THE RIVER AND ITS EXPLORERS.

19

the Gulf; from the woody ridges of the Alleghanies to the bare
peaks of the Rocky Mountains—a region of savannas and forests, sun-
cracked deserts and grassy prairies, watered by a thousand rivers,
ranged by a thousand warlike tribes, passed beneath the sceptre of
the Sultan of Versailles; and all by virtue of a feeble human voice,
inaudible at half a mile.'