Columbus and Other Heroes of American Discovery

by N. D'Anvers

For four miles above the Falls, in the grandeur of which Pike owned himself a little disappointed, all went well, but the remainder of the trip was fraught with difficulties and dangers of every description. Again and again the travelers were compelled to disembark, and wading through the water, often not a foot above the rocks, drag their boats after them, while every now and then some wild Sioux warrior would appear upon the beetling heights shutting in the now restricted Father of Waters, and brandish his spear above the heads of the defenseless whites.

On the 4th October the mouth of the Crow River was passed on the west, and the first signs of dangers of a new description were noted in the wrecks, lying here and there of bark canoes, cut to pieces with tomahawks, and with broken paddles and arrows lying near. Pike’s interpreter told him that the canoes were of Sioux and the arrows of Minnesota construction, pointing to the conclusion that war was raging hotly close at hand. Further examination of the relics revealed marks on the paddles of the canoes signifying that Indian men and women had been killed, and the guide was eager in urging retreat, on the ground that their party would be taken for Sioux invaders, and be cut to pieces at the first Chippeway village before any explanation could be given. Only a little time before, three Frenchmen who had ventured up the river had been murdered by the Chippeways; surely the white man would not risk sharing their fate?

But the white man, true to his English blood, was not to be intimidated, and pressed on in spite of all difficulties, till, about two hundred and thirty miles above the Falls, in N. lat. 45°, his men began to drop from fatigue and the severity of the cold. It was evidently impossible to proceed further by water, and Pike realized, now that it was too late, how fatal a mistake had been made in starting so late in the season. After consultation with his party, it was resolved to leave a small detachment with the bulk of the provisions in a log fort, and proceed in sledges with the hardiest of the men to the sources of the Mississippi.

The fort was built with infinite difficulty, and it was not until mid-winter that the sledge journey was begun. Following the course of the Mississippi, now dwindled down to a small stream, scarcely three hundred yards wide, creeping sluggishly along through a flat, uninteresting country—its wide snow-clad stretches tenanted only by troops of elks, with here and there traces of recent conflict between the Indians of the North and the Sioux of the South—the pioneers reached the mouth of the Pine River, flowing from Leech Lake—the most southerly of the cluster of small reservoirs forming the sources of the great river—on the last day of the year.

Here a deserted Chippeway encampment of fifty wigwams—or lodges, as they are called in this part of the country—was found, the marks about it, as interpreted by the Sioux guide, signifying that fifty warriors had recently marched against their enemies and killed four men and four women. The quaint record of the conflict consisted of four painted poles, sharpened at the ends to represent the women, placed about four cedar puppets representing the men, the whole inclosed in a rough circle of poles, hung with deer-skins, plumes, silk handkerchiefs, etc.

A little beyond this strange monument, Pike’s party were overtaken by some Chippeways, accompanied by a Frenchman and an Englishman. They were at first about to discharge their arrow’s, but, recognizing the American flag, they desisted, and gave the explorers all the information in their power. On the following day, Grant, the Englishman, and a member of the North-west Company, took Pike to his house on Red Cedar Lake, one of the sources of the Mississippi, and the young American’s wrath was greatly excited on seeing the English flag waving from the roof. Somewhat mollified on hearing that the flag was the property of the Indians, having been taken in some skirmish, Pike resumed his journey under the guidance of a Chippeway warrior named Curly Head, and arrived, on the 13th January, 1806, at another establishment of the North-west Company on Sandy Lake, where he was hospitably received.

A tour of the lake was successfully made, with the aid of some of the hardy agents of the North-west Company, and its latitude was determined to be 49° 9′ 20″ N. Leaving this, the second of the sources of the Mississippi, on the 21st January, our hero started for Leech Lake, with a young Indian as guide, and after a most arduous journey on foot in snow shoes, such as are worn by the Indians, on the 1st February he reached that important and central point, long supposed to be the main source of the Father of Waters. Here, as on Red Cedar and Sandy Lakes, he found agents of the great North-west Company established in a well-built fort, and learned from them that from what are called the Forks of the Mississippi the right branch bears north-west, entering Lake Winnipeg eight miles further north, and beyond that again running to Upper Red Cedar Lake, a distance of eight miles; while the left branch, called that of Leech Lake, bears south-west, and runs through a chain of meadows to the De Corbeau River, with which, and with the Red River of the North, it is connected by a series of portages.

Unable, owing to the lateness of the season, to test the accuracy of the information obtained, Pike was reluctantly compelled to turn back after making a survey of Leech Lake; and it was not until many years afterward that the journeys of Cass and Schoolcraft corrected the mistaken assumption that Leech Lake was the main source of the Mississippi.

Before turning his back on Leech Lake, however, Pike obeyed the second clause of his instructions by summoning a council of Chippeway warriors, on whom he urged the conclusion of peace with the Sioux, inviting some of them to return with him to St. Louis. He succeeded in both these objects, though the latter was only brought about after much persuasion. As was natural, the Chippeways were not over-eager to trust themselves in the Sioux country; but when Pike exclaimed at the close of the interview, “What! are there no soldiers at Leech, Red, and Rainy Lakes who have the heart to carry the calumet of peace for their Father?” two celebrated young warriors, bearing the extraordinary names of the Buck and the Beau, sprang forward to offer their services. They were eagerly accepted, and adopted as Pike’s children. We are happy to be able to add that their young “father” allowed them to have no reason to regret their decision, but that they arrived with him in safety at St. Louis, after a successful return voyage down the Mississippi.

Soon after his arrival at St. Louis, after this fairly successful trip, Pike was again sent out on an exploratory expedition; this time with orders to survey the regions south of the Missouri, and to trace the Arkansas and Red Rivers, already known as tributaries of the Mississippi, to their sources in the far West.