In the State of Illinois there are vast quantities of land to be disposed of by the Government, besides the residuary of former sales, standing open in the land-office maps at Shawneetown[91] and Edwardsville.[92] The recent surveys bring about 3,730,000 acres into the market. A great portion of this land lies on the Sangamon, a southern branch of Illinois river; and I am informed by a gentleman who has lately been there, that the country is the best that he is acquainted with. At a period not far distant, a communication between Lake Erie and Illinois river may be opened through the river Plein, which empties itself into the lake.[93] Craft are said to have already passed out of the one river into the other. A large portion of Illinois, lying between Illinois river and the Mississippi, is a military grant given to the troops who fought in the late war, and divided amongst them at the rate of a hundred and sixty acres to each man.[94] Shares of this land have been sold since its partition at a dollar, and even so low as half a dollar per acre. The military grant is chiefly low and flat. The soil is rich, and interspersed with {161} prairies[95] but subject to agues: this, with a great proportion of non-resident owners, must greatly retard the improvement of the district. The northern parts of Illinois are understood to possess a healthy climate. In the Missouri Territory, large surveys are just completed, these consist of about a million of acres near Osage river, and about two millions toward the Mississippi, including the old settlements. The reports of the Missouri country which I have heard, convince me, that it contains a large quantity of good lands, and that it is favoured with a fine climate. A gentleman who wintered at St. Louis, near the mouth of the river Missouri, assured me that the cold is more severe there than in the Ohio country. Although his opinion was formed from his sense of feeling, without reference to the thermometer, it is probably just, as the situation of St. Louis is relatively high, and as much of the neighbouring country is without wood, admitting a free circulation of winds, from higher and more northerly parts. In the countries adjoining to Arkansau and Red rivers, about two millions of acres are laid out for sale. The former of these rivers is understood to be larger than the Ohio, and passes through a fertile country. The post of Arkansau is situated a little northward of latitude 34°.[96] A parallel that must be felt uncomfortably hot by most Europeans. Cotton is the most profitable product; a vegetable that has hitherto been almost exclusively cultivated by involuntary labourers.