poly of the commerce in furs and peltries with the Indian tribes of the Missouri and Upper Mississippi. The population of the Territory in 1805 was trifling, and consisted mainly of French Creoles and traders, who were scattered along the banks of the Mississippi and the Arkansas. Upon the admission of Louisiana as a State, the name of the Territory of Louisiana was changed to that of Missouri. From the southern part of this, in 1819, was erected the Territory of Arkansas, which then contained but a few thousand inhabitants, who were mainly in detached settlements on the Mississippi and on the Arkansas, in the vicinity of the "Post of Arkansas." The first settlement in Arkansas was made on the Arkansas River, about the year 1723, upon the grant of the notorious John Law; but, being unsuccessful, was soon after abandoned. In 1820, Missouri was admitted into the Union, and Arkansas in 1836.

Michigan was admitted as a State in 1837. The Huron District was organized as the Wisconsin Territory in 1836, and was admitted into the Union as a State in 1848. The first settlement in Wisconsin was made in 1665, when Father Claude Allouez established a mission at La Pointe, at the western end of Lake Superior. Four years after, a mission was permanently established at Green Bay; and, eventually, the French also established themselves at Prairie du Chien. In 1819, an expedition, under Governor Cass, explored the Territory, and found it to be little more than the abode of a few Indian traders, scattered here and there. About this time, the Government established military posts at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. About the year 1825, some farmers settled in the vicinity of Galena, which had then become a noted mineral region. Immediately after the war with Black Hawk, emigrants flowed in from New York, Ohio, and Michigan, and the flourishing towns of Milwaukie, Sheboygan, Racine, and Southport were laid out on the borders of Lake Michigan. At the conclusion of the same war, the lands west of the Mississippi were thrown open to emigrants, who commenced settlements in the vicinity of Fort Madison and Burlington in 1833. Dubuque had long before been a trading post, and was the first settlement in Iowa. It derived its name from Julian Dubuque, an enterprising French Canadian, who, in 1788, obtained a grant of one hundred and forty thousand acres from the Indians, upon which he resided until his death in 1810, when he had accumulated immense wealth by lead-mining and trading. In June, 1838, Iowa was erected into a Territory, and in 1846 became a State.

In 1849, Minnesota Territory was organized; it then contained a little less than five thousand souls. The first American establishment in the Territory was Fort Snelling, at the mouth of St. Peter's or Minnesota River, which was founded in 1819. The French, and afterward the English, occupied this country with their fur-trading forts. Pembina, on the northern boundary, is the oldest village, having been established in 1812 by Lord Selkirk, a

Scottish nobleman, under a grant from the Hudson's Bay Company.

In 1853, Washington Territory was organized. Uniting facilities for an immense commerce, extensive manufactures, and great agricultural wealth, this Territory is destined to become the center of a vast commerce, and ere many years, will assume a rank second, in population, commerce and wealth, to none on the Pacific coast. When California became part of the United States, and gold was found in the beds of her rivers and the bosom of her soil, thousands flocked thither from every part of the country. The young and ardent from the old States, unused to toil and hardships, left all the comforts of home and entered the lists. Men from the West, less daintily raised, pressed forward in the race, and together they sought this far-famed Eldorado. Some realized their anticipations, but many a loved and cherished one fell and perished, weary with the march of life.

In 1850, two years after California was ceded to the United States by Mexico, the population was ninety-two thousand five hundred and sixty-seven; in 1852, it had increased to two hundred and sixty-four thousand four hundred and thirty-five; and the product of her gold-mines for that year was $67,699,548. The product for 1853 was $92,000,000, and from that period to the present, California has been rapidly and steadily increasing in population, commerce, agriculture, and wealth.

The overland route to California led directly through the vast territory, extending from the 37° to the 40° north latitude, and from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, laid down on our maps a few years ago as the Great American Desert; and thousands of emigrants passed through this beautiful.country, regardless of its advantages, in their anxiety to reach the golden land.

The California fever has passed away, and now the tide of emigration is setting strongly to the broad prairies of Kansas; and though no gold is found in the beds of her clear swiftly flowing streams, or in the bosom of her soil, the beauty of her broad and beautifully rolling prairies, decked with the loveliest flowers of every hue and shade of coloring; the noble trees by the banks of her limpid streams; the exceeding beauty of the climate, and the fertility of her soil, more than compensate for the absence of the precious metals; and Kansas is increasing in population, wealth and commerce with a rapidity unprecedented, even in this fast age and land of progress.

HISTORICAL EVENTS;

REMARKABLE INDIVIDUAL ADVENTURES:

SKETCHES OF FRONTIER LIFE, ETC.

DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

THE first explorers of Florida described the interior as abounding in immense quantities of gold. Fired by these reports, Ferdinand de Soto, the favorite companion of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, sought and obtained his monarch's permission to conquer Florida. No sooner was the project published in Spain than the wildest hopes were indulged, and crowds of the wealthy and chivalrous cavaliers volunteered to enlist under the banner of De Soto. Selecting six hundred men in the bloom of life, the flower of his country, De Soto set sail from the port of San Lucar, and in May, 1539, landed at Tampa Bay, on the western coast of Florida.

And now began the nomadic march of the adventurers in an unknown land, they knew not whither; a numerous body of horsemen, beside infantry, completely armed; a force exceeding in numbers and equipments the famous expeditions against the empires of Mexico and Peru. Everything was provided that experience in former invasions and the cruelty of avarice could suggest; chains for captives, arms of all kinds then in use, and bloodhounds, as auxiliaries against the feeble natives. It was a roving expedition of gallant freebooters in quest of fortune. It was a romantic stroll of men whom avarice rendered ferocious, through unexplored regions, over unknown paths; wherever rumor might point to the residence of some chieftain with more than Peruvian wealth, or the ill-interpreted signs of the ignorant natives might seem to promise a harvest of gold. Religious zeal was also united with avarice; there were not only cavalry and foot soldiers, with all that belongs to warlike array, but twelve priests, beside other ecclesiastics, accompanied the expedition. Florida was to become Catholic during scenes of robbery and carnage. Ornaments, such as are used at the service of mass, were carefully provided; every festival was to be kept; every religious practice to be observed. As the cession marched through the wilderness, the solemn procession, which the usages of the church enjoined, was scrupulously instituted.

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The march was tedious and full of dangers: the Indians always hostile. Their Indian guides would purposely lead the Castilians astray, and involve them in morasses; even though death under the fangs of the bloodhounds was the certain punishment. Captives whom they took were questioned as to the locality of gold, and, on giving unsatisfactory answers, were punished; one was burnt alive for his supposed falsehood. Others, taken prisoners, were tortured, some to death; others enslaved. These were led in chains with iron collars about their necks; their service was to grind the maize and to carry the baggage. One of their battles with the Indians, at their town on the site of Mobile, was among the bloodiest Indian fights ever known. The terrors of their cavalry gave the victory to the Spaniards. The town was set on fire, and two thousand five hundred of the natives are said to have been slain, suffocated or burned. They had fought with desperate courage, and but for the flame which consumed their light and dense settlements, would have effectually repulsed the invaders. Of the Christians eighteen died;" one hundred and fifty were wounded with arrows; twelve horses were slain and seventy hurt. The baggage of the Spaniards, which was within the town, was entirely consumed. Amid these discouragements the soldiers desired to return home. De Soto was "a stern man, and of few words." He was inflexible, and his followers, "condescending to his will," continued to march onward through wild solitudes, suffering for want of food, their once gay apparel changed for skins of wild beasts and mats of ivy.

After devious wanderings, great hardships, and the loss of many of his men from disease and the arrows and war-clubs of the savages, De Soto, on the first of May, 1541, arrived on the banks of the Mississippi, near the site of Memphis. Soto was the first of Europeans to behold that magnificent river, which rolled its immense mass of waters through the splendid vegetation of a wide alluvial soil. The lapse of three centuries has not changed the character of the stream. It was then described as more than a mile broad; flowing with a strong current, and by the weight of its waters forcing a channel of great depth. The water was always muddy. Trees and timber were continually floating down stream.

Crossing the river, he marched in a northwest direction, more than two hundred miles, to near the highlands of White River, in the vicinity of the boundary line between Arkansas and Missouri. Neither gold nor gems did the mountains offer, and the disappointed adventurers turned southward, passing their third winter upon the Washita, a branch of the Red River of Louisiana. Increased misfortunes, repeated disappointments, and wasting melancholy so bore upon the health of Soto, that he fell a prey to a malignant fever in the spring following. His soldiers mourned his loss; the priest chanted over his remains the first requiems ever heard on the Mississippi, while the body of its discoverer, wrapt in a mantle, in the gloom of midnight was sunk beneath its turbid