The day after my arrival was the general election of the (then) Territory of Missouri, and the district elected Mr.Stephen F.Austin to the local legislature.

I was introduced to him, and also to the leading gentlemen of the county, on the day of the election, which brought them together.
Mr.Austin, the elder, also arrived.

This gathering was a propitious circumstance for my explorations; no mineralogist had ever visited the country.

Coming from the quarter I did, and with the object I had, there was a general interest excited on the subject, and each one appeared to feel a desire to show me attentions.
Mr.Stephen F.Austin invited me to take rooms at the old Austin mansion; he requested me to make one of them a depot for my mineralogical collections, and he rode out with me to examine several mines.
He was a gentleman of an acute and cultivated mind, and great suavity of manners.

He appreciated the object of my visit, and saw at once the advantages that might result from the publication of a work on the subject.