Excerpt from A History of Missouri, Vol. 1: From the Earliest Explorations and Settlements Until the Admission of the State Into the Union Now a large number of the French inhabitants of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, St. Phillipe and Fort de Chartres in the eastern Illinois country, cross the Mississippi to escape the dreaded English rule, and find a new home in the possessions of Spain. This emigration gives the first impetus to the growth of population in the western Illinois country now Missouri leading to the formation of new settlements and villages, and to trace the growth of these settlements and the business and ancestry of these settlers is a subject which must always interest us. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.