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TO THE READER 
IN the spring* of 1810,1 landed at New Madrid in Upper Louisiana, 
and proceeded from thence by land to St. Genevieve, with the inten¬ 
tion of settling myself in some part of the territory as a lawyer. But 
finding after a short residence, that prospects of success in that part 
of the world, were not such as I could have wished, I resolved to em¬ 
ploy the time I should remain there, in making obseiwations and re¬ 
marks on such things as appeared most worthy of attention. I was in 
a short time, pleased with the employment, which drew me into a more 
extensive research than I had at first contemplated, and gave rise to a 
degree of earnestness in a pursuit, to which I had before been almost 
a stranger; my studies having been chiefly directed to abstract subjects, 
to history, belles lettres, and to those in some way connected with my 
profession 
In the winter of 1811,1 published at St. Louis, the capital of Upper 
Louisiana, a series of essays descriptive of the country, many of which 
were reprinted in periodical papers in the states, and spoken of in terms 
of approbation. It were needless to declare how gratifying this was to 
my feelings, or, as the reader will choose to think, to my vanity. In 
the hevday of youth, when the mind is filled with romantic conceits, 
there is nothing so pleasant as this taste of fame. It is however, some¬ 
times productive of dangerous effects, for where this first manifesta¬ 
tion of applause, does not intoxicate the brain and paralize the ener¬ 
gies, causing the infatuated being to believe, that he has already ar-* 
rived at the highest degree of earthly honors, it is apt to confirm one 
in that pursuit, where accident may have crowned him with success .—f 
H ence, I have been in no small danger of becoming* an author, perhaps 
an indifferent one : a professed author in our country, alas ! is pitiable in¬ 
deed. A mere abstract man, without any degree of importance, or con¬ 
sequence, attached to him ; he is not ranked as having any employ¬ 
ment in the state, ecclesiastical, civil, or military, and necessarily takes 
up his abode next door to starvation. It has been supposed by some 
of my friends who read my essays in the public prints, that I had in re¬ 
ality relinquished my profession, and that I was wandering about the 
