284 Expedition to the 



from either, the St. Francis can have no very large tributa- 

 ries; indeed we know of none, on either side, which deserve 

 the name of rivers. We have no very definite information 

 respecting the great swamp in which the St. Francis is said 

 to lose itself soon after leaving the hills. The accounts of 

 the hunters, and of some settlers, who have seen it, agree in 

 representing it as almost impassable, covered with heavy 

 forests of cypress, and wholly unfit to become the residence 

 of men. This swamp, and the country about the sources of 

 Black river and the St. Francis, appear to be near the centre 

 of the region so powerfully affected by earthquakes in the 

 year 1811. The fertile lands on the upper branches of the 

 St. Francis are not very extensive, and are all more or less 

 subject to inundation, by the sudden overflowing of the 

 streams. On this account they cannot be considered as of 

 great value for agriculture, but the wealth which this region 

 possesses in its mines renders it one of the most important 

 parts of the Mississippi valley. 



On the 8th we arrived at Jackson, the seat of justice for 

 the county of Cape Girardeau, and after St. Louis and St. 

 Charles, one of the largest towns in Missouri. It lies about 

 eleven or twelve miles northwest of the old town of Cape 

 Girardeau on the Mississippi, and is surrounded by a hilly 

 and fertile tract of country, at this time rapidly increasing 

 in wealth and population. Jackson is what is called a thriving- 

 village^ and contains at present more than fifty houses, which 

 though built of logs seem to. aspire to a degree of importance 

 unknown to the humble dwellings of the scattered and soli- 

 tary settlers, assuming an appearance of consequence and 

 superiority similar to that we immediately distinguished in 

 the appearance and manners of the people. Our horses hav- 

 ing never been accustomed to such displays of magnificence 

 signified great reluctance to enter the village. Whips and 

 heels were exercised with unusual animation, but in a great 

 measure without effect, until we dismounted, when by dint 



