h the rapidly moving cars; unmistakable evidences that the new
civilization was soon to sweep the red men before it like chaff before
the wind.

Farther to the west, a caravan of white-covered wagons loaded with
supplies for some remote military post, the last that would ever travel
the Old Trail, was slowly crawling toward the setting sun. I watched it
until only a cloud of dust marked its place low down on the horizon,
and it was soon lost sight of in the purple mist that was rapidly
overspreading the far-reaching prairie.

It was the beginning of the end; on the 9th of February, 1880, the first
train over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad arrived at Santa
Fe and the Old Trail as a route of commerce was closed forever. The once
great highway is now only a picture in the memory of the few who
have travelled its weary course, following the windings of the silent
Arkansas, on to the portals that guard the rugged pathway leading to the
shores of the blue Pacific.

FOOTNOTES.

[Footnote 1: The whole country watered by the Mississippi and Missouri was called
Florida at that time.]

[Footnote 2: The celebrated Jesuit, author of _The History of New France_,
_Journals of a Voyage to North America_, _Letters to the Duchess_, etc.]

[Footnote 3: Otoes.]

[Footnote 4: Iowas.]

[Footnote 5: Boulevard, Promenade.]

[Footnote 6: Notes of a Military Reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in
Missouri, to San Diego, in California, including parts of the Arkansas,
Del Norte, and Gila Rivers. Brevet Major W. H. Emory, Corps of
Topographical Engineers, United States Army, 1846.]

[Footnote 7: Hon. W. F. Arny, in his Centennial Celebration Address at Santa Fe,
July 4, 1876.]

[Footnote 8: Edwards, _Conquest of New Mexico_.]

[Footnote 9: I think this is Bancroft's idea.]

[Footnote 10: _Historical Sketches of New Mexico_, L. Bradford Prince, late Chief
Justice of New Mexico, 1883.]

[Footnote 11: D. H. Coyner, 1847.]

[Footnote 12: He was travelling parallel to the Old Santa Fe Trail all the time,
but did not know it until he was overtaken by a band of Kaw Indians.]

[Footnote 13: McKnight was murdered south of the Arkansas by the Comanches in the
winter of 1822.]

[Footnote 14: Chouteau's Island.]

[Footnote 15: _Hennepin's Journal_.]

[Footnote 16: The line between the United States and Mexico (or New Spain, as
it was called) was defined by a treaty negotiated in 1819, between the