Early on the 13th we took up our march in a heavy fall of rain, which continued until we arrived at the little plantation opposite Belle Point. Here we emerged from the deep silence and twilight gloom of the forest, and found ourselves once more surrounded by the works of men. The plantation consisted of a single enclosure, covered with a thick crop of maize, intermixed with gigantic stalks of the phytolacca decandria and ricinus palma christi; forming a forest of animal plants, which seemed almost to vie with miegias and annonas occupying the adjacent portions of the river bottoms. As we followed the winding pathway past the little cottage, at the corner of the field we were saluted by several large dogs, who sprang up from the surrounding weeds. Urged by our impatience to see human faces, we called out to the people in the cottage to direct us to Belle Point, although we knew the path could not be mistaken, and that we were not ten rods from the ferry. Notwithstanding our inquiries might have been thought impertinent, we were very civilly answered by a young woman, who came to the door, and attempted to silence the clamours of the dogs. We were not surprised to find our uncouth appearance a matter of astonishment both to dogs and men.
On arriving at the beach opposite Fort Smith, and making known our arrival by the discharge of a pistol, we perceived the inhabitants of the garrison and our former companions coming down to the ferry to give us welcome; and being soon carried over, we met from Major Bradford and Captain Ballard a most cordial and flattering reception.[90] Captain Bell, with Mr. Say, Mr. Seymour, and Lieutenant Swift, having experienced numerous casualties, and achieved [35] various adventures, having suffered much from hunger, and more from the perfidy of some of their soldiers, had arrived on the 9th, and were all in good health. The loss most severely felt was that of the manuscript notes of Mr. Say and Lieutenant Swift. Measures for the apprehension of the deserters and the recovery of these important papers were taken immediately, and a reward of two hundred dollars offered. Mr. Glen had kindly volunteered his assistance and his influence to engage the Osages in the pursuit. But these efforts were unavailing.
We arrived at Fort Smith at about nine o'clock, and were soon afterwards invited to a bountifully furnished breakfast-table at Major Bradford's. Our attentive host knowing the caution necessary to be used by men in our situation, restrained us from a too unbounded indulgence in the use of bread, sweet potatoes, and other articles of diet to which we had been long unaccustomed. The experience of a few days taught us that it would have been fortunate for us if we had given more implicit heed to his caution.
The site of Fort Smith was selected by Major Long in the fall of 1817, and called Belle Point, in allusion to its peculiar beauty. It occupies a point of elevated land immediately below the junction of the Arkansa and the Poteau, a small tributary from the south-west. Agreeably to the orders of General Smith,[91] then commanding the ninth military department, a plan of the proposed work was submitted to Major Bradford, at that time and since commandant at the post, under whose superintendance the works have been in part completed, not without some deviation from the original plan. The buildings now form two sides of a hollow square, terminated by strong block-houses at the opposite angles, and fronting towards the river.
The hill which forms the basis of the fort is a dark gray micaceous sandstone in horizontal laminæ, and is elevated about thirty feet above the water. The [36] country back of the fort has an undulating surface, and rises gradually as it recedes, being covered with heavy forests of oak, tulip tree, sassafras, &c. Towards the south and south-east, at no great distance, rise the summits of the mountainous range already mentioned. The Sugar-loaf and Cavaniol mountains (the former being one of a group of these similar conic summits), are visible from some points near Fort Smith. The Poteau, so called by the French from the word signifying a post or station, rises sixty or seventy miles south of Belle Point, opposite to the sources of the Kiamesha, a branch of Red river. Nearly the whole of its course is through a hilly or mountainous region, but it is one so sparingly supplied with water, that the Poteau, within two miles of its confluence with the Arkansa, is in the dry season no more than a trifling brook. In an excursion which we made from Fort Smith, we ascended the Poteau about a mile and a half, where we observed an extensive bed of bituminous clay-slate, indicating the neighbourhood of coal. Tracing this slate to the south and east, we found it to pass under a very considerable sandstone hill. Several circumstances induce us to believe that it is also underlayed by a sandstone similar to that at the fort. Attentive examination will show that these rocks have a slight inclination towards the east; and if the bituminous slate in question had been underlayed by compact limestone, as has been conjectured,[92] it is highly probable this rock would have emerged near where the sandstone appears at Belle Point. We make this remark because, although we have often seen both limestone and bituminous clay-slate in various parts of the Arkansa territory, it has never been our fortune to meet with them in connexion. A few rods above this bed of bituminous slate we crossed the Poteau almost at a single step, and without wetting the soles [37] of our mockasins, so inconsiderable was the quantity of water it contained. The point between the confluence of the Poteau and the Arkansa is low and fertile bottom land, and, like that on the opposite side of the river, covered with dense and heavy forests of cotton-wood, sycamore, and ash, intermixed with extensive and impenetrable cane brakes. In these low grounds the beautiful papaw tree, whose luscious fruit was now ripe, occurs in great abundance. It rises to the height of thirty or forty feet, and its trunk is sometimes not less than a foot in diameter.
Grape vines, several scandent species of smilax and cissus, and a most singular vine allied to menispermum, are so intermixed with the sturdy under growth as to render the woods almost impassable. Paths have been opened by the people of the garrison where they have been found necessary by cutting away the canes and small trees; but they may be said to resemble subterranean passages, to which the rays of the sun never penetrate. We found the air in these, and indeed in every part of heavy forests, stagnant, and so loaded with the effluvia of decaying vegetable substances as to be immediately oppressive to the lungs. After spending an hour or two in an atmosphere of this kind, we found ourselves perceptibly affected with languor and dizziness.
The gardens at Fort Smith afforded green corn, melons, sweet potatoes, and other esculent vegetables, which to us had for a long time been untasted luxuries. It is probable we did not exercise sufficient caution in recommencing the use of these articles, as we soon found our health beginning to become impaired. We had been a long time confined to a meat diet, without bread or condiments of any kind, and were not surprised to find ourselves affected by so great and so sudden a change. It may be worth while to remark, that we had been so long unaccustomed to the use of salt, that the sweat of our faces had lost all perceptible saltness, and that the ordinary [38] dishes which were brought to our mess-table at the Fort appeared unpalatable, on account of being too highly seasoned.
In a region of extensive river alluvion, supporting, like that of the Arkansa, boundless forests, impervious to the winds, and the rays of the sun, it is not surprising that a state of the atmosphere should exist unfavourable to health; intermitting, remitting, and continued bilious fevers prevail during the summer and autumn, and in many instances terminate fatally. Among recent settlers, the want of the most common comforts, of the advice and attendance of skilful physicians, and, above all, the want of cleanliness, and the destructive habits of intemperance, are causes operating powerfully to produce and aggravate these diseases. The settlements about Fort Smith were sickly, and we saw numbers with that peculiar sallowness of complexion which accompanies those chronic derangements of the functions of the liver, so often the consequence of bilious fevers. It is obvious, that the causes of the acknowledged sickliness of the recent settlements in the south and west, are in a great measure local and unconnected with the climate; by the increase of settlements, and the progress of cultivation, they will be in part removed.
Fort Smith is garrisoned by one company of riflemen, under the command of Major Bradford. Among other important designs contemplated in the establishment of this post, one was to prevent the encroachments of the white settlers upon the lands still held by the Indians. Some of the most fertile portions of the Arkansa territory are those about the Verdigrise, Skin Bayou, Illinois, Six Bulls, &c.;[93] in which some unauthorised settlements were heretofore made, but have recently been abandoned, in compliance with the requirements of the commandant at Fort Smith.[94]