Leaving the Arkansas on the twenty-fourth, Long's party crossed Purgatory Creek and the upper waters of Cimarron River, and after six days reached a small tributary of Canadian River, which, after five days' still further travel, brought them to the latter near the present Texas-New Mexico boundary line. As the region in which they had encountered the waters of the Canadian was that wherein the sources of the Red had, previous to that time, been universally supposed to lie, they naturally at first believed that they were upon the latter stream. Their suspicions were soon aroused by the deviation of the river's course from that which they expected the Red to pursue; but it was not until they arrived at the confluence of this waterway with the Arkansas that they became certain of their error. During their descent of the Canadian they encountered parties of Kaskaia and Comanche Indians, whose conduct was not uniformly friendly. Few incidents of interest, however, broke the painful monotony of a journey accompanied by almost constant suffering from exposure to violent storms and intense heat, lack of food and water, and the attacks of wood ticks. On the thirteenth of September the explorers arrived at Fort Smith, the appointed rendezvous, where they found Bell's party awaiting them. [pg017]
The experience of the Arkansas division had, in most particulars, been quite similar to that of Long's, but on the whole less vexatious. The chief event, however, involved an irreparable loss to the expedition. This was the desertion, on the night of the thirtieth of August, of three soldiers, who wantonly took with them all the manuscripts completed by Dr. Say and Lieutenant Swift since leaving the Missouri. The stolen books contained notes on the manners, habits, history, and languages of the Indians, and on the animals which had been examined, a journal of the expedition, and a mass of topographical data. During part of the journey, Bell's party was even more astray than Long's. Soon after passing the Great Bend of the Arkansas, they mistook the Nennescah River for the Negracka, or Salt Fork of the Arkansas; similar errors added to their bewilderment, and for some time they were unaware whether they were near Fort Smith or still far distant—until, on the first of September, they met friendly Osage Indians near Verdigris River. They reached Fort Smith on the ninth.
From Fort Smith the reunited party followed the Arkansas to the Cherokee towns on Illinois Creek, in Pope County, Arkansas, whence they proceeded overland directly to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. James and Swift, parting from their companions at the Cherokee towns, visited the Arkansas Hot Springs, now a famous health resort, and returning to the Arkansas at Little Rock, also crossed the country to Cape Girardeau, where all members of the expedition were assembled on October 12. Here nearly all of the party were attacked by intermittent fever.
Two or three weeks later, the expedition being now disbanded, [pg018] Major Long and Captain Bell set out for Washington, leaving their colleagues to act according to their own pleasure. About the first of November, Messrs. Say, Seymour, and Peale departed by steamboat, intending to return home by way of New Orleans. They were accompanied by Lieutenant Graham, who, on completion of the special duties assigned to him at Engineer Cantonment, had met the exploring party at Cape Girardeau with the "Western Engineer." Lieutenant Swift and Dr. James essayed to ascend the Ohio to Louisville with the vessel; but at Golconda, Illinois, James experienced a recurrence of fever, which for some time prevented his proceeding farther, while Swift, leaving the boat at Smithland, Kentucky, continued his journey on horseback.
James's Account is the only narrative of the expedition, and his connection with the party gives his work the authority of an official report. Moreover, he not only had access to the notes of his associates, but received much personal assistance, especially from Long and Say. The original edition was published at Philadelphia in 1823, by Carey and Lea; it consisted of two volumes of 503 and 442 pages respectively, containing James's narrative, with appendices giving a catalogue of animals observed at Engineer Cantonment, the Indian sign language, Indian speeches at the councils held by Major O'Fallon, astronomical and meteorological records, and vocabularies of Indian languages, especially those of the Oto, Kansa, Omaha, Sioux, Minitaree, and Pawnee tribes. Extracts from Major Long's report to the secretary of war, dated January 20, 1821, and from the report made by his assistants to Long on the mineralogy and geology of the region explored, were incorporated in the second volume. A[pg019] third volume contained the maps and plates, and the edition was provided with a brief index and "Preliminary Notice."
The same year another edition was published in London, by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown. This edition, the one selected by us for reprinting, was in three volumes, and contained the text essentially as printed in the Philadelphia edition.[8] In the arrangement of notes, however, a different plan was adopted; in the Philadelphia issue, all annotation was given at the foot of the appropriate pages, while in the London edition the notes for each volume were grouped in the back of the book. In the present reprint the former plan is followed. The Preliminary Notice found in the Philadelphia edition was omitted from the London version, but is supplied in the present reprint. The appendices giving astronomical and meteorological data and Indian vocabularies, which were omitted from the London edition, are also included in our reprint. Finally, instead of the atlas which accompanied the Philadelphia edition, selected illustrations, including a map of the region explored, were incorporated with the text in the various volumes of the London print.
In certain ways the results of the expedition were disappointing, even to those persons whose expectations were far less extravagant than the Missourian who had declared that "ten years shall not pass away before we shall have the rich productions of [China] transported from Canton to the Columbia, up that river to the mountains, over the[pg020] mountains and down the Missouri and Mississippi, all the way (mountains and all), by the potent power of steam." To this class, the report which the expedition made on the trans-Mississippi country was far from encouraging. Said Major Long in his final estimate: "In regard to this extensive section of country, I do not hesitate in giving the opinion, that it is almost wholly unfit for cultivation, and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for their subsistence. Although tracts of fertile land considerably extensive are occasionally to be met with, yet the scarcity of wood and water, almost uniformly prevalent, will prove an insuperable obstacle in the way of settling the country. This objection rests not only against the section immediately under consideration, but applies with equal propriety to a much larger portion of the country. . . . This region, however, viewed as a frontier, may prove of infinite importance to the United States, inasmuch as it is calculated to serve as a barrier to prevent too great an extension of our population westward, and secure us against the machinations or incursions of an enemy that might otherwise be disposed to annoy us in that part of our frontier." In similar vein is the comment of Dr. James: "We have little apprehension of giving too unfavourable an account of this portion of the country. Though the soil is in some places fertile, the want of timber, of navigable streams, and of water for the necessities of life, render it an unfit residence for any but a nomad population. The traveller who shall at any time have traversed its desolate sands, will, we think, join us in the wish that this region may for ever remain the unmolested haunt of the native hunter, the bison, and the jackall." Such a verdict was not welcomed by an expansive[pg021] people, eager to enter into and possess a land which imagination pictured as suitable for the seat of an empire.
The teeming animal life of the great plains might have suggested to Long and his associates its adaptability to the needs of man; but for the occupation of the land without political peril, at least two agencies were required, which were, in their day, hardly more than dreams. We cannot blame the explorers for failing to anticipate the marvels of the railroad and the irrigating ditch; indeed, the repulse of the agricultural vanguard which attempted the invasion of the plains west of the hundredth meridian only half a generation ago, vindicates the prediction that the country could not be possessed by methods then known. It may be doubted whether their conservatism was not wiser than the confidence of the more ardent expansionists; yet it is doubtless true that their report, by depreciating the estimate of the value of the region, put weapons into the hands of those Eastern men who cherished a traditional jealousy of Westward expansion, and caused the government rather to follow than to lead the movement.
Another apparent ground for criticism is the failure of the expedition to accomplish either of the great objects mentioned in the instructions—the discovery of the sources of the Platte and of the Red. The readiness with which the explorers relinquished their efforts to penetrate the mountains at the cañons of the Platte and Arkansas, although the season was midsummer, seems to indicate inefficiency as well as indifference to instructions. Likewise, when the Canadian was reached and mistaken for the Red, no effort was made to ascend the stream to its source; the explorers were content to descend the river,[pg022] leaving the exact location of its head undetermined. Some excuse for this conduct is afforded by the inadequacy of the equipment provided by Congress for this enterprise. The federal government supplied six horses; the remainder of the thirty-four were furnished by the members of the party. "Our saddles and other articles of equipage," wrote James, "were of the rudest kind, being, with a few exceptions, such as we had purchased from the Indians, or constructed ourselves;" and, he adds, that the "very inadequate outfit . . . was the utmost our united means enabled us to furnish." Consequently, the party was compelled to subsist largely upon the country explored, and its movements were in no small degree dictated by the fear of want. That many of the hardships experienced were due to the slender outfit, is proved by the comparative comfort with which later parties followed in their footsteps. Twenty-five years afterwards, Colonel Abert, starting from Bent's Fort, on the upper Arkansas, not many miles from the point where Long's forces had divided, crossed the upland to the Canadian and descended to its mouth, following essentially Long's route, and making the whole journey in wagons, for which, save in a few places, a smooth course was found. This party succeeded in finding sufficient water at almost every camp, while the entire trip resembled more an outing for pleasure than it did the harrowing journey of Major Long. The route up the Canadian afterward became a much-used pathway to New Mexico. [9]