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Show 1836- 1837] Fogg's Far West 95 About twenty miles above the mouth of the Kaskaskia is situated Ste. Genevieve, grand deposite of the lead of the celebrated ancient mines La Motte, and A'Burton, and others, some thirty miles in the interior, and the market which supplies all the mining district of the vicinity.* 0 It was first commenced about the year 1774 by the original settlers of Upper Louisiana; and the Canadian [ 66] French, with their descendants, constitute a large portion of its present inhabitants. The population does not now exceed eight hundred, though it is once said to have numbered two thousand inhabitants. Some of the villagers are advanced in years, and among them is M. Valle, one of the chief proprietors of Mine la Motte, who, though now some ninety years of age, is almost as active as when fifty/ 1 Ste. Gene- •• For an account of Ste. Genevieve, see Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, p. 266, note 174. According to Austin, cited below, La Motte ( or La Mothe) Cadillac, governor of Louisiana, went on an expedition ( 17x5) to the Illinois in search of silver, and found lead ore in a mine which had been shown him fifteen miles west of the Mississippi. It is believed by some authorities that this was the famous " Mine la Mothe," at the head of the St. Francis River. Schoolcraft, however, says that Philip Francis Renault, having received mining grants from the French government, left France in 1719, ascended the Mississippi, established himself the following year near Kaskaskia, and sent out small companies in search of precious metals; and that La Mothe, who had charge of one of these companies, soon discovered the mine that still bears his name. It was operated only at intervals, until after the American occupation, when its resources were developed. Under the Spanish domination ( 1762- 1800), little was done to develop the mine. In 1763, however, Francis Burton discovered the " Mine k Burton," on a branch of Mineral Fork. Like the " Mine la Mothe," it was known to the Indians before the discovery by the whites, and both are still operated. Burton was said to have been alive in 1818, at the age of a hundred and six; see Colonel Thomas Benton's account of htm in St Louis Enquirer, October 16, 1818. For an account of primitive mining operations, see Thwaites, Wisconsin Historical Collections, xiii, pp. 271- 392; Moses Austin, " Lead Mines of Ste. Genevieve and St Louis Counties," American State Papers ( Public Lands), iii, pp. 609- 6x3; and H. R. Schoolcraft, Lead Mines of Missouri ( New York, 1819).- ED. • From 1738 to 1744, the mines were considered as public property: but in the year last mentioned Francois Valle* received from the French government a grant of two thousand arpents of land ( 1,666 acres) including " Mine la Mothe," and eighteen years later twenty- eight thousand arpents ( 23,333 acres) additional. |