110 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI through the "Rieh Woods" across Scott county to Cape Girardeau and thence to St. Louis by way of Ste. Genevieve. Through the greater part of its course it followed the old Indian trace along which De Soto very probably travelled. The route was deter- mined by the Spanish as it had been for the Indians by the great sandy ridge which stretches from south the "Big Swamp" south of Cape Girardeau to Caruthersville in Pem- iscot county touching the river at New Ma- drid. This road was called by the Spanish "el camino real" the King's Highway. In 1803 the expedition which De Lassus led to New Madrid passed along this road, cutting it out wider as they went. In 1808 the Terri- torial assembly of the District of Louisiana which was the name by which Missouri was then known, ordered that a road be opened between St. Louis and New Madrid. This road, doubtless, followed the old Spanish road, the King's Highway. Between Cape Girardeau and New Madrid the road is still in use for a great part of the way. Between Cape Girardeau and Perry- ville there is a part of the road still in use; that part between the IMaramec river and the City of St. Louis is also used now. Its name is perpetuated in a Iwulevard in St. Louis, called King's Highway. This is, perhaps, the oldest road in the state.
