122 THE OFFICERS OF THE U. S. ARMY. 



become perhaps it is so now the queen of the Missouri 

 river. I' believe it has been only twenty-five years a 

 city, and, when viewing its dimensions and the public 

 desire for improvement, and the patriotic liberality of 

 such gentlemen as Mr Shaw, to whom I have before 

 referred, with the numerous and splendid river steamers 

 trading to its wharves, why, if St Louis does not become 

 one of the gems of the Western World, it can only be 

 from the fault of the sons of the soil on which it stands. 



I observed in my drives and walks through this grow 

 ing city, and also derived the intelligence from my 

 personal friends, that the Roman Catholics, with some of 

 whom I have since become acquainted, were not only 

 possessed of very great property there, but that, as a 

 body, they were very considerable and influential. 



During this my first stay in St Louis I also made the 

 acquaintance of Col. Sumner and Capt. Clery of the 

 United States army, and of other officers, and from 

 them, as well as their brothers in arms at New York, I 

 received letters of introduction to the officers of all the 

 forts on the desert, to insure me not only the kind recep 

 tion so natural to give and to be received by every 

 soldier and gentleman of the same high service, in what 

 soever country they may meet, but to afford me places 

 of protection in the event of my meeting with any un 

 foreseen discomfiture. It was in course of conversation 

 with that able and gallant soldier, Col. Sumner, that he 

 gave me the intelligence that no man had ever yet 

 achieved the death of eleven buffaloes or bisons at one 

 run at a herd from the back of one horse. Here then 

 was a wicket set up for me to bowl at, and often at 

 night, when in bed, but not asleep, I contemplated the 

 possibility of achieving that number. I was, however, 



