eep everything before them. To be sure,
they were an undisciplined horde with slender Military equipment--a
striking contrast to the French legions; but, added the Frenchman, "a
great deal of skill in shooting, the habit of being in the woods and of
enduring fatigue--this is what makes up for every deficiency."

And if Bonaparte had ever read a remarkable report of the Spanish
Governor Carondelet, he must have divined that there was something
elemental and irresistible in this down-the-river-pressure of the people
of the West. "A carbine and a little maize in a sack are enough for an
American to wander about in the forests alone for a whole month. With
his carbine, he kills the wild cattle and deer for food and defends
himself from the savages. The maize dampened serves him in lieu of
bread .... The cold does not affright him. When a family tires of one
location, it moves to another, and there it settles with the same ease.
Thus in about eight years the settlement of Cumberland has been formed,
which is now about to be created into a state."

On Easter Sunday, 1803, Bonaparte revealed his purpose, which had
doubtless been slowly maturing, to two of his ministers, one of whom,
Barbs Marbois, was attached to the United States through residence, his
devotion to republican principles, and marriage to an American wife.
The First Consul proposed to cede Louisiana to the United States: he
considered the colony as entirely lost. What did they think of the
proposal? Marbois, with an eye to the needs of the Treasury of which
he was the head, favored the sale of the province; and next day he
was directed to interview Livingston at once. Before he could do so,
Talleyrand, perhaps surmising in his crafty way the drift of the First
Consul's thoughts, startled Livingston by asking what the United States
would give for the whole of Louisiana. Livingston, who was in truth
hard of hearing, could not believe his ears. For months he had talked,
written, and argued in vain for a bit of territory near the mouth of the
Mississippi, and here was an imperial domain tossed into his lap, as
it were. Livingston recovered from his surprise sufficiently to name
a trifling sum which Talleyrand declared too low. Would Mr. Livingston
think it over? He, Talleyrand, really did not speak from authority. The
idea had struck him, that was all.

Some days later in a chance conversation with Marbois, Livingston spoke
of his extraordinary interview with Tall