Chap. I. INDEPENDENCE. 215 
the heat was oppressive, for which this place is noted. In 
the evening a carriage arrived from Independence, which 
conveyed us to this first station of our journey. The 
distance is about four miles inland. The ascent from the 
river to the higher country is by a steep hill and very bad, 
but a tolerable road leads from hence to the town. Upon 
this road I now saw before me a journey of about fifteen 
hundred English miles. 
