Journey Across the Continent of North America by an Indian Chief, about the middle of the last Century, as taken from his own mouth.

 

By Andrew Stuart

 

[Originally published by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec in Transactions, Original Series 1, Volume 1 (1829)]

 

IT has often been conjectured that North America was originally peopled from Tartary, and that the Tartars entered this continent by the way of Kamscatka. There are many reasons for believing that the new continent as well as the old has been peopled by different races at different times; and that the last great change which took place was produced by a great Tartar invasion similar to that which under Gengis-Khan devastated the Chinese Empire, and of that too which overwhelmed the Roman Empire. The exterminating character of the Tartars is well known, and it is probable that the whole of the race which built the forts, the vestiges of which are found between Lake Ontario, and the Gulf of Mexico was utterly destroyed by these Tartar invaders, whose descendants we now see in the aboriginal red men of this continent.

 

I do not mean here to enter upon the grounds and reasons upon which this opinion rests, but beg leave to lay before the society some facts relating to this subject, that seemed to me to be of interest, to be found in a work not so generally known as it deserves to be; this is the history of Louisiana, by M. Le Page Du Pratz who gives the following account of the peopling of America.

 

When the Natches retired to this part of America, where I saw them, they there found several nations, or rather the remains of several nations, some on the east, others on the west of the Mississippi. These are the people who are distinguished among the natives by the name of Red Men; and their origin is so much the more obscure, as they have not so distinct a tradition as the Natches, nor arts and sciences like the Mexicans, from whence we might draw some satisfactory inferences. All that I could learn from them was, that they came from between the north and the sun setting; and this account they uniformly adhered to whenever they gave any account of their origin. This lame tradition no ways satisfying the desire I had to be informed on this point, I made great inquiries to know if there was any wise old man among the neighbouring nations, who could give me further intelligence about the origin of the natives. I was happy enough to discover one, named Moneacht-apé among the Yazous, a nation about forty leagues north from the Natches. This man was remarkable for his solid understanding and elevation of sentiments; and I may justly compare him to those first Greeks, who travelled chiefly into the east to examine the manners and customs of different nations, and to communicate to their fellow-citizens upon their return the knowledge which they had acquired. Moneacht-apé indeed, never executed so noble a plan; but he had however conceived it, and had spared no labour and pains to effectuate it. He was by the French called the Interpreter, because he understood several of the North American languages; but the other name which I have mentioned was given him by his own nation, and signifies the killer of pain and fatigue. This name was indeed most justly applicable to him; for; to satisfy his curiosity, he had made light of the most dangerous and painful journeys in which he had spent several years of his life. He stayed two or three days with me; and upon my desiring him to give me an account of his travels, he very readily complied with my request, and spoke to the following effect:

 

"I had lost my wife, and all the children whom I had by her, when I undertook my journey towards the sun-rising, I set out from my village contrary to the inclination of all my relations, and went first to the Chicasaws, our friends and neighbours. I continued among them several days to inform myself whether they knew whence we all came, or at least whence they themselves came; they, who were our elders; since from them came the language of the country. As they could not inform me, I proceeded on my journey. I reached the country of the Chaouanous, and afterwards went up the Wabash or Ohio, almost to its source, which is in the country of the Iroquois or Five Nations. I left them however towards the north; and during the winter, which in that country is very severe and very long, I lived in a village of the Abenaquis, where I contracted an acquaintance with a man somewhat older than myself, who promised to conduct me the following spring to the Great Water. Accordingly when the snows were melted, and the weather was settled, we proceeded eastward, and, after several days journey, I at length saw the Great Water, which filled me with such joy and admiration that I could not speak. Night drawing on, we took up our lodging on a high bank above the water, which was sorely vexed by the wind, and made so great a noise that I could not sleep. Next day the ebbing and flowing of the water filled me with great apprehension; but my companion quieted my fears, by assuring me that the water observed certain bounds, both in advancing and retreating. Having satisfied our curiosity in viewing the great water, we turned to the village of the Abenaquis, where I continued the following winter; and after the snows were melted, my companion and I went and viewed the great fall of the river St. Lawrence at Niagara, which was distant from the village several days journey. The view of this great fall at first made my hair stand on end, and my heart almost leap out of its place; but afterwards, before I left it, had the courage to walk under it. Next day we took the shortest road to the Ohio, and my companion and I cutting down a tree on the banks of the river, we formed it into a pettiaugre, which served to conduct me down the Ohio and the Mississipi, after which, with much difficulty, I went up our small river; and at length arrived safe among my relations, who were rejoiced to see me in good health."

 

"This journey, instead of satisfying, only served to excite my curiosity. Our old men, for several years, had told me that the antient speech informed them that the Red Men of the north came originally much higher and much farther than the source of the river Missouri; and as I had longed to see, with my own eyes the land from whence our first fathers came, I took my precautions for my journey westwards. Having provided a small quantity of corn, I proceeded up along the eastern bank of the river Mississipi, till I came to the Ohio. I went up along the bank of this last river about the fourth part of a day's hourney, that I might be able to cross it without being carried into the Mississipi. There I formed a Cageux or raft of canes, by the assistance of which I passed over the river; and next day meeting with a herd of buffaloes in the meadows, I killed a fat one, and took from it the fillets, the hunch, and the tongue. Soon after I arrived among the Tamaroas, a village of the nation of the Illinois, where I rested several days, and then proceeded northwards to the mouth of the Missouri, which, after it enters the great river, runs for a considerable time without intermixing its muddy waters with the clear stream of the other. Having, crossed the Mississipi, I went up the Misouri along its northern bank, and after several days journey I arrived at the nation of the Missouris, where I staid a long time to learn the language that is spoken beyond them. In going along the Missouri I passed through meadows a whole day's journey in length, which were quite covered with buffaloes.

 

"When the cold was past, and the snows were melted, I continued my journey up along the Missouri till I came to the nation of the West, or the Canzas. Afterwards, in consequence of directions from them, I proceeded in the some course near thirty days, and at length I met with some of the nation of the Otters, who were hunting in that neighbourhood, and were surprised to see me alone, I continued with the hunters two or three days, and then accompanied one of them and his wife, who was near her time of lying in, to their village, which lay far off betwixt the north and west. We continued our journey along the Missouri for nine days, and then we marched directly northwards for five days, a few days after, I joined more of the Otters, who received me with as much kindness as if I had been of their own nation, when we came to the Fine River, which runs westwards in a direction contrary to that of the Missouri. We proceeded down this river a whole day, and then arrived at the village a party of the Otters, who were going to carry a calumet of peace to a nation beyond them, and we embarked in a pettiaugre, and went down the river for eighteen days, landing now and then to supply ourselves with provisions. When I arrived at the nation who were at peace with the Otters, I staid with them till the cold was past, that I might learn their language, which was common to most of the nations that lived beyond them.

 

"The cold was hardly gone when I again embarked on the Fine River, and in my course I met with several nations, with whom I generally staid but one night, till I arrived at the nation that is but one day's journey from the Great Water on the west. This nation live in the woods about the distance of a league from the river, from their apprehension of bearded men, who come upon their coasts in floating villages, and carry off their children to make slaves of them. These men were described to be white, with long black beards that came down to their breasts; they were thick and short, had large heads, which were covered with cloth; they were always dressed, even in the greatest heats; their cloaths fell down to the middle of their legs, which with their feet were covered with red or yellow stuff. Their arms made a great fire and a great noise; and when they saw themselves out-numbered by Red Men, they retired on board their large pettiaugre, their number sometimes amounting to thirty, but never more.

 

Those strangers came from the sun-setting, in search of a yellow stinking wood, which dyes a fine yellow colour; but the people of this nation, that they might not be tempted to visit them, had destroyed all those kinds of trees. Two other nations in their neighbourhood however, having no other wood, could not destroy the trees, and were still visited by the strangers; and being greatly incommoded by them, had invited their allies to assist them in making an attack

upon them the next time they should return. The following summer I accordingly joined in this expedition, and after travelling five long days journey, we came to the place where the bearded men usually landed, where we waited seventeen days for their arrival. The Red Men, by my advice, placed themselves in ambuscade to surprise the strangers, and accordingly when they landed to cut the wood, we were so successful as to kill eleven of them, the rest immediately escaping on board two large pettiaugres, and flying westward upon the Great Water.

 

"Upon examining those whom we had killed, we found them much smaller than ourselves, and very white; they had a large head, and in the middle of the crown the hair was very long; their head was wrapt in a great many folds of stuff, and their cloaths seemed to be made neither of wool nor silk; they were very soft, and of different colours. Two only of the eleven who were slain had fire-arms with powder and ball. I tried their pieces, and found that they were much heavier than ours, and did not kill at so great a distance.

 

"After this expedition I thought of nothing but proceeding on my journey, and with that design I let the Red Men return home, and joined myself those who inhabited more westward on the coast, with whom I travelled along the shore of the Great Water, which bends directly betwixt the north and the sun-setting. When I arrived at the villages of my fellow-travellers, where I found the days very long and the night very short, I was advised by the old men to give over all thoughts of continuing my journey. They told me that the land extended still a long way in a direction between the north and sun-setting, after which it ran directly west, and at length was cut by the Great Water from north to south. One of them added, that when he was young, he knew a very old man who had seen that distant land before it was ate away by the Great Water, and that when the Great Water was low, many rocks still appeared in those parts. Finding it therefore impracticable to proceed much further, on account of the severity of the climate, and the want of game, I returned by the same route by which I had set out; and reducing my whole travels westwards to days journeys, I compute that they would have employed me thirty-six moons; but on account of my frequent delays, it was five years before I returned to my relations among the Yazous."

 

"The remarkable difference I observed between the Natches, including in that name the nations whom they treat as brethren, and the other people of Louisiana, made me extremely desirous to know whence both of them might originally come. We had not then that full information which we have since received from the voyages and discoveries of M. De Lisle in the eastern parts of the Russian empire, I therefore applied myself one day to put the keeper of the temple in good humour, and having succeeded in that without much difficulty, I then told him that the little resemblance I observed between the Natches and the neighbouring nations, I was inclined to believe that they were not originally from the same country, which they then inhabited; and that if the ancient speech taught him any thing on that subject, he would do me a great pleasure to inform me of it. At these words he leaned his head on his two hands, with which he covered his eyes, and having remained in that posture about a quarter of an hour, as if to recollect himself, he answered to the following effect.

 

"Before we came into this land we lived yonder under the sun, (pointing with his finger nearly south west, by which I understood he meant Mexico,) we lived in a fine country where the earth is always pleasant; there our suns had their abode, and our nation maintained itself for along time against the ancients of the country, who conquered some of our villages in the plains, but never could force us from the mountains. Our nation extended itself along the great water where this large river loses itself, but as our enemies were become very numerous, and very wicked, our Suns sent some of our subjects who lived near this river, to examine whether we could retire into the country through which it flowed.— The country on the east side of the river being found extremely pleasant, the Great Sun, upon the return of those who had examined it ordered all his subjects who lived in the plains, and who still defended themselves against the antients of the country, to remove into this land, here to build a temple, and to preserve the eternal fire.

 

"A great part of our nation accordingly settled here, where they lived in peace and abundance for several generations; the Great Sun, and those who had remained with him, never thought of joining us, being tempted to continue where they were by the pleasantness of the country, which was very warm, and by the weakness of their enemies who had fallen into civil dissentions in consequence of the ambition of one of their chiefs, who wanted to raise himself from a state of equality with the other chiefs of the villages, and to treat all the people of his nation as slaves. During those discords among our enemies, some of them even entered into an alliance with the Great Sun, who still remained in our old country, that he might conveniently assist other bretheren who had settled on the banks of the great water to the east of the large river, and extended themselves so far on the coast, and among the isles, that the Great Sun did not hear of them, sometimes for five or six years together.

 

"It was not till after many generations that the Great Suns came and joined us in this country, where from the fine climate and the peace we had enjoyed, we had multiplied like the leaves of the trees. Warriors of fire who made the earth to tremble, had arrived in our old country, and having entered into an alliance with our brethern conquered our ancient enemies; but attempting afterwards to make slaves of our sons, they rather than submit to them, left our brethern who refused to follow them, and came hither attended only with their slaves.

 

Upon my asking him who those warriors of fire were, he replied that they were bearded white men, somewhat of a brownish colour, who carried arms that darted out fire with a great noise, and killed at a great distance; that they had likewise heavy arms which killed a great many men at once, and like thunder made the earth tremble; and that they came from the sun rising in floating villages.

 

The ancients of the country he said were very numerous, and inhabited from the Western Coast of the Great Water to the Northern Countries on this side the sun, and very far upon the same coast beyond the sun. They had a great number of large and small villages, which were all built of stone, and in which there were houses large enough to lodge a whole village. Their temples were built with great labour and art, and the made beautiful works of all kinds of materials.

 

But ye yourselves, said I, whence are ye come? The ancient speech, he replied, does not say from what land we came; all that we know is, that our fathers, to come hither, followed the sun, and came with him from the place where he rises; that they were a long time on their journey, were all on the point of perishing, and were brought into this country without seeking it.

 

To this account of the keeper of the temple, which was afterwards confirmed to me by the Great Sun, I shall add the following passage of Diodorus Siculus, which seems to confirm the opinion of those who think the eastern Americans are descended from the Europeans, who may have been driven by the winds upon the coasts of Guiana or Brazil.

 

To the west of Africa, he says, lies a very large island, distant many days sail from that part of our continent. Its fertile soil is partly plain, and partly mountainous. The plain country is most sweet and pleasant, being watered every where with rivulets, and navigable rivers; it is beautiful with many gardens which are planted with all kinds of trees, and the orchards particularly are watered with pleasant streams. The villages are adorned with houses built in a magnificent taste, having pastures ornamental with arbours covered with flowers. Hither the inhabitants retire during the summer to enjoy the fruits which the country furnishes them with in the greatest abundance. The mountainous part is covered with large woods, and all manner of fruit trees, and in the vallies, which are watered with rivulets, the inhabitants meet with every thing that can render life agreeable. In a word, the whole island, by its fertility and the abundance of its springs, furnishes the inhabitants not only with every thing that may flatter their wishes, but with what may also contribute to their health and strength of body. Hunting furnishes them with such an infinite number of animals, that in their feasts they have nothing to wish for in regard either to plenty or delicacy. Besides, the sea, which surrounds the island, supplies them plentifully with all kinds of fish, and indeed the sea in general is very abundant. The air of this island is so temperate that the trees bear leaves and fruit almost the whole year round. In a word, this island is so delicious, that it seems rather the abode of gods than men.

 

"Anciently, on account of its remote situation, it was altogether unknown; but afterwards it was discovered by accident. It is well known that from the earliest ages the Phenicians undertook long voyages in order to extend their commerce, and in consequence of those voyages established several colonies in Africa and the western parts of Europe.— Every thing succeeding to their wish, and having become very powerful, they attempted to pass the pillars of Hercules and enter the ocean. They accordingly passed those pillars, and in their neighbourhood built a city upon a peninsula of Spain which they named Gades. There amongst the other buildings proper for the place, they built a temple to Hercules, to whom they instituted splendid sacrifices after the manner of their Country. This temple is in great veneration at this day and several Romans who have rendered themselves illustrious by their exploits, have performed their vows to Hercules for the success of their enterprises.

 

"The Phenicians accordingly having passed the straits of Spain, sailed along Africa, when by the violence of the winds they were driven far out at sea, and the storm continuing several days, they were at length thrown upon this island, Being the first who were acquainted with its beauty and fertility, they published them to other nations. The Tuscans, when they were masters at sea, designed to send a colony thither, but the Carthaginians found means to prevent them on the two following accounts; first they were afraid lest their citizens, tempted by the charms of that island, should pass over thither in too great numbers, and desert their own country; next they looked upon it as a secure asylum for themselves, if ever any terrible disaster should befal their republic."

 

This description of Diodorus is very applicable in many circumstances to America, particularly in the agreeable tem¬perature of the climate to Africans, the prodigious fertility of the earth, the vast forests, the large rivers, and the multitude of rivulets and springs. The Natches may then justly be supposed to be descended from some Phenicians or Carthaginians who had been wrecked on the shores of South America in which case they might well be imagined to have but little acquaintance with the artsr as those who first landed would be obliged to apply all their thoughts to their immediate subsistence, and consequently would soon become rude and barbarous. Their worship of the eternal fire likewise implied their descent from the Phenicians; for every body knows that this superstition, which first took its rise in Egypt, was introduced by the Phenicians into all the countries that they visited. The figurative stile, and the bold Syriac expressions in the language of the Natches, is likewise another proof of their being descended from the Phenicians.

 

As to those whom the Natches, long after their first establishment, found inhabiting the western coasts of America, and whom we name Mexicans, the arts which they possessed and cultivated with success, oblige me to give them a different origin. Their temples, their sacrifices, their buildings, their form of government, and their manner of making war, all denote a people who have transmigrated in a body, and brought with them the arts, the sciences, and the customs of their country. Those people had the art of writing and also of painting. Their archives consisted of cloths of cotton, whereon they had painted or drawn all those transactions, which they thought worthy of being transmitted to posterity. It were greatly to be wished that the first conquerors of this new world had preserved to us the figures of those drawings; for by comparing them with the characters used by other nations, we might perhaps have discovered the origin of the inhabitants. The knowledge which we have of the Chinese characters, which are rather irregular drawings than characters, would probably have facilitated such a discovery; and perhaps those of Japan would have been found greatly, to have resembled the Mexican; for I am strongly of opinion that the Mexicans are descended from one of those two nations. In fact, where is the impossibility, that some prince in one of those countries, upon failing in an attempt to raise himself to the sovereign power, should leave his native country withallhispartizansandlookforsomenewland, where, after he had established hi mself, he might drop all f orei gn correspondence? The easy navigation of the South Sea renders the thing probable; and the new map of the Eastern bounds of Asia, and the Western of North America, lately published by M. De-Lisle makes it still more likely. This map makes it plainly appear, that between the island of Japan, or Northern Coasts of China, and those of America, there are other lands which to this day have remained unknown; and who will take upon him to say there is no land, because it has never yet been discovered? I have therefore good grounds to believe, that the Mexicans came originally from China or Japan, especially when I consider their reserved and uncommunicate disposition, which, to this day, prevails among the people of the eastern parts of Asia. The great antiquity of the Chinese nation likewise makes it possible that a colony might have gone from thence to America, early enough to be looked upon as the ancient of the country, by the first of the Phenicians who could be supposed to arrive there. As a further corroboration of my conjectures, I was informed by a man of learning in 1752, that in the King's library there is a Chinese manu¬script, which positively affirms that America was peopled by the inhabitants of Corea.

 

Monteacht-apé after giving me an account of his travels, spent four or five days visiting among the Natches, and then returned to take leave of me, when I made him a present of several wares of no great value, among which was a concave mirror about two inches and a half diameter which had cost me about three half-pence. As this magnified the face to four or five times its natural size, he was wonderfully delighted with it, and would not have exchanged it with the best mirror in France. After expressing his regret at parting with me, he returned highly satisfied to his own nation.

 

Moneacht-apé's account of the junction of America with the eastern parts of Asia, seems confirmed from the following remarkable fact. "Some years ago the skeletons of two large elephants and two small ones were discovered in a marsh near the river Ohio; and as they were not much consumed, it is supposed that the elephants came from Asia not many years before. If we also consider the form of government, and the manner of living among the northern nations of America, there will appear a great resemblance betwixt them and the Tartars in the north east part of Asia."

 

The foregoing story has in it many internal marks of truth. Some of the more prominent of them may be here succinctly stated.

 

Indians who have never seen the ebbing and flowing of the tide are wonderfully struck with this phenomenon. Many of the inhabitants of Quebec must still remember that the great deputation of Indian Chiefs, from the interior and from the Mississippi, which came to Quebec during the administration of Sir George Prevost, and had in their company the sister of Tecumseh, were often to be seen sitting in a row upon a wharf in the Lower Town of Quebec, contemplating in silence, and evidently under the deepest impression of awe, the rising and falling of the waters of the St. Lawrence.

 

The white men here described correspond in every particular with the Chinese, who, there is reason to believe, held commercial intercourse with the South of Africa long before Vasco de Gama discovered and doubled the Cape of Good Hope. The Chinese are rather smaller than we are and have the palest complexion indigenous to Asia. Their muskets are match-locks and heavier than ours—their powder is inferior in quality.

 

The stinking wood mentioned by the Indian Chief is probably fustic, yielding a yellow dye which is the prevailing colour of the garments of the superior classes in China.

 

None of these things could have been known to the Indian Chief, and the general tone and character of Mr. du Pratz's work excludes the idea of his having fabricated the story.