Part 1
Transcriber’s Note:
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Long ‘s’ (ſ) were converted to ‘s’. Footnotes were moved to the end of each book. There are two anchors to footnote [122] in André Michaux’s Travels.
Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, missing or partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added. In the second book, manuscript page numbers are displayed within brackets, e.g. {36}.
Words may have inconsistant spelling, diacriticals and hyphenation in the text. These were left unchanged, as were obsolete and alternative spellings. Except as noted below, misspelled words were not corrected.
The following were changed:
answer to answers ... sometimes answers their purpose ... wool to wood ... also made of wood,... prevous to previous ... the year previous;...
[Illustration: Fr. André Michaux]
Early Western Travels
1748-1846
A Series of Annotated Reprints of some of the best and rarest contemporary volumes of travel, descriptive of the Aborigines and Social and Economic Conditions in the Middle and Far West, during the Period of Early American Settlement
Edited with Notes, Introductions, Index, etc., by
Reuben Gold Thwaites
Editor of “The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents,” “Wisconsin Historical Collections,” “Chronicles of Border Warfare,” “Hennepin’s New Discovery,” etc.
Volume III
André Michaux’s Travels into Kentucky, 1793-96. François André Michaux’s Travels West of Alleghany Mountains, 1802. Thaddeus Mason Harris’s Journal of a Tour Northwest of Alleghany Mountains, 1803
[Illustration]
Cleveland, Ohio The Arthur H. Clark Company 1904
COPYRIGHT 1904, BY THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Lakeside Press
R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO
CONTENTS OF VOLUME III
PREFACE. _The Editor_ 11
I
JOURNAL OF TRAVELS INTO KENTUCKY; July 15, 1793--April 11, 1796. _André Michaux_ 25
II
TRAVELS TO THE WEST OF THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS, in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessea, and back to Charleston, by the Upper Carolines ... undertaken in the year 1802. September 24, 1801--March 1, 1803. _François André Michaux_ 105
III
THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR INTO THE TERRITORY NORTHWEST OF THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS; made in the Spring of the Year 1803. April 7--“beginning of July.” _Thaddeus Mason Harris, A.M._ 307
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME III
I. Portrait of François André Michaux. _From oil painting in possession of American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia_ Frontispiece
II. Carte des Etats du Centre, de l’Ouest et du Sud des Etats-Unis, 1804 [From the original French edition] 108
III. Photographic facsimile of title-page to François André Michaux’s _Travels_ 109
IV. Photographic facsimile of title-page to Harris’s _Journal_ 309
V. Photographic facsimile of Map of Alleghany and Yohiogany Rivers; from Harris’s _Journal_ 331
VI. Photographic facsimile of Map of the State of Ohio, by Rufus Putnam; from Harris’s _Journal_ 351
PREFACE TO VOLUME III
We publish in this volume André Michaux’s journal of his travels into Kentucky from 1793-96, Englished by us from the French version in the _Proceedings_ of the American Philosophical Society; a reprint of the English version of _Travels to the West of the Alleghany Mountains_, made in 1802 by his son, François André Michaux; and a reprint of Thaddeus Mason Harris’s _Journal of a Tour into the Territory Northwest of the Alleghany Mountains, made in the Spring of the Year 1803_--omitting, however, as unnecessary to our present purpose, the appendix thereto.
_The Michauxs_
André Michaux, whose name is known to scientists of both hemispheres, was born at Satory, Versailles, in 1746. Destined by his father for the superintendence of a farm belonging to the royal estate, Michaux early became interested in agriculture, even while pursuing classical studies. Upon the death of his young wife, Cecil Claye, which occurred at the birth of their son, François André (1770), he devoted himself to scientific studies in the effort to overcome his grief. These naturally took the direction of botany, and Michaux became imbued with a desire to seek for strange plants in foreign countries. From 1779-81 he travelled in England, the Auvergne, and the Pyrenees; and later (1782-85), in Persia, botanizing, and studying the political situation of the Orient. He had intended to return to Persia, but while in France (1785) the government requested that he should proceed to North America in order to make a study of forest trees, and experiment with regard to their transplantation to France. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1785, he left France, taking with him his young son.
Landing in New York he passed a year and a half in that vicinity, herborizing, and attempting a botanical garden. Finding the latitude of the Southern states, however, more suited to his enterprise, he removed in the spring of 1787 to Charleston. Purchasing a plantation about ten miles from the city, he entered with enthusiasm into the search for new plants and their culture upon his estate. In this year he explored the mountains of the Carolinas, and a twelve-month later made a difficult and hazardous journey through the swamps and marshes of Florida. The next year (1789) was occupied by a voyage to the Bahamas, and another search among the mountains for plants of a commercial nature--notably ginseng, whose utility he taught the mountaineers.
In 1794 he undertook a most difficult expedition to Canada and the arctic regions about Hudson Bay, and upon his return proposed to the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia an exploration of the great West by way of the Missouri River. A subscription was begun for this purpose, and Jefferson drafted for him detailed instructions for the journey;[1] but his services were needed in another direction, and the Missouri exploration was abandoned for a political mission.
The discontent of the Western settlers with regard to the free navigation of the Mississippi had reached an acute stage; the French minister to the United States had come armed with instructions to secure the co-operation of trans-Allegheny Americans for a raid upon the Spanish territory of Louisiana, aimed to recover that province for the power to which it had formerly belonged, and make it a basis for revolutionary movements in Canada, the West Indies, and ultimately all Spanish America.[2] This minister arrived in Charleston in February, 1793, and selected Michaux as his agent to communicate with the Kentucky leaders. An ardent republican, already in the pay of the French government, and friendly with influential men in government circles, Michaux seemed a most desirable as well as the most available agent possible. One characteristic was not, however, sufficiently considered. Whatever may have been his interest in the intrigue, whatever accounts thereof are through caution or prudence omitted from the journal here printed, one fact is evident--that Michaux was chiefly devoted to the cause of science; these pages reveal that a rare plant or new tree interested him much more than an American general or a plot to subvert Spanish tyranny.
His first Kentucky journey was, from the point of view of the diplomats, but moderately successful. With the collapse of the enterprise--due to the imprudence of Genet, the firmness of Washington, the growing loyalty of the Westerners to the new federal government, and the change of leaders in France--Michaux returned to botanical pursuits, and his later journeys appear to have been undertaken solely in order to herborize. There are, however, some slight indications in the text that he entertained hope of continuing the enterprise, and of its ultimate success. His inquiries, in the Cumberland, for guides for the Missouri expedition, prove that he had by no means abandoned his purpose of undertaking that hazardous project.
But these long Western journeys had exhausted his resources; for seven years he had had no remittance from the French government, and was now under the necessity of returning to Europe to attend to his affairs. Accordingly in 1796 he embarked for France, and was shipwrecked on the coast of Holland, losing part of his collections; but his herbarium was preserved, and is now in the Musée de Paris. He ardently desired to be sent back to America; but his government offered him no encouragement, and finally he accepted a post upon an expedition to New Holland, and in November, 1802, died of fever upon the island of Madagascar.
His son, François André, entered into his father’s pursuits and greatly assisted him. While yet a lad, he accompanied him on several arduous journeys in America; at other times remaining upon the plantation, engaged in the care of the transplanted trees. He returned to France some years before his father, in order to study medicine, and in the year of the latter’s death was commissioned by the French minister of the interior to proceed to the United States to study forests and agriculture in general.
The journal of his travels was not originally intended for print; but the interest aroused in the Western region of the United States by the sale of Louisiana, induced its publication. The first French edition appeared in 1804, under the title, _Voyage à l’ouest des Monts Alléghanys, dans les États de l’Ohio, et du Kentucky, et du Tennessée, et retour a Charleston par les Hautes-Carolines_. Another edition appeared in 1808. The first was soon Englished by B. Lambert, and two editions with different publishers issued from London presses in 1805. The same year another translation, somewhat abridged, appeared in volume i of Phillip’s _Collection of Voyages_. Neither of these translations is well executed. The same year, a German translation issued from the Weimar press.
The younger Michaux continued to be interested in the study of trees, and spent several years in preparing the three volumes of _Histoire des Arbres forestiers de l’Amérique Septentrionale_, which appeared in 1810-13. This was translated, and passed through several English editions, with an additional volume added by Thomas Nuttall under the title of _The North American Sylva_.
Michaux’s report on the naturalization of American forest trees, made to the Société d’Agriculture du département de la Seine, was printed in 1809.[3] His “Notice sur les Isles Bermudas, et particulièrement sur l’Isle St. George” was published in _Annales des Sciences naturelles_ (1806), volume viii. He also assisted in editing his father’s work, _Histoire des Chênes de l’Amérique_; and his final publication on American observations was _Mémoire sur les causes de la fièvre jaune_, published at Paris in 1852. Dr. Michaux died at Vauréal, near Pontoise, in 1855.
In 1824 the younger Michaux presented to the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia the notebooks containing the diary of his father’s travels in America--all save those covering the first two years (1785-87), which were lost in the shipwreck on the coast of Holland. The value of these journals has long been known to scientists; their larger interest, as revealing both political and social conditions in the new West, will perhaps be first recognized upon this presentation of them in English form. Written “by the light of his lonely campfires, during brief moments snatched from short hours of repose, in the midst of hardships and often surrounded by dangers,” their literary form is deficient, and frequent gaps occur, which doubtless were intended to be filled in at some future moments of leisure. This was prevented by the author’s untimely death in the midst of his labors. For nearly a century the journals existed only in manuscript. In 1884 Charles S. Sargent, director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, prepared the manuscript for the press, with explanatory notes chiefly on botanical matters.[4] It was published in the original French, in the American Philosophical Society _Proceedings_, 1889, pp. 1-145.
From this journal of nearly eleven years’ travel in America--from Florida on the south, to the wilds of the Hudson Bay country on the north, from Philadelphia and Charleston on the Atlantic coast to the most remote Western settlements, and the Indian lands of the Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee--we have selected for translation and inclusion within our series, the portions that concern particularly the trans-Allegheny region. These relate to the expedition made to Kentucky by way of the Ohio (1793), with the return over the Wilderness Road and through the Valley of Virginia; and the longer journey (1795-96) from Charleston to Tennessee, thence through Kentucky to the Illinois, and back by a similar route with side excursions on the great Western rivers.
The journals of the elder Michaux “record the impressions of a man of unusual intelligence--a traveller in many lands, who had learned by long practice to use his eyes to good advantage and to write down only what they saw.” A part of the value of these documents to a student of Western history consists in their accurate and succinct outline of the areas of colonization. The extent and boundaries of Michaux’s travels enable us to map with considerable accuracy the limits of the settled regions--first, that from Pittsburg down the Ohio to just below Marietta; then, after passing a region without a town, between Gallipolis and Limestone (Maysville, Kentucky), the traveller enters the thickly occupied area of Kentucky, bounded on the south and west by the “barrens,” into which emigration was beginning to creep. In the Illinois, Michaux’s unfavorable comment upon the French habitants is in accord with that of other visitors of the same nationality; his travels therein show that the small French group were the only settlers, save a few venturesome Americans at Bellefontaine, and “Corne de Cerf.” In East Tennessee, the outpost was Fort Southwest Point, where the Clinch and Holston meet; thence, a journey of a hundred and twenty miles through “the Wilderness” brought one to the frontier post of the Cumberland settlements, at Bledsoe’s Lick. Upon Michaux’s return, nearly a year later, the Cumberland frontier had extended, and Fort Blount had been built forty miles to the eastward as a protection for the ever-increasing number of travellers and pioneers. The western borders of Cumberland were also rapidly enlarging. Clarksville, on the Cumberland River at the mouth of the Red, had long been on the extreme border in this direction; but Michaux found daring settlements stretching out beyond, seizing the rich river bottoms and organizing a town as a nucleus for scattered planters.
Michaux faithfully presents the conditions that confronted travellers in his day--the lack of inns, the straying of horses with the consequent annoyance and delay, the inadequate means for crossing rivers, the frequent necessity for waiting until a sufficient body of travellers had collected to act as a guard through the uninhabited regions. He also traversed nearly all the routes by which emigration was pouring into the Western country--the Wilderness Road to Kentucky, the routes from North Carolina over the mountains to East Tennessee, the Wilderness Road of Tennessee (this last a narrow and dangerous link with the Cumberland settlements), the paths thither to Louisville, and the Indian trails thence to the Illinois; as well as the river routes--the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Cumberland.
Glimpses of the chief founders of the Western country are tantalizing by their meagreness. We should have valued more detailed accounts of conversations with Clark, Logan, and Shelby, concerning Nicholas’s plan for securing the navigation of the Mississippi; of the attitude of Robertson, Blount, and Daniel Smith toward the French enterprise; and of the impression made at this early day by “a resident near the Cumberland River, Mr. Jackson.” Particularly interesting is the record of the number of Frenchmen who became prominent and useful citizens of the West--Lucas at Pittsburg, Lacassagne at Louisville, Tardiveau, Honoré, and Depauw at Danville and vicinity; apart from the settlers at Gallipolis, whose misfortunes our author deplores. It is hoped that this English version of the elder Michaux’s journals may prove a contribution of importance to those interested in early conditions in the Mississippi Valley.
Michaux’s published works are, _Histoire des Chênes de l’Amérique_-- which appeared in 1801, and is supposed to have been recast or corrected by other scientists--and _Flora Boreali-Americana_, written in Latin by Richard from the plants which Michaux had collected in America, and issued a year after the latter’s death.[5]
The few years that intervened between the journeys of the elder and younger Michaux show the rapidity with which the West was changing. Conditions of travel had meantime been improved, and the development of resources was proceeding with bounds. The opening of the Mississippi had caused an immense growth in both the extent and means of Western commerce; the son describes ship-building upon the waters along which the father had passed in Indian canoes. The increase in the number, size, and appearance of the towns, and the additional comforts in the homes of the people, were indicative of a great and growing prosperity.
The younger traveller describes the inhabitants with more particularity than his father. His observations upon the characteristics of the people, their occupations and recreations and their political bias, are those of an intelligent and sympathetic narrator, with a predisposition in favor of the Western settlers. His remarks in chapter xii on the restlessness of the pioneers, their eagerness to push onward to a newer country, their impatience with the growing trammels of civilization, show habits of close observation. His optimism with regard to the future of the country, in thinking that within twenty years the Ohio Valley would be “the most populous and commercial part of the United States, and where I should settle in preference to any other,” exhibits a large comprehension of the forces and elements of Western growth.
The American popularity of the younger Michaux’s journal, in its own time, proved his ability to interpret the ideas of our people, and the sympathetic interest of a cultured Frenchman in the democratizing processes of the New World.
_Thaddeus Mason Harris_
Thaddeus Mason Harris, author of the _Journal of a Tour into the Territory Northwest of the Alleghany Mountains_, was one of the coterie of liberal clergymen who occupied the New England pulpits in the early part of the nineteenth century. As a member of this group, Harris’s observations of the Western country are of peculiar interest. He had the training of the typical New Englander--“plain living and high thinking.” Born in Charlestown in 1768, his family were driven from their home at the battle of Bunker Hill, and three years later the father died of exposure contracted during his service in the Revolutionary army. As the eldest of the children, Thaddeus was sent to “board around” among the neighboring farmers, one of whom took sufficient interest in the promising lad to fit him for college. An accidental supply of money at a later period, accepted as a special interposition of Providence, made such an impression upon the young man’s mind that he determined to enter the ministry. He was graduated from Harvard in 1787, in the same class with John Quincy Adams. After a year’s teaching at Worcester, the position was tendered him of private secretary to the newly-chosen President Washington, but an attack of small-pox prevented its acceptance, and the place was filled by Tobias Lear.
In 1789 our author was “approbated to preach,” and the following year received his A.M. degree, delivering on the occasion the Phi Beta Kappa address. During the two succeeding years he served as the librarian of his alma mater, and was elected (1792) a resident member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The year 1793 saw Harris installed as pastor of the first church of Dorchester--a relation which was continued through over forty years of faithful and acceptable service. A careful pastor, he exposed himself during the epidemic of yellow fever in 1802 to such an extent that he contracted the disease, and during his convalescence the Western journey was planned and undertaken as a means of recuperation. In this it was eminently successful, and upon his return to Dorchester Harris plunged anew into literary and philanthropic labors. Within the next few years he aided in founding the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Humane Society, the American Peace Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Archæological Society at Athens, and was chosen corresponding member of the New York Historical Society. His addresses and sermons on different occasions found their way into print, until nearly sixty were published. Harvard honored itself by conferring upon him the degree of doctor of divinity in 1813, and during his entire later life he acted as overseer in the college corporation. His eldest son, a well-known entomologist, served as Harvard librarian for twenty-five years (1831-56).
After a second severe illness (1833), Dr. Harris visited Georgia, and thereupon published a biography of Oglethorpe. In 1838 he resigned his pastorate and spent his remaining five years in congenial literary pursuits, serving for a time as the librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He is described as a “little quaint old man, indescribably bent, but still wearing a hale aspect, who used to haunt the alcoves of the library at Harvard.” After March, 1842, the place of the old scholar and reader in the college library was vacant.
Dr. Harris made no contribution of permanent value to American literature, unless the present book may be so considered. Besides the works mentioned, he aided (1805) in putting forth an encyclopedia, and a Natural History of the Bible; the result of the last-named labor was pirated by an English firm, which issued it in several editions. The _Journal of a Tour_, which we here republish, sold well, and was soon out of print. In recent years, the volume has brought a good price at antiquarian sales. In addition to the journal proper, Harris added a bulky appendix, entitled a “Geographical and Historical Account of the State of Ohio,” from material collected during his visit at Marietta, annexing thereto: a “Letter to the Earl of Hillsborough on the navigation of the Ohio (1770);” the “Act of Congress forming the State;” the “Constitution of the State;” an “Account of the destruction of the Moravian Settlements on the Muskingum;” “Wayne’s Treaty;” and a number of papers connected with the formation of the Ohio Company of Associates, and the establishment of the Northwest Territory. This appendix we have omitted as not within the sphere of the present series, and as containing information which can readily be secured elsewhere.
As an observer, two points characterize Harris’s narrative--his enthusiasm for natural scenery, and the delight shown in its description; and the dryness of his statements with regard to the human life which he saw en route. Its chief value lies in the accuracy which he exhibits in data concerning the size of the towns, their prosperity and growth, their business interests, and stage of material development; in matters regarding the growth of ship-building and navigation, the number of manufactories, and the general material prosperity of the region, Harris gives useful information. But as a picture of Western life, or as a sympathetic relation of human affairs in this region, the value is small. This arose in part from the New Englander’s stout prejudices against conditions unfamiliar to him. His attitude toward the Western inhabitants is quite the contrary of that of the younger Michaux, and forms thereto an effective foil.
As with previous volumes of this series, the Editor has had the active co-operation of Louise Phelps Kellogg in the preparation of notes.
R. G. T. MADISON, WIS., February, 1904.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See documents in _Original Journals of Lewis and Clark_ (New York, 1904), appendix.
[2] See Turner, “Origin of Genet’s Projected Attack on Louisiana and the Floridas” in _American Historical Review_, July, 1897; also documents in American Historical Association _Report_, 1896 and 1897.
[3] See review in _Monthly Anthology_ (Boston, 1810), viii, p. 280.
[4] The notes in the journals of the elder Michaux signed C. S. S., are those of Sargent, found in the French edition and designed chiefly to elucidate botanical references.
[5] The references in Sargent’s notes marked “Michx.,” refer to this _Flora_.
JOURNAL OF ANDRÉ MICHAUX, 1793-1796
SOURCE: Englished from the original French, appearing in American Philosophical Society _Proceedings_, 1889, pp. 91-101, 114-140.
JOURNAL OF ANDRÉ MICHAUX