258 PONTIAC IN THE WEST. [1764. 



terprise, was a young man, slight in person, but 

 endowed with a vigor and elasticity of frame which 

 could resist heat or cold, fatigue, hunger, or the 

 wasting hand of time. Not all the magic of a 

 dream, nor the enchantments of an Arabian tale, 

 could outmatch the waking realities which were to 

 rise upon the vision of Pierre Chouteau. Where, 

 in his youth, he had climbed the woody bluff, and 

 looked abroad on prairies dotted with bison, he saw, 

 with the dim eye of his old age, the land darkened 

 for many a furlong with the clustered roofs of the 

 western metropolis. For the silence of the wilder- 

 ness, he heard the clang and turmoil of human 

 labor, the din of congregated thousands ; and 

 where the great river rolled down through the 

 forest, in lonely grandeur, he saw the waters 

 lashed into foam beneath the prows of panting 

 steamboats, flocking to the broad levee. ^ 



1 Laclede, the founder of St. Louis, died before he had brought his 

 grand fur-trading enterprise to a conclusion ; but his young assistant lived 

 to realize schemes still more bold and comprehensive ; and to every trader, 

 trapper, and voyageur, from the frontier of the United States to the Rocky 

 Mountains, and from the British Possessions to the borders of New- 

 Mexico, the name of Pierre Chouteau is familiar as his own. I visited 

 this venerable man in the spring of 184:6, at his country seat, in a rural 

 spot surrounded by woods, within a few miles of St. Louis. The build- 

 ing, in the picturesque architecture peculiar to the French dwellings of 

 the Mississippi Valley, with its broad eaves and light verandas, and the 

 surrounding negro houses filled with gay and contented inmates, was in 

 singular harmony with the character of the patriarchal owner, who prided 

 himself on his fidelity to the old French usages. Tliough in extreme 

 old age, he still retained the vivacity of his nation. His memory, espe- 

 cially of the events of his youth, was clear and vivid ; and he delighted to 

 look back to the farthest extremity of the long vista of his hfe, and recall 

 the acts and incidents of his earliest years. Of Pontiac, whom he had 

 often seen, he had a clear recollection ; and I am indebted to this inter- 

 esting interview for several particulars regarding the chief and his 

 coadjutors. 



