[ 237 ] 92 



belonging to the port. The whole number engaged in the navigation' of the 

 waters of the Mississippi and its tributaries, is 310,* most of which come to 

 St. Louis in the course of the year. It was stated above, that Mr, Laclede, 

 in 1763, took three months to come from New Orleans to iSt. Genevieve with 

 his flotilla, a distance of 1.2S6 miles ; whereas, it is not an uncommon thing 

 now, for the larger steamboats to reach St. Louis, which is sixty miles above, 

 in five or six days. Such facts say more than the most eloquent pen could 

 describe. 



In conchiding this historical sketch, a sad reflection involuntarily arises. 

 Is it not surprising that, during the thirty-two years that Spain had posses- 

 sion of Upper Louisiana, the province was never settled by native Spaniards, 

 excepting the oflicers who ruled over it, and a few fur-traders? The in- 

 habitants were French, or ihe descendants of French from Canada or Lower 

 Louisiana; and the Spaniards have left no remembrances of themselves, 

 saving their land register; no institutions, no works, not a single monu- 

 ment of public utility. Doubtless, the golden treasures buried in the moun- 

 tains of Mexico and of South America were too alluring to allow emigrants 

 to be tempted from them, and engage themselves in the labors of agriculture 

 in the rich valley of the Mississippi. But, taking a retrospect when Spain 

 was the greatest of maritime powers ; when, during the reign of Ferdinand 

 and Isabella, her navigators discovered new worlds, giving her an empire 

 on which the snn never set ; when the great armada struck terror in the 

 bosom of the haughty Elizabeth, — it becomes painful to think how epheme- 

 ral is the ascendency even of the bravest and most prosperous nations ! how 

 truly rapid their decline and fall ! 



•A list of these steamboats was published in October, 1841, giving the name and tonnn«e» 

 the date when, and the place where built. Most of ihem were buill in the valley of the Ohio* 

 from 1835 lo 1S41, inclusive. 



