OCR Text |
Show 108 \vate.r courses, is one immense prairie. After passing this rivt:l- cop~es of wood only are to be ~Leu here and there along the river bank for about 25 miles, to a sn1all turgtd river, called by the Indians B abacha!ta, and by the French Fou~oach~ta; ~.on1e c.al~ it the 1flissouri branch of R-. <1 tner ; H cmtts a c.ow:nderable qu.antity of Whtcr; runs ~~om north o ~ou~h and fctlls i11to Red river nearly at nght angles, :! lld heads ncar the head of the Arken~a, and i· so brack ish it cannot be drank. On this river, and on a branch of the Arkensa, not t:~r from it, the Indians find the salt rock; pieces of it have often beet_l ~rought to ~atchitoches by hunters, who procured 1t Iro1n ; he lnd•_c.u~s. From the mouth of this river, th1 ough the pratne, to the main branch of the Arkensa, j.., three days journey ; perhaps 60 or 70 miles in a straight line. _From this to the Panis, or Towrache towns, by Jand, Is about30 miles, and by water, double -that distance; the r~ver is nearly a mile wide. 'fhe country on each side, for many hundreds of n1iles, is all prairie, except a skirt of wood along the river bank, and on the small~r streams; what trees there are, are small; the grass 1s green suinmer and winter. In between 33 and 34 degrees of north latitude, th~ soil is ~ery rich,. p~oducing, luxuriously, every thmg that Is pl~ntcd m 1~: the river, from this upwards, for 150 mtles, cont_I· nues at least a n1ile wide, and may be ascended m perogues. M·r. Grappe, to whom I am indebted for _the fore-going acct;rate description of Red_ ri~er, mformed me, that h1s personal knowledge of It d1d not extend but little above the Pan is towns; but Mr. Brevel, of the Isle Brevel, who was born at the Caddo old towns, where he was, had been farther up it, and that what· ~ver account he gave me might be relied on. I therefore sought an opportunity, a few days a_fter to obtain from Mr. Brevel the following narrative, which I wrote down from his own mouth, as he related it: ; 109 "About 40 years ago, I sat off, on foot fron1 the Panis nation (who_ then_lived about 50 leagues above where they now hve) In company with a party of y~uug Indian me_n, with whom I had been partly rut~ed, on a hunttng voyage, and to procure horses. We kept up on the south side of Red river as near it as we could conveniently cross the small st~eams that fall in, sometimes at some distance, and at others very near it, and in sight of it. We found the country all prairie, except small copses of wood, cedar, ~otton '".·ood! or musketo, amongst which a stick s~ mches. m diameter could not be found; the surface becomm~ m_ore and more ~ight, sandy and hilly, with ltdge!i ol chfts o_f a greyish sandy rock, but every where co~e~ed ~1th herb~tge. '\\T e found many small stre.ams t~lhng Into the_ nver, but none of any considerable size, or that discharged much wat~r in dry seasons, but many deep gullies formed by the rain water. ~fi.er tra~ell_ing for several days over a country of this descnpuon, the country became more bro.ken, the hills rising into mountains, amongst wh1~h we s_aw a gn.~at deal of rock salt, and an ore the Iudmns said. was my (meaning the white people's) treasure, wluch I afterwards learned was silver. And that amongst these n1ountains of mines we often heard a noise like the explosion of a canno~ or distant tlm_uder, which the Indians said was the spirit of the Whitt people working in their treasure, which I af~erwards . w~s informed, was the blowing of ~he mmes, ~s 1t Is c~lled, which _is com~on in all parts of Spamsh Amenca where mines extst. The main ~ranch of t~e river becoming smaller, till it divided lnt~ almost mnumerable streatns that issued out of the Valhes amongst these n1ountains; the soil very light and sandy, of a reddish grey color. We travelled on ~rom the top of one mountain to the top of another lll hop_es the one we were ascending was always t~ last, till the small streams we met with ran the conlrary way, towards the- setting sun, and the lands |