Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 6).djvu/30

24 hopes this little volume will not be useless to the public; that is, in conveying something like an exact idea of the extent to which the immense regions west of the Mississippi are susceptible of population. This is a consideration [v] to the statesman of no small moment. In developing the resources of a great empire, destined in twenty-five years hence, to contain twenty millions of souls, a correct estimate of the amount of its habitable territory is surely not unimportant. It is with this view chiefly, that I have been induced to publish this Journal in a separate volume, as in this way it will have a tendency to produce a more general acquaintance with a portion of our country, so vast in extent and so interesting in its character.