Excerpt from Fragment of Col. Auguste Chouteau's: Narrative of the Settlement of St. Louis<br><br>Laclede told them that he would have pity on them, and detained them till the next day. He could not give them anything that day, for he had not enough corn, which he was obliged to send to Caos for. As soon as he had received it, he gave them a large quantity, some powder, balls and knives, and osme cloth; and the day after, all the Missouris went away, to go up the Missouri and return to their ancient village, - having remained here fifteen days, in the course of which I had the cellar of the house, which we were to build, dug by the women and children. I gave them, in payment, vermillion, awls and verdigris. They dug the largest part of it, and carried the earth in wooden platters and baskets, which they bore upon their heads.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.