On the 19th of June I left this town on board the United States mail-boat, Guyandotte, and proceeded up the Ohio. The Lady Scott steamer set out at the same time with us, but our steamer soon left her far behind. As slavery is abolished in the state of Ohio, the crew of our vessel were nearly all white men. There are three such mail-boats, which have to forward the despatches of the government, but they perform this office only occasionally, because they receive only five dollars each time. The most rapid vessels are chosen for this service; they have the words, "United States Mail," painted on their paddle-box.
About noon, on the 20th of June, we lay-to at Portsmouth,[149] above the mouth of the Sciotto River, and I landed at this place, intending to proceed on the Ohio Canal.
FOOTNOTES:
[93] For the Little Platte, see our volume xiv, p. 174, note 141. Independence is noted in our volume xix, p. 189, note 34 (Gregg). As it was situated three miles from the river, both Wayne City and Blue Mills contended for the business of the landing place. Portage l'Independence was at the former, or even higher up the river—possibly cutting off the bend wherein the Kansas River enters, since Maximilian does not speak of passing that stream.
The person whom Maximilian met was Milton G. Sublette (for whom see Wyeth's Oregon, in our volume xxi, p. 67, note 44). He went out with the Wyeth expedition in the spring of 1834, but because of illness turned back (May 8) near the Kansas River, and had just arrived at Independence Portage when the prince's vessel came down the Missouri. William L. Sublette, the chief partner of Sublette and Campbell, had led out a party to the mountains which passed Wyeth's about May 12. See Townsend's Narrative, in our volume xxi, p. 151; and "Correspondence and Journals of Captain Nathaniel J. Wyeth," in Sources for the History of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon, 1899), pp. 132, 221, 224.—Ed.
[94] The "Oto" (Otto), built at Jeffersonville, Indiana (1831), was Sublette and Campbell's steamer, which visited the upper Missouri in 1833. Somewhere on the upper river Sublette sent the boat back, and proceeded by keelboat to Fort Union. Probably the steamer had wintered near Council Bluffs.—Ed.
[95] For Liberty, see our volume xxii, p. 249, note 197. Williams's Ferry was at the present site of Missouri City; the settlement had been begun by Shrewsbury Williams shortly before Maximilian's visit, and was incorporated as a city in 1859.
"Charaton Scatty" is the phonetic spelling of "Charretins écartés," two creeks separated by a short distance. Lewis and Clark, in Original Journals, i, p. 57, give the name as "Sharriton Carta."—Ed.
[96] The knowledge of naturalists respecting reptiles or amphibia has been increased in a surprising manner of late years. The work now publishing by Messrs. Duméril and Bibron, promises to be the most complete on the subject. A vast number of species has been found, some of which are hardly capable of being sufficiently defined: thus, the authors of the above-mentioned excellent work seemed to have proceeded, in some cases, rather hastily. I will mention only one or two instances: vol. v., p. 88, I find in the synopsis, "Tupinambis monitor, Maxim., Prince of Wied;" whereas I never thought of calling the lizard in question Tupinambis. Vol. iii., p. 80, Alligator sclerops, and page 86 the same, where I am quoted in reference to two species of crocodile, though it is very certain that I could not observe in Brazil more than one species. In these two descriptions there is much confusion; and in this respect we must also not follow Spix, who considered the varieties of age as distinct species. I could quote many other instances, if this were a proper place for such discussion.
In the work of Messrs. Duméril and Bibron there are likewise many mistakes with respect to the Brazilian reptiles described by me; and it seems that the authors, like many other French naturalists, quote my descriptions of those animals without having read or even seen them, otherwise they would certainly have preferred my statement of the colour of the animals from the life, to a description of the faded specimens preserved in spirits, which are met with in the museums; or to the equally incorrect statements of Dr. Spix, who, it is well known, forgot to note the colour of the animals when alive, and whose representations of them are likewise from specimens preserved in spirits.—Maximilian.