In December 1804 William Dunbar and George Hunter made an expedition to the Ouachita Mountains and the springs at the request of President Thomas Jefferson, to study the native peoples and flora and fauna. They found one log cabin and a few rudimentary shelters used by people visiting the springs for their healing properties. In 1807 Jean Emmanual Prudhomme, of French colonial descent, became the first European-American settler of modern Hot Springs. After he regained his health following two years of bathing in the hot water and eating local foods, he returned home to his plantation on the Red River in Louisiana. Not long afterward trappers John Perciful and Isaac Cates arrived; Perciful put up more cabins for visitors.