Scenes & Adventures in the Semi-Alpine Region of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri & Arkansas

These early adventures in the Ozarks comprehend my first exploratory
effort in the great area of the West. To traverse the plains and
mountain elevations west of the Mississippi, which had once echoed the
tramp of the squadrons of De Soto--to range over hills, and through
rugged defiles, which he had once searched in the hope of finding mines
of gold and silver rivalling those of Mexico and Peru; and this, too,
coming as a climax to the panorama of a long, long journey from the
East--constituted an attainment of youthful exultation and
self-felicitation, which might have been forgotten with its termination.
But the incidents are perceived to have had a value of a different kind.
They supply the first attempt to trace the track of the Spanish
cavaliers west of the Mississippi. The name of De Soto is inseparably
connected with the territorial area of Missouri and Arkansas, which he
was the first European to penetrate, and in the latter of which he died.

Four-and-thirty years have passed away, since the travels here brought
to view, were terminated. They comprise a period of exciting and
startling events in our history, social and political. With the
occupancy of Oregon, the annexation of Texas, the discoveries in
California, and the acquisition of New Mexico, the very ends of the
Union appear to have been turned about. And the lone scenes and
adventures of a man on a then remote frontier, may be thought to have
lost their interest. But they are believed to possess a more permanent
character. It is the first and _only_ attempt to identify De Soto's
march west of the Mississippi; and it recalls reminiscences of scenes
and observations which belong to the history of the discovery and
settlement of the country.

Little, it is conceived, need be said, to enable the reader to determine
the author's position on the frontiers of Missouri and Arkansas in 1818.
He had passed the summer and fall of that year in investigating the
geological structure and mineral resources of the lead-mine district of
Missouri. He had discovered the isolated primitive tract on the sources
of the St. Francis and Grand rivers--the "Coligoa" of the Spanish
adventurer--and he felt a strong impulse to explore the regions west of
it, to determine the extent of this formation, and fix its geological
relations between the primitive ranges of the Alleghany and Rocky
mountains.

Reports represented it as an alpine tract, abounding in picturesque
valleys and caves, and replete with varied mineral resources, but
difficult to penetrate on account of the hostile character of the Osage
and Pawnee Indians. He recrossed the Mississippi to the American bottom
of Illinois, to lay his plan before a friend and fellow-traveller in an
earlier part of his explorations, Mr. Ebenezer Brigham, of
Massachusetts, who agreed to unite in the enterprise. He then proceeded
to St. Louis, where Mr. Pettibone, a Connecticut man, and a
fellow-voyager on the Alleghany river, determined also to unite in this
interior journey. The place of rendezvous was appointed at Potosi,
about forty miles west of the Mississippi. Each one was to share in the
preparations, and some experienced hunters and frontiersmen were to join
in the expedition. But it turned out, when the day of starting arrived,
that each one of the latter persons found some easy and good excuse for
declining to go, principally on the ground that they were poor men, and
could not leave supplies for their families during so long a period of
absence. Both the other gentlemen came promptly to the point, though one
of them was compelled by sickness to return; and my remaining companion
and myself plunged into the wilderness with a gust of adventure and
determination, which made amends for whatever else we lacked.

It is only necessary to add, that the following journal narrates the
incidents of the tour. The narrative is drawn up from the original
manuscript journal in my possession. Outlines of parts of it, were
inserted in the pages of the Belles-lettres Repository, by Mr. Van
Winkle, soon after my return to New York, in 1819; from whence they were
transferred by Sir Richard Phillips to his collection of Voyages and
Travels, London, 1821. This latter work has never been republished in
the United States.

In preparing the present volume, after so considerable a lapse of time,
it has been thought proper to omit all such topics as are not deemed of
permanent or historical value. The scientific facts embraced in the
appendix, on the mines and mineralogy of Missouri, are taken from my
publication on these subjects.