raders, excepting to the favoured few who were
successful in obtaining permits from the Spanish government. In 1821,
however, the rebellion of Iturbide crushed the power of the mother
country, and established the freedom of Mexico. The embargo upon foreign
trade was at once removed, and the Santa Fe Trail, for untold ages
only a simple trace across the continent, became the busy highway of a
relatively great commerce.

In 1817 the navigation of the Mississippi River was begun. On the 2d of
August of that year the steamer _General Pike_ arrived at St. Louis.
The first boat to ascend the Missouri River was the _Independence_; she
passed Franklin on the 28th of May, 1819, where a dinner was given to
her officers. In the same and the following month of that year, the
steamers _Western Engineer Expedition_ and _R. M. Johnson_ came
along, carrying Major Long's scientific exploring party, bound for the
Yellowstone.

The Santa Fe trade having been inaugurated shortly after these important
events, those engaged in it soon realized the benefits of river
navigation--for it enabled them to shorten the distance which their
wagons had to travel in going across the plains--and they began to look
out for a suitable place as a shipping and outfitting point higher up
the river than Franklin, which had been the initial starting town.

By 1827 trading-posts had been established at Blue Mills, Fort Osage,
and Independence. The first-mentioned place, which is situated about
six miles below Independence, soon became the favourite landing, and the
exchange from wagons to boats settled and defied all efforts to
remove the headquarters of the trade from there for several years.
Independence, however, being the county seat and the larger place,
succeeded in its claims to be the more suitable locality, and as early
as 1832 it was recognized as the American headquarters and the great
outfitting point for the Santa Fe commerce, which it continued to be
until 1846, when the traffic was temporarily suspended by the breaking
out of the Mexican War.

Independence was not only the principal outfitting point for the Santa
Fe traders, but also that of the great fur companies. That powerful
association used to send out larger pack-trains than any other parties
engaged in the traffic to the Rocky Mountains; they also employed wagons
drawn by mules, and loaded with goods for the Indians with whom their
agents bartered, which also on their return trip tran