[191] This was the fort called Esperanza, where the village of Hopefield, Arkansas, now stands.—Ed.
[192] Fort Pickering (at first called Fort Adams) was erected by Captain Guion on the orders of Wilkinson. Meriwether Lewis was for a brief time (1797) in command of this post.—Ed.
[193] This was Lieutenant Zachary Taylor, later the twelfth president of the United States. His military commission dated from May 8, 1808, so that his manner was doubtless due to his youth and the unaccustomed novelty of his position.—Ed.
CHAPTER XLVI
A pleasant harbour—Barges from Fort Adams—River St. Francois—Big Prairie settlements—Remarkable lake and meadow—Settlements of Arkansas and White river—The latter broke up by general Wilkinson—Ville Aussipot.
A mile below Fort Pickering we passed a pleasantly situated settlement on a detached bluff on the left, and from thence eight miles lower we had an archipelago of islands on the right. We found this passage very good, though the Navigator advises keeping to the right of the first and largest island, named No. 46. Having passed Council island, four miles long, and several willow islands and sand bars, in the twenty-seven miles which we floated during the remainder of the day, we then at sunset stopped and moored in a little eddy under a point on the left, where several stakes drove into the strand indicate a well frequented boat harbour. We found adjoining the landing, a beautiful little prairie, and our being comparatively less troubled than usual with gnats {270} and musquitoes, made us congratulate ourselves on the situation we had chosen for the night. Next morning, May 30th, we continued our voyage with charming weather.
We passed several islands, and some very intricate channels, where we were obliged occasionally to work our oars with the utmost exertion, to avoid snags, sawyers, and improper sucks.
We this day spoke a large barge with some military officers on board from Fort Adams, bound to Marietta, with another following her, and having floated thirty-two miles, we passed the mouth of the river St. Francois on the right, but we could not see it on account of the overlapping of two willow points, which veil it from passengers on the Mississippi.
The river St. Francois rises near St. Louis in Upper Louisiana, and runs parallel to the Mississippi, between three and four hundred miles, between its source and its embouchure into that river.
The tongue of land between the two rivers, is only from six to twenty miles wide in that whole distance, is all flat, and great part of it liable to inundation in great floods. There is a chain of hills along the whole western bank of the St. Francois, and in this chain, are the lead mines of St. Genevieve, immediately behind that settlement, which supply all the states and territories washed by the Ohio and the Mississippi, and all their tributary streams, with that useful metal. The St. Francois rarely exceeds one hundred yards in breadth, its current is gentle, and its navigation unimpeded.