Part 8

{85} Keel boats are large shallow vessels, varying from thirty to seventy tons burden. They are built on a keel with ribs, and covered with plank, as ships are. They are very flat below, and draw only about two feet of water. The gunwales are about a foot above water. Something like a large box is raised over the boat, which serves for a cover, leaving a narrow footpath on the outside all around. Four or six men row near the prow, and a steersman behind plies a long oar, which serves for a rudder.

_November 8. (Sunday.)_ The provisions of this and another boat in company were nearly exhausted, and a supply was expected at Marietta. Sailing appeared to be a work of necessity; but, independent of the exigency, the boats would probably have moved on. Sailing on the Sabbath is as common here as at sea. A boatman commenced a song, and was interrupted by a Scots rustic. The American alleged that he was in a “land of liberty” and that no one had a right to interfere. The other affirmed that it was against law, and threatened to prevent the violation in the most summary way. The boatman, perceiving that he was to be assailed by a stronger man than himself, gave up the contest. Every one present seemed well pleased with this termination of the affair.

_November 9._ Marietta is beautifully situated on a fine green bottom, immediately above the mouth of the Great Muskingum river. There are many good brick and frame houses in the town; a church, and an academy, which are both called fine buildings. The ferry-boat that crosses the Muskingum is attached by wheels to a strong rope stretched across the river, to which the boat is moored obliquely, so that it is forced across by the {86} action of the stream. Marietta is subject to inundations. I observed high water mark on the plaster of a room in the tavern, about four and a half feet above the floor.

The first settlement formed by the United States in the territory north-west of the Ohio, was effected by General Putnam, and forty-six other persons, on the 7th of April, 1788, on the ground where Marietta now stands.

_10._ This day we met a family boat sailing up the river. We convinced them of their mistake, which happened in the following way. The people went under the roof to avoid a shower, and during their stay, the vessel turned round. They came out, and rowed till they had retrograded about two miles.

Our way of passing the night was simple. We put ashore, and tied the boat to a log or stake; took in firewood, which was plentiful all along the banks; made a fire for cooking, in a large box filled with earth, placed on the roof, and slept under the cover in our clothes, wrapped in a blanket. In the morning we lost no time in dressing, having only to loosen our cable, and get under weigh. In times of high water, sailing by night is considered safe and agreeable, very little rowing being necessary.

On the 11th we went down Letart’s rapids, a very violent run.[54] The boat rushed through with great velocity. There is a floating grist and saw mill here, which I visited. The whole is buoyant on a large flat shallow vessel, moored in the current. The effective head of water is about twenty inches high. The water-wheel is twelve feet in diameter, and eighteen feet broad. The millstone is about thirty-eight inches in diameter, and {87} makes a hundred and twenty revolutions in the minute.

We came up with a family boat, the people in which had killed a deer. These animals often cross the river of their own accord; and frequently to elude the pursuit of dogs.

The days are warm, reminding me of the month of August in Scotland; the mornings and evenings are cool.

The ranges of hills that bound the view on both sides of the river are composed of horizontal strata of the coal field formation; a bed of this mineral lies at the height of fifty or sixty feet above the level of the water. A large mass of sandstone is above the coal. This may be observed for many miles along the banks. The ragged, and dented edges of the strata, have led some to suppose that the river never acted on them; but the very contrary must have been the case; for had the cliffs now to be seen been exposed to the weather ever since the commencement of the present order, their asperities, and sharp edges had been rounded off, and smoothed, as in the case of rocks on hill tops. The true explanation seems to be, that the river has undermined the rocks, brought them down, and ground them to sand, by its powerful attrition. The undermining process has no doubt been facilitated by the softer subjacent strata, as clay-schist, and coal. The powerful operation of the grinding process is strongly attested by the grooved surfaces, and the figure of the large blocks in the bed of the stream. These are uniformly rounded away on the end that lies farthest up the river; whereas, the end facing down the river is comparatively flat, and usually bounded by sharp edges.

{88} _November 13._ Passed the mouth of Kanhaway river. Here stands a small town called Point Pleasant. The name is appropriate, and descriptive of the site.

From the springs of Kanhaway river, a great supply of salt is procured for the western country.

We landed at Galliopolis in Ohio State. The town stands on a high bank above the reach of the river. The name was given by a colony of a hundred French families, which settled here twenty-five years ago. They purchased from a Company, whose original charter stipulated, that the tract should be inhabited by a certain number of settlers, within a specified period of time. The condition was not fulfilled; the land reverted to the government, and the colony was dispossessed of its new establishment.

_14._ The wind was violent, obliging us to remain on shore for three hours. We moved again, and stopped after dark, about a mile above the mouth of Big Guyandat river, where some ripples commence.

_15._ (_Sunday._) A strong contrary wind blew. No boat could move downward. But we saw several keel boats carrying sail, that enabled them to stem the ripples without manual labour. It is the wind, and not the day, that is reverenced here.

On the morning of the 16th, we moved downward. We saw a man fire a shot at a flock of wild turkeys. These fowl were so far from being coy, that they flew only a little way, and alighted again, on the trees.

Passed Big Sandy river, which comes in on the left hand side, and forms part of the boundary line between Virginia and Kentucky. In the evening we stopped below Fergusson’s Bar, having sailed {89} thirty-one miles in the course of the day,--a great space, considering the lowness of the water.

On the 17th, we arrived at Portsmouth, a well built town. It has a county court house, a newspaper office, a woollen manufactory, a number of stores, (shops,) and several good taverns. Having resolved on travelling a little way inland from the river, I immediately put my baggage on board a boat for Limestone, in Kentucky, addressed to a commission merchant there. Limestone is fifty-one miles from this place, and four hundred and forty-one miles from Pittsburg, by the river.

It gives me much pleasure to be relieved from the company of boatmen. I have seen nothing in human form so profligate as they are. Accomplished in depravity, their habits and education seem to comprehend every vice. They make few pretensions to moral character; and their swearing is excessive, and perfectly disgusting. Although earning good wages, they are in the most abject poverty; many of them being without any thing like clean or comfortable clothing. I have seen several whose trousers formed the whole of their wardrobe, and whose bodies were scorched to a brown colour by the rays of the sun. They are extremely addicted to drinking. Indeed I have frequently seen them borrowing of one another a few cents to quench their insatiable thirst, and in several instances refusing to repay them. The Scotsman recently alluded to missed a knife. On his accusing them of the theft, a degraded wretch offered to buy the fork.

My next letter will contain the particulars of a journey in the States of Ohio and Kentucky.

FOOTNOTES:

[48] For notes on the following persons and places mentioned in this chapter, see Croghan’s _Journals_, volume i of our series: Yellow Creek, note 93; Kanawha River, note 101. A. Michaux’s _Travels_, volume iii of our series: Wheeling, note 15; Marietta, note 16. F. A. Michaux’s _Travels_, volume iii of our series: Pennsylvania-Virginia boundary line, note 31; Gallipolis, note 34. Harris’s _Journal_, volume iii of our series: Putnam, note 1. Cuming’s _Tour_, volume iv of our series: Georgetown, note 59; Steubenville, note 67; Wellsburg, note 67; Grave Creek, note 78.--ED.

[49] As early as 1786 a few pioneers had established themselves at the mouth of Indian Short Creek; but in 1805 the town was surveyed, a public sale of lots held, and the name Warren given to it.--ED.

[50] It is interesting to note that, according to the Moravian missionary John Heckewelder, the Ohio River received its name from the white caps which often made canoe-travelling temporarily impossible. When it was covered with white caps the Indians would say “Kitschi ohio-peekhaune,” which means “verily this is a deep white river.” See “Names which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians ... had given to Rivers, Streams, etc.,” in American Philosophical Society _Transactions_, new series, iv, pp. 369, 370. The commonly accepted derivation, that given by La Salle and the early French explorers, is that “Ohio” is an Iroquois word, meaning “beautiful river.”--ED.

[51] The Cumberland National Road was completed to the Ohio (Wheeling, West Virginia) in this year (1818).--ED.

[52] Being a national highway no tolls were originally levied on the Cumberland Road; this being, however, a most logical method of raising money for the necessary repairs, the road was ceded to the states through which it ran (1830-35), and the latter erected toll-gates and levied tolls.--ED.

[53] See list of Americanisms, _post_, pp. 289-290; also Croghan’s _Journals_, volume i of our series, note 96.--ED.

[54] Letart’s Rapids, at a bend in the Ohio about twenty-five miles above Gallipolis, are but a slight hindrance to navigation. See Thwaites, _On the Storied Ohio_, pp. 113-117, for a recent description.--ED.

{90} LETTER VIII

Leave Portsmouth--Digression on economical Travelling--Salt-springs--Piketon--Chillicothe--Progress of a Scotch Family--Game--Forest Trees and Shrubs--Rolled pieces of Primitive Rocks dispersed over a Country of the Secondary Formation--Agricultural Implements--Antiquities--Bainbridge--Middletown--Organic Remains--Town of Limestone--Washington--Mayé Lick--Licking River--Millersburg--Paris--Notice of the Missouri and Illinois Countries--Paper Currency--Cut Coin--Remarks interspersed.

_Lexington, Kentucky, Nov. 29, 1818._

On the 18th current I left Portsmouth, on the north bank of the Ohio, for Chillicothe, which is situated on the Great Scioto river, forty-five miles from Portsmouth by land, and about seventy by following the meanders of the Scioto.

The Scotsman twice alluded to in my last letter, was also bound for Chillicothe, and we set out together. He gave me the following account of his economy in travelling. The owner of the boat which we had just left, engaged him to work his passage from Pittsburg to Portsmouth without wages, except having his trunk carried to the latter place, artfully telling, that the passage would be completed in nine days. It turned out that twenty-one days elapsed, before the boat reached her destination. Had he, in the first place, hired himself as a boatman, he might have got seventy-five cents per day, and might have had his trunk carried for a dollar; and thus a profit of fourteen dollars and {91} seventy-five cents would have been made. On his journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, he managed better. He travelled along with the waggon that carried his trunk; the waggon also carrying his provisions. In this way he was never obliged to enter a tavern except at night, when he slept in his own bed-clothes. His bed was a low one, but he had always the satisfaction of knowing that it was clean, and that he was exempted from having a bed-fellow intruded upon him. It is true that by travelling alone, he might have reached Pittsburg about a week sooner; but he would have arrived there without clean clothes, and incurred the payment of a week’s board, while waiting the arrival of his trunk.

Having made a digression on economical travelling, I am led to make some further remarks on it. The subject is highly interesting to emigrants whose funds are scanty, as every dollar parted with may be, in effect, giving up half an acre of uncultivated land. A steerage passenger pays only about half the freight that is charged for a passage in the cabin of a ship; and, when he lays in his own provisions, he has it in his power to be nearly as comfortable as a sea voyage can permit. In the American port, the cabin passenger is sometimes subjected to delay in entering his baggage at the custom-house, and getting the taxable part valued, whereas the steerage passenger has his goods entered by the captain, and is allowed to proceed on his journey without loss of time. Baltimore being the most convenient landing place for Europeans who intend to settle in the western country, those who arrive at New York, Boston, or other northern ports, will have a saving by re-shipping for the Chesapeake. Strangers ought to be careful in ascertaining what sloop is to sail first. By putting goods aboard of a wrong vessel, a delay for a {92} week or so may be occasioned. Having sent my own baggage round the Capes, from New York to Philadelphia, I had an opportunity of observing that several skippers, at the same time, affirmed, that his own vessel would sail first. Liverpool is the principal resort, in Britain, of ships for Baltimore. I conceive that it is unimportant to the emigrant, whether he reaches the latter place in an American coasting vessel, or by sailing an equal distance to Liverpool, along the coast of Britain.

We stopped at a tavern, four miles from Portsmouth, and had breakfast. The landlord told us, that bears and wolves are still numerous in the uncleared hills; that they devour many hogs and sheep; and that he heard wolves howling within a few yards of his house, on the preceding night. His sheep had run off, and he did not know in which direction to search for them.

About nine miles from Portsmouth, the saline nature of a spring is indicated by the ground being much trodden by the feet of cattle. The water is slightly brackish, and is not worth the expense of evaporation. Salt is manufactured, in considerable quantity, a few miles to the eastward.

Salt springs are called _licks_, from cattle and deer resorting to them to drink of the water, or to lick the concrete salt deposited on the rocks or stones, by the evaporation of the atmosphere. Riflemen also resort to the licks, in the night, to shoot the deer, which are so numerous in this neighbourhood, that they are sold at a dollar each.

The lower and richer lands are all entered, (appropriated by individuals,) but the higher and poorer, a considerable portion of which is too steep for the plough, remains as public property in the market. The time for cultivating them is not yet come. I must remark that the hilly, or what is here called {93} broken land, has many fertile spots, and that the comparative salubrity of such parts of the country forms a very strong recommendation to them. Coal and limestone are not known within eight or nine miles of this part of Scioto river.

We lodged at Piketon,[55] the head town of the new county Pike, so called in memory of General Pike, who, to the character of the enterprizing explorer of Mexico, added that of the brave soldier. Three years ago there were five houses here, now there are about a hundred.

_November 19._ We could not procure a breakfast at a tavern where we called, because the family had a sick child.

At the next tavern, breakfast was prepared for some labourers on the farm; but there was not enough of bread baked, to admit of our taking breakfast _along with them_. We were told that if we chose to wait for two hours, we might eat.--We went onward.

After travelling several miles, we arrived at a third tavern; here, too, the bread was not prepared; but the people were obliging, and made it ready for us in a short time. The landlord was a farmer. He told us that Indian corn sells at twenty-five cents (1s. 1¹⁄₂d. English) per bushel, and that he could procure twenty thousand bushels of it within three miles of his house. This appeared to be somewhat surprising, on considering that the cleared grounds form only small detached parcels, when compared with the intervening woods.--Wheat sells at seventy-five cents (3s. 4¹⁄₂d. English) per bushel. This sort of crop is, at present, more profitable than Indian corn, as in most cases it yields more than a third part by measure; it does not require to be cleared of weeds; and is more easily carried to market. The predominance of crops of {94} Indian corn is occasioned by the ease with which it is disposed of in feeding hogs and other stock, and, perhaps, in some degree, by prejudice. The bottoms are wide, and their soil rich. They are often inundated by the Scioto and its numerous branches, the water leaving great quantities of logs, and other vegetable matter, to be decomposed on the surface of the ground. These facts convince us that the situation is not healthy, notwithstanding the affirmations we heard to the contrary; and we were the more fully persuaded of this, as we saw a young man pale and meagre, in consequence of an attack of the ague.

We came to a saw-mill near Paint Creek.[56] A woman asked us how we proposed to get across the run. She told us that there was neither bridge nor boat; and that the water would reach up to our middle. She told us further, that travellers commonly hire a creature (a horse) at her house. We ordered one, and her husband followed us with it. At the Creek, we discovered that the water was shallow. Some of our party, (now increased to five,) indignant at the hoax, waded the stream. The water did not reach to the knee.

Chillicothe,[57] (formerly the seat of government, in the State of Ohio, now transferred to Columbus,) is situated on an extensive high plain, in a great bend of the Scioto, which here varies from one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards in breadth. The town has a court-house, an academy, two places of worship, two printing offices, that publish a weekly newspaper each, a woollen manufactory, a cotton manufactory, a grist-mill wrought by steam, a brewery, a tannery, a variety of merchants’ shops, several taverns, and three banks. One of the last establishments has its door {95} shut. There is a good wooden bridge across the river, near the town.

_November 20._ I crossed Paint Creek, by the road toward Limestone.[58] The bottoms are rich, but the greater part of them uncleared. The cattle of this neighbourhood are better than those I have seen by the river Ohio, and in the western parts of Pennsylvania. It is not here, however, that the fine droves formerly noticed are reared. These must have come from the more northerly part of the State, where the grass on the prairies (lands without timber) is said to be abundant. All accounts that I have heard of these prairies, say, that they are wet, and unfavourable to health. The ease with which settlements are formed on them, and the facility for rearing cattle, are, however, attracting many settlers.

Visited a Scotch family about thirteen miles from Chillicothe. They settled here twelve years ago. Their farm consists of three hundred acres of first and second rate land; of which seventy acres are cleared and fenced. They have met with two misfortunes; either of which, they think, would have finally arrested their progress in Scotland. They bought a bad title to their land; it being part of an old military grant,[59] and omitted to see it traced back to the government. In addition to this, their house, with most of their moveables, was burnt. They have now surmounted these losses; and are in better circumstances than at any former period. It is astonishing to see how much this family have adopted the manners and customs of the Americans. The father, who is seventy-five years of age, has almost entirely laid aside the peculiarities of his native provincial dialect. Nothing but the broad pronunciation of the vowel A remains. The son {96} has acquired the dialect of the country perfectly; and has adopted the American modes of farming; is a good axeman, and is in every respect identified with the people. During the late war, he was out on a campaign, on the frontier of Canada. This absence must have been extremely painful to the father, who lost an amiable son in the fight with the Indians, at Tippecanoe, in 1811.[60]

Religious and patriotic views seem to have supported this worthy old man under every discouragement.

_November 21._ I made an excursion into the woods. A few deer and wild turkeys remain. Squirrels are very numerous. They are of the grey and black varieties: also of the striped or ground species. The two former are much larger than the English squirrel, and are ate in America. Some people esteem them as equal to chickens. Quails are abundant: they are smaller than partridges, and are so tame that the report of a gun, and the destruction of a part of the covey, do not always make them take flight. It is a common practice to drive whole families of them into nets. Rabbits are not plentiful; they lodge in the hollows of fallen trees; and are not understood to burrow in the ground. The only fox that I have seen, was of a small size, and of a light grey colour. It does not require a thick population to exterminate bears, deer, and turkeys. The beaver is destroyed by the first hunters who invade the forests; and the buffalo retreats into more remote solitudes, almost on the first approach of white men.

The woods are principally composed of _Quercus_, (Alba,) _White Oak_; (Tinctoria,) _Black Oak_; (Coccinea,) _Red Oak_; (Primus accuminata,) _Chesnut Oak_; _Platanus_, (Occidentalis,) _Sycamore_; _Fagus_, (Ferruginea,) _Beech_; _Acer_, (Saccharinum,) {97} _Maple_, (sugar tree;) _Fraxinus_, (Americana,) _Ash_; _Juglans_, (Nigra,) _Walnut_, (black;) (Alba ovata,) _Hickory_; _Laurus_, (Sassafras,) _Sassafras_; _Cornus_ (Florida,) _Dogwood_; _Fagus_, (Castanea,) _Chesnut_; _Liriodendron_, (Tulipefera,) _Poplar_; _Ulmus_, (Americana,) _Slippery Elm_; (Mollifolia,) _White Elm_; _Vitus_, (Labrusea,) _Fall Grape_; (Serotina,) _Winter Grape_.

Amongst the shrubs, or underwood, the following may be noticed as prevalent:

_Rhus_, (Glabrum,) _Sumach_; _Laurus_, (Benzoin,) _Spicewood_; _Rubus_, (Fructicosus,) _Blackberry_; (Hispidus,) _Running do._; _Annona_, (Glabra,) _Papaw_.