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trarden, and created that splendid mansion lately admired by strangers, 

 as well as by the inhabitants of the city. It was pulled down in the 

 month of October, 1841 ; and might be regretted, did it not m;»ke room 

 for more modern buildings, better suited to the commercial extension of 

 the place. Laclede still continued to deal in furs, which tnifTic obliged 

 him to make I'reqiient voyages to New Orleans. It was during one of 

 these voyages, whilst ascending the Mississippi, that he became so ill as 

 to be stopped at the Post of Arkansas, where he died at the age of 54. 

 He had never been njarried ; and not having had time to realize the for- 

 tune which his enterprise and intelligence could not have liiiltd to se- 

 cure to him, his property was sold alter his death, in liqiiidation of his 

 affairs. 



In 1780, on the 6th of May, as 1 discover by the papers of the late 

 Col. Auguste Chouteau, intrusted to me by the family, (though some 

 writers assign the year 1778,) St. Louis was attacked by a party of Indians 

 and British, who had been ordered to take possession of the town on the 

 west side of the Mississippi, in consequence of the part v^^hich Spain had 

 taken in favor of the independence of the United Statrs. The French, 

 who had preserved a good understanding with all the Indian nations, very 

 little expected this blow, and were not prepared to resist it. The garrison 

 consisted of only 50 to 60 men, commanded by a certain Captain Lebas, 

 (a Spaniard, and not a Frenchman, as his name niightlead one to suppose.) 

 But, whatsoever his origin, he deserves nothing but public contenjpt. This 

 Lebas, during the first tliree years that the Spaniards occupied the country, 

 had commanded a small fort somewhere towards the mouth of the Missouri — 

 perhaps at Bdle Fontaine — and afterwards received the command of St. 

 Louis, as a successor to Cruzat, who himself had succeeded Piernaz. The 

 only means of defence for the place, at that lime, was a stone tower erected 

 near the village on the bank of the Mississippi, and some weak palisades. 

 There were not more than 150 males in the place, of whom not more than 

 70 could be relied upon as efficient to repel an enemy numbering, accord- 

 ing to the best authorities, 900 combatants ; though, by some, their number 

 is represented to have been from 1,400 to 1,500. It would have been use- 

 less to propose a capitulation, the conditions of which the Indians, (as has 

 been unfortunately too often experienced.) either from ignorance or treach- 

 ery, never fulfil ; and the inhabitants knew too well the character of 

 those with whom they had to deal, to expect salvation in anything but a 

 courageous resistance. The women and children, who could not take 

 part m the defence, took shelter in the house of Auguste Chouteau ; 

 whilst all those, both men and women, who were within the palisades, 

 commenced so vigorous a resistance, that the enemy was forced to retreat. 

 But these, with characteristic ferocity, threw themselves upon those of the 

 inhabitants who, engaged in the cultivation of their fields, had not had 

 time to reach the palisades ; and it is said that 60 were killed, and 13 made 

 prisoners. 



It is averred that the Spanish garrison took no part in this gallant de- 

 fence. Lebas and his men had betaken themselves to the stone tower ; 

 and it is further stated, that, as the tower threatened to give way after 

 the first fire from it, he ordered the firing to be stopped ; and that he died 

 on receiving information that the Sacs, Foxes, and Iowa Indians were 

 massacring the people on the plains. The year this attack took place. 



