Note 138 — JOURNAL OF ANDRÉ MICHAUX
Reading edition
St. Louis was founded by Pierre Laclède in April 1764. He had secured a license from the French governor of Louisiana to trade upon the upper Mississippi and the Missouri. Upon arriving in the Illinois country, the previous November, he chose the site for his new settlement, and spent the winter at Cahokia making arrangements. Meanwhile the news of the transfer of Canada and the Illinois to the British had arrived. Under the impression that France had retained the left bank of the Mississippi, many Illinois settlers removed thither with Laclède. St. Louis flourished under Spanish dominion, but was known by its neighbors as “Pain Court” (Scant-bread) because its inhabitants devoted more time to fur-trading than to agriculture. It was not until transferred to the United States (March, 1804) that the career of St. Louis as a city began.—Ed.