Pleasant, situated a little above the mouth of the Great Kenhaway, at
the extremity of a point formed by the right bank of this river, which
runs nearly in a direct line as far as the middle of the Ohio. What
makes the situation more beautiful is, that for four or five miles on
this side the Point, the Ohio, four hundred fathoms broad, continues
the same breadth the whole of that extent, and presents on every side
the most perfect line. Its borders, sloping, and elevated from
twenty-five to forty feet, are, as in the whole of its windings,
planted, at their base, with willows from fifteen to eighteen feet in
height, the drooping branches and foliage of which form a pleasing
contrast to the sugar maples, red maples, and ash trees, situated
immediately {96} above. The latter, in return, are overlooked by
palms, poplars, beeches, magnolias of the highest elevation, the
enormous branches of which, attracted by a more splendid light and
easier expansion, extend toward the borders, overshadowing the river,
at the same time completely covering the trees situated under them.
This natural display, which reigns upon the two banks, affords on each
side a regular arch, the shadow of which, reflected by the crystal
stream, embellishes, in an extraordinary degree, this magnificent
_coup d’œil_.
The Ohio at Marietta presents a perspective somewhat similar, perhaps
even more picturesque than the one I have just described, through the
houses of this little town, that we perceived five or six miles off,
the situation of which is fronting the middle of the river, going up.
The Great Kenhaway, more known in the country under that denomination
than by that of the New River, which it bears in some charts, takes
its source at the foot of the Yellow Mountain in Tennessea, but the
mass of its waters proceed from one part of the Alleghany Mountains.
The falls and currents that are so frequently met with in this river,
for upward {97} of four hundred miles, will always be an obstacle to
the exportation, by the Ohio and the Mississippi, of provisions from
the part of Virginia which it waters. Its banks are inhabited, but
less than those of the Ohio.
{98} CHAP. XI
_Gallipoli.--State of the French colony Scioto.--Alexandria at
the mouth of the Great Scioto.--Arrival at Limestone in
Kentucky._
Gallipoli is situated four miles below Point Pleasant, on the right
bank of the Ohio. At this place assembled nearly a fourth part of the
French, who, in 1789 and 1790, left their country to go and settle at
Scioto: but it was not till after a sojourn of fifteen months at
Alexandria in Virginia, where they waited the termination of the war
with the savages, that they could take possession of the lands which
they had bought so dearly. They were even on the point of being
dispossessed of them, on account of the disputes that arose between
the Scioto Company and that of the Ohio, of whom the former had
primitively purchased these estates; but scarcely had they arrived
upon the soil that was destined for {99} them when the war broke out
afresh between the Americans and Indians, and ended in the destruction
of those unfortunate colonies. There is no doubt that, alone and
destitute of support, they would have been all massacred, had it not
been for the predilection which all the Indian nations round Canada
and Louisiana have for the French. Again, as long as they did not take
an active part in that war, they were not disturbed: but the American
army having gained a signal advantage near the _embouchure_ of the
Great Kenaway, and crossed the Ohio, the inhabitants of Gallipoli were
united to it. From that time they were no longer protected, nor could
they stir out of the inclosure of their village. Out of two that had
strayed not more than two hundred yards, one was scalped and murdered,
and the other carried a prisoner a great distance into the interior.
When I was at Gallipoli they had just heard from him. He gained his
livelihood very comfortably by repairing guns, and exercising his
trade as a goldsmith in the Indian village where he lived, and did not
express the least wish to return with his countrymen.
The war being terminated, the congress, in order to indemnify these
unfortunate Frenchmen for the {100} successive losses which they had
sustained, gave them twenty thousand acres of land situated between
the small rivers Sandy and Scioto, seventy miles lower than Gallipoli.
These twenty thousand acres were at the rate of two hundred and ten
acres to every family. Those among them who had neither strength nor
resolution enough to go a second time, without any other support than
that of their children, to isolate themselves amidst the woods, hew
down, burn, and root up the lower parts of trees, which are frequently
more than five feet in diameter, and afterward split them to inclose
their fields, sold their lots to the Americans or Frenchmen that were
somewhat more enterprising. Thirty families only went to settle in
their new possessions. Since the three or four years that they have
resided there they have succeeded, by dint of labour, in forming for
themselves tolerable establishments, where, by the help of a soil
excessively fertile, they have an abundant supply of provisions; at
least I conceived so, when I was there.
Gallipoli, situated on the borders of the Ohio, is composed solely of
about sixty log-houses, most of which being uninhabited, are falling
into ruins; the rest are occupied by Frenchmen, who breathe out a
{101} miserable existence. Two only among them appear to enjoy the
smallest ray of comfort: the one keeps an inn, and distills brandy
from peaches, which he sends to Kentucky, or sells it at a tolerable
advantage: the other, M. Burau, from Paris, by whom I was well
entertained, though unacquainted with him. Nothing can equal the
perseverance of this Frenchman, whom the nature of his commerce
obliges continually to travel over the banks of the Ohio, and to make,
once or twice a year, a journey of four or five hundred miles through
the woods, to go to the towns situated beyond the Alleghany Mountains.
I learnt from him that the intermittent fevers, which at first had
added to the calamities of the inhabitants of Gallipoli, had not shown
itself for upwards of three years. That, however, did not prevent a
dozen of them going lately to New Orleans in quest of a better
fortune, but almost all of them died of the yellow fever the first
year after their arrival.
Such was the situation of the establishment of Scioto when I was
there. Though they did not succeed better, it is not that the French
are less persevering and industrious than the Americans and Germans;
it is that among those who departed for Scioto not a tenth part were
fit for the toils they {102} were destined to endure. However, it was
not politic of the speculators, who sold land at five shillings an
acre, which at that time was not worth one in America, to acquaint
those whom they induced to purchase that they would be obliged, for
the two first years, to have an axe in their hands nine hours a day;
or that a good wood-cutter, having nothing but his hands, would be
sooner at his ease on those fertile borders, but which he must, in the
first place, clear, than he who, arriving there with two or three
hundred guineas in his purse, is unaccustomed to such kind of labour.
This cause, independent of the war with the natives, was more than
sufficient to plunge the new colonists in misery, and stifle the
colony in its birth.[34]
On the 25th of July we set out from Gallipoli for Alexandria, which is
about a hundred and four miles distant, and arrived there in three
days and a half. The ground designed for this town is at the mouth of
the Great Scioto, and in the angle which the right bank of this river
forms with the north west border of the Ohio. Although the plan of
Alexandria has been laid out these many years, nobody goes to settle
there; and the number of its houses is not more than twenty, the major
part of which are {103} log-houses. Notwithstanding its situation is
very favourable with regard to the numerous settlements already formed
beyond the new town upon the Great Scioto, whose banks, not so high,
and more marshy, are, it is said, nearly as fertile as those of the
Ohio. The population would be much more considerable, if the
inhabitants were not subject, every autumn, to intermittent fevers,
which seldom abate till the approach of winter. This part of the
country is the most unwholesome of all those that compose the immense
state of Ohio. The seat of government belonging to this new state is
at Chillicotha, which contains about a hundred and fifty houses, and
is situated sixty miles from the mouth of the Great Scioto. A weekly
newspaper is published there.[35]
At Alexandria, and the other little towns in the western country,
which are situated upon a very rich soil, the space between every
house is almost entirely covered with _stramonium_. This dangerous and
disagreeable plant has propagated surprisingly in every part where the
earth has been uncovered and cultivated within twelve or fifteen
years; and let the inhabitants do what they will, it spreads still
wider every year. It is generally supposed to have made its appearance
at James-Town in Virginia, whence it derived {104} the name of
_Jamesweed_. Travellers use it to heal the wounds made on horses’
backs occasioned by the rubbing of the saddle.
_Mullein_ is the second European plant that I found very abundant in
the United States, although in a less proportion than the
_stramonium_. It is very common on the road leading from Philadelphia
to Lancaster, but less so past the town; and I saw no more of it
beyond the Alleghany Mountains.
On the 1st of August we arrived at Limestone in Kentucky, fifty miles
lower than Alexandria. There ended my travels on the Ohio. We had come
three hundred and forty-eight miles in a canoe from Wheeling, and had
taken ten days to perform the journey, during which we were
incessantly obliged to paddle, on account of the slowness of the
stream. This labour, although painful, at any rate, to those who are
unaccustomed to it, was still more so on account of the intense heat.
We also suffered much from thirst, not being able to procure any thing
to drink but by stopping at the plantations on the banks of the river;
for in summer the water of the Ohio acquires such a degree of heat,
that it is not fit to be drank till it has been kept twenty-four
hours. This excessive heat is occasioned, on the one hand, by the
{105} extreme heat of the climate in that season of the year, and on
the other, by the slow movement of the stream.
I had fixed on the 1st of October to be the epoch of my return to
Charleston in South Carolina, and I had nearly a thousand miles to go
by land before I could arrive there, in executing the design I had
formed of travelling through the state of Tennessea, which lengthened
my route considerably. Pressed for time, I relinquished the intention
I had formed of going farther down the Ohio, and took leave of Mr.
Samuel Craft, who pursued by himself, in a canoe, his journey to
Louisville, whence, after having come down the Ohio and Mississippi,
he was to proceed up the river Yazous to go to Natches, and then
return by land to the state of Vermont, where he expected to be about
the middle of November following, after having made, in six months, a
circuit of nearly four thousand miles.
{106} CHAP. XII
_Fish and shells of the Ohio--Inhabitants on the Banks of
the river--Agriculture--American Emigrant--Commercial
Intelligence relative to that part of the United States._
The banks of the Ohio, although elevated from twenty to sixty feet,
scarcely afford any strong substances from Pittsburgh; and except
large detached stones of a greyish colour and very soft, that we
observed in an extent of ten or twelve miles below Wheeling, the
remainder part seems vegetable earth. A few miles before we reached
Limestone we began to observe a bank of a chalky nature, the thickness
of which being very considerable, left no room to doubt but what it
must be of a great extent.
Two kinds of flint, roundish and of a middling size, furnished the bed
of the Ohio abundantly, especially as we approached the isles, where
they are accumulated {107} by the strength of the current; some of a
darkish hue, break easily; others smaller, and in less quantities, are
three parts white, and scarcely transparent.
In the Ohio, as well as in the Alleghany, Monongahela, and other
rivers in the west, they find in abundance a species of _Mulette_
which is from five to six inches in length. They do not eat it, but
the mother-o’-pearl which is very thick in it, is used in making
buttons. I have seen some at Lexinton which were as beautiful as those
they make in Europe. This new species which I brought over with me,
has been described by Mr. Bosc, under the name of the _Unio
Ohiotensis_.
The Ohio abounds in fish of different kinds; the most common is the
cat-fish, or _silurus felis_, which is generally caught with a line,
and weighs sometimes a hundred pounds. The first fold of the upper
fins of this fish are strong and pointed, similar to those of a perch,
which he makes use of to kill others of a lesser size. He swims
several inches under the one he wishes to attack, then rising rapidly,
he pierces him several times in the belly; this we had an opportunity
of observing twice in the course {108} of our navigation. This fish is
also taken with a kind of spear.
Till the years 1796 and 1797 the banks of the Ohio were so little
populated that they scarcely consisted of thirty families in the space
of four hundred miles; but since that epoch a great number of
emigrants have come from the mountainous parts of Pennsylvania and
Virginia, and settled there; in consequence of which the plantations
now are so increased, that they are not farther than two or three
miles distant from each other, and when on the river we always had a
view of some of them.
The inhabitants on the borders of the Ohio, employ the greatest part
of their time in stag and bear hunting, for the sake of the skins,
which they dispose of. The taste that they have contracted for this
kind of life is prejudicial to the culture of their lands; besides
they have scarcely any time to meliorate their new possessions, that
usually consist of two or three hundred acres, of which not more than
eight or ten are cleared. Nevertheless, the produce that they derive
from them, with the milk of their cows, is sufficient for themselves
and families, which are always very numerous. The houses that they
inhabit {109} are built upon the borders of the river, generally in a
pleasant situation, whence they enjoy the most delightful prospects;
still their mode of building does not correspond with the beauties of
the spot, being nothing but miserable log houses, without windows, and
so small that two beds occupy the greatest part of them.
Notwithstanding two men may erect and finish, in less than three days,
one of these habitations, which, by their diminutive size and sorry
appearance, seem rather to belong to a country where timber is very
scarce, instead of a place that abounds with forests. The inhabitants
on the borders of the Ohio do not hesitate to receive travellers who
claim their hospitality; they give them a lodging, that is to say,
they permit them to sleep upon the floor wrapped up in their rugs.
They are accommodated with bread, Indian corn, dried ham, milk and
butter, but seldom any thing else; at the same time the price of
provisions is very moderate in this part of the United States, and all
through the western country.
No attention is paid by the inhabitants to any thing else but the
culture of Indian corn; and although it is brought to no great
perfection, the soil being so full of roots, the stems are from ten to
twelve feet {110} high, and produce from twenty to thirty-five
hundred weight of corn per acre. For the three first years after the
ground is cleared, the corn springs up too strong, and scatters before
it ears, so that they cannot sow in it for four or five years after,
when the ground is cleared of the stumps and roots that were left in
at first. The Americans in the interior cultivate corn rather through
speculation to send the flour to the sea-ports, than for their own
consumption; as nine tenths of them eat no other bread but that made
from Indian corn; they make loaves of it from eight to ten pounds,
which they bake in ovens, or small cakes baked on a board before the
fire. This bread is generally eaten hot, and is not very palatable to
those who are not used to it.
The peach is the only fruit tree that they have as yet cultivated,
which thrives so rapidly that it produces fruit after the second year.
The price of the best land on the borders of the Ohio did not exceed
three piastres per acre; at the same time it is not so dear on the
left bank in the States of Virginia and Kentucky, where the
settlements are not looked upon as quite so good.
The two banks of the Ohio, properly speaking, not having been
inhabited above eight or nine years, {111} nor the borders of the
rivers that run into it, the Americans who are settled there, share
but very feebly in the commerce that is carried on through the channel
of the Mississippi. This commerce consists at present in hams and
salted pork, brandies distilled from corn and peaches, butter, hemp,
skins and various sorts of flour. They send again cattle to the
Atlantic States. Tradespeople who supply themselves at Pittsburgh and
Wheeling, and go up and down the river in a canoe, convey them
haberdashery goods, and more especially tea and coffee, taking some of
their produce in return.
More than half of those who inhabit the borders of the Ohio, are again
the first inhabitants, or as they are called in the United States, the
_first settlers_, a kind of men who cannot settle upon the soil that
they have cleared, and who under pretence of finding a better land, a
more wholesome country, a greater abundance of game, push forward,
incline perpetually towards the most distant points of the American
population, and go and settle in the neighbourhood of the savage
nations, whom they brave even in their own country. Their ungenerous
mode of treating them stirs up frequent broils, that brings on bloody
wars, in which they generally fall victims; {112} rather on account of
their being so few in number, than through defect of courage.
Prior to our arrival at Marietta, we met one of these _settlers_, an
inhabitant of the environs of Wheeling, who accompanied us down the
Ohio, and with whom we travelled for two days. Alone in a canoe from
eighteen to twenty feet long, and from twelve to fifteen inches broad,
he was going to survey the borders of the Missouri[36] for a hundred
and fifty miles beyond its _embouchure_. The excellent quality of the
land that is reckoned to be more fertile there than that on the
borders of the Ohio, and which the Spanish government at that time
ordered to be distributed _gratis_, the quantity of beavers, elks, and
more especially bisons, were the motives that induced him to emigrate
into this remote part of the country, whence after having determined
on a suitable spot to settle there with his family, he was returning
to fetch them from the borders of the Ohio, which obliged him to take
a journey of fourteen or fifteen hundred {113} miles, his costume,
like that of all the American sportsmen, consisted of a waistcoat with
sleeves, a pair of pantaloons, and a large red and yellow worsted
sash. A carabine, a tomahawk or little axe, which the Indians make use
of to cut wood and to terminate the existence of their enemies, two
beaver-snares, and a large knife suspended at his side, constituted
his sporting dress. A rug comprised the whole of his luggage. Every
evening he encamped on the banks of the river, where, after having
made a fire, he passed the night; and whenever he conceived the place
favourable for the chace, he remained in the woods for several days
together, and with the produce of his sport, he gained the means of
subsistence, and new ammunition with the skins of the animals that he
had killed.
Such were the first inhabitants of Kentucky and Tennessea, of whom
there are now remaining but very few. It was they who began to clear
those fertile countries, and wrested them from the savages who
ferociously disputed their right; it was they, in short, who made
themselves masters of the possessions, after five or six years’ bloody
war: but the long habit of a wandering and idle life has prevented
their enjoying the fruit of their labours, and profiting by {114} the
very price to which these lands have risen in so short a time. They
have emigrated to more remote parts of the country, and formed new
settlements. It will be the same with most of those who inhabit the
borders of the Ohio. The same inclination that led them there will
induce them to emigrate from it. To the latter will succeed fresh
emigrants, coming also from the Atlantic states, who will desert their
possessions to go in quest of a milder climate and a more fertile
soil. The money that they will get for them will suffice to pay for
their new acquisitions, the peaceful delight of which is assured by a
numerous population. The last comers instead of log-houses, with which
the present inhabitants are contented, will build wooden ones, clear a
greater quantity of the land, and be as industrious and persevering in
the melioration of their new possessions as the former were indolent
in every thing, being so fond of hunting. To the culture of Indian
corn they will add that of other grain, hemp, and tobacco; rich
pasturages will nourish innumerable flocks, and an advantageous sale
of all the country’s produce will be assured them through the channel
of the Ohio.
The happy situation of this river entitles it to be looked upon as the
centre of commercial activity between {115} the eastern and western
states. By it the latter receive the manufactured goods which Europe,
India, and the Caribbees supply the former; and it is the only open
communication with the ocean, for the exportation of provisions from
the immense and fertile part of the United States comprised between
the Alleghany Mountains, the lakes, and the left banks of the
Mississippi.
All these advantages, blended with the salubrity of the climate and
the beauty of the landscapes, enlivened in the spring by a group of
boats which the current whirls along with an astonishing rapidity, and
the uncommon number of sailing vessels that from the bosom of this
vast continent go directly to the Caribbees; all these advantages, I
say, make me think that the banks of the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to
Louisville inclusively, will, in the course of twenty years, be the
most populous and commercial part of the United States, and where I
should settle in preference to any other.
{116} CHAP. XIII
_Limestone.--Route from Limestone to Lexinton.--Washington.--
Salt-works at Mays-Lick.--Millesburgh.--Paris._
Limestone, situated upon the left bank of the Ohio, consists only of
about thirty or forty houses constructed with wood. This little town,
built upwards of fifteen years, one would imagine to be more
extensive. It has long been the place where all the emigrants landed
who came from the Northern States by the way of Pittsburgh, and is
still the staple for all sorts of merchandize sent from Philadelphia
and Baltimore to Kentucky.