MISSOURI HISTORICAL NOTES. 629 



to the King of the Belgians, in his valuable Historical Difficulties and Contested 

 Events, London, 1868, has discussed the question and decided against its truth. 

 An excellent summary of the evidence against its truth, based principally on 

 Gibbon, is found in the London Human Nature, Vol. i, pp. 546-7. On the 

 other side, among the advocates for the truth of the Saracenic burning are found De 

 Sacy, Langles, Von Hammer, M. St. Martin, Prof. White, and lastly M. Matter. 

 In the Histoire de /' Ecole d' Alexandrie, by.M. Matter, Paris, 1840, is contained 

 all the authorities for and against the burning of the Library by the Arabs. 



The Encyclopcedia Britannica (8th edition. Vol. 2, p. 733,) speaks of the 

 burning of the Library as an act of barbarism "repugnant to the character of 

 Omar and his general," and continues ; " It is highly probable that few of the 

 700,000 volumes collected by the Ptolemies remained at the time of the Arab 

 conquest, when we consider the various calamities of Alexandria from the time 

 of Caesar to those of Caracalla, Diocletian and the disgraceful pillage of the Li- 

 brary in A. D. 389, under the rule of a Christian Bishop, Theophilus, a far less 

 respectable character than the Arabian conquerers." 



Very few scholars of to-day credit the story of the Saracenic destruction of 

 the Library, the "consensus of the competent" being that it is simply an 

 Oriental fiction of the Middle Ages; and such is the opinion of the present writer. 



Presidio of San Francisco, California. 



MISSOURI HISTORICAL NOTES. 



COMPILED BY G. C. BROADHEAD. 



1762 — The country west of the Mississippi River ceded to Spain by France,^ 

 but not made public until 1764. 



1800, Oct. I — Louisiana, including all territory west of the Mississippi River, 

 ceded by Spain to France under the treaty of St. Ildefonzo. 



1804 — Louisiana purchased from France by the United States and divided 

 into two territories, Orleans and Louisiana — the latter included Arkansas, Mis- 

 souri and all the territory west. Capt. x^mos Stoddard was temporary governor, 



Don Charles Dehault Delassus was the last Spanish governor. The country 

 for a short time was attached to the government of the territory of Indiana. 

 Gen. W. H. Harrison, Governor ; capital, Vincennes. 



1805 — Territory of Louisiana organized; Gen. James Wilkinson, Governor;- 

 Frederick Bates, Secretary. The territory was divided into five districts, after- 

 ward called counties, and named respectively St. Louis, St. Charles, St, Gene- 

 vieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid, the latter including Little Prairie and 

 Arkansas. These counties extended indefinitely westward, St. Louis being 

 bounded on the north by the Missouri River and St. Charles, including all north 

 of the river to the Rocky Mountains. 



1807 — Meriwether Lewis Governor of Upper Louisiana. 



