Trace of De Soto—A Trip by Land—Reach the Mouth of the Great North Fork.

120 CHAPTER XIII. Detention at the Mouth of the Great North Fork—Natural History of the Vicinity—Great Blocks of Quartz—Imposing Precipices of the Calico Rock—A Characteristic of American Scenery—Cherokee Occupancy of the Country between the White and Arkansas Rivers—Its Effects on the Pioneers—Question of the Fate of the Indian Races—Iron-ore—Descent to the Arkansas Ferries—Leave the River at this Point—Remarks on its Character and Productions. 128 CHAPTER XIV. Ancient Spot of De Soto's crossing White River in 1542—Lameness produced by a former Injury—Incidents of the Journey to the St. Francis River—De Soto's ancient Marches and Adventures on this River in the search after Gold—Fossil Salt—Copper—The ancient Ranges of the Buffalo. 134 CHAPTER XV. Proceed North—Incidents of the Route—A severe Tempest of Rain, which swells the Stream—Change in the Geology of the Country—The ancient Coligoa of De Soto—A primitive and mineral Region—St. Michael—Mine a La Motte—Wade through Wolf Creek—A Deserted House—Cross Grand River—Return to Potosi. 142 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE WEST. Two Letters, addressed to the Hon. J. B. Thomas, U. S. Senate, Washington. 146   APPENDIX. MINERALOGY, GEOLOGY, AND MINES. 1. A View of the Lead-Mines of Missouri. 153 2. A Catalogue of the Minerals of the Mississippi Valley 198 3. Mineral Resources of the Western Country. A Letter to Gen. C. G. Haines. 215 GEOGRAPHY. 1. Missouri. 222 2. Hot Springs of Washita. 231 3. Memoir of White River. 233 4. List of Steamboats on the Mississippi River in 1819. 239 ANTIQUITIES AND INDIAN HISTORY. 1. Articles of curious Workmanship found in ancient Indian Graves. 241 2. Ancient Indian Cemetery found in the Maramec Valley. 243

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INTRODUCTION.

De Soto, in 1541, was the true discoverer of the Mississippi river, and the first person who crossed it, who has left a narrative of that fact; although it is evident that Cabaca de Vaca, the noted survivor of the ill-fated expedition of Narvaez in 1528, must, in his extraordinary pilgrimage between Florida and the eastern coasts of the gulf of California, have crossed this river, perhaps before him; but he has not distinctly mentioned it in his memoir. Narvaez himself was not the discoverer of the mouth of the Mississippi, as some persons have conjectured, inasmuch as he was blown off the coast and lost, east of that point. The most careful tracing of the narrative of his voyage in boats along the Florida shore, as given by De Vaca, does not carry him beyond Mobile bay, or, at farthest, Perdido bay.[1]

De Soto's death frustrated his plan of founding a colony of Spain in the Mississippi valley; and that stream was allowed to roll its vast volume into the gulf a hundred and thirty-two years longer, before it attracted practical notice. Precisely at the end of this time, namely, in 1673, Mons. Jolliet, accompanied by James Marquette, the celebrated enterprising missionary of New France, entered the stream at the confluence of the Wisconsin, in accordance with the policy, and a plan of exploration, of the able, brave, and efficient governor-general of Canada, the Count Frontenac. Marquette and his companion, who was the chief of the expedition, but whose name has become secondary to his own, descended it to the mouth of the Arkansas, the identical spot of De Soto's demise. La Salle, some five or six years later, continued the discovery to the gulf; and Hennepin extended it upward, from the point where Marquette had entered it, to the falls of St. Anthony, and the river St. Francis. And it is from this era of La Salle, the narrators of whose enlarged plans, civic and ecclesiastical, recognised the Indian geographical terminology, that it has retained its Algonquin name of Mississippi.

It is by no means intended to follow these initial facts by recitals of the progress of the subsequent local discoveries in the Mississippi valley, which were made respectively under French, British, and American rule. Sufficient is it, for the present purpose, to say, that the thread of the discovery of the Mississippi, north and west of the points named, was not taken up effectively, till the acquisition of Louisiana. Mr. Jefferson determined to explore the newly acquired territories, and directed the