concealed timber.

The next morning we set sail at five o'clock. At the distance of a few
miles, we passed a remarkable large coal hill on the north side, called
by the French La Charbonniere, and arrived at the town of St. Charles.
Here we remained a few days.

St. Charles is a small town on the north bank of the Missouri, about
twenty-one miles from its confluence with the Mississippi. It is
situated in a narrow plain, sufficiently high to protect it from the
annual risings of the river in the month of June, and at the foot of a
range of small hills, which have occasioned its being called Petite
Cote, a name by which it is more known to the French than by that of St.
Charles. One principal street, about a mile in length and running
parallel with the river, divides the town, which is composed of nearly
one hundred small wooden houses, besides a chapel. The inhabitants,
about four hundred and fifty in number, are chiefly descendants from the
French of Canada; and, in their manners, they unite all the careless
gayety, and the amiable hospitality of the best times of France: yet,
like most of their countrymen in America, they are but ill qualified for
the rude life of a frontier; not that they are without talent, for they
possess much natural genius and vivacity; nor that they are destitute of
enterprize, for their hunting excursions are long, laborious, and
hazardous: but their exertions are all desultory; their industry is
without system, and without perseverance. The surrounding country,
therefore, though rich, is not, in general, well cultivated; the
inhabitants chiefly subsisting by hunting and trade with the Indians,
and confine their culture to gardening, in which they excel.

Being joined by captain Lewis, who had been detained by business at St.