We renewed the effort with a _cordelle_ the next morning, with success, but not without exhausting the men so much that two of them refused to proceed, who were immediately paid off, and furnished provisions to return.

We succeeded in going to the mouth of the Obrazo, about half a mile higher, when we lay by all day.

This delay enabled Ensminger to recruit his crew, and during the three following days we ascended respectively six, seven, and ten miles, which brought us to the commencement of Bois-brule bottom.

This is a fertile, and was then a comparatively populous, settlement.

We ascended along it about seven miles, the next day seven more, and the next eleven, which completed the ascent to the antique town of St.Genevieve.About three hundred houses were here clustered together, which, with their inhabitants, had the looks which we may fancy to belong to the times of Louis XIV.