[57] The entire courses of both streams lie within the state of Texas; they head in the Staked Plains and flow southeast to the Gulf. The Colorado (Blood Red) was named Brazos del Dio (Arms of God) by a Franciscan monk; but the Mexicans confused the streams and exchanged the names.—Ed.
[58] The misinformation was not necessarily given intentionally. Many of the rivers of the southwest are colored red, and the Mexicans habitually called them Rio Colorado (Blood Red River). Especially was the Canadian so known; the upper Red seems to have been called Rio Negro. The Indians borrowed the Spanish nomenclature.—Ed.
[59] Alexander Wilson (1766-1813), the son of a Scotch weaver, came to Philadelphia in 1794. After working as printer, weaver, peddler, and schoolmaster, his natural love for the sciences, quickened by the acquaintance of William Bartram, led him (1804) to begin the excursions and collections which resulted in the American Ornithology (Philadelphia, 9 vols., 1808-14). Much of the plate work for these volumes was personally prepared by Wilson. His death was due to exposure in swimming a stream to capture a rare bird.—Ed.
[60] Charles Alexander Lesueur (1778-1857) was the author of numerous studies of molluscs and reptiles, which were published in various scientific journals. During a residence at Philadelphia (1815) he was a contributor to the Journal published by the Academy of Sciences. Upon returning to France, he became curator of the Havre museum.—Ed.
[61] This is Dry River, in Texas, a short distance above the Antelope Hills, of Oklahoma. It is noted by Lieut. J. H. Simpson (1849).—Ed.
[62] This is a portion of the country famed for the supposed cure of consumption.—Ed.
[63] On this day the party probably crossed the line between Texas and Oklahoma. The Antelope Hills lie south of the river at this point.—Ed.
[64] For the same reasons it is practically impossible to follow the progress of the party; the camping places can only be approximated from the longitude indicated on the map, which is thirty to fifty miles too great for the western area, but substantially correct at the mouth of the Canadian.—Ed.
[65] The magnetic variation was here from 12° to 13° east.—James.
[66] The Washita (an Indian word meaning either "male deer," or "country of large buffaloes") should be distinguished from the river in Arkansas (Ouachita) near the sources of which are the Hot Springs (see Nuttall's Journal, in our volume xiii, note 125). The Washita, which, as the text states, is the chief northern tributary of Red River, rises in the "pan-handle" of Texas and flows east and southeast, roughly parallel with the Canadian. Its confluence with the Red is between the ninety-sixth and ninety-seventh meridians. At the western boundary of Oklahoma, the Washita approaches within fifteen miles of the Canadian; farther east, the approximation of its tributaries is so close as, in one place, scarcely to admit the passage of a single wagon.—Ed.