Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/161

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 101 country and Detroit, and I was then com- pelled to seek another channel of trade for my peltries and furs. In 18 — I made a large shipment of peltries and furs in a keel boat, the largest shipment I ever made from this country, by the way of Chicago. The keel boat left New Madrid in March with a freight valued at .$14,000. They went up the Mississippi, then up the Illinois, then up a stream I think they call Fox river, up that to within six miles of Chicago ; my object in sending m.y skins that route was to meet a government vessel which the government gen- erally sent out at the opening of navigation in the spring, with provisions and stores for the troops stationed there, but, unfortun- ately, when my fui-s and peltries got there the government boat had been there and left some five or six days before for Detroit. The hope of getting them to Detroit that season was hopeless. No vessels running the lake with the exception of one government ves- sel, spring and fall. My skins remained there all summer expecting to ship them in the fall. "When we examined and commenced preparing them for shipment we found them all destroyed by moths or bugs. I did not realize one cent from the amount stored there. While at New Madrid trading with the Indians and shipping my skins to Detroit until 1812, I purchased stock and produce from 1808 up to 1825 and shipped it to New Orleans in flat boats. M.v first visit to New Orleans was in the year 1809 having con- signed my first shipment in 1808. I loaded two flat boats with assorted ai'ticles of pro- duce and steered one of them myself, but un- der the control and management of a pilot of Pierre Depron. I got to the city on my flat boats, but how to get back was the next question. No steam boats running at that time and but few barges and keel boats on the river. I bought a horse and started back by land; crossed Lake Ponchartrain in an open boat with my horse and took the road from Maisonville to Nashville, Tenn., pass- ing through the Cherokee and Choctaw In- dian country (owned and claimed by them) to the Tennessee river. In getting to New IMadrid I was out six weeks, suffering much for the want of provisions for myself and feed for my horse, having to pay $1 per meal for myself and $1 per gallon for corn. My men had to wait some time at New Orleans before an opportunity offered to get back, and then the.y had to work their way home on a barge. From that period up to the present time I have continued visiting New Orleans every year and am of course well posted in being an eye witness to all improvements made in the city and coast since my first visit there. In 1810-11 I came up the Mississippi river in a pirogue with my hands that I had taken down on a flat boat. We left New Orleans the latter part of July with scant provisions or allowances of any kind for our trip having to rely on our guns and fishing tackle for a supply, not being particular as to what we killed or ate — Hobson's choice, that or none. Cranes, pelicans and cat fish, we considered a delicacy. We had not a tent or umbrella to protect us from the in- clemency of the weather; when it rained so hard that we could not travel we put ashore and peeled the bark off the trees to make shelter from the rain. We were out 45 days. From 1808 to 1812 but few inhabitants were on the river. At Point Chicot we found two Frenchmen at White river and one at the mouth of St. Francois, Phillips and iIr. Joy, and a Spaniard on the side opposite Mem- phis. (Then Memphis was not known or spoken of.) One or two Indian traders were there at that time. At that early period the