show that there is not 20 per cent. in this | ages, made by JOHN BAPTISTE TRUDEAU, OU single item of cost of transportation, how long before our men of capital, who, at most, can get 10 or 12 per cent. interest on moneyed loans, will engage in manufacturing It needs but the establishment of a single mill on the Lowell system and the making of a single dividend, to draw the attention of every man among us who has spare funds sufficient to buy a share of stock.

When the government of the U. S. sent Lewis and Clark on their expedition in 1804, and Maj. Pike to explore the sources of the Mississippi, the Arkansas, the Kanzas, and the Platte rivers, our hunters, formed into It was impossible, owing to the great ex- companies, had preceded them, and were tent of canoe navigation from Quebec, in then to be found on all the rivers east of the Canada, for example, to points 1,000 miles up Rocky mountains. Loisel, outfitted by Mr. the Missouri, for single individuals to prose-Auguste Chouteau, of this city, had a considcute the trade. Hence the necessity of companies, by which the trade was always conducted.

These companies subdivided their labors among agents or clerks, canoe men or voyageurs, courriers des bois, or wood-rangers, and hunters and trappers. The goods were formed in this city, consisting principally of In 1808, the Missouri Fur Company was sent up the river in Mackinaw boats, carry-Pierre Chouteau, Sr., (the venerable gentleing 1,300 lbs. to three tons, but bark canoes were employed on the 'smaller streams and at portages.

man before him,) Manual Lisa, William Clark Sylvester Labadie, Pierre Menard, and Auguste P. Chouteau, with a capital of $40,000. They sent an expedition under Major A. Henry to the Yellowstone, and established a number of trading-posts upon the Upper Missouri, and one beyond the Rocky Mountains, on Lewis river, and also on the southern branch of the Columbia, being the first post established upon the waters of the great river of the Oregon territory. Our hunters had the honor of it. Mr. A. would pass over the magnificent enterprise of Mr. Astor, of 1809, which terminated in 1812, and with which all were familiar.

The Missouri Fur Company was dissolved

in 1812, and the same year most of the former | de-camp of the governor, and the incummembers of the company in this city estab- bent of, he didn't know how many other lished independent houses, with the design posts of honor, of which, he was sure, no of furnishing outfits to private adventurers, gentleman was more worthy. These enerin the trade of the Missouri, Of such a char- getic men carried on for several years an acter were the houses of Berthold & Chou- extensive and profitable business, during teau, B. Pratte, J. P. Cabanne and M. Lisa. which they traversed every part of the counBut few, if any, American citizens prosecuted try about the southern branches of the Cothe trade west of the Rocky mountains from lumbia, and ransacked nearly the whole of 1813 to 1823. California. Mr. Smith was killed by the Camanche Indians, on Cimarone, in 1331. It was a remarkable fact that. in the period of five years from 1825 to 1830, of the number of our men employed in the trade, twofifths were killed by the Indians, or destroyed by accidents and dangers of the country.

In 1819, Mr. John Jacob Astor established a branch of his house in this city, under the charge of Mr. Samuel Abbott, and it was called the Western Department of the American Fur Company. This Company embraced the trade of all the northern and western parts of the United States, east of the Rocky mountains. The monument of their success was the inordinate wealth of Mr. Astor.

About this period, a new company was formed here, or rather the old Missouri Fur Company was revived with new partners. They were chiefly Maj. Joshua Pilcher, M. Lisa, Thomas Hempstead, and Capt. Perkins. A hunting and trapping party of this company, under Messrs. Jones and Immel, were attacked by the Blackfeet Indians on the Yellowstone, in 1823, and several of the party, including the leaders, were killed, four wounded, and the party robbed. The company was unfortunate, and continued but a few years.

The individual traders of the city united in 1825, in the firm of B. Pratte & Co., and continued thus in the business for six years.

The year 1832 was fruitful in events. Messrs. Sublette & Campbell went to the mountains, Mr. Wyeth established Fort Hall, on the Lewis river, and disseminated much useful information in regard to Oregon; Capt. Bonneville's expedition took place; Fort William was established on the Arkansas by the Messrs. Bent, of this city; a Missouri trapper of the name of Pattie, published an account of his rambles in the northern and western provinces of Mexico, and the American Fur Company sent the first steamboat to the Yellowstone.

The annual value of the fur trade of this city, for the last forty years, had been probably between two hundred and three hundred thousand dollars, and had thus been not only profitable to our citizens, but a source of wealth to our city and our state.

Then came, in 1823, the high enterprise of General Wm. H. Ashley, of this city, re-es- Mr. Astor retired from business in 1834, tablishing commercial intercourse with the and sold his western department to Messrs. countries west of the Rocky mountains. He B. Pratte, P. Chouteau, Jr., and Cabanne, of lost fourteen of his men, and had ten wound- this city, who conducted the business until ed in a fight with the Aricara Indians at the the year 1839, when the organization took first start. But persevering, Gen. A. and his place which now exists. Nearly the entire men ascended to the sources of the Sweet-fur trade of the West is now conducted by water, and discovered the Southern Pass of the house of P. Chouteau, Jr., & Co., and the mountains, since the well-known great the company of the Messrs. Bent and St. highway of the nation to Oregon, and dis- Vrain. covered also the Green river, beyond, running into the Colorado of California. Here he was very successful, and brought back to St. Louis a large stock of furs, which he sold for unusually high prices. He made another expedition in 1825, and ventured as far as the great Utah Lake, and near that discovered another and a smaller, to which he gave his own name, and there established a fort. Two years after a six-pound cannon was drawn from Missouri to this fort, 1,200 miles, and in 1828, many loaded wagons performed the same journey. Retween the years 1824 and 1827, Gen. Ashley's men sent to this city furs of the value of over $180,000. Having thus acquired a competency, Gen. Ashley sold out all his interests and establishments to the "Rocky Mountain Fur Company," then formed here, in which Messrs. J. S. Smith, David E. Jackson, and Wm. L. Sublette, were principals, and our friend Mr. Robert Campbell, there, on his right, was then clerk-now president of the Bank, aid

Such, said Mr. A., had been some of the services of our hunters and trappers-they had cleared the way for us, their fortunate successors, and laid the foundations of that greatness, to which, as a city, we are rapidly marching. They, however, were going the way of the animals they have exterminatedwere disappearing in the direction of the setting sun, expending their remaining energies and final services, in lighting the way and guiding the footsteps of the emigrant and the settler, to the home they are seeking in Oregou and California. Many of them there were, whose unwritten biographies were crowded with "hair-breadth escapes and moving accidents by flood and field," stran ger and more romantic than fiction; and he

662,211 Brick-ten millions...

95,250 Tons lead and shot, 810.

114,600 Hides, 10,281..

44,000 Sundry manufactured articles.

127,700 Do. pork and beef, 5,527.

WEST INDIA ISLANDS.

Vessels owned in Milwaukee.-There are thirty-nine sail vessels owned in, and sailing out of, this port, of which the total tonnage is 5,542; also stock in steamboats and propellers of 3,000 tons, making the total tonnage owned in the port 8,542.

Sixteen sail of vessels are engaged exclusively in the lumber trade, and the remainder in freighting produce and merchandise.

ARRIVALS DURING THE SEASON OF 1848.
Steamboats...........
Propellers
Barks and brigs
Schooners..

498

248

zinc are imported into this country from Europe, it is a matter of surprise that so much of it should be annually thrown away in Wisconsin. How important an article of commerce zinc is, may be inferred from the fact, that there are about six millions of pounds annually imported into England. Its use in the arts is very extensive. From 13 to 25 per cent. of all brass is zinc. The mines of Wisconsin could probably supply the world with zinc.

In iron, also, Wisconsin is equally rich; 119 but the iron, like the zinc, is a mere drug. 511 Indeed, for some reason or other, it is thought better to import from England 'into this country, millions of dollars worth of iron, when we have literally mountains of it here, in every direction, with the most unparalleled facilities for its manufacture. In the production of iron, lead, copper, zine, all the more useful metals, we might rival the world.

1,176 WISCONSIN-MINERAL RESOURCES OF. Dr. Owen declares the lead region of Wisconsin to contain mines of lead which are inexhaustible, and "decidedly the richest in the known world." He supposes it to be capable of yielding more than one hundred and fifty millions of pounds of lead annually, which is more than is now furnished by the entire mines of Europe, including those of England, which yield about 98,700,000 of pounds annually. Wisconsin is emphatically the laed region of the world.

Dr. Owen's observations in 1839, on the copper of Wisconsin, fully accord, so far as they go, with the wonderful disclosures that He then prehave recently been made. dicted, from his geological knowledge, that richer mines of copper would be found in the northern parts of Wisconsin, where the igneous, metamorphic, crystalline rocks come to the surface, these being the rocks which in The Cornwall, England, produce copper. north parts of Wisconsin, on Lake Superior, have since been explored, and the most incredible quantities of copper, mingled with The dip of the silver, have been found. rocks in Wisconsin being south, the lowest strata would be found to the north. The copper ore of Wisconsin is about one-third richer than that of England; indeed, European mines, which afford only three per cent. of copper, pay for the working, after raising the ore from a depth of more than 2,000 feet-a fact showing the immense value of the Wisconsin mines.

Wisconsin, in respect to natural advantages, is scarcely rivaled by any state in the Union. It is not only immensely rich in mineral wealth, but is mostly a region of fertile soil, capable of yielding an unlimited supply of agricultural products common to that latitude, and of engaging in manufaeIts numerous streams tures to any extent. afford an immense water-power; and with the largest lake in America on the north, Lake Michigan on the east, and the Mississippi on the southwest, its facilities for commerce are not surpassed. Like an island in the ocean, it is bounded on every side by navigable waters, and its products, of whatever kind, can float with equal ease to the Gulf of Mexico, or to the waters of the Atlantic.

WEST INDIA ISLANDS.-GEOGRAPHI-
CAL AND POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF THE
WEST INDIES; SPANISH ISLANDS-CUBA AND
PORTO RICO, HAVANA, MATANZAS, &C.;
TRADE, COMMERCE, POPULATION, RESOUR-
CES, HISTORY, ETC., OF CUBA AND PORTO
RICO; FRENCH ISLANDS MARTINique, Gua-
MARTIN'S, MARIEGALANTE,
DALOUPE, ST.
DESIRADE LES SAINTES, THEIR RESOURCES
AND COMMERCE; BRITISH WEST INDIES-
BURMUDA, ANGUILLA,.
ANTIGUA, BARBADOES,
DOMINICA, GRENADA, MONTSERRAT, NEVIS,
ST. CHRISTOPHER, ST. LUCIA, ST. VINCENT,
TOBAGO, TRINIDAD, TARTOLA, VIRGIN ISLES,
JAMAICA, BAHAMA-ABOLITION OF SLAVERY,
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE ISLANDS, &c.;
DUTCH ISLANDS-ST. EUSTATIA, LOZA, ST.
MARTIN, CURACOA; DANISH ISLANDS-ST.
THOMAS, ST. CROIX, ST. JOHN; SWEDISH
ISLAND-ST. BARTHOLOMEW; FREE ISLAND

Zinc is also found in vast quantities among the lead and copper, in the form genThe erally of an anhydrous carbonate. miners call it " dry bones," from its resembling the cellular substance of bone. Sometimes a vein of lead becomes entirely a vein of zinc, and then the unscientific workmen declare that "the dry bones have eaten out all the mineral." It is regarded as quite worthless by the miners, and considered a nuisance. Thousands of tons of it are thrown away by them, as a worthless drug.-HAYTI; &c., &c.* (1848.)-Reposing on It is a true carbonate of zinc, and contains about forty-five per cent. of pure metal. When it is considered that vast quantities of volume.

* See Cuba-America, and also appendix of third

the bosom of the Atlantic, in a line which The peace of the world will not be disstretches southwestwardly from the peninsula of Florida, through eighteen degrees of latitude and twenty-five of longitude, and forming, at various distances with the opposing shores of the continent, the basins of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean sea, are found those "isles of the sea," so known and famed as the 64 Western Indies."

turbed by any contests growing out of the possession, by European powers, of these remote dominions: while amity shall last, their relationships will remain inviolate. In the event, however, of a general war, many and great will be the changes immediately involved. The United States could not, from her position and connections, from considerations of preservation and safety, be a quiet spectator of these changes. Indeed, it may be questioned whether a justifiable cause for interference would not arise simultaneously with them. The least evidence of court and cabinet intrigues, in relation to the islands, it may be asserted confidently, would be met at once, and resisted. This is our declared policy.

Discovered by the earliest western navigators, and colonized by the leading European powers, these islands constitute, at the present day, what may be regarded the few remaining intermediate links between the civilization, government and laws of the old and new world. A love of adventure and an irrepressible thirst for gain, rather than hopes of refuge, competence and homes, were the motives which drove across the The geographical position of the West deep their restless colonists--and they have Indies, midway between the republics of looked ever backward, with filial fondness, North and South America-their great ferto the land of their fathers and of their child- tility and productiveness, their important hood. The laws that governed them, the commercial character and facilities, are all institutions they maintained, the protection circumstances, taken together, well calcuawarded, came all to them from that quarter.lated to give them an interest in the eyes of It was but natural they should submit, and that few, if any, of those political changes and convulsions which have marked contiguous regions of America should interrupt the loyalty and repose of the islands.

Thus has been preserved in the West Indies, through all the vicissitudes of European and American policy, the close relationship of colony and mother country. Broken into fragments, around which, and between which, is heard the roar of the ocean--separated in religion and in languages, in education and prejudices-of limited population, and lassitude inherent to tropical suns--what other destiny could be reserved than such as might be vouchsafed in the cunningly devised systems of colonial empire?

The extension southward, over all barriers and in the face of all opposition, within the past few years, of the arms, institutions and policy of the United States, has given rise to speculations in other countries as well as in our own, in regard to the ultimate fate of the islands, which sweep along our shores. The keenest jealousies are exhibited in many quarters.* An injudicious suggestion in our Congress (1848) was not calculated to inflame the resentment of Spain less than the similarly injudicious, but more absurd, one ventured in Parliament by Lord Geo. Bentinck. It has not gone unheeded in our own country.

In a private letter from Madrid we are informed, that when application was made by Louisiana to search the Spanish archives for records of her early history, a report got wind, even in high places, that the object was to vamp up a title to Cuba as part of Louisiana! Fancy the absurd consternation.

To seize upon Cuba in satisfaction of the debt due by Spain-to liberate the slaves-to fortify the

the world, in any event. A desire for information concerning them has become very general, and seeks to be satisfied from every available source. We have, therefore, determined to bring together every thing that can be derived from the latest and most reliable authorities, and present, as near as may be, to our readers, a fair and impartial summary.

The West India Islands, with the excep tion of Hayti, a free republic, are all under the jurisdiction of European powers, and are thus classified: