103 
they pack in four-horse wagons, covered over, in which they 
sleep at night. There are about one hundred men in such a ca¬ 
ravan. From Santa Fe they bring back dollars and mules. 
After dinner the worthy old gentleman, Mr. Choteau, surpris¬ 
ed us by a visit, and brought his brother, his sons, and a Captain 
Smith, of the first regiment of infantry, who is here on recruit¬ 
ing duty, with him. He staid long with us and was very talka¬ 
tive. He related, for example, that at the commencement of the 
settlement of St. Louis, the Indians attacked the town, which was 
only defended by one hundred and fifty men, and that they were 
driven off. After this attack, the Spaniards had built the de¬ 
fensive towers, of which the remains stand yet around the city. 
They resemble the English Martello towers, and like them were 
of but little value. 
CHAPTER XXL 
Travels from Si. Louis to New Harmony. — Mr. Owen J s 
System and Experiment. 
ON the 10th of April at seven o’clock, P. M. we left St, 
Louis, in the Mexico, a neat boat with a low pressure engine. 
We went down the stream so rapidly, that we advanced fourteen 
and fifteen miles per hour. We received an unpleasant shock 
during the night from a snag. It gave the vessel such a violent 
blow, that all were roused from sleep, and sprang out of bed: I 
thought that the boat was going down. Happily we were only 
scared this time. Towards morning we hastened past Cape Gi¬ 
rardeau, and all the places which we had seen a few days before. 
It was agreeable for us again to come something more southerly, 
and recognize traces of vegetation. We reached the junction of 
the Ohio with the Mississippi about twelve o’clock in the day. 
We then quitted the Mississippi, and steered into the Ohio. 
At the period when the French extended their posts from Ca¬ 
nada to New Orleans, the Ohio was known to them under the 
name of “La Belle Riviere;” Mr. Choteau, Senr. used this ap¬ 
pellation constantly in speaking of it, while conversing with me. 
The water of the Ohio is much clearer and purer than that of the 
Mississippi, which is evidently very foul from the confluence of 
the Missouri. At the union with the Ohio, this difference in the 
colour of the streams is striking, when you pass from the tur¬ 
bid waters of the Mississippi into the purer current of the Ohio. 
