had three sons, who went by the names of Lipoxais, Apoxais, and the youngest Colaxais. During their reign a plow, a yoke, an ax and a bowl of golden workmanship dropped down from heaven and fell on the Scythian territory. The oldest of the three brothers seeing these articles first, approached intending to take them up; but as he came near the gold began to burn; when he retired the second went to take up the articles and the gold burnt again. Accordingly the burning gold prevented them from taking any of the articles; but when the youngest went toward them the gold became extinguished and he carried the things home and thus became king. This sacred gold the king watches with the greatest care, and annually appoaches it with magnificent sacrifices to render it propitious. If he who has the sacred gold happens to fall asleep in the open air on the festival, he cannot survive the year, and on this account they give him as much land as he can ride around in one day.

PERUVIAN FABLE.

In 1545, Diego Hualca, an Indian hunter, was pursuing a wild goat near Potove in Peru. Climbing up the face of a steep mountain he laid hold upon a bush in order to pull himself up over a projecting rock. The bush was torn out by the roots, when - lo and behold derful store of wealth was laid bare. In the roots of the upturned bush and in the loose ground the eyes of the hunter beheld glittering silver.

a won

Hardly is there a State in the Union which has not its story of undiscovered or discovered mines of precious metals. This mine was pretty much the same in every State and in every region. Upon the removal of a large flat stone an opening resembling the opening of a cavern was seen. Entering this you found yourself in a great crevice in the rocks and the sides of this crevice were lined with silver or gold which you forthwith proceeded to chisel off with a hatchet kindly furnished you by your Indian guide. You worked rapidly as according to contract you had but a limited time to

remain in the mine. When the Indian at your side. announced your time up the tomahawk was taken from your hand, even though you might have an immense mass detached, save a mere clinging thread. Only men who had saved the life of some Indian of renown were ever led to these caverns and they were invariably obliged to submit to be blindfolded, so that none of them were ever able afterwards to find their way back to the mines they had been shown.

THE ELDORADO OF MATHIEN SAGEAN.

In 1637, Mathien Sagean was with La Salle at the building of Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, and was left there as one of an hundred men under command of Tonty. Being desirous of making some new discovery, he obtained leave from Tonty and set out with eleven other Frenchmen and two Mohigan Indians. They ascended the Mississippi one hundred and fifty leagues, carried their canoes by cataracts, went forty leagues farther and stopped a month to hunt. While thus employed they found another river, fourteen leagues distant, flowing south-southwest. They carried their canoes thither, meeting on the way many lions, leopards and tigers, which did them no harm; then they embarked, paddled a hundred and fifty leagues farther, and found themselves in the midst of the great nation of the Ascanibas, dwelling in many fortified towns, and governed by King Hagaren, who claimed descent from Montezumas. The king like his subjects was clothed in the skins of men. Nevertheless he and they were civilized and polished in their manners. They worshiped certain idols of gold in the royal palace. One of them represented the ancestor of their monarch armed with lance, bow and quiver, and in the act of mounting his horse, while in his mouth he held a jewel as large as a goose's egg, which shone like fire, and which in the opinion of Sagean was a carbuncle. Another of these images was that of a woman mounted on a golden unicorn, with a horn more than a fathom long. After passing, pursues the story, between these idols, which stand on platforms of gold, each thirty feet square, one enters a

magnificent vestibule, conducting to the apartment of the king. At the four corners of this vestibule are stationed bands of music, which, to the taste of Sagean, was of very poor quality. The palace is of vast extent, and the private apartment of the king is twenty-eight or thirty feet square, the walls, to the height of eighteen feet, being of bricks of solid gold, and the pavement of the same. The people carry on a great trade in gold with a foreign nation, the journey to which lasts six months. He saw the departure of one of the caravans, which consisted of more than three thousand oxen, laden with gold, and an equal number of horsemen, armed with lance, bows and daggers. They receive iron and steel in exchange for their gold. The king has an army of a hundred thousand men, of whom three-fourths are cavalry. They have golden trumpets with which they make very different music; and also golden drums, which, as well as the drummers, are carried on the backs of oxen.

King Hagaren would not let the Frenchmen go till they had sworn by the sky, which is the customary oath of the Ascanibas, that they would return in thirty-six moons and bring him a supply of beads and other trinkets from Canada. As gold was to be had for the asking, each of the eleven Frenchmen took away with him sixty small bars, weighing about four pounds each. The king ordered two hundred horsemen to escort thern and carry the gold to their canoes, which they did and then bade them farewell with terrific howlings meant, doubtless, to do them honor.

Such was the story, which so far imposed on the credulity of Minister Ponchartrain as to persuade him that the matter was worth serious examination. Accordingly Sagean was sent to Louisiana, then in its earliest infancy as a French colony. Here he met various persons who had known him in Canada, who denied that he had ever been on the Mississippi and contradicted his account. Nevertheless he held fast to his story, and declared that the gold mines of the Ascanibas could be reached without difficulty by the river Missouri.

BOOK VI.

CHAPTER I.

SOUTH DAKOTA AT LARGE.

We have seen that the Black Hills were included in the country claimed by Ponce de Leon on March 27th, 1513, and called Florida. The claim of the red men to the soil was not recognized by the Spaniards, and no European power disputed their possession till on the 15th of June, 1671, Daumont de Saint-Lusson laid claim to the northern portion of the territory for the crown of France. La Salle called the territory he claimed for France, on April 9th, 1682, Louisiana, and this was almost co-extensive with Florida. France ceded her rights back to Spain, April, 1764, and on the 1st of October, 1800, Spain retroceded the province to France.

Thomas Jefferson, President from 1801 to 1809, soon after his inauguration desired to secure to the people of the United States the free navigation of the Mississippi river, with a depot of trade at its mouth. His negotiation with Spain disclosed the fact that the same had retroceded Louisiana to France, in a secret treaty, October 1, 1800. He immediately instituted a commission to treat with France upon the subject. For this purpose Mr. Monroe was sent as special minister, to meet in conjunction with Mr. Livingston, the U. S. resident minister at Paris, a committee of arrangements appointed by the French Government. The mission was more successful than had been even hoped for. Napoleon was ready not only to negotiate upon the subject sought, but for a cession of the entire territory. A treaty to this effect was made on the 30th of April,

1803, by which the United States were to pay $15,000,000, as follows: $11,250,000 in money to the French government, and $3,750,000 for the claim of American citizens for spoliation of their commerce by French cruisers, during the late quasi-war with that country. The $11,250,000 to the French government was paid, but the $3,750,000 estimated as the amount of spoliation to American citizens, has never been paid. The territory covered an area of 1,182,752 square miles, containing about twenty thousand inhabitants.

October 1st, 1803, all the new country lying south of what is now Arkansas, was formed into the Territory of Orleans, while the portion north of the south line of that State became the District of Louisiana, with the governing powers vested in the officials of Indiana Territory.

July 1st, 1805, the District of Louisiana was designated as the "Territory" of the same name, and the legislative power placed in the hands of a governor and three judges appointed by the President.

December 7th, 1812, the name of the territory was changed to "Territory of Missouri," and the power was granted to the people to elect a legislative body.

In 1819 an enabling act was brought forward for the State of Missouri, but an amendment prohibiting slavery being attached, it failed to pass. This opened the great slavery contest. Professor Alexander Johnston thus aptly describes the situation: "While the Union was confined to the fringe of States along the Atlantic coast the slavery question was not troublesome; and it was at first possible to unite the respresentatives of both sections in the admission of new States by using the Ohio as a dividing line between the States in which slavery should be prohibited and those in which it should be allowed. But when the tide of emigration had crossed the Mississippi and began to fill the Louisiana purchase, conflict was inevitable, for the line was lost."

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was effected, and an act passed permitting Missouri to form a constitution, and,