spects the Indians, who remain still in the undisputed possession of this vast domain. If a few posts have been established for the fur-trade, most of them belong to the north-west company at Montreal. Though this tract does not want some fertile and agreeable spots, the general rigour of the climate will probably render it among the last to which emigrants, who have such ample choice elsewhere, will think of resorting.

The acquisition of Louisiana afforded to the States an opportunity of framing some new and important settlements to the east of the Mississippi. To the first was given simply the name of that great river, which it has for its boundary along a line of 572 miles. From the reports of the travellers who merely sailed up and down that river, and observed its flat, sandy, and inundated banks, some prejudice was felt against it. But when the interior districts, particularly on the banks of the long parallel stream of the Yazoo, came to be surveyed, they were judged to be almost the garden of North America. The valuable productions of the tropical and temperate climates are here afforded in equal abundance. It is fitted, above all, for the culture of maize and cotton and the rearing of cattle. Amid the present ardent spirit of emigration, therefore, it could not fail to be of speedy increase, and having, in 1820, reached a population of 75,000, had, in 1817, been admitted to the privileges of a separate State.

There remained still a large portion of Eastern Louisiana, having for its basis the varied and deeplyembayed coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and extending northward along several great rivers which fall into it, till it comes to rest on the Tennessee. This, in 1800, was formed into a territory, which, from one of these rivers, was named Alabama. It is of very various character, the soil being in many places sandy and swampy, and the climate even of doubtful salubrity; but there are some spots of excessive fertility, which attracted the eyes of settlers from the Carolinas and Georgia, for whom this settlement lay exceedingly commodious. Thus, Alabama, in 1820, had reached a population of 128,000, a great proportion of which, however, unfortunately consisted of slaves.

The acquisition of Louisiana opened a still wider range of emigration and discovery in the immense regions comprehended between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean. An account, however, of the expeditions by which these were explored and surveyed must form the subject of a separate chapter.

CHAPTER XI.

DISCOVERIES IN THE REGIONS BEYOND THE

MISSISSIPPI.

Acquisition of Louisiana. Claim on the Countries West of the Mississippi.-Expeditions sent to explore them. Pike to the Head of the Mississippi-To the Head of the Arkansaws. His Disasters-Return.-Expedition of Lewis and Clarke. They cross the Rocky Mountains-Reach the Pacific.-Long and James to the South of the Missouri.-Cass and Schoolcraft up the Mississippi.-Long and Keating to St Peter's River and the Lake of the Woods.

An immense field had been opened to American discovery and enterprise in the wide and luxuriant plain which extends from the Alleghany to the Mississippi; but the arrangement which now took place afforded to it still more vast and almost unbounded scope. Louisiana, or the lower valley of the Mississippi, had been originally settled by France, not without continued remonstrances on the part of Spain, which viewed with jealousy a settlement thus interposed between her possessions of Florida and Mexico. At length, by the peace of 1763, this region was finally ceded by France; but England, as the fruit of this triumphant war, obtained all the portion which was east of the Mississippi; while Spain had all that lay west of that grand boundary. The English part was transferred to the United States, in consequence of the successful struggle which terminated in their independence; while, in 1801, Spain was compelled, by the preponderant power of France, to cede her portion of it. In 1804, Napoleon was tempted by pecuniary difficulties to the very unusual step of selling this territory to the United States for the sum of sixty millions of francs (£2,500,000 sterling). Some American statesmen censured this as an improvident bargain, being one which really pressed heavy on the limited finances of the state; but subsequent issues have shown that its benefits to them were quite incalculable. The prosperity of the western settlements, as they rose to their present amazing magnitude, essentially rested on having for their débouché the grand channel of the Mississippi. The Americans, however, had an ulterior and still mightier object. On the possession of Louisiana they founded a claim to these immense tracts, forming almost another world, which stretched westward from the Mississippi as far as the Pacific. The Indians might well have called on them to show by what law of nature, or what acquired right, a band of foreigners had thus become masters of this immense region, which had been held by their own ancestors from ages immemorial, and of which these new claimants knew not even the aspect or boundaries. It cannot, however, admit of a doubt, that the Americans, having removed European rivalry, will make good their claim to this coun

try against every opposition which its savage and native possessors can make. Accordingly, it has already, in the great community of civilized nations, been recognized as theirs.

The Americans, having made this immense purchase, were not long in undertaking to survey the regions of which it consisted, and which were nearly as unknown as the most inland depths of Africa. A young and enterprising officer, Zabulon Montgomery Pike, was the first employed on this important mission. He was sent, on the 9th August, 1805, to explore the Upper Mississippi, and make a minute survey of all the interesting objects which its banks presented. He was especially instructed to inquire into the nature and extent of the fur-trade, with the residence and population of the several Indian nations, and to make every effort to conciliate their friendship.

Mr Pike in this expedition had with him a company of twenty men, in a boat about seventy feet long, furnished with four months' provisions. From Fort Louis to the confluence of the Missouri the current was rapid, but obstructed by sand-bars. Above, as described by former travellers, it became comparatively smooth and gentle, though at the mouth of the Illinois considerable agitation was occasioned by islands and sand-banks. Afterwards the river was bordered by fine cliffs, and through their skirts of forest extensive prairies might be discovered. On the 6th September he reached the mouth of the Ouiscousin, which had become a great rendezvous of the furtrade from Canada. The village of Prairie des Chiens, on its eastern bank, was the scene of grand meetings,