430 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



Yes, I have something to cheer me on my way; and 

 that is, that what I see and take note of, may give pleas- 

 ure to those, who in imagination, accompany on his tour, 



their old friend, 



Solon Robinson. 



Notes of Travel in the West — No. III. 



[Albany Cultivator, n. s. 2:142-43; May, 1845] 



[Covering January 24-28, 1845] 

 At the close of my last communication, I think we had 

 just begun to get among the mineral hills of Missouri. 

 And what can we find in this rugged, uncultivated, and 

 almost uncultivatable district, to interest the readers of 

 an agricultural paper, when the only staple is that same 

 heavy commodity with which guns and brains are some- 

 times alike loaded? I have to hope that my present 

 leaden article, may not be thought to emanate from a 

 brain overfilled with that substance, or that I shall in- 

 fuse such a quantity of the arsenical vapor that arises 

 from the smelting furnaces, into this letter, that I shall 

 kill off my friends who have traveled with me thus far. 

 But we must proceed. These rocky hills and mountain 

 sides have to be climbed, before we can reach that rich 

 and sunny southern clime where we hope to find more 

 matter of a practical kind to interest the agricultural 

 reader. I wish I had been favored with that branch of 

 education that ought to be taught in all schools, and I 

 would give you here an interesting view of an "old Span- 

 ish house" that I passed this day, January 24th. There 

 are many of these old houses yet to be seen in this coun- 

 try, but they are fast disappearing. This one was only 

 different from many others, that it must have belonged 

 to one of the aristocracy of olden times. It was perhaps 

 an hundred and fifty feet long, one story high, elevated 

 upon high stone pillars, a wide portico the whole length, 

 under which were the several entrances to the different 

 apartments; that into the center hall, being fitted with 

 very wide, massive paneled doors, the windows small, 



