Rocky Mountains. 105 



At the time of our journey Fort Osage, which, according 

 to our estimate, is one hundred and forty-two miles, by the 

 course of the river, above Charaton, was the. extreme fron- 

 tier of the settlements. For a great distance below, the es- 

 tablishments of the white settlers were confined to the im- 

 mediate banks of the Missouri. The inhabitants of this fron- 

 tier are mostly emigrants from Tennessee, and are hospita- 

 ble to strangers. Many of them are possessed of considera- 

 ble wealth. In the inhabitants of the new States and Terri- 

 tories thece is a manifest propensity, particularly in the 

 males, to remove westward, for which it is not easy to ac- 

 count. The women, having their attention directed almost 

 exclusively to domestic pursuits, form local attachments, 

 and establish habits, which are not interrupted without occa- 

 sioning some disquietude. They are at first discontented in 

 their new abode ; in :i few weeks they become reconciled, 

 but less attached than to their former home ; and, at length, 

 by the habit of frequent migration, they acquire the same 

 fondness for an adventurous, unsettled life, as characterises 

 the men. 



Daniel Boon, whose history is connected with that of all 

 the new settlements from Kentucky westward, answered to 

 an inquiry concerning the cause ot his frequent change of 

 residence, " I think it time to remove when I can no longer 

 fall a tree for fuel, so that its top will lie within a few yards 

 of the door of my cabin." The charms of that mode of life, 

 wherein the artificial wants, and the uneasy restraints insepa- 

 rable from a crowded population are not known, wherein 

 we feel ourselves dependent immediately and solely on the 

 bounty of nature, and the strength of our own arm, will not 

 be appreciated by those to whom they are known only from 

 description, though they never fail to make an impression 

 upon such as have acquired a knowledge of them from ex- 

 perience. A settler^ on the Missouri observed to us, ihat 

 the land he at present occupied was not better than that he 



vol. t. 14 



