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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.
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