Not Less Deserving Of Applause Either
Have Been His Efforts To Promote The Welfare Of The Indians.
He now
lives in affluent circumstances at Washington, and, though suffering
under some bodily infirmities, appears (or did when I saw him) to
enjoy life with that serene and rational happiness which springs from
useful employment, and a consciousness that past opportunities have
been improved.
"For he lives twice who can at once employ
The present well and e'en the past enjoy."
There have been other explorations of this part of the country at
different times by Messrs. Long, Nicollet, and Pope. M. Nicollet was
accompanied and assisted by Mr. (then Lieutenant) Fremont. The reports
made of these explorations afford information which, if extensively
known among the people, would tend to direct a larger emigration into
the upper part of the territory. They often launch off into
exclamations as to the beautiful surface of the country; while their
account of native fruits and the bracing climate and fertile soil
picture to the imagination all the elements of a home.
M. Nicollet was a foreign gentleman who possessed superior scientific
knowledge and a rare zeal to prosecute researches. He made an
exploration through the valley of the St. Peter's and the Missouri;
and from thence to the sources of the Mississippi, in the year 1839.
The official report which he made is a valuable document, but
difficult to be obtained. I shall therefore make a few extracts from
it. I should here remark that M. Nicollet died before he had completed
the introduction to his report.
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