"The history of two territories whose first governors have as yet never seen their dominions, -in which, indeed, there is not yet a single town, -may seem to be easily written. "When, however, my attention was directed to the study of the various researches which have been made in the regions now known as Kanzas and Nebraska, I knew that I had a wide range before me. I have followed up, as carefully as I could, the memoirs of the early French travelers who first opened to the civilized world the valley of the Missouri. Of more use, in the view in which that valley is now regarded, are the...