Read Ebook: Flagg's The Far West 1836-1837 part 2; and De Smet's Letters and Sketches 1841-1842 by Flagg Edmund Smet Pierre Jean De Thwaites Reuben Gold Editor

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Ebook has 595 lines and 134748 words, and 12 pages

Author's Table of Contents 15

Text 19

Author's Preface 129

BOOK II: Narrative of a Year's Residence among the Indian Tribes of the Rocky Mountains 321

Explanation of the Indian Symbolical Catechism 405

Allegorical sketch 126

"Worship in the Desert" 139

"Kanza Village" 195

"Interior of a Kanza Lodge" 203

"Chimney" 217

"Devil's Gate" 239

"Soda Springs" 245

"Fording the River Platte" 271

"Sheyenne Warriors" 275

"Indian Mode of Travelling" 325

"Apparition" 345

"Indian Symbolical Catechism"--folding plate 403

PART II OF FLAGG'S THE FAR WEST, 1836-1837

Reprint of chapters xxxiii-xli of Volume II of original edition: New York, 1838

Blackness of Darkness--Fall of a Forest-tree--A sublime Incident--Musings--A Moral--A Wolf--A Meal--A Mistake--A broiling Sun--The "Heights of Chester"--A noble View--An Island--A "Bend"--A Steamer--Chester--Site and Anticipations--A romantic Pathway--The Sycamores--The Undergrowth--The Bluffs--Forest Quietude--The wild-grape Vines--Size, Tortuosity, and Tenacity--A Juliet-bower--A Prediction--Kaskaskia Bottom--An elegant Farm and Mansion--The Outhouses--The Harvest-fields and Grounds--The Bluffs--The Village 19

Portraiture of Character--The Difficulty--The French Villager of the Mississippi--His ordinary Deportment--Hospitality--Laws and Courts--Scholastic Proficiency--Affairs of the Nation--"A Burden!"--Their Virtues--The Helpmate--Religious Faith--Festivals--Their Property--The Change--Their Avocations--Their Idiom--A Contrast--The Peculiarities--Costume--Amusements--Slaves--Early Government--An unwelcome Change--"Improvement!"--A hateful Term--The Steam-engine--The old Edifices--The Streets--Advantages of the Change--The Contrast--The poorer Class--Evils of the Change--Superior Enterprise 52

XLI

THE FAR WEST

"Stranger, if thou hast learn'd a truth which needs Experience more than reason, that the world Is full of guilt and misery, and hast known Enough of all its sorrows, crimes, and cares To tire thee of it; enter this wild wood, And view the haunts of Nature." BRYANT.

From Chester, in a direction not far from north, a narrow pathway winds along beneath the bluffs, among the tall cane-brakes of the bottom. Leaving the Mississippi at the mouth of the Kaskaskia, it runs along the low banks of the latter stream, and begins to assume an aspect truly delightful. Upon either side rise the shafts of enormous sycamores to the altitude of an hundred feet, and then, flinging abroad and interlacing their long branches, form a living arch of exquisite beauty, stretching away in unbroken luxuriance for miles. Beneath springs from the rich loam a dense undergrowth of canes; a profusion of wild vines and bushes clustering with fruit serving effectually to exclude the sunbeams, except a few checkered spots here and there playing upon the foliage, while at intervals through the dark verdure is caught the flashing sheen of the moving waters. Upon the right, at the distance of only a few yards, go up the bluffs to the sheer height of some hundred feet, densely clothed with woods. The path, though exceedingly narrow and serpentine, is for the most part a hard-trodden, smooth, and excellent one when dry. The coolness and fragrance of these deep, old, shadowy woodlands has always for me a resistless charm. There is so much of quiet seclusion from the feverish turmoil of ordinary life within their peaceful avenues, that, to one not wedded to the world, they are ever inexpressibly grateful.

"The calm shade Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze, That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm To thy sick heart. Thou wilt find nothing here Of all that pain'd thee in the haunts of men, And made thee loathe thy life."

In the wild, fierce glaring of a summer noontide, when amid "the haunts of men" all is parched up, and dusty, and scathed, how refreshingly cool are the still depths of the forest! The clear crystal streamlet gushes forth with perennial laughter from the rock, seeming to exult in its happy existence; the bright enamelled mosses of a century creep along the gnarled old roots, and life in all its fairy forms trips forth to greet the eremite heart and charm it from the world. But there was one feature of the scene through which I was passing that struck me as peculiarly imposing, and to which I have not yet referred. I allude to the enormous, almost preternatural magnitude of the wild-grape vine, and its tortuosity. I have more than once, in the course of my wanderings, remarked the peculiarities of these vast parasites; but such is the unrivalled fertility, and the depth of soil of the Kaskaskia bottom, that vegetation of every kind there attains a size and proportion elsewhere almost unknown. Six or seven of these vast vegetable serpents are usually beheld leaping forth with a broad whirl from the mould at the root of a tree, and then, writhing, and twining, and twisting among themselves into all imaginable forms, at length away they start, all at once and together, in different directions for the summit, around which they immediately clasp their bodies, one over the other, and swing depending in festoons on every side. Some of these vines, when old and dried up by the elements, are amazingly strong; more so, perhaps, than a hempen hawser of the same diameter.

FOOTNOTES:

The Vermilion River rises, with several branches, in the western and southern portions of La Salle County, and flows north and west, entering Illinois River at Rock Island, in Livingston County.

Steelesville is about fifteen miles east of Kaskaskia, on the road between Pinkneyville and Chester; the site was settled on by George Steele in 1810. A block-house fort erected there in 1812 protected the settlers against attacks from the Kickapoo Indians. In 1825 a tread-mill was built, and two years later a store and post-office were erected. The latter was named Steele's Mills. The settlement was originally called Georgetown and later changed by an act of state legislature to Steelesville, being surveyed in 1832.--ED.

Chester is on the Mississippi River, in Randolph County, just below the mouth of Kaskaskia River. In the summer of 1829, Samuel Smith built the first house there, and two years later he, together with Mather, Lamb and Company, platted the town site. It was named by Jane Smith from her native town, Chester, England, and was made the seat of justice for Randolph in 1848.--ED.

Flagg is probably referring to Colonel Pierre Menard. See our volume xxvi, p. 165, note 116.--ED.

"Protected by the divinity they adored, supported by the earth which they cultivated, and at peace with themselves, they enjoyed the sweets of life without dreading or desiring dissolution."--NUMA POMPILIUS.

FOOTNOTES:

"Glanced many a light ca?que along the foam, Danced on the shore the daughters of the land." BYRON.

"How changed the scene since merry Jean Baptiste Paddled his pirouge on La Belle Rivi?re, And from its banks some lone Loyola priest Echoed the night song of the voyageur."

The proceedings of our national government towards these ancient villages have been characterized by generosity, whatever may be said of the conduct of individuals. In 1788, an extensive tract lying along the Mississippi was by act of Congress granted to the French inhabitants east of that river; and to those of Kaskaskia was secured for a common field twenty thousand acres. It is under direction of the trustees of the town by provision of the state legislature.

A century, and the whole region was ceded to England, thence to our own government in 1783, and now old Kaskaskia is but the wreck of its former prosperity. It makes one almost sad to wander about among these ruinous, deserted habitations, venerable with departed years, and reflect that once they were thronged with population, the seat of hospitality, and the home of kindly feeling. The quiet villagers have been not a little annoyed by the steady and rapid influx of immigration on every side of them, dissimilar in customs, language, religion, and temperament, while the bustling enterprise has fretted and displeased them. Long accustomed, also, to the arbitrary but parental authority of their military commandants and priesthood, they deemed the introduction of the common law among them exceedingly burdensome, and the duties of a citizen of a republic, of which we are so proud, intolerable drudgery. Many, therefore, of the wealthy and respectable, on cession of their territory to our government, removed to Louisiana, where civil law yet bears sway; others crossed the river and established Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis; while the foreigners returning to the lands from which they had emigrated, few but natives of the country remained behind. The ordinance of 1787, prohibiting involuntary servitude in the region then called the Northwestern Territory, induced many who were desirous of preserving their blacks to remove to the new villages west of the Mississippi, then under Spanish rule. From these and a variety of similar causes, this peaceful, kind-hearted people have within the last thirty years been more than once disturbed in the dwellings of their fathers.

FOOTNOTES:

Hall.--FLAGG.

For a short note on the Illinois Indians, consult our volume xxvi, p. 123, note 86.--ED.

The Island of Anticosti, in the estuary of St. Lawrence River, contains about 3,900 square miles, and is not only of importance as a centre of hunting and fishing interests, but is rich in undeveloped mineral resources. The population of a few hundred souls is chiefly concerned in fishing. The island is now the property of M. Henri Menier, a Parisian chocolate manufacturer, who personally rules his seigniory with benevolent despotism.--ED.

M. Tonti, among other writers, speaking of the country, according to Mr. Peck's translation, says:

In another place, this writer gives an amusing account of hunting "wild bulls," which "go always by droves of three or four hundred each." This description answers well for the buffalo, but it is not so easy to determine what animals they mistook for "wild asses, goats, and sheep."

Wild goats are named so frequently, and in so many connexions, as hardly to admit of an intentional misrepresentation.--FLAGG.

Father Marquette died May 18, 1675, on the present site of Ludington, Michigan.--ED.

For the settlement of Peoria, see our volume xxvi, p. 133, note 93.--ED.

"Thirdly, To facilitate to the inhabitants the means of making their autumnal harvest, and prevent its being damaged by the cattle, we forbid all persons to leave their cattle range upon cultivated lands--they are, notwithstanding, permitted to graze upon their own proper lands on having them diligently watched.

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