"I think it was somewhere around 1680 or 1681," said Skinny, who was always good in history. "Mr. Baxter told us all about it while we were sitting on top of Starved Rock, where LaSalle once had a fort."
"There was a great country west of the Mississippi, about which LaSalle knew very little, although when he explored the river he took possession of the land in the name of his king, and he called the country Louisiana.
"At that time, with the exception of a few fur traders and missionaries, all the people who came to America from the Old World settled along the Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes, in various colonies. Some of these afterward became the thirteen original states of the United States of America.
"After Thomas Jefferson became president, he had a chance to buy Louisiana of Napoleon, who was then at the head of the French government, and he did so."
"Huh! Napoleon!" said Skinny. "George Washington could lick——"
"Aw, ferget it, can't you?" said Bill. "You are stopping the story."
"That gave us a vast territory, reaching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. Nobody knew very much about it, or about the country west of the Rockies. Jefferson may have been looking far into the future when he made the Louisiana purchase, but probably his more immediate purpose was to secure undisputed possession of the wonderful Mississippi River.
"That was in 1804, only a little more than a lifetime ago and nearly a century and a half after LaSalle explored the river and took possession of the country. Little, if anything, was known about the country at the time of its purchase by the United States more than was known in LaSalle's time. A few hardy traders went up and down the river, buying furs of friendly Indians, and that was all.
"Naturally, after Jefferson had bought it, he wanted to know something about his purchase. So he appointed two men to explore the new country. I want you to remember their names, because they did a great work. One was Meriwether Lewis and the other William Clark, and you will find their trip described in your school history as 'the Lewis and Clark expedition.' I can't see why their exploration was not attended by as much danger and hardship as LaSalle's, which had been undertaken so many years before. The dense forests and great rivers of the West were all unknown and there were many hostile Indians.
"What did you boys do, when you made up your minds to explore the rivers in Illinois last summer?"