CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 3 1924 092 545 940^ The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092545940 ECONOMIC BEGINNINGS OF THE FAR WEST VOLUME n THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON ■ CHICAGO DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON - BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO 7d^^ Fehry at Council Bluffs. Emigrant wagons being carried across the Missouri from Kanesville to winter quarters. The women are unpacking their chests and decid- ing which of their possessions to leave behind. Goods for the journey across the Plains were packed in bags. ECONOMIC BEGINNINGS OF THE FAR WEST HOW WE WON THE LAND BEYOND THE MISSISSIPPI BY KATHARINE COMAN AUTHOK of' ' THE INDUSTBIAI. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES ' VOLUME II AMERICAN SETTLERS miustrateb Wetogorfe THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1912 All rights reterved /I /I //c /07 u. 9— Copyright, 1912, By the MACMDXAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published October, igi3. NnttoooB IPteag J. 8. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. CONTENTS VOLUME n PART III. THE ADVANCE OF THE SETTLERS I^HAPTER I PAGE V^ouisiANA 3-26 •< CHAPTER n ••Missouri Tbrritort 27-74 ••Missouri River Settlements 35 Mowa 66 ^homas H. Benton 69 •CHAPTER ni *^HE Santa Fb Trade 75-93 ^ew Mexico 88 •^CHAPTER IV •T'he Colonization of Texas 94-109 PART IV. THE ■ TRANSCONTINENTAL MIGRATION •Chapter, i ''■'^The Acquisition of Oregon 113-166 *^ection I. The Traders 113 ^Section H. The Missionaries 133 t^ection HT. Dr. McLoughlin as Colonizer . . . 148 ejection TV. American Emigrants 154 VoBction V. Congressional Intervention .... 161 V vi CONTENTS 'chapter II > PAGE *The Mormon Migration 167-206 l,^^e Mormons in California 203 CHAPTER m The Conquest of California 207-319 Section I. Traders and Trappers 207 Section JI. Rival Powers 221 Section HI. The Advent of the Emigrants . . .227 Section IV. The Acquisition of New Mexico and Cali- fornia 241 Section V. The Land Question 248 Section VI. The Age of Gold ■ . 255 Section VII. Financial Depression and the Revival of Normal Industries . . . ^ . . . . 284 Agriculture 291 , Manufactures -SO? Section VIII. The Labor Supply .314 PART V. FREE LAND AND FREE LABOR CHAPTER I The Curse or Slavery 323-331 CHAPTER II Slavery in the Territories 332-352 Section I. Popular Sovereignty 335 Section II. The Wakarusa War 347 CHAPTER III The Victory op the North . . ' . . . 353-365 The Railroad to the Pacific 353 The Homestead Act . . ..... 361 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS VOLUME n The Ferry at Council Bluffs Frontispiece Linforth, Route from Liverpool. PAGE A Miner's Rocker in 1848 .2 Simpson, Three Weeks in the Gold Mines. Frencli Louisiana in 1803 4 Acadia facing 16 Photographs by the Author. Flatboats on the Mississippi "22 Maximilien, Prince of Wied, Atlas. Settlements in Upper Louisiana 37 The Long Expedition. Difficulties of Navigation on the Missouri . . facing 62 Maximilien, Prince of Wied, Atlas. St. Louis in 1855 "62 Linforth, Route from Liverpool. The Santa Fd Trail 79 Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies. Arrival of the Caravan at Santa F^ . . . facing 86 Mexican Arrieros " 86 Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies. Beaver Dams on Salt River, Arizona ... "90 Photographs by Dane Coolidge. Texas in 1840 — Map of Land Grants 97 Stiff, Texas Emigrant. Fort Vancouver in 1846 facing 120 Photograph furnished by G. W. Himes. Oregon Settlements in 1844 137 Lee and Frost, Ten Years in Oregon. Independence Rock " 156 Linforth, Route from Liverpool. vii viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAOB Crossing of the Platte River facing 156 Stansbury, Expedition to Great Salt Lake. Emigrant Roads in 1859 157 Marcy, The Prairie Traveller. First View of Great Salt Late .... facing 172 Stansbury, Expedition to Great Salt Lake. Emigration Canon " 176 The Wasatch Range " 176 Photographs by the Author. Salt Lake City in 1849 "178 Stansbury, Expedition to Great Salt Lake. Salt Lake City in 1853 "178 Linforth, Route from Liverpool. Gathering to Zion " 182 Stenhouse, Tell it All. The Handcart Brigade "182 Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints. Stakes planted in Zion 188 Wagon Routes across the Wasatch Range .... 190 Stansbury, Expedition to Great Salt Lake. Adobe Houses at Spanish Fork and Provo, Utah . facing 202 Photographs furnished by Jennie M. Cheever. Hudson's Bay Company's Trail to California .... 209 Sutter's Fort and Sawmill in 1849 .... facing 216 Upham, Scenes from El Dorado. San Francisco Bay in 1841 « 226 Dnflot de Mof ras. Southern Emigrant Routes to California .... 230 Bartlett, Mexican Boundary Commission. Wagon Routes across the Sierras 233 Simpson, Explorations. Pass in the Sierra Nevada facing 246 Fremont, Second Expedition. Routes to California, 1858 ....... 261 Seyd, Resources of California. The Northern Mines 265 The Southern Mines 267 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IX Gold Washing in New Mexico Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies. Quartz Mining .... Seyd, Resources of California. San Francisco in 1849 Upham, Scenes from El Dorado. San Francisco in 1857 Seyd, California and its Resources. Mining with Pan and Long Tom . TJpham, Scenes from El Dorado. Hydraulic Mining .... Seyd, California and its Resources, Harvesting Wheat in the Sacramento Valley Photograph by Dane Coolidge. Cotton Plantation under the Slave Regime . Photographs furnished by Charlotte R. Thorne. The Kansas Settlements, 1855 .... Boyntou and Mason, Kansas. facing PAGE 274 282 290 290 298 298 310 326 342 PART III THE ADVANCE OF THE SETTLERS A^MnsTES-'s Rocker in 1848 ECONOMIC BEGINNINGS OF THE FAE WEST CHAPTER I LOUISIANA The acqmsition of Lomsiana Territory got rid of some long-standing difficulties and opened to American enterprise vast possibilities of extension. Both banks of the Mississippi were now controlled by the United States, and the free navigation of that great waterway was assured for all time. Not only the Father of Waters, but his western tribu- taries, the Missouri, the Platte, the Arkansas and Red rivers, were brought within reach of our restless frontiersmen, and they made haste to avail them- selves of this outlet for their energy. In the Account of Louisiana, compiled at the suggestion of President Jefferson in 1803 and widely distributed throughout the country, there was gathered for the information of the curious all that was then known of the popu- lation and resources of the new acquisition. Ac- cording to the Spanish census of 1799, there were in the settlements along the Mississippi and Red rivers forty-two thousand three hundred and seventy-five souls, of whom two-thirds were whites and one-third slaves or freedmen. New Orleans was a town of ten thousand inhabitants, where four-fifths of the whites were French Creoles and the remainder EngUsh and Americans. The people of Baton Rouge, Iberville, 3 4 AMERICAN SETTLERS and Point Couple were the Acadians banished from Nova Scotia by the British government. The villages on Red River — Avoyelles, Rapidej Natchitoches — were settled by descendants of the original French. So, too, was the Post aux Arkansas and Ouichita on If == ~^&u^ *!■ W J — v>^ Ss 5^ Coiondolet^ J , ^— ■**^.On..ri.v^^^^ ayTJew Bourbonl jf^ ? t r- 1 \ O r^ fe" V "V^ / / ^ ^.^iisisi A / / \Js ' ^ s S'^'k >V^ ^ y I Vi//?i ^/v^ &^ ■> -L oft 3/^ -*/ \;7^ tJv v^- "^-W \ ^n i { '^ '"^V"- (toacbnto.l \ff f ^^X \ liUloVJ -^ •> BatchlWliek \k»#' !8S°5rifct=ll4js te^H^^«J i^-A ^^^^?^^c 1 ^ H^^^EStON"!. *^^- WiHiomi Gog. Co., N.f, French Louisiana in 1804. Black River. In Spanish lUinois or Upper Louisi- ana, along the great river that furnished the only practicable highway, were a dozen flourishing set- tlements — Petite Prairie, Ste. Genevieve, New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, Carondelet, St. Louis, St. Charles, St. Andre — where were gathered a total LOUISIANA 5 of six thousand people, of whom not more than one- sixth were blacks. St. Louis was still a mere trading post with nine hundred and twenty-five inhabitants, of whom one-third were slaves. St. Charles and Ste. Genevieve, being farming communities, had a larger proportion of whites. Here the habitants driven from lUinois by the American occupation were maintain- ing existence by means of an indolent agriculture varied by himtiag and fishing. At St. Andr6, Mc- Kay's bailiwick, some thirty famUies from Kentucky were cultivating the soil in a fashion that put their French neighbors to shame. Years before the an- nexation, pioneers from Kentucky and Tennessee had begun moving across the river, imtil, in 1803, " at least two-fifths if not a greater proportion of all settlers on the Spanish side of the Mississippi, in the Illinois country, are . . . supposed to be Ameri- cans." ^ The products of the rich lands along the lower Mississippi were sugar,^ molasses, cotton, and indigo ; those of Upper Louisiana, peltry, lumber, lead, horses, and cattle. The annual value of the cotton exported was estimated at $1,344,000, that of sugar at $302,400, molasses at $32,000, peltry at $200,000, lumber at $80,000. "The peltry procured in the lUinois is the best sent to the Atlantic market ; and the quantity is very considerable. Lead is to be had with ease, and in such quantities as to supply aU Europe, if the population were sufficient to work the numerous mines to be found within two or three feet from the surface in various parts of the country." ' For a considerable distance back from the river, the land 6 AMERICAN SETTLERS was extraordinarily productive and was covered with valuable timber. "It may be said with truth that, for fertility of soil, no part of the world exceeds the borders of the Mississippi ; the land yields an abun- dance of all the necessaries of life, and almost spon- taneously; very Uttle labor being required in the cultivation of the earth. That part of Upper Louisi- ana, which borders on North Mexico, is one immense prairie; it produces nothing but grass; it is filled with buffalo, deer, and other kinds of game ; the land is represented as too rich for the growth of forest trees." * Jefferson's Account was corroborated by a letter written imder date of August 15, 1803, by Dr. John Sibley and printed at Raleigh, North Carolina, soon after. Dr. Sibley was a Carolinian who had settled at Natchez in 1802 and obtained permission of the Spanish authorities to travel in Louisiana. "Travelling up the Mississippi some months ago, I took pains to ascertain the number of sugar planta- tions, and the average quantity of sugar made an- nually in each. I found 14 below New Orleans, and 64 above, in all 78; and they average annually about 75,000 pounds' weight of sugar, besides a proportion- able quantity of rum and molasses." The alluvial lands for sixty miles above New Orleans and for sixty miles below that town, together with Terre Boeuf, the bayou St. John, the bayou La Faussee, and Tuckepa, were equally well adapted to the growing of cane, and might, he estimated, afford place for one thousand plantations. "The lands from the edge of the river back, gradually fall till they become too low LOUISIANA 7 to cultivate; it never can admit of but one row of settlements. These plantations are interchange- ably planted in sugar cane, rice, corn and cotton. Nothing can exceed the luxuriancy of their crops." The coast lands were equally fertile. "The popula- tion of this district is 965 families ; they have large stocks of very large-sized cattle, make considerable sugar and cotton for exportation." To the north between the coast and the Red River lay Appalusa, "a high, rich and beautiful country, skirted with clumps of flovirishing trees, and interspersed with fine rich prairies,^ which produce corn and cotton in great perfection. But the immense flocks of cattle* with which they are covered, are almost incredible; ten thousand head may be seen in one view." The upper country was no less promising. "The lands of Red River alone are capable of producing more tobacco than is now made in all the United States, and at less than one fourth part of the labour ; and in all Loui- siana, I think more than ten times as much cotton might be made as in the United States. The extreme fertility of this country, the vast quantities of flour, beef, pork, tobacco, sugar, etc., which it would yield, with the productions of its mines, independent of the disposal of vast quantities of vacant lands under no claims, render the acquisition of it to the United States of importance almost exceeding calculation." ' Hardly had the Account of Louisiana left the press when a survey of the less known portions of the new territory was inaugurated by a congressional appropriation for the exploration of the Red and Arkansas rivers. The definition of the boundary 8 AMERICAN SETTLERS between Louisiana and the Spanish dominions and the investigation of the resources of the arid plains that lay beyond the settlements, where were said to be herds of cattle and horses, saUnes without number and mines of silver and gold, seemed to warrant such an enterprise. In the same message in which he an- nounced Lewis and Clark's achievements to Congress (February 19, 1806), Jefferson communicated the results of this less brilliant but no less significant ex- ploration. Dr. John Sibley had been commissioned to ascend the Red River, while William Dimbar and George Hunter were sent up its principal tributary, the Washita.* In an open boat, accompanied by a French half- breed, Francis Grappe, Dr. Sibley pushed up the Red River to Natchitoches, the old French settlement, and seventy miles beyond to near the present site of Shreveport. All along the right or north bank he found American settlers, developing cotton farms. There were two French towns on the south bank of the river, Izavial, with two hundred and ninety-six families, and Rapide, with one hundred. The land was very rich and bore heavy crops of corn and cot- ton. "It is perfectly level, resembling a river bed, the soil twenty feet deep, and like a bed of manure." "It is impossible to conceive of more beautiful fields and plantations, or more luxuriant crops of corn, cot- ton and tobacco." Sibley described the country below Natchitoches as the richest he had ever seen. "The low grounds of Red River are generally five or six miles wide, and no soil can be richer, and nearly all alike ; considerable part of which is overflowed LOUISIANA 9 annually in the month of April; but it continues up but a short time, and always falls in time to plant corn and tobacco, and rises no more till the same time the next year. There are fields that from the best account I can obtain, have been planted successively for near one hundred years in corn or tobacco, and never known to fail in produc- ing plentiful crops, nor is the soil apparently in the least exhausted. It is particularly favorable for tobacco, which grows remarkably luxuriant, and has a very fine flavor. The soil has a saline impregna- tion, which imparts something of it to the tobacco. The well and river water is somewhat brackish. I am convinced that one hand here can make as much tobacco in a season as four or five on the best lands in Virginia or North Carohna. It is made without any hills being raised, and grows so thick (from the strength and warmth of the soil) that they usually cut it three times. When prepared for market, it is stenoimed and made into twists of five pounds each. From eighty to one hundred bushels of corn can be made to the acre. Cotton produces equally well. The gardens on the natural soil (for they cannot be made richer with manure) are not less astonishing or extraordinary. I have particularly observed the very great height to which the artichoke grows; they are usually ten feet and very fre- quently twelve and fifteen feet high." ^ At Baker's Landing, a mingled population of French, Irish, and Americans were cultivating the prairie to corn and cotton, while their hogs and cattle foimd abundant food in the oak forest. 10 AMERICAN SETTLERS Wheat would thrive in the fertile soil, but it was not grown because there were no mills for grinding fliour. Large plantations were also in evidence where corn, cotton, and tobacco were raised for sale, and at Lac Moir were salt-works where two crippled old men with a dozen pots and kettles made six bushels of salt per day, enough to supply the whole region. Saline springs were abundant, and a Cap- tain Burnett had brought negro slaves up the river, meaning to exploit this industry. Dr. Sibley turned back far short of the source of Red River, but from a Frenchman, Brevel, who had been bred among the Pamis, he learned that the upper river was not navigable. The Indians them- selves had no boats, partly because there was no timber available and partly because the treacherous current, fairly disappearing in the dry season and rising to a torrent with the spring and autumn floods, made even canoes an uncertain means of transporta- tion. They rehed rather on horses, with which they were well furnished, and on which they hunted the wild bison of the plains. Brevel had accompanied his Indian friends as far west as the Spanish settle- ments in the Rio Grande Valley. He estimated the distance from the Pima villages to be some three hun- dred miles. Sibley thought that the most valuable land on Red River began about sixty miles above the upper settlements (seventy miles above Rapide) and extended four hundred miles beyond. "About eighty or ninety years ago, a number of Frenchmen settled on this part of Red River ; they built a mer- chant mill, with burr stones (which they brought LOUISIANA 11 from France) and cultivated wheat in the prairies with much success, and made excellent flour for sev- eral years, till, by the repeated incursions of the Oza, they were compelled to abandon their settlements." The Spaniards, too, had attempted to develop this region, sending some priests and soldiers with several famihes, but the post was destroyed by these same Indians. Natchitoches, according to Sibley, was a "small, irregular, and meanly built village" with not more than half a dozen good houses. It had been a considerable settlement, but the better people had moved to farms, leaving some forty families, mostly French, in possession of the decaying pubhc buildings. "From this place the great western road takes off toward Mexico, and it will ever be an im- portant place, being the key to an immense rich country." Dunbar reported that the French settlements along the Washita had well-nigh disappeared, the people having fled after the Natchez massacre. At the mouth of Black River he found an old Frenchman in charge of a ferry for the transportation of the occasional travellers who followed the trail between Natchez and Natchitoches. At the army post farther up the river was a small settlement — some five hundred souls — eking out a miserable sub- sistence by hunting deer and bear for peltry. There was a rich alluvial soil, but they raised only a Uttle corn and were content to buy everything else of the traders who, taking advantage of their ignorance, charged them high prices for imported goods while giving them little for the hides and bear's grease 12 AMERICAN SETTLERS they offered in exchange. Considerable estates had been granted by the Spanish government to certain French refugees — royahsts —, but the vaUdity of these titles was questioned. Dunbar and Hunter followed the windings of the Washita to the Hot Springs. The healing qualities of these waters were already known, and the place was a resort for health-seekers. From this their farthest point, they saw the mountains that divide the Washita from the streams that flow into the Arkansas. At the head waters of the Arkansas, so the hunters told them, silver ore was to be found, and the river was navigable almost to its soiirce. An old Dutch- man showed them a pin that had been wrought from silver found by a trapper in the mountains that divide the eastward-flowing rivers from the Rio Grande del Norte of the Spaniards. French fm- traders told Dunbar that the Platte or Shallow River took its rise in these same mountains near the soiu"ce of the Arkansas and Red rivers. They described with enthusiasm the beauty of the coun- try that lay to the west of the Mississippi — gentle rolling prairie, timberless except for the trees that grew along the river bottoms, but clothed Avith ver- dm-e, buffalo grass, and myriad flowers. The climate was dry and wholesome, the rains temperate, — never so violent as to destroy crops, — and the arid regions near the mountains were refreshed with nightly dews. Numberless herds of bison ranged these prairies, moving hither and thither in search of water and pasture. No good hunter need go long without food. LOUISIANA 13 Dr. Sibley gives a careful account of the Indian tribes in the Red River region; peoples most of whom have long since disappeared. Intertribal war, conflicts with the French, and the small- pox might account, in his opinion, for the rapid ex- tinction of the natives. The Comanches were then, as for long after, the scoiirge of the plains. Sibley thought them inclined to be friendly to the French and Americans, but gives abundant evidence of their hostility to the Spaniards. They made a pastime of stealing not only horses, but children. There were many white slaves in the lodges of the Comanches, some of whom were captured so young that they knew nothing of their origin. A supplementary expedition of more formidable proportions was despatched up Red River in the year 1806. Two army officers. Captains Sparks and Humphreys, seventeen privates, and a black servant, together with Thomas Freeman, a surveyor, and Dr. Peter Custis, a naturalist, made up the party. They embarked on May 3, in two flat-bottomed barges and a pirogue, and reached the westernmost white settlement, forty-five miles above Natchi- toches, without incident. Here they were overtaken by an Indian runner sent by Dr. Sibley, now Indian agent at Natchitoches, with the news that Spanish dragoons were marching from Nacogdoches to inter- cept the Americans. The Caddoes, near whose village the Spanish force was encamped, also gave warning; but Sparks' instructions had been to ex- plore the river to its source imless stopped by a force superior to his own, and he pushed on. A few 14 AMERICAN SETTLERS days brought him face to face with a body of three hundred mounted troopers. Freeman's attempt to explain that their object in ascending the river was purely scientific proved vain, and it became clear that they could not proceed without a battle. Deeming discretion the better part of valor, the party retreated down the river, after having attained a point about six hundred and thirty-five miles above its mouth. Freeman thought the country along the upper river "would become as desirable as any portion of the earth," if the stream were cleared of driftwood and the swamps and bayous drained. The Caddo Ind- ians were raising corn, — fifty and sixty bushels to the acre, — and they said that farther west lay "level, rich and almost continued prairies, where range immense herds of buffalo, upon which the Indians almost entirely subsist, moving their camps as these animals migrate with the season from north to south and back again." ^^ The United States government had every reason to congratulate itself and the country on the addi- tion of Louisiana Territory to the national domain. The customs revenue at the port of New Orleans, for example, amounted to $1,000,000 a year — seven per cent interest on the purchase price — while the potential wealth represented in the new industrial resources was beyond computation. Citizens of the Western states, who were beginning to feel the need of elbow room, hurried to Louisiana to take advan- tage of the promising openings, conmiercial and agricultural. The Americans found New Orleans a deUghtfuUy picturesque town, and quite unlike any- LOUISIANA 15 thing in the United States. The roomy one-story houses, finished in stucco — white, yellow, and pink — surrounded by fig and orange orchards, seemed most attractive. The earth was wholly alluvial without grit or stones, the streets were none of them paved, and after a hard rain they became sloughs of black, loamy, greasy mud and quite impassable. A single Une of logs served, at one and the same time, as sewer and footway. The levee, which furnished the only handsome street, was shaded with willow and orange trees and furnished a public promenade. The usual vehicles were the high wooden-wheeled carts in which the peasants brought their vege- tables to market, and these squeaked through the streets with an intolerable racket ; but this had been encouraged by the Spanish intendant because it served to warn the customs collector of the a,dvent of dutiable goods. With quite different emotions was the cession regarded by the Creole population of Louisiana. Notably at New Orleans, where the officers and civil officials of the Spanish regime were gathered, there was a strong anti-American feeUng, and the belief was general that the province would shortly be retroceded to Spain. The task imposed on Gov- ernor Claiborne was indeed a difficult one. He had to deal with a people of whom not a tithe were American in origin or in sentiment. The great proportion were irreconcilably foreign in blood, language, reUgion, and customs." The common law and trial by jury were suspicious innovations ; the few American officials, always overbearing and often 16 AMERICAN SETTLERS incompetent, were highly unpopular; the restric- tions on the importation of slaves, promulgated with the territorial organization, were regarded as disastrous by the planters; while the proud and ambitious Creoles of New Orleans resented the territorial status and demanded that they be admitted to the "enjoyment of all the rights, ad- vantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States" . . . "as soon as possible," in accordance with the terms of the cession. The founding of a bank of Louisiana, authorized to issue paper money in lieu of the silver hitherto imported from Vera Cruz, roused the distrust of the merchants, while the ap- pointment of a register of lands with a view to test- ing the validity of grants made by the Spanish intendants subsequent to the treaty, spread alarm through the rural communities. The investigation of titles was a godsend to the lawyers, who flocked into the territory from all quarters, but to the litiga- tion-hating Louisianians it promised endless dis- turbance. The supplanted Spanish officials were loath to leave the province, and did not hesitate to use their influence against the new order, while certain Americans long resident in New Orleans were distinctly pro-Spanish in sympathy. The Territory of Orleans was but a narrow strip of American domain driven Uke a wedge into the Spanish do- minions, dividing the Floridas from Texas. New Orleans lay open to attack from the Gulf, while the bays and islands along the coast offered con- venient shelter to an enemy. The governors of the adjacent Spanish territories were openly hostile The Teche. A Creole Cottage. Acadia. LOUISIANA 17 troops were gathering at Nacogdoches and supplies were being landed at Mobile, while there was reason to beUeve that the Indians between the Arkansas and Red rivers were being corrupted by the agents of the viceroy himself. Under these conditions, it is no marvel that Gov- ernor Claiborne, harassed on every side, lent a credu- lous ear to General Wilkinson's assertion that Aaron Burr was proposing to take advantage of the general disaffection, make a descent on New Orleans and, on the basis of that conquest, bmld up an empire of the south to which the restless communities between the Mississippi and the Ohio would even- tually be annexed. It is now clear that Burr's nebulous plots were directed against New Spain and that few if any of the denizens of New Orleans were in his confidence; but the charge of treason had sufficient basis to be credited at Washington, and it served to increase the distrust of the Creole popula- tion and to postpone imtil 1812 the creation of the state of Louisiana. During the last ten years of the Spanish regime, traffic in slaves was permitted in Spanish bottoms, and three slave traders, all French, came into the port of New Orleans, bringing four hundred and sixty-three negroes. The coming of the Americans, with the prospect of more extensive exploitation of the agricultural possibihties of Louisiana, greatly increased the demand for slaves. Hence the new regulation imposing a fine of $300 on each slave imported and setting free the iUicit chattels was vigorously protested, and Congress was induced to VOL. n— c 18 AMERICAN SETTLERS modify the embargo by limiting the restriction to vessels clearing from foreign ports. Thereafter traders stopped at Charleston and then proceeded undisturbed to Mobile and New Orleans. Thirty- nine thousand Africans were so brought in between 1803 and 1808. At the same time, the numerous islands and bayous of the coast offered safe harbor- age for smugglers, and thousands of slaves were driven overland through Texas. The Cuban exiles (5797) who came to* New Orleans in 1809, brought with them 1991 slaves, and these were admitted de- spite the law, on the plea that they were refugees. The gathering of hundreds of these semi-barbarians on remote plantations with only a handful of white men in control, was felt to be a menace to public safety, and the slave revolt of 1811 was so formi- dable as to necessitate the calling out of Federal troops. The "Police of Slaves," ordained by Ca- rondelet, was reenacted as a black code, with intent to keep this dangerous element of the population in due subordination. Concourses of negroes were forbidden under heavy penalty, and no slave was allowed off his master's plantation without a written permit. Slaves were forbidden to ride horseback or to carry arms, and no liquor was to be sold to them. On the other hand the supply of food and clothing was fixed by law, and the degree of punish- ment was limited to thirty lashes in any one day. To the people of Louisiana, the all-important factor, more influential than soil or climate or rain- fall in determining their industrial fate, was the Mississippi River. The mighty stream had created LOUISIANA 19 the land on which they dwelt, washing down every year from the uplands and prairies drained by its fifty-four tributaries hundreds of thousands of tons of silt which, deposited along its channel or spread out in wide alluvions by the spring floods, had formed in the course of ages the vast delta between the Ozarks and the Appalachians. From Cape Girardeau, a jutting promontory of the ancient gulf shore, the river ran through swamps and bayous of its own making, twisting and writhing from bank to bank, shifting its current with every flood and playing havoc with the puny devices of man. Navigation was rendered difficult by the transient sandbars that were carried hither and yon with the caprices of the ciorrent, and by the ever present driftwood, whether lodged against some obstacle or floating with the stream and alternately lifted and submerged in its uneasy balance, the "planters" and "sawyers" of river parlance. Whirlpools and eddies and cross currents play sport with modern steamers, guided by experienced pilots who follow charts and buoys. In frontier days, many a heavily laden flatboat or keel was wrecked against snag or shoal as it floated down stream, while the upstream voyage, laboriously performed by aid of oar and pole and cordelle, seemed an endless task. To the settler on the bottom-lands, the Mississippi was no less a whimsical tjrrant. For the greater part of its course below Madrid, the bed of the river was elevated many feet above the surrounding plain by the continual deposit of silt on the bottom and sides of the channel, so that it flowed through a self-made 20 AMERICAN SETTLERS viaduct. On either side, this was flanked by swamps and stagnant lagoons bordered by canebrakes which gave way in turn to forests of cypress trees hung with dark gray streamers of Spanish moss. No animal life throve except alUgators, moccasin snakes, and the pes- tilential mosquito. An occasional bear came down in search of food, and Indian hunters might follow after. In May, the month of high water, the whole region was inundated and appeared a shoreless sea. As the waters ate into the causeway here and there, the barrier was undermined, the banks caved in, and hundreds and thousands of acres of the richest farm land were swept away down the river. From the time of the French settlement, the necessity of dyking the stream had been the paramount concern of every landowner. Each planter raised an em- bankment sufficient to guard his fields against flood and strove to make connection with the plantations above and below him. Thus these slave-built levees were gradually extended on both sides the river, forming what was called the "Coast." Here lay the sugar and cotton plantations which constituted the wealth of Louisiana ; e.g. that of M. Poydras of Point Couple, employing five hundred slaves and worth $2,000,000, and that of Wade Hampton, with an annual crop of five hundred hogsheads of sugar and one thousand bales of cotton and worth $150,000. The income of the ordinary planter was from 120,000 to $40,000 a year, and land sold for $75 an acre, an extraordinary price for the frontier. When Timothy Flint went down the Mississippi in 1822, the levees began at Baton Rouge, one hundred and fifty miles LOUISIANA 21 above New Orleans and, from that point to sixty mUes below the city, the plantations lay in a con- tinuous stretch of cxiltivated land on both sides of the river. "The breadth of the cultivated lands is generally two miles; a perfectly uniform strip, conforming to the shape of the river, and every- where bounding the deep forests of the Mississippi swamp with a regular line. In the whole distance to New Orleans, plantation touches plantation. I have seen in no part of the United States such a rich and highly cultivated tract of the same extent. It far exceeds that on the banks of the Delaware. Noble houses, massive sugar-houses, neat summer- houses, and niunerous negro villages succeed each other in such a way that the whole distance has the appearance of one continued village." ^^ New Orleans, the port of this great alluvial valley, had, to Flint's mind, an unexcelled commercial oppor- tunity, superior to that of New York. The winter pop- ulation was already from forty to fifty thousand, three times that of 1803. The sole deterrent to the pros- perity of New Orleans was its unwholesome cUmate. The hot and pestilential summers drove out of the city all who had the means to get away. Six thou- sand persons were carried off by the yellow fever epidemic of 1819, most of them newcomers from the North and from Europe. The surroimding district was hardly more healthful. "Betwixt the fears of inundation, the efforts of the enslaved Africans to emancipate themselves, and the fatahty of the climate, the opulent planters of Louisiana" were ill at ease.^^ New Orleans was still a foreign-looking 22 AMERICAN SETTLERS city with stucco houses, frescoed white and yellow, and the French were "the same gay, dancing, spectacle-loving race that they are everywhere else." The Americans came only to make money which they meant to spend elsewhere, hence they did not Hve in the showy, extravagant style of the Creoles, and stayed as short a time as might be in a climate that was far more disastrous to them than to the natives. Race antagonism was still serious and resulted in frequent broils. The mixture of races was strikingly displayed in the vegetable market. "In a pleasant March forenoon, you see, perhaps, half the city there. The crowd covers half a mile in extent. The negroes, mulattoes, French, Spanish, Germans are all crying their articles in their several tongues." " The picturesque foreignness of the mar- ket was repeated on the river which was "crowded with the boats of French and Spanish pedlars, not much larger than perogues, but fitted up with a cabin, covered deck, and sails." ^^ There, too, were the flatboats of the Kentuckians, loaded with flour, bacon, and whiskey, and manned by brawny fron- tiersmen, — boats battered and men gaunt with the vicissitudes of the three months' voyage. The first cargoes might be expected early in January when, arriving in advance of the glut, they could sell their flour at $12.50 a barrel. The business of the place centred on the river front. Ah-eady in 1820 there were sometimes fifty steamboats l3ring in the harbor at one time, and from twelve to fifteen hundred flatboats moored along the wharves. The freight capacity of one of these 1^ El CO g I LOUISIANA 23 latter frequently reached sixty tons. Communica- tion with the interior by steamboat was "easy, pleas- ant, and rapid." More than one hundred steamers were navigating the Mississippi and its principal tributaries. They were large side-wheelers for the most part, with excellent passenger accommodations and ample freight capacity. The coast trade with Mobile and Florida was carried on by three hundred schooners. Already more cotton was shipped from this port than from any other in America, and immense piles of cotton bales lay along the levee, waiting for an ocean steamer to carry them to New York, New England, or Europe. Sugar was a great and in- creasing crop, and FUnt beUeved that enough might be grown in Louisiana to meet the consimiption of the United States. There were very productive plan- tations on the Bayou Teche, along the Gulf Coast, and on the adjacent islands. Each sluggish stream and bayou formed its own embankment of rich, black soU, and the plantations were crowded into the fertile strip running from one to three miles back from the water. The growth reminded Flint of the rank cornfields of Missom-i. The soil and climate of Louisiana were admirably suited to the development of the stalk, but it contained less saccharine matter than that grown in Cuba, and the seed cane must be planted every year, at considerable cost in time and labor. The most serious obstacle, however, was the scarcity of capital. A heavy in- vestment was required for the sugar-houses (as large and imposing as New England factories), and for the purchase and maintenance of the force of 24 AMERICAN SETTLERS slaves. Rice and indigo had been cultivated formerly of a quality superior to the Georgia yield ; corn, sweet potatoes, melons, figs, and oranges, and all northern fruits, except apples, floiirished; but the planters found more money profit in sugar and cotton, es- pecially the former, so they were neglecting all other crops and "calculated to supply themselves with provisions almost entirely from the upper coxmtry." " Natchez was the up-country cotton market. At the shipping season a thousand boats of all descriptions, from the Pittsburgh-built steam- boat to the log raft, lay at this landing, the town was full of boatmen, and the streets were almost barricaded with cotton bales. Negroes were everywhere. Slave labor was deemed essential .to the cultivation of cotton and sugar in a climate that was enervating to the whites. Without it, men believed, the land would relapse to Avilderness. Fhnt, New England clergyman though he was, found himself agreeing with this point of view. "The slaves appeared to me to be as well fed and clothed as the labouring poor at the North." They were far better off physically than in the upper country, for their strength and contentment was the chief factor in prosperity, and it was the planter's interest that theiy should be kept in good bodily condition. Adequate food and shelter were provided for these valuable animals, as well as hospitals for the sick and regular medical attendance. The freed blacks led a wretched existence, Flint thought. They had few opportunities of earning an honest living and readily took to thieving and vice. Unlike the LOUISIANA 25 plantation negroes, they had "the wretched privilege of getting drunk." " The poor whites of the upper river set them a demorahzing example, as did also the mongrel population, French and Spanish mixed with Indian blood, who were "vagabonds almost to a man." "Scarcely any of them have any regular occupation, unless it be that of herding cattle ; but they raise a little maize, and fish a little, and hunt a httle, and smoke and lounge a great deal." ^* Timothy Flint, going up to Natchitoches in 1820, found flourishing plantations all the way. The climate was not warm enough for sugar-cane, but the cotton plant grew as high as a man's head and yielded two bales to the acre. Wheat grew eighty bushels to the acre, and the selling price was $3.50 per bushel. Alexandria was the market for the parish of Rapide and the upper river since the rapids prevented steamers going farther except in high water, when they ventured to Natchitoches. Above that point the Great Raft proved an insuperable barrier for all craft larger than the pirogues, which went on to the United States garrison at Kiamesha. From Natchi- toches a lively trade was conducted with San An- tonio, Monclava, and the City of Mexico. Mules laden with silver were driven over the Camino Real, and horses bred by the Texas rancheros were sold to the merchants, who sent them to the farmers of Missouri and Kentucky. This frontier town was, moreover, a harbor of refuge for criminals, both Spanish and American. Louisiana was not all cane, com, and cotton. Two-thirds of the state was swamp and pine barren. 26 AMERICAN SETTLERS To the west and north the land was high and the soil thin and sandy. Here great droves of cattle and hogs fattened on the mast and native grasses, settlements were few and far apart, and "there being little call for labor, the inhabitants labor little, and are content with indolence, health and poverty." " CHAPTER II MISSOURI TERRITORY The watershed of the Arkansas River was not regarded as a hopeM opportiinity for the pioneer. For an unknown distance back from the Mississippi, the land was low and flat, and the rivers flowed sluggishly through vast swamps or widened out into lakes and bayous, infested by alligators and mos- quitoes and overhung by malarial vapors, poisonous to persons not habituated to the climate. Here grew nothing that could be made to serve man's needs except the funereal cypress, and no industry might be developed except that of the wood-cutters who shipped scow-loads of limaber and fuel to New Orleans. The Arkansas River was navigable for keel-boats for two hundred miles, and the Washita, Black, *White and St. Francis served the purposes of commerce, except where the drifted timber had col- lected in great rafts that effectively blocked passage. Occasional elevations or prairies {e.g. Grand Prairie, one hundred nules in length) furnished the only opportunity for settlement, and these were quickly found and utilized. When Nuttall descended the Mississippi in 1819, he found the French villages dwindling. Big and Little Prairie had been de- stroyed by the earthquake of 1811 ^ and by subse- quent inundations, and the region was still subject to an occasional shock by no means reassuring to 27 28 AMERICAN SETTLERS the soul of the pioneer. The habitants were "here, as elsewhere, in miserable circumstances," ^ and raised "no wheat, and scarcely enough of maize for their support." They still dressed in the half- Indian costimie of the voyageur, — "blanket capeaus, buckskin pantaloons, and moccasins," with no head covering but a handkerchief, for men and women ahke. For the isolated squatter, the hunt was still an important supplement to farming, and these "hunting farmers" brought their beaver skins to Nuttall's bateau "anxious to barter them for whiskey, though scarcely possessed either of bread or vegetables." New Madrid was an insignificant hamlet,' made up of some twenty log houses and two or three stores miserably supplied with goods that sold at exorbitant prices. Arkansas Post, built on a bluff beyond the reach of inundations, was still a considerable town, boasting from thirty to forty houses and three mercantile establishments. The proprietors brought groceries and textiles from New Orleans and hardware from Pittsburgh, and they were accustomed to carry their stock in trade up the Ar- kansas as far as Fort Smith.* The farmers in the neighborhood of the Post were largely French and were growing good crops of corn and cotton. The rich alluvial soil produced from one thousand to fifteen hundred pounds of cotton to the acre and, since this sold at $5 to $6 per hundredweight in the seed, the crop was a paying one. Of slaves there were few in this primitive community, but white labor was to be had at from $12 to $15 per month with board. Settlement was retarded by uncertainty as to land MISSOURI TERRITORY 29 titles, occasioned by the Spamsh grants that had not yet been confirmed or annulled by the United States government. The Winters of Natchez claimed a tract of one million acres in the immediate vicinity of the Post, two Spanish commandantes had re- ceived grants of indefinite extent on White River, while Baron Bastrop's fifty thousand acres on the Washita were claimed by his heirs/ On the prairies back from the river were some French-speaking squatters, half-breeds or metifs, said to be descended from the ten men whom Tonti had left at the Post in 1686. They had degenerated to the savage state and were "entirely hunters, Indians in habit, and paid no attention to the cul- tivation of the soil." The American settlers farther up the stream were for the most part from Kentucky and Tennessee. They were growing com and cotton with success, but hesitated to make any permanent improvements because of their uncertain tenure. Cotton-gins, sawmills, and grist-mills were projected, but Uttle had as yet been accomplished. At Little Rock, the entrance to the hill coimtry, a Georgian named Hogan had laid out a town and proposed to utilize the water-power. At fhe mouth of the Cad- ron another town was projected, and the one occu- pant of a town lot cherished great hopes of the future; but to Nuttall's unbiased judgment there seemed no reason for any accession of population or business. The last white settlement on the Arkansas was at Pecannerie (so named for the pecan trees that grew in the surrounding forests). Here some sixty families had foimd fertile lands and a whole- 30 AMERICAN SETTLERS some climate, but the men were renegades and fugitives from justice, an ignorant and lawless lot. They were too far from the market to sell cotton at a paying price ($3 per hundredweight in seed) and their agriculture was confined to corn and potatoes for their own food. Nuttall thought the agricultiu-al possibiHties of Arkansas unequalled if once the swamps were drained and the rivers cleared of obstructions. Cotton, com, rice, indigo, tobacco, and hemp bore abundantly, while subtropic fruits, peaches, plums and grapes flourished in the open, and well-laden orchards were seen even about the Indian villages. Cattle were allowed to run at large, since they re- quired no shelter and were driven in only for an occasional counting and salting. They subsisted through the mild winters on the natural fodder fur- nished by the canebrakes and shave rush {equisetum hiemale). No attention was paid to breed, not even of horses. These, too, ran wild and, though they deteriorated in size, grew stocky and vigorous after the hardy Spanish type. They brought from $50 to $100 apiece in the local market. South of Fort Smith in the valley of the "Pottoe" (Poteau) River was a wonderful pastvire-land. "The whole country was a prairie, full of luxuriant grass," ^ and this natural pasturage extended "even to the summits of the hills, offering an almost inexhaustible range to cattle." ' Here were feeding throngs of wild horses, herds of deer, and even an occasional buffalo. On the lower river, government surveyors were already at work, plotting the lands of first and MISSOURI TERRITORY 31 second grade, and these were soon to be sold at auction at the minimum rate of $2 per acre. Specu- lators were also on the ground with land scrip representing the preemption rights of veterans of the recent war, which they had bought at from $3 to $10 per acre, assuming the payment to the land office and expecting to recoup themselves out of sales to prospective emigrants. All of the land was fertile, but much of it lay so low as to be unfit for human habitation, and the advertisements printed in the eastern papers were usually misleading. Martin Chuzzlewit's "Eden" is a fair example of the frauds perpetrated on the ignorant investor. Wherever there was sufficient altitude to provide drainage, however, the climate was salubrious, and the settlements flourished. A town in this region with a fortunate location was like Jonah's go\ird, the growth of a night. White River, in its upper reaches, flowed through flinty hills, and although the narrow bottoms were fertile and capable of producing excellent crops of com, wheat, and cotton, the river was not navigable except for canoes and there was no inducement to raise crops that could not be got to market. Here conditions were primitive indeed. Schoolcraft, the geologist, who visited the region in 1819, describes the people. "The only inhabitants on the upper parts of White River, so far as inhabitants have penetrated, are himters, who Uve in camps and log-cabins, and support themselves by himting the bear, deer, buffalo, elk, beaver, raccoon, and other animals who are found in great plenty in that region. 32 AMERICAN SETTLERS They also raise some corn for bread, and for feeding their horses, on preparing for long journeys into the woods, or other extraordinary occasions. They seldom, however, cultivate more than an acre or two, subsisting chiefly on animal food and wild honey, and pay no attention to the cultivation of garden vegetables, if I except some cabbages, noticed at a few habitations. When the season of hunting arrives, the ordinary labors of a man about the house and cornfield devolve upon the women, whose condition in such a state of society may readily be imagined. They in fact pursue a similar course of life with the savages ; having embraced their love of ease, and their contempt for agricultural pursuits, with their sagacity in the chase, their mode of dress- ing in skins, their manners, and their hospitality to strangers. "The furs and peltries which are collected during repeated excursions in the woods, are taken down the river at certain seasons in canoes, and disposed of to traders who visit the lower parts of this river for that purpose. Here they receive in exchange for their furs woolen cloths, rifles, knives and hatchets, salt, pow- der, lead, iron for horse shoes, blankets, iron pots, shoes, and other articles of primary importance in their way of life. Those living near the cultivated parts of Lawrence County, in Arkansas Territory, also bring down in exchange for such articles, buffaloe beef, pork, bears' meat, bees' wax, and honey ; which are again sold by the traders along the banks of the Mississippi, or at New Orleans. Very little cash is paid, and that in hard money only, no bank bills of MISSOURI TERRITORY 33 any kind being taken in that quarter. I happened to be present, on my return from the head waters of White River, at one of these exchanges, where a iwc- ther opportimity was offered of observing the man- ners and character of these savage Europeans. Bears' meat was sold at $10 per cwt.; buffaloe beef at $4; cows' beef at $3 ; pork, in the hog, at $3.50 ; venison hams at 25 cents each ; wild tiu^kies the same ; wild honey at $1 per gallon ; beaver fur $2 per lb. ; bears' skins $1.50 each; otter's skins $2 a piece; raccoon 25 cents each ; deers' skins 25 cents per lb. These prices were considered high by the purchaser, but they were only nominally so, for he paid them off in articles at the most exorbitant rates. Common three-point or Mackinaw blankets were sold at $8 each ; butcher knives at $2 ; rifle locks at $8 ; com- mon coarse blue cloth at $6 per yard; coffee at 75 cents per lb. ; salt at $5 per bushel ; lead at 25 cents per lb. ; gunpowder at $2 per lb. ; axes at $6 each ; horse shoe nails at $3 per set, &c. The trade of this river is consequently attended with profits which amply repay for the risks and fatigues incident to a voyage in that quarter. Vast quantities of furs and skins are annually brought down this river, with some bees' wax, honey, beef, bacon, &c." * The United States government had chosen the upper Arkansas valley for an Indian reservation, and was removing hither the tribes whose lands were coveted by the whites. The Quapaws had sold sixty thousand square miles in the lower vaUey for $4000 down and an annuity of $1000. The bargain had proved a good one for the government, for these same VOL. n — D 34 AMERICAN SETTLERS lands were now being sold at 110 an acre. / The Chero- kees, transplanted from Georgia, were cultivating the soil and building houses that compared well with those of the white settlers, although the government had not yet estabhshed their titles. The Osages, freshly removed from their villages north of the Arkansas, were less promising. Long intercourse with the trader had brought to nought their native industries, and had taught them nothing better. Drunken and prof- ligate, and cherishing a sense of grievance, the young braves revenged themselves on the trappers who fell into their power, stealing their horses and stripping and torturing the defenceless men. Bad blood was brew- ing between the Indians and the squatters who were forced to vacate and make way for these mischievous wards of Uncle Sam. It was already becoming ap- parent that the Indians could not subsist without the buffalo herds, which had furnished them with food, clothing, and shelter from time immemorial. As the white man advanced up the water-coiu-ses, the herds retreated before his deadly firearms. Experienced hunters estimated that this withdrawal was proceed- ing at the rate of ten miles a year. The annual slaughter was estimated at two hundred thousand, of which total not more than five thousand were killed by the whites. The diminished herds took refuge in the "parks" at the head waters of the Arkansas and Platte and crossed the many passes of the Rocky and Wasatch ranges to the bunch grass "benches" on their western slopes. Arkansas was the veritable frontier. Some fifteen hundred hunters and trappers, imaccustomed to re- MISSOURI TERRITORY 35 straint, degenerate in habits and morals, supported a miserable existence in the back coimtry, while the town population was largely composed of renegades and fugitives from jiistice who sought escape from civil authority. The territory of Arkansas was or- ganized in 1821, and a governor was sent out from Washington who inaugm^ated his administration at Arkansas Post with considerable pomp ; but the laws against gambhng, etc. , enacted by the infant legislature, were broken by the officials themselves with small regard for decency, and the "rough and untamed" people pursued their licentious practices unchecked. The Missouri River Settlements The vaUey of the Missouri was better drained than that of the Arkansas, and the climate was more brac- ing, while soil and rainfall were no less auspicious. When Lewis and Clark went up the river in 1804, they noted the fields of corn and wheat belonging to the habitants of Portage des Sioux showing fair in the rich bottom lands of the north bank. The village of St. Charles, or Petite C6te, as the people preferred to call it, contained about one hundred houses, "the most of them small and indifferent," and four hun- dred people, chiefly Canadian French with an occa- sional dash of Indian blood. "A great majority of the inhabitants are miserably pour illiterate and when at home excessively lazy, tho' they are poUte hospitable and by no means deficient in point of natural genious. ... A smaU garden of vegetables is the usual extent of their cultivation, and this is commonly imposed on the old-men and boys; the 36 AMERICAN SETTLERS men in the vigor of life consider the cultivation of the earth a degrading occupation, and in order to gain the necessary subsistence for themselves and families, either undertake hunting voyages on their own account, or engage themselves as hireUngs"^ to men with suffi- cient capital to fit out more ambitious expeditions. On Femme Osage (Boone's Lick), where many people came down to the river's bank to watch the passing of the explorers, there were thirty or forty American families. The first settler was Daniel Boone, the pio- neer of the trans-Alleghany migration, who, having lost his lands in Kentucky by some lawyer's trick, had moved on to this new frontier and secured a Spanish grant (1798). When the Astorians ascended the river six years later, the ultima thule of civilization was sixty miles above St. Charles on Boone's Lick. Boone had just returned from the spring himt with sixty beaver skins, and he overlooked the launching of Hunt's bateaux with a professional eye. Bradbury's de- scription is graphic. "The old man was still erect in form, strong in limb and unflinching in spirit ; and as he stood on the river-bank, watching the departure of an expedition destined to traverse the wilderness to the very shores of the Pacific, very probably felt a throb of his old pioneer spirit, impelling him to shoulder his rifle and join the adventurous band." ^° Brackenridge, who was of Lisa's party, noted with surprise that there were "tolerable plantations" in the bottom lands as far as Point Labadie. "These usually consist of a few acres cleared, on the borders of the river, with a small log hut or cabin, and stables MISSOURI TERRITORY 37 WiJJiunt Bug. Co., N.T. Sbttlbments rw Uppeb Louisiana, 1820. for horses, etc. They raise a little Indian com, piimpions, potatoes, and a few vegetables. But they have abundance of hogs and homed cattle." " On Le Mine River were valuable salt-works under the naanagement of Braxton Cooper of Culpepper, Vir- ginia. "The settlement is but one year old, but is already considerable, and iacreasing rapidly ; it con- 38 AMERICAN SETTLERS sists of seventy-five families, the greater part living on the bank of the river, in the space of foiu- or five miles. They are generally persons in good circum- stances, most of them have slaves. Mr. Cooper in- formed me that the upland, back, is the most beauti- ful he ever beheld. He thinks that from the mouth of the Missouri to this place, the country for at least forty miles from the river, may bear the character of rich woodland ; the prairies forming but trifling pro- portions." ^^ The Journal of the Long expedition (1821) gives evidence of considerable accessions to the popula- tion of Missouri in the eleven years interval. The pioneers were mostly emigrants from Tennessee, well-to-do farmers, who took up land in the river bottoms and worked them by slave labor. The settlements were prosperous, although somewhat retarded by the uncertainty of land titles and the preemption of the most desirable locations by speculators. Cote Sans Dessein, opposite the mouth of the Osage, boasted thirty families and as many small log cabins, but though the soil was extraor- dinarily fertile, improvements were discouraged by the fact that the tract was claimed by Chouteau on the basis of a Spanish grant. Just above the Osage on the south bank of the Missouri, the land had been "located" for a town, and lots were being sold in St. Louis at prices varying from $50 to $180 each. Above Little Manito Rocks (Boone County), were several mushroom towns with no more than half-a-dozen houses apiece, — Nashville, Rectorsville, Smithton, etc., each named after the fond MISSOURI TERRITORY 39 projector who cherished great hopes of the future. "Almost every settler, who has estabUshed himself on the Missouri, is confidently expecting that his farm is, in a few years, to become the seat of wealth and business, and the mart for an extensive dis- trict." ^* Franklin, a two-year-old village across the river from Booneville, was confident of becoming a metropolis. Here imcleared land was selling at from $2 to $10 and $15 an acre, corn brought twenty-five cents a bushel, wheat $1, and bacon twelve and a half cents a pound, while labor cost seventy-five cents a day. The fecundity of the soil was unparalleled, and tillage proved comparatively inex- pensive. A slave could cultivate twenty acres of com and produce sixty bushels per acre in a season, whereas in Kentucky the same amount of labor was expended on fifteen acres with a smaller acreage return, so that the profits of farming were reckoned to be one-third less than in Missomi. Chariton, a village of fifty houses and five hundred people, was the last white settlement, and the inhabitants lined the bank to see the Western Engineer, the first steamboat that had ever ascended the Missouri. Beyond, the only sign of white occupation was an occasional trapper's lodge, where some worn-out mountain man had under- taken to till the soil and had painfully "made his first crop." One such man was planning to take his family up the Platte River. The pioneers of the westward migration in Mis- souri, as in Arkansas, were mere "squatters," — worn- out trappers fain to eke out existence for themselves and their half-breed families by desultory farming, 40 AMERICAN SETTLERS luckless traders so long accustomed to intercourse with the Indians that the ways of civilization were irksome to them, refugees and renegades who sought exemption from restraint in the region Flint called '.'the land beyond the Sabbath." Such a man did not buy land, but put up a temporary shelter in a location where wood, water, and pasturage were abun- dant and where the hunting was still good. Since his only wealth was in horses, cattle, and swine, he lost nothing by change of habitat. "When the canes are fed down and destroyed, and the acorns become scarce, the small corn-field and the rude cabin are abandoned, and the squatter goes in search of a place where all the original wealth of the forest is yet un- diminished. Here he again builds his hut, removes the trees from a few acres of land, which supplies its annual crop of corn, while the neighboring woods, for an extent of several miles, are used both as pas- ture and hunting groimds." " James, the chronicler of the Long expedition, quotes Boone as saying that it was high time to move when a man could no longer fell a tree for firewood within a few yards of his cabin door. The bulk of the pioneers came of Southern stock, often from Virginia or the Carolinas direct, but more frequently from Tennessee, Kentucky or the Gulf states, or from the lower counties of the common- wealths beyond the Ohio where the infusion of South- ern blood was strong ; and everywhere the Scotch- Irish element led the van. Vigorous, self-assertive, resom-ceful, the Appalachian mountaineers revelled in the vicissitudes and perils of the wilderness, and MISSOURI TERRITORY 41 were more at home in a prairie schooner than in a comfortable but stationary dwelling. The westward movement was impelled not so much by necessity as by the love of adventure and the belief that some- where beyond civihzation lay the opportunity for speedy wealth. The direction of migration was de- termined by successive crazes, — e.g. for Boone's Lick, for Salt Ptiver (Iowa), for the Mauvaises Terres on the Illinois, for Colonel Austin's colony on the Brazos. After the peace of Ghent had guaranteed the tran- quillity of the frontier, came the permanent settlers bringing wives and children from "back east," to- gether with agricultural implements, domestic uten- sils, and slaves. They came in flatboats down the Ohio or the Cumberland or the Tennessee to the great river that swept them on to Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Schoolcraft, on his voyage from Cairo to St. Louis, passed a score or more of "boats of all de- nominations, laden with merchandize, and emigrant passengers, chiefly destined for Boon's Lick on the Missouri,"^' then reputed to be one of the richest bodies of land west of the AUeghanies. These emigrants were largely from the Northern states, — Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, western New York and Pennsylvania, with a few Kentucky families of the better tsrpe, and their principal settlement, Franklin, was a center of light and learning, as well as of commerce. On the Whitewater, back of Cape Girardeau, was a colony of German Lutherans, most of whom had come first to Pennsylvania or North Carolina and later moved on to Missouri in search of better land. 42 AMERICAN SETTLERS Flint describes them as honest and industrious, with a passion for stone houses and barns, good orchards and permanent improvements. Their horses and cattle were of a superior breed and their fields well cultivated. Their women were quiet, patient and hard-working, and devoted themselves to the housewifely arts of the Old World with pa- thetic persistence. They formed a marked contrast to their French neighbors, "who were crowded into villages with mud hovels, fond of conversation and coffee," but rarely putting forth industrial energy sufficient to raise them above indigence. The Ger- mans were a large, stout, ruddy race, whereas the Frenchmen were "spare, thin, sallow and tanned, with their flesh adhering to their bones, and ap- parently dried to the consistency of parchment." " The German and the French settlers were alike at least in this — they clung to their native language and the forms of their inherited worship with stub- born persistence. Timothy Flint resided at St. Charles for the years 1816-1818 and he describes the inrush of people. "The immigration from the western and southern states to this country poured in a flood, the power and strength of which could only be adequately conceived by persons on the spot. We have numbered a hundred persons passing through the village of St. Charles in one day. The number was said to have equalled that for many days to- gether. From the Mamelles I have looked over the subjacent plain quite to the ferry, where the immi- grants crossed the upper Mississippi. I have seen MISSOURI TERRITORY 43 ia this extent nine wagons harnessed with from four to six horses. We may allow a himdred cattle, besides hogs, horses, and sheep, to each wagon; and from three or four to twenty slaves. The whole appearance of the train, the cattle with their hundred bells ; the negroes with delight in their countenances, for their labors are suspended and their imaginations excited; the wagons, often carrying two or three tons, so loaded that the mistress and children are strolling carelessly along, in a gait which enables them to keep up with the slow travelling carriage; — the whole group occupies three quarters of a mile. The slaves generally seem fond of their masters, and quite as much delighted and interested in the immi- gration, as the master. It is to me a very pleasing and patriarchal scene. . . . Just about nightfall, they come to a spring or a branch, where there is water and wood. The pack of dogs sets up a cheer- ful barking. The cattle lie down and ruminate. The team is unharnessed. The huge waggons are covered, so that the roof completely excludes the rain. The cooking utensils are brought out. The blacks prepare a supper, which the toils of the day render delicious ; and they talk over the adventures of the past day, and the prospects of the next. Meantime, they are going where there is nothing but buffaloes and deer to limit their range, even to the western sea." " Prosperity was to be had on easy terms. "A Missouri planter, with a moderate force and a good plantation, can be as independent as it is fit that we should be. . . . One of my immediate neighbors, on U AMERICAN SETTLERS the prairie below St. Charles, had i hired white man, a negro, and two sons large enough to begin to help him. He had an hundred acres enclosed. He raised, the year that I came away, two thousand four hundred bushels of corn,', eight hundred bushels of wheat, and other articles in proportion, and the number of cattle and hogs that he might raise was indefinite ; for the pasturage^ and hay were as suffi- cient for a thousand cattle as for twenty. . . . Any person, able and disposed to labour, is forever freed from the apprehension of poverty. ... A vigorous and active young man needs but two years of per- sonal labour to have a farm ready for the support of a small family. . . . The soil is free from stones, loose and mellow, and needs no manure, and it is very abundant in the productions natural to it, the principal of which are corn, fruits, and wheat. The calculation is commonly made, that, two days in a week contribute as much to support here, as the whole week at the North." ^^ Missouri was free from the "fever and ague" that infested the heavily timbered lands in Illinois and along the Mississippi, and the immigrants passed by these fertile regions and pressed on to the wholesomer country beyond. The enthusiasm of the colonist was whetted and directed by the zeal of the speculator. Of the methods by which these latter gentry succeeded in getting possession of the best locations we are told by one James Flint, a Scotchman, who came down the Ohio to St. Louis in an open boat in 1819, and saw many things by the way. The public lands in Missouri "are exposed by auction, in quarter sec- MISSOURI TERRITORY 45 tions of 160 acres each. A considerable part of them sold at from three to six dollars per acre. Lots, not sold at auction, may be subsequently bought at the land-office for two dollars per acre, on paying half a dollar in ready money and the remainder within five years. Land dealers are very vigilant in securing for themselves great quantities of the best land. It is not uncommon for recon- noitering parties of them to lodge in the woods for a whole week. By such means much of the best land, mill-seats and other local advantages, are withdrawn from the market at the first public sales. . . . The most advantageous purchases are considered to be those on the edges of prairies, with a part of the open land, and a part of the woods."" The farmers of Missouri, as in other pioneer com- munities, were heavily indebted to the older and wealthier states east of the AUeghanies for the capital with which to purchase and improve their lands. The crisis of 1819 and the consequent cur- tailment of credit was an unprecedented calamity. The local banks, which had been doing business on the wildcat plan, failed one and all, and their notes were valueless. There was no specie in the country, and the most thriving towns were suddenly reduced to barter. The newly organized state legislature resorted to a desperate expedient. An issue of $2,000,000 in certificates of indebtedness was authorized, and this state currency was declared receivable for taxes and all obUgations to the treasury including royalties from the salt works. The cer- tificates were none the less in contravention of the 46 AMERICAN SETTLERS Constitution of the United States and were declared invalid by the courts. Settlers who had taken up government land on the credit system were in dire straits, for no matter how productive their farms, they could get no money with which to pay the installments as they fell due. Congress came to their relief by extending the time of payment and by canceUing such portion of the obligation as might be deducted on account of lands surrendered. In marked exception to the general bankruptcy, showed the German settlements; these sturdy immigrants had refused to touch the bank money and insisted on receiving all payments in specie. The environment of the pioneer farmer is de- scribed by Edward Flagg, a Cincinnati journalist of New England antecedents who visited Illinois and Missouri in 1836. "There are few objects to be met with in the backwoods of the West more unique and picturesque than the dwelling of the emigrant. After selecting an elevated spot as a site for build- ing, a cabin or log house — - which is somewhat of an improvement upon the first — is erected in the following manner. A sufl&cient number of straight trees, of a size convenient for removing, are felled, slightly hewn upon the opposite sides, and the ex- tremities notched or mortised with the axe. They are then piled upon each other so that the extremities lock together ; and a single or double edifice is con- structed, agreeable to the taste or ability of the builder. Ordinarily the cabin consists of two quad- rangular apartments, separated by a broad area between, connected by a common floor, and covered MISSOURI TERRITORY 47 by a common roof, presenting a parallelogram triple the length of its width. The better of these apart- ments is usually appropriated to the entertainment of the casual guest, and is furnished with several beds and some articles of rude furniture to corre- spond. The open area constitutes the ordinary sitting and eating apartment of the family in fine weather ; and, from its coolness, affords a delightful retreat. The intervals between the logs are stuffed with fragments of wood or stone, and plastered with mud or mortar, and the chimney is constructed much in the same manner. The roof is covered with thin clapboards of oak or ash, and, in lieu of nails, transverse pieces of timber retain them in their places. Thousands of cabins are thus constructed, without a particle of iron or even a common plank. The rough clapboards give to the roof almost the shaggy aspect of thatch at a little distance, but they render it impermeable to even the heaviest and most protracted rain-storms. A rude gallery often extends along one or both sides of the building, add- ing much to its coolness in summer and to its warmth in winter by the protection afforded from sun and snow. "The floor is constructed of short, thick planks, technically termed 'puncheons,' which are confined by wooden pins; and, though hardly smooth enough for a baH-room, yet well answer every purpose for a dwelhng, and effectually resist moisture and cold. The apertures are usually cut with a view to free ventilation, and the chimneys stand at the extremities outside the walls of the cabin. A few pounds of nails, a few boxes of glass. 48 AMERICAN SETTLERS a few hundred feet of lumber, and a few days assist- ance of a house carpenter, would, of course, contrib- ute not a httle to the comfort of the shieling; but neither of these are indispensable." '" "The fur- niture of the apartment consisted of two plank- erections designed for bedsteads, which, with a tall clothes-press, divers rude boxes, and a side-saddle, occupied a better moiety of the area ; while a rough table, a shelf against the wall, upon which stood a water-pail, a gourd, and a few broken trenchers, completed the house-hold paraphernalia of this most unique of habitations. A half-consumed flitch of bacon suspended in the chimney, and a huge iron pot upon the fire, from which issued a savory indi- cation of the seething mess within, completes the ' still-life ' of the picture." ^^ " In rear of the premises rise the out-buildings; stables, corn-crib, meat-house, etc., all of them quite as perfect in structure as the dwelling itself, and quite as comfortable for residence. If to all this we add a well, walled up with a section of a hollow cotton-wood, a cellar or cave in the earth for pantry, a zigzag rail fence enclosing the whole clear- ing, a dozen acres of Indian corn bristling up beyond, a small garden and orchard, and a host of swine, cattle, and naked children about the door, and the toute ensemble of a back-woods farmhouse is com- plete. . . . The present mode of cultivation sweeps off vast quantities of timber ; but it must soon be superseded. Houses of brick and stone will take the place of log-cabins ; hedge-rows will supply that of rail enclosures, while coal for fuel will be a substi- tute for wood." 20 MISSOURI TERRITORY 49 Missouri offered great attractions to the pioneer farmer. The land in the river-bottoms, where the rich black loam had accumulated to a depth of thirty feet, was of phenomenal fertiUty, while the ridges of flint and limestone that divided the river courses in the southern portion afforded excellent pasture. Here were thousands of acres of the rank native herbage to which the oak trees, grown hoary in the course of centuries, gave a parklike beauty. There was httle of the malaria-infested swamp-land that was the bane of settlers on the lower Mississippi. The climate was dry and whole- some and the temperature quite uniform, avoiding the severe winters of New England and the hot sum- mers of Louisiana. All the cereals, corn, wheat, rye, and oats, were successfully grown. Com was especially prolific, running up to a height of twenty feet and bearing ninety bushels to the acre. Flax, hemp, and tobacco did well in the rich bottom lands where the nitrogenous elements of the soil were renewed by yearly floods. A farmer's family was self-sustaining so far as bread and meat, fruit and vegetables were concerned, and might even make shift to provide sufficient clothing. Cotton was grown in the southern districts "for family use, not for market," and a coarse cotton cloth was woven by the women of the household. If the settlement was near a navigable river, the surplus stock of grain, salt meat, and live stock might be got to market, but the demand for farm products was limited. Only the few flatboats that reached New Orleans early in the season could command paying prices and 50 AMERICAN SETTLERS later cargoes were often sold at loss. As cultiva- tion extended, prices of food-stuffs fell below the cost of production, and the sale of the grain boats barely covered the expenses of the voyage. The farmers were therefore obliged to live off their own and abjure imported goods. Tea, coffee, and foreign sugar were high-priced luxuries, indulged in spar- ingly by all but the few who had money to spend. Manufactures were developing, however, with the increase in local demand. Flour-mills and distilleries, sawmills and tan-yards, were among the first, but carding machines, fulling and cloth mills soon fol- lowed. These last were on Big River and were run .by water-power.^^ The very abundance of the natural resources of the country proved a detriment. Soil, timber, and mineral wealth were exploited as if the supply was limitless. Waste of timber had some justification among the pioneers east of the Mississippi where trees stood in the way of cultivation and shut out the air and sunlight on which health depended; but here on the margin of a treeless region, needless destruction of the forest growth was manifestly disastrous. Nevertheless, the pines and oaks were remorselessly felled, and every settlement showed what Flint called a "Kentucky outline of dead trees, and huge logs lying on all sides in the fields." ^ Underbrush was fired with wanton carelessness, and thousands of acres of pasture went up in smoke. A Ught wind served to carry the conflagration to a great distance, and often travellers over the tenantless plains were overtaken by the flames and destroyed. MISSOURI TERRITORY 51 The mineral deposits were treated with the same careless disregard of the future. In 1780, one of the hunters (named Burton or Breton), left at Ste. Genevieve by Renault, Uterally stumbled upon a surface deposit of lead and, recognizing its value, gave notice of his find to the authorities. During the Spanish regime, a hiule ore was brought to Ste. Genevieve and smelted in an open log furnace, but by this crude process hardly fifty per cent of the metal was extracted. This was sent down the river in pig, and no manufactures were attempted. In 1797, Moses Austin, a Connecticut Yankee who had had some experience of lead mining on New River, in Virginia, brought his family and his slaves to this region and, having secured a league-square land grant from Carondelet, began operations at Mine a Burton. He introduced scientific methods of smelting, erected a reverberatory furnace and a shot tower, and shipped shot and sheet lead to New Orleans and Havana. Other American settlers dis- covered Mine a Robin, Mine a Martin, etc., and it soon became evident that a very important mineral region, three thousand square miles in ex- tent, lay in the hills between the sources of the Big and St. Francis rivers. Silver and zinc were mingled with the lead. Iron Mountain, a ridge from five to six hundred feet high, was largely composed of iron of excellent quality, while Chartier and Cedar Creek furnished water-power adequate to "drive any number of forges." Black manganese, alum, and saltpetre were also abundant, and only cap- ital was needed to develop industries of the first order. 52 AMERICAN SETTLERS The new arrivals regarded the mineral resources of the territory as free to all American citizens. Miners worked on their own account or in little companies and were content to raise the surface deposits with pickaxe and shovel, never using any- thing more elaborate than a bucket and windlass. When at a depth of ten or fifteen feet a bed of Ume- stone was encountered, the diggings were abandoned and a new bed was sought for, until the whole region was torn up with prospectors' holes. Schoolcraft, the geologist, who made a study of the region in 1819, protested against this extravagance. "Much time is thus consumed, in hunting new beds of ore, which if spent in labour upon the old ones, would be found infinitely more advantageous. Thus a kind of laziness is created ; — they who spend the most time in hunting for ore, spend the least in digging it." ^^ Austin had condemned this wasteful practice quite as strongly in a report submitted to the government in 1816. He himself had sunk a shaft eighty feet deep and found rich deposits below the rock ledge. It was evident that the reck- less drift-mining menaced the future of the industry, but there were few men in the field who had capital or abihty to work a force of slaves under scientific direction. The ordinary miner sold the ore he raised to the proprietor' of a furnace for $2 per hundred- weight and realized on an average $2 a day, — no more than the wage of a skilled mechanic in the neighbor- hood. The rock, cleaned of spar, was smelted in an open-hearth furnace which was fired by logs and kept at a steady and increasing heat for twenty-four hours. MISSOURI TERRITORY 53 when the lead was run off. Much of the metal remained in the ashes, perhaps fifty per cent,^^ but the process was inexpensive. The open hearth was built of loose stones, cost but $50 to $60, and re- quired only three men to run it — one to fetch wood and two to guard the fire • in alternate watches — whereas the ash furnace cost $100 and necessitated more skill. The pigs were carted to Ste. Genevieve or Herculaneum and sold to merchants, who shipped the metal down the river or converted it into shot for sale to the fur companies of St. Louis. The first shot-tower was put up by Jean Maklot in 1809, the second by Moses Austin the year fol- lowing. Schoolcraft describes the process used. "A considerable proportion of the lead made in this [Missouri] Territory is manufactured into shot. There are 3 shot towers in the vicinity of Hercu- laneum, where shot is made by letting it fall down the banks of the Mississippi. The banks at this place consist of Umestone, which forms a perpendicu- lar hhiS of about 100 feet immediately at the water's edge, both above and below the town. On this bluff a small wooden tower is erected, with a furnace and kettles for preparing, smelting, and casting the lead, and having a projection in front, from which the lead is dropped into a receptacle with water below, where there is another building and apparatus for glazing and polishing. The lead, previous to being dropped, is prepared by mbdng with it a smaU quantity of arsenic, which renders it more fluid in casting, and increases its hardness when cold. It is melted in an iron pot in the upper part 54 AMERICAN SETTLERS of the tower, and poured into a copper sieve, made by perforating a copper pan full of holes, of the size of the shot, through which the globules of fluid lead drop into the cistern below. By the time they reach the water they have become sufficiently cool to preserve their globular shapes. Shot of the largest size require to be dropped from the greatest height, say 140 feet, while the small sizes are only suffered to fall about 90 feet. One man will smelt and cast, after the lead is prepared by alloying it with arsenic, from 4 to 5000 lbs. per day. To pohsh these will occupy him nine days. The pohshing is done by putting a quantity of shot into a hollow cylindrical wooden vessel or barrel, which is fixed on a shaft and turned by a crank. The action of the shot against each other, converts them into perfect spheres, and a little plumbago which is added gives them a gloss, in which state they are ready for market. "An improvement has lately been made here by Mr. EUas Bates, which facilitates the casting of shot, and supersedes the necessity of using a sieve. He has a ladle of cast iron, in the shape of a parallelo- gram, but smaller at the bottom than the top. The two longest, being opposite sides of this ladle, are perforated with holes near, and at an equal distance from, the top, so that by canting the ladle a little either way, the shot drop through, and as the ladle is smallest at the bottom, are not at all impeded on their way to the cistern below. The quantity of shot made here for 18 months, ending 1st June, 1817, was 668,350 lbs. The present MISSOURI TERRITORY 55 price of shot is $7.50 per cwt. The business, I am told, has been very profitable." ^^ Austin estimated the yield from the Mine k Bur- ton from 1798 to 1804, at 360,000 pounds per aimiun; from 1804 to 1808, at 800,000 pounds, and from that date to 1816, the year of his report to the gov- ernment, at 500,000. The total production since his coming to the country he estimated at approxi- mately 9,360,000 poimds. Schoolcraft estimated the output of 1819 for the whole region at 4,971,000 pounds and thought the gross product since the acquisition of Louisiana might be put at 55,000,000, a smn total which at four cents a poimd must have brought in $3,000,000, — one-fifth of the pur- chase price. The number of men employed — miners, teamsters, blacksmiths, woodcutters — was approxi- mately 1130 in 1819, and in the four years of maxi- mum production the number had been considerably larger. There were forty-five lead mines and thirty- four furnaces, while the shot towers crowned every point of vantage on the bluffs of Herculaneum. Lead mining was an industry that rivalled the fur trade in industrial importance, if not in dramatic interest. Even more essential to the prosperity of the frontier, though representing less capital and smaller revenue, were the mmierous salt-works. Salines were more frequent and extensive west of the Mississippi because of the fighter rainfall and greater proportion of sunshine inducing evaporation. The brine, whether foimd in swamps, lakes, or springs, was reduced by boifing in open kettles, 56 AMERICAN SETTLERS and there was no attempt at refining. Fifty or sixty gallons of brine were sufficient to produce one bushel of salt which sold in the neighborhood at $1 per bushel. On the Saline Fork of Le Mine River, were salt-works where Braxton Cooper was getting out one hundred bushels a week, and on Camp Fork, a Mr. Lockhart was manufacturing five hun- dred bushels. The Sahne Creek that emptied into the Mississippi just below Ste. Genevieve furnished the people of that district . with this necessity of Ufe; the deposits on Salt River, one hundred miles north of St. Louis, were extensively worked, while the rich sahnes on Des Moines River were attract- ing attention. A law of 1807 reserved from sale such public lands as were supposed to contain salt or minerals, and provided for a system of three- year leases and the payment of a royalty to the government. Apparently this was intended not so much to secure revenue as to conserve the natural resources of the country, but the difficulty of en- forcing the law was so great that the restriction was largely inoperative. Whatever the pioneer industry, whether the out- put was salt, lead, fiu-s, flour, cotton, or tobacco, cheap transportation was essential to success. The country offered few obstacles to road-building, but the pubUc authorities had small revenue with which to finance such enterprises, and the need did not seem pressing. Prairie schooners might be driven over the highest ridges, and emigrant parties fol- lowed the beaten track or deviated from it at their convenience. There were two great roads leading MISSOURI TERRITORY 57 to the Red River settlements and beyond, worn wide and plain by droves of cattle and horses, emi- grant carts and freight wagons; but the costs of land carriage were prohibitive for agricultural produce, and the country west of the Mississippi was dependent, as still older communities were, on water transportation. The all-important avenues of trade and travel were the rivers — not only the Mississippi and the Missouri, but lesser streams such as the St. Francis, the Maramee, the Gasconnade, and the Osage — by which flatboat, raft, or dugout canoe might make its way to a market town or down the Mississippi to Natchez and New Orleans.^^ The people of Ste. Genevieve were eagerly anticipating the opening of a water route by way of the Illinois River and Lake Michigan with Detroit and Buffalo, and thence via the new Erie Canal with Utica and New York. The scheme seemed entirely practicable to Schoolcraft. "The river Plein, the main head fork of lUinois, approaches so near the head of Chicago River, which enters Lake Michigan at Fort Dearborn, that a communication exists in high water. I conversed with a trader last summer at St. Louis, who had come through in the spring, and afterward saw his boat lying at the wharf. It carried from 4 to 6 tons, and was buUt skiff-fashion, with a flat bottom. He represented the undertaking as easy of execution, not requiring an artificial cut of more than 2 rmles, and this through an alluvial soil." 28 The Mississippi was the great highway on which all traffic converged, and craft of every description, 58 AMERICAN SETTLERS from the rough home-made scows and dugouts to the flatboats and keels that held tons of merchan- dise, thronged the river front at every port from St. Louis to New Orleans. Various improvements were being made in the primitive models. "It is now common to see flatboats worked by a bucket wheel, and a horse power, after the fashion of steam- boat movement. Indeed, every spring brings forth new contrivances of this sort, the result of the farmer's meditations over his winter's fire." ^' FUnt describes this traffic at New Madrid: "In one place there are boats loaded with planks from the pine forests of the southwest of New York.'" In another quarter there are the Yankee notions of Ohio ; from Kentucky, pork, flour, whiskey, hemp, tobacco, bagging, and bale rope; from Tennessee there are the same articles, together with great quantities of cotton; from Missouri and Illinois, cattle and horses, the same articles generally as from Ohio, together with peltry and lead from Missouri. Some boats are loaded with corn in the ear and in bulk; others with barrels of apples and potatoes. Some have loads of cider, and what they call 'cider royal,' or cider that has been strengthened by boiling or freezing. There are dried fruits, every kind of spirits manufactured in these regions, and in short, the products of the ingenuity and agricul- ture of the whole upper country of the West. They have come from regions thousands of miles apart. They have floated to a common point of union. The surfaces of the boats cover some acres. Dung- hill fowls are fluttering over the roofs, as an in- MISSOURI TERRITORY 59 variable appendage. The chanticleer raises his piercing note. The swine utter their cries. The cattle low. The horses trample, as in their stables. There are boats fitted on purpose, and loaded en- tirely with turkeys, that, having little else to do, gobble most furiously. The hands travel about from boat to boat, make inquiries, and acquaint- ances, and form alliances to yield mutual assistance to each other, on their descent from this to New Orleans. . . . The fleet unites once more at Natchez, or New Orleans, and, although they Hve on the same river, they may perhaps never meet each other again on the earth." ^^ Some of these flat- boats were fitted up as dram-shops, others as dry goods stores, and in others mechanics phed their respective trades. "While I was at New Madrid," continues Flint, "a large tinner's estabhshment floated there in a boat. In it all the different articles of tin-war^ were manufactured and sold by wholesale and retail." Aboard another boat "were manufaptured axes, scythes, and all other iron tools of this description, and in it horses were shod. . . . It was a complete blacksmith's shop." The settlers naturally clung to the rivers where wood and water were to be had in abundance and where alone cheap transportation were available for surplus products. The movement of population into the Far West was greatly accelerated by the substitution of steam for oar and cordelle on the river boats. The flrst steamer destined for use on western waters (the New Orleans) was built at Pittsburgh in 1809 by Nicholas Roosevelt at a cost of $38,000. The 60 AMERICAN SETTLERS cautious New Yorker did not risk his vessel to the vagaries of river navigation until he had first gone the whole length of the Ohio and Mississippi in a keel-boat. The trial trip was made in 1809 with complete success, but the steamer was unluckily burned as she lay at anchor by the wharf in New Orleans. Other steamboats were soon built, how- ever, at the ship yards of Pittsburgh, WheeUng, and Cincinnati. The first voyage up-stream was made by the Enterprise in 1815, the distance of one thou- sand miles between New Orleans and Louisville being covered in twenty-five days. A barge manned by twenty to thirty hands could make but ten miles a day up-stream, whereas a steamer easily accom- plished one hundred. The superior speed and security of the new motor once assured, lines of packet boats were established, and all who could afford a cash fare abandoned the slower craft. Timothy Flint estimated (1818) that the steamers had thrown ten thousand flatboats and keel-boats out of employment. Schoolcraft gives a list of the fifty steamboats that were running on the Mississippi and its tributaries in 1819 with a registered tonnage of 7306. Steamboats were then building that would raise the total number to sixty-three, — "two ... at Pittsburgh, one at Wheeling, one at Steubenville, one at Marietta, two at Cincinnati, one at Frank- ford, two at Shippingport, one at Madison, and two at New Albany." Each boat made on the average three trips a year to and from New Orleans, loaded with freight and passengers. Freight charges from Pittsburgh to New Orleans were one cent a pound, MISSOURI TERRITORY 61 from New Orleans to Pittsburgh, four cents. Pas- senger rates down-stream were $60, up-stream, $100. Each boat carried on an average ten passengers down-stream and five up. On this basis, Schoolcraft reckoned the total annual revenue for freight and passengers at $2,405,700.^2 Wharves of the Ohio and Mississippi river towns were still lined with keel boats and barges, however, and much of the produce was carried to market in flat-bottomed boats, "of a temporary construction, which were not calculated to ascend the stream and were gen- erally sold for a trifle or abandoned." ^^ In 1824 Congress appropriated $105,000 for the improvement of navigation on the Mississippi, and Captain Henry M. Shreve was placed in charge of the work. Under his skilful management, the snags and drifting trees, the "sawyers" and "planters," ^ the sand bars and sunken rocks, that had long been the dread of pilots, were removed, and arrangements were made for the systematic survey of the channel so that the annual accretions might be weeded out year by year. The tributary rivers, the Missouri, Arkansas, and Red, were dealt with in turn. The removal of the Great Raft from Red River doubled the stretch of navigable water, and the grateful people named their westernmost settlement Shreve- port. Flagg describes ^^ the operations of a machine invented by Captain Shreve which extracted snags at an average cost of $12 to $15 each, and which the river men irreverently dubbed "Uncle Sam's Tooth-puller." The navigation of the upper Mississippi was more 62 AMERICAN SETTLERS difficult and less remunerative. The up-stream pull from Cairo to St. Louis was a serious addition to the cost of a voyage, but it was soon warranted by trade. The arrival of the first steamboat, the General Pike (1817), was regarded by the people of St. Louis as the opening of an era of commercial greatness. The corn and flour, salt pork and beef, produced by the Mis- souri farmers began to be shipped down the Missis- sippi by reliable traders, and the planters of the lower river abandoned the production of their own sup- plies and concentrated their working force on their most remunerative crop. Moreover, the transpor- tation of emigrants was soon a considerable business. The steamer on which Flagg went to St. Louis stopped at "a desolate-looking spot up on the Mis- souri shore" in order to deposit a party of settlers, "men, women, and little ones, with slaves, household stuff, pots, kettles, dogs, implements of husbandry, and all the paraphernalia of the backwood's farm." '* The risks of navigation on the Missouri were even greater than those offered by the Mississippi. The frequent floods, the rapid shiftings of the bed, the cavings of the bank and the sudden formation of sand bars frequently upset the calculations of the most ex- perienced pilot, and it was the universal custom to tie up for the night. The swiftness of the current and the weight of the silt-laden water made necessary more powerful engines and a higher expenditure for fuel than were required for the Ohio and Mississippi boats. A plucky little tug, the Independence, made the trip to Frankhn and Chariton in May, 1819, and Long's vessel, the Western Engineer, making three Difficulties of Navigation on the Missouki. St. Louis in 1855, MISSOURI TERRITORY 63 miles an hour, succeeded in reaching Council Bluffs in the following month ; but the transports built at St. Louis for the Yellowstone Expedition could not stem the current. For many years thereafter the only steamers seen on the upper Missouri were sent out by the American Fur Company. Chouteau's boat, the Yellowstone, ascended the Missouri to its junction with the Milk in 1831, and for fifteen years thereafter, until 1846, an annual trip was made for the purpose of carrying men and supplies to the vari- ous posts. For the transportation of furs and buffalo hides downstream, however, the reUance was still on the Mackinaw boat which, loaded to the gunwales, made one hundred miles a day and required a crew of only five men. Between St. Louis and Westport Landing, on the other hand, traffic grew heavy with the increase in westward migration. Five regular steamers were employed on this route in 1831, from fifteen to twenty in 1836, and twenty-six in 1842. "St. Louis is a kind of central point in this immense valley. From this point, outfits are constantly making to the military posts, and to the remotest regions by the hunters for furs. Boats are also con- stantly ascending to the lead-mine districts on the upper Mississippi." ^'^ Along the water front lay craft destined for the Mandan villages, for Prairie du Chien and the Falls of St. Anthony, for the voyage up the Illinois and through the navigable swamp that divided it from the Chicago River and Lake Michi- gan. Others were bound to the south, — to Arkan- sas Post, to Natchez, and New Orleans. An Indian trail, worn into a wagon road, connected St. Louis 64 AMERICAN SETTLERS with Little Rock and Natchitoches. Another, the Osage Trace, led southwest to the trading post on the Verdigris and along the Poteau River to the Kiamichi settlements. The population of St. Louis had in- creased slowly during the War of 1812, but there- after it grew apace and mounted to four thousand in 1820 and to six thousand in 1830. The people were still largely foreign, and men were yet living who had felled the trees for the building of Laclede's fort. The lead- ing merchants bore old French names, — Chouteau, Sarpy, Pratte, Menard, Sulard, — while Manuel Lisa was of Spanish origin. The French quarter lay to the south and was described by Flagg as "a right Rip Van Winkle-looking region, where each little steep- roofed cottage yet presents its broad piazza, and the cozey settee before the door beneath the tree shade, with the fleshy old burghers soberly luxuriating on an evening pipe, their dark-eyed, brunette daughters at their side." ^^ Every house, whether the "steep- roofed stone cottage of the Frenchman or the tall stuccoed dwelling of the don," stood alone in the center of a garden which was often surrounded by a stout palisade, a necessary precaution against Indian forays. The "venerable mansions" of Augusta and Pierre Chouteau were surrounded by "lofty walls of masonry, with loop-holes and watch towers for de- fense." The residences of the well-to-do Americans, such as that of General William Ashley, stood on the high bluff overlooking the river, while the shops and warehouses were ranged along the water front at its foot, where two narrow streets running parallel with the river served as wharf and highway combined. The MISSOURI TERRITORY 65 preeminent commercial advantage of this site was a limestone ledge that extended for several miles above and below the town and formed a stable shore, much to be preferred to the muddy and caving banks characteristic of the Missouri and the lower Missis- sippi. Manufactures, too, were being undertaken where the produce of the farm might be converted into marketable form. In 1819 the place had one brew- ery, two distilleries, two water-mills, one steam flour- ing miU, and a grist-mill propelled by ox-power. The population of Missouri ia 1810 was but twenty thousand. By 1820, it had reached sixty-six thou- sand. The rapidly growing territory had great am- bitions and a movement was organized to elevate the northern half (excluding Arkansas) to statehood. It was the first of the new commonwealths to be created west of the Mississippi, and the question of slavery, — settled for the Northwest, Southwest, and Mississippi territories by a series of congressional ordinances, — was raised anew. There were by this time ten thousand slaves in Missouri. Many of the plantations and mines were worked by slaves, and there were among them skilled artisans, blacksmiths and carpenters, whose ser- vices were extremely valuable to their masters and to the community. It was believed that the resources of the country could not be developed without slave labor. New England and the Northern states were keenly alive to the significance of the issue, and the question was bitterly debated in both houses of Con- gress. An attempt made by representatives of the Northern states to amend the motion for admission (introduced into the House of Representatives, Feb- VOL. U F 66 AMERICAN SETTLERS ruary, 1819) by the proviso that no more slaves be admitted and that all children thereafter born in the new state be set free at the age of twenty-five years, was defeated ; but a compromise was reached in the enactment that slavery would henceforth be pro- hibited in Louisiana Territory north of the thirty- sixth parallel. The proclivity of emigrants from the slave-holding states for the rich bottom-lands of the Missouri and Arkansas rivers was thus confirmed. In the seaboard and Gulf states the number of slaves was increasing, and the productive power of the soil was declining. The younger and more enterprising planters were eager to recoup their fortunes in the new lands beyond the Mississippi. Iowa Meantime, the land of the Kiowas was attracting attention in the Northern states. The trend of Amer- ican migration from east to west has always fol- lowed parallels of latitude. The denizens of the At- lantic states and of the commonwealths west of the Appalachians, seeking new homes, choose a climate to which they are accustomed and try to locate their farms where they can raise the crops with which they are familiar. In the estimation of men from New England, New York, and Ohio, the exclusion of slavery from the territory north of the thirty-sixth parallel gave additional value to this region. Emi- gration to the northwest was forwarded, moreover, by the opening up of the trans- Alleghany routes, — the Erie Canal, the Pennsylvania Canal and Portage Railway, the Baltimore and Ohio Canal, and the MISSOURI TERRITORY 67 National Post Road. Local enterprise was not slow to supplement these great highways and facilitate access to Iowa. There were ferries across the Missis- sippi at Dubuque, Buffalo, and Biu-lington, and a regular steamboat Une was established (1825) which carried passengers up the river as far as Fort SneUing. In the early twenties there was a rush for the lead mines, and claims were taken up and profitably worked before the Indian titles were quieted or the land opened for settlement. The pioneers soon dis- covered that the fat, alluvial soils of the interior were even more productive than the mines, and squatters began cultivation before land ofl&ces were provided. To the frontier farmer, the toilsome task of breaking the sod was sufficient evidence of title, and he was outraged when the tract was sold at auction to some speculator from the East, who thus paid the govern- ment for the value of the improvements. Claims associations were organized for the purpose of adjudi- cating boundaries and titles among the actual farmers and for beating off alien bidders by combination, force, or fraud. Thus a rough justice was attaiaed in defiance of law. Iowa Territory was organized in 1838 and statehood was granted in 1846. The westward movement had been augmented by the hard times that prevailed in the eastern cities in 1833 and 1834. Workmen and operatives thrown out of employment by the curtailment of industry, turned to the unclaimed lands beyond the Mississippi as an opportunity not only to earn a livelihood but to attain the independence that was the dream of every American citizen. Canal boats, lake steamers, 68 AMERICAN SETTLERS and river steamers were crowded, while thousands of the more impecunious families made their way on foot or on horseback, in carts or prairie schooners, along post-road and trail, to the land of freedom and plenty. Allured by tales sent back by the pioneers or by the prospectuses distributed by speculators, they undertook the journey with the strong conviction that fortune lay before them, but with small com- prehension of the risks and hardships of the new life. The whole movement was speculative. The emi- grants brought httle with them but hope and energy and the American's capacity for adaptation. The land companies were engaged in a credit operation of ticklish proportions, expecting to make good their obligations out of the revenue from sales. The steamship companies, the merchants, wholesale and retail, the innkeepers along the routes, were all doing business on borrowed money, for there was limitless credit for any man who had a plausible scheme in his head. The "coon box" banks, organized after the termination of the second National Bank, were issu- ing money with small concern for redemption and were eager to loan on land security, even though that land was entirely undeveloped. The Specie Circu- lar, requiring that payments at the United States land offices should be made in legal tender, suddenly pricked this overblown bubble of credit financiering, and a thousand prosperous enterprises collapsed in a night. Farmers were unable to sell their produce even at falling prices and so had no money with which to pay the installments of principal and interest; MISSOURI TERRITORY 69 land companies were ruined, for the mortgaged lands that came back into their possession had no commer- cial value; bankers closed their doors, and mer- chants, unable longer to get goods on credit from their eastern correspondents, were fain to do Ukewise. Hundreds of mushroom towns were abandoned, and the transportation projects that had seemed so feasible in the boom times before the panic, were in- volved in the general calamity. Thomas H. Benton The dominant figure in Missom-i and an influential factor in the destiny of the Far West for the critical decades from 1820 to 1850 was Thomas H. Benton, the eloquent statesman who served dxiring this period as representative of Missouri in the United States Senate. Benton was bom in the "back country" of North Carolina, but his mother came of good Vir- ginia stock and was a woman of sufficient intellectual capacity to direct her son's reading and to shield him from whiskey and cards, the demoralizing amuse- ments of the frontier. In 1800, when the boy was but eight years old, this heroic mother moved her little family to a tract of land in western Tennessee, later known as Widow Benton's Settlement, where, with the aid of her slaves and this trusty son, she put up cabins and barns, a school and a church, laid roads, built bridges, and cleared the land for the growing of cotton. Here the boy grew to manhood, on famiUar terms with Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, and other ambitious spirits of the pioneer state. Faith in the great destinies of the West was the fundamen- 70 AMERICAN SETTLERS tal article of their political creed. In 1815 young Benton opened a law office in St. Louis and quickly- acquired a large practice among the Creole population, whose land grants, authorized by French and Span- ish governors, were being challenged by American squatters. Elected to the United States Senate in 1821, he immediately withdrew from this practice, stating that his relations with the Federal govern- ment might prejudice the land office in his favor. For the next thirty years, Senator Benton used his great and growing influence for the development of the West. A visit to Jefferson at Montecello ren- dered him a champion of the transcontinental trade route, and his intercourse with General Clark and the trappers and traders of St. Louis gave him unusual knowledge of the resources of Missouri Ter- ritory. Benton was a thoroughgoing expansionist, ardently concerned for the annexation of Texas, the assertion of our claims to Oregon, and the acquisition of California; but he was no less insistent on the development of transportation facilities and the pro- motion of the interests of the traders and farmers who were laying the foundations of future prosperity. Early associated in a legal way with Astor and the St. Louis traders, he was ever the firm friend of the fur companies, and put forth every effort to bring about the abolition of the government factories. Benton thus narrates the part he played in that con- troversy: "As a citizen of a frontier State, I had seen the working of the system — seen its inside working, and knew its operation to be entirely con- trary to the benevolent designs of its projectors." MISSOURI TERRITORY 71 These views had been communicated to the Secretary of War in 1820, "but he [Calhoun] had too good an opinion of the superintendent ... to believe that any thing was wrong in the business, and refused his countenance to my proposition. Confident that I was right, I determined to bring the question before the Senate — did so — brought in a bill to abohsh the factories, and throw open the fur trade to individ- ual enterprise, and supported the bill with all the facts and reasons of which I was master." '' No less energetic and decisive was his campaign for the ac- quisition of the Indian lands, of which fifteen and a half million acres lay within the state of Arkansas and two and three quarters milUons in Missouri. Treaties negotiated with the Kansas and Osage tribes by General Clark in 1825 and ratified by the Senate the following year, ceded all the territory between the Missouri and the Rockies, with the exception of certain carefully defined reservations. Benton in- dignantly denounced the charge that the government had not dealt fairly by its Indian wards, citing in evidence the various land purchases to prove that in the first fifty years of its existence the United States had paid $85,000,000 for tribal lands, to say nothing of its expenditures in the way of education, etc.* His personal knowledge of the vexations and hardships consequent on the uncertainties of Spanish grants led him to advocate that the cases still pending be referred to a Federal conamission. Such a commis- sion was appointed for Missouri in 1832, evidence as to basis of the several claims was taken and titles verified. The findings of the commission were later 72 AMERICAN SETTLERS affirmed by Congress, and the many tedious and costly suits were brought to a sudden termination. The government policy as to the public lands was the object of persistent criticism in the new states west of the Mississippi, and Benton succeeded, by dint of persistent and unwearying effort, in securing some highly important modifications. The system of credit sales was abandoned in 1821, and the price per acre was reduced from |2 to $1.25 ; but the prac- tice of offering the land at auction was still main- tained, with the result that men with ready money secured the more desirable tracts, and squatters were often ousted from holdings to which their labor had given augmented value. Mineral lands and salines were not put upon the market, but leased to the developing companies, who paid a royalty on their output and charged a compensating price to the consumer. Benton was the consistent foe of mo- nopoly whether exercised by the private speculator or a Federal agent, and he did not hesitate to attack this revenue-producing policy as prejudicial to settle- ment and development. FamiUar with the head- right by which any citizen of North Carolina might obtain six hundred and forty acres of Tennessee land on condition of clearing and planting it, at the nomi- nal price of ten cents an acre, Benton advocated that the Federal government adopt an equally generous policy. He brought in bill after bill in behalf of a more democratic land system, and his efforts met with a considerable measure of success. The saline lands were put upon the market in 1828, the lead and iron deposits in 1846, and the preemption right was MISSOURI TERRITORY 73 guaranteed to all actual occupiers of government land in 1841. But "the two repulsive features of the fed- eral land system [remained.], — sales to the highest bidder and donations to no one — with an arbitrary minimum price ... of one dollar twenty-five cents per acre." ^^ Benton continued to the end of his pubhc career to lu-ge upon the Senate the advantages of a more generous policy, the reduction of the price to-seventy-five cents and $1 an acre, and free grants to actual and destitute settlers. Senator Benton's campaign against the salt mo- nopolies created by the Federal leases had been early crowned with success, but his attempts to remove the import duty of twenty cents a bushel levied on the salt imported from Portugal and the West Indies were less fortunate. Missouri as a large producer of salt may be supposed to have profited by the tax, but Senator Benton thought the interests of the consumer more important. He argued that the domestic prod- uct was inferior in [quality and high in price and un- suitable for curing beef and pork for exportation. The prosperity of a great industry was at stake. The farmers who supplied beef, pork, bacon, butter, and cheese to the mines of Missouri and the upper Mis- sissippi, to the plantations of the lower river, to the Army and Navy, and to the Indian reservations, must have the sun-evaporated salt at a reasonable price, or cease production. The West India trade was also in jeopardy, for salt provisions made up a considerable part of the outgoing cargoes. Given free trade in salt, and "the levee at New Orleans would be cov- ered — the warehouses would be crammed with salt ; 74 AMERICAN SETTLERS the barter trade would become extensive and uni- versal, a bushel of corn, or of potatoes, a few pounds of butter, or a few pounds of beef or pork, would pur- chase a sack of salt ; the steamboats would bring it up for a trifle [17 cents per bushel]; and all the upper States of the Great Valley, where salt is so scarce, so dear, and so indispensable for rearing stock and cur- ing provisions, in addition to all its obvious uses, would be cheaply and abundantly supplied with that article." ^^ The advocates of protection were stronger and more influential than any influence the consumer could bring to bear, however, and Benton succeeded only in removing the duty on solar (alum) salt. As to slavery, Benton, a Southerner born and bred, was wholly in sympathy with the compromise of 1820. He was not a member of the convention that drew up the state constitution ; but he states in the Thirty Years' View^^ that he was the "instigator" of the clause which sanctioned slaveholding and for- bade the legislatm-e to interfere with the practice. He was "equally opposed to slavery agitation and to slavery extension," but he fully indorsed the right of citizens to avail themselves of this form of labor, and he believed the recognition of this principle important "for the sake of peace." CHAPTER III THE SANTA FE TRADE A KOiTNDABOUT and hazardous commerce had been carried on with the Spanish provinces by way of Taos, the old-time market to which the Apache Indians brought their furs. An Indian trader named Purcell (Pursley of Pike's Journal) had been led by the Paw- nees up the Platte River and across the divide to this rendezvous of the mountain tribes. His success in- duced William Morrison, an enterprising merchant of Kaskaskia (later a member of the Missouri Fur Company), to despatch a creole, La Lande, with a small consignment of goods to Taos in 1804. La Lande did not return, and Pike was commissioned to ascertain his fate. He foimd the faithless agent at Santa Fe, only too well content with the treatment accorded him. The authorities had given him a grant of land and a business opening, for the purpose of preventing his carrjdng back to his patron infor- mation that might lead to similar expeditions. The pubUcation of Pike's Journal (1806) and his Disser- tation on Louisiana (1808) attracted attention to the rich resoiu-ces of New Spain and the ease with which Santa ¥6 could be reached via the Arkansas River. Hidalgo's insurrection, moreover, gave reason to hope that the exclusive commercial policy enforced by the Spanish authorities might give way as soon as the Creole population came into power. With the 75 76 AMERICAN SETTLERS pxirpose of being first on the ground, a party of traders, McKnight, Chambers, and Beard, set out in 1812, following Pike's route to Taos ; but the venture proved ill-timed. The insurrectos suffered defeat, and the suspicion attaching to American interlopers was only augmented. The unlucky traders were seized as spies, their goods confiscated, and the men, some dozen in number, incarcerated at Chihuahua. There they remained until the revolution of 1821 opened the prison doors. Meantime, A. P. Chouteau and Julius De Munn of St. Louis organized a trap- ping expedition that led them beyond the mountain boimdary to the sources of the Arkansas and of the Rio Grande. Their attempt to secure a license from the commandante at Santa F6 failed, and they were arrested and thrown into prison, while the furs gathered in two years' hard work on both sides the boundary were confiscated. Chouteau addressed an indignant protest to the Department of State and had sufficient influence at Washington to secure com- pensation to the amount of $30,000. Daniel Meri- wether, who had a similar experience in 1819, was less fortimate in the outcome. In the autumn of 1821, an Indian trader named Hugh Glenn set out from his post on the Verdigris River with a cargo of goods for Santa Fe. The journal of the expedition was kept by Jacob Fowler, a Kentucky planter with a taste for adventure, who had gathered a party of twenty hunters to trap beaver in the Rocky Mountains, and was glad to join forces with the trader. They carried no pro- visions but salt, expecting to live on buffalo and THE SANTA FE TRADE 77 antelope, together with the corn, beans, and dried pumpkins purchased of the Osage Indians. The caval- cade of horses and mules followed an Indian road up the Arkansas, coming o'ccasionally upon signs of other trapping or trading parties, until the Spanish peaks rose above the horizon. There, near the Chico River, thfiy found a great Indian encampment — Arapahoes, Snakes, Comanches, and Kiowas — an extraordinary concourse of twenty thousand people, lodged in four hundred tepees and consmning one hundred buffalo per day. Chances for trade were very poor, how- ever, for the assembled tribes could offer nothing but buffalo robes, horses, and some twenty beaver skins (Fowler complains that these nomad tribes showed no capacity whatever for trapping game) and there was serious risk of losing the goods, by theft or violence. The appearance of a party of Spanish traders gave Glenn the opportunity he sought of find- ing his way to Santa ¥6. Fowler and his men built a blockhouse on Foimtain qui Bouille, the spot Pike had fixed upon for a winter camp fifteen years be- fore, and from that point of vantage trapped the mountain streams, collecting several packs of beaver. In January came a messenger from Colonel Glenn with the good news that he had been well received at Santa F^, that Mexico had declared independence of the mother country and was eager for trade with the people of the United States, and, farther, that per- mission had been granted Fowler to trap in the valley of the Rio Grande. Nothmg loath, he crossed the mountains to Taos, following Pike's route, and camped on the Canejos only a few miles below that i(^ 78 AMERICAN SETTLERS explorer's unlucky fort. Three months' sojourn proved highly remunerative to both trapper and trader, and they had the satisfaction of recovering McKnight and his men. On May 12, 1822, the snow being gone and the horses fattened on the spring grass, the Americans set out for home, recrossing the Sangre de Cristo by Taos Pass. Steering du-ectly east, "hke a ship without a rudder" (sif), they crossed the Cimarron Desert, a desolate plain where there was no fuel but buffalo dung and where the only water was had by digging holes in the sand. "We are now In the oppen World not a tree. Bush or Hill of any kind to be Seen for When you take the Eye off the ground you See nothing but the Blue Horezon." ^ Another expedition of even greater importance was made in 1821. William Becknell, of Boone's Lick, equipped a pack train and made his way via Taos to Santa Fe, where he was able to sell his American cali- coes at 12 and $3 per vara, the price commanded by goods imported through Vera Cruz. The duties imposed at United States ports were comparatively low, the carriage from St. Louis was but two-thirds that from the Mexican port, and the consequent margin of profit was such as to attract other mer- chants to this new field. In 1822, the independence of Mexico being assured, Becknell repeated his ven- ture on a larger scale, taking $5000 worth of goods in loaded wagons. Turning south from the Great Bend of the Arkansas, he undertook to cross the Cimarron Desert, having small comprehension of its terrors. The party nearly perished with thirst, and he waS' THE SANTA FE TRADE 79 The Santa Fb Teail and other Routes across the Gbhat PiiAins. forced to return. This same year Benjamin Cooper, with his nephew, Braxton Cooper from Le Mine River, conducted a pack train from Franklin by the Taos route, got safely through, and realized so high a profit on the investment that he ventured again in 1823 and brought back four himdred mules and a large quantity of furs. The year following, Colonel Mar- maduke, Bernard Pratte, Augustus Storrs, and some eighty other traders joined forces and transported from $25,000 to $30,000 worth of goods over the prairie to the Great Bend and thence across the dreaded desert directly to Santa F6. Wheeled ve- hicles were employed — stout road wagons, carts, and dearborns — besides a long train of pack mules, and the open plains proved easy travelling, water suffi- 80 AMERICAN SETTLERS cient for the arid intervals being carried in the wagons. The returns from this cooperative enter- prise were very flattering, — $180,000 in specie and $10,000 in furs. No legislative achievement of Senator Benton was more highly appreciated by his fellow-townsmen than the Federal appropriation for the survey of a road from Franklin to Santa F6. The bill was in- troduced in the session of 1824-1825, evidence being brought to show that a profitable trade might be developed if the transportation of goods across the seven hundred miles of plain and desert were ren- dered safe. Benton submitted a report from Augus- tus Storrs, the Vermont Yankee, who had sold his cargo of cotton goods for $190,000 worth of silver, furs, and mules, and was very enthusiastic about the commercial opportimity. Congress appropriated $10,000 for the survey and $20,000 more for the purpose of purchasing the right of transit from the Indians. A Federal commission faithfully carried out this double task. The usual route as far as the Great Bend was marked by mounds of earth, but thence the surveyors followed the Arkansas to Taos as the safer way. The traders, however, preferred the short cut across the desert in spite of its risks. This part of the trail was undefined until 1834, when the caravan, crossing after a heavy rain, cut deep ruts in the sand, and thereafter the wagon track was plain enough. The chief danger of this route was from the thieving bands of . nomad Indians to whom the horses and ammunition were an irresistible lure, and many a THE SANTA FE TRADE 81 desperate encounter marked the path across the Cimarron Desert. The offenders might be Pawnees, Comanches, or Arapahoes, but the traders did not attempt to distinguish between them. They re- garded all Indians as natural enemies, and visited punishment for the outrages inflicted by one tribe upon the first inferior band they encountered, regard- less of actual responsibility. Such a practice bred a fierce hostility between the white man and the red, and the friendly relations established by Pike, Chou- teau and Lisa gave way to endless retaliations and finally to a war of extermination. The Pawnee and Osage Indians, in a treaty nego- tiated at Council Grove (1825), undertook not to molest the caravans in consideration of $800 worth of goods tendered them by the commissioners ; but the Comanches were less tractable. For years they infested the trail, ever ready to swoop down upon an unprotected wagon or to attack small groups of himters who had been obliged to leave the caravan in pursuit of buffalo. Gregg tells the story of the disaster that cost the life of Jedidiah Smith (1829), "one of the most undaunted spirits that ever trav- ersed the Rocky Mountains." "Capt. Smith and his companions were new beginners in the Santa F6 trade, but being veteran pioneers of the Rocky Mountains, they concluded they could go anywhere ; and imprudently set out without a single person in their company at all competent to guide them on the route. They had some twenty-odd wagons, and about eighty men. There being a plain track to the Arkansas River, they did very well thus far ; VOL. II — a 82 AMERICAN SETTLERS but from thence to the Cimarron, not a single trail was to be found, save the innumerable buffalo paths, with which these plains are furrowed, and which are exceedingly perplexing to the bewildered traveller." ^ For days the party wandered about the Cimarron Desert looking for water. Smith, who took the lead, came at last upon the river only to find it dry, but his long experience taught him that there might be water beneath the sand. He scooped out a hole and was rejoiced to see the underflow trickling in. He had stooped to drink when a wandering band of Comanches came upon him and struck him down. He was discovered by his men lying upon his face, quite dead, but the water he had found saved the Uves of the party. J. J. Warner, who met Smith at St. Louis as he was setting out on this fatal ad- venture, describes him as "a well-bred and intelligent gentleman," who endeavored to repress the ardor of the novice in the fur trade by telling him that in going into the Rocky Mountains his chances were better for finding death than fortune, and that the probabilities were that he would be ruined for any- thing but such pursuits as suited the "passions of a semi-savage." Smith said that " he had spent about eight years in the mountains and should not return to them." Warner went on, none the less, to Santa F6 and to California.^ For twenty years (1825-1845) the Santa F6 Expedition was an annual event of the first magni- tude to the business men of St. Louis. Franklin was the outfitting station until that prosperous town was washed into the Missouri, and for several THE SANTA FE TRADE 83 years thereafter Independence served as the point of departure. When steamers became the regular means of transportation from St. Louis, the superior wharfage faciUties at Westport Landing drew all the river trade to that town. The start was made in April, when grass was fresh and water abundant. The several parties scattered over the prairie, each leader making his own choice as to direction and place of encampment, but aU came together on an appointed day at Council Grove, ten days' journey from the Missouri, in order to organize for mutual defence through the region where Comanches were to be feared. There a captain and four heutenants were chosen, and the force was divided into com- panies of eight men each, for guard duty. Every night encampment was an impromptu barricade. The wagons were drawn up in a hollow square which served as a corral for the animals and a shelter be- hind which to fight in case of need. The men, rolled in Mackinaw blankets, slept on the ground under the carts, for there were no tents in the cara- van. The camp fires were built outside the corral, and there the sentries paced their watches. The most serious risk was not to men or goods, but to the horses, which were greatly coveted by the nomad tribes and stolen whenever opportunity offered. A few riding horses were necessary for scouting pur- poses, but mules were preferred as draft animals because they were better able to endure the long marches and scant pasturage. These, in turn, were prone to sudden panic and were often stampeded by the rush of a buffalo herd or a thieving band of 84 AMERICAN SETTLERS Indians. Oxen were tried in 1830, and were used thereafter as much as mules. They were less afraid of crossing streams and stronger to drag a wagon out of a bog, but less enduring. On the other hand, these slow-footed animals were less hkely to be lost or stolen and were allowed to run at large about the night encampment, whereas horses or mules must be staked out or hobbled. The freight wagons were similar in design to the old-time conestogas, though of larger proportions. A cover of stout Osnaburg canvas was stretched over the top frame to keep off rain and dust. They were as scientifically packed as a pirogue, for there must be no displacements on the long, rough journey. So skilful were the men of the trail at this delicate business that cottons, silks, china, glass, and hard- ware reached Santa F6 in as sound condition as if the goods had been conveyed over the smoothest of eastern post roads. Flour, bacon, coffee, sugar, and salt were laid in, at the rate of one hundred and thirty-five pounds per man; but the main food reliance was the buffalo. A herd might be en- countered soon after leaving Turkey Creek, and the hunt was a diversion in which every plainsman de- lighted. Fresh meat was abundant for the first week or two, and in this time of plenty a quantity was jerked for the portion of the trail that lay beyond the pasture belt. Here, too, wood and water must be provided sufficient to furnish the caravan for the sixty miles march to the Cimarron, a veritable Jornado del Muerto. Beyond the Ar- kansas, Indian ambuscades and night attacks were THE SANTA FE TRADE 85 always to be apprehended, and precautions were doubled. On three occasions (1829, 1834, 1843) the government sent a mihtary escort, but United States troops might not cross the Arkansas where the greatest danger lay, and the cost of the expedition was out of all proportion to the benefit conferred. In 1834 the governor of New Mexico sent a force of cavalry to meet the caravan at the boundary, and the martial representatives of the two republics bivouacked on Chouteau's Island. For the most part, however, the traders were left to depend upon their own prowess and, being bred to the frontier, they were equal to most emergencies. The journey of seven hundred miles was usually accompUshed in five or six weeks, and men and ani- mals were pretty well worn down when their goal was finally reached. For the citizens of Santa F6 the arrival of the caravan was the great event of the year. Not only did the traders bring the an- nual supply of goods from the states, but Americans were the most generous patrons of the cafes and places of amusement. There were important trans- actions to be conducted, not only by the local mer- chants, whose accumulated stock of fm-s and buffalo robes, wool, blankets, and mules was to be disposed of, but by the customs officials, whose charge it was to collect the import duties. The Spanish traditions of venaUty and double-dealing held with the Mexi- can regime, and the merchants well understood that certain gratuities would secure the abatement of the prescribed tariff. The duties amoimted to sixty per cent ad valorem, but in actual adjustment the 86 AMERICAN SETTLERS trader usually got an abatement of one-third and the collector pocketed one-third, so that not more than one-third the legal charge found its way tato the pubhc treasury. American goods sold at double the original price; but fortunate was the trader who, after customs, expenses, and incidental losses were deducted, realized a profit of forty per cent. The ordinary profits ranged from ten to twenty per cent. The bxxrdens and impositions with which the traffic was saddled by the authorities quite arbitrarily reduced the proceeds. In 1835 the gov- ernor of Chihuahua imposed a contribucion de guerra to keep the Apaches in check, requiring $25 from Americans and but $5 from natives. In 1839 Armijo exempted hijos del pais from the tax on store- houses, shops, etc., throwing the whole burden of the impost on foreigners and naturalized citizens. Thinking to secure farther revenue at the expense of the traders, this same governor levied a tax of $500 on each freight wagon; but the Americans minimized the charge by increasing the capacity of their wagons to two tons and a half and adding four draft animals to the eight previously necessary. Every deviation from the minutely prescribed routes, tariffs, and bUls of lading was made a pretext for con- fiscation. "The trader can have three points of des- tination named in his guia, to either of which he may direct his course, but to no others, while in the draw- ing up of the factura, or invoice, the greatest care is requisite, as the slightest mistake, even an accidental slip of the pen, might, according to the terms of the law, subject the goods to confiscation." * Mexican Ahrieros with an Atajo of Pack-mtjles. Arrival of the Caravan at Santa Fe. THE SANTA FE TRADE 87 On the return trip the loads were lighter, for specie and furs were less bulky in proportion to value than dry goods and hardware, and the mules and jackasses purchased in New Mexico travelled afoot. Fully haU the wagons were sold to the Mexicans, and they brought four or five times their original cost ; but the worn-out oxen were sacrificed at $10 a yoke. Not more than half the muleteers retmmed over the trail. Many died, broken down by the hardships of the journey or by the dissipa- tions that ensnared them in the gay capital of New Mexico; many found their way back to the United States by way of Matamorras; still others settled for life in this land of opportunity. The neglected farm lands, mines, and commercial openings of the north Mexican states offered most attractive chances for investment, and the people were hospitable to strangers. There was an American colony at San Fernando de Taos and an American quarter in Santa F^. In the second decade of the New Mexi- can trade, as the annual caravan attained larger proportions and the cargoes were increased, prices fell at Santa F6, and there developed a glut of the market that made it expedient to carry the goods on to Chihuahua, Sonora, and even to California, in search of a profitable market. In 1830 Ewing Young, William Wolfskill, and J. J. Warner followed Escal- lante's trail from Taos across the mountains, and thence over the Mohave Desert to southern Cali- fornia. The Santa F6 trade was never monopohzed by large companies as was the fur trade of the Missouri. 88 AMERICAN SETTLERS The annual turnover of $130,000 represented the investments of some thirty different merchants, no man of whom contributed more than a dozen wagons to the train. Describing this trade in his Memoir of 1839, Nathaniel J. Wyeth states: "More than one-half these people are farmers and buy their goods on twelve months [credit] and often mortgage their farms and consequently are obliged to make returns the same year." The Santa F4 Trail meant to the men of Missouri what the Mississippi River meant to the settlers of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio, — an outlet for their sixrplus products and an opportunity for their adventurous young men. To the people of New Mexico it meant cheaper goods than the merchants of Chihuahua could send them and the establishment of amicable relations with the American frontier. When Santa Anna, dread- ing lest these commercial relations might lead to political rapprochement, laid an embargo on the traffic in 1843, he forced the outraged people of Santa F6 to question whether their interests would not be promoted by annexation to the United States. New Mexico An outcome of the Santa F6 trade quite as im- portant as its financial results was the information concerning the north Mexican states disseminated through the United States by some of the traders. Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies,^ written by a man who had been ten years in the trade, was a conscious effort in this direction ; but other men, less learned and not so well known, contributed to our knowledge THE SANTA FE TRADE 89 of the rich natural resources and political weakness of our southern neighbors. Jacob Fowler described the Creoles as he saw them ia 1821-1822 as a happy, hospitable, well-disposed people, whom the Co- manches regarded with contempt. The Spanish traders were miserably equipped with goods, poor in quality and high in price. The peasants were in real destitution, bread and meat were scarce and dear because of a long drought and a plague of grass- hoppers, and corn was selling at $10 a bushel, while a mule brought but $30 and the best running horse but $100. To describe the crudity of their living arrangements and their moral foibles would "r quire the pen of a Butler and the pencil of a Hogarth." Even more extensive and graphic was the account of the northern provinces of Mexico given by J. O. Pattie, who with his father, Sylvester Pattie, went to Santa F6 with Bernard Pratte's caravan in the spring of 1824. The Patties had been pioneers for three generations, first in the "back country" of Virginia, again in Kentucky, where men of the name served under Benjamin Logan and George Rogers Clark, and then on the Missouri frontier, where the head of the house had defended Cap-au- Gris against a formidable Indian force. Sylvester Pattie was chosen commander of Pratte's outfit and had occasion to display his prowess in combats with Pawnees, Comanches, and grizzly bears. Arrived at Santa F6, the Patties secured a permit to trap on the Gila River. Beaver were abundant, though the fur was not so fine as on more northern streams, and the take was a large one (two thousand skins), but 90 AMERICAN SETTLERS unfortunately their cache was rifled by the Indians, and the fruit of the winter's work lost. A new occupation was found when the proprietor of the Santa Rita copper mines, near the source of the Gila River, engaged the valiant Americans to defend his property against the Apaches, who were wont to pillage his supply trains and carry off the women, with small regard for the cautious Mexican garri- sons. The elder Pattie remained here in, charge of the mines ; but the son, impelled by the wanderlust in his blood, undertook a second trapping expedi- tion. He followed the Gila to the Colorado and, returning north of this rio de los misterios, found his way to South Pass, to the Big Horn, and the Yellow- stone, and finally rode back across the Plains to Santa ¥6, with a rich harvest of furs. The southern rivers had apparently never been hunted before, and Pattie's men frequently found a beaver in every trap set; but the streams of the upper Platte he reported "trapped out." Again the plucky adven- turer was bereft of the profits of a winter's strenuous labor, this time by the governor of Santa F6, who announced that the first year's Ucense did not hold for the second and ruthlessly confiscated the furs. The young man then tried his luck in trade, going to Sonora and Chihuahua, and returning by way of El Paso. The Journal expresses profound contempt for the primitive processes of Mexican agriculture. The clumsy wooden plough is minutely described. "Their hoes, axes and other tools are equally in- different ; and they are precisely in such a predica- ment as might be expected of a people who have Beavek Dam built of Cottonwood Branches filled in with Rushes and plastered with mud. Small Trees are used to support the Dam, hence its Irregular Shape. THE SANTA FE TRADE 91 no saw mills, no labor saving machinery, and do everything by diat of hard labor, and are withal very indolent and unenterprisiag." "This province [Sonora] would be among the richest of the Mexi- can country, if it were inhabited by an enlightened, enterprising and industrious people. Nothing can exceed the indolence of the actual inhabitants. The only point, in which I ever saw them display any activity, is in throwing the lasso, and in horseman- ship. In this I judge, they surpass all other people. Their great business and common pursuit, is in noosing and taming wild horses and cattle." El Paso was even then "a nursery of the fruit trees, of almost all countries and climes" surrounded by "magnificent vineyards, . . . from which are made great quantities of delicious wine. The wheat fields were equally beautiful, and the wheat of a kind I never saw before, the stalks generally yielding two heads each. The land is exceedingly rich and its fertility increased by irrigation." The valley of the Pecos was "a rich and delightful plain," on which lay the deserted sheepfolds and horse pens where the vaqueros once kept their stock. They had been driven away by the Apache raids, and thus "one of the loveUest regions for farmers that I have ever seen" could not be utilized for settlement because these mountain bandits had never been subdued.^ Pattie's trading enterprises were successful, and he returned to Santa Rita with a well-Uned purse. Sylvester Pattie, meantime, had secured a fine tract of land which he was cultivating to wheat and other food-stuffs, and was proposing to purchase supplies 92 AMERICAN SETTLERS in the United States. Better at fighting than at business, he had intrusted his affairs to a Mexican bookkeeper. This man was commissioned to go to St. Louis for goods, and the sum of $30,000 was put in his hands; but he decamped with the money. The owner of the mines, a Spaniard from Chihuahua (Pablo Guerra), was driven from the country by the decree of exile issued by the Mexican government in 1829, and the mines were sold at a heavy loss to McKnight of St. Louis and Curcier of Philadelphia. The new owners were soon driven off by the Apaches. The Patties, having lost all they had by the treachery of the bookkeeper, were forced to resort to the trapper's hazardous trade. Again they followed the Gila to the Colorado, trapping the region for the third time and loading their horses with furs. Un- luckily they understood the Yumas to indicate that there were white settlements at the mouth of the Colorado and were beguiled into trusting themselves and their booty to boats. A brief experience of the tide-vexed current induced these landsmen to aban- don the river, and, making shore on the west bank, they succeeded in crossing the Colorado Desert to San Diego. Echeandia, the governor, regarded the advent of these distressed Americans as wanton trespass and threw them into prison. There the elder Pattie died, and the son, having finally secured his freedom by serving as interpreter in an im- portant business transaction, made the best of his opportunity to see California. Under a commis- sion to vaccinate the neophytes, he proceeded up the coast, stopping at one mission after another and THE SANTA FE TBADE 93 renewing his contempt for the non-industrial ways of the hijos del pais. Repeated attempts to get possession of the furs cached on the Colorado failing, he made his way to the City of Mexico in the un- reasonable hope of securing indemnity for his losses. On his way to Vera Cruz, the desperate adven- turer was robbed of his little all by highwaymen, and only by the aid of fellow-travellers was he enabled to get back to Cincinnati. There this ruined but most interesting wanderer was discovered by Timothy Flint, the young and enterprising editor of the Western Monthly, and induced to write out his story. The Journal appeared in book form in 1831, and was read with avidity by all men interested in the future of the Southwest. CHAPTER IV THE COLONIZATION OF TEXAS Benton strenuously opposed the treaty of 1819 by which the United States government paid Spain $5,000,000 for the Floridas and surrendered all claim to Texas.^ He protested that the rich country beyond the Sabine had been given away, and he "wished to get it back whenever it could be done with peace and honor." ^ He deprecated the in- trigues that threatened an embrogUo with Mexico, but was ready to go to war with any European power for the sake of opening these fertile lands to Ameri- can settlers. In 1827 a secret offer was made to the Mexican government, — $1,000,000 for the Rio Grande boundary or $500,000 for that of the Colo- rado ; but the tender was rejected. Meantime the dreaded Americans had succeeded in planting a colony in the very heart of the coveted territory. Moses Austin, the vigorous entrepreneur who had accumulated wealth in the lead mines of Missouri, now faced ruin. He had been deprived of his square league of land by the land commissioners of the United States, and the failure of the Bank of St. Louis (1818) had stripped him of his fortune. A man of indomitable fortitude, he determined to begin over again with an agricultural colony under Spanish auspices, and in 1819 he brought his project before the governor of Texas at San Antonio, having ridden 94 THE COLONIZATION OF TEXAS 95 the eight hundred miles by the Natchitoches Trace and the Camino Real. The oath of allegiance taken twenty years before stood him in good stead with the authorities, and he had little difficulty in ne- gotiating a floating grant of indefinite extent on condition of settling thereon three himdred families of good character and Catholic faith. Unhappily the hardships of the return journey broke the con- stitution of this heroic man, and he died in the year following. His son, Stephen Austin, then not thirty years of age, but already accustomed to heavy responsibilities, took up the task of colonization. He arrived at San Antonio just in time to learn of the declaration of independence, but succeeded in getting his grant confirmed by Iturbide, and located his lands between the Brazos and Colorado rivers, the old San Antonio Road, and the Coast.^ The task of bringing in colonists of the right type was more serious. On condition that the land be brought under cultivation within two years, Austin offered to every adult male six hundred and forty acres, for his wife three hundred and twenty, for each child one hundred and sixty, and for every slave imported eighty acres. The nominal charge of twelve and a half cents an acre was barely sufficient to repay the expenses of survey and the transportation of emigrants and goods. Various untoward happenings balked the first two emigra- tions; the supply ships were wrecked, the Indians proved troublesome, and the settlers retreated to Louisiana. But adversity developed in Austin the quaUties of a first-rate leader. His tact, courage, and 96 AMERICAN SETTLERS patience never failed, he overcame one obstacle after another, and after eight years of strenuous labor, he was able to turn over the government to a reUable body of colonists. Austin's settlers were men from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana, of the best frontier type, energetic, honest, and enduring ; but they had the pioneer's devotion to the rights of the individual. They took their obUgations to the Cathohc church Mghtly, refused to pay the acreage charge on their lands, brought in slaves in defiance of Mexican law (1827), and ordered their Uttle commonwealth in thoroughly American fashion. Emulous of Austin's achievement, other am- bitious Americans, General Wilkinson among the number, were besieging the Mexican government for land grants, and it was deemed necessary to deter- mine a permanent and uniform policy. The law of 1824 provided that grants might be made to em- pressarios in the proportion of fifteen sitios (a square league or four thousand four hundred acres) of pasture-land and five labores (two hundred acres) of irrigable land for each one hundred families (up to eight hundred) whom he should bring into the country. The families must be of good character and ready to accept the Catholic faith and Mexican allegiance. No grants to foreigners might be made within ten leagues of the coast or within twenty leagues of the boundary line.* Under these provi- sions, grants were made to various adventurers — Mexican, American, English, Scotch, and Irish — until the area so blocked out approached the present con- fines of the state. It is evident to-day that the arid THE COLONIZATION OF TEXAS 97 region of the Uano Estacado was impossible of cul- tivation and that the major part of these grants Texas in 1840. Map op Land Gbaitts. could never be redeemed, but south of the San Antonio Road, settlement went on apace. The fame of San FeUpe de Austin was spread abroad and the land-hungry looked to Texas as their goal. Two well-travelled roads brought this rich region within easy reach of Natchitoches and New Orleans, while a series of natural harbors rendered it easy of ac- cess from the sea. Americans gravitated to the Austin colony, Dewitt's colony, and to Edward's VOL. u - 98 AMERICAN SETTLERS enterprise at Nacogdoches, Irishmen to the tract along the Nueces River held by McMuUin and McGloine, while Mexicans preferred empressarios of their own blood and sought De Leon's settlement at Victoria. By 1830, the population of Texas had grown to be more than twenty thousand — a figure that exceeded any reached under the Spanish regime — and the wisdom of peopling a land with men of calibre was amply vindicated. But the Mexican government took alarm. There was grave reason to fear that this frontier would be preempted by Americans. In 1830 the Cortes for- bade further colonization of a border state, cancelled all grants where the terms were unfulfilled, and summarily prohibited the importation of slaves. Futile efforts were made to introduce Mexican farmers, and convicts were sent in to work the roads with the privilege of becoming citizens and landowner^ as soon as their terms expired. The law of 1834, providing that would-be settlers from Mexico be transported to Texas at the expense of the state and supported for the initial year at the rate of four reals a day and that to each family be given farm implements, a yoke of oxen, and land to the amount of four hundred and forty-two acres ^ had no appreciable effect. In 1835 there were twenty thousand Americans and three thousand Mexicans in the province. It was quite impossible for the ephemeral governments that followed each other in rapid succession at the City of Mexico to enforce measures of repression in far-away Texas, and the restrictive legislation amounted to no more THE COLONIZATION OF TEXAS 99 than a helpless threat. When the decree (1829) declaring all children born of slaves on Mexican soil emancipated at the age of fourteen was pro- tested by the Americans, on the ground that it would set free one thousand slaves, Guerrero ex- empted Texas from its operation.^ Under Austin's restraining influence, theTexans pro- ceeded with some regard to their obligations toward the tumultuous republic to which they had sworn allegiance, until the Centralist revolution capped the climax of tyranny and misrule. Then they, in com- mon with other Federalists, demanded a return to the constitution of 1824. Their grievances, as sum- marized by the convention of 1833, were religious i intolerance, the exclusion of immigration from the ' United States, the perversion of land grants, the refusal of trial by jury and grants in aid of pubUc education, the imposition of customs duties, and the excesses of the miUtary. The protestants demanded a separate state government for Texas. Far from complying with this reasonable request, Santa Anna increased his garrisons and finally, San Antonio having been taken by the insurgent forces, marched to its reUef . The massacre of the Alamo converted the movement for seK-government into a war for independence. The issue could not long be doubtfid. Santa Anna was far from his base of supplies and could not count on the support of the Mexican people, and his troops were largely convicts, serving under compulsion. The Texans, on the other hand, were fighting for their homes and the institutions which they held essential to Uberty. They were 100 AMERICAN SETTLERS valiant, self-reliant, hardy frontiersmen, excellent marksmen and accustomed to Indian warfare. They were quickly reenforced by volunteer com- panies from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and Sam Houston, ex-governor of Tennessee and a prot6g6 of President Jackson, was placed in com- mand of their little force. In the battle of San Jacinto the Texans proved of what stuff they were made. When Burr, an old man, broken in health and fortune, read the exploits of Sam Houston and his fellow-filibusters, he exclaimed, "There! You see? I was right ! I was only thirty years too soon. What was treason in me thirty years ago is pa- triotism now !" ^ Don Juan Almonte, the patriotic Mexican who made a tour of inspection through Texas in 1834, regarded this northernmost state as Mexico's most valuable possession, and he deplored the neglect that was leaving its colonization to foreigners. In soil, climate, and productive capacity, it had no equal among the federated states, and its commercial pos- sibilities were unrivalled on the Gulf of Mexico. A series of first-rate harbors situated midway between Vera Cruz and New Orleans gave promise of abun- dant traffic, so soon as there were goods to export. Remoteness from the conflicts that were devastat- ing the older states left the Texans at peace to pur- sue the cultivation of the land, the raising of cattle, the building of roads and towns ; and their industrial enterprises far outran those of less favored sections of the Repubhc. The Spanish-speaking population THE COLONIZATION OF TEXAS 101 was only half what it had been in 1806, but the American settlements were flourishing. In the central department of Brazos there were ten thou- sand people, and in the Nacogdoches region ten thousand more. This was not due to the zeal of the empressarios. Most of the American immi- grants had come on their own initiative and at their own cost from the adjoining sections of the United States, and they were lawless and intractable men who brought in slaves in defiance of the law of the land. It was of supreme importance that pubUc-spirited Mexicans should undertake the peopUng of this rich country. Almonte announced his intention of lead- ing the way and declared ' his conviction that an eleven-league grant in Texas could be speedily transformed into a valuable estate. Soil and cUmate were admirably adapted to the growing of cotton, sugar, corn, tobacco, and wheat, while the natural pastures would feed great herds of cattle. Prices were low for the time being, because all products must be consumed at home; but experiments were being made in the navigation of the Sabine, the Brazos, and the Colorado, and transportation by sea-going vessels would soon be assured. Five thousand bales of cotton had already been sent to New Orleans and sold at ten cents a pound. Im- portations from the United States rendered domestic manufactures unprofitable, but two or three cotton- gins, a tannery, and the manufacture of shoes were already under way. What might have been the result if the insurrec- tion had not interfered with Almonte's colonization 102 AMERICAN SETTLERS project, it is impossible to say; but one thing is evident, Mexico could offer little better colonizing material in 1835 than in 1721. Texas did not present an alluring prospect to the inunigrant, by whichever route he entered it. If he came by steamer up the Red River to Natchitoches, the usual means of access from the western states, he must cross a stretch of pine barrens and clay hills; if he arrived by ship from New Orleans or New York, the coast appeared an uninviting waste of sand bars and shallow lagoons, and the lowlands beyond were wet and malarial. On the side of Mexico, the sterile and waterless tract between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River seemed impossible of settlement. Curiously enough, the ten-league strip forbidden to foreign empressarios by the law of 1824 was precisely the least desirable portion of Texas. The interior was a delectable country. A gently rolhng plain drained by the half dozen rivers that flowed from the Llano Estacado to the Gulf, wooded in the eastern section and open prairie west of the Trinity, offered to the pioneer a wonderful combination of fertile soil, all-the-year-round pastur- age, and down-stream transportation. The arid plains were covered with the mesquit-grass which grew low and thick and was self-curing. In the wetter regions, the indigenous growth was tall and coarse and ran up to a height of eight or nine feet, heavily seeded. In the river bottoms the cane- brakes grew rank and high, providing abundant fodder. So mild were the winters that there was nowhere need of stabling, even for horses, and water THE COLOI^IZATION OF TEXAS 103 and salt were always within reach. Hogs, too, might be allowed to run at large in confidence that they would fatten in due time on the native peanuts or the mast of the live-oak forests. It was a com- mon sajdng among the pioneers that "in the North nxan lived for the beast, while in Texas the beast Uved for man." According to the custom of the south United States, the cultivated fields were fenced in and the live stock was free to roam the open range. Only at the annual round-up did the ranchman take account of his property and brand the yearling calves. Men of experience judged the prairies of Texas better farming country than Kentucky, for nine- tenths of the land was cultivable and the same crops could be grown, with sugar and cotton added. The settler from east of the Mississippi, accustomed to the exhausting labor of clearing the forest before ploughing could begin, who had often seen the better part of a man's life spent in reclaiming a few patches for cornfields which stUl remained encumbered by stimips and weeds and infected with malaria, re- joiced in the sunny open prairie where the soil seemed prepared by natiu-e for the farmer's use. An English observer estimated the economic ad- vantage of Texas land as follows : "A heavy plough and a strong team are required the first year, to break up the tough sward and turn over the soil. The Indian corn is dropped in the fiurows and covered with a hoe, which with an occasional fight ploughing to clear away the weeds, is the only labor bestowed upon it imtil it is fit to gather. . . . By 104 AMERICAN SETTLERS turning the grass down, exposing the roots to the sun, and leaving the soil undisturbed, the sward becomes mellowed in a single season, and while undergoing the process of decomposition, affords nourishment to the growing corn. In the ensuing spring, the roots of the wild grass are completely- rotted, and the plough passes through a rich light mold fit for all the purposes of husbandry. . . . The superior faciUty of working open land, the saving in the wear of farm implements, the economy of time, and, of course, the greater degree of cer- tainty in the farmer's calculations, with the com- parative exemption from local disease, give a pre- eminence to the prairie over the timbered land not to be materially reduced by any inconvenience that may be occasioned by an inadequate supply of wood. It would be sounder economy for a farmer to settle in the midst of a prairie and draw his fuel and fence wood five miles, than to undertake the clearing of a farm in the forest. . . . Supposing the soil of both to be of equal quahty, a laborer can cultivate two-thirds more of prairie than of timbered land; the returns are larger, and the capital to be invested less." * The most serious handicap on the settler in Texas was the uncertainty as to land titles. The one em- pressario who had fulfilled the terms of his contract with the Mexican government was Stephen Austin, and therefore on his tracts only could clear title be given. Bradbury and Staples (the Rio Grande Com- pany) had been assigned (1828) for fifteen years the exclusive privilege of putting steamers on the Rio THE COLONIZATION OF TEXAS 105 Grande on condition of colonizing the adjacent coun- try ; but the river was not navigable beyond Loredo and the region was adapted to nothing but pastur- age, so the project failed. McMuIlen, who attempted an Irish colony at San Patricio, become involved in a scheme for diverting the water of the Rio Grande into the Nueces and was imable to meet his obligar tions. Dewitt died before he had brought in his full complement of people, and his title lapsed to the gov- ernment. De Leon was equally imfortunate. Bur- net and Zavalla apparently had no intention of col- onization, but hastened to dispose of their claims to a New York company which, in turn, sold to would-be emigrants. These deluded mortals arrived on the Neches to find themselves possessed of nothing more than a squatter's claim. The revolutionary govern- ment added to the confusion by declaring all titles forfeit except for such men as had proved their loyalty to the American insurrection by service in the field, and later undertook to redeem its heavy ob- Ugations out of this one available asset. All sol- diers were paid in land boxmties, and land scrip was offered to the highest bidder whether resident or aUen. Moreover, land donations were made in the form of head-rights of six himdred and forty acres to married men and three himdred and twenty acres to single men who could furnish evidence of three years' residence during the five critical years from 1836 to 1841, and a bonus of three thousand acres was pro- posed for every woman who married such a citizen. Land scrip as well as donations were in the nature of floating grants, and the effort to locate these was 106 AMERICAN SETTLERS attended with extraordinary difficulties, since no official system of survey and registration was as yet provided. Texas in the forties was the paradise of lawyers, as Kentucky and Tennessee had been fifty years before. Diu-ing the decade following on the attainment of independence, the Texans were hard bestead to maintain autonomy. Raids from Mexico, Indian forays on the northern border, and th6 prospect of interference on the part of France and Great Britain rendered the task trebly difficult. The embryo gov- ernment was saddled with heavy obligations — the maintenance of an army and navy in addition to ordinary expenses — and the revenues were inevi- tably scanty. The population was wholly agricul- tural, and land, the only taxable property, had but low value. Foreign trade was slight and the preju- dice against the levy of customs duties was strong. Such credit as the new-born state could rally in the United States and Europe was utilized to the break- ing point. Bonds were issued, land scrip sold, and promissory notes offered in payment of debt, until such obligations depreciated to twenty cents on a dollar. In 1841 the total indebtedness amounted to $7,500,000, six times the total revenue, and there was no relief except in the drastic curtailment of ex- penses. The administration of government was at a standstill. There were no jails and no police, the postal service had collapsed, and only a handful of soldiers were available for the defence of the frontier. Certain enactments of the newly organized congress involved the state in prolonged embarrassments, THE COLONIZATION OF TEXAS 107 e.g. every head of a family locating in Texas was promised one sitio and one labor from the public domain, — a heedless generosity which attracted a horde of ne'er-do-weels and speculators and made heavy drafts on the one source of wealth. The only salvation of Texas was in annexation to the United States, and for this issue of the long struggle, there was good prospect. To the slave states of the Union, Texas was an economic neces- sity. Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi had one after another been occupied by younger sons and surplus slaves from the seaboard states. Louisiana was already preempted, and the fat lands beyond the Sabine were regarded as the inevitable destiny of the slavocracy. Moreover, the great majority of the settlers in Texas were Southerners and slaveholders. Their declaration of independence was signed by fifty-six men, of whom three were Mexicans, five were from Northern states of the Union, and forty- eight from slaveholding states. The constitution adopted by this constituency was distinctly pro- slavery. Fide Section IX: " Congress shall pass no ^ laws to prohibit emigrants of the United States of America from bringing their slaves into the Repubhc with them and holding them by the same teniu-e by which such slaves were held in the United States, nor shall congress have power to emancipate slaves ; nor shall any slave holder be allowed to emancipate his or her slave or slaves without the consent of congress unless he or she shall send his or her slave or slaves without the limits of the Republic. No free person*^ of African descent, either in whole or in part, shall be 108 AMERICAN SETTLERS permitted to reside permanently in the Republic, without the consent of congress." This acceptance of slavery as a fundamental institution attracted fa- vorable notice in the Southern states. The legisla- tures of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee peti- tioned Congress for the annexation of Texas, while the statesmen of the seaboard states congratulated their constituents on the prospective rise in the price of their most profitable export. Eight Northern legislatures promptly protested annexation. In- terest in the annexation project was disseminated by three land companies financed in New York, which, having secured concessions from certain empressarios who had been unable to colonize their grants, pro- ceeded to sell these very dubious properties to all the gullible whom they could lay hands on. This land scrip was scattered throughout the Northern states and served to attach men who had purchased it to the annexation project, their best chance of getting their titles ratified. John C. Calhoun, Tyler's secretary of state, suc- ceeded in negotiating an annexation treaty with the government of Texas, but it was defeated in the Sen- ate (thirty-five to sixteen). The resentment among pro-slavery men against this thwarting of their hopes ruined the Whig party in the South, while the out- and-out opponents of slavery organized the Liberty party. Conservative men, generally, dreaded the reopening of the slavery question, and feared that the addition of a territory south of the Missouri Compro- mise Line and large enough to form five states would overturn the balance of power on which the curtail- THE COLONIZATION CF TEXAS 109 ment of the slave system depended. The Democrats, however, declared for the "re-annexation of Texas," and their nominee, James K. Polk of Tennessee, was elected (1844) by a good majority of the electoral college, although the popular vote was quite evenly divided. With this apparent sanction of their policy, the annexationists abandoned the treaty and suc- ceeded in carrying through both houses of Congress a joint resolution in favor of incorporating Texas into the Union. PART IV THE TRANSCONTINENTAL MIGRATION CHAPTER I ACQUISITION OF OREGON Section I The Traders The westward movement of population was checked at the farther confines of Arkansas, Mis- souri, and Iowa by the apparently sterile nature of the semi-arid plains and by the Indian reservations which the government had located in this con- fessedly hopeless region. But beyond the Rockies, on the far Pacific Coast, rumor reported a region of limitless and quite unexploited resources. The Oregon country had been discovered, explored, and even colonized by Americans, but with the loss of Astoria, the Columbia River and its possibihties had passed under control of the British fur com- panies, and the Boston ships and the St. Louis fur traders were treated as interlopers. The immense financial resources of the Hudson's Bay Company and its highly eflBcient organization enabled the chief factor to hold any Yankee competitor at bay. Under the treaty of Joint Occupation, American traders had equal rights with the British in the Oregon country ; but it was the poHcy of the Honor- able Company to keep them east of the Blue Moim- tains. This was not a difficiilt task, since the British goods were of better quahty than could be made in VOL. n — I 113 114 AMERICAN SETTLERS the States and, since they paid no duty, might be sold at lower prices than the merchants from St. Louis could afford. Moreover, the costs and risks of overland transportation were far greater than by sea, so that, in their ventures on the Columbia and Snake rivers, the Americans were hopelessly handicapped. Even in the open territory of the upper Missouri and the Great Basin, the Hudson's Bay Company was able to compete on equal terms. Its factors did not hesitate to put up the price of furs to ten times the normal figure in order to drive out an American competitor. It was the custom of the Company to set aside an annual guarantee fund to make good these business emergencies. The Journals of Lewis and Clark had been brought out in popular form by Nicholas Biddle of Philadel- phia in 1811 ; Patrick Gass' even more readable diary was published a year or two earlier. Both accounts of the wonderful transcontinental journey were widely read, and the possibilities of the Columbia as well as those of the Missouri became matters of common knowledge. A certain schoolmaster of Boston, Hall J. Kelley by name, whose interest in the Columbia region was first excited by the Lewis and Clark Journals, had been accumulating all the information to be found in the descriptions given by fur traders and travellers, and had arrived at the conviction that the opportunities there afforded for commerce, manufactures, and agriculture far exceeded those of the Mississippi Valley. He was fully assured that the American government had clear title to the ter- ritory — based on the discoveries of Gray and Ken- ACQUISITION OF OREGON 115 drick — from the forty-second parallel to Puget Sound and Vancouver Island, and he therefore regarded the Hudson's Bay Company's assumption of trade monop- oly as unwarranted and intolerable. The rights of the United States, he was persuaded, could best be made good by the actual occupation of the land by Ameri- can citizens. To this end Kelley organized (1829) : the American Society for the Settlement of Oregon Territory. The capital of the Company ($200,000) was to be subscribed in the first instance by pubhc- , spirited citizens, but each emigrant was expected to take one $100 share. It was anticipated that the government would lend aid to this national enter- prise. Kelley's Manual of the Oregon Expedition was addressed "to all persons of good character who wish to emigrate to Oregon Territory." It set forth the unexcelled advantages of the lower Columbia; a remarkably even climate where cattle could be pastured in the open all the year round, a fertile soil requiring only to be ploughed and planted to yield better crops than New England had ever known, inexhaustible forests from which timber might be shipped to all parts of the world,^ admirable transportation facihties afforded by the Columbia River, which was navigable two hundred miles from the sea, and by the many natural harbors adequate to the reception of sea-going vessels. The commerce of South America, the Pacific Isles, and the East Indies must eventually accrue to this favored territory. In a memorial addressed to Congress asking for "troops, artillery, mUitary arms, and munitions of war, for the defence and security of the contem- 116 AMERICAN SETTLERS plated settlement," the Society urged as a reason for aggressive action on the part of the United States the fact that the Hudson's Bay Company was taking steps to colonize the country. "Already, have they, flourishing towns, strong fortifications, and cultivated farms." In order to forestall this alien occupation, the Society petitioned for a grant of power corresponding to those of the great trad- ing company and the extinction of the Indian title to the Multnomah Valley lands. A republican form of government was in contemplation with freedom of the press, freedom of worship, etc. Several hundred persons were ready to migrate to the land of promise, but the great expedition was delayed from time to time. The government was slow to act on Kelley's proposition and assert its rights of exclusive possession. The treaty of Joint Occupation was renewed in 1828, and no guarantee as to squatters' rights could be given. Moreover, the fur traders of St. Louis, who did not relish the prospect of having their hunting grounds pre- empted by farmers, threw various obstacles in the way, exaggerating the difficulties of the route, the hostility of the Indians, etc. In his Manual of the Oregon Expedition, Kelley quotes from the recent report of Mr. Pilcher, Indian agent, to the secre- tary of war to prove with what ease the journey across the mountains might be made by way of the South Pass and the Snake and Columbia rivers.2 For the character of the Indians of the Pacific slope, Kelley had no fears. "They are fond of the Society of white men, and will long continue ACQUISITION OF OREGON 117 to appreciate, and promptly to reciprocate honest and fair dealing. Nothing is more remote from the intentions of the Society than to oppress them, or to occupy their lands without making ample and satisfactory remuneration. ... It is desired that each [Indian] head of a family receive a lot of land. That the Chinnook tribe be located on the back lots, in the seaport town, where they can be in- structed, and encouraged in cultivating garden grounds, and where schools can be opened for their children," etc. To each settler was to be assigned, after New Eng- land precedent, a town lot of forty acres and farm land to the amount of one hundred and sixty acres, withpas- ture rights in the public land in addition. This claim, guaranteed to every emigrant above fourteen years of age (except married women), was to be converted into a permanent title after two years' occupation. The point of departure was to be St. Louis. From that point, travelling expenses were to be met from the common stock, excepting arms, knapsacks, cloth- ing and blankets, and wagons for the women and children. A deposit of $20 was required of every subscriber as a pledge of sincerity and guarantee of good conduct. Captains elected by each cohort of fifty were to have absolute authority en route. The plan was a good one, but the scale was too mag- nificent for that day of small things. It fell to pieces of its own weight. The date of departure was postponed from 1828 to 1830, from 1830 to 1832, and from January to June and July of the latter year. These delays were discouraging to 118 AMERICAN SETTLERS the more active and practical members of the society. One of the men whom Kelley's propaganda had deeply impressed was Nathaniel J. Wyeth of Cam- bridge, a man of affairs who had already achieved an enviable reputation for business acumen as a pioneer in the ice business. His aspirations were, however, not political or social, but purely financial. He thought he saw in the unoccupied territory between the Columbia and the Spanish boundary an opportunity for developing a trade such as might eventually rival that of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany itself. The success of the Boston houses that had sent trading ships to the northwest coast seemed to justify his hopes ; the failure of Astor's enterprise he thought was purely accidental, due to over-confidence in British agents and the outbreak of war; the achievements of the St. Louis traders, handicapped as they were by a long overland carriage, argued larger profits for a post established within reach of the Pacific and possessed of an all-water route to New York and European markets. Wyeth meant to avail himself of Kelley's crusade and so appUed for a "scituation" for himself and his brother Jacob in the expedition scheduled for January, 1832 ; but when the date of departure was deferred from month to month, and especially when he learned that it was proposed to burden the party with women and children, he became convinced that he must act independently of the Boston enthusiast. His project was explained at length to various busi- ness men of Boston, New York, and Baltimore whom ACQUISITION OF OREGON 119 he hoped to induce to contribute capital. A party of picked men was to go overland to the Columbia, and there, at a post suflBciently remote from Fort Vancouver to give no umbrage to the Great Com- pany, furs and salmon and such agricultural products as might prove feasible were to be gathered and stored. A Boston firm. Hall, Tucker & Wilhams, v^ agreed to send a ship round the Horn stocked with goods for the Indian trade. It was expected that the bills for the goods, bought on a year's credit, would be paid out of the return cargo, and that a very considerable profit would be reahzed by all connected with the enterprise. Wyeth secured the $5000 needed to equip the overland party and succeeded in enUsting, under a five-year contract, thirty-two able-bodied and intelligent men. The organization was on a profit-sharing basis, familiar to the Gloucester fishermen. After the initial cost had been paid, the net proceeds were to be divided, > eight parts to the promoter of the enterprise, two to his brother Jacob who was to act as surgeon and physician, and one part to each of the forty men who were to make up the full tale of the working force. Wyeth took great pains to inform himself as to the conditions of success in the fur trade and the best methods of catching, pickling and smoking sal- mon, raising and curing tobacco, etc., and he spared no labor in perfecting the details of his equipment. The party left Boston in March, 1832, and journeyed '■^ to St. Louis by way of Pittsburgh and the Ohio River. The horseback journey across the Plains was made in company with Sublette's brigade; 120 AMERICAN SETTLERS but its hardships staggered two of the men (Jacob Wyeth and young Livermore), an encounter .with the Blackfeet at the famous rendezvous of Pierre's Hole 5 disheartened the rest, and all but eleven turned back, taking their riding horses. Undis- couraged, "Wyeth proceeded on his way, in com- pany with Milton Sublette, and, aided by the friendly Shoshones, trapped the streams that empty into Snake River, and crossed the Blue Mountains to Fort Walla "Walla, where his party was hospitably received. "At the post we saw a bull, cow & calf, hen & cock, pumpkins, potatoes, corn, all of which looked strange and unnatural and like a dream." At Fort Vancouver, Dr. McLoughlin was no less courteous, dispensing the hospitality of the place with an Old World courtesy very congenial to the wanderer from Cambridge. Here bad news awaited the promoter of American trade. The supply ship, Sultana, had been wrecked off Society Islands, and her cargo was a total loss, while the remaining men asked to be released from their engagement.* "I could not refuse. They had already suffered much, and our number was so small that the prospect of remuneration to them was very small. . . . They were good men and persevered as long as perseverance would do good. I am now afloat on the great sea of life without stay or support, but in good hands, i.e. myself and providence and a few of the H. B. Co. who are perfect gentlemen." ^ Nothing remained of the great enterprise but the furs cached in the interior, and the recovery of these was more than doubtful. ts^ '4 -5^". ■^S0r^:-^iri ACQUISITION OF OREGON 121 Wyeth had surrendered an honorable and lucra- tive position at home for this ambitious project on the Pacific Coast, and he now faced ruin; but pride and determination to wring success out of defeat, held him to his task. Valuable experience at least could be won from his unlucky phght, and with this in view he sought employment with the Hudson's Bay Company as an independent trader operating south of the Columbia. The proposition was forwarded to London and, biding an answer, Wyeth submitted to Captain Bonneville a plan for a joint hunt up the Willamette Valley and beyond the moimtains as far as the Spanish settlements on San Francisco Bay. Having collected twelve men and thirty-four horses and pack mules, he set out for the rendezvous at Fort Bonneville on Green River, where he found the brigades of the American Fur Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company encamped in full force, together with Bonneville and Ferris and other independent trappers. Thence', in the autumn of 1833, the undiscom-aged Yankee voyaged in a bull-boat down the Big Horn and the Yellow- stone, stopping at Fort Cass and Fort Union to trade skins and robes for provisions, and so on to St. Louis and home. In spite of the melancholy failures of the first expedition, Wyeth was able to find backers for a second. This time he hoped to meet the expenses of the overland party by taking out a stock of goods for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company whose chief, Milton Sublette, he had convinced that supphes might be had at much better figures than were 122 AMERICAN SETTLERS offered by the brother who had retired from the j partnership. A new joint stock concern, the Colum- bia Fishing and Trading Company, was organized. Hall, Tucker & Williams again undertook to send a vessel round the Horn, and again a party of men was enlisted, but this time at St. Louis, where trap- pers and engages of experience could be found. Wyeth had no need of guide or protection in his second journey across the Plains, for he was now bourgeois on his own account, and in his train travelled two distinguished scientists, Thomas Nuttall and J. K. Townsend. He reached the rendezvous on Ham's Fork in June, 1834, only to find that Milton Sublette had repudiated his contract. Wyeth's business sagacity did not desert him in this emer- gency. With characteristic energy he determined to turn his rejected goods and superfluous men to account by erecting a trading post on Snake River, hoping to trade with the Shoshones, Nez Perces, and Flatheads for buffalo robes. The post was erected at the point where the Port Neuf River joins the / Snake, and was named Fort Hall after the senior partner in the Boston firm which was to reap no other gain from the expedition. Here twelve men were left with a hundred guns and rifles, while the main party pushed on to the Columbia. Arrived at Fort Vancouver in October, the daunt- less leader found to his chagrin that the May Dacre was only just coming up the river. The ship had been struck by lightning off Valparaiso and obliged to put in for repairs. The delay of three months had forfeited the salmon season, and the proposed ACQUISITION OF OREGON 123 return cargo could not be prepared till the second summer. "We have failed in everything for the first year," Wyeth wrote home. "After so long an abstinence, I feel hungry for a httle success." But there was no use in crying over spilt milk. The ship was loaded with timber from the magnificent pine forests of the neighborhood and despatched to the Sandwich Islands with instructions to bring back cattle, sheep, and hogs. Meantime, Wyeth set to work with redoubled energy to develop the re- som-ces of the region he had claimed for his own. He put up a fishing station on Wappatoo Island with kilns for smoking salmon and a rude garrison which he called Fort WilUam. He explored the Willamette and fixed on a site for a farm, — a prairie three miles below Duporte's, "about fifteen miles long and seven wide, surrounded with fine timber and a good mill stream on it," — and two men were sent there with implements and seed for the first plant- ing. The bulk of the force Wyeth led on a trapping expedition up Des Chutes River, a wild stream run- ning through deep chasms and over precipitous rocks. The results of the winter's hunt did not compensate for the loss in men and equipment, however, and the leader returned broken in health and spirits. His experience in curing salmon was also discouraging. The Indians could not supply the fish fast enough for the smoking process, and his own men did Uttle better. Only haH a cargo was put up, and that of an inferior quality. Fort WilUam made but a dreary residence. Most of the natives had died of the plague that had swept the length of the coast from 124 AMERICAN SETTLERS California northward several years previous, and the Americans suffered from various disorders due to dampness, overwork, and perhaps in some degree to infection. One-third the men were ill the greater part of the summer, and seventeen died violent deaths. In the autumn of 1835 Wyeth went to Fort Hall with supplies, and again in the autumn of 1836 ; but the Hudson's Bay Company had built a trading post on the Bois6 and their competition was too sharp for him. Concluding at last to abandon the field, he sold Fort Hall to the Great Company. He returned to the states by way of Santa F4 and the Arkansas River, and reached Boston in November of / 1836, hoping to secure capital for a new ventm-e on the Columbia; but the financial situation was not promising. The few men who had money to spare were unwilling to jeopardize it on so dubious a ven- ture. Fortunately, his former employer in the ice business was eager to reinstate him, and Wyeth was able to pay all his debts and accumulate a competence before his death. ^ The projector of the Columbia Fishing and Trad- ing Company accomplished little for the furtherance of American trade in Oregon and nothing for emi- gration. His lukewarmness in this latter respect, it , must be conceded, was due to a juster appreciation of the risks and hardships involved than the enthu- siasts of the Oregon Colonization Society possessed. In a letter written to Hall J. Kelley in April of 1832, Wyeth said: "I shall at all times be disposed to further an emigration to the Columbia as far as I ACQUISITION OF OREGON 125 deem, on actual knowledge of the country, that it will be for the advantage of the emigrants, but before I am better acquainted with the facts, I will not lend my aid in inducing ignorant persons to render their situation worse rather than better." Four years' experience of the hazards of the Far West must have reenforced his opinion that it was "impracticable and inhuman" to involve women and children in such an enterprise. On both his visits to Fort Vancouver, Wyeth was received with perfect courtesy and given the free- dom of the quarters; but he was allowed to learn none of the secrets of the trade and was definitely informed that his efforts to estabhsh relations with the Indians would be effectively checkmated. In his Memoir submitted to Congress in 1839, Wyeth recog- nized the courtesy of the Hudson's Bay Company's agents while writhing imder the sense of obhgation to victorious rivals. ' ' In their personal intercotu-se with Americans who come into the country, they are uniformly hospitable and kind. The circumstances under which we meet them are mortifying in the extreme, making us too often but the recipients of the bounty of others, instead of occupants to ad- minister it, as should be the case. No one who has visited their posts, I presume, can say anything to dispraise his reception; for myself, setting matters of trade aside, I have received the most kind and considerate attention from them." Americans who came by sea were no more success- ful. Only seven trading vessels flying the Stars and Stripes ventured across the Bar in the years between 126 AMERICAN SETTLERS 1814 and 1842 : the Oahee and Convoy from Boston in 1829, the May Dacre and the Europa in 1834, the Thomas Perkins in 1840, the Maryland in 1841, and the Chemanes in 1842. Their efforts to open a trade with the natives were uniformly unfortunate; the Indians were readily induced by the offer of better bargains and by appeals to their loyalty to let the "Bostons" alone. Kelley states that when the Eii- ropaivom Boston came into the river to trade in 1834, ''■ Dr. McLoughUn immediately fitted out the Llama with an attractive cargo and instructions to follow the American vessel and undersell her goods, no matter at what prices, until she was driven from the coast. This trade ostracism was not wholly due to com- mercial reasons. Dr. McLoughlin had cause to fear the demoralizing influence of his irresponsible rivals. /Wyeth brought in distilUng apparatus on his second expedition to the Columbia; but he had the grace to respect the protest of the chief factor and abandon his purpose of manufacturing whiskey. The Thomas Perkins had large quantities of liquor aboard. Dr. McLoughUn bought up the whole stock and stored it at the Fort to prevent its getting into the hands of the natives, "as this was an article which, after a great deal of difficulty, we had been able to suppress in the trade." '' The influence of the Americans was no less demoralizing to the tribes of the interior. There were from five to six hundred free trappers in the Snake River country, and the unscrupulous competition of rival parties was rapidly destroying the Indian's respect for the white man. ACQUISITION OF OREGON 127 Meantime the apostle of the attractive gospel, Oregon for Americans, had been engrossed in his colonization enterprise. Convinced of the necessity of a preliminary sxirvey of the possibilities and diffi- culties involved, Kelley had finally set out with a small party early in 1832. He went by way of New Orleans and Mexico,* taking along a stock of trading goods, culinary utensils, and farming imple- ments. These were promptly confiscated by the Mexican officials in Ueu of customs duties, and the secretary of the Oregon Colonization Society found himself a penniless vagabond. Undiscouraged, he begged his way to Monterey, but there new troubles awaited him. Figueroa, then governor of Upper California, had no Uking for Americans. This particular specimen excited his suspicion by proposing to make a survey of the Sacramento Valley for the Spanish government. Thwarted in this endeavor to earn his passage to Vancouver, Kelley succeeded in inducing Ewing Young, a trader from Taos, to try his fortunes on the Columbia River. Horses were to be the stock in trade, and a herd of over a hundred was got together, as well as a gang of men — sailors and unemployed trappers — to assist in driving the animals to their destination. The journey was made over the trail of the Hudson's Bay Company's California brigade, but it proved too difficult for the Boston schoolmaster. He fell ill of fever and would hardly have got through aUve but for the kindness of Framboise, one of the Company's engages on the Umpqua. At Fort Vancouver, a staggering disappointment awaited him. Figueroa 128 AMERICAN SETTLERS had forwarded to Dr. McLoughlin by a north- bound vessel a letter of warning, apprising him that Kelley and Young had stolen their horses from a ranch on the Sacramento. The charge was false. The actual thieves (if thieves there were) were some irresponsible adventurers who joined Young's party on the Sacramento and deserted before they reached the Umpqua; but the chief factor could do no less than post a warning, pending investigation. He despatched inquiries to Figueroa, and that func- . tionary was induced to withdraw his assertion ; but in the three months' interval between question and answer, Young and Kelley were forbidden the Fort. Kelley, who was still seriously ill, was assigned quarters in an outlying cabin and a servant to attend to his wants. Food and medicines were regularly sent him, but he was denied the pleasant intercourse of the factor's table. That intercourse was especially interesting in the winter of 1834-1835 because of the presence of half a dozen American gentlemen who had come over with Wyeth: the naturalists Nuttall and Townsend, and the Meth- odist missionaries Jason and Daniel Lee and Cyrus Shepherd. It would seem that these men, all of whom knew Kelley's standing in Boston, might have vouched for his character and extricated him from this humiliating dilemma; but no one of them dared to visit the discredited man except Shepherd, "the gentle Christian whom everybody loved." When Wyeth returned to Fort Vancouver from his excursion up the Des Chutes River, he found to his "great astonishment, Mr. Hall ACQUISITION OF OREGON 129 J. Kelley at the Fort. He came in company with Mr. Young from Monte El Rey, and it is said stole between them a bunch of horses. Kelley is not received at the Fort as a gentlemen a house is given him and food sent him from the Gov. table but he is not suffered to mess here." ^ Kelley re- counts that Wyeth came to his cabin, but his only words were, "Well, Kelley, how did you get here? " The wretched visionary, sick and destitute, clad in a tattered Mexican costume, obliged to accept alms from the hated Britons, and shunned by the only men who could be of use to him, bitterly resented this treatment from the friend to whom he had given the first information about the Oregon coun- try. But Wyeth was himself in desperate straits and could offer no aid. Moreover, his experience in the mountains had taught him that honorable men might resort to dishonorable methods to tide them over an emergency. Unlike Wyeth, who expressed unbounded ad- miration for the efficiency of the great monopoly, even while his business opportunities were melting away, Kelley railed against the Hudson's Bay Com- pany as the author of all his misfortunes. He believed that the real ground of his exclusion from Vancouver was his known intention of colonizing Oregon with American citizens." In the Memoir submitted to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1839, the embittered man asserted that he was "an object of dread and dishke to the grasp- ing monopolists of the H. B. Co." because he was resolved "to act independently as an American on VOL. II K 130 AMERICAN SETTLERS American soil, seeking authentic information for general diffusion, and pursuing the avowed purpose of opening the trade of the territory to general com- petition, and the wealth of the country to general participation and enjoyment." He persuaded him- self that his papers were tampered with and his food poisoned, and that he was finally hurried out of the country as a dangerous character. Dr. McLoughlin did give him free passage to the Sandwich Islands on a Company's ship, and a much needed contribu- tion of £ 7 from his private purse. The latter courtesy Kelley does grudgingly acknowledge, but his obligations to the Company were ignored. In his Narrative, Dr. McLoughUn recounts the Kelley episode and adds: "On his return to the States, he published a narrative of his voyage in which, instead of being grateful for the kindness shown him, he abused me and falsely stated I had been so alarmed with the dread that he would destroy the H. B. Co.'s trade that I had kept a constant watch over him." President Jackson sent Lieutenant Slacum of the Navy to investigate the supposed outrage (1836), but he was soon convinced that Kelley had mis- represented the situation. Ewing Young was a man of very different caliber. A Tennesseean by birth, he had engaged in the fur trade, first in Santa F6 and then in California, until, forced to the conclusion that this was a losing busi- ness, he determined to make a place for himself in Oregon. While Kelley was proclaiming his wrongs, Young possessed himself of an extensive tract of land on Chehalem Creek and there bred his Spanish ACQUISITION OF OREGON 131 horses. He bitterly resented the accusation of horse steahng/^ a capital crime on the frontier, and even when he was exonerated by Figueroa and given the same trade privileges at Fort Vancouver as other settlers, he cherished a stubborn grudge against the chief factor. Champoeg became the rallying ground for the "moimtain-men," and the center of a zealously American party. Young un- dertook to set up a distillery as a means of restoring his depleted finances, using the kettles left by Wyeth for distilling vats; but this enterprise, the manufacture of "the white man's poison, the In- dian's certain death," was earnestly protested by Dr. McLoughUn and the Lees. Young consented to abandon it on condition that his expenditiu-e be made good to him, and the Doctor furnished him the means to erect a sawmill. Once established in business. Young's energy and uprightness of char- acter soon rendered him a respected and influential citizen. Kelley's campaign for an American Oregon was exaggerated and impractical because he took no account of obstacles and glorified his promised land beyond credence. The Rambler ridiculed his prop- aganda as the ravings of "a crack-brained school- master of Boston." " Kelley's promises were indeed magnificent. According to him this transmontane Canaan was a land of milk and honey, full of navi- gable rivers, and practicable in every direction. The timber tops ascended mto the very heaven; the soil yielded more to the acre, spontaneously, than the cultivated fields of Belgium and Britain. 132 AMERICAN SETTLERS No country afforded such facilities for ship-building ; how easy it would be to transport the grain of Oregon, in vessels of Oregon timber, to India, China, and Japan ! What facilities the country offered to the whale fishery and to railroad enterprise ! The Columbia and its tributaries were literally choked with salmon." ^^ The unlucky dreamer marked out the sites of future settlements, — a manufacturing town at the Falls of Willamette, a commercial town at the junction of the Willamette with the Columbia, a seaport on Gray's Bay. He even projected (in his Geographical Sketch of Oregon, 1829) a transcon- tinental railroad. It was to begin on the Missouri River at the mouth of the Kansas, "cross the back- bone of the Continent through a depression near the 43rd parallel," follow the Snake River to Walla Walla, and thence "make a mountainous transit" to the southern extremity of Puget Sound, "there to connect with the interminable tracks of the ships of the great deep." Kelley sincerely believed that if the Hudson's Bay Company had not thwarted his efforts, this road would have been graded through- out and Oregon fully populated by 1840. Sharing the fate of all idealists, he was a generation in advance of his day. All that he hoped for Oregon was destined to come to pass, and largely through his mad propaganda. His pamphlets and his news- paper generated a romantic enthusiasm for the vast realm beyond the Rockies so rapidly slipping from American control. His suggestion that every colonist should receive a grant of two hundred acres of arable land appealed with irresistible force to the ACQUISITION OF OREGON 133 homeless and unemployed of the eastern cities and furnished the foundation for the Donation Act. Kelley's project for the occupation of Oregon failed, but a new impulse derived from an entirely different source proved more potent than the un- measured enconiums of the ardent New Englander. Section II The Missionaries All explorers, traders, and travellers, from Lewis and Clark to T. J. Farnham, are agreed as to the high moral quaUties of the Flathead Indians. Fran- chdre thought they got their religion as well as their horses from the Spanish settlements. "McTavish assvired us that he had seen among the Spokanes, an old woman who told him that she had seen men ploughing the earth; she told him that she had also seen chiu-ches, which she had made him understand by imitating the sound of a bell, and the action of pulling a beUrope; and fiirther to confirm her ac- coimt, made the sign of the cross. That gentleman concluded that she had been made prisoner and sold to the Spaniards on the Del Norte; but I think it more probable it was nearer, in North CaUfornia, at the Mission of San Carlos or San Francisco." ^^ Wy- eth records the reUgious observances of the Flatheads in the journal of his first expedition. "Every morn- ing some important Indian addresses either heaven or his coimtrymen or both, I beUeve exhorting the one to good conduct to each other and to the strangers among them, and the other to bestow its blessings. 134 AMERICAN SETTLERS He finishes with 'I am done.' The whole set up an exclamation in concord during the whole time. Sun- day there is more parade of prayer as above. Nothing is done Sunday in the way of trade with these Indians, nor in plajdng games, and they seldom fish or kill game or raise camp. While prayers are being said on week days, every one ceases whatever vocation he is about ; if on horse-back he dismounts and holds his horse on the spot until all is done. Theft is a thing almost unknown among them and is punished by flogging, as I am told, but have never known an instance of theft among them. The least thing, even to a bead or pin, is brought you if found, and things that we throw away. This is sometimes troublesome. I have never seen an Indian get in anger with each other or strangers. \ I think you would find among twenty whites as many scoundrels as among one thousand of these Indians. ;. They have a mild, playful, laughing disposition, and their quali- ties are strongly portrayed in their countenances. They are polite and unobtrusive, and however poor never beg except as pay for service, and in this way they are moderate and faithful but not industrious." '* In the summer of 1831, before Wyeth and Kelley set ■J out for the Columbia, four mountain Indians, two Flatheads and two Nez Perces, came to St. Louis with Sublette's train and, finding General Clark, asked him to send to their people men who could teach them how to worship God. They were courteously enter- tained by the man who owed so much to these tribes, and were told that missionaries would come to the land that lay at the dividing of the waters." News ACQUISITION OF OREGON 135 of this unusual type of Indian fell into the hands of a sojourner in St. Louis, who forthwith wrote an accoimt of their mission for the eastern press.^* Dr. WUbiu- Fisk, president of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, raised "the cry from Mace- donia" with convincing eloquence, and appealed to the Missionary Society of the M. E. Church to send the gospel to the Flatheads. An appropriation of $3000 was made by the Board, meetings were held in New York, New Haven, Middletown, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and additional funds sufficient for the enterprise were soon raised. Jason Lee of Canada, and his nephew, Daniel Lee, were appointed preachers, while Cyrus Shepherd of Lynn, Massachu- setts, went as teacher. At Independence, Missoim, where the missionaries joined Wyeth's second ex- »^ pedition, P. L. Edwards was enhsted s\s lay helper and C. M. Walker as hired assistant, f^om Port Neuf River, where Wyeth stopped to build his trad- ing post, the missionaries went on with the Hudson's Bay Company's factor, McKay, "toihng through immense tracts of mountain sage, or, more properly, wormwood, an ugly shrub from two to six feet high." " When McKay stopped to trap and trade for beaver, they joined the party of Captain Stuart, an EngUsh traveller, for the journey across the Blue Mountains to Walla Walla. The voyage down the Colimabia was made with the Hudson's Bay Com- pany's brigade. Arrived at Fort Vancouver, they were accorded a cordial welcome by Dr. McLoughlin, who was glad of any civilizing influence that entered his barbarous empire, and advised that they settle 136 AMERICAN SETTLERS on the Willamette, where they would have the pro- tection of the Fort. He furnished them horses, a guide — Gervais — and provisions for a tour of explo- ration to French Prairie, where lay the farms of the ex-trappers. 1* The site selected for the mission sta- tion lay farther up the Willamette, about sixty miles from its mouth and on the east bank (Yamhill Creek). "Here was a broad, rich bottom, many miles in length, well watered, and supplied with timber, oak, fir, cottonwood, white maple, and white ash, scattered along the borders of its grassy plains, where hundreds of acres were ready for the plough." ^' The two lay helpers abandoned the enterprise, Walker transferring his services to Wyeth's post. Fort William, while Edwards opened a school at Champoeg, twelve miles below. Shepherd spent the winter at Vancouver in charge of the school that had been opened by Dr. McLoughlin "some time before," and the Lees were left to develop the Mission with such aid as they could secure from the settlers. A log house was built with implements procm-ed from the May Dacre, and a barn raised. Dr. McLoughlin loaned fifteen head of cattle and gave £26 on his own account to this "public institution." In the spring of 1835 thirty acres was planted to corn, potatoes, wheat, oats, and vegetables. The yield exceeded the most sanguine hopes, and a subsistence for a con- siderable community was thereafter assured. When Slacimi visited the Mission in 1836, there were one hundred and fifty acres fenced and under cultivation, and the cattle from Vancouver were doing well. The appeal of the Flatheads was apparently forgotten. ACQUISITION OF OREGON 137 Okegon Settlements in 1844. The Lees justified this diversion from the original object of their mission by the statement that "a larger field of usefulness was contemplated as the ob- ject of the mission than the benefiting of a single tribe." '" So far as they had in contemplation service to the "mountain men," the change of plan was wise; but the Indians of the lower Columbia were far less hope- ixd material for civilization than the tribes of the interior. Lewis estimated the Indian population (1806) at eight tribes of perhaps one thousand per- sons each, but they were even then fast degenerating under intercourse with the trading vessels. Kelley states that when he was on the river nothing re- mained but the remnants of these tribes, and that the 138 AMERICAN SETTLERS sum total could not have been more than five hun- dred souls. The Multnomahs were all dead, and their villages in rmns.^^ The Clatsops had lost their tribal autonomy and had taken refuge with the Chenooks on the north bank. "All the remaining Indians below Vancouver live in the most brutal, sottish and degraded manner ; addicted to the gross- est intemperance, and associating with the whites in such a manner that there can scarcely be found among them a full-blooded Indian child." Such were the people whom the Methodist mis- sionaries undertook to convert to the ways of Chris- tianity ! They wisely began with the children, or- ganizing a home school for their benefit ; but under the unaccustomed strain of confinement and regular tasks the poor things sickened and died or returned to the degraded savagery of their own villages, "free as a bird escaped from its cage." ^^ "There were more Indian children in the mission grave-yard at the Walamet, . . . than there were of such as were alive in the manual labour school." ^ Consumption and scrofula and intermittent fever were the usual ailments, a dismal preoccupation that left httle time for training, intellectual or industrial. Indeed, Daniel Lee naively records that the amount of labor to be performed about the place greatly retarded the piogress of his pupils, while the adults were obdurate to the influences brought to bear. An old chief, who came to the Mission to be healed of a wound, de- clared openly that "the Bostons should never make him good." A serious effort was made to reach the Indians through the offer of material advantage. ACQUISITION OF OREGON 139 They were urged to locate on a piece of ground as- signed to their use and to till the soil, and the Lees offered to assist them in the building of comfortable houses. "A man was hired to help them, and some efforts were made in order to induce them to work and help themselves. There was, however, so much apathy among them, that, after having used various means for a year quite in vain, they abandoned the attempt." ^ The demoralizing influence of the sailors on the river seemed to be greater than all the efforts of the missionaries. The missions vmdertaken by Daniel Lee and Thomas Perkins at the Dalles and by J. H. Frost among the Chenooks were no more promising. These tribes were more demoraUzed, if possible, than the Calapoosas on the Willamette. The bandits at the Dalles did show much enthusiasm at first, but Daniel Lee was forced to admit in the end, that while prospective temporal gain might "make them ardent professional friends and serious hearers in the absence of all higher motives," yet the conversion was only skin-deep. With the whites, the missionaries had better for- tune. They set on foot a flourishing temperance society among the "mountain men," and the half- breed children came eagerly to school. The mission station was on the trail that led to Galifomia, and many weary travellers "worn out by their long and hungry tramp" found rest and refreshment at the hospitable station. Lee's Ten Years records the pass- ing of Ewing Young with his "twelve sailors and hunters," and of Mr. Kelley, "a New England man who entertained some very extravagant notions v/ v^ 140 AMERICAN SETTLERS in regard to Oregon which he published on his return." ^' In May and September of 1837 two supply ships arrived, bringing twenty more missionaries, among them several devout young women, and the bachelor missionaries were speedily married. This entailed the building of more houses and provision for the future. In the same year a joint stock company was organized for the purchase of cattle, the settle- ment having grown too large to be supplied from the Fort. Slacum, whose ship, Loriot, was in the road- stead, offered free passage to Bodega for the party of ten commissioned to purchase cattle in California, advanced $500 on behalf of the Mission, and gave to Ewing Young, who was to direct the enterprise, a new suit of clothes and a loan of $150. The other settlers got together $1000, and Dr. McLoughlin con- tributed $1250 on account of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. The expedition returned overland the year following, reenforced by several Americans from California and driving six hundred cattle and forty horses. The horses were sold at auction and the cattle distributed among the stockholders at the rate of $7.67 apiece. The Mission thus secured eighty fine animals. The settlers were allowed to redeem the domesticated cattle loaned them from Vancouver with these wild steers, — an offer that was gladly accepted. Dr. Elijah White, a physician who came out with the reenforcement of 1837, indicates, in his Ten Years in Oregon, considerable dissatisfaction with Jason Lee's conduct of affairs. The following year he was ACQUISITION OF OREGON 141 induced to return to the states, "ostensibly "to collect funds and secure additional workers, but also in the hope that "commingling once more with polished society would result advantageously to himself and the mission." ^^ The letter addressed by Jason Lee to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (Middle- town, Conn., Jan. 17, 1839) gives evidence that his views as to the function of the Willamette Mission had undergone a change. "The exclusive object of the Mission is the benefit of the Indian tribes west of the Rocky Mts. But to accomplish this object it is found necessary to cultivate the soil, erect dwelling hoxises and schools, build mills and, in fact, introduce all the necessaries and helps of a civilized colony." He stated his conviction that the missionaries would remain as the nucleus of an American settlement after their services to the Indians were no longer required, provided the United States government would guarantee title to the lands taken up and im- provements thereon, together with protection and the laws of a civiUzed community. "The country wUl be settled, and that speedily, from some quarter ; and it depends very much upon the speedy action of Congress what that population wiU be. . . . It may be thought that Oregon is of little importance ; but, rely upon it, there is the germ of a great state." Lee returned to the Willamette in May, 1840, bringing fifty additional missionaries (thirty-eight adidts and thirteen children) and $40,000 worth of supplies, a reenf orcement that still further diluted the zeal for the conversion of the Indians. Sir George Simpson, who visited the Willamette Valley in 1841, charged the 142 AMERICAN SETTLERS Methodists with lukewarmness. "The American missionaries are making more rapid progress in the extension of their estabhshments and in the improve- ments of their farms, than in the ostensible objects of their residence in this country. As I cannot learn that they are successful, or taking much pains to be so, in the moral and rehgious instruction of the natives, who are perfectly bewildered by the variety of doctrines inculcated in this quarter." ^^ The Methodist Mission was closed in 1844, and the property divided among the members. The "cry from Macedonia" met with response from the Presbyterian Church, less generous than that of the Methodist Board in the way of money, but far more costly in human life. Two young mis- sionaries, Samuel Parker and Marcus Whitman, were despatched to Oregon in 1835. Parker made his way through to the Columbia, but decided that the field was not adapted to his talents and came back around the Horn. Whitman thought better of the prospect and returned to the United States for another helper and for his wife, Priscilla Prentis Whitman. The letters of this heroic woman furnish our most inti- mate knowledge of the struggles, the successes, the failure of the Waiilatpu Mission. In the spring of 1836, Mr. and Mrs. Whitman, Mr. and Mrs. Spald- ing and a Mr. Gray, crossed the Plains in the train of the American Fur Company to the annual rendez- vous. They were provided with the usual number of horses and beef cattle, but the quite unusual ac- cessory of a four-wheeled wagon was added for the comfort of the ladies. Ashley had taken wagons ACQUISITION OF OREGON 143 through the South Pass ten years earlier, but such a vehicle had never attempted the lava beds along the Snake River nor threaded the steep defiles of the Blue Mountains. On the traU up Bear River to Fort Hall, the mis- sionaries travelled in company with McLeod and McKay, the factors of the Hudson's Bay Company posts, and these gentlemen were indefatigable in their efforts to smooth the path of the gentle emis- saries of civiUzation. Buffalo failed after Bear River was passed, but antelope and elk were abun- dant, and at Fishing Falls there were plenty of salmon. Snake River was crossed at a point where two islands divide the stream into fordable channels. Here the wagon capsized, and much of the luggage had to be abandoned ; but when the axletree broke, the indomitable Whitman converted the vehicle into a two-wheeled cart. At Fort Bois6 the wagon was finally abandoned.^* In recrossing the Snake, below the Boise, the ladies were intrusted to a rush canoe towed by Indians on horseback. "It is simply bunches of rushes tied together, and attached to a frame made of a few sticks of small willows." ^ Whit- man had intended to settle at Grande Ronde, the rendezvous of the mountain tribes, but was dissuaded by the almost insurmountable difficulty of getting supplies into a region so far from navigable rivers. The crossing of the Blue Mountains was the most awkward part of the jovtmey, and the western slope was dangerous even for pack horses. "It was fike winding stairs in its descent, and in some places almost perpendicular." ^* 144 AMERICAN SETTLERS Arrived at Fort Walla Walla, the weary travellers were cordially welcomed by Mr. Pambrun and feasted on the good things of his httle . farm. They had now reached the country of the Nez Perces, but it was deemed necessary to go onto Vancouver for sup- plies, and here the hospitable Dr. McLoughUn gave the new-comers a hearty welcome. He was not very encouraging, however, as to their prospects among the Flatheads, and warned them that their lives were in danger unless they settled under the protection of one of the Company's forts. This advice was adopted, and the men of the party returned to the Walla Walla to build a house at Waiilatpu, some thirty miles above the Fort, while the ladies accepted the hospitality of Fort Vancouver for the winter. Boats and guides and supplies were placed at the service of the new missionaries. "Dr McLoughlin promises to loan us enough to make a beginning, and all the return he asks is that we supply other settlers in the same way. He appears desirous to afford us every facility in his power for living. No person could have received a more hearty welcome, or be treated with greater kindness than we have been since our arrival." ^^ The Presbyterian missions were placed at strategic points among the mountain tribes; the Whitmans settled at Waiilatpu in the land of the Cayiises, the Spaldings among the Nez Perces at Lapway on the Clearwater, while Walker and Eels, who came out in 1839, went into the heart of the Flathead country above Fort Colville. At all of these stations, every effort was made to teach the natives industry as well ACQUISITION OF OREGON 145 as religion. Vegetables and fruits were introduced, fields cultivated to wheat, and grist-mills erected. At first the Indians seemed honest and tractable and eager to improve their condition. They even so far overcame their repugnance to manual labor as to till the fields and care for the hogs, hens, and cattle obtained from Walla Walla. But a quite unlooked- for source of dissension arose. The natives grew jealous of the waxing prosperity of the new-comers and began to demand payment, not only for the land, but for the wood and water as well. "It is difficult for them to feel but that we are rich and getting rich by the houses we dwell in and the clothes we wear and hang out to dry after washina from week to week, and the grain we consume in our famiUes." ^^ This state of mind impressed the hard-worked mis- sionaries as both unreasonable and ungrateful. Dr. Whitman explained that the mission property was not his but belonged to the American Board, that he had come at the invitation of the Indians and would withdraw when he was no longer welcome. Another cause of distrust was that the medicines administered by Dr. Whitman did not always cure. When the sick persons had recourse to the medicine man, they were told that the whites were giving poison to rid the land of the Indian. An Iroquois named Joe Gray, who had been educated at Dartmouth but had reverted to the wild fife of his fathers, came to the Walla WaUa at this imlucky juncture and told the people that east of the mountains the whites had paid the Indians for all the land they tilled. He sug- gested that the Cayuses should insist upon their VOIi. II — L 146 AMERICAN SETTLERS rights. Nothing but the near neighborhood of Fort Walla Walla prevented an open outbreak. / Meantime the CathoHc church had not been ob- hvious to the needs of this remote land. The Hud- son's Bay Company had sent two priests to the Co- lumbia district (1838) for the benefit of the French engages at the forts, Walla Walla and Vancouver, and the settlements of Cowlitz and French Prairie, and, according to Sir George Simpson, "they had been very zealous in the discharge of their missionary duties." They could boast no less a convert than Dr. McLoughlin himself. Some time during the winter of 1841-1842, after reading Milner's polemic. The End of Controversy, he was baptized into the faith dear to his mother and his wife and to the French Canadians with whom he had so long been associated. It was an impolitic step so far as his Oregon interests were concerned, but it was taken with the chief factor's characteristic firmness. An J antagonism between the Fort and the Methodist Mission is traceable from this time. The Flathead deputation of 1831 had been noted by the CathoUc clergy. Indeed, the two Indians who died at St. Louis were buried in the cathedral. When neither the Methodist nor the Presbyterian missionaries ventured to this devoted people, a second deputation was sent to St. Louis (1835) and a third (1837). The Jesuit order took up the neglected task, and in the spring of 1840 Father de Smet jour- neyed to the mountains with the American Fur Com- pany's brigade. At Pierre's Hole, he met the Flat- heads and preached the gospel to the assembled tribe. ACQUISITION OF OREGON 147 baptizing several hundred. Immensely encouraged, the zealous apostle returned to St. Louis in the autumn for reenforcements, and in the following spring re- crossed the Plains with two priests and four lay brethren and an adequate outfit to found the mission of St. Mary's in the Bitter Root Valley. The enter- prise was planned for the civiUzation as well as the conversion of the Indians. They were taught to plough and plant, and wheat, oats, and potatoes were sown and harvested, to the amazement and dehght of these aspirants for the white man's way of life. The following year, Father de Smet went down to Fort Vancouver to confer with his fellow-clergy and with the chief factor, and it was determined that he should canvass the United States and Europe for reen- forcements. He returned by ship in 1843 with a con- siderable mmaber of "black frocks." Thus strength- ened, the apostle to the Flatheads extended his endeavor to other moxmtain tribes and founded the mission of the Sacred Heart for the Coeur d'Alenes and St. Ignatius' for the Pend d'Oreilies. Indus- trial development kept pace with the religious. At St. Mary's, Father Ravalh built a grist-mill, having brought the millstones from Europe for this purpose. For his sawmill, this same ingenious priest provided saw and crank beaten out of wagon tires. At St. Ignatius, too, a flour-mill was set up and a whip-saw run by water-power. The first church was built of sawed timbers which were put together without nails. The first missionaries, Protestant and CathoHc, were devoted and seK-sacrificing ; but the rival es- tabUshments, preaching different forms of worship, 148 AMEEICAN SETTLERS had an unfortunate effect on the Indian mind. The confusion of authority was discouraging. Moreover, the natives had anticipated that the white man's re- hgion would bring them prosperity, — successful hunts and immunity from disease. When they found that the old ills were not abated and that new evils hitherto unknown were upon them — the white man's diseases, the white man's preemption of land and game — a sense of grievance and hostility took the place of their early hospitality. Apparently the gulf between the aborigines and civilized man was too wide to be crossed in one generation. It seems the irony of fate that the saintly Whitmans were selected as the victims of their futile wrath. On an autumn evening of 1847, the Cayuses suddenly at- tacked the Mission at Waiilatpu, kiUing in their blind rage not only Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, but the chil- dren resident in school and some American emigrants. The immediate result was a punitive expedition under the auspices of the United States, and the re- lations of friendship and equality between white man and red were at an end. Section III Dr. McLoughlin as a Colonizer The policy of the Hudson's Bay Company towards the Indians had always been conservative. The aborigines were regarded as hardly less important than the fur-bearing animals as factors in their trade, and the continuance of the several tribes in their an- cient hunting grounds was a matter of serious con- ACQUISITION OF OREGON 149 cern. For this reason, liquor was debarred, and intermarriage between native women and the Hud-'^ son's Bay Company's men was encom-aged. The chief factor himseK had married a half-breed, the widow of Alexander McKay. The advent of foreign traders who brought in whiskey and vicious practices, together with the coming of settlers not under the jurisdiction of the Great Company, was naturally dreaded; but, far from discouraging colonization, the Company regarded the agricultural development of such territory as had ceased to produce furs in prof- itable proportions as a natural sequence ; — witness the Red River settlement. By the terms of its char- ter, the Company was not permitted to discharge any of the Hudson's Bay Company servants in the wil- derness. They must be returned to the headquarters in Montreal. This was a humane provision, quite analogous to the regulation that a seaman may not be abandoned in a foreign port; but the retiring employees of the Columbia district, seeing that this was a goodly land and well suited to farming, peti- tioned the chief factor to be allowed to settle there.'^ Dr. McLoughlin devised a scheme by which he might conform to the letter of the law, while providing for the needs of the men and at the same time furthering the ultimate advantage of the Company. Engages who had completed their contracted term of service and accumulated £50 out of their wages, were per- mitted to take their famihes to the Willamette Valley and settle there ; but their names were not stricken from the books. They were still servants of the Company and liable to recall in case of need. Seed 150 AMERICAN SETTLERS wheat, etc., was advanced from the stores at the Fort, on the understanding that the debt would be cleared with the first surplus product. Two oxen and two , cows were furnished each settler on condition that all ,/ the increase be returned to Vancouver, but on no con- sideration were any cattle sold from the Company's herd. Implements and other supphes were sold to engages at fifty per cent advance on London prices.^' Wyeth wrote in 1839: "For several years past the Hudson's Bay Company have been in the practice of permitting their servants to retire from their employ, and settle on the Willamette; there are perhaps some twenty or thirty persons of this description, who are cultivating to a small extent on the bottoms of that river above the Falls (French Prairie). In these cases the obligations beween them and the Com- pany are not dissolved, but only suspended at the will of the Company, who can at pleasure recall them at their stations; and this is often done, and the power to do so is used to govern them; their pay from the Company ceases during their absence from their stations, but is restored on their return." It was essential to the peace of the district that these discharged employees should be held in effective con- trol. A definite colonization scheme was deter- mined on during Dr. McLoughlin's visit to London (1840), and settlers were sent out by way of the Sas- katchewan in 1841 under the auspices of the Puget Sound Agricultural Association. Besides the Hudson's Bay Company's servants, there were a number of free trappers, who, finding increasing difficulty in making a livelihood from the ACQUISITION OF OREGON 151 beaver hunt, were desirous of settling down as farmers in the Multnomah country. The remnant of the Astorians — Joseph Gervais, William Cannon, and Alexander Carson, Lucier, La Framboise, Louis Labont6, Jack and Philip Degr6 — were settled here, and one man, Frangois Rivet, who claimed to have been one of Lewis and Clark's party. Other trappers, "mountain men" from Snake River and the Seed- skeedee, having heard of the beauty and fertihty of the Willamette VaUey, determined to recoup their faihng fortunes by moving thither.'^ Farnham met on Snake River two of these discouraged trappers, Gordon and Meek, who were setting out with their squaws, papooses, and all their "possibles" for the descent of the Columbia. They and many of their fellow trappers were proposing to "settle in one neighboiu-hood, and cultivate the earth, or hunt, as inclination or necessity might suggest, and thus pass the evening of their days among the wild pleasures of that dehghtful wilderness." *^ The cabin of one of these squatters is described by Farnham: "It was a hewn log structure, about twenty feet square, with a mud chinmey, hearth and fireplace. The furni- ture consisted of one chair, a number of wooden benches, a rude bedstead covered with flag mats; and several sheet-iron kettles, earthen plates, knives, forks, tin pint cups, an Indian wife, and a brace of brown boys." ^® To all these would-be farmers — French, Scotch, and American — Dr. McLoughlin offered the same terms as to his old servants. Without his aid success wo\xld have been impossible, for Vancouver 152 AMERICAN SETTLERS was the only source of supply for seed, implements, cattle, and provisions, and the only market for their surplus products. At first sight the chief factor's plan of action would seem to go directly athwart the interest of the great fur monopoly; but to a man actually resident in the country, it was evident that the fur-bearing animals were being exhausted and that new commodities must be brought to the Fort or its trade would languish. Astor's scheme of a trade with the Russian settlements was success- fully developed by McLoughUn, and for this trade food-stuffs were the first essential. The grain grown on the Company's farm could not supply the demand, so it was evident that an agricultural colony producing wheat and potatoes would be a valuable accessory. To the settlers, the near neigh- borhood of the Fort was an unmixed gain, furnishing adequate protection from the Indians and from foreign interference, as well as a sure market for their surplus products. For wheat a fixed price of three shillings a bushel, always paid in suppUes at thirty per cent less than the trade level, meant the equivalent of $1.25 in the States. The certificates of sale given to the farmers and redeemable at the Company's stores served all the purposes of money. To enable the penniless to earn a living, the chief factor "commenced building extensively, at the falls of the WaUamette, and thereby gave immediate em- ployment, at the highest wages, to all those who wished to labor." " That Dr. McLoughlin's policy was not displeasing to his superiors is evident from the recently published j J ACQUISITION OF OREGON 153 report of Sir George Simpson, who visited the Columbia district in 1841. He notes that there were at that date one hundred and twenty-six men, heads of, f amiUes, settled on the Willamette — sixty-five Ameri- cans and sixty-one Canadians — making a total popu- lation of five hundred whites. "All these people have taken possession of tracts of country at pleas- ure, which they expect to retain under a good title arising from such possession, whenever the boundary question may be determined ; and are generally very comfortably settled, bringing portions of their farms gradually under cultivation, and having large stocks of cattle brought from CaUfornia. * * * We have this season purchased from these settlers about 4000 bu. wheat at 3 /per bushel, which will be disposed of to advantage by resale, and instead of manifesting any opposition to these people by withholding sup- plies from them, or putting them to inconvenience in other respects, it is considered good policy to deal with them on such fair and reasonable terms, that no stranger would benefit materially by opposing us in our transactions with them." '^ Sir George visited not only "the pastoral settlement at Mult- nomah Is." (Governor's Island at Willamette Falls), but the "Puget Sound Company's tillage farm" at * the head of CowUtz River. Here was a tract of eighteen hundred acres, of which one thousand was under cultivation, producing eight thousand bushels of wheat and four thousand bushels of oats and barley, besides a large quantity of potatoes. Here and on the fertile plains about Hood's Canal the land was farmed by tenants, — EngHsh and French half-breeds, ^' \ 154 AMERICAN SETTLERS retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company from Red River. The men of English blood were furnished with sheep and cattle, and cultivated their crops on halves. The French were intrusted with seed and agricultural implements, but it was thought they were "not likely to do well with cattle." The governor in chief opined that this region would be "very favorable for settlement and would find an outlet for a foreign market by the straits of de Fuca." "There is no doubt that that country will in due time, become important as regards settle- ment and commerce, while the country in the vicinity of the coast, bordering on the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, so much spoken of in the United States as the El Dorado of the shores of the northern Pacific, must from the dangers of the bar and the impediments of navigation together with its unhealthiness sink in the public estimation." A contrary opinion was held by David Thompson, the old Northwester. Thompson was now a broken and forgotten man, but he addressed to the English gov- ernment a vigorous protest against the surrender of the Columbia River country, the most promising portion of the British inheritance on the Pacific Coast. Section IV American Emigrants The interest in Oregon awakened by Kelley's campaign and Wyeth's enterprises was stimulated and disseminated by reports of the beauty and fer- ACQUISITION OF OREGON 155 tility of the region sent back to "the States" by the missionaries. The Lees wrote letters to the Chris- y tian Advocate, which was pubhshed simultaneously in New York, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis ; Whitman's articles appeared in the Congregationalist of Bos- ton, the Missionary Herald of New York, the Chris- tian Mirror of Portland. Even more stirring were the addresses made by the returned missionaries or their representatives in the Eastern cities. We have an accoimt of one such lectm-e deUvered by Jason Lee in Peoria in the autumn of 1838 which impelled a young lawyer from Vermont, T. J. Famham, to lead a party of nineteen to the land of promise the following year. Farnham's enterprise added but eight settlers to the Willamette colony, but his report of what he saw and heard m the course of his journey to the far-famed Valley was widely read and had great effect in stimulating emigration to the Pacific Coast and in determining the American people to get possession not only of Oregon, but of California. During the decade 1839 to 1849, there | was an annual migration from Westport up the, Platte River and across South Pass to Fort Hall, thence down the Snake and over the Blue Moun- tains to Waiilatpu. With dangers thickening about their infant mis- sion, the Whitmans welcomed the appearance of white settlers. In May of 1840 Mrs. Whitman wrote, "a tide of immigration appears to be moving this way rapidly. . . . We are emphatically situ- ated on the highway between the States and the Columbia River, and are a resting place for the 156 AMERICAN SETTLERS weary travellers, consequently a greater burden rests upon us than upon any of our associates — to be always ready." Considerations of humanity as well as of safety determined these devoted servants of God to give such food and shelter as they pos- sessed to all who passed that way. In 1841 two parties of Missourians, forty-two people all told, went through to the Willamette Valley. "Those emigrants were entirely destitute of every kind of food when they arrived here, and we were under necessity of giving them provisions to help them on. Our httle place is a resting spot for many a weary, way-worn traveller, and will be as long as we live here. If we can do good that way, perhaps it is as important as some other things we are doing." ^' In a letter written this same year. Whitman signed himself, "Your obedient fellow laborer for the sal- vation of the Indians, white settlers and passers-by in Oregon." In October of 1842 Dr. Whitman made a hurried journey back to the States on mission business. Because of the lateness of the season, he took the circuitous route by way of Taos, Santa F6, and Bent's Fort, and arrived on the seaboard early in 'March, 1843, after a hazardous journey. In April he was back on the Missouri frontier piloting a party of emigrants to Oregon. His caravan of one hundred and twenty wagons was the first to cross the Snake River Desert and the Blue Mountains to the Walla Walla. From the Shawnee Mission he wrote : "It is now decided in my mind that Oregon will be occupied by American citizens. Those who Independence Rock. A landmark on the Oregon Trail. Ckossing of the Platte. Mouth of Deer Creek. ACQUISITION OF OREGON 157 go [now] only open the way for more another year." ^ Nearly one thousand men, women and children followed the Oregon Trail under his guidance, with Seal* orfitatntAtfilai ^ULF OP MEXICO Emigbant Roads, 1859. Williuu Enf . Co., H.T. fifteen hundred cattle. The bulk of the emigrants came from the Western states — Kentucky Tennessee, Missouri,<;^ Arkansas, and Illinois — • and were farmers, lured by the prospect of free land and by the in- satiable desire to see something of the world and to better themselves. J. C. Fremont, Senator Benton's son-in-law, who undertook a survey of the route this year, foimd it already thronged with emigrants. "The edge of the wood, for several miles along the [Bear] river, was dotted with the white covers of the emigrant wagons, collected in groups at different camps, where the smokes were rising lazily from 158 AMERICAN SETTLERS the fires, around which the women were occupied in preparing the evening meal, and the children play- ing in the grass ; and herds of cattle grazing about in the bottom, had an air of quiet security, and civilized comfort, that made a rare sight for the traveller in such a remote wilderness." *^ While in Washington in the spring of 1843, Whit- man had some conference with the secretary of war, and in consequence submitted a statement concerning the difficulties and dangers of the route and the draft of a bill proposing that the govern- ment provide military protection and a series of agricultural stations at strategic points along the Trail. The river crossings were suggested as the most desirable posts, because here the Indians were prone to fall upon the unguarded cattle, and here, too, soil and water supply were apt to make feasible the cultivation of wheat and other food needed by the people. Whitman thought such stations would be self-supporting, for the sale of suppUes to the travellers would suffice for all money expense. Cattle and horses would be raised to make good the losses suffered by the trains, and blacksmiths and carpenters should be at hand to repair damages to the wagons. This admirable proposition was not submitted to Congress because the unsettled state of the boundary question rendered Oregon a delicate subject; but the service which Whitman suggested should be undertaken by Uncle Sam was soon ap- propriated by private citizens. Fort Hall and Fort Bois6 and Fort Laramie — the American Fur Com- pany's post on the South Platte — were already driv- ACQUISITION OF OREGON 159 ing a thriving trade in emigrants' supplies, and another, Fort Bridger, was built this same year by a quondam fur trader, James Bridger. Even more helpful to the on-coming Americans was the chief factor at Fort Vancouver. As the parties of way-worn emigrants came down the Columbia, ragged and destitute, they were received at the Hudson's Bay Company trading post as at a mediaeval hospice. The thievish Indians at the Dalles and at the Cascades were warned not to molest the white men, the sick were taken into the hospital and tended by the post physician, food and shelter were furnished the women and children free of charge until they could be removed to the settlement, seed wheat was provided for the first sowing, and cattle, oxen, cows, and hogs were loaned on the same terms as to the Company's men. This assistance was offered by Dr. McLough- lin on his own responsibility and at his personal cost, because it was impossible for a man of his training and in his position to see human beings suffer from himger and cold. His philanthropy was poorly requited. Burnet, himself a pioneer and a Missourian, states, "Many of our immigrants were unworthy of the favors they received, and only re- turned abuse for generosity." ^^ An immigrant of 1844, Joseph "Watt, makes a similar confession: "When we started to Oregon, we were all preju- diced against the Hudson's Bay Company, and Dr. McLoughlin, being Chief Factor of the Company for Oregon, came in for a double share of that feel- ing. I think a great deal of this was caused by the V 160 AMERICAN SETTLERS reports of missionaries and adverse traders, imbuing us with a feeling that it was our mission to bring ; this country under the jurisdiction of the Stars and Stripes. But when we found him anxious to assist us, nervous at our situation on being so late, and doing so much without charge, — letting us have of his store, and waiting without interest, until we could make a farm and pay him from the surplus products of such farm, the prejudice heretofore existing began to be rapidly allayed. We did not know that every dollar's worth of provisions, etc., he gave us, all advice and assistance in every shape, was against the positive orders of the Hudson Bay Company. ... In this connection I am sorry to say that thousands of dollars [$60,000] virtually loaned by him to settlers at different times in those early days, was never paid, as an examination of his books and papers will amply testify." ^' Dr. McLoughhn probably never read de la Roche- foucauld's bitter maxim. If you wish to make a man your enemy, do him a kindness he can never repay ; but he had abundant reason to realize its truth. The details of the chief factor's relations with the Company during these critical years will not be known until a fuller study of the records can be made. It is probable that some one reported his im- politic generosity to the London Office. Certain it v/ is that he was summoned to London in 1845 and soon after resigned his post. His position under the treaty of Joint Occupation was a difficult one. The boundary was not defined, but the suggestions given by Governor Simpson pointed to the Columbia ACQUISITION OF OREGON 161 River as the probable line of division. The Wil- lamette Valley might sm-ely be regarded as open to American enterprise. Traders coidd be driven out by competitive methods ; but in the matter of colo- nization the United States clearly had the advan- tage, and the Americans by this time far outnumbered any force the chief factor could bring to bear. They were hot-headed frontiersmen, moreover, who knew how to handle their rifles, and the first attempt to dislodge them would certainly precipitate war. McLoughlin's Narrative, written to justify his action in the minds of the London directors, adduces the fact that the immigrants "came from that part of the United States most hostile in feeling to British interests," ** and he cites Irving's Astoria as highly provocative of the belief that the United States had been unfairly treated. Section V Congressional Intervention A resolution that inquiry be made as to the condition of the American settlements on the Pacific Ocean and as to the expediency of occupying the Coliunbia River, was introduced in the Congressional session of 1820- 1821 , — only two years after the treaty of Joint Occupa- tion had been concluded, — by Dr. Floyd, senator from ^ Virginia. Thomas Benton was not yet a member of the Senate, but he was in Washington urging Mis- souri's right to statehood, and he used his influence in behalf of the lost territory. He relates in the Thirty Years' View *^ that he and Floyd were stop- VOL. n — M 162 AMERICAN SETTLERS ping at the same hotel with Ramsay Crooks and Russell Farnham, and that the extension of the fur trade in this direction was a matter of frequent dis- cussion. Floyd's bill passed the second reading and was then dropped by tacit consent. It was sup- ported by an impressive array of information and statistics supplied by Hall J. Kelley, and the argu- ments advanced, in addition to the recovery of the territory and the advantage to the fur trade, were the desirabihty of having a supply station for whaling vessels on this coast and the promotion of commerce with Asia. This last point appealed to Benton's fervid fancy and he ventured to prophesy, "The valley of the Columbia might become the granary of China and Japan, and an outlet to their imprisoned and exuberant population." ** Undis- couraged by the initial failure, Benton himself intro- duced a bill (1825) proposing that the defence of the Columbia be undertaken in order that Americans might have equal chances with the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company.*^ He opposed the renewal of the treaty of Joint Occupation (1828) "with all the zeal and ability of which I was master," and he found six western senators to vote with him. The renewal for an indefinite period of an arrangement that gave the great British monopoly a free hand in Oregon aroused his indignant scorn, and the failure of the Ashburton Treaty (1842) to settle the boundary question, he denounced as Uttle short of treason. The attempt to colonize Puget Sound with emigrants from Canada and Great Britain he proclaimed a defiance of the Monroe Doctrine. ACQUISITION OF OREGON 163 Meantime the Oregon controversy was being settled by the emigrants. They were poming into the country, — one hundred and twenty-five iu 1842 and eight himdred and seventy-five in 1843, — and they took up land in the Willamette Valley and biult cabins, quite regardless of treaty obligations or United States law. In May, 1843, they met in convention at Champoeg (Young's ranch) and organized a provisional government.*® Dr. McLough- lin was powerless to interfere, even had he desired to do so, and when in 1845 word came that the British government would not undertake to protect Fort Vancouver, the chief factor and all the British resi- dents took oath to support the newly constituted authorities, reserving, as did the Americans, allegiance due to the home government.*^ In this same year, L. F. Linn, junior senator from Missouri, brought forward a bUl providing for the erection of five blockhouses along the Oregon Trail for the protec- tion of emigrants and granting farms in the disputed territory to bona fide settlers.^ The bill failed to * pass, but the mere proposal to allow six hundred and forty acres to every head of a family with one hun- dred and sixty acres to his wife and one hundred and sixty acres to each child under eighteen years, at the end of five years' cultivation — served as a new stimiilus to the westward movement. Eighteen hundred people followed the TraU in 1844 and three thousand in 1845. By the end of 1845, there were six thousand Americans in Oregon. The emigration of the next year doubled the number and determined the fate of the coimtry. 164 AMERICAN SETTLERS The inauguration of President Polk, a thorough- going expansionist, in 1846, settled the policy of the government. The Democratic platform had fixed upon 54° 40', the southern boundary of the Russian dominions (determined by treaty in 1824), as the northern hmit of the American possessions ; but the soberer statesmen, including Benton, regarded this claim as untenable. Great Britain was ready to compromise at the forty-ninth parallel, and this moderate policy prevailed in the treaty of 1846. The Donation Act of 1850 finally realized the hberal land poUcy proposed by Hall, Whitman, and Linn. To every citizen of the United States who had settled in Oregon before the passage of the bill, including half-breeds, was allotted land to the amount of three hundred and twenty acres ; to his wife, if he was married or about to be married, three hundred and twenty acres more. To all Americans who should settle in the territory before 1853, one hundred and sixty acres for the man and one hundred and sixty more for the wife. To avail themselves of this legislation, Dr. McLoughlin and others of the Hudson's Bay Company officials took out citizens' papers. The attempt to open this newly acquired territory to slave labor failed. The American settlers had entered upon a goodly heritage and they proceeded to make the most of it. The Hudson's Bay Company was now the inter- loper, and its property rights in the territory were given shght regard. The admirable mill site at Willamette Falls which Dr. McLoughhn had de- veloped in behalf of the Company, blasting a mill- ACQUISITION OF OREGON 165 race and collecting squared timber and machinery for a saw-null, was claimed by the Methodist Mis- sion. Oregon City was the most promising town site on the Willamette and here a flourishing settle- ment had sprung up. Palmer described it in 1845 as having one hundred houses and six hundred inhabitants. "There are two grist mills; one owned by M'Laughlin, having three sets of buhr runners, and will compare well with most of the mills in the United States; the other is a smaller mill, owned by Governor Abernethy and Mr. Beers. At each of these grist-mills there are also saw-nulls which cut a great deal of plank for the use of emigrants. There are four stores, two taverns, one hatter, one tannery, three tailor shops, two cabinet- makers, two silversmiths, one cooper, two black- smiths, one physician, three lawyers, one printing office, . . . one lath machine, and a good brick yard in active operation. There are also quite a number of carpenters, masons etc. in constant employment, at good wages, in and about this village." ^^ On his own behalf. Dr. McLoughhn claimed a tract of six hundred and forty acres on the river bank at this point, where he had put a number of houses and projected a town. These prior rights could not be gainsaid except by power of eminent domain ; there- fore representations were made to Congress that brought about the incorporation of Section Eleven into the Donation Act, reserving these lands as financial foimdation for a state university. Under this show of legaUty, Dr. McLoughlin's tract was sold to the men who had secured the' legislation.^^ y 166 AMERICAN SETTLERS The broken-hearted old man protested without avail. "I founded this settlement and prevented a war between the United States and Great Britain, and for doing this peaceably and quietly, I was treated by the British in such a manner that from self- respect I resigned my situation in the Hudson's Bay Company's service, by which I sacrificed $12000 per annum, and the ' Oregon Land Bill ' shows the treat- ment I received from the Americans." ** The boundary treaty had reserved the right of the Hudson's Bay Company to navigate the Colum- bia and to continue its trading operations until the expiration of its charter, although these privileges were hardly worth prosecuting now that the beaver were being supplanted by cultivation and American vessels sailed up the roadstead bringing goods from the United States and carrying produce to California and the Sandwich Islands. When the great British company withdrew in 1859, the property at the several posts was offered to the United States gov- ernment for $1,000,000. A commission was ap- pointed to estimate the value of the improvements at Fort Vancouver. The property had been so looted and wasted by the squatters who hurried to take possession as soon as it was vacated, that the commissioners found justification for appraising this estate at $250 ! CHAPTER II THE MORMON MIGRATION Thus far the dominant motive in the westward movement had been the demand for new lands, the desire to better material conditions. The initial impulse in the peopling of the Great Basin was given by religious persecution. Like the Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony, the Mormon leaders sought an unoccupied country where they might be free to worship God according to their own con- victions and might build a commonwealth after their own notions of moral and spiritual well-being. First in Ohio and then in Missouri, they had at- tempted to establish a community patterned upon the revelations enunciated by their prophet, Joseph Smith. Such an enterprise was of necessity exclu- sive, and this exclusiveness, coupled with their pro- jects of universal dominion, aroused the envy and ill-'' will of their "Gentile " neighbors. Driven from their Missouri homes by mob violence (Independence, 1831 ; Far West, 1838) and forced to abandon lands and property, they found refuge in Ilhnois. Com- merce, a little settlement on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi, was purchased by their agent and re- christened Nauvoo. There, by dint of thrift and sohdarity, the Latter Day Saints soon acquired farms, started manufactm-es, and accumulated con- siderable wealth. Missionaries were sent through- 167 168 AMERICAN SETTLERS out the civilized world (1840) to enlist converts and solicit financial aid for the New Jerusalem. By 1844, thirty thousand Mormons were gathered at Nauvoo, and twice as many disciples in the Eastern states, in England, in Scandinavia, and in Germany, were preparing to join their revered leader in this new Zion. The frontier population of Illinois was hardly less lawless than that of Missouri. River pirates, refugees from justice, half-breed Indians, defiant squatters, mingled with the law-abiding element, both in Nauvoo and in the surrounding country. The Mormons, on the other hand, were charged with harboring cattle thieves, counterfeiters, and polyga- mists. It is not unUkely that some of the more ignorant and reckless brethren interpreted as im- mediate in application the prediction that the saints should inherit the earth, and so regarded the theft of cattle and grain from Gentile farmers as justifiable, — the "spoiling of the Egyptians" as the phrase was. The authorities were both unwilhng and unable to enforce the law against either contestant, words waxed to blows, and in the end the much-enduring Mormons were once more forced to migrate. A scant space of six months was allowed them in which to sell their possessions and purchase the wagons, oxen, and supplies for this third decamp- ment. Their determination to go into a far wilder- ness, beyond the reach of their persecutors, was sealed by the betrayal and murder of Joseph Smith. That crime was the final demonstration of the duplicity of the Gentile world and the necessity of THE MORMON MIGRATION 169 building an independent commonwealth where the Saints might dwell in peace and safety. No true Mormon hesitated to face the issue. In February, 1846, the advance-guard crossed the Mississippi and formed a temporary camp at Sugar Creek, about nine miles back from the river. Early in March, sixteen himdred men, women, and children set out thence to cross the rolUng plains of southern Iowa. Wood, water, and game were abundant, and there was no difficulty in securing food from the farmers along the route in exchange for labor. Arrived at Council Bluflfs, they crossed the Missouri and camped in the Indian reservation. Here among the Ottawas or in the Pottawattamie bottoms on the east bank of the river, the refugees found sanctuary. For twenty years thereafter, the Bluffs was the point of departure for the Mormon who had set his face Zionward, and a "Winter Quarters" was main- tained where the emigrants might recuperate and secure the outfit for their journey across the plains.^ Here fields were planted and cattle gathered for the use of the ever increasing tide. A grist-mill was built to prepare the flour, and blacksmiths and wheelwrights were employed to make ready the wagons that were to transport the " Saints " and their belongings to the land of promise, and here, during the summer and autunm of 1846, the Nauvoo refugees raUied. The late comers, those who because of illness or inabihty to provide means for the journey had delayed their departure till Septem- ber, suffered severely. Overtaken by winter storms and scantily supplied with food and clothing, they 170 AMERICAN SETTLERS encountered every hardship. Exposure and the malaria-haunted country through which they were marching bred disease. The names given to their halting places, Poor Camp and Misery Bottom, attested their wretched plight. Had not food and fresh oxen been sent to their aid from Winter Quar- ters, the women and children, the sick and aged must have perished. Under the efficient direction of the apostles, the combined resources of the church were brought to bear in this trek of a de- voted people, and every individual gave ungrudg- ingly time, strength, and skill to the task of making provision for the needy. By intelligent cooperation fifteen thousand human beings with three thousand wagons, thirty thousand cattle, large flocks of sheep, and all manner of tools, machinery, and ma- terials deemed serviceable in the colonization of a wilderness were conveyed across the four hundred miles between Nauvoo and Council Bluffs in the short space of six months.^ It was a great achievement, but only the begin- ning of the task the Mormon leaders had set them- selves. Brigham Young, the successor of Joseph Smith in the presidency, had determined to place his flock beyond the mountains that formed the western Umit of the Louisiana Purchase, out of reach of persecution. Little was then known of the vast basin or series of basins lying between the continental divide and the Sierra Nevada, except that the region was arid, treeless, and comparatively destitute of animal life. It was indicated on con- temporary maps as the Great American Desert. THE MORMON MIGRATION 171 Trappers had followed the mountain streams and practically exterminated the beaver, Ashley had ^ held his rendezvous at Salt Lake, and Jedidiah Smith had made this desolate spot his headquarters. W. A. Walker had crossed (1833) the desert to the Sierras beyond, returning by way of Ogden River. Ten years later, the "pathfinder," under the guidance of Kit Carson, had explored the Great Salt Lake and reported his "discovery" to the government. Fre- mont's brilliant Journal was printed in 1845 and may have fallen into the hands of the Mormon leader; but in any case, the route to South Pass and the wonderful possibilities of Upper California were well known, so that migration to that region could not be regarded as an enterprise requiring superhuman foresight. It was the part of a judicious Moses, however, to go in advance of his people and spy out the land. Early in April of 1847, President Young, with a company of one hundred and forty picked men, set out to discover the promised Zion. Seventy-three ox carts were loaded with food for the march and with farm implements, seeds, and carpenters' tools for the preparation of quarters for the later migra- tion. The south bank of the Platte was the usual route of the Oregonians, but Young followed the north bank. It was higher and more wholesome and offered better pasturage and fewer Indians than the beaten trail, and the Mormons were desirous, moreover, to avoid coming into conflict with Mis- sourians and other troublesome emigrants. Their order of march was hke that of discipUned troops. 172 AMERICAN SETTLERS Every man walked with his gun loaded and powder- horn ready, the wagons were kept well together, and an advance-guard determined the most practi- cable road and looked out for buffalo and marauding Indians. The night encampment was a model of its kind. The wagons were drawn into a semi- circle, with diameter on the river, in such fashion that the tongues formed an awkward barricade and the fore-wheel of each wagon, interlocking with the hind wheel of the wagon in front of it, completed a substantial corral. Within this enclosure the cattle were confined, while the tents were placed outside. The night watch was intrusted to experienced men only. Early in June the little army reached Fort Lar- amie, the former trading post at the foot of the Black Hills, and here they halted to build rafts for the cross- ing of the North Platte and to dry meat for the moun- tain journey. Here, too, they secured a considerable addition to their scanty stock of food as compensa- tion for the service rendered a party destined for Oregon, who were glad to make use of the impromptu ferry. At Fort Laramie, Young left a detachment of nine men to maintain the ferry as a means of ob- taining money and supplies from the Oregonians and for the use of the Mormon emigrants when they should arrive. Once over South Pass and on west- ward-flowing water, the "pioneers" turned south from the Oregon Trail and, following down the Big Sandy, came to the Green River, over which they rafted the wagons. Black's Fork led them to Fort Bridger, which Orson Pratt describes as "two ad- THE MORMON MIGRATION 173 joining log houses, with dirt roofs, and a small picket yard of logs set in the ground, about eight feet high. The number of men, squaws and half-breed children in these houses and [the surrounding] lodges may be about fifty or sixty." Colonel Bridger gave a most discouraging account of the agricultural possibilities of the Cordilleran area. The "whole region was sandy and destitute of timber and vegetation except the sage brush." He knew exceptions, such as Bear Valley, Cache VaUey, and the Willamette, but these fertile oases were preempted either by white men or Indians. There was a "good country " south of Utah Lake where the Indians were producing "as good corn and wheat and pumpkins as was ever raised in old Kentucky," and twenty days' march farther south the aborigines grew any quantity of the "very best wheat" ;^ but he was ready to offer $1000 for the first ear of com grown in the Great Basin. Con- cluding that they would not turn back until they had seen the country for themselves, the "pioneers" pushed on, directly west, and found their way, with considerable diflaculty, to Echo Canon and across the \ range to Emigration Canon, — a narrow defile that i opens on to the mesa overlooking Salt Lake Valley. ; Two small rivers flowing down from the Wasatch Range made this seem a promising location, and here within two hours of their arrival (July 23) the ad- vance-guard began to plough for a belated planting. The baked earth was hard as iron, and several of the shares were broken in the attempt to tiu*n a furrow. To soften the soil, they dammed the creek and di-; rected the flow over the land. The device worked; 174 AMERICAN SETTLERS satisfactorily and was used there after, not only to soften the soil, but to moisten the seed. The dam- \yliiing of City Creek marked the beginning of irrigation in the Great Basin. Pueblo Indians and their Spanish successors had practised irrigation in New Mexico, after inherited methods ; but that Yankee farmers and EngUsh artisans should have hit upon the process with their first planting argues a high degree of ingenuity. During the month of August, some eighty acres were planted to corn and potatoes. The wheat crop was a failure because planted too late to ripen, but enough potatoes were gathered to furnish seed for the coming year. Shelter was quite as important as food, and men were sent to bring down timber from the mountains for the construction of a fort.* A pit- saw was soon erected, and some thirty houses were built of logs and adobe in four blocks so as to form a hollow square ten acres in extent. The outside walls were perforated with loopholes only, and all doors and windows opened on the court, after the fashion of a palisaded fort in frontier Kentucky. On the seventeenth of August, less than a month after the arrival of the "pioneers," a company of seventy men was sent back to meet the main body of the refugees and escort them over the mountains. The "first emigration" comprised 1553 men, women, and children. Their live stock consisted of 2213 cattle, 124 horses, 887 cows, 358 sheep, with a few hogs and chickens. This great train with its 566 prairie schooners set out from Elkhorn River on the fourth of July and arrived at Salt Lake on the twenty-seventh of September in good health and without serious mishap. THE MORMON MIGRATION 175 ■^^WT'^4^^ I ' 176 AMERICAN SETTLERS Once in the valley, the way-worn emigrants en- countered a staggering disappointment. The pros- pect as they descended Emigration Canon was beautiful as scenery, but it did not promise much in the way of sustenance. The plain was a waste of sage-brush, over which floated a heat mirage dis- torting distant objects. The ground was white with alkaU and infested with black crickets, lizards, and rat- tlesnakes. Only along the creeks flowing down from the mountains was there any green, and here grew nothing but cottonwood, willow, and scrub-oak. Trees suitable for building — ash, maple, fir, and pine — were back in the canons, eight or ten miles distant from the site of the city, and the only pas- turage was the bunch grass that covered the mesa. Return was unthinkable, however, and the Saints resolutely set to work, detennined to force the desert to yield them a hving. Those who had arrived too late to secure cabins, dug caves in the dry earth or placed the covered wagon beds upon the ground and used them for shelter. The rainy season was cold and uncomfortable, but it reassured them as to the chances of agriculture. The city was soon laid out in wide streets and house lots of an acre and a quarter each. Five-acre lots were surveyed in the suburbs as garden plots for the mechanics. Beyond were the farm lots of ten, forty, and eighty acres, increasing with distance from the population center. After the initial year of common cultivation, these lands were assigned to all comers as equitably as might be, each man draw- ing for his portion of the general inheritance. To EillGRiTIOX CaNOX. The fl'ASATCH Raxge. abote Photo. THE MORMON MIGRATION 177 the leaders who had plural wives and large families, a proportionate holding was awarded. Ten-acre lots were reserved for the temple and for public parks. As the Danes " roped out" their arable lands in conquered Angha, so these conquerors of the desert divided to each man his portion. Claims were based on need and use. Brigham Young is reported as saying "that no man should buy land who came here ; that he had none to sell ; but every man should have his land measured out to him for city and farming purposes. He might till it as he pleased, but he must be industrious and take care of it." 5 In the First General Epistle issued in the autumn of 1849, the president stated: "A field of eight thousand acres has been surveyed south of and bordering on the city. The five and ten acre lots are distributed to the brethren by casting lots, and every man is to build a pole, ditch, or stone fence as shall be most convenient, around the whole field in proportion to the land he draws ; also a canal on the east side for the purpose of irrigation." A quite similar apportionment of land and labor was custom- ary in colonial New England. The common fence and the common ditch and the common pasture (to which the cows were driven by a common herder) were not the effect of Owenism or Fomierism or any of the contemporary communistic theories, but the dictates of common-sense and brotherly cooperation. The same union of effort was evidenced in the set- ting up of a pit-saw and the building of the first saw- and grist-mills. The water-power of the mountain streams was rapidly utilized, and sisdieen sawmills 178 AMERICAN SETTLERS and eleven grist-mills were completed by the spring of 1850.« Irrigating canals, mill-dams, roads, and bridges would have been impossible without such cooperation. The so-called "pubUc works" were accomplished by labor furnished as equivalent for the tithes due from all church members and offered by assisted emigrants in return for transportation. So were built on Temple Block the first shops for car- penters, blacksmiths, and machinists. Here, and by contributed labor, was forged and cast the machinery used in the flour and himber mills, also carding ma- chines, fanning mills and farm tools, — the iron being taken from the hubs and tires of discarded wagons. Later, when produce and even money began to be brought to the tithing office, laborers were hired and paid in food and clothing, and many a successful business man was helped to his start in life by em- ployment on the public works. The directing genius of aU these enterprises was Brigham Young. Never had a great colonizer so free a hand. His word was law, and his requisitions were complied with in Scrip- ture measure. Not even the founder of Pennsylvania had more definite plans for his ideal city or was more autocratic in determining the business undertakings of the people who came to the New World under his auspices. In March of 1848 the population of Salt Lake City was 1671 ; 423 houses had been put up, and there were 6000 acres under cultivation (500 being planted to wheat) ; the outlook for the future was full of promise. Then befell a staggering calamity. A "plague of locusts" overspread the land and tlireat- Salt Lake City in 1849. Looking east. Salt Lake City in 1853. Looking south. THE MORMON MIGRATION 179 ened to destroy the crops. The people combated then- advance with every conceivable device, but it was a losing fight. They had given up the struggle in de- spair, whenlo ! a great flock of gulls came up from the lake and gorged themselves upon the enemy. To the half-starved Saints this seemed a miracle, but it was fortunately a miracle that happened every year. The remnant of the crops was saved, though barely enough to carry the "pioneers" and the summer's accession of three thousand emigrants through the next winter. This was the Mormons' "starving time." Frost and snow were exceptionally severe that year, and fuel was scarce. The stock of flour y ran so low that from February to July the ration was three-quarters of a pound per head per day. Many families were reduced to digging the roots of the sego Uly for food, and a rawhide broth was made from old buffalo robes. Word was sent to Winter Quarters that no emigrants should be forwarded the coming season who were not fully self-sustaining, and that these must bring several months' supply of bread-stuffs. Even so, the colony might have perished but for a quite unforeseen event; viz., the discovery of gold in the Sacramento Valley. The first gold-seekers ar- \J rived at Salt Lake in August, 1849, and the Mormon * settlement soon became the halfway station on the overland route to California and an important trad- ing post. In their wild race to be first in the field, the "forty-niners" were ready to make any sacrifice. Fresh horses and mules were purchased at ten times their eastern value, while the jaded animals of the pack 180 AMERICAN SETTLERS trains, often of excellent breed, were abandoned or sold for a song. Flour brought $25 per hundredweight, and the labor of skilled mechanics — blacksmiths and wheelwrights — rose to $3 a day. On the other hand, "States goods," unobtainable hitherto at any price, sold at New York rates, or even less. Merchants who had stocked up for the California trade, hearing that goods were being sent round the Horn, were glad to dispose of their merchandise in this certain market. Money, thus far the scarcest of commodities, began to circulate. The awkward produce payments and the promissory notes issued by the apostles were no longer necessary. A transportation enterprise was organized under the auspices of the church, the Great Salt Lake Valley Carrying Company, for the convey- ance of passengers and freight from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast, and proved very profitable. The rate for passengers was $300 each and for goods, $250 per ton. President Young did not intend his people to become dependent on the outside world. The difficulty of maintaining a colony divided from any market by one thousand miles of wagon trail was far greater than on the seaboard within reach of supply ships, and from the start the Mormons understood that they must be self-sustaining. Cloth and blankets were woven on hand-looms, the wool being carded and spun by the thrifty housewives. Not only shoes and boots, but clothes, were made of deer and elk skins. The brine of the lake yielded from one-third to one-fourth its v^eight in salt, and this necessity of life was hauled by the wagon-load from works set up on the shore. THE MORMON MIGRATION 181 A supply was even sent back to Winter Quarters. The soda springs a few miles to the north were made to serve another prime need. Sugar was not a product of the desert, but Old World experience suggested that saccharine might be obtained from com or from beets. A crushing mill was built from the funds of the chiu-ch in 1855, the machinery being welded out of scrap iron. Under the same benign auspices, a tannery, a pottery, a woollen mill, and a ; nail factory were soon in operation, and a railroad! was built up the canon to bring stone from a distant' quarry. Bishops were accustomed to instruct their flocks in the economical administration of their farms and to read in public a list of those who were to be commended for superior husbandry, fencing and other improvements, — also a black list of the "idle, slothful and unimproving portion of the community, who were held up to reprobation, and threatened, in default of certain tasks allotted them being finished at the next visit, to be deprived of their lots and ex- pelled the community." ^ An agricultural society was established for the pur- pose of instructing the new-comers in the methods of irrigation, making experiments in fruits and vege- tables, and offering prizes to the most successful farmers. The territorial assembly (1855) offered prizes for the largest crop of flaxseed, hemp, flower seed, etc., grown on a half acre of ground, and a re- ward of $1000 was offered (1854) to the discoverer of a bed of merchantable coal within feasible reach of Salt Lake City. Rewards were proposed, also, for the manufacture of rifle powder from materials found in the i/ 182 AMERICAN SETTLERS territory,— $100 for the first hundred pounds, $100 for the second, $50 for the third, and so on till two thousand pounds should be put upon the market. Moreover, capital was encouraged to invest in the region by liberal terms of incorporation. The Des- eret Iron Company was chartered in 1853 in the hope of developing the mineral resources of the Escallante Valley, and the church and the territorial govern- ment took $10,000 worth of stock. The Provo Manu- facturing Company was authorized (1853) to raise a capital of $1,000,000 and to employ it "in such manufactures as they shall deem best * * * and for the erection and maintenance of such machinery, dams, buildings, races, watercourses, bridges, roads, etc.," as might serve their purpose. Labor adequate to all these enterprises was in- siu-ed by a steady stream of immigrants. The Per- petual Emigration Fund was organized (1849) for the purpose of assisting needy Saints to reach the city of their hopes. The sum of $5000 was raised at Salt Lake in 1849, and $35,000 was collected abroad in the next five years. The expenses of transporta- tion were reduced to a minimum, and the recipient of aid was expected to restore the sum to the treasury as soon as possible, in order that others of the world's poor might enjoy a like benefit.^ In 1855 disaster again befell the infant colony. Grasshoppers swarmed the fields and threatened to be as destructive as the " crickets " had been. The following winter was unusually severe. The poorer families were reduced to rations of roots and raw- hide, and great was the suffering in the frail wagon ST" ' Gathering to Zion. ' ' Life by the Way. The Handcart Emigrants in a Storm. THE MORMON MIGRATION 183 tents. The Emigration Fund was by this time so depleted that a cheaper method of transportation was proposed. The emigrants were to cross the Plains on foot, pushing their belongings in hand- carts, and the charge for the journey from Liverpool to Salt Lake on these terms was reduced from £15 to £9 with half rates for infants in arms. In the summer of 1856, thirteen hundred people were sent over the Mormon Trail in five different companies, — the so-called "hand-cart brigades." To each hun- dred were allotted five tents, twenty hand-carts, and one wagon drawn by three yoke of oxen. Tents and general supplies were stowed in the wagon, but each family carried its own rations and its quota of the sick and helpless in the hand-cart, while women and children, from the toddlers to the aged, walked the weary road (a three months' tramp) from Winter Quarters to the Valley. The first three companies suffered no more than the inevitable hardships, but the two last, delayed by the scarcity of carts vmtil mid-August, suffered terribly from hunger and drought, were overtaken by heavy snow-storms in the mountains, and the loss of life was great. The news of this disaster, together with discouraging re- ports concerning crops, etc., checked the emigration movement. It never again reached the proportions of 1855, and the hand-cart experiment was not repeated. In the fifteen years between 1840 and 1854, twenty- two thousand Mormons took ship for America, three- fourths of this number after 1848. The bulk of these people came from Great Britain. At Liverpool, an authorized agent of the church chartered the ships 184 AMERICAN SETTLERS and sold the tickets, commissioning one or more elders to take charge of the emigrants en route. These were responsible for good order and cleanli- ness, and we have abundant testimony to the effect that the personnel of these companies was higher and their standards of health and conduct much better than on the ordinary passenger steamers.' If the port was New York or Philadelphia, the emigrants went over the Alleghanies to the Ohio River and thence by boat to St. Louis ; but the more economical, and therefore the more usual, route was by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi and Missoxu-i rivers to St. Louis or Keokuk, Indepen- dence or the Bluffs, — whatever point of departure for the overland jom-ney might have been determined on. At each transfer was an agent who looked after the comfort of the emigrants and furnished them with the necessary supplies. For the journey across the Plains, a carrying company was organized which was ready to transport passengers and luggage as well as ordinary freight at reasonable charges. This did away with the necessity of buying oxen and wagons at these congested points, where the demand was always in excess of the supply. In this service and in the retailing of oxen, wagons, and food to in- experienced foreigners, there was abundant oppor- tunity for maltreatment and speculation ; but the representatives of the church seem, as a rule, to have performed their duties with commendable abiUty and uprightness. It was, taken all in all, the most suc- cessful example of regulated immigration in United States history. THE MORMON MIGRATION 185 The march of this motley multitude was managed by an organization suggestive of that under which the Angles and Saxons migrated to Britain. The people were divided and subdivided into hundreds and fifties and tens, the natural attachments of kin- ship and neighborhood being observed, and to each division was assigned a responsible captain. Each hundred was to provide itself with oxen, carts, and all needed supplies. For a party of ten, a wagon, two milch cows, and a tent was the standard require- ment.^" Each was to send forward pioneers to plant crops and build houses, each was to care for its pro- portion of "the poor, the widows, the fatherless, and the families of those who have gone into the army." " Military order was observed on the march and in the encampments, the several oflScers taking tm-ns at guard duty about the improvised corral. On this plan were organized all the Mormon companies that crossed the Plains for the next thirty years, until the Union Pacific Railway was carried through to Ogden. Thorough discipline and mutual aid were the means by which one hundred thousand people, the majority of them women and children, were conducted over one thousand miles of desert and mountain with a minimimi of loss in life and property. The original som-ce of this extraordinary migration was Nauvoo, but later accessions came from the Eastern and Southern states, from England, Wales, Scotland, and Scandinavia. The fourth and fifth dec ades of the nineteenth century proved an epoch of misery and unrest, when the poor of every land were seeking escape from pohtical and industrial oppres- 186 AMERICAN SETTLERS sion, and no solution of their difficulties was too transcendental for credence. The wretched opera^ tives of Manchester and Birmingham, workmen in the potteries of Staffordshire, miners of the Lan- cashire collieries, the struggling artisans of London, the landless peasants of Scotland, the superfluous population of Norway, caught eagerly at this op- portunity to secure earthly prosperity and eternal salvation at one stroke. Thousands accepted the Mormon faith and prepared to migrate to the prom- ised land with the vaguest notion of the chances and hardships involved. By far the greater number were farmers and mechanics of the better class who had the means to remove to the land of opportunity. A large proportion, according to official statistics of the British government, w?.re skilled laborers who carried with them the tools needed to pursue their occupation. The amount of hold luggage brought to the dock by Mormon passengers was a common complaint of ships' captains, who avowed that the vessel lay an inch deeper in the water on this account. The migration agents were directed by the church authorities "to seek diligently in every branch [of their British church] for wise, skilful and ingenious mechanics, manufacturers, potters, etc." ^^ The emigrants were advised to bring with them tools and machinery, or designs of machinery, textile and other- wise, that they might set up their several crafts in the Valley. From time to time President Young announced the industries most needed in the com- monwealth beyond the Rockies, e.g. "We want a company of woollen manufactiirers to come with THE MORMON MIGRATION 187 machinery, and take our wool from the sheep, and convert it into the best clothes, and the wool is ready. We want a company of cotton manufacturers, who will convert cotton into cloth and calico, etc., and we will raise the cotton before the machinery can be ready. We want a company of potters; we need them. The clay is ready and the dishes wanted. Send a company of each, if possible, next spring. Silk manufacturers and all others wiU. follow in rapid succession. We want some men to start a furnace forthwith ; the coal, iron and moulders are waiting. We have a printing press, and any who can take good printing and writing paper to the Valley will be bless- ing themselves and the Church." '^ Under this systematic propaganda, emigrants were arriving at the rate of two and three thousand a year, and it was evident that the narrow strip of irrigable land between the mesa and the lake could not sustain the growing conunimity. Steps were taken to enlarge the borders, and exploring parties were sent out to find new locations. Wherever soil and water supply were adequate for agriculture, where there was water-power suited for milling purposes or mineral resources to be developed, "stakes" were planted. Companies of colonists were organized under trusted leaders and equipped with provisions and the implements and materials necessary to the prosecution of their industrial mission. Weber Valley to the north and Utah Valley to the south held better promise for the farmer than the shores of Salt Lake, and here a series of settlements was made. Farther south in the arid San Pete Valley, moxmtain streams 188 AMERICAN SETTLERS were found suflBcient to maintain Nephi, Juab, and Manti stakes along the Spanish Trail. Cedar City 1UllUiiuJ:i]«> Co., NX Stakes planted in Zion, 1847-1877. was founded, two hundred and seventy miles south of Salt Lake, for the working of the iron and coal deposits discovered there. A smelter was erected which produced a ton of metal per day, and five hundred acres were planted to wheat for the main- tenance of the miners. In every case the site of the settlement and its leader were approved by President Young, and careful provision was made that ade- quate supplies of tools, seeds, and live stock were in the outfit and that each company included a suffi- cient number of artisans. When in 1850 the State of Deseret became the Territory of Utah, there were eleven thousand people in the Valley, sixteen thousand acres of land were under cultivation, and the taxable property of the / THE MORMON MIGEATION 189 colony amounted to $1,000,000. During the next six years, in spite of the grasshopper plague and other discouraging circumstances, the colony doubled these figures. In the first days at Salt Lake, Brigham Young had said, "Now if they will let us alone for tien years, I'll ask no odds of them." '* The tenth anniversary of the settlement brought the Mormon commonwealth to a trial of strength with the Federal authorities. Controversies with the "gold-seekers" over payment for supplies, claims to strayed cattle, damages for trespassing, etc., had embittered the relations be- tween Mormon and Gentile.^^ The officials sent out from Washington were mere place-hunters, neither tactful nor wise nor, in aU cases, upright, but the scandal of polygamy had shocked the moral sense of the nation. Representations forwarded to President Buchanan to the effect that United States authority was defied by the Mormons, induced him to order troops to Utah for the purpose of overawing the mal- ' contents and inaugurating the first Gentile administra- tion in the person of Governor Cummings.*' Six thou- sand troops were detailed for this service, and the commissariat exceeded in quantity and cost any that had ever been sent into the West. Two thousand beef cattle, as many horses and mules, and a long train of wagons were provided, with a view to an in- definite sojourn in the wilderness. The fraud and peculation practised on the government by the pur- veyors gave to this expedition the nickname, "the contractors' war." No negotiations had preceded this extraordinary mihtary demonstration, and the ^/ 190 AMERICAN SETTLERS Saints were quite in the dark as to its mission ; but the people were as one man in their determination to resist armed invasion. The Mormon militia num- bered only one thousand insufficiently armed men, Villianii £d8. Co,..Il.r. Waqon Routbs ACB08S THE Wasatch Banqb, 185&-1859. but defence of their mountain stronghold was not difficult. A force was deputed to barricade Echo Canon, a narrow defile with precipitous walls several THE MORMON MIGRATION 191 hundred feet in height and the only direct access to the Valley from the east, and another was sent for- ward to intercept the provision trains and otherwise embarrass the advancing army. Lot Smith and his men succeeded in burning two wagon trains and in "" cutting out hundreds of oxen which were driven off to the Valley, while they fired the plains in the path of the troops and destroyed Fort Bridger, the first objective point.^® So ingeniously did the Mormons make their country and climate fight for them, that General Johnson, seeing his army deprived of food and shelter and means of transportation (for the starved animals were dying by hundreds) and over- taken by furious snow-storms, was forced to abandon hope of reaching Salt Lake before spring. He made the best of a desperate situation by establishing winter quarters on Black Fork, one hundred and fif- teen miles from Salt Lake City. Meantime Governor Cimamings had been induced to visit the city and treat with the Mormon officials, and a truce was agreed upon. The army was to enter the Valley, but on the understanding that pri- vate property was not to be molested and that the encampment was to be forty miles distant from any Mormon settlement. When, however. General Johnson and Governor Cummings rode into Salt Lake City at the head of the United States troops, they foimd the place de- serted. The inhabitants had moved to the south, to the settlements in Utah Valley and beyond, leaving only a few watchmen who were imder orders to set fire to the houses, workshops, and granaries in case any hostile demonstration was made by the much 192 AMERICAN SETTLERS distrusted commander. Evidently Brigham Young and his people were prepared for another trek into the wilderness rather than submit to military rule. Not until the army was encamped in Cedar Valley (Camp Floyd) did the devoted Saints return to their homes. In the end, the presence of the army proved a ma- terial blessing, since the demand for grain, cattle, and labor was enormously increased. Dm-ing the two years of its sojourn in Utah, the Mormon farmers enjoyed a good market at high prices, and many an impoverished emigrant got work at the Fort at wages hitherto unknown in the Valley. When at the out- break of the Civil War, the troops were withdrawn, great quantities of military supplies were sold for a song or abandoned. Goods valued at $4,000,000 were sold for $100,000. Because of their peculiar social and industrial order, the Mormon settlements have been misrep- resented to an extraordinary degree. Most of the first-hand authorities are either Mormon or anti- Mormon, and in neither case can the record be relied upon. The recounting of the simplest facts is Ukely to be colored by prejudice — even distorted beyond recognition. Fortunately for the impartial historian, however, the commonwealth was visited during the first ten years of its existence by several travellers whose fair-mindedness and powers of ob- servation can hardly be called in question. A summary of their conclusions seems essential to an unbiased estimate of the economic results of the Mormon migration. A "forty-niner" described Salt Lake City thus: THE MORMON MIGRATION 193 "The houses are small, principally of brick, built up only as temporary abodes, until the more urgent and important matter of enclosure and cultivation are attended to; but I never saw anything to sur- pass the ingenuity of arrangement with which they are fitted up, and the scrupulous cleanUness with which they are kept. There were tradesmen and artisans of all descriptions, but no regular stores, or workshops, except forges. Still, from the shoeing of a wagon to the mending of a watch, there was no difficulty experienced in getting it done, as cheap and as well put out of hand as in any other city in America. Notwithstanding the oppressive tempera- ture, they were aU hard at work at their trades, and abroad in the fields weeding, moulding, and irri- gating; and it certainly speaks volumes for their energy and industry, to see the quantity of land they have fenced in, and the breadth under culti- vation. . . . There was ample promise of an abun- dant harvest, in magnificent crops of wheat, maize, potatoes, and every description of garden vegetable, all of which require irrigation, as there is little or no rain in this region,, a Salt Lake shower being estimated at a drop to each inhabitant.,! They have numerous herds of the finest cattle, droves of excellent sheep, with horses and mules enough and to spare, but very few pigs, persons having them being obUged to keep them chained, as the fences are not close enough to prevent them damaging the crops. However, they have legions of superior poultry, so that they five in the most plentiful manner possible. We exchanged and purchased VOL. n — o 194 AMERICAN SETTLERS some mules and horses on very favorable terms, knowing we would stand in need of strong teams in crossing the Sierra Nevada." " Captain Howard Stansbury of the United States Topographical Survey was sent to Utah in 1849 to explore Salt Lake and its immediate environs. It was a difficult task because of the desolate character of the "Great Briny Shallow," whose periphery of mud flats, twenty miles back from the shores, afforded neither wood nor water nor game sufficient to maintain an exploring expedition. Success de- pended upon the interested cooperation of the white settlers of the valley. The first Mormons were encountered at Brown's settlement on the Weber, "an extensive assemblage of log buildings, picketed, stockaded, and surrounded by out-buildings and cattle yards, the whole affording evidence of comfort and abundance far greater than I had ex- pected to see in so new a settlement." ^^ Here the party met with a surly reception and were even refused food and shelter. The unexpected rebuff was later explained by the fact that Brown doubted if the United States government would recognize the validity of his Spanish title and lived in dread of the appearance of land office agents. When Stansbury had opportunity to state the purpose of his expedition to Brigham Young, he was assured of all the aid the struggling community was able to give. Stansbury's was the first party of white men to make the circuit of the lake by land, and he attributed this achievement in good part to the help and comfort freely rendered him by the Mor- THE MORMON MIGRATION 195 mons. The winter of 1849-1850 was spent in the city of the Saints, and his relations with the oflBcials were such as to give him abundant opportunity to observe the unique economy of the new Zion. Houses were scarce, and many of the people were still hving in wagon beds ; but food was abundant, and considerable enterprises such as mills and bridges and toll roads were well under way. Stans- bury credits the Mormon brethren with a high standard of commercial moraUty, stating that in no instance had fraud or extortion been practised upon his party. Prices for farm produce were moderate and quaUty good. The not infrequent difficulties between the settlers and the gold-seekers were generally, in his opinion, occasioned by disregard of property rights and of municipal regulations on w the part of the lawless element in the emigrant trains. The offenders who were arrested and fined, or even, in default of payment, forced to labor in the pubfic works by the church authorities, vigor- ously protested this aUen jurisdiction. Brigham Young, Stansbury describes as a man of keen good sense, fully alive to the responsibifities of his station and indefatigable in devising ways and means for the moral, mental, and physical uplifting of his people. The almost universal prosperity of this farming community, only two years remove from the sage-brush, Stansbury attributed to (1) the high degree of industry and intelligence observable in the settlers, precisely the most vigorous and enter- prising of the denizens of the British Isles, (2) the prudence and sagacity of the leaders whose arrange- 196 AMERICAN SETTLERS ments for the journey to Salt Lake City and for the industrial welfare of its people were most business- like, (3) the discipUne of the rank and file who rendered implicit obedience to their ecclesiastical superiors, (4) the spirit of cooperation, — of indi- vidual contribution to the common good, which was the fundamental principle of this extraordinary society. Every man paid tithes of produce and of labor to the church ofl&cials, in addition to the taxes levied by the civil government. Notwithstanding this double burden, every one was prosperous. There were literally no paupers. A proposal to estabhsh a poorhouse had been abandoned because of the evident lack of patronage. Some part of this happy exemption was due to the systematic aid given by the church to newly arrived emigrants, some part, no doubt, to the fact that intoxicating liquors were scarce and dear. Whiskey retailed at $8 per gallon and brandy at $12, because of the heavy duty (fifty per cent) on the imported article. On his return trip through Echo Canon Stans- bury met a Mormon caravan of ninety-five wagons, each furnished with from three to five yoke of oxen, all in fine condition. "The wagons swarmed with women and children," and poultry coops were swung on behind. "I estimated the train at one thousand head of cattle, one hundred head of sheep, and five hundred human souls." " A little later, on the upper Platte (September, 1850), Stansbury reports "crowds of emigrant-wagons, wending their way to the Mormon Valley, with droves of cattle and sheep, whose fat and thriving condition, after so long a THE MORMON MIGRATION 197 journey, was the subject of general remark, and excited universal admiration." ^ To Lieutenant Gunnison, his very efficient second in command, Stansbury deputed the study of the religious and social features of the Mormon state, and to his treatise. The Mormons or Latter Day Saints in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake,^^ the reader is referred as a conscientious endeavor to see, and teU the exact truth in regard to many contro- ' verted points. Gimnison advised the let-alone poUcy (the pohcy later xu-ged by Abraham Lincoln) as the method by which the infant commonwealth would most surely slough off its errors of faith and prac- tice. He believed that the strength of the theoc- racy was enhanced by persecution. With peace, prosperity, and education, its power would inevi- tably disintegrate. Five years after the Stansbury party left the State of Deseret, the Valley was visited by Jules Remy, a French naturaUst, who, being something of a philosopher as well, ventiu:ed the voyage from Honolulu and the journey across the desert for the sake of observing with his own eyes this extraordi- nary development of rehgious fanaticism. To the \/ Frenchman, "Joseph Smith was a cheat and an im- postor" and "Mormonism was the coarsest form of Mysticism" ; but he was forced to concede the ex- traordinary success of this new industrial order. Here was a community of sixty thousand people representing fifteen different nationahties — Britons, s Canadians, Americans, Scandinavians, Germans — by no means the most temperate or least quarrel- 198 AMERICAN SETTLERS some of races; but Remy was struck with the "order, the tranquillity and industry" of the inhabit- ants and the cleanUness and comfort of their dwellings.22 "Neither grog shops, gaming-houses, nor brothels are to be met with." While the Mor- mons did not abstain from the temperate use of Uquors (whiskey distilled from wheat or potatoes, and beer brewed from the hops grown in the Valley), there was no drunkenness. He was struck, too, with the marvellous activity of the seven-year-old city, not only in the Temple Block, where "emigrants who have newly arrived, as well as residents who are without employment apply for work," but in the outlying wards. "The whole of this small nation occupy themselves as usefully as the working bees of a hive. . . . The idle or unemployed are not to be met with here." "^ The extraordinary ma- terial achievements of the modern Zion were, to his mind, not the result of communism, but of pa- triotism. Each man put forth his utmost effort under the threefold necessity of preserving alive himself, his family, and the commonwealth. Brigham Young, Remy thought a coarse, unedu- cated man, but a leader of remarkable shrewdness and force. His ability was acknowledged even by those Gentiles who denounced Mormonism as a poisonous gangrene. The Gentiles, of whom there were not more than one hundred in the city, were not the best element of the population. They were merchants, physicians, and Federal officers, all super- fluous vocations from the Mormon point of view, and a motley collection of vagabonds, "coming n^ THE MORMON MIGRATION 199 one knew whence, living no one knew how, mostly at the expense of travellers and the Mormons them- selves." ^ The Saints were not infrequently charged with the crimes committed by these lawless char- acters, and while Remy recognized, as did his Mor- mon informants, that there were many ne'er-do- weels clinging to the skirts of the mountain state, he came to the conclusion that the rank and file were "industrious, honest, sober, pious, and . . , even chaste in their polygamic relations." ^ It is interesting to put alongside this French estimate of the Mormon commonwealth the obser- vations of two English travellers who perhaps better understood a people in whom the Teutonic blood so largely dominated. WUHam Chandless, though a man of education and substance, crossed the Plains with a cattle train, serving as an ordinary teamster, in the summer of 1855. He had frequent opportunity to observe the admirable order of the Mormon caravans, and attributed this to the devotion of their leaders. The drivers of ordinary teams were paid more than the Mormons in the ratio of five to three, but they were a far inferior type of men. "It was a pretty sight to watch them [a Mormon caravan] starting off for the day's march ; great numbers of women and children walking in advance gaily, the little ones picking flowers, the boys looking for grapes or plums if there were trees near, and the mothers knitting as they went; all seemed willing to endiu-e hardship, looking upon the joxirney as a pilgrimage to the promised land, where they shoxild have rest." ^^ After three months' experience of all types of plains- 200 AMERICAN SETTLERS men, Chandless came to the conclusion that the Mormons were as good Christians as the others. As a whole, they were a "good plain, honest sort of people, simple-minded, but not fools, nor yet al- together uneducated; an omnium gatherum from half-a-dozen nations, containing many excellent artisans and some tradespeople, along with a large number of mere laborers and some few men of talent and cultivation." " Chandless thought Salt Lake Valley not a promising site for a colony, but unexcelled as a refuge from persecution. The settlers were thrifty and industrious and had ap- parently made the best of their scanty opportunities. Marvels had been accomplished in spite of the scarcity of fuel and raw materials and the double burden of tithes and taxes. Richard F. Burton, a world traveller, made the journey from St. Joseph to Salt Lake more luxuriously in the mail coach (1859) ; but he saw, none the less, much of the Mormon emigrants. He, too, noted the excellent discipline of their camps, and thought that their equipment did credit to the Perpetual Emigration Fund's travelling arrangements. The hand-cart brigade was a thing of the past. Many of this year's emigrants had purchased their own outfits at a cost of $500 per family. In the earlier stages of the route there was no hardship ; but once in the mountains, the lack of food and water began to exhaust the strength of the feebler members of the party. On Ham's Fork, Burton's record is: "We had now fallen into the regular track of Mor- mon emigration, and saw the wayfarers in their worst THE MORMON MIGRATION 201 plight, near the end of the journey. We passed several famiUes, and parties of women and children trudging wearily along; most of the children were in rags or half nude, and aU showed gratitude when we threw them provisions." ^ Once in the Valley and under the care of their co-religionists, the emi- grants had every prospect of success. "Morally and spiritually, as well as physically, the proteges of the Perpetual Emigration Fund gain by being trans- ferred to the Far West. Mormonism is emphatically w' the faith of the poor, and those acquainted with the wretched condition of the Enghsh mechanic, collier, and agricultural laborer . . . who, after a life of ignoble drudgery, . . . are ever threatened with the work house, must be of the same opinion. Physically speaking, there is no comparison between the con- ditions of the Saints and the class from which they are mostly taken. In point of mere morality, the Mormon community is perhaps purer than any other of equal numbers." "Furthermore, the Mor- mon settlement was a vast improvement upon its contemporaries in the valleys of the Mississippi and the Missouri." ^^ Traces of the Utah War were stiU evident in the breastworks and barricades along Echo Canon and in the general uneasiness of the people. Governor V'Cummings seemed to Burton a man of abiUty and uprightness, a finer type of man than had been pre- viously sent out by the Federal government; but he had the peacemaker's ungrateful task. "The scrupulous and conscientious impartiality which he has brought to the discharge of his difficult and 202 AMERICAN SETTLERS delicate duties, and, more still, his resolution to treat the Saints like Gentiles and citizens, not as Digger Indians or felons, have won him scant favor from either party." ^^ Brigham Young impressed him as rude and uncouth, but sincere. "Of his temperance and sobriety there is but one opinion. His life is ascetic." He was accustomed to lecture his people on their sins with a plainness of speech and an energy of invective that were Cromwellian. An extract from a sermon printed in the Mormon Expositor is cited: "That man that sells liquor and believes that he must, I will promise him damna- tion for it. That man that makes liquor and gives it to his neighbor, he shall have his reward in Hell." Captain Simpson of the United States Topo- graphical Survey, who passed through Salt Lake and Utah valleys in 1859 and 1860, reports on the character of the outlying settlements. The toll roads were excellent and the bridges adequate, but he thought the adobe villages with their decajdng earthworks slovenly and thriftless. "The generality of the houses is far below in character what obtains among the poorest of our population in the States. The roofs are generally of mud, and give frequent evidences of tumbling in; and the doors and win- dows all indicate penury and an inattention to cleanliness." These villages "are all inhabited by farmers, who cultivate the land contiguous to the town, and the yards are filled with the implements of husbandry, stacks of wheat and hay ; and in the evening, during harvest, there is to be seen a con- stant succession of wagons, filled with the produce Adobe House with Thatched Roof and Wattled Fence. A MoKMON House at Photo, Utah. THE MORMON MIGRATION 203 of the field, and cattle driven in for security. The inhabitants send out their cattle in herds to pasture, the herdsman passing in the morning from one end of the town to the other, and as he does so, sound- ing his horn as a signal for the owners to tin-n their stock into the general herd. The charge is about two cents per animal per day." " The Mormons were planting colonies in the remote moimtain valleys where rich meadowland furnished excellent pasturage and hay for winter feed. In Roimd Prairie at the head of Provo Canon, a httle settle- ment of ten famihes sprang up between Captain Simpson's first and second traverse of the mountains. Garland Hurt, Indian agent for the Territory, furnished Simpson with a table of "Population and Industries " from which it appears that there were at that time in Utah twenty-eight "stakes" and a population of forty-two thousand eight hundred. Salt Lake City was estimated to have a popula- tion of eight thousand, Provo four thousand, Cedar City, Ogden, SpringviUe, and Spanish Fork, two thousand each. The cultivated area (43,400 acres) was a Uttle more than an acre per capita of the population, and the twenty-eight towns had built twenty-seven flour mills and eighteen sawmills. The Mormons in California The original destination of the Mormon hegira was quite indefinite. Somewhere beyond the moirn- tains that bounded the territory of the United States, in the region described by the fur traders and latterly by Fremont, the explorer, there must 204 AMERICAN SETTLERS be a land where a new and free commonwealth could be built. California was already a name to conjure with, and especially Upper California,— a term then used to include everything north of Sonora and west of the Rockies. The Latter Day Saints were accustomed to sing: — " The Upper California, oh, that's the land for me, It lies between the mountains and the great Pacific Sea! " So while Brigham Young was organizing the trek from Nauvoo, Samuel Brannan, the leader of the / Saints in the East, was preparing to lead his flock to California by sea. In February, 1846, the Brooklyn sailed from New York with two hundred and thirty- five emigrants on board and an ample stock of farm implements, seeds, etc., and machinery for saw- and grist-mills. They had reason to believe that their prospects of success were better than those of the overland contingent, for it was understood that Presi- dent Polk favored the enterprise as a means of Americanizing the coveted territory. On the out- break of the Mexican War, the president called upon the Mormons on the Missouri to fiu-nish a battahon. ^ The call came at a time (August, 1846) when every able-bodied man was needed for the march across the Plains ; but it was deemed all-important to give the government this proof of loyalty, and five hun- dred men were sent, without protest, to join General Kearney's command. The Mormon Battalion served under Colonel Cooke, who was deputed to open a wagon road from Santa F6 to the Pacific, and he paid a high tribute to the morale of the men. "Much THE MORMON MIGRATION 205 credit is due to the battalion for the cheerful and faithful manner in which they have accompUshed the great labors of this march, and submitted to its exposures and privations," ^^ and his words were reenf orced by General Mason, who would have been glad to reenUst them. Once arrived in San Diego, however, finding the war at an end, the Saints were eager to rejoin their famihes. Each man received forty dollars in bounty and was allowed to retain his uniform and firearms. They found a ready market for labor in California, and thus when, in small parties and by different routes, they made their way back to the colony at Salt Lake, they were none the worse for their brief mihtary experi- ence, and had acciunulated some welcome cash.^' Meantime, the Brooklyn was voyaging round the Horn and, at the end of six months, arrived in the harbor of San Francisco to find, to Brannan's amaze- ment and dismay, the United States flag floating over Yerba Buena. Brannan speedily adjusted himself to the situation, apostatized, and entered into some profitable business enterprises. Others secured employment with Captain Sutter and were working on the null-race at Coloma when the first gold was discovered there. Tradition has it that some of these men went back across the mountains to Salt Lake City, driving donkeys loaded with gold dust. Certain it is that the first coins authorized by the State of Deseret were struck from California gold, ninety-fom" thousand ounces of which were turned into the treasury of the church. The gold fever was steadUy discouraged by the 206 AMERICAN SETTLERS apostles at Salt Lake, for they feared it would de- moralize the colony. Brigham Young said in his trenchant way, "If we were to go to San Francisco and dig up chunks of gold, it would ruin us," and he succeeded in persuading his people that there was more certain wealth in the sage-brush mesas of the Valley. The commercial opportunities afforded by the gold craze were, however, utilized to the full. Cattle were driven to the Coast, and the returning mule trains brought potatoes and grain and other needed supplies. A stake was planted at the eastern base of the Sierras (Genoa, Nevada) as a halfway station for the muleteers. The agricultural possibilities of California were not ignored by the long-headed business men at the helm of this great colonizing enterprise. It was hoped that a less diflficult route than the overland trail might be developed; viz. across the Isthmus of Panama, by ship to San Diego, and thence via Las Vegas and the Sevier River to Salt and Utah lakes. A large emigration with one hundred and fifty wagons was sent over the Spanish Trail to found the settlement of San Bernardino just below Cajon Pass, and the towns of Provo, Springville, Paysan, and Manti were founded as depots of sup- plies. Laguna Beach was the receiving station at San Diego. CHAPTER m THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA Section I Traders and Trappers Akgtjello's hospitality to trading vessels from Boston opened up trade relations between California and the United States and led to the domiciling of various American citizens in this outlying province of Mexico. The first American settlers were merchants, such as Gale and Cooper of Mon- ^ terey, Abel Stearns of Los Angeles, W. G. Dana and Alfred Robinson of Santa Barbara, Nathan Spear, William H. Davis and Captain Hinckley of Yerba Buena. They readily ingratiated themselves with the Californians by becoming naturalized, adopting the Roman Catholic religion, and marry- ing Mjas del pais. Their superior business abUity soon secured them wealth and influence. Less known, but no less influential in the Americanization of California, were the sailors and mechanics who, »' year by year, deserted the whalers and the hide ships and foiuid refuge with the hospitable natives. They had no difficulty in maintaining themselves in a country where skilled labor was so scarce. Another current of American influence was fur- nished by the hunting parties that made their way over the Sierras to the beaver streams along their 207 208 AMERICAN SETTLERS western slopes. Tradition has it that, in 1822, Arguello sent an expedition up the Sacramento to the foothills of the Sierras to ascertain the truth of a report brought in by the Indians that a number of white men clad in leather and carrying long guns were in hiding there. Whatever the foundation of the rumor, his troopers failed to find the invaders. Four years later, Jedidiah Smith crossed the Mohave Desert to San Gabriel Mission and trapped the length of the San Joaquin Valley. Repeating the daring adventure in 1827, he was forced by the suspicious authorities of Monterey to leave the country. The luckless Patties crossed the Colorado Desert to San Diego in 1829, and were sentenced to solitary confinement for their pains. The son was offered five hundred cattle and as many horses, with land suflScient to maintain them, if he would settle in the country, become a Catholic and a Mexican citizen; but he indignantly refused and returned home to report the wealth and defencelessness of California. A little later W. A. Walker crossed the Great American Desert and the Sierras to Monterey, and, getting off without molestation, brought back an enthusiastic account of the chances for trader and trapper. These daring experiments attracted imitators. Smith's heavy catch of furs revealed to Dr. McLough- lin the rich possibilities of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and opened the way for the exploi- tation of the district by the Hudson's Bay Company. In the autumn of 1828, McLeod was sent south along Smith's trail for that season's hunt. He THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 209 "WUUjud* Eos. Co.. ».t VOL. II — P Hudson's Bat Company's Thail. 210 AMERICAN SETTLERS trapped the mountain streams with excellent success and was returning to Fort Vancouver with pack- horses loaded with beaver and land-otter skins when he was caught in the ascent of Pitt River by an un- expected fall of snow and obliged to cache his furs and hurry on in order to save his men and animals. McLeod was severely censured for this misfortune, and the following year the California district was intrusted to McKay. He ventured even to the Bay of San Francisco and took four thousand beaver along its reedy shores ; but the fur was inferior in quality to that of the mountain beaver and brought only $2 a pound. The next season, Peter Skeene Ogden was transferred to this field, and under his ener- getic management, the Great Valley was thoroughly explored and developed. For ten years (1829-1838), a Hudson's Bay Company brigade made its annual traverse, south in the auturrin and north in the spring, between Fort Vancouver and French Camp, — the post on the San Joaquin. The cavalcade was a picturesque one, formed in Indian file and led by the chief trader. "Next him rode his wife, a native woman, astride — as is common with the females — upon her pony, quite picturesquely clad. . . . Next, the clerk and his wife, much in the same manner ; and so on to the officers of less importance, and the men ; and finally the boys, driving the pack horses, with bales of fur one hundred and eighty pounds to each animal. The trampling of the fast-walking horses, the silvery tinkling of the small bells, rich, handsome dresses, and fine appearance of the riders, whose number amounted to sixty or seventy" THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 211 made a really patriarchal array.^ Smith's trace soon became a well-beaten road some five hundred and fifty miles in length, but since four-fifths of it ran along the levels of the Willamette and Sacramento valleys, the journey was usually made in thirty-one days. American trappers were not slow to avail them- selves of the new himting grounds revealed by Smith, Pattie, and Walker, and year by year larger parties appeared in the Great Valley. They no longer attempted to pack their furs over the moun- tains, but sold them to traders at the coast' ports, and the traffic grew to considerable proportions, — from $15,000 to $20,000 a year.^ Every trapping party was required to have a hcense, and the fees brought in a tidy revenue, highly gratifying to the officials; but the interlopers were for the most part a vagabond crew — frontiersmen from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri — and their influence on the Indians was demoralizing. Some of the Americans found horses and mules a more profitable game than beaver, and they had the cooperation of the natives, who were only too ready to pay off old scores by stealing live stock from the missions or from the rancheros. Thus there gathered in the interior valleys, lawless companies of men who made no pretence of naturaUzation, practised no useful vocation, and cherished both hatred and contempt for the pusillanimous Spanish rule. The long-sought route between California and Santa Fe was opened by Americans. In 1829 Ewing Young came across the mountains from Taos, 212 AMERICAN SETTLERS via Escallantes' trail and Walker's Pass, with a party of trappers — Mexican and Canadian — and found Ogden in the Tulares. Venturing to Los Angeles, he became involved in a drunken riot and was forced to flee the country. He carried back to New Mexico, however, such reports of the trade possibilities of California as greatly excited the mer- chants of Santa F^. Young returned in 1830 in com- pany with William Wolfskill and J. J. Warner, bringing trappers and hunters via Cajon Pass for ■4 the purpose of taking sea-otter along the coast and beaver in the interior. His license from the governor of New Mexico permitted him to take nutria, a word which properly means sea-otter, but which in Santa Fe was used colloquially for beaver. This license was received with some demxu" by the Calif ornian authorities; but Young proceeded to San Pedro, where he built some boats with the aid of an American carpenter out of planking brought from Boston. The padre of San Gabriel gave the party passage on his schooner to the Santa Barbara Islands, and there Young conducted a very success- ful hunt, shooting the otter in the surf and laying in a large store of these valuable fm-s. The year following he moved his party to the Great Valley and trapped along the San Joaquin, thence to Sac- ramento, and thence across the Coast Range and north to the Umpqua River. Recrossing the moun- tains, he came down the Sacramento, trapping beaver all the way ; but on reaching Monterey, his rich catch was confiscated by Figueroa, on the ground that his license did not include beaver. The THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 213 resourceful American then purchased horses from the missions, iatending to sell them at Fort Van- couver. The difficulties there created by Figueroa's misrepresentations have already been related. Meantime, convinced that farming in California was more profitable than hunting, WolfskiU and Warner got possession of land. The former planted the first commercial vineyard in the neighborhood of Los Angeles, while the latter secured a ten-league grant in the mountains back of San Diego and developed a famous cattle ranch. Some of the trappers had made their way back to Santa Fe and there reported that at Los Angeles they were able to trade their Navajo blankets for mules, at the rate of two serapes for one beast. The commercial opening was immediately seized upon by Jackson (of Smith, Sublette & Jackson), and he loaded a pack train with wooUen cloth, blankets, and silver dollars, and set out for San Diego by the southern route (Santa Rita, Tucson, and the Pima villages, Rio Colorado, Temecula, and San Luis Rey). Jack-,; son purchased six himdred mules and one hun- dred horses, of a larger and stronger breed than was grown in New Mexico ; but the Santa F^ market was easily overstocked, and the sugar plan- tations of Louisiana, where they would have brought a better price, were too remote, so the returns on this venture were disappointing. Other traders followed up the opportunity, however, and the Santa Fe caravan soon became an annual event. The train set out in October in advance of the snowfall and, crossing the Mohave Desert in a south- 214 AMERICAN SETTLERS westerly direction, forded the Colorado at Bill Williams Creek, and so by the Cajon Pass to San Gabriel and Los Angeles. The traffic flourished for a decade' (1830-1840), and many of the mer- chants and muleteers, Mexicans and Americans, crossed with the annual caravan and, finding Cali- fornia much to their liking, elected to remain. Dr. /John Marsh, who later founded a colony on the San Joaquin, Pope, who put up the first grist-mill in Los Angeles, and Alexander, who built the first tan- nery, came in by this route. A more or less per- functory compliance with the established form of worship was sufficient to protect them from inter- ference on the part of the authorities, and the people welcomed their ingenuity and business enterprise. The region north of San Francisco Bay was un- touched by the Spaniards, for they had stopped, where Anza had been checked, at Estrejo Carquines ; but the foreigners were not appalled by running water. In the Petaluma and Napa valleys and beyond the tule marshes to the east of the Bay, a number of trap- pers had squatted, relying on the feebleness of the government for immunity from arrest, and had there . collected droves of cattle and horses. In the Great Valley beyond, the resort of wild horses and degenerate Indians, there were two for- eign colonies that rivalled the mission establishments as centres of civilization. Dr. John Marsh was a ''^ New Englander and a Harvard graduate, who num- bered among his friends Schoolcraft, the scientist, and Governor Cass. Dominated by that enthusiasm for the frontier which swayed so many of his contem- THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 215 poraries, Marsh tried his fortune at Detroit, Fort Snelling, Prairie du Chien, and St. Joseph in turn. At the last post he opened a general store and, after seven years' apprenticeship on the Missouri, joined a trading expedition via Scnta F6, Chihuahua, and Sonora to California. Here he determined to establish himself (1835) and, finding no diflBculty in negotiat- ing a land grant from the compliant Alvarado, he selected a tract near the confluence of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers, at the foot of Mt. Diablo. The soil was extraordinarily fertile and the means for irrigation at hand. Within a few years, Dr. Marsh's ranch showed orchards and vineyards an^ tilled fields, as well as a great herd of cattle. His business success together with his acumen and knowledge of the world gave him paramount influence with the American settlers. Even more successful and commanding was John A. / Sutter, a German Swiss, who, failing in business at home, came to America in pursuit of fortune. He had visited the Missouri frontier, the Columbia River settlements, the Russian posts, and the Sandwich Islands before fate brought him to San Francisco Bay. Much impressed by the resources of the re- gion, he secured from Alvarado a floating grant of eleven square leagues (1839) and located it on American Fork, thinking this tributary less subject to inundation than the Sacramento. Purposing to found a colony of his coimtrymen, Sutter called the settlement New Helvetia ; but this project proved un- practical, and he was fain to fulfil the terms of his contract by enlisting such American, EngUsh, and J 216 AMERICAN SETTLERS German adventurers as were at hand. On the north bank of the Fork, three miles above its junction with the Sacramento, the empressario built an adobe fort and organized a considerable fighting force, for he had the governor's commission to defend the frontier against gentiles and horse thieves. His first business venture was in the fur trade, for beaver were still abundant up the Fork ; but he soon had opportunity to buy at a bargain agricultural implements, seeds, plants, and draft animals from Bodega, and was thus enabled to develop his estate. He planted vine- yards and orchards and, sowing a thousand acres to wheat, reaped a hundred-fold harvest. As his means increased, Sutter started new industries, — a tannery, a salmon fishery, a grist-mill, a carpenter's shop and a smithy, where all kinds of implements, includ- ing ploughs with iron shares, were made by American machinists. The thirty artisans were white men and were paid $2 a day, but the bulk of the merely muscular labor, the ploughing and hoeing, the digging of irrigating ditches, and the making of adobe bricks was performed by three hundred. Spanish-speaking Indians, who were meagrely remunerated in blankets and food. For furtherance of household industry, the Indian girls were taught to spin and weave, in anticipation of the day when flocks of sheep should furnish wool for cloth manufacture. The output of these various industries far outran the local demand, and Sutter opened negotiations with a merchant in the Sandwich Islands with a view to shipping butter, cheese, salted salmon, and flour to that profitable market. I i Sutter's Fort in 1849. Sutter's Sawmill at Coloma, 1849. THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 217 The Mexican government had not been indifferent to the inroads foreigners were making into this north- ernmost province, and the traditional jealousies were soon enacted into law. Licenses to take beaver and ' sea^otter were to be granted only to natives, but the proviso that aliens might be employed to do the trapping largely negatived the prohibition. The naturalization law of 1828 required two years' resi- dence, good character, a useful occupation, and adherence to the Catholic faith. In 1830 Victoria was sent to California with instructions to prevent the Russians and Americans from exceeding one- third of the population. He had the hardihood to banish, on charge of smuggling, Abel Stearns, the V most influential American in the south, and he at- tempted to get rid of Cooper of Monterey, on the ground of conspiracy against the government; but his zeal reacted on his own head, and he was driven from the country. Governor Chico renewed the attack on Stearns and issued an order that every foreigner must present himseK before the nearest alcalde and justify his residence in the country under penalty of $25 fine, or eight days at hard labor. This edict was effective only in the towns, where it could be enforced. The officers could not reach the hunters and squatters of the interior, almost the only aliens from whom difficulty was to be apprehended. Chico's violent and arbitrary measures soon brought . on a revolution. Ssonpathizing with the anti-CenJ' tralists, the Califomians determined to be ruled by a hijo del pais who would understand the needs and desires of the people. The foreigners abetted this 218 AMERICAN SETTLERS movement, and with their aid the Mexican incumbent was ousted (1836) and Alvarado put at the head of the government. No sooner was this would-be Washington in control than he turned against his dubious alUes. He trumped up a conspiracy charge and arrested Isaac Graham and fifty other warriors from Branciforte and deported them to Mexico, nor did he hesitate to involve foreigners as reputable and law-abiding as Dr. John Marsh. The violation of treaty rights was so gross that the United States gov- ernment despatched a man-of-war to Monterey, but it arrived too late to rescue Graham's party. France and Great Britian added their protests, and Santa Anna was eventually obliged to repudiate the action of Alvarado, restore the men to liberty, and reinstate them in California. The affair only served to attract attention to the opportunities for realizing a fortune on the Pacific coast, and so enlarging the stream of emigration to California. Meantime the Mexican government was endeav- oring to colonize California. In 1834 two ship-loads of Mexicans arrived at Monterey under conduct of Padres and Hi jar, two gentlemen high in the good graces of the administration. The immigrants had been given free passage, maintenance on shipboard, and a stipend of fifty cents a day till they should reach their destination, after the plan of colonization that had proved so signal a failure in the day of Anza and De Neve. Draft animals, tools, seeds, etc., sufficient for the beginnings of agriculture, were to be contributed by the several missions. The location of the colony was to be north of the Bay, near the THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 219 Russian settlement or at San Francisco Solano ; but the project came to nought. The people were idle, thriftless, and vicious, mere cholos (vagabonds) col- lected at the ports, and the empressarios soon got into political difficulties. The only man to profit by this en- terprise was General Vallejo, who secured thereby some additional laborers for his colony at Sonoma. The fertile valleys north of the Bay were soon preempted by Americans, with whom Vallejo was on very good terms, granting them lands and in various ways furthering their enterprises. Here Young set up the first pit-saw in CaUfornia, while Stephen Smith, having brought a steam engine and other machinery round the Horn, buUt a grist-mill and a sawmill on Bodega Bay. Thus, in time, the north shore came to be known as El Estero Americano. According to De Mofras, the white population of Upper California in 1841 was five thousand, of whom four thousand boasted Spanish blood and eighty were born in Spain. There were at that time in the coun- try three hundred and sixty. Americans, three hun- dred English, Scotch, and Irish, and eighty French and French Canadians. The population of Mon- terey was largely foreign, and this was true in less degree of the other ports and of the two pueblos of Los Angeles and San Jos6.* The Spaniards preferred to live in the country the easy fife of the ranchero. There was a marked contrast in the economic activity displayed by foreigners and Californians. Agriculture, the peculiar province of the Spaniards, was neglected for lack of laborers, and the vine- yards, the oUve and orange orchards planted by >/ / 1/ 220 AMERICAN SETTLERS the padres were dying out, the great wheat fields from which grain had been sent to San Bias now produced a paltry six thousand bushels per year, and the care of the hides was so shiftless that the quahty had notably fallen off. The brains and capital es- sential to the industrial development of this rich country were being contributed by foreigners. At San Diego the two mercantile establishments were owned, one by an American named Fitch, and the other by Snooks and Stokes, Englishmen. The five warehouses on the beach still belonged to the Boston hide merchants. In Los Angeles, by this time a town of thirteen hundred inhabitants, all commerce was in the hands of strangers. The wine industry was being developed by Vignes of Bordeaux, the two grist-mills were owned, one by an American, Chapman, and the other by a Frenchman. A Frenchman was working a gold wash at San Francisquito, a canon just north of San Fernando. There were four asphalt springs south of the town from which the people carted blocks of bitumen with which to roof their houses, but no commercial use was made of this interesting material. At the port of San Pedro, there was but one building, — the hide warehouse belonging to Abel Stearns. At Santa Barbara, the story was repeated, — Englishmen and Americans in the business houses, and Spaniards on the neighboring ranches. The trade of Monterey had fallen into the hands of David Spence, a Scotchman, James Watson, an English- man, and T. 0. Larkin, an American. The popula- tion of Branciforte was made up of American hunters who had settled here and married native women. THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 221 They were a rough, unruly set. Here Dawson had put up a whip-saw and was fast making money out of the redwood forests, and Isaac Graham, a daredevil from Hardin County, Kentucky, had built a distil- lery. Even at San Jos6 there were many English and Americans, and a party of forty ex-traders had just come over from Taos to settle here. The new settlement of Yerba Buena numbered twenty houses. The principal estabhshment was that of the Hudson's Bay Company, whose factor, William Rae, was a ' son-in-law of McLoughhn; but two enterprising Americans, Spears and Hinckley, had put up a saw- and grist-mill, both worked by horse-power. Rich- ardson and Read were doing a good business with the whalers at Sausalito. Simpson observed that the Russians at Bodega, notwithstanding the inferior qual- ity of soil and cUmate, had extensive wheat fields, orchards, and vineyards. They were working two mills, a tannery, and a blacksmith shop, and had buUt four sea/-going vessels in their httle harbor. He remarked with amazement that the Russians and EngUsh had come each a hemisphere to collect the rich harvest of furs " which the indolent inhabitants of the province were too lazy to appropriate at their very doors." Section II Rival Powers The year of 1841 was critical as regarded the future of California. The rival foreign interests, Russian, French, British, and American, were at the moment 222 AMERICAN SETTLERS very nearly balanced, and a slight pressure on one side or another might determine what race was to supersede the indolent Mexicans. The first event of ,. significance was the final withdrawal of the Russian- American Fur Company's post. Their occupation of Bodega Bay and its hinterland had been denovmced by the successive governors without avail. The British government (1835) had protested that the Russian post contravened a stipulation of the Nootka Convention that no foreign settlement should be attempted in Spanish territory. The United States government made similar representations at St. Petersbiirg in 1841. This last protest, combined with the facts that the fur-bearing animals were nearly exhausted and that the supplies needed for the Alaskan posts could be more cheaply obtained at Fort Vancouver, finally determined the directors to abandon their foothold on the California coast. The officers and employees were transferred to Sitka and the Aleutian Islands (1841) ; but the cattle, ordnance, implements, fruit trees, and other prop- erty that could not be removed were offered for sale at a lump sum of $30,000. The logical pm-chaser was the Hudson's Bay Company, which by this time had factories at Yerba Buena, San Jose, and Mon- terey, and was proposing to open warehouses at Santa Barbara and Los Angeles for the purchase of hides and tallow. Governor Etholine would have sold out to the Hudson's Bay Company for $20,000 cash, but Sir George Simpson did not think Bodega a valuable acquisition. The supply of furs was ex- hausted, the post was not well situated for the hide THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 223 and tallow trade, nor was the surrounding country the best to be had for agricultural purposes. Moreover, the Russians "admitted that they had no title to the soil, beyond what they had acquired by occupation," and this claim would not be recognized by the Mexi- can government. So the offer was declined. Sutter pm-chased the movable property at Bodega to stock his post on American Fork, while Simpson secured a land grant on the San Joaquin, the site of French Camp. For the Hudson's Bay Company the Russian post was not a good bargain; but to the British Em- pire it would have been an acquisition of the greatest importance, giving as it did a foothold in California. This Simpson clearly saw. "The country from its natural advantages, possessing, as it does, the finest harbor in the Northern Pacific, in the Bay of San Francisco, and capable, as it is, of maintaining a population of some millions of agriculturists, might become invaluable to Great Britain as an outlet to her surplus population, as a stronghold and protec- tion to her commerce, and interests in these seas, and as a market for her manuf actiu-es ; and as the prin- cipal people in the coimtry, and indeed the whole population, seems anxious to be released from the RepubUc of Mexico, which can afford them neither protection nor assistance, and are apprehensive that they may fall within the grasp of the United States, I have reason to believe they would require very little encouragement to declare their independence of Mexico, and place themselves under the protec- tion of Great Britain." ^ Sir George assm-ed Lord 224 AMERICAN SETTLERS Aberdeen that the presence of a British cruiser on the coast and the offer of appointments to some of the influential Spaniards would accomplish the much- to-be-desired result. "If Great Britain be unwilling to sanction or encourage such a declaration, I feel assured, that some step will very soon be taken with the like object, in. favor of the United States." ^ An important preliminary would be the planting of a colony on the coast, and Simpson recommended for this pxorpose the vaUey of Santa Rosa back of Bodega Bay, the very region which he had rejected as a site for a Hudson's Bay Company post.® In his Voy- age round the World, published four years after the letters were written, Simpson suggested that the government negotiate the acquisition' of California in return for the extinction of the debt of $10,000,000 due from the Mexican government to British subjects. This suggestion had already been made (1839) by Alexander Forbes, the British consul at Tepic; but while the proposition occasioned unfavorable com- ment among interested Americans, it received no official attention in Great Britain. Neither Pal- merston nor Peel was willing to assume any respon- sibility in the matter. The bondholders, indeed, made some overtures to the Mexican government looking to the acquisition of land in satisfaction of their claims. R. C. Wyllie, their agent, had some correspondence with William Hartnell (1844) respect- ing the advantages of California for the location of a British colony, but the project came to nothing. Still more visionary was the plan of the Irish priest, McNamara, to transfer the distressed peasants of THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 225 Ireland to the unoccupied wastes of this land of op- portunity. He petitioned the Mexican government (1845) for a tract between the San Joaquin and the Sierras, on which he promised to settle from one to two thousand Irish famihes. Either imdertaking would have been protested unquestionably by the United States as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Even the new business enterprise of the Hudson's Bay Company was doomed to failure. For four years the factory at Yerba Buena carried on a local trade in hides, although the diminishing supply and brisk competition rendered the commerce unprofit- able ; but in 1845 William Rae became involved in personal and financial difllculties and committed suicide. No one was sent to take his place, and the British consul closed out the business, selling the real estate to Melius and Howard for $5000. Thus the Hudson's Bay Company ceased to influence the fate of California. In this same critical year representatives of France and the United States came to California to study the situation and report upon the resources and prob- able future of the country. The French government sent Duflot de Mofras, an able and experienced man who had served as attache to the embassies of Madrid and the City of Mexico and was in fiill sympathy with the Spanish population. He was especially commissioned to determine the desirabiUty of placing factories at the ports for the aid and protection of French commerce, particularly the whalers. His re- port is a full and accurate account of the population and resources of California and its capacity for de- VOL. n — Q 226 AMERICAN SETTLERS fence, as observed during a sojourn of many months ; but if De Mofras contemplated the GaUic occupa- tion of the country, he found little encouragement in actual conditions. French residents were every- where in the minority, and they gave unremitting attention to their own affairs, mingled sociably with the Spanish-speaking inhabitants, and showed no signs of political ambition. De Mofras claimed Sutter's Fort as a French colony and noted with satisfaction the strategic importance of the post, commanding as it did the route to the upper Sacra- mento and the pass over the Sierras ; but he had no more practical suggestion than that missionaries be sent to care for the Indians left destitute by the destruction of the missions. In private conversa- tion he freely expressed the opinion that California would eventually belong to the United States.' Wilkes, the commander of the United States ex- ploring expedition, who spent the month of August, 1841, in San Francisco Bay, was much impressed by the "total absence of all government." The presidio was in ruins, and its garrison consisted of an absentee officer and one old soldier. No one appeared to have any respect for Alvarado or for the Mexican govern- ment. The pay of the troops was months in arrears, while the higher officials helped themselves to good salaries out of the custom-house receipts. The onerous duties and restrictions imposed at Monterey had driven what little traffic there was away from the "open port" to San Francisco Bay. Here Rich- ardson and Vallejo collected such duties as they saw fit and pocketed the proceeds, turning over a mere BJIM JIX J.oa lAKOf OK HAir O' ■S--1- San Francisco Bay as De Mofras saw it, 1841. THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 227 pittance to the constituted authorities. Before undertaking to put his goods on sale, a shipmaster must first see the commander of the forces and win his favor. Otherwise he would pay penalty for his discourtesy in a hundred petty exactions. Wilkes claimed New Helvetia as an American colony, and with good reason, for Sutter employed a large force of American hunters, and several American families had settled in the vicinity. The conclusion of the American observer was that Upper California must soon separate finally from Mexico and become united with Oregon, a territory with which it had already considerable commercial intercourse. " So may be formed a great state that will control the trade with the Orient and the destinies of the Pacific." This state must be ruled by men of the "Anglo-Norman race." * Wilkes gave himself little concern for the authorities at the presidio; but to the Americans gathered at Nathan Spear's store o' nights he talked quite freely. The usually discreet officer expressed his conviction that California must ultimately be- long to the United States, and that the only rival to be apprehended was Great Britain. Section III The Advent of the Emigrants The ownership of California, like that of Oregon, was to be determined, not by diplomats and battle- ships, but by settlers in actual possession of the land. Rumors of the fair and fertile country beyond the West, where a farm was to be had for the asking. 228 AMERICAN SETTLERS soon reached the Missouri frontier. The letters of Dr. John Marsh and the talk of Robidoux, the Santa F6 trader who had followed the Spanish Trail, found their way into the Eastern papers in the summer and autumn of 1840, and their glowing accounts of Cali- fornia were received with credulous eagerness.' The pioneers of Platte County, Missouri, were all agog to see this new land and to hazard a chance on the farthest frontier. Some five hundred adventurous souls signed an agreement to migrate in the spring, but the merchants of Westport took alarm lest then- market should drift beyond them and they circiilated tales of another tenor, ^^ magnifying the dangers of the Sierras and the hostility of the Calif ornian authori- ties. Bartleson and Bidwell alone persisted. They succeeded in gathering a party of forty-eight — one- third women and children — with a dozen wagons drawn by mules and oxen, and supplies adequate for the overland journey. Fitzpatrick was their guide to Bear River, and this they followed to within ten miles of Salt Lake; but there, instead of going on to Fort Hall, they struck directly west in search of Ogden's "unknown river" which was to guide them to the Sierras. The wagons were abandoned in the desert, and thenceforward the provisions, to- gether with the feebler members of the company, were packed on mule back. The party reached Walker River by the middle of October and they forced their way over the mountains by the lofty Sonora Pass. Coming out into the Stanislaus Valley, they arrived at Dr. Marsh's ranch without the loss of a Ufe, but exhausted and destitute. The businesshke fashion THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 229 in which the ardent exponent of CaUfomia's bounty asked payment for food and clothing astonished and disgusted the Missourians, and the fact that their knives, powder, lead, and way-worn cattle were pur- chased at rates unheard of in the East did not console them for their disillusionment. Vallejo, moreover, demanded their passports and, finding they had none, threw the leaders into jail. The matter was soon adjusted, however, when Marsh and Sutter and other reputable residents offered surety for the peace- able conduct of the new arrivals. The commander- in-chief of the forces of California justified this con- cession on the ground that he had not soldiers enough to expel the Americans ; but the fact that they made themselves useful at Sonoma probably did much to determine his tolerance. In this same year, another party of Missourians came to California by the Santa Fe route, travelling in company with the traders' caravans and driving a flock of sheep for food. The Spanish Trail was less difficult than that taken by BidweU's pajty, but the New Mexican authorities were more obdurate than the Califomian, and the road was infested by thieving Apaches. This route was never popular with any but native Mexicans. The journey via New Orleans, Vera Cruz, and the City of Mexico to San Bias, and thence by water to San Diego was even more hazardous, for the Mexican roads were patrolled by brigands, and the government afforded no protection. This was the most expensive way of getting to Califor- nia, costing about $500 ; but it took only three months' time, whereas the journey round Cape Horn required 230 AMERICAN SETTLERS four or five months, though it cost only $300. The overland traverse occupied five or six months, but the expenditure was slight. The Missouri farmer could use his own wagons and oxen and lay in a stock of Southern Emigrant Routes to Califobnia, 1853. provisions from his own produce. The cost in human life and energy few of these enthusiasts stopped to consider. The Missourians who came overland were largely from Platte and Pike counties, and were of all fron- tiersmen the most uncouth. "They were mostly long, gaunt, narrow-chested, round-shouldered men, with long, straight, light-coloured, dried-up-looking hair, small thin sallow faces, with rather scanty beard and moustache, and small grey sunken eyes, which seemed to be keenly perceptive of everything around them. But in their movements the men were slow and awkward, and in the towns especially they THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 231 betrayed a childish astonishment at the strange sights occasioned by the presence of the divers nations of the earth. The fact is that tUl they came to Cah- fornia, many of them had never in their Uves before seen two houses together, and in any httle village in the mines they witnessed more of the wonders of civilization than ever they had dreamed of. . . . They could use an axe or a rifle with any man. Two of them would chop down a few trees and build a log-cabin in a day and a half, and with their long five-foot-barrel-rifle, which was their constant com- panion, they could 'draw a bead' on a deer, a sqixirrel, or the white of an Indian's eye, with equal coolness and certainty of killing." ^^ In 1843 there was a lull in emigration to Cali- fornia. Men waited to hear from their friends before undertaking the difficult jom-ney. The Work- man-Rowland party, largely Mexican, went by the southern route and settled in Los Angeles, but none went through by South Pass. The year follow- ing, Joseph B. Chiles, who had been one of Bid- well's group, organized a company of eight hun- dred, and piloted it without difficulty to Fort Hall. There, because of the scarcity of game and pasture, the party divided. The hardier men followed Chiles to Fort Boise and thence, guided by the Malheur and Pitt rivers, across the Sage Plains to the Sac- ramento, — a journey so disastrous as to give this thereafter the name of Death Route. The bulk of the company was conducted by Joseph Walker down the Ogden or Mary's River to the "sinks," and thence sixty days' journey south to Owen's 232 AMERICAN SETTLERS Peak, the "point of the mountain," and Walker's Pass. On Owen's Lake, they were obliged to abandon the wagons and cross the Sierras on foot, suffering great hardships; but they finally got through by the Tulares to Gilroy's ranch, without loss of life. This year, in response to vigorous protests against the American invasion forwarded by General Vallejo and by Almonte, Mexican minister to the United States, Santa Anna, fearing lest the example of / Texas should be repeated, issued an edict prohibit- ing further immigration to California. Foreigners without passports were denied legal status and the right to purchase land. Castro undertook to drive the American squatters from the Sacramento Valley, but he was not supported by his superiors, and Waddy Thompson, American representative at the City of Mexico, secured the revocation of the edict. / This year, too, came the first Oregonians. L. W. Hastings, who had conducted a party to the Colum- bia in 1842, was dissatisfied with the region and its damp and gloomy climate, and determined to pros- pect the Spanish territory to the south. He gathered about him some fifty more malcontents, half of them women and children, and followed the trappers' trail across the Mendocino range. On Rogue River they met a cavalcade of Americans moving from California to Oregon and the two parties stopped to compare experiences. All had evidently expected too much of the Pacific paradise. The discussion of the merits and demerits of Oregon and California had the effect of turning one-third of Hastings' THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 233 company back to the Willamette. Hastings and seventeen other men persisted, and brought their families through to Sutter's Fort in excellent health and spirits. Thereafter the Hudson' s Bay Company's trail was a much frequented road and was easily rendered feasible for wagons. Another party of thirty-six disappointed Oregonians came down to Sutter's Fort two years later. In 1844 Murphy and Stevens brought a party fifty strong along Mary's River to the Sinks, and Williuna EDg. Co.. M.X. Wagon Routes ackoss the Sierras, 1858-1859. thence across forty miles of waterless desert to the Truckee River. This led them to the most prac- 234 AMERICAN SETTLERS ticable pass in the Sierras and to the head waters of the Bear River. Lassen's route diverged northward at Lassen's Meadows and entered CaUfornia near the head waters of Feather River. It was three hundred miles longer than the Truckee route, but had the great advantage of easier ascents and descents and better pastvu-age. This trail was soon beaten into an excellent road which was thronged with emigrant wagons. Of the half-dozen routes across the Sierras, those by Sonora and Walker passes were soon abandoned as too dangerous. Lassen's Road and Beckwith's trail were sometimes followed ; but the most popular routes, because the most direct and least moun- tainous, were the two middle crossings ; viz. that by the Carson and American rivers, or, most feasible of all, the Truckee and Bear River route. The first attempt at a scientific survey was made by Captain' Fremont, who, on returning from the Dalles in 1843, was forced, by loss of horses and cattle, to abandon his purpose of recrossing the desert to Salt Lake and to fall back on the forlorn hope of getting supplies in the Spanish country beyond the Sierras. A Washoe Indian guided the explorers up Carson River Canon and indicated the road taken by a party of white men the preceding summer. A midwinter transit was a far more diflftcult matter, for the rocky trail was covered with six feet of snow. Sledges were built for the luggage, snow-shoes con- trived for the men, and a hard path for the horses was made by packing the snow with mauls and shovels. Even so, the party might have perished THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 235 of cold and hunger but for the resourceful courage of the captain. Half the horses were lost or killed for food and two of the men had gone insane before the summit was reached (Febraary 20, 1844). From this point, 9338 feet above sea level, the vast slope of the moimtain to the Bay of San Francisco — eighty miles to the west — could be distinctly seen.^^ The descent along the South Fork of the American River was a dehghtful reUef to the exhausted travel- lers. All the beauty of a California spring was spread out before them. Pasture was abundant, myriad flowers dotted the uplands, magnificent forests of pine covered the foothills, while groves of white oak followed the river courses. Arrived at Sutter's Fort, Fremont found supplies hi abundance and was able to repair his outfit and to secure horses for the return jom-ney. His admira- tion of the energetic Swiss was expressed in glowing terms. The skill which had rendered the Indians industrious farm-hands in return for a mere pittance of food and clothing was only excelled by the in- genuity with which some thirty white mechanics, American, French, and German, were held to their several employments. Excellent wages ($2.50 to S5 per day) and the prospect of lands on the Sutter grant were potent inducements to the newly arrived emigrants. Several had already settled on adjacent ranches, — Coudrois on the Feather River, Sinclair on the American, while Chiles (whom Fremont had met at Fort HaU) was estabhshed on the west bank of the Sacramento. Equipped anew with one hundred and thirty horses and thirty beef cattle, 236 AMERICAN SETTLERS Fremont set out on his return journey up the San Joaquin Valley and across Walker's Pass to the Spanish Trail.^' His enthusiasm for this hitherto undescribed region was unfeigned. The party rode through parkhke meadows brightened by sheets of purple lupine and yellow poppies and shaded by stately live oaks. Game was abundant, elk and deer and antelope, while droves of wild horses browsed undisturbed except by an occasional Indian foray. Fremont's Journal was printed by order of Congress '■'i in 1845 and, being widely circulated, gave tremen- dous impetus to the California fever. His third expedition (1845-1846) was never officially chronicled, but it served no less to augment enthusiasm for the land beyond the Sierras and to incite emigration thither. On this last expedition Fremont crossed the Sierras by the Truckee River, and confirmed the popular impression of the greater feasibiUty of that route. Thus far the movement to California had been less than to Oregon. Two or three parties of ad- venturers, undecided where to locate, half of whom drifted on to the Columbia or returned to the Eastern states, had not added more than two hun- dred persons to the American population. But by 1845 the systematic encouragement of emigration was weU under way. Hastings was in the East, preparing his Guide and lecturing on the marvellous resources of California. Dr. Marsh wrote to his old-time friend, Lewis Cass, dilating on the advan- tage of acquiring this fairest of Mexican provinces for the United States, while Thomas O. Larkin, THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 237 United States consul at Monterey, Nathan Spear, and other enthusiastic Califomians added their argu- ments. The Oregon-bound emigrants of 1845 foimd at Fort HaU two professional guides, Greenwood and McDougal, full of enthusiasm for California and eager to conduct parties thither. By their persua^- sion, emigrants to the number of one himdred men and one himdred and fifty women who had intended to go to the Willamette were induced to cross the Sierras. In the spring of 1846 it was rumored that one thousand emigrants were bound for California, and Hastings, Hudspeth, and Chiles set out to guide them to the promised land. Hastings had discovered a new route from Fort Bridger by Echo and Weber canons, passing Salt Lake south of that dread morass, and then directly west across the Great American Desert to the Sierras. It considerably shortened the distance (thirteen days as compared with thirty- five), but increased the peril from absence of pas- ture and water. Several parties under the personal care of Hudspeth and Hastings made the joiirney in safety, although with heavy loss of cattle; but the Reed-Donner company met a tragic fate. Their traverse of the Great Basin was hindered by a di- vided command, and they reached the mountains so late that the summits were covered with snow. Despairing of making their way through to the west slope, they camped on Donner's Lake, just beyond the divide, and in this death-trap half the mmaber (forty-three) perished before help could reach them. Thereafter Hastings' Cut Off was Uttle used except by Mormons, and the Humboldt and Truckee rivers were usually followed. 238 AMERICAN SETTLERS The valley of the Humboldt, two hundred and fifty- miles long, afforded a difficult roadway for emigrant wagons. The narrow flats were covered with sage- bush, breast high, and pastm-e was scarce, while the river flowing at the bottom of a rocky ravine could be reached only at rare intervals. The Shoshones, ren- dered hostile by outrages committed by unscrupulous white men, were lying in wait ready to ambush the weaker parties and to carry off cattle and horses. The greatest dread of the Humboldt route, how- ever, was the Forty-mile Desert between the Sink and the Carson River, for throughout this stretch of sand and alkali, there was neither water nor grass to be had nor any shelter from the blazing sun. Travellers fortified their live stock as best they might at the slimy, brackish waters of the lower Humboldt, and usually attempted to make the Car- son in one night's forced march; but this required expert leadership and iron endurance, and many fell by the way. Jules Remy, who crossed the desert in 1855, found the trail strewn with wreck- age. "Here and there broken wagons abandoned by the emigrants indicated the roadway, and we met with poles, wheels, and planks in all directions. On all sides also were skeletons and hides of oxen." Remy describes several companies who had brought droves of cattle and horses over the plains from Ohio, only to lose them in this waste. In two in- stances the owner and leader had been killed by the Indians, and beside the trail he noticed the graves of "three emigrants who had left the States, where they were living in comfort, to seek a precarious THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 239 fortune in the land of Eldorado." At the bend of the Carson River, the desert-worn caravans came upon the first habitations of white men, — "three huts formed of poles covered with rotten canvas full of holes." " One was a blacksmith's shop where wagons and harness might be repau-ed, one was a miserable excuse for a hotel, and the third belonged to a trader who suppUed provisions to emigrants and Indians. All three of the then residents of "Rag- town" were, in Remy's estimation, arrant thieves. From this point, according to the preferences of leader or guide, the traverse of the Sierras might be made by following the Carson River to Johnson's Pass, or the Truckee to the higher but more feasible divide discovered by the Murphy party. In the first eight years of the overland migratidn to California, some six hundred and fifty men and as many women and children made their way to the coast by prairie schooner. These immigrants were largely farmers from the Missouri frontier, and they settled in Sacramento, Napa, and Petalimia valleys without much regard to legal title. Squatters by instinct and habit, they were quite content to adopt Hastings' suggestion that a Httle delay would abrogate the necessity of qualifying wader the Mexi- can law. In 1845 Hastings estimated that there were two hundred American farmers settled north of the Bay. They were all doing well, having excel- lent crops of wheat, corn, oats, and flax, and fine herds of cattle and horses. Their pastures lay un- enclosed, for it was cheaper to hire Indians to guard the animals than to put up fences or dig 240 AMERICAN SETTLERS ditches. Their houses were built of adobe because lumber was scarce and the Indians understood only the Spanish mode of building. The enthusiastic advocate of the American occupation of California thought the native ranchero so hopelessly anti- quated as to be unworthy of the land he tilled. His plough was a "mere forked stick, one prong of which, being pointed, answers as the share, and the other having a notch cut at the end, to which a rope may be attached, constitutes the beam, while the main stalk, extending back a few feet from the union of the two prongs, constitutes the handle." His means of transportation was even more primi- tive. "A dry bullock's hide, to which one end of a long rawhide rope is attached, the other end of which is attached to the ponmiel of the saddle" of the horseman. "Upon this hide, thus dragging upon the ground, are heaped vegetables, fowls, and whatever else they may have in readiness for the market." ^^ Another attempt to exclude Americans from Cali- fornia was made in 1845, when Santa Anna sent an order to this effect to Governor Pico, but the gov- ernor saw no reason for alarm. He continued to give the foreigners every faciUty for trade and to award land grants to such as could pay for them or had found means of currying favor. An official statement pubhshed by Almonte to the effect that the popular belief that lands were to be had in California by right of occupation was unfounded, and that no grants made to foreigners were legal without the express sanction of the supreme govern- THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 241 ment, had no more result than Santa Anna's abor- tive order. The prairie schooners continued to cUmb the moimtain passes, and hardy pioneers carved out farms and preempted pasture lands along the lower Sacramento valley. Section IV The Acquisition of New Mexico and California By 1846 there were seven hundred Americans in California, one himdred British, and one hundred French, Germans, and Itahans. There were perhaps seven_thousand ^eeple-of Spanish blood and ten thousand domesticated Indians, as the neophytes were now designated. All enterprise and industry originated with the foreign population, and of the several races represented, the Americans were by all odds the most energetic. The first sea-going vessel built in CaUfomia was launched by a Yankee mechanic at San Pedro. The first lumber was cut for market at Branciforte by the Kentuckian, Isaac Graham. The first steam sawmiU was set up at Bodega by Stephen Smith, the first steam flour-mill belonged to Captain Hinckley of Yerba Buena. Politically as well as industrially the Americans were dominant, and as their numbers increased and their reputation for valor and determination spread, Pico and Castro recognized that they could enforce no exclusive regulations, even had they desired to do so. The military strength of the Califomian gov- ernment consisted of forty-seven antiquated cannon and three hundred and seventeen undisciplined vol.. U — H 242 AMERICAN SETTLERS soldiers, while there was said to be not enough am- munition in the presidio of San Francisco to fire a salute. No American familiar with the situation had any doubt that the annexation of Texas would precipi- tate a conflict with Mexico. When Almonte with- drew from Washington, and Arista began to collect troops at Matamorras on the Rio Grande, President Polk announced that the obstinate adversary had "at last invaded our territory and shed the blood of our citizens on our own soil," and that we had no alternative but war. General Taylor was de- spatched to defend our "historic boundary," General Scott sailed for Vera Cruz with instructions to march to the City of Mexico, while General Kearney led the Army of the West across the Plains to Santa F6. The latter expedition had an excellent chroni- cler in the person of Colonel Cooke, who went in advance to reconnoiter the route. New Mexico had changed in no respect since Gregg described con- ditions there prevailing. The adobe villages looked like "extensive brick yards," cluttered with piles of yellow bricks and smoking kilns. All pretence of protecting the ranches against Indian forays had ceased, and the Navajos and Apaches had swept the land of sheep and driven the people to take refuge in the villages. The great ranch owners lived like feudal lords, each surrounded by his force of peons whom he fed and clothed and kept continually in his debt. The prohibitory tariff imposed by Armijo had ruined the St. Louis trade and left the people no resource but the costly imports from Vera Cruz, THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 243 while the custom house was stDl the scene of shady transactions from which the governor was the chief beneficiary. The few shops were kept by Americans, and the Pueblo Indians were the onlj' other industrious element in the population. Agri- cultiu-e had reached so low a stage that the country was nearly destitute of provisions, and the military defences were of the paltriest description. Governor Armijo boasted an army of six thousand men, but he could not induce them to march on Raton Pass — the natural gateway to Santa F6 — against Kearney's force of seventeen hundred. He was soon obliged to abandon the city and retreat to El Paso, leaving behind him, among other accoutrements of war, a battered cannon marked, "Barcelona, 1778." The Mexican population acquiesced in this ignominious fiasco, and the only energetic defence was made by the Indians. The Pueblos of Taos would not sur- render their fortress dweUrng until one hundred and fifty of their braves had fallen. Once master of the towns, General Kearney ad- ministered the oath of allegiance to the alcaldes and pronounced the people "released from all allegiance to Mexico and citizens of the United States." The Mexican government had failed to secure the first principles of well-being, and the government of the United States promised a more prosperous regime. Nevertheless, the chronicler blushed for the rapidity of the transformation. "They have been informed that they shall soon have a voice in their own gov- ernment. Doubtless this flagrant servitude will be gradually broken up; but when shall such people 244 AMERICAN SETTLERS be capable of self-government ! There will be a territorial government for thirty years — and the language will not change faster than the color of the citizens."^® "The great boon of American citizenship [was] thus thrust, through an interpreter, by the mailed hand, upon eighty thousand mongrels who cannot read, — who are almost heathens, — the great mass reared in real slavery, called peonism, but still imbued by natiu'e with enough patriotism to resent this outrage of being forced to swear an aUen allegiance, by an officer who had just passed their frontier." ^^ The Army of the West then marched on to California, "to repeat the same rather dramatic exploits." "New Mexico has fur- nished the scene of a good rehearsal at the least." ^* There were two ways of reaching California. The old Spanish Trail by Green River involved too heavy risks in the way of snow-covered mountain and parched desert, and Cooke was sent to recon- noiter the Gila River route. From El Paso del Norte he made his way via Bernalillo, Albuquerque, and Isletta, to Frontera and Tucson. The country was too rough for wagons, but the mesas were covered with grama grass, frost proof and excellent provender for the mules, while herds of wild horses and wilder cattle provided food for the men. The Camino del Diablo and the Colorado Desert pre- sented greater difficulties. Leagues of drifting sand and baked clay covered with mesquite bushes and artemesia, where the only surface water was the infrequent rain pools, and wells must be dug to the substratum of clay, where the chief food was that THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 245 furnished by the mesquite bean, — these difficulties did not discourage Cooke's Mormon recruits. The men covered their naked feet with rawhide and woollen rags and marched on with a patience born of despair. Two months after leaving El Paso, they reached the Coast Range and running water. Kear- ney found Cahfornia in a state of war. President Polk had hoped to purchase California, and he sent Shdell to the City of Mexico with a pro- posal for the cession of the province, but the offer was indignantly refused. The determination of the expansionist administration to secure complete con- trol of the Pacific Coast was not, however, aban- doned. Its policy was to keep on good terms with the CaUfornians, while allowing no other power to acquire pohtical foothold in the territory. Secre- -^ tary Buchanan's secret instructions to Larkin (Octo- ber, 1845) made this quite evident. The confidential agent of the government was to use all suitable means to conciliate the Spanish population and to impress them with the advantages of a closer con- nection with the United States. There is good reason to believe that Cahfornia would have accepted the protection of her powerful neighbor with even less protest than New Mexico but for Fremont's unlucky interference. This gifted and ambitious young oflficer, with some aid from Senator Benton, had succeeded in securing (1845) a commission to explore the passes of the Sierras in the interest of the emigrants. The expedition of 1843-1844 had ren- dered htm familiar with the Oregon Trail and with the Carson River route to the Pacific. With a V 246 AMERICAN SETTLERS party of engineers, to which he added some sixty "mountain men" — the noted guide and hunter Kit Carson among them — the "pathfinder" crossed the Sierras in midwinter (December, 1845) by the Truckee Pass akeady discovered by Murphy and Stevens in 1844. Arrived in California, Fremont got Micheltorema's permission to explore the in- terior; but his sudden and unexplained appearance within a day's march of Monterey was resented, and he was ordered to leave the country. His retreat toward Oregon was checked at Klamath Lake, where the party was overtaken by Lieutenant Gillespie with a packet of papers from Washington, — family letters and a copy of the Larkin instruc- tions. Fremont was apparently more impressed by the family counsels than by Buchanan's conciliatory program, for he immediately turned south, en- camped at the Three Buttes, and began to circulate those rumors of General Castro's bloody designs against the American settlers and of his own readi- ness to defend his countrymen, which instigated the Bear Flag revolt. The effect of this ill-timed up- rising was to engender in the minds of the Cahfornians a distrust of the government that had presumably authorized the filibustering exploit, and in the newly arrived immigrants a hatred and contempt of the Spanish inhabitants, — a misunderstanding which seriously handicapped the legitimate representatives of the administration in carrying out its plan of peaceful annexation. The Bear Flag Republic was proclaimed at Sonoma on June 15, 1848. Admiral Sloat raised THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 247 the American flag at Monterey on July 7. In the three weeks' interval there had been some dis- honorable bloodshedding on the part of both the insiu-gents and their antagonists, all hope of a peaceful solution of the imbroglio was dissipated, and Sloat's pacific proclamations fell on deaf ears. There was reason to fear that the Califomians might appeal to England for protection, and the belated arrival of a British fleet at Monterey brought the excitement to a climax. Stockton was appointed to succeed Sloat in command of the Pacific squad- ron, and the systematic conquest of the country was begim. Governor Pico and General Castro fled to Mexico, and Vallejo made terms with the invaders; but there were braver spirits among the Califor- nians. The men of the south made a plucky fight for their independence and they succeeded in inflicting a humiUating defeat on Mervine and his marines at San Pedro and on the more formidable Keamej'^ at ' San Pascual. The issue could not long be doubtful, however, for Mexico could do nothing to aid the loyalists. In the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 2, 1848), New Mexico and California were ceded to the United States in consideration of an indemnity of $15,000,000. Once in possession of California, the Americans declared the obnoxious Mexican customs and the inefficient and arbitrary rule of the alcaldes intoler- able, and they clamored for state government and a code based upon the common law. Congress was slow to act on the California case, both parties to the vexed slavery controversy hoping to win some 248 AMERICAN SETTLERS advantage on the Pacific Coast. Impatient of delay and harassed by the anarchic condition of society, the settlers called a popular convention (1849) and adopted a state constitution. Although more than half the delegates had originated in states below the Mason and Dixon line, a clause excluding slavery was adopted by unanimous vote. The effort of the extreme pro-slavery politicians and the Mexicans of the Los Angeles district to divide California into two states and so leave opportunity for independent action was frustrated, and thus slavery was forever debarred from the new America beyond the Sierras. Section V The Land Question There was far more bitterness in California over the question of land titles and the validity of the grants made by Spanish and Mexican governors than was aroused by the exclusion of slave labor. All properties and deeds recognized by the Mexi- can administration had been guaranteed by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; but to American pioneers, accustomed to wander over a public domain in any portion of which they might acquire preemption rights by the mere fact of settlement, it seemed intolerable that an alien government should have made over large tracts of the best land to men who had done little or nothing to deserve such an advantage. The report of General Halleck (1847) voiced the sentiments of the Americans. Few of the grantees had fulfilled the terms of their THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 249 empressario contract, and the greater part of the wide estates claimed by them lay imcultivated. None of the grants had been accurately surveyed, and their boundaries, roughly indicated by natural landmarks, were doubtful and not infrequently overlapped. Some of the deeds were of dubious origin, bearing the signature of Pico, the recent de facto governor, who had utilized his brief period of authority to enrich himself and his friends. Many of the grants made to foreigners had never been indorsed by the Mexican government in accord- ance with the law. Some were patent forgeriesJ/ The squatters, however, did not concern them- selves about these discriminations. They had small respect for the technicahties of the law and did not hesitate to challenge titles as ancient as those of Nieto and Yerba and as well merited as those of v Sutter. In 1849 the secretary of the interior deputed to William Carey Jones the delicate task of investigat- '^ ing the validity of the California land grants, in order to determine what portion of the territorj'^ fell under the jurisdiction of Congress. The Jones re- port (submitted in May, 1850) represented an ex- haustive and impartial study of the archives, both at Monterey and at the City of Mexico. He came to conclusions not at all in accord with the wishes of the squatters. To wit, the bulk of the Mexican grants had been made in conformity with the law I of 1828 and were "perfect titles," "equivalent to \ patents from our own government" ; ia cases where ^ the technical evidences of title were missing or 250 AMERICAN SETTLERS defective, long and undisputed occupation should be regarded as establishing title ; the pueblo four league grants which had been distributed, under the regulations of de Neve, among the original pobla- dores, should be doubly respected. "They were, in the first place, the meagre rewards for expatriation and arduous and hazardous public service in a re- mote and savage country. They are now the inheritance of the descendants of the first settlers of the country who redeemed it from barbarism. Abstractly considered there cannot be any higher title to the soil."^^ There were without question some simulated grants issued since the American conquest with the connivance of the governors; I/' and these should be put to a rigid test.^" ^he country west of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, precisely the most available and productive portion of the territory, was pretty fully covered by grants that antedated the American occupation; but there was hope for the immigrants in the likeli- hood that an accurate survey would prove that many holdings were far in excess of the original grant, leaving a large surplus still available. ; Now the pioneers, with childlike egotism, held that they, being American citizens, were entitled to the best of everj'-thing in California. It was in- tolerable that a few hundred despised Mexicans should have control of vast tracts along the coast, leaving only the remoter districts for the bona fide farmer. What right had the Vallejos, the Arguellos, or even Captain Sutter to eleven league grants? These great estates savored of effete aristocracy and THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 251 should be disregarded. The land belonged to the hardy men who had faced the dangers of desert and sierra and had brought the institutions and laws of the United States to the Pacific Coast. The Oregon precedent gave warrant for the belief that every emigrant to Cahfornia would be given a farm^ of one hundred and sixty acres in the most promis- ing part of the territory. Undeterred by the con- clusions of the Jones report, incoming Americans proceeded to settle on the most desirable lands, hoping to estabUsh a preemption title when the day of settlement came. Especially at the commercial centers, San Francisco, Sacramento and Stockton, were the squatters active in seizing on attractive lots, quite regardless of ownership. The town of Sacramento was built on the low ground along the river a few miles below New Helvetia. The land had been sold by Captain Sutter to Samuel Brannan and other speculators who proceeded to oust the squatters. Organized resistance was determined on, and the leaders drew up a statement of their position: "Whereas the land in Cahfornia is pre- sumed to be pubhc land, therefore, Resolved, That we will protect any settler in the possession of land to the extent of one lot in the city, and one hundred and sixty acres in the country, till a valid title shall be shown for it." ^^ Alvarado's grant to Sut- ter ran from the Feather River on the east to the Sacramento River on the west, and from the Three Peaks on the north to latitude 38° 49' 32" (withm twenty miles of Sacramento) on the south, and did not, therefore, cover the disputed district ; but the 252 AMERICAN SETTLERS legislature and the courts sided with the speculators, and the controversy came to blows. The movement spread to other towns, and under the name of "the preemptioners' league" and "the settlers' party," the squatters exercised a strong influence on national legislation. By an "act to ascertain and settle private land claims in the state of California" (March 3, 1851), ^Congress undertook to arbitrate these difficulties. A land commission was appointed before which all titles must be presented and vindicated on pain of forfeiture; but appeal from the decision of the com- mission might be had to the United States district court and thence to the Supreme Court. The claim- ant, having run successfully the gantlet of these three tribunals, must still have his grant delimited by the United States surveyor-general for Cahfornia before he was entitled to a final patent from the gen- eral land office. Titles that were rejected or that failed of presentation within two years after the ap- pointment of the commission, escheated to the public domain and were thereupon open to preemption. This extraordinary piece of partisan legislation was earnestly opposed by Senator Bentoti, on the ground that it called in question every land title in the state (titles that had been assumed to be valid in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo), and imposed upon the Cali- fornians a long and costly process of litigation. ■These considerations had Uttle weight, however, in opposition to the representations of Senator Gwin, advocate of the settlers' party. The result was to involve the country in an endless snarl of litigation. THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 253 The California landowner, never a good business man, ignorant of American customs and court pro- cedure, had now to defend his antiquated title against the shrewd and persistent American claimant. Whatever the decision of the commissioners, the case was almost invariably appealed to the district and then to the Supreme Coiirt, and the costs of the successive suits, together with the lawyers' fees, far exceeded the annual income from the estate in ques- tion. The harassed ranchero could offer only land and cattle in payment, and it not infrequently hap- pened that before the suit was ended, the property had passed into the hands of the attorneys ia the case. The ultimate findings of the Supreme Court justi- fied the greater part of the Mexican titles. Of eight hundred and thirteen titles brought before the com- mission, six hundred and four were finally confirmed, one hundred and ninety were rejected, and nineteen were withdrawn as indefensible. (Many of the smaller landowners and most of the Indians failed to present their claims and so forfeited their lands.) It is probable that few legal titles were set aside, but the Spanish landowners were none the less impover- ished and despoiled. The American claimants suf- fered hardly less. The costs of htigation, the im- possibility of selling or mortgaging any portion of the land so long as the title was dubious, the dis- couragement to permanent improvements, — all these deterrents, prolonged through the critical period when there was most need that the soil should be brought under cultivation, served to check the 254 AMERICAN SETTLERS agricultural development of California and the pros- perity of the original settlers. Far better for the squatters would have been the measures urged by . Benton and Fremont, based on the tacit recognition of all Mexican titles and the calling before the commission of only such grants as were made subse- quent to the conquest or were challenged as fraudu- lent. Farm land was at that time "cheap as dirt" in California. The very best of it, that about Santa Barbara, might be bought at twenty-five cents per acre.^^ At this rate it would have been more eco- nomical to purchase a quarter section than to go through the long, anxious, and costly process of dis- proving the title of the Spanish incumbent. The general result of the long controversy was not to distribute the great ranchos among American home- steaders, but to segregate them in the hands of suc- 1/ cessful lawyers or to turn them over to the bankers who had advanced money to plaintiff or defendant. A land monopoly far more sinister than that the squatters had denounced was thereby created, while the violence that was often exercised in defence of a dubious claim debased the standard of citizenship and discouraged the better type of immigration. The remnants of land left in the possession of the rancheros at the end of the long litigation were soon further diminished in an equally legal but no less effective fashion. Shrewd and merciless Americans, with money to lend, plied the short-sighted and luxu- rious Spaniards with attractive opportunities for spending. A loan at five or six per cent per month, secured by a mortgage on the estate, provided the THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 255 wherewithal for gambUng, horse-racing, or other exciting indulgence, and it was rarely possible to meet the obligation incurred ia time to avoid fore- closure. Thus, much of the Spanish inheritance came into the hands of the strangers. William Chandless, who passed through Los Angeles in 1855, describes the situation there: "One of the first things that catches your eye is a notice on door-posts and in newspapers, such as the following: 'Venta par el Sheriff. John Smith V. Jos6 Sepolva. El Sheriff vendera a la puerta de la casa di Condade al mayor postor Todo ese, etc., cfe dicho Jose Sepolva.' So little justice is done between American citizens in CaHfornia that no one, I suppose, even pretends that a Spaniard, unless he offered a very heavy bribe, would have any chance of a favorable decision."^ 'Much as one must deplore this ruthless spoliation of a race, it is only just to bear in mind that the greater portion of the Mexican grants represented a no less ruthless and far more unscrupulous spoUation of the missions and the mission Indians. ' Section "VT The Age of Gold In The Californian of March 15, 1848, there ap- peared the following bit of news : "Gold mines found. In the newly-made race-way of the Saw Mill recently erected by Captain Sutter, on the American Fork, gold has been found in considerable quantities. One person brought thirty dollars' worth to New Helvetia, gathered there in a short time. 256 AMERICAN SETTLERS California, no doubt, is rich in mineral wealth ; great chances here for scientific capitalists. Gold has been found in almost every part of the country." The editor's confidence in the mineral wealth of Cali- fornia was at that moment unfounded, for the only other gold known was that at San Francisquito, in the arroyo above San Fernando, and placers there had proved unprofitable for lack of water. Marshall's find at Columa was not yet understood to have any deeper importance. His discovery of particles of free gold in the river had been made on January 18 and immediately communicated to Sutter; but the latter was anxious to finish the mill and get ready some lumber and in other ways make prepara- tions for the anticipated rush. His efforts to keep the discovery secret did not prevail, however, for a teamster carried some of the shining metal to Samuel Brannan, then in charge of the store at New Helvetia, and this shrewd purveyor of supplies was not slow in pubhshing the tidings . Even so, it was two months in reaching the coast. San Francisco was one hundred miles away, the roads were nearly impassable with the spring rains, and even such news as this travelled slowly. The fact that gold sand was being scooped up by the handful on the banks of the South Fork once proclaimed, every able-bodied man in adjacent -, California prepared to reap the benefit. On June 1, ■* Larkin (now naval agent of the United States at San Francisco) wrote to Secretary Buchanan, making due report of the discovery and its probable effect.^^ Twenty thousand dollars' worth of this gold had been brought to San Francisco during the last two THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 257 or three weeks, together with the statement that men were making $10, $20, and $50 a day at the diggings. Half the houses in San Francisco were empty, "the owners — storekeepers, lawyers, mechanics, and laborers — all gone to the Sacramento with their famiUes." Teamsters who were earning from five to, eight dollars a day had struck work and gone up the river. Several soldiers had already deserted, while the United States ship Anita retained but six of her marines. A schooner fresh from the Sand- wich Islands had lost her entire crew. The harbor was crowded with merchantmen abandoned by the sailors. (The trade of the whaling vessels was finally lost because of this risk.) An American captain, finding that he could not hold his men, had formed a partnership with them for working the placers. He furnished seamen's wages, food, and tools, and was to give them one-third of the proceeds. The ser- vants of a Chinese merchant, recently arrived, had deserted him for this "golden adventure." The Californian had suspended for lack of men, and The Star office had but one printer left. Writing again on Jime 28, 1848, after a visit to the American River, Larkin stated that there were then two thousand people on the American and Copines rivers, nine- tenths of them foreigners, and they had accumulated during the months of May and June two thousand dollars' worth of gold dust. Three-fourths of the houses in San Francisco were now deserted, and property was selUng for the price of the ground alone. Both newspapers had suspended for lack of printers and subscribers. Monterey had caught the VOL. II S 258 AMERICAN SETTLERS infection, and was being deserted by its male in- habitants; "brick-yards, sawmills and ranchos are left perfectly alone." One hundred per cent advance in wages would not hold employees. The alcaldes of San Francisco and Sonoma had abandoned their posts, and society seemed on the verge of dissolution. Should the news reach the emigrants now on the road, the whole body would be diverted from Oregon to Cahfornia. At least half the able-bodied men of Oregon (three thousand) came to California in the summer of 1848, leaving their crops unharvested, and but for the strenuous efforts of the women and chil- dren left behind, there would have been great suffer- ing on the Willamette farms the following winter. (Joaquin Miller came to California with a party of Oregonians, 1851.) All Sonora seemed on the move ; four thousand Mexicans arrived in Cahfornia before 1849. In a report to the secretary of war, dated August 17, 1848, Governor Mason described California as a land peopled by women and children, nearly all the men having gone to the mines. Desertion from the army had become a serious evil, and it would soon be impossible to keep a force sufficient to maintain order unless soldiers' wages were considerably ad- vanced. Oflficers found it impossible to live on their salaries under the new and unprecedented conditions, and were held at their posts only by the sternest sense of duty. The governor describes a visit he had just made to Sutter's Fort and beyond. "Along the whole route mills were lying idle, fields of wheat were open to cattle and horses, houses were vacant and THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 259 farms going to waste." The Embarcadero on the river below the fort was thronged with trafl&c, — supplies and prospectors going out to the diggings and successful miners retiurning with their gold. At the Mormon Diggings, twenty-five miles up the South Fork, some two hundred men were at work with pans, Indian baskets, and cradles. At Coloma, twenty-five miles beyond, the scene was repeated. Mason esti- mated that there were four thousand men, half of them Indians, at work here and on the other tribu- taries of the Sacramento — the Feather, Yuba, Bear, and Consumnes rivers — and that the average yield per man was from one to three ounces per day. At the then price of gold (ten dollars per ounce) this would mean a total daily output of from $30,000 to $50,000. Every man, except the Indians, was working for himself. Sunol & Co. had a gang of thirty natives washing "dirt" on Weber's Creek. They had no comprehension of the worth of gold and were paid in food and clothing of far less value than their findings. On the North Fork of the American, Sinclair, a neighboring ranchman, had fifty Indians at work, and the net proceeds of five weeks' washing was $16,000 in gold dust. Captain Sutter, however, was not digging for gold, — not even at Columa, where his proprietary rights were respected by the miners; but he was carefully and with much diffi- culty gathering m his wheat crop. Since the yield should be forty thousand bushels and flour was selling at $36 per bushel, his decision to abide by his ranch was a wise one. Brannan, too, had stuck to his store, and his receipts in "dust" for the ten 260 AMERICAN SETTLERS weeks between May 1 and July 10 amounted to $36,000. Sutter's diary of May 19 reads: "The great rush from San Francisco arrived at the Fort — all my friends and acquaintances filled up the houses and the whole fort. I had one little Indian boy to make them roasted ripps, etc., as my cooks left me like everybody else, the Merchants, Doctors, Lawyers, Sea-captains, etc., all came up and did not know what to do, all was in confusion, all left their wives and families in San Francisco, and those which had none locked their doors, abandoned their houses, offered them for sale cheap, a few hundred dollars, house and lot, some of these men were just like greazy [crazy]. Some of the most prudentest of the Whole, visited the mines and returned immediately and be- gan to do a very profitable business, and vessels soon came from everywhere with all kind of Merchandize, the whole old trash which was lying for years un- housed, on the Coasts of South and Central America, Mexico, Sandwich Islands, etc. AU found a good Market here." ^^ Mason's report was the most detailed information concerning the discovery that had thus far reached the Eastern states. It was published with the presi- dent's message sent to Congress on December 5. Guarded though its statements were, it produced a furor for CaUfornia. The far-away and much de- bated acquisition seemed suddenly transformed into the fabled island of the Amazons, and men were ready to sacrifice all sober, workaday prospects for this chance to pick up gold without let or hinderance. THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 261 ^iUi»im£af, Co., HrTi '\ Duration Routes to Califoknia, 1858. ("By sailing vessels direct from London 20 to I Liverpool 1 Hamburg 60 days [ or Bremen round Cape Horn (rom35 45 days tlrom 33 D 40 days "By Steamers from Liverpool, 1 Southampton, or Hamburg > & Bremen J to Aspinwall By Steamera from Liverpool, London, or Hamburg & Bremen (or Sail to New York or New Orleans from whence by Steamers to Aspinwall HotiTs across > Panama < o t?™„ •„ « the I.thmu.j [Xstrmr By Steamers or Sail from the above 1 from whence 1 from St. Louis across the plains parts to New Yorlt or New Orleans / to St. Louis / by Waggons. 'Sm 10 to I Steam itoSS ul land avel 3m 100 150 lya The waggon road now being constructed from the Mississippi to California will have military ' Stations every 15 miles. The Pacific Railroad is almost laid out, and the Act for its construction may pass the Congress next year. There is another crossing of the Isthmus through Nicaragua by Steam Boat up the river San Juan & only 12 miles land. A railroad across Mexico (the Tehuantepec route) is in course of construction. 262 AMERICAN SETTLERS There was a rush to be first in the field. At the At- lantic ports ships were chartered for the four months' voyage round the Horn and crowded to the danger point. The Missourians and other frontiersmen or- ganized parties to cross the Plains ; but a shorter and less precarious route was opportunely provided by the new monthly mail service to Cahfornia and Ore- gon, via Panama. WilUam H. Aspinwall— had se- cured the mail contract for the Pacific Coast, and sent three steamers round the Horn in 1849 to run between Panama and San Francisco.^^ George Law had made similar arrangements for the route between i/ New York and Chagres. The first steamer sailed from New York just after the news of the gold dis- covery reached that city, and her passenger accomo- dations were stuffed with adventurers. When the ship reached Chagres, it appeared that a steamer from New Orleans had docked ahead of her, and there was a mad rush on the part of the passengers to get up the river and across the Isthmus to the Pacific side in time to catch the Aspinwall steamer. Un- fortunately, the California was late, and the impatient crowd had to wait week after week in the dirty and miasma-infested little port. When the first ship-load of Easterners reached San Francisco late in February, 1849, they found a tent city thronged with fortune seekers. From every port in the Pacific men had sailed to the new Eldorado. Experienced miners from Sonora, Peru, and Chili, bringing their primitive tools, ex-convicts from Aus- tralia versed in methods of money-making, honest and dishonest. Kanakas from the Sandwich Islands, THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 263 Chinese and Malays from the gambUng dens of the Far East, — all bent on winning wealth from the golden sands of California. Larkin's report of June, 1848, states that nine-tenths of the men then in the field were foreigners. Hittell estimates that of the ^ twenty thousand miners on the ground in 1849, only one-fourth were Americans. Certainly in the latter year the foreigners carried off three-fourths of the gold." Europe caught the fever in 1849, and from Eng- land, Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall, from Germany and the Scandinavian Peninsula, even from France, the least migratory of nations, adventurers flocked to the far Pacific Coast. The revolutions of 1848, with the consequent industrial depression, had greatly increased the number of unemployed, and the prospect of gathering gold in a Aorgia land, where there -were no vested rights, appealed to the prole- tariat. Five trading and mining companies were chartered in London before January 15, 1849. Emi- grating companie-s were formed in Paris (La CaU- fomie, Lingot d'Or, AurifSre, etc.), and some four thousand of the poor were transported to California, the costs being met by lotteries. In addition to these assisted emigrants, many~^renchmen came on their own account, and many more deserted from the ships despatched to" this new and promising market by the merchants of Paris and Bordeaux. The French were not very successful as miners because of their love of pleasure and their inability to organize effectively, and they gravitated to the towns. Here they grew prosperous keeping the restaurants, shops. 264 AMERICAN SETTLERS theatres, and saloons where the American miner spent his money. Miners returning from the diggings had exciting tales to tell of lucky strikes, — nuggets found lying in the bed of a stream and flakes of gold scooped from crevices in the canon wall with dirk- knife and spoon ; phenomenal losses, too, — hundreds of pounds of gold dust stolen by tricky partners or wandering thieves; tales also of the summary vengeance exacted by vigilance committees and lynch law. The methods of getting out the gold were still of the simplest. Three or four men usually worked in com- pany. The first shovelled the ' ' dirt ' ' from the bank or shoal of the river or from the "pay streak" of a near- by arroyo, another carried it to the water, a third rocked the "cradle," — a semicircular trough with a perforated iron sieve at the upper end, through which the dirt was sifted and washed. The earth ran off with the water, while the gold dust and "black sand," having greater specific gravity, were caught on cleats fastened to the floor of the trough. The most ex- perienced man of the "gang" was intrusted with the task of "panning out" the gold, i.e. blowing off the "black sand" (iron pyrites) and scraping up the virgin gold. The day's takings were divided equally among the partners, except the nuggets which, ac- cording to universal custom, were pocketed by the finder. For this simple operation, energy and good will were important factors, but no capital was neces- sary, and any ignoramus with muscle and endurance could succeed as well as a man of brains. The miners from Sonora and Chih had little advantage over an THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 265 American fanner who had never seen a placer. Their rude tools— the pan, the arrastra,^ and the amalgam process — were easily imitated, and the Americans were soon quite as expert as the best of them and even introduced labor-saving devices. The processes were purely mechanical, without resort to metal- lurgy, and very wasteful. Fully half the gold dust (one-twentieth in 1866, according to Hittell) was washed away down-stream. Where water was not to be had, the earth and gravel were ground up to- gether and the dry powder was tossed from a pan into the air, so that the lighter earth and sand were blown away by the breath or the wind, and the gold fell back into the pan. This method was often prac- KUQw^nj^C^^ajT The Nobtheen Minus. 266 AMERICAN SETTLERS tised by the Sonorans. The Americans sometimes poured a stream of silt-laden water over the rough surface of a blanket. The gold fields Of California lay in the foot-hills of the Sierras at an elevation of from one thousand to five thousand feet, and comprised the westward slope of the great interior valley. For a distance of five hundred miles, the river wash, the arroyos, and even certain elevated plateaus like the Buttes, Tuolumne and Table Mountain were impregnated with grains and flakes and nuggets of gold. The treasure had evidently been brought down by erosion from veins hidden away in the Sierras, and the richness of the deposit and the quality of the gold varied according to conditions that could not be predicated by the most experienced miner. The whole area was di- vided, in miners' parlance, into a northern and a southern field ; the former stretched from Mt. Shasta to American River, including the Sacramento River and its tributaries and the subsidiary fields along the Trinity and Klamath rivers ; the latter ran from Mt. Whitney to Kern River and included two subordinate districts, the Salinas and San Fer- nando placers. The best-grade ores were found in the central area along the* Tuolumne, Stanis- laus and Calaveras rivers, and the deposits deteri- orated toward either extreme wing. Painted black upon the map of California, this area would look like the shadow of a gigantic bird of prey settling down over the land. Throughout its length and breadth, the region was no-man's-land. With the exception of Sutter's ill-defined grants, all of the territory east THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 267 wim — . g-g Co^ Ji,I. The Sotjthebn Mines. of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers was public property and at the disposal of the first comer. Gov- ernor Mason had indeed suggested that the land be surveyed into plots of from twenty to forty acres and that these be sold to the highest bidder for the benefit of the national treasury; but there was no force in the country sufficient to execute such a scheme, and no regulation of the mining claims was attempted for many years to come. Over this unknown field the gold-seekers roamed at will. When the bars along the American and its tributary "forks" were exhausted, prospectors went down to the Consimanes and the Moquelimme, and found diggings equally rich. In 1850 the more rest- less spirits moved north to the Yuba, Bear, and Feather rivers and south to the Calaveras, Stanislaus, 268 AMERICAN SETTLERS and Tuolumne as far as the Mariposa. In 1851 mining operations were extended north to the Shasta and Trinity districts. There seemed to be no hmit to this gratuitous wealth, and most men thought the supply inexhaustible. They hurried from stream to stream and from bar to bar, always hoping to better their chances of a lucky strike or to hit upon the "mother lode," — the original vein of piu-e metal in which every "forty-niner" had profound faith. A vein of gold-bearing quartz was early discovered in the southern Sierras and traced by outcroppings from the Mariposa River north to the Moquelumne. The lucky prospectors had hardly set to work when they received notice that they were infringing on ^'^private land ! Captain Fremont had purchased s/ from Alvarado a floating grant (conceded to the latter by Micheltorema) to be located somewhere between the San Joaquin and the mountains. The thrifty hero had paid $3000 for the claim, intending to secure pasture-lands along the fertile bottoms of the San Joaquin; but when rumors of the mother lode reached him, he shifted his claim into the foot- ** hills. His rights were indorsed by the Jones report and sustained by the Land Commission, and the would-be exploiters of the quartz deposits were forced to withdraw. Las Mariposas grant was a subject of bitter contention, however, for years to come.^' The total intake of gold for 1848 was $5,000,000, for 1849, $40,000,000, and the output increased year by year. Butler King, the senator from Georgia who visited the diggings in 1849, reported five thou- sand men in the field and gave an optimistic augury THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 269 for the future of California. One hundred thousand persons found their way to CaUfornia in the course of 1850, most of them able-bodied miners. WilUam Kelley, an intelligent Irishman who made an ex- '^ tended tour of the mines this same year, gave his conclusions as follows: "The average daily income of the miners, embracing all the diggings, has been computed, by persons in a position to make the cal- culation, at eight dollars; which, . . . taking good mines and bad, energetic men and slothful, good workmen and those unused to toU, I consider toler- ably near the mark. Let me next see the number of days this income can be reckoned on ; we first sub- tract fifty-two Sundays [the miners invariably de- voted their Sundays to recreation], and at least ninety-one days for the winter and high-water season, making together one hundred and forty-three days; or . . . [leaving] within a fraction of thirty-two weeks ; then all miners allow at the rate of one day in the week for prospecting, seeking new ground, which leaves a residue of one hundred and ninety working days; from which I might and should deduct largely for sickness and other contingencies; but admitting one hundred and ninety days as the yearly average at 8 dollars per day, it yields a total of 1520 dollars, showing that something over 4 dol- lars per day for the year round is the miner's in- come." '" Kelley concluded that a man could do much better as clerk or even as a day laborer at Sacramento, Stockton, or San Francisco, for his wages would be as good and his expenses far less. The usual rate of wages in the Coast towns was $5 per 270 AMERICAN SETTLERS day, a rate necessitated by scarcity of labor and by the hope, cherished by every laborer, of being able to make a lucky strike, should he go to the diggings. That Kelley's conclusions were not pessimistic is clear from an investigation completed in the autumn of 1849, but not made public until 1851. Tyson's very interesting and scientific treatise. Geology and Industrial Resources of California, was much more conservative than Butler's report,^^ and his con- clusions were calculated to dampen the ardor of a novice. "I was irresistibly led to the conclusion, that a very small proportion indeed of those who occupied themselves in collecting the metal fronfi the earth were adequately rewarded, whilst the great body of them have done Uttle, if any, more than to support themselves. And yet the severity of the labor, the privations and incidental personal exposure, are un- equalled by any pursuit practised in our country. And as a necessary consequence, disease and death prevail so extensively as to bring distress and want upon many a family at home, whose members had been induced to hasten to El Dorado, under the hope of soon returning with wealth in abundance. The chances of getting rich by these means did not ap- pear better than those of the lottery adventurer, who, in general, loses his money without impairing his health." ^^ Even Butler King's estimate of the out- put of 1848 (for the nine months from June to De- cember inclusive) at $5,000,000 would give no higher average than $1000 for each of the five thousand men at work in the diggings, — not a flattering showing when one considers the heavy expense involved and THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 271 the back-breaking character of the work. To stand in cold running water, with a hot sun shining on one's head, engaged in a task that strained every muscle in one's body, was a severe test of endurance. "The art of gold-digging," said a man who had tried it, "is un- equalled by any other in the world in severity. It com- bines within itself the arts of canal-digging, ditching, laying stone walls, ploughing, and hoeing potatoes." The cost of living varied with distance from San Francisco, the means of transportation, and the season. The camps on the American, Yuba, and Feather rivers which could be reached by boat got abundant provisions, though prices sometimes rose to famine height only to drop sharply when a steamer arrived. The diggings on the mountain streams could be reached only by pack-mule, and the supply was very uncertain. In the rainy season the charge for freighting goods to the Stanislaus River was $1 per pound, and the goods retailed at from $1.50 to $3 per pound. Flour sold for $1.50 per pound, pork for $1.25, and boots for two ounces of gold ($20) a pair. On the remote Trinity River diggings, the winter prices were $5 per pound for flour, $4 for pork, and $3 for beans. At such rates few men could do more than make living expenses, the gains of the summer being rapidly eaten up in the six months during which work was impos- sible because of the constant rains and the flooded rivers. The men who reaped the golden harvest were those who purveyed to the necessities and the vices of the miners. "The storekeeper, or the gam- ing-house keeper, is the ravenous shark who swallows up all. The majority of the gold-finders, if they 272 AMERICAN SETTLERS avoid the demon of the [gambling] hells, are at the mercy of the ogre of the store, who crams them first and devours them after. . . . Only in few instances have men been sufficiently fortunate and prudent steadily to accumulate gold." '* The well-nigh inevitable effect of the wearing labor, the prolonged excitement, the careless Hfe in tent or brush hut, the insufficient and often stale and unwholesome food, was a physical breakdown. The unaccustomed exposure to heat and cold, drought and wet, brought on scurvy, dysentery, and malaria. An English physician, Tyrwhitt Brooks, who worked in the northern field in 1849, testifies that at the end of the summer two-thirds of the men in the camps he visited were unable to leave their tents. In the autumn of 1849, a hospital was improvised at Stock- ton for the wrecks of men who were returning from the southern placers, many of whom were crazed by the rapid alternation of success and failure and the desperate chances of the miner's lot. The mania continued none the less, and the influx of fortune-hunters augmented year by year. The excitement was kept ahve by reports of lucky finds, sedulously spread abroad by merchants and trans- portation agents, and by the romantic accounts of California written by enthusiastic visitors such as Bayard Taylor and W. G. Stillman. Narratives of fabulous strikes and sudden wealth were eagerly caught up by the Eastern press and widely dissemi- nated, while the steamer editions of the California papers were filled with glowing accounts of the riches yet to be unearthed. Only the successes were re- THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 273 ported. Few of the thousands of men who returned home poorer than they came, and broken in health and spirits, attempted to relate their experiences.^* The new-comers were most of them in a credulous mood, ready to be taken in by the most unlikely proj- ect. The Gold Bluff fake is an instance. Some shrewd prospectors brought to San Francisco an ac- count of the rich deposits carried down to the coast by the Klamath River and deposited on the beach below its mouth. On the basis of this tale, a com- pany was organized to exploit the promising field, a large amoimt of stock was subscribed, and claims bought up at a fabulous price. A ship was chartered and equipped with the most approved washers and sluices, and its cabins and deck space were fiUed to overflowing. Other vessels advertised sailings to the same point. When, all too late, an expert was sent on to inspect the property, the golden sands were reported to bear only an inappreciable amount of "dust." Another bonanza was announced in 1855. Rumors of extensive "bars," unprecedentedly rich, along the Kern River, occasioned a mad rush to that remote region. Good diggings on the Stanislaus and Carson Creek were abandoned, and miners trudged over the three hundred miles of parched prairie be- yond the Tulares to the extreme southern limit of the Great Valley. When they reached their goal, strength exhausted and provisions spent, they found that the vaunted placers panned out but poorly, the gold being scarce and of inferior quaUty. The outraged miners looked about for the originator of the hoax and fixed upon the storekeeper, who was reaping a VOL. n — T 274 AMERICAN SETTLERS rich harvest off the befooled prospectors. A volun- teer court declared him guilty of death, and he was promptly hanged and his goods confiscated to the needs of the impoverished community. Not all the promoters ot that early day met with so summary punishment, and every steamer brought a new supply of gulUbles. The gold dust accumulated at such heavy cost speedily changed hands, usually finding its way to the men who had not worked for it. Every mining camp was infested with middlemen who levied "a silent tax" (Carson's phrase) on these reckless com- munities. There were purveyors to need, pleasure, and vice ; storekeepers and proprietors of hotels and restaurants, of saloons and gambhng hells, bogus physicians and lewd women, all eager to rid the for- tunate miners of their gains. Few were the men who had sufficient self-control to resist the temptation to spend extravagantly the gold that seemed so abun- dant. Placer-mining was in itseK a game of chance of the most exciting kind. To stake the day's winnings at the gambling table in the evening was but the logical sequence. ' ' Gambling seemed to be the ruling passion. There was no value set on money, as it would not procure the comforts of life, or amusement, or pleasure to the holders ; millions of dollars were recklessly squandered at the gaming tables and drinking shops." " An impartial study of the records of the first decade of the gold fever will prove that not the miners, but the men who had the good sense to stick to ordinary business, made the permanent fortunes. Weber, the THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 275 Indian trader at French Camp, suddenly found him- self the sole dispenser of supplies to the mushroom city of Stockton, and he sent atajos laden with gold to the Coast. The man who bought an abandoned steamer, improvised a crew, and carried the gold- seekers and their supplies up the Sacramento or the San Joaquin, — the merchants who sent trains of pack-mules along the river beds and arroyos, — the ranchmen who sold horses that had cost them $20 for $200 and fat cattle that had brought $6 in 1848 for from $100 to $200, accumulated soUd fortunes. Gold dust sold at the mines for $10 in 1849 and for $16 in 1852 ; but it was worth still more ($18) at the United States mint. The express companies that were organized to carry supplies to the camps bought the precious metal at the mines, transported it to San Francisco and thence by ship to New York, and reaped a very tidy profit on the transaction. Sutter had an extraordinary chance to build up a fortune and, in spite of his frontier habit of miscellaneous hospitaUty, made money in the initial years; but he spent it aU in defending his title to his princedom on the Sacramento. It is evident to any one who reads between the lines the history of the "golden age" that the discovery of precious metals is likely to be a curse to the coimtry where they are found as well as to the men who spend strength and fortune in the mines. The men and the nations who ultimately profit by the discovery are those who provide the means of^ life to the actual workers. This valuable bit of wisdom was early divined by the merchants of the 276 AMERICAN SETTLERS Atlantic seaports. Consignments of food, cloth- ing, liquors, and patented mining devices were des- patched round the Horn. One New York Yankee shipped a number of ready-made wooden houses so constructed as to be easily put together, and sold them to advantage in San Francisco, notwithstand- ing the enormous freightage (sixty cents per square foot). AustraUa sent "tin houses," and from China came clothing and boxes of spoiled tea, as well as laborers. The merchants of Honolulu despatched ship-loads of provisions, sugar and beef and flour, even building stone from the coral reefs. The return cargo was not infrequently tons of soiled linen sent to the washerwomen of the Islands to avoid the San Francisco charge of 18 per dozen. So the finders of the golden fleece scattered their treasure far and wide. The chief gains accrued to Yerba Buena. Other harbors on the spacious Bay had contended for the miners' traffic — Benicia, Vallejo's colony to the north of Estrecho Carquines, and the New York of the Pacific — a mushroom town on the opposite shore ; but the half-moon bay which Simpson had chosen for the site of his trading post because of its neighborhood to the farms of the Santa Clara Valley, absorbed the bulk of the ocean trade. Yerba Buena boasted forty families and two hundred inhabitants at the end of the Mexican regime, and the advent of the Mormons in July, 1846, doubled the population. Yet in August of 1847 there were but four hundred and fifty Americans in the place. They adopted the name of the Bay as the name of their town, and proceeded to plan for a THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 277 great commercial future such as the devotees of St. Francis had never dreamed. The population in the winter of 1849-1850 was estimated at fifty thousand/-^ and the canvas tents, tin houses, and wooden cabins were scattered all the way from the beach to Telegraph Hill. Hither came the ships from Canton, Honolulu, and Sydney, the steamers from Panama, the swift clippers that made the voyage round the Horn from New York in three months. Here on the broad sands of Millers Point were deposited the crates of clothing and food-stuffs brought from far-away lands. The incoming adventurers must fain spend a few days or weeks in San Francisco before setting out for the diggings and patronize Uving accommodations that ranged in quality and price from a shack of rough boards on the beach to the St. Francis Hotel, "where you can get good fare and the luxury of sheets for seven dollars per day." ^* Here, too, came the retiirn- ing miners to spend their money or, more often, to earn enough at day labor to carry them through the winter. The roadstead between the port and Contra Costa was crowded with ships which, deserted by their crews or unable to obtain a return cargo, lay swing- ing idly at anchor. Some of these vessels were util- ized as living quarters. The little bay was alive with rowboats, scows, and lighters, plying between the inhabited vessels and the shore. The boatmen began by charging a $2 fare, but in so doing they overreached themselves. "Intercourse between the shipping and town is so costly and inconvenient, that judiciously assorted shops, constructed on lighters, ply amongst the fleet, to supply those vari- 278 AMERICAN SETTLERS ous wants that it would not be worth while to go ashore for at the expense of two dollars."" In vain the ferrymen protested against the innovation. Even the day of the floating shop was brief. Al- ready piers were being built out into deep water for the accommodation of ocean steamers, and "sub- marine lots" were sold in anticipation of the time when the crescent harbor would be filled in from the sand-dunes back of the town. At one of the wharves was moored a thousand-ton steamer, and the owners had fitted her up with offices and storage room. The rental from these shabby quarters brought them in more revenue than the vessel could have earned afloat. The value of real estate was mounting by leaps and bounds. A lot purchased for $800 in the spring of 1848 sold for $8000 in the autumn. The legal rate of interest was fixed at ten per cent per j'^ear (1850), but the actual rate ran at three per cent, four per cent, and even five per cent a month. San Francisco was the creation of the gold craze. 'The Golden Gate was the natural avenue to the "diggings," for the eastern arm of the Bay led di- rectly to the navigable rivers of the interior, and ship-loads of men and goods were transported on river steamers to the interior towns. From San Francisco, too, the treasure was exported to New York, London, and Canton, and this exportation did not diminish as the output of the mines slackened.'* Mexican silver, moreover, was shipped to China and East India more speedily and cheaply by way of San Francisco than via Southampton.'^ The richest and most accessible diggings were soon THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 279 exhaused, and it became impossible for a group of laborers, no matter how skilful or well organized, to support themselves with shovel, pan, and rocker. Larger companies were organized to turn a river from its bed and expose new deposits or to build a reser- voir in some moimtain torrent and conduct the water by flumes and ditches to "dry diggings" otherwise unworkable.** This necessitated capital, for months must often be spent in bringing the project to com- pletion. Not infrequently a group of men Imnped their savings and built a ditch, but the most success- ful of these undertakings were put through by entre- preneiu-s who brought in capital and were able to hire labor. Water companies were organized, and the ^ sine qua non of placer mining was sold to the miners at from fifty cents to $1 per inch.*^ Such enterprises were highly profitable, paying from four per cent to twenty per cent and even forty per cent per month on the investment.^ Provided with a steady stream of water which could be used during the dry season and at points remote from the rivers, a party of four men could take out from $30 to $100 worth of gold per day, and could therefore afford to pay $10 per day for water. The "long tom" — an improved rocker — or the sluice was used in the later years of placer mining, and the "tailings" scraped from the cleats at the end of the day's work were subjected to the quicksilver process, so that the minutest particles of gold were extracted. . The next improvement, introduced in 1851, was to wash out the "pay" dirt by hydraulic power. One 1 hose and pipe did the work of twelve men, at one- fourth the cost; but an abundant supply of water ^ 280 AMERICAN SETTLERS under heavy pressure was necessary, and the hy- draulic process could be undertaken only by com- panies with considerable capital. The next step in the evolution of the industry was the excavation of the quartz rock.*' The first deep mining was attempted before machinery could be brought to bear. These amateur efforts were called "cayote holes," and the ore brought up was crushed by a roller drawn over a stone pavement, a primitive device introduced by the Mexican miner. As soon as machinery could be got in, shafts were driven and timbered and stamp-mills erected, and the business of quartz mining was well under way. Each step in this evolution meant the increasing use of capital, the necessity for directing and organ- izing ability, and the subordination of labor. The tendency was bitterly protested by the "forty- niners," who held that the golden opportunity be- longed to every American citizen and should not be monopolized. But the day of the self-employed miner was past. "A year or two more will suffice to exhaust most of the metal which is readily accessible ; after which, a prize will so seldom be met with, to sustain the hopes of the poorly rewarded gold-digger, that he will find it his interest to work at moderate wages for those who are possessed of the requisite means, skill and knowledge to manage the business 'secundum artem,' and provide comfortable homes for those whom they employ. . . . When that shall happen, most of the ground which had been previ- ously scratched over will be systematically worked again." *^ Successful quartz mining could not be THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 281 carried on, however, until good government and se- cure titles were assured, wages and living expenses had declined, and adequate capital with appropriate machinery had been brought iato the coxmtry. The mining code devised by the men first in the ^ field — whether by unwritten agreement between partners or by the more or less formal conclusions of a miners' convention — was most democratic. The universally recognized principle allowed every man the usufruct of as much land as he could work to advantage, and the dimensions of a claim varied from ten to one hundred feet square according to the quahty of the "dirt," the difficulty of working, and the number of miners in the field. The discoverer of the bar was, however, entitled to first choice and to double the usual portion.^ A man's title held only so long as he worked the claim. A certain amount of earth must be taken out each week, and an ab- sence of five consecutive days might entail forfeiture. The claim, if it proved valuable, was staked out, and a notice of ownership posted ; but a tool left on the spot was sufficient evidence of occupation. By 1851 there were notaries at the principal camps, and thereafter titles were officially recorded and might be legally transferred, formal witnesses being reqiiired for the vaUdity of the transaction. Originally no man might hold more than one claim ; but purchase made possible the ownership of considerable tracts. Notwithstanding the recommendations of Governor j Mason and Butler Bang, Congress imposed no roy- \ alty and took no measures looking to the survey 1 and sale of the mineral lands. By 1852 quartz 282 AMERICAN SETTLERS claims were regulated by the several county conven- tions. In Nevada County, one hundred feet along the ledge was allotted to one claim, including "all dips, spurs, angles and variations" ; in Sierra County, two hundred feet. Each claim was staked and reg- istered, and work to the extent of $100 must be put in every year until the operating company was formed and a stamp-mill costing at least $5000 was con- tracted for in good faith. Then a deed guaranteeing (undisturbed possession was granted by the county Authorities. When the United States surrendered to the state of California title to all the mines of gold and silver within its boundaries, these customs were enacted into law. Their democratic provisions lie at the foundation of all subsequent legislation on the part of Congress and the legislatures of the Rocky Mountain states. The feeling against hired labor in the diggings was originally very strong, and the taking up of claims on behalf of employees was ruled out. The pre- judice against foreigners arose in part out of the attempt of moneyed men to introduce gangs, not only of Indians and negro slaves, but of Kanakas, Chi- nese, and Malays into the field. But the agitation did not stop at hired laborers. No sooner had it become evident that the field was limited, and that there would not be room for all comers, than the American miners demanded that the diggings be re- served for bona fide citizens of the United States, and that all foreigners be excluded. In the spring of 1849, there were fifteen thousand aliens in the southern field, — Mexicans, Chilians, and Peruvians for the (3 THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 283 most part. The attempt to drive them out by force v" and fraud was so far successful that the number was re- duced to five thousand before the season closed. The Irish and German miners were even more ruthless than the Missourians in their enmity against "greasers" and Kanakas. The movement extended to the towns, notably San Francisco, where the "Hoimds" organ-j ized to rid the place of Mexicans and the native CaU-J fornians, with whom they were confused. In deference to this anii:^reign feeling of the miners — then the most influential class in the state — the first legislature passed (1850) the Foreign Miners' Tax "* Law requiring of all miners, not citizens or natives of California, licenses for which a fee of $20 per month must be paid. Non-compliance was punish- able by expulsion. This law was repealed in the following year, but a charge of $3 and later $4 per month was substituted. Even so, collection of the tax was not infrequently attended by outbreaks and general disorder. The collectors were paid a com- mission of ten, fifteen, and even twenty per cent of the proceeds, and they were prone to extort money fraud-"^ ulently from the weak and defenceless. The fee was rarely demanded of English, Irish, or German miners, but no dark-skinned race escaped. Edouard Auger recounts tEat some French miners, organized for the purpose of diverting the flow of the Stanislaus River, were driven from the spot by a party of Mormons, and several of them were killed. Borthwick records a similar occurrence on the Mariposa. The effect of this unjust legislation and the iniquitous practices permitted in its execution was to promote anarchy 284 AMERICAN SETTLERS in the diggings and to drive the outraged foreigners to lawless retaliation. The Mexicans usually re- fused to pay the fee and abandoned the mines in a body, while the better class of foreigners, notably those with property, were deterred from coming to Cahfornia. In San Francisco, Stockton, Sacra- mento, and the mining towns, their absence was felt as a serious check to trade, and the merchants and hotel proprietors as well as the employing class pro- tested that ruin was in store. It was this influence that brought about the abatement of the tax.^^ Section VII Financial Depression and the Revival of Normal Industries As the placer mines were gradually exhausted, the earnings of the miners dwindled year by year. The returns of 1848 were phenomenal, and many of the first comers realized two or three ounces per day for the mining season. Conservative estimates for 1849 give $8 as the average earnings per man per day. This average fell to $6 in 1850, $4 in 1851, and $1 in 1852. It was then generally conceded that a man could earn more at day's wages in any other pursuit. But for the introduction of machinery and the development of hydraulic and quartz mining, the gold fields would have been abandoned perforce. Even so, the total output fell off. It had been $5,000,000 in 1848, rose to $40,000,000 in '49, to $50,000,000 in '50, to $60,000,000 in '51, and $65,000,000 in '53. Then the tide turned. The returns dropped to $60,000,000 THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 285 in '54 and to $55,000,000 in '55. Since gold was practically the only product of California and had superseded all other exports, this shrinkage of $10,000,000 in two years produced a financial revo- lution. The number of immigrants sharply declined from 58,000 in 1854 to 29,000 in '55 and 23,000 in '57. The miners who had the wherewithal to pay for trans- portation left the country,^' and those who had nothing laid by, flocked to the towns in search of employment. The effect for the merchants, hotel proprietors, saloon, and gambhng-house keepers, who had been making fortunes by purveying to the spendthrift gold-diggers, was disastrous. The sudden collapse of business was felt especially in San Francisco, the center of trade and the focus of aU the mad speculation of the past five years. The market was glutted with goods brought in by the cUpper ships, and valuable cargoes were sold at a loss or left to rot unsheltered on the wharves. Ware- houses and office buildings stood empty, and rentals "that had paid from three hundred to one thousand per cent on the original investment, dwindled till they did not meet running expenses. The value of real estate shrank to one-half or one-third, land would not sell at any price, and mortgageors lost heavily. Foreign investors took fright, began to look into their Cali- fornia stock, and faced failure. The rates of interest dropped from five per cent a month to two and three per cent even with good security, and there was a sudden halt in the influx of. capital. But a small fraction of the $456,000,000 worth of gold produced in the country between 1848 and 1856 remained 286 AMERICAN SETTLERS there, and this residue was not available capital, — was not even legal currency. ^^ Seyd estimates that of the maximum output of 1853, $40,000,000 was exported in payment for goods, $10,000,000 as inter- est on foreign capital, and $15,000,000 was carried away by returning miners. That the more risky ventures should come to nothing was inevitable, but business foundations were shaken by the sudden revelation of fraud and peculation on a gigantic scale. Henry Meigs, a prominent business man who had been involved in the North Beach land speculation, had made use of his intimate relations with the city government to forge vouchers for drafts on the municipal treasury under cover of his numerous street contracts. When exposure became inevitable, he fled the country, leaving debts to the amount of $800,000, and his defalcation involved many of his creditors and indorsers. There were seventy-seven bankruptcies in the course of the year 1854, and the liabilities ran up into the millions. On February 17, 1855, the Panama steamer brought news of the failure of the Ohio and Mississippi Railway, and it was learned that Page & Bacon, a branch of the St. Louis House, had sent home $2,000,000 in gold to stave off ruin. A run on the bank followed, and on February 23 the proprietors were obhged to suspend. The effect of the failure of this leading bank was disastrous. There were one hundred and ninety-seven bankrupt- cies in San Francisco in 1855, with liabilities amount- ing to $8,000,000, and few people escaped heavy loss. No failure was so widely felt and so disastrous in its THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 287 ultimate effects as that of Adams and Company's ' Express, foimded by Alvin Adams of the Adams Express Company of New York. The firm had agen- cies in Sacramento and Stockton, and had bought out the local expresses and established messenger service to every considerable mining camp in the northern and southern fields. They had opened a bank in San Francisco and branch banks in the in- terior towns, and they shipped more gold to New York than any other house in California. The coUapse of this mammoth concern ruined thousands of men in every district of the gold fields, and the disaster seemed universal. The immediate effect of the panic was to prostrate all industry and to produce in the minds of foreign and Eastern investors a wholesale distrust of every- thing Califomian. The ultimate effect was to put aU business on a firmer, becaiise more rational, basis. The speculative mania was silenced for the time being; visionary projects for paying high dividends on the basis of xmknown mineral deposits and experi- mental machinery could no longer deceive the pubUc. The idle, vicious, and vagabond element deserted the mining camps and was soon drained off to Australia^ (1852), Frazer's River (1858), and Nevada(1859),; in pursuit of these new opportimities to pick up a fortune without labor. The men who remained in the mines had learned that here, as in older coun- tries, the price of success was hard work and unre- mitting attention to scientific methods of developing the latent supply of gold. Henceforth the requisite machinery was manufactured in California, more 288 AMERICAN SETTLERS cheaply than it could be imported, and on models much better adapted to local conditions. The labor no longer needed in the mines was diverted to agri- culture, and camp supplies began to be produced at home; bread-stuffs, meat, lumber, beer, whiskey, sugar, shoes, woollen shirts, and blankets were soon turned out, of a quality that enabled them to com- pete with Eastern goods, and sufficient in quantity to supply the market. The output of the gold district continued to de- cline, falling to $50,000,000 in 1858 and to $45,000,000 in 1860. During the decade of the Civil War there was a shrinkage from year to year, till in 1868 the - nadir point of $22,000,000 Was reached. But luck- ily for the business men of California, other mineral wealth was brought to light. The Comstock Lode was discovered just beyond the crest of the Sierras, iand these rich mines yielded $80,000,000 worth of I silver between 1859 and 1869. All the bulUon was exported via San Francisco, and most of the "bo- nanza kings" elected to spend their money in the towns about the Bay. Veins of cinnabar had been found in the Coast Range above the Santa Clara Valley by the mission fathers, and a little quicksilver taken out. Alexander Forbes, who succeeded to their rights, had been working the deposits for twenty years, but in primitive and costly fashion. The ore was carried out of the pit in rawhide sacks on the backs of Indians and transported in wooden-wheeled carts to furnaces situated in the valley, where wood and water were available. It was there roasted in chambers formed of trying kettles purchased from the THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 289 whalers, and the volatihzed mercury was chilled in another chamber of hke construction. Forbes' daily output was 328 pounds, and the metal was shipped to Mazatlan, where it sold for $1.80 per pound. Under the American regime, modern appliances were introduced, and the yield at New Almaden increased to 23,740 flasks (75 lb. each) in 1856 and 43,000 in 1864, — - enough to supply the demand created by the gold and silver smelters of the Sierras and to admit of large exportations besides. The pools of natural asphalt at Los Angeles had been long utiUzed by the pobladores for smearing the roofs of their houses. The bitumen was now scientifically worked and came into general use. The salt marshes about the Bay furnished another opening for business enterprise, since the long, dry summers were well suited to evaporation. Possessed of the best port on the Pacific, vis-a-vis to the Orient recently opened by treaty to American trade, the commercial opportunities of California were unexcelled. In 1856, in the midst of the financial depression, her exports, other than bullion, amounted to $4,000,000, and of this sum total, more than one- fourth was made up of bread-stuffs and limiber sent to the gold fields of Australia. Whalers' supplies to the value of $250,000 were despatched to the mer- chants of Honolulu, while to the British and Russian fur traders in the north Pacific more than $150,000 worth of goods was consigned. The retm-n cargoes — horses and hogs from the Sandwich Islands, ice from Sitka, and coal from Belhngham — proved highly profitable importations. Helper, one of VOL. n — u 290 AMERICAN SETTLERS the disgruntled gold-seekers, had summed up his impressions of California thus: "Her spacious har- bors and geographical position are her true wealth; her gold fields and arid hills are her poverty." *' San Francisco was still the principal port on the Pacific Coast, and its commerce, reduced to a rational basis, bade fair to increase with the development of the resources of the country. The Panama Railway was completed in 1855, reducing the distance between San Francisco and New York to 5700 miles and the time to twenty-five days. Until the completion of the transcontinental railway, all the passengers and the fast freight from the Eastern states came by this route, and the round-the-Horn voyage was abandoned for all but slow freight. A steamer cleared from Panama twice a month, and was sighted off Point Lobos with the regularity of a ferry-boat. The return steamer sailed on the fifth and twentieth of each month, and for fif- teen years ' ' steamer day " was a business event. The preparation of the cargoes, the assembhng of the $2,000,000 in gold shipped to New York, the getting ready of the mail for the East, involved an amount of labor that absorbed the energies of half the men in the town. San Francisco was the point at which cen- tered all the industrial activities of the state, and its commerce rivalled that of Boston. It was the ter- minus of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, the California Steam Navigation Company — a corporation that monopolized the river traffic — the California and Pioneer Stage Company, the Adams and Wells Fargo Express companies. Here were the great banks -^ - T" - - I'V>i San Francisco, Winter of 1849-50. View from Rincon Point. ag!!Ta^w;'.:. .'^r San Francisco in 1857. View from Nob Hill. THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 291 and the great commercial houses. The population of San Francisco was one-fourth that of the state, and half the taxes of California were levied upon her prop- erty-holders. Agriculture Tyson protested that "the proportion of labor em- ployed for digging gold . . . was altogether too great for the true interest of either Cahfornia or the older states,"^" and called attention to the agricultural re- sources in which he beUeved the real wealth of the country consisted. "If the talents, means, and labor already misappUed in preparations for mining and grinding quartz had been devoted to agriculture and other pursuits adapted to the country, it would have been better for all parties." The gold mania had blinded men's eyes to the surer profits to be derived from producing more useful commodities. There were a few exceptions. Sutter, for example, hoped to operate his sawmill and supply lumber for the rapidly building mining towns, to harvest his wheat and pack flom- to the "diggings," to make up in his tannery and workshops the leather and shoes and woollen blankets needed by the miners. He had a magnificent opportunity, but his well-laid plans were swept into ruin by the tidal wave of gold-seekers. It was impossible to hold laborers to such humdrum tasks, with the Im-e of the "diggings" close at hand. The grain was left to rot in the fields, the workshops were abandoned, the mills stood idle, the hungry emi- grants slaughtered Sutter's cattle, led off his horses, and squatted on his land. His fort proved to be too 292 AMERICAN SETTLERS far from the Sacramento for convenience, and trade gravitated to the Embarcadero three miles below. Disgusted with the ingratitude of the Americans, the some-time friend of the overlanders moved to Hock Farm, eleven miles below Marysville, where he spent the remnant of his fortune in a vain defence of his title. John Bidwell, Sutter's former heutenant, was more fortunate. He had acquired a grant of twenty thousand acres on Butte Creek and was growing wheat and fruit with marked success. Other American ranchmen located along the emigrant road were making fortunes by selhng provisions to the prairie schooners. Eggs were sold at twenty-five cents apiece, milk at $1 per quart, and butter at |4 per pound. The way-worn cattle and mules were bought at bottom prices and fattened for the market. Where the immigrant would not sell, the obliging ranchero undertook to pasture his animals at $2 a head, charg- ing $2 additional for insxirance against theft. The farmers 'of the Santa Clara Valley also were busily engaged in "skimming the cream off the diggings." They were raising barley, vegetables, and fruit, luxu- ries for which there was a never-faiUng demand in the mining camps. In the San Joaquin the droves of wild horses furnished a short cut to wealth. They were trapped in corrals, lassoed, and driven to the nearest town, where they brought $40 or |50 apiece. Mule teams were worth |300 and fat cattle $30 per head. A butcher's apprentice, Henry Miller of Wurtemberg, arrived in San Francisco (1850) on a German steamer, looked about, and saw his chance to make money. He bought a steer of a Mexican vaquero I THE CONQUESTIOF CALIFORNIA 293 and opened a meat shop. Other Mexicans brought him more steers, for which he paid $5 apiece without asking where they were found. So he gradually built up a flourishing business. Later MiUer fenced large tracts of land along the San Joaquin River and raised his own cattle, always with the aid of the Mexicans, , whose loyalty to a patron made them reliable herders, j and by an amendment to the Homestead Act exempt- 1 ing fenced lands and swamp lands from homestead: entry, he came into possession of great estates rival-! ling those of the Spanish rancheros.^^ The necessity for transporting supplies to the mines had placed a premium on the raising of horses and mules, for oxen were too slow and cumbersome for the mountain trails. Tradition has it that the California horses were of Arab stock ; certainly they had many good points. For herding cattle and for hard riding they could not be surpassed, but they were too slight and vicious for driving or for farm work. The Americans brought in some Kentucky Morgans and some English racing blood ; a marked improvement in the breed followed, and excellent roadsters were developed. A few horse breeders imported Clydesdale stalUons and produced draught animals of a weight and strength hardly inferior to the Enghsh.^^ By 1870 three-fourths of the horses in the state were of mixed blood, not so healthy and enduring as the Mexican stock, but larger, hand- somer, and more docile. The mares and stalhons still ran in manadas or studs, and the animals desired for use or sale were corralled and lassoed and broken to harness by the rough, old-time methods. Since 294 AMERICAN SETTLERS the range was free and no food or shelter had to be provided, a horse ranch was sure to bring in money. - CaMfornia was the best of cattle lands. The wild oats that covered the hillsides made an inexpen- sive natural fodder, Uttle less nutritious than the cultivated oats of the Eastern states. The "filaree" had spread from the south to the north coasts and back into the interior, and furnished a rank, rich pasturage and an ungarnered harvest of seeds that blackened the ground and afforded a much-needed autunm feed. Bunch-grass cured on the stalk in the foot-hills and made an excellent winter fodder. The equable temperature rendered barns unneces- sary, even in winter, and pasture land required no fencing, since the law made the owner of tUled fields responsible for this precaution. The mild cUmate was highly favorable to breeding, and the fecundity of all domestic animals astonished new-comers. Cows, mares, and ewes matured a year earlier than in the East, and bore more frequently. There were, moreover, few of the diseases that afflicted the herds of older countries. Horses and cattle fed on the open range, moving from the valleys to the hill pas- tures with the advance of the season. Twice each year, once in the spring and again in the autumn, the herds of a given district were rounded up in great rodeos. Then every ranchman selected his own colts and calves, branded them and turned them out on the range for another season. The several brands were kept on view at the county recorder's office, and afforded the sole evidence of proprietor- ship. THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 295 The life of the rancho did not differ much from that of the Spanish era. The vaqueros were, for the most part, native Cahfornians or Indians, and the cattle were of the old long-horned, scrawny Spanish breed. Some blooded stock, Durham and Devon, had been driven across the Plains, and the inter- minglmg had brought up the weight and quaUty of the animals to a marked degree. Cattle were no longer bred for hides and taUow merely, but for abattoir and dairy purposes as well, and it is safe to say that more fortunes were won from cattle than v from gold. The Coast coimties, where the fogs kept the pastures green throughout the year, were still the "cow coimties," and the dairy interest centered about the Bay ; but the ranges of the upper San Joaquin — Fresno, Merced, Tulare, and Kern coun- ties — fed fully one-third of the cattle of the state. Here, during the spring and summer, pasture was abundant, but the fall months from October to Janu- ary brought serious difficulty. If precipitation had been scant the preceding season, the pasture was likely to faU. Early autunm rains were almost equally disastrous, for they drenched the dried grass and deprived it of nutriment. In either case a consider- able number of cattle died of starvation. Dining the drought of 1858, seventy thousand cattle per- ished in the south alone. The drought of 1863-1864 carried off between two and three hundred thousand cattle — two-thirds of the herds of the southern coimties — and cattle-raising dropped to the second and third and fourth rank in the scale of industrial interest.^* The native pasturage came to be regarded 296 AMERICAN SETTLERS as an uncertain reliance, and men who had suitable soil supplemented it by cultivated fodders, — bar- ley, etc. Many of the great ranches were divided and sold to farmers. The mountain ranges were converted into sheep runs. -~ The conditions for sheep-raising were ideal; the mild winters, the dry lambing season, the abundant mountain pasture, the absence of foot-rot and other dis- eases, made possible an extraordinarily rapid increase at minimum cost. An annual increment of from eighty to one hundred per cent could be reckoned on. The only serious drawbacks were the burr clover, which injured the wool and enhanced the expense of cleaning it, and the coyotes that preyed upon the flocks and carried off the lambs. It was necessary that the flock should be shepherded by day and corralled at night, but since one Mexican pastor could take care of a thousand sheep, this was not a heavy item. There were few sheep in Califor- nia in 1846. Several flocks were driven in from New Mexico by the early American immigrants, but they were of degenerate breed with long necks and shm bodies, endowed with an excess of horn and a short, coarse, and scanty fleece, and produced but little mutton or wool. The importation of some French and Spanish merinos, also Southdowns and Cotswolds, quickly brought up the standard. The first man to undertake this business began in 1853 with nine hun- dred ewes. Within ten years he had ten thousand sheep, sixteen thousand acres of land, and other property to the value of $100,000. Wool-growing was, for some time after the drought of 1863-1864, THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 297 the most profitable industry in California. The wool was of high quality (selling for twenty-three cents a pound with an average yield of four pounds and two ounces), and brought in a steady revenue. The ex- pense of maintenance on the large ranches was not more than thirty to fifty cents a head, but half the value of the fleece. Fleece and lamb together, a fine y blooded ewe repaid eight or ten times the cost of her keep.'* Tillage did not keep pace with the grazing inter- -^ ests for several obvious reasons. Timber was scarce, and the cost of fencing cultivated fields against the roving herds of cattle and horses was weU-nigh pro- hibitory. Not till after the drought of 1862-1864 had ruined many of the stock-ranches did the interest of the farigCTjaecome dominant in the legislature. Then the fr ee ran ge was curtailed and finally abol- ished, and the law required that pastiu-es be fenced, v^ The alternation of wet and dry seasons was an im-j known and appaUiug phenomenon to the Easterners, i The winter rains flooded the bottom lands and satu- rated the groimd imtil it would not bear a man's weight, while in the spring months, when Missomi farmers were accustomed to plough and plant, the downpour ceased, the adobe soils were soon baked by the sun, and the time of germination was past. Irrigation, the resort of the mission fathers, seemed to the novices a costly way of making good nature's deficiencies. Not one acre in a thoxisand of the ploughed lands was artificially provided with water before 1870. Even more preposterous at the then cost of labor seemed the building of dikes to keep 298 AMERICAN SETTLERS the spring floods from overflowing the river bottoms, ,. although they contained the richest soil. Devas- '^' tating floods were even more frequent than droughts ^^ and wrought greater damage, sweeping away houses and fences and submerging thousands of acres of arable soil. The building of levees along the Sacra- mento and its tributaries and their extension and maintenance became a definite annual charge which amounted to $1, $2, and $3 per acre. Elsewhere the silt deposits were not by any means so deep or rich as in the alluvial valleys of Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa ; the soil was thin, and the accretion of vege- table mould was slow because of the scant herbage and dry atmosphere. Some of the most fertile lands in the foot-hills had been ruined for tillage by the miners. In their search for gold, they had respected no claims but their own. According to the mining code any land that was suspected of containing "pay dirt" was open to the prospector, and the surface loam was relentlessly scraped off and buried under the sand .. and gravel of the river beds. In 1855 the legisla- -^ ture took the farmers' interests so far into account as to enact that buildings, vineyards, orchards, and growing crops might not be interfered with ; but the wanton destruction of the arable lands did not cease, and many fair valleys were rendered forever useless by "diggings" that returned but a meagre profit to their temporary occupants. Hydraulic was even ^ more injurious to agriculture than placer mining. Himdreds of thousands of cubic feet of debris and "slickings" were carried down-stream, filling up the Miners at Wokk with Pan and Long Tom, 1849. Htdkaulic Mining. THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 299 beds of hitherto navigable rivers and covering thou- sands of acres of fertile land. The ruin wrought for the future was incalculable, but so long as the mining ^ interests dominated the legislature, nothing could be done by way of prevention.*^ These circmn- stances, taken in connection with the high cost of labor, served to discourage tillage in California during the first twenty years of the American occupation." ^ Corn, the staple crop of the Mississippi Valley, did not do well in the semiarid climate of California, but wheat, oats, and barley had long been cultivated on the Coast, where the prevaiUng fogs furnished suffi- cient moistiu-e. Sutter and BidweU and other fann- ers in the Sacramento Valley proved that the interior could produce heavy crops wherever a rainfall of twelve to sixteen inches could be rehed on.** The wheat land was ploughed in the autiunn as soon as the November rains had softened the parched earth, the seed was sown in January or February, and the grain harvested in June and July. Pests were abundant. Ground squirrels and gophers gnawed the roots, while grasshoppers, the curse of new countries, sometimes destroyed an entire crop. In the spring of 1855, after a dry winter had deprived them of their usual sus- tenance, the grasshoppers descended from the hiUs to feed upon the growing grain, and ate off in a night the season's planting. A dry spring with north winds might blast the tender shoots, and in the south- em coimties the grain seldom came to perfection for this reason. Here and elsewhere, when there was prospect of a dry season, wheat and oats and barley as well were cut in the rnillc and stacked to be used 300 AMERICAN SETTLERS instead of hay for horses and cattle. Experience went to show that, in the north, the rainfall might be inadequate to the development of the kernels for one year in three, and that a kilUng drought was due every thirteenth year.^^ Notwithstanding the risks of drought, American fanners were soon converted to the advantages of a dry season for the harvesting of grain. Ruin from rust and mildew was unheard of, and there was no danger of untimely rain. Once cut and bound, the sheaves might lie in the field for weeks unharmed, and the threshing be deferred until autumn, if desired. The hundred-fold return of the early days could no longer be anticipated, but the average yield of twenty to thirty bushels was still far in excess of that in the wheat belt east of the Rockies. Thirty bushels was an ordinary yield for oats and sixty for barley, and good volunteer crops were not unusual. Ploughing was a less difficult matter than in theMissouri bottoms where the breaking up of prairie sod, subsoil plough- ing, and harrowing for removal of stones and roots, were necessary preUminaries to the sowing of a crop, and where, because the fields were small and uneven, gang-ploughs were impracticable.^" ^' During the Civil War, the Eastern yield declined, and there was a brisk demand for Cahfornia wheat both at home and abroad. The cattle ranches were brought under the plough and planted to grain, notably in the neighborhood of San Francisco, where droughts were never disastrous and where the costs of transportation were light. Ocean steamers that had hitherto made the return trip in ballast now put into THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 301 San Pablo Bay and were loaded with grain and flour at Vallejo. So dry were the flint kernels that wheat might be hauled direct from the field, turned into the hold and shipped round the globe to Liverpool, with- out risk from must or mould or fermentation. The heavy rainfall of 1859-1861 produced wheat crops that far outran domestic consumption, prices fell to $1.25 per cental, and one million bushels of grain were sent to the English market. The drought of 1864-1865 withered the growing crop and brought the price up to $5.25 per cental. Exportation ceased, there was a rapid fluctuation of prices, and men specu- lated in wheat as madly as they had speculated in mini ng stock. The extension of the area planted to wheat, the introduction of machinery, and a more thoroughgoing tillage put the business on a substan- tial foundation, and in 1867 the export rose to 750,000 bushels. This (1865-1870) was the golden age for the wheat farmer. The Austrahan crops were short in these same years, and the world's demand for bread was met from the vast interior valley of Cali- fornia. Yet the Nemesis of prodigaUty was at hand. No land can be cropped for years without rest, rota- tion, or fertilization, and hold its own. The gang- plough was usually run but four inches deep, and so failed to reach the resources of nutriment and mois- ture latent in the earth) The shallow soil, unwatered and unrenewed, began to show signs of depletion. The acre yield fell from thirty bushels to twenty, and from twenty to fifteen." In 1871, a dry year, the crop averaged only nine bushels to the acre, and many of the wheat farmers were rmned. 302 AMERICAN SETTLERS American ranchmen were following the line of least resistance, as their Spanish predecessors had done, and contented themselves with selling raw material and buying finished products, with this difference, that the staple export was now grain, not hides and tallow. A wheat ranch was hardly more profitable than a cattle ranch and even more extravagant, since the wheat ships carried away each year a considerable portion of the nitrogen, silica, and phosphorus with which the soil had been endowed. No attempt at rotation of crops was made ; for alfalfa, clover, and leguminous plants required irrigation, and this was too costly for general adoption. In the early seven- ties the era of irrigation by private capital opened. The revival began in the San Gabriel Valley, where the agricultural achievements of the padres were in evi- dence and where several colonies of Eastern farmers had settled and begun to experiment with various fruits and vegetables. In the neighborhood of Los Angeles and San Jos^, the old mission and pueblo ditches were maintained, with some extensions and additions. On the ranches of the interior, mining ditches were utilized for agricultm-e. The most striking development of irrigation was in the San^ Joaquin district, where rainfall was less than in the northern valley and the soil more sandy, while the long, cloudless summers were suited to the ripening of tropic fruits. The San Joaquin and King's River Canal and Irrigation Company inaugurated (1872) a system that was to water fifteen thousand acres and proposed an extension that would bring the total area covered to 325,000 acres. The King's River THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 303 Irrigation Company built a ditch that could provide for 300,000 acres, while the Chapman, Miller, and Lux ; Canal had a capacity to irrigate fifty thousand acres of the former cattle ranch.^^ Water was furnished to farmers under the canals at stated intervals and in quantities adapted to the several crops and seasons. The usual water rate was $1.50 or $2 per acre, an annual charge that was fully offset by the incidental advantages of irrigation. It soon became evident that the flooding of a field fertilized the land, while destroying insect pests, gophers, etc. With an untaxed soil, uninterrupted sunshine, and water furnished at convenient intervals, the experi- enced American farmers could accomplish marvels. The growing season was double that of the Eastern ^' states, and the size and sweetness of cabbages, squashes, melons, etc., increased in proportion. Sugar-beets bore fifteen tons to the acre with eight per cent saccharine, so that the yield of sugar was twenty-four hundred pounds to the acre. Fruit trees grew more rapidly and bore earlier than east of the Rockies, and the fruit was large and abundant. The flavor of apples, peaches, and cherries was inferior, but the pears and apricots and plums of California were unequalled. A few orange orchards that were planted at Sonoma, Sacramento, and Martinez bore excellent fruit, but the cost of irrigation and the skiU and labor required in the care of the trees discouraged production on a large scale. The infrequent orange growers of the south did little more than keep up the Spanish orchards, but they reaped a fair profit on fruit shipped to the San Francisco market. The conditions for grape 304 AMERICAN SETTLERS culture were ideal. The light, sandy nature of many soils, the freedom from rains or destructive storms during the months between the budding and ripening of the fruit, the absence of phylloxera or other pests, rendered a vineyard an almost certain success. The French cultivators in the neighborhood of Los An- geles and the German colony at Anaheim sent two million pounds of grapes to San Francisco in the ^' season of 1853-1854, where they sold at from fifty cents to $7 a pound.^* All the possibilities of soil and climate were not yet known, and many experiments were made at heavy cost, the speculative spirit instilled by the chances of mining days finding expression in the agricultural opening. Sericultm-e was attempted by certain enthusiasts, who expected to rival Japan and Italy in the production of raw silk and eventually of the finished product. The legislature was induced (1867) to offer premiums for mulberry plantations ($250 for 1000 trees) and for cocoons ($300 for 100,000), and by 1870 the output amounted to twelve milUon co- coons ; but more attention had been given to quan- tity than to quahty, and the product was not mar- ketable. It is said that if all the claims for struggling mulberry trees and low-grade cocoons had been paid, the state treasury would have been bankrupt. Cot- ton growing was also undertaken and carried to a measure of success at Fresno in the San Joaquin. The seed was brought from Sonora, and the experience of Mexican planters was utihzed. The yield was from two hundred and fifty to five hundred pounds per acre, — not a heavy crop, but at the war price of twenty THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 305 cents a pound there was considerable profit in the enterprise, since the cost of ploughing, planting, pick- ing, ginning, and baling did not exceed $30 per acre. The necessity for irrigation limited the available area, however, and the laborers for weeding and pick- ing were not to be had. The premiums offered by the legislature (1865) had no lasting effect. The honey-bee — not native to CaUfomia — was introduced in 1853, and for a time the prosperity of the small landholder was thought to be assured by the possession of a dozen hives. The long, open summers enabled the bees to store honey during ten months of the year, as compared with six in the Eastern states, and hibernation was reduced to two months. Abim- dant food was furnished by the fruit trees, grape-vines, clover blossoms, and wild flowers, while in arid sec- tions the sage-brush afforded material for honey of the most delicate flavor. Two hundred pounds was not an extraordinary yield for a single swarm. In 1870 there were thirty thousand hives scattered through the state. But the market for this delicacy was a small one, and many of the producers found they had a glut on their hands. For a time it was beUeved that castor-beans pointed the way to speedy wealth, and plantations were set and oil mills erected, but all in vain. The plants flourished, but the market was too hmited for the maintenance of a paying price. The craze for tobacco growing was equally disastrous. The climate of CaUfornia was too dry for the proper matiiring of the leaf .^ The menace of latifundia was passing away. With more intensive cultivation, the size of farm holdings VOL. n — X 306 AMERICAN SETTLERS decreased. The ideal of the stockman was the eleven- ^^ league grant of the Mexican era, but the great wheat ranches did not contain more than ten thousand acres of tillable land. Proprietors of large estates, finding that they could not get labor with which to culti- vate to advantage, were glad to sell off considerable tracts at thirty-seven to seventy-five cents per acre^^ Taking into account the burden of taxes and the in- security of titles, land was expensive even at this figure. Irrigation still farther reduced farm acreage. The water companies preferred to rent water to inde- pendent cultivators, even when the land under their canals was originally their own, and it was soon evident that a man could do better with fruit or vege- tables on ten or twenty acres than with a larger tract. In 1870 one-half the farms in Los Angeles County were between three and fifty acres in size, and with the extension of the irrigated area, the general average declined. After the best lands in the San Francisco basin had been brought under cultivation, the rec- lamation of the tule land about the Bay and along the lower levels of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers became a project of importance. It was estimated that three milUon acres of rich swamp land, in the heart of the state and readily accessible to navigation, might be recovered by a system of earth embankments at a cost of $5 to $20 per acre. The legislature of 1874 empowered the several districts concerned to issue bonds for the purpose of reclaiming the tule lands, and some one hun- dred thousand acres were drained within the next few years. THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 307 Manufactures The promising beginnings in sawmills, grist-mills, and tanneries made by the American pioneers at Santa Cruz, Yerba Buena, and Bodega were swept into obUvion by the gold excitement. All supplies for the mines and for the tributary towns were im- ported. Beef and flour came from Honolulu and Sydney, salt was forwarded as ballast from Boston and Liverpool, wine from Bordeaux, articles de luxe from China. Even after the gold bubble had burst and men began to look about them for more normal employment, manufactures developed slowly because -^ of certain physical handicaps. Fuel was to be had only at prohibitory prices. Wood was scarce and very costly, and there were no coal mines nearer than Puget Sound. Water-power was abundant in the'' Sierras, but the Coast Range furnished none that could well be utihzed, and the modern methods of trans- mitting power by electric current were not yet dreamed of. The forests of pine and redwood offered excellent building material, but there were no hard woods such as must be used in the making of wagons, implements, casks, etc. In the first decade of the American occupation, moreover, neither capital nor i labor was available on such terms as to encourage manufacturing enterprises. The legal rate of interest^ was still high, and wages were prohibitive. The new citizens of California might have been no less content than were the Mexican rancheros to remain a raw material producing country, but that their wants were more diversified, numerous, and im- 308 AMERICAN SETTLERS perative. The machinery needed for quartz mining / was too bulky to be sent round the Horn from Liver- pool or New York, except at a cost that jeopardized success, while the risks involved in the transport of powder and explosives, matches, nitric and sulphuric acids, imposed an extravagant rate of insurance. '^' Moreover, the stamp-miUs, amalgamators, and roast- ing furnaces suited to gold mining were not made for the coal mines of Pennsylvania or the Black Country, and Calif ornians of determination and energy set about the manufactm-e of engines and machinery adapted to local needs. Coal was shipped from Australia / and from the newly discovered deposits in the Cascades ; the wheat ships brought back pig-iron in ballast at cost of $35 to $100 per ton, even scrap iron was utihzed ; f oimdries were erected in San Francisco and in Sacramento, and the industrial miracle was - accomplished. Stamp batteries and portable engines of California manufactiu-e were on sale in 1855, and wire rope in 1857. By 1860 there were sixteen foun- Sr dries and machine shops at San Francisco, and min- ing machinery was being exported to Nevada, Mex- ico, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.^^ The smelting works built to refine the silver ore sent down from the Com- stock Lode were at that time the largest in the United States and received ore from Utah and Ari- zona as well as from Nevada. Giant powder was imported from Boston and cost $5 a keg, until powder works were estabhshed at Santa Cruz (1863). All the raw materials were at hand. Sulphur had been found at Clear Lake, was being mined at the rate of four tons a day, and could be dehvered on the Qoast THE CONQUEST OP CALIFORNIA 309 for three and four cents a pound,— less than the price of the Sicilian import. Nitrate of soda was brought from Chili and Peru, while charcoal kilns were opened in the Coast Range, where the scrub-oaks and willows were converted into fuel. By 1870 nine-tenths of the explosives used in California were manufactured at"^ home, and a considerable quantity was exported to Mexico and South America. Nitric and sulphuric acids were supplied to the smelters by 1853, and the candles used for hghtmg the mines— unported until 1867 — were thereafter furnished by home industry. No sooner was lead produced in the silver mines of Inyo Coimty than shot towers and type foimdries ^ were started. Hemp was imported from Manila, and ropewalks were opened at San Francisco (1856) that competed successfully with the Atlantic Coast producers. These triumphs encouraged other ventures. The lumber needed for the building of houses, flimies, and sluices had been imported at great cost. For ex- ample, five million feet of Imnber was shipped to Cali- * fomia in 1849 from Bangor, Maine. There was plenty of pine and fir in the foot-hiUs, however, and water- power was usually within easy reach. Soon every mining town had its sawmill, where Yankee ingenu- ity introduced labor-saving devices such as levers, chutes, . donkey engines, and the circular saw with adjiistable teeth. With the increased output, the price fell from $500 to $16 per thousand feet. Adobe construction did not recoromend itseK to the Ameri- cans, and nine-tenths of the new houses in northern California were built of wood. Brick for the more 310 AMERICAN SETTLERS pretentious business houses was made at Santa Cruz, and some was sent round the Horn. Stone houses were very rare, for no good material had been found within transportable distance, and the Httle stone used had been imported from China, the Sand- wich Islands, and the Atlantic Coast. The cheapest ; building material was redwood, and the magnificent' forests of the Coast Range were felled remorselessly, sawed into planks and boards, and shipped to the towns to be wrought into flimsy houses that were as rapidly swept away by the frequent conflagrations. In the early years the casings for doors and windows and aU inside finishings were imported; but later, planing mills were erected, and there was no need to purchase abroad. As the farm area was extended and lumber was required for fences and plank roads, ^ the California supply of redwood fell short, and pine was sent down the coast from Oregon. The first attempt at reforestation was made in 1869, when the Australian gum (eucalyptus) was planted in the Cas- tro Valley. The experiment was highly successful, for a seven-year growth yielded $90 per acre in fuel and telegraph poles. This graceful tree was well adapted to California conditions, for, though sensitive to frosts, it thrives in dry and alkali soils. The crowded trafiic of the mining days created a demand for small river and coasting schooners. The need was first met by the shipyards of Benicia, where many unseaworthy ocean vessels were made over into river craft, and fishing sloops were built for the cod banks of the Alaskan coast.*^ The first sea-going steamer was built in 1864. The need for THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 311 stages and ore wagons was met in the same enterpris- ing fashion by the wagon factories at San Francisco, Sacramento, Stockton, and Marysville. Enormous freighters, weighing four thousand pounds and -^ capable of carrying fifteen thousand pounds, and stages fit to stand the strain of rough mountain roads were soon on the market. To meet the demand of the wheat ranches, agricultural implements were manufactured, and machinery such as the multiple gang-plough and the combined reaper and thresher was invented to deal with the vast wheat fields in wholesale fashion. The conversion of wheat into flour on a scale commensurate with the new market early engaged the attention of California entrepre- neurs, and steam-power was introduced in the mills at Sacramento, Colusa, and Chico. The best-grade flour was ground at Vallejo and exported to AustraUa, Chili, and England. Beef was salted for the mining camps in 1852, and ^ the market was suppUed by domestic producers after 1860. Meat packing and the manufacture of soap depended on the cattle industry. After the losses of 1867, the price of hides, tallow, and beef rose, and California manufacturers had difficulty in compet- ing with their rivals in the East. Salt sufficient for home consumption as well as for the packing houses and fish-flakes was provided by 1865. Along the tidal reachas of the Bay, solar evaporation was relied on. At Santa Barbara and Los Angeles boiling vats were used. At Kern Lake and in other arid sections remote from the sea, the brine was pumped from subterranean wells. Borax, discovered 312 AMERICAN SETTLERS in the salt flats east of the Sierras, was much in demand among the meat packers and brought y about twenty times the price of salt, so that the transportation charges were easily covered. The long sea voyage injured the quality of Eastern beers so that the Cahfornia brew was superior. Hops were grown and breweries built to meet a rapidly '^ expanding demand. A boot and shoe factory was opened in 1863 and, by dint of low-priced leather and the employment of cheap Chinese and convict labor, furnished the coarser grades at low prices, while a few cooperative shops inaugurated by skilled artisans did a thriving business in the higher grades. By 1866 one-fourth the shoes used in the state were of Cali- fornian manufacture. Heavy gloves, harness, belt- ing, hose, etc., were also produced. The revival of woollen manufacture was another happy result of the war period. Bounties on textiles were offered in 1862, $1000 for the first thousand pieces of sheetings, drillings, or cloth. A factory that had been built in San Francisco in 1858 reaped the advantage of this legislation. The best of the wool clip was kept at home, labor-saving machinery was introduced, Chinese laborers were secured at $1.12 a day, and the industry was soon on a solid basis. The Mission Mills, owned by Donald McLennan, made the best blankets in the United States, while other mills fxu-nished the woollen shirtings with which the nainers were clothed. The only serious compe- tition was from Oregon, where water-power and a cleaner wool gave the producer distinct advantages. A cotton factory put up in Oakland was less success- THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 313 ful, for the raw material — and that of inferior quality — had to be imported from Mexico. The factory- was eventually converted to cotton bagging. Experiments in the making of sugar from melons, beets, and sorghmn had been inaugurated ia the early fifties, but without much success. Low-grade cane sugar was being produced in the Sandwich Islands as well as in China, Java, and the Philippiaes. Three refineries were put up in San Francisco in 1865-1866, with a capacity of thirty million pounds. Since the price of raw sugar was thirteen cents per pound and that of refined eighteen cents, the profits were considerable. Before the close of the decade, however, this promising industry was jeopardized by excessive and unregulated production and by the importation of cheap sugars from the Eastern states and from Germany. Claus Spreckels weathered the /' storm, and his Bay Sugar Refining Company became the largest in the United States. This extraordinary development of manufactures was of artificial nature. The peculiar isolation of California, intensified by the Civil War which tempo- rarily checked the roflow of Eastern manufactures, and the War Tariff which excluded foreign goods; ' the buoyant and adventurous character of the CaH- fomia entrepreneur; the anti-foreign movement which drove Chinamen, Mexicans, and all miners of Latin stock to the towns; the bounties offered by the state ' legislative ; — these conditions had induced a hot- house development that could hardly be permanent. With the close of the war, Eastern and European |y producers began to flood the market with goods 314 AMERICAN SETTLERS that they were willing to sell below cost in order to regain the lost ground. All attempts to compete in the better grades of leather goods and woollen and cotton cloth were futile. The completion of the \y transcontinental railway in 18S9 put an end to the isolation of the market. Henceforth California's manufactures were of necessity confined to such articles as were too bulky for transportation by rail or for which the raw materials were produced at home or by one or another of her Pacific neighbors. Section VIII The Labor Supply During the first twenty-five years of the American occupation there was a chronic scarcity of labor in California. In matter of fact, there were no bona fide wage-earners in the country. Since the discov- ery of gold, none such had migrated to the Pacific Coast. Moneyless immigrants there were in plenty, American, English, Irish, German; but they had come, practically without exception, not to seek employment, but to make a fortune on their own account in the gold fields, in the gambling-houses, or in the various business enterprises made profitable by the extravagance of the mining communities. They were ready to undertake hard labor and to undergo desperate privations wherever there was any chance of sudden wealth ; but for prosaic, humdrum toil, even at assured wages, they had no mind. Few miners ac- cepted employment unless they were "down on their luck," and then only temporarily. During the rainy THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 315 season, the great mass of the unsuccessful crowded into the cities, notably San Francisco, and, having nothing laid by, were forced to hii-e out in order to get through the winter. The majority were unskilled and unaccustomed to steady work. Physically broken, intemperate, cherishing a grievance against any man more prosperous than themselves, they con- stituted a restless, unrehable, and even dangerous body of laborers. WiUiam Shaw describes the conditions in San Francisco in the autumn of 1849: "The winter having set in, thousands were returning sick and impoverished from the mines ; the arrival of so many laborers soon affected the rate of wages, and the points [Millers Point] were daily crowded with men unable to get work. As this influx of labor caused a great diminution of wages, the price of provisions remaining the same, discontent and indignation pre- vailed amongst the lower orders, and nightly meet- ings took place, attended by crowds of the rabble ; ripe for pillage and riot, but luckily without leaders. : Had an O'Comiell arisen from amongst them, order^ might have been subverted and terms dictated by the mob to the storekeepers and householders; as it was, these meetings ended in furious tirades, for- I bidding foreigners to seek employment or people to I hire them ; accusing the foreigners of being the cause/ of a fall in wages, and holding out a deadly threat to all who dared labour imder the^ fixed rate of pay- ^ ment — ten dollars a day." ^^ (Millers Point, the labor market of those years, was terrorized by these malcontents. » Employers dared not openly offer nor men accept wages lower than those proclaimed 310 AMERICAN SETTLERS by the mob of unemployed. "Numbers of respect- able working-men, who would wiUingly have worked for a reasonable sum, were almost destitute for want of employment, nigh starving."^* Violence was not only threatened but actually brought to bear. Em- ployers were beaten and men were killed, and the authorities dared not interfere. An EngUsh ship- master whose crew had deserted, applied to the alcalde for aid in recovering the men. He was told that a seaman's contract made under a monarchy was not binding in free California, and there was no redress. Every spring this vagabond horde drifted back to the diggings, leaving a shortage of labor where there had been a glut. The irregularity in the labor supply was accentuated by a no less marked irregularity in the demand, for most of the employ- ments were seasonal, dependent on the rainfall or on unforeseeable local conditions. When a steamer came into port, there was imperative need of dray- men and dock laborers ; even the Kanakas, the poor- est of hands, could get $1 per hour; but the emer- gency passed with the discharge of the cargo, and for months there was nothing to be done on the docks. When the building craze struck a town, carpenters and brick-layers could command almost any wage ; but the boom might last only a few months, and then laborers were forced to seek employment elsewhere. The earnings of the rush seasons must cover long periods of unemployment. As the placer diggings were exhausted, the broken- down miners hired out to the mining companies, and their wages declined to a living minimum of $3 per THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 317 day (1870). The Mexicans and Chilians, driven from the mines by the anti-foreign agitation, found refuge in the towns and were glad to accept wage service. After 1849 there was an unsteady, but none the less evident, fall in wages. San Francisco car- penters, the best paid of skilled laborers, were getting $16 in 1849, $10 in 1851, $7 in 1853, $5 in 1856, and $4 in 1870. The wages of day-laborers fell from $4 in 1849 to $1.75 in 1870, for white men, while in the latter year Chinamen got from eighty cents to $1.25 per day. Chinese immigration had received httle attention in the flush days of the early fifties. The Chinese ; were but one, and that not the most bizarre, of the/ elements contributed by the countries bordering on the Pacific. Kanakas, South Sea Islanders, Malays, ; and Hindoos were equally aHen to European ideas of j what was seemly and intelligible. The other Orien- tals came and went, making no permanent impres- sion on industrial conditions in Cahfornia; but the Celestials remained. Five hundred had arrived in 1850, twenty-four thousand in 1851, twenty thou- ** sand in 1852, but the niunber dropped to forty-seven hundred in 1853, and three thousand in 1854, and continued to dechne for the fifteen years following. Chinese first appeared in the gold fields, where they worked together in large companies under effective leadership, but using tools so like to children's toys that they excited the ridicixle of the sturdy wielders of pan and rocker. The httle yellow men were gentle and timid, readily yielding place to the arro-i gant Americans. They ultimately confined their 318 AMERICAN SETTLERS operations to the placers abandoned by the others, but such was their patience and industry that, even so, they contrived to get a fair return. Soon they found more remunerative employment in restaurants and laundries; they diked the tule lands, converted them into prolific market gardens, and supplied vegetables to the scurvy-haunted mining camps. In the early days the Chinese were regarded as a pic- turesque and highly desirable addition to the work- ^ ing force of California, greatly superior to the Mexicans and Chilenos and "Sydney ducks," since they were honest, industrious, and law-abiding; but '] no sooner were the Latin races driven from the mines ithan economic jealousy and race prejudice vented their wrath upon the Celestials. Against this non- combative people, (the foreign miners' license was enforced with special rigor, — the greedy collectors demanding payment several times a month.'^N The burden of this tax, coupled with numerous outrages perpetrated upon them, drove the Chinamen from the gold fields and deprived the employers of sorely needed laborers. A vigorous protest from this in- terest impelled the legislature to reduce the tax to $3 per month (1852), but in response to the demands of the American and Irish miners it was raised to $4 in 1853 and to $6 in'TSS^S. The unwise provision that the fee was to be automatically increased by $2 each year thereafter, brought about the repeal of this law and restored the $4 rate. The tax was collected from the Chinese miners and from them alone until y 1870, when the Federal courts declared it unconsti- tutional. During the twenty years in which a 2 THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 319 foreign miners' tax was collected, the revenue de- rived amounted to $5,000,000, of which it is esti- mated that the Chinese/ who had no votes and could not testify in the courts, who rarely made use of schools, hospitals, almshouses, or asylums, paid ninety-five per cent^ Without this contribution, amounting to half the total taxes levied in the state, an adequate pohce force and rehef of the destitute could hardly have been maintained in California.*^ Driven from the mines, the Celestials found em- ployment in the towns, — in restaurants, laundries, and private houses. Nine thousand were drafted to Nevada to build the Central Pacific Railway, "^ three thousand went into the shoe factories, cigar shops, and ready-made clothing trade. The BurUn- ^ game Treaty (1868) made the cooUe trade a penal offence, but provided for reciprocal privileges, — volimtary immigration, exemption from persecu- tion on rehgious groimds, freedom of residence and travel, right of attendance on schools and colleges, etc. The primary purpose of the treaty, from our standpoint, was to secure to American merchants freedom of entry to a promising market; but the immediate effect was to increase the volume of Chinese immigration to California. In the three years i between 1868 and 1871 there were twenty-two thousand arrivals, and systematic agitation against Chinese cheap labor was inaugurated. PART V FREE LAND AND FREE LABOR CHAPTER I THE CURSE OF SLAVERY To the planters of Louisiana and Texas, slave labor seemed essential to the cultivation of sugar and cotton. The torrid suns and heavy malarial soils of the Gulf Coast discouraged white laborers, and recourse to negroes was regarded as inevitable. Slaves in plenty were being brought down the Mis- sissippi River from Kentucky and Tennessee or driven in gangs across the mountains from the Caro- linas. It was a traffic highly profitable to both sec- tions, since slaves were multiplying beyond the needs of the exhausted lands of the Atlantic states, and the surplus would have been an embarrassment but for the market developing in the Southwest. So brisk was the demand for Northern negroes to make good the loss of fife in the imhealthy sections and to supply new plantations, that the price of prime field hands rose from 1500 in 1840 to $1000 in 1850 and $2000 in 1860. The temptation to import these valuable commodities was irresistible, and negroes were smuggled in from the West Indies and the Gold Cbast in defiance of Federal legislation. During the years in which Iowa, Oregon, Utah and California were being peopled by Anglo-Saxons, Germans, and Scandinavians, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and even Missouri were supplied with laborers of African blood. The census of 1850 showed that more than 323 324 AMERICAN SETTLERS half the population of Louisiana was made up of slaves and free blacks. The proportion for Texas w^ twenty-seven per cent, that for Arkansas twenty-two per cent, while in Missom-i, the northernmost slavtj state, the colored population was thirteen per cent of the total. Slaves were numerous in the bottom lands along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, but they were httle employed in the barren uplands of western Louisiana and Arkansas and northern Mis- souri. Frederick Law Olmsted, who made his saddle trip through Texas in 1854, was impressed by this con- trast as he watched a gang of twenty-two negroes embarking at New Orleans for some plantation on the lower river, while alongside lay a steamer filled with emigrants and their luggage, bound for the upper Mississippi. "Louisiana or Texas, thought I, pays Virginia twenty odd thousand dollars for that lot of bone and muscle. Virginia's interest in continuing the business may be imagined, — but where is the advan- tage of it to Louisiana, and especially to Texas? Yonder is a steamboat load of the same material — bone and muscle which, at the same sort of valuation, is worth two hundred and odd thousand dollars ; and off it goes past Texas, through Louisiana — far away yet, up the river, and Wisconsin or Iowa will get i,t, two hundred thousand dollars' worth, to say nothing of the thalers and silver groschen in those strong chests, — all for nothing." ^ The disparity did not end with the original cost. It was evident also in the output of free as compared with slave labor. " In ten years' time, how many mills, and bridges, and THE CURSE OF SLAVERY 325 schoolhouses, and miles of railroad will the Germans have built ?" and what a market for products of the rest of the Union will they not have developed? Meantime the negroes will have produced several thousand doUars' worth of sugar or cotton which will be shipped north in exchange for suppUes without adding anything to the permanent wealth of then- new home. The heavy expenditure for slaves kept the planters continually in debt, so that there were few of them in Louisiana or Mississippi who were not seriously embarrassed. A succession of two or three bad years spelled ruin to all but a fortunate ten per cent. Olmsted thought that the Louisiana sugar planter was at an inevitable disadvantage as compared with his Cuban competitor, since he had to grow the cane under a severer climate. Frost might occur in any one of the winter months, and the lands under the levee were cold and damp, the yield of saccharine was never so heavy, and the "seed" had to be planted every third year. In Cuba the yield was from three thousand to six thousand pounds of sugar per acre, while in Louisiana the average yield was only one thousand pounds. The cost of production, moreover, was double that on a Cuban plantation. Olmsted concluded that the sugar planters of Loui- siana were kept going by the two peculiar institutions of slavery and a protective tariff. "I must confess that there seems to me room for grave doubt if the capital, labour, and especially the human life, which have been and which continue to be spent in con- verting the swamps of Louisiana into sugar planta- 326 AMERICAN SETTLERS tions, and in defending thena against the annual assaults of the river, and the fever and the cholera, could not have been . better employed somewhere else." ^ Only the great plantations paid a profit on the investment. The expense of installing a sugar-mill might amount to $100,000, steam pumps for drainage would cost $50,000 more, and the first cost and maintenance of two hundred slaves meant $400,000.' Such a lay-out could not be justified except where a large supply of cane was available. The small planters were selling out to the large-scale producers so generally that two hundred estates, or one-eighth the total number, were already manufac- turing one-half the sugar exported. The cotton fields of Louisiana were producing one and a half (400 lb.) bales to the acre, or from eight to ten bales per hand, where the soil was fresh, but the land was soon exhausted, and no effort was made to renew its fertility.'* The erosion of the hillsides was destroying thousands of acres every year. "If these slopes were thrown into permanent terraces, with turfed or stone-faced escarpments, the fertility of the soil might be preserved, even with constant tillage. In this way the hiUs would continue for ages to produce annual crops at greater value than those which are at present obtained from them at such destructive expense, from ten to twenty crops of cotton rendering them absolute deserts. But with negroes at fourteen hundred dollars a head, and fresh lands in Texas at half a dollar an acre, nothing of this sort can be thought of." ^ The cost of maintaining a force of slaves was less THE CURSE OF SLAVERY 327 than for the same number of free men. The cabins provided for the slaves were mere log enclosures "without windows, covered by slabs of hewn wood four feet long. The great chinks are stopped with whatever comes to hand — a wad of cotton here, and a com-shuck there." ^ The rations were coarse and not always abimdant, a peck of corn and four pounds of pork a week for each person, with a treat of molasses and tobacco at Christmas. This with the necessary clothing and blankets meant an annual expenditure of $25 per head. (It was usual to allow every family a plot of ground on which to grow vegetables and chickens.) The heavy expenditures were represented in the purchase price of the slaves, — an expense which the unwholesome cHmate and ex- hausting labor renewed with alarming frequency, — and the cost of superintendence. Every gang of workers must have a "driver," usually a negro, and every plantation must have at least one overseer. The salary paid an overseer varied from $200 to $2000 according to his reputation for results, — reckoned in the number of bales of cotton or poimds of sugar per acre or per hand. Pressure was thus brought upon the overseer to exploit the land, the draft animals, and the labor force, regardless of the permanent interests of the plantation. "Overseers are not interested in raising children, or meat, in improving land, or improving productive qualities of seed, or animals. Many of them do not care whether the property has depreciated or improved, so they have made a crop [of cotton] to boast of." ^ Few of the landowners of southern Louisiana lived upon their 328 AMERICAN SETTLERS estates, and the overseers were left to manage or mismanage the property as suited their purposes. In journeying to Texas, Olmsted followed the great emigrant road from Natchitoches. It could hardly be called a road, being merely an indistinct trail through the pine barrens, along which every rider and driver chose his own path. Emigrant trains were frequently overtaken, — three or four wagon-loads of furniture and farm implements, a light cart or two for the white women and children, and a drove of slaves. ' ' The negroes, mud-encrusted, wrapped in old blankets or gummy Ibags, suffering from cold, plod on, aimless, hopeless, thoughtless, more indifferent, apparently, than the oxen, to aU about them." ^ Their goal was the fat bottom lands of the Trinity and Guadalupe rivers, where cotton still bore three bales to the acre. Much of the land along the Sabine had already been ex- hausted and was growing up to "old-field pines." The New England observer thought that in eastern Texas a larger area had been abandoned than re- mained under cultivation, and the empty cabins and wrecks of plantations gave the country a deso- late air. All the more enterprising people had moved on to fresh lands farther west, and estates were selling at less than the cost of improvements. Even the cattle ranges were exhausted — the cane and blue-joint grass having been eaten off — and the great herds, were being driven to the uplands north and west of the San Antonio Road. For the care of cattle, the negroes had no aptitude, and the herders were usually of Spanish origin. THE CURSE OF SLAVERY 329 The cotton planters of Texas were almost all poor, even in the fertile districts where the yield was from seven to ten bales per hand. With cotton selling at twenty cents a pound, the income was considerable ; but the outgo was heavy. The bulk of the money went for suppUes of food and clothing, for fresh slaves and cattle, and there was little left for luxuries. Most of the planters were living in one-room cabins with mud chinmeys. The better sort of dwelhngs consisted of two log-cabins con- nected by a roofed-over platform, with at most a gallery or piazza running along the front. Even an old settler had been able to do no better for his family than the one-room cabin. "The room was fourteen feet square, with battens of split boards tacked on between the broader openings of the logs. Above, it was open to the rafters, and in many places the sky could be seen between the shingles of the roof. A rough board box, three feet square, with a shelf in it, contained the crockery ware of the estabhshment ; another similar box held the store of meal, coflfee, sugar, and salt : . . . A canopy bed fiUed one quarter of the room ; a cradle, four chairs seated with untanned deerhide, a table, a skillet or bake-kettle, a coffee kettle, a frying pan, and a rifle laid across two wooden pegs on the chimney, with a string of patches, powder horn, pouch, and hunting knife, completed the furniture of the house." ^ The state of the outhouses and garden (wherever a garden was attempted) indi- cated a hopeless shiftlessness, and it was difficult to find at any of these plantations suitable accommo- 330 AMERICAN SETTLERS dation for man or horse. There was a general lack of flour, sugar, butter, wheat bread, or beef. The only fresh meat was furnished by the universal hog. The explanation of this general lack of comfort was to be found in the complete divorce between intelli- gence and labor. Olmsted quotes the comment of a woman who had been brought up at the North: "The only reason the people didn't have any com- fort here was, that they wouldn't take any trouble to get anything. Anything that their negroes could make, they would eat; but they would take no pains to instruct them, or to get anything that didn't grow on the plantation. A neighbor of hers owned fifty cows . . . but very rarely had any milk and scarcely ever any butter, simply because his people were too lazy to milk or churn, and he wouldn't take the trouble to make them." ^^ Two Ohio men who went up the Missouri in 1854 concluded that shiftlessness was the leading char- acteristic of life in a slave-holding region. "We were informed by a Missourian, — a citizen of a town of four thousand inhabitants, — that if a carriage axle was bent or broken, it could not be repaired in the place; and we were elsewhere informed, that, throughout the beautiful farming region of the Upper Missouri, so far from manufacturing farming implements, not even a plough could be properly repaired." " The fundamental difficulty with slave labor was that slaves took no interest in their work. The conditions imposed upon them offered no incentive to put forth energy, mental or physical. Every THE CURSE OF SLAVERY 331 task was performed under compulsion, and the lash of the driver was a necessary accompaniment of all labor. Farther, the slave had no concern for his master's property. Animals were abused, tools lost or broken, seed wasted. Intensive cultivation, rota- tion of crops, conservation of the soil, were all im- possible under a regime that offered no reward for fideUty and ingenuity. Depletion of the land was, by consequence, rapid and universal. Even the black loam of the river bottoms was sapped of its fertihty. Southerners of the more intelligent tjrpe recognized the fatal defects of slave labor and would have been glad to be rid of its risks and responsi- bihties ; but emancipation seemed to involve worse evils. All observers agree that the condition of the freed blacks was, in general, inferior to that of the slaves; for these were sure of food and clothing, at least, and were guarded against hquor and vaga- bondage. The various attempts to emancipate and transport the negroes had come to little, and yet some provision must be made for the increase of the African population. In the minds of the leading Southern statesmen, there was but one solution of the dilenuna, new territory to which slave owners might migrate with their working force. The pro- gressive exhaustion of the old soils must be made good in fresh lands suited to the slave economy. Directly west, nature had raised a physical barrier in the "staked plains" of Texas and the arid wastes of the upper Arkansas, but to the north lay the Great Plains, a region that was just coming to pubUc notice as having an agricultiu'al future. CHAPTER II SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES All explorers of the Great Plains, the vast moor- land stretching from the one-hundredth parallel to the Rocky Mountains and from the Arkansas River to the British boundary, had expressed the con- viction that the region was unsuited to settlement. Pike and Brackenridge, Long and Gregg, were con- vinced that — treeless except along the watercourses, with inadequate rainfall and unpromising soil — the Plains were not adapted to agriculture. As late as 1856 Colonel Emory stated in an address to the Association for the Advancement of Science: "Ex- cept on the borders of the streams which traverse these plains in their course to the valley of the Mississippi, scarcely anything exists deserving the name of vegetation. The soil is composed of dis- integrated rocks covered by a loam an inch or two in thickness, which is composed of the exuviae of animals and decayed vegetable matter. The growth on them is principally a short but nutritious grass, called buffalo grass. A narrow strip of alluvial soil, support- ing a coarse grass and a few cotton wood trees, marks the line of the watercourses ; which of themselves are sufficiently few and far between. Whatever may be said to the contrary, these plains west of the one hundredth meridian are wholly unsusceptible 332 SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 333 of sustaining even a pastoral population until you. reach sufficiently far south to encounter the rains from the tropics." He thought most people had been misled by ' ' estimating the soil alone, which is generally good, without giving due weight to the infrequency of rains, or the absence of the necessary humidity in the atmosphere to produce a profitable vegeta- tion." For a century to come, the scientists were assured, civiUzed man would cUng to the alluvial lands of the Mississippi and Missouri valley, relin- quishing the prairies to the nomad Indian tribes, to whom, because of the abundance of game, they were a terrestrial paradise. In pursuance of this theory, the government had located here the reser- vations of the Delawares, Wyandottes, and other tribes removed from east of the Mississippi. It was a tenantless land crossed by the caravans of the Santa F6 traders and by emigrant wagons boimd to Utah, Oregon, or California. The pioneers thought of the Plains much as Eiu-opean emigrants thought of the Atlantic, as an unfortunate barrier between the old home and the new which must be traversed at serious cost in time and hardship. The only excep- tion, so far as the overlanders knew, was the valley of the Kansas River, where the rich growth of grass and flowers gave some indication of future productivity. The attention of Congress was first called to the latent possibilities of Nebraska Territory by Stephen A. Douglas, senator from Illinois, who hoped to develop the region in the interests of a northerly route for the much-discussed railway to the Pacific. In 1844, in 1848, and again in 1852, he introduced 334 AMERICAN SETTLERS bills proposing territorial organization. The last measure incorporated Dr. Whitman's suggestion that military stations be planted along the overland trail where food might be raised and sold at prices that would render the posts self-supporting. Soldiers were to be provided by the enUstment of such volun- teers as might be attracted by a land bounty of six hundred and forty acres, awarded for a three years' term of service. The proposition to open this territory to settlers aroused unwonted interest, not because of the known resources of the country in- volved, but because the question of the extension of slavery was reopened. The Missouri Compromise had fixed upon 36° 30' as the boundary between slave and free territory, but the admission of California as a free state seemed to abrogate this agreement. The provision that New Mexico and Utah were open to slave labor was but a barren victory for the South, since these arid lands were not suited to wholesale cultivation. Under existing conditions it was inevitable that free states would be created so rapidly as soon to overthrow the balance of power in the Federal government on which the continued existence of slavery was held to depend. There was but one resource for the determined supporters of slavery, — the opening of new slave territory north of the Missouri Compromise line. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill, introduced into the House of Representatives in 1854 by Stephen A. Douglas, now chairman of the Committee on Territories, declared this com- promise unconstitutional and therefore "inoperative SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 335 and void" and announced the new principle of non- intervention. The people of a territory, and they alone, were competent to determine what labor system should prevail among them. Congress could do no more than organize such territories "with or without slavery as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission." In spite of the energetic opposition of the Free Soil party and of such Democrats as Thomas H. Benton, who held that the Missouri Compromise was a pact that could not honorably be broken, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was carried through both houses and received the signature of President Pierce on May 30, 1854. Thus was it determined that the momentous question whether slave or free labor was to dominate the West was to be tried out on the ground, and that victory would rest with the section that could fur- nish the most successful colonizers. The Territory of Kansas was dehmited at the fortieth parallel and opened for settlement, the Indian tribes being removed.^ Popular Sovereignty The free state men accepted the challenge. Eli Thayer, a member of the Massachusetts General Court, brought forward a plan that gave new hope to the baffled opponents of slavery. The rich lands of Kansas must be colonized with men from the North, — men who could be counted on to cast their votes, when the test came, against the exten- sion of the hated institution. On April 26, 1854, more than a month before the signing of the Kansas- 336 AMERICAN SETTLERS Nebraska Act, he induced the legislature of Massa- chusetts to incorporate the Emigrant Aid Company, aiid readily secured the aid of Amos A. Lawrence and other business men of Boston in getting together a capital of $140,000. His Plan of Freedom was entirely pacific and offered a means of circumventing the slave power without any violation of the law or the Constitution, — without menace to the Union. It enlisted the cordial support of the best men in New England and the North. Edward Everett Hale, Horace Bushnell, Theodore Parker, theBeechers, and thousands of lesser clergymen lent their pul- pits and their voices to the propaganda. Edward Everett Hale was one of the first and ablest of Thayer's assistants. He had written a pamphlet in 1845 (apropos of the Joint Resolution for the annexation of Texas), proposing to colonize Texas with men from the free states; but his appeal fell on deaf ears. The odds were then too heavily against the antislavery men. The Boston Daily Advertiser, the New York Tribune, the New York Evening Post, the Springfield Republican, and hun- dreds of local papers throughout the free states printed vigorous editorials in behalf of "the Kansas Crusade" and eagerly reported the course of events. EU Thayer threw himself into the campaign heart and soul, addressing audiences that crowded the churches and lyceum halls from the Penobscot to the Schuylkill. Farther west, Cincinnati and Ober- lin furnished men who carried the propaganda throughout the Old Northwest. An emigrant aid company was organized in New York City, another SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 337 at Albany, and another in Washington, and Kansas leagues were formed in hundreds of smaller towns. Young men from the hill towns of New England, from the exhausted farms of New York and Pennsyl- vania, from the malaria-haunted prairies of Illinois, enhsted for the free-soil crusade, actuated by the desire to better their own condition as well as to contribute their share toward checking the spread of slavery. The advantages of emigration on a large scale were soon evident. On the imderstanding that twenty thousand people would move to Kansas within three years, the new railways that were competing with the Ohio steamers for the Mississippi River traflSc of- fered reduced rates, and a fare of $37 from Boston to Kansas City was arranged. A receiving station was opened at St. Louis, a hotel was purchased at Kansas City, and agents were despatched to the several points of transfer to guard the emigrants against extortion and fraud. Town sites were chosen and desirable lands designated by men famihar with the territory, machinery was purchased and forwarded at the cost of the Company, — a sawmiU being set to work at every point where a colony was projected, — grist- mills and printing-presses followed, and $2000 was contributed to the financing of the first newspaper, the Herald of Freedom.^ Charles Robinson, a "forty-niner" who had led the squatters' rising in Sacramento, was the very ef- fective agent in the field. Charles H. Branscomb took charge of the emigrant parties, while Samuel C. Pomeroy served as financial agent at Kansas City. VOL. n — z 338 AMERICAN SETTLERS The first group of twenty-nine men left Boston, July 17, 1854, going by rail to Buffalo. Their jour- ney was a triumphal progress. At every station they were met by crowds who cheered the advance- guard of the army of freedom, and the local press chronicled their movements day by day. At Buf- falo, they transferred to the steamer Plymouth Rock and crossed Lake Erie to Detroit. Thence the railroad carried them to Chicago and to Alton, where they boarded river boats for Kansas City. There Branscomb took the party in charge and led them up the Kaw River to the site of Lawrence. A second party of sixty-six men followed in August, and five companies with seven hundred and fifty emigrants went in the course of the year. Each party doubled and trebled its numbers en route, and many went out quite independently of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. The books of the Boston office showed during the course of the first three years of its operation three thousand names of prospective emigrants, — inteUigent and resolute men for the most part, ready to die if need be for the sake of the prin- ciple on which they had risked their personal for- tunes. Most of these men could write and write effectively, and their letters home, eagerly awaited and read at the village post-offices, at chvu-ch meetings and lyceums, or printed in the columns of the anti- slavery press, fired the enthusiasm of thousands more. After 1856 there was no more need for the emigrant aid societies. The colonists organized on their own account and moved on Kansas by thousands ; for it was coming to be understood that the once despised SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 339 Plains comprised some of the best farming country in the West. Boynton and Mason, the commissioners sent out by the Kansas League of Cincinnati in the autumn of 1854 to inspect this latest "new land of promise," thought the soil of eastern Kansas as fertile as that of Missouri and the rainfall of thirty inches quite adequate for agriculture. The arid plains of the cen- tral section were covered with buffalo grass, the best of pasturage, and the rivers that traversed the dis- trict from west to east afforded a sufficient water supply. Here was an admirable cattle country, while the mountainous region bordering on the Rockies would . furnish water-power only compa- rable to that of New England. Forest growth on the uplands was kept down by prairie fires, which must cease to be dangerous as the land was brought under cultivation ; but along the streams there was abun- dant timber for immediate need. A treeless country had its advantages, since the cost of clearing land was slight, and the plough met no obstacles in turning over the sod. Building material for all time was pro- vided in the underlying strata of lime and sandstone, while the outcropping ledges of coal promised fuel for the future. The osage orange furnished an ad- mirable hedging plant which formed a hog-proof barrier in three years' growth. For house-building, a temporary expedient that gave warm shelter was prairie sod or sun-dried brick such as the Mormons were using. "In three years after locating upon the open prairie, a man may have his farm surrounded and divided by hedges ; his dwelling adorned with 340 AMERICAN SETTLERS shrubbery, and young shade trees — several kinds of fruit trees and grapevines in bearing — and if he pleases, a young forest, already capable of supplying him with some small timber." ^ The cost of taking up land under the pre- emption law was moderate — $1.25 per acre — and the first ploughing could be accompUshed, even when men and teams were hired, at charge of $2.25 per acre. The prairie soil might be counted on to produce from fifty to one hundred bushels of corn, forty bushels of oats, twenty bushels of wheat, two hundred bushels of potatoes, or one thousand pounds of hemp per acre. The value of hemp was $120 per ton, and it was already a staple export from northern Missouri. An excellent market for all food-stuffs, as well as for cattle and horses, was provided by the emigrant trains to Oregon and California and the caravans that still went over the Santa Fe Trail. Boynton was convinced that Kansas would never be a slave state. The crops to which by soil and climate its agriculture was adapted — corn, wheat, oats, cattle — were not suited to slave culture, nor was the quarter-section farm consistent with slave economy. Emigration, moreover, follows parallels of latitude, and few Southerners would care to face the severe winters of the Platte Valley. The people who came into Kansas from Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri were usually "poor whites" who brought no slaves. Planters did not care to risk so valuable a property in a territory from which slavery might ultimately be debarred. Kansas was the poor man's opportunity. To take SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 341 advantage of the preemption law, a man must swear that he held no other claim and owned no more than three hundred and twenty acres of land elsewhere. In order to secure his title, he must prove that he had built a house upon his claim and "improved and in- habited" the land for at least one year. Since the lands of the Kaw Valley had not yet been surveyed by the government, settlers would have fuUy two years in which to accumulate the $200 due the land office. The Emigrant Aid office estimated that a man did not need more than $100 to start with. In the autumn of 1854, there were several steamers plying on the Missouri between St. Louis and Wes- ton, the then depot for the emigrant and Santa Fe trade. The voyage was still a precarious one and taxed the ingenuity of hoat-builders, as is evidenced by Boynton and Mason's description of their steamer. "The boat is provided with heavy spars some fifty feet long, which are set out over the sides, like the legs of giants, and by means of the proper machin- ery, worked by the capstan, the weight of the boat is partly suspended upon her legs, and she literally 'walks the water like a thing of life.' " * The journey to Kansas City, the new post at the mouth of the Kaw River, required three or four days and cost $12 (cabin passage). Freight rates were $1.50 per hvm- dredweight in the fall when the water was low. In the spring, when the Ohio Rivers boat could run up the Missouri, competition brought the rate down to twenty-five cents per hundredweight. Kansas City was a prosperous village of from six hundred to one thousand inhabitants. Lying at the junction 342 AMERICAN SETTLERS of two navigable rivers, and possessing the rare ad- vantage of a high bluff, and a "natural limestone wharf," it had the chance of becoming the com- I O W A WllUanu Bug. Co., N«Y, The Kansas Settlements, 1855. mercial outlet for a great farming region and was already contending with Weston for the emigrant trade. Farther up the Missouri and on the west- ern bank was Leavenworth, a squatter settlement where twelve hundred Missom-ians had staked their claims in the heart of the Delaware reserva- tion, in defiance of the United States authori- ties. "There was one steam-engine, naked as when it was born, but at work, sawing out its own clothes. There were four tents all on one street, a barrel of water or whiskey under a tree, and a pot, on a pole over a fire. Under a tree, a type-sticker had his case before him, and was at work on the first number of the new paper, and within a frame, without a board on side or roof, was the editor's desk and sanctum." * When the Cincinnati commissioners came down the river a few weeks later, the editor had removed his SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 343 office to the "corner of Broadway and the levee." Lawrence was hardly more imposing, being a "city of tents," although its population was made up of six hundred heads of families. Emigrants from New England did not often bring their women and chil- dren, fearing to expose them to the hardships of the first winter. All the best land in the Kaw Valley as far as Fort Riley was already preempted, since this was regarded as the most favored portion of the territory. The steamers and flatboats that ran up the river as far as the Fort when the water was high afforded the all-important transportation facihties. Here was Topeka with four hundred inhabitants and a town site of two square miles. Two steam sawmills be- longing to the New England Emigrant Aid Company were sawing out lumber for the house-builders at $10 per thousand feet. A printing-press was already set up, and the Company's store was selling food-stuffs at leBs than market prices. The Boston philanthro- pists were doing for this frontier what Dr. McLough- lin had done for the Oregon emigrants and what the Mormon church was still doing for its proteges. "It strips emigration of its terrors, and renders the settling of a new coimtry a safe, easy and profitable operation, even for the pioneers." ® The scheme of emigration differed from that imdertaken by the Mor- mon church in that every emigrant paid his way, made his own choice of location, and laid claim to land on his own initiative. He was not even imder expressed obUgation to use his vote or his influence against slavery. Meantime the slave interests had not been idle. 344 AMERICAN SETTLERS Organized emigration had long been customary in the South. For forty years, slave owners had been sending younger sons and superfluous slaves west- ward — to Georgia, to Mississippi, to Texas — with the full assurance that they could occupy and dominate the new territories. But migration north- ward, into a region where not cotton and sugar, but corn, wheat, and oats would be the staple crops, was a far more difficult matter. Slave labor might not prove profitable, and free laborers were not to be had for such a venture. The issue was clearly foreseen. The Charlestown Mercury announced : "If the South secures Kansas, she will extend slavery into all the territory south of the fortieth parallel of north lati- tude, to the Rio Grande, and this, of coiu"se, will secure for her pent up institution of slavery an ample outlet, and restore her power in Congress. If the North secures Kansas, the power of the South in Congress will gradually be diminished, the states of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas, together with the adjacent territories, will gradually become Abolitionized, and the slave population, confined to the states east of the Mississippi, will become value- less. All depends upon the action of the present moment." ^ Certain Southern patriots responded to this plea. Major Buford of Alabama recruited a party of three hundred adventurous young men and paid their expenses for a year's campaign, on the understanding that each volunteer would make over half of his squatter's claim to the financier of the expedition. The Lafayette Emigration Society was set on foot in Missouri on terms somewhat less thrifty. SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 345 There was, however, no considerable migration from the slave states except from the region that lay- directly east of Kansas. In the frontier communities of northern Missouri, there were plenty of reckless spirits — broken-down trappers, disappointed gold- seekers, seedy veterans of the Mexican War — eager to move across the border and lay claim to any promis- ing land, regardless of Indian reservations or pre- emption rights. In the autumn of 1854 they flooded the Kansas Valley, planting stakes and registering claims wherever a colony of free state men was projected.^ Speculators and blackmailers joined in this attempt to dispossess the men who had first filed on the land and who, by settling thereon, had given it market value. The policy of Robinson, derived from his California experience, was to induce his men to ignore bullying, to stand by their civil rights and wait for the law to take its course. It took courage to adhere to this programme, since the Mis- sourians were known to be unscrupulous as to the means used, and the Federal government, with Pierce in the presidential chair and Jefferson Davis secre- tary of war, could not be relied on for abstract justice ; but the law-abiding element possessed their souls in patience, for they believed that regard for constituted authority — as essential to the ordered development of society as is self-control in the indi- vidual — must prevail in the end. By the autumn of 1854 there were eight thousand people in Kansas, fully half of them from the free states. Since the great majority of the Northern immigrants were adult men, it was thought this 346 AMERICAN SETTLERS element could outvote the pro-slavery faction by five to one.' Unable to settle the country as rapidly as the free state men were doing, the proslavery leaders determined to control the elections. Blue lodges and other secret societies were organized for this purpose, under the direction of General D. 0. Atchinson, senator from Missouri, and no effort was made to conceal their intention. Bands of "border ruffians" rode across the Missouri fine, — daring, lawless men, imbued with the individualistic creed of the frontier. They distributed their force among the several voting districts so as to make sure of swamping the antislavery majority at every point. At the election of the territorial delegate (Novem- ber 29, 1854), Whitfield, the proslavery candidate, received an overwhelming majority of the votes cast, but more than half the number (1721) were afterward proven to be illegal. A much more im- portant" issue was the choice of the territorial legis- lature in the spring of 1855, for on its enactments would depend the future of Kansas. Again armed bands rode across the border, each equipped with camping outfit, and when they returned home imme- diately after the election, they were received with addresses of congratulation by their fellow-townsmen at Franklin and elsewhere, for they had insured a proslavery majority." When Governor Reeder , who had at first accepted the result of the election, found this assembly unmanage- able and repudiated its action, he was removed from office by President Pierce, and Governor Shannon was sent to take his place. So supported, the legislature SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 347 proceeded to draw up a constitution for the Territory closely modelled upon that of Missouri, but even more drastic in respect to the opponents of slavery. The death penalty was awarded for the crime of aiding in the escape of a nmaway slave, imprisonment at hard labor for writing, speaking, or printing anti- slavery arguments, and antislavery opinions were declared to be sufficient ground for disfranchisement. The effect of these high-handed proceedings was to rouse intense enthusiasm for the crusade in behalf of freedom throughout the North and to induce the immigration of some fanatic abolitionists. The proslavery zealots, meanwhile, policed the Missouri, inspecting the steamboats, turning back passengers who haled from north of the Ohio River, and con- fiscating their luggage. The Wakarusa War The free state settlers justly reg3,rded the consti- tution and laws adopted by an assembly illegally elected as void and without effect, and they pro- ceeded to hold a convention at Topeka to draw up a state constitution. This was submitted to the people (December 15, 1855) and carried 1731 to 46. Dr. Robinson, who headed the antislavery ticket, was triimiphantly elected governor. Thus there were two governments in Kansas, the territorial and the state, neither of which could claim to be constitu- tional. The conflict of authority, or rather the lack of all authority, gave opportunity for theft, mm-der, and arson, and the inevitable recriminations. A belliger- ent proslavery sheriff, Jones, attempted to arrest an 348 AMERICAN SETTLERS old man whose only offence was his concern for the body of a murdered friend ; but he was rescued by some of the free state men, who protested the sheriff's authority. The Missourians reenforced Jones' posse by seventeen hundred armed troopers and marched on Lawrence determined to make an end of the hated town. Hostilities were averted by the personal intervention of Governor Shannon, who patched up a truce and reluctantly conceded the right of the men of Lawrence to defend themselves ; but Robinson and several other antislavery leaders were arrested and kept under guard by the Federal troops. In the spring of 1856 a Congressional investigation was ordered. The majority report (two Republicans to one Democrat) was to the effect that the territorial legislature was illegally elected, and its acts were therefore void ; that the convention which drew up the Topeka constitution represented a majority of the people, but was illegally called." A new election was ordered for the autumn of 1857, and United States troops undertook to maintain peace until the civil authority was established. All might have gone well but for the Pottawatomie outrages. John Brown and his five sons came to Kansas in the summer and autumn of 1855 and settled at Osawatomie. They were extreme abolitionists and held that slaveholders must be driven from the territory, if not by votes, then by force ; but their propaganda was distrusted by Robinson and the Lawrence men, who beUeved that extra-legal means would be fatal to their cause. Aroused to a pitch of frenzy by the appearance of armed bands of Missouri- SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 349 ans and the attack upon Lawrence, Brown led his men into the valley of the Pottawatomie, a proslavery district, and there they dragged five suspects from their beds and killed them without shadow of trial or legal authority. This horror precipitated a cam- paign of revenge in which both parties participated, and the governor was obUged to resort to martial law. Immigration was checked, and the favorable impression created by Robinson's poUcy of non-re- sistance was largely negatived. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a young divine of Worcester, Massachu- setts, who was escorting a party of emigrants over the toilsome and costly route through Iowa and Ne- braska, met parties of Kansas settlers returning home. '"WUl you give up Kansas?' I asked. 'Never,' was the reply from the bronzed and bearded lips, stern and terrible as the weapons that hung to the saddle-bow. ' We are scattered, starved, hunted, half- naked, but we are not conquered yet. ' " ^^ Douglas, on the other hand, denounced "that vast moneyed corporation," the Emigrant Aid Company, as prima- rily responsible for the failure of popular sovereignty to settle the slavery question in the territories; but wiser men than he were forced to the conclusion that the peaceful solution of an antagonism so irrec- oncilable was impossible. In 1857 immi gration again set toward Kansas, the Northern men usually coming by the way of Iowa and Nebraska to avoid the annoyance of passing through St. Louis, Frankhn, and Kansas City. Some enter- prising antislavery men started the town of Quindaro and announced it as the only landing on the river 350 AMERICAN SETTLERS where free state immigrants were sure of a welcome. In consequence, all the immigration set that way, and the other landings had to advertise equal hospitality or see their trade languish. When the elections were held in October, 1857, the free state party was confessedly in the majority, twenty to one; but the determined advocates of slavery falsified the returns. The proslavery vote from small villages and sparsely populated townships was so large that the fraud was patent, and the returns were disallowed by Governor Walker, to Pierce's extreme annoyance. But fraud could not make permanent headway against the will of the people, and violence had only the effect of sending larger companies of anti- slavery colonists across the Missouri. Kansas was ultimately won for free labor, as Oregon and CaUfornia had been, by the incoming of settlers who had no use for slavery. In 1859 an antislavery constitution was adopted by an uncontestable majority of the voters, and the attempt to create a slave state north of the Missouri Compromise line was abandoned. Beaten on ground of its own choosing, the slave oligarchy repudiated the theory of popular sover- eignty altogether and endeavored to substitute the principle that slave property had equal rights with any other property, and that the Federal government was bound to defend its possessor in any state or territory to which he might transfer it. Meantime the men who were convinced that farther compromises with the slave power would jeopardize the continu- ance of free institutions had organized the Republican party. The convention held in the simimer of 1856 SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 351 announced that no interference with the institutions of existing states was proposed, but that the extension of slavery to the territories must cease at once and for all time. In the presidential election of November, 1856, the Republicans cast 1,341,264 votes and carried eleven of the fifteen free states ; but Buchanan, the Demo- cratic candidate, secured the majority of the elec- toral college. However, the tide of popular indig- nation against the aggressions of slave owners was steadily rising. The Dred Scott decision and the open importation of slaves from Africa, in violation of a pact in the original constitution, added fuel to the flame. In the elections of 1860, Abraham Lin- coln, the consistent opponent of Stephen A. Douglas, received a popular vote of 1,866,452, and a clear majority of the electoral college. His election was the signal for the secession of the slave states and the war for the preservation of the Union. The pro- slavery majority in the Senate disappeared with the withdrawal of the Southern members, and Kansas was finally admitted to the Union under the constitution indorsed by its people. The rapid development of the state imder a free labor system was a suflScient justification of the long struggle. Samuel Bowles, who crossed the Plains by stage in 1865, described the country east of Fort Kearney as beautiful prairie, "illimitable stretches of exquisite green surface, rolling like long waves of the sea," with here and there a ranch or a farm with cultivated land. The proprietors were using mowers and reapers "to an extent that would amaze New 352 AMERICAN SETTLERS England farmers." ^^ The great need of Western agri- culture was a steam plough which would convert the level, treeless plains into tillable soil with less expendi- ture of time and labor. Farther west the ranchmen were discussing the practicability of dry farming. "By ploughing during the latter rains of Spring, and sowing during the long, dry Summer rest, the smaller and hardy grains will sprout with the Fall rains, strengthen with the Winter and quickly ripen in the early Spring. Such treatment involves a years fal- low, as the harvest would be too late for another ploughing the same Spring." " CHAPTER III THE VICTORY OF THE NORTH The settlement of the slavery question aside, the most significant results of the Civil War for the Far West were the chartering of the Union Pacific Rail- road Company and the Homestead Act. The Railroad to the Pacific The first suggestion for transcontinental transpor- tation seems to have been that submitted to Congress by Robert Mills in 1819. He proposed that Charles- ton, South Carolina, be connected with the Pacific Ocean by a system of canals and natural waterways, up theMississippi andMissouri to the Great Falls, and "thence passing through the plains and across the Rocky Moimtains to the navigable waters of the Kooskooskee River, a branch of the Columbia, three hundred and forty miles." The proposed route is evidently based on the Summary Statement of Dis- tances compiled ' by Lewis and Clark.^ A railway across the Rocky Mountains was one of Hall J. Kelley's dreams, and to him it seemed an entirely simple proposition ; but his contemporaries thought it as visionary as a railway to the moon. The pro- ject was finally reduced to practicable terms by Asa Whitney, a New York merchant, who addressed a memorial to Congress in 1845, embodying his plan. He proposed to finance the railroad out of land sales VOL. n — 2 a 353 354 AMERICAN SETTLERS and petitioned for a grant sixty miles wide along the entire route. The settlers who came in to purchase the land would furnish the business on which the company might depend for future revenues. "It is proposed to establish an entirely new system of settle- ment, on which the hopes of success are based, and upon which all depend. The settler on the line of the road would, so soon as his house or cabin were up and a crop in, find employment to grade the road ; the next season, when his crop would have ripened, there would be a market for it at his door, by those in the same situation as himself the season before ; if any surplus, he would have the road at low tolls to take it to market ; and if he had in the first instance paid for his land, the money would go back, either directly or indirectly, for labor and materials for the work. So that in one year the settler would have his home, with settlement and civilization surrounding, a demand for his labor, a market at his door for his produce, a railroad to communicate with civiliza- tion and markets, without having cost one dollar. And the settler who might not have means in money to piirchase the land, his labor on the road and a first crop would give him that means, and he, too, would in one year have his home with the same ad- vantages and as equally independent." ^ By widely distributed lyceum lectures and unceas- ing newspaper agitation, Whitney created a general demand for transportation to the Pacific, for he diplomatically varied the route according to the pre- possessions of the audience he was addressing. His first project was a railroad from Milwaukee on Lake -..,J 4 THE VICTORY OF THE NORTH 355 Michigan through Prairie du Chien to Portland, Oregon ; but in deference to Southern interests, he later proposed that the line should run from Memphis on the Mississippi through New Mexico to San Fran- cisco. Sectional feeling was quite evident in the Congressional debates. Southern representatives demanded that the road shovdd connect Charleston with San Diego, while members from the Northern states held that this national boon should not fail to advantage Chicago and St. Louis. Meantime the discovery of gold in California had rendered some form of transportation a necessity. The prairie schooners of the emigrants soon deter- mined the shortest route to California, and a well- defined trail fromWestport Landing to Salt Lake via South Pass, and thence by the Humboldt and Truckee rivers to the Sacramento Valley, indicated the line of least resistance. The overland road was described in 1860 as "a gregit thoroughfare, broad and well- worn as a European turnpike or a Roman military route, and undoubtedly the best and the longest natural highway in the world." * Mail-coaches had been running from St. Joseph to Salt Lake since 1850, with the aid of a mail subsidy from the government. In 1859 the stage line was in the hands of Russell, Majors, and Waddell, ex-army contractors, who en- joyed an annual subsidy of $190,000. The heavy Concord coaches ran night and day, six miles an hour, stopping only to change the miile teams at Fort Kearney, Fort Laramie, Fort Bridger, and for food and drink at certain "stations" between these points. The Wells Fargo Express Company financed the route 356 AMERICAN SETTLERS from Salt Lake to San Francisco. The usual sched- ule time between St. Joseph and San Francisco was three weeks, though it often exceeded this by two or three days. The charge for fare and twenty-five pounds of luggage was $175 to Salt Lake, — thence to San Francisco, 1 150. A more rapid mail service was furnished by the famous Pony Express, a relay system of mounted mail-carriers, who made the trip from St. Joseph on the Missouri to Placerville, Cali- fornia, in eight days. This was a desperate business for man and horse, but with a letter rate of $5 per sheet, it paid expenses and was maintained from 1852 to 1860. When gold was discovered in the northern Rockies, Ben HoUaday, a Missourian, opened a stage route from Atchison to Denver, across the Wasatch Range to Salt Lake, and thence north to Idaho and Oregon, a line that footed up 2240 miles. At Portland, Holla- day's stages were met by stearnships which he had purchased to carry mail and passengers from British Columbia to Mexico. It was a vast scheme of trans- portation without which the mines of the Northwest could hardly have been operated, and the revenue as well as the expenditures ran up to figures regarded as stupendous in those days. The mail contracts alone amounted to $650,000 per annum. The south- ern overland route from Fort Smith, the head of navi- gation on the Arkansas, via El Paso to San Diego, was well patronized by emigrants from the Gulf States, and this, too, had its stage line (1858) financed by Wells of the Wells Fargo Company. It was a hazardous business for all concerned. THE VICTORY OF THE NORTH 357 The risk of capture by Indian bands or by more civil- ized highwaymen was serious, and the losses in property alone were reckoned by milUons. The cost of maintaining the draft animals at the numerous relay posts was heavy, for grain had to be hauled from Missouri or from Salt Lake, and hay and fuel were often packed a hundred miles over the desert. Reckoning also the wages paid to the men and boys employed, to say nothing of the salaried officials, the output mounted to $10,000 and $20,000 a month, and frequently exceeded the revenue. Firm after firm failed, giving way to some larger combination. The Russell, Majors, and Waddell line passed into the hands of Ben Holladay (1862) . The Wells Fargo management bought out Holladay (1865) and estab- lished a gigantic transportation system reaching from the Missouri to the Pacific and from Sante F6 to the Columbia, — the Overland Mail Company. Samuel Bowles, who made his journey "Across the Conti- nent" in 1865, estimated that the various stage Unes employed from nine to ten thousand wagons, six- teen thousand horses and mules, ten thousand men, and fifty thousand cattle. The overland stage was a boon to the gold-seekers and to the travelling pubKc for a score of years, and it offered opportunity for many a thrifty Mormon or stranded fur trader to accumulate a tidy fortmie by furnishing poor food and worse whiskey to the way- farer ; but it was destined to give place to the trans- continental railroad. During the decade 1849 to 1859, surveys were made of the various routes estab- lished by fur traders and emigrants, without reach- 358 AMERICAN SETTLERS ing any final conclusion. Simpson, of the United States Topographical Survey, who had explored the Zuni route from Fort Smith to the Rio Grande, the Sante F6 route from Fort Leavenworth, and the Salt Lake route along the North Platte, thought the south- ern project the most practicable. Texas and New Mexico offered no serious obstacles to construction, for the grades were light, and there was little snow even in winter. But other considerations than the difficulties of construction must have weight in the ultimate decision; the openings for settlement and cultivation must be taken into account, if the road was ever to be profitable. In these respects the south- em route offered less than the line recently explored by McClellan and by Lieutenant MuUan from the Great Lakes to Puget Sound. Here, too, the Mis- souri would serve for the transportation of materials and supplies, while the Cascade Range could furnish abimdant timber. The central route so eagerly m-ged by Benton and Fremont was thought im- practicable by Simpson, Gtmnison, and Beckwith. The grades they believed beyond the skill of railroad engineers, and the snows fell so heavily in the Wasatch Range and the Sierras as to preclude winter travel. Simpson, indeed, thought a railroad through the Cordilleran area impracticable. Two thousand miles of track built at the rate of one hundred miles a year would require twenty years for completion. Meantime, the portion first built would have rotted out twice over. He advocated a Central American canal as the "great political, cormnercial, financial, physico- Bcientific, moral and rehgious problem of the age." * THE VICTORY OF THE NORTH 359 The central route had been explored by Fremont in 1843-1844 and again in 1845-1846, by Stansbury in 1849, by Gunnison in 1853, by Beckwith in 1854, and by Simpson in 1859, and although they differed on many points, all agreed that the South Pass was the most feasible means of surmoimting the Rockies. Fremont described the South Pass as a "sandy plain, one hundred and twenty miles long" which " conducts by a gradual and regular ascent, to the summi about seven thousand feet above the sea," so that the traveller, "without being reminded of any change by toilsome ascents, suddenly finds himself on the waters which flow to the Pacific Ocean." ^ The crossing of the Wasatch Range and the Sierras, he acknowl- edged to be the really serious problem. While engineers were discussing grades and con- struction materials, and poHticians were endeavoring to reconcile sectional interests, the miners and ranch- men from. Kansas to CaUfomia were clamoring for improved means of transportation. A Pacific rail- road, as Bowles put it, was "the hunger, the prayer, the hope" of all the settlers west of the Missouri. Both the Democratic and the Republican platforms of 1860 declared that a transcontinental railway was "imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country," but not till the secession of the slave states left the representatives of the North in control of Congress, was the central route determined on, with Omaha as the point of departure. The Con- gressional sanction was hailed with enthusiasm all along the emigrant trail. The merchants of St. Louis and the farmers of Kansas and Nebraska were 360 AMERICAN SETTLERS the first to feel the advantages of the new transporta- tion system ; but the Mormons in Utah were no less convinced of its beneficence. Brigham Young took out contracts in behalf of the church for building the line through Mormon country, and many a for- tune was made in the furnishing of timber and sup- pUes, while the Saints contributed no small quota of the labor employed. The business men of San Fran- cisco subscribed $1,000,000 of stock and immediately set about building the Central Pacific Railroad over the Sierras and across the Great American Desert to the Great Salt Lake, — quite the most difl&cult portion of the route. The city of the Golden Gate subscribed $400,000 of stock, Sacramento $300,000, and Placer County $250,000, while the state of Califor- nia put in $5,500,000 of seven per cent bonds. Labor was provided by the importation of Chinamen under wage contracts at much lower rates than would have brought in white workmen. The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railways met at Ogden on May 10, 1869, and the Unk between the two oceans was complete. The great undertak- ing could not have been achieved by private capital alone. The construction costs exceeded all calcula- tions, and the Federal government was obliged to come to the aid of this national enterprise. The second mortgage bonds of the Company to the amount of $65,000,000 were guaranteed by the United States, the Federal treasury being made re- sponsible for the payments on interest and principal. An even more serious draft upon the country's future resources was conceded in the land grant. Alternate THE VICTORY OF THE NORTH 361 sections of public land, within a tract twenty miles in width, were assigned along the right of way as con- struction proceeded, a grant which amounted in the end to 23,500,000 acres, an area equal to that of Indiana. In so doing. Congress handed over to this vast transportation system effectual control of the destinies of the region which it served. The ultimate results of this hostage to monopoly could not then be foreseen. The Homestead Act ' The pioneers from Kentucky and Tennessee were entirely familiar with the "cabin right." Virginia and the Carohnas had offered lands beyond the Appa- lachians at a mere nominal charge to settlers who could show a house built and corn planted at the end of a year from the date of occupation. Senator Benton, the ardent champion of the frontier, was heartily in favor of this generous policy. When he first came to r Missouri, and "saw land exposed to sale to the high- est bidder, and lead mines and salt mines reserved from sale, and rented out for the profit of the Federal treasury [he] felt repugnance to the whole system, and determined to make war upon it whenever [he] should have the power." ^ Unfortunately, the eloquent sen- ator from Missouri lost his seat just as the question of the free distribution of the public lands became a live issue in the Senate. Daniel Webster, the Whig leader, was equally in favor of making over the public domain to the people. In January .22, 1850, shortly before his final withdrawal fromjihe Senate, he introduced a resolution in behalf of the quarter-section grant. 362 AMERICAN SETTLERS It was in the House, however, where the Northern and Western states had a working majority, that the free soil agitation was fully felt. Andrew Johnson of Tennessee introduced a homestead bill in 1845. Its objects were defined by Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune as "the secxiring to every man, as nearly as may be, a chance to work for and earn a Uving ; secondly, the discouragement of land monop- oly and speculation, and the creation of a universally landholding People." In 1850 a second bill was brought before the House, this time with the indorse- ment of the Committee on Agriculture. It was elo- quently defended by Brown of Mississippi, a Demo- crat, who urged that "a fixed and permanent home should be placed within the reach of every citizen, however humble his condition in life." ^ There was much talk of the patriotism of the simple, sturdy old farmers, and the interests of "the honest, hard-fisted, warm-hearted, toiling millions," neglected in the zeal of some legislators to please the rich and great. Other Democrats and Southerners followed in the same vein. The public domain, purchased by the blood and treasure of the whole people, belonged to the people by right and should be placed at the disposition of any man who would settle thereon, without charge. The national inheritance must be rescued "from the grasp of jobbers and pirates" who were speculating on the necessities of the poor. On the other hand, the proposal was denounced as demagogism by Morse of Louisiana, as "one of the grossest schemes for corrupting the people that had ever been devised." The public property was being THE VICTORY OF THE NORTH 363 ^ven away "for the pxirpose of making voters." * Hubbard of Alabama argued that the TninimnTn rate of $1.25 per acre akeady guaranteed to actual settlers by the Preemption Act was not excessive, and that a more reasonable reform would be the classification of the agricultural land still available and the gradua- tion of the price according to real productivity. The flat charge of $1.25 per acre for the whole area, whether the "richest bottom lands or the poorest wire-grass pine barrens," was the real injustice. The protest of Eastern representatives that land sales constituted the principal source of revenue for the Federal government was answered by the assertion that the revenue was unnecessary and that the burden was unequally distributed. Johnson of Ar- kansas insisted that "the people of the new states have contributed more, in proportion to their popu- lation, to the support of this Government than any other people in the United States. * * * When a man comes to settle among us, he is compelled to pay his money into the Treasury in order to get a spot on which to hve; and the money which is thus paid by the settlers is carried out of the state and expended elsewhere." ^ Until 1854 the homestead poUcy was not regarded as a party issue. It was indorsed by Whigs such as Lewis Cass of Michigan and by Democrats such as McMuUen of Virginia. Nor could it be called a sec- tional question, though it awakened the Hvehest inter- est in the West and among the men who were looking forward to settlement of the pubUc lands. But as it became apparent that the most desirable portions of 364 AMERICAN SETTLERS the unclaimed lands lay north of the Missouri Com- promise line, sectional jealousies were awakened. When the Homestead Bill reached the Senate in March of 1854, it was referred to the Committee on Public Lands, and even when reported back with the recommendation to pass, action was deferred from week to week, until Gwin of California charged the opposition with using adroit and underhand tactics to defeat a measure which they dared not fight in the open. Then Johnson of Arkansas, now sitting in the Senate, spoke his mind. He had be- come convinced that the policy was "tinctured so strongly with abolitionism" that no Southerner could vote for it. To pass a homestead act before the Kansas-Nebraska Bill had become law would be to offer a premium to all the rest of the world to settle that country excepting only slave owners. The bill finally passed the Senate by a vote of thirty-six to eleven, but with amendments so obnoxious to the temper of the House that that body refused to con- cur. Once again, in June of 1860, the two houses agreed upon a homestead bill providing that any citizen of the United States, or foreigner intending to become such, might take up a quarter section of un- appropriated public land, settle thereon, and when he could prove residence of five years' duration, acquire absolute title. The Senate's contention that a cash payment of twenty-five cents an acre be required, was accepted by the House a;fter serious protest; but even so, the opposition of the slave interests was so strong that President Buchanan felt justified in veto- ing the bill. THE VICTORY OF THE NORTH 365 The Republican party was fully committed to the principle of free land and free labor, and its victory in the presidential election of 1860 indicated that the majority of the people had adopted these foundation principles of liberty. When the slave states had withdrawn their representatives from the Federal legislature, the Homestead BiU passed both houses without opposition and, receiving the signature of President Lincoln, became law, May 20, 1862. No acreage charge was made, and any foreigner might file upon pubhc land after declaring his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States. Homestead entries proved immensely popular, attracting settlers not only from the states east of the Mississippi River, but from European lands. Quarter-section farms to the amount of 27,000,000 acres were claimed between 1867 and 1874, and 168,000 farmers' famihes, Ameri- can, German, and Scandinavian, settled ia the Far West. The revenue from sales dwindled, but the government soon realized an ofifsetting advantage in the enhancement of the general wealth and in the higher standard of citizenship. The long struggle between forced and free labor, between land monopoly and the self-employed landowner, had ended in the triumph of the ideal American type — the homestead farmer. IfOTES VOLUME II Part III Chapteb I ' Account of Louisiana, 15. • The cultivation of sugar had been abandoned as unprofitable shortly after the Spanish occupation, but it was revived in 1796 by Etienne Bor6, a planter of New Orleans, who succeeded in getting from his boilers a well-granulated grade. ' Account of Louisiana, 8. • Account of Louisiana, 9. ' The French word prairie is defined as "land without forest growth." • In 1819 Opelousa sent 12,000 head of cattle to New Orleans, where they sold for $35 a head. ' Sibley, Letter, 3, 6-7. ' Sibley set out in March, 1803, and sent in his report April 5, 1806. It is accompanied by Dunbar's report of the Washita expedition which was carried through in the autumn of 1804. Am. State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 721-743. » Sibley, Letter of August 15, 1803. "> An Account of the Red River in Louisiana, drawn from the report of Messrs. Freeman and Custis to the War OflSce, exists in pamphlet form in the Bancroft Collection. Dr. James in Long's Expedition, IV, 66-70, gives an account of this adventure, evidently based on Freeman's report. The full report of this expedition seems never to have been printed. " An exhaustive census taken in 1806 for the Territory of Orleans returned a total population of 52,998 ; 26,069 whites, 23,574 slaves and 3355 free blacks. Of the white population, 13,500 were Creoles, — French for the most part, and but 3500 Americans. The remainder were Span- iards, Irish, English, and Germans. By the census of 1810, the population of New Orleans was 17,242, that of the Territory of Orleans 76,556. "Flint, Recollections of the Last Ten Years, 300. "Nuttall, Journal, 313. » Flint, Last Ten Years, 309. " Nuttall, Journal, 309. " Flint, Last Ten Years, 326. VOL. II — 2b 369 370 NOTES " Flint, Last Ten Tears, 348. »« Olmsted, CoUon Kingdom, 358. " Flint, Last Ten Years, 329. Chaptee II 1 All travellers of this period refer to the devastation wrought by the earthquake of 1811. In 1815 Congress made an appropriation for the sufferers at New Madrid. ' Nuttall, Journal, 78. ' Nuttall, Journal, 77. * Lead that sold for 7 cents a pound at Herculaneum brought 18 cents here, not more than two hundred miles down the river. Salt was $5 per bushel, sugar 31 cents a pound, flour $11 a barrel, pork $6, and beef $5 per cwt. ^ Most of these grants were invalidated by the act of 1847-1848 on the score of indefiniteness. ' Nuttall, Journal, 207. ' Nuttall, Journal, 218. * Schoolcraft, Lead Mines of Missouri, 249-251. ' Thwaites, Lewis and Clark, I, 24. 'I Bradbury, Travels into the Interior of North America, ^' Brackenridge, Journal, 36-37. " Brackenridge, Journal, 48. ^' Long's Expedition, I, 146. " Long's Expedition, IV, 33. >' Schoolcraft, Lead Mines, 223. >« Flint, Last Ten Years, 237. " Flint, Last Ten Years, 201-202. '8 Flint, Last Ten Years, 249. " Flint, Letters from America, 129-130. » Flagg, The Far West, 208, 229. » Flagg, The Far West, 208-210. ^ There were sixteen grist-mills and eight sawmills in Washington County, in 1819. — Schoolcraft. " Flint, Last Ten Years, 232. " Schoolcraft, Lead Mines, 65. " The possible yield Schoolcraft ascertained to be 82 per cent. NOTES 371 " Schoolcraft, Lead Mines, 138-139. " The navigation of the St. Francis was interrupted by a raft at St. Michael, but this removed, it would be navigable five hundred miles to the Mississippi and might furnish a direct outlet from the lead mines. " Schoolcraft, Lead Mines, 41. » Flint Last Ten Years, 105. "According to Schoolcraft, "The boards and planks are taken in rafts from Olean [on the upper Alleghany] to the mouth of the Ohio, and from thence carried in keel boats and barges to St. Louis, where they are worth sixty dollars per thousand feet." — Lead Mines, 226. « Flint, Last Ten Years, 103. ^ The down-stream trafiSc was in pig and bar lead, shot of all sizes, whiskey, flour, wheat, corn, hemp, flax, tow cloth, horses, beef, pork, dried venison, deerskins, furs and peltries, butter, pecans. There was a marked increase in the principal articles for the prosperous period following the War. Productions 1815 1816 1817 Bacon and hams, cwt. . . Butter, lbs Cotton, bales Corn, bushels Flour, barrels Molasses, gallons .... Pork, barrels Sugar, hhds Taffia, gallons Tobacco, hhds Wheat, bushels .... Whiskey, gallons .... 7000 60,000 120,000 75,000 600,000 8,000 ■ 6,000 160,000 5,000 150,000 13,000 500 65,000 130,000 98,000 800,000 9,700 7,300 300,000 7,300 230,000 18,000 1,800 65,000 140,000 190,000 1,000,000 22,000 28,000 400,000 28,000 95,000 250,000 - Schoolcraft, Lead Mines, 265. » Schoolcraft, Lead Mines, 265. " A " sawyer is a large tree which has tumbled into the river above, and got fastened by its roots in the bottom, with its top pointed down- , wards, and just appearing above the level of the water, or it may terminate a foot or two below, so that its locality can only be told by an experienced hand by the ripple created in the water. This tree is continually forced downward by the current, which is still not strong enough to tear it out, and suffers it occasionally to recoil, so that a regular rotary motion is kept up, which is performed oncein ten or fifteen minutes ; and if a boat be passing over it at the time it has overcome the pressure of the current and is recoiling to its original position, the destruction of the boat is inevi- 372 NOTES table. The power of this engine of destruction is that of elasticity, which is here brought into operation by the pressure of water against a column of live wood eighty or ninety feet in length, the bottom being fastened, and the colvunn inclined at an angle of about eighty degrees, leaving the top at liberty to play like a whip-stalk. When the tree does not reach within two or three feet of the surface of the water, they are called sleep- ing sawyers, and these are the most dangerous, for they cannot be seen. It was on one of these that the steamboat Franklin struck, and sunk, a few miles below St. Genevieve. " ' Planters are trees in a similar situation, but firmly set, and having no motion. Snags are small trees, or limbs of large trees, sticking up in the river, and may either be fixed or have motion.'" — Schoolcraft, Lead Mines, 223-224. " Flagg, The Far West, I, 113. " Flagg, The Far West, I, 84. " Flint, Last Ten Years, 105. " Flagg, Far West, I, 145. " Benton, Thirty Years' View, I, 21. «> Benton, Thirty Years' View, I, 692. " Benton, Thirty Years' View, I, 102-103. « Benton, Thirty Years' View, I, 147-148. « Benton, Thirty Years' View, I, 8-9. Chapteb III ' Fowler, Journal, 151. * Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, I, 236. ' J. J. Warner, Reminiscences of Early California, Ms. in Bancroft Collection. * Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, II, 147. ' Josiah Gregg was engaged in the Santa F6 trade, from 1829-1839. « Pattie, Narrative, 145, 150, 156, 160. Chaptee IV 1 The boundary between Louisiana and New Spain was defined as follows : along the Sabine River to the thirty-second parallel, north on the ninety-fourth meridian to Red River, along this stream, to the one hundredth meridian, from this point due north to the Arkansas River, then following the south bank of the Arkansas to the forty-second parallel, and thence directly west to the South Sea. * Benton, Thirty Years' View, II, 619. NOTES 373 ' The Mexican grant was set at one hundred and fifty mUes square. Austin was intrusted with the government of his colony, and the people were to enjoy immunity from import duties for a term of six years. In consideration of his services as empressario, he was later accorded addi- tional grants north of San Antonio. * These are the more generous terms accorded in the modification of the general law adopted by the state of Coahmla and Texas in 1825. ' Rockwell, Spanish and Mexican Law, 624. * The decree of 1829 proposed compensation to slave owners, but the Texans believed, with reason, that the money would not be available for many years and might never be paid, and they cited in justification of their own labor system that Mexican landowners employed peons who, under the pretext of debtor contracts, were virtually slaves. The master might recover his peons by force if they attempted escape and beat them if they were unruly, while the wages paid (from one to three reals a day) gave them no better subsistence than was generally provided for negro slaves. Some of the American slave owners returned to their homes in Louisiana and Arkansas. Others evaded the law by apprenticing their negroes for a term of ninety-nine years. ' Parton, Aaron Burr, II, 319. 'Kennedy, Texas, 117-118. Part IV Chapteb I ' Lumber is now selling at from $50 to $90 per 1000 feet, "and such is the market that no considerable reditctions of these prices can ever be reasonably expected." * "I have been familiar with these movmtains, for three years, and have crossed them often, and at various points, between the latitude 42 and 54. I have, therefore, the means to know something about them, and a right to oppose my knowledge to the suppositions of strangers. I say, then, that nothing is more easily passed than these mountains. Wagons and carriages may cross them in a state of nature without diffi- culty, and with little delay in the day's journey." Pilcher's Report, 1830. 3 This battle, July 18, 1832, is graphically described by Irving in Cap- tain BonneviUe, Chap. VI. * Smith, Ball, and Tibbetts secured employment with the Hudson's Bay Company. ' Wyeth, Correspondence and Journals, 178. ' • Wyeth based his claim to be the originator of the first American settlement in Oregon on his five years of strenuous endeavor and the $20,000 spent in fitting out Ws two expeditions by land and by sea ; also 374 NOTES on the fact that three of the first party and nineteen of the second re- mained in the territory and took up land. " When I arrived on the lower Columbia in the autumn of 1832 there were no Americans there nor any one having an American feeling. So far as I know there had not been since Mr. Aator retired from the coast." ' McLoughlin, Narrative. ' Kelley states as his reason for choosing this circuitous route his desire to negotiate arrangements for trade in lumber and fish between the Mexi- can ports and the Columbia River. ' Wyeth, Correspondence and Journals. '» According to Kelley, a copy of the Manual had been handed to Dr. McLoughlin by Captain Dominis of the ship Owyhee, Boston, 1829. 1' Young believed that this was a charge trumped up to cover the un- warranted confiscation of his stock of furs worth $20,000. C. M. Walker, his biographer, describes him as "a candid and scrupulously honest man, thorough-going, brave and daring." " Quoted in Kelley, Narrative of Events and Difficulties, 50. " Franchfere, Narrative, 341. " Wyeth, Correspondence and Journals, 192. " Two died under the pernicious atmosphere of the white man's civili- zation, but two set out for the mountains in the following spring. They furnished Catlin subjects for a famous picture. 16 Daniel Lee, in his Ten Years in Oregon (110), states that "a high- wrought account of the visit of these Indians to St. Louis, by some writer in the vicinity, was published in the Christian Advocate and Journal, New York City, in March, 1833." " Lee and Frost, Oregon, 122. " "Along the river we found about a dozen families, mostly French Canadians, who had been hunters in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, or free trappers, and had very lately left that emplojTnent and begun to farm, that themselves and families might have a surer sup- port and greater security than they could while following the hazardous life of hunters." — Lee and Frost, Oregon, 125. " Lee and Frost, Oregon, 125. =» Lee and Frost, Oregon, 127. 21 An intermittent fever peculiarly deadly among the Indians broke out in 1829 and spread like a pestilence up the rivers to the remoter vil- lages. According to Kelley, the disease was bred by the " excessive filth and slovenly habits of the English settlement at Vancouver," but that Dr. McLoughlin had wickedly told the Indians it had been scattered on the water by Captain Dominis of the American brig, Owyhee. It has been more sanely attributed to the degraded habits and degenerate physique of the natives, and to the turning up of the new soil at Van- NOTES 375 couver and at French Prairie. Wyeth described the situation at Wappa- too Island in 1834. "A mortality has carried off to a man the inhabitants and there is nothing to attest that they ever existed except their decajring houses, their graves, and their unburied bones of which there are heaps. So you see, aa the righteous people of New England say. Providence has made room for me and without doing them more injury than I should if I had made room for myself, viz. (by) killing them off." — Wyeth, Cor- respondence and Journals, 149. » Lee and Frost, Oregon, 131. 2s Lee and Frost, Oregon, 311. " Lee and Frost, Oregon, 150. " Lee and Frost, Oregon, 129. " White, Ten Years in Oregon, 92. " American Historical Review, XFV, 79. •* "Among the curiosities of this establishment were the fore wheels, axle tree and thills of a one-horse waggon, said to have been run by the American missionaries from the State of Connecticut through the moun- tains thus far toward the mouth of the Columbia. It was left here under the beUef that it could not be taken through the Blue Mountains. But fortunately for the next that shall attempt to cross the Continent, a safe and easy passage hsis lately been discovered by which vehicles of the kind may be drawn through to Walla walla." Editor's Note. When Joseph Meek came through in 1840, he secured the remains of this historic wagon and transported his family therein to Dr. Whitman's station at Walla Walla. — Famham, Travels, I, 322. " Mrs. Whitman, Journal, 54. " Mrs. Whitman, Journal, 65. " Mrs. Whitman, Journal, 149. "^ The first engagS to make the request was Etienne Lucier (1829). " Trade prices were estimated at 80 per cent advance. " On his first return Wyeth addressed a letter to Lewis Cass, then Sec- retary of War (Dec. 9, 1833) , stating, "There are west of the Mts. Many gentlemen and servants of the Hudson's Bay Company who have Indian wives and families and who are desirous of retiring from active life, but they cannot well mingle in society as it is constituted in Great Britain or the United States and enquiring on what terms they might take up land and whether they could be guaranteed at least the value of improve- ments, in case the American government ever came into possession of this country." » Farnham, Travels, I, 287. , »• Famham, Travels, II, 17. " Hastings, Oregon and California, 22. 376 NOTES " American Historical Review, XIV, 80. " Mrs. Whitman, Journal, 148. • Whitman's Letter from the Shawnee Mission, May 27, 1845. *' Fremont, First Expedition, 133. ] " Burnet, Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer, 142. " Oregon Pioneer Association Transactions, 1886, 24. " McLoughlin, Narrative, 203. *' Benton, Thirty Years' View, I, 13. " Benton, Thirty Years' View, 1, 13. *' In 1825, Dr. McLoughlin was officially informed that the British claim would not be urged for the region south of the Columbia. *' The Americans rallied 52 votes in favor and the Canadians 50 against. " One of the mischances that rendered difficult the endeavor of this much-perplexed man to hold to a consistent course was the arrival, a few days after this oath was taken, of an English man-of-war sent by a dila- tory ministry to assure British subjects of adequate protection ! '» Linn's bill was suggested by Jason Lee. It was supported by peti- tions from citizens of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, and from the legis- lature of Missouri. The bill passed the Senate but failed in the House. "iPahner, Jourrud, 159. Cf 165. ■■2 The state resold this property to McLoughlin'a heirs for $1000 in 1862. ^ The McLoughlin Docum ent, 55. Chaptbb II • The actual encampment was moved to Kanesville, Iowa, in 1848, and to Florence, Nebraska, in 1854. Keokuk, Iowa, and Independence, Missouri, were occasionally used for large parties 2 The prescribed outfit for a family of five was one wagon, three yokes of cattle, two cows, two steers, three sheep, one thousand pounds of flour, twenty pounds of sugar, a tent and bedding, seeds, farming tools, and a rifle, an equipment adequate for a long journey. ^ William Clas^tou, Historical Record, IX, 58. ' Careful restrictions were imposed on the use of the scant forests, e,g, none fit for building purposes was to be used as fuel. >■ So Woodruff, quoted by Linn, The Story of the Mormons, 396. • Stansbury, Expedition to the Great Salt Lake, 142. ' Kelley, Excursion to California, 229. NOTES 377 » Each immigrant signed a contract agreeing that "on our arrival in the Great Salt Lake Valley, we will hold ourselvee, our time and our labor, subject to the appropriation of the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company, until the full cost of our emigration is paid, with interest if required." ' Cf . Report of the Parliamentary Commission. Also Charles Dickens, The Commercial Traveler, Edinburgh Review, January, 1862. , w Bancroft, Utah, 420. " Brigham Young's order of January 14, 1847. Tullidge, Salt Lake City, 638. ■s Orson Pratt, quoted by Linn, 403. " Letter to Orson Pratt, October 14, 1849. » Quoted by Tullidge, Salt Lake City. '* Stansbury states (Expedition to Great Salt Lake, 130-131) that strict justice was meted out to Saint and Gentile — that Mormon courts were frequently appealed to by Californian emigrants who had quarrelled among themselves, that he knew of one instance where the marshal of Deseret was "despatched with an adequate force, nearly two hundred miles into the western desert, in pursuit of some miscreants who had stolen off with nearly the whole outfit of a party of emigrants." They were overtaken and brought back and the property restored. " Fort Bridger had been purchased by the church as an emigrant station, 1853. " Kelley, Excursion to California, I, 226-227. *^ " Stansbury, Expedition, 83. f^ " Stansbury, Expedition, 223. " Stansbury, Expedition, 230. » Gunnison, Great Salt Lake, Pt. II, Chap. VIII. ^ » Jules Remy, Journey to Salt Lake City, I, 196. ^ « Remy, I, 196, 197. " Remy, I, 214. « Remy, I, 217. 2' Chandless, Visit to Salt Lake, 54. " Chandless, Salt Lake, 35. " Burton, City of the Saints, 174. " Burton, City of the Saints, 198, 441. » Burton, CUy of the Saints, 216. " Simpson, Explorations, 136. " Cooke, New Mexico and California. « E.g. Captain Brown carried back three thousand dollars with which he planted his stake on the Weber. 378 NOTES Chapter III • White, Ten Years in Oregon, 119. ' In 1841, according to Wilkes, the export of beaver was two thousand skins at $2 each ; sea-otter, five hundred skins at $30 each ; elk and deer, three thousand skins at from fifty cents to $1 apiece. ' De Mofras states that, in 1841, two thousand horses were sent to New Mexico by this route. They were purchased for $8 to $10, sold for $40 to $50. * A census of foreigners taken in 1840 enumerated sixteen foreigners at Yerba Buena, all Americans, thirty-one at San Jos6, mostly British sub- jects, ten at Branciforte, American hunters and sailors, thirty at Monte- rey, English and American merchants, as many more of the same class at Santa Barbara, twenty-three at Los Angeles, American traders and French fruit growers, but only seven at San Diego, the former resort of the drogher ships. The urban population in 1846 was between four and five thousand, e.g. San Jose 600 to 800, Los Angeles 1250, Branciforte 470, Santa Barbara 900, Monterey 500, Yerba Buena 800. » American Historical Review, 14 : 77, 89. ' Simpson held that under the Conventionof 1790, Britain might settle any part of the coast between 42°, the United States boundary, and 38° the northernmost Spanish occupation. ' W. H. Davis, Sixty Years,'fi5. » Wilkes, Expedition, V, 158, 182. ' J. J. Warner printed an article on California and Oregon, in Colonial Magazine, 1841, describing advantages of California and proposing a railroad to the Columbia. " E.g. Farnham's letters. " Borthwick, Three Years in California, 148. " Fremont, Second Expedition, 232-236. " Tehachapi Pass, according to Bancroft. " Remy, I, 53. " Hastings, Oregon and California, 126. " Cooke, Conquest of New Mexico, and California, 61. 1' Cooke, Conquest, 34. 18 Cooke, Conquest, 45. " Jones, Land Titles, 279. *> Jones' report set aside any consideration of the claims of the Fran- ciscans and the Indians. The first were disproved by the law of 1813 by which the missionaries were given only a ten years' usufruct of the tracts NOTES 379 tilled under their direction. The report reconunended that in the case of the surviving missions, the church, the priest's residence, and two hundred varas of land ehovUd be granted to Catholic parishes, any other buildings and lajid to be assigned to the county for the use of public schools, in accordance with the Act of 1833. The rights of the Indians in the mission lauds had been recognized both by Spanish and Mexican enactments, but the intent of this legislation had been negatived by the maladministration of recent years. "The number of subjugated Indiana is now too small, and the lands they occupy too insignificant in amount for their protection to the extent of the law to cause any considerable moles- tation." Title to abandoned Indian holdings should properly lapse to the state. Spanish law recognized no rights to the land appertaining to the wild tribes of the interior. " Quoted by Charles Robinson in his History of Kajisas, 38. " The new-comers were misled by the extravagant prices paid for town lots during the gold craze, when land in San Francisco and Sacramento sold at one thousand dollars per acre. Large tracts of rural land were offered by American speculators at from thirty-seven to seventy-five cents per acre in 1857. — Seyd, Caiifomia and its Resources. » Chandless, Visit to Salt Lake, 315. " This report reached Washington in September, '48, and was inmiedi- ately printed by the Baltimore Sun, September 20. " Quoted in Schoonover, General Sutter, 180. " The Aspinwall contract provided for an annual subsidy of $199,000 for carrying the mail from Panama to San Francisco and Portland, Ore- gon. Law secured $290,000 per year for the New York to Chagres ser- vice. " Butler King estimated that 15,000 foreigners reached California in 1849 (10,000 of them Mexicans), and 40,000 Americans. The total white population in 1850 was reported by the census to be 115,000. ""These are the most primitive kind of pontrivances for grinding quartz. They are circular places, ten or twelve feet in diameter, flagged with flat stones, and in these the quartz is crushed by two large heavy stones dragged round and round by a mule harnessed to a horizontal beam, to which they are also attached. The quartz is already broken up into small pieces before being put into the raster, and a constant supply of water is necessary to facilitate the operation, the stuff, while being groimd, having the appearance of a rich white mud." This is mixed with quicksilver to take up the gold, and the amalgam is reduced to its native elements in a retort. — • Borthwick, Three Years in California, 244-245. » Hittell, Resmirces of California, III, 133-135. The Princeton, Jose- phine, Pine Tree, and Mariposa mines were profitable for a few years, but were not worked after 1865. " Kelley, Excursion to California, II, 268-269. " Tyson, Geology and Industrial Resources of California, complains in his preface that the administration saw fit to delay pubhcation of his 380 NOTES conclusions while rushing the hasty generalizations of the Georgia senator before the public. « Tyson, California, 38. 33 Shaw, Oolden Dreams, 120. " Exceptions to this rule are Shaw's Golden Dreams and Waking Reali- ties, Carson's Early Recollections of the Mines, Helper's Land of Gold. On the other hand, Simpson's Three Weeks in the Gold Mines reads like a promoter's prospectus. 3' Carson, Early Recollections, 8. 3« Kelley, Excursion, II, 244. 3' Kelley, Excursion, II, 243. 33 Cf. Seyd's figures, California, 67. 3' A saving of 2 per cent in freights and insurance. — Seyd. More than a million dollars in silver was sent from Mexico on English account to be trans-shipped to Canton. * The miners' code gave permanent control of a water supply to the first appropriator, and he was required to make no compensatory pay- ment to the community. A dated notice stating the amount of water preempted was all that was necessary to establish a claim to the flow of a given stream. " A miner's inch is the amount of water which escapes in a working day through an orifice an inch square under a pressure of six inches of flow. i,*2 Bancroft estimated the capital invested in ditches and flumes and reservoirs in the seventeen mining counties of California at $2,294,000 for 1854 and $6,341,700 for 1855. Seyd gives the figure $4,587,000 for the eight placer-mining counties in 1858. Hittell's estimate for 1871 is $20,000,000. The investment was a hazardous one, necessitating high returns. The wages of labor constituted a, heavy item of expense, the wooden flumes needed constant repairing, and iron piping was not to be had in the first years. When the subsidiary placers were exhausted, the waterworks were almost valueless. According to Hittell's Resources oj California, there were, in 1871, five hundred and sixteen mining ditches with a total approximate length of forty-eight hundred miles. *' Quartz mining is one of the most uncertain of investments, since it is quite impossible to predicate the location or the yield of a vein. There is no business in which it is easier to waste money by inexperience, care- lessness or gullibility. Huntley's California gives an English investor's shrewd opinion of the chances of success. According to Ashburner, of the United States Geological Survey, there were, in 1858, at least two hundred and eighty quartz mills in Cali- fornia erected at a cost of $3,000,000 ; but no more than forty or fifty quartz mines were pajdng expenses. These were very heavy. The ex- cavation and timbering of tunnels and shafts, hoisting gear and engines, pumps for the removal of water, stamp mills, roasting furnaces, and amal- NOTES 381 gamators, made a sum total of coat which could only be made good by the richest veins. Philip's Mining and Metallurgy gives the following data for the yield of the four largest stamp-mills : — Yield per Ton o] Quartz Coat of Treating per Ton Mariposa. The Benton, $8.98 $1.04 Tuolomne. The Union, $50.00 $3.81 Calaveras. Crystal, $80.00 $8.31 Nevada. Gold HiU, $70.00 $2.91 « Tyson, California, 39. « Hittell, History of California, III, Chap. XI. " If a foieigner was working for an American, his employer paid the fee. " Emigration figures of '54, 24,000 ; '55, 23,000 ; '57, 17,000. *' The United States mint was not established in San Francisco until 1856. *' Two hundred and forty-six vessels put into San Francisco in 1856 with a total tonnage of 209,902. Eighty-one of these came from New York and forty-four from other Atlantic ports ; forty-two hailed from China and twenty-two from Great Britain. The freights paid on this traffic amounted to $4,592,104, more by $500,000 than in 1855, but less than half the sum for 1853. ($11,752,104. — Seyd.) « Tyson, California, XIII. " In 1880 Miller and Lux owned 750,000 acres in California, 100,000 cattle, and 80,000 sheep. — Bancroft, XIX, 67. " A native three-year-old weighed six hundred pounds and was worth but $50, whereas a three-quarter grade animal weighing fifteen hundred pounds would sell for $300. '' Thousands died of starvation, and hundreds of thousand were slaughtered for the hides. There were 262,000 cattle in California in 1850, 1,000,000 in 1860, 2,000,000 in 1862, and but 820,000 in 1870. —Hit- tell, Industrial Resources. " The wool clip of California wag 170,000 pounds in 1854, 300,000 pounds in 1855, 3,260,000 in 1860, 6,445,000 in 1865, 19,700,000 in 1870, 23,000,000 in 1872, 30,000,000 in 1873. In the Federal census for 1870, California was reported as possessing the finest herds of sheep in the United States and producing the most wool. " Years of drought : 1849-1850, 1852-1853, 1861-1862, 1867-1868, 1871-1872, 1877-1878, 1880-1881. " In 1884 the Supreme Court of the state decided that it was unlawful to so work a mine as to injure adjacent property. " The tilled area was 1,774,000 acres in 1866, 2,992,000 in 1870, and 4,500,000 in 1874. Of this acreage, one-third was in the San Joaquin 382 NOTES valley, one-third on the south coast, and the remaining third north of the Bay, pretty equally divided between the coast and the Sacramento valley. '8 The average annual rainfall on the north coast was 70 inches ; at Cape Mendocino, 40 inches ; at San Francisco, 22 inches ; at Monterey, 16 inches ; at San Diego, 10 inches. The precipitation was less at cor- responding points in the interior. " Years of extreme drought, 1850-1851, 1863-1864, 1876-1877. " Two, five, and ten ploughs were used in a gang, each making a furrow from eight to ten inches wide and from four to five inches deep. By this invention, the cost of ploughing was reduced from $3 to forty cents an acre. " The average yield was sixteen bushels in 1867, eighteen in 1868, sixteen in 1869, and thirteen in 1870. «' In 1871 there were nine hundred and fifteen irrigating ditches in California, and water was supplied to 90,344 acres, about one-fiftieth of the total area under cultivation. — HitteU, Resources of California, 268. " In 1848 there were 200,000 grape-vines in California, the large vineyards being in the neighborhood of Los Angeles, in the San Gabriel Valley, and on the Vallejo estate at Sonoma. Little was done by way of improving the old mission stock until 1853-1856, when some enterpris- ing viticulturists brought Eastern and European vines. The superiority of the foreign grapes both for table use and in the wineries was soon evi- dent, and by 1870 two hundred varieties imported from France, Spain, Germany, and Hungary were successfully produced, the remarkable di- versity of soil and climate providing a habitat for each. There were in that year 30,000,000 grape-vines in the state, 25,000,000 in the San Fran- cisco Basin and the interior valleys. The average yield was 12,000 pounds to the acre, double that expected in Germany, France, or the Eastern states. Wineries were maintained in connection with the great vineyards. " The State Agricultural Society, organized" in 1854, did much to further the development of the latent resources of California by holding annual fairs, offering premiums for exhibits, calling attention to successful ventures, etc. «' The Union Iron Works had their origin in the blacksmith shop of the Donahue brothers, skilled mechanics who began business in 1849. The Pacific Rolling Mills were established in 1865. " In the decade of the Civil War there were 184 sailing vessels and 92 steamers built on the Pacific coast, supplying a total freight capacity of fifty thousand tons. " William Shaw, Golden, Dreams, 170-171. «» William Shaw, Golden Dreams, 172. «» In 1867 there were fifty thousand Orientals in California, only 35 per cent of these in the mines. NOTES 383 Part V Chaptbb I ' Olmsted, Cotton Kingdom, I, 296. ' Olmsted, Cotton Kingdom, I, 324. ' For an excellent description of the process of planting, cutting, grind- ing, and boiling, see Olmsted, I, 325-330. * For description of cotton plantation, see Olmsted, II, 176-180. Also Flint, Recollections of the Past Ten Years, 325, and Nuttall, Travels, 301-302. ' Olmsted, Cotton Kingdom, II, 151. • Olmsted, I, 373. ' Quoted from The Cotton Planter; Olmsted, CoU^n Kingdom, II, 187. s Olmsted, I, 366-367. » Olmsted, II, 4. >» Olmsted, II, 12. " Boynton and Mason, Kansas, 30, cf. 76. Chapter II ' The principle of popular sovereignty is thus set forth in the Act : "It being the true intent and meaning of this Act not to legislate slavery into any state or territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." ^ The towns of Lawrence, Topeka, Osawatomie, Pawnee, Grasshopper Falls, Boston, Hampden, and Wabounsee were so founded. ' Boynton and Mason, 74. ' Boynton and Mason, 13. ' Bojmton and Mason, 23-24. • ' Boynton and Mason, 100. ' Quoted by Thayer, The Kansas Crusade, 185. ' The towns of Kickapoo, Leavenworth, Lecompton, Doniphan, and Atchison were founded by the Missourians. ' The census of February, 1855, returned a white population of 8601, and 192 slaves. The men entitled to vote were 2905, of whom 1670 were from the Southern states and 1018 from the North ; but many of the free state men had gone home for the winter, so that the census did not fairly represent their voting strength. Moreover, the "poor whites" were not usually in favor of slavery. 384 NOTES w Of the 6307 votes cast on March 30, 1855, 4908 were found to be illegal. " Robinson, Kansas, 229-230. '' Higginson, Ride through Kansas, 6. " Bowles, Across the Continent, 9. " Bowles, Across the Continent, 138-139. Chaptek III ' Excerpt from the Memorial submitted to Congress in 1846 and printed as Doo. 173, H.R., 29th Congress, 1st sess. ' "Whitney, Project for a Pacific Railway. ' Burton, City of the Saints, 16. * Simpson, Explorations, Appendix. « Fremont, First Expedition, 60. « Benton, Thirty Years' View, I, 102. ' Congressional Globe, 1850, Pt. II, 1458. • Congressional Globe, 1850, Pt. II, 1459. » Congressional Globe, 1853-1854, Pt. I, 553-554. BIBLIOGRAPHY VOLUME II PART III ADVANCE OF THE SETTLERS CHAPTER I. — LOUISIANA An Account of Louisiana. Being an abstract of Documents in the offices of the Depart- ments of State and of the Treasury. Printed at Philadelphia, 1803. Compiled at the instance of President Jefferson and extensively distributed. Some forty different editions were issued, but it is now a rare pamphlet. ■ Carpenter, Edmund J. The American Advance. John Lane. London, 1903. Successive annexations, Louisiana, Florida, Texas. De Brno, J. D. B. Industrial Resources of the Southern and Western States. In three vols. New Orleans, 1852. See index for Louisiana, Arkansas, Negroes, Slavery, Sugar. Dunbar, William. Exploration of Red River. American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, 721-743. Recently reprinted by the American Philosophical Society. Flint, Timothy. Recollections of the Last Ten Years. Boston, 1826. Gayarre, Charles. History of Louisiana. New York, 1866. Vol. I, French domination. Vol. II, Spanish domination. Vol. Ill, American domination to 1860. 387 388 BIBLIOGRAPHY Hill, Frederick Trevor. Decisive Battles of the Law. Harper & Bros., 1907. A Scotch Verdict in the Burr Conspiracy Case. Jefferson, Thomas. Account of Louisiana. Philadelphia, 1803. Kirkpatrick, J. E. Timothy Fhnt, Koneer, Missionary, Author, Pubhsher, 1780- 1840. Arthur H. Clark Co. Cleveland, 1911. McCaleb, W. F. The Aaron Burr Conspiracy. Dodd, Mead & Co., 1903. Martin, Frangois Xavier. History of Louisiana, 1688-1815. New Orleans, 1882. Nuttall, Thomas. Travels into the Arkansas Territory, 1819-20. Philadelphia, 1821. Early Western Travels, Vol. XIII. Olmsted, Frederick Law. The Cotton Kingdom. London, 1861. Sibley, Dr. John, of Fayetteville. Letter to J. Sales of Raleigh, reporting his observations on Louisiana. Printed by Sales, Dec. 14, 1803. Sibley, Dr. John. Explorations of Red River and Washita River, 1803-04. Reports published in American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, 721-743. Stoddard, Amos. Sketches of Louisiana. Philadelphia, 1812. CHAPTER II. — MISSOURI Austin, Moses. Lead Mines of Missouri. American State Papers, Pubhc Lands, Vol. IIIj 188-191 (1804), 609-613, 707-712 (1816). BIBLIOGRAPHY 389 Bek, W. G. The German Settlement Society of Philadelphia and its colony, Hermami, Missouri. American Germanica Press, Philadelphia, 1907. Benton, Thomas H. Abridgment of Debates of Congress, 1789-1856. New York, 1857-61. Thirty Years View. New York, 1854^56. 2 vols. Carr, Lucien. Missouri ; the Bone of Contention. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1894. The American Commonwealth Series. Chittenden, H. M. History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River. Francis P. Harper, 1903. Based on the life and adventures of Joseph La Barge, an old-time captain. Clemens, Samuel L. (Mark Twain.) Life on the Mississippi. Houghton Miflain Co., 1874. Flagg, Edward. The Far West. Early Western Travels, Vols. XXVI-XXVII. Flint, James. Letters from America. Edinburgh, 1822. Early Western Travels, Vol. IX. Harding, S. C. George B. Smith, Founder of SedaUa, Missouri. Privately printed at Sedalia, 1907. Houck, Louis. The Spanish Regime in Missouri. Donnelly & Son Company. Chicago, 1909. An important series of documents gathered at Seville and the City of Mexico and illustrating trade regulations and other departments of Spanish colonial policy. James, Edwin. Expedition from Pittsburg to the Rocky Mountains, under conduct of Major S. H. Long, 1819-20. Early Western Travels, Vols. XIV, XV, XVI, XVII. 390 BIBLIOGRAPHY Kargan, E. D. Missouri's German Immigration. Missouri Historical Society Collections, Vol. II, Nos. 1, 23, 34. Meigs, W. M. Thomas Hart Benton. Philadelphia, 1904. Merrick, Geo. B. Old Times on the Upper Mississippi. Cleveland, Ohio, 1909. Schoolcraft, H. R. A view of the Lead Mines of Missouri. New York, 1819. CHAPTER III. — THE SANTA FE TRADE Bicknell, William. Journal of the Santa ¥i Expedition of 1821. Missouri Historical Society Collections, Vol. II, Nos. 6, 56, 67. Fowler, Jacob. Journal narrating an adventure from Arkansas through the Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico to the sources of the Rio Grande del Norte, 1821-22. Edited by Elliott Coues. Francis P. Harper, 1898. Kendall, George W. Narrative of an Expedition across the Great Southwestern Prairies from Texas to Santa F^. New York, 1844. 2 vols. London, 1845. De Munn, Julius. Letter to Governor Wm. Clark, narrating Chouteau's Santa F6 Expedition of 1816. Reprinted in the President's Message to Congress, April 15, 1818. Pattie, J. 0. Narrative of Adventures. Early Western Travels, Vol. XVIII. Warner, J. J. Reminiscences. Ms. in Bancroft Collection. BIBLIOGRAPHY 391 CHAPTER rv. — TEXAS Adams, Andy. The Log of a Cowboy. Houghton Miffin Co., 1903. Austin, Stephen F. Some Difficulties of a Texas Empressario. Washington, 1899. De Bow, J. D. B. Industrial Resources of the Southern and Western States. New Orleans, 1852. See index : Texas. Foote, Henry Stuart. Texas and the Texans. 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1841. Gregg, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies, or the Journal of a Santa F6 Trader, 1831-39. Early Western Travels, Vols. XIX, XX. Hoist, H. E. von. Constitutional History of the United States, 1828-46. Callaghan & Co. Chicago, 1876-92. Hughes, J. I. Doniphan's Expedition. Cincinnati, 1850. Kennedy, Wm. Texas, its Natural History, Geography, and Topography. New York, 1844. Reprint from English edition. Marcy, R. B. Report of an Expedition to the Sources of the Brazo and Big Wichita rivers, 1854. 34th Cong., 1st Sess., Ex. Doc. 60. Parton, James. Life and Times of Aaron Burr. New York, 1864. Stiff, Edward. The Texan Emigrant. Cincinnati, 1840. 392 BIBLIOGRAPHY Tyler, Lyon G. Annexation of Texas. Mag. of Am. Hist., 1882, Vol. VIII, 377, 434, 616. Yoakum, H. History of Texas, 1685-1846. New York, 1856. 2 vols. PART IV THE TRANSCONTINENTAL MIGRATION CHAPTER I. — THE OREGON TRAIL Annals of Congress : 16th Cong., 2d Sess., 945. 17th Cong., 2d Sess., 397, 590 18th Cong., 2d Sess., I, 37, 450. , 17th Cong., 1st Sess., I, 416. 2d Sess., 246, 251. 18th Cong., 1st Sess., I, 456. 19th Cong., 1st Sess. Floyd's Bill for Occupation. Benton's speeches. Bancroft, H. H. History of the Pacific Coast States of North America. Vol. XXIX. Oregon, 1834-48. San Francisco, 1882-89. Bourne, Edward S. Legend of Marcus Whitman, in Essays in Historical Criticism. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901. An exclusive refutation of the theory that Whitman's ride had a political object. Burnet, P. H. Recollections of an old Pioneer. New York, 1880. Carpenter, Edmund J. The American Advance, Ch. VT. John Lane & Co. London, 1903. Clarke, S. A. Pioneer Days of Oregon History, in 2 vols. Portland, 1905. BIBLIOGRAPHY 393 Cushing, C. Report from the Committee on Foreign Affairs. On the Territory of Oregon, 1839. Kept. No. 101, H. of R., 25th Cong., 3d Sess. Dye, Eva F. McLoughlin and Old Oregon. A. C. McClurg & Co., 1900. Farnham, T. J. Travels in the Great Western Prairies, etc. Oregon, 1839- 1846. Early Western Travels, XXVIII, XXIX. Fremont, J. C. Narrative of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Moun- tains in 1842 and to Oregon and North Califorma, 1843- 1844. Printed by order of the Senate. Also D. Appleton & Co., 1846. Blair & Rives, 1845. Greenhow, Robert. History of Oregon and California. Boston, 1844. Hastings, Lansford W. Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California. Cincinnati, 1845. Holman, A. F. S. Dr. John McLoughlin. A. H. Clark & Co. Cleveland, 1907. Howison, Lieut. Neil M. Rept. on Oregon, 1847. Washington, 1848. Johnson, C. T. The Evolution of a Lament. Washington Hist. Soc. Quart., Vol. II, 3. The Flathead delegation. KeUey, Hall J. A General Circular to all Persons of Good Character who wish to Emigrate to the Oregon Territory. Charlestown, 1831. History of the Settlement of Oregon and the Interior of Upper California. Springfield, Mass., 1868. 394 BIBLIOGRAPHY Kelley, Hall J. Manual of the Oregon Expedition, 1830. History of the Colonization of the Oregon Territory. Worcester, 1850. Memoir submitted to H. of R. Com. on Foreign 'Affairs — 1839. Rept. No. 101, 25th Cong., 3d Sess. Narrative of Events and Difficulties in the Colonization of Oregon. Lang, H. H. History of Willamette Valley. Portland, Ore., 1885. Lee, Jason. Letter addressed to H. of R. Com., on Foreign Affairs. Rept. No. 101, 25th Cong., 3d Sess. Lee, Daniel, and Frost, J. H. Ten Years in Oregon. New York, 1844. Lenox, E. H. Overland to Oregon. History of the Emigration of 1843. Oakland, Calif., 1904. Lyman, H. S. History of Oregon. New York, 1903. MacLaughlin, Andrew. Influence of Governor Cass on the Development of North- west. Am. Hist. Ass., Vol. Ill, 311-327. MacLaiujhlin, A., and Quaife, M. M. Diary of James K. Polk, 1845-49. A. C. McClurg & Co., 1910. 4 vols. McLaughlin, Dr. John. The McLoughUn Document. Transactions of Oregon. Pioneer Association, 1880. Addressed to Americans in vindication of his treatment of settlers. The McLoughhn Narrative. Quarterly Journal of the Oregon Historical Soc, 1900. Addressed to the Hudson's Bay Company in vindication of his kind- ness to Americans. BIBLIOGRAPHY 395 Marshall, Wm. I. Acquisition of Oregon and the Long Suppressed Evidence about Marcus Whitman, in 2 vols. Seattle, 1911. History vs. " The Whitman saved Oregon" Story Chicago, 1904. An attack on the "Whitman myth." Meany, E. H. History of the State of Washington. New York, 1909. Memoir from the Settlers South of the Columbia River, 1839. Rept. No. 101, H. R. Com. on Foreign Affairs. 25th Cong., 3d Sess. Mowry, W. A. Marcus Whitman and the Early Days of Oregon. New York, Silver, Burdett & Co., 1901. Inaccurate and misleading use of discredited documents. Nixon, 0. W. How Marcus Whitman saved Oregon. Chicago, 1895. Exaggerated versions of the Whitman myth. Palladino, L. B. Indians and Whites in the Northwest. Baltimore, 1894. Palmer, Joel. Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains, 1845-46. Cincinnati, 1846. Early Western Travels, Vol. XXX. Parker, Rev. Samuel. Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains. Ithaca, 1838. Parkman, Francis. California and Oregon Trail. New York, 1849. Schafer, Joseph. Correspondence of Sir George Simpson. Am. Hist. Rev., XIV, 77. History of the Pacific Northwest. MacmiUan, 1905. 2 vols. 396 BIBLIOGRAPHY Shortess, Robert. First Emigrants to Oregon. Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association, 1896. Simpson, Sir George. Letters to Sir John Kelley, Governor of Hudson's Bay Com- pany. Published in the American Historical Review, Vol. XIV. Voyage Round the World, 1841-42. 2 vols. London, 1847. Slacum, W. A. Rept. to Dept. of State on Oregon Expedition, 1837. Printed in Rept. No. 101, H. of R. Com. on Foreign Affairs, 25th Cong., 3d Sess. Smet, Father de. Oregon Missions, 1845-46. Early Western Travels. Vol. XXIX. Thornton, J. Quinn. Oregon and California, 1848. History of Provisional Gov- ernment in Oregon. Transactions Oregon Pioneer Association, 1875. Townsend, John K. Journey across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, 1839. Early Western Travels, Vol. XXI. Tra^y, F. P. Letter addressed to H. of R. Com. on Foreign Affairs. Rept. 101, 25th Cong., 3d Sess., 1839. Tracy was Secretary of the Oregon Provisional Emigration Society, Lynn, Mass. Twiss, Travers. The Oregon Question. London, 1846. Victor, Frances F. The River of the West. R. J. Trumbull & Co. San Francisco, 1870. Hall J. Kelley. Oregon Hist. Soc. Quarterly, II, 381. Watt, Joseph. Recollections of Dr. McLoughhn. Transactions of Oregon Pioneer Ass., 1886. BIBLIOGRAPHY 397 White, Dr. Elijah. Ten Years in Oregon. Ithaca, NY., 1850. Whitman, Marcus. Letter addressed to J. M. Porter, Secretary of War, 1844. War, 382. Rec. June 22, 1844. Reprinted in Transactions of Oregon Pioneer Ass., 1891. Whitman, PrisdUa Prentis. Journal. Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Ass., 1891. Wilkes, Charles. Exploring Expedition, 1838-42, in 5 vols. Philadelphia, 1845. Vol. IV, Chs. IX-XIII, Oregon. Wyeth, John B. Short History of a Long Journey. Early Western Travels, Vol. XXI, 1905. Wyeth, N. J. Memoir addressed to H. of R. Com. on Foreign Affairs. Rept. 101, 26th Cong., 3d Sess., 1839. Correspondence and Journals. Sources of the History of Oregon. Vol. I. Edited by F. G. Young. Eugene, Ore., University Press, 1899. Young, F. G. The Oregon Trail. Oregon Hist. Soc. Quart., Vol. I. CHAPTER II. — THE MORMON TREK Bancroft, H. H. History of the Coast States of North America. Vol. XXV. Utah, 1540-1888. Bowles, Samuel. Across the Continent. Springfield, 1865. Burton, R. F. The City of the Saints and across the Rocky Mountains to California. Harper & Bros. New York, 1862. 398 BIBLIOGRAPHY Chandless, William. \y^ Visit to Salt Lake, 1855. London, 1857. Clayton, Wm. Memoirs. L. D. S. Historical Record, IX, 58. Cooke, P. St. George. Conquest of New Mexico and California. New York, 1878. Evans, John Henry. One Hundred Years of Mormonism. Salt Lake City, 1905. Ferris, Benj. G. Utah and the Mormons. Harper & Bros., 1854. ^. Gunnison, J. W. \^ The Mormons or Latter Day Saints in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, 1849. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1860. Jennings, William. Material Progress of Utah. Ms. in Bancroft Collection. Jensen, Andrew. Church Emigration. Articles printed in The Contributor, Vols. XIII, XIV, XV. Johnson, D. C. A Brief History of SpringviUe, Utah. Privately printed, 1900. Kane, Thomas L. The Mormons. Philadelphia, 1850. Kelley, Wm. ^y' An Excursion to California. London, 1851. Linforth, James. Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley. Liverpool and London, 1855. Linforth was business manager of the Liverpool o£5ce and went out to observe route and get illustrations. Linn, W. A. Story of the Mormons. MacmiUan. New York, 1902. BIBLIOGRAPHY 399 Mackay, C. The Mormons. London, 1852. Afcareful English authority; the first history of the movement published. Rimy, Jules, and Brenckley, JtMus. Journey to Salt Lake City, \Sb5.\ Translation published in London, 1862. Rushing, J. F. Across America. New York, 1874. Simpson, J. H. Eeport of Explorations across the Great Basin. Washington, 1876. . Smith, Joseph and Heman C. Official History of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Lamoni, Iowa, 1902. Stansbury, Howard. L.^*"*^ Expedition to Great Salt Lake, 1849. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1855. Stenhouse, T. B. H. The Rocky Mountain Saints. Appleton & Co., 1873. Written by an apostate. Tullidge, Edward W. History of Salt Lake. Salt Lake, 1886. Tyler, Daniel. History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War. Privately published, 1881. Whitney, Orson F. History of Utah, in 4 vols. Salt Lake City, 1892-93. A pro-Mormon authority, but intelligent and discriminating. CHAPTER III. — CALIFORNIA Bancroft, H. H. History of the Pacific States of North America. Vols. XXL XXII, XXIII. CaUfomia, 1840-59. Vol. XXXIV. Pastoral Cahfomia. 400 BIBLIOGRAPHY Bowles, Samuel. Our New West. Records of Travels between Mississippi River and Pacific Ocean. Hartford, 1869. Burnett, P. H. Recollections and Opinions of an old Pioneer. New York, 1880. Capron, E. S. History of California. • Boston, 1854. Hittell, Theodore H. History of California, in 4 vols. San Francisco, 1885. Nordhoff, C. California. New York, 1872. SouU, Gilson, and Nisbet. Annals of San Francisco. New York, 1855. Tuthill, Franklin. History of California. San Francisco, 1866. Teadebs and Teappees Shinn, C. H. Pioneer Spanish Families. The Century Magazine, N.S., XIX : 377. Vallejo, Guadalupe. Ranch and Mission Days. The Century Magazine, N.S., XIX: 183. Warner, J. J. Centennial History of Los Angeles. Los Angeles, 1876. RiVALET OF l^B PoWEES La Place, C. P. T. Campagne de Circumnavigation de la Frigate Art^mise, 1837- 1840. Paris, 1854. T. VI, C. V, VI. California. BIBLIOGRAPHY 401 Rouhavd, Hippolyte. Les Regions Nouvelles — histoire du commerce et de la civili- zation au Nord de I'Ocean Pacifique. Paris, 1868. Thompson, Waddy. Recollections of Mexico. New York, 1847. Wilhes, Charles. Exploring Expedition, 1833-42. Philadelphia, 1845. Advent of the Emigbants Baldwin, R. S. Tarrying in Nicaragua. The Century Magazine, N.S., XX : 911. Belden, Josiah. Letters of a Pioneer of 1841. Ms. in Bancroft Collection. Bartlett, J. B. Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, and California. 2 vols. D. Appleton & Co. New York, 1854. Bidwell, John. Journey to California. A rare pamphlet containing valuable information about the possibili- ties of the country. Before the Gold Discovery. The Century Magazine, N.S., XIX: 163. The First Emigrant Train to California. The Century Magazine, N.S., XIX : 106. Reminiscences of Early California. Out West, Vol. XX, 76, 182, 285, 377, 467, 559. Bryant, Edwin. What I saw in California, 1846-47. New York, 1848. Chiles, J. B. Visit to California. Ms. in Bancroft Collections. The Overland route to California via Snake, Malade, and Pitt rivers, described by a professional guide. VOL. II — 2d 402 BIBLIOGRAPHY Ferris, A. C. Arrival of the Overland Trains. The Century Magazine, N.S., XX : 477. To California through Mexico. The Century Magazine, N.S., XX : 666. Hastings, L. W. Immigrants Guide to Oregon and California. Cincinnati, 1845. McGlashan, C. F. History of the Donner Party. San Francisco, 1880. Marsh, Dr. John. Unpublished letter to Commodore Jones, 1842. Ms. in Bancroft Collection. Letter to Lewis Cass. (1846.) On Americanization of California. Widely printed in newspapers. E.g. Contra Costa Gazette, 1866. Murphy, Virginia Read. Across the Plains with the Donner party. The Century Magazine, N.S., XX : 409. PraU, J. H. To California by Panama in 1849. The Century Magazine, N.S., XIX : 901. Reports of Relief Expedition (California, 1849) sent by Gen. Riley to rescue overland emigrants. Ex. Doc. 52, 31st Cong., 1st Sess., 76. Robinson, Fayette. California and its Gold Regions. New York, 1849. " A fair exposition of the most authentic accounts." Larkin'a letters to Buchanan and Colton's letter quoted in full. Schoonover, I. J. Life and Times of Gen. John A. Sutter. Sacramento, 1907. Thissell, G. W. Crossing the Plains in '49. Oakland, California, 1903. Warner, J. J. California and Oregon. Colonial Magazine, June, 1841. BIBLIOGRAPHY 403 The Mexican Was Bidwell, John. Fremont in the Conquest of California. The Century Magazine, N.S., XIX : 518. California, 1841-48. Bancroft Ms. Gen. Bidwell is very critical of Fremont. Cotton, Rev. Walter. Three Years in California. Cincinnati, 1850. Cooke, P. St. George. Conquest of New Mexico and California, 1846. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1878. Cutts, J. M. Conquest of New Mexico and California. Philadelphia, 1847. Dads, Winfield J. History of Political Conventions in California, 1849-92. Sacramento, 1893. Emory, A., Cooke, and Johnston. Notes of a military Reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth to San Diego made in 1846-47 with the Advance Guard of the Army of the West. Illustrated. Washington, 1848. Fitch, G. H. How CaUfomia came into the Union. The Century Magazine, N.S., XVIII : 774. Fremont, John C. Conquest of California. The Century Magazine, N.S., XIX : 917. Fremont, Jessie Benton. Origin of the Fremont Expedition. The Century Magazine, N.S., XIX : 766. Hughes, John G. The Revolution of 1846 in California. Cincinnati, 1848. 404 BIBLIOGRAPHY Larhin, Thos. 0., Papers. Ms. in Bancroft Collection. Letter to Secretary Buchanan, June 1, 1848. Ex. Doc, 2d Sess., 30th Cong., H. R. No. I, 61-52. Royce, Josiah. Montgomery and Fremont. The Century Magazine, N.S., XIX : 780. Vpham, C. W. Life, Explorations, and Public Services of J. C. Fremont. Boston, 1856. Yoakum, H. History of Texas, in 2 vols. New York, 1856. The Land Question Halkck, Lieut. H. W. Report on California Land Grants. H. R. Ex. Doc. 17 : 118-182, 31st Cong., 1st Sess., 1849. Jones, Wm. Carey. Land Titles of California. Washington, 1852. Royce, Josiah. Squatters' Riots of 1850. Overland Monthly, VI, 225. The Age of Gold Auger, Edovard. Voyage en Californie. Paris, 1854. Bates, Mrs. D. B. Four Years on the Pacific Coast. Boston, 1858. Borthwick, J. D. Three Years in California, '51-'54. London, 1857. Brooks, J. T. Four Months among the Gold Finders in California. London, 1849. BIBLIOGRAPHY 405 Buffum, E. Gould. Six Months in the Gold Mines. Philadelphia, 1850. Burgess, H'. Anecodotes of the Mines. The Century Magazine, N.S., XX : 269. Carson, J. H. Early Recollections of the Mines. Stockton, 1852. Delano, A. Life on the Prairies and at the Diggings. Buffalo, 1854. Farwell, W. B. Cape Horn and Cooperative Mining. The Century Magazine, N.S., XX : 579.' Ferris, A. C. Hardships of the Isthmus in 1849. The Century Magazine, N.S., XIX : 929. Field, Stephen J. Early Days in California. San Francisco, 1880-84. Foster, George G. Gold Regions of California. New York, 1848. Gillespie, C. B. A Miner's Sunday in CaUfomia. The Century Magazine, N.S., XX : 259. Haskins, C. W. The Argonauts in CaUfomia. New York, 1890. Helper, Hinton R. The Land of Gold. Baltimore, 1855. Hittell, John S. The Discovery of Gold in Cahfornia. , The Century Magazine, N.S., XIX: 525. Mining in the Pacific States. Bancroft & Co., S. F., 1861. Huntley, Sir H. V. Cahfornia ; its Gold and its Inhabitants. London, 1856. 406 BIBLIOGRAPHY Johnson, Theo. T. Sights in the Gold Regions. New York, 1849. Kelley, William. An Excursion to California, 1849. London, 1851. King, G. Butler. Report on California. Washington, 1850. Knower, Daniel. Adventures of a Forty-Niner. Albany, 1894. Mariposa Land & Mining Co. New York, 1876. Mason, R. B., and Sherman, W. T. Rept. on Gold Diggings of California, Aug. 17, '48. Paid, A. B. Evolution of the Stamp Mill. Overland Monthly, XXV, 522. Phillips, J. A. The Mining and Metalling of Gold and Silver. Chs. IV, VIII, IX. London, 1867. Riley, {General) Bennet. Rept. on visits to mining regions, July and Aug., 1849. Ex. Doc. H. R. 31st Cong., 1st Sess., No. XVII, 785-786. Royce, Josiah. The Golden State. Commonwealth Series. Boston, 1886. Shaw, Pringle. Ramblings in California. Toronto, 1858. Shaw, William. Golden Dreams and Waking Realities. London, 1851. Shinn, C. H. Mining Camps. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1885. Story of the Mine. Appleton. New York, 1896. Deals especially with the Comstock Lode. BIBLIOGRAPHY 407 Shirley Letters. Printed in Ewer's Pioneers, 1854-55. Simpson, H. S. Three Weeks in the Gold Mines. New York, 1848. Stillman, J. D. B. Seeking the Golden Fleece. San Francisco and New York, 1877. Based on Stillman's letters home and articles published in the Overland Monthly. Taylor, Bayard. El Dorado. London, 1850. Letters to New York Tribune by an enthusiastic observer, 1849. Tyson, James L. Diary of a Physician in California. New York, 1850. Tyson, Philip T. Geology and Industrial Resources of Cahfomia. Baltimore, 1851. Upham, Samuel C. Notes of Voyage to Califomia via Cape Horn together with Scenes in El Dorado. Philadelphia, 1878. Waits, E. G. Pioneer Mining in California. The Century Magazine, N.S., XX : 127. Wierdncki, F. P. California as It is, and as It may be, or a Guide to the Gold Regions. San Francisco, 1849. A rare book, the first English work printed in California. WUley, S. H. Thirty Years in Califomia. San Francisco, 1879. Woods, Daniel B. Sixteen Months in the Gold Diggings. New York, 1851. 408 BIBLIOGRAPHY Normal Industries Coolidge, Mary Roberts. Chinese Immigration. Holt, 1909. Crane, J. M. Past, Present, and Future of the Pacifie. San Francisco, 1856. Cronise, S. F. Natural Wealth of California. San Francisco, 1868. Dans, Horace. California Breadstuffs. Journal Pol. Econ., II, 517. Eaves, I/ucile. Labor Legislation in CaHfomia. The University Press, Berkeley, 1910. Gwinn, J. M. Early California Industries that f aUed. Out West, XXVIII, 66. Hall, W. H. Report on Irrigation Development in France, Italy, Spain, Cahfornia. Sacramento, 1886. Halladie, A. S. Dissertation on the Resources and Policy of California. Overland Monthly, N.S., XI : 636-643. Hasse, A. R. Index of Economic Material in Documents of the States of the United States, California, 1849-1904. Published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1908. Dept. of Economics and Sociology. Hittell, J. S. Commerce and Industries of the Pacific Slope. Bancroft & Co. San Francisco, 1882. Resources of California, 1867. San Francisco, 1879. Plehn, Carl. Labor in California. Yale Review, 1896, 409. Wages in Califorma, 1849-70. BIBLIOGRAPHY 409 Scanland, J. M. Evolution of Ship Building in California. Overland Monthly, XXV, 5-16. Seyd, Ernest. California and its Resources. London, 1858. Werth, John J. , Dissertations on the Resources and Policy of California, 1852. PART V KEYSTONE OF THE ARCH CHAPTER I. — THE GREAT PLAINS Bowles, Samuel. Across the Continent. Springfield, 1865. Boynton, C. B., and Mason, T. B. A Journey through Kansas. Cincinnati, 1855. Dodge, (Colonel) Henry. Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 1835. Rept. Secretary of War, 1835. HaU, L. H. The Great West. D. Appleton & Co. New York, 1866 Railroad, steamboat, and stage guide for travellers, miners, and em- igrants. Excellent map of roads connecting with railways at St. Joseph, Kansas City, and Des Moines, St. Paul, and St. Louis. James, Edwin. Long's (S. H.) Expedition (1819-20) to the Rocky Mountains. Thwaites, Early Western Travels, Vols. XIV, XV, XVI, XVII. Majors, Alexander. Seventy Years on the Frontier. New York, 1893. By a member of the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell. Olmsted, F. L. Journey through Texas ; or a Saddle Trip on the Southwestern Frontier. New York, 1857. 410 BIBLIOGRAPHY Parker, N. H. Kansas and Nebraska Handbook. Boston, 1857-58. A well edited guide. Parrish, Randall. The Great Pkins. A. C. McClurg & Co. Chicago, 1907. Paxon, Frederic L. The Last American Frontier. The Macmillan Company, 1910. CHAPTER XL — STRUGGLE FOR POSSESSION Blackmar, F. W. Life of Charles Robinson. Topeka, 1902. Brown, G. W. Reminiscences of John Brown in Kansas. Rockford, 111., printed by A. E. Smith, 1880. De Bow, J. D. B. Industrial Resources of the Southern and Western States. New Orleans, 1852. See index : Negro Slavery. Day, John. Narrative. A plain, unvarnished tale of the experiences of a Lawrence settler of 1855. New York, 1860. Gladstone, G. H. An Englishman in Kansas. With introduction by F. L. Olmsted. New York, 1857. Greeley, Horace. Slavery Extension in the United States.) New York, 1856. Hale, Edward Everett. Kansas and Nebraska. Boston, 1854. BIBLIOGRAPHY 411 Bigginson, T. W. A Ride through Kansas. Boston, 1856. Hoist, H. F. von. Constitutional History of the United States. Callaghan. Chicago, 1876-92. Vols. V, VI, VII. Kansas. John Brown, Boston, 1889. Johnson, Allen. Stephen A. Douglas. Macmillan, 1908. Miller, W. E. The Peopling of Kansas. Doctor's thesis, Columbia University. Columbus, Ohio, 1906. McLwughlin, A. C. Lewis Cass. Boston, 1891. American Statesmen Series. Philips, Wm. A. Conquest of Kansas by Missouri and her aUies. Boston, 1856. Robinson, Charles. The Kansas Conflict. Harper & Bros., 1892. Robinson, Mrs. Sara T. L. Kansas : Its Interior and Exterior Life. Boston, 1856. Rhodes, James F. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850. New York, 1893. Sanborn, Franklin B. The Life and Letters of John Brown, the Liberator of Kansas and the Martyr of Virginia. Boston, 1885. Spring, L. W. Kansas: Prelude to the War for the Union. Boston, 1885. Thayer, Eli. The Kansas Crusade. Harper Bros., 1889. The New England Emigrant Aid Company. Worcester, Mass., 1887. 412 BIBLIOGRAPHY Villard, 0. G. John Brown. Houghton & Mifflin, 1910. Webb, J. H. Information for Kansas Immigrants. Boston, 1856. Prepared by the Secretary of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. Williams, R. H. With the Border Ruffians, 1852-68. CHAPTER III.— THE VICTORY OF THE NORTH Bancroft, H. H. History of the Pacific States of North America, Vol. XXIV, Chs. XIX, XX, XXI. Pacific Railways. Blake, Wm. P- Geological Report on Routes in California to connect with Routes near the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-second Parallel. War Department. Washington, 1856. Carter, C. F. When Railroads were New. Holt & Co. New York, 1909. Congressional Globe Debates on Homestead Bill. 1850. 1449, 1457, 1461. 1853-54. Pt. I, 553, 555. 1854. Pt. II, 1125-28, 1717-26. Appendix, 207-209. 1861-62. 40, 132, 139, 909-910. Davis, I. P. The Union Pacific Railway. S. C. Griggs & Co. Chicago, 1894. De Bow, J. D. B. Industrial Resources of the Southern and Western States. New Orleans, 1852. See Index : Railroads. Emory, Major W. H. Mihtary Reconnoissance from Ft. [Leavenworth to San Diego ma the Rio Grande and Gila rivers, 1846-47. BIBLIOGRAPHY 413 Greeley, Horace. Overland Journey, 1859. New York, 1860. Guidebook of the Pacific. \ San Francisco, 1866. Contains time and distance tables, fares, freight rates of all steamship, railway, stage, and express lines connecting the Pacific Coast with the in- terior. Hdl, Edward H. The Great West. D. Appleton & Co., 1865. Harding, S. C. George B. Smith, Founder of Sedalia, Missouri. Sedalia, 1907. Heap, G. H. Central Route to the Pacific — Journal of Beale's Expedition of 1853. Philadelphia, 1854. Hittell, T. H. History of California. Vol. IV, Chs. V, VI. Pacific Railroads. Lummis, C. F. Pioneer Transportation in America. McClure's Magazine, 1905. Marcy, B. B. The Prairie Traveller. Harper, 1859. Route from Ft. Smith to San Diego, 1852. Mollhauser, B. Diary of a Journey from the Mississippi to the Pacific. London, 1858. Paxson, F. L. The Pacific Railroads and the Disappearance of the Frontier in America. Am. Hist. Ass. Rept., 1907. Powell, J. W. Rep. on the Lands of the Arid Region. Washington, 1878. Map of Railway Grants. 414 BIBLIOGRAPHY Bepts. of Explorations and Surveys to ascertain the most practi- cable and economical route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast. Lieut. G. K. Warren. U.S. Topo- graphical Survey. Washington, 1861. Roe, W. F. Westward by RaU, 1869. London, 1871. Root, Frank A., and Connelley, W. E. Overland Stage to California. Published by the authors. Topeka, Kan., 1901. Rushing, J. F. Across America. New York, 1874. Sanborn, J. B. Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Chs. V, VI, VII, VIII. University of Wisconsin, Bulletin No. 30. Simpson, J. H. Explorations, 1859. Washington, Government printing office, 1876. Stimson, A. L. History of the Express Company. New York, 1858. Pubhshed and sold by Adams Express Companies. Visscher, W. L. The Pony Express. Rand, McNally. Chicago, 1908. Whitney, Asa. Project for a Pacific Railway, May, 1849. Young, F. C. Across the Plains in '65. Denver, 1905. IKDEX INDEX Aberdeen, Lord, II, 223-224. Abemethy, governor of Oregon, II, 165. Abolitionists in Kansas, II, 347, 348- 349. Acadiane settled along Mississippi River, II, 3-4. Account of Louisiana (1803), compila- tion of, II, 3; cited and quoted, II, 3-7. Acequia madre, mother ditch, I, 61, 62, 134. Aeoma, Indians of, I, 33. Acorns, used as food, I, 122. Acreage charge on Austin's Texas lands, II, 96. Adair, General John, I, 110. Adams, Alvin, II, 287. Adams and Company's Express, failure of, II, 287. Adams Express Company, II, 290. Adams Point, I, 216. , Adobe (sun-dried brick), houses of, I, £0, 99 ; houses, bricks, and walls of, made by mission Indians, I, 138, 149 ; villages of, built by Mormons, II, 202 ; superseded by wood in California houses, II, 309. AdveTiture, sloop built by Captain Gray, I, 215. Agricultural implements, manufacture of, in California, II, 311. Agriculture, practice of, among native Indians of New Mexico, I, 36; in Mexico as described by Pike, I, 53 ; primitive state of, in New Mexico in 1829, I, 60-62 ; introduced among Texas Indians by Franciscans, I, 99- 100 ; in California colonies, I, 133 S. ; at missions, I, 148 fE. ; on lower Mis- sissippi, II, 5, 6, 19 ; along Red River, n, 8-9 ; of Arkansas Valley, II, 30-31 ; primitive processes of Mexican, noted by J. O. Pattie, II, 90-91 ; advantages of, in Texas, II, 103-104; of the Mormons, II, 173-174, 181, 193 ; neglect of, by Americans in California, 11, 219; Mexican, in California, II, 240; land-title dispute in California acts as check on, II, 253-254 ; survey of progress in, and prospects of, in California, II, 291-306; drawbacks to profitable pursuit of, under slavery, II, 324-331 ; possibilities for, in Kansas, II, 339-341, 351-352. Agujijes, water holes, I, 128. Alamo, massacre of the, II, 99. Alarcon, Hernando de, I, 17. Alaska, Behring's fleet visits, I, 195- 196 ; Russian fur trappers and ad- venturers in, I, 196-202 ; Spanish explorers reach, I, 206-207; Captain Cook's voyage to, I, 208-209. Albany, N.Y., emigrant aid company organized in, II, 337. Albany River, I, 293. Albatross, American vessel on Cali- fornia coast, I, 160, 328. Albuquerque, N.M., I, 38, 56; II, 244. Alcalde mayor, superior, governor, 40, 41. Alcaldes, mayors (of towns), I, 40, 41, 42, 61, 99. 138, 139. Aleutian Islands, Russian fur traders in, I, 119; Behring's voyage among, I, 195-196 ; development of sea- otter industry among, I. 196-197; harsh treatment of natives of, by Russian adventurers, I, 198-199; Cook's voyage among, I, 209 ; Rus- sian-American Fur Company's people withdrawn from California to (1841), II, 222. Alexander, first California tanner, I, 214. Alexander VI, Pope, I, 29. Alexandria, La., II, 25. Alexandria, American vessel roughly treated at San Diego (1803), I, 159. Alfalfa, II, 302. Alfileria, a forage-plant, 1, 185 ; II, 294. Algonquin Indians, I, 222. Allencaster, Spanish governor in Mexico, I, 49, 51. Almonte, Don Juan, II, 100; Texan colonization project of, II, 101. Alsatians in Louisiana, I, 87. Alum, in Missouri Territory, II, 51. Alvarado, revolutionary leader in Cali- fornia, I, 171-172; efforts of, as governor under Mexico, to conserve results of California missions, I, 178; personal profit to, from seculariza- tion of missions, I, 181 ; persecution of American settlers in California by, II, 218. American Association for the Advance- ment of Science, Colonel Emory's address to, II, 332-333. American Fork, Sacramento River, I, 361 ; Sutter's post on the, II, 215- 216, 223, 233; discovery of gold on, II, 255-256. VOL. II — 2e 417 418 INDEX American Fur Company, I, 308, 347; organization by J. J. Astor of Western Department of, I, 348-349 ; methods pursued by, in conducting Western fur trade, I, 350-355 ; drives Rocky Mountain Fur Company from the field, I, 364 ; annual production of beaver skin, buffalo hides, and furs, I, 368 ; falling off in receipts of, and interest in sold out by Astor, I, 368 ; mentioned, II, 121. American Philosophical Society, ex- ploring expedition financed by, I, 234. American Society for the Settlement of Oregon Territory, II, 115-118. Americans, trading and exploring ex- peditions of, to northwest coast, I, 211-221 ; overland search for Western Sea by, I, 231-281 ; policy of, concerning the fur trade, I, 298- 299; history of fur-trading activities of, after War of 1812, I, 341-366; in New Orleans (1799), II, 3; land grants to, in Texas, II, 94-96 ; at- tention of, attracted to Oregon country, II, 114 ff. ; emigration of, to Oregon, II, 154-161 ; the first, to settle in California, II, 207; route between California and Santa F6 opened by, II, 211-214 ; number of, in California in 1841, II, 219 ; Santa Anna's attempts to exclude, from California, II, 232, 240-241; num- ber in California in 1846, II, 241. Anaheim, grape-raising industry at, II, 304. Andrew, Solomon P., I, 356. Anian, Straits of, I, 204. Anita, United States ship in California deserted by her crew, II, 257. Annexation of Texas, II, 107-109. Anson, Admiral George, I, 118. Antelope, II, 236. Anti-foreign feeling in California gold diggings, II, 282-283. Antonio de la Ascension, chronicler of Vizcaino's enterprise, I, 13. Anza, Juan de Bautista, Spanish ex- plorer of California, I, 126-132. Apache Indians, raids on New Mexicans by, I, 42, 44, 65; II, 90, 91, 92, 242; bounty offered for scalps of, I, 65. Appalusa, II, 7. Apples, in California, II, 303. Apricots, California, II, 303. Arapaho Indians, I, 341 ; attacks by, on Santa F6 traders, II, 81. Arctic Ocean, Behring's cruise in the, I, 195-196; Cook's visit to the, I, 208-209. Ardiente, alcoholic liquor, I, 105. Arguello, Jos6, commandante at San Francisco Bay, I, 158. Arguello, Luis, Mexican governor of California, I, 161 -163 ; hospitality of, leads to settlement by Americans in California, H, 207. Aricara Indians, I, 307, 341 ; 356, 365 ; military expedition sent against, I. 342-343. Arizona, I, 6. Arkansas, emigrants from, to Oregon* II, 157 ; proportion of colored to white population in 1850, II, 324. Arkansas Post, I, 299; II, 4, 28, 35. Arkansas River, Tonti's trip up, I, 80; navigability of, II, 27; settlements along, II, 29-30 ; improvement of navigation on, II, 61. Arkansas Territory, II, 32, 34-35. Armijo, governor of Chihuahua, II, 86, 242, 243. Armstrong, Captain John, I, 234. Arrasira, mining implement, II, 264. Arrierost mule-drivers, I, 40. Arpent, equivalent of acre, I, 88. Arroyo Hondo, I, 111. Ashburton Treaty, II, 162. Ashley, General W. H., I, 343; II, 171; prime mover in forming Rocky Mountain Fur Company, I, 355, 357, 358 ; reaps the profits of Rocky Mountain Fur Company, I, 364- 365 ; residence of, in St. Louis, II, 64. Ashley (Sevier) Lake, I, 357, 365. Asphalt springs, Los Angeles, II, 220, 289. Aspinwall, William H., II, 262. Assiniboin Indians, I, 224, 253, 256, 297, 300, 349, 356. Assiniboin River, I, 296. Astor, John Jacob, I, 303 ; operations of, in the western fur trade, I, 307- 308 ; plans of, for transcontinental and trans- Pacific trade route, I, 308 ; Pacific Fur Company organ- ized and capitalized by, I, 309 ; misadventures and eventual failure of Pacific Company project, I, 310- 329 ; statesmanlike and practicable character of plan of, I, 330; secures legislation prohibiting foreigners from trading with Indians within bound- aries of United States, I, 344 ; active hostility of, toward the government trading houses, I, 345; persists in invasion of Missouri fur territory and establishes branch of American Fur Company at St. Louis, I, 348- 349 ; methods employed by, to insure success of his fur-trading enterprises, I, 354-355; at close of profitable period of fur trade sells out (1834- 35), I, 368. Astoria, choice of site of, by Pacific Fur Company's party, I, 310; land INDEX 419 cleared and fort built at, I. 312-313 ; North West Company's representa- tive at, I, 313-314; Pacific Com- pany's overland party reaches, I, 322-323 ; secured by the North West Company, I, 32&-328 ; Astor'e futile attempt to regain, I, 331-332; called Fort George by British fur companies, I, 334. Astoria, Irving's, cited, I, 358 ; II, 161. Atchinson, D. O., II, 346. Atkinson, Colonel Henry, I, 342. Auger, Edouard, cited, II, 283. Aurifftre, French emigration company, II, 263. Austin, Moses, league of land acquired by, in Missouri, II, 51 ; mining and shot-manufacturing by, II, 52-53 ; projects in Texas thwarted by his death, II, 94-95. Austin, Stephen, colony started by, in Texas, II, 41, 95-96, 98, 104. Australian gum trees introduced into California, II, 310. Australian mines (1852), II, 287. Avacha Bay, Behring's expedition at, I, 194. Avoyelles, village of, II, 4. Ajrres, Captain G. W., I, 160. Aztec Indians, I, 6. B Bacon, Lord, quoted on character of American colonists, I, 144-145. Bahia de los Pinos, Cabrillo's, I, 10; named Monterey, I, 14. Baker, Mt., discovered and named by Vancouver, I, 218. Baker's Landing, II, 9. Balboa, isthmian canal proposition of, 1,8. Balsas, Indian rafts, I, 126. Baltimore and Ohio Canal, impetus to emigration from opening of, II, 66. Bank of Louisiana founded, II, 16. Bank of St. Louis, failure of, II, 45, 94. Bankruptcies in San Francisco in 1854 and 1855, II, 286-287. Baranof, Russian governor in Alaska, I, 200; establishes post at Bodega Bay, I, 201 ; Astor's trading arrange- ment with, I, 308. Barley, raising of, in California, II, 296, 299. Bartleson, Missourian emigrant to California, II, 228. Bastrop, Baron de, I, 109; land held by estate of, on Washita River, II, 29. Bates, Elias, II, 54. Baton Rouge, Acadians at, II, 3-4. Battle River, I, 280. Bay Sugar Refining Company, II, 313. Bean, Ellis P., I, 107-108. Beans, raised by Indians of New Mexico, 1,36. Beard, trader to Santa F6, II, 76. Bear Flag Republic, II, 246-247. Bear Lake, I, 357. Bear River, I, 331, 358; II, 143, 228, 234 ; gold diggings on, II, 259. Bear Valley, II, 173. Bears, I, 70. Beaujeu, Captain, I, 71. Beaver, in Mississippi Valley, I, 70; on rivers of New Mexico, I, 89-90, 92 ; noted by Lewis and Clark, in valley of the Missouri, I, 257; trade in, by North West Company in Min- nesota, I, 284 ; abundance of, in Louisiana Territory, I, 300 ; trade in, on the Columbia River, I, 315; prices paid for skins of, by American Fur Company, I, 353; exhaustion of, by 1840, I, 366 ; taken in California, II. 20S, 210-211. Beaver, vessel of Pacific Fur Company, I, 323, 324, 327, 331. Beaverhead River, I, 265. Beaver skin trade with California under Mexican rule, I, 163. Becknell, William, II, 78. Beckwith, cited, II, 358, 359. Beechers, the, II, 336. Beechey, Captain, visit to San Francisco Bay in 1826, I. 166. Bee industry in California, II, 305. Beers, Oregon settler, II, 165. Beet-sugar, II, 181, 313. Beggs & Co., firm of, I, 163. Behring, Vitus, I, 119; explorations of, I, 193-196 ; death of, I, 196. Behring Strait, so named by Captain Cook, I, 209. Belcher, Sir Edward, I, 179-180. Belle Fontaine, government trading post at, I, 299. Bellevue Point, I, 334. Bell-foundiy, Sitka, I, 203. Beltran, Bernardino, Franciscan mis- sionary, I, 30-31. Benicia, II, 276 ; shipyards at, II, 310. Benton, Thomas H., I, 345 ; dominant figure in destiny of Far West (1820- 50), II, 69; activities of, in abolition of government factories, improve- ment in system of land grants, the salt monopolies, and slavery question, II, 70-74; Thirty Years' View by, quoted, II, 74, 161-162 ; secures Federal appropriation for survey of road from Franklin to Santa F6, II, 80 ; opposition of, to surrender of United States claims to Texas (1819), II, 94; on California land titles, II, 252; opposition of, to 420 INDEX breaking of Misaouri Compromise, II, 335 ; quoted on disposal of public lands, II, 361. Bernalillo, II, 244. Betsey, American vessel, puts into San Diego, I, 159. Bidarkas, skin boats of Aleutian Islanders, I, 199. Biddle, Nicholas, I, 232; II, 114. Bidwell, John, II, 228, 292, 299. Bienville, French explorer and colo- nizer, I, 81, 82, 87. Bigdry River, I, 258. Big Hole River, I, 264, 279. Big Horn Mountains, I, 224, 320. Big Horn River, I, 349 ; II, 121. Big Prairie, II, 27. Big River, II, 50. Big Sandy River, II, 172. Bill Williams Creek, II, 214. Biloxi, French settlement at, I, 81. Bismarck, N.D., Lewis and Clark at later site of, I, 247. Bitter Root River, I, 268. Bitter Root Valley, II, 147. Blackfeet Indians, I, 307, 344, 349, 356, 364, 366, 373 ; II, 120. Black Fork of Green River, 1, 375; II, 172. Black Hills, I, 320. Black River, II, 11, 27; French villages on, II, 4. Blanco, Florida, I, 5. Blossom, Captain Beechey's ship, I, 166. Blue-ioint grass, II, 328. Blue Mountains, I, 340; II, 143, 155, 156. Bodega Bay, Russian fur-trading post at, I, 201, 203; mills built at, by Americans, 11, 219 ; withdrawal of Russians from, II, 222. Bodega y Quadra, explorations of, I, 206-207 : Vancouver meets, in Nootka Sound, I, 211. "Bonanza kings," II, 288. Bonneville, Captain, I, 363; II, 121. Boone, Daniel, I, 302 ; II, 36, 40. Boone's Lick, II, 36, 41. Boot and shoe manufactures, II, 180, 312. Borax, production of, in California, II, 311-312. "Border ruffians," II, 346. BorS, Etienne de, I, 89. Borica, Governor, founding of pueblo of Branciforte by, I, 138-139 ; states- manlike administration of California by, I, 139-140. Borthwick, cited, II, 283. Boston, ships from, trade with Cali- fornia under Mexican rule, I, 162- 165, 212 ff., 219-221; support of Thayer's "Kansas Crusade" by business men of, II, 336. Boston, ship captured by^ Coast 'Indians, I, 221. "Bostons," white men called, by In- dians of northwest coast, I, 220; II, 126. Bounty lands, I, 238, 282; II, 105, 334. Bowles, Samuel, Across the Continent by, quoted, II, 351-352, 357, 359. Boynton, commissioner of Kansas League of Cincinnati, II, 339-343. Brackenridge, Journal of, quoted, I, 304-305, 318; cited, II, 36; reports Great Plains as unsuited to settlement, II, 332. Bradbury, English naturalist, I, 92-93, 355 ; II, 104 ; description of Daniel Boone by, II, 36. Branciforte, colony of, in California, I, 138-139; II, 220-221. Brannan, Samuel, II, 204-205, 256, 259. Branscomb, Charles H., 11, 337, 338. Bravo del Norte, Rio, I, 31, 32; num- ber of Spanish along the, in 1680, 1,37. Brazos, population of department of, II, 101. Brazos River, I, 23 ; II, 41, 95. Brevel, French informant of Dr. Sibley's, II, 10. Breweries, in St. Louis, II, 65 ; in Cali- fornia, II, 312. Bricks, made by mission Indians, I, 149 : manufacture of, in California, II, 309-310; sun-dried, in Kansas, II, 339. Bridger, James, 17 355, 362, 365, 368; Fort Bridger built by, I, 374-375; II, 159; advice of, to Mormons, II, 173. British, freebooting voyages of, I, 12- 13 ; explorations of northwest coast by, I, 207-209, 216-217; encroach- ments of, on fur country of Spanish in Louisiana Territory, I, 291 ; policy of, as to fur trade, I, 291-292 (.see Hudson's Bay Company) ; citizens' papers taken out by, in Oregon, II, 164 : Mormon converts secured among, II, 185-186 ; number of, in California in 1841, II, 219 ; question of acquisition of California by, II, 223-224 ; number in California in 1846, II, 241 ; emigration of, to California upon discovery of gold, II, 263. Brooklyn, Mormon emigrants on the, II, 204, 205. Brooks, Tyrwhitt, II, 272. Broughton, Vancouver's lieutenant, sur- veys Columbia River, I, 218-219, Brown, Congressman, II, 362. Brown, Dr. William, I, 233, INDEX 421 Brown, John, in Kansas, II, 348-349. Brown, Mormon settler on Weber River, II, 194. Bryant & Sturgis, firm of, I, 163. Bucareli, viceroy of Mexico, promotes exploration of California, I, 124- 132, 204. Buchanan, James, II, 189, 24S, 351, 364. Buena Quia (good guide) River, I, 17. Buffalo, la., ferry across Mississippi at, II, 67. Buffalo, first white men to hear of the, I, 20; herds of, noted by Lewis and Clark, I, 245, 262; numbers of, on the Great Plains, I, 300-301 ; prices paid for robes by American Fur Company, I, 353; marked diminu- tion in (1840), I, 366; output of robes, 1840-50 and 1850-60, I, 366- 367; rate of retreat of, before white man's advance, II, 34 ; reliance of Santa F5 traders on, for food, II, 84. Buffalo grass, II, 12, 332, 339. Buford, Major, II, 344. Building stones, Missouri Valley, I, 257 ; in Kansas, II, 339. Bulfinch, Charles, I, 212, 214. Bunch grass, II, 176, 294. Burling, Wilkinson's go-between, I, 113, 114. Burlingame Treaty, II, 319. Burlington, la., ferry across Mississippi at, II, 67. Burnet, Texas adventiirer, II, 105; quoted, II, 159. Burnett, Captain, II, 10. Burr, Aaron, nebulous plots and proj- ects of, I, 109-110; II, 17; quoted on American advance into Texas, II, 100. Burr clover, II, 296. Burton, Richard F., quoted, I, 367; II, 200-202. Bushnell, Horace, II, 336. Butte Creek, II, 292. C CabaUada, troop of horses, I, 123. Cabbages, California, II, 303. Cabeza de Vaca, Nufiez, I, 15. Cabin right, II, 361. Cabrillo, explorations by, I, 9-10. Cache Valley, II, 173. Cadadoquis Indians, I, 79-80. Cadadoquis River, I, 79. Caddo Indians, II, 13, 14. Cahokia, I, 90, 238. Cajon Pass, II, 206, 212, 214. Calabashes, I, 36. Calaveras River, II, 266. Caldron Linn, I, 320, 324. Calhoun, John C, II, 108. California, named by Ulloa, I, 9; first Spanish explorers in, I, 8-10; Span- ish and Portuguese explorations of, I, 9-12; Drake on coast of, I, 12 j early efforts of Spain to colonize, I, 13-15 ; Spanish urged to coloniza- tion of, through fear of British and Russian encroachments, I, 118-119; progress of Spanish colonization of, I, 118-140; division of administra- tion of Upper and Lower, I, 140- 141 ; causes of lack of results from Spanish undertakings, I, 141-145; success of Franciscan missions in, I, 145-156 ; ill effect of Franciscan friars' regime on population and colonization of, I, 155-156; re- strictions on trade to, I, 156 ff. ; visits of English and Russians to San Francisco Bay, I, 157-159; bad treatment of American vessels in ports of, I, 159-160; visits of Ameri- can vessels to, after War of 1812, I, 160 ; during Mexico's war for in- dependence, I, 181 ; beginnings of outside trade with, in furs and hides, I, 162-165 ; Captain Beechey's ac- count of trade of, I, 167; Mexican short-sightedness concerning, I, 168- 171 ; ruin of the missions in, I, 176- 183; the cattle kings, I, 183-189; figiures of trade of, in hides and tallow, I, 186 (see aXao Hides and tallow) ; results of seventy-five years of Spanish occupation, I, 189 ; Russian fur hunters in, I, 201-204 ; Spanish explorations along coast of, I, 204- 207; Cook's voyage to, I, 207-209; Boston ships at, I, 210, 212-216; Jedediah Smith's exploring trips to, I, 359, 360; American traders to (about 1830), II, 87; benefit to Mormons from discovery of gold in, II, 179-180; Mormon emigrants to, II, 203-206; first American settlers in, II, 207 ; opening of route between Santa F6 and, by Americans, II, 211-214; settlements of Americana about San Francisco Bay, II, 214- 216; jealousy displayed by Mexico against Americans in, II, 217-218; attempts by Mexico to colonize, II, 218-219; population of Upper, in 1841, II, 219; foreign control of business in cities of, II, 220-221 ; dangerous rivalry of Russian, French, British, and American interests in, II, 221-227; advent of emigrants from the East in, II, 227-241 ; com- parison of routes to, II, 229-230; routes across Sierras to, II, 233-235 ; distribution of nationalities in, in 1846, II, 241 ; Kearney's advance on, II, 244-245; Bear Flag Republio 422 INDEX proclaimed in, II, 246-247; cession of, to United States, by treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, II, 247; ex- clusion of slavery from, by conven- tion to adopt state constitution, II, 247-248; the land question in, II, 248-255; spoliation of Spanish land- holders in, II, 253-255 ; the age of gold in, II, 255-284 ; financial depres- sion and panic in, following shrink- age in gold production, II, 285-288 ; return of normal conditions in, II, 287-288 ; new gold discoveries, and other industries in, II, 288-289 ; com- mercial opportunities of, II, 289- 291 ; progress in raising horses, cattle, and sheep in, II, 291-297 ; drawbacks to tillage in, II, 297-299 ; corn, wheat, and other grains in, II, 299- 301; irrigation, II, 302-303; sugar- beets, II, 303; fruits, II, 303-304; other agricultural undertakings, II, 304-305 ; reduction in size of farm holdings, II, 305-306; development of manufacturing in, due to Civil War and to need for various articles, II, 307-309 ; decrease in manu- facturing upon close of war and com- pletion of transcontinental railway, II, 313-314; labor conditions in, after 1849, II, 314-317; arrival of Chinese in, and troubles over, II, 317-319 ; subscriptions in, to stock of Central Pacific Ry., II, 360. California, Panama route steamer, II, 262. California and Pioneer Stage Company, II, 290. California Steam Navigation Company, II, 290. Califomian, the, quoted on discovery of gold, II, 255-256 ; suspension of, for lack of men, 11, 257. Cameahwait, chief of Shoshone In- dians, I, 265-267. Cameron, Murdoch, I, 284, 285. Camino del Diablo, II, 244. Camino Real, mission road in Cali- fornia, I, 130, 148. Campbell, Robert, I, 356. Camp Floyd, II, 192. Camp Fork. II, 56. Canadian River, I, 343. Canary Islands, immigrants to Texas from, I, 98, 102-103, 144. Canejos River, I, 48. Cannon, William, II, 151. Cap-au-Gris, II, 89. Cape Girardeau, settlement at, II, 4. Carmel, mission of, I, 148, 149, 152. Carmel River, I, 14, 124. Carneros, sheep in general, more es- pecially wethers, I, 63. Carondelet, village of, II, 4. Carretas, New Mexican carta, I, 59-60. Carson, Alexander, II, 151. Carson, Kit, I, 365 ; II, 246. Carson River, II, 234, 238, 239. Carver, Jonathan, explorations by, I, 225-229. Cascade Range, I, 271 ; II, 358. Cascades of Coltmibia River, I, 271. Cass, Lewis, II, 214, 236, 363. Cass Lake, I, 284. Castaneda, Pedro de, quoted, I, 16-26, Castor-bean raising in California, II, 305. Castro, General, II, 247. Castro, Jos6, I, 181. Castro Valley, II, 310. Catholics, missionaries of, in the Colum- bia district (1838), II, 146. See Missions. Catlin, George, I, 355. Cattle, introduction of, into New Mexico, I, 36 ; raising of, about St. Louis under the French, I, 90 ; in Texas, I, 103-105; II, 101, 102-103; at Franciscan missions in Cali- fornia, I, 148, 175; at Fort Van- couver (1828), I, 335; in Mississippi Valley near New Orleans (1803), II, 7 ; in interior of Louisiana, II, 26 ; in Arkansas Valley, II, 30 ; brought into Oregon country from California, II, 140; of the Mormons, II, 193, 196, 203; in California, II, 292-296; destruction of, by drought of 1858, II, 295 ; opening for raising, in Kan- sas, II, 340. Cattle kings, period of, in California, I, 183-189. Cavendish, Sir Thomas, I, 13. Cayuse Indians, II, 144, 145. Cedar City, II, 185, 203. Cedros Island, I, 9. Cenis Indians, I, 77, 78, 79, 95-96. Central American canal, recommenda- tion of a, II, 358. Central Pacific Ry., II, 319; coat of, and concessions to, II, 360-361. Centralist revolution, at City of Mexico (1834), I, 171. Chaboillez, Charles, I, 252. Chaboneau, French Canadian guide of Lewis and Clark, I, 251, 253, 279. 281. Chaboneau's Creek, I, 257. Chambers, trader to Santa F6, II, 76. Champoeg, ranch of Ewing Young in Oregon, II, 31, 163. Chandless, William, quoted, II, 199-200, 255. Chapman, Miller and Lux Canal, II, 303. Chariton, village of, II, 39. Charles HI of Spain, I, 5, 42. Charleatoion MercuTy, quoted* II, 344. INDEX 423 Charqui, dried buffalo meat, I, 23. Chatham, Vancouver's ship, I, 217. Chehalem Creek, II, 130. Chemanea, American ship at Columbia River, II, 126. Cherokee Indians, II, 34. Cherries, California, II, 303. Chiametla, I, 9. Chicago, post at, maintained as a strategic point, I, 285. Chicago River, I, 69. Chichilticalli, I, 18. Chickasaw BluSs, I, 26. Chico, Governor, I, 177 ; II, 217. Chico River, II, 77. Chihuahua, American tradei^ to, II, 86, 87. Chiles, Joseph B., II, 231, 235, 237. China, trade of Boston merchants with, from California, I, 163, 167; a mar- ket for furs taken by Russians, I, 200, 203; fur trade between north- west coast and, I, 216, 219-220, 308. Chinese, arrival of, in California dig- gings, II, 317-318; welcome at first, are eventually driven from the mines, II, 318-319 ; employment of, in various occupations, and labor agita- tion against, II, 319; labor of, used on Central Pacific Ry., II, 360. Chinook Indians, II, 117, 139. ChirikofF, sea captain with Behring, I, 196. Chittenden, cited, I, 354, 364. Choloa, vagabonds, II, 219. Chopunnish Indians (Nez Percys), I, 267. Chopunnish (Touohet) River, I, 278. Chouteau, Auguste, I, 89, 242, 349; II, 64, 76. Chouteau, Auguste, Jr., I, 306. Chouteau, Pierre, I, 306, 349, 350; 11, 64. Chouteau's Island, II, 85. Christian Advocate, the Lees' letters in, n, 155. Christian Mirror, Whitman's articles in, II, 155. Cibola, I, 3 ; search for fabled Seven Cities, I, 15 £f. ; Coronado's ex- pedition at, I, 18-20. Cider and "cider royal," II, 58. Cimarron Desert, II, 78, 80, 81, 82, 84. Cinnabar, veins of, in Coast Range, II, 288. Civil War, effect of, on California prod- ucts and manufacturing, II, 300— 301, 304-305, 308, 311, 312, 313; precipitation of, by election of Lin- coln, II, 351. Claiborne, Governor, II, 15, 17. Claims associations, Iowa, II, 67. Clark, George Rogers, I, 231, 234, 237 ; II, 89. Clark, William, associated with Meri- wether Lewis in eicploring expedition, I, 237—282 ; member of Missouri Fur Company, I, 307. Clarke, Daniel, I, 110. Clarke, John, I, 323. Clark's (Salmon) River, I, 279, 315. Clatsop Indians, I, 273-274 ; 11, 138. Clayoquot, Captain Gray at, I, 215. Clear Lake, sulphur mined at, II, 308. Clearwater River, I, 268. Cleveland, American supercargo, in California (1803), I, 159-160. Closed ports, of Spain, I, 4-5 ; in Cali- fornia under the Spanish, I, 156- 160; of China, I, 203, 209-210. Cloth, manufactiu'ed by the Mormons, II, 180. Cloth mills, in Missouri, II, 50. Clover, II, 302. Coal, found by Lewis and Clark party in Missouri, I, 244 ; reward offered by Mortnons for discovery of, II, 181 ; at Cedar City, II, 188; in Kansas, II, 339. Coast Indians, I, 147-148, 228, 271-275. Cceur d'AlSne Indians, II, 147. Coeur d'Altoe River, I, 295. Colorado, fur traders' operations in, I, 357. Colorado Desert, I, 6, 128 ; II, 92, 244. Colorado Indians, I, 357. Colorado River, I, 20, 146, 366. Colter, John, I, 281, 304. Columa, gold found at, II, 256, 259. Columbia, American ship on Pacific coast, I, 210-216. Columbia Fur Company, I, 349. Columbia River, I, 206; discovery of, by Captain Gray in ship Columbia, I, 216; Vancouver off the, I, 218; explored by Lieutenant Broughton, I, 218-219 ; Lewis and Clark party's trip down the, I, 270-273 ; the party's return voyage up the, I, 277-278; the ToTiguin^s voyage to, I, 309-311 ; founding of Astoria on, I, 310-314 ; hold kept on trade of, by Hudson's Bay Company, II, 113-114; N. J. Wyeth's expeditions to, II, 118-125. See Oregon. Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company, II, 122, 124. Comanche Indians, I, 365; the scourge of the plains, II, 13 ; along Santa F* traU, II, 81. Commercial Company of the River Missouri, I, 235. Common fields, French villages, I, 90. Community life, in French villages of Mississippi and Missouri valleys, I, 90-91 ; Spanish, in California, I, 119, 133-140; of Mormons, II, 177- 178, 196. 424 INDEX Company of the West, the, I, 86-87. Comstock Lode, discovery of (1859), II, 288. Congregationalist, Whitman's articles in, II, 165. Conquistadores, conquerors, I, 3, 8. Consumnes River, II, 259. Consumption among Columbia Kiver Indians, II, 138. Contrdbandiatas, illegal traders, I, 160. Convoy, American ship at Columbia River, II, 126. Cook, Captain James, voyage of, I, 207-209, 231. Cooke, Colonel, quoted, II, 204-205, 242-243; leads force to California, II, 244-245. Cook's Inlet, I, 208-209. Cook's Last Voyage, Ledyard's, I, 211, 232. "Coon box" banks, II, 68. Cooper, Benjamin, II, 79. Cooper, Braxton, II, 37, 56, 79, 206, 207, 217. Cooper, Captain, of ship Rover, I, 162. Coos Bay, I, 14. Copper, in Lake Superior region, I, 227-228. Copper mines, Santa Rita, II, 90, 92; Gila River, II, 90, 91, 92. Cordelle, line for towing boats, I, 241, 256, 258 ; II, 19, 59. Cordero, Governor, I, 103, 111, 112. Com, raised by Indians of New Mexico, I, 36 ; in Louisiana, II, 24 ; in Ar- kansas Valley, II, 28, 30; in Missouri, II, 44, 49; in Texas, II, 101; in California, II, 299, 300; in Kansas, II, 340. Coronado, search of, for the Seven Cities of Cibola, I, 16-26. Cortfireal, Caspar, I, 7. Cortfls, I, 6, 8-9. Cortfis, Sea of, I, 9. Costanz6, I, 120-124, 141. Cote Sans Desseins, II, 38. Cotton, early cultivation of, near New Orleans, I, 84 ; production of, in Louisiana, II, 5, 7, 20; along Red River, II, 8, 9; exportation of, from New Orleans about 1820, II, 23; Natchez as a market for, II, 24 ; along the Arkansas River, II, 25; about Arkansas Post, II, 28 ; in Arkansas Valley, II, 30; in Mis- souri, II, 49 ; in Texas, II, 101 ; attempts to raise, in California, II, 304-305 ; attempted manufacture of, at Oakland, Cal., II, 312-313 ; waste- ful methods of production in Louisi- ana, II, 326 ; production of, in Texas in 1854, II, 329. Coudrois, emigrant to California, II, 235. Council Bluffs, I, 307, 342 ; first steam- boat to reach, II, 62-63; Mormons at, II, 169. Council Grove, II, 83. Council of the Indies, I, 4. Coureurs dea hois, French Canadian furtraders, I, 90, 293, 294, 299, 347. Cowlitz River, II, 153. Cox, Ross, I, 323, 329. "Coyote holes," II, 280. Credit sales, system of, in disposing of public lands, II, 72. Cree Indians, I, 224. Creoles, 1, 29, 39, 58, 66, 108, 109 ; French, in New Orleans, II, 3 ; anti-American feeling among (1803), II, 15-17. Crespi, Franciscan missionary, I, 122, 125. Crisis, of 1819, II, 45 ; in Iowa and other western lands on issuance of Specie Circular, II, 68-69; in Cali- fornia following shrinkage in gold pro- duction, II, 285-288. Crooks, Ramsay, I, 316, 320, 321, 323, 324, 345, 349, 368 ; II, 162. Crow Indians, I, 225, 307, 341, 349, 364, 365. Crow's flesh, used as food by Lewis and Clark, I, 269. Crozat, Anthony, I, 82. Cruzatte, voyageur with Lewis and Clark, I, 260, 271. Cuba, comparison of Louisiana and, as to sugar production, II, 325-326. Cununings, governor of Utah, II, 189, 191, 201-202. Curcier, Philadelphia merchant, II, 92. Custis, Dr. Peter, II, 13. Customs duties, imposed on American goods at New Orleans, I, 93 ; levied by Spanish in California, I, 160, 166, 167-168; protection of salt manufactures by, in United States, II, 73-74 ; imposed by United States on Santa F6 trade, II, 78 ; Spanish, on Santa F6 trade, II, 85-86, 242; collection of, at San Francisco in 1841, II, 226-227; at New Orleans, after American acquisition of Louisi- ana Territory, II, 14. Customs house, Monterey, I, 163 ; Santa F«, II, 243. Cut Bank, town of, I, 280. Dablon, Jesuit missionary, quoted, I, 67-68. Dairy business in California, II, 295. Dalles Indians, I, 334. Dalles of the Columbia, I, 271, 278; missions at the, II, 139. Dana, R. H., cited, I, 164-165. Dana, W. G., II, 207. INDEX 425 Davis, Jefferson, II, 345. Davis, W. H., cited, I, 186; II, 207. Day, John, I, 317, 323. Death Route, the, II, 231. Deception Bay, I, 210. Deer, I, 45, 70, 245, 254, 262;, II, 30, 236. Degrfi, Jack, II, 151. Degrt, Philip, I, 276; II. 151. De Haro, Spanish explorer, I, 210-211. Delaware Indiana, II, 333. De Leon, settler in Texas, II, 98, 105. De Mofras, Duflot, cited, I, 180, 185; II, 219, 225-226. De Morfi, Jean Augustin, I, 40—44. De Munn, Julius, II, 76. De Neve, Filipe, Spanish governor of California, I, 132-138; famous reg- lamento of, I, 133-136; lofty public spirit of, as shown by scheme of colonization, I, 141 ; on friars' treat- ment of Indians, I, 150-151. De Reaanoff, attempt of, to trade with Spanish at San Francisco Bay, I, 158-159. Des Chutes River, II, 123. Deaeret, State of, II, 188, 205. Deseret Iron Company, II, 182. Dea Moines, government trading post, I, 299. Des Moines River, I, 246 ; salt deposits on, II, 56. De Soto, Fernando, explorations by, I, 26-27. Des Plaines, I, 69. Detroit, post at, maintained as a strate- gic point, I, 285. De Witt, settler in Texaa, II, 98, 105. Diablo, Mt., II, 215. Dickson, hunter, I, 280. Digger Indiana, I, 357 ; wretched condi- tion of, I, 360. Disappointment, Cape, I, 210, 215. Discovery, Cook's sliip, I, 207, 208. Discovery, Vancouver's ship, I, 217. Diseases among Indians of Oregon country, II, 138, 148. Distilleries, in Missouri, II, 50; at St. Louis, II, 65. Dixon, Captain, I, 209. Dogs' flesh used as food by Lewis and Clark, I, 270, 278. Donation Act of 1850, II, 164, 165. Donner'a Lake, II, 237. Dorion, Pierre, I, 247, 318, 319. Dorr, Captain Ebenezer, I, 159. Douay, Father Anastasius, I, 76, 79. Douglas, Captain, I, 213. Douglas, Stephen A., II, 333, 334, 349, 351. Drake, Francis, I, 12-13. Dred Scott decision, II, 351. Drewyer, member of Lewis and Clark party, I, 266, 280. Dried buffalo meat, I, 23, 76, 77. Drips, Astor's agent, I, 363. "Drogher" trade with Califonua, I, 164-165, 176; figures of, from 1828 to 1848, I, 186. Droughts in California, II, 295, 297, 299, 300. Drouillard, George, lieutenant of Man- uel Lisa's, I, 304 ; killed by Indiana, I, 307. " Dry diggings," II, 279. Dry farming, II, 352. Dubois River, I, 238. Dubuque, ferrj' across Missiaaippi at, II, 67. Dubuque, Jtilien, I, 91. Dunbar, William, I, 111 ; II, 8 ; explora- tion of the Waahita River by, II, 11-12. Dunn, John, quoted, I, 338-339. Du Pratz, Le Page, French coloniat in Louisiana, I, 83-84, 85, E Earthquake of 1811, II, 27. Bast Cape, sighted by Cook, I, 209. Easterners, rush of, to California upon discovery of gold, II, 260-263. East India Company, I, 209. Echeandia, Governor, I, 173; II, 92. Echo Caton, II, 173, 190-191, 201, 237. Edgecombe, Mt., diacovery of, by Ruaaiana, I, 196 ; Spaniah expedition reaches, I, 206. Edwards, P. L., II, 135, 136. Edwards, Texas settler, II, 98. Eels, missionary to Flathead Indians, II, 144. Eliza, American vessel ordered out of San Francisco Bay, I, 159. Elk, I, 45 ; in Missouri Valley, I, 245, 254, 262, 335 ; II, 236. Elk Rapids, I, 259. El Paso, I, 39, 44, 91, 244; Pike's account of, I, 52-53. El Vado de los Padres, I, 145. Emigrant Aid companies, II, 336-337, 338, 343, 349. Emigration, from Old to New Spain, I, 6 ; from France to Louisiana, I, 81-82 ; to Louisiana ceases upon transfer to Spain, I, 89 ; to Texaa, I, 98; II, 96, 102; description of western, II, 39-46; tendency of American, to follow latitudes, II, 66, 340 ; forwarding of, by opening up of trans-Alleghany routes and ferries across Mississippi, II, 66-67; increase in, owing to hard times of 1833 and 1834, II, 67-68; to the Oregon country, II, 124-125, 154- 166 ; the Mormon, II, 167, 168-174, 182-189; the beginning of, to Cali- fornia, II, 227-231; routea acroas 426 INDEX Sierras followed in course of, II, 233- 239 ; encouragement of, to California, II, 236 ; wild period of, following on discovery of gold, II, 260-264; of free state men to Kansas, II, 336- 339, 349-350. Emigration CaSon, II, 173. Emory, W. H., quoted, II, 332-333. EmpressarioSt managers of colonies, II, 98, 101, 102, 104, 108, 216, 249. Encomienda, system by which proprie- tors of land could command labor of natives upon it, I, 28, 29, 31, 32, 37, 41, 144, 155; abolition of, I, 42. Engages, wage paid trappers, I, 90, 292, 302, 323, 365. English, early explorations by, I, 12-13, 207-209, 216-217; in New Orleans (1799), II, 3; land grants to, in Texas, II, 96, 98 ; as colonizers of the Willamette Valley, II, 149-154; converts among, to the Mormon faith, II, 185-186; number of, in California (1841), II, 219. &eBritish. Enterprise, steamboat, II, 60. Entrada, entry, expedition, I, 31. Erie Canal, II, 57 ; impetus to emigra- tion given by, II, 66. Escalin, thirty-six cents, I, 89. Escallante, Father, Franciscan mis- sionary, I, 145. Escheloot Indians, I, 270-271. Espejo, Antonio, I, 30-31. Espiritu Santo (Mississippi) River, I, 26, 27. Esplandian, fabulous island of, I, 9. Estevanico, negro with Nizza, I, 16. Estrada, Jos6, I, 181. Estrejo Carquines, I, 125; II, 214. Etholine, Governor, II, 222. Eucalyptus trees, in California, II, 310. Euro-pa, Boston ship at Columbia River, II, 126. Europe, adventurers from, in California upon gold discovery, II, 263-264. Evans, John, I, 235. Exportation, of hides and tallow from California, I, 161-169, 176, 186-187; of cotton, sugar, molasses, and peltry from Louisiana, II, 5-6 ; of gold from California, II, 278 ; of grain, II, 300- 301 ; of mining machinery, II, 308 ; of flour, II, 311. Exports from San Francisco, II, 289. Fagea, Pedro, I, 122, 125. Fair, held at Prairie du Chien, I, 229. Fairweather Range, I, 208. Fanega, measure of grain equal to two bushels, I, 40, 133, 137, 175. Farallone Islands, I, 123 ; otter hunt- ing on the, I, 202. Farms, in California, II, 305-306. Farnham, Russell, I, 349; II, 162; quoted, I, 370-371. Farnham, T. J., Oregon enthusiast, II, 133, 151 ; Travels in the Great Western Prairies by, II, 155. Far West, Mo., II, 167. Feather River, II, 234, 235, 251, 259. Femme Osage, II, 36. Ferrelo, explorer on California coast, I, 10. Ferries across Mississippi River, II, 67. Ferris, independent trapper, II, 121. Fields, the, members of Lewis and Clark party, I, 280. Figs, in Louisiana, II, 24. Figueroa, Governor, plan of, for emanci- pating mission Indians in California, I, 174-176; treatment of Hall J. Kelley by, II, 127-128. Filare, I, 185 ; II, 294. Fishery and Fur Company, Mackenzie's proposed, I, 295. Fishing Falls, II, 143. Fisk, Dr. Wilbur, II, 135. Fitch, American merchant at San Diego, II, 220. Fitzpatrick, Thomas, I, 356, 362, 367, 368 ; II, 228. Flagg, Edward, quoted, II, 46-48, 62. Flathead Indians, I, 270, 315; fine qualities of, II, 133-134 ; missionaries to the, II, 134-136, 144-148. Flat Head Post, I, 361. Flattery, Cape, I, 208. Flax, in Missouri, II, 49. Flint, James, quoted on land specula- tion in Missouri, II, 44-45. Flint, Timothy, II, 20-21, 93; quoted, II, 42-44, 58-59, 60. Floating grants of land, II, 26S. Flour, manufacture of, in Missouri, II, 50; in California, II, 311. Floyd, member of Lewis and Clark ex- pedition, I, 239. Floyd, Senator, II, 161-162. Fodders for cattle, II, 30, 185, 244, 294, 295-296. Fond du Lac, I, 288. Font, Pedro, I, 127-132. Fontain qui Bouille, I, 46 ; II, 77. Forbes, Alexander, II, 224, 288-289. Foreign Miners' Tax Law, II, 283-281, 318-319. Fort Assiniboin, I, 295. Fort Astoria, I, 312. Fort Athabasca, I, 295. Fort Benton, I, 349. Fort Boisfi, I, 336, 359 ; II, 143, 158, 231. Port Bonneville, II, 121. Fort Bridger, I, 374-375; II, 159, 355; Mormons at, II, 172-173; destruc- tion of, II, 191. Fort Cass, I, 349 ; II, 121. INDEX 427 Fort Chippewyan, I, 229, 230. Fort Clatsop, I, 273. Fort Colville, I, 336; II, 144. Fort Crtvecoeur, I, 69. Fort Hall, I, 336-337; II, 122, 124 155, 158, 228, 231, 237. Fort Henry, I, 320, 321. Fort Kearney, II, 355. Fort Kootenai, I, 295. Fort Lancaster, I, 374. Fort Laramie, I, 346; II, 158, 172 355. Fort Leavenworth, II, 358. Fort Lisa, I, 307. Fort Mackenzie, I, 349. Fort Mandan, I, 249, 251. Fort Mortimer, I, 372. Fort Osage, I, 299. Fort Pembina, I, 345. Fort Piegan, I, 349. Fort Riley, II, 343. Fort Boss, I, 202. Fort St. Louis, I, 75, 80. Fort Smith, II, 28, 30, 356, 358. Fort Snelling. II, 67, 215. Fort Tecumseh, I, 350. Fort Union, I, 349, 350; II. 121. Fort Vancouver, I, 332-341 ; value of annual output of furs from, I, 337; Jedediah Smith's sojourn at, I, 361 ; N. J. Wyeth at, II, 120, 122; Hall J. Kelley at, II, 127-130 ; the end of, II, 166. Fort Walla Walla, I, 334 ; II, 120, 144. Fort Wayne, I. 285. Fort William, I, 295 ; II, 123. Forty-mile Desert, II, 238. Foucannier, dried buffalo meat, I, 77. Fowler, Jacob, II, 76-78, 89. Fox Indians, I, 341. Framboise, trapper, I, 127; II, 151. Franchdre, Gabriel, I, 310, 314, 329; quoted, I, 325-326 ; II, 133. Franciscan friars, missionary work of, I, 30, 33, 34-36 ; in Texas, I, 95-96 ; in Upper California, I, 119 £f., 124, 145-156; removal of, from Cali- fornia by decree of 1829, I, 172. Franklin, Mo., II, 39, 41; terminal point of Santa F6 trail, II, 80, 82; ruffians from, in Kansas, II, 346. Prazer River, I, 230 ; II, 287. Freeman, Thomas, II, 13. Free Soil party, II, 335-352. Free state men, activities of, in the Kansas question, II, 335-352. Free trade edict of Charles III of Spain, I, 5. Free trappers, I, 294, 302-303, 353- 354, 362, 365; II, 126, 150-151; treatment of, by American Fur Company, I, 352-354. Freight charges, from New Mexico to the seaports, I, 57; on steamboats. II, 60-61; from New York to San Francisco, II, 276; on Missouri River, II, 341. Fremont, J. C, quoted, I, 346-348, 367, 374; II, 157-158; exploration of Great Salt Lake by. II, 171; Journal of, II, 171 ; trip of, across the Sierras, II, 234-235; at Sutter's Fort, II, 235; enthusiastic account in his Journal augments California enthusiasm, II, 236; interference of, in California, leading to war between Americans and Mexicans, II, 245- 246 ; survey of central overland route by, II, 358, 359; valuable mining claim secured by, II, 268. French, explorations of Louisiana Terri- tory by, I, 66-87 ; cede Louisiana to Spain, I, 88 ; regain the territory and cede to United States, I, 94; ex- plorations of, in overland search for the Western Sea, I, 222-225; settle- ments of, in Louisiana Territory, II, 4 ff. ; villages of, along Mississippi, dwindle gradually, 11, 27-28; con- trasted with German Lutherans in Missouri, II, 42; among colonizers of the Willamette Valley, II, 153-154 ; number of. in California in 1841, II. 219; inquiry by, into possibility of their acquiring California, II, 225- 226; number in California in 1846, II. 241 : emigration of, to California upon discovery of gold, II, 263. French Camp, II, 223. French Canadians, in Mississippi River settlements, I, 90-92, 240-241 ; over- . land search for Western Sea by, I, 222-225; found living in Mandan villages by Lewis and Clark, I, 250- 251 ; as trappers in Missouri Valley, I, 302-303 ; number of, in California in 1841, II, 219. French Creoles in New Orleans (1799), II, 3 ; anti-American feeling among, II, 15-17. French Prairie, I, 276 ; II, 150. Fresno County, California, II, 295. Fretutn Anium, I, 7. Frijoles, sausages, I, 40. Frontenac, Count, I, 68. Fronter^, II, 246. Frost, J. H., II, 139. Fruit, on mission farms in California, I, 148 ; in Louisiana, II, 24 ; in Ar- kansas Valley, II, 30; in California, II, 91, 303-304. Fuca, Juan de, I, 7; strait of, I, 7, 206, 209, 210, 214, 215. Fur trade, Tonti cited on opportunity for, in Mississippi Valley, I, 70; beginnings and development of the Russian, on Pacific coast, I, 119, 196-202; American, with California 428 INDEX under Mexican rule, I, 162-163; stimulus to, resulting from Cook's discoveries, I, 209-210 ; English endeavors to carry on, on Pacific coast, I, 210-211; inland trade con- ducted by French at Montreal, I, 222, 224, 225; boatloads of furs, met by Lewis and Clark on Mis- souri River, I, 246-247; of North West Company in Minnesota, I, 284 ; attempted regulation of, by United States government in the Minnesota country, I, 285-288 ; continued exploitation of that of the Mississippi by North West Company, to 1815, I, 288; Spanish policy re- garding, in Louisiana Territory, I, 289-291; as conducted by British traders, I, 291-298 ; rivalry, open warfare, and consolidation of Hud- son's Bay Company and North West Company for, I, 292-298 ; the Ameri- can policy regarding the, I, 298- 299 ; richness of Louisiana Territory in furs, I, 300-301; St. Louis the primary market of the American, I, 301-302 ; Manuel Lisa's activities in the, I, 302-307; J. J. Astor's activities, I, 307-308; Astor's Pa- cific Fur Company and the Astoria venture, I, 308-332; North West and Hudson's Bay companies on Columbia River, I, 332-341 ; value of annual output of furs from Fort Vancouver, I, 337 ; demoralizing effect of War of 1812 on the American, I, 341-343; rivalry and vicissitudes of American companies, I, 343-347; activities of Astor's American Fur Company operating from St. Louis, I, 348-355 ; exhaustion of beaver and diminution of buffalo, I, 366- 368; the decline of the, I, 366-375; annual take of American Fur Com- pany, I, 368 ; fate of men engaged in, I, 370-375 ; with Santa F6, II, 75 ff. ; in New Mexico, II, 89, 90, 92; ex- tension of, into California, II, 207- 211 ; Sutter's venture in the, II, 216 ; withdrawal of Russian-American Fur Company from California, II, 222 ; Hudson's Bay Company closes up business at San Francisco Bay, II, 225. Gale, W. A., I, 163 ; II, 207. Gallatin River, I, 264, 279. Galvez, Jos6, reforms of, in Mexico, I, 118; colonizing expedition sent to California by, I, 120-124. Gamaland, fabled mid-Pacific continent, I, 193, 195. Qanado menor, small beasts of pasture, I, 64-65. Gang-ploughing, California, II, 300, 301. Gang-ploughs, manufacture of, II, 311, Garc6s, Francisco, I, 145-146, 147. Gardner, John, I, 354. Gasconnade River, II, 57. Gas3, Patrick, I, 239, 280; diary of, II, 114. Gates of the Rocky Mountains, I, 264. General Pike, first steamboat on upper Mississippi, II, 62. Genoa, Nevada, station at, II, 206. Gente de razon, people of reason in dis- tinction from the savages, I, 135, 156. Gentiles, wild Indians, I, 140, 148, 179. Gerga, a kind of coarse woollen cloth, I, 59. German Lutherans in Missouri, II, 36, 41-42. Germans, number of, in California in 1846, II, 241 ; as farmers in the Far West, II, 365. Gervais, Joseph, II, 136, 151. Giant Spring, I, 261. Gibbons Pass, I, 279. Gila River, II, 89, 90. Gila River route to California from Santa F6, II, 244. Gillespie, Lieutenant, II, 246. Gilroy's ranch, II, 232. Girardeau, Cape, II, 19. Glenn, Hugh, II, 76-78. Goats, introduction of, into New Mexico, 1,36. Gold, found near San Fernando, and early prophecies relating to, I, 185 ; benefits to Mormons at Great Salt Lake from discovery of, in California, II, 179-180 ; discovery of, at Sutter's Fort (1848), II, 255-256; effects of discovery, in America and Europe, II, 256-264 ; primitive methods of mining, II, 263-264 ; lack of regula- tion of claims, II, 266-267; location of the fields, II, 266-267 ; amount of production in 1848 and 1849, II, 268 ; estimate of average yield to each miner, II, 269-271, 284; ultimate destiny of that mined, II, 274-275; discovery of, a curse to country where found as well as to those who mine it, II, 275 ; advances in methods of mining, II, 279-280; code de- vised by men engaged in mining, II, 281-282; grand total of yield in California in different years, II, 284- 285; panic due to shrinkage in out- put, II, 286-287 ; production of, from , 1858 to 1S6S, II, 288; effect of dis- covery of, on transcontinental trans- portation question, II, 355-356. Gold Bluff fake, II, 273. Golden Hind, Drake's vessel, I, 12, 13. INDEX 429 Gomez, Franoiaoan missionary, I, 122. Gophers, aa a pest, II, 299. Gordon, free trapper, II, 151. Government stores opened by United States to help regulate fur trade, I, 299 ; attack on, by Benton, Astor, and others, I, 345-346; abolition of, I, 346; Benton quoted on struggle to secure abolition of, II, 70-71. Graham, Isaac, II, 218, 221, 241. Grama grass, II, 244. Grand Canon, discovery of, by Spanish, I, 20; crossing of, by Father Escal- lante, I, 145. Grand Prairie, II, 27. Grande Ronde, II, 143. Grape Creek, I, 46, 49. Grapes, cultivation of, proscribed by Spanish in New World, I, 4 ; in- troduced into New Mexico, I, 36 ; in Arkansas Valley, II, 30 ; in Cali- fornia, II, 303-304. Grappe, Francis, II, 8. Grasshoppers, plagues of, II, 89, 182, 299. Gratiot, C, I, 242. Gray, Joe, Iroquois Indian in Oregon, II, 145. Gray, Mr., missionary to Oregon country, II, 142. Gray, Robert, explorations of north- west coast and Columbia River by, I, 212-216; American title to Oregon country based on discoveries of, II, 114. Gray's Bay, I, 219. Great American Desert, I, 360 ; II, 170. Great Basin, trading parties in the (1826), I, 337; mentioned, II, 114; beginnings of irrigation in, II, 174. Great Falls, town of, I, 262. Great Falls of the Columbia, I, 270. Great Falls of the Missouri, I, 255, 261. Great Northern R. R., I, 262. Great Plains, march of Spanish gold- seekers across, I, 22-27; buJffalo on the, I, 300-301 ; attention of South- erners drawn to, as fresh soil for slavery, II, 331 ; reported by early explorers as unauited to settlement, II, 332-333 ; Indian reservations on, II, 333 ; report on, of commissioners of Kansas League of Cincinnati, II, 339-340. Great Raft of the Red River, II, 27, 61. Great Salt Lake, I, 357, 358, 360, 365 ; visitors to, previous to Mormons, II, 171 ; arrival of Mormons at, II, 173- 174 ; survey of, by Captain Stans- buiy, II, 194-195. Great Salt Lake Valley Carrying Com- pany, II, 180. Great Slave River, I, 229. Great "Valley, exploration and develop- ment of, by Peter Skeene Ogden, II, 210 ; Dr. John Marsh's ranch in, II, 214-215. Greeks, ships of Spanish navigated by, 1,3. Greeley, Horace, quoted, II, 362. Green River, I, 356, 357, 358, 365, 375; II, 121, 172. Greenwood, guide to California, II, 237. « Gregg, St. Louis trader, cited, I, 31; Commerce of the Prairiea by, quoted, I, 58-60; II, 81-82, 88; on destruc- tion of the buffalo, I, 301 ; reports Great Plains as unsuited to settle- ment, 11, 332. Griffin, La Salle's ship, I, 69. Grinder, frontier inn-keeper and aup- posed slayer of Meriwether Lewis, I, 283. Groseiller, Jean, explorations by, I, 222-223. Guadalupe River, II, 328. Guage, a kind of gourd, I, 62. Guerra, Pablo, II, 92. Gunnison, Lieutenant, The Monnons or Latter Day Saints, etc., by, II, 197 ; surveys of routes across Rockies by, II, 358, 359. Guzman, Nunez Beltran de, I, 8. Gwin, Senator, II, 252, 364. Habitants of Mississippi Valley villages, I, 90, 91, 241. 302; II, 27-28, 35. Haoeta, Bruno de, I, 206. Haciendas, farm-houses, I, 42. Hale, Edward Everett, II, 336. Hall, Tucker & Williams, firm of, 11, 119, 122. Halleck, General, II, 248. Ham's Fork, II, 122, 200. Hancock, hunter of the Illinois country, I, 280. Hancock Point, I, 215, 216. "Hand-cart brigades" of the Mor- mons, II, 183. Haney, Hugh, I, 252. Hanna, Captain James, I, 209. Harney Lake, I, 340. Hartnell, W. B. P., experience of, as visitador general of California mis- sions, I, 178-179 ; mentioned, II, 224. Harvey, Pruneau & Co., firm of, I, 372. Hastings, L. W., II, 232, 237; Guide by, II, 236. Hastings' Gut Off, II, 237. Bato, temporary sheepfold, I, 63. Hawaiians in California gold diggings, II, 262, 282, 283, 316, 317. Hawkins, Sir John, I, 12. 430 INDEX Head-right aystem of obtaining public lands, II, 72 ; II, 105. Heart River, I, 247. Helper, ex-gold-seeker, quoted, II, 289- 290. Hemp, in Arkansas Valley, II, 30; in Missouri, II, 49; growth of, in Kan- sas and Missouri, II, 340. Hennepin, Father, I, 225. Henry, Alexander, Journals of, I, 297 ; quoted, I, 332-333. Henry, Andrew, I, 307, 355, 356. Henry's Fork of Snake River, I, 307, 361. Herald of Freedom, the, II, 337. Herculaneum, Mo., II, 53, 55. Herrera, General, I, 111, 112. Herrera, Mexican insurgent and free- booter, I, 115-116. Hidalgo's insurrection, II, 75. Hides and tallow, trade in, with Cali- fornia under Mexican rule, I, 163, 164, 165, 167; produced by Cali- fornia missions at climax of their I prosperity, I, 175-176 ; remain the stable export of California during period of cattle kings, I, 186-187. Hiens, German buccaneer with La Salle, I, 76, 77. Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, quoted, II, 349. Hijar, Mexican officer, II, 218. Hijos del pais, sons of the country, I, 57, 189; II, 86. Hinckley, Captain, II, 207, 221, 241. Hittell, cited, II, 263, 265. Hock Farm, II, 292. Hogan, settler at Little Rock, II, 29. Hogs, at Fort Vancouver, I, 335; in interior of Louisiana, II, 26; in Texas, II, 103. HoUaday, Ben, II, 356, 357. Homestead Act, II, 293, 353, 361-365. Honey, in California, II, 305. \ Hood, Mt., named by Broughton, I, 219. Hood's Canal, II, 153. Horse-flesh used aa food by Lewis and Clark, I, 268, 278. Horses, brought by Spanish into New Mexico, I, 36 ; in Texas under the Spanish, I, 103-104 ; numbers of, raised at California missions, I, 175- 176 ; rapid multiplication of, during period of the cattle kings in Cali- fornia, I, 185 ; wealth of Shoshone Indians in, I, 266 ; at Fort Vancouver (1828), I, 335; brought into Oregon from California, II, 140 ; of the Mor- mons, II, 193; improvement of California breed by importing higher strains, II, 293, 294-295. Houston, Sam, II, 69. 100. Hubbard, Congressman, quoted, II, 363. Hubbard, Hawley & Co., firm of, I, 374. Hudson's Bay Company, I, 181, 188- 189 ; policy pursued by, in conduct- ing fur trade, I, 291-292 ; monopoly enjoyed by, broken by treaty of Paris, I, 292-293; rivalry of the North West Company, I, 292-298; con- solidation of the North West Company and, I, 298 ; success of, at Fort Van- couver on Columbia River, I, 334- 341 ; decrease in receipts of, from decline in fur trade, I, 369-370; hold kept on Oregon country by, II, 113-114; Hall J. Kelley's complaints against, II, 129-130; conservative policy of, toward the Indians, II, 148-149 ; trade with Russian settle- ments carried on by, II, 152; dis- approval of McLoughlin's encourage- ment of colonization of Oregon shown by, II, 160; officials of, in Oregon, take out citizens' papers, H, 164; withdrawal of, from Columbia River, II, 166 ; enterprises of, extended into California, II, 208, 210-211; fac- tories of, at Yerba Buena, San Jos6, and Monterey, II, 221, 222; declines Russians' offer to sell to it property at Bodega Bay, II, 222-223; closes business at San Francisco Bay, II, 225. Hudson's Bay trail from Oregon to California, II, 233. Hudspeth, II, 237. Humboldt, New Spain by, I, 50 ; cited, I, 147; quoted, I, 155-156. Humboldt River, I, 340; II, 237, 238; route by way of, to California, II, 237-239. Humphreys, Captain, 11, 13. Hunt, Wilson Price, in command of J. J. Astor's expedition to the Colum- bia River, I, 315-316; difficulties encountered by, in journey from St. Louis, I, 316-323 ; undertakes Alas- kan trading voyage, I, 324 ; on re- turn to Astoria finds North West Company in possession, I, 327-328; ill success of venture partly due to unfitness of, I, 330. Hunter, George, II, 8, 12. Huron Indians, I, 222. Hurt, Gariand, II, 203. Huso, primitive spindle, I, 59. Hydraulic mining, II, 279-280; injuri- ous effects of, on agriculture, II, 298- 299. Iberville, French explorer and colonizer, I. 81. Iberville, settlement of Acadians, II, 3-4. INDEX d31 Icy Cape, I, 209. Illinois, character of settlers in, in 1803, II, 5 ; emigrants from, to Oregon, II, 157. Illinois River, I, 69. Import duties, port of Monterey, 1, 167. Imports to Upper California, I, 167 ; to San Francisco, II, 289. Independence, Mo., point of departure of Santa F« traders, II, 83; Mor- mons driven from, II, 167. Ijidependence, steam tug, 11, 62. Indian reservations, II, 33, 71, 113, 333. Indian River, I, 257. Indians, subjugation of, by Spanish in Mexico, I, 6, 28-29; Spanish mis- sions to, I, 30-33 ; high qualities of, in New Mexico, I, 36; raids on Spanish by Apaches and Utes, I, 39 ; encounters of La Salle's force with, I, 72-73 ; ceremony of smoking of the calumet, I, 79; harsh treatment of neophytes at California missions, I, 149-155; condition of mission In- dians on secularization of missions, I, 174-176 ; wasteful destruction of, at period of cattle kings, I, 187- 189 (see Mission Indians) ; harsh treatment of Alaskan, by Russians, I, 198-200; efforts of Lewis and Clark to establish friendly relations with, I, 247 ; Lewis and Clark among the Shoshones, I, 265-267; attitude of, toward small fur traders in Louisi- ana Territory, I, 289-291 ; deteriora- tion of, due to methods of fur traders in the north country, I, 297; attack on ship Tonquin by Columbia River savages, I, 311; of Columbia and Willamette rivers show resentment toward white intruders, I, 332-333 ; influence of Dr. John MoLoughlin over, I, 338; hostility of the Plains Indians to American traders and trappers, I, 341-342; destruction of two trading parties by, I, 343; methods used with, by Western Department of American Fur Com- pany, I, 351 ; treachery of the Coast, to early white traders, I, 220-221; in Arkansas, II, 33-34; cession of territory between Missouri River and Rocky Mountains by, II, 71 ; dangers from, on Santa Ffi trail, II, 84-85; attitude of, toward American traders on the Columbia River, II, 126; fine qualities of the Flatheads, II, 133-134; Methodist, Presby- terian, and Catholic missionaries sent to, II, 134 £F. ; degeneration of, on Columbia River, II, 137-138; mas- sacre of missionaries by, II, W8; employment of, at Sutter's Fort, II, 216, 235; number in California in 1846, H 241; removal of, from Kansas, II, 335. See also names of tribes. Indigo, I, 84 ; II, 5, 24, 30. Intensive cultivation, development of, in California, II, 305-306. Intermittent fever among Indians along Columbia River, II, 138. Inyo County, Cal., lead from, II, 309. Iowa, opening up of, to settlement, II, 66-67; organized as territory in 1838 and becomes a state in 1846, II, 67 ; crisis in, II, 68-69. Irish, land grants to, in Texas, II, 96, 98, 105 ; settlement of California by, suggested, II, 224-225. Iron, at Cedar City, II, 188. Iron Mountain, II, 51. Irrigation, practised by Indians of New Mexico, I, 36 ; as practised in New Mexico in 1829, I, 61-62 ; by Spanish colonists in California, I, 136-137; by Mexicans in Sonora, II, 91 ; by Mormons, II, 173-174; in California previous to 1870, II, 297; beginning of modern era of, in California, II, 302-303 ; works toward reduction of farm acreage, II, 306. Irving, Astoria by, cited, I, 358 ; II, 161. Isaac Todd, North West Company supply ship, I, 326, 333. Isletta, II, 244. Italians, ships of Spanish navigated by, I, 3 ; among merchants trading with California, I, 186; number of, in California in 1846, II, 241. Iturbide, Agustin de, I, 117; II, 95. Iturrigaray, viceroy of Mexico, I, 111, 113. Izavial, town of, II, 8. Jackson, Andrew, 1, 110, 112 ; II, 69, 130. Jackson, David E., I, 356. James, chronicler of Long expedition, II, 40. Jay's treaty of 1794, I, 285. Jefferson, Thomas, I, 110; letter to George Rogers Clark, I, 231; favors Ledyard's exploring plans, I, 232 ; later exploring expeditions encotiraged and supported by, I, 234-236. JeSerson River, I, 264, 265, 266, 279. Jenny, American schooner, I, 219. Jerked meat, I, 45, 245, 262. Jesuits, missions founded by, in Lower California, I, 30; in Michigan and Minnesota, I, 222; missions of, to Flathead Indians, II, 146-147. Jewitt, J. R., I, 221 ; Narrative of, I, 277. John Day River, I, 340. Johnson, Andrew, II, 362. Johnson, Andrew, quoted, II, 363. 432 INDEX Johnson, General, in command against Mormona, II, ]91. Johnson's Pass, II, 239. Joint Occupation treaty, I, 332 ; II, 113. 116, 160, 161. Joint Resolution for annexation of Texas, II, 336. JoHet, Louis, I, 68. Jones, William Carey, II, 249. Joseph, Mt., I, 359. Joutel, lieutenant of La Salle, I, 72, 73, 74, 76-80. Juan de Fuca Strait, I, 7, 206, 209, 210; exploration of, by Boston ships, I, 2U, 215. Judith Basin, I, 344. K Kanakas, in California during gold craze, II, 262. 282, 283, 316, 317. Kansas, removal of Indians and open- ing of for settlement, II, 335 ; strug- gle between anti- and pro-slavery interests in, II, 335-347; the Waka- rusa War, II, 347 ff. ; rapid develop- ment of, under free labor system, II, 351-352; advantages of transcon- tinental railway to, II, 359. Kansas City, II, 337, 341-342. Kansas Crusade, the, II, 336 ff. Kansas Indians, I, 247; 11, 71. Kansas League of Cincinnati, II, 339. Kansas-Nebraska Bill, II, 334-335. Kansas River, I, 246 ; fur trade along the, I, 289-290 ; fertility of valley of, II, 333. Kaskaskia, I, 90; II, 75. Kaw Indians, I, 247. Kaw River, II, 338, 341, 343. Kearney, General, leads American army to Santa F6, II, 242-243 ; defeat of, at San Pascual, II, 247. Kelley, Hall J., II, 114 ; organizes American Society for Settlement of Oregon, II, 115 ; Manual of the Oregon Expedition by, II, 115, 116; letter of Wyeth's to, on emigration to Oregon, II, 124-125; adventures of, on trip from St. Louis to Columbia River via Mexico, II, 127-130; Memoir to Congress by, inveighing against Hudson's Bay Company, II, 129-130; visionary projects of, rela- tive to development of Oregon, II, 131-133 ; Geographical Sketch of Oregon by, II, 132; Lee's mention of, II, 139-140; mentioned, II, 162; dreams of railway across the Rocky Mountains, II, 353. Kelley, William, quoted, II, 269. Kendrick, Captain John, I, 212-214 ; American title to Oregon country based on discoveries of, II, 114. Kentuckians in Lewis and Clark ex- pedition, I, 238. Kentucky, pioneers from, in the Illinois country, II, 5, 29; in Missouri, II, 40; Texas compared with, for farm- ing, II, 103 ; emigrants from, to Ore- gon, II, 157 ; horses from, intro- duced into California, II, 293. Kern County, California, II, 295. Kern Lake, salt produced at, II, 311. Kern River, II, 266, 273. Kiamesha, II, 25. King, Butler. II, 268, 270, 281. King George's Sound, I, 208. King George's Sound Company, I, 209. Kino, Jesuit missionary, I, 30. Kiowa Indians, II, 66. Kite Indians, I, 247. Klackatuck Indians, I, 335. Klamath Lake, II, 246. Klamath River, I, 340 ; II, 266, 273. Knox, Attorney General, I, 234. Kodiak, Russian fur traders at, I, 199. Kolosh Indians, I, 200. Kooskooskee River, I, 268, 269. 278; II, 353. Kootenay Indians, I, 315. Kotzebue, Russian explorer, at Dolores mission, I, 153-154. Krusenstern, Count, I, 153 ; visit to San Francisco Bay in 1806, I, 158; cruise of, to Alaska in the Neva, I, 200. La Belle, La Salle's ship, I, 71, 72, 74, 75, 95. Labontfi, Louis, II, 151. Labor, results of the encomienda on the Indians, I, 28-29; conditions as to, in California in 1849 and afterward, II, 314-317; effect of Chinese, II, 317-319. See Wages. Labor, two hundred acres, II, 96. La Caiifornie, emigration company, 11, 263. UAimaUe, La Salle's ship, I, 71, 72, 74, 95. La Charette, I, 281. Laclede, French merchant, I, 89-92. Lac Moir, II, 10. Lady Washington, American ship on Pacific coast, I, 210-215. Lafayette Emigration Society, II, 344. La&tte, French pirate in Gulf of Mexico, I, 116. La Jeunesse, fur trader, I, 286. Lake of the Woods, I, 224. La Lande, creoIe trader, II, 75. Lallemand, Texas settler, I, 116. La Motte, French mineral expert in' Louisiana, I, 85. Land, variations in price of, in Sao INDEX 433 Francisco, 11, 278, 285; exhaustion of, in South under slavery, II, 331. Land bounties, as pay for Lewis and Claric's men, I, 238, 282 ; in Texas, II, 105 ; in the territories, to soldiers, II, 334. Land companies, Iowa Territory, II, 68 ; Texas, II, 108. Land grants, to grandees in New Spain. I, 5, 28 ; to settlers in Louisiana un- der the Spanish, I, 88-89; II, 16, 29, 38, 70 ; to Lewis and Clark's men, I, 238, 282 ; to war veterans, in Ar- kansas, II, 30-31; Thomas H. Ben- ton's work to change and improve system of, II, 71-73 ; by Mexicans to settlers in Texas, II, 94-98, 104- 106 ; to American settlers in Cali- fornia, I, 183 ; II, 240 ; trouble result- ing from Spanish, in California, II, 248-255 ; to transcontinental railways, II, 354, 360-361; the Homestead Act, II, 293, 353, 361-365. Land policy of United States govern- ment, II, 72-73. Land scrip, II, 105, 108. Land speculation, II, 31, 44-^6, 67, 68, 285. Langsdor£f, quoted and cited, I, 149, 153. 158, 199, 201-202. Lapage, voyageur, I, 257. La Paz, Spanish colonies at, I, 13, 119. La P^rouse, on Spanish missions in California, I, 148, 149-150, 156. Lark, Pacific Fur Company's supply ship, I, 328, 331. Larkin, T. O., II, 220, 236, 245 ; quoted on effects of discovery of gold in California, II. 256-258. La Roque, Joseph, I, 249, 252, 253, 325, 326. Larpenteur, Charles, Forty Years of a Pur Trader by, cited, I, 371 ; sketch of career of, I, 371-374. La Salle, exploration of Mississippi Val- ley by, I, 69-70 ; territory named Louisiana by, I, 70; expeditions of, to plant colony at mouth of Missis- sippi, I, 70-77 ; fate of, I, 77-81. Las Casitas Pass, I. 122. Las Mariposas land grant to Fr6mont, II, 268. Lassen's Meadows route to California, II, 234. Lasuen, Franciscan missionary in Cali- fornia, I, 151. Law, George, II. 262. Law, John, "Mississippi Scheme" of, I, 82, 87. Lawrence, Amos A., II, 336. Lawrence, Kas., II, 338, 343, 348. Leach Lake, I, 284. Lead, in Louisiana Territory, mined by French, I, 86; found in Missouri, I, VOL. II — 2f 244, 356 ; II, S. 51 ; mining and smelting of, II, 52-53 ; manufacture of, into shot, II, 53-55 ; in California, II, 309. Leavenworth, Colonel, I, 343. Leavenworth, Kas., II, 342. Lecuyer, Missoiu-i River explorer, I, 235. Ledyard, John, Cook's Last Voyage by, I, 211 ; exploring ambitions of, I, 231-234. Lee, Daniel, II, 128, 135, 155; Ten Years by, quoted, II, 138. 139-140. Lee, Jason, II, 128, 135, 155; Dr. White's views of, II, 140 ; letter addressed to House Committee by, quoted, II, 141, Leech Lake, I, 286-287. Le Joly, vessel in La Salle's fleet, I, 71, 72, 73. Ldia Byrd, American vessel roughly treated at San Diego (1803), I, 159- 160. Le Mine River, II, 37. Lemhi Creek, I, 265. Lemhi Pass, I, 265, 267. Levees, of Mississippi River, II, 20-21 ; along California rivers, II, 298. Lewis, Meriwether, overland exploring expedition to the Columbia River and Pacific Coast headed by, I, 235-282; subsequent career of, I, 282-283. Lewis and Clark, expedition of, I, 235- 282 ; publication of Journals of, II, 114 : Summary Statement of ins- tances compiled by, H, 353. Lewis River. I, 265. Lincoln, Abraham, II, 197, 351, 365. Lingot d'Or, emigration company, II, 263. Linn, Senator L. F., II, 163, 164. Liotot, surgeon with La Salle, I, 76, 77. Lipan Apache Indians, I, 102, Liquors, opposition of American Fur Company to, I, 347; Hudson's Bay Company's policy concerning, II, 149 ; scarcity and deamess of, among Mormons, II, 196, 198. Lisa, Manuel, I, 290. 303-307; schemes of, against Pacific Fur Company- party, I, 318-319. Little Falls, I, 283. Little Manito Rocks, II, 38. Little Missouri River, I, 257. Little Prairie, II, 4, 27. Little Rook. II, 29. Little Sioux River. I, 373. Livermore, member of Wyeth expedi- tion, II, 120. Livingston, Robert R., I, 94. Llama, Hudson's Bay Company vessel, IL 126. Llanos estacados, "staked plains," I, 6, 22 ; II. 97, 102. Lock, Michael, I, 7. 434 INDEX Lockhart, salt-manufacturer, II, 56. Locusts, plague of, in Utah, II, 178-179. Logan, Benjamin, II, 89. Lolo Pass, I. 268, 279. London, trading and mining companies chartered in, II, 263. Long, James, expedition of, into Texas, I, 116-U7. Long, Major Stephen H., T, 342-343; steamboats used by, I, 350 ; Journal of, cited, II, 38; Great Plains re- ported by, as unauited to settlement, II, 332. Loreto, monastic community at, T, 119; made capital of Lower California, I, 141. Loriot, Slacum's ship, II, 140. ■ Los Angeles, founding of Spanish colony at, I, 137-138; insurrections against Mexican government at, I, 171 ; first commercial vineyard at, II, 213 ; commerce at, in hands of others than Spanish, II, 220; pools of asphalt at, II, 220, 289; cultivation of grapes about, II, 304 ; salt works at, II, 311. Louisiana Territory, discovery and naming of, I, 66-70; La Salle's ill- fated attempts to explore and colo- nize, I, 70-81 ; later French expedi- tions to and settlements Id, I, 81 ff. ; cotton, silk, maize, and other indus- tries introduced into, I, 84-85; ces- sion of, to Spain, I, 88; French vil- lages or communes in, I, 90-91 ; slight development of, under Spanish dominion, I, 92-93 ; throttling of American trade at New Orleans, I, 93 ; restoration of, to France and acquisition by United States, I, 94 ; the Lewis and Clark exploring ex- pedition, I, 236, 240 ff. ; formal transfer of Upper Louisiana to United States (1804), I, 240-241; position of the fur trade and traders in, under Spanish regime, I, 289-291 ; richness of, in furs, I, 300-301 ; population and resources of, at time of acquisi- tion by United States, II, 3 £F. Louisiana, state of, proportion of colored to white population in, in 1850, II, 324; disadvantages of slavery to, II, 325-328 ; wasteful methods of rais- ing cotton in, II, 326. Lucier, free trapper, II, 151. Lumbering, California, II, 309. Lupton, post trader, I, 374. Lydia, Boston ship in Columbia River, I, 277. M McCracken, North West Company, offi- cial I, 251. McDougal, guide to California, II, 237. McDougall, Duncan, I, 309, 312, 314, 315, 324, 325, 329, 333. McGillis, Hugh, I, 286-287. M'Gillivray, "William, I, 314. McGloin, settler in Texas, II, 98. McKay, Alexander, I, 309, 310, 311, 330 ; II, 149. Mackay, James, I, 235; II, 135, 143, 210. Mackenzie, Alexander, explorations by, I, 229-230 ; transcontinental fur trade projected by, I, 295. Mackenzie, Charles, quoted, I, 252. Mackenzie, Donald, I, 316, 324. 329, 334. Mackenzie, Kenneth, I, 349, 353, 371. Mackinac, I, 288. Mackinaw boats, I, 302. Mackinaw Fur Company, I, 308. McKinney, Thomas L., I, 346. MeKnight, trader, II, 76, 78, 92. McLellan, frontiersman with W. P. Hunt's party, I, 316, 321. McLennan, Donald, II, 312. McLeod, Hudson's Bay Company trap- per in California, II, 143, 208, 210. McLoughlin, Dr. John, I, 334, 336, 338; hospitality of, to Jedediah Smith's party, I, 361 ; hospitality of, to N. J. Wyeth, II, 120; treatment of Hall J. Kelley by, II, 128-130; Narrative of, II, 130, 161 ; welcome extended to missionaries by, II, 135-136, 144 ; conversion of, to Catholicism, II, 146; work of, as a colonizer, II, 148- 154 ; wife of, II, 149 ; encourage- ment given by, to American emi- grants, II, 159 ; ingratitude of many emigrants to, II, 159-160; sum- moned to London and resigns post, II, 160-161 ; takes oath to support provisional government established by American settlers, II, 163 ; takes out citizenship papers, II, 164; bad treatment of, by Americans and United States government, II, 165- 166 ; Boston philanthropists in Kan- sas compared to, II, 343. McMillan, trading-post factor, I, 315. McMullen, Texas settler, II, 98, 105. McMuIlen, Virginia Congressman, II, 363. McNamara, suggestion by, of trans- ferring Irish peasantry to California, II, 224-225. McTavish, J. G., I, 325, 326. Madison, President, I, 115, 331. Madison River, I, 264. Magdalena Bay, I, 9. Magee expedition against Texas, I, 114-115. Maize, growth of and trade in by French in Louisiana, I, 84-85; raised by Mormons, II, 193. INDEX 435 Maklot, Jean, II, 53. Malacate^ primitive New Mexican spin- dle, I, 59, 100. Malaria, in Texas lowlands, II, 102. Malgares, Lieutenant, I, 45, 51-52. Malheur and Pitt River trail, II, 234. Malheur Lake, I, 340. Malheur River, II, 231. Manada, stud of horses, II, 293. Mandan Indians, I, 223, 224, 235, 247, 280, 281, 296, 307; II, 63; Lewis and Clark's force winter among the, I, 247-255. Manganese, in Missouri, II, 51. Manila; Spanish government established at, I. 11. Manteca, butter, I, 167. Manti, II, 188, 206. Manufactures, proscribed by Spanish in New Worid, I, 4 ; in New Mexico in 1812, I, 56 ; primitive condition of, in New Mexico in eariy 19th century, I, 58-60; of eariy Missouri. II, 50; at St. Louis, II, 65 ; beginning of, in Texas, II, 101 ; of flour, soap, and wool attempted by Span^h in Cali- fornia, I, 140 ; development of, in Oregon, II, 164-165 ; of the Mormons, II. 180-181 ; established by Ameri- cans in California, II, 219-221. 241 ; pressure of need of articles and of the Civil War compels Califomians to engage in, II, 307—308 ; varieties of, in California, II, 308-313. Marais des Cygnes, I, 299. Maramee River, II, 57. Maria's River. I, 260, 279, 280, 349. - Mariposa River, gold diggings on, II, 267, 268, 283; Fremont's floating grant located on, II, 268. Marmaduke, Colonel, II, 79. Marquette, P6re, explorations by, I, 68. Marsh, Dr. John, II, 214 ; ranch of, in the Great Valley of California, II, 214-215 ; Eastern attention attracted to California by letters of, II, 228; reception of Missoxiri emigrants by, II, 228-229. Marshall, discoverer of gold in Cali- fornia, II, 256. Marshall, Chief Justice, I, 113. Martin Chuzzlewit, mentioned, II, 31. Martin de Aguiiar, bay of, I, 14. Martinez, Cal., orange orchards at, II, 303. Martinez, Spanish explorer, I, 210-211. Maryland, American ship at Columbia River. II, 126. Marysville, Cal., II, 292. Mason, commissioner of Kanssis League, II. 339-343. Mason, General, II, 205. Mason, Governor, quoted. II, 258, 259. 266-267. Matanza, wholesale slaughter of cattle, I, 176. Mauvaises Terres, (Bad Lands). II, 41. Maxent, Laclede & Co., I, 89, 289. Maximilien, Prince of Wied, I, 355, 368. May Dacre, N. J. Wyeth's supply ship, II. 122-123, 126. 136. Meares, Captain Robert, I, 210, 213. Meat packing, California, II, 311. Medicine River, I, 279. Meek, Joseph, I, 151, 371. Meigs, Henry, II, 286. Melons, in New Mexicot I, 99 ; in Loui- siana, II, 24; in California, II, 303; experiments in making sugar from; II, 313. Mendocino, Cape, 1, 10, 12, 206. 208, 212. Mendoza, Spanish viceroy, I, 8, 9-12, 15 ff. Menzies, Cape, I, 230. Merced County, California, II, 295. Merced River, I, 359. Mercury, American vessel seized by Spanish in California, I, 160. Meriwether, Daniel, II, 76. Meriwether's Bay, I, 272. Mesas, level and elevated plains, I, 43. Mescal, a liquor distilled from the cen- tury plant, I. 139. Mesquite bean, I, 146; II, 245. Mesquite grass, Texas, II, 102. Mestizos, half breeds of Spanish and Indians, I, 28, 29, 39, 58, 66, 137, 155. Metates, stones for grinding corn, 1, 100, 149. 187. Methodists, history of mission of, in Oregon country, II, 134-141 ; mill site at Willamette Falls claimed by, TI, 164-165. Meti/s, half-breeds of French and In- dians, II, 29. Mexican Association of New Orleans, I, 110. Mexican War, Mormon Battalion in, II, 204-205, 245 ; declaration of the, II, 242. Mexicans, merchants' dealings with, in Santa F6 trade, II, 85-86 ; land grants to, in Texas, II, 96, 98 ; driven out from California gold diggings, II. 282-283. Mexico. Pike's observations in, I, 50- 55 ; the war for independence, I, 58 ; inauguration of republic in (1824), I, 117; jealousy displayed by, against Americans in California, II, 217-218; attempts of, to colonize California, II, 218-219 ; yields New Mexico and California to United States, II, 241- 248. Michaux, Andr^, I, 234. Michillimackinac, I, 92, 222. Milk River, I, 257-258; II, 63. Miller, Henry, II, 292-293. 436 INDEX Miller, Joaquin, II, 258. i Miller, Joseph, I, 316, 324. Miller's Point, II, 315. Mills, Robert, II, 353. Milner's End of Controversy, II, 146. Mine h Burton, II, 51, 55. Mine h Martin, II, 51. Mine ^ Robin, II, 51. Mineral resources, prediction concern- ing California's, I, 185-186; of Mis- souri Territory, II, 51-53. Mining, investigation of posajbilitiea of, by French in Mississippi Valley, I, 85-86 ; primitive methods of, in California gold diggings, II, 263- 264; improved methods of, II, 279- 280. Mining claims, II, 266-267, 281-282. Mining rights, II. 281-282. Minnesota, North West Fur Company in possession of, I, 284. Minnesota River, I, 226. Minnetaree Indians. I, 253, 263, 265, 266, 280, 281, 307. Misery Bottom, Mormon halting-place, II, 170. Missionaries, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Catholic, in Oregon, II, 134-148, 155. Missionary Herald, Whitman's articles in, II, 155. Mission Indians, in Texas, I, 99, 101- 102; at California missions, I, 119, 122, 135, 139-140, 148-156, 173, 174-176; II, 92, 241; eventual fate of, I, 187-189. See under Missions. Mission Mills, blankets made at, II, 312. Missions, Jesuit and Dominican, in Lower California, I, 30 ; Franciscan, in New Mexico, Texas, and Upper California, I, 30; Franciscan, in Texas, I, 95-98 ; Franciscan, in Upper California, I, 119 ff. ; founding of San Carlos, San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, San Luis Obispo, and San Antonio de Padua, I, 124; others founded in California, I, 125, 131 ; industrial interests in California hindered by, I, 142 ; the only flour- ishing enterprises in California, and reasons for success, I, 145 fF. ; zeal of Franciscans in seeking converts and fresh fields of labor, I, 145-148; among the Moqui and Yuma In- dians, I, 146-147 ; most profitable field for, among Coast Indians of California, I, 147-148; nine founded by Junlpero Serra along the Camino Real, I. 148 ; labor on farms, I, 148- 149 ; harsh treatment of Indian neophytes at, I, 149-155; effect of regime, on population and coloniza- tion, I, 155-156 ; secularization of, I, 172-183; poor success of efforts to emancipate mission In- dians, I, 173 ; Governor Figueroa*s plan for helping emancipated neo- phjrtes, I, 174-175; wealth of, in 1833, I, 175-176; systematic looting of, upon secularization, I, 176-178 ; ruin of, consummated under politi- cal control, I, 179-183; of Jesuits in region drained by St. Lawrence River, I, 222; J. O. Pattie's visit to Cali- fornia missions, II, 92-93 ; of Jesuits, to Flathead Indians, II, ^55. Mississippi River, called El Espiritu Santo by the Spaniards, I, 26 ; De Soto crosses the, I, 26-27; rumors of. reach France (1637, 1670), I, 67- 68 ; French exploration of, I, 68-70 ; Radisson and Groseiller's explora- tions lead them to, I, 223 ; Carver's theory concerning, I, 227, 229; Pike's expedition to the sources of, I, 283-288; supreme importance of, to people of Louisiana, II, 18-21 ; character of stream, II, 19; banks of, II, 20 ; great importance of, as means of transportation for pioneer settlers, II, 57-58 ; improvement of naviga- tion on, by Congressional appropria- tion, II, 61 ; difficulties of navigation of the upper Mississippi, II, 61-62. Mississippi Scheme, Law's, I, 82-87. Mississippi Valley, slaves in, in 1850, II, 324. Missouri Compromise, II, 66, 334. Missouri Fur Company, I, 306-307 ; jealousy of, displayed toward Astor'a Pacific Fur Company, I, 318 ; efforts of, to control upper Missouri thwarted by Indians, I, 344. Missouri River, exploration of, by Bourgmont, I, 86 ; Radisson and Groseiller's trip on, I, 223; La Veren- derye's expedition as far as, I, 224 ; projected but futile expeditions by Americans for exploration of, I, 234- 235 ; Lewis and Clark's expedition up the, I, 241 ff. ; description of, I, 245-246; the fur traders' high- way, I, 246-247 ; Great Falls of the, I, 261 ; fur trade along the, under the Spanish, I, 289-291 ; hostilities be- tween Americans and Indiana on (1815-1819), I, 341-343; first steam- boats on upper waters and tributaries of, I, 350 ; settlers and settlements on the, II, 35 S. ; first steamboat on, II, 39; improvement of navigation on, II, 61 ; difficulties of steamboat navigation on, II, 62-63. Missouri Territory, II, 27 ff. ; growth in population (1821), II, 38-39; immigration into, II, 39-43 ; land speculation in. II, 31, 44-46; calami- tous effects of crisis of 1819 in, II, INDEX 437 45-46 ; conditiona of pioneer farmer in, described, II, 46-48; water- transportation routes in, II, 56-58; rapidly growing population of, II, 65; statehood ambitions, II, 65-66; proportion of colored to white popu- lation in 1850, II, 324. Misaourians, in the Willamette Valley, II, 156 ; attention of, attracted to California, II, 228 ; emigration of, to California, II, 228-230, 239-240, 262; descMption of, II, 230-231; squatters from, in Kansas, II, 342, 345; the "border ruffians," II, 346. Mofras. See De Mofras. Mohave Indians, I, 34; II, 87, 213. Molasses, value of annual export of, from Louisiana (1803), II, 5. Monjas, female quarters, I, 151. Monterey, discovery and naming of, I, 10, 14 ; Costanaia at, I, 123 ; Car- mel mission at, I, 148, 152 ; custom- house opened by Mexican governor at, I, 163 ; mercantile house opened at, by Boston firm, I, 163 ; use of, by Mexico as a penal colony, I, 169- 170 ; insurrections against Mexican government at, 1, 171 ; foreign popula- tion of, in 1841, II, 219; American flag raised at, II, 247. Montezuma, I, 3, Montreal, rivalry between Scotch mer- chants of, and Hudson's Bay Com- pany, I, 292-293. Moquelumne River, II, 267. Moqui Indians, I, 38, 146. Moraga, Josd, I, 130-131. Morfi. See De Morfi. Mormon Diggings, II, 259. MoTTnon Expositor^ quoted, II, 202. Mormons, motives of, in migrating, II, 167; emigration of, to Great Salt Lake, II, 168-174 ; numbers of men, women, children, and livestock in "first emigration," II, 174; first days at Great Salt Lake, II, 176- 179; advantages to, of discovery of gold in California, II, 179-180; manufactures of, II, 180-181 ; stream of immigrants to join, II, 182—184 ; admirable emigration system of, II, 183-185; prosperity of in 1850, II, 188-189; confiiot of, with Federal govenunent, II, 189-192; accounts of, by army officers and travellers, II, 192-193; California ventures of, II, 203-204, 205-206; battalion of, in Mexican War, II, 204-205, 245; comparison of emigrants to Kansas ajid, II, 343; appreciation by, of benefits from transcontinental rail- way, II, 360. Morris, Robert, I, 232. Morrison, William, II, 75. Morse, Congressman, quoted, II, 362. Mosquitoes, Captain Clark's account of, I, 245. Mulberry trees, Missouri, I, 244 ; Cali- fornia, II, 304. Mules, in California, II, 293. MuUan, Lieutenant, II, 358. Multnomah Indians, II, 138. Multnomah River (Willamette), I, 277-278. Murderers' Bay, I, 213. Musooso, Spanish explorer, I, 27. Muskrat skins, I, 368. Mussel Shell Creek, I, 257. N Nacogdoches, I, 97, 103, 107, 111, 113, 116, 117; II, 98. Nadowa River, I, 317. Napa Valley, II, 214, 239. Nashville, Mo., II, 38. Natchez, as a cotton market, II, 24. Natchitoches, I, 80, 98, 102, 107, 111, 112, 115; early contraband trade at, I, 105 ; government trading station at, I, 299 ; French at, II, 4, 8 ; Dr. Sibley's description of, II, 11 ; trade from, and character as a frontier town, II, 25. Natchitoches Trace, II, 95. National Post Road, opening of the, II, 66-67. Naturalization law of 1828 enacted by Mexico, II, 217. "Naudoweses of the Plains," Carver's, I, 226. Nauvoo, Mormons at, II, 167-168. Navajo blankets, I, 44. Navajo Indians, II, 242. Naval stores, I, 70, 87. Navigation Act, Mexican, I, 167-168. Nebraska, II, 333-334; advantages to, of transcontinental railway, II, 359. Nelson River, I, 293. Neophytes, Indian, at California mis- sions, I, 119, 122, 135, 139-140, 148- 156, 173, 174-176; vaccination of, by J. O. Pattie, II, 92; number of, remaining in California as "domesti- cated Indians" in 1846, II, 241. See under Missions. Neutral Ground, the, I, 112, 114. Neutral Ground Convention, the, I, 112-113. Neutral post, Nootka, I, 211. N&oa, Krusenstern's ship, I, 200. Nevada, mining in (1859), II, 287. New Albion, I, 12. New Almaden, II, 289. New Archangel, I, 200, 337. New England Emigrant Aid Society, II, 336, 338, 343, 349. New Englanders, on northwest coast, I, 212-216 ; among emigrants to the 438 INDEX West, II, 41 ; on slavery question in Missouri, H, 65-66 ; activities of, in the "Kansas Crusade," II, 335-352. New Helvetia, Sutter's settlement, II, 215, 226, 227, 251, 255. New Madrid, II, 4, 28 ; description of river traffic at, II, 58-59. Newman, John, I, 243. New Mexico, Spanish exploration and colonization of, I, 30-44; naming of, by Antonio Espejo, I, 31 ; slight effect of Spanish conquest on Indians in, I, 36; good qualities of Indians of, I, 36-37 ; Lieutenant Pike in, I, 48-55 ; state of manufactures, commerce, and agriculture in, in 1812, I, 55-66; raids into, by western Indians, I, 65; rSsumfi of industries of, II, 58-60; the Santa F6 trade, II, 75-88; im- portance of information concerning, gained by Santa F6 traders, II, 88- 93 ; condition of, at time of Mexican War, II, 242-243; capitulation of, to General Kearney, II, 243-244; formal cession of, to United States, II, 247, New Orleans, settlement so named by Bienville, I, 82-83 ; account of colony at, I, 83-84; population of, about 1799, II, 3 ; customs revenues at, II, 14 ; description of, II, 14-15 ; description of in 1822, by Timothy Flint. II, 21-24. New Orleans, early steamboat, II, 59- 60. Newspapers, editorials in, in behalf of "Kansas Crusade," II, 336. New York City, emigrant aid company organized in, II, 336. New York Tribune, quoted, II, 362. Nez Percys Indians, I, 267, 269, 334; II, 144. Niagara Falls, Carver's visit to, I, 225, 226. Nicollet, Jean, I, 67. Niobrara River, I, 235. Nitric acid, manufacture of, in Cali- fornia, II. 309. Nizza, Marco de, Spanish friar and explorer, I, 16-19. Nol^n, Philip, in Texas, I, 107. Nootka Convention of 1790, I, 211, 216, 222. Nootka Sound, discovery of, I, 206. Norfolk Soimd, discovery of, by Rus- sians, I, 196. Northerners, attempt to place lim,ita- tions on slavery in Missouri, II, 65- 66 ; opposition of, to annexation of Texas, II, 108 ; emigration of, to Kansas, II, 335-343 ; victory of, in carrying the Homestead Act, II, 361-365. North Platte River, I, 356, 362. Northwest America, the, I, 213. Northwest coast. Russian explorers and adventurers on, I, 193-204 ; Spanish explorations of. I, 204-207; English explorers on, I, 207-211 ; American traders and explorers on, 1, 211—221; remains a no-man's-land, I, 221. See Columbia River and Oregon. North West Company, I, 229, 251, 284; attempted regulation of, by Lieu- tenant Pike, I, 286-287; continued exploitation of fur trade of the Missis- sippi by, to 1815. I, 288; origins of the, I, 292-294; rapid growth in extent and power of, I, 294-295; important trading posts of, I, 295 ; in conflict with Hudson's Bay Com- pany on north and United States government on south, I, 295-296 ; faults and bad methods of, I, 296- 297 ; warfare of, with Hudson's Bay Company, ends in consolidation of the two into a new Hudson's Bay Company, I, 297-298; watch kept on Astor's Pacific Fur Company by, I, 313-314; War of 1812 made use of by, to secure for itself Astoria, I, 325-328 ; undistinguished career of, on Columbia River, I, 332-334, "Northwest currency," I, 294. Northwest Passage, prize offered by British government for discovery of, I, 229. Norwegians, converts among, to Mor- mon faith, II, 186. Nueces River, II, 98, 102. Nuestra Sefiora de los Angeles, founding of piteblo of, I, 137. Nutria, colloquial Mexican for "beaver,'' II, 212. Nuttall. Thomas, I, 355; cited, II, 27-32, 128; at Fort Vancouver, 11, 128. Oahee, American ship at Columbia River (1829), II, 126. Oakland, Cal., cotton factory at, II, 312-313. Oats, in Missouri, II, 49; in California, II, 294, 299. 300; in Kansas. II, 340, O'Cain, Boston fur trader, I, 201. O'Fallou, Benjamin, I, 345, 355. Ogden, Peter Skeene, I. 339-341, 357; II, 210. Ogden, Utah, II, 203 ; meeting of Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways at. II, 360. Ogden River, I. 340; II, 171. Ogden'3 Hole, I, 357. Ohio and Mississippi Ry., failure of, II, 286. Ohioans on the Missouri, observations of, on slavery, II, 331. INDEX 439 Okanagan, I, 336. Okanagan River, I, 315. Olhres, cultivation of, proscribed by Spanish in New World, I, 4. Olive trees at missions in California. I, 148, 175. Olmsted, Frederick Law, observations on slavery and conditions in South quoted, II, 324-330. Omaha, point of departure of trans- continental railway, II, 359. Ofiate, Don Juan de, I, 31-34. Open port, Monterey as an, I, 163 ; II, 226. Open ports, Spanish, I, 5 ; in California (1829), I, 164. Oranges, in Louisiana, II, 24; in Cali- fornia, II, 303. Ordway, Lewis and Clark man, I, 239, 280. Oregon, early reports of richness of, II, 113 ; hold kept on, by Hudson's Bay Company, II, 113-114; attention of Americans attracted to, II, 114; Hall J. Eelley and the American Society for the Settlement of Oregon Terri- tory, II, 114-118; N. J. Wyeth'a fruitless projects concerning, II, 118-125; Kelley's adventurous trip to, II, 127-130; Methodist, Presby- terian, and Catholic missionaries in, II, 134-148 ; cattle brought into, from California, II, 140; colonisation of Willamette Valley by old Hudson's Bay Company men and free trappers, II, 149—154 ; American emigration to, II, 154-161; recall of Dr. Mc- Loughlin owing to his policy toward emigrants to, II, 160-161 ; Congres- sional intervention in, II, 161-162; provisional government organized for, by American settlers (1843), II, 163; number of Americans in, in 1845, II, 163 ; acquisition of, by United States, II, 164 ; exploitation of, by Americans, II, 164-166 ; emigrants from, to California, II, 232-234. See also Columbia River. Oregon City, II, 165. Oregon Land Bill, II, 165-166. Oregon River, I, 226, 227. Oregon Trail, I, 331 ; II, 154-159 ; num- bers of emigrants on, from 1842 to 1845, II, 163. O'Reilly, Governor, administration of Louisiana by, I, 88-89. Osage Indians, II, 34; cession of terri- tory by, to United States, II, 71; on Santa F£ trail, II, 81. Osage orange, the, II, 339. Osage River, I, 246, II, 57; fur trade along the, I, 289, 290. Otter, American vessel visiting Cali- fornia porta, I, 159. Otter skin trade with California under Mexican rule, I, 163. Otters, induBtry of catching, developed by Russians on northwest coast, I, 196-202; in Bodega Bay, I, 202; exhaustion of, in Alaskan and Califoi^ nian waters, I, 204. Ouichita, French at, II, 4. "Ouisconsing" River, I, 223. Overland Mail Company, II, 357. Owen's Lake, II, 232. Owens Peak, II, 231-232. Ox-carts, New Mexico, I, 53, 59-60, 61. Oxen, on Santa F6 trail, II, 84 ; in Cali- fornia, II, 293. Ozark Indians, II, 11. Pacific Fur Company, organized and capitalized by J. J. Astor, I, 309 ; ill- fated venture of, at Astoria, I, 309- 332. Pacific Mail Steamship Company, II, 290. Padres, Mexican officer, II, 218. Page & Bacon, firm of, II, 286. Pah Ute Indians, I, 359, 365. Palmer, quoted, II, 165. Pambrun, trader at Fort Walla Walla, II, 144. Pami Indians, II, 10. Panama Railway, completion of, II, 290. Panama route to California, II, 262. Panics. See Crisis. Paris, emigrating companies formed in, II, 263. Parker, Samuel, II, 142. Parker, Theodore, II, 336. Pasture land, I, 136, 174. Pattie, J. O., I, 60-61 ; II, 89-93, 208 ; the Journal of (1831), II, 93. Pattie, Sylvester, II, 89-93, 208. Pawnee Indians, I, 45, 235 ; along Santa F€ Trail, II, 81. Pawnee Rock, I, 45. Paysan, town of, II, 206. Peace River, I, 229. Peaches, in Arkansas Valley, II, 30; in California, II, 303. Pears, California, II, 303. Pecannerie, settlement on Arkansas River, II, 29-30. Pedler, sliip chartered by Pacific Fur Company, I, 328. Pelton, Archibald, I, 322. Peltry, annual value of production ac- cording to Accouvi of Louisiana (1803), II, 5. See Fur trade. Pend d'Oreilles Indians, II, 147. Pennsylvania Canal and Portage Rail- way, II, 66. 440 INDEX Pehol, fortress, I, 33. Peonage, under Spaniards in New World, 1,5; system of the encomienda leads to, I, 144. Perez, Spanish explorer, I, 204. Perkins, Thomas, II, 139. Perpetual Emigration Fund, II, 182, 200, 201. Pests. See Grasshoppers, Locusts, Squir- rels, etc. Petaluma Valley, II, 214, 239. Peter the Great, Czar, I, 193. Petite Cote (St. Charles), II, 35-36. Petite Prairie, II, 4. Philip II of Spain, I, 30, 106. Philippine "Islands, conquest of, by Spain, I, 11 ; Drake's voyage to, I, 13. Pico, Pio, I, 179 ; as governor con- summates destruction of California missions, I, 183 ; favors American settlement in California, II, 240 ; flees from California to Mexico on conquest of country by United States, II, 247. Pierce, Franklin, II, 335, 345, 346. Pierre's Hole, I, 362, 363; II, 120, 146. Pike, Zebulon M., expedition of, to find source of Red River, I, 44-55; quoted on capturing of wild horses in Texas, I, 103-104 ; on revolution- ary spirit in Mexico, I, 108-109 ; expedition of, to the sources of the Mississippi, I, 283-288; expedition to Santa Fd, and publication of Jour- nal (1806) and Dissertation on Louisi- ana (1808), II, 75; reports Great Plains to be unsuited to settlement, II, 332. Pike's Peak, discovery of, I, 46. Pilcher, Indian agent, II, 116. Pilcher, Joshua, I, 343. Pima Indiana, I, 34. Pino, Don Pedro, I, 55. PiiUms, pine nuts, I, 20. Pioneers, in the Illinois country, II, 5, 29; in Missouri (1836), II, 46; in Texas, II, 96. Pious Fund, mission endowment, I, 125 ; transference of, to republican treasury (1829) , I, 172. Pirates, Mississippi River, I, 92 ; colonies of, on Gulf of Mexico, I, 115-116. Pitt River, II, 231. Placer mining, II, 263-264. Plague on Pacific coast, II, 123-124. See Smallpox. Plan of Freedom, Thayer's, II, 336. Platte River, I, 235, 246, 343; II, 12, 39, 171. Platte Valley, II, 340. Plough lands, I, 133, 134, 136, 174. Plums, in Arkansas Valley, II, 30; in California, II, 303. Plymouth Roek, steamer, II, 338. Poblador, citizen, I, 135, 136. Point Conception, I, 10, 14. Point Coup6e, Acadians at, II, 4. Point Labadie, II, 36. Point Labos, II, 290. Police of Slaves, II, 18. Polk, James K., II, 109, 164, 204, 242, 245. Pomeroy, Samuel C, II, 337. Ponchos, loose cloaks for horsemen, I, 56. Ponchartrain, Lake, I, 89. Pony Express, the, II, 356. Poor Camp, Mormon halting-place, II, 170. Popular sovereignty, in Kanaas, II, 335-347 ; repudiation of theory of, by pro-slavery interests, II, 350. Porciuncula River, I, 122, 137. Port Neuf River, II, 135. Portage des Sioux, I, 90 ; II, 35. Portals, Spanish governor in Californian expedition, I, 120-124. Portilla, Commissioner, I, 177. Portland, Captain, I, 209. Portland, Ore., Captain Clark at later site of, I, 277. Portuguese, ships of Spanish navigated by, I, 3, 9. Post aux Arkansas, French at, II, 4. See Arkansas Post. Potatoes, grown by Mormons, II, 193 ; in Kansas, II, 340. Poteau River, II, 30. Pottawatomie outrages, II, 348—349. Powder works, Santa Cruz, II, 308. Prairie du Chien, I, 229, 283, 288; II, 63, 215. Prairie fires, II, 339. Prairie land along Arkansas River, II, 27. See Great Plains. Prat, Pedro, I, 120. Pratt, Orson, II, 172-173. Pratte, Bernard, II, 79. Pratte & Co., firm of, I, 348-349. Precious metals, the curse accompany- ing discovery of, II, 275. Preemption Law, II, 340, 341, 363. Preemption rights, II, 31. Preeraptioner's league, II, 252. Presbyterians, missionaries of, in the Oregon country, II, 142-146, 148. Presidios, seats of government, I, 97, 98, 99, 103, 105, 117, 121, 124 125, 126, 127, 130, 132, 133, 156, 158, 171. Prevost, J. P., I, 331. Prince of Wales, Cape, I, 209. Prince Rupert's Land, I, 291. Propria, common field set aside for the public sowing, I, 136-137. Provo, town of, II, 206. Provo Canon, II, 203. Provo Manufacturing Company, II, 182. Provo River, I, 359. Provost, Efienne, I, 349, 356, 358-359. INDEX 441 Pryor, Lewis and Clark man, I, 239. Public lands, government policy as to, II, 71-73. Pueblo, town, I, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 142, 146, 147. Pueblo de tos Canoas, Cabrillo's, I, 10. Pueblo Indians, I, 30-31 ; II, 243. Pueblo lands, I, 35, 40, 98, 135-143, 146-147, 174-183. 184; II, 250. Pueblos of Zufii Indians, I, 19. Puget Sound, exploration of, by Captain Gray, I, 215. Puget Sound Agricultural Association, II, 150. Purcell, Indian trader, II, 75. Putchas, Samuel, I, 8. Quapaw Indians, II, 33. Quarter-section grants of land, II, 117, 361-365. Quartz mining, II, 280. Querecho Indians, I, 23, 24. Quicksilver, production of. in California, II, 288-289. Quicksilver mining, II, 279. Quindaro, Kas., II, 349-350. Quivira, I, 22, 33, 34. R Raccoon, British war vessel on Pacific coast, I, 333. Kace antagonism in New Orleans (1822), II, 22. Radisson, Pierre, explorations by, I, 222-223 ; Journal of, I, 223. Rae, William, II, 221, 225. _, Railways, impetus to emigration from^ building of, II, 66-67 ; transcontinen- ' tal, II, 185, 314, 353, 358-361. Rainier, Mt., named by Broughton, I, 219 ; seen by Lewis and Clark party, I, 277. Raleigh, Walter, I, 8. Ramon, Domingo, I, 96. Rancherias, Indian Settlements I, 34. Rancheros, ranchmen, I, 43, 56, 63, 103- 104, 183-189 ; II, 25, 219, 240, 253, 254, 292, 293, 307 ; in early Texas, I, 103-104 ; heyday of, in California, I, 183-189. Ranching, in Texas, II, 103; in New Mexico, II, 242. Ranches, stock farms, I, 39, 63, 140. Ranches del Rey, government farms, I, 140, 157, 180, 181. Rapide, village of, II, 4, 8. Raton Pass, II, 243. Ravalli, Father, II, 147. Real, equivalent of shilling, I, 43. Red River, Pike's search for source of, I, 44-55 ; French villages on, II, 4 ; exploration of, by Dr. John Sibley, II, 7-11 ; expedition up the, in 1806, II, 13-14; improvement of navigation on, II, 61. Red River of the North, I, 227, 345; struggle between Hudson's Bay Com- pany and the North West Company for possession of, I, 297-298. Reducidos, domesticated Indians, 1, 101. Redwood trees, California, I, 185; II, 310. Reed, Moses B., I, 243. Reed-Donner company, tragedy of the, II, 237. Reeder, Governor, II, 346. Remy , Jules, description of the Mormons by, II, 197-199 ; description of Hmn- boldt River route across Sierras, II, 238-239. Renault, Philip, I, 85-86. Resanoff, Count de, I, 200. Resolution, Cook's ship, I, 207, 208. Ricara Indians, I, 248. Rice, II, 7, 24, 30. Richardson, William A., I, 166; II, 221. Ricos, rich men (New Mexico), I, 64. Rio del Norte, I, 20, 22. Rio Grande, I, 145 ; II, 102. Rio Grande Company, II, 104-105. Rio Grande del Norte, I, 48. Rivera y Moncada, I, 126, 132 ; murder of, I, 146-147. Rivers, barriers rather than highways to the Spanish, I, 27 ; importance of, to pioneers as a means of transportation, II, 57-58. Rivet, Franpois, II, 151. Rivet, Louis, I, 276. Robidoux, Santa Fi trader, II, 228. Robinson, Alfred, II, 207. Robinson, Charles, II, 337, 345, 347, 348, 349. Rochejaune River, I, 257. See Yellow- stone River. Rocker mining, II, 279. Rocky Mountain Fur Company, I, 355-366 ; II, 121 ; driven from field by American Fur Company, I, 364 ; permanent achievements of, in ex- ploring new country, I, 365-366. Rocky Mountain House, post of North West Company, I, 295. Rocky Mountains, called the "Shining Mountains" by Indians, I, 226, 229, 236; first glimpse of, by Meriwether Lewis, I, 259 ; routes across, II, 156— 158, 356-359. Rogers, Colonel, I, 227. Rogers, Woodes, I, 118. Rogue River, I, 361 ; II, 232. Roosevelt, Nicholas, II, 59-60. Ropewalks, San Francisco, II, 309. Rose, Edward, I, 320. Ross, Alexander, I, 310, 313, 315, 329, 334 ; quoted on chances of success in the im trade, I, 370. 442 INDEX Rotation of crops, neglect of, in Cali- fornia, II. 301, 302. Round Prairie, II, 203. Routes, opening of trans-AUeghany, II, 66-67; to Oregon, II, 156-158; followed by emigrants to California, II, 229-230, 233-235, 237-239; of overland stage-coaches, II, 355-356 ; survey of, for transcontinental railway, II, 356-359. Rover^ Boston ship to visit California (1823), I, 162. Ruiz, Augustin, Franciscan missionary, 1,30. Russell, Majors, and Waddell, II, 355, 357. Russian-American Fur Company, I, 200-204,^ 337 ; exhaustion of otters causes withdrawal of, I. 204 ; II, 222. Russians, explorations of, I, 119, 193- 196 ; attempts of, to trade with Spanish at San Francisco Bay (1806), I, 158-159; wise treatment of California Indians by, I, 189 ; ex- ploitation of fur trade by, I, 196-201 ; extend trade to California, I, 201- 204 ; trade of Hudson's Bay Com- pany with, from Fort Vancouver, II, 152. Rye, in Missouri, II, 49. Sacajawea, I, 264, 281. Sac Indians, I, 341. Sacramento, orange orchards at, II, 303 ; subscribes to stock of Central Pacific Ry., II, 360. Sacramento River, gold diggings on, II. 258-259. Sacramento Valley, trading parties sent to (1829), I, 337; discovery of gold in. II, 179. Sacred Heart, mission of the, among Cceur d'Aldne Indians, II, 147. Sage-brush, material for honey in, II, 305. Sage Plains, II, 231. St. Andr6, village of, II, 4, 5. St. Anthony. Falls of, I, 225, 283; II, 63. St. Charles, village of, I, 90; II, 4; Lewis and Clark expedition at, I, 242 ; as described by Lewis and Clark, II, 35-36. St. Denis, Louis J., leads expedition into Texas, I, 96. Ste. Genevieve, settlement at, II, 4, 51. St. Elias, Mt., named by Russians, I, 195; sighted by Spanish exploring expedition, I, 207; sighted by Gap- tain Cook, I. 208. St. Ferdinand, village of, I, 90. St. FranQoia, vessel in La Salle's fleet, I, 71, 95. St. Francis River, I, 225 ; II, 27, 57. St. Helens, Mt., named by Broughton, I, 219 ; sighted by Lewis and Clark, I, 270, 277. St. Ignatius, mission of, among Pend d'Oreilles Indians, II, 147. St. Joseph, Mo., II, 215; mail-coaches to Salt Lake from, II, 355. St. Lawrence Island, I, 194. St. Lawrence River, Carver's theory concerning source of, I, 227. St. Louis, founding of, I, 89 ; growth of, I, 91-92 ; ceremony of transfer of Upper Louisiana to United States at, I, 240-241 ; return of Lewis and Clark to, I, 281-282; the fur trade and traders centring at, I, 300-307; traders and trappers at, I, 302-303; demoralizing effect of War of 1812 on fur trade of, I, 341 ; organization of Western Department of American Fur Company to centre at, I, 348-349 ; American Fur Company succeeds to fur trade of, I, 350-355 ; population of, in 1799, II, 5; first steamboat from below to arrive at, II, 62 growing importance of, as a central point of overland traffic, II, 63-65: population of, in 1820 and 1830, II 64 ; description of the growing town, II, 64-65; importance of Santa F6 trade to, II, 82-88 ; receiving station at, for Kansas emigrants, II, 337; benefits to, of transcontinental rail- way, II, 359. St. Louis Bay, I, 75, 80. ^H, Mary's, mission of, in Bitter I(oot Valley, II, 147. St. Paul, ship in Behring's expedition, I, 195, 196. St. Peter, ship in Bebring'a expedition, I, 195, 196. St. Peter's River, I, 284. St. Pierre (the Minnesota) River, I, 226. St. Xavier's, Jesuit mission station at, I, 222. Salcedo, General, I, 53-55, 107, 113. Salinas River, I, 123. Salinas River placers, II, 266. Saline Fork of Le Mine River, II, 56. SaUne Isinds, disposition of, by govern- ment, II, 72-73. Salmon, in California, I, 130 ; Columbia River, I, 270; Wyeth's experience in curing, II, 123. Salmon River, I, 268, 279. Salt, manufacture of, on Red River, I, 87 ; II, 10 ; in Missouri, II, 37-38, 55-56 ; Thomas H. Benton's campaign against monopolies created by Federal leases, II, 73 ; government protection INDEX 443 of industry, by import duties, II, 73-74; produced by the MormonB, II, 180-181 ; at San Francisco Bay, II. 289; in California, II, 311. Salt Lake. See Great Salt Lake. Salt Lake City, laying out of, II, 176- 177; population of, in 1848, II, 178 ; description of, by a "forty- niner," II, 192-194 ; population in 1859, II, 203 ; mail-coaches from St. Joseph to, II, 355. Salt River, II, 41, 56. Salteo, Captain, I, 49. Saltpetre, in. Missomi Territory, II, 51. Salvatierra, Jesuit missionary, I, 30. San Antonio, early Franciscan missions at, I, 100, 101, 148; mentioned, I, 115; II, 94, 95. San Antonio, vessel in Spanish ex- pedition to California, I, 121. San Antonio de Padua mission, I, 124. San Antonio River, I, 15. San Antonio Road, II, 95, 97, 328. San Bernardino, II, 206. San Buenaventura, mission of, I, 148. San Carlos, vessel in Spanish expedition to California, I, 121, 126. San Carlos mission, I, 124, 14S. San Diego, discovery of harbor of, by Cabrillo, I, 9-10 ; named by Vizcaino, I, 14 ; Spanish colonizing expedition at, I, 121-122 ; mission of, founded, I, 148 ; Jedediah Smith's trip to, I, 359 ; American and English mer- cantile establishments at, II, 220. Sandwich Islands, discovered and named by Captain Cook, I, 207. Sandy Lake, I, 284. 286. San Felipe de Austin, II, 97. San Fernando, I, 98, 102, 122. San Fernando de Taos, II, 87. San Fernando River placers, II, 266. San Francisco, name of settlement changed to, from Yerba Buena (1847) , II, 276 ; growth in population to fifty thousand, II, 277; rapid advance of, II, 277-278; viewed as the creation of the gold craze, II, 278 ; disastrous effect on, of financial depression following shrinkage in gold production, II, 285-287; bank- ruptcies in, in 1854 and 1855, II, 286-287 ; trade openings of, II, 289- 291 ; development of manufactm-es in, II, 308, 309, 313 ; labor conditions in, after 1849, II, 315-316; wages in, after 1849, II, 317; mail-coach line to, II. 355-356; subscriptions by. to stock of Central Pacific Ry.. II, 360. San Francisco Bay, first exploration and survey of, I, 125, 126 ; ex- ploration of shores of, by Anza, I, 130-131 ; Vancouver's admiration of. 157-158; visits of English and Rus- sians to, I, 157-159; first American vessels in, I, 159-160; first whaling ve^la in, I, 165; Beechey's de- scription of, I, 166 ; beaver taken on shores of, II, 210 ; American farmers settled about, in 1845, II, 239-240; reclamation of tide lands about, II, 306; productionof salt by solar evapo- ration on, II, 311. San Francisco de Dolores, mission of, founded, I, 148; plight of Indian neophytes at, in 1795, I, 151. San Francisco Solano, I, 202. San Francisquito, II, 220, 256. San Gabriel, mission of, I, 124, 148; prosperity and wealth of mission at, in 1833, I, 176; Jedediah Smith's trip to, I, 359. San Gabriel Valley, irrigation in, II, 302-303. Sangre de Cristo range, I, 46, 48. Sangre de Cristo River, II, 78. San Jacinto, battle of, II, 100. San Joaquin and King's River Canal and Irrigation Company, II, 302-303. San Joaquin River, I, 125. San Joaquin Valley, I, 359 ; II, 292. San Jos6, foreign business men at, II, 221. San Josfi de Guadalupe, colony at, I, 133; ill success of, I, 138. San Juan Capistrano, mission of, I, 124, 148. San Lorenzo Bay (Nootka Sound), I. 206. San Lucas, Cape, I, 9. San Luis Obispo, mission of, I, 124, 148; ruin wrought at, upon secularization of the missions, I, 180-181. San Luis Rey, prosperity and wealth of mission at, in 1833, I, 176. San Miguel Island, I, 10. San Pascual, defeat of General Kearney at, II, 247. San Patricio, McMuIlen's Irish colony at, II, 98, 105, San Pedro, defeat of Americans by Mexican force at, II, 247. San Pete Valley, II, 187. San Rafael, I. 202. San Roc, I, 210. San Sebastian River, I, 202. Santa Anna, General. II, 88 ; measures taken by, against American settlers in Texas, II, 99; defeat of, at San Jacinto, II, 100 ; prohibits American immigration to California, II, 232; attempts of, to exclude American settlers from California, II, 240-241. Santa Barbara, use of, by Mexicans, as a penal colony, I, 169-170 ; foreign- ers in control of business at, II, 220 ; salt works at, II, 311. 444 INDEX Santa Barbara Canal, I, 10, 14, 122. Santa Barbara Islands, II, 212. Santa Catalina, I, 122. Santa Clara, mission of, I, 148. Santa Clara River, I, 122. Santa Clara Valley. II, 276. Santa Cruz, Spanish colonists at (1535), I, 9 ; early importance of, I, 56 ; powder works at, II, 308; brick- making at, II, 309-310. Santa F6, I, 37-38 ; annual caravan from, I, 44 ; Pike's description of, I, 50-51 ; early importance of, I, 56 ; population in 1812, I, 56; first Americana to penetrate to, II, 75-76 ; openings of trade to, by Americans, II, 75-76; opening of route between California and, II, 211-214. Santa F6 trade, II, 75-93 ; profits from, II, 86, 88 ; Santa Anna's em.bargo on (1843), II, 88 ; importance of information about north Meidcan states gained by, II, 88-93. Santa F6 Trail, march of Coronado over route of, I, 24 ; origins of, II, 79-88; Federal survey of, II, 80; danger from Indian attacks, II, 80- 82 ; description of an expedition over, II, 82-87. Santa Lucia range, I, 14. Santa Rita copper mines, II, 90, 92. Santa Rosa, I, 202. Sardines, ao-called, in California rivers, I, 130. Sarria, Father, I, 180. Saskatchewan River and Valley, I, 225, 296. Sauk Rapids, I, 284. Sault Ste. Marie, Jesuit mission station at, I, 222. Sausalito, port of, I, 165. Sawmills, in Missouri, II, 50 ; in Oregon, II, 164-165 ; the Mormons', II, 177-178; in California, II, 309. Scandinavians, converts to Mormon- ism found among, II, 185, 186 ; emigration of, to California upon dis- covery of gold, II, 263 ; as farmers in the Far West, II, 365. Schoolcraft, quoted, II, 31-33, 41 ; on waste of mineral resources of Missouri, II, 52 ; on shot-manu- facturing process, II, 53-55 ; on a water route from Missouri to New York, II, 57 ; on the river steam- boats, II, 60, 61 ; mentioned, II, 214. Schools, in California under the Spanish, I, 139; at Fort Vancouver, I, 338; established by m-issionaries among Indians in Oregon country, II, 136, 138. Scotch, represented in the fur trade by the North West Company, I, 292-298 ; land grants to, in Texas, II, 96, 98 ; converts among, to the Mormon faith, II, 185-186. Scotch-Irish as pioneers, II, 40-41. Scott, Winfield, II, 242. Scrofula among Indians along Columbia River, II, 138. Scurvy, among Spanish crews, I, 14 ; sufferings of Russian explorers from, I, 195. Sea-beaver, I, 196. Sea-otter, I, 119, 168, 193-204; II, 212. Seedskeedee River, II, 151. Sego lily, roots of, as food, II, 179. Selkirk, Lord. I, 298. Serapes, blankets for use as cloaks, I, 56, 59. Sericulture, an early trial of, in Louisi- ana Territory, I, 84 ; in California, II, 304. Serra, Father Junlpero, I, 120, 121, 124, 125; death of, I, 147; plans of, for Indian converts not carried out by successors, I, 154. Settlers' party, the, II, 252. Seven Cities of Cibola, I, 15-27. Sevier Lake, I, 357, 365. Sevier River, I, 145; II, 206. Seyd, cited, II, 286. Shaler, Captain, I, 160. Shannon, George, I, 238, 245. Shannon, Governor, II, 346, 348. Shasta, Mt., I, 340; II, 266. Shasta River, I, 340, 361. Shave rush, as fodder, II, 30. Shaw, William, quoted, II, 315, 316. Shawnee Mission, II, 156. Sheep, raising of, in New Mexico, I, 36, 62-65 ; at missions in California, I, 148, 175-176 ; of the Mormons, II, 193, 196; progress in raising, in California, II, 296-297. Shelikoff, Russian fur-trade exploiter, I, 200. Shelvocke, George, I, 118. Shepherd, Cyrus, II, 128, 135. Shields, John, I, 239, 250, 261. "Shining Mountains," the, I, 226, 229, 236. Shipbuilding, at Sitka, I, 203; Cali- fornia, II, 310-311. Shoes, manufactured by the Mormons, II, 180. Shoshone Indians, I, 263, 264, 265-267; W. P. Hunt's party among the, I, 321-322; dangers to California emi- grants from, II, 238. Shot, manufacture of, II, 53-55. Shot-towers, the first, in Missouri Territory, II, 53-55; starting of, in California, II, 309. Shreve, Captain Henry M., II, 61. Shreveport, II, 8, 61. Sibley, Dr. John, quoted, II, 6-7 ; exploration of Red River by, II| INDEX 445 7-11 ; Indian agent at Natchitoches, II, 13. Sierra Nevada Mountains, Jedediah Smith creases, I, 359-360; emigrant routes across, II, 233-239, 246-247. "Silent tax," levied by middlemen on gold miners, II, 274. Silk, experiments in producing, I, 84 ; II, 304. Silver, reports of, at head waters of Arkansas River, II, 12 ; in Missouri Territory, II, 51 ; discovery of Comstock Lode, II, 88. Simpson, Captain, quoted and cited, II, 202-203, 358 Simpson, Sir George, I, 165; quoted and cited, I. 181-183, 184-185, 188- 189, 370; II, 221, 222; criticism of Methodist missionaries in Oregon by, II, 141-142 ; on McLoughlin's scheme of colonization in the Wil- lamette Valley, II, 153-154; urges acquisition of California by the British, II, 223-224; Voyage Round the World, by, II, 224. Sinclair, California ranchman, II, 235, 259. "Sinks," the morasses of the Humboldt River, II, 231, 233. Sioux Indians, the scourge of agricul- tural tribes, I, 247; designs of, against fur traders, I, 305. Siskiyou Pass, I, 361. Sitio, square league of land, II, 96. Sitka, hesidquarters of Russian fur trade, I, 199, 200, 203 ; Spanish explorera at, I, 206 ; transference of Russians from California to, II, 222. SkUIoot Indians. I, 270, 271. Slacum, Lieutenant, II, 130, 136, 140. Slavery, reduction of Indians to, by the encomienda, I, 28; Indians in New Mexico reduced to, I, 40-44 ; of Indiana in California under the friars, I, 148-151 (see Mission Indians) ; reduction of Aleutian Islanders to, by Russian fur adventurers, I, 198- 200 ; question of, in Missouri, II, 65-66; Senator Benton's favorable views concerning, II, 74 ; measures pertaining to, in Texas under the Mexicans, II, 98, 99 ; accepted as a fundamental institution in indepen- dent Texas, II, 107-108; excluded from Oregon, II, 164; exclusion of from state of California, II, 247-248 ; curse of, to states where permitted, II, 323-331 ; recognition by Southern- ers of defects of, and proposed solu- tion by obtaining fresh territory to take slaves into, II, 331 ; question of introducing, into the territories, II, 334-335; emigration of promoters of, to Kansas, II, 342. 344-3:3; final exclusion of, from Kansas, II, 350-351. Slaves, brought to Louisiana from San Domingo and Cuba, I, 86, 87; in St. Louis, in 1799, II, 5 ; brought up Red River to exploit salt industry, II, 10 ; white, in lodges of Comanche Indians, II, 13 ; increased demand for, on acquisition of Louisiana by United States, II, 17; traffic in, dur- ing last ten years of Spanish occupa- tion of Louisiana, II, 17-18 ; im- portation of, from 1S03 to 1809, II, IS ; revolt of, in 1811, II, 18 ; numbers and value of, on Louisiana plantations, II, 20 ; Timothy Flint cited on neces- sity for, in Louisiana (1823), II, 24- 25 ; exclusion of, in Louisiana Terri- tory north of thirty-sixth parallel, II, 66 ; proportion of, to white popu- lation in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri (1850), II, 324; ex- penses attached to maintaining force of, II, 326-328 ; fundamental difficulty with, their lack of interest in their work, II, 330-331. Slidell, John, II, 245. Sloat, Admiral. II, 246-247. Slocum, Lieutenant, I, 203. Smallpox, epidem.ic of 1838 among mis- sion Indians, I, 188 ; traces of epi- demic of 1782 found by Lewis and Clark in Mandan Villages, I, 247; epidemics of, among Clatsop Indians, I, 273 ; among Western tribes in 1781, I, 293; extinction of Red River Indians by, II, 13 ; reminders of epidemic noted by N. J. Wyeth, II, 123-124. Smelting works, San Francisco, II, 308. Smet, Father de, I, 372; II. 146-147. Smith, A. B., I, 374. Smith, Captain, of ship Albatross, I, 160. Smith. Jedediah S., I, 356. 358, 359; Western explorations of, I, 359-362 ; account of murder^of, by Indians, II, 81-82; at Salt Lake, II, 171; trap- ping expedition of, in California, II, 208. Smith, Joseph, II, 168, 197. Smith, Lot, II, 191. Smith. Stephen, II, 219, 241. Smith, Sublette & Jackson, firm of, II, 213. Smithton, Mo., II. 38. Smoked salmon, I. 267, 312; II, 119. Smoking the calumet, ceremony of, I, 79, 96. Snake (Shoshone) Indians, I. 263, 264, 265-267. Snake River, I, 268, 269, 357, 365; II, 114, 116, 143, 151. Snake River Desert, I, 321; II, 156. 446 INDEX Snooka and Stokes, English mercantile house at San Diego, 11, 220. Soda springs, Utah, 11, 181. Sola. Governor, I, 160, 161. Sombreros, broad-brimmed hats, I, 59. Sonoma, orange orchards at, II, 303. Sonora, American traders to, II, 87; description of, by J. O. Pattie, II, 90-91. Sonora Pasa.'ll, 228, 359. Souris River, I, 224, 373. South Americans, expulsion of, from California gold diggings, II, 282-283. Southerners, as pioneers, II, 5, 29, 40 ; majority of settlers in Texas composed of, II, 107; in favor of annexing Texas, II, 108 ; recognition by, of defects of slave labor, II, 331 ; their solution, new territory to take slaves into, II, 331 ; in Kansas, II, 342, 344- 345. South Pass, I, 356, 362, 365; II, 116; description of, by Fremont, II, 359. South Platte River, I, 357, 374. Spalding, Mr. and Mrs., missionaries to Oregon country, II, 142, 144. Spanish, a maritime people, but not navigators, I, 3; preference of, for terra firma, I, 3-4 ; short-sighted commercial policy of, I, 4-5 ; practice of granting great estates to grandees, I, 5; non-economic quality of those who migrated to New Spain, I, 6 ; ex- plorations of Pacific coast by, I, 7- 15 ; expeditions into interior in search of Seven Cities of Cibola, I, 15-27; conversion of Indians under- taken by missionaries, I, 29-30 ; abuses practised by, in New Mexico, I, 40-44; cession of Louisiana to, I, 88 ; slight development of Louisiana under, I, 92-93 ; restore Louisiana to French, I, 94 ; fail to reap profits from California trade, I, 186 ; theirs the pastoral age in California, I, 187 ; policy of, regarding the fur trade in Louisiana Territory, I, 289-291 ; anti- American feeling among, in Louisiana, II, 16-17; number in California in 1846, II, 241; New Mexico and California taken from, II, 241-248; despoliation of, in California, II, 253- 255. Spanish Fork, II, 203. Spanish Illinois, II, 4. Spanish Trail to California, II, 229, 244. Sparks, Captain, II, 13. Spear, Nathan, II, 207, 227, 237. Specie Circular, the, II, 68. Speculation, in "Western lands, II, 31, 44-46, 67, 68 ; in mining stock, in California, II, 301 ; in wheat in California, II, 301. Spence, David, II, 220. Spice Islands, I, 8, 9. Spokane House, I, 295, 315, 325, 336, 361. Spokane Indiana, II, 133. Spokane River, I, 295. Spreckels, Claus, III, 313. Springville, Utah Territory, II, 203, 206. ScLUELshes, California, II, 303. Squatters, in Arkansas, II, 29 ; in Missouri, II, 39-40; looting of Fort Vancouver by, II, 166 ; from Missouri, settle north of San Francisco Bay, II, 239-240 ; views of, on land grant question in California, II, 249-250; measures taken by, to secure good land, II, 251-252; from Missouri in Kansas. II, 342, 345. Squirrels, as a pest to wheat-growers, II, 299. Stage-coach lines, II, 355-357. Stages, manufacture of, in California, II, 311. "Staked plains," I, 6, 22; 11, 97. 102, 331. Stakes, Mormon, II, 187-188, 203, 206. Stanislaus River, II, 266, 283. Stanislaus Valley, II, 228. Stansbury, Captain Howard, quoted, I, 367 ; experience among Mormons, II, 194-197; mentioned, II, 359. Stations along Oregon Trail urged by Dr. Whitman, II, 158. Steamboat, the first, on the Missouri River, II, 39. Steamboats, introduction of, into upper Missouri fur trade, I, 350; at New Orleans in 1820, II, 22-23 ; Mississippi and coast trade by means of, II, 23 ; significance of, to westward move- ment of population, II, 59 ; descrip- tion of the first, II, 59-60; charges for freight and passengers on, II, 60-61 ; difficulties of navigation on upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers, II, 61-63 ; increase in traffic on, II, 63 ; establishment of regular line to Fort Snelling (1825), II, 67; on Rio Grande, II, 104-105 ; on Missouri River in 1854, II, 341 ; Boynton and Mason's description, II, 341. Steamships, between San Francisco and Panama, II, 290; building of, in California, II, 310. Stearns. Abel, II, 207, 217, 220. Stillman, W. G., II, 272. Stinking Water, I, 264-265. Stockton, Commodore, II, 247. Storrs, Augustus, II, 79, 80. Stuart, Captain, English traveller, II, 135. Stuart, David, I. 309, 315, 323, 329. Stuart, Robert, I. 309, 349. Sublette, Milton G., I, 356, 362, 368; II, 120, 121, 122. INDEX 447 Sublette, WiUiam L., I, 356, 362, 364r- 365, 368; II. 119. Sugar, cultivation of, in Louisiana, I, 89; in Texas, I, 99-100; II, 101; value of annual export of, from Louiai- ana Territory (1803), II, 5; Sibley quoted on production of (1803), II, 6 ; production of, in Louisiana (1823), II, 23; made from beets by the Mormons, II, 181 ; comparative advantages of Cuba and * Louisiana for production of, II, 325-326; conditions relative to, in Louisi- ana in 1854, II, 326. Sugar-beets, raised by Mormons, II, 181 ; in California, II, 303. Sugar Creek, Mormon camp at, II, 169. Sugar re&ning, San Francisco, II, 313. Sulpbur, mining of, in California, II, 308- 309. Sulpburic acid, manufacture of, in Cali- fornia, II, 309. Sultana, supply ship of Wyeth'a Oregon expedition, II, 120. Sunol & Co., firm of, II, 259. Sun River, I, 373. Sutter, John A., II, 205 ; colony started by, in the Great Valley, II, 215-216 ; purchases movable property of Russian-American Fur Company, II, 223 ; strategic position of fort of, II, 226 ; right of, to grant of land dis- puted by squatters. II, 250, 251-252 ; continues farming after gold dis- covery, II, 259 ; money made by, spent in defending title to his land, II, 275; misfortunes of latter days of, II, 291-292 ; mentioned, II, 299. Sutter's Fort, II, 215-216, 223, 233; Fremont at, II, 235; discovery of gold at, II, 255-256 ; conditions at, after gold discovery, II, 258. Sweet potatoes in Louisiana, II, 24. Sweetwater River, I, 331. Swine, at Fort Vancouver (1828), I, 335. Table Mountain, II, 266. Tan-yards, in Missouri, II, 50. Taos, old-time Spanish-Indian market, II, 75, 76, 77, 79. Tariff, protective, on salt, II, 73-74 ; the Civil War, II, 313; a protective, necessary for profitable production of salt in Louisiana, II, 325. Taylor, Bayard, II, 272. Taylor, Zachary, II, 242. Teha Indians, I, 67. Tehatchepi Pass, I, 359. Tejas Indians, I, 95, 96. Temperance society, Oregon, II, 139. Tennessee, pioneers from, in the Illinois country, II, 5; in Missouri, II, 29, 38, 40 ; emigrants from, to Oregon, II, 157. Texas, attempts at colonizing, by French and by Spanish, I, 96 fE. ; population of, in 1778, I, 102-103; the coming of the Americans into, I, 106 £f. ; Philip Nolan's unfortunate expedition into, and fate of survivors, I, 107-108 ; Burr's projects in, I, 109-110, II, 17; General Wilkinson's questionable be- havior in matter of, 111-114; Lieu- tenant Magee's expedition, I, 1 14- 115; becomes a no man's land, I, 115-116 ; various expeditions against, I, 116-117; on inauguration of a republic in Mexico, is united with Coahuila as a federal state, I, 117; by treaty of 1819 United States surrenders claims to, II, 94 ; Stephen Austin's land grant and colony in, II, 95-96 ; grants to various adven- turers in, II, 96-98 ; population in 1830, II, 98 ; alarm of Mexican gov- ernment excited and restrictions and regulations made concerning, II, 98-99 ; conflict between Americans and Mexican government in, II, 99 ; becomes an independent state, II, 99-100; Don Juan Almonte's re- flections concerning, II, 100-101 ; prospects for emigrants and settlers in, in ranching and farming, II, 102- 104 ; handicap of insecure land titles, II, 104-105 ; numerous difficulties of, as an autonomous government, II, 106-107 ; slavery accepted as a fundamental institution in, II, 107- 108 ; annexation of, to United States, II, 108-109 ; proportion of colored to white population in 1850, II, 324 ; Olmsted's description of the road to (1854), II, 328; conditions in, in 1854, II, 329-330. Thayer, Eli, II, 335, 336. Thirty Years' View, Benton's, II, 74. Thomas Perkins, American ship at Columbia River, II, 126. Thompson, David, I, 296, 313-314. Thompson, Waddy, II, 232. Thorn, Captain Jonathan, I, 309-311, 330. Three Buttes, II, 246. Three Forks of the Missouri, I, 264; Henry's fortified post at the, I, 307; mentioned, I, 344. Three Peaks, II, 251. Three Tetons, I, 320, 340. Tillage in California, ■ II, 297-301. Tillage lands, California colonies, I, 133. 136. 174. Tillamook Bay, I, 213. Timber, waste of, in Missouri Territory, II, 48, 50. 448 INDEX Timm, Indian name for Great Falls of Columbia, I, 270. Timpanago Indiana, I, 145. Tiquex, I, 20, 21, 24. Tobacco, cultivation of, in New Mexico, I, 36 ; New Mexico's exclusive privi- lege of growing (1812), I, 56; along Red River, II, 7, 10 ; in Arkansas Valley, II, 30; in Missouri, II, 49; in Texas, II, 101 ; failure of, as a California crop, II, 305. Tonnage duties imposed by Mexican government, I, 166, 167, 168. Tonquin, Pacific Fur Company's ill- fated ship, I, 309-311, 331. Tonti, Henri de, I, 70, 80 ; account of agricultural, mining, and industrial posaibilitiea of Mississippi Valley by, I, 70 ; human relica of expedition of, in 1819, II, 29. Topeka, Kas., II, 343; free-state con- vention at, II, 347. Topeka Constitution, II, 347, 348. Tortillas, pancakes, I, 20, 40. Townsend, J. K., II, 122, 128. Trail Creek, I, 265. Trails. See Oregon Trail, Santa F4 Trail, etc. Also Routes. Transportation, necessity of, to pioneer industries, II, 56 ; importance of rivers for, II, 57; place occupied by Mississippi River as a means of, II, 57-58 ; new means of, for emi- grants by opening of Erie Canal, Pennsylvania Canal and Portage Rail- way, Baltimore and Ohio Canal, and National Post Road, II, 66-67 ; to Kan- sas, II, 341-342 ; transcontinental, II. 353-361. Trappers, I, 294, 302-303, 352-354, 362, 365, 371; II, 126, 150-151. Trapping, first white man to engage in, in Missouri Valley, I, 257. See under Fur trade. Travellers' Rest Creek, I, 268, 279. Treaty of Ghent, I, 331, 344; II, 41. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, II, 247. Treaty of Joint Occupation, I, 332; II, 113, 116, 160, 161. Treaty of Paris, I, 292-293. Treaty of San Ildefonso, I, 94. Tribal lands, sale of, by Indiana, II, 71. Trinity River, I, 116; II, 102, 266, 328. Trinity River gold diggings, II, 71. Truckee River route to California, II, 233-234, 236, 246, 355. Trudeau, J. B., I, 235. Trudeau, Zenon, I, 235. Tucson, Ariz., II, 244. ! Tule, marsh reeds, I, 126. Tule lands, San Francisco Bay, I, 126; reclamation of, II, 306 ; utilization of, by Chinese, II, 318. Tuolumne River, II, 266. Turkey Creek, II, 84. Turnagain Arm, I, 209. Twisted Hair, Chopunnish chief, I, 269, 270, 278. Type foundries, California, II, 309. Tyson, treatise by, cited, II, 270 ; quoted, II, 291. IT Ugarte, Jesuit missionary, I, 30. Ulloa, Francisco de, explorations by, 1,9. Umpqua Indians, I, 334, 361. Umpqua River, I, 361 ; II, 127. Unalaska, Russian fur traders at, I, 198, 199. Union Fur Company, I, 368. Union Pacific Ry., II, 185, 314; char- tering of, II, 353 ; connection of, with Central Pacific Ry., II, 360; coat of, and concessions to, II, 360- 361. United States, acquisition of Louisiana Territory by, I, 94 ; annexation of Texas, II, 108-109; secures Oregon, II, 164; New Mexico and California ceded to, II, 241-248. Utah Lake, I, 145, 358, 359, 365; II, 173. Utah Territory, creation of (1850), II, 188. Utah Valley, II, 187. Utah War, the. II, 189-192. Vaca. See Cabeza de Vaca. Vall^jo family in California, I, 172. Vall6jo, General, II, 219, 232, 247. Vall6jo, Mariano Guadalupe, I, 179. Vancouver, Captain George, in Cali- fornia, I, 142-143, 152, 157-158; meets Bodega y Quadra at Nootka Sound, I, 211 ; explorations of north- west coast by, I, 216-219. Vancouver, Fort. See Fort Vancouver. Vancouver Island, called Washington Island by Captain Gray, I, 215. Vancouver, Point, I, 219. Vanderburg, American Fur Company man, I, 349, 363. Vaqueros, herdsmen, 1, 187, 188; II, 295. Vaudreuil, French governor of Louisi- ana, I, 87-88. Vegetables, introduction of European, into New Mexico, I, 36; on mission farms in California, I, 148 ; in Cali- fornia, II, 303. Venison, I, 245, 249, 286, 312, 335. Verdigris River, II, 76. Verenderye, Varennes de la, I, 224-225. Victoria, Texas, II, 98. INDEX 449 Village landa, California colonies, I, 136. Villages, French, in Louisiana Province, I, 90-91. Villalobos, voyage of, for conquest of Philippines, I, 11. Vincennes, Indiana, I, 90. Vineyards, Los Angeles, II, 213, 304; of Dr. John Marsh, II, 215. Virgin River, I, 359, 360. VisUador general, inspector general, I, 118, 120, 178, 179. Vizcaino, colonizing expedition of, I, 13-15. Volunteer crops, California, II, 300. Voyageura, French Canadian boatmen, I, 89, 243, 246, 251, 257, 294 £f. W Wages, of Spanish soldiers, I, 135; of trappers, I, 294, 371 ; in San Fran- cisco after 1849, II, 317. Wagon, the first, on the Oregon Trail, II, 142-143. Wagon routes across Sierras, II, 233- 235. See Routes. Wagons, the first to cross plains north of Santa Ffi Trail, I, 358; scarcity of, in New Mexico, II, 59-60 ; on Santa F6 Trail, II, 79-80, 84, 86; first caravan to cross Snake River Desert to Walla Walla, II, 156; ar- rangement of, in Mormon encamp- ments, II, 172 ; manufacture of, in California, II, 311. Waiilatpu Mission, the, II, 142, 144. Wakarusa War, the, II, 347-352. Walker, C. M., II, 135, 136. Walker, Joseph, II, 231. Walker, Robert J., governor of Kansas, II, 350. Walker, W. A., II, 171, 208. Walker, missionary to Flathead In- dians, II, 144. Walker River, II, 228. Walker's Pass, I, 365 ; II, 232. Wallah-wallah Indians, I, 278. Walla Walla trading post, I, 336. Wappatoo Island, II, 123. Wappatoo roots as food among Clatsop Indians, I, 273, 274. Warner, J. J., II, 82, 87, 212, 213. War of 1812, I, 288 ; effect of, on J. J. Astor's fur-trading venture on the Pacific coast, I, 325-328; demoraliz- ing effect of, on St. Louis fur trade, I, 341. War Tariff, the, II, 313. Wasatch Range, II, 359. Washington, D. C, emigrant aid com- pany organized in, II, 337. Washington Island, Vancouver Island called, I, 215. VOL. II — 2 a Washita River, II, 8, 27. Water rights, California, II, 279, 306. Watson, James, II, 220. Watt, Joseph, quoted, II, 159-160. Weber, Indian trader, II, 274. Weber Caflon, II, 237. Weber's Creek, II, 259. Weber Valley, II, 187. Webster, Daniel, II, 361. Wells Fargo Express Company, II, 290, 355, 356, 357. Western Engineer, steamboat, II, 39, 62-63. Western Monthly, the, II, 93. Weston, Mo., II, 341. Westport Landing, II, 83, 355. Whaling supplies, II, 221 ; from San Francisco Bay, I, 165, 167; exported from San Francisco, II, 289. Wheat, introduction of, into New Mexico, I, 36 ; on mission farms in California, I, 148 ; amount of crops of, at California missions (1833), I, 175, 182 ; rapid diminution in pro- duction of, under California cattle kings, I, 187; along the Arkansas River, II, 25 ; in Missom-i, II, 44, 49 ; in Texas, II, 101 ; raised by Mor- mons, II, 193; in California, II, 221, 299, 300 ; exportation of, to Europe, II, 300-301 ; speculation in, II, 301 ; decrease in crops in California, due to land exhaustion, II, 301 ; raised in Kansas, II, 340. White, Dr. Elijah, Ten. Years in Ore- gon by, quoted, II, 140-141. White Earth Creek, I, 264. White River, II, 27, 29, 31. Whitfield, Kansas politician, II, 346. Whitman, Marcus, II, 142-145, 155, 156-157, 158, 164, 334; murder of, by Indians, II, 148. Whitman, PriscUla P., II, 142-145, 148 ; quoted, II, 155-156. Whitney, Asa, transcontinental rail- way promoter, II, 353-355. Whitney, Mt., II, 266. Whitworth, Richard, I, 227. Wichita Indians, I, 24. Widow Benton's Settlement, II, 69. Wild horses, capture of, I, 103-104 ; on California ranches, I, 185; in Mis- souri Territory, II, 30; breeding of, with higher strains, II, 293. Wild turkeys, I, 96, 245. Wilkes, Commander, I, 188; II, 226- 227. Wilkinson, Benjamin, I, 307. Wilkinson, General James, I, 110, 111- 114; II, 17,96. Willamette Falls, mill site at, claimed by Methodist Mission, II, 164-165. Willamette Mission, the, II, 136-137, 138, 139. 450 INDEX Willamette River, I. 276 ; II, 173 ; ex- plored by Captain Clark, I, 277- 278; explored by N. J. Wyeth, II, 123. Willamette Valley, colonization of, by ex Hudson's Bay Company men and free trappers, II, 149-154. Willow Creek, I, 264. Wind River, I, 320. Wind River Mountains, I, 300, 365. Windsor Creek, I, 259. Wine, produced at California nais- sions, I, 183 ; made in Sonora, II, 91 ; development of industry in Cali- fornia by Frenchman, II, 220. Winnebago Indiana, I, 228. Winnipeg, Lake, I, 224. Winship, Captain, I, 159, 201, 221. Winter Quarters, Mormons at, II, 169, 170, 179, 183. Winters, the, land claimants, II, 29. Wisconsin River, I, 223. Wisdom River, I, 279. Wolfskin, William, II, 87, 212, 213. Wood River, I, 238. Woodruff, 'first mate of Columbia, I, 212. Wool, manufacture of, by Indians in New Mexico, I, 36, 40, 56 ; production of, in California, II, 296-297; manu- factures of, in California, II, 312. Workman-Rowland party, II, 231-232. Wyandotte Indians, II, 333. Wyeth, Jacob, II, 118, 119, 120. Wyeth, Nathaniel J., I, 363, 369; Memoir to Congress, quoted, II, 88, 125 ; projects of, concerning the Oregon country, II, 118-125 ; quoted, II, 133-134, 150. Wyllie, R. C, II, 224. Yakima Valley, I, 334. Yamhill Creek, II, 136. Yankton Sioux Indians, I, 253. Yellow fever, epidemic of 1819 in New Orleans, II, 21. Yellowstone River, I, 257, 279, 342; II, 121. Yellowstone, steamboat on upper Mis- souri, I, 350; II, 63. Yerba Buena, early merchant vessels in roadstead of, I, 165 ; Americans in possession of, II, 205 ; twenty houses at, II, 221 ; advantages re- sulting to, from gold ' discovery, II, 276 ; name of San Francisco adopted for, II, 276. See San Francisco. York, body servant of William Clark, I, 238. Young, Brigham, II, 170, 171, 172, 177, 178, 180, 186-187, 189, 192, 194, 195, 198, 202, 206 ; II, 360. Young, Ewing, II, 87, 127-131, 139, 140, 211, 219. Young's Bay, Lewis and Clark's fort on, I, 272-273, 312. Yuba River, gold diggings on, II, 259. Yuma Indians, I, 34; II, 92; massacre of Spanish in California by (1781), I, 146-147. Z Zacatula, I, 8. Zavalla, Texsis adventurer, II, 105. Zinc, in Missouri Territory, II, 51. Zufii Indians, Spanish explorers and, I, 16-21 ; remain independent, I, 38. Zufii route from Fort Smith to Rio Grande, II, 358. T HE following pages contain advertisements of books by the same author or on kindred subjects. 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