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THE "FATHER OF WATERS."

visited this great valley, they came from Canada, and descended the Mississippi; and seeing another river fall into it at right-angles, near Saint Louis, they naturally viewed it as a tributary to the mighty stream whose course they followed, and whose name they preserved; forgetting that, in the natural as well as in the political world, the tributary may often possess more power than he to whom he is supposed to owe fealty.

ST. LOUIS.

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CHAPTER XIII.

Situation of St. Louis.-The Catholic new Church.-General Clarke. Embark for Fort Leavenworth.-Requisites for a Tour on the Prairie.-The Missouri-Rapidity of its Stream. -Islands.-Fatal Case of Cholera.-Changeful Climate.Floating Obstructions. - Settlements on the Missouri. Scarcity of Game.-Gigantic Trees.-Fertility of the Soil.— Precarious Navigation.-Magnificent Thunderstorm.-State of Health on board the Steam-boat.-Tedious Progress.Mouth of Osage River.-Indian Painting.-Town of Booneville.-Price of Provisions.- Narrow Escape.--Village of Liberty.-Outfit for the Prairie.-A small Prairie-Swampy Wood.-Reception at Fort Leavenworth-Prospect from the Heights in its Neighbourhood.—Indian Tribes.-Commemoration of the 4th of July.-Pawnee Visiters.-Indian Chorus. -Picturesque Scene.-Arrangement to accompany the Pawnees to their Nation.

THE situation of St. Louis is admirably adapted for a great inland commercial city, as it is built upon a gradual slope rising from the river. Behind it are high and airy plains, which admit of its being extended advantageously in any direction. It is already the emporium of trade beyond the Mississippi, and the nucleus of all the traffic with the Indians; and in proportion as the resources of this vast western region are developed, St. Louis

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GENERAL CLARKE.

will probably increase in wealth and population. The streets are narrow, ill-paved, and ill-lighted; and there are but few buildings claiming the traveller's attention, either by their magnitude or beauty.

I was told that the Catholic new church deserved all admiration; but I could by no means afford it mine, as it is a very large building, with a sort of Grecian portico, surmounted by a kind of steeple, much too diminutive in its proportions, and surrounded by sundry ornaments, which I should have been quite unable to describe, had not my German companion called out, upon seeing them, "Gott bewahr, sie sehen gerade wie bettpfeiler aus." By -! they look exactly like bed-posts!" I did not, on this occasion, have an opportunity of seeing the interior of the building.

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I wished to stay a short time at St. Louis, being desirous to see its society, and having just made the acquaintance of the veteran General Clarke, whose travels to the Rocky Mountains are well known to all general readers, and who had probably gained more laurels than any man living in contests with the buffalo, the grisly bear, and the wild Indian. He was, during my visit to St. Louis, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the United States, and was held in high respect and estimation by the various tribes composing that heterogeneous race.* My plans were, however, frus

* The veteran has departed this life since the above remarks were written. By most of the tribes on the Missouri he was

REQUISITES FOR THE PRAIRIE.

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trated; for, hearing that a steamer was about to start in a few hours for the Upper Missouri, and that I might not get another similar opportunity, I thought it advisable to seize it, and accordingly embarked on board the steam-boat Hancock, bound for Fort Leavenworth.

I employed the few hours which intervened in providing myself with some of the most obvious requisites for a tour on the prairie; such as saddles, blankets, &c., and a few trifling presents for the Indians whom I might wish to propitiate. Taking with me as little luggage as possible in saddle-bags, I set forth upon a tour of which it was impossible for me to fix the locality or extent; but having for its object the manners and habits of the extreme West, and of the tribes beyond the American settlements.

It was with extreme regret, that I learned we must pass the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi in the night, as I wished to observe the different colours of their respective steams, which are as remarkably distinct as those of the Rhine and its tributary Moselle. At daybreak we were already in the Missouri, which appeared almost as large, as muddy, and as rapid as the river below St. Louis. The banks are well-wooded and undulating; and in this respect I was agreeably disappointed, as I

called their "Father," or "Sandy-haired Father;" as the President of the United States is, in all their talks or treaties, styled their "Great, or Grand, Father." 1839.

had been led to believe that we were to pass merely through a flat prairie country. The most remarkable feature in this mighty stream is its rapidity, and the huge masses of timber thus hurried on to the ocean. Large trees are seen in every direction, and in every state, from the dangerous "snag," with his head just rippling the water which hides him, to the monarch of the forest, with all his

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blushing honours thick upon him." Here and there vast masses of wood are collected, bearing almost the appearance of timber seasoning in harbour; and in other places they are already so consolidated with settled mud, that the elements of vegetation begin to appear; and the prophetic observer sees before him an island destined one day to be, perhaps, both populous and fertile.

There is nothing that conveys a better idea of the magnitude and power of this noble river, than the islands which he has formed in his descent; one of those we passed on the first day, was eight miles long and one mile broad, covered with timber, and

* It is difficult for a mere passing traveller to form an estimate of the speed of the stream on which he is sailing; it requires patient observation and experiment. As I had neither time nor means for doing it accurately, it may be as well to repeat here, that, according to Lieutenant Clark and Major Long, the average rapidity of the Missouri is about a fathom per second (very little more than four miles per hour); but in running over sand-bars and other impediments, it often doubles that rapidity: its mean descent is somewhat less than five inches to the mile, which is much the same as that of the Amazon and Ganges, according to Major Rennell.