Part 12

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.