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for their contemplated emporium. But their condition and their dissensions made it impossible for them to accomplish the purpose for which they had suffered so much. They thought only of reaching the settlements, and planned to go on to San Francisco. Near the junction of Van Duzen's fork with Eel river, the men separated into two parties. Seabring, Buck, Wilson, and Wood left the camp after harsh words had passed. They almost perished and Wood was mutilated in an encounter with grizzly bears. On the seventeenth day of February, 1850, they reached the ranch of Mrs. Mark West, about thirty miles from the town of Sonoma, where they remained until spring.

Dr. Gregg, Van Duzen, Southard, and Truesdell, continued for a time to struggle forward along the coast in the direction of San Francisco. They became so enfeebled as to be unequal to the difficulties they encountered, and turned eastward about latitude thirty-nine degrees and thirty-six minutes, hoping to reach the valley of Sacramento. Dr. Gregg grew weaker daily after the separation, and the other members of his party came near perishing. One day on the margin of a lake which they had reached, Dr. Gregg fell unconscious from his horse. He never again uttered a word, though he lived for several hours. It was on February 25, 1850, on the shores of Clear lake, in what is now Lake county, California, that Dr. Josiah Gregg died from hardship, exposure, and starvation- principally from starvation.

Dr. Gregg was constantly referred to by his associates in this exploration as an old man. He must have been gray and have borne the appearance of an old man. His strenuous life and his naturally frail constitution combined to make him old beyond his years, for he was not an old man. He should have been in the prime of life at that time, for he was only in his fortyfourth year.

In Schoolcraft's Indian tribes, there is the "Journal of the expedition of Colonel Redick M'Kee, United States Indian agent, through northwestern California. Performed in the summer and fall of 1851." Thomas Seabring was the guide of

1 H. R. Schoolcraft, Information respecting the history, condition, and prospects of the Indian tribes of the United States: collected and prepared under the direction of the bureau of Indian affairs per act of congress of March 3rd, 1847 (Philadelphia, 1851-1857), 3:99-177. The journal was kept by George Gibbs.

this expedition. He told Colonel M'Kee that Dr. Gregg and his party left the coast with the intention of reaching Napa valley, and that the lake had been passed when Dr. Gregg died. Seabring must have obtained this information from some one of the three men who went with Dr. Gregg when the main party finally separated, for he was with the party which went up Eel river.

It was the impression of scholars and scientists on the Pacific coast that the observations made by Dr. Gregg on the expedition were of great value and that the minutes and notes of them were full and complete. Colonel M'Kee expressed regret that they had not been published. Their fate is unknown. Dr. Gregg may have had a presentiment that he would never return from this journey to the Trinity river country. The last letter he wrote to Jesse Sutton directed him (Sutton) to take charge of his effects and turn them over to his brother, John Gregg, in case he lost his life. Sutton, in compliance, did send John Gregg the "memoranda or Journal," together with the last letter received by him. As to what this journal was, there is no information. It would seem that it was the record of his observations made on this California expedition. Inquiry made by letter to Shreveport never brought any response whatever. What finally became of the record is not known.

2

So far as practical utility is concerned, the discovery of Humboldt bay by Dr. Gregg's party was its real discovery. The next spring it became generally known that this exploration had been made. Settlers went in by land and sea. A city was founded on this bay. A steel engraving of it may be found in Schoolcraft, where it is shown as having ten houses. Other towns were laid out, and all the region round about was explored, the mines developed, and the country settled. So Dr. Gregg left a lasting monument to himself in California. He was moved to his work there by his active interest in the new country. He undoubtedly looked far beyond the gold that was being taken from the streams. He was certain that agriculture and commercial development would follow. His work was devoted to defining the lines of the great commonwealth which he saw, in the future, rising upon that coast. As a wider knowledge 2 Schoolcraft, Indian tribes, 3: 130.

of the man and of what he accomplished prevails in that land, the labors and sacrifices of Dr. Josiah Gregg will have full recognition and appreciation in California.

I wish to close this paper with a few general remarks on Dr. Gregg and his writings.

Dr. Gregg's book was published first in New York, in 1844. The full title is as follows: Commerce of the prairies, or the journal of a Santa Fé trader, during eight expeditions across the great western prairies, and a residence of nearly nine years in northern Mexico. The great worth of the work was recognized at once. It became the authority on all subjects of which it treated; and not only has it retained the high place it immediately won, but its value has increased with a more extensive knowledge of its times. Much of the history of western Missouri, Kansas, New Mexico, northern Mexico, north Texas, and the entire territory embraced in the new state of Oklahoma, must finally rest upon the great work of Dr. Gregg. It embraces accounts of the Indian tribes inhabiting that vast country, accounts which have stood the tests of the scientists of our own times. It contains acute delineations of the traits and characteristics of the Mexican people. It gave the first accurate statement of the geographical conformation of the country, the true course of its streams, the wild animals it contained, and its natural resources. The state of Oklahoma will need little better descriptions of its vast gypsum-beds than can be found in the pages of this book; and its salt deposits were carefully examined and adequately described. Dr. Gregg was the first to note the diminishing numbers of the buffalo, and he predicted their final extermination at no distant day. All this is beautifully told. His diction is masterful; his style is simple, chaste, elegant, pleasing, and sometimes eloquent. His descriptions are complete and full, and never tedious. The whole work is dignified and scholarly. The map which he drew for his book was pronounced by Dr. Elliott Coues (the highest authority) the best of its time. Upon its publication the book was immediately recognized as a masterpiece, and that verdict will ever stand.

Dr. Gregg was a merchant, with his own money invested in competition with many others who were engaged in the same business. He sought new fields for his enterprises; he explored

countries and laid out new routes over which to carry on his trade. He held his own against the Mexicans, who were bent on despoiling him; and when they sent troops to compel him to return to a town upon one occasion, he was confident of his ability to defeat them with only his servants. He chose to return, however, and he faced the authorities with such resolute bearing that he was suffered to depart with their apologies. His fearlessness is the prominent characteristic of all his intercourse with the Mexicans and Indians; and the accounts of his adventures with the latter, had he preserved them, would fill volumes. In his conflicts with them he never quailed, never gave an inch, but stood his ground determined and grim as death. His iron will is typical of that unconquerable spirit that carried American conquest to the Pacific ocean.

Exactly where his body rests we may never know. He lies within the bounds of that great state, which, more than all others, his Missouri fellow-citizens turned upside down to fill the world with gold.. And this honor she has forgotten. His monument he built with his own hands, but other pillars will be raised to his memory in many states by his grateful countrymen. The one to tower in California will be high. But that erected by Missouri should overtop them all.

KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

TOPEKA

WILLIAM E. CONNELLEY

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MIAMI AND ERIE CANAL

The combined artificial channel known as the Miami and Erie canal, when constructed, traversed fifteen of the eighty-eight counties of the state of Ohio, its northern termination being in Maumee bay, Lake Erie, at Toledo, and its southern terminus in the Ohio river, at the mouth of Deer creek, within the limits of Cincinnati. Until 1849 it was known as three distinct bodies of construction and designated by various names: (1) Its southern portion, from Cincinnati to Dayton, a distance of sixtyseven miles, is referred to in the public records as "the Miami canal" and was the first part of the line to be constructed. It was started in 1825 and finished three years later. (2) The middle portion was designated "the extension of the Miami canal" and was that part of the line which extended from Dayton to its intersection with the Wabash and Erie canal, about eight miles west of Defiance. The distance from Dayton to the intersection was about 113 miles, exclusive of the Sidney feeder, which was fourteen miles long.' This was the second unit of the line to be begun and the last to be finished, construction lasting, with many interruptions, from 1833 to 1845. (3) The Wabash and Erie canal completed the series, extending from the point of intersection with the Miami extension canal to Maumee bay, at Toledo, a distance of ninety-one miles. It was begun in 1837 and finished in 1842.2 For the purpose of convenience in bookkeeping and general simplicity in designation, this combined body of water in 1849, by act of the Ohio legislature, became officially known as "the Miami and Erie canal." "

1 See reports of canal commissioners, 1825-1845. They are variously designated as Canal reports, Reports of the board of public works, Canal commissioners' reports, Canal documents, etc. Ohio State Journal, September 25, 1828; Cincinnati Gazette, January 14, 1825; Tenth census of the United States, 1880, transportation, volume 4, part 2, p. 17.

2 Ibid.; Report of board of public works, 1843.

3 Report of canal commission, 1845.

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