Note III-41 — Chapter III · ITINERARY, CONCLUDED: LEECH LAKE TO ST. LOUIS, FEBRUARY 1ST-APRIL 30TH, 1806.

A sketch of the early history of St. Louis forms pp. 75-92 of Nicollet's Report of 1843, so often cited in the foregoing notes. It will be well to abstract here the main historical points of this article, which is not so well known as everything that Nicollet wrote should be. Some of the following items are adduced from other sources, as Billon's Annals. Louisiana was ceded by France to Spain, Treaty of Fontainebleau, Nov. 3d, 1762, ratified Nov. 13th; and by Treaty of Paris, Feb. 10th, 1763, France and Spain jointly made the cession to Great Britain. In 1762 or 1763 D'Abadie was director-general of Louisiana ad interim, vice Governor Kerlerec, relieved. He licensed Laclede, Maxent (or Maxam) and Co., merchants of New Orleans, to trade up the river. Pierre Ligueste Laclede, in charge of the party, left New Orleans Aug. 3d, 1763; proceeded to St. Genevieve and Fort Chartres, Nov. 3d; to the mouth of the Missouri in Dec.; blazed a site for his trading-post, now St. Louis; and returned to winter at Fort Chartres, 1763-64. He soon sent to the spot he had marked a boat with 30 persons, in charge of Auguste Chouteau; they arrived Feb. 15th, 1764 (so Nicollet), or Mar. 14th (Chouteau himself says). The list of the "Thirty Associates" of Laclede given by Billon, p. 17, is 31, with Antoine Riviere, who, however, did not go in this boat, but drove the cart which contained Mrs. Chouteau and four children, and which was escorted by Laclede in person. Chouteau says that Laclede came there early in April, selected a site for his own house, and returned to Fort Chartres. He brought his family in September, and established himself in his new house. The settlement was made, and at least eight persons were added to the original number by the fall of 1764. The original name was Laclede's Village. In Oct., 1764, the infant colony was annoyed by begging and pilfering Missouri Indians. D'Abadie died Feb. 4th, 1765. Neyon de Villiers had turned over the command of Fort Chartres, June 15th, 1764, to Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, by whom it was given over to the British Captain Stirling, Oct. 10th (not July 17th), 1765; Stirling died in three months, and St. Ange resumed temporary charge of the fort, pending arrival of Stirling's English successor. British dominion E. of the Mississippi, already established, was odious; it drove many persons across the river, and naturally they gathered about the nucleus Laclede had provided. By the end of 1765 several hundred were there; law was needed, and a provisional government was set up by general consent in the election or recognition of St. Ange as governor; this was in effect in April, 1766, with the first recorded document of a public character; first on record being one filed by Joseph Labusciere, notary, Jan. 21st, 1766. Laclede, St. Ange, Labusciere, and Judge Joseph Le Febvre d'Inglebert d'Brouisseau were the four persons most prominent in moving the wheels of government for four or five years. The settlement had already outgrown all the earlier ones in the vicinity and become the actual "metropolis" or capital place in the country. In 1767 the village had perhaps 80 houses, and several hundred people. Late that year Capt. Francisco Rios or Rivers arrived with some 25 men, sent by Don Antonio d' Ulloa to take Spanish possession; he could not be conveniently accommodated, so selected a camp on the Missouri, 14 miles away, where he built in 1768 Fort Charles the Prince (site of subsequent Belle Fontaine), named for the one who became in 1788 Charles IV. of Spain. Definitive possession of Upper Louisiana was taken May 20th, 1770, by Capt. Piedro Piernas, sent from New Orleans by Gen. Alex. O'Reilly (Oreiley of Nicollet), who had landed there at 5 p. m., Aug. 18th, 1769. At the close of the French régime, 1770, the village had 100 wooden and 15 stone houses; pop. 500. Before or about 1770, some other settlements were made in the region roundabout; Blanchette the hunter built his shack on les Petites Côtes, and this place became St. Charles in 1784; the place to be called both Florissant and St. Ferdinand was started by François Borosier Dunegan (so Nicollet—but query this name?) François Saucier settled at Portage des Sioux. The origin of the name Pain Court is said to be: In 1767, one Delor Détergette settled on the W. bank of the Miss. r., 6 m. S. of St. Louis, and was followed by others, all so poor that when they visited St. Louis, the people there would exclaim, "voilà les poches vides qui viennent!" "Here come the Empty Pockets!" "But," says Nicollet, "on one occasion a wag remarked, 'You had better call them emptiers of pockets'—les Vide-poches; a compliment which was retaliated by them upon the place of St. Louis, which was subject to frequent seasons of want, by styling it Pain-Court—Short of Bread." The Vide-poche place became Carondelet in 1776. Laclede died at the Poste aux Arkansas, June 20th, 1778. On May 6th, 1780, St. Louis was attacked by Indians and British, and many persons (accounts differ as to numbers) were killed or captured; it became known as l'Année du Grand Coup—year of the great blow. Similarly 1785 was called l'Année des Grandes Eaux, because of the flood in April when the Mississippi rose to an unprecedented height and inundated the lowlands; it is traditional that Auguste Chouteau moored his boat and breakfasted on top of the highest roof in St. Genevieve. The year 1788 was called L'Année des Dix Batteaux, from circumstances of piracy on the river. The winter of 1789-90 was notable for its intensity. There was no interruption of Spanish dominion until the cession of Louisiana to the United States: see Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, p. xxxiii. and p. 2.