od.

Though not so successful as their rivals the English, there was a degree
of picturesqueness about French colonisation, that, in the present day,
strongly claims the attention of the American poet, novelist, and
historian. Their dealings with the Indian aborigines--the facile manner
in which they glided into the habits of the latter--meeting them more
than half-way between civilisation and savage life--the handsome
nomenclature which they have scattered freely, and which still holds
over the trans-Mississippian territories--the introduction of a new race
(the half blood--peculiarly French)--the heroic and adventurous
character of their earliest pioneers, De Salle Marquette, Father
Hennepin, etcetera--their romantic explorations and melancholy fate--all
these circumstances have rendered extremely interesting the early
history of the French in America. Even the Quixotism of some of their
attempts at colonisation cannot fail to interest us, as at Gallipolis on
the Ohio, a colony composed of expatriated people of the French court;--
perruquiers, coachbuilders, tailors, _modistes_, and the like. Here, in
the 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_!

Besides its French origin, Saint Louis possesses many other points of
interest. It has long been the _entrepot_ and _depot_ of commerce with
the wild tribes of prairie-land. There the trader is supplied with his
stock for the Indian market--his red and green blanket--his beads and
trinkets--his rifles, and powder, and lead; and there, in return, he
disposes of the spoils of the prairie collected in many a far and
perilous wandering. There the emigrant rests on the way to his
wilderness home; and the hunter equips himself before starting forth on
some new expedition.

To the traveller, Saint Louis is a place of peculiar interest. He will
hear around him the language of every nation in the civilised world. He
will behold faces of every hue and variety of expression. He will meet
with men of every possible calling.

All this is peculiarly true in the latter part of the summer season.
Then the motley population of New Orleans fly from the annual scourge of
the yellow fever, and seek safety in the cities that lie farther north.
Of these, Saint Louis is a favourite "city of refuge,"--the Creole
e