It would be difficult to state the number of houses or people in many of the new towns that are annually rising in this country. In reality, the numbers change so rapidly, that no estimate can remain one year correct. It would be useless to attempt any precise enumeration of the component parts of a mass so incessantly accumulating.

There are many flourishing settlements extending from Mobile point to Fort Jackson, on the Coosa; and on the Alabama the country is pretty well settled near the river, twenty-five miles above Fort Jackson. On the Conecuh, Cahaba, and Black Warrior, the population is rapidly advancing; but below St. Stephens, the country is thinly settled; between the Alabama and Tombigbee the settlements are fast increasing. The borders of the Conecuh is the favourite district for the poorer class of people, and stock-owners; it being better calculated for men of small capital than the Alabama. The rapidity of the settlement of Madison county, is probably without a parallel in the history of the Union.

The Creeks, or Muscogees, are the only Indians inhabiting this state, and reside chiefly on the waters of the Alabama and Chatahouchy, in about thirty towns. They are a brave and sensible people, who raise stock, and cultivate the soil; and though greatly reduced by war and famine, in 1814, yet their number at this time exceeds 20,000 souls.

MISSOURI TERRITORY.

Situation, Boundaries, and Extent.

THIS immense region is situated between 26° and 49° 37′ N. lat. and 12° and 49° 30′ W. long. It is bounded on the north by Upper Canada and the vast unsettled country lying to the west of that province; south, by Louisiana and the gulf of Mexico; east, by Upper Canada, North-west territory, and the states of Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana; west, by the Pacific ocean; and south-west by the Spanish internal provinces. Its length, from east to west, is about 1,680 miles, and its breadth, from north to south, 1,380 miles; containing about 1,580,000 square miles, or 1,011,200,000 acres: As only a small portion of this extensive country is yet purchased from the natives, the description will

be principally confined to those parts occupied by the settlements of the white people.

That fertile section, of which St. Louis is the chief town, having been hitherto governed as a territory; it may not be improper in this place to notice the difference between a territorial government and that of an independent state. There now remains only three territories in the Union, viz. Missouri, Miclrigan, and North-western; each of which has a certain form of government prescribed by a special ordinance of congress, the principal regulations of which are, that the religious and political rights of the members of the community shall be guaranteed; the writ of habeas corpus, trial by jury, and the liberty of the press, to be held sacred; that all offences shall be bailable; and that schools and the means of education shall be for ever encouraged. A governor and secretary is appointed by the president of the United States, and the people send one delegate to the general congress; but cannot be represented in the senate until they become sufficiently numerous to form a state constitution. Whenever any of the territories shall have 60,000 free inhabitants, they shall be erected into a state, to be admitted by its representatives, into the congress of the United States, on an equal footing with the original states. The Missouri territory having acquired sufficient population to become an independent state, application has been made to the general government for its admission; and it is supposed that in the session of congress which is to assemble in November, 1819, authority will be granted for forming it into the twenty-fourth state of the Union the district of Maine having assumed that rank since the first part of this Work has been printed off.— That portion of the present Missouri territory lying south of 30° 31′ N. lat., known by the name of the “Arkansas country," and which is not included in the proposed state of Missouri, is to be placed under a terri torial government.

Rivers, lakes, and mountains.-Nature has divided the. Missouri territory into two very distinct portions, but of unequal superficies. Of the settled part of this region, $2,600 square miles lie south, and about 16,000 north of the Missouri river; the entire area spreading over 98,600. square miles. A ridge of hills leaves the Mississippi river. within a short distance above the mouth of Ohio; and. extending south-west, divides the waters that flow south

into the St. Francis and White rivers from those whose courses are directed north-east of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The southern section is the most extensive, and contains at least as great a portion of good land as the northern. The former is watered by the streams of Red, Ouachitta, Arkansaw, White, Mississippi, and St. Francis; the latter by the Osage, Missouri, Merrimack, and Mississippi rivers.

The Red river merely touches the Missouri territory, and waters so small a part of its surface, that it can add but little to the topographical features of the country.

Between the Arkansaw and Red rivers, at N. lat. 34° 39′ and 18° west of Washington city, rises Ouachitta. This river is formed by three branches, which pursuing an east course, unite about 200 miles below their sources, and form the river, which, below the junction, turns a little east of south, runs in a direct line 250 miles, and joins Red river thirty miles above the union of the latter and Mississippi. In the interval, between the Ouachitta, Arkansaw, and Mississippi, there exists several smaller streams, such as the Bœuf, Tensaw, and Maçon rivers, which all join and contribute to form Ouachitta.

The Arkansaw is, after the Missouri, the longest, and in some seasons, the largest branch of the Mississippi. This great river rises nearly as high as the forty-second degree of north latitude, 33° west of Washington city; pursuing a south course of about 200 miles, turns south-east, 500 miles; then turns nearly at right angles, and runs northeast 150 miles; again reasumes a south-east course, which it pursues 150 miles; then assumes an east direction, which it preserves about 450 miles, and enters the Mississippi at 34° north lat. and 14° west longitude. The Arkausaw greatly exceeds in length either the Mississippi proper, or Ohio. That part of Arkansaw that traverses the Missouri territory is skirted, in great part, by extensive prairies. Spurs of the Massarene mountains often reach the river. It may be remarked as singular, that to the extent of upwards of 300 miles in the lower part of the Arkansaw, its valley is confined merely to the stream of the river; the waters of the Ouachitta on one side, and White river on the other, rising almost from the very margin of the Arkansaw.

The land upon the Arkansaw, in the Missouri territory, is in great part alluvial; and where not subject to overflow, excellent. The timber corresponds nearly to that of the state of Mississippi, in similar relative situations.

White river may be considered, as far as productive soil

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is concerned, one of the principal streams of the Missouri territory. This river is formed by the junction of Black river, and White river properly so called, and falls into the Mississippi thirty miles above the Arkansaw. Without estimating the particular bends, the White river is about 400 miles in length, following the main stream, and also 400 by the valley of the Black river.

The region watered by White river appears to be composed of immense strata of limestone and marble; the decomposition of which produces a most fertile soil. Some prairies exist on the White river, but are neither very fertile nor extensive. A very great similarity exists between the White river lands and those of Kentucky, Indiana, and West Tennessee. The lands are generally well adapted to the culture of cotton: that plant, however, is here more liable to be destroyed by frost than in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi; but owing to more elevated shelter, less so than in a similar latitude in Tennessee. With very little exception, the White river lands are public property. A considerable number of families are settled on the various branches of this stream, but mostly on public land.

Until the date of the cession of Louisiana to the United States, White river appears to have been but very imperfectly known. The French and Spanish settlements seldom extended far from the margin of the rivers, and were scattered, weak, and defenceless. Those nations appear to have had a much better knowledge of the manner of conciliating the savages than the English possess. or than has been evinced by the government of the United States. No such dispersed settlements of English or Americans, as the French and Spanish posts on the Mississippi and its tributaries, could have existed a century amongst the powerful tribes of savages.

The country watered by White river, has not been visited by any person whose observations have been published, or who was competent to give a correct detail of its metallic productions. Like other regions where flat limestone forms the greater part of the substratum, coal may be very confidently expected to exist. Salt and gypsum must also form part of the fossil materials of this country. Its greatest natural wealth, however, is its extremely productive soil and moderate climate. In every respect, in point of agricultural, commercial, and political advantages, this is a place of great, and it may be anticipated, not delusive promise. The rivers Missouri and Mississippi, the latter of which washes the frontier of this

territory upwards of 2,000 miles, have been described in pages 22 and 23.

St. Francis river rises about 100 miles northward of the mouth of the Ohio; its general course is nearly south, receiving several streams from the east; one of which appears to have been an ancient outlet of the Mississippi. The country on St. Francis is not either so fertile or extensive as that watered by White river. The entire length of the former is about 200 miles, and falls into the Mississippi ninety-two miles above the mouth of Arkansaw.

The intermediate country between the White and St. Francis rivers is low overflowed land for a distance of upwards of 100 miles above their mouths. The same remark is applicable to the lands between the St. Francis and Mississippi. Upon the margin of the latter, in this part of the Missouri territory, the soil is similar to that found to border that stream from the mouth of the Ohio to within forty miles of the gulf of Mexico.

Osage river, rises in the same ridges with the main stream of the grand river of Arkansaw, and flowing northeast about 400 miles in a direct course, enters the territory of Missouri, through which it flows 250 miles, and joins the Missouri river at 39° 40′ north lat. and 14° 10' west lon. from Washington city.

Though contiguous to the country watered by White river, the climate on the Osage is sensibly colder. As soon as the diverging ridge between those two streams is passed, a change in vegetation and the seasons is apparent. Here, for the first place, from the gulf of Mexico, appears to commence a region in every respect congenial to the growth of wheat, rye, and other small grain.

The country watered by the Osage river is generally prairie; some spots are extremely fertile; but from the united testimony of all persons who have visited this region, it is generally poor, gravelly, and badly watered. The same remark may be extended to the northern parts, drained by the White river waters. West of the line of demarkation, between the land sold by the Osage Indians, and that still possessed by that tribe, the country is very imperfectly known.

The Merrimack is a small unimportant stream, rising between the Missouri and heads of St. Francis and White rivers. Its course is nearly east, and it is about 150 miles long.

The country north of the Missouri abounds with lakes and ponds. Lake Despice forms the grand reservoir of the Little Sioux, and is seventy miles in circumference