LITMIR.BIZ

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the growing lead industry behind it. Storage rooms for the goods with which the "armament" was loaded could not be found. Moreover, Laclede looked at the flat upon which the Ste. Genevieve of that day was built. Another and higher site was chosen a few years later. Laclede remembered his experience with high water near the lower coast. He "deemed the location insalubrious" for his business. So he said to Auguste Chouteau, the stepson not yet fourteen years old, upon whom he looked even then as his lieutenant. An officer came down from Fort Chartres. The expedition of Laclede had been heralded. Courtesies were due from one officer to another. The commandant at the fort sent his greeting to Laclede. He offered a storage place within the fort. At the same time he explained that he was expecting to evacuate upon the arrival of an English garrison. While he waited the facilities of the fort were offered to the expedition. Services that Maxent and Laclede had rendered the colonial government warranted this tender.

      Laclede pushed on. Fort Chartres was six miles above Kaskaskia. The massive stone walls, eighteen feet high, were near to the landing. They enclosed four acres of ground. The storehouse, into which Laclede's boatmen carried the goods, was a stone building ninety feet long. Government house, barracks, coach house, guard house, bakery— all of the structures were of stone with doors of wood and iron. Cannon were in the embrasures covering approach from every direction. Fort Chartres had stood a third of a century. It was considered the strongest fortification in America. Seven years after Laclede made the fort his temporary stopping place, the wall nearest the river was undermined and slipped into the water. In 1772 Fort Chartres was abandoned.

      Neyon de Villiers was the commandant of the Illinois, stationed at Fort Chartres. He was calling in the garrisons of outlying posts when Laclede arrived. Preparations to depart for New Orleans were under way. Commandant de Villiers contemplated more than a military movement. He considered it proper to advise the settlers to follow the French flag down the river. He thought to leave only the stone fort and the soil to the new authority.

      Under the shadow and protection of Fort Chartres was a considerable settlement — St. Anne de Fort Chartres. A few miles away was Kaskaskia. To the north was Notre Dame de Kahokias. Villages and hamlets on the east side of the river had been growing slowly while the French flag floated over Fort Chartres from 1720 to 1763. And now Neyon de Villiers proposed a general exodus. He was the representative of France in the Illinois. His advice was impressive. Many French settlers were preparing to follow it. On the Missouri side there was no settlement north of Ste. Genevieve. Up to that time the east side had been favored by the pioneer immigration. But now, if Neyon de Villiers had his way, the skirmish line of civilization was to fall back from the country of the Illinois.

      Laclede had learned patience as he waited costly months for his goods to come from abroad. He had faced hardships, such as he had never known previously, in his three months' voyage up the river. The crisis of his enterprise confronted him at Fort Chartres. The goods were stored. Some presents were made ready for the Indian tribes with whom Laclede intended to trade. Friendly relations were established with the officers at the fort. Acquaintance was cultivated with the habitants. Much information Laclede sought about the surrounding country. The goods were shown. The prospects of trade were discussed. The local sentiment was extremely discouraging. It was December. Ice was running in the river. Laclede declared himself. He would found "an establishment suitable to his commerce." No turning back for him! Ste. Genevieve would not do. When he stopped there he did not find storage room sufficient for one-fourth of his cargoes. Furthermore, he rejected it "because of its distance from the Missouri."

      Of his courage and decision of character, Laclede gave the wondering habitants immediate illustration. With Auguste Chouteau he crossed to the west side of the Mississippi. Very thoroughly Laclede explored the country northward, all of the way to the mouth of the Missouri. It was not a due course. Topography was studied. Two natural conditions were taken into careful account,— the west bank of the river and the country some distance back from the bank.

      Turning southward from the limestone bluff's near the mouth of the Missouri, Laclede and Auguste Chouteau passed through groves of oaks and across small prairies. They went some distance west of the river front. On the way northward Laclede looked for water power. The little river flowing through what is now Mill Creek Valley attracted his attention. He noted that it was fed by large springs. Coming southward, on the return, as he neared the slope leading downward to the ravine through which ran the little river, Laclede led the way to a considerable elevation. From that vantage point he looked over the tree tops to the river. This elevation became "the Hill" of St. Louis for a third of a century. Upon it, but graded down somewhat, stands today the courthouse. From this hill Laclede surveyed the locality in detail. He went down through the trees to the river. The distance from the hill to the water was about one thousand feet. It included two gentle descents and two plateaus about three hundred feet wide. Laclede saw with satisfaction that the plateaus, or terraces they might be termed, were heavily wooded. Here was building material at hand for the first house construction. At the eastern edge of the lower plateau, the explorers came to a sharp, rocky bluff. Precipice might better describe the topography. But the drop to the sandy beach was a short one. At most this precipice or bluff was thirty-five feet high. In places the distance was only twenty feet down to the sandy beach. Both to the north and to the south, as Laclede traversed the water front, he discovered that the rocky bluff sloped down gradually until it was lost in the alluvial low land.

      In the rocky river bluff, which he examined arpent by arpent, Laclede found breaks or gullies through which the water line was easily reached from the first plateau or terrace. One of the depressions was at the foot of Walnut street as now located. The other, the most rugged of the two, was some distance north. From the edge of the rock-bound front, Laclede closely scanned the river movement. He saw that the current ran strong in shore; that the water deepened rapidly just off the strip of wet sand.

      "He was delighted to see the situation," the boy Auguste remembered to write years afterwards of that eventful December day; "he did not hesitate a moment to form there the establishment that he proposed. Besides the beauty of the site, he found there all the advantages that one could desire, to found a settlement which might become very considerable hereafter."

      As long as he lived, Auguste Chouteau recalled vividly the doings of that December day which determined the location of St. Louis. He told how Laclede, "after having examined all thoroughly, fixed upon the place where he wished to form his settlement."

      The two approaches to the river's edge were compared. The one north of what is now the foot of Washington avenue had been worn by the steady flow of water from a spring. The depression at Walnut street was wider. Laclede followed the gully down to the water. He pointed out to Auguste Chouteau that this afforded the easiest route from the river to the plateau. He determined that there should be the boat landing. Then the founder went back through the gully to the first plateau and examined the ground. Trees of considerable size were growing on the terraces and slopes westward to a short distance beyond the hill. Thence, from the timber line, stretched "a grand prairie." This open, rolling ground Laclede commented upon with satisfaction. It offered the "common fields" waiting for the farmer.

      Stopping on the lower plateau, near the head of the gully, Laclede "marked with his own hands some trees."

      Where those trees were marked became the center of the trade and commerce of St. Louis, to continue more than one hundred years. With the expansion of the city this center moved slowly westward and northward. Today the financial and commercial heart of the Fourth City is within rifle shot of the place where Laclede marked the trees in December, 1763.

      As he thus determined the site, the founder said to the all-observant boy beside him:

      "You will come here as soon as navigation opens, and will cause this place to be cleared, in order to form a settlement after the plan that I shall give you."

      Immediately following his decision on the site, Laclede returned as quickly as the journey would permit to Fort Chartres.

      "He said, with enthusiasm, to Neyon de Villiers and to the officers, that he had found a situation where he was going to form a settlement which might become, hereafter, one of the finest cities of America— so many advantages were embraced in this site, by its locality and its central position,

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