, in 1764. After being graduated at Dartmouth (1809), and teaching [pg011] for a few years, he entered the army (1814) as lieutenant in the corps of engineers. Until 1816 he was assistant professor of mathematics at West Point, being then transferred to the topographical engineers, with the brevet rank of major. Previous to the exploration which forms the subject of our text, he travelled extensively in the South-west, between the Arkansas and Red rivers, and his journals, although never published, ranked among the most useful sources of information for that region. Major Long's associates in the present undertaking were Major John Biddle, journalist of the party; Dr. William Baldwin, physician and botanist; Dr. Thomas Say, zoologist; Augustus Edward Jessup, geologist; T. R. Peale, assistant naturalist; Samuel Seymour, painter; and Lieutenant James D. Graham and Cadet William H. Swift, assistant topographers. [7]