Transcriber’s Note:
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
this_. Long ‘s’ (ſ) were converted to ‘s’. Footnotes were moved to the
end of each book. There are two anchors to footnote [122] in André
Michaux’s Travels.
Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, missing or
partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected. Final
stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added.
In the second book, manuscript page numbers are displayed within
brackets, e.g. {36}.
Words may have inconsistant spelling, diacriticals and hyphenation in
the text. These were left unchanged, as were obsolete and alternative
spellings. Except as noted below, misspelled words were not corrected.
The following were changed:
answer to answers ... sometimes answers their purpose ...
wool to wood ... also made of wood,...
prevous to previous ... the year previous;...
[Illustration: Fr. André Michaux]
Early Western Travels
1748-1846
A Series of Annotated Reprints of some of the best
and rarest contemporary volumes of travel, descriptive
of the Aborigines and Social and
Economic Conditions in the Middle
and Far West, during the Period
of Early American Settlement
Edited with Notes, Introductions, Index, etc., by
Reuben Gold Thwaites
Editor of “The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents,” “Wisconsin
Historical Collections,” “Chronicles of Border Warfare,”
“Hennepin’s New Discovery,” etc.
Volume III
André Michaux’s Travels into Kentucky, 1793-96. François
André Michaux’s Travels West of Alleghany Mountains,
1802. Thaddeus Mason Harris’s Journal of a Tour
Northwest of Alleghany Mountains, 1803
[Illustration]
Cleveland, Ohio
The Arthur H. Clark Company
1904
COPYRIGHT 1904, BY
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Lakeside Press
R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY
CHICAGO
CONTENTS OF VOLUME III
PREFACE. _The Editor_ 11
I
JOURNAL OF TRAVELS INTO KENTUCKY; July 15, 1793--April 11,
1796. _André Michaux_ 25
II
TRAVELS TO THE WEST OF THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS, in the
States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessea, and back to
Charleston, by the Upper Carolines ... undertaken in
the year 1802. September 24, 1801--March 1, 1803.
_François André Michaux_ 105
III
THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR INTO THE TERRITORY NORTHWEST OF THE
ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS; made in the Spring of the Year
1803. April 7--“beginning of July.” _Thaddeus Mason
Harris, A.M._ 307
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME III
I. Portrait of François André Michaux. _From oil painting
in possession of American Philosophical Society at
Philadelphia_ Frontispiece
II. Carte des Etats du Centre, de l’Ouest et du Sud des
Etats-Unis, 1804 [From the original French edition] 108
III. Photographic facsimile of title-page to François André
Michaux’s _Travels_ 109
IV. Photographic facsimile of title-page to Harris’s
_Journal_ 309
V. Photographic facsimile of Map of Alleghany and
Yohiogany Rivers; from Harris’s _Journal_ 331
VI. Photographic facsimile of Map of the State of Ohio, by
Rufus Putnam; from Harris’s _Journal_ 351
PREFACE TO VOLUME III
We publish in this volume André Michaux’s journal of his travels into
Kentucky from 1793-96, Englished by us from the French version in the
_Proceedings_ of the American Philosophical Society; a reprint of the
English version of _Travels to the West of the Alleghany Mountains_,
made in 1802 by his son, François André Michaux; and a reprint
of Thaddeus Mason Harris’s _Journal of a Tour into the Territory
Northwest of the Alleghany Mountains, made in the Spring of the Year
1803_--omitting, however, as unnecessary to our present purpose, the
appendix thereto.
_The Michauxs_
André Michaux, whose name is known to scientists of both hemispheres,
was born at Satory, Versailles, in 1746. Destined by his father
for the superintendence of a farm belonging to the royal estate,
Michaux early became interested in agriculture, even while pursuing
classical studies. Upon the death of his young wife, Cecil Claye,
which occurred at the birth of their son, François André (1770), he
devoted himself to scientific studies in the effort to overcome his
grief. These naturally took the direction of botany, and Michaux
became imbued with a desire to seek for strange plants in foreign
countries. From 1779-81 he travelled in England, the Auvergne,
and the Pyrenees; and later (1782-85), in Persia, botanizing, and
studying the political situation of the Orient. He had intended to
return to Persia, but while in France (1785) the government requested
that he should proceed to North America in order to make a study of
forest trees, and experiment with regard to their transplantation to
France. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1785, he left France, taking
with him his young son.
Landing in New York he passed a year and a half in that vicinity,
herborizing, and attempting a botanical garden. Finding the latitude
of the Southern states, however, more suited to his enterprise, he
removed in the spring of 1787 to Charleston. Purchasing a plantation
about ten miles from the city, he entered with enthusiasm into the
search for new plants and their culture upon his estate. In this
year he explored the mountains of the Carolinas, and a twelve-month
later made a difficult and hazardous journey through the swamps and
marshes of Florida. The next year (1789) was occupied by a voyage to
the Bahamas, and another search among the mountains for plants of
a commercial nature--notably ginseng, whose utility he taught the
mountaineers.
In 1794 he undertook a most difficult expedition to Canada and the
arctic regions about Hudson Bay, and upon his return proposed to the
American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia an exploration of the
great West by way of the Missouri River. A subscription was begun for
this purpose, and Jefferson drafted for him detailed instructions for
the journey;[1] but his services were needed in another direction,
and the Missouri exploration was abandoned for a political mission.
The discontent of the Western settlers with regard to the free
navigation of the Mississippi had reached an acute stage; the French
minister to the United States had come armed with instructions to
secure the co-operation of trans-Allegheny Americans for a raid
upon the Spanish territory of Louisiana, aimed to recover that
province for the power to which it had formerly belonged, and make
it a basis for revolutionary movements in Canada, the West Indies,
and ultimately all Spanish America.[2] This minister arrived in
Charleston in February, 1793, and selected Michaux as his agent to
communicate with the Kentucky leaders. An ardent republican, already
in the pay of the French government, and friendly with influential
men in government circles, Michaux seemed a most desirable as well
as the most available agent possible. One characteristic was not,
however, sufficiently considered. Whatever may have been his interest
in the intrigue, whatever accounts thereof are through caution
or prudence omitted from the journal here printed, one fact is
evident--that Michaux was chiefly devoted to the cause of science;
these pages reveal that a rare plant or new tree interested him much
more than an American general or a plot to subvert Spanish tyranny.
His first Kentucky journey was, from the point of view of the
diplomats, but moderately successful. With the collapse of the
enterprise--due to the imprudence of Genet, the firmness of
Washington, the growing loyalty of the Westerners to the new federal
government, and the change of leaders in France--Michaux returned
to botanical pursuits, and his later journeys appear to have been
undertaken solely in order to herborize. There are, however, some
slight indications in the text that he entertained hope of continuing
the enterprise, and of its ultimate success. His inquiries, in the
Cumberland, for guides for the Missouri expedition, prove that he
had by no means abandoned his purpose of undertaking that hazardous
project.
But these long Western journeys had exhausted his resources; for
seven years he had had no remittance from the French government,
and was now under the necessity of returning to Europe to attend to
his affairs. Accordingly in 1796 he embarked for France, and was
shipwrecked on the coast of Holland, losing part of his collections;
but his herbarium was preserved, and is now in the Musée de Paris.
He ardently desired to be sent back to America; but his government
offered him no encouragement, and finally he accepted a post upon an
expedition to New Holland, and in November, 1802, died of fever upon
the island of Madagascar.
His son, François André, entered into his father’s pursuits and
greatly assisted him. While yet a lad, he accompanied him on
several arduous journeys in America; at other times remaining upon
the plantation, engaged in the care of the transplanted trees. He
returned to France some years before his father, in order to study
medicine, and in the year of the latter’s death was commissioned by
the French minister of the interior to proceed to the United States
to study forests and agriculture in general.
The journal of his travels was not originally intended for print;
but the interest aroused in the Western region of the United States
by the sale of Louisiana, induced its publication. The first French
edition appeared in 1804, under the title, _Voyage à l’ouest des
Monts Alléghanys, dans les États de l’Ohio, et du Kentucky, et
du Tennessée, et retour a Charleston par les Hautes-Carolines_.
Another edition appeared in 1808. The first was soon Englished by
B. Lambert, and two editions with different publishers issued from
London presses in 1805. The same year another translation, somewhat
abridged, appeared in volume i of Phillip’s _Collection of Voyages_.
Neither of these translations is well executed. The same year, a
German translation issued from the Weimar press.
The younger Michaux continued to be interested in the study of trees,
and spent several years in preparing the three volumes of _Histoire
des Arbres forestiers de l’Amérique Septentrionale_, which appeared
in 1810-13. This was translated, and passed through several English
editions, with an additional volume added by Thomas Nuttall under the
title of _The North American Sylva_.
Michaux’s report on the naturalization of American forest trees, made
to the Société d’Agriculture du département de la Seine, was printed
in 1809.[3] His “Notice sur les Isles Bermudas, et particulièrement
sur l’Isle St. George” was published in _Annales des Sciences
naturelles_ (1806), volume viii. He also assisted in editing his
father’s work, _Histoire des Chênes de l’Amérique_; and his final
publication on American observations was _Mémoire sur les causes de
la fièvre jaune_, published at Paris in 1852. Dr. Michaux died at
Vauréal, near Pontoise, in 1855.
In 1824 the younger Michaux presented to the American Philosophical
Society at Philadelphia the notebooks containing the diary of his
father’s travels in America--all save those covering the first two
years (1785-87), which were lost in the shipwreck on the coast
of Holland. The value of these journals has long been known to
scientists; their larger interest, as revealing both political and
social conditions in the new West, will perhaps be first recognized
upon this presentation of them in English form. Written “by the light
of his lonely campfires, during brief moments snatched from short
hours of repose, in the midst of hardships and often surrounded by
dangers,” their literary form is deficient, and frequent gaps occur,
which doubtless were intended to be filled in at some future moments
of leisure. This was prevented by the author’s untimely death in the
midst of his labors. For nearly a century the journals existed only
in manuscript. In 1884 Charles S. Sargent, director of the Arnold
Arboretum of Harvard University, prepared the manuscript for the
press, with explanatory notes chiefly on botanical matters.[4] It
was published in the original French, in the American Philosophical
Society _Proceedings_, 1889, pp. 1-145.
From this journal of nearly eleven years’ travel in America--from
Florida on the south, to the wilds of the Hudson Bay country on
the north, from Philadelphia and Charleston on the Atlantic coast
to the most remote Western settlements, and the Indian lands
of the Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee--we have selected for
translation and inclusion within our series, the portions that
concern particularly the trans-Allegheny region. These relate to
the expedition made to Kentucky by way of the Ohio (1793), with the
return over the Wilderness Road and through the Valley of Virginia;
and the longer journey (1795-96) from Charleston to Tennessee, thence
through Kentucky to the Illinois, and back by a similar route with
side excursions on the great Western rivers.
The journals of the elder Michaux “record the impressions of a man
of unusual intelligence--a traveller in many lands, who had learned
by long practice to use his eyes to good advantage and to write down
only what they saw.” A part of the value of these documents to a
student of Western history consists in their accurate and succinct
outline of the areas of colonization. The extent and boundaries of
Michaux’s travels enable us to map with considerable accuracy the
limits of the settled regions--first, that from Pittsburg down the
Ohio to just below Marietta; then, after passing a region without a
town, between Gallipolis and Limestone (Maysville, Kentucky), the
traveller enters the thickly occupied area of Kentucky, bounded
on the south and west by the “barrens,” into which emigration was
beginning to creep. In the Illinois, Michaux’s unfavorable comment
upon the French habitants is in accord with that of other visitors of
the same nationality; his travels therein show that the small French
group were the only settlers, save a few venturesome Americans at
Bellefontaine, and “Corne de Cerf.” In East Tennessee, the outpost
was Fort Southwest Point, where the Clinch and Holston meet; thence,
a journey of a hundred and twenty miles through “the Wilderness”
brought one to the frontier post of the Cumberland settlements, at
Bledsoe’s Lick. Upon Michaux’s return, nearly a year later, the
Cumberland frontier had extended, and Fort Blount had been built
forty miles to the eastward as a protection for the ever-increasing
number of travellers and pioneers. The western borders of Cumberland
were also rapidly enlarging. Clarksville, on the Cumberland River at
the mouth of the Red, had long been on the extreme border in this
direction; but Michaux found daring settlements stretching out
beyond, seizing the rich river bottoms and organizing a town as a
nucleus for scattered planters.
Michaux faithfully presents the conditions that confronted travellers
in his day--the lack of inns, the straying of horses with the
consequent annoyance and delay, the inadequate means for crossing
rivers, the frequent necessity for waiting until a sufficient body of
travellers had collected to act as a guard through the uninhabited
regions. He also traversed nearly all the routes by which emigration
was pouring into the Western country--the Wilderness Road to
Kentucky, the routes from North Carolina over the mountains to East
Tennessee, the Wilderness Road of Tennessee (this last a narrow and
dangerous link with the Cumberland settlements), the paths thither to
Louisville, and the Indian trails thence to the Illinois; as well as
the river routes--the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Cumberland.
Glimpses of the chief founders of the Western country are tantalizing
by their meagreness. We should have valued more detailed accounts of
conversations with Clark, Logan, and Shelby, concerning Nicholas’s
plan for securing the navigation of the Mississippi; of the attitude
of Robertson, Blount, and Daniel Smith toward the French enterprise;
and of the impression made at this early day by “a resident near
the Cumberland River, Mr. Jackson.” Particularly interesting is the
record of the number of Frenchmen who became prominent and useful
citizens of the West--Lucas at Pittsburg, Lacassagne at Louisville,
Tardiveau, Honoré, and Depauw at Danville and vicinity; apart from
the settlers at Gallipolis, whose misfortunes our author deplores. It
is hoped that this English version of the elder Michaux’s journals
may prove a contribution of importance to those interested in early
conditions in the Mississippi Valley.
Michaux’s published works are, _Histoire des Chênes de l’Amérique_--
which appeared in 1801, and is supposed to have been recast or
corrected by other scientists--and _Flora Boreali-Americana_, written
in Latin by Richard from the plants which Michaux had collected in
America, and issued a year after the latter’s death.[5]
The few years that intervened between the journeys of the elder and
younger Michaux show the rapidity with which the West was changing.
Conditions of travel had meantime been improved, and the development
of resources was proceeding with bounds. The opening of the
Mississippi had caused an immense growth in both the extent and means
of Western commerce; the son describes ship-building upon the waters
along which the father had passed in Indian canoes. The increase in
the number, size, and appearance of the towns, and the additional
comforts in the homes of the people, were indicative of a great and
growing prosperity.
The younger traveller describes the inhabitants with more
particularity than his father. His observations upon the
characteristics of the people, their occupations and recreations and
their political bias, are those of an intelligent and sympathetic
narrator, with a predisposition in favor of the Western settlers.
His remarks in chapter xii on the restlessness of the pioneers,
their eagerness to push onward to a newer country, their impatience
with the growing trammels of civilization, show habits of close
observation. His optimism with regard to the future of the country,
in thinking that within twenty years the Ohio Valley would be “the
most populous and commercial part of the United States, and where
I should settle in preference to any other,” exhibits a large
comprehension of the forces and elements of Western growth.
The American popularity of the younger Michaux’s journal, in its own
time, proved his ability to interpret the ideas of our people, and
the sympathetic interest of a cultured Frenchman in the democratizing
processes of the New World.
_Thaddeus Mason Harris_
Thaddeus Mason Harris, author of the _Journal of a Tour into the
Territory Northwest of the Alleghany Mountains_, was one of the
coterie of liberal clergymen who occupied the New England pulpits
in the early part of the nineteenth century. As a member of this
group, Harris’s observations of the Western country are of peculiar
interest. He had the training of the typical New Englander--“plain
living and high thinking.” Born in Charlestown in 1768, his family
were driven from their home at the battle of Bunker Hill, and three
years later the father died of exposure contracted during his service
in the Revolutionary army. As the eldest of the children, Thaddeus
was sent to “board around” among the neighboring farmers, one of
whom took sufficient interest in the promising lad to fit him for
college. An accidental supply of money at a later period, accepted
as a special interposition of Providence, made such an impression
upon the young man’s mind that he determined to enter the ministry.
He was graduated from Harvard in 1787, in the same class with John
Quincy Adams. After a year’s teaching at Worcester, the position
was tendered him of private secretary to the newly-chosen President
Washington, but an attack of small-pox prevented its acceptance,
and the place was filled by Tobias Lear.
In 1789 our author was “approbated to preach,” and the following
year received his A.M. degree, delivering on the occasion the Phi
Beta Kappa address. During the two succeeding years he served as
the librarian of his alma mater, and was elected (1792) a resident
member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The year 1793 saw
Harris installed as pastor of the first church of Dorchester--a
relation which was continued through over forty years of faithful and
acceptable service. A careful pastor, he exposed himself during the
epidemic of yellow fever in 1802 to such an extent that he contracted
the disease, and during his convalescence the Western journey was
planned and undertaken as a means of recuperation. In this it was
eminently successful, and upon his return to Dorchester Harris
plunged anew into literary and philanthropic labors. Within the next
few years he aided in founding the American Antiquarian Society,
the Massachusetts Humane Society, the American Peace Society, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Archæological Society
at Athens, and was chosen corresponding member of the New York
Historical Society. His addresses and sermons on different occasions
found their way into print, until nearly sixty were published.
Harvard honored itself by conferring upon him the degree of doctor
of divinity in 1813, and during his entire later life he acted as
overseer in the college corporation. His eldest son, a well-known
entomologist, served as Harvard librarian for twenty-five years
(1831-56).
After a second severe illness (1833), Dr. Harris visited Georgia, and
thereupon published a biography of Oglethorpe. In 1838 he resigned
his pastorate and spent his remaining five years in congenial
literary pursuits, serving for a time as the librarian of the
Massachusetts Historical Society. He is described as a “little quaint
old man, indescribably bent, but still wearing a hale aspect, who
used to haunt the alcoves of the library at Harvard.” After March,
1842, the place of the old scholar and reader in the college library
was vacant.
Dr. Harris made no contribution of permanent value to American
literature, unless the present book may be so considered. Besides the
works mentioned, he aided (1805) in putting forth an encyclopedia,
and a Natural History of the Bible; the result of the last-named
labor was pirated by an English firm, which issued it in several
editions. The _Journal of a Tour_, which we here republish, sold
well, and was soon out of print. In recent years, the volume has
brought a good price at antiquarian sales. In addition to the journal
proper, Harris added a bulky appendix, entitled a “Geographical and
Historical Account of the State of Ohio,” from material collected
during his visit at Marietta, annexing thereto: a “Letter to the
Earl of Hillsborough on the navigation of the Ohio (1770);” the “Act
of Congress forming the State;” the “Constitution of the State;”
an “Account of the destruction of the Moravian Settlements on the
Muskingum;” “Wayne’s Treaty;” and a number of papers connected
with the formation of the Ohio Company of Associates, and the
establishment of the Northwest Territory. This appendix we have
omitted as not within the sphere of the present series, and as
containing information which can readily be secured elsewhere.
As an observer, two points characterize Harris’s narrative--his
enthusiasm for natural scenery, and the delight shown in its
description; and the dryness of his statements with regard to
the human life which he saw en route. Its chief value lies in the
accuracy which he exhibits in data concerning the size of the
towns, their prosperity and growth, their business interests, and
stage of material development; in matters regarding the growth of
ship-building and navigation, the number of manufactories, and the
general material prosperity of the region, Harris gives useful
information. But as a picture of Western life, or as a sympathetic
relation of human affairs in this region, the value is small. This
arose in part from the New Englander’s stout prejudices against
conditions unfamiliar to him. His attitude toward the Western
inhabitants is quite the contrary of that of the younger Michaux, and
forms thereto an effective foil.
As with previous volumes of this series, the Editor has had the
active co-operation of Louise Phelps Kellogg in the preparation of
notes.
R. G. T.
MADISON, WIS., February, 1904.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See documents in _Original Journals of Lewis and
Clark_ (New York, 1904), appendix.
[2] See Turner, “Origin of Genet’s Projected Attack on
Louisiana and the Floridas” in _American Historical
Review_, July, 1897; also documents in American
Historical Association _Report_, 1896 and 1897.
[3] See review in _Monthly Anthology_ (Boston, 1810),
viii, p. 280.
[4] The notes in the journals of the elder Michaux
signed C. S. S., are those of Sargent, found in the
French edition and designed chiefly to elucidate
botanical references.
[5] The references in Sargent’s notes marked “Michx.,”
refer to this _Flora_.
JOURNAL OF ANDRÉ MICHAUX, 1793-1796
SOURCE: Englished from the original French, appearing in American
Philosophical Society _Proceedings_, 1889, pp. 91-101, 114-140.
JOURNAL OF ANDRÉ MICHAUX
On the 15ᵗʰ of July 1793, I took leave of Citizen Genet, Minister
of the Republic of France to the United States[1] and started from
Philadelphia on the same date at ten o’clock at night to avoid the
great heat, and to travel by Moonlight. The 16th, being in company
with ... Humeau and ... Leblanc,[2] we journeyed 40 miles.
The 17th, passed by Lancaster and made 35 Miles.
The 18th, passed by Carlisle ... Miles and slept at Chipesbourg
[Shippensburg].
The 19th we slept at Strasbourg ... Miles.
Sunday the 20th, we started from Strasbourg, a small town situate
at the foot of the Mountains; one of our horses having fallen sick
we traveled only 21 Miles; observed _Magnolia acuminata_, _Azalea
octandra_, _Kalmia latifolia_, _Fagus castanea_, _Fagus pumila_,
_Pinus 2-folia_, _3-folia_, _Strobus_: _Abies Canadensis_; _Quercus
castaneaefolia etc._ _Juglans nigra_.
The 21st of July started from Wells’s tavern, crossed the Juniata
river ... and noticed _Rhododendron maximum_, _Hydrangea frutescens_,
_Trillium erectum_; slept at Bedford. 21 Miles.
The 22nd. Started from Bedford and breakfasted at a place 4 miles
distant where the Pittsburg Road divides into two. We took the right
hand road; the Rain compelled us to stop and sleep only twelve Miles
from Bedford.[3]
The 23rd we made 24 Miles and passed the summit of the Alleganys.
The 24th we made 25 Miles.
The 25th we passed by Green’sburg and made 31 Miles.
The 26th Rain; we made only ... Miles.
The 27th, we made 19 Miles and arrived in Pittsburgh. Total 32[4]
Miles from Philadelphia.
The 28th visited Mr. H. Brackenridge.[5]
The 29th herborised; recognized on the banks of the Monongahela,
_Dracocephalum Virginianum_,[6] _Bignonia radicans_, _Crotalaria
alba?_ These plants grow on the banks of the river which are
submerged when the waters are high.
The 30th of the same, recognized a Plant of the Genus _Ziziphora_ ...
_Cunila pulegioides_[7] _floribus tetandris_; _Teucrium Canadense_,
_Eupatorium aromaticum_, _Sigesbeckia_ ...; _Verbenae_ several
species.
The 1st of August, herborised and recognized _Cassia Marylandica_;
_Monarda didyma_; _Sanicula Marylandica_; _Triosteum perfoliatum_;
_Sicyos angulata_; _Acer rubrum_, _saccharum_; _Campanula_, ...;
_Cercis Canadensis_; _Menispermum Canadense_; _Actaea spicata_;
_Tilia Americana_; _Urtica divaricata_; _Arum triphyllum_; _Celtis
occidentalis_; _Panax quinquefolium_; _Staphylea trifoliata_; _Azarum
Canadense_; _Rhus typhina_, _glabra_, _vernix_; _copallinum_,
_radicans_, _toxicodendron_; _Clinopodium vulgare_, _incanum_.
The 2nd of August recognized _Aristolochia sipho_ or _macrophylla_;
_Panax quinquefolium_; _Lobelia siphilitica_; _Convallaria_ many
species; _Veronica_ ... _Ozalis stricta_.
The 3rd and 4th of August herborised: _Cacalia_ 2 species, _Phryma
leptostachia_; _Leontice thalictroides_; _Lobelia siphilitica_,
_inflata_, _cardinalis_; _Eupatorium perfoliatum_, _maculatum_,
_odoratum et celestinum_; _Actea spicata_; _Podophyllum peltatum_;
_Azarum Canadense_; _Hydrophyllum Canadense_; _Trillium cernuum_;
_Panax quinquefolium_; _Aristolochia Sipho_; _Menispermum_ ...;
_Sambucus Canadensis fructu nigro_; _Sambucus_ ..., _fructu rubro
foliis tomentosis_; _Tilia Americana_; _Laurus Sassafras_, _benzoin_;
_Robinia pseudocacia_, _Juglans oblonga_, _Juglans hiccory_;
_Plantanus occidentalis_; _Acer rubrum_, _saccharum_; _Ulmus_
...; _Hamamelis_ ..., _Cynoglossum_ 3 species; _Vitis vulpina_;
_Dioscorea fructu infero_; _Teucrium Canadense_; _Scrophularia
Marylandica_; _Dracocephalum Virginianum_; _Dianthera_ ...; _Sophora
foliis ternis stipulis lato-lanceolatis floribus coeruleis vexillo
corollâ breviore_; _Mimulus ringens_; _Bignonia radicans_; _Cercis
Canadensis_; _Fagus sylvatica Americana_; _Circaea Canadensis_;
_Urtica inermis_; _Erigeron Canadense_; _Cornus florida_; _Rubus
odorata_, _Rubus occidentalis_; _Penthorum sedoides_; _Cephalantus
occidentalis_; _Polygonum aviculare_, _hydropiper_, _amphibium_,
_scandens_; _Sanguinaria Canadensis_.
On the 6th of August I saw on the bank of the Monongahela river
opposite Pittsburgh a Coal mine at the entrance of which there seems
to be a thickness of 15 feet of that mineral without admixture;
sometimes a ferruginous tint can be distinguished between the
different layers. In several spots soft rocks are to be found which
seem good for use as whet-stones for large tools; they seem to me to
consist of a combination of sandy, clayey and ferruginous particles
with particles of mica in very rare instances.
The soil in the neighborhood of Pittsburgh is generally clayey, the
calcareous rocks or stones of a brown color, consisting of much muddy
clay. The soil between the two rivers on which Pittsburgh is built,
is alluvial; stones rounded and worn by the rolling of torrents have
even been found in the earth, dug up while sinking wells at a depth
of more than 30 feet.
The 9th of August, when I was ready to start, the conductor of the
Boat on which I had embarked my baggage came to tell me that he was
waiting for the Boats destined to convey the troops, especially as
the Boat seemed too deeply laden for that Season when the Waters are
low; there was an appearance of Rain.
The 10th the river seems to be falling.
The 11th, 12th and 13th we remained, awaiting the departure.
The 13th three Boats arrived from the Illinois belonging to Mr.
Vigo.[8] They were manned by about 30 French Canadian or Illinois
oarsmen.
A Frenchman who has resided in America for 14 years and whose
business consists in shipping supplies of flour to New Orleans,
told me that he would give me Letters for Illinois addressed to the
Commandant of the Post of St Louis. He is at present settled in
Pittsbourgh and his name is Audrain.[9] This Audrain is said to be
in partnership with one Louisière or Delousière who was exiled from
France for having been concerned in the plot to deliver Havre to the
combined English and Spanish fleets. This Louisière is at present
absent from Pittsburgh. There is another Frenchman residing in
Pittsburgh, Mr Lucas de Pentareau, an excellent Democrat, now absent.
He passes for an educated man with legal knowledge.[10]
Pittsburgh is situated at the confluence of the two rivers,
Monongahela and Allegany. These two rivers unite and form the Ohio or
Belle Rivière. There are a great many more houses on the Monongahela
river than on the Allegany. The number of houses is about 250 and it
increases considerably every year. The ditches are still to be seen
that served as the entrenchment of the Fort built by the French and
called Fort Duquesne. The English, since that time, had built another
almost beside it at the angle formed by the junction of the two
rivers. It was built of brick and the Americans are demolishing it to
use the bricks in building the houses that are being erected every
day at Fort Pitt.[11]
The Americans have a Fort of Palisades situated behind the town on
the bank of the Allegany River; it serves as a Depot for the arrival
of the troops that are being sent against the Savages and as a
Magazine for the Munitions sent there from Philadelphia.[12]
Wednesday the 14th of August, started from Pittsbourgh and slept at
a distance of two miles only on the point of a small island on which
I found _Acer negundo_, _rubrum_, _saccharum_; _Evonimus capsulis
glabris_.[13]
The 15th recognized at 20 Miles from Pittsburgh _Pavia lutea_,
_Panax quinquefolium_; A Bryonia plant _monoica calyce_ 5-fido,
_corolla 5 partita floribus masculis spicatis axillaribus floribus
femineis quoque axillaribus germine instructo spinis innocuis_.[14]
Our journey covered 28 Miles.
The 16th at 7 o’clock in the morning we crossed the boundary line
between Pennsylvania and Virginia. The line is marked by cutting down
the trees on a width of about ... feet on the right and left of the
Ohio or Belle Rivière and this place is 45 miles from Pittsbourgh. In
the evening of the same day arrived at Buffalo Creek. _79 Miles from
Pittsburgh._
The 17th passed by Willing [Wheeling] 92 Miles from Pittsburgh;[15]
this place is inhabited by about 12 families as is also Buffalo Creek
[Wellsburg]. Owing to the contrary wind we traveled only 30 Miles.
Sunday August 18th 1793, saw several flocks of wild Turkeys; wind
contrary.
The 19th we made _50 Miles_. There are no settlements between Willing
and Marietta, a small Town situate at the mouth of the Muskingum
river. We slept at the place called Fort Harmar, situate opposite
Marietta on the right bank of the Muskingum river.[16] _Dianthera
americana._
The 20th we spent the day there.
The 21st, we passed by Little Kanhaway,[17] Belpré, and Belleville 34
Miles.
The 22nd we saw no settlements. Recognized _Polymnia canadensis_;
_Acer rubrum foliis inferne glaucis_; _Acer negundo_, _Acer
saccharum_, _Acer foliis rugosis nervis sublanuginosis_; _Annona
triloba_, _Pavia lutea_, _Platanus occidentalis_.
The 23rd passed Great Kanhaway,[18] 4 miles before arriving at
Galliapolis on the opposite bank.
The 23rd we arrived at the settlement of Galliapolis situate on
the left bank of the Belle rivière. The houses are all built of
squared logs merely notched at the ends instead of being Mortised
(Log-house).[19]
The 24th remained over, visited doctor Petit who inspired me with the
greatest respect by his good sense, his knowledge and his virtue. It
seemed to me that humanity is the only thing that keeps him attached
to that unfortunate colony.[20] Out of the 600 persons who came
there to settle, only about 150 remain.
Sunday the 25th started from Galliapolis; at a distance of 35 Miles
recognized _Iresine celosioides_ on the banks of the belle rivière
where they are submerged by the great inundations. Passed a small
river called Gay [Guyandotte]. We saw no habitations; 40 Miles.
The 26th, saw no habitations; passed the river Scioto ... Miles.[21]
The 27th, saw a Settlement of several houses at the place called
Three Islands, ten miles before arriving at Lime Stone;[22] these
Settlements are considered the first belonging to Kentuckey. We
reached Lime Stone toward evening.[23]
Limestone is considered the Landing place or Port of Kentuckey.
Goods are landed there that are sent from Philadelphia for Danville,
Lexington etc. A small town founded six years ago at a distance of
4 Miles on the Lexington road, is called Washington and is very
flourishing being situate in very fertile land.
The 28th, visited Colonel Alexander D. Orr.[24]
The 29th I left the two Companions who had come with me from
Philadelphia. They continued their journey to Louisville while I went
on by way of the inland Settlements. Colonel D. Orr offered me his
Company to go with him to Lexington whither he proposed to go in a
few days.
The 30th and 31st herborised while waiting until horses could
be procured for the journey to Lexington. _Guilandina dioica_;
_Fraxinus_ (_quadrangularis_); _Gleditsia triacanthos_; _Serratula
praealta_; _Eupatorium aromaticum_, _Crepis Sibirica_? etc.
Sunday 1st of September 1793. Dined at Colonel Lee’s.[25]
The 2nd dined with ... Fox and prepared my baggage for departure.
The 3rd the journey was put off until the Following day. The soil
in the vicinity of Washington is clayey and blackish, very rich.
The stones are of an opaque bluish calcareous Substance, full of
petrifactions of seashells. The bones of those monster animals
supposed to be Elephants are found in the neighborhood.[26] It
is to be presumed that those bones belonged to marine Individuals,
judging by the great abundance of debris of marine bodies collected
in those places.
The 4th started from Washington; passed by a place where the soil is
impregnated with saline substances and whither the Buffaloes used to
go in great numbers to lick the particles of Salt continually exuding
from the surface of the Soil. There are at this spot springs whose
water is bitter, putrid, blackish and full of mephitic air which
frees itself at the slightest movement of the soil by the bubbles
appearing on the surface of the spring as one approaches. The people
living in the neighborhood erect ovens with kettles and extract Salt
by the evaporation of the water.[27] We traveled 33 Miles.
The 5th we made 27 miles and, at an early hour, reached Lexington,[28]
the chief town amongst the Settlements of the State of Kentuckey. We
passed a small Settlement, looked upon as a town and called Paris, the
capital of Bourbon county.[29] It contains about 18 houses. There are
farming Establishments along the road and travelers now go without
danger from Lime Stone to Lexington, a distance of Sixty six miles
from one place to the other. _66 Miles._
The 6th visited two persons residing in Lexington for whom I had
Letters of introduction.
The 7th herborised....
Sunday 8th of September was obliged to remain being unable to hire a
horse.
The 9th left Lexington, went through portions of forest lands with
very scattered Plantations. Crossed the Kentuckey river the banks of
which are very close to one another; when the waters are low there
is a height of more than 100 feet from the bank of the river to the
level of the lands bordering on it and through which it runs. I am
told that in flood-time it rises to a height of 40 feet in one day.
On arriving there one would think himself between two ranges of very
steep Mountains but in fact it is merely a torrent or a river whose
Bed has been deeply worn. The rocks on the banks are of a calcareous
nature. Several shrubs and Plants, natives of Carolina, grow on the
cliff with a southern exposure being secured and protected from cold
by the favorable situation offered by the great depth of the bed of
the river.
The 10th arrived in Danville[30] and visited several persons for whom
I had Letters: Colonel Barbee etc, Capt. Peter Tardivau, a witty
man[31] etc. etc.
The 11th, visited General Benjamin Logan whose house is situate 12
Miles from Danville. I confided to him the Commission entrusted to
me; He told me he would be delighted to take part in the enterprise
but that he had received a Letter a few days previously from J.
Brown[32] which informed him that negotiations had been begun between
the United States and the Spaniards respecting the navigation of the
Mississipi and the Creek Indians; That a messenger had been sent to
Madrid[33] and that any one of the United States that would venture
to act in a hostile manner against the Spaniards before the return
of the first of December next, would be disapproved by the federal
Government; That he was going to start the following day for his
Establishment of Boulskine [Bullskin] Creek and that, after I should
have conferred with General Clark, he hoped the latter would, in
consequence of what I should communicate to him, make arrangements
for further conferences together[34] etc. etc.
The 12th returned to Danville.
The 13th Visited (his Excellency) the Governor of the State of
Kentuckey, Isaac Shelby;[35] visited the hills called Knob
Licks;[36] Saw several Plants especially in the salt lands enclosed
in the interior of the territory of Kentuckey. _Andromeda arborea._
The 14th left Danville for Louisville, lodged with Cumberland _19
Miles from Danville_.
Sunday 15th of September 1793, 22 Miles from Danville found a sort
of _Tragia_, a _monoecian_ Plant, fructification in the manner of
the _Euphorbias_. Shortly before reaching Beardstown recognized the
rocks and stones of calcareous substances possessing all the forms of
the Madrepores. The tops of the Mountains (hills) one has to cross,
3 or 4 Miles before reaching Beardstown, consist entirely of these
petrified madrepores. Recognized many Plants not found elsewhere:
_Fagara_ of the State of New York; _Rhamnus_ (_Carolinian_) and
_Rhamnus_ ... etc etc. The neighborhood would be very interesting
for a Botanist to visit. Dined at Beardstown[37] and slept 6 miles
further. _31 Miles._
The country between Beardstown and Louisville possesses no interest
for a Botanist.
The 16th arrived at Louisville having traveled by the new road.[38]
_29 Miles._ In all 79 Miles from Danville.
The 17th of September visited General Clarke. I handed him the
Letters from the Minister and informed him of the object of my
Mission. He told me that he was very eager for the Undertaking but
that, although he had written so long ago, he had received no answer
and thought it had been abandoned.[39] I told him that his Letter had
fallen into other hands and that the Minister had received it only
indirectly after his arrival in Philadelphia. He informed me that a
fresh circumstance seemed to oppose an obstacle to it.[40]
The 18th remained at Louisville and herborised.
The 19th returned to visit General Clarke....
The 20th started from Louisville, passed by General Clarke’s[41] and
passed on to sleep near Salt river.
The 21st passed by Beardstown. _Evonimus ramulis quadrangulis
capsulis muricatis._[42]
Sunday September 22nd arrived once more at Danville at 5 o’clock in
the evening. Wrote to Minister Genet the same day by the Philadelphia
Post.[43]
The 23rd I rested.
The 24th started for Lexington and slept at the Kentuckey river
crossing.
The 25th found that my horse had wandered away. I slept at an inn
where there was no Stable; my horse jumped over the fence and I
spent the whole day looking for him.
While so engaged I saw on the sandy beaches: _Iresine celosioides_;
_Mollugo verticillata_; On the rocks; _Heuchera Americana_;
_Asplenium rhyzophorum_; _Pteris nova_; _Parietaria_ ...; _Hydrangea
arborescens_. On the limestone mountains: _Serratula_ 2 unknown
species; _Cuphea viscosa_; _Didynamia gymnosperma novum genus_;
_Didynamia angiosperma novum genus_. On the bank of the Dickson
river, _Dirca palustris_; _Sophora floribus coerulis_. In the shady
forests etc: _Acer foliis argenteis an rubrum_? _Acer saccharum_;
_Fraxinus foliolis subintegris_, _Fraxinus foliolis serratis ramis
quadrangularis_; _Gleditsia triacanthos_; _Guilandina dioica_,
_Robinia pseudo-acacia_; _Evonimus ramulis subrotundis_, _capsulis
laevibus_.
The 26th of September 1793, Rained all day; slept at a mile from
Kentuckey river at the house of ... Hogan[44] who was kind enough to
lend me a horse for nothing to go in search of mine.
The 27th arrived at Lexington distant only 20 Miles from the crossing
of Kentuckey river called Hickman junction.[45]
The 5th of October started from Lexington.
Sunday the 6th of the same arrived at Danville. The same day wrote to
Citizen Minister Genet.
The 7th took lodgings at Puvit’s[46] and received my baggage.
The 10th Sent a Messenger to Louisville.[47]
The 13th Sunday returned to Lexington and came back on Sunday the
20th, to Danville. Not having received general Clark’s answer I was
unable to take advantage of the Post to write to the Minister at
Philadelphia.
The 21st received General Clark’s answer.[48]
* * * * *
The 10th of November 1793, Year 2 of the French Republic, left
Danville for Philadelphia after visiting Colonel George Nicholas[49]
near Danville. He laid stress upon the plan he had proposed to me
the previous day regarding the Navigation of the Mississipi. Namely:
That the Naval Forces of the Republic should seize the Mouth of the
Mississipi, declare that the Country belonged to them by right of
Conquest and invite the Americans of the Western Country to take
advantage of the freedom of Navigation. Then, if the Spaniards
situated higher up the river molested the Vessels carrying the
provisions conveyed by the Americans, the latter would have the right
to repel Constraint and force by force. Thus the Spanish Government
would have no reason to complain of the United States having broken
through inasmuch as the country would be reputed in the possession of
the French Republic.
Slept at Crab orchard distant from Danville _22 Miles_.
The 11th of November 1793, started from Crab Orchard in company with
12 persons who had assembled at that place to pass through the Woods
inhabited and frequented by the Savages. The tract between Crab
orchard and Houlston settlement is 130 Miles wide and is called The
Wilderness.[50] Slept at Longford Station. _10 Miles._
The 12th slept at Modnell Station _28 Miles_.
The 13th slept at Middleton station. _28 Miles._
The 14th crossed low, swampy places where the water was brown and
stagnant. Six miles from Middleton Post and 18 miles before reaching
the top of Cumberland Gap, saw a climbing fern covering an area of
over six acres of ground near the road.[51] At this season when the
Frost had produced ice from 3 to 4 lines thick, this plant was not at
all injured by it. In this territory are two places, one called Flat
lick and the other Stinking Creek.
Saw near the Carcass of a Stag the ... Raven (_Corvus corax_).
Davissas station 2 miles to the[52] ... Cumberland Gap[53] _26
Miles_.
The 15th of November traveled through parts of very high Mountains
in the midst of which we crossed Clinch river and slept at Houlston
Station[54] in the house of one ... _27 Miles_.
The 16th followed the bank of the Houlston river and slept at the
house of ... Amis Esquire, three Miles from Hawkin Court house.[55]
_26 Miles._
Sunday the 17th the Rain compelled me to remain in a a small Cabin
near the North fork of Houlston. _25 Miles_.
The 18th my horse was so tired owing to the rapidity of the journey
and the bad roads across the Wilderness that I was obliged to stop
after a Journey of only eleven Miles. _11 Miles._
The 19th started at daybreak. At the foot of the house where I
lodged, the Kentuckey road divides,[56] the right one leads to Burke
court house in North Carolina passing by the Mouth of Wataga river;
the other leads to Abington court house, the first town of Virginia.
As my horse was still tired, I made only _20 miles_.
The 20th I made _15 Miles_; arrived at Abington.[57]
The 21st I slept 22 Miles from Abington near Seven Miles Ford, the
middle Branch of the Houlston.
The 22nd of November 1793 crossed Seven Miles ford. The Holston river
consists of three principal Branches, namely: North fork, Seven Miles
fork and South fork of Holston river.
In the space of six miles after crossing that little river, observed
on the northern Hills bordering several small rivers the _Pinus abies
canadensis_, _Thuya occidentalis_, _Rhododendron maximum_ and also
_Magnolia acuminata_ in places where the soil is very rich: _Fagus
chinquapin_; clayey soil, ferruginous Quartz rocks, Slates rare and
lime Stones sometimes interveined with white Quartz; grey Squirrel
(forgot to mention that, in passing Abington, saw a Tortoise 8 inches
in diameter petrified in a black calcareous substance like the Rocks
abounding in the territory). Our day’s journey was _23 miles_.
The 23rd of November slept in the house of a German. During the night
my horses strayed away. Between Abington and With Court house[58]
among the Mountains _Abies canadensis_ and _Thuya occidentalis_.
Sunday the 24th, passed by With Court house and at about 18 Miles in
the steep Mountains observed _Pinus Strobus_, _Pinus foliis ternis_
(pitch pine), _Pinus foliis geminis_ ..., _Pinus abies canadensis_,
_Rhododendron maximum_, _Kalmia latifolia_, _Gaultheria procumbens_,
_Epigea repens_: In more arid places, _Fagus chinquapin_, _Fagus
castanea americana_, _Fagus sylvatica americana_, _Andromeda
arborea_, _Hypericum Kalmianum_. Among the damp rocks or those
watered by the streams; Rocks of silex and also of agate slightly
transparent.
From Seven Miles ford to With Court house 36 Miles.
The 25th crossed the ferry called Peper’s ferry[59] on the New
River and afterward crossed from the West to the East side of the
Alleganies; slept on a branch of James river called Catawba which
flows eastward while the New River flows West of the Mountains.
The 26th continued on my way to Botetort Court house _30 miles_.
The 27th passed by Botetort Court house[60] and by the south Branch
of the James River 12 miles from Botetort.
The 28th passed by Lexington[61] 40 miles distant from Botetort and
by the north branch of James river to one Mile from Lexington. _Thuya
occidentalis_, _Pinus Strobus_.
The 29th of November, remained in Mac Dowall’s house;[62] my horse’s
leg was so swelled that he could not walk.
The 30th journeyed _27 miles_.
Sunday the first of December 1793 passed by Stanton, a small and
rather flourishing town situate 120 Miles from Richemont and 75 Miles
from Botetort.[63]
The 2nd passed by Rockyham or Rockytown[64] 20 miles distant from
Stanton.
The 3rd passed by Woodstock,[65] another small town 37 Miles from
Rockytown. Between Stanton and Woodstock the country is mountainous,
the soil rather fertile, of a clayey nature, with calcareous rocks
called Blue limestone; _Quercus rubra_, _alba_; _Fagus chinquapin_
and _Pinus foliis geminis_, _conis squamis rigidis et aculeatis_.
Three miles before reaching that town, on the North of a Hill on
the road, _Thuya occidentalis_, _Pinus foliis geminis_, _Juniperus
virginiana_.
The 4th started from Woodstock, passed by Newtown.[66]
The 5th passed by Winchester,[67] 35 Miles from Woodstock, formerly
called Miller’stown.
The 6th passed by Charlestown[68] 22 Miles from Winchester. Passed by
Harspur ferry[69] across the Potomack river 8 miles from Charleston
and entered Maryland.
The 7th passed by Fredericktown[70] 20 Miles from Harspur ferry
(Potomack river) and 50 miles from Winchester.
Sunday the 8th passed by Woodberry and Littletown[71] 35 Miles from
Fredericktown.
The 9th passed by Hanover, formerly MacAllistertown[72] 42 miles from
Fredericktown and by Yorktown 18 Miles _from MacAllistertown now
Hanovertown_.
The 10th passed by the Susquehanna river and entered Pennsylvania
eleven miles from Yorktown.[73] Passed Lancaster 12 miles from Harris
ferry on the Susquehanna river and 24 miles from York.[74]
The 11th of December 1793 traveled 30 Miles.
Thursday the 12th, arrived in Philadelphia 66 miles from Lancaster.
The 13th visited Citizen Genet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the
French Republic.
The 14th Visited Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Rittenhouse[75] and ...
Sunday the 15th; Recapitulation of the journey, namely:
From Danville to Lincoln 12 miles
From Lincoln to Crab Orchard 10
From Crab Orchard to Langford Station 10
From Langford to Modrell Station 28
Modrell to Middleton Station 28
Middleton to Cumberland Gap 24
Cumberland to Davisses Station 2
Davisses to Houlston 27
Houlston to Hawkin Court house 22
Hawkin to ... Amis 3
Amis to North Fork of Houlston 25
North fork to Carolina fork 31
From the fork to Abington formerly Washington
Court House in Virginia 15
From Abington to Seven Mile ford } 60[76]
From seven Mile ford to With Courthouse }
From With Court house to Peper ferry 33
From Peper ferry to Botetout Court house 50
From Boteton to James River South fork 12
From James river South fork to Lexington 28
From Lexington to Stanton 35
From Stanton to Rockytown 20
From Rockyham to Woodstock 37
From Woodstock to Winchester 35
From Winchester to Charleston 22
From Charleston to Harpur ferry or Potomack 8
From Potomack to Fredericktown 20
From Fredericktown to Littletown 35
From Littletown to Hanover formerly MacAlister 7
From Hanover to Yorktown 18
From York to Susquehanna, Harris ferry 11
From Susquehanna to Lancaster 12
From Lancaster to Philadelphia 66
---
Total 746 Miles
From Danville to Lexington 33 Miles
From Danville to Louisville[77] 84 “
The 30th Germinal in the 3rd year of the French Republic One and
Indivisible (Sunday 19th of April 1795 old style) started to go and
herborise in the high Mountains of the Carolinas and afterward to
visit the Western territories. Plants seen before arriving at Monk’s
corner: _Heuchera_ ..., _Vicia_ 2 species, _Smilax herbacea erecta_,
_Melampodium?_ ... _Polygonum necessaria_, _Silene Virginica_, _Phlox
lanceolata_ then in flower, _Valeriana_. Slept at 45 Mile House.
The 10th Floreal (20th of April,) around forty five Mile house,
_Valeriana_; 3 Miles before reaching Neilson’s ferry _Gnaphalium
dioicuin_, _Uvularia_? On the said 20th of April a new tree of the
Santee river, elm-leaved, _fructus muricati capsula muricata_, _semen
unicum subovatum_.[78]
These seeds were then almost ripe; _Celtis occidentalis_ flowers
...[79] and lower male flowers.
Slept 77 Miles from Charleston.
The 21st of April noticed on the Santee High-hills: Phlox with white
flowers and Phlox with pink flowers, two different species, very
small Phlox with lance shaped leaves; Saw in the neighborhood of
Monk’s corner _Lupinus hirsutus_ in flower. Dined with Dʳ ...; slept
at Statesboroug.
The 22nd passed by Cambden; five miles beyond, a new _Kalmia_; it was
not yet in flower. Slept 10 Miles beyond Cambden.
The 23rd of April passed by Flat rock, by Hanging rock Creek and
slept at Cane Creek, Lancaster county, in the house of a Mr May; my
horse strayed away during the night and following his traces it was
found that he had passed by Mr Lee’s.
The 24th I was obliged to look for him all day. Mr Lee also sent his
son and his negro to search for him. He procured me a Horse to go on
my quest and afterward invited me to lodge with him; he overwhelmed
me with civilities.[80]
The 25th, the horse came to Mr Lee’s house of his accord. Plants
on the creek: _Dodecatheon Meadia_, _Asarum Canadense_, _Claytonia
Virginica_, _Erythronium dens-leonis_.
Sunday 26th of April, started from Cane Creek, passed by Land’sford
on the Catawba river. But the real road is from Cane Creek, ask for
Colonel Crawford’s house or Plantation on the Waxsaw, then pass
MacClean Hands ferry on the Catawba; Thence straight to the Iron
works called Hill’s Iron Works operated by Colonel Hill.[81]
Thus from Cane Creek to Waxsaw ... Miles; From Waxsaw to Iron Works,
York county ...
The 27th passed Iron Works about 32 miles from Cane Creek.
The 28th passed by Armstrong[82] ford on the south branch of the
Catawba, 12 miles from Iron Works.
The same day passed by the dwelling of Bennet Smith where there is a
... Magnolia, 12 Miles from Armstrong ford.
The 29th passed by Lincoln,[83] 12 Miles from Bennet Smith’s and 36
miles from Iron Works.
Thursday 30th of April passed by the dwelling of Old man Wilson[84]
9 miles from Lincoln and 6 Miles from Robertson’s. Reached
Morganton[85] 30 Miles from Robertson.
The 1st of May spent the day at Morganton and herborised in the
neighborhood.
The 2nd spent the day at Colonel Avery’s,[86] 4 miles from Morganton.
Sunday 3rd of May started for the Mountains; at a distance of 14
Miles from Burke is Wagely’s house.
The Lineville Mountains at whose foot this house is situated, abound
in _Magnolia auriculata_. They were then in flower. From Wagely’s to
Captain Young’s is 8 Miles.
The 4th of May left Young’s. The distance to Ainswort’s is 2 Miles
but by going to the right one reaches the foot of a very high
Mountain 3 Miles from Young’s. The summit is 5 Miles from Young’s.
From the summit of the Mountain at Young’s to Bright’s, called
Bright’s Settlement, the distance is 3 Miles and from Bright’s to
Davin Port’s 2 Miles, making 10 Miles in all from Young’s to Davin
Port’s.[87]
The 5th of May herborised in the vicinity of the dwellings of Davin
Port and Wiseman.
The 6th started for the Mountains, namely: Round [Roan] Mountain and
Yellow Mountain; Toe River flows between these Mountains. All the
_Convallaria_ were in flower as well as the _Podophyllum diphyllum_
and _umbellatum_.
Sunday 10th of May 1795 returned from the Mountains to the dwelling
of Davin Port.
The 11th herborised on the Mountains facing the dwelling. The
distance to the summit of the Bleue Ridges at the part called
Rompback is about 3 Miles; on the first Mountains are to be seen in
very great abundance the _Azalea foliis apice glandulosis_, _Azalea
lutea_. There is no other Azalea on the Hills surrounding the
dwellings of Davin Port and Wiseman but this yellow-flowered species.
That on the River banks is generally that with carnation flowers and
that with white flowers.[88]
The 12th ascended the summit of the Blueridges, _Rhododendron minus_
in flower, _Cypripedium Luteum_.
The 13th of May started to continue my journey. At Noon arrived at
the foot of Yellow Mountain 10 Miles. In the evening came to sleep at
the house of John Miller 12 Miles from the Mountain. Thus there are
22 Miles from Davin Port’s to Miller’s; at a distance of half a mile
one commences to cross Doe River.
The 14th followed and crossed Doe river 27 times. It is dangerous
when the waters are high. Slept at the house of Colonel Tipton,[89]
20 Miles from Miller’s.
The 15th passed by Johnsboroug[90] 10 Miles from Colonel Tipton’s
dwelling and 84 Miles from Burke Court house. Slept at the house
of Anthony Moore near Noleychukey river. During the night my horse
strayed away.
The 16th, Sunday 17th, & 18th were spent in searching for my horse.
The 19th bought another horse for the price of fifty Dollars from an
inhabitant of Noley Chukey river named ... Earnest, a neighbor of one
Andrew Fox. The _Magnolia tripetala_ abounds on the banks of Noley
Chukey.
Wednesday 20th of May, passed by Green Court house 27 Miles from
John’s Borough and the road to Kentuckey, taking the right hand and
passing by ... ferry on the Holston river. Continuing straight on the
road leads to Knoxville. By going to the left a little before Green
the road leads to Frenchbroad.[91] The distance from John Borough to
Green Court house is 27 Miles.
The 21st passed by Bull’s Gap 18 Miles from Green.[92]
The 22nd passed by Iron Works[93] 30 Miles from Bull’s gap. The
distance to the river called Houlston river is only four miles. Two
miles from Iron Works is a Rock of mineral, pieces whereof on being
crushed and reduced to powder dye cotton red; this mineral is boiled
etc.
The 23rd as my horse was injured I was obliged to remain a Mile from
Iron Works on Mossy Creek at the house of one Newman. Near his house
(½ mile) is to be found the mineral that I take to be Antimony.
Sunday 24th, arrived at Colonel King’s on the Houlston river at the
place called Macby ferry[94] 15 Miles from Iron Works.
The 25th crossed the ferry and arrived at Knoxville 15 miles
from Macby ferry, the residence of the Governor of the Western
territories, 110 Miles from Johnsborough.[95] Plants and Trees
of the Territory of Knoxville and of the neighboring country:
_Quercus prinus saxosa_; _Quercus prinus humilis_; _Quercus rubra_;
_Quercus proemorsa_; _Quercus tomentosa_; _Quercus pinnatifida_;
_Quercus alba_ ...; _Ulmus viscosa_; _Ulmus fungosa_; _Fraxinus_
...; _Diospiros Virginiana_; _Liquidambar styraciflua_; _Juglans
nigra_, _alba_ or _oblonga_, hiccory pignut. _Platanus occidentalis_;
_Nyssa aquatica_; _Fagus castanea americana_; _Fagus pumila_;
_Fagus sylvatica americana_; _Magnolia acuminata_; _Betula alnus
americanus_; _Cercis Canadensis_; _Cornus florida_; _Evonimus
latifolius_, _Evonimus Americanus_; _Podophyllum peltatum_;
_Jeffersonia_; _Sanguinaria Canadensis_; _Trillium sessile_.
Remained the whole week at Knoxville and herborised in the vicinity
while awaiting a sufficiently numerous caravan to pass through the
Wilderness.
Sunday 31st of May received notice that twenty five armed travelers
were on the point of arriving at Knoxville.
Monday 1st of June 1795, old style, the journey was again put off.
Thursday 4th of June started from Knoxville and slept 15 miles away
at captain Camel’s at the place called Camel [Campbell] station.
Friday the 5th, slept at the place called West Point on Clinch river,
a Post of soldiers guarding the frontiers of the territory,[96] 25
Miles from Camel station.
The 6th started and crossed the river in a Scow or ferry connected
with West point station. Our journey covered 10 miles. The Travelers
consisted of 15 armed men and more than thirty women and children.
Sunday 7th of June crossed the Mountains called Cumberland Mountains,
22 Miles.
The 8th continued our march in the Mountains 23 Miles. _Magnolia
petalis basi purpureis._[97]
Tuesday 9th of June 1795, alternately ascended and descended the
Mountains. In the bottom lands _Magnolia tripetala_ in abundance, 25
Miles.
The 10th arrived at the Cumberland River, 10 Miles, and slept beyond
the 20th Mile.
The 11th arrived at Blodsoe Lick or Blodsoe station,[98] 20 Miles.
120 Miles in all of the Wilderness.
Slept at this place where there is food for men and Horses.
Friday the 12th, came one mile to Colonel Winchester’s;[99] slept
there two nights to rest myself and my Horse.
Sunday the 14th herborised.
The 15th came to the house of a resident near Cumberland River, Mr.
Jackson;[100] soil fertile. Oaks, _Quercus prinus_: _Quercus rubra_,
_Quercus glandibus magnis_, _capsulâ includentibus_, called Overcup
White Oak.[101] _Quercus tomentosa_,[102] _Quercus praemorsa_. 25
Miles.
The 16th arrived at Nashville 12 Miles.
Total 197 Miles from Knoxville to Nashville, the capital of the
Cumberland Settlements on the Cumberland river.[103]
The 17th visited various persons, Daniel Smith,[104] Colonel
Robertson,[105] Captain Gordon, [G. M.] Deaderick, Dr White, Thomas
Craighead[106] etc. etc.
Herborised on the following days.
Trees of Nashville Territory:
_Quercus prinus_; _Quercus phellos latifolia_; _Quercus pinnatifida_;
_Quercus foliis lyratis subtus tomentosis calycibus maximis margine
laciniatis glandibus includentibus Vulgo_; Over cup White Oak;[107]
_Quercus rubra_; _Quercus tomentosa_; _Acer saccharum_, _Acer
negundo_, _Acer rubrum_; _Juglans nigra_, _oblonga_, _hiccory_:
_Platanus occidentalis_; _Liquidamber styraciflua_; _Ulmus viscosa
fungosa_;[108] _Carpinus Ostrya americana_; _Rhamnus Alaternus
latifolius_, _Rhamnus frangula?_[109] _frutex prunifer_; _Juniperus
Virginiana_. Banks of Cumberland river _Philadelphus inodorus_;
_Aristolochia siphotomentosa_;[110] _Mimosa erecta-herbacea_;
_Mirabilis_[111] _clandestina seu umbellata seu parviflora_; _Hypericum
Kalmianum grandiflorum_.[112]
Soil of Nashville clayey, rocky, limestone Rocks somewhat similar
to the Kentuckey formation, position of the Rocks horizontal,
occasionally Quartz Veins in the Rocks, abounding in marine
petrifactions.
Sunday 21st of June 1795, killed and skinned some birds.
Birds: Robin, Cardinal, _Tetrao_ (grouse), _Lanius Tyrannus_ rare,
Quantities of the Genus _Muscicopa_; few species of the Genus
_Picus_: Wild Turkeys. Quadrupeds: Musk-rat, Beaver, Elk, dwarf Deer,
Bears, Buffalos, Wolves, small grey Squirrels.
Minerals: soil clayey. Limestone Rocks always in a horizontal
position; impure Slate, flocks of schistus; Petrifactions of land and
fresh-water shells.
Monday 22nd of June 1795 (Old style) 4th of Messidor in the 3rd
year of the Republic, started from Nashville for Kentuckey; passed
by Mansko’s Lick,[113] 12 miles from Nashville; slept at Major
Sharp’s[114] 29 Miles from Nashville.
The 23rd crossed the Barren oaks and slept at [Drake’s] Creek. There
is no house in the interval. The Soil produces only black oaks. 30
Miles.
The 24th passed by Big Barren River. The man who keeps the Ferry is
well supplied with provisions.[115] The distance is 3 Miles from
[Drake] Creek.
Crossed the Barrens and slept on the ground without a fire and
without allowing my horse to graze at large through fear of the
Savages.
The 25th passed by Little Barren River, the first house 43 Miles from
Big Barren River. Afterward passed by Green River 6 Miles from Little
Barren River.
The 26th passed by Roland [Rolling] fork, head of Salt River, 30
Miles from Green River.
The 27th arrived at Danville 35 Miles from Roland old fork.
From Nashville to Danville, the oldest town in Kentuckey 117 Miles.
Sunday 28th of June rested.
The 29th skinned three striped Squirrels (_Sciurus striatus_)
The 30th herborised.
Wednesday 1st of July 1795 visited several residents.
The 2nd continued rain.
The 3rd put my old Collections in order.
The 4th
Sunday 5th of July[116]
Sunday 12th of July dined with the Governor of the State of
Kentuckey, Isaac Shelby.
Thursday 16th of July 1795 left Danville.
The 17th passed by Beardston forty three Miles from Danville.
The 18th arrived at Stanford’s near Man’s Lick.[117]
Sunday 19th remained to await my Baggage.
The 20th remained, and being obliged to stay, watched the Process of
manufacturing Salt. The Wells for getting the salt water are dug to
a depth of about ... feet. Muddy clay is met with to a depth of ...
feet. Then ... feet of slatey rock. When the rock is pierced the salt
water is found at a depth of more than ... feet. This slate burns
in the fire as if impregnated with bitumen or entirely made up of
that substance. Bones of those great marine bodies that are rather
frequently met with on the banks of the Ohio have been found in the
impure clay that was dug up to reach the slatey rock.
The 21st of July, arrived at Louisville, 40 Miles from Beardstown.
The 22nd and 23rd remained and herborised.
The 24th returned to Manslick, 16 Miles from Louisville.
The 25th returned to Louisville.
Sunday 26th of July herborised.
Plants in the neighborhood of Louisville: _Quercus cerroides_,[118]
_Quercus rubra_; _Quercus alba_; _Quercus prinus_; _Liriodendron_;
_Fagus castanea_, _Fagus sylvatica_; _Rhus foliis alatis dioique_;
_Hibiscus_[119] _foliis hastatis calyce exteriore lacinis subulatis
flore pallide roseo_.[120]
Saturday first of August made ready to leave for the Wabash and the
Illinois.
Sunday the 2nd I was invited to dine with a Frenchman named La
Cassagne,[121] a resident of Louisville for more than 15 Years.
Trees, shrubs and Plants of Louisville territory:
_Liriodendron tulipifera_; _Platanus occidentalis_; _Acer rubrum
foliis inferne argenteis_; _Fagus sylvatica americana_; _Quercus
rubra_; _Quercus alba_, _Quercus praemorsa_,[122] _Quercus prinus_,
_Quercus cerroides_;[122] _Tilia americana_; _Juglans nigra_,
_Juglans alba_, _Juglans hiccory_, (_Juglans pacane_ rare);
_Gleditsia triacanthos_, _Guilandina dioica_.
Sunday 9th of August 1795, started from Louisville and slept at
Clarksville,[123] two miles from Louisville on the opposite Bank of
the Ohio.
The 10th we set out and arrived at Post Vincennes situate on the
Wabash River on Thursday the 13th of August in the evening.[124]
The distance is considered to be one hundred and twenty five Miles.
On the day of our arrival we crossed a River about 20 miles before
reaching Post Vincennes and although the Waters were then very low we
were on the point of making a Raft for the Country is not inhabited
along this Road. Of all the Journeys I have made in America in the
past 10 years this is one of the most difficult owing to the quantity
of Trees overturned by storms, to the thick brushwood through which
one is obliged to pass; to the numbers of Flies by which one is
devoured, etc.
The 14th, 15th and Sunday the 16th of August I was obliged to rest
having arrived almost ill. My horse, while trying to jump over the
trunk of a large fallen tree, fell and threw me a great distance and
I suffered for several days from an injury to the lower part of the
Chest on the left side because the trigger of my gun had struck there.
The 17th spent a portion of the day herborising on the banks of the
Wabash River.
I continued herborising on the following days.
The 18th of August 1795
List of Plants observed on the Wabash:
No. 1--_Verbena_[125] _urticifolia caule erecto_, _paniculis
divaricatis_, _bracteis flore brevioribus_, _floribus albis_.
No. 2--_Verbena_[126] ..., _caule erecto_, _paniculis fastigiatis
erectis_, _bracteis et calycibus pilosis_, _floribus purpureo-ceruleis_.
No. 3--_Verbena_[127] _caule erecto_, _paniculis rectis foliis ovatis_,
_tomentosis_, _duplicato-serratis_.
No. 4--_Verbena_ ...
No. 5--_Verbena[128] caule repente_, _foliis pinnatifidis_, _bracteis
longissimis_.
_Silphium perfoliatum_, _Silphium connatum_, _Silphium laciniatum_,
_Silphium grandifolium_, _Silphium trisoliatum_, _Silphium
pinnatifidum_. _Andropogon muticum_; _Holcus?_ ...; _Poa_ ...;
_Quercus cerroides Chêne frisé_, Overcup White Oak; _Quercus
latifolia Chêne à latte_ Ram’s Oak; _Quercus ... Polygonum aviculare
staminibus 5, Stylis 3_; _Polygonum aviculare majus staminibus 5,
Stylis 3_. _Trifolium? pentandrum majus_; _Trifolium? pentandrum
floribus purpureis_; _Sanicula_[129] _marylandica_ or [called] Racine
à Becquel by the Illinois French and Sakintépouah by the Pians[130]
Savages: A decoction of the root is a sovereign remedy for several
diseases and for long-continued venereal diseases.
Sunday 23rd of August 1795 started from Post Vincennes situated on
the Wabash River for the Illinois on the Mississipi. We journeyed six
Miles and camped on the bank of a Little River [Embarras]. I had no
other company than a Savage and his wife. I had hired the Savage for
ten Dollars and promised him two Dollars more to induce him to carry
all my baggage on his horse.
The 24th we made about 25 Miles; the Savage was ill and was obliged
to stop more than three hours before sunset.
The 25th crossed several Prairies. Observed a new species of
_Gerardia_.[131] Stalk commonly simple, oval leaves opposite one
another, sessile, axillary flowers purpurine flowers.
The 26th the Provision of meat was consumed. The Savage stopped very
early, finding a favorable spot for hunting. Moreover heavy Rain
fell about three o’clock in the afternoon. An hour after camping the
Savage came back laden with a Bear cub and with the two hams of
another and much older one. We boiled the kettle twice and had enough
to satisfy us. We roasted what remained.
The 27th the Savage killed two Stags. We halted very early to dry
the Skins and to eat, for the Savage and his wife ate five meals a
day. Moreover, they regaled themselves with the marrow of the bones
which they ate raw; for, being unable to carry away the meat, they
contented themselves with a piece of the animal’s loins.
The 28th of August 1795. Just as I was eager to see Game the 1st and
2nd day, so was I afraid to see it then owing to the waste of time.
I was all the more anxious to proceed that it rained every day. I
had already been obliged once to dry at a fire my baggage that had
been wet through especially four books of Botany and Mineralogy I had
with me, as I had been unwilling to expose them to the hazards of the
River and had sent by way of the Mississipi two Trunks containing
grey Paper, Powder, Lead, Alum, Boxes for collecting Insects, and
all the articles required for making Collections of Plants, Animals,
Insects and Minerals.
Sunday 30th of August arrived at the village of Kaskaskia[132]
situated two mile from the Mississipi river and half a mile from
the Kaskaskia River. It is inhabited by former Frenchmen under the
American Government. The number of families is about forty five. It
is agreeably situated but the number of inhabitants had decreased;
nothing is to be seen but houses in ruins and abandoned because the
French of the Illinois country, having always been brought up in and
accustomed to the Fur trade with the savages, have become the laziest
and most ignorant of all men. They live and the majority of them are
clothed in the manner of the Savages. They wear no breeches but pass
between their thighs a piece of cloth of about one third of an ell
[in length] which is kept in place before and behind above the hips
by a belt.
The 31st of August herborised.
Tuesday the first of September continued my herborising; also on the
2nd, 3rd and 4th of the same.
The 5th started for the village called Prairie du Rocher about 15
miles distant from Kaskaskia.[133] Passed by the village of St
Philippe abandoned by the French and inhabited by three families of
Americans.[134] This village is 9 Miles from Prairie du Rocher.
The 6th arrived at Kaskia [Cahokia][135] near the Mississipi ...
Miles from Prairie du Rocher.
The 7th herborised and visited the neighborhood of Kaskia.
The 8th started to return to Kaskaskia and arrived there on the 9th.
The 10th continued herborising in the vicinity of Kaskaskia Village
until the 13th of the same month.
Sunday the 13th of September crossed over with a savage guide to the
south bank of the Kaskaskia River and continued to herborise there
until the 18th of the same month.
The 18th and 19th Rained continually. Put my Collections in order and
gave my horse a rest.
Sunday the 20th ...
Kaskaskia 45 families; Prairie du Rocher from 22 to 24 families. St.
Philippe 3 American families. Fort de Chartres in ruins.[136] Kaskias
120 families. Americans at Corne de Cerf and at Bellefontaine[137] 35
families. St Louis flourishing[138] ... Prairies and hills.
Friday 2nd of October started to go by land to the place where the
Ohio falls into the Mississipi. Owing to the difficulty experienced
in crossing the Kaskaskia river we traveled only 12 Miles.
The 3rd and Sunday the 4th Rained and we crossed several prairies.
Traveled about 27 Miles.
The 5th passed more Prairies intersected by strips of Forest. My
guide killed an Elk called Cerf by the Canadians and French of
Illinois. This animal is much larger (twice as large) than the dwarf
Deer of the United States of which there is an abundance also in
the Illinois country and which the French of these countries call
Chevreuil. Its antlers are twice the size of those of the European
Stags. Below each of its two eyes is a cavity which keeps closed but,
by separating the two sides like eyelids, one can insert a finger to
the depth of an inch. This cavity seems intended for the purpose of
secreting some kind of humor. In fact on opening the cavity I found
a substance of the form and consistency of a hare’s dropping but of
the size of an acorn. This animal has canine teeth in the upper and
lower jaw like those of horses, called fangs. The hunters say that
this animal is always very fat. In fact this one was exceedingly so.
Traveled about 32 Miles.
The 6th entered the forests and crossed several rivers. Traveled ...
miles.
The 7th of October 1795 my guide killed a Buffalo which he considered
to be about four years old. It seemed to weigh over nine hundred
pounds. As it was not very fat my guide told me it was very common
to see animals at that age weighing over twelve hundred pounds. It
seemed larger than any Oxen in France and to surpass them in length
and size.
Thursday the 8th saw another Buffalo thirty toises from our Road. We
stopped to look at it. It walked very slowly but after a couple of
minutes it stopped and, recognizing us, ran away with extraordinary
speed. On the same day arrived at Fort Cheroquis otherwise called
Fort Massac by the Americans.[139] 125 Miles.
The 9th of October 1795 herborised on the bank of the Mississipi:
_Platanus Liquidamber Bonducs_, pekan Nut-trees, hiccory Nut-trees,
called by the French Noyers durs; prickly Nuts (by the French
Noyer amer) round Nuts. White Oak, _Quercus alba_, _Quercus rubra
ramosissima_, _Quercus cerroides_ (by the French chêne frisé and
by the Americans overcup White Oak), _Quercus prinus_, _Quercus
integrifolia_[140] or _Quercus foliis junioribus omnibus et adultis
semper integerrimis margine undulatis apice setaceis_. This species
of oak abounds in the Illinois Country. It loses its leaves later
than the other species of Oak. The French inhabitants call it Chêne
à lattes. In Lower Carolina it is rather rare but keeps its leaves
until the month of February or March. It seems to resemble the green
Oak from which it differs in the shape of its acorns.
_Nyssa montana_ rather rare; _Gleditsia triacanthos_; _Robinia
pseudoacacia_ (by the French fevier). The _Gleditsia triacanthos_ is
called fevier épineux and the _Guilandina dioica_ Gros fevier and
the seeds _Gourganes_. Note. On the Illinois river is a species or
variety of _Guilandina dioica_ whose seeds are twice as big as those
on the Banks of the Mississipi, Cumberland etc. _Liana Rajanioides_;
_Anonymos_[141] _ligustroides_; _Vitis_[142] _monosperma_, this species
is found along the Rivers and not in the interior of the forest; I
saw it on the Kaskaskia River, on the Mississipi in the vicinity of
fort Massac, on the Tenasse river, but it completely covers the banks
of the Cumberland river from its mouth to a distance of 45 Miles.
Sunday 11th of October 1795 started with a Guide to ascend the
Cumberland (Shavanon) river[143] in a Canoe. The rain compelled us to
return.
Tuesday the 13th hired two men at a dollar a day each to ascend
the Rivers of the Territory of the Cheroquis Savages. Started from
fort Cheroquis or Fort Massac. The distance is six Miles to reach
the mouth of the Tenassee River called by the French of Illinois
Cheroquis River.[144] This river is very great and very wide. After
ascending it about six miles we saw the tracks of a Bear on the bank.
We stopped and entered the wood when we came upon a she Bear with
cubs. The dog pursued the Mother, the cubs climbed a tree; I killed
one and the guides killed the two others. We passed the night at that
place.
The 14th very heavy Fog; we made only 5 Miles. Rain began to fall
about noon.
The 16th paddled or rowed about ten Miles owing to a heavy Wind that
began by a storm the previous evening and continued a part of the
day. We camped opposite an Island or Chain of Rocks running nearly
across the River. Nevertheless there is a channel on the south Bank
that is fairly deep and sufficient for the passage of large boats.
Banks of the Cheroquis river (Tenassee): _Platanus_; _Juglans pacana,
Hiccori_, pignut; _Liquidambar_; _Quercus rubra, prinus_; _Anonymos
carpinoides_; _Anonymos ligustroides_;[145] _Betula austrolis_
grey-bark Birch,[146] which is found throughout America from Virginia
to the Floridas; it differs from the _Betula papyrifera_; _Bignonia
catalpa_; _Ulmus_; _Fraxinus_; _Vitis rubra_ or _monosperma_;
_Gleditsia triacanthos_; _Diospiros_; _Smilax pseudochina_; _Bignonia
crucigera_, _radicans_; _Rajania ... Dioecia 8-dria_; _Populus
Caroliniana_, by the French Creoles Liard, and by the Americans
Cotton tree. (Note: The Canada Poplar is called by the Canadians
Tremble and by the English of Canada Quaking Aspen); _Acer rubrum,
saccharinum, negundo_; _Anonymos ligustroides_; _Anonymos
ulmoides_.[147]
(The 22nd of June 1795, according to the Gazette the Agents of the
French Republic were recognized by President Washington
Philip Joseph Letombe, Consul General
Théodore Charles Mozard, Consul at Boston
Jean Anthony Bern Rosier, Consul at New York
Léon Delaunay, Pennsylvania
Louis Etienne Duhait, Maryland)[148]
The 15th October 1795 herborised.
The 16th descended the river and camped at the mouth of the Shavanon
River called Cumberland river by the Americans eighteen Miles from
fort Massac; killed a Canada Goose called by the French Canadians
and Illinois French Outarde; killed two water-Hens an American
kingfisher, an American pelican.
The 17th ascended the River about ten Miles; there were numbers of
wild Turkeys on the banks; the Rowers and I killed five from the
Canoe in passing, without landing.
The 18th continued on our way toward the upper part of the River.
The 19th descended the river.
Tuesday 20th of October 1795 returned to Fort Cheroquis or Fort
Massac.
Trees and Plants in the neighborhood on the Banks of the Ohio.
_Platanus occidentalis_, by the Americans Sycamore and by the
Illinois French cotonnier; _Populus_, by the Americans Cotton
tree and by the Illinois French, Liard; _Celtis occidentalis_,
by the Americans Hackberry tree and by the French Bois inconnu;
_Liquidambar styraciflua_, by the French of Louisiana Copalm and by
the Americans....
A Frenchman who traded among the Cheroquis Savages cured himself
of the Itch by drinking for ten days a decoction of Chips of that
tree which he called Copalm and which is the true _Liquidambar_;
_Gleditsia triacanthos_, fevier (bean-plant) by the French and sweet
locust by the Americans.
_Guilandina dioica._[149]
Sunday 25th of October 1795 _Spiraea trifoliata_ is a purgative used
by the Savages and by the Illinois French. They call it Papiconah. In
the neighborhood of Fort Cheroquis is found also the Geranium called
herbe or rather Racine à Becquet which is given for chronic Diseases
during several weeks; _Veronica virginica_ called by the French herbe
à quatre feuilles (four-leaved grass) is often added.
Sunday first of November I was obliged to defer my departure, my
Horse not having been found.
Friday the 6th my Horse was brought back to the Fort and I at once
made ready to start for the Illinois. Started the same day and
journeyed about 18 Miles.
The 7th the Rain began early in the morning and continued all day.
Remained camped under a Rock where I had stopped the previous day
with my Guide.
Sunday the 8th traveled through woods and Hills.
The 9th, the same.
The 10th arrived toward evening at the Prairies.
The 11th crossed the Prairies.
The 12th toward evening Re-entered the Woods once more and slept 7
Miles from Kaskaskia river.
The 13th arrived before breakfast at Kaskaskia about 130 Miles from
Fort Massac.
The 13th of November I rested.
Sunday the 14th went out to hunt Canada Geese.
The 15th put my Collections of seeds in order.
The 16th same occupation.
The 17th I went Hunting.
Thursday 18th started for Prairie du Rocher.
The 19th Duck Hunting.
The 20th Goose Hunting.
Sunday 22nd paid visits.
The 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th visited the Mountains of
Rock bordering on the inhabited Country; Opossums, Raccoons, aquatic
Birds etc.
Sunday 29th of November went to the Village of St Philippe called the
Little Village.
The 30th visited Fort de Chartres.
Tuesday the 1st of December started for Kaskaskias and remained there.
The 2nd and 3rd of the same Made arrangements with Richard[150] to go
by water to Cumberland.
The 4th returned to Prairie du Rocher.
The 5th prepared to start. Stuffed a white-headed wild Goose.
The 6th started once more for Kaskaskias.
The 7th confirmed once more in my opinion that the Second Bark
of _Celtis occidentalis_ (called in the Illinois country Bois
connu and toward New Orleans Bois inconnu) is an excellent remedy
for curing jaundice; a handful of the roots or leaves of Smilax
sarsaparilla is added to it; it is used for about eight days as a
decoction.
The 8th of December 1795. The French Creoles call the species of
Smilax found in the Illinois country, Squine. Only the thorny species
grows there; it loses its leaves in the Autumn. The other species is
herbaceous and climbing.
The 9th of December. The root of _Fagara_ as a decoction is a
powerful remedy for curing disease of the Spleen. I have no doubt
that the root of _Zanthoxilum clava-Herculi_ can be used for
obstructions of the liver and Spleen.
The 10th: _Bignonia Catalpa_,[151] by the French Creoles Bois
Shavanon; _Cercis canadensis_, Bois noir (black wood); _Liriodendron
tulipifera_, Bois jaune (yellow wood); _Nyssa_, Olivier (olive).
In making Wheels for vehicles the workmen use the Wood of _Padus
Virginiana_ for the felloes, Elm for the Naves and white oak for the
Spokes.
The 11th of December. Confirmed once more in my opinion that the root
of _Veronica Virginiana_, vulgarly known as Herbe à quatre feuilles
(four-leaved grass), used as a decoction for a month, is effective
for the cure of venereal Diseases. Four or five of the roots are
boiled. As this beverage is purgative the strength of this Ptisan
must be increased or reduced by putting more or less according to the
effect it has on one. It is sufficient for the first days that the
bowels be relaxed and looser than usual; it is not unusual that the
bowels be moved 3 or 4 times the first day.
I was informed at Illinois that Mackey a Scotchman and Even a
Welshman, started at the end of July 1795 from St Louis to ascend
the Missouri in a 4 oared Barge. They are aided by a Company whereof
Charles Morgan, a creole from the Islands, is Manager.[152]
December the [12th] 1795.
Sunday the 13th made my preparations for the journey to Cumberland.
The 14th started for Cumberland; passed the Salt spring on Spanish
territory. Observed _Tagetoides_. Learned the news of the peace
between France and Spain. Slept six miles from the Salt spring.
Observed on the banks of the Mississipi river _Equisetum_ which the
French Creoles call Prêle. This Plant has here a circumference of
nearly one inch and the stalk is 4 feet high.
The 15th passed Cape St Côme[153] at the foot of which the Mississipi
makes an angle. Fish is caught here in abundance; the distance from
Kaskaskia is eighteen Miles. Camped at Girardeau[154] 17 leagues from
Kaskaskia.
The 16th continued for 6 hours with Hills and Rocks on the shores
of the river, then low land. We camped at the place where the
Belle Rivière [Ohio] falls into the Mississipi. On the opposite
bank was camped Governor Don Gayoso, Governor of Natchez and upper
Louisiana.[155] He sent a Boat to find out who we were and, learning
that I was a passenger, he came to see me. He told me the news of
the Peace between France and Spain. He offered me his services. The
distance from Cape Girardeau to the Mouth of the Belle Rivière is
eighteen leagues and in all 35 leagues from Illinois.
The 17th camped at a distance of about 7 leagues.
The 18th arrived near Fort Massac; seven leagues.
The 19th camped opposite the Mouth of the River Cheroquis or Tenasse.
Sunday the 20th passed by la Pacanière; this is an extensive Swamp on
the North West side bordered by Pekan Nut-trees situate opposite or
rather a little before entering the Cumberland River.
The same day Sunday 20th of December, entered the River Shavanon or
Cumberland River the mouth of which is six long leagues from Fort
Massac. Slept two leagues above the Mouth.
The 21st rowed about 8 leagues.
The 22nd rowed about 7 leagues, and slept at the great Eddy which
is considered to be at a distance of forty five miles from the
mouth.[156]
The 23rd we camped above the Isle aux Saules (Willow Island); rowed
about 12 Miles or 4 leagues.
The 24th remained in camp. Rained all day. The River which was very
easy to navigate until today, rose considerably and flooded the woods.
The 25th Rain continued to fall mixed with hail. Remained in Camp.
The 26th Remained in camp on account of the rising of the river whose
current was too strong.
Sunday 27th of December 1795. rowed about 4 Miles only owing to the
difficulty of rowing against the current of the river. Camped at the
mouth of Little River.
The 28th crossed to the opposite bank. The current was as rapid as on
the previous days and compelled us to camp. White frost.
The 29th it again Rained heavily. Remained in camp.
The 30th the River having overflowed and flooded all parts of the
woods, we shifted camp and returned to the Little river; we ascended
it until we came to a Hill high enough to relieve us from the fear of
being flooded. Rain.
The 31st the weather became clear, the wind shifted to the North but
the river continued to overflow its banks. Most of us went hunting
wild Turkeys.
Friday first of January 1796. Wind from the north; Frost; the River
rose one inch during the night.
In the vicinity of Little river, the Country has Hills scattered here
and there. Soil clayey, very rich Mould, Rock consisting of Silex
very slightly ferruginous. Blue Limestone.
Animals: Raccoons, dwarf Deer, Opossums, Buffaloes, Bears, grey
Squirrels, Beaver, Otter, Musk-rats (these three species very rare).
Birds: Ravens, Owls of the large species, Cardinals, blue Jays; green
Parroquets with yellow heads of the small species; Jays with red
heads and throats.
Trees and Plants: _Liriodendron_; _Liquidambar_; yellow chestnut Oak,
red Oak; _Annona_; horn-bean.
The 2nd of January, still remained in camp at the same spot. Weather
cloudy. The River fell two inches only.
Sunday the 3rd Heavy wind. _Nyassa montana_ is called by the French
Creoles Olivier Sauvage and by the Kentucky Americans Black Gum tree
and by the Pennsylvania Americans Tupelo. Having nothing to do I made
ink with gall nuts which I gathered on the Oaks in the vicinity of
the spot where we were camped. It was made in less than five minutes
and will serve me as a sample. In the neighborhood of Little river
_Liriodendron_; _Liquidambar_; _Carpinus ostrya_; _Ulmus fungosa_;
_Padus Virginiana minor_; _Laurus benzoin_ etc.
The 4th rowed about 4 or 5 Miles. Camped near rather high Hills
consisting of shifting soil and rolled boulders. _Carpinus ostrya_;
_Ulmus fungosa_; _Padus Virginiana minor_; _Philadelphus inodorus_;
_Nyssa montana_, by the Americans Black gum; _Acer rubrum_; _Viscum
parasite_; _Fagus Americana_ and _Orobanche Virginiana_ a parasite on
the roots of the _Fagus Americana_; _Betula spuria_[157] called by
the French Bouleau bâtard.
Tuesday 5th of January 1796 we rowed 7 Miles and camped opposite Diev
Island 12 Miles from Little River.
The 6th the snow that fell during the night had cooled the weather.
Steep limestone Rocks from the place where we were camped continuing
for about a Mile on the east bank. Rowed about 8 Miles.
The 7th The River fell 19 inches during the night; as the frost
had lowered the water this led us to hope that it would be easier to
row against the current of this river which is naturally hemmed in
between Hills. Rowed about 8 Miles.
The 8th the river fell 19 inches during the night. Passed by the
Island of the boundary line between Cumberland and Kentuckey.
Plants on the Banks: _Platanus occidentalis_; _Betula australis_ or
_spuria_; _Acer rubrum_; _Ulmus Americana_; _Fraxinus_; _Salix_ on
the low Islands; _Anonymos ligustroides_. Rowed about 10 Miles.
The 9th the river fell nearly five feet during the night. We rowed
about ten Miles.
Sunday 10th of January the River fell 4 feet during the night.
Continual Rain and Snow. Passed Yellow Creek 16 Miles before
reaching Clark’s ville. Passed Blowming grove (?) 13 Miles before
reaching Clark’s ville. Rocks and Hills. Passed Dixon Island (?) 10
Miles before reaching Clark’s ville and at present the most remote
Settlement of Cumberland territory. This Settlement consists of
fifteen families who established themselves there three months ago.
The chief place of this settlement is called Blount’s borough or
Blount’s ville.
The 11th Rained all the previous night and a portion of the day.
Passed by a chain of Hills and by a rock called Red painted rock on
the right side of the River that is to say on the north bank of the
river 2 Miles from Clark’s ville. Afterwards passed by the red river
whose mouth is likewise on the north side and a quarter of a mile
from Clark’s ville. Finally arrived at Clark’s ville.[158]
The 12th of January 1796, remained at Clark’s ville on account of the
river rising.
The 13th Doctor Brown of Carolina who had come to found this new town
Blount’s borough 10 Miles above Clark’s ville, was at the latter
place.[159]
* * * * *
The 15th bought a horse at the price of one hundred Dollars.
The 16th departed; my horse ran away and I caught him 6 Miles from
Clark’s ville at the Mill, 10 Miles.
Sunday the 17th dined 10 Miles from Nashville at Ebneston’s a quarter
of a Mile from the Mill at the house of an old Pennsylvanian, an
educated man well informed as regards foreign news.[160] Slept at
Crokes 18 Miles from Ebneston. The Widow Martin lives near there and
her house is better for travelers.
The 18th passed the Ridges, 15 Miles, without seeing any houses as
far as White Creek. Old Stumps[161] lives 5 miles from White Creek.
The 19th started from Stumps’ and arrived at Nashville 5 Miles.
Total from Clark’s ville to Nashville 54 Miles by land and 70 Miles
by water.
From St Louis to Kaskaskias 94
From Kaskaskias to the place where the Ohio
falls into the Mississipi 95 Miles
From there to fort Massac 45 Miles
From there to the mouth of the Cumberland
river 18 Miles
From there to Clark’s ville on the red river 120 Miles
From there to Nashville 60 Miles
---------
Total 432 Miles 432
---------
(Prices at Nashville): Dinner 2 shillings, Breakfast or supper 1
shilling 4 pence; ½ Quart of Whiskey 1 shilling. Hay and maize for
Horse 2 shillings. The whole is six Shillings for one Dollar.
The 20th, 21st, and 22nd remained at Nashville.
The 23rd started from Nashville and journeyed 29¾ Miles; lodged with
Major Sharp.
Sunday the 24th of January 1796 arrived at a Creek at a distance of
29 Miles near which one Chapman keeps lodgings at 3½ Miles; MacFaddin
on Big Brown [Barren] keeps a ferry and lodgings. Total 32½ Miles.
The 25th Rain and Snow.
The 26th Started for Green river. The ground was covered with snow,
the Roads rough and my horse fell lame. I was obliged to walk. I made
12 miles. I was unable to light a fire because the trees and wood
were all frosted. I spent the night nearly frozen. About 2 o’clock
the Moon rose and I resolved to return to MacFaddin’s where I arrived
at 10 o’clock in the morning.
The 27th being overcome by cold and weariness, having traveled afoot,
having eaten nothing since the morning of the previous day and
not having slept during the night, the toes of my right foot became
inflamed. I bathed my feet in cold water several times during the
following night and no sores resulted therefrom but for several days
the toes were numb and as if deprived of sensation.
The 28th I was compelled to go a distance of seven Miles to get my
horse shod and I went to sleep at Mr. Maddison’s whose plantation was
close by.
The 29th of January 1796 I started very early in the morning as I
had 38 Miles to travel without coming to an inn or other habitation.
I had been received with all the civility that can be expected from
a man who has had a higher education than the other inhabitants of
the country. This Mr Maddisson was a Virginian and a relative of
the celebrated Madisson, Member of Congress. This gentleman was a
true Republican in his principles and I spent a very interesting
and very pleasant evening at his house.[162] His wife surpassed him
in offering me every service that hospitality could suggest, which
is seldom met with in America except in the case of persons better
educated than the common people. That Lady suggested that I should
wear heavy woollen socks over my shoes. She herself cut me out a pair
and I was so surprised at the comfort I derived from them on the
following days that I resolved never to travel in the season of snow
and frost without taking the precaution to have a pair in my Porte
Monteau. In the evening I came to a place three Miles from Green
river and slept at the house of one Walter; I slept on the floor and
my horse in the open air; but I was accustomed to this.
The 30th I crossed the Green river ferry in the morning. The cold
was excessive and such as had not been felt for Many years. At 9
Miles I passed by Bacon Creek and the Cabin of a man but recently
settled there and who was unprovided with everything, even Maize,
needed for the sustenance of his household. At 22 Miles from Green
River is the House of one Ragon and I hurried on to reach some better
habitations before night. 26 Miles from Green River I perceived a
House 200 toises[163] from the Road situate on the bank of a Creek.
The inhabitant was a German who had been settled there only a year;
he had a good stable, was well supplied with fodder of wheat, straw,
and Maize leaves for my horse, and I ate Wheat bread for the first
time since I had left Illinois. My supper consisted of bread and milk
and I found myself very well treated. The name of my host was George
Cloes; a German by Birth; his house is situated on the South fork of
Nolin river.
Sunday the 31st passed by Huggins mill[164] on Nolin river (good
lodgings); at a quarter of a Mile the road on the right hand leads
to Beardston. At 2½ Miles the new cut road is straight. At 9 Miles
passed by Rolling fork and 4 Miles further slept at Mr. Scoth’s on
Beech fork.
Monday 1st of February 1796 passed by Dr Smith’s house 8 Miles from
Beech fork and by Mackinsy 9 Miles from Beech fork. From Mac Kinsy
to Long Lake 6 Miles. From Longlake to Sheperdston on Salt river 4
miles.[165] From Shepperdston to Standeford 9 Miles (good inn). From
Standeford to Prince Old station 8 Miles. From Prince to Louisville 6
Miles.
The 2nd started from Prince’s and arrived at Louisville. 3½ Miles
before arriving measured a _Liriodendron tulipifera_ on the left hand
road whose size was twenty two feet in circumference, making more
than seven feet in diameter. (Correspondent of Monsieur La Cassagne
and St. James Bauvais at New Orleans Monsieur Serpe Trader at New
Orleans.[166] Correspondent of Monsieur La Cassagne at Philadelphia
Geguir and Holmes, Merchants, Philadelphia. Prices: Dinner 1
shilling 6 pence; Supper and Breakfast 1 shilling 6 pence; Lodging 9
shillings; ½ quart of Brandy 2 shillings 3 pence; Horse per day on
hay and maize 3 shillings 9 pence.)
The 3rd, 4th and 5th remained at Louisville, being occupied in
gathering together the Collections I had left with one La Cassagne.
The 6th I saw General Clarke and he informed me of the visit of
Colonel Fulton who had come from France a few months previously.[167]
Sunday the 7th breakfasted with General Clarke’s Father whose house
is 4 miles from Louisville. I wanted to obtain more ample information
regarding Lieutenant-Colonel Foulton. I was told that he was to
proceed to Philadelphia immediately after having gone to Georgia.
That he was to embark for France and hoped to return to America at
the end of this summer 1796. The same day, I started to return to
Nashville. Slept at Standeford. 14 Miles from Louisville. (Supper 1
shilling, Bed 6 pence. Hay for the horse for the night 1 shilling.
Maize 8 quarts 1 shilling 4 pence.)
Monday 8th of February 1796. (Breakfast 1 shilling) Passed by
Sheperdston 9 Miles from Standeford. Maize for horse 3 quarts, 9
Pence, Virginia money, as in all parts of Kentuckey and Cumberland.
Passed by Long lake, where Salt is made as well as at Sheperdston and
slept at Mackinsy’s 7 Miles from Longlake.
In swampy places in the vicinity of Longlake: _Quercus alba_;
_Quercus cerroides_; _Fraxinus_ ...; _Nyssa_; _Laurus benjoin_;
_Sassafras_; _Mitchella repens_; _Fagus sylvatica americana_.
On the hills: _Pinus_[168] _foliis geminis conis oblongis minoribus
squamis aculeis retrocurvis_. Saw planks of this tree at the house of
an inhabitant; the wood seemed to me almost as heavy as that of the
three leaved Pine of Carolina. Tar is also made of it in this part of
Kentucky.
The 9th I started very early in the morning from Mackinsy’s. I had
been very well received there that is to say he gave me a supper of
boiled Pork; the same for breakfast. My horse fared very well on
Maize fodder and in a Stable that was not muddy like all those in
America when one lodges with Americans or with Irish.
I paid 3 shillings, being 1 shilling 6 pence for my horse and as much
for myself. I had paid 5 shillings for my lodging the previous night
and had not been so well satisfied. As the daughter of this house was
the smartest of any I had ever seen in America I gave her a quarter
of a Dollar and the old man offered me a stuffed Tongue but I thanked
him, not being fond of salt meat.
It began to rain an hour after I started but I was fortunate enough
to pass Beechford and Rollingford. 13 Miles from Mackinsy’s.
I was obliged to stop at the house of an inhabitant a Mile and a half
from the crossing and the Rain compelled me to pass the night there.
In the neighborhood there is _Liriodendron_ with yellow wood and in
some parts _Liriodendron_ with white wood. The inhabitants prefer the
yellow variety.
Wednesday 10th of February 1796, I had supped the previous evening on
Tea made from the shrub called Spice-wood. A handful of young twigs
or branches is set to boil and after it has boiled at least a quarter
of an hour sugar is added and it is drunk like real Tea. There was
no Milk at the time and I was told that Milk makes it much more
agreeable to the taste. This beverage restores strength and it had
that effect for I was very tired when I arrived. This shrub is the
_Laurus Benjoin Linn_. The Illinois French call it Poivrier and the
hunters season their meat with some pieces of its wood.
In the vicinity grows a plant[169] of the _Orchis_ family whose
leaf remains all winter. There are seldom two; the form is oval,
furrowed, entire; the root bears two or three very viscous bulbs. It
is used in the Country to mend broken crockery. It is called _Adam
and Eve_. This plant is more common in the rich low lands of the
territory West of the Allegany Mountains. I have also seen it in
Lower Carolina but it is very rare there. It is not rare in Illinois.
Rain continued to fall all day and I was obliged to spend the night
in a house near Nolin Creek because the river had overflowed its
banks.
The 11th arrived at Huggins’s 12 Miles from Rollinford.
The 12th passed through a Country covered with grass and Oaks which
no longer exist as forests, having been burned every year. These
lands are called Barren lands although not really sterile. The
grasses predominate: _Salix pumila_, _Quercus nigra_ and _Quercus
alba_ called Mountain White Oak. _Gnaphalium dioicum_ also grows
there in abundance. It is called by the Americans White Plantain.
The same day 12th of February 1796 passed by Bacon Creek, a new
settlement 19 Miles from Huggins Mill and arrived at Green river 9
Miles from Bacon Creek. Slept 3 Miles further on at the house of one
Walter.
The 13th of February traveled 37 Miles without seeing a House through
the lands called Barren lands. The _Salix pumila_ that grows there in
abundance is the same as that which is very common in the Illinois
prairies as one leaves Vincennes Post to go to Kaskaskia. Slept
beyond the Big Barren river.
Sunday the 14th traveled about 30 Miles. In all the Houses the
children were suffering from Hooping Cough. This disease probably
results from a simple Cold but the reprehensible system of living
continually on salt and smoked meat fried in the pan produces those
acrid humors that render expectoration more difficult.
The 15th traveled 27 Miles and arrived at Nashville. Supper, bed and
breakfast 2 shillings.
The 16th started to go and visit Colonel Hays[170] a wealthy
inhabitant to whom I had been recommended the previous year by
Governor Blount, Governor of the Country known under the name of
Western territories, South west of the Ohio. This Country, which
is estimated to have 60 Thousand inhabitants, in consequence of
the considerable annual immigration and of the rapid increase of
population, has just been erected into a State governed by its own
representatives under the new name of the _State of Tennesee_ from
the name of a very large river that runs through the whole Houlston
Country, the Cumberland Country, the Country of the Cheroquis Indians
and other adjacent countries. This large river falls into the Ohio
9 Miles above fort Massac. It was known by the French, who were the
first to discover the Countries in the interior of North America,
under the name of Cheroquis River and it is so designated on the
French Maps. I met at Colonel Hays’s several inhabitants of the
neighborhood who came to confer upon current matters in connection
with the election of new civil and military Officers.
The 17th and 18th of February 1796 remained at Colonel Hays’ on
account of bad weather.
The 19th concluded the bargain for the purchase of a Horse to
convey the baggage, Collections of Plants, Birds and other Things I
had brought from Illinois and recently from Kentuckey. Returned the
same day to sleep at Nashville.
The 20th spent the entire day in getting my collections together
and in packing them. Saw some French voyageurs who spend all their
lives in the Trade with the Savages and asked the Terms on which I
could obtain a Guide to go up the Missouri river. One of them named
... told me he would willingly engage for a year for the sum of 500
dollars in furs that is to say 1000 dollars in money; another asked
me 2000 dollars in money.
Sunday the 21st prepared for my journey.
The 22nd had my two horses shod.
The 23rd started and after making two Miles was obliged to return on
account of....
The 25th started to return to Carolina and slept 10 Miles away at
the house of Colonel Mansko, a declared enemy of the French because,
he said, they have killed their King. Although I had not dined I
would not accept his supper believing that a Republican should not be
under obligations to a fanatical partisan of Royalty. I was greatly
mortified that the night and the rain should compel me to remain in
his House. But I slept on my Deer skin and paid for the Maize he
supplied me with to cross the Wilderness.
The 26th
Sunday 28th of February 1796 stopped ten miles from the river on
account of the Rain and because the Creeks had overflowed their banks.
The 29th in the evening crossed the Creeks and slept in the Wood near
the road at a place where Reeds or Canes were growing in abundance.
This species of grass which grows abundantly in many places
which have not been settled, is destroyed when completely eaten by
Cattle; Swine also destroy it by rooting in the earth and breaking
the roots. The stalk is sometimes as thick as a goose quill, but in
the rich lands bordering on the rivers and between the mountains,
some stalks are as much as 2 and even three inches in diameter; the
height is sometimes from 25 to 30 feet. This grass is ramose but it
seldom bears fruit in the territory of Kentuckey, in that of Tenesee
or in that of the Carolinas. This grass begins in the southern and
maritime portion of Virginia. Further South as in the Carolinas,
in the Floridas and in Lower Louisiana, this grass is found in
abundance.[171]
Snow fell throughout the night and on the following morning my two
Horses that had been tied had their legs swelled in consequence of
the cold and of the continually muddy roads over which I had traveled
the previous day.
The 1st of March 1796 arrived at Fort Blount situated on the
Cumberland River.[172] Snow continued to fall during a part of the
day.
The 2nd remained over in order to pull young Shoots of a new
Sophora[173] I had remarked in the vicinity of Fleen’s [Flinns]
creek about 12 Miles from the Fort. Snow covered the ground and I
was unable to get any young Shoots but Captain Williams, the young
[officer] stationed in the Fort cut down some trees and I found some
good seeds.
I also pulled up some roots of those trees to replant them in my
garden in Carolina.
The same day I had occasion to write to Governor Blount.
The 3rd of March continued my journey; crossed Fleen’s Creek several
times. Saw again the small bulbous umbelliferous plant I had remarked
some days previously. Toward evening the road was less muddy.
The 4th arrived at the Mountains called Cumberland mountains.
The 5th passed several Creeks and Rivers on which is an abundance of
a climbing Fern of the genus....[174]
The land through which these rivers flow is less fertile than the
territory of Nashville or Cumberland settlement and two-leaved Pines
are found there in abundance.
Sunday 6th of March 1796 arrived at West Point on the Clinch River.
The 7th slept at a distance of 15 Miles near the junction of the
Houlston river with that called Tenesee.
The 8th arrived at Knoxville.
The 9th Dined with Governor William Blount.
The 10th took my lodgings in the house of Captain Louné near the
Cumberland river.[175]
The 11th herborised on the opposite bank bordered by steep rocks
covered with _Saxifrage_, _bulbous umbellifera_ etc.
The 12th continued to herborise.
Sunday the 13th, Visited Captain Richard, Commandant of the garrison.
The 14th herborised; saw in bloom, _Anemone hepatica_; _Claytonia
Virginica_; _Sanguinaria_.
Saw a new genus of Plant designated by Linnaeus _Podophyllum
diphyllum_ and discovered some years ago in Virginia while passing
by Fort Chissel. This Plant is less rare in the fertile lands
of Kentuckey and Cumberland. It is found in the neighborhood of
Knoxville. Dr Barton[176] called it _Jeffersonia_ in a description
he gave of this Plant after seeing the flower of the Shoots I
had brought back to Philadelphia in the hands of the Botanist
Bartram.[177] The time when the plant flowers in the neighborhood of
Knoxville is about the 10th of March.
The 15th received the Letter from Governor Blount in answer to that
I had written him respecting the discovery of a new _Sophora_ in
the neighborhood of fort Blount. Started the same day and slept at
a distance of 7 Miles. Paid 2 shillings 3 pence for Supper and for
Maize and fodder for the Horses. Bundle of fodder 2 pence.
The 16th of March 1796 slept a mile from Iron Works at the house of
Mr Rice, Lawyer, 30 Miles from Knoxville. Observed in bloom: _Ulmus
viscosa_, _Acer rubrum_ ♂ flower on one individual and ♀ flower on
another tree.
The 17th slept near Bull’s gap 30 Miles from Iron Works.
The 18th passed by Lick creek and by Green court house 18 Miles from
Bull’s gap.
The 19th passed by Johnsborough 25 Miles from Green [ville]. Several
merchants are established at Johnsborough who obtain their goods from
Philadelphia by land.
Sunday the 20th started from Johnsborough. Saw in passing Mr Overton
of Kentuckey,[178] Major Carter of Wataga[179] at whose house I had
lodged several years previously with my son, and Colonel Avery.
Sunday 20th of March 1796 saw in bloom _Corylus americana_, ♀ flower
having the Styles or Stigmas of a purpurine color. _Ulmus viscosa
geminis aureis floribus 4-5-6-andris_, _stigmatibus purpureis_. _Acer
rubrum_ ♂ flower on one individual and ♀ flower on another. Slept at
Colonel Tipton’s 10 Miles from Johnsborough.
The 21st remarked that the Mountains were covered in several
places with _Sanguinaria_, _Claytonia_ and _Erythronium_ with
spotted leaves. These Plants were in bloom. _Magnolia acuminata et
auriculata_; _Rhododendron_; _Kalmia_; _Pinus abies canadensis_,
_Pinus strobus_; _Azalea_ etc. etc. grow in abundance at the foot
of those Mountains. Arrived at Lime Stone cove and slept at Charles
Collier’s 18 Miles from Colonel Tipton’s.
The 22nd crossed Iron Mountain and arrived at night at David
Becker’s, 23 Miles without seeing a house.
The 23rd started from Becker’s on Cane Creek to Rider’s 6 Miles;
from Rider’s to Widow Nigh’s 7 Miles; from Nigh’s to Samuel Ramsey’s
2 Miles; from Ramsey’s to David Cox’s on Paper Creek 4 Miles and
from Cox’s to Young’s 1 Mile; from Sam Ramsey’s to Davinport’s 8
Miles.[180] Total 23 Miles. Slept at Davinport’s. Remarked the _Salix
capreoides_ in flower on the banks of the streams.
The 24th visited the high Mountains opposite Davinport’s house;
pulled up several hundred Shoots: _Azalea lutea fulva_; _Anonymos
azaleoides_. _Rhododendron minus_ etc.
The 25th of March 1796. Saw in flower the _Corylus cornuta_,[181]
_amentis_ [male] _geminis quandoque solitariis squamis ciliatis_;
_antheris apice ciliates_, _stylis coccineis_.
This species flowers about 15 days later than the species of _Corylus
americana_ found in all the Climates of North America even in lower
Carolina in the neighborhood of Charleston. The _Corylus cornuta_ is
found only on the highest mountains and in Canada. _Corylus americana
amentis_ [male] _solitariis squamis externe tomentosis margine nudâ_;
_floris_ [female] _stylis coccineis_.
The 26th herborised and pulled Shoots of shrubs and fresh Shoots to
transport them to the garden of the Republic in Carolina.
Sunday 27th of March....
The 28th prepared and packed my Collection of fresh Mountain Plants.
The 29th started from Davinport’s and slept at the house of ...
Young. Violet with dentate reniform leaves, villous petiole and
yellow flower in full bloom on the banks of streams and very cool
places.
The 30th continued my journey and by mistake took a road to the right
leading to Wilkes [County]. Another _Viole lutea scopus foliosus
foliis hastatis_ in flower in cool places and also less damp places.
This one is a little more tardy than the previous one.[182]
The 31st arrived at Colonel Avery’s and slept at Morganton or Burke
Court house.
Friday 1st of April 1796, started from Morganton. Slept at
Robertson’s, formerly Henry Waggner’s, 30 Miles from Morganton.
The 2nd of April _Epigea repens_ in full bloom as on previous
days; on several individuals all the female flowers were without
rudiments of Stamens while on other individuals all the flowers were
hermaphrodites. Arrived at noon at the house of Christian Reinhart
near Lincoln. Remained all day to pull shoots of the _Spiraea
tomentosa_ that grow in swampy spots.
Sunday 3rd of April arrived at Bennet Smith’s 12 Miles from Lincoln;
remained all day to pull shoots of a new Magnolia[183] with very
large leaves, auriculate, oblong, glaucous, silky, especially the
young leaves; the buds very silky; Flowers white Petals with a base
of a purple color. Stamens yellow etc. Along the Creek on the bank
of which this Magnolia grows I also saw the _Kalmia latifolia_,
_Viola lutea_, _foliis hastatis_; _Ulmus viscosa_ then in process of
fructification; _Halesia_; _Stewartia pentagyna_.
The 4th started and crossed Tuck-a-segee ford on the Catawba[184]
river 10 Miles from Bennet Smith’s. Took the road to the left instead
of passing by Charlotte and slept _11 Miles_ from Catawba river.[185]
The 5th of April 1796 at a distance of 12 Miles took once more the
road leading from Cambden to Charlotte.[186]
Took Shoots of _Calamus aromaticus_ that grows in damp places in the
neighborhood of Charlotte and of Lincoln. _Rhus pumila._ Slept near
Waxsaw Creek in South Carolina about 35 Miles from Tuck-a-Segee ford.
The 6th at the house of Colonel Crawford near Waxsaw Creek: anonymous
Plant with leaves _quaternate_, _perfoliate_, _glabrous_, _entire_.
This same Plant grows in the Settlements of Cumberland and in
Kentuckey. _Frasera foetida._[187]
Passed by Hanging Rock; the distance from Waxsaw to Hanging Rock is
22 Miles. To go to Morganton or Burke Court house one should not pass
by Charlotte, but take the Road to the left 3½ Miles from Hanging
Rock.
About 20 Toises after leaving the fork of the two roads (one of which
leads to Charlotte) one sees the _Anonymous_[188] shrub with a red
root which has the appearance of the _Calycanthus_. This shrub is the
one I saw in the vicinity of Morganton. Slept near Hanging Rock.
Thursday 7th of April 1796 arrived at Cambden; five or six Miles
before arriving there pulled Shoots of a new _Kalmia_ seen some years
previously. The distance from Hanging Rock to Cambden is 26 Miles.
Friday 8th of April started from Cambden, passed by State’s borough
22 Miles from Cambden and slept at Manchester 30 Miles from Cambden.
The 9th my Horses strayed away during the night, having broken the
Fence within which they were placed.
In the streams: _Callitriche americana_; _fructificatio simplex_,
_axillaris sessilis_, _Calyx 2-phyllus_, _stamen unicum_; _filamentum
longum_, _latere geminis germen duplex? styli duo longitudine
staminis_, _stigmata acuta_.
_Silene ... calyx 5-fidus cylindricus_, _corolla Petala 5_ (or
_5-partita usque ad basim_) _unguibus angustis_, _laciniis planis
apice obtusis_; _Stamina 10 basi corolla inserta_; _Germen
oblongum_. _Styli tres_; _stigmata acuta_; _Capsula unilocularis_,
_semina plura numerosa_, _flores rosei_.[189]
Started in the afternoon and slept at 15 Miles having crossed 10
Miles of sand called Santee High Hills in the space of which observed
_Phlox_; _Silene_ ...; _Dianthus_ ... in flower; _Lupinus perennis et
pilosus_ in flower.
Sunday 10th of April 1796 arrived at the Santee River at the place
called Manigault ferry; before arriving there observed _Verbena_
(_aubletia?_) and on the banks of the Santee, _arbor Anonymous_ whose
fruit (_muricatis_) covered with soft points, was almost ripe.[190]
Manigault ferry is 28 Miles from Manchester.
Two miles further on one takes the road to the right called Gaillard
road which is shorter than the ordinary road but muddy in winter.
Slept at the house of the Widow Stuard 18 Miles from Manigault ferry.
Tavern dirty and without a supply of fodder for Horses.
The 11th started very early; at a distance of 5 Miles remarked
_Lupinus perennis_ and _Lupinus pilosus_ in flower. Distance from
Charleston 40 to 43 Miles. Arrived at the garden of the Republic 37
Miles from the Widow Stuard’s that is to say 47 Miles from Charleston.
Recapitulation of the journey from Illinois to Charleston.
From St Louis of the Illinois to Kaskias 4 Miles
To the village of St Philippe 45
To the Prairie du Rocher 9
To Kaskaskias 45
To the junction of the Mississipi and Belle Rivière 95
To Fort Massac 45
To the Junction of the Cumberland and Belle Rivière 18
To Clark’s ville on the red river 120
To Nashville 60
To Bloodshed’s lick[191] 30
To Fort Blount on the Cumberland river 40
To West Point on the Clinch river 90
To Knoxville on the Houlston river 40
From Knoxville to Iron Works 30
To Bull’s gap 30
To Green’s ville 25
To John’s borough 25
To Colonel Tipton’s 10
To Limestone cove 18
To David Becker’s beyond the Mountain called
Iron mountain 23
From Backer’s to Young’s 20
To Morganton or Burke 22
To Robertson’s 30
To Lincoln 16
To Tuck a Segee 22
To Wax Saw Creek 35
To Hanging Rock 22
To Cambden 26
To Manchester 30
To Manigault ferry 28
To Charleston 70
----
Total 1123 Miles
374⅓ leagues
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Edmond Charles Genet (Genest) was born at Versailles
about 1765. His father was a diplomat who was
interested in English literature, and who welcomed
the American coterie in Paris to his home. Henrietta
Genet, later Madame Campan, was first lady of honor
to Queen Marie Antoinette; her brother was chosen
at the early age of twenty-four, secretary--later,
_chargé d’affaires_--to the French embassy at
St. Petersburg. His dispatches thence were of so
republican a tone, that in 1792 he was commissioned
minister of the new French republic, to Holland; but
late in the same year was chosen for the mission to
the United States, where he arrived April 8, 1793.
His career in America is well known. After his
commission was revoked, Genet became a naturalized
American citizen, married a daughter of Governor
Clinton of New York, and died at Jamaica, Long
Island, in 1834.--ED.
[2] Humeau and Le Blanc appear to have been agents of
Genet, assisting in this revolutionary movement.
Nothing is known of the former. Le Blanc was a
citizen of New Orleans, well-affected to the French
revolutionary cause. He was to have been made mayor
of New Orleans, when that city should fall into the
hands of the revolutionists. See American Historical
Association _Report_, 1896, pp. 1049, 1050.--ED.
[3] For a description of the left-hand or southern
branch of the road, known as “The Old Glade,” see
Harris’s _Journal_, _post_.--ED.
[4] Evident error; perhaps 320 was intended.--C. S. S.
The distance in reality by this route was somewhat
less than this.--ED.
[5] Hugh H. Brackenridge was at this time the most
prominent lawyer in Pittsburg, whither he had come
in 1781, after graduating at Princeton and serving
as chaplain in the regular army. Brackenridge was
a Scotch-Irishman, and a Democrat in politics;
therefore he sympathized with the uprising known
as the Whiskey Rebellion, and wrote a work in its
defense, although his influence had been exercised
to moderate its excesses. Gallatin defeated him for
Congress in 1794; but later he took his place upon
the bench of the state supreme court, and served
with great ability until his death in 1816.--ED.
[6] _Physostegia Virginiana_, Benth.--C. S. S.
[7] _Hedeoma pulegiodes_, Pers.--C. S. S.
[8] Col. Francis Vigo was a Sardinian, who came to
Louisiana in the Spanish army. Settling at St. Louis
as a trader, he embraced the cause of American
independence, rendering substantial aid in many ways
to George Rogers Clark, in the latter’s Illinois
campaigns. Vigo took the oath of allegiance to the
United States, and later settled at Vincennes, where
he died in poverty in 1836. His just claims upon the
government were not settled until thirty years after
his death.--ED.
[9] A Spanish document of this period complains of
Audrain as having misappropriated funds for his
contracts, also charges him with being a radical
republican, receiving all the patriots at his
house, where dinners were given and toasts drunk to
the downfall of monarchy. See American Historical
Association _Report_, 1896, p. 1049.
The commandant at St. Louis was Captain Don Zenon
Trudeau, who held the office from 1792-99.--ED.
[10] This Frenchman was known in Pittsburg as J. B.
C. Lucas, and was appointed associate judge of
Allegheny County in 1800. His Democratic principles
were so strong that he brought about the impeachment
of his colleague, Judge Addison, a well-known
Federalist.--ED.
[11] The writer here uses the term “Fort Pitt” as the
name of the town; the brick fortification which was
being demolished was the one known by that name,
built by Stanwix in 1759-61. It stood between the
rivers, below Third, West, and part of Liberty
streets. A redoubt, built in 1764 as a part of these
works, is still standing, and has been restored
by the Pittsburg chapter of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, whom it serves as a museum.
See _Frontier Forts of Western Pennsylvania_
(Harrisburg, 1896), ii, pp. 99-159.--ED.
[12] Fort Fayette, a stockade erected in 1792 for
protection against the Indians. It stood about a
quarter of a mile above Fort Pitt, on the present
Penn Street, at the crossing of Garrison Avenue.--ED.
[13] _E. atropurpureus_, Jacq.--C. S. S.
[14] This is probably his _Sicyos lobata_ (_Echinocystis
lobata_ of Torr. and Gray) which, according to the
_Flora_, was detected by Michaux “in _occidentalibus
Pensylvaniae, juxta fluvium Ohio_.” The “_corolla
5 partita_” is retained by Richard in his
description.--C. S. S.
[15] Wheeling was founded upon land taken up by Col.
Ebenezer Zane in 1770. During Lord Dunmore’s War
a stockade was built at this place, called Fort
Fincastle; later, the name was changed in honor
of Patrick Henry, first governor of the state of
Virginia. Fort Henry was thrice besieged during
the Revolution--in 1777, 1781, and 1782. Many
romantic incidents are told of these events; most
notable, that of the sortie for additional powder,
successfully executed by Elizabeth Zane. Colonel
Zane laid out the place in town-lots in 1793; two
years later, the Virginia legislature incorporated
it. In 1797 Wheeling became the seat of Ohio County;
and early in the nineteenth century appeared likely
to surpass Pittsburg in prosperity, and as an
important emporium for Western trade.--ED.
[16] The site for Fort Harmar was chosen by Gen. Richard
Butler (1785), on his journey to Cincinnati to make
peace with the Miami Indians. A detachment under
Major Doughty began building the fort--named in
honor of Gen. Josiah Harmar--in the autumn of this
year; its completion in 1786 afforded protection
to the frontier inhabitants of Virginia. Two years
later (1788), the Ohio Company of Associates--New
England veterans of the Revolution--came out under
the leadership of Gen. Rufus Putnam, and began the
settlement of Marietta, “the Plymouth Rock of the
West.”--ED.
[17] For the Little Kanawha, see Croghan’s _Journals_,
vol. i of this series, note 98.--ED.
[18] For the Great Kanawha and its historical
associations, see Croghan’s _Journals_, vol. i
of this series, note 101; also Thwaites, _On the
Storied Ohio_.--ED.
[19] For the history of this French settlement on the
Ohio, see _Journal_ of F. A. Michaux, _post_.--ED.
[20] Jean G. Petit was the most prominent man of this
settlement, acting both as physician and judge.--ED.
[21] For a description of the Scioto, and its early
historical importance, see Croghan’s _Journals_,
vol. i of this series, note 102; also Thwaites, _On
the Storied Ohio_.--ED.
[22] The Three Islands were noted landmarks in the
early history of Kentucky. Kennedy and his company
encamped there in 1773, but the settlement was in
a dangerous location, as this was near an Indian
crossing place. In 1791, twenty men were told off to
garrison the settlement. The upper island was near
Brush Creek, in Ohio. Only one island remains at
this place.--ED.
[23] Limestone (now Maysville) was long the chief river
post for Kentucky, but was not early settled owing
to its exposure to Indian attacks. Bullitt and the
McAfees were there in 1773; Simon Kenton settled
farther up on Limestone Creek in 1776. The same
year, George Rogers Clark landed at this place the
powder provided by Virginia for the protection of
the Kentucky settlements. The first blockhouse was
built on the site of Limestone in 1783; four years
later, the town was incorporated by the Virginia
legislature.--ED.
[24] Alexander D. Orr was representative in Congress for
Kentucky, from its admission and through the fourth
Congress (1792-97). A Virginian by birth (1765),
he removed to Mason County at an early period,
and had much influence in his neighborhood, where
he lived as a planter until his death, June 21,
1835. Michaux’s visit to Colonel Orr is probably
significant of the fact that Orr was interested in
the former’s mission.--ED.
[25] Gen. Henry Lee was one of the earliest settlers in
Mason County. Coming to Kentucky as a surveyor in
1779, six years later he established Lee’s Station,
near Washington--one of the earliest in northeastern
Kentucky. Lee was Kentucky delegate in the Virginia
house of burgesses (1788), a member of the
convention that adopted the federal constitution,
and later member of the Danville conventions for
organizing the State of Kentucky; his political
influence, therefore, was important. Unlike many of
the pioneers, he prospered in business and amassed
a considerable fortune, dying on his estate in
1845.--ED.
[26] For the history of Big Bone Lick, see Croghan’s
_Journals_, vol. i of this series, note 104.--ED.
[27] This was either May’s Lick, in Mason County, or the
Lower Blue Licks, in Nicholas County. It is evident
that the buffalo had nearly disappeared from this
region, where less than thirty years before Croghan
had found them in such vast numbers. Butricke
(_Historical Magazine_, viii, p. 259) says that in
1768 they were scarce above the Scioto River. The
last buffalo was killed in the Great Kanawha Valley,
about twelve miles below Charleston, West Virginia,
in 1815.--ED.
[28] There is some doubt thrown upon the
commonly-accepted statement that the first cabin
at Lexington was built in 1775, and the place
named in honor of the opening battle of the
Revolution, news of which had just been received.
The permanent settlement was not made until 1779;
the following year the town was made county seat
of the newly-erected Fayette County, and itself
incorporated in 1782.--ED.
[29] Paris was laid out in 1786, the first court of
Bourbon County being held there in 1787. Two
years later, it was incorporated by the Virginia
legislature as Hopewell; the present designation was
adopted in 1790.--ED.
[30] Danville was laid off as a town by Walker Daniel
in 1781, and rapidly rose to importance, being the
centre of political activity and the seat of the
conventions in which statehood for Kentucky was
agitated (1785-92). After the admission of Kentucky
as a state, Frankfort was chosen capital, and the
importance of Danville declined.--ED.
[31] Joshua Barbee was born in Virginia, and after
serving in the Revolution removed to the vicinity of
Danville, early in the Kentucky settlement. He was
militia officer in 1791, a member of the political
club of Danville, and of the state legislature. A
man of wealth and prominence, his family became
intimately associated with Kentucky history. He died
in 1839.
Pierre Tardiveau was a French merchant who had an
extensive business in the West, and connections in
Bordeaux. With his partner, Honoré, he carried on
trade with New Orleans, and made frequent trips
thither. Tardiveau embarked in Genet’s enterprise,
and was appointed interpreter in chief by Michaux,
who appears to have used him to communicate with
agents in New Orleans. See Claiborne, _Mississippi_
(Jackson, 1880), pp. 152, 153; also American
Historical Association _Report_, 1896, pp. 952,
1026, 1096. Tardiveau removed to Louisiana when it
came under American dominion.--ED.
[32] John Brown, one of Kentucky’s most prominent public
men, was born at Staunton, Virginia, in 1757, and
while a student at Princeton joined the Revolutionary
army as aid to Lafayette. At the close of the war he
removed to Kentucky, was its first representative to
the old Congress (1787-89); then to Congress under
the Constitution (1789-92), where he was employed in
securing the admission of Kentucky as a state. Upon
that event (1792), Brown was sent to the United
States Senate, of which he remained a prominent
member until 1805. He was a personal friend of
Washington, Jefferson (with whom he studied law), and
Madison, and when he died in 1837 was the last
survivor of the Congress of the Confederation. Brown
was cognizant of Michaux’s plans, and evidently
sympathized with them, having been interested in
previous separatist movements for Kentucky. See
Butler, _Kentucky_, and John Mason Brown, “Political
Beginnings of Kentucky,” Filson Club _Publications_
No. 6. Brown gave letters of introduction to Michaux.
See American Historical Association _Report_, 1896,
pp. 982, 983, 1010.--ED.
[33] Brown refers here to the embassy of Carmichael, and the
negotiations entered into by him and Pinckney, the
minister at Madrid, that ultimately led to the treaty
of 1794.
The Creek Indians lay south of the United States
territory in West Florida, and were believed by the
Westerners to be incited to attacks upon Americans by
the Spanish authorities of this province and of
Louisiana.--ED.
[34] Michaux went to what was known as St. Asaph’s, or Logan’s
Station, in Lincoln County, to see the well-known
pioneer and Indian fighter, Gen. Benjamin Logan. Next
to Clark, Logan was, doubtless, the best known person
in Kentucky, and had been chosen by Genet as second
in command of the expedition. That he afterwards
decided to enter upon this affair, seems evident from
his letter to Clark of December 31, 1793, in American
Historical Association _Report_, 1896, p. 1026. Logan
was a Scotch-Irishman, born in Virginia in 1743. When
but fourteen his father died, and he was left as
eldest son of the family. Having removed to Holston,
he was out with Bouquet in 1764, and ten years later
in Lord Dunmore’s War. Locating his station in
Kentucky in 1775, he brought out his family the
following year, and sustained many Indian attacks as
well as led several aggressive campaigns against the
savages. As county lieutenant he was a safeguard for
the new settlements, and was revered and respected by
all his neighbors. Having served in the legislature
and the convention that drew up the Kentucky
constitution, he died at his home in Lincoln County
in 1802.--ED.
[35] There was no better-known character in the West, than
Governor Shelby. Born in Maryland in 1750, the family
were of pioneer stock, and early moved to Western
Virginia, where young Shelby was sheriff (1771), and
lieutenant under his father, Evan Shelby, at the
Battle of Point Pleasant (1774). The next year he
surveyed in Kentucky, and then returned to the
Holston to engage in the Revolutionary struggles. To
his forethought is attributed the success of the
battle of King’s Mountain, after which he served in
the North Carolina legislature. Removing to Kentucky
in 1783, Shelby was welcomed as a hero by the new
community, and made the first governor of the State.
He served a second term during the War of 1812-15,
reinforcing Harrison at a critical juncture for the
Western division of the army. Refusing the portfolio
of war, offered by Monroe in 1817, Shelby retired to
his farm in Lincoln County, where he died in 1826.
Michaux carried letters to Shelby; see American
Historical Association _Report_, 1896, pp. 983, 984.
On Shelby’s later attitude toward the expedition, see
_ibid._, pp. 934, 1023, 1040, _note_.--ED.
[36] Knob Licks, Lincoln County, was formed as a settlement
in 1776 by Governor Shelby. De Pauw, one of the French
agents, resided here. See American Historical
Association _Report_, 1896, pp. 977, 1002, 1023,
1102-1106. The Knobs were a peculiar formation of
detached hillocks.--ED.
[37] Beardstown (Bardstown) was an important settlement in early
Kentucky history, established (1788) near the Salt
River in what is now Nelson County, and named for the
proprietor, David Baird. It is now a small village,
although still the county seat.--ED.
[38] For the founding of Louisville, see Croghan’s _Journals_,
vol. i of this series, note 106. The old road from
Bardstown to Louisville went via the Salt Works
(Shepherdsville, Bullitt County), and was reckoned at
forty-five miles. See Speed, “Wilderness Road,”
Filson Club _Publications_ (Louisville, 1886), p. 17.
The new road was more direct, went across country
from Bardstown, and joined the old about ten miles
below Louisville.--ED.
[39] For the letters of Genet and Clark, see American Historical
Association _Report_, 1896, pp. 967, 986.--ED.
[40] In Clark’s letter to Genet, he seems to indicate that
this obstacle was the leaking out of the secret, by
which intimations might reach the Spaniards. Possibly
he refers to the Spanish mission which caused Logan’s
hesitation; see _ante_, note 33; also American
Historical Association _Report_, 1896, p.
1007-1009.--ED.
[41] The home of Clark’s father, with whom he resided, was
known as “Mulberry Hill,” situated in the environs of
Louisville.--ED.
[42] _E. Americanus, L._--C.S.S.
[43] On the early mail routes, see Speed, _Wilderness Road_, pp.
65-68.--ED.
[44] James Hogan was a pioneer of Kentucky who settled at Bryan’s
Station before 1779, and took a leading part in its
defense against Indians (1781). He was granted (1785)
by the Virginia legislature the right to maintain a
ferry across the Kentucky River.--ED.
[45] The principal ferry on the road from Danville to Lexington
was at the mouth of Hickman’s Creek, so named in
honor of the first Baptist preacher in Kentucky, Rev.
William Hickman.--ED.
[46] See letter of this date, written by Michaux to Clark
(American Historical Association _Report_, 1896, p.
1010), in which he gives his address at “Mᵗᵉ Isham
Prewitt, Jefferson County, near Danville.”--ED.
[47] The original letter sent by this messenger is in the
Wisconsin Historical Library (Draper MSS., 55 J 5),
and is printed in American Historical Association
Report, 1896, p. 1013.--ED.
[48] This reply is given in American Historical Association
_Report_, 1896, pp. 1007-1009. The break in the
manuscript of Michaux’s diary is occasioned by the
completion of one blank book and the commencement of
another.--ED.
[49] Nicholas was one of a famous coterie of Virginia
constitutional lawyers. Born in 1743, the son of a
distinguished lawyer, Robert Cary Nicholas, he served
as captain in the Revolution, and at its close
qualified for the bar. His services in the Virginia
convention which adopted the federal constitution,
were important. Shortly after its close he removed to
Kentucky, and there aided in the adoption of its
state constitution, which is reputed to have been
drawn up by his hand. Upon the formation of the state
government, he was chosen first attorney general.
Nicholas adopted a moderate position in regard to
Western politics; the scheme here outlined, seems
characteristic. In 1799 he was appointed law
professor in Transylvania University, but died during
the same year.--ED.
[50] Michaux returned to Philadelphia by the well-known
“Wilderness Road,” the chief means of exit from
Kentucky. Parties frequently waited at Crab
Orchard--the western terminus in Lincoln
County--until enough had gathered to act as
protection against the Indians. See Speed,
“Wilderness Road,” Filson Club _Publications_, No. 2
(Louisville, 1886); also Hulbert, _Historic Highways
of America_, vol. vi.--ED.
[51] _Lygodium palmatum_, Swz.--C.S.S.
[52] Three words are here frayed away in the manuscript of
the Journal.--C.S.S.
[53] Cumberland Gap, in southeastern Kentucky, emerging into
Tennessee, was explored in 1750 by Dr. Thomas Walker,
who named both mountains and river in honor of the
Duke of Cumberland, son of George II.--ED.
[54] The Clinch and Holston rivers are upper waters of the
Tennessee, in southwestern Virginia and northeastern
Tennessee. The settlements in these valleys were
among the first on the west-flowing streams. See map
in Turner, “State Making in the Revolutionary Era,”
in _American Historical Review_, i, p. 74.--ED.
[55] Both of these stations are mentioned in an early journal;
see Speed, _Wilderness Road_, p. 21. The first was
the seat for Hawkins County, Tennessee.--ED.
[56] The forks of the road was at the junction of the north
and south forks of the Holston River, near the
present town of Kingsport, Sullivan County,
Tennessee.--ED.
[57] Abingdon, originally known as Wolf Hills, was one of
the earliest settlements in the Valley of Virginia,
and the seat of Washington County. It was established
as a town in 1778. It is still the county seat, and a
station on the Norfolk & Western Railway.--ED.
[58] Wytheville, near the centre of the county of that name,
and its county seat.--ED.
[59] The early route through the Virginia Valley crossed
New River at Ingles’s Ferry, a short distance west of
Blacksburg, Montgomery County. A new road shortened
the distance and crossed the New River about five
miles farther up the stream, at a ferry operated by
the pioneer family of Pepper. They are alluded to in
the Draper MSS., Wisconsin Historical Library, I QQ
97.--ED.
[60] Botetourt Court House, now Fincastle, the seat of
Botetourt County (established in 1769), was laid off
as a town in 1772 on land donated for the purpose by
Israel Christian. It was named for the ancestral seat
of Lord Botetourt, an early governor of
Virginia.--ED.
[61] Lexington was established by law in 1777 as county
seat for Rockbridge, then newly-formed out of Augusta
and Botetourt. See _ante_, note 28.--ED.
[62] Col. James McDowell, who lived near Fairfield, Rockbridge
County, was a descendant of the Scotch-Irish settler,
Capt. John McDowell, who came to the valley as a
surveyor in 1737, and was killed in the first Indian
fight therein (1742).--ED.
[63] The present roads through the Valley of Virginia follow
the course described by Michaux, passing through the
same towns. Staunton is one of the earliest towns of
the region, having been settled in 1732 by John
Lewis, a Scotch-Irishman, whose sons Andrew and
Charles were among the most prominent borderers.
Andrew commanded the Sandy Creek expedition in 1756;
and at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, where
Charles was slain. Staunton was laid out as a town in
1748, at the “Beverly Mill Place,” but was not
established by act of legislature until 1761.--ED.
[64] This town is generally known as Harrisonburg, from its
founder, Thomas Harrison (1780). The county of
Rockingham was erected in 1778, and held its first
court at the house of Daniel Smith, which was two
miles north of Harrisonburg.--ED.
[65] The upper or northern portion of the Valley of Virginia
was first settled by German emigrants from
Pennsylvania. Woodstock was laid off as a town by
Jacob Miller, and established by law in 1761.--ED.
[66] Newtown, or Stephensburg, was founded by Lewis Stephens
on the site of his father’s first claim. Peter
Stephens came to Virginia in 1732, with Joist Hite,
an early settler of the northern portion of the
Valley. His son established the town in 1758, it
being called Newtown to distinguish it from the older
Winchester. Newtown is now a small hamlet, without a
post-office.--ED.
[67] Winchester was built upon Lord Fairfax’s grant in 1752.
In 1738 there were two cabins at this place, which
was then called “Shawnee Springs,” and was the
frontier outpost in that direction. The population
was a mixture of Germans and Scotch-Irishmen. Col.
James Wood is accredited with the foundation of the
town of Winchester.--ED.
[68] Charlestown, in what was then Berkeley County, but now
the seat for Jefferson County, West Virginia, was
laid off (1786) upon his own land by Col. Charles
Washington, brother of the general, and christened
from his own Christian name.--ED.
[69] Harper’s Ferry takes its name from the first settler,
Robert Harper, who formed part of the German
emigration of 1734. Washington perceived the
strategic importance of this place, and recommended
it as the site of a national arsenal.--ED.
[70] Frederick City, Maryland, was laid out in 1745 by
Patrick Dulany, and named in honor of the sixth Lord
Baltimore. The first house, however, was not erected
on this site until 1748, when it became the seat of
the newly-erected Frederick County. Most of the early
settlers were Germans, with an admixture of
Scotch-Irish. At Frederick the road from Virginia
crossed the National Road from Baltimore to
Wheeling.--ED.
[71] Woodsboro is a small village in Frederick County,
Maryland. Littlestown, in Adams County, Pennsylvania,
was laid out in 1765 by one of the early German
settlers of the region, called Peter Klein (Little).
It was frequently called Petersburg in the earlier
days. It is now a small station on the Fredericksburg
branch of the Pennsylvania Railway.--ED.
[72] Hanover, York County, Pennsylvania, was laid out upon
a tract granted by Lord Baltimore to John Digges in
1728. The proprietors of Maryland claimed this
region, and Digges settled a number of German
immigrants upon his tract of 10,000 acres, which was
known as “Digges’s Choice.” A Scotch-Irishman,
Richard McAllister, emigrated thither about 1749 and
acquired great influence over the German settlers of
the neighborhood, where he kept a store and tavern.
He laid out the town and named it Hanover in 1763 or
1764.--ED.
[73] Michaux is mistaken in placing the Pennsylvania boundary
so far north, as he had entered that state before
reaching Littlestown. This territory, however, had
been in dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland,
but was settled by the running of Mason and Dixon’s
line in 1763. York was not settled on the lands of
the Penn estate until 1741, when there were 2,000
settlers within the bounds of what is now York
County. The town became an incorporated borough in
1785.--ED.
[74] For the early history of Harris Ferry, see Post’s
_Journals_, vol. i of this series, note 73.--ED.
[75] Dr. Daniel Rittenhouse was one of America’s best known
scientists. Born in Pennsylvania in 1732, his talent
for mathematics early manifested itself, and he
became a clock and instrument maker, and finally an
astronomer of much repute. He held important
positions in the new State of Pennsylvania, was its
treasurer (1777-89), also first director of the
United States mint. Rittenhouse was employed to
settle the boundary between Virginia and his own
state, and during 1784-85 was in service in the
field, directing the running of the line. He
succeeded Franklin as president of the American
Philosophical Society in 1790, retaining the office
until his death in 1796.--ED.
[76] The manuscript is so frayed that the figures for these
two distances are destroyed. The footing requires 60
M. for the two.--C. S. S.
[77] Michaux remained in Philadelphia until February 9, 1794,
chiefly occupied with his botanical pursuits, and in
getting his accounts audited. Proceeding south on
horseback, he arrived at Charleston March 14, 1794,
where he consulted with the French consul, Mangourit,
concerning the Florida portion of the expedition
against French territory. See American Historical
Association _Report_, 1897, pp. 569-679. Upon the
collapse of this project, Michaux undertook a
botanizing tour to the mountains of North Carolina,
from July 14, to October 2, 1794. Upon his return, he
had an attack of fever for “more than six weeks,” and
passed the remainder of the winter in arranging his
garden and classifying his plants.--ED.
[78] _Planera aquatica_, Gmel. (_P. Gmelini_, Michx.).--C. S. S.
[79] A word here is illegible in the manuscript.--C. S. S.
[80] Probably this was Thomas Lee, son of a Revolutionary
patriot, and usually a dweller in Charleston. In
1792, however, he married and afterwards lived for
some time on his estate in the up-country. Born in
Charleston in 1769, he was admitted to the bar in
1790, and later was assistant judge (1804-16), and
United States district judge (1823-39). He was one of
the most prominent South Carolinians of his day.--ED.
[81] These were the most important iron-works in the state;
their owner had invented an improved water-blast, and
had a forge, furnace, rolling mill, and nail
factory.--ED.
[82] Col. Martin Armstrong was a Revolutionary soldier in
command of the local militia, and much engaged in the
war against the Tories. After the battle of King’s
Mountain, he took over the command from Benjamin
Cleveland.--ED.
[83] Lincolnton is the seat of Lincoln County, which was
originally part of Tyron. The name was changed in
1779 in honor of the patriot leader, Gen. Benjamin
Lincoln. This entire region was a centre of agitation
for independence; and in 1780 a fierce battle between
Whigs and Tories was fought at Ramsour’s Mills, near
Lincolnton.--ED.
[84] Probably this was Capt. Zaccheus Wilson, a Scotch-Irish
resident of this region who migrated thither from
Pennsylvania between 1740 and 1750. Wilson was an
ardent patriot, a member of the Mechlenburg
convention in 1775, of the provincial congress of the
state the following year, and a captain at King’s
Mountain in 1780. In 1796 he followed his brother
David to Tennessee, where he lived until his death in
1823 or 1824.--ED.
[85] Morganton is the oldest town in the mountainous district
of North Carolina, having been founded during the
Revolution, and named in honor of Gen. Daniel Morgan.
The settlers of this region were largely
Scotch-Irish, who had emigrated from Pennsylvania by
way of the Valley of Virginia.--ED.
[86] Col. Waightstill Avery was of New England origin, born
in Connecticut in 1743. At the age of twenty-three he
was graduated at Princeton, and after studying law in
Maryland removed to North Carolina in 1769. He was
very influential in the upper country, a member of
the Mechlenburg convention of 1775, and of the state
provincial congress the following year. After a
campaign against the Cherokees, he was commissioned
to negotiate a treaty with this tribe in 1777. During
the war Colonel Avery was in active service as a
militia officer; at its close he settled four miles
from Morganton, calling his plantation “Swan Ponds.”
Five times Burke County sent him to the state
legislature, and in 1796 to the senate. Andrew
Jackson challenged Avery to a duel in 1788, but later
became his firm friend. He died about 1821.--ED.
[87] Michaux followed the well-known Bright’s trace, by
which communication was maintained between the
settlements of East Tennessee and those of Western
North Carolina. Over this road came the men who won
the victory at King’s Mountain in 1780. Bright’s
place is now in the possession of the Avery family.
Martin Davenport resided at a noted spring not far
from Toe River, in Mitchell County, North Carolina.
He was a well-known Whig; his son William became a
man of prominence, several times representing his
county in the state legislature.--ED.
[88] _Rhododendron arborescens_, Torrey.--C. S. S.
[89] Col. John Tipton was one of the noted pioneers of
Tennessee. Born in Virginia, he early removed to
Eastern Tennessee, and was engaged in the defense of
the frontier. Upon the inauguration of the state of
Franklin, Tipton joined the North Carolina party, and
a fierce factional struggle ensued, which culminated
in the arrest of Colonel Sevier by Tipton’s agency.
Tipton lived east of Jonesborough, on Sinking
Creek.--ED.
[90] Jonesborough is the oldest town in Tennessee, having
been founded in 1779 and named in honor of Willie
Jones, Esq., an active patriot of Halifax, North
Carolina, and a warm friend of the Western counties.
Jonesborough was the first capital of Washington
District, and is still the seat of Washington
county.--ED.
[91] Greene Court House is now Greeneville, seat of Greene
County. From here two roads branch off, that to the
right toward Cumberland Gap and Kentucky; that to the
left through Newport and Sevierville, along the
French Broad Valley. Michaux took, as he says, the
right hand road, leaving it, however, beyond
Russelville, and continuing by this upper and less
frequented road to Knoxville.--ED.
[92] Bull’s Gap is a pass in Bay’s Mountain, between Jefferson
and Greene counties, named probably for Captain Bull,
an early pioneer.--ED.
[93] This was one of the earliest forges in Tennessee; it was
in Jefferson County, not far from Mossy Creek.--ED.
[94] McBee’s Ferry, crossing the Holston in the northwestern
corner of Knox County, was a well-known landmark of
this region.--ED.
[95] Knoxville was settled by James White in 1787, and at
first called White’s Station. In 1791 a town was laid
out, named in honor of General Knox, which after the
establishment of territorial government became the
capital. The first governor of the territory was
William Blount, who was born in North Carolina in
1749, and was active both in the War of the
Regulators (1771), and in the Revolution. Blount was
a member of the North Carolina legislature and later
of the national constitutional convention. Washington
appointed him governor of Southwest Territory, and on
the admission of Tennessee as a state he was chosen
first state senator. For intriguing with foreign
emissaries he was impeached, and expelled from the
Senate. The people, however, showed their confidence
by choosing him to the state senate (1797). He died
in Knox County in 1800.--ED.
[96] Fort Southwest Point, as it was usually called, was
erected in 1792 at the junction of Clinch and Holston
rivers, near the present town of Kingston, as an
outpost on the road to Western Tennessee, and a
protection against the Cherokee Indians. As late as
1803 travellers found it safer to go in company
through this wilderness. See journal of F. A.
Michaux, _post._--ED.
[97] Probably _M. macrophylla_, Michx. In the _Flora_, it
is described as only growing “_in regionibus
occidentalibus fluvio Tennassee trajectis_.”--C. S.
S.
[98] Isaac Bledsoe was one of a party of hunters who
discovered this lick (near Gallatin, in Sumner
County) as early as 1771. He removed hither in 1779
and founded a station; he was also one of the framers
of the Cumberland Association, and a faithful
adherent of Robertson. His brother, Col. Anthony
Bledsoe, who had a reputation as a leader in the
Holtson settlement, later removed to Cumberland, and
was an able second in command on Indian expeditions,
especially that against the Chickamaugas in 1787. He
was killed by Indians at Bledsoe’s Station in 1788.
The spring at this place is now called “Castilian
Springs.”--ED.
[99] Gen. James Winchester, born in Maryland in 1752, served
in the Revolution, after which he removed to
Tennessee, and settled not far from Gallatin, in
Sumner County. He served in the territorial and state
militia, and in 1812 was appointed brigadier-general
in the regular army, superseding Harrison in command
of the Western division. Captured at the River
Raisin, he was exchanged in 1814, resigned the
following year, and died at his home in Tennessee in
1826.--ED.
[100] Michaux’s remark indicates the obscurity of Andrew
Jackson at this early period of his history. He then
lived upon a plantation called Hunter’s Hill,
thirteen miles from Nashville, not having removed to
the “Hermitage” (two miles beyond) until 1804.--ED.
[101] _Quercus macrocarpa_, Michx.--here first mentioned.--C. S. S.
[102] _Q. bicolor_, Willd.--C. S. S.
[103] Nashville was founded by James Robertson, who in 1779
came overland from the settlements of Eastern
Tennessee. Donelson’s party, which went via the
rivers, did not arrive until April of the following
year. Being beyond the jurisdiction of any state, the
settlers drew up a compact under which they lived
until the organization (1783) of Davidson County as a
part of North Carolina. The town, named for the
patriot General Nash, was until 1784 called
Nashborough. Nashville was incorporated in 1806. The
legislature met at this city in 1812-16 and after
1826, but the city was not made the permanent capital
until 1843.--ED.
[104] See description of visit to Daniel Smith, brother-in-law
of Andrew Jackson, in _Journal_ of F. A. Michaux,
_post._--ED.
[105] Gen. James Robertson, the founder of West Tennessee,
was born in Virginia in 1742, but removed to North
Carolina at an early age, and was one of the first
settlers of Watauga. In 1774 he took part in
Dunmore’s War, defended the Watauga fort in a siege
in 1776, and three years later removed with a party
to the Cumberland. This settlement was maintained
only by heroic exertions, and the courage and wisdom
of Robertson in his dealing with the Indians. In
1790, Washington appointed him brigadier-general and
Indian commissioner. He died in the Chickasaw country
in 1814.--ED.
[106] These were all prominent early settlers of Cumberland.
Captain Gordon was commander in several Indian
affrays, notably the Nickajack expedition, and served
under Jackson in 1813. Thomas Craighead was the first
clergyman in Nashville, where he arrived in 1785 and
built a school-house at Spring Hill. He was an
especial friend of Andrew Jackson, whose wife was a
member of his church (Presbyterian).--ED.
[107] _Q. lyrata_, Nutt.--C. S. S.
[108] _Ulmus fulva_, Michx.--C. S. S.
[109] _Rhamnus Caroliniana_, Gray.--C. S. S.
[110] _A. tomentosa_, Sims.--C. S. S.
[111] _Oxybaphus nyctagineus_, Sweet. (_Allionia nyctaginea_,
Michx.).--C. S. S.
[112] Probably _Hypericum aureum_, Bartram.--C. S. S.
[113] Mansco Lick was in the northeastern part of Davidson
County, named for its discoverer, Kasper Mansco
(Mansker), who was one of the party of Long Hunters
in 1769. On his adventures, see Roosevelt, _Winning
of the West_, i, pp. 147 ff.--ED.
[114] Major Sharp had formerly lived in Washington County,
Virginia, whence he had gone out to serve at the
battle of King’s Mountain. He removed to Kentucky
soon after the Revolution, and later settled in the
Barrens. His son, Solomon P. Sharp, born in 1780,
became one of the most noted Kentucky lawyers and
political leaders, serving in the thirteenth and
fourteenth Congresses, a friend and adherent of
Calhoun. He was assassinated in the midst of a
brilliant career.--ED.
[115] This was Andrew McFadden, who settled a station and
ferry at this point in 1785, and was a well-known
character of that region.--ED.
[116] A part of one leaf of the Journal is here left
blank.--C. S. S.
[117] Mann’s Lick was a salt station before 1786; it was on
the road from Shepherdsville to Louisville, on the
southern border of Jefferson County.--ED.
[118] Probably some form of _Quercus alba_, Michx.--C. S. S.
[119] _Hibiscus militaris_, Cav. (_H. hastatus_, Michx.).--C. S. S.
[120] Here follow to the end of this part of the Journal
separate memoranda on loose sheets.--C. S. S. We omit
these.--ED.
[121] Michael Lacassagne was one of the richest and most
prominent merchants of Louisville; he enjoyed the
confidence of the community, and was a member of the
Kentucky convention of 1787.--ED.
[122] It is not clear what species are here referred to. _Q.
praemorsa_ is probably _Q. macrocarpa_, and _Q.
cerroides_ some form of _Q. alba_, although later in
the journal it is spoken of as an overcup oak.--C. S. S.
[123] Clarksville, named in honor of Gen. George Rogers
Clark, was intended as the metropolis of the Illinois
grant of 150,000 acres, which was made by the
Virginia legislature in 1783 to the officers and
soldiers of the Illinois regiment which had served
with Clark. A board of trustees was established for
the town, and a few of the former officers settled
here; but the place did not thrive, and is now but a
suburb of New Albany.--ED.
[124] For the early history of Vincennes, see Croghan’s _Journals_,
vol. i of this series, note 113.--ED.
[125] _V. urticifolia_, L.--C. S. S.
[126] _V. hastata_, L.?--C. S. S.
[127] _V. stricta_, Vent. (_V. ringens_, Michx.).--C. S. S.
[128] _V. bracteosa_, Michx.--C. S. S.
[129] _Spigelia?_--C. S. S.
[130] The Piankeshaw tribe of Indians, a branch of the Miami
nation that dwelt around Vincennes.--ED.
[131] _G. auriculala_, Michx.--C. S. S.
[132] The French villages in Illinois resulted from the plans
of La Salle; the earliest grew up about Fort St.
Louis, on the Illinois River. In 1700, the Kaskaskia
tribe of Indians removed to the river bearing their
name, the Jesuit missionaries and traders followed,
and the village at this place began. The inhabitants
were chiefly descendants of the _coureurs des bois_,
intermixed with Indian blood. The Jesuit plantation
at Kaskaskia consisted of two hundred and forty
arpents of land, well-cultivated and stocked with
cattle, containing also a brewery. When the Jesuits
were suppressed, the buyer, Beauvais, raised
eighty-six thousand weight of flour from a single
harvest. The French dominion came to an end in 1765
(see Croghan’s _Journals_, vol. i of this series).
Kaskaskia was captured from the English in 1778 by
George Rogers Clark, and the American régime was
instituted by John Todd, under appointment from
Virginia. See Mason, _Chapters from Illinois History_
(Chicago, 1901), pp. 250-279.--ED.
[133] Prairie du Rocher was a small French village situated
upon a grant made to Boisbriant (about 1725) by the
Mississippi Company, and by him transferred to his
nephew Langlois, who maintained seignioral rights
therein until the establishment of American
government.--ED.
[134] St. Philippe was founded upon Regnault’s grant. Pittman
(_Present State of European Settlements on the
Mississippi_, London, 1770), says that when he visited
it (1766) there were sixteen houses, a small church,
and one inhabitant, dubbed “captain of the militia,”
who had twenty slaves, many cattle, and a mill.--ED.
[135] Cahokia was probably the oldest settlement in the
Illinois, although Kaskaskia disputes its priority. A
mission of the Séminaire des Missions Etrangères was
founded among the Tamaroa and Cahokia Indians about
1698, and a French village sprang up around the
place. In 1714 there was a large accession of
renegade _coureurs des bois_. See _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_ (Madison, 1902), xvi, pp.
331, 332. After the English acquired the Illinois,
many inhabitants migrated from Cahokia to St.
Louis.--ED.
[136] Fort Chartres was the most considerable fortification
built by the French in the western part of America.
The original fort was constructed in 1720 by
Boisbriant, commandant in Illinois for the Company of
the Indies. In 1756, the stronghold was rebuilt in
stone, being described as an irregular quadrangle
with port-holes for cannon, houses, barracks,
magazines, etc. For a contemporary description, see
Pittman, _Settlements on the Mississippi_, pp. 45,
46. After 1765, Fort Chartres was garrisoned by the
English; but in 1772 the erosion by the river caused
a portion to collapse, and the fort was abandoned.
For its present condition, see Mason, _Chapters from
Illinois History_, pp. 241-249.--ED.
[137] The earliest American settlements in Illinois were
made by soldiers of Clark’s army. Bellefontaine, in
the present Monroe County, was the centre for
American life. More American families were reported a
few years previous to this. Probably the Indian wars
and the allurements of the Indian trade had caused
some dispersal.--ED.
[138] St. Louis was founded by Pierre Laclède in April 1764.
He had secured a license from the French governor of
Louisiana to trade upon the upper Mississippi and the
Missouri. Upon arriving in the Illinois country, the
previous November, he chose the site for his new
settlement, and spent the winter at Cahokia making
arrangements. Meanwhile the news of the transfer of
Canada and the Illinois to the British had arrived.
Under the impression that France had retained the
left bank of the Mississippi, many Illinois settlers
removed thither with Laclède. St. Louis flourished
under Spanish dominion, but was known by its
neighbors as “Pain Court” (Scant-bread) because its
inhabitants devoted more time to fur-trading than to
agriculture. It was not until transferred to the
United States (March, 1804) that the career of St.
Louis as a city began.--ED.
[139] For definition of _Toise_, see _post_, note 163.
Fort Massac had been erected by the order of General
Wayne in 1794, in order to check the expedition which
Michaux went to Kentucky to promote. It was on the
site of an old French post, which had been erected in
1757 by Aubry, governor of Illinois. He first named
it Fort Ascension, and proceeded thence to reinforce
Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio. After the
evacuation of that fortress (1758), the Illinois
troops dropped down to this place, and renamed it
Fort Massac, in honor of the Marquis de Massiac,
minister of marine. When the French surrendered the
Illinois, the British neglected to fortify this
place, although recommended to do so by their
engineers. Accordingly Clark marched hither overland
to his capture of Illinois.--ED.
[140] _Q. imbricaria_, Michx.--C. S. S.
[141] _Forestiera acuminata_, Poir. (_Adelia acuminata_,
Michx.).--C. S. S.
[142] _Vitis riparia_, Michx., or more probably, in part,
at least, _V. palmata_, Vahl. (_V. rubra_, Michx. in
herb), a species which is often monospermous, and
which was discovered by Michaux in this region and
merged by him with his _V. riparia_.--C. S. S.
[143] The Cumberland River was usually known as the Shawnese
River on early maps. Doubtless this Indian tribe had
dwelt thereon when first met by white explorers.--ED.
[144] So called because it took its rise in the Cherokee
territory. See Weiser’s _Journal_, vol. i of this
series, note 33.--ED.
[145] _Forestiera ligustrina_, Poir. (_Adelia ligustrina._,
Michx.).--C. S. S.
[146] _Betula nigra_, L. (_B. lanulosa_, Michx.).--C. S. S.
[147] _Planera aquatica_, Gmel.--C. S. S.
[148] The interpolation of these names in the journal at
this point, would appear to indicate that the news of
the appointments consequent upon the arrival of the
new French minister, Adet (June 1, 1795), had just
reached Michaux; also that his interest in political
affairs was still active, and that other motives may
have led him to this country under feint of
herborizing.--ED.
[149] A blank of five days in the Journal occurs here.--C. S. S.
[150] A habitant named Pierre Richard is listed as a head
of family at Kaskaskia in 1783, and again in
1790.--ED.
[151] This, doubtless, is _C. speciosa_, Warder, the only
indigenous species in this region.--C. S. S.
[152] The principal fur-trading company at St. Louis had been
formed in 1794 by a union of all the traders at the
suggestion of the governor, Trudeau; at its head as
manager was placed Jacques Clanmorgan (Ch. Morgan is
a misprint for Clanmorgan), who had for some time
been in business in St. Louis, but did not sustain an
honorable reputation. He, however, succeeded in
interesting in his enterprises, a rich merchant of
Canada, named Todd, and probably the Scotchman and
Welshman were his factors. See Billon, _Annals of St.
Louis_ (St. Louis, 1886), pp. 283 ff.--ED.
[153] Cape St. Cosme has been corrupted into Cape Cinque Hommes,
in Perry County, Missouri. It was originally named
for Jean François de St. Cosme, a Canadian Seminary
priest who made a voyage down the Mississippi in
1700, and was a missionary to the Illinois and
Natchez. A few years later, he was assassinated on
the lower Mississippi by a band of savages, upon whom
Bienville later avenged his death. The term “Cap St.
Cosme” is found on a map of 1758.--ED.
[154] Cape Girardeau was settled in 1794, the first house
having been built by a Frenchman. The later
settlement, however, was almost exclusively American;
by 1803 there was a population of twelve
hundred.--ED.
[155] Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos was educated in England
and married an American. During his governorship at
Natchez he was employed by Carondelet in intrigues
with the inhabitants of Kentucky; he had come north
at this time for a conference with Sebastian, and to
communicate with Wilkinson. In 1797 he was made
governor-general of Louisiana, and died two years
later, after a dinner given at New Orleans in honor
of Wilkinson.--ED.
[156] The town of Eddyville, Lyon County, Kentucky, was
founded at this eddy in 1799.--ED.
[157] _B. nigra_, L.--C. S. S.
[158] Clarksville was one of the oldest settlements of
Cumberland, having first been occupied (1780) by the
Renfroe and Turpin families. As an advanced outpost
it was attacked many times by Indians, the latest
onslaught having occurred in 1794. The other
settlements which Michaux mentions were, as he says,
of quite recent origin--incident upon the close of
the Indian war (1795), and the inrush of settlers
over the new wagon road made this same year to the
Cumberland.--ED.
[159] The entry for the 14th is omitted in the original
publication.--ED.
[160] Capt. John Edmeston was a well-known Indian fighter
and leader of the militia. An expedition against the
Chickasaws, organized by him in 1792, was forbidden
by Robertson, because of negotiations pending with
this warlike tribe.--ED.
[161] “Old man” Frederick Stumps was a German, who early
made improvements on White Creek, north of Eaton’s
Station. His flight of three miles to the latter
station, with Indian pursuers close at his heels, was
one of the traditions of the settlement.--ED.
[162] This was George Madison, brother of Bishop Madison of
Virginia. Born about 1763, he served in the
Revolution while yet a boy, and enlisting in the
regular army was wounded at St. Clair’s defeat
(1791), and again the following year. Shortly after
this visit of Michaux, Madison was appointed state
auditor, and removed to Frankfort, where he held the
office for twenty ensuing years. In 1812 he served as
major in the army, was captured at Raisin River, and
sent as prisoner to Quebec. Upon his exchange, he was
received in Kentucky with great rejoicing, and
elected governor (1816), but died during the first
year of his term.--ED.
[163] A toise is a French linear measure equivalent to 6.395
English feet.--ED.
[164] This mill was at the site of the present town of
Hodgenville, seat of Larue County. Abraham Lincoln
was born about two miles south of this place, when
Larue was still part of Hardin County--ED.
[165] Shepherdsville, the seat of Bullitt County, was
incorporated as a town in 1793. Its site was at the
falls of Salt River, and it was an important station
in early Kentucky history.--ED.
[166] Gayoso mentions one Sarpy, a rich merchant of New
Orleans, as concerned in the plot against Louisiana
(1793). Another merchant, Beauvais, was similarly
involved. Consult American Historical Association
_Report_, 1896, p. 1049.--ED.
[167] Samuel Fulton, a native of North Carolina, who had
lived for some time among the Creek Indians, was
agent for Clark in settling his accounts with the
French government. He arrived from France late in
1795, and Michaux’s testimony was relied upon to
secure the affidavits necessary to obtain recompense
from the French republic. See _American State Papers,
Indian Affairs_, i, p. 463. Consult, also, American
Historical Association _Report_, 1896, pp.
1047-1065.--ED.
[168] Probably _Pinus inops_, Ait.--C. S. S.
[169] _Aplectrum hyemale_, Nutt.--C. S. S.
[170] Col. Robert Hays, a brother-in-law of Andrew Jackson,
was born in North Carolina, and served in the
Revolution, being captured at Charleston. He removed
to Cumberland in 1784, was first United States
marshal of Tennessee, muster-master-general for
Jackson in 1813, and died at his home near Nashville
in 1819.--ED.
[171] _Arundinaria macrosperma_, Michx.--C. S. S.
[172] Fort Blount was not a pioneer stronghold, but one
erected by the government shortly before Michaux’s
visit, for protection of the settlers against the
Cherokees. It was on the north bank of Cumberland
River, in the southwestern part of Jackson County,
about midway between the Eastern and Western
Tennessee settlements.--ED.
[173] _Cladrastis tinctoria_ Raf., discovered here by
Michaux, although not included in his _Flora_. A
letter written by Michaux to Governor Blount
suggesting the value of the wood of this tree as a
dye wood, was, according to the younger Michaux,
published in the _Knoxville Gazette_, on the
fifteenth of March, 1769. [See his journal,
_post._]--C. S. S.
[174] _Lygodium palmatum_ Swz.--C. S. S.
[175] The Looneys were a prominent family in the early
history of East Tennessee. Captain David Looney was
militia officer during the Revolution and the Indian
wars.--ED.
[176] Dr. Benjamin S. Barton was one of the best known
scientists and naturalists of his day, as well as a
skilful physician. Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
he was educated in Europe and took up practice in
Philadelphia. In 1789, he was made professor of
botany and natural history in the University of
Pennsylvania; he was vice-president of the American
Philosophical Society, and member of other learned
organizations. He was designated to edit the
scientific data of Lewis and Clark’s expedition, but
died before accomplishing this (1815).--ED.
[177] William Bartram, son and co-worker of John Bartram,
one of America’s first naturalists, was born in
Pennsylvania in 1739. He devoted his life to the
study of botany, travelling extensively for the
discovery of plants. His head-quarters were at the
botanical gardens near Philadelphia.--ED.
[178] John Overton was one of the best-known jurists of
Tennessee. Born in Virginia, he early emigrated to
Kentucky, whence he removed to Nashville, about the
time Jackson began his career. He became Jackson’s
partner and warm friend. From 1804-10 he was judge of
the superior court, and of great service in adjusting
land titles; the next five years (1811-16) Judge
Overton served on the supreme bench of the state. He
was one of the early proprietors of Memphis; and died
near Nashville in 1833.--ED.
[179] John Carter was the foremost man of the early Watauga
settlement. Coming from North Carolina, he had the
prestige of family and a superior education, and was
chosen head of the new community, serving efficiently
in many capacities. He was concerned in the State of
Franklin movement, and was frequently called out at
the head of the militia, on Indian expeditions.
Carter County was named for him, and he had therein a
large estate.--ED.
[180] Michaux returned across the mountains by a different
route from the one by which he went out. The northern
or upper road over Yellow Mountain appears to have
been the more frequented; the lower road, over the
Iron Mountain range and down the Nolichucky, the more
direct. See the younger Michaux’s account (_post_) of
the difficulties of this route, when he passed over
it six years later. Limestone Cove was probably at
the mouth of Limestone Creek, a tributary of the
Nolichucky on the western or Tennessee side of the
mountain. Cane and Paper Creeks are small tributaries
of the Nolichucky, on the eastern or North Carolina
grade of the mountains.--ED.
[181] _C. rostrata_, Ait.--C. S. S.
[182] _V. hastata_, Michx.--C. S. S.
[183] _M. macrophylla_, Michx.--C. S. S.
[184] Tuckasegee Ford is between the present Gaston County and
Mechlenburg, about ten miles west of Charlotte.--ED.
[185] Note: before passing the ford, I dined with ... Alexander,
a very respectable man from whom I have received many
courtesies.--MICHAUX.
It is impossible to determine from this allusion,
which of the numerous Alexander family Michaux
visited. The Alexanders of Mechlenburg were noted as
patriotic, God-fearing, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians,
who had a large share in the Revolutionary War in
their country. Abraham presided at the Mechlenburg
Convention (1775), of which Adam and John McKnitt
Alexander were both members.--ED.
[186] When one does not wish to pass by Charlotte in going to
Lincoln, he must inquire twelve or fifteen miles
before reaching these, for the route to the left
which passes by Tuckasegee Ford.--MICHAUX.
[187] It has been suggested that this may refer to _F.
Caroliniana_, Walt. (_F. Walteri_, Michx.).--C. S. S.
[188] It is not at all clear what shrub Michaux refers to in
this entry. Mr. Canby, to whom several of the
doubtful points in the Journal have been referred,
and whose knowledge of the plants of the Allegheny
region is now unrivaled, suggests that Michaux may
have found _Darbya_. There is nothing in his
herbarium to indicate that he ever saw that plant,
which was found, however, by M. A. Curtis not far
from Morganton.--C. S. S.
[189] Probably _Silene Pennsylvanica_ as suggested by Mr.
Canby, or _S. Baldwinii_, as suggested by Mr. Meehan.
In both of the species the petals are sometimes rose
colored.--C. S. S.
[190] _Planera aquatica_, Gmelin.--C. S. S.
[191] Bledsoe’s Lick. A pioneer told Lyman C. Draper that this
was often called “the Bloody Ground,” because so many
whites were there killed by Indians--note in Draper
MSS., Wisconsin Historical Society, 3 XX 18.--ED.
TRAVELS TO THE WEST OF THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS,
BY FRANÇOIS ANDRÉ MICHAUX
Reprint from London edition, 1805
[Illustration:
_CARTE_
DES ETATS DU CENTRE, DE
L’OUEST ET DU SUD
_DES_
ETATS-UNIS.
_Dessinée par Dupias fils_
AN XII.__1804.
]
TRAVELS
TO THE WEST OF THE
_ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS_,
IN THE STATES OF
Ohio,
KENTUCKY, AND TENNESSEA,
AND BACK TO CHARLESTON, BY THE UPPER
CAROLINES;
COMPRISING
_The most interesting Details on the present State of_
Agriculture,
AND
THE NATURAL PRODUCE OF THOSE COUNTRIES:
TOGETHER WITH
_Particulars relative to the Commerce that exists between the
above-mentioned States, and those situated East of the Mountains
and Low Louisiana_,
UNDERTAKEN, IN THE YEAR 1802,
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
His Excellency M. CHAPTAL, Minister of the Interior,
BY F. A. MICHAUX,
MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY AT PARIS; CORRESPONDENT
OF THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY IN THE DEPARTMENT
OF THE SEINE AND OISE.
LONDON:
Printed by D. N. SHURY, Berwick Street, Soho;
FOR B. CROSBY AND CO. STATIONERS’ COURT;
AND J. F. HUGHES, WIGMORE STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE:
1805.
CONTENTS
CHAP. I
Departure from Bourdeaux.--Arrival at Charleston.--Remarks
upon the yellow fever.--A short description of the town
of Charleston.--Observations upon several trees, natives
of the old continent, reared in a botanic garden near
the city 117
CHAP. II
Departure from Charleston for New York.--A short
description of the town.--Botanic excursions in New
Jersey.--Remarks upon the _quercus tinctoria_, or black
oak, and the nut trees of that country.--Departure from
New York for Philadelphia.--Abode 125
{vi} CHAP. III
Departure from Philadelphia to the western
country.--Communications by land in the United
States.--Arrival at Lancaster.--Description of the
town and its environs.--Departure.--Columbia.--Passage
from Susquehannah, York, Dover, Carlisle.--Arrival at
Shippensburgh.--Remarks upon the state of agriculture
during the journey 132
CHAP. IV
Departure from Shippensburgh to Strasburgh.--Journey
over the Blue Ridges.--New Species of
_rhododendrum_.--Passage over the river Juniata.--Use
of the cones of the _magnolia acuminata_.--Arrival at
Bedford Court House.--Excesses to which the natives
of that part of the country are addicted.--Departure
from Bedford.--Journey over Alleghany Ridge and Laurel
Hill.--Arrival at West Liberty Town 141
CHAP. V
Departure from West Liberty Town to go among the mountains
in search of a shrub supposed to give good oil, a
new species of _azalea_.--Ligonier Valley.--Coal
Mines.--Greensburgh.--Arrival at Pittsburgh 149
{vii} CHAP. VI
Description of Pittsburgh.--Commerce of the Town and
adjacent countries with New Orleans.--Construction
of large vessels.--Description of the rivers
Monongahela and Alleghany.--Towns situated on their
banks.--Agriculture.--Maple sugar 156
CHAP. VII
Description of the Ohio.--Navigation of that river.--Mr.
S. Craft.--The object of his travels.--Remarks upon the
state of Vermont 163
CHAP. VIII
Departure from Pittsburgh for Kentucky.--Journey by land
to Wheeling.--State of agriculture on the route.--West
Liberty Town in Virginia.--Wheeling 168
CHAP. IX
Departure from Wheeling for Marietta.--Aspect of the banks
of the Ohio.--Nature of the forests.--Extraordinary size
of several kinds of trees 172
{viii} CHAP. X
Marietta.--Ship building.--Departure for
Gallipoli.--Falling in with a Kentucky boat.--Point
Pleasant.--The Great Kenhaway 177
CHAP. XI
Gallipoli.--State of the French colony Scioto.--Alexandria
at the mouth of the Great Scioto.--Arrival at Limestone
in Kentucky 182
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 188
CHAP. XIII
Limestone.--Route from Limestone to Lexinton.--Washington.--
Salt-works at Mays-Lick.--Millesburgh.--Paris 195
CHAP. XIV
Lexinton.--Manufactories established there.--Commerce.--Dr.
Samuel Brown 199
{ix} CHAP. XV
Departure from Lexinton.--Culture of the vine at Kentucky.--
Passage over the Kentucky and Dick Rivers.--Departure
for Nasheville.--Mulder Hill.--Passage over Green River 206
CHAP. XVI
Passage over the Barrens, or Meadows.--Plantations upon
the road.--The view they present.--Plants discovered
there.--Arrival at Nasheville 215
CHAP. XVII
General observations upon Kentucky.--Nature of the
soil.--First settlements in the state.--Right of
property uncertain.--Population 222
CHAP. XVIII
Distinction of Estates.--Species of Trees peculiar to each
of them.--Ginseng.--Animals in Kentucky 228
CHAP. XIX
Different kinds of culture in Kentucky.--Exportation of
colonial produce.--Peach trees.--Taxes 237
{x} CHAP. XX
Particulars relative to the manners of the inhabitants
of Kentucky.--Horses and cattle.--Necessity of giving
them salt.--Wild Horses caught in the Plains of New
Mexico.--Exportation of salt provisions 243
[CHAP.] XXI
Nasheville.--Commercial details.--Settlement of the Natches 250
CHAP. XXII
Departure for Knoxville.--Arrival at Fort Blount.--Remarks
upon the drying up of the Rivers in the
Summer.--Plantations on the road.--Fertility of the
soil.--Excursions in a canoe on the river Cumberland 255
CHAP. XXIII
Departure from Fort Blount to West Point, through the
Wilderness.--Botanical excursions upon Roaring
River.--Description of its Banks.--Saline productions
found there.--Indian Cherokees.--Arrival at Knoxville 258
{xi} CHAP. XXIV
Knoxville.--Commercial intelligence.--Trees that grow in
the environs.--Converting some parts of the Meadows into
Forests.--River Nolachuky.--Greensville.--Arrival at
Jonesborough 265
CHAP. XXV
General observations on the state of Tennessea.--Rivers
Cumberland and Tennessea.--What is meant by East
Tennessea or Holston, and West Tennessea or
Cumberland.--First settlements in West Tennessea.--Trees
natives of that country 271
CHAP. XXVI
Different kinds of produce of West Tennessea.--Domestic
manufactories for cottons encouraged by the Legislature
of this State.--Mode of letting out Estates by some of
the Emigrants 276
CHAP. XXVII
East Tennessea, or Holston.--Agriculture.--Population.--
Commerce 280
{xii} CHAP. XXVIII
Departure from Jonesborough for Morganton, in North
Carolina.--Journey over Iron Mountains.--Sojourn on the
mountains.--Journey over the Blue Ridges and Linneville
Mountains.--Arrival at Morganton 283
CHAP. XXIX
General observations upon this part of the Chain of
the Alleghanies.--Salamander which is found in the
torrents.--Bear hunting 286
CHAP. XXX
Morganton.--Departure for Charleston.--Lincolnton.--
Chester.--Winesborough.-- Columbia.--Aspect of the Country
on the Road.--Agriculture, &c. &c. 290
CHAP. XXXI
General observations on the Carolinas and Georgia.--
Agriculture and produce peculiar to the upper part of
these states 296
CHAP. XXXII
Low part of the Carolines and Georgia.--Agriculture.--
Population.--Arrival at Charleston 301
TRAVELS, &C., &C.
CHAP. I
_Departure from Bourdeaux.--Arrival at Charleston.--Remarks
upon the yellow fever.--A short description of the town of
Charleston.--Observations upon several trees, natives of the
old continent, reared in a botanic garden near the city._
Charleston, in South Carolina, being the first place of my
destination, I went to Bourdeaux as one of the ports of France that
trades most with the southern parts of the United States, and where
there are most commonly vessels from the different points of North
America. I embarked the 24th of {2} September 1801, on board the John
and Francis, commanded by the same captain with whom I returned to
Europe several years ago.[1] A fortnight after our departure we
were overtaken by a calm, within sight of the Açorian Islands. Saint
George’s and Graciosa were those nearest to us, where we clearly
distinguished a few houses, which appeared built with stone and
chalk; and the rapid declivity of the land divided by hedges, which
most likely separated the property of different occupiers. The major
part of these islands abound with stupendous mountains, in various
directions, and beyond which the summit of Pico, in a pyramidical
form rises majestically above the clouds, which were then illumined
by the rays of the setting sun. A gentle breeze springing up, we
soon lost sight of that charming prospect, and on the 9th of October
following entered the Charleston roads, in company with two other
vessels which had left Bourdeaux, the one eighteen days, and the
other a month before us.
The pleasure that we felt on discovering the shore was very soon
abated. The pilot informed us that the yellow fever had made dreadful
ravages at Charleston, and was still carrying off a great number
of the inhabitants. This intelligence alarmed the {3} passengers,
who were fourteen in number, the most of whom had either friends
or relatives in the town. Every one was fearful of learning some
disastrous news or other. The anchor was no sooner weighed than those
who had never been accustomed to warm countries were escorted by
their friends to the Isle of Sullivan. This island is situated about
seven miles from Charleston. Its dry and parched-up soil is almost
bereft of vegetation; but as it is exposed to the breeze of the open
sea, the air is generally cool and pleasant. Within these few years,
since that bilious and inflammatory disorder, commonly known by the
name of the _yellow fever_, shows itself regularly every summer at
Charleston, a great number of the inhabitants and planters, who took
refuge in the town to escape the intermittent fevers which attack
seven-tenths of those resident in the country, have built houses in
that island, where they sojourn from the early part of July till the
first frost, which usually takes place about the 15th of November. A
few of the inhabitants keep boarding-houses, where they receive those
who have no settled residence. It has been remarked that foreigners,
newly arrived from Europe or the states of North America, and {4} who
go immediately to reside in this island, are exempt from the yellow
fever.
However powerful these considerations were, they could not induce
me to go and pass my time in such a dull and melancholy abode; upon
which I refused the advice of my friends, and staid in the town. I
had nearly been the victim of my obstinacy, having been, a few days
after, attacked with the first symptoms of this dreadful malady,
under which I laboured upward of a month.
The yellow fever varies every year according to the intenseness of
the heat; at the same time the observation has not yet been forcible
enough to point out the characteristic signs by which they can
discover whether it will be more or less malignant in the summer. The
natives are not so subject to it as foreigners, eight-tenths of whom
died the year of my arrival; and whenever the former are attacked
with it, it is always in a much less proportion.
It has been observed that during the months of July, August,
September, and October, when this disorder is usually most prevalent,
the persons who leave Charleston for a few days only, are, on their
return to town, much more susceptible of catching it {5} than those
who staid at home. The natives of Upper Carolina, two or three
hundred miles distant, are as subject to it as foreigners; and those
of the environs are not always exempt from it: whence it results that
during one third of the year all communications are nearly cut off
between the country and town, whither they go but very reluctantly,
and seldom or ever sleep there. The supply of provisions at that time
is only made by the negroes, who are never subject to the fever.
On my return to Charleston in the month of October 1802, from my
travels over the western part of the country, I did not meet, on the
most populous road, for the space of three hundred miles, a single
traveller that was either going to town or returning from it; and
in the houses where I stopped there was not a person who conceived
his business of that importance to oblige him to go there while the
season lasted.
From the 1st of November till the month of May the country affords
a picture widely different; every thing resumes new life; trade is
re-animated; the suspended communications re-commence; the roads are
covered with waggons, bringing from all quarters the produce of the
exterior; an immense number of carriages and single-horse chaises
roll rapidly {6} along, and keep up a continual correspondence
between the city and the neighbouring plantations, where the owners
spend the greatest part of the season. In short, the commercial
activity renders Charleston just as lively as it is dull and
melancholy in the summer.
It is generally thought at Charleston that the yellow fever which
rages there, as well as at Savannah, every summer, is analogous to
that which breaks out in the colonies, and that it is not contagious:
but this opinion is not universally adopted in the northern cities.
It is a fact, that whenever the disease is prevalent at New York and
Philadelphia, the natives are as apt to contract it as foreigners,
and that they remove as soon as they learn that their neighbours are
attacked with it. Notwithstanding they have a very valuable advantage
that is not to be found at Charleston, which is, that the country
places bordering on Philadelphia and New York are pleasant and
salubrious; and that at two or three miles’ distance the inhabitants
are in perfect safety, though even the disorder committed the
greatest ravages in the above-mentioned towns.
I took the liberty to make this slight digression, for the
information of those who might have to go to the {7} southern parts
of the United States that it is dangerous to arrive there in the
months of July, August, September, and October. I conceived, like
many others, that the using of every means necessary to prevent the
effervescence of the blood was infallibly a preservative against this
disorder; but every year it is proved by experience that those who
have pursued that mode of living, which is certainly the best, are
not all exempt from sharing the fate of those who confine themselves
to any particular kind of regimen.
Charleston is situated at the conflux of the rivers Ashley and
Cooper. The spot of ground that it occupies is about a mile in
length. From the middle of the principal street the two rivers might
be clearly seen, were it not for a public edifice built upon the
banks of the Cooper, which intercepts the view. The most populous and
commercial part of the town is situated along the Ashley. Several
ill-constructed quays project into the river, to facilitate the
trading vessels taking in their cargoes. These quays are formed with
the trunks of palm trees fixed together, and laid out in squares
one above the other. Experience has shown that the trunks of these
trees, although of a very spungy nature, lie buried in the {8} water
many years without decaying; upon which account they are generally
preferred for these purposes to any other kind of wood in the
country. The streets of Charleston are extremely wide, but not paved,
consequently every time your foot slips from a kind of brick pavement
before the doors, you are immerged nearly ancle-deep in sand. The
rapid circulation of the carriages, which, proportionately speaking,
are far more considerable here in number than in any other part of
America, continually grinds this moving sand, and pulverizes it in
such a manner, that the most gentle wind fills the shops with it, and
renders it very disagreeable to foot passengers. At regular distances
pumps supply the inhabitants with water of such a brackish taste,
that it is truly astonishing how foreigners can grow used to it.
Two-thirds of the houses are built with wood, the rest with brick.
According to the last computation, made in 1803, the population,
comprising foreigners, amounted to 10,690 whites and 9050 slaves.
Strangers that arrive at Charleston, or at any town in the United
States, find no furnished hotels nor rooms to let for their
accommodation, no coffee-houses where they can regale themselves.
The whole of this is replaced by boarding-houses, where every thing
necessary {9} is provided. In Carolina you pay, at these receptacles,
from twelve to twenty piastres per week. This enormous sum is by no
means proportionate to the price of provisions. For example, beef
very seldom exceeds sixpence a pound. Vegetables are dearer there
than meat. Independent of the articles of consumption that the
country supplies, the port of Charleston is generally full of small
vessels from Boston, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia, and from
all the little intermediate ports, which are loaded with flour, salt
provisions, potatoes, onions, carrots, beet-roots, apples, oats,
Indian corn, and hay. Planks and building materials comprize another
considerable article of importation; and although these different
kinds of produce are brought from three to four hundred leagues,
they are not so dear and of a better quality than those of their own
growth.
In winter the markets of Charleston are well stocked with live
sea-fish, which are brought from the northern part of the United
States in vessels so constructed as to keep them in a continual
supply of water. The ships engaged in this kind of traffic load,
in return, with rice and cottons, the greater part of which is
re-exported into Europe, the freight {10} being always higher in
the northern than in the southern states. The cotton wool that they
keep in the north for their own consumption is more than sufficient
to supply the manufacturies, being but very few: the overplus is
disposed of in the country places, where the women fabricate coarse
cottons for the use of their families.
Wood is extravagantly dear at Charleston; it costs from forty to
fifty shillings[2] a _cord_, notwithstanding forests, which are
almost boundless in extent, begin at six miles, and even at a less
distance from the town, and the conveyance of it is facilitated by
the two rivers at the conflux of which it is situated; on which
account a great number of the inhabitants burn coals that are brought
from England.
As soon as I recovered from my illness I left Charleston, and went
to reside in a small plantation about ten miles from the town, where
my father had formed a botanic garden. It was there he collected and
cultivated, with the greatest care, the plants that he found in the
long and painful travels that his ardent love for science had urged
him to make, almost every year, in the different quarters of America.
Ever animated with a desire of serving the country he was in, he
conceived that the climate of South Carolina {11} must be favourable
to the culture of several useful vegetables of the old continent,
and made a memorial of them, which he read to the Agricultural
Society at Charleston. A few happy essays confirmed him in his
opinion, but his return to Europe did not permit him to continue his
former attempts. On my arrival at Carolina I found in this garden
a superb collection of trees and plants that had survived almost a
total neglect for nearly the space of four years. I likewise found
there a great number of trees belonging to the old continent, that
my father had planted, some of which were in the most flourishing
state. I principally remarked two _ginkgo bilobas_, that had not
been planted above seven years, and which were then upward of thirty
feet in height; several _sterculia platanifolia_, which had yielded
seed upward of six years; in short, more than a hundred and fifty
_mimosa illibrissin_, the first plant of which came from Europe about
ten inches in diameter. I set several before my return to France,
this tree being at that time very much esteemed for its magnificent
flowers. The Agricultural Society at Carolina are now in possession
of this garden: they intend keeping it in order, and cultivating the
useful vegetables belonging to the old continent, which, {12} from
the analogy of the climate, promise every success.[3] I employed
the remainder of the autumn in making collections of seed, which
I sent to Europe; and the winter, in visiting the different parts
of Low Carolina, and in reconnoitring the places where, the year
following, I might make more abundant harvests, and procure the
various sorts that I had not been able to collect during the autumn.
On this account I must observe, that in North America, and perhaps
more so than in Europe, there are plants that only inhabit certain
places; whence it happens that a botanist, in despite of all his zeal
and activity, does not meet with them for years; whilst another, led
by a happy chance, finds them in his first excursion. I shall add,
in favour of those who wish to travel over the southern part of the
United States for botanical researches, that the epoch of the flower
season begins in the early part of February; the time for gathering
the seeds of herbaceous plants in the month of August; and on the 1st
of October for that of forest trees.
{13} CHAP. II
_Departure from Charleston for New York.--A short description
of the town.--Botanic excursions in New Jersey.--Remark
upon the_ Quercus tinctoria _or Black Oak, and the nut
trees of that country.--Departure from New York for
Philadelphia.--Abode._
In the spring of the year 1802 I left Charleston to go to New York,
where I arrived after a passage of ten days. Trade is so brisk between
the northern and southern states, that there is generally an
opportunity at Charleston to get into any of the ports of the northern
states you wish. Several vessels have rooms, tastefully arranged and
commodiously fitted up, for the reception of passengers, who every
year go in crowds to reside in the northern part of the United States,
during the unhealthy season, and return to Charleston in the month of
November following. You pay for the passage from forty to fifty {14}
piastres. Its duration varies according to the weather. It is
generally about ten days, but it is sometimes prolonged by violent
gusts of wind which casually spring up on doubling Cape Hatras.
New York, situated at the conflux of the rivers from the east and
north, is much nearer to the sea than Philadelphia. Its harbour being
safe, and of an easy access in all seasons, makes it very advantageous
to the city, and adds incessantly to its extent, riches, and
population. The town consists of more than 50,000 souls, among whom
are reckoned but a very small number of negroes. Living is not so dear
there as at Charleston; one may board for eight or ten piastres a
week.
During my stay at New York I frequently had an opportunity of seeing
Dr. Hosack, who was held in the highest reputation as a professor of
botany. He was at that time employed in establishing a botanical
garden, where he intended giving a regular course of lectures. This
garden is a few miles from the town: the spot of ground is well
adapted, especially for plants that require a peculiar aspect or
situation. Mr. Hosack is the physician belonging to the hospital and
prison, by virtue of which he permitted me to accompany him in one of
his visits, and I had by that {15} means an opportunity of seeing
those two establishments. The hospital is well situated, the buildings
are extensive, the rooms lofty and well aired; but the beds appeared
to me very indifferent; they are composed of a very low bedstead,
edged with board about four inches wide, and furnished with a
mattress, or rather a pallias, filled with oat straw, not very thick,
coarse brown linen sheets, and a rug. The prison is remarkable for the
decorum, the arrangement, the cleanliness that reigns there, and more
especially for the willingness with which the prisoners seem to work
at the different employments allotted for them.
Each seemed to be tasked according to his abilities or profession;
some were making shoes, and others manufacturing cut-nails. These
nails, made by the help of a machine, have no point, and cannot be
used for the same purposes as others wrought in the usual way;
notwithstanding, a great many people prefer them for nailing on roofs
of houses. They pretend that these nails have not the inconvenience of
starting out by reason of the weather, as it frequently happens with
others; as upon the roofs of old houses a great number of nails may be
seen {16} which do not appear to have been driven in more than half or
one-third of their length.
During my stay at New York, I took a botanical excursion into New
Jersey, by the river side, towards the north. This part of New Jersey
is very uneven; the soil is hard and flinty, to judge of it by the
grass which I saw in places pulled up. Large rocks, of a chalky
nature, as if decayed, appeared even with the ground upon almost all
the hills. Notwithstanding, we observed different species of trees;
among others, a variety of the red oak, the acorn of which is nearly
round; the white oak, _quercus alba_; and, among the different species
or varieties of nut trees, the _juglans tomentosa_, or mocker-nut, and
the _juglans minima_, or pig-nut. In the low and marshy places, where
it is overflowed almost all the year, we found the _juglans-hickery_,
or shell-barked hickery; the _quercus prinus aquatica_, which belongs
to the series of _prunus_, and is not mentioned in the “_History of
Oaks_.”[4] The valleys are planted with ash trees, palms, _cornus
florida’s_ poplars, and _quercus tinctoria’s_, known in the country by
the name of the black oak.
The _quercus tinctoria_ is very common in all the {17} northern
states; it is likewise found to the west of the Alleghany mountains,
but is not so abundant in the low part of Georgia and the two
Carolinas. The leaves of the lower branches assume a different form
from those of the higher branches; the latter are more sharp and
pointed. The plate given in the History of Oaks only represents the
leaves of the lower branches, and the shape of them when quite young.
Amid these numerous species and varieties of oaks, the leaves of which
vary, as to form, according to their age, which generally confounds
them with each other; notwithstanding, there are certain
characteristic signs by which the _quercus tinctoria_ may be always
known. In all the other species the stalk, fibres, and leaves
themselves are of a lightish green, and towards the autumn their
colour grows darker, and changes to a reddish hue; on the contrary,
the stalk, fibres and leaves of the black oak are of a yellowish cast,
and apparently very dry; again, the yellow grows deeper towards the
approach of winter. This remark is sufficient not to mistake them;
notwithstanding, there is another still more positive, by which this
species may be recognised in winter, when even it has lost its leaves;
that is, by the bitter taste of its bark, and the yellow colour {18}
which the spittle assumes when chewed. The bark of the _quercus
cinerea_ has nearly the same property; and, finding this, I made an
observation of it to Dr. Bancroft, who was at Charleston in the winter
of 1802. Upon the whole, it is impossible to be mistaken concerning
these two kinds of oaks; for the latter grows only in the dryest parts
of the southern states. It is very rarely more than four inches in
diameter, and eighteen feet in height; its leaves are lanceolated: on
the other hand, the _quercus tinctoria_ grows upwards of eighty feet
in height, and its leaves are in several lobes, and very long.
Among the species of acorns that I sent over from the northern states
of America to France, and those which I brought with me in the spring
of 1803, were some of the black oak, which have come up very
abundantly in the nursery at Trianon. Mr. Cels has upwards of a
hundred young plants of them in his garden.
The species and variety of nut trees natural to the United States are
also extremely numerous, and might be the subject of a useful and
interesting monography; but that work would never be precisely
accurate provided the different qualities of those trees are not
studied in the country itself. I have {19} seen some of those nut
trees which, by the leaves and blossom, appeared of the same species,
when the shells and nuts seemed to class them differently. I have, on
the contrary, seen others where the leaves and blossoms were
absolutely different, and the fruit perfectly analogous. It is true
there are some, where the fruit and blossom are systematically regular
at the same time, but very few. This numerous species of nut trees is
not confined to the United States; it is remarked in every part of
North America from the northern extremity of the United States as far
as Mississipi; that is to say, an extent of more than eight hundred
leagues from north to south, and five hundred from east to west. I
brought over with me some new nuts of six different species, which
have come up exceedingly well, and which appear not to have been yet
described.
I left New York the 8th of June 1802, to go to Philadelphia; the
distance is about a hundred miles. The stages make this journey some
in a day, others in a day and a half; the fare is five piastres each
person. At the taverns where the stages stop they pay one piaster for
dinner, half one for supper or breakfast, and the same for a bed. The
space of ground that separates the two cities is completely {20}
cleared, and the farms are contiguous to each other. About nine miles
from New York is a place called Newark, a pretty little town situated
in New Jersey. The fields that encompass it are planted with apple
trees; the cyder that is made there is accounted the best in the
United States; however, I conceived it by far inferior to that of
Saint Lo, Coutance, or Bayeux. Among the other small towns by the road
side, Trenton seemed worthy of attention. Its situation upon the
Delaware, the beautiful tract of country that surrounds it, must
render it a most delightful place of abode.
Philadelphia is situated upon the Delaware, a hundred miles distant
from the sea; at this period the most extensive, the handsomest, and
most populous city of the United States. In my opinion, there is not
one upon the old continent built upon so regular a plan. The streets
cut each other at right angles, and are from forty to fifty feet in
breadth, except the middle one, which is twice as broad. The market is
built in this street, and is remarkable for its extent and extreme
cleanliness; it is in the centre of the town, and occupies nearly
one-third of its length. The streets are paved commodiously before the
houses with brick; pumps erected on both sides, about {21} fifty yards
distant from each other, afford an abundant supply of water; upon the
top of each is a brilliant lamp. Several streets are planted with
Italian poplars of a most beautiful growth, which makes the houses
appear elegantly rural.
The population of Philadelphia is always on the increase; in 1749,
there were eleven thousand inhabitants; in 1785, forty thousand; and
now the number is computed to be about seventy thousand. The few
Negroes that are there are free, the greatest part of whom go out to
service. Provisions are not quite so dear at Philadelphia as New York;
on which account the boarding houses do not charge more than from six
to ten piastres per week. You never meet any poor at Philadelphia, not
a creature wearing the aspect of misery in his face; that distressing
spectacle, so common in European cities, is unknown in America; love,
industry, the want of sufficient hands, the scarcity of workmanship,
an active commerce, property, are the direct causes that contend
against the introduction of beggary, whether in town or country.
During my stay at Philadelphia, I had an opportunity of seeing the
Rev. Dr. Collin, minister of the Swedish church, and president of the
Philosophical {22} Society; Mr. John Vaughan, the secretary; Messrs.
Piles, John and William Bartram.[5] These different gentlemen had
formerly been particularly acquainted with my father, and I received
from them every mark of attention and respect. Mr. Piles has a
beautiful cabinet of natural history. The legislature of Pensylvania
have presented him with a place to arrange it in; that is the only
encouragement he has received. He is continually employed in enriching
it by increasing the number of his correspondents in Europe, as well
as in the remote parts of the United States; still, except a _bison_,
I saw nothing in his collection but what may be found in the Museum at
Paris.
The absence of Mr. W. Hamilton deprived me of the pleasure of seeing
him; notwithstanding, I went into his magnificent garden, situated
upon the borders of the Schuylkill, about four miles from
Philadelphia. His collection of exotics is immense, and remarkable for
plants from New Holland; all the trees and shrubs of the United
States, at least those that could stand the winter at Philadelphia,
after being once removed from their native soil; in short, it would be
almost impossible to find a more agreeable situation than the
residence of Mr. W. Hamilton.[6]
{23} CHAP. III
_Departure from Philadelphia to the Western Country.--Communications
by land in the United States.--Arrival at Lancaster.--
Description of the town and its environs.--Departure.--
Columbia.--Passage from Susquehannah, York, Dover, Carlisle.--
Arrival at Shippensburgh.--Remarks upon the state of
agriculture during the journey._
The states of Kentucky, Tennessea, and Ohio comprise that vast extent
of country known in America by the name of the Western Country. Almost
all the Europeans who have published observations upon the United
States, have been pleased to say, according to common report, that
this part of the country is very fertile; but they have never entered
into the least particulars. It is true that, to reach these new
settlements, one is obliged to travel over a considerable tract of
uninhabited country, and that {24} these journies are tedious,
painful, and afford nothing very interesting to travellers who wish to
describe the manners of the people who reside in the town or most
populous parts; but as natural history, and more especially vegetable
productions, with the state of agriculture, were the chief object of
my researches; my business was to avoid the parts most known, in order
to visit those which had been less explored; consequently, I resolved
to undertake the journey to that remote and almost isolated part of
the country. I had nearly two thousand miles to travel over before my
return to Charleston, where I was to be absolutely about the beginning
of October. My journey had likewise every appearance of being retarded
by a thousand common-place obstacles, which is either impossible to
foresee, or by any means prevent. These considerations, however, did
not stop me; accordingly I fixed my departure from Philadelphia on the
27th of June 1802: I had not the least motive to proceed on slowly, in
order to collect observations already confirmed by travellers who had
written before me on that subject; this very reason induced me to take
the most expeditious means for the purpose of reaching Pittsburgh,
situated at the extremity of Ohio; in consequence of which I took {25}
the stage[7] at Philadelphia, that goes to Shippensburgh by
Lancaster, York, and Carlisle. Shippensburgh, about one hundred and
forty miles from Philadelphia, is the farthest place that the stages
go to upon that road.[8]
It is reckoned sixty miles from Philadelphia to Lancaster, where I
arrived the same day in the afternoon. The road is kept in good repair
by the means of turnpikes, fixed at a regular distance from each
other. Nearly the whole of the way the houses are almost close
together; every proprietor to his enclosure. Throughout the United
States all the land that is cultivated is fenced in, to keep it from
the cattle and quadrupeds of every kind that the inhabitants leave the
major part of the year in the woods, which in that respect are free.
Near towns or villages these {26} enclosures are made with posts,
fixed in the ground about twelve feet from each other, containing five
mortises, at the distance of eight or nine inches, in which are fitted
long spars about four or five inches in diameter, similar to the poles
used by builders for making scaffolds. The reason of their enclosing
thus is principally through economy, as it takes up but very little
wood, which is extremely dear in the environs of the Northern cities;
but in the interior of the country, and in the Southern states, the
enclosures are made with pieces of wood of equal length, placed one
above the other, disposed in a zig-zag form, and supported by their
extremities, which cross and interlace each other; the enclosures
appear to be about seven feet in height. In the lower part of the
Carolines they are made of fir; in the other parts of the country, and
throughout the North, they are comprised of oak and walnut-tree; they
are said to last about five and twenty years when kept in good repair.
The tract of country we have to cross, before we get to Lancaster, is
exceedingly fertile and productive; the fields are covered with wheat,
rye, and oats, which is a proof that the soil is better than that
between New York and Philadelphia. The inns are very {27} numerous on
the road; in almost all of them they speak German. My fellow
travellers being continually thirsty, made the stage stop at every inn
to drink a glass or two of grog. This beverage, which is generally
used in the United States, is a mixture of brandy and water, or rum
and water, the proportion of which depends upon the person’s taste.
Lancaster is situated in a fertile and well-cultivated plain. The town
is built upon a regular plan; the houses, elevated two stories, are
all of brick; the two principal streets are paved as at Philadelphia.
The population is from four to five thousand inhabitants, almost all
of German origin, and various sects; each to his particular church;
that of the Roman Catholics is the least numerous. The inhabitants are
for the most part armourers, hatters, saddlers, and coopers; the
armourers of Lancaster have been long esteemed for the manufacturing
of rifle-barrelled guns, the only arms that are used by the
inhabitants of the interior part of the country, and the Indian
nations that border on the frontiers of the United States.
At Lancaster I formed acquaintance with Mr. Mulhenberg, a Lutheran
minister, who, for twenty years past, had applied himself to botany.
He shewed {28} me the manuscript concerning a _Flora Lancastriensis_.
The number of the species described were upwards of twelve hundred.
Mr. Mulhenberg is very communicative, and more than once he expressed
to me the pleasure it would give him to be on terms of intimacy with
the French botanists; he corresponds regularly with Messrs. Wildenow
and Smith.[9] I met at Lancaster Mr. W. Hamilton, whose magnificent
garden I had an opportunity of seeing near Philadelphia. This amateur
was very intimate with my father; and I can never forget the marks of
benevolence that I received from him and Mr. Mulhenberg, as well as
the concern they both expressed for the success of the long journey I
had undertaken.
On the 27th of June I set out from Lancaster for Shippensburgh. There
were only four of us in the stage, which was fitted up to hold twelve
passengers. Columbia, situated upon the Susquehannah, is the first
town that we arrived at; it is composed of about fifty houses,
scattered here and there, and almost all built with wood; at this
place ends the turnpike road.
It is not useless to observe here, that in the United States they give
often the name of town to a group of seven or eight houses, and that
the mode of constructing them is not the same everywhere. At {29}
Philadelphia the houses are built with brick. In the other towns and
country places that surround them, the half, and even frequently the
whole, is built with wood; but at places within seventy or eighty
miles of the sea, in the central and southern states, and again more
particularly in those situated to the Westward of the Alleghany
Mountains, one third of the inhabitants reside in _log houses_. These
dwellings are made with the trunks of trees, from twenty to thirty
feet in length, about five inches diameter, placed one upon another,
and kept up by notches cut at their extremities. The roof is formed
with pieces of similar length to those that compose the body of the
house, but not quite so thick, and gradually sloped on each side. Two
doors, which often supply the place of windows, are made by sawing
away a part of the trunks that form the body of the house; the
chimney, always placed at one of the extremities, is likewise made
with the trunks of trees of a suitable length; the back of the chimney
is made of clay, about six inches thick, which separates the fire from
the wooden walls. Notwithstanding this want of precaution, fires very
seldom happen in the country places. The space between these trunks of
trees is filled up with clay, but so very carelessly, that the {30}
light may be seen through in every part; in consequence of which these
huts are exceedingly cold in winter, notwithstanding the amazing
quantity of wood that is burnt. The doors move upon wooden hinges, and
the greater part of them have no locks. In the night time they only
push them to, or fasten them with a wooden peg. Four or five days are
sufficient for two men to finish one of these houses, in which not a
nail is used. Two great beds receive the whole family. It frequently
happens that in summer the children sleep upon the ground, in a kind
of rug. The floor is raised from one to two feet above the surface of
the ground, and boarded. They generally make use of feather beds, or
feathers alone, and not mattresses. Sheep being very scarce, the wool
is very dear; at the same time they reserve it to make stockings. The
clothes belonging to the family are hung up round the room, or
suspended upon a long pole.
At Columbia the Susquehannah is nearly a quarter of a mile in breadth.
We crossed it in a ferry-boat. At that time it had so little water in
it, that we could easily see the bottom. The banks of this river were
formed by lofty and majestic hills, and the bosom of it is strewed
with little islands, which {31} seem to divide it into several
streams. Some of them do not extend above five or six acres at most,
and still they are as lofty as the surrounding hills. Their
irregularity, and the singular forms that they present, render this
situation picturesque and truly remarkable, more especially at that
season of the year, when the trees were in full vegetation.
About a mile from Susquehannah I observed an _annona triloba_, the
fruit of which is tolerably good, although insipid. When arrived at
maturity it is nearly the size of a common egg. According to the
testimony of Mr. Mulhenberg this shrub grows in the environs of
Philadelphia.
About twelve miles from Columbia is a little town called York, the
houses of which are not so straggling as many others, and are
principally built with brick. The inhabitants are computed to be
upward of eighteen hundred, most of them of German origin, and none
speak English. About six miles from York we passed through Dover,
composed of twenty or thirty log-houses, erected here and there. The
stage stopped at the house of one M’Logan, who keeps a miserable inn
fifteen miles from York.[10] That day we travelled only thirty or
forty miles.
Inns are very numerous in the United States, and {32} especially in
the little towns; yet almost everywhere, except in the principal
towns, they are very bad, notwithstanding rum, brandy, and
whiskey[11] are in plenty. In fact, in houses of the above
description all kinds of spirits are considered the most material, as
they generally meet with great consumption. Travellers wait in common
till the family go to meals. At breakfast they make use of very
indifferent tea, and coffee still worse, with small slices of ham
fried in the stove, to which they sometimes add eggs and a broiled
chicken. At dinner they give a piece of salt beef and roasted fowls,
and rum and water as a beverage. In the evening, coffee, tea, and ham.
There are always several beds in the rooms where you sleep; seldom do
you meet with clean sheets. Fortunate is the traveller who arrives on
the day they happen to be changed; although an American would be quite
indifferent about it.
Early on the 28th of June we reached Carlisle, situated about
fifty-four miles from Lancaster. The town consists of about two
hundred houses, a few of them built with brick, but by far the
greatest part {33} with wood. Upon the whole it has a respectable
appearance, from a considerable number of large shops and warehouses.
These receptacles are supplied from the interior parts of the country
with large quantities of jewellery, mercery, spices, &c. The persons
who keep those shops purchase and also barter with the country people
for the produce of their farms, which they afterwards send off to the
seaport towns for exportation.
From M’Logan’s inn to Carlisle the country is barren and mountainous,
in consequence of which the houses are not so numerous on the road,
being at a distance of two or three miles from each other; and out of
the main road they are still more straggling. The white, red, and
black oaks, the chesnut, and maple trees are those most common in the
forests. Upon the summit of the hills we observed the _quercus
banisteri_. From Carlisle to Shippensburgh the country continues
mountainous, and is not much inhabited, being also barren and
uncultivated.
We found but very few huts upon the road, and those, from their
miserable picture, clearly announced that their inhabitants were in
but a wretched state; as from every appearance of their approaching
{34} harvest it could only afford them a scanty subsistence.
The coach stopped at an inn called the General Washington, at
Shippensburgh, kept by one Colonel Ripey, whose character is that of
being very obliging to all travellers that may happen to stop at his
house on their tour to the western countries. Shippensburgh has
scarcely seventy houses in it. The chief of its trade is dealing in
corn and flour. When I left this place, a barrel of flour, weighing
ninety-six pounds, was worth five piastres.
From Shippensburgh to Pittsburgh the distance is about an hundred and
seventy miles.[12] The stages going no farther, a person must either
travel the remainder of the road on foot, or purchase horses. There
are always some to be disposed of; but the natives, taking advantage
of travellers thus situated, make them pay more than double their
value; and when you arrive at Pittsburgh, on your return, you can only
sell them for one half of what they cost. I could have wished, for the
sake of economy, to travel the rest of the way on foot, but from the
observations I had heard I was induced to buy a horse, in conjunction
with an American officer with whom I came in the stage, and who was
also going to Pittsburgh. We agreed to ride alternately.
{35} CHAP. IV
_Departure from Shippensburgh to Strasburgh--Journey over the
Blue Ridges--New species of_ Rhododendrum--_Passage over
the river Juniata--Use of the Cones of the_ Magnolia
Acuminata--_Arrival at Bedford Court House--Excesses
to which the Natives of that part of the Country are
addicted--Departure from Bedford--Journey over Alleghany
Ridge and Laurel Hill--Arrival at West Liberty Town._
On the morning of the 30th of June we left Shippensburgh, and arrived
at twelve o’clock at Strasburgh, being a distance of ten miles. This
town consists of about forty log-houses, and is situated at the foot
of the first chain of Blue Ridges. The tract of country you have to
cross before you get there, although uneven, is much better; and you
have a view of several plantations tolerably well {36} cultivated.
After having taken a moment’s repose at Strasburgh, we pursued our
journey notwithstanding the heat, which was excessive, and ascended
the first ridge by an extremely steep and rocky path. We reached the
summit after three quarters of an hour’s difficult walking, and
crossed two other ridges of nearly the same height, and which follow
the same direction. These three ridges form two little valleys, the
first of which presents several small huts built on the declivity; in
the second, which is rather more extensive, is situated a town called
Fenetsburgh, composed of about thirty houses, which stand on both
sides of the road; the plantations that surround them are about twenty
in number, each of which is composed of from two to three hundred
acres of woody land, of which, from the scarcity of hands, there are
seldom more than a few acres cleared. In this part of Pensylvania
every individual is content with cultivating a sufficiency for himself
and family; and according as that is more or less numerous the parts
so cleared are more or less extensive; whence it follows, that the
larger family a man has capable of assisting him, the greater
independence he enjoys; this is one of the principal {37} causes of
the rapid progress that population makes in the United States.
This day we travelled only six-and-twenty miles, and slept at Fort
Littleton, about six miles from Strasburg, at the house of one Colonel
Bird, who keeps a good inn. From Shippensburgh the mountains are very
flinty, and the soil extremely bad; the trees of an indifferent
growth, and particularly the white oak that grows upon the summit, and
the _calmia latifolia_ on the other parts.
The next day we set out very early in the morning to go to Bedford
Court House. From Fort Littleton to the river Juniata we found very
few plantations; nothing but a succession of ridges, the spaces
between which were filled up with a number of little hills. Being on
the summit of one of these lofty ridges, the inequality of this group
of mountains, crowned with innumerable woods, and overshadowing the
earth, it afforded nearly the same picture that the troubled sea
presents after a dreadful storm.
Two miles before you come to the river Juniata, the road is divided
into two branches, which meet again at the river side. The right leads
across the mountains, and the left, which we took, appeared to {38}
have been, and may be still the bed of a deep torrent, the ground
being wet and marshy. The banks were covered with the _andromeda_,
_vaccinium_, and more particularly with a species of _rhododendrum_,
that bears a flower of the clearest white; the fibres of the stamina
are also white, and the leaves more obtuse, and not so large as the
_rhododendrum maximum_. This singular variation must of course admit
its being classed under a particular species. I discovered this
beautiful shrub a second time on the mountains of North Carolina. Its
seeds were at that time ripe, and I carried some of them over with me
to France, which came up exceedingly well. The river Juniata was not,
in that part, above thirty or forty fathoms broad, and in consequence
of the tide being very low, we forded it; still, the greatest part of
the year people cross it in a ferry-boat. Its banks are lofty and very
airy. The _magnolia acuminata_ is very common in the environs; it is
known in the country by the name of the _cucumber tree_. The
inhabitants of the remote parts of Pensylvania, Virginia, and even the
western countries, pick the cones when green to infuse in whiskey,
which gives it a pleasant bitter. This bitter is very much esteemed in
the country as a preventive against intermittent {39} fevers; but I
have my doubts whether it would be so generally used if it had the
same qualities when mixed with water.
From the crossing of the river Juniata to Bedford Court House, the
country, although mountainous, is still better, and more inhabited,
than that we travelled over from Shippensburgh. The plantations,
although seldom in sight of each other, are near enough to give a more
animated appearance to the country. We arrived at Bedford in the dusk
of the evening, and took lodgings at an inn, the landlord of which was
an acquaintance of the American officer with whom I was travelling.
His house was commodious, and elevated one story above the ground
floor, which is very rare in that part of the country. The day of our
arrival was a day of rejoicing for the country people, who had
assembled together in this little town to celebrate the suppression of
the tax laid upon the whiskey distilleries; rather an arbitrary tax,
that had disaffected the inhabitants of the interior against the late
president, Mr. Adams.[13] The public houses, inns, and more
especially the one where we lodged, were filled with the lower class
of people, who made the most dreadful riot, and committed such
horrible excesses, that {40} is almost impossible to form the least
idea of. The rooms, stairs, and yard were strewed with drunken men;
and those who had still the power of speech uttered nothing but the
accents of rage and fury. A passion for spirituous liquors is one of
the features that characterise the country people belonging to the
interior of the United States. This passion is so strong, that they
desert their homes every now and then to get drunk in public houses;
in fact, I do not conceive there are ten out of a hundred who have
resolution enough to desist from it a moment provided they had it by
them, notwithstanding their usual beverage in summer is nothing but
water, or sour milk. They care very little for cyder, which they find
too weak. Their dislike to this wholesome and pleasant beverage is the
more distressing as they might easily procure it at a very trifling
expense, for apple trees of every kind grow to wonderful perfection in
this country. This is a remark which I have made towards the east as
well as the west of the Alleghany Mountains, where I have known lofty
trees spring up from kernels, which bore apples from eight to nine
inches in circumference.
At Bedford there are scarce a hundred and twenty houses in the whole,
and those but of a miserable {41} appearance, most of them being built
of wood. This little town, like all the rest on that road, trades in
all kinds of corn, flour, &c. which, with salt provisions, are the
only articles they sell for exportation. During the war, in the time
of the French revolution, the inhabitants found it more to their
advantage to send their corn, &c. to Pittsburgh, there to be sent by
the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans, or embark them for the
Carribbees, than to send them to Philadelphia or Baltimore;
notwithstanding it is not computed to be more than two hundred miles
from Bedford to Philadelphia, and a hundred and fifty from Bedford to
Baltimore, whilst the distance from Bedford to New Orleans is about
two thousand two hundred miles; viz. a hundred miles by land to
Pittsburgh, and two thousand one hundred miles by water from
Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Mississippi. It is evident, according
to this calculation, that the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi
is very easy, and by far less expensive, since it compensates for the
enormous difference that exists between those two distances. The
situation of New Orleans, with respect to the Carribbees, by this
rule, gives this town the most signal advantage over all the ports
eastward of the United States; and in proportion as {42} the new
western states increase in population, New Orleans will become the
centre of an immense commerce. Other facts will still rise up to the
support of this observation.
On the following day (the 1st of July) we left Bedford very early in
the morning. The heat was excessive; the ridges that we had
perpetually to climb, and the little mountains that rise between these
ridges, rendered the journey extremely difficult; we travelled no more
than six-and-twenty miles this day. About four miles from Bedford the
road divides into two different directions; we took the left, and
stopped to breakfast with a miller who keeps a public house. We found
a man there lying upon the ground, wrapt up in a blanket, who on the
preceding evening had been bitten by a rattle-snake. The first
symptoms that appeared, about an hour after the accident, were violent
vomitings, which was succeeded by a raging fever. When I saw him first
his leg and thigh were very much swelled, his respiration very
laborious, and his countenance turgescent, and similar to that of a
person attacked with the hydrophobia whom I had an opportunity of
seeing at Charité. I put several questions to him; but he was so
absorbed that it was impossible to obtain {43} the least answer from
him. I learnt from some persons in the house that immediately after
the bite, the juice of certain plants had been applied to the wound,
waiting the doctor’s arrival, who lived fifteen or twenty miles off.
Those who do not die with it are always very sickly, and sensible to
the changes of the atmosphere. The plants made use of against the bite
are very numerous, and almost all succulent. There are a great many
rattle-snakes in these mountainous parts of Pensylvania; we found a
great number of them killed upon the road. In the warm and dry season
of the year they come out from beneath the rocks, and inhabit those
places where there is water.
On that same day we crossed the ridge which takes more particularly
the name of Alleghany Ridges. The road we took was extremely rugged,
and covered with enormous stones. We attained the summit after two
hours painful journey. It is truly astonishing how the vehicles of
conveyance pass over so easily, and with so few accidents this
multitude of steep hills or ridges, that uninterruptedly follow in
succession from Shippensburgh to Pittsburgh, and where the spaces
between each are filled up with an infinity of small mountains of a
less elevation.
{44} Alleghany Ridge is the most elevated link in Pensylvania; on its
summit are two log-houses, very indifferently constructed, about three
miles distant from each other, which serve as public houses. These
were the only habitations we met with on the road from Bedford; the
remaining part of the country is uninhabited. We stopped at the
second, kept by one Chatlers, tolerably well supplied with provisions
for the country, as they served us up for dinner slices of ham and
venison fried on the hearth, with a kind of muffins made of flour,
which they baked before the fire upon a little board.
Notwithstanding a very heavy fall of rain, we went to sleep that day
at Stanley Town, a small place, which, like all those in that part of
Pensylvania, is built upon a hill. It is composed of about fifty
houses, the half of which are log-houses; among the rest are a few
inns, and two or three shops, supplied from Philadelphia; the distance
is about seven miles from Chatler’s; the country that separates them
is very fertile, and abounds with trees of the highest elevation;
those most prevalent in the woods are the white, red, and black oaks,
the beech, tulip, and _magnolia acuminata_.
The horse we bought at Shippensburgh, and which {45} we rode
alternately, was very much fatigued, in consequence of which we
travelled but very little farther than if we had been on foot; in the
mean time the American officer, my companion, was in haste to arrive
at Pittsburgh, to be present at the fête of the 4th of July in
commemoration of the American independence. In order to gain a day, he
hired a horse at Stanley Town, with which we crossed Laurel Hill, a
distance of four miles. The direction of this ridge is parallel with
those we had left behind us; the woods which cover it are more tufted,
and the vegetation appears more lively. The name given to this
mountain I have no doubt proceeds from the great quantity of _calmia
latifolia_, from eight to ten feet high, which grows exclusively in
all the vacant places, and that of the _rhododendrum maximum_, which
enamel the borders of the torrents; for the inhabitants call the
_rhododendrum_ laurel as frequently as the _calmia latifolia_. Some
describe the latter shrub by the name of the colico-tree, the leaves
of which, they say, are a very subtle poison to sheep, who die almost
instantaneously after eating them. At the foot of Laurel Hill begins
the valley of Ligonier, in which is situated, about a quarter of a
mile from the mountain, West Liberty Town, composed {46} of eighteen
or twenty log-houses. The soil of this valley appears extremely
fertile. It is very near this place that the French, formerly masters
of Canada, built Fort Ligonier, as every part of the United States
west of the Alleghany Mountains depended on Canada or Louisiana.[14]
{47} CHAP. V
_Departure from West Liberty Town to go among the Mountains in
search of a Shrub supposed to give good Oil, a new Species
of Azalea.--Ligonier Valley.--Coal Mines.--Greensburgh.--
Arrival at Pittsburgh._
On my journey to Lancaster Mr. W. Hamilton had informed me that at a
short distance from West Liberty Town, and near the plantation of Mr.
Patrick Archibald, there grew a shrub, the fruit of which he had been
told produced excellent oil. Several persons at New York and
Philadelphia had heard the same, and entertained a hope that,
cultivated largely, it might turn to general advantage. In fact, it
would have been a treasure to find a shrub which, to the valuable
qualities of the olive-tree, united that of enduring the cold of the
most northern countries. Induced by these motives, I left my {48}
travelling companion to go amongst the mountains in quest of the
shrub. About two miles from West Liberty Town I passed by Probes’s
Furnace, a foundry established by a Frenchman from Alsace, who
manufactures all kinds of vessels in brass and copper; the largest
contain about two hundred pints, which are sent into Kentucky and
Tennessea, where they use them for the preparation of salt by
evaporation; the smaller ones are destined for domestic uses. They
directed me at the foundry which road I was to take, notwithstanding I
frequently missed my way on account of the roads being more or less
cut, which lead to different plantations scattered about the woods;
still I met with the greatest civility from the inhabitants, who very
obligingly put me in my road, and on the same evening I reached
Patrick Archibald’s, where I was kindly received after having imparted
the subject of my visit. One would think that this man, who has a
mill and other valuables of his own, might live in the greatest
comfort; yet he resides in a miserable log-house about twenty feet
long, subject to the inclemency of the weather. Four large beds, two
of which are very low, are placed underneath the others in the
day-time, and drawn out of an evening {49} into the middle of the
room, receive the whole family, composed of ten persons, and at times
strangers, who casually entreat to have a bed. This mode of living,
which would announce poverty in Europe, is by no means the sign of it
with them; for in an extent of two thousand miles and upward that I
have travelled, there is not a single family but has milk, butter,
salted or dried meat, and Indian corn generally in the house; the
poorest man has always one or more horses, and an inhabitant very
rarely goes on foot to see his neighbour.
The day after my arrival I went into the woods, and in my first
excursion I found the shrub which was at that moment the object of my
researches. I knew it to be the same that my father had discovered
fifteen years before in the mountains of South Carolina, and which, in
despite of all the attention he bestowed, he could not bring to any
perfection in his garden.[15] Mr. W. Hamilton, who had received a few
seeds and plants of it from that part of Pensylvania where I then was,
had not been more successful. The seeds grow so soon rancid, that in
the course of a few days they lose their germinative faculty, and
contract an uncommon sharpness. This shrub, which seldom rises above
five feet in {50} height is diocal. It grows exclusively on the
mountains, and is only found in cool and shady places, and where the
soil is very fertile. Its roots, of a citron colour, do not divide,
but extend horizontally to a great distance, and give birth to several
shoots, which very seldom grow more than eighteen inches high. The
roots and the bark rubbed together, produce an unpleasant smell. I
commissioned my landlord to gather half a bushel of seed, and send it
to Mr. William Hamilton, giving him the necessary precaution to keep
it fresh.--On the banks of the creek where Mr. Archibald’s mill is
erected, and along the rivulets in the environs, grows a species of
the azalea, which was then in full blossom. It rises from twelve to
fifteen feet. Its flowers, of a beautiful white, and larger than those
of the other known species, exhale the most delicious perfume. The
_azalea coccinea_, on the contrary, grows on the summit of the
mountains, is of a nasturtium colour, and blows two months before.
Ligonier Valley is reckoned very fertile. Wheat, rye, and oats are
among its chief productions. Some of the inhabitants plant Indian corn
upon the summit of the mountains, but it does not succeed well, the
country being too cold. The sun is not {51} seen there for three
quarters of an hour after it has risen. They also cultivate hemp and
flax, and each gathers a sufficient quantity of it to supply his
domestic wants; and as all the women know how to spin and weave, they
supply themselves and family, by this means, with linen. The price of
land is from one to two piastres an acre. The taxes are very moderate,
and no complaints are ever made against them. In this part of the
United States, as well as in all mountainous countries, the air is
very wholesome. I have seen men there upward of seventy-five years of
age, which is very rare in the Atlantic states situated south of
Pennsylvania. During my travels in this country the measles were very
prevalent. At the invitation of my host I went to see several of his
relatives and friends that were attacked with it. I found them all
drinking whiskey, to excite perspiration. I advised them a decoction
of the leaves of the viscous elm, with the addition of a spoonful of
vinegar to a pint, and an ounce of sugar of maple. In consequence of
the country being poor, and the population not very numerous, there
are but few medical men there; and in cases of necessity they have to
go twenty or thirty miles to fetch them.
{52} On the 4th of July I left Archibald’s, and posted on toward
Greensburgh, which is about eleven miles from it. I had not gone far
before I had to cross Chesnut Ridge, a very steep hill, the summit of
which, for an extent of two miles, presents nothing but a dry and
chalky soil, abounding with oaks and chesnut trees, stunted in their
growth: but as I advanced toward Greensburgh the aspect of the country
changes, the soil becomes better. The plantations, although surrounded
with woods, are not so far apart as in the valley of Ligonier. The
houses are much larger, and most of them have two rooms. The land
better cultivated, the enclosures better formed, prove clearly it is a
German settlement. With them every thing announces ease, the fruit of
their assiduity to labour. They assist each other in their harvests,
live happy among themselves, always speak German, and preserve, as
much as possible, the customs of their ancestors, formerly from
Europe. They live much better than the American descendants of the
English, Scotch, and Irish. They are not so much addicted to
spirituous liquors, and have not that wandering mind which often, for
the slightest motive, prompts them to emigrate several {53} hundred
miles, in hopes of finding a more fertile soil.
Prior to my arrival at Greensburgh[16] I had an opportunity of
remarking several parts of the woods exclusively composed of white
oaks, or _quercus alba_, the foliage of which being a lightish green,
formed a beautiful contrast with other trees of a deeper colour. About
a mile from the town, and on the borders of a tremendous cavity I
perceived unequivocal signs of a coal mine. I learnt at Greensburgh
and Pittsburgh that this substance was so common and so easy to
procure, that many of the inhabitants burnt it from economical
motives. Not that there is a scarcity of wood, the whole country being
covered with it, but labour is very dear; so that there is not a
proprietor who would not consent to sell a cord of wood for half the
sum that coals would cost, provided a person would go a mile to fell
the trees, and take them home.
Greensburgh contains about a hundred houses. The town is built upon
the summit of a hill on the road from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. The
soil of the environs is fertile; the inhabitants, who are of German
origin, cultivate wheat, rye, and oats with great success. The flour
is exported at Pittsburgh.
{54} I lodged at the Seven Stars with one Erbach, who keeps a good
inn.[17] I there fell into company with a traveller who came from the
state of Vermont, and through necessity we were obliged to sleep in
one room. Without entering into any explanation relative to the
intention of our journey, we communicated to each other our remarks
upon the country that we had just travelled over. He had been upward
of six hundred miles since his departure from his place of residence,
and I had been four hundred since I left New York. He proposed
accompanying me to Pittsburgh. I observed to him that I was on foot,
and gave him my reasons for it, as it is very uncommon in America to
travel in that manner, the poorest inhabitant possessing always one,
and even several horses.
From Greensburgh to Pittsburgh it is computed to be about thirty-two
miles. The road that leads to it is very mountainous. To avoid the
heat, and to accelerate my journey, I set out at four in the morning.
I had no trouble in getting out of the house, the door being only on
the latch. At the inns in small towns, on the contrary, they are
extremely careful in locking the stables, as horse-stealers are by no
means uncommon in certain parts of the {55} United States; and this is
one of the accidents to which travellers are the most exposed, more
especially in the southern states and in the western countries, where
they are sometimes obliged to sleep in the woods. It also frequently
happens that they steal them from the inhabitants; at the same time
nothing is more easy, as the horses are, in one part of the year,
turned out in the forests, and in the spring they frequently stray
many miles from home; but on the slightest probability of the road the
thief has taken, the plundered inhabitant vigorously pursues him, and
frequently succeeds in taking him; upon which he confines him in the
county prison, or, which is not uncommon, kills him on the spot. In
the different states the laws against horse-stealing are very severe,
and this severity appears influenced by the great facility the country
presents for committing the crime.
I had travelled about fifteen miles when I was overtaken by an
American gentleman whom I had met the preceding evening at
Greensburgh. Although he was on horseback, he had the politeness to
slacken his pace, and I accompanied him to Pittsburgh. This second
interview made us more intimately acquainted. He informed me that his
intention {56} was to go by the side of the Ohio. Having the same
design, I entertained a wish to travel with him, and more so, as he
was not an amateur of whiskey; being compelled, by the heat of the
weather, frequently to halt at the inns, which are tolerably numerous,
I had observed that he drank very little of that liquor in water, and
that he gave a preference to sour milk, whenever it could be
procured.[18] In that respect he differed from the American officer
with whom I had travelled almost all the way from Shippensburgh.
About ten miles from Greensburgh, on the left, is a road that cuts off
more than three miles, but which is only passable for persons on foot
or on horseback. We took it, and in the course of half an hour
perceived the river Monongahela, which we coasted till within a short
distance of Pittsburgh. A tremendous shower obliged us to take shelter
in a house about a hundred fathoms from the river. The owner having
recognized us to be strangers, informed us that it was on that very
spot that the French, in the seven years’ war, had completely defeated
General Braddock; and he also showed us several trees that are still
damaged by the balls.[19]
We reached Pittsburgh at a very early hour, when {57} I took up my
residence with a Frenchman named Marie, who keeps a respectable inn.
What pleased me most was my having accomplished my journey, as I began
to be fatigued with travelling over so mountainous a country; for
during an extent of about a hundred and eighty miles, which I had
travelled almost entirely on foot, I do not think I walked fifty
fathoms without either ascending or descending.
{58} CHAP. VI
_Description of Pittsburgh.--Commerce of the Town and adjacent
Countries with New Orleans.--Construction of large Vessels.--
Description of the Rivers Monongahela and Alleghany.--Towns
situated on their Banks.--Agriculture.--Maple Sugar._
Pittsburgh is situated at the conflux of the rivers Monongahela and
Alleghany, the uniting of which forms the Ohio. The even soil upon
which it is built is not more than forty or fifty acres in extent. It
is in the form of an angle, the three sides of which are enclosed
either by the bed of the two rivers or by stupendous mountains. The
houses are principally brick, they are computed to be about four
hundred, most of which are built upon the Monongahela; that side is
considered the most commercial part of the town. As a great number of
the houses are separated from each other by large spaces, the {59}
whole surface of the angle is completely taken up. On the summit of
the angle the French built Fort Duquesne, which is now entirely
destroyed, and nothing more is seen than the vestige of the ditches
that surrounded it.[20] This spot affords the most pleasing view,
produced by the perspective of the rivers, overshadowed with forests,
and especially the Ohio, which flows in a strait line, and, to
appearance, loses itself in space.
The air is very salubrious at Pittsburgh and its environs;
intermittent fevers are unknown there, although so common in the
southern states, neither are they tormented in the summer with
musquitoes. A person may subsist there for one-third of what he pays
at Philadelphia. Two printing-offices have been long established
there, and, for the amusement of the curious, each publish a newspaper
weekly.[21]
Pittsburgh has been long considered by the Americans as the key to the
western country. Thence the federal forces were marched against the
Indians who opposed the former settlement of the Americans in
Kentucky, and on the banks of the Ohio. However, now the Indian
nations are repulsed to a considerable distance, and reduced to the
impossibility {60} of hurting the most remote settlers in the interior
of the states; besides, the western country has acquired a great mass
of population, insomuch that there is nothing now at Pittsburgh but a
feeble garrison, barracked in a fort belonging to the town, on the
banks of the river Allighany.[22]
However, though this town has lost its importance as a military post,
it has acquired a still greater one in respect to commerce. It serves
as a staple for the different sorts of merchandise that Philadelphia
and Baltimore send, in the beginning of spring and autumn, for
supplying the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and the settlement of Natches.
The conveyance of merchandise from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh is made
in large covered waggons, drawn by four horses two a-breast. The price
of carrying goods varies according to the season; but in general it
does not exceed six piastres the quintal. They reckon it to be three
hundred miles from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and the carriers
generally make it a journey of from twenty to twenty-four days. The
price of conveyance would not be so high as it really is, were it not
that the waggons frequently return empty; notwithstanding they
sometimes bring back, on their return to Philadelphia or {61}
Baltimore, fur skins that come from Illinois or Ginseng, which is very
common in that part of Pensylvania.
Pittsburgh is not only the staple of the Philadelphia and Baltimore
trade with the western country, but of the numerous settlements that
are formed upon the Monongahela and Alleghany. The territorial produce
of that part of the country finds an easy and advantageous conveyance
by the Ohio and Mississippi. Corn, hams and dried pork are the
principal articles sent to New Orleans, whence they are re-exported
into the Carribbees. They also export for the consumption of
Louisiana, bar-iron, coarse linen, bottles manufactured at Pittsburgh,
whiskey, and salt butter. A great part of these provisions come from
Redstone, a small commercial town, situated upon the Monongahela,
about fifty miles beyond Pittsburgh.[23] All these advantages joined
together have, within these ten years, increased ten-fold the
population and price of articles in the town, and contribute to its
improvements, which daily grow more and more rapid.
The major part of the merchants settled at Pittsburgh, or in the
environs, are the partners, or else the factors, belonging to the
houses at Philadelphia. {62} Their brokers at New Orleans sell, as
much as they can, for ready money; or rather, take in exchange
cottons, indigo, raw sugar, the produce of Low Louisiana, which they
send off by sea to the houses at Philadelphia and Baltimore, and thus
cover their first advances. The bargemen return thus by sea to
Philadelphia or Baltimore, whence they go by land to Pittsburgh and
the environs, where the major part of them generally reside. Although
the passage from New Orleans to one of these two ports is twenty or
thirty days, and that they have to take a route by land of three
hundred miles to return to Pittsburgh, they prefer this way, being not
so difficult as the return by land from New Orleans to Pittsburgh,
this last distance being fourteen or fifteen hundred miles. However,
when the barges are only destined for Limeston, in Kentucky, or for
Cincinnati, in the state of Ohio, the bargemen return by land, and by
that means take a route of four or five hundred miles.
The navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi is so much improved of late
that they can tell almost to a certainty the distance from Pittsburgh
to New Orleans, which they compute to be two thousand one hundred
miles. The barges in the spring season {63} usually take forty or
fifty days to make the passage, which two or three persons in a
_pirogue_[24] make in five and twenty days.
What many, perhaps, are ignorant of in Europe is, that they build
large vessels on the Ohio, and at the town of Pittsburgh. One of the
principal ship yards is upon the Monongahela, about two hundred
fathoms beyond the last houses in the town. The timber they make use
of is the white oak, or _quercus alba_; the red oak, or _quercus
rubra_; the black oak, or _quercus tinctoria_; a kind of nut tree, or
_juglans minima_; the Virginia cherry-tree, or _cerasus Virginia_; and
a kind of pine, which they use for masting, as well as for the sides
of the vessels which require a slighter wood. The whole of this timber
being near at hand, the expense of building is not so great as in the
ports of the Atlantic states. The cordage is manufactured at Redstone
and Lexinton, where there are two extensive rope-walks, which also
supply ships with rigging that are built at Marietta and Louisville.
On my journey to Pittsburgh in the month of July 1802, there was a
three-mast vessel[25] of two {64} hundred and fifty tons, and a
smaller one of ninety, which was on the point of being finished. These
ships were to go, in the spring following, to New Orleans, loaded with
the produce of the country, after having made a passage of two
thousand two hundred miles before they got into the ocean. There is no
doubt but they can, by the same rule, build ships two hundred leagues
beyond the mouth of the Missouri, fifty from that of the river
Illinois, and even in the Mississippi, two hundred beyond the place
whence these rivers flow; that is to say, six hundred and fifty
leagues from the sea; as their bed in the appointed space is as deep
as that of the Ohio at Pittsburgh; in consequence of which it must be
a wrong conjecture to suppose that the immense tract of country
watered by these rivers cannot be populous enough to execute such
undertakings. The rapid population of the three new western states,
under less favourable circumstances, proves this assertion to be
true.[26] Those states, where thirty years ago there was scarcely
three hundred inhabitants, are now computed to contain upwards of a
hundred thousand; and although the plantations on the roads are
scarcely four miles distant from each other, it is very rare to find
one, even among {65} the most flourishing, where one cannot with
confidence ask the owner, whence he has emigrated; or, according to
the trivial manner of the Americans, “What part of the world do you
come from?” as if these immense and fertile regions were to be the
asylum common to all the inhabitants of the globe. Now if we consider
these astonishing and rapid ameliorations, what ideas must we not form
of the height of prosperity to which the western country is rising,
and of the recent spring that the commerce, population and culture of
the country is taking by uniting Louisiana to the American territory.
The river Monongahela derives its source in Virginia, at the foot of
Laurel Mountain, which comprises a part of the chain of the
Alleghanies; bending its course toward the west, it runs into
Pennsylvania, and before it reaches Alleghany it receives in its
current the rivers Chéat and Youghiogheny, which proceed from the
south west. The territory watered by this river is extremely fertile;
and the settlements formed upon the banks are not very far apart. It
begins to be navigable at Morgan Town, which is composed of about
sixty houses, and is situated upon the right, within a hundred miles
of its _embouchure_.[27] Of all the little towns built upon {66} the
Monongahela, New Geneva and Redstone have the most active commerce.
The former has a glass-house in it, the produce of which is exported
chiefly into the western country; the latter has shoe and paper
manufactories, several flour mills, and contains about five hundred
inhabitants. At this town a great number of those who emigrate from
the eastern states embark to go into the west. It is also famous for
building large boats, called _Kentucky boats_, used in the Kentucky
trade; numbers are also built at Elizabeth Town,[28] situated on the
same river, about twenty-three miles from Pittsburgh--the _Monongahela
Farmer_ was launched there, a sailing vessel of two hundred tons.
Alleghany takes its source fifteen or twenty miles from lake Eria; its
current is enlarged by the French Creek, and various small rivers of
less importance. The Alleghany begins to be navigable within two
hundred miles of Pittsburgh. The banks of this river are fertile; the
inhabitants who have formed settlements there export, as well as those
of Monongahela, the produce of their culture by the way of the Ohio
and Mississippi. On the banks of this river they begin to form a few
small towns; among the most considerable are Meadville, situated two
{67} hundred and thirty miles from Pittsburgh; Franklin, about two
hundred; and Freeport, scarcely one; each of which does not contain
above forty or fifty houses.
Let the weather be what it will, the stream of the Alleghany is clear
and limped; that of the Monongahela, on the contrary, grows rather
muddy with a few days incessant rain in that part of the Alleghany
Mountains where it derives its source.
The sugar-maple is very common in every part of Pennsylvania which the
Monongahela and Alleghany water. This tree thrives most in cold, wet,
and mountainous countries, and its seed is always more abundant when
the winter is most severe. The sugar extracted from it is generally
very coarse, and is sold, after having been prepared in loaves of six,
eight, and ten pounds each, at the rate of seven-pence per pound. The
inhabitants manufacture none but for their own use; the greater part
of them drink tea and coffee daily, but they use it just as it has
passed the first evaporation, and never take the trouble to refine it,
on account of the great waste occasioned by the operation.
{68}CHAP. VII
_Description of the Ohio.--Navigation of that river.--Mr. S.
Craft.--The object of his travels.--Remarks upon the State
of Vermont._
The Ohio, formed by the union of the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers,
appears to be rather a continuance of the former than the latter,
which only happens obliquely at the conflux. The Ohio may be, at
Pittsburgh, two hundred fathoms broad. The current of this immense and
magnificent river inclines at first north west for about twenty miles,
then bends gradually west south west. It follows that direction for
about the space of five hundred miles; turns thence south west a
hundred and sixty miles; then west two hundred and seventy-five; at
length runs into the Mississippi in a southwesterly direction, in the
latitude of 36 deg. 46 min. about eleven hundred miles from
Pittsburgh, and nearly {69} the same distance from Orleans. This river
runs so extremely serpentine, that in going down it, you appear
following a track directly opposite to the one you mean to take. Its
breadth varies from two hundred to a thousand fathoms. The islands
that are met with in its current are very numerous. We counted upward
of fifty in the space of three hundred and eighty miles. Some contain
but a few acres, and others more than a thousand in length. Their
banks are very low, and must be subject to inundations. These islands
are a great impediment to the navigation in the summer. The sands that
the river drives up form, at the head of some of them, a number of
little shoals; and in this season of the year the channel is so narrow
from the want of water, that the few boats, even of a middling size,
that venture to go down, are frequently run aground, and it is with
great difficulty that they are got afloat; notwithstanding which there
is at all times a sufficiency of water for a skiff or a canoe. As
these little boats are very light when they strike upon the sands, it
is very easy to push them off into a deeper part. In consequence of
this, it is only in the spring and autumn that the Ohio is navigable,
at least as far as Limestone, about a hundred and twenty {70} miles
from Pittsburgh. During those two seasons the water rises to such a
height, that vessels of three hundred tons, piloted by men who are
acquainted with the river, may go down in the greatest safety. The
spring season begins at the end of February, and lasts three months;
the autumn begins in October, and only lasts till the first of
December. In the mean time these two epochs fall sooner or later, as
the winter is more or less rainy, or the rivers are a shorter or a
longer time thawing. Again, it so happens, that in the course of the
summer heavy and incessant rains fall in the Alheghany Mountains,
which suddenly swell the Ohio: at that time persons may go down it
with the greatest safety; but such circumstances are not always to be
depended on.
The banks of the Ohio are high and solid; its current is free from a
thousand obstacles that render the navigation of the Mississippi
difficult, and often dangerous, when they have not skilful conductors.
On the Ohio persons may travel all night without the smallest danger;
instead of which, on the Mississippi prudence requires them to stop
every evening, at least from the mouth of the Ohio to Naches, a space
of nearly seven hundred and fifty miles.
{71} The rapidity of the Ohio’s current is extreme in spring; at the
same time in this season there is no necessity for rowing. The
excessive swiftness it would give, by that means, to the boat would be
more dangerous than useful, by turning it out of the current, and
running it upon some island or other, where it might get entangled
among a heap of dead trees that are half under water, and from which
it would be very difficult to extricate them; for which reason they
generally go with the current, which is always strong enough to
advance with great celerity, and is always more rapid in the middle of
the stream. The amazing rapidity of the Ohio has an influence on the
shape of the boats that navigate upon it, and that shape is not
calculated to accelerate their progress, but to stem the current of
the stream. All the boats or barges, whether those in the Kentucky or
Mississippi trade, or those which convey the families that go into the
eastern or western states, are built in the same manner. They are of a
square form, some longer than others; their sides are raised four feet
and a half above the water; their length is from fifteen to fifty
feet; the two extremities are square, upon one of which is a kind of
awning, under which the passengers shelter themselves {72} when it
rains. I was alone upon the banks of the Monongahela, when I
perceived, at a distance, five or six of these barges, which were
going down the river. I could not conceive what these great square
boxes were, which, left to the stream, presented alternately their
ends, sides, and even their angles. As they advanced, I heard a
confused noise, but without distinguishing any thing, on account of
their sides being so very high. However, on ascending the banks of the
river, I perceived in these barges several families, carrying with
them their horses, cows, poultry, waggons, ploughs, harness, beds,
instruments of agriculture, in fine, every thing necessary to
cultivate the land, and also for domestic use. These people were
abandoning themselves to the mercy of the stream, without knowing the
place where they should stop, to exercise their industry, and enjoy
peaceably the fruit of their labour under one of the best governments
that exists in the world.
I sojourned ten days at Pittsburgh, during which I several times saw
the Chevalier Dubac, formerly an officer in the French service, who,
obliged, on account of the revolution, to emigrate from France, at
first went to settle at Scioto, but very soon after {73} changed his
residence, and went to Pittsburgh, where he is now in trade. He has
very correct ideas concerning the western country; he is also
perfectly acquainted with the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi,
having several times travelled over New Orleans, and gives, with all
possible complaisance, to the few of his fellow-countrymen who go into
that country, instructions to facilitate their journey, and prevent
the accidents that might happen to them.
During my stay at Pittsburgh I formed a most particular acquaintance
with my fellow-traveller Mr. Samuel Craft, an inhabitant of the state
of Vermont, whom I met, for the first time, at Greensburgh. I learnt
of him, among other things, that in this state, and those contiguous
to it, the expences occasioned by clearing the land are always covered
by the produce of pearl-ashes, extracted from the ashes of trees which
they burn; and that there are even persons who undertake to clear it
on the sole condition of having the pearl-ashes. This kind of economy,
however, does not exist in the other parts of North America; for in
all the parts of the east, from New York westward, the trees are burnt
at a certain loss. It is true that the inhabitants of New England,
which, properly speaking, comprehends all the {74} states east of New
York, are acknowledged to be the most enterprising and industrious of
all the Americans, especially those who understand domestic economy
the best.
Mr. Craft then imparted to me the intent of his journey, which was to
be convinced that what he had seen published upon the extraordinary
salubrity and fertility of the banks of the river Yazous was correct,
and in that case to acquire for himself and a few friends several
acres of land, and to go and settle there with two or three families
in his neighbourhood who were rather embarrassed. The motive for his
emigration to so remote a country was founded, in the first place, on
the length of the winters, which in the state of Vermont are as severe
as in Canada, and which shackle the activity of its inhabitants more
than one third of the year; and in the next place, upon the cheapness
of the country’s produce: instead of which, in those parts watered by
the river Yazous,[29] the temperature of the climate and the
fertility of the soil are favourable to the cultivation of cotton,
indigo, and tobacco, {75} the produce of which is a great deal more
lucrative than that of the northern part of the United States, and the
sale of which is assured by their exportation to New Orleans, where
they can go and come by the river in less than a fortnight.
{76} CHAP. VIII
_Departure from Pittsburgh for Kentucky.--Journey by land to
Wheeling.--State of agriculture on the route.--West Liberty
Town in Virginia.--Wheeling._
Mr. Craft and I agreed to go together to Kentucky by the Ohio,
preferring that way, although longer by a hundred and forty miles, to
that by land, which is more expensive. However, as the season of the
year being that when the waters are at the lowest, to gain time, and
to avoid a considerable winding which the river makes on leaving
Pittsburgh, we were advised to embark at Wheeling, a small town
situated upon the Ohio, eighty miles lower down the river, but not so
far by land.[30] On the 14th of July, in the evening, we set out on
foot, and crossed the Monongahela at John’s Ferry, situated on the
opposite bank, at the bottom of Coal-Hill, a very lofty mountain which
borders the river to a vast {77} extent, insomuch that it conceals the
view of all the houses at Pittsburgh built on the other side.
After having coasted along the borders of the Ohio about a mile and a
half, we entered the wood, and went to sleep at an indifferent inn at
Charter Creek, where there was but one bed destined for travellers:
whenever it happens that several travellers meet together, the last
that arrive sleep on the floor, wrapped in the rug which they always
carry with them when they travel into the remote parts of the United
States.
The following day we made upwards of twenty miles, and went to lodge
with one Patterson. On this route the plantations are two or three
miles distant from each other, and more numerous than in the interior
of the country, which is a general observation of all travellers. The
inhabitants of this part of Pennsylvania are precise in their
behaviour, and very religious. We saw, in some places, churches
isolated in the woods, and in others, pulpits placed beneath large
oaks. Patterson holds a considerable and extensive farm, and a
corn-mill built upon a small river. He sends his corn to New Orleans.
The rivers and creeks are rather scarce in this part of Virginia, on
which account they are obliged to {78} have recourse to mills which
they turn by horses; but the flour that comes from them is consumed in
the country, not being susceptible of entering into trade. Nobody has
ever yet thought of constructing windmills, although there are on the
top of several of the hills places sufficiently cleared, that offer
favourable situations.
On the 16th of July we arrived at Wheeling, very much fatigued. We
were on foot, and the heat was extreme. Our journey was rendered more
difficult from the nature of the country, which is covered with hills
very close together, to some of which we were almost half an hour
before we could reach the summit. About six miles from Patterson’s we
found the line of demarkation that separates Pennsylvania from
Virginia, and cuts the road at right angles. This line is traced by
the rubbish that is piled up on lofty eminences, consisting of all the
large trees, in a breadth of forty feet. Twelve miles before our
arrival at Wheeling we passed by Liberty Town, a small town consisting
of about a hundred houses, built upon a hill.[31] The plantations are
numerous in the environs, and the soil, although even, is extremely
fertile. The produce of the lands vary: they produce from fifteen to
twenty bushels of corn {79} per acre, when they are entirely cleared,
and only twelve to fifteen when the clearing away is not complete,
that is to say, when there are many stumps remaining; for in clearing
they begin by cutting the trees within two feet of the ground, and
after that dig up the stumps. It is proper to observe that the
inhabitants give only one tillage, use no manure, and never let the
soil lie idle. The value of this land is according to its quality. The
best, in the proportion of twenty to twenty-five acres cleared, for a
lot of two or three hundred, is not worth more than three or four
piastres per acre. The taxes are from a half-penny to a penny per
acre. The hands being very scarce, labour is dear, and by no means in
proportion with the price of produce; the result of which is, that in
all the middle and southern states, within fifty miles of the sea,
each proprietor clears very little more than what he can cultivate
with his family, or with the reciprocal aid of some of his neighbours.
This is applied more particularly to the western country, where every
individual may easily procure land, and is excited to labour by its
incomparable fertility.
Within a mile and a half of West Liberty Town the road passes through
a narrow valley about four miles long, the borders of which, elevated
in {80} many places from twenty-five to thirty feet, present several
beds of coal from five to six feet thick, growing horizontally. This
substance is extremely common in all that part of Pennsylvania and
Virginia; but as the country is nothing but one continued forest, and
its population scarce, these mines are of no account. On the other
hand, were they situated in the eastern states, where they burn, in
the great towns, coals imported from England, their value would be
great.
The trees that grow in this valley are very close together, and of
large diameter, and their species more varied than in any country I
had seen before.
Wheeling, situated on one of the lofty banks of the Ohio, has not been
above twelve years in existence: it consists of about seventy houses,
built of wood, which, as in all the new towns of the United States,
are separated by an interval of several fathoms. This little town is
bounded by a long hill, nearly two hundred fathoms high, the base of
which is not more than two hundred fathoms from the river. In this
space the houses are built, forming but one street, in the middle of
which is the main road, which follows the windings of the river for a
distance of more than two hundred miles. From fifteen to twenty large
{81} shops, well stocked, supply the inhabitants twenty miles round
with provisions. This little town also shares in the export trade that
is carried on at Pittsburgh with the western country. Numbers of the
merchants at Philadelphia prefer sending their goods there, although
the journey is a day longer: but this trifling inconvenience is well
compensated by the advantage gained in avoiding the long winding which
the Ohio makes on leaving Pittsburgh, where the numerous shallows and
the slow movement of the stream, in summer time, retard the
navigation.
We passed the night at Wheeling with Captain Reymer, who keeps the
sign of the Waggon, and takes in boarders at the rate of two piastres
a-week. The accommodation, on the whole, is very comfortable,
provisions in that part of the country being remarkably cheap. A dozen
fowls could be bought for one piastre, and a hundred weight of flour
was then only worth a piastre and a half.
{82} CHAP. IX
_Departure from Wheeling for Marietta.--Aspect of the Banks of
the Ohio.--Nature of the Forests.--Extraordinary size of
several kinds of Trees._
On the 18th of July in the morning we purchased a canoe, twenty-four
feet long, eighteen inches wide, and about as many in depth. These
canoes are always made with a single trunk of a tree; the pine and
tulip tree are preferred for that purpose, the wood being very soft.
These canoes are too narrow to use well with oars, and in shallow
water are generally forced along either with a paddle or a staff.
Being obliged at times to shorten our journey by leaving the banks of
the river, where one is under shade, to get into the current, or to
pass from one point to another, and be exposed to the heat of a
scorching sun, we covered our canoe a quarter of its length with a
piece of cloth thrown {83} upon two hoops. In less than three quarters
of an hour we made up our minds to continue our journey by water;
notwithstanding we were obliged to defer our departure till the
afternoon, to wait for provisions which we might have wanted by the
way; as the inhabitants who live in different parts upon the banks of
the river are very badly supplied.
We left Wheeling about five in the afternoon, made twelve miles that
evening, and went to sleep on the right bank of the Ohio, which forms
the boundary of the government, described by the name of the North
West territory of the Ohio, and which is now admitted in the union
under the denomination of the State of Ohio. Although we had made no
more than twelve miles we were exceedingly fatigued, not so much by
continually paddling as by remaining constantly seated with our legs
extended. Our canoe being very narrow at bottom, obliged us to keep
that position; the least motion would have exposed us to being
overset. However, in the course of a few days custom made these
inconveniences disappear, and we attained the art of travelling
comfortably.
We took three days and a half in going to Marietta, about a hundred
miles from Wheeling. Our {84} second day was thirty miles, the third
forty, and on the fourth in the morning we reached this little town,
situated at the mouth of the great Muskingum. The first day, wholly
taken up with this mode of travelling, so novel to us, and which did
not appear to me to be very safe, I did not bend my attention further;
but on the following day, better used to this kind of navigation, I
observed more tranquilly from our canoe, the aspect that the borders
of this magnificent river presented.
Leaving Pittsburgh, the Ohio flows between two ridges, or lofty
mountains, nearly of the same height, which we judged to be about two
hundred fathoms. Frequently they appeared undulated at their summit,
at other times it seemed as though they had been completely level.
These hills continue uninterruptedly for the space of a mile or more,
then a slight interval is observed, that sometimes affords a passage
to the rivers that empty themselves into the Ohio; but most commonly
another hill of the same height begins at a very short distance from
the place where the preceding one left off. These mountains rise
successively for the space of three hundred miles, and from our canoe
we were enabled to observe them more distinctly, as they were more or
less distant {85} from the borders of the river. Their direction is
parallel to the chain of the Alleghanies; and although they are at
times from forty to a hundred miles distant from them, and that for an
extent of two hundred miles, one cannot help looking upon them as
belonging to these mountains. All that part of Virginia situated upon
the left bank of the Ohio is excessively mountainous, covered with
forests, and almost uninhabited; where I have been told by those who
live on the banks of the Ohio, they go every winter to hunt bears.
They give the name of river-bottoms and flat-bottoms to the flat and
woody ground between the foot of these mountains and the banks of the
river, the space of which is sometimes five or six miles broad. The
major part of the rivers which empty themselves into the Ohio have
also these river-bottoms, which, as well as those in question, are of
an easy culture, but nothing equal to the fertility of the banks of
the Ohio. The soil is a true vegetable _humus_, produced by the thick
bed of leaves with which the earth is loaded every year, and which is
speedily converted into mould by the humidity that reigns in these
forests. But what adds still more to the thickness of these successive
beds of vegetable {86} earth are the trunks of enormous trees, thrown
down by time, with which the surface of the soil is bestrewed in every
part, and which rapidly decays. In more than a thousand leagues of the
country, over which I have travelled at different epochs, in North
America, I do not remember having seen one to compare with the latter
for the vegetative strength of the forests. The best sort of land in
Kentucky and Tenessea, situated beyond the mountains of Cumberland, is
much the same; but the trees do not grow to such a size as on the
borders of the Ohio. Thirty-six miles before our arrival at Marietta
we stopped at the hut of one of the inhabitants of the right bank, who
shewed us, about fifty yards from his door, a palm-tree, or _platanus
occidentalis_, the trunk of which was swelled to an amazing size; we
measured it four feet beyond the surface of the soil, and found it
forty-seven feet in circumference. It appeared to keep the same
dimensions for the height of fifteen or twenty feet, it then divided
into several branches of a proportionate size. By its external
appearance no one could tell that the tree was hollow; however I
assured myself it was by striking it in several places with a billet.
Our host told us that if we would spend the day with him he would {87}
shew us others as large, in several parts of the wood, within two or
three miles of the river. This circumstance supports the observations
which my father made, when travelling in that part of the country,
that the poplar and palm are, of all the trees in North America, those
that attain the greatest diameter.
“About fifteen miles,” said he, “up the river Muskingum, in a small
island of the Ohio, we found a palm-tree, or _platanus occidentalis_,
the circumference of which, five feet from the surface of the earth,
where the trunk was most uniform, was forty feet four inches, which
makes about thirteen feet in diameter. Twenty years prior to my
travels, General Washington had measured this same tree, and had found
it nearly of the same dimensions. I have also measured palms in
Kentucky, but I never met with any above fifteen or sixteen feet in
circumference. These trees generally grow in marshy places.
“The largest tree in North America, after the palm, is the poplar, or
_liriodendron tulipifera_. Its circumference is sometimes fifteen,
sixteen, and even eighteen feet: Kentucky is their native country;
between Beard Town and Louisville we {88} saw several parts of the
wood which were exclusively composed of them. The soil is clayey, cold
and marshy; but never inundated.
“The trees that are usually found in the forests that border the Ohio
are the palm, or _platanus occidentalis_; the poplar, the beach-tree,
the _magnolia acuminata_, the _celtis occidentalis_, the acacia, the
sugar-maple, the red maple, the _populus nigra_, and several species
of nut-trees; the most common shrubs are, the _annona triloba_, the
_evonimus latifolius_, and the _laurus bensoin_.”
{89} CHAP. X
_Marietta.--Ship building.--Departure for Gallipoli.--Falling in
with a Kentucky Boat.--Point-Pleasant.--The Great Kenhaway._
Marietta, the chief of the settlements on the New Continent, is
situated upon the right bank of the Great Muskingum, at its
_embouchure_ in the Ohio. This town, which fifteen years ago was not
in existence, is now composed of more than two hundred houses, some of
which are built of brick, but the greatest part of wood. There are
several from two to three stories high, which are somewhat elegantly
built; nearly all of them are in front of the Ohio. The mountains
which from Pittsburgh run by the side of this river, are at Marietta
some distance from its banks, and leave a considerable extent of even
ground, which will facilitate, in every respect, the enlarging of the
town upon a {90} regular plan, and afford its inhabitants the most
advantageous and agreeable situations; it will not be attended with
the inconveniences that are met with at Pittsburgh, which is locked in
on all sides by lofty mountains.
The inhabitants of Marietta were the first that had an idea of
exporting directly to the Carribbee Islands the produce of the
country, in a vessel built in their own town, which they sent to
Jamaica. The success which crowned this first attempt excited such
emulation among the inhabitants of that part of the Western Country,
that several new vessels were launched at Pittsburgh and Louisville,
and expedited to the isles, or to New York and Philadelphia. The ship
yard at Marietta is situated near the town, on the Great Muskingum.
When I was there they were building three brigs, one of which was of
two hundred and twenty tons burthen.
The river Muskingum takes its source toward Lake Eria; it is not
navigable for two hundred miles from its mouth in the Ohio, where it
is about a hundred and sixty fathoms broad.[32] The country that it
runs through, and especially its banks, are extremely fertile.
Near the town of Marietta are the remains of several {91} Indian
fortifications. When they were discovered, they were full of trees of
the same nature as those of the neighbouring forests, some of which
were upwards of three feet diameter. These trees have been hewn down,
and the ground is now almost entirely cultivated with Indian corn.
Major-General Hart, with whose son I was acquainted at Marietta, gave,
in the Columbia Magazine for the year 1787, Vol. I. No. 9, a plan and
a minute description of these ancient fortifications of the Indians:
the translation of which is given in his Travels in Upper
Pennsylvania. This officer, of the most distinguished merit, fell in
the famous battle that General St. Clair[33] lost in 1791, near Lake
Eria, against the united savages. When I was at Marietta, General St.
Clair was Governor of the State of Ohio, a post which he occupied till
this state was admitted in the union. His Excellency coming from
Pittsburgh and going to Chillicotha, alighted at the inn where I
lodged. As he was travelling in an old chaise, and without a servant,
he did not at first attract my attention. In the United States, those
who are called by the wish of their fellow-citizens to exercise these
important functions do not change their dress, continue dwelling in
their own houses, {92} and live like private individuals, without
showing more ostentation, or incurring more expense. The emoluments
attached to this office varies in every state; that of South Carolina,
one of the richest of the union, gives its governor 4280 piastres,
while the Governor of Kentucky receives no more than twelve or fifteen
hundred. The inhabitants of the State of Ohio are divided in opinion
concerning the political conduct of General St. Clair. With respect to
talents, he has the reputation of being a better lawyer than a
soldier.
On the eve of my departure I met a Frenchman at Marietta, who is
settled on the banks of the Great Muskingum, about twenty miles from
the town. I regretted much my inability to accept the invitation that
he gave me to go and see him at his plantation, which would have given
me time to make more extensive observations in that part of the
Western Country.
On the 21st of July we set out from Marietta for Gallipoli, which is a
distance of about a hundred miles. We reached there after having been
four days on the water. The inhabitants of the country, by putting off
from the shore in the night time, would have made that passage in two
days and a half {93} or three days. According to the calculation that
we made, the mean force of the stream was about a mile and a half an
hour; it is hardly to be perceived in those parts where the water is
very deep; but as you get nearer the isles, which, as I have said
before, are very numerous, the bed of the river diminishes in depth,
so that frequently there is not a foot of water out of the main
channel. Whenever we came near those shallows the swiftness of the
current was extreme, and the canoe was carried away like an arrow,
which led us to observe that it was only as we distanced the islands
that the bed increases in depth, and that the stream becomes less
rapid.
On the day of our departure we joined, in the evening, a Kentucky
boat, destined for Cincinnati. This boat, about forty feet long and
fifteen broad, was loaded with bar iron and brass pots. There was also
an emigrant family in it, consisting of the father, mother, and seven
children, with all their furniture and implements of husbandry. The
boatmen, three in number, granted us, without difficulty, permission
to fasten our canoe to the end of their boat, and to pass the night
with them. We intended, by that means, to accelerate our journey, by
not putting up {94} at night, as we had before been accustomed to do,
and hoped to spend a more comfortable night than the preceding one,
during which we had been sadly tormented by the fleas, with which the
greater part of the houses where we had slept, from the moment of our
embarkation, had been infested. However our hopes were frustrated; for
so far from being comfortable, we were still more incommoded. In the
course of my travels it was only on the banks of the Ohio that I
experienced this inconvenience.
We were on the point of leaving them about two in the morning, when
the boat ran aground. Under these circumstances we could not desert
our hosts, who had entertained us with their best, and who had made us
partake of a wild turkey which they had shot the preceding evening on
the banks of the river. We got into the water with the boatmen, and by
the help of large sticks that we made use of as oars succeeded in
pushing the vessel afloat, after two hours’ painful efforts.
In the course of the night we passed the mouth of the Little Kenhaway,
which, after having watered that part of Virginia, empties itself into
the Ohio, on its right bank. Its borders are not inhabited for more
than fifteen or twenty miles from its _embouchure_. {95} The remainder
of the country is so mountainous that they will not think of forming
settlements there this long time. About five miles on this side the
mouth of this little river, and on the right bank of the Ohio, is
situated Bellepree, where there are not more than a dozen houses; but
the settlements formed in the environs increase rapidly. This
intelligence was given us at a house where we stopped after having
left the Kentucky boat.
On the 23d of July, about ten in the morning, we discovered Point
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.
The travellers who arrive at Limestone by the Ohio find great
difficulty in procuring horses on hire, to go to the places of their
destination. The inhabitants there, as well as at Shippensburgh, take
this undue advantage, in order to sell them at an {117} enormous
price. As I intended staying some time at Lexinton, which would
greatly enhance my expenses, I resolved to travel there on foot; upon
which I left my portmanteau with the landlord of the inn where I
stopped, which he undertook for a piaster to send me to Lexinton, and
I set off the same day. It is reckoned from Limestone to Lexinton to
be sixty-five miles, which I went in two days and a half. The first
town we came to was Washington, which was only four miles off.[37] It
is much larger than Limestone, and contains about two hundred houses,
all of wood, and built on both sides of the road. Trade is very brisk
there; it consists principally in corn, which is exported to New
Orleans. There are several very fine plantations in the environs, the
land of which is as well cultivated and the enclosures as well
constructed, as at Virginia and Pennsylvania. I went seven miles the
first evening, and on the following day reached Springfield, composed
of five or six houses, among the number of which are two spacious
inns, well built, where the inhabitants of the environs assemble
together. Thence I passed through Mays-Lick, where there is a
salt-mine. I stopped there to examine the process pursued for the
extraction of salt. The {118} wells that supply the salt water are
about twenty feet in depth, and not more than fifty or sixty fathoms
from the river Salt-Lick, the waters of which are somewhat brackish in
summer time. For evaporation they make use of brazen pots, containing
about two hundred pints, and similar in form to those used in France
for making lye. They put ten or a dozen of them in a row on a pit four
feet in depth, and a breadth proportionate to their diameter, so that
the sides lay upon the edge of the pit, supported by a few handfuls of
white clay, which fill up but very imperfectly the spaces between the
vessels. The wood, which they cut in billets of about three feet, is
thrown in at the extremities of the pit. These sort of kilns are
extravagant, and consume a prodigious quantity of wood; I made an
observation of it to the people employed in the business, to which
they made answer, that they did not know there was any preferable
mode; and they should follow their own till some person or other from
the Old Country (meaning Europe) came and taught them to do better.
The scarcity of hands for the cutting down and conveyance of the wood,
and the few saline principles that the water contains when dissolved,
occasions the salt to be very dear; they sell it at from four to {119}
five piasters per hundred weight. It is that scarcity which induces
many of them to search for salt springs. They are usually found in
places described by the name of Licks where the bisons, elks, and
stags that existed in Kentucky before the arrival of the Europeans,
went by hundreds to lick the saline particles with which the soil is
impregnated. There are in this state and that of Tenessea a set of
quacks, who by means of a hazle wand pretend to discover springs of
salt and fresh water; but they are only consulted by the more ignorant
class of people, who never send for them but when they are induced by
some circumstance or other to search over a spot of ground where they
suspect one of those springs.
The country we traversed ten miles on this side Mays-Lick, and eight
miles beyond, did not afford the least vestige of a plantation. The
soil is dry and sandy; the road is covered with immense flat chalky
stones, of a bluish cast inside, the edges of which are round. The
only trees that we observed were the white oak, or _quercus alba_, and
nut-tree, or _juglans hickery_, but their stinted growth and wretched
appearance clearly indicated the sterility of the soil, occasioned,
doubtless, by the salt mines that it contains.
{120} From Mays-Lick I went to Millesburgh, composed of fifty houses;
I went there to visit Mr. Savary, who had been very intimately
acquainted with my father, and by his invitation I left my inn and
went to lodge at his house.[38] Mr. Savary is one of the greatest
proprietors in that part of the country; he possesses more than eighty
thousand acres of land in Virginia, Tenessea and Kentucky. The taxes
that he pays, although moderate, are notwithstanding very burthensome
to him; more so, as it is with the greatest difficulty he can find
purchasers for his land, as the emigrations of the eastern states,
having taken a different direction, incline but very feebly towards
Kentucky.
Near Millesburgh flows a little river, from five to six fathoms broad,
upon which two saw-mills are erected. The stream was then so low that
I crossed it upon large chalky stones, which comprised a part of its
bottom, and which at that time were above water. In winter time, on
the contrary, it swells to such a degree that it can scarcely be
passed by means of a bridge twenty-five feet in height. The bridges
thrown over the small rivers, or creeks, that are met with frequently
in the interior of the country, more especially in the eastern states,
are all formed of the {121} trunks of trees placed transversely by
each other. These bridges have no railings; and whenever a person
travels on horseback, it is always prudent to alight in order to cross
them.
On this side Lexinton we passed through Paris, a manor-house for the
county of Bourbon. This small town, in the year 1796, consisted of no
more than eighteen houses, and now contains more than a hundred and
fifty, half of which are brick. It is situated on a delightful plain,
and watered by a small river, near which are several corn mills. Every
thing seems to announce the comfort of its inhabitants. Seven or eight
were drinking whiskey at a respectable inn where I stopped to refresh
myself on account of the excessive heat. After having replied to
different questions which they asked me concerning the intent of my
journey, one of them invited me to dine with him, wishing to introduce
me to one of my fellow-countrymen arrived lately from Bengal. I
yielded to his entreaties, and actually found a Frenchman who had left
Calcutta to go and reside at Kentucky. He was settled at Paris, where
he exercised the profession of a school-master.
{122} CHAP. XIV
_Lexinton.--Manufactories established there.--Commerce.--Dr.
Samuel Brown_
Lexinton, the manor-house for the county of Fayette, is situated in
the midst of a flat soil of about three hundred acres, like the rest
of the small towns of the United States that are not upon the borders
of the sea. This town is traced upon a regular plan, and its streets,
sufficiently broad, cut each other at right angles. The want of
pavement renders it very muddy in winter time, and rainy weather. The
houses, most of which are brick, are disseminated upon an extent of
eighty or a hundred acres, except those which form the main street,
where they are contiguous to each other. This town, founded in 1780,
is the oldest and most wealthy of the three new western states; it
contains about three thousand inhabitants. Frankfort, the seat of
government in Kentucky, which is upwards of twenty {123} miles distant
from it, is not so populous.[39] We may attribute the rapid increase
of Lexinton to its situation in the centre of one of the most fertile
parts of the country, comprised in a kind of semicircle, formed by the
Kentucky river.
There are two printing-offices at Lexinton, in each of which a
newspaper is published twice a week. Part of the paper is manufactured
in the country, and is dearer by one-third than in France.[40] That
which they use for writing, originally imported from England, comes by
the way of Philadelphia and Baltimore. Two extensive rope walks,
constantly in employ, supply the ships with rigging that are built
upon the Ohio. On the borders of the little river that runs very near
the town several tan-yards are established that supply the wants of
the inhabitants. I observed at the gates of these tan-yards strong
leathers of a yellowish cast, tanned with the black oak; in
consequence of which I saw that this tree grew in Kentucky, although I
had not observed it between Limestone and Lexinton; in fact, I had
seen nothing but land either parched up or extremely fertile; and, as
I have since observed, this tree grows in neither, it is an inhabitant
of the mountainous parts, where the soil is gravelly and rather moist.
{124} The want of hands excites the industry of the inhabitants of
this country. When I was at Lexinton one of them had just obtained a
patent for a nail machine, more complete and expeditious than the one
made use of in the prisons at New York and Philadelphia; and a second
announced one for the grinding and cleaning of hemp and sawing wood
and stones. This machine, moved by a horse or a current of water, is
capable, according to what the inventor said, to break and clean eight
thousand weight of hemp per day.
The articles manufactured at Lexinton are very passable, and the
speculators are ever said to make rapid fortunes, notwithstanding the
extreme scarcity of hands. This scarcity proceeds from the inhabitants
giving so decided a preference to agriculture, that there are very few
of them who put their children to any trade, wanting their services in
the field. The following comparison will more clearly prove this
scarcity of artificers in the western states: At Charleston in
Carolina, and at Savannah in Georgia, a cabinet-maker, carpenter,
mason, tinman, tailor, shoemaker, &c. earns two piastres a day, and
cannot live for less than six per week; at New York and Philadelphia
he has but one piaster, and it {125} costs him four per week. At
Marietta, Lexinton and Nasheville, in Tenessea, these workmen earn
from one piaster to one and a half a day, and can subsist a week with
the produce of one day’s labour. Another example may tend to give an
idea of the low price of provisions in the western states. The
boarding-house, where I lived during my stay at Lexinton, passes for
one of the best in the town, and we were profusely served at the rate
of two piastres per week. I am informed that living is equally cheap
in the states of New England, which comprise Connecticut,
Massachusets, and New Hampshire; but the price of labour is not so
high, and therefore more proportionate to the price of provisions.
Independent of those manufactories which are established in Lexinton,
there are several common potteries, and one or two powder-mills, the
produce of which is consumed in the country or exported to Upper
Carolina and Low Louisiana. The sulphur is obtained from Philadelphia
and the saltpetre is manufactured in the country; the materials are
extracted from the grottos, or caverns, that are found on the
declivity of lofty hills in the most mountainous part of the state.
The soil there is extremely rich in nitrous particles, which is
evidently due to {126} the chalky rock, at the expense of which all
these excavations are formed, as well as for vegetable substances,
which are casually thrust into their interior. This appears to
demonstrate that the assimilation of animal matters is not absolutely
necessary, even in the formation of artificial nitrous veins, to
produce a higher degree of nitrification. Saltpetre of the first
preparation is sold at about sixpence halfpenny per pound. Among the
various samples I have seen, I never observed the least appearance of
marine salt. The process that is used is as defective as their
preparation of salt; I only speak relative to the extraction of the
saltpetre, not having seen the powder-mills. I shall conclude by
observing, that it is only in Kentucky and Tenessea that saltpetre is
manufactured, and not in the Atlantic States.
The majority of the inhabitants of Lexinton trade with Kentucky;[41]
they receive their merchandize from Philadelphia and Baltimore in
thirty-five or forty days, including the journey of two days and a
half from Limestone, where they land all the goods destined for
Kentucky. The price of carriage is from seven to eight piastres per
hundred weight. Seven-tenths of the manufactured articles consumed in
Kentucky, as well as in the other parts of the {127} United States,
are imported from England; they consist chiefly in coarse and fine
jewellery, cutlery, ironmongery, and tin ware; in short, drapery,
mercery, drugs, and fine earthenware, muslins, nankeens, tea, &c. are
imported directly from India to the United States by the American
vessels; and they get from the Carribbees coffee, and various kinds of
raw sugar, as none but the poorer class of the inhabitants make use of
maple sugar.
The French goods that are sent into this part of the country are
reduced to a few articles in the silk line, such as taffetas, silk
stockings, &c. also brandies and millstones, notwithstanding their
enormous weight, and the distance from the sea ports.
From Lexinton the different kinds of merchandize are despatched into
the interior of the state, and the overplus is sent by land into
Tenessea. It is an easy thing for merchants to make their fortunes; in
the first place, they usually have a twelvemonth’s credit from the
houses at Philadelphia and Baltimore, and in the next, as there are so
few, they are always able to fix in their favour the course of
colonial produce, which they take in exchange for their goods: as,
through the extreme scarcity of specie, most of these transactions are
done by way of barter; the merchants, {128} however, use every
exertion in their power to get into their possession the little specie
in circulation; it is only particular articles that are sold for
money, or in exchange for produce the sale of which is always certain,
such as the linen of the country, or hemp. Payments in money always
bear a difference of fifteen or twenty per cent to the merchant’s
profits. All the specie collected in the course of trade is sent by
land to Philadelphia; I have seen convoys of this kind that consisted
of fifteen or twenty horses.[42] The trouble of conveyance is so
great that they give the preference to Bank bills of the United
States, which bear a discount of two per cent. The merchants in all
parts take them, but the inhabitants of the country will not, through
fear of their being forged. I must again remark, that there is not a
single species of colonial produce in Kentucky, except _gensing_, that
will bear the expense of carriage by land from that state to
Philadelphia; as it is demonstrated that twenty-five pounds weight
{129} would cost more expediting that way, even going up the Ohio,
than a thousand by that river, without reckoning the passage by sea,
although we have had repeated examples that the passage from New
Orleans to Philadelphia or New York is sometimes as long as that from
France to the United States.
The current coin in the states of Kentucky and Tennessea has the same
divisions as in Virginia. They reckon six shillings to the dollar or
piastre. The hundreds which nearly correspond with our halfpence,
although having a forced currency, do not appear in circulation. The
quarters, eighths, and sixteenths of a piastre form the small white
money. As it is extremely scarce, it is supplied by a very indifferent
method, but which appears necessary, and consists in cutting the
dollars into pieces. As every body is entitled to make this division,
there are people who do it for the sake of gain; at the same time in
the retail trade the seller will generally abate in his articles for a
whole dollar, than have their full worth in six or eight pieces.
I have heard from several persons very well informed, that during the
last war, corn being kept up at an exorbitant rate, it was computed
that the exportations from Kentucky had balanced the price {130} of
the importations of English goods from Philadelphia and Baltimore, by
the way of the Ohio: but since the peace, the demand for flour and
salt provisions having ceased in the Caribbees, corn has fallen
considerably; so that the balance of trade is wholly unfavourable to
the country.
During my stay at Lexinton I frequently saw Dr. Samuel Brown, from
Virginia, a physician of the college of Edinburgh, and member of the
Philosophical Society, to whom several members of that society had
given me letters of recommendation. A merited reputation undeniably
places Dr. S. Brown in the first rank of physicians settled in that
part of the country. Receiving regularly the scientific journals from
London, he is always in the channel of new discoveries, and turns them
to the advantage of his fellow-citizens. It is to him that they are
indebted for the introduction of the cow-pox. He had at that time
inoculated upward of five hundred persons in Kentucky, when they were
making their first attempts in New York and Philadelphia. Dr. Brown
also employs himself in collecting fossils and other natural
productions, which abound in this interesting country. I have seen at
his house several relics of very large unknown fish, caught in the
{131} Kentucky River, and which were remarkable for their singular
forms. The analysis of the mineral waters at Mud-Lick was to employ
the first leisure time he had. These waters are about sixty miles from
Lexinton; they are held in great esteem, and the most distinguished
personages in the country were drinking them when I was in the town.
The Philosophical Transactions and the Monthly Review, published at
New York by Dr. Mitchel, are the periodical works wherein Dr. Brown
inserts the fruit of his observation and research.[43]
I had also the pleasure of forming an acquaintance with several French
gentlemen settled in that part of the country: Mr. Robert, to whom I
was recommended by Mr. Marbois, jun. then in the United States; and
Messrs. Duhamel and Mentelle, sons of the members of the National
Institution of the same name. The two latter are settled in the
environs of Lexinton; the first as a physician, and the second as a
farmer. I received from them that marked attention and respect so
pleasing to a foreigner at a distance from his country and his
friends; in consequence of which I now feel myself happy in having
this means of publicly expressing my warmest gratitude.
{132} CHAP. XV
_Departure from Lexinton.--Culture of the vine at Kentucky.--
Passage over the Kentucky and Dick Rivers.--Departure for
Nasheville.--Mulder Hill.--Passage over Green River._
I set out on the 10th of August from Lexinton to Nasheville, in the
state of Tennessea; and as the establishment formed to naturalize the
vine in Kentucky was but a few miles out of my road, I resolved to go
and see it. There is no American but what takes the warmest interest
in attempts of that kind, and several persons in the Atlantic states
had spoken to me of the success which had crowned this undertaking.
French wines being one of the principal articles of our commerce with
the United States, I wished to be satisfied respecting the degree of
prosperity which this establishment might have acquired. {133} In the
mean time, from the indifferent manner which I had heard it spoken of
in the country I suspected beforehand that the first attempts had not
been very fortunate.
About fourteen miles from Lexinton I quitted the Hickman Ferry road,
turned on my left, and strolled into the woods, so that I did not
reach the vineyard till the evening, when I was handsomely received by
Mr. Dufour, who superintends the business. He gave me an invitation to
sleep, and spend the following day with him, which I accepted.
There reigns in the United States a public spirit that makes them
greedily seize hold of every plan that tends to enrich the country by
agriculture and commerce. That of rearing the vine in Kentucky was
eagerly embraced. Several individuals united together, and formed a
society to put it in execution, and it was decreed that a fund should
be established of ten thousand dollars, divided into two hundred
shares of fifty dollars each. This fund was very soon accomplished.
Mr. Dufour, the chief of a small Swiss colony which seven or eight
years before had settled in Kentucky, and who had proposed this
undertaking, was deputed to search for a proper soil, to procure vine
plants, and to do every thing he {134} might think necessary to insure
success. The spot that he has chosen and cleared is on the Kentucky
river, about twenty miles from Lexinton. The soil is excellent and the
vineyard is planted upon the declivity of a hill exposed to the south,
and the base of which is about two hundred fathoms from the river.
Mr. Dufour intended to go to France to procure the vine plants, and
with that idea went to New York; but the war, or other causes that I
know not, prevented his setting out, and he contented himself with
collecting, in this town and Philadelphia, slips of every species that
he could find in the possession of individuals that had them in their
gardens. After unremitted labour he made a collection of twenty-five
different sorts, which he brought to Kentucky, where he employed
himself in cultivating them. However the success did not answer the
expectation; only four or five various kinds survived, among which
were those that he had described by the name of Burgundy and Madeira,
but the former is far from being healthy. The grape generally decays
before it is ripe. When I saw them the bunches were thin and poor, the
berries small, and every thing announced that the vintage of 1802
would not be more {135} abundant than that of the preceding years. The
Madeira vines appeared, on the contrary, to give some hopes. Out of a
hundred and fifty or two hundred, there was a third loaded with very
fine bunches. The whole of these vines do not occupy a space of more
than six acres. They are planted and fixed with props similar to those
in the environs of Paris.
Such was then the situation of this establishment, in which the
stockholders concerned themselves but very little. It was again about
to experience another check by the division of Mr. Dufour’s family,
one part of which was on the point of setting out to the banks of the
Ohio, there to form a settlement. These particulars are sufficient to
give, on the pretended flourishing state of the vines in Kentucky, an
idea very different to that which might be formed from the pompous
account of them which appeared some months since in our public papers.
I profited by my stay with Mr. Dufour, to ask him in what part of
Kentucky the numerous emigration of his countrymen had settled, which
had been so much spoken of in our newspapers in 1793 and 1794. His
reply was, that a great number of the Swiss had actually formed an
intention to settle there; but {136} just as they were setting out,
the major part had changed their mind, and that the colony was then
reduced to his family and a few friends, forming, in the whole, eleven
persons.
I did not set out from the vineyard till the second day after my
arrival. Mr. Dufour offered, in order to shorten my journey, to
conduct me through the wood where they cross the Kentucky river. I
accepted his proposal, and although the distance was only four miles
we took two hours to accomplish it, as we were obliged to alight
either to climb up or descend the mountains, or to leap our horses
over the trunks of old trees piled one upon another. The soil, as
fertile as in the environs of Lexinton, will be difficult to
cultivate, on account of the great inequality of the ground. Beech,
nut, and oak trees, form chiefly the mass of the forests. We crossed,
in the mean time, the shallows of the river, covered exclusively with
beautiful palms. A great number of people in the country dread the
proximity of these palms; they conceive that the down which grows on
the reverse of the leaves, in spring, and which falls off in the
course of the summer, brings on consumptions, by producing an
irritation of the lungs, almost insensible, but continued.
{137} In this season of the year the Kentucky River is so low at
Hickman Ferry that a person may ford it with the greatest ease.
I stopped a few minutes at the inn where the ferry-boat plies when the
water is high, and while they were giving my horse some corn I went on
the banks of the river to survey it more attentively. Its borders are
formed by an enormous mass of chalky stones, remarkably peaked, about
a hundred and fifty feet high, and which bear, from the bottom to the
top, evident traces of the action of the waters, which have washed
them away in several parts. A broad and long street, where the houses
are arranged in a right line, will give an idea of the channel of this
river at Hickman Ferry. It swells amazingly in spring and autumn, and
its waters rise at that time, in a few days, from sixty to seventy
feet.
I met, at this inn, an inhabitant of the country who lived about sixty
miles farther up. This gentleman, with whom I entered into
conversation, and who appeared to me to enjoy a comfortable existence,
gave me strong invitations to pass a week with him at his house; and
as he supposed that I was in quest of a spot to form a settlement,
which is usually the intention of those who go to Kentucky, he offered
{138} his services to shew me a healthy soil, wishing very much, he
said, to have an inhabitant of the old country for a neighbour. It has
often happened to me, in this state as well as in that of Tennessea,
to refuse similar propositions by strangers whom I met at the inns or
at the houses where I asked a lodging, and who invited me, after that,
to spend a few days in their family.
About a mile from Kentucky I left the Danville road, and took that of
Harrod’s Burgh,[44] to go to General Adair,[45] to whom Dr. Ramsey
of Charleston had given me a letter of recommendation. I arrived at
his house the same day. I crossed Dick’s River, which is not half so
broad as the Kentucky, but is extremely pleasant at this season of the
year. Its bed is uniformly hollowed out by nature, and seems cased
with stone. Part of the right bank, opposite to the place where they
land, discovers a beautiful rock of a chalky substance, more than two
hundred and fifty feet in height. The stratum forms one continued
mass, which does not present the smallest interval, and which is only
distinguished by zones and parallels of a bluish cast, the colour of
which contrasts with the whiteness of the towering pile. On leaving
its summit, numerous furrows, hollowed {139} in the rock, very near
together, and which seem to run _ad infinitum_, are seen at different
heights. These furrows have visibly been formed by the current of the
river, which at distant epochs had its bed at these various levels.
Dick’s River, like the Kentucky, experiences, in the spring, an
extraordinary increase of water. The stratum of vegetable earth which
covers the rock does not appear to be more than two or three feet
thick. Virginia cedars are very common there. This tree, which is fond
of lofty places where the chalky substance is very near to the
superficies of the soil, thrives very well; but other trees, such as
the black oak, the hickery, &c. are stinted, and assume a miserable
appearance.
General Adair was absent when I arrived at his plantation. His lady
received me in the most obliging manner, and for five or six days that
I staid with her I received every mark of attention and hospitality,
as though I had been intimately acquainted with the family.
A spacious and commodious house, a number of black servants,
equipages, every thing announced the opulence of the General, which it
is well known is not always, in America, the appendage of those
honoured with that title. His plantation is situated {140} near
Harrodsburgh in the county of Mercer. Magnificent peach orchards,
immense fields of Indian wheat, surround the house. The soil there is
extremely fertile, which shews itself by the largeness of the blades
of corn, their extraordinary height, and the abundance of the crops,
that yield annually thirty or forty hundred weight of corn per acre.
The mass of the surrounding forests is composed of those species of
trees that are found in the better sort of land, such as the _gleditia
acanthus_, _guilandina dioica_, _ulmus viscosa_, _morus-rubra_,
_corylus_, _annona triloba_. In short, for several miles round the
surface of the ground is flat, which is very rare in that country.
As I could not defer my travels any longer, I did not accept of Mrs.
Adair’s invitation, who entreated me to stay till her husband’s
return; and on the 20th of August I set out in order to continue my
route toward Nasheville, very much regretting not having had it in my
power to form an acquaintance with the General.
My first day’s journey was upward of twenty miles, and in the evening
I put up at the house of one Hays, who keeps a kind of inn about fifty
miles from Lexinton. Harrodsburgh, which I passed {141} through that
day, at present consists only of about twenty houses, irregularly
scattered, and built of wood. Twelve miles farther I regained, at
Chaplain Fork, the road to Danville. In this space, which is
uninhabited, the soil is excellent, but very unequal.
The second day I went nearly thirty miles, and stopped at an inn kept
by a person of the name of Skeggs. Ten miles on this side is
Mulder-Hill, a steep and lofty mountain that forms a kind of
amphitheatre. From its summit the neighbouring country presents the
aspect of an immense valley, covered with forests of an imperceptible
extent, whence, as far as the eye can reach, nothing but a gloomy
verdant space is seen, formed by the tops of the close-connected
trees, and through which not the vestige of a plantation can be
discerned. The profound silence that reigns in these woods,
uninhabited by wild beasts, and the security of the place, forms an
_ensemble_ rarely to be met with in other countries. At the summit of
Mulder-Hill the road divides, to unite again a few miles farther on. I
took the left, and the first plantation that I reached was that of Mr.
Macmahon, formerly professor of a college in Virginia, who came very
lately to reside in this part of the country, where he officiates as a
clergyman.
{142} Skeggs’s inn, where I stopped after having left Mulder-Hill, was
the worst station that I took from Limestone to Nasheville. It was
destitute of every kind of provision, and I was obliged to sleep on
the floor, wrapped up in my rug, without having been able to procure a
supper. As there was no stable in this plantation, I turned my horse
into a peach orchard for pasture. The fences that inclosed it were
broken down, and fearing he would escape in the night, I put a bell on
his neck, such as travellers carry with them when compelled to sleep
in the woods. The peaches at that time were in full perfection, and I
perceived that my horse had been feeding on them, from the immense
quantity of kernels lying under three or four trees. This was very
easy for him, as the branches, loaded with fruit, hung nearly to the
ground.
About eight miles hence I forded Green River, which flows into the
Ohio, after innumerable windings, and runs through a narrow valley not
more than a mile in breadth. At the place where I crossed it it had
not three [feet?] of water in an extent from fifteen to twenty fathoms
broad; but in the spring, the only epoch when it is navigable, the
water rises about eighteen feet, as may be judged by the roots of the
{143} trees that adorn its banks, and which are stripped naked by the
current. Beyond the river we regain the road, which for the space of
two miles serpentines in that part of the valley which is on the left
bank. The soil of these shallows is marshy and very fruitful, where
the beech tree, among others, flourishes in great perfection. Its
diameter is usually in proportion to its height, and its massy trunk
sometimes rises twenty-five or thirty feet from the earth divested of
a single branch. The soil occupied by these trees is considered by the
inhabitants as the most difficult to clear.
{144} CHAP. XVI
_Passage over the Barrens, or Meadows.--Plantations upon the
Road.--The View they present.--Plants discovered there.--
Arrival at Nasheville._
About ten miles from Green River flows the Little Barren, a small
river, from thirty to forty feet in breadth; the ground in the
environs is dry and barren, and produces nothing but a few Virginia
cedars, two-leaved pines, and black oaks. A little beyond this
commence the Barrens, or Kentucky Meadows. I went the first day
thirteen miles across these meadows, and put up at the house of Mr.
Williamson, near Bears-Wallow.
In the morning, before I left the place, I wanted to give my horse
some water, upon which my host directed me to a spring about a quarter
of a mile from the house, where his family was supplied; I wandered
{145} about for the space of two hours in search of this, when I
discovered a plantation in a low and narrow valley, where I learnt
that I had mistaken the path, and was obliged to return to the place
from whence I came. The mistress of the house told me that she had
resided in the Barrens upwards of three years, and that for eighteen
months prior to my going there she had not seen an individual; that,
weary of living thus isolated, her husband had been more than two
months from home in quest of another spot, towards the mouth of the
Ohio. Such was the pretence for this removal, which made the third
since the family left Virginia. A daughter about fourteen years of
age, and two children considerably younger, were all the company she
had; her house, on the other hand, was stocked abundantly with
vegetables and corn.
This part of the Barrens that chance occasioned me to stroll over, was
precisely similar to that I had traversed the day before. I found a
spring in a cavity of an orbicular form, where it took me upwards of
an hour to get half a pail of water for my horse. The time that I had
thus employed, that which I had lost in wandering about, added to the
intense heat, obliged {146} me to shorten my route: in consequence of
which I put up at Dripping Spring, about ten miles from Bears-Wallow.
On the following day, the 26th, I went twenty-eight miles, and stopped
at the house of Mr. Jacob Kesly, belonging to the Dunker sect, which I
discovered by his long beard. About ten miles from Dripping Spring I
forded Big-Barren River, which appeared to me one third broader than
Green River, the plantation of one Macfiddit, who plies a ferry-boat
when the waters are high; and another, belonging to one Chapman. About
three miles farther are the two oldest settlements on the road, both
of them having been built upwards of fourteen years. When I was at
this place, a boat laden with salt arrived from St. Genevieve, a
French village situated upon the right bank of the Mississippi, about
a hundred miles beyond the mouth of the Ohio.
My landlord’s house was as miserably furnished as those I had lodged
at for several days preceding, and I was again obliged to sleep on the
floor. The major part of the inhabitants of Kentucky have been there
too short a time to make any great improvements; they have a very
indifferent supply of any thing except Indian corn and forage.
{147} On the 27th of August I set off very early in the morning; and
about thirteen miles from Mr. Kesley’s I crossed the line that
separates the State of Tennessea from that of Kentucky. There also
terminates the Barrens; and to my great satisfaction I got into the
woods.[46] Nothing can be more tiresome than the doleful uniformity
of these immense meadows where there is nobody to be met with; and
where, except a great number of partridges, we neither see nor hear
any species of living beings, and are still more isolated than in the
middle of the forests.
The first plantation that I reached on entering Tennessea belonged to
a person of the name of Checks, of whom I entertained a very
indifferent opinion, by the conversation that he was holding with
seven or eight of his neighbours, with whom he was drinking whiskey.
Fearing lest I should witness some murdering scene or other, which
among the inhabitants of this part of the country is frequently the
end of intoxication, produced by this kind of spirits, I quickly took
my leave, and put up at an inn about three miles farther off, where I
found every accommodation. The late Duke of Orleans’ son lodged at
this house a few years before.[47] On the {148} day following I
arrived at Nasheville, after having travelled twenty-seven miles.
The Barrens, or Kentucky Meadows, comprise an extent from sixty to
seventy miles in length, by sixty miles in breadth. According to the
signification of this word, I conceived I should have had to cross
over a naked space, sown here and there with a few plants. I was
confirmed in my opinion by that which some of the country people had
given me of these meadows before I reached them. They told me that in
this season I should perish with heat and thirst, and that I should
not find the least shade the whole of the way, as the major part of
the Americans who live in the woods have not the least idea that there
is any part of the country entirely open, and still less that they
could inhabit it. Instead of finding a country as it had been depicted
to me, I was agreeably surprised to see a beautiful meadow, where the
grass was from two to three feet high. Amidst these pasture lands I
discovered a great variety of plants, among which were the _gerardia
flava_, or gall of the earth; the _gnaphalium dioicum_, or white
plantain; and the _rudbekia purpurea_. I observed that the roots of
the latter plant participated in some degree with the sharp taste of
the leaves of the _spilanthus {149} oleracca_. When I crossed these
meadows the flower season was over with three parts of the plants, but
the time for most of the seeds to ripen was still at a great distance;
nevertheless I gathered about ninety different species of them which I
took with me to France.
In some parts of the meadows we observed several species of the wild
vine, and in particular that called by the inhabitants _summer
grapes_, the bunches are as large, and the grapes of as good a quality
as those in the vineyards round Paris, with this difference, that the
berries are not quite so close together.
It seems to me that the attempts which have been made in Kentucky to
establish the culture of the vine would have been more successful in
the Barrens, the soil of which appears to me more adapted for this
kind of culture than that on the banks of the Kentucky; the latter is
richer it is true, at the same time the nature of the country, and the
proximity of the forests render it much damper. This was also my
father’s opinion; he thought that [of] the different parts of North
America that he had travelled through, during a sojourn of twelve
years, the States of Kentucky and Tennessea, and particularly the
Barrens, were the parts in which the vine might {150} be cultivated
with the greatest success. His opinion was founded in a great measure
upon the certainty that the vegetable stratum in the above states lies
upon a chalky mass.
The Barrens are circumscribed by a wood about three miles broad, which
in some parts joins to surrounding forests. The trees are in general
very straggling, and at a greater distance from each other as they
approach the meadows. On the side of Tennessea this border is
exclusively composed of post oaks, or _quercus oblusiloba_, the wood
of which being very hard, and not liable to rot, is, in preference to
any other, used for fences. This serviceable tree would be easy to
naturalize in France, as it grows among the pines in the worst of
soil. We observed again, here and there, in the meadow, several black
oaks, or _quercus nigra_; and nut trees, or _juglans hickery_, which
rise about twelve or fifteen feet. Sometimes they formed small
arbours, but always far enough apart from each other so as not to
intercept the surrounding view. With the exception of small willows,
about two feet high, _selix longirostris_, and a few _shumacs_, there
is not the least appearance of a shrub. The surface of these meadows
is generally very even; towards Dripping Spring I observed {151} a
lofty eminence, slightly adorned with trees, and bestrewed with
enormous rocks, which hang jutting over the main road.
It appears there are a great number of subterraneous caverns in the
Barrens, some of which are very near the surface. A short time before
I was there, several pieces of the rocks that were decayed, fell with
a tremendous crash into the road near Bears-Wallow, as a traveller was
passing, who, by the greatest miracle escaped. We may easily conceive
with what consequences such accidents must be attended in a country
where the plantations are so distant from each other, and where,
perhaps, a traveller does not pass for several days.
We remarked in these meadows several holes, widened at the top in the
shape of funnels, the breadth of which varies according to their
depth. In some of these holes, about five or six feet from the bottom,
flows a small vein of water, which, in the same proportions as it
fills, loses itself through another part. These kind of springs never
fail; in consequence of which several of the inhabitants have been
induced to settle in their vicinity; for, except the river Big-Barren,
I did not see the smallest rivulet or creek; nor did I hear that they
have ever attempted to dig {152} wells; but were they to make the
essay, I have no doubt of their success. According to the observations
we have just made, the want of water, and wood adapted to make fences,
will be long an obstacle to the increase of settlements in this part
of Kentucky. Notwithstanding, one of these two inconveniences might be
obviated, by changing the present mode of enclosing land, and
substituting hedges, upon which the _gleditsia triacanthos_, one of
the most common trees in the country, might be used with success. The
Barrens at present are very thinly populated, considering their
extent; for on the road where the plantations are closest together we
counted but eighteen in a space of sixty or seventy miles.
Some of the inhabitants divide land of the Barrens in Kentucky into
three classes, according to its quality. That which I crossed, where
the soil is yellowish and rather gravelly, appeared to me the best
adapted for the culture of corn. That of Indian wheat is almost the
only thing to which the inhabitants apply themselves; but as the
settlements are of a fresh date, the land has not been able to acquire
that degree of prosperity that is observed on this side Mulder Hill.
Most of the inhabitants who go to settle in the country, incline upon
the skirts, or along {153} the Little and Big Barren rivers, where
they are attracted by the advantage that the meadows offer as pasture
for the cattle, an advantage which, in a great measure, the
inhabitants of the most fertile districts are deprived of, the country
being so very woody, that there is scarcely any grass land to be seen.
Every year, in the course of the months of March or April, the
inhabitants set fire to the grass, which at that time is dried up, and
through its extreme length, would conceal from the cattle a fortnight
or three weeks longer the new grass, which then begins to spring up.
This custom is nevertheless generally censured; as being set on fire
too early, the new grass is stripped of the covering that ought to
shelter it from the spring and frosts, and in consequence of which its
vegetation is retarded. The custom of burning the meadows was formerly
practised by the natives, who came in this part of the country to
hunt; in fact, they do it now in the other parts of North America,
where there are _savannas_ of an immense extent. Their aim in setting
fire to it is to allure the stags, bisons, &c. into the parts which
are burnt, where they can discern them at a greater distance. Unless a
person has seen these dreadful conflagrations, it is impossible to
form {154} the least idea of them. The flames that occupy generally
an extent of several miles, are sometimes driven by the wind with such
rapidity, that the inhabitants, even on horseback, have become a prey
to them. The American sportsmen and the savages preserve themselves
from this danger by a very ingenious method; they immediately set fire
to the part of the meadow where they are, and then retire into the
space that is burnt, where the flame that threatened them stops for
the want of nourishment.
{155} CHAP. XVII
_General observations upon Kentucky.--Nature of the soil.--First
settlements in the state.--Right of property uncertain.--
Population._
The state of Kentucky is situated 36 deg. 30 min. and 39 deg. 30 min.
north latitude, and 28 deg. and 89 deg. west longitude; its boundaries
to the northwest are the Ohio, for an extent of about seven hundred
and sixty miles, to the east of Virginia, and to the south of
Tennessea; it is separated from Virginia by the river Sandy and the
Laurel Mountains, one of the principal links of the Alleghanies. The
greatest length of this state is about four hundred miles, and its
greatest breadth about two hundred. This vast extent appears to lie
upon a bank of chalky stone, identic in its nature, and covered with a
stratum of vegetable earth, which varies in its composition, and is
from ten to fifteen feet thick. The {156} boundaries of this immense
bank are not yet prescribed in any correct manner, but its thickness
must be very considerable, to judge of it by the rivers in the
country, the borders of which, and particularly those of the Kentucky
and Dick rivers, which is one branch of it, rise, in some parts,
three hundred feet perpendicular, where the chalky stone is seen quite
bare.
The soil in Kentucky, although irregular, is not mountainous, if we
except some parts contiguous to the Ohio and on this side Virginia.
The chalky stone, and abundant coal mines which lie useless, are the
only mineral substances worthy of notice. Iron mines are very scarce
there, and, to the best of my remembrance, but one was worked, which
is far from being sufficient for the wants of the country.
The Kentucky and Green rivers empty themselves into the Ohio, after a
course of three hundred miles; they fall so low in summer time, that
they are forded a hundred and fifty miles from their _embouchure_; but
in the winter and spring they experience such sudden and strong
increases that the waters of the Kentucky rise about forty feet in
four-and-twenty hours. This variation is still more remarkable in the
secondary rivers which run into it; the latter, {157} though
frequently from ten to fifteen fathoms broad, preserve such little
water in summer, that there is scarcely one of them which cannot be
crossed without wetting the feet; and the stream of water that
serpentines upon the bed of chalky rock is at that time reduced to a
few inches in depth; in consequence of which we may look upon the
Kentucky as an immense bason, which, independent of the natural
illapse of its waters through the channel of the rivers, loses a great
part of them by interior openings.
The Atlantic part of the United States in that respect affords a
perfect contrast with Kentucky, as on the other side of the
Alleghanies not the least vestige of chalky stone is seen. The rivers,
great and small, however distant from their source, are subject to no
other change in the volume of their waters but what results from a
more or less rainy season; and their springs, which are very numerous,
always supply water in abundance; this applies more particularly to
the southern states, with which I am perfectly acquainted.
According to the succinct idea that we have just given of Kentucky, it
is easy to judge that the inhabitants are exposed to a very serious
inconvenience, {158} that of wanting water in the summer; still we
must except those in the vicinity of great rivers and their principal
channels, that always preserve water enough to supply their domestic
wants; thence it results that many estates, even among the most
fertile, are not cleared, and that the owners cannot get rid of them
without the greatest difficulty, as the emigrants, better informed now
a days, make no purchases before they have a correct statement of
localities.
Kentucky is that of the three states situated west of the Alleghanies
which was first populated. This country was discovered in 1770, by
some Virginia sportsmen, when the favourable accounts they gave of it
induced others to go there. No fixed establishment, however, was
formed there before 1780. At that time this immense country was not
occupied by any Indian nation; they went there to hunt, but all with
one common assent made a war of extermination against those who wished
to settle there. Thence this country derives the name of Kentucky,
which signifies, in the language of the natives, _the Land of Blood_.
When the whites made their appearance there, the natives showed still
more opposition to their establishment; they carried for a long {159}
time death and desolation, and dispatched, after their usual mode,
their prisoners in the most cruel torments. This state of things
lasted till 1783, at which time the American population having become
too strong for them to penetrate to the centre of the establishment,
they were reduced to the necessity of attacking the emigrants on their
route; and, on the other hand, they were deserted by the English in
Canada, who had abetted and supported them in the war.
In 1782 they began to open roads for carriages in the interior of the
country; prior to this there were only paths practicable for persons
on foot and horseback. Till 1788 those who emigrated from the eastern
states travelled by way of Virginia. In the first place, they went to
Block House, situated in Holston, westward of the mountains; and as
the government of the United States did not furnish them with an
escort, they waited at this place till they were sufficiently numerous
to pass in safety through the Wilderness, an uninhabited space of a
hundred and thirty miles, which they had to travel over before they
arrived at Crab Orchard, the first post occupied by the whites.[48]
The enthusiasm for emigrating to Kentucky was at that time carried to
{160} such a degree in the United States, that some years upwards of
twenty thousand have been known to pass, and many of them had even
deserted their estates, not having been able to dispose of them quick
enough. This overflow of new colonists very soon raised the price of
land in Kentucky, from two-pence and two-pence halfpenny per acre, it
suddenly rose to seven or eight shillings. The stock-jobbers profited
by this infatuation, and, not content with a moderate share of gain,
practised the most illegal measures to dispose of the land to great
advantage. They went so far as to fabricate false plans, in which
they traced rivers favourable for mills and other uses; in this manner
many ideal lots, from five hundred to a hundred thousand acres, were
sold in Europe, and even in several great towns of the United States.
Till the year 1792, Kentucky formed a part of Virginia; but the
distance from Richmond, the seat of government belonging to this
state, being seven hundred miles from Lexinton, occasions the most
serious inconveniences to the inhabitants, and their number rising
considerably above that required to form an independent state, they
were admitted into the union in the month of March following. The
{161} state of Virginia, on giving up its pretensions to that country,
consented to it only on certain conditions; it imposed on the
convention at Kentucky an obligation to follow, in part, its code of
laws, and particularly to keep up the slave-trade.
Prior to the year 1782, the number of inhabitants at Kentucky did not
exceed three thousand; it was about a hundred thousand in 1790, and in
the general verification made in 1800, it amounted to two hundred
thousand. When I was at Lexinton in the month of August 1802, its
population was estimated at two hundred thousand, including twenty
thousand negro slaves. Thus, in this state, where there were not ten
individuals at the age of twenty-five who were born there, the number
of the inhabitants is now as considerable as in seven of the old
states; and there are only four where the population is twice as
numerous. This increase, already so rapid, would have been much more
so had it not been for a particular circumstance that prevents
emigrants from going there; I mean the difficulty of proving the right
of property. Of all the states in the union it is that wherein the
rights of an individual are most subject to contest. I did not stop at
the house of one inhabitant who was persuaded of {162} the validity of
his own right but what seemed dubious of his neighbour’s.
Among the numerous causes which have produced this incredible
confusion with respect to property, one of the principal may be
attributed to the ignorance of the surveyors, or rather to the
difficulty they experienced, in the early stage of things, in
following their professions. The continual state of war in which this
country was at that time obliged them frequently to suspend their
business, in order to avoid being shot by the natives, who were
watching for them in the woods. The danger they ran was extreme, as it
is well known a native will go upwards of a hundred miles to kill a
single enemy; he stays for several days in the hollow of a tree to
take him by surprise, and when he has killed him, he scalps him, and
returns with the same rapidity. From this state of things, the result
was that the same lot has not only been measured several times by
different surveyors, but more frequently it has been crossed by
different lines, which distinguish particular parts of that lot from
the lots adjacent, which, in return, are in the same situation with
regard to those that are contiguous to them; in short, there are lots
of a thousand acres where a hundred {163} of them are not reclaimed.
Military rights are still looked upon as the most assured. One very
remarkable thing is, that many of the inhabitants find a guarantee for
their estates that are thus confused; as the law, being always on the
side of agriculture, enacts that all improvements shall be reimbursed
by the person who comes forward to declare himself the first
possessor; and as the estimation, on account of the high price of
labour, is always made in favour of the cultivators, it follows that
many people dare not claim their rights through fear of considerable
indemnifications being awarded against them, and of being in turn
expelled by others, who might attack them at the moment when they
least expected it. This incertitude in the right of property is an
inexhaustible source of tedious and expensive law-suits, which serve
to enrich the professional gentlemen of the country.
{164} CHAP. XVIII
_Distinction of Estates.--Species of Trees peculiar to each of
them.--Ginseng.--Animals in Kentucky._
In Kentucky, as well as in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Carolina, the
estates are divided into three classes, for the better assessment of
the taxes. This division with respect to the fertility of the land is
relative to each of these states; thus in Kentucky, for example, they
would put in the second class estates, which, east of the mountains,
would be ranked in the first, and in the third, those which in Georgia
and Low Carolina would be the second. I do not mean, however, to say
by this that there are not some possessions in the eastern states as
fertile as in the western; but they are seldom found except along the
rivers and in the vallies, and do not embrace so considerable a tract
of country as in {165} Kentucky, and that part of Tennessea situate
west of the Cumberland Mountains.
In these two states they appreciate the fertility of the land by the
different species of trees that grow there; thus when they announce
the sale of an estate, they take care to specify the particular
species of trees peculiar to its various parts, which is a sufficient
index for the purchaser. This rule, however, suffers an exception to
the Barrens, the soil of which, as I have remarked, is fertile enough,
and where there are notwithstanding here and there Scroby oaks, or
_quercus nigra_, shell-barked hickeries, or _juglans hickery_, which
in forests characterise the worst of soil. In support of this mode of
appreciating in America the fecundity of the soil by the nature of the
trees it produces, I shall impart a remarkable observation that I made
on my entering this state. In Kentucky and Cumberland,[49]
independent of a few trees natives of this part of these countries,
the mass of the forests, in estates of the first class, is composed of
the same species which {166} are found, but very rarely, east of the
mountains, in the most fertile soil; these species are the following,
_cerasus Virginia_, or cherry-tree; _juglans oblonga_, or white
walnut; _pavia lutea_, buck-eye; _fraxinus alba_, _nigra_, _cerulea_,
or white, black, and blue ash; _celtis foliis villosis_, or ack berry;
_ulmus viscosa_, or slippery elm; _quercus imbricaria_, or black-jack
oak; _guilandina disica_, or coffee tree; _gleditsia triacanthos_, or
honey locust; and the _annona triloba_, or papaw, which grows thirty
feet in height. These three latter species denote the richest lands.
In the cool and mountainous parts, and along the rivers where the
banks are not very steep, we observed again the _quercus macrocarpa_,
or over-cup white oak, the acorns of which are as large as a hen’s
egg; the _acer sacharinum_, or sugar-maple; the _fagus sylvatica_, or
beech; together with the _planus occidentalis_, or plane: the
_liriodendrum tulipifera_, or white and yellow poplar; and the
_magnolia acuminata_, or cucumber-tree, all three of which measure
from eighteen to twenty feet in circumference; the plane, as I have
before observed, attains a greater diameter. The two species of
poplar, i.e. the white and yellow wood, have not the least external
character, neither in their leaves nor flowers, by which they may be
{167} distinguished from each other; and as the species of the yellow
wood is of a much greater use, before they fell a tree they satisfy
themselves by a notch that it is of that species.
In estates of the second class are the _fagus castanea_, or chestnut
tree; _quercus rubra_, or red oak; _quercus tinctoria_, or black oak;
_laurus sassafras_, or sassafras; _diospiros virginia_, or persimon;
_liquidambar styraciflua_, or sweet gum; _nyssa villosa_, or gum tree,
a tree which, in direct opposition to its name, affords neither gum
nor resin. Those of the third class, which commonly are dry and
mountainous, produce very little except black and red oaks, chestnut
oaks of the mountains, _quercus prinus montana_, or rocky oak pines,
and a few Virginia cedars.
The _juglans pacane_ is found beyond the _embouchure_ of the rivers
Cumberland and Tennessea, whence they sometimes bring it to the
markets at Lexinton. This tree does not grow east of the Alleghany
Mountains. The _lobelia cardinalis_ grows abundantly in all the cool
and marshy places, as well as the _lobelia sphilitica_. The latter is
more common in Kentucky than in the other parts of the United States
that I travelled over. The _laurus {168} bensoin_, or spice wood, is
also very numerous there. The two kinds of _vaccinium_ and
_andromeda_, which form a series of more than thirty species, all very
abundant in the eastern states, seem in some measure excluded from
those of the western and the chalky region, where we found none but
the _andromeda arborea_.
In all the fertile parts covered by the forests the soil is completely
barren; no kind of herbage is seen except a few plants, scattered here
and there; and the trees are always far enough apart that a stag may
be seen a hundred or a hundred and fifty fathoms off. Prior to the
Europeans settling, the whole of this space, now bare, was covered
with a species of the great articulated reed, called _arundinaria
macrosperma_, or cane, which is in the woods from three to four inches
diameter, and grows seven or eight feet high; but in the swamps and
marshes that border the Mississippi it is upward of twenty feet.
Although it often freezes in Kentucky, from five to six degrees, for
several days together, its foliage keeps always green, and does not
appear to suffer by the cold.
Although the ginseng is not a plant peculiar to Kentucky, it is still
very numerous there. This induces {169} me to speak of it here. The
ginseng is found in America from Lower Canada as far as the state of
Georgia, which comprises an extent of more than fifteen hundred miles.
It grows chiefly in the mountainous regions of the Alleghanies, and is
by far more abundant as the chain of these mountains incline south
west. It is also found in the environs of New York and Philadelphia,
as well as in that part of the northern states situated between the
mountains and the sea. It grows upon the declivity of the hills, in
the cool and shady places, where the soil is richest. A man cannot
pull up above eight or nine pounds of fresh roots per day. These roots
are always less than an inch diameter, even after fifteen years’
growth, if by any means we can judge of it with certitude by the
number of impressions that are to be seen round the upper part of the
neck of the root, produced by the stalks that succeed each other
annually. The shape of these roots is generally elliptical; and
whenever it is biforked, which is very rare, one of the divisions is
always thicker and longer than the other. The seeds of the ginseng are
of a brilliant red, and fastened to each other. Every foot seldom
yields more than two or three. They are very similar in shape and size
to the wild {170} honey suckle. When they are disencumbered of the
substance that envelopes them they are flat and semicircular. Their
taste is more spicy, and not so bitter as the root. A month or two
after they are gathered they grow oily; and it is probable to the
rancidity which in course of time the seed attains we must attribute
the difficulty there is in rearing them when they are kept too long.
They are full ripe from the 15th of September to the 1st of October. I
gathered about half an ounce of them, which was a great deal,
considering the difficulty there is in procuring them.
It was a French missionary who first discovered the ginseng in Canada.
When it was verified that this plant was the same as that which grows
in Tartary, the root of which has such valuable qualities in the eyes
of the Chinese, it became an article of trade with China. For some
time after its discovery the root was sold for its weight in gold; but
this lucrative trade was but of short duration. The ginseng exported
from America was so badly prepared, that it fell very low in price,
and the trade almost entirely ceased. However, for some time past it
has been rather better. Though the Americans have been so long
deprived of this beneficial trade, it can {171} only be attributed to
the want of precaution that they used either in the gathering or
preparation of the ginseng. In Chinese Tartary this gathering belongs
exclusively to the emperor; it is done only by his orders, and they
proceed in it with the greatest care. It commences in autumn, and
continues all the winter, the epoch when the root has acquired its
full degree of maturity and perfection; and by the means of a very
simple process they render it almost transparent.
In the United States, on the contrary, they begin gathering of ginseng
in the spring, and end at the decline of autumn. Its root, then soft
and watery, wrinkles in drying, terminates in being extremely hard,
and loses thus a third of its bulk, and nearly half its weight. These
causes have contributed in lowering its value. It is only gathered in
America by the inhabitants whose usual occupations afford them
leisure, and by the sportsmen, who, with their carabine, provide
themselves, for this purpose, with a bag and a pickaxe. The merchants
settled in the interior of the country purchase dried ginseng at the
rate of ten pence per pound, and sell it again from eighteen pence to
two shillings, at the seaports. I have never heard particularly what
quantity {172} of it was exported annually to China, but I think it
must exceed twenty-five to thirty thousand pounds weight. Within these
four or five years this trade has been very brisk. Several persons
begin even to employ the means made use of by the Chinese to make the
root transparent. This process, long since described in several works,
is still a secret which is sold for four hundred dollars in Kentucky.
The ginseng thus prepared is purchased at six or seven dollars per
pound, by the merchants at Philadelphia, and is, they say, sold again
at Canton for fifty or a hundred, according to the quality of the
roots. Again, the profits must be very considerable, since there are
people who export it themselves from Kentucky to China.
They have again, in Kentucky, and the western country, the same
animals that inhabit those parts east of the mountains, and even
Canada: but a short time after the settling of the Europeans several
species of them wholly disappeared, particularly the elks and bisons.
The latter, notwithstanding, were more common there than in any other
part of North America. The non-occupation of the country, the quantity
of rushes and wild peas, which supplied them abundantly with food the
whole year round; and {173} the licks (places impregnated with salt,
as I have before mentioned) are the causes that kept them there. Their
number was at that time so considerable, that they were met in flocks
of a hundred and fifty to two hundred. They were so far from being
ferocious, that they did not fear the approach of the huntsmen, who
sometimes shot them solely for the sake of having their tongue, which
they looked upon as a delicious morsel. At four years old they weigh
from twelve to fourteen hundred weight; and their flesh, it is said,
is preferable to that of the ox. At present there are scarcely any
from Ohio to the river Illinois. They have nearly deserted these
parts, and strayed to the right bank of the Mississippi.
The only species of animals that are still common in the country are
the following, viz. the deer, bear, wolf, red and grey fox, wild cat,
racoon, opossum, and three or four kinds of squirrels.
The animals to which the Americans give the name of wild cat is the
Canadian lynx, or simply a different species; and it is through
mistake that several authors have advanced that the true wild cat, as
they look upon to be the original of the domestic species, either
existed in the United States, or more northerly.
The racoon, or _ursus lotor_, is about the size of a {174} fox, but
not so tall and more robust. Taken young, it very soon grows tame, and
stays in the house, where it catches mice similar to a cat. The name
of _lotor_ is very appropriate, as the animal retires in preference in
the hollow trees that grow by the side of creeks or small rivers that
run through the swamp; and in these sorts of marshes it is most
generally found. It is most common in the southern and western states,
as well as in the remote parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia. It is
very destructive in the corn fields. The usual method of catching this
animal is with dogs, in the dead of the night, as it is very rarely to
be seen in the day time. Its skin is very much esteemed, throughout
the United States, by the hat manufacturers, who purchase them at the
rate of two shillings each.
Nearer toward the houses the inhabitants are infested with squirrels,
which do also considerable damage to the corn. This species _sciurus
corolinianus_, is of a greyish colour, and rather larger than those in
Europe. The number of them is so immense, that several times a day the
children are sent round the fields to frighten them away. At the least
noise they run out by dozens, and take shelter upon the trees, whence
they come down the very moment after. {175} As well as the bears in
North America, they are subject to emigrations. Toward the approach of
winter they appear in so great a number, that the inhabitants are
obliged to meet together in order to destroy them. An excursion for
this purpose, every now and then, is looked upon as pleasure. They go
generally two by two, and kill sometimes thirty or forty in a morning.
A single man, on the contrary, could scarcely kill one, as the
squirrel, springing upon the branch of a tree, keeps turning round
successively to put himself in opposition to the gunner. I was at one
of these sporting parties, where, for dinner, which is generally taken
in some part of the wood appointed for the rendezvous, they had above
sixty of them roasted. Their flesh is white and exceedingly tender,
and this method of dressing them is preferable to any other.
Wild turkies, which begin to grow very scarce in the southern states,
are still extremely numerous in the west. In the parts least inhabited
they are so very tame, that they may be shot with a pistol. In the
east, on the contrary, and more particularly in the environs of the
seaports, it is very difficult to approach them. They are not alarmed
at a noise, {176} but they have a very piercing sight, and as soon as
they perceive the gunner they fly with such swiftness that it is
impossible for a dog to overtake them for several minutes; and when
they see themselves on the point of being taken, they escape by
resuming their flight. Wild turkies usually frequent the swamps and
the sides of creeks and rivers, whence they only go out morning and
evening. They perch upon the tops of the loftiest trees, where,
notwithstanding their size, it is not always easy to perceive them.
When they are not frightened, they return upon the same trees for
several weeks together.
For the space of eight hundred leagues east of Mississippi there is
only this one species of the wild turkey. They are much larger than
those that we have in our farm-yards. In autumn and winter they
chiefly feed on chesnuts and acorns. At that time some are shot that
weigh from thirty to forty pounds. The variety of domestic turkies
proceeds originally from this species of wild turkies; and when it has
not been crossed with the common species, it preserves the primitive
colour of its plumage, and that of the feet, which are of a deep red.
Though ever since the year 1525 our domestic turkies were naturalized
{177} in Spain, whence they were introduced into Europe, it is
probable that they are natives of some of the more southern parts of
America, where there may be, I have no doubt, a different species from
that found in the United States.
{178} CHAP. XIX
_Different kinds of culture in Kentucky.--Exportation of colonial
produce.--Peach trees.--Taxes_
In the state of Kentucky, like those of the southern parts, nearly the
whole of the inhabitants, isolated in the woods, cultivate their
estates themselves, and particularly in harvest time they assist each
other; while some, more independent, have their land cultivated by
negro slaves.
They cultivate, in this state, tobacco, hemp, and different sorts of
grain from Europe, principally wheat and Indian corn. The frosts,
which begin very early, are unfavourable to the culture of cotton,
which might be a profitable part of their commerce, provided the
inhabitants had any hopes of success. It is by the culture of Indian
corn that all those who form establishments commence; since for the
few {179} years after the ground is cleared the soil is so fertile in
estates of the first class, that the corn drops before it ears. Their
process in husbandry is thus: after having opened, with the plough,
furrows about three feet from each other, they cut them transversely
by others at an equal distance, and set seven or eight grains in the
points of intersection. When they have all come up, only two or three
plants are left in the ground; a necessary precaution, in order to
give free scope for the vegetation, and to insure a more abundant
harvest. Toward the middle of the summer the leaves from the bottom of
the stalk begin to wither, and successively those from the top. In
proportion as they dry up they are carried away carefully, and
reserved as a winter sustenance for horses, which prefer that kind of
forage to the best hay.
In estates of the first class, that yield annually, Indian corn grows
from ten to twelve feet high, and produces, in a common year, forty to
fifty English bushels per acre, and sixty to seventy-five in abundant
years. Some have been known, the second and third year after the land
has been cleared, to yield a hundred. The bushel, weighing about fifty
to fifty-five pounds, never sells for more than a {180} quarter of a
dollar, and sometimes does not bring half the money.
The species of corn that they cultivate is long and flat in point of
shape, and generally of a deep yellow. The time of harvest is toward
the end of September. A single individual may cultivate eight or ten
acres of it. The culture of corn is one of the most important of the
country; much more, however, with regard to exportation than as an
object of consumption. The county of Fayette, of which Lexinton is the
chief town, and the surrounding counties, are those that supply the
most. Good estates produce from twenty-five to thirty bushels per
acre, weighing about sixty pounds, although they never manure the
ground, nor till it more than once.
The harvest is made in the commencement of July. The corn is cut with
a sickle, and threshed the same as in other parts of Europe. The corn
is of a beautiful colour, and I am convinced, through the excellence
of the soil, that the flour will be of a superior quality to that of
Philadelphia, which, as it is well known, surpasses in whiteness the
best that grows in France.
The plough which they make use of is light, {181} without wheels, and
drawn by horses. It is the same in all the southern states.
The blight, the blue flower, and the poppy, so common in our fields
among the corn, have not shewn themselves in North America.
The harvest of 1802 was so plentiful in Kentucky, that in the month of
August, the time that I was at Lexinton, corn did not bring more than
eighteen pence per bushel, (about two shillings per hundred weight).
It had never been known at so low a price. Still this fall was not
only attributed to the abundance of the harvest, but also on account
of the return of peace in Europe. They are convinced, in the country,
that at this price the culture of corn cannot support itself as an
object of commerce; and that in order for the inhabitants to cover
their expense the barrel of flour ought not to be sold at New Orleans
for less than four or five dollars.
In all the United States the flour that they export is put into slight
barrels made of oak, and of an uniform size. In Kentucky the price of
them is about three-eighths of a dollar, (fifteen pence). They ought
to contain ninety-six pounds of flour, which takes five bushels of
corn, including the expenses of grinding.
{182} The freightage of a boat to convey the flour to Low Louisiana
costs about a hundred dollars. They contain from two hundred and fifty
to three hundred barrels, and are navigated by five men, of whom the
chief receives a hundred dollars for the voyage, and the others fifty
each. They take, from Louisville, where nearly the whole embarkations
are made, from thirty to thirty-five days to go to New Orleans. They
reckon it four hundred and thirty-five miles from Louisville to the
_embouchure_ of the Ohio, and about a thousand miles thence to New
Orleans, which makes it, upon the whole, a passage of fourteen hundred
and thirty-five miles; and these boats have to navigate upon the river
a space of eight or nine hundred miles without meeting with any
plantations. A part of the crew return to Lexinton by land, which is
about eleven hundred miles, in forty or forty-five days. This journey
is extremely unpleasant, and those who dread the fatigues of it return
by sea. They embark at New Orleans for New York and Philadelphia,
whence they return to Pittsburgh, and thence go down the Ohio as far
as Kentucky.
An inspector belonging to the port of Louisville inserted in the
Kentucky Gazette of the 6th of August {183} 1802, that 85,570 barrels
of flour, from the 1st of January to the 30th of June following, went
out of that port to Low Louisiana. More than two thirds of this
quantity may be considered as coming from the state of Kentucky, and
the rest from Ohio and the settlements situated upon the rivers
Monongahela and Alleghany. The spring and autumn are principally the
seasons in which this exportation is made. It is almost null in
summer, an epoch at which almost all the mills are stopped for the
want of water. Rye and oats come up also extremely well in Kentucky.
The rye is nearly all made use of in the distilling of whiskey, and
the oats as food for horses, to which they give it frequently in
little bunches from two to three pounds, without being threshed.
The culture of tobacco has been greatly extended within these few
years. The temperature of the climate, and the extraordinary fertility
of the soil gives, in that respect, to this state, a very great
advantage over that of Virginia; in consequence of which tobacco and
corn form the principal branch of its commerce. It exports annually
several thousand hogsheads, from a thousand to twelve hundred pounds
each. The price of it is from two to three dollars per hundred weight.
{184} Hemp, both raw and manufactured, is also an article of
exportation. In the same year, 1802, there has been sent out of the
country, raw 42,048 pounds, and 2402 hundred weight, converted into
cables and various sorts of cordage.
Many of the inhabitants cultivate flax. The women manufacture linen of
it for their families, and exchange the surplus with the trades-people
for articles imported from Europe. These linens, though coarse, are of
a good quality; yet none but the inferior inhabitants use them, the
others giving a preference to Irish linens, which comprise a
considerable share of their commerce. Although whiter, they are not so
good as our linens of Bretagne. The latter would have found a great
sale in the western states, had it not been for yielding Louisiana;
since it is now clearly demonstrated that the expense of conveying
goods which go up the river again from New Orleans to Louisville is
not so great as that from Philadelphia to Limestone.
Although the temperature of the climate in Kentucky and other western
states is favourable to the culture of fruit trees, these parts have
not been populated long enough for them to be brought to any great
perfection. Beside, the Americans are by no means so industrious or
interested in this kind of {185} culture as the European states. They
have confined themselves, at present, to the planting of peach and
apple trees.
The former are very numerous, and come to the greatest perfection.
There are five or six species of them, some forward, and others late,
of an oval form, and much larger than our garden peaches. All the
peaches grow in the open field, and proceed from kernels without being
either pruned or grafted. They shoot so vigorously, that at the age of
four years they begin to bear. The major part of the inhabitants plant
them round their houses, and others have great orchards of them
planted crosswise. They turn the hogs there for two months before the
fruit gets ripe. These animals search with avidity for the peaches
that fall in great numbers, and crack the stones of them for the
kernels.
The immense quantity of peaches which they gather are converted in
brandy, of which there is a great consumption in the country, and the
rest is exported. A few only of the inhabitants have stills; the
others carry their peaches to them, and bring back a quantity of
brandy proportionate to the number of peaches they carried, except a
part that is left for the expense of distilling. Peach brandy sells
{186} for a dollar a gallon, which is equal to four English quarts.
In Kentucky the taxes are assessed in the following manner: they pay a
sum equivalent to one shilling and eight-pence for every white
servant, six-pence halfpenny for every negro, three-pence for a horse,
two shillings per hundred acres of land of the first class, cultivated
or not, seventeen-pence per hundred of the second class, and sixpence
halfpenny per hundred of the third class. Although these taxes are, as
we must suppose, very moderate, and though nobody complains of them,
still a great number of those taxable are much in arrears. This is
what I perceived by the numerous advertisements of the collectors that
I have seen pasted up in different parts of the town of Lexinton.
Again, these delays are not peculiar to the state of Kentucky, as I
have made the same remark in those of the east.
{187} CHAP. XX
_Particulars relative to the manners of the inhabitants of
Kentucky.--Horses and Cattle.--Necessity of giving
them salt.--Wild Horses caught in the Plains of New
Mexico.--Exportation of salt provisions._
For some time past the inhabitants of Kentucky have taken to the
rearing and training horses;[50] and by this lucrative branch of
trade they derive considerable profit, on account of the superfluous
quantity of Indian corn, oats, and other forage, of which they are
deficient at New Orleans.
Of all the states belonging to the union, Virginia is said to have the
finest coach and saddle-horses, and those they have in this country
proceed originally from them, the greatest part of which was brought
by the emigrants who came from Virginia {188} to settle in this state.
The number of horses, now very considerable, increases daily. Almost
all the inhabitants employ themselves in training and meliorating the
breed of these animals; and so great a degree of importance is
attached to the melioration, that the owners of fine stallions charge
from fifteen to twenty dollars for the covering of a mare. These
stallions come from Virginia, and, as I have been told, some were at
different times imported from England. The horses that proceed from
them have slim legs, a well-proportioned head, and are elegantly
formed. With draught-horses it is quite different. The inhabitants pay
no attention with respect to improving this breed; in consequence of
which they are small, wretched in appearance, and similar to those
made use of by the peasantry in France. They appeared to me still
worse in Georgia and Upper Carolina. In short, I must say that
throughout the United States there is not a single draught-horse that
can be in any wise compared with the poorest race of horses that I
have seen in England. This is an assertion which many Americans may
probably not believe, but still it is correct.
Many individuals profess to treat sick horses, but none of them have
any regular notions of the veterinary {189} art; an art which would be
so necessary in a breeding country, and which has, within these few
years, acquired so high a degree of perfection in England and France.
In Kentucky, as well as in the southern states, the horses are
generally fed with Indian corn. Its nutritive quality is esteemed
double to that of oats; notwithstanding sometimes they are mixed
together. In this state horses are not limited as to food. In most of
the plantations the manger is filled with corn, they eat of it when
they please, leave the stable to go to grass, and return at pleasure
to feed on the Indian wheat. The stables are nothing but log-houses,
where the light penetrates on all sides, the interval that separates
the trunks of the trees with which they are constructed not being
filled up with clay.
The southern states, and in particular South Carolina, are the
principal places destined for the sale of Kentucky horses. They are
taken there in droves of fifteen, twenty and thirty at a time, in the
early part of winter, an epoch when the most business is transacted at
Carolina, and when the drivers are in no fear of the yellow fever, of
which the inhabitants of the interior have the greatest apprehension.
{190} They usually take eighteen or twenty days to go from Lexinton to
Charleston. This distance, which is about seven hundred miles, makes a
difference of twenty-five or thirty per cent in the price of horses. A
fine saddle-horse in Kentucky costs about a hundred and thirty to a
hundred and forty dollars.
During my sojourn in this state I had an opportunity of seeing those
wild horses that are caught in the plains of New Mexico, and which
descend from those that the Spaniards introduced there formerly. To
catch them they make use of tame horses that run much swifter, and
with which they approach them near enough to halter them. They take
them to New Orleans and Natches, where they fetch about fifty dollars.
The crews belonging to the boats that return by land to Kentucky
frequently purchase some of them. The two that I saw and made a trial
of were roan coloured, of a middling size, the head large, and not
proportionate with the neck, the limbs thick, and the mane rather full
and handsome. These horses have a very unpleasant gait, are
capricious, difficult to govern, and even frequently throw the rider
and take flight.
The number of horned cattle is very considerable in Kentucky; those
who deal in them purchase them {191} lean, and drive them in droves of
from two to three hundred to Virginia, along the river Potomack, where
they sell them to graziers, who fatten them in order to supply the
markets of Baltimore and Philadelphia. The price of a good milch cow
is, at Kentucky, from ten to twelve dollars. The milk in a great
measure comprises the chief sustenance of the inhabitants. The butter
that is not consumed in the country is put into barrels, and exported
by the river to the Carribbees.
They bring up very few sheep in these parts; for, although I went
upwards of two hundred miles in this state, I saw them only in four
plantations. Their flesh is not much esteemed, and their wool is of
the same quality as that of the sheep in the eastern states. The most
that I ever observed was in Rhode Island.
Of all domestic animals hogs are the most numerous; they are kept by
all the inhabitants, several of them feed a hundred and fifty or two
hundred. These animals never leave the woods, where they always find a
sufficiency of food, especially in autumn and winter. They grow
extremely wild, and generally go in herds. Whenever they are
surprised, or attacked by a dog or any other animal, they either {192}
make their escape, or flock together in the form of a circle to defend
themselves. They are of a bulky shape, middling size, and straight
eared. Every inhabitant recognizes those that belong to him by the
particular manner in which their ears are cut. They stray sometimes in
the forests, and do not make their appearance again for several
months; they accustom them, notwithstanding, to return every now and
then to the plantation, by throwing them Indian corn once or twice a
week. It is surprising that in so vast a country, covered with
forests, so thinly populated, comparatively to its immense extent, and
where there are so few destructive animals, pigs have not increased so
far as to grow completely wild.
In all the western states, and even to the east of the Alleghanies,
two hundred miles of the sea coast, they are obliged to give salt to
the cattle. Were it not for that, the food they give them would never
make them look well; in fact, they are so fond of it that they go of
their own accord to implore it at the doors of the houses every week
or ten days, and spend hours together in licking the trough into which
they have scattered a small quantity for them. This want manifests
itself most among the horses; {193} but it may be on account of their
having it given them more frequently.
Salt provisions form another important article of the Kentucky trade.
The quantity exported in the first six months of the year 1802 was
seventy-two thousand barrels of dried pork, and two thousand four
hundred and eighty-five of salt.
Notwithstanding the superfluity of corn that grows in this part of the
country, there is scarcely any of the inhabitants that keep poultry.
This branch of domestic economy would not increase their expense, but
add a pleasing variety in their food. Two reasons may be assigned for
this neglect; the first is, that the use of salt provisions, (a use to
which the prevalence of the scurvy among them may be attributed,)
renders these delicacies too insipid; the second, that the fields of
Indian corn contiguous to the plantations would be exposed to
considerable damage, the fences with which they are inclosed being
only sufficient to prevent the cattle and pigs from trespassing.
The inhabitants of Kentucky, as we have before stated, are nearly all
natives of Virginia, and particularly the remotest parts of that
state; and exclusive of the gentlemen of the law, physicians, and a
small {194} number of citizens who have received an education suitable
to their professions in the Atlantic states, they have preserved the
manners of the Virginians. With them the passion for gaming and
spirituous liquors is carried to excess, which frequently terminates
in quarrels degrading to human nature. The public-houses are always
crowded, more especially during the sittings of the courts of justice.
Horses and law-suits comprise the usual topic of their conversation.
If a traveller happens to pass by, his horse is appreciated; if he
stops, he is presented with a glass of whiskey, and then asked a
thousand questions, such as, Where do you come from? where are you
going? what is your name? where do you live? what profession? were
there any fevers in the different parts of the country you came
through? These questions, which are frequently repeated in the course
of a journey, become tedious, but it is easy to give a check to their
inquiries by a little address; their only object being the
gratification of that curiosity so natural to people who live isolated
in the woods, and seldom see a stranger. They are never dictated by
mistrust; for from whatever part of the globe a person comes, he may
visit all the ports and principal towns of the United States, stay
{195} there as long as he pleases, and travel in any part of the
country without ever being interrogated by a public officer.
The inhabitants of Kentucky eagerly recommend to strangers the country
they inhabit as the best part of the United States, as that where the
soil is most fertile, the climate most salubrious, and where all the
inhabitants were brought through the love of liberty and independence!
In the interior of their houses they are generally very neat; which
induced me, whenever an opportunity offered, to prefer lodging in a
private family rather than at a public house, where the accommodation
is inferior, although the charges are considerably higher.
The women seldom assist in the labours of the field; they are very
attentive to their domestic concerns, and the spinning of hemp or
cotton, which they convert into linen for the use of their family.
This employment alone is truly laborious, as there are few houses
which contain less than four or five children.
Among the various sects that exist in Kentucky, those of the
Methodists and Anabaptists are the most numerous. The spirit of
religion has acquired a fresh degree of strength within these seven or
eight {196} years among the country inhabitants, since, independent of
Sundays, which are scrupulously observed, they assemble, during the
summer, in the course of the week, to hear sermons. These meetings,
which frequently consist of two or three thousand persons who come
from all parts of the country within fifteen or twenty miles, take
place in the woods, and continue for several days. Each brings his
provisions, and spends the night round a fire. The clergymen are very
vehement in their discourses. Often in the midst of the sermons the
heads are lifted up, the imaginations exalted, and the inspired fall
backwards, exclaiming, “Glory! glory!” This species of infatuation
happens chiefly among the women, who are carried out of the crowd, and
put under a tree, where they lie a long time extended, heaving the
most lamentable sighs.
There have been instances of two or three hundred of the congregation
being thus affected during the performance of divine service; so that
one-third of the hearers were engaged in recovering the rest. Whilst I
was at Lexinton I was present at one of these meetings. The better
informed people do not share the opinion of the multitude with regard
to this state of ecstacy, and on this account they are {197} branded
with the appellation of _bad folks_. Except during the continuance of
this preaching, religion is very seldom the topic of conversation.
Although divided into several sects, they live in the greatest
harmony; and whenever there is an alliance between the families, the
difference of religion is never considered as an obstacle; the husband
and wife pursue whatever kind of worship they like best, and their
children, when they grow up, do just the same, without the
interference of their parents.
Throughout the western country the children are kept punctually at
school, where they learn reading, writing, and the elements of
arithmetic. These schools are supported at the expense of the
inhabitants, who send for masters as soon as the population and their
circumstances permit; in consequence of which it is very rare to find
an American who does not know how to read and write. Upon the Ohio,
and in the Barrens, where the settlements are farther apart, the
inhabitants have not yet been able to procure this advantage, which is
the object of solicitude in every family.
{198} CHAP. XXI
_Nasheville.--Commercial details.--Settlement of the Natches_.
Nasheville, the principal and the oldest town in this part of
Tennessea, is situate upon the river Cumberland, the borders of which,
in this part, are formed by a mass of chalky stone upwards of sixty
feet in height. Except seven or eight houses that are built of brick,
the rest, to the number of about a hundred and twenty, are constructed
of wood, and distributed upon a surface of twenty-five or thirty
acres, where the rock appears almost bare in every part. They cannot
procure water in the town without going a considerable way about to
reach the banks of the river, or descending by a deep and dangerous
path. When I was at Nasheville one of the inhabitants was endeavouring
to pierce the rock, in order to make a well; but at that time he {199}
had only dug a few feet, on account of the stone being so amazingly
hard.
This little town, although built upwards of fifteen years, contains no
kind of manufactory or public establishment; but there is a
printing-office which publishes a newspaper once a week. They have
also began to found a college, which has been presented with several
benefactions for its endowment, but this establishment was only in its
infancy, having but seven or eight students and one professor.[51]
The price of labour is higher in this town than at Lexinton, and the
same disproportion exists between this price and that of provisions.
There appeared to be from fifteen to twenty shops, which are supplied
from Philadelphia and Baltimore, but they did not seem so well stocked
as those at Lexinton, and the articles, though dearer, are of an
inferior quality. The cause of their being so dear may be in some
measure attributed to the expense of carriage, which is much greater
on account of the amazing distance the boats destined for Tennessea
have to go up the Ohio. In fact, after having passed by Limestone, the
place where they unload for Kentucky, and which is four hundred and
twenty miles from Pittsburgh, they have still to make a passage up the
river of six {200} hundred and nineteen miles to reach the mouth of
the river Cumberland, and a hundred and eighty miles to arrive at
Nasheville, which, in the whole, comprises a space of one thousand
five hundred and twenty-one miles from Philadelphia, of which twelve
hundred are by water. Some merchants get their goods also from New
Orleans, whence the boats go up the Mississippi, the Ohio, and
Cumberland. This last distance is about twelve hundred and forty-three
miles; viz. a thousand miles from New Orleans to the _embouchure_ of
the Ohio, sixty-three miles from thence to Cumberland, and a hundred
and eighty from this river to Nasheville.
There are very few cultivators who take upon themselves to export the
produce of their labour, consisting chiefly of cotton; the major part
of them sell it to the tradespeople at Nasheville, who send it by the
river to New Orleans, where it is expedited to New York and
Philadelphia, or exported direct to Europe. These tradesmen, like
those of Lexinton, do not pay always in cash for the cotton they
purchase, but make the cultivators take goods in exchange, which adds
considerably to their profit. A great quantity of it is also sent by
land to Kentucky, where each family is supplied with it to manufacture
articles for their domestic wants.
{201} When I was there in 1802 they made the first attempt to send
cottons by the Ohio to Pittsburgh, in order to be thence conveyed to
the remote parts of Pennsylvania. I met several barges laden with them
near Marietta; they were going up the river with a staff, and making
about twenty miles a day. Thus are the remotest parts of the western
states united by commercial interests, of which cotton is the basis,
and the Ohio the tie of communication, the results of which must give
a high degree of prosperity to this part of Tennessea, and insure its
inhabitants a signal advantage over those of the Ohio and Kentucky,
the territorial produce of which is not of a nature to meet with a
great sale in the country or the adjoining parts, and which they are
obliged to send to New Orleans.
I had a letter from Dr. Brown, of Lexinton, for Mr. William Peter
Anderson, a gentleman of the law at Nasheville, who received me in the
most obliging manner; I am also indebted to him for the acquaintance
of several other gentlemen; among others was a Mr. Fisk, of New
England, president of the college, with whom I had the pleasure of
travelling to Knoxville.[52] The inhabitants are very engaging in
their manners, and use but little ceremony. {202} On my arrival, I had
scarcely alighted when several of them who were at the inn invited me
to their plantations.
All the inhabitants of the western country who go by the river to New
Orleans, return by land, pass through Nasheville, which is the first
town beyond the Natches. The interval that separates them is about six
hundred miles, and entirely uninhabited; which obliges them to carry
their provisions on horseback to supply them on the road. It is true
they have two or three little towns to cross, inhabited by the
Chicasaws; but instead of recruiting their stock there, the natives
themselves are so indifferently supplied, that travellers are obliged
to be very cautious lest they should wish to share with them. Several
persons who have been this road assured me, that for a space of four
or five hundred miles beyond the Natches the country is very
irregular, that the soil is very sandy, in some parts covered with
pines, and not much adapted to any kind of culture; but that the
borders of the river Tennessea are, on the contrary, very fertile, and
even superior to the richest counties in Kentucky and Tennessea.
The settlement of the Natches, which is described by the name of the
Mississippi Territory, daily acquires {203} a fresh degree of
prosperity, notwithstanding the unhealthiness of the climate, which is
such that three-fourths of the inhabitants are every year exposed to
intermittent fevers during the summer and autumn; nevertheless, the
great profits derived from the cotton entice an immense number of
foreigners into that part. The population now amounts to five thousand
whites and three thousand negro slaves.[53]
The road that leads to the Natches was only a path that serpentined
through these boundless forests, but the federal government have just
opened a road, which is on the point of being finished, and will be
one of the finest in the United States, both on account of its breadth
and the solidity of the bridges constructed over the small rivers that
cut through it; to which advantages it will unite that of being
shorter than the other by a hundred miles. Thus we may henceforth, on
crossing the western country, go in a carriage from Boston to New
Orleans, a distance of more than two thousand miles.
{204} CHAP. XXII
_Departure for Knoxville.--Arrival at Fort Blount.--Remarks upon
the drying up of the Rivers in the Summer.--Plantations on
the Road.--Fertility of the Soil.--Excursions in a Canoe on
the River Cumberland._
On the 5th of September I set out from Nasheville for Knoxville, with
Mr. Fisk, sent by the state of Tennessea to determine in a more
correct manner, in concert with the commissaries of Virginia, the
boundaries between the two states. We did not arrive till the 9th at
Fort Blount, built upon the river Cumberland, about sixty miles from
Nasheville; we stopped on the road with different friends of Mr. Fisk,
among others, at the house of General Smith, one of the oldest
inhabitants in the country, where he has resided sixteen or seventeen
years. It is to him they are indebted for the best map of this state,
which is found in the _Geographical Atlas_, published by Matthew
Carey, bookseller, at Philadelphia. He confessed to me, notwithstanding,
that this map, {205} taken several years ago, was in many respects
imperfect. The General has a beautiful plantation cultivated in Indian
wheat and cotton; he has also a neat distillery for peach brandy,
which he sells at five shillings per gallon. In his leisure hours he
busies himself in chemistry. I have seen at his house English
translations of the works of Lavoisier and Fourcroy.[54]
We likewise saw, _en passant_, General Winchester, who was at a stone
house that was building for him on the road; this mansion, considering
the country, bore the external marks of grandeur; it consisted of four
large rooms on the ground floor, one story, and a garret. The workmen
employed to finish the inside came from Baltimore, a distance of
nearly seven hundred miles. The stones are of a chalky nature; there
are no others in all that part of Tennessea except round flints, which
are found in the beds of some of the rivers which come originally from
the mountainous region, whence they have been hurried by the force of
the torrents. On the other hand there are so very few of the
inhabitants that build in this manner, on account of the price of
workmanship, masons being still scarcer than carpenters and joiners.
Not far from the General’s house runs a river, {206} from forty to
fifty feet wide, which we crossed dry-footed. Its banks in certain
places are upwards of twenty-five feet high, the bottom of its bed is
formed with flag stones, furrowed by small grooves, about three or
four inches broad, and as many deep, through which the water flowed;
but on the contrary the tide is so high in winter, that by means of a
lock, they stop a sufficient quantity to turn a mill, situated more
than thirty feet in height.
We had now passed several of these rivers that we could have strided
over, but which, during the season, are crossed by means of
ferry-boats.
A few miles from General Winchester’s plantation, and at a short
distance from the road, is situated a small town, founded within these
few years, and to which they have given the name of Cairo, in memory
of the taking of Cairo by the French.
Between Nasheville and Fort Blount the plantations, although always
isolated in the woods, are nevertheless, upon the road, within two or
three miles of each other. The inhabitants live in comfortable log
houses; the major part keep negroes, and appear to live happy and in
abundance. For the whole of this space the soil is but slightly
undulated at times very even, and in general excellent; in consequence
of {207} which the forests look very beautiful. It is in particular,
at _Dixon’s Spring_, fifty miles from Nasheville, and a few miles on
this side Major Dixon’s, where I sojourned a day and a half, that we
remarked this great fertility. We saw again in the environs a
considerable mass of forests, filled with those canes or reeds I have
before mentioned, and which grow so close to each other, that at the
distance of ten or twelve feet a man could not be perceived was he
concealed there. Their tufted foliage presents a mass of verdure that
diverts the sight amid these still and gloomy forests. I have before
remarked that, in proportion as new plantations are formed, these
canes in a few years disappear, as the cattle prefer the leaves of
them to any other kind of vegetables, and destroy them still more by
breaking the body of the plant while browzing on the top of the
stalks. The pigs contribute also to this destruction, by raking up the
ground in order to search for the young roots.
Fort Blount was constructed about eighteen years ago, to protect the
emigrants who came at that time to settle in Cumberland, against the
attacks of the natives, who declared a perpetual war against them, in
order to drive them out; but peace having been concluded with them,
and the population being {208} much increased, they have been reduced
to the impossibility of doing them farther harm, and the Fort has been
destroyed. There now exists on this spot a beautiful plantation,
belonging to Captain William Samson, with whom Mr. Fisk usually
resides. During the two days that we stopped at his house, I went in a
canoe up the river Cumberland for several miles. This mode of
reconnoitring the natural productions still more various upon the bank
of the rivers, is preferable to any other, especially when the rivers
are like the latter, bounded by enormous rocks, which are so very
steep, that scarcely any person ventures to ascend their lofty
heights. In these excursions I enriched my collections with several
seeds of trees and plants peculiar to the country, and divers other
objects of natural history.
{209} CHAP. XXIII
_Departure from Fort Blount to West Point, through the
Wilderness.--Botanical excursions upon Roaring
River.--Description of its Banks.--Saline productions found
there.--Indian Cherokees.--Arrival at Knoxville._
On the 11th of September we went from Fort Blount to the house of a
Mr. Blackborn, whose plantation, situated fifteen miles from this
fortress, is the last that the whites possess on this side the line,
that separates the territory of the United States from that of the
Indian Cherokees. This line presents, as far as West Point upon the
Clinch, a country uninhabited upward of eighty miles in breadth, to
which they give the name of the _Wilderness_, and of which the
mountains of Cumberland occupy a great part. As Mr. Fisk was obliged
to go to the court of justice, which is held a few miles from thence
in the county {210} of Jackson; we deferred crossing the Wilderness
for a few days, and I profited by his absence to go and see Roaring
River, one of the branches of the Cumberland. This river, from ten to
fifteen fathoms broad, received its name from the confused noise that
is heard a mile distant, and which is occasioned by falls of water
produced by the sudden lapse of its bed, formed by large flat stones
contiguous to each other. These falls, from six, eight, to ten feet
high, are so near together, that several of them are to be seen within
the space of fifty to a hundred fathoms. We observed in the middle of
this river, great stones, from five to six feet in diameter,
completely round, and of which nobody could form the least idea how
they could have been conveyed there.
The right bank of Roaring River rises in some places from eighty to a
hundred feet, and surmounted at this height by rocks that jet out
fifteen or twenty feet, and which cover again thick beds of
ferruginous _schiste_, situated horizontally. The flakes they consist
of are so soft and brittle, that as soon as they are touched, they
break off in pieces of a foot long, and fall into a kind of dust,
which, in the course of time, imperceptibly undermines the rocks. Upon
the flakes of _schiste_ that are least exposed to the air {211} and
water, we observed a kind of white efflorescence, extremely thin, and
very similar to snow.
There exists again upon the banks of this river, and in other parts of
Cumberland, immense caverns, where there are masses of aluminous
substances, within so small a degree of the purity necessary to be
employed in dyeing, that the inhabitants not only go to fetch it for
their own use, but export it to Kentucky. They cut it into pieces with
an axe; but nobody is acquainted there with the process used on the
_Old Continent_ to prepare the different substances, as it is found in
trade.
Large rivulets, after having serpentined in the forests, terminate
their windings at the steep banks of this river, whence they fall
murmuring into its bed, and form magnificent cascades several fathoms
wide. The perpetual humidity that these cascades preserve in these
places gives birth to a multitude of plants which grow in the midst of
a thick moss, with which the rock is covered, and which forms the most
beautiful verdant carpet.
All these circumstances give the borders of Roaring River a cool and
pleasing aspect, which I had never witnessed before on the banks of
other rivers. A {212} charming variety of trees and shrubs are also
seen there, which are to be met with no where else. We observed the
_magnolia auriculata_, _macrophilla_, _cordata_, _acuminata_, and
_tripetala_. The fruit of these trees, so remarkable for the beauty of
their flowers and superb foliage, were in the highest perfection. I
gathered a few seeds to multiply them in France, and to add to the
embellishment of our gardens. These seeds grow rancid very soon. I
endeavoured to remedy this inconvenience by putting them into fresh
moss, which I renewed every fortnight till my return to Carolina,
where I continued the same precautions till the epoch of my embarking
for Europe. I have since had the satisfaction to see that my pains
were not fruitless, and that I succeeded by this means in preserving
their germinative faculty.
Major Russel, with whom I went to lodge after I had taken my leave of
Mr. Blackborn, and where Mr. Fisk rejoined me, furnished us very
obligingly with necessary provisions for the two days journey through
the territory of the Cherokees. Notwithstanding the harmony that at
present subsists between the whites and these Indians, it is always
more prudent to travel five or six in a party. Nevertheless as we were
at a considerable distance from the usual place of _rendezvous_, where
the travellers put up, we resolved {213} to set out alone, and we
arrived happily at West Point. This country is exceedingly
mountainous, we could not make above forty-five miles the first day,
although we travelled till midnight. We encamped near a small river,
where there was an abundance of grass; and after having made a fire we
slept in our rugs, keeping watch alternately in order to guard our
horses, and make them feed close by us for fear of the natives, who
sometimes steal them in spite of all the precaution a traveller can
take, as their dexterity in that point exceeds all that a person can
imagine. During this day’s journey we saw nothing but wild turkies,
thirty or forty in a flight.
The second day after our departure we met a party of eight or ten
Indians, who were searching for grapes and chinquapins, a species of
small chesnuts, superior in taste to those in Europe. As we had only
twenty miles to go before we reached West Point, we gave them the
remainder of our provisions, with which they were highly delighted.
Bread is a great treat for them, their usual food consisting of
nothing but venison and wild fowl.
The road that crosses this part of the Indian territory cuts through
the mountains in Cumberland; it is as broad and commodious as those in
the environs of Philadelphia, in consequence of the amazing number
{214} of emigrants that travel through it to go and settle in the
western country. It is, notwithstanding, in some places very rugged,
but nothing near so much as the one that leads from Strasburgh to
Bedford in Pennsylvania. About forty miles from Nasheville we met an
emigrant family in a carriage, followed by their negroes on foot, that
had performed their journey without any accident. Little boards
painted black and nailed upon the trees every three miles, indicate to
travellers the distance they have to go.
In this part of Tennessea the mass of the forests is composed of all
the species of trees that belong more particularly to the mountainous
regions of North America, such as oaks, maples, and nut trees. Pines
abound in those parts where the soil is the worst. What appeared to me
very extraordinary was, to find some parts of the woods, for the space
of several miles, where all the pines that formed at least one fifth
part of the other trees were dead since the preceding year, and still
kept all their withered foliage. I was not able to learn the causes
that produced this singular phenomenon. I only heard that the same
thing happens every fifteen or twenty years.
At West Point is established a fort, pallisadoed round with trees,
built upon a lofty eminence, at the {215} conflux of the rivers Clinch
and Holston. The fedral government maintain a company of soldiers
there, the aim of which is to hold the Indians in respect, and at the
same time to protect them against the inhabitants on the frontiers,
whose illiberal proceedings excite them frequently to war. The objects
of these insults were to drive them from their possessions; but the
government has prevented this fruitless source of broils and wars, by
declaring that all the possessions occupied by the Indians within the
boundaries of the United States, comprise a part of their domains.
The following trait will give an idea of the ferocious disposition of
some of these Americans on the frontiers. One of them belonging to the
environs of Fort Blount, had lost one of his horses, which had strayed
from his plantation and penetrated some distance into the Indian
territory. About a fortnight after it was brought to him by two
Cherokees; they were scarcely fifty yards from the house when the
owner perceiving them, killed one upon the spot with his carabine; the
other fled and carried the news to his fellow-countrymen. The murderer
was thrown into prison; but was afterwards released for the want of
evidence, although he stood convicted in the eyes {216} of every one.
During the time he was in prison the Indians suspended their
resentment, in hopes that the death of their fellow-countryman would
be revenged; but scarcely were they informed that he was set at
liberty when they killed a white, at more than a hundred and fifty
miles from the place where the first murder had been committed. To the
present moment we have never been able to make the Indians comprehend
that punishment should only fall upon the guilty; they conceive that
the murder of one or more of their people ought to be avenged by the
death of an equal number of individuals belonging to the nation of
that person who committed the deed. This is a custom they will not
renounce, more especially if the person so murdered belongs to a
distinguished family, as among the Creeks and Cherokees there exists a
superior class to the common of the nation. These Indians are above
the middling stature, well proportioned, and healthy in appearance,
notwithstanding the long fasting they frequently endure in pursuit of
animals, the flesh of which forms their chief subsistence. The
carabine is the only weapon they make use of; they are very dexterous
with it, and kill at a very great distance. The usual dress of the men
consists of a shirt, _à l’Européene_, which {217} hangs loose, and of
a slip of blue cloth about half a yard in length, which serves them as
breeches; they put it between their thighs, and fasten the two ends,
before and behind, to a sort of girdle. They wear long gaiters, and
shoes of stag skins prepared. When full dressed they wear a coat,
waistcoat, and hat, but never any breeches. The natives of North
America have never been able to adopt that part of our dress. They
have only on the top of their heads a tuft of hair, of which they make
several tresses, that hang down the sides of the face, and very
frequently they attach quills or little silver tubes to the
extremities. A great number of them pierce their noses, in order to
put rings through, and cut holes in their ears, that hang down two or
three inches, by the means of pieces of lead that they fasten to them
when they are quite young. They paint their faces red, blue, or black.
A man’s shirt and a short petticoat form the dress of the women, who
wear also gaiters like the men; they let their hair grow, which is
always of a jet black, to its natural length, but they never pierce
their noses, nor disfigure their ears. In winter, the men and women,
in order to guard against the cold, wrap themselves in a blue rug,
which they always {218} carry with them, and which forms an essential
part of their luggage.
Near the fort is established a kind of warehouse where the Cherokees
carry ginseng and furs, consisting chiefly of bear, stag, and otter
skins. They give them in exchange for coarse stuffs, knives, hatchets,
and other articles that they stand in need of.
I learnt at West Point, of several persons who make frequent journies
among the Cherokees that within these few years they take to the
cultivating of their possessions, and that they make a rapid progress.
Some of them have good plantations, and even negro slaves. Several of
the women spin and manufacture cotton stuffs. The federal government
devotes annually a sum to supply them with instruments necessary for
agriculture and different trades. Being pressed for time I could not
penetrate farther into the interior of the country, as I had intended,
and I did not profit by the letters of recommendation that Mr. W. P.
Anderson had given me for that purpose to the garrison-officers in the
fort.
They reckon thirty-five miles from West Point to Knoxville. About a
mile from West Point we passed through Kingstown, composed of thirty
or forty log houses; after that the road runs upwards of eighteen
{219} miles through a rugged and flinty soil, although covered with a
kind of grass. The trees that occupy this extent grow within twenty or
thirty yards of each other, which makes it seem as though this
district changes from the appearance of a meadow to that of a forest.
After this the soil grows better, and the plantations are not so far
apart.
{220} CHAP. XXIV
_Knoxville.--Commercial intelligence.--Trees that grow in the
environs.--Converting some parts of the Meadows into
Forests.--River Nolachuky.--Greensville.--Arrival at
Jonesborough._
Knoxville, the seat of government belonging to the state of Tennessea,
is situate upon the river Holston, in this part nearly a hundred and
fifty fathoms broad. The houses that compose it are about two hundred
in number, and chiefly built of wood. Although founded eighteen or
twenty years ago, this little town does not yet possess any kind of
establishment or manufactory, except two or three tan yards. Trade,
notwithstanding, is brisker here than at Nasheville. The shops, though
very few in {221} number, are in general better stocked. The
tradespeople get their provisions by land from Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and Richmond in Virginia; and they send in return, by the
same way, the produce of the country, which they buy of the
cultivators, or take in barter for their goods. Baltimore and Richmond
are the towns with which this part of the country does most business.
The price of conveyance from Baltimore is six or seven dollars per
hundred weight. They reckon seven hundred miles from this town to
Knoxville, six hundred and forty from Philadelphia, and four hundred
and twenty from Richmond.
They send flour, cotton and lime to New Orleans by the river
Tennessea; but this way is not so much frequented by the trade, the
navigation of this river being very much encumbered in two different
places by shallows interspersed with rocks. They reckon about six
hundred miles from Knoxville to the _embouchure_ of the Tennessea in
the Ohio, and thirty-eight miles thence to that of the Ohio in the
Mississippi.
{222} We alighted at Knoxville at the house of one Haynes, the sign of
the General Washington, the best inn in the town. Travellers and their
horses are accommodated there at the rate of five shillings per day;
though this is rather dear for a country where the situation is by no
means favourable to the sale of provisions, which they are obliged to
send to more remote parts. The reason of things being so dear proceeds
from the desire of growing rich in a short time, a general desire in
the United States, where every man who exercises a profession or art
wishes to get a great deal by it, and does not content himself with a
moderate profit, as they do in Europe.
There is a newspaper printed at Knoxville[55] which comes out twice a
week, and written and published by Mr. Roulstone, a fellow-countryman
and friend of my travelling companion, Mr. Fisk. It is very remarkable
that most of the emigrants from New England have an ascendancy over
the others in point of morals, industry, and knowledge.
{223} On the 17th of September I took leave of Mr. Fisk, and proceeded
towards Jonesborough, about a hundred miles from Knoxville, and
situate at the foot of the lofty mountains that separate North
Carolina from the state of Tennessea. On leaving Knoxville the soil is
uneven, stony and very indifferent, of which it is an easy thing to
judge by the quantity of pines, or _pinus mitis_, that are in the
forests. We also found there an abundance of Chinquapin oaks, or
_quercus prinus Chinquapin_, that seldom grow above three feet high,
some of which were that year so loaded with acorns that they were bent
to the ground. The sorel-tree, or _andromeda arborea_, is also very
common. This tree, that rises about forty feet in the mountains, would
be one of the most splendid ornaments for our gardens, on account of
its opening clusters of white flowers. Its leaves are very acid, and
many of the inhabitants prefer them to shumac for dyeing cottons.
I crossed the river Holston at Macby, about fifteen miles from
Knoxville; here the soil grows better, {224} and the plantations are
nearer together, although not immediately within sight of each other.
At some distance from Macby the road, for the space of two miles, runs
by the side of a copse, extremely full of young suckers, the highest
of which was not above twenty feet. As I had never seen any part of a
forest so composed before, I made an observation of it to the
inhabitants of the country, who told me that this place was formerly
part of a barren, or meadow, which had naturally clothed itself again
with trees, that fifteen years since they had been totally destroyed
by fire, in order to clear the land, which is a common practice in all
the southern states. This example appears to demonstrate that the
spacious meadows in Kentucky and Tennessea owe their birth to some
great conflagration that has consumed the forests, and that they are
kept up as meadows by the custom that is still practised of annually
setting them on fire. In these conflagrations, when chance preserves
any part from the ravages of the flame, for a certain number of years
they are re-stocked with trees; but {225} as it is then extremely
thick, the fire burns them completely down, and reduces them again to
a sort of meadow. We may thence conclude, that in these parts of the
country the meadows encroach continually upon the forests. The same
has probably taken place in Upper Louisiana and New Mexico, which are
only immense plains, burnt annually by the natives, and where there is
not a tree to be found.
I stopped the first day at a place where most of the inhabitants are
Quakers, who came fifteen or eighteen years since from Pennsylvania.
The one with whom I lodged had an excellent plantation, and his
log-house was divided into two rooms, which is very uncommon in that
part of the country. Around the house magnificent apple-trees were
planted, which, although produced from pips, bore fruit of an
extraordinary size and luxuriance in taste, which proves how well this
country is adapted for the culture of fruit trees. Here, as well as in
Kentucky, they give the preference to the peach, on account of their
{226} making brandy with it. At the same house where I stopped there
were two emigrant families, forming together ten or twelve persons,
who were going to settle in Tennessea. Their ragged clothes, and the
miserable appearance of their children, who were bare-footed and in
their shirts, was a plain indication of their poverty, a circumstance
by no means uncommon in the United States. At the same time it is not
in the western country that the riches of the inhabitants consist in
specie; for I am persuaded that not one in ten of them are in
possession of a single dollar; still each enjoys himself at home with
the produce of his estate, and the money arising from the sale of a
horse or a few cows is always more than sufficient to procure him the
secondary articles that come from England.
The following day I passed by the iron-works, situate about thirty
miles from Knoxville, where I stopped some time to get a sample of the
native ore. The iron that proceeds from it they say is of an excellent
quality. The road at this place divides into {227} two branches, both
of which lead to Jonesborough; but as I wanted to survey the banks of
the river Nolachuky, so renowned in that part of the country for their
fertility, I took the right, although it was rather longer, and not so
much frequented. About six or seven miles from the iron-works we
found upon the road small rock crystals, two or three inches long, and
beautifully transparent. The facets of the pyramids that terminate the
two extremities of the prism are perfectly equal with respect to size,
they are loose, and disseminated in a reddish kind of earth, and
rather clayey. In less than ten minutes I picked up forty. Arrived on
the boundaries of the river Nolachuky, I did not observe any species
of trees or plants that I had not seen elsewhere, except a few poplars
and horse-chesnuts, which bore a yellow blossom. Some of these poplars
were five or six feet in diameter, perfectly straight, and free from
branches for thirty or forty feet from the earth.
On the 21st I arrived at Greenville, which contains scarcely forty
houses, constructed with square {228} beams something like the
log-houses. They reckon twenty-five miles from this place to
Jonesborough. In this space the country is slightly mountainous, the
soil more adapted to the culture of corn than that of Indian wheat,
and the plantations are situated upon the road, two or three miles
distant from each other.
Jonesborough, the last town in Tennessea, is composed of about a
hundred and fifty houses, built of wood, and disposed on both sides
the road. Four or five respectable shops are established there, and
the tradespeople who keep them have their goods from Richmond and
Baltimore. All kinds of English-manufactured goods are as dear here as
at Knoxville. A newspaper in folio is published at this town twice a
week. Periodical sheets are the only works that have ever been printed
in the towns or villages situate west of the Alleghanies.
{229} CHAP. XXV
_General observations on the State of Tennessea.--Rivers
Cumberland and Tennessea.--What is meant by East Tennessea
or Holston, and West Tennessea or Cumberland.--First
settlements in West Tennessea.--Trees natives of that
country._
The state of Tennessea is situated between 35 and 36 deg. 30 min.
latitude, and 80 and 90 deg. 30 min. longitude. It is bounded north by
Kentucky, south by the territories belonging to the Indian Cherokees
and Chactaws, west by the Ohio, and east by the Alleghany Mountains,
which separate it from Virginia and North Carolina. Its extent in
breadth is nearly a hundred and three miles {230} by three hundred and
sixty in length. Prior to the year 1796, the epoch of its being
admitted into the Union, this country comprised a part of North
Carolina. The two principal rivers are the Cumberland and Tennessea,
which flow into the Ohio eleven miles distant from each other, and are
separated by the chain of mountains in Cumberland.
The river Cumberland, known to the French Canadians by the name of the
river Shavanon, derives its source in Kentucky, amidst the mountains
that separate it from Virginia. Its course is about four hundred and
fifty miles. It is navigable, in winter and spring, for three hundred
and fifty miles from its _embouchure_; but in summer, not above fifty
miles from Nasheville. The river Tennessea, named by the French
Canadians the Cherokee River, is the most considerable of all those
that empty themselves into the Ohio. It begins at West Point, where it
is formed by the junction of the rivers Clinch and Holston, which
derive their source in that part of the Alleghany Mountains situated
in Virginia, each of {231} which are more than a hundred fathoms broad
at their _embouchure_. Both are navigable to an immense distance, and
particularly the Holston, which is so for two hundred miles. The river
French Broad, one of the principal branches of the Holston, receives
its waters from the Nolachuky, is about twenty fathoms broad, and is
navigable in the spring. Thus the Tennessea, with the Holston, has, in
the whole, a navigable course for near eight hundred miles: but this
navigation is interrupted six months in the year by the muscle shoals,
a kind of shallows interspersed with rocks, which are met with in its
bed two hundred miles from its _embouchure_ in the Ohio. From West
Point the borders of this great river are yet almost entirely
uninhabited. The signification of the name of Tennessea, which it
bears, is unknown to the Cherokees and Chactaws that occupied this
country before the whites. Mr. Fisk, who has had several conversations
with these Indians, never heard any precise account; in consequence of
which it is most likely that this name has {232} been given to it by
the nation that the Cherokees succeeded.[56]
The Cumberland Mountains are but a continuation of Laurel Mountain,
which itself is one of the principal links of the Alleghanies. These
mountains, on the confines of Virginia, incline more toward the west,
and by the direction which they take, cut obliquely in two the state
of Tennessea, which, in consequence, divides East and West Tennessea
into two parts, both primitively known by the names of the Holston and
Cumberland settlements, and which afford each a different aspect,
both by the nature of the country, and by the productions that grow
there.
West Tennessea comprises two-thirds of this state. The greater part of
it reposes upon a bank of chalky substance of the same nature, the
beds of which are horizontal. The stratum of vegetable earth with
which it is covered appears generally not so thick as in Kentucky, and
participates less of the clayey nature. It is usually, in point of
colour, of {233} a dark brown, without the least mixture of stony
substances. The forests that cover the country clearly indicate how
favourable the soil is for vegetation, as most of the trees acquire a
very large diameter. Iron mines are also as scarce there as in
Kentucky; and provided any new ones were discovered, they would have
been worked immediately, since the iron that is imported from
Pennsylvania is at such an enormous price.
The secondary rivers which in this part of Tennessea run into
Cumberland are almost completely dry during the summer; and it is
probable enough, that when the population grows more numerous, and the
plantations are formed farther from their banks, the want of water
will be more severely felt in this part than in Kentucky. There are,
notwithstanding, several large rivulets or creeks that issue from
excavations that are found at the foot of the mountains, in different
parts of the country: at the same time it has been remarked that these
kind of sources never fail, although the water is not so deep in
summer. {234} Just at the mouth of these subterraneous passages they
are sometimes accompanied with a current of air strong enough to
extinguish a light. I observed this particularly myself at the spring
of the rivulet called Dixon’s Spring, and of another situated about
four miles from Nasheville.
It was in 1780 that the whites first made the attempt to travel over
the Cumberland Mountains, and to settle in the environs of Nasheville;
but the emigrants were not very numerous there till the year 1789.
They had to support, for several years, a bloody war against the
Indian Cherokees, and till 1795 the settlements at Holston and
Kentucky communicated with those in Cumberland by caravans, for the
sake of travelling in safety over so extensive a tract of uninhabited
country that separated them; but for these five or six years past,
since peace has been made with the natives, the communications formed
between the countries are perfectly established; and although not much
frequented, they travel there with as much safety as in any other part
of the Atlantic states.
{235} This country having been populated after that of Kentucky, every
measure was taken at the commencement to avoid the great confusion
that exists concerning the right of property in the latter state; at
the same time the titles are looked upon as more valid, and not so
subject to dispute. This reason, the extraordinary fertility of the
soil, and a more healthy climate, are such great inducements to the
emigrants of the Atlantic states, that most of them prefer settling in
West Tennessea than in Kentucky. They reckon there, at present, thirty
thousand inhabitants, and five or six thousand negro slaves.
With a few exceptions the various species of trees and shrubs that
form the mass of the forests are the same as those that I observed in
the most fertile parts of Kentucky. The _gleditsia triacanthos_ is
still more common there.[57] Of this wood the Indians made their
bows, before they adopted the use of fire-arms.
We found particularly, in these forests, a tree which, by the shape of
its fruit and the disposition of its leaves, appears to have great
affinity with the {236} _sophora japonica_, the wood of which is used
by the Chinese for dyeing yellow. My father, who discovered this tree
in 1796, thought that it might be employed for the same use, and
become an important object of traffic for the country. He imparted his
conjectures to Mr. Blount, then governor of this state, and his letter
was inserted in the Gazette at Knoxville on the 15th of March 1796.
Several persons in the country having a great desire to know whether
it were possible to fix the beautiful yellow which the wood of this
tree communicated to the water by the simple infusion, cold, I
profited by my stay at Nasheville to send twenty pounds of it to New
York, the half of which was remitted to Dr. Mitchell, professor of
chemistry, and the other addressed to Paris, to the Board of
Agriculture, attached to the Minister of the Interior, in order to
verify the degree of utility that might be derived from it. This tree
very seldom rises above forty feet, and grows, in preference, on the
knobs, species of little hills, where the soil is very rich. Several
of the inhabitants have {237} remarked that there is not in the
country a single species of tree that produces so great an abundance
of sap. The quantity that it supplies exceeds even that of the sugar
maple, although the latter is twice its bulk. The epoch of my stay at
Nasheville being that when the seeds of this tree were ripe, I
gathered a small quantity of them, which I brought over with me, and
which have all come up. Several of the plants are at the present
moment ten or fifteen inches high. It is very probable that this tree
may be reared in France, and that it will endure the cold of our
winters, and more so, as, according to what I have been told, the
winters are as severe in Tennessea as in any parts of France.
West Tennessea is not so salubrious as Holston and Kentucky. A warmer
and damper climate is the cause of intermittent fevers being more
common there. Emigrants, for the first year of their settling there,
and even travellers, are, during that season, subject to an
exanthemetic affection similar to the itch. This malady, with which I
began to be attacked {238} before I reached Fort Blount, yielded to a
cooling regimen, and repeated bathings in the rivers Cumberland and
Roaring. This disorder is very appropriately called in the country the
Tennessean itch.
{239} CHAP. XXVI
_Different kinds of produce of West Tennessea.--Domestic
manufactories for cottons encouraged by the legislature of
this state.--Mode of letting out estates by some of the
emigrants._
WEST Tennessea, or Cumberland, being situated under a more southerly
latitude than Kentucky, is particularly favourable to the growth of
cotton; in consequence of which the inhabitants give themselves up
almost entirely to it, and cultivate but little more corn, hemp, and
tobacco than what is necessary for their own consumption.
The soil, which is fat and clayey, appears to be a recent dissolving
of vegetable substances, and seems, {240} till now, less adapted for
the culture of corn than that of Indian wheat. The harvests of this
grain are as plentiful as in Kentucky; the blades run up ten or twelve
feet high; and the ears, which grow six or seven feet from the earth,
are from nine to ten inches in length, and proportionate in size. It
is cultivated in the same manner as in other parts of the western
country.
The crows, which are a true plague in the Atlantic states, where they
ravage, at three different periods, the fields of Indian wheat, which
are obliged to be sown again as many times, have not yet made their
appearance in Tennessea; but it is very probable that this visit is
only deferred, as they do, annually, great damage in Kentucky.
I must also observe here that the grey European rats have not yet
penetrated into Cumberland, though they are very numerous in other
parts of the country, particularly in those settlements belonging to
the whites.
The culture of cotton, infinitely more lucrative {241} than that of
corn and tobacco, is, as before observed, the most adhered to in West
Tennessea. There is scarcely a single emigrant but what begins to
plant his estate with it the third year after his settling in the
country. Those who have no negroes cultivate it with the plough,
nearly in the same manner as Indian wheat, taking particular care to
weed and throw new earth upon it several times in the course of the
season. Others lay out their fields in parallel furrows, made with the
hoe, from twelve to fifteen inches high. It is computed that one man,
who employs himself with this alone, is sufficient to cultivate eight
or nine acres, but not to gather in the harvest. A man and a woman,
with two or three children, may, notwithstanding, cultivate four acres
with the greatest ease, independent of the Indian wheat necessary for
their subsistence; and calculating upon a harvest of three hundred and
fifty pounds weight per acre, which is very moderate according to the
extreme fertility of the soil, they will have, in four acres, a
produce of fourteen hundred pounds of {242} cotton. Valuing it at the
rate of eighteen dollars per hundred weight, the lowest price to which
it had fallen at the epoch of the last peace, when I was in the
country, gives two hundred and fifty-two dollars; from which deducting
forty dollars for the expenses of culture, they will have a net
produce of two hundred and twelve dollars; while the same number of
acres, planted with Indian wheat, or sown with corn, would only yield
at the rate of fifty bushels per acre; and twenty-five bushels of
corn, about fifty dollars, reckoning the Indian wheat at thirteen
pence, and the corn at two shillings and two pence per bushel; under
the supposition that they can sell it at that price, which is not
always the case. This light sketch demonstrates with what facility a
poor family may acquire speedily, in West Tennessea, a certain degree
of independence, particularly after having been settled five or six
years, as they procure the means of purchasing one or two negroes, and
of annually increasing their number.
The species of cotton which they cultivate here is {243} somewhat more
esteemed than that described by the name of green-seed cotton, in
which there is a trifling distinction in point of colour.
The cottons that are manufactured in West Tennessea are exceedingly
fine, and superior in quality to those I saw in the course of my
travels. The legislature of this state, appreciating the advantage of
encouraging this kind of industry, and of diminishing, by that means,
the importation of English goods of the same nature, has given, for
these two years past, a premium of ten dollars to the female
inhabitant who, in every county, presents the best manufactured piece;
for in this part, as well as in Kentucky, the higher circles wear, in
summer time, as much from patriotism as from economy, dresses made of
the cottons manufactured in the country. At the same time they are
convinced that it is the only means of preserving the little specie
that is in the country, and of preventing its going to England.
The price of the best land does not yet exceed five dollars per acre
in the environs of Nasheville, and {244} thirty or forty miles from
the town they are not even worth three dollars. They can at that price
purchase a plantation completely formed, composed of two to three
hundred acres, of which fifteen to twenty are cleared, and a
log-house. The taxes in this state are also not so high as in
Kentucky.
Among the emigrants that arrive annually from the eastern country at
Tennessea there are always some who have not the means of purchasing
estates; still there is no difficulty in procuring them at a certain
rent; for the speculators who possess many thousand acres are very
happy to get tenants for their land, as it induces others to come and
settle in the environs; since the speculation of estates in Kentucky
and Tennessea is so profitable to the owners, who reside upon the
spot, and who, on the arrival of the emigrants, know how to give
directions in cultivation, which speedily enhances the value of their
possessions.
The conditions imposed upon the renter are to clear and inclose eight
or nine acres, to build a log-house, and to pay to the owner eight or
ten bushels {245} of Indian wheat for every acre cleared. These
contracts are kept up for seven or eight years. The second year after
the price of two hundred acres of land belonging to a new settlement
of this kind increases nearly thirty per cent.; and this estate is
purchased in preference by a new emigrant, who is sure of gathering
corn enough for the supplies of his family and cattle.
In this state they are not so famed for rearing horses as in Kentucky;
yet the greatest care is taken to improve their breed, by rearing them
with those of the latter state, whence they send for the finest mare
foals that can be procured.
Although this country abounds with saline springs, none are yet
worked, as the scarcity of hands would render the salt dearer than
what is imported from the salt-pits of St. Genevieve, which supply all
Cumberland. It is sold at two dollars per bushel, about sixty pounds
weight.
{246} CHAP. XXVII
_East Tennessea, or Holston.--Agriculture.--Population.--Commerce._
East Tennessea, or Holston, is situated between the loftiest of the
Alleghany and Cumberland Mountains. It comprises, in length, an extent
of nearly a hundred and forty miles, and differs chiefly from West
Tennessea in point of the earth’s being not so chalky, and better
watered by the small rivers issuing from the adjacent mountains, which
cross it in every part. The best land is upon their borders. The
remainder of the territory, almost everywhere interspersed with hills,
is of a middling quality, and produces nothing but white, red, black,
chincapin, {247} and mountain oaks, &c. intermixed with pines; and, as
we have before observed, except the _quercus macrocarpa_, the rest
never grow, even in the most fertile places.
Indian wheat forms here also one of the principal branches of
agriculture; but it very seldom comes up above seven or eight feet
high, and a produce of thirty bushels per acre passes for an
extraordinary harvest. The nature of the soil, somewhat gravelly,
appears more adapted for the culture of wheat, rye, and oats; in
consequence of which it is more adhered to than in Cumberland. That of
cotton is little noticed, on account of the cold weather, which sets
in very early. One may judge, according to this, that Holston is in
every point inferior in fertility to Cumberland and Kentucky.
To consume the superfluity of their corn the inhabitants rear a great
number of cattle, which they take four or five hundred miles to the
seaports belonging to the southern states. They lose very few of these
animals by the way, although they have to {248} cross several rivers,
and travel through an uninterrupted forest, with this disadvantage, of
the cattle being extremely wild.
This part of Tennessea began to be inhabited in 1775, and the
population is so much increased, that there is now computed to be
about seventy thousand inhabitants, including three or four thousand
negro slaves. In 1787 they attempted to form themselves into an
independent state, under the name of the Franklin State; but this
project was abandoned.[58] It is still very probable, and has already
been in question, that East and West Tennessea will ultimately form
two distinct states, which will each enlarge itself by a new addition
of part of the territory belonging to the Cherokee Indians. The
natives, it is true, will not hear the least mention of a cession
being made, objecting that their tract of country is barely sufficient
to furnish, by hunting, a subsistence for their families. However,
sooner or later they will be obliged to yield. The division of
Tennessea cannot be long before it takes place, whether under {249}
the consideration of convenience, or the enterprising disposition of
the Americans. It is commanded, on the one hand, by the boundaries
that Nature herself has prescribed between the two countries, in
separating them by the Cumberland Mountains; and on the other, by
their commerce, which is wholly different, since Cumberland carries on
its trade by the Ohio and Mississippi, while Holston does most by land
with the seaports belonging to the Atlantic states, and has very
little to do with New Orleans by the river Tennessea, and scarcely any
with Cumberland and Kentucky. Under this consideration, Holston is, of
all parts in the United States that are now inhabited, the most
unfavourably situated, being on every side circumscribed by
considerable tracts of country that produce the same provisions, and
which are either more fertile or nearer to the borders of the sea.
What has been said relative to the manners of the inhabitants of
Kentucky will apply, in a great measure to Tennessea, since they come,
as the former {250} do, from North Carolina and Virginia: still the
inhabitants of Tennessea do not yet enjoy that degree of independence
which is remarked among those of Kentucky. They appear also not so
religious, although, in the mean time, they are very strict observers
of Sundays. We found but very few churches in Tennessea. Itinerant
preachers wander, in summer, through the different countries, and
preach in the woods, where the people collect together.
{251} CHAP. XXVIII
_Departure from Jonesborough for Morganton in North Carolina.--
Journey over Iron Mountains.--Sojourn on the mountains.--
Journey over the Blue Ridges and Linneville Mountains.--
Arrival at Morganton._
On the 21st of September 1802 I set out from Jonesborough to cross the
Alleghanies for North Carolina. About nine miles from Jonesborough the
road divides into two branches, which unite again fifty-six miles
beyond the mountains. The left, which is principally for carriages,
cuts through Yellow Mountain, and the other through Iron {252}
Mountain. I took the latter, as I had been informed it was much the
shortest. I only made nineteen miles that day, and put up at one
Cayerd’s at the Limestone Cove, where I arrived benumbed with cold by
the thick fog that reigns almost habitually in the vallies of these
enormous mountains.
Seven miles on this side Cayerd’s plantation, the road, or rather the
path, begins to be so little cut that one can scarce discern the track
for plants of all kinds that cover the superficies of it; it is also
encumbered by forests of _rhododendrum_, shrubs from eighteen to
twenty feet in height, the branches of which, twisting and interwoven
with each other, impede the traveller every moment, insomuch that he
is obliged to use an axe to clear his way. The torrents that we had
continually to cross added to the difficulty and danger of the
journey, the horses being exposed to fall on account of the loose
round flints, concealed by the ebullition of the waters with which the
bottom of these torrents are filled.
I had the day following twenty-three miles to {253} make without
meeting with the least kind of a plantation. After having made the
most minute inquiry with regard to the path I had to take, I set out
about eight o’clock in the morning from the Limestone Cove, and after
a journey of three hours I reached the summit of the mountain, which I
recognized by several trees with “_the road_” marked on each, and in
the same direction to indicate the line of demarcation that separates
the state of Tennessea from that of North Carolina. The distance from
the Limestone Cove to the summit of the mountain is computed to be
about two miles and a half, and three miles thence to the other side.
The declivity of the two sides is very steep, insomuch that it is with
great difficulty a person can sit upon his horse, and that half the
time he is obliged to go on foot. Arrived at the bottom of the
mountain, I had again, as the evening before, to cross through forests
of _rhododendrum_, and a large torrent called Rocky Creek, the winding
course of which cut the path in twelve or fifteen directions; every
time I was obliged to alight, or go {254} up the torrent by walking
into the middle for the space of ten or fifteen fathoms, in order to
regain on the other bank the continuation of the path, which is very
rarely opposite, and of which the entrance was frequently concealed by
tufts of grass or branches of trees, which have time to grow and
extend their foliage, since whole months elapse without its being
passed by travellers. At length I happily arrived at the end of my
journey. I then perceived the imprudence I had committed in having
exposed myself without a guide in a road so little frequented, and
where a person every moment runs the risk of losing himself on account
of the sub-divisions of the road, that ultimately disappear, and which
it would be impossible to find again, unless by being perfectly
acquainted with the localities and disposition of the country, where
obstacle upon obstacle oppose the journey of the traveller, and whose
situation would in a short time become very critical from the want of
provisions.
On the 23d I made twenty-two miles through a {255} country bestrewed
with mountains, but not so lofty as that which I had just passed over,
and arrived at the house of one Davenport, the owner of a charming
plantation upon Doe river, a torrent about forty feet in breadth, and
which empties itself into the Nolachuky. I had learnt the evening
before, of the person with whom I had lodged, that it was at
Davenport’s my father had resided, and that it was this man who served
him as a guide across the mountains when on his travels to discover
their productions. I was at that time very far from thinking that at
the same time when this worthy man was entertaining me about his old
travelling companion, I lost a beloved father, who died a victim of
his zeal for the progress of natural history upon the coast of the
island of Madagascar!
I staid a week at Davenport’s, in order to rest myself after a journey
of six hundred miles that I had just made, and during this interval I
travelled over the Blue Ridges that encompass his plantation. On the
2d of October 1802 I set out on my journey {256} again, and proceeded
towards Morganton, a distance of thirty-five miles. About four miles
from Doe river I re-passed the chain of the Blue Ridges. Its summit is
obtained by a gentle declivity, which is much longer and more rapid on
the eastern side, without being impracticable for carriages. The
journey over this mountain is computed to be about four miles and a
half.
About five miles from the Blue Ridges are the Linneville Mountains,
not quite so lofty as the latter, but steeper, and more difficult to
ascend. The road that cuts through them is encumbered westward with
large, flat stones, which impede the traveller on his route. From the
summit of these mountains, which is not overstocked with trees, we
discovered an immense extent of mountainous country covered with
forests, and at their base only three small places cleared, which form
as many plantations, three or four miles distant from each other.
From the Linneville Mountains to Morganton it is computed to be
twenty-five miles, where I arrived {257} on the 5th of October. In
this interval the country is slightly mountainous, and the soil
extremely bad; at the same time we did not find more than four or five
plantations on the road. About a mile on this side the town we crossed
the northern arm of the river Catabaw, in this part nearly fifty
fathoms broad, although the source of this river is only fifty miles.
The rains that had fallen in the mountains had produced a sudden
increase of water, and the master of the ferry-boat conceiving it
would not last long, had not thought proper to re-establish his boat,
so that I was obliged to ford. One of his children pointed out to me
the different directions that I had to take in order to avoid the
immense cavities under water.
{258} CHAP. XXIX
_General observations upon this part of the Chain of the
Alleghanies.--Salamander which is found in the torrents.--
Bear hunting._
IN Pennsylvania and Virginia the Alleghanies present themselves under
the form of parallel furrows, but varying in their length. They are
mostly near together, and form narrow vallies; but sometimes the
interval that separates them is from twenty to thirty miles in length;
again these spaces are filled with a multitude of hills of a lesser
elevation, confusedly scattered, and in no wise affecting the
direction of the principal chains. On the confines of North Carolina
and Tennessea the Alleghanies are, {259} on the contrary, isolated
mountains, and only contiguous by their base; they embrace also in
diameter an extent of country less considerable, and which is not
computed to be more than seventy miles. The furrow that bears more
particularly the name of the Alleghany Ridge in Pennsylvania, and that
of Blue Ridge in North Carolina, is the only one that, continuing
uninterruptedly, divides the rivers that run into the Atlantic Ocean
from those that swell the current of the Ohio. The height of this
chain is still infinitely less than that of the neighbouring
mountains. It is here that the Alleghanies, which cross the United
States for the space of nine hundred miles, have the highest
elevation. This is the opinion of most of the inhabitants, who, from
the mountainous part of Pennsylvania and Virginia, have emigrated on
the confines of North Carolina, and who know the respective heights of
all these mountains. That of the first rank is called Grandfather
Mountain, the next Iron Mountain, and thus in succession Yellow
Mountain, Black Mountain, and Table {260} Mountain, which are all
situate upon the western rivers. On the top of Yellow Mountain, the
only one that is not stocked with trees, all the abovementioned may be
seen.
We may again remark, in support of the preceding observation, that
from the 10th to the 20th of September the cold is so keenly felt upon
the mountains that the inhabitants are obliged to make a fire, which
is not the case upon any of those in Virginia, although they are
situated more northerly by several degrees: and besides I have since
seen in my father’s notes that he had observed trees and shrubs upon
the Yellow and Grandfather Mountains that he did not meet with again
till he reached Low Canada.
As the only ideas given concerning the height of the Alleghanies are
the result of observations taken in Virginia, we see, according to
that short exposition, that we have but an inaccurate account; this
induced me to point out the highest mountains where their true
elevation might be ascertained. They are about three hundred and sixty
miles from Charleston, in {261} South Carolina, and five hundred and
fifty from Philadelphia.
The mineral kingdom is very little diversified in these mountains. The
mines which have hitherto been found are chiefly those of iron. They
are worked with success, and the iron which they derive from it is of
an excellent quality.
In the mountainous parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia the land,
frequently dry and flinty, is of an indifferent nature. Here, on the
contrary, the soil far from being flinty, is perpetually moist, and
very fertile. We may judge of it by the vegetable strength of the
trees, among which we observed the red and black oak, the sugar-maple,
the ash, the yellow-blossomed chesnut, or the _magnolia acuminata_ and
_auriculata_, and the common chesnut, which grows to a prodigious
height. The side of these mountains that looks north is sometimes
covered exclusively with the _kalmia latifolia_, or calico-tree, from
twelve to fifteen feet high. They frequently occupy spaces of from two
to three hundred acres, {262} which at a distance affords the aspect
of a charming meadow. It is well known that this shrub excels every
other in point of blossom.
In the great woods the superficies of the soil is covered with a
species of wild peas, that rises about three feet from the earth, and
serves as excellent fodder for the cattle. They prefer this pasturage
to any other, and whenever they are driven from it they pine away, or
make their escape to get to it again.
These mountains begin to be populated rapidly. The salubrity of the
air, the excellence of the water, and more especially the pasturage of
these wild peas for the cattle, are so many causes that induce new
inhabitants to settle there.
Estates of the first class are sold at the rate of two dollars, and
the taxes are not more than a half-penny per acre. Indian corn, wheat,
rye, oats, and peach trees, are the sole objects of culture.
In the torrents we found a species of salamander, called by the
inhabitants the mountain alligator; {263} many of which are upwards of
two feet in length.[59] It was in Doe river that my father caught the
one which is described in _The New Dictionary of Natural History_,
published by Deterville.
The inhabitants of these mountains are famed for being excellent
hunters. Towards the middle of autumn most of them go in pursuit of
bears, of which they sell the skins, and the flesh, which is very
good, serves them in a great measure for food during that season. They
prefer it to all other kinds of meat, and look upon it as the only
thing they can eat without being indisposed by it. They make also of
their hind legs the most delicious hams. In autumn and winter the
bears grow excessively fat; some of them weigh upward of four hundred
weight. Their grease is consumed in the country instead of oil. They
hunt them with great dogs, which, without going near them, bark,
teaze, and oblige them to climb up a tree, when the hunter kills them
with a carabine. A beautiful skin sells for a dollar and a half or two
dollars. The black bear of North {264} America lives chiefly on roots,
acorns and chesnuts. In order to procure a greater quantity of them,
he gets up into the trees, and as his weight does not permit him to
climb to any height, he breaks off the branch where he has observed
the most fruit by hugging it with one of his fore paws. I have seen
branches of such a diameter that these animals must be endowed with an
uncommon strength to have been able to break them by setting about it
in this manner. In the summer, when they are most exposed to want
victuals, they fall upon pigs, and sometimes even upon men.
{265} CHAP. XXX
_Morganton.--Departure for Charleston.--Lincolnton.--Chester.--
Winesborough.--Columbia.--Aspect of the Country on the Road.--
Agriculture, &c. &c._
Morganton, the principal town of the county of Burke, contains about
fifty houses built of wood, and almost all inhabited by tradesmen. One
warehouse only, supported by a commercial house at Charleston, is
established in this little town, where the inhabitants, for twenty
miles round, come and purchase mercery and jewellery goods from
England, or give in exchange a part of their produce, which consists
chiefly of dried hams, butter, tallow, {266} bear and stag skins, and
ginseng, which they bring from the mountains.
From Morganton to Charleston it is computed to be two hundred and
eighty-five miles. There are several roads to it, which do not vary in
point of distance above twenty miles. Travellers take that where they
think of finding the best houses for accommodation: I took the one
that leads through Lincolnton, Chester, and Columbia. The distance
from Morganton to Lincolnton is forty-five miles. For the whole of
this space the soil is extremely bad, and the plantations, straggling
five or six miles from each other, have but a middling appearance. The
woods are in a great measure composed of different kinds of oaks, and
the surface of the ground is covered with grass, intermixed with
plants.
Lincolnton, the principal town of the county of Lincoln, is formed by
the junction of forty houses, surrounded by the woods like all the
small towns of the interior. Two or three large shops, that do the
same kind of business as that at Morganton, are established {267}
there. The tradesmen who keep them send the produce of their country
to Charleston, but they find it sometimes answers their purpose better
to stock themselves with goods from Philadelphia, although farther by
six hundred miles. Some expedite them by sea to Carolina, whence they
go by land to Lincolnton. The freight, a little higher from England to
Charleston, and the enormous advance which the merchants lay on their
goods, appear the only motives that make them give the preference to
those of Philadelphia.
At Lincolnton they print a newspaper in folio, that comes out twice a
week. The price of subscription is two dollars per year; but the
printer, who is his own editor, takes, by way of payment, for the ease
of his country subscribers, flour, rye, wax, &c. at the market price.
The advertisements inserted for the inhabitants of the country are
generally the surest profit to the printers. The foreign news is
extracted from the papers that are published at the sea ports. The
federal government, of which the constant aim is {268} to propagate
among the people instruction, the knowledge of the laws, grants the
editors of periodical papers, throughout the whole extent of the
United States, the right to receive, free of postage, the newspapers
that they wish to exchange among themselves, or those which are
addressed to them.
The county of Lincoln is populated, in a great measure, by Germans
from Pennsylvania. Their plantations are kept in the greatest order,
and their lands well cultivated. Almost all have negro slaves, and
there reigns much more independance among them than in the families of
English origin. One may form a correct idea of the industry of some of
them by the appearance of the plantation where I stopped, situated
upon a branch of the Catabaw River. In eight hundred acres, of which
it is composed, a hundred and fifty are cultivated in cotton, Indian
corn, wheat, and oats, and dunged annually, which is a great degree of
perfection in the present state of the agriculture of this part of the
country. Independant of this, he has built in his yard several {269}
machines, that the same current of water puts in motion; they consist
of a corn mill, a saw mill, another to separate the cotton seeds, a
tan-house, a tan-mill, a distillery to make peach brandy, and a small
forge, where the inhabitants of the country go to have their horses
shod. Seven or eight negro slaves are employed in the different
departments, some of which are only occupied at certain periods of the
year. Their wives are employed under the direction of the mistress in
manufacturing cotton and linen for the use of the family.
The whole of my landlord’s taxes, assessed upon his landed property,
and these different kinds of industry, did not amount annually to more
than seven dollars; whilst under the presidency of J. Adams they had
increased to fifty; at the same time his memory is not held in great
veneration in Upper Carolina and the Western States, where the
political opinion is strongly pronounced in the sense of opposition,
and where nobody durst confess himself publicly attached to the
federal party.
{270} In all the towns that I travelled through every tanner has his
tan mill, which does not cost him above ten dollars to erect. The bark
is put into a wooden arch, twelve or fourteen feet in diameter, the
edges of which are about fifteen inches high, and it is crushed under
the weight of a wheel, about one foot thick, which is turned by a
horse, and fixed similar to a cyder-press. For this purpose they
generally make use of an old mill-stone, or a wooden wheel, formed by
several pieces joined together, and furnished in its circumference
with three rows of teeth, also made of wood, about two inches long and
twelve or fifteen wide.
From Lincolnton to Chester court house in the state of South Carolina,
it is computed to be about seventy miles. For the whole of this space
the earth is light and of an inferior quality to that situated between
Morganton and Lincolnton, although the mass of the forests is composed
of various species of oaks; in the mean time the pines are in such
abundance there, that for several miles the ground is covered {271}
with nothing else. Plantations are so little increased there, that we
scarcely saw twenty where they cultivate cotton or Indian wheat. We
passed by several that had been deserted by the owners as not
sufficiently productive: for the inhabitants of Georgia and the two
Carolinas, who plant nothing but rice, choose frequently rather to
make new clearings than to keep their land in a state of producing
annually, by regular tillage, as they do in Europe, and even in New
England and Pennsylvania. The considerable extent of this country,
compared with the trifling population, gives rise to these changes
which take place after fifteen or twenty successive harvests.
Chester contains about thirty houses, built of wood; among the number
are two inns and two respectable shops. In the principal county towns
of the Western and Southern States, they have neither fairs nor
markets. The inhabitants sell the produce of their culture to
shopkeepers settled in the small towns, or what is more usual in the
south, they convey them in waggons to the sea ports.
{272} From Chester the country grows worse in every respect. The
traveller no longer meets reception at plantations; he is obliged to
put up at inns, where he is badly accommodated both in point of board
and lodging, and pays dearer than in any other part of the United
States. The reputation of these inns is esteemed according to the
quantity and different kinds of spirits that they sell, among which
French brandies hold always the first rank, although they are often
mixed with water for the third or fourth time.
They reckon fifty-five miles from Chester to Columbia; twenty-five
miles on this side we passed through Winesborough, composed of about a
hundred and fifty houses. This place is one of the oldest inhabited in
Carolina, and several planters of the low country go and spend the
summer and autumn there. Fifteen miles on this side Winesborough the
_pine barrens_ begin, and thence to the sea side the country is one
continued forest composed of pines.
Columbia, founded within these twenty years, is the seat of government
for the state of South Carolina. {273} It is built about two hundred
fathoms from the Catabaw River, upon an uniform spot of ground. The
number of its houses does not exceed two hundred; they are almost all
built of wood, and painted grey and yellow; and although there are
very few of them more than two stories high, they have a very
respectable appearance. The legislature, formed by the union of the
delegates of different counties that send them in a number
proportionate to their population, meet there annually on the first of
December, and all the business is transacted in the same month; it
then dissolves, and, except at that time, the town derives no
particular advantage from being the seat of government.
The inhabitants of the upper country, who do not approve of sending
their provisions to Charleston, stop at Columbia, where they dispose
of them at several respectable shops established in the town.
The river Catabaw, about twenty fathoms broad, is only navigable
during the winter; the rest of the year its navigation is stopped by
large rocks that intercept {274} its course. They have been,
nevertheless, at work for these several years past in forming a canal
to facilitate the descent of the boats, but the work goes on very
slowly for the want of hands, although the workmen are paid at the
rate of a dollar per day.
Columbia is about a hundred and twenty miles from Charleston; for the
whole of this space, and particularly from Orangeburgh, composed of
twenty houses, the road crosses an even country, sandy and dry during
the summer; whilst in the autumn and winter it is so covered with
water that in several places, for the space of eight or ten miles, the
horses are up to their middles. Every two or three miles we meet with
a miserable log-house upon the road, surrounded with little fields of
Indian corn, the slender stalks of which are very seldom more than
five or six feet high, and which, from the second harvest, do not
yield more than four or five bushels per acre. In the mean time,
notwithstanding their sterility, this land is sold at the rate of two
dollars per acre.
The extreme unwholesomeness of the climate is {275} clearly
demonstrated by the pale and livid countenances of the inhabitants,
who, during the months of September and October, are almost all
affected with tertian fevers, insomuch that at this period of the year
Georgia and the Lower Carolinas resemble, in some measure, an
extensive hospital. Very few persons take any remedy, but wait the
approach of the first frosts, which, provided they live so long,
generally effect a cure. The negroes are much less subject to
intermittent fevers than the whites; and it is seldom that in the
great rice plantations there is more than one fifth of them disabled
on this account.
{276} CHAP. XXXI
_General observations on the Carolinas and Georgia.--Agriculture
and produce peculiar to the upper part of these states._
The two Carolinas and Georgia are naturally divided into the upper and
lower country, but the upper embraces a greater extent. Just at the
point where the maritime part is terminated the soil rises gradually
till it reaches the Alleghany Mountains, and presents, upon the whole,
a ground rather irregular than mountainous, and interspersed with
little hills as far as the mountains. The Alleghanies give birth to a
great number of creeks or small rivers, the junction of which forms
the rivers Pidea, Santea, {277} Savannah, and Alatamaha, which are
hardly navigable above two hundred miles from their _embouchure_. In
the upper country the most fertile lands are situated upon the borders
of these creeks. Those that occupy the intermediate spaces are much
less so. The latter are not much cultivated; and even those who occupy
them are obliged to be perpetually clearing them, in order to obtain
more abundant harvests; in consequence of which a great number of the
inhabitants emigrate into the western country, where they are
attracted by the extreme fertility of the soil and low price of land;
since that of the first class may be purchased for the same money as
that of the second in Upper Carolina; and, as we have already said,
the latter is scarcely to be compared to that which in Kentucky and
Cumberland is ranked in the third.
In the upper country the mass of the forests is chiefly composed of
oaks, nut trees, maples, and poplars. Chesnut trees do not begin to
appear in these states for sixty miles on this side the mountains.
{278} It is only in the remote parts that the inhabitants manufacture
maple sugar for their use.
Through the whole of the country the nature of the soil is adapted for
the growth of wheat, rye, and Indian corn. Good land produces upward
of twenty bushels of Indian wheat per acre, which is commonly worth
about half a dollar per bushel. A general consumption is made of it
for the support of the inhabitants since, except those who are of
German origin, there are very few, as we have before remarked, that
make use of wheaten bread. The growth of corn is very circumscribed,
and the small quantity of flour that is exported to Charleston and
Savannah is sold fifteen per cent. cheaper than that imported from
Philadelphia.
The low price to which tobacco is fallen in Europe, within these few
years, has made them give up the culture of it in this part of the
country. That of green-seed cotton has resumed its place, to the great
advantage of the inhabitants, many of whom have since made their
fortunes by it. The separation {279} of the seed from the felt that
envelopes them is a tedious operation, and which requires many hands,
is now simplified by a machine for which the inventor has obtained a
patent from the federal government. The legislature of South Carolina
paid him, three years since, the sum of a hundred thousand dollars,
for all the inhabitants belonging to the state to have the privilege
of erecting one. This machine, very simple, and the price of which
does not exceed sixty dollars, is put in motion by a horse or by a
current of water, and separates from the seed three or four hundred
pounds of cotton per day; while by the usual method, a man is not able
to separate above thirty pounds. This machine, it is true, has the
inconvenience of shortening by haggling it; the wool, on that account,
is rather inferior in point of quality, but this inconvenience is,
they say, well compensated by the saving of time, and more
particularly workmanship.[60]
It is very probable that the various species of fruit trees that we
have in France would succeed very well {280} in Upper Carolina. About
two hundred miles from the sea-coast the apple trees are magnificent,
and in the county of Lincoln several Germans make cyder. But here, as
well as in Tennessea, and the greatest part of Kentucky, they
cultivate no other but the peach. The other kinds of trees, such as
pears, apricots, plumbs, cherries, almonds, mulberries, nuts, and
gooseberries, are very little known, except by name. Many of the
inhabitants who are independent would be happy to procure some of
them, but the distance from the sea-ports renders it very difficult.
The major part of the inhabitants do not even cultivate vegetables;
and out of twenty there is scarcely one of them that plants a small
bed of cabbages; and when they do, it is in the same field as the
Indian wheat.
In Upper Carolina the surface of the soil is covered with a kind of
grass, which grows in greater abundance as the forests are more open.
The woods are also like a common, where the inhabitants turn out their
cattle, which they know again by their {281} private mark. Several
persons have in their flocks a variety of poll oxen, which are not
more esteemed than those of the common species. In the whole course of
my travels I never saw any that could be compared to those I have seen
in England, which beyond doubt proceeds from the little care that the
inhabitants take of them, and from what these animals suffer during
the summer, when they are cruelly tormented by an innumerable
multitude of ticks and muskitos, and in the winter, through the want
of grass, which dries up through the effect of the first frosts. These
inconveniences are still more sensible, during the summer, in the low
country, through the extreme heat of the climate. The result is, that
the cows give but little milk, and are dry at the end of three or four
months. In the environs of Philadelphia and New York, where they
bestow the same care upon them as in England, they are, on the
contrary, as fine, and give as great a quantity of milk.
The horses that they rear in this part of the {282} southern states
are inferior to those of the western. The inhabitants keep but very
few sheep, and those who have a dozen are accounted to have a great
number.
The commercial intercourse of the Upper Carolines and Georgia is
carried on, in a great measure, with Charleston, which is not much
farther than Wilmington and Savannah. The inhabitants go there in
preference, because the commerce is more active, and the sales more
easy. The articles they carry there consists chiefly in short cotton,
tobacco, hams, salt butter, wax, stag, and bear skins, and cattle.
They take, in return, coarse iron ware, tea, coffee, powder sugar,
coarse cloths, and fine linen, but no bar iron, the upper country
abounding in mines of that metal, and those which are worked sufficing
the wants of the inhabitants. They also bring salt from the sea-ports,
since there are no salt pits in any part of the Atlantic states. The
carriage of these goods is made in large waggons with four wheels,
drawn by four or six horses, that travel {283} about twenty-four miles
a day, and encamp every evening in the woods. The price of conveyance
is about three shillings and four-pence per hundred weight for every
hundred miles.
Although the climate of the Upper Carolinas is infinitely more
wholesome than that of the lower parts, it is not, in the mean time,
at two hundred miles, and even two hundred and fifty, from the ocean,
that a person is safe from the yellow fever.
Eight-tenths of the inhabitants of this part of the country are in the
same situation as those of Tennessea and Kentucky. They reside, like
the latter, in log-houses isolated in the woods, which are left open
in the night as well as the day. They live in the same manner with
regard to their domestic affairs, and follow the same plans of
agriculture. Notwithstanding there are many of them whose moral
characters, perhaps, are not so unspotted as those of the western
inhabitants, it is probably altered by associating with the Scotch and
Irish who come every year in great numbers to settle in the country,
and {284} who teach them a part of their vices and defects, the usual
attendants on a great population. The major part of these new
adventurers go into the upper country, where they engage to serve, for
a year or two, those persons who have paid the captain of the ship for
their passage.
{285} CHAP. XXXII
_Low part of the Carolines and Georgia.--Agriculture.--Population.--
Arrival at Charleston._
The low country of the two Carolinas extends from the borders of the
sea for a hundred and twenty or a hundred and fifty miles, widening as
it gets towards the south. The space that this extent embraces
presents an even and regular soil, formed by a blackish sand, rather
deep in parts, in which there are neither stones nor flints; in
consequence of which they seldom shoe their horses in that part of the
United States. Seven-tenths of the country are {286} covered with
pines of one species, or _pinus palustris_, which, as the soil is
drier and lighter, grow loftier and not so branchy. These trees,
frequently twenty feet distant from each other, are not damaged by the
fire that they make here annually in the woods, at the commencement of
spring, to burn the grass and other plants that the frost has killed.
These pines, encumbered with very few branches, and which split even,
are preferred to other trees to form fences for plantations.
Notwithstanding the sterility of the land where they grow, they are
sometimes interspersed with three kinds of oaks; viz. the _quercus
nigra_, the _quercus catasbœi_, and the _quercus obtusiloba_. The wood
of the two first is only fit to burn, whilst that of the other is of
an excellent use, as I have before remarked.
The Pine Barrens are crossed by little swamps, in the midst of which
generally flows a rivulet. These swamps, from ten to forty fathoms
broad, are sometimes more than a mile in length, and border on others,
more spacious and marshy, near the rivers. {287} Each have different
degrees of fertility, clearly indicated by the trees that grow there
exclusively, and which are not to be found in the upper country. Thus
the chesnut oak, or _quercus prinus palustris_, the _magnolia
grandiflora_, the _magnolia tripetala_, the _nyssa biflora_, &c.
flourish only in swamps where the soil is of a good quality, and
continually cool, moist, and shady. In some parts of these same
swamps, that are half the year submerged, where the earth is black,
muddy, and reposes upon a clayey bottom, the acacia-leaved cypress,
the _gleditsia monosperme_, the lyric oak, and the bunchy nut-tree,
the nuts of which are small, and break easily between the fingers. The
aquatic oak, the red maple, the _magnolia glauca_, the _liquidambar
stiracyflua_, the _nyssa villosa_, the _Gordonia lasyanthus_, and the
_laurus Caroliniensis_, cover, on the contrary, exclusively the narrow
swamps of the Pine Barrens.
The Spanish beard, _tillandsia asneoides_, a kind of moss of a greyish
colour, which is several feet in length, and which grows in abundance
upon the {288} oaks and other trees, is again a plant peculiar to the
low country.
In those districts where there are no pines, the soil is not so dry,
deeper, and more productive. We found there white oaks, or _quercus
alba_, aquatic oaks, or _quercus aquatica_, chesnut oaks, or
_quercus prinus palustris_, and several species of nut-trees. The
whole of these trees are here an index of the greatest fertility,
which does not take place in the western country, as I have before
observed.
The best rice plantations are established in the great swamps, that
favour the watering of them when convenient. The harvests are abundant
there, and the rice that proceeds from them, stripped of its husk, is
larger, more transparent, and is sold dearer than that which is in a
drier soil, where they have not the means or facility of irrigation.
The culture of rice in the southern and maritime part of the United
States has greatly diminished within these few years; it has been in a
great measure replaced by that of cotton, which affords greater profit
to the planters, {289} since they compute a good cotton harvest
equivalent to two of rice. The result is, that many rice fields have
been transformed into those of cotton, avoiding as much as possible
the water penetrating.
The soil most adapted for the culture of cotton is in the isles
situate upon the coast. Those which belong to the state of Georgia
produce the best of cotton, which is known in the French trade by the
name of Georgia cotton, fine wool, and in England by that of Sea
Island cotton. The seed of this kind of cotton is of a deep black, and
the wool fine and very long. In February 1803 it was sold at
Charleston at 1s. 8d. per pound, whilst that which grows in the upper
country is not worth above seventeen or eighteen pence. The first is
exported to England, and the other goes to France; but what is very
remarkable is, that whenever by any circumstance they import these two
qualities into our ports, they only admit of a difference of from
twelve to fifteen per cent. The cotton planters have particularly to
dread the frosts that set in very early, and that frequently {290} do
great damage to the crops by freezing one half of the stalks, so that
the cotton has not an opportunity to ripen.
In all the plantations they cultivate Indian corn. The best land
brings from fifteen to twenty bushels. They plant it, as well as the
cotton, about two feet and a half distance, in parallel furrows from
fifteen to eighteen inches high. The seed of this kind of Indian corn
is round, and very white. When boiled it is preferable to that
cultivated in the middle and western states, and in Upper Carolina.
The chief part of what they grow is destined to support the negroes
nine months in the year; their allowance is about two pounds per day,
which they boil in water after having pounded it a little; the other
three months they are fed upon yams. They never give them meat. In the
other parts of the United States they are better treated, and live
nearly upon the same as their masters, without having any set
allowance. Indian corn is sold at Charleston for ten shillings per
bushel, about fifty-five pounds weight.
{291} Thus rice, long cotton, yams, and Indian wheat, are the only
cultures in the maritime part of the southern states; the temperature
of the climate, and the nature of the soil, which is too light or too
moist, being in no wise favourable for that of wheat or any kind of
grain.
Through the whole of the low country the agricultural labours are
performed by negro slaves, and the major part of the planters employ
them to drag the plough; they conceive the land is better cultivated,
and calculate besides that in the course of a year a horse, for food
and looking after, costs ten times more than a negro, the annual
expense of which does not exceed fifteen dollars.
I shall abstain from any reflexion concerning this, as the opinion of
many people is fixed.
The climate of Lower Carolina and Georgia is too warm in summer to be
favourable to European fruit-trees, and too cold in winter to suit
those of the Carribbees. The fig is the only tree that succeeds
tolerably well; again, the figs turn sour a few days after {292} they
have acquired the last degree of maturity, which must doubtless be
attributed to the constant dampness of the atmosphere.
In the environs of Charleston, and in the isles that border the coast,
the orange-trees stand the winter in the open fields, and are seldom
damaged by the frosts; but at ten miles distance, in the interior,
they freeze every year even with the ground, although those parts of
the country are situate under a more southerly latitude than Malta and
Tunis. The oranges that they gather in Carolina are not good to eat.
Those consumed there come from the island of St. Anastasia, situate
opposite St. Augustin, the capital of East Florida; they are sweet,
very large, fine skinned, and more esteemed than those brought from
the Carribbees. About fifty years ago the seeds were brought from
India, and given to an inhabitant of this island, who has so increased
them that he has got an orchard of forty acres. I had an opportunity
of seeing this beautiful plantation when I was at Florida in 1788.
{293} In the general verification of the United States, published in
1800, the population of North Carolina, comprising negro slaves,
amounted to four hundred and seventy-eight thousand inhabitants, that
of Georgia to one hundred and sixty-three thousand, and that of South
Carolina to three hundred and forty-six thousand. Not having been able
to see the private extracts of the two former states, I am
unacquainted with the proportion that there is between the whites and
blacks, and the difference that exists between the population of the
low and high countries; however an idea may be formed by the
verification of South Carolina, where they reckon in the low country,
comprising the town of Charleston, thirty-six thousand whites and a
hundred thousand negroes, and in the high country one hundred and
sixty-three thousand whites and forty-six thousand negroes.
I arrived at Charleston on the 18th of October 1802, three months and
a half after my departure from Philadelphia, having travelled over a
space of {294} nearly eighteen hundred miles. I staid at Carolina till
the 1st of March 1803, the epoch when I embarked for France on board
the same ship that had taken me to America eighteen months before, and
arrived at Bourdeaux on the 26th of March 1803.
THE END
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The date given here is evidently wrong; the translation in
Phillips’s _Voyages_ gives it as August 25, which
corresponds with the arrival of Michaux in
Charleston.--ED.
[2] The piastre was the Spanish dollar, then the common
circulating coin in the United States, and the one whose
value was adopted in our dollar. A South Carolina
shilling was worth 3/14 of a dollar.--ED.
[3] The services of the elder Michaux in introducing European
plants into America, were considerable. He is said also
to have been the first to teach the frontier settlers the
value of ginseng.--ED.
[4] The History of Oaks discovered in America by A. Michaux.--F.
A. MICHAUX.
[5] Dr. Nicholas Collin was one of the most prominent members of
the Philosophical Society, elected in 1789, dying in
1831. It is a curious mistake of Michaux’s to call him
president, at a time when Jefferson held this position.
Dr. Collin was often acting chairman, and had been
chairman of the committee for raising funds for the elder
Michaux’s proposed Western exploration (1792).
Dr. John Vaughan was treasurer and librarian of the
Society for many years.
The Bartrams were famous botanists of Philadelphia, whom
the elder Michaux frequently visited. See _ante_, p. 97,
note 177.--ED.
[6] The gardens of William Hamilton were at this time the most
famous in the United States. They now form part of
Woodlawn cemetery, West Philadelphia, where some rare
trees planted by him still exist.--ED.
[7] Till the year 1802, the stages that set out at Philadelphia
did not go farther South than to Petersburg in Virginia,
which is about three hundred miles from Philadelphia; but
in the month of March of that year, a new line of
correspondence was formed between the latter city and
Charleston. The journey is about a fortnight, the
distance fifteen hundred miles, and the fare fifty
piastres. There are stages also between Philadelphia, New
York, and Boston, as well as between Charleston and
Savannah, in Georgia, so that from Boston to Savannah, a
distance of twelve hundred miles, persons may travel by
the stages.--F. A. MICHAUX.
[8] For historical sketch of Shippensburg, see Post’s _Journals_,
vol. i of this series, p. 238, note 76.--ED.
[9] Gotthilf Heinrich Ernest Muhlenberg was a brother of General
Muhlenburg of Revolutionary fame, and grandson of Conrad
Weiser. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1753, educated at
Halle, Germany, and on his return to America in 1774 was
ordained as a Lutheran clergyman. He served charges in
New Jersey and Philadelphia until 1779, when he settled
at Lancaster, where he remained until his death in 1807.
He was much interested in botany, and devoted all his
leisure to that pursuit, being a member of the American
Philosophical Society, and, as Michaux notes, in
correspondence with many scientists.--ED.
[10] The town of Columbia was situated at what was known
as Wright’s Ferry, one of the oldest crossing places on
the Susquehanna.
Michaux’s father was at York, July 18, 1789, and
describes it as “a pretty enough little town situated at
59 miles from Fredericksburg (Md.). The country appears
to me to be but little cultivated in the environs. The
inhabitants are Germans as well as in Pennsylvania. They
are generally very laborious and very industrious.” On
his later journey he does not describe this place, see
_ante_, p. 50.--ED.
[11] They give the name of whiskey, in the United States, to a
sort of brandy made with rye.--F. A. MICHAUX.
[12] Michaux travelled to Pittsburg by way of the Pennsylvania
state road which was laid out and built 1785-87,
following in the main the road cut for Forbes’s army in
1758. This was the most important thoroughfare to the
West, until the Cumberland national road was built; and
even afterwards a large share of the traffic went this
way. For a description of travel about this period see
McMaster, _History of People of United States_ (New York,
1895), vol. iv, chap. 33; and Albert, _History of
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, 1882),
chap. 35.--ED.
[13] Michaux refers here to the excise tax that led to the
“Whiskey Rebellion” in this part of Pennsylvania. Its
repeal was one of the first financial measures of
Jefferson’s administration, and had occurred at the
session of Congress in the spring of 1802.--ED.
[14] Michaux is in error in saying that the French built Fort
Ligonier. He was probably misled by the name. It was
named for Sir John Ligonier, commander-in-chief of the
land-forces of Great Britain (1751), and erected on
Loyalhanna Creek, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania,
during the advance of Forbes’s army (1758). Fort Ligonier
was thrice attacked, once after Grant’s defeat (October
12, 1758), and in the following June by a party of French
and Indians. During Pontiac’s War, it endured a long
siege, being relieved in August, 1763. This outpost
served to protect the frontier during the Revolution,
after which it was no longer garrisoned. General St.
Clair made his later home at this place, dying here in
1818.--ED.
[15] Professor R. A. Harper, of the University of Wisconsin,
thinks this plant may have been some variety of sumac
(_rhus_).--ED.
[16] Greensburg was the successor to Hannastown, a place at the
crossing of Forbes’s road, and the Indian trail to
Kiskiminitas Creek. The latter was made the county seat
at the erection of Westmoreland in 1773; but in 1782 was
totally destroyed by an Indian raid. In 1786, Greensburg
was laid out, about three miles southwest, as the seat of
Westmoreland County; and here the first court was held in
January, 1787.--ED.
[17] Horbach’s inn was the stopping place for the mail, its
proprietor being a contractor. It was situated on the
corner of Main and East Pittsburg streets,
Greensburg.--ED.
[18] These last sentences result from a faulty translation of
the French. Michaux stated that the gentleman’s intention
was to descend the Ohio, and that he was not fond of
whiskey.--ED.
[19] For a description of the present appearance of Braddock’s
battle-field, see Thwaites, _On the Storied Ohio_ (New
York, 1897, and Chicago, 1903), p. 17; also “A Day on
Braddock’s Road,” in _How George Rogers Clark won the
Northwest_ (Chicago, 1903).--ED.
[20] Fort Duquesne, built in the summer of 1754 by the French
commander Contrecœur, and named for the governor of New
France, was situated directly in the point or angle made
by the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers. It was
strengthened, and strongly garrisoned, during the four
years which the French possessed it; and was evacuated
and burned by its commandant, DeLignery, on the approach
of Forbes’s army in November, 1758.--ED.
[21] These newspapers were the Pittsburgh _Gazette_, founded in
1786; and the _Commonwealth_, a Democratic journal begun
about the time of Michaux’s visit.--ED.
[22] Michaux here refers to the Indian wars of the Northwest,
culminating in the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1795,
followed by the treaty of Greenville in 1796.--ED.
[23] As early as 1752, the Ohio Company had built a storehouse,
called the “Hangard,” at the mouth of Redstone Creek, and
it was described by the French officer who (1754)
explored that region and burned the English defenses.
After the capture of Fort Duquesne (1758), Bouquet sent
Colonel James Burd to build a fort at this place, which
was named Fort Burd; but it was long popularly known as
Redstone Old Fort, because of the remains of
moundbuilding Indians to be seen at this point. The fort
was abandoned during Pontiac’s War (1763), but appears to
have been garrisoned by the time of Lord Dunmore’s War
(1774). It was the rendezvous for Clark’s men in 1778,
and in 1791 the assembly place for fomenters of the
Whiskey Rebellion. In 1785 the town of Brownsville was
incorporated, and for many years continued to be an
important starting point for Western emigration. See
Thwaites, _On the Storied Ohio_, for descriptions of this
movement, and of the region in general.--ED.
[24] An Indian boat.--F. A. MICHAUX.
[25] I have been informed since my return, that this ship, named
the _Pittsburgh_, was arrived at Philadelphia.--F. A. MICHAUX.
[26] Kentucky was erected into a state in 1792, Tennessee in 1796,
and Ohio in 1802.--ED.
[27] Morgantown, West Virginia, was settled originally in 1758 by
the ill-fated Deckers, who were massacred the following
year; but not until 1768 was it a permanent settlement
established by the Morgan brothers. The town was
incorporated in 1785. It is now the seat of West Virginia
University.--ED.
[28] The settlement of Southwestern Pennsylvania--the Monongahela
and Youghiogheny valleys--was largely by emigrants from
Virginia and the Southeast. Elizabeth was founded by
Stephen Bayard of Maryland, a Revolutionary officer who
came West after the war and formed a partnership with
Major Isaac Craig of Pittsburg. The site of the town was
originally called New Store. Bayard gave it the present
name in 1787, in honor of his wife. It was from this
point that many travellers took boats for the Ohio
journey.--ED.
[29] The river Yazous runs into the Mississippi between the
thirty-second and thirty-third degree of latitude.--F. A.
MICHAUX.
[30] An early trader on the Ohio, speaking of the return
journey, says, “As soon as we got to Wheeling, we went on
foot to Pittsburgh, it being less fatiguing and costing
less time to walk 57 miles, the land distance, than to
pole and paddle 90 miles, the distance by the
river.”--_Cist’s Advertiser_, November, 1849.--ED.
[31] The boundary line between Virginia and Pennsylvania was the
cause of much disturbance, each colony claiming the
region south of the Ohio. The Monongahela Valley was
settled largely from Virginia, and on several occasions
the conflict of jurisdiction nearly led to a border war.
The settlers themselves desired a new state. The
controversy was finally settled by an agreement between
the states in 1780, although the lines were not finally
run until 1785. See Turner, “Western State Making in the
Revolutionary Era,” in _American Historical Review_, i,
pp. 81-83.
West Liberty was established as a town November 29, 1787.--ED.
[32] The translation here is faulty. It should be, “it is
navigable for only two hundred miles,” etc.--ED.
[33] General Arthur St. Clair was a native of Scotland, who came
to America during the French and Indian War, and settled
in Western Pennsylvania. He served with much success in
the Revolution, and in 1787 was president of the Congress
of the Confederation. He was appointed by Washington
first governor of the Northwest Territory, and served in
that capacity 1788-1802. He was unpopular because of the
military defeat here mentioned, and his Federalist
principles. On his dismissal, in 1802, he retired to his
home in Pennsylvania, and died there in obscurity in
1818.--ED.
[34] Michaux has here given a good account of the unfortunate
French colony founded on the banks of the Ohio, nearly
opposite the mouth of the Great Kanawha. The Scioto
Company was an offshoot of the Ohio Company formed by
Manasseh Cutler and his associates. In May, 1788, the
Scioto Company employed Joel Barlow, “the patriot poet of
the Revolution,” to go to Paris and sell lands for them.
The buyers were, as Michaux remarks, unsuited to pioneer
life; the company overcharged them, and then ensued
litigation in which the settlers lost the titles to their
lands. The log-houses mentioned by Michaux were built for
the settlers on their arrival in October, 1790, but the
severity of the climate, Indian hostilities, and frontier
hardships, decimated their ranks. The present town has
been built up by the energy of American and German
settlers, and in 1893 but three descendants of the French
settlers lived there. For further accounts, see Winsor,
_Westward Movement_ (Boston, 1897), pp. 402-407, 498;
“Centennial of Gallipolis,” in Ohio Archæological and
Historical Society _Publications_, iii; and Thwaites, _On
the Storied Ohio_.--ED.
[35] Chillicothe, on the site of the famous Indian village, was
laid out in 1796 by General Massie as an American town.
It was in the heart of the Virginia military district,
and was chiefly settled by Southerners. It was the seat
of government for Ohio until 1816. The weekly newspaper
was the _Scioto Gazette_, begun at this place in 1800 by
Nathaniel Willis, grandfather of the poet N. P.
Willis.--ED.
[36] The banks of this river are now inhabited by the Americans,
for forty miles beyond its _embouchure_ in the
Mississippi; the number of those who are settled there is
computed to be about three thousand, and it increases
daily by the repeated emigrations that are made from
Kentucky and the Upper Carolinas.--F. A. MICHAUX.
[37] The route from Limestone to Lexington was the road whereby
most of the travel by way of the Ohio came into Kentucky.
It passed through the present county of Mason, along the
western corner of Fleming, crossed the Licking River in
Nicholas County, and the South Fork of the same at
Hinkston’s Ferry, thence passed through Bourbon and
Fayette counties to Lexington.
Washington was first settled by Simon Kenton, the
well-known pioneer hunter, in 1784; it was laid out as a
town in 1786; and was the seat of Mason County from
1788-1848. With the introduction of railroads, its
importance declined.--ED.
[38] May’s Lick was named for John May of Virginia, its original
owner, who was killed by Indians when descending the Ohio
in 1790.
Millersburg was settled by John Miller about 1784, on
lands that he had located in 1775 on Hinkston Creek, in
Bourbon County. It is still a small town and the present
seat of Kentucky Wesleyan University, founded in 1817.
Henry Savary was an enterprising Frenchman who kept one
of the first stores in Millersburg.--ED.
[39] The name of Kentucky’s capital is said to be taken from that
of a pioneer, Stephen Frank, who was killed on this spot
in 1780. The site was first surveyed in 1773 for the
McAfees, but the place was not incorporated until 1786.
It was made the seat of government in 1793.--ED.
[40] The first two newspapers were the _Kentucke Gazette_, founded
by John Bradford in 1787--the pioneer paper of the West;
and the _Kentucky Herald_, founded by James H. Stewart
in 1795. See Perrin, “Pioneer Press of Kentucky,” in
Filson Club _Publications_ (Louisville, 1887), No.
3.--ED.
[41] This is a mistranslation; it should be, “the majority of the
inhabitants of Kentucky trade with Lexington
merchants.”--ED.
[42] The distance from Lexinton to Philadelphia, by way of
Pennsylvania, is about six hundred and fifty miles. Those
who have occasion to go there on business, generally set
out in autumn, and take three weeks or a month to perform
the journey.--F. A. MICHAUX.
[43] Dr. Samuel Brown was a younger brother of John Brown, first
delegate from Kentucky to the Continental Congress. He
was born in Virginia, in 1769, educated at Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, and took a medical course at Edinburgh. One
of the first physicians of Kentucky, he was professor of
medicine in Transylvania College, 1799-1806, and again in
1819. He later removed to Huntsville, Alabama, where he
died in 1830.--ED.
[44] Harrodsburg, seat of Mercer County, is the oldest town in the
state, the first cabin being built there by James Harrod
in 1774, and the fort in 1775. In June, 1776, a
convention was held at this place, which chose George
Rogers Clark a delegate to the Virginia legislature. He
secured the appointment of Harrodsburg as county town for
the newly-erected Kentucky County. Until about 1785,
therefore, Harrodsburg was the seat of government, but it
declined in importance before its neighbor Danville.--ED.
[45] General John Adair was a South Carolinian who, after
distinguished Revolutionary services, emigrated to
Kentucky about 1786, and settled in Mercer County. He was
a leader of Kentucky volunteers in St. Clair’s campaign
(1791); and served with distinction in the War of
1812-15, commanding the Kentucky detachment at the battle
of New Orleans. From 1820-24, he was governor of the
state, and was a Kentucky member of both the national
House of Representatives and the Senate, dying in 1840 at
his Kentucky home.--ED.
[46] Michaux passed from General Adair’s, through Mercer and
Marion counties, and over the range of Muldrow’s Hills,
which until about 1785 formed the southern boundary of
Kentucky settlement. The “barrens,” lying south and west,
were so called from their lack of trees. The road led
through Green, Barren, and Allen counties, and entered
Tennessee in Sumner County, about forty miles northeast
of Nashville.--ED.
[47] The sons of the Duke of Orleans, Louis-Philippe and his two
young brothers, came to the United States and travelled
extensively in 1797, visiting the Southern and Western
states, the Great Lakes, and New England. Finally passing
through the Mississippi Valley, they embarked at New
Orleans for Europe.--ED.
[48] For an account of this road, see _ante_, p. 45.--ED.
[49] In the United States they give the name of Cumberland to that
part of Tennessea situated to the west of the mountains of
the same name.--F. A. MICHAUX.
[50] As evidence of the interest of the early Kentuckians in the
raising of horses, it is noted that the first legislative
assembly for Transylvania, meeting at Boonesborough in
1775, passed an “act for preserving the breed of
horses.”--ED.
[51] The first newspaper published in Western Tennessee was the
_Tennessee Gazette_, begun in 1797; its name was changed
to the Nashville _Clarion_, in 1800.
One of the acts of Robertson, founder of Nashville, was
to secure from the North Carolina legislature, in 1785, a
bill for the “promotion of learning in Davidson County.”
A tract of land was granted, and the school organized as
Davidson Academy; this became Cumberland College in 1806.
The year of Michaux’s visit, a plan was made for the
erection of a building, which was not completed until
1807, and now forms part of Vanderbilt University.
Michaux seems to be in error in calling Moses Fisk the
president of this college; he solicited funds to keep the
Academy in Nashville, but James Craighead was president
until 1809.--ED.
[52] This was Moses Fisk, of Massachusetts, who graduated
from Harvard in the same class with Daniel Webster. A man
of considerable fortune, he came to Cumberland in the
period after the Revolution, and was instrumental in the
educational and industrial development of this section.
In 1805 he settled at Hillham, Overton County, which he
hoped to make an important city, and built many turnpike
roads about it. He was trustee of Davidson Academy, and
founded at Hillham an academy for young women.--ED.
[53] Natchez was a prominent frontier town of the Southwest,
which had had a long and varied history. In 1715 the
French of Louisiana established a trading post at this
place, and in 1716 Fort Rosalie was built. Thirteen years
later occurred the massacre of the garrison and
inhabitants by the Natchez Indians. While a fort was
rebuilt at this place, there seems to have been no
settlement during the remainder of the French occupation.
When this territory passed into the hands of the English
(1763) liberal land grants were made, and Fort Panmure
was erected on the site of Fort Rosalie; emigration from
the Southern states and the East then came into this
region, especially from New Jersey and Connecticut. After
the beginning of the Revolution, an attempt was made to
secure the neutrality of the Natchez people, if not their
co-operation with the American cause. But the brutality
of Captain Willing, sent on this mission in 1778,
alienated the inhabitants and kept them loyal to Great
Britain. On the outbreak of war between England and Spain
(1779) the Spanish governor Gayoso made an expedition
into West Florida, and captured Natchez with other
British posts. The inhabitants rebelled and seized Fort
Panmure; but on the downfall of Pensacola, they were
obliged to flee. The Spaniards took possession by treaty
in 1783, and under their régime, at the close of the
American Revolution, a large immigration took place. Land
speculation and intrigues ran riot. The Yazoo grants
occupied this territory in part. The United States
claimed the Natchez district as within her boundaries. In
the treaty of 1795 with Spain, this claim was conceded,
and a commission was appointed to run a boundary line. In
1798 Mississippi Territory was organized, Natchez being
included therein. In the early days of the Mississippi
traffic, the commercial importance of the place was
second only to New Orleans. The Natchez trace, of which
Michaux speaks, was one of the most travelled roads of
the Western country.--ED.
[54] General Daniel Smith, born in Virginia about 1740, migrated
to Tennessee at an early age, and was first secretary of
the territory south of the Ohio (1790-96), United States
senator (1798-99 and 1805-09), and major general of
militia. He was one of the most prominent of the early
pioneers, a man of education and wealth, and his home in
Sumner County was the seat of wide hospitality.--ED.
[55] The newspaper referred to by Michaux was established by
George Roulstone at Rogersville in 1791; later it was
removed to the capital, and called the Knoxville
_Gazette_.--ED.
[56] The derivation of the word “Tennessee” is variously given: as
from a village of the Cherokee Indians, “Tanase;” a
Cherokee word meaning “curved spoon;” or from the Taensa
Indians of the Natchesan family, who lived in Louisiana
within historic times.--ED.
[57] The _gleditsia triacanthus_, or honey locust, is common to a
large part of the United States.--ED.
[58] For an account of the movement for the State of Franklin, see
Turner, “Western State Making,” _American Historical
Review_, i, pp. 256-261.--ED.
[59] The _protonopsis horrida_, or a similar variety limited to
the Alleghanies--_protonopsis fusca_. The former is
generally called the “hellbender.”--ED.
[60] For the invention of the cotton-gin, and its effect on the
growth of cotton culture, see Hammond, “Cotton Industry,”
in American Economic Association _Publications_, i (new
series).--ED.
JOURNAL OF A TOUR ... NORTHWEST OF THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS, BY
THADDEUS MASON HARRIS, A. M.
Reprint from Boston edition, 1805; the Journal proper, omitting
the Appendix thereto
THE
JOURNAL OF A TOUR
INTO THE
_Territory Northwest of the Alleghany
Mountains;_
Made in the Spring of the Year 1803.
WITH
A GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF
THE
State of Ohio.
_Illustrated with Original Maps and Views._
BY
THADDEUS MASON HARRIS, A. M.
Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
“Profuit et varios mores, hominumque locorumque
Explorasse situs, multas cum peregrinavit
Aut vidisse ipsum urbes, aut narrantibus illas
Ex aliis novisse.” VIDÆ, _poet_.
Boston:
PRINTED BY MANNING & LORING, NO. 2, CORNHILL.
1805.
_District of Massachusetts_, to wit.
BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the first day of February, in the
twenty-ninth year of the Independence of the United States of America,
THADDEUS MASON HARRIS, of the said District, hath deposited in this
office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in
the words following, _to wit_:--“The Journal of a Tour into the
Territory Northwest of the Alleghany Mountains; made in the Spring of
the year 1803. With a geographical and historical Account of the State
of Ohio. By THADDEUS MASON HARRIS, A.M. Member of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.--Illustrated with 1. An original Map of the
Alleghany, Monongahela, and Yohiogany Rivers. 2. A Map of the State of
Ohio, by the Hon. Rufus Putnam, Esq. Surveyor General of the United
States, made from actual Surveys. 3. A Map of the Tract appropriated
by Congress for Military Services; on which the Sections are laid down
and marked by Numbers, &c. 4. A Ground Plat of the City Marietta. 5. A
View of the Ancient Mounds and Fortifications on the Muskingum.”
In Conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States,
entitled, “An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the
Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of
such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned;” and also to an Act,
entitled, “An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, An Act for the
Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and
Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the Times
therein mentioned; and extending the Benefits thereof to the Arts of
Designing, Engraving, and Etching, Historical and other Prints.”
N. GOODALE, _Clerk of the District of Massachusetts_.
A true Copy of Record. Attest:
N. GOODALE, _Clerk_.
TO THE
Hon. RUFUS PUTNAM, Esq.
GENERAL IN THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE LATE REVOLUTIONARY
WAR, AND SINCE SURVEYOR GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES,
&C. &C.[1]
PERMIT me, dear Sir, to inscribe to you the following pages, in
grateful acknowledgment of the hospitality and kindness you showed me
while at Marietta, and of the readiness with which you answered my
inquiries respecting the State of Ohio.
I AM sensible that the geographical sketches I have given of that
Territory will appear very imperfect to you, who have so intimate an
acquaintance with every part of it; but to _others_ they may convey
information more particular and correct than has been hitherto
published.
AS the founder and father of the State, you will feel interested in
the details I have given; and, I hope, will not be wholly disappointed
{iv} with my attempt to describe a part of our country so rapidly
increasing in population and importance.
RELYING on your candor, and encouraged by the very flattering manner
in which you have seconded my proposals for this publication, I am led
to flatter myself that, while you condescend to take the work under
your patronage, you will consider it as the offering of one whose
address on this occasion proceeds from the pure motive of veneration
for a character so worthily distinguished, and from the honest
ambition of being known as your friend.
THADDEUS MASON HARRIS
INTRODUCTION
HAVING long laboured under wasting sickness, which obliged me for a
time to relinquish the duties of my ministry; my mind, naturally
feeble and timid, sunk under its depressions and yielded to
despondency. To divert its attention, by directing its regards to
objects remote from its corroding cares, and to benefit my bodily
health by means of exercise and change of climate, my physicians urged
my taking a journey.
A MUCH esteemed neighbour, Mr. SETH ADAMS, was about making an
excursion into the TERRITORY NORTHWEST OF THE OHIO, and proposed my
accompanying him thither. My brother in law, Mr. JOHN DIX, kindly
offered to be my attendant, and assisted me in summoning resolution
for the undertaking.
ON the 29th of March, 1803, we set out on the tour. We took the post
road from Boston, through New-York and Philadelphia, to Lancaster; and
thence, through Carlisle and Shippensburgh, to Strasburgh at the foot
of the {vi} Alleghany Mountains. Here commence the extracts from my
journal.
FOR the gratification of my family and a few friends, I kept a record
of the occurrences each day afforded, and some particulars of the
several towns through which we passed. I was advised, on my return, to
communicate the Geographical articles to the public; and I have
consented, from a willingness to contribute my mite, however
insignificant, to the common stock of the topographical knowledge of
our country.
I AM aware that many of the remarks and observations may appear
desultory or trivial: but some indulgence is due to them from the
circumstances under which they were made. They were first sketched
down, as opportunity presented, in a pocket-book with a lead pencil;
and at evening transcribed into my diary. They consist of such
reflections as were made upon the places and the prospects immediately
under my eye, and of such information as could be collected from
intelligent individuals with whom I had the opportunity of conversing.
The whole is the fruit of those moments of leisure, (rescued from a
fatiguing journey) which the languor and pain of a miserable state of
health would permit me to employ.
I HOPE the freedom with which I have expatiated on the description of
forest and mountain {vii} scenery will not be unpleasing to those who
have never had the privilege of beholding the grand and prominent
features of nature, or of penetrating its sequestered glooms. For
myself, I have always been an admirer of the sublime and beautiful in
creation; and the immediate effect upon my feelings, produced by
umbrageous forests, and by contemplating extended prospects from lofty
mountains, was of so pleasurable and exalted a kind, that I wished to
retain the impression to myself, and, as well as I could, communicate
it to others, by a description taken on the spot.
“A STATE of convalescence (says a fine writer[2]) appears to me to
be that of all others, which is most open to, and which indulges most
in, the melancholy and awful impressions: and the transitions from the
sublime to the pleasing, and from the sounds of discordance to those
of melody, have their alternate and sympathetic effects, and have
consequently their attractions. Every object delights the eye, and
every murmur of the grove is in unison with the soul. The convalescent
has his hopes, his wishes, and his fears; but the remembrance of
sickness melts them down to _resigned patience, and humble
expectation_.”
{viii} AN apology is necessary for the delay of the publication. This
has been partly occasioned by waiting for the return of the
subscription papers, and partly by the length of time necessary to
complete the engravings and the impression.
To the candor of the Public,
I submit my work;
to the
providence and favour of ALMIGHTY GOD,
I commend my beloved Family;
and to the hopes,
not of the present,
but
of the future life,
I resign myself.
DORCHESTER }
_Jan. 1805._ }
PART I
JOURNEY OVER THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS INTO THE
STATE OF OHIO
“Sylvæ umbrosæ, montes excelsi, fertilesque valles, varias præbent
amœnitates ad Viatorem delectandum”
JOURNAL
THURSDAY, _April 7_, 1803
HAVING ridden this morning from Shippensburgh, a distance of eleven
miles, we stopped at STRASBURG to breakfast.[3]
AS we approached the Alleghany Mountains, their form and magnificence
became more and more distinct. We had, for several days past, seen
their blue tops towering into the sky, alternately hidden and
displayed by rolling and shifting clouds. Now, we ascertained that
some of them were quite covered with trees; but that the rocky and
bleak tops of others were naked, or scantily fringed with low savins.
THESE stupendous mountains seemed to stretch before us an impassable
barrier; but, at times, we could see the narrow winding {12} road by
which we were to ascend, though it apprized us of the fatigue and
difficulty to be encountered in the undertaking. Our apprehensions,
however, were somewhat abated by information that, the way, though
more steep, was not so rough, nor much more difficult than the
Connewago Hills we had already passed.
STRASBURG is a pleasant post-town in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. It
is situated at the foot of the BLUE MOUNTAIN, the first of the great
range of the Alleghanies. It contains about eighty houses, principally
built of hewn logs, with the interstices between them filled with flat
stones and mortar. They stand on a main street, which runs from north
to south. On the easterly side of the street, a little back of the
houses, is a fine spring of excellent water, issuing from several
fountains, over which are small buildings erected for the purpose of
preserving milk, butter, and provisions, during the heats of summer.
So copious is the issue of water, that it soon forms a considerable
and never failing brook, which, within the distance of half a mile,
carries a mill. This stream is the westerly branch of Conedogwinnet
Creek, which {13} falls into the Susquehannah opposite to Harrisburgh.
THE inhabitants of this village are subject to severe rheumatic
complaints, in consequence of the sudden changes of the weather in
this vicinity to the mountain.
Near this place is shewn a large fissure in the side of the mountain,
occasioned by the bursting of a water-spout. The excavation is deep.
Trees, and even rocks, were dislodged in its course.
The first mountain, which is three miles over, was not so difficult to
pass as we had apprehended. It is steep, but there are some convenient
resting places; and the westerly side is rendered easy of descent by
very judicious improvements in the condition and turnings of the road.
The surface is very rocky; and the trees towards the top are small,
and but thinly scattered. The stone which mostly prevails on its
surface is granite, more or less perfect. At the foot is a beautiful
and fertile valley, about half a mile wide, and fifteen miles long;
irrigated by fine springs, whose streams uniting form the pretty brook
that meanders through the fields and meadows of this enchanting place.
{14} WE stopped here awhile, to let our horses rest, and to bask in
the pleasant sunshine. Having been chilled with the air on the summit
of the mountain, we were pleased with inhaling the warm breeze of the
valley.
THE contrast, between the verdant meads and fertile arable ground of
this secluded spot, and the rugged mountains and frowning precipices
by which it is environed, gives the prospect we have contemplated a
mixture of romantic wildness and cultivated beauty which is really
delightful.
HENCE we crossed the _second mountain_, four miles over, and stopped
to dine at FANNETSBURG, a little village on a graceful eminence
swelling from the bosom of the vale. The houses are all built of wood,
mostly of hewn logs, except our Inn, which is a handsome edifice of
lime-stone.
IN the afternoon we crossed the _third ridge_, which is three miles
and an half over; in some places steep and difficult of ascent; and,
passing part of the valley below, reached a place called BURNT CABINS
to lodge. The settlement in this place is named from the destruction
of the first buildings erected here, at the time of the defeat of Col.
{15} Washington, at the Little Meadows in 1753.[4]
THE temporary buildings of the first settlers in the wilds are called
_Cabins_. They are built with unhewn logs, the interstices between
which are stopped with rails, calked with moss or straw, and daubed
with mud. The roof is covered with a sort of thin staves split out of
oak or ash, about four feet long and five inches wide, fastened on by
heavy poles being laid upon them. “If the logs be hewed; if the
interstices be stopped with stone, and neatly plastered; and the roof
composed of shingles nicely laid on, it is called a _log-house_.” A
log-house has glass windows and a chimney; a cabin has commonly no
window at all, and only a hole at the top for the smoke to escape.
After saw-mills are erected, and boards can be procured, the settlers
provide themselves more decent houses, with neat floors and ceiling.
FRIDAY, _April 8_
A RIDE of thirteen miles this morning brought us to the foot of
another mountain, called SIDELING HILLS, eight miles over. This is not
like the others, a distinct ridge, but a succession of ridges, with
long {16} ascent and descent on the main sides, and intermediate
risings and short vallies between.
IT was a fine clear morning when we began to ascend. As we advanced,
the prospect widened and became very interesting. The deep and gloomy
valley below was a vast wilderness, skirted by mountains of every hue
and form; some craggy and bare, and others wooded to the top: but even
this extensive wild pleased me, and gave scope to boundless
reflection.
QUITTING the elevated region to which we had reached, we descended
about half a mile, and then rose another and more lofty gradation.
Hence the view was still more diversified and magnificent, crowded
with mountains upon mountains in every direction; between and beyond
which were seen the blue tops of others more distant, mellowed down to
the softest shades, till all was lost in unison with the clouds.
AS we descended, we beheld the mists rising from the deep vallies, and
the clouds thickening around. It was cold and blustering, and we
expected an immediate tempest and rain: but, as we mounted the third
ridge, the clouds broke away over {17} our heads; and, as they
dispersed, the sun would shine between and give a gliding radiance to
the opening scene. We soon got beyond the clouded region, and saw the
misty volumes floating down to the vallies and encircling the lower
hills; so that, before we reached the summit, we had the pleasure of
looking abroad in an unclouded sky.
----“Here could we survey
The gathered tempests rolling far beneath,
And stand above the storm.”
THE whole horizon was fringed with piles of distant mountains. The
intermediate vallies were filled with clouds, or obscured with thick
mists and shade: but the lofty summits, gilded with the blaze of day,
lighted up under an azure heaven, gave a surprising grandeur and
brilliancy to the whole scene.
THE descent is in many places precipitous and rocky. At the bottom we
crossed the Juniata in a ferry-boat. Climbing the steep banks of the
river, our rout was along a range of hills exhibiting a succession of
interesting landscape. In many parts we were immersed in woods; then
again we came into open ground, and saw the winding {18} river just
below us, and the sides and tops of the mountains soaring above.
Sometimes we rode, for a considerable distance, on the banks of the
river; then we quitted it to mount a hill, and here again,
“The bordering lawn, the gaily flowered vale,
The river’s crystal, and the meadow’s green,
Grateful diversity, allure the eye.”
SUCH transitions yield some of the sweetest recreations which the
varied prospect of nature can afford.
AN accident in breaking our carriage, delayed us so long, that it was
evening before we arrived at our Inn. We rode thirty miles this day.
SATURDAY, _April 9_
WHILE our carriage is repairing we rest at Capt. Graham’s, who resides
in a delightful valley, belonging to Providence township, in Bristol
County.[5] His neat and commodious dwelling is principally built
with lime-stone, laid in mortar. The rooms and chambers are snug, and
handsomely furnished; and the accommodations and entertainment he
provides are the best to be met with between Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh.
{19} A FINE lawn spreads before the house, bordered on one part by a
meandering brook, and on the other by the Juniata river, from the
margin of which rise the steep sides of MOUNT DALLAS. The trees of
other times add hoary greatness to its brow, and the clouds which rest
in misty shades upon its head give it a frowning and gloomy
pre-eminence.
THE JUNIATA rises from two principal springs on the Alleghany
mountains; one of which is very near the top, and pours a copious
stream. It receives, also, supplies from many small rills in its
course, and working out a bed between the mountains, passes through a
gap in the Blue ridge, and empties into the Susquehannah, fifteen
miles above Harrisburg.
BACK of us the woods with which one of the mountains was clothed was
on fire. During the darkness of the night, the awfulness and sublimity
of this spectacle were beyond description; terror mingled with it,
for, as we were at no great distance, we feared that the shifting of
the wind would drive the flames upon us.
{20} MONDAY, _April 11_
WE resume our journey; cross the two branches of the Juniata, and
arrive at BEDFORD, the chief town of Bedford County in Pennsylvania,
to breakfast. It is regularly laid out, and there are several houses
on the main street built with bricks; even the others, which are of
hewn logs, have a distinguishing neatness in their appearance. The
Court House, Market House, and Record Office, are brick; the Gaol is
built of stone. The inhabitants are supplied with water brought in
pipes to a large reservoir in the middle of the town. On the northerly
skirt of the town flows Rayston creek, a considerable branch of the
Juniata.
BEDFORD was made an incorporate town in 1795. The officers of police
are two Burgesses, a Constable, a Town Clerk, and three Assistants.
Their power is limited to preserve the peace and order of the place.
UPON quitting the plain, we left a fertile soil clothed with verdure,
and a warm and pleasing climate; but, as we ascended the mountain, the
soil appeared more barren, and the weather became colder. Yet here and
there we met with a little verdant spot {21} around a spring, or at
the bottom of a small indenture in the sides of the mountain. Climbing
hence, the prospect widened. Deep vallies, embowered with woods,
abrupt precipices, and cloud-capt hills, on all sides met the view.
IN these mountainous scenes nature exhibits her boldest features.
Every object is extended upon a vast scale; and the whole assemblage
impresses the spectator with awe as well as admiration.
AFTER many a wearisome ascent, we arrived at Seybour’s, on the top of
the ALLEGHANY; and, having ridden thirty-one miles, were sufficiently
tired to accept even of the miserable accommodations this Inn afforded
for the night.
TUESDAY, _April 12_
ON leaving our lodging on “the highest of hills,” we had to descend
through six miles of rugged paths, over precipices, and among rocks,
and then along a miry valley, with formidable ascents in view.
THE Alleghany, which we had now crossed, is about fifteen miles over.
WE descried at a distance the towering ridges of mountains, beyond
many an intermediate height; some encircled with {22} wreaths of
clouds, and others pointed with fire kindled by the hunters, or
involved in curling volumes of smoke.
WE were the principal part of the day passing the valley, and mounting
LAUREL HILL, which is about three miles in direct ascent, and lodged
at Behmer’s near the top, after a journey of twenty-four miles.
AS the woods were on fire all around us, and the smoke filled the air,
we seemed to have ridden all day in a chimney, and to sleep all night
in an oven.
WEDNESDAY, _April 13_
THIS mountain has its name from the various species of _Laurel_ with
which it is clothed; (_Rhododendron Maximum_, _Kalmia Latifolia_, &c.)
There were several varieties now in flower, which made a most elegant
appearance.
OUR road, which at best must be rugged and dreary, was now much
obstructed by the trees which had fallen across it; and our journey
rendered hazardous by those on each side which trembled to their fall.
We remarked, with regret and indignation, the wanton destruction of
these noble forests. For more than fifty miles, to the west and north,
the mountains were burning. {23} This is done by the hunters, who set
fire to the dry leaves and decayed fallen timber in the vallies, in
order to thin the undergrowth, that they may traverse the woods with
more ease in pursuit of game. But they defeat their own object; for
the fires drive the moose, deer, and wild animals into the more
northerly and westerly parts, and destroy the turkies, partridges, and
quails, at this season on their nests, or just leading out their
broods. An incalculable injury, too, is done to the woods, by
preventing entirely the growth of the trees, many of which being on
the acclivities and rocky sides of the mountains, leave only the most
dreary and irrecoverable barrenness in their place.
WE took breakfast at Jones’ mill, six miles from the top of Laurel
Hill; dined at MOUNT PLEASANT, eleven miles farther; and riding five
miles in the afternoon, reached M’Kean’s to lodge.
WE left FORT LIGONIER, built by Gen. Forbes in 1758, to our right, and
crossed the CHESNUT RIDGE, a very rough and rocky mountain, the last
of the great range, on the _Glade road_. In dry seasons this is
considered as much better than what is called {24} “Braddock’s road;”
but, after heavy rains, it is almost impassable.
BY the rout we took over the mountains the whole distance from
Strasburg is one hundred and eighteen miles.
THE road is very rugged and difficult over the mountains; and we were
often led to comment upon the arduous enterprize of the unfortunate
General Braddock, by whom it was cut. Obliged to make a pass for his
army and waggons, “through unfrequented woods and dangerous defiles
over mountains deemed impassable,”[6] the toil and fatigue of his
pioneers and soldiers must have been indescribably great. But it was
here that his precursor, the youthful WASHINGTON, _gathered some of
his earliest laurels_.[7]
DURING the whole of this journey there are but a few scattered
habitations, of a very ordinary appearance. The lands, except in the
vallies, are of an indifferent quality, and offer but little
encouragement to the cultivator.
THE Alleghany mountains, which we had now passed, consist of several
nearly parallel ridges, rising in remote parts of {25} New-York and
New-Jersey, and running a southwesterly course till they are lost in
the flat lands of West-Florida. They have not a continued top, but are
rather a row or chain of distinct hills. There are frequent and large
vallies disjoining the several eminences; some of them so deep as to
admit a passage for the rivers which empty themselves into the
Atlantic Ocean on the East, and into the Gulph of Mexico on the South.
It is only in particular places that these ridges can be crossed.
Generally the road leads through gaps, and winds around the sides of
the mountains; and, even at these places, is steep and difficult.
THE rocks and cliffs of the mountains are principally grit, or
free-stone; but in several places, particularly towards the foot, the
slate and lime-stone predominate. Through the Glades, the slaty schist
and lime-stone is abundant. On Laurel Hill, and the mountains westward
of that, the fossil coal (_Lithanthrax_) abounds, and lies so near the
surface that it is discoverable in the gullies of the road, and among
the roots of trees that have been overthrown by the wind.
{26} THURSDAY, _April 14_
NOW that we have crossed all the mountains, the gradual and easy slope
of the ground indicates to us that we are approaching those vast
savannas through which flow “the Western waters.” The plain expands on
all sides. The country assumes a different aspect; and even its
decorations are changed. The woods are thick, lofty, and extremely
beautiful, and prove a rich soil. A refreshing verdure clothes the
open meadows. The banks of the brooks and river are enamelled with
flowers of various forms and hues. The air, which before was cold and
raw, is now mild and warm. Every breeze wafts a thousand perfumes, and
swells with the gay warblings of feathered choristers.
----“Variæ, circumque supraque,
Assuetæ ripis volucres et fluminis alveo,
Æthera mulcebant cantu, lucroque volabant.”
The painted birds that haunt the golden tide,
And flutter round the banks on every side,
Along the groves in pleasing triumph play,
And with soft music hail the vernal day.
THE long and tedious journey we had passed, through lonesome woods and
over rugged ways, contributed not a little, perhaps, {27} to enhance
the agreeableness of the prospect now before us. Certainly there is
something very animating to the feelings, when a traveller, after
traversing a region without culture, emerges from the depths of
solitude, and comes out upon an open, pleasant, and cultivated
country. For myself I must observe, that the novelty and beauty of the
romantic prospects, together with the genial influence of the vernal
season, were peculiarly reviving to my bodily frame for a long time
weakened by sickness, and exhilarating to my mind worn down by anxiety
and care.
WE were now upon the banks of the YOHIOGANY RIVER, which we crossed at
Budd’s ferry.[8]
THE name of this river is spelt, by some writers _Yohogany_, and
by others _Yoxhiogeni_; by General Braddock it was written
_Yaughyaughané_;[9] but the common pronunciation is Yokagany, and
the inhabitants in these parts call it “_the_ YOK _river_.” It rises
from springs in the Alleghany mountain, which soon unite their streams
in the valley, or, as it is called, “the great meadows,” below. The
point where the {28} north branch from the northward, the little
crossing from the southeast, and the great south branch, form a
junction, three miles above Laurel
[Illustration:
A Map of the
_Alleghany_
MONONGAHELA
_and_
YOHIOGANY
_Rivers_.
]
Hill, is called “the Turkey foot.”[10] With the accession of some
smaller runs, it becomes a very considerable and beautiful river.
Pursuing a northwesterly course, as it passes through a gap in Laurel
Hill, it precipitates itself over a ledge of rocks which lie nearly at
right angles to the course of the stream, and forms a noble cascade,
called “the Ohiopyle Falls.” Dr. Rittenhouse, who has published a
description of these falls, accompanied with an engraving, found the
perpendicular height of the cataract to be “about twenty feet, and the
breadth of the river two hundred and forty feet.[11] For a
considerable distance below the falls, the river is very rapid, and
boils and foams vehemently, occasioning a continual mist to arise from
it. The river at this place runs to the southwest, but presently winds
round to the northwest, and continuing this general course for thirty
or forty miles, it loses its name by uniting with the Monongahela,
which comes from the southward, and contains perhaps twice as much
water.”
{29} THE navigation of this river is obstructed by the falls and the
rapids below for ten miles; but thence to the Monongahela, boats that
draw but three feet of water may pass freely, except in dry seasons.
THE land in the vicinity of the river is uneven; but in the vallies
the soil is extremely rich. The whole region abounds with coal, which
lies almost on the surface.
WE garnished our bouquet to day with the beautiful white flowers of
the Blood root, (_Sanguinaria Canadensis_) called by the Indians
“Puccoon:” they somewhat resemble those of the Narcissus. This plant
grows in mellow high land. The root yields a bright red tincture, with
which the Indians used to paint themselves, and to colour some of
their manufactures, particularly their cane baskets.--The root
possesses emetic qualities.--Transplanted into our gardens, this would
be admired as an ornamental flower, while the roots would furnish
artists with a brilliant paint or dye, and perhaps be adopted into the
Materia Medica as a valuable drug.
AT Elizabethtown, about eighteen miles from Pittsburg, we crossed the
Monongahela.[12] Having collected particular information {30}
respecting this river and the Alleghany, and an account of the
settlements upon their banks, I insert it in this place.[13]
THE MONONGAHELA takes its rise at the foot of Laurel Hill in Virginia,
about Lat. 38° 30′ N. Thence meandering in a north by east direction
it passes into Pennsylvania, and at last, uniting its waters with
those of the Alleghany at Pittsburg, forms the noble Ohio.
THE settlements on both sides of this river are fine and extensive,
and the land is good and well cultivated. Numerous trading and family
boats pass continually. In the spring and fall the river seems covered
with them. The former, laden with flour, whiskey, peach-brandy, cider,
bacon, iron, potters’ ware, cabinet work, &c. all the produce or
manufacture of the country, are destined for Kentucky, and New
Orleans, or the towns on the Spanish side of the Missisippi. The
latter convey the families of emigrants, with their furniture, farming
utensils, &c. to the new settlements they have in view. These boats
are generally called “Arks;” and are said to have been invented by Mr.
{31} Krudger, on the Juniata, about ten years ago. They are square,
and flat-bottomed; about forty feet by fifteen, with sides six feet
deep; covered with a roof of thin boards, and accommodated with a
fire-place. They will hold from 200 to 500 barrels of flour. They
require but four hands to navigate them; carry no sail, and are wafted
down by the current.
THE banks of the river opposite to Pittsburg, and on each side for
some distance, or rather the high hills whose feet it laves, appear to
be one entire body of coal. This is of great advantage to that
flourishing town; for it supplies all their fires, and enables them to
reserve their timber and wood for ship building and the use of
mechanicks.
MORGANTOWN, which is one hundred and seven miles from Pittsburg, may
be considered as the head of navigation on the Monongahela.[14]
THIS is a flourishing town, pleasantly situated on the east side of
the river. It contains about sixty dwelling-houses, a Court-house, and
stone Gaol. It is the shire town for the counties of Harrison, {32}
Monongalia, Ohio, and Randolph, in Virginia.
EIGHT miles below this town the CHEAT RIVER enters; three or four
miles within the Pennsylvania line. “It is 200 yards wide at its
mouth, and 100 yards at the Dunkard’s settlement fifty miles higher;
and is navigable for boats except in dry seasons. There is a portage
of thirty-seven miles from this river to the Potomac at the mouth of
Savage river.”[15] [16]
TWO miles lower down it receives the waters of _Dunkard’s Creek_ on
the west side; and ten miles lower _George’s Creek_ joins it on the
east. Just below the mouth of this creek is situated NEW GENEVA, a
thriving post-town, a place of much business, and rendered famous by
the glass-works in its vicinity, which not only supply the
neighbourhood with window-glass, bottles, &c. but send large
quantities down the river. There is also a papermill, and a
manufactory for muskets, in the place. Arks, and other boats are built
here.[17]
A LITTLE below, and on the other side of the river, lies GREENSBURGH,
so called in honor of the late General Greene. It is a neat little
village.[18]
{33} WITHIN the distance of twenty-three miles from this enter _Big
Whitely Creek_, _Little Whitely_, _Brown’s run_, _Middle run_, _Cat’s
run_, _Muddy Creek_, and _Ten mile run_. Near the latter is
FREDERICKTOWN, a pretty village on the west side of the river.
SEVEN miles lower down, immediately above the mouth of _Dunlap’s
Creek_, on the east side, is BRIDGEPORT, a small thriving town,
connected with Brownsville by a neat bridge 260 feet long.
BROWNSVILLE, formerly called “Redstone old fort,” is a post-town,
belonging to Fayette County in Pennsylvania. Though extremely
pleasant, and commanding a most extensive and interesting prospect of
the river, the creeks, and the fine country around, it seems rather
disadvantageously situated on account of the steep declivity of the
hill on which it is principally built. It contains about one hundred
and fifty houses, and five hundred inhabitants. There is a Roman
Catholic church here, and four Friends’ meeting-houses in the
vicinity.
AN extensive paper-mill on _Redstone Creek_, a rope-walk, a brewery,
several valuable manufactories, and within a few miles of the town
twenty-four saw, grist, oil, and {34} fulling mills, render this a
place of much business. The trade and emigration down the river employ
boat-builders very profitably. About one hundred boats of twenty tons
each are said to be built here annually.
ON the south side of Redstone Creek formerly stood _Byrd’s Fort_.[19]
ABOUT nineteen miles below is WILLIAMSPORT, a growing settlement, on
the direct road from Philadelphia to Wheeling.
TWELVE miles lower is ELIZABETHTOWN, on the southeast side of the
river, containing about sixty houses. At this place much business is
done in boat and ship building. The “Monongahela Farmer,” and other
vessels of considerable burden, were built here, and, laden with the
produce of the adjacent country, were sent to the West-India
islands.[20]
EIGHT miles farther is MCKEESPORT, situated just below the junction of
the Yohiogany with the Monongahela. Many boats are built here for
transportation and the use of those who emigrate to the western
country. The place is growing in business, and most probably will rise
into considerable importance.
{35} HAVING received the Yohiogany, and waters from several creeks,
the river winds its course, with replenished stream, till it unites
with the Alleghany below Pittsburg, where it is about four hundred
yards wide.
BRADDOCK’S FIELD is at the head of _Turtle Creek_, seven miles from
Pittsburg. Here that brave, but unfortunate General engaged a party of
Indians, was repulsed, himself mortally wounded, and his army put to
flight, July 9, 1755.[21]
THE ALLEGHANY RIVER, by the Delaware Indians called “Alligewisipo,”[22]
rises on the western side of the mountain from which it derives its
name. Its head is near Sinemahoning Creek, a boatable stream that
falls into the Susquehannah; to which there is a portage of twenty-two
miles. Another branch tends towards Le Boeuf, whence is a portage of
only fifteen miles to Presq’ Isle, one of the finest harbours on Lake
Erie. This distance is a continued chesnut-bottom swamp, except about
one mile from Le Boeuf, and two miles from Presq’ Isle; and the road
between these two places, some years ago, for nine miles, was made by
a kind of causeway of logs.[23] There has been {36} lately an Act of
the Assembly of Pennsylvania for forming a turnpike over it.
PRESQ’ ISLE, which owed its name to the form of a large point of land
jutting into the Lake, and by its curvature making a very commodious
harbour capable of admitting vessels drawing nine feet of water, is
now called ERIE; having been laid out a few years since by the
Legislature of the State upon a large scale, and made the shire town
of Erie county. Commanding an extensive trade through the Lakes, and
then down the Alleghany, Ohio, and Missisippi, the situation of this
place was considered as very important, and great encouragement was
given to settlers. But a prevailing fever for some time retarded the
settlement. It is said, however, that this obstacle is now nearly, if
not entirely removed; and that the place rapidly increases in
population and importance.
A POST-OFFICE is established here, which receives the mail from
Philadelphia once every second week.
LE BOEUF, now called WATERFORD, is a growing settlement at the head of
the north branch of _French Creek_. A post-office is, also, kept here.
{37} THE old French fort Le Boeuf, was about two miles east from
_Small Lake_. This was formerly one of the western posts, but is now
evacuated.[24]
FORTY-EIGHT miles lower down on French Creek is MEADVILLE, a thriving
post-town, and the seat of justice for the counties of Warren and
Crawford, to the latter of which it belongs. It contains about one
hundred houses, and several stores; and is a place of considerable
business.[25]
IMMEDIATELY below the mouth of French Creek, at the place where it
unites with the northeasterly branch of the Alleghany river, is
FRANKLIN, a post-town, containing about fifty houses, and several
stores. It is the shire town for Venango county. The river is here two
hundred yards wide.
NEAR this was the antient post Venango, and on the scite of this town
was erected Fort Franklin in the year 1787, to defend the frontiers of
Pennsylvania from the depredations of the neighbouring Indians.
ABOUT one hundred miles lower down, as the river runs, or one hundred
and ninety-eight from Erie, is FREEPORT, on the mouth of Buffalo
Creek, and opposite {38} to KISKIMENETAS, a considerable branch of the
Alleghany river. The head waters of this branch are _Little Conemaugh_
and _Stone Creek_, which rise from the foot of the Alleghany mountain,
and pass in a N.N.W. direction through gaps in the Laurel Hill and
Chesnut Ridge. After their junction the principal stream is called
CONEMAUGH RIVER. But, having received _Black Lick_ from the N. E. and,
seventeen miles from its mouth, _Loyalhannon Creek_ from the S.S.E.
it is called the KISKIMENETAS RIVER. It is navigable for batteaux
forty or fifty miles, and good portages are found between it and the
Juniata and Potomac rivers. A batteau is a flat-bottomed boat, widest
in the middle, and tapering to a point at each end, of about 1500
weight burden; and is managed by two men with paddles and
setting-poles.
AT the mouth of _Sandy Creek_, a vessel of 160 tons burden was lately
launched, took in her cargo, and sailed for the West-Indies.
THE principal creeks and tributary streams with which the Alleghany
river is replenished, are delineated on the Map, I believe with a good
degree of accuracy; but a particular account of each it was not in
{39} my power to obtain. The junction of this river with the
Monongahela at Pittsburg has been already mentioned.
THE Alleghany is remarkable for the clearness of its waters and the
rapidity of its current; and the freshets in it are greater and more
sudden than those of its connubial stream.[26] It seldom happens that
it does not mark its course across the mouth of the Monongahela, with
whose turbid and sluggish waters it forms a very observable contrast.
It is curious, also, in the time of the spring floods to see the
Alleghany full of ice, and the Monongahela entirely free. These floods
are occasioned by the dissolution of the immense bodies of ice and
snow accumulated during winter in those northern regions through which
the river passes, and by the heavy falls of rain at the setting in and
breaking up of winter.
FRIDAY, _April 15_
WE this morning arrived at PITTSBURG, a post-town in Pennsylvania, and
the capital {40} of Alleghany County. It is built at the point of land
formed by the junction of the two rivers; and is in N. Lat. 40° 26′
15″, and Longitude (in time) 5 hours, 19 minutes, and 53 seconds W. of
Greenwich.
IMMEDIATELY on the point was erected the old French garrison _Du
Quesne_, built by M. de la Jonquier at the command of the Marquis du
Quesne, Governor of Canada, in 1754.[27] General Forbes, who took it
Nov. 25, 1758, built a new fort, which he called “Fort Pitt,” in honor
of the Earl of Chatham; adjacent to the former, but higher up the
Monongahela. It was formerly a place of some consequence in the annals
of frontier settlements; but fell into decay upon its being given up
by its founders. Being included in one of the manors of the Penn
family, it was sold by the proprietaries, and is now laid out in
house-lots as a part of the town of Pittsburg, which was built in the
year 1765.
THE local situation of this place is so commanding that it has been
emphatically called “the key to the Western Territory;” and it has
rapidly increased in population, business, and prosperity within a few
years past. It contains upwards of four hundred {41} houses, several
of them large and handsomely built of brick; forty-nine are occupied
as stores and shops. There are three congregations; an Episcopalian, a
Presbyterian, and a Seceder. The number of inhabitants is about two
thousand.
THERE are two printing-offices, each of which issue a weekly
news-paper; and many mechanics, who carry on most of the manufactures
that are to be met with in any other part of the United States. Two
glass-houses have been lately erected, and are wrought to great
advantage.[28] They make window-glass, bottles, &c. This is an
establishment of the first importance to this part of the country; for
the transportation of these brittle articles from Philadelphia over
the mountains has been attended with much hazard, as well as expense.
Articles of cabinet work are, also, made at Pittsburg of their native
woods, which supply many of the settlements on both sides of the Ohio
and Missisippi. The furniture made of the black walnut, wild cherry,
and yellow birch, is very strong and handsome, and admits of a
beautiful polish. The tinplate manufactory, that for cutting nails,
and the smiths’ shops for making axes and {42} farming utensils, find
a ready and extensive market for all their articles.
DRY goods in general are sold nearly as cheap as at Baltimore; other
goods, are, on account of the carriage, which is four dollars fifty
cents from Baltimore and five dollars pr. 100 lbs. from Philadelphia,
proportionably higher. The merchants here, as well as those of the
western country, receive their goods from Philadelphia and Baltimore;
but a small part of the trade being given to New-York and Alexandria.
The terms of credit are generally from nine to twelve months. The
produce which they receive of the farmers is sent to New Orleans; the
proceeds of which are remitted to the Atlantic States, to meet their
payments.
Most of the articles of merchandize brought in waggons over the
mountains in the summer season, and destined for the trade down the
river, are stored at this place, to be ready for embarkation. With
these a great many trading boats are laden, which float down the
river, stopping at the towns on its banks to vend the articles. In a
country, so remote from commerce, and of so great extent, where each
one resides {43} on his own farm, and has neither opportunity nor
convenience for visiting a market, these trading boats contribute very
much to the accommodation of life, by bringing to every man’s house
those little necessaries which it would be very troublesome to go a
great distance to procure.
AT and near this place, ship-building is an object of great attention.
Several vessels are now on the stocks; and three have been launched
this spring, from 160 to 275 tons burden.
THE principal navigation of the Ohio river is during the floods of the
spring and autumn. The spring season commences at the breaking up of
the ice in the Alleghany, which generally happens about the middle of
February, and continues for eight or ten weeks. The fall season is
occasioned by the autumnal rains in October, and lasts till about the
beginning of December, when the ice begins to form. But the times of
high-water can scarcely be called periodical; for they vary
considerably as the season is dry or rainy, and with the later setting
in or breaking up of winter. Sometimes, also, the falling of heavy
showers on the mountains, during the summer, will so {44} swell the
sources of the Monongahela as to supply a temporary sufficiency of
water for the purpose of navigation.
IN the time of the freshets the Ohio rises from fifteen to thirty
feet, and sometimes even higher; overflowing its banks to a very
considerable distance. The rise is generally sudden, often ten feet in
twenty-four hours. The increase is not regular. At times the water
will fall four or five feet, and then rise again. The flood maintains
its greatest height about a week or ten days, and then gradually
subsides, till the river is reduced to its usual depth. By spreading
over the flat lands a rich coating of leaves, decayed vegetables, and
loam, washed down by the rain from the sides of the hills, these
inundations greatly promote the fertility of the soil.
FORT FAYETTE, built a few years since, is within the limits of the
town of Pittsburg. It is erected on the banks of the Alleghany. At
present a garrison is kept there, which, for the most part, is made
head-quarters of the United States army.[29]
THE high ground back of the fort, called “Grant’s hill,” commands a
most extensive prospect, taking in a view of the two rivers {45} for
several miles above and below their junction.[30]
THE inhabitants use the water of the river here and down the Ohio for
drink and cookery, even in preference to the spring water from the
hills; for as yet they have not practised the digging of wells. At
first we were surprised at this preference; but they assured us that
the river water was more wholesome and generally much more palatable.
We were soon convinced that this must be the case: for, though the
river water receives a great deal of decayed wood, leaves, &c. from
the creeks and runs that empty into it, they are soon deposited on the
shallows, and the deeper places are very clear and fine. Even the
turbid water of the margin of the stream becomes pellucid by standing
in an open vessel over night, depositing its feculencies at the
bottom. But the spring water, issuing through fissures in the hills,
which are only masses of coal, is so impregnated with bituminous and
sulphureous particles as to be frequently nauseous to the taste and
prejudicial to the health.
WE observed several people near Pittsburg affected with a tumour on
the throat {46} like a wen. Inquiring into the cause of it, we were
informed that they imputed it to some effect of the climate under the
brows of the high mountains where they reside, and added that even
dogs and some other animals were subject to it. Indeed we saw a couple
of goats who had this uncomfortable appendage to their necks.
THE _Seneca Indian Oil_ in so much repute here is _Petroleum_; a
liquid bitumen, which oozes through fissures of the rocks and coal in
the mountains, and is found floating on the surface of the waters of
several springs in this part of the country, whence it is skimmed off,
and kept for use. From a strong vapour which arises from it when first
collected, it appears to combine with it sulphureous particles. It is
very inflammable. In these parts it is used as a medicine; and,
probably, in external applications with considerable success. For
chilblains and rheumatism it is considered as an infallible specific.
I suppose it to be the bitumen which Pliny describes under the name of
Naptha, Lib. II. ch. 105.
{47} TUESDAY, _April 19_
CROSSED the ferry over the Monongahela, opposite the glass-houses, and
pursued our journey.
THE country is very mountainous and broken, and the road extremely
rough and difficult. We were told that our’s was the first private
carriage that had ever passed it, having been but lately opened, and
used only by strong waggons and carts.
WE dined at CANNONSBURG, a post-town, pleasantly situated on rising
ground near the north side of the west branch of Chartier’s Creek. It
is 18 miles S. W. from Pittsburg, and 9 miles N. E. from Washington.
It contains about 100 houses, and has two congregations, and
meeting-houses; a Presbyterian and a Seceder. It has been settled but
twelve years, and already puts on the appearance of a long cultivated
region. There is an Academy here in a very flourishing state; and the
last session of the Assembly a charter was granted for a College.[31]
AT WASHINGTON, the chief town of a county of the same name in
Pennsylvania, situated on another branch of Chartier’s Creek, we
stopped to lodge.
{48} A COURT-HOUSE and a large building for public offices, of brick;
and a Gaol and an Academy, of stone, with a large number of handsomely
built dwelling-houses, give this town a very respectable appearance.
It seems to be a place of considerable business, and of thriving
manufactories and trade.[32]
WEDNESDAY, _April 20_
PASSED through ALEXANDRIA, a small town in Washington County,
Pennsylvania, on the Virginia line. It contains between fifty and
sixty dwelling-houses, and has a large and decent house for public
worship.[33] It is sixteen miles S. W. from Washington, and the same
distance N. E. from Wheeling.
WE dined at _Shepherd’s Mills_ on Wheeling Creek, having winded along
a most romantic valley between high mountains, and repeatedly crossed
[seventeen times in about five miles] the beautiful stream running
through it.[34]
THE proprietor of these mills resides in one of the best built and
handsomest stone houses we saw on this side of the mountains.[35]
QUITTING this secluded vale, we passed over a high chain of mountains,
whence we {49} overlooked the town of Wheeling, and enjoyed fine and
extensive views of a hilly and well-wooded country, intersected by the
river Ohio.--We then descended into the town.
WHEELING is a post-town, in Ohio County, Virginia, healthily and
pleasantly situated on the sloping sides of a hill gracefully rising
from the banks of the Ohio. It is laid out principally on one street;
and most of the houses are handsome, several being built with brick,
and some with faced stone.[36]
IT is twelve miles S. W. of West Liberty, and fifty-four miles from
Pittsburg; three hundred and thirty-two miles from Philadelphia, and
twelve miles above Grave Creek.
IT is increasing very rapidly in population and in prosperous trade;
and is, next to Pittsburg, the most considerable place of embarkation
to traders and emigrants, any where on the western waters. During the
dry season great quantities of merchandize are brought hither,
designed to supply the inhabitants on the Ohio river and the waters
that flow into it; as boats can go from {50} hence, when they cannot
from places higher up the river.
BOAT-BUILDING is carried on at this place to a great extent; and
several large keel boats and some vessels have been built.
OPPOSITE the town is a most beautiful island in the river, containing
about four hundred acres. Interspersed with buildings, highly
cultivated fields, some fine orchards, and copses of wood, it appears
to great advantage from the town, and forms a very interesting part of
the prospect. After the eyes have been strained in viewing the vast
amphitheatre of country all around, or dazzled with tracing the
windings of the river, they are agreeably rested and refreshed by the
verdure and beauty of Wheeling Island.
AT Wheeling we left our carriage, and took passage down the river in a
keel boat.
JUST below the town stands an old Fort, at the point of land formed
by the junction of Big Wheeling Creek and the Ohio river.
THE passage down the river was extremely entertaining, exhibiting at
every bend a change of scenery. Sometimes we were in the vicinity of
dark forests, which threw a solemn shade over us as we glided by;
sometimes we passed along overhanging {51} banks, decorated with
blooming shrubs which timidly bent their light boughs to sweep the
passing stream; and sometimes around the shore of an island which
tinged the water with a reflected landscape. The lively carols of the
birds, which “sung among the branches,” entertained us exceedingly,
and gave life and pleasure to the woodland scene. The flocks of wild
geese and ducks which swam upon the stream, the vast number of
turkies, partridges, and quails we saw upon the shore, and the herds
of deer or some other animals of the forest darting through the
thickets, afforded us constant amusement.
FROM Fish Creek, on the Virginia shore,[37] the country is flat on
the banks of the river; and, on the opposite side, generally broken
and rough, without much bottom-land; the mountains and hills mostly
rising contiguous to the edge of the river. But, below the islands
called “The Three Brothers,” the bottom-lands on the N. W. side are
extensive and rich.
[Illustration:
MAP
_of the State of_
OHIO
by
_Rufus I. Putnam_
_Surveyor General of the United States_
]
HERE fine cultivated plains and rising settlements charm the eye
amidst the boundless prospect of desolate wilds. When we see the land
cleared of those enormous trees {52} with which it was overgrown, and
the cliffs and quarries converted into materials for building, we
cannot help dwelling upon the industry and art of man, which by dint
of toil and perseverance can change the desert into a fruitful field,
and shape the rough rock to use and elegance. When the solitary waste
is peopled, and convenient habitations arise amidst the former
retreats of wild beasts; when the silence of nature is succeeded by
the buzz of employment, the congratulations of society, and the voice
of joy; in fine, when we behold competence and plenty springing from
the bosom of dreary forests,--what a lesson is afforded of the
benevolent intentions of Providence!
HAVING been part of three days upon the river, we arrived at MARIETTA,
in the State of Ohio, on Saturday morning, April 23d.
THE second week after our arrival, in consequence of three or four
rainy days, the water in the Ohio rose fifteen feet, and gave
opportunity for several vessels, which were waiting for a flood, to
set sail. Accordingly on May 4th the schooner “Dorcas and Sally,” of
70 tons, built at Wheeling and rigged at Marietta, dropped down the
{53} river. The following day there passed down the schooner “Amity,”
of 103 tons, from Pittsburg, and the ship “Pittsburg,” of 275 tons
burden, from the same place, laden with seventeen hundred barrels of
flour, with the rest of her cargo in flat-bottomed boats. In the
evening the brig “Mary Avery,” of 130 tons, built at Marietta, set
sail.[38]
THESE afforded an interesting spectacle to the inhabitants of this
place, who saluted the vessels as they passed with three cheers, and
by firing a small piece of ordnance from the banks.
WHILE at this place I collected several particulars respecting the
History and Geography of the State of Ohio, from General PUTNAM, Judge
GILMAN, Judge WOODBRIDGE, and others, who obligingly answered my many
inquiries.[39] The information thus obtained, together with that
which resulted from various visits to neighbouring towns and
excursions into the interior country, I have arranged by itself.
PART II
RETURNING
“What an excellent remedy, or, at least, what a palliative, for the
sufferings of the head and heart, is TRAVELLING. Alternate weariness
and rest leave no room for any train of ideas, and every thing
conspires to render us as happy as if our sufferings were ended.”
DUKE DE LA ROCHEFAUCALT LIANCOURT’S _Travels_.
Vol. I. p. 173.
JOURNAL
MARIETTA
I SOON found that the genial influences of a mild and salubrious
climate, aided by habitual exercise, daily improved my bodily
strength; while my mind, relieved of its cares, was constantly
occupied and amused with the new and interesting scenery and the
wonderful antiquities in this neighbourhood; and my spirits were
soothed and cheered by the kind attentions of hospitality and
friendship.
THUS led to indulge some encouraging prospects of restoration to
health, my thoughts turned towards my distant home, which I had never
expected to revisit. Taking an affectionate leave of my brother, who
inclined to settle in the State of Ohio, and of my much esteemed
friends at Marietta, accompanied by Mr. ADAMS, I set out homewards on
Monday morning, June 6th.
{58} I QUITTED with regret a place where I had passed a few weeks so
pleasantly. I shall ever retain a grateful sense of the hospitality
with which I was received, and of the respect and attention with which
I was honored by the inhabitants of MARIETTA and BELLE PRÉ.
AS we preferred traversing the woods to ascending the river in a boat,
we returned to Wheeling on horseback.
THE industrious habits and neat improvements of the people on the west
side of the river, are strikingly contrasted with those on the east.
_Here_, in Ohio, they are intelligent, industrious, and thriving;
_there_, on the back skirts of Virginia, ignorant, lazy, and poor.
_Here_ the buildings are neat, though small, and furnished in many
instances with brick chimnies and glass windows; _there_ the
habitations are miserable cabins. _Here_ the grounds are laid out in a
regular manner, and inclosed by strong posts and rails; _there_ the
fields are surrounded by a rough zigzag log fence. _Here_ are thrifty
young apple orchards; _there_ the only fruit that is raised is the
peach, _from which a good brandy is distilled_!
{59} I HAD often heard a degrading character of the BACK SETTLERS; and
had now an opportunity of seeing it exhibited. The abundance of wild
game allures them to be huntsmen. They not only find sport in this
pursuit, but supply of provisions, together with considerable profit
from the peltry. They neglect, of course, the cultivation of the land.
They acquire rough and savage manners. Sloth and independence are
prominent traits in their character; to indulge the former is their
principal enjoyment, and to protect the latter their chief ambition.
ANOTHER cause of the difference may be that, in the back counties of
Virginia, every planter depends upon his NEGROES for the cultivation
of his lands; but in the State of Ohio, _where slavery is not
allowed_, every farmer tills his ground HIMSELF. To all this may be
added, that most of the “Back-wood’s men,” as they are called, are
emigrants from foreign countries, but the State of Ohio was settled by
people from NEW-ENGLAND, THE REGION OF INDUSTRY, ECONOMY, AND STEADY
HABITS.
{60} THE wilderness through which we rode often presented most
delightful prospects, particularly as we approached the bank of the
river, which opened and enlarged the view.
WE frequently remarked that the banks are higher at the margin, than
at a little distance back. I account for it in this manner. Large
trees, which are brought down the river by the inundations, are lodged
upon the borders of the bank; but cannot be floated far upon the
champaign, because obstructed by the growth of wood. Retaining their
situation when the waters subside, they obstruct and detain the leaves
and mud, which would else recoil into the stream, and thus, in process
of time, form a bank higher than the interior flats.
TUESDAY, _June 7_
THERE is something which impresses the mind with awe in the shade and
silence of these vast forests. In deep solitude, alone with nature, we
converse with GOD.
OUR course through the woods was directed by marked trees. As yet
there is no road cut.
THERE is but little underwood; but on the sides of the creeks, and
near the river, {61} the papaw (_Annona glabra_,) the spice bush, or
wild pimento (_Laurus benzoin_,) and the dogberry (_cornus Florida_,)
grow in the greatest abundance.
WE often stopped to admire the grapevines in these forests, which
twine among and spread a canopy over the summits of the highest trees.
Some are nine inches in diameter. They stretch from the root, which is
often thirty and forty feet from the trunk of the tree, and ascend in
a straight line to the first high limb, thirty and even sixty feet
from the ground. How they have reached such an height, without the
help of intermediate branches, is unaccountable.
ON the upper beach of one of the islands we saw a large flock of
Turkey Buzzards, attracted there by a dead carcass that had floated
down the river, and lodged upon the bar. These birds did not fly upon
our approach.
WE reached TOMLINSON, a small settlement near Grave Creek, to
lodge.[40] We propose spending tomorrow here in viewing the
surprizing forts and the “Big Mound,” in this vicinity.
{62} WEDNESDAY, _June 8_
“Behind me rises huge a reverend pile
Sole on this desert heath, a place of tombs,
Waste, desolate; where Ruin dreary dwells,
Brooding o’er sightless skulls and crumbling bones.”
WE went out this morning to examine the antient monuments about Grave
Creek. The town of Tomlinson is partly built upon one of the square
forts. Several mounds are to be seen. I think there are nine within a
mile. Three of them, which stand adjoining each other, are of superior
height and magnitude to those which are most commonly to be met with.
In digging away the side of one of these, in order to build a stable,
many curious stone implements were found; one resembled a syringe;
there were, also, a pestle, some copper beads of an oval shape, and
several other articles. One of the mounds in Col. Bygg’s garden was
excavated in order to make an ice-house.[41] It contained a vast
number of human bones, a variety of stone tools, and a kind of stone
signet of an oval shape, two inches in length, with a figure in
relievo resembling a note of admiration, surrounded by two raised
rims. Capt. Wilson, who presented the stone to my companion Mr. Adams,
observed that it was exactly the figure of {63} the brand with which
the Mexican horses were marked.[42] One of the mounds was surrounded
by a regular ditch and parapet, with only one entrance. The tumulus
was about twelve feet high, and the parapet five.
THE “_Big grave_,” as it is called, is a most astonishing mound. We
measured the perpendicular height, and it was sixty-seven feet and a
half. By the measurement of George Millar, Esq.[43] of Wheeling, it
is sixty-eight feet. Its sides are quite steep. The diameter of the
top is fifty-five feet: but the apex seems to have caved in; for the
present summit forms a bason, three or four feet in depth. Not having
a surveyor’s chain, we could not take the circumference, but judged
that its base covered more than half an acre. It is overgrown with
large trees on all sides. Near the top is a white oak of three feet
diameter; one still larger grows on the eastern side about half way
down. The mound sounds hollow. Undoubtedly its contents will be
numerous, curious, and calculated to develop in a farther degree the
history of the antiquities which abound in this part of our country.
{64} AS there are no excavations near the mound, and no hills or banks
of earth, we infer that it must have been principally formed of sods
skimmed from the surface, or of earth brought from a great distance.
The labour of collecting such a prodigious quantity must have been
inconceivably great. And when we consider the multitude of workmen,
the length of time, and the expense, requisite to form such a
stupendous mound; when we reflect upon the spirit of ambition which
suggested the idea of this monument, of great but simple magnificence,
to the memory of some renowned prince or warrior, we cannot but regret
that the name and the glory it was designed to perpetuate are
gone--LOST IN THE DARKNESS OF THE GRAVE![44]
THURSDAY, _June 9_
THE route from Tomlinson to Wheeling was very romantic. Sometimes we
passed through shaded vales of towering trees, and sometimes on a
winding road along the steep sides of a precipice, at the bottom of
which flowed the beautiful Ohio. The passage is circuitous and narrow,
and guarded from the steep descent to the river by a slight parapet of
logs or stones. If {65} you look below, you fear that the stumbling
horse will precipitate you among crags and trees to the river’s edge;
while from above, loosened rocks seem to threaten to crush you by a
fall.
ON these declivities grow the mountain raspberry (_Rubus montanus
floridus_,) in great plenty. It is a handsome bush; and the flower,
which is of a pale pink colour, and of the size and appearance of that
of the sweet-briar, or hedge rose, gives it a very ornamental
appearance. We were told that the fruit is large, and exceedingly
delicious.
FRIDAY, _June 10_
LEAVE Wheeling, and proceed homewards in our carriage. Lodge at
DONEGALA, in Washington County, Pennsylvania.[45]
SATURDAY, _June 11_
PASS through Washington and arrived at BROWNSVILLE to spend the
Sabbath. The remarks I made upon the situation of this place have been
transferred to the preceding account of the settlements on the
Monongahela river.
{66} MONDAY, _June 13_
DINED, and spent the afternoon at UNIONTOWN, in company with the
worthy Judge ADDISON, Judge ROBERTS, and the Judges, lawyers, and
gentlemen of the circuit Court of Fayette County.[46]
UNIONTOWN is the shire town of the County. It is a very pleasant and
thriving place, situated near Redstone Creek, and principally built
upon one straight street, the side walks of which are neatly paved
with large flat stones. It contains about one hundred and twenty
houses, many of them well built, and some quite handsome. The public
buildings are a meeting-house, and a stone Gaol. There is a
printing-office in the town which issues a weekly newspaper. Several
manufactures are carried on in the place, and much business done in
the mercantile line to very great advantage. Though the town has been
settled but fifteen years, it is, next to Pittsburg and Wheeling, the
most flourishing town through which we passed on the western side of
the mountains. Near it are some valuable merchant-mills; and in the
county are eighteen furnaces and iron works, and several
distilleries.[47]
{67} TOWARDS evening we pursued our journey as far as CONNELSVILLE,
where we slept. This town has been settled eight years. It is
pleasantly situated on the Yohiogany; and contains about eighty
houses, and four hundred inhabitants.[48]
TUESDAY, _June 14_
THROUGH woody and rugged ways we passed the CHESNUT RIDGE, and LAUREL
HILL, and reached SOMERSET to lodge: a distance of thirty-three miles.
This is a pretty place, the shire town of the County of the same name.
It has been settled eight years; contains about fifty houses, several
of them well built; some merchants’ stores, shops of artists, a
meeting-house, and a handsome Court-house and Gaol built with stone.
FINDING the afternoon too far spent to admit of another stage, we
concluded to pass the night here. After a repast at the inn, we walked
out to view the place, and inhale the cool breezes of declining day.
The sun was just sinking below the western mountains, and fringed
their tops with a rich variety of fiery hues, which died away into the
most delicate tints of purple. We stood contemplating this scene of
admirable {68} beauty, till the grey shades of evening shut it out
from the view.
WEDNESDAY, _June 15_
BEGINNING now to ascend the steep sides of the ALLEGHANY, the road is
rough and tiresome, and the prospect assumes a wilder and more
romantic appearance at every step we advance.
WE crossed a considerable stream which dashes over the rocks from the
declivity of the mountain, and makes the fourth fork of _Buffalo-lick
Creek_; one of the principal branches of the Yohiogany river. It
issues from a spring near the top of the mountain. The indistinct
echoes of the distant waterfall, and the plaintive murmurs of the
breeze breaking in upon the stillness of the desert region, constitute
an accompaniment corresponding with the solemnity and grandeur of the
whole scene.
WE dined at Seybour’s on the top of the mountain. We then visited the
beautiful spring, near the house, on the easterly brow of the
mountain, which is the source of _Caicutuck_, or _Will’s Creek_, whose
waters enter the Potomack at Fort Cumberland, an outer post built by
General Braddock in 1755.[49]
{69} NEXT we walked up to the higher ground, to enjoy the prospect
afforded by this stupendous elevation.
FROM this summit a sweep of hundreds of miles is visible, except where
remote intervening mountains break the line of the horizon, which in
other parts is lost in the interminable azure wherewith the heaven and
the earth are blended. Ideas of immensity swelled and exalted our
minds as we contemplated a prospect partaking so much of infinitude;
and we felt some wonderful relations to an universe without boundary
or end.
DESCENDING the mountain, we reached Metzker’s, an obscure inn, to
lodge.
THURSDAY, _June 16_
WE rose early in the morning and pursued our journey. For several
miles we had an excellent road on the top of DRY RIDGE. The sky was
clear. The stars shone brightly. All was solemn and still, as if
“nature felt a pause.” For some time we but dimly discerned our way;
but, as the twilight became brighter, the prospect opened before us.
The increasing light of dawning day extended the stretch of
picturesque scenery. The horizon assumed a {70} hue of tawny red,
which gradually heightened into ruddy tints, and formed a glowing
tiara to encircle the splendors of the rising sun. The orb of day rose
with uncommon grandeur among clouds of purple, red, and gold, which
mingling with the serene azure of the upper sky, composed a richness
and harmony of colouring which we never saw surpassed. The vapours of
the night rested in the vallies below, and seemed to the view one vast
ocean, through which the projecting peaks and summits of mountains
looked like clusters of islands. The whole scene was novel and
interesting in the highest degree. But we soon had to descend, and
were immersed in fog and vapour, and shut out from the pleasant light
of the sun for nearly half the day. The next mountain, however, raised
us above these low clouds, and presented us with a view of the clear
and unveiled sky.
MAKING a journey of twenty-eight miles this day, we arrived at
Martin’s, by the crossings of the Juniata, and put up for the night.
FRIDAY, _June 17_
PASSING the SIDELING HILLS, we reach MCCONNEL’S TOWN, a delightful,
{71} well-watered village in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, to dine. It
is situated in the valley, or, as it is called “the Cove,” between
SIDELING and NORTH MOUNTAIN. It has been built eight years; contains
about eighty houses, several of them handsomely built with brick or
stone, a number of stores and shops, and a small Dutch meeting-house.
QUITTING this sequestered place, we ascended the NORTH MOUNTAIN, and
enjoyed from its top a variegated and magnificent prospect. Deep below
we saw the town and beautiful vale we had passed, with the meandering
stream which runs through it. Scattered houses, and rich cultivated
farms, formed an interesting contrast with the rugged mountains with
which they were environed. On the north and west the prospect is
circumscribed by ranges of mountains; but on the east and south a
prodigious expanse of country is laid open to the eye, and the senses
are almost bewildered in contemplating the vastness of the scene.
TO wander through the shady grove, to contemplate the verdant pasture
and the field of ripening grain, or to admire the {72} flowery
beauties of the garden, may afford a pleasant recreation; but the
majestic features of the uncultivated wilderness, and the extensive
views of nature gained from the brows of a lofty mountain, produce an
expansion of fancy and an elevation of thought more dignified and
noble. When these great scenes of creation open upon the view, they
rouse an admiration exalting as it is delightful: and while the eye
surveys at a glance the immensity of heaven and earth, the mind is
rendered conscious of its innate dignity, and recognises those great
and comprehensive powers with which it is endowed. THE SUBLIME IN
NATURE, which, in its effect is equally solemn and pleasing,
captivates while it awes, and charms while it elevates and expands the
soul.
SATURDAY, _June 18_
WE tarried last night at Campbell’s at the _Cold Springs_, where we
met with the most excellent accommodations, and lodging peculiarly
refreshing to weary wayworn travellers; and rose this morning with
renovated strength and spirits to resume our journey.
{73} WE stopped at CHAMBERSBURG to breakfast. This is a fine town,
situated on Conogocheague Creek, through which might be opened an easy
communication with the Potomack. It is a post-town, and the capital of
Franklin County, in Pennsylvania; and is principally built on two
large streets which intersect each other at right angles, leaving a
public square in the centre. It contains about two hundred and fifty
houses, handsomely built of brick or stone; two Presbyterian churches;
a Court-house of brick, and a stone Gaol. There is a printing-office
in the place, and a paper-mill in the vicinity. It is a situation
favourable to trade and manufactures, and every thing looks lively and
thriving. The land in the neighbourhood appears rich and fertile, and
is highly cultivated.[50]
WE dined at Horne’s on the top of the SOUTH MOUNTAIN, and slept at
OXFORD, a small town which has been built nine years, but does not
appear to much advantage.[51]
LORD’S DAY, _June 19_
WISHING to attend public worship at Yorktown, we rose early this
morning and arrived there by nine o’clock; having passed {74} through
ABBOT’S TOWN, a pretty flourishing village, the chief town of Adams
County.[52]
MONDAY, _June 20_
YORKTOWN is a fine place, in pleasantness vying with Lancaster, in
neatness exceeding it. It is a post-town, and capital of the county of
York. It is situated on the east side of Codorus Creek, which empties
into the Susquehannah. It is regularly laid out, principally on two
main streets which cross each other at right angles. It contains more
than five hundred houses, several of which are handsomely built of
brick, and some of stone. The public buildings are a German Lutheran,
a German Calvinist, a Presbyterian, a Roman Catholic, and a Moravian
Church; a Quaker meeting-house; a Court house; a stone Gaol; a Record
office, and an Academy.
HENCE our journey was through _Lancaster_, _Reading_, and _Bethlehem_,
in Pennsylvania; _Warwick_ and _Fishkill_, in New York; and
_Farmington_ and _Hartford_ in Connecticut.
We reached home the beginning of July.
--“O quid solutis est beatius curis,
Cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino
Labore fessi, venimus Larem ad nostrum!”
{75} ITINERARY
THE following directory of the Roads and Distances over the mountains,
from Lancaster in Pennsylvania, may be of use to explain some
particulars in the preceding Journal, and prove of service to those
who may have occasion to make the same tour.[53]
Towns Inns Distances in miles
From LANCASTER
to Big Chickey’s Cockran’s 9
Elizabeth town _Black horse_ 9
Middletown 9
_Chambers’ ferry_ over the Susquehannah 6
¶ _Silver springs_[54] 8
Carlisle 10
Mount rock _Grand Turk_ 10
Shippensburg 11
Strasburg 11
_Over_ TWO MOUNTAINS _to_ Fannetsburg 7
_Over the_ THIRD MOUNTAIN _to_ Burnt Cabins 4
_Over_ SIDELING HILLS to Wilds 13
_Crossings of the_ Juniata ¶ Martin’s 9
¶ Graham’s 8
{76} Bedford[55] 6
_Forks of the road_[56] ¶ Smith’s 4
_Glade road_ Metzker’s 10
_Top of the_ ALLEGHANY _White horse_ 11
Somerset ¶ Webster’s 13
LAUREL HILL 8
Behmer’s 3
_Jones’s Mill_ 6
Mount Pleasant 11
Westmoreland ¶ McKean’s 5
_Budd’s ferry over the_ Yohiogany 8
Pittsburg ¶ _Pure fountain_ 28
Cannonsburg _Black horse_ 18
Washington _Indian Queen_ 9
Alexandria 16
_Shepherd’s Mills_ 9
Wheeling[57] ¶ Goodwin’s 7
Down the river to MARIETTA 95
{77} RETURNING
From Marietta to
Newport ¶ Dana’s 6
Williamson’s 14
¶ McBride’s 12
_Hurd’s ferry across the_ Ohio Hurd’s 12
_Fish Creek_ 8
Grave Creek ¶ Bigg’s 12
Wheeling ¶ Goodwin’s 12
Donegala 23
Washington _Indian Queen_ 9
¶ Hawkin’s 13
Brownsville or Redstone ¶ Jenkinson’s 12
Union-town ¶ Collins’s 12
Connelsville ¶ Welles’ 11
CHESNUT RIDGE ¶Woodruff 9
Bachelor’s 5
_Top of_ LAUREL HILL Slaucher’s 4
Somerset Webster’s 14
McDommet’s 8
_Top of_ ALLEGHANY 6
Strotler’s 7
Metzker’s 4
_Forks of the road_ Bonnet’s 9
¶ Smith’s 1
End of the Glade road.
{78} Bedford 4
¶ Graham’s[58] 6
_Crossings of the_ Juniata ¶ Martin’s[59] 8
[_Then_, _to go by_ Chambersburg,
_take the road on the
S. E. side of_ SIDELING HILLS] Beckwith’s 8
McConnelstown ¶ Davis’s 9
Campbell’s 5
Chambersburg 9
McKean’s 4
Brigham’s 4
Horne’s 5
_Cross Keys_ 7
_Lion_ 3
Murphy’s 8
Oxford 2
Abbot’s town 4
¶ King’s 4
Wolfe’s 6
Yorktown ¶ Upp’s 5
_Wright’s ferry_ 12
Lancaster Swan’s 10
{79} THERMOMETRICAL OBSERVATIONS
_From, April 6 to June 13, 1803_
------+--------------+--------------------+-----------+--------------
Days | Times of | | |
of the| observation | Place | Wind | Weather
month| | | |
------+--------------+--------------------+-----------+--------------
APRIL |_Fahrenh._ deg.| | |
6 |VI. A.M. 34 |Carlisle in | N.W. |
| | Pennsylvania. | |
|II. P.M. 64 |127 miles from | S.W. | Fair all day.
| | Philad. | |
| | | |
7 |X. A.M. 52 |Strasburg, at | N. |
| | the foot of the | |
| | mountain. | |
|XI. A.M. 58 |Top of the | W.N.W. |
| | mountain. | |
|XII. M. 67 |Valley below. | |
|I-½. P.M. 57 |Top of the | |
| | second ridge. | |
|III. P.M. 69 |Fannetsburg; | W. |
| | 2d valley. | |
|V. P.M. 72 |Top of third | |
| | mountain. | |
|VII. P.M. 60 |Burnt Cabins; | S.W. | Fair all day.
| | 3d valley. | |
| | | |
8 |VI. A.M. 48 |Same place. | W.S.W. | Hazy.
|X. A.M. 62 |Foot of Sideling | | Fair, except
| | mountain. | | while enveloped
| | | | with clouds on
| | | | the side of the
| | | | mountain.
| | | |
9 |XII. M. 56 |}Borders of the }| N.W. | Fair.
|II. P.M. 65 |} Juniata. }| |
|V. P.M. 58 |} | |
| | | |
10 |VIII. A.M 39 |} same place | | Fair.
|I. A.M. 62 |} | |
|II. P.M. 68 |} | |
| | | |
11 |VII. A.M. 54 |Bedford | |}
|II. P.M. 78 |Foot of the | |} Fair.
| | Alleghany | |}
|VII. P.M. 52 |Top of the | |
| | mountain. | |
12 |I. A.M. 55 |Top of the | |
| | mountain | E. | Smoky.
|XII. M. 74 |Somerset | W. |
|V. P.M. 77 |Foot of Laurel | W. |
| | mountain. | |
|VII. P.M. 60 |Top of the mountain.| W. |Smoky all day.
13 |VI. A.M. 57 | same place | |
|X. A.M. 63 |Bottom of Laurel | | Hazy.
| | Hill | |
|XII. M. 84 |265 miles from | S.W. | Fair.
| | Philad. | |
|VII. P.M. 79 |280 same place. | | Smoky.
14 |VI. A.M. 70 |285 same place | | Shower.
| | (Westmoreland | |
| | County.) | |
|II. P.M. 65 Banks of | |
| | Monongahela. | |
|VII. P.M. 68 |Mifflin (Alleghany | |
| | Co.) 312 miles | |
| | from Philad. | |
15 |VI. A.M. 58 |Valley of | N.W. |}
| | Monongahela. | |}
| | | |} Rain.
|X. A.M. 64 |Pittsburg | W. |}
|VII. P.M. 55 |same place. | | Cloudy. Snow
|IX. P.M. 49 |same place. | | in the night.
16 |VII. A.M. 35 |} | | Clear.
|XII. M. 48 |} same place. | |Flurry of snow.
{80} |VI. P.M. 46 |} | | Cloudy.
| | | |
17 |VII. A.M. 44 |} | |
|XII. M. 46 |} Pittsburg. | S.E. | Fair[60]
|VI. P.M. 45 |} | |
| | | |
18 |VII. A.M. 43 |} | |
|XII. M. 63 |} same place. | S.E. by E.|Fair &
|VII. P.M. 60 |} | | pleasant.
19 |VII. A.M. 45 |Pittsburg. |} |
|II. P.M. 72 |Cannonsburg. |} S.S.W. | Fair.
|VII. P.M. 62 |Washington. |} |
20 |X. A.M. 62 |10 miles beyond | |
| | Wash. | |
|III. P.M. 78 |Shepherd’s mills | |}
| | on Wheeling | |} Fair.
| | Creek. | |}
|VI. P.M. 68 |Wheeling. | |}
21 |VII. A.M. 62 |Wheeling. | | Shower early
| | | | in morn.
|II. P.M. 75 |Captinat Island on | |}
| | the Ohio, 101 | |}
| | miles below | |}
| | Pittsburg. | |} Fair.
|VII. P.M. 72 |Fish Creek, 110 | |}
| | miles below | |}
| | Pittsburg. | |}
| | | |
22 |VII. A.M. 64 |Long reach on the | |}
| | Ohio 127 miles | |}
| | below Pittsburg. | |} Fair.
|II. P.M. 73 |Long reach. | |}
|VII. P.M. 65 |Head of Muskingum | |}
| | Isl. | |}
23 |VII. A.M. 58 |} | S.E. and |
|II. P.M. 65 |} Marietta. | by S. | Rainy.
|V. P.M. 63 |} | |
| | | |
24 |VII. A.M. 66 |} | |
|II. P.M. 68 |} same place. | S.S.W. | Rainy.
|V. P.M. 65 |} | |
| | | |
25 |VII. A.M. 55 |} | |
|II. P.M. 66 |} same place. | S.W.&W. | Rainy.
|V. P.M. 64 |} | |
| | | |
26 |VII. A.M. 46 |} | | Cloudy.
|II. P.M. 60 |} same place. | E.N.E. |}
|V. P.M. 58 |} | |} Fair.
| | | |
27 |VII. A.M. 48 |} | |
|XII. M. 61 |} same place. |E.and by S.| Fair.
|V. P.M. 57 |} | |
| | | |
28 |VII. A.M. 55 |} | |
|XII. M. 75 |} same place. | W.S.W. | Fair.
|V. P.M. 64 |} | |
| | | |
29 |VII. A.M. 59 |} | |
|XII. M. 70 |} same place. | S.W. | Fair.
|V. P.M. 68 |} | |
| | | |
30 |VII. A.M. 61 |} | |
|XII. M. 76 |} same place. | S.W. and | Fair.
|V. P.M. 75 |} | by W. | Hazy.
MAY | | | |
1 |VII. A.M. 72 |} | |}
|XII. M. 79 |} same place. }|Fresh wind |} Fair.
{81} |V. P.M. 68 |} }| W.N.W. |}
| | | |
2 |VII. A.M. 63 |} same place. | | Fair. Slight
|XII. M. 61 |} | N.W. | frost in the
|V. P.M. 50 | Marietta. | | night.
| | | |
3 |VII. A.M. 55 |} | |
|XII. M. 58 |} same place. | N.W. | Fair.
|V. P.M. 55 |} | |
| | | |
4 |VII. A.M. 54 |} | |
|XII. M. 62 |} same place. | S.S.W. | Fair.
|V. P.M. 58 |} | |
| | | |
5 |VII. A.M. 56 |} | |
|XII. M. 62 |} same place. | W.N.W. | Fair.
|V. P.M. 59 |} | |
| | | |
6 |VII. A.M. 54 |} | | Remarkably
|XII. M. 58 |} Bellepré. | N. | cold for
|V. P.M. 52 |} | | this region.
| | | | Fall of snow:
7 |VII. A.M. 44 |} | | very unusual
|XII. M. 52 |} same place. | N.N.W. | here, and more
|V. P.M. 39 |} | | than fell at
| | | | any one time
| | | | in the winter.
| | | |
8 |VII. A.M. 38 |} | |
|XII. M. 56 |} same place. | N.N.W. | Fair.
|V. P.M. 55 |} | |
| | | |
9 |VII. A.M. 53 |} | |
|XII. M. 58 |} same place. | | Fair.
|V. P.M. 56 |} | |
| | | |
10 |VII. A.M. 55 |} | |
|XII. M. 69 |} same place. | N.W. | Fair.
|V. P.M 58 |} | |
| | | |
11 |VII. A.M. 55 |} | |
|XII. M. 70 |} Marietta. | W.S.W. | Fair.
|V. P.M. 71 |} | |
| | | |
12 |VII. A.M. 65 |} | |
|XII. M. 80 |} same place. | W. and |
|V. P.M. 77 |} | by N. | Fair.
| | | |
13 |VII. A.M. 68 |} | |
|XII. M. 82 |} same place. | | Fair.
|V. P.M. 79 |} | |
| | | |
14 |VII. A.M. 72 |} Marietta. | |} Fair.
|XII. M. 80 |} | |}
|V. P.M. 79 | 8 miles up the | | Thundershower.
| | Muskingum. | |
| | | |
15 |VII. A.M. 71 |} At Rainbow, a | | Hazy.
|XII. M. 78 |} little village | |
|V. P.M. 75 |} 12 miles up | | Fair.
| |} the Muskingum. | |
| | | |
16 |VII. A.M. 78 |} Up the Muskingum. | | Broken clouds.
|XII. M. 83 |} | |
|V. P.M. 77 | 18 miles from | | Thun. showers.
| | Marietta. | |
| | | |
17 |VII. A.M. 62 |} Waterford, 25 | |
|XII. M. 85 |} miles from | | Fair.
{82} |V. P.M. 80 |} Marietta. | |
| | | |
18 |VII. A.M. 63 |} | |
|XII. M. 80 |} Waterford. | | Fair.
|V. P.M. 77 |} | |
| | | |
19 |VII. AM. 82 |} Returning from | | Showery.
|XII. M. 84 |} Waterford. | | Clouds united
|V. P.M. 86 |} | | from the N.E.
| | | | and S.W. with
| | | | a heavy thunder
| | | | shower.
20 |VII. A.M. 71 |} | |
|XII. M. 76 |} Marietta. | W.N.W. | Cloudy.
|V. P.M. 73 |} | | Fair.
| | | |
21 |VII. A.M. 63 |} | |
|XII. M. 69 |} same place. | W.N.W. | Cloudy.
|V. P.M. 65 |} | |
| | | |
22 |VII. A.M. 64 |} | W.N.W. | Rainy.
|XII. M. 69 |} same place. }| N.N.E. |
|V. P.M. 68 |} | S.S.W. | Fair.
| | | |
23 |VII. A.M. 5 |} | | Cloudy.
|XII. M. 66 |} same place. | |
|V. P.M. 60 |} | S.W. | Rain.
| | | |
24 |VII. A.M. 70 |} | | Cloudy.
|XII. M. 71 |} same place. | | Fair.
|V. P.M. 68 |} | | Thun. showers.
| | | |
25 |VII. A.M. 64 |} | | Fair.
|XII. M. 68 |} same place. | | Cloudy.
|V. P.M. 66 |} | | Thun. shower.
| | | |
26 |VII. A.M. 65 |} | }| Fair.
|XII. M. 68 |} same place. | }|
|V. P.M. 65 |} | |Flying clouds,
| | | | & distant thun.
27 |VII. A.M. 64 |} | |
|XII. M. 75 |} same place. | E.N.E. | Fair.
|V. P.M. 63 |} | |
| | | |
28 |VII. A.M. 62 |} | |
|XII. M. 68 |} Bellepré. | | Fair.
|V. P.M. 64 |} | |
| | | |
29 |VII. A.M. 58 | same place. | | Fair.
|XII. M. 63 |} Bellepré. | | Fair.
|V. P.M. 56 |} | |
| | | |
30 |VII. A.M. 59 |} | |
|XII. M . 72 |} same place. | | Fair.
|V. P.M. 70 |} | |
| | | |
31 |VII. A.M. 58 |}Vienna, a little | |
|XII. M. 72 |} village on the | |
|V. P.M. 60 |} Ohio, in the | | Fair.
| |} State of | |
| |} Virginia. | |
| | | |
JUNE | | | |
1 |VII. A.M. 71 |} | | Fair.
|XII. M. 80 |} Marietta. | | Scattered
|V. P.M. 76 |} | | clouds.
| | | |
2 |VII. A.M. 72 |} | |
|XII. M. 85 |} same place. | | Fair.
{83} |V. P.M. 81 |} | |
| | | |
3 |VII. A.M. 72 |} | |}
|XII. M. 79 |} same place. | S.S.W. |} Rainy.
|V. P.M. 74 |} | | Thunder.
| | | |
4 |VII. A.M. 71 |} | S.W. and |
|XII. M. 74 |} same place. | by W. | Rainy.
|V. P.M. 72 |} | |
| | | |
5 |VII. A.M. 69 |} | |Scatt. clouds.
|XII. M. 77 |} same place. | |} Fair.
|V. P.M. 62 |} | |}
| | | |
6 |VII. A.M. 67 |} Marietta. | |}
|XII. M. 75 | 25 miles up the | |} Fair.
| | river. | |}
|V. P.M. 63 | 48 do. | |}
| | | |
7 |VII. A.M. 66 | same place. | |}
|XII. M. 77 | 63 miles up the | |} Fair.
| | river. | |}
|V. P.M. 62 | Grave Creek. | |}
| | | |
8 |VII. A.M. 59 |} do. | |} Fair.
|XII. M. 76 |} | |}
|V. P.M. 70 | Wheeling. | | Shower.
| | | |
9 |VII. A.M. 64 |} | |
|XII. M. 73 |} Wheeling. | | Fair.
|V. P.M. 72 |} | |
| | | |
10 |VII. A.M. 68 | Wheeling. | |}
|XII. M. 84 | 12 miles from | |} Fair.
| | Wheeling. | |}
|V. P.M. 78 | Donegala, a small | |}
| | town in | |} Fair.
| | Pennsylvania. | |}
| | | |
11 |VII. A.M. 74 | Washington, in | |
|XII. M. 84 | Washington | |
|V. P.M. 82 | County, | |
| | Pennsylvania. | |
| | | |
12 |VII. A.M. 72 | same place. | |} Fair.
|XII. M. 84 |} | |}
|V. P.M. 83 |} Brownsville.[61] | |Thundershower
| | | | in the
| | | | evening.
{84} METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS
MADE AT GRENVILLE COLLEGE IN THE STATE OF TENNESSEE
_By_ WILLIAM CHANDLER, A.M. _one of the Tutors_
--------------------------------+-------------------------------------
_March, 1803_ | Observations
--------------------------------+-------------------------------------
Thermometer | The greatest degree of cold was on
-----------+-------+------+-----+ the 2d in the morning: the greatest
Times of |Highest|Lowest|Mean | degree of heat on the 26th P.M.
observation| | | | Prevalent winds from S. to W. A
-----------+-------+------+-----+ very little snow on the9th. From
Morning. | 65 | 63 | 44 | the 1st to 7th fair; on the 7th
Noon. | 73 | 20 | 58 | and 8th much rain, and some thunder;
P.M. | 75 | 20 | 63 | on the 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, and
-----------+-------+------+-----+ 27th rain, much wind, and thunder.
Barometer |
+-------+------+-----+ The remaining days sunshine and
A.M. |28,80 |28,14 |28,50| pleasant. Peach trees bloom the
M. |28,82 |28,18 |28,56| latter end of this month.
P.M. |28,78 |28,33 |28,55|
-----------+-------+------+-----+-------------------------------------
_April_ | The greatest degree of cold was on
--------------------------------+ the 17th; the greatest degree of
Thermometer | heat was on the 29th. Prevalent
-----------+-------+------+-----+ winds from S. to N.W. Rain on the
Times of |Highest|Lowest|Mean | 4th, 15th, 20th, 22d, 23d, and 25th.
observation| | | | The atmosphere was very smoky a the
-----------+-------+------+-----+ considerable part of remaining days.
A.M. | 70 | 32 | 55 | On the 17th, 18th, and 19th were
M. | 78 | 50 | 69 | frosts which destroyed the young
P.M. | 82 | 54 | 70 | fruit, and the principal part of
-----------+-------+------+-----+ the mast.
Barometer |
+-------+------+-----+ Not much thunder this month.
A.M. |28,79 |28,21 |28,57|
M. |28,79 |28,21 |28,58|
P.M. |28,79 |28,43 |28,57|
-----------+-------+------+-----+-------------------------------------
_May_ |
--------------------------------+
Thermometer | The greatest degree of heat was on
-----------+-------+------+-----+ the 17th; the least on the 9th, when
Times of |Highest|Lowest|Mean | there was frost. Rain on the 1st,
observation| | | | 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 17th, 18th,
-----------+-------+------+-----+ 20th, 22d, 24th, and 26th; the other
A.M. | 70 | 44 | 61 | days were fair; but 25th, few of
M. | 82 | 58 | 73 | them smoky.
P.M. | 86 | 60 | 75 |
-----------+-------+------+-----+ Not much thunder this month.
Barometer |
+-------+------+-----+
A.M. |28,90 |28,26 |28,52|
M. |28,91 |28,26 |28,52|
P.M. |28,89 |28,27 |28,54|
--------------------------------+-------------------------------------
_June_ |
--------------------------------+-------------------------------------
Thermometer |
-----------+-------+------+-----+ Greatest degree of heat on the 17th
Times of |Highest|Lowest|Mean | and 27th, least on the 6th. Rain on
observation| | | | the 4th, 5th, 12th, 15th, 16th,
-----------+-------+------+-----+ 18th, and 19th. The remainder of
A.M. | 76 | 61 | 69 | the month pleasant. No days smoky.
M. | 83 | 72 | 78 |
P.M. | 87 | 72 | 83 | The meazles have prevailed this, and
-----------+-------+------+-----+ the preceding months, with greater
Barometer | severity than had been known before.
+-------+------+-----+ In many instances they proved fatal.
A.M. | 28,80 |28,33 |28,54|
M. | 28,81 |28,32 |28,56|
P.M. |28,77 |28,29 |28,54|
-----------+-------+------+-----+-------------------------------------
{85} _July_ |
--------------------------------+ The greatest degree of heat was on
Thermometer | the 12th and 13th; the least on the
-----------+-------+------+-----+ 6th and7th. The termometer has
Times of |Highest|Lowest|Mean | stood at 90 two or three times at
observation| | | | between III. and IV. P.M. We had
-----------+-------+------+-----+ rain on the 2d, 4th, 16th, 17th,
A.M. | 77 | 64 | 71 | and 24th.
M. | 86 | 72 | 79 |
P.M. | 89 | 75 | 73 | For the two last months the
-----------+-------+------+-----+ prevalent winds were from S.W. to
Barometer | W. We have very few winds from the
+-------+------+-----+ east. Storms are heard to roar in
A.M. | 28,79 |28,39 |28,58| the mountains, fifteen miles south
M. | 28,80 |28,35 |28,59| of this place, for one or more days
P.M. | 28,78 |28,34 |28,57| before they come.
-----------+-------+------+-----+
Note. _The time of P.M. |
observation is a little past |
the greatest heat of the day._ |
FOOTNOTES:
[1] General Rufus Putnam (born in Massachusetts, 1738)
served in the French and Indian War, and later
with distinction in the Revolution. He is best
known to history as the superintendent of the Ohio
Company and the founder of the soldier-colony at
Marietta. Self-educated, and rising to prominence
by force of will and character, his accomplishments
in engineering and surveying, and his services to
Western development, were valuable. Washington
appointed him surveyor-general for the United States
(1793), which position he held for ten years, when
removed as a Federalist by Jefferson. His interests
during all the later years of his life were bound
up with those of Ohio and the Marietta settlement.
At his death (1824) he was (with the exception of
Lafayette) the last surviving general officer of the
Revolutionary army.--ED.
[2] BECKFORD. History of Jamaica, vol. i. p.
191.--HARRIS.
[3] Harris travelled westward by the Pennsylvania
State Road, the great thoroughfare to the Western
country. It was completed about 1785, and passed
west from Carlisle through Shippensburg, Strasburg,
and Bedford. Beyond Bedford the road forked, and
Harris took the lower, or Glade Road. Michaux had
gone out the preceding year by the northern branch,
also reaching Carlisle by a different route. For a
more detailed description than Michaux gives, see
Cuming, _Sketches of a Tour of the Western Country_
(Pittsburg, 1810), which will be republished as vol.
iv of the present series.--ED.
[4] Harris is mistaken in his derivation of the term
“Burnt Cabins.” Little Meadows is nearly a hundred
miles west of this place. Burnt Cabins took its
name from the dispossession of the settlers by the
Pennsylvania authorities in 1750. About ten years
previous, groups of Scotch-Irish had begun to push
over the Susquehanna into the attractive basin of
the Juniata, which was still unpurchased Indian
territory. The aborigines were so incensed that a
deputation went to Philadelphia to protest, and
an Indian war appeared imminent. The government
sent out a commission headed by Secretary Peters,
and including George Croghan and Conrad Weiser
as members, to drive off the intruders and burn
their cabins. The official report is found in
_Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, v, pp. 440-449.
The settlers themselves aided in the work, and
Peters remarked, “It may be proper to add, that the
Cabbins or Log Houses which were burnt were of no
considerable Value, being such as the Country People
erect in a Day or two, and cost only the Charge of
an Entertainment [_i.e._, a log-rolling].” An Indian
war was thus averted. The locality has retained its
name of Burnt Cabins to the present day.--ED.
[5] This is a misprint for Bedford County, in which East
and West Providence townships are situated.--ED.
[6] See Gen. Braddock’s letter to Sir T. Robinson, June
5th, 1755.--HARRIS.
[7] Harris’s allusions to the various roads are
confusing and misleading. The road (Pennsylvania
State) which he left to the north, passing through
Ligonier and Greensburg, followed in the main the
route cut (1758) for Forbes’s army. Braddock’s Road
lay much to the south of this, going out from Fort
Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac. The question
of the availability of these two roads was a point
at issue during Forbes’s campaign. See Hulbert,
_Historic Highways of America_ (Cleveland, 1903),
vols. iv, v. Harris took neither Forbes’s Road,
nor Braddock’s (later the line of the Cumberland
National Road), but what was locally known as the
“Old Glade Road,” a branch of Forbes’s Road, leaving
the latter four miles beyond Bedford, and crossing
to the Youghiogheny through Somerset and Mount
Pleasant.--ED.
[8] The Old Glade Road, also locally known as
the Jones’s Mill Road, received legislative
appropriations during the early part of the
nineteenth century, and was quite as popular as
its northern rival, the State Road. It crossed the
Youghiogheny at what is now known as West Newton,
Westmoreland County. The term Budd’s Ferry is found
upon a map of 1792; but in the early part of the
century it was usually spoken of as Robbstown,
from the name of the first proprietor. The road
is now known as the “Wellersburg and West Newton
plank.”--ED.
[9] Letter to Sir T. Robinson, June 5, 1755.--HARRIS.
[10] The Youghiogheny is said to owe its name to the
Kanawha Indians, and to signify “four streams;”
that is, the three branches--Laurel Hill Creek,
the northern; Castleman’s River, the middle, or
southeast fork; and the South fork--unite to form
the fourth or main stream of the river. The point of
intersection was appropriately named Turkey’s Foot,
and at the site is the present town of Confluence,
Somerset County.--ED.
[11] The name of these falls in the Youghiogheny River
probably signifies “beautiful cascade.” At present
the total descent is thirty-six feet, and the
direct fall sixteen. The cascade is utilized for
water-power at the present Falls City, Fayette
County. For sketch of Rittenhouse, see Michaux’s
_Travels_, _ante_, p. 51.--ED.
[12] For note on Elizabethtown, see F. A. Michaux’s
_Travels_, _ante_, p. 162.--ED.
[13] Partly from a little pamphlet, published at
Pittsburg, called “The Ohio Navigator,” with such
other remarks as my own observation and inquiries
could supply.--HARRIS.
[14] For the early history of Morgantown, see F. A.
Michaux’s _Travels_, _ante_, p. 162.--ED.
[15] Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia.--HARRIS.
[16] The citation from Jefferson’s _Notes on Virginia_
ends with the word “seasons.” Jefferson does,
however, discuss the portage from the Cheat to the
Potomac, which he says “will be from 15 to 40 miles,
according to the trouble which shall be taken to
approach the two navigations.” A canal connecting
these two water-systems was a favorite project of
both Jefferson and Washington; the latter at one
time estimated that it would not need to exceed
twenty miles in length.--ED.
[17] New Geneva was originally laid out by Albert
Gallatin, who came to America in 1780, and four
years later bought a farm at the junction of
George’s Creek with the Monongahela. The name
of the town was given in honor of its founder’s
birthplace, and through his influence a number
of Swiss emigrants settled at this place. The
glass works were established by Gallatin (1795)
in conjunction with two German partners, the
Kramers brothers. Gallatin’s country house near New
Geneva was entitled “Friendship Hill,” and thereat
he entertained Lafayette on his last visit to
America.--ED.
[18] This is not to be confused with Greensburg, the
county-seat for Westmoreland. Greensburg (now
Greensboro), here mentioned, is on the Monongahela
in Greene County, nearly opposite New Geneva, and
was laid out by Gallatin’s friend and compatriot,
Badollet.--ED.
[19] For the early history of Brownsville, and the
erection of Fort Burd, see F. A. Michaux’s
_Travels_, _ante_, p. 159; also, Thwaites, _On the
Storied Ohio_.--ED.
[20] Many sailing vessels were built upon the Monongahela
from 1810-11. In the latter year the first steamboat
was launched at Pittsburg, and sailing vessels were
soon superseded.--ED.
[21] The site of Braddock’s field is now occupied by the
manufacturing town which takes its name from the
unfortunate British general. See Thwaites, _On the
Storied Ohio_.--ED.
[22] Loskiel’s History of Moravian missions in
America.--HARRIS.
[23] For the early history of Presqu’ Isle, and the road
built thence by the French expedition of 1753, see
Croghan’s _Journals_, vol. i of this series, p. 101,
note 62.--ED.
[24] For the history of Fort Le Boeuf, see Croghan’s
_Journals_, vol. i of this series, p. 102, note
65.--ED.
[25] Meadville was the earliest settlement in northwest
Pennsylvania, west of the Allegheny River. About
1788 a party came out from Wyoming Valley, led
by David Mead, who afterwards was judge and
major-general of militia for the district. The
settlement was almost exterminated during the Indian
wars, and its inhabitants obliged to take refuge
at Fort Franklin. Nevertheless, Meadville was laid
out as a town in 1793. It is the seat of Allegheny
College, founded in 1815.--ED.
[26] The word _freshet_, says the late Dr. Belknap,
means a river swollen by rain or melted snow, in
the interior country, rising above its usual level,
spreading over the adjacent low lands, and rushing
with an accelerated current to the sea.--Hist. of
New Hampshire, v. 3. preface.--HARRIS.
[27] For a brief notice of Fort Duquesne, see F. A.
Michaux’s _Travels_, _ante_, p. 156, note 20.--ED.
[28] For the two Pittsburg newspapers, see F. A.
Michaux’s _Travels_, _ante_ p. 157, note 21. The
glass works were built by General James O’Hara.--ED.
[29] For a sketch of Fort Fayette, see Michaux’s
_Travels_, _ante_, p. 32.--ED.
[30] Grant’s Hill is so named from the defeat (Sept. 11,
1758) of a detachment of Highlanders under Major
Grant by a party of French and Indians from Fort
Duquesne. Grant, who had been sent out by Bouquet,
commanding the van of Forbes’s army, to reconnoitre,
incautiously approached too near the enemies’
stronghold, was surrounded, and driven back with
many losses.--ED.
[31] Canonsburg was named for its first settler, Colonel
John Canon, who took up the land under a Virginia
warrant in 1773. Colonel Canon was a man of note
in Western Pennsylvania--justice of the peace,
commander of the militia, and representative in the
assembly.
Jefferson College, to which Harris refers, owes its
beginnings to Colonel Canon, who in 1791 donated
the lot and advanced money for building the first
structure. After long years of rivalry, Jefferson
College was finally consolidated (1869) with that
of Washington, at the town of that name, under the
joint title of Washington and Jefferson College.
Canonsburgh Academy occupies the former college
buildings.--ED.
[32] The town of Washington, when laid out in 1780, was
entitled Bassett Town. The name was changed when it
was chosen as the seat of Washington County.--ED.
[33] Alexandria, or West Alexander, was laid out by
Robert Humphreys in 1796. Humphreys, who had been a
Revolutionary soldier, serving under Lafayette, took
up the land on a Virginia military certificate, and
named the town in honor of his wife, whose maiden
name was Martha Alexander.--ED.
[34] Little Wheeling Creek.--HARRIS.
[35] This was the house of Moses Shepherd, son of Colonel
David Shepherd, one of the most prominent of the
pioneer officers of Western Virginia. The latter
came West in 1773, and built a blockhouse and fort
at the junction of Big and Little Wheeling Creeks,
where the village of Elm Grove is now situated.
Colonel Shepherd was county-lieutenant during the
Indian wars, assisted at both sieges of Wheeling,
joined Brodhead’s expedition, and was of great use
in protecting the frontier. The house mentioned by
Harris is said to be still standing.--ED.
[36] For the early history of Wheeling, see Michaux’s
_Travels_, _ante_, p. 33, note 15. There were two
routes from Pittsburg to Wheeling; one more direct,
but rougher, passing through West Liberty, was taken
by the younger Michaux (_q. v._) the year previous;
the stage route, by way of Canonsburg, Washington,
and Alexandria was that chosen by Harris.--ED.
[37] Fish Creek was on the “Warrior Branch,” a great
Indian highway leading from the Ohio into Tennessee.
The locality is interesting for its connection with
the early life of George Rogers Clark, who explored
the neighborhood as early as 1772, and passed the
succeeding winter in a log cabin about a mile above
Fish Creek. Clark was a leader among the young men
on the frontier, and held a school for them at the
cabin of his friend Yates Conwell, built directly
at the mouth of Fish Creek. The two years passed
here were valuable in the experience thus gained of
frontier life, which made his later career so marked
a success.--ED.
[38] Michaux says (_ante_, p. 177) that the inhabitants
of Marietta were the first to conduct an exchange
with the West Indies by means of vessels built at
their own docks.--ED.
[39] Judge Joseph Gilman was a native of New Hampshire,
where he had served as chairman of the committee of
safety during the troubled times of the Revolution.
He was one of the Ohio associates and removed to
Marietta in 1789. Governor St. Clair appointed him
probate judge, judge of the court of common pleas,
etc., until (1796) he was chosen one of the three
judges of the territory, an office which he filled
acceptably until the organization of the state of
Ohio (1803), when he again became a local justice.
Judge Gilman died at Marietta in 1806 at the age of
seventy.
His collaborator, Judge Dudley Woodbridge, was a
Connecticut man, graduate of Yale College, and
educated for the bar. The Revolution interrupted his
legal studies, which he later resumed, and after
removal to Ohio he was one of the first justices of
the new state. His son, William, became prominent in
politics, and was governor of Michigan.--ED.
[40] Joseph Tomlinson was the son of a Scotch-Irish
emigrant who had settled in Maryland, where the
former was born in 1745. He explored this region
as early as 1770, but made a permanent location
in 1772. The first town that Tomlinson attempted
to establish (1795), he named Elizabethtown for
his wife. It was later merged in Moundsville, West
Virginia, of which Tomlinson was also proprietor and
founder.--ED.
[41] The Biggs family was an important one in the pioneer
annals of Western Virginia. The father migrated from
Maryland, and about 1770 settled on Short Creek
above Wheeling. There were six sons noted as Indian
fighters of whom General Benjamin Biggs was best
known, having served in Lord Dunmore’s War and that
of the Revolution, and acting as brigadier-general
of Ohio County militia during the later Indian wars.
His papers form part of the Draper Manuscripts
Collection, belonging to the Wisconsin Historical
Society. Probably the Colonel Biggs mentioned by
Harris was Joseph, he having bought one of the first
lots in Elizabeth (now Moundsville).
Joseph Biggs took part as a boy in the siege of Fort
Henry, at Wheeling; defended a besieged blockhouse
in Ohio, opposite Wheeling, in 1791; and finally
died in Ohio about 1833. He claimed to have been
in seventeen Indian fights in and about the
neighborhood of Wheeling.--ED.
[42] This singular marking-stone is now deposited in Mr.
Turell’s Cabinet of Curiosities in Boston.--HARRIS.
[43] George Millar had one of the first potteries of this
region at Wheeling, and served as mayor of the town
(1806-7).--ED.
[44] For recent study of Indian mounds, consult
Smithsonian Institution _Report_, 1891 (Washington,
1893); also American Bureau of Ethnology, _Twelfth
Annual Report_ (Washington, 1894).--ED.
[45] Harris returned from Wheeling by a road which
followed the route later taken by the National
or Cumberland Road from Wheeling to Uniontown,
in Fayette County. See Searight, _The Old Pike:
A History of the National Road_ (Uniontown,
Pennsylvania, 1894) for the building and
continuation of this road, as well as the
Congressional debates thereon.
The town of Donegala has vanished from the map; it
was probably at or near the present Claysville, in
Donegal Township, Washington County.--ED.
[46] Judge Alexander Addison was a Scotchman who first
entered the ministry; afterwards studying for the
bar, he became the first law judge in western
Pennsylvania. His opposition to the Whiskey
Rebellion, and prosecution of its leaders, and his
strong Federalist attitude, made him many enemies
among the Western settlers, at whose instance he
was impeached and removed from the bench in 1802.
Addison was succeeded by Judge Samuel Roberts, who
had been born and educated in Philadelphia. Admitted
to the bar in 1793, he was a successful lawyer when
placed upon the bench (1803), where he remained
until his death in 1820.--ED.
[47] The site of Uniontown was first occupied in 1767
by two Scotch-Irishmen, who were bought out by
Henry Beeson, whose blacksmith forge and mill early
attracted settlers. A blockhouse was built here in
1774, and two years later a town was laid out, known
as Beesontown. This did not flourish until after
the Revolution, when the present name of Uniontown
gradually came into use. The place was incorporated
in 1796, and made the seat of Fayette County.--ED.
[48] Connellsville, at the head of navigation of the
Youghiogheny, was settled by sons-in-law of Colonel
William Crawford, for one of whom the town was
named, when laid out in 1793. It prospered because
of its mills and navigation interests, and in 1806
was incorporated as a borough.--ED.
[49] Fort Cumberland was built the winter before
Braddock’s campaign, by the independent companies
sent out from New York and North Carolina to support
Washington in his advance toward the forks of the
Ohio. The first title was Fort Mount Pleasant, soon
changed in honor of the commander of the British
army. The fort was garrisoned until the close of the
French wars in 1765, and never again re-occupied
save for a few days during the Whiskey Rebellion
(1794). For a detailed history of this place, see
Lowdermilk, _History of Cumberland_ (Washington,
1878).--ED.
[50] For the early history of Chambersburg, see Post’s
_Journals_, vol. i of this series, p. 238, note
77. Harris returned east by the southern route, or
Chambersburg pike, which branched from the main
route some twelve miles east of Bedford, passed
through the central part of Franklin and Adams
counties, and through York to Wright’s Ferry on the
Susquehanna.--ED.
[51] This is now known as New Oxford, a town in Adams
County; it was laid out by a German, Henry Kuhns, in
1792.--ED.
[52] This territory was largely a German settlement, and
few towns were desired. Abbottstown was laid out by
a pioneer of that name, as early as 1753, but not
incorporated until 1835.--ED.
[53] Those places where the best entertainment for
travellers is furnished, are distinguished by this
mark.¶--HARRIS.
[54] At this place guests are regaled with a repast of
fine trout.--HARRIS.
[55] From Bedford to Baltimore 143 miles, and to
Pittsburg 111 miles.--HARRIS.
[56] The southernmost road is called the _Glade road_,
and is considered as the best except after heavy
rains; the northernmost is called the _Old_ or
_Forbes’s road_, and goes by Fort Ligonier. These
roads unite twenty-eight miles on this side of
Pittsburg.--HARRIS.
[57] The whole distance from Boston to Wheeling, the road
we went, is 817 miles, and from Philadelphia 472
miles.--HARRIS.
[58] See the preceding Journal.--HARRIS.
[59] Neat chambers, clean beds, and soft pillows; sweet
water, and assiduous attendance.--HARRIS.
[60] From Bedford our direction has been north to the
amount of more than a degree.--HARRIS.
[61] At this place I was so unfortunate as to break my
Thermometer.--HARRIS.
“The bare title hardly conveys an idea of the interesting lore
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The Historic Highways of America
by ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT
A series of monographs on the History of America as portrayed in the
evolution of its highways of War, Commerce, and Social Expansion.
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I--Paths of the Mound-Building Indians and Great Game Animals.
II--Indian Thoroughfares.
III--Washington’s Road: The First Chapter of the Old French War.
IV--Braddock’s Road.
V--The Old Glade (Forbes’s) Road.
VI--Boone’s Wilderness Road.
VII--Portage Paths: The Keys of the Continent.
VIII--Military Roads of the Mississippi Basin.
IX--Waterways of Westward Expansion.
X--The Cumberland Road.
XI, XII--Pioneer Roads of America, two volumes.
XIII, XIV--The Great American Canals, two volumes.
XV--The Future of Road-Making in America.
XVI--Index.
Sixteen volumes, crown 8vo, cloth, uncut, gilt tops. A LIMITED EDITION
only printed direct from type, and the type distributed. Each volume
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Historical Review._
“His style is effective ... an invaluable contribution to the makings
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“Should fill an important and unoccupied place in American historical
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“The most important project ever undertaken in the line of Philippine
history in any language, above all the English.”--_New York Evening
Post._
_The_ Philippine Islands
1493-1898
Being the history of the Philippines
from their discovery to the present time
EXPLORATIONS by early Navigators, descriptions of the Islands and
their Peoples, their History, and records of the Catholic Missions, as
related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the
political, economic, commercial, and religious conditions of those
Islands from their earliest relations with European Nations to the end
of the nineteenth century.
_Translated, and edited and annotated by_ E. H. BLAIR _and_ J. A.
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“In addition to its value as accurate history, the work is full of
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Telegraph._Project Gutenberg
André Michaux's Travels into Kentucky, 1793-96; François André Michaux's Travels West of Alleghany Mountains, 1802; Thaddeus Mason Harris's Journal of a Tour Northwest of Alleghany Mountains, 1803.
Michaux, André & Harris, Thaddeus Mason & Michaux, François André