The Hunters' Feast: Conversations Around the Camp Fire

The Hunters' Feast: Conversations Around the Camp Fire

On the western bank of the Mississippi, twelve miles below the embouchure of the Missouri, stands the large town of Saint Louis, poetically known as the Mound City. Although there are many other large towns throughout the Mississippi Valley, Saint Louis is the true metropolis of the far westof that semi-civilised, ever-changing belt of territory known as the Frontier. Saint Louis is one of those American cities in the history of which there is something of peculiar interest. It is one of the oldest of North-American settlements, having been a French trading port at an early period. Though not so successful as their rivals the English, there was a degree of picturesqueness about French colonisation, that, in the present day, strongly claims the attention of the American poet, novelist, and historian. Their dealings with the Indian aboriginesthe facile manner in which they glided into the habits of the lattermeeting them more than half-way between civilisation and savage lifethe handsome nomenclature which they have scattered freely, and which still holds over the trans-Mississippian territoriesthe introduction of a new race (the half bloodpeculiarly French)the heroic and adventurous character of their earliest pioneers, De Salle Marquette, Father Hennepin, etceteratheir romantic explorations and melancholy fateall these circumstances have rendered extremely interesting the early history of the French in America. Even the Quixotism of some of their attempts at colonisation cannot fail to interest us, as at Gallipolis on the Ohio, a colony composed of expatriated people of the French court;perruquiers, coachbuilders, tailors, modistes, and the like. Here, in the face of hostile Indians, before an acre of ground was cleared, before the slightest provision was made for their future subsistence, the first house erected was a large log structure, to serve as the salon du Lal! ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 23499
Author: Reid, Mayne
Release Date: Nov 15, 2007
Format: eBook
Language: English