£ 237 ] 90 



during upwards of thirty years, there was not a solitary instance of civil 

 dehnquency, or of crime. Bargains were sealed by a grasp of the hand, 

 and ihe currency of the country consisted of deer skins. This state of 

 things did not so much grow out of a relapse to the original- condition of 

 those by wtiom they were surrounded, as of innate candor and simplicity. 

 Old Anglo-Americans who lived among them in these times, and have ex- 

 perienced and enjoyed their heartfelt hospitality, cherish the recollection 

 of them with snicere respect. It is true, that those colonists who engaged 

 themselves in the Indian trade, and were always under arms, as well as 

 those who navigated the rivers, in the transportation of articles of barter, 

 and were most of their time tugging at the oar or handling tlie cordelle — 

 these, certainly, did not exhibit the same unexceptionable simplicity of 

 manners; but such people were almost always absent from the villages. 

 They were birds of passage to their own families ; ana though, in the pur- 

 suit of their several professions, they could not fail to encounter much that 

 was exceptionable and bad, it is hardly lo be presumed that they would 

 poison with it then* own firesides. 



The French descendants of the present day still retain numerous anec- 

 dotes of their ancestors, that graphically describe the unsophisticated nature 

 of the Missourians ; among which I may be permitted to select one. 



A genuine Missourian, it is related, was hovering for some time around 

 the stall of a negro dealer, situated on the bank of the Mississippi, in Lower 

 Louisiana. The dealer was a Kentucky merchant, who, observing him, 

 asked him if he wished to purchase anything? <' Yes," said the Missou- 

 rian, "I should like to buy a negro." He was invited to walk in, made his 

 choice, and inquired the price. "Five hundred dollars," said the dealer ; 

 "but, according to custom, you may have one year's credit upon the pur- 

 chase." The Missourian, at this proposition, became very uneasy ; the 

 idea of having such a load of debt upon him for a whole year was too 

 much. "No, no," said he, "I'd rather pay you six hundred dollars at 

 once, and be done with il." "Very well," said the obliging Kentuckian, 

 "anything to accommodate you." 



But to return to the narrative of events. The treaty having been finally 

 ratified on the 30th of April, IS03, Captain Amos Stoddard took possession 

 of the country, which the Spanish troops evacuated on the 3d of Novem- 

 ber, 1801. Somewhat later, W. H. Harrison, governor and commander-in- 

 chief of the Indian territory and of Upper Louisiana, organized the judici- 

 ary and civil powers ; and on the 2d of July, 1805, General James Wil- 

 kinson, by order of Congress, established the district of Upper Louisiana 

 under a territorial government, which was called Missouri Territory. By 

 this name it was known until 1820, when it was admitted into the Union 

 as the State of Missouri, and its constitution sanctioned by Congress in 

 1821. 



It is easier to imagine than to describe the astonishment and wonder 

 of the good colonists, when, as a sequel to the sundry official acts by 

 which they were declared re/n/,blica7is, and their country a member of 

 the great American confederation founded by Washington, (hey witnessed 

 the arrival of a legion of judges, lawyers, notaries, collector of taxes, &c., 

 Sec, and, above all, a flock of vampires in the shape of land speculators. 

 The simple-minded Creole could not at first exactly realize the sort of 

 liberty which made it a duty, or compelled him, to leave home to go to 

 elections, and to serve as a juryman. St, Louis, however, was the cap- 



