Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 3. The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth Century. Verne Jules
that they spring from the same stock as the Medes and Persians. This opinion, however, appears to us mere conjecture, as in the time of Klaproth the interpretation of cuneiform inscriptions had not been accomplished, and too little was known of the language of the Medes for any one to judge of its resemblance to the Ossete idiom.
"However," continues Klaproth, "after meeting again the Sarmatic Medes of the ancients in this people, it is still more surprising also to recognize the Alains, who occupied the districts north of the Caucasus."
He adds: "It follows from all we have said, that the Ossetes, who call themselves Irons, are the Medes, who assumed the name of Irans, and whom Herodotus styles the Arioi. They are, moreover, the Sarmatic Medes of the ancients, and belong to the Median colony founded in the Caucasus by the Scythians. They are the As or Alains of the middle ages. And lastly, they are the Iasses of Russian chronicles, from whom some of the Caucasus range took their name of the Iassic Mountains." This is not the place to discuss identifications belonging to the realm of criticism. We will content ourselves with adding to these remarks of Klaproth on the Ossete language, that its pronunciation resembles that of the Low-German and Slavonic dialects.
The Georgians differ essentially from the neighbouring nations, alike in their language and in their physical and moral qualities. They are divided into four principal tribes – the Karthalinians, Mingrelians, and Shvans (or Swanians), inhabiting the southern range of the Caucasus, and the Lazes, a wild robber tribe.
As we have seen, the facts collected by Klaproth are very curious, and throw an unexpected light on the migration of ancient races. The penetration and sagacity of the traveller were marvellous, and his memory was extraordinary. The scholar of Berlin rendered signal services to the science of philology. It is to be regretted that his qualities as a man, his principles, and his temper, were not on a level with his knowledge and acumen as a professor.
We must now leave the Old World for the New, and give an account of the explorations of the young republic of the United States. So soon as the Federal Government was free from the anxieties of war, and its position was alike established and recognized, public attention was directed to the "fur country," which had in turn attracted the English, the Spanish, and the French. Nootka Sound and the neighbouring coasts, discovered by the great Cook and the talented Quadra, Vancouver, and Marchand, were American. Moreover, the Monroe doctrine, destined later to excite so much discussion, already existed in embryo in the minds of the statesmen of the day.
In accordance with an Act of Congress, Captain Merryweather Lewis and Lieutenant William Clarke, were commissioned to trace the Missouri, from its junction with the Mississippi to its source, and to cross the Rocky Mountains by the easiest and shortest route, thus opening up communication between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. The officers were also to trade with any Indian tribes they might meet.
The expedition was composed of regular troops and volunteers, numbering altogether, including the leaders, forty-three men; one boat and two canoes completed the equipment.
On the 14th May, 1804, the Americans left Wood River, which flows into the Mississippi, and embarked on the Missouri. From what Cass had said in his journal, the explorers expected to have to contend with natural dangers of a very formidable description, and also to fight their way amongst natives of gigantic stature, whose hostility to the white man was invincible.
During the first days of this long canoe voyage, only to be compared to those of Orellana and Condamine on the Amazon, the Americans were fortunate enough to meet with some Sioux Indians, an old Frenchman, a Canadian coureur des bois, or trapper, who spoke the languages of most of the Missouri tribes, and consented to accompany the expedition as interpreter.
They passed the mouths of the Osage, Kansas, Platte or Nebraska, and White River, all tributaries of the Missouri, successively, and met various parties of Osage and Sioux, or Maha Indians, who all appeared to be in a state of utter degradation. One tribe of Sioux had suffered so much from smallpox, that the male survivors, in a fit of rage and misery, had killed the women and children spared by the terrible malady, and fled from the infected neighbourhood.
A little farther north dwelt the Ricaris, or Recs, at first supposed to be the cleanest, most polite, and most industrious of the tribes the expedition met with; but a few thefts soon modified that favourable judgment. It is curious that these people do not depend entirely on hunting, but cultivate corn, peas, and tobacco.
This is not, however, the case with the Mandans, who are a more robust race. A custom obtains among them, also characteristic of Polynesia – they do not bury their dead, but expose them on a scaffold.
Clarke's narrative gives us a few details relating to this strange tribe. The Mandans look upon the Supreme Being only as an embodiment of the power of healing. As a result they worship two gods, whom they call the Great Medicine or the Physician, and the Great Spirit. It would seem that life is so precious to them that they are impelled to worship all that can prolong it!
Their origin is strange. They originally lived in a large subterranean village hollowed out under the ground on the borders of a lake. A vine, however, struck its roots so deeply in the earth as to reach their habitations, and some of them ascended to the surface by the aid of this impromptu ladder. The descriptions given by them on their return of the vast hunting-grounds, rich in game and fruit, which they had seen, led the rest of the tribe to resolve to reach so favoured a land. Half of them had gained the surface, when the vine, bending beneath the weight of a fat woman, gave way, and rendered the ascent of the rest impossible. After death the Mandans expect to return to their subterranean home, but only those who die with a clear conscience can reach it; the guilty will be flung into a lake.
The explorers took up their quarters for the winter amongst the Mandans, on the 1st of November. They built huts, as comfortable as possible with the materials at their command; and in spite of the extreme cold, gave themselves up to the pleasures of hunting, which soon became a positive necessity of their existence.
When the ice should break up on the Missouri, the explorers hoped to continue their voyage; but on their sending the boat down to St. Louis, laden with the skins and furs already obtained, only thirty men were found willing to carry the expedition through to the end.
The travellers soon passed the mouth of the Yellowstone River, with a current nearly as strong as that of the Missouri, flowing through districts abounding in game.
Cruel was their perplexity when they arrived at a fork where the Missouri divided into two rivers of nearly equal volume, for which was the main stream? Captain Lewis with a party of scouts ascended the southern branch, and soon came in sight of the Rocky Mountains, completely covered with snow. Guided to the spot by a terrific uproar, he beheld the Missouri fling itself in one broad sheet of water over a rocky precipice, beyond which it formed a broken series of rapids, extending for several miles.
The detachment now followed this branch, which led them into the heart of the mountains, and for three or four miles dashed along between two perpendicular walls of rock, finally dividing itself into three parts, to which were given the names of Jefferson, Madison, and Galatin, after celebrated American statesmen.
The last heights were soon crossed, and then the expedition descended the slopes overlooking the Pacific. The Americans had brought with them a Soshone woman, who had been protected as a girl by the Indians of the east, and not only did she serve the explorers faithfully as an interpreter, but also, through her recognition of a brother in the chief of a tribe disposed to be hostile, she from that moment secured cordial treatment for the white men. Unfortunately the country was poor, the people living entirely on wild berries, bark, and the little game they were able to obtain.
The Americans, little accustomed to this frugal fare, had to eke it out by eating their horses, which had grown very thin, and buying all the dogs the natives would consent to sell. Hence they obtained the nickname of Dog-eaters.
As the temperature became milder, so did the character of the natives, whilst food grew more abundant; and as they came down the Oregon, also known as the Columbia, the salmon formed a seasonable addition to the bill of fare. When the Columbia, which is dangerous for navigation, approaches the sea, it forms a vast estuary, where the waves from the offing meet the current of the river. The Americans more than once incurred considerable risk of being