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Show l4Q EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. 5pot. The same place w.hich is remarkabl~ for the production in great quantity and per.fect10n of any one article ~ecessary to human comfort, is commonly as remar.kabJe for the entrre want of many others. Ought we to seek farther for the origin of commerce? The country watered by the Osage river is generally prairi.e; some spots are extremely fertile; but from the united testimony of all persons who have visited this region, it is genera11y poor, gravelly, and badly watered. The same remark may be extended to the northern parts, drained . by the White river waters. West of the line of demarkation, bet'<Yeen the land sold by the Osage Indiall$, and that still possessed by that tribe, the country is very imperfectly known. The notes given by Mr. Brown •. who ra~ the O~age lin·e,* and that inserted in ltlelish's map, from the mformat10n derrved from Mr. Louis Bringier ;t there is an entire discordan~e.. "[he notes of Mr. arown deserve infinitely more respect than Brmgter 5 COnJeCtures. · The arable soil of North America experiences a tot2tl change a bout two hun~red miles from the Missi sippi river. Beyond that limit an extensive desert commences, which extends tq the Pacific ocean. Though thi~ vast region is not an extended uninterrupted expanse of unproductive land, yet the greatest p11rt of the distance is prairie, de· void of timber or a hard gravelly soil The rivers are remarkable for their great length and little water. No lakes of any note are found; and, in seasons of dry weather, an extreme want of water is experienced by all persons who traverse thi~ uninviting waste. The banks of the Missouri are, like those of the Mis~ifisippi, alluvial, and, if we give full credence to the accounts of Lewis and Clark, tbey are very subject ~o inundation. From every source of information on the subject, we are led to believe, that the banks of the Mississippi, below' the mouth of the Missouri, resemble those of the latter rather than the former above their junction. The peninsula between the Mississippi and Missouri, for about forty Jl'liles above their junction, is an extent of first rate land. Above ~nd beyond the foregoing limit much good Jand ~till exists, but more scattereJ and covered w'ith prairies. Tbe country is indeed but vaguely known, and documents ~re wanting for particular description. The Merrimack is a small unimportant stream, rising between the Missouri and heads of St. Francis and White rivers. Its course is nearly east, and it is about 150 miles long. Settlements-'l'owns-lmprovernents-.flgr-iculture.-The first settle! l1en.t. of n?te in the Mi~; ouri territory advancing from the state of Loursrana, IS at and near the Hot Sprinas on Ouachitta. This place was uninhabited until about 1805, wh~n a few settlers estauli ·bed themselves upon the Ouachitta and the waters of Little Mjssouri. The en~igration to this remote spot has continued annually since the fore· gomg eppcha. ~ome families have advanced to Reu river ;-the whole number must now exceed one thousand. ' Between the new settlements on Ouachitta :mu the ancient French post on Arkansa\Y, a mountainous and barren wilderness interrepcs~ '~<'Drown's. Western Gazetteet·, p. 189. t See Melrsh's Geograpb~cal Description1 page 11. Second edition. EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. 1 41 f.fhe post or town of Arkansaw i~ a~Jo~t ~orty-fi~e ~iles above the en· ~ranee of that stre.un into the MrssiSSlppl. Thts JS one of the m?st '""ncient establi~brncnts in Louisiana, being formed before the ~egmning of the last century. ~ts advance bas n.ot bee.n in propo.r~10n to its Juration. It bas remamed poor and mcons1derable, ltke all other places where the inhabitaots depend upon bunting,. :=~n rJ .tndc with savages for their subsistence and commerce. The mh blt <~ nts :He mostly French, many of them of mixed blood. Tbe Q~apa tribe of Indians the former residents of the country, have dwmdled to an iDconsiderable remnant. Much of the land adjacent to the settlement is fertile, but too flat, and consequently liable to submer~ion. 'fhe prairies are extensive. Proceeding westward of tbe town of Arkansaw the wood and fertile soil gradually decline, and are ·ucceeded by the interminable barren prairies upon Arkansas, Kansas, a11d PJ~te. It has been observed, that the country included between thf! White, St. Francis and Mississippi is generally low and annually inunl'lated. The banks of the streams are. the most elevated parts, but are themselves liable to inundation. The streams interlock in a thousand mazes, and in every respeat present a similar picture witb the. ~vertlowed country west of tbe Mississippi river, in the state of ~ou1 1ana. Wherever the land is above, or can be defended from h1gh water, it possesses the character common to alluvion ; is a deep fertile loam, clothed with treelii of the largest growth, of similar species found on the same kind of soil and situation in Louisiana. The settlements yet made on St. Francis are very inconsiderable. Upon the Mississippi the land is higher, anu commercial facility great- - er than in the interior ; of course it is there that the most extensive establishments have been formed. The town of Little Prairie, thirty miles below New Madrid, suffered by the earthquake of 1812 ; previous to that epoch there were, perhaps, two hundred souls in the vil-lage. . New Mad rid has received a celebrity that must astonish those· who eyer visited the place in open day. The ground up\)n ·which the town stands is something higher than the ordinary bank of the Mis ~issippi, but is exposed to the ravages of that stream, to whose force it has, in a great measure, yielued. The town is environed, both above and below, with stagnant muddy creeks. When to these natural impediments were superadded the usual policy of the Spanish government, no wonder need be f'Xcited at the little progress of this town from 1787, tbe epoch of its foun,fation, until 1803, when it was taken posses. ion of by the United Stdtes. Since the latter period, the advance of this place has Leen retarucd by the natural inconveniences of its Jocal po· ~ it ion. The country between tbe Arkansaw and the mouth of the Ohio, has been, by ::;ome, representeu as peculiarly insalubrious. We are disposed to consider this region as in every respect similar to other parts contiguous to the Mis, issippi, where the local features are of a like nature. No reason can be easily shown, why a marked differenc(! in point of health sbou]J be experienced by tbe inhabitants of two or !l)Qre places situateu, to all appearance, in a similar manner. !t is ,·ery difficult to form any correct estimate of the number of |