cities, he had
been induced to return with this object in view.

He was also desirous of presenting one of his canoes, the "Itasca," to
the Missouri Historical Society in recognition of the unbounded
hospitality he had enjoyed at the hands of the citizens of St. Louis,
and it was decided that the donation of the canoe, a beautiful specimen
of the Rob Roy pattern, should take place on the night of the lecture.

Accordingly, on the evening of January fourteenth, a large audience
consisting of members of the Historical Society, Academy of Sciences,
clergy, officers and teachers of the public schools, and the various
boat clubs of the city, assembled at Mercantile Library Hall to listen
to his thrilling lecture on the pioneer explorers of the Mississippi,
and to witness the formalities of the presentation.

At eight o'clock, Captain Glazier, accompanied by Judge Albert Todd, an
eminent lawyer, and vice-president of the Historical Society, made his
appearance on the platform, and, after the storm of applause which
greeted their entry had subsided, Judge Todd stepped to the front and
introduced the lecturer in the following terms:--

Mark Twain wrote that in his oriental travels he visited the grave
of our common ancestor, Adam, and as a filial mourner he copiously
wept over it. To me, the grave of our common ancestress, Eve, would
be more worthy of my filial affection; but instead of weeping over
it, I should proudly rejoice by reason of her irrepressible desire
for knowledge. She boldly gratified this desire, and thereby lifted
Adam up from the indolent, browsing life that he seemed disposed
and content to pass in the "Garden," and gave birth to that spirit
of inquiry and investigation which is developing and elevating
their posterity to "man's pride of place"--"a little lower than the
angels," by keeping them ever discontented with the status quo, and
constantly pressing on to the "mark of their high calling" beneath
the blazing legend "Excelsior." It is the ceaseless unrest of the
spirit, one of the greatest evidences of the soul's immortality,
that is continually contracting the boundaries of the unknown in
geography and astronomy, in physics and metaphysics, in all their
varied departments. Of those pre-eminently illustrating it in
geography were Jason and his Argonauts; Columbus, De Gama and
Magellan; De Soto, Marquette a