Читать книгу A Life on the American Frontiers: Collected Works of Henry Schoolcraft - Henry Rowe Schoolcraft - Страница 19

Table of Contents

Encampment on a peninsula in Leech Lake.—Departure for the portage to the source of the De Corbeau river.—Traverse a bay.—Commencement of the portage.—The mode of passing it.—First portage to Warpool Lake.—Pass successively Little Long Lake, the Four Lakes, Lake of the Mountain, Lake of the Island, and encamp at the Kagi Nogumaug or Longwater, the source of the De Corbeau.—Are visited by the Chief of the Pillagers, who performs a journey for that purpose.—Recognize in his attendant the murderer of Gov. Semple.—Narrative of facts leading to this event.—Commence the descent of the river De Corbeau, passing successively the Longwater, Little Vermillion, Birch Ple, Boutwell’s Vieu, Desert, Summit, Long-rice, Allen’s, Johnston’s, and Leelina Lakes.—Junction of the Shell River fork.—Encamp in a storm.

On leaving the Gueule Plat’s village, the Surgeon and Interpreter, with Lieut. Allen’s command, were left behind to complete the vaccination of the Indians, while the rest of the party went forward a couple of leagues, to form the night’s encampment. It was after seven o’clock before they came up, and we waited some time after supper, which is generally a late meal in voyaging, for the arrival of the Indian guides, who had been promised to conduct us next day, to the landing of the portage to the river De Corbeau. Morning, however, came without them, and we embarked, (18th,) and proceeded towards the southern shore of the lake, under the hope of being able to find the portage, from the descriptions which had been given of it. Our course lay, for a distance, along the peninsula, on which we had encamped. Its trending too far to the east, induced us to hold a southerly course across a spacious bay. On gaining its centre, doubts arose, as to the proper course. A separation of the party was made. Part of the canoes took a south, and part, a south-east course, having agreed to concentrate on the firing of a gun, a signal which was eventually given, by the southern canoes under Mr. Johnston and Lieut. Allen. They had discovered a path, having every appearance of a portage, being in the required direction. Examination served to confirm this opinion. The baggage was immediately landed, the loose articles put in a portable shape, and the order of march on a portage, taken up. For this purpose, every article of the outfit, is originally put up in the most compact and convenient form, not exceeding ninety pounds weight. Pork is packed in kegs, flour in sail cloth bags, groceries in wooden or tin canisters, goods in corded bales. These are carried on the back, by a strong strap of leather passed around the forehead, and tied by its tapering ends, to the bag, or other article, forming the first, or lower piece. This is swung over the shoulders, and other pieces laid on, to the number of two, or sometimes three, according to the carrier’s strength. He then bends strongly forward, and proceeds at a half trot. He goes on the length of a pause, say half a mile, where the burden is put down, the strap untied, and the carrier, after a few moments rest, briskly returns, for another load. This process is continued till all the goods, are brought up to the first pause. The canoe and its apparatus, are then brought up, when the men commence making the second pause, and this order is repeated at every pause. This is a severe labor, and requires able bodied men, well practiced. And where the ground is low or swampy and often travelled, it soon becomes a perfect bed of mire.

The present portage, however, was found to lie across a pine plain, offering a clean beach of sand to debark on, and a dry smooth path to travel. A portage of 1,078 yards, brought us to the banks of a small lake, after crossing which we came to the entrance of a small clear brook, having not over two or three inches depth of water, spread over a bed of yellow sand. It seemed impossible to ascend it, especially with the larger canoe, but by the men’s first carrying the lading, by widening the channel in cutting down the banks with paddles, and then by walking in the stream and lifting the canoe by its gunnels, they succeeded in getting it up to another lake, called Little Long Lake. We were twenty-four minutes in crossing this latter lake, and found its inlet to be connected with four other small lakes of a pondy character, redolent with nymphæ odorata, through which we successively passed, and debarked at the head of the last lake on a shaking bog, being the commencement of portage Ple. This portage is quite short and dry, lies over a hill-prairie, and terminates on the banks of a transparent, bowl-shaped lake, with elevated shores, where we made our breakfast, at twelve o’clock. This lake, which we may refer to as the Lake of the Mountains, notwithstanding the liveliness and purity of its waters, has no visible outlet, a characteristic of which it partakes in common with a very great number of the small lakes of this quarter, which may be supposed to lie in aluminous strata. Next, in the order of travelling south of it, is the Mountain Portage, appropriately so called. Its extent is nine hundred and ten yards. The elevation is considerable, but no rock strata appear in situ. The soil is diluvial, with boulders. The growth, yellow pine, with small maples and underbrush. It terminates on the Lake of the Island. There is then a portage of two pauses, or 1,960 yards into another lake, quite pond-like, where it is first entered, but assuming a clear and bright surface after turning a prominent point. There is then a further portage of one pause, a part of it, through a morass, but terminating on highlands, surrounding the head and shores of a handsome and comparatively extensive sheet of water called Kagi Nogumaug, or The Long Water, where we encamped for the night. This day’s journey was a hard and fatiguing one, to the men. The Gueule Plat, who with one of the minor chiefs from Leech Lake, overtook us on the banks of the Lake of the Island, expressed his surprise that, with all our baggage and heavy canoes, we had pushed on so far. It was, however, a definite point in the journey. We were now on the source of the Kagági, or De Corbeau river. To have stopped short of it, would have seriously broken in on the labors of the following day; and the knowledge that the series of portages terminated there, and the downward passage commenced, buoyed up the men to make exertions. The day was particularly severe upon the soldiers, who were less accustomed to this species of fatigue. Never were the shadows of night more grateful to men, who had employed the morning, and the noon, and the evening of the day, in hard labor. We had now reached the fourth source of the primary rivers of the Mississippi, and all heading on the elevation of the Hauteur des Terres, within a circle of perhaps seventy miles. These sources are Itasca Lake, its primary, Ossowa, east fork, Shiba Lake and river, source of Leech Lake, and the present source, The Long Water, being the source of the De Corbeau, or Crow-wing river.

Gueule Plat, with his Indian secretary, so to call him, or Mishinowa, and their families, came and encamped with us. The chief said that he had many things to speak of, for which he had found no time during my visit. I invited him to sup with the party. Conversation on various topics ensued, and the hour of midnight imperceptibly arrived, before he thought of retiring to his own lodge. I was rather confirmed in the favorable opinions I have before expressed of him, and particularly in the ordinary, sober routine of his reflections, and the habitual, easy manner, which he evinced of arriving at correct conclusions. I could not say as much for his companion and pipe-lighter, Maji Gabowi, a very tall, gaunt, and savage looking warrior, who appeared to be made up, body and mind, of sensualities. And although he appeared to be quiet and passive, and uttered not a single expression that implied passion or vindiction, I could not divest my mind of the recollection that I was in company with the murderer of Gov. Semple. Whoever has given much attention to north-western affairs, will recollect that this event occurred in the fierce strife carried on between the North West and Hudson’s Bay Company. And that, in the desperate struggles which these corporations made for the possession of the fur trade, the Indians often became the dupes of whichever party appeared, at the moment, to possess the power of influencing them. The event referred to, took place near the close of a long struggle in which the spirit of opposition had reached its acme, in which company was furiously arrayed against company, charter against charter, and agent against agent. A period, at which, like the increasing energies of two powerful bodies moving towards each other, they were destined to come into violent contact, and the destruction of one, or both, seemed inevitable. The dispute respecting territory which imbittered the strife, appeared to be carried on, not so much from political ambition or the intrinsic value of the soil, as to decide which party should have the exclusive right of gleaning from the lodges of the unfortunate natives, the only commodity worth disputing for—their furs and peltries. A question, in which the Indians, in reality, had no other interest, but that which a serf may be supposed to feel on an exchange of masters, in which he has neither the right to choose nor the power to reject. Whichever party prevailed, they were sure to loose or gain nothing, if they kept aloof from the contest, or if they had any hopes from its effects upon their condition, they arose more from a prolongation, than a termination of the rivalry, as they were sure to fare better, both “in script and store,” so long as they possessed the option of rival markets.

Semple had accepted a governorship, which the late John Johnston, Esq. had the forecast to refuse. He appeared to be a man zealously devoted to the objects of the company (the Hudson’s Bay) whose interests were committed to him. But he does not appear clearly to have perceived the great difference which circumstances had interposed between a magistracy in an English or Scottish county, and the naked solitudes of Red River. He sallied forth himself, with a considerable retinue, to read the riot act, to a disorderly and threatening assembly of all kinds of a northwest population, on the plains. The agents and factors of the North West Fur Company, were accused of being at the bottom of this uproar, and it is certain that some of their servants were engaged, either as actors or abettors. It is among the facts recorded in a court of justice, that when certain of the clerks or partners of the North West Company heard of the tragic result of this sally, they shouted for joy.17

While the act was in the process of being read, one of the rioters fired his piece. This was taken as a signal. A promiscuous and scattering firing commenced. Semple was one of the first who received a wound. He was shot in the thigh, and fell from his horse. He was unable to sit up. At this moment a rush was made by the Indians in the North West interest, and a total and most disastrous route of the Hudson’s Bay party ensued. Panic, in its wildest forms, seized upon Semple’s men. He was himself one of the first victims despatched. Maji Gabowi, (one of our guests this evening) coming up, struck his tomahawk in his head. He was then scalped.

We embarked at sunrise, on the 19th, bidding adieu to the Leech Lake chief and his companion, who returned from this point, after having requested, and received a lancet, with directions from Dr. Houghton, for vaccinating such of his people as had not been present on the 17th. We were forty minutes in passing the Kagi Nogumaug, which is a handsome sheet of pure water presenting a succession of sylvan scenery. Its outlet is a narrow brook overhung with alders. It may average a width of six feet, but the bends are so extremely abrupt, and the channel so narrowed with brushwood, that it became necessary to dig down the acute points, and to use the axe in cutting away branches, to veer about a canoe thirty-two feet in length. We were just half an hour in clearing this passage, when the stream opened into another lake, denominated on our travelling map, Little Vermillion Lake. The growth on the banks of this lake is birch and aspen, with pines in the distance. We were twenty minutes in passing it. The outlet is full doubled in width, and free from the embarrassments encountered above. Tamarack is a frequent tree on the shores, and the pond lily, flag and Indian reed, appear in the stream. This outlet is followed about eight miles, where it expands into a small lake, called Birch Lake, which we were only thirteen minutes in passing. Its outlet exhibits a pebbly bottom, interspersed with boulders, which produce so much inequality in the depth, that the men were obliged often to wade. Not more than seven or eight minutes were thus occupied, in the course of which we passed through a broken fish-dam, when we entered another expanse called Lac Ple.

Lac Ple is about three and a half, or four miles long. Vegetation here appears to show a more southerly character. Part of its shores are prairie, interspersed with small pines. It is particularly deserving of notice, as being the point, from which a series of portages is made to Ottertail Lake. A map of these furnished by the traders, who often use this route, exhibits the following features. First, a portage of four pauses, to Island Lake, then a portage of one pause, into a small lake, which has an outlet, through another small lake into Lake Lagard, having a transverse position. Thence half a pause, into a small lake, a pause and a half into another small lake, and thence four pauses into Migiskun Aiaub, or Fish-line Lake. Thence one pause into Pine Lake, and five into a small river which falls into Scalp Lake. The latter has an outlet which expands into three lakes, at nearly equal distances apart, and is finally received by Lac Terrehaut, on the Height of Land. The outlet of the latter is twice expanded into the form of a Lake, the last of which is, from its peculiarities called the Two Lakes, and is finally discharged west of the Height of Land, into Ottertail Lake. I had designed to come down this route, or down Leaf river, had circumstances favored my going into Red river, from the sources of the Mississippi. But these sources were found so much further south, than it had been supposed, and so considerably removed from any practicable route into Red river that I found it would be a consumption of time altogether disproportionate to the anticipated results; and it was, therefore, given up.

On going out of Lac Ple, the channel exhibits numerous fresh water shells driven up against the shore, or lodged against inequalities in the bottom.18 And these productions are afterwards seen in all the subsequent outlets which connect the numerous lakes of this river. But little variety was, however, noticed among the species, although greater attention than we could bestow, might elicit new characteristics. Generally, they were small, or middle sized, often decorticated and broken. Soon after entering this channel, one of my men fired at, and brought down, a fork-tailed hawk, a species which had before been noticed on the wing, but we had now an opportunity of closer scrutiny. We did not observe any characteristics in which it differed from the described species. And if we except the numerous species of duck, the colomba migratoris, catbird, and some other land species almost equally common, this constitutes the substance of our observations, on the birds of this river. We saw the deer, of which there are apparently two species. And we had frequent occasion to observe the antlers and bones of these animals around deserted camps, evincing their abundance in this part of the country.

We had been three fourths of an hour in descending this outlet, when we entered a lake called Boutwell, with banks of rather sombre vegetation, which we were nineteen minutes in passing. Its outlet, of a spreading, sandy, shelly character, is about a mile and a half in extent, at which distance it expands into Lac Vieux Desert, or the Lake of the Old Wintering Ground, where we halted long enough to prepare breakfast. This lake we were twenty-six minutes in passing through. Its outlet is about two miles long, where it again expands into a lake of about two and a quarter miles extent, which may, from its position, be denominated Summit Lake. The course, which, from the Kagi Nogumaug, is thus far generally south-west, here suddenly veers to the east and northeast, and after a striking circuit, comes round to the south-east, and eventually again to the south-west, before its junction with Shell River. And the stream which thus far seems to have its course on a level or summit, is here deflected into a valley, and is beset with rapids, and by the flood wood lodged upon its banks, and their partial denudation, puts on the appearance of a stream which must sometimes assume the fury of a torrent. It probably, at such times, is a turbid stream, but was now clear with a gravelly bottom. We were hurried along through this channel for the space of two hours and fifteen minutes, when it expanded into Long-rice Lake. We were thirty-five minutes in passing this lake. Shortly below it, the channel expands again into a lake, which from Lieut. Allen’s exploring it, we called Allen’s Lake. It is probably the largest of the series below the Kagi Nogumaug. It receives a tributary from the northwest, which was visited by Lieut. Allen.

The atmosphere had for some time admonished us of a storm, and it broke upon us, on entering this lake. Dark clouds rolled over each other, until the light of day was sensibly and suddenly obscured. We have seldom known an equal quantity of the electric fluid discharged in so short a space of time, or with the incessant repetition of an electric light, so subtle and painful to be endured. The rain fell in a heavy and continued torrent, and it began with gusts of wind which threw the canoe-men into alarm. They veered the canoe for the nearest shore, but before reaching it, the tempest settled, and the rain fell less violently. We therefore, continued our way without landing, and passed out of the lake. A short channel, on the banks of which the elm and oak appeared conspicuously, terminated in a moderate sized lake of handsomely elevated hard wood and pine shores, for which, as our maps afforded neither Indian nor French name, we made use of the circumstance of Mr. Johnston’s landing to fire at a deer, to name it after him. On going out of this lake, we had our attention excited by an unextinguished fire, on the banks of the outlet. But no person appeared, nor was there any canoe ashore, nor lodge-poles, which there would have been, in the case of a travelling Chippewa family. These evidences were deemed conclusive by the canoe-men, of the presence of Sioux, who, it is supposed, perceiving the character of the party, had concealed themselves. And the circumstance was suited to alarm a class of men, who, being of the Gallic-Chippewa race, retain very strong attachments to the Chippewas, and have imbibed with very little abatement, all the prejudices which this people feel for a powerful hereditary enemy.

An hour’s voyage from this spot brought us to the entrance and merely to the entrance of the eleventh, and last lake of the series called Kaichibo Sagitowa, or the Lake which the River passes through one End of, or Lake Leelina. Not many miles below this point, the river forms its first forks, by the junction of Shell river, a considerable stream of nearly equal size with itself. Below this point, there is always water enough, although the channel exhibits numerous rapids, and is often spread over a wide bed, giving rise to shallows. We descended about fourteen miles below the junction, and encamped. It was after eight o’clock when we put ashore. The rain had fallen, with steadiness for some hours previous. And the flashes of lightning, which lit up the sombre channel of the stream, excited a feeling of no very pleasant kind. We landed wet, cold and cheerless. The rain continued to fall. But the cheerfulness and activity of our canoe-men did not desert them. They searched among the prostrate vegetation, to discover dry fibres, or the unwetted parts that could be pulled from the nether rind of fallen trees. They ignited the mass with spunk, and soon sent up the gladdening flames of an ample camp fire. To pitch the tent, arrange its interior furniture, and place the heavy baggage under oil-cloths, secure from rain, or night dews, is the work of a few moments with these people—and he who would travel fast over an intricate interior route and be well served on the way, should not fail to prepare himself with a canoe allége and a crew of voyagèurs. They will not only go, when they are bid to go, but they will go unmurmuringly. And after submitting to severe labor, both of the night and day, on land and water, they are not only ready for further efforts, but will make them under the enlivening influence of a song.