ping quarters better than the
storehouse. But here he was entertained, as the agent wrote, in Virginia
fashion where a call lasts six months and a visit one year; and the
nights were made merry with the music of the violin and piano, and with
the animated conversation of Taliaferro and Nicollet. For many hours on
cold winter nights he studied through his telescope the stars in the
clear heavens.[463]

Mr. Nicollet devoted two more seasons to examining the country between
the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in company with John C. Fremont. In
1838 a trip was made from Fort Snelling to the pipestone quarry; and in
1839 his party ascended the Missouri River to Fort Pierre, and then
passed over the prairies to the Mississippi.[464] The accounts of these
journeys were widely read, and coming from the pen of such an able
scientist and pleasing writer, the interest of the country was turned to
the rich possibilities of this new Northwest.[465]

In addition to these well-known travellers there was a host of
people who made the trip as a vacation jaunt. On June 1, 1836, the
"Palmyra" arrived with thirty passengers. The steamboat "Burlington"
tied up at Fort Snelling on June 13, 1838, having among its many
passengers Captain Frederick Marryat, the popular English novelist. Only
two days later the "Brazil" was moored near the "Burlington", the
presence of two boats at the same time being considered a novel sight.
The family of Governor Henry Dodge was on this second boat.[466]

On June 26, 1838, the "Burlington" was again at Fort Snelling. Among the
tourists on this trip was Mrs. Alexander Hamilton who had embarked at
Galena where she had been visiting her son, W. S. Hamilton, who was
connected with lead mining enterprises in Wisconsin. The fact that Mrs.
Hamilton had been a belle in society during the time of George
Washington, and the general sympathy felt for her ever since the tragic
death of her husband in 1804, caused her to be received with more
attention than was usually bestowed on tourists. At nine o'clock she was
taken in a carriage to the Falls of St. Anthony, and when she returned
to the fort in the afternoon the officers met her at the gate and led
her to a chair placed upon a carpet in the center of the parade ground.
After the troops had been reviewed she was entertained at the
headquarters of the fort until the "Burlington" left that same
evening.[467]

The extent of this tourist traffic is well illustrated in