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UV THE ALLEGANY MOUNTAINS, IN THB STATES OF THE OHIO, KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE, ..0 A.VD RETURN TO CHARLESTOWN, THROUGH THE UPPER CAROLIN XS; GONTAININO DETAILS ON THE PREiENT STATE OF ACRICUI.TURE AND THE NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF THElit COUNTH'if.S ; AS WELL AS INFORMATION RELATITE TO THE COMMERCIAL CONNECTIONS OF ' THESE STATES WITH TUOSE SITUATED TO THE EASTWARD OF THE • MOUNTAINS AND WITH LOWER LOUISIANA. Vlfl^BMTAKES IN THB YEJR JT, 180%, USDER THE AUSPICES- OF BIS EXCELLEJiCr M. CHAPTALf MIKISTBR OF THE INTERIOR. WITH A VIlUr C^RRICr MAP OF THE STATES IN THE CENTRE, WEST AND SOUTH OF THE UNITED STATES. BY F. A. MICHAUX, »I. D. or THI fOCIBTY or NATUIAL HintMY Or VAKU. AND COntESPONDINT OF THI SOCIBTY or AGMCULTVIIG OF THK DErAHTMBNT Or THE SEINE AND OUE. FAITHFULLY TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH, BY B. LAMBERT. LOUDON: , ' PrilitadbyW..niat,01ditfley; FOR J. MAWMAN, NO. 28, POyLTRT. ♦* ii. ' 1806. -,.*> "^ £, V#^ f S'tT c-r •/■# ■■'' ' '" / *: 1 ». •. /''ijy' O' -■" ;^rY . V. tX y. . # • ui v:..v .1" iift ■ri. ■ 'li^'n '■:>: - . y JVB5 > t trr; '■r v^. •i^ !4V ijn •vif f >fe '4 .T.^'Ji'^* 3 , , ■■■ ' r-r"*:*',!!.'. .A >'v-i f. r f^'%;' ,>,''(.Iq- ■^-miiJ f'' ? J ^BFERTISEMEJVT. V iti ■*#.)•!■., l-'-irni^l-^ 'i. ^*- There are many books of travels in the United States, and numerous observations on this country are also to be met with in other works, so that the body of informa- tion which the public are already in pos- session of, seems, at the first glance, to be sufficient, and to render a new relation useless; but most of these works relate exclusively to ttie Atlantic States ; and, if some of them treat of those situated to the westward of the Allegany Mountains, it IS only superficially, or in an extremely vague manner. Nevertheless, the opinions^ /• '■'1 i ii i » » ■ XV ' ' ' ' I had formed of these countries, induced , ' < me to consider them as much more inte- resting than they were generally imagined to be, and I determined upon visiting tliem whenever 1 should find leisure for it. This opportunity, so much desired, occurred in the month of June 1802, when I was at • Philadelphia. I had upwards of six hun- dred leagues to travel, and I could not, . without injury to the business which had 1 ■■>.. brought me a second time into the United ' States, devote a sufficient space of time to collecting all the facts relating to the object I had in view; it would have required at - least a year to accomplish it well, and to ■ obtain more accurate ideas, by personally ' ( objserving the successive developments of ■: . vegetation. Thisspaceoftime would also '\ have enabled me to procure more extensive ■N information on the commercial relations which so essentially connect the western V ' ■ '\ ■ ; ■'-■ ^- ': .■- ■ ■ • . i • • . , country with the Atlantic States and Lower Louisiana; and on which, I believe, no- thing has yet been pubHshed. My work, therefore, cannot be considered as com- plete; but I flatter myself that, on the appearance which these countries offer ; on the degree of prosperity to which they have lately arrived, and on that which they are capable of acquiring hereafter; these details will be found sufficient to change the opi- nions which have been hitherto, formed of them. I may also add that, when I under- took the journey, I had not any intention of publishing my observations, and that consequently, I omitted collecting a mul- titude of facts which, however indifferent they may appear to the traveller, frequently afford much interest to tht ujader of a journey: of this I was very sensible while writing this short narration. On the other hand, I have entered into circumstances n m ^v% nl ^l\ . t which by many people may perhaps bo considered as unimportant ; but which, in my opinion, will be found very useful to all who may travel in these countries here- after; for they convey that information which is first sought for by those who intend to visit a country, and which is very seldom afforded by the works relating to it. The map added to this journey has be^n laid down from those which appeared to nie to be the best, according to the know- ledge I have attained of the different parts of the United States in which I have tra- velled. I shall, however, observe, that all the maps which exist, even those [recently published in America, are very imperfect in every thing relating to the western coun- try : but not having had time to make observations sufficiently correct, I have not thought it right to differ from tliem, except in rectifying the course of the river Cum- Vll * ■•'; berland, which was evidently carried too far to the east. On the road from Lex- ington to Nashville I have indicated exactly the spot at which the barrens (meadows) of Kentucky commence, and also that of their termination, although their extent does not entirely agree with their relative^ position with the rivers, by which they are crossed. The line which begins at Nashville, and finishes at thd Natches, shows very nearly the road which is now making. It was traced for me by persons who have travelled it several times. That leading from the Natches to New Orleans is rather ideal than true, and is traced to show the communications by which all these countries are connected : I only know generally tliat the road runs very nearly parallel with the river. I have, beside^, indicated in the most accurate manner possible, by a punctuated * V *■ m ! iS! ,i»- ,* K?-— '>■„ m*-' »* viii line, the boundariCB which, in the soutlicrn states, separate the high country fVoiii the riiantime part ; but I have also been care- ful, in the course of the work, to mention the distance from the sea at which this division takes place. > u^ / tarn vf ,'-:7 . * I CONTENTS. • CHAP. I, Departure from Bourdeaux.— Arrival at Charlestown. Remarks on the Yellow Fever. — Short Descriptioa of Charlestown.— Observations on some Trees of the old ConUnent acclimated iu a Garden near that Cily - Pag« 1 CHAP. II. Departure from Charlestown for New York.— Short Description of that City. — Botanical Excursions into New Jersey. — Remarks on the Quercitron, or Black Oak, and the Walnut Trees of the Country. Departure from New York for Philadelphia. — Re- sidence. - - - - ^ 16 CHAP. III. > Departure from Philadelphia for the Western Coutry.— Communications by Land in the United States.-t- I ! < %l TT iiiimimiirtflti •'• It. ■ » t , Arrival rt Lancastr»r. — Description of this City and its Environs. — Departure. — Columbia. — Log- Houses. — Passage of the Susquehannah.— York.— Dover. — Carlisle. Arrival at Shippensburgh.— Re- marks on the State of Agriculture along this . lioute. - - - - Page 28 CHAP. IV. V Departure from Shippensburgh for Strasburgh. — Pas- sage of the Blue Ptidges. — New Species of Rhodo-; dendrum. — Passage of the River Juniata. — Use of the Cones of the Magnolia acuminata.-^Arrival at Bedford-Court Horse. — Ex-cesses in w)iich the In- * habitants of these Countries indulge.— Depiirtyre from Bedford. — Passageof the Aljegany Ridge ; and of Laurel Hill. — Arrival at West Liberty Tow.iv. 43 CHAP. V. ^ *:'' Departure from ^^'^cst Liberty Town to go into the Mountains in Search of a Shrub supposed to yield . good Oil. — New Species of Azalea. — Ligonier's Valley. — Mines of Pit-Coal. — Greensburgh. — Ar- rival at Pittsburgh. - - . 57 '■"■^- • CHAP. VI. ^"'-' ''■"^-^■^'-'^ ' Description of Pittsburgh. — Commerce of this Town, and of the {uiJHccnt Country, with New Orleans. — Conslrnction of Vessels of large Burthen. — Descrip- tion of the Rivers Monongahelu and Allegany. Towns situated on I'.ie Banks.— Agriculture. — Maple Sugar. - - - - ?^ Of the Craft.- to the Departure by Lan< Rouiid.- ing. Departure of the Bxtraoi Marietta." parture Boat.— Gallipoli. Alexan Arrival ■'* ip- bple 70 XI CHAP. VII. . ^ ' Of the Ohio. — Navigation of that River.— Mr. S. Craft. — Object of his Journey. — Information relative to the State of Vermont. - - Page 83 CHAP. vni. Departure from Pittsburgh fov Kentucky. — Journey by Land to Wheeling. — Stateof Agriculture on this Boad. — West Liberty Town in Virginia. — Wheel- ing. - - - - - - 92 ; CHAP. IX. " departure from Wheeling for Marietta.— Appearance of the Sides of the Ohio.— Nature of the Forests.— Extraordinary Bulk of some Species of Trees. 100 CHAP. X. Marietta. — Ship-Yards. — Indian Fortifications.— De» parture for Gallipoli. — Meeting with a Kentucky Boat. — Point Pleasant. — Great Kenhaway. lOy \ CHAP. XI. > Gallipoli.— State of the French Colony of Scioto.— Alexandria, at the Mouth of the Great Scioto. — Arrival at Limestone, in Kentucky. - ng '-'1 1 .•^ • li m ^«>»i!j;A».». Xll II CHAP. XII. Fish and Shells of the Ohio.— Inhabitants of the Sides of this River— Agriculture.— American Emigrant.— Commercial Relations of this Part, off the United States. - - . Page j^g CHAP. XIII. Limestone.— Road from Limestone to Lexington. — Washington. Salt-works of Maya^Lick.— Milles- burgh. — Paris; - - 142 CHAP. XIV. V Lexington. — Manufactures established there. — Com- merce. — Money. — Dr. S. Brown. - 150 ; . CHAP. XV. Departure from Lexington.— Culture of the Vine in Kentucky.— Passage of the Rivers Kentucky and Dick.-Departure for Nashville.— Mulder Hill.- Passage of the Green River. - - l63 ' ■ : CHAP. XVL V -V Passage of the Barrens, Meadows. — Plantations formed on the Road which crosses them.— Their Appear- ance. — Plants found here.— Arrival at Nashville. 178 •pit General ( Soil.— I Securit} lation. Division o peculiar mals of Ofthedifi tucky.— Peach-tJ Horses an< them Si New I Manner Public 1 Nashville.' relative of the Sides Bmigrant.— ? the United Page 139 !iexingtQn» — ck. — Milles- 142 here. — Com- 150 the Vine in entncky and Ider Hill.- 163 ions formed eir Appear- ishville. 17B XiU CHAP. XVII. General Observations on Kentucky.— Nature of the Soil. — Fir£t Establishments of this State.— Littlf> Security in the Titles of the Pro|>rietors.-«>Popu- lation. - - -^„. - - P^ge 191 CHAP. XVIIl. . Division of the land into Classes.— Species of Trees peculiar to each of them. — Ginseng. — Native Ani- mals of Kentucky.— Squirrel Hunting. - 202 CHAP. XIX. ■"! •':.., fV/1- Of the different Kinds of Culture established in Ken* tucky.— Exporta,tion of the territorial Produce. — Peach-trees. — ^Taxes. - - - fi]9 . CHAP. XX. ' . v: , Horses and Cattle of Kentucky.— Necessity for giving them Salt.— Wild Horses taken in the Plains of New Mexico. — Exportation of salt Provisions.— Manners of the Inhabitants.— Religious Sects. — Public Schools. • • - 231 CHAP. XXI. ' ; . ^ Nashville.— Its commercial Relations.- Information relative to the Establishment of the Natches. 345 s.^ >. 4 I I- ( I \ ■ I I \ XIV CHAP. xxir. Departure for Knoxville.— Arrival at Fort Blount.— Observations on the drying up of the Rivers during , •' the Summer.— Plantations on this Road.— Fertility '' of the Soil.— Excursions on Cumberland River in a Canoe. - - - . Page 253 CHAP. xxni. 1 Departure from Fort Blount for West-Point, across the Wilderness. — Botanical Excursions on Roaring River. — Appearance of the Sides of this River.— Saline Products found here.— Cherokee Indians. — Arrival at Knoxville. - - 259 CHAP. XXIV. Knoxville. — Commercial Relations. — Trees growfng in its Environs. — Conversion of some parts of the Meadows into Forests. — River Nolachucky. — Greensville.— Arrival at Jonesborough - 272 \ _^ CHAP. XXV. General Observations on the State' of Tennessee. — Of the Rivers Cumberland and Tennessee.— What is meant by East Tennessee or Holston, and West Tennessee or Cumberland. — First Establishments in West Tcuincssee. — Native Trees of the Coun- try. - . . - . - 2Sa irt Blount.— [livers during ad.— Fertility ad River in a Page' 253 Point, across s on Roaring this River. — ee Indians. — 259 .}"■ . {'. ■■' - "i • - i > ;es growfng larts of the achucky. — 070 ennessee. — see.— What , and West iblishments the Coun- x% CHAP. XXVI. Of the different Species of Culture in West Tennessee, and particularly of that of Cotton.— Domestic Manu- factures of Cotton Stuffs encouraged by the Legis- lature of this State.— Mode of taking Lands by some Emigrants. - - - Page 2L)2 y / ^hr CHAP. XXVIL :,..-,v^; .^ Of East Tennessee, or Holston. — Cultures.— Popu- lation. — Commercial "Relations. - 30O CHAP. XXVIII. , Departure from Jonesborough for Morgan town, in North Carolina.— Passage of the Iron Mountain.— Residence in the Mountains. — Passage of the Blue Ridges, and of the Mountains of Linneville.— Ar- rival at Morgan town. - . - aoJ CHAP. xxrx. General Observations on this Part of the Chain of the Allegany Mountains.— Salamander found in the Torr«&U.-r Bear-hunting. - » su I H ■ ■ I fe ■r'* \ \ xvi CHAP. XXX. . 1 ! t i. f f Morgantown.— Departure for Cbarlestown.— Lincoln- town. — Chester.— Wineshorough.— Columbia. — Ap- pearance of the Country on liiis Road.'Cultivation, &c. - . - - - Page 319 CHAP. XXXI. * General Observations on the Carolinas and Georgia.^— Culture and Productions peculiar to the upper Part of these States. - • -331 «;•; V. •■ -.noaiu CHAP. xxxn. Of the lower Part of the Carolinas and Georgia.— Modes of Culture.— Population.— Arrival at Charles- town. - - - - S4li --m ^^ i \ BV^ * *i if. i\ **?'■ r' *'f# .^^ TRAVELS TO THE WESTWARD OF THE ALLEGANY MOUNTAINS. ^'M •n CHAP. I. Departure from Bourdeaux,'^ Arrival at Charlestown* — Remarks on the Yellow Fe~ ver. — Short Description of Charlestown. — Observations on some Trees of the old Con^ tinent, acclimated in a Garden near. that City, f Charlestown, in South Carolina, being the place of my first destination, I repaired to Bourdeaux, as being one of the ports of France possessed of the most extensive commercial intercourse with the m". • i 11 p I ■».-wriiM ■'ift* I. -,. - --"^HiSnlWfc-a.'&i'm^niiji,. . -*.».^iil»«oC, I soutl^ern parts of tlie United States, and at which there are constantly vessels from the different points of North America. On the 7tli Fructidor, in the year IX. 1 em- barked on board the John and Francis, commanded by the captain with whom I had returned to Europe several years be- fore. Fourteen days after our departure we were overtaken by a calm, within sight of the Azores. The islands of St. George and Craciosa were the nearest to us, and we could easily distinguish some of the houses, which appeared to be built of stones and lime ; the sudden declivity of the land was divided by hedges, probably marking the boundaries of different estates. The greater pait of these islainds are co- vered with lofty hills, lying in different directi'- ns, over which the summit of the Peak, of a pyramidal form, appearing as if hollowed at its top, rises majestically above the clouds, which were then glowing with the rays of the sotting sun. A light breeze prev( iited our enjoying the prospect of these islands long; and on the 18th ^ •^ B W( roi on ■►^•v^.** Brumaire following, October 9th, 1801, we arrived at the entrance of Charlestown roads, in company with two other vessels, one of which had quitted Bourdeaux eighteen days, and the other a month, be- fore us. The pleasure we felt at reaching the land was soon damped. The pilot informed us that the yellow fever had made dreadful ravages in Charlestown, and that it still carried off great numbers of people : this intelligence terrified the passengers, who were fourteen in number, and, of whom, the greater part had relations or friends in this city. Each one wls apprehensive of hearing unpleasant tidings on landing. We liad no sooner cast anchor, than those who had not before lived in hot climates, were conducted by their friends to Sullivan's Island. This island is seven miles from Charlestown. Its dry and arid soil is al- most destitute of vegetation ; but, being directly exposed to the sea breeze, the air is cool and agreeable. Some years ago, on the bilious and inflammatory disorder, B 2 m m ■A ; : I ^-11 !:.'■ I • w 4 generally known by the name of tlie yellow fevevy making its appcarancre regularly every summer at Charlcstown, a great number of the inhabitants, and of the planters who took shelter in the city to escape the intermittent fevers which at- tack seven-tenths of the inhabitants of the country, built houses in tiiis island, where they reside from the first of July till the commencement of the frost, which gene- rally takes place about the fifteenth of November. There are some boarding- houses kept here for the reception of those who have not dwellings of their own. It has been observed that strangers, newly arrived from Europe, or from the northern states of America, and who come innne- diately to reside in this isslund, ^le exempt from the yellow it\Q\\ These considerations, however powerful they might be, could not induce me to pass an indet( 'minate time in a retreat so dull and fatiguing. I therefore rejected the advice of my friends, and remained in the city: but 1 had nearly tallen a victim tp '■ t Ml my obstinacy, being, a few days after, attacked with the firet symptoms of this cruel malady, from which I did not escape until after a month's sufferings. The intensity of the yellow fever varies every year, and observation has not yet succeeded in ascertaining the characteristic signs by which a judgment can be formed as to its greater or less malignity in the summer. 'J'he inhabitants of the city are not so subject to it as strangers, eight-tenths of whom died in the year of my arrival ; and when the former are attacked, it is always in a much smaller proportion. It has been observed that during the months of July, August, September, and October, in which this disease is commonly prevalent, those persons who quit Charles- town, only for a few days, are, on their return to the city, much more susceptible of catching it, than those who have re- mained. The inhabitants of Upper Ca- rolina, distant two or three hundred miles, who come here during tliis season, are as liable to it as foreigners ; and those of the m '5il m i"^<\ % '''.4 y m tli' 9 surrounfling country are not always exempt from it. Whence it results, that tor one third of the year, nearly all the intercourse between the country and city is stopped, whither people only come through neces- sity, and are cautious not to sleep there. The supplies of provisions are, at that time, brought hy the negroes of the country, who are not subject to the yellow fever. W hen, on my return from the journey- which I had taken into the countries to the west- ward, 1 proceeded to Chailcstown in the month of October, 1802, I did not, in the most frequented roads, and for a distance of three hundred miles, meet a single pas- senger going to or coming from that city; and, at Xhv houses where I stopped, they did not conceive it possible that any one could have business of such importance as to go thither during that season. From the first of Noveml^er to the first of May, the coimtry exhibits a very dif- ferent appearance : every thing is restored to a new life; commerce is reOoO slaves. Foreigners arriving at Charlesto^vn, as well as at the other cities of the United States, will find no hotels or furnished apartments for hire, to lodge in ; no ordi- naries, or eating-houses to live at ; instead of these, there are boarding-houses, which supply lodging, food, and lights. In Ca- rolina, the price of these accommodations is from twelve to twenty piastres per Aveek. This exorbitant price bears no proportion to that of provisions. Beef seldom costs more than six pence per pound. Vegetables are dearer here than meat. In addition to as 11 the articles of consumption which are fur- nished by the country, the port of Charles- town is constantly filled with small vessels from Boston, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia, and all the smaller interme- diate ports, loaded with flour, salt provi- sions, potatoes, onions, carrots, beet-roots, apples, oats, maize, and hay. Planks and timber also form a considerable article of importation, and although these products are brought three or four hundred leagues, they are cheaper, and of a better quality, than those of the country. In winter, the markets of Charlcstown are supplied with live sea fish, brought from the northern part of the United States in boats of such a construction, that the water of the sea is continually renewed in them. Those vc'ssels take back in return, rice and cotton ; the greatest part of wliicli is re-exported to Europe, the frciglit being always lower in the nortiiern states than in those to the soufrh. 'J'lio raw cotton whieli is retained in the northern states is more than sufficient for the supply of their 1 I! If: m It]' \i ^ 1 : manufactures, which are but few ; the sur- pkis is disposed of in the country, where the women fabricate coarse cotton stuifa for the use of the lamily. - - Wood is very dear at Charlestown; a cord costs forty or fifty livres (about forty shil- lings): and this, notwithstanding the forests, to which no limits can be assigned, begin at six miles, or even a smaller distance from the city, and the conveyance is facilitated by the two rivers, at the confluence of which it is situated. This price is occasioned by that of labour : and many individuals burn pit-coal, which is brought from England, for cheapness. As soon as I had recovered, I quitted Charlestown, and went to live at a small house, ten miles from the city, where my father had formed a botanic garden. Here he had collected and cultivated with great care the plants which he found in the long and fatiguing journeys which his ardent love of science made him take, almost every year, through the different countries of America. Always animated with the ■f great long irdent ilmost mtries Ih the •;l IS desire of serving the country in which he resided, lie judged that the cHmate of South CaroHna might be favourable to the cul- ture of several useful plants of the old continent, and pointed them out, in a Memoir which he read to the agricultural society at Cliarlestown. Some successful trials confirmed him in his opinion ; but his return to Europe prevented him from pursuing his first intentions. At my arrival in Carolina, I found, m this garden, a beau- tiful collection of trees and plants of the country, which had survived an almost total neglect, for four years. 1 also found a great number of trees from the old con- tinent, which my father had planted there, some of which save marks of the most vigorous vegetation. 1 principally noticed two Ginkgo biloba, which had been planted only seven years, and luid aheaily attained an elevation of thirty feet ; several Stcrculia plant unifoUa, which had yielded seeds for five or six years; finullv, more llian a hun- dred and lifty mJufom i/librisfiin^ of wliich the stem of the iirst one biuii^ht from 1 y<» ♦4^ ^Vl * 1 »■ ¥M I 14 Europe is ten inches in diameter. I gave several of them away before my return to France; this tree being already in great request for the magnificence of its flowers. The asiricultural societv of Carolina are now in possession of this garden, which they propose to continue, and to cultivate in it those useful vegetables of the old continent, which, from the resemblance of climate, promises a chance of success. I employed the remainder of the autumn in making collections of seeds, which I sent to Europe, and the winter in visiting the different parts of Lower Carolina ; and in reconnoitering the spots, where, in the fol- lowing year, I might obtain a more abun- dant collection, and procure the species I wanted, and had been unable to get during the autumn. On this occasion I shall observe, that, in North America, and perhaps also in Europe, there are plants which inhabit oply certain determinate placts; whence it happens that a botanist, in despite of his zeal and activity, may not meet with them for .S.S. ■■$ 15 several years; while another, led by a for- tunate chance, shall find them in his first excursion. I shall add, for the information of those who may be inclined to traverse the southern part of the United States with a botanical view, that the flowering season commences about tlic first of February ; that it is necessary to arrive in the month of August to collect the seeds of herbaceous plants; and, by the first of October, for obtain ing those of forest trees. 't ■-— '3*{>.^*<-' 16 h ^' l :'i' .■ I > do rent species or varieties of walnut, the Juglans tomcntosa, or mocker-nut, and the Juglans minima i or pig-nut. In low danip places, where the water stagnates nearly all the year, arc found the Juglans hickery, or shell barked hickery ; the Quercus prinus nquatica, which belongs to the series of prinus, and is not mentioned in the His- toire des ChSnes.^ The valleys are stocked with the ash, the plane, the Conms florida, the poplar, and particularly with the QuercHs tinctoria, or Quercitron, known in the country by the name of the black oak. ; - s;?! ,■ • * The quercitron oak is very common in all the northern states. It is also found to the westward of the Allegany mountains, but it is less plentiful in the lower parts of the two Carolinas, and in Georgia. The leaves of the lower branches take a different form from llioso of the upper ones; the latter are indented to a greater depth. The figure *' Ilistoirc des Chciies dc I'Anu'Tiqiie Septcntrionalo, par A Michaux. 1 yol. in fol. ftg. 1801. choz Lcvrault, frwres. 21 given in the Ilistoire des Chines reprc- sents only the leaves of the lower branches, and the forms which they have in young trees. Among the great number of species and varieties of oaks, of which the forms of the leaves differ, according to their age, which causes tliem to be frequently con- fdunded with each other, there are cha- racteristic signs by which the quercitron oak can always be distinguished. In all the other species, the foot-stalk, the nerves, and the leaves themselves are of a paler or deeper green, and towards autumn, this colour becomes darker, and passes to a more or less distinct red : on the contrary, the foot stalk, the nerves, and the leaves of the quercitron are yellowish from their expanding, and asif they were pulverulent, and the yellow colour becomes deeper as the winter approaches. This remark is sufficient to prevent mistakes, but there is also another more certain, and by which this species may be known in the winter, when it has lost its leaves : this is the bitter taste of its bark, and the yellow colour it ( n. ... I O'ii i~ H 22 r. communicates to the saliva, when it is chewed. I think, however, that I have found the same property in the bark of the Quercus dnereay as I observed to Doctor Bancroft, *vho was at Charlestown in the winter of 1802. At any rate, these two species of oak cannot be mistaken for each other ; for the latter grows only in the dri- est and most arid places in the southern states ; it rarely exceeds four inches in dia« meter, and eighteen feet in height, and its leaves are lanceolate ; while the quercitron rises to the height of twenty-four feet, and its leaves have several very long lobes. Among the acorns which I sent to France from the northern states of America, and also among those which I brought on my return in the year XI. are those of the quer- citron oak, which have grown very abun- dantly in the nursery at Trianon. Citizen Ccls has also more than a hundred young plants of it in his garden. The species and varieties of walnuts natural to the American states, are also very numerous, and might be the subject f .V 'm 'I ■■fl of a useful and interesting monograph ; but this work will not be very accurate, if the differential characters of the trees are not studied in the country itself, and that for several years. I have seen some of these trees, which from the flowers and the leaves, should have belonged to the same species, but which, from the husk and the nuts, appeared to be different. I have seen others, on the contrary, whose flowers and leaves were absolutely differ- ent, but whose fruits were perfectly analo- gous. It is true that there are some whose flowers and fruits together offer well defined characters, but these are the smallest num- ber. This multiplicity of varieties and species of walnuts is not confined to the United States : it may be observed in «very part of North America from the most nor- therly extremity of the United States to the Mississipi, that is to say, over an extent of more than eight hundred leagues from noith to south, and five hundred from east to west. I have brouo;ht over the fresh nuts of six different species, which have come uj) t./. ,^} t-i(-;'f '[! : v", ■V' ,; t , :t: I a IS 4 ■ k t 24. well, and appear not to have been hitherto described. . I quitted New York on the 8th of June 1802, for Philadelphia. The distance is one hundred miles. The stages perform this journey, some in one day, and some in a day and a half. The price is five piastres each person. At the taverns where the stages stop, one piastre is paid for dinner, half a one for supper or breakfast, and the same for a bed. The whole of the interval which separates these two cities is cultivated, and the farms are contiguous to each other. Nine miles from New York is Newark, a very pwetty little town, in New Jersey. The fields with which it is surrounded, are plant- ed with apple trees : the cider made here is reckoned the best in the United Sates, but I think it greatly inferior to what is drank at Saint Loo, Coutances, or Bayeux. Among the other small towns met with on this road is Trenton. Its situation on the Delaware, and the beautiful country around it must render it a delightful retreat. * * , Philadelphia is situated on the Delaware, l^i r^'i i"l bitherto jf June ance is >rm this in a day es each J stages half a e same I which d, and other, i^ark, a The ! plant- here is es, but ank at Vniong is road aware, t must aware, ■i 2p one hundred and twenty miles from the sea. It is at present the largest, the handsomest, and the most populous city of the United States. There is not perhaps one on the old continent built on so regular a plan. Its streets, which intersect each other at right angles, are from forty-five to fifty feet wide, except that in the middle of the city which is twice that breadth. In it is built the market which is worthy of notice for its extent and the extreme neatness preserv ed in it. It is in the centre of the city, and occupies about one-third of its length. The streets are paved, and are provided with broad bricked foot- ways. Pumps placed on each side of them at fifty toises (about one hundred yards) from each other, supply an abundance of water. Each of them has a lamp on its top. Seve- ral of the streets have Italian poplars of a very handsome appearance planted before the houses. ^ . \ . The population of Philadelphia is con- stantly increasing: in 1749, there were 11,000 inhabitants; in 1785,40,000; and, at present, the number is estimated at ' xi .: ■n m i^ 11;] 26 70,000. The few negroes found here are free, and are mostly employed as domestics. Provisions are a little cheaper at Philadel- phia than at New York; the charge for boarding is, consequently, only from six to ten piastres a week. In Philadelphia we do not meet with any beggars, or any per- son bearing the stamp of misery in his countenance; this distressing sight, so common in the cities of Europe, is unknown in America : the love of, and the necessity for work, the scarcity of hands, the high price of labour, an active commerce, just ideas, are so many causes which oppose the introduction of mendicity, either in the towns or in the country. During my residence in Philadelphia I had an opportunity of seeing the Rev. Doctor Collin, minister of the Swedish church, and president of the Philosophical Society; Mr. John Vaughan, corresponding secretary ; and Messrs. Piles, and John and W. Bortram. These gentlemen had been intimately ac(|uainted with my father, and } experienced from tlieni every mark of 27 esteem and good-will. Mr. Piles has an elegant cabinet of natural history. The legislature of Pennsylvania have given him a place for its reception, which is the only encouragement he has had from them. He is constantly employed in enriching it, and in increasing the number of his cor- respondents, as well in Europe, as iu the distant parts of America; but, with the exception of a bison, I saw nothing in his collection which is not to be found in the museum of natural history at Paris. The absence of Mr. W. Hamilton de- prived me of the pleasure of seeing him. I visited his magnificent garden, situated by the side of the Schuylkill, four miles from Philadelphia. His collection of exotic plants is very considerable, particularly iu those from New Holland. All the trees and shrubs of the United States, at least those whicli can support the winter in the open air at Philadelphia, are distributed among the groves of an Enghsh garden. It would be difficult to meet with a situa- tion more agreeable than that of Mr. Ha- miltcni's residence. 1 ;'« ^ f '* ':. •; I-' 1 i " ' , 't i 28 CHAP. III. Departure from Philadelphia for the JVestem Country, — Communications by Land in the United States* — Arrival at Lancaster. — De- scription of this City and its Environs* — Departure. Columbia^ Log-Houses. — Passage of the Susquehannah. — York. — Dover'-^Carlisle.— Arrival at Shippensburgh, — Remarks on the State of Agriculture along this Route* The states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Ohio comprise that vast extent of country known in America by the name of the Western Country. Almost all the Europeans who have published observa- tions on the United States, have contented themselves with saying, from common re- port, that these countries are very fertile ; but have not entered into any details. It is true, that to reach these new establish- ';5j I t' • 'Ml 29 iiients, it is necessary to traverse a consi- derable space of uninhabited country ; and that these journeys are long and fatiguing, without offering any thing very interesting to travellers, who confine themselves to describing the manners of the people inha- biting towns or populous places ; but since natural history, and particularly vegetable productions, as well as the state of agri- culture, were the j)rincipal objects of my researches, I was obliged to remove from the places most known, and frequent those which were the least so : I therefore re- solved to undertake a journey to these distant countries. I had nearly two thou- sand miles to go over before my return to Charlestown, where I was obliged to be by the first of October. My progress might also be necessarily retarded by a thousand obstacles, dependent on localities, and wliich it was impossible to foresee or pre- vent. These considerations did not stop me, and I resolved to leave Philadelphia on the 27th of June, 1802. I had no inducement to proceed slowly, with a view .■ a 1 1 . 1 fJI ; •■i|. ' . 1* ;. '\ ' ,i 30 to collect such observations as had been already confirmed by the recitals of those travellers who had taken this journey before me, which determined me to seek the most expeditious conveyance to Pitts- burgh, at the head of the Ohio, and I took the stage * from Philadelphia to Ship- pensburgh, through Lancaster, York, and Carlisle. Shippensburgh is a hundred and forty miles from Philadelphia, and is the most distant place, on this road, to which the public conveyances travel. '^' ' It is sixty-six miles from Philadelphia to Lancaster, where I arrived in the afternoon of the same day. The turnpike road is • Until the year 1802, the public stngcs from Philadelphia did not go farther to the bouthward than Petershurgh, in Virginia : but in the month of March of this year, a new line of correspondence was established between that plac« and Charlestown. l-'iftcen days are required for the journey ; the distance is six hundred and fifty miles, and the price fifty piastres. There are also stages between Philadelphia, New York, and Hoston; as well as between Charlestown and Sa- vuniiah in Georgia; so that from Boston to Savannah, a distance of twelve hundred miles, there is the accommodation pf public vehicles. 31 kept in good order by means of the tollsj which arc collected in different places npon it. Aioni^ this interval, the plantations are nearly all to be seen from each other. Every estate has an inclosure. Through the whole extent of the United States the cultivated lands are all inclosed, to protect them from the cattle which every bod}'^ leaves, for the greatest part of the year, in the woods, which, in this respect, are in common. Near towns, these inclosures are formed of stakes driven into the ground at a distance of ten or twelve feet, with five holes, eight or nine inches from each other, into which are fixed pieces of wood, in the rough, four or five inches in dia- meter, and of the necessary length. This method of inclosing is most suitable and economical, because it makes a great saving of wood, which is extremely dear in the vicinity of the large towns in the north ; but in the interior of the country and in the southern states, the inclosures are made with pieces of wood of an equal length, placed above each other in a zig- 1 .).i « 5S zag form, and supported on their ends, which cross each other, and are interwoven : their height is about seven feet. In the lower part of the Carolinas, they are made of pine-wood ; but in the other parts of the country, and through all the north, they are of oak or chestnut : they last for twenty-five years, when they are at- tended to. The country through which wc passed in our journey to Lancaster is very fertile. The fields were covered with wheat, rye, and oats, the fine vegetation of which showed that the land is better than that between New York and Philadclj)hia. The taverns on the road are very numerous, and the CJerman language is spoken in almost all of them. My fellow travellers, always thirsty, stopped the stage at every tavern to drink some glasses of grog. This beverage, which is in general use in the ^Jnited States, is a mixture of brandy and water, or rum and water, the proportions of which depend solely on the taste of each person. i>-'i' A ^• 33 Lancaster is situated in a fertile and well cultivated plain. This town is built on a regular plan. The houses, which are two stories high, are of bricks. The two prin- cipal streets, like those of Philadelphia, are provided with pumps and footways. The population is from four to five thousand inhabitants, nearly all of German extrac- tion, and of different religions. Each has its particular church : the Roman Catholics are the least numerous. Most of the in- habitants are gun-smiths, hatters, sadlers, and coopers ; there are also some tanners. The gun-smiths of Lancaster have long been famous for^the fabrication of rifles, the only kind of fire-arms made use of by the inha- bitants of the interior, as well as by the Indian nations adjoining to the United States. At Lancaster, L formed an acquaintance with Mr. Muhlenberg, a Lutheran minister, who has followed the study of botany for twenty years. He showed me the manu- script of a Flora Lancastriensis, The num- ber of described species already amounts s \- I 3J' to upwards of twelve liundred, one liinidred «ii(l twcnty-fivc ol' which are trriuninaccous : it is to this cUiss tluit he pays most atten- tion. IMr. ]\Iulil(uii)crg is very eommnni- cative, and signified to nie how greatly he shouUl he j)leased to have an intercourse with tlie French botanists : he corresponds regularly with IMessrs. AVildenow and Smith. At Lancaster I met with IMr. William Ha- milton, of whom I had occasion to speak when describing his jnagniflcent gj rden near Philadelphia. This amateur was in- timately connected with my lather, and I cannot ron>;et the marks of irood vrill 1 re- ccivcd from him, and i\Ir. IMuhlcnbcrg, as well as the interest tluy both showed for the success of the long journey I had un- dertaken. On the 27th of June ( quitted Liincaster for Shippensburgh. AVe were onl}' four in the stage, which holds twelve people. Columbia, situated on the Susquehannah, is the fust town we came to. It is com- > * posed of about fifty detached houses, almost all constructed of planks : here the turnpike road terminates. 35 It may not be useless to observe here, that in the United States, the name of town is frequently applied to an assem- blage of seven or eight houses, and that the manner of construeting them is not every where the same. At Piiiladelphia the houses are of briek ; in the other towns, and in their environs, the half, and very often the whole of them, are of planks : but seventy or eighty miles from the sea, in the central and southern states, and still more particularly in those situated to the west of the Allegany mountains, seven- tenths of the inhabitants live in log-houses. These houses are made of the trunks of trees, from twenty to thirty feet long, and four or five inches in diameter, placed one above another, pnd supported by letting their ends into each other. The roof is formed of pieces of a similar length with those which form the body of the house, but lighter, and brought gradually nearer together from each side ; they are intended for the support of the shingles, which are fastened to them by means of small splin- D 2 \. { 'H I ■: .: 36 ters of wood. Two doors, which frequently supply the place of windows, are formed by sawing away a part of the trunks which form the body of the house. The chimney, which is always at one of the ends, is also made of trunks of trees of a suitable length. The back, which is of clay, six inches in thickness, separates the fire from the wooden wall. Notwithstanding this slight precaution, fires are very uncommon in this country. The spaces between these trunks of trees are filled with clay, but always with so little care, that they are open to the weather on every side : these houses are consequently very cold in winter, notwith- standing the large quantity of wood which they burn, 'i'he doors are hung on wooden hinges, and tlie greater part of them have jio locks. At night, they are only pushed to, or shut with a log of wood. Four or five days are enough for two men to com- plete one of these houses, in which there are neither nails nor iron of any sort. Two large beds receive all the family. In summer the childien frequently sleep on H . '. •Ill m 3 37 the ground, wrapped in a blanket; the floor is raised one or two feet above tlie surface of the soil, and planked. They use feather-beds and feathers, but not mattresses. Sheep being very scarce, the wool is dear, and is kept to make stockings. The clothing of the family is hung on pegs round the room, or over a long pole. ^' ■''■' ''^'^'* -'*'* ■' At Columbia, the Susquehannah is a q^itirter of a tnUe broad. We passed it in a ferr^ boat.' 'The water was then so low that we could easily perceive the bottom. Very high hills form the banks of this river, the middle of which is covered with small woody islands, which appear to divide it into several branches. Some of them are not more than five or six acres in extent, yet are as high as the neighbouring hills. Their irregularity, and the singular forms which they present, render this situation picturesque, and really worthy of notice, particularly at this season of the year when the trees were in full vegetation. 38 A mile from the Susquehannab, I no- ticed the Annona triloba, or papaw, the fruit of which is tolerably good, though flat. When at maturity, it is the size of a hen's egg. According to Ihe testimony of Mr. Muhlenberg, this sjirub grows in the environs of Philadelphia. . Twelve miles from Columbia is York, a small well built town, the houses of which, mostly of brick, are contiguous. The inhabitants are qompijijted at ixoip^ fifteen to eighteen hundred ; tlie greater part are of German origin, and do not speak English. Six miles from York, we passed through Dover, composed of about thirty log-houses, arranged on the two sides of the road, and the stage stopped at jVIacolegan's, who keeps a wretched tavern fifteen miles from York. We only travelled thirty-eight miles this day. ^^., , j; >.i ^ The taverns are very numerous in the United States, and particularly in the small towns ; but except in the large towns und their environs tliey are ahnost ever^y 39 where very bad. Nevertheless, rum, brandy, and whiskey * are always to be had. These articles of provisions are! considered as being of the first necessity, and the profits of those who keep taverns arise principally from the liquors, of which there is a very great consumption. Travellers generally stop till the regular hours of the family to take refreshment. At breakfast, they serve up bad tea, worse coffee, and small slices of ham fried, to which are sometimes added eggs and a broiled fowl. At diimer, there is a piece of salt beef and roast fowls, with rum and water for drink. At night, coflee, ea, and ham. There are always several beds in the room in which they sleep : white sheets are seldom met with ; happy the traveller who arriveji? on tlie day they are changed! But these are things with which an American who travels never trou- bles himself. " On the 28th of June, we arrived early at Carlisle, situated at fifty-four miles from * In America, wliiskcy is the name given to brandy made of rye. / . ,/, ; , :,p - :♦• !-••,'» • :» >:'[t;.ii .' '4 ■ ,1 •■ M ; 1 • ,1 1:1 I % 40 Lancaster. Two hundred houses, some of which are built of brick, compose this town, which contains several stores. In these stores, which are met with all through the interior of the country, are sold mer- cery, haberdashery, and grocery, and also liqu6*f. Those who keep them also nur- chase or take the produce of the land in exchange from the farmers, which they afterwards forward to the sea-ports. . j , , From Macolegan's tavern to Carlisle the country is uneven, mountainous, and bad : and for that reason, the plantations on the road side are few, and at a distance of one, two, or three miles from each other ; but out of the road they are still farther asun- der. White, red, and quercitron oaks, chestnuts, and maples, are the trees most common in the forests. On the summits of the hills is to be seen the Quercus banis- teri. From Carlisle to Shippensburgh the country continues to be mountainous and thinly inhabited ; the soil is of a very bad pature. There are pnly a few houses on the road, the miserable appearance of 41 which is an evident proof that their inha- bitants are far from comfortable, and scarcely obtain a subsistence from the land. (,,,., . , At Shippensburgh the stage stopped at the house of Colonel Ripey, who keeps a good tavern, the sign of the General "Washington. He is very obliging to the travellers who use his house in their way to the western country. Shippensburgh has scarcely seventy houses : its trade is in flour, which, at this time, was worth five piasters a barrel, weighing a hundred and ninety-six pounds. The distance from Shippensburgh to Pittsburgh is one hundred and seventy miles. The stages not going farther, tra- vellers are obliged to perform the remain- der of this journey on foot, or to purchase horses. They are always on sale, but the owners are so well informed of the neces- sity, that the purchaser must pay double their value, and on their return to Pitts- burgh, are obliged to sell them again for not more than half. Economy would have n 1 1 i ■ill. ! ',■*'*■ ■,)■;■ i ^ '^ • i.f.'al # induced me to finish the journey on foot, but the observations of my friends deter- mined me to join an American officer, whom I had met in the stage, and who was travelUng to Pittsburgh, in purchasing a horse : we agreed to ride by turns. %• ^^ ' 43 :■■! i CHAP. IV. Departure from Shippenshiirgh for Stras- burgh. — Passage of the Blue Ridges. — New Species of Rhododendrum. — Passage of the River Juniata. — Use of the Cones of the Magnolia accuminata, — Arrival at Bedford- Court House. — Excesses in which the Inhabi- tants of these Countries indulge, — Departure from Bedford*^Passage of the Allegany Ridge ; and of Lattrel Hill — Arrival at JVest Liberty Toxvn. On the morning of the 30th of June we quitted Shippensburgh, and, about noon, arrived at Strasburgh, a distance of ten mijes. This town, which does not consist of more than forty log-houses, is situated at the bottom of the fust chain of the Bkie liidges. The country through which we passed to it, although uneven, is better; wm\ several dwclHngs are met with, where ' ,■• 5j .>v1 'I m I a M r :iv fa: i if ! i 44. the cultivation apj)e»irs to be in a superior state. Having taken a short rest at Stras- burgh, we pursued our journey, notwith- standing the heat, which was excessive, and ascended the first ridge by an extremely steep and gravelly road. After a very fatigu- ing march of three quarters of an hour, we reached the summit. In iiiis manner we traversed two other ridges of equal height, lying in the same direction. These thi'ee ridges form two small vallies, in the first of which are some houses about halfway down the hill ; in the second,which is more exten- sive, is situated Fenetsbu^gh, consisting of about thirty houses, on the two sides of the road. The farms in the neighbourhood are about twenty; each of them containing from two to three hundred acres of wood- land, of which there is not, in general, more than seven or eight cultivated, and, very rarely, more than twenty or twenty- five. The want of hands, and the difficulty of finding a market, are the obstacles to the rapid progress of agri- culture. In this part of Pennsylvania, each individual is satisfied with culti- ,■■,!, 45 / • I vating what ii necessary for the subsistence of himself and his family, and according as it is more or less numerous, the cultivated spots are more or less extensive : whence it follows that the more children a man has capable of assisting him, the more ease he obtains . this is one of the principle causes of the rapid progress of population in the United States. We travelled only twenty-six miles on this day, and slept at Fort Littleton, six miles from Strasburgh, at a very good tavern kept by Col. Bird. Beyond Shippcnsburgh the mountains are very stoncy ; the soil is bad ; and the trees which gro .v in it have not an agreeable appearance, particularly the white oak, which is found on the sumu^its, anii the Kiilmia latifoUa^ which abounds in the opea places. Next morning we set off betimes for Bedford-court house. From Fort Littleton to the river Juniata, there are very few plan- tations ; one ridge succeeds another, and the inteiTals are filled with small hills. From the top of one of the most elevated of M ■ 1''] I.' :*.ji :?.!< I, ■,•• I I V w 46 these ridges, the unevenncss of this mass of mountains, covered with the endless forests, which spread over all this country, and through the whole of which no habitation is yet visible, offers a pros- pect greatly resembling the appearance of an agitated sea, succeeding a tempest. Two miles before reaching the Juniata, the road divides into two branches, which meet at the river. That to the right stretches over the hills, and that to the left, which we took, appears to have been, or perhaps still is, the bed of a deep torrent, the shelv- ing sides of which are very humid. They abound with the Andromeda, the Vaccinium, and principally wit It a species of Rhododeii' drum, of which the flowers arc perfectly white. The fjlameiits of the stamina aie also white, and one- third shorter than the corolla : the antheni) arc of a pale rose co- lour, and the leaves more obtuse and smaller than those of the Rhododcndrum maximum. 'I'hcsc ditfcrences, which aic sufficiently striking, will probably make it be considered a distinct species. I also 4 47 found this beautiful shrub iu the mountains of North Carolina. Its seeds were then at maturity, and I brought some of them to France, which have thriven very well. At this place, the river Juniata is not more than thirty or forty toises in width ; its waters were very low, and we crossed it by a ford ; but the greatest part of the year it is passed by means of a ferry boat. r;s banks are high, and very agreeable. The Magnolia aauminata is plentiful in its neighbourhood, and is known in the country by the name of the cucumber tree. The inhabitants of the remote parts of Penn- sylvania^ and Virginia, and also of tho western country, infuse the green cones in whiskey, to which it communicates a very bitter flavour. This bitter is in grekt repute in the country against intermitting fevers, but, without a doubt, its use wonld be much less frequent, if, with the same properties, it was made with water. / From the Juniata, crossing to Bedford- court house, the country, though still rough, is nevertheless better, and more in- i .■■I i.i I.. . 48 habited llian that wc had passed through ironi Ship})ciisburgh. The settlements, though sckloni within sight of each other, arc near enough to give a more lively ap- pearance to the country. We reached Bed turd at niLijht-i'all, and took up our lodg- ing at a tavern, the master of which was known to my companion, the American officer. His house is spacious, and raised a story above the ground floor, which is very uncommon in this country. The day of our arrival was a rejoicing day to the in- habitants of the country, who had assein- \)led at this town to celebrate the repeal of tlie duty on the whiskey distilleries ; a con- sklcrable impost, which had prejudiced the iijiabitants of the interior greatly against the late President Adams. The taverns, an(l particularly that in which wc lodged, wete filled with drunkards, who made a frightful uproar, and yielded to excesses so horrible as to be scarcely conceived. The rooms, the stairs, the yard, were covered with men dead drunk, and those who were still able to get their teeth separated. 49 uttered only the accents of fury and of rage; An inordinate desire for spirituous liquors is one of the characteristics of the inhabi- tants of the countries in the interior of the United States. This passion is so powerful that they quit their habitations from time to time, to go and get drunk at the taverns, and I do not beHeve that there are ten in a Jiundred who could have the r^^solution to deprive themselves of it, for an instant, if they had it at hand. Nevertheless their common drink in summer is only water or sour milk. They do not relish cider, which they 'think too mild. Their distas*.: for this salutary and agreeable beverage ^3 tiie more extraordinary, since they might easily procure it at little expense, for apple trees of every kind succeed wonderfully in this country. This is a remark which I have made both on the east and west of the Allegany mountains, where I have seen tall trees, raised from theseed,whi(;;' yielded ap- ples, eight or nine inches in circumference. The houses at Bedford do not exceed f : .1 .1 i" wj m a hundred and twenty, of which some are brick, and the rest are built with planks. This small town, like all those on this route, trades in flour, which, with salted meat, is the only article of exporta- tion from this country. During the war of the French revolution,the inhabitants found it more advantageous to send their flour to Pittsburgh, to be afterwards forwarded to New Orleans, from whence it was conveyed to the i\ntilles, than to sendi,tto Philadel- phia or Baltimore. Nevertheless it is only reckoned two hundred miles from Bedford to Philadelphia, and a hundred and fifty from Bedford to Baltimore, by a very well frequented road; while the distance from Bedford to New Orleans is 2200 miles ; that is to say, a hundred miles by land to Pittsburgh, and 2 100 miles by water, from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Mississippi. Hence it is evident that the navigation of the Ohio and the Mississippi is very easy and not expensive, since it compensates the enormous difference between these two dis- 1 I ■■/■'■ I .i 51 tances. The position of New Orleans, with respect to the Antilles, gives, therefore, to this port, very striking advantages over all the eastern ports of the United States, and, in proportion as the new western states increase in population. New Orleans will become the centre of an immense com- merce. Other facts will presently be brought in support of this observation. Next morning, July the 1st, we quitted Bedford very eai*ly. The heat was exces- sive, the ridges over which we were obliged to pass, and the little mountains between these ridges, made the road very fatiguing, we travelled only twenty-six miles this day. The road divides four miles from Bedford ; we took that to tlie left, and stopped to breakfast with a miller, who keeps a tavern. We there found a man lying on the ground, wrapped in a blanket, who, the evening before, had been bitten by a rattlesnake. The first symptoms which appeared, an hour after th^ accident, were a violent vomiting, •ucceeded almost immediately b E 3 a strong 'M . ivl ,■! Ill V1^ ' .. ■■'■'- ': 52 fever. At the time when I saw him, his leg and thigh were prodigiously swelled, his respiration very laborious, his physiog- nomy turgid, and resembling some hydro- phobic patients whom I had had an op- portunity of seeing at La Charit6. I asked him some questions, but he was so ex- hausted that I could not obtain any answer from him. From the people of the house I learnt that inmiediately after the bite they had applied the juice of some plants to the wound, while waiting for the doctor, who lived fifteen or twenty miles off. I have known several persons in America who had met with the same accident. Those who sur- vived it were constantly valetudinarians, and extremely affected by the variations of the atmosphere. The plants made use of against the bite of the rattlesnake are nu- merous, and almost all taken from among the succories. There are many of these serpents in the mountainous parts ofPenn- sylvania : we found a great number killed on the road. In hot and dry weather, they •/• come from under the rocks, and descend to places where tliere is. water. On this day we crossed the ridge more particularly known by the name of the Allegany ridge. It is ascended by 9 road extremely steep, and covered with enor- mous stones. We reached its summit after a very laborious march of two hours. It is really astonishing that loaded carriages can, with so much facility, and so few accidents, pass this multitude of high hills or ridges, which succeed each other, without inter- ruption, from Shippensburgh, as far as Pittsburgh, and the intervals of which are filled with little mountains of a less elevation. The Allegany ridge is the highest in Pennsylvania : at its summit are two very indiflfereut log-houses, three miles asun- der, which are used as taverns. These are the only habitations met with on the road beyond Bedford ; the rest of the country is uninhabited. We stopped at the second, kept by a man of the name of Chatlers, which was well provided, con- sidering the country ; for, at dinner, wc I i'j i.i ' . r ■:l'. ■ ^ -i^. i! ''k 'J l: t; mU : M : 54 had slices of ham and deer's flesh fried, and cakes of wheat-bread baked before the fire on a small board. Notwithstanding a very heavy rain, we went this day to Stanley Town, to sleep : it is i. s .lali town, which, like all those of this part of Pennsylvania, is built on a hill. It consists of about fifty houses, half of which ^re log-houses : here are p'^veral ta- verns, and two or three stores, which pro<- cure their commodities from Philadelphia, It is seven miles frpm Chatlers ; the inter- mediate country is very fertile. The trees are of a very great height ; those most frcr quent in the woods are the white, the red, and the quercitron oaks, the beech, the tulip-tree, and the Magnolia acuminata. The horse which we bought at Shippens- burgh, and which we rode by turns, wag very much fatigued, and we got forwar4 very little faster than if we had been cour jstantly on foot. But the American officer with whom I travelled was anxious to arrive at Pittsburgh by the 4th of July, to assist ?itthe celebration of the anniversary of the 55 'i-i American independence. To gain a day, therefore, he determined to hire a horse at Stanley Town, with wliich we crossed Laurel Hill, the passage over which is four miles. The direction of this ridge is pa- rallel to that of the ridges we had left behind us, the woods which cover it are thicker and vegetation brisker. The name given to this mountain is doubtless taken from the great quantity of Kalmia latifoUa, from eight to ten feet high, which, exclusively, occupies every spot a little open ; and from the Rhododendrum maxmum which covers the banks of the torrents ; for the inhabitants generally call the Rhododendrum a laurel, as well as the Kalmia latifolia. This latter shrub is also called by some theCfe ' f ■ I, . .Mi ; j :••«, I.. •' ' .'I 58 valuable properties of the olive, added that of being able to bear the cold of the most northern countries. Influenced by these motives, I quitted my fellow-traveller, to go into the mountains in quest of the shrub. Two miles from West Liberty Town, I passed Probes s Furnace, a foun- dery established by an Alsatian French- man, who fabricates caldrons of yellow cop- per of different sizes. The largest will con- tain two hundred pints ; they are sent to Kentucky and Tennessee, and employed in the preparation of salt by evaporation. Others, of a nmch smaller size, are in- tended for domestic use. The road whi^h I was to follow had been very well de- scribed to me at the foundery, 1, how- ever, frequently lost myself, for there ara only footpaths more or less beaten, lead- ing to the different plantations dispersed through the woods ; but I was very civilly directed into my road again at every one of them, and reached Patrick Archibald's the same night, who made no difficulty in F€ceiving me when he learnt the object 59 of my visit. This nmn, wlio possesses a mill, might easily be better accommodated ; he, however, inhabits only a miserable log- house, of one room, thirty feet long by twenty-four feet wide, open to the weather -on all sides. Four large beds, of which two low ones are pushed under the other two in the day-time, and at night drawn into the middle of the room, receive all the fa- mily, consisting of ten persons, and, some- times strangers, who seek a lodging there. This mode of life, Avhich, in Europe, would announce the greatest distress, is not at all occasioned by it, in this country ; for, in an extent of more than two thousand miles which I travelled, I did not find a single family without milk, butter, smoked or salted meat, and maize for their food : the poorest man has always one or more horses, and it is very seldom that a planter goes on foot to see his neighbours. The day after my arrival, I proceeded into the woods, and at my first excursion found the shrub which was the' object of pi^ search. I recognized it as being the if' J' : '^'■''■ ^'ri >. :■• in i: Htel I' ■ a same which my father had discovered fif- teen years before in the mountains of South Carohna, and wliich, notwithstanding iiis care, he coukl not make succeed in his gar- den near Charlestown. Mr. \V. Hamilton, who had also received seeds and shoots from tliis part of Pennsylvania, had not been more successful. The seeds become so soon rancid, that, in a few days, they lose their germinating property, and accjuire an extraordinary acrimony. This shrub, which seldom rises more than four feet above the ground, is dioecious. It grows exclusively on mountains, and is only found in cool, shady places, where the soil is very fertile. Its roots, which are of a citron colour, are not divided : they extend horizontally to a great distance, and give birth to off-sets, which seldom rise to more than eighteen inches in height. The roots and bark yield a disagreeable smell on being bruised. I charged my host to collect half a bushel of the seeds, and to send them to Mr. AV. Ha- milton, pointing out to him the precautions it would be necessary to take to keep them fli . ■■•' fresh bank: mill i rents cies flowei liftecr fcTtly other able flowei" on the tains, Li2,( tivatec inhabi mount climat( ble he after it cultiva of then the tai spin an clothes price o] 61 1 Id. I liel of . Ha- itions them fresh until they could rc.nch him. On the bfiiiks of the creek on wliich P. Archibald's mill is built, and on the sides of the tor- rents met with in its environs, grows a spe- cies of .l~ ■ fit r'i 62 :; : <■;, !■> ' i ter» an acre. The taxes arc very light, and are never complained of. In tliis part of the United States, as in all mountainous countries, the air is very healthy. I have icen old men here upwards of seventy-five 5'ears of age, which is very uncommon in the states bordering on the Atlantic, to the southward of Pennsylvania. At the period of my journey into this country, the mea- sles were very prevalent : by the desire of my host I visited several of his relations and friends who had them, and found them all drinking whiskey to promote perspiration. 1 recommended them a decoction oft he leaves of the slipj)ery elm, with the addition of a spoonful of vinegar and an ounce of ma- ple sugar to each pint. The country being poor and the population still scanty, ther« are very fcAv medical men, and, in an ur- gent case, they must be fetched from a dis- tance of twenty-five or thirty miles. • On the fourth of July, I quitted the house of P. Archibald, and proceeded to Greens- burgh, which is eleven miles from it. Almost immediately after leaving the house I was i there bn ur- adis- I was 63 obliged to ascend Chest nut ru1(ye, a steep hill, the summit of which, for an extent of two mileSjOfTers only a dry, bad soil, in which nothing grows but stinted white oaks and shoots of chestnut trees : but on approach- ing Greensburgh, the aspect of the coun- try changes, the soil becomes better, the plantations, though surrounded with woods, are nearer tlian in Ligonier's Vallev. 'J'he houses, which are larger, have generally two stories. The superior cultivation of the land, and the better condition of the fenced which divide their grounds, are sufficient indications that this is a settlement of Ger- mans: with them every thing announces that comfort which is the reward of the" assiduity and labour. They assist each other in their harvests, they intermarry with each other, al- ways speak German, and preserve, as much as possible, the manners of their European ancestors. 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 likethemi^ that unsteady disposition, which 1 V^ :i' i i (■■ t mm mi i I ' B.! I ' t ; 64. frequently, from the most trifling cause, induces them to emigrate several hun- dred miles, in the hope of finding a more fertile territory. Before reaching Greensburgh, I observed some parts of the woods which consisted entirely of the white oak, Quercm alba; the softer green of its foliage contrasted very agreeably with the deeper colour of the other species of trees. A mile from the town, and on the edge of a deep ra- vine, 1 observed unequivocal indications of a mine of pit-coal. I learnt both at Greensburgh and Pittsburgh that this substance is so common and so easily pro- cured, that several of the inhabitants burn' it for cheapness. This does no*^ arise from a deficiency of w ood ; the whole country is covered with it : but labour is so very dear, that there is not a landholder at Pittsburgh who would not sell a cord of wood for half the price w hich coals would cost, if the purchaser Avould go a mile to- fell the trees, and bring them home. • Greensburgh contains about a hundred' <5 :?■■'?' I '? 'i 65 houses. This town is built on the summit of a hill, on the road from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh : it is also in the route of a great number of emigrants, going to settle near the lakes. The soil of the neighbour- hood is fertile : the inhabitants, who are all of German origin, cultivate wheat, rye, and oats with success ; the flour is exported to Pittsburgh. I lodged at the Seven Stars, with one Erbach, who keeps a good tavern. I there met with a traveller who came from the state of Vermont, and we slept in the same room. Without entering into an explana- tion of the intentions of our journies, we mutually communicated our remarks on the countries we had passed through. He had travelled six hundred miles, after leaving the place of his residence, and I had tra- velled four hundred from New York. He proposed that we should proceed together as far as Pittsburgh ; but I observed to him that 1 was on foot, for which I ac- counted to him ; for, in America it is very uncommon to travel in this manner, the w '.I I - i ■j' I ■ .; V ■jl ■i. • ■ ( . I..; It ■;l i i *. II 66 poorest planter always possessing one or more horses. It is reckoned thirty-two miles from Greensburgh to Pittsburgh; the road be- tween them is very mountainous : to avoid the heat, and accelerate my journe^^ 1 set off at four o clock in the morning. I had no trouble to get out of the house, the door being only shut with a latch : in the taverns of the little towns, on the contrary, they are very careful to lock the stables ; for horse-stealers are not uncommon in some parts of the United States, and this is one of the accidents to Avhich travellers are the most liable, particularly in the southern states, and in the \\ cstern countr}^ where they are frequently obliged to sleep in that woods. Sometimes also they steal them from the planters, which is the more easy, because the horses live part of the 3Tar in the forests, and, in the spring, stray several miles from the house ; but on the slightest trace of the route which the thici' has taken, the injured planter connnences a vigorous pursuit, and very frequently succeeds in 67 overtaking him : he then confines him in the prison of the county in which he is apprehended, or, which is also very com- mon, kills him on the spot. In the dif- ferent states, the hiw sagainst horse-stealing are very severe; this severity appears to have arisen from the facility which the country offers for the commission of this offence. I had walked fifteen miles when I was overtaken by the American traveller whom I had met at Greensburgh the night before. Although he was on horseback, he had the civility to slacken his pace, and we kept company as far as l-'ittsburgh. This second interview produced a better acquaintance. He informed nie that it was his intention to descend the Ohio. As this was also my object, 1 conceived a v/ish to proceed in his company, and this the more wil- lingly, because lie was not a lover of whiskey ; for, when the heat obliged us to stop at any of the numerous taverns on the road, I observed that he drank but a small quantity of this liquor hi watery and that i'2 I,, I. • 711 'i' .^ :-l ' 1 t 68 he gav^^ the prefererce to sour milk when it could be got. In this respect be differed very much from the American officer with whom I had travelled almost all the way from Shippensburgh. Nineteen miles from Greensburgh, ori the left, is a road which shortens the jour- ney about three miles, but which is only practicable for horse and foot-passengers. We followed it, and, in half an hour, dis- covered the river Monongahela, which we coasted until within a short distance of #'^ittsburgh. A very heavy shower obliged us to take shelter in a house, about a hundred toises from the river. The owner perceiving we were strangers, informed us that this was the spot on which the French, in the seven years war, had completely defeated General Braddock : he showed us several trees which were damaged by the balls. 1 experienced a pleasing satisfac- tion at seeing, in the midst of these forests, the theatre of French valour, on whicih a $mall numbtr of soldiers, united v/ith some savages, destroyed a numerous army, well m ■ 1 us IC- Jts, appointed, and commanded by an English general, who lost his life in the action. We arrived earlj at Pittsburgh, and I went to lodge with a Frenchman of the name of Marie, who keeps a very good tavern. I was heartily rejoiced at my arrival, having began to grow weary of travelling in so mountainous a country; for, in the extent of nearly a hunc^red and eighty miles, which I had travelled almost wholly on foot, and through intense heats, I do not believe that I had proceeded fifty toises without ascending or descending. Hr 1 ■ ' ''■ 4|] '<' M ,*.' ■ i , i. • .■4 M V •:l-* , i ■ (' "■ :f ■ i 1 1 ne lell 'n I) p I' 'A. \\% 70 r by high hills. Almost all the houses are of brick; tiiere are about tour hundred, the greatest number of which are built ou i; ^M^ 71 the Monongahela, and the most commer- cial part of the town is also on this side. Since many of the houses do not touch, and the intervals which separate them are pretty large, all the surface of this spot is completely occupied, and buildings arc already commenced on the sides of the high hills which overlook the town. It was at the extremity of this angle that the French had constructed Fort Duquesne, which is entirely destroyed, and of which nothing is now to be seen but the vestiges of the ditches which surrounded it. From this spot may be enjoyed a most agreeable prospect, produced by the view of these three rivers, the banks of w hich are embel- lished with forests, but paiticiilariy that of the Ohio, which stretches forward in a straight line, and permits the eye to follow its course to a very great distance. The air of Pittsburdi and its environs iy very healthy : the intermitting fevers, so connnon in the southern states, arc not known here, nor are the inhabitants tor- mented with nuisquitocs during the sum- ■■■■ 'i 4 H ' ,! I ■^i . ' .1 72 mer. Living is about one-third cheaper than at Philadelphia. Here are two print- ing-offices, each of which pubhshes two newspapers a week. Pittsburgh has been long considered by the American government as the key of the western country. It was from hence that the operations of the federal forces were directed against the Indians, who opposed the first establishments of the Americans in Kentucky, and on the banks of the Ohio. But now that the Indian nations have been driven to a very great distance, and reduced to the impossi- bility cf injuring the most remote plan- ters, in the interior of these states; and as, besides, the western country has ac- quired a great mass of population, there is only a weak garrison ^eft at Pittsburgh, which is lodged in a small palissaded fort, adjoining the town, on the banks of the Allegany river. But if this town has lost its importance as a military post, it has acipiired a very great one in a commercial view. It stTves 73 as a staple for the merchandize sent from Philadelphia and Baltimore, at the com- mencement of the spring and aut'mm, for the supply of the states of the Ohio and Kentucky, and of the establishment of the Natches. In the course of the la st wa' these two cities also forwarded their goods to New Orleans, by the way of the Ohio, and the Mississippi. The merchandize is conveyed from Phila- delphia to Pittsburgh in large covered wag- gons, drawn by four horses, harnessed two and two. The price of the carriage varies according to the season : but, in general, it does not exceed six piasters the quintal. It is reckoned three hundred miles from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and the carriere are from twenty to twenty-four days in tra- velling this distance. The expense of car- riage would certainly not be so great, were it not that the waggons almost always re- turn empty : they, however, sometimes, on their return to Philadelphia, or Balti- more, bring back furs which are obtained from the Ilhnois, or Ginseng, which is '.I I '-.i "( J: U % } », * ■ ,41 If ■f i h:M 74 P i u. Tory common in this part of Pennsyl- vania. Pittsburgh is not only th , stiiple of com- merce for Philadelphia and Baltimore, with the western country, but it is also that of the numerous establishments ich are formed on the Monongahela anu Allegany rivers. The territorial products of these countries fmd an easy and advantageous vent by the Ohio and the Mississi|)pi. Flour, iiams, and smoked pork are the principal articles sent to New Oilcans, whence they are re-exported to the West Indies. 'I'hey also export, for the consumption of Louisi- ana, bar-iron, coarse cloths, bottles made at Pittsburgh, wliiskey, and })arrelled but- ler. A great part of these articles conj(i from Redstone, a verv conmiercial little town, situated on the Monongahela, fifty- five miles above Pittsburgh. All these advantages combined, have, within ten years, augmented the population and the value of property in this town, tenfold, and still contribute to their irfcrease, which €.very day becomes more rapid. 75 The greater part of the traders esta?> lished at Pittsburgh, or in its environs, are jiartners, or factors to the commercial houses at Phihidelphia. Their correspond- ents at New Orleans sell as much as they can for ready money, or Miey take in exchange cottons, indigo, ^' (I sugar, the produc- tions of Lowei >, which they for- ward, by sea, to t, >; scsat Philadelphia or Baltimore, who are thus covered for their first advances. The conductors of tho boats also return by sea to Philadelphia or Baltimore, whence they proceed, by kind, to Pittsburgii, and its neighbourhood, where most of them reside. Although the length of the passage to one of these two ports is from twenty-five to thirty days, and they have afterwards to make a journey of up- wards of three hundred miles by land to Pittsburgh, they give the preference to this route, because it is less fatiguing than re- turning by land from New Orleans to Pittsburgh, the latter distance being four- teen or fifteen hundred miles. But when tliQ boats are only bound to Limestone iu i ' 'I I . I 1i .rii ■i 1 'i ■ I ),' i\ I ■ij |-| ilj ^^J^ .0^. ^'^y;' IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 30 ™^^ y£ 1 2£ ■ 2.2 M |I.25|,U IIh ^ 6" — ► Photographic Sdences Corporalion ^^ ^^^^ 33 WIST MAIN STMCT WUSTII.N.Y. USM (716) 173-4503 76 Kentucky, or Cincinnati, in the state of the Ohio, the conductors return by land, and then make a journey of four or five hundred miles. The navigation of the Ohio and the Mississippi is so much in use, that the distance from Pittsburgh to New Orleans is now known with great precision : it is fixed at 2,100 niiles. The carrying boats generally require, in the spring, from forty- five to fifty days to perform this passage, which two or three pereons, in a light vessel (pirogue) can accomplish in twenty or twenty-live days. It is not perhaps known to many people in Europe, that vessels of a considerable tonnage are built at Pittsburgh, and on the Ohio. One of the principal dock-yards is on the Monongahela, two hundred toises from the last houses in the town. The timbei*s employed in their construction are the white oak, Quercus alba ; the red oak, Quercus rubra ; the black oak, Quercus tine- ioria; a species of walnut, Juglans pignut ; the cluster cherry-tree, Cerasus Virginiana; 77 and a species of pine, which is used for masts, and also for such parts of the vessel as require a lighter wood. All these woods being in the vicinity, the expenses of construction are less considerable than in the ports of the Atlantic states. The cordage is fabricated at Redstone, or at Lexington, where two good rope-walks arc established, which also supply the ships built at Marietta and Louisville. When I was at Pittsburgh, in July 1802, there was a three-masted vessel * on the stocks, of two hundred and fifty tons burthen, and a galliot of ninety, which were nearly fmished. These vessels were to go down to New Orleans in the following spring, with a cargo of the productions of the country, and, before reaching the ocean, would make a voyage of near 2200 miles. There is not a doubt but that, hereafter, vessefe will be constructed two hundred leagues above the moutii of the Missouri, fifty i ■■urn M t I U !''*'> ■>i^ '■I, i 1 : ' I : H 1 iil * Since my return, I have been inrormcd that this ship, called the Pitiiburgh, had arrived at Philudolphia. l^U 7S 'iJ; h i above that of the Illinois river, and also in the Mississippi, two hundred leagues above the place where these rivers join it : that is to say, six hundred and fifty leagues from - the sea, for in the spaces mentioned, their depths are as great as that of the Ohio at Pittsburgh, and it would be wrong to sup- pose, that, in time, the vast countries watered by these rivers will not be suffici- ently populous to execute such enterprises. The ^npid population of the three new western states, in circumstances infinitely less favourable, warrant this opinion. These states, in which, thirty years ago, there were scarcely three thousand inhabitants, have at present more than four hundred thousand ; and among all the plantations, which on the roads, are seldom more than four or five miles asunder, it is very uncom- mon to find one, even of t' nost flourish- ing, of which the proprietor may not be asked, with confideLcc, from whence he emigrated, or, in tlu, trivial language of the Americans, jpro/w zokat part of the world arc yoii come ? as if these west and fertile ic- 79 gioiis were intended to be the point of con- centration, and common country of all the inhabitants of the globe. Now if we consi- der these astonishing and rapid amelior- ations, what ideas shall we not form of the high degree of prosperity to which these western countries may attain, and of the great increase which the commerce, popu- lation, and culture of this country will acquire by the union of Louisiana to the American territory. " The river Monongahela rises in Virgiri^i, at the foot of Laurel mountain, which forms part of the chain of the Allegany mountains : it then directs its course to the west, and passes through Penn- sylvania, aiid before forming a junction with the Allegany, receives in its course the rivers Cheat and Youghiogheny, which come from the south-south-east. The territory watered by this river is very fertile, and the establishments formed on its banks. arc not far removed from each other. It bcains to be naviiiublc at Mor- gan's Town. This town which consists of i -.iv r-i -trii \i:^ ■ i'l'.Jl ...■Jt'., 80 I*" 'M about sixty houses, is situated on its right bank, a hundred and seven miles iVom its mouth. Of all the small towns built on the Monongahela, those in which commerce is carried on with the greatest activity, are New Geneva and Redstone. At the first there is a glass-house, for the fabrication of bottles only, which are exported into the western country : the second contains five . hundred inhabitants. Here arc flour mills, a rope walk, and a manufacture of paper. Many of the emigrants from the eastern states embark at this town, in their way to the western country. Large boats called Kentucky boatn are also burlt here, to be employed in the commerce of Kentucky. They are likewise built at Elizabeth Town, situated on the same river, twenty-three miles from Pittsburgh : the Monongahela Farmer, a vessel of two hundred tons bur- then, was launched at this town. The source of the Allegany is situated fifteen or twenty miles from Lake Erie; in its course it is increased by French Creek, and other smaller rivers. The Allegany I 81 ), begins to be navigable at two hundred miles from Pittsburgh. The banks of this river are fertile, the planters settled upon, it, as well as those on the Monongahela, export the products of their grounds, by the way of the Ohio and the Mississippi^ Several small towns begin to appear on the banks of this river ; the most considerable are Meadville, distant two hundred and thirty-five miles from Pittsburgh, Franklin, at two hundred, and Freeport;, which is only one hundred miles from that place. Each of these towns consists, at present, of forty or fifty houses. Whatever the state of the weather may be, the waters of the Allegany are clear and limpid, those of the Monongahela, on the contrary, become turbid whenever there are a few days of successive rain, in that part of the Allegany mountains where it rises. The sugar maple is very common in all that part of Pennsylvania, which is watered by the Monongahela and the Allegany. o f ?; {) I ; I I V I ..Vl !■.. 'V'-l -^ ■Mm A' ?•: ■! 1 ! -.a 82 This tree thrives best in cold, humid, and mountainous countries, and its sap is more abundant, as the winter has been more se- vere. The sugar obtained from it has as dark a colour as that of the clayed sugar of the first boiling, it is sold in loaves of 6, 8, or 10 pounds, at seven pence per pound. The inhabitants only make it for their own use, most of them have tea or coffee every day, but they only use it in the state in which it is obtained from the first evaporation of the sap : they do not refine it, on account of the great loss it sustains in this opera* tion. :-m "' :'yf-- '■ ,■ r ■ . I :. I, liil F 85 CHAP. VII. % J4 n. SI t^ Of the Ohio. — Navigation of that River t-^Mr* S. Craft » — Object of his Journey. -^Inf or" mation relative to the State of Vermont* The Ohio, formed by the junction of the rivers Monongahela and Allegany, appears to be rather a continuation of the first than of the second, which arrives at the conflux in an oblique direction. At Pittsburgh, the breadth of the Ohio may be about two hun- dred toises. The course of this great and magnificent river takes at first a north-west direction for about twenty-five miles, then turning gradually towards the west-south- west, it follows this direction through m ex- tent of nearly five hundred miles : it aller- wards inclines to the south-west for a hun- dred and sixty miles, then to the west for two hundred and seventy-six miles, and, finally, runs into the Mississippi in a south- G 2 1} •i !• 1 ■ r H iil 5 i ' ' I ■ ill li m 8^ cast direction, in latitude, 36." 46/ at a distance of 1100 miles from Pittsburgh, and nearly as much from New Orleans. This river is very crooked, so much so, that in descciulinf^ it, it frequently appears as though the course was directly opposite to that which was intended. Its breadth va- ries from two hundred to a thousand toises. The islands met with in it are very numer- ous. I. have counted nearly fifty in a dis- tance from three hundred and seventy-five to three hundred and ninety miles in extent. Some of them contain only a few acres, while others are above a mile in length. Their banks are low, and they must be very liable to inundations. These islands are very injurious to the navigation in the sum- mer. The sand carried down by the river forms considerable accumulations at the upper part of each of them : and at that sea- son the channel is so straitened, by a defi- ciency of water, that the few boats, even ofamiddling size,which then dare to venture down it, frcc^uently get aground, and are not ; i.»i the expense of clearing the land is always co- vered by the produce of the potash ex- tracted from the ashrs of the burnt trees, and that there are also people who under- take this business on the single conditio© mm ■n '1 -■■ : \ i m m \- K : t^ 90 ' of having this potash. This species of eco- nomy, however, does not exist in the other parts of North- America ; for in all the east- em states, commencing from that of New York, and in all those to the westward, the trees are burnt and totally lost ; it is true, the inhabitants of New England, properly so called, which comprehends all the states to the east of that of New York, are ac- knowledged to be the most enterprizing, the most industrious, and the best acquaint- ed with domestic economy, of all the Ame- rican people. Mr. Craft afterwards acquainted me with the intent of his journey, which was to satisfy himself respecting the reports of the salubrity and extraordinary fertility of the banks of the river Yazous, and, if he found them true, to piocure for himself, and some friends, several thousand acres of land, and to go and settle there with some of the families in his neighbourhood, who WTre not in easy circumstances. One of his motives for emigrating into so remote a country was founded on the length of the »' 1 winters /hicli, in the state of Vermont, are as c>.ivere as in Canada, and clog the activitj^ of its inhabitants for more than a third part of the year; another was the small value of the products of their land ; while, in the countries watered by the river Yazous, * the temperature of the climate, and the fertility of the soil, permit the culture of cotton, indigo, and tobacco, the profits on which are much more advan- tageous than those of the northern parts of the United States, and the sale is se- cured by their exportation to New Orleans, whither they may go and return, by the river, in less than fifteen days. li i • The rirer Yazous falls into the Mississippi, between the thirty-secaofl and thirty.tliird degrees of latitude,. •v^l '■ f «!■ m' 92 p. .. t" ll I '■■i (.. 1 ■ ■ t* • . ^^' ijL r. --;-"l: ,.-,'.^f I, >I* V t ' •Ij . CHAP. \iu. ,'i:v ..J !.'"'' '' * ' ' Jt'. »'•''■( M's •'«' Departure from Pittsburgh for Kentucky. — Journey by Land to Wheeling. — State of Agriculture on this Road* — fVest Liberty Town in Virginia. — IVheeling. ft--' - : Mr. craft and I agreed to travel to- gether as far as Kentucky, by the Ohio, pre- fening this route, altliough a hundred and forty miles longer, to that by land, which is more expensive. But as this was the season at which the waters are lowest, to gain time, and avoid a considerable circuit which the river makes on leaving Pittsburgh, we w ere advised to embark at Wheeling, a small town situated on the Ohio, eighty miles lower down, following the river, but much nearer by land. On the l4th of July, in the evening, we set off on foot, and crossed the Monongahela at John's fcriy, situated 93 on the opposite side, at the foot of Coal hill, a very high hill, which, on this side, is close to the river, for a considerable distance; and terminates the prospect of all the houses in Pittsburgh, which are built on its right bank. After having coasted along the Ohio for about a mile and a half, we struck into the wood, and came to a bad tavern, on Chartier creek, to sleep, where there is only one bed, in- tended for travellers. When several meet here, the last comers lie on the floor, wrap- ped in the blanket, which those who travel in the back parts of the United States, always carry with them. Next day we proceeded twenty-eight miles, and took up our lodging with one Patterson. On this road, tiie plantations are two or three miles distant, and still farther asunder in the interior of the coun- try: this observation is applicable to all the roads which cross these countries. The inhabitants of this part of Pennsylvania are very regular in their manners, and very religious : in some places we saw churches ' I, Xi ■'1 \4 1' >'. Ill m ■■ !l 94 \^ insulated in the woods, and in others, places for preaching, fixed under large oaks. Patterson possesses a considerable farm, and a good corn-mill, built on a small river : he sends his flour to New Orleans. Rivers and creeks are not very numerous in this part of the country, which obliges the inhabitants to have recoui'se to mills worked by horses ; but the flour made in them is consumed in the country, not being fit for commerce. No one has yet thought of constructing wind-mills, al- though on the summits of some of the hills there are clear spots, which offer favourable situations. a> i r On the l6th of July we arrived at Wheel- ing, very much fatigued ; we were on foot, and the heat was extreme. Our march had been rendered more fatiguing by the nature of the country, which is a succes- sion of hills, almost joining each other, and requiring twenty or five-and-twcnty mi- nutes to reach their summits. Six miles fi'om Patterson's, we reached the line of demarkation which separates Pennsylvania " ■. i )t, :h 11- ics lof 95 from Virginia, and intersects the road at right angles. This line is traced by abbatis formed on elevated spots, with trees of the largest size, and from thirty to forty feet in breadth. Twelve miles before we arrived at Wheeling, we passed through West Liberty town, a small town of about a hundred houses, built on the side of a hill. The plantations in its neighbourhood are more numerous, and the soil, though unequal, is fertile. The produce of the land varies : it yields from fifteen to twenty bushels of wheat per acre, when well cleared, but only from twelve to fifteen whcii that is not complete; that is to say, while the stumps remain: for in clearing the land, they begin by felling the trees two feet above the ground, and afterwards the stumps are exterminated in succession. It may be proper to observe, that the planters only plough the land once, do not manure it, and never let it lay fallow. The price of the land depends upon its quality. The best, in the proportion of twenty to twenty-five acres of cleaied land, in a lot iS I ■ iV M li ti W IS: I J;- V i ■ ■ !::■' i\-^ j I i ♦ ! of two or three Inmclred, is not worth more than three or four piasters an acre; the taxes are about an halfpenny or a penny an acre. Hands being scarce, labour is dear, and bears no proportion tc> the price of produce; whence it follows, that in all the midland and southern states, lying fifty miles from the sea, each proprietor clears very little more than he can culti- vate with his family, or with the reciprocal aid of his neighbours, This is more par- ticularly applicable to the western country, where each individual may easily procure land, and is excited to work by the incom- parable*, fertility of the soil. A mile and a half from AVcst Liberty town, the road passes through a narrow valley, four miles in length, the sides of which, in some places from twenty-five to thirty feet in height, exhibit strata of coal, five or six feet in thickness, and lying in a horizontal direction. This substance is extremely common in all this part of Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania ; but the country being one continued forest, and its popu- 97 lation very thin, considering its immense extent, these mines are not opened. They would be worked with great advantage if they were situated in the eastern states, where, in large towns, they burn coal, im- ported from England, on account of the high price of wood. * . .^ ..z.^.', ,i. The trees growing in this valley are very close, their diameters large, and their spe- cies much more varied than in the countries through which I had hitherto passed. These signs, indicating an extremely fertile soil, are observable in all the valley's, where, as in this, run large rivulets or creeks, which fall into the Ohio, and of which the soil greatly resembles in its nature, and yields nearly the same productions, as the low lands bordering on this river. - Wheeling, situated on one of the high banks of the Ohio, was not in existence twelve years ago. At present, it contains about seventy houses, built of planks, which, as in all the rising towns of the United States, are separated by an in- terval of several toises. This little town is H f1 ir u. ■'■_-:*• I' , ■ ^i'''-; ^ confined by a long hill, from a hundred and eighty to two hundred toiscs in height^ the base of which is not farther from tho river than about two hundred toises. In this interval the houses are buiU: they form only one street, having the road in the middle, which follows the course of the river for upwards of two hundred miles. Here are twelve or fifteen well provided stores^ from which the inhabitants for twenty miles round are supplied. This small town also participates in the expor- tation trade carried on between Pittsburgh and the western country. Several of the traders of Philadelphia prefer sending their merchandize here, although it is a day's journey farther ; but this slight inconveni- ence is amply compensated by the advan- tage they derive, in avoiding the long circuit mado by the Ohio on quitting Pittsburgh, in which the very numerous shallows, and the want of rapidity in the cun-ent during the summer, retard the na- vigation. ^ M AVlie«lingj we lodged with Captain M Reymer, who keeps a tavern at the sign of the Waggon, and takes boarders for two piasters a week. The hving is very good at his house for this money, for provisions are not dear here : twelve fowls are sold for a piaster, and a quintal of flour was not, at that time, worth more than a piaster and a half! - . . ' 1 ; I . ■>t (s • V!-t >«•> '' H ' t., ; J ■■'. , ^^•^r.'^f ^'.Vl .tu^'- : ■-■ l*:?': rii ,3f:V' V . ■ •■ -^ ^' :V'«s^f :o ... i.it-' ..■■'■ I, a 2 ' t; . ■» v.. V: 100 ; . I ei'il . I '^•l•1 J '•••i't: ?\':irl i»^ ?!! ^,; r 'i^jv' • I J . • » ' i ...I CHAP. IX. ■■n;;1 .■*'f >*ti '■ ■■iB 1 ,, • f-- ■1 ■■■:\\ 1 - 'M I . ':ii ii * This appears to have been an oversight in the author, who did nut embark on the Ohio till his arrival at WheeU iog, which is probably the plaec intended.— T. : 3Q4 observe them more or less distinctly, as they were nearer to or farther from the sides of the river. Their direction is parallel to the chain of the Allegany n^oun tains, and although ihey are sometimes from forty to a hundred miles distant from them, and this for an extent of one or two hundred miles, we cannot help considering them as having a connection with these moun- tains. All that part of Virginia lying on the left bank of the Ohio is excessively mountainous, covered with forests, and almost uninhabited ; at least, so I was in- formed by the inhabitants of the banks of the Ohio, who, every winter, go into these deserts to hunt bears. The nane of rivers-bottoms, ov fiat-bot- toms, is given to those low lands, covered with wood, lying between the foot of these hills and the sides of the river, and which are sometimes five or six miles broad. The greater part of the large and small rivers running into the Ohio have also rivers-bot- toms, which, as well as those of that river, are of easy culture ; but nothing equals the 105 fertility of the sides of the Ohio. The soil is a true vegetable earth, produced by the thick bed of leaves which are annually col- lected on the ground, and soon converted into mould by the humidity prevalent ia these sequestered forests : but a consider- able addition to the thickness of these successive beds of vegetable earth arises from the trunks of the enormous trees de- stroyed by age, with whose stumps the sur- face of the soil is every where loaded, and which decay very rapidly. In more than a thousand places of the territory I have passed over, at different periods, in North America, I do not recollect to have seen one which can be compared to this in the vegetative power of its forests. The best lands in Kentucky, and in that part of Tennessee, situated beyond Cumberland Mountains, yield very abundant harvests, but there the trees do not attain a bulk or an elevation comparable to those on the banks of the Ohio. Thirty-six miles before reaching Maiietta, we stopped with a per- son who lives on the right bank : at about i ;!i __• '^^:^^^'^!'gfe"- -^miiii^-^:\j^.:.^'~^ ^ ^%i_*,*,-..-:..-s._ .^■-«'*^'^J -»u.. 1 ; 106 I ( \ 1 "i fifty paces from his house he showed us a plane-tree, platanus occidentalism of which the trunk was swelled to a prodigious size at a height of two feet : we measured it fonr feet above the surface of the ground, and found it to be forty-seven feet in circumference. It appeared to keep the same dimensions to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, then it divided into several branches of a proportional thickness. No external appearance led to a belief that the tree was hollow, and I examined this as inuch as I could by striking it with a large stick in several places. Our host of- fered, if we would pass the day with him, to show us others as large in different parts of the wood, two or three miles from the river. This fact supports an observation made by my father, when he travelled this country, tending to prove that the tulip and plane- trees, of all the trees of North America, are those which attain to the greatest diameter. He says : ** Fifteen miles above the ri- ver Muskingum, in a 5mall island of the Ohio, is a plane-tree, plataiiiis occidentalist 107 the circumfei-ence of which, at five feet from tlie earth, where the stem is uniform, is forty feet four inches, which is about thirteen feet in diameter. Twenty years before my journey. General Washington had measured the same tree, and found it nearly of the same dimensions. I have also measured plane-trees in Kentucky, but never found them exceed fifteen or sixteen feet in circumference. This tree grows in humid places. " Next to the plane, the largest tree of North America is the tulip-tree, Z/r/ot/ew-r droji tulipifera (called by the Americans of the western country, poplar). Its circum- ference is sometimes fifteen, sixteen, and even eighteen feet. Kentucky is the na- tive place of the tulip- trees ; between Board Town and Louisville there are parts of the woods which are exclusively composed of them. The land is argillaceous, fresh, and humid, but never flooded." The trees chiefly met with in the forests bordering on the Ohio are, the plane, the tulip, the beech, the magnolia acuminata^ i.*f ' ■■'}'■ ( ■ ■i-l i 1 •>■ ' jvi. ■|! 1^; ■ ,1 Iv m it' It i ir'.i 108 i \ i I i! the celth occidentalis, the acacia, the sugar- maple, the red-maple, the populus nigra, and several species of walnuts. The most common shrubs are, the annona triloba, the euonifmus latifoliusy and the lauru$ benzoin. i > ;MP ] 1,1 i;i= 109 f-; •-•»!;: !-'• n • ^. •rj;Ujic.-i:-i 'lii '' l^''!i ' f ii ih'i ,i3 Si ff I -.r ,'•• CHAP. X. ■ i;?nc^ or!,. •:-",'. »-!■»: ■i; Marietta.-^Ship-Yards* — Indian Fortifications, Departure for GaUipoli. — Meeting with a . Kentucky Boat, — Point Pleasant, — Great Kenhaway, Marietta the chief place of the es- tablishments of the new continent, in the state of the Ohio, is situated on the left bank of the great Muskingum, at its in^ux into the Ohio. This town, which did not exist fifteen years ago, already consists of upwards of iwo hundred houses ; some of them are built of brick, but the generality are only of planks. There are a considerable number of two or three stories and very elegantly constructed. Almost all of them front the Ohio. The hills, which from Pittsburgh are near the river, are at some distance from its edges r'i-] " I 1 ;! f ■ ,'1 •1 ;i '1. I . t s Ik ! 110 at Maiietta, and leave a considerable ex- tent of level ground, which will facilitate the aggrandizement of this town, on a re- gular plan, in every direction, and will allow its inhabitants to chuse the most advantageous and most agreeable situa- tions : it will not experience the same in- convenience as Pittsburgh, which is al- ready straitened by the hills around it. The inhabitants of Marietta were the first who conceived the idea of exporting the products of the country directly to the Antilles, by a vessel constructed in their town, which they sent to Jamaica. The success which crowned this firet at- tempt produced such an emulation among the inhabitants of this part of the western country, that new vessels were launched at Pittsburgh and Louisville, and sent immediately to the West Indies, or to Nevr York and Philadelphia. The dock-yard at Marietta is situated near the town, on the great Muskingum. While I was there, there were three brigs on the stocks, one of which was of the burthen of Iwo hun. 0£ 111 dred and twenty tons. The works were under the direction of master-builders from Boston. The river Muskingum takes its rise near lake Eric ; it is navigable only two hundred and fifty miles above its influx into the Ohio, where it is a hundred and sixty toises broad. The country through which it runs, and especially its banks, is i tile. There are plantations as far as a hu?H red miles above Alarietta. Near this town arc to be seen the re- mains of ancient earth-works, supposed to have been formerly used as fortifications by the Indians. At the time of their dis- covery, trees were growing on them of the same nature as those of the ncighbourins forests, some of which were upwards of three feet in diametero These trees haA e been felled, and the land is now nearly all cultivated with maize. Major-general S. Hart, with whose son I was acquainted at Marietta, gave a plan and very minute description of these an- cient works of the Indians, in the Colum- 3 'I •' • ( 1 I 1^ t. •' , 1 1 I 1 • i ■' i i ,i 't f- 1 if 1; :■ v* 1= * -K . j'i . 112 bian Magazine for the year 1787> Vol. I. No. 9- a translation of wliich is to be found in Voyage dans la Haute Pensylvanie. This officer, whose merit was very eminent, perished in the famous battle lost by General Saint-Clair in i791» near lake Erie, against the combined savages. At the time of my being at Marietta, General Saint-Clair was governor of the state of the Ohio, a situa- tion which he has held from the admission of the state into the union. In his journey from Pittsburgh to Chillicothe, his excel- lency stopped at the tavern where I lodged ; but as he travelled in an old chaise and without a servant, he did not at first at- tract my attention. In the United States, the men Avho are called by the wishes of their fellow-citizens to zercise these im- portant functions, do not, in any respect change their manners ; they continue to reside in their own houses, and to live aa simple individuals, without showing more ostentation or entering into greater ex- pense. The emoluuients attached to this office vaiy in each state : South Caro- > ,* 113 lino, one of the richest states of the uittgl^ gives its governor 4/280 piastcis, while the governor of Kentucky docs not receive more than 12 or 1.500. The inhabitants «f the state of tlie Ohio are divided in opinion on the pohtical conduct of Gene- ral Saint-CIair. With respect to talents, he has the reputation of being a better ci- vihan than soldier. The evening before my departure from Marietta I met with a Frenchman who is established on the banks of the great Mus- kingum, eighteen miles above the town. I regretted exceedingly that I was unable to accept his invitation to visit him at his plantation, which would also have en- abled me to make more extensive obser- vations on this part of the western coun- try. On the 21st of July we left Marietta for Gallipoli which is distant one hundred miles. We did not reach it until after a navigation of four days. The inhabitants of the country, suftering their boats to drive all night, would have made thispas- I I ; ■I 'U :| «i;'' ^V.i J'' ■■• ^!1 I; l^■1':l \l !«*■■ ■) •,.; 114 sage in three days, or even in two and a half. According to the estimate we form- ed, the main force of tlie current is about a mile and a half an hour : it is scarcely perceptible in places where the water is very deep, but on approaching the islands, which, as I have already said, are very nu- merous, the bed of the river diminishes in depth, so that frequently there is not a foot of water out of the chaimel. Near these shoals the rapidity of the current be- comes extreme, and the canoe is hurried forward like an arrow ; and it is only at a distance from these islands that the depth of the river is augmented, and the current less rapid. ' . k . Towards evening on the day of our de- parture we joined a Kentucky Boat, des- tined for Cincinnati. 'I'his boat, forty feet long, by fifteen in breadth, was loaded with bar-iron and caldrons of yellow cop- per. It also contained a family of emi- grants, consisting of the father, mother, and seven children, carrying with tliem their furniture, and their implements of hus- 115 bandry. The conductors, who were three in number, made no difficulty of permit- ting us to fasten our canoe to their boat, and to pass the night with them. We pur- posed by this to accelerate our progress, by not stopping for the night, as we had been accustomed to do, and hoped for a quieter rest than we had yet experienced, owing to our being cruelly tormented with the Heas, with which most of the houses we had slept at, from the time of our em- barkment, were filled. But our hopes were disappointed, for instead of being more comfortable, we were much more inconvenienced. During my whole jour- ney it was only on the banks of the Ohio that I met with this molestation. We were upon the point of separating at two o'clock ill the morning, when the boat ran aground. In this situation we could not leave our hosts, who had treated us with the greatest civility, and cordially shared with us a wild turkey they had killed the night before by the river side. We got into the water with the conductors, u , •■! /1 H f ;■ •»■», llG and, by means of large sticks wliichweusecf as levers, succeeded in getting the boat atioat again, after two hours of fatiguing exertion. During the night we passed the mouth of the Little Kenhaway, which, after hav- ing watered this jiart of Virginia, falls into the Ohio, on its left bank. Its sides are not inhabited more than lifteen or eigh- teen miles above its efHux : the rest of the country is so mountainous that it will be long before any establishments take place there. Five miles above the mouth of this river, and on the right bank of the Oliio is situated Bellepree, where, as yet, there are not more than a dozen houses ; but the establishments formed in its neigh- bourhood increase rapidly. We received this intelligence at a house where we stop- ped after quitting the Kentucky boat. On the 23(1 of July, about ten o'clock in the morning, we discovered Point Plea- sant, situated a little above the mouth of the Great Kenhaway, at the extremity of the point formed by the left bank of this .1 117 river, wliich stretches in a right line into the middle of the Ohio. This situation is the more delightful, because, for four or five miles above it, the Ohio preserves its breadth, which is about four hundred toises, through all that extent, and exhibits the most perfect alignment on each side. Its shelving banks, rising from fivc-and-twenty to forty feet, as in the rest of its course^ are planted at the bottom with willows, the pendant branches of which, and the clear green of their foliage form a very pleasing contrast with the sugar- maples, red maples, and ash-trecs, situated imme- diately above them ; and these, in their turn, are overtopped by the plane, the tu- lip-tree, the beech, and the magnolia, which occupy the highest elevation ; the large branches of these, attracted by the brighter light, and the more easy exjiansion, incline towards the sides, covering the trees situated below them entirely, and even stretching much farther over the ri- ver. This natural disposition, which pre- vails on both banks of the river, forms a m 'V: K- I f f -.1 U *i i4'\ 118 regular sweep on each side, the image of which, reflected by the crystal of the water, embellishes this magnificent pros- pect. The view of the Ohio, at Marietta, is nearly similar, perhaps it is more pictu- resque, from the introduction of the houses of this little town, which may be seen from a distance of five or six miles, and are im- mediately in front of the middle of the river, going upwards. ' . The Great Kenhaway, better known in the country by this name than by that of the New River, given to it in some maps, takes its rise at the foot of the Yellow Mountain in Tennessee ; but the aggre- gate of its waters runs into it from the Allegany mountains. The falls and ra- pids, which are very frequent on this river, in a couree of four hundred miles, will be long an obstacle to the expor- tation of the produce of that part of Vir- ginia which it waters, by the Ohio and Mississippi. Its banks are inhabited, but more thinly than those of the Ohio. 119 ^:i." H CHAP. XI. M GallipoU. — State of the French Colony of Scioto. — Alexandria, at the Mouth of the Great Scioto*— 'Arrival at Limestone^ in Kentucky. JFOUR miles lower than Point Pleasant, on the right bank of the Ohio is situated Gallipoli. This is the place at which about a fourth part of the French, who in 1789 and 1790, quitted their country to esta- blish themselves at Scioto, were collected : but it was not until after a residence of fifteen months at Alexandria in Virginia, where they waited for the termination of the war with the savages, that they were enabled to take possession of the Iniids for which they had paid so dearly. They were also on the point of being dispos- sessed of them, in consequence of the dif- ra t '! I M Stl :'l . I ,%•* 120 feronces which arose between the Scioto Company and that of the Ohio, from whom tlie first had originally purchased these lands. Scarcely were they arrived at the territory destined for them, when a new war broke out between the Americans and the Indians, and completed the dis- tresses of these unfortunate colonists. There can be no doubt but that, alone, and without support, in the midst of these forest'i, they would all have been massa- cred, had it not been for that species of predilection wliich all the Indian nations bordering on Canada and Louisiana have for the French : hence while they did not take an active part in the war, they were unmolested ; but the American army liaving obtained a considerable advantage uear the mouth of the Great Kenhaway, and crossed the Ohio, the inhabitants of Gallipoli joined them. From that time, they were no longer sj:)arcd, and were constrained to keep within their village. Of two of them, uliohad gone about two jgan-shots from it, one was killed, and i'.l '. i i 1 121 scalped, the other was taken prisoner, and conducted to a very great distance into the interior. Intelligence was received from him, when I was at Gallipoli : he obtained a very good livelihood by mend- ing fire-arms, and by following his trade of a goldsmith, in the Indian village where he resided, and did not express any desire to return to his countrymen. The war being terminated, the congress, to indemnify these unfortunate French- men for the successive losses they had sustained, gave them twenty thousand acres of land, l>'ing between tlie small rivers Sandy and Scioto, seventy-five miles lower than Gallipoli. These twenty thou- sand acres were divided in the proportion of two hundred and ten acres to each head of a family. Those among them who did not feel sufficient strcno th or couraiic to ven- ture a second time, with no other support but that of their children, to insulate themselves in the midst of woods, to lell, to burn, and partly to eradicate by the roots, trees which are frequently upwards I •J ' \-- \ \ 'i •-• }il 10O of four feet Jii diameter, and afterwards to cleave a part of them to enclose their fields, sold their lots to Americans, or to more enterprizing Frenchmen : only thirty families established themselves on their new estates. In the three or four years which they have lived there, they have succeeded, by great exertions, in making tolerable settlements, where, assisted by the very great fertility of the soil, they have an abundance of provisions of the first necessity : at least, so it appeared to me on passing this spot. Gallipoli, built on the bank of the Ohio, consists of about seventy log-housed, more than the half of which are uninhabited, and falling into ruins. The others are still occupied by Frenchmen, who hve miser- ably : only two among them seem to enjoy any degree of comfort. One keeps a ta- vern, and makes peach-brandy, which he sends to Kentucky, where it sells to great advantage. 'J'he second is M. Burau, from Paris, by whom 1 was very kindly received, though 1 was unknown to him. Nothing 123 exceeds the activity of this Frenchman^ the nature of whose commerce obliges him to be continually travelling the country bordering on the Ohio, and, once or twice in a year, to make a journey of four or five hundred miles through the woods, to the towns situated beyond the Allegany mountains. I learnt from him that the intermitting fevers, which, at their first arrival, added to the calamities of the in- habitants of Gallipoli, had not appeared there for three years. This did not pre- vent a dozen of them from going, very lately, to New Orleans, in search of a better fortune ; but they almost all died of the yellow fever, the first year of their arrival. Such was the situation of the Scioto establishments when I was at (lallipoli. If they did not succeed better, it is not because Frenchmen are less active or less industrious than Americans or Germans: it is because, of those who set out for the Scioto, not more than a tenth were calcu- lated for the labour they had undertaken. ' } . I m •■ '5 J ^ IS* But it did not suit the speculators, who sold land at six livres (five shillings) an acre, which in America was not worth, at that time, twenty sous (ten pence), to inform those whom they induced to go and cultivate it, that during the first two years, they must have a hatchet in their hands for nine hours a day, and that a good wood-cutter with only his hands would sooner be comfortably settled on these fertile banks, which, however, must be first cleared, than him, who arrivii.g there with two or three hundred pounds in his pocket, was unaccustomed to this kind of work. This cause, independently of the war with the savages, would have been sufficient to overwhelm the new co- lonists with misery, and to stifle the colony in its birth. On the 25th of July, we left Gallipoli for Alexandria, which is a himdred and four miles from that place, and arrived there in three days and a half. The site intended for this town is at the mouth of the Great Scioto, and in the angle between the right \ *> 125 » ' *« '' t bank of that river and the north-west bank of the Ohio. Although the plan of Alex- andria has been arranged for several ye;irs, nobody comes f " settle there, and the num- ber of its houses does not yet exceed twenty, the gren.ter part of which are log -houses. Nevertheless, its position is very favour- able, on account of the numerous establish- ments already formed above this new town, on the Crcat Scioto; the banks of which are lower and more humid, and are said to be almost as fertile as those of the Ohio. The population m ould be much more con- siderable, were it not that the inhabitants are, every autumn, subject to very obstinate intermitting fevers, which do not cease imtil the approach of winter. This coun- try is the most unhealthy of all those com- posing the extensive state of the Ohio. The seat of government of this new state is at Chillicothe : this town, which contains about a hundred and fifty houses, is situ- ated sixty miles from the mouth of the Great Sciotc. A newspaper is published here which appears once a week. I • '• . /'I !■■ ■t. ^'1> hi 12(J At Alexandrici, and in the other small towns of the western country, which are situated on a very rich soil, the intervals between the houses are ahnost entirely covered with straniony. This dangerous and disagreeable smelling plant is propa- gated in a wonderful manner in every place where the land has been cleared and cultivated within twelve or fifteen years, and notwithstanding every endeavour of the inhabitants, it shoots up in larger quantity every year. It is believed, to have appeared first at James Town in Virginia, whence it has received the name of James's Weed, Travellers cover the wounds, made on the backs of their horses by the pressure of the saddle, with its leaves. 'J'he mullein was the second European plant which I met with, in abundance, in the United States, although in a smaller proportion than the straniony. It is ex- tremely common on the road leading from Philadelphia to Lancaster, but less plenti- ful after passing this town, and, beyond 127 the Allegany mountains, I did not see any. On the 1st of August we arrived at Lime- stone in Kentucky, 50 miles below Alex- andria; here my voyage on the Ohio ter- minated. We had come 348 miles in a canoe, from AVheeling, and were ten days in accomplishing it, during which time we w ere obliged to paddle without ceasing on account of the slowness of the current. This work, always fatiguing when conti- nued long by persons unaccustomed to it, was still more &o to us on account of the groat heat. We suffered also greatly from thirst, not being able to quench it, but by coming ashore at the plantations by the riverside; for, during the summer, the wa- ters of the Ohio, acquire such a degree of heat, that they are not drinkable until they have been kept four-and-twenty hours in the shade. This excessive heat is caused on the one hand, by that of the climate, at this season, and on the other, by the slow- ness of the current. I had fixed on the 1st of October formy ;l ^ I, t-: 128 return to Charlestown, in South Carolina, and l»ad still near 1000 jnilcs to travel hcf'ori; reaching it, if I executed the plan which 1 had tornicd of passing through the state of Tennessee, which would lengthen the road greatly. J3eing thus j)rcssed for time J abandoned my intention of desccndincf the Ohio as far as the rapids, and parted from Mr. Samuel Craft, who pursued his voyage alone in the canoe to Louisville, from whence, after liaving descended the Ohio and the Mississippi, he was to proceed up the Yazous, to the Natches, and afterwards to return by land to the state of Vermont, which he hoped to reach by the lolth of No- vember following, after having made a tour of near 4000 miles in six months. I 120 CHAP. Xii. risfi and Shalis of the Ohio* — InhabHauts oj the Sidc» of this Riixr. — Agriculture. — American Eviigrant. — Commercial lldU' tions oJ' this Part of the C nitcd States. The banks of the Ohio, altliough from twenty tosixty feet in lieight,'^scarcely afVord any stoncy substances below Pittsburgh, with the exception of some large detached stones, of a grey colour, and soft, which are obscn'cd in a space of ten or twelve miles below AV heeling, the remainder ap- pears to be entirely vegetable earth. A few miles above Limestone we began to ob- serve a bank of calcareous stone, the great thickness of which did not allow us to doubt that it was of considerable extent. Two species of flints, rounded, and of a middhng size, are very abundant in the bed of the Ohio, particularly at the upper end of the islands, where thev are accumulated 1' I: } " I'i. I.'.T Ml '•<:■ 130 by the strength of the current. Those of one species are of a dark colour, and break easily ; tlie others, ^vhich are smaller and pot so plentiful, are of a white quartz and semi-transparent. In the Ohio, as well as in the Allegany, the Monongahela, and the other rivers of the west, there is found an abundance of a species of muscle, from two to five inches in length ; it is not eaten, but the mother- of-peail which is very thick, is employed to make sleeve-buttons. I have seen some of them at Lexington, which were as beau- tiful as those made of the mother-of-pearl used in Europe. This new species, which I have brought with me, has been named by Citizen Rose, the Unio Ohiotensis, The Ohio abounds with fish of different species. The most common is the cat-fisli, Silurus Felis. Tiiese are caught with a hand-line ; and in this m^mner they are sometimes taken of the weight of a hun- dred pounds. The first ray of the back fin of this fish is formed by a very strong # 131 and sharp spine, which he makes use of to kill others of a smaller size. He sinks some inches below the fish he means to at- tack, then rising suddenly, wounds it seve- ral times in the belly : we had opportuni- ties of observing this twice in the course of our navigation. This fish is also taken with a light, by spearing it with a long t$tick, provided with an iron point, on its ap- proaching the vessel in which it is carried. Until 1 796' and 1 797, the banks of the Ohio were so thinly peopled that there were not more than twenty-five or thirty families in a space of four hundred miles^ but since th^t time, emigrants, who have come for the most part from the mountainous dis- tricts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, have flocked, in great numbers, to tliose fertile banks ; and the plantations have increased f,o much, that, at present, tliey are not more than from one to three miles asunder, and some of them were always within sight from the middle of the river. " _ Tlie inhabitants of the banks of the K 2 •'■I ^M !.?, gr( ■''^:\ ■t^'iy Vi h ..1 -■ r . ; , V I .1 f '» fc .,:: iJ- ' V' sheds its seed without forming an ear, sa « 'fi^^' ■ I that it cannot be sowed until the end of four or five years, by which time the earth is freed from the greatest part of the stumps and roots which remained in it at an earlier period. The Americans of the interior cultivate wheat, rather as a speculation, to send its flour to the sea-ports, than for their own consumption, for nine-tenths of them use only maize-bread; they make it into loaves of eight or ten pounds weight, which they bake in cottage ovens; or into small cakes, baked on a plank before the fire. This bread is generally eaten hot, and is not much relished by those who are unac- customed to it. The peach is the only fruit tree yet cul- tivatetl in this country. It requires no at- tention, but shoots with such vigour as to . bear in the third year. The price of the best land on the banks of the Ohio does not, at present, exceed three piasters an acre : it is still cheaper on the left bank, in the states of Virginia and Kentucky, where the titles of the pro-rf prietors are not thought to be so good* 5 •»-i4B»" -■(ftn. hA. .is^J^- »=>.-_ .-. 135 The sides of the Ohio, as well as of those rivers which fall into it, not having been inhabited, as it may be said, for more than eight or nine years, the Americans who have settled there have not yet much share in the commerce carried on by the Mis- sissippi; which, at this time, consists of hams and pieces of smoked pork, brandy from grain and peaclies, barrelled butter, hemp, skins, and some flour. They also send cattle to the Atlantic states. Little merchants, who supply themselves at Pitts- burgh and Wheeling, and pass up and down the river in canoes, biing them small wares, and particularly tea and coffee, and take some of their produce in return. More than half of those who inhabit the banks of the Ohio are also the fir^t inha- bitants, or, as they are called in the United States, ^rs^ settlers, a kind of men who are unable to stop on the soil which they have cleared, and, under pretence of finding better land, a more healthy country, or a greater abundance of beasts of chace, keep always moving farther, constantly direct ::ti Wk^' ■m \ ■ Ml t i '.• j M .. ? ■■ ''■l1 Hi ^' 11 ti i; ! 136 their steps to the points most remote from every part of the American population, and esta!)lish themselves in the vicinity of the nations of the savages, whom they brave even in their own country. The ^ i conduct which they use to. them i :oate« jx^rpetual (;viarrels., and frequently leads to bioody '^\ars, which are always terminated by these people being made the victims, niore because of the smallness of their number, than their want of courage. Before we arrived at IMarietta, we tell in with one of these settlers^ an inhabitant of tiie neighbourhood of Wheeling, who, like us, was descending the Ohio, and we kept together for two days. Alone, in a canoe of eighteen or twenty feet long, and twelve or fifteen inches wide, he was going to visit the banks of the JVJ issouri, * at a * Tlie banks of this rirer are already inhabited by the A-r >V> . .^ w>.«. •<4l|M"i«kiMHe9f>'**'*^' '«- ■**(4.'»i^-.''*(»->* 138 on the banks of the river, or passed the nisfht by a fire, and when ho judged the spot to be i'avourable to the chase, he pe- ncil a led into the woods for several days; and, tiom the produce of his hunting, pro- cured the means of subsistence, and ob- tained flesh supplies with the skins of the animals he had killed. Such were the first inhabitants of Ken- tucky and Tennessee, of whom very few are now left. It was them who began to clear these fertile countries, and wrested them from the savages, who obstinately disputed the possession of theiii ; it was them who finally secured the property in them, after five or six years of bloody war: but long habituated to a wandering and unemployed life, they were unable to enjoy the fruits of their toil, or to benefit by the extraordinary value to which they had raised thcoe lands in a short time, they have emigrated into more remote coun- tries, where they arc forming new estab- lishments. It will be the same with the greater part of those who now inhabit the •*.-. -.^H*-'^* 139 banks of tlie Ohio. The same disposition which brought them there will cause them to emigrate from thence. To these, new emigrants will succeed, coming also from the Atlantic states, who will abandon their possessions to seek a milder temperature, and a more fertile soil. The price which they will obtain for them will be enough to pay for their new acquisitions, the peace- able enjoyment of which will be secured by a numerous population. These last comers, instead of log-houses, with which the present possessors are content, will build houses of planks; tliry will clear a greater quantity of the land, and will be as active and p('rseveiin<]j in improving their new possessions, as the first were ii following their passion for the chase, 'i'o the culture of maize, they will add that of wheat, tobacco, and hemp. Rich pastures will feed numerous flocks, and an advan- tageous market for all the products of the coimtry will be secured to them by the Ohio. Tlie position of this river, the most happy >1 t . ; II , i' ./I ■^'■in ' ..M H!, 140 lAich can be found in the United States, will cause it to be consicJeied as the centre of activity of the commerce between the eastern and western states : it is by it tliat the latter receive the manufactured articles furnished to the first by Europe, India, and the Antilles ; and it is the only channel of communication open with the ocean, for exporting the produce of that vast and fer- tile part of the United States, comprized between the A llegany mountains, the lakes, and the left bank of the Mississippi. All these advantages, added to the sa- lubrity of the climate, and the beauty of its situations ; enlivened, in the spring, by crouds of loaded boats, hurried on with incredible rapidity by the current, and by the extraordinary spectacle of vessels of heavy burthen, which proceed d'rectly from the middle of this vast continent to the West Indies : all these advantages, 1 Bay, make me look to the banks of the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Louisville, both included, as being likely to be, within twenty years, the most populous and most • '\ '. ■•^•''•fc-.j 141 commercial part of the United States. It is also that to which I should not hesitate to give the preference, in chusing my place of residence. ^1'^ T ! .l 1 »' , '' ' •■iJ I f i ■' ■tf t -.i'l' 'U I'-^r ■ fi '■ttpW' K-j ( f- 142 CHAP. XIII. Juimcstone. — Rnad from Limestone to Lcring^ ton — jyashingtou* — Salt works of Alays-^ Lick. — Millesburg h. — Paris. ILflMESTONE, situated on the left bank of the Ohio, consists of not more than thirty or forty houses, built of phinks. This small town, which has been begun up- wards of fifteen years, ought, in my opi- nion, to have acquired a large extent. It has long been the landing place of all the emigrants from the Northern States who came by the way of Pittsburgh, and is still the receptacle of all the merchandize sent from Phil.idclphia and Baltimore to Kentucky. Travellers who conic to Limestone by the Ohio will find it very difficult to hire horses to proceed further. They are very rarely to be o'oiained without buying, and 14S the inhabitants know as well as those of Shippcnsburgh, how to take advantage whon they can. As 1 purposed rcniaining some time at Lexington, and should con- sequently have an opportunity of making a less disadvantageous purchase, I deter- mined to go thither on foot ; I therefore left my portmanteau with the master of the tavern where 1 stopped, who, for a piaster, undertook to forward it to me at Lexing- ton, and 1 set out the same day. It is reckoned sixty-five miles from J limestone to Lexington, where 1 arrived in two days and a half. The first town 1 came to was Washington, which is only fi)ur iul'es distant. It is larger than Limestone ; it contains about two bunded houses, all of planks, and built on both sides of the road. Commerce is very brisk here ; it consists principally of tlour, which is ex- ported to New Orleans. There are vciy beautiful plantations in its environs, the fields of which are as well { j'-ivated, and the fences as well kept, as in Virginia and Pennsylvania. I went seven miles the first i 3' iy . ,■ f # ■er, contain- ing about two hundred pints, and similar in their form to those which are employed in France in making the lixivium. They place ten or twelve in a row, on a trench, four feet in depth, and of a breadth pro- portionate to their diameter, so that their sides rest on the edges of the trench ; and they arc supported by a few handfuls of clay, which fills the intervals between the caldrons but very imperfectly. The wood, which is cut into billets of about three u 145 1^ feet long, is put in at one of the ends of the trench. This kind of furnace is far from economical, and consumes a prodigious quantity of wood. I made the observa- tion to the people employed in this pro- cess : they replied that they were not ig- norant that better metliods existed, but that they should nevertheless follow their own until some of the people ot the old country (so they call the Europeans) should come and teach them better. 'I'he high price of labour for cutting and carrying the wood, and the small quantity of saline principles which the water holds in solution, are the occasions of the salt being always very dear ; it is sold for about four piasters the quintal. This high price induces a great number of people to look for salt springs ; they are generally found in places designated by the name of licks, where the bisons, elks, and stags, which existed in Kentucky before the arrival of the Euro- peans, went, by hundreds, to lick the sa- line molecular with which the soil is im- pregnated. There are, in this state, as well I. i'' I!. , . ,,.. i :fi •, • n i 154 is lower there, and consequently more proportionate to that of provisions. Independently of those manufactures "wlwch arc established at Lexington, there are also, in the country, some potteries of common ware, and one or two powder- miMs, the produce of which is consumed in the country, and exported, but in small quantity, to the Upper Caroiinas, or to Lower Louisiana. 'I'he sulphur is obtained from Phihulelphia, and the saltpetre is fa- bricated in the country, 'i'he eartlis which yield the lixivia are obtained from the OTottos and caverns, found on the decli- vitics of high hills, in the most mountainous parts of this state. 'J'hey are very rich in the nitrous principles, which is evidently owing to the calcareous rock, from the decay of which all these excavations are formed, as well as to the vegetable sub- stances which are accidentally driven into them. This seems to show that the assi- milation of animal matters is not abso-» lutely necessary to produce a greater de- gree Oi' nitrification, even in the formation 155 of artificial nitre-beds. The rough salt- pfetre is sold for the eighth part of a piaster per pound. In the different specimens which I saw, I did not observe any indi- cation of marine salt. The processes which are followed in these works are (juite as defective as those of the fabricati^»n of salt. 1 only speak of the extraction of the saltpetre, not having seen the powder- mills. 1 shall conclude by observing, that it is only in Kentucky and 'J'ennessee that saltpetre is fabricated, and that this is not done in the Atlantic states. The merchants of Lexington carry on almost all the commerce of Kentucky : they receive their merchandize from Phi- ladelphia and Baltimore in thirty-five or forty days, including two days and a half for the carriage from Limestone, where all goods destined for Kentucky are disem- barked. The total cost of the carriage is seven or eight piasters per quintal. Seven- tenths of the fabricated articles consumed in Kentucky, as well as in the rest of tlie United States, are imported from Eng- ..i*i I *l I:y6 lilnd. They consist principally o^ coarse nnd fine iron goods; next to these, cutlery, nails, and tin-wares; and finally, drapery, mercery, druiys, and fine pottery. Muslins, nankeen, tea,, &r. are imported directly from India, »D>Anieriean vessels, and they obtain cofVce and raw sugar of* difierent qualities i'rm)\ the West Indies ; for it is only the i>ooror class of the inhabitants who use the maple sugar. The merchandize of France which reaches these countries, is reduced to some silk goods, such as taffeties, silk stockings, &c., brandy, and millstones, notwithstanding their great weight, and the distance from tlie seaport Si. From Lexington, these different com- modities are distributed into the interior of the state, and the surplus is sent, by land, to Tennessee. The merchants find no diffi- culty in obtaining large profits, for, on the one hand, they generally receive a year's credit from the commercial houses at Phila- delphia and Baltimore ; and, on the other, the smallness of their number enables them I 157 to turn tlic ciiiTcnt price of the tcmtorial produce, which they take in ex(!lmiige for their goods, in their own favour: for, on account of the extreme scarcity of coin, tlie most of their transactions ai'o con- ducted in the way of exchani!;e. Never- theless, the merchants employ *:very meair". to get into tlicir own hands all the money in circulation ; and. In somocircumy.tancrs, such and such coinjnf)dities are only y.old for money, or exchanged for certain j)ro- ducts, the sale of which is always sure, such as the linen f)f tlie country, or hemp. Payments in produce always make a dif- ference of fifteen or twenty per cent, in favour of the merchant. All the iiiouev collected in commerce is sent l)y hmd^ on hoi'seback, to Philadelphia : J have sccmi fifteen or twenty hoi^ses set otF tngolher *. I ij H * The flistaiuv iVom I.oxinglon to niiludcl]))ii:i, through Pcnusylvaniu, in uhuut six hiindrud aud litty inilf. 'rtiOHi* M'ho are brought Iutc by their cuniinerciiil coiiciwijs, gem*- rally take the jaimioy in autuiiin, and are fiom t^\cnf} '*» t'our>and>twctitv da}s in jiorforniiiij; if ' -...-- 5 .'■■i i : ,! 158 I \ The difficulty of conveyance occasions the notes of the bank of the United States to be in great request : they are changed for specie with a profit of two per cent. The merchants cstabhshed in the most remote parts receive them without difficulty, but the country people will not take them, from a fear of forged ones. I may add, that there is not any species of territorial product in Kentucky, with the exception of Ginseng, the value of which vrill pay for its conveyance by land from this state to Philadelphia ; for it is proved that twenty- five pounds weight would cost more for th^ carriage in this way, even with going up the Ohio, than a thousand weight, by way of the river, without reckoning the passage by sea ; although there are frequent exam- ples of the voyage from New Orleans to Philadelphia or New York being some- times as long as that from Franco to the United States. The cuiTcnt money in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee has the same di- visions as in that of Virginia. Tlie doUai* oi* of 159 piaster is valued at six shillings. The centSt Tvhich con'cspond nearly with our ^oms (halfpence), although having a forced cur- rency, do not appear in circulation. Tlie quarters, eighths, and sixteenths of the piaster, form the small white money. As this is scarce, the deficiency is supplied by a very bad practice, but which appears to be necessary, that of cutting the piasters into pieces. Every body having a right to make this division, there are people who do it for the purpose of converting a small quantity of the metal to their own profit. Consequently, in retail trade, the vender will make an abatement for a round dollar or piaster much mure willingly than for its value in quarters or eighths. I have been told by well informed peo- ple, that, during the last war, flour having borne a very high rate at New Orleans, it was calculated that the exportations of it from Kentucky, balanced tiie price of the English importations they received from Philadelphia and Baltimore, by the Ohio : but th'dU 5?ince the peace, the demand tor m ' ir • V m.. ti. <:ii' ■ . >'•. 'I 'i •• * i ! i ? 160 iour and salt provisions tor the West In- dies having ceased, wheat has fallen to a very low price; so that the balance of commerce was wholly against this state. During my residence in Lexington, I frequently saw Dr. S. 13rown, a Virginian, physician of the faculty of medicine at Edinburgh, and member of the Philoso- phical Society, several n numbers of which had given me letters of recommendation to him. A well deserved reputation incon- testably places Dr. Brown in the first rank of the physicians established over all the country. Receiving the scientific journals regularly from London, he is always in the track of new discoveries, and turns them to the advantage of his countrymen. It is to him they are indebted for the intro- duction of the cow-pock. He has already vaccinated upwards of a hundred and fifty people at Kentuck}^ while they are only making their first attei;i|)ts at New York and Philadelphia. Dr. S. Brown is also employed in collecting the fossils, and other natural productions, which abound m In this interesting country. He sho^ved me several remains of very large unknown fishes, taken up in the river Kentucky, and which are remarkable for their singular forms. The analysis of the mineral waters of Mud-Lick, will employ his first leisure. These waters are sixty miles from Lexing- ton : they are in great repute, and some of the most distinguished people of the coun- try were using them when I was in this town. The Philosophical Transactions and the Monthly Review, published at New York, by Dr. Mitchill, are the periodical works in which Dr. Brown makes known the results of his observations and re- searches. 1 had the pleasure of making an ac- quaintance with several Frenchmen, estab- lished in this country. Mr. Robert, to whom I was recommended by M. Mar- bois, junior, at that time in the L^nited States; and Messrs. Duhamel and Men- telle, sons of members of the National Institute, of the same name. The two latter are established in the neighbourhood V .4 ) U m ■i . ■i *• 163 of Lexington, the first as a nhysician, and the second as a cultivator. I experienced from them those marks of attention and respect, so desirable to a stranger, at a distance from his country and his friends, and I think myself happy in this oppor- tunity of testifying my gratitudt^. ni.i > f\i •'n.n .ff >'! i "*:^a.'-M:u^- I >i 4\ i V J] r.i r. f \)h '^:^ii - i^lM 163 .' ■lV"S;'...Ji. J hM r.t' nh chap. XV. • 'r Departure from Lexington. — Culture of the Vint in Kentucky* — Passage of the Rivers Kentucky and Dick. — Departure for Nash- ville. — Mulder Hill' — Passage of the Green River. I LEFT Lexington for Nashville, in the state of Tennessee, on the 10th of August ; and as the estabhshment formed for natu- ralizing the vine in Kentucky was only a few miles out of my road, I determined to visit it. There is not any American Avho does not take a lively interest in every attempt of this kind ; and several persons in the Atlantic states had spoken to me of the success which had crowned this enter- prize. The wines of France being among the principal articles of our commerce with the United States, I wished to be satisfiedr m2 si I ....SSKUiii-- - lJ '. 16-4 on the degree of prosperity which this establishment might have acquired. But from tiie indifferent manner in which I had heard it spoken of in the country, I sus- pected before-hand, that the first trials had not been very successful. At fourteen miles from l-icxington, I quitted the road to Hickman's ferry : I turned to the left, and lost myself in the middle of the woods, so that I did not reach the vineyard until evening, where I was very politely received by iM. Dufour, who directs the undertaking. lie invited me to sleep there, and pass the following day with him, which I accepted. There is a public spirit in the United States which causes them to seize with avidity every project tending to enrich the country by agriculture or commerce. Thatof acchiiating the vine in Kentucky, was eagerly received. Several individuals formed themselves into a society to cany it into execution; and it was determined to raise n capital of ten thousand piasters, divided *nto two hu' drcd shares, of fiity 6 165 piasters cacli. This subscription was soon filled. M. Dufour, the principal of a small Swiss colony, who had established himself seven or eight years before in Kentucky, and was the proposer of this scheme, was employed to look for a suitable soil, to procure some plants, and to do every thing which he might judge necessary to insure success. The spot which he has selected and cleared is situated on the river Ken- tucky, twenty miles from Lexington. The soil is excellent, and the vines are planted on a small hill with a steep declivity, ox- posed to the south, and tlio base of which is two hundred toiscs from the river. M. Dufour intended to j)ass into France to procure the vine plants, and with this view he went to New York : but the war, or some other cause with uhich I am un- acquainted, prevented liini, and he con- tented hiujself with procuring thcrej uiul at Philadelphia, plants of exery species which he could obtain from individuals who had them in their gardens. Ho col- lected twenty-five species, which he • i . ^1. A\bi^iL.^ \ 166 brought to Kentucky, where he has en- deavoured to multiply them. But his success is not equal to his attention : not more than four or five varieties are left, among which are those which he calls by the names of Burgundy and Madeira, and the first does not thrive well : the fruit always rots before it arrives at maturity. When I saw them, the bunches were few and stinted, the grapes small, and every thing appeared as though the vintage of the year 1802 would not be more abun- dant than those of the preceding years. The Madeira vines, on the contrary, seemed to give some hopes : of a hundred and fifty, or two hundred plants, about a third were loaded with very fine grapes. These vines do not occupy a space of more than six acres ; they arc planted and sup^>ortcd by props, as in the environs of Paris. The vicinity of the woods attracts a species of bird, whicli is very destructive among them, and tho nature of the country is a great obstacle to getting freed from them. Such was then the situation of this cs- Ivi. 167 tablishment, in which the proprietors took but a slight interest, and which was Hkely to meet with another hinderance in the division of M. Dufour*s family, a part of which was on the point of quitting it to settle on the banks of the Ohio. These details are sufficient to give a very different idea of the state of the pretended flourish- ing vines of Kentucky, from that which may have been formed on the pompous accounts of them published some months ago in the public papers. I took the opportunity of my residence with M. Dufour, to inquire of him, in what part of Kentucky the numerous emigration of his countrymen, of which so much was said in our newspapers in 1793 and 1794-, had settled. He informed me, that a great num- ber of Swiss had, indeed, had an intention of coming hither, but that at the time for setting off, the greater part of them had changed their opinion, and that the whole colony was reduced to his family and a few friends, in the whole, eleven persons. I (lid not quit the vineyard until the 'I Asi '/I 1 ' !•' f. I I I 1 i r u !" f ( <'-;! i ,! V ;'^ f •? !:!> i I 168 second day after my arrival. To shorten my road, M. Dufour oft'ered to conduct me through the woods to Hickn ?n's ferry, over the river Kentucky. I iiccepted his proposal, and although the distance was only four miles, we were two hours in Teaching it, from being obliged ' dis- mount, either to ascend or descena ionic very steep hills, or to enable our horses to leap over the trunks of rotten trees, lying heaped on each other., The soil, which is as fertile as in the environs of Lexington, will be more difficult to cultivate, on ac- count of the great inequality of the land. Beeches, walnuts, and oaks with large acorns, form the principal mass of the forests. We, Piowcver, crossed parts of the level, adjoining the river, which are, exclusively, covered with superb plane- trees. Some of the people of the country dread the vicinity of these trees ; they be- lieve that the down, with which the under side of the leaves is covered iq the spring, and which falls off in the course of the summer, is a predisposing cause of (:on- U»() sumption, by producing tui initatiou of the lunos, almost insensible, but continual. At this season, the river Kentucky is so low at Hickman's Ferry that it may be forded. I stopped for a short time at the tavern •where the ferry-boat is kcnt when the wa- ter is high ; and, whilo v were giving my horse some maize, *o the edge of the river to observe . at my ease. Its sides are formed by an enormous mass of calcareous stones, divided perpendicu- larly, a hundred and fifty feet in height, and which, from the top to the bottom, show evident tiaces of the action of the waters, which have worn them away. A broad long street, the houses of which are in a straight line, may give some idea of the channel of this river at Hickman's Ferry: it swells prodigiously in spring and autumn, and then its .waters rise sixty or seventy feet in a few days. At this tavern I met with an inhabitant of the country, whose residence was sixty miles farther off. This man, with whom I ' *, V ■ ■■ 1 J ■ ^-■ ' I I: h a iv ' l5 1.1 •• IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) ^ // s^ 1.0 11.25 1.1 I^KS kUu 1.6 1.4 Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WIST MAIN STIiET WHSTM.N.Y. MSM (716)S73-4S03 V^^ ■<* > I ■■ i 170 entered into conversation, and who ap* peared to nie to be in comfortable circum- stances, pressed me greatly to pass a week with him, and supposing I was looking for land to settle on, which is generally the ob- ject of those who visit Kentucky, he oflfered to show me a good spot, being very de- sirous, he said, to have an inhabitant of the old country for a neighbour. I have frequently had occasion, both in this state and in that of Tennessee, to refuse similar proposals, from unknown pei-sons, whom I met in the taverns, or with whom I sought a lodging, and who afterwards invited me to pass some days in their family. A mile beyond the Kentucky, I quitted the road to Danville, and took that to Har- rod's ]3urgh, for the purpose of visiting General Adair, to whom Dr. D. Ramsay, of Chaiiestown, had given me a letter of re- commendation. 1 arrived at his house the same day. 1 crossed Dick's lliver, not so broad as the Kentucky, but which, like it, \s pleasant at this season. Its bed is fcimilarly worn down, and, as if inclosed in so ke is in in the rock. That part of the right bank which is opposite to the landing-place is a steep rock, of calcareous substance, and tipwards of two hundred and fifty feet in height. The strata [form one continued mass, without interstice, and which are only distinguished by bluish parallel zones, the colour of which forms a contrast with the whiteness of the rest of the mass. From the summit itself there are to be seen furrows worn into the rock, very close to each other, and which are indefinitely pro- longed. These furrows have been evi* dently formed by the current of the river, which, at remote periods, has had its bed at different levels. Like the Kentucky, Dick's River is liable to extraordinary floods in the spring and autumn. The stratum of vegetable earth which covers the rock appears not to be above two or three feet thick. It bears the Virginia cedar. This tree, which affects elevated places, wliere the calcareous substance is nearest to tlie surface of the soil, thrives well here ; but the other trees, such as the ■ i ■■11 .,1 ^'i I ( I ! ( iai^H' >■' i } i (^ 172 black oak, the hickery nut, &c. are stinted' and of a very miserable appearance. '' ^" General Adair being absent when I ar- lived at his house, his lady received me in the most obliging manner, and for &ve or ^ix days, which I stopped with her, I was treated with the same attention and good will as an intimate friend of the family might have expected. '' --i..;!.' ... A large and convenient house, a great number of black servants, his equipages, all indicated the opulence of the general, which is known not to be the usual atten- dant of those who are possessed of that lank in America. His estate is near Har- rocts Burgh, in Mercer County, Large orchards of peach-trees, and extensive fields of maize, surround the house. The fioil of it is extremely fertile, as is evident >m the thick trunks and extraordinary -icight of the trees, as well as from the abundance of the harvests, which yield annually from thirty-five to forty quintals of grain per acre. The surrounding forests are principally composed of those species 173 of trees which arc met with in the best districts, such as the Gleditsia 3 acoHiJioSt iJuilandina dtoica^ Ulmus viscosa. Morns ru- hrOy CoryluSy Annoj^a triloba. Finally, tlie surface of the land, for several miles round, is level, which is very uncommon in this country. , !- » t . ..u ^j.-.- Not being able to delay my journey longer, I did not accept of Mrs. Adair's invitation, who pressed me to stay till her husband's return; and, on the 20th of August, I prccoeded to Nashville, regret- ting very mucii that I had been unable to "form an acquaintance with the general, ■ •♦ On the fii*st day I %vent twenty-four miles, and slept at Hay's, who keeps oi tavern fifty miles from Lexington. Har- rod*s Burgh, which I passed through on this da}', consists at present of not more than twenty scattered houses, built of planks. Twelve miles farther on, I re- gained the road to Danville, at Chaplain Fork. In this interval, which is not inha- bited, the soil is excellent, but very un- lib '■^t-?;N I;i''lt1 I ; K-- ', ;i I V !<. even. ','">': \ wm v^ 174 I travelled five-and-twenty miles on the second day, and stopped at Skeggs's ta- vern. Ten miles before reaching it is Muh der Hill^ very high and steep, and in the form of an amphitheatre. I went up it on foot. From its summit, the country I had passed through has the appearance of an immense valley, covered with forests, to which no limits can be discovered, either to the right or to the left, and where, as far as the eye can reach, nothing is to be seen but an extent of dusky verdure, formed by the tops of the trees, which touch, and ^ through which no habitation can be dis- covered ; they are also too widely dis- persed to be noticed in the distance. The profound silence which reigns in these M'oods, the absence of every dangerous ani- mal, and the security enjoyed in them, form an aggregate which is seldom met with in other countries. At the summit of Mulder Hill the road divides, and meets again some miles further on. I took that on the left, and the first plantation I came to, belonged to Mr. Macmahon, formerly 4 175 a professor of a college in Virginia, who has lately come to reside in this country, where he exercises the functions of a clergyman. Skeggs's tavern, where I stopped after leaving Mulder Hill, was the worst place I put up at between Limestone and Nash- ville : it was completely destitute of pro- visions, and I was obliged to sleep on the floor, wrapped in my blanket, without having been able to procure any thing for supper. There being no stable belonging to the house, I put my horse into a peach- orchard, to graze. The fences were broken, and fearing that he might get out in the night, I put a bell about his neck, which travellers who are exposed to the chance of sleeping in the woods, always take care to be proWded with. The peaches were nearly ripe, and, in the morning I per- ceived, from the great number of kernels lying under three or four trees, which my horse had not quitted, that he had been eating them all night ; he was the better* enabled to do this from the branches beinff t ■I'-' ''11 i;< II ill ■\ • (( >i m ^ \4 ^ W ;!■■ -1^ M 176 bent to the ground by the weight of the "U*t. h .li /4»ii»^! .1^' ,«rt<>n :/,%: Eight miles from Skeggs's, I forded over the Green River : after a long circuit, through a narrow valley, which ia seldom more than a mile in breadth, it falls into the Ohio, Where I crossed it, the water was not more than three feet in depth, at a place which was fifteen or twenty toises broad ; but in the spring, the only time at which it is navigable, its waters rise to a height of eighteen feet, judging from the roots of some trees which grow on its sides, and appear to have been laid bare by the current. After crossing the river, the road winds, for about two miles, through that part of the valley which is on the right bank. Ti;e soil of these low lands is a slimy earth, extremely fruitful, in which, to the exclusion of every other species of tree, grow beeches of a dia- meter proportionate to their great height, and which, as far as five-and-twenty feet above the earth, are without a single MNHi branch. The inhabitants of the country consider the land which is occupied by these trees to be the most difficult to clear. '^ '. . » j.i j ^1 I i ;' I ;l. 1 I it 1 1 ■•'^..\ ^"\.« [ I I * - , ■ ■ . tea -il^iiiVf 'M !,Uii<:i7f I , •";•;, *■ '" \ '••«!' . 1 V r ./ « .' ' i< -fli ■ J 178 • ) < .i .,iJ'-,:! V .;;»..,;! ' iff ' -t ' ) 'i;'(;\v h-i:>,\ ''' ' '! "ly ,, - '^ .f.^'t CHAP. XVI. Passage of the Barrens, Meadows. — Planta- tions formed on the Road which crosses them, — Their appearance, — Plants found here*'-* Arrival at Nashville, Ten miles from the Green River runs the Little Barren, a small river, thirty or forty feet in breadth, the banks of which are liigh and rocky. The land in the en- virons is dry and arid, and produces nothing except a few Virginian cedars, double leaved pines, and black oaks. From this river begin the Barrens, or meadows of Kentucky. I travelled thirteen miles across these meadows on the first day, and lodged with one Williamson, near Bear's Wallow, Next morning, I wished to water my horse before I set off. For this purpose, my host directed me to a spring, about •«v' I 179 a quarterof a mile from the house, where his family procured water, and from whence a path would lead me back to the road. I lost myself, however, and after a forced march of two hours, discovered a planta- tion, in a deep and narrow valley, where I learnt that I was far out of my road, and that I must return to the place from which 1 had come. The mistress of the house told me that she had lived three years in these Barrens; that for eighteen months she had not seen any person ; that, weary of living in this sequestered manner, her husband liad been gone about two months to look for other lands towards the mouth of the Ohio. Such was the pretext for this change of residence, which would be the third, since the family had left the back settlements of Virginia. , A daughter of fourteen years of age, and two children much younger, were all the company which this woman enjoyed : in other respects, her house was very abundantly supplied with maize and milk. This part of the Barrens which chance N 2 ><1 I . ; I r IS II >• 180 had thrown me upon, was exactly similar to that I had crossed the night before. I found a hole, in the shape of a funnel, whci^ I spent an hour in getting half a bucket of water for my horse. The time employed in this way, that which I had lost by straying from my road, and, finally, the great heat, obliged me to shorten my route, and I stopped for the night at Drip- ping Springs only nineteen miles from Bear s Wallow. •- Next day, the 2(5th, I went eight-and- twenty miles, and stopped with Jacob Kesly, of the sect of Dunkers, as I disco- vered by his long board. Ten miles fwm Dripping Spring, I forded the Big Barren River. This river, the banks of which are covered with wood for a space of from one to three miles, appeared to me to be a third broader than the Green River, The plantation of Macfiddit, who keeps the ferry-boat, against floods, and Chapman's, which is three miles farther, are the two oldest establishments on this road, having been formed thirteen or fourteen years. 181 Wlien I was liere, a boat loaded with salt had just arrived from Saint (ienevieve, a Ficiich village, on the right bank of the Mississippi, a hundred miles above the mouth of the Ohio. My host's house was not better furnished than those where 1 had lodged on the prcceding days, and I was again obliged to sleep on the floor. Most of the inhOf- bitants of this part of Kentucky have been too lately established to have made much improvement in their possessions: they are not well provided with any thing but maize and forage. On the 27th of August, I set off early in the morning, and thirteen miles tVom Kesly's crossed the line wiiich scpai'ates the state of Tennessee from that of Ken- tucky. The Barrens also end there, and, to my great satisfaction, 1 re-entered the woods ; tor nothing is more wearisome titan the dull uniformity of these inmiense mea- dows, where no human being is met with, nor, with the exception of a great number of partridges, Perdiv Mari/lamla, is any < ^ i (I 6! 1^' *^ 18^ living thing heard or seen, und which is more sequestered than the middle of a forest. ■ -'*'*'■ rr^'i^ , ,i'i}> '.>•' ■■'^(..■: . ;> ■ ' \ The fii-st habitation' I met with on en- tering Tennessee, belonged to a person named Cheeks, of whom I conceived a very bad opinion from the conversation he was holding with seven or eight of his neighbours, with whom he was drinking whiskey immoderately. Fearful of wit- nessing some of the- sanguinary scenes which, among the inhabitants of these countries, are too frequently the conse- quence of the intoxication produced by this liquor, I hastened to quit the tavern, went three miles farther, and passed the night with a very civil farmer, whose house was well supplied. The sons of the late Duke of Orleans lodged in this house some years before. The following day I arrived at Nashville, after travelling seven-and- twenty miles, • ■ The Barrens, or meadows of Kentucky, comprize an extent of sixty or seventy miles in length, by fifty or sixty in breadth* e ■:l 185 From the signification of the word I ex- pected to cross a bare tract, with a few plants scattered here and there upon it: and in this opinion, I was supported by the notion which some of the inhabitants had given me of these meadows, before I reached them. They told me, that, at this season, I should perish with heat and thirst, and that I should not meet with any shade the whole length of the road ; for, the greater number of the Americans, who live in woods, have no conception that countries can exist which are entirely free from them, and still less that they can be habitable. Instead of finding a country such as had been described to me, I was agreeably surprized to see a beautiful mea- dow, well covered with grass, of two or three feet in height, which is used to feed cattle. A great variety of plants also grow here, among which the Gerardiajlava, gall of the earth, the Gnaphalium dioicum] white plantain, and the Rudbekia purpurea^ were at this time predominant. I noticed that tho roots of the latter plant have, in a cer- ■^\ ■■ >ii. fi? i ? :•■ ^,;i[ 1 4 ■ ,»■ i ■ !r 1 *' ni i vr; . The Barrens are circumscribed within a; chain of woods, two or three miles in, breadth, forming a continuation of the forests which cover the country. The trees, composing them are not very close, and* their distances from each other ipc^rtase in aj)proaching the meadows. On the Ten- nessee side, this chain is formed exclusively of Post oaks, Qnercus ohtnsiloba, the wood of which being very hard, and not perish- ing easily, is preferred to all others in the, formation of fences. 'Phis tree, which is> of great utiUty, might he naturalized with ' H < : U: : ' 1 ^i 1 . ..."1 u 186 • the greater facility in France, because it thrives among the pines in very bad soils. Here and there, through the meadow, are also to be seen black oaks, Qiiercus nigra, and walnuts, Juglans hickery, which rise to about twelve or fifteen feet ; sometimes they form small groves, but always so far asunder as not in any way to interrupt the sight. With the exception of little sal- lows about two feet high, Salix longirostris, and some sumachs, there is not any shrub to be seen. The surface of these meadows is in general very even ; but, towards Drip- ping Spring, I observed a long and high hill, slightly covered with wood, and with enormous detached rocks, which are visible from the road. There appears to be a great number of subterraneous caverns in the Barren.% some of which are very near the surface. A short lime before I passed this way, one of them sunk in the road, near Bear's Wal- low, under the feet of a traveller, who only escaped by the most fortunate chance. The danger of such accidents, in a country } I I 'I ** 187 where the habitations are so remote from each other, and where, perliaps, a traveller does not pass once in fifteen days, may be conceived. • ' • '■ There are also to be seen in these mea- dows, broken holes, of the shape of a fun- nel, the breadth of which varies, according to the depth, from fifteen to thirty feet. In some of these cavities, at five or six feet from the bottom, there is a small trickling stream of water, which is totally lost in a crevice at the lower extremity of the funnel. These kind of streams never dry up, which has induced several of the inhabitants to settle in their vicinity ; for, except the Big Barren river, I did not discover the small- est brook or creek through all these plains,. Neither have I heard of any attempt hav- ing been made to dig wells ; and, therefore, can form no judgment of the success of the trials which will doubtless be here- after made with this view. From these ob- servations it is evident, that the want of water, and of wood fit for fences, will long be an obstacle to the increase of the esta- r i 1 ' '^!tl ( I fl I .'; >-'ii i'>' if li ' 1^ :\ ■ t tr it* a: i 188 blishments in this part of Kentucky. One of these inconveniences might, however, be obviated, by altering the present mode of inclosing the lands, and substituting quick hedges to it ; then the honey locust, Gkditsia friacanthos, one of the commonest trees in the country, might be employed with success. The Barrens are therefore, at present, very thinly inhabited, in com- parison with their extent ; for on the road, where the plantations are the most conti- guous, there are only eighteen in a space of seventy miles. ♦ . ' Some of the inhabitants divide the lands of the Barrens of Kentucky into three classes, according to their qualities; and, in their opinion, the middle class occupies the largest part of them. That part which. I crossed, where the soil is yellowish, and a little gravelly, seemed to me very well calculated for the culture of wheat : that of maize is nearly the only one in which the inhabitants appear to employ themselves ;. but the settlements being yet very recent, the lauds camiot have accjuired that degree ii-: 189 of i)rosperitj which is observed on the other side of Mulder ilill. ]\lost of the emigrants who come to settle in this coun- try keep towards the woods, or along the Little or Big Barrc n rivers, whither they are attracted by the advantages they de- rive from the meadows in rearing cattle ; an advantage of which the inhabitants of the most fertile woody districts are, in some measure, de[)rived, for there is scarcely any grass to be met with in them. Every year, in the course of the months of March or April, the inhabitants set fire to the herbage, which, at that period, is drv, and the extreme length of which would deprive the cattle for a fortnight or three weeks longer of the new grass, which then begins to shoot. This custom is, however, generally blamed, and with rea- son, for being set fire to too early, the grass dries, and, in consequence of its drooping, does not j)rotect the rising crop from the spring frosts, and its vegetation is retarded. This custom was formerly prac- tised by the natives wiio came to hunt iti - f ! ■■ •^ •;• *U.^' > '• ;r (j- t I 'I *v;.il 1 190 these rountrles, and is still continued by them in other parts of North America, where there are savannahs of vast extent. Their object in setting fire to them is to attract the stags, })isons, cScc. into the burnt parts, where they can perceive them at a distance. No idea can be formed of these dreadful conflagrations without having seen them : the flame, which generally occu- pies a line of several miles in extent, is sometimes driven forward by the wind with such rapidity that men on horseback have become their prey. The American hun- ters, and the savages, preserve themselves from this danger by a method as simple as ingenious : they immediately set fire to that part of the meadow in which they happen to be, and afterwards retreat into this burnt spot, where the flame which threatened them stops for want of fuel : this is what the Canadian hunters call making their own ->n i.i I!)l ') , V'\ i I CHAP. XVII. • / General Observations en Kentucky. -^Nature of the Soil. — First Establishments of this State. — Little Security in the Titles of the Proprietors* — PopulatioJi, The state of Kentucky is situated be- tween 36" 30' and 39" 30' of latitude, and between the 82° and 89" of longitude. Its limits are — to the north and west, the Ohio, for an extent of about seven hundred and sixty miles; to the east, Virginia; and to the south, the state of Tennessee. It is se- parated from Virginia by the river Sandy and by the Laurel Mountains, one of the principal branches of the Allegany Moun- tains. The greatest length of this state is four hundred miles, and its greatest breadth about two hundred. This vast ex- tent seems to rest on a bed of lime-stone. ,h \ ' ^ i ^W 5 ! I #: ■I 3} '4 "(# 1 .1 hv 192 perfectly alike in its nature, and covered by a stratum of vegetable earth, the composition of which varies, from a few inches to twelve or fifteen feet in thickness. The extent of this immense bank is not yet defined in an accurate manner, but its thickness must be very considerable, judg- ing from the appearance of the rivers of the country, the banks of which, and par- ticularly those of the Kentucky ^ and Dick*s River, which is a branch of it, rise, in sonic places, to three? hundred feet perpen- dicular, and, through all this height, leave the calcareous stone exposed to view. Though the liihd of Kentucky is tmei^feri, it is not mountainous, with the exception of some parts intersected by hills, nfear the Ohio, and on the Virginia side. Lime- stone, and numerous unexplored mines of coal, at6 nedrly the onty mineral sub- stances observed hei^e. There are ftotj fnanyiron mines, and, if I recollect rightly, only one of them is worked, which is fair from supplying the wants of the country. * The rivers Kentuckif and Green, the t^fl^ 193 most considerable in this state, fall into the Ohio, after a course of three hun- dred miles ; tiiey are so low in the sum- mer, that they may be forded at a hundred and fifty miles above their ef- flux; but in the winter, and in the spring, they are frequently swelled by floods, so sudden and so grcat, that the waters of the Kentucky, for example, will rise forty feet in four-and-twenty hours. This variation is still more remarkable in the secondary rivers which fall into it: these, though frequently ten or fifteen toises broad, hav e so little water in summer, that there is scarcely one of them which may not be passed on foot, dry-shod, at that season ; and the small quantity of water which meanders over the bed of calcareous rock, is then reduced to a few inches in depth. Kentucky may, therefore, be con- sidered as a vast basin, which independ- ently of the natural efllux of its waters by the channel of the rivers, permits a great part of them to escape by internal openings. The Atlantic part of the United m "' ' ■ 1 .^1 i i States ofler a perfect contrast, in this re- spect, to that of Kentir ' y : on the op- posite side oftho Allegany mountains, there is not the sligiitest trace of lime-stone. The rivers, large and small, and at all dis- tances from their sources, experience no other change than what arises from a more or less rainy season; and ibe springs, which are very numerous, always tsupply water in abundance : thi'^ is nioiv, especially appli- cable to the soutiiern states, with which I am well acquainted. From this concise account of Kentucky, it will be readily supposed that its inhabit- ants are liable to a very serious inconve- nience, that of wanting water in the sum- mer; those, however, must be excepted, who live in the vicinity of large rivers, or of the principal small ones which run into them, which always have a sufficiency of wa- ter to supply their domestic wants ; whence it results that many estates, even among those most fertile, are not cleared, and that the pi'oprietors can not easily ciaspose of thciiu, because the emigrants, who are now 195 better informed, will not make purchases without a correct knowledge of the loca- Jiti(*s. *^ " ' Of the three states situatCvl to the west of the Allegiinys, Kentucky was the first peopled, 'i'liis country was discovered in 1770, by some Virginian hunters, and the favouralilc account tliey gave of it, induced others to go there. However, there wa«^ not any fixed establishment formed until 1780. At that time this extensive country was not occupied by any Indian nation: they came there to hunt, but, with one accord, carried on a war of extermination against all who attempted to settle there. This was the cause of giving the name of Kentucky to the country, which in the language of the primitive Americans, sig- nifies the lard of blood. When the whites appeared there, the natives gave a still more obstinate opposition to their esta- blishment : for a long time they spread devastation and slaughter through the country, and, according to their custom, put tlieir prisoners to death with the most o 2 3 -I ■■ r 1 •f ! 196 it" cruel torments. Tliis state of things lasted until 1783, at whicii time the American population having become too great for them to be able to penetrate into tlie heart of the establishments, they were reduced to attacking the emigrants on their road ; and, besides, they were then abandoned by the English of Canada, who had ani- mated and supported them in this war. It was in 1782 that they began to open roads for carriao;cs through the interior of the country: before that time there were nothing but tracks, passable only by j)eople on foot, or on horeelMck. Until 1788 the road through Virginia was the only one followed by the emigrants who came from the eastern states to Kentucky. They went first to the Block-house, situated in Holston, to the west of the mountains ; and, as the government of the United States did not furnish any escort, they waited at this place until their numbers were sufhcient to pass safely through the Wilderness, an uninhabited interval of ap hundred and thirty miles, which they were 197 obliged to cross, before they arrivetl at Crab-Orchard, the fii'st post occupied by the whites. The enthusiasm for emigrating to Ken- tucky was, at this time, cairied to such a height in the United States, that, in some years as many as twenty thousand emi- grants went there, and several of them even abandoned their property, if they were unable to dispose of it in a short time. This influx of new colonists soon raised the price of land in Kentucky ; from two or three pence an acre, at which it had been sold, it rose rapidly to forty or fifty pence. Speculators took advantage of this infatuation. A multiplicity of illicit means were put in action to make these lands sell to advantage. Even forged plans were fabricated, on which rivers were laid down, calculated for the establishment of mills and for other uses : in this manner many ideal lots from live hundred to a hundred thousand acres were sold all over Europe, and in some of the largt towns of the United States. '* '•r ;; ■ (i| > IE i ■ i' ■^^ • if; 4 ■. i» •' i ■t r- iiU Until 1792, Kentucky was a part of Virginia, but the distance of Richmond, the seat of government of tliat state, which is six or seven hundred miles from Lexing- ton, was the cause of the most serious inconveniences to the inhabitants; and, their number liaving increased greatly beyond that required to foni; «ii indepen- dent state, they were admitted into the union, in the montli of March of the same year. The state of Virginia only consented to abandon its claims to this country on certain conditions ; it obliajed the conven- tion of Kentucky, to follow, in part, the same code of laws, and particularly to keep the negroes in slavery. Before 1782, the number of the inha- bitants of Kentucky did not exceed three thousand: in 1790, it was a hundred thousand, and, at the general census, taken in 1800, it amounted to two hundred and twenty thouvsand. When I was at Lexington, in August, 1802, the population was esti- mated at two hundred and fifty thousand, including twenty thousand negro slaves. 5 I 199 Thus, in this state, where it world be dif- ficult to find ten individuals of twenty-five years of age, ^vho were born in it, the number of the inhabitants is already as large as in seven of the old states : and there are only four, of which the j)opula- tion is twice as numerous. This increase, rapid as it was, would have been much more so, had it irot been for one circumstance, which prevents the emigrants from flock- ing to it, 1 allude to the difficulty of as- certaining the titles to the land. Of all the states of the Union, it is in this that the titles are most the subjects of contest, 1 did not stop with a single inhabitant, who, while he appeared to believe the va- lidity of his own title, was not in doubt on that of his neighbour. Among the many causes which have contributed to this incredible confusion in property, one of the principal may be ascribed to the unskilfulness of the sur- reyors, or, rather, to the difficulty they experienced, at first, in following their occupations. The continual state of wa^ •1 ^1 I i \A ^i'M J I )•. 1 1 ilHi ' 200 in which the country then was, frequently obliged them to suspend their labours, to avoid being shot by the natives, who lay in wait for them in the woods. The dan- ger they ran was extreme, for, it is well known, that a savage will frequently tra- vel fifty miles to kill a single enemy; that he will remain several days successively in the hollow of a tree to surprise him, and that, having succeeded, and scalped himj he returns with the same rapidity. From this state of things it has resulted that, not only the same lot has been measured seve- ral times by different surv^eyors, but, which is the most common, that it has been in- tersected by different lines, which made this or that part of one lot belong to the adjacent ones, and these, in their turns, were in the same situation with respect to those contiguous to them. Finally, there are some lots of a thousand acres, out of which there are not an hundred which have not been claimed. The military rightSf however, are considered as more certain. One remarkable circumstance, 19, that many of t!ie inhabitants derive the security of their estates from this confu- sion; for the law, which is vorv favoura- ble to agriculture, provides that the cost of clearing and of improvements shall l)e paid by him who succeeds in ejecting the first occupier: and, as the valuation, on account of the extreme high price of la- bour, is always made in favour of the cul- tivators, it follows that many ciarc not as- sert their rights, from a fear of being obliged to pay considerable indemnifica- tions, and of beinir, in their turns, ex- pelled by others, who may attack them when they least expect it. Tliis uncer- tainty in the titles of the estates is an in- exhaustible source of litigations, as long as they are expensive, and produces great wealth to the lawyers of the country. 1. 1 ; " /'■ ■■I if m ■J lil: I' -J [.) i 2oa • , ,1* CHAP. x\ III. i- '".' Die is ion of the La fid into Classeti. — Species f>f Trees peculiar to each of them. — Ginseng. — Native Animals of Kentucky* — Squirrel hunting. In Kentucky, as well as in Pennsylva- nia, Virginia, and the Carolinas, the land is divided into three classes, for the more equal assessment of the land tax. This division, which is according to the fertility of the land, has a different relation in each state : thus, in Kentucky, for example, they put the same sort of land into the se- cond class, which, east of the mountains, would belong to the first; and, in the third, they rank such as, in Georgia and Lower Carolina, would be put into the second. I do not, however, mean to be understood by this, that there are no lands in the H ' J 203 tastcrn states, as fertile as those of the west; but they are not comnion, and are seldom met svith but by the sides of rivers and in the vallies, and do not include such a considerable extent of country as in Ken- tucky and that part of Tennessee to the westward of the Cumberland mountains. In these two states they appreciate the degree of fertility of the Umd by the dif- ferent species of trees which grow upon them : thus when the sale of a lot of land is advertised, they are careful to specify that such or such kind of trees grow on such or such parts, which is sufficient in- formation to the purchaser. This rule, however, admits of an exception, with re- spect to the Barre7is, the soil of which, as 1 have mentioned, is very fertile, and on which, nevertheless there are found the Scrobt/ oakr Qnercus nigra, and the Jug- lans hkkery, which, in the forests, are evidences of the worst soil. Supported by this mode of estimating the fecundity of the soil by the nature of. the trees which it produces, I shall mention a very remark- ^i'; • ! 1 ' , ; H IN ir ''n T i I t ;l Ml if, 204. able observation, which I made as soon a§ I arrived in tliis state. In Kentucky and Cumberland * independently of a few trees, which are peculiar to these coun- tries, the mass of the forests, in lands- of the firet class, is composed of those species which are very rarely met with, to the east ' of the mountains, in the most fertile soils; these species are principally the Allowing, Cerasus virginiana, cherry tree ; ^uglans ohlonga, white walnut; Pavia hitea, buck eye : Fraxinus alhoy nigra, ceriilea, white, black, and blue ash ; Celtis folliis villosis, ackberry ; Ulmtis viscosa, slippery elm ; Quercus imbricaria, black-jack oak; Guilan* dina dioica, coffee-tree; Gleditsia triacanthos^ honey-locust ; and, Annona triloba, papaw, which rises to the height of thirty feet. These three last species, in particular, denote the richest lands. In cool moun- * la the United States, the name of Ciunberland is given to that part of Tennessee M^hich lies west of tho mountains of that name. " '' ' # • , 2 205 tainous places, and by the sides of the rivers which h" 'e not steep banks, there are also found the Quercus Mucrocarpa^ over cup white oak, the acorns of which are as large as a hen's egg ; the Acer saccharinum, sugar maple; the Fagiis syl- vaticoy beech; and also the Platamis Oc- cidentalisy plane ; the Liriodendrum tidipi- fera^ white and yellow tidip-tree ; and the Magnolia acuminata, cucumber-tree, the three last of which attain to a circumfe- rence of eighteen or twenty feet. The plane, as has been mentioned before, grows to a larger size. Tlic two species of tulij)- tree, with white and yellow wood, have no external character, either in the leaves, or in the flowers, by which they can be distin- guished from each other, and as the yellow wood is most u.^ed, before a tree is felled, a piece is cut out, to ascertain whether it is of this species. In the lands of the second class, are found Fagus castanea^ chestnut ; Quercus rubra, red oak ; Quercus tinctoria, quer- citron ; Laurus sassafras, sassafras ; Dios- /- P ' 1- ■■i» I \ •I" si 'I I i ••,- '.'i r/l 206 u piros virgmianay persiinon ; Liquidamhar styracijlua^ sweet gum ; NyMa villosa, gum- tree, a tree whicli neither yields gum, nor resin, as its name seems to imply. ^ Those of the third class, which arc gene- rally arid and mountainous, scarcely pro- duce any but the black and red oak ; the Quercus primta mojitami, rocky oak, some pines, and sometimes Virginian cedars. The juglans pacane is not met with nearer than the mouths of the rivers Cum- berland and Tennessee, from whence the fruit is sometimes brought to Lexington market. Neither does this tree grow to the eastward of the Allegany mountains. The Lobelia cardinalis grows abundantly in all tl.ti cool humid spots, as well as the LobC' lia sphilitica ; this is more common in Kentucky than in any part of the United States which I have seen. The Lauriis benzoin, spice-wood, is also plentiful here. The two genera, Vaccinium and Andromeduy which constitute a series of more than thirty species, and are very abundant in the east- ern states, seem, in some degree, excluded from those oi the ^cst, ai I the < iJcnrr ous district, in which onl ibc / ^rome- da arhorea is found. In all the fertile tracts which are covered with forests, the soil is entirely divested of the graminaceous tribe: only a few scattered plants rise here and there, and the trees are always so far asunder that a stao: niav be seen at a hundred or a hundred and fifty toises distance. Before the establish- ment of the Europeans, all that spot which is now bare was covered with a species of large jointed reed, Arundinaria macro- sperma, the cane, which, ^n the woods, is three or four lines in diinneter, and rises to seven or eight feet, but attains to the height of twenty feet, in the swamps, or marshes, bordering on the IMississippi, and acquires a proportionate thickness. Al- though it often freezes in Kentucky, and is five or six degrees below Zero, for several days in succession, its foliage is always green, and does not appear to suffer from cold. *' Although the ginseng is not a plai>t })e- '.1 • l;| 4 1 '(f ) i 208 i:^ Hi culiar to Kentucky, it is, however, very abuiulunt in it, wliicl) hns dctn inincrl mo to iioticj" it luiT. .'I [\c 5;. .son;:, /ua/, man's t/fiii/is, fhium .^)'fuliu, is i iiiul iu Anuiicn, i'roni I .oner C iuiada, as tar us the stale ot Ccoigja, which comprises an extent of more t)ian live liundred leagues. It thrives iiwmt in the niinmtainous regions of the Allci;anys, were it is more abundant, as the mountains lie farther to the south- west. It is also met with in the environs of New-^'ork and Philadelphia, as well as in 'h(se |»aiis of the northern states situ- ated het\^een the mountains and the sea; but it is so scarce as not to be worth the tr(juble of seeking. It is not found in the lower parts of X'irginia and the Caro- linas. It grows on the declivities of moun- tains, in cool shady piuces, and in the richest soil. A man will not take up more than eight or jiine j)ounds oi" the fresh roots, in a day ; these roots are always less than an inch in diameter, even after a growth of fifteen years, if any dependance cau be placed on the number of rings on 1( ! ■jy 209 the upper part of the neck of the root, which are produced by the annual addition of suc- cessive layers. The form of these roots is ellip- tical, and when it is bifurcate, which is very seldom, one of the divisions is always much thicker and longer tlian the other. The seeds of the ginseng arc of a bright red, and adhere to each other. The stalks seldom yield move than two or three each : in form and bulk they greatly resemble those of the wood honey-suckle. "^^^• freed from their outer covering, t' flat and semicircular. Their taste .o aromatic, and not so bitter, as that of the root. A month or two after they are collected, they appear oily, and it is pro- bably to the rancidity which is, conse- quently, developed in these seeds, that the difficulty of raising them, after they have been long kept, is to be attributed. They are. at perfect maturity from the 15th of September to the 1st of October. I col- lected about half an ounce of them, which, considering the difficulty of pro- curing them, is a great quantity. £ 't1 210 «■ «^ It was a Frencli missionary who first dis- covered ginseng in Canada. When it was ascertained that this plant was the same as that, which grows in Tartary, and the roots of wdiich are so estimable in the eyes of the Chinese, it became an article of commerce %vitii t tjiiia. For a sliort time after its discovery this root was sold for its weight in gold : bnt this advantageous commerce was not of lonsj duration. The ginseng exported from Anieiica was so ill prepared, tliat it fell to a very low price, and the trade ceased almost wholly: how- ever, it has begun to grow better for some time. If the Americans have been so long deprived of this lucrative trade, it must be ascribed to the little care they take in collecting and preparing the ginseng. In Chinese Tartary, the collection be- longs exclusively to the emperor: it can only be made by his order, and is pro- ceeded in with the greatest care. It be- gins in autmun, and continues all the win- ter, the time at which the root has attain- ed to all the maturity and perfection of be- can 211 which it is susceptible ; and, by a very simple process, they give it a semi-trans- parence. In the United States, on the contrary, they begin to collect the ginseng in the spring, and stop when the frost begins. Its root, then soft and watery, shrivels in drying, and finishes by being extremely hard ; by this means it loses a third of its volume, and nearly half its weight: these causes have contributed to lower the price. It is only collected in America by the in- habitants whose usual occupations leave them a little leisure, and by the hunters, who, for that purpose, in addition to their rifle, carry a bag and a small pickaxe. The merchants who are settled in the inte- rior of the country buy the dry ginseng, for about ten pence or a shilling a pound, and sell it again, in the sea-ports, for fif- teen, or twenty pence. I have no correct information as to the quantity which is exported annually to China, but believe it exceeds five-and-twenty or thirty thousand weight. Within four or five years, this p 2 ■I li' 5 *' I y H •I '.I I ' n a '■'.i i (I: 212 trade 1ms acquired new activity. Some persons also begin to eni})loy tlie method j)raetised in China, ibr giving transparency to tlie roots. < / 'I'his j>rocess, which has been long de- scribed in diiVerent works, is still a secret which sells for four hundred piasters in Kentucky. The ginseng, thus prepared, is bought for six or seven piasters a pound, by some merciiants in Philadelphia, who arc said to sell it at Canton from fifty to a liundred piasters, ace* m ding to the quality of the roots. At any rate, the profit must J)e considerable, since there are people who export it themseives from Kentucky to China. - . < - . ^ . , The same animals as are found to the eastward of the mountains, and even in Canada, are also in Kentuckv, and in the western country; but soon after the esta- blishment of the Europeans some species ilisappeared entirely, particularly the JiAku and Whom, These latter were, howevei', more common hero than in any other part of North America. The want of inhabit- J 213 ants in the country; the (juantityof large reeds and wild peas, which supplied them w^ith an abundance of food during the whole year; and the Licks, spots impreg- nated with salt, which have bc(!n already spoken of, were the causes which kept them here. Their number was then so considerable, that ihey were found in troops of a hundred and fifty, or two hun- dred. They were so tame as not to fear the hunters, who IVequently killed them, for the tongue alone, which is considered a delicate morsel. At four years old they weigh from twelve to fourteen hundred weight, and their fiesh is said to be pre- ferable to beef. At present they are very scarce from the Ohio to the Illinois river: they are almost all gone over to the right bank of the Mississippi. The only species of aninuds which are now common in this country iiic the fol- lowing; the (leer, l!ic bear, ihe wolf, the grey and the rc^d-liaired fox, tlic wiKI cat, the racoon, llie oppossum, and thrc^j or four si)ecics of scpiinels. HI t i 1 ,. 214 The animal .to mIucIi the Americans give the name of Wild Cat, is the Cana- dian lynx, Felis li/na\ or only a variety of it, and it is by mistake that some authors have asserted that tlie true wild cat, which is considered as the parent stock of the domestic one, existed in the United States, or farther northward. The racoon, Lrsus lotor, is as thick as a fox, but it is not so tall, and more com- pact. AVhen caught young, it becomes very tame and stops in the houses, where it catches mice in the night. The name of Lotor, Washer, is very applicable to this animal, for it prefers hollow trees growing on the banks of the creeks, or small rivers, which run through the swamps, for its dwelling ; and it is in such places that it is most usually found. 'J'his ani- mal is very common in the southern and western states, as well as in the back parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia. It is very destructive in the maize fields; it climbs up the steins, breaks them down with its weight, and gnaws the ears. It 't 21.5 is hunted with dogs during the night, for it seldom comes out in tlie day. Its skin is in- great esteem with the hatmakers in all the United Stales: tiiey give from ten pence to a sh.iiling a piece lor tliem. In the neighbourhood ot" dwellings, the planters have more dread of tlie squirrels, which make great devastation among the wheat. This species, Sciitrus CaroUnia-' nusy is grey, and a little larger than the European one. Their number is so con- siderable, that, several times a day, the children are sent round the fields to scare them. At the least noise they run off by dozens, and take refuge in the trees, from which they return directly after. Like the beare of North America, they emigrate: at the approach of winter, they make their appearance in Kentucky, in such num- bers, that the farmers are obliged to unite to hunt them. This chase is frequently converted into a party of pleasure : they divide into pairs, and may then kill tiiirty or forty of a morning ; while, a single man, on the contrary, will scarcely kill •Si»» 1 On :!'( *-<":'ftfc! »«>.■»■•"'■ 216 V. ■ ~ Utl one, for the squirrel, laying himself along the trunk of the tree which he has ascend- ed, turns continually so as to keep it be- tween him and the hunter. I was at one of these great hunting matches, where, for dinner, which is usually eaten in a place in the wood appointed for a ren- dezYous, upwards of sixty were roasted. Their flesh is white and very good, and this mode of cooking it is preferable to every other. * j The wild turkies, which begin to be very scarce in the southern states, are plen- tiful in those to the westward. 1 1 the most uninhabited parts they are so tam« as to be easily killed with a pistol-shot. In the east, on the contrary, and particu- larly in the neighbourhood of the sea- ports, they cannot be approached without diffi- culty : they are not alarmed by a noise, but they have a very quick sight, and as soon as they discover the hunter, fly away with such rapidit3% that it lakes a dog several minutes to come up with them ; and when they see themselves on the point 217 of being caught, tbey escape by taking to flight. Hie wild iuikies generally remain in the swamps, and by liie sides of riven and creeks, and only come out in the morning and evening. They perch on the tops of the highest trees, where, notwith- standing their bulk, it is not always easy to see them. When they have not been frightened, they return to the same trees for several weeks in succession. To the east of the Mississippi, in a space of more than eight hundred leagues, this is the only species^ of wild turkey which is met with.* They are larger than those reared in our poultrj^-yards. In autumn and in winter they feed chiefly on chestnuts and acorns ; and some of those killed at this season weigh thirty-five or forty pounds. The variety of domestic turkies, to which the name of English turkies is given, in France, came originally tiom this species of wild turkey ; and when tlicy are not *Thero 15 niio specimen ol' a fcnule in the t^ollcction of the Museum ol Aatural llisitor)'. ■i ^ill '. 11 /.;r ['•■ii I ■ill 218 crossed with the common s])ccies, they re- tain the primitive colour of their phimuge, as well as that of their legs, which is iv deep red. If, subsequent to 1525, our do- mestic turkies were naturalized in Spaip, and from thence were introduced into the rest of Europe, it is jirobable that they were originally from some of the more southern parts of iVmerica, where there doubtless exists a species different from that of the United States. ,, .- - '■ >i i.' J . . - ' ' •v'' '> ;-: Of the (liferent Ko.'J.s of Culture established in Kentucky. — E.vporiation of the territorial Produce . — Peach -trees — Taxes. JlN the state of Kentucky, as in all the central and soutliern states, iM^Mily the whole of the inhabit;!' .is, sequestered in the midst of woods, cuitivati^ tiicir estates themselves, from wliich they T^fver obtain more than the twentieth, thirtu^th, or even the fortieth part of its vahie. lliey, how- ever, assist each other at hiu vest-time, and some of them, whose circumstances are better, have negro slaves to cultivate their lands. In this state, they grow tobacco, hemp, and the different grains of Europe, but principally maize and wheat. The cold, 5 M' ~ 11 ,1 ..If Ml 1 .a: Hi ^H \ ^H r I^HP 1 ^H' 1 , 1 220 which sets in very early, renders tlic culture of cotton too precarious ; otherwise, the great profit '.t yields would have induced the inhabitants to cultivate it with spirit, had there been any probability of success. All who form establishments begin by sowing maize, for in the years immediately succeeding the clearing, the soil is so fer- tile, in lands of the first class, that the wheat sheds its grain before the ear is formed. The following is the mode in which this culture is conducted : having first ploughed furrows at about three feet asunder, they afterwards cut them trans- versely, with others, at the same distance, and plant seven or eight grains in the points of intersection. When they arc come up, only two or three steins are left; this precaution is necessary to niomote the more complete development of the vege- tation, and to secure an abundant crop. Jn the course of the season the land is ploughed several times to destroy noxious weeds, which spring up in great abundance, as soon as tlie land is cleared, and brought 221 into culture. Towards the middle of summer, the lower leaves of the stalk be- gin to dry, and so on successively to the top. As this desiccation proceeds, they are carefully taken off and kept in reserve to feed the horses during the win- ter, and they prefer this forage to the best hay. In lands of the first class, which bear every year, the maize rises to the height of ten or eleven feet ; in common years, it yields forty or fifty English bushels per acre, and from sixty to seventy-five in abundant years : there have even been son)e, which, in the second and third year after the clearing, have yielded as much as a hundred bushels j)er acre. The bushel weighing from fifty to fifh^-six pounds, is never sold for more than a quarter of a piaster, and sometimes is not worth half so much. The species of maize which is cultivated, is that with a long flat grain, and of a white or yellow colour. The harvest is about the end of September. ,A single ■.! ^1 41 M •K'. nno : i man can cultivate eiu;lit or ten acres of it. The culture of wheat is of the greatest importance to the country, much more so, however, as an article of exportation than of consumption. 'J'he rounty of Tayettc, of which Lexinoton is the ehief place, and the surrounding counties, are these which grow tiie most : good lands yield from twenty-five to thirty bushels, weighing from sixty to sixty-five pounds each per acre, although it is not usual to put any manure upon them, and they are only ploughed once. The harvest is in the beoinnini]: of July. The wheat is cut with the sickle, and thrashed with a flail in the barn. The grain is of a good colour, and very niucli resembles that which is grown in the r;- devant Beauce. When the land shall be more cleared, and the cultivation of it bet" ter attended to, 1 am convinced that, con- sidering the excellence of the soil, the dour will be superior in quality to that of Phi- iaddphia^ which is known to surpass th^ \ 'i'iS i I finest in Vnmce in wliitcncss, but is less profitable to the baker. The plough whieh they make use of is H.';'ht, without wheels, and drawn by'Jiorses : it is the same in the central and southern states. The cockle, corn-tiower, and poppy, so common amona; the wheat in our fields, are not plentiful in North America. In the year 1802, the wheat harvest had been so abundant in Kentucky that, in the month of August, when I Avas at Lex- ington, no more than a quarter of a pias- ter per bushel was offered for it. It had never been so low before. This reduction, however, was not attributed solely to the abundance of the ha»vejv, but also to the return of peace in Europe. They are con- vinced in the country that, at this price, the culture of wheat cannot be supported as an article of commerce ; and that, for the farmers to be ensiblcd to cover their expenses, the barrel of flour should never be sold, at New Orleans, below four or five piastei"^. i m :i^ , 11 h^i\l ( J 'J' •■ In all the United States tlic flour which is exported is packed in light barrels, made of oak, and of an uniform size. At Ken- tucky the price of them is three-eighths of a piaster ; they hold one hunched and ninety-six pounds of merchantable flour» whicii requires five bushels of wheat, in- cluding the loss by grinding. The boats for conveying flour to Lower Louisiana cost about a hundred piasters; they stow from two hundred and fifty to three hundred barrels, and are navigated by five men, of whom tlie chief conductor receives a hundred piasters f(5r the voyage, and the others fifty each. From Louis- ville, where nearly all the embarkations take place, they require thirty, orfivc-and- thirtv davs to reach New Orleans. It is reckoned four hundred and thirty five miles, from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, and about a thousand more from thence to New Orleans, which makes the passage one thousand four hundred and thirty-five miles in the whole ; and these boats have to pass through a i5{)ace of eight or nine hun- '» ami tlour> :, in- 225 dred miles on the river, without seeino- a single dwelling. Part of the men return to Lexington by land, which is a distance of eleven hundred miles, in forty or five-and- forty days. This journey is exceedingly laborious, and those who are unwilliiiir to encounter the fatigues of it, return by sea : they embark at New Orleans for New York or Philadelphia, from whence they proceed to Pittsburgh, and afterwards descend the Ohio to Kentuckv. A statement by the inspector of the port of Louisville, inserted in the Ken- tucky Gazette of the 6th of August 1802, makes the number of barrels of flour which passed through that port for Lower Loui- siana, from the first of January to the 30th of June of that year, aimount to 85,570 : more than two-thirds of this quantity may be considered as coming from the state of Ken- tuck}^ and the remainder from tliat of the Ohio,.and chiefly from the establishments on the rivers Monongahela and Allegany. The spring and autumn are the principal seasons during which this exportation is carrie^l on : I II f% i • i I ;> .:,jS I; , . 226 there is hardly any in the summer, nearly all the mills in the country being in want of water at that season. . .; , Rye and oats also thrive very well in Kentucky. The rye is almost all employed in the distillation of whiskey, and the pats make part of the food of the horses ; it w frequently given to them in small bundles of two or three pounds, without being thrashed. The culture of tobacco has been carried to a great extent :within these few years. The temperature of the chmate, and th« extraordinary fertility of tii • * , give this state a very great aijlvantagc uver that of Virginia in this article ; and, with flour, to- bacco forms one of the principal branches of its commerce *, several thousand hogsheads of it, weighing from one thousand to twelve hundred pounds each, are exported an- nually : its price is from two to three pias- ters per quintal. Hemp, both raw and manufactured, is also an article of exportation. In the same year, 1802, there was sent out 42,048 227 pounds of it raw, and 2,402 quintals, ma- nufactured into cables and cordage. Many of the inhabitants cultivate flax : and the women make linen of it for the use of their families, and exchange the sur- plus ivith the merchants for articles im- ported from Europe. These linens, though coarse, are of a good quality; they are, however, only used by the least wealthy part of the inhabitants ; the others buy Irish linens, which are a considerable arti- cle of commerce ; although white, they are not so good as our linens of Brittan}' ; these would have met with a great sale in the western states, had not the cession of Loui- siana taken place ; for it is now well ascer- tained that the conveyance of merchandize up the river from New Orleans to Louis- ville, is not so expensive as bringing it from Philadelphia to Limestone. Although the temperature of Kentucky, and of the other western states, is very fa- vourable to the culture of fruit-trees, and particularly stone-fruits, these states have been too recently peopled for the inhabi- Q 2 m>i :i ^l 228 tants to have given much attention to them ; besides, the Americans do not feel so much interested in this branch of cul- ture as we do in France. Hitherto they have confaied tlieuiselvcs to planting a few apple-trees, and a very great number of peaches. , ., . i r ., . s ,,.. - i,, . The latter are greatly multiplied, and arrive at the highest degree of perfection : there are five or six species of them, of which some are early and some late, with the flesh either white, red, or yellow, and either quitting or adhering to the stone. The peaches of these different species are of an oval form, and larger than our cul- tivated peaches. All the trees are in the? open ground, and grow from kernels, with- out being grafted or cut; they thrive so vigorously that, by the fourth year, they are in full bearing : almost all the inhabi- tants plant them round their houses, and others have large orchards of them, dis- posed in a quincunx form. For two months before the fruit comes to maturity, they turn pigs into them ; these animals eagerly 229 >n to »t feel f cul- 3 they a few )er of , and ction : !m, of , with v^, and stone, ies are ur cul- in th(f with- ive so , they nhabi- s, and n, dis- onths , they agerly n leek the windfalls, which are very nume- rous, and crack the shells to get at the kernels. . : - , The immense quantity of peaches which they gather is converted into brandy, of which there is a great consumption in the country, and the remainder is exported by the river. Only some of the inhabitants have stills ; the others carry their peaches to them, and receive a quantity of brandy proportionate to the quantity of their fruit, allowing a portion for the expense of the distillation. Peach brandy is sold for one piaster a gallon, amounting to little more than four (French) pints. In Kentucky, the assessments are made in the following manner : a sum of forty sous tounwiH (equal to halfpence) is paid per head for the whites ; thirteen sous per head for negroes; six sous for a horse; 6tly-two sous for a hundred acres of land of the first class, cultivated or not culti- vated ; thirty-five sous for a hundred acres of the second class ; and thirleen sous for a hundred of the third class. Althouo;h } 4 \i ■I !" i<1 A\ \ i^ i| >v«.; ■J. -I ■ I' 't 230 these taxes are, as inay be seen, very mo* derate, and no one complains of them, there are, nevertheless, a great number al- ways in arrears for the payment of them. I learned this from the repeated advertise- ments of the collectors, which 1 saw stuck up in different parts of the town of Lex- ington ; but these arrearages are not pecu- liar to the state of Kentucky, fot I have made the same observation in those of the east. '' • . " lilX .■h;. Iti<^ 231 chAp. XX. ili Horses and Cattle of Kentucky — Necessity for giving them Salt. — IVild Horses taken in the Plains of New Mexico. — Exportation of Salt Provisions. — Manners of the Inhabitants. — Religious Sects. — Public Schools. Jr OR some time past the inhabitants of Kentucky have engaged in breeding horses, and by this lucrative branch of commerce have found a means of deriving great be- nefit from the superabundant quantity of maize they grow, as well as from the oats and other forage, which would not find a market at New Orleans. The horees of this country came origi- nally from Virginia, which, of all the states of the union, is reputed to have the finest horees for the saddle or carriage ; and most of them were brought here by the emi- grants who came from Virginia to settle in :''' ,r II m, ,''i! i ■ ( •1 m 3'l 232 this state. The number of horses, which is already very consiclerable, augments daily. Almost all tlie inhal)itants employ great care in breeding, and improving the breeds, and consider this amelioration as of such importaiic;', that the owners of fine stallions charge as much as fifteen or twenty piasters for covering. These stal- lions are brouglit from Virginia, and, as I have been assured, some are also imported from England. The foals produced from them have a delicate leg, a well-propor- tioned head, and an elegant slender form. This is not the case with the draught horses ; the iiihabitants take no pains in improving that breed ; they are consequently small, and have a bad appearance, greatly re- semblino; those used bv the wood-carriers in our ibrests. Thev seemed to me to be still worse in Georgia and the Upper Carolinas. In fact, I do not hesitate to assert, that there is not, in all the United States, a single drauoht-horse which can bebrous'ht into comparison, in auy way, with those of the second rate, bred lor tliis purpose, 'J33 in the ci-devant Picardv. This is an as- sertioii to which very few Americans will give credit, but it is nevertheless true. Some individuals undertake the treat- ment of sick horses, but none of them have any regular ideas of the veterinary art, so essential in a breeding country, and which has lately attained to such a great degree of perfection in France and England. In Kentucky, a« well as in the central and southern states, maize is the only grain usually given to horses. They ac- count its nutritive quality to be double that of oats ; however, they are sometimes mixed. In this state, they do not give rations to their horses. In the geneiality of the plantations, the manger is filled with maize : the hors%..s eat it at will; quit the stable to go to the pasture, and return to feed on the maixe when they please. They arc never lied up, and remain almost always in the inclosures kept purposely . for them. '^Phe stables are only log-houses, open to the weather on *vli sides, the !^paces in i|'<1 It '4r '•* -I !'•! 234 f! between the trunks of the trees not being filled witli clay. The southern states, tind particularly South Carolina, are the principal markets for the fine horses of Kentucky. 'VV'^y are taken there in troops of fifteen, twenty, or thirty together, at the beginning of winter, the time when business is biiskest ' in Carolina, and when the conductors are not apprehensi> e of the yellow fev^er, of^ which the inhabitants of the interior naive a great dread. They are generally eigh- teen or twenty days in going from the neighbourhood of Lexington to Charles- ; town. This distance, which is seven hun- ^ dred miles, makes a difference of five-and- twenty or thirty per cent, in the price of the ' horses. In Kentucky, a handsome saddle ' horse costs about a hundred and thirty, or ^ a hundred and forty piasters. During my residence in this state I had an opportunity of seeing some of the " wild horses, which are taken in the plains f of New Mexico, and are escended froui 235 •i : those left there formerly by the Spaniards. For catching them, i licy make use of the domestic horses, which are much nimbler, and on which they get near enough to them to entangle them. They are brought to New Orleans and to the Natcl.es, where they are sold for about fifty piasters. The * conductors of the boats, who return by land to Kentucky, sometimes buy them. The two which 1 saw, and tried, were of a roan colour, and about a medium height, with a thick head, very disproportionate to the neck, large limbs, and a middling quantity of mane. These horses have an exceeding hard trot ; they are very restive, bear on the bridle, and very often free themselves from it, and take to flight. The number of horned cattle in Ken- tucky is very considerable : there are fre- qijently forty or fifty at a 'plantation. Those who deal in them, buy them lean, and send them in droves of two or tliree hun- dsed to Virginia, where thry sell them to the graziers, on the banks of the Potow- mack^ who afterwards tatten them for the fU M f'l .« I . ji 'Ml ill i< .Ml: i I i. i ■■■! ! I ' 23(j * markets of naltimore and Pliiladelpliia. The plica of a good milch cow, in Ken- tucky, is ten or twelve piasters. Milk diet is, in a great measure, the food of the inhabitants. 'J 'he butter, which is ne\x*r consumed in the country, is put into bar- rels, and exported by the river, and after- wards sent to the AVcst Indies. There are very few sheep reared ; for, though I travelled upwards of two hundred miles through this state, I saw but four plantations at which there were an}'. Their tlesh is not in much esteem, and the wool is of the same quality as that of the sheep in the eastern states. 1 shall observe here that tlic ureatest number are reared in that of lUiode Island. . •« . i' Of all the domestic animals, pigs are the most numerous. Kvcry inhabitant keeps some, and several have as many as a him- dredand liftyor two hundred, 'i'hese ani- mals do not (juit the forests, where they aluavs find food, j^articuhuly in a utimm and winter. They become extremely wild^ , and keep t(^gelher in bcdies. When suV' fc 237 prized, or attacked by a dog, or any other animal, they cither fly with speed, or, fbrniin«ir inlo a circle, unite for their mu- tual delencc. They have a compact body, medium height, short legs, and upright ears. Each person knows his ou'ii by the particular manner in which he cuts their ears. Sometimes they penetrate into the depths of the for-^'sts, and do not re-appear for everal montSis ; they are, however, accustomed to return to the plantations occas' jnally by feedin;v them with maize once or twice a we. k. It is surprizing that in a country of uch in^mense extent, co- A'ered with ivrests, and, comparatively, so thinly inhabited, and with so lew noxious animals, these pigs have not multiplied in such a manner as to become entirely w ild. In all the western states, and also in those to the east of the Alleoany moun- tains, at a distance of two hundred miles from the sea, it is necessary to give salt to tbi, cattle. Without it, whatever food is given to them, they will not fatten, and it is a want, so imperious upon them, that r i^ r: ■ ^8 :| they come of themselves to the house-door, every week or fortnight, in (juest of it, and will spend whole hours in licking the man- ger on which a few pinches have been sprinkled. This desire is most manifested by the horses, perhaps because it is most frequently given to them. ' ' ' Salt provisions is another important article of commerce to Kentucky. In the table quoted above, the quantity exported, in the fnst six months of the year 1802, is stated to have been two hundred and seventy-two thousand weight of smoked pork, and two tliousand four hundred and eighty-live barrels of salted pork. > - Notwithstanding the superabundance of grain raised in this country, there is scarcely an individual who rears poultr3\ This branch of domestic economy would, however, add nothing to their expenses, and at the same time, make ah agree- able variation in their food. Two princi- pal causes seem to prevent this : the first is that the use of salted meats, (a use t*v 239 which the cutaneous diseases, so frequent among them, may he attributed), give them a distaste for this sort of provisions, which they, perhaps, fmd too insipid; the second fs, that the fields of maize, which are usually contiguous to the dwelling- houses, would be exposed to great devas- tations, the inclosures with which they are surrounded being only calculated to keep out the cattle and pigs. The inhabitants of Kentucky, as has been already mentioned, are, almost all, originally from Virginia, and particularly fi'om the most remote parts of that state, audi with the exception of the lawyers, physicians, and a few of the citizens, who have received an education suitable to their professions, in the towns on the At- lantic, retain the manners of the Vir» ginians. With them, a p^ssion for gaming and spirituous liquors is carried to excess, and sanguinary conflijcts are frequently the consequence. They meet often at the taverns, particularly during the session of the courts of justice, when they pass whole A I ■«■ [■ ll 'I f ill I HI I ill uh 1 (I I'' i ' ill i i |?1 i f ! ( ' 1 240 days there. Horses, and the law-suits, are the usual subjects of their conversa- tion. If a traveller arrives, his horse is valued as soon as they can perceive him. Tf he sto[)s, they offer him a glass of whiskey, and a multitude of questions fol- low. Where did you come from ? Where are you going to ? What is yourname ? Where do you reside ? Your profession ? Have the inhabitants of the country you have passed through any fevers ? &c. These questions, which are repeated a thou- sand times, in the course of along journey, at length become tiresome ; but, with a little address, it is easy to stop them. ]>esides* they have no other motive for them but that curiosity which is so natural to persons living retired, in the midst of woods, who scarcely ever sec a stranger. Tlu^ are never dictated by mistrust : for, from what- ever part of the world a stranger comes to the I'nited States, he njay enter all the sea-[)()rts and principal towns, remain in them, or travel, as long as he pleases, through every [)art of the cojntry, without 4 24*1 any public officer inquiring who he is, or what are his inducements for coming there. The inhabitants of Kentucky are very willing to give strangers the information they require respecting the country in which they reside, and which they consider as the best part of the United States : a? that in which the soil is most fertile, the cli- mate most salubrious, and where all who have come to settle, were led by the love of liberty and independence. In their houses they are decent and hospitable ; wherefore, in the course of my journey, I preferred lodging with them, rather than in the taverns, where the accommodation is frequently worse and much dearer. The women seldom interfere in the la- bours of the field : they remain at home, assiduously engaged with the cares of the house, or employed in spinning hemp or cotton,, which they afterwards make into cloth for the use of the family. This work alone is considerable, for there are few It m M '\f 11 21 ii; Ui \\i ■ |i. ■ 11 houses in which there are not four or five children. Among tlie different sects which exist in Kentucky, tliose of the methodists and ana- baptists are the most numerous. The reli- gious spirit has, within seven or eight years, acquireil a new degree of strength here ; for, independently of the Sundays, Avhich are scrupulously observed, they meet, du- ring th^ summer, in the course of the week, to hear sermons, which last for several days in succession. These meetings, which often consist of two or three thousand persons, who come from ten or twelve miles round, take plac^ in the woods. Each one brings his own provisions, and they pass the night round fires. The ministers use great vehemence in their discourses. Frequently, in the middle of these ser- mons, the heads of some of the congre- gation are lifted up, their imaginations exalted, and they fall down, inspired, ex- claiming, Glory! Glory! It is chiefly among the women that these inspirations, take 243 ■ I'l place. They are then taken from among the crowd, and put under a tree, where they lie extended for a long time, uttering deep sighs. There are some of these assemblies at which as many as two hundred will fall in this manner, so that a number of assistants are employed to help them. While I was at Lexington, I attended one of these ser- mons. Those who are best informed dif- fer from the opinion of the multitude with respect to this species of extacy ; which frequently draws on them the appellation of bad folks. But this io the extent of their intolerance. When returned from the sermon, religion seldom forms a sub- ject of conversation among the citizens. Although divided into diflerent sects, they live in the gre&test harmony, and when an alliance is projected between families, dif- ference of religion never occasions any obstacle : the husband and wife follow the worship they approve ; as do their children when they are come to maturity, without the least opposition from their parents^ R 2 •If^ I m »1 : f'^ ii m ff ^ 1 1 * ■1 \ 1 i d 244 In all the western country, the children are punctually sent to schools, where they aie tauglit reading, writing, and the elements of arithmetic. These schools are suppoited at tho expense of the inhabi- tants, ^\ho procure iu ,^f:ers as soon as the populaliun and their a bih ties enable them: it i.> theiefore very uncommon to meet with an iVmerican who is unable to read and wiitc. On the Ohio, and in the Bar-» rens, vvhere the r^ttlen rents are very widely dispersed, the inhabitants have not yet been able to procure this advantage, which is an object of solicitude to every head of a family. ' " •'A . 245 V CHAP. XXL Nashoilk^'^Its commercial Relations. — In* formation relative to jhe Establishment of the Natches, Nashville, the principal and the oldest town of this part Oi* Tennessee, is situated on the river Cumberland, the banks of which, in this place, are formed of a mass of lime-stone, upwards of sixty feet in height. With the exception of seven or eight brick houses, the remainder, consistmg of about one hundred and twen- ty, are built with planks, and dispersed over a space of five-and-twenty or thirty acres, in a s])ot where the rock is almost bare. No water can be obtained, will, t making a very long circuit to reach the '' M ,1 111 li: <1 M ;l ¥ 4' 246 bide of the river, or descending a very steep and dangerous path. "While 1 was there, one of* the inhabitants was endea- vouring to perforate the rock to make a well, but he had not dug many feet, and the great hardness of the stone rendered the work long and difficult. This small town, although it has been built fifteen or sixteen ycare, does not contain any manufacture or public esta* blishment. There is, however, a printing- office, which pubhshcs a newspaper once a week. They are now engaged in the estabhshment of a college, for the endow- ment of which, some rents and other re- venues are appropriated : but it is still in its infancy, only seven or eight young men being yet assembled, under one profes- sor. '^^ The price of labour is higher in this town than at Lexington , and there is a similar disproportion between this price and that of provisions. Here are twelve or fifteen stores, which are supplied either from Baltimore or Philadelphia ; but they ap- 247 #^' pcnred to rnc to be worse stocked than those of Lexington, and the goods, though dearer, were also of an inferior quahty. This high price is partly to be attributed to the expense of the carriage, Avhich is more considerable, on account of the greater distance which the boats intended for Tennessee have to go on the Oliio. In fact, after h.iving passed Limestone, the p!ace of disembarkation for Kentucky, and which is four hundred and twenty-five miles from Pittsburgh, they have still to make a passage of six hundred and nine- teen miles to the mouth of the river Cumberland, and a hundred and eighty miles, up that river, to reach Nashville; which makes the total distance from Phi- ladelphia fifteen hundred and twenty-one miles, twelve hundred of which are by A^'ater. Some trader's also get their com- modities from New Orleans, from whence the boats come up the ^lississippi, Ohio, and Cumberland. This last distance is twelve hundred and forty-three miles ; that is to say, a thousand miles from New m « a r r\ ii i' t \l 248 Orleans to the mouth of the Ohio ; from thence, sixty-three miles to that of the Cumberland, and a hundred and eighty miles on this river to Nashville. Thereare viry few planters who under- take the exportation of their own produce, consisting principally of cotton : most of them sell it to the merchants of Nash- ville, who send it by the river to New Orleans, whence it is forwarded to New York or Philadelphia, or exported directly to Europe. These merchants, like those of Lexington, do not always pay money for the cotton which they buy» but oblige the planters to take goods in exchange, which increases their profits very much. A great deal of it is also sent by land into Kentucky, where each family requires a supply to make such stuffs as they are in want of. When I was passing down, in 1802, they were sending cottons by the Ohio to Pitts- burgh, for the first time, to be afterwards dispersed through the back parts of Penn- sylvania and Virginia. I met the boats 249 fl loaded with it near Marietta : they were puslied up the river with a pole, and went about twerity miles a day. Thus those parts of the western states which are far- thest asunder, are cemented by commer- cial relations, of which cotton is the basis, and the Ohio the link of comnmnication ; and the results of this intercourse will give a greater degree of prosperity to this part of Tennessee, and secure to its inhabitants very superior advantages over those of Kentucky and the Ohio, the territorial productions of which arc not ofanature to meet with a great sale at home, or in the neighbouring countries, and must therefore be sent to New Orleans. I had a letter from Doctor Jirown of Lexington, for Mv. W. P. Anderson, a gentleman of the law, at Nashville, who received me in the most ohiioino; manner. 1 am also indebted to hhn for an acquain- tance with several other persons, and among them, Mr. Fisk of New England, presicient of the college, with whom 1 had tiic pleasure to travel to Knoxville. The L /• '1 \- !'! li. i 1250 inhabita >> huve a frank and unceremo- nious character. On the clay of my arrival, I had hardly dismonntt'd when some of them, who happened to be at the tavern where I stopped, invited me to visit them at their homes. All the inliabitants of the western coun- try who go to New Orleans by the river, on their commercial concerns, and return by land, pass through Nashville, which is the first town they arrive at after leaving the Natches. The distance between them is six hundred miles, and is entirely unin- habited ; they arc therefore obliged to carry provisions for the whole journey on horseback. It is true, they pass through two or three of the villages oftheChicasaw Indians, but, instead of being able to pro- cure any thing in them, the savages are so ill supplied themselves, that it is not al- ways easy to avoid being obliged to allow them to participate in what they have. Several persons, who have travelled this road, informed me that, for a distance of four or five hundred miles from the Natches, Imo. [val, of ern nem 251 the country is very even ; tliat tlic soil is sandy, partly covered witli pirn p., and not well adapted for any "peeics of culture; but that the sides of ilie river Tennessee are, on the contrar}', excccdiMj^ly fertile, and even superior to the richest districts of Kentucky and Tennessee. The settlement of the Natches, which is known by the name of the Mississippi ter^ ritory^ daily acquires a new degree of pros- perity, notwithstanding the insalubrity of the climate, which is such that three- fourths of the inhabitants are annually af- fected with intermitting fevers, during the summer and autumn : the great profit, how- ever, arising from the culture of the long- woolled cotton {coton i\ tongue soic), draws a number of emigrants to it, and the popu- lation already amounts to five thousand whites, and three thousand negro slaves. The road leading to the Natches was only a path, winding through these im- mense forests ; but the federal government is making a new one, which is on the point of being completed, and which will be one H f J I II •Mi I I m I! > I: h^ 252 of the finest in the United States, as well for its breadth, as for the solidity of the bridges built over the small rivers which cross it. To these advantages, it will add that of being shorter than the other by nearly a hundred miles. Thus, in a short time, a carriage may travel through the western country, lirom Boston to New Or- leans, a distance of upwards of two thou- sand miles. ill "f .'V Jl 1 ' V ^f J< J ?*' 253 CHAP. XXII. Departure for Knoxville. — Arrival at Fort Blount. --Observations on the drying up of the Rivers during the Summer » — Plantations on this Road. — Fertility of the Soil. — £.1- cursions on Cumberland River in a Canoe. On the 5th of September I left Nash- ville to proceed to Knoxville, with Mr. Fisk, who was sent by the state of Tennessee to fix, in concert with the commissioners from Virginia, the boundaries between the two states in a more accurate manner. We arrived on the 9th at Fori Blount, built on the river Cumberland, seventy miles from Nashville. On the road we stoj)ped with different friends of Mr. Fisk ; among others, with General Smith, one of the oldest in- habitants of this country, where he has ] : \ i «• '. H\ l.-iti fl . v ii- /I "if 254 resided sixteen or seventeen years. Ame- rica is indebted to liim for the best map of this state, which is to be found in the Gcoi^rophical .Itlas, published by Matthew Carey, a bookseller at Philadelphia. He acknowledged, however^ that this map, which has been some years hiid down, is imperfect in many points. The general is possessed of a fine estate, cultivated in maize and cotton : he has also a well- conducted distillery, where he makes peach brandy, which he sells for a piaster per gallon. lie employs his leisure in che- mistry. I observed that he had English translations of the works of Lavoisier and Fouicroy. We also, on our journey, visited General "Winchester, who was engaged in finishing a stone house, very elegant for the country; it contains four large rooms on the ground- floor, a fust floor, and an attic story. The carpenters had been fetched from Balti- more, a distance of near seven hundred miles. The stone is of a calcareous na- ture ; there is not any other kind in this. a 255 part of Tennessee, except the rounded flints which are found in the beds of some of the rivers, and originate in the moun- tainous region, from wlience they are brought by the streiigth of the torrents. But tliere are few of the inhabitants who build in this way, on account of the price of labour, masons being still scarcer than carpenters and joiners. Not far from tlie general's house runs a river of forty or fifty feet in breadth, which we crossed dry-shod. Its banks, in some places, are up winds of five-and- twenty feet in height, and (he bottom of its bed is formed by one single channel, furrowed with smaller ones, intersecting each other, and three or four lines broad, by as many in depth. Tiie small (juantity of water which it had at this time trickled through thc^e furrows ; but on the contrary, in the winter, the waters are so abundant that, by means of a sluice, a sufficient quantity is diverted from it to turn a mill^ which stands upwards of thirty feet in height. We had already passed several of these 2 '^;.;' 256 rivers, which we could step over, but on which ferry-boats are necessary at that season. A few miles from General Winchester's house, and out of the road, is situated a small town, which has been built some years ; the name of Cairo was given to it in commemoration of the capture of Cairo by the French. Between Nashville and Fort 13Iount, the plantations, though alwayir' ;-equestcrcd in the midst of the woods, arc, however, so near each other on the road, that it is very uncommon not to see one in every two or three miles. The inhabitants reside in good log-houses ; most of them ha^'e negroes, and appear to live happy, and in plenty. Through all this space tlie soil is slightly unequal, sometimes entirely level, Pud in general excellent; the forests are, conse- quently, very beautiful. This great ferti- lity is more particularly obser\ able about fifty miles from Nashville, and a few miles before coming to Major Dixon's, at DLiwi's Spring, where I stopped a d;iy and a half. 257 There are considerable masses of the forests in the environs, which are fiHed with the reeds or canes of which I have spoken above, and which grow so close to each other that a man concealed in them can- not be perceived at ten or fifteen feet distance. Their tufted foliage forms a mass of verdUiC which recreates the sight in the depths of these solitary and silent forests. I have already mentioned that, in proportion as new plantations arc form* ed, these reeds disappear in a few years, because the cattle prefer their leaves to every other species of vegetable, and de- stroy them more by breaking the stems of the plants than by browzing their tops. The pigs also contribute to their destruc- tion, by turning up the earth in search of the young roots. Fort Blount was constructed about eighteen years ago, to protect the emi- grants, who came to settle at that time in Cumberland, against the savages, who made incessant war upon them, to re- move thcmi but a peace having been I: 1l i 253 concluded, and the population being greatly augmcnttKl, thoy are incapacitated from doing tliem any further injury, and the fort has been destroyed. At present there is a good plantation on the spot, which I.clongs to Captain William Sampson, with whom Mr. J'isk usually resides. ]3uring the two days we stopped with him, I made excursions for several miles up and down the liver Ciunberland, in a canoe. This method of examining natural productions, always in greatest variety on the banks of rivers, is nioic convenient than any other, espe- cially when, as in this case, the river is confined within enormous rocks, so steep that a man on foot cannot approach them without great difficulty. In these excur- sions I enriched my collection with the seeds of several trees and plants peculiar to the country, and with various other sub- jects of natural liistory. Ar 359 i li CHAP, xxiir. If Departure from Fort Blount for IVest-Pointt across the Wilderness. — Botanical Excur- sions on Roaring River, — Jppearance of the Sides of this River.— Saline Products found here, — Cherokee Indians. — Arrival at Knox- ville. On the 11th of September we went from Fort Blount to Blackborn, which planta- tion, situated fifteen miles from this fort, is the last possessed by the whites before reaching the line, which, on that side, separates the territory of the United States from that of the Cherokee Indians. As far as West-Point, on the Clinch, this boun- dary is an uninhabited country, of eighty miles in width, bearing the name of the Wilderness^ and of which the mountains of Cumberland occupy a considerable part. Mr. Fisk being obliged to attend the court of iustice which was held some 8 s .y;- 1' ; »^i 1^' .fl' 260 miles off, in the county of Jackson, we postponed crossing the IVildcrueaa for a few days; and 1 took the opportunity of his absence to visit Roarini; River, one of the branches of the Cumberland. 'J'his river, which is from ten to fifteen toiscs in breadth, receives its name from the confused noise heard for upwards of a mile, and occa- sioned by the falls of the water, produced by the sudden depressions of its bed, which is formed of lar2;c flat stones, contiguous to each other. 1'hese falls, six, eight, or ten feet in height, are so close, that seve- ral of them are met with in a space of fifty or a hundred toises. Lai^e stones, five or six feet in diameter, and rounded on all sides, are seen lying in the middle of the river, without a possibility of ascer- taining how tliey were conveyed there. The right bank of Roaring River is, in some places, of the height of eighty or a hundred feet, and, at this elevation, is overtopped by rocks, which project fifteen or twenty feet, and cover thick beds of ferrugineous schistus, lying horizontally. 5 ii 261 The laminae, of which they are composed, have so httle adhesion, and arc so friable, that, on the slightest touch, they break off in pieces of a foot long, and fall spontaneously to powder, by which means deep excava- tions are at length ibniied under these rocks. On the plates of schistus least ex- posed to the water and the light, a kind of white eftioresceiice appears, of an extreme tenuity, and greatly resembling snow. 'J'here are also on the banks of this river, and in other parts of Cumberland, deep caverns, in which are found masses of an aluminous substance, so near the degree of purity required for the operations of dying, that the inhabitants not only collect it for their own use, but they also export it to Kentucky. They cut it in pieces with a hatchet ; but there is not any of them acquainted with the processes emplo} ed in the old continent for preparing the differ- ent substances, as they are met with in commerce. Several large rivulets, after meandering through the forests, terminate on the steep * 11 i ■ i ^Bm By m 1 K 1 BHJ |j 1 1 il nil H fl ill 1 ■ffll^n^L '^M flit 1 ^^^^■mK -^w liii Hi HI HI 262 banks of this ri\ or, whence they are tu- multuously precipitated into its bosom, fon )?ng magnificent cascades of several tolses in breadth. The i)crmanent humi- dity produced here by these cascades gives birth to a multitude of plants, which grow amon^ be thick moss spread over the rock, u d ibrnnug a very beautiful carpet of verdure. These various causes render the sides of the Roaring River extremely rool, and give them an appearance totally different from those of the other riven which 1 had hitherto visited. Here also are seen a variety of trees and shrubs, not met with elsewhere. I found here, at the same time, the Magnolia Auriculata, Ma- crophiltiif Cordaia, Acuminata^ and TripC' tola. The fruits of these trees, as remark- able for the beauty of their flowers as for their superb foliage, were at maturity. 1 gathered the seeds of them, to propagate them in France, and add to the embel- lishments of our gardens. These seeds easily become rancid, and I endeavoured to remedy this inconvenience by putting 2 > I tl M 265 them into fresn moss, which T changed every fortnight, until my return to Carolina, whcr« 1 persevered in the same precautions, until the period of my embarkation for Europe. I have since had the satisfaction of finding tliat my care was not bestowed in vain, and that, by this means, I have succeeded in preserving their g .TaJnating i»*operty. liijor Russel, with whom I went to lodge after leaving Black born, and where I was rejoined by Mr. Tisk, very obliging- ly supplied us with the provisions neces* sary lor our forced niarcli of two days, through the territory ,of the Cherokees. Notwithstanding the good intelligence now subsisting between the whites and these Indians, it is always prudent to form a company of five or six to cross it. However, as we were far from the usual place of rendezvous, at which travellers wait, we determined to set off alone, and arrived happily at West-Point. The coun- try is very mountainous, and we were un- able to go further than forty-five miles on 1 I I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) ''^ ^/ 4 A.^ m. V 1.0 IsKS BS ' Ui iU |2.2 1!? 144 ■— 1.1 iria "= IE |1^IM^IJ4 ^ — . 6 ► Photographic Sciences Corporalion 33 WBT MAIN STRUT WnSTIR.N.Y. I4SM (71«)S72-4903 V ^ 264 I'l ! N the first day, though we did not stop un- til midnight. We encamped near a small river where there was plenty of grass, and, after having made a fire, lay down in our blankets, watching alternately, to enable our horses to graze more at large, being apprehensive of the savages, wno some- times steal them, notwithstanding the ut- most precaution of travellers ; for their ad- dress in this respect is beyond all imagi- nation. On this day we saw nothing but wild turkies, in flocks of thirty or furty. On the second day we met a party of eight or ten Indians, who were in quest of summer grapes, and chinquapins, a spe- cies of small chestnut, superior, in taste, to those of Europe. As we were not above twenty miles from West-Point, we gave them the remainder of our provisions, which was very pleasing to them. To them, broad is a great luxury, their com- mou food being only deer's flesh roasted. The road across this part of the Indian territory passes over the Cumberland mountains : it is as wide and as well beat' ■» 265 en, as those in the environs of Philadel- phia, on account of the great number of emigrants who travel it, as they go to settle in the western country* It is, how- ever, in some places, very bad, but not nearly so much so as that between Stras- burgh and Bedford, in Pennsylvania ; nei- ther is it, like that, encumbered with enormous stones. Forty miles from Nash- ville, we met some wealthy emigrants, travelling in a carriage, followed by their negroes on foot, who had passed it with- out any accident. Small boards painted black, and nailed against the trees, at every third mile, show travellers how far they have gone. ' '' '" )^<^^ r ^ ^ In this part of Tennessee the forests are composed of all the species of trees, which belong more particularly to the mountain* ous districts of North America, such as oaks, maples, and walnuts. Pines also abound in places wliere the soil is inferior. But what appeared to me very extraordi- nary, was, to see parts of the woods, of several miles in extent, where all the pines. i,l v\ ■A If I t'i] ]ti U .y^ ;? 1- •' i.'n 266 which amounted to, at least, a jfifth of the other trees, had died in the preceding year, and still retained their withered leaves. I was unable to discover the causes of this singular phenomenon : I Gould only learn that it occura every fif- teen or twenty years. ^ ' There is a pallisaded fort at West- Point, built on a high hill, at the confluence of the rivers Clinch and Holston. The fede- ral government has a company of soldiers here, wiose object is to keep the Indiaiis in awe, and, at the same time, to protect them against the inhabitants of the fron- tier, whose misconduct frequently excites them to war. The object of these out- rages is very often to dispossess them of their lands, but the government has guard- ed against this fruitful source of discord and war, by declaring all the lands occu- pied by the Indians, within the limits of the United States, to be a part of the national domains. , 'V' The following trait will give an idea of the atrocious character of some of those 267 frontier Americans. On^ of them, in the neighbourhood of Fort Blount, had lost a horse, which had strayed from his house, and penetrated a considerable distance in- to the Indian territory. A fortnight after, it was brought back by two of the Che- rokees : they were not fifty paces from the house, when tliis man, on perceiving thera» phot one of them dead ; the other took to flight, and carried the news to his coun- trymen. The murderer was put in prison, but was released in a short time, for want of proof ( f his crime, though he remained convicted in the public opinion. All the time he was kept in prison the Indians sus- pended the effects of* their resentment, in the hope that the death of their country- man would be avenged; but, scarcely were they informed of his enlargement, when they killed a white at more than a hun- dred and fifty miles from the place where the first murder had been committed. To this day, it has been found impracticable to make the Indians, of whatsoever nation, comprehend that chastisem*ent should onljr M, I I I'll m > II 1) ■ ■■* y 26B be inflicted on the culpable : they believe that the murder of one, or of several of their nation, must be avenged by the deatli of an equal number of individuals be- longing to the nation of him who occa- sioned the loss of their people. This is a custom which it is impossible to make them renounce, particularly if he who has been killed belonged to a family of distinction ; for, among the Creeks and Cherokees, there exists a class superior to tlie commonalty of the nation. These Indians are above the middle size, well proportioned, and rather fleshy, considering the compulsory fasts they frequently endure, in pursuit of the animals whose flesh forms their chief sustenance. The rifle is the only fire-sarms they make use of; the}' are very expert with it, and kill at a great distance. The common dress of the men consists of an £uropean shirt, which they leave loose, and of a piece of blue cloth, half an ell in length, vrhivh serves them for breeches : they pass it between their thighs, and fosteu the two ends to their girdle, before M ■ ^! 1 II 269 and behind. They wear long gaiters and shoes, or socks, of prepared deer's skin. On particular occasions some of them ap- pear in a coat, waistcoat, and hat, but not breeches. The natives of North Ame- rica have never been able to adopt this part of our dress. They leave only one tuft of hair, on the top of their hcad», formed into several tresses, whicli hano- down the sides of their faces, and very fre- quently the eiids are decorated with fea- thers, or small pipes of silver. A great number of them pinforate the gristle of the nose to put rings into it, and cut their ears, which are lengthened to two or three inches, by means of pieces of lead, hung to them, when they are very young. They paint their countenances red, blue, or black. A man's shirt, and a short petticoat, form the dress of the women, who also wear gaiters and socks of deer's skin : they permit all their hair to grow, which, like that of the men, is of a jet black ; but they do not pitfrce the nose, or cut the ears. In Si\ f ■|' 270 ti '"■it u .4 ■>j.' i 1,1 p <- \ m winter both men and women wrap them- selves in a woollen blanket to protect them- selves from the coid ; tliis is an essential part of their baggage, and tht'y always carry it with them. There is a store i^ear the fort, to which the Cherokecs bring ginseng and furs, consisting princijially of the skins of bears, cleei*s, and otters : they receive in exchange, coarse stufls, knives, hatchets, and the other articles which they are in want of. I learnt at AVest-Point, from several people who make frequent journies among the Cherokecs, that for some years past they have attended to the cultivation of their lands, and have made great progress. Some of them have good plantations, and also negro slaves. Some of the women spin, and weave cotton stufls. The federal go- vernment devotes a sum annually to sup- ply t * em with the implements of agricul- ture, aad of different trades. Compelled to pursue my journey, I was unable to penetrate into their country, as 1 had at first proposed, and derived no advantage 271 from the letters of recommendation which Mr, W. P. Andereon, at Nashville, had given me, to that effect, for the officers of the garrison at the fort. It is reckoned thirty-five miles from West-Point to Knoxville. At a mile from West-Point, the road goes through Kings- town, consisting of al out forty log-houses^ Afterwards it is continued, for eight or ten miles, over a rough stoney land, but which is very plentifully covered with grass. The trees within this space grow at twenty or thirty paces from each other, which makes it probable that this district will pass from the state of a meadow to that of a forest. Beyond this distance the soil becomes better, and the plantations are nearer together. «_>■ ^f I 'I V "I i> 1 ^/ r; I # « J* 272 ..tf". . r ' 'i . ;4-'* i • • CHAP. XXIV. ,» f t, '.if, > ': MI'V], t »' Knoxville. "— Commercial Uelations. — T/ew ' growing in its Envirops. — Conversion of some Parts of the Meadoxcs into Forests* River Nolachucky,^^Greensville, — Arrival ' at Jonesborvugh, ' • • . - JKwNOXVILLE, tlie scat of government of the state of Tennessee, is situated on the river Holston, which, at this place, !& nearly a hundred and fifty toises in width. The houses, in number about two hun- dred, are, almost all, of wood. Although it has been built eighteen or twenty years, this little town has not yet any kind of establishment, or manufacture, except some tanneries. Commerce, however, is brisker here than at Nashville. The stores, of which there are fifteen or twenty, are also better provided. The merchants obtain , / * ' 273 1 K. ' «', '-I ^^ < - Trees sion of Forests* Arrival rnment itcd on lace, is width. hun- though r years, cind of )t some brisker )res, of ire also obtain . their supplies, by land, from Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Richmond, in Virginin, and, in return, send, by the same chaimel, the productions of the country, which they buy from the farmers, or take in exchange for their goods. Baltimore and Rich- mond are the towns with which they have the greatest dealings. The p;'ce of car- riage from Baltimore is six or seven pias- ters the quintal. It is reckoned five hun- dred miles from this town to Knoxvillc; six hundred and forty to Philadelphia ; and four hundred and twenty to Rich- mond. They also send flour, cotton, and lime to New Orleans, by the river Tennessee ; but this way is not much frequented in commerce, the navigation of this great river being very much interrupted, in two dif- ferent places, by shoals filled with rocks. It is reckoned about six hundred miles from Knoxville to the efflux of the Ten- nessee into the Ohio, and thirty-eight ' miles from thence to that of the Ohio, into the Mississippi. T ,.» 2 "'< I ^1 ' \ < » Is 57i T '\Ve stopped at Knoxvillc, at Tlaynes's, who keeps khe best tavern, the, sign of the , General Washington. Travellei-s, with their horses, arc acconiniodated here at the rate of a piaster per day. The accoifimo- datious are very good, but the price is rather too high, for a country, the situation of which is by no means favourable for the sale of their provisions, which must be sent to a great distance, through coun- tries which supply those of the same kind, and have the same markets for them. This high price arises from a desire of getting rich in a short time, a desire wliicli is gene- ral in the United States, \yh^re, eypry man who exercises any profession or art what- soever, is anxious to get a great deal by it, and is not contented with a moderate pro- fit, as in Europe. There is a newspaper prii^tcd at.Knpx- Tiile, , which appeal's twice a week, and is edited, and published by Mr. Roulstone^ the country^ian and friend of my fellow- traveller, JVJr. Fisk. It iiiay be observed that the greater part of the emigrants 275 from New England arc much superior to the others in their morals, their know- iedge, andtheir indu stry. On the 17th of September I took my leave of Mr. Fisk, and directed my steps towards Jonesborough, a hundred miles , from Knoxvillc, and at the bottom of the high mountains which separate North Ca- rolina from the state of Tennessee. At leaving Knoxville the soil is uneven, stoney, and bad : this may be easily seen by the great quantity of pines, Finusmiiis, found in the forests. Here are also an abundance of chinquapin oaks, Quercits p sinus Chin- quapin ; they seldom grow higher than three feet, and this year some of them were »o loaded with acorna, that they More bent down to the iijround. The sorrel-tree. An- dromeda arhorea, is also very connnon : this tree, which rises to the height of forty feet in the mountains, would, from its ele- gant panicles of white flowers, Ibrm one or the most beautiful ornaments oi' our gar- 'dens : its leaves are very acid, and some of i 'I f I » J J'.*' 1- 2 276 the inhabitants give them the preference to sumach for dying black. I crossed the river Holston at Macby, fifteen miles from Knoxville : here the soil becomes better, and the plantations are nearer together, although still so distant as not to be within sight of each other. At a short distance from Macby the road, for the space of a mile or two, runs beside a cop- pice, very thickly set with trees, the largest clumps being twenty or twenty-five feet across. I had never seen any part of a forest in a similar state ; and 1 made this observation to the inhabitants of the coun- try, who informed me that this spot was for- merly part of a Barren, or meadow, which had become naturally re-covered with w^ood within the last twelve or fifteen years, since the had custom of setting fire to them, as is practised in all the soiithciii states, had been disconthiued. This example seems to prove, that the ext( nsi\;' meadows of Kentucky and Tennessee are indebted to some conflagration, which had consumed the forests, for their origin, and that they kf i ,0'. 277 are preserved in that state by tlie custom, which still prevails, of setting fire to them annually. When on these occasions chance preserves any spots of them for a few years from the ravages of the flames, the trees spring I again; but, being extremely close, the fire, which at langth catches them, burns them completely, and reduces them to the state of meadows asrain. Hence it may be concluded that, in these countries, the meadows must continually encroach upon the forests ; and, in all pro- babihty, this was the case in Upper Loui- siana and New Mexico, which are only vast plains, to which the savages set fire an- nually, and where there is not any tree. On the first day I stopped in a place where the majority of the inhabitants were Quakers, M'ho had come fifteen or eighteen years before from Pennsylvania. The one with whom I lodged had a good planta- tion, and his log-house was divided into two apartments, which is very uncommon in this country. Some very fine apple- trees were planted round the house, which, TV Hi ! * -''A ! il il:' 278-. although raised from seeds, produced fruijt i. of extraordinary size and excellent quality : . this is another proof how well these coun- tries are adapted for the culture of fruit- trees. Here, as in Kentucky, the prefe- rence is given to the peach, on account of the brandy made from. it. At my host's I met with two families of emigrants, con-, sisting together^ of ten or twelve persons, who were going to settle in Tennessee. - Their torn garments, and the bad plight of the children, who followed barefooted, and ,; in their shirts, wer? . indications of ,their , poverty ; a very uncommon occurrence in , the United States. The riches of the in- habitants of the western country does not, however, consist in money; for I am well convinced that a tenth of them do not pos- sess a single piaster : but each man lives on ,; his own frecliold, and gathers from it an > abundance of every necessary provision ; , and the money arising from the sale of a lioisc or a iew cows is always more thad^v^ sufficient tp procure him all those sec<)ii- v dary articles, which come from the Eng- lish manufactures. "»• m 5879 ^ On the following day I passed near an fro7i worky situated thirty miles from Knoxville, and stopped a short time to take a speci- men of the ore. The iron obtained from it is said to be of an excellent quaUty. At this place the road divides into two branches, both leading to Jonesborough ; but, as I was desirous of iseeiug the banks of the river Nolachuky, celebrated in this country for their fertility, I took that to the right, although it is a little longer, and less frequented. Six or seven miles from the iron-work small rock crystals are found on the road, two or three lines in length, and of the most beautiful transparency. The facets of the pyramids, which termi- nate the two extremities of the prism, are parallel to each other; tl.cy arc uncom bined, and disseminated in a reddish, slightly argillaceous land. In less than ten minutes 1 collected forty of them. When I arrived on the banks of the Nolachuky, 1 did not discover any species of tree or plant which 1 had not seen elsewhere, ex- cept tulij)-trees, and horse-chestnuts with ■ : Til ^ M it ■,<»<;«w!j-<^^';:^'.:,. ■ - ■» ♦^.w^ i'ifti r... a,, |, (1 280 yelloAv flowers, of an uncommon heiight. Some of the tulip-trees were five or six feet ., in diameter; they were perfectly straight, and wholly destitute of branches, to the, . height of thirty or forty feet from the ^ ground. On the 21st I arrived at Greenville, which does not contain more than forty .^ houses, built of squared beams, arranged like the trunks of trees of which the log-, houses are formed. It is twenty-five miles , , from hence to Jonesborough. In the inter- ., , val the country is rather hilly ; the soil is ^ , more adapted to the culture of wheat,., than of maize, and the plantations on the.j, road are at a distance of three miles from^i each other. Jonesborousjh, the last town in Ten-, nessee, contains about a hundred and fifty -, houses, built of planks, and lying on the two sides of the road. Here are four or five stores, and the merchants who keep them have dealings with Baltimore and Richmond. Every article of English ma- nufacture is sold very dear here, as weli 281" lesight. ixfeet raight, to the m the ■ u]\ jnville, I forty ranged le log- e miles 5 inter- soil is wheat on the ;s from I Ten- : nd fifty en the . four or o keep )re and ish ma- as well as at Knoxville. A newspaper, in large folio, is published here once a week. Periodical papers are hitherto the only works which have been printed in those towns or villages lying to the westward of the AUeganies, where printing-offices are estal^lished. ^ r,''•.^ '■•»'" \ ;"■., ■■•■■■- . ". .v\\ \n •m\ ir :, • « ' ■ ►.u' -' . : . r ' , •y^i '>: >■ ' - •;>*;-> .'1 : j' '''< n ■ i JHvv ' i '- * ' . i ■ • ! . ' ' . • • > . ; u I t 1 [1 '. ^ 282- CHAP. XXV. :| ■' General Observations onihe State iff Tennessee, Of the Rivers Cumberland and Tennessee*-^ What is meant by East Tennessee or Hols ton, MndlVest Tennessee or Cumberland. — First Establishments in West Tennessee, — Native Trees of the Countrifi . ■Wi JlHE state of Tennessee is situated be- tween 35' and 36' 30' of latitude, and 80* and 90' 30' of longitude. Its bounda- ries are : to the north, Kentucky ; to the south, the territory reserved for thd Che- rokee and Chartaw Indians; to the west, the Ohio y and to the east, the Alleg&ny mountains, whicli separate it from Vii'ginia and North Carolina. Its extent is nearly three hundred and sixty miles in length, by about a hundred and three miles in breadth. 4 28fi Before 1796, the period of its admission ^ into the union, this country formed a part - of North Carohna. Its t>\o principal rivers . are the Cumberland and the Tennessee, a which fall into the Ohio, at a distance of eleven miles from each other, and. are sepa- rated for nearly their whole course by the Cumberland mountains. The Cumberland river, described in the ■> French maps, and known to* the French Canadians by the name of the river Shava- non, takes its rise in Kentucky, among the mountains which separate it from Virginia. Its course is about four hundred and fifty - miles; in winter, and in spring it is navi- gable as far as three liundred and fifty miles from its efflux ; but, in the summer, it cannot be ascended more tljjan fifty mileg . above Nashville. The river .'Jennessce, called by the' French Canadians, the Cherokees' river, is the largest of all those which fall into the Ohio. Its commencement may be fixed at West Point; it is formed there by tlm *' junction of the rivers CHnch and Ilolston, •. which take their rise in that part of th« .^ ■■1 ^ ! 1 ;i 11 1284 . Allegany niounttiins lying in Virginia, and are earh eighty or a hundred toises wide at their junction. They are both naviga!>le • for a great distance, and particularly the Holston, which is so for two hundred miles. The French Inroad River, ono of the principal branches of the Holston, re- ceives the waters of the Nolachuky, which is twenty or five-and-twenty toises in width, and is navigable in the spring. Thus the Tennessee, with the Holston, has, in the whole, a navigable couree of near eight hundred miles ; but the navigation is inter- rupted for six months in the year by the muscle shoaky a species of sand banks, co- vered with rocks, which are met with in its channel about two hundred and fifty miles above its efflux into the Ohio. From West-Point, the banks of this river arc almost wholly uninhabited. ^J'he mean- ing of the nani<^ Tennessee, which it bears, is unknown U) the Cherokees and Chac- taws, who possessed this country befor6 the whites. Mr. Fisk, who had had much intercourse with these Indians, could ob- tain no information respecting it ; and it i:> 285 very probable that this name was given to it by the nation wliich the Clicrokees suc- ceeded. ' The Cumberland Mountains arc only a ' prolongation of Laurel Mountain, which is ' itself one of the principal links of the Alle- gany chain. On the confines of Virginia ' these mountains run more to the west, and, by the direction which they take, intersect the state of Tennessee obliquely, which is thus divided into two parts. East and West Tennessee ; which were originally known by the names of the establishments of Holston and of Cumberland, and have a very different appearance, both from the nature of their soils and the productions they yield. • West T^innessee comprises two-thirds of the state ; it rests chiefly on a bank of a uniform calcareous nature, the strata of which are horizontal. The bed of veo;e- table earth with which it is covered seems, in general, not so deep as in Kentucky, and partaking more of an argillaceous na- ture ; it is commonly of a deep brown- 4 ' tl n * IF I II 'I M I m i286 • eblour, and without any mixture of stoncy substances. Tlic forests spread over the face of the country shbw how favourable the soil is to vegetation; for aU the trees attain to a very groat diameter. Iron mines are as scarce here as in Kentucky; and, if any new ones have been discovered, they are already in work ; for the iron imported from Philadelphia and llolston bears a very high price. ,. ,,.^, y^ The secoixlary rivers, which in this part of Tennessee all fall into the Cumberland, are almost wholly dry in summer; and it IS very probable that, when the population shall be more numerous, and plantations be formed at a distance from their banks, the want of water will be felt in this district even more severely th^n in Kentucky : there are, however, large brociks or creeks, which issue from deep excavations, lying at the bottom of the low hills, found in ^ different places. It has been observed, that the springs of this description yield very good water, and never dry up, though they are not so large in the summer. At «87 • their issuing from these caverns they are .. Bometiiiies accompanied by a current of , air, strong cnougii to extinguish a hght. 1 noticed this particularity at the source of the brook which bears the name of , Dixon's Spring, and of another, four miles , from Nashville. • . • ilt was in the year 1780 that the whites first attempted to cross the Cumberland Mountains, and to settle in the environs . of Nashville ;. but the emigrants did not , come here in great numbers before 1789. For several yeai-s they were obliged to , maintain a sanguinary war with the Che- rokee Indians ; and, as lately as ]79o> tho establishments of liolston and Kentucky had no intercourse with' those in Cumber- land, except by caravans, in order fhat , they might cross the extensive uninhabited country between them in safety ; but, for five or six years, since peace has been madt with the natives, the communication be- tween these countries is perfectly esta- blished, and, although not much fre- t1 ■' II n '- t I >ni n ' i" 28» qiientr-.l, it may be travelled with as great security as any part of the Atlantic states. 'J'liis country having been peopled since Kentucky, measures were taken from the first io avoid the great confusion which exists with respect to the rights of pro* perty in the latter state ; conse(|uently, the titles here are considered as more valid, and much less liable to be disputed. This reason, the extraordinary fertility of the soil, and a nulder temperature, are so many motives which attract the eniigmnts from the Atlantic states, rather to West Ten- nessee than to Kentucky. Already the number of inhabitants is estimated at thirty thousand, and five or six thousand negro slaves. . . With very few exceptions, the different species of trees and slnubs which consti- tute the bulk of the forestSj are the same as those I saw in the most fertile parts of Ken- tucky. The Gleditsia Iriacant/ios, honey locust, is, however, more conuuon here : the Indians made their bows of the wood r S89 of it before they adopted tlie U9e of 6rc* arms. i A tree U found, more particularly in these forests, which, io the form of its fruit, and the position of its leaves, appears to have a great resemblance to the Sophora japomca^ with the wood of which the Clii- nese dye their silk yellow. My iather, who diftcovered this tree in 1796, thought it might be ^employed for the same use* and become an important article of com- merce to the country. He communicated his conjectures to Mr. Blount, at that time governor of this state, and his letter was inserted in the Knoxville gazette, of the 15th of March, 1796. Several persons being anxious to know if it was possible to fix the beautiful yellow colour which its wood communicates to water by simple infusion in the cold, I took the opportunity of my residence at Nasiivilie to. send twenty pounds weight of it to New York, one half of which was to be delivered to Dr. Mitchill, professor of chemistry, and the other to be forwarded to Paris, for th^ 290 > Office of Agriculture, attached to the minis- try of the interior, for the purpose of ascer- aiii iiig the degree of utility which may be derived from it. This tree seldom grows higher than forty feet, and thrives best on the Knobs, a species of little hills, the soil of which is very rich. Some of the inhabitants have remarked that there is not any tree in the country which yields such an abundance of sap, in the spring. The quantity it filrnishes even exceeds that of the sugar-maple, although the latter is double its bulk The time of my residence at Nashville, being that of the maturity of the seeds of this tree, I collected a small quantity, and brought them with me > they have almost all come up. Some of the stems are already twelve or fifteen inches in height. It is very probable that this tree may be acclimated in France, and tliat it will bear the cold of our winters, and, the more so, because from what I have been told, tlie wiuters are often as severe in Tennessee, as that of the year XIl. (1804.) .: , ■•^•!^.)K)iiii: ; 291 West Tennessee is less salubrious than Hols ton or. Kentucky. A warmer and more humid temperature occasions inteiv mitting fevers to be very prevalent here in the summer. The emigrants, in the first year of their establishment, and even tra- vellers, are also, at this season, subject to an exanthematic affection, which makes them suffer severely, for ten or twelve days, from the extreme itching produced by a multiplicity of pimples, which first appear on the belly, and aflerwards on the shoulders, arms, and thighs. This indisposition, with which I was attacked before I reached Fort Blount, yielded to a cooling regimen, and to bathing, which I practised for several days in the Cum* berland and Roaring rivers. The name, given to this disease in the country is the Tennessee Itch, . ^ • n / ■ ■, f' • ■ )■ ; • ^ i ' 1. rl U tl1 H I n J ■ II W " V 2 Li m m •pi if lei '■' ll ■' if ■ ' - ?-■• . ',: ''If '>.■ in MM tot r>::'r »>( ir ^ ; I ' ■ • '• hay. • • • •W^ • ' ■* ■ mi ■im CHAP. XXVI. ,f^ '^i\' <<■»■ f,» Cy ^Ae different Species of Culture in JVest Tennessee f and particularly of that of Cotton. Domestic Manufactures of Cotton Stuffs en- couraged by 4he Legislature of this Statc.-^ V Mode of taking Lands by some Emigrants, ,. ■ . ■:* .:> .10 i : » ~ IT' <*f l^EST Tennessee, or Cumberland, being in a more southern latitude than Ken- tucky, admits of the culture of cotton ; con- sequently the inhabitants attend almost wholly to it, and do not cultivate much grain, hemp, or tobacco, beyond their own consumption. The soil, which is fat and loam}', ap- pears to be a recent decomposition of ve- getable matters, and, for that reason, seems, at present, to be less suitable for the growth of wheat than those of maize : the crops of 29S thi» grain artf as abundant as in Kentucky : its stems also grow to tlie height of eleven or t\relve feet, and the ears, which appear at six or seven feet above the ground, are nine or ten inches long, and have a pro- portionate bulk. It is cultivated in, the s^ne manner, and used for the same pur- poses. Hie crows, which are a real scourge to the Atlantic states, where, at three j diffe- rent periods, they ravage the Ifields of maize, and frequently render it necessary for them to be replanted as often, have not yet been seen in Tennessee ; but it is probable that their appearance is only deferred, for they are already very destructive in Kentucky. I shall also observe here, that the grey rats of Europe have not yet penetrated into Cumberland. They follow the estab- lishments of the whites in these distant re- gions, and make their appearance in a few years after the country has been inhabited. At first, they show themselves in the small towns, from whence they spread into the plantations dispersed through the woods. ttl •■" n 1 1 '1 294 ' The cnlture of cotton, infinitely more lucrative than that of wheat or tobacco, is, as I have already said, the most prac- tised in West Tennessee. There is scarcely an emigrant v/ho does not begin to engage in it by the third year after his establishment. Those who have no negroes, cultivate it with the plough, nearly like maize, only taking particular care to weed and hot^ it several times in the season. Tlie otheis dispose their fields in parallel ridges, made with the hoe, and twelve or fifteen feet in height. It is calculated that one man, who has no other employment, is able to culti- vate eight or nine acres ; but the opening of the capsules taking place very rapidly, when it is ripe, it would not be possible for him to pick it by himself. A man and wo- man, with two or three children, may, liowever, easily cultivate four acres, inde- pendently of the maize necessary for their subsistence, and,reckoning on a crop of three hundred and fifty pounds weight, per acre, which, considering the extreme fertihty of the soil, is very moderate, there will be a 295 product of fourteen hundred pounds weight of cotton, freed from the seed. Valuing it at the rate of eiglitecn piasters the quin- tal, the lowest price to wliich it fell, at the time of the last peace, when I was in the country, it gives two hundred and fifty-two piasters, from which, deducting forty piasters for the expense of culture, there is a net produce of two hundred and twelve piasters : while the same number of acres, planted with maize, or sown with wheat, would only give fifty piasters, reckoning fifty bushels of maize, per acre, or twenty- five bushels of wheat, valuing the maize at thirteen pence, and the wheat at six and twenty pence, the bushel ; and admitting that a market can be found for it, at that price, which is not always very easy. This slight sketch will show with what facility the poorest family may (juickly acquire a certain degree of affluence in West Ten- nessee, particularly, if after being five or six years established, they are enabled to purchase one or two negroes, and to in- crease the number gradually. ■li u /I I '"I ): fi 1: I 1 ) '^'1 r. , m 1 m n 1 < - ff\ th6 spttit^ 6f cotton cultivated h6r6 is rathfer ih higher estimation thail that which is callM Green-setd Cotton, of ^vhich it is otily a slight v^fiety. I'he eottoh Stuffs fabricated in West Tfenn^^see, are very fine, and superior in cjtiiility to any which I had seen in the cours6 of my journey. The legislature 6f this state, knowing th^ advantage of en- coui'agirjg this species of industry, and, by so doin'^, diminishing the importation of English mei'chandize, of the same kind, havfe, for t\V6 yfcars, awarded a prize of ten piasters to the ti'oman, in each county, who ^hall exhibit the best manufactured piece ; for, in the surtimer, here, as well as in Ken- tucky, the wealthiest people, as mutih from J^atriotism as economy, wear garments of the stuffs fabricated in the country. They also find this the onl}' method of keeping among them the little money which they have in circulation, and preventing it from ))assing to England. The price of the best land does not yet exceed five piastei's an acre in the environs 297 • of Nashville, and, at thirty or forty miles from that town, it is not worth more than three piasters: a plantation completely formed, containing two or three hundred acres, fifteen or twenty of which are clear*; ed, and a log- house may be purchased at this price. The taxes are also lower in this state than in Kentucky. Among the emigrants who annually come from the ciastward to Tennessee, there are always some, who have not the means of purchasing lands, but they find no difficulty i;.i hiring them ; the specula- tors, who ar6 possessed of several thousand acres, not being displeased at getting a few s*ettlers on their estates, which induces others to come into their neighbourhood r for the speculations in land, in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, are only advan- tageous to those residing on the spot, and who, on the !*rrival of emigrants, can suc- ceed in fixing them upon their possessions, which soon augments their value. The terms on which they let them, are, to clear and inclose eight or nine acres, i ^ii 1 i ■^ 1:1 * • rjl 298 to build a log-house, and to pay the pro- prietor eigl or ten bushels of niaizf Tor each acre cleared. These agreements are made for six or eight years. By the se- cond year the value of two hundred acres of land, adjoining to such a new establish- ment, rises* thiry per cent, and this estate is purchased in preference by a new emi- grant, who is sure of gathering, in the first year of his arrival, as much grain as is requisite for the wants of his family and his cattle. There are fewer horses bred in this state than in Kentucky ; nevertheless they are attentive to the improvement of the breed, and to crossing it with those of the latter state, from whence they procure very fine brood mares. ft -Although this country abounds in salt springs, none of them are yet worked, be- cause thedearness of labour would raise the salt to a higher price than it is imported at, from the salt works of Saint-Genevicve, in the Illinois, which supply Cumberland. It f. -^ 899 is sold for two' piasters a bushel, weighing fifty OP sixty pounds. Holston has its own •alt-works. > .a » • . '...:d .,-■) I 11 •Vt ^ ** ■>»^ l# V . *fj; i. tH i.^ l#«U4t!« CHAP. XXVII. Cf East Tennessee, or Holston. — Cultures,—^ population. — Commercial Relations. JEIAST Tennessee, or Holston, is situated between the highci^t part of the Allegan js, and Cumberland mountains : in length, it comprizes aii extent of nearly a hun- dred and (forty miles ; the principal diffe- rences between it and West Tennessee are that the lime-stone appears to lie deeper ; that the beds of it, which form the mass, inclined to the horizon, are divided at small intervals, by strata of quartz; and, finally, that the country is watered by a great number of small rivers, descending from the neighbouring mountains, which cross it in all directions. The best land 'K ' j&M *iif 501 it on their fjanks : the remainder of thi* tract, wbidi is almost every where inter- sected by hills, is of an indifferent quality, and produces only the white, red, qtier*- citron, chinquapin and rocky oaks, Sec, intermixed with pines; and, as has been already observed, none of tliese species, with the exception of the Quercus Jtiacro' carpa, the over cup white oak, ever grow in the most fertile districts. Maiise also forms one of tlie principal branches of culture here, but it seldom grows to a greater height than seven or eight feet, and thirty bushels per acre is considered as a very good crop. The na- ture of the soil, which is vatiier stoney, «eems better adapted to the growth of wheat, rye, and oats, which are, conse- quently, cultivated more here than in Cumberland. Cotton is not grown in any quantity, on account of the cold, which sets in very early. It may be inferred, from what has been said, that Holston is in every respect inferior in fertility to Cumberland and Kentucky. 5 1. A\ ii\ 308 To turn the superabundance of their grain to advantage, the inhabitants breed a great number of cattle, which they send a distance of four or five hundred miles to the maritime towns of the central ard south- ern states. Very few of these animals arc lost in the passage, although they have a great number of rivers to cross, and tho country is nearly an uninterrupted forest, added to which they are extremely wild, from being accustomed to bealm< '-•> iiMVf in the woods. f This part of Tennessee began ' . 'ft- habited in I77^> and its population bus increased so much, that, at this time, the number of its inhabitants is estimated at seventy thousand, including three or four thousand negro slaves. In 1787t they attempted to form an independent state, under ihc name of the Stale of Franklin, but this })roject was abandoned, it is however, very probable, and the subject is already agitated, that east and west Tennessee will, in the end, form two sepa* rate states, each of which will be aug- 303 mcntcd by a new addition of a part of" the territory belonging at present to the Clierokee Indians: it is true the natives refuse to allow of any further cession, urging that their country is scarcely suf- ficient to supply beasts of chase tor the subsistence of their families, but sooner or later they will be obliged to yield. This division of Tennessee is likely to take place very shortly, whether we consider it as ac- cording with the convenience, or with the enterprizing character of the Americans. It is rendered necessary, on the one hand, by the limits which nature herself has form- ed between the two countries in separating them by the high mountains of Cumber- land, and, on the other, by the total dif- ference in their connnercial relations ; for the trading concerns of Cumberland are carried on by the Ohio and Mississippi ; while those of Ilolston arc nearly all con- ducted by land with the sea-ports of the Atlantic states, since it has very little in- tercourse with New Orleans, by the river Tennessee, and hardly any with Cumber- > I I W $04 ■i- .1: land or Kentucky. In this view, of all the parts of the United States which are now inhabited, Holston is the most unfa- vourably situated, being surrounded on aU sides with extensive tracts of country whjie)^ yield the same products, and are either more fertile, or nearer the sea-side. What has been said of the manners of the inhabitants of Kentucky, may, in a great degree, be applied to those of Tcn- iiessee» since» like the first, they are origin nally from Virginia and North Carolina t but, hitherto, the inhabitants of Tennessee do not enjoy that degree of affluence which is found among those of Kentucky. They appear also to be less religious, aU though they are very strict in their obser-p vance of Sunday. There are few churches in Tennessee : in summer, itinerant mini»r ters go through the different counties, and preach iri the woods to the assembled people. m5 CHAP, xxvin. Departurefrom Jonesborougk for Morgantown^ in North Carolina. — Passage of the Iron Mountain.— 'Residence in the Mountains.— ^ Passage of the Blue Ridges, and of the Mountains of Linneville,'—Arrival at Mor* gantown. On the 21st of December, 1802, I left Jonesborough, to cross the Alleganys, and proceed to North Carolina. Nine miles' from Jonesborough the road divides into two branches, which rejoin fifty-six miles beyond the mountains. The left, which is passable for carriages, crosses the Yellow Mountain, and the other goes over the Iron Mountain. I followed the latter, which was described to me as the shortest. I travelled only nineteen miles this day, and I II I « B 1 li 306 came to lodge v/ith a man named Cayerd, at Limestone Cove ; where 1 arrived be- numbed with cold, from the thick fog which prevails almost continually in the vallies ad- joining to these mountains. Seven miles before reaching this planta- tion, the road, or rather path, begins to be so little trodden, that the track is with dif- ficulty distinguished among the various plants which cover the ground : it is also obstructed by forests of Rhododendrums, shrubs about eighteen or twenty feet in height, the twisted branches of which, in- terwoven with each other, continually re- tard the traveller, who is obliged to advance ' with a hatchet in his hand. The torrents which are to be crossed, also ausment the difficulty and danger of the road, horses being very liable to be thrown down by the round loose flints, concealed by the eddy of the waters, with which the bottoms of these torrents are covered. - . On the following day I had twenty-three miles to go without seeing a dwelling. Hav- 307 ing procured correct information respecting the path I was to follow, and the marks, such as large rocks, or remarkable trees, by which I might know I had not erred, I left Limestone Cove at eight o'clock in the morning, and, in three hours, arrived at the summit of the mountain, which I recog- nized by several trees, marked on each of their sides, and in the same direction, to show the line of demarkation which sepa- rates the state of Tennessee from that of North Carolina. Tiie distance from Lime- stone Cove to the summit of the mountain is reckoned two miles and a half, and the descent, on tho other side, three mJes. The declivity on both sides is so very steep, that it is difficult to sit on a horse, and half the way must be gone on foot. When I had reached the bottom of the mountain, I had again, as the day before, to cross forests of Rhododendrum, and a broad torrent, 'Rocky Creek y the winding course of which intersects the road twelve or fifteen times : each time I was compelled to go ten or ,.• ■ X 2 I' I! 1 '■ 'I ^1 J I "■^m^r 508 fifteen toises up or down the middle of tlie torrent to find the contmuation of the foad on the other side, which is sel- dom directly opposite, and its commence- ment ^is frequently concealed by clumps of plants, or branches of trees, which have time to grow and extend themselves, be- cause whole months elapse without a sin- gle tmveller passing : at length I arrived happily at the end of my journey. I then perceived the imprudence I had com- mitted, in exposing myself, without a guide on a load so little frequented, and where I every instant ran the hazard of going astra}', on account of the subdivisions of the road which are finally lost ; and where it would have been impossible to regain tLa right way without a perfect knowledge of the localities and disposition of the coun^ try, and of the obstacles which, continu* ally occurring, obstruct the passage of a traveller, whose situation would soon be- come very critical from a want of food. On the 23d I travelled two-and-twenty Miiks across a country covered with moun- ,*'«#■ ■ .*;*«».■-,-..,„,*,•• r * I 1 ileof )f the is «el- lence- lumps lihave s, be- a sin- irrived I then com- i guide where * going ions of where nin tl.o Jge of coun- ^ntinu* of a m be* )od. twenty inioun- 309 tains, though not so high as those I had just passed ; and 1 arrived at one Daven- port's, who is owner of a good plantation on Doe River, a torrent thirty or forty feet wide, which falls into the Nolachuky. 1 had learnt the night before, from the person with whom I lodged, that my fether had resided with Davenport, and that this man had been his guide in the mountains, when he traversed them to examine their productions. I was far from thinking that at tlie period when this honest man was entertaining me with an account of his former travelling companion, that I had lost a beloved father on the coast of the island of Madagascar, who died a victim to his zeal for the advance- ment of natural history. I stopped eight days at Davenport's to rest myself after the journey of six hundred miles which I had just taken, and during this interval I examined the Blue Ridges which surround his plantation. On the 2d of October 1802, I resumed my jour- ney, and directed my march ^to Morgan- ' 31 I ¥11 ;'« I II If 310 town, thiity.five miles from hence. Four miles from ]^oc River, 1 repassed the Blue Uidges. J reached the suiimiit by a gradual slof)e, which is much longer and steeper on the east side, without, however., being impracticable for carriages. Tlic passage of this mountain is reckoned four miles and a half. Five miles from the Blue Uidges are the mountains of Linncville, which are not quite so high as the first, but steeper and more difficult to ascend. On the west aide, the road which crosses them is in- cumbered with large flat stones which in- terrupt the passage, and render it very fatiguing. From the summit of these mountains, on which are few trees, an ini- mensc extent of mountainous country covered with forests, may be discovered, and at their base alone, three small cleared spots, Avhich form as many plantations three or four miles distant from each other. It is twenty-live miles from the moun- tains of Linneville to Morgantown, where I arrived on the dth of October. In thi* In. 311 interval the country is hilly, and the soil very bad : for which reason there are only four or five plantations on the road. A mile before I reached it, I crossed the north branch of the Catabaw river, which at this place is forty-five or iifty toises broad, although its source is not more than fifty miles distant. The rain which had re- cently fallen in the mountains had pro- duced a sudden flood, and the owner of the ferry, not tiiiuking it would last long, had not launched the boat, so that I was compelled to ford the river. One of his children pointed out to me the different directions I was to take to avoid some large and deep holes which were concealed by the water. n ■A vf u l\ ^■■^^\u jpearance of an agreeable meadow. This shrub is acknowledged to have the most beautiful flowers of any which is known. In the large woods, the surface of the soil is covered with a species of wild peas, which rise three feet above the earth, and of which the cattle are very greedy. They prefer this pasture to every other, and when removed from it, they fall away, or make their escape to return to it. These mountains are getting inhabited very rapidly. The salubrity of the air, the goodness of the water, and more especially, these wild peas for pasturinij their cattle, are the causes which attract new settlers hither. Lands of the first class are sold at the rate of two piasters, and the taxes do not exceed a halfpenny per acre. ]\laize, wheat, rye, oats and peach-trees are the only articles cultivated, r'' * ? ? - '^ ^mii f, , ' A species of salamander is found in the 317 the torrents, called by Uic inhabitant the At' iiprator of the Mountains ; some of them are two feetl ong. The specimen described in the Nouveau Dictionnaire fTHistoire JVa- tuitlle^ published by Detervi'l*:, ^vas taken in Doe River by my father. The inhabitants of these mountains have the reputation of being very export Imnters. Towards the middle of Autumn, almost all of them hunt the bears: they sell their skins, and the flesh, which is very good, serves them, in a great degree, for food at tliis season. They give it the preference to every other kind of flesh, and consider it as the only one of which a large quantity can be eaten without inconvenience. They make hams of the hind legs, which are very much esteemed. In the autumn and winter, the bears become exceedingly fat. and some of them will weigh as much as four hundred weight. The fat is consumed in the country, where it is used instead of oil. They are hunted With strong dogs, which, without coming into their reach, tei^e and aggravate them> and at length force them «fl ill f i 1.- 318 to climb up a tree, ^vhere they are shot by the hunters. A fine skin is sold for a piaster and a half, or two piasters. The black bear of North America lives principally upon roots, acorns, and chestnuts. To pro- cure them in a greater quantity, he climbs up into the trees, and, as his weight will not allow of his going far from the trunk, he breaks the branch on which he has ob- served the most fruit, by grasping it in one of his fore paws. I have seen some of these branches of such a diameter, tliat the animal must have possessed an extra- ordinary strength to break them in this manner. In summer, when they are more liable to be in want of food, they will fall upon the pigs, and, sometimes, even upon mep. . ! 1 ■ ^-■.:> - , ft. ^.ffii;- . ^ --•" T -^ 'i- a:. ■ t ' , ■ i •^•- ^mrU *'*■ «» '" ••"■" ' 'V «-\i-'. , -.►., (..- ,, .' "'■" . t. :^'^ii^^- ' ) ;, i:i\ shot by 1 piaster le black mcipally To pro- le climbs ight v/ill le trunk, Q has ob- it in one e of these tliat the 111 extra- n in this are more y will fall ven npo» S19 •^ ^ ^ * ^. ■ ^ CHAP. XXX. ■5 . .,, *«>■ Morgantown. — Departure for Charlcstown.-^ Lincolntoivn* — Che^ter.-^Jllnesborough. — Columbia. — Appearance of the Coutitry on this Road* — Cultivation^ S^x. Morgantown, the chief place of the county of Burke, contains about fifty houses, built of planks, and is ahiiost wholly inhabited by.< working people. Only one store, kept by a commercial house at Charlestown, is established in this small town, at which all the inhabitants for five- and-twenty miles round buy articles of mercery or hiiberdashery, brought from England, or give in exchange for them a part of their produce, which consists prin- cipally of smoked hams, barrelled butter, 1 1 / 7- 3.20 tallou', bear's and deer's skins, and alsf> ginseng, which they bring from the moun- tains. It is two hundred and eighty-five miles from Morgantown toCharlestown, and there arc several roads to it, which are not more than fifteen or twenty miles different from cJicli otlicr. Travellers chuse that on which they expect to find the best supj)lied planta- tions. I took that which passes through Lin- colntown, Chester, and Columbia. The dis- tance from Morgan town to Lincolntown is forty- five miles. 'J'he soil, in the wliole of this interval, is very bad, nnd the plan- tations, situated five or six miles from each other, have but an indifferent appearance. The woods are, in great part, composed of the different species of oaks, and the surface of the land is covered with gras» intermingled with plants. Lincolntown, the chief place of the county of Lincoln, is formed by a groupe of forty houses, surrounded with woods, like all the small towns of the interior. Two or three stores, which carry on the ¥ 321 ■ » >. suni6 sort of trade as tlu\t at Morgantown» are established here. The merchants who keep them, send the productions of the country to Charlestown for sale, but they often find it more advantageous to purchase their goods at Philadelphia, although it is six hundred miles farther off. Some for- ward them, by sea, to Carolina, from whence they come to Lincolntown by land. The freight, which is a little higher from. Eng- land to Charlestown, and the exorbitant profits which the traders of that town en- deavour to obtain, appear to be the only reasons for giving the preference to tliose of Philadelphia. A newspaper, in large folio, is printed at liincolntown, which appears once a week. The price of the subscription is two piasters per annum : but, for the conveniency of his country-subscribers, the printer, who is also editor, takes flour, rye, wax, &c. in pay- meot, at the market price. The advertise- ments inserted for the inhabitants of the country are generally the most certain pro* r fit to the printers. The foreign news is obtained from the papers published in the sea-ports. The federal government, whose constant aim is to propagate instruction, and a knowlediie of the lavs, among tlie peo])]e, allows the editors of the periodical j)apers, published through the whole extent of the United States, to receive those Avhich they exchange with each other, or which are directed to tl'.eni, post-free. 'J'lic county of Lincoln is peopled, in great jiart, by Germans, from Pennsylvania. Their plaiitations are in good order, and their lauds well cultivated. Almost all of them have negro slaves, and they apj)ear to be more comfortable than the fa- milies of Enijlish oriiiin. A much more correct idea may be formed of the industry of some of them, by the state of the planta- tion, situated on a branch of the iiver Cutabaw, at which 1 stojiped. Ot eight hundred acres, of which it is coniposed, a hundred aiid Ibrty are cultivated in cotton, maize, w heat, and oats, and th(\y are chuiged eveiy year ; which is a gical d(\grce oj' per- /' ^< pc^'s is in the whose I'uction, hiig the iodical extent those her, or led, in dvania. n\ and all of apjjear lie ia- 1 more idiisiry [)Ianta- * ijvcr t eiglit sed, (I •otton, unged >r ptM - 323 ♦ faction in the present siate of agricultnre in this country. In addition to this ma- nagement, its owner has built several cou- veniencies in his yard, which are worked by the same stream of water : they consist of a good corn-mill, a saw-mill, another for separating the seeds from the cotton, a tannery, a tan-mill, a distillery to make peach-brandy, and a small forge, to which his country neighbours come to get their horses shod. Seven or eight negro slaves are sufficient to manage these different con- cerns, some of which are only in work at certain times of the year. Their wives are employed under the direction of the mis- tress, in fabricating cotton and linen stuffs for the use of the familv. ,., The total amount of my host's taxes, as well for the land-tax as for the different articles of industry, does not exceed seven piasters annually ; while under the pre- sidency of J. Adams^ they were as high as fifty piasters : his memory, therefore, is not held in great veneration in the Upper Carolia^s, and in the western country, Y.2 1 I 6 324 'i\ •m m a Ml ■ m where the poUtical opinion is strongly in favour of the opposition, and no one dare publicly avow himself to be attached to the federalist party. In all the country which I passed through in this journey, every tanner has a tan- mill, which does not cost him more than ten piasters to erect. The bark is put ihto a round frame of wood, twelve or fourteen feet in diameter, the sides of which are about fifteen inches in height, and it is crushed by the weight of a Avheel, a foot thick, turned by a horse, and fixed like that of a cider-press. In general, an old mill-stone, or a wooden wheel, formed of different pieces, and having, on its circum- ference, three rows of teeth, also of wood, two inches in length, and twelve or fifteen lines in width, is made use of for this purpose. It is seventy miles from Lincolntown to Chester Court-house, in the state of South CaroLna. In this interval, the lands are light, and inferior in quality to those between Morgantown and Lincolntown ; n 325 and, although the mass of the forests is still composed of the different species of oaks, the pines are nevertheless so abun- dant in them, that, for spaces of several miles, they are not mixed with any other cpecies of tree, 'i'here are very few plan- tations ; they do not exceed fifteen or eighteen, and cultivate cotton and maize. Sonie othe'.s are to be seen which have been abandoned by their proprietors, being too unproductive ; for the inhabitants of Georgia and the two Carolinas, who do not plant rice, often prefer clearing new spots to keeping their land in i condition to pro- duce a crop annually, by practising a me- thodical cultivation, as in Europe, and even in New England and Pennsylvania. The considerable extent of this country, compared with its small population, also admits of these changes, Avhich are made after fifteen or twenty successive crops. Chester contains about thirty wooden houses, among which are two taverns and ^1 fiii S26 two stores. In the principal places of the western and southern states, there are neither fairs nor markets. The inhabitahts sell the products of their Hnd to the mer- chants settled in the small towns, or, as is more usual to the southward, send it to the sea-ports in waggons. * .- * .' From Chester, the country becomes worse and worse in every respect. The traveller is no longer received at the plan- tations: he is obliged to stop at the taverns, where he is badly served, dirtily lodged, and pays more than in any other part of ihe United States. Tlie degree of repu- tation of these taverns is proportionate to the great r or less variety of spirituous liquors which they sell, among which French brandy always holds the first rank, although it is frequently lowered three or four times. It is fifty miles from Chester to Colum- bia. 'J'wenty-five miles before reaching this place, the road passes througli Wines- borough, containing about one hundred 327 and fifty houses. This uas one of the first inhabited j)Uices in Carolina; and some of tlie planters of the lower country come here to pass the summer and autumn. The Piiie-lmrrens beirin fifteen miles nearer to Chester than Winesborongh, and from thence to the sea the country is one conti- nued forest of pines. ' ■ • * •- Columbia, which has been built fifteen or eijrhtcen years, is the seat of government of the state of South Carolina. It stands on a plain, two hundred toises from the river Catabaw. Tlio number of its houses does not exceed two hundred. They are almost all constructed of j)lanks,and painted grey or yellow; and although there are very i'cw of them raised more than two stories, in the whole they have a very agreeable appearance. 'I'lie legislature, which is formed by the assembly of the delegates of the ditferent counties, wliose number is proportionate to the poi)ulatioii of the counties represented, meets here on the 1st of December, in every year, and all 328 Bill business is discussed in the course of that month. It is then dissolved, and, except at this time, the town derives no particular advantage from being the seat of govern- ment of the state. The inhabitants of the upper country who do not chuse to transport their pro- duce to Charlestown, stop at Columbia* where they are enabled to dispose of it. in the stores established in that town, uf which there are ten or twelve. The river Catabaw, which is almost a hundred and twenty-five toises in breadth, is only navigable during the winter. For the rest of the year, its navigation is stopped by the large rocks which obstruct its course. They have, however, been se- veral years employed in forming a chan- nel to facilitate the passage of boats ; but the work goes on slowly tor want of hands, although the workmen are paid at tlie rate of a piaster per day. Columbia is a hundred and twenty miles from Charlestown ; in all this space, and 'm' S29 particularly beyond Orangebiirgh, which consiiits of about twenty houses, the road lies over a flat country, sandy and arid in summer, though in the autumn and winter it is so covered with water, that, in some places, the horjcs are up to their mid-legs, for a space of eight or ten miles. Every two or three miles there is a miserable log- house on the road, surrounded by small fields of maize, the weak stems of which seldom rise above five or six feet, and, after the second crop, do not yield more than four or five bushels per acre. But not- withstanding their sterility, these lands are sold for two piasters an acre. The extreme insalubrity of the climate is ^clearly demonstrated by the pale and livid countenances of the inhabitants, who, during the months of August, September, and October, are almost all afflicted with tertian fevers : so that, at this period, Georiiia and the two Carol inas resemble, in some degree, a vast hospital. Few per- sons practise medicine, and every one ■fi 330 waits for a cure till the first frosts. The negroes arc much less liable to intermit- ting fevers than the whites, and, in the large rice plantations, it is very uncommon for more than a fifth to l)e disabled from work by this cause. •!". • t »'. ' ». « I 'j>i) t » u/ /l.U, f ,' I' ■ f li i » . :ii I'-. ;> < '> !< ; '(•. .. A I i ' •;: «\'t Ai' •>' \ in TJJ "- J » , ,\.:. ji 'H' (•/ |f|«.iS 'I > >•£•., .<]/: / > '5 ; ) , > I ■> ni a. ! . .Wr. ii'\f f) I , ' . t •f^ri; ir->*" ^ fi/. 4 ■/• .fii} "ffj I i; .1>; ;r?:j,'nr ."i Lu^ • w>i'» , .< 1 *V'j1 ;'?'!> > '■ f _ffl !»»l i'. .i,f' '1,^ I ) ttr •h .'"i •>€««.>.•;!{ / . s. The Intermit- in the common ;d froin • .1 1 ' 1 f • 1 • f ' 301 y , CHAP. XXXI. 'IX- General Observations on the CaroUnas and Georgia •—Culture and Productions peculiar to the Upper Part of these iStates, »'i; i , r\ The two CaroUnas and Georgia are di- vided naturally into the upper and lower country : but the upper country embraces the greatest extent. From the termination of the maritime })art, the land rises gra- dually as far as the chain of the Allegany mountains; and, on the whole, exhibits the a[)pearance of an irregular rather than of a mountainous country ; intersected by small hills to the bottom of the mountains. Tiie Allegtinys give rise to a great number of creeks or small rivers ; these, by uniting, form tiic rivers Pedec, 8aiilee, Savaimali, and Alatamaha, whicii are not navigal)le more than two hundred aud tiftv miles » *\ .«'f; ' 4 V V 1 B 1' 1 B f ■A i 1 332 , above their junction with the ocean. In the upper country the most fertile lands are those on the banks of these creeks : the in- termediate spaces are much less so. A very small part of them is cultivated, and those who attempt it are obliged to have re- course to successive clearing, to obtain more abundant crops : consequently, a great number of the inhabitants emigrate to the western country, whither they are attracted by the extreme fertility of the soil, and by the low price of land : for they can obtain land of the first class there, for the same price as that which the second costs in the Upper Carolinas, and, as has been already observed, the latter is scarcely comparable to what is placed in the third, in Kentucky and Cumberland. Jt may therefore be conceived how important it must be to a man who has only his own labour and that of his children, to cultivate productive lands in preference to th(>se of a bad quality, which are so much the sooner exhausted, because no means are taken to improve them by diligent culture. 33S In the upper country the mass of the forests is chiefly composed of oaks, walnuts, maples, plaqueminiers^ and tuhp-trees : the chestnuts, which rise to a height of eighty feet, do not begin to appear in these states till within sixty miles of the mountains. It is only in the highest parts that the inhabitants fabricate maple sugar for their use. The nature of the soil, through all these countries, is adapted to the culture of wheat, rye, and maize, but the latter is the most practised. G ood lands yield eighteen or twenty bushels of maize per acre, which is commonly worth half a piaster a bushel. It is in general consumption among the inhabitants, for, except those of German origin, there are few, as has been already observed, who eat wheaten bread. The growth of wheat is very limited, and the small quantity of flour exported from hence to Charlestown and Savannah, is sold there at fifteen per cent, lower tlian that imported from Philadelphia. 334 The low price to which tobacco has for some years fallen in Europe, has occasioned the culture of it to be abandoned in these countries. That of the Green-seed Cotton has replaced it, very advantageously for the inhabitants, a great number of whom arc already enriched by it. The separation of the seeds from the husks which enclose them, a tedious operation, which requires much manual labour, has been lately sim- plified by a machine, for Avhich the in- ventor has obtained a patent from the American cjovcrnment. The legislature of South Carolina, have, for three years, paid him a sum of fifty thousand piasters, for permitting all the inhabitants of that state to construct them. 'J'his very simple machine, the price of which does not exceed sixty piasters, is worked by a horse or current of water, and cleanses three or four hundred pounds of cotton in a day, while, by the common process, a man cannot pick more than twenty-five or thirty pounds. ]t is true that tliis machine has the incouve- as for »ioned these Cotton for ilie )in arc tion of enclose equircs jly sini- the in- om the ature of irs, paid tcrs, for t state to irachine, etl sixty uvrcnt ot hundred , by the )ick more s. It is iucouve- 335 nience of cutting the wool aheady too short ill this species of cotton, which, for that reason, is of an inferior quahty to any oilier kind met with in commerce; but this is said to be compensated by the saving of time, and, more especially, of manual labour. It is veiy probable that the ditTercnt species of fruit trees which we have in France would succeed very well in the Upper Carolinas. Two hundred miles from the sea, the apple trees are luxuriant, and, in the county of Lincoln, some Ger- mans make cider. But here, as in Ten* nessee, and in the greatest part of Ken- tucky, tiiey cultivate the peach alone : the other species of trees, such as pears, apri- cots, plums, cherries, almonds, figs, mul- berries, walnuts, and gooseberries, are only known by name, 'rhose who are possess- ed of some decree of atfliience are desirous of procuring them, but the distance from . the sea-ports offers great obstacles to it. The greater part of the inhabitants do imt ) r 336 «»' even cultivate leguminous vegetables, and there is not above one in twenty who plants a small patch of cabbages in his maize field. In the Upper Carolinas, the grass which covers the surface of the soil is moi^ abun- dant, as the forests are more open. The woods are also in common, and every per- son permits his cattle, which he recognizes by his mark, to be at liberty in them. Some have in their herds a variety of oi^ich without horns, but they are not in greater estimation than the common kind. During all my journey I did not see any, which, in strength, could be compared to those bred in our western departments : this no doubt arises from the little care which the owners take of them, and from what tkese ani- mals suffer in the forests, where, during the summer, they are cruelly tormented by an innumerable multitude of ticks and gnats ; and, in winter, they are in want of grass, which is withered by the action of the first fiusts. These inconveniencics are ^. '» 537 more felt, during the summer, in the lower country, owing to the extreme heat of the climate. From these causes it results thktt the cows give little milk, and are dry in three or four months. In the environs of Philadelphia and New York, where they pay as much attention to them as in France, there are some, on the contrary, as fine, and which give milk as abund- antly. • '--U 1. -- The horses reared in this part of the southern states, are inferior to those of ihe western states. The sheep are very few, and those of the inhabitants wlu) pos- sess a dozen, are considered as haviBg m large stock. The commercial dealings of the Upper Carolinas and Georgia* are mostly carried on with Charlestown, which is very little farther from them than Wilmington and Savannah. They give it the preference, because commerce is brisker there, and tliey find a readier sale for their commo^ i J tii)i if\ 1 ; -L .a i 338 # clitics. The articles principally carried there are short cotton, tobacco, smoked Jiams, salted butter, wax, deer's and bear's skins, and cattle. They take in return large iron articles, tea, coffee, raw sugar, coarse woollen cloths, and some fine linens, but no iron in bars, the upper country abounding in mines of this metal, and those which are worked being sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants. They al- so bring salt from the sea-ports, for theic are no salt works in any part of the At- lantic states. These goods are conveyed in large waggons with four wheels, drawn by four or six horses, which travel twenty or four-and-twenty miles a day, and stop every night in the woods. The price of carriage is about four francs (three shillings and four pence) per quintal, for every hundred miles. ^ ^^.i? tr'>T; Although the climate of the upper country is infinitely more healthy than that of the lower parts, the intermitting levers arc nevertheless to be dreaded within t*. t>;^' * 4 33p two hundred or even two hundred and fifty miles of tlie sea, and it is necessary to go to this distance to pass the summer in security. Eight-tenths of the inhabitants of th^sc countries are as well provided Jis those of Tennessee and Kentucky. Like the latter, they live in log-houses, insulated in the woods, which remain open both night and day : the internal economy of their families is the same, and they ])ractise the same modes in their agricul- tural labours. Nevertheless there are many among them whose moral cha- racters are perhaps not so pure as those of the inhabitants of the west : they are probably spoiled by an intercourse with tiie Scotch and Irish, who come annual- ly, in great numbers, to settle in this country, and bring with them some of the defects and vices, which are the usual consequences of an extensive po- pulation. The majority of these new comers pass into the upper country, z 2 r» < m-* 34a # wbere they are bound, for one or two years, to work for the persons who pay the captain of the vessel for tlieir pas- sage. «. .t- I -. .-..v i't ';- /Si''.. I iJ \/ '.?::'> -ill 341 » T.ixlU .,. A->f ^.:, '.■• ,«-rnj ■'^',j , ,.J rn iK^:^}]}! ^. ivi : tm, ' 'Ulf CHAP. XXXII. i;* :^?*'> ,, ■■ ujrjjq 'r'jdA- *i>;u: >■ Of the lower Part of the Carolinas and Georgia.-^Modes of Culturc^^Fopulaiion, Arrival at Charlettown. itar* } I n*Jnc\q ■'t?j nvi *'> vt The Ib¥ idiimry, in tie hvo Carolinas and Georgia, extends from a hundred and twenty-five to a hundred and fifty miles from the sea-side, growing broader towardf the south. The space cdmprized within this extent is flat and regular, formed of a blackish sand, not very deep, in which there are neither stones nor flints ; it is therefore unnecessary to shoe the horses in all this part of the United States. Seven-tenths of the country are covered with pines of the same species, Finns pa^ t . Hi'i fuitnsj wliicli arc so much tlie taller amf less branched, as the soil is drier and hghter. Tliese trees, standing most com- monly about fifteen or twenty feet from each other, are no injured by the fire, which, at the commencement of the spring, is also set to the grass and other plants in the woods here, which have been killed by the fro$t. These pines, which, being but little incumbered with branches, split very even, are preferred to the other trees for making fences to the plantations. Notwithstanding the sterility of the soil in which they grow, they are sometimes in- termixed with three species of oak, to wit, QMercus nigra, Quercus Catesbai, and Quet' cui obiu$ihba. The wood of the two fir&t is only fit to burn, while tliat of the other is much used, as I have observed be- The Piiie Barrens are crossed by small marshes, or swamps^ in the middle of which generally runa a brook. These swamps, from ten to forty toisesin breadth, are sometimes upwards of a qiile long, 343 i\\n\ conihiunicate witli others, more extert- sive and more humid, bordering on the rivers. Tliey have different degrees of fer- tility, as is very strongly indicated by the trees which grow on each, exclusively, and are not found in the high country. Thus the clK:stnut oak, Querctis prinus palushist the Magnolia grand i flora ^ the Magnolia tri- petala, the Nyssa bijlora, &c. grow only in the river swamps, the soil of which is of a good quality, and always fresh, humid, and shaded. In some parts of these swamps, which are flooded half the year, where the soil is black and muddy, and rests on a clayey bottom, there are also the acacia- leaved cypress, the Gleditsia monosperme, the lyre oak, and a cluster- walnut, the nuts of which are small, and break easily be- tween the fingers. The aquatic oak, the red maple, the magnolia glaucat the Liquid- ambar stiracijiia, the Nyssa villosa, the Gordonia lasyanthis^ and the Laurits Carg- liniensisy* on the contrary, cover, almost * Spe th« Flora boreali.americana, par A. iVIichAux, elttts Lerrault, freres, Paria, 1801. > n m M/ 944 exclusively, the narrow swamps of the pine- barrens. Tiie Spanish beard, Tillandm uanevides, a species of moss of a grey colour, and » 4)everal feet in length, which grows very plentifully on oaks and other trees, is also a plant peculiar to the low country. In the districts where there are nd pines, the soil is not so arid, it is deeper, and more productive. Here are found white oaks, Quercus a/6<7, aquatic oakStQuercus aquatica, chestnut oaks, Quercus prinus palmtris, and several species of walnuts. AU these trees are, here, an indication of the greatest fertility, which is not the case in the western country, as I have already observed. The best rice plantations are in the great river swamps, which are convenient for being watered at pleasure. The crops ara very abundant, and the rice which gi'ows here, when freed from its husk, is larger, more imusparent, and sells for a higher price than that produced in less humid lands, whero there are neither the means nor the facility 4)f irrigation. The culture of rice, in the 345 southern and maritime parts of the United States, has diminislied very much within a few years : it has been, in a grtial: degree, replaced by that of cotton, which yields greater profit to the planters i for they cal- culate that one good crop of cotton is equivalent to two of rice. Hence it has resulted that a great number of rice fields have been converted into cotton fields, guarding, as much as possible, against the entry of the water. ^ ,.,,, ,,, : The soil most proper for the grow th of cotton is found in the islands lying on the coast. Those belonging to the state of Georgia produce that which is most esteem- ed, and known, in commerce, in France, by the name of the Colon de Geoi\