A pictorial history of Arkansas, from earliest times to the year 1890. A full and complete account, embracing the Indian tribes occupying the country; the early French and Spanish explorers and governors; the colonial period; the Louisiana purchase; the periods of the territory, the state, the civil war, and the subsequent period. Also, an extended history of each county in the order of formation, and of the principal cities and towns; together with biographical notices of distinguished and prominent citizens, Part 4

Author: Hempstead, Fay, 1847-1934
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: St. Louis and New York : N. D. Thompson Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1268

USA > Arkansas > A pictorial history of Arkansas, from earliest times to the year 1890. A full and complete account, embracing the Indian tribes occupying the country; the early French and Spanish explorers and governors; the colonial period; the Louisiana purchase; the periods of the territory, the state, the civil war, and the subsequent period. Also, an extended history of each county in the order of formation, and of the principal cities and towns; together with biographical notices of distinguished and prominent citizens > Part 4

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

TO THE YEAR 1543.

On the French map, so often referred to herein, the village of Guachoya is located on the banks of the Mississippi river, at the mouth of Red river, on the south side, and is accom- panied by a note "ou mournt Soto" where De Soto died.

Finding he was about to die, De Soto called his people to- gether and demanded to know of them whom they would have for a leader after he was gone. Baltasar de Gallegos, speak- ing for the rest, said they desired that he would name his own successor. Accordingly he named Lewis de Moscoso, his Captain-General, to be his successor, and on the next day he expired.

"As soon as he was dead," says the Portugese account, "Luys de Moscoso commanded to put him secretly in the house, where he remained three days, and removing him from thence commanded him to be buried in the night, at one of the gates of the town, within the wall. And as the Indians had seen him sick and missed him, so did they suspect what might be. And passing by the place where he was buried, seeing the earth moved they looked and spoke one to another. Luys de Moscoso understanding of it, commanded him to be taken up by night and to cast a great deal of sand into the mantles wherein he was wound up, wherein he was carried in a canoe and thrown into the midst of the river."

Thus the hardy explorer found his grave in the bosom of the great river he had discovered, and which flows on over him, forever linked with his name.

Of the subsequent proceedings, which are of great interest, the following is said :

"Luys de Moscoso caused all the goods of the Governor to be sold at an outcry, to-wit : Two men slaves and two women slaves, three horses and seven hundred hogs. For every slave or horse they gave two or three thousand ducats, which were to be paid at the first melting of gold or silver, or at the division of their portion of inheritance. And they entered into bonds, though in the country there was not wherewith to pay it

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

within a year after, and put in sureties for the same. Such as in Spain had no goods to bind, gave two hundred ducats for a hog, giving assurance after the same manner. Those which had any goods in Spain bought with more fear and bought the less. From that time forward most of the com- pany had swine, and brought them up and fed upon them, and observed Fridays and Saturdays and the evenings and feasts, which before they did not. For sometimes in two or three months they did eat no flesh, and wheresoever they could come by it they did eat it."

Continuing, the narrative says : "Some were glad of the death of Don Ferdinando de Soto, holding for certain that Luys de Moscoso (which was given to his ease) would rather desire to be among the Christians at rest, than to continue the labors of the war in subduing and discovering of countries whereof they were weary, seeing the small profit that ensued thereof. The Governor commanded the Captain and the principal persons to meet to consult, and determine what they should do He desired them all that every one should give his opinion in writing and set his hand to it, that they might resolve by general consent, whether they should go down the river or enter into the main land. All were of opinion that it was best to go by land toward the west, be- cause Nueva Espana was that way, holding the voyage by sea more dangerous and of greater hazard, because they could make no ships of any strength to abide a storm, neither had they master nor pilot, compass nor chart, neither knew they how far the sea was off ; nor had any notice of it ; nor whether the river did make any great turning into the land, or had any great fall from rocks, where all of them might be cast away. The Governor, although he desired to get out of Florida in shorter time, seeing the inconveniences they laid before him in traveling by sea, determined to follow that which seemed good to them all. On Monday, the 5th day of June (1542), he departed from Guachoya."

TO THE YEAR 1543.

They traveled westward, a distance given as one hundred and fifty leagues, by which they had evidently reached the western plains of Texas. On the route, and not many days out from Guachoya, westward they passed through a small town on the borders of a lake, where the Indians made salt from a brackish water which sprang near the town in ponds like fountains. Probably the present Lake Bistineau, in. Northwest Louisiana.

From this extreme point which they had thus reached, very near, in fact, to the New Spain to which they were journey- ing, but finding it a desert, where it was difficult to sustain life, they turned back and retraced their steps over all that long and weary way until they reached again the village of Nilco, where they had once been, which is described as being nine leagues from the Mississippi river. So close, indeed, that a great overflow of the Mississippi, which occurred while they were there, reached even to Nilco.

Not finding Nilco supplied with provisions necessary for sustenance, they moved to a neighboring village of Minoya, for the purpose of building brigantines, determined to try their fortunes in descending the river to the sea and reaching the coast of New Spain by water. Minoya was two days' journey from Nilco, and nearer the Mississippi, and they came to it in the early part of December, 1542, and began the building of the brigantines.

With infinite labor and under many difficulties they con- structed the boats, seven in number, which were completed by June, 1543, and the June rise of the Mississippi occurring shortly after, the waters came up to the town of Minoya, and in it they floated the boats and departed from the place July 2d, 1543, 322 persons in number. They encountered much hostility from the Indians on their downward journey and lost many men, during seventeen days in which they floated with the current aided with oars. The Indians followed them

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

in canoes "shooting cruelly at them." Going what they sup- posed to be a distance of 250 leagues they came to the delta of the Mississippi, which river they described as being "divided into two arms, each of them a league and a half broad." Descending one of these arms they reached the coast, and put to sea July 18th, 1543, with fair and prosper- ous weather for their voyage.

They were at sea 52 days, and on the 10th of September, 1543, they reached the river of Panuco, and soon arrived at the town. They numbered 31I men, and were lodged and entertained with the utmost hospitality by the Inhabitants of Panuco, who were their countrymen.

The following are distances given by "A Gentleman of Elvas" of points in Arkansas, but it is to be observed, as stated by LaVega, that these distances are merely guessed or conjectured, as the Spanish had no means of measuring the same, and no doubt the toils and hindrances of the march of a large body of men through a tangled country may have made the distance seem greater than it was. He says :

"Along this river" (the Mississippi) "from Aquixo to Pacaha and Coligoa are 150 leagues, the country is plain and the woods thin, and in some places champaign, very fruitful and pleasant. From Coligo to Autiamque are 250 leagues of hilly country."

When the news of DeSoto's death was conveyed to his faithful wife, Isabella Bobadilla, who had been awaiting him in Havana, her heart broke under the intelligence, and in three days she died. £ She learned of it late in 1543 from some of the survivors of Moscoso band on their reaching Cuba, and was the first she had heard from him in five years.

Mountains.

COLIGOA

Route of De SOTO 1541

CASQUI

Mississippi River

THE PROVINCE OF CAYAS

KAPPAO

OUIGAUTE

TANICO

PACAHAO

Hot Springs.

AQUIXO-

CHISCA

ROUTE OF DE SOTO

Mountains,

POVIPANA

Ouachita River

AUTHAMQUE

Red River

Route OF MOSCOSO

and an Interpreter

Here his Course) was much

LAKE BISTINEAU

cturning From NEW SPAIN,

6/Aya-

NiLEO

Minoya

Gud choya

LOUISIANA

where de Soto died MAY 21 St. 1542 and was buried in the RIVER

the river in 1543

Moscoso Journeyed down

River

WHITE RIVER

St. Francis

ARKANSAS ARKANSAS RIVER

Mountains

SALT WORKS

O TULLA

Saline River

KAPPAY

OFF MOUTH OF ARKANSAS RIVER .

the Winter of 1541-2

Here he spent

> Route

LAKE, Where SALT was made

Route of Moscoso going to NEW SPAIN

confused by the want of a Guide,

1542

Here Moscoso built Brigantines and launched them in 1543

SABINE RIVER .

MAP SHOWING SUPPOSED ROUTE OF DESOTO AND MOSCOSO IN ARKANSAS AND LOUISIANA.

15%

MOUTH OF ST. FRANCIS RIVER

CHAPTER II.

FROM 1543 TO 1700.

EXPLORATIONS OF MARQUETTE .- -HENNEPIN. LASALLE .- DE TONTI AND IBERVILLE.

HISTORY gives no account of any other European traversing this particular country for a period of 131 years after De Soto. Although having found the Mississippi to be navigable for a distance · of over a thousand miles, Spain made no effort to follow up the discovery. The next exploration was made by the French.

In the year 1673, Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, two French Catholic priests, with an exploring party of five men, with two canoes, entered the Mississippi river on the 17th day of June, 1763, a few miles below Prairie du Chien, in Illi- nois, and descended as far as 34 degrees of north latitude, which would be about the mouth of the Arkansas river, where they found a tribe of Indians, whom he calls Akansea, who received them in a friendly manner. Here, also, they found a village called Arkansea, where the natives exhibited to them European implements, and satisfied them of their contact with Europeans. Having ascertained that the river which they were descending flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, and not into the Pacific Ocean as had been supposed, and believing that they were only a short distance from the coast, not more than two or three days' journey, but fearing imprisonment by the Spaniards if they proceeded lower down, whereby the en- tire fruits of their discoveries would be lost, they turned back

FROM 1543 TO 1700.

from this point on the 17th day of July, 1673, and ascended the river. On entering the river they gave to it the name of the river Conception, and afterwards others called it the river Colbert, in honor of Jean Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seig- neley, an eminent Minister of France under Louis XIV, but neither of these names obtained ; and it continued to be known by the name by which the natives called it, Mescha-sebe, or, as now called, Mississippi.

Both Marquette and Joliet wrote accounts of the voyage and made maps of the region over which they had passed, and these are the earliest maps of the country and of the river which were ever made. The account and maps of Joliet were unfortunately lost by the upsetting of his canoe in the St. Lawrence river while on his voyage to Canada to deliver them to Governor Frontenac for transmission to France. He drew another map from memory, but this was not as perfect as the first. Marquette's account, as translated from the orig- inal French, is contained in French's Historical Collections of Louisiana, in Vol. II.

The following is a copy of the map made by Marquette at the time of his voyage, and shows the Mississippi river only as far down as the mouth of the Arkansas, the point to which he descended. This is undoubtedly the first map ever made of the Mississippi river, and dates from about the year 1673. It shows the location of the Arkansa Indians, under the name Akansea.

The following are extracts from "Marquette's Journal," entitled; "AN ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF SOME NEW COUNTRIES AND NATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA IN 1673, BY PERE MARQUETTE AND SIEUR JOLIET," translated from the French, in French's Historical Collections of Louisiana, Vol. II :

"I embarked with Mons. Joliet, who had been chosen to conduct this enterprise, on the 13th of May, 1673, with five other Frenchmen, in two bark canoes ; we laid in some Indian 4

NOMS

DES

FAC SIMILE of the Autograph Map of the MISSISSIPPI OR Conception River, Drawn By FATHER MARQUETTE AT THE TIME OF HIS VOYAGE ( 1673) From the Original preserved at ST MARY'S COLLEGE, MONTREAL

R.8A88 JKa 8

NY MONS & PELLER.

ATOTCHASI.

M MATORA

AKOROA PAPIKAMA

METCHIGAMEA EMAMBETA

AKANSER

PANIASSA

JANIKSA M. ALAICHI

R.DE LA CONCEPTION .

NATIONS ESLOLGNEES DANS LES TERRES

FROM 1543 TO 1700.

corn and smoked beef for our voyage. We first took care, however, to draw from the Indians all the information we could concerning the countries through which we designed to travel, and drew up a map on which we marked down the rivers, countries and points of the compass to guide our journey We came into the Mississippi on the 17th of June, 1673 We continued to descend the river, not know -- ing where we were going, and having made an hundred leagues without seeing anything but wild beasts and birds

we went south and southwest, until we found ourselves in about the latitude of 40 degrees and some minutes, having rowed more than 60 leagues since we entered the river. On the 25th of June we went ashore, and found some traces of men on the sand, and a path which led into a large ravine. We judged it led to an Indian village, and concluded to examine it. We, therefore, left our canoes in charge of our men, while M. Joliet and myself went to examine it. A bold undertaking for two men in a savage country. We followed this little path in silence about two leagues, when we discovered a village on the banks of a river, and two others on a hill about half a league from the first."

On coming to the village they were presented with the cal- umet or pipe, which everyone must smoke, or otherwise he will be considered an enemy. It formed a large part of their re- ligion, and to it they attached some mysterious importance. On occasions they made it a practice to dance the calumet, which is thus spoken of :

"This dance of the calumet is a solemn ceremony among the Indians, which they only perform on important occasions, such as to confirm an alliance or make peace with their neigh- bors. They also use it to entertain any nation that comes to visit them, and in this case we may consider it as their grand entertainment. We soon descended to 33% de- grees north, and found ourselves at a village on the river side,

(*) This is a mistake for 35 degrees, as 33 degrees is as far down as the Louisiana line.

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

called Mitchigamea . They told us that at the next great village, called Akansea, eight or ten leagues further down the river, we could learn all about the sea."

Proceeding on they reached the village of Akansea, con- cerning which and its inhabitants it is said: "We then asked them what they knew of the sea, and they said we were within ten days' journey of it, but we might perform it in five. That they were unacquainted with the nations below, because their enemies had prevented them from visiting them. That the hatchet, knives and beads had been sold to them by the nations of the East, and were in part brought by the Illinois, who live four days" journey to the West. That the Indians whom we had met with guns, were their enemies who hindered them from trading with the Europeans, and if we persisted in going any further we would expose ourselves to the nations who were their enemies . M. Joliet and I held a council to deliberate upon what we should do-whether to proceed further or return to Canada, content with what dis- coveries we had made. Having satisfied ourselves that the Gulf of Mexico was in latitude 31 degrees, 40 minutes, and that we could reach it in three or four days from the Akansea, and that the Mississippi discharged itself into it, and not to the eastward of the Cape of Florida, nor into the California Sea, we resolved to return home. We considered that the advant- ages of our travels would be altogether lost to our nation if we fell into the hands of the Spaniards, from whom we could ex- pect no other treatment than death or slavery; besides, we saw that we were not prepared to resist the Indians, the allies of the Europeans, who continually infested the lower part of this river. We, therefore, came to the conclusion to return and make a report to those who had sent us. So that, having rested another day, we left the village of the Akansea on the 17th day of July, 1673, having followed the Mississippi from the latitude of 42 degrees to 34 degrees, and preached the Gospel to the utmost of my power to the nations we visited."

FROM 1543 TO 1700.

Toward the close of the summer of the year 1680, Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan Friar, better known as Father Hen- nepin, with a party of five men, set out on a voyage of ex- ploration down the river, under the direction of La Salle, but who was not with the party. Entering the Mississippi by way of Wisconsin, the party descended the river, occasionally paddling their canoes and again floating with the current, until they reached the mouth of the Arkansas river, the point formerly reached by Marquette and Joliet. Here it was as- certained from the Indians that the distance to the sea was still very great, much greater than had been anticipated, and Father Hennepin deemed it best to return to Illinois and thence to Fort Creve Coeur, which was a little below the site of the present city of Peoria. Late in the autumn he reached the posts on the upper Illinois. This was the extent of Father Hennepin's exploration of the Mississippi on this voyage, and reached only to the mouth of the Arkansas river .*

In 1682, Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle, a French ex- plorer, started from Fort Miami, a trading post which he had established at the mouth of the St. Joseph's river, in the country of the Illinois, with an exploring party containing Henry de Tonti, Father Zenobius Membré, a Recollect Mis- sionairy, and twenty Frenchmen and Canadians, in canoes, and descended the Mississippi to its mouth. On his journey down he camped at the Chickasaw bluffs, where Memphis now is, and kept on to where the river divides. He explored each of the three channels leading to the gulf, and on the 9th of April, 1682, erected a column with the arms of France carved upon it, at the mouth of the river, and claimed pos- session in the name of France of all the country watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, and in honor of Louis XIV, then King of France, named the country Louisiana.

(*) This is the account of Father Hennepin's explorations as given by Monette in his "Val- ley of the Mississippi." Jared Sparks, on the other hand, in his "Life of Marquette," says that Hennepin did not descend any lower than the mouth of the Illinois river.

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

The ceremonies attending his taking possession of the country are described in French's Historical Collection of Louisiana, and are contained in a certificate or proces verbal, executed by Jaques de La Metairie, a notary who had accompanied La Salle from Fort Frontenac. The document being trans- lated by Jared Sparks, from manuscript in the Department of the Marine, at Paris, is as follows :

"Proces verbal of the taking possession of Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi, by the Sieur de LaSalle, on the 9th day of April, 1682.

JACQUES DE LA METAIRIE,

Notary of Fort Frontenac, in New France, commis- sioned to exercise the said function of notary during the voyage to Louisiana, in North America, by M. de La Salle, Governor of Fort Frontenac, King and Com- mandant of said Discovery by the Commission of his Majesty, given at St. Germain, on the 12th of May, 1678.

To all those to whom these presents shall come, Greet- ing :- Know ye that having been requested by the said Sieur de LaSalle to deliver to him an act, signed by us and the wit- nesses therein named, of possession by him taken of the country of Louisiana, near the three mouths of the river Col- bert, in the Gulf of Mexico, on the 9th of April, 1682. In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible and victorious Prince Louis, the Great, by the grace of God, King of France and of Navarre, fourteenth of that name, and of his heirs, and of the succession to the crown, we, the aforesaid notary, have delivered the said act to the said Sieur de La Salle, the tenor whereof follows :

On the 27th Dec., 1681, M. de LaSalle departed on foot to join M. de Tonti, who had preceded him, with his followers and all his equipage, 40 leagues into the Miami's country, where the ice on the river Chekagou, in the country of the Mascouters, had arrested his progress, and where, when the ice became stronger, they used sledges to drag the baggage,

FROM 1543 TO 1700.

the canoes and a wounded Frenchman through the whole length of this river, and on the Illinois, a distance of 70 leagues. At length, all the French being together, on the 25th of January, 1682, we came to Pimiteoni (P-i-m-i-t-e- o-n-i). From that place, the river being frozen only in some parts, we continued our route to the river Colbert 60 leagues, or thereabout, from Pimiteoni, and 90 leagues, or thereabout, from the village of the Illinois: We reached the banks of the river Colbert on the 6th of January, and remained there until the 13th, waiting for the savages whose progress had been impeded by the ice. On the 13th, all having assembled, we resumed our voyage, being 22 French, carrying arms, ac- companied by the Reverend Father Zenobius Membré, a Recollect Missionary, and followed by 18 New England savages, and several women, Ilouquins, Otchipoises and Hur- onnes (H-u-r-o-n-n-e-s).

On the 14th we arrived at the village of Maroa, consisting of a hundred cabins without inhabitants. Proceeding about a hundred leagues down the river Colbert we went ashore to hunt on the 26th of February. A Frenchman was lost in the woods,* and it was reported to M. de La Salle that a large number of savages had been seen in the vicinty. Thinking that they might have seized the Frenchmen, and in order to observe these savages, he marched through the woods during two days, but returned without finding them, because they had all been frightened by the guns which they had heard, and had fled.

Returning to camp, he sent in every direction French and savages on the search, with orders, if they fell in with savages to take them alive without injury, that he might gain from

(*) The name of this Frenchman was Peter Prudhomme, and the locality of the incident is believed to have been a little below Osceola, Mississippi county, on the Tennessee hills, about where Fort Pillow now stands. A fort was built at the place, and named Fort Prudhomme, and Peter Prudhomme was placed in command of it. It was known by that name throughout the country for a great number of years. When LaSalle returned from his journey to the mouth of the Mississippi, he was seized with malarial fever, and he lay ill at Fort Prudhomme for six weeks. DeTonti left him there. F. H.

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

them intelligence of this French man. Gabriel Barbie, with two savages, having met five of the Chikacha nation, captured two of them. They were received with all possible kindness, and after he had explained to them that he was anxious about a Frenchman who had been lost, and that he only detained them that he might rescue him from their hands, if he was really among them, and afterwards make with them an ad- vantageous peace (the French doing good to everybody), they assured him that they had not seen the man whom we sought, but that peace would be received with great satisfaction. Presents were then given to them, and as they had signified that one of their villages was not more than half a day's journey distant, M. de La Salle set out the next day to go thither, but after traveling until night, and having remarked that they often contradicted themselves in their discourse, he declined to go farther without more provisions. Having pressed them to tell the truth, they confessed that it was yet four days' journey to their villages; and perceiving that M. de La Salle was angry at having been deceived, they proposed that one of them should remain with him, while the other carried the news to the village, whence the elders would come and join them four days' journey below that place. The said Sieur de La Salle returned to the camp with one of these Chi- kacha, and the Frenchman, whom we sought, having been found, he continued his voyage and passed the river of the Chipouteas and the village of the Metsigameas. The fog which was very thick prevented his finding the passage which led to the rendezvous proposed by the Chikachas.

On the 12th of March we arrived at the Kapaha village of Akansa. Having established a peace there and taken poses- sion we passed, on the 15th, another of their villages, situ- ated on the border of their river, and also two others, farther off in the depth of the forest, and arrived at that of Imaha, the largest village in this nation, where peace was confirmed, and where the chief acknowledged that the village belonged

FROM 1543 TO 1700.

to his Majesty. Two Akansas embarked with M. de La Salle to conduct him to the Taensas, their allies, about 50 leagues distant, who inhabit eight villages upon the borders of a little lake .* On the 19th we passed the Tourika, Jason and Kou- era ; but as they did not border on the river, and were hostile to the Akansas and Taensas we did not stop there.

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Author: Hempstead, Fay, 1847-1934 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: St. Louis and New York : N. D. Thompson Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1268

Author: Hempstead, Fay, 1847-1934
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: St. Louis and New York : N. D. Thompson Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1268