HEAP'S JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION TO C A L IF
ORN I Mn. BRAT.; the Superintendent of Indian affairs for California, having submitted a plan for "the better protection, subsistence, • Central Route to the Pacific, from the Valley of the Mississippi to California: Journal of the Expedition of E. F. Beale, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Cali- fornia, and Bwinn Harris Heap, from Missouri to California, in 1853. By Gwinn Harris Heap. Published by Lippincott, eratabo, and Co., Philadelphia; and TrUb- ner,-London.
and colonization of the Indian tribes within his superintendency," the Congress of the United States approved of the proposal, and voted the money for carrying it into effect. In addition to orders to proceed by the shortest route and to select lands most suitable for Indian reservations, Mr. Beale was also directed to examine the territories of New Mexico and Utah where they touch upon California, to " ascertain whether lands existed there to which the California Indians might with advantage be removed,"—which looks like the old story, a removal from the face of the earth. Mr. Heap was invited to accompany the expedition ; and he appears to have acted as second in command, besides discharging the offices of artist and historiographer. His volume contains an account of the journey.
The route was from Westport on the Western frontiers, to Los Angeles on the Pacific ; and the time occupied one hundred days. The direct distance was nearly nineteen hundred miles, extended to two thousand five hundred by the necessity of deviation to procure supplies, which had been lost in attempting to cross the Rio Grande. The whole line of travel was embraced between the 34th and 39th parallels of North latitude. The route was not absolutely unknown, it having been traversed in its various parts by different trappers and -traders ; but it does not appear to have been gone over continuously. In this point of view the ex- pedition was important, because it establishes a more direct line of route, readily available when the rivers are not in flood, which they seem to be from May till August ; and crosses the Rocky Mountains by a low pass, and of so gradual an ascent that it is only perceptible by the flow of the streams. Whether, as Mr. Heap seems to think, this would be the best line for the " transcon- tinental railway " which has been so long talked of, is for pro- fessional opinion to decide, after an examination of the different reports, if not of the routes themselves.
It is chiefly as an itinerary that Mr. Heap's volume is valuable ; and to any one contemplating an overland journey from the States to California it would be indispensable. In addition to the daily narrative of which the text consists, an appendix exhibits a regu- lar account of every station with its (estimated?) distance, as well as the halting-places and their characteristics. In a literary sense the book is rather dry, wanting the life and stirring adven- ture which distinguish many travels across the prairies. The ex- ception to this dryness is when the party got entangled in the Rocky Mountains among the upper waters of the Grand River or great Colorado and its tributaries. The rugged nature of the country, the swollen state of the rivers, and the want of know- ledge in the guides, gave rise to various difficulties, which finally ended in Mr. Beale detaching Mr. Heap to Mexico to get supplies and a guide. During this delay, Mr. Beale's party was visited by the dreaded Utah Indians ; and the commander went, somewhat against his will, on a visit to their camp : but it turned out better than he expected.
"A few hours' ride brought us to the Indian camp ; and I wish here I could describe the beauty of the charming valley in which they lived. It was small, probably not more than five miles wide by fifteen long, but sur- rounded on all sides by the boldest mountains, covered to their summits with alternate patches of timber and grass, giving it the appearance of having been regularly laid off in small farms. Through the centre a fine bold stream, probably three feet deep by forty wide, watered the meadow land, and gave the last touch which the valley required to make it the most beau- tiful I had ever seen. Hundreds of horses and goats were feeding on the meadows and hill-sides ; and the Indian lodges, with the women and children standing in front of them to look at the approaching stranger strongly re- minded me of the old patriarchal times, when flocks and herds made the wealth and happiness of the people and a tent was as good as a palace. I was conducted to the lodge of the chief, an old and infirm man • who wel- comed me kindly, and told me his young men had told him I had given of my small store to them, and to sit in peace.' 'I brought out my pipe, filled it, and we smoked together. In about fifteen minutes a squaw brought in two large wooden platters, containing some very fat deer meat and some boiled corn, to which I did ample justice. After this followed a dish which one must have been two weeks without bread to have appreciated as I did. Never at the tables of the wealthiest in Wash- ington did I find a dish which appeared to me so perfectly without a parallel. It was some corn meal boiled in goat's milk, with a little elk fat. I think I certainly ate near half a peck of this delicious stole; and then stopped, not because I had enough, but because I had scraped the dish dry with my fingers, and licked them as long as the smallest particle remained, which is 'manners among Indians, and also among Arabs. Eat all they give you, or get some- body to do it for you, is to honour the hospitality you receive: to leave any, is a slight. I needed not the rule to make me eat all.
"After this we smoked again ; and when about to start, I found a largebeg of dried meat and a peck of corn put up for me to take to my people. a " July 12.—Went out this morning with the Indians to hunt. They lent me a fine horse ; but God forbid that I should ever hunt with such Indians
again ! I thought I had seen something of rough riding before; all my experience faded before that of the feats of today. Some places which we ascended and descended it seemed to me that even a wild-cat could hardly have passed over ; and yet their active and thoroughly well-trained horses took them as part of the sport, .and never made a misstep or blunder during the entire day. We killed three antelopes and a young deer. Yesterday an Indian, while sitting at our camp, broke the ariainspring of hie rifle-lock. His distress was beyond anything within the power of description. To him it was everything. The corn, wine, and oil,' of his family depended on it; and he sat for an hour looking upon the wreck of his fortune in perfect des- pair. He appeared so much cast down by it, that at last I went into our lodge and brought my rifle, which I gave him to replace the broken one. At first he could not realize it; but as the truth gradually broke upon him, his jet became so great that he could scarce control himself; and when he returned that night he was the happiest man I have seen for many a day. " These Indiana are all well armed and mounted, and the very best shots and hunters. Our revolvers seem, however, to be a never-failing source of astonishment to them, and they are never tired of examining them. Yester- day, I allowed them to fire two of ours at a mark at thirty paces. They shot admirably well, putting all the shots within a space of the small mark, (else of a half-dollar,) and hitting it 'several times." Yet such appears to be the uncertainty of the Indian nature, that shortly after leaving this hospitable tribe, on Mr. Heap's re- turn, they fell in with another and more powerful party, headed by a "rascally old chief." These people beset them for some days, tried to take their rifles, and it was only by the greatest patience and care that an outbreak was avoided which would have ended in the massacre of the expedition. Mr. Heap, however, is of opinion that had they possessed the means of makino.b a few pre- sents to the tribe, as Mr. Beale was able to do at the first encamp- ment, no difficulty would have arisen. In fact, the Indians put the right of toll or customs pretty well: "You traverse our country, use our timber and grass, and give us nothing."
After leaving the Indians, the expedition reached a settlement of the Mormons; of which a satisfactory account is given as re- gards material prosperity and taste in externals. Those things, however, would more favourably strike men who had just emerged from a rough country with danger and semi-starvation, than denizens of a settled place.
" Pamwan is situated at the base of the mountains, and contains about one hundred houses, built in a square, and facing inwards. In their rear and outside of the town are vegetable gardens, each dwelling having a lot running back about one hundred yards. By an excellent system of irriga- tion, water is brought to the front and rear of each house, and through the centre and outside boundary of each garden lot. The houses are ornamented in front with small flower-gardens, which are fenced off from the square and shaded with trees. The field covers about four hundred acres, and was in a high state of cultivation ; the wheat and corn being as fine as any that we had seen in the States. The people took a laudable pride is showing us what they had accomplished in so short a time, and against so many ob- stacles. Day's travel, 32 miles ; whole distance, 1345 miles.
" August 3.—Most of the day was spent in having the animals shod, and in getting extra shoes made to replace those which might be lost in crossing the desert region between the Vegas de Santa Clara and Mohaveh river. An American blacksmith, assisted by a couple of Pah-Utah youths, did this work; and we were surprised to see what skilful workmen these Indians made. Most of the Mormon families have one or more Pah-Utah children, whom they had bought from their parents; they were treated with kind- ness and even tenderness, were taught to call their protectors ' father' and mother,' and instructed in the rudiments of education. The Mormon rulers encourage a system which ameliorates the condition of these children by removing them from the influence of their savage parents, but their laws forbid their being taken out of the territory. The children are not inter- dicted from intercourse with their people, who are allowed freely to enter the town ; but the latter evince very little interest in their offspring, for, having sold them to the Whites, they no longer consider them their kith or kin.
" As regards. the odious practice of polygamy which these people have en- grafted on their religion, it is not to be supposed that we could learn much about it during our short stay, and its existence would even have been un- observed by us, had not a ' saint' voluntarily informed us that he was one of those Mormons who believed in a plurality of wives,' and added, ' for my part I have six, and this is one of them,' pointing to a female who was pre- sent. Taking this subject for his text, he delivered a discourse highly eulo- gistic of the institution of marriage as seen in a Mormon point of view; of the antiquity of polygamy, its advantages, the evils it prevents; quoting the example of the patriarchs and of Eastern nations, and backing his argument with statistics of the relative number of males and females born,—obtained, no doubt; from the same source as the Book of Mormon. This discourse did not increase our respect for the tenets he advocated ; but we deemed it use- less to engage in a controversy with one who made use of such sophistry. From what he said I inferred that a large number of Mormons do not en- tirely approve of the spiritual wife' system; and, judging from some of the households, it was evident that the weaker vessel has in many instances here, as elsewhere, the control of the menage."
A. number of lithographic sketches by Mr. Heap are contained in the volume, exhibiting the most remarkable scenes theexpedi- tion passed. They are rough in the style, bat convey a more truthful idea than prettier pictures might have done.
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