70 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



qtiently in Canada ; and that a number of caves are 

 found there, among which there is one in the county of 

 Frederick, two miles from Fort Frederick, on the land 

 of Mr. George Mills, said to be the largest on the 

 continent. + 



Two French commissioners, from what was for- 

 merly the French settlement on the Illinois, were at 

 Richmond to lay before the Assembly claims for sup- 

 plies furnished the American troops during the war 

 and the garrisons of the forts on the Wabash and the 

 Mississippi. From the dress and the behavior of these 

 gentlemen, + as well as from other information, good- 

 living and luxury seem to prevail in a high degree in 

 those distant and little known regions. Since the ces- 

 sion of that part of Louisiana to Great Britain, many 

 of the French colonists have removed to the west side 

 of the Mississippi and become subjects of Spain ; but 

 many are still on this side, about the Illinois, where 

 several of their towns are of some consequence. They 

 send their produce down to New Orleans, and fetch 

 thence what they need ; so far, as it appears, they have 

 lived quite within themselves, and have little concern 

 for what foreign power has the ruling of them. There 

 are many Germans among them, and new colonists are 

 continually coming in, people who do not find the Ohio 

 country to their taste. The region of the Illinois and 

 the Mississippi is much warmer, and of milder and 

 shorter winters, than those parts of the east coast of 

 North America lying under the same parallels. The 

 soil is fat and fertile, and a new colonist arriving in the 

 spring can, with a little scratching and seeding of the 

 level ground between the trees, be sure of harvest 

 enough of turnips, maize, and pumpkins, to keep him 



