wardly from the Mississippi, and up along the Missouri river. 
Perhaps it may yet become the capital of a great nation. 
St* Louis lies upon a rather high rocky foundation on the right 
bank of the Mississippi, and stretches itself out, nearly a mile in 
length, in the direction of the river. The most of the houses 
have a garden towards the water, the earth is supported by walls, 
so that the gardens form so many terraces. The city contains 
about four thousand inhabitants. It consists of one long main 
street, running parallel with the river, from which several side 
streets run to the heights behind the city. Here single houses 
point out the space, where another street, parallel with the main 
street can one day be built. The generality of the houses are new, 
built of brick two stories high; some are of rough stone, and 
others of wood and clay in the Spanish taste, resembling the old 
houses in New Orleans. Round the city, along the heights, for¬ 
merly ran a wall, but it is now taken away. At the corners stood 
massive round guard-towers, the walls of which one still can see. 
In a northern direction from the city, are seven artificial hil¬ 
locks, in two rows, which form a parallelogram. They belong 
to the much talked of Indian mounds and fortifications, of which 
numbers are found on the shores of the Ohio and Mississippi, 
and which are dispersed over these regions from Lake Erie to 
New Mexico. There exists neither documents nor traditions 
concerning the erection of these works, or of the tribe of people 
who erected them. In some, a great quantity of human bones 
have been discovered, in others, on the contrary, nothing. This 
double row near St. Louis has not yet been examined. 
Soon after our arrival, we made some visits to deliver the in¬ 
troductory letters given me by Bishop Dubourg. We called first 
upon General Clark, governor of the state of Missouri. The 
general was absent in Washington. We were, however, re¬ 
ceived in a very friendly manner by his wife and daugh¬ 
ters. Governor Clark is moreover the well-known fellow travel¬ 
ler of the late Governor Lewis, in the expedition to the mouth 
of Columbia river, on the Pacific ocean, in the years 1804, 1805, 
and 1806. We afterwards went to visit Mr. Choteau, who was 
one of the founders of St. Louis, who was not at home. 
As we were so near the Missouri, we were unwilling to leave 
this part of the country, without at least looking at that interest¬ 
ing river; for St. Charles, a little town on the left bank of the 
Missouri, which empties into the Mississippi some twenty miles 
above St. Louis, is but twenty miles distant from this city. 
Not to lose any time, we determined to go there this very 
day. We therefore hired a little two-horse carriage, and 
with it, I and Mr. Hottinguer, and Mr. Huygens, began our 
journey in the afternoon. At first, all went right. The 
Vo L . II. 13 
