Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ arrival I am informed that a large bluff, composed of the same, is seen 30 to 40 miles from this. The gypsum I picked up on St. Martin's Islands."

      On reaching Detroit, Gov. Cass invited Capt. Douglass and myself to recruit ourselves a few days at his "old mansion of the ancient era." I examined and put in order my collection of specimens, selecting such as were designed for various institutions. A local association of persons inclined to foster literary efforts, under the name of "Detroit Lyceum," elected me a member. The intrepid and energetic officer who had planned and executed this scheme of western exploration gave me a copy of his official letter to the Secretary of War, warmly approbating the conduct of Capt. Douglass and myself, as members of the expedition. All its results were attended with circumstances of high personal gratification.

      I left Detroit on the 13th of October at 4 o'clock P.M., in the steamer "Walk-in-the-Water," the first boat built on the Lake waters, and reached Black Rock at 7 o'clock in the morning of the 17th, being a stormy passage, in a weak but elegant boat, of eighty-seven hours. Glad to set my foot on dry land once more, I hurried on by stage and canal, and reached Oneida Creek Depot on the 21st at 4 o'clock in the morning, stopped for breakfast there, and then proceeded on foot, through the forest, by a very muddy path, to Oneida Castle, a distance of three miles--my trunk being carried by a man on horseback. Thence I took a conveyance for Mr. W.H. Shearman's, at Vernon, where I arrived at ten o'clock A.M.

      Capt. Douglass, who had preceded me, wrote from West Point Military Academy, on the 27th, that in the sudden change of habits he had been affected with a dreadful influenza. My own health continued to be unimpaired, and my spirits were buoyant. After a few days' rest, I wrote a report (Nov. 6th) to the Secretary of War on the metalliferous character of the Lake Superior country, particularly in relation to its reported wealth in copper. I proceeded to Albany on the 7th of December, and arrived the day following, and was cordially greeted by all my friends and acquaintances. It was my intention to have gone immediately to New York, but the urgent entreaties of Mr. Carter and others induced me to defer it. Very little had been said by the members of the party about a publication. We looked to Capt. Douglass, who was the topographer and a professor at West Point, to take the lead in the matter. The death of Mr. Ellicott, Professor of Mathematics at that institution, who was his father-in-law, and his appointment to the vacant chair, from that of engineering, placed him in a very delicate and arduous situation. He has never received credit for the noble manner in which he met this crisis. He was not only almost immediately required to teach his class the differential calculus, but the French copy--a language with which he was not familiar--was the only one employed. He was therefore not only obliged to study a comparatively new science, but to do it in a new language; and when the course began, he had to instruct his class daily in tasks which he committed nightly. Most men would have sunk under the task, but he went triumphantly through it, and I have never heard that the students or others ever had cause to suspect his information or question his abilities. He wrote to me, and perhaps to me only, on this subject.

There was something like a public clamor for the results of the expedition, and the narrative was hurried into press. A new zeal was awakened upon the subject of mineralogy and geology. A friend wrote to me on the mineral affluence of upper Georgia. Several letters from the western district of the State, transmitting specimens, were received. "The unexampled success of your expedition," observes one of these correspondents, "in all respects is a subject of high congratulation, not only for those of whom it was composed, but also to a great portion of the people of the United States, and to this State in particular, as we are the grand link that unites that vast region to our Atlantic border." [9] These feelings appear in letters from near and far. Captain Douglass was aware of this interest, and anxious, amidst his arduous duties, to get the necessary time to arrange his notes and materials. He wrote to me (December 25) to furnish Professor Silliman some sketches for the American Journal of Science. On the topic of topography he says:--

[9] W.S.D.Z., 9th Dec. 1820.

      "With regard to our daily occurrences, ought not something to be done? I intended to have had a conversation with Governor Cass and yourself on the subject before I parted from you, but it escaped me, and I have since written about it.

      "I should be glad to receive your delineation of the Mississippi below Prairie du Chien, and your levels through the Fox and Wisconsin (I believe in these we agree pretty nearly) would enable me to consolidate mine.

      "While I think of it, let me tell you I have made some calculations about the height of the Porcupine Mountains. My data are the distance at which they were seen from Kewewena portage, under the influence of great refraction, and the distance on the following day without unusual refraction, and I am convinced they cannot be less than 2000 feet high; if, however, this staggers you, say 1800, and I am confident you are within the real elevation.

      "Estimates of heights, breadths of rivers, &c., and, in looking over your journal, any other topographical facts which you may have to dispose of, will be very acceptable to me. Will you be able to spare me (that is, to let me copy) any of your drawings? You know, I believe, my views in asking are to embellish my map and memoir with landscape views in a light style."

CHAPTER VI.

       Table of Contents

      Reception by the country on my return--Reasons for publishing my narrative without my reports for a digested scientific account of the expedition--Delays interposed to this--Correspondents--Locality of strontian--Letter from Dr. Mitchell--Report on the copper mines of Lake Superior--Theoretical geology--Indian symbols--Scientific subjects--Complete the publication of my work--Its reception by the press and the public--Effects on my mind--Receive the appointment of Secretary to the Indian Commission at Chicago--Result of the expedition, as shown by a letter of Dr. Mitchell to General Cass.

      1821. Governor Clinton offered me the use of his library while preparing my journal for the press. Mr. Henry Inman, who was then beginning to paint, re-drew some of the views. One of the leading booksellers made me favorable proposals, which I agreed early in January to accept. I began to transcribe my journal on the 8th of the month, and very assiduously devoted myself to that object, sending off the sheets hurriedly as they were written. The engravings were immediately put in hands. In this way, the work went rapidly on; and I kept up, at the same time, an industrious correspondence with scientific men in various places.

      It was at this time an object of moment, doubtless, that the results of this expedition should have been combined in an elaborate and joint work by the scientific gentlemen of the party. The topography and astronomy had been most carefully attended to by Captain Douglass, and the materials collected for an improved map. Its geology and mineralogy had formed the topic of my daily notes. Its aboriginal population had been seen under circumstances rarely enjoyed. Its fresh water conchology had been carefully observed by Douglass and myself, and fine collections made. Something had been done respecting its botany, and the whole chain of events was ready to be linked together in a striking manner.

      But there was no one to take the initiative. Governor Cass, who had led the expedition, did not think of writing. Professor Douglass, who was my senior, and who occupied the post of topographer, by no means underrated the subject, but deferred it, and, by accepting the Professorship of Mathematics at West Point, assumed a duty which made it literally impossible, though he did not see it immediately, that he should do justice to his own notes. I simply went forward because no one of the members of the expedition offered to. I had kept a journal from the first to the last day, which I believe no one else had. I had been diligent in the morning and evening in observing every line of coast and river. I never allowed the sun to catch me asleep in my canoe or boat. I had kept the domestic, as well as the more grave СКАЧАТЬ