



Produced by Marius Masi, Greg Bergquist and the Online
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Transcriber's note:

The following typographical errors have been corrected:

    Page 48: "... Brouillan, governor of Placentia, who assumed entire
      command, interfered with Iberville's contemplated movements, and
      declared that his own troops, the Canadians, should not accompany
      him on the opening campaign." 'Brouillan' amended from
      'Brouillian'.

    Page 157: "The difficulties of communicating with the Chopunish
      were very great, and if errors occurred it was not astonishing."
      'Chopunish' amended from 'Chopunnish'.

    Page 180: "... well armed and prepared as braves to sell their
      lives dearly; that they should go on, and if the Pawnees opposed,
      the great American father would send other warriors to avenge the
      dead." 'Pawnees' amended from 'Pawness'.

    Page 202: "Most unfortunately, on the chart transmitted to Ross by
      Wilkes, he entered, without distinguishing marks, land between
      longitudes 160 deg. E. and 165 deg. E., near the sixty-sixth parallel..."
      'parallel' amended from 'paralled'.

    Page 289: "The consensus of opinion in the Lady Franklin expedition
      pointed to Cape Joseph Goode, 80 deg. 14' N.,..." 'consensus' amended
      from 'concensus'.




[Illustration: A. W. Greely]


  _MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT_

  EXPLORERS AND TRAVELLERS


  BY

  GENERAL A. W. GREELY, U.S.A.

  GOLD MEDALLIST OF ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY AND SOCIETE DE
  GEOGRAPHIE, PARIS

  [Illustration]

  NEW YORK

  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

  1894




  COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY

  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

  TROW DIRECTORY
  PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
  NEW YORK




PREFACE


The compiler of a series of sketches of American Explorers and
Travellers experiences at the very outset a serious embarrassment from
the superabundant wealth of original material at his command. The
history of America for two hundred years after the voyage of Joliet has
been the history of courageous, persistent, and successful exploration,
wherein the track of the explorer, instantly serving as a trail for the
pioneer, has speedily broadened into the wagon-road of invading
immigrants.

Explorations and journeys of such an extent as in other and older lands
would have excited praise and merited reward have been so frequent in
this continent as to pass almost unnoticed. Hence the scope of this
modest volume is necessarily confined to explorations of great
importance or peculiar interest, and when made by men of American birth
who are no longer living.

In deference to the author's advisers, two exceptions have been made--Du
Chaillu and Stanley, Americans by adoption--otherwise African
exploration, so wondrously successful in this generation and so fruitful
in its results, would have been unrepresented. Again, the unparalleled
growth and progress of our American republic owes no small debt to the
wealth of physical vigor and strong intellectuality contributed by its
sturdy emigrants. These men, American in idea, purpose, and action,
whose manhood outgrew the slow evolution of freedom in their natal
country, merit recognition. What thousands of other naturalized citizens
have industrially wrought of the wonderful and great in this country,
these selected representatives have equalled in African exploration.

A chronological arrangement appeared best suited to these sketches,
which from Joliet to Fremont exhibit the initiation, growth, and
development of geographic discovery in the interior and western portions
of the United States. Since the sketches rest very largely on original
narratives some current errors at least have been avoided.

Generalization and criticism have been made always with reference to
later exploration, which necessarily enhances or diminishes the
importance of any original work.




CONTENTS

                                                                  PAGE
     I. LOUIS JOLIET, Re-discoverer of the Mississippi,              9

    II. PETER LE MOYNE, SIEUR D'IBERVILLE, Founder of Louisiana,    41

   III. JONATHAN CARVER, the Explorer of Minnesota,                 71

    IV. CAPTAIN ROBERT GRAY, the Discoverer of the Columbia River,  88

     V. CAPTAIN MERIWETHER LEWIS AND LIEUT. WILLIAM CLARK, First
          Trans-Continental Explorers of the United States,        105

    VI. ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE, Explorer of the Sources of the
          Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers,                         163

   VII. CHARLES WILKES, the Discoverer of the Antarctic Continent, 194

  VIII. JOHN CHARLES FREMONT, the Pathfinder,                      212

    IX. ELISHA KENT KANE, Arctic Explorer,                         240

     X. ISAAC ISRAEL HAYES, and the Open Polar Sea,                272

    XI. CHARLES FRANCIS HALL, and the North Pole,                  293

   XII. GEORGE WASHINGTON DE LONG, and the Siberian Arctic Ocean,  312

  XIII. PAUL BELLONI DU CHAILLU, Discoverer of the Dwarfs and
          Gorillas,                                                330

   XIV. STANLEY AFRICANUS AND THE CONGO FREE STATE,                349




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


FULL-PAGE
                                                   FACING PAGE
  GENERAL A. W. GREELY, U. S. A.,            (_Frontispiece._)

  ON THE SHORES OF THE PACIFIC,                             96

  A BLACKFOOT TEPEE,                                       112

  CASTLE ROCK, ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER,                      140

  CHARLES WILKES,                                          194

  PAUL BELLONI DU CHAILLU,                                 330

  HENRY M. STANLEY,                                        349


ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
                                                          PAGE
  SIGNATURE OF JOLLIET (OLD SPELLING),                      10

  "MARQUETTE'S MAP,"                                        15

  THE RECEPTION OF JOLIET AND MARQUETTE BY THE ILLINOIS,    25

  DE SOTO,                                                  34

  SIGNATURE OF LE MOYNE,                                    42

  BIENVILLE,                                                57

  BIENVILLE'S ARMY ON THE RIVER,                            63

  NEW ORLEANS IN 1719,                                      70

  INDIAN TOMAHAWK,                                          74

  THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY IN THE RIVER MISSISSIPPI,        77

  A CALUMET,                                                80

  NAUDOWESSIE INDIANS,                                      85

  INDIAN MAUL,                                              93

  CAPTAIN MERIWETHER LEWIS,                                119

  BUFFALO HEAD,                                            125

  LIEUTENANT WILLIAM CLARK,                                132

  BUFFALO SKULL,                                           162

  GENERAL Z. M. PIKE,                                      165

  INDIAN SNOW-SHOES,                                       172

  THE ICE-BARRIER,                                         199

  THE VINCENNES IN A STORM,                                202

  VIEW OF THE ANTARCTIC CONTINENT,                         205

  IN AN ICE-FIELD,                                         208

  JOHN CHARLES FREMONT,                                    214

  JESSIE BENTON FREMONT,                                   215

  ASCENDING FREMONT'S PEAK,                                218

  KIT CARSON,                                              226

  LAKE KLAMATH,                                            231

  ELISHA KENT KANE,                                        242

  THE ARCTIC HIGHWAY,                                      246

  A SLEEPING-BAG FOR THREE MEN,                            251

  THE COMING ARCTIC NIGHT,                                 256

  ESQUIMAU BOYS FISHING,                                   260

  AN ARCTIC STREAM,                                        264

  ISAAC ISRAEL HAYES,                                      273

  UPERNIVIK,                                               276

  HAYES'S WINTER-QUARTERS,                                 280

  ADRIFT ON A BERG,                                        285

  CHARLES FRANCIS HALL,                                    294

  IGLOOS, OR ESQUIMAU HUTS,                                299

  IN WINTER-QUARTERS,                                      302

  AN ARCTIC FIORD,                                         305

  A WOMAN OF THE ARCTIC HIGHLANDERS. SKETCHED FROM LIFE,   308

  ESQUIMAU WOMAN. SKETCHED FROM LIFE,                      310

  GEORGE WASHINGTON DE LONG,                               313

  HERALD ISLAND,                                           317

  IN THE PACK,                                             321

  WHERE THE BODIES WERE FOUND,                             323

  NOROS AND NINDEMANN,                                     326

  FINDING THE BODIES,                                      328

  THE GORILLA (TROGLODYTES GORILLA),                       334

  A VILLAGE OF DWARFS,                                     339

  A PIGMY WARRIOR,                                         342

  A DWARF PRISONER,                                        345

  ARROWS OF THE AFRICAN PIGMIES,                           348

  THE HUT WHERE LIVINGSTONE DIED,                          352

  MAP SHOWING POSITION AND BOUNDARIES OF THE CONGO STATE,  355

  TIPPU TIB,                                               359

  EMIN PASHA,                                              363

  FINDING NELSON IN DISTRESS AT STARVATION CAMP,           366

  A STOCKADED CAMP,                                        370

  RUWENZORI (THE SNOWY MOUNTAIN), IDENTIFIED BY STANLEY
    WITH "THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON,"                      372




EXPLORERS AND TRAVELLERS

I.

LOUIS JOLIET,

RE-DISCOVERER OF THE MISSISSIPPI.


If one should ask which is the most important river basin in the world,
there is no doubt that the Mississippi would be named, with its million
and a quarter square miles of area and its twenty-five or more billions
of aggregated wealth. Favored in climate, soil, and navigable streams,
and endowed with practically inexhaustible veins of coal, copper, iron,
and silver, feeding the world with its hundreds of millions of bushels
of corn and wheat, and clothing it by other millions of bales of cotton,
it is hardly so astonishing that within 217 years from its discovery by
Joliet this greatest of river basins should be the abiding-place of
twenty-seven and a half millions of people.

Speaking of Joliet, Bancroft wrote that his short voyage brought him
immortality; but in the irony of fate his explorations have not even
given his name a place in the last edition of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica. In writing on American explorers, it seems most fitting that
this series of sketches should be headed by this Canadian, whose name
is scarcely known by one in a thousand. That aught is obtainable
concerning the details of his life is due to the investigations of Shea,
which later were admirably summed up by Parkman.

[Illustration: Signature of Jolliet (Old Spelling).]

Louis Joliet, the son of John Joliet and Mary d'Abancour, was born at
Quebec, September 21, 1645. His father was a wagon-maker, in the service
of the Company of One Hundred Associates, then owners of Canada.

The son in youth was imbued with devout feelings, which, possibly
fostered by the elder Joliet as certain to bring station and influence
in manhood, led to his being educated in the Jesuit College for the
priesthood, in which indeed he received the minor orders in 1662. Four
years later, in the debates on philosophy, which were participated in by
the Intendant and listened to by the colonial dignitaries, Joliet showed
such skill as to elicit especial commendation from the Fathers.

His future career shows that his studies with the Fathers were not lost
on him, and doubtless they contributed largely to make Joliet that
intelligent, well-poised leader who filled with credit all duties and
positions incident to his varied and adventurous life.

It is probable, however, that during all these years he was at heart a
true voyageur, and that his thoughts turned continually from the
cloister and books to the forest and its attractive life. Be this as it
may, he practically abandoned all ideas of the priesthood at the age of
twenty-two, and turned to the most certain, and indeed, in Canada, the
only path to wealth, that of a trader in furs with the Indians. In this
trade only the hardy, shrewd, intelligent, and tireless subordinate
could hope to thrive and rise. Success meant long and hazardous journeys
into the very heart of the Indian country, where were needed great
physical courage and strength, perfect skill with gun, paddle, axe,
sledge, or snow-shoe, a thorough knowledge of wood-craft, indomitable
will or casuistry and tact according to the occasion. To paddle a canoe
from sunrise to sunset of a summer day, to follow the sledge or break a
snow-shoe path before it as far as a dog can travel in a march, to track
a moose or deer for leagues without rest, to carry canoes and heavy
packs over long portages through an untravelled country, were the
ordinary experiences of a voyageur, which were accomplished for the
great part on a diet of smoked meat and boiled Indian corn, with no
shelter in fair weather and the cover of an upturned canoe or bark hut
in stress of storm.

Joliet did not long remain in private adventure, for in 1669 Talon, then
Intendant of Canada, sent him to discover and explore the copper-mines
of Lake Superior, in which quest he failed. It was on his return trip
that Joliet met with La Salle and the priests Dolier and Galinee, on
September 24, 1669, near the present town of Hamilton, in which
direction Joliet's Indian guide had misled him when returning from Lake
Erie, through fear of meeting enemies at the Niagara portage.

Joliet's facility for map-making in the field is evident from the fact
that at this time he showed to the priests with La Salle a copy of the
map that he had made of such parts of the upper lakes as he had visited,
and gave them a copy of it. He moreover evidenced continued interest in
religious matters by telling them that the Pottowattamies and other
Indian tribes of that region were in serious need of spiritual succor.
La Salle later, in November, 1680, repaid this frank tender of
information of the little-known west by intimating his belief that
Joliet never went but little south of the mouth of the Illinois, and is
also stated to have declared that Joliet was an impostor.

In his account of La Salle's last journey, Father Douay, referring to
Joliet's discoveries as related by Marquette, says: "I have brought with
me the printed book of this pretended discovery, and I remarked all
along my route that there was not a word of truth in it."

The efforts to deprive Joliet of the credit of the original discovery of
the Mississippi falls before the despatch of Count Frontenac to Colbert,
then Minister, dated Quebec, November 14, 1674: "VI. Sieur Joliet, whom
Monsieur Talon advised me, on my arrival from France, to despatch for
the discovery of the South Sea, has returned three months ago, and
discovered some very fine country, and a navigation so easy through the
beautiful rivers he has found, that a person can go from Lake Ontario
and Fort Frontenac in a bark to the Gulf of Mexico, there being only one
carrying-place, half a league in length, where Lake Ontario communicates
with Lake Erie.... He has been within ten days of the Gulf of Mexico....
I send you by my secretary the map he has made of it.... He has lost all
his minutes and journals in the shipwreck he suffered in sight of
Montreal.... He left with the Fathers at Sault St. Marie copies of his
journal."

But to return to the circumstances under which Joliet made the voyage.
Among other orders of Louis XIV. regarding Canada was a charge to
discover the South Sea and Mississippi, and Jean Talon, Intendant of
Canada, lost no chance of furthering this object. La Salle's journey of
1670 had failed to reach the great river, though he descended the Ohio
to the falls at Louisville, and at his recall in 1672 Talon had the
subject of further exploration in hand. Joliet had lately returned from
his unsuccessful efforts to discover copper mines on Lake Superior,
during which he had probably been the first white man to pass through
the Straits of Detroit. Despite his late failure he had impressed Talon
as the man best fitted to lead such an expedition, and so before sailing
for France the Intendant recommended Joliet for the work to Count
Frontenac, the new Governor.

In those days the Church and Government went hand in hand, and but few
French expeditions went westward from Montreal without a priest to carry
the faith to such Indian tribes as were allies of France or liable to be
won over. As Joliet's priest-associate, James Marquette, a young Jesuit,
then a missionary at St. Esprit, La Pointe, Lake Superior, was chosen.

No better man could have been sent. Marquette was in the prime of life,
an expert linguist--as he had learned in six years to speak fluently six
Indian languages--gentle, patient, and tactful with the natives, devout
in faith, singularly holy in life, fearless, imaginative, nature-loving
and observant, as shown by his journal, which, owing to Joliet's
shipwreck, is the only original story of the voyage. His enthusiasm is
shown by the opening sentences of his journal: "I have obtained from God
the favor of being enabled to visit the nations on the Mississippi
River,... and find myself in the happy necessity of exposing my life
for the salvation of all these tribes, especially the Illinois."

Joliet followed the St. Lawrence to Fort Frontenac, at the entrance of
Lake Ontario, and with the exception of the portage at the Falls of
Niagara, skirted in his canoe the shores of the Great Lakes until he
reached the Straits of Mackinaw, on the north side of which, at Point
St. Ignace, he found the enthusiastic Marquette devotedly laboring for
the spiritual welfare of the Hurons and Ottawas there gathered.

[Illustration: A Part of the Map Published in Paris by Thevenot as
"Marquette's Map." It shows the route taken by Joliet across Wisconsin
from the Baie des Puans (now Green Bay) to the Mississippi River, also
part of the return journey, that is, from the present site of Chicago,
northward along Lake Michigan.]

The contemplated line of travel was that of Jean Nicollet, an
interpreter who had spent many years with the Indian tribes, who was
sent in 1638 to bring about a peace between the Hurons and Winnebagoes
who lived near Green Bay. After his negotiations he ascended the Fox
River, and making a portage to the Wisconsin, descended that stream some
distance, so that, as he thought, from the designation of "the great
water" by the Indian guide to the Mississippi, he was within three days
of the South Sea.

Joliet, however, was too practical to trust entirely to tradition or
oral description. He had already carefully charted all that was
definitely known of the western lake regions, and now at St. Ignace,
with Marquette's invaluable assistance, gathered all possible
information from such Indians at the mission as had frequented the
unknown country. This information being duly weighed and considered,
Joliet extended his map to cover all the new country, marking thereon
the navigable rivers, the names of nations and villages along their
proposed route, the course of the great river, and other useful
information.

Their means of subsistence and travel were the simplest imaginable, two
canoes and as large quantities of smoked meat and Indian corn as could
be conveniently carried. Their canoes were of the usual Canadian
pattern, of birch-bark covering, stayed with spruce-root ribs and
cedar-splint, with white-pine pitch smeared over the birch-bark joints
so as to render them water-tight. Such canoes were of astonishing
strength and carrying capacity, and of such lightness that four men
could carry the largest across portages.

On a bright spring morning, May 17th, Joliet and Marquette, with five
other men, left behind them the palisaded post and chapel of St. Ignace.
Plying briskly their paddles from sunrise to sunset, they made rapid
progress, coasting the lake shore until they turned aside to visit the
Menominees, or Wild-rice Indians, whose village was on the river of that
same name. Here inquiries for information of the "great river" brought
from the savage allies strenuous efforts to dissuade them from visiting
this Mississippi, where, they said, the unsparing ferocity of the tribes
brought unfailing death by the tomahawk to even inoffensive strangers,
and that war now raged among the intervening nations. They further
recited the dangers of navigating the rapids of the Great River, the
presence of frightful water monsters who swallowed up men and canoes,
the roaring demon who engulfed all travellers, and lastly the existence
of such excessive heat as to ensure certain death. After religious
instruction and service the explorers embarked in their canoes and soon
reached the southern extremity of Green Bay, where, says Marquette, "our
fathers labor successfully in the conversion of these tribes, having
baptized more than 2,000."

Joliet from Green Bay entered Fox River, finding it a gentle, beautiful
stream, promising easy and pleasant passage and abounding in wildfowl.
Soon, however, these agreeable aspects gave way to the sterner phases of
exploration, for sharp rapids were fallen in with where the strong and
uncertain cross-currents often threatened the total destruction of their
frail canoes, which would have proved fatal to their plans, by dashing
them against the sharp bowlders.

A serious but lesser evil to these enduring voyagers was the injury to
their mocassin-shod feet, which were cut and bruised by the sharp edges
of the rocky bed of the river over which they slowly and painfully
dragged their canoes for long distances.

The many rapids were safely passed, and on the 7th of June, 1673, our
explorers reached an Indian town which marked the extreme western limits
of French discoveries, being the farthest point reached by Nicollet in
his adventurous journey.

In this town dwelt bands from three different tribes, the Miamis,
Maskoutens, or Fire Nation, and Kickapoos. The latter two were inferior
in manners and appearance to the Miamis, who, more civil, liberal, and
well-made, wore two long ear-locks that Marquette thought becoming;
besides they were reputed warriors, who rarely failed in their forays.
They proved docile, attentive, and interested in religious matters, as
was shown not only by their talk with Father Allouez, but also by a
cross standing in the centre of the town, which was adorned with votive
offerings of skins, belts, bows and arrows to the Great Manitou for an
abundance of game during the dreaded famine time of winter.

The Indians used for their beds mats, probably made of rushes, which in
default of bark also served as material for the walls and roofs of
their unsubstantial shelters. Since Marquette refers to the advantage of
such building material as capable of being rolled up and easily moved
during hunts, it is probable that this town was of a temporary
character. It appears to have been well located, being on an eminence,
whence the approach of an enemy or the presence of game could be readily
observed in the open country. Marquette says of it: "The view is
beautiful and very