CHAPTER ONE.A HUNTING PARTY.On the western bank of the Mississippi, twelve miles below the_embouchure_ of the Missouri, stands the large town of Saint Louis,poetically known as the "Mound City." Although there are many otherlarge towns throughout the Mississippi Valley, Saint Louis is the truemetropolis of the "far west"--of that semi-civilised, ever-changing beltof territory known as the "Frontier."Saint Louis is one of those American cities in the history of whichthere is something of peculiar interest. It is one of the oldest ofNorth-American settlements, having been a French trading port at anearly period.Though not so successful as their rivals the English, there was a degreeof picturesqueness about French colonisation, that, in the present day,strongly claims the attention of the American poet, novelist, andhistorian. Their dealings with the Indian aborigines--the facile mannerin which they glided into the habits of the latter--meeting them morethan half-way between civilisation and savage life--the handsomenomenclature which they have scattered freely, and which still holdsover the trans-Mississippian territories--the introduction of a new race(the half blood--peculiarly French)--the heroic and adventurouscharacter of their earliest pioneers, De Salle Marquette, FatherHennepin, etcetera--their romantic explorations and melancholy fate--allthese circumstances have rendered extremely interesting the earlyhistory of the French in America. Even the Quixotism of some of theirattempts at colonisation cannot fail to interest us, as at Gallipolis onthe Ohio, a colony composed of expatriated people of the French court;--perruquiers, coachbuilders, tailors, _modistes_, and the like. Here, inthe face of hostile Indians, before an acre of ground was cleared,before the slightest provision was made for their future subsistence,the first house erected was a large log structure, to serve as the_salon du Lal_!