Humanity, morality, decency, might be forgotten, but codfish must still be had for the use of the faithful in Lent and on fast days.

Early on the next morning we reached Kansas, about five hundred miles from the mouth of the Missouri.

We were in all four men with eight animals; for besides the spare horses led by Shaw and myself, an additional mule was driven along with us as a reserve in case of accident.

Fort Leavenworth is in fact no fort, being without defensive works, except two block-houses.

In the middle of the sixteenth century, Spain was the incubus of Europe. Gloomy and portentous, she chilled the world with her baneful shadow.

France built its best colony on a principle of exclusion, and failed; England reversed the system, and succeeded.

America was still a land of wonder. The ancient spell still hung unbroken over the wild, vast world of mystery beyond the sea,-a land of romance, adventure, and gold.