houses engaged in the Indian trade had gathered round
them a train of dependents, mongrel Indians, and mongrel Frenchmen,
who had intermarried with Indians. These they employed in their various
expeditions by land and water. Various individuals of other countries
had, of late years, pushed the trade further into the interior, to
the upper waters of the Missouri, and had swelled the number of these
hangers-on. Several of these traders had, two or three years previously,
formed themselves into a company, composed of twelve partners, with
a capital of about forty thousand dollars, called the Missouri Fur
Company; the object of which was, to establish posts along the upper
part of that river, and monopolize the trade. The leading partner of
this company was Mr. Manuel Lisa, a Spaniard by birth, and a man of bold
and enterprising character, who had ascended the Missouri almost to its
source, and made himself well acquainted and popular with several of its
tribes. By his exertions, trading posts had been established, in 1808,
in the Sioux country, and among the Aricara and Mandan tribes; and a
principal one, under Mr. Henry, one of the partners, at the forks of
the Missouri. This company had in its employ about two hundred and fifty
men, partly American and partly creole voyageurs.

All these circumstances combined to produce a population at St. Louis
even still more motley than that at Mackinaw. Here were to be seen,
about the river banks, the hectoring, extravagant bragging boatmen of
the Mississippi, with the gay, grimacing, singing, good-humored Canadian
voyageurs. Vagrant Indians, of various tribes, loitered about
the streets. Now and then a stark Kentucky hunter, in leathern
hunting-dress, with rifle on shoulder and knife in belt, strode along.
Here and there were new brick houses and shops, just set up by bustling,
driving, and eager men of traffic from the Atlantic States; while, on
the other hand, the old French mansions, with open casements, still
retained the easy, indolent air of the original colonists; and now and
then the scraping of a fiddle, a strain of an ancient French song,
or the sound of billiard balls, showed that the happy Gallic turn for
gayety and amusement still lingered about the place.

Such was St. Louis at the time of Mr. Hunt's arrival there, and the
appearance of a new fur company, with ample funds at its command,
produced a strong sensation among the I traders of the place, and
awakened keen