s
University of California Berkeley
PATTIE'S PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE
TO THE PACIFIC AND IN MEXICO
JUNE 20, 1824 -AUGUST 30, 1830
Reprint of the original edition: Cincinnati, 1831
THE
PERSONAL NARRATIVE
JAMES O. PATTIE,
KENTUCKY,
.DURING AM tXPEDITiON FROM T. t.orf*. THRIIOCM TKK VAST REGIONS
BCTWEEX THAT PI ACE AKD THE rACIFIC OCEAN. AKO THEtiCC ACK
TRROCOH THCCTTV OF MCXICu TO VEB.A CRtX, CURING /OUrtNCl'-
IKCS Or SIX ttAR; IX U-MICIt KB &KP I/IS FATHER. WHO
ACCONPAMFD HIM. *l)rFi:AKU UNHEARD OK HAKIKIUfS
AKO D4KCE&S, HAD VAklOOit CONFLICTS WITH THE IN-
DIANS. AMD WEAK MADE ~CAPTIVLS. I.N VUICU
CAFTn-fTV HIS rATHER DIED; TOGETHER
WITH A DESCRIPTION OP THE COUMRV,
AtSD THE VARIOUS NATIOICS THROUGH
WHICH THEY PASSED.
EDITED BY TIMOTHY FLINT.
CINCINNATI:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN H. WOOD.
1831.
DISTRICT OF OHIO, TO WIT:
**~***~** BE it Remembered, that on the i8th day of Oct., Anno Domini
!T e / 1831; John H. Wood, of the said District, hath deposited in this
\ office, the title of a Book, the title of which is in the words following,
*'.^v^.'* to wit:
"The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie, of Kentucky, during an expedition
from St. Louis, through the vast regions between that place and the Pacific ocean,
and thence back through the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz, during journeyings of
six years; in which he and his father who accompanied him, suffered unheard of
hardships and dangers; had various conflicts with the Indians, and were made
captives, in which captivity his father died, together with a description of the coun-
try, and the various nations through which they passed."
The right whereof he claims as proprietor, in conformity with an act of Congress,
entitled "An act to amend the several acts respecting copyrights."
\Atlest, WILLIAM MINER,
Clerk of the District.
EDITOR'S PREFACE 1
IT has been my fortune to be known as a writer of works
of the imagination. I am solicitous that this Journal should
lose none of its intrinsic interest, from its being supposed
that in preparing it for the press, I have drawn from the
imagination, either in regard to the incidents or their color-
ing. For, in the literal truth of the facts, incredible as some
of them may appear, my grounds of conviction are my
acquaintance with the Author, the impossibility of inventing
a narrative like the following, the respectability of his rela-
tions, the standing which his father sustained, the confidence
reposed in him by the Hon. J. S. Johnston, 2 the very respect-
able senator in congress from Louisiana, who introduced
him to me, the concurrent testimony of persons now in this
city, who saw him at different points in New Mexico, and
1 Timothy Flint (1780-1840) was a native of Reading, Massachusetts. Grad-
uated from Harvard College (1800), he became a Congregational minister, and in
1815 went as a missionary to the Far West. Until 1822 his headquarters were at
St. Charles, Missouri; in that year he descended the Mississippi in a flatboat and
settled in Louisiana, conducting a seminary on Lake Pontchartrain. Ill health
compelled him to return to the North (1825), and thereafter he gave his attention to
literature. For three years he edited the Western Review at Cincinnati; but later,
removing to New York (1833), conducted the Knickerbocker Magazine. In addi-
tion to publishing a number of romances and biographies of Western life, he was
the author of two well-known books on the West: Recollections of the Last Ten
Years Passed in the Valley of the Mississippi (1826), and Condensed History and
Geography of the Western States (1828). ED.
3 Josiah Stoddard Johnston was born in Salisbury, Connecticut (1784), but
when a small boy removed with his parents to Washington, Kentucky. He was
graduated from Transylvania University (1805), and soon after began the practice
of law in Alexandria, a frontier village of Louisiana. Gaining reputation as a
lawyer, he served as district judge from 1812-21, was elected to the i7th congress,
and in 1823 became a member of the federal senate, where he supported a protective
tariff and the other measures advocated by Henry Clay. In 1833, Johnston was
killed in the explosion of the steamboat ' ' Lyon," on Red River. ED.
26 Early Western Travels [Vol. 18
the reports, which reached the United States, during the
expedition of many of the incidents here recorded.
When my family first arrived at St. Charles' in 1816, the
fame of the exploits of his father, as an officer of the rangers,
was fresh in the narratives of his associates and fellow sol-
diers. I have been on the ground, at Cap au Gris, where
he was besieged by the Indians. I am not unacquainted
with the scenery through which he passed on the Missouri,
and I, too, for many years was a sojourner in the prairies.
These circumstances, along with a conviction of the truth
of the narrative, tended to give me an interest in it, and to
qualify me in some degree to judge of the internal evidences
contained in the journal itself, of its entire authenticity. It
will be perceived at once, that Mr. Pattie, with Mr. McDuffie,
thinks more of action than literature, and is more competent
to perform exploits, than blazon them in eloquent periods.
My influence upon the narrative regards orthography, and
punctuation [iv] and the occasional interposition of a topo-
graphical illustration, which my acquaintance with the ac-
counts of travellers in New Mexico, and published views of
the country have enabled me to furnish. The reader will
award me the confidence of acting in good faith, in regard
to drawing nothing from my own thoughts. I have found
more call to suppress, than to add, to soften, than to show in
stronger relief many of the incidents. Circumstances of
suffering, which in many similar narratives have been given
in downright plainness of detail, I have been impelled to
leave to the reader's imagination, as too revolting to be
recorded.
The very texture of the narrative precludes ornament and
amplification. The simple record of events as they trans-
pired, painted by the hungry, toil-worn hunter, in the midst
of the desert, surrounded by sterility, espying the foot print
of the savage, or discerning him couched behind the tree
or hillock, or hearing the distant howl of wild beasts, will
1824-1830] Patties Personal Narrative 27
naturally bear characteristics of stern disregard of embellish-
ment. To alter it, to attempt to embellish it, to divest it of
the peculiar impress of the narrator and his circumstances,
would be to take from it its keeping, the charm of its sim-
plicity, and its internal marks of truth. In these respects I
have been anxious to leave the narrative as I found it.
The journalist seems in these pages a legitimate descend-
ant of those western pioneers, the hunters of Kentucky, a
race passing unrecorded from history. The pencil of biog-
raphy could seize upon no subjects of higher interest. With
hearts keenly alive to the impulses of honor and patriotism,
and the charities of kindred and friends; they possessed
spirits impassible to fear, that no form of suffering or death
could daunt; and frames for strength and endurance, as if
ribbed with brass and sinewed with steel. For them to
traverse wide deserts, climb mountains, swim rivers, grapple
with the grizzly bear, and encounter the savage, in a sojourn
in the wilderness of years, far from the abodes of civilized
men, was but a spirit-stirring and holiday mode of life.
[v] To me, there is a kind of moral sublimity in the contem-
plation of the adventures and daring of such men. They
read a lesson to shrinking and effeminate spirits, the men of
soft hands and fashionable life, whose frames the winds of
heaven are not allowed to visit too roughly. They tend to
re-inspire something of that simplicity of manners, manly
hardihood, and Spartan energy and force of character, which
formed so conspicuous a part of the nature of the settlers
of the western wilderness.
Every one knows with what intense interest the community
perused the adventures of Captain Riley, 3 and other intrepid
3 James Riley (born in Connecticut, 1777, died at sea, 1840) was a sea captain,
who experienced some romantic adventures. In 1815 he sailed from Hartford on
the brig "Commerce," was shipwrecked on the coast of Africa, and for eighteen
months held as a slave by the Arabs until ransomed by the British consul at Moga-
dove. In 1817, Anthony Bleecker published from Riley's journals An Authentic
Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce, on the Western Coast of
28 Early Western Travels [Vol. 18
mariners shipwrecked and enslaved upon distant and bar-
barous shores. It is far from my thoughts to detract from
the intrepidity of American mariners, which is known, where-
ever the winds blow, or the waves roll; or to depreciate the
interest of the recorded narratives of their sufferings. A
picture more calculated to arouse American sympathies
cannot be presented, than that of a ship's crew, driven by
the fierce winds and the mountain waves upon a rock bound
shore, and escaping death in the sea, only to encounter
captivity from the barbarians on the land. Yet much of the
courage, required to encounter these emergencies is passive,
counselling only the necessity of submission to events, from
which there is no escape, and to which all resistance would
be unavailing.
The courage requisite to be put forth in an expedition such
as that in which Mr. Pattie and his associates were cast,
must be both active and passive, energetic and ever vigilant,
and never permitted to shrink, or intermit a moment for
years. At one time it is assailed by hordes of yelling savages,
and at another, menaced with the horrible death of hunger
and thirst in interminable forests, or arid sands. Either
position offers perils and sufferings sufficiently appalling.
But fewer spirits, I apprehend, are formed to brave those
of the field,
'Where wilds immeasurably spread,
Seem lengthening as they go.'
than of the ocean, where the mariner either soon finds rest
beneath its tumultuous bosom, or joyfully spreads his sails
again to the breeze.
Africa, in the Month of August, 1815 -with a Description of Tombuctoo.
The book had a wide circulation both in England and America, but until other
survivors of the vessel returned and confirmed the account, was popularly sup-
posed to be fictitious. In 1821 Riley settled in Van Wert County, Ohio, found-
ing the town of Willshire, and in 1823 was elected to the legislature. He
resumed a seafaring life (1831), and an account of his later voyages and adven-
tures was published by his son (Columbus, 1851). ED.
INTRODUCTION
THE grandfather of the author of this Journal, was born
in Caroline county, Virginia, in 1750. Soon after he was
turned of twenty-one, he moved to Kentucky, and became
an associate with those fearless spirits who first settled in the
western forests. To qualify him to meet the dangers and
encounter the toils of his new position, he had served in
the revolutionary war, and had been brought in hostile con-
tact with the British in their attempt to ascend the river
Potomac.
He arrived in Kentucky, in company with twenty emigrant
families, in 1781, and settled on the south side of the Ken-
tucky river. The new settlers were beginning to build
houses with internal finishing. His pursuit, which was that
of a house carpenter, procured him constant employment,
but he sometimes diversified it by teaching school. Soon
after his arrival, the commencing settlement experienced
the severest and most destructive assaults from the Indians.
In August, 1782, he was one of the party who marched to
the assistance of Bryant's station, 4 and shared in the glory
of relieving that place by the memorable defeat of the savages.
Not long afterwards he was called upon by Col. Logan 5 to
join a party led by him against the Indians, who had gained
4 This station, five miles northeast of Lexington, had been established in 1779 by
four Bryan (later, Bryant) brothers from North Carolina, one of whom married a
sister of Daniel Boone. It contained about forty cabins in 1782 when, August 16, it
was attacked by a force of Canadians and Indians under the leadership of Simon
Girty. Faih'ng to draw the men out of the stockade, as had been planned, the
Indians besieged the station until the following day, when they withdrew. For a
full account, see Ranck, "Story of Bryant's Station," Filson Club Publications,
xii. ED.
i
8 For a brief sketch of Colonel Benjamin Logan, see A. Michaux's Travels,
volume iii of our series, p. 40, note 34. ED.
30 Early Western Travels [Vol. 18
a bloody victory over the Kentuckians at the Blue Licks.'
He was present on the spot, where the bodies of the slain
lay unburied, and assisted in their interment. During his
absence on this expedition, Sylvester Pattie, father of the
author, was born, August 25, 1782.
In November of the same year, his grand-father was sum-
moned to join a party commanded by Col. Logan, in an
expedition against the Indians at the Shawnee towns, in the
limits of the present state of Ohio. 7 They crossed the Ohio
just below [viii] the mouth of the Licking, opposite the site of
what is now Cincinnati, which was at that time an unbroken
forest, without the appearance of a human habitation. They
were here joined by Gen. Clark 8 with his troops from the
falls of the Ohio, or what is now Louisville. The united
force marched to the Indian towns, which they burnt and
destroyed.
Returning from this expedition, he resumed his former
occupations, witnessing the rapid advance of the country
from immigration. When the district, in which he resided,
was constituted Bracken county, he was appointed one of the
* An account of the battle of the Blue Licks may be found in Cuming's Tour,
in our volume iv, pp. 176, 177. ED.
7 This expedition, to avenge the battle of the Blue Licks and the attack on
Bryant's Station, rendezvoused at the mouth of the Licking. A force of a thousand
mounted riflemen under George Rogers Clark marched thence against the Shawnee
towns in the neighborhood of the present Chillicothe. These were completely
destroyed, the expedition meeting with no resistance. ED.
8 A footnote cannot do justice to the services of General George Rogers Clark
in Western history. Born in Albemarle County, Virginia (1752), he became a
surveyor on the upper Ohio. Serving in Dunmore's campaign in 1 774, the following
year he settled in Kentucky. Returning to Virginia to urge upon the legislature
the conquest of the Illinois territory, he was made a lieutenant-colonel and author-
ized to raise troops for the undertaking. June 24, 1778, he set out from the Falls
of the Ohio, upon his memorable campaign, capturing Kaskaskia July 4, and
Vincennes the following February. See Thwaites, How George Rogers Clark
won the Northwest, etc. (Chicago, 1903). The attack upon the Shawnee towns in
1782 was his last important work; an expedition up the Wabash against Detroit,
was undertaken in 1786; but part of the troops mutinied, and Clark was forced to
turn back before reaching his destination. He died at his sister's home, "Locust
Grove," near Louisville, in February, 1818. ED.
1824-1830] Pattie' s Personal Narrative 3 1
judges of the court of quarter sessions, which office he filled
sixteen years, until his place was vacated by an act of the
legislature reducing the court to a single judge.
Sylvester Pattie, the father of the author, as was common
at that period in Kentucky, married early, having only
reached nineteen. He settled near his father's house, and
there remained until there began to be a prevalent disposition
among the people to move to Missouri. March 14, 1812,
he removed to that country, the author being then eight
years old. Born and reared amidst the horrors of Indian
assaults and incursions, and having lived to see Kentucky
entirely free from these dangers, it may seem strange, that
he should have chosen to remove a young family to that
remote country, then enduring the same horrors of. Indian
warfare, as Kentucky had experienced twenty-five years
before. It was in the midst of the late war with England,
which, it is well known, operated to bring the fiercest assaults
of savage incursion upon the remote frontiers of Illinois and
Missouri.
To repel these incursions, these then territories, called
out some companies of rangers, who marched against the
Sac and Fox Indians, between the Mississippi and the lakes,
who were at that time active in murdering women and
children, and burning their habitations during the absence
of the male heads of families. 9 When Pattie was appointed
lieutenant in one of these companies, he left his family at
St. Charles' where he was then residing. 10 It may be
imagined, that the condition of his wife was sufficiently
* The war with the Sauk and Foxes was part of the general War of 1812-15.
These Indians had in 1804 signed a treaty at St. Louis, by which they surrendered
all their lands in Illinois and Wisconsin. But the cession was repudiated by the
Rock River band of the united tribes, who eagerly joined with the British in the
hope of saving their hunting grounds. The noted warrior Black Hawk accepted
a commission in the British army. ED.
10 For the early history of St. Charles, see Bradbury's Travels, volume v of our
series, p. 39, note 9. ED.
32 Early Western Travels [Vol. 18
lonely, as this village contained but one American [ix] family
besides her own, and she was unable to converse with its
French inhabitants. His company had several skirmishes
with the Indians, in each of which it came off successful.
The rangers left him in command of a detachment, in
possession of the fort at Cap au Gris. 11 Soon after the main
body of the rangers had marched away, the fort was besieged
by a body of English and Indians. The besiegers made
several attempts to storm the fort, but were repelled by the
garrison. The foe continued the siege for a week, con-
tinually firing upon the garrison, who sometimes, though
not often, for want of ammunition, returned the fire. Lieu-
tenant Pattie, perceiving no disposition in the enemy to
withdraw, and discovering that his ammunition was almost
entirely exhausted, deemed it necessary to send a despatch
to Belief ontaine, 12 near the point of the junction of the
Missouri and Mississippi, where was stationed a considerable
American force. He proposed to his command, that a
couple of men should make their way through the enemy,
cross the Mississippi, and apprize the commander of Belle-
f ontaine of their condition. No one was found willing to
risk the attempt, as the besiegers were encamped entirely
around them. Leaving Thomas McNair 13 in command in
11 Cap-au-Gris is situated on the Mississippi a few miles above the mouth of
Cuivre River. In 1812 Fort Howard was erected near that point, for the protection
of the Missouri frontier; its name was in honor of the governor, Benjamin Howard.
Fort Howard was a shipping port of some importance until the advent of the rail-
roads into that region, but it now exists only in name. The event here related was an
attack upon Fort Howard by Black Hawk and his band, immediately after the
siege of Fort Meigs (July, 1813). ED.
u Fort Bellefontaine was established (1805) by General James Wilkinson,
governor of Louisiana, on the site of an old Spanish fort named Charles the Prince.
It was on the Missouri River, four miles above its junction with the Mississippi,
and was occupied by United States troops until the construction of Jefferson Bar-
racks in 1827. For further details, see Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition, v, p. 392, note 2. ED.
13 Thomas McNair was a son of Robert, a blacksmith living at Troy, about
eighteen miles west of Cap-au-Gris; and a nephew of Alexander McNair, governor
of Missouri (1820-24). The family had emigrated to St. Louis from Dauphin
County, Pennsylvania, about 1800. ED.
1824-1830] Pattie' s Personal Narrative 33
his place, and putting on the uniform of one of the English
soldiers, whom they had killed during one of the attempts
to storm the fort, he passed by night safely through the
camp of the enemy, and arrived at the point of his destination,
a distance of over forty miles : 500 soldiers were immediately
dispatched from Bellefontaine to the relief of the besieged
at Cap au Gris. As soon as this force reached the fort, the
British and Indians decamped, not, however, without
leaving many of their lifeless companions behind them.
Lieutenant Pattie remained in command of Cap au Gris,
being essentially instrumental in repressing the incursions
of the Sacs and Foxes, and disposing them to a treaty of
peace, until the close of the war. 14 In 1813 he received his
discharge, and returned to his family, with whom he enjoyed
domestic happiness in privacy and repose for some years.
St. Louis and St. Charles [x] were beginning rapidly to im-
prove; American families were constantly immigrating to
these towns. The timber in their vicinity is not of the best
kind for building. Pine could no where be obtained in
abundance, nearer than on the Gasconade, a stream that
enters on the south side of the Missouri, about one hundred
and fifty miles up that river. Mr. Pattie, possessing a
wandering and adventurous spirit, meditated the idea of
removing to this frontier and unpeopled river, to erect
Mills upon it, and send down pine lumber in rafts to St.
Louis, and the adjoining country. He carried his plan into
operation, and erected a Saw and Grist Mill upon the
Gasconade. 15 It proved a very fortunate speculation, as
14 As Pattie obtained his discharge in 1813, he must have yielded his command
to Lieutenant John McNair, brother of Thomas, who was stationed at Cap-au-Gris
during the latter part of the war. See Goodspeed, History of Lincoln County,
Missouri (Chicago, 1888), p. 224.
The Sauk and Foxes signed a treaty of peace in May, 1816, wherein they
acknowledged the cession of 1804; but the consequent removal across the Missis-
sippi was one of the causes of the Black Hawk War (1832). ED.
18 Gasconade River rises in southern Missouri, and flowing northeast empties
into the Missouri about a hundred miles above the latter's junction with the Missis-
sippi. ED.
34 Early Western Travels [Vol. 18
there was an immediate demand at St. Louis and St. Charles
for all the plank the mill could supply.
In this remote wilderness, Mr. Pattie lived in happiness
and prosperity, until the mother of the author was attacked
by consumption. Although her husband was, as has been
said, strongly endowed with the wandering propensity, he
was no less profoundly attached to his family; and in this
wild region, the loss of a beloved wife was irreparable. She
soon sunk under the disorder, leaving nine young children.
Not long after, the youngest died, and was deposited by her
side in this far land.
The house, which had been the scene of domestic quiet,
cheerfulness and joy, and the hospitable home of the stranger,
sojourning in these forests, became dreary and desolate. Mr.
Pattie, who had been noted for the buoyancy of his gay
spirit, was now silent, dejected, and even inattentive to his
business; which, requiring great activity and constant at-
tention, soon ran into disorder.
About this time, remote trapping and trading expeditions
up the Missouri, and in the interior of New Mexico began
to be much talked of. Mr. Pattie seemed to be interested
in these expeditions, which offered much to stir the spirit
and excite enterprize. To arouse him from his indolent
melancholy, his friends advised him to sell his property,
convert it into merchandize and equipments for trapping
and hunting, and to join in such an undertaking. To a man
born and reared under the circumstances [xi] of his early
life one to whom forests, and long rivers, adventures, and
distant mountains, presented pictures of familiar and birth
day scenes one, who confided in his rifle, as a sure friend,
and who withal, connected dejection and bereavement with
his present desolate residence; little was necessary to tempt
him to such an enterprise.
In a word, he adopted the project with that undoubting
and unshrinking purpose, with which to will is to accom-
1824-1830] Patties Personal Narrative 35
plish. Arrangements were soon made. The Children were
provided for among his relations. The Author was at school ;
but inheriting the love of a rifle through so many generations,
and nursed amid such scenes, he begged so earnestly of his