Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 47 



bank of the Mississippi, there were also some French 

 Creoles and a few Spaniards, with of course negroes 

 and Indians to boot. But the population consisted 

 mainly of Americans from the old colonies, who 

 had come thither by sea in small sailing-vessels, or 

 had descended the Ohio and the Tennessee in flat- 

 boats, or, perchance, had crossed the Creek country 

 with pack ponies, following the narrow trails of the 

 Indian traders. With them were some English and 

 Scotch, and the Americans themselves had little 

 sympathy with the colonies, feeling instead a cer- 

 tain dread and dislike of the rough Carolinian 

 mountaineers, who were their nearest white neigh- 

 bors on the east. 7 They therefore, for the most 

 part, remained loyal to the crown in the Revolu- 

 tionary struggle, and suffered accordingly. 



When Louisiana was ceded to Spain, most of 

 the French Creoles who formed her population were 

 clustered together in the delta of the Mississippi; 

 the rest were scattered out here and there, in a 

 thin, dotted line, up the left bank of the river 

 to the Missouri, near the mouth of which there 

 were several small villages, St. Louis, Ste. Gene- 

 vieve, St. Charles. 8 A strong Spanish garrison 

 held New Orleans, where the Creoles, discontented 

 with their new masters, had once risen in a re- 

 volt that was speedily quelled and severely pun- 



7 " Magazine of American History," IV., 388. Letter of a 

 New England settler in 1773. 



8 "Annals of St. Louis." Frederic L. Billon. St. Louis, 

 1886. A valuable book. 



