504 TERRITORIES OF THE 



Hope Field, } 

 St. Francis, 3 



Arkansas, . . . . . . . 874 



21,845 

 Allow for the troops at the military posts in this terri- 

 tory, 200 



Hunting and trading parties up the Missouri and Mis- 

 sissippi, ........ 300 



Families settled in remote places, and not found by the 



sheriff, ........ 300 



22,645 



Of these, 8011 are slaves; the number of civilized Indians and of 

 metiffs, not known, but cannot be considerable. 



Towns and villages. ...5;. Louis is the seat of government of the 

 territory, and has always been considered the principal town. It was for- 

 merly called Pain Court, from the privations of the first settlers. It is si- 

 tuated inlat. 38° 23' north, long. 89° 36' west. This place occupies one 

 of the best situations on the Mississippi, both as to site and geographi- 

 cal position. The ground on which St. Louis stands is not much 

 higher than the ordinary banks, but the floods are repelled by a bold 

 shore of limestone rocks. The town is built between the river and 

 a second bank, three streets running parallel with the river, and a 

 number of others crossing these at right angles. In a disjointed and 

 scattered manner it extends along the river a mile and a half. There 

 is a line of works on the second bank, erected for defence against the 

 Indians, consisting of several circular towers, twenty feet in diame- 

 ter, and fifteen in height, a small stockaded fort, and a stone breast 

 work. These are at present entirely unoccupied and waste, except- 

 ing the fort, in one of the buildings of which, the courts are held, 

 while another is used as a prison. Some distance from the termina- 

 tion of this line, up the river, there are a number of Indian mounds, 

 and remains of antiquity ; which, while they are ornamental to the 

 town, prove, that informer times, those places had also been chosen 

 as the site, perhaps, of a populous city. St. Louis was first establish- 

 ed in the spring of 1764. It was principally settled by the inhabitants 

 who abandoned the village of Fort Chartres, on the east side of the 

 Mississippi. The colony flourished, and became the parent of a 

 number of little villages on the Mississippi and Missouri; Caronde- 

 let, St. Charles, Portage des Sioux, St. Johns, Bon Homme, St. 

 Ferdinand, &c. The town contains, according to the last census, 

 1400 inhabitants; one-fifth Americans, and about 400 people of co- 

 lour. There is a printing-office and twelve mercantile stores. The 

 value of imports to this place in the course of the year, may be esti- 

 mated at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The outfits for the 

 different trading establishments, on the Mississippi or Missouri, are 

 made here. The lead of the Sac mines is brought to this place ; the 

 troops at Belle Fontaine put sixty thousand dollars in circulation an- 

 nually. The settlers in the vicinity on both sides of the river, repair 

 to this place as the best market for their produce, and to supply them- 

 selves with such articles as they may need. 



St. Genevieve is next in consequence to St. Louis. It is at present 



