"t 
 
 r- 
 
 LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
 917.7 
 
 111. Hist. Sur'\/. 
 
 ■■ -'.ir
 
 ^ 
 
 r
 
 LETTERS FROM THE WEST ; 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 SKETCHES 
 
 OF 
 
 SCENERY, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS; 
 
 AND ANECDOTES CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 FIRST SETTLEMENTS OF THE WESTERN SECTIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 BY THE HON. JUDGE HALL. 
 
 LONDON : 
 HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 «l 
 
 1828. ^
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 N 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 3HACKELT, AND BAYLIS, JOHNSON'S-COURT, FLEET-STRREI
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The following Letters were commenced in the 
 year 1820, and were intended for the pages of a 
 periodical work,* in which some of them have 
 been published. A residence of several years 
 in the country which he attempts to describe, 
 has enabled the author to enlarge his original 
 plan, and to offer the result of his observations 
 in the more formidable shape of a volume — 
 formidable to the public, who are already sur- 
 feited with books, and to the author, who in 
 this dress, may incur the test of criticism, which 
 he might have escaped under the humbler garb 
 of a periodical writer. 
 
 * The Portfolio, a monthly magazine, which has been 
 pubUshed at Philadelphia since the year 1801 — a degree of lon- 
 gevity altogether unequalled in the United States. It is con- 
 ducted by John E. Hall, Esq., who is likewise the editor of an 
 " American Law Journal," and other works on Jurisprudence. 
 
 t.^ fN«:
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 It will be seen that neither a history nor a 
 book of travels is attempted, but a mere collec- 
 tion of sketches, with but little choice of sub- 
 jects, and still less attention to the order in which 
 they are arranged. If his work should afford 
 amusement, the author will be satisfied ; if it 
 should develope any new fact, honourable to 
 his country, or useful to its citizens, his highest 
 aim will be achieved ; and, in any event, he will 
 submit cheerfully to the verdict of public 
 opinion, convinced that his book, if too dull to 
 deserve approbation, is too brief to merit cen- 
 sure. 
 
 ■W 

 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER I; Pa«.. 
 
 Introduction 1 
 
 LETTER IL 
 Pittsburgh, and its Vicinity 16 
 
 LETTER in. 
 Wheeling— The Cumberland Road— Internal Improvements 46 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 Scenery of the Ohio — A Caravan — Drolleries of the Boat- 
 men — River Melodies 78 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Blannerhassett's Island, and Burr's Conspiracy 95 -" 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 Manners of the People — Travellers, and hovir they are 
 
 treated m 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 Hard Names — Antiquities — Logan's Speech — Grey-haired 
 
 Adventurers — A Churlish Traveller 132 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Biography of General Presby Neville 143 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 Scenery — Cincinnav.,— General St. Clair— Rapid Progress 
 
 of Improvement l-'^^
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER X. Page. 
 
 "*" Small Town — Manners of the People 166 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 Scenery — Science — Fiddling . . . . , 175 
 
 LETTER XIL 
 Falls of Ohio — Scenery and Productions below the Falls. . 184 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 Names of Places 193 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 Shawnee Town and its Vicinity 215 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 National Character 234 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 Backwoodsmen — Daniel Boon — A Romantic Adventure. . 248 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 Story of the Harpes 265 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 Backwoodsmen — Regulators 283 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 The Missouri Trapper 293 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 Emigration 306 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 Popular Superstitions 326 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 Tales of Travellers 346
 
 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER r. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Can you tell me, my dear N e, why I 
 
 left you in sadness, though I would fain have 
 chased away the cloud that hung upon my 
 brow ? If you can, you will explain a feeling 
 which I have often experienced, but never 
 could exactly define. I have seldom left a spot, 
 at which I had sojourned long enough to form 
 acquaintances, without a heavy heart ; and yet 
 there is something in that same heart which 
 makes me delight to be ever roving from scene 
 to scene. The prospect of a journey fills my 
 
 B
 
 2 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 mind with delightful anticipations, and there is 
 no labour w^hich I undertake with so much 
 alacrity as that which is preparatory to a change 
 of place. The horse is my favourite among 
 quadrupeds, and I find no music so inspiriting 
 as the cracking of a coachman's whip ; even 
 the creaking of cordage, and the howling of 
 the ocean blast, though they intimate danger, 
 have often charmed me into forgetfulness, by 
 harmonizing with my locomotive propensities. 
 And yet there is a sadness in the word *' fare- 
 well" — a melancholy in the glance which the 
 traveller throws back at the receding landscape, 
 but little in accordance with the bright visions 
 which illumine his onward path. What is it 
 that chains the heart to a narrow spot, when 
 the wide world is blooming around ? Can it be 
 fondness for the scene which has already been 
 enjoyed to satiety, where every thing has be- 
 come monotonous, and the palled senses must 
 feed upon the food they have grown tired of? 
 Can it be regret, when pleasure allures in the 
 perspective, and when any dear object which is 
 left behind will be regained,, and glow with 
 new charms after a temporary absence ? These
 
 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 3 
 
 are questions which you may answer if you 
 please, for I assure you I shall not take the 
 trouble to investigate them; it is enough for 
 me to leave my friends with heaviness, and to 
 return to them with delight, without intruding 
 on philosophic ground to analyze the light and 
 shade of those conflicting emotions, of which 
 the experience is sufficiently pleasurable. 
 
 Now, while you are answering my questions, 
 I will reply to yours. You ask me, in the very 
 spirit of Goldsmith's Hermit, what allures me 
 to '" tempt the dangerous gloom," and to risk 
 my neck, aye, and my complexion too, among 
 the tangled forests and sun-burnt prairies of the 
 West ? I might reply, in my usual style, by a 
 quotation from a favourite author : 
 
 " We may roam through this world hke a child at a feast, 
 Who but sips of a sweet, and then flies to the rest ; 
 And when pleasure begins to grow dull in the east. 
 We may order our wings and be off to the west ;" — • 
 
 or 1 might briefly say, with the churlish Shy- 
 lock, *' It is my humour." But as I would 
 have you to know, that I am not so much of a 
 knight-errant as to seek for giants for the mere 
 pleasure of overcoming them, nor so senti- 
 
 B 2
 
 4 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 mental as to hie me to purling streams and 
 spreading shades, to cool my blood and warm 
 my fancy, I will discuss my reasons in sober 
 prose. 
 
 My desire of exploring the western country 
 has not been altogether the effect of that 
 wandering disposition to which my friends 
 have been good enough to attribute it. It is 
 true, too true, perhaps, that a roving fancy, in- 
 dulged and confirmed into habit by the unsettled 
 manner of my early life, may have had much 
 weight in forming my determination ; but it is 
 equally true, that this is a national trait, en- 
 tailed in common upon most of my country- 
 men, few of whom regard time or space, when 
 profit or amusement allures to distant regions. 
 But I found my strongest inducement in the 
 deep interest we all feel in those young states 
 which have sprung up in the wilderness, and 
 which, expanding with unexampled rapidity, 
 are fast becoming the rivals of their elder sisters 
 in the east. 
 
 It might be questioned whether I have 
 reached the years of discretion ; and yet, young 
 as I am, I can remember the time when Pitts-
 
 LETTEUS FROM THE WEST. 5 
 
 burgh was considered as one of the outposts 
 of civihzed America ; and I shall never forget 
 the intense interest which I felt, while a boy, in 
 gazing at the brawny limbs and sun-burnt 
 features of a Kentuckian, as he passed through 
 the streets of Philadelphia. The rough, hardy 
 air of the stranger, the jaded paces of his 
 nag, the blanket, bear-skin, and saddle-bags — 
 nay, the very oil-cloth on his hat, and the dirk 
 that peeped from among his vestments, are still 
 in my eye ; they bespoke him to be of distant 
 regions, to have been reared among dangers, 
 and to be famiUar with fatigues. He strode 
 among us with the step of an Achilles, glancing 
 with a good-natured superciliousness at the 
 fragile butterflies of fashion that glittered in 
 the sun-beams around him. I thought I could 
 see in that man, one of the progenitors of an 
 unconquerable race ; his face presented the 
 traces of a spirit quick to resent — he had the 
 will to dare, and the power to execute ; there 
 was a something in his look which bespoke a 
 disdain of controul, and an absence of con- 
 straint in all his movements, indicating an 
 habitual independence of thought and action.
 
 D LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Such was the stock from which a new people 
 were to spring ; but the oak has blossomed and 
 borne fruit. Science and refinement, engrafted 
 upon the rude stem, have flourished, and have 
 mingled their verdure and their sweets among 
 its hardy branches. That " lone, wayfaring 
 man,'* is not now the only representative of his 
 country ; the West has already sent us the 
 statesman, upon whose accents listening thou- 
 sands have hung enraptured — the gentleman, 
 whose politeness pleases — and the maiden, 
 whose loveliness delights us. 
 
 At the period to which I have alluded, a 
 journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was a 
 most serious affair ; and he who would adventure 
 further, took with him arms, and guides, and 
 provisions, and "all appliances and means to 
 boot," necessary for subsistence and defence. 
 What was then the goal, is now the starting 
 place ; Pittsburgh is the threshold by which 
 w^e pass into the great States of the West ; and 
 Kentucky, but lately a western frontier, is now 
 one of the eastern boundaries of the western 
 country. 
 
 The shores of the Mississippi, and its tribu-
 
 LETTERS FROM THfi WEST. 7 
 
 tary streams, present to the world a singular 
 and most enchanting picture — one which future 
 ages will contemplate with wonder and delight. 
 The celerity with which the soil has been 
 peopled, and the harmony which has prevailed 
 in the erection of their governments, have no 
 parallel in history, and seem to be the effect of 
 magic, rather than of human agency. Europe 
 was at one time overrun by numerous hordes, 
 who, rushing like a torrent from the North, in 
 search of a more genial climate, captured or 
 expelled the effeminate inhabitants of the South, 
 and planted colonies in its richest provinces; 
 but these were savages, who conquered with the 
 sword, and ruled with the rod of iron. The 
 *'arm of flesh" was visible in all their opera- 
 tions. Their colonies, like ours, were formed by 
 emigration ; the soil was peopled with an exotic 
 population ; but here the parallel ends. The 
 country, gained by violence, was held by force ; 
 the blood-stained soil produced nothing but 
 " man and steel, the soldier and his sword." 
 
 What a contrast does our happy country 
 present to scenes like these ! It remained for us 
 to exhibit to the world the novel spectacle of
 
 is LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 a people, coming from various nations, and 
 differing in language, politics, and religion, 
 sitting down quietly together, erecting states, 
 forming constitutions, and enacting laws, 
 without bloodshed or dissension. Our curiosity 
 is excited to know what powerful attraction has 
 drawn these multitudes from their native plains, 
 and why, like bees, they swarm as it were to the 
 same bough. Nor is it less interesting to inquire 
 by what process such heterogeneous particles 
 have become united, and to observe the effect 
 of so extraordinary a combination. Is it not 
 singular to behold the Englishman and the 
 Frenchman rushing to the same goal ; the labo- 
 rious, economical New Englander treading the 
 same path with the high-minded, luxurious 
 native of the South j and the cautious Hollander, 
 with an enterprise foreign to his nature, rearing 
 his vine and his fig-tree at a spot whence the 
 footsteps of the savage aborigines are scarcely 
 yet effaced? Is it not more strange that such 
 men can live in fellowship, act in unison, make 
 laws in peace, and " do all things which are 
 requisite and necessary, as well for the body as 
 the soul,'' in harmonious concert ? These are
 
 LETTERS FROM THE AVEST, 9 
 
 healthful symptoms, indicating moral beauty 
 and political soundness. With such practical 
 effects of liberty before us, we may smile at the 
 sneers of those, who know freedom only in 
 theory, and, hugging their own base chains, 
 affect to scorn that blessing which they have 
 not the manliness to attain, or the virtue to 
 preserve. 
 
 But there are other considerations, besides 
 those of a political nature, which render this 
 country peculiarly interesting. It is the refuge 
 of thousands, who have fled from poverty,, 
 from tyranny, and from fanaticism. The 
 tumults of Europe have driven hither crowds 
 of unhappy beings, whose homes have been 
 rendered odious or unsafe by the mad ambition 
 of a few aspiring sovereigns. Here is no Holy 
 Alliance, trafficking in human blood ; no sceptre 
 to be obeyed, no mitre to be worshipped. Here 
 they find not merely a shelter from the rude 
 storm that pelts them, but they become propri- 
 etors of the soil, and citizens in the state. Here 
 they learn the practical value of that liberty, 
 which they only knew before in theory. They 
 learn here, that although the Englishman may
 
 10 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 be born a freeman, the American only is bred a 
 freeman ; the latter has this blessing in pos- 
 session, while the former cherishes a vague 
 tradition of its achievement, which is contra- 
 dicted by the records of his country, and the 
 practice of his rulers. You are not to suppose, 
 however, that this is a land of radicals and 
 paupers. Far from it : though many emigrate 
 from necessity, a larger number do so from in- 
 clination. Among the emigrants are gentle- 
 men of wealth and education, whose object is 
 to build up estates for their children, in a 
 country which offers such facilities for the ac- 
 cumulation of property, and presents so fair a 
 promise to posterity. By far the greatest class 
 are neither wealthy nor poor; these are re- 
 spectable farmers and mechanics, who, in the 
 present unpropitious times, find it to their 
 interest to seek out a residence, where their 
 labours will yield more profit than at home. 
 
 There are also a variety of historical and 
 literary facts, connected with this country, 
 which serve to give it interest in the eyes of 
 an American. Braddock was defeated, and 
 Washington immortalized, on the romantic
 
 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 11 
 
 shores of Monongahela ; and the vicinity of 
 Pittsburgh, aheady famous for the loveliness of 
 its mountain scenery, and the magnitude of its 
 mineral treasures, has been the scene of martial 
 achievement, which may one day wake the 
 lyre of the Pennsylvania bard to strains as 
 national and as sweet as those of Scott. In 
 the western forests did Wayne gather a wreath 
 of imperishable laurel ; and St. Clair — I blush 
 to name him, injured man !— a crown of thorns. 
 On the borders of the Ohio, Butler fell, in the 
 prime of his life, and the vigour of his ambition, 
 leaving a name which his countrymen have 
 delighted to embalm. Can we trace with 
 indifference the path of Burr, the smoothest of 
 seducers, but himself seduced by the wildest of 
 all visionary schemes ? or pass, without a tear of 
 sympathy, the spot, where the philosophic 
 Blannerhasset, surrounded in his loved seclusion 
 with rural and literary enjoyments, tasted of 
 " that peace, which the world cannot give" — 
 tasted, alas ! for but a moment, and dashed 
 away ? Will it not be delightful to stray along 
 those shores where Wilson strayed — to view 
 the scenes which charmed his poetic fancy — •
 
 IS! LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 to mark the plumage, and listen to the " wood- 
 notes wild" which allured him through many a 
 weary mile ? Surely this ^'s classic ground, 
 which has been trodden by the erudite and the 
 brave, whose graves have been battle fields, 
 and in whose soil the patriot soldier reposes 
 from his labours ! 
 
 Who has not heard of the Antiquities of the 
 West? Who that has heard, has not listened 
 with admiration or incredulity? Of all that 
 has been written on this most interesting sub- 
 ject, how little has appeared to satisfy a rea- 
 sonable mind. The time was, when the tales 
 of western travellers were received as fanciful 
 productions, written to amuse the idle, or to 
 beguile the unwary emigrant into the fangs of 
 speculating avarice. When we were told of the 
 Great Valley, whose noble rivers, stretching in 
 every direction from the distant mountains, 
 poured their waters into the bosom of the 
 Father of Streams; and of the rich bottoms, 
 extensive prairies, and gigantic forests of the 
 AVest, we could smile at what we believed to 
 be simple exaggeration. But when we heard 
 of caverns, extending horizontally for miles, and
 
 LETTERS FROM TIIe' WEST. 13 
 
 exhibiting traces of former inhabitants, of 
 immense mausoleums filled with human bones, 
 some of them of a dwarfish size, indicating the 
 former existence of a pigmy race — of the 
 skeletons of gigantic brutes — of metallic orna- 
 ments, warlike implements, and earthen uten- 
 sils found buried in the soil — of the vestiges 
 of temples and fortifications — in short, of the 
 many remains of a civilized population, we were 
 inclined to consider them as gross impostures. 
 Yet these curiosities actually exist, as well as 
 others of equal interest ; and while we can no 
 longer withhold our credence, we cannot help 
 exclaiming, 
 
 *' Can such things be. 
 
 And overcome us like a summer cloud, 
 Without our special wonder !" 
 
 Are you answered now? Is not here suf- 
 ficient food for speculation? Will it not be 
 gratifying to mingle with the mighty flood 
 which is sweeping onward to the West — to see 
 it prostrating the forest, and depositing the 
 seeds of art and refinement? The spots which 
 I shall visit have not been consecrated by the
 
 14 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 classic pen ; a Homer has not sung their 
 heroes, nor an Ovid peopled their shades with 
 divinities. But shall I not stroll among the 
 ruins of ancient cities, and recline upon the 
 tombs of departed heroes ? You may not ad- 
 mire my taste ; but, believe me, I should tread 
 with as much reverence over the mausoleum 
 of a Shawanee chief, as among the catacombs 
 of Egypt ; and would speculate with as much 
 delight on the site of an Indian village, as in 
 the gardens of Tivoli or the ruins of Hercu- 
 laneum. 
 
 But, to add another and a last inducement, 
 there has been a material variance in the evi- 
 dence given of this country, by the travellers 
 and writers who have undertaken to describe 
 it. Some laud it as a paradise, others denounce 
 it as a hell. Some have given it health, fer- 
 tility, and commercial advantages ; others have 
 filled it with swamps, agues, tomahawks, and 
 musquitoes. One writer tells us, that "a dirk 
 is the inseparable companion of every gentle- 
 man in Illinois ;" while another facetiously 
 hints that the ladies of Kentucky conceal the 
 same weapon among the folds of their graceful
 
 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 15 
 
 vestments. This latter insinuation, however, 
 I take to be a metaphorical compliment to the 
 lovely daughters of Kentucky, believing, as I 
 do, that the gentleman, alluding to the well- 
 known words of Romeo, intended to say, 
 " There is more peril in those eyes, than twenty 
 of their dirks." I could refer you to a thou- 
 sand other vile discrepancies, but I have not 
 room. 
 
 ** I will see into it," said Mr. Shandy, when 
 he went to France, to learn whether they 
 " ordered things better" there than at home — 
 *' I will see into it," said I, when I found how 
 doctors disagreed about a section of my native 
 country ; and it is in conformance with this 
 determination that I am now fairly embarked, 
 and gliding merrily down the Ohio.
 
 16 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 PITTSBURGH, AND ITS VICINITY. 
 
 As I commenced my tour at Pittsburgh, it 
 may not be improper to begin my observations 
 with a description of this thriving town. To 
 you, to whom these details will be familiar, this 
 may seem a superfluous task ; but as it is not a 
 novel thing for travellers to write what is 
 already known to their readers, I shall, at least, 
 be able to plead numerous precedents in excuse 
 for troubling you with a twice-told tale. The 
 vanity of every writer — and authors are not apt 
 to be deficient in this quality — whispers him 
 that he can detail what he sees more agreeably 
 than his predecessors ; while indolence, pointing 
 out the intricate mazes that lie before him, 
 allures the tourist, in the outset of his journey, 
 to linger in beaten paths. You are welcome,
 
 PITTSBURGH, AND ITS VICINITY. 17 
 
 therefore, to attribute my plagiarisms to either 
 of these causes, remembering always, that when 
 I promised, like Dogberry, to " bestow all my 
 tediousness upon you," I reserved to myself 
 the privilege of choosing the subjects of dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 The situation of Pittsburgh, at the head of 
 the Ohio, and at the confluence of the Monon- 
 gahela and Allegheny rivers, was probably first 
 noticed for its military, rather than its comm.er- 
 cial advantages. The early French and Eng- 
 lish settlers of this hemisphere of ours, were 
 engaged in continual wars with each other, and 
 with the natives; in the course of w^hich, the 
 former determined to establish a chain of posts 
 from Canada to Louisiana. One of the most 
 important of these was Fort Du Qiiesne, situated 
 at this point. It did not escape the military eye of 
 Washington, when he visited this country seve- 
 ral years before the revolution, on a mission 
 from the government of Virginia ; and, in his 
 despatches, he spoke of its importance with a 
 prophetic spirit. During the struggle, which 
 is commonlv called ** Braddock's w^ar," Fort 
 Du Quesne changed masters, and the English, 
 
 c
 
 18 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 abandoning the original work, which was pro- 
 bably a mere stockade, built a more regular 
 fortification on a site immediately adjoining, 
 which they named Fort Pitt. This post, erected 
 on a low point of land, and commanded by hills 
 on every side, would appear to a soldier of the 
 present day to have been untenable, and con- 
 sequently useless ; nor can the reasons of its 
 original establishment, and subsequent impor-.^ 
 tance, be ascertained, without recurring to the 
 history of those times. As a place of deposit 
 for military stores it possessed singular advan- 
 tages, in the facilities which it afforded for their 
 transportation, as there is no other spot from 
 which they could have been distributed with 
 equal celerity, or over so large an extent of 
 country. Nor was its situation with regard 
 to defence so desperate as we might at first 
 imagine. It is to be recollected, that in those 
 days there was little or no artillery west of the 
 mountains ; and that it was considered as almost 
 impossible to pass the Allegheny ridge with a 
 carriage of any description. There was little 
 reason to apprehend that any ordnance would 
 be brought to assail the ramparts of that insu-
 
 PTTTSBURGH, AND ITS VICINITY. 19 
 
 lated fortress, which seemed destined to assert 
 the sway of Britain over a boundless wilder- 
 ness. But, notwithstanding this imaginary se- 
 curity, the works, of which there are extensive 
 ruins still visible, seem to have been built after 
 the usual fashion of that period, and to have 
 had the strength, as well as the form, of a regu- 
 lar fortification. A bomb-proof magazine is 
 still extant, in good preservation. This fort is 
 said to have been built by Lord Stanwin, and 
 to have cost the British government sixty 
 thousand pounds sterling. As it would seem, by 
 placing it at this exposed spot, that an attack 
 by artillery was not apprehended, and as, if such 
 an attack had been made, resistance would have 
 been in vain, it is difficult to conceive what 
 could have been the motives of the builders in 
 giving it such strength and regularity. We 
 must either suppose that their military habits 
 prevailed over the better dictates of prudence, 
 or that they intended to impress their Indian 
 neighbours with an exalted opinion of their 
 security and power. It is said, that shortly 
 after the English took possession, the Indian 
 traders built a row of fine brick houses, on the 
 
 c 2
 
 20 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 margin of the Allegheny, but that their founda- 
 tions were sapped by the encroachments of the 
 river : no vestige of them remains. About the 
 year I76O, a small town was built near Fort 
 Pitt, which contained nearly two hundred 
 souls ; but on the breaking out of the Indian 
 war in 1763, the inhabitants retired into the 
 fort, and their dwellings were suffered to fall 
 into decay. The British officers had some fine 
 gardens here, called the " King's," and " Artil- 
 lery gardens," and large orchards of choice 
 fruit : the old inhabitants of the present town 
 recollect them ; but there are now no remains 
 of these early attempts at luxury and comfort. 
 
 After Fort Pitt came into the possession of 
 the Americans, it was occupied but for a short 
 time, when the garrison was removed to a spot 
 about a mile further up, on the Allegheny river, 
 where a picket work and block-houses were 
 erected, and called Fort Fayette. This post 
 was occupied by the United States' troops until 
 the erection, within a few years past, of the 
 arsenal, two miles further up. The location of 
 the arsenal as a military post is injudicious ; and 
 so little skill was exerted in its erection, as to
 
 PITTSBURGH, AND ITS VICINITY. 21 
 
 render it not susceptible of defence ; but in 
 other respects it is a convenient and valuable 
 establishment, well calculated for the manufac- 
 ture and deposit of ordnance, small arms, and 
 other munitions of war. 
 
 Pittsburgh was first laid out in the year I765 ; 
 it was afterwards laid out, surveyed, and com- 
 pleted on its present plan, in 17S4, by Colonel 
 George Woods, by order of Tench Francis, 
 Esq., attorney for John Penn, and John Penn, 
 junior. The increase of the town was not rapid 
 until the year 1793, in consequence of the in- 
 roads of the savage tribes, which impeded the 
 growth of the neighbouring settlements. The 
 western insurrection, more generally known as 
 the ** Whisky War," once more made this the 
 scene of commotion, and is said to have given 
 Pittsburgh a new and reviving impulse, by 
 throwing a considerable sum of money into 
 circulation. Since that time it has increased 
 rapidly, and a few years ago was erected into a 
 city. 
 
 Pittsburgh and its vicinity may proudly 
 challenge comparison in beauty of scenery and 
 healthfulness of situation. Surrounded by hills
 
 ^2 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 and vallies which, in the seasons of verdure, are 
 clothed in the richest vegetation, commanding 
 points may be found in every direction, from 
 which the eye is delighted with the most 
 romantic scenes. Three noble streams contri- 
 bute to diversify the prospect, embellishing and 
 enlivening an endless variety of Nature's 
 loveliest pictures. 
 
 Grant's-hill, an abrupt eminence which pro- 
 jects into the rear of the city, affords one of the 
 most delightful prospects with which I am ac- 
 quainted ; presenting a singular combination of 
 the bustle of the town, with the solitude and 
 sweetness of the country. How many hours 
 have I spent here, in the enjoyment of those 
 exquisite sensations which are awakened by 
 pleasing associations and picturesque scenes! 
 The city lay beneath me, enveloped in smoke — 
 the clang of hammers resounded from its nume- 
 rous manufactories — the rattling of carriages 
 and the hum of men were heard from its streets 
 — churches, courts, hotels, and markets, and all 
 the " pomp and circumstance" of busy life, 
 were presented in one panoramic view. Behind 
 me were all the silent soft attractions of rural
 
 PITTSBURGH, AND ITS VICINITY. 
 
 23 
 
 sweetness— the ground rising gradually for a 
 considerable distance, and exhibiting country 
 seats, surrounded with cultivated fields, gar- 
 dens, and orchards. On either hand were the 
 rivers, one dashing over beds of rock, the other 
 sluggishly meandering among the hills ; — while 
 the lofty eminences beyond them, covered with 
 timber, displayed a rich foliage, decked and 
 shadowed with every tint of the rainbow. Be- 
 low the town, the Ohio is seen, receiving her 
 tributary streams, and bearing off to the west, 
 burthened with rich freights. The towns of 
 Allegheny on the right hand, and Birmingham 
 on the left — the noble bridges that lead to the 
 city in opposite directions — the arsenal, and 
 the little village of Laurenceville, in the rear, 
 added variety to the scene. What a spot for a 
 poet! But little more than half a century ago, 
 how lonely and insulated were these solitudes ! 
 How solitary was that fortress, whose flag, like 
 an exotic flower, displayed its gaudy colours in 
 an uncongenial clime, and whose morning gun 
 awakened the echoes which had slept for un- 
 numbered years ! The sentry walked '* his lonely 
 round" upon those battlements which are now
 
 24 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 in ruins — the officer strayed pensively along the 
 margin of the river, and as he gazed upon the 
 surrounding beauties, which now began to pall 
 upon the senses, he thought, as the poet has 
 since sung : 
 
 '* Society, friendship, and love. 
 
 Divinely bestow'd upon man — 
 Oh, had I the wings of a dove. 
 
 How soon would I taste you again !" 
 
 The deer then tenanted the forest, and the 
 Indian with his light canoe sported on the 
 wave. Behold now the contrast ! But enough 
 of this. This eminence received its name from 
 Colonel Grant, a Scottish officer, who fell a 
 sacrifice here to his imprudent courage in the 
 war which ended in 1763. He had been de- 
 tached with a body of eight hundred high- 
 landers, to surprise the French garrison of Fort 
 Du Quesne ; and arriving at these heights in the 
 evening, he delayed the final blow until the 
 succeeding morning. The morning found him 
 ready for action and confident of success ; but, 
 elated by the impunity which had so far at- 
 tended his enterprise, or despising the inactive 
 foe,who seemed already within his grasp, — in a
 
 PITTSBURGH, AND ITS VICINITY. 25 
 
 fatal moment of incaution, he ordered his musi- 
 cians to sound the reveille. As the martial 
 sounds stole along the hills, calling forth the 
 echoes from an hundred caverns, the gallant 
 Scots might have fancied themselves in that/ar 
 awa land which a Scotsman never forgets ; but 
 alas ! those bugle blasts which aroused their 
 hearts to enthusiasm, were the last they were 
 destined to hear! The French and Indians, 
 thus apprised by their enemy of his approach, 
 sallied privately from the fort, possessed them- 
 selves of the hills in the rear of Grant, and of 
 the surrounding coverts, and, rushing in upon 
 the devoted party, hewed them in pieces ! 
 
 Castlemaiirs-hill, one of the highest points 
 in this vicinity, affords a rich and extensive 
 prospect, embracing a view of this lovely coun- 
 try for many miles round. The Monongahela 
 is seen winding its serpentine course far beneath 
 the spectator's feet, and the city, dwindled tc 
 an atom, appears in distant perspective. Per- 
 sons of taste resort to this spot, and a stranger 
 would hardly be pardonable who should omit 
 to pay it a visit. 
 
 Twelve miles from Pittsburgh, on the banks
 
 26 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 of the Monongahela, is ** Braddock's Field," a 
 scene of signal disaster to the British arms. 
 The name of Braddock has not been cherished 
 by his countrymen, and no attempt has been 
 made to rescue his fame from obloquy ; per- 
 haps, because no plausible ground of vindica- 
 tion exists ; but every feeling mind must deplore 
 the premature fall of a brave, though obstinate 
 leader, and the sacrifice of a gallant army. 
 There is nothing more arbitrary than the meed 
 of applause or opprobrium, bestowed upon the 
 soldier's toils ; success being, too generally, the 
 test of merit. I am therefore disposed to judge 
 charitably of military miscarriages, and to vene- 
 rate the fallen brave, although they may have 
 fallen unwisely. He who gives his life to his 
 country, gives his all, and having thus proved 
 the sincerity of his patriotism, leaves his name 
 to posterity, with a sacred and imposing claim 
 upon their candour. In the tempest of that 
 day, which consigned Braddock to an un- 
 honoured grave, the genius of Washington 
 dawned, with a lustre which gave promise of its 
 future greatness ; and the American reveres 
 the spot which has been hallowed by the illus-
 
 PITTSBURGH, AND ITS VICINITY. Tj 
 
 trious presence and gallant deeds of the father 
 of his country. Here too, a small band of un- 
 dismayed Virginians signalised their valour, 
 checked the triumphant savage, and rescued 
 from total annihilation the dispersed and crest- 
 fallen remnants of those proud battalions, who 
 affected to look down upon them, a few hours 
 before, with all the vaunting arrogance of mili- 
 tary pride. " Braddock's Field," for so the 
 battle ground is called, is now a large farm, 
 owned and cultivated by an individual. The 
 scene of action was on the banks of the river, 
 on an undulating surface, covered at that time 
 with thick woods, but now occupied by enclosed 
 fields. The husbandman now whistles over the 
 consecrated ground, as he toils among the 
 ashes of the brave. Vast quantities of bones 
 have been thrown up by the plough, and at 
 times gathered into heaps and burned ; but a 
 great number still remain, scattered around for 
 the distance of about a mile. These fragments 
 were sufficiently numerous when I last visited 
 this spot, to have designated it as a battle- 
 ground, even to a casual observer who had not 
 been previously aware of the fact.
 
 28 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 But the prospect which the good people of 
 Pittsburgh consider as most lovely, "to soul 
 and to eye," is to be found on the northern 
 face of Coal-hill. The yawning caverns which 
 here display their hideous mouths, would have 
 been celebrated among the ancients as the 
 abodes of unpropitious deities j the less clas- 
 sical citizens have peopled them with spirits 
 of sterner stuff — have made them mines of inex- 
 haustible wealth, and drawn from them the 
 materials of substantial comfort. Not only this 
 hill, but the whole of the surrounding country, 
 is full of coal of excellent quality, which is 
 found in immense strata^ lyii^g almost invaria- 
 bly upon one and the same level. It contains 
 a large proportion of sulphur, and is hard, heavy, 
 and of a deep shining black colour ; it is easily 
 ignited, and produces an intense heat ; but is 
 very dirty, emits immense volumes of smoke, 
 and throws up an unusual quantity of cinders 
 and dust. These latter fill the atmosphere, and 
 are continually falling in showers, to the great 
 terror of strangers and sojourners, and with 
 manifest injury to the dresses of the ladies, and 
 the white hands of eastern gentlemen. From
 
 PITTSBURGH, AND ITS VICINITY. 29 
 
 this cause, every thing in Pittsburgh wears a 
 sombre hue ; even the snow as it falls brings 
 with it particles of cinder, and loses its purity 
 by the connexion. But the people are now so 
 used to the black and midnight appearance of 
 objects in their city, as scarcely to be aware 
 of its inconvenience ; so that I once heard a 
 lady exclaim, on witnessing a snow storm out 
 of town, " La ! what white snow /" 
 
 A disease was formerly prevalent here, which 
 was attributed to the influence of the coal 
 smoke. This was a sweUing of the glands of 
 the neck, which produced no pain, nor ultimate 
 injury, but was an unsightly and incurable 
 deformity. It was thought to resemble the 
 goitre, to which the inhabitants of some of the 
 mountainous parts of Europe are subject. No 
 case of it has originated for several years ; it 
 is now scarcely to be met with, and is only 
 found in persons over the middle age, who 
 contracted it long since. It vvas therefore 
 probably owing to some pecuharity in the cli- 
 mate, which has been long since removed^ 
 But I am keeping you too long on Coal-hill, 
 which I will despatch with the remark, that
 
 30 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 its summit commands a remarkably fine view 
 of the city, which is seen from a dizzy height, 
 lying beneath the spectators' feet, enveloped in 
 its eternal veil of smoke, which, by rendering 
 the objects less distinct, seems to throw them 
 to a greater distance. 
 
 It would be an endless task to point out all 
 the fairy spots with which nature has embel- 
 lished this romantic country. They who would 
 court inspiration from the valley or the grove, 
 or who would prove 
 
 *' The soft magic of streamlet and hill," 
 
 could scarcely go amiss in the environs of 
 Pittsburgh. Those hills, those vallies, and 
 those streams, delight not merely by their in- 
 trinsic beauty ; they are endeared to the Penn- 
 sylvanian by many fond recollections. The 
 events which have rendered Fort Pitt and 
 Braddock's Field conspicuous in history, are 
 already imprinted upon the mind of every 
 American ; but every neighbouring eminence 
 and winding glade has also been the scene of 
 hardy achievement. This was one of the first
 
 w 
 
 PITTSBURGH, AND ITS VICINITY. 31 
 
 points selected by those who commenced the 
 work of civilization in the western country. 
 Here all the difficulties of a new settlement — the 
 horrors of Indian warfare, and the bereavements 
 of an isolated society, cut off from assistance 
 and almost from intercourse — were encountered 
 to the fullest extent. The Allegheny ridge 
 then presented a formidable barrier, and they 
 who passed it found themselves in a new 
 world, where they must defend themselves or 
 perish ; it was the Rubicon of the adventurous 
 pioneer. The first settlers, therefore, waged 
 continual war ; they fought — pro aris etfocis — 
 for life and all that makes life dear. But these 
 wars were distinguished only by acts of indi- 
 vidual prowess ; and produced none of those 
 great events which affect national fame or 
 greatness, and which it is the province of the 
 historian to record. They will therefore find 
 no place in the annals of our country. Yet 
 the day will surely arrive, when the poet and 
 the novelist will traverse these regions in quest 
 of legendary lore, will listen with eagerness to 
 the tales of hoary-headed sires, and laboriously 
 glean the frail and mutilated memorial of the
 
 32 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 daring of other days. Then will the gallant 
 men who smoothed our path, and conquered 
 for us the country of which we are so proud, 
 find a place, if not with betto^men, at least 
 with the Rodericks and Rob l^^s of fiction. 
 
 It would require more room than I can 
 afford, and more patience than I possess, to 
 give you a detailed account of all the branches of 
 commerce and manufactures which contribute 
 to the prosperity of Pittsburgh. The latter 
 have flourished here extensively, in consequence 
 of the variety of raw materials indigenous to 
 the country, the abundance of fuel, the salu- 
 brity of the cUmate, the cheapness of provisions, 
 the convenience of the markets, and the enter- 
 prising spirit of the people. The most import- 
 ant branch includes articles manufactured of 
 iron, a metal which is found in great abundance 
 in the neighbouring mountains, whence it is 
 brought in pigs and bars to this place, at a 
 small expense, and here wrought for exporta- 
 tion. Most of the machinery for this and 
 other purposes is propelled by steam, the 
 management of which has been brought to 
 great perfection ; but the neighbourhood also
 
 PITTSBURGH AND ITS VICINITY. 33 
 
 affords many fine water -courses, some of which 
 are occupied ; cannon, of a very superior qua- 
 lity, have been cast Ifere for the United States' 
 Service. Thd^anufacture of glass, which was 
 introduced by tW kite General O'Hara, about 
 the year 1798, has been carried on with great such 
 cess ; there are now a number of establishments 
 in operation, which produce large quantities of 
 window-glass, and other ware of the coarser 
 sort, and one, at which flint glass is made and 
 ornamented with great elegance. Messrs. 
 Bakewell, Page, and Bakewell, have the credit 
 of having introduced the latter branch of this 
 manufacture ; and their warehouse presents an 
 endless variety of beautiful ware, designed and 
 executed in a style which is highly creditable 
 to their taste and perseverance. Manufactories 
 of wool and cotton have been supported with 
 some spirit, but, as yet, with little success. 
 We have a foolish pride about us, which makes 
 our gentlemen ashamed of wearing a coat which 
 has not crossed the Atlantic ; I hope we shall 
 grow wiser as we grow older. Articles of tin 
 and leather are fabricated at Pittsburgh to an 
 astonishing amount. So long ago as 1809, 
 
 D
 
 34 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 boots and shoes were manufactured to the 
 amount of seventy thousand dollars ; saddlery to 
 the amount of forty thousand, and tin ware to 
 the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars, in 
 one year. In the same year, hats were made 
 to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars, 
 and cabinet ware to the amount of seventeen 
 thousand. In addition to these, there have been 
 tan-yards, rope-walks, manufactories of white 
 lead and paper, and extensive ship-yards.* You 
 will perceive that I have made this enumeration 
 from data collected several years ago ; the 
 increase of population and business has been 
 great, since that time ; and when I add, that in 
 addition to the branches already mentioned, all 
 the other mechanic arts receive a proportion- 
 able share of attention ; it will be seen, that as 
 a manufacturing town, Pittsburgh stands in the 
 first rank, and her rapid rise and progress may 
 be adduced as a proud testimony of American 
 enterprise. 
 
 The commerce and trade of Pittsburgh arise 
 
 * Nor should I forget some half dozen printing offices and 
 several hook-stores, which have been instrumental in con- 
 suming a vast deal of ink and paper.
 
 PITTSBURGH AND ITS VICINITY. 35 
 
 partly from her manufactories, and partly from 
 hav^ing long been the place of deposit for goods 
 destined for the western country ; all of which, 
 until very recently, passed from the Atlantic 
 cities, through this place, to their respective 
 points of destination. They are brought in 
 waggons, carrying from thirty-five to fifty hun- 
 dred pounds each, and embarked at this place 
 in boats. Upwards of four thousand waggon 
 loads of merchandize have been known to enter 
 Pittsburgh in the course of one year, by the 
 main road from Philadelphia alone, in which is 
 not included the baggage and furniture of tra- 
 vellers and emigrants, nor is notice taken of 
 arrivals by other routes. This business has 
 brought an immense quantity of money into cir- 
 culation at Pittsburgh ; but it has lately been 
 much injured by the competition of Wheeling, 
 and the introduction of steam-boats upon the 
 Ohio. The wealth of this place, however, and 
 its local advantages, must long sustain it against 
 all opposition ; and if the capital of her citizens 
 should eventually be drawn from any branch 
 of commerce, it will probably be thrown into 
 the manufactories, where the profits will be as 
 
 D 2
 
 36 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 great, and much more permanent. Some of 
 the finest steam-boats which navigate the Ohio, 
 the James Ross, the General Neville, and many 
 others, were built here. 
 
 This is also a port of entry ^ and here — even 
 here, at the source of the Ohio — have ships been 
 built, laden, and cleared out, for the distant 
 ports of Europe. A curious incident connected 
 with this subject was mentioned by Mr. Clay 
 on the floor of Congress. *' To illustrate the 
 commercial habits and enterprise of the Ame- 
 rican people, (he said) he would relate an 
 anecdote of a vessel, built, and cleared out at 
 Pittsburgh for Leghorn. When she arrived at 
 her place of destination, the master presented 
 his papers to the custom-house officer, who 
 would not credit them, and said to him, * Sir, 
 your papers are forged ; there is no such port 
 as Pittsburgh in the world ; your vessel must 
 be confiscated.' The trembhng captain laid 
 before the officer the map of the United States — 
 directed him to the gulf of Mexico— pointed 
 out the mouth of the Mississippi — led him a 
 thousand miles up it to the mouth of the Ohio, 
 and thence another thousand up to Pittsburgh.
 
 PITTSBURGH AND ITS VICINITY. vi7 
 
 * There, Sir, is the port whence my vessel cleared 
 out.' The astonished officer, before he had 
 seen the map, would as readily have believed 
 that this vessel had been navigated from the 
 moon." 
 
 Of the society I have but little to say, for 
 that is entirely a matter of taste. Strangers 
 are generally pleased with it, for if they do not 
 find, among the male inhabitants, that polished 
 urbanity which distinguishes many of the small 
 towns of the south and west, they are amply 
 repaid for the absence of it by the sweetness 
 and affability of its female denizens, among 
 whom there is a sufficiency of beauty and grace 
 to decorate a ball-room to great advantage. 
 Indeed, I have seldom beheld finer displays of 
 female loveliness than I have witnessed here. 
 * There is a small theatre, occasionally occupied 
 by strollers, but often destined to exhibit the 
 histrionic genius of the young gentlemen of the 
 place, among whom the enacting of plays was 
 formerly a fashionable amusement. On such 
 occasions the dramatis perso?i(^ were represented 
 by a select company, regularly organized, among 
 whom were some beardless youths who per-
 
 38 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 sonated the females. In this manner some 
 fine displays of genius have been elicited ; the 
 ladies smiled graciously on the enterprise, and 
 the whole was conducted with great decorum. 
 
 A seminary of learning has been founded 
 at the town of Allegheny, called the "Western 
 University," and liberally endowed with land 
 by the State Legislature j but it is not yet 
 organized. An academy in Pittsburgh has 
 heretofore presented the means of classical 
 education, and a number of minor schools have 
 been supported, among which may be men- 
 tioned the Sabbath schools, conducted with 
 great spirit and benevolence, by a society com- 
 posed of the religious of different denomina- 
 tions. There has been also an admirable school 
 for young ladies, and a library company has 
 been established here. 
 
 To discipline the body as well as the mind, 
 another institution has been established under 
 the name of the "Western Penitentiary.'' The 
 stupendous building intended for this purpose 
 is nearly completed, and will form a splendid 
 and commodious edifice. It is situated on an 
 extensive plain, in the town of Allegheny,
 
 PITTSBURGH AND ITS VICINITY. 39 
 
 where this noble pile, with its massy walls and 
 gothic towers, will shew to great advantage. 
 
 Twenty years ago, when this settlement was 
 young and insulated, and the savage yet prowled 
 in its vicinity, legal science flourished with a 
 vigour unusual in rude societies. The bench 
 and bar exhibited a galaxy of eloquence and 
 learning. 
 
 Judge Addison, who first presided in this 
 circuit, under the present system, possessed a 
 fine mind and great attainments. He was an 
 accomplished scholar, deeply versed in every 
 branch of classical learning. In law and theo- 
 logy he was great ; but although he explored 
 the depths of science with unwearied assiduity, 
 he could sport in the sun-beams of literature, 
 and cull with nice discrimination the flowers of 
 poesy. He assumed his judicial authority 
 under many perplexing circumstances. The 
 country was new, and the people factious ; the 
 bar was undisciplined, and the rules of practice 
 vague J the judicial system had been newly 
 modelled, and was now to be tested, its ex- 
 cellencies proved, and its defects discovered — 
 and while an unusual weight of responsibility
 
 40 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 thus devolved upon the judge, the novelty of 
 his situation must often have left him without 
 precedents to govern his decisions. These ap- 
 palling circumstances would have daunted a 
 man of less firmness than Judge Addison ; but 
 his mind possessed an energetic vigour, which 
 opposition could not subdue, nor difficulty em- 
 barrass. He pursued a dignified course, which 
 was equally serviceable to the country and 
 honourable to himself; his decisions were so 
 uniformly correct, that few of them have been 
 reversed ; they have been pubUshed, together 
 with a number of charges delivered to grand 
 juries, and the volume is in high repute among 
 the lawyers of Pennsylvania. I should be happy 
 to be able to add that this distinguished man 
 was rewarded for his services, and permitted 
 to be useful as long as he continued to be 
 honoured. But it was not so ; he became ob- 
 noxious to a dominant faction ; was impeached, 
 condemned, and hurled from a seat to which 
 he had given dignity, for an act which was 
 probably right, but which, if wrong, was not 
 dishonourable nor corrupt. Such are the effects 
 of party spirit; its venom, like a poisonous
 
 PITTSBURGH AND ITS VICINITY. 41 
 
 miasm, pervades the whole atmosphere in which 
 it is generated, and creates a pestilence, which 
 sweeps worth and worthlessness to a common 
 grave. 
 
 This gentleman was succeeded by Judge 
 Roberts, an excellent lawyer, and a man of 
 great integrity and benevolence, who wanted 
 only the energy of his predecessor. He had 
 firmness enough to be ahvays upright j nor 
 could he be swayed from an honest conviction, 
 or intimidated in the discharge of the duties of 
 his oflSce j but he was too mild to enforce a 
 rigid discipHne in his court, and too passive for 
 the dispatch of business. He could neither be 
 biassed nor alarmed ; but he had too much of 
 the " milk of human kindness'^ in his nature, 
 and loved mankind too well, to be a judge of 
 men. The hall of justice brings together all 
 the elements of discord ; the angry passions are 
 roused ; turbulent spirits are brought into con- 
 tact — life, fortune, and character are at stake — 
 ambition and avarice are busy — hopes and fears 
 are awakened — crime, folly, and misfortune are 
 disclosed — the veil of secrecy is torn from the 
 sorrows of the heart and the scenes of the fire-
 
 4^ LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 side ; and the man who can gaze on such a 
 scene with a steady eye, controul its every 
 motion with a firm liand, and decide with 
 collected promptness, must have a very firm or a 
 very cold heart. The gentleman of whom I am 
 speaking had no cold-heartedness in his com- 
 position j his sympathies were easily awakened, 
 and his was a breast of too much candour and 
 generosity, to conceal, or be ashamed of, an 
 honourable impulse. Yet his mind possessed 
 great vigour and clearness, and he was uni- 
 versally esteemed, as well for his good sense 
 and attainments, as for his uprightness and 
 amiability. They who knew him best, will 
 always remember him with kindness, and his 
 decisions will be respected when none of us 
 shall remain who knew his virtues. He died a 
 few years ago. 
 
 Judge Wilkins, who succeeded to this district, 
 has long been a prominent man. As an advo- 
 cate, he was among the foremost — distinguished 
 for his graceful and easy style of speaking, and 
 his acuteness in the development of testimony ; 
 and as a citizen he has always been conspi- 
 cuous. His public spirit, and capacity for
 
 PITTSBURGH AND ITS VICINITY. 43 
 
 business, have thrown him into a multitude of 
 offices. He presided for many years over one 
 of the branches of the corporation : has repre- 
 sented his country in the Legislature, was 
 President of the Pittsburgh Bank, and of several 
 companies instituted for the purpose of internal 
 improvement. Judge Wilkins brought to the 
 bench an active mind, much legal experience* 
 and an intimate knowledge of the practice of 
 the court over which he presides ; but as he is 
 still on the stage, I must not be his biographer* 
 There were at the bar in the olden time many 
 illustrious pillars of the law — Steele Semple, 
 long since deceased, a man of stupendous 
 genius, spoken of by his contemporaries as a 
 prodigy of eloquence and legal attainment — 
 James Ross, who is still on the stage, and very 
 generally known as a great statesman and an 
 eminent advocate, who, for depth of thought, 
 beauty of language, melody of voice, and 
 dignity of manners has few equals — Brecken- 
 ridge, the eccentric, highly gifted Breckenridge, 
 the author of " Modern Chivalry," celebrated 
 for his wit, his singular habits, his frolicksome 
 propensities, and strange adventures, and who
 
 44< LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 though a successful advocate, and an able 
 judge, cracked his jokes at the bar, and on the 
 bench of the supreme court, as freely as at his 
 own fireside — Woods, Collins, Campbell, and 
 Mountain, who would have shone at any bar — 
 Henry Baldwin, an eminent lawyer, a rough, 
 but powerful and acute speaker, who has lately 
 been conspicuous in Congress, as chairman of 
 the committee on domestic manufactures, and 
 as the author and able advocate of the celebrated 
 Tariff Bill, with others, whose history has 
 not reached me. This constellation of wit 
 and learning, illumining a dusky hemisphere, 
 presented a singular contrast to the wild and 
 untutored spirits around them, and the collision 
 of such opposite characters, together with the 
 unsettled state of the country, produced a mass 
 of curious incidents, many of which are still 
 preserved, and circulate at the bar in the hours 
 of forensic leisure. 
 
 Thus you may perceive that Pittsburgh, 
 with her dingy aspect, has some strong and 
 many enticing traits in her character and 
 history. Her fate is now in her own hands ; 
 she is young, and there is great room for
 
 PITTSBURGH AND ITS VICINITY. 45 
 
 1 
 
 improvement. By husbanding her resources, 
 opening and extending her channels of com- 
 merce, and fostering the native genius of her 
 sons, she may attain a rank which will leave 
 her but few rivals. 
 
 Yours, truly.
 
 46 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 wheeling, and the cumberland road. 
 
 Dear N. 
 The promises of friendship, like those of 
 love, are often carelessly made, and lightly 
 broken. We are ready to concede any thing 
 to the entreaty of one we love, without re- 
 flecting how many little contingencies may in- 
 terfere with the engagement. Our hearts are 
 indeed but bad economists, and are apt to make 
 liberal promises, which we have neither the 
 ability nor the inclination to fulfil. Thus it is 
 that the last request of a friend, which at 
 parting vibrates feehngly on the ear, and en- 
 twines itself among our warmest sympathies, 
 is often obliterated by the pains or pleasures 
 of new scenes and novel avocations. My pledge 
 to you, however, was of such a nature as not to
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 47 
 
 be SO easily forgotten. Dearly as I love to 
 lounge away the passing hours, I should feel 
 highly culpable could I forget for a moment 
 that you have a claim to part of them ; and 
 independently of this incentive, I assure you 
 that the pleasure I shall experience in parti- 
 cipating my sentiments with one so able to 
 appreciate them, will more than compensate 
 me for the labour of making up the record. 
 But for these reflections, believe me, my last 
 long epistle would have exhausted my patience, 
 as I dare say it has yours, and I should never 
 have had the temerity to attempt another. 
 But I have promised to write my travels, and 
 you are doomed to read them. 
 
 I left Pittsburgh in a keel boat of about 
 forty-five tons burthen, laden with merchandise, 
 and navigated by eight or ten of those ** half- 
 horse and half-alligator " gentry, commonly 
 called Ohio boatmen, whose coarse drollery, I 
 foresee already, will afford us some amusement. 
 There is a small cabin in the stern of the boat, 
 which is occupied by two females — not high 
 born damsels, nor yet young nor lovely ; one is 
 the wife of a decent shoemaker, the other is
 
 48 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Crispin's maiden sister, and both are verging 
 into the " sear and yellow leaf." I could wish 
 them more attractive, for I already begin to feel 
 romantic, and could find it in my heart to be 
 very gallant ; but I fear that after descanting 
 on the silent beauties of nature, or the noisy 
 revels of my male companions, I shall have to 
 confess, that " all the rest is leather.''* My state 
 room is in the bow of the boat, and is formed 
 by leaving a vacancy, large enough for a bed 
 and chair, among the boxes and barrels which 
 encompass me. I have an excellent bedstead, 
 composed of packages and parcels, so disposed 
 as to receive a comfortable mattrass, and here I 
 snore among British goods and domestic manu- 
 factures, as composedly as if neither of those 
 articles had ever caused us one moment's angry 
 discussion. The ample surface of a huge box 
 is devoted to the functions of a table, and my 
 fare is drawn from a small store provided by 
 myself, and consisting of such articles as are 
 easy of preparation. Of the cuUnary depart- 
 ment, I cannot speak in high praise. The cook 
 is an Irish lad, who says he is " a cobbler by 
 trade, and a republican by profession,'' as
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 49 
 
 careless and as frisky as any of his countrymen, 
 and withal as dirty a wight as you shall meet 
 witli in a summer day. But the captain declares 
 that *• Richards is as wiUing a soul as ever lived," 
 which I suppose must make amends for all 
 deficiencies. The deck or roof of the boat 
 affords ample room for a promenade ; and there 
 I saunter or recline, to enjoy the varied hues of 
 the forest, now just budding into luxuriance. 
 When tired of this amusement, or when the sun 
 is too high to allow me to continue it, I retire 
 to my satictiwi sanctorum below, and read a little, 
 sing a little, whistle a little ; and if all that will 
 not fill up the time, I turti in and sleep a little. 
 Thus I manage to pass away the hours in the 
 most tedious of all tiresome situations, that of 
 being imprisoned in a boat. 
 
 The view of Pittsburgh from the Ohio is 
 exceedingly beautiful. The rivers Allegheny 
 and Monongahela, with their fine bridges, the 
 surroimding hills, the improvements in the rear 
 of the town, and the villages on each side of it, 
 all shew to great advantage. 
 
 The river pursues a winding course to Steu- 
 benville, presenting nothing worthy of remark, 
 
 E
 
 50 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 but its beautiful scenery, which is in the highest 
 degree romantic. From Steubenville, which is 
 a pretty village in Ohio, we pass on, by Charles- 
 ton in Virginia, to Wheeling in the same state. 
 
 This latter place, which the Editor of the 
 Pittsburgh Gazette calls " the little town at 
 the foot of the hill," most truly deserved the 
 pleasant appellation he has given to it ; and I 
 no sooner saw it than I subscribed to the cor- 
 rectness of his coiip'd'ceil. The hill is surely 
 the most conspicuous object in the scene. 
 Wheeling has, however, been much talked of; 
 and as its inhabitants indulge in golden visions 
 with regard to its future greatness, it may not 
 be useless to examine the grounds of their 
 hopes. 
 
 Until within a few years, the immense sup- 
 plies of merchandise which were imported into 
 the western country, were transported from 
 Philadelphia and Baltimore to Pittsburgh, 
 whence they descended the Ohio to their places 
 of destination. This was one of the great 
 sources of the wealth of Pittsburgh, and she 
 might, and ought to have retained it, had it not 
 been for the culpable negligence and want of
 
 / .;>, 
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 5IL r \^ . 
 
 spirit of her own citizens and those of PhlUael- "' ^^ ""^ 
 phia. The road to Pittsburgh, extending three 
 hundred miles, through one of the richest states 
 in the Union, was as bad as it was possible for 
 any road to be. Crossing a vast range of 
 mountains, it presented to the eye of the dis- 
 mayed traveller, a series of steeps and preci- 
 pices equally difficult and dangerous. The 
 vast number of heavy laden waggons which 
 were daily passing, had worn off the soil which 
 covered the rocks, or converted it into an im- 
 mense mass of mire. Ravines and gullies inter- 
 sected the path, which frequently wound along 
 the very verge of hideous gulfs that yawned to 
 receive the tottering traveller. By this road 
 the western merchant laboriously dragged his 
 freightage to the shores of the Ohio. In vain 
 were remonstrances made and reiterated on this 
 subject. In vain did a few public spirited in- 
 dividuals appeal to the justice and generosity 
 of Pennsylvania — in vain did they address her 
 interest and her honour. The Pennsylvanians 
 affected to despise the trade of the western 
 country as a matter of little importance ; but, 
 in fact, they neglected to secure it because they 
 
 ^ ^ LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGM
 
 52 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 imagined it to be already secure. They be- 
 lieved that the western traders could purchase 
 goods to advantage only a* Philadelphia, and 
 that they could transport them to the Ohio by 
 no other route than that leading through Pitts- 
 burgh. The inference from this sort of reason- 
 ing was, that it would be time enough to make 
 a good road through their state a half century 
 hence, when they should have grown rich 
 enough to expend money on such luxuries ; and 
 that in the meanwhile the western people must 
 drag their merchandize over rocks and moun- 
 tains, and through mud and water, the best way 
 they could. But the western people were by 
 no means satisfied with such treatment. In 
 their annual excursions to the eastward, they 
 expended hundreds of thousands of dollars in 
 Pennsylvania, and they thought it but fair that 
 the people whom they had thus enriched should 
 take some pains to render the trade as conve- 
 nient and advantageous as possible to all parties. 
 They found that in some seasons they could 
 procure transportation to Pittsburgh at four 
 dollars per hundred pounds, and that at others 
 they were obliged to pay more than double
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 53 
 
 that sum — a disparity occasioned chiefly by the 
 state of the road in good or bad weather. It 
 seemed to follow, as a natural consequence, that 
 if a safe and permanent road was made, the 
 lowest price which they now paid at any season 
 would become the average price for all seasons ; 
 and they conceived all above that to be an un- 
 just tax paid to Pennsylvania. They of course 
 began to cast about in search of a remedy for 
 the evil. 
 
 In the meantime, from the causes I have 
 already mentioned, as well as others of a more 
 general nature, serious inquiries began to be 
 made on the subject of connecting the eastern 
 and western sections of the Union, by a channel 
 of intercourse more safe and expeditious than 
 those which already existed. Various routes 
 were proposed. The people of the State of 
 New York, with a liberality and promptitude 
 which does them infinite honour, projected, at 
 the instigation of the discerning Clinton, their 
 grand canal from the Hudson to the Lakes, 
 expecting through this channel to become pos- 
 sessed of a large portion of the western trade. 
 That work is nearly finished ; and while it can- 
 's
 
 54 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 not fail to prove a rich and lasting source of 
 prosperity to New York, it will immortalize the 
 name of that illustrious patriot, who has devoted 
 for years the whole energy of his fertile genius 
 to its accomplishment. 
 
 The western representation in Congress, on 
 the other hand, headed by Mr. Clay, devised the 
 National Turnpike, or, as it is commonly called, 
 the Cumberland Road. This project was pro- 
 posed in such a form as to meet the approbation 
 of the Executive, who, pleased with the idea of 
 strengthening the bonds of the Federal Union, 
 by facilitating the intercourse between its two 
 grand divisions, easily came into the plan of 
 establishing a great permanent route, which 
 should lead from the metropolis through the 
 western states. Thus supported, a law was 
 passed, making an appropriation for a section 
 of the road, to extend from Cumberland 
 (formerly Fort Cumberland), in Maryland, to 
 Wheeling, in Virginia. This section of the 
 road, which embraces the Allegheny moun- 
 tains, has since been completed, in a manner 
 which reflects the highest credit upon those 
 engaged in its construction. It is a permanent
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 55 
 
 turnpike, built of stone, and covered with 
 gravel, so as to unite solidity and smoothness ; 
 and noble arches of stone have been thrown, 
 at a vast expense, over all the ravines and 
 water-courses. In some places the road is 
 hewn into the precipitous side of the mountain, 
 and the traveller, beholding a vast abyss beneath 
 his feet, while the tall cliffs rising to the clouds 
 overhang his path, is struck with admiration 
 at the bold genius which devised, and the per- 
 severing hardihood which executed, so great 
 a work. Those frightful precipices, which once 
 almost defied the approach of the nimble footed 
 hunter, are now traversed by heavy laden wag- 
 gons ; and pleasure carriages roll rapidly along 
 where beasts of prey but lately found a secure 
 retreat. Another appropriation has since been 
 made to extend this road to Zanesville in Ohio 5 
 and commissioners have been appointed to 
 survey and trace out its route to the shores of 
 the Mississippi. The right of the government 
 to make these appropriations, has been warmly 
 contested on the floor of Congress, and has 
 elicited some of the finest displays of talent
 
 / 
 
 56 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 which have ever emanated from that distin- 
 guished body. Mr. Clay, who could never 
 brook the inaction of the Speaker's chair, when 
 an important question animated the august 
 assembly over which he presided, exhibited 
 §ome of the happiest efforts of his eloquence in 
 this important but apparently dry discussion, 
 and, by his successful exertions, added another 
 to the many benefits conferred on his fellow- 
 citizens by the accomplished orator of the 
 west. 
 
 Cumberland is a pretty little town, delight- 
 fully situated on a branch of the Potomac, and 
 in one of those romantic spots which are often 
 found in mountainous and secluded situations. 
 Braddock assembled his army here, at the com- 
 mencement of the celebrated campaign which 
 ended in his defeat and death ; and he passed 
 the mountains by nearly the same route which 
 has been selected for the national road. This 
 path was traced by an Indian guide, who, with 
 that instinctive acuteness for which the whole 
 race is remarkable, added, no doubt, to an 
 intimate knowledge of the country, at once
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 57 
 
 struck out the very course which the expe- 
 rience of half a century has proved to be the 
 best and shortest. . 
 
 The Pennsylvanians were at last roused from 
 their apathy by the successful exertions which 
 they saw in operation to the north and south 
 of them to divert the western trade into new 
 channels. To do them justice, they had 
 expended a great deal of money upon the 
 Pittsburgh road ; but it had been appropriated 
 in small sums, and much of it injudiciously 
 applied. It ought also, in fairness, to be re- 
 marked, that this route, after leaving Cham- 
 bersburgh, passes in general through a moun- 
 tainous and sterile region, thinly populated, 
 and possessing but little wealth ; and that the 
 richest and most populous parts of the state, 
 lying at a distance from it, had no immediate 
 interest in a road, which neither brought money 
 into their neighbourhood, nor extended to them 
 the conveniences of travelling. A majority 
 therefore of the legislature anticipated no 
 benefit to their respective districts from the 
 application of money to this object, the advan- 
 tages of which they believed to be confined to
 
 58 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and the intermediate 
 country. 
 
 About the year 1817, Mr, Breck, of Phila- 
 delphia, at that time in the Pennsylvanian legis- 
 lature, and more recently a member of Congress, 
 issued a pamphlet, in which he endeavoured to 
 draw the legislative attention to the subject 
 of slack-water navigation. His work is valu- 
 able on several grounds — 1, as shewing what 
 has already been done for the promotion of 
 internal improvements in his native state, and 
 therein exhibiting many facts highly honour- 
 able to her public spirit ; 2, as shewing what 
 remains to be done ; and, 3, as pointing out the 
 ample resources of the state for executing the 
 works which he recommends, and eloquently ad- 
 vocating an appropriation of them to those pur- 
 poses. His favourite project seems to be that 
 of uniting the Delaware and Ohio, by means of 
 canals. For this purpose, he proposes to cut 
 a canal from the waters of the Schuylkill to 
 those of the Susquehanna, and from the head 
 waters of the Susquehanna to those of the 
 Allegheny. This part of the work contains 
 many interesting details, useful facts, and
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 59 
 
 correct inferences ; but, unfortunately, Mr. 
 Breck with a great deal of practical good sense 
 mingles some degree of enthusiasm. His no- 
 tions are entirely too speculative for common 
 use. He carries us over mountains, or round 
 them, with a facility that surprises us. Rocks 
 and precipices present no obstacle to his en- 
 terprising genius. We accompany him with 
 great pleasure, and even without suspicion, 
 until we get to the end of the journey ; 
 but then we look back and wonder how 
 we get there. He seems equally surprised 
 at his own success ; for, on arriving at Pitts- 
 burgh, he is so much elated that nothing 
 short of the Pacific Ocean bounds his pros- 
 pects. He carries us down the Ohio, and up 
 the Mississippi ; and, triumphantly ascending 
 the cliffs of the Rocky Mountains, shews how 
 easy it would be to unite the waters of the 
 latter with those of the Columbia ; and exult- 
 ingly prophesies that the day will come when 
 our teas and India muslins will be transported 
 by this route from the Pacific Ocean to Phila- 
 delphia. All this may, and probably imll, be 
 done hereafter, and a proud day for America 
 will be that which witnesses its accomphsh-
 
 60 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 ment j but it would be as well for us to leave the 
 question to be discussed in the legislature of 
 some future state to be located among the Rocky 
 Mountains, or before a Congress which may 
 be held at St. Louis, or perhaps at Shawnee 
 Town. — Who knows ? Do not suppose that I 
 mean to jest with Mr. Breck's book. He is a 
 man highly respected, as well for his genius 
 as for the excellence of his heart and princi- 
 ples ; but the wisest of men in all ages have 
 had their hobby-horses, and we are assured 
 from high authority that there is no disputing 
 against them. . a 
 
 This pamphlet was immediately followed by 
 another, from the pen of Mr. John E. Howard, 
 Junior, of Baltimore, a member of the Executive 
 Council of Maryland. This gentleman publishes 
 a variety of official reports and other documents, 
 on the subject of roads and inland navigation, 
 which afford ample testimony that his own 
 state has not been backward in her attention to 
 this important branch of poUtical economy. 
 He strenuously advocates the policy of con- 
 tending with Pennsylvania for the western 
 trade ; and shews, by a series of facts and cal- 
 culations, the practicability of throwing a large
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 61 
 
 portion, if not the whole of it, into the arms of 
 Baltimore. His distinct proposition is, to com- 
 plete a turnpike to intersect the Cumberland 
 road, by which means a route will be opened 
 all the way from Baltimore to the Ohio. This 
 he shews can easily be done, as several sections 
 of the route which he proposes to pursue have 
 already been turnpiked, either by the state or 
 by private companies. I cannot give you his 
 estimate of the expense, as I write from me- 
 mory entirely ; but it is quite inconsiderable. 
 He combats some of Mr. Breck's notions, with 
 considerable ability ; but at the same time 
 treats that gentleman with the courtesy which 
 is due to his genius and patriotism, and, on the 
 whole, conducts the controversy with a liberal 
 and gentlemanly spirit. 
 
 The next champion who took to the high- 
 way in this contest, was Mr. Neville, the able 
 editor of the Pittsburgh Gazette. Hitherto, 
 the writers on this subject were eastern men, 
 who, probably, thought more of the interest of 
 their respective cities than of the western 
 country. It was gratifying, therefore, to see 
 the question taken up by a gentleman of ac- 
 
 I
 
 62 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 knowledged abilities, on this side of the moun- 
 tains, and conspicuous for his attachment to 
 western interests. He at once defeats Mr. 
 Breck's canal project, by stating the simple 
 fact, that a canal through the region which 
 the one alluded to is proposed to pass, would 
 be frozen up four months in the year, and that 
 in the summer season some of the streams 
 proposed to be navigated would not contain 
 water enough to float a canoe — the Juniata, for 
 instance. He urges, with much eloquence, the 
 more reasonable and feasible plan of completing 
 the Philadelphia road, and clearing the bed of 
 the Ohio from Pittsburgh to Wheeling. He 
 states the fact, upon the authority of experienced 
 boatmen, that the impediments of the Ohio 
 between Pittsburgh and Wheeling are not 
 greater than between Wheeling and Maysville, 
 and that there is no season when boats may 
 descend from Wheeling in which they cannot 
 descend also from Pittsburgh. Mr. Neville, 
 therefore, seems to consider the competition of 
 Wheeling to be by no means formidable, and 
 contends that the western trade may still be 
 kept in the old channel, if the people of Penn-
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 63 
 
 sylvania can be brought to see their own inte- 
 rests, and to exercise their energies with that 
 enterprise and Hberahty which the occasion so 
 loudJy demands. This writer adverts with 
 much feeUng to the neglected situation of the 
 Ohio. That noble stream, which is useless to us 
 during the summer months, may be so improved 
 by removing the obstructions in its channel, as 
 to be navigable at all seasons. At the very 
 time that Mr. Neville was engaged in this argu- 
 ment, the existence of a single fact proved the 
 correctness of his views. There was at that 
 time (in the autumn of 1818) merchandize 
 worth three millions of dollars^ belonging to the 
 western merchants, lying along the shores of 
 the Monongahela, waiting a rise of water to 
 convey them to their places of destination. 
 The western merchants were lounging dis- 
 contentedly about the streets of Pittsburgh, or 
 moping idly in its taverns, like the victims of 
 an ague. From these, and a variety of other 
 facts, our author felt himself authorised to call 
 on the State to rise in the majesty of its power, 
 to preserve a lucrative and important trade 
 from being diverted into foreign channels.
 
 64f LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 The treasury of Pennsylvania is not only 
 solvent, but in a flourishing condition, and the 
 credit of that state has alv ays stood so high 
 that she is able to command, at any time, the 
 most ample resources. Philadelphia, by the 
 wealth, steady habits, and extensive credit 
 abroad of her merchants, has it in her power 
 to furnish the traders of the west with better 
 assortments of goods, and those at lower prices, 
 than can yet be afforded by Baltimore. But 
 Baltimore is not a rival to be despised : though 
 voung, she is public spirited ; her citizens are 
 acute and enterprising ; when excited, they are 
 full of fire : and though that fire has sometimes 
 kindled a conflagration in her own bosom, it must 
 be irresistible when properly directed. If the 
 Pennsylvanians, therefore, neglect to cherish 
 the trade which has poured miUions of dollars 
 into the state, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh will 
 be forsaken ; Baltimore will become the mart, 
 and Wheeling the place of deposit. The situa- 
 tion of the latter place is pretty enough, except 
 that the hill at the foot of which the town is built 
 is so near to the river as to leave but little 
 room for its expansion. Some buildings, how-
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 65 
 
 ever, have been erected on a flat, a little lower 
 down. An eminence, at the back of the town, 
 over which the turnpike passes, affords one of 
 the finest prospects imaginable ; the place is 
 healthy, the inhabitants respectable and cor- 
 rect in their dealings, and the society good. 
 
 It is not, perhaps, a matter of great impor- 
 tance to the western people whether they 
 purchase their goods at Philadelphia or at 
 Baltimore, or whether they transport them by 
 way of Pittsburgh or of Wheeling. Time will 
 ^ decide these rival claims ; the western mer- 
 chant will make his purchases where he can do 
 it to most advantage, and will transport his 
 goods by the cheapest and most expeditious 
 route. The establishment of steam-boats has 
 carried much of this trade to New Orleans ; but 
 how far this place will ultimately interfere with 
 the eastern cities I must examine hereafter. 
 
 I have noticed the contest between rival 
 states and cities, not to claim the palm of supe- 
 rior enterprise for either, but to pourtray the 
 progress of a noble emulation, of which the 
 results have been beneficial to all the parties 
 concerned, and highly honourable to our com- 
 
 F
 
 66 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 mon country. New York, Pennsylvania, and 
 Maryland, have marched singly to their respec- 
 tive objects; the two latter have completed 
 their roads, and the latter will soon exhibit to 
 an admiring world, the most extensive and im- 
 portant chain of artificial inland navigation 
 ever witnessed. The patriotic state of Virginia 
 has opened her eyes to this interesting subject, 
 and is treading on the heels of her more com- 
 mercial sisters. The beautiful Potomac, whose 
 picturesque shores have heretofore been only 
 trod by the curious traveller, is now traced by 
 the eager feet of science ; and those precipitous 
 currents whose wild beauty warmed the sage 
 of Monticello to rapture, are about to be con- 
 verted to the useful purposes of commerce. 
 The Chesapeake and Delaware are also about 
 to be united by canals ; and these works tend 
 directly to facilitate the desired intercourse 
 between the shores of the Atlantic and those 
 of the Mississippi. 
 
 But there are other points of view in which 
 this subject is highly interesting. By the con- 
 troversy to which I have alluded, together with 
 the writings of Governor Clinton, of New York,
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. Gj 
 
 Mr. William J. Duane, of Philadelphia, and 
 others, it appears that the spirit of improvement 
 is awakened in various sections of our country, 
 and that men distinguished by their popularity, 
 abilities, and official rank, conceive it worthy of 
 their notice. It seems also that the rising 
 greatness of the western country is not unno- 
 ticed, nor the value of her commerce disre^ 
 garded. 
 
 It shews further that she has more than one 
 outlet for her produce. Mr. Cobbett, who, 
 with all his disaffection towards his own coun- 
 try, is a true Englishman in his hatred of all 
 that is estimable in ours, inquires, in his letters 
 to Mr. Birkbeck, " in case of a war with Eng- 
 land, what would become of your market clown 
 the Mississippi ? That is your sole marliet. That 
 way your produce must go ; or you must dress 
 yourselves in skins, and tear your food to bits 
 with your hands." '* On this side of the moun- 
 tains there are twelve hundred miles of coast to 
 blockade ; but you gentlemen prairie owners 
 are like the rat that has but one hole to go out 
 and come in at.'* Observations of this kind, 
 evincing a deplorable ignorance of the country 
 
 F 2
 
 68 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 and its resources, it is easy to answer. Every 
 distinct proposition in these quotations is 
 untrue. In the first place we doubt, to use 
 the mildest language, whether England will 
 ever have it in her power again to blockade an 
 American port ; but leaving that point to be 
 settled by our gallant navy, we answer that we 
 are under no compulsion to carry our produce 
 down the Mississippi, nor are we dependent on 
 any foreign country for the conveniences of 
 life. A very large portion of the western 
 people manufacture their own clothing ; among 
 the farmers the practice is universal : and it 
 extends so far to other classes that it is not at 
 all unusual to see professional gentlemen in 
 affluent circumstances, and men of high official 
 rank, clad in plain domestic fabrics. I could 
 name several of our most distinguished public 
 characters, who make it a rule to wear no cloth 
 which is not manufactured in their own families ; 
 and in the event of such a war as is anticipated 
 for us, that patriotism which has always distin- 
 guished the American ladies would glow with its 
 wonted energy, and the world would soon learn 
 that their ingenuity is equal to their scorn of
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 60 
 
 dependence. We have food, and the means of 
 preparing it. The perfection to which the ma- 
 nufacture of cutlery, and various articles of 
 steel and iron, has been brought in the United 
 States, leaves us no cause to dread our being 
 ever obliged to substitute onxjingers for forks. 
 Is it so soon forgotten that the cutlasses of our 
 gallant tars, and the bayonets of our patriotic 
 soldiers, which during the late war, triumphed 
 over the boasted invincibility of British steel, 
 were, like the hands that wielded them, of do- 
 mestic origin ? Shall we fear that our firesides 
 will be visited by want, while the same inven- 
 tive genius exists which devised the means of 
 repelling the invader from our shores ? Or is 
 it meant to be insinuated, that it is easier to 
 supply weapons for the capture of British fri- 
 gates, than utensils for the purposes of domes- 
 tic economy ? 
 
 As to the outlet for our produce, we say, ad- 
 mitting Mr. Cobbett's premises, that, if we can- 
 not descend the Mississippi, we can ascend the 
 Ohio. It is a well known fact, that large 
 quantities of fur and peltry, have been carried 
 from St. Louis to Philadelphia, by way of
 
 70 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Pittsburgh ; and that the saltpetre, tobacco, 
 and hempen yarn of Kentucky have been car- 
 ried to the same market, bv the same route. 
 Such was the destination of a large portion of 
 the produce of the west, before the late war, 
 when the Mississippi was open, and when the 
 formidable obstructions to the passage of the 
 Allegheny mountains, which I have noticed 
 above, existed to their fullest extent. When 
 our coasting trade was interrupted by the war, 
 all the western produce, except that destined 
 for consumption at New Orleans, necessarily 
 ascended the Ohio ; and large quantities of 
 sugar, coffee, and other heavy merchandise, 
 were transported from New Orleans to Phila- 
 delphia, by the same inland route. Even yet 
 a large portion of the bacon and venison hams 
 of Kentucky, are sold at Pittsburgh. Lately, 
 the introduction of steam-boats has carried 
 most of this produce down the river ; but if, 
 when the Mississippi was open, any portion of 
 the produce of the west has been transported 
 up the Ohio, what would be done if the navi- 
 gation of the former should be closed ? Surely 
 the inference is plain, that if produce could be
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 7^ 
 
 shipped up the Ohio, with advantage, when no 
 obstacle existed at the mouth of the Mississippi, 
 there could be no great hardship in forcing it 
 into the same channel, when that river should 
 be closed. It may also be added, that, until 
 lately, merchandise was conveyed in small boats, 
 slowly and laboriously propelled against the 
 powerful current of the Ohio, by human labour, 
 while it is now cheaply and expeditiously 
 transported by the agency of steam. Large 
 steam-boats now ascend the river as far as 
 Pittsburgh, in high water ; but in the event 
 alluded to, our streams would be covered with 
 lighter vessels, propelled by steam, which would 
 bid defiance to every obstacle, except the shoals 
 created by low water, in dry seasons, and as 
 this obstacle now exists, and impedes the de- 
 scending, as much as ascending navigation, we 
 should be no worse off in that respect than we 
 are at present. Even those temporary obstacles 
 it is supposed will be soon removed. The 
 States of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and 
 Kentucky, united a few years since in the ap- 
 pointment of commissioners to survey the bed 
 of the Ohio, and report the facts, with their
 
 'J'2 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 opinion as to the practicability of improving its 
 navigation. After a careful examination they 
 made a report, which justi^.ed the hope that 
 this work would not be long delayed. Since 
 that time Congress has made a liberal appro- 
 priation towards executing this desirable object. 
 Major Long, an officer of the Engineers, of 
 high reputation, was directed two years ago, to 
 commence the work, by making experiments 
 upon six of the sandbanks in the Ohio ; and 
 should he succeed in devising a successful plan 
 for their removal, it is expected that the work 
 will be extended throughout the whole course 
 of this noble river. He commenced last year, 
 and proceeded with flattering prospects, until 
 his operations were suspended by the rising of 
 the water ; his labours will be resumed when 
 the river shall again have fallen. 
 
 The country also presents ample natural ad- 
 vantages for opening other channels of trade. 
 The State of Ohio, part of which borders on 
 Lake Erie, will be intersected with roads and 
 canals, as soon as the people of New York shall 
 have completed their great work. A canal from 
 the waters of the Miami to those of Lake Erie
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. JS 
 
 has been already commenced, with so vigorous 
 a spirit, and such ample means, as enable us to 
 cherish the proud hope of its speedy accom- 
 plishment. The legislature of IlUnois have 
 caused a survey of the country between the 
 navigable waters of the Illinois river, and 
 Lake Michigan, to be made by able engineers, 
 who report that this communication may be 
 opened at an expense of about seven hundred 
 thousand dollars. A canal company has since 
 been incorporated, and thus a commencement 
 has been made in this important design, which 
 when effected will open a water communication 
 from the States of Illinois and Missouri, to the 
 city of New York. 
 
 As I liave spoken of the pubhc spirit of 
 Pennsylvania, and particularly of her two prin- 
 cipal cities, allow me to explain myself on that 
 subject. I am far from wishing to derogate from 
 the honour of my native state. The merchants 
 and gentlemen of Philadelphia are liberal and 
 high minded men ; but they are in the habit of 
 attending more to their own, and less to public 
 business, than the same class of society in almost 
 any other part of the United States. They
 
 74 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 have a regular routine of avocation, which they 
 seldom allow to be broken in upon, by affairs 
 which are not of immediate interest j conse- 
 quently they are less intimately acquainted 
 with the character, and resources of their 
 own state, than gentlemen of other cities ; 
 much less so than could be expected from men 
 so well educated, and so enlightened on other 
 subjects. Many of the most intelligent persons 
 in Philadelphia are utterly ignorant of the 
 geography, population, improvements, and pro- 
 ductions of the interior and western parts of the 
 state. Men who can converse learnedly of the 
 classics, and tastefully of the fine arts, who are 
 intimately acquainted with European history, 
 politics, and manners, and who scrutinize with 
 critical acuteness the measures of the federal 
 government, glance with careless, uninquiring 
 eyes at the lofty mountains, and fertile vallies, 
 within the bounds of their own commonwealth. 
 They of course feel little interest in subjects 
 upon which they think so little. 
 
 The state of politics too, in Pennsylvania, has 
 had much influence in preventing the growth 
 of public spirit. Party spirit has raged in that
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 75 
 
 devoted land, with ungovernable fury ; the 
 bitterness of contention has been permitted to 
 inflame and corrode the public mind ; the gall 
 of political enmity has been infused into the 
 cup of social intercourse, and the interests of 
 the state have been too often forgotten, in the 
 tumult of schemes to raise or to defeat a party, 
 to prostrate or to exalt an individual. These 
 contests have been distinguished by a virulence 
 hardly known elsewhere, and a scurrilous per- 
 sonality which could no where else be tolerated. 
 Men of feeling and modesty shrink from such 
 conflicts ; however willing they might be to bare 
 their breasts in honourable war, they covet not 
 the odious distinction of exposing their repu- 
 tations as targets for the archery of faction. 
 No men would be more apt to stand aloof on 
 such occasions than the Philadelphians, reared 
 as they are, in the practice of temperance, and 
 in habits of chaste methodical reflection. The 
 state is consequently deprived of the use of 
 much talent which she certainly possesses. 
 Do not understand me as making any compa- 
 rison between the dominant party, and the 
 minority. My position is simply this, that
 
 76 LETTERS FROM THE "WEST. 
 
 where party spirit is carried to such excess as 
 to alienate friends, and distract society, so that 
 men look with jaundiced eyes upon each other, 
 the arm of government must be paralysed, and 
 the impulses of patriotism benumbed. The 
 man who possesses the genius to devise, or the 
 wealth to execute, will not co-operate with him 
 whose popularity enables him to gain the voice 
 of the people, or the sanction of the ruling 
 powers. When a work, however noble, which 
 is proposed by one party, is sure to be de- 
 nounced by the other, men of talent retire from 
 the disgusting controversy, and the wealthy 
 refuse to risk their gold in uncertain and con- 
 tested schemes, generated in the storms of fac- 
 tion, and crushed by its whirlwinds. 
 
 Yet when, in spite of all these obstacles, we 
 observe what Pennsylvania has accomplished : 
 when we see the tine bridges over the Dela- 
 ware, the Schuylkill, the Susquehanna, the 
 Allegheny, and the Monongahela; the noble 
 turnpike roads in the eastern part of the state ; 
 the splendid public buildings in Philadelphia, 
 her charitable institutions, and her literary 
 monuments j we cannot but acknowledge, that
 
 WHEELING, AND THE CUMBERLAND ROAD. 77 
 
 she has the spirit, nor refrain from deploring the 
 existence of those counteracting causes which 
 restrain its exercise. The Fair Mount water- 
 works alone, must rescue Philadelphia from 
 the charge of a penurious or timid policy, where 
 her own interests are immediately concerned. 
 But more expanded views, and more liberal 
 exertions, are expected from her wealth and 
 her intelligence. The trade of the western 
 country is destined to become more important 
 than the commerce of the Atlantic ; and this 
 she must secure by liberal expenditures, or 
 peld it to her rivals.
 
 If 
 
 8 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 SCENERY OF THE OHIO DROLLERIES OF 
 
 THE BOATMEN RIVER MELODIES. 
 
 April 18th. Between Wheeling and Ma- 
 rietta, there is little worthy of the traveller's 
 attention, except the mounds and fortifications 
 on Mr. Tomlinson's farm at Grave Creek. 
 The " Big Grave/' as it is called, is about a 
 quarter of a mile from Mr. Tomlinson's house, 
 in a south-westerly direction ; it is a circular 
 mound, sixty-eight feet high, and fifty-five feet 
 in diameter at the summit. This is one of 
 the largest mounds in the Western country, 
 and exhibits every indication of great antiquity, 
 its whole surface being covered with forest 
 trees of the largest size, and the earth present- 
 ing no peculiarity to distinguish it from the 
 adjacent soil.
 
 SCENERY OF THE OHIO. 70 
 
 The ** Long Reach," where the Ohio pur- 
 sues a direct course for seventeen miles, may 
 also be noticed in this place, as presenting a 
 remarkable exception to the general character 
 of this river. 
 
 19th. Marietta is beautifully situated at the 
 mouth of the Muskingum river, and has an 
 appearance of neatness and regularity, which is 
 not usual in the villages of the country. Ship- 
 building was carried on here, to some extent, 
 several years ago : and great expectations were 
 formed as to the future commercial importance 
 of the town, which have as yet been but par- 
 tially realized. As early as the year 1798 or 99 
 Commodore Preble built a brig of one hundred 
 and twenty tons at this place, which probably 
 was the first sea vessel launched in the western 
 waters. 
 
 I would gladly have stopped for a short time 
 at this place, for I began to be heartily tired of 
 the boat. A voyage of any kind is disagree- 
 able enough, at best : for, give it what variety 
 you may, it still involves confinement of the 
 body, and a correspondent restraint of the 
 mind. The muses, indeed, have sometimes 
 
 y
 
 so LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 condescended to visit the prisoner in his cell ; 
 like charitable damsels, they have hovered 
 round the bed of sickness, and by their ma^ic 
 spells, have chased away the pangs of sorrow 
 and disease. Even when disconcerted love 
 makes his exit at the window, the generous 
 Nine remain to cheer the son of penury, illu- 
 minating his dreary abode with their brightest 
 illusions. But I have not heard of their deign- 
 ing to honour a keel-boat with their presence ; 
 and, with reverence be it spoken, it would, in 
 spite of the maids of Helicon, be but a sad 
 prison-house after all. The fancy, it is true, 
 might wander over boundless regions, but the 
 feet are as fond of wandering as the imagi- 
 nation, and it is by no means pleasant to have 
 them confined to entire inaction, or limited 
 within the space of a few yards. Yet disagree- 
 able as such a situation naturally is, I have 
 found so many recreations to amuse me on the 
 present occasion, so much novelty in the ob- 
 jects which are continually presented, and so 
 much interest in the recollections which crowd 
 upon my mind, that I cannot say my most idle 
 moments have been burdensome ; and I am 

 
 SCENERY OF THE OHIO. 81 
 
 convinced that, with the aid of a little inge- 
 nuity, and some good humour, no man need 
 ever despair. 
 
 The heart must indeed be cold that would 
 not glow among scenes like these. Rightly 
 did the French call this stream La Belle Riviere 
 (the beautiful river). The sprightly Canadian, 
 plying his oar in cadence with the wild notes 
 of the boat-song, could not fail to find his 
 heart enlivened by the beautiful symmetry of 
 the Ohio. Its current is always graceful, and 
 its shores every where romantic. Everv thing 
 here is on a large scale. The eye of the tra- 
 veller is continually regaled with magnificent 
 scenes. Here are no pigmy mounds dignified 
 with the name of mountains, no rivulets 
 swelled into rivers. Nature has worked with 
 a rapid but masterly hand ; every touch is bold, 
 and the whole is grand as well as beautiful ; 
 while room is left for art to embellish and 
 fertilize that which nature has created w4th 
 a thousand capabilities. There is much same- 
 ness in the character of the scenery ; but that 
 sameness is in itself delightful, as it consists in 
 the recurrence of noble traits, which are too 
 
 G
 
 82 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 pleasing ever to be viewed with indifference; like 
 the regular features which we sometimes find 
 in the face of a lovely woman, their charm 
 consists in their own intrinsic gracefulness, 
 rather than in the variety of their expressions. 
 The Ohio has not the sprightly, fanciful wild- 
 ness of the Niagara, the St. Lawrence, or the 
 Susquehanna, whose impetuous torrents, rushing 
 over beds of rocks, or dashing against the jutting 
 cliffs, arrest the ear by their murmurs, and 
 delight the eye with their eccentric wander- 
 ings. Neither is it like the Hudson, margined 
 at one spot by the meadow and the village, and 
 overhung at another by threatening precipices 
 and stupendous mountains. It has a wild, 
 solemn, silent sweetness, peculiar to itself. 
 The noble stream, clear, smooth, and unruffled, 
 swept onward with regular majestic force. 
 Continually changing its course, as it rolls 
 from vale to vale, it always winds with dignity, 
 and avoiding those acute angles, which are 
 observable in less powerful streams, sweeps 
 round in graceful bends, as if disdaining the 
 opposition to which nature forces it to submit. 
 On each side rise the romantic hills, piled on
 
 SCENERY OF THE OHIO. 83 
 
 each other to a tremendous height ; and be- 
 tween them, are deep, abrupt, silent glens, 
 which at a distance seem inaccessible to the 
 human foot ; while the whole is covered with 
 timber of a gigantic size, and a luxuriant 
 foliage of the deepest hues. Throughout this 
 scene there is a pleasing solitariness, that speaks 
 peace to the mind, and invites the fancy to 
 soar abroad, among the tranquil haunts of medi- 
 tation. Sometimes the splashing of the oar is 
 heard, and the boatman's song awakens the 
 surrounding echoes ; but the most usual music 
 is that of the native songsters, whose melody 
 steals pleasingly on the ear, with every modu- 
 lation, at all hours, and in every change of situ- 
 ation. The poet, in sketching these solitudes, 
 might, by throwing his scene a few years back, 
 add the light ^anoe and war-song of the Indian ; 
 but the peaceful traveller rejoices in the ab- 
 sence of that which would bring danger as well 
 as variety within his reach. 
 
 These remarks apply to the Ohio, only so 
 far as I have already seen it; after we leave 
 this hilly region, its shores no doubt present a 
 different aspect. We have just passed the 
 
 G 2
 
 84 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Muskingum Island, and already the country 
 seems to be much less mountainous though not 
 less romantic. The prospect immediately below 
 this island, is singularly picturesque and cha- 
 racteristic. The river, making a long stretch to 
 the west, affords an uninterrupted view for 
 several miles. On one side are seen several 
 log-houses, surrounded by newly cleared fields, 
 exhibiting the first stage of improvement ; a 
 little further on, a neat brick-house, with a 
 numerous collection of fruit trees, just putting 
 forth their blossoms, indicate a more advanced 
 state of civilization, and mark the residence 
 of a wealthier or more industrious citizen. 
 Beyond these are lofty hills, whose long sha- 
 dows fall upon the w^ater, and all around is the 
 gloom of the forest. On the opposite bank, 
 a rude bridge, thrown over a deep ravine, is 
 discovered through the trees ; and near it, a few 
 pail inclosures, fabricated of rough stakes, de- 
 signate and protect the tombs of some of the 
 early adventurers to this wild country. 
 
 I never was a friend to the incarceration of 
 beauty, as I always believed that every pretty 
 woman, to say nothing of the ugly ones, was
 
 SCENERY OF THE OHIO. B5 
 
 intended to assist in beguiling the cares of some 
 poor fellow, who, like myself, had more of them 
 on his shoulders than he could well attend to. 
 Yet, whenever I gaze on the silent shores of 
 the Ohio, I am tempted to think how pretty a 
 convent would look in one of these romantic 
 vallies, where deep, melancholy shadows curtain 
 every spot, where no discordant sound dis- 
 turbs the solitude, and where no unhallowed 
 object intrudes upon the eye to excite a " tu- 
 mult in a vestal's veins. '^ But this illusion is 
 easily destroyed ; when I forsook the deck, and 
 strolled into the country among the farmers, 
 who, fearing the atmosphere of the river, build 
 their houses at a distance, leaving a strip of 
 the forest standing to intercept the damps, I 
 found something very different from nuns and 
 anchorites. 
 
 To-day our boat struck on a sand-bar, 
 through the carelessness of the captain, who 
 was asleep in the cabin. The boatmen jumped 
 into the water with great alacrity, and attempted 
 to " heave her off;" but being unable to effect 
 it, we were obliged to procure a flat boat, to 
 lighten, and hands to assist us. These were
 
 86 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 readily and cheerfully furnished in the neigh- 
 bourhood, and we suffered no other mcon- 
 venience than that of a few hours' detention. 
 In the meanwhile, I took my fowling-piece, 
 and scoured the forest on the Virpnia side of 
 the river. After shooting some squirrels, which 
 were very abundant, I stopped at a farm house, 
 where I was hospitably received. My arrival had 
 been foretold, not like that of Fitz James, by a 
 " minstrel old and gray," but by the good man 
 of the house, who said he had heard the report of 
 a shot gun in the woods, and knew there tvere 
 strangers about. He eyed my piece with a good 
 deal of contempt, and wondered at my using 
 it in preference to a rifle. Throughout the 
 west, the fowling-piece is viewed rather as a 
 toy for children than as a weapon for man. 
 Hunting is here, as Scot describes it to have 
 been among the ancient Highlanders, 
 
 " Mimicry of noble war." 
 
 The people scorn a weapon less deadly than the 
 rifle;, and practice has made them remarkably 
 expert in the use of this national arm, " Luck's 
 like a shot-gun, mighty uncertaiUj" is a common
 
 SCENERY OF THE OHIO. 87 
 
 saying, and indeed the poor shot-gun is a 
 standing but for ridicule, and a common sub- 
 ject of comparison with every thing that is in- 
 significant. 
 
 To-day we passed two large rafts lashed 
 together, by which simple conveyance several 
 families from New England were transporting 
 themselves and their property to the land of 
 promise in the western woods. Each raft was 
 eighty or ninety feet long, with a small house 
 erected on it ; and on each was a stack of hay, 
 round which several horses and cows were feed- 
 ing, while the paraphernalia of a farm-yard, the 
 ploughs, waggons, pigs, children, and poultry, 
 carelessly distributed, gave to the whole more 
 the appearance of a permanent residence, than 
 of a caravan of adventurers seeking a home. 
 A respectable looking old lady, with spectacles 
 on nose, was seated on a chair at the door of 
 one of the cabins, employed in knitting ; another 
 female was at the wash-tub ; the men were 
 chewing their tobacco, with as much com- 
 placency as if they had been in " the land of 
 steady habits," and the various family avoca- 
 tions seemed to go on like clock-work. In this
 
 / 
 
 88 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 manner these people travel at a slight expense. 
 They bring their own provisions ; their raft 
 floats with the current ; and honest Jonathan, 
 surrounded with his scolding, grunting, squalHng, 
 and neighing dependants, floats to the point 
 proposed without leaving his own fire-side ; and 
 on his arrival there, may step on shore with his 
 house, and commence business, like a certain 
 grave personage, who, on his marriage with a 
 rich widow, said he had " nothing to do but to 
 walk in and hang up his hat." 
 
 The evening of this day brought us to Park- 
 ersburgh, a small village in Virginia, famous 
 for its manufactory of bank notes, of which a 
 goodly quantity were, some years ago, ushered 
 into an ephemeral existence. They have now 
 entirely disappeared — the shop is shut ; and as 
 this species of domestic industry finds no pro- 
 tection in Mr. Baldwin's tariff bill, tlie inha- 
 bitants will be obliged to exert their ingenuity 
 upon some other branch of the arts. The town, 
 composed of a few scattered houses, is beauti- 
 fully situated : the approach by water from 
 above is singularly pretty, the houses presenting 
 themselves through a cluster of intervening trees,
 
 SCENERY OF THE OHIO. 89 
 
 which, with a proper taste, have been allowed 
 to stand on the shore. We had but a glimpse 
 of it in the twilight, when the liglits shining 
 through the numerous foliage might have re- 
 minded one of a Chinese feast of lanterns ; and 
 we were so long in getting to the shore, that 
 even these were extinguished before we reached 
 it. The sky was delightfully serene, and the 
 moon-beams, playing over the tree-tops, and 
 drawing out the forest- shadows into a thou- 
 sand fantastic shapes, invited us to a stroll. 
 Our curiosity was soon satisfied; the villagers 
 had retired to rest ; the silence of the forest wsls 
 around their dwellings ; the stranger's footsteps 
 alone disturbed it. We, therefore, soon re- 
 turned ; but the boatmen were more successful 
 in their researches after noveltv. In their little 
 tour they discovered one of those engines of 
 justice, to which the philanthropic compiler of 
 the Navigator has devoted a page or two of 
 invective, namely, a vile whipping-post, moulder- 
 ing with age, or drooping, perhaps, like man}^ 
 other faithful public servants, with neglect and 
 long disuse. The honest old gentleman, last men- 
 tioned, could not have been more scandalized
 
 90 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 at the appearance of this unsightly fixture, than 
 were our unenhghtened mariners, who were un- 
 accustomed to this instrument of punishment, 
 which they forthwith removed from its place, 
 and launched into the river, observing that 
 ** them that wanted to be whipped mought go 
 after it.'' 
 
 Nor did the amusements of the night end 
 here. The adventure of the whipping-post had 
 exhilarated the spirits of the cTew, who now 
 seating themselves in groups upon the bank, 
 inspired, no doubt, by the genial influence of 
 the " chaste cold moon," began to chaunt their 
 rude ditties of " bold young fellers''' and " ladies 
 gay," an accomplishment in which some of 
 them had acquired a tolerable proficiency, and 
 which they all appeared to value more highly 
 than their rough natures would seem to indi- 
 cate. Here was a fund of entertainment for 
 me. It is amusing to see poetry dressed in 
 rags and limping upon crutches ; dignified and 
 lovely as she is in her robes of majesty, she 
 becomes the most quaint, ingenious, entertain- 
 ing little imp imaginable, when she condescends 
 to play the hoyden ; and I assure you I adored
 
 RIVER MELODIES. 91 
 
 her with tenfold ardour when I beheld her 
 versatility, and saw her, like a good republican, 
 dispensing her smiles, as well upon the lowly 
 as upon the great. She has, indeed, risen 
 wonderfully in my opinion — in which of late 
 years she had rather sunk, in consequence of 
 the suspicious company she had kept ; — a vi- 
 rago with Byron, a voluptuary with Moore, 
 and with Monk Louis a wrinkled old hag. 
 She has again appeared in her native integrity. 
 I have seen her in the robes of Nature, and 
 heard her in the innocency of her heart. To 
 the admirers of the simplicity of Wordsworth, 
 to those who prefer the naked effusions of the 
 heart to the meretricious ornaments of fancy, 
 I present the following beautiful specimen, 
 verbatim, as it flowed from the lips of an Ohio 
 boatman : — 
 
 " It's oh ! as I was a wal-king out. 
 
 One morning in July, 
 I met a maid, who ax'd my trade — 
 
 Says I, I'll tell you presently. 
 
 Miss, I'll tell you presently. 
 
 And its oh ! she was so neat a maid, 
 That her stockings and her shoes 
 
 She toted in her lilly white hands, 
 For to keep them from tlie dews," &c, &c.
 
 92 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 I challenge the admirers of that celebrated poet 
 to point out, in all his works, or in those of 
 his disciples, a single verse, which is as simple, 
 as descriptive, or which contains so much 
 matter in so small a compass, as either of the 
 above. 
 
 In the following amatory stanza, the lover 
 betrays his tenderness with great delicacy : — 
 
 r 
 
 '* Here's to you, and all the rest, 
 And likewise her that I love best ; 
 As she's not here to take a part, 
 I'll drink her health with all my heart." 
 
 What a manly spirit breathes through each 
 line, where the poet pays an honest tribute to 
 poverty; sympathises with the forlorn wight, 
 too often the object of ridicule, who hves in 
 single wretchedtiess ; and satirises the cupidity 
 of the world, all in the compass of a single 
 stanza ! It runs thus : — 
 
 " Here's to those that has old cl othes. 
 
 And never a wife to mend 'em ; 
 A plague on those that has halfjoes. 
 
 And has'n't a heart to spend 'em !" 
 
 There was one ballad particularly, of a very
 
 IlIVEIl MELODIES. 93 
 
 pathetic nature, which I regret I have forgot- 
 ten, as the singer observed, very feehngly, that 
 he " set more store to if' than to all the rest. 
 It began thus : — 
 
 " Oh ! its love was the 'casion of my downfall, 
 I wish I had'n't never lov'd none at all ! 
 Oh ! its love was the 'casion of ray miseree ; 
 Now I am bound, but once I was free !" 
 
 The following exquisite lines I had, " by 
 parcels," heard before, but " not intentively," 
 and never did I hear them sung with such 
 grace and spirit— never before did I behold 
 the action so well suited to the word : — • 
 
 " Oh, its meeting is a pleasure. 
 
 Parting is a grief ; 
 But an onconstant lovyer 
 
 Is worse nor a thief !" 
 
 *' A thief and a robber 
 
 Your purse he will haave ; 
 But an onconstant lovyer. 
 
 He will bring you to the grave !" 
 
 I have no more room for criticism. These 
 brief extracts will convince you that I have not 
 decided in favour of the " River Melodies" 
 on slight grounds. By some future opportunity
 
 94 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 I will send you some more of them ; in the mean- 
 while I bid you good night, in the words 
 which the rowers are even now sounding in my 
 ears, as they tug at the oar, timing their strokes 
 to the cadence : 
 
 ** Some rows up, but we rows down. 
 All the way to Shawnee town. 
 
 Pull away — pull away !'*
 
 BLANNERHASSETTS ISLAND. 95 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 BLANNERHASSETT*S ISLAND, AND BURR*S CON- 
 SPIRACY. 
 
 We left Parkersburgh early in the morning, 
 and in the course of the day passed Blanner- 
 hassett's Island, a spot which the intrigues of 
 one distinguished individual, the misfortunes of 
 another, and the eloquence of a third have 
 made classic ground. I would gladly have 
 loitered here for a few hours ; but " lime and 
 tide," says the old saw, " wait for no man." 
 How provoking ! But time, and tide, and cap- 
 tains of keel-boats know nothing of the solici- 
 tudes of sentimental travellers, and hurry us 
 away from a famous spot, with as little cere- 
 mony as from a half finished breakfast. 
 
 We approached the island in fine style, the 
 boatmen tugging manfully at the oar, and
 
 96 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 straining their voices in concert. As we 
 reached the upper end of it, they ceased their 
 labours, and allowing the boat to float with the 
 current, amused each other with stories of Burr 
 and his confederates. 
 
 An event has seldom occurred, so intrinsi- 
 callv insignificant in its result, which has created 
 so great a sensation as the conspiracy of Burr ; 
 which, indeed, derives its consequence princi- 
 pally from the celebrity of the names attached 
 to it, and the ignorance of the world as to its 
 final object. Burr was the rival of Hamilton : 
 Hamilton the friend of Washington — his mili- 
 tary aid, his political adviser, his social com- 
 panion — equally eminent as a soldier, an orator, 
 a writer, a financier, and a lawyer. The man 
 who could make Hamilton experience, or even 
 counterfeit, 
 
 " The stern joy that warriors feel. 
 In foemen worthy of their steel," 
 
 must have stood far above mediocrity. Colonel 
 BtuT was the son of a gentleman, eminent for 
 his learning and piety, for many years president 
 of the most celebrated college in America ; and 
 was himself a man of transcendent genius, and
 
 burr's conspiracy. 97 
 
 great attainments. He was remarkable for the 
 elegance of his manners, tlie seductiveness of 
 his address, the power and sweetness of his 
 eloquence ; but more so, perhaps, for the bold- 
 ness and energy of his mind. Burr had con- 
 tended unsuccessfully with Jefferson for the 
 presidential chair, which he lost by a single 
 vote ; but while he filled the second place in 
 point of dignity, few at that time would have 
 assigned him an inferior station in point of 
 talents. 
 
 The duel between Hamilton and Burr filled 
 the nation with astonishment and griefs — grief 
 for the death of a great and useful man, and 
 astonishment at the delusion which occasioned 
 it. Burr, with the corpse of Hamilton at his 
 feet, might have felt the triumph of con- 
 quest ; but it was a momentary flush : the 
 laurels of the hero, watered hy the tears of his 
 country, retained their verdure, and even those 
 who might have rejoiced at his political fall, 
 execrated the destroyer of his existence. 
 
 Shortly after this bloody catastrophe, the 
 conduct of Burr began again to excite the 
 attention of the public. He had resigned his 
 
 H
 
 93 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 former employments, forsaken his usual haunts, 
 and was leading an erratic and mysterious life. 
 He frequently travelled incngnitOj performed long 
 and rapid journeys, and remained but a short 
 time at any one place. This restlessness was 
 attributed to uneasiness of mind, and many 
 began to sympathise with him whom they sup- 
 posed to be thus tortured with the stings of 
 conscience. But whatever might have been 
 the workings of his mind, he soon evinced that 
 his fire was not quenched, nor his ambition 
 sated. He was now seen traversing the western 
 wilds, eagerly seeking out the distinguished 
 men of that country, particularly those who 
 possessed military experience, or had hearts 
 alive to the stirring impulses of ambition. 
 
 These indications were quickly succeeded by 
 others of a more decided character. Secret as 
 his intentions were, the first movement towards 
 their execution awakened suspicion. The 
 assembling of men, and collecting munitions of 
 war roused the government to action. Burr 
 was arrested, — his plans defeated, his adherents 
 dispersed, and his reputation blasted. He 
 became an exile, and a wanderer; and after
 
 burr's conspiracy. 99 
 
 years of suffering, returned to his native land, 
 to become an insignificant member of that bar 
 of which he had been among the highest orna- 
 ments ; an obscure citizen of the country over 
 whose councils he had presided ; and to add 
 another to the list of splendid men who have 
 been great without benefit to themselves or 
 others, and whose names will be preserved only 
 
 " To point a moral, or adorn a tale." 
 
 He was entirely abandoned. Never was a 
 man more studiously avoided, more unani- 
 mously condemned. The voice of eulogy was 
 silent, the breath of party was hushed. Of the 
 many who had once admired and loved him, 
 none ventured to express their love or admira- 
 tion. One fatal act of folly, or of crime, had 
 obscured all the brilliance of a splendid career ; 
 and although acquitted of treason by a court 
 of justice, a higher tribunal, that of public 
 opinion, refused to reverse the sentence which 
 consigned him to disgrace. 
 
 Such was the fate of Burr ; but his plans are 
 yet enveloped in mystery. A descent upon 
 some part of Spanish America, and the establish- 
 
 H 2
 
 100 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 ment of an independent government, has been 
 stated to have been the object ; but it is 
 alleged that a separation of the western states 
 from the Union formed a part of the project. 
 The latter charge rests almost entirely upon the 
 evidence of General Eaton, a gentleman whose 
 chivalrous disposition led him through many 
 singular adventures, and whose history, as re- 
 corded by himself, presents a more favourable 
 picture of his heart and genius than of his 
 judgment. He was a man of warm tempera- 
 ment, who adopted hasty and vivid impressions, 
 from the impulse of the moment. From his 
 testimony, I should be inclined to believe that 
 Colonel Burr had cherished some vague ideas 
 respecting a disjunction of the Union ; but it 
 does not appear that those speculations were 
 ever matured into any settled plan, or confided 
 to his adherents. I am led to this conclusion 
 by the characters of Colonel Burr and the gen- 
 tlemen who were implicated with him in his 
 disastrous expedition. Burr was a man of ex- 
 tended views, a close observer of men and man- 
 ners, and it is not to be presumed that he would 
 have lightly embraced a scheme so fraught with
 
 BURRS CONSPIRACY. 
 
 treason, madness, and folly. He KHBtr" tlv^; 
 American people well. He had studied them 
 with the eye of a statesman, and with tli^ in- 
 tense interest of an ambitious political aspirant^" 
 His rank in society, his political station, and 
 his extensive practice at the bar, threw open a 
 wide and varied scene to his observation, and 
 exhibited his countrymen to him in a variety 
 of Hghts and shades. 
 
 Nor was Burr the man upon whom such op- 
 portunities would be lost. To him the avenues to 
 the human heart were all familiar, and he could 
 penetrate with ease into its secret recesses. To 
 study man was his delight — to study his country- 
 men his business. Could he then have been a 
 stranger to their intelligence, their sense of ho- 
 nour, their habits of calculation, and their lov^e for 
 their republican institutions ? Could he expect to 
 transform at once the habits, feelings, tastes, and 
 morals of a people conspicuous for their courage 
 and political integrity ?— for such are the people 
 of the western states. It has been supposed, 
 and with some plausibility, that his hopes were 
 founded on the dissatisfaction evinced by the 
 western people at the time of the discussion of
 
 102 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 our right to navigate the Mississippi. It is 
 true that the rude and unprovoked violation of 
 our privileges on that rive^' by Spain excited 
 an universal burst of indignation throughout 
 the Union. It is also true, that this feeling 
 was most warmly displayed in the west. In 
 the Atlantic states, the insult was felt as impli- 
 cating our national honour ; in the west it was 
 a matter of vital importance to all, and of per- 
 sonal interest to every individual, and as such 
 it came home to men^s business and bosoms. The 
 Mississippi was the natural outlet, and New 
 Orleans the mart for the produce of the west ; 
 and when that market, to which they believed 
 they had an indefeasible right of access, was 
 barred to them, it was but the natural and com- 
 mon impulse of the human mind which in- 
 duced a people, at all times proud, impetuous 
 and tenacious, to call for vengeance and redress, 
 with a sternness and impatience commensurate 
 with their injuries. The conciliatory spirit and 
 tardy policy of Mr. Jefferson, neither satisfied 
 their feelings, nor suited their exigencies ; and 
 they were wiUing to impute to tameness in the 
 executive, that w^hich might have been the
 
 burr's conspiracy. 103 
 
 result of parental solicitude. Believing them- 
 selves to be abandoned by the general govern- 
 ment, they felt it a duty to protect their own 
 invaded rights ; and if the government had not 
 interposed with effect, they would doubtless 
 have drawn the sword — against whom? the 
 government? No, but against the common 
 enemy. In this there was no treason nor dis- 
 affection — no estrangement from their sister 
 states, no breach of faith with the government, 
 nor violation of the compact. It was saying 
 only to their federal head — " Defend us, or 
 we will defend ourselves." 
 
 If Colonel Burr expected to fan these feelings 
 into rebellion, he had either more boldness or less 
 wisdom than has commonly been placed to his 
 credit ; and had he openly avowed this project, 
 he would have called down upon his head the 
 imprecations of a people, who, if they had spared 
 his life, would not have forgiven so foul an insult 
 to their virtue and understanding. But let us 
 ask who were the adherents of Colonel Burr? 
 Who were they who were to share his fortunes, 
 to reap with him the proud laurels of success" 
 ful valour, or the infamy of foul rebellion ?
 
 104 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Were they persons of obscure name and despe- 
 rate fortune, or were they men of good blood 
 and fair fame — " the darUngs of the nation ?" 
 These questions are embarrassed with some 
 uncertainty, because most of the gentlemen 
 who have been accused of adhering to Colonel 
 Burr, " giving him aid and comfort," have 
 denied the fact ; and as I am writing only for 
 amusement, and speculating on events gone by, 
 for speculation's sake, I wish not to assume 
 any thing as a fact on this delicate subject, 
 which is, or has been controverted. But it is 
 not denied that many *^ prosperous gentlemen" 
 were engaged in this enterprise j and many 
 others suspected, with a belief so strong as to 
 amount almost to certainty ; and among these 
 were men whom the people have since exalted 
 to the most important trusts, and confided in 
 with the most impUcit reliance. Among them 
 were men of high standing, who had reputations 
 to be tarnished, fortunes to be lost, and families 
 to be embarrassed ; and many high-souled 
 youths, whose proud aspirings after fame could 
 never have been gratified amid the horrors of a 
 civil war and the guiltv scenes of rebellion.
 
 burr's conspiracy. 105 
 
 It is argued against these gentlemen, that 
 they have uniformly denied their connexion 
 with Burr, which it is supposed they would 
 not have done had they known his designs to 
 be innocent. But this I do not conceive to 
 be a fair argument. The united voice of the 
 whole nation had declared Burr to be a traitoi', 
 and his adherents shared the obloquy which 
 was heaped upon their misguided leader. 
 Even admitting their innocence or their own 
 belief of it, still it would have been a hopeless 
 task for this handful of men to oppose their 
 feeble asseverations to the " voice potential" of 
 a whole people. Many of them, also, were 
 candidates for office, and they found the 
 avenues to preferment closed by the anathemas 
 pronounced by the people against all who 
 w^ere concerned in what they believed to have 
 been rank conspiracy. They might, therefore, 
 have bent to the current which they could 
 not stem. The apostle Peter denied his mas- 
 ter thrice ! — but was, nevertheless, a good 
 honest apostle after all. 
 
 But I know that you are, by this time, ready 
 to ask me, whether I am seriously endeavour-
 
 106 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 ing to convince you that Burr was a true and 
 loyal subject to the sovereign people of these 
 United States ? I have no such design ; though 
 I must confess, that if I had the power to exe- 
 cute so difficult a project, I would with pleasure 
 employ it. I should be happy to obliterate a 
 stain from the annals of my country, and a blot 
 from the fame of a fellow-citizen. I should be 
 glad also to be always victorious in argument, 
 if I could admit that success was the test of 
 truth. But this I do not beheve. I will tell 
 you what I do believe. I beheve that nine- 
 tenths of Burr's adherents knew no more about 
 his projects than you, and I, and all the world ; 
 and that those who do know any thing, to his 
 or their own disadvantage, will be wise enough 
 to keep their own counsel. But if I cannot 
 tell you what Colonel Burr intended to do, I 
 can relate what he did j for here I am in sight 
 of the deserted fields and dilapidated mansion 
 of the unfortunate Blannerhasset ! That this 
 fairy spot, created by nature in one of her 
 kindest moods, and embellished by the hand 
 of art, was once the elegant retreat of a philo- 
 sophic mind, has already been told in language
 
 burr's conspiracy. 107 
 
 which I need not attempt to emulate. But 
 alas ! I cannot now recognise the taste of Blan- 
 nerhasset, or realise the paradise of Wirt. All 
 is ruin, solitude, and silence ! Thev are sone 
 who made the wilderness to smile. 
 
 Blannerhasset was an Irish gentleman of 
 easy fortune — a man devoted to science, who 
 retired from the world, in the hope of finding 
 happiness in the union of literary and rural 
 occupation. He selected this island as his 
 retreat, and spared no expense in beautifying 
 and improving it. He is described as having 
 been retired in his habits, amiable in his pro- 
 pensities, greatly addicted to chemical studies, 
 and a passionate lover of music. In this ro- 
 mantic spot, and in these innocent pursuits, he 
 lived 5 and, to crown the enchantment of the 
 scene, a wife, who is said to have been lovely, even 
 beyond her sex, and graced with every accom- 
 plishment that could render it irresistible, had 
 blessed him with her love, and made him the 
 father of her children. But Blannerhasset, in 
 an evil hour, became acquainted with Burr — he 
 imbibed the poison of his ambition, became 
 involved in his intrigues, and shared his ruin —
 
 108 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 a ruin as complete, desolate and hopeless, as 
 his former state had been serene and bright. 
 
 Whatever were Burr's intentions, it is cer- 
 tain that they embraced schemes so alluring or 
 so magnificent as to win the credulous Blanner- 
 hasset from the abstraction of study and the 
 blandishments of love. This island became the 
 centre of operations. Here arms were deposited 
 and men collected ; and here, assembled round 
 their watch fires, young gentlemen, who " had 
 seen better days," and " sat at good men's 
 feasts," endured all the rigours of the climate 
 and the privations of a campaign, rewarding 
 themselves in anticipation with the honours 
 of war and the wealth of Mexico. Burr and 
 Blannerhasset were the master spirits who 
 planned their labours ; Mrs. Blannerhasset was 
 the light and life of all their social joys. If treason 
 matured its dark designs in her mansion, here 
 also the song, the dance, and the revel dis- 
 played their fascinations. The order of arrest 
 was the signal of dispersion to this ill fated 
 band ; and it is said that the lovely mistress 
 of this fairy scene, the Calypso of this enchanted 
 isle, was seen at midnight *' shivering on the
 
 burr's conspiracy. lOO 
 
 winter banks of the Ohio," mingling her tears 
 with its waters, ekiding by stratagem the minis- 
 ters of justice, and destitute of the comforts 
 of Ufe, and the solace of that hospitality which 
 she had once dispensed with such graceful 
 liberality. 
 
 I believe it is not doubted that Burr intended 
 to have attempted the conquest of Mexico. A 
 large portion of the people of that country, 
 were supposed to be waiting only for a favour- 
 able opportunity to throw off the Spanish yoke. 
 The Americans, as their neighbours, and as 
 republicans, would it was thought be received 
 without suspicion ; nor would Burr have un- 
 folded his ultimate design until it should be 
 too late to prevent its accomplishment. He 
 would then have established a monarchy, at the 
 head of which would have been King Aaron 
 the First. I am told that the young gentle- 
 men who were proceeding to join him, often 
 amused themselves on this subject ; talking, 
 half in jest and half in earnest, of the offices 
 and honours which awaited them. Titles and 
 places were already lavishly distributed in an- 
 ticipation ; and Mrs. — — , who was an accom-
 
 110 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 plished and sprightly woman, had arranged the 
 dresses and ceremonies of the court. When 
 the alarm was given, and orders were issued for 
 the arrest of Burr and his adherents, they were 
 obliged to resort to a variety of expedients to 
 escape detection. At Fort Massac, and other 
 places, all boats descending the river were com- 
 pelled to stop and undergo strict examination, 
 to the great vexation of boatmen and peace- 
 able voyagers, who were often obliged to land 
 at unseasonable hours. Very diligent inquiry 
 was made for the lady I have just mentioned, 
 who several times narrowly escaped detection, 
 through her own ingenuity and that of her 
 companions. 
 
 Adieu.
 
 TRAVELLERS, AND THEIR TREATMENT. Ill 
 
 LETTER VT. 
 
 TRAVELLERS, AND THEIR TREATMENT. 
 
 I HAD not been long on board the boat when 
 I discovered that its progress was frequently so 
 slow as to allow me to make short excursions on 
 the shore. Such opportunities were too precious 
 to be neglected. Accordingly, equipped in a 
 light summer-dress, with a fowling-piece on my 
 shoulder, I invaded sometimes one bank, and 
 sometimes the other, waging war against the 
 squirrels of Virginia, Ohio, or Kentucky, as 
 was most convenient. Thus I gained sport 
 and healthful exercise, and procured a grateful 
 addition to my frugal meals. In these digres- 
 sions, I frequently encountered the inhabitants, 
 and could make inquiries respecting the coun- 
 try. At their cabins I could always procure 
 a refreshing draught of milk, as well as a dish
 
 112 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 of conversation : and if I had found nothing 
 else, I should have been compensated for my 
 trouble in gazing at the droves of chubby chil- 
 dren, who are mentioned in the Navigator as 
 a staple commodity of the country. They are 
 almost as abundant as the squirrels ; and as 
 plump and active as health, hard fare, and 
 exercise can make them. By walking at a 
 brisk pace along the shore, I could keep in 
 advance of the boat when the men were not 
 rowing, and could pop over the squirrels, talk 
 to the men, take a peep at the women, and 
 kiss the children, while jogging on my way. 
 This is pleasanter, and far more profitable, than 
 lolling in a stage-coach with one's arms folded, 
 or reading newspapers in the cabin of a steam- 
 boat ; nor do I envy the traveller who would 
 not deviate from his path to chat with a back- 
 woodsman, or peep at a Kentucky beauty. 
 
 On these occasions, I had opportunities of 
 examining into the correctness of some of the 
 assertions made by English travellers. They 
 describe our people in the humbler walks of 
 life as possessing a certain surly indepen- 
 dence, which they delight to display on every
 
 TRAVELLERS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 113 
 
 occasion, which induces them to insult a well 
 dressed stranger, whenever they get an oppor- 
 tunity, and to render any services which they 
 are called upon to perform, with an air of doing 
 a favour ; so that while they pocket your 
 money, they remind you that they are your 
 equals. With regard to the want of affability 
 alleged by foreigners, I can say, with sincerity, 
 that I have travelled from the St. Lawrence to 
 the Potomac, and from the shores of the Atlan- 
 tic to those of the Mississippi, without observing 
 it. I have never proposed a civil question 
 to an American without receiving a civil 
 answer ; and I have seldom entered his dwel- 
 ling without partaking of its hospitality. I have 
 more than once, in consequence of accidents 
 to which all travellers are liable, been thrown 
 upon the kindness of strangers ; yet never did I 
 know my countrymen deny the sacred claims of 
 a stranger in distress. At their taverns, or 
 their private houses, a man of decent appear- 
 ance and civil deportment will always be 
 kindly and respectfully received. So long as 
 he behaves like a gentleman, he will receive 
 the treatment due to his character j his privacy 
 
 I
 
 114i LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 will not be interrupted, his feelings hurt, or 
 his peace disturbed. Whatever he asks for in 
 a civil manner, will be furnished him, if pos- 
 sible ; but if it cannot be procured, he must 
 take what he can get without complaining ; 
 for the moment he abuses the country, com- 
 plains of his fare, or attempts in any manner 
 to coerce or criminate those around him, he 
 excites a spirit which it is much more easy to 
 arouse than to allay. 
 
 It is to be recollected that in the United States 
 independence is not nominal — it is actual, defined, 
 and in the possession of every individual. It 
 is not confined to civil and political riglits, but 
 extends to every sphere of human action ; we 
 are not only independent of foreign govern- 
 ments, as a nation, but of our rulers as a 
 people, and of each other as men. There is no 
 class so powerful, no individual so popular, as 
 to be able to carry a pubUc measure over our 
 heads : the power is emphatically in the people, 
 who, while they cheerfully submit the ordinary 
 concerns of government into the hands of 
 leading men, who are better qualified to rule 
 than themselves, feel and know their own su-
 
 TRAVELLERS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 115 
 
 premacy, and fail not to exercise it, whenever 
 their interests are jeopardized. We have no 
 individuals who are necessarily dependent upon 
 others for support — no depressing poverty and 
 overmastering wealth. The results are evident ; 
 those who are obliged to labour, or to serve 
 others, can choose their occupations and their 
 employers — can stipulate prices, and negociate 
 for terms. Masters are more abundant than 
 servants ; there are more who wish to employ 
 others, than to be employed j and as none are 
 forced to earn a precarious livelihood, by pur- 
 suing a given calling, or serving a particular 
 individual, the baseness of servility is unknown. 
 Can a man be expected to cringe where he 
 may bargain? or to fawn where he has only 
 to name his hire, and perform his duty? 
 
 On the other hand, this entire equality of 
 rights prevents that insolence on the part of infe- 
 riors which it has been supposed to generate. As 
 there is no tyranny on the one part, there is no 
 feeling of oppression on the other ; and where 
 there is no overbearing superiority, there 
 can be no source of humiliation. Pride dare 
 not insult poverty, because poverty is stronger 
 than pride, and will trip up her heels if she 
 
 I 2
 
 116 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 give herself airs. Where the rich never oppress 
 the poor — where the tenant of a tattered suit, 
 is not insulted by the jeers of his more fortunate 
 fellow worm, who is clad in purple^ and fares 
 sumptuously — no jealousy is engendered, no 
 corroding hate is rankling at the heart of the 
 inferior, ready to burst forth upon the first 
 occasion ; there is nothing to resent, and there- 
 fore no resentment is displayed. In countries 
 where the poor are kept in subjection, where 
 they see distinctions, endure oppression, and 
 suffer insult, they may view the rich with 
 malignant hatred. Those who have been ac- 
 customed to such a state of society may believe 
 it to be universal ; and, speculating upon the 
 probable results of equal rights, and the effect 
 which the enjoyment of those rights would 
 have upon the manners and morals of the 
 ignorant, have imagined that to exist in fact, 
 which really exists only in their own theory. The 
 hypothesis is correct enough in the abstract ; 
 but when applied to us, it is removed from its 
 legitimate foundation, and built up upon 
 assumed positions and false estimates, and 
 becomes a " baseless fabric." 
 
 Englishmen, and indeed the gentlemen of
 
 TRAVELLERS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 117 
 
 our cities, receive rough treatment in the west, 
 from their ignorance or intentional disregard of 
 these principles. They go snarling through 
 the country, as if disdaining the soil on which 
 they tread, and literally qucni^eUing with their 
 bread and butter, although conscious that it is 
 the best which can be had. Whether invited 
 to share the plain repast of the hunter, or 
 seated at the plentiful table of the hotel, they 
 are dissatisfied because they have not the deli- 
 cacies of an eastern city, and rail at the poverty 
 of the country and the coarseness of its pro- 
 visions. The individual who behaves in this 
 way is at once set down to be no gentleman^ 
 for the people have acuteness to know that the 
 politeness of a well bred man will accommodate 
 itself to every society in which he may be 
 placed, will induce him to receive the coarsest 
 food with complacency, and to be grateful for 
 the most awkward attempts which evince a 
 desire to please ; but if these gentlemen are 
 not sufficiently well bred to know how to con- 
 duct themselves, prudence might dictate the 
 course for them to pursue. A slight acquaint- 
 ance with the temper of our people is sufficient 
 to convince the most careless observer, that
 
 118 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 one of the leading traits in the character of a 
 western American, or, indeed an eastern one 
 is, " to give as good as he gets." With a 
 stranger, he is equally ready to shake hands or 
 to quarrel, as he finds him in the humour ; if 
 the traveller is good tempered, he treats him 
 well — if testy, he delights to tease him — if im- 
 pudent, it is ten to one but he flogs him. 
 Sensible and civil men are well treated and 
 well pleased, while the captious man is vexed 
 and crossed at every step. 
 
 It is not to be forgotten, howe\^er,that you may 
 make remarks freely, in the west, if you do it 
 pleasantly. A gentleman who remarked in 
 one of their taverns that " he had been obliged 
 to eat bacon until he was ashamed to look a pig 
 in the face,*' was greeted with a smile ; but if 
 he had used any coarse language in regard to 
 that popular and respectable dish, the affront 
 might have been swallowed as reluctantly as 
 the bacon. 
 
 A writer in the Edinburgh Review says of 
 the people of the western country, ** They are 
 hospitable to strangers, because they are seldom 
 troubled mth them, and because they have 
 plenty of maize and smoked hams. Their hospi-
 
 TRAVELLERS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 119 
 
 tality, too, is always accompanied with imperti- 
 ncnt questions y and a disgusting display of national 
 vanity P If the writer of this precious scrap 
 had ever visited the country he hbels, he would 
 have known that it contains as many distinct 
 falsehoods as could be conveniently crowded 
 into so brief a paragraph. No country is more 
 *' troubled" with strangers than this; they 
 swarm the land, spreading themselves over it 
 in every direction ; every stream is traced, 
 every forest explored, and the taverns of every 
 little village filled and overflowing with the 
 crowds brought hither by emigration, by 
 curiosity, or by business. Many of these are 
 needy adventurers from the very land whose 
 writers thus defame us, who, destitute of the 
 means of subsistence, and ignorant of the 
 country, are indebted to its inhabitants for food 
 to support, and advice to guide their steps. 
 The hospitality of the west, is best known to 
 those who have experienced it : 
 
 " Meat for keen famine, and the generous juice 
 That warms chill life, her charities produce." 
 
 But if that hospitality is caused by tlie abun-
 
 120 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 dance with which Heaven has blessed our pro- 
 lific country, it springs from that which I sus- 
 pect seldom troubles these Scotch gentry, and 
 whose charities, by the same rule, ought to be 
 very sparing. The critic might have found 
 a better reason ; it is that their hearts are as 
 generous as they are brave — the latter quality 
 not being denied them even in *' the fast 
 anchor'd isle." The same spirit which glowed 
 at Chippeway, on Lake Erie, and at New 
 Orleans, still illumines the shadows of our 
 western forests ; in war it produced daring 
 achievements — in peace it warms the heart to 
 deeds of charity and mercy. 
 
 If a foreigner, in passing through our coun- 
 try, grasps at every occasion to make invidious 
 comparisons, sneering at its population, manners, 
 and institutions, and extolling those of his own 
 native land, nothing is said of national vanity. 
 When it was determined in England to tear 
 the " striped bunting'' from the mast-heads of 
 our " fir-built frigates '' and to " sweep the 
 Yankee cock-boats from the ocean," no national 
 vanity was displayed at all ; when the very Re- 
 view in question tells us that England is the
 
 TRAVELLERS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 121 
 
 bulwark of religion, the arbiter of the fates of 
 kingdoms, tlie last refuge of freedom, there is 
 no national vanity in the business — not a spice. 
 But if a plain backwoodsman ventures to 
 praise his own country, because he finds all his 
 wants supplied, and his rights defended, while 
 he is not pestered with tax-gatherers and ex- 
 cisemen, is not devoured by fox-hunting priests, 
 pensioners, and paupers, sees no dragoons gal- 
 loping about his cottage, and is allowed to vote 
 for whom he pleases to represent him — all of 
 which he has good reason to believe is ordered 
 differently in another country — this is a *' dis- 
 gusting display of national vanity.'' If he ven- 
 tures to exhibit a shattered limb, or a breast 
 covered with scars, and to tell that he received 
 these honourable marks in defence of his native 
 land, on an occasion when the " best troops in 
 the ivorkP' fled before the valour of undisci- 
 plined freemen, led by a Jackson or a Brown, 
 this is very disgusting. 
 
 The fact is, that English travellers, and 
 English people in general, who come among us, 
 forget that the rest of the world are not as 
 credulous and gullible as themselves ; and are
 
 122 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 continually attempting to impose fictions upon 
 us, which we refuse to credit. They seem not 
 to be aware, that we are a reading people, and 
 would convince us that they are a wise, valiant, 
 and virtuous people, beloved and respected by 
 all the world, while we are an ignorant idle set 
 of boobies, for whom nobody cares a farthing. 
 They tell us how happy and comfortable every 
 body is in England, and what a poor, forlorn, 
 forsaken, miserable set we are, who have had the 
 misfortune to be born in a neiv country, and 
 never saw a king, a lord, or a hangman. One 
 of them told me that he had never heard of the 
 battle of New Orleans, until he came to 
 America several years after it was fought, and 
 that the British nation had hardly ever heard 
 of the war with America. Now, when we refuse 
 to credit these things, and flatly deny them, as 
 we often do, we are set down as a conceited, 
 vain people, who presume to think for ourselves, 
 and to believe that we know something, when a 
 prating renegade or a venal reviewer shall 
 pronounce us fools. John Bull forgets that his 
 own vanity is a source of merriment with the 
 rest of the world.
 
 TRAVELLERS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 123 
 
 During my jaunt I have entered freely the 
 meanest habitations, and conversed famiUarly 
 with the most indigent of the people ; but 
 never have I received a rude nor an indecorous 
 reply. When I approached the door of the 
 rudest hut, I was invited to enter, a seat was 
 handed me, and if the family was eating, I was 
 pressed to partake of their meal. However 
 homely their fare might be, they neither seemed 
 ashamed to offer nor unwilling to share it. At 
 the little cabins along the river, we paid reason- 
 able prices for bread, butter, milk, and other 
 articles, which we purchased; but they seldom 
 charged for what we ate in their houses ; and 
 when I penetrated a little farther into the 
 country, among the respectable farmers, they 
 seemed offended at being offered money for 
 what we procured from them. ■ 
 
 Returning from one of these excursions, I 
 was overtaken by the night, and found my path 
 obstructed by a deep inlet from the river, 
 which being choked with logs and brush, could 
 not be crossed by swimming. Observing a 
 house on the opposite side, I called for as- 
 sistance. A half naked, ill-looking fellow came
 
 124 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 down, and after dragging a canoe round from 
 the river with some trouble, ferried me over, 
 and I followed him to his habitation, near to 
 which our boat was moored for the night. His 
 cabin was of the meanest kind, consisting of a 
 single apartment, constructed of logs, which 
 contained a family of seven or eight souls, and 
 every thing seemed to designate him as a new 
 and unthrifty settler. After drinking a bowl 
 of milk, which I really called for by way of 
 excuse for paying him a little more for his 
 trouble, I asked to know his charge for ferry- 
 ing me over the water, to which he good 
 humouredly replied, that he "never took 
 money for helping a traveller on his way." 
 ** Then let me pay you for your milk." " I 
 never sell milk." " But," said I, urging him, 
 " I would rather pay you, I have money 
 enough." ** Well," said he, '* I have milk 
 enough, so we're even ; I have as good a right 
 to give you milk, as you have to give me money." 
 In my visits to these people, I sometimes in- 
 quired minutely respecting their employments, 
 their prospects, and their health, and have 
 always found them sufficiently communicative.
 
 TRAVELLERS AND THEIR TREATiMENT. 125 
 
 They not only spoke frankly of their own con- 
 cerns, and of all that transpired within the 
 little sphere of their own neighbourhood, but 
 could, most of them, crive accurate accounts of 
 distant places. Their opinions are given 
 promptly, and with the utmost sincerity, for 
 nothing would be viewed among them with 
 more indignation than an attempt to mislead 
 a stranger. I was often, it is true, obliged to 
 submit in return to a similar inquisition ; but 
 it is the custom : and though the people are not 
 intrusive or troublesome to those who do not 
 seek their society, yet if you commence a con- 
 versation, they expect it to be continued upon 
 terms of equality. A traveller might pass from 
 Pittsburgh to St. Louis without being asked 
 a question, except those relating to the sjtate 
 of roads or rivers, or such other subjects as 
 strangers, when thrown together, may with 
 propriety speak of to each other : true, he 
 might meet with a wag, or an impudent fellow : 
 but such an incident, which might happen in 
 any part of the world, should not be allowed 
 to have any bearing upon the character of a 
 people.
 
 126 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 The surly wight, therefore, who wrapt in 
 his reflections fancies himself journeying among 
 " strange cold hearts," and shrinks from an inter- 
 course which he believes will produce him neither 
 benefit nor pleasure — whose suspicious temper 
 induces him to look upon human nature with 
 an eye of doubt and fear, or whose pride repels 
 the unauthorized familiarity of honest indigence 
 — who, in short, keeps a herald's office in his 
 own bosom, and measures his civilities according 
 to the rank of his companion — may enjoy the 
 solitude and taciturnity he covets. He might 
 even pass unnoticed, unless, indeed, a waggish 
 boatman should remark, as I heard one of them 
 on a similar occasion, that he " kept his mouth 
 shut for fear of getting his teeth sun-burnt." 
 How much more amiable is the conduct of the 
 tourist, who, feeling himself interested in the 
 country through which he is passing, and 
 knowing that he can only become acquainted 
 with its character by a familiar intercourse 
 with the people, endeavours to make himself an 
 acceptable guest in every circle 5 who enters 
 into the diversions and employments of those 
 around him ; who looks on men as his fellow-
 
 TRAVELLERS AND THEIR TREATMENT. \T^ 
 
 creatures, whose virtues please him, and whose 
 vices he deplores ; who accepts the hospitality 
 of the peasant as cheerfully as that of the 
 planter, and can say to each, 
 
 *' I take thy courtesy, by Heaven, 
 As freely as 'tis nobly given !" 
 
 How amiable too, must be the character of that 
 people, who, acting upon the rule that a polite 
 deportment is the best letter of introduction, 
 neither suspect nor repel the traveller who 
 wears the exterior of decency and carries 
 the stamp of candour in his visage ; who make 
 a companion of the stranger, and cheer the 
 heart of the wayfaring man. 
 
 You must recollect, that the most secluded 
 spots in this country are visited by intelligent 
 strangers, who must naturally be desirous of 
 examining into the very points which so many 
 persons have traversed the land to investigate, 
 and so many books have been written to ex- 
 plain. In the dwellings of the wealthy, such 
 persons may remark the abundance, and admire 
 the intelligence, which prevails ; but they must 
 seek in humbler scenes for Jirst causes and
 
 128 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 minute details ; they must trace out and analyse 
 the distant fountain in its native cave, follow 
 its sinuosities, and mark its accumulating 
 course, before they are competent to delineate 
 the distinct traits which form the character of 
 the majestic stream. They inquire, therefore, 
 into all the little details respecting the settler's 
 origin, emigration, and settlement, the increase 
 of his wealth and family, and the final result of 
 his exertions. Now, certainly, it is not sur- 
 prising that the man who is frequently required 
 to answer such questions, should sometimes 
 undertake to ask them j nor is it more so that 
 a plain man should put his interrogatories in 
 direct and rather homely language, such as, 
 " Stranger, if it's no offence, what might be 
 your father and mother's name ? what parts 
 are you from ?" &c. This is natural enough in a 
 free country ; and as it evinces an honest inde- 
 pendence, and shews that a man is not afraid 
 of his guest, nor ashamed of himself, I confess 
 I am not displeased with it. Every thing con- 
 nected with the settlement, growth, and im- 
 provement of this country is interesting, as 
 well to the traveller as to the inhabitant. Those
 
 TRAVELLERS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 129 
 
 who have not the opportunity of gaining such 
 intelhgence by their own observation, must 
 ehcit it from others who have had that ad- 
 vantage J and in such conversations they cannot 
 avoid being minute and personal in their in- 
 quiries. To form an opinion of the productive- 
 ness of the country, you must ask the settler 
 what property he brought with him, and how 
 much lie has increased it ; whether he works 
 liimself, or hires labourers ; what wages he pays 
 his hirelings, and whether he gives them pro- 
 duce or money ; whether his wife makes her 
 own cloth or buys it, &c. To judge of the 
 climate by its effects on him and his family, 
 you wish to know to what latitude their con- 
 stitutions had been previously accustomed j and 
 you inquire the number and ages of his chil- 
 dren, and their manner of living, in order to 
 decide whether their healthful or sickly appear- 
 ance is attributable to the climate or to their 
 own habits. Now all these are impertinent 
 questions, which one gentleman has no right to 
 ask of another ; and he who puts them to our 
 sturdy citizens must expect the compliment to 
 be returned : but they are justified by the 
 
 K
 
 130 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 motive, and that motive is well understood. 
 The settler also wishes to know the destination 
 of other emigrants, their opinion of the country 
 they have left, and of that to which they are 
 going ; the progress of other settlements, com- 
 pared with his own ; the productions which 
 succeed best, and the trades which flourish 
 most. It is not, therefore, always an idle cu- 
 riosity which leads him to inquire your rank, 
 profession, and country ; and when he asks your 
 name, it is only an awkward way of introducing 
 the subject. It should be added, that this in- 
 quisitive disposition, if it can be so called — this 
 habit of asking impertinent questions, as the 
 Edinburgh Reviewer will have it — is only found 
 in new and thinly settled neighbourhoods, and 
 amongst uneducated men. Throughout the 
 older and better improved parts of the western 
 country, the traveller would find himself some- 
 times in polished and always in civilized 
 society, recognizing all the ordinary rules of 
 decorum. But the maize and smoked ham he 
 must be content to encounter, and he must be 
 worse than a Jew who would quarrel with such 
 fare. He will also find the rapid progress of the
 
 TRAVELLERS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 131 
 
 American empire ^ constant theme of exulta- 
 tion — the policy, statistics, industry, and re- 
 sources of the states, subjects of conversation. 
 To those frequent and free discussions must we 
 attribute that acuteness, and that knowledge of 
 our country, for which the Americans, par- 
 ticularly those of the west, are remarkable. 
 Foreigners may call this Jiational vanity : so let 
 it be : we ^re proud of our country, and are not 
 ashamed to proclaim that pride : but so long 
 as we do no worse than talk of ourselves and 
 our own concerns, the tongue of the slanderer 
 should be silent. 
 
 K 
 
 O
 
 132 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 HARD NAMES ; ANTIQUITIES ; ANECDOTES. 
 
 Five miles below Blannerhassett's Island, is 
 Little Hockhocking River ; a little further on 
 we have Hockhocking Island, and Great Hock- 
 hocking River. This would seem to be a family 
 name among the streams and islets of this sec- 
 tion, or at least to have been a favourite appel- 
 lation among the first explorers of this region. 
 It is rather a jaw-breaking word ; but in com- 
 mon use it is softened by a device similar to 
 that of the good lady in New England, whose 
 son was named, " Throiigh-much-tribulatioji-ive 
 come-into-the-kmgdom-of-heaven ; she called him 
 * Tribbyy for shortness ;" and for the same rea- 
 son, probably, the word " Hocking'* has been 
 substituted for its stately original. A town has 
 been laid out at the mouth of the latter of these
 
 HARD NAMES. 
 
 183 
 
 streams, called Troy ; and on its banks, about 
 twenty-five miles off, we find Athens, said to 
 be a thriving village, with an academy, situated 
 in a fine country. If Homer could be permitted 
 to repass the Styx, would he not be amused at 
 the sight of modern Troy and Athens on the 
 shores of the Hockhocking ? Think you a 
 Grecian tongue could compass such a collection 
 of harsh consonants ? 
 
 Ten miles lower down, and near the mouth 
 of Shade River, is the Devil's Hole, a remarkable 
 cave on the Ohio side of the river. I had not 
 time to visit this supposed residence of his 
 Satanic majesty, or to explore the banks of the 
 modern Styx. 
 
 In the afternoon we passed Le Tart's Rapids. 
 Here are some fine farms and handsome im- 
 provements. At the foot of the rapids is a float- 
 ing grist-mill; the chief part of the machinery 
 is erected on a large boat, resembling a common 
 scow, which also supports one end of the shaft 
 of the water-wheel ; the other end is supported 
 by a small sharp boat, lashed at a sufficient 
 distance, and devoted to this purpose alone. On 
 the other side of the scow, is a large boat, which
 
 134 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 receives the flour, corn, &c. ; all of these are 
 lashed firmly together, and fastened to the 
 shore, and the water rushing between them~ 
 propels the wheel. The bend of the river at 
 this place is graceful, and adds to the interest 
 of a very pleasing prospect. 
 
 We passed the Rock of Antiquity in the night, 
 so that I could not inspect it. It stands at the 
 water's edge on the right side of the river, about 
 three miles beloAV the Rapids, and takes its 
 name from some ancient sculpture, which ap- 
 pears on its face, supposed to be the work of 
 the aborigines. None of the figures are now 
 intelligible but one, which represents a man in 
 a sitting posture, smoking a pipe ; our uncul- 
 tivated predecessors have left so few memorials 
 behind them, that the rudest and frailest of 
 their monuments arrest attention. The rough 
 penciling of a savage hand has excited as much 
 interest as the precious relic of an Italian 
 master. Even this sequestered rock has at- 
 tracted the eye of the curious traveller. For my 
 part, I am not fond of inanimate curiosities ; but 
 if I could restore the fire to the dark eyes, and 
 the gloss to the raven locks of some of the
 
 ANTIQUITIES. 135 
 
 savasre beauties, who once " wasted their 
 sweetness on the desert air'* of these soli- 
 tudes, I would gaze at their wild glances with 
 more delight than ever was felt by a virtuoso 
 in the pantheons or the catacombs. I love 
 monuments ; but let them be breathing and 
 blushing monuments of animated clay ; these are 
 noble objects — one of which is worth all the 
 mummies, EgyptiaJi heads, and Rob Roy purses 
 in Christendom, and all the rocks and stones 
 that ever the ingenuity of one age piled up to 
 puzzle the curiosity of another. 
 
 During the same night, we passed the mouth 
 of the Kenhawa River, Point Pleasant, and 
 Galliopolis. On the Kenhawa, about seventy 
 miles from its mouth, salt water is found in 
 abundance, and of excellent quality ; extensive 
 manufactories of salt have been in operation 
 here for many years. This river, however, will 
 be better known to the historian, from the 
 bloody engagement which took place near its 
 mouth in the year 1774, between the British, 
 under Lord Dunmore, and an Indian army of 
 the Shawanoe, Delaware, Mingo, and other 
 tribes. This war is more usually known under
 
 136 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 the title of " Lewis's Expedition," from a 
 Virginia gentleman of that name, who was the 
 active and conspicuous leader, although Dun- 
 more was the nominal commander. The Indian 
 force assembled here, was not less than a thou- 
 sand warriors, a body more numerous than they 
 have usually been able to collect at any one 
 point against the whites. It was after this 
 battle, that Logan, a chief of the Delawares, 
 sent to Lord Dunmore the speech which has 
 rendered his name so celebrated, and which is 
 considered as one of the finest displays of elo- 
 quence upon record. Mr. Jefferson, w^ho pre- 
 served this beautiful effusion of native feeling 
 in his Notes on Virginia^ has been accused of 
 palming upon the world a production of his 
 own, by those who had no other ground for the 
 suspicion, than the force and feeling of the 
 composition itself, and who forgot that genuine 
 eloquence is not the offspring of refinement. 
 But all doubt on this subject has been long 
 since removed, by the testimony of officers who 
 were present when it was delivered, and who 
 many years afterwards remembered the im- 
 pression made upon their minds by the affect-
 
 ANTIQUITIES. 137 
 
 ing appeal of the unlettered chieftain. There 
 are, however, strong reasons for the belief, that 
 Logan himself was deceived as to the part 
 supposed to have been taken by Colonel Cres- 
 saf in the massacre of his family, and that some 
 of Cressaf's men, in retaliation for an attack 
 made previously by the savages upon some 
 traders, perpetrated this murder without his 
 knowledge. Cressaf, it is said, was not in the 
 neighbourhood at the time, and could not have 
 known of the sudden broil which produced a 
 catastrophe so deeply to be deplored. 
 
 The town of Galliopolis, in Ohio, four miles 
 below the mouth of the Kenhawa, is finely 
 situated on a high bank, and commands a pretty 
 view of the river. It was settled about thirty 
 years ago by about a hundred French families, 
 who sought an asylum from the political tem- 
 pest which devastated their native country. 
 They purchased a large tract of land from a 
 company who had obtained a grant of it from 
 the United States. But the company failing 
 to fulfil the conditions of their contract, the 
 land reverted to the government, and the unfor- 
 tunate French found, too late, that they had
 
 138 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 been duped. Thus, landless and in a strange 
 country, their situation was truly distressing ; 
 but Congress, with a munificence highly hon- 
 ourable to the nation, interposed to save 
 them from ruin, and, by a grant of twenty-four 
 thousand acres, indemnified them in part for 
 their losses. 
 
 On the morning of the tw^enty-first we passed 
 Guyundat Village, in the vicinity of which we 
 found Big Guyundat River, Little Guyundat, 
 and Indian Guyundat. This would seem to 
 be as favourite a name as Hockhocking. Just 
 below the village, we overtook one of those 
 rude skiffs which frequently convey emigrants 
 to the west. This was a small flat-bottomed 
 boat, of the simplest construction, about 
 twelve feet long, with high sides and a roof. 
 As I was looking out for a friend, who in a 
 moment of whim had embarked by himself, 
 a few days before me, in a " frail tenement** 
 like the one in sight, I took our small boat and 
 rowed towards it, but was not a little surprised 
 on approaching it, to discover, instead of a 
 young gentleman, a grey-headed man, and as 
 grey a headed woman, tugging deliberately
 
 ANECDOTES. 139 
 
 at the oars. This primitive couple looked as 
 if they might have been piillhig together down 
 the stream of life for half a century, without 
 having grown tired of each other's company; 
 for while their oars preserved a regular 
 cadence, they were chatting sociably together, 
 and they smiled as they invited me into their 
 skiff. I confess I was astonished j for, much 
 as I had seen of the carelessness with which 
 my countrymen undertake toilsome journies, 
 and the alacrity with which they change their 
 habitations, I was not prepared to behold 
 without surprise old age and enterprise tra- 
 velling together : and when I learned that this 
 ancient couple were seeking a new home, I an- 
 ticipated a tale of banishment and sorrow. The 
 days of their pilgrimage had not been feiv and 
 evil. Neither of them could have seen much 
 fewer than sixty years, and both were withered, 
 wrinkled, and apparently decrepit ; but they 
 were sprightly and social, and spoke of clearing 
 7iew lands in the wilderness, with a confidence 
 which evinced nothing of the feebleness or in- 
 decision of old age. In answer to my inquiries, 
 as to the reasons which had suggested a change
 
 140 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 of residence, the old man observed, in a care- 
 less, ofF-hand sort of way, *' Why, Sir, our boys 
 are all married, and gone off, and bustling 
 about for themselves ; and our neighbours, a 
 good many of 'era's gone out back, and so the 
 old woman and me felt sort o* lonesome, and 
 thought ive*d go too, and try our luck." 
 
 "But, my friend, it's rather late in the day for 
 you to become a wanderer." 
 
 ** Tut, man," said he," better late than never 
 — there s luck in leisure, as the saying is— and 
 may be the old woman and me'll have as good 
 luck as any of them." 
 
 This was followed by a tender of the whisky 
 bottle ; and after drinking to our better ac- 
 quaintance, should we meet again in the woods, 
 we parted. Tell me no more of antiquities ; 
 repeat not that this is a degenerate age ! 
 Here were the right sort of antiquities. This 
 old Kentuckian, who at the age of sixty, still 
 dares the gloom of the forest, panting for newer 
 lands to settle, is worth a hundred dead Greeks 
 or living Scotch Reviewers. 
 
 22d. This morning we passed Portsmoutli, 
 a small village in the Sciota bottom. A httle
 
 ANECDOTES. 141 
 
 below this I landed at a cabin, where the good 
 woman was nursing a child with a sore head. 
 She firmly believed that the eruption could not 
 be cured, except by a seventh son. 
 
 On the 23d we passed Maysville, in Ken- 
 tucky, where I landed to throw some letters into 
 the post-office, but had not time to make any 
 observations. 
 
 About sunset we landed our boat on the 
 Kentucky shore. A poor negro, who had lost 
 both his feet, but still moved with activity on 
 his knees, like the warrior in Chevy Chace, 
 who, 
 
 *' When his legs were smitten off, 
 Still fought upon his stumps," 
 
 came on board to dispose of a string of fish. 
 One of the passengers, an European, whom we 
 had picked up lately, purchased a fishing line 
 from him, directing the fellow to call again for 
 the money ; but when he came, refused to pay 
 the stipulated sum, and kept the poor black 
 wrangling half an hour about a few cents. 
 The needy cripple was at last compelled to 
 take what he could get, and hobbled away.
 
 142 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 muttering imprecations against the stranger, 
 whom he termed " a mighty poor white man j'* 
 an expression which, in the mouth of a negro, 
 indicates the most sovereign contempt. The 
 blacks entertain a high respect for those whom 
 they term *^ gentlemen," and apply that title 
 with a good deal of discrimination j but '*poor 
 white folks" they cordially despise. I regretted 
 the conduct of our fellow-passenger, because 
 such meanness and dishonesty disgust the 
 person who suffers by it, and induces him, on 
 subsequent occasions, to treat foreigners with 
 less civility : and it is thus that the miscon- 
 duct of travellers provokes our people into acts 
 of rudeness, which make them appear disad- 
 vantageously to those who are unacquainted 
 with the cause of it. It was a vile act. The 
 man who would cheat a negro would purloin 
 without shame ; he who would wrong a poor 
 cripple, would not hesitate to commit murder. 
 Had he been an American, I should have 
 blushed for him ; as it was, I could only thank 
 Heaven he was not my countryman.
 
 GENERAL PRESBY NEVILLE. H3 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OF GENERAL PRESBY NEVILLE. 
 
 You will have seen already that it is not my 
 intention to confine this correspondence within 
 the limits of any fixed plan, or to enter into 
 any of those elaborate details which belong to 
 more patient, or more learned investigators. 
 I shall not lay down courses and distances 
 analyze minerals, or describe the volant or the 
 creeping tribes ; but when an amusing anecdote 
 or a precious morsel of biography presents itself, 
 I shall preserve it with the zeal of a virtuoso. 
 You may smile when I mention biography as 
 among the subjects of interest in a western 
 tour ; but you have yet to learn that your tra- 
 montane countrymen cherish among them 
 many names which deserve a place upon the 
 brightest page of American history j and that
 
 144 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 those rocky barriers, which until recently have 
 repelled the tide of emigration, have concealed 
 behind them patriots and heroes, whose deeds 
 would give dignity to any age or country. 
 Among these, not the least conspicuous was a 
 s:entleman whose name is familiar to me from 
 its connexion with the traditions current 
 among the inhabitants of that part of western 
 Pennsylvania in which I have resided for seve- 
 ral years past. His history recurred to me this 
 morning as we passed the village of Neville. 
 
 Here were passed in seclusion the last years 
 of a man who had shone in the brightest circles, 
 and borne a conspicuous character in public 
 life. General Presby Neville w^as born in 
 Virginia in the year IJ56 ; he received the rudi- 
 ments of his education at Newark academy, in 
 Delaware, and graduated at the University of 
 Pennsylvania in 1775, when he received an 
 honour, and spoke the Latin Sahitatorij in the 
 presence of the American Congress. Immedi- 
 ately after leaving college, he abandoned the 
 idea of one of the learned professions, with a 
 view to which he had been educated, and joined 
 a company commanded by his father, the late
 
 GENERAL PRRSBY NEVILLE. 14s5 
 
 General John Neville, then stationed at Fort 
 Pitt. The latter gentleman was promoted 
 about this time to the rank of Lieutenant 
 Colonel, in Colonel Wood's regiment of the 
 Virginia line, and his son obtained command 
 of the Colonel's company, with rank of Captain 
 Lieutenant. He marched to Boston in 1775 ; 
 and passed through all the grades to the rank of 
 Lieutenant Colonel. He was at the battles of 
 Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Prince- 
 ton, and Trenton, and indeed in most of the 
 distinguished actions which occurred, and was 
 finally taken prisoner at the surrender of 
 Charleston in South Carolina, and remained on 
 parole until the end of the war. 
 
 In the early part of his service, he was aid- 
 de-camp to Major General Stevens, whom he 
 shortly after left, " to follow to the field a war- 
 like lord." La Fayette was then a popular 
 chief; his youth, his rank, his gallantry, his 
 foreign lineage, and his zeal in the republican 
 cause, threw an air of romance about his 
 achievements which rendered him the favourite 
 hero of every circle, while his amiable deport- 
 ment and polite accomplishments endeared him
 
 146 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 to his friends. He was the mirror by which old 
 men advised the youthful champions of that 
 day to shape their manners. Invited into his 
 family in the capacity of aid-de-camp, Colonel 
 Neville became the bosom friend and com- 
 panion in arms of the gallant Frenchman. He 
 remained with him three years, sharing with him 
 the toils of war, the triumphs of victory, and the 
 gratitude of emancipated thousands. Commu- 
 nity of danger and similarity of taste produced 
 an ardent friendship between these young 
 soldiers, which was not damped by separation, 
 nor cooled by the shadows of old age. La 
 Fayette, after spending the morning of his life 
 in deeds of virtuous daring, retired to his native 
 country, to devote its evening to philosophic 
 repose. Neville remained on the busy scene, 
 but an intimate correspondence was kept up 
 between them until the death of the latter. 
 
 At the close of the revolutionary war. 
 General Neville married the daughter of the 
 celebrated General Daniel Morgan, and re- 
 moved to Pittsburgh, where he spent many 
 years in affluence and happiness, such as 
 rewarded the labours of but few of the veteran
 
 GENERAL PRESBY NEVILLE. 147 
 
 founders of our republic. Here he was elected 
 to the General Assembly, once it is believed by 
 an unanimous voice, and always by such over- 
 whelming majorities, as sufficiently showed his 
 unbounded and merited popularity. He con- 
 tinued to represent tlie county of Alleghany, 
 until his fondness for domestic life induced 
 him to retire. He was several times nomi- 
 nated as a candidate for Congress, but always 
 declined the service. 
 
 But I am inexcusable in detaining you so long 
 with a detail of these honours, which are, or 
 ought to be, only the ordinary rewards of merit : 
 so true it is that in contemplating the trappings 
 of wealth and office, we forget the merits of 
 the wearer. The most captivating traits in the 
 character of General Neville are yet untold — 
 to depict them, we must pass his threshold, and 
 observe him in that circle of which he was the 
 centre, soul, and life. We have seen that he 
 was not only himself a revolutionary hero, but 
 was the son of a gallant soldier, and the son-in- 
 law of one of our most distinguished leaders. 
 Imbibing thus a military spirit with his dearest 
 associations, his whole heart was filled with 
 
 l2
 
 14i8 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 chivalric ardour. Fresh from the study of 
 Greek and Roman models, he had phmged into 
 the horrors of a civil war, with a mind teeming 
 and glowing with classic images of military 
 and civic virtue, and he had the rare felicity of 
 realizing the visions of his fancy ; in Washing- 
 ton, Hamilton, and La Fayette, he saw Athenian 
 elegance, combined with Spartan virtue ; while 
 Rome, in the maturity of her fame, was eclipsed 
 by the youthful vigour of American valour. 
 These events, operating on a young and ardent 
 heart, contributed to nourish and expand a 
 romantic loftiness of feeling, which gave a tone 
 to the character and fortunes of the future 
 man. He thought, felt, and acted with the 
 pride, the enthusiasm, and the energy of a 
 soldier, but he also acted, felt, and thought on 
 every occasion with that benevolence which is 
 so attractive in the character of a truly brave 
 man, and with that courtesy which belongs 
 exclusively to the well-bred gentleman. No 
 man could boast more from family and fortune, 
 yet no man ever wore his honours with more 
 becoming gracefulness. He was a proud man, 
 but his pride was as far above the vanity of
 
 GENERAL PRESBY NEVILLE. 1 49 
 
 unmeaning distinctions, as his heart was above 
 fear, and his integrity above reproach. He was 
 the kmdest of human beings ; there were a 
 thousand tendrils about his heart, that con- 
 tinually entwined themselves in the little world 
 around him. His fancy often roved abroad 
 with the classic poet, and loved to linger with 
 the heroes of other days ; but his affections 
 were always at home. No man was too great 
 for his friendship, none too insignificant for his 
 kindness. His understanding was strong, and 
 highly cultivated ; he was a lover and patron 
 of the arts j elegant in his manners, and easy 
 in his conversation. 
 
 The house of General Neville was the seat 
 of festivity, and hospitality smiled at its portals. 
 It was resorted to by the gentry of those days, 
 as a temple consecrated to conviviality and 
 intellectual enjoyment, whose shrine was always 
 accessible. The Cerberus which modern 
 fashion has placed at the doors of the wealthy, 
 to snarl at indigent merit, was then unknown ; 
 nor had the heartlessness of the bo7i toUy con- 
 trived that ingenious system of pasteboard civil- 
 ities, by means of which the courtesies of social
 
 150 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 intercourse are now so cheaply paid and re- 
 ceived. The hospitalities of that day were 
 substantial, and never were they dispensed with 
 more profusion than under the roof of General 
 Neville. Pittsburgh and its vicinity were then 
 but thinly populated, and houses of entertain- 
 ment were scarce. Strangers of respectability 
 almost always brought letters of introduction 
 to the General, to whose house they were 
 invited with a frankness which banished all 
 reserve on the part of the guest. Here they 
 remained during their stay in the country ; and 
 such was the hearty welcome they received, 
 and the continued round of social pleasure 
 which they enjoyed, that their visits were often 
 delayed beyond the original limit. But it was 
 not under his own roof alone that this gentle- 
 man dispensed happiness ; he was the constant 
 patron of merit, and the needy never appealed 
 to him in vain for relief. 
 
 A man so highly gifted was not calculated 
 to pass unnoticed through life ; nor was all 
 his time devoted to its enjoyment. Besides 
 the offices which he exercised, he was in other 
 respects an active citizen ; a liberal promoter
 
 GENERAL PRES13Y NEVILLE. 151 
 
 of all public improvements, and a careful guar- 
 dian of the rights of his fellow-citizens. He 
 was often referred to by the Federal Govern- 
 ment for local information ; and was once 
 appointed on a mission to France, but was 
 taken ill at Boston, where he was about to 
 embark, and obliged to decline the duty. He 
 also, at different periods, held the offices of 
 surveyor, county lieutenant, and paymaster 
 general to the army of the insurrection. These 
 trusts he discharged with fidelity. The friend- 
 ship of Washington and of most of the conspic- 
 uous men of that day, which he had gained as 
 a soldier, he forfeited not as a citizen. 
 
 Such was the man who was doomed in his 
 old age to present a striking example of the 
 instability of fortune. His notions were too 
 princely for a private individual, and adversity 
 was the inevitable consequence. His fine for- 
 tune dwindled under his lavish beneficence ; 
 and was perhaps more deeply injured by those 
 who shared his bounty, and whom he trusted 
 without suspicion. There was no guile in him, 
 and he suspected it not in others. He found
 
 152 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 himself, at last, dependent in a great measure 
 for support upon an office which he held under 
 the state of Pennsylvania. But even this was 
 not left to him. It would have been inconsis- 
 tent with the practice of those times to have 
 allowed an old soldier to carry his grey hairs 
 in peace to the grave. Party spirit had reared 
 its gorgon head, and as merit is ever the first 
 object of its vengeance, the revolutionary vete- 
 ran had nothing to hope. But his sun was 
 already setting, and the twilight of his existence 
 alone was darkened by the storm. Still it was 
 a sad reverse. 
 
 "The harp that once in Tara's halls. 
 The soul of music shed. 
 Now hung as mute on Tara's walls. 
 As if that soul was fled." 
 
 Thus deprived of all but an unsulUed repu- 
 tation, General Neville retired to this spot, and 
 seated himself on the land which had been 
 earned by his revolutionary services. Here 
 he lived in indigence, and died in obscurity. 
 His remains were removed to Pittsburgh by the
 
 GENERAL PRESBY NEVILLE. 15 
 
 <-} 
 
 filial care of his eldest son, where they were 
 interred with the highest military and civic 
 honours. 
 
 I was at the burial of that gallant man. 
 While living I never saw him, but I wept at 
 his grave. It was a touching scene. That 
 man in prosperity was idolized ; in adversity, 
 forsaken ; in death, honoured. There were 
 those around his last earthly receptacle whose 
 feet had long forgotten the way to his dwell- 
 ing ; but there were none who remembered not 
 his virtues. There were those who had drank 
 of his cup, and whose hearts had smote them 
 at that moment, could they have felt, as that 
 sleeping warrior had felt, " how sharper than 
 the serpent's tooth is man's ingratitude." 
 The young soldiers, whose nodding plumes 
 bent over the corpse, had been the infants who 
 had played about the good man's path, and now 
 remembered only his grey hairs and his gal- 
 lant name ; there was a flush on their cheeks, 
 but it arose from the reflection, " that the 
 dearest tear that Heaven sheds, is that which 
 bedews the unburied head of a soldier."
 
 154" LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 SCENERY CINCINNATTI GENERAL ST. CLAIR 
 
 PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 As we continue to descend the river, its 
 shores still exhibit the same interesting charac- 
 ter which I have heretofore described. The 
 hills still present their bold outlines, and the 
 vales their shadowy recesses. But as the season 
 advances, the forest is seen rapidly discarding 
 the dark and dusky habiliments of winter, and, 
 assuming its vernal robes, it blooms forth with 
 renovated life and lustre. The gum tree is 
 clad in the richest green ; the dogwood and 
 redbud are laden with flowers of the purest 
 white and deepest scarlet ; the locust bends 
 with the exuberance of its odorous blossoms. 
 On the southern sides of the hills' the little 
 flowers are peeping forth, while winter barely
 
 SCENERY. 155 
 
 retains a semblance of her recent dominion 
 over the northern exposures. The oak, the 
 elm, the walnut, the sycamore, the beech, the 
 aspen, the hickory, and the maple, which here 
 tower to an incredible height, have yielded to 
 the sunbeams, and display their bursting buds 
 and expanding leaves. The tulip-tree waves 
 her long branches, and her yellow flowers high 
 in the air. The wild rose, the sweet-briar, and 
 the vine, are shooting into verdure ; and, cling- 
 ing to their sturdy neighbours, modestly prefer 
 their claims to admiration, while they give 
 early promise of fruit and fragrance. The 
 fountains, gushing from the hill side in profuse 
 libations, come rippling over the rocks in limpid 
 currents, forming cascades and pools, while the 
 smoke rising from the distant cabin, reminds 
 the traveller of 
 
 " the blest abode, 
 
 Of Edward and of Mary." 
 
 Blame me not for yielding, amid such scenes, 
 to the influence of feeling, and giving up my 
 v^liole soul to wild, and warm, and visionary
 
 156 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 fancies. It is a humiliating reflection that our 
 sweetest hours are those which are least useful 
 and least connected with the realities of life ; 
 but it cannot be denied, that the only unmingled 
 happiness that we enjoy is in those hours of 
 mental abstraction, when the heart, revelling in 
 its own creations, forgets the world with its 
 vanities and cares. For my part I would rather 
 glide silently along the smooth current of the 
 Ohio, lie extended upon the deck at eve, 
 gazing at the last rays of the sun, dimly dis- 
 covered on the tops of the tallest trees, or 
 behold the morning beams of the great luminary 
 sparkling among the dew-drops, than sit upon 
 a throne and be debarred of such exquisite 
 enjoyments 1 
 
 We arrived at Cincinnatti in the morning ; 
 but when I inform you that we remained here 
 only a few hours, and that the greater part of 
 this time was spent with a friend, and that 
 friend a lovely female, a companion of my 
 dancing days, you will not be surprised if I 
 add, that I have nothing to relate concerning 
 this town. Those days may be over with me 
 in which the violin could have lured me from
 
 CINCINNATTI. 157 
 
 the labour of study, and the song from the path 
 of duty ; but never, if I know myself, will that 
 hour come when woman shall cease to be the 
 tutelary deity of my affections, the household 
 oroddess of mv bosom ! Think me an enthusiast, 
 or a great dunce, if you please — but never, I 
 pray, if you love me, believe that I could think 
 of statistics with a fair lady at my side, or that 
 I could hoard up materials for a Letter from the 
 West, while a chance presented itself to talk 
 over my old courtships, and dance once more 
 my old cotillons. No, no ; this correspondence 
 may be fun to you, and nuts to our friend Mr. 
 Oldschool, who are but readers of these poor 
 sheets of mine, and endure not the pains of the 
 authorship thereof; but setting that aside, I 
 would not give one " merry glance of mountain 
 maid," for the plaudits of the literary world. 
 You will remind me, I dare say, of posterity ; — 
 but, in the language of a merry neighbour of 
 mine, I reply, '* Hang posterity ! what did 
 posterity ever do for me !" So I shall write 
 when I please, and court the girls when I can. 
 
 I had only time therefore to discover, that I 
 was in a town of ample size, and goodly appear-
 
 158 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 ance, where I met genteel forms and busy 
 faces. The harbour was crowded with boats, 
 the wharfs covered with merchandise, the 
 streets thronged with people. The indications 
 of wealth, of business, and refinement, were too 
 striking to pass unobserved, by one who re- 
 flected how recently the forest frowned upon 
 this spot. 
 
 We left Cincinnatti in the afternoon. As 
 the town faded from my sight, and the shadows 
 of the forest gathered again around me, I was 
 struck with the sudden contrast. Instead of 
 paved streets and splendid buildings, the re- 
 treats of science and the marts of business, the 
 hum of men and the rattling of carriages, I 
 saw only the glassy tide and its verdant shores, 
 and heard no sounds save those of the wood- 
 pecker, the squirrel, and the mocking-bird. 
 The hand of man had not yet shorn the hill of 
 its green covering ; its " budding honours" 
 were " thick upon it." Here was a fine speci- 
 men of the pristine luxuriance of nature ; be- 
 hind me a noble monument of art. But these 
 are miniature scenes, which are chiefly interest- 
 ing, as they lead the mind to a larger field of
 
 GENERAL ST. CLAIR. 159 
 
 speculation, and as they exhibit " counterfeit 
 presentments" of the rapid changes which have 
 been operating far and wide throughout this 
 extensive recrion. 
 
 Thirty years ago, the American forces, com- 
 manded by General St. Clair, were defeated by 
 the savages in the territory north-west of the 
 Ohio. The brilliant talents of this brave soldier, 
 were exerted in vain in the wilderness. The 
 wariness and perseverance of Indian warfare, 
 created every day new obstacles and unforeseen 
 dangers ; the skill of the veteran was baffled, 
 and undisciplined force prevailed against mili- 
 tary science. The art of the tactician proved 
 insufficient when opposed to a countless multi- 
 tude, concealed in the labyrinths of the forest, 
 and aided by the terrors of the climate. The 
 defeat of our army became the subject of inves- 
 tigation by a military tribunal ; and if any 
 proof had been wanting of the ability of its 
 commander, his defence before the court martial 
 must have afforded that testimony. But this 
 gentleman, like the unfortunate Burgoyne, 
 exerted his eloquence in vain ; he was admired, 
 blamed, applauded, and condemned ! The dis-
 
 160 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 tinguished reputation gained by General St. 
 Clair in the revolutionary war was insufficient 
 to sustain him under this reverse of fortune. 
 His popularity declined, his abilities were 
 doubted, and his services no longer required. 
 He retired to an obscure residence among the 
 mountains of Pennsylvania. Here, in the most 
 abject poverty, in a miserable cabin, upon a 
 sterile and dreary waste, among rocks and pre- 
 cipices, (fit emblems of his career !) he dragged 
 out a wretched existence, visited only by his 
 sorrows, — except when a solitary traveller, im- 
 pelled by curiosity to witness that which one of 
 the ancients has pronounced to be a noble 
 spectacle, penetrated the intricacies of the 
 Laurel Mountain to behold a great man in 
 adversity. Here he might be found, beyond 
 the reach of persecution, but not enjoying the 
 dignity of retirement, nor the sweets of domestic 
 liie : for even here adversity had pursued this 
 unhappy man, and added the most distressing 
 private calamities to the already teeming burthen 
 of his sorrows. The general who had com- 
 manded armies, the governor who had ruled a 
 province, the patriot who had nobly dared in
 
 GEXERAL ST. CLAIR. l6l 
 
 the noblest of causes, endured these calamities 
 in the country which had witnessed his deeds, 
 and reaped the harvest of his exertions. He 
 endured them without a friend to soften his 
 bitterness, without a domestic to administer to 
 his wants. Such is the fate of an unsuccessful 
 leade?\ over whose fate tlie passage of a single 
 cloud obscures the brilliance of a long career of 
 glory, and is followed by ruin, darkness, and 
 desolation ! Sometimes he emerged from his 
 solitude to make fruitless appeals to the justice 
 of his country. His claims for the reimburse- 
 ment of pecuniary advances made for the public 
 cause, and for remuneration for services per- 
 formed, were long disregarded. A short time 
 before his death, the aged man, bending under 
 the weight of fourscore years, appeared again 
 at the metropolis, charming the young with his 
 gaiety, the old with his wisdom— exhibiting a 
 versatility of genius which few possess, and 
 displaying a vigour of intellect, little consonant 
 with his age, his sorrows, and his infirmities. 
 
 The late war had revived the enthusiasm of 
 the nation. The ardour which once glowed in the 
 bosom of our fathers, now swelled the veins of 
 
 M
 
 l62 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 their children ; and while Congress was dis- 
 tributing honours with a prodigal hand among 
 the youthful heroes of 1814, the veteran of 
 seventy-six appeared. The appeal was irre- 
 sistible ', his claim was allowed — allowed, alas ! 
 when the worn-out soldier had reached the last 
 out-post of his earthly pilgrimage ! 
 
 General Wayne succeeded to the command, 
 but not to the fate of St. Clair. By dint of 
 rigid discipline, indefatigable exertion, and 
 above all, a talent for Indian warfare, he re- 
 deemed the frontier settlements from destruc- 
 tion, and inflicted a heavy vengeance upon our 
 tawny neighbours. The memory of Wayne 
 (with that of General Butler, who fell in these 
 wilds) is deservedly cherished by the western 
 people. So marked has been their gratitude, 
 that there is not a state or territory, west of 
 the mountains, which has not named towns 
 and counties after these gallant men. The 
 name of St. Clair also occurs frequently on the 
 map. 
 
 I have made this digression, to shew how 
 recently our brave soldiers have sought " the 
 bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth," on
 
 PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT. 163 
 
 the fields where the plough, the loom, and 
 shuttle, are now in peaceful operation, as well as 
 the importance of the contest in which they were 
 engaged. That enemy must have been far from 
 insignificant, in encountering whom St. Clair 
 or Wayne could reap obloquy or honour. The 
 states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, have since 
 been formed out of portions of the country so 
 recently the theatre of war, and the territory 
 of Michigan organised for the purpose of tem- 
 porary government. 
 
 So lately as the year 1794, troops were sta- 
 tioned throughout this country, for the pro- 
 tection of travellers passing down the river to 
 the distant settlements of New Orleans and 
 Kaskaskia, and for the security of the fron- 
 tiers ; boats descending the river were manned 
 and armed, as for a dangerous enterprise, and 
 an attempt to traverse the wilderness was 
 considered as an effort of more than ordi- 
 nary courage. On the same river, steam-boats, 
 for the transportation of passengers and mer- 
 chandise, were in successful operation before 
 their introduction into Europe ; and the tra- 
 veller may now enjoy the very luxuries of tra- 
 
 M '2
 
 164 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 veiling, where a few years ago the hardiest 
 manhood sunk under its toils and perils. 
 
 In 1794, beasts of prey prowled over this 
 region unmolested, and the savage was "monarch 
 of all he surveyed," and " lord of the fowl and 
 the brute." In 1810, the state of Ohio con- 
 tained a population of two hundred and thirty 
 thousand seven hundred and sixty souls, and 
 the value of her domestic manufactures, ac- 
 cording to the census, was one million nine 
 hundred and eighty seven thousand, three hun- 
 dred and seventy dollars. In 1815, the lots, 
 lands, and dwelling-houses in Ohio, were valued 
 at upwards of sixty-one millions of dollars j and 
 in 18^0, the marshal reported her population 
 to be five hundred and eighty-one thousand four 
 hundred and thirty-four souls. 
 
 Kentucky w^as first explored in 1770 ; the 
 first settlement was made in 1775. In 1810, 
 that state contained a population of four hun- 
 dred and six thousand five hundred and eleven 
 souls, and her manufactures were valued at 
 four millions, one hundred and twenty thou- 
 sand six hundred and eighty-three ; and in 
 1820, the marshal's return of her population
 
 PROGRESS OF IxMPROVEMENT. lG5 
 
 was five hundred and sixty-four thousand three 
 hundred and seventeen souls. 
 
 In short — to close a parallel which may be- 
 come tedious — from this land, so lately a wil- 
 derness, the savage has been expelled ; towns 
 and colleges have arisen ; farms have been 
 made ; the mechanic arts cherished ; the neces- 
 saries of life abound, and many of its luxuries 
 are enjoyed. All this has been effected within 
 the memory of living witnesses. Such are the 
 fruits of civiUzation, and so powerful the effect 
 of American enterprise !
 
 166 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 FRONTIER MANNERS. 
 
 i/ I HAVE remarked at the little towns at which I 
 
 have touched in this country, that the appear- 
 ance of a stranger does not excite the same de- 
 gree of curiosity which we observe in the villages 
 of the eastern and middle states, and particularly 
 ■ at those which are not on the great mail routes. 
 In those places, the arrival of a well-dressed 
 stranger is a matter of general interest, and 
 peculiarly so, if his apparel, or travelling equi- 
 page, be a little finer than usual, or if he assume 
 any airs of importance ; the smith rests upon 
 his anvil, the gossip raises her spectacles, and 
 the pretty maidens thrust their rosy faces 
 through the windows to gaze at the new comer. 
 This propensity has been impressed on my 
 memory, by the inconvenience it has sometimes
 
 FRONTIER MANNERS. iGj 
 
 produced, and the pleasure it has frequently 
 afforded me. 
 
 The pretty hamlets of New England as well 
 as those which are more thinly scattered through 
 the western part of the state of New York, or 
 along the banks of the Delaware and the 
 Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania, are distinguished 
 for their rural beauty, neatness, and simplicity. 
 On entering one of these at the close of a 
 summer-day, when the villagers sat about their 
 doors and windows, to enjoy the coolness of 
 the evening breeze, I have checked my horse, 
 and hanging carelessly on my saddle, have 
 passed slowly along, gazing with delight at the 
 blooming cheeks and sparkling eyes, that have 
 been directed towards me from every quarter. 
 I have always had a wonderful predilection for 
 handsome faces, and I do verily believe that if 
 my breast were darkened by the heaviest sor- 
 rows, the rays of beauty would still strike to 
 its inmost recesses, and there would still be a 
 something there to refract the beams. But it 
 cannot be expected that so erratic a being as 
 myself, should ever be very sad or serious ; the 
 traveller must leave his heavy thoughts behind 
 
 ^
 
 168 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 him, with his heavy baggage, and keep a vacant 
 place for a thousand pleasing, novel, nick-nack 
 ideas, which he may pick up by the way. 
 
 Imagine such a wanderer, after jogging the 
 livelong day, in the scorching sun, over crags 
 and clifts, or through mud and dust, with no 
 companion but the beast he bestrides — who, 
 however affable his disposition may be, is less 
 companionable than one could wish — arriving, 
 [/ with " spattered boots" and a weary frame, at a 
 
 romantic village that has not a soul in it whom 
 he either knows or cares for. His fancy is 
 his luoi^ld, for he has nothing to do with the 
 realities around him ; he is not interested in 
 the vices, he knows not the distresses, he tastes 
 not the pleasures of those about him ; he gazes 
 on them as the philosopher views a beautiful 
 insect, or inspects a lovely flower ; he has no 
 feeling in common with the objects of his ob- 
 servation, but they afford him matter of pleas- 
 ing reflection. The sun has just gone down, 
 / the flowers have reared their drooping heads, 
 and the girls let fall their twining ringlets; 
 they have put on their best bibs and tuckers, 
 and their most amiable looks ; the tea-table is
 
 FRONTIER MANNERS. lG9 
 
 set, and the village beaux are congregated ; 
 the old gentlemen, gathered in groups, are 
 grumbling at the present state of affairs, while 
 the young ones seem to be enjoying it, or making 
 an-angements to change it for the better. Then 
 to see those dimpled cheeks, laughing eyes, 
 and ruby lips all displayed at once to the 
 astonished glance of the " way-worn traveller," 
 whose eye rests on nothing but white frocks 
 and rosy faces ! I have found my heart more 
 gladdened by such a scene, and my eye more 
 pleased, than when from the summits of our 
 Pennsylvanian mountains I have gazed upon 
 the romantic vales below, or from the high-lands 
 looked down upon the Hudson. 
 
 There are those who, to enjoy much less inno- 
 cent and less ecstatic pleasures, would give all 
 they possessed, curse their country, and turn 
 Turks J but they are miserable connoisseurs who 
 purchase enjoyment at expensive prices, when 
 nature spreads her table gratis. Thus I have ex- 
 tracted pleasure from a source which has afforded 
 vexation to others ; a transient glance at the ^ 
 smiling faces of those pretty girls, has fully 
 compensated me for the fatigue of answering,
 
 170 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 on arriving at an inn (if in New England) the 
 tedious inquiries, whetlier I was a southerner, or 
 a York-state man, and whether I was going 
 down soiithf or a xmy out hack. 
 
 If this be the case in our snug little rural 
 towns, whose inhabitants enjoy the luxuries of 
 society, and where the more wealthy part of 
 them aspire to something like style among 
 themselves, how much more would it be ex- 
 pected in these distant and lonely regions, where 
 a town is usually composed of a few rude 
 cabins, hastily erected on the margin of a river, 
 and surrounded by extensive forests. Would 
 you not suppose that a well dressed gentleman 
 would be considered here as a natural curiosity, 
 whose appearance would create a sensation as 
 lively as that produced by the arrival of the 
 elephant or the royal African tiger ; and that a 
 fashionable fair would rival the popularity of 
 the Albiness, or the waxen figure of the Boston 
 beauty? As for a dandy, can you believe he 
 would be suffered to run at large, and not en- 
 caged and exhibited as a monster ? But such 
 curiosity is here somewhat rare, and the absence 
 of it is easily accounted for : the fact is, that.
 
 FRONTIER MANNERS. 171 
 
 insulated and lonesome as these spots appear, 
 they are visited frequently by a great number 
 and a great variety of people. The merchants, 
 who make their annual journies to an eastern 
 city to purchase goods ; the innumerable cara- 
 vans of adventurers, who are daily crowding to 
 the west in search of homes, and the numbers 
 who traverse these interesting regions from 
 motives of curiosity, produce a constant suc- 
 cession of visitors of every class, and of almost 
 every nation. English, Irish, French and Ger- 
 mans, are constantly emigrating to the new 
 states and territories j and all the eastern, south- 
 ern, and middle states send them crowds of 
 inhabitants ; nor is it the needy and unfortunate 
 alone who bury themselves among the shadows 
 of the western forests. 
 
 There was a time, indeed, when the word 
 emigration carried, with it many unpleasant 
 sensations ; and when we heard of a res- 
 pectable man hieing to an unknown land, 
 to seek a precarious existence among bears 
 and musquitoes, we fancied that we saw 
 the hand of a land speculator beckoning him 
 to destruction, and pitied his fate. We are
 
 17^ LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 apt to imagine that these land-jobbing gentry 
 were surrounded by retainers pretty much like 
 those of David when he sojourned in the cave 
 of Adullam, " and every one that was i?2 dis- 
 tresSy and every one that was hi debt, and every 
 one that was discontented, gathered themselves 
 unto him, and he became a captain over them." 
 But this is not the fact now ; whatever might 
 have been the case a few years ago, we now 
 find classes of people among the emigrants 
 who would not be easily deluded. Gentlemen 
 of wealth and intelligence, professional men of 
 talents and education, and respectable farmers 
 and artizans, have, after dispassionate inquiry, 
 determined to make this country their future 
 abode. Like Lot, " they lifted up their eyes, 
 and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was 
 well watered every where ;" fertile, " even as 
 the Garden of Eden," and abounding in the 
 choicest gifts of nature. 
 
 Thousands, it is true, have been driven here by 
 want, from countries less congenial to the needy ; 
 but though in some cases, their poverty and not 
 their wills consented to the change, they have 
 generally found it an ad>'antageous one. Thus it
 
 FRONTIER MANNERS. l?"^ 
 
 is, that althougli in travelling you often meet the 
 native woodsman with his hunting-shirt and rifle, 
 you as often encounter persons of a different cha- 
 racter ; and on arriving at a cabin, it would be 
 difficult to guess what may be the particular 
 description of its inhabitant. It is natural, 
 therefore, that the sight of a stranger should 
 have ceased to be wonderful where it is no 
 longer rare ; and that no singularity of dress or 
 appearance should excite the curiosity of those 
 who are in the daily habit of seeing every 
 variety of people. 
 
 For nearly the same reasons you will find few 
 people in the west who are ignorant of the 
 geography of their own country ; they all know 
 something of the general description of even 
 the most distant parts of the union. Many of 
 them have emigrated from afar ; some travel 
 over an immense extent of country from mere 
 curiosity, or in search of the most eligible place 
 to settle ; and others take long journies on mer- 
 cantile and other speculations. They are acute 
 observers ; and the most illiterate are seldom 
 dull or ignorant. In the neighbourhood of 
 Pittsburgh you will meet but few persons who
 
 174 LETTERS FRORI THE WEST. 
 
 cannot give you some idea of the route to 
 Detroit or to New Orleans, and a tolerably cor- 
 rect notion of the intermediate country. Such 
 knowledge is more or less general throughout 
 the western country. All have travelled ; and 
 the information thus collected is communicated 
 from one to another in their frequent discus- 
 sions on the subject which is most common, and 
 most interesting to them — the comparative 
 advantages of the different sections of the 
 country. In short, you will scarcely meet an old 
 woman who cannot tell you that Pittsburgh is 
 full of coal and smoke ; that in New Orleans the 
 people play cards on Sunday ; that living is 
 dear at Washington City, and cod-fish cheap at 
 Boston; and that Irishmen are " plenty" in 
 Pennsylvania, and pretty girls in Rhode Island.
 
 SCENERY. 175 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 SCENERY, SCIENCES, AND FIDDLING. 
 
 The character of the scenery, — or as Lady- 
 Morgan would say, the physiognomy of nature, 
 still exhibits the same appearance, as we con- 
 tinue to descend the river, which I have hereto- 
 fore attempted to pourtray, except that the hills 
 are gradually becoming less bold and rocky. 
 The shores of the Ohio do not any where pre- 
 sent that savage grandeur, which often charac- 
 terises our larger streams. No tall cliffs, no 
 bare peaks or sterile mountains, impress a 
 sentiment of dreariness on the mind. The hills 
 are high, but gracefully curved, and every 
 where clothed with verdure. There is a lone- 
 liness arising from the absence of popula- 
 tion, a wildness in the variegated hues of the 
 forest, and in the notes of the feathered tribes ;
 
 176 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 but the traveller feels none of that depression 
 which results from a consciousness of entire 
 insulation from his species, none of that awe 
 which is inspired by those terrific outlines which 
 display the convulsions of nature or threaten 
 the existence of the beholder. It is impossible 
 to gaze on the fertile hills and rich bottoms 
 that extend on either side, without fancying 
 them peopled j and even where no signs of popu- 
 lation appear, the imagination is continually 
 reaching forward to the period when these 
 luxuriant spots shall maintain their millions. 
 
 The absence of population alluded to, is to 
 be considered in a comparative sense. With 
 Ohio on the one hand, Kentucky and Virginia 
 on the other, there can be no dearth of inhabi- 
 tants ; but their dwellings are less frequently 
 presented to the traveller's eye than might be 
 supposed. Every day we pass villages, great or 
 small, and farm houses are scattered along the 
 shore ; but we often float for miles without dis- 
 covering any indication of the residence of 
 human beings. Many of the river bottoms are 
 inundated annually, and land has not yet become 
 so scarce or valuable as to induce the owners to
 
 ^ 
 
 SCENERY. 177 
 
 reclaim these spots from the dominion of the 
 water. Such places remain covered with gi- 
 gantic timber, which conceals the habitations 
 beyond them. The commanding eminences are 
 seldom occupied, because the settlers are far- 
 mers, who consult convenience, rather than 
 beauty, in the location of their dwellings, and 
 who generally pitch their tents in the vicinity 
 of a spring, upon the low grounds. 
 
 The beautiful islands, which are numerous, 
 should not be forgotten. These are sometimes 
 lai'ge and fertile, but generally inundated, and 
 seldom under cultivation. Sometimes they are 
 mere sandbanks, covered with thick groves of 
 the melancholy willow, whose branches dip into 
 the water. 
 
 For several days after leaving Cincinnatti, 
 our progress was delayed by bad weather. We 
 have had a series of what are called April days ; 
 why they are so called I know not, for April, 
 bating the sins and fooleries of her first day, 
 is as inoffensive a month as any in the calendar. 
 The high winds have frequently obliged us to 
 stop, and tie our boat to the bushes, under 
 whose shelter we have remained beating, 
 
 N
 
 178 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 against the shore for hours together ; while the 
 rain has as often driven us from the deck. 
 Thunder and lightning, sunshine, rain, and 
 wind, have succeeded each other as rapidly as 
 the changing scenes and mimic tempests of the 
 play-house. If I were an English traveller, I 
 should consider myself fully authorised, under 
 these circumstances, to note down, that *' the 
 climate of this country is dreadfully tempestuous, 
 and the waves of the Ohio as boisterous as those 
 of the Gulph Stream ;" but as the wind some- 
 times blows on the coasts of the Atlantic, and 
 the rain sometimes fails in England, I am rather 
 inclined to think that as an American traveller^ 
 it is safest not to notice this as a peculiarity — 
 for, in the latter character, it will be expected of 
 me that I shall tell the truth, though the former 
 would not have imposed any such obhgation. 
 
 We all know the difficulty of disposing of a 
 rainy day. How the worthy patriarch Noah 
 contrived to make use of forty of them in suc- 
 cession, I cannot imagine, unless it were in 
 receiving and entertaining the numerous guests 
 who sohcited his hospitality during that period, 
 for one has always sufficed to exhaust my
 
 SCIENCES. 179 
 
 patience. But of all irksome places of confine- 
 ment in a rainy day, deliver me from a keel- 
 boat. Had I the good fortune to be one of 
 those geological or chymical gentry, who write 
 such vastly learned books, I should turn these 
 freaks of the weather to fine account, I promise 
 you. It would be an ill wind indeed that 
 should not blow me some good. Every zephyr 
 should whisper me a new theory — every thun- 
 der cloud furnish materials for a chapter. 
 Never was there such a theatre for a lover of 
 science as is displayed in this new country. 
 The soil which the hand of man has not yet 
 spoiled teems with productions, which in older 
 countries are laboriously sought and seldom 
 found. The atmosphere has many peculiarities 
 which are yet to be examined and explained. 
 Volney declares that " the excessive heats of 
 summer," (in the western country) '* bring 
 with them almost ^^i/j/ storms," and it has been 
 asserted that not only every man, woman, and 
 child, but every ox, hog, and even squirrel, 
 has the liver complaint. Thus, instead of plunder- 
 ing graves for human bodies, the anatomist 
 might find a subject on every tree, and could 
 
 N 2
 
 180 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 innocently trace the secretion of bile in the 
 liver of the squirrel. Here is " ample room 
 and verge enough" for the professors of all the 
 ologies, unless it be craniology — for skulls are 
 not over abundant hereabout, and they are held 
 in such respect by their owners, that he who 
 should examine them too curiously might 
 chance to get his own broken. But I have no 
 taste for these grave sciences, and am at best 
 but a lazy traveller. I should never be able to 
 endure the drudgery of travelling with an appa- 
 ratus of microscopes, crucibles, thermometers, 
 and quadrants — to say nothing of maps, com- 
 mon-place books, and writing materials. I love 
 Nature, as in duty bound, and am sincerely 
 grateful for the many good and agreeable 
 things, she is kind enough to furnish. I admire 
 her too, and delight to gaze upon her beauties. 
 I contemplate them as I do those of a lovely 
 female, without the least curiosity to pry into 
 matters which lie beyond the surface. But as 
 I disdain the sciences, let me pass on to my 
 narrative. 
 
 In the early part of our voyage, we overtook 
 a flat boat floating down the stream, and in
 
 FIDDLING. ]<S1 
 
 passing were hailed by a person on the roof, 
 who was no sooner recognized by our boatmen 
 than a murmur of joy ran throughout the boat. 
 Ln a few minutes the stranger came on board, 
 and was received with a hearty welcome by our 
 men, who saluted him by the title of " Pappy." 
 He seemed to be about fifty years of age, but 
 the hand of time had passed so lightly over him 
 as to have left but little imoression : hard 
 labour and exposure had operated more power- 
 fully than the years which had rolled over his 
 head ; for the sallow hue of his complexion, and 
 the frosty tinge of his hair, were strongly con- 
 trasted with the robust activity of his limbs. 
 His eye had all the fire, and his step the elas- 
 ticity, of youth 5 a continual smile lurked among 
 his sly features, and the jest was ever on his 
 lips ; while an affected gravity, a drawling 
 accent, and a kind, benevolent manner, which 
 accorded well with the paternal appellation 
 given him by the boatmen, marked him as an 
 eccentric being. In every walk of life we find 
 privileged characters, who consider them- 
 selves above tlie ordinary rules which regulate 
 social intercourse ; and although such persons
 
 182 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 differ widely from each other, each assumes 
 within his respective sphere a powerful influ- 
 ence over less original mir ds. Our " Pappy " 
 was a humourist of this description, and his 
 sway among his fellow boatmen was unlimited. 
 To the great joy of the crew, he was hired for 
 the trip, and hastened back to the flat, to bring 
 as he expressed it " Katy and his plunder on 
 board.'' Katy, whose merry voice we soon 
 heard, was no other than a violin, and his 
 j)liinder consisted of a small parcel of clothing 
 tied up in a bandanna handkerchief. It was I 
 suppose his all — had it been less, "Old Pap" 
 would still have been merry; if it had been 
 infinitely greater, he would still have joked and 
 fiddled. This veteran boatman had not seen 
 half a century, without his share of those afflic- 
 tions which embitter life ; he had tasted deeply, 
 as I understood, the cup of domestic misery, 
 but it had not saddened nor soured his temper. 
 He was a man of endless humour — a fellow of 
 infinite fancy. While others worked, he would 
 sit for hours scraping upon his violin, singing 
 catches, or relating merry and marvellous tales. 
 When he chose to labour he went to the oar.
 
 FIDDLING. WxTlW <^ 
 
 when inclined to trifle he did so, and no'^^^ 
 questioned his motions, but, whether at play 
 at work, he applied himself with all his heart. If 
 the boat grounded on a sand-bar, he was the 
 first to plunge into the water j if a point was to 
 be weathered, or a rapid to be passed, his was 
 always the best oar j if a watch was to be kept 
 at nio-ht, who so wakeful as he ? And on such 
 occasions, he would fiddle and sing the live-long 
 night. In short, with the affectation, and some- 
 what of the appearance of age, he was the 
 gayest, most active, and stoutest man on board ; 
 and I was told that there were but few men 
 along the river, who would have undertaken to 
 handle '' Old Pap." 
 
 This new recruit proved a great acquisition, 
 for, like all other merry men, he was the cause of 
 merriment in others. He kept our own crew in 
 good humour, and hailed every boat we passed 
 with some stroke of pleasantry. More than 
 once he enacted chief musician at dances got 
 up at the hovels along shore, near which we lay 
 by for the night. Lady Morgan styles this 
 amusement the *^ poetry of motion," and I assure 
 you it was not the less poetic with the accom- 
 paniment of Pap and his musical Kate.
 
 184 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 THE FALLS OF OHIO — SCENERY AND PRODUCTIONS 
 BELOW THE FALLS. 
 
 On the 28th of April, we arrived at Louis- 
 ville, at the Falls of the Ohio, and landed at 
 Bear-grass Creek, above the town. Boats 
 usually stop here to take in a pilot, without 
 which it is unsafe to descend the rapids. I 
 remained but a few hours — strolled through the 
 streets — saw some very fine houses, and some 
 very busy people — eat an excellent dinner at 
 Allen's Hotel — took a hack and rode to Ship- 
 ping-sport, where I visited several fine steam- 
 boats, and returned. I was pleased with what I 
 saw, but saw too little to justify any comment. 
 It is worth a voyage down the Ohio to pass 
 the rapids. They are two miles in length, witli 
 a descent of twenty-two feet and a half in that
 
 THE FALLS OF OHIO. 185 
 
 distance, and are formed by ledges of rock, 
 which extend quite across the river. The cur- 
 rent is said to have an average velocity of 
 thirteen miles an hour, which of course is in- 
 creased or diminished by high or low water. 
 
 To the voyager who is about to venture into this 
 headlong current, three roads are presented ; 
 the Indian Chutes which is not passable in low 
 water, the Kentucky Chutes which is only pass- 
 able in high water, and the Middle Chute which 
 at any time is the best. The word Chute* may 
 puzzle you as much as it has puzzled me ; but 
 it is the very identical word used by most of 
 the writers on this subject. Whether it be a 
 Greek, an Indian, or a Kentucky phrase, I can- 
 not inform you — I have sought its derivation 
 in all the languages with which I am conver- 
 sant, without effect. In point of fact, it is 
 applied to channels through which a boat may 
 be said to shoot with the swiftness of an arrow. 
 
 As you approach the head of the rapids, the 
 mighty stream rolls on in a smooth unbroken 
 
 * Had the author consulted the French dictionary, he would 
 have seen that the word cftw/eis Anglice/aZ/. Perhaps the Ame- 
 ricans may never yet have heard of a parachute — Anglice, to 
 prevent u fall.
 
 186 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 sheet, increasing in velocity as you advance. 
 The business of preparation creates a sense of 
 impending danger : the pilot, stationed on the 
 deck, assumes command ; a firm and skilful 
 helmsman guides the boat ; the oars, strongly 
 manned, are vigorously plied to give the vessel 
 a momentum greater than that of the current, 
 without which the helm would be inefficient. 
 The utmost silence prevails among the crew ; 
 but the ear is stunned with the sound of rush- 
 ing waters : and the sight of waves dashing, and 
 foaming, and whirling among the rocks and 
 eddies below, is grand and fearful. The boat 
 advances with inconceivable rapidity to the 
 head of the channel — '^ takes the Chute'* — and 
 seems no longer manageable among the angry 
 currents, whose foam dashes upon her deck, 
 but in a few moments she emerges from their 
 power, and rides again in serene waters. 
 
 No incident worthy of remark occurred for 
 several days. One morning about sun-rise 
 I had just risen, when I heard one of the boat- 
 men make some observation about an elegant 
 smell, and as I love to see elegant things, I 
 hastened to the deck. The air was filled with
 
 SCENERY AND PRODUCTIONS. 187 
 
 delightful odours, emanating from the wild 
 grape-vines, then in bloom, mingled perhaps with 
 the sweets from other blossoms. I had heard 
 the word elegant so often misused in this coun- 
 try, that I was not surprised at this singular 
 application of it. The good folks here have 
 elegant hogs, and elegant bacon, elegant corn, 
 and elegant whiskey, elegant land, and elegant 
 tobacco ; we have a man on board who is said 
 to be an "elegant oarsman," another who is an 
 " elegant hand with an axe," while Old Pap and 
 Katy discourse ** most elegant music." 
 
 As I have not attempted any thing like a 
 regular journal, 1 shall pass on at once as far as 
 the mouth of Green River, which we passed 
 on the 3rd of May. 
 
 Here we find a country essentially different 
 from that above the Falls. Changes have been 
 gradually presented to the eye as we advanced, 
 which are now sufficiently developed to indi- 
 cate an essential difference of country, soil, and 
 climate. The country is flat, the soil deep, 
 black, and rich. Small ranges of hills are 
 seen at intervals. The river bottoms become 
 more extensive, exhibit decided appearances
 
 188 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 of annual inundation, and are intersected by 
 hayoux, or deep inlets, which are channels for 
 the water in time of flood, and remain empty 
 during the rest of the year. Cane-brakes are 
 occasionally seen along the banks. The cane 
 is an evergreen, from twelve to twenty feet in 
 height, which grows only in rich wet flats. It 
 stands so thick upon the ground, as to form an 
 almost impenetrable thicket, and as it is usually 
 found among ponds and bayouoo, the cane-brake 
 is always a secure retreat for bears, which feed 
 upon the buds, and for deer and other grega- 
 rious animals. The first settlers find them very 
 valuable, as affording food for their cattle during 
 the winter ; and even after the country has been 
 many years settled, the inhabitants drive their 
 cattle to the cane in the autumn, and suffer them 
 to remain without any further attention until 
 the ensuing spring. The cane, however, is 
 generally destroyed in a few years, by the large 
 number of cattle which are thus wintered 
 upon it. Cattle and horses eat it greedily, and 
 will stray several miles in search of this favour- 
 ite food, which is said to be very nourishing. 
 Cotton-wood, peccans, catalpas, and gigantic
 
 SCENERY AND PRODUCTIONS. 189 
 
 sycamores, are now seen in the rich bottoms. 
 Extensive groves of cotton-wood are sometimes 
 seen. The tree is large and extremely tall ; 
 the foliage of a rich deep green, resembling 
 that of the Lombardy poplar, to which tree this 
 also assimilates somewhat in shape. Nothing 
 can exceed the beauty of these groves : at a 
 distance, a stranger might imagine them forests 
 of Lombardy poplar ; and as that tree is de- 
 voted to ornamental purposes, it is scarcely 
 possible to refrain from fancying, that some 
 splendid mansion is concealed in the imper- 
 vious shade ; while the deep gloom with which 
 they envelop the soil, gives a wild, pensive, 
 and solemn character to the cotton-tree grove. 
 
 The catalpa is a small graceful tree, remark- 
 able for the beauty of its flowers. The peccan 
 is a tall tree, resembhng the hickory, to which, 
 if naturalists speak truly, it is nearly related ; 
 it yields a rich, fine nut, of which large quan- 
 tities are annually exported. Grape-vines are 
 numerous and very large, the stems being some- 
 times nearly a foot in thickness, though seldom 
 exceeding six or eight inches, and the branches 
 extending to the tops of the tallest trees.
 
 190 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 The misletoe begins to be seen among the 
 branches of the large trees. This little plant 
 never grows upon the ground, but with a very 
 poetic taste, takes up its attic residence upon 
 the highest limbs. The berry which contains 
 the seed is so viscous as to adhere to the feet of 
 birds, who carry it from tree to tree, and thus 
 contribute to its propagation. 
 
 Here too large flocks of paroquets are heard 
 chattering in the woods, or seen sporting their 
 bright green plumage in the sun-beams. 
 
 On the 4th of May a violent wind again 
 forced us to seek shelter under the shore. We 
 landed at the mouth of a small creek in Indiana. 
 Here we found a fine rich bottom, lying higher 
 than those we have passed, and but little of 
 which has been overflowed. The forest was 
 thick and tangled, and so choked with the 
 trunks of fallen trees, weeds, and brush, as to 
 be almost inaccessible. So fertile is the soil 
 that every spot produces something. We pene- 
 trated a short distance into the brake, and saw 
 several deer, and a number of turkeys. At the 
 foot of a large tree we discovered a quantity of 
 the hair of a wild cat ; we found many places
 
 SCENERY AND PRODUCTIONS. 191 
 
 where fires had been kindled, probably by 
 hunters, who no doubt frequently visit this 
 solitary spot, which appears to abound in game. 
 Immediately below us is a clearing which seems 
 to have been made some years ago, and near it 
 another of more recent origin. On a rising 
 spot is a log house, in a state of dilapidation, 
 and the ruins of another but a few rods 
 distant, which has been burned. 
 
 The situation is so beautiful, and the land 
 so exceedingly rich, that I could not help 
 speculating upon the probable cause which 
 had driven away the occupant of this roman- 
 tic spot. A few years ago we might have 
 attributed its evacuation to the tomahawk and 
 fire-brand of the Indian. Indeed, the poet 
 who wished to sketch the deserted cabin of a 
 murdered woodsman, could not select a more 
 appropriate scene. The ruined cabins, the 
 rank weeds around them, the embers in the 
 wood, the tangled brake, the wild luxuriance of 
 the soil and herbage, with the stillness of the 
 gloomy shades, would afford rich materials for 
 a lively imagination. But as the yell of the 
 hostile Indian has long ceased to be heard in
 
 192 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 this direction, we must suppose that sickness or 
 misfortune (or both,) has visited with a rude 
 hand the late tenant of these shadowy wilds. 
 
 On the 6th of May, I arrived at Shawnee 
 Town, in Illinois, and bade adieu to the keel- 
 boat.
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. 
 
 193 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. 
 
 In passing down the Ohio, and indeed in 
 every part of America, the traveller is amused 
 with the singular and various tastes displayed 
 in the names of places. It would seem that 
 our worthy countrymen had but little regard 
 for the tender sensibilities of future genera- 
 tions, whose inheritance they have patched and 
 spangled with the shreds and remnants of 
 every age and country. We have been sup- 
 plied 
 
 " By saint, by savage, and by sage;" 
 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa, have been ransacked, 
 and we have culled all the fields of literature, 
 
 o
 
 194 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 sacred, classic, and profane. The tourist 
 passes in a twinkling, from Troy to Siberia, 
 from Rome to Calcutta, from Vienna to Car- 
 thage, from Herculaneum to Petersburgh ; and 
 if he chooses to continue his jaunt, he may 
 visit every part of the globe almost as rapidly 
 as the sun himself. But if he be a poet, or an 
 antiquary, he must not be too sanguine in his 
 expectations : for these places have no arche- 
 types in the old world. He may freeze to 
 death in the very centre of our Vesuvius, and 
 perspire at every pore at the view of Kamts- 
 chatka. There is no Pantheon at the modern 
 Rome, and no Pagoda in the new Hindostan. 
 He will find no splendid ruins at Palmyra, nor 
 hallowed sepulchres in Palestine. In Goshen 
 he will see Yankees from the " land of steady 
 habits," instead of captive Israelites ; and 
 where he might expect an extensive manufac- 
 tory of bricks, he will find a land abounding in 
 cheese and timberclocks. We adhere to old 
 names with a wonderful pertinacity, although 
 destitute of the characteristics with which 
 those names are associated. The dearest 
 places in some of our towns are called Cheap-
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. 19<5 
 
 side, and insects are never sold in the F/i/- 
 Market. In this particular, we resemble some 
 worthy famiUes, who hand down a favourite 
 baptismal name from generation to generation, 
 although the dandy Jeremiah of to-day may 
 have little in common with him who lamented 
 over the sins of the Hebrews, and as little with 
 the honest ancestor who first bequeathed the 
 appellation to his unborn descendants. 
 
 I confess I am not pleased with the dearth 
 of invention indicated by the adoption of 
 these exotics ; and am the less so, when I ob- 
 serve the admirable taste displayed in those 
 which are of domestic manufacture. These 
 are fraught with meaning, and generally allude 
 to some historical fact or local peculiarity. If 
 any of the early navigators of these rivers saw 
 an otter, a fox, or a bear on the shore, they 
 were sure to name the nearest creek or island 
 after that animal. If an individual sickened 
 or died, the catastrophe was perpetuated in the 
 same manner. The appellations thus casually 
 given, are retained when the per quod upon 
 which they were founded has failed or is for- 
 gotten. Thus we now find a Pigeon-Creek, 
 
 o 2
 
 196 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 where there are no pigeons, and a Crow Island 
 where there is no carrion. As to the taste 
 displayed in them, you have only to imagine 
 them ranged in the lines of some future poet, 
 who may fancy to waft his heroine down the 
 beautiful stream. How delightfully would such 
 names as Horsetail Ripple, Dead Man's Island, 
 Hog Island, Big Seweckly, Loggstown, Crow's 
 Island, Big Beaver, Raccoon Creek, Custard 
 Island, Big Yellow, Mingo Bottom Island, 
 White Woman, and Opossum Creek, jingle 
 in verse! How admirably would they set off 
 the peculiar style of Sir Walter Scott ! Even 
 so humble a poet as myself might render a 
 humble incident poetic, with the aid of such 
 harmonious epithets ; — for instance : — 
 
 O'er Horsetail when the stream was low. 
 Waded a bold misguided cow ; 
 False Horsetail ! caverns lurk below 
 Thy wave, that glitters joyously ! 
 
 Soon Horsetail heard a dreadful sound ; 
 Dead Man and Big Seiueekly groaned ; 
 Raccoon and Little Beaver moaned ; 
 And 'Possum joined the symphony.
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. 197 
 
 IVhite Woman heard, and whiter grew ; 
 Big Yellow almost turned to blue ; 
 Altered, sweet Custard, was thy hue, 
 Sad Brindk low'd so piteously. 
 
 Gallant Hog Island, it was thine 
 From death to save the bellowing kine, 
 As Jaffier from the " envious" brine, 
 Snatch'd lovely Belvidera. 
 
 <( 
 
 St. Louis," says Mr. Breckenridge, " was 
 formerly called Pain Court, (short bread), from 
 the privations of the iirst settlers." The French 
 have left some curious names in Missouri, where 
 we find La Ftmme Osage^ (the Osage woman) ; 
 Mishre^ (Misery) ; Creve- Cceur, (Broken Heart) j 
 Vuide Poche, (Empty Pocket) ; Bon Homme 
 (Good Man) ; La Riviere des Phres, (the River 
 of Fathers) ; La Riviere an Vase, (the River of 
 Mud) ; Bois Brule, (Burnt Wood, pronounced 
 by the Americans, Boh Ruby) ; Cotesam Dessein, 
 which you may translate for yourself: I should 
 call it Accidental Hill, which is justified by the 
 appearance of the place. It is an eminence 
 on a hill, without a valley, and which looks as 
 if it did not belong to the place, but had been 
 dropped by accident. Some of these names are
 
 198 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 now discarded, and the people would be quite 
 scandalized at their revival — like the good citi- 
 zens of a flourishing town in Pennsylv'ania, which 
 was formerly called Cat-jisli Camp., but where 
 a man would now be almost tarred and feathered^ 
 for mentioning a cat-Jish. 
 
 Many of the French names in this country 
 have been corrupted. The upper part of the 
 Kaskaskia River is called by a name which is 
 spelt so variously that I can hardly undertake 
 to write it. The literal pronunciation is 0-kaWy 
 but it is written by travellers and others Occoa, 
 Oka, Ocra, &;c. As this stream is in fact the 
 Kaskaskia, and was probably taken by the first 
 French explorist for a branch of that river, it is 
 probable that, contracting the name of the 
 latter, they called it Au Kas ; this reading ac- 
 cords with the practice of that people, who 
 frequently use abbreviations : thus Kaskaskia is 
 called KaS'kee^ and Cahokia, Calio. So, if you ask 
 a Frenchman where he is going, he will answer 
 *' Au Post,'' to the Post, meaning the post of 
 Vincennes. This being the principal fortress in 
 this country, previous to its settlement, was 
 for a long while called IVie Post ; and from the
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. 199 
 
 French mode of expression, Au Post! it acquired 
 among the first American settlers the name 
 O-PosCf by which it is still commonly known. 
 
 There is a small stream in Illinois called 
 Bojipas. The author of a book of *' Geogra- 
 phical Sketches," writes BumpaWy and his or- 
 thography is adopted by many persons ; the 
 original name nmst have been Bonne Passe, (a 
 good channel), though in fact it can hardly be 
 said to have any channel. 
 
 There was an Indian chief in some of the 
 southern territories, so noted for his vigilance 
 that he was said by his followers to '* sleep 
 with one eye;" in consequence of which the 
 French termed him Dor d^un (Eily and bestowed 
 the same appellation upon a small creek which 
 watered his hunting grounds. The Americans 
 adopted the sense, and as nearly as they could, 
 the sound of this significant cognomen, and the 
 creek is still called Dordon Eye. 
 
 The term " Lost Creek" occurs to the tra- 
 veller so frequently as to excite his curiosity. 
 Poets, indeed, have been liberal in bestowing 
 attributes upon the limpid stream, which is 
 said to babble and to murmur, to creep slug-
 
 200 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 gishly along, or to " hold its way rejoicing." 
 There is even morality in water-courses, and 
 one bard discovers '* books in the running 
 brooks." But though brooks run, and even 
 wander and stray, no one ever heard until now 
 of their getting lost. Yet it seems that this acci- 
 dent sometimes befalls them. In a level, woodv 
 country, where the soil is rich and deep, a small 
 stream sometimes spreads by innumerable small 
 channels over a vast surface, until its distinctive 
 character is lost in swamps and puddles ; a 
 creek which falls into this dilemma is sure to be 
 dubbed " Lost Creek." Woe to the traveller 
 who finds this name upon the road before him — 
 dismal swamps and miry paths await him. 
 
 The word country is used by our people in a 
 manner peculiar to themselves. When we say 
 " this country," we do not mean North Ame- 
 rica, nor the United States, nor any state, but 
 a particular section of country, frequently of 
 indefinite extent. Thus that part of Kentucky 
 which lies south of Green River is called the 
 Green River Country ; a part of Illinois, lying 
 upon the Sangamon River, is cdiWedi the, Sang amoyi 
 Country ; the province of Texas is called the
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. 201 
 
 TeA'as Country ; and a part of the State of New 
 York used to be called (and may be yet) the 
 Genessee Country. The phrase is arbitrary and 
 .fluctuating — sometimes applied to a state, and 
 sometimes to a part of a state — now to a coun- 
 try, and at other times to several countries. It 
 Is applied to a large region, when that region 
 is unsettled, or has not yet been divided into 
 districts or counties, or when those divisions 
 are little known, and the names of them not in 
 familiar use. What was lately called the Ala- 
 bama Country, is now the State of Alabama, and 
 the Red River Country will soon be divided 
 between Texas and Arkansas. 
 
 The people of Illinois have called the metrop- 
 olis of their state Vandalia. As this designa- 
 tion was given by the commissioners who se- 
 lected this spot for the seat of government, 
 not a little surprise was excited that they should 
 have chosen so barbarous an appellation. It is 
 said, that while they were in solemn deliberation 
 on this point, and in great perplexity to find 
 a name for their infant city, a facetious gentle- 
 man, who happened to be present, informed 
 them, that there had been a tribe of Indians
 
 20*2 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 who existed many centuries ago, among the 
 forests and prairies which now form the fairest 
 portion of this state, who were called Vandals. 
 There was also a contemporary tribe called 
 Goths. Whether these rival nations had fought 
 like the two Kilkenny cats, who devoured each 
 other until nothing was left of either but the 
 tips of the tails, the learned gentleman did not 
 state ; but the name of Vandalia was adopted 
 in honour of the aborigines. This story has pro- 
 bably more wit than truth in it. It is also said, 
 that this place was called after a Frenchman, 
 one of the first whites who penetrated these 
 forests, who resided for many years near this 
 spot, and was famous as an expert hunter and 
 a daring foe to his Indian neighbours. 
 
 There is a branch of the Little Wabash 
 River in Illinois, called the Skillet Fork, which 
 took its name from the following circumstance. 
 During the late war, companies of rangers (a 
 kind of mounted militia) were ordered out to 
 protect the western frontiers from the Indians ; 
 a detachment of these troops, under the com- 
 mand of Colonel Willis Hargrave, now a Major 
 General of Militia in this state, having fallen
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. ^03 
 
 upon the track of some Indians, pursued them 
 to the banks of this stream, where they lost 
 the track — the Indians having taken to the 
 water. It was necessary to cross over to con- 
 tinue the chase j but the stream, swelled with 
 rains, roared like a torrent, and the shores were 
 so abrupt that it was impossible to plunge the 
 horses in with their riders, and if they could 
 even have reached the opposite bank, it would 
 have been impracticable to ascend it. Such 
 obstacles are easily surmounted by backwoods- 
 men, unused to ferries and bridges. The men 
 were soon employed in constructing rafts to 
 carry them over ; one headstrong fellow, named 
 Smith, dashed forward — reached the edge of 
 the bank — plunged in — and horse and rider dis- 
 appeared. In a moment Smith was seen swim- 
 ming in one direction, and his horse in another, 
 botli dashing the waves aside, *' with hearts of 
 controversy ;" both reached the land in safety, 
 but with the loss of the baggage. The party 
 soon crossed, but a sad discovery awaited them : 
 they were divided into messes, and one man was 
 appointed, each day, in every mess^ to cook the 
 victuals and carry the culinary utensils. Smith
 
 ^Oi LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 held the important office of cook on that event- 
 ful day, and when they encamped in the even- 
 ins: it was discovered that his mess were not 
 only destitute of provisions, but had lost what 
 was of infinitely more importance, a skillet 
 which composed the whole apparatus of their 
 kitchen ; the " envious wave'' had robbed him 
 of skillet, bread, bear-meat and all. Here was 
 a dilemma ! a woful dilemma, which none but 
 Indian hunters can appreciate. Bread could 
 not be procured in the woods, and game they 
 dared not shoot, for fear of alarming the foe, 
 whose footsteps they were silently tracking. But 
 if Providence had showered mamiain their path, 
 or their own cunning ensnared the *' dappled 
 denizen of the forest," of what avail would it 
 have been ? They had no skillet wherein to 
 dress it ! The vexation of the ??iess, the cha- 
 grin of Smith, and the jests of their comrades, 
 kept the affair alive in their memories for a 
 long while, and the stream which caused this 
 dire mishap is still called the Skillet Fork. 
 
 Another creek in this state, was named by 
 the same party. They were lying on its 
 banks round afire, at night, when some of the
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. 205 
 
 company undertook to practise a joke upon 
 Smith. A sappling was bent to the ground, to 
 which they tied his heels as he slept, and on 
 letting it go he was swung aloft. His cries 
 roused the whole party, who, imagining the 
 Indians were at hand, flew to their posts, nor 
 was the alarm dispelled, until the unlucky cause 
 of it was discovered dangling in the air. The 
 stream was called S??nth's Fork, and still retains 
 the name. 
 
 About twelve or fourteen years ago, a gentle- 
 man named Rector, a brother of the late Surveyor 
 General, was travelling from St.Louis to Shawnee 
 Town, when he fell into an ambuscade of hostile 
 Indians, within twenty miles of the latter place. 
 He was not aware of his danger until he saw 
 himself surrounded by the foe, and heard the 
 appalling war-whoop of the painted warriors, 
 who issued, like the followers of Roderick Dhu, ^ 
 from every shade. Directly in the path, but a 
 few paces before him, stood a savage, who, as he 
 discharged his rifle, laughed loud with a diabol- 
 ical expression of malignant triumph, as if 
 sure of his victim. The ball passed through 
 Rector's body, who still retained sufficient
 
 206 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 presence of mind to endeavour to escape. 
 The path which he travelled was completely 
 closed behind him ; before him was a deep miry 
 creek, whose high perpendicular banks over- 
 hanging the channel, seemed to render a passage 
 impossible at any place but the ford to which 
 he had been hastening, and the path to which 
 was occupied by the enemy. He could only 
 give the rein and the spur to his horse, and 
 trust to Providence. The gallant steed, who 
 was also badly wounded, quitting the path, 
 rushed to the bank of the stream, and with a 
 desperate leap, plunged to the bottom, and 
 extricating himself from the mire, ascended the 
 steep bank on the opposite side, and soon bore 
 his master, now entirely insensible, beyond the 
 reach of danger. The Indians, fearing pursuit, 
 fled in contrary directions. The unconscious 
 Rector kept his seat for several miles, while 
 the noble horse, as if tender of his charge, car- 
 ried him safely through the thick and bushy 
 forest. At length Rector fell, but the horse 
 continued to fly at full speed until he reached 
 the Saline, about six miles from the scene of 
 the disaster. Here a few persons resided,
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. 207 
 
 engaged in making salt ; to whom the bleeding 
 wounds of the horse readily conveyed the in- 
 telligence of what had happened ; but they 
 were too few to oppose the enemy, nor did 
 they dare to leave their families exposed. One 
 of them was sent express to Shawnee Town, 
 who quickly returned with a party of eight or 
 ten men. These, reinforced by the people at 
 the Saline, pursued the track of the horse, who 
 was readily traced through the snow, which lay 
 deep on the ground. They found Rector, 
 cold, stiff, and apparently dead : a rifle ball had 
 passed through his breast. Happily one of the 
 party was a physician, through whose care and 
 skill the sufferer was resuscitated, and eventually 
 recovered. Leaving a few of then- party with 
 the wounded man, the remainder proceeded to 
 the scene of action. Here they found the 
 tracks of a considerable number of Indians ; 
 they traced the horse from the path to the 
 edge of the bank j they saw where he had leaped 
 down a descent of about twenty feet to the 
 surface of the water, had broken through the 
 ice in the middle of the creek, and had clamber- 
 ed up an almost perpendicular bank on the
 
 ^OS LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 other side. Had not the new fallen-snow, the 
 tracks of the horse's feet, and the blood-drops 
 which marked his whole course, rendered all 
 this as plain as demonstration, those who then 
 stood upon the margin of the rivulet would 
 have thought it impossible for a horse to effect a 
 passage at that spot ; yet Rector's horse accom- 
 plished it, bearing a heavy burthen, and himself 
 wounded in a vital part. One of the balls 
 received by this fine animal passed through 
 his breast immediately behind the shoulders. 
 Several of those who inspected him, who had 
 been accustomed to hunting all their lives, and 
 were well acquainted with the formation of 
 quadrupeds, and the effect of gun-shot wounds, 
 have assured me that nine out of ten would 
 have died instantly of such a wound ; yet the 
 horse recovered to entire health, and was cher- 
 ished during life with the tenderest care, by 
 his grateful master. The Indians were pursued 
 for a considerable distance, but not overtaken. 
 This stream, which empties itself into the Saline 
 River, is called Rector's Fork. 
 
 You will perceive that where two streams 
 unite, the lesser is frequently termed a fork of
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. 209 
 
 the larger into which it empties, as the North 
 Fork of the Saline^ the Skillet Fork of Little 
 Wabash, Smith's Fork oi' Muddy. 
 
 Many of the old names in this country have 
 been anglicised, though not often judiciously. 
 The name of the town in which for the present 
 I have fixed my *' local habitation," has suffered 
 a very disadvantageous change. The Indian 
 word Sha-wa-noe was not inharmonious, but it 
 has been corrupted into Shawnee-Town. A 
 stream which the French called la Rivihre au 
 Vase is transformed into Muddy ; but as there 
 happens to be two of the same name, they are 
 called Big and Little Muddy. The practice of 
 giving the same name to two neighbouring 
 streams, and distinguishing one of them by the 
 classic word hig, is very common. We have 
 Big and Little Wabash, Big and Little Miami, 
 Big and Little Beaver, and I suppose a hundred 
 other such ill sorted pairs, who seem not to be 
 united under any canon of the church, or rule 
 of taste. I once travelled through Illinois when 
 the waters were high ; and when I was told that 
 Little Mary would stop me, and that to get by 
 Big Mary was impossible, I supposed them to
 
 210 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 be attractive damsels, who, like beauteous Circe 
 of old, amused themselves with playing tricks 
 upon travellers. But lo ! instead of blushing, 
 blooming, and melodious maids, I found tor- 
 rents cold as ice, and boisterous as furies. 
 Mary is too sweet a name to be thus profaned. 
 
 There are some sentimental names, which 
 should not be forgotten — some sweet-sounding 
 epithets, which recal the joys of Arcadia. 
 Such are Corydon, Feliciana, Cynthiana, and 
 divers others, equally tender and appropriate. 
 
 We have another cognomen peculiar to the 
 West, which is conveyed in the beautiful word 
 LicJc. We have Salt Licks, Blue Licks, Sulphur 
 Licks, Big Bone Licks, and Licks of all sorts 
 and sizes. The word is uncouth enough, but 
 is very descriptive, and designates those spots 
 which have been frequented by wild grazing 
 animals, for the purpose of licking the saline 
 particles with which the earth is impregnated. 
 Some of these places have been licked for cen- 
 turies, until vast cavities have been formed in 
 the surface of the ground. By these appear- 
 ances the early settlers were directed to many 
 valuable minerals. But surely this barbarous
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. 211 
 
 appellative might be dropped now, when the 
 aboriginal lickei^s have been expelled, and these 
 places converted into valuable manufactories, 
 and polite watering-places. 
 
 An extensive genus of names is derived from 
 our patriotic ancestors, and from living charac- 
 ters of celebrity. The western people have 
 displayed an honourable feeling in thus per- 
 petuating the memories of distinguished men. 
 In Kentucky, out of seventy-one counties, all are 
 called after eminent men but eight. Ohio, in 
 1819, had fifty counties, of which thirty were 
 called after individuals, ten have Indian names, 
 and one is called Liching. In Illinois and In- 
 diana, all the counties are named in the same 
 manner, except two in each state. A large 
 number of towns are also named after patriots 
 and heroes. From this laudable custom, a 
 serious inconvenience arises in the frequent 
 repetition of the same name ; an evil which is 
 aggravated by a foolish propensity of emi- 
 grants for naming the place at which they 
 settle in honour of that which they have left. 
 We have now in the United States about twenty 
 Salems ; we have Fairfields, Clearfields, and 
 
 p 2
 
 ^12 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Middletowns, without number. The Washing- 
 tons, Waynes, and Jeffersons, baffle calcula- 
 tion. 
 
 The seat of Government of Missouri is to 
 be removed to Cote sans Dessein, which, it is 
 said, is to assume the name of MissouriopoliS' 
 Indiana has called her capital Lidianopolis ; and 
 it is to be hoped, that Arkansas will adopt A.rko- 
 polis ; for such is the passion for imitation, 
 that a name no sooner gets into genteel use, 
 than it goes the rounds. 
 
 Thus I have written you a long letter on a very 
 scientific subject, and which, if our country was 
 a thousand years older, might make me a fellow 
 of a philosophical society. But, alas! we know 
 our origin so well, that there is no chance of 
 passing for an antiquary now-a-days — unless 
 indeed we delve into Indian lore, an unpro- 
 fitable field ! for the wisest of those who explore 
 it are unable to determine whether our copper- 
 coloured brethren are Jews, Kamschatkadales, 
 or Welshmen. The subject, however, of 
 which I have treated is not without interest. 
 Older nations know nothing of the origin or 
 meaning of half the names which occur on their
 
 NAMES OF PLACES. 213 
 
 maps, and many a solitary midnight lamp has 
 in vain lent its rays to develoj) the obscurity. 
 A mysterious appellation, supposed to be fraught 
 with meaning, has often been chased with un- 
 availing assiduity, through labyrinths of parch- 
 ment and black letter, and finally lost among 
 the mists of tradition — which, if discovered, 
 might be found to be as frivolous in its appli- 
 cation, as some of those which I have explained. 
 No other nation has had the opportunity which 
 we enjoy, of forming its own geographical 
 vocabulary. They have been indebted to acci- 
 dent, or to the rude conceptions of the nations 
 who preceded them, for that which among us is 
 to be the fruit of our own taste. Nations are 
 continually rising to power, or declining into 
 imbecility, and their rise or fall is a continual 
 lesson, fraught with instruction. In these 
 changes every institution bears a part, and 
 therefore should the progress of every institu- 
 tion, however trifling, which forms an integral 
 part of national character or wealth, be ob- 
 served. A Latin poet has said, stultus labor 
 est ineptiarumy and I am not disposed to con- 
 trovert the maxim ; for I do not consider
 
 214 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 that employment trifling, which may add a 
 mite to the literature of my country or to the 
 amusement of my friends. For them I shall 
 always be proud to toil, though sober-sided 
 Gravity may shake his head, and his friend the 
 critic pronounce my exertions labor ineptiarum.
 
 SHAWNEE TOWN, ETC. 215 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 SHAWNEE TOWN AND ITS VICINITY. 
 
 No place in the western country has been 
 more vilified than Shawnee Town. The slang 
 which English travellers adopt in relation to 
 every thing American, has been used even by 
 our countrymen in relation to this place. If 
 the former only had depreciated its local and 
 moral character, its inhabitants might be satis- 
 fied ; for, accustomed as Englishmen are to sneer 
 at all that is respectable in our institutions, or 
 attractive in our natural or political history, 
 all, in short, that evinces the superiority of a 
 young, vigorous, and virtuous country, over 
 the vicious decrepitude of " the fast anchored 
 isle," their censure is the best praise that could 
 be extorted from their lips. The present race 
 of Shaxmnoese have indeed been depicted as
 
 21 f) LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 being in no wise superior to their savage pre-' 
 decessors : nor could the picture drawn of them 
 have been much aggravated by adding the 
 crimes of Sodom and the plagues of Egypt. A 
 few years ago, the traveller, when he arrived 
 here, loosened the hilt of his dirk, and prepared 
 to gallop through as fast as possible, fully con- 
 vinced that every moment was fraught with 
 peril ; he fancied that if he should be so fortu- 
 nate as not to fall into the hands of the natives^ 
 he had still to apprehend the danger of having 
 his joints racked with the ague, and all the 
 blood in his veins sucked out by the musquitoes. 
 There is one advantage at least, in a credulous 
 disposition, that it always furnishes an ample 
 harvest of the marvellous to those whose want 
 of intellect disables them from gathering amuse- 
 ment from other sources. 
 
 It would be tedious to cite all the authors 
 who have disseminated such nonsense. Gentle- 
 men who travel, and write their travels, too 
 often imitate the conduct of a certain English 
 tourist, wdio, on arriving at a town in Europe, 
 where he was received by a red-haired landlord 
 and a drunken landlady, noted in his common-
 
 SWAWNEE TOWN, ETC. 217 
 
 place book, " all the men in Alsace are red- 
 haired, and the women get drunk.'' It would 
 be useless to attempt to reclaim such licentious 
 tourists ; we might as well " whistle jigs to a 
 mile-stone" as expostulate with those who thus 
 sin against light and knowledge. But we can 
 expose them. 
 
 A writer of a book of " Geographical Sketches 
 on the Western country," published at Cincin- 
 natti in 1819, comprises all his knowledge of 
 Shawnee Town in the following brief paragraph : 
 *' Shawnee Town, eight miles below the Wabash, 
 on the Ohio, is subject to inundation by high 
 water. It is the place where courts of justice 
 are held for Gallatin County. It contains a 
 bank called the Great Bank of Illinois, with a 
 ca])ital of two millions of dollars, and aland office 
 for the district." The writer of this would have 
 conferred a singular favour upon the inhabitants 
 of Shawnee Town, if he had been good enough 
 to designate exactly the street, lane, or alley, 
 upon which this Great Bank is situated, as the 
 oldest inhabitants have no recollection of any 
 such institution. In the present scarcity of 
 money such a bank would be much resorted to
 
 218 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 for loans, and out of two millions must no doubt 
 have several odd hundreds of thousands of idle 
 specie, the emission of which would be highly 
 beneficial. It is hoped that the author will 
 furnish the desired information on this point, in 
 his next edition of " Sketches on the Western 
 Country," and that he will style this mammoth 
 xcnstitution the Father Bank of the West, in op- 
 position to the Mother Bank at Philadelphia. 
 There is a little bank here, with a capital of three 
 hundred thousand dollars, which has been in 
 operation eight or nine years, and amid the wreck 
 of credit and the crush of banks, has always 
 paid specie for its notes, and retained the 
 public confidence. But as this is a mere 
 chicken compared with the Colossus above 
 mentioned, it cannot be supposed to be the one 
 alluded to. 
 
 The following account of the same place is ex- 
 tracted from " The Navigator :" — *' It possesses 
 / about thirty indifferent cabin-roofed houses, 
 with the exception of one or two that are 
 shingled. It has a post-office, two or three in- 
 different taverns, and several dram-shops. The 
 U. S. saline salt works being near this place.
 
 SHAWNEE TOWN, ETC. 219 
 
 they give employment and afford a source of 
 trade to such of the inhabitants as are indus- 
 trious and enterprising. The town is subject 
 to the inundations of the river ; and during those 
 of the winter and spring of 1813, the inhabitants 
 were obhged to abandon their houses." I will 
 at once concede the praise of general accuracy, 
 and uniform integrity of purpose, to the com- 
 piler of this work ; his fault in this instance 
 consists in allowing what was true when it was 
 written, to remain unaltered in subsequent edi- 
 tions, without adverting to the rapid growth of 
 the western towns. 
 
 Mr. Birkbeck, with the best of motives, adopts 
 a wonderful mistake. He expresses his sur- 
 prise that the inhabitants should tenaciously 
 adhere to a spot, from which they are annually 
 driven by inundation, and forced to take refuge 
 on the hills. 
 
 The Quarterly Review says, "A dirk is the 
 constant companion of every gentleman in Illi- 
 nois," which of course includes the good peo- 
 ple of Shawnee. Rejecting all these accounts, 
 I will give you that which I believe to be 
 correct.
 
 220 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 J Shawnee Town occupies a beautiful situation 
 
 on the western bank of the Ohio, nine miles 
 below the mouth of the Wabash, and one hun- 
 dred and twenty miles above the junction of 
 the Ohio and Mississippi. Its distance from 
 Pittsburgh, by water, is about a thousand miles, 
 and from New Orleans about eleven hundred. 
 The town stands on a level plain, and embraces 
 a view of the river of four or five miles in each 
 direction. 
 
 There was formerly a village of Shawnee 
 Indians at this spot, but it was forsaken before 
 the whites attempted a settlement, and no 
 vestige of it now remains but two small mounds. 
 A few cabins were afterwards built by the 
 French traders ; but these had also disappeared, 
 and the ground was covered with bushes, when 
 the present town was established. As recently 
 as the year 1808, there was not a house on the 
 ground ; in February 1812, an office for the 
 sale of public lands was established at this 
 place ; and in March 1814, an act was passed by 
 Congress, providing that two sections of land 
 adjoining Shawnee Town should be laid out 
 into town-lots, streets, avenues, and outlets, and
 
 SHAWNEE TOWN, ETC. 221 
 
 sold in the same manner as other public lands. 
 The town now contains about one hundred 
 houses, of which five or six are of brick, several 
 of frame, and the remainder of log. It has 
 twelve stores, at which a large and active trade 
 is carried on, besides a number of shops of a 
 smaller description ; two excellent taverns, an 
 independent bank, and a branch of the state 
 bank ; a land office, a post office, two printing- 
 offices; and furnishes employment to carpenters, 
 cabinet makers, blacksmiths, tailors, shoe- 
 makers, bakers, and other mechanics, of whom 
 a number are settled here. 
 
 The ground, as is usually the case in bottom 
 lands, is higher on the edge of the river, where 
 the town stands, than at some distance back, 
 and the town is often insulated, when not 
 actually overflowed. The waters begin to 
 swell in February or March, and continue 
 rising for several weeks. The greatest rise, 
 from the lowest to the highest point, is about 
 fifty feet. The greatest floods of which we 
 have any account, were i« 1813 and 1815, 
 when the water covered all the streets, and 
 entered the lower apartments of the dwellings, 
 
 ^
 
 222 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 reaching nearly to the second floors. Since 
 that time the inhabitants have not been ex- 
 pelled by the conquering element, although the 
 water annually covers the plain in the rear of 
 the town, and advances in front to their very 
 doors. The inconvenience and alarm occasioned 
 by the inundations are not so great as might be 
 supposed. The alarm is little, and that little is 
 imaginary, because the irruption is not sudden, 
 nor accompanied with any violent current, or 
 destructive consequence ; and the inconvenience 
 is temporary, as the waters subside in a few 
 days, and the soil being sandy, and its surface 
 uneven, no moisture remains. A small deposit 
 of decayed vegetable matter is left, but not 
 enough to corrupt the atmosphere: and even 
 this, before the weather becomes warm, loses 
 its deleterious quality by evaporation, or yields' 
 its juices to the vegetable kingdom. When the 
 river first begins to swell, it usually rises as 
 much as three or four feet in twenty-four hours ; 
 but as the volume of water increases, its velo- 
 city becomes greater, while the widening of the 
 banks affords it room to expand, and the rise 
 becomes daily less perceptible. At length it
 
 SHAWNEE TOWN, ETC. ^2^3 
 
 begins to fill the bayoux, backs up the channels 
 of the tributary streams, and at last spreads over 
 the banks, covering the bottoms for miles. This 
 gradual process affords ample time to the inha- 
 bitants to secure their cattle, and to retreat if 
 necessary. The largest body of water naturally 
 flows in the deepest channel, and here of course 
 is the swiftest current, while the shallow waters 
 which cover the alluvial, flow backwards in 
 eddies, or have no perceptible motion. For 
 this reason, dwellings are not swept away, and 
 the inhabitants retreat with safety when the 
 dwellings are no longer tenable. 
 
 Shawnee Town is never overflowed by ordi- 
 nary floods. To produce this effect a number 
 of circumstances must concur. All the rivers 
 which are tributary to the Ohio must swell at 
 'once ; and as these are distributed through 
 Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, 
 Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, there must be a 
 thaw so general as to melt the snow in all those 
 states, or rains pervading that whole region. 
 It has also been remarked, that this town has 
 never been inundated, except when the Wabash 
 and the Ohio have risen at the same time : an
 
 224 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 event which, in the ordinary course of things, can 
 seldom happen, as the sources of these streams 
 are so widely separated that a common cause 
 can seldom affect them both at the same time. 
 It is true, that there is a general similarity of 
 climate throughout all the region watered by 
 the Ohio, and that the approach of spring- 
 produces, throughout, the same effect — the 
 melting of snow, the fall of rain, and the rising 
 of rivers. But these occurrences are accelerated 
 or retarded, in particular places, by slight 
 changes of weather, the fountains are broken 
 up in detail, the waters pass off in succession, 
 and the congregated power of the whole is 
 seldom seen. Thus, instead of an annual 
 migration, the inhabitants of Shawnee Town 
 have been driven to this expedient but twice. 
 
 It might be worthy of inquiry, whether the* 
 opening and settling the lands upon the head 
 waters of the tributary streams, will not at some 
 future period decrease the spring floods of the 
 Ohio. Will not the climate become ameliorated, 
 and the quantity of snow lessened, when the 
 surface of the earth shall be fully exposed to 
 the warmth of the sun ? Will not the accumu-
 
 SHAWNEE TOWN, ETC. 225 
 
 lation of snow be lessened, by its melting as it 
 falls upon the earth thus exposed ? And will 
 not the snow, which now remains buried among 
 the mountains, or in the forests, during the whole 
 winter, and suddenly precipitates itself in 
 immense floods in the spring, be gradually 
 diminished by every gleam of sunshine? 
 
 That the low grounds along the margin of 
 the Oliio will be embanked, and the stream 
 confined within its proper channel, as soon as 
 those lands shall acquire a value sufficient to 
 support the expense, cannot be doubted. The 
 Mississippi bottoms have been thus reclaimed, 
 where the volume of w^ater and its perpendic- 
 ular are both vastly greater than in the Ohio. 
 When this shall be effected, the stream, which is 
 now continually changing its bed, and cutting 
 new channels, will be confined within definite 
 bounds ; the body of water will be narrower and 
 deeper ; its velocity will be increased ; and the 
 force which is now wasted in washing the soil 
 from one bank, and depositing it upon another, 
 will be perpetually exerted in deepening the 
 channel. Many years, perhaps ages, will be 
 
 Q
 
 y 
 
 226 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 consumed in producing these changes ; but the 
 consummation must be equally advantageous 
 to the navigation and to the health of the 
 country. 
 
 The unhealthiness of Shawnee Town has 
 been assumed as a fact naturally resulting 
 from its position. But, in point of fact, its in- 
 habitants have been more healthy than those of 
 any town upon the river, below the falls. As 
 to musquitoes, they must be admitted to be 
 quite as numerous as the worst enemies to re- 
 pose and pleasant dreams could desire,~as 
 large, as vigorous, and as musical, as any other 
 musquitoes, grow where they may. We have 
 heard marvellous tales of the doings of these 
 pestiferous insects. I forget whether it is Mr. 
 Weld, or Mr. Ash, or Mr. Moore, who tells 
 of an audacious musquitoe which bit General 
 Washington through the sole of his boot ; or 
 which of them it is who relates the tale of a canoe 
 which was eaten down to the water's edge, by 
 these ravenous prowlers, who " smelt the blood 
 of an Englishman," sweating under a load of 
 blankets within the narrow vessel. I have seen 
 none quite so large or so malignant as these ;
 
 SHAWNEE TOWN, ETC. 2^7 
 
 but I have seen the air filled with them, and 
 have heard them buzzing the livelong night, 
 with a noise as loud as that created by a nu- 
 merous commonwealth of active bees. Tliere 
 are two varieties. The spring-musquitoe 
 makes it appearance with the earliest warm 
 weather, and remains a few weeks, sometimes 
 only a few days : it is a feeble insect, seldom 
 biting, and more troublesome to brutes than to 
 men. It is most numerous in the woods and 
 low, wet situations, and seldom appears in the 
 sunshine ; its most distinctive characteristic is, 
 that it appears only in the day, while the fall 
 ?)iiisquitoe is seen only at night. The latter is 
 more muscular and sprightly, with a good ap- 
 petite and sharp teeth ; it is also more dissi- 
 pated, frolicking all night, and sleeping all day. 
 It prefers human blood to that of brutes, while 
 its vernal archetype has a directly opposite taste. 
 The fall musquitoe makes its appearance late 
 in the summer, and remains until the first frost. 
 A simple artifice is resorted to for protection 
 against these marauders — the musquitoe bar. 
 This is a curtain, of the tliinnest gauze, or leno, 
 or some such slight fabric, which admits the
 
 2€8 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 air, and excludes the musquitoe. This is 
 drawn closely round the bed, so as to leave no 
 crevice through which the enemy can enter ; and 
 woe to the negligent wight who omits to tuck in 
 his bar ; better endure the stings of conscience, 
 or the freaks of Queen Mab in her worst of 
 humours : no drug nor potion shall " medicine 
 him to that sweet sleep" he knew before. 
 
 A remarkable difference occurs in the effect 
 produced by the bite of this insect upon dif- 
 ferent persons. Natives, or persons acclimated 
 by a residence of several years, experience no 
 other inconvenience than instant pain or itch- 
 ing, which subsides immediately, and leaves no 
 vestige. But foreigners are poisoned by the 
 bite ; a slight inflammation ensues, which lasts 
 for several days. I have seen an English lady, 
 not remarkably ugly before, become absolutely 
 hideous in consequence of the vile pimples left 
 by these venomous creatures ; and T knew ano- 
 ther, whose feet were so much swollen that she 
 was unable to put on her shoes. But such 
 instances seldom occur, if ever, among the 
 natives or residents. 
 
 Before the introduction of steam-boats upon
 
 SHAWNEE TOWN, ETC. 229 
 
 this river, its immense commerce was chiefly 
 carried on by means of barges — large boats, 
 calculated to descend as well as to ascend the 
 stream, and which required many hands to 
 navigate them. Each barge carried from 
 thirty to forty boatmen, and a number of these 
 boats frequently sailed in company. The arri- 
 val of such a squadron at a small town was 
 the certain forerunner of riot. The boatmen, 
 proverbially lawless and dissolute, were often 
 more numerous than the citizens, and indulged, 
 without restraint, in every species of de- 
 bauchery, outrage, and mischief. Wherever 
 vice exists will be found many to abet and 
 to take advantage of its excesses ; and these 
 towns were filled with the wretched ministers 
 of crime. Sometimes, the citizens, roused to 
 indignation, attempted to enforce the laws ; 
 but the attempt was regarded as a declaration 
 of war, which arrayed the offenders and their 
 allies in hostility ; the inhabitants were obliged 
 to unite in the defence of each other, and the 
 contest usually terminated in the success of 
 that party which had least to lose, and were most 
 prodigal of life and careless of consequences.
 
 S30 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 The rapid emigration to this country was be- 
 ginning to afford these towns such an increase of 
 population as would have ensured their ascen- 
 dancy over the despots of the river, when the 
 introduction of steam-boats at once effected a 
 revolution. 
 
 The substitution of machinery for manual 
 labour, occasioned a vast diminution in the 
 number of men required for the river naviga- 
 tion. A steam -boat, with the same crew as a 
 barge, will carry ten times the burthen, and 
 perform her voyage in a fifth part of the time 
 required by the latter. The bargemen infest- 
 ed the whole country, by stopping frequently, 
 and often spending their nights on shore ; 
 while the steam-boats pass rapidly from one 
 large port to another, making no halt but to 
 receive or discharge merchandise, at interme- 
 diate places. The commanders of steam-boats 
 are men of character; property to an immense 
 amount is intrusted to their care ; their respon- 
 sibility is great ; and they are careful of their 
 own deportment, and of the conduct of those 
 under their controul. The number of boat- 
 men is therefore not only greatly reduced, in
 
 SHAWNEE TOWN, ETC. 231 
 
 proportion to the amount of trade, but a sort 
 of discipline is introduced among them, while 
 the increase of population has enabled the towns 
 to maintain their police. 
 
 During the reign of the bargemen, Shawnee 
 Town, and other places on the river, were 
 described as presenting the most barbarous 
 scenes of outrage, and as being the odious re- 
 ceptacles of every species of filth and villainy. 
 These accounts were probably exaggerated ; but 
 that they were true to a certain degree, is 
 readily conceded. But the disorderly cha- 
 racter acquired by these towns in the manner I 
 have related, is unjustly attributed to them now, 
 when the fruitful cause of their worst vices 
 has been removed, and when wholesome regu- 
 lations ensure protection to the peaceable and 
 industrious. Shawnee Town is now a quiet place, 
 exhibiting much of the activity of business, 
 with but little dissipation, and still less of out- 
 breaking disorder. 
 
 The Saline Reserve commences a few miles 
 from Shawnee Town, and embraces a tract of 
 ninety thousand acres. There are a number of 
 wells of salt water, the nearest of which is seven 
 
 >/
 
 Q3'2 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 and the farthest fourteen miles from town. 
 The Indians resorted to these Salines, for the 
 purpose of making salt, previous to their dis- 
 covery by the whites ; earthen vessels, of dif- 
 ferent sizes, used by them in the manufacture, 
 have been found in large numbers by the per- 
 sons employed in digging wells. Some of these 
 are large, and display no small ingenuity of 
 workmanship ; they are generally fractured ; 
 but one or two have been found entire. Gigan- 
 tic bones of quadrupeds have also been dis- 
 interred, resembling the huge remains which 
 have been dug from the Licks in Kentucky. 
 Previous to the erection of the Illinois Ter- 
 ritory into a state, the Saline was leased to 
 individuals by the United States ; but at the re- 
 ception of this state into the Union, this valuable 
 tract was granted to it in perpetuity, with a 
 restriction that it should not be leased at any 
 time for a longer term than ten years. There 
 are now five salt works in operation in the 
 hands of different individuals, at the whole of 
 which an aggregate of immense amount in 
 bushels of salt are manufactured annually, which 
 sells at from thirty-seven and a half to fifty cents
 
 SHAWNEF, TOWN, ETC. VV ^^'' 
 
 a bushel, at the works, or in Shawnee Town. 
 It is sold by weight, the bushel being estim^d 
 at sixty pounds ; about one hundred and twenty 
 gallons of water yield sixty pounds of salt. 
 The large tract of land reserved is devoted 
 solely to the purpose of making salt, no part of 
 it being leased for tillage ; the object of this 
 regulation is to preserve a supply of timber for 
 fuel. Beds of stone-coal have recently been 
 discovered near the furnaces, but they have not 
 yet been brought into use. The constitution 
 of this state, while it prohibited slavery, allowed 
 the salt makers to hire slaves within the Saline 
 boundary, until the expiration of the year 1825. 
 AVliile this privilege, which was suggested by 
 the scarcity of labourers in a new country, con- 
 tinued to exist, the labour of salt making was 
 performed by negroes, hired from the people of 
 Kentucky and Tennessee. A temporary suspen- 
 sion of operations has been caused by the change 
 from the old to the new order of things. What 
 will be the ultimate effect of the new system is 
 bare matter of conjecture ; the better opinion 
 seems to be that the change will be beneficial.
 
 234f LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER. 
 
 Dear N. 
 If in the little circle of my intellectual plea- 
 sures, there is one which affords me more 
 enjoyment than any other, it consists in tracing 
 the varieties of character which exist in the 
 different branches of our great national family. 
 It is interesting to observe, how soon every 
 new country — nay, even every little colony, 
 adopts some trait of habit or manners pecuHar 
 to itself. These may be ascribed to local cir- 
 cumstances — cUmate, soil, and situation, all 
 contribute to produce them. The keen blast 
 that invigorates the frame, or the sultry beam 
 that relaxes the system, induces a corres- 
 pondent effect upon the mind ; abundance 
 leads to luxury j while the inhabitant of a
 
 r 
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER. 2S5 
 
 niggard soil, must be frugal and industrious. 
 But there are a thousand other causes which 
 produce particular customs in particular places ; 
 and this diversity, which to me is highly enter- 
 taining, affords an ample fund of rexation to 
 the fastidious, and makes room for innumerable 
 sarcasms from those travellers who delight in 
 ridiculing every thing which does not exactly 
 accord with their own habits or notions of pro- 
 priety. One of Shakspeare's contemporaries, 
 in speaking of him, says, *' Ben Jonson and he 
 did gather humours of men dayly, wherever 
 they came." We have seen how our great 
 dramatist profited by this employment ; but 
 our modern travellers seem rather disposed to 
 get rid of their own humour s^ than to collect 
 those of other people. But ridicule is not the 
 test of truth j and it might puzzle those gentle- 
 men to give a good reason why their own cus- 
 toms are intrinsically better than those which 
 amuse them abroad : you may smile at the 
 rings in an Indian lady's nose ; but why should 
 they not be as graceful as those in the Ameri- 
 can lady's ears ? 
 
 The American colonies were peopled trom
 
 ^36 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Great Britain, and the western states derive 
 their inhabitants, chiefly, from New England and 
 Virginia. Yet when the American looks back 
 at his British ancestor, he discovers few traits of 
 similarity ; and the back-woodsman is almost 
 as far removed from his eastern progenitor. 
 In the great matters of religion and law, all 
 of us in the United States are the same — as the 
 children of one family, when they separate in 
 the world, still preserve the impress of those 
 principles which they imbibed from a common 
 source ; but, in all matters of taste and fancy, 
 customs and exterior deportment, we find a 
 variance. Those who live under the same 
 government, participate in the same laws, and 
 profess the same religion — whose representa- 
 tives mingle in council, whose warriors rally 
 under the same banner, who celebrate the 
 same victories, and mourn for the same disas- 
 ters — must have many feelings and sentiments 
 in common, though they may differ in their 
 modes of evincing them. Thus he who would 
 attempt to pourtray the American character, 
 must draw, not a single portrait, but a family- 
 piece, containing several heads. In each of
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER. '237 
 
 these would be discovered some strong lines 
 common to all : the same active, enterprising, 
 and independent spirit ; the same daring soul, 
 and inventive genius ; and that aptitude or 
 capacity to take advantage of every change, 
 and subsist and flourish in every soil and situ- 
 ation. But each would have a shade or cast 
 of expression peculiar to itself ; and, at the first 
 glance, there would be seen no more resem- 
 blance between the Boston merchant, the 
 Virginia planter, and the hunter of the west, 
 than if they had sprung from different 
 sources. Observe them more closely, however, 
 or rouse their energies into action, and you will 
 still find, in each section of our country, the 
 same American spirit, which glowed in the 
 breasts of Putnam, of Marion, and of Wayne. 
 Show me a strong line in the south, and I will 
 point out to you a kindred feature in the north ; 
 produce a Jackson from the west, and I will bring 
 you a Perry from the east. In private life, 
 the amiable, unassuming Rhode Islander might 
 present a striking contrast to the fiery Tennes- 
 sean : but the soul of the hero burned with not 
 less ardour on Lake Erie — the light of the vie-
 
 238 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 tory was not less brilliant than that which 
 blazed at New Orleans. 
 
 Thence it is that foreif^ners err when they 
 give a character to our whole population from 
 observations made in a single sea-port ; or when 
 they allow us no national character at all, be- 
 cause they discover traits in different places 
 which seem to be the very antipodes of each 
 other. In this latter sapient hypothesis, they 
 evince, together with a good deal of ignorance, 
 not a little of that insolence which distinguishes 
 our foreign detractors. There is no people in 
 the world whose national character is better 
 defined or more strongly niiarked than our 
 own. If the European theory on this subject 
 be correct, is it not a little strange, that our 
 Yankee tars, whether on board of a frigate or 
 a privateer, should always happen to play the 
 same game, when they come athwart an En- 
 glishman ? Is it not a little singular, that 
 Brown in the North, and Jackson in the South, 
 who I suspect never saw each other in their 
 lives, should always happen to handle Lord 
 Wellington's veterans exactly after the same 
 fashion ? Accidents ivill happen in the best of
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER. 239 
 
 families; but when an accident occurs in the 
 same family repeatedly, we are apt to suspect 
 that it runs in the blood. 
 
 In the different states there is certainly a 
 great disparity in the manners of the people. 
 In New England the soil is not rich, and the 
 population is dense. The mass of the people 
 are, of course, laborious, close, and frugal. The 
 colonists were men of pure manners and reli- 
 gious habits. In all their municipal regula- 
 tions, the suppression of vice and immorality, 
 or rather the exclusion of them, for they had 
 none to suppress, formed a leading principle. 
 Persons of this character, would probably be 
 inclined to lead domestic lives, and be satisfied 
 with cheap and innocent amusements. Thus 
 every man, happy in the society of his family 
 and his neighbours, preferred the little circle 
 in which he found content and cheerfulness, 
 to all the world besides. Not sufficiently 
 wealthy to be seduced by the Syren song of 
 pleasure, nor so poor as to become debased by 
 want, he neither spurned nor courted the 
 stranger that approached his door. He was not 
 unwilHngto perform an act of charity or kind-
 
 240 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 ness, nor ashamed to offer what his humble 
 board afforded ; but he wished to know some- 
 thing of the character of the person whom he 
 received into his friendship, whose vices might 
 injure him in his substance, or whose licen- 
 tiousness might contaminate the morals of his 
 children. The man whose home is thus the 
 sphere of his usefulness and the scene of his 
 enjoyments, must feel deeply interested in every 
 object around him ; the conduct of his neighbours, 
 the morals of his servants, and the minds of his 
 children, concern him too nearly to be neglected. 
 Thus he is apt to become not only an indus- 
 trious and virtuous citizen himself, but a watch- 
 ful observer of the conduct of others. Such 
 were the manners of the primitive settlers in 
 New England, and such they remain in many 
 parts of it to this day. But their local situa- 
 tion was not such as to allow them to retain 
 their rural character in its pristine chastity. 
 In repelling the hostile incursions which threat- 
 ened to destroy their infant settlements, they 
 acquired confidence in their courage, and many 
 of their youth imbibed a military spirit, which 
 rendered their former avocations insipid. The
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER. 241 
 
 situation of their country, bounded by an 
 extensive sea-coast, indented with noble har- 
 bours, presented commercial advantages too 
 inviting to be neglected ; and the enterprising 
 temper of the people soon rendered them as 
 conspicuous among the hardy sons of the ocean 
 as they had been exemplary in more peaceful 
 scenes. The commercial spirit, thus engrafted 
 upon the " steady habits" of these people, has 
 given them a cast of character peculiar to them- 
 selves. Hardy and independent ; ingenious 
 in devising, and indefatigable in executing any 
 plan of which the end is gain ; pursuing their 
 designs with ardour and enthusiasm, yet ad- 
 hering to them constantly, conducting them 
 prudently, and concealing them artfully, if 
 necessary, there is no people so versatile in 
 their genius, and none so universally successful 
 in their undertakings. 
 
 In their own country, there is no people more 
 domestic : yet, strange to tell, they are to be found 
 scattered in the four corners of the earth, every 
 where adopting the manners of those around 
 them, and flourishing, even in the midst of ruin ; 
 so that it has become proverbial, that a Yankee 
 
 R
 
 242 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 may live where another man would starve. The 
 poorest people in that country receive the first 
 rudiments of education ; and from this source, 
 perhaps, they derive a trait which is the greatest 
 blemish in their character. " A little learn- 
 ing" has been said to be " a dangerous thing ;" 
 and from that source, I am inclined to believe, 
 we derive that species of Jitiesse, commonly 
 called Yankee tricks. The New Englanders 
 are remarkable for their shrewdness, or what 
 the Irish call " mother wit ;" and when such 
 a man happens to have a bad heart, or loose 
 principles, *' a little learning" is really a dan- 
 gerous accession of strength. He that has the 
 ability to deceive, without the moral principle 
 to control the evil propensities of human nature, 
 or without sufficient weight of character to 
 enlist pride as an auxiliary, must be exposed 
 to temptations too strong for flesh and blood 
 to resist. A man of colder temperament, 
 or less ingenuity, would neither have the 
 inclination to attempt, the wit to devise, 
 nor the address to execute, that which a 
 Yankee undertakes with the utmost sangfroid. 
 They are indeed, like Caleb Quotem, " up to
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER. 243 
 
 every thing" — as the poet says. Tliis, at first 
 sight, appears to be a stigma on blie character 
 of our eastern brethren ; but when we recollect 
 that it is confined to a portion of the popula- 
 tion, and that portion among the lower classes, 
 it would seem but fair to attribute it to the 
 frailty of human nature, rather than to the 
 want of national virtue. 
 
 In Virginia we find different manners. The 
 white population is less dense, and the country 
 less commercial. Most of the gentlemen are 
 born gentlemen; they are wealthy, and receive 
 liberal educations ; from their cradles they 
 despise money, because they are not in the 
 habit of seeing those with whom they associate 
 actively engaged in the pursuit of it. The 
 slaves perform all the labour, leaving their 
 masters at liberty to cultivate their minds and 
 enjoy the society of their friends. The most 
 numerous class is composed of the planters, 
 and these are accomplished gentlemen, residing 
 on theu' own estates, fond of pleasure, and 
 princes in hospitality. Kentucky having been 
 settled by Virginians, the manners of the people 
 are nearly the same, except that the latter, living 
 
 R 2
 
 S44 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 in a more fertile country, are perhaps, more 
 profuse in their generosity. 
 
 Now these two sections of our country have 
 the same American character. The people in 
 both are high minded, spirited lovers of liberty, 
 tenacious of their honour, and quick in their 
 resentments ; they equally loathe every thing 
 in the shape of oppression, encroachment, or 
 dictation ; they claim the same right of instruct- 
 ing their officers, and exercise the same power 
 of dismissing them on the slightest provocation. 
 But then these qualities, which are common to 
 our country, display themselves differently in 
 different situations ; they are compressed or 
 expanded by circumstances. In one section 
 the people are in the habit of curbing their 
 passions, and refraining from those pleasures 
 which are inconvenient or expensive; in the 
 other, they are more accustomed to indulge the 
 propensities of their nature. They both have 
 those generous feelings, which must always 
 form a part of the character of a free, brave, 
 and enlightened people ; but one has wealth 
 and leisure to yield full play to all the impulses 
 of the heart, which the other must restrain.
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER. Qi5 
 
 In New England, and still more in the middle 
 states, the want of servants is a great drawback 
 upon social intercourse. Where the lady of the 
 house for instance, must go into her kitchen to 
 superintend the preparation of a meal, or to 
 dress herself, and after hastily arranging her 
 dress, return with a blowzed face to do the ho- 
 nours of her table, too much fatigued to enjoy 
 its pleasures, the visit of a stranger must afford 
 less pleasure than where such inconveniences 
 do not occur. The New Englander, therefore, 
 will be politelj/ civil from a sense of dufi/y where 
 the Virginian is profuseli/ hospitable from gene- 
 rous feelings, and because he can enjoy the 
 pleasures of society without its inconveniences. 
 But take the Virginian from his plantation, 
 or the Yankee from his boat and harpoon, or 
 from his snug cottage, his stone fences, his 
 "neatly white- washed walls," his blooming 
 garden and his tasteful grounds, and place him 
 in a wilderness, with an axe in his hand or a 
 rifle on his shoulder, and he soon becomes a 
 different man ; his national character will burst 
 the chains of local habit. He does not, like 
 the European in the same situation, languish
 
 S46 LETTERS EROM THE WEST. 
 
 for want of luxuries which he cannot procure, 
 or groan under hardships from which he cannot 
 fly. His ingenuity supplies him with new 
 sources of livelihood, his courage with new 
 vigour ; his hardy frame and versatile spirit 
 easily accommodate themselves to new employ- 
 ments : and though he has still the same heart, 
 the same feehngs, and the same principles, he 
 is quite another person in his manners and mode 
 of living. 
 
 In some of the middle states the national cha- 
 racter is not so well defined, as there is a greater 
 mixture of people. In the interior of Penn- 
 sylvania, there are large settlements of Irish 
 and Dutch, or their immediate descendants, 
 who have not yet inhaled our atmosphere long 
 enough to acquire the peculiar characteristics 
 of Americans j but there is no doubt that they, 
 and even the English emigrants, when they 
 have vegetated for a few generations in our 
 happy country, will become estimable citizens. 
 
 This subject might be pursued with advan- 
 tage, but having thrown out the hints, I leave 
 you to speculate upon them. My object is only 
 to gather the raw materials which may be woven
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER. 24-7 
 
 by more skilful hands ; you must judge ex pede 
 Herculem^ of the whole from a part. Any per- 
 son who is acquainted with the spirit of our 
 constitution and laws, and the general descrip- 
 tion of our country, will be able to supply 
 my defects from his own imagination, and to 
 deduce a variety of inferences from the pro- 
 positions which I have stated. That we have 
 a national character cannot be denied ; that 
 that character is an estimable one, will I think 
 not be doubted ; and that a part of it con- 
 sists in loving our homes, and cherishing our 
 friends, you will believe on the word of 
 
 Your affectionate, &c.
 
 248 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 BACKWOODSMEN. 
 
 It is but a few years since the immense tract 
 of country watered by the Ohio and Mississippi, 
 began to attract the attention of our country- 
 men. The French had long before formed set- 
 tlements on the Mississippi and the Wabash, and 
 on the northern lakes ; but these insulated situa- 
 tions were so much exposed to Indian hostility, 
 and the dispositions of the inhabitants were so 
 uncongenial with the habits of our people, that 
 they were at first visited only by a few enter- 
 prising traders. As the country became better 
 known, report spoke goldenly of its fertility, and 
 a casual reference to the map was sufficient to 
 show the great commercial advantages to be 
 derived from the numerous and valuable streams 
 which intersect it in every direction ; but there
 
 BACKWOODSMEN. 249 
 
 were many obstacles to its settlement. From 
 a period shortly after the revolution to the time 
 of the embargo in 1807, there was no reason 
 to induce any class of citizens in the United 
 States to emigrate ; all were fully and profitably 
 employed at home. The sanguinary wars which 
 spread desolation thoughout the European con- 
 tinent, not only opened markets for all our 
 surplus produce, but made us the carriers of 
 other nations. Never did American enterprise 
 shine more conspicuously than in the improve- 
 ment of these advantages : the art of ship- 
 building was brought to a perfection unknown in 
 any other country ; our flag floated in every part 
 of the world ; there was no adventure, however 
 novel or hazardous, which our merchants did 
 not attempt j and our sailors displayed on every 
 occasion the skill and boldness which has since 
 made them conspicuous in the annals of naval 
 warfare. Happily too, those enterprises were 
 generally successful. The consequence was, 
 that every man engaged in commercial pursuits 
 found sufiicient employment for his capital, 
 while the labouring classes received high wages, 
 and the farmer had always a ready market and
 
 250 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 an ample price for his produce. This flourishing 
 state of commerce and agriculture diffused life 
 and spirit into every rank and department of 
 society. There was scarcely such a thing known 
 as a man labouring merely to support his family ; 
 no one was satisfied unless he was growing 
 rich, and few were disappointed except by their 
 own improvidence. It would be useless to 
 point out the great statesmen and lawyers who 
 have attained their present eminence from an 
 obscure origin, or the wealthy merchants, 
 farmers, and mechanics, who, from the most 
 abject poverty, have risen to opulence. Our 
 country is full of such examples, and they stand 
 as monuments of those happy days when in- 
 dustry was not only a sure but a rapid guide to 
 wealth. 
 
 Under such circumstances, few persons were 
 disposed to emigrate to a new country ; and 
 although some were tempted by the great 
 prospects of gain which the fertile regions in 
 the west were said to offer, many were dis- 
 couraged by the unsettled state of the country, 
 its reputed unhealthiness, and the vicinity of 
 the Indian tribes.
 
 BACKWOODSMEN. '251 
 
 To Europeans this part of America offered 
 no attractions : it was too remote, too insulated, 
 too barbarous, and too entirely uncongenial 
 with all their habits, tastes, and feelings. 
 
 The first settlers of this country, therefore, 
 were men whose object was not gain, but who 
 appeared to have been allured by the very diffi- 
 culties which discouraged others. They were 
 hardy, enterprising men, fond of chance, and 
 familiar with fatigue, who seem to have thought 
 with Fitz James — 
 
 *' If a path be dangerous known. 
 The dansrer's self is lure alone." 
 
 Colonel Boon, the chief of these, and the first 
 white inhabitant of Kentucky, diea lately. His 
 name deserves to be recorded, not only on 
 account of his dauntless courage and eccentric 
 habits, but because his life and achievements 
 present a glowing picture of the sufferings of 
 those who subdued the western forests ; he 
 stands forward, too, as a prominent individual 
 of a class peculiar to the United States. The 
 American who takes a retrospective view of the 
 early history of his country, must regard with
 
 252 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 admiration the sturdy woodsman, who, as the 
 pioneer of civiHzation, first laid the axe to the 
 tree, and made smooth the road for others ; but 
 he will find him an isolated being, professing 
 tastes and habits of his own, and voluntarily 
 supporting incredible hardships, peril, and pri- 
 vation, without the usual incentives or the ordi- 
 nary rewards of courage. 
 
 In the year I769, Daniel Boon, a respectable 
 farmer of North Carolina, was led by a restless, 
 migratory spirit into the forests of Kentucky' 
 then an extensive wilderness, inhabited by 
 numberless savage tribes, and as yet unexplored 
 by civilized man. Passing the Alleghany Ridge, 
 whose hideous precipices alone might have re- 
 pelled a less determined band— guided only by 
 the stars — depending on game for subsistence, 
 and on their own vigilance and prowess for 
 protection — Boon, with five adventurous com- 
 panions, plunged into the boundless coiitiguity of 
 shade, and boldly cut the tie which bound them 
 to society. The mariner, when he looks abroad 
 upon the vast interminable waste, may feel a 
 depressing, yet awful and sublime sense of 
 danger and solitude j but he has the consolation
 
 BACKWOODSMEN. Q53 
 
 of knowing that if the solitude of the ocean be 
 hopeless, its dangers are few and easily sur- 
 mounted : they exist rather in idea than in 
 reality. Boon and his companions could have 
 had no such animating reflections. In a country 
 called the " Bloody Ground," from the extir- 
 minating character of its conflicts ; — among 
 savage tribes, continually at war with each 
 other, and agreeing in nothing but their deadly 
 enmity to the whites — cut off from society — 
 with scanty means of defence, and no hope of 
 retreat, — we scarcely know whether to extol 
 the courage, or censure the rashness of this 
 gallant little party. They continued in Ken- 
 tucky until the year 177<^> leading a wandering 
 life, employed chiefly in exploring the country, 
 and frequently engaged in conflicts with the 
 Indians. In 1775, Boon erected a fort at a 
 salt lick, on the Kentucky River, where the 
 town of Boonsborough now stands, which was 
 called Fort Boonsborough, and to which he re- 
 moved his family in the same year. ** My wife 
 and daughters,'* says he, in his journal, " were 
 the flrst w^hite women that ever stood on the 
 banks of the Kentucky River." Here he was
 
 254< LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 joined by five families from North Carolina, 
 and forty men from Powell's Valley. During 
 the years 1775-6-7, Fort Boonsborough was 
 frequently attacked by the Indians, and several 
 severe engagements took place, in w^hich the 
 savages were always repulsed. 
 
 Boon's settlement began now to exhibit some- 
 thing like a permanent residence of civilized 
 men. The forest was levelled around the fort, 
 fields were enclosed and cultivated, and rustic 
 labours were mingled with the business of war, 
 and the sports of the chase. Their numbers 
 were now spfficient, in general, to prevent sur- 
 prise ; and in case of danger, the fortress offered 
 a secure retreat. Nevertheless, in January I778, 
 while Boon was engaged with a party of twenty- 
 seven men in making salt at the Blue Lick, 
 they were surprised and taken by a large body 
 of Indians, who were on their way to attack 
 the fort, and conveyed to Chilicothe, on the 
 Little Miami, then a considerable Indian town* 
 In the month of March following. Boon was 
 carried with ten of his men to Detroit, where 
 the party was well treated by the British 
 Governor, Hamilton, as indeed they had hitherto
 
 BACKWOODSMEN. 255 
 
 been by the Indians, agreeably to a stipulation 
 made at the time of their capture. Tlie gallant 
 bearing of Boon, and his skill in hunting, had 
 by this time, endeared him to the Indians, so 
 that although the British officers offered a hun- 
 dred pounds sterling for him, with the intention 
 of setting him at liberty, they would not sell 
 him, nor would they allow him to remain a 
 prisoner with his companions at Detroit, but 
 took him back with them to Chilicothe. 
 " Here," says his journal, '* I was adopted into 
 the family of a chief as a son, which is their 
 custom, and permitted to hunt and spend my 
 time as I pleased. In June following they took 
 me to Sciota Salt Springs, where we continued 
 making salt for ten days. On our return to 
 Old Chilicothe, I was alarmed to see four hun- 
 dred and fifty Indians, the choicest of their 
 warriors, painted and armed in a fearful man- 
 ner, and ready as I found to march against 
 Boonsborough. I now determined to make my 
 escape on the first opportunity; there was no 
 time to be lost. On the l6th, before sun-rise, 
 I got off in the most secret manner, and on the 
 20th, arrived at Boonsborough, a distance of one
 
 Q56 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 hundred and sixty miles, while travelling which 
 I had but one meal. I found our fort in a state ; 
 all hands were engaged earnestly in repairing 
 and fortifying it in the best manner possible for 
 the impending blow of the enemy, whose arrival 
 was expected daily. Some time previous to my 
 capture, a re-inforcement of forty-five men 
 arrived from North Carolina, and Colonel 
 Brown with one hundred men from Virginia ; 
 and notwithstanding we had lost some in killed 
 and others wounded, we considered ourselves 
 pretty strong, and determined to brave all 
 dangers. We were in waiting for the enemy, 
 when we got information that they had post- 
 poned their march for two weeks, in conse- 
 quence of my escape from them ; in the mean- 
 time, we had several skirmishes with small 
 parties of the Indians. On the 8th of August, 
 however, the ferocious Indian army arrived, 
 four hundred and forty-four in number, under 
 the command of Captain Duquesne, eleven other 
 Frenchmen, and some of their own chiefs, and 
 marched up within view of the fort with British 
 and French colours flying. They halted, and 
 despatched a summons to me, in His Britannic
 
 BACK^V00DS3IE^f. 257 
 
 Majesty s name to surrender the fort ; to this I 
 returned for answer that I wanted two days to 
 consider of it, which wasgranted* 
 
 "It was^now a critical time with us. We 
 were a small number in the garrison ; a pow- 
 erful, cruel, and savage army lay before our 
 stockaded fort, whose appearance proclaimed 
 inevitable death. We immediately began to 
 collect what number of our horses and cattle 
 we could, and bring them through the posterns 
 into the fort. On the evening of the 9th, I 
 returned answer, that we were determined to 
 defend our fort while a man was livins;. 
 *Now,' said I to their commanding-officer, 
 who stood attentively hearing my sentiments, 
 * we laugh at all your formidable preparations, 
 but thank you for giving us notice and time 
 to prepare ; your efforts will not prevail ; 
 our gates shall even deny you admittance.' 
 Whether this answer affected their courage or 
 not, I cannot tell, but contrary to our expecta- 
 tions, they formed a scheme to deceive us, 
 declaring it was their orders from Governor 
 Hamilton to take us captives ; but if nine of us 
 would come out and treat with them, they 
 
 s
 
 258 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 would withdrav/ their forces and return home 
 peaceably. The sound of this proposition was 
 grateful to our ears, and y< e agreed to the pro- 
 posal. 
 
 '* We held the treaty within sixty yards of 
 the garrison, fearing that treachery was at the 
 bottom of this manoeuvre ; the articles were 
 formally agreed to and signed, and the Indians 
 told us it was customary with them on such 
 occasions, for txvo Indians to shake hands with 
 every white man in the treaty, as an evidence 
 of entire friendship. "We agreed to this also, 
 but were soon convinced they were determined 
 to take us prisoners. They immediately grap- 
 pled with us ; and, although surrounded by 
 hundreds of savages, we extricated ourselves 
 from them, and got into the garrison all safe, 
 one man excepted, who was wounded. A furious 
 attack was now made on us from all sides, and 
 a constant heavy fire continued between us day 
 and night for nine days, during which they 
 attempted to undermine our fort. We began a 
 countermine, which they discovered, and, in con- 
 sequence, they quitted this project. They now 
 began to be convinced that neither their stra-
 
 BACKWOODSMEN. 259 
 
 tagems nor superior force was likely to over- 
 come us, and on the 20tli of August, they 
 raised the siege and departed." 
 
 You must excuse this long extract, which I 
 think highly interesting from the evidence it 
 affords of the heroic character of our woodsmen. 
 Boon was the chief of these, the very prince 
 of hunters. If many of the heroes of Greece and 
 Rome, derived immortal fame from a single act 
 of heroism, how much more does Boon deserve 
 it, whose whole life presents a series of adven- 
 tures of the same character as those which I 
 have related ? Nor did he suffer and conquer 
 alone; his wife accompanied him to the wil- 
 derness, and shared his dangers ; during his 
 captivity, under a belief that he had fallen a 
 sacrifice to the ferocity of the savage foe, she 
 returned with her family to her father's house 
 in North Carolina, braving the toil and perils 
 of a journey, through a wilderness of immeasur- 
 able extent and gloom. She remained there till 
 after the siege, when Boon escorted her back to 
 Boonsborough. 
 
 Another incident which occurred here is not 
 only deeply interesting in itself, but is highly 
 
 s 2
 
 260 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 illustrative of the sufferings of the first settlers. 
 Among the adventurers whom Boon described 
 as having re-inforced his little colony, was a 
 young gentleman named Smith, who had been 
 a major in the militia of Virginia, and possessed 
 a full share of the gallantry and noble spirit 
 of his native state. In the absence of Boon, 
 he was chosen, on account of his military rank 
 and talents, to command the rude citadel, which 
 contained all the wealth of this patriarchal 
 band— their wives, their children, and their 
 herds. It held also an object particularly dear 
 to this young soldier — a lady, the daughter of 
 one of the settlers, to whom he had pledged 
 his affections. It came to pass, upon a certain 
 day, when the siege was over, tranquillity 
 restored, and the employments of husbandry 
 resumed, that this young lady with a female 
 companion strolled out, as young ladies in love 
 are very apt to do, along the banks of the Ken- 
 tuck7 River. Having rambled about for some 
 time, they espied a canoe lying by the shore, 
 and in a frolic stepped into it, with the deter- 
 mination of visiting a neighbour on the opposite 
 bank. It seems that they were not so well
 
 BACKWOODSMEN. 261 
 
 skilled in navigation as the Ladi/ of the Lake^ 
 who " paddled her own canoe" very dexte- 
 rously ; — for instead of gliding to the point of 
 destination, they were whirled about by the 
 stream, and at length thrown on a sand-bar, 
 from which they were obliged to wade to the 
 shore. Full of the mirth excited by their wild 
 adventure, they hastily arranged their dresses, 
 and were proceeding to climb the banks when 
 three Indians, rushing from a neighbouring 
 covert, seized the fair wanderers, and forced 
 them away. Their savage captors, evincing no 
 sympathy for their distress, nor allowing them 
 time for rest or reflection, hurried them alonsr 
 during the whole day by rugged and thorny 
 paths. Their shoes were worn off by the rocks, 
 their clothes torn, and their feet and limbs 
 lacerated, and stained with blood. To heighten 
 their misery, one of the savages began to make 
 
 love to Miss , (the intended of Major S.), 
 
 and while goading her along with a pointed 
 stick, promised, in recompense for her sufferings 
 to make her his squaw. This at once roused 
 all the energies of her mind, and called its 
 powers into action. In the hope that her friends
 
 26'2 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 would soon pursue them, she broke the twigs 
 as she passed along, and delayed the party as 
 much as possible by tardy and blundering steps. 
 But why dwell on the heartless and unmanly 
 cruelty of these savages ? The day and the 
 night passed, and another day of agony had 
 nearly rolled over the heads of these afflicted 
 females, when their conductors halted to cook 
 a wild repast of buffalo meat. 
 
 The ladies were soon missed from the gar- 
 rison. The natural courage and sagacity of 
 Smith, now heightened by love, gave him the 
 winffs of the wind and the fierceness of the 
 tiger. The light traces of female feet led him 
 to the place of embarkation, — the canoe was 
 traced to the opposite shore — the deep print of 
 the moccasin in the sand told the rest ; and the 
 agonized Smith, accompanied by a few of his 
 best woodsmen, pursued " the spoil-encumbered 
 foe." The track, once discovered, they kept it 
 with that unerring sagacity so peculiar to our 
 hunters. The bended grass, the disentangled 
 briars, and the compressed shrub, afforded the 
 only, but to them the certain, indications of the 
 route of the enemy. When they had sufficiently
 
 BACKWOODSMEN. SGS 
 
 ascertained the general course of the retreat of 
 the Indians, Smith quitted the trace, assuring 
 his companions that they would fall in with them 
 at the pass of a certain stream ahead, for which 
 he now struck a direct course, thus gaining on 
 the foe, who had taken the most difficult paths. 
 Arrived at the stream, they traced its course 
 until they discovered the water newly thrown 
 upon the rocks. Smith, leaving his party, now 
 crept forward upon his hands and feet, until he 
 discovered one of the savages seated by a fire, 
 and with a deliberate aim shot him through the 
 heart. The women rushed towards their 
 deliverer, and recognizing Smith, clung to him 
 in the transports of newly awakened joy and 
 gratitude, while a second Indian sprang towards 
 him with his tomahawk. Smith disengaging 
 himself from the ladies, aimed a blow at his 
 antagonist with his rifle, which the savage 
 avoided by springing aside, but at the same 
 moment the latter received a mortal wound 
 from another hand. The other and only 
 remaining Indian fell in attempting to escape. 
 Smith, with his interesting charge, returned in
 
 264< LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 triumph to the fort, where his gallantry, no 
 doubt, was repaid by the sweetest of all rewards. 
 This romantic little story, which is all true, 
 I have taken from the " Western Review," pub- 
 lished at Lexington, Kentucky; but in abridging 
 it, I have not been able to retain the beauties 
 which embellished the original recital. From 
 the initial affixed to it in that work, I presume 
 that it is from the pen of a gentleman who has 
 enriched the literature of the west with much 
 curious and authentic information on the sub- 
 ject of Indian antiquities.
 
 THE IIARPES. Q65 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 THE HARPES. 
 
 Many years ago, two men, named Harpe, 
 appeared in Kentucky, spreading death and 
 terror wherever they went. Little else was 
 known of them but that they passed for bro- 
 thers, and came from the borders of Virginia. 
 They had three women with them, who were 
 treated as their wives, and several children, 
 with whom they traversed the mountainous and 
 thinly settled parts of Virginia into Kentucky, 
 marking their course with blood. Their his- 
 tory is wonderful, as well from the number and 
 variety, as the incredible atrocity of their ad- 
 ventures J and as it has never yet appeared in 
 print, I shall compress within this letter a few 
 of its most prominent facts.
 
 ^66 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 In the autumn of the year 1799, a young 
 gentleman, named Langford, of a respectable 
 family in Mecklenburgh county, Virginia, set 
 out from this state for Kentucky, with the 
 intention of passing through the Wilderness, 
 as it was then called, by the route generally 
 known as Boons Trace. On reaching the 
 vicinity of the wilderness, a mountainous and 
 uninhabited tract, which at that time separated 
 the settled parts of Kentucky from those of 
 Virginia, he stopped to breakfast at a public 
 house near Big Rock-castle River. Travel- 
 lers of this description — any other indeed than 
 hardy woodsmen — were unwilling to pass singly 
 through this lonely region ; and they generally 
 waited on its confines for others, and travelled 
 through in parties. Mr. Langford, either not 
 dreading danger, or not choosing to delay, 
 determined to proceed alone. While breakfast 
 was preparing, the Harpes and their women 
 came up. Their appearance denoted poverty, 
 with but little regard to cleanliness ; two very 
 indifferent horses, with some bags swung across 
 them, and a rifle gun or two, composed nearly 
 their whole equipage. Squalid and miserable.
 
 THE HAHPES. 
 
 267 
 
 tliey seemed objects of pity, rather than of 
 fear, and their ferocious glances were attributed 
 more to hunger than to guilty passion. They 
 were entire strangers in that neighbourhood, 
 and, like Mr. Langford, were about to cross the 
 Wilderness. When breakflist was served up, 
 the landlord, as was customary at such places, 
 in those times, invited all the persons who were 
 assembled in the common, perhaps the only 
 room of his little inn, to sit down; but the 
 Harpes declined, alleging their want of money 
 as the reason. Langford, who was of a lively, 
 generous disposition, on hearing this invited 
 them to partake of the meal at his expense ; 
 they accepted the invitation, and eat vora- 
 ciously. When they had thus refreshed them- 
 selves, and were about to renew their journey 
 Mr. Langford called for the bill, and in the 
 act of discharging it imprudently displayed 
 a handful of silver. They then set out toge- 
 ther. 
 
 A few days after, some men who were con- 
 ducting a drove of cattle to Virginia, by the 
 same road which had been travelled by Mr,
 
 268 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Langford and the Harpes, had arrived within 
 a few miles of Big Rock-castle River, when 
 their cattle took fright, and, quitting the road, 
 rushed down a hill into the woods. In collect- 
 ing them, the drovers discovered the dead 
 body of a man concealed behind a log, and 
 covered with brush and leaves. It was now 
 evident that the cattle had been alarmed by 
 the smell of blood in the road, and as the body 
 exhibited marks of violence, it was at once sus- 
 pected that a murder had been perpetrated but 
 recently. The corpse was taken to the same 
 house where the Harpes had breakfasted, and 
 recognised to be that of Mr. Langford, whose 
 name was marked upon several parts of his 
 dress. Suspicion fell upon the Harpes, who 
 were pursued and apprehended near the Ci^ab 
 Orchard. They were taken to Stanford, the 
 seat of justice for Lincoln county, where they 
 were examined and committed by an inquir- 
 ing court, sent to Danville for safe keeping, 
 and probably for trial, as the system of district 
 courts was then in operation in Kentucky. 
 Previous to the time of trial, they made their
 
 THE HARPES. 269 
 
 escape, and proceeded to Henderson county, 
 which at that time was just beginning to be 
 settled. 
 
 Here they soon acquired a dreadful celeb- 
 rity. Neither avarice, want, nor any of the 
 usual inducements to the commission of crime, 
 seemed to govern their conduct. A savage 
 thirst for blood — a deep rooted malignity against 
 human nature, could alone be discovered in 
 their actions. They murdered every defence- 
 less being who fell in their way without distinc- 
 tion of age, sex, or colour. In the night they 
 stole secretly to the cabin, slaughtered its in- 
 habitants, and burned their dwelling — while 
 the farmer who left his house by day, returned 
 to witness the dying agonies of his wife and 
 children, and the conflagration of his posses- 
 sions. Plunder was not their object : travellers 
 they robbed and murdered, but from the in- 
 habitants they took only what would have been 
 freely given to them, and no more than was 
 immediately necessary to supply the wants of 
 nature ; they destroyed without having suf- 
 fered injury, and without the prospect of gain. 
 A negro boy, riding to a mill, with a bag of
 
 270 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 corn, was seized by them, and his brains dashed 
 out against a tree ; but the horse which he 
 rode and the grain were left unmolested. Fe- 
 males, children, and servants, no longer dared 
 to stir abroad ; unarmed men feared to en- 
 counter a Harpe ; and the solitary hunter, as 
 he trod the forest, looked around him with a 
 watchful eye, and when he saw a stranger, 
 picked his flint and stood on the defensive. 
 
 It seems incredible that such atrocities could 
 have been often repeated in a country famed 
 for the hardihood and gallantry of its people j 
 in Kentucky, the cradle of courage, and the 
 nurse of warriors. But that part of Kentucky 
 which was the scene of these barbarities was 
 then almost a wilderness, and the vigilance of 
 the Harpes for a time ensured impunity. The 
 spoils of their dreadful warfare furnished them 
 with the means of violence and of escape. 
 Mounted on fine horses, they plunged into the 
 forest, eluded pursuit by frequently changing 
 their course, and appeared, unexpectedly, to 
 perpetrate new enormities, at points distant 
 from those where they were supposed to lurk. 
 On these occasions, they often left their wives
 
 THE HARPES. 271 
 
 and children behind them ; and it is a fact, 
 honourable to the community, that vengeance 
 for these bloody deeds, was not wreaked on 
 the helpless, but in some degree guilty, com- 
 panions of the perpetrators. Justice, however, 
 was not long delayed. 
 
 A frontier is often the retreat of loose in- 
 dividuals, who, if not familiar with crime, have 
 very blunt perceptions of virtue. The genuine 
 woodsman, the real pioneer, are independent, 
 brave, and upright ; but as the jackal pursues 
 the lion to devour iiis leavings, the footsteps 
 of the sturdy hunter are closely pursued by 
 miscreants destitute of his noble qualities. These 
 are the poorest and the idlest of the human 
 race — averse to labour, and impatient of the 
 restraints of law and the courtesies of civilized 
 society. Without the ardour, the activity, the 
 love of sport, and patience of fatigue, which 
 distinguish the bold backwoodsman, these are 
 doomed to the forest by sheer laziness, and 
 hunt for a bare subsistence ; they are the " can- 
 kers of a calm world and a long peace," the 
 helpless nobodies, who, in a country where none 
 starve and few beg, sleep until hunger pinches,
 
 272 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 then stroll into the woods for a meal, and return 
 to their slumber. Frequently they are as harm- 
 less as the wart upon a man's nose, and as un- 
 sightly J but they are sometimes mere wax in 
 the hands of the designing, and become the 
 accessories of that guilt which they have not 
 the courage or the industry to perpetrate. 
 With such men the Harpes are supposed to 
 have sometimes lurked. None are known to 
 have participated in their deeds of blood, nor 
 suspected of sharing their counsels ; but they 
 sometimes crept to the miserable cabins of 
 those who feared or were not inclined to betray 
 them. 
 
 Two travellers came one night to the house 
 of a man named Stegal, and, for want of better 
 lodgings, claimed under his little roof that 
 hospitality which in a new country is found at 
 every habitation. Shortly after, the Harpes 
 arrived. It was not, it seems, their first visit ; 
 for Mrs. Stegal had received instructions from 
 them, which she dared not disobey, never to 
 address them by their real names in the pre- 
 sence of third persons. On this occasion they 
 contrived to inform her that they intended to
 
 THE HARPES. 273 
 
 personate methodist preachers, and ordered her 
 to arrange matters so that one of them should 
 sleep with each of the strangers, whom they 
 intended to murder. Stegal was absent, and 
 the woman -sras obliged to obey. The strangers 
 were completely deceived as to the character 
 of the newly arrived guests : and when it was 
 announced that the house contained but two 
 beds, they cheerfully assented to the proposed 
 arrangement: one crept into a bed on the 
 lower floor with one ruffian, while the other 
 retired to the loft with another. Both the 
 strangers became their victims ; but these 
 bloody ruffians, who seemed neither to feel 
 shame, nor dread punishment, determined to 
 leave behind them no evidence of their crime, 
 and consummated the foul tragedy by murdering 
 their hostess and setting fire to the dwelling. 
 
 From this scene of arson, robbery, and mur- 
 der, the perpetrators fled precipitately, favoured 
 by a heavy fall of rain, which, as they believed, 
 effaced their footsteps. They did not cease 
 their flight until late the ensuing day, when 
 they halted at a spot which they supposed to 
 be far from any human habitation. Here they 
 
 T
 
 Q.J4f LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 kindled a fire, and were drying their clothes, 
 when an emigrant, who had pitched his tent 
 hard by, strolled towards their camp. He was 
 in search of his horses, which had strayed, and 
 civilly asked if they had seen them. This un- 
 suspecting woodsman they slew, and continued 
 their retreat. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the outrages of these mur- 
 derers had not escaped notice, nor were they 
 tamely submitted to. The Governor of Ken- 
 tucky had offered a reward for their heads, and 
 parties of volunteers had pursued them; they 
 had been so fortunate as to escape punishment 
 by their cunning, but had not the prudence to 
 desist, or to fly the country. 
 
 A man, named Leiper, in revenge for the 
 murder of Mrs. Stegal, raised a party, pursued, 
 and discovered the assassins, on the day suc- 
 ceeding that atrocious deed. They came so 
 suddenly upon the Harpes that they had only 
 time to fly in different directions. Accident 
 aided the pursuers. One of the Harpes was 
 a large, and the other a small man ; the first 
 usually rode a strong, powerful horse, the other 
 a^fleet, but much smaller animal, and in the
 
 THE HARPES. TjS 
 
 hurry of flight they had exchanged horses. The 
 chase was long and hot : the smaller Harpe 
 escaped unnoticed ; but the other, who was 
 kept in view, spurred on the noble animal which 
 he rode, and which, already jaded, began to fail 
 at the end of five or six miles. Still the mis- 
 creant pressed forward ; for, although none of 
 his pursuers were near but Leiper, who had 
 outridden his companions, he was not willing 
 to risk a combat with a man as strong and 
 perhaps bolder than himself, who was animated 
 with a noble spirit of indignation against a 
 shocking and unmanly outrage. Leiper was 
 mounted upon a horse of celebrated powers,^ 
 which he had borrowed from a neighbour for 
 this occasion. At the beginning of the chase, 
 he had pressed his charger to the height of his 
 speed, carefully keeping on the track of Harpe, 
 of whom he sometimes caught a glimpse as he 
 ascended the hills, and again lost sight in the 
 valleys and the brush. But as he gained on 
 the foe, and became sure of his victim, he 
 slackened his pace, cocked his rifle, and delibe- 
 rately pursued, sometimes calling upon the 
 outlaw to surrender. At length, in leaping a 
 
 T 9.
 
 276 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 ravine, Harpe's horse sprained a limb, and 
 Leiper overtook him. Both were armed with 
 rifles. Leiper fired, and wounded Harpe through 
 the body ; the latter, turning in his seat, le- 
 velled his piece, which missed fire, and he 
 dashed it to the ground, swearing it was the first 
 time it had ever deceived him. He then drew a 
 tomahawk, and waited the approach of Leiper, 
 who, nothing daunted, unsheathed his long 
 hunting knife and rushed upon his desperate 
 foe, grappled with him, hurled him to the 
 ground, and wrested his only remaining weapon 
 from his grasp. The prostrate wretch — ex- 
 hausted with the loss of blood, conquered, but 
 unsubdued in spirit — now lay passive at the feet 
 of his adversary. Expecting every moment 
 t^ie arrival of the rest of his pursuers, he in- 
 quired if Stegal was of the party, and being 
 answered in the affirmative, he exclaimed, 
 " then I am a dead man." 
 
 " That would make no difference," replied 
 Leiper, calmly ; ** you must die at any rate. I 
 do not wish to kill you myself, but if nobody 
 else will do it, I must.'* Leiper was a humane 
 man, easy, slow-spoken, and not quickly excited,
 
 THE HARPES. 277 
 
 but a thorough soldier when roused. Without 
 insulting the expiring criminal, he questioned 
 him as to the motives of his late atrocities. 
 The murderer attempted not to palliate or deny 
 them, and confessed that he had been actuated 
 by no inducement but a settled hatred of his 
 species, whom he had sworn to destroy without 
 distinction, in retaliation for some fancied injury. 
 He expressed no regret for any of his bloody 
 deeds, except that which he confessed he had per- 
 petrated upon one of his own children. " It cried," 
 said he, " and I killed it : I had always told 
 the w^omen, I would have no crying about me. ' 
 He acknowledged that he had amassed large 
 sums of money, and described the places of con- 
 cealment ; but as none was ever discovered, it is 
 presumed he did not declare the truth. Leiper 
 had fired several times at Harpe during the 
 chase, and wounded him j and when the latter 
 was asked why, when he found Leiper pursu- 
 ing him alone, he did not dismount and take to a 
 tree, from behind which he could inevitably have 
 shot him as he approached, he replied that he had 
 supposed there was not a horse in the country 
 equal to the one which he rode, and that he
 
 ^78 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 was confident of making his escape. He thought 
 also that the pursuit would be less eager, so long 
 as he abstained from shedding the blood of any 
 of his pursuers. On the arrival of the rest of the 
 party, the wretch was dispatched, and he died 
 as he had lived, in remorseless guilt. It is said, 
 however, that he was about to make some dis- 
 closure, and had commenced in a tone of more 
 sincerity than he had before evinced, when 
 Stegal advanced and severed his head from his 
 body. This bloody trophy they carried to the 
 nearest magistrate, a Mr. Newman, before 
 whom it was proved to be the head of Micajah 
 Harpe ; they then placed it in the fork of a 
 tree, where it long remained a revolting object 
 of horror. The spot which is near the High- 
 land Lick, in Union (then Henderson) County, 
 is still called Harpe's Heady and a public road 
 which passes it, is called the Harpe's Head Road. 
 ■ The other Harpe made his way to the neigh- 
 bourhood of Natchez, where he joined a gang 
 of robbers, headed by a man named Meason, 
 whose villanies were so notorious that a reward 
 was offered for his head. At that period, vast 
 regions along the shores of the Ohio and
 
 THE HARPES. 279 
 
 Mississippi were still unsettled, through which 
 boats navigating those rivers must necessarily 
 pass; and the traders who, after selling their 
 cargoes at New Orleans, attempted to return by 
 land, had to cross immense wildernesses, totally 
 destitute of inhabitants. Meason, who was a 
 man rather above the ordinary stamp, infested 
 these deserts, seldom committing murder, but 
 robbing all who fell in his way. Sometimes he 
 plundered the descending boats ; but more fre- 
 quently he allowed these to pass, preferring to 
 rob their owners of their money as they returned, 
 pleasantly observing, that " those people were 
 taking produce to market for him." Harpe took 
 an opportunity, when the rest of his companions 
 were absent, to slay Meason, and putting his 
 liead in a bag, carried it to Natchez, and claimed 
 the reward. The claim was admitted ; the head 
 of Meason was recognized ; but so also was the 
 face of Harpe, who was arrested, condemned, 
 and executed. 
 
 In collecting oral testimony of events long 
 past, a considerable variety will often be found 
 in the statements of the persons conversant 
 with the circumstances. In this case, I have
 
 280 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 found none, except as to the fact of the two 
 Harpes having exchanged horses. A day or two 
 before the fatal catastrophe which ended their 
 career in Kentucky, they had murdered a 
 gentleman named Love, and had taken his 
 horse, a remarkably fine animal, which big 
 Harpe undoubtedly rode when he was over- 
 taken. It is said that Little Harpe escaped on 
 foot, and not on his brother's horse. Many of 
 these facts were disclosed by the latter, while 
 under sentence of death. 
 
 After Harpe's death the women came in 
 and claimed protection. Two of them were the 
 wives of the larger Harpe, the other one of 
 his brother. The latter was a decent female, of 
 delicate, prepossessing appearance, who stated 
 that she had married her husband witliout any 
 knowledge of his real character, shortly before 
 they set out for the west ; that she was so much 
 shocked at the first murder which they com- 
 mitted, that she attempted to escape from them, 
 but was prevented, and that she had since made 
 similar attempts. She immediately wrote to 
 her father in Virginia, who came for her, and 
 took her home. The other women were in no
 
 THE HARPES. ^81 
 
 way remarkable. They remained in Miihlen- 
 burgli county. 
 
 These horrid events will sound like fiction to 
 your ears, when told as having happened in any 
 part of the United States, so foreign are they 
 from the generosity of the American character, 
 the happy security of our institutions, and the 
 moral habits of our people. But it is to be 
 recollected that they happened twenty-seven 
 years ago, in frontier settlements, far distant 
 from the civilized parts of our country. The 
 principal scene of Harpers atrocities, and of his 
 death, was in tliat part of Kentucky which lies 
 south of Green River, a vast wilderness, then 
 known by the general name of the Green River 
 Countinj, and containing a few small and thinly 
 scattered settlements — the more dense popula- 
 tion of that state being at that time confined to 
 its northern and eastern parts. The Indians 
 still possessed the country to the south and west. 
 That enormities should sometimes have been 
 practised at these distant spots, cannot be 
 matter of surprise ; the only wonder is that they 
 were so few. The first settlers were a hardy 
 and an honest people ; but they were too few in
 
 282 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 number, and too widely spread, to be able to 
 create or enforce wholesome civil restraints. 
 Desperadoes, flying from justice, or seeking a 
 secure theatre for the perpetration of crime, 
 might frequently escape discovery, and as often 
 elude or openly defy the arm of justice.
 
 BACKWOODSMEN - REGULATORS. 283 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 BACKWOODSMEN REGULATORS. 
 
 It has been objected that such ** horrid de- 
 tails" as those contained in my last letter are 
 not proper for publication ; that " such dis- 
 gusting sketches of human depravity and bar- 
 barism manifest either a vitiated taste or a 
 total disregard of the morals of the community." 
 I reply, that whatever tends to develope the 
 history or character of a people, is a legitimate 
 subject of public discussion. History, to be 
 of any value, must be true. It must disclose, 
 not only the truth, but the whole truth. In 
 vain would the historian seek this in frail 
 monuments, vaguely preserved in the uncer- 
 tain legends of tradition. He must resort to
 
 28i LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 national records, and to the testimony of writers 
 contemporary with the events which he attempts 
 to describe, and if the latter abstain from the 
 narration of " disgusting sketches of human 
 depravity and barbarism," history must be cur- 
 tailed of her most fruitful source of incident, 
 and men and nations stripped of their boldest 
 peculiarities. It is perhaps forgotten, that 
 *' depravity and barbarism" constitute almost 
 the sole basis of history, tragedy, and epic song ; 
 that kings and courts are nothing without them ; 
 that they revel amid "the pomp, pride, and cir- 
 cumstance of glorious war ;" that they are the 
 very elements of faction and revolution ; 
 and stand forth, in bold relief, in every depart- 
 ment of civil subordination. They exist in the 
 contemplation of every religious, and moral? 
 and municipal code ; all philosophy detects 
 them, and all creeds abjure them ; they are the 
 fruitful cause of disease — the prolific source of 
 incident; and all nature proclaims that **man 
 is prone to evil, as the sparks fly upward." 
 It is to be deplored that such is the fact ; but 
 wliile crime and folly continue to predomi- 
 nate in the affairs of men, they will be found
 
 BACKWOODSMEN — REGULATORS. 285 
 
 to swell the pages of those who attempt to 
 exhibit correct pictures of haman nature. 
 
 In describing the American backwoodsmen, 
 a class of men peculiar to our country, I thought 
 it proper to introduce, among other authentic 
 anecdotes, the story of the Harpes. My object 
 was to display, as well the extraordinary suf- 
 ferings to which the emigrants to the western 
 country were exposed, as the courage with 
 which they met and repelled those hardships. 
 — When we know that the state of Kentucky 
 was settled by the farmers of Virginia and 
 North Carolina, we are at a loss to discover 
 by what process a race of husbandmen were 
 transformed into a bold, adventurous, military 
 people. The toils of the chase, or the mere 
 labour of subduing the forest, were not of 
 themselves calculated to produce these traits 
 of character, without the addition of some other 
 powerful causes. The history of Kentucky is 
 fruitful in interesting events, which awakened 
 the . courage and exercised the ingenuity of 
 her citizens, while they implanted that military 
 spirit which is still a conspicuous feature in 
 the character of that patriotic state ; but these,
 
 286 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 it seems, are forbidden to us, because it has 
 just been found out, that a regard for *' the 
 morals of the community^' renders it improper 
 to disclose the " barbarism" of the Indian, or 
 the *' depravity" of the felon who flies for 
 safety to a frontier. These researches may^ or 
 they may not, manifest " a vitiated taste" — the 
 public will decide that question. In the mean- 
 time, if I am to be allowed to speculate upon 
 the peculiarities of my countrymen, I must 
 claim the privilege of managing my case ac- 
 cording to my own judgment, holding myself 
 responsible to no other constraints than sucli 
 as are indicated by a respect for religion, truth, 
 and modesty. Whenever I sh-H offend against 
 either of these, by a wilful mis-'btatement or an 
 idle jest, I shall submit in silence to the cen- 
 sure of public indignation. I desire to be an 
 author no longer than I can combine the 
 cheerfulness of wit with the morality of a 
 christian, and the courtesy of good-breeding. 
 Without these, a writer is a pest worse than 
 an influenza, a tariff", or a paper-bank.* 
 
 * These remarks are made in reply to some strictures upon
 
 BACKWOODSMEN — REGULATORS. 287 
 
 The manners and institutions of a new peo- 
 ple are always curious — presenting the naked 
 outlines of character, the first rudiments of 
 civilization, and all the simple elements of 
 society. In New England, the fathers con- 
 tended successfully with the savage and the 
 climate ; they made Jaws, burned witches, pro- 
 hibited kissing, and knocked their beer-barrels 
 on the head for working on the Sabbath. They 
 had many simple fashions, and queer ways, 
 which have vanished with their witches and 
 their blue laws. They were not so military in 
 their habits, as their prototypes in the west ; 
 because, though equally brave and enterpris- 
 ing, they were more industrious, more frugal, 
 and less mercu'i.i in their temperament. Re- 
 ligion was with them a powerful spring of 
 action, and discouraged all wars except those 
 of self-defence. The social and moral virtues, 
 the sciences and arts, were cherished and re- 
 spected ; and there were many roads to office 
 and to eminence, which were safer and more 
 
 one of these letters, which appeared in a periodical work, and 
 which do not require a more particular notice.
 
 288 LETTERS FKOM THE WEST. 
 
 certain, and not less honourable, than the 
 bloody path of warlike achievement. 
 
 Kentucky was settled at a period when re- 
 ligious fanaticism had vanished, and when the 
 principles of the revokition, then in full opera- 
 tion, had engendered liberal and original modes 
 of thinking — when every man was a politician, 
 a soldier, and a patriot, ready to make war or 
 to make laws, to put his hand to the plough 
 or to the helm of state, as circumstances might 
 require. They went to a w^ilderness with all 
 these new notions in their heads, full of ardour, 
 and full of projects, determined to add a new 
 state to the family of republics, at all hazards. 
 With Boon for their file-leader, they resolutely 
 breasted all opposition. The rifle and the axe 
 were incessantly employed. The savage was 
 to be expelled ; the panther, the wolf, and the 
 bear to be exterminated ; the forest to be razed j 
 houses to be built : and when all this was ac- 
 complished, their labours were but commenced. 
 Separated, by an immense wilderness, and by 
 the rugged ridges of the Alleghany mountains, 
 from the older settlements, the transportation 
 of heavy articles was at first impossible, and
 
 BACKWOODSMEN REGULATORS. 289 
 
 for many years difficult and expensive. The 
 pioneers, therefore, brought Httle else with 
 them than their weapons, and their ammuni- 
 tion ; those who followed in their footsteps 
 brought cattle, and hogs, and a few articles of 
 immediate necessity, laden upon pack-horses. 
 With no tools but an axe and an augiu", the 
 settler built his cabin ; with a chimney built 
 of sticks, and a door hung upon wooden hinges, 
 and confined with a wooden latch. Chairs, 
 tables, and bedsteads, were fabricated with the 
 same unwieldy tools. These primitive dwell- 
 ings are by no means so wretched as their 
 name and their rude workmanship seem to 
 imply. They still constitute the usual resi- 
 dence of the farmers in new settlements, 
 and I have often found them roomy, tight, and 
 comfortable. If one cabin is not sufficient, 
 another, and another is added, until the whole 
 family is accommodated ; and thus the home- 
 stead of a substantial farmer often resembles 
 a little village. Farming utensils were next to 
 be fabricated, and land to be cleared and 
 fenced ; and while all this was carrying on, 
 the new settler had to provide food for his 
 
 u
 
 ^90 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 family with his rifle, to look after his stock, 
 which ranged the woods, exposed to the *' wild 
 varmints," and to *' keep a red eye out" for 
 Indians. In addition to these more important 
 matters, it will readily be imagined, that a num- 
 ber of little things would have to be made, and 
 done, and provided, before the woodsman, 
 adhering strictly to the system of home manu- 
 facture, could be ^^ "well jixed^' as their phrase 
 is ; a man who goes into the woods, as one of 
 these veterans observed to me, *' has a heap of 
 little jixens to study out, and a great deal of 
 prqjecking to do, as well as hard work." 
 
 At the close of the revolution the state of 
 Virginia rewarded her military officers by dona- 
 tions of land, in the then district of Kentucky. 
 Many of these gentlemen, with others who at 
 the close of the war found themselves without 
 employment, emigrated to that country, carry- 
 ing with them, the courage, skill, and lofty 
 notions incident to military command. They 
 became the leaders in the Indian wars ; and as 
 bravery is necessarily held in the highest esti- 
 mation among a people who are exposed to 
 danger, they soon became the popular men of
 
 BACKWOODSMEN — REGULATORS. 291 
 
 the country, and filled many of the civil offices. 
 The people and the institutions imbibed their 
 spirit, and the Kentuckians became a chivalrous 
 people. Brave and hardy they must have been 
 from their manner of life ; but we must attri- 
 bute much of their hospitality, their polish, 
 and their intelligence to the gentlemen of Vir- 
 ginia, who came to this state in early times, 
 bringing with them education, wealth, and 
 talents. 
 
 Among the early settlers there was a way of 
 trying causes, which may perhaps be uew to 
 you. No commentator has taken any notice of 
 Linch's Lmv, which was once the lex loci of the 
 frontiers. Its operation was as follows : when 
 a horse thief, a counterfeiter, or any other des- 
 perate vagabond, infested a neighbourhood, 
 evading justice by cunning, or by a strong arm, 
 or by the number of his confederates, the 
 citizens formed themselves into a " regulating 
 company y^' a kind of holy brotherhood, whose 
 duty was to purge the community of its unruly 
 members. Mounted, armed, and commanded 
 by a leader, they proceeded to arrest such no- 
 torious offenders as were deemed fit subjects of 
 
 u 2
 
 292 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 exemplary justice ; their operations were gene- 
 rally carried on in the night. Squire Birch, 
 who was personated by one of the party, estab- 
 lished his tribunal under a tree in the woods, 
 and the culprit was brought before him, tried, 
 and generally convicted ; he was then tied to 
 a tree, lashed without mercy, and ordered to 
 leave the country within a given time, under 
 pain of a second visitation. It seldom happened 
 that more than one or two were thus punished ; 
 their confederates took the hint and fled, or 
 were admonished to quit the neighbourhood. 
 Neither the justice nor the policy of this prac- 
 tice can be defended, but it was often resorted 
 to from necessity, and its operation was salutary 
 in ridding the country of miscreants whom the 
 law was not strong enough to punish. It was 
 liable to abuse, and was sometimes abused ; but 
 in general it was conducted with moderation, and 
 only exerted upon the basest and most lawless 
 men. Sometimes the sufferers resorted to courts 
 of justice for remuneration, and there have been 
 instances of heavy damages being recovered of 
 the regulators. Whenever a county became 
 strong enough to enforce the laws, these high- 
 handed doings ceased to be tolerated.
 
 THE MISSOURI TRAPPER. 293 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 THE MISSOURI TRAPPER. 
 
 The varied fortunes of tliose who bear the 
 above cognomen, whatever may be their vir- 
 tues or demerits, must, upon the common prin- 
 ciples of humanity, claim our sympathy, while 
 they cannot fail to awaken admiration. The 
 hardships voluntarily encountered, the priva- 
 tions manfully endured, by this hardy race, in 
 the exercise of their perilous calling, present 
 abundant proofs of those peculiar characteristics 
 which distinguish the American woodsmen. 
 The trackless deserts of Missouri, the innu- 
 merable tributary streams of the Mississippi, 
 the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains, have all 
 been explored by these bold adventurers ; and 
 the great and increasing importance of the 
 Missouri fur trade, is an evidence as well of
 
 1^94 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 their numbers, as of their skill and perseve- 
 rance. 
 
 The ingenious author of Robinson Crusoe 
 has shewn, by an agreeable fiction, that man 
 may exist in a desert, without the society or 
 aid of his fellow-creatures, and unassisted by 
 those contrivances of art which are deemed in- 
 dispensable in a state of civilized society ; that 
 nature will supply all his absolute wants ; and 
 that his own ingenuity will suggest ways and 
 means of living which are not dreamt of in the 
 philosophy of polished circles. That which the 
 novelist deemed barely possible, and which has 
 always been considered as marvellously incre- 
 dible by a large portion of his readers, is now 
 daily and hourly reduced to practice in our 
 western forests. Here may be found many a 
 Crusoe, clad in skins, and contentedly keeping 
 *' bachelor's hall" in the wild woods, unblessed^ 
 by the smile of beauty, uncheered by the voice 
 of humanity — without even a *' man Friday'' 
 for company, and ignorant of the busy world, 
 its cares, its pleasures, or its comforts. 
 
 But the solitary wight whose cabin is pitched 
 in the deepest recess of the forest, whose gun
 
 THE MISSOURI TRAPPER. 295 
 
 supplies his table, and whose dog is his only 
 comrade, enjoys ease and comfort, in com- 
 parison with the trapper, whose erratic steps 
 lead him continually into new toils and dangers. 
 Compelled to procure his subsistence by very 
 precarious means from day to day, in those 
 immense regions of wilderness into which he 
 fearlessly penetrates, he is sometimes known to 
 live for a considerable period upon food over 
 which the hungry wolf would pause for a polite 
 interval before carving. The ordinary food of 
 a trapper is corn and buffaloe-tallow ; and 
 although his rifle often procures him more 
 dainty viands, he is frequently, on the other 
 hand, forced to devour his peltry and gnaw 
 his moccasins. 
 
 An old man arrived at Fort Atkinson in June 
 last, from the Upper Missouri, who was in- 
 stantly recognized by some of the officers of the 
 garrison, as an individual supposed some time 
 since to have been devoured by a white bear, 
 but more recently reported to have been slain 
 by the Arickara Indians ; his name is Hugh 
 Glass. Whether old Ireland, or Scotch-Irish 
 Pennsylvania claims the honour of his nativity,
 
 296 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 I have not ascertained with precision, nor do 
 I suppose that the humble fortunes of the 
 hardy adventurer will excite a rivalry on the 
 subject similar to that respecting the birth-place 
 of Homer. The following is his own account 
 of himself, for the last ten months of his perilous 
 career. 
 
 Pie was employed as a trapper by Major 
 Henry, an enterprising gentleman of St. Louis, 
 engaged in the fur- trade, and was attached to 
 his command before the Arickara towns. After 
 the flight of these Indians, the major and his 
 party set out for the Yellow-stone River. Their 
 route lay up the Grand River, and through a 
 prairie country, occasionally interspersed with 
 thickets of brush-wood, dwarf-plum trees, and 
 other shrubs indigenous to a sandy, sterile soil. 
 As these adventurers usually draw their food, 
 as well as their raiment, from Nature's spacious 
 warehouse, it is customary for one or two hun- 
 ters to precede the party in search of game, 
 that the whole may not be forced at night to 
 lie down supperless. The rifle of Hugh Glass 
 being esteemed as among the most unerring, he 
 was on one occasion detached for supplies. He
 
 THE MISSOURI TRAPPER. i^97 
 
 was a short distance in advance of the party, 
 and forcing his way through a thicket, when a 
 white bear, that had imbedded herself in the 
 sand, arose within three yards of him, and 
 before he coukl " set his triggers," or turn to 
 I'etreat, he was seized by the throat and raised 
 from the ground ; casting him again upon the 
 earth, his grim adversary tore out a mouth, 
 ful of the cannibal food which had excited her 
 appetite, and retired to submit the sample to 
 her yearling cubs, which were near at hand. 
 The sufferer now made an effort to escape, but 
 the bear immediately returned with a re-inforce- 
 nient, and seized him by the shoulder : she 
 also lacerated his left arm very much, and in- 
 flicted a severe wound on the back of his head. 
 In this second attack the cubs were prevented 
 from participating, by one of the party who had 
 rushed forward to the relief of his comrade. 
 One of the cubs, however, forced the new-comer 
 to retreat into the river, where, standing to the 
 middle in the water, he gave his foe a mortal 
 shot, or to use his own language, " I burst the 
 varment.** Meantime the main body of trappers 
 having arrived, advanced to the relief of Glass,
 
 298 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 and delivered seven or eight shots, so well 
 directed as to terminate hostilities, by dispatch- 
 ing the bear as she stood over her bleeding 
 victim. 
 
 Glass was thus providentially snatched from 
 the grasp of the ferocious animal ; yet his con- 
 dition was far from being enviable : he had 
 received several dangerous wounds, his whole 
 body was bruised and mangled, and he lay 
 weltering in his blood, in exquisite torment. 
 To procure surgical aid, now so desirable, was 
 impossible ; and to remove the sufferer was 
 equally so ; the safety of the whole party, being 
 now in the country of hostile Indians, depended 
 on the celerity of their movements. To re- 
 move the lacerated and scarcely breathing 
 Glass, seemed certain death to him — to the rest 
 of the party such a measure would have been 
 fraught with danger. Under these circum- 
 stances, Major Henry, by offering an extrava- 
 gant reward, induced two of his party to 
 remain with the wounded man until he should 
 expire, or recover sufficient strength to bear 
 removal to some of the trading establishments 
 in that country. They remained with their
 
 THE MISSOURI TRAPPER. 299 
 
 patient five days, when supposing his recovery 
 to be no longer possible, they cruelly abandoned 
 him, taking with them his rifle, shot pouch, 
 and all appliances, leaving him no means of 
 making fire or procuring food. These unprin- 
 cipled wretches proceeded on the trail of their 
 employer ; and when they overtook him, 
 reported that Glass had died of his wounds, 
 and that they had interred him in the best 
 manner possible. They produced his effects in 
 confirmation of their assertions, and readily 
 obtained credence. 
 
 But poor Glass was not ** a slovenly, unhand- 
 some corpse ;" nor was he willing to yield 
 without a struggle to the grim king of terrors. 
 Retaining a slight hold upon life, when he 
 found himself abandoned, he crawled with great 
 difficulty to a spring, which was within a few 
 yards. Here he laid ten days subsisting upon 
 cherries that hung over the spring, and grains 
 des bceufs, or buffaloe-berries, which were within 
 his reach. Acquiring by slow degrees a little 
 strength, he now set off for Fort Kiawa, a 
 trading post, on the Missouri River, about three 
 hundred and fifty miles distant. It required no
 
 300 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 ordinary degree of fortitude to crawl to the end 
 of such a journey, through a hostile country, 
 without fire-arms, with scarcely strength to 
 drag one limb after another, and with almost 
 no other subsistence than wild berries. He had, 
 however, the good fortune one day to be " in at 
 the death of a buifaloe calf," which was over- 
 taken and slain by a pack of wolves. He per- 
 mitted the assailants to carry on the war, until no 
 signs of life remained in their victim, and then 
 interfered and took possession of the ^^ fatted 
 calf ;' but as he had no means of striking fire, 
 we may infer that he did not make a very 
 prodigal use of the veal thus obtained. With 
 indefatigable industry, he continued to crawl 
 until he reached Fort Kiawa. 
 
 Before his wounds were entirely healed, the 
 chivalry of Glass was awakened, and he joined 
 a party of five engages, who were bound, in a 
 piroque, to Yellow Stone River. The primary 
 object of this voyage was declared to be the 
 recovery of his arms, and vengeance on the 
 recreant who had robbed and abandoned him in 
 his hour of peril. When the party had ascend- 
 ed to within a few miles of the old Mandan
 
 THE MISSOURI TRAPPER. 301 
 
 village, our trapper of hair-breadth 'scapes, 
 landed for tlie purpose of proceeding to Tilton's 
 Fort at that place, by a nearer route than that 
 of the river. On the following day, all the 
 companions of his voyage were massacred by 
 the Arickara Indians. Approaching the fort 
 with some caution, he observed two squaws 
 whom he recognised as Arickaras, and who, dis- 
 covering him at the same time, turned and fled. 
 This was the first intelligence which he obtained 
 of the fact, that the Arickaras had taken post at 
 the Mandan village, and he at once perceived 
 the danger of his situation. The squaws were 
 not long in rallying the warriors of the tribe, 
 who immediately commenced the pursuit. 
 Suffering still under the severity of his recent 
 wounds, the poor fugitive made but a feeble 
 essay at flight, and his enemies were v/ithin rifle 
 shot of him, when two Mandan mounted war- 
 riors rushed forward and seized him. Instead of 
 despatching their prisoner, as he had anticipated, 
 they mounted him on a fleet horse, which they 
 had brought out for that purpose, and carried 
 him into Tilton's Fort without injury. 
 
 The same evening, Glass crept out of the fort,
 
 302 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 and after travelling thirty-eight days alone, and 
 through the country of hostile Indians, he 
 arrived at Henry's establishment. 
 
 Finding that the trapper he was in pursuit of 
 had gone to Fort Atkinson, Glass readily con- 
 sented to be the bearer of letters for that post, 
 and accordingly left Henry's Fort on the Big 
 Horn River, on the 29th of February, 1824. 
 Four men accompanied him : they travelled 
 across to Powder River, which empties itself 
 into the Yellow Stone, below the mouth of the 
 Horn. They pursued their route up the 
 Powder to its source, and thence across to the 
 Platte. Here they constructed skin boats, and 
 descended in them to the lower end of Les Cotes 
 Noirs, (the Black Hills), where they discovered 
 thirty-eight lodges of Arickara Indians. This 
 was the encampment of Gray-eye's band. 
 That chief had been killed in the attack of the 
 American troops upon his village, and the tribe 
 was now under the command of Langue de BicJie 
 (Elk's Tongue.) This warrior came down, and 
 invited our little party ashore, and by many 
 professions of friendship, induced them to 
 believe him to be sincere. Glass had once
 
 THE MISSOURI TRAPPER. 303 
 
 resided with this tonguey old politician during a 
 long winter, had joined him in the chase, and 
 smoked his pipe, and cracked many a bottle by 
 the genial fire of his wigwam ; and when he 
 landed, the savage chief embraced him with the 
 cordiality of an old friend. The whites were 
 thrown off their guard, and accepted an invi- 
 tation to smoke in the Indian's lodge. While 
 engaged in passing the hospitable pipe, a small 
 child was heard to utter a suspicious scream. 
 Glass looked tow^ards the door of the lodge, and 
 beheld the squaws of the tribe bearing off the 
 arms and other effects of his party. This was 
 a signal for a general movement; the guests 
 sprang from their seats, and fied with precipi- 
 tation, pursued by their treacherous enter- 
 tainers : the whites ran for life : the red war- 
 riors for blood. Two of the party were over- 
 taken and put to death : one of them within a 
 few yards of Glass, who had gained a point of 
 rocks unperceived, and lay concealed from the 
 view of his pursuers. Versed in all the arts of 
 border warfare, our adventurer was enabled to 
 practice them in the present crisis with such 
 success, as to baffle his blood-thirsty enemies ;.
 
 304 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 and he remained in his lurking place until the 
 search was abandoned in despair. Breathing 
 once more a free air, he sallied forth under 
 cover of the night, and resumed his line of 
 march towards Fort Kiawa. The buffaloe calves 
 at that season of the year, were generally but 
 a few days old ; and as the country through 
 which he travelled was abundantly stocked with 
 them, he found it no difficult task to overtake 
 one as often as his appetite admonished him to 
 task his speed for that purpose. *' Although," 
 said he, " I had lost my rifle and all my 'plunder^ 
 I felt quite rich, when I found my knife, flint, 
 and steel in my shot pouch. These little fixens,'* 
 added he, " make a man feel right peart, when 
 he is three or four hundred vhiIq^ from any body 
 or any place — all alone among the painters and 
 wild varments^' 
 
 A journey of fifteen days brought him to 
 Fort Kiawa. Thence he descended to Fort 
 Atkinson, at the Council Bluffs, where he found 
 his old traitorous acquaintance in the garb of 
 a private soldier. This shielded the delinquent 
 from chastisement. The commanding officer 
 at the post ordered his rifle to be restored, and
 
 THE MISSOURI TRAPrER. 305 
 
 the veteran trapper was furnished with such 
 other appliances— or Jlvens, as he would term 
 them — as put him in plight again to take the 
 field. This appeased the wrath of Hugh Glass, 
 whom my informant left, astounding, with his 
 wonderful narration, the gaping rank and file 
 of the garrison. 
 
 X
 
 306 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 EMIGRATION. 
 
 Having in my former letters endeavoured to 
 sketch a faint outline of the character and suf- 
 ferings of the first settlers of this country, I 
 shall now give you some traits of a less hardy 
 race, its more recently acquired inhabitants. 
 Between those persons, and the subjects of my 
 present communication, there exist these 
 marked distinctions ; namely : — the first were 
 a peculiar class of men, accustomed to danger 
 and privations ; the latter are persons taken 
 from all the various grades of civilized society ; 
 the former came to conquer a country, the 
 latter to enjoy it ; the former came from the 
 southern, the latter from the eastern and mid- 
 dle states ; the former took possession of Keu-
 
 EAIIGIIATION. 307 
 
 tiicky ; the latter are crowding to Ohio, Indiana, 
 and Illinois. I am aware that it is impossible to 
 do justice to this subject within the compass 
 of a letter ; but I feel also the danger of enter- 
 ing too minutely upon a theme which presents 
 a vast variety of interesting features. To say 
 nothing of the mighty revolution which a score 
 of years has produced in this wonderful country 
 — of the extensive regions which have been 
 civilized, or of the sublime reflections excited by 
 the establishment of states and governments, 
 there are a thousand minor traits in the scenes 
 which I have witnessed — pictures of domestic life 
 and individual fortune, which present new and 
 affecting views of human nature. If the miser- 
 able victims of penury, alone, changing only 
 the scene of distress, had sought refuge in these 
 solitudes, or if none but the greedy worship- 
 pers of mammon had braved the fury of the 
 blast, and the gloom of the wilderness, a single 
 stroke of the pen might display the merits and 
 the fortunes of all. The hacknied tale of vir- 
 tue in distress, would draw for the former the 
 common tribute of a tear ; while the latter 
 
 X 2
 
 SOS LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 would be abandoned without commiseration, 
 to the just rewards of overweening avarice. 
 
 But the mighty stream has not emanated 
 from a single fountain — it comes compounded 
 of various elements, flowing from a thousand 
 sources, mingling and combining their dis- 
 cordant materials into one great and living 
 mass. Industrv sends her sun-brown children, 
 avarice her minions, ambition her aspirants, 
 and sorrow her heavily laden offspring. Never, 
 since the davs when a romantic religious en- 
 thusiasm allured all ages, sexes, and conditions, 
 to the shrine of a favourite saint, has the world 
 witnessed such party-coloured hordes, peace- 
 fully pursuing a common path to a common 
 destination. 
 
 This subject w^as forcibly presented to my 
 mind, a few years ago, during a journey over 
 the Alleghany mountains ; and as the lonely 
 scenes among which these impressions were 
 made upon my memory, are peculiarly fitted 
 to exemplify the toils, and to gvie a tinge of 
 the picturesque to the adventures of the emi- 
 grants whom I there encountered, you must 
 linger with me here for a few moments.
 
 EiMIGRATION. 309 
 
 The traveller who crosses the stupendous 
 chain of mountains which form a dividing line 
 between the two great sections of our country, 
 often pauses to ponder on the deep gloom and 
 savage wildness presented to his eye. Nature 
 seems to have reserved these strong fastnesses 
 to herself, as a last retreat from the encroach- 
 ments of art. Her precarious sway over the 
 valley and the plain, is incessantly assailed by 
 the unwearied arm of civilization, which every 
 day despoils some fair portion of her ancient 
 dominion. The rill no longer murmurs in the 
 solitude, nor does the songster alone fill the 
 grove with his melody ; the discordant hum of 
 a busy world mingles its hoarse tones with 
 those notes of sweet and native eloquence by 
 which nature speaks to her delighted votaries ; 
 the " dappled denizen" of the forest shade has 
 fled, and the forest itself is prostrated by the 
 fierce invaders. But here she sits securely 
 enthroned among her favourite wilds, defended 
 by bulwarks which bid defiance to invasion. 
 Man, the sworn enemy to the fairest works of 
 his Creator, advances to the barrier, and halts ; 
 he pauses on the brink of the precipice, mea-
 
 310 ii7:£.-.< r&OM the west. 
 
 sures with a ^c5^.>LuL.i^^ eye the oi 
 t£S^ acnd retiics £noai flie conflict. 
 
 Xo desariqptioD can ocH^TeT any adequate 
 idea erf* the winda^ paths, the steep accEv res, 
 the oi^ezfaa&giDg di^ and dark rapines; with 
 'which theseA'r.rf resioiis ahoond — :'*:? sob- 
 fime ^andesr : 5 f Derv, or A f - 'tv 
 
 S3.- 
 
 and dans^er o 
 
 
 I am speaking, the tnn^kes, which have dnce 
 rendered the passes of the mo imtaiB s so safe 
 and easy, were not completed ; and if I foond 
 it tdHsome in the eAii e m e to acconi|di5h ary 
 jocrrey 00 h<Msdiack, yoo may concerrc *!!e 
 afanor. : ~ smmoDntable difficaMes presf :r.i 
 to weaiy-iadcn wand^ers, encomb^ed 
 wasrr bagga^ ; yet I formd these _ _ _ ; 
 
 cnjia^iixr-i ~"h rT'r:"3iits c: T rrjr description, 
 bot :'ir - oi tne pomest t^ass. 
 
 Here I ~ : . : . : i . . : ~5, trndsin^ 
 
 it me::_ .^iiig-; and thdi _ :_-ji]v, mie eir- 
 hanassed, and le^ dieerfbl: aow r 1 :^ 
 fortw (M* fifty sofdsy men, w<nnen, as . 
 and now a sditary pedestrian, with li 
 sta^ faishotde, and hiskn^isadt: and, once a 
 day, a stjgeJoad of tired travdkfs, dragged
 
 EiMIGRATION. dll 
 
 heavily towards the west. Sometimes I beheld 
 a gentleman toiling along with a broken-down 
 vehicle, and sometimes encountered the solitary 
 horseman : here I espied the wreck of a car- 
 riage, or the remains of a meal ; and there the 
 temporary shelter which had protected the be- 
 nighted stranger. At one time, beside a small 
 stream rushing through a narrow glen, I encoun- 
 tered a party of about fourscore persons, with 
 two or three waggons. They had halted to 
 bait ; the beasts were grazing among the rocks, 
 the men cleaving wood for tires, and boughs to 
 erect a tenement for the hour ; the women 
 cooking or nursing their children, and the rosy 
 boys and girls dabbling in a waterfall. When, 
 from the summit of a mountain, or one of its 
 precipices, where the road wound beneath my 
 feet, appearing at intervals as far as the eye 
 could reach, I beheld one of these large cara- 
 vans, composed of half-clad beings, of every 
 age and sex, slowly winding up the mountain 
 path, or reclining at mid-day among the rocks, 
 I could compare them only to the gipsy bands, 
 described by foreign novelists. 
 
 At one of the most difficult passes of the
 
 3i'2 
 
 LETTERS FROM THit WEST. 
 
 mountain I met a cavalcade, whose descriptioo 
 will apply to a numerous class j they were 
 from New England. The senior of the party 
 was a middle-aged man, hale, well built, and 
 decently clad. He was guiding a pair of small, 
 lean, active horses, harnessed to a light waggon, 
 which contained the bedding and provisions of 
 the party, and a few articles of household furni- 
 ture ; two well-grown, barefoot boys, in home- 
 spun shirts and trowsers, held the tail of the 
 waggon, laudably endeavouring to prevent an 
 upsety by throwing their weight occasionally 
 to that side which seemed to require ballast, 
 while the father exerted his arms, voice, and 
 whip, in urging forward his ponies. In the 
 rear toiled the partner of his pilgrimage, con- 
 ducting, like John Rodgers' wife, *' nine smaU 
 children and one at the breast," and exhibiting, 
 in her own person and those of her offspring, 
 ample proof, that whatever might be the cha- 
 racter of the land to which they were hastening, 
 that which they had left was not deficient in 
 health or fruitfulness. Nor must I omit to 
 mention a chubby boy of six years old, who by 
 sundry falls and immersions, had acquired the
 
 E^IIGRATIOy. 313 
 
 hue of the soil from head to foot, and though 
 now trudging knee-deep in the mire, was 
 craunching an apple with the most entire com- 
 posure. They had reached the summit of the 
 mountain just as I overtook them, and as they 
 halted to rest, I checked my horse to observe 
 them. As they stretched their eyes forward 
 over the interminable prospect, they were 
 wrapped in silent wonder. As far as the vision 
 could extend there was nothing to intercept it ; 
 beneath our feet lay mountains, and valUes, and 
 forests, and rivers, all of which must be passed 
 before these 
 
 " Sad unravellers 
 Of the mazes to the mountain's top," 
 
 could reach the land of promise, which they 
 imagined they could now dimly discern in the 
 distant horizon. They looked back with a 
 kind of shuddering triumph at what they had 
 accomplished ; they looked forward with a 
 trembling hope at what was to come. I thought 
 I could see in their faces regret, hope, fear, 
 resignation — but they spoke cheerfully, and ex- 
 pressed no dissatisfaction ; and after answering
 
 314 LETTERS FR'OM THE WEST. 
 
 their inquiries as to their route onward, I 
 left them. Tired souls ! they have, probably, 
 long ere this, surmounted their fatigues, and 
 found a happy home in aland of plenty, where, 
 surrounded with fat pigs and fat children, they 
 enjoy the only true othim cum dignitate ; while 
 I, delving among the labyrinths of the law, find 
 mazes more intricate, and steeps more arduous, 
 than the winding paths of the mountain. 
 
 The foreigners whom I met were in much 
 worse circumstances than our own citizens. 
 These arrive on our shores in a destitute condi- 
 tion, and undertake the journey without money 
 enough to accomplish half the distance, and 
 some without a cent to pay their entrance, 
 confiding in the protection of Heaven and the 
 benefactions of the charitable. This confidence 
 is not so often deceptive as might be expected, 
 for an American is never seen to turn a house- 
 less wanderer from his door, or to refuse a 
 morsel to the hungry. It is surprising to see 
 to what a dreary plight some of these adven- 
 turers are reduced by their poverty or improvi- 
 dence ; and yet many of them will trudge along 
 with light hearts and empty purses, apparently
 
 EMIGRATION. 315 
 
 forgetful of the past and regardless of the future. 
 At Pittsburgh, where the emigrants, generally, 
 embark on the Ohio, they may be seen in larger 
 numbers than at any other place ; and here 
 may be remarked, not only their number, but, 
 in some degree, their various characters, and as 
 various expectations. Some arrive with furni- 
 ture, farming utensils, and servants, and push 
 forward, confident in their ability to overcome 
 every obstacle ; some come burthened with 
 large families, and but little worldly gear ; and 
 others, happy at such a time in their " single 
 blessedness," come alone, errant knights, leaving 
 all their cares behind them. Upon observing 
 these motley collections, I have been reminded 
 of the invitation in a camp-meeting song which 
 I have heard, and which I think is about as 
 follows : 
 
 " Come hungry, come thirsty, come ragged, come bare, 
 Come filthy, come lousy, come just as you are." 
 
 For, to be brief, here you see all sorts of folks 
 crowding to the west. 
 
 Those who are driven by misfortune from 
 tlieir homes, go like exiles from the land to
 
 31 6 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 which fond recollection attaches a thousand 
 
 charms, to a wilderness which fancy clothes 
 
 with a thousand terrors. Every sympathy is 
 
 awakened, and every tender feeling thrilled with 
 
 anguish, when they exchange the comforts of 
 
 society, the scenes of their youth, and the 
 
 friends of their hearts, for the nameless and 
 
 unknown difficulties which appear in the dark 
 
 perspective. They dream of interminable 
 
 forests, and pestilential swamps, and at every 
 
 step fancy themselves surrounded by noxious 
 
 vermin and beasts of prey. Thus, anticipating 
 
 no good and fearing every evil, they go into 
 
 banishment with sorrowful hearts. But there 
 
 is a more sanguine class of emigrants, to whom 
 
 a different picture is presented. They have 
 
 been allured by interest or ambition, or led by 
 
 choice, to a new country, and hojfe arrays their 
 
 future abodes with every charm. An El Dorado 
 
 has been described to them, or they have 
 
 created it, in which men are to be wooed to 
 
 their happiness as a maiden to the bridal, and 
 
 their only care is to determine with what grace 
 
 they will accept the guerdon. The old men 
 
 are to be blessed with wealth, the young men
 
 EMIGRATION. 317 
 
 with honour, and the girls with husbands — and, 
 I suppose, with wealth, and honour, and plea- 
 sure into tlie bargain ; and, to crown all, the 
 good folks of the west will feel so delighted 
 and so flattered by their advent, that they will 
 crowd about them like the friends of Job, and 
 every one will give them " an ear-ring and a 
 piece of gold!" 
 
 All these are deceived, as well the despond- 
 ing as the enthusiastic. The advantages of the 
 western country consist in the great fertility of 
 the soil, the profusion of all the products of 
 nature, whether of the animal, vegetable, or 
 mineral kingdom, the cheapness of lands, and 
 the nexmiess of the country, which affords room 
 and opportunity for enterprise. These, together 
 with its commercial advantages, the total ex- 
 emption from all taxes and political burthens, 
 and the comparatively small portion of labour 
 requisite to^'ocure the necessaries of life, cer- 
 tainly render this a desirable home. But they 
 who, like Ortogrul of Basra, desire the golden 
 stream to be quick and violent, will like him 
 discover a dry and dusty channel, and will 
 learn that slow and persevering industry is not
 
 .^318 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 less necessary here than elsewhere. Honours 
 are the reward of personal popularity, which, 
 we have been told, " may be gained without 
 merit and lost without a fault,'* and in this 
 respect the western hemisphere differs little 
 from the rest of the world. Popular arts are 
 the same in every country ; but it is certain 
 that few here are raised to eminent public 
 stations without a long and intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the people. In the west there is no 
 jealousy or unfriendliness to strangers, who are 
 generally received with open arms, and treated 
 with kindness and respect ; but political honours 
 are more sparingly bestowed, and are seldom 
 lavished upon foreigners, who, whatever may 
 be their pretensions, can hardly be supposed to 
 know or to feel the interests of the country. 
 
 The desponding emigrant, on the other hand, 
 is agreeably surprised at finding every plain, 
 substantial comfort which a reasonable man can 
 wish : and though he discovers no attempt at 
 luxury or style, he sees hospitality, plenty, and 
 intelligence. Instead of a vast wilderness, he 
 finds large settlements, which, though thinly 
 scattered, are now sufficiently dense to afford
 
 EMIGRATION. 319 
 
 the comforts and civilities of life, to ensure pro- 
 tection and to enforce municipal regulations. 
 
 Of all people the English are most pro- 
 vokingly disappointed ; the Irish, Dutch, and 
 French amalgamate easily with our people, 
 adopt our habits, and live happily among us. 
 But not so John Bull: this honest gentleman, 
 as he is generally pleased to style himself, has 
 always been famed for an inordinate share of 
 credulity, so that, notwithstanding his prejudices 
 against America, he is easily persuaded that 
 gold is to be ploughed up in our fields and 
 rubies plucked from the trees. He forgets that 
 the days of Columbus and Cortes have gone 
 by, and that Mexico and Peru are not within 
 our bojindaries. With these views he sets out 
 from one of the Atlantic cities, and soon gets 
 into ** lots of trouble." In the first place, Mr. 
 Bull is used to being told that he is obstinate, 
 whimsical, and fond of having his own way, 
 and he is determined not to detract from the 
 national character ; he will, therefore, receive 
 no advice as to his route or mode of travelhng, 
 and consequently adopts the most inconvenient 
 vehicle, takes the worst road, and stops at the
 
 320 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 most indifferent houses. He has resolved that 
 he must have tea and rolls in the morning, and 
 tea and toast in the evening, and roast beef for 
 dinner, all of which must be prepared in a 
 particular manner ; and if he happen to be 
 thwarted in these important matters, he as re- 
 solutely determines not to eat a mouthful until 
 compelled by hunger, nor to pay his fare until 
 obliged by the law. Then he weais a fantastical, 
 fur jockey-cap, which he is advised to exchange 
 for a covering better suited to the climate j but 
 he persists in having his own way, and although 
 his face is scorched and blistered by the sun, 
 he adheres to the fur cap as tenaciously as if it 
 was the magyia charta. Nor is he less attached 
 to his dandy surtout and other dandy habili- 
 ments ; he cannot be convinced that what may 
 be a suitable dress in '' Lunnun," may be very 
 unfit to travel in, and he rather submits to be tor- 
 tured and pinched until he is sore, than to leave 
 off the finery which is worn at 'ome, and which 
 he fondly imagines will entitle him to singular 
 honour, by distinguishing him from the natives — 
 the odious, vile Americans ! among whom, how- 
 ever, he is pleased to live, if he can be said to
 
 EMIGRATION. 321 
 
 be pleased, who is always on the fret. All 
 this is of no consequence to any body but him- 
 self; but unluckily, John is not satisfied with 
 having his own tmy, but is displeased that others 
 claim the same privilege, and perseveringly 
 finds fault with every thing he sees, hears, 
 smells, tastes, or touches. Then he has an odd 
 propensity for quizzing the natives, and many a 
 box on the ear and tweak of the nose this may 
 cost the poor gentleman on his hapless way ; 
 till he finds out at last, that it is just as foolish 
 to meddle with the folks on shore, as to be 
 fingering about their " striped bunting" at sea. 
 His opinions are as singular as his manners ; he 
 is a great politician, 
 
 " Sits up till midnight with his host, 
 Talks politics, and gives the toast :" 
 
 and being accustomed at home to join church 
 and state, he seldom fails to give religion a side- 
 blow in discussing his political tenets. If he 
 happen to be a monarchist, he finds few asso- 
 ciates ; if a radical, he disgusts his hearers by 
 his utter disregard of order, law, decency, and 
 virtue : and, in either case, he fails not to ridi- 
 cule our institutions and revile our government. 
 
 Y
 
 3^2 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Arrived at the end of the journey, he seeks an 
 English settlement, avoids all intercourse with 
 "the natives," quarrels w^th his countrymen, 
 engages in a law-suit, spends his money, and 
 finding that he cannot subsist without labour, 
 curses the country, and gets drunk daily. In a 
 short time he returns home, fully competent to 
 the task of edifying the British public in rela- 
 tion to American politics, history, and literature. 
 He writes a book full of wonders, and dangers, 
 about cataracts in the Ohio, slaves in New 
 England, alligators in the Hudson, and bare- 
 footed belles in Philadelphia. Mr. Quarterly Re- 
 viewer pronounces him a very clever traveller, 
 and John Bull at home gapes and wonders at 
 the " hair breadth 'scapes" of John Bull abroad. 
 In descending the river, three different de- 
 scriptions of boats are at the service of the 
 voyager — the steam-boat, the keel, and the flat 
 bottom. The steam-boats, which are numerous, 
 are strong, beautiful, and swift, and are pro- 
 vided with excellent accommodations ; but these 
 can only run when the water is high, and this 
 mode of conveyance is in some cases too ex- 
 pensive for the circumstances of the emigrant.
 
 EMIGRATION. 323 
 
 In either of these events, the other boats are 
 resorted to. The keel is a long, sharp vessel, 
 drawing but little water ; when loaded, the hull 
 is nearly all immersed, but there is a deck or 
 roof, about six feet high, covered on all sides 
 so as to exclude the weather, and leaving only 
 a passage of about a foot wide, which is called 
 the running board, along the gun-wale, and a 
 small space at the stem and stern. This deck, 
 or roof, affords an admirable lounge in pleasant 
 weather, but at other times the passenger is 
 limited to very narrow bounds below ; the oars, 
 which are placed at the bow, are from eight to 
 twelve in number, and are used only in descend- 
 ing the river. By means of these the boat is 
 propelled at the rate of two or three miles an 
 hour faster than the current, which has an 
 average velocity of about three miles. The 
 oars are plied during the day, and at night 
 the boat is suffered to float, with a man at 
 the helm, and one at the bow to look out, 
 except in those parts of the river where the 
 navigation is difficult, and where they always 
 lay by for daylight. A hundred miles in twenty- 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 LETTERS FROM THE WEST, 
 
 four hours is accomplished with ease. In ascend- 
 ing the stream these boats are propelled with 
 poles, and the passage is very tedious, seldom 
 averaging more than from ten to twenty miles 
 per day. 
 
 The flat-bottom boat is a mere raft, with 
 sides and a roof j but it is more roomy and con- 
 venient than the keel, if well built and tight, 
 as indeed they mostly are. An immense oar 
 is placed on the roof on each side near the bow, 
 (which has given these boats the nick-name of 
 " broad horns,") and another at the stern. These 
 are used only to direct the course of the flat, 
 which is allowed to float with the current, and 
 thus she pursues her voyage, like man on his 
 earthly pilgrimage, to that undiscovered country 
 from whose bourne no traveller of her species 
 ever returns ; for, being calculated to stem the 
 current, she is useless after she has reached her 
 destination, except as so much lumber. 
 
 Well, and when the emigrant has reached 
 his journey's end, what then ? Why then, my 
 dear Sir, he very often finds that he had better 
 have staid at home. Labour, labour, labour,
 
 EMIGRATION. 325 
 
 hard, heavy, incessant labour, is the lot of him 
 who proclaims war against the forest ; but the 
 victory is certain, and the conqueror's reward 
 is rich and ample.
 
 326 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Every nation has its peculiar superstitions, 
 which are often so closely interwoven with 
 the feelings and prejudices of a whole peo- 
 ple, as to form a part of the national cha- 
 racter, and to exert a powerful influence, as 
 well upon their political and religious in- 
 stitutions, as on their social intercourse. So 
 intensely do these feelings operate upon the 
 human mind, that to them may be traced 
 bloody wars and mighty I'evolutions — to them 
 thrones have been indebted for support, and 
 churches for power — and they have produced 
 many of those mournful tragedies in domestic 
 life, which shock humanity, and fatally arrest 
 the progress of moral refinement. The wheel
 
 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 32j 
 
 of Juggernaut, and the dungeons of the Inqui- 
 sition, are terrific monuments of this truth ; 
 and the page of history unfolds but too many 
 instances in which vices of state have been 
 sanctitied, in the popular estimation, by a blind, 
 infatuated reverence for the sacred jjcrsons of the 
 misdoers. When we see that, in all ages, and 
 throughout almost the whole of the habitable 
 globe, that thefexo have cruelly oppressed the 
 many — when we know that a people have but to 
 mil their freedom to obtain it, and that their 
 happiness, and moral improvement, depend 
 entirely upon their own desire of knowledge, 
 and practice of virtue — we readily perceive 
 how effectually ignorance may be deceived by 
 art, how chains may be rivetted, and darkness 
 perpetuated, by delusion and prejudice. 
 
 But there are superstitions, of a more inno- 
 cent character, which are cherished with equal 
 tenacity, while they awaken no serious appre- 
 hension in the breast of the patriot or the 
 christian. These are such as are confined to 
 local objects, or humble pursuits, which exert 
 a quiet influence over untutored minds, and 
 operate chiefly upon rustic manners, employ-
 
 328 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 ments, and festivities. To the philosopher, 
 these have afforded matter of curious investi- 
 gation ; to the poet and novehst they have 
 suggested the finest incidents which adorn the 
 page of fiction. We have seen how copiously 
 the author of Waverleij has drawn from this 
 source, and by combining the traditions of his 
 country with the inventions of his own genius, 
 has woven the most splendid literary fabrics 
 which have appeared to feast the reason or 
 delight the fancy of any age. That the elo- 
 quence of the pulpit is seldom, if ever, em- 
 ployed upon this subject, is surprising : for 
 although the lesser grade of superstitions of 
 which I now speak, can neither prostrate the 
 Cross nor endanger government, they certainly 
 pervert the understanding, and weaken the effi- 
 cacy of religion. Supernatural events can only 
 be brought about by unearthly agents. To sup- 
 pose that the Almighty superintends the opera- 
 tions of a conjuror, or the working of a spell, 
 would be a sacrilege so gross as to shock the 
 most careless mind; and to acknowledge the 
 existence and exercise of such powers in the 
 prince of darkness, would be to encourage the
 
 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 329 
 
 substitution of unlawful appeals to the enemy of 
 mankind, for an humble reliance in the good- 
 ness of Providence, and a steady exertion of 
 our own faculties. A belief in the efficacy of 
 charms, and in the working of miracles upon 
 trivial occasions, is alike inconsistent with 
 human reason and divine revelation. The 
 regular operation of causes and effects has 
 never been interrupted, except to display the 
 power of the Deity, and to advance the great, 
 ultimate interests of man. It should therefore 
 be the business of the divine to teach an ex- 
 clusive reliance upon Him, and to expose the 
 fallacy of any belief which is not founded upon 
 reason or revelation. To believe the existence 
 of concurrent power elsewhere, is to disbelieve 
 the omnipotence of God. 
 
 The American people have no national, and 
 but few local superstitions. The general dif- 
 fusion of intelligence, has left no rank of so- 
 ciety in absolute ignorance j and we find few 
 individuals in that state of intellectual degrada- 
 tion which pervades the lower orders through- 
 out a large portion of the globe. Almost all 
 have arrived at that degree of refinement, at
 
 330 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 least, which awakens the mmd to inquiry, and 
 brings it within the reach and influence of 
 knowledge. Many have the desire, and few 
 are without the means, of literary improvement ; 
 all can read, while the multiplicity of news- 
 papers, and the cheapness of books, give to 
 all the opportunity of attaining mental acquire- 
 ments. Nor has the heartless fastidiousness of 
 pride erected in our country those artificial 
 barriers which proclaim eternal separation be- 
 tween the rich and the poor, the ignorant and the 
 learned, and which debar the individual of few 
 accomplishments from the conversation of him 
 who has many. There are certain natural divi- 
 sions, which will invariably take place in every 
 society : the laborious and the prudent will 
 avoid the dissipated and the extravagant ; the 
 rational, the thinking, and the moral part of 
 the community, will shun the contagion of 
 licentiousness and vice ; the delicacy of refine- 
 ment will not endure the familiarity of its 
 opposite ; and the poor will never intrude upon 
 the pleasures of the rich. Youth and gallantry 
 will crowd to the levee of beauty — learning to 
 the resorts of science — and ambition to active
 
 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 331 
 
 scenes of human exertion. Politically, and 
 civilly, we are all equals, and we are in the 
 habit of asserting this truth upon all suitable 
 occasions ; but in the ordinary enjoyment of 
 social intercourse, every man seeks his com- 
 panions among those who are his equals in for- 
 tune or in intellectual endowment — those in 
 whom he can recognise a community of taste 
 and feeling. Circles are thus created, upon 
 much more rational and less arbitrary princi- 
 ples than those of hereditary rank, and which 
 equally answer the purposes of their institution. 
 But we erect no impassable barriers ; to none 
 do we say, " thus far shalt thou come, and no 
 farther." The genius of the republican com- 
 pact, the habits of the people, the diffusion of 
 knowledge, the rational, liberal, and acute 
 modes of thinking which prevail, all forbid 
 this. A door is left open to the ambition which 
 would rise, or the humility that would conde- 
 scend; through this curiosity may sometimes 
 gaze, but politeness and decency seldom fail 
 to prevent intrusion. The man would be ridi- 
 culed who should assert a superiority over his 
 fellow citizens ; but he is, tacitly and freely,
 
 330. LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 invested with all the advantages of any adven- 
 titious superiority, which he is content to re- 
 ceive with modesty, and enjoy with moderation. 
 Thus, although there certainly are degrees 
 and bounds, which define the ordinary inter- 
 course of society, they are such as are estab- 
 lished by inclination, good sense, and taste, 
 and which, upon proper occasions, may be 
 overstepped without offence. The learned and 
 the ignorant come frequently into contact : the 
 poor man finds his way to the tables of the rich, 
 while the latter enjoys the welcome repast in 
 the dwellings of the laborious sons of industry. 
 Those on either side who choose to keep aloof, 
 can always do so ; but that choice is seldom 
 made. This occasional intercourse, between 
 persons so apparently different in character, 
 and so widely separated by fortune, arises from 
 a liberal concession on both sides, and it pre- 
 vents that bitterness of feeling which is apt to 
 be engendered where distinctions of rank are 
 rigidly observed, and where scorn on the one 
 hand, and hatred upon the other, poisons the 
 enjoyments of both parties. In all countries 
 there must be occasions of promiscuous assera-
 
 blage ; " a cat may look at a king," a peasant 
 will sometimes rub against a lord, and at suck 
 a meeting, the gentleman who is in the habit 
 of spurning his inferiors, defends himself in 
 sullen dignity from the contamination which 
 he fears, or the malignity which he is conscious 
 of having excited ; while the inferior recoils in 
 dislike, or triumphs in his temporary equality. 
 But where no offence has been given, there is 
 nothing to resent -, where dignity is not thought 
 tobe in danger, there is no necessity of vigilance; 
 and we meet, when we must meet, with frank- 
 ness. By these collisions, the acquirements of 
 a few" are partially communicated to many. 
 Correct estimates of human nature are thus 
 formed, by those who see men in so many dif- 
 ferent grades. Prejudice and superstition 
 are removed, as well by the general spread of 
 intelligence, and the consequent invigoration 
 of the intellect, as by the intimate acquaint- 
 ance of all the members of a community with 
 each other. Where so much of real life is seen, 
 but little room is left for the operation of 
 fancy ; and if prejudice be a false estimate of 
 men and things, it can seldom exist where
 
 334f LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 men are familiarly seen, and things freely can- 
 vassed. 
 
 Nor is there any thing in a new country con- 
 genial to the existence of those fairy ci'eations 
 which bewilder the mind in older communities. 
 Superstition disports in the misty clouds of 
 antiquity; she revels in dilapidation, and finds 
 faithful chroniclers in tottering old men and 
 toothless women. Castles and dungeons in 
 ruin, are the chosen abodes of those aristocratic 
 elves, who choose to be the successors of none 
 but lords and ladies. Brownies, indeed, haunt 
 the farm-yard, and nestle in the attic chamber 
 of the cottage ; but they are sure to infest an 
 old-fashioned edifice, which has whilom sheltered 
 a miarvellously learned schoolmaster or an 
 obnoxious reforming minister. Fairies, I grant, 
 may be sought in any glen which is picturesque 
 and lonely, but they are seldom found except 
 where melodious shepherds tune their pipes, and 
 beautiful shepherdesses dance upon the green. 
 Of all the elfin race, these surely exhibit 
 the purest taste ; and if I were fated to revisit 
 this earth in an ethereal form, I should choose, 
 in the character of a fairy, to view the sports of
 
 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 335 
 
 innocence, and listen to the tales of love. The 
 whole goblin fraternity are Jilii nullius, and 
 derive their character from the obscurity of 
 their origin ; like the common law they must 
 have existed " time whereof the memory of 
 man runneth not to the contrary," — give 
 them a creator or a birth-day, and they perish. 
 The American Indians had few superstitions ; 
 we have no account of aboriginal ghosts or 
 copper-coloured brownies. We have acquired 
 no incorporeal hereditaments of this description 
 by descent from our predecessors ; and I am 
 very sure that none came in with Penn, or 
 landed with the fathers at Boston. The latter 
 are said to have imported a few choice witches ; 
 but these were kept in order by the salutary 
 provisions of the blue-laws, and the increase 
 of them restrained by prudent enactments. 
 From all this I infer, that our new world has 
 no supernatural inhabitants, indigenous or 
 exotic — nor does our country offer any induce- 
 ments to the influx of foreigners of this des- 
 cription. We have no castles mouldering into 
 ruin, no enchanted forests, nor deserted man- 
 sions. Whatever hospitality we might feel
 
 336 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 inclined to shew to the inhabitants of the other 
 world, is effectually repressed by the absence of 
 accommodations suited to the state of ethereal 
 beings. Our whole territory does not present a 
 dilapidated turret, or an unfrequented gallery — 
 not a hole or corner, fit for a decent ghost to be 
 seen in — none that a ghost of any spirit would 
 condescend to infest. We have no subter- 
 ranean passages, except the saltpetre caves in 
 Kentucky, and a few caverns, similar to that in 
 which General Putnam slew the she- wolf. We 
 have heard of gnomes, 
 
 " That haunt in dark gold mines ;" 
 
 but they must be grovelling spirits indeed who 
 would burrow in "villainous saltpetre,*' or 
 consort with beasts of prey. No respectable 
 and truly aristocratic ghost would put up with 
 a log cabin ; our modern brick and frame 
 houses are too airy, too ephemeral, for the 
 sombre taste of such grave personages ; and 
 he would be a dauntless spirit who would infest 
 the woods whose echoes are daily awakened by 
 the rifle and the axe, and whose shades are 
 trod by backwoodsmen, who would as soon
 
 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 387 
 
 scalp a ghost, if a ghost could be scalped, as 
 they would shoot a panther or an Indian. 
 
 I could add forty other reasons for the 
 absence of popular superstitions ; but as an 
 eminent judge has declared from the bench, 
 that one reason, if a good one, is as good as forty, 
 I shall withhold the remainder. The poet may 
 deplore a state of things so unfriendly to his 
 creative art, but those who enjoy the blessings 
 of a comfortable fireside and a warm bed, will 
 not join him in regretting the absence of 
 goblins, who would intrude upon the choicest 
 pleasures of life — especially as the expression of 
 such regret would savour rather too much of 
 the sentimental grief of the heroine, Cherubina* 
 who sighed, and wept, and bewailed her hard 
 fortune in having been born in honest wedlock, 
 witliout a doubt, a mysteiy, or a stain upon 
 her origin, to render her miserable and inte- 
 resting. 
 
 But to believe us entirely destitute of these 
 vagaries of fancy, would be to suppose us a 
 nation of philosophers, coldly believing only 
 what reason as coldly teaches. A moderate 
 
 z
 
 338 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 degree of credulity is necessary to our happiness, 
 for if we believe nothing but what may be 
 demonstrated, we must reject much which 
 mankind have by common consent agreed to 
 receive. Scepticism may be carried to excess, 
 as well as credulity; and it requires more clear- 
 ness of discrimination than is given to most 
 men, to know exactly where to draw the line. 
 
 You, my friend, without doubt, experienced 
 in your infancy that kind solicitude to which all 
 of us are so deeply indebted — that tender care 
 which dried your tears by congealing their 
 fountains with horror, which purchased your 
 obedience by ingenious deceptions, or enforced 
 it by fearful threatenings. In common with the 
 rest of us, you have often nestled in thrilling 
 anguish under the bed-clothes in the firm con- 
 viction that some demon hovered around in 
 waiting to seize your unlucky nose in his red- 
 hot pincers, the moment it should peep fro m it 
 concealment. When the cock crowed at mid- 
 night, you were assured that some one who 
 heard it would expire before dawn, and have 
 lain awake in fearful anxiety, until the morning
 
 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 339 
 
 note of the vigilant bird proclaimed that you 
 were not the victim. Your infant mind was 
 instructed in tlie unerrins^ omen of the death- 
 watch ; you were advised of the danger of 
 fracturing looking-glasses, and of the momen- 
 tous consequences of being followed by a 
 strange black cat. You probably would yet 
 raise your hand reluctantly to kill a cricket, and 
 cannot avoid a feelin^r of self c:ratulation at the 
 discovery that you have unwittingly worn a 
 garment with the wrong side out. These 
 obligations we sometimes repay to our instruc- 
 tors, by amusing the imbecility of old age with 
 similar fictions ; the counterfeit coin is imposed 
 upon the original fabricator, and they who 
 invented horrors to answer a momentary pur- 
 pose, die in the full belief of their own inven- 
 tions. For my own part, I look back upon my 
 infancy with pain ; the tales which astonished 
 and alarmed my imagination are still vividly 
 impressed upon my memory ; hours and nights 
 of fear and anguish are freshly remembered 
 as the events of yesterday ; and I cannot think 
 of a chambermaid, or a nurse, without some 
 
 z 2
 
 340 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 gloomy associations of spectres, raw heads and 
 bloody bones. Such superstitions are current 
 all the world over, and I but mention them to 
 draw the distinction between them, and such as 
 are of local origin. 
 
 Perhaps, as there is no professorship in any of 
 our medical colleges for the instruction of faith 
 doctors, you may be unacquainted with this branch 
 of the healing art. Yet there are those among 
 your countrymen who prefer faith to physic, 
 and would sooner risk their lives upon the 
 virtue of a spell, than trust them to the skill of 
 a Wistar or a Rush. Your faith doctor is one 
 who practices without diploma, and vanquishes 
 disease without drug or lancet; who neither 
 nauseates the palate, nor mars the fair propor- 
 tions of his patient. Every thing is accom- 
 plished by the potency of a charm, which is 
 inoperative unless the patient has entire con- 
 fidence in its efficacy, and thence arises the 
 appellation of faith doctor. The practice of 
 these gentlemen and ladies — for this art is 
 confined to no sex — is as various as their persons, 
 each one having a particular set of remedies, in
 
 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 341 
 
 the use of which the happy possessor is indepen- 
 dent of the rest of the faculty, and which he is 
 long enabled to preserve to his own use and 
 behoof, in consequence of the secrecy which he 
 imposes upon his patient. Females, proverbial 
 as they are for the opposite propensity, preserve 
 with inviolable fidelity the hidden mysteries of 
 the faith doctor. 
 
 A seventh son is a faith doctor in virtue of 
 his birth. His knowledge being intuitive, he 
 may commence practice at the tenderest years : 
 nor can he ever after acquire any additional 
 skill from the disclosures of others, as he 
 already possesses all that others might com- 
 municate. But to give full force and virtue to 
 this charm, it is necessary that seven sons 
 should be born in succession : should an unlucky 
 daughter intervene, blasted are all the hopes of 
 the expecting family ; the seventh lad comes 
 into the world with the same dull perceptions as 
 his fellow men. 
 
 Persons U'ho have never seen their fathers^ 
 derive from that circumstance great medical 
 skill ; and thus, what would otherwise be de- 
 plored as a misfortune, becomes a benefit, and a
 
 34^ LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 posthumous child is compensated for the loss of 
 a parent by the gain of a lucrative pofession. 
 An infant born in the absence of his paternal 
 ancestor, is certainly placed in a whimsical 
 dilemma. Two alternatives are presented, either 
 of which is unpleasant enough : a parent or a 
 profession must be lost ; he has the promise of 
 future eminence under conditions like those 
 of a penal bond, which the return of his father 
 is to render " null and void, otherwise it is to be 
 and remain in full force and virtue." 
 
 The Indian doctor is also held in high esti- 
 mation. To sustain this character, it is by no 
 means necessary to inherit the aboriginal blood ; 
 though this is certainly an advantage, and a 
 genuine Indian is always to be preferred. But 
 it is admitted, that any one who has ever been in 
 the Indian country, or who speaks an Indian 
 dialect, or who has ever seen or heard of an 
 Indian, may well, particularly if of a swarthy 
 complexion, be an Indian doctor. The peculiar 
 characteristic of this sect is their knowledge of 
 plants, " from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, 
 even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the 
 wall ;*' and of these their materia medica is
 
 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 343 
 
 composed. I am inclined to believe, however, 
 that the botanical knowledge thus assumed, is 
 not always possessed, and, if possessed, is super- 
 fluous, as there is reason to believe, that in the 
 hands of an Indian doctor, one plant is as effi- 
 cacious as another. 
 
 Another class of privileged beings are *water 
 "ivitches. These are persons who, by the aid 
 of a small forked hazel rod, profess to be able 
 to discover subterranean fountains. The feats 
 of these persons are somewhat surprising, and 
 have caused a great deal of speculation. 
 Persons desiring to sink wells in situations 
 where it is doubtful whether water can be 
 found, resort to the water-witch, who after 
 passing over the ground with his rod, points out 
 the spot, and names the depth at which a vein 
 may be struck ; and, strange as it may appear, 
 their predictions are often verified. I have 
 known an instance in which three of those 
 persons, strangers to each other, have at different 
 times, and without any privity or concert, 
 selected the same spot, and named the identical 
 number of feet, at which water was afterwards 
 found ; from which it would seem that their
 
 34>4< LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 operations were founded upon some general 
 rule. It is probable that long practice has 
 enabled them to ascertain the presence of 
 water, by the appearance of the country, the 
 quality of the soil, and the growth of the 
 vegetation. 
 
 Many of the hunters in this country believe 
 that their rifles can be charmed^ so as to prevent 
 them from killing game. There are persons 
 who profess to impose, and to remove this 
 spell. 
 
 The moon is a wonderful worker of miracles, 
 and never was an enchanter worshipped by so 
 numerous a host of implicit believers. Philo- 
 sophers assign to her the regulation of tides, 
 and rustics endow her with absolute supremacy 
 over the land. No saint in the calendar was ever 
 consulted so often, or with such entire faith, 
 as the man in the moon ; his picture, if it be 
 his, which displays itself as a frontispiece in all 
 our almanacks, surrounded by the ram and the 
 bull, and other mysterious confederates, is more 
 frequently perused than the choicest produc- 
 tion of the Italian schools. But it seems that 
 the man is not really in the moon, but the moon
 
 POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 345 
 
 in the man, and that, Hke the gout, she flies from 
 limb to Hmb, and from one part of liis body to 
 another, observing, however, tlie most puncti- 
 lious regularity in her migrations. By these 
 changes all farming operations are regulated ; 
 seed is sown, fences are made, and children 
 weaned, when the moon is propitious ; and, by 
 the same rule, I presume that a maiden who 
 should be courted when the sign was in the heart, 
 would melt sooner than at any other period. A 
 dancing master, I suppose, makes his harvest 
 when the "chaste cold" luminary is m the heels, 
 the lawyer when she mounts to (he head, and 
 the merchant when she settles in the neighbour- 
 hood of the pocket ; for my part, I am convinced 
 that at this very moment she is snugly nestled 
 in the brain, for mine will yield nothing but 
 mere moonshine.
 
 346 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 
 
 A WEARY way-farer, who journeyed through 
 Ohio a few years ago, illustrated his remarks 
 upon the badness of the roads, by relating the 
 following curious fact. He was floundering 
 through the mire, as many an honest gentleman 
 flounders through life, getting along with diffi- 
 culty, but still getting along ; sometimes wading 
 to the saddle-girth in water, sometimes clam- 
 bering over logs, and occasionally plunged in a 
 quagmire. While carefully picking his way by 
 a spot more miry than the rest, he espied a 
 man's hat, a very creditable beaver, lying with 
 the crown upwards in the mud, and as he ap- 
 proached, was not a little startled to see it move. 
 This happened in a dismal swamp, where the 
 cypress waved its melancholy branches over the
 
 TALES OF tra\t:llers. 347 
 
 dark soil, and the frogs croaked as mourDfuUy 
 as they did of old, under the reign of King 
 Stork, and as incessantly as if an influenza had 
 invaded their borders j and our traveller's flesh 
 began to creep at beholding a hat move with- 
 out the agency of a head. " When the brains 
 are out the head will die," thought he, *' and 
 when the head is out, the hat, by the same rule, 
 should receive its quietus'" Not being very su- 
 perstitious, and determined to penetrate the 
 mystery, the solitary rider checked his nag, and 
 extending his long whip, fairly upset the hat — 
 when, lo! beneath it appeared a man's head, 
 not 
 
 •• The gbastly form, 
 The hp pale, quivering, and the beamless eye. 
 No more with ardour bright ;" 
 
 but a living, laughing head, by which our in- 
 quisitive traveller heard himself saluted with 
 " Hullo, stranger ! who told you to knock my 
 hat off?" The person thus addressed was so 
 utterly astonished as not to be able for a mo- 
 ment to understand that the apparition was no 
 other than a fellow-creature up to the neck in the
 
 348 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 mire ; but he no sooner came to this conclusion 
 than he promptly apologized for the indecorum 
 of which he had been guilty, and tendered his 
 ser\-icesto the gentleman in the mud puddle. ** I 
 willahght," said he, " and endeavour to draw you 
 forth.'' " Oh, never mind,'* said the other, " I'm 
 in rather a had jix it is true, but I have an ex. 
 cellent horse under me, who has carried me 
 through many a worse place than this — we shall 
 get along." If this story proves the badness 
 of the roads in Ohio, I think it also demon- 
 strates the goodness of the horses and the per- 
 severance of their riders. That it is true, is 
 not for me to assert, as I get it at second-hand 
 — but I will venture to asseverate that it is as 
 true as one half of all that has been written in 
 relation to this country ; and if it be in itself 
 but half true, I am privileged as a traveller to 
 relate it. 
 
 As a companion to this anecdote, I might 
 relate that of Captain R., who is said to have 
 emerged from a prairie, through w^liose high 
 grass he had been wading, with five hundred 
 rattlesnakes, hanging by their teeth to each 
 leg! These things may be so — I liave been
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 349 
 
 in the western country six years, and have not 
 seen six rattlesnakes ; and I have travelled thou- 
 sands of miles on horseback, without ever find- 
 ing the mire so deep that my horse could not 
 keep his head above the surface ; but other 
 gentlemen may have met with more adventures. 
 
 There is another snake stofy, the relator of 
 which was almost as valiant among these rep- 
 tiles as Sampson among the Philistines. " I 
 killed a hundred of them," said he, '* in a few 
 minutes, each as large as my leg." *' I do not 
 dispute it," replied his friend, " but would be 
 better satisfied if you would /iz// a siiake or tico" 
 *' There were ninety, I am sure.'* '* Say fifty." 
 "No, I can't ; I am convinced there were seventi/- 
 Jive, and I'll not bate another snake to please 
 any man !" 
 
 We might, perhaps, by adopting a sentiment 
 which is reported to have lately fallen from a 
 judicial bench in New York, say, these are petty 
 Iks, not greater than are told by all travellej's ; 
 but if such be the case, I cannot but think that 
 all travellers might fall a snake or two with ad- 
 vantage. I have some of their writings now 
 before me, which I wish to notice — because,
 
 350 LETTERS FROM THE W^ST. 
 
 although travellers may be privileged to tell 
 marvellous tales to their friends, I know of no 
 right which they have to mislead the world by 
 putting the creations of their fancy into print. 
 
 Dr. C. B. Johnson, an Englishman, has writ- 
 ten a series of letters to induce his countrymen 
 to emigrate to a ''British settlement" in Penn- 
 sylvania ; and under an air of great apparent 
 candour, endeavours to palm on the public the 
 grossest fallacies. To prove this, it is only neces- 
 sary to examine some of his arguments. In the 
 outset it may be remarked, that a writer comes 
 before the public in a very '* questionable 
 shape," who, professing to furnish an account 
 of a settlement in Pennsylvania, finds it ex- 
 pedient to slander a country a thousand miles 
 off, which he has never seen. Pennsylvania is 
 a rich, extensive, and powerful state, blessed 
 with a fine climate, and fertile soil, abounding 
 in mineral wealth, and presenting advantages 
 to all classes of people ; and the author, who 
 can only eulogize her merits by comparing them 
 with those of a young republic just struggling 
 into existence, pays her a poor complim.ent, 
 and does little credit to his own ingenuity.
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. ^51 
 
 Yet such is the fact. Not content with prais- 
 ing the spot selected for his own settlement, he 
 devotes about half his volume to the abuse of 
 Illinois, and Mr. Birkbeck — because the latter 
 had written a book which might induce English- 
 men to go to Illinois instead of Pennsylvania. 
 To such a writer it might be sufficient to reply 
 in the language of Sterne, *' Go, poor insect : this 
 world is wide enough for thee and me.'' Ame- 
 rica has vacant land for all the Britons whom 
 poverty or disaffection may drive to her shores, 
 — let them choose where they list — it matters 
 not. 
 
 But let us examine some of Dr. Johnson's 
 inferences. Mr. Birkbeck mentioned the case 
 of a " member of a religious community, who, 
 on being brought before the spiritual court, for 
 indulging a propensity to boxing, and hearing 
 all the arguments derived from texts of scrip- 
 ture, which oppose that unchristian practice, 
 declared that he would not like to live longer 
 than he had a right to knock down any man 
 who told him he lied." Dr. Johnson trium- 
 phantly quotes this passage, in support of his 
 objections against Illinois, and infers from it
 
 LET : mZ WEST. 
 
 to quarrel in the minds of tke 
 watan peapleJ' The western peepk J — not lili- 
 1HNS Toea^j, hat Kaitucky, Ohio, Indiana, 
 Missooii, Tomessee, Alsbsffia, ft cetera f All 
 ^e people of all diese stales a: : roved to be 
 qoarrelsoine, hv the e:: of ooe man 1 
 
 $Dch is the mode of" c erences which 
 
 has be^i practised byii^t ^^.c j^ass of Engii^ 
 wntDors upon America, £rom Moore the poet, 
 dflfvn to Mathews the player. How easy to 
 retort soch chafiges ! If fivMn the dedarations 
 of a ansle individ^isl. or his coodact, a " prone- 
 ness" to any vice, can be inferred to exist in a 
 viide people, might not '' a prmieness^ to lar- 
 ceny, in the minds of the pec^e of En^and, be 
 in&ned with eqoal tmth, &om the events of a 
 sii^e trial at the CHd Bailey ' But I am most 
 ammed at the idea of an Eogiishman setting: 
 down oor " boxing propenaties'' in the cata- 
 logue c£ objjectiotts to us or any of ns. Hiey 
 donotAszT in England, I suppose ! — or, perhaps, 
 their ^ boxing ^x>pensities,^ are developed in 
 a more humane and christian spirit than onrs. 
 If I nnderstand the difioence, it seems to be 
 jdns — tbat in F^giand boxing i? a public diver-
 
 ass 
 
 to the pnctioe. If 
 fd tiie 
 heard oT it ; if 
 
 ^rr t.> 
 
 Dr. 
 
 br jfr. S. IS sot ^ 
 
 it w^kd Mt he aie, §■ »r pst of the 
 
 Stttes, to •PPT ^e «"Ee 
 
 ad 
 
 tc 
 
 r-=
 
 354 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Having tortured Mr. Birkbeck's anecdote 
 into evidence of " a proneness to quarrelling,'* 
 Dr. Johnson attempts to give corroborative 
 proof, in an extract from Shultz's travels. Is 
 Dr. Johnson so ignorant of the geography of 
 the United States, as not to know that the 
 country alluded to by Mr. Shultz, and that in 
 which Mr. Birkbeck settled, are separated as 
 distinctly from each other as England and 
 Ireland, and that the people described by these 
 two writers, differ as essentially in their man- 
 ners, feelings, and propensities, as the inhabi- 
 tants of those islands ; or, is this only another 
 instance of the candid spirit of criticism to 
 which I have adverted ? Shultz's travels were 
 written in 1809, and the remark quoted from 
 them, had appUcation to that part of Lou- 
 isiana, which is now Missouri— a country then 
 recently purchased from France : a country 
 settled, at that time, almost entirely by French, 
 and over which, the mild laws of the United 
 States were hardly yet in operation. Mr. 
 Shultz describes them as a sad turbulent set in 
 1809, and Dr. Johnson quotes him in 1819 : with- 
 out adverting to the fact, that the intervening
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 355 
 
 ten years had essentially changed the popula- 
 tion of Missouri, and that at any rate, Illinois 
 and Missouri are different countries, inhabited 
 by different people, and governed by distinct 
 laws. When Mr. Shultz wrote, Illinois was a 
 wilderness district, appendant to Indiana, with 
 scarcely the shadow of civil organization, and 
 almost without white inhabitants ; when Mr. 
 Birkbeck emigrated, it had an organised terri- 
 torial government, and contained fifty thousand 
 inhabitants. I presume that the reviewer who 
 asserts that " a dirk is the constant companion 
 of every gentleman in Illinois," could justify 
 himself, in a similar manner, under the autho- 
 rity of some traveller into Nova Scotia or 
 Brazil, and by a reference to the times when 
 gentlemen were scarce in those regions, and 
 Indians and wild animals abundant. But let 
 that pass — we are a quarrelsome people in Illi- 
 nois, because the people at the lead mines in 
 Missouri, w^ere so ten years ago, and because 
 a pugnacious methodist knocked down an un- 
 polite fellow who told him he lied ! 
 
 Then we have a caution to emigrants against 
 going to "the western states, whose infant set- 
 
 A A ^
 
 856 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 tlements are always exposed to the scalping- 
 knives of the savages !" Illinois, about which 
 Dr. Johnson was writing, is about as much 
 exposed to the Indians' scalping-knives, as 
 Pennsylvania or Great Britain. When Mr. 
 Birkbeck came to Illinois, there was not an In- 
 dian tribe or village within a hundred miles 
 of his settlement,* not a hostile Indian within 
 thrice that distance. I doubt whether, to this 
 day, the print of the moccasin has been seen in 
 Albion or Wanboro', by Mr. Birkbeck or those 
 who followed him. 
 
 The next quotation of Doctor Johnson from 
 Mr, Birkbeck, which I shall notice, is as fol- 
 lows : *' children are not baptized, nor sub- 
 jected to any superstitious rite ; parents name 
 them, and that is all, and the last act of the 
 drama is as simple as the first. There is no con- 
 secrated burial nor funeral service : the body is 
 enclosed in the plainest coffin, the family of 
 the deceased convey the corpse to the woods, 
 some of the party are provided with axes and 
 
 * Except, perhaps, a small tribe of peaceable Delawares on 
 White River.
 
 TALES OF TKAVELLERS. 357 
 
 some with spades, a grave is formed, and the 
 body placed quietly in it; then trees are 
 filled into the grave to protect it from wild 
 beasts. These simple monuments of mortality are 
 not unfrequent in the woods" Dr. Johnson 
 italicises the last clause of this paragraph, as if 
 it were pregnant with some sinister meaning ; 
 . the reviewers have caught at it as a proof of 
 the sickliness of the country ; but when I find 
 the intelligent and liberal editor of the Village 
 Record, remarking in allusion to the existence 
 of these " simple monuments" — " it strikes me 
 as quite unusual, and indicates a sickliness of 
 climate justly alarming,'' I cannot but ex- 
 claim, " et tu Brute /" The frequent occur- 
 rence of graves in the woods, proves nothing ; 
 for if the fact be, as Mr. Birkbeck has repre- 
 sented in the first part of this paragraph, that 
 all who die are thus buried, it is hard to dis- 
 cover how, by any possibility, these simple 
 monuments can be otherwise than numerous. 
 As all who live must die, the number of dead 
 in any country which has been settled several 
 years, must exceed that of the living, and the 
 number of graves can never afford any proof of
 
 358 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 insalubrity of climate : they show how many 
 persons have once lived, but not w^hen, nor how, 
 they died. Mr. Birkbeck's route in the west 
 lay through Ohio, containing a population of 
 .500,000 souls, Indiana, containing 150,000 
 souls, and Illinois, containing near 50,000 ; and 
 ifthefactbe admitted, upon which these gen- 
 tlemen build their arguments, that each family 
 have a separate place of sepulture, the candid 
 reader may judge how many insulated mauso- 
 leums would be presented by such a population, 
 to say nothing of the vast number of emigrants 
 and travellers w-ho had preceded Mr. Birkbeck, 
 and who, like their fellow men, were subject to 
 the casualties of mortality. 
 
 In older communities the burial of the dead 
 forms a subject of civil regulation. Places of 
 public sepulture are provided, or family vaults 
 are resorted to by those who are able to pro- 
 vide them ; but this is impossible in a country 
 so thinly populated as a large portion of that 
 alluded to. Public grave-yards are not yet 
 established ; and if I were inclined to draw in- 
 ferences after the fashion of Dr. Johnson, I 
 might exclaim, *' what a healthy country must
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. S59 
 
 that be where there are no grave-yards!'' But 
 the case is not accurately stated, even in this 
 instance. It is always to be recollected that 
 " the western country," is an almost unli- 
 mited region, embracing every grade of society 
 and civilization, from the mere frontier, where 
 the hunter erects his solitary cabin in the bosom 
 of extensive forests, where no axe is heard but 
 his own, where he wages war with the savage, 
 or mingles with him in the chase, to the polished 
 circles of Lexington, the crowded marts of 
 Cincinnatti and Louisville, or the populous and 
 refined neighbourhoods which are now nume- 
 rous in almost every western state. In the 
 extreme verge of society, the hunter who falls 
 in the pursuit of game, or the traveller who is 
 assailed by disease in the woods, must lie un- 
 buried, or the last act of friendship must be 
 rudely administered in the manner indicated 
 above. Such must be the case with the first 
 settlers, the restless pioneers who roam from 
 place to place, avoiding the contact of dense 
 population, and depending upon their rifles 
 for support, and such, in general, must be 
 the case with those who are the first permanent
 
 .360 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 settlers in their respective neighbourhoods ; 
 but the barbarous practice — a practice only re- 
 sorted to in cases of dire necessity — is abandoned 
 as soon as that necessity ceases. The farmer, 
 when he becomes permanently settled, clears 
 and encloses a small spot on his own premises, 
 as a depositary for the remains of his family ; and 
 it is not unusual to see these spots surrounded 
 with weeping willows, or hedges of privet or 
 lilac, which give them a decent air of seclusion, 
 and testify the respect of the living for the 
 dead. When a place is thus consecrated, it is 
 resorted to by all the families connected by 
 relationship with the proprietor, who reside 
 sufficiently near, and frequently by all the 
 neighbours indiscriminately. The next step 
 in the progress of improvement, is the establish- 
 ment of public grave-yards, which is usually 
 effected by religious communities : thus a thick 
 settlement has its grave-yard. Where the in- 
 habitants are more thinly scattered, every 
 family has its place of burial, and " the last 
 act of the drama'* is never so negligently per- 
 formed as is asserted, except in urgent cases. 
 Still, as there are settlements in which places of
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 30 I 
 
 burial are as numerous as families, and as the 
 traveller is sometimes startled by the sight of a 
 grave in the wilderness, far from any human 
 habitation, he who does not reflect upon the 
 cause, may be struck with the effect. 
 
 The former part of the paragraph upon which 
 I have remarked, is equally incorrect, and ex- 
 hibits a remarkable deviation from the usual 
 accuracy of Mr. Birkbeck, whose intentions are 
 always upright, and whose statements are gene- 
 rally clear and faithful. But he has fallen into 
 the usual error of those who emigrate from 
 highly civilized countries, to those which are 
 less poHshed, who find the contrast so great 
 that they do not reflect that it could be greater, 
 and imagine they have reached the confines 
 of civilization, when in fact they have barely 
 emerged from its brightest circles. They fancy 
 themselves on the frontier, while yet in the 
 interior, and apply the accounts they have 
 heard of backwoodsmen, to a race of people 
 who have but little in common with the ge- 
 nuine pioneers. My respect for the excellent 
 author of this paragraph, would prevent me 
 from contradicting any of his statements which
 
 36^ LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 were not directly contrary to the results of my 
 own observation ; but the character of the peo- 
 ple among whom my own lot has been cast, 
 requires the refutation of a charge which is 
 anything but honourable to their moral and 
 religious habits— a refutation which I under- 
 take, not because " I love Caesar less, but 
 Rome more.** 
 
 In this country then, and in every part of it, 
 the children of professing christians are always 
 baptized, and parents in general endeavour to 
 procure the administration of this ordinance to 
 their children, except in those sects who reject 
 the baptism of infants. It is well known that 
 in some societies baptism is administered only to 
 the children of religious parents, in some only 
 to adults, in others there is less restriction, and 
 some reject the ordinance entirely ; and in the 
 west, as elsewhere, many children are deprived 
 of the benefits of this ceremony, by the negli- 
 gence or irreligion of their parents : but I 
 know of no habitual neglect of any religious 
 duty, which can be described as characteristic 
 of the western people, or of the people of any 
 state. They are pretty much like others ; better
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 363 
 
 than their enemies believe, and not near so 
 good as their friends could wish. There are 
 many who dwell in secluded situations, where 
 the want of stated ministrations of the gospel is 
 felt as a grievous bereavement ; but there is no 
 wilderness so desolate as not to be frequently 
 visited by missionaries and itinerant preachers. 
 Camp meetings abound in every state, and 
 every where draw countless multitudes of peo- 
 ple, some of whom undertake long journies on 
 such occasions. *' God has not left himself 
 without a witness in the breast of every man." 
 
 " There is no consecrated burial nor funeral 
 service'* — not because there is no religion, but 
 because our religion does not require this cere- 
 mony. In a few denominations only is the 
 burial service practised, and those denomina- 
 tions are the least numerous. There is not a 
 congregation of Episcopalians in Illinois ; of 
 Roman Catholics there are a few churches ; but 
 the Presbyterians, the Cumberland Presbyte- 
 rians, the Methodists, and the Baptists, are 
 numerous, and the practice of these christians 
 does not sanction what is called a burial service. 
 The preaching of funeral sermons is more com-
 
 364 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 mon in the western country than I have ever 
 known it elsewhere. The tribute of respect — if 
 that can be so called, which is intended rather to 
 convey instruction to the living than honour to 
 the dead — is in general paid to tlie memory of 
 professing christians and their infant children, 
 and it is often extended to others. It is 
 so common as to be no longer a distinction, 
 but rather an ordinary service. I am aware 
 that this is not the kind of funeral service 
 meant by Mr. Birkbeck, but the whole para- 
 graph, taken in any sense, is altogether erro- 
 neous. 
 
 Mr. Birkbeck advises his friends to bring with 
 them a few simple medicines, and Dr. Johnson 
 infers that the country must be dreadfully un- 
 healthy, in which physic constitutes a necessary 
 article of importation. As our author writes 
 M, D., after his name, it might not be unfair to 
 ask him to point out the country which is ex- 
 empt from disease, or in which medicine is not 
 considered essential to the preservation of life. 
 A mad lover may cry, " throw physic to the 
 dogs, I'll none of it;" but for a sane physician 
 to advocate such a doctrine, would be indeed a
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 365 
 
 paradox. It is evident, from the whole tenor 
 of Mr. Birkbeck's writings, that he considered 
 himself as settled in a perfect wilderness, and 
 magnified the privations which he expected to 
 encounter ; and it is true, that in his immediate 
 neighbourhood there was no physician, nor 
 apothecary, nor surgeon, nor even a surgeon- 
 barber ; and knowing that of " all the ills that 
 flesh is heir to," disease is one of the most in- 
 evitable, he thought fit to provide against its 
 inroads. He had reared a large family, he was 
 a man of science and observation, and to his 
 various other attainments, added a respectable 
 proficiency in the treatment of ordinary dis- 
 eases. He needed no ghost from the grave to 
 suggest to him the precariousness of health, to 
 tell him that " in the midst of life we are in 
 death," or to convince him of the propriety of 
 being prepared to combat those evils which 
 cannot be avoided. He, therefore, in pointing 
 out to his friends the articles which would be 
 found most useful, in a country svhere the arts 
 had not yet been planted, enumerated medicine, 
 for the same reason that he designated carpen- 
 ter's tools, and some other articles which seem
 
 366 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 equally misplaced in the outfit of a farmer. 
 Would not that man be considered as guilty of 
 a criminal neglect, who should carry his family 
 into a wilderness where there was no physician, 
 nor even a Lady Bountiful, without carrying 
 with him such drugs as would be necessary to 
 repel those ordinary diseases which assail the 
 human frame in every climate ? 
 
 Every ship which is fitted out for a long 
 voyage is provided with a medicine chest, and 
 it would be just as fair to infer from this 
 practice the unhealthiness of sea air, as to sup- 
 pose that IlHnois is sickly, because emigrants 
 are advised to adopt the same precaution. The 
 reason in both instances is the same ; in both 
 cases men carry with them that which may be 
 necessary to preserve Ufe, and which they must 
 otherwise be without. 
 
 A Mr. Lorain, though not a traveller, has 
 written a book upon the same subject, and 
 pretty much in the same strain as that of 
 Doctor Johnson — they use the same ideas and 
 arguments, and the difference between them is, 
 that Johnson is the best writer, while Lorain is 
 the best informed. The object of both is to
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 36? 
 
 compare Illinois with Pennsylvania, and to 
 refute Birkbeck. Strange ! that men should 
 take such pains to compare countries so diffe- 
 rent in character, and so distinct in their in- 
 terests — countries between which there is no 
 rivalship, no contact, and no collision ! But 
 it seems that a few straj Englishmen, who 
 cannot be contented at home, and who pro- 
 bably would not be satisfied anywhere, may 
 be allured to Illinois by Mr. Birkbeck's letters, 
 leaving behind them the healthful mountains, 
 and fertile vallies of Pennsylvania. If that be 
 all, the controversy is needless — from this class 
 of population Illinois has derived no benefit, 
 and if the whole of it should be diverted to 
 other channels, she would have no reason to 
 complain. Of those already here, the few who 
 have been honest and industrious have pros- 
 pered ; but they bear so small a proportion to 
 the whole, as to leave us but little cause to 
 desire further importations from the same 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Lorain, it would seem, has not visited 
 Illinois, and does not pretend to speak from 
 personal observation, but quotes largely from
 
 368 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 Volney, and often directs the reader to " see my 
 book on Agriculture.'' What may be the value 
 of the last authority I cannot say, but that of 
 Volney is less questionable. The author who 
 asserts that in the Atlantic states, " the intense 
 heats of the day are usually succeeded by a 
 night of piercing cold" — that " there are few 
 evenings in the year on which fire would not 
 prove agreeable'* — that in Philadelphia, " frosts 
 occur, more or less, every month except July'' — 
 and at Albany " every month of the twelve," 
 can be entitled to but Httle credit, when testify- 
 ing as to the climate of America. 
 
 From a long chapter, in which Mr. Lorain 
 attempts to prove the unhealthiness of Illinois, 
 the following passages are selected. " A coun- 
 try being * new ' or unsettled, does not make 
 it sickly, unless the causes that produce diseases 
 prevail in it.'' This is a truism : for unless the 
 causes that produce disease exist, no country, 
 new or old, can be unhealthy; but the author's 
 meaning may be gathered from the context. 
 His idea seems to be, that a country is not 
 rendered unhealthy by its being new or unset- 
 tled, but by some radical and permanent cause
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 3G9 
 
 which is independent of its new and unsettled 
 state. Mr. Miner is more explicit on this sub- 
 ject: he says, "New countries are generally 
 healthy ; when they are not so, when diseases 
 make their appearance with the first settlers, 
 the climate must be radically bad.'* This 
 doctrine is contrary to all philosophy, and all 
 experience in relation to this subject. The 
 miasma which creates our autumnal fevers, is 
 supposed to be produced by the decomposition 
 of vast quantities of vegetable matter, the undis- 
 turbed accumulation of ages, which lie buried 
 in the forests, and in the channels of water- 
 courses. Mr. Lorain admits this to be the 
 theory ; and if it be so, it follows that every acre 
 which is cleared, lessens the quantity of that 
 matter, the putrefaction of which is alleged to 
 be the primary cause of disease, because the 
 deposition of such matter does not take place 
 upon cleared land, and its accumulation ceases 
 upon the portion cleared. Upon the first 
 clearing and tilling of the land, there will be 
 a more rapid decomposition ; and a greater 
 quantity of that gaseous effluvia, which is sup- 
 posed to be pernicious to the human system, 
 
 13 B
 
 370 LETTERS FROai THE WEST. 
 
 will be created by the operation of tillage, and 
 the uninterrupted action of the sun and air, 
 and by these means the cause of disease is daily 
 decreased. Every furrow ploughed by the 
 farmer, every beam shot from the sun, every 
 breeze and every shower, accelerates the pro- 
 cess of fermentation, and contributes to neu- 
 tralize, and evaporate, and at last to destroy the 
 noxious qualities of that deposit so fertilizing to 
 the earth, and so poisonous to man. But a 
 new country has other causes of unheal thiness, 
 such as are attendant upon a Jir^st settlement of 
 the soil, or were pre-existent, and which time 
 will remove : of these I shall treat more at 
 large in a separate letter. 
 
 "People born and brought up in healthy 
 countries," says Mr. Lorain, " commonly much 
 better withstand repeated attacks of diseases, 
 and live longer in sickly cUmates, than the 
 natives." This, with the accompanying re- 
 marks, in which the author endeavours to refute 
 the idea that people may become seasoned to 
 the sickly cUmate, as he pronounces it, of the 
 west, is founded in a plausible, but erroneous 
 theory. The idea is, that the vigorous consti-
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. tijl 
 
 tution formed in a healtliy atmosphere, will 
 resist the attacks of disease longer, and more 
 forcibly, than the debilitated frame reared in 
 a sickly climate. The premises may be granted 
 that a strong man may possess a greater tenacity 
 of life than a weak one, that the one may be able 
 to resist the same force of disease which would 
 subdue the other, and still we do not arrive at 
 the conclusion assumed by the author ; for the 
 doctrine of those who contend that the human 
 system becomes acclimated to a foreign, or even 
 a deleterious atmosphere, is founded upon the 
 theory that diseases originating in the climate 
 do not attack the native, or the person long resi- 
 dent, with the same force which they exert upon 
 a stranger. It is a wise law of that Providence 
 which ordained diversities of climate, which 
 created man with the power of loco-motion, and 
 adapted him to various spheres of action and 
 modes of existence, that the human system shall 
 conform itself to the circumstances under which 
 it is placed. The infant born under the 
 equator, receives a different constitution from 
 that of the inhabitant of the frigid zone ; inha- 
 bitants of different countries, in the same quarter 
 
 B b2
 
 372 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 of the globe, differ in their corporeal powers 
 and physical habits ; and it is well known that 
 while sudden transitions from one climate to 
 another, or violent changes of employment or 
 mode of life, produce fatal consequences, men 
 not only become naturalized to foreign climates, 
 but acquire habits foreign from their nature by 
 the gradual force of long continued custom. 
 A backwoodsman will live for a month in the 
 forest, without seeing a human habitation or a 
 human face, sleeping every night upon the 
 ground, with no shelter but the canopy of 
 Heaven, no protection from cold, but his camp- 
 fire, no bed but the leaves, subsisting upon 
 game, sometimes eaten raw, and sometimes 
 half-roasted, without bread or salt, drinking 
 often the unwholesome water of rivers, saturated, 
 as has been described, with the juices of putrid 
 vegetables, and often enduring thirst as long as 
 the camel in the desert. It is hardly necessary to 
 inquire whether the husbandman, accustomed 
 to a regular life, wholesome food and comfort- 
 able shelter, could sustain life long under such 
 circumstances ? The hunter would imbibe 
 nourishment from the diet which would disgust
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 373 
 
 his more civilized fellow creature : the one 
 would enjoy refreshing sleep, while the other 
 would inhale disease with every feverish aspi- 
 ration ; like insects of different tribes, the same 
 food which would afford honey to the one, 
 would yield only poison to the other. 
 
 I must now revert for a moment to Dr. John- 
 son, for the purpose of shewing another speci- 
 men of his style of argument. " The versatility 
 of disposition, and facility with which an Ame- 
 rican passes from one thing to another, has 
 been remarked by every one who has visited 
 their country. This versatility is very con- 
 spicuous in their naval officers. Captain 
 M*Donough, who took the British fleet on 
 Lake Champlain, was a merchant ; Captain 
 Laurence, who, in the sloop Hornet, sunk the 
 Peacock, was a lawyer ; Captain Jones, who 
 in the Wasp, took the Frolic, was a doctor ; and 
 probably most of the others commenced with 
 some business or profession equally discordant 
 with their present pursuit." I do not mean to 
 deny *' the versatility of disposition," which 
 is here very justly attributed to my country- 
 men, and which I have elsewhere remarked
 
 374 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 upon, as the national characteristic ; but I do 
 intend to shew the falsity of the proofs by 
 which this writer attempts to support his posi- 
 tions, and his utter ignorance of American 
 affairs. Few of our institutions have been so per- 
 manent as the navy : in none has there been so 
 few departures from long established usage. 
 Its improvement, though great, has been 
 gradual ; and its excellence has been achieved, 
 rather by bringing existing principles to their 
 highest perfection, than by any novel disco- 
 veries, or bold innovations. That many valuable 
 improvements have been introduced, is true, 
 but they have been built upon immutable bases ; 
 the primary maxims of navigation and naval 
 tactics, the rules of discipline and etiquette, 
 have been tenaciously adhered to. 
 
 Among these, no principle has been held more 
 inviolably sacred, than that which obliges every 
 officer to endure a long probation, and to ex- 
 hibit proofs of merit, previous to his rising into 
 command. To get into the line of promotion, 
 an officer can only enter the navy^with the rank 
 of midshipman, and he can only rise by regu- 
 lar gradation. No man has ever risen to the
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 375 
 
 rank of post-captain in our navy since its first 
 establishment, who has not earned that distinc- 
 tion by long and faithful service, in all the 
 inferior grades, with the exception of one 
 individual, whose extraordinary merit was re- 
 warded by an advance of two grades ; but this 
 innovation was resented with so much spirit by 
 the naval officers, that the experiment has not 
 been repeated. It is therefore not true that 
 a sudden transition from a civil pursuit to a 
 naval command, has ever taken place in our 
 navy, as would be inferred from the remark 
 quoted, and as Jiiust necessarily be inferred, in 
 order to give the examples cited any weight 
 as proofs of the general position assumed. 
 "At the age of twelve years," Captain Law- 
 rence is said *' to have first discovered a pas- 
 sion for the sea." (See his life in the '^ Port- 
 folio," for January, I8I7.) " But his father, 
 attached to a profession in which he had been 
 considerably distinguished," was solicitous that 
 he shoulfl be educated for the bar, and to this 
 solicitude young Lawrence yielded. At the 
 early age of thirteen, he commenced the study 
 of the law, which he pursued for four years.
 
 3^6 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 In the year 1798, at the age of seventeen, he 
 received a midshipman's warrant in the navy, 
 and in the year 1813 he became a post captain, 
 after a service of fifteen years in the preceding 
 grades. That he understood the cannon law, 
 is evident : and he thundered in the ears of 
 John Bull, from the Hornet's deck, arguments 
 which bore no relish of the sophistry of courts ; 
 — but I think his history will sustain my de- 
 murrey^ to the assertion of Dr. Johnson. The 
 fact with regard to both the other individuals 
 named, is similarly circumstanced ; both were 
 destined in early life to other pursuits, but both 
 entered the navy with the rank of midshipmen, 
 and arrived at the high station which they so 
 nobly filled, by long and arduous service. 
 
 The example of General Jackson, which our 
 author has stumbled on, is sufficiently in point. 
 This individual has been a lawyer, a judge, a 
 legislator, and a general : and in every occupa- 
 tion to which his versatile genius has been di- 
 rected, his exertions have been crowned with 
 success. But when the doctor inquires, " what 
 would be thought of one of our judges throw- 
 ing off his robes and wig and offering to head
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 377 
 
 an army ?" the comparison is idle ; there is 
 no point of similarity. Jackson was a soldier 
 in his boyhood, a keen sportsman in his riper 
 years, and through his whole life famihar with 
 danger, and practised in manly exercises. It 
 was this unison of mental activity and bodily 
 hardihood, which produced great men in Greece 
 and Rome : and the same cause may be cited, 
 as a reason why our army and navy are not 
 officered with fool-hardy numsculls, and our 
 councils swayed by enervated, decrepid pa- 
 triots. 
 
 I shall close this long letter, by examining 
 the testimony of a witness who is relied upon 
 as good authority by Johnson, Cobbett, and 
 others, in their strictures upon Illinois. This 
 is a man named Hulme, whose " cacology'* 
 would have been as grating to the ears of Dr. 
 Pangloss, as his moral and political principles 
 are to the feelings of every well regulated mind. 
 He travels over the mountains in a stage drawn 
 by old English horses, and embarks at Pitts- 
 burgh in a boat called an ai^k. His passage 
 down the river produces not a few eloquent 
 bursts of indignation against the borough-
 
 v378 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 mongers, the relevancy of which is not easily- 
 seen ; but his most profound reflections are 
 elicited by a visit to Harmony. He says, " I 
 observed that these people are very fond of 
 flowers, by the by; the cultivation of them, and 
 music, are their chief amusements ; (these to 
 me are a sign of brute ignorance ; at least a 
 badge of slavery, they had better have left be- 
 hind.*') I shall not stop to quarrel with the 
 writer's English — I care not whether he writes 
 these are a sign, or these is signs ; but respect- 
 fully recommend him to the editor of the Quar- 
 terly, who is a capital hand at such matters. 
 But the logic is what I look at : the connec- 
 tion between "brute ignorance and slavery," 
 on the one hand, and flowers and music on the 
 other, is, I confess, not easily discovered. I had 
 thought that th cultivation of flowers, was an 
 elegant employment, the innocent amusement 
 of the gentle and tasteful, a delicate refinement 
 upon the coarseness of rural pursuits. As to 
 music, I can say but Kttle, for I neither fiddle 
 nor sing, and can scarcely distinguish '* God 
 save the King," from " Hail Columbia,'' though 
 I have often felt the sweetness, and acknow-
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 379 
 
 ledged the power of a ** dulcet voice." But 
 if it be a badge of ''slavery and brute igno- 
 rance," what must be the debased condition of 
 that people, among whom Madame Catalani 
 received, in the space of eight years and a half, 
 more than ninety thousand guineas for benefit 
 concerts, independent of her receipts for other 
 exhibitions ! How dark the state of a whole 
 quarter of the globe, if it be true, as has been 
 asserted, that Signor Rossini, *' did more to 
 agitate, than all the allied powers to tranquil- 
 lize, all Europe !" I confess that I could not 
 but smile myself when I read of whole nations 
 being agitated by the quavering of a fiddle- 
 stick ; but if Mr. Hulme has got the right end 
 of the story, there is more cause for weeping 
 than for laughter : Congress should look to it, 
 and in the next tariff provide against any 
 future importation of florists or fiddlers. One 
 thing is certain, that music which has power 
 *' to soothe the savage breast," had no effect 
 upon our traveller, whose breast was too civi- 
 lized to have any emotions^ in common with a 
 barbarian. 
 
 At New Albany, he was " amused by hear-
 
 380 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 ing a Quaker lady preach to the natives," who 
 "closed with dealing out large portions of 
 brimstone to the drunkard, and larger and 
 hotter to those who give the bottle to drink." 
 " This part of her discourse," he adds, in his 
 usual strain of libertinism, *• pleased me very 
 much, and may be a saving to me into the bar- 
 gain ; for the dread of everlasting roasting, 
 added to my love of economy, will, I think, 
 prevent me from ever making my friends 
 tipsy I" It is not without great hesitation, that 
 I consent to soil my pages with the repetition of 
 such obscene ribaldry, such desperate blas- 
 phemy ; but the hope of contributing to hold 
 up the revilers of my country to the contempt 
 and scorn of the virtuous of every land, induces 
 me to repeat that which I cannot read without 
 
 disgust. 
 
 Between Princetown, and Mr. Birkbeck's, in 
 lUinois, Mr. Hulme says, " we had to cross a 
 swamp of half a mile wide. We were obhged 
 to lead our horses, and walk up to our knees 
 in mud and water." If this be true, I suspect 
 that Mr. Hulme is the first sane man who was 
 ever known to be so fond of grovelling in the
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 381 
 
 mire, as to dismount from his horse at a time 
 when the services of that animal were most 
 requisite. If he had walked upon the hard 
 ground, and kept his feet dry by riding through 
 the swamp, his sanity would be less question- 
 able ; but his conduct, as he exhibits it, smacks 
 too much of the character of that of the man 
 in the fable, who carried his ass, because peo- 
 ple censured him for making the poor ass carry 
 him ; perhaps our traveller might have received 
 a similar admonition. *' Before we got halfway 
 across,'' he continues, " we began to think of 
 going back ; but there is a sound bottom under 
 it all, and we waded through as well as we 
 could." 
 
 The gentleman under the hat, whose sad 
 predicament I unfolded at the commence- 
 ment of this letter, found a sound bottom 
 too, but had to go much deeper for it than 
 Mr. Hulme ; and if the latter had heard this 
 story previous to his adventuring into Illinois, 
 he would have known the advantage of having 
 a good horse under him, and could never have 
 been induced to quit his saddle under such 
 circumstances. I incline, however, to the 
 opinion that Mr. Hulme (if this be not a nom
 
 38*2 LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 de guerre adopted by some anonymous scrib- 
 bler) never was in Illinois — certainly, that he 
 never was in such a Jix, as a woodsman would 
 say, as he describes, or he would have known 
 the advantage of being well mounted on such 
 an occasion, and would never have made this 
 display of his ignorance. 
 
 On his travels he, somehow or other, gets 
 into a dancing party, and is highly pleased, as 
 every one who has a spark of human nature in 
 his bosom must be, with the grace, agility, and 
 sweetness of our American girls. Even the 
 barbarous accompaniment of music is forgot- 
 ten, in the glee excited by the festivities of the 
 young people ; but suddenly he finds out that 
 the ladies are clad in British manufactures: 
 and thereupon flies into a tremendous passion, 
 at seeing " the dollars thus danced out of the 
 country into the hands of the borough-mongers, 
 to the tune of national airs !" That which to 
 a genuine Englishman would have afforded a 
 theme of proud exultation, excites only indig- 
 nation in the apostate bosom of this degenerate 
 Briton. He no sooner recovers his spirits, 
 after this alarming discovery, tlian his nervous 
 system is again agitated, by an insult which
 
 TALES OF TRAVELLERS. 383 
 
 completely sets forbearance at defiance. He 
 meets with a person from Philadelphia, who 
 tells him *' a story about a Mr. Hulme, an 
 Englishman, who had brought a large family 
 and considerable property to America. His 
 property, the said Mr. Hulme had got from the 
 British government, for the invention of some 
 machine, and that now having got rich under 
 their patronage, he was going about this coun- 
 try doing the said government all the mischief 
 he could." This charge he repels with suita- 
 ble indignation ; and completely exhausted with 
 the rage excited by so dreadful an accusation 
 as that of having rendered a service to his 
 country, for which that country had rewarded 
 him, and of extending his disobedient foot to 
 trip John Bull's heels from under him, he winds 
 up with a heroic resolution " to turn Quaker, 
 or if the Quakers will not receive him" — a qua- 
 lification which he did well to put in, for I 
 can assure him the Quakers will not receive any 
 man, who has so little wit as to lead his horse 
 through a swamp — " to establish a new society, 
 which shall have a chairman in place of a par- 
 son, and the assemblage shall discuss the sub-
 
 S84> LETTERS FROM THE WEST. 
 
 ject of the meeting themselves." He concludes 
 with a fling at the *' Cossack priests, the Bour- 
 bons, and the pope, and exits in a rage !" A 
 whole volume of such rigmarole, is incorporated 
 in ewtenso, ' by Cobbett, in his '* One Year's 
 Residence in America," and referred to, as 
 " confirmation strong," of the opinions of that 
 writer in relation to Illinois. 
 
 Almost all the English travellers have been 
 sadly annoyed by the filthiness of our inns, and 
 the " myriads of bed bugs " which disturb their 
 dreams. This reminds me of the quarrels of 
 our negroes, who seldom fail to stigmatize each 
 other as " black rascals," and is a proof of the 
 propensity which men have to denounce in 
 others the bad qualities which are most predo- 
 minant in themselves. I have never travelled 
 in England : all my knowledge of that country 
 is derived from her authors, who fail not to 
 include cleanliness in the monopoly of virtues 
 which they arrogate to their nation ; but this 
 I do know, and there are thousands who can 
 bear me out in the assertion, that if the English 
 really possess this virtue, they leave it behind 
 them, when they abjure the realm. The worst
 
 TALES OF A TRAVELLER. 385 
 
 taverns in Illinois have been kept by English- 
 men ; and there has never been in this state an 
 inn so badly kept, so filthy, and so extravagant, 
 as has been kept in Albion, by the emigrants 
 from that country. 
 
 If the English have found bad treatment at 
 our taverns, it has been produced by their own 
 offensive manners. There is no country in the 
 world in which a well bred traveller will expe- 
 rience more courteous civility, or enjoy more 
 wholesome or neater entertainment, tlian in 
 ours ; while the kindness and hospitality which 
 he will find in the houses of private gentlemen, 
 cannot but negative the assertion of the poet — 
 
 Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round, 
 Whate'er his various course has been, 
 
 Will sigh to think he still has found 
 His warmest welcome at an inn. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 sn.VlKKLL a;\U ISAV\LIS, JOHNSON's-COUKT, I'LKET sihkkt
 
 Just Published, in 2 vols, Svo. 285. 
 
 NOTIONS of the AMERICANS : picked up by 
 a TRAVELLING BACHELOR. 
 
 " We have read these volumes with the most unmingled satisfac- 
 tion. The writer is no other than Cooper, the weil-known national 
 novelist of America." — Monthly Magazine. 
 
 " This work is on all hands allowed to contain more accurate in- 
 formation as to the present state of America, than any work hereto- 
 fore published." — John Bull. 
 
 " Mr. Cooper's Book is the best that has yet been written on the 
 subject of America," — London Weekly Reviexp.