Part 23 (1/2)
The water in the Ohio had risen very much for some days, and poured with force into the Mississippi; this circuress, since above the junction we had a weaker streaht we reached a little town on the right bank, Gape Girardeau, where Mr Vallais had soh bank, and appears to be thriving and well built, in a fruitful and tolerably populous district On account of the nuation during the night would have been dangerous, we therefore spent the night at Cape Girardeau
There are here several examples of unlucky steam-boats The place is one hundred and thirty-two miles from St Louis
On the 5th of April ere set in roup of five wooden houses, called the town of Bainbridge, one hundred and twenty-two oods were landed, and wood taken in In the outset of our day's trip, the shores becaht sidesandstone rock, probably forty feet high; they were partly ater, and had singular forms One of these rocks, which stands alone, is called the Devil's tea-table Farther the river is coes of rock, of which one is called the Devil's bake-oven, where several stea On the right bank rises a solitary rock na very much an old fortress It must be about one hundred feet in circuh The river becaetation continued still , we encountered a very heavy storm, that lasted, with severe thunder, rain and hail, for a couple of hours On this account we could advance no farther without danger, and reht bank near the Saline River's mouth, sixty-nine miles and a half distant from St Louis On this river considerable and profitable salt works are established
On the sixth of April, we ain before daybreak The storm of yesterday had cooled the air very perceptibly After we had advanced five miles farther, we stopt on the left bank An establishoods intended for Kaskaskia were landed, which is a town in the state of Illinois, lying on the river Ouwa or Kaskaskia, two ain The country on the right bank was very well cultivated On a small eminence we beheld the little town of St
Genevieve This place is one mile distant from the river, on a little stream called Gabane creek Mr Vallais, and another of our fellow travellers, Mr Rozier, a native of Nantes, and established as a oods purchased in New Orleans here, and took leave of us
We stopped several hours The river takes a new direction against the right bank, wears it out in hollows, and often tears ahole fields, by which the left bank profits We accoers to the tohich contains about two thousand inhabitants, of both complexions The road ran between fields of Indian corn, and then over a bridge on Gabane creek The place has regular streets, but has rather a poor appearance I remarked only three substantial houses: one of them stands on an open square, and is the court-house Not far fro timbers Upon the eminence on which the place slopes down, stands a massive edifice, which indeed had a roof upon it, but ithout doors or s, and threatened to fall in
It was destined for an academy, but for want of funds the plan was not cohbouring lead erous, fro under the water Two steam-boats have been sunk here, the Franklin and the Cincinnati The accident of the last took place when Prince Paul of Wirte was on board I noticed here several pieces of a very brittle sandstone, found in the vicinity of St
Genevieve, and sent as an article of trade to Pittsburgh, where it is used in the e, we received the visit of a Shawnee Indian on board, a well looking lish He travelled on horse-back with his gun, hunted on the way, and sold his venison His dress was very similar to that of the Creek Indians Between twelve and one o'clock, ere again under way The right bank continued rocky, and contained below very singular shapes and excavations, which reminded me of the rocks on the Inn, and the one called Buckfarth Castle
About ten miles above St Genevieve an island lies on the left shore, called Fort Chartres, where at the time of the first French establish It was nevertheless partly torn away by the current, and at present, has vanished entirely
We passed several islands, of which three are called the Plattan islands In the woods on thesethe, we reached Herculaneuht shore The river Joachi creek, which here flows into the Mississippi, divides the place into two parts
Herculaneum is thirty miles from St Louis, is very small, but contains several decent houses, and supports itself by the lead establishhbourhood, and by two shot factories
The rocks, which forht bank of the river, open theh, which flows in a narrow, truly picturesque valley, which again recalled the Il fros of rock, in the back ground woody heights croith rocks, and appears very handsome On each summit of the rocks, stands what is called a shot tower The material of the rock here is wacke, in which there are many flints We stopt here to take in wood
The 7th of April, we continued our voyage about five o'clock, and reached St Louis about eleven o'clock forenoon Thus had we accomplished a distance of 1150 ainst the current, which before the introduction of the steam-boat required at least three months, a new testimony of the importance of this noble discovery, so honourable to the human intellect
We enquired in several houses for accommodation, but found the th in the Missouri Hotel, a tolerably ed to house ourselves very narrowly
St Louis has existed since the year 1763, and was settled by French and Canadians In that year when Canada with the left bank of the Illinois and Mississippi were ceded to England, these people were not willing to be English subjects, and withdrew to the right bank of the Mississippi, which then was under the doiven up to Spain The erants built St Louis and St Charles on the Missouri, as well as several other little places: they lived a long time cut off from the civilized world, and surrounded by Indians They effected but little in the cultivation of the soil, had al They would at length have becoes, had not this territory, with Louisiana, in the year 1803, came into the possession of the United States Since that time communication and roads have been opened between the United States and St Louis; ht their property and their industry with them: and by the introduction of the use of steam-boats, a new and easy intercourse was opened with the shores of the Ohio, and with New Orleans, that ilance at theplace St Louis is destined to become, when the white population has spread itselfthe Missouri river Perhaps it reat nation
St Louis lies upon a rather high rocky foundation on the right bank of the Mississippi, and stretches itself out, nearly a th, in the direction of the river The arden towards the water, the earth is supported by walls, so that the gardens form so many terraces The city contains about four thousand inhabitants It consists of one longparallel with the river, frohts behind the city Here single houses point out the space, where another street, parallel with the enerality of the houses are new, built of brick two stories high; soh stone, and others of wood and clay in the Spanish taste, rese the heights, formerly ran a wall, but it is now taken away At the corners stood uard-towers, the walls of which one still can see
In a northern direction from the city, are seven artificial hillocks, in thich for to the much talked of Indian mounds and fortifications, of which numbers are found on the shores of the Ohio and Mississippi, and which are dispersed over these regions from Lake Erie to New Mexico There exists neither docu the erection of these works, or of the tribe of people who erected thereat quantity of human bones have been discovered, in others, on the contrary, nothing This double row near St Louis has not yet been examined
Soon after our arrival, we iven overnor of the state of Missouri The general was absent in Washi+ngton
We were, however, received in a very friendly hters Governor Clark is moreover the well-known fellow traveller of the late Governor Lewis, in the expedition to the mouth of Columbia river, on the Pacific ocean, in the years 1804, 1805, and 1806 We afterwards went to visit Mr Choteau, as one of the founders of St
Louis, as not at ho to leave this part of the country, without at least looking at that interesting river; for St
Charles, a little town on the left bank of the Missouri, which empties into the Mississippi some twenty miles above St Louis, is but twenty miles distant froo there this very day We therefore hired a little two-horse carriage, and with it, I and Mr Hottinguer, and Mr Huygens, began our journey in the afternoon At first, all went right The road ran through an uneven prairie, upon which ht miles, we came into a forest, which lasted all the way to the Missouri The country was pretty hilly, the forest consisted of green-leaved ti trees, of Canadian poplars, andplants mounted over then of the spring here yet: the vegetation was still as backward as at that period of the year in Flanders This made no very friendly impression upon us, who had just arrived fro been summer In the woods we found several solitary inclosures, made by worm-fences Wheat, oats, and Indian corn were raised here The cattle, and the nued to take care of therants from the eastern states, also Germans, established here in Missouri, who have purchased the land froovernment for one dollar and a half per acre, and made it arable Most of the; on account of the small population of this state, and the want of a market, they cannot dispose of their produce We also passed a little village ”the station,” and afterwards had nearly been lost in the forest, as our coach of the road The road was ht shut in One of our coe of astronomy, and wished to steer us by the pole star
I trusted ment of localities, and opposed all learned demonstrations My other couidance, and I had the glory of finding the true road, for we arrived at half-past ten o'clock at night, on the right bank of the Missouri, opposite St Charles, at Chauvin's ferry
The way had latterly become so bad, that to prevent accidents, we proceeded on foot It was too late to cross the river to St Charles; we therefore had a frugal supper prepared for us at the ferry-house, and passed the night in a little garret-roohbourhood of the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi, cannot in any manner be healthy; in the summer bilious fevers prevail, and in the winter, what they call the influenza, which has shown itself in h, joined with rheulected, death may be the consequence To my no small alarm and dissatisfaction, one of our chamber associates was very er, who slept in the next apartment, was visited by thiscough duett
On the nextwe crossed early to the left bank of the Missouri, where St Charles was situated, in a small canoe The river is here three-quarters of a mile broad, has excessively thick and ht bank is rather level, yet so high that it experiences no inundation, while the left is pretty hilly St
Charles, which has the sain with St Louis, lies at the foot of a hill; it consists of a single street running parallel with the river, and is reater part built by the Americans who have come here in later times, and are inhabited by them as the most respectable portion of the inhabitants
The Canadian, (or as they are called here, froe, the French,) are less industrious than the A; they live in smaller, older houses, at the commencement and termination of the street The placeto the Catholic faith, and have a shen, a native of Ghent, a young man, ith the Abbe Maenhout in Pensacola, andstudents fro on his return froyh the state, or placed in the seminary five miles from St Genevieve
St Charles has no remarkable exterior, and the streets are not paved