PREFACE. Xlll 



geographical science. Public opinion had for years been called 

 to this daring enterprise. 



Such was the state of geographical discovery in the United 

 States in 1816. The war with Great Britain had had an exhaust- 

 ing eftect upon the resources and fiscal condition of the country. 

 But, owing to the information gained by the operation of armies 

 in the ample area west of the Alleghanies, it opened a new world 

 for enterprise in that quarter. The treaty of 1814 with Great 

 Britain, which afllirmed the original boundaries of 1783, by ter- 

 minating, at the same time, the war and the fallacious hopes of 

 sovereignty set "up for the Indian tribes, truly opened the Missis- 

 sippi Valley to settlement. 



All eyes were turned to the general climate of the West, and 

 its capacities of growth and expansion. The universal ardor 

 which then arose and was spread, of its fertility, extent, and re- 

 sources, has, from that era, filled the public mind, and fixed the 

 liveliest hopes of the extension of the Union. 



The accession of Mr. Monroe to the presidency, 4th March, 

 1817, formed the opening of this new epoch of industrial empire 

 and progress in the West. This period brought into the adminis- 

 tration a man of great grasp of intellect and energy of character 

 in Mr. Calhoun. By placing the army in a series of self-sustain- 

 ing posts on the frontiers, in advance of the settlements, he gave 

 them efficient protection against the still feverish tribes, who 

 hovered — feeble and dejected from the results of the war, but in 

 broken, discordant, and hostile masses — around the long and still 

 dangerous line of the frontiers, from Florida to Detroit and the 

 Falls of St, Anthony. He encouraged every means of acquiring 

 true information of its geography and resources. In 1819, the 

 military line was extended to Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, 

 and to the Falls of St. Anthony, on the Mississippi. Major S. H. 

 Long, of the Topographical Engineers, was directed to ascend the 

 Missouri, for the purpose of exploring the region west to the 

 Rocky Mountains. During the same year, he approved a plan 

 for exploring the sources of the Mississippi, submitted by General 

 Cass, who occupied the northwestern frontiers. 



The author having then returned from the exploration of the 

 Ozark Highlands, and the mine country of Missouri and Ark- 



