95 
* js one mile distant from the river, on a little stream called Ga- 
bane creek. Mr. Vallais, and another of our fellow travellers, 
Mr. Rozier, a native of Nantes, and established as a merchant in 
St. Genevieve, landed their goods purchased in New Orleans here, 
and took leave of us. 
We stopped several hours. The river takes a new direction 
against the right bank, wears it out in hollows, and often tears 
away whole fields, by which the left bank profits. We accom¬ 
panied our fellow voyagers to the town, which contains about 
two thousand inhabitants, of both complexions. The road ran 
between fields of Indian corn, and then over a bridge on Gabane 
creek. The place has regular streets, but has rather a poor ap¬ 
pearance. I remarked only three substantial houses: one of them 
stands on an open square, and is the court-house. Not far from 
this is the prison, a box framed of strong timbers. Upon the 
eminence on which the place slopes down, stands a massive edi¬ 
fice, which indeed had a roof upon it, but was without doors or 
windows, and threatened to fall in. It was destined for an academy , 
but for want of funds the plan was not completed. The place re¬ 
ceives great advantage from the neighbouring lead mines. The 
navigation near St. Genevieve is extremely dangerous, from the 
snags lying under the water. Two steam-boats have been sunk 
here, the Franklin and the Cincinnati. The accident of the last 
took place when Prince Paul of Wirtemburg was on board. I 
noticed here several pieces of a very brittle sandstone, found in 
the vicinity of St. Genevieve, and sent as an article of trade to 
Pittsburgh, where it is used in the manufacture of glass. 
Before we proceeded on our voyage, we received the visit of 
a Shawnee Indian on board, a well looking man of about thirty 
years of age, who spoke tolerably'good English. He travelled 
on horse-back with his gun, hunted on the way, and sold his ve¬ 
nison. His dress was very similar to that of the Creek Indians. 
Between twelve and one o’clock, we were again under way.* 
The right bank continued rocky, and contained below very singu¬ 
lar shapes and excavations, which reminded me of the rocks on 
the Inn, and the one called Buckfarth Castle. 
About ten miles above St. Genevieve an island lies on the left 
shore, called Fort Chartres, where at the time of the first French 
establishment, a fort of this name was standing. It was never¬ 
theless partly torn away by the current, and at present, has va¬ 
nished entirely. We passed several islands, of which three are 
called the Plattan islands. In the woods on these we saw many 
birds with parti-coloured feathers, the largest among them were 
cormorants. About 5 o’clock in the evening, we reached Her¬ 
culaneum, a little town on the right shore. The- river Joachim, 
which has been turned into Owashing creek, which here flows 
