Part 19

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.