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

Our New England climate is mild and equable compared with that of the Platte.

The most momentous and far-reaching question ever brought to issue on this continent was: Shall France remain here, or shall she not?

Many of the Iroquois and Huron houses were of similar construction, the partitions being at the sides only, leaving a wide passage down the middle of the house.

Versailles was a gulf into which the labor of France poured its earnings; and it was never full.

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.

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