1763.] ST. LOUIS. 257 



The colonists, hating the English with a more 

 than national hatred, deeply imbittered by years of 

 disastrous war, received the news of the treaty with 

 disgust and execration. Many of them left the 

 country, loath to dwell under the shadow of the 

 British flag. Of these, some crossed the Missis- 

 sippi to the little hamlet of St. Genevieve, on the 

 western bank ; others followed the commandant, 

 Keyon de Villiers, to New Orleans ; while others, 

 taking with them all their possessions, even to the 

 frames and clapboarding of their houses, passed 

 the river a little above Cahokia, and established 

 themselves at a beautiful spot on the opposite 

 shore, where a settlement was just then on the 

 point of commencement. Here a line of richly 

 wooded bluffs rose with easy ascent from the mar- 

 gin of the w\ater ; while from their summits extended 

 a wide plateau of fertile prairie, bordered by a 

 frame w^ork of forest. In the shadow of the trees, 

 which fringed the edge of the declivity, stood a 

 newly built storehouse, with a few slight cabins 

 and w^orks of defence, belonging to a company 

 of fur-traders. At their head was Pierre Laclede, 

 who had left New Orleans wdth his followers in 

 August, 1763 ; and, after toiling for three months 

 against the impetuous stream of the Mississippi, 

 had reached the Illinois in November, and selected 

 the spot alluded to as the site of his first establish- 

 ment. To this he gave the name of St. Louis. ^ 

 Side by side with Laclede, in his adventurous en- 



1 Nicollet, Historical Sketch of St. Louis. See Report on the Hydrogiaph' 

 ical Basin of the Upper Mississippi River, 75. 

 VOL. II. 17 



