The only inhabitants on the upper part of White river, so far as inhabitants have penetrated, are hunters, who live in camps and log cabins, and support themselves by hunting the bear, deer, buffalo, elk, beaver, raccoon, and other animals, which are found in great plenty in that region. They also raise corn for bread, and for feeding their horses. They seldom, however, cultivate more than an acre or two, subsisting chiefly on animal food and wild honey, and pay no attention to the cultivation of garden vegetables, if I except some cabbages, noticed at a few habitations. When the season of hunting arrives, the ordinary labors of a man about the house and cornfield devolve upon the women, whose condition in such a state of society may readily be imagined. The inhabitants, in fact, pursue a similar course of life with the savages, having embraced their love of ease, and their contempt for agricultural pursuits, with their sagacity in the chase, their mode of dressing in skins, their manners, and their hospitality to strangers.
The furs and peltries which are collected during repeated excursions in the woods, are taken down the river at certain seasons in canoes, and disposed of to traders, who visit the lower parts of this river for that purpose. Here they receive, in exchange for their furs, woollen cloths, rifles, knives, hatchets, salt, powder, lead, iron for horse-shoes, blankets, iron pots, shoes, and other articles of primary importance in their way of life. Those living near the cultivated parts of Lawrence county, in Arkansas Territory, also bring down, in exchange for such articles, buffalo beef, pork, bears' meat, beeswax, and honey, which are again sold by the traders along the banks of the Mississippi, or at New Orleans. Very little money is paid, and that in hard cash only; no bank-bills of any kind being taken in that quarter. I happened to be present, on my return from the head-waters of White river, at one of these exchanges, where a further opportunity was offered of observing the manners and character of these people. Bears' meat was sold at $10 per cwt.; buffalo beef at $4; cows' beef at $3; pork, in the hog, at $3 50; venison hams at 25 cents each; wild turkeys, the same; wild honey at $1 per gallon; beaver fur, $2 per lb.; bearskins, $1 50 each; otter skins, $2; raccoon skins, 25 cents; deerskins, 25 cents per lb. These prices were considered high by the purchaser; but they were only nominally so, as he paid them off in articles at the most exorbitant rates. Common three-point or Mackinaw blankets were sold at $8 each; butcher-knives at $2; rifle-locks at $8; common coarse blue cloth at $6 per yard; coffee at 75 cents per lb.; salt at $5 per bushel; lead at 25 cents per lb.; gunpowder at $2 per lb.; axes at $6 each; horseshoe-nails at $3 per set, &c. The trade of this river is consequently attended with profits which amply repay the risks and fatigues incident to a voyage in that quarter. Vast quantities of furs and skins are annually brought down this river, with some beeswax, honey, beef, bacon, &c.; and whenever the hunter population yields to the farming and mechanical class, the list of its productions will be swelled by corn, rye, wheat, oats, flax, hemp, and cotton; a sufficiency of each of which has already been raised, to show that the climate and soil are well adapted to their culture. Its mineral products are also worthy of attention. Iron-ore, lead, zinc, and manganese, have already been discovered; and among its earthy minerals may be enumerated marble, agate, jasper, hornstone, and rock crystal; specimens of which, with some others, I picked up during my journey there. Caves with nitre are also common; and large forests of pine timber, which will be wanted in the progressing settlements on the Mississippi, are situated on its northern tributaries, and may be floated down at an inconsiderable expense.
White river runs through a section of country which, according to a recent political division, belongs chiefly to the Territory of Arkansas; but several of its tributaries originate in Missouri, the chief of which are James river, Great North Fork, or Pine river, and Black river, with its auxiliaries—Currents, Fourche à Thomas, Spring, Eleven-points, and Strawberry rivers.
About a hundred and fifty miles below the Pawnee mountains, the main south fork of White river is joined by the War Eagle and Osage forks; a region remarkable for the abundance of beaver found in its streams. In the course of the succeeding two hundred miles, it is joined by King's river and Tower creek on the south, and by Roaring fork and James river on the north; the latter being by far the largest stream it has thus far received, and contributing nearly as much water as all the others put together. From the mouth of James river to its junction with the Mississippi, it is successively joined by Long, Bull, Swan, Beaver, and Big creeks, by the Little and Great North Forks, Black and Cash rivers, on the north; and on the south by Bear and Crooked creeks, Buffalo Fork, and Little Red river; and it is finally connected with the Arkansas river by a natural canal called the cut-off, about thirty miles above its junction with the Mississippi, which affords a navigable water communication at all seasons. Many of the above tributaries are streams of no ordinary magnitude, and afford boat navigation for many hundred miles; they are all characterized by tracts of rich alluvial lands on their banks. James river, Buffalo Fork, Great North Fork, Black river, and Little Red river, merit individual attention.
James river originates in the Ozarks, a few miles south of the Gasconade, in Missouri Territory, and, after running in a south-west direction for two hundred miles, in the course of which it is swelled by Findley's river, and by other streams, forms a junction with White river a thousand miles above the mouth of the latter. Its waters are as pure as crystal; it lies under a climate the most mild, salubrious, and delightful; and on its banks are situated a body of the most fertile and beautiful lands which the whole valley of the Mississippi affords. The timber on its banks is abundant; a remark which cannot with justice be made of many parts of the adjacent country, and nothing can exceed the vigor and the verdure of vegetable nature on the borders of this beautiful stream. Prairies are also found within a mile of its western banks, and extend towards the Grand Osage, as far as the eye can reach, level as a graduated plain, and waving with tall grass, on which the elk, the buffalo, and the deer, feed in countless numbers.
Findley river forms a junction with this stream, near the centre of this choice body of land, and about one hundred miles above its mouth. Twenty miles above the junction of these streams, on the immediate banks of James river, are situated some valuable lead-mines, which have been known to the Osage Indians, and to a few White river hunters, for many years. The Indians have been in the habit of procuring lead for bullets at that place, by smelting the ore in a kind of furnace, made by digging a pit in the ground, and casing it with some flat stones, placed so as to resemble the roof of a house inverted; such is the richness of the ore, and the ease with which it smelts. The ore has not, however, been properly explored, and it is impossible to say how extensive the beds or veins may prove. Some zinc, in the state of a sulphuret, is found accompanying it. There is not one inhabitant on all this stream; my own cabin, erected for a temporary purpose at the mines in January last, being the only human habitation within two hundred miles of that place.
Buffalo Fork originates near the north banks of the Arkansas, and, after traversing a rocky country for about one hundred and eighty miles in a north-east course, joins White river at the Buffalo Shoals, about seven hundred miles above the Mississippi. It is a fine region for game, and affords some good lands.
The Great North Fork, or Pine river, is a stream of two hundred miles in length, and a hundred yards wide at its mouth. Its waters are clear, being entirely made up of springs, which are numerous all along its banks; but the navigation is interrupted by rapids. It originates with James river and the Gasconade, in a ridge of high land, which throws a part of its waters into the Missouri, and a part into the Mississippi, the streams running in opposite directions. In travelling into that country, I accidentally arrived at the extreme head of this river, where it consists only of some drizzling springs, and pursued it down, in all its windings, to its junction with White river, about twelve miles below the mouth of Buffalo Fork. It is bordered on both sides by limestone bluffs, covered generally with tall pines, and affording some detached strips of valuable land. On the whole, however, it must be considered a sterile region, which will never admit of a dense population. The bottoms are overrun by cane and brier, which render travelling extremely fatiguing.
This stream appears generally to have been considered by geographers as the head of White river, which is accordingly, on most maps, made to originate at this place. The error has been, in some degree, corrected in Robinson's new map of Louisiana, lately published at Natchez, which may be esteemed the best map extant respecting that section of country. He calls it Pine river.
Black river is a large, deep, and gentle stream, composed of numerous auxiliaries, which draw their waters from the counties of Wayne, New Madrid, and Lawrence; the two former lying in Missouri Territory, and the latter in Arkansas. It is navigable with boats of the largest burden, at all seasons of the year, for more than one hundred miles. Little Black, Currents, Fourche à Thomas, Eleven-points, Spring, and Strawberry rivers, are all streams of considerable size, coming in on the west, and deserve particular notice on the future maps of that country. Their banks afford choice bodies of fertile lands, which are already the seat of many plantations and farms, where corn, rye, wheat, oats, flax, hemp, and cotton, are raised in the greatest perfection, and the settlements are rapidly increasing. Considerable quantities of beef and pork are also put up for the New Orleans market, every facility being afforded by the luxuriance of grass in the woods, and the abundance of acorns in the fall, for raising and fattening hogs and cattle. Lawrence county is generally considered among the first farming districts west of the Mississippi. Davidsonville, the seat of justice for this county, is situated on the west bank of Black river, at the junction of Spring river. The settlements on Strawberry river, on the Currents, Fourche à Thomas, Poke Bayou, and other places, are in a flourishing condition.