USA > Mississippi > History of the upper Mississippi Valley, pt 1 > Part 30
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On the 30th the Falls of Saint Anthony was reached, and as here their canoes had to be push- ed around the portage, Curly Head and his com- panions pushed ahead, each canoe displaying a flag, and the Chippeways singing and thumping the Indian drum. Reaching Col. Leavenworth's cantonment, which was ut Camp Coldwater, the FortZnot having been erected, the Sioux received
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
their old enemies with a salute, and upon landing extended the hand of friendship.
On the Ist of August, at the oll winter bar- racks, on the south side of the Minnesota, where The railroad bridge stands to-day, a council was held with the Sionx and Chippeways, under the' direction of Major Lawrence Taliaferro, the In- dian Agent. Governor Cass and Colonel Leaven- worth represented the United States, Shokpay and other chiefs spoke for the Sioux, and Curley Head represented the Chippeways.
In concluding this chapter a brief notice of William Morrison, trader at Sandy Lake in 1820, and his clerk, Fairbanks, will not be out of place.
William Morrison, in a letter 'from Canada, written when he was seventy-tive years of age, in 1856, to his brother Allan, a trader then living at Crow Wing, mentions that he left Grand Portage, near the boundry line on Lake Superior, in the year 1802, and reached Leech Lake in October. He passed the next winter on the tributaries of the Crow Wing River, and the following winter at Rice Lake. In coming to this point he passed Elk Lake, since named Itasea, by Schoolcraft, and then by a portage over the dividing ridge that separates the waters of the Mississippi and Red River of the North, reached his destination. He discovered no traces of any whito man having preceded him to Elk or Ttasea Lake. In the win- ter of 1812 he again wintered on Rico River, neur the plains, and at the same time a trader by the name of Otesse, was in the country.
When the American Fur Company under As- tor was organized, he acted as their head trader at Sandy Lake. In 1818 the mcasles appeared among the Chippeways of Leech Lake in a vio- lent form, and a number died from plinging into the water to nllay irritation. Their friends de-
termined to massacre the traders for bringing bad medicine into the country, but Morrison, who had lost a child by one of his Indian wives, by the disease, contended that the Americans would hard- ly have sent bad medicine to kill his child, and this argument pacified Them. In the year 1826, Morrison returned to Canada, where he died a few years ago.
Morrison's clerk, John H. Fairbanks, was born in A. D. 1802, at Champlain, N. Y. When a lad he was taken by the British, and with his horses and wagon, pressed into their service: He was a witness of the battle of Plattsburg, and Com- modore McDonongh's naval victory over tho British, on Lake Champlain.
When sixteen years of age, in June, 1818, he arrived at Mackinaw as a clerk of the American Fur Company. He soon went to Sandy Lake, by way of Fon du Lac, the Saint Louis and Savanna rivers, where he found an old Frenchman named Chaurette. He was sent, although but a lad, to this then remote post, because licenses for trade could only be issued to Americans. While the old traders of the North West Company continned at the head of the posts, the licenses were taken in the name of American clerks. Farnsworth, Wainer and Ashmun all came among the Chip- peways as young American clerks of the Fur Company. Rousseau was an old Canadian trader under Fairbank's license at Lecch Lake. Fair- banks passed two years at Lake Winnebagoshish, and also two years at Red Cedar, now Cuss Lake. He lived to see wonderful changes; the trail of the buffalo and savage obliterated by the tracks of railways pointing towards the Rocky Moun- tains, and in April, 1880, at the age of seventy- eight years, he died at the house of his son at White Earth, a Chippeway reservation.
SKETCH OF BELTRAMI.
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CHAPTER XXXV.
BELTRAMI EXPLORES THE NORTHERNMOST SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
EARLY LIFE OF BELTRAMI-PERSONAL APPEARANCE JOURNEY FROM PEMBINA TO THIEF RIVER- ARRIVAL AT RED LAKE-INDIAN DANCE DE- SCRIBED -NORTHERNMOST SOURCES OF THE MIS- SISSUPPL DESCRIBEH -ELK LAKE, NOW PTASCA, INDICATED AS THE MOST WESTERN SOURCE.
The first published notice of the region be- tween Red Lake and the northernmost source of the Mississippi was by Giacomo Constantino Bel- trami, to whom reference has been made upon the ninety-third page. He was one of a family of ten children, and in A. D. 1779, was born at Bergamo, Italy. He pursued the study of law, but in early life held a position as vice-inspector of the army. When twenty-eight years of age, in A. D. 1807, he returned to eivil pursuits, and in time was made Judge of the Civil and Crimi- nal Court of Macerata. In 1812, on account of ill health he visited Florence, and enjoyed the friendship of the Countess of Albany, the friend of Alfieri and Foscolo. Being suspected of dis- loyalty in 1812, he was obliged to leave his native land. In 1823 he came to Fort Snelling, with Major Taliaferro, the Indian Agent at that post who has described him in these words : " Bel- trami was six feet high, of commanding appear- ance, and some forty-five years of age ; proud of bearing and quick of temper, high-spirited, but always the gentleman. He expressed an earnest wish to explore the sources of the Mississippi. I gave him a passport to go where he pleased, and instructed the Chippewas of Ofter Tail and other lakes to see him safety through the country should he seek assistance. Shortly after this de- sire Major Long of the Topographical Eugineers arrived. Beltrami was introduced to Major Long, and permission grauted to accompany him to Pembina. Af Pembina a ditlieuffy occurred be- tween Major Long and Beltrami, when the latter sold his horse (my horse) and equipments, and in company with a half-breed passed near The
line of forty-ninth degree of latitude, to the north- ernmost sources of the Mississippi."
He began his journey with two Chippeways, returning from Cheyenne River, where a compan- ion had been sealped by the Yankton Sionx, and a half-breed who agreed to carry on a dog-train his baggage as far as Thief River. On the 9th of August he left Pembina, having sold his horse, and hired a small mule. On the fourth day of his journey he killed a white bear, and on the fifth reached Thief River, at its junction with Red Lake River, when the half-breed weut back with the mule. After proceeding up Red Lake River a short distance they were fired at by a party of Sionx, and one of his Chippeway companions was shot in the left arm. The next day the two Chip- peways deserted him through fear. He was now left alone, and at times obliged to draw his canoe alter him while wading in the swamps.
He writes : " Necessity makes man industrious, and the necessity I was now under to become so, was great indeed, as otherwise it was impossible for me to continne my progress. The river be- came narrower and deeper the farther I ascended it, as is the case with all rivers originating in lakes. It was thus absolutely indispensable for me to learn how to guide the canoe with the oar. I set myself, therefore, to study this art in good earnest ; and in the afternoon, when I strnek my tent, I exerted myself first to pass several deop gulfs, and afterwards to traverse short stages or distances of the river ; but the fatigue I endured was extreme, and I preferred retnruing fo my drag-rope whenever the river permitted my walk- ing in it. As appearances seemed fo threaten rain, I covered my effects with my umbrella, stuck into the bottom of my canoe. I was singular enough to see Them conveyed thus in the stately style and maimer of China, while I was myself condemned to travel in that of a galley slave ; nor could I help reflecting on those unfortunate
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
victims of despotism which the restoration has condemmed to drag the vessels on the Dannbe. As it was of consequence for me to avail myself of everything that could promote cheerfulness and keep up my spirits, I could not help smiling, which I am sure, my dear Countess, you would yourself have done, at the sight of my grotesque convoy. * * * *
"The morning of the eighteenth awakened me to my active duties, and I proceeded in my course; and before mid-day fell in with two canoes of Indians. Being alone in a canoe of their nation, with three muskets (for those of my two Indians were in my possession ), I might naturally have been apprehensive of exciting their most dangerous suspicions. But, heaven be praised, I entertained no apprehension whatever. I called to them with confidence, while they, struck with wonder at so extraordinary an object, halted on the opposite side of the river. What astonished them most was my superbly conveyed baggage. They could form no idea what that great red skin ( my mbrella ) could be, nor of what was placed beneath it; and, observing me walking in the water, they perhaps imagined me to be their Miciliki. * * * * *
"I made them comprehend what had occurred to me, "and that I wanted one of them to accom- pany me as far as Red Lake. At first they started immense difficulties; but a woman was captivated by the beauty of my handkerchief, which was hanging from my pocket; a lad was fascinated with the one I had about my neck, and an old man muffled up in n miserable ragged rng, which through its innumerable holes displayed nearly one-half of his person, had already cast a rapa- cions glance on mine; pretending to search for something in my porlmanlean, a bit of calico, which casually came to hand excited the full gaze of one of the young girls; and my provisions, which they had already tasted, strongly stimu- lated their gormandizing appetite: I satisfied the whole of them, and the old man decided to accept my proposal. Ile took The helm of my vessel, and we set off. .
" This assistance extricated me from a situalion which certainly was by no means pleasant, and it was so much the more valuable, as it wonkl have been impossible for me to proceed nlone, because the river was constantly increasing in depth. Notwithstanding this, however, my mind was in n state of incessant agitation as I proceeded, und I
perceived its attention completely ocenpied abont something which it left behind it with regret. It was no difficult matter for me to detect this secret. My mind was, in fact, adverting to the four days of its solitude und independence. I, at that mo- ment, Inlly comprehended why the Indians con- sidered themselves happier than cultivated nations, and far superior to them.
" It is difficult to meet with a rower as strong as my patriarchal companion, and we advanced at a rapid rate, without stopping, till evening. Our table was furnished with a couple of dicks: I had fire to make a roast, and I shot them accordingly. Thongh my bed was without a coverlid (the cnn- ning old fellow having left in his own canoe the one which I had given him), yet wrapping my- self, like the Indians, in the skin I wore abont me, I lay down to rest very comfortably. In the course of the night I was waked by my cantionary cord; and, at first, I imagined that my pilot was also going to desert me, but it turned ont to be occasioned by some large animal who had taken a fancy to my provisions. I gently seized my gun, which I always keep at my side, and in an instant brought him down.
"¡My Indian, confounded by the report of fire- arms, ;thought he had been attacked by the Sionx, abont whom, not improbably, he had been dream- ing, and immediately betook himself to flight. I called ont to him; I ran towards him to convince him of his error and restore his confidence, but the forest and darkness concealed him from my view, and this in a moment my solitude and independ- once were renewed. However, I could have still smiled at the adventure, if such an expression of feeling had been at all seasonable.
"I waited for him in vain for the remainder of tho night. Two discharges of the gun, however, which I lired off immediately, one after the other (considered by him as a signal for friendship), brought him back to his quarters with the dawn of day.
"We searched for the animal I had fired at, which it seems retained strength sufficient to drag itself to a few paces dislunce among the brush- wood, to which traces of blood guided ns; it proved to be a woll. My companion refused to strip the animal of ils skin, a superb one, viewing it at the same time with an air of respect, and murmuring within himself some words, the mean- ing of which will probably surprise yon. In fact, the wolf' was his Manitou. He expressed to it the
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INDIAN FILTH AND MISERY.
sincerity of his regret for what had happened, and informed it that he was not the person who had destroyed it. .
"On the 19th, my Mentor wanted to play me the trick of handing me over to the charge of an- other Indian whom he fell in with; but I gave him a frown, and he went on with me. We again made a good day's progress, to which I contributed by rowing to the best of my ability.
" Night arrived without his pausing in his exer- tions. He gave me to understand that it was indis- pensable for him to reach the destined plaec witli- out delay, and appeared excessively cager to rejoin his eanoes.
"Much fatigued, and shivering under a eold moist air, with which the night-dews in this coun- try pieree to the very bones, I lay down under my bear skin to sleep. A distant sound awoko me, and I found myself alone in my canoe, in the midst of rushes. On turning my head, I observed three or four torches approaching me. My imagi- nation had at first transported me to the enchanted land of fairies, and I was in motionless expecta- tion of receiving.a visit from her ladyships, or of being addressed, like Telemachus, by the nymphs. They proved, however, to be female Indians, who came to convey my effects, and to guide me to their Int. My Charon, who from purgatory had guided me to Hell, had applied to them for this purpose, and then hastened his return to his family, who were waiting for him where he first met me. I was now at Red Lake, at the marshy spot whence the river springs, and about a mile from an Indian encampment.
"I was conducted to a Int covered with the bark of trees, like those which I have already described to yon ns belonging to the Cypowias, but on a larger scale. f there found fourteen Indians, male and female, nineteen dogs, and a wolf. The latter was the first to do the honors of the house; how- ever, as he was fastened, he could not attack mne so effectively as he was evidently desirous of doing, and merely tore my pantaloous, which were, indeed, the only pair I had still serviecable. This wolf was one of their household gods.
"The first two of the Indians that my eyes glanced on were my former treacherous compan- ions: I appeared not to observe them. I desired the women to hang up my provisions to the posts which supported the roof, to preserve them from the voracity of the dogs; and, not having any power to help myself, I lay down in the corner
assigned to me in this intolerably filthy stable. When I got up again, you will casily believe that I did not riso alone: thus I incurred an addition of wounds and inflietions on a body which the pointed flints and cutting shells of the river, and the boughs of trees, thorns, brambles, and mos- quitoes, had previously converted into a Job.
"On the morning of the twentieth, I desired to be conducted to a bois brule, for whom I had brought a letter from Pembenar. I was told that he resided at a distance, and that the waters of the lake were in a state of great agitation. I could not even obtain the favor of having him sent for, for this happened to be the day when it was the bounden duty of all members of the hut to devote themselves to yelling, cating, drinking and dane- ing, in commemoration of the Indian killed at the river Cayenne. I quitted the place, and offered the only handkerchief that I had remaining to the first Indian whom I met, and he immediately went off' with my letter.
"The funeral ceremony presented nothing more extraordinary than what wo have already seen, ex- eepting the pillaging of my provisions in honor of the hero of the fete; and the convulsions of the father and mother composed to quietnde by the blowings and exoreisms of the priests, and the wounds inflicted on the arms and legs, the con- tortions, yellings, and howlings of his relatives. ** * ¥ *
"A party of the relatives and friends was gone on an expedition for discovering whether the Sionx had left no remains whatever on the spot where the tragedy had been acted, while my old friend, the pilot, as herald-at-arms, had proceeded to rouse the vengeance and implore the suceor of some Cypowias Jumpers, who were scattered in varions spots abont the forests. The doctrine of these Indians is strikingly singular: it is perhaps held by them only, of all mankind. For they seem to recognize rather the immortality of the body than of the soul.
" My bois brule now arrived. He was one of the imerons progeny scattered over the country by the vice and immorality of the fur traders. He is the son of a Canadian nud a female Indian of the tribe of the Cypowais. * * * *
"My bois brule resides about twelve miles dis- tant from this encampment to the sonth of the lake. The wind was too high for a canoe made of bark, and the lake too violently ngitated; we were compelled, therefore, to disembark, and passed the
12
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HISTORY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
uight under un immense pline tree. This plane is, perhaps, the Colossus of the whole vegetable kingdom. The Indians adore it us n Muniton; the ancients would have done the same; und though I am myself a modern, I admire it as one of the most prodigious and most beautiful productions of nature.
" We arrived at his but on the morning of the twenty-first. Misery might be said to be personi- tied in his family, and in ull by which he was sur- rounded; a wife ( the daughter of a father she had never seen) nourishing an infant at her breast, but nearly destitute of nourishment herself, and tive naked and famine-stricken children, consti- tuted the whole of his property. The uncertain fiskery of the lake, and a small quantity of maize, in its green and immature state, furnish the whole means of their subsistence. They are neither civilized nor savage, possessing the resources of neither state, but every inconvenience and defeet of both. The worst part of the case is, that this bois brule has a great deal of natural talent, which serves only to render him more dangerous. He has been taught to both read and write, and has obtained that species of education which just serves to strengthen the innate evil propensities of the man, when unaccompanied by that moral train- ing which is their proper eurb and correction; in fact, the obliquity of his character hus quite ruined him in the opinion of the traders who have sne- cessively employed him; und his erimos obliged him to abseond from Pembenar, where I was in- formed that I ought to be more on my guard against him than against the Indians themselves. I mention all these eireumstanees to you, my dear Countess, because, with the truest and noblest friendship, you uro desirous of participating, ns it were, in overy description of duuger inenered by me, and in order that those of our mntuul friends who mny be inelined to engage in the field of adventure like myself, may learn how to meet and overcome the various enemies they muy have to encounter. * * *
"But we will now return to the Red River, from which we have somewbut, though not unnaturally, digressed, und which we have surveyed hitherto rather through the imagination than the senses.
" It presents no other extruordinary feature than the very frequent winding of its course, in which, perhaps, it is scarcely exceeded by the Meander itself. It waters u country uniformly level, und the rapids which we have seen do not
lower its level by the height of its bauks. After Thief's river, us yon useend, no other river flows into it. This is more partienlarly to be noticed, because the English Hudson's Bay Company, according to their theories, have created on their map other Red rivers, with many more tributary streams flowing into it than this has.
"At the distance of abont torty miles from the lake, its banks are lined with impenetrable forests; ubove, the view is agreeably varied by smiling meadows and handsome shrubbery. On flowing from the lake it passes among rushes and wild rice. It is an error of geographers, founded on the vague information of Indians, that it derives its source from this lake; indeed, a lake which is formed by five or six rivers which tlow into it can never be considered as itself the source of any single river. We shall soon have occasion to look farther for this source.
"The lake, by means of a strait, is divided into two ports, one to the northeast and the other to the southwest. Let us proeced to make the circuit of the last, which is certainly the most interesting.
"It receives on the western side of the river Broachers ( Kinougeo-sibi ), and that of the Great Rock ( Kisciacinabed-sibi ); to the south, the river Kuhasintilague-sibi, or Gravel river, near which the hut of my Bois-Brale guide is situated; that of Kiogokugue-sibi, or Gold-fish river; und that of Madaounakan-sibi, or Great Portage river; on the southeast, Cormorant river (Cacakisciou-sibi ). A large tongne of land on the east-northeast forms u peninsula about four miles in length, and of varying breadth, ending in a point towards the west. At n little distance, towards the north, there is another oneampment of Indians, consist- ing of ubont three hundred persons, the chief of whom is the Grand Carabou ( Kisei . Ilike). The strait is situated north-northeast, and there is a small ishmd in the midst of the waters dividing them in two. To the north we find another tongue of lund, which serves also to separate the two lakes, and reaches as far as the strait, commeneing ut the spot whence, as we have seen, Red river, (more properly speaking ) Bloody river, proceeds. The other lake receives, on the east, Sturgeon river (-Imenikanins-sibi). By the channel of this river, and by means of two portages, there is a communication with Rain river, from whence one cun ensily communicate with Lake Superior, to the sonth; and with the waters of Hudson's Bay, by the Lake of Wools, to the north. The waters
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PLATEAU OF UPPER MISSISSIPPI.
which flow into Lake Superior on this side, may be considered as the sources of the river St. Lawrence. " These two lakes are abont one hundred and thirty miles in circumference; and Red River traverses about three hundred from the lake to Pembenar; but in a straight line the whole dis- tance scarcely amounts to one hundred and sixty.
"I returned to the encampment of Great Hare, to engage an Indian to attend me, together with my bois brule guide, during the continuance of my excursion, and to purchase the canoe which was the scene of my tragi-comedy on the Red River; for I was desirous of having it conveyed, if possible, to my rural cottage, and preserve it with my other Indian curiosities as a memorial and trophy of my labors in these my transatlantic promenades. * * * *
"The river of Great Portage is so called by the Indians because a dreadful storm that occurred on it blew down a great number of forest trees on its banks, which encumber its channel, and so impede its navigation as to make an extensive or great portage in order to reach it. The river thus de- nominated, however, is the true Red, or Bloody River. It enters the lake on the South, and goes out, as we Imve seen, on the northwest. This is the opinion of the Indians themselves, and it is not difficult to lind argments in support of it.
"According to the theory of ancient geogra- phers, the sources of a river which are most in a right line with its mouth should be considered as its principal sources, and particularly when they issue from a cardinal point and flow to the one directly op- posite. This theory appears conformable to nature and reason; and upon this principle we should proceed in forming the sources of the river of Great Portage. By the mune Portage, is meant a passage which the Indians make over a tongne of land, from one river or lake to nnother, carry- ing with them on their backs their light canoes, their baggage and cargoes.
" I left Red Lake on the morning of the twenty- sixth. The commencement of Portage is between the river so-called and Gold-fish River. It is abont twelve miles long, and I therefore engaged another Indian, with his horse, to elleet it more conven- iently. The country is delightful, but at times almost impenetrable. * * *
"On the ensuing day, the twenty-seventh, I dis- charged the supernumerary Indian, with his horse; for, having no provisions but what we conk procure by means of our guns, we were already
three too many. We crossed the small lake strictly in the direction from North to Sonth; and here we commenced another portage of four miles.
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