Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/191

 ITTSTORY OF SOUTHEAST iMISSOURI 131 is unavoidable. It is difficult for us to im- agine the situation of the settlers in New Ma- drid, Cape Girardeau and Ste. Genevieve. They were separated from one another by many miles and they were cut off from the centers of wealth and power by hundreds and thousands of miles. To reach New Orleans or Canada required a journey whose difficul- ties cannot be measured by us. There were no roads. One who traveled by land must fol- low the trails or traces as laid ovit by the In- dians and adopted for use by the settlers. These trails were simply paths which led through the woods. Often it was difficult to follow them, owing to their indistinctness; sometimes the trees along them were blazed to prevent them being entirely lost. There were no bridges over the streams ; the trav- eler must make his way across these as best he might. There were no inns, or otlier pro- vision for one who made his way along these trails. He must carry with him the supplies necessar.y for his subsistence. Travel along these trails was necessarily limited either to horseback or else on foot. It must have been a great undertaking to go from the settle- ments in Missouri to Quebec or ilontreal in Canada. No matter at what time of year one traveled, he met with great hardships and dangers. The streams were frequently swol- len and dangerous to cross ; there were long stretches of country consisting of swamps ; wild animals were abundant, and savages were still more to be dreaded. There was great suffering from cold in winter, and from heat and mo.squitoes in summer; and yet. as difficult as such a journe.v over land must have been, it was frequently made. Tradci's found it necessarj' to go from Missouri to Canada. Some of them made annual trips covering 1,600 to 2,000 miles on land. The traveler set out with his horse. On either side of his saddle he placed such things as were necessary for his comfort. He pro- cured his provisions, in part, by hunting; he camped at night under the sky, in the forests or on the prairie. In winter time it was fre- quently necessary to shovel away the snow to find a little dry wood with which to kindle a fire. It was always necessary to be on con- stant guard against the dangers of the way. Strange as it may seem, however, this life of travel came to' have the very greatest at- tractions for some men. There was a fasci- nation about the life of the woods, its hard- ships and even its dangers, which drew men irresistibly to it. This was true not only of men who were reared amid such surround- ings ; it was true of Europeans who came from the midst of a high state of civilization. They found something in the life of the woods which made their every-day existence at home seem tame and uninspiring by comparison. Scarcely a traveler of all of those who left a record of their wanderings in the west but reveals the influence of this peculiar charm of savage life. Some seemed to revel in it ; to feel that for the first time they had come in contact with nature, and were living the life for which men were destined. If we turn from travel on land, with its lack of roads and its inconveniences, to travel on the river, we find conditions improved in- deed and yet arduous, still. In the early times travel on the river was in the large dug-outs called bateaus or pirogues. Nearly all of the early vo.vages up and down the I'iver were made in these boats. They were copied from the Indian boats and were the lu)llowed out trunks of large trees. In such a boat it required from twenty-five to thirty da.vs to make the trip from Ste. Genevieve to New Orleans, and it required from three