In The Middle Of The Sixteenth Century,

The Spanish Voyager, As His Caravel Ploughed The Adjacent Seas, Might Give Full Scope To His Imagination, And Dream That Beyond The Long, Low Margin Of Forest Which Bounded His Horizon Lay Hid A Rich Harvest For Some Future Conqueror; Perhaps A Second Mexico With Its Royal Palace And Sacred Pyramids, Or Another Cuzco With Its Temple Of The Sun, Encircled With A Frieze Of Gold. Haunted By Such Visions, The Ocean Chivalry Of Spain Could Not Long Stand Idle.

In One Point The Plan Was Fatally Defective, Since It Involved The Deadly Enmity Of A Race Whose Character And Whose Power Were As Yet But Ill Understood,--the Fiercest, Boldest, Most Politic, And Most Ambitious Savages To Whom The American Forest Has Ever Given Birth.

Fort Leavenworth Is In Fact No Fort, Being Without Defensive Works, Except Two Block-houses.

The Most Momentous And Far-reaching Question Ever Brought To Issue On This Continent Was: Shall France Remain Here, Or Shall She Not?

We Were Now, As I Before Mentioned, Upon This St. Joseph's Trail. It Was Evident, By The Traces, That Large Parties Were A Few Days In Advance Of Us; And As We Too Supposed Them To Be Mormons, We Had Some Apprehension Of Interruption.