sand bars. We entered the mouth of the Missouri in a drizzling rain, but the weather soon became clear, and showed distinctly the broad and turbid river, with its eddies, its sand bars, its ragged islands, and forest-covered shores.

4. The Missouri is constantly changing its course, wearing away its banks on one side while it forms new ones on the other. Its channel is shifting continually. Islands are formed and then washed away; and while the old forests on one side are undermined and swept off, a young growth springs up from the new soil upon the other. With all these changes the water is so charged with mud and sand that it is perfectly opaque, and in a few minutes deposits a thick sediment in the bottom of a tumbler. The river was now high, but when we descended in the autumn it was fallen very low, and all the secrets of its treacherous shallows were exposed to view.

5. In five or six days we began to see signs of the great western movement that was then taking place. Parties of emigrants, with their tents and wagons, would be encamped on open spots near the bank, on their way to the common rendezvous at Independence. On a rainy day, near sunset, we reached the landing of this place, which is situated some miles from the river, on the extreme frontier of Missouri.

6. The scene was characteristic, for here were represented at one view the most remarkable features of this wild and enterprising region. On the muddy shore stood some thirty or forty dark-looking Spaniards, gazing stupidly out from beneath their broad hats. They were

attached to one of the Santa Fé companies, whose wagons were crowded together on the banks above. In the midst. of these, crouching over a smoldering fire, was a group of Indians belonging to a remote Mexican tribe.

7. One or two French hunters from the mountains, with their long hair and buckskin dresses, were looking at the boat, and seated on a log close at hand were three men with rifles lying across their knees. The foremost of these, a tall, strong figure with a clear blue eye and an open, intelligent face, might very well represent that race of restless and intrepid pioneers whose axes and rifles have opened a path from the Alleghanies to the western prairies. He was on his way to Oregon, probably a more congenial field to him than any that now remained on this side the great plains.

8. Early on the next morning we landed and set out in a wagon for Westport, where we hoped to procure mules and horses for the journey. It was a remarkably fresh and beautiful May morning. The rich luxuriant woods through which the miserable road conducted us were lighted by the bright sunshine and enlivened by a multitude of birds. We overtook on the way our late fellow travelers, the Kansas Indians, who, adorned with all their finery, were proceeding homeward at a round pace; and whatever they might have seemed on board the boat, they made a very striking and picturesque feature in the forest landscape.

9. Westport was full of Indians, whose little shaggy ponies were tied by dozens along the houses and fences. Sacs and Foxes, with shaved heads and painted faces,

Shawnees and Delawares, fluttering in calico frocks and turbans, Wyandottes dressed like white men, and a few wretched Kansans wrapped in old blankets, were strolling about the streets, or lounging in and out of the shops and houses.

10. The emigrants were encamped on the prairie about eight or ten miles distant, to the number of a thousand or more, and new parties were constantly passing out from Independence to join them. They were in great confusion, holding meetings, passing resolutions, and drawing up regulations, but unable to unite in the choice of leaders to conduct them across the prairie.

11. Being at leisure one day, I rode over to Independence. The town was crowded. A multitude of shops had sprung up to furnish the emigrants and Santa Fé traders with necessaries for their journey; and there was an incessant hammering and banging from a dozen blacksmiths' sheds, where the heavy wagons were being repaired, and the horses and oxen shod. The streets were thronged with men, horses, and mules.

12. While I was in the town, a train of emigrant wagons from Illinois passed through, to join the camp on the prairie, and stopped in the principal street. A multitude of healthy children's faces were peeping out from under the covers of the wagons. Here and there a buxom damsel was seated on horseback, holding over her sunburnt face an old umbrella or a parasol, once gaudy enough, but now miserably faded. The men, very soberlooking countrymen, stood about their oxen; and as I passed I noticed three old fellows, who, with their long

whips in their hands, were zealously discussing the doc trine of regeneration.

13. The emigrants, however, are not all of this stamp. Among them are some of the vilest outcasts in the country. I have often perplexed myself to divine the various motives that give impulse to this strange migration; but whatever they may be, whether an insane hope of a better condition in life, or a desire of shaking off restraints of law and society, or mere restlessness, certain it is that multitudes bitterly repent the journey, and after they have reached the land of promise are happy enough to escape from it.

I. Definitions: (1) è quip'ments, necessary supplies; (1) lèv'ee (-ė), an embankment to prevent the overflow of a stream; (2) ǎl ter'nâte lỹ, succeeding by turns; (2) nõn'dê seript, not hitherto described, novel, odd; (2) în dis pěn'så ble, that which can not be spared; (4) ô pāque', not transparent, impervious to rays of light; (4) sěd'i ment, settlings, dregs; (4) trèach'ẽr oŭs, betraying a trust, faithless; (6) ĕn'têr prî şîng, resolute, active; (7) eon gēn'ial (-yal), agreeable, suited to the disposition; (11) în çès'sant, continual; (12) bŭx'òm, jolly, frolicsome; (12) zěal'oŭs lỹ, warmly, ardently.

II. Suggestions: In this selection there is an extended enumeration of articles and conditions, all given to bring before the reader a clear view of the scene as it impressed the historian. In reading it aloud, the pupil should proceed deliberately, giving ample time to the groups of words and the pauses, thus bringing the pictures clearly before the minds of those who listen. If the class will sometimes close their books, and give undivided attention to the oral reading, they can judge better of its quality.

III. Note: "The Oregon Trail" is a story of travel and adventure which gives a faithful account of the author's experiences beyond the Missouri in 1846. Its perusal will enable one to realize some of the wonderful changes that have taken place in that region within fifty years.

66

XXX. MONTEZUMA'S WAY OF LIFE.

FROM THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO," BY WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT.

Prescott was born in 1796, and died in 1859. While he was an undergraduate at Harvard University, an accident deprived him of sight in one eye, and so affected the other that all his study had to be done through a reader. Thus he heard Spanish till he became a Spanish scholar; and thus he heard all the events he has woven into textures of such wonderful beauty as are his "Ferdinand and Isabella," his "Conquest of Mexico," and his "Conquest of Peru."

1. The most, luxurious residence of the Aztec monarch, at that season, was the royal hill of Chapultepec, a spot consecrated, moreover, by the ashes of his ancestors. It stood in a westerly direction from the capital, and its base was, in his day, washed by the waters of Lake Tezcuco. On its lofty crest of porphyritic rock, there now