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Show 1836- 1837] Ffogg'* Far West 255 nature is vastly more forbearing than my own. Change the picture. Let him enter the quiet little Illinois village at the gentle hour of sunset; let him meet warm hospitality, and look upon fair forms and bright faces, and if he fail to be pleased with that place, why, " he's not the man I took him for. 9' The public buildings of Belleville are a handsome courthouse of brick, a wretched old jail of the same material, a public hall belonging to a library company, and a small framed Methodist house of worship. It is situated in the centre of " Turkey- hill Settlement," one of the oldest and most flourishing in the state, and has a fine timber tract and several beautiful country- seats in its vicinity. Leaving Belleville with some reluctance, and not a few " longing, lingering looks behind," my route continued westward over a broken region of alternating forest and prairie, sparsely sprinkled with trees, and yet more sparsely with inhabitants. At length, having descended a precipitous hill, the rounded summit of which, as well as the adjoining heights, commanded an immense expanse of level [ 241] landscape, stretching off from the base, I stood once more upon the fertile soil of the " American Bottom." The sharp, heavy- roofed French cottages, with low verandahs running around; the ungainly outhouses and enclosures; the curiously- fashioned vehicles and instruments of husbandry in the barnyards and before the doors; the foreign garb and dialect of the people; and, above all, the amazing fertility of the soil, over whose exhaustless depths the maize has rustled half a century, constitute the most striking characteristics of this interesting tract, in the section over which I was passing. This settlement, extending from the foot of the bluffs for several miles over the Bottom, was formed about forty years ago by a colony from Cahokia, and known by the name of " Little French Village]" it now comprises |