APPENDIX. 
m 
United States; it is therefore confidently hoped that when the 
peculiar properties of this port shall more fully unfold them¬ 
selves to the view of the government, it may be considered ex¬ 
pedient to cause good roads to be made at the public expense, 
over the public lands, in proper directions to favor and facilitate, 
commercial intercourse between the town and country. 
(No. 5.) 
HAVING spoken of the Trappists in my account of the 
mounds in the American bottom, I here subjoin a description 
which was published in the St. Louis paper, and which, contrary 
to my wishes, I have understood gave great offence to the good 
fathers. 
The buildings which the Trappists at present occupy, are 
merely temporary: they consist of four or five cabins, on a 
mound about fifty yards high, and which is perhaps one hun¬ 
dred and fifty feet square. Their other buildings, cribs, sta¬ 
bles, be. ten or fifteen in number, are scattered about on the 
plain below. I was informed that they intended to build on the 
terrace of the large mound; this will produce a fine effect, it will 
be seen five or six miles across the plain, and from some points 
of view ten or twelve. They have about one hundred acres en¬ 
closed in three different fields, including the large mound, and 
several others. 
On entering the yard, I found a number of persons at work, 
some hauling and storing away the crop of corn; others, shap¬ 
ing timber for some intended edifice. The greater number 
were boys from ten to fourteen years of age. The effect on my 
mind, was inexpressibly strange, at seeing them pass and repass 
each other in perfect silence. What force must it require to 
subdue the sportive temper of boyhood! But nothing is so 
strong as nature. I admired the cheerful drollery of a mulattoe 
lad, with one leg, who was attending the horse mill: as the other 
boys passed by, he generally contrived by some odd trick or 
gesticulation, to attract their notice, and commonly succeeded 
in exciting a smile. It was a faint watery gleam of sun-shine, 
which seemed to say, that their happiness was not entirely ol> 
