202 The Winning of the West 



who contrived to establish relations with some one 

 in New Orleans, or perhaps in Natchez, who would 

 act as their agent or correspondent. The k profits 

 from a successful trip made amends for much dis 

 aster, and enabled the trader to repeat his adventure 

 on a larger scale. Thus, among the papers of 

 George Rogers Clark there is a letter from one of 

 his friends who was living in Kaskaskia in 1784, 

 and was engaged in the river trade. 10 The letter 

 was evidently to the writer's father, beginning "My 

 dear daddy." It describes how he had started on 

 one trip to New Orleans, but had been wrecked; 

 how, nothing daunted, he had tried again with a 

 cargo of forty-two beeves, which he sold in New 

 Orleans for what he deemed the good sum of $738 ; 

 and how he was about to try his luck once more, 

 buying a bateau and thirty bushels of salt, enough 

 to pickle two hundred beeves. 



The traders never could be certain when their 

 boats would be seized and their goods confiscated 

 by some Spanish officer ; nor when they started could 

 they tell whether they would or would not find when 

 they reached New Orleans that the Spanish authori 

 ties had declared the navigation closed. In 1783 

 and the early part of 1784 traders were descending 

 the Mississippi without overt resistance from the 

 Spaniards, and were selling their goods at a profit 

 in New Orleans. In midsummer of 1784 the navi 

 gation of the river was suddenly and rigorously 

 closed. In 1785 it was again partially opened; so 



10 Draper MSS. Letter of John Williams, June 20, 1784. 



