[V-1] The following Report was written by Lieutenant Wilkinson at a time when it was expected I had been cut off by the savages. It consequently alluded to transactions relative to the Expedition previous to our separation, which I have since corrected. But the adventures of his party, after our separation, are given in his own words.—Z. M. P.
The above explanatory note by Pike stood alone on p. 19 of the App. to Pt. 2 of the orig. ed. Wilkinson's Report, of which Chapter V. now consists, formed Doc. No. 2 of that Appendix, running pp. 20-32. It rehearses the movements of Pike's party to Oct. 28th, 1806, when the two officers separated at Great Bend, and Wilkinson started down the Arkansaw. It thus serves to some extent to check Pike's narrative, but is chiefly notable in this respect for some discrepancies which I have been unable to adjust. Lieutenant Wilkinson's health was not good during his descent of the Arkansaw, and he endured much hardship; to which causes is doubtless due in part the lack of anything very notable in his Report. James Biddle Wilkinson was the son of General James Wilkinson of Maryland. He entered the army as a second lieutenant of the 4th Infantry, Feb. 16th, 1801; was transferred to the 2d Infantry, Apr. 1st, 1802; became first lieutenant Sept. 30th, 1803, and captain Oct. 8th, 1808, and died Sept. 7th, 1813.
[V-2] The toise is an old French measure of length equal to six French feet or 1.949 meter, and therefore to about 6.4 English feet.
[V-3] The party reached and crossed the Neosho [Sept. 9th], and struck the Smoky Hill fork of the Kansas r. on the morning of [the 16th]: see those dates in Pike's itinerary, and notes there.
[V-4] There are material discrepancies between Wilkinson's and Pike's accounts of the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th, not easy to reconcile, even supposing the two officers were separated a part of the time. Pike comes first to what he calls "Little Saline" r., and then to Great Saline on the 11th; Smoky Hill r., 12th; 7 m. beyond it to head of a branch of it, 13th; over the divide, 14th, to Cow cr.; and is lost on Walnut cr., 15th. His map puts a camp-mark on Little Saline, date uncertain; one on Great Saline, 11th; one on Smoky Hill r., 12th; and none for 13th, 14th, or 15th. Wilkinson comes first to Grand Saline, 11th; "Second or Small Saline," 12th; Smoky Hill, 13th; over divide and on to a branch of the Arkansaw, also on the 13th; reaches Arkansaw 14th, about midnight. We have here a day miscounted; reverse sequence of the two Saline rivers; and several camp-marks misplaced or missing. All this adds to the trouble we found in trying to follow Pike's itinerary, and I do not see how the difficulty can be adjusted. What seems certain is: 1. Great Saline r. reached or crossed on the 11th; Smoky Hill r. reached or crossed on the 12th; divide crossed and camp on Cow cr., 13th, 14th; Wilkinson on the Arkansaw at midnight of the 15th, when Pike and Robinson were lost on Walnut cr.
[V-5] Again a discrepancy from Pike. According to his diary he left the party at 5 p. m., 15th, with Dr. Robinson; was lost, 16th and 17th; found and brought to Wilkinson's camp on the Arkansaw, 18th; so Wilkinson could have remained but two days in suspense, which was relieved on the third day. As Pike himself informs us that he "corrected" Wilkinson's Report for the time they were together, yet evidently failed to make it fit his own, we may be excused if we do not succeed in the attempt. On some points I suspect Wilkinson came nearest the facts. He did not lose his notes and supplement from memory, as Pike was forced to do; he was not hunting for the Spanish trail, nor for buffalo; and he did not get bewildered on Walnut cr.
[V-6] Both accounts fortunately agree on this notable date—the day on which Pike started up the Arkansaw and Wilkinson down the same river. The distance made by the latter on the 28th sets him about the mouth of Antelope cr., a small run that makes in on the right or south a mile above the mouth of Walnut cr. Here he remained on the 29th and 30th. There is obviously no possibility of following him closely through his benumbed voyage; we can only check his course at the most notable points.
[V-7]
[V-8] Wilkinson's, "bold running stream" and his "large creek" are probably identifiable by the above data; but in my ignorance of these details I can only presume, without knowing, that he means Cow cr. and the Little Arkansaw, these being the two principal tributaries of the Arkansaw in Kansas below Great Bend. Cow cr. is the same stream whose headwaters Pike and Wilkinson came upon before they reached Great Bend: see [note10, p. 424]; but it falls in much lower, at Hutchinson, Reno Co., Kas. The Little Arkansaw is that river at whose mouth is Wichita, seat of Sedgwick Co., Kas. Both these streams course very obliquely to the Arkansaw, from the N. W., and fall in on the left bank.
[V-9] "Negracka" is here an error; Wilkinson means the Ninnescah, Nenescah, or Nenesquaw r., which falls in from the W. on the right hand; town of Whitman, Sumner Co., Kas., at its mouth. This is the only instance I have ever known of the misapplication of the name Negracka, which belongs absolutely to, and was long the current name of, the Salt fork of the Arkansaw: see [next note]. Thus, we read in Morse's Gazetteer, 1821, p. 499: "Negracka River ... falls into the Arkansaw from the N. W. It is 100 yards wide." The Nenescah is a smaller stream than this. It is lettered "Ne-ne-sesh, or Good Riv." on a map of the Indian Terr., etc., Engineer Bureau, War Dept., Oct., 1866. Between his Negracka or the Nenescah r., and his Neskalonska or the Salt fork of the Arkansaw, Wilkinson passes the following streams: 1. Slate cr., from the N. W., traversing Sumner Co. obliquely; 2. Walnut cr. (formerly Whitewater r.), from the N., with an average course nearly due S., through Butler and Cowley cos., Kas., to fall in at Arkansaw City; 3. Grouse cr., from the N. E., in Cowley Co., its mouth nearly on the boundary between Kansas and Oklahoma; 4. Chilockey or Chilocco cr., over the Oklahoma line, school reservation there; 5. Deer cr., from the W., very small; 6. Beaver cr., from the N. E., whose mouth is at the Kaw or Kansas Agency; 7. South Coon cr., from the N., but falling in on the right, very small; 8. Turkey cr., from the N., but mouth on the right, between Cross and Ponca stations of the Arkansaw branch of the A., T., and S. F. R. R.
[V-10] "Neskalonska" is a name I have failed to find elsewhere, but fortunately there is no question of the river to which Wilkinson applies it. This is Salt fork, the third largest branch of the Arkansaw from the W.—the Cimarron being second, and the Canadian first in size. Wilkinson's "Neskalonska" and his "Grand Saline or Newsewtonga" are respectively Salt fork and Cimarron r. of present nomenclature. Notwithstanding their great size and importance, and the fact that they fall into the Arkansaw about a degree of latitude and of longitude apart, they have been completely confused by geographers, on whose maps almost every name of each has been misapplied to the other. Salt fork is the upper and smaller one of the two, which falls in through the Ponca Reservation, at or near Ponca P. O. and Ponca Agency, in Oklahoma. Cimarron r. is the lower and larger one of the two, which falls in through the Indian Territory at a point on the boundary of Oklahoma. Salt fork has been called: Salt fork; Salt r.; Salt cr.; Saline fork; Saline r.; Saline cr.; Red fork; Red r.; Little Arkansaw r. (duplicating a name: see [note8, p. 548]); Nescutango r.; Negracka r. (its usual name for many years); Semerone, Cimarone, Cimmaron, Cimarron r.—the last four variants of the same word, and like Nescutango, properly belonging only to the next, viz.: Cimarron r. This has been called: Red fork; Saline r.; Grand Saline r.; Jefferson r.; Nesuketong, Nesuketonga, Nesuhetonga, Nescutanga, Newsewketonga r.; Cimmaron, Cimarron r. On analyzing the comparative applicability of these names, I find that "Salt" or "Saline" belongs most properly to the upper and smaller stream, for which we now use it, and when applied to the lower is usually qualified as Grand Saline; that "Red" is misapplied to both indifferently; that "Little Arkansas" is only applied to the upper, and "Jefferson" only to the lower stream; that "Negracka" is absolutely the name of the upper one alone; that "Nesuketonga" and its variants are almost entirely confined to the lower one; and finally that "Cimarron" in its variations is equally common to both, though in present usage it is absolutely restricted to the lower one.