Natchez, its importance to Louisiana, 123; fort at, 124. Natchitoches occupied by French, 124, 130 (_note_). Nebraska, Act forming the Territory, 292; not adapted for slave labor, 294; Pacific Railroad begun in, 318, 320 (_note_); growth of, 321; admitted to the Union, 321, 322 (_note_). New England Emigrant Aid Company, 297, 299 (_note_). New Madrid, 178, 183 (_note_). New Mexico first explored by Marco de Niza and Vasquez de Coronado, 32; fallacies concerning it, 30; obstacles in the way, 30; second exploration, 33; third do., 33, 34; villages and people described, 34, 35; named, 35; colonized, 37; missions in, 37; native insurrection in, 37; new invasion, 38; native cities described, 40-44; in 1807, 205-208; its importance to emigration, 251, 252; Kearney sent to take it, 252; yields without fighting, 254; insurrection at Taos, 256 (_note_); ceded to the United States, 263. New Orleans founded, 128, 130 (_note_); described by Charlevoix, 129; in 1803, 177, 178; attempt of England to seize, 214. Nevada, rise of, 321; a State, 321, 322 (_note_). Nez Percés mission, 238. Niagara River and Falls, 74, 79 (_note_); seized by La Salle, 99, 104 (_note_). Nicolet, Jean, at Green Bay, 75, 79 (_note_). Nootka Sound, 146 (_note_). North-west Company, 183 (_note_). North-west Territory formed and slavery excluded, 165; area and population, 166, 168 (_note_). Northern Pacific Railway, 323, 325 (_note_). Nueces River, 249, 251 (_note_). Ohio River a boundary between slave and free States, 165. Omaha, 321, 322 (_note_). Ordinance of 1787, 165. Oregon, name first mentioned, 152, 153 (_note_). Oregon, first American establishments in, 212, 213; rivalries of the fur-traders, 229; quarrel with England about boundary, 230; public opinion about Oregon, 231; various settlements in, 232, 233 (notes); effort to keep Americans out of, 239; Dr. Whitman's heroic efforts to win Oregon for us, 239; Ashburton treaty, 239; Willamette Valley being settled, 240; admitted to the Union, 307. Oregon trail, 229, 233 (_note_); Fremont explores, 234, 235; hard travelling it, 239. Pacific Ocean, or Great South Sea, reached by Balboa and Cortez, 7. Pacific Railroad talked of, 257; on the frontier, 316; authorized, 320 (_note_); begun during the civil war, 318; attacked by Indians, 319; completed, 319; effect on the growth of the Great West, 327. Pensacola, 119, 123 (_note_). Peter the Great attempts discoveries in the North-West, 140.