"The sure traveller,
Though he alight sometimes, still goeth on."
HERBERT.
"A RACE--
Now like autumnal leaves before the blast
Wide scattered."
SPRAGUE.
Thump, thump, crash! One hour longer, and I was at length completely
roused from a troublous slumber by our boat coming to a dead stop.
Casting a glance from the window, the bright flashing of moonlight
showed the whole surface of the stream covered with drift-wood, and,
on inquiry, I learned that the branches of an enormous oak, some sixty
feet in length, had become entangled with one of the paddle-wheels of
our steamer, and forbade all advance.
We were soon once more in motion; the morning mists were dispersing,
the sun rose up behind the forests, and his bright beams danced
lightly over the gliding waters. We passed many pleasant little
villages along the banks, and it was delightful to remove from the
noise, and heat, and confusion below to the lofty _hurricane deck_,
and lounge away hour after hour in gazing upon the varied and
beautiful scenes which presented themselves in constant succession to
the eye. Now we were gliding quietly on through the long island {30}
chutes, where the daylight was dim, and the enormous forest-trees
bowed themselves over us, and echoed from their still recesses the
roar of our steam-pipe; then we were sweeping rapidly over the broad
reaches of the stream, miles in extent; again we were winding through
the mazy labyrinth of islets which fleckered the placid surface of the
stream, and from time to time we passed the lonely cabin of the
emigrant beneath the venerable and aged sycamores. Here and there, as
we glided on, we met some relic of those ancient and primitive species
of river-craft which once assumed ascendency over the waters of the
West, but which are now superseded by steam, and are of too infrequent
occurrence not to be objects of peculiar interest. In the early era of
the navigation of the Ohio, the species of craft in use were
numberless, and many of them of a most whimsical and amusing
description. The first was the barge, sometimes of an hundred tons'
burden, which required twenty men to force it up against the current a
distance of six or seven miles a day; next the keel-boat, of smaller
size and lighter structure, yet in use for the purposes of inland
commerce; then the Kentucky flat, or broad-horn of the emigrant; the
enormous ark, in magnitude and proportion approximating to that of the
patriarch; the fairy pirogue of the French voyageur; the birch caïque
of the Indian, and log skiffs, gondolas, and dug-outs of the pioneer
without name or number.[14] But since the introduction of steam upon
the Western waters, most of these unique and primitive contrivances
{31} have disappeared; and with them, too, has gone that singular race
of men who were their navigators. Most of the younger of the settlers,
at this early period of the country, devoted themselves to this
profession. Nor is there any wonder that the mode of life pursued by
these boatmen should have presented irresistible seductions to the
young people along the banks. Fancy one of these huge boats dropping
lazily along with the current past their cabins on a balmy morning in
June. Picture to your imagination the gorgeous foliage; the soft,
delicious temperature of the atmosphere; the deep azure of the sky;
the fertile alluvion, with its stupendous forests and rivers; the
romantic bluffs sleeping mistily in blue distance; the clear waters
rolling calmly adown, with the woodlands outlined in shadow on the
surface; the boat floating leisurely onward, its heterogeneous crew of
all ages dancing to the violin upon the deck, flinging out their merry
salutations among the settlers, who come down to the water's edge to
see the pageant pass, until, at length, it disappears behind a point
of wood, and the boatman's bugle strikes up its note, dying in
distance over the waters; fancy a scene like this, and the wild
bugle-notes echoing and re-echoing along the bluffs and forest shades
of the beautiful Ohio, and decide whether it must not have possessed a
charm of fascination resistless to the youthful mind in these lonely
solitudes. No wonder that the severe toils of agricultural life, in
view of such scenes, should have become tasteless and irksome.[15] The
lives of these {32} boatmen were lawless and dissolute to a proverb.
They frequently stopped at the villages along their course, and passed
the night in scenes of wild revelry and merriment. Their occupation,
more than any other, subjected them to toil, and exposure, and
privation; and, more than any other, it indulged them, for days in
succession, with leisure, and ease, and indolent gratification.
Descending the stream, they floated quietly along without an effort,
but in ascending against the powerful current their life was an
uninterrupted series of toil. The boat, we are told, was propelled by
poles, against which the shoulder was placed and the whole strength
applied; their bodies were naked to the waist, for enjoying the
river-breeze and for moving with facility; and, after the labour of
the day, they swallowed their whiskey and supper, and throwing
themselves upon the deck of the boat, with no other canopy than the
heavens, slumbered soundly on till the morning. Their slang was
peculiar to the race, their humour and power of retort was remarkable,
and in their frequent battles with the squatters or with their
fellows, their nerve and courage were unflinching.
It was in the year 1811 that the steam-engine commenced its giant
labours in the Valley of the West, and the first vessel propelled by
its agency glided along the soft-flowing wave of the beautiful
river.[16] Many events, we are told, united to render this year a most
remarkable era in the annals of Western history.[17] The
spring-freshet of the rivers buried the whole valley from Pittsburgh
to New-Orleans {33} in a flood; and when the waters subsided
unparalleled sickness and mortality ensued. A mysterious spirit of
restlessness possessed the denizens of the Northern forests, and in
myriads they migrated towards the South and West. The magnificent
comet of the year, seeming, indeed, to verify the terrors of
superstition, and to "shake from its horrid hair pestilence and war,"
all that summer was beheld blazing along the midnight sky, and
shedding its lurid twilight over forest and stream; and when the
leaves of autumn began to rustle to the ground, the whole vast Valley
of the Mississippi rocked and vibrated in earthquake-convulsion!
forests bowed their heads; islands disappeared from their sites, and
new one's rose; immense lakes and hills were formed; the graveyard
gave up its sheeted and ghastly tenants; huge relics of the mastodon
and megalonyx, which for ages had slumbered in the bosom of earth,
were heaved up to the sunlight; the blue lightning streamed and the
thunder muttered along the leaden sky, and, amid all the elemental
war, the mighty current of the "Father of Waters" for hours rolled
back its heaped-up floods towards its source! All this was the
prologue to that mighty drama of _Change_ which, from that period to
the present, has been sweeping over the Western Valley; it was the
fearful welcome-home to that all-powerful agent which has
revolutionized the character of half a continent; for at that epoch
of wonders, and amid them all, the first steamboat was seen descending
the great rivers, and the awe-struck Indian {34} on the banks beheld
the _Pinelore_ flying through the troubled waters.[18] The rise and
progress of the steam-engine is without a parallel in the history of
modern improvement. Fifty years ago, and the prophetic declaration of
Darwin was pardoned only as the enthusiasm of poetry; it is now little
more than the detail of reality:
"Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd steam, afar
Drag the slow barge or drive the rapid car;
Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear
The flying chariot through the fields of air;
Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above,
Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move,
Or warrior bands alarm the gaping crowd,
And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud."[19]
The steam-engine, second only to the press in power, has in a few
years anticipated results throughout the New World which centuries, in
the ordinary course of cause and event, would have failed to produce.
The dullest forester, even the cold, phlegmatic native of the
wilderness, gazes upon its display of beautiful mechanism, its
majestic march upon its element, and its sublimity of power, with
astonishment and admiration.
Return we to the incidents of our passage. During the morning of our
third day upon the Ohio we {35} passed, among others, the villages of
_Rome_, _Troy_, and Rockport.[20] The latter is the most considerable
place of the three, notwithstanding _imposing_ titles. It is situated
upon a green romantic spot, the summit of a precipitous pile of rocks
some hundred feet in height, from which sweeps off a level region of
country in the rear. Here terminates that series of beautiful bluffs
commencing at the confluence of the mountain-streams, and of which so
much has been said. A new geological formation commences of a bolder
character than any before; and the face of the country gradually
assumes those features which are found near the mouth of the river.
Passing Green River with its emerald waters,[21] its "Diamond
Island,"[22] the largest in the Ohio, and said to be _haunted_, and
very many thriving villages, among which was Hendersonville,[23] for
some time the residence of Audubon,[24] the ornithologist, we found
ourselves near midday at the mouth of the smiling Wabash, its high
bluffs crowned with groves of the walnut and pecan, the _carya
olivoeformis_ of Nuttal, and its deep-died surface reflecting the
yet deeper tints of its verdure-clad banks, as the far-winding stream
gradually opened upon the eye, and then retreated in the distance. The
confluence of the streams is at a beautiful angle; and, on observing
the scene, the traveller will remark that the forests upon one bank
are superior in magnitude to those on the other, though of the same
species. The appearance is somewhat singular, and the fact is to be
accounted for only from the reason that the soil {36} differs in
alluvial character. It has been thought that no stream in the world,
for its length and magnitude, drains a more fertile and beautiful
country than the Wabash and its tributaries.[25] Emigrants are rapidly
settling its banks, and a route has been projected for uniting by
canal its waters with those of Lake Erie; surveys by authority of the
State of Indiana have been made, and incipient measures taken
preparatory to carrying the work into execution.[26]
About one hundred miles from the mouth of the Wabash is situated the
village of New-Harmony, far famed for the singular events of which it
has been the scene.[27] It is said to be situated on a broad and
beautiful plateau overlooking the stream, surrounded by a fertile and
heavily-timbered country, and blessed with an atmosphere of health.
It was first settled in 1814 by a religious sect of Germans called
Harmonites, resembling the Moravians in their tenets, and under the
control of George Rapp, in whose name the land was purchased and held.
They were about eight hundred in number, and soon erected a number of
substantial edifices, among which was a huge House of Assemblage an
hundred feet square. They laid out their grounds with beautiful
regularity, and established a botanic garden and an extensive
greenhouse. For ten years the Harmonites continued to live and labour
in love, in the land of their adoption, when the celebrated Robert
Dale Owen,[28] of Scotland, came among them, and, at the sum of one
hundred and ninety thousand dollars, purchased the establishment
entire. His design was of rearing up a community {37} upon a plan
styled by him the "Social System." The peculiar doctrines he
inculcated were a perfect equality, moral, social, political, and
religious. He held that the promise of never-ending love upon marriage
was an absurdity; that children should become no impediment to
separation, as they were to be considered members of the community
from their second year; that the society should have no professed
religion, each individual being indulged in his own faith, and that
all temporal possessions should be held in common. On one night of
every week the whole community met and danced; and on another they
united in a concert of music, while the Sabbath was devoted to
philosophical lectures. Many distinguished individuals are said to
have written to the society inquiring respecting its principles and
prospects, and expressing the wish at a future day to unite with it
their destinies. Mr. Owen was sanguine of success. On the 4th of
July, 1826, he promulgated his celebrated declaration of mental
independence;[29] a document which, for absurdity, has never, perhaps,
been paralleled. But all was in vain. Dissension insinuated itself
among the members; one after another dropped off from the community,
until at length Mr. Owen retired in disgust, and, at a vast sacrifice,
disposed of the establishment to a wealthy Scotch gentleman by the
name of M'Clure, a former coadjutor.[30] Thus was abandoned the
far-famed _social system_, which for a time was an object of interest
and topic of remark all over the United States and even in Europe. The
Duke of Saxe Weimar passed here a {38} week in the spring of 1826, and
has given a detailed and amusing description of his visit.
About ten miles below the mouth of the Wabash is situated the village
of Shawneetown, once a favourite dwelling-spot of the turbulent
Shawnee Indian, the tribe of Tecumseh.[31] Quite a village once stood
here; but, for some cause unknown, it was forsaken previous to its
settlement by the French, and two small mounds are the only vestige of
its existence which are now to be seen. A trading-post was established
by the early Canadian voyageurs; but, on account of the sickliness of
the site, was abandoned, and the spot was soon once more a wilderness.
In the early part of 1812 a land-office was here located, and two
years subsequent a town was laid off by authority of Congress, and
the lots sold as other public lands. Since then it has been gradually
becoming the commercial emporium of southern Illinois.
The buildings, among which are a very conspicuous bank, courthouse,
and a land-office for the southern district of Illinois, are scattered
along upon a gently elevated bottom, swelling up from the river to the
bluffs in the rear, but sometimes submerged. From this latter cause it
has formerly been subject to disease; it is now considered healthy; is
the chief commercial port in this section of the state, and is the
principal point of debarkation for emigrants for the distant West.
Twelve miles in its rear are situated the Gallatin Salines, from which
the United States obtains some hundred thousands of bushels of salt
annually.[32] It is manufactured by {39} the evaporation of salt
water. This is said to abound over the whole extent of this region,
yielding from one eighth to one twelfth of its weight in pure muriate
of soda. In many places it bursts forth in perennial springs; but most
frequently is obtained by penetrating with the augur a depth of from
three to six hundred feet through the solid limestone substratum, when
a copper tube is introduced, and the strongly-impregnated fluid gushes
violently to the surface. In the vicinity of these salines huge
fragments of earthenware, apparently of vessels used in obtaining
salt, and bearing the impress of wickerwork, have been thrown up from
a considerable depth below the surface. Appearances of the same
character exist near Portsmouth, in the State of Ohio, and other
places. Their origin is a mystery! the race which formed them is
departed![33]
_Ohio River._