BOBORARY MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, AND OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, &C.

PHILADELPHIA:

PRISTED AND PUBLISHED BY THOS, H. PALMER.

EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the sixth day of [L. S.] November, in the forty-sixth year of the independence of the United States of America, A.D. 1821, Thomas H. Palmer, of the said District, has deposited in this office, the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"A journal of Travels into the Arkansa Territory, during the year 1819, with occasional observations on the manners of the Aborigines. Illustrated by a map and other engravings. By Thomas Nuttall, F.L.S. Honorary member of the American Philosophical Society, and of the Academy of Natural Sciences, &c."

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned."— And also to the Act, entitled, “An Act supplementary to an act, entitled, “An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

D. CALDWELL,

Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

ΤΟ

JOSEPH COREA DE SERRA,

MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, &C.

ZACCHEUS COLLINS, Esq.

MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, AND VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, &c.

WILLIAM MACLURE, Esq.

PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, AND MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL

SOCIETY, &c. &c.

JOHN VAUGHAN, Esq.

TREASURER AND LIBRARIAN OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY

Gentlemen,

OF NATURAL SCIENCES, &C. &c.

PERMIT me to lay before you, the humble narrative of a journey, chiefly undertaken for the investigation of the natural history of a region hitherto unexplored. Excuse the imperfect performance of the gratifying task which your liberality had imposed, but which was rendered almost abortive by the visitations of affliction.

If, in so tiresome a volume of desultory remarks, you should meet with some momentary gratification, some transient amusement, or ray of information, the author will receive the satisfaction of not having laboured entirely in vain.

PREFACE

To those who vaguely peruse the narratives of travellers for pastime or transitory amusement, the present volume is by no means addressed. It is no part of the author's ambition to study the gratification of so fastidious a taste as that, which but too generally governs the readers of the present day; a taste, which has no criterion but passing fashion, which spurns at every thing that possesses not the charm of novelty, and the luxury of embellishment. We live no longer in an age that tolerates the plain "unvarnished tale." Our language must now be crowded with the spoils of those which are foreign to its native idiom; it must be perplexed by variety, and rendered ambiguous and redundant by capricious ornament. Hermes, no longer the plain messenger of the gods, exercises all his deceit, and mingles luxury in the purest of intellectual streams.

Had I solely consulted my own gratification, the present volume would probably never have been offered to the public. But, as it may contain some physical remarks connected with the history of the country, and with that [vi] of the unfortunate aborigines, who are so rapidly dwindling into oblivion, and whose fate may, in succeeding generations, excite a curiosity and compassion denied them by the present, I have considered myself partly excused in offering a small edition to the scientific part of the community, just sufficient to defray the expenses of the printer, who kindly undertook the publication at his own risk. I may safely say, that hitherto, so far from writing for emolument, I have sacrificed both time and fortune to it. For nearly