James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 4

by Edwin James; Stephen H. Long; Thomas Say

At Little Rock, a village of six or eight houses, we found several of the members of a missionary family {179} destined to the Osages. They had exposed themselves during the heat of summer to the pestilential atmosphere of the Lower Mississippi and Arkansa; and we were not surprised, when we considered their former habits, to find they had suffered most severely from their imprudence. They had all been sick, and two or three of their number had died; the survivors, we understood, were on the recovery. They had been some time at Little Rock, the water in the Arkansa having fallen so low as to render their further ascent impracticable.[73]

The village of Little Rock occupies the summit of a high bank of clay-slate on the south-west side of the Arkansa. Its site is elevated, and the country immediately adjoining, in a great measure, exempt from the operation of those causes which produce a state of the atmosphere unfavourable to health. It is near the commencement of the hilly country, and for a part of the year will be at the head of steam-boat navigation on the Arkansa. The country in the rear of the projected town is high, and covered for the most part with open oak forests.

October 3d. We left Little Rock at an early hour, taking the road towards Davidsonville. This led us for about four miles through the deep and gloomy forests of the Arkansa bottoms. Here we saw the ricinus palma christi growing spontaneously by the road side, and rising to the height of twelve or fourteen feet. We arrived at Little Red river by about nine o'clock, the distance from the Arkansa being not more than eight or nine miles. In the high and rocky country about White river, we fell in with the route which had been pursued by Major Long and his party, and following this, we reached Cape Girardeau a few days after their arrival. The distance from Belle Point to Little Rock by the way of the hot springs is two hundred and ten miles, from Little Rock to Cape Girardeau three hundred; in the whole, five hundred and ten miles.

{180} Major Long's notes of a tour in the Arkansa territory contain tables of meteorological observations, showing the variations of temperature from September 30th, 1817, to January 31st, 1818. The country in which these observations were made, is that between the Arkansa at Fort Smith, and the Red river at the mouth of the Kiamesha, about the hot springs of the Washita, the settlement of Cadron, &c. Here we find in the month of January the mercury at zero, and shortly after at 58°, a degree of cold that would not discredit the climate of Moscow, and a rapidity of change and violence of vicissitude to compare with the ever-varying temperature of the Atlantic states. We might expect in the latitude of 34°, and in a region placed along the south-eastern slope of a moderately elevated range of mountains, a mild and equable climate. But almost every portion of the territory of the United States seems alike exposed to the influence of the western and north-western winds, refrigerated in their passage over the wide and frozen regions of the Rocky Mountains, and rushing down unobstructed across the naked plains of the great desert, penetrating with almost unmitigated rigour to the Atlantic coast. It is proper to remark, that the winter of 1817-18 was considered one of unusual severity in the Arkansa territory. From the accounts of Hunter and Dunbar, it appears, that in December 1804 the weather was much milder in the same portion of country. An alligator was seen in December many miles above the confluence of the Saline Fork, and even at the hot springs many plants were in flower, and the ground in the woods had considerable appearance of verdure. We have been assured by emigrants from North Carolina, that the winter temperature of the country, about the upper branches of the Washita, is more mild and equable than that of the corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic coast.

{181} On the 12th October the exploring party were all assembled at Cape Girardeau. Lieutenant Graham, with the steam-boat Western Engineer, had arrived a day or two before from St. Louis; having delayed there some time subsequent to his return from the Upper Mississippi. In the discharge of the duties on which he had been ordered, Lieutenant G. and all his party had suffered severely from bilious and intermitting fever.

A few days subsequent to our arrival at Cape Girardeau, the greater number of those who had been of the party by land, experienced severe attacks of intermitting fever; none escaped, except Captain Bell, Mr. Peale, and Lieutenant Swift. Major Long and Captain Kearney, who had continued their journey immediately towards St. Louis, were taken ill at St. Genevieve, and the latter confined some weeks. The attack was almost simultaneous in the cases of those of the party who remained at Cape Girardeau; and it is highly probable we had all received the impression which produced the disease nearly at the same time. The interruption of accustomed habits, and the discontinuance of the excitement afforded by travelling, may have somewhat accelerated the attack. We had observed that we had felt somewhat less than the usual degree of health, since breathing the impure and offensive atmosphere of the Arkansa bottoms about Belle Point, and there we have no doubt the disease fastened upon us. In every instance, we had the opportunity of observing, the attack assumed the form of a daily intermittent. The cold stage commenced with a sensation of languor and depression, attended with almost incessant yawning, and a disinclination to motion, soon followed by shivering, and a distressing sensation of cold. These symptoms pass off gradually, and the hot stage succeeds. The degree of fever is usually somewhat proportioned to the violence of the cold fit, the respiration becomes full and frequent, the face flushed, the {182} skin moist, and the patient falls into a heavy slumber; on awaking, after some time, extreme languor and exhaustion are felt, though few symptoms of fever remain. This routine of most uncomfortable feelings, commencing at nine or ten in the morning, occupied for some time the greater part of our days. Late at evening, and during the night, we suffered less. Intermitting fevers are of such universal occurrence in every part of the newly-settled country to the west, that every person is well acquainted with the symptoms, and has some favourite method of treatment. A very common practice, and one productive of much mischief, is that of administering large draughts of whiskey and black pepper previous to the accession of the cold stage. Applications of this kind may sometimes shorten the cold fit, but the consequent fever is comparatively increased, and the disease rendered more obstinate. The Peruvian bark is much used, but often so injudiciously as to occasion great mischief.

Cape Girardeau, formerly the seat of justice for a county of the same name, is one of the oldest settlements in Upper Louisiana, having been for a long time the residence of a Spanish intendant or governor. Occupying the first considerable elevation on the western bank of the Mississippi, above the mouth of Ohio, and affording a convenient landing for boats, it promises to become a place of some little importance, as it must be the depôt of a fertile district of country, extending from the commencement of the great swamps on the south-east to the upper branches of the St. Francis. The advantages of its situation must be considered greater than those of the settlements of Tyawapatia and New Madrid, which are not sufficiently elevated. It is at the commencement of the hilly country, extending up the Mississippi to the confluence of the Missouri, north-west of the Gasconade and Osage rivers, and south-west to the province of Texas. Two or three miles below Cape {183} Girardeau the cypress swamps commence, extending with little interruption far to the south.

The town comprises at this time about twenty log-cabins, several of them in ruins, a log-jail no longer occupied, a large unfinished brick dwelling, falling rapidly to decay, and a small one finished and occupied. It stands on the slope, and part of the summit of a broad hill, elevated about one hundred and fifty feet above the Mississippi, and having a deep primary soil resting on horizontal strata of compact and sparry limestone. Near the place where boats usually land is a point of white rocks, jutting into the Mississippi, and at a very low stage of water producing a perceptible rapid. These are of a white sparry limestone, abounding in remains of encrini and other marine animals. If traced some distance, they will be found to alternate with the common blue compact limestone, so frequently seen in secondary districts. Though the stratifications of this sparry limestone are horizontal, the rock is little divided by seams and fissures, and would undoubtedly afford a valuable marble, not unlike the Darling marble quarried on the Hudson.

The streets of Cape Girardeau are marked out with formal regularity, intersecting each other at right angles; but they are now in some parts so gullied and torn by the rains, as to be impassable; in others, overgrown with such thickets of gigantic vernonias and urticas, as to resemble small forests. The country, back of the town, is hilly, covered with heavy forests of oak, tulip-tree, and nyssa, intermixed in the vallies with the sugar-tree and the fagus sylvatica, and on the hills, with an undergrowth of the American hazel, and the shot-bush or angelica tree. Settlements are considerably advanced, and many well-cultivated farms occur in various directions.