St Louis City Hotel-Bed-Rooms meagrely furnished-Situation of the Town-Rich Land-Prairie-French and American PopulationLead Mines-Minerals-Population-Presbyterian Church-Funeral Sermon-Meeting-House of people of Colour-Coal Fires-Cross the Mississippi in Steam Ferry-Boat to Illinois-Team-Boat former Conveyance-Captain Williams commands the Steam-Boat-Allowance to Engineer-Drive over the Prairie-Its beauty-Full of Game-No restriction as to shooting, nor as to putting cattle upon the Prairies-Mounds in the Prairie containing Human Bones, Pottery, &c.-Details respecting these Mounds-French village of Cahokia-Mr Flint's Account of a French village, of what it was, and what it is-The late changes have made the country not so agreeable to the French, and many have emigrated to the south-Mr Abrams recommends Illinois, and especially Jacksonville-Mr Kenney, a Baptist Minister, Candidate to be Governor of Illinois-His Address -Notice of Mr Kenney from the Illinois Intelligencer-Mr Lebarge's Carriage-Excursion to St Charles-Drive to St Charles-The Missouri-Its character-Extent-Council Bluffs-Whether has the name of the Mississippi been properly retained after its junction with the Missouri-Team Ferry-Boat across the Missouri-St CharlesSituation Population-Churches-The French people here-Mr Mack's Hotel-Mr Mack gave me a horse to the Prairie and the Mamelles Mr Flint's Account of his First Visit to the Prairie and

the Mamelles-Excursion to the United States' Barracks on the Mississippi-Beauty of the Terrace-Village of Carondelet.

April 1830.

The

WE arrived at St Louis on Sunday the 25th of April, on so cold a morning that the first request I made on reaching the City hotel, in the upper part of the town, was for a fire, which was immediately granted. hotel turned out a very comfortable one. It contains a great deal of good accommodation. The only inconvenience I felt arose from the people not being accustomed, as seems generally the case in the western country, to place water-basons and a towel in every bedroom. The system of washing at some place near the well is general, but the waiters or chambermaids never refuse to bring every thing to the bed-room that is desired. It is, however, so little the practice to bring a general washing apparatus to the bed-rooms, that they are very apt to forget a general direction regularly to do so. We had a great quantity of fine poultry at this house; and the table, upon the whole, was extremely well managed.

There is much rich land, and a great deal of prairie on both sides of the river in the neighbourhood of St Louis. It was essentially a French place until within the last fifteen years; but the American population is now great, and the town in a very thriving state. St Louis is more nearly in the centre of the great territories, of which the United States consist, than any other city in the union, and most advantageously situated for commerce, near the point of union of the

greatest of the American rivers. The Mississippi is at all times navigable between St Louis and New Orleans. The fur trade is carried on to a great extent; and the neighbourhood of the lead mines, the most extensive on the globe, (consisting of the richest ore, and covering an area of more than 3000 square miles,) renders St Louis the chief mart for lead. St Louis is not only rich in this mineral, but contains immense quantities of the richest iron ore, and a prodi gious field of lime, as well as coal. The population of St Louis consists of about 7000 persons. Several newspapers are printed here.

I attended divine worship in the Presbyterian church on the day I reached St Louis. Having asked the landlord of the inn which was the best church to go to, he at once replied, "I go to no church; but the Presbyterian minister is the rage." The Presbyterian minister, Mr Potts, delivered a very good sermon upon this text,—“The sting of death is sin," in a very neatly seated church in the upper part of the town. It was a funeral sermon, in consequence of the death of Mr Woods, an English gentleman from London, one of the elders or deacons of the church. In the afternoon, I went into a meeting-house of people of colour. They had one of themselves preaching sensibly, though it appeared he was not a man of much education. The sermon was, in great measure, composed of Scriptural quotations, and was delivered impressively; but there was far less manifestation of excitement than in a church

of people of colour, which I afterwards attended at New York.

I found that coal fires were universal at St Louis. There were more Frenchmen than Englishmen in the hotel, and a group of Mexicans from Santa Fe. There is a road, or a passable tract, from hence to Santa Fe, which waggons travel with an escort.

I made an excursion to the opposite bank of the Mississippi, into the State of Illinois, on the following day. There is a steam ferry-boat across the river, which is about a mile broad. The fare is sixpence Sterling; and seventy dollars is about the amount of the average daily receipts. The first boat put upon the river was a team-boat; and it answered so well, that a steam-boat has now been established, and the concern is a very good one, belonging to New York people, one of whom, Captain Wiggons, commands the boat. He is a very intelligent person, and seemed very anxious to substitute a low pressure engine for the high pressure one in the boat. I entered into conversation with him; and as soon as he found that I was from Britain, and travelling for amusement, he directed his collector to receive no money from me, however often I might cross. I availed myself of this privilege again and again, even in taking a carriage and horses across. The engineer of this boat has 1200 dollars ayear.

After crossing the river, I engaged one of the neighbouring farmers, Mr Abrams, to drive me out for a few hours over the immense prairie adjoining,

which, in one direction, is 100 miles long. The prairie was in great beauty. It consisted of beautiful undulating ground, in which there were tracts of roads generally dry. It was covered with wild strawberries, and with crab apples. Here and there, there were lakes, and now and then we came to a plantation of ground, enclosed with the ordinary strong railing of this country, a good cottage, and some cultivated land. The prairie was full of game, deer, wild geese, wild ducks, and the prairie hen. One of the planters whom I saw, a Frenchman from Verdun, gave us a glass of excellent cyder. He is just now finishing a house in the middle of the prairie, attached to which he has got 300 acres of land. He gives a magnificent description of the quantity of game that surround him. He and a boy have killed sixty wild ducks in a morning. There is no restriction against his or any of the planters putting as many cattle or horses as they choose on the uninclosed part of the prairie land, or cutting as much grass as they like; but the extent of the ground is so great, that a good herdsman is indispensably necessary to look after any cattle put upon the prairie. Mr Flint says, in reference to the Missouri, what is perfectly true, that "hundreds of thousands of acres of first-rate wheat land, covered with grass, and perfectly free from shrubs and bushes,,invite the plough; and that, if the country were cultivated to a proper extent, it might be the granary of the world."

In the prairie which I saw to-day there are a great many of those mounds, some of them of considerable