Part I of Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832–1834
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Library of Congress Part I of Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832–1834 Early Western Travels 1748–1846 Volume XXIII 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, LL.D. Editor of “The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents,” “Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition,” “Hennepin's New Discovery,” etc. Volume XXII Part I of Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832–1834 Maximilian Alexander Philipp, prinz von Wied-Neuwied LC Cleveland, Ohio The Arthur H. Clark Company 1906 Copy 2 c1 F592 T54 LIBRARY of CONGRESS Two Copies Received JAN 31 1906 Copyright Entry Jan. 31, 1906 CLASS a XXc. No. 137442 COPY A. Part I of Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832–1834 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.th022 Library of Congress COPYRIGHT 1906, BY THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Lakesfoe Press R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXII Preface To Volumes XXII–XXIV. The Editor 9 Travels In The Interior Of North America. [Part I, being chapters i–xv of the London edition, 1843.] Maximilian, Prince of Wied. Translated from the German by Hannibal Evans Lloyd Author's Preface 25 Translator's Preface 31 Text: CHAPTER I — Voyage to Boston, Stay in that City, and Journey to New York, from May 17th to July 9th, 1832 37 CHAPTER II — Stay in New York, Philadelphia, and Bordentown, from the 9th to the 16th of July 57 CHAPTER III — Residence at Freiburg and Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, from July 30th to August 23rd 72 CHAPTER IV — Journey to the Pokono, and through the Blue Mountains to Mauch Chunk, in the Coal District, from the 23rd to the 30th of August 87 Part I of Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832–1834 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.th022 Library of Congress CHAPTER V — Description of Mauch Chunk and its Coal Mines—Journey through the Lehigh Valley to Bethlehem, and last Residence in that Town, from August 31st to September 16th 119 CHAPTER VI — Journey from Bethlehem to Pittsburg, over the Alleghanys, from September 17th to October 7th 128 CHAPTER VII — Journey from Pittsburg to New Harmony, on the Wabash, from the 8th to the 19th of October 144 6 CHAPTER VIII — Description of the Country about New Harmony, in Indiana, and Winter Residence there from October 19th, 1832, to March 16th, 1833 163 CHAPTER IX — Journey from New Harmony to St. Louis on the Mississippi, and our Stay there, from March 16th to April 9th 198 CHAPTER X — Journey from St. Louis to the Cantonment of Leavenworth, or to the Borders of the Settlement, from the 10th to the 22nd of April 237 CHAPTER XI — Journey from the Cantonment of Leavenworth to the Punca Indians, from April 22nd to May 12th 255 CHAPTER XII — Voyage from L'Eau qui Court to Fort Pierre, on the Teton River (the Little Missouri), and Stay there, from May 13th to June 4th 291 CHAPTER XIII — Voyage from Fort Pierre, on the Teton River, to Fort Clarke, near the Villages of the Mandans, from the 5th to the 19th of June 330 CHAPTER XIV — Voyage from Fort Clarke to Fort Union, near the Mouth of the Yellow Stone River, from the 19th to the 24th of June 356 Part I of Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832–1834 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.th022 Library of Congress CHAPTER XV — Description of Fort Union and its Neighbourhood 375 ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME XXII Facsimile of title-page to Maximilian's Travels 23 (The following are text cuts in original) Bear-trap 107 Indian pipes 175 Neck-yoke and plow 175 Formations of limestone rocks 213 Omaha Indians 269 An Omaha boy 269 Omaha war club 269 Punca war club 269 Punca Indians in buffalo robes 287 Method of wearing hair 287 Bows, arrows, and quiver 287 Tents of the Sioux 319 Plan of Fort Pierre 319 Part I of Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832–1834 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.th022 Library of Congress Dakota pipes 323 A Dakota, with plaited hair 323 A Teton 323 Hill of baked clay 323 Antlers of deer 347 Sioux burial stages 347 A Blackfoot musical instrument 361 Stone battle-axe 361 Assiniboin pipes 361 Pipe for warlike expeditions 361 PREFACE TO VOLUMES XXII–XXIV Early trans-Mississippi exploration was undertaken largely in the interests of science. The great expedition of Lewis and Clark (1804–06) was, both in conception and plan, a scientific excursion. Bradbury and Brackenridge voyaged up the Missouri (1811) in search of rare plants and animals, Nuttall sought the Arkansas (1819) on a similar errand. Long's expedition (1819–20) was entirely scientific, both in organization and objects; while Townsend crossed the continent with Nathaniel Wyeth (1834) to secure a harvest of rare birds in the mountains and beyond. In the early nineteenth century, scientific collection was the chief object of ambition among thoughtful explorers — to secure for the world a complete catalogue of its plants and animals was worth much toil and hardship, heroic endeavor, and mighty daring. To such, the still unknown regions of the New World offered Part I of Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832–1834 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.th022 Library of Congress strong attractions. There were in the trans-Mississippi and in South America, spread out upon mountains and prairies and bordering far-flowing streams, fresh races of barbarians yet uncontaminated by civilized contact, beasts of prey, birds of brilliant plumage, and unknown plant species. Among those to whom this call of the New World came clearly, was a German savant, prince of a small house in Rhenish Prussia. Even while upon Napoleonic battle-fields, he felt a desire for the wilderness, and news of the victory of Waterloo reached him upon the far-distant rivers of Brazil. His later journey to North America was but the completion of a purpose formed in early boyhood. Alexander Philip Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuwied, was 10 born in the quaint capital of his little Rhenish sovereignty in September, 1782. The eighth child of the reigning Friedrich Karl, natural aptitude for study early marked his career for that of a scholar. Nevertheless, in obedience to the call of patriotism, he entered the Prussian army and was present at the battle of Jena. Soon thereafter he was captured and for some time suffered imprisonment. Exchanged and returned to Neuwied, he continued the scientific pursuits which had long interested him; but a fresh military crisis called him once more into service, in which he rose to a major-generalship, won the honor of the iron cross at Chalons, and entered Paris with the victorious army in 1813. Reminiscences of this warlike experience came to him twenty years later in the Missouri wilderness, when he notes that the song of the Assiniboin warriors before Fort McKenzie resembled that of the Russian soldiers heard in the winter of 1813–14. While successful as a soldier, at heart Maximilian was a searcher for knowledge. In his boyhood his mother had encouraged his love for natural history, and under the direction of his tutor he had begun a collection that was creditable to a youth. Later, in his university course, he came under the influence of the celebrated Professor Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, and as a favorite pupil absorbed from him a keen desire to contribute to the world's stock of knowledge. Throughout what leisure he could snatch in the Napoleonic campaigns, the young prince was planning a scientific expedition to Brazil, and no sooner was he finally released from martial duties than he made preparations that culminated, Part I of Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832–1834 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.th022 Library of Congress early in 1815, in a departure for that country. Joined in South America by two German scholars who had preceded him thither, the trio spent two years in the tropical forests of that country, studying its flora and fauna, and above all the native races. After the return 11 to Germany, Maximilian's succeeding years were spent in arranging his collections and preparing for publication the results of his journey. His Reise nach Brasilien in den Jahren 1815 bis 1817 (Frankfurt, 1820–21) was soon translated into French, Dutch, and English; later appeared Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte von Brasilien (Weimar, 1825–33), designed to accompany the atlas of ninety plates, entitled Abbildungenen zur Naturgeschichte Brasiliens (Weimar, 1822–31). The publication of these works gave Maximilian an honored place among scientists, and proclaimed his ability as an exploring naturalist. By 1831 the prince was engaged in preparations for his second great enterprise — a visit to North America, including a scientific exploration of the trans-Mississippi region. Embarking on an American packet at Helvoetsluys, May 17, 1832, our traveller arrived in Boston amid the salvos of artillery ushering in the anniversary of American independence. Maximilian was accompanied on this voyage by a young Swiss artist, Charles Bodmer, whom he had engaged to paint primitive landscapes in the New World, together with portraits of its aborigines.