Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 (Volume XXVI) Part 16

"After a lapse of time the merchants of the upper country began to be alarmed on finding their property make no returns, and their people never coming back. Several families and respectable men who had gone down the river were never heard of, and the losses became so frequent that it raised, at length, a cry of individual distress and general dismay. This naturally led to an inquiry, and large rewards were offered for the discovery of the perpetrators of such unparalleled crimes. It soon came out that Wilson, with an organized party of forty-five men, was the cause of such waste of blood and treasure; that he had a station at Hurricane Island to arrest every boat that pa.s.sed by the mouth of the cavern, and that he had agents at Natchez and New-Orleans, of presumed respectability, who converted his a.s.signments into cash, though they knew the goods to be stolen or obtained by the commission of murder.

"The publicity of Wilson's transactions soon broke up his party; some dispersed, others were taken prisoners, and he himself was killed by one of his a.s.sociates, who was tempted by the reward offered for the head of the captain of the gang.

"This cavern measures about twelve rods in length and five in width; its entrance presents a width of eighty feet at its base and twenty-five feet high. The interior walls are smooth rock. The floor is very remarkable, being level through the whole length of its centre, the sides rising in stony grades, in the manner of seats in the pit of a theatre. On a diligent scrutiny of the walls, it is plainly discerned that the ancient inhabitants at a very remote period had made use of the cave as a house of deliberation and council. The walls bear many hieroglyphics well executed, and some of them represent animals which have no resemblance to any now known to natural history.

"This cavern is a great natural curiosity, as it is connected with another still more gloomy, which is situated exactly above, united by an aperture of about fourteen feet, which, to ascend, is like pa.s.sing up a chimney, while the mountain is yet far above. Not long after the dispersion and arrest of the robbers who had infested it, in the upper vault were found the skeletons of about sixty persons, who had been murdered by the gang of Wilson, as was supposed.

"But the tokens of antiquity are still more curious and important than a description of the mere cave, which are found engraved on the sides within, an account of which we proceed to give:

"The sun in different stages of rise and declension; the moon under various phases; a snake biting its tail, and representing an orb or circle; a viper; a vulture; buzzards tearing out the heart of a prostrate man; a panther held by the ears by a child; a crocodile; several trees and shrubs; a fox; a curious kind of hydra serpent; two doves; several bears; two scorpions; an eagle; an owl; some quails; _eight_ representations of animals which are now unknown. Three out of the eight are like the elephant in all respects except the tusk and the tail. Two more resemble the tiger; one a wild boar; another a sloth; and the last appears a creature of fancy, being a quadruman instead of a quadruped; the claws being alike before and behind, and in the act of conveying something to the mouth, which lay in the centre of the monster. Besides these were several fine representations of men and women, _not naked_, but clothed; not as the Indians, but much in the costume of Greece and Rome."--FLAGG.

_Comment by Ed._ This same account is given by Collins (_op. cit._, in note 40), and is probably true.

[42] Hurricane Island, four miles below Cave-in-Rock, is more than five miles in length. The "Wilson gang" for some time used this island for a seat of operation.--ED.

[43] Golconda is the seat of Pope County, Illinois. See Woods's _English Prairie_, in our volume x, p. 327, note 77.

On or just before Christmas, 1806, Aaron Burr came down the c.u.mberland River from Nashville and joined Blennerha.s.set, Davis Floyd, and others who were waiting for him at the mouth of the river, and together they started on Burr's ill-fated expedition (December 28, 1806). Their united forces numbered only nine batteaux and sixty men. See W. F.

McCaleb, _Aaron Burr's Conspiracy_ (New York, 1903), p. 254 ff.

For a short account of Paducah, see Maximilian's _Travels_, in our volume xxii, p. 203, note 110.--ED.

[44] It has since been nearly destroyed by fire.--FLAGG.

[45] On Fort Ma.s.sac, see A. Michaux's _Travels_, in our volume iii, p.

73, note 139.--ED.

[46] Wilkinsonville, named for General James Wilkinson, was a small hamlet located on the site of the Fort Wilkinson of 1812, twenty-two miles above Cairo. Two or three farm houses are today the sole relics of this place; see Thwaites, _On the Storied Ohio_, p. 291.

Caledonia is still a small village in Pulaski County, Illinois. Its post-office is Olmstead.--ED.

[47] For account of the attempt at settlements at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, see Maximilian's _Travels_, in our volume xxii, p. 204, note 111.--ED.

[48] For America see Ogden's _Letters_, our volume xix, p. 44, note 30, and Woods's _English Prairie_, our volume x, p. 327, note 77.

The scheme known as the "Internal Improvement Policy" was authorized over the governor's veto by the Illinois general a.s.sembly on February 27, 1837, in response to the popular clamor for its adoption. The object was to open the country for immigration and hasten its natural development by constructing railroads and ca.n.a.ls as yet not needed commercially. Ten million two hundred thousand dollars were appropriated by the act, including two hundred thousand dollars to be given directly to the counties not favored. Surveys were made, and speculation was rife. Then followed a collapse, and six million five hundred thousand dollars were added to the state debt. The scheme was later referred to as the General Insanity Bill.--ED.

[49] The English Island of 1836 is probably the Power's Island of today. It is three miles long, and forms a part of Scott County, Missouri, more than twenty miles above Cairo.--ED.

[50] Herbert.--FLAGG.

[51] For a sketch of Cape Girardeau, see A. Michaux's _Travels_, in our volume iii, p. 80, note 154.--ED.

[52] A superior quality of kaolin, or china clay, is mined in large quant.i.ties in Cape Girardeau County. Marble ninety-nine per cent pure, is procured in abundance.--ED.

[53] "Muddy River," usually called "Big Muddy," is the English translation of the French _Riviere au Vase_, or _Vaseux_. Formed by the union of two branches rising in Jefferson County, Illinois, it flows in a southwesterly direction and empties into the Mississippi about twenty-five miles above Cape Girardeau. It is one hundred and forty miles long.--ED.

[54] Fountain Bluff is six miles above the mouth of the Big Muddy.

Flagg's descriptions are in the main accurate.--ED.

[55] Grand Tower, seventy-five feet high, and frequently mentioned by early writers, is a mile above the island of the same name, at the mouth of the Big Muddy, and stands out some distance from the Missouri side. Grand Tower Island was an object of much dread to boatmen during the days of early navigation on the Mississippi. A powerful current sweeping around Devil's Oven, frequently seized frail or unwieldy craft to dash it against this rock. Usually the boatmen landed, and by means of long ropes towed their vessels along the Illinois side, past this perilous rock.--ED.

[56] The Mississippi between the mouth of the Kaskaskia River and Cape Girardeau offered many obstructions to early navigation. As at Grand Tower, the boatmen frequently found it necessary to land and tow their boats past the dangerous points, and here the Indians would lie in ambush to fall upon the unfortunate whites. The peril of these places doubtless lent color to their nomenclature. Flagg's descriptions are fairly accurate except in the matter of dimensions, wherein he tends to exaggeration.--ED.

[57] $105,000.--FLAGG.

[58] For Red River raft, see James's Long's _Expedition_, in our volume xvii, p. 70, note 64.--ED.

[59] In reference to the American Bottom, see Ogden's _Letters_, in our volume xix, p. 62, note 48.--ED.

[60] For an account of Ste. Genevieve, see c.u.ming's _Tour_, in our volume iv, p. 266, note 174.

According to Austin, cited below, La Motte (or La Mothe) Cadillac, governor of Louisiana, went on an expedition (1715) to the Illinois in search of silver, and found lead ore in a mine which had been shown him fifteen miles west of the Mississippi. It is believed by some authorities that this was the famous "Mine la Mothe," at the head of the St. Francis River. Schoolcraft, however, says that Philip Francis Renault, having received mining grants from the French government, left France in 1719, ascended the Mississippi, established himself the following year near Kaskaskia, and sent out small companies in search of precious metals; and that La Mothe, who had charge of one of these companies, soon discovered the mine that still bears his name. It was operated only at intervals, until after the American occupation, when its resources were developed. Under the Spanish domination (1762-1800), little was done to develop the mine. In 1763, however, Francis Burton discovered the "Mine a Burton," on a branch of Mineral Fork. Like the "Mine la Mothe," it was known to the Indians before the discovery by the whites, and both are still operated. Burton was said to have been alive in 1818, at the age of a hundred and six; see Colonel Thomas Benton's account of him in St. Louis _Enquirer_, October 16, 1818.

For an account of primitive mining operations, see Thwaites, _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, xiii, pp. 271-292; Moses Austin, "Lead Mines of Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis Counties," _American State Papers_ (_Public Lands_), iii, pp. 609-613; and H. R. Schoolcraft, _Lead Mines of Missouri_ (New York, 1819).--ED.

[61] From 1738 to 1744, the mines were considered as public property: but in the year last mentioned Francois Valle received from the French government a grant of two thousand arpents of land (1,666 acres) including "Mine la Mothe," and eighteen years later twenty-eight thousand arpents (23,333 acres) additional. At Valle's death the land pa.s.sed to his sons, Francois and John, and Joseph Pratt, a transfer confirmed by Congress in 1827. The next year it was sold to C. C.

Valle, L. E. Linn, and Everett Pratt. In 1830 it was sold in part and the remainder leased. In 1868 the estate pa.s.sed from the hands of the Valles.--ED.

[62] Pilot k.n.o.b is a conical-shaped hill, a mile in diameter, in Iron County, Missouri, seventy-five miles southwest of St. Louis, and is rich in iron ore. In the War of Secession it was the scene of a battle between General Sterling Price and General Hugh B. Ewing (September 26, 27, 1864).

Iron Mountain is an isolated k.n.o.b of the St. Francois Mountains in St.

Francois County, eighty miles south of St. Louis. One of the richest and purest iron mines in the United States is found there.--ED.

[63] The Peoria were one of the five princ.i.p.al tribes of the Illinois Confederation. They resided around the lake in the central portion of Illinois, which bears their name. In 1832 they were removed to Kansas, and in 1854 to Indian Territory, where, united with other tribes, they still reside.--ED.

[64] For a short account of Fort Chartres, see A. Michaux's _Travels_, in our volume iii, p. 71, note 136.--ED.

[65] For Prairie du Rocher see A. Michaux's _Travels_, in our volume iii, p. 70, note 133. The legend referred to is, "Michel de Couce" by James Hall, in his _Legends of the West_.

Contrary to Flagg's statement that there exists no description of Fort Chartres worthy of its history, Philip Pittman, who visited the place in 1766, gives a good detailed description of the fort in his _Present State of the European Settlements on the Missisippi_ (London, 1770), pp. 45, 46.--ED.

[66] For location and date of settlement of Herculaneum, see Maximilian's _Travels_, in our volume xxii, p. 212, note 122.

On a perpendicular bluff, more than a hundred feet in height, in the vicinity of Herculaneum, J. Macklot erected (1809) what was probably the first shot-tower this side of the Atlantic. The next year one Austin built another tower at the same point. According to H. R.

Schoolcraft in his _View of the Lead Mines of Missouri_ (New York, 1819), pp. 138, 139, there were in 1817 three shot-towers near Herculaneum, producing in the eighteen months ending June 1 of that year, 668,350 pounds of shot. From the top of small wooden towers erected on the edge of the bluff, the melted lead was poured through holes in copper pans or sieves.--ED.

[67] For the location of the Platine (usually spelled Plattin), see Maximilian's _Travels_, in our volume xxii, p. 212, note 123. Lead mining has been carried on in this district, intermittently, since 1824.--ED.

[68] See Maximilian's _Travels_, in our volume xxii, p. 212, note 123.--ED.

[69] The following extract from the Journal of Charlevoix, one of the earliest historians of the West, with reference to the Mines upon the Merrimac, may prove not uninteresting. The work is a rare one.

"On the 17th (Oct., 1721), after sailing five leagues farther, I left, on my right, the river Marameg, where they are at present employed in searching for a silver mine. Perhaps your grace may not be displeased if I inform you what success may be expected from this undertaking.

Here follows what I have been able to collect about this affair, from a person who is well acquainted with it, and who has resided for several years on the spot.

"In the year 1719, the Sieur de Lochon, being sent by the West India Company, in quality of founder, and having dug in a place which had been marked out to him, drew up a pretty large quant.i.ty of ore, a pound whereof, which took up four days in smelting, produced, as they say, two drachms of silver; but some have suspected him of putting in this quant.i.ty himself. A few months afterward he returned thither, and, without thinking any more of the silver, he extracted from two or three thousand weight of ore fourteen pounds of very bad lead, which stood him in fourteen hundred francs. Disgusted with a labour which was so unprofitable, he returned to France.