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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29306-8.txt b/29306-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..80f1c46 --- /dev/null +++ b/29306-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8192 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Afloat on the Ohio, by Reuben Gold Thwaites + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Afloat on the Ohio + An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo + + +Author: Reuben Gold Thwaites + + + +Release Date: July 4, 2009 [eBook #29306] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AFLOAT ON THE OHIO*** + + +E-text prepared by David Garcia, Alison Hadwin, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page +images generously made available by Kentuckiana Digital Library +(http://kdl.kyvl.org/) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Kentuckiana Digital Library. See + http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;view=toc;idno=b92-161-29919559 + + +Transcriber's note: + + Spellings and hyphenations are as in the original document. + Hyphenation was inconsistent, with the following words + appearing both with and without hyphens: saw-mill, tread-mill, + drift-wood, back-set, cotton-wood, farm-house, semi-circular, + search-light, fire-brick, out-door, ship-yard(s), and + house-boat(s). The name "Céleron" is used interchangebly with + "Céloron". + + + + + +AFLOAT ON THE OHIO + +An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, +from Redstone to Cairo + +by + +REUBEN GOLD THWAITES + +Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, +Editor of "The Jesuit Relations," +Author of "The Colonies, 1492-1750," "Historic Waterways," +"The Story of Wisconsin," "Our Cycling Tour in England," +etc., etc. + + + + + + + +Chicago +Way & Williams +1897 + +Copyright +by Reuben Gold Thwaites +A.D., 1897 + + + + + _To + FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER, Ph. D., + Professor of American History in the University of + Wisconsin, who loves his native West + and with rare insight and gift of phrase + interprets her story, + this Log of the "Pilgrim" is cordially inscribed._ + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + Preface. xi + + Chapter I. + + On the Monongahela--The over-mountain path--Redstone + Old Fort--The Youghiogheny--Braddock's defeat. 1 + + + Chapter II. + + First day on the Ohio--At Logstown. 22 + + Chapter III. + + Shingis Old Town--The dynamiter--Yellow Creek. 29 + + Chapter IV. + + An industrial region--Steubenville--Mingo Bottom--In + a steel mill--Indian character. 39 + + Chapter V. + + House-boat life--Decadence of steamboat traffic--Wheeling, + and Wheeling Creek. 50 + + Chapter VI. + + The Big Grave--Washington and Round Bottom--A + lazy man's paradise--Captina Creek--George Rogers + Clark at Fish Creek--Southern types. 64 + + Chapter VII. + + In Dixie--Oil and natural gas, at Witten's Bottom--The + Long Reach--Photographing crackers--Visitors in camp. 77 + + + Chapter VIII. + + Life ashore and afloat--Marietta, "the Plymouth Rock + of the West"--The Little Kanawha--The story of + Blennerhassett's Island. 87 + + Chapter IX. + + Poor whites--First library in the West--An hour at + Hockingport--A hermit fisher. 99 + + Chapter X. + + Cliff-dwellers, on Long Bottom--Pomeroy Bend--Letart's + Island, and Rapids--Game, in the early day--Rainy + weather--In a "cracker" home. 109 + + Chapter XI. + + Battle of Point Pleasant--The story of + Gallipolis--Rosebud--Huntington--The genesis of a + houseboater. 125 + + Chapter XII. + + In a fog--The Big Sandy--Rainy weather--Operatic + gypsies--An ancient tavern. 139 + + Chapter XIII. + + The Scioto, and the Shawanese--A night at + Rome--Limestone--Keels, flats, and boatmen of the + olden time. 150 + + Chapter XIV. + + Produce-boats--A dead town--On the Great Bend--Grant's + birthplace--The Little Miami--The genesis + of Cincinnati. 168 + + Chapter XV. + + The story of North Bend--The "shakes"--Driftwood--Rabbit + hash--A side-trip to Big Bone Lick. 182 + + Chapter XVI. + + New Switzerland--An old-time river pilot--Houseboat + life on the lower reaches--A philosopher in + rags--Wooded solitudes--Arrival at Louisville. 202 + + Chapter XVII. + + Storied Louisville--Red Indians and white--A night on + Sand Island--New Albany--Riverside hermits--The + river falling--A deserted village--An ideal camp. 218 + + Chapter XVIII. + + Village life--A traveling photographer--On a country + road--Studies in color--Again among colliers--In + sweet content--A ferry romance. 233 + + Chapter XIX. + + Fishermen's tales--Skiff nomenclature--Green + River--Evansville--Henderson--Audubon and + Rafinesque--Floating shops--The Wabash. 251 + + Chapter XX. + + Shawneetown--Farm-houses on stilts--Cave-in-Rock--Island + nights. 267 + + Chapter XXI. + + The Cumberland and the Tennessee--Stately solitudes--Old + Fort Massac--Dead towns in Egypt--The + last camp--Cairo. 280 + + _Appendix A._--Historical outline of Ohio Valley + settlement. 296 + + _Appendix B._--Selected list of Journals of previous + travelers down the Ohio. 320 + + Index. 329 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +There were four of us pilgrims--my Wife, our Boy of ten and a half +years, the Doctor, and I. My object in going--the others went for the +outing--was to gather "local color" for work in Western history. The +Ohio River was an important factor in the development of the West. +I wished to know the great waterway intimately in its various +phases,--to see with my own eyes what the borderers saw; in +imagination, to redress the pioneer stage, and repeople it. + +A motley company have here performed their parts: Savages of the +mound-building age, rearing upon these banks curious earthworks for +archæologists of the nineteenth century to puzzle over; Iroquois +war-parties, silently swooping upon sleeping villages of the +Shawanese, and in noisy glee returning to the New York lakes, laden +with spoils and captives; La Salle, prince of French explorers and +coureurs de bois, standing at the Falls of the Ohio, and seeking to +fathom the geographical mysteries of the continent; French and English +fur-traders, in bitter contention for the patronage of the red +man; borderers of the rival nations, shedding each other's blood in +protracted partisan wars; surveyors like Washington and Boone and the +McAfees, clad in fringed hunting-shirts and leathern leggings, mapping +out future states; hardy frontiersmen, fighting, hunting, or farming, +as occasion demanded; George Rogers Clark, descending the river with +his handful of heroic Virginians to win for the United States the +great Northwest, and for himself the laurels of fame; the Marietta +pilgrims, beating Revolutionary swords into Ohio plowshares; and all +that succeeding tide of immigrants from our own Atlantic coast +and every corner of Europe, pouring down the great valley to plant +powerful commonwealths beyond the mountains. A richly-varied panorama +of life passes before us as we contemplate the glowing story of the +Ohio. + +In making our historical pilgrimage we might more easily have +"steamboated" the river,--to use a verb in local vogue; but, from the +deck of a steamer, scenes take on a different aspect than when viewed +from near the level of the flood; for a passenger by such a craft, the +vistas of a winding stream change so rapidly that he does not realize +how it seemed to the canoeist or flatboatman of old; and there are too +many modern distractions about such a mode of progress. To our minds, +the manner of our going should as nearly as possible be that of the +pioneer himself--hence our skiff, and our nightly camp in primitive +fashion. + +The trip was successful, whatever the point of view. Physically, those +six weeks "Afloat on the Ohio" were a model outing--at times rough, to +be sure, but exhilarating, health-giving, brain-inspiring. The Log of +the "Pilgrim" seeks faintly to outline our experiences, but no words +can adequately describe the wooded hill-slopes which day by day girt +us in; the romantic ravines which corrugate the rim of the Ohio's +basin; the beautiful islands which stud the glistening tide; the great +affluents which, winding down for a thousand miles, from the Blue +Ridge, the Cumberland, and the Great Smoky, pour their floods into +the central stream; the giant trees--sycamores, pawpaws, cork elms, +catalpas, walnuts, and what not--which everywhere are in view in this +woodland world; the strange and lovely flowers we saw; the curious +people we met, black and white, and the varieties of dialect which +caught our ear; the details of our charming gypsy life, ashore and +afloat, during which we were conscious of the red blood tingling +through our veins, and, alert to the whisperings of Nature, were +careless of the workaday world, so far away,--simply glad to be alive. + +For the better understanding of the numerous historical references +in the Log, I have thought it well to present in the Appendix a brief +sketch of the settlement of the Ohio Valley. To this Appendix, as a +preliminary reading, I invite those who may care to follow "Pilgrim" +and her crew upon their long journey from historic Redstone down to +the Father of Waters. + +A selected list of Journals of previous travelers down the Ohio, has +been added, for the benefit of students of the social and economic +history of this important gateway to the continental interior. + + R. G. T. + + Madison, Wis., October, 1897. + + + + +AFLOAT ON THE OHIO + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + On the Monongahela--The over-mountain path--Redstone Old + Fort--The Youghiogheny--Braddock's defeat. + + +In camp near Charleroi, Pa., Friday, May 4.--Pilgrim, built for the +glassy lakes and smooth-flowing rivers of Wisconsin, had suffered +unwonted indignities in her rough journey of a thousand miles in a +box-car. But beyond a leaky seam or two, which the Doctor had righted +with clouts and putty, and some ugly scratches which were only +paint-deep, she was in fair trim as she gracefully lay at the foot of +the Brownsville shipyard this morning and received her lading. + +There were spectators in abundance. Brownsville, in the olden day, had +seen many an expedition set out from this spot for the grand tour of +the Ohio, but not in the personal recollection of any in this throng +of idlers, for the era of the flatboat and pirogue now belongs +to history. Our expedition is a revival, and therein lies +novelty. However, the historic spirit was not evident among our +visitors--railway men, coal miners loafing out the duration of a +strike, shipyard hands lying in wait for busier times, small boys +blessed with as much leisure as curiosity, and that wonder of wonders, +a bashful newspaper reporter. Their chief concern centered in the +query, how Pilgrim could hold that goodly heap of luggage and still +have room to spare for four passengers? It became evident that her +capacity is akin to that of the magician's bag. + +"A dandy skiff, gents!" said the foreman of the shipyard, as we +settled into our seats--the Doctor bow, I stroke, with W---- and the +Boy in the stern sheets. Having in silence critically watched us for a +half hour, seated on a capstan, his red flannel shirt rolled up to his +elbows, and well-corded chest and throat bared to wind and weather, +this remark of the foreman was evidently the studied judgment of an +expert. It was taken as such by the good-natured crowd, which, as we +pushed off into the stream, lustily joined in a chorus of "Good-bye!" +and "Good luck to yees, an' ye don't git th' missus drowndid 'fore ye +git to Cairo!" + +The current is slight on these lower reaches of the Monongahela. It +comes down gayly enough from the West Virginia hills, over many a +rapid, and through swirls and eddies in plenty, until Morgantown +is reached; and then, settling into a more sedate course, is at +Brownsville finally converted into a mere mill-pond, by the back-set +of the four slack-water dams between there and Pittsburg. This means +solid rowing for the first sixty miles of our journey, with a current +scarcely perceptible. + +The thought of it suggests lunch. At the mouth of Redstone Creek, a +mile below Dunlap Creek, our port of departure, we turn in to a shaly +beach at the foot of a wooded slope, in semi-rusticity, and fortify +the inner man. + +A famous spot, this Redstone Creek. Between its mouth and that of +Dunlap's was made, upon the site of extensive Indian fortification +mounds, the first English agricultural settlement west of the +Alleghanies. It is unsafe to establish dates for first discoveries, +or for first settlements. The wanderers who, first of all white men, +penetrated the fastnesses of the wilderness were mostly of the sort +who left no documentary traces behind them. It is probable, however, +that the first Redstone settlement was made as early as 1750, the +year following the establishment of the Ohio Company, which had been +chartered by the English crown and given a half-million acres of +land west of the mountains and south of the Ohio River, provided it +established thereon a hundred families within seven years. + +"Redstone Old Fort"--the name had reference to the aboriginal +earthworks--played a part in the Fort Necessity and Braddock campaigns +and in later frontier wars; and, being the western terminus of the +over-mountain road known at various historic periods as Nemacolin's +Path, Braddock's Road, and Cumberland Pike, was for many years the +chief point of departure for Virginia expeditions down the Ohio River. +Washington, who had large landed interests on the Ohio, knew Redstone +well; and here George Rogers Clark set out (1778) upon flatboats, with +his rough-and-ready Virginia volunteers, to capture the country north +of the Ohio for the American arms--one of the least known, but most +momentous conquests in history. + +Early in the nineteenth century, Redstone became Brownsville. But, +whether as Redstone or Brownsville, it was, in its day, like most +"jumping off" places on the edge of civilization, a veritable Sodom. +Wrote good old John Pope, in his Journal of 1790, and in the same +strain scores of other veracious chroniclers: "At this Place we were +detained about a Week, experiencing every Disgust which Rooks and +Harpies could excite." Here thrived extensive yards in which were +built flatboats, arks, keel boats, and all that miscellaneous +collection of water craft which, with their roisterly crews, were the +life of the Ohio before the introduction of steam rendered vessels of +deeper draught essential; whereupon much of the shipping business went +down the river to better stages of water, first to Pittsburg, thence +to Wheeling, and to Steubenville. + +All that is of the past. Brownsville is still a busy corner of the +world, though of a different sort, with all its romance gone. To +the student of Western history, Brownsville will always be a +shrine--albeit a smoky, dusty shrine, with the smell of lubricators +and the clang of hammers, and much talk thereabout of the glories of +Mammon. + +The Monongahela is a characteristic mountain trough. From an altitude +of four or five hundred feet, the country falls in sharp steeps to a +narrow alluvial bench, and then a broad beach of shale and pebble; the +slopes are broken, here and there, where deep, shadowy ravines come +winding down, bearing muddy contributions to the greater flood. +The higher hills are crowned with forest trees, the lower ofttimes +checkered with brown fields, recently planted, and rows of vines +trimmed low to stakes, as in the fashion of the Rhine. The stream, +though still majestic in its sweep, is henceforth a commercial +slack-water, lined with noisy, grimy, matter-of-fact manufacturing +towns, for the most part literally abutting one upon the other all +of the way down to Pittsburg, and fast defiling the once picturesque +banks with the gruesome offal of coal mines and iron plants. +Surprising is the density of settlement along the river. Often, four +or five full-fledged cities are at once in view from our boat, the air +is thick with sooty smoke belched from hundreds of stacks, the ear +is almost deafened with the whirr and roar and bang of milling +industries. + +Tipples of bituminous coal-shafts are ever in sight--begrimed +scaffolds of wood and iron, arranged for dumping the product of the +mines into both barges and railway cars. Either bank is lined with +railways, in sight of which we shall almost continually float, all the +way down to Cairo, nearly eleven hundred miles away. At each tipple +is a miners' hamlet; a row of cottages or huts, cast in a common mold, +either unpainted, or bedaubed with that cheap, ugly red with which one +is familiar in railway bridges and rural barns. Sometimes these huts, +though in the mass dreary enough, are kept in neat repair; but often +are they sadly out of elbows--pigs and children promiscuously at +their doors, paneless sash stuffed with rags, unsightly litter strewn +around, misery stamped on every feature of the homeless tenements. +Dreariest of all is a deserted mining village, and there are +many such--the shaft having been worked out, or an unquenchable +subterranean fire left to smolder in neglect. Here the tipple has +fallen into creaking decrepitude; the cabins are without windows or +doors--these having been taken to some newer hamlet; ridge-poles are +sunken, chimneys tottering; soot covers the gaunt bones, which for all +the world are like a row of skeletons, perched high, and grinning down +at you in their misery; while the black offal of the pit, covering +deep the original beauty of the once green slope, is in its turn being +veiled with climbing weeds--such is Nature's haste, when untrammeled, +to heal the scars wrought by man. + +A mile or two below Charleroi is Lock No. 4, the first of the quartet +of obstructions between Brownsville and Pittsburg. We are encamped a +mile below the dam, in a cozy little willowed nook; a rod behind +our ample tent rises the face of an alluvial terrace, occupied by a +grain-field, running back for an hundred yards to the hills, at the +base of which is a railway track. Across the river, here some two +hundred and fifty yards wide, the dark, rocky bluffs, slashed with +numerous ravines, ascend sharply from the flood; at the quarried base, +a wagon road and the customary railway; and upon the stony beach, two +or three rough shelter-tents, housing the Black Diamond Brass Band, of +Monongahela City, out on a week's picnic to while away the period of +the strike. + +It was seven o'clock when we struck camp, and our frugal repast was +finished by lantern-light. The sun sets early in this narrow trough +through the foothills of the Laurel range. + + * * * * * + +McKeesport, Pa., Saturday, May 5th.--Out there on the beach, near +Charleroi, with the sail for an awning, Pilgrim had been converted +into a boudoir for the Doctor, who, snuggled in his sleeping-bag, +emitted an occasional snore--echoes from the Land of Nod. W---- and +our Boy of ten summers, on their canvas folding-cots, were peacefully +oblivious of the noises of the night, and needed the kiss of dawn to +rouse them. But for me, always a light sleeper, and as yet unused to +our airy bedroom, the crickets chirruped through the long watches. + +Two or three freighters passed in the night, with monotonous +swish-swish and swelling wake. It arouses something akin to awe, this +passage of a steamer's wake upon the beach, a dozen feet from the door +of one's tent. First, the water is sucked down, leaving for a moment +a wet streak of sand or gravel, a dozen feet in width; in quick +succession come heavy, booming waves, running at an acute angle with +the shore, breaking at once into angry foam, and wasting themselves +far up on the strand, for a few moments making bedlam with any +driftwood which chances to have made lodgment there. When suddenly +awakened by this boisterous turmoil, the first thought is that a dam +has broken and a flood is at hand; but, by the time you rise upon your +elbow, the scurrying uproar lessens, and gradually dies away along a +more distant shore. + +We were slow in getting off this morning. But the dense fog had +been loath to lift; and at first the stove smoked badly, until +we discovered and removed the source of trouble. This stove is an +ingenious contrivance of the Doctor's--a box of sheet-iron, of slight +weight, so arranged as to be folded into an incredibly small space; +a vast improvement for cooking purposes over an open camp-fire, which +Pilgrim's crew know, from long experience in far distant fields, to be +a vexation to eyes and soul. + +Coaling hamlets more or less deserted were frequent this +morning--unpainted, windowless, ragged wrecks. At the inhabited mining +villages, either close to the strand or well up on hillside ledges, +idle men were everywhere about. Women and boys and girls were +stockingless and shoeless, and often dirty to a degree. But, +when conversed with, we found them independent, respectful, and +self-respecting folk. Occasionally I would, for the mere sake of +meeting these workaday brothers of ours, with canteen slung on +shoulder, climb the steep flight of stairs cut in the clay bank, and +on reaching the terrace inquire for drinking water, talking familiarly +with the folk who came to meet me at the well-curb. + +There are old-fashioned Dutch ovens in nearly every yard, a few +chickens, and often a shed for the cow, that is off on her daily climb +over the neighboring hills. Through the black pall of shale, a +few vegetables struggle feebly to the light; in the corners of the +palings, are hollyhocks and four-o'clocks; and, on window-sills, rows +of battered tin cans, resplendent in blue and yellow labels, are the +homes of verbenas and geraniums, in sickly bloom. Now and then, a +back door in the dreary block is distinguished by an arbored trellis +bearing a grape-vine, and furnishing for the weary housewife a shady +kitchen, _al fresco_. As a rule, however, there is little attempt to +better the homeless shelter furnished by the corporation. + +We restocked with provisions at Monongahela City, a smart, newish +town, and at Elizabeth, old and dingy. It was at Elizabeth, then +Elizabethtown, that travelers from the Eastern States, over the old +Philadelphia Road, chiefly took boat for the Ohio--the Virginians +still clinging to Redstone, as the terminus of the Braddock Road. +Elizabethtown, in flatboat days, was the seat of a considerable +boat-building industry, its yards in time turning out steamboats for +the New Orleans trade, and even sea-going sailing craft; but, to-day, +coal barges are the principal output of her decaying shipyards. + +By this time, the duties of our little ship's company are well +defined. W---- supervises the cuisine, most important of all offices; +the Doctor is chief navigator, assistant cook, and hewer of wood; it +falls to my lot to purchase supplies, to be carrier of water, to pitch +tent and make beds, and, while breakfast is being cooked, to dismantle +the camp and, so far as may be, to repack Pilgrim; the Boy collects +driftwood, wipes dishes, and helps at what he can--while all hands row +or paddle through the livelong day, as whim or need dictates. + +Lock No. 3, at Walton, necessitated a portage of the load, over the +left bank. It is a steep, rocky climb, and the descent on the lower +side, strewn with stone chips, destructive to shoe-leather. The Doctor +and I let Pilgrim herself down with a long rope, over a shallow spot +in the apron of the dam. + +At six o'clock a camping-ground for the night became desirable. We +were fortunate, last evening, to find a bit of rustic country in which +to pitch our tent; but all through this afternoon both banks of the +river were lined with village after village, city after city, scarcely +a garden patch between them--Wilson, Coal Valley, Lostock, Glassport, +Dravosburg, and a dozen others not recorded on our map, which bears +date of 1882. The sun was setting behind the rim of the river +basin, when we reached the broad mouth of the Youghiogheny (pr. +Yock-i-o-gai'-ny), which is implanted with a cluster of iron-mill +towns, of which McKeesport is the center. So far as we could see down +the Monongahela, the air was thick with the smoke of glowing chimneys, +and the pulsating whang of steel-making plants and rolling-mills made +the air tremble. The view up the "Yough" was more inviting; so, with +oars and paddle firmly set, we turned off our course and lustily +pulled against the strong current of the tributary. A score or two of +house-boats lay tied to the McKeesport shore or were bolstered high +upon the beach; a fleet of Yough steamers had their noses to the +wharf; a half-dozen fishermen were setting nets; and, high over all, +with lofty spans of iron cobweb, several railway and wagon bridges +spanned the gliding stream. + +It was a mile and a half up the Yough before we reached the open +country; and then only the rapidly-gathering dusk drove us ashore, for +on near approach the prospect was not pleasing. Finally settling into +this damp, shallow pocket in the shelving bank, we find broad-girthed +elms and maples screening us from all save the river front, the high +bank in the rear fringed with blue violets which emit a delicious +odor, backed by a field of waving corn stretching off toward +heavily-wooded hills. Our supper cooked and eaten by lantern-light, +we vote ourselves as, after all, serenely content out here in the +starlight--at peace with the world, and very close to Nature's heart. + +There come to us, on the cool evening breeze, faint echoes of the +never-ceasing clang of McKeesport iron mills, down on the Monongahela +shore. But it is not of these we talk, lounging in the welcome warmth +of the camp-fire; it is of the age of romance, a hundred and forty odd +years ago, when Major Washington and Christopher Gist, with famished +horses, floundered in the ice hereabout, upon their famous midwinter +trip to Fort Le Boeuf; when the "Forks of the Yough" became the +extreme outpost of Western advance, with all the accompanying horrors +of frontier war; and later, when McKeesport for a time rivaled +Redstone and Elizabethtown as a center for boat-building and a point +of departure for the Ohio. + + * * * * * + +Pittsburg, Sunday, May 6th.--Many of the trees are already in full +leaf. The trillium is fading. We are in the full tide of early +summer, up here in the mountains, and our long journey of six weeks +is southward and toward the plain. The lower Ohio may soon be a +bake-oven, and the middle of June will be upon us before far-away +Cairo is reached. It behooves us to be up and doing. The river, +flowing by our door, is an ever-pressing invitation to be onward; it +stops not for Sunday, nor ever stops--and why should we, mere drift +upon the passing tide? + +There was a smart thunder-shower during breakfast, followed by a cool, +cloudy morning. At eleven o'clock Pilgrim was laden. A south-eastern +breeze ruffled the waters of the Yough, and for the first time the +Doctor ordered up the sail, with W---- at the sheet. It was not long +before Pilgrim had the water "singing at her prow." With a rush, we +flew past the factories, the house-boats, and the shabby street-ends +of McKeesport, out into the Monongahela, where, luckily, the wind +still held. + +At McKeesport, the hills on the right are of a relatively low +altitude, smooth and well rounded. It was here that Braddock, in his +slow progress toward Fort Duquesne, first crossed the Monongahela, +to the wide, level bottom on the left bank. He had found the inner +country to the right of the river and below the Yough too rough and +hilly for his march, hence had turned back toward the Monongahela, +fording the river to take advantage of the less difficult bottom. Some +four miles below this first crossing, hills reapproach the left +bank, till the bottom ceases; the right thenceforth becomes the +more favorable side for marching. With great pomp, he recrossed the +Monongahela just below the point where Turtle Creek enters from +the east. Within a hillside ravine, but a hundred yards inland, +the brilliant column fell into an ambuscade of Indians and French +half-breeds, suffering that heart-sickening defeat which will ever +live as one of the most tragic events in American history. + +The noisy iron-manufacturing town of Braddock now occupies the site of +Braddock's defeat. Not far from the old ford stretches the great +dam of Lock No. 2, which we portaged, with the usual difficulties of +steep, stony banks. Braddock is but eight miles across country from +Pittsburg, although twelve by river. We have, all the way down, an +almost constant succession of iron and steel-making towns, chief among +them Homestead, on the left bank, seven miles above Pittsburg. The +great strike of July, 1892, with its attendant horrors, is a lurid +chapter in the story of American industry. With shuddering interest, +we view the famous great bank of ugly slag at the base of the steel +mills, where the barges housing the Pinkerton guards were burned by +the mob. + +To-day, the Homesteaders are enjoying their Sunday afternoon outing +along the town shore--nurses pushing baby carriages, self-absorbed +lovers holding hands upon riverside benches, merry-makers rowing in +skiffs or crossing the river in crowded ferries; the electric cars, +following either side of the stream as far down as Pittsburg, crowded +to suffocation with gayly-attired folk. They look little like rioters; +yet it seems but the other day when Homestead men and women and +children were hysterically reveling in atrocities akin to those of the +Paris commune. + +Approaching Pittsburg, the high steeps are everywhere crowded with +houses--great masses of smoke-color, dotted all over with white shades +and sparkling windows, which seem, in the gray afternoon, to be ten +thousand eyes coldly staring down at Pilgrim and her crew from all +over the flanking hillsides. + +Lock No. 1, the last barrier between us and the Ohio, is a mile or two +up the Monongahela, with warehouses and manufacturing plants closely +hemming it in on either side. A portage, unaided, appears to be +impossible here, and we resolve to lock through. But it is Sunday, and +the lock is closed. Above, a dozen down-going steamboats are moored to +the shore, waiting for midnight and the resumption of business; while +below, a similar line of ascending boats is awaiting the close of the +day of rest. Pilgrim, however, cannot hang up at the levee with any +comfort to her crew; it is necessary, with evening at hand, and a +thunder-storm angrily rising over the Pittsburg hills, to get out +of this grimy pool, flanked about with iron and coal yards, chimney +stacks, and a forest of shipping, and to quickly seek the open country +lower down on the Ohio. The lock-keepers appreciated our situation. +Two or three sturdy, courteous men helped us carry our cargo, by an +intricate official route, over coils of rope and chains, over lines of +shafting, and along dizzy walks overhanging the yawning basin; while +the Doctor, directed to a certain chute in midstream, took unladen +Pilgrim over the great dam, with a wild swoop which made our eyes swim +to witness from the lock. + +We had laboriously been rowing on slack-water, all the way from +Brownsville, with the help of an hour's sail this morning; whereas, +now that we were in the strong current below the dam, we had but to +gently paddle to glide swiftly on our way. A hundred steamers, more or +less, lay closely packed with their bows upon the right, or principal +city wharf. It was raining at last, and we donned our storm wraps. No +doubt yellow Pilgrim,--thought hereabout to be a frail craft for these +waters,--her crew all poncho-clad, slipping silently through the dark +water swishing at their sterns, was a novelty to the steamboat men, +for they leaned lazily over their railings, the officers on the +upper deck, engineers and roustabouts on the lower, and watched us +curiously. + +Our period of elation was brief. Black storm-clouds, jagged and +portentous, were scurrying across the sky; and by the time we had +reached the forks, where the Monongahela, in the heart of the city, +joins forces with the Alleghany, Pilgrim was being buffeted about on +a chop sea produced by cross currents and a northwest gale. She can +weather an ordinary storm, but this experience was too much for her. +When a passing steamer threw out long lines of frothy waves to add +to the disturbance, they broke over our gunwales; and W---- with the +coffee pot and the Boy with a tin basin were hard pushed to keep the +water below the thwarts. + +Seeking the friendly shelter of a house-boat, of which there were +scores tied to the left bank, we trusted our drenched luggage to the +care of its proprietor, placed Pilgrim in a snug harbor hard by, and, +hurrying up a steep flight of steps leading from the levee to the +terrace above, found a suburban hotel just as its office clock struck +eight. + +Across the Ohio, through the blinding storm, the dark outlines of +Pittsburg and Allegheny City are spangled with electric lamps which +throw toward us long, shimmering lances of light, in which the mighty +stream, gray, mysterious, tempest-tossed, is seen to be surging onward +with majestic sweep. Upon its bosom we are to be borne for a thousand +miles. Our introduction has been unpropitious; it is to be hoped +that on further acquaintance we may be better pleased with La Belle +Rivière. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + First day on the Ohio--At Logstown. + + +Beaver River, Monday, May 7th.--We have to-day rowed and paddled under +a cloudless sky, but in the teeth of frequent squalls, with heavy +waves freely dashing their spray upon us. At such times a goodly +current, aided by numerous wing-dams, appears of little avail; for, +when we rested upon our oars, Pilgrim would be unmercifully driven up +stream. Thus it has been an almost continual fight to make progress, +and our five-and-twenty miles represent a hard day's work. + +We were overloaded, that was certain; so we stopped at Chartier, three +miles down the river from Pittsburg, and sent on our portly bag of +conventional traveling clothes by express to Cincinnati, where +we intend stopping for a day. This leaves us in our rough boating +costumes for all the smaller towns _en route_. What we may lose in +possible social embarrassments, we gain in lightened cargo. + +Here at the mouth of Chartier's Creek was "Chartier's Old Town" of a +century and a third ago; a straggling, unkempt Indian village then, +but at least the banks were lovely, and the rolling distances clothed +with majestic trees. To-day, these creek banks, connected with +numerous iron bridges, are the dumping-ground for cinders, slag, +rubbish of every degree of foulness; the bare hillsides are crowded +with the ugly dwellings of iron-workers; the atmosphere is thick with +smoke. + +Washington, one of the greatest land speculators of his time, owned +over 32,000 acres along the Ohio. He held a patent from Lord Dunmore, +dated July 5, 1775, for nearly 3,000 acres lying about the mouth +of this stream. In accordance with the free-and-easy habit of +trans-Alleghany pioneers, ten men squatted on the tract, greatly to +the indignation of the Father of his Country, who in 1784 brought +against them a successful suit for ejectment. Twelve years later, more +familiar with this than with most of his land grants, he sold it to a +friend for $12,000. + +Just below Chartier are the picturesque McKee's Rocks, where is the +first riffle in the Ohio. We "take" it with a swoop, the white-capped +waves dancing about us in a miniature rapid. Then we are in the open +country, and for the first time find what the great river is like. +The character of the banks, for some distance below Pittsburg, differs +from that of the Monongahela. The hills are lower, less precipitous, +more graceful. There is a delightful roundness of mass and shade. +Beautiful villas occupy commanding situations on hillsides and +hilltops; we catch glimpses of spires and cupolas, singly or in +groups, peeping above the trees; and now and then a pretty suburban +railway station. The railways upon either bank are built on neat +terraces, and, far from marring the scene, agreeably give life to +it; now and then, three such terraces are to be traced, one above the +other, against the dark background of wood and field--the lower and +upper devoted to rival railway lines, the central one to the common +way. The mouths of the beautiful tributary ravines are crossed either +by graceful iron spans, which frame charming undercut glimpses of +sparkling waterfalls and deep tangles of moss and fern, or by graceful +stone arches draped with vines. There are terraced vineyards, after +the fashion of the Rhineland, and the gentle arts of the florist and +the truck-gardener are much in evidence. The winding river frequently +sweeps at the base of rocky escarpments, but upon one side or the +other there are now invariably bottom lands--narrow on these upper +reaches, but we shall find them gradually widen and lengthen as we +descend. The reaches are from four to seven miles in length, but +these, too, are to lengthen in the middle waters. Islands are +frequent, all day. The largest is Neville's, five miles long and +thickly strewn with villas and market-gardens; still others are but +long sandbars grown to willows, and but temporarily in sight, for the +stage of water is low just now, not over seven feet in the channel. + +Emerging from the immediate suburbs of Pittsburg, the fields broaden, +farmsteads are occasionally to be seen nestled in the undulations +of the hills, woodlands become more dense. There are, however, small +rustic towns in plenty; we are seldom out of sight of these. +Climbing a steep clay slope on the left bank, we visited one of +them--Shousetown, fourteen miles below the city. A sad-eyed, shabby +place, with the pipe line for natural gas sprawling hither and yon +upon the surface of the ground, except at the street crossings, where +a few inches of protecting earth have been laid upon it. The tariff +levied by the gas company is ten cents per month for each light, and a +dollar and a half for a cook-stove. + +We passed, this afternoon, one of the most interesting historic points +upon the river--the picturesque site of ancient Logstown, upon the +summit of a low, steep ridge on the right bank, just below Economy, +and eighteen miles from Pittsburg. Logstown was a Shawanese village as +early as 1727-30, and already a notable fur-trading post when Conrad +Weiser visited it in 1748. Washington and Gist stopped at "Loggestown" +for five days on their visit to the French at Fort Le Boeuf, and +several famous Indian treaties were signed there. A short distance +below, Anthony Wayne's Western army was encamped during the winter of +1792-93, the place being then styled Legionville. In 1824 George Rapp +founded in the neighborhood a German socialist community, and this +later settlement survives to the present day in the thriving little +rustic town of Economy. + +At four o'clock we struck camp on a heavily-willowed shore, at the +apex of the great northern bend of the Ohio (25 miles).[A] Across +the river, on a broad level bottom, are the manufacturing towns of +Rochester and Beaver, divided by the Beaver River; in their rear, +well-rounded hills rise gracefully, checkered with brown fields and +woods in many shades of green, in the midst of which the flowering +white dogwood rears its stately spray. Our sloping willowed +sand-beach, of a hundred feet in width, is thick strewn with +driftwood; back of this a clay bank, eight feet sheer, and a narrow +bottom cut up with small fruit and vegetable patches; the gardeners' +neat frame houses peeping from groves of apple, pear and cherry, upon +the flanking hillsides. A lofty oil-well derrick surmounts the edge of +the terrace a hundred yards below our camp. The bushes and the ground +round about the well are black and slimy with crude petroleum, that +has escaped during the boring process, and the air is heavy with its +odor. We are upon the edge of the far-stretching oil and gas-well +region, and shall soon become familiar enough with such sights and +smells in the neighborhood of our nightly camps. + +No sooner had Pilgrim been turned up against a tree to dry, and a +smooth sandy open chosen for the camp, than the proprietor of the soil +appeared--a middling-sized, lanky man, with a red face and a sandy +goatee surmounting a collarless white shirt all bestained with tobacco +juice. He inquired rather sharply concerning us, but when informed of +our innocent errand, and that we should stay with him but the night, +he promptly softened, explaining that the presence of marauding +fishermen and house-boat folk was incompatible with gardening for +profit, and he would have none of them touch upon his shore. As to +us, we were welcome to stop throughout our pleasure, an invitation he +reinforced by sitting upon a stump, whittling vigorously meanwhile, +and glibly gossiping with the Doctor and me for a half-hour, on crop +conditions and the state of the country--"bein' sociable like," he +said, "an' hav'n' nuth'n 'gin you folks, as knows what's what, I kin +see with half a eye!" + +[Footnote A: Figures in parentheses, similarly placed throughout the +volume, indicate the meandered river mileage from Pittsburg, according +to the map of the Corps of Engineers, U.S.A., published in 1881. The +actual mileage of the channel is a trifle greater.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Shingis Old Town--The dynamiter--Yellow Creek. + + +Kneistley's Cluster, W. Va., Tuesday, May 8th.--We were off at a +quarter past seven, and among the earliest shoppers in Rochester, on +the east bank of the Beaver, where supplies were laid in for the day. +This busy, prosperous-looking place bears little resemblance to the +squalid Indian village which Gist found here in November, 1750. It was +then the seat of Barney Curran, an Indian trader--the same Curran whom +Washington, three years later, employed in the mission to Venango. But +the smaller sister town of Beaver, on the lower side of the mouth,--or +rather the western outskirts of Beaver a mile below the mouth,--has +the most ancient history. On account of a ford across the Beaver, +about where is now a slack-water dam, the neighborhood became of +early importance to the French as a fur-trading center. With customary +liberality toward the Indians, whom they assiduously cultivated, the +French, in 1756, built for them, on this site, a substantial town, +which the English indifferently called Sarikonk, Sohkon, King Beaver's +Town, or Shingis Old Town. During the French and Indian War, the place +was prominent as a rendezvous for the enemies of American borderers; +numerous bloody forays were planned here, and hither were brought to +be adopted into the tribes, or to be cruelly tortured, according to +savage whim, many of the captives whose tales have made lurid the +history of the Ohio Valley. + +Passing Beaver River, the Ohio enters upon its grand sweep to the +southwest. The wide uplands at once become more rustic, especially +those of the left bank, which no longer is threaded by a railway, as +heretofore all the way from Brownsville. The two ranges of undulating +hills, some three hundred and fifty feet high, forming the rim of the +basin, are about a half mile apart; while the river itself is perhaps +a third of a mile in width, leaving narrow bottoms on alternate sides, +as the stream in gentle curves rebounds from the rocky base of one +hill to that of another. When winding about such a base, there is at +this stage of the water a sloping, stony beach, some ten to twenty +yards in width, from which ascends the sharp steep, for the most part +heavily tree-clad--maples, birches, elms and oaks of goodly girth, the +latter as yet in but half-leaf. On the "bottom side" of the river, the +alluvial terrace presents a sheer wall of clay rising from eight to a +dozen feet above the beach, which is often thick-grown with willows, +whose roots hold the soil from becoming too easy a prey to the +encroaching current. Sycamores now begin to appear in the bottoms, +although of less size than we shall meet below. Sometimes the little +towns we see occupy a narrow and more or less rocky bench upon the +hill side of the stream, but settlement is chiefly found upon the +bottoms. + +Shippingsport (32 miles), on the left bank, where we stopped this noon +for eggs, butter, and fresh water, is on a narrow hill bench--a dry, +woe-begone hamlet, side-tracked from the path of the world's progress. +While I was on shore, negotiating with the sleepy storekeeper, Pilgrim +and her crew waited alongside the flatboat which serves as the town +ferry. There they were visited by a breezy, red-faced young man, in a +blue flannel shirt and a black slouch hat, who was soon enough at his +ease to lie flat upon the ferry gunwale, his cheeks supported by his +hands, and talk to W---- and the Doctor as if they were old friends. +He was a dealer in nitroglycerin cartridges, he said, and pointed to a +long, rakish-looking skiff hard by, which bore a red flag at its +prow. "Ye see that? Thet there red flag? Well, thet's the law on us +glyser_een_ fellers--over five hundred poun's, two flags; un'er five +hundred, one flag. I've two hundred and fifty, I have. I tell yer th' +steamboats steer clear o' me, an' don' yer fergit it, neither; they +jist give me a wide berth, they do, yew bet! 'n' th' railroads, they +don' carry no glyser_een_ cartridge, they don't--all uv it by skiff, +like yer see me goin'." + +These cartridges, he explained, are dropped into oil or gas wells +whose owners are desirous of accelerating the flow. The cartridge, in +exploding, enlarges the hole, and often the output of the well is at +once increased by several hundred per cent. The young fellow had the +air of a self-confident rustic, with little experience in the world. +Indeed, it seemed from his elated manner as if this might be his +first trip from home, and the blowing of oil wells an incidental +speculation. The Boy, quick at inventive nomenclature, and fresh +from a reading of Robert Louis Stevenson, called our visitor "the +Dynamiter," and by that title I suppose we shall always remember him. + +The Dynamiter confided to his listeners that he was going down the +river for "a clean hundred miles, and that's right smart fur, ain't +it? How fur down be yees goin'?" The Doctor replied that we were going +nine hundred; whereat the man of explosives gave vent to his feelings +in a prolonged whistle, then a horse laugh, and "Oh come, now! Don' +be givin' us taffy! Say, hones' Injun, how fur down air yew fellers +goin', anyhow?" It was with some difficulty that he could comprehend +the fact. A hundred miles on the river was a great outing for this +village lad; nine hundred was rather beyond his comprehension, +although he finally compromised by "allowing" that we might be going +as far as Cincinnati. Wouldn't the Doctor go into partnership with +him? He had no caps for his cartridges, and if the Doctor would buy +caps and "stan' in with him on the cost of the glyser_een_," they +would, regardless of Ohio statutes, blow up the fish in unfrequented +portions of the river, and make two hundred dollars apiece by carrying +the spoils in to Wheeling. The Doctor, as a law-abiding citizen, +good-naturedly declined; and upon my return to the flat, the Dynamiter +was handing the Boy a huge stick of barber-pole candy, saying, "Well, +yew fellers, we'll part friends, anyhow--but sorry yew won't go in on +this spec'; there's right smart money in 't, 'n' don' yer fergit it!" + +By the middle of the afternoon we reached the boundary line (40 miles) +between Pennsylvania on the east and Ohio and West Virginia on the +west. The last Pennsylvania settlements are a half mile above the +boundary--Smith's Ferry (right), an old and somewhat decayed village, +on a broad, low bottom at the mouth of the picturesque Little Beaver +Creek;[A] and Georgetown (left), a prosperous-looking, sedate town, +with tidy lawns running down to the edge of the terrace, below which +is a shelving stone beach of generous width. Two high iron towers +supporting the cable of a current ferry add dignity to the twin +settlements. A stone monument, six feet high, just observable through +the willows on the right shore, marks the boundary; while upon the +left bank, surmounting a high, rock-strewn beach, is the dilapidated +frame house of a West Virginia "cracker," through whose garden-patch +the line takes its way, unobserved and unthought of by pigs, chickens +and children, which in hopeless promiscuity swarm the interstate +premises. + +For many days to come we are to have Ohio on the right bank and West +Virginia on the left. There is no perceptible change, of course, in +the contour of the rugged hills which hem us in; yet somehow it stirs +the blood to reflect that quite within the recollection of all of +us in Pilgrim's crew, save the Boy, that left bank was the house of +bondage, and that right the land of freedom, and this river of ours +the highway between. + +East Liverpool (44 miles) and Wellsville (48 miles) are long stretches +of pottery and tile-making works, both of them on the Ohio shore. +There is nothing there to lure us, however, and we determined to camp +on the banks of Yellow Creek (51 miles), a peaceful little Ohio stream +some two rods in width, its mouth crossed by two great iron spans, for +railway and highway. But although Yellow Creek winds most gracefully +and is altogether a charming bit of rustic water, deep-set amid +picturesque slopes of field and wood, we fail to find upon its banks +an appropriate camping-place. Upon one side a country road closely +skirts the shore, and on the other a railway, while for the mile or +more we pushed along small farmsteads almost abutted. Hence we retrace +our path to the great river, and, dropping down-stream for two miles, +find what we seek upon the lower end of the chief of Kneistly's +Cluster--two islands on the West Virginia side of the channel. + +It is storied ground, this neighborhood of ours. Over there at the +mouth of Yellow Creek was, a hundred and twenty years ago, the camp of +Logan, the Mingo chief; opposite, on the West Virginia shore, Baker's +Bottom, where occurred the treacherous massacre of Logan's family. The +tragedy is interwoven with the history of the trans-Alleghany border; +and schoolboys have in many lands and tongues recited the pathetic +defense of the poor Mingo, who, more sinned against than sinning, was +crushed in the inevitable struggle between savagery and civilization. +"Who is there to mourn for Logan?" + +We are high and dry on our willowed island. Above, just out of sight, +are moored a brace of steam pile-drivers engaged in strengthening +the dam which unites us with Baker's Bottom. To the left lies a broad +stretch of gravel strand, beyond which is the narrow water fed by the +overflow of the dam; to the right, the broad steamboat channel rolls +between us and the Ohio hills, while the far-reaching vista downstream +is a feast of shade and tint, by land and water, with the lights and +smoke of New Cumberland and Sloan's Station faintly discernible near +the horizon. All about us lies a beautiful world of woodland. +The whistle of quails innumerable broke upon us in the twilight, +succeeding to the calls of rose-breasted grosbeaks and a goodly +company of daylight followers; in this darkening hour, the low, +plaintive note of the whip-poor-will is heard on every hand, now +and then interrupted by the hoarse bark of owls. There is a gentle +tinkling of cowbells on the Ohio shore, and on both are human voices +confused by distance. All pervading is the deep, sullen roar of a +great wing-dam, a half mile or so down-stream. + +The camp is gypsy-like. Our washing lies spread on bushes, where it +will catch the first peep of morning sun. Perishable provisions rest +in notches of trees, where the cool evening breeze will strike them. +Seated upon the "grub" box, I am writing up our log by aid of the +lantern hung from a branch overhead, while W----, ever busy, sits by +with her mending. Lying in the moonlight, which through the sprawling +willows gayly checkers our sand bank, the Doctor and the Boy are +discussing the doings of Br'er Rabbit--for we are in the Southland +now, and may any day meet good Uncle Remus. + +[Footnote A: On this creek was the hunting-cabin of the Seneca (Mingo) +chief, Half King, who sent a message of welcome to Washington, when +the latter was on his way to Great Meadows (1754).] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + An industrial region--Steubenville--Mingo Bottom--In a steel + mill--Indian character. + + +Mingo Junction, Ohio, Wednesday, May 9th.--We had a cold night upon +our island. Upon arising this morning, a heavy fog enveloped us, at +first completely veiling the sun; soon it became faintly visible, a +great ball of burnished copper reflected in the dimpled flood which +poured between us and the Ohio shore. Weeds and willows were sopping +wet, as was also our wash, and the breakfast fire was a comfortable +companion. But by the time we were off, the cloud had lifted, and the +sun gushed out with promise of a warm day. + +Throughout the morning, Pilgrim glided through a thickly settled +district, reminding us of the Monongahela. Sewer-pipe and +vitrified-brick works, and iron and steel plants, abound on the +narrow bottoms. The factories and mills themselves generally wear +a prosperous look; but the dependent towns vary in appearance, from +clusters of shabby, down-at-the-heel cabins, to lines of neat and +well-painted houses and shops. + +We visited the vitrified-brick works at New Cumberland, W. Va. (56 +miles), where the proprietor kindly explained his methods, and talked +freely of his business. It was the old story, too close a competition +for profit, although the use of brick pavements is fast spreading. +Fire clay available for the purpose is abundant on the banks of the +Ohio all the way from Pittsburg to Kingston (60 miles). A few miles +below New Cumberland, on the Ohio shore, we inspected the tile works +at Freeman, and admired the dexterity which the workmen had attained. + +But what interested us most of all was the appalling havoc which these +clay and iron industries are making with the once beautiful banks of +the river. Each of them has a large daily output of debris, which is +dumped unmercifully upon the water's edge in heaps from fifty to a +hundred feet high. Sometimes for nearly a mile in length, the natural +bank is deep buried out of sight; and we have from our canoe naught +but a dismal wall of rubbish, crowding upon the river to the +uttermost limit of governmental allowance. Fifty years hence, if these +enterprises multiply at the present ratio, and continue their present +methods, the Upper Ohio will roll between continuous banks of clay and +iron offal, down to Wheeling and beyond. + +Before noon we had left behind us this industrial region, and were +again in rustic surroundings. The wind had gone down, the atmosphere +was oppressively warm, the sun's reflection from the glassy stream +came with almost scalding effect upon our faces. We had rigged an +awning over some willow hoops, but it could not protect us from this +reflection. For an hour or two--one may as well be honest--we fairly +sweltered upon our pilgrimage, until at last a light breeze ruffled +the water and brought blessed relief. + +The hills are not as high as hitherto, and are more broken. Yet +they have a certain majestic sweep, and for the most part are +forest-mantled from base to summit. Between them the river winds with +noble grace, continually giving us fresh vistas, often of surpassing +loveliness. The bottoms are broader now, and frequently semicircular, +with fine farms upon them, and prosperous villages nestled in generous +groves. Many of the houses betoken age, or what passes for it in this +relatively new country, being of the colonial pattern, with fan-shaped +windows above the doors, Grecian pillars flanking the front porch, and +wearing the air of comfortable respectability. + +Beautiful islands lend variety to the scene, some of them mere +willowed "tow-heads" largely submerged in times of flood, while others +are of a permanent character, often occupied by farms. We have with us +a copy of Cuming's _Western Pilot_ (Cincinnati, 1834), which is still +a practicable guide for the Ohio, as the river's shore lines are not +subject to so rapid changes as those of the Mississippi; but many of +the islands in Cuming's are not now to be found, having been swept +away in floods, and we encounter few new ones. It is clear that the +islands are not so numerous as sixty years ago. The present works of +the United States Corps of Engineers tend to permanency in the +_status quo_; doubtless the government map of 1881 will remain an +authoritative chart for a half century or more to come. + +W----'s enthusiasm for botany frequently takes us ashore. Landing at +the foot of some eroded steep which, with ragged charm, rises sharply +from the gravelly beach, we fasten Pilgrim's painter to a stone, and +go scrambling over the hillside in search of flowers, bearing in mind +the Boy's constant plea, to "Get only one of a kind," and leave the +rest for seed; for other travelers may come this way, and 'tis a sin +indeed to exterminate a botanical rarity. But we find no rarities +to-day--only solomon's seal, trillium, wild ginger, cranebill, +jack-in-the-pulpit, wild columbine. Poison ivy is on every hand, in +these tangled woods, with ferns of many varieties--chiefly maidenhair, +walking leaf, and bladder. The view from projecting rocks, in these +lofty places, is ever inspiring; the country spread out below us, as +in a relief map; the great glistening river winding through its hilly +trough; a rumpled country for a few miles on either side, gradually +trending into broad plains, checkered with fields on which farmsteads +and rustic villages are the chessmen. + +At one o'clock we were at Steubenville, Ohio (67 miles), where +the broad stoned wharf leads sharply up to the smart, well-built, +substantial town of some sixteen thousand inhabitants. W---- and I had +some shopping to do there, while the Doctor and the Boy remained down +at the inevitable wharf-boat, and gossiped with the philosophical +agent, who bemoaned the decadence of steamboat traffic in general, and +the rapidly falling stage of water in particular. + +Three miles below Steubenville is Mingo Junction, where we are the +guests of a friend who is superintendent of the iron and steel works +here. The population of Mingo is twenty-five hundred. From seven to +twelve hundred are employed in the works, according to the exigencies +of business. Ten per cent of them are Hungarians and Slavonians--a +larger proportion would be dangerous, our host avers, because of the +tendency of these people to "run the town" when sufficiently numerous +to make it possible. The Slavs in the iron towns come to America for a +few years, intent solely on saving every dollar within reach. They are +willing to work for wages which from the American standard seem low, +but to them almost fabulous; herd together in surprising promiscuity; +maintain a low scale of clothing and diet, often to the ruin of +health; and eventually return to Eastern Europe, where their savings +constitute a little fortune upon which they can end their days in +ease. This sort of competition is fast degrading legitimate American +labor. Its regulation ought not to be thought impossible. + +A visit to a great steel-making plant, in full operation, is an +event in a man's life. Particularly remarkable is the weird spectacle +presented at night, with the furnaces fiercely gleaming, the fresh +ingots smoking hot, the Bessemer converter "blowing off," the great +cranes moving about like things of life, bearing giant kettles of +molten steel; and amidst it all, human life held so cheaply. Nearer to +mediæval notions of hell comes this fiery scene than anything imagined +by Dante. The working life of one of these men is not over ten years, +B---- says. A decade of this intense heat, compared to which a breath +of outdoor air in the close mill-yard, with the midsummer sun in the +nineties, seems chilly, wears a man out--"only fit for the boneyard +then, sir," was the laconic estimate of an intelligent boss whom I +questioned on the subject. + +Wages run from ninety cents to five dollars a day, with far more at +the former rate than the latter. A ninety-cent man working in a place +so hot that were water from a hose turned upon him it would at once be +resolved into scalding steam, deserves our sympathy. It is pleasing +to find in our friend, the superintendent, a strong fellow-feeling +for his men, and a desire to do all in his power to alleviate their +condition. He has accomplished much in improving the _morale_ of the +town; but deep-seated, inexorable economic conditions, apparently +beyond present control, render nugatory any attempts to better the +financial condition of the underpaid majority. + +Mingo Junction--"Mingo Bottom" of old--was an interesting locality +in frontier days. On this fertile river beach was long one of the +strongest of the Mingo villages. During the last week of May, 1782, +Crawford's little army rendezvoused here, en route to Sandusky, a +hundred and fifty miles distant, and intent on the destruction of the +Wyandot towns. But the Indians had not been surprised, and the army +was driven back with slaughter, reaching Mingo the middle of +June, bereft of its commander. Crawford, who was a warm friend of +Washington, suffered almost unprecedented torture at the stake, his +fate sending a thrill of horror through all the Western settlements. + +Let us not be too harsh in our judgment of these red Indians. At +first, the white colonists from Europe were regarded by them as of +supernatural origin, and hospitality, veneration, and confidence were +displayed toward the new-comers. But the mortality of the Europeans +was soon made painfully evident to them. When the early Spaniards, and +afterward the English, kidnaped tribesmen for sale into slavery, +or for use as captive guides, and even murdered them on slight +provocation, distrust and hatred naturally succeeded to the sentiment +of awe. Like many savage races, like the earlier Romans, the Indian +looked upon the member of every tribe with which he had not made a +formal peace as a public enemy; hence he felt justified in wreaking +his vengeance on the race, whenever he failed to find individual +offenders. He was exceptionally cruel, his mode of warfare was +skulking, he could not easily be reached in the forest fastnesses +which he alone knew well, and his strokes fell heaviest on women and +children; so that whites came to fear and unspeakably to loathe the +savage, and often added greatly to the bitterness of the struggle by +retaliation in kind. The white borderers themselves were frequently +brutal, reckless, lawless; and under such conditions, clashing +was inevitable. But worse agents of discord than the agricultural +colonists were the itinerants who traveled through the woods visiting +the tribes, exchanging goods for furs; these often cheated and robbed +the Indian, taught him the use of intoxicants, bullied and browbeat +him, appropriated his women, and in general introduced serious +demoralization into the native camps. The bulk of the whites doubtless +intended to treat the Indian honorably; but the forest traders were +beyond the pale of law, and news of the details of their transactions +seldom reached the coast settlements. + +As a neighbor, the Indian was difficult to deal with, whether in the +negotiation of treaties of amity, or in the purchase of lands. Having +but a loose system of government, there was no really responsible +head, and no compact was secure from the interference of malcontents, +who would not be bound by treaties made by the chiefs. The English +felt that the red men were not putting the land to its full use, that +much of the territory was growing up as a waste, that they were best +entitled to it who could make it the most productive. On the +other hand, the earlier cessions of land were made under a total +misconception; the Indians supposed that the new-comers would, after +a few years of occupancy, pass on and leave the tract again to the +natives. There was no compromise possible between races with +precisely opposite views of property in land. The struggle was +inevitable--civilization against savagery. No sentimental notions +could prevent it. It was in the nature of things that the weaker must +give way. The Indian was a formidable antagonist, and there were times +when the result of the struggle seemed uncertain; but in the end he +went to the wall. In judging the vanquished enemy of our civilization, +let us not underestimate his intellect, or the many good qualities +which were mingled with his savage vices, or fail to credit him with +sublime courage, and a tribal patriotism which no disaster could cool. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Houseboat life--Decadence of steamboat traffic--Wheeling, and + Wheeling Creek. + + +Above Moundsville, W. Va., Thursday, May 10th.--Our friends saw us +off at the gravelly beach just below the "works." There was a slight +breeze ahead, but the atmosphere was agreeable, and Pilgrim bore a +happy crew, now as brown as gypsies; the first painful effects of +sunburn are over, and we are hardened in skin and muscle to any +vicissitudes which are likely to be met upon our voyage. Rough +weather, river mud, and all the other exigencies of a moving camp, +are beginning to tell upon clothing; we are becoming like gypsies in +raiment, as well as color. But what a soul-satisfying life is this +gypsying! We possess the world, while afloat on the Ohio! + +There are, in the course of the summer, so many sorts of people +traveling by the river,--steamboat passengers, campers, fishers, +house-boat folk, and what not,--that we attract little attention of +ourselves, but Pilgrim is indeed a curiosity hereabout. What remarks +we overhear are about her,--"Honey skiff, that!" "Right smart skiff!" +"Good skiff for her place, but no good for this yere river!" and +so on. She is a lap-streak, square-sterned craft, of white cedar +three-eighths of an inch thick; fifteen feet in length and four of +beam; weighs just a hundred pounds; comfortably holds us and our +luggage, with plenty of spare room to move about in; is easily +propelled, and as stanch as can be made. Upon these waters, we meet +nothing like her. Not counting the curious floating boxes and punts, +which are knocked together out of driftwood, by boys and poor whites, +and are numerous all along shore, the regulation Ohio river skiff is +built on graceful lines, but of inch boards, heavily ribbed, and is a +sorry weight to handle. The contention is, that to withstand the swash +of steamboat wakes breaking upon the shore, and the rush of drift in +times of flood, a heavy skiff is necessary; there is a tendency +to decry Pilgrim as a plaything, unadapted to the great river. A +reasonable degree of care at all times, however, and keeping the boat +drawn high on the beach when not in use,--such care as we are familiar +with upon our Wisconsin inland lakes,--would render the employment of +such as she quite practicable, and greatly lessen the labor of rowing +on this waterway. + +The houseboats, dozens of which we see daily, interest us greatly. +They are scows, or "flats," greatly differing in size, with +low-ceilinged cabins built upon them--sometimes of one room, sometimes +of half a dozen, and varying in character from a mere shanty to a +well-appointed cottage. Perhaps the greater number of these craft are +afloat in the river, and moored to the bank, with a gang-plank running +to shore; others are "beached," having found a comfortable nook in +some higher stage of water, and been fastened there, propped level +with timbers and driftwood. Among the houseboat folk are young working +couples starting out in life, and hoping ultimately to gain a foothold +on land; unfortunate people, who are making a fresh start; men +regularly employed in riverside factories and mills; invalids, who, at +small expense, are trying the fresh-air cure; others, who drift up and +down the Ohio, seeking casual work; and legitimate fishermen, who find +it convenient to be near their nets, and to move about according to +the needs of their calling. But a goodly proportion of these boats are +inhabited by the lowest class of the population,--poor "crackers" who +have managed to scrape together enough money to buy, or enough energy +and driftwood to build, such a craft; and, near or at the towns, many +are occupied by gamblers, illicit liquor dealers, and others who, +while plying nefarious trades, make a pretense of following the +occupation of the Apostles. + +Houseboat people, whether beached or afloat, pay no rent, and +heretofore have paid no taxes. Kentucky has recently passed, more as +a police regulation than as a means of revenue, an act levying a State +tax of twenty-five dollars upon each craft of this character; and the +other commonwealths abutting upon the river are considering the policy +of doing likewise. The houseboat men have, however, recently formed +a protective association, and propose to fight the new laws on +constitutional grounds, the contention being that the Ohio is a +national highway, and that commerce upon it cannot be hampered by +State taxes. This view does not, however, affect the taxability of +"beached" boats, which are clearly squatters on State soil. + +Both in town and country, the riffraff of the houseboat element are in +disfavor. It is not uncommon for them, beached or tied up, to remain +unmolested in one spot for years, with their pigs, chickens, and +little garden patch about them, mayhap a swarm or two of bees, and +a cow enjoying free pasturage along the weedy bank or on neighboring +hills. Occasionally, however, as the result of spasmodic local +agitation, they are by wholesale ordered to betake themselves to +some more hospitable shore; and not a few farmers, like our friend at +Beaver River, are quick to pattern after the city police, and order +their visitors to move on the moment they seek a mooring. For the +truth is, the majority of those who "live on the river," as the phrase +goes, have the reputation of being pilferers; farmers tell sad tales +of despoiled chicken-roosts and vegetable gardens. From fishing, +shooting, collecting chance driftwood, and leading a desultory life +along shore, like the wreckers of old they naturally fall into this +thieving habit. Having neither rent nor taxes to pay, and for the most +part not voting, and having no share in the political or social life +of landsmen, they are in the State, yet not of it,--a class unto +themselves, whose condition is well worthy the study of economists. + +Interspersed with the houseboat folk, although of different character, +are those whose business leads them to dwell as nomads upon the +river--merchant peddlers, who spend a day or two at some rustic +landing, while scouring the neighborhood for oil-barrels and junk, +which they load in great heaps upon the flat roofs of their +cabins, giving therefor, at goodly prices, groceries, crockery, and +notions,--often bartering their wares for eggs and dairy products, to +be disposed of to passing steamers, whose clerks in turn "pack" them +for the largest market on their route; blacksmiths, who moor their +floating shops to country beach or village levee, wherever business +can be had; floating theaters and opera companies, with large barges +built as play-houses, towed from town to town by their gaudily-painted +tugs, on which may occasionally be perched the vociferous "steam +piano" of our circus days, "whose soul-stirring music can be heard +for four miles;" traveling sawyers, with old steamboats made over into +sawmills, employed by farmers to "work up" into lumber such logs as +they can from time to time bring down to the shore--the product +being oftenest used in the neighborhood, but occasionally rafted, +and floated to the nearest large town; and a miscellaneous lot +of traveling craftsmen who live and work afloat,--chairmakers, +upholsterers, feather and mattress renovators, photographers,--who +land at the villages, scatter abroad their advertising cards, and stay +so long as the ensuing patronage warrants. + +A motley assortment, these neighbors of ours, an uncultivated field +for the fiction writers. We have struck up acquaintance with many of +them, and they are not bad fellows, as the world goes. Philosophers +all, and loquacious to a degree. But they cannot, for the life of +them, fathom the mystery of our cruise. We are not in trade? we are +not fishing? we are not canvassers? we are not show-people? "What 'n +'tarnation air ye, anny way? Oh, come now! No fellers is do'n' th' +river fur fun, that's sartin--ye're jist gov'm'nt agints! That's my +way o' think'n'. Well, 'f ye kin find fun in 't, then done go ahead, +I say! But all same, we'll be friends, won't we? Yew bet strangers! +Ye're welcome t' all in this yere shanty boat--ain't no bakky 'bout +yer close, yew fellers?" We meet with abundant courtesy of this rude +sort, and weaponless sleep well o' nights, fearing naught from our +comrades for the nonce. + +We again have railways on either bank. The iron horse has almost +eclipsed the "fire canoe," as the Indians picturesquely styled the +steamboat. We occasionally see boats tied up to the wharves, evidently +not in commission; but, in actual operation, we seldom meet or pass +over one or two daily. To be sure, the low stage of water,--from +six to eight feet thus far, and falling daily,--and the coal strike, +militate against navigation interests. But the truth is, there is very +little business now left for steamboats, beyond the movement of coal, +stone, bricks, and other bulky material, some way freight, and a light +passenger traffic. The railroads are quicker and surer, and of course +competition lowers the charges. + +The heavy manufacturing interests along the river now depend little +upon the steamers, although originally established here because of +them. I asked our friend, the superintendent at Mingo, what advantage +was gained by having his plant upon the river. He replied: "We can +get all the water we want, and we use a great deal of it; and it is +convenient to empty our slag upon the banks; but our chief interest +here is in the fact that Mingo is a railway junction." By rail he gets +his coal and ore, and ships away his product. Were the coal to come a +considerable distance, the river would be the cheaper road; but it is +obtained from neighboring hill mines that are practically owned by the +railways. This coal, by the way, costs $1.10 at the shaft mouth, and +$1.75 landed at the Mingo works. As for the sewer-pipe, brick, and +pottery works, they are along stream because of the great beds of clay +exposed by the erosion of the river. + +It is fortunate for the stability of these towns, that the Ohio flows +along the transcontinental pathway westward, so that the great railway +lines may serve them without deflection from their natural course. Had +the great stream flowed south instead of west, the industries of the +valley doubtless would gradually have been removed to the transverse +highways of the new commerce, save where these latter crossed the +river, and thus have left scores of once thriving communities mere +'longshore wrecks of their former selves. This is not possible, now. +The steamboat traffic may still further waste, until the river is no +longer serviceable save as a continental drainage ditch; but, chiefly +because of its railways, the Ohio Valley will continue to be the seat +of an industrial population which shall wax fat upon the growth of the +nation's needs. + +By the middle of the afternoon, we were at Wheeling (91 miles). The +town has fifty thousand inhabitants, is substantially built, of a +distinctly Southern aspect; well stretched out along the river, +but narrow; with gaunt, treeless, gully-washed hills of clay rising +abruptly behind, giving the place a most forbidding appearance from +the water. There are several fine bridges spanning the Ohio; and +Wheeling Creek, which empties on the lower edge of town, is crossed by +a maze of steel spans and stone arches; the well-paved wharf, sloping +upward from the Ohio, is nearly as broad and imposing as that of +Pittsburg;[A] houseboats are here by the score, some of them the +haunts of fishing clubs, as we judge from the names emblazoned on +their sides--"Mystic Crew," "South Side Club," and the like. + +For the first time upon our tour, negroes are abundant upon the +streets and lounging along the river front. They vary in color from +yellow to inky blackness, and in raiment from the "dude," smart +in straw hat, collars and cuffs, and white-frilled shirt with +glass-diamond pin, to the steamboat roustabout, all slouch and rags, +and evil-eyed. + +Wheeling Island (300 acres), up to thirty years ago mentioned in +travelers' journals as a rare beauty-spot, is to-day thick-set with +cottages of factory hands and small villas, and commonplace; +while smoky Bridgeport, opposite on the Ohio side, was from our +vantage-point a mere smudge upon the landscape. + +Wheeling Creek is famous in Western history. The three Zane brothers, +Ebenezer, Jonathan and Silas,--typical, old-fashioned names these, +bespeaking the God-fearing, Bible-loving, Scotch-Presbyterian +stock from which sprang so large a proportion of trans-Alleghany +pioneers,--explored this region as early as 1769, built cabins, and +made improvements--Silas at the forks of the creek, and Ebenezer and +Jonathan at the mouth. During three or four years, it was a hard fight +between them and the Indians; but, though several times driven from +the scene, the Zane brothers stubbornly reappeared, and rebuilt their +burned habitations. + +Before the Revolutionary War broke out, the fortified home of the +Zanes, at the creek mouth, was a favorite stopping stage in the +savage-haunted wilderness; and many a traveler in those early days has +left us in his journal a thankful account of his tarrying here. The +Zane stockade developed into Fort Fincastle, in Lord Dunmore's time; +then, Fort Henry, during the Revolution; and everyone who knows his +Western history at all has read of the three famous sieges of Wheeling +(1777, 1781, and 1782), and the daring deeds of its men and women, +which help illumine the pages of border annals. Finally, by 1784, the +fort at Wheeling, that had never surrendered, was demolished as no +longer necessary, for the wall of savage resistance was now pushed far +westward. Wheeling had become the western end of a wagon road across +the Panhandle, from Redstone, and here were fitted out many flatboat +expeditions for the lower Ohio; later, in steamboat days, the shallow +water of the upper river caused Wheeling to be in midsummer the +highest port attainable; and to this day it holds its ground as the +upper terminus of several steamboat lines. + +Below Wheeling are several miles of factory towns nestled by the +strand, and numerous coal tipples, with their begrimed villages. +Fishermen have been frequent to-day, in houseboats of high and low +degree, and in land camps composed of tents and board shanties, with +rows of seines and tarred pound-nets stretched in the sun to dry; +tow-headed children abound, almost as nude as the pigs and dogs +and chickens amongst which they waddle and roll; women-folk busy +themselves with the multifarious cares of home-keeping, while their +lords are in shady nooks mending nets, or listlessly examining trout +lines which appear to yield but empty hooks; they tell us that when +the river is falling, fish bite not, and yet they serenely angle on, +dreaming their lives away. + +A half mile above Big Grave Creek (101 miles), we, too, hurry into +camp on a shelving bank of sand, deep-fringed with willows; for over +the western hills thunder-clouds are rising, with wind gusts. Level +fields stretch back of us for a quarter of a mile, to the hills which +bound the bottom; at our front door majestically rolls the growing +river, perhaps a third of a mile in width, black with the reflection +of the sky, and wrinkled now and then with squalls which scurry over +its bubbling surface.[B] + +The storm does not break, but the bending tree-tops crone, and toads +innumerable rend the air with their screaming whistles. We had great +ado, during the cooking of dinner, to prevent them from hopping into +our little stove, as it gleamed brightly in the early dusk; and have +adopted special precautions to keep them from the tent, as they jump +about in the tall grass, appeasing their insectivorous appetites. + +[Footnote A: Upon the Ohio and kindred rivers, the term "wharf" +applies to the river beach when graded and paved, ready for the +reception of steamers. Such a wharf must not be confounded with a lake +or seaside wharf, a staging projected into the water.] + +[Footnote B: It was in this neighborhood, a mile or two above our +camp, where the bottom is narrower, that Capt. William Foreman and +twenty other Virginia militiamen were killed in an Indian ambuscade, +Sept. 27, 1777. An inscribed stone monument was erected on the spot in +1835, but we could not find it.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + The Big Grave--Washington, and Round Bottom--A lazy man's + Paradise--Captina Creek--George Rogers Clark at Fish + Creek--Southern types. + + +Near Fishing Creek, Friday, May 11th.--There had been rain during the +night, with fierce wind gusts, but during breakfast the atmosphere +quieted, and we had a genial, semi-cloudy morning. + +Off at 8 o'clock, Pilgrim's crew were soon exploring Moundsville. +There are five thousand people in this old, faded, countrified town. +They show you with pride the State Penitentiary of West Virginia, a +solemn-looking pile of dark gray stone, with the feeble battlements +and towers common to American prison architecture. But the chief +feature of the place is the great Indian mound--the "Big Grave" of +early chroniclers. This earthwork is one of the largest now remaining +in the United States, being sixty-eight feet high and a hundred +in diameter at the base, and has for over a century attracted the +attention of travelers and archæologists. + +We found it at the end of a straggling street, on the edge of the +town, a quarter of a mile back from the river. Around the mound has +been left a narrow plat of ground, utilized as a cornfield; and the +stout picket fence which encloses it bears peremptory notice that +admission is forbidden. However, as the proprietor was not easily +accessible, we exercised the privilege of historical pilgrims, and, +letting ourselves in through the gate, picked our way through rows of +corn, and ascended the great cone. It is covered with a heavy growth +of white oaks, some of them three feet in diameter, among which the +path picturesquely zigzags. The summit is fifty-five feet in diameter, +and the center somewhat depressed, like a basin. From the middle of +this basin a shaft some twenty-five feet in diameter has been sunk by +explorers, for a distance of perhaps fifty feet; at one time, a level +tunnel connected the bottom of this shaft with the side of the cone, +but it has been mostly obliterated. A score of years ago, tunnel and +shaft were utilized as the leading attractions of a beer garden--to +such base uses may a great historical landmark descend! + +Dickens, who apparently wrote the greater part of his _American Notes_ +while suffering from dyspepsia, has a note of appreciation for the +Big Grave: "... the host of Indians who lie buried in a great mound +yonder--so old that mighty oaks and other forest trees have struck +their roots into its earth; and so high that it is a hill, even among +the hills that Nature planted around it. The very river, as though it +shared one's feelings of compassion for the extinct tribes who lived +so pleasantly here, in their blessed ignorance of white existence, +hundreds of years ago, steals out of its way to ripple near this +mound; and there are few places where the Ohio sparkles more brightly +than in the Big Grave Creek." + +There is a sharp bend in the river, just below Moundsville, with +Dillon's Bottom stretching long and wide at the apex on the Ohio +shore--flat green fields, dotted with little white farmsteads, each +set low in its apple grove, and a convoluted wall of dark hills +hemming them in along the northern horizon. Then below this comes +Round Bottom, its counterpart on the West Virginia side, and coursing +through it a pretty meadow creek, Butler's Run. + +Writes Washington, in 1781, to a correspondent who is thinking of +renting lands in this region: "I have a small tract called the round +bottom containing about 600 Acres, which would also let. It lyes on +the Ohio, opposite to pipe Creek, and a little above Capteening." +Across the half mile of river are the little levels and great slopes +of the Ohio hills, through which breaks this same Pipe Creek; and +hereabout Cresap's band murdered a number of inoffensive Shawanese, +a tragedy which was one of the inciting causes of Lord Dunmore's War +(1774). + +We crossed over into Ohio, and pulled up on the gravelly spit at the +mouth of Pipe. While the others were botanizing high on the mountain +side, I went along a beach path toward a group of whitewashed cabins, +intent on replenishing the canteen. Upon opening the gate of one of +them, two grizzly dogs came bounding out, threatening to test the +strength of my corduroy trousers. The proprietor cautiously peered +from a window, and, much to my relief, called off the animals. +Satisfied, apparently, that I was not the visitor he expected, the +fellow lounged out and sat upon the steps, where I joined him. He was +a tall, raw-boned, loose-jointed young man, with a dirty, buttonless +flannel shirt which revealed a hairy breast; upon his trousers hung a +variety of patches, in many stages of grease and decrepitude; a gray +slouch hat shaded his little fishy eyes and hollow, yellow cheeks; and +the snaky ends of his yellow mustache were stiff with accumulations of +dried tobacco juice. His fat, waddling wife, in a greasy black gown, +followed with bare feet, and, arms akimbo, listened in the open door. + +A coal company owns the rocky river front, here and at many places +below, and lets these cabins to the poor-white element, so numerous on +the Ohio's banks. The renter is privileged to cultivate whatever land +he can clear on the rocky, precipitous slopes, which is seldom more +than half an acre to the cabin; and he may, if he can afford a cow, +let her run wild in the scrub. The coal vein, a few rods back of the +house, is only a few inches thick, and poor in quality, but is freely +resorted to by the cotters. He worked whenever he could find a job, my +host said--in the coal mines and quarries, or on the bottom farms, or +the railroad which skirts the bank at his feet. + +"But I tell ye, sir, th' _I_talians and Hungarians is spoil'n' this +yere country fur white men; 'n' I do'n' see no prospect for hits be'n' +better till they get shoved out uv 't!" Yet he said that life wasn't +so hard here as it was in some parts he had heard tell of--the climate +was mild, that he "'lowed;" a fellow could go out and get a free +bucket of coal from the hillside "back yon;" he might get all the +"light wood 'n' patchin' stuff" he wanted, from the river drift; +could, when he "hankered after 'em," catch fish off his own front-door +yard; and pick up a dollar now and then at odd jobs, when the rent was +to be paid, or the "ol' woman" wanted a dress, or he a new coat. + +This is clearly the lazy man's Paradise. I do not remember to have +heard that the South Sea Islanders, in the ante-missionary days, had +an easier time of it than this. What new fortune will befall my friend +when he gets the Italians and Hungarians "shoved out," and "things +pick up a bit," I cannot conceive. + +A pleasing panorama he has from his doorway--across the river, the +fertile fields of Round Bottom, once Washington's; Captina Island, +just below, long and thickly-willowed, dreamily afloat in a glassy +sea, reflecting every change of light; the whole girt about with the +wide uplands of the winding valley, and overhead the march of sunny +clouds. + +Captina Creek (108 miles) is not far down on the Ohio bank, and beside +it the little hamlet of Powhattan Point, with the West Virginia hills +thereabout exceptionally high and steep, and wooded to the very top. +Washington, who knew the Ohio well, down to the Great Kanawha, wrote +of this creek in 1770: "A pretty large creek on the west side, called +by Nicholson [his interpreter] Fox-Grape-Vine, by others Captema +creek, on which, eight miles up, is the town called Grape-Vine Town." +Captina village is its white successor. But there were also Indians +at the mouth of the creek; for when George Rogers Clark and his +missionary companion, Jones, two years later camped opposite on the +Virginia shore, they went over to make a morning call on the natives, +who repaid it in the evening, doubtless each time receiving freely +from the white men's bounty. + +The next day was Sunday, and the travelers remained in camp, Jones +recording in his journal that he "instructed what Indians came over." +In the course of his prayer, the missionary was particularly impressed +by the attitude of the chief of Grape-Vine Town, named Frank Stephens, +who professed to believe in the Christian God; and he naively writes, +"I was informed that, all the time, the Indians looked very seriously +at me." Jones appears to have been impressed also with the hardness +of the beach, where they camped in the open, doubtless to avoid +surprises: "Instead of feathers, my bed was gravel-stones, by the +river side ... which at first seemed not to suit me, but afterward it +became more natural." + +In those days, traveling was beset with difficulties, both ashore +and afloat. Eight years later (spring of 1780), three flatboats +were descending the Ohio, laden with families intending to settle in +Kentucky, when they suffered a common fate, being attacked by Indians +off Captina Creek. Several men and a child were killed, and twenty-one +persons were carried into captivity--among them, Catherine Malott, +a girl in her teens, who subsequently became the wife of that most +notorious of border renegades, Simon Girty. + +On the West Virginia shore, not over a third of a mile below Captina +Creek, empties Grave Yard Run, a modest rivulet. It would of itself +not be noticeable amid the crowd of minor creeks and runs, coursing +down to the great river through rugged ravines which corrugate +the banks. But it has a history. Here, late in October or early in +November, 1772, young George Rogers Clark made his first stake west of +the Alleghanies, rudely cultivating a few acres of forest land on what +is now called Cresap's Bottom, surveying for the neighbors, and in +the evenings teaching their children in the little log cabin of his +friend, Yates Conwell, at the mouth of Fish Creek, a few miles below. +Fish Creek was in itself famous as one of the sections of the great +Indian trail, "The Warrior Branch," which, starting in Tennessee, came +northward through Kentucky and Southern Ohio, and, proceeding by way +of this creek, crossed over to Dunkard Creek, thence to the mouth of +Redstone. Washington stopped at Conwell's in March or April, 1774; but +Clark was away from home at the time, and the "Father of his Country" +never met the man who has been dubbed the "Washington of the West." +Lord Dunmore's War was hatching, and a few months later the Fish Creek +surveyor and schoolmaster had entered upon his life work as an Indian +fighter. + +At Bearsville (126 miles) we first meet a phenomenon common to the +Ohio--the edges of the alluvial bottom being higher than the fields +back of them, forming a natural levee, above which curiously rise to +our view the spires and chimneys of the village. Harris' _Journal_ +(1803) made early note of this, and advanced an acceptable theory: "We +frequently remarked that the banks are higher at the margin than at +a little distance back. I account for it in this manner: Large trees, +which are brought down the river by the inundations, are lodged upon +the borders of the bank, but cannot be floated far upon the champaign, +because obstructed by the growth of wood. Retaining their situation +when the waters subside, they obstruct and detain the leaves and mud, +which would else recoil into the stream, and thus, in process of time, +form a bank higher than the interior flats." + +Tied up to Bearsville landing is a gayly painted barge, the home +of Price's Floating Opera Company, and in front its towing-steamer, +"Troubadour." A steam calliope is part of the visible furniture of the +establishment, and its praises as a noise-maker are sung in large +type in the handbills which, with numerous colored lithographs of the +performers, adorn the shop windows in the neighboring river towns. + +Two miles farther down, on a high bank at the mouth of Fishing Creek, +lies New Martinsville, West Va. (127 miles), a rather shabby town +of fifteen hundred souls. As W---- and I passed up the main street, +seeking for a grocery, we noticed that the public hall was being +decorated for a dance to come off to-night; and placards advertising +the event were everywhere rivaling the gaudy prints of the floating +opera. + +Meanwhile, a talkative native was interviewing the Doctor, down at the +river side. It required some good-natured fencing on the part of +our skipper to prevent the Virginian from learning all about our +respective families away back to the third generation. He was a short, +chubby man, with a Dixie goatee, his flannel shirt negligée, and a +wide-brimmed straw hat jauntily set on the back of his head. He was +sociable, and sat astride of our beached prow, punctuating his +remarks with squirts of tobacco juice, and a bit of lath with which +he meditatively tapped the gunwale, the meantime, with some skill, +casting pebbles into the water with his bare toes. "Ax'n yer pardon, +ma'm!" he said, scrambling from his perch upon W----'s appearance; and +then, pushing us off, he bowed with much Southern gallantry, and +hat in hand begged we would come again to New Martinsville, and stay +longer. + +The hills lining these reaches are lower than above, yet graceful in +their sweeping lines. Conical mounds sometimes surmount them, relics +of the prehistoric time when our Indians held to the curious fashion +of building earthworks. We no longer entertain the notion that a +separate and a prouder race of wild men than we know erected these +tumuli. That pleasant fiction has departed from us; but the works are +none the less interesting, now that more is known of their origin. + +Two miles below New Martinsville, on the West Virginia shore, we +pitch camp, just as the light begins to sink over the Ohio hills. +The atmosphere is sweet with the odor of wild grape blossoms, and +the willow also is in bloom. Poison ivy, to whose baneful touch +fortunately none of us appear susceptible, grows everywhere about. +From the farmhouse on the narrow bottom to our rear comes the +melodious tinkle-tinkle of cow bells. The operatic calliope is in full +blast, at Bearsville, its shrieks and snorts coming down to us through +four miles of space, all too plainly borne by the northern breeze; and +now and then we hear the squeak of the New Martinsville fiddles. There +are no mosquitoes as yet, but burly May-chafers come stupidly dashing +against our tent, and the toads are piping merrily. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + In Dixie--Oil and natural gas, at Witten's Bottom--The Long + Reach--Photographing crackers--Visitors in camp. + + +Above Marietta, Saturday, May 12th.--Since the middle of yesterday +afternoon we have been in Dixie,--that is, when we are on the West +Virginia shore. The famous Mason and Dixon Line (lat. 39° 43' 26") +touches the Ohio at the mouth of Proctor's Run (121-1/2 miles). + +There was a heavy fog this morning, on land and river. But through +shifting rifts made by the morning breeze, we had kaleidoscopic, +cloud-framed pictures of the dark, jutting headlands which hem us in; +of little white cabins clustered by the country road which on either +bank crawls along narrow terraces between overtopping steeps and +sprawling beach, or winds through fertile bottoms, according to +whether the river approaches or recedes from its inclosing bluffs; of +hillside fields, tipped at various angles of ascent, sometimes green +with springing grain, but oftenest gray or brown or yellow, freshly +planted,--charming patches of color, in this somber-hued world of +sloping woodland. + +At Williamson's Island (134 miles) the fog lifted. The air was heavy +with the odor of petroleum. All about us were the ugly, towering +derricks of oil and natural gas wells--Witten's Bottom on the right, +with its abutting hills; the West Virginia woods across the river, +and the maple-strewn island between, all covered with scaffolds. The +country looks like a rumpled fox-and-geese board, with pegs stuck +all over it. A mile and a half below lies Sistersville, W. Va., the +emporium of this greasy neighborhood--great red oil-tanks and smoky +refineries its chiefest glory; crude and raw, like the product it +handles. We landed at Witten's Bottom,--W----, the Boy, and I,--while +the Doctor, philosophically preferring to take the oily elephant for +granted, piloted Pilgrim to the rendezvous a mile below. + +Oil was "struck" here two or three years ago, and now within a +distance of a few miles there are hundreds of wells--"two hun'rd in +this yere gravel alone, sir!" I was told by a red-headed man in a red +shirt, who lived with his numerous family in a twelve-foot-square box +at the rear of a pumping engine. An engine serves several wells,--the +tumbling-rods, rudely boxed in, stretching off through the fields +and over the hills to wherever needed. The operatives dwell in little +shanties scattered conveniently about; in front of each is a vertical +half-inch pipe, six or eight feet high, bearing a half bushel of +natural-gas flame which burns and tosses night and day, winter +and summer, making the Bottom a warm corner of the earth, when the +unassisted temperature is in the eighties. It is a bewildering scene, +with all these derricks thickly scattered around, engines noisily +puffing, walking-beams forever rearing and plunging, the country +cobwebbed with tumbling-rods and pipe lines, the shanties of the +operatives with their rude lamp-posts, and the face of Nature so +besmeared with the crude output of the wells that every twig and leaf +is thick with grease. + +Just above Witten's commences the Long Reach of the Ohio--a charming +panorama, for sixteen and a half miles in a nearly straight line +to the southwest. Little towns line the alternating bottoms, and +farmsteads are numerous on the slopes. But they are rocky and narrow, +these gentle shoulders of the hills, and a poor class of folk occupy +them--half fishers, half farmers, a cross between my Round Bottom +friend and the houseboat nomads. + +A picturesquely-dilapidated log house, with whitewashed porch in +front, and a vine arbor at the rear, attracted our attention at the +foot of the reach, near Grape Island. I clambered up, to photograph +it. The ice was broken by asking for a drink of water. A gaunt girl of +eighteen, the elder of two, with bare feet, her snaky hair streaming +unkempt about a smirking face, went with a broken-nosed pitcher to a +run, which could be heard splashing over its rocky bed near by. The +meanwhile, I took a seat in the customary arcade between the living +room and kitchen, and talked with her fat, greasy, red-nosed father, +who confided to me that he was "a pi'neer from way back." He occupied +his own land--a rare circumstance among these riverside "crackers;" +had a hundred and thirty acres, worth twenty dollars the acre; "jist +yon ways," back of the house, in the cliff-side, there was a coal vein +two feet thick, as yet only "worked" for his own fuel; and lately, he +had struck a bank of firebrick clay which might some day be a "good +thing for th' gals." + +On leaving, I casually mentioned my desire to photograph the family on +the porch, where the light was good. While I walked around the house +outside, they passed through the front room, which seemed to be the +common dormitory as well as parlor. To my surprise and chagrin, +the girls and their dowdy mother had, in those brief moments of +transition, contrived to arrange their hair and dress to a degree +which took from them all those picturesque qualities with which they +had been invested at the time of my arrival. The father was being +reproved, as he emerged upon the porch, for not "slick'n' his ha'r, +and wash'n' and fix'n' up, afore hay'n' his pictur' taken;" but the +old fellow was obdurate, and joined me in remonstrance against this +transformation to the commonplace, on the part of his women-folk. +However, there was no profit in arguing with them, and I took my +snap-shot with a conviction that the film was being wasted. + +We were in several small towns to-day, in pursuance of the policy of +distributing our shopping, so as to see as much of the shore life as +practicable. Chief among them have been New Matamoras (141 miles) and +St. Mary's (154 miles), in West Virginia, and Newport, in Ohio (155 +miles). Rather dingy villages, these--each, after their kind, with a +stone wharf thick-grown with weeds; a flouring mill at the head of +the landing; a few cheap-looking, battlemented stores; boys and men +lounging about with that air of comfortable idling which impresses one +as the main characteristic of rustic hamlets, where nobody seems ever +to have anything to do; a ferry running to the opposite shore--for +cattle and wagons, a heavy flat, with railings, made to drift with +the current; and for foot passengers, a lumbering skiff, with oars +chucking noisily in their roomy locks. + +Every now and then we run across bunches of oil and gas wells; +and great signs, like those advertising boards which greet railway +travelers approaching our large cities, are here and there perched +upon the banks, notifying steamboat pilots, in letters a foot +high, that a pipe line here crosses the river, the vicinity being +consequently unsafe for mooring. + +Our camp, to-night, is on a bit of grassy ledge at the summit of a +rocky bank, ten miles above Marietta, on the Ohio side. A rod or so +back of us is the country road, which winds along at the foot of +a precipitous steep. It is narrow quarters here, and too near the +highway for comfort, but nothing better seemed to offer at the time we +needed it; and the outlook is pleasant, through the fringing oaks and +elms, across the broad river into West Virginia. + +We had not yet pitched tent, and all hands were still clambering over +the rocks with Pilgrim's cargo, rather glad that there was no more of +it, when our first camp-bore appeared--a middling-sized man, florid +as to complexion, with a mustache and goatee, and in a suit of seedy +black, surmounted by a crushed-in Derby hat; and, after the fashion of +the country, giving evidence, on his collarless white shirt, of a free +use of chewing tobacco. I have seldom met a fellow with better staying +qualities. He was a strawberry grower, he said, and having been into +Newport, a half dozen miles up river, was walking to his home, which +was a mile or two off in the hills. Would we object if, for a few +moments, he tarried here by the roadside? and perhaps we could +accommodate him with a drink of water? Patiently did he watch the +preparation of dinner, and spice each dish with commendations of +W----'s skill at making the most of her few utensils. + +Right glibly he chattered on; now about the decadence of womankind; +now about strawberry-growing upon these Ohio hills--with the crop just +coming on, and berries selling at a shilling to-day, in Marietta, when +they ought to be worth twenty cents; now on politics, and of course +he was a Populist; now on the hard times, and did we believe in free +silver? He would take no bite with us, but sat and talked and talked, +despite plain hints, growing plainer with the progress of time, that +his family needed him at nightfall. Dinner was eaten, and dishes +washed; the others left on a botanical round-up, and I produced my +writing materials, with remarks upon the lateness of the hour. At last +our guest arose, shook the grass from his clothes, with a shake of +hands bade me good-night, wishing me to convey his "good-bye" to the +rest of our party, and as politely as possible expressed the great +pleasure which the visit had given him. + +Some farmer boys came down the hillside to fish at the bank, and +talked pleasantly of their work and of the ever-changing phases of +the river. Other farmers passed our roadside door, in wagons, on +buckboards, by horseback, and on foot; in neighborly tone, but with +ill-disguised curiosity in their eyes, wishing me good evening. When +the long twilight was almost gone, and the moon an hour high over the +purple dusk of the West Virginia hills, the botanists returned, +aglow with their exercise, and rich with trophies of blue and dwarf +larkspur, pink and white stone-crop, trailing arbutus, and great +laurel. + +And then, as we were preparing to retire, a sleek and dapper fellow, +though with clothes rather the worse for wear, came trudging along +the road toward Marietta. Seeing our camp, he asked for a drink. Being +apparently disposed to tarry, the Doctor, to get him started, offered +to walk a piece with him. Our comrade staid out so long, that at last +I went down the road in search of him, and found the pair sitting on +a moonlit bank, as cozily as if they had been always friends. The +stranger had revealed to the Doctor that he was a street fakir, "by +perfesh," and had "struck it rich" in Chicago during the World's +Fair, but somehow had lost the greater part of his gains, and was +now associated with his brother, who had a junk-boat; the brother was +"well heeled," and staid and kept store at the boat, while the fakir, +as the walking partner, "rustled 'round 'mong th' grangers, to stir +up trade." The Doctor had, in their talk, let slip something about +certain Florida experiences, and when I arrived on the scene was being +skillfully questioned by his companion as to the probabilities of +"a feller o' my perfesh ketch'n' on, down thar?" The result of this +pumping process must have been satisfactory: for when we parted with +him, the fakir declared he was "go'n' try't on thar, next winter, 'f I +bust me bottom dollar!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Life ashore and afloat--Marietta, "the Plymouth Rock of the + West"--The Little Kanawha--The story of Blennerhassett's + Island. + + +Blennerhassett's Island, Sunday, May 13th.--The day broke without fog, +at our camp on the rocky steep above Marietta. The eastern sky was +veiled with summer clouds, all gayly flushed by the rising sun, and +in the serene silence of the morning there hung the scent of dew, and +earth, and trees. In the east, the distant edges of the West Virginia +hills were aglow with the mounting light before it had yet peeped over +into the river trough, where a silvery haze lent peculiar charm to +flood and bank. Up river, one of the Three Brothers isles, dark and +heavily forested, seemed in the middle ground to float on air. A +bewitching picture this, until at last the sun sprang clear and strong +above the fringing hills, and the spell was broken. + +The steamboat traffic is improving as we get lower down. Last evening, +between landing and bedtime, a half dozen passed us, up and down, +breathing heavily as dragons might, and leaving behind them foamy +wakes which loudly broke upon the shore. Before morning, I was at +intervals awakened by as many more. A striking spectacle, the passage +of a big river steamer in the night; you hear, fast approaching, a +labored pant; suddenly, around the bend, or emerging from behind an +island, the long white monster glides into view, lanterns gleaming on +two lines of deck, her electric searchlight uneasily flitting to and +fro, first on one landmark, then on another, her engine bell sharply +clanging, the measured pant developing into a burly, all-pervading +roar, which gradually declines into a pant again--and then she +disappears as she came, her swelling wake rudely ruffling the moonlit +stream. + +We caught up with a large lumber raft this morning, descending from +Pittsburg to Cincinnati. The half-dozen men in charge were housed +midway in a rude little shanty, and relieved each other at the +sweeps--two at bow, and two astern. It is an easy, lounging life, most +of the way, with some difficulties in the shallows, and in passing +beneath the great bridges. They travel night and day, except in the +not infrequent wind-storms blowing up stream; and it will take them +another week to cover the three hundred miles between this and their +destination. Far different fellows, these commonplace raftsmen of +to-day, from the "lumber boys" of a half-century or more ago, when the +river towns were regularly "painted red" by the men who followed the +Ohio by raft or flatboat. Life along shore was then more picturesque +than comfortable. + +Later, we stopped on the Ohio shore to chat with a group of farmers +having a Sunday talk, their seat a drift log, in the shade of +a willowed bank. They proved to be market gardeners and +fruit-growers--well-to-do men of their class, and intelligent in +conversation; all of them descendants of the sturdy New Englanders who +settled these parts. + +While the others were discussing small fruits with these transplanted +Yankees, who proved quite as full of curiosity about us as we +concerning them, I went down shore a hundred yards, struggling through +the dense fringe of willows, to photograph a junk-boat just putting +off into the stream. The two rough-bearded, merry-eyed fellows at the +sweeps were setting their craft broadside to the stream--that "the +current might have more holt of her," the chief explained. They were +interested in the kodak, and readily posed as I wished, but wanted to +see what had been taken, having the common notion that it is like +a tintype camera, with results at once attainable. They offered our +party a ride for the rest of the day, if we would row alongside and +come aboard, but I thanked them, saying their craft was too slow for +our needs; at which they laughed heartily, and "'lowed" we might be +traders, too, anxious to get in ahead of them--"but there's plenty o' +room o' th' river, for yew an' we, stranger! Well, good luck to yees! +We'll see yer down below, somewhar, I reckon!" + +Just before lunch, we were at Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum +(171 miles), a fine stream, here two hundred and fifty yards wide. A +storied river, this Muskingum. We first definitely hear of it in 1748, +the year the original Ohio Company was formed. Céloron was here the +year following, with his little band of French soldiers and Indians, +vainly endeavoring to turn English traders out of the Ohio Valley. +Christopher Gist came, some months later; then the trader Croghan, +for "Old Wyandot Town," the Indian village at the mouth, was a noted +center in Western forest traffic. Moravian missionaries appeared in +due time, establishing on the banks of the Muskingum the ill-fated +convert villages of Schönbrunn, Gnadenhütten, and Salem. In 1785, Fort +Harmar was reared on the site of Wyandot Town. Lastly, in the early +spring of 1788, came, in Ohio river flatboats, that famous body of +New England veterans of the Revolution, under Gen. Rufus Putnam, and +planted Marietta--"the Plymouth Rock of the West." + +We smile at these Ohio pilgrims, for dignifying the hills which girt +in the Marietta bottom, with the names of the seven on which Rome is +said to be built--for having a Campus Martius and a Sacra Via, and all +that, out here among the sycamore stumps and the wild Indians. But a +classical revival was just then vigorously affecting American thought, +and it would have been strange if these sturdy New Englanders had not +felt its influence, fresh as they were from out the shadows of Harvard +and Yale, and in the awesome presence of crowds of huge monumental +earthworks, whose age, in their day, was believed to far outdate +the foundations of the Eternal City itself. They loved learning +for learning's sake; and here, in the log-cabins of Marietta, eight +hundred miles west of their beloved Boston, among many another good +thing they did for posterity, they established the principle of public +education at public cost, as a national principle. + +They were soldier colonists. Washington, out of a full heart, for he +dearly loved the West, said of them: "No colony in America was ever +settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced +at the Muskingum. Information, property, and strength will be its +characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there +never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a +community." And when, in 1825, La Fayette had read to him the list +of Marietta pioneers,--nearly fifty military officers among them,--he +cried: "I know them all! I saw them at Brandywine, Yorktown, and Rhode +Island. They were the bravest of the brave!" + +Yet, for a long time, Marietta met with small measure of success. +Miasma, Indian ravages, and the conservative temperament of the people +combined to render slow the growth of this Western Plymouth. There +were, for a time, extensive ship-building yards here; but that +industry gradually declined, with the growth of railway systems. In +our day, Marietta, with its ten thousand inhabitants, prospers chiefly +as a market town and an educational center, with some manufacturing +interests. We were struck to-day, as we tarried there for an hour +or two, with the remarkable resemblance it has in public and private +architecture, and in general tone, to a typical New England town--say, +for example, Burlington, Vt. Omitting its river front, and its +Mound Cemetery, Marietta might be set bodily down almost anywhere in +Massachusetts, or Vermont, or Connecticut, and the chance traveler +would see little in the place to remind him of the West. I know of no +other town out of New England of which the same might be said. + +Below Marietta, the river bottoms are, for miles together, edged with +broad stretches of sloping beach, either deep with sand or naturally +paved with pebbles--sometimes treeless, but often strewn with clumps +of willow and maple and scrub sycamore. The hills, now rounder, less +ambitious, and more widely separated, are checkered with fields and +forests, and the bottom lands are of more generous breadth. Pleasant +islands stud the peaceful stream. The sylvan foliage has by this time +attained very nearly its fullest size. The horse chestnut, the pawpaw, +the grape, and the willow are in bloom. A gentle pastoral scene is +this through which we glide. + +It is evident that it would be a scalding day but for the gentle +breeze astern; setting sail, we gladly drop our oars, and, with the +water rippling at our prow, sweep blithely down the long southern +reach to Parkersburg, W. Va., at the mouth of the Little Kanawha (183 +miles). In the full glare of the scorching sun, Parkersburg looks +harsh and dry. But it is well built, and, as seen from the river, +apparently prosperous. The Ohio is here crossed by the once famous +million-dollar bridge of the Baltimore & Ohio railway. The wharf is +at the junction of the two streams, but chiefly on the shore of the +unattractive Little Kanawha, which is spanned by several bridges, and +abounds in steamers and houseboats moored to the land. Clark and Jones +did not think well of Little Kanawha lands, yet there were several +families on the river as early as 1763, and Trent, Croghan, and other +Fort Pitt fur-traders had posts here. There were only half-a-dozen +houses in 1800, and Parkersburg itself was not laid out until ten +years later. + +Blennerhassett's Island lies two miles below--a broad, dark mass of +forest, at the head joined by a dam to the West Virginia shore, from +which it is separated by a slender channel. Blennerhassett's is some +three and a half miles long; of its five hundred acres, four hundred +are under cultivation in three separate tenant farms. We landed at the +upper end, where Blennerhassett had his wharf, facing the Ohio shore, +and found that we were trespassing upon "The Blennerhassett Pleasure +Grounds." A seedy-looking man, who represented himself to be the +proprietor, promptly accosted us and levied a "landing fee" of ten +cents per head, which included the right to remain over night. A +little questioning developed the fact that thirty acres at the head +of the island belong to this man, who rents the ground to a market +gardener,--together with the comfortable farmhouse which occupies +the site of Blennerhassett's mansion,--but reserves to himself the +privilege of levying toll on visitors. He declared to me that fifteen +thousand people came to the island each summer, generally in large +railway and steamboat excursions, which gives him an easily-acquired +income sufficient for his needs. It is a pity that so famous a place +is not a public park. + +The touching story of the Blennerhassetts is one of the best known in +Western annals. Rich in culture and worldly possessions, but wildly +impracticable, Harman Blennerhassett and his beautiful wife came to +America in 1798. Buying this lovely island in the Ohio, six hundred +miles west of tidewater, they built a large mansion, which they +furnished luxuriously, adorning it with fine pictures and statuary. +Here, in the midst of beautiful grounds, while Blennerhassett studied +astronomy, chemistry, and galvanism, his brilliant spouse dispensed +rare hospitality to their many distinguished guests; for, in those +days, it was part of a rich young man's education to take a journey +down the Ohio, into "the Western parts," and on returning home to +write a book about it. + +But there came a serpent to this Eden. Aaron Burr was among their +visitors (1805), while upon his journey to New Orleans, where he hoped +to set on foot a scheme to seize either Texas or Mexico, and set up +a republic with himself at the head. He interested the susceptible +Blennerhassetts in his plans, the import of which they probably little +understood; but the fantastic Englishman had suffered a considerable +reduction of fortune, and was anxious to recoup, and Burr's +representations were aglow with the promise of such rewards in the +golden southwest as Cortes and Coronado sought. Blennerhassett's purse +was opened to the enterprise of Burr; large sums were spent in boats +and munitions, which were, tradition says, for a time hid in the bayou +which, close by our camp, runs deep into the island forest. It has +been filled in by the present proprietor, but its bold shore lines, +all hung with giant sycamores, are still in evidence. + +President Jefferson's proclamation (October, 1806) shattered the plot, +and Blennerhassett fled to join Burr at the mouth of the Cumberland. +Both were finally arrested (1807), and tried for treason, but +acquitted on technical grounds. In the meantime, people from +the neighboring country sacked Blennerhassett's house; then came +creditors, and with great waste seized his property; the beautiful +place was still further pillaged by lawless ruffians, and turned +into ignoble uses; later, the mansion itself was burned through the +carelessness of negroes--and now, all they can show us are the old +well and the noble trees which once graced the lawn. As for the +Blennerhassetts themselves, they wandered far and wide, everywhere +the victims of misfortune. He died on the Island of Guernsey (1831), a +disappointed office-seeker; she, returning to America to seek redress +from Congress for the spoliation of her home, passed away in New +York, before the claim was allowed, and was buried by the Sisters of +Charity. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Poor whites--First library in the West--An hour at + Hockingport--A hermit fisher. + + +Long Bottom, Monday, May 14th.--Pushing up stream for two miles this +morning, the commissary department replenished the day's stores at +Parkersburg. Forepaugh's circus was in town, and crowds of rustics +were coming in by wagon road, railway trains, and steamers and ferries +on both rivers. The streets of the quaint, dingy Southern town were +teeming with humanity, mainly negroes and poor whites. Among the +latter, flat, pallid faces, either flabby or too lean, were under +the swarms of blue, white, and yellow sunbonnets--sad faces, with +lack-luster eyes, coarse hair of undecided hue, and coarser +speech. These Audreys of Dixie-land are the product of centuries of +ill-treatment on our soil; indented white servants to the early coast +colonists were in the main their ancestors; with slave competition, +the white laborer in the South lost caste until even the negro +despised him; and ill-nurture has done the rest. Then, too, in these +bottoms, malaria has wrought its work, especially among the underfed; +you see it in the yellow skin and nerveless tone of these lanky +rustics, who are in town to enjoy the one bright holiday of their +weary year. + +Across the river, in Ohio, is Belpré (short for Belle Prairie, and now +locally pronounced Bel'pry), settled by Revolutionary soldiers, on +the Marietta grant, in 1789-90. I always think well of Belpré, because +here was established the first circulating library in the Northwest. +Old Israel Putnam, he of the wolf-den and Bunker Hill, amassed +many books. His son Israel, on moving to Belpré in 1796, carried a +considerable part of the collection with him--no small undertaking +this, at a time when goods had to be carted all the way from +Connecticut, over rivers and mountains to the Ohio, and then floated +down river by flatboat, with a high tariff for every pound of freight. +Young Israel was public-spirited, and, having been at so great cost +and trouble to get this library out to the wilderness, desired his +fellow-colonists to enjoy it with him. It would have been unfair not +to distribute the expense, so a stock company was formed, and shares +were sold at ten dollars each. Of the blessings wrought in this rude +frontier community by the books which the elder Israel had collected +for his Connecticut fireside, there can be no more eloquent testimony +than that borne by an old settler, who, in 1802, writes to an Eastern +friend: "In order to make the long winter evenings pass more smoothly, +by great exertion I purchased a share in the Belpré library, six +miles distant. Many a night have I passed (using pine knots instead +of candles) reading to my wife while she sat hatcheling, carding or +spinning." The association was dissolved in 1815 or 1816, and the +books distributed among the shareholders; many of these volumes are +still extant in this vicinity, and several are in the college museum +at Marietta. + +There are few descendants hereabout of the original New England +settlers, and they live miles apart on the Ohio shore. We went up +to visit one, living opposite Blennerhassett's Island. Notice of our +coming had preceded us, and we were warmly welcomed at a substantial +farmhouse in the outskirts of Belpré, with every evidence about of +abundant prosperity. The maternal great-grandfather of our host for +an hour was Rufus Putnam, an ancestor to be proud of. Five acres +of gooseberries are grown on the place, and other small-fruits in +proportion--all for the Parkersburg market, whence much is shipped +north to Cleveland. Our host confessed to a little malaria, even on +this upper terrace--or "second bottom," as they style it--but "the +land is good, though with many stones--natural conditions, you know, +for New Englanders." It was pleasant for a New England man, not long +removed from his native soil, to find these people, who are a century +away from home, still claiming kinship. + +At the Big Hockhocking River (197 miles), on a high, semicircular +bottom, is Hockingport, a hamlet with a population of three hundred. +Here, on a still higher bench, a quarter of a mile back from the +river, Lord Dunmore built Fort Gower, one of a chain of posts along +his march against the Northwest Indians (1774). It was from here that +he marched to the Pickaway Plains, on the Scioto (near Circleville, +O.), and concluded that treaty of peace to which Chief Logan refused +his consent. There are some remains yet left of this palisaded +earthwork of a century and a quarter ago, but the greater part has +been obliterated by plowing, and a dwelling occupies a portion of the +site. + +It had been very warm, and we had needed an awning as far down as +Hockingport, where we cooled off by lying on the grass in the shade +of the village blacksmith's shop, which is, as well, the ferry-house, +with the bell hung between two tall posts at the top of the bank, its +rope dangling down for public use. The smith-ferryman came out with +his wife--a burly, good-natured couple--and joined us in our lounging, +for it is not every day that river travelers put in at this dreamy, +far-away port. The wife had camped with her husband, when he was boss +of a railway construction gang, and both of them frankly envied us our +trip. So did a neighboring storekeeper, a tall, lean, grave young man, +clean-shaven, coatless and vestless, with a blue-glass stud on his +collarless white shirt. Apparently there was no danger of customers +walking away with his goods, for he left his store-door open to all +comers, not once glancing thitherward in the half-hour he sat with us +on a stick of timber, in which he pensively carved his name. + +Life goes easily in Hockingport. Years ago there was some business up +the Big Hocking (short for Big Hockhocking), a stream of a half-dozen +rods' width, but now no steamer ventures up--the railroads do it all; +as for the Ohio--well, the steamers now and then put off a box or bale +for the four shop-keepers, and once in a while a passenger patronizes +the landing. There is still a little country traffic, and formerly +a sawmill was in operation here; you see its ruins down there below. +Hockingport is a type of several rustic hamlets we have seen +to-day; they are often in pairs, one either side of the river, for +companionship's sake. + +We are idling, despite the knowledge that on turning every big bend we +are getting farther and farther south, and mid-June on the Lower Ohio +is apt to be sub-tropical. But the sinking sun gives us a +shadowy right bank, and that is most welcome. The current is only +spasmodically good. Every night the river falls from three to six +inches, and there are long stretches of slack-water. The steamers pick +their way carefully; we do not give them as wide a berth as formerly, +for the wakes they turn are no longer savage--but wakes, even when +sent out by stern-wheelers at full speed, now give us little trouble; +it did not take long to learn the knack of "taking" them. Whether +you meet them at right angles, or in the trough, there is the same +delicious sensation of rising and falling on the long swells--there +is no danger, so long as you are outside the line of foaming breakers; +within those, you may ship water, which is not desirable when there +is a cargo. But the boys at the towns sometimes put out in their rude +punts into the very vortex of disturbance, being dashed about in the +white roar at the base of the ponderous paddle wheels, like a Fiji +Islander in his surf-boat. We heard, the other day, of a boatload of +daring youngsters being caught by the wheel, their craft smashed into +kindling-wood, and they themselves all drowned but one. + +The hills, to-day, sometimes break sharply off, leaving an eroded, +often vine-festooned palisade some fifty feet in height, at the base +of which is a long, tree-clad slope of debris; then, a narrow, level +terrace from fifty to a hundred yards in width, which drops suddenly +to a rocky beach; this in turn is often lined along the water's edge +with irregularly-shaped boulders, from the size of Pilgrim to fifteen +or twenty feet in height, and worn smooth with the grinding action +of the river. The effect is highly picturesque. We shall have much of +this below. + +At the foot of one of these palisades lay a shanty-boat, with nets +sprawled over the roof to dry, and a live-box anchored hard by. +"Hello, the boat!" brought to the window the head of the lone +fisherman, who dreamily peered at us as we announced our wish to +become his customers. A sort of poor-white Neptune, this tall, lean, +lantern-jawed old fellow, with great round, iron-rimmed spectacles +over his fishy eyes, his hair and beard in long, snaky locks, and +clothing in dirty tatters. As he put out in his skiff to reach the +live-box, he continuously spewed tobacco juice about him, and in an +undertone growled garrulously, as though used to soliloquize in his +hermitage, where he lay at outs with the world. He had been in this +spot for two years, he said, and sold fish to the daily Parkersburg +steamer--when there were any fish. But, for six months past, he +"hadn't made enough to keep him in grub," and had now and then to go +up to the city and earn something. For forty years had he followed the +apostles' calling on "this yere Ohio," and the fishing was never so +poor as now--yes, sir! hard times had struck his business, just like +other folks'. He thought the oil wells were tainting the water, and +the fish wouldn't breed--and the iron slag, too, was spoiling the +river, and he knew it. He finally produced for us, out of his box, a +three-pound fish,--white perch, calico bass, and catfish formed his +stock in trade,--but, before handing it over, demanded the requisite +fifteen cents. Evidently he had had dealings with a dishonest world, +this hermit fisher, and had learned a thing or two. + +Perfect camping places are not to be found every day. There are so +many things to think of--a good landing place; good height above the +water level, in case of a sudden rise; a dry, shady, level spot for +the tent; plenty of wood, and, if possible, a spring; and not too +close proximity to a house. Occasionally we meet with what we want, +when we want it; but quite as often, ideal camping places, while +abundant half the day, are not to be found at five o'clock, our usual +hour for homeseeking. The Doctor is our agent for this task, for, +being bow oar, he can clamber out most easily. This evening, he ranged +both shores for a considerable distance, with ill success, so that +we are settled on a narrow Ohio sand-beach, in the midst of a sparse +willow copse, only two feet above the river. Dinner was had at the +very water's edge. After a time, a wind-storm arose and flapped the +tent right vigorously, causing us to pin down tightly and weight the +sod-cloth; while, amid distant thundering, every preparation was made +for a speedy embarkation in the event of flood. The bellow of the +frogs all about us, the scream of toads, and the heavy swash of +passing steamers dangerously near our door, will be a sufficient +lullaby to-night. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Cliff-dwellers on Long Bottom--Pomeroy Bend--Letart's Island + and Rapids--Game in the early day--Rainy weather--In a + "cracker" home. + + +Letart's Island, Tuesday, May 15th.--After we had gone to bed last +night,--we in the tent, the Doctor and Pilgrim under the fly, which +serves as a porch roof,--the heavenly floodgates lifted; the rain, +coming in sheets, beat a fierce tattoo on the tightly-stretched +canvas, and visions of a sudden rise in the fickle river were +uppermost in our dreams. Everything about us was sopping at daybreak; +but the sun rose clear and warm from a bed of eastern clouds, and the +midnight gale had softened to a gentle breeze. + +Palisades were frequent to-day. We stopped just below camp, at an +especially picturesque Ohio hamlet,--Long Bottom (207 miles),--where +the dozen or so cottages are built close against the bald rock. +Clambering over great water-worn boulders, at the river's brink, the +Doctor and I made our way up through a dense tangle of willows and +poison ivy and grape-vines, emerging upon the country road which +passes at the foot of this row of modern cliff-dwellings. For the most +part, little gardens, with neat palings, run down from the cottages +to the road. One sprawling log house, fairly embowered in vines, and +overtopped by the palisade rising sheer for thirty feet above its back +door, looked in this setting for all the world like an Alpine chalet, +lacking only stones on the roof to complete the picture. I took a +kodak shot at this, also at a group of tousle-headed children at +the door of a decrepit shanty built entirely within a crevice of the +rock--their Hibernian mother, with one hand holding an apron over +her head, and the other shielding her eyes, shrilly crying to a +neighboring cliff-dweller: "Miss McCarthy! Miss McCarthy! There's +a feller here, a photergraph'n' all the people in the Bottom! Come, +quick!" Then they eagerly pressed around me, Germans and Irish, +big and little, women and children mostly, asking for a view of +the picture, which I gave all in turn by letting them peep into the +ground-glass "finder"--a pretty picture, they said it was, with the +colors all in, and "wonderfully like," though a wee bit small. + +Speaking of color, we are daily struck with the brilliant hues in +the workaday dresses of women and children seen along the river. Red +calico predominates, but blues and yellows, and even greens, are seen, +brightly splashing the somber landscape. + +After Long Bottom, we enter upon the south-sweeping Pomeroy Bend of +the Ohio, commencing at Murraysville (208 miles) and ending at Pomeroy +(247 miles). It is of itself a series of smaller bends, and, as we +twist about upon our course, the wind strikes us successively on all +quarters; sometimes giving the Doctor a chance to try his sail, which +he raises on the slightest provocation,--but at all times agreeably +ruffling the surface that would otherwise reflect the glowing sun like +a mirror. + +The sloping margins of the rich bottoms are now often cultivated +almost to the very edge of the stream, with a line of willow trees +left as a protecting fringe. Farmers doing this take a gambling risk +of a summer rise. Where the margins have been left untouched by the +plow, there is a dense mass of vegetation--sycamores, big of girth and +towering to a hundred feet or more, abound on every hand; the willows +are phenomenally-rapid growers; and in all available space is the +rank, thick-standing growth of an annual locally styled "horse-weed," +which rears a cane-like stalk full eighteen or twenty feet high--it +has now attained but four or five feet, but the dry stalks of last +year's growth are everywhere about, showing what a formidable barrier +to landing these giant weeds must be in midsummer. + +We chose for a camping place Letart's Island (232 miles), on the West +Virginia side, not far below Milwood. From the head, where our tent +is pitched on a sandy knoll thick-grown to willows, a long gravel +spit runs far over toward the Ohio shore. The West Virginia channel is +narrow, slow and shallow; that between us and Ohio has been lessened +by the island to half its usual width, and the current sweeps by at +a six-mile gait, in which the Doctor and I found it difficult to keep +our footing while having our customary evening dip. Our island is two +long, forested humps of sand, connected by a stretch of gravel beach, +giving every evidence of being submerged in times of flood; everywhere +are chaotic heaps of driftwood, many cords in extent; derelict trees +are lodged in the tops of the highest willows and maples--ghostly +giants sprawling in the moonlight; there is an abandon of vegetable +debris, layer after layer laid down in sandy coverlids. Wild grasses, +which flourish on all these flooded lands, here attain enormous size. +Dispensing with our cots for the nonce, we have spread our blankets +over heaps of dried grass pulled from the monster tufts of last year's +growth. The Ohio is capable of raising giant floods; it is still +falling with us, but there are signs at hand, beyond the slight +sprinkle which cooled the air for us at bedtime, of rainy weather +after the long drouth. When the feeders in the Alleghanies begin to +swell, we shall perch high o' nights. + + * * * * * + +Near Cheshire, O., Wednesday, May 16th.--The fine current at the +island gave us a noble start this morning. The river soon widens, but +Letart's Falls, a mile or two below, continue the movement, and we +went fairly spinning on our way. These so-called falls, rapids +rather, long possessed the imagination of early travelers. Some of +the chroniclers have, while describing them, indulged in flights of +fancy.[A] They are of slight consequence, however, even at this +low stage of water, save to the careless canoeist who has had no +experience in rapid water, well-strewn with sunken boulders. The +scenery of the locality is wild, and somewhat impressive. The Ohio +bank is steep and rugged, abounding in narrow little terraces of red +clay, deeply gullied, and dotted with rough, mean shanties. It all had +a forbidding aspect, when viewed in the blinding sun; but before we +had passed, an intervening cloud cast a deep shadow over the scene, +and, softening the effect, made the picture more pleasing. + +Croghan was at Letart (1765), on one of his land-viewing trips for +the Ohio Company, and tells us that he saw a "vast migrating herd" of +buffalo cross the river here. In the beginning of colonization in this +valley, buffalo and elk were to be seen in herds of astonishing size; +traces of their well-beaten paths through the hills, and toward the +salt licks of Kentucky and Illinois, were observable until within +recent years. Gordon, an early traveler down the Ohio (1766), speaks +of "great herds of buffalo, we observed on the beaches of the river +and islands into which they come for air, and coolness in the heat +of the day;" he commenced his raids on them a hundred miles below +Pittsburg. Hutchins (1778) says, "the whole country abounds in Bears, +Elks, Buffaloe, Deer, Turkies, &c."[B] Bears, panthers, wolves, +eagles, and wild turkeys were indeed very plenty at first, but soon +became extinct. The theory is advanced by Dr. Doddridge, in his _Notes +on Virginia_, that hunters' dogs introduced hydrophobia among the +wolves, and this ridded the country of them sooner than they would +naturally have gone; but they were still so numerous in 1817, that the +traveler Palmer heard them nightly, "barking on both banks." + +Venomous serpents were also numerous in pioneer days, and stayed +longer. The story is told of a tumulus up toward Moundsville, that +abounded in snakes, particularly rattlers. The settlers thought to dig +them out, but they came to such a mass of human bones that that +plan was abandoned. Then they instituted a blockade, by erecting a +tight-board fence around the mound, and, thus entrapping the reptiles, +extirpated the colony in a few days. + +Paroquets were once abundant west of the Alleghanies, up to the +southern shore of the Great Lakes, and great flocks haunted the salt +springs; but to-day they may be found only in the middle Southern +states. There were, in a state of nature, no crows, blackbirds, or +song-birds in this valley; they followed in the wake of the colonist. +The honey bee came with the white man,--or rather, just preceded him. +Rats followed the first settlers, then opossums, and fox squirrels +still later. It is thought, too, that the sand-hill and whooping +cranes, and the great blue herons which we daily see in their stately +flight, are birds of these later days, when the neighborhood of man +has frightened away the enemies which once kept them from thriving +in the valley. Turkey buzzards appear to remain alone of the ancient +birds; the earliest travelers note their presence in great flocks, and +to-day there are few vistas open to us, without from one to dozens of +them wheeling about in mid-air, seeking what they may devour. Public +opinion in the valley is opposed to the wanton killing of these +scavengers, so useful in a climate as warm as this. + +Three miles below Letart's Rapids, is the motley settlement of +Antiquity, O., a long row of cabins and cottages nestled at the base +of a high, vine-clad palisade, similar to that which yesterday we +visited at Long Bottom. Some of these cliff-dwellings are picturesque, +some exhibit the prosperity of their owners, but many are squalid. At +the water's edge is that which has given its name to the locality, an +ancient rock, which once bore some curious Indian carving. Hall (1820) +found only one figure remaining, "a man in a sitting posture, making +a pipe;" to-day, even thus much has been largely obliterated by the +elements. But Antiquity itself is not quite dead. There is a ship-yard +here; and a sawmill in active operation, besides the ruins of two +others. + +We also passed Racine (240 miles), another Ohio town--a considerable +place, no doubt, although only the tops of the buildings were, +from the river level, to be seen above the high bank; these, and an +enticing view up the wharf-street. Of more immediate interest, +just then, were the heavens, now black and threatening. Putting in +hurriedly to the West Virginia shore, we pitched tent on a shelving +clay beach, shielded by the ever-present willows, and in five minutes +had everything under shelter. With a rumble and bang, and a great +flurry of wind, the thunder-storm broke upon us in full fury. There +had been no time to run a ditch around the tent, so we spread our +cargo atop of the cots. The Boy engineered riverward the streams +of water which flowed in beneath the canvas; W----, ever practical, +caught rain from the dripping fly, and did the family washing, while +the Doctor and I prepared a rather pasty lunch. + +An hour later, we bailed out Pilgrim, and once more ventured upon our +way. It is a busy district between Racine and Sheffield (251 miles). +For eleven miles, upon the Ohio bank, there are few breaks between the +towns,--Racine, Syracuse, Minersville, Pomeroy, Coalport, Middleport, +and Sheffield. Coal mines and salt works abound, with other industries +interspersed; and the neighborhood appears highly prosperous. Its +metropolis is Pomeroy, in shape a "shoe-string" town,--much of it not +over two blocks wide, and stretching along for two miles, at the foot +of high palisades. West Virginia is not far behind, in enterprise, +with the salt-work towns of New Haven, Hartford, and Mason +City,--bespeaking, in their names, a Connecticut ancestry. + +The afternoon sun gushed out, and the face of Nature was cleanly +beautiful, as, leaving the convolutions of the Pomeroy Bend, we +entered upon that long river-sweep to the south-by-southwest, which +extends from Pomeroy to the Big Sandy, a distance of sixty-eight +miles. A mile or two below Cheshire, O. (256 miles), we put in for +the night on the West Virginia shore. There is a natural pier of rocky +ledge, above that a sloping beach of jagged stone, and then the little +grassy terrace which we have made our home. + +Searching for milk and eggs, I walked along a railway track and then +up through a cornfield, to a little log farm-house, whose broad porch +was shingled with "shakes" and shaded by a lusty grape-vine. Fences, +house, and outbuildings had been newly whitewashed, and there was all +about an uncommon air of neatness. A stout little girl of eleven or +twelve, met me at the narrow gate opening through the garden palings. +It may be because a gypsying trip like this roughens one in many +ways,--for man, with long living near to Nature's heart, becomes of +the earth, earthy,--that she at first regarded me with suspicious +eyes, and, with one hand resting gracefully on her hip, parleyed over +the gate, as to what price I was paying in cash, for eggs and milk, +and where I hailed from. + +With her wealth of blond hair done up in a saucy knot behind; her +round, honest face; her lips thick, and parted over pearly teeth; her +nose saucily _retrousse_; and her flashing, outspoken blue eyes, +this barefooted child of Nature had a certain air of authority, a +consciousness of power, which made her womanly beyond her years. She +must have seen that I admired her, this little "cracker" queen, in her +clean but tattered calico frock; for her mood soon melted, and +with much grace she ushered me within the house. Calling Sam, an +eight-year-old, to "keep the gen'lem'n comp'ny," she prettily excused +herself, and scampered off up the hillside in search of the cows. + +A barefooted, loose-jointed, gaunt, sandy-haired, freckled, open-eyed +youngster is Sam. He came lounging into the room, and, taking my +hat, hung it on a peg above the fireplace; then, dropping into a big +rocking-chair, with his muddy legs hanging over an arm, at once, with +a curious, old-fashioned air, began "keeping company" by telling me of +the new litter of pigs, with as little diffidence as though I were an +old neighbor who had dropped in on the way to the cross-roads. "And +thet thar new Shanghai rooster, mister, ain't he a beauty? He cost a +dollar, he did--a dollar in silver, sir!" + +There was no difficulty in drawing Sam out. He is frankness itself. +What was he going to make of himself? Well, he "'lowed" he wanted to +be either a locomotive engineer or a steamboat captain--hadn't made +up his mind which. "But whatever a boy wants to be, he will be!" said +Sam, with the decided tone of a man of the world, who had seen things. +I asked Sam what the attractions were in the life of an engine driver. +He "'lowed" they went so fast through the world, and saw so many +different people; and in their lifetime served on different roads, +maybe, and surely they must meet with some excitement. And in that of +a steamboat captain? "Oh! now yew're talk'n', mister! A right smart +business, thet! A boss'n' o' people 'round, a seein' o' th' world, +and noth'n' 't all to do! Now, that's right smart, I take it!" It was +plain where his heart lay. He saw the steamers pass the farm daily, +and once he had watched one unload at Point Pleasant--well, that was +the life for him! Sam will have to be up and doing, if he is to be the +monarch of a stern-wheeler on the Ohio; but many another "cracker" boy +has attained this exalted station, and Sam is of the sort to win his +way. + +Soon the kine came lowing into the yard, and my piquant young friend +who had met me at the gate stood in the doorway talking with us both, +while their brother Charley, an awkward, self-conscious lad of ten, +took my pail and milked into it the required two quarts. It is +a large, square room, where I was so agreeably entertained. The +well-chinked logs are scrupulously whitewashed; the parental bed, with +gay pillow shams, bought from a peddler, occupies one corner; a huge +brick fireplace opens black and yawning, into the base of a great +cobblestone chimney reared against the house without, after the +fashion of the country; on pegs about, hang the best clothes of the +family; while a sewing-machine, a deal table, a cheap little mirror +as big as my palm, a few unframed chromos, and a gaudy "Family Record" +chart hung in an old looking-glass frame,--with appropriate holes for +tintypes of father, mother and children,--complete the furnishings of +the apartment, which is parlor, sitting-room, dining-room, and bedroom +all in one. + +My little queen was evidently proud of her throne-room, and noted with +satisfaction my interest in the Family Record. When I had paid her +for butter and eggs, at retail rates, she threw in an extra egg, and, +despite my protests, would have Charley take the pail out to the cow, +"for an extra squirt or two, for good measure!" + +I was bidding them all good-bye, and the queen was pressing me to come +again in the morning "fer more stuff, ef ye 'lowed yew wanted any," +when the mother of the little brood appeared from over the fields, +where she had been to carry water to her lord. A fair, intelligent, +rather fine-looking woman, but barefooted like the rest; from her neck +behind, dangled a red sunbonnet, and a sunny-haired child of five was +in her arms--"sort o' weak in her lungs, poor thing!" she sadly said, +as I snapped my fingers at the smiling tot. I tarried a moment with +the good mother, as, sitting upon the porch, she serenely smiled upon +her children, whose eyes were now lit with responsive love; and I +wondered if there were not some romance hidden here, whereby a dash of +gentler blood had through this sweet-tempered woman been infused into +the coarse clay of the bottom. + +[Footnote A: Notably, Ashe's _Travels_; but Palmer, while saying that +"they are the only obstruction to the navigation of the Ohio, except +the rapids at Louisville," declares them to be of slight difficulty, +and, referring to Ashe's account, says, "Like great part of his book, +it is all romance."] + +[Footnote B: The last buffalo on record, in the Upper Ohio region, was +killed in the Great Kanawha Valley, a dozen miles from Charleston, +W. Va., in 1815. Five years later, in the same vicinity, was killed +probably the last elk seen east of the Ohio.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Battle of Point Pleasant--The story of + Gallipolis--Rosebud--Huntington--The genesis of a + house-boater. + + +Near Glenwood, W. Va., Thursday, May 17th.--By eight o'clock this +morning we were in Point Pleasant, W. Va., at the mouth of the Great +Kanawha River (263 miles). Céloron was here, the eighteenth of August, +1749, and on the east bank of the river, the site of the present +village, buried at the foot of an elm one of his leaden plates +asserting the claim of France to the Ohio basin. Ninety-seven years +later, a boy unearthed this interesting but futile proclamation, and +it rests to-day in the museum of the Virginia Historical Society. + +The Great Kanawha Valley long had a romantic interest for Englishmen +concerned in Western lands. It was in the grant to the old Ohio +Company; but that corporation, handicapped in many ways, was +practically dead by the time of Lord Dunmore's war. It had many +rivals, more or less ephemeral, among them the scheme of George Mercer +(1773) to have the territory between the Alleghanies and the Ohio--the +West Virginia of to-day--erected into the "Province of Vandalia," +with himself as governor, and his capital at the mouth of the Great +Kanawha. Washington owned a ten-thousand-acre tract on both sides +of the river, commencing a short distance above the mouth, which +he surveyed in person, in October, 1770; and in 1773 we find him +advertising to sell or lease it; among the inducements he offered was, +"the scheme for establishing a new government on the Ohio," and the +contiguity of his lands "to the seat of government, which, it is more +than probable, will be fixed at the mouth of the Great Kanawha." +Had not the Revolution broken out, and nipped this and many another +budding plan for Western colonization, there is little doubt that +what we call West Virginia would have been established as a state, a +century earlier than it was.[A] + +A few days ago we were at Mingo Bottom, where lived Chief Logan, whose +family were treacherously slaughtered by border ruffians (1774). +The Mingos, ablaze with the fire of vengeance, carried the war-pipe +through the neighboring villages; runners were sent in every direction +to rouse the tribes; tomahawks were unearthed, war-posts were planted; +messages of defiance sent to the Virginians; and in a few days Lord +Dunmore's war was in full swing, from Cumberland Gap to Fort Pitt, +from the Alleghanies to the Wabash. + +His lordship, then governor of Virginia, was full of energy, and +proved himself a competent military manager. The settlers were +organized; the rude log forts were garrisoned; forays were made +against the Indian villages as far away as Muskingum, and an army of +nearly three thousand backwoodsmen, armed with smooth-bores and clad +in fringed buckskin hunting-shirts, was put in the field. + +One division of this army, eleven hundred strong, under Gen. Andrew +Lewis, descended the Great Kanawha River, and on Point Pleasant met +Cornstalk, a famous Shawnee chief, who, while at first peaceful, had +by the Logan tragedy been made a fierce enemy of the whites, and was +now the leader of a thousand picked warriors, gathered from all parts +of the Northwest. On the 10th of October, from dawn until dusk, was +here waged in a gloomy forest one of the most bloody and +stubborn hand-to-hand battles ever fought between Indians and +whites--especially notable, too, because for the first time the rivals +were about equal in number. The combatants stood behind trees, +in Indian fashion, and it is hard to say who displayed the best +generalship, Cornstalk or Lewis.[B] When the pall of night covered the +hideous contest, the whites had lost one-fifth of their number, while +the savages had sustained but half as many casualties. Cornstalk's +followers had had enough, however, and withdrew before daylight, +leaving the field to the Americans. + +A few days later, General Lewis joined Lord Dunmore--who headed the +other wing of the army, which had proceeded by the way of Forts Pitt +and Gower--on the Pickaway plains, in Ohio; and there a treaty was +made with the Indians, who assented to every proposition made them. +They surrendered all claim to lands south of the Ohio River, returned +their white prisoners and stolen horses, and gave hostages for future +good behavior. + +Here at Point Pleasant, a year later, Fort Randolph was built, and +garrisoned by a hundred men; for, despite the treaty, the Indians were +still troublesome. For a long time, Pittsburg, Redstone, and Randolph +were the only garrisoned forts on the frontier. The Point Pleasant of +to-day is a dull, sleepy town of twenty-five hundred inhabitants, with +that unkempt air and preponderance of lounging negroes, so common to +small Southern communities. The bottom is rolling, fringed with +large hills, and on the Ohio side drops suddenly for fifty feet to +a shelving beach of gravel and clay. Crooked Creek, in whose narrow, +winding valley some of the severest fighting was had, empties into +the Kanawha a half-mile up the stream, at the back of the town. It was +painful to meet several men of intelligence, who had long been engaged +in trade here, to whom the Battle of Point Pleasant was a shadowy +event, whose date they could not fix, nor whose importance understand; +it seemed to be little more a part of their lives, than an obscure +contest between Matabeles and whites, in far-off Africa. It is time +that our Western and Southern folk were awakened to an appreciation of +the fact that they have a history at their doors, quite as significant +in the annals of civilization as that which induces pilgrimages to +Ticonderoga and Bunker Hill. + +Four miles below, Pilgrim was beached for a time at Gallipolis, O. +(267 miles), which has a story all its own. The district belonged, +a century ago, to the Scioto Company, an offshoot of the Marietta +enterprise. Joel Barlow, the "poet of the Revolution," was sent to +Paris (May, 1788) as agent for the sale of lands. As the result of his +personal popularity there, and his flaming immigration circulars and +maps, he disposed of a hundred thousand acres; to settle on which, six +hundred French emigrants sailed for America, in February, 1790. +They were peculiarly unsuited for colonization, even under the most +favorable conditions--being in the main physicians, jewelers and other +artisans, a few mechanics, and noblemen's servants, while many were +without trade or profession. + +Upon arrival in Alexandria, Va., they found that their deeds +were valueless, the land never having been paid for by the Scioto +speculators; moreover, the tract was filled with hostile Indians. +However, five hundred of them pushed on to the region, by way of +Redstone, and reached here by flatboat, in a destitute condition. +The Marietta neighbors were as kind as circumstances would allow, +and cabins were built for them on what is now the Public Square of +Gallipolis. But they were ignorant of the first principles of forestry +or gardening; the initial winter was exceptionally severe, Indian +forays sapped the life of the colony, yellow fever decimated the +survivors; and, altogether, the little settlement suffered a series of +disasters almost unparalleled in the story of American colonization. + +Although finally reimbursed by Congress with a special land grant, the +emigrants gradually died off, until now, so at least we were assured, +but three families of descendants of the original Gauls are now living +here. It was the American element, aided by sturdy Germans, who in +time took hold of the decayed French settlement, and built up the +prosperous little town of six thousand inhabitants which we find +to-day. It is a conservative town, with little perceptible increase +in population; but there are many fine brick blocks, the stores +have large stocks attractively displayed, and there is in general a +comfortable tone about the place, which pleases a stranger. The Public +Square, where the first Gauls had their little forted town, appears to +occupy the space of three or four city blocks; there is the customary +band-stand in the center, and seats plentifully provided along the +graveled walks which divide neat plots of grass. Over the riverward +entrance to the square, is an arch of gas-pipe, perforated for +illumination, and bearing the dates, "1790-1890,"--a relic, this, of +the centennial which Gallipolis celebrated in the last-named year. + +It was with some difficulty that we found a camping-place, this +evening. For several miles, the approaches were nearly knee-deep in +mud for a dozen feet back from the water's edge, or else the banks +were too steep, or the farmers had cultivated so closely to the brink +as to leave us no room for the tent. In one gruesome spot on the Ohio +bank, where a projecting log fortunately served as a pier, the Doctor +landed for a prospecting tour; while I ascended a zigzag path, through +steep and rugged land, to a nest of squalid cabins perched by a shabby +hillside road. A vicious dog came down to meet me half-way, and might +have succeeded in carrying off a portion of my clothing had not his +owner whistled him back. + +A queer, dingy, human wasp-nest, this dirty little shanty hamlet of +Rosebud. Pigs and children wallowed in comradeship, and as every cabin +on the precipitous slope necessarily has a basement, this is used as +the common barn for chickens, goats, pigs, and cow. It was pleasant to +find that there was no sweet milk to be had in Rosebud, for it is kept +in open pans, in these fetid rooms, and soon sours--and the cows had +not yet come down from the hills. Water, too, was at a premium. There +was none to be had, save what had fallen from the clouds, and been +stored in a foul cistern, which seemed common property. I drew a +pailful of it, not to displease the disheveled group which surrounded +me, full of questions; but on the first turning in the lane, emptied +the vessel upon the back of a pig, which was darting by with murderous +squeal. + +The long twilight was well nigh spent, when, on the Ohio side a mile +or two above Glenwood, W. Va. (287 miles), we came upon a wide, +level beach of gravel, below a sloping, willowed terrace, above which +sharply rose the "second bottom." Ascending an angling farm roadway, +while the others pitched camp, I walked over the undulating bottom +to the nearest of a group of small, neat farmhouses, and applied +for milk. While a buxom maid went out and milked a Jersey, that had +chanced to come home ahead of her fellows, I sat on the rear porch +gossiping with the farm-wife--a Pennsylvania-Dutch dame of ample +proportions, attired in light-blue calico, and with huge spectacles +over her broad, flat nose. She and her "man" own a hundred and fifty +acres on the bottom, with three cows and other stock in proportion, +and sell butter to those neighbors who have no cows, and to houseboat +people. As for these latter, though they were her customers, she +had none too good an opinion of them; they pretended to fish, but in +reality only picked up a living from the farmers; nevertheless, she +did know of some "weakly, delicate people" who had taken to boat life +for economy's sake, and because an invalid could at least fish, and +his family help him at it. + + * * * * * + +Near Huntington, W. Va., Friday, May 18th.--Backed by ravine-grooved +hills, and edged at the waterside with great picturesque boulders, +planed and polished by the ever-rushing river, the little bottom farms +along our path to-day are pretty bits. But the houses are the +reverse of this, having much the aspect of slave-cabins of the olden +time--small, one-story, log and frame shanties, roof and gables +shingled with "shakes," and little vegetable gardens inclosed by +palings. The majority of these small farmers--whose tracts seldom +exceed a hundred acres--rent their land, rather than own it. The plan +seems to be half-and-half as to crops, with a rental fee for house and +pasturage. One man, having a hundred-and-twenty acres, told me he +paid three dollars a month for his house, and for pasturage a dollar a +month per head. + +We were in several of the small towns to-day. At Millersport, O. +(293 miles), while W---- and the Doctor were up town, the Boy and I +remained at the wharf-boat to talk with the owner. The wharf-boat is +a conspicuous object at every landing of importance, being a covered +barge used as a storehouse for coming and going steamboat freight. +It is a private enterprise, for public convenience, with certain +monopolistic privileges at the incorporated towns. This Millersport +boat cost twelve hundred dollars; the proprietor charges twenty per +cent of each freight-bill, for handling and storing goods, a fee of +twenty-five cents for each steamer that lands, and certain special +fees for live stock. Athalia, Haskellville and Guyandotte were other +representative towns. Stave-making appears to be the chief industry, +and, as timber is getting scarce, the communities show signs of decay. + +We had been told, above, that Huntington, W. Va. (306 miles), was "a +right smart chunk of a town." And it is. There are sixteen thousand +people here, in a finely-built city spread over a broad, flat plain. +Brick and stone business buildings abound; the broad streets are +paved with brick, and an electric-car line runs out along the bottom, +through the suburb of Ceredo, W. Va., to Catlettsburg, Ky., nine miles +away. Huntington is the center of a large group of riverside towns +supported by iron-making and other industries--Guyandotte and Ceredo, +in West Virginia; Catlettsburg, just over the border in Kentucky; and +Proctorville, Broderickville, Frampton, Burlington, and South Point, +on the opposite shore. + +We are camping to-night in the dense willow grove which lines the West +Virginia beach from Huntington to the Big Sandy. Above us, on the wide +terrace, are fields and orchards, beyond which we occasionally hear +the gong of electric cars. A public path runs by the tent, leading +from the lower settlements into Huntington. Among our visitors have +been two houseboat men, whose craft is moored a quarter of a mile +below. One of them is tall, thick-set, forty, with a round, florid +face, and huge mustaches,--evidently a jolly fellow at his best, +despite a certain dubious, piratical air; a jaunty, narrow-brimmed +straw hat is perched over one ear, to add to the general effect; +and between his teeth a corn-cob pipe. His younger companion is +medium-sized, slim, and loose-jointed, with a baggy gait, his cap +thrown over his head, with the visor in the rear--a rustic clown, not +yet outgrown his freckles. But three weeks from the parental farm in +Putnam County, Ky., the world is as yet a romance to him. The +fellow is interesting, because in him can be seen the genesis of a +considerable element of the houseboat fraternity. I wonder how long it +will be before his partner has him broken in as a river-pirate of the +first water. + +[Footnote A: Washington was much interested in a plan to connect, by a +canal, the James and Great Kanawha Rivers, separated at their sources +by a portage of but a few miles in length. The distance from Point +Pleasant to Richmond is 485 miles. In 1785, Virginia incorporated the +James River Company, of which Washington was the first president. The +project hung fire, because of "party spirit and sectional jealousies," +until 1832, when a new company was incorporated, under which the James +was improved (1836-53), but the Kanawha was untouched. In 1874, United +States engineers presented a plan calling for an expenditure of sixty +millions, but there the matter rests. The Kanawha is navigable by +large steamers for sixty miles, up to the falls at Charleston, and +beyond almost to its source, by light craft.] + +[Footnote B: Hall, in _Romance of Western History_ (1820), says that +when Washington was tendered command of the Revolutionary army, he +replied that it should rather be given to Gen. Andrew Lewis, of whose +military abilities he had a high opinion. Lewis was a captain in +the Little Meadows affair (1752), and a companion of Washington in +Braddock's defeat (1755).] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + In a fog--The Big Sandy--Rainy weather--Operatic gypsies--An + ancient tavern. + + +Ironton, O., Saturday, May 19th.--When we turned in, last night, it +was refreshingly cool. Heavy clouds were scurrying across the face +of the moon. By midnight, a copious rain was falling, wind-gusts were +flapping our roof, and a sudden drop in temperature rendered sadly +inadequate all the clothing we could muster into service. We slept +late, in consequence, and, after rigging a wind-break with the rubber +blankets, during breakfast huddled around the stove which had been +brought in to replace Pilgrim under the fly. When, at half-past nine, +we pushed off, our houseboat neighbors thrust their heads from the +window and waved us farewell. + +A dense fog hung like a cloud over land and river. There was a stiff +north-east wind, which we avoided by seeking the Ohio shore, where +the high hills formed a break; there too, the current was swift, and +carried us down right merrily. Shattered by the wind, great banks of +fog rolled up stream, sometimes enveloping us so as to narrow our +view to a radius of a dozen rods,--again, through the rifts, giving +us momentary glimpses on the right, of rich green hills, towering dark +and steep above us, iridescent with browns, and grays, and many shades +of green; of whitewashed cabins, single or in groups, standing out +with startling distinctness from sombre backgrounds; of houseboats, +many-hued, moored to willowed banks or bolstered high upon shaly +beaches; of the opposite bottom, with its corrugated cliff of clay; +and, now and then, a slowly-puffing steamboat cautiously feeling its +way through the chilling gloom--a monster to be avoided by little +Pilgrim and her crew, for the possibility of being run down in a fog +is not pleasant to contemplate. On board one of these steamers was a +sorry company--apparently a Sunday-school excursion. Children in gala +dress huddled in swarms on the lee of the great smoke-stacks, and in +imagination we heard their teeth chatter as they glided by us and in +another moment were engulfed in the mist. + +We catch sight for a moment, through a cloud crevasse, of Ceredo, the +last town in West Virginia--a small saw-milling community stuck upon +the edge of the clay cliff, with the broad level bottom stretching out +behind like a prairie. A giant railway bridge here spans the Ohio--a +weird, impressive thing, as we sweep under it in the swirling current, +and crane our necks to see the great stone piers lose themselves in +the cloud. But the Big Sandy River (315 miles), which divides West +Virginia and Kentucky, was wholly lost to view. In an opening a few +moments later, however, we had a glimpse of the dark line of her +valley, below which the hills again descend to the Ohio's bank. + +Catlettsburg, the first Kentucky town, is at the junction, and extends +along the foot of the ridge for a mile or two, apparently not over +two blocks wide, with a few outlying shanties on the shoulders of the +uplands. Washington was surveying here, on the Big Sandy, in 1770, and +entered for one John Fry 2,084 acres round the site of Louisa, a dozen +miles up the river; this was the first survey made in Kentucky--but +a few months later than Boone's first advent as a hunter on the +"dark and bloody ground," and five years before the first permanent +settlement in the State. Washington deserves to be remembered as a +Kentucky pioneer. + +We have not only steamers to avoid,--they appear to be unusually +numerous about here,--but snags as well. With care, the whereabouts of +a steamer can be distinguished as it steals upon us, from the superior +whiteness of its column of "exhaust," penetrating the bank of dark +gray fog; and occasionally the echoes are awakened by the burly roar +of its whistle, which, in times like this, acts as a fog-horn. But the +snag is an insidious enemy, not revealing itself until we are within +a rod or two, and then there is a quick cry of warning from the +stern sheets--"Hard a-port!" or "Starboard, quick!" and only a strong +side-pull, aided by W----'s paddle, sends us free from the jagged, +branching mass which might readily have swamped poor Pilgrim had she +taken it at full tilt. + +At Ashland, Ky. (320 miles), we stopped for supplies. There are six +thousand inhabitants here, with some good buildings and a fine, broad, +stone wharf, but it is rather a dingy place. The steamer "Bonanza" had +just landed. On the double row of flaggings leading up to the summit +of the bank, were two ant-like processions of Kentucky folk--one, +leisurely climbing townward with their bags and bundles, the other +hurrying down with theirs to the boat, which was ringing its bell, +blowing off steam, and in other ways creating an uproar which seemed +to turn the heads of the negro roustabouts and draymen, who bustled +around with a great chatter and much false motion. The railway may be +doing the bulk of the business, but it does it unostentatiously; the +steamboat makes far more disturbance in the world, and is a finer +spectacle. Dozens of boys are lounging at the wharf foot, watching the +lively scene with fascinated eyes, probably every one of them stoutly +possessed of an ambition akin to that of my young friend in the +Cheshire Bottom. + +A rain-storm broke the fog--a cold, raw, miserable rain. No clothing +we could don appeared to suffice against the chill; and so at last we +pitched camp upon the Ohio shore, three miles above the Ironton wharf +(325 miles). It is a muddy, dreary nest up here, among the dripping +willows. Just behind us on the slope, is the inclined track of the +Norfolk & Western railway-transfer, down which trains are slid to +a huge slip, and thence ferried over the river into Kentucky; above +that, on a narrow terrace, is an ordinary railway line; and still +higher, up a slippery clay bank, lies the cottage-strewn bottom which +stretches on into Ironton (13,000 inhabitants). + +We were a sorry-looking party, at lunch this noon, hovering over the +smoking stove which was set in the tent door, with a wind-screen in +front, and moist bedding hung all about in the vain hope of drying it +in the feeble heat. And sorrier still, through the long afternoon, as, +each encased in a sleeping-bag, we sat upon our cots circling around +the stove, W---- reading to us between chattering teeth from Barrie's +_When a Man's Single_. 'Tis good Scottish weather we're having; but +somehow our thoughts could not rest on Thrums, and we were, for the +nonce, a wee bit miserable. + +Dinner degenerated into a smoky bite, and then at dusk there was a +council of war. The air hangs thick with moisture, our possessions are +in various stages from damp to sopping wet, and efforts at drying over +the little stove are futile under such conditions. It was demonstrated +that there was not bed-clothing enough, in such an emergency as this; +indeed, an inspection of that which was merely damp, revealed the fact +that but one person could be made comfortable to-night. Our bachelor +Doctor volunteered to be that one. So we bade him God-speed, and +with toilet bag in hand I led my little family up a tortuous path, so +slippery in the rain that we were obliged in our muddy climb to cling +to grass-clumps and bushes. And thus, wet and bedraggled, did we sally +forth upon the Ironton Bottom, seeking shelter for the night. + +Fortunately we had not far to seek. A kindly family took us in, +despite our gruesome aspect and our unlikely story--for what manner +of folk are we, that go trapesing about in a skiff, in such weather +as this, coming from nobody knows where and camping o' nights in the +muddy river bottoms? Instead of sending us on, in the drenching rain, +to a hotel, three miles down the road, or offering us a ticket on the +Associated Charities, these blessed people open their hearts and their +beds to us, without question, and what more can weary pilgrims pray +for? + + * * * * * + +Sciotoville, O., Sunday, May 20th.--After breakfast, and settling our +modest score, we rejoined the Doctor, and at ten o'clock pulled out +again; being bidden good-bye at the landing, by the children of our +hostess, who had sent us by them a bottle of fresh milk as a parting +gift. + +It had rained almost continuously, throughout the night. To-day we +have a dark gray sky, with fickle winds. A charming color study, all +along our path; the reds and grays and yellows of the high clay-banks +which edge the reciprocating bottoms, the browns and yellows of +hillside fields, the deep greens of forest verdure, the vivid white +of bankside cabins, and, in the background of each new vista, bold +headlands veiled in blue. W---- and the Boy are in the stern sheets, +wrapped in blankets, for there is a smart chill in the air, and we at +the oars pull lively for warmth. In our twisting course, sometimes +we have a favoring breeze, and the Doctor rears the sail; but it is a +brief delight, for the next turn brings the wind in our teeth, and we +set to the blades with renewed energy. In the main, we make good time. +The sugar-loaf hills, with their castellated escarpments, go marching +by with stately sweep. + +Greenup Court House (334 miles) is a bright little Kentucky +county-seat, well-built at the feet of thickly-forested uplands. At +the lower end of the village, the Little Sandy enters through a wooded +dale, which near the mouth opens into a broad meadow. Not many miles +below, is a high sloping beach, picturesquely bestrewn with gigantic +boulders which have in ages past rolled down from the hill-tops above. +Here, among the rocks, we again set up a rude screen from the still +piercing wind; and, each wrapped in a gay blanket, lunch as operatic +gypsies might, in a romantic glen, enjoying mightily our steaming +chocolate, and the warmth of our friendly stove--for dessert, taking +a merry scamper for flowers, over the ragged ascent from whence the +boulders came. Everywhere about is the trumpet creeper, but not yet +in bloom. The Indian turnip is in blossom here, and so the smaller +Solomon's seal, yellow spikes of toad-flax, blue and pink phlox, +glossy May apple; high up on the hillside, the fire pink and +wintergreen; and, down by the sandy shore, great beds of blue wild +lupin, and occasionally stately spikes of the familiar moth mullein. + +With the temperature falling rapidly, and a drizzling rain taking the +starch out of our enthusiasm, we early sought a camping ground. For +miles along here, springs ooze from the base of the high clay bank +walling in the wide and rocky Ohio beach, and dry spots are few and +far between. We found one, however, a half mile above Little Scioto +River (346 miles),[A] with drift-wood enough to furnish us for years, +and the beach thick-strewn with fossils of a considerable variety of +small bivalves, which latter greatly delighted the Doctor and the Boy, +who have brought enough specimens to the tent door to stock a college +museum. + +Dinner over, the crew hauled Pilgrim under cover, and within prepared +for her sailing-master a cosy bed, with the entire ship's stock of +sleeping-bags and blankets. W----, the Boy, and I then started off +to find quarters in Sciotoville (1,000 inhabitants), which lies just +below the river's mouth, here a dozen rods wide. Scrambling up the +slimy bank, through a maze of thorn trees, brambles, and sycamore +scrubs, we gained the fertile bottom above, all luscious with tall +grasses bespangled with wild red roses and the showy pentstemon. The +country road leading into the village is some distance inland, but at +last we found it just beyond a patch of Indian corn waist high, and +followed it, through a covered bridge, and down to a little hotel at +the lower end of town. + +A quaint, old-fashioned house, the Sciotoville tavern, with an inner +gallery looking out into a small garden of peaches, apples, pears, +plums, and grapes--a famous grape country this, by the way. In our +room, opening from the gallery, is an antique high-post bedstead; +everywhere about are similar relics of an early day. In keeping +with the air of serene old age, which pervades the hostelry, is the +white-haired landlady herself. In well-starched apron, white cap, and +gold-rimmed glasses, she benignly sits rocking by the office stove, +her feet on the fender, reading Wallace's _Prince of India_; and +looking, for all the world, as if she had just stepped out of some old +portrait of--well, of a tavern-keeping Martha Washington. + + +[Footnote A: Two miles up the Little Scioto, Pine Creek enters. +Perhaps a mile and a half up this creek was, in 1771, a Mingo town +called Horse Head Bottom, which cuts some figure in border history as +a nest of Indian marauders.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + The Scioto, and the Shawanese--A night at + Rome--Limestone--Keels, flats, and boatmen of the olden time. + + +Rome, O., Monday, May 21st.--At intervals through the night, rain +fell, and the temperature was but 46° at sunrise. However, by the time +we were afloat, the sun was fitfully gleaming through masses of gray +cloud, for a time giving promise of a warmer day. Dark shadows rested +on the romantic ravines, and on the deep hollows of the hills; but +elsewhere over this gentle landscape of wooded amphitheatres, broad +green meadows, rocky escarpments, and many-colored fields, light and +shade gayly chased each other. Never were the vistas of the widening +river more beautiful than to-day. + +There are saw-mill and fire-brick industries in the little towns, +which would be shabby enough in the full glare of day. But they +are all glorified in this changing light, which brings out the rich +yellows and reds in sharp relief against the gloomy background of the +hills, and mellows into loveliness the soft grays of unpainted wood. + +At the mouth of the Scioto (354 miles), is Portsmouth, O. (15,000 +inhabitants), a well-built, substantial town, with good shops. It +lies on a hill-backed terrace some forty feet above the level of the +neighboring bottoms, which give evidence of being victims of the high +floods periodically covering the low lands about the junction of the +rivers. Just across the Scioto is Alexandria, and on the Kentucky side +of the Ohio can be seen the white hamlet of Springville, at the feet +of the dentated hills which here closely approach the river. + +The country about the mouth of the Scioto has long figured in Western +annals. Being a favorite rendezvous for the Shawanese, it naturally +became a resort for French and English fur-traders. The principal +part of the first Shawanese village--Shannoah Town, in the old +journals--was below the Scioto's mouth, on the site of Alexandria; +it was the chief town of this considerable tribe, and here Gist +was warned back, when in March, 1751, he ventured thus far while +inspecting lands for the Ohio Company. Two years later, there was a +great--perhaps an unprecedented--flood in the Ohio, the water rising +fifty feet above the ordinary level, and destroying the larger part of +the Shawanese village. Some of the Indians moved to the Little Miami, +and others up the Scioto, where they built, successively, Old and New +Chillicothe; but the majority remained, and rebuilt their town on +the higher land north of the Scioto, where Portsmouth now stands. An +outlying band had had, from before Gist's day, a small town across the +Ohio, the site of Springville; and it was here that George Croghan had +his stone trading house, which was doubtless, after the manner of the +times, a frontier fortress. In the French and Indian war (1758), the +Shawanese, tiring of continual conflict, withdrew from their Ohio +River settlements to Old (or Upper) Chillicothe, and thus closed the +once important fur-trade at the mouth of the Scioto. It was while +the Indian town at Portsmouth was still new (1755), that a party of +Shawanese brought here a Mrs. Mary Inglis, whom they had captured +while upon a scalping foray into Southwestern Virginia. The story of +the remarkable escape of this woman, at Big Bone Lick, of her long and +terrible flight through the wilderness along the southern bank of the +Ohio and up the Great Kanawha Valley, and her final return to home and +kindred, who viewed her as one delivered from the grave, is one of the +most thrilling in Western history.[A] + +Although the Shawanese had removed from their villages on the Ohio, +they still lived in new towns in the north, within easy striking +distance of the great river; and, until the close of the eighteenth +century, were a continual source of alarm to those whose business +led them to follow this otherwise inviting highway to the continental +interior. Flatboats bearing traders, immigrants, and travelers were +frequently waylaid by the savages, who exhausted a fertile ingenuity +in luring their victims to an ambuscade ashore; and, when not +successful in this, would in narrow channels, or when the current +swept the craft near land, subject the voyagers to a fierce fusilade +of bullets, against which even stout plank barricades proved of small +avail. + +Vanceburgh, Ky. (375 miles), is a little town at the bottom of a +pretty amphitheatre of hills. There was a floating photographer there, +as we passed, with a gang-plank run out to the shore, and framed +specimens of his work hung along the town side of his ample barge. +Men with teams were getting wagon-loads of sand from the beach, +for building purposes. And, a mile or two down, a floating saw and +planing-mill--the "Clipper," which we had seen before, up river--was +busied upon logs which were being rolled down the beach from the bank +above. There are several such mills upon the river, all seemingly +occupied with "tramp work," for there is a deal of logging carried on, +in a small and careful way, by farmers living on these wooded hills. + +Vanceburgh was for the time bathed in sunlight; but, as we continued +on our way, a heavy rain-cloud came creeping up over the dark Ohio +hills, and, descending, cut off our view, at last lustily pelting us +as we sat encased in rubber. We had been in our ponchos most of the +day, as much for warmth as for shelter; for there was an all-pervading +chill, which the fickle sun, breaking its early promise, had failed to +dissipate. Thus, amid showers alternating with sunbeams, we proceeded +unto Rome (381 miles). An Ohio village, this Rome, and so fallen from +its once proud estate that its postoffice no longer bears the name--it +is simply "Stout's," if, in these degenerate days, you would send a +letter hither. + +It was smartly raining, when we put in on the stony beach above Rome. +The tent went up in a hurry, and under it the cargo; but by the time +all was housed the sun gushed out again, and, stretching a line, we +soon had our bedding hung to dry. It is a charming situation; in +this melting atmosphere, we have perhaps the most striking effects of +cloud, hill, bottom, islands, and glancing river, which have yet been +vouchsafed us. + +The Romans, like most rural folk along the river below Wheeling, +chiefly drink cistern water. Earlier in our pilgrimage, we stoutly +declined to patronize these rain-water reservoirs, and I would daily +go far afield in search of a well; but lately, necessity has driven +us to accept the cistern, and often we find it even preferable to the +well, on those rare occasions when the latter can be found at villages +or farm-houses. But there are cisterns and cisterns--foul holes like +that at Rosebud, others that are neatness itself, with all manner of +grades between. As for river water, ever yellow with clay, and thick +as to motes, much of it is used in the country parts. This morning, a +bevy of negroes came down the bank from a Kentucky field; and each in +turn, creeping out on a drift log,--for the ground is usually muddy a +few feet up from the water's edge,--lay flat on his stomach and drank +greedily from the roily mess. + +At dusk, there was again a damp chill, and for the third time we left +the Doctor to keep bachelor's hall upon the beach. It was raining +smartly by the time the tavern was reached, nearly a mile down +the bank. Our advent caused a rare scurrying to and fro, for two +commercial "drummers," who were to depart by the early morning boat, +occupied the "reg'lar spar' room," the landlady informed us, and a bit +of a cubby-hole off the back stairs had to be arranged for us. Guests +are rarities, at the hostelry in Rome. + + * * * * * + +Near Ripley, O., Tuesday, May 22nd.--There was an inch of snow last +night, on the hills about, and a morning Cincinnati paper records a +heavy fall in the Pennsylvania mountains. The storm is general, and +the river rose two feet over night. When we set off, in mid-morning, +it was raining heavily; but in less than an hour the clouds broke, and +the rest of the day has been an alternation of chilling showers and +bursts of warm sunshine, with the same succession, of alluring vistas, +over which play broad bands of changing light and shade, and overhead +the storm clouds torn and tossed in the upper currents. + +Our landlord at Rome asserted at breakfast that Kentucky was fifty +years behind the Ohio side, in improvements of every sort. Thus far, +we have not ourselves noticed differences of that degree. Doubtless +before the late civil war,--all the ante-bellum travelers agree +in this,--when the blight of slavery was resting on Virginia and +Kentucky, the south shore of the Ohio was as another country; but +to-day, so far as we can ascertain from a surface view, the little +villages on either side are equally dingy and woe-begone, and large +Southern towns like Wheeling, Parkersburg, Point Pleasant, and +Maysville are very nearly an offset to Steubenville, Marietta, +Pomeroy, Ironton, and Portsmouth. North-shore towns of wealth and +prominence are more numerous than on the Dixie bank, and are as a +rule larger and somewhat better kept, with the negro element less +conspicuous; but to say that the difference is anywhere near as marked +as the landlord averred, or as my own previous reading on the subject +led me to expect, is grossly to exaggerate. + +After leaving Manchester, O. (394 miles), with a beautiful island at +its door, there are spasmodic evidences of the nearness of a great +city market. A large proportion of the hills are completely denuded of +their timber, and patched with rectangular fields of green, brown, and +yellow; upon the bottoms there are frequent truck farms; now and then +are stone quarries upon the banks, with capacious barges moored in +front; and upon one or two rocky ledges were stone-crushers, getting +out material for concrete pavements. When we ask the bargemen, in +passing, whither their loads are destined, the invariable reply is, +"The city"--meaning Cincinnati, still seventy miles away. + +Limestone Creek (405 miles) occupies a large space in Western story, +for so insignificant a stream. It is now not over a rod in width, and +at no season can it be over two or three. One finds it with difficulty +along the mill-strewn shore of Maysville, Ky., the modern outgrowth of +the Limestone village of pioneer days. Limestone, settled four years +before Marietta or Cincinnati, was long Kentucky's chief port of entry +on the Ohio; immigrants to the new state, who came down the Ohio, +almost invariably booked for this point, thence taking stage to +Lexington, and travelers in the early day seldom passed it by +unvisited. But years before there was any settlement here, the valley +of Limestone Creek, which comes gently down from low-lying hills, was +regarded as a convenient doorway into Kentucky. When (1776) George +Rogers Clark was coming down the river from Pittsburg, with powder +given by Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, for the defence of +Kentucky settlers from British-incited savages, he was chased by the +latter, and, putting into this creek, hastily buried the precious +cargo on its banks. From here it was cautiously taken overland to the +little forts, by relays of pioneers, through a gauntlet of murderous +fire. + +About twenty-five miles from Limestone, too, was another attraction of +the early time,--the great Blue Lick sulphur spring; here, in a +valley surrounded by wooded hills, formerly congregated great herds +of buffalo and deer, which licked the salty earth, and hunters soon +learned that this was a royal ground for game. The Battle of the Blue +Lick (1782) will ever be famous in the annals of Kentucky. + +The Ohio was a mighty waterway into the continental interior, in +the olden days of Limestone. Its only compeer was the so-called +"Wilderness Road," overland through Cumberland Gap--the successor +of "Boone's trail," just as Braddock's Road was the outgrowth of +"Nemacolin's path." Until several years after the Revolutionary War, +the country north of the Ohio was still Indian land, and settlement +was restricted to the region south of the river; so that practically +all West-going roads from the coast colonies centered either on Fort +Pitt or Redstone, or on Cumberland Gap. On the out-going trip, the +Wilderness Road was the more toilsome of the two, but it was safer, +for the Ohio's banks were beset with thieving and often murdering +savages. In returning east, many who had descended the river preferred +going overland through the Gap, to painfully pulling up stream through +the shallows, with the danger of Indians many times greater than when +gliding down the deep current. The distance over the two routes from +Philadelphia, was nearly equal, when the windings of the river were +taken into account; but the Carolinians and the Georgians found +Boone's Wilderness Road the shorter of the two, in their migrations +to the promised land of "Ol' Kaintuck." And we should not overlook the +fact, that of much importance was still a third route, up the James +and down the Great Kanawha; a route whose advantage to Virginia, +Washington early saw, and tried in vain to have improved by a canal +connecting the two rivers.[B] + +Even before the opening of the Revolution, the Ohio was the path of +a considerable emigration. We have seen Washington going down to the +Great Kanawha with his surveying party, in 1770, and finding that +settlers were hurrying into the country for a hundred miles below Fort +Pitt. By the close of the Revolution, the Ohio was a familiar stream. +Pittsburg, from a small trading hamlet and fording-place, had grown +by 1785 to have a thousand inhabitants, chiefly supported by +boat-building and the Kentucky carrying trade; and boat-yards were +common up both the Monongahela and the Youghiogheny, for a distance +of sixty miles. Nevertheless, it was not until 1792 that there were +regular conveniences for carrying passengers and freight down the +Ohio; the emigrant or trader, on arrival at Pittsburg or Redstone, +had generally to wait until he could either charter a boat or have one +built for him, although sometimes he found a chance "passenger flat" +going down.[C] This difficulty in securing river transportation was +one of the reasons why the majority chose the Wilderness Road. + +"The first thing that strikes a stranger from the Atlantic," says +Flint (1814), "is the singular, whimsical, and amusing spectacle of +the varieties of water-craft, of all shapes and structures." These, +Flint, who knew the river well, separates into seven classes: (1) +"Stately barges," the size of an Atlantic schooner, with "a raised and +outlandish-looking deck;" one of these required a crew of twenty-five +to work it up stream. (2) Keel-boats--long, slender, and graceful in +form, carrying from fifteen to thirty tons, easily propelled over +the shallows, and much used in low water, and in hunting trips to +Missouri, Arkansas, and the Red River country. (3) Kentucky flats +(or "broad-horns"), "a species of ark, very nearly resembling a New +England pig-stye;" these were from forty to a hundred feet in length, +fifteen feet in beam, and carried from twenty to seventy tons. Some +of these flats were not unlike the house-boats of to-day. "It is no +uncommon spectacle to see a large family, old and young, servants, +cattle, hogs, horses, sheep, fowls, and animals of all kinds," all +embarked on one such bottom. (4) Covered "sleds," ferry-flats, or +Alleghany skiffs, carrying from eight to twelve tons. (5) Pirogues, of +from two to four tons burthen, "sometimes hollowed from one big tree, +or the trunks of two trees united, and a plank rim fitted to the upper +part." (6) Common skiffs and dug-outs. (7) "Monstrous anomalies," not +classifiable, and often whimsical in design. To these might be added +the "floating shops or stores, with a small flag out to indicate +their character," so frequently seen by Palmer (1817), and thriftily +surviving unto this day, minus the flag. And Hall (1828) speaks of a +flat-bottomed row-boat, "twelve feet long, with high sides and roof," +carrying an aged couple down the river, they cared not where, so long +as they could find a comfortable home in the West, for their declining +and now childless years. + +The first four classes here enumerated, were allowed to drift down +stream with the current, being steered by long sweeps hung on pivots. +The average speed was about three miles an hour, but the distances +made were considerable, from the fact that in the earliest days they +were, from fear of Indians, usually kept on the move through day and +night,--the crew taking turns at the sweeps, that the craft might not +be hung up on shore or entangled in the numerous snags and sawyers. In +going up stream, the sweeps served as oars, and in the shallows long +pushing-poles were used. + +As for the boatmen who professionally propelled the keels and flats +of the Ohio, they were a class unto themselves--"half horse, half +alligator," a contemporary styled them. Rough fellows, much given +to fighting, and drunkenness, and ribaldry, with a genius for coarse +drollery and stinging repartee. The river towns suffered sadly at +the hands of this lawless, dissolute element. Each boat carried +from thirty to forty boatmen, and a number of such boats frequently +traveled in company. After the Indian scare was over, they generally +stopped over night in the settlements, and the arrival of a squadron +was certain to be followed by a disturbance akin to those so familiar +a few years ago in our Southwest, when the cowboys would undertake +to "paint a town red." The boatmen were reckless of life, limb, and +reputation, and were often more numerous than those of the villagers +who cared to enforce the laws; while there was always present an +element which abetted and throve on the vice of the river-men. The +result was that mischief, debauchery, and outrage ran riot, and in the +inevitable fights the citizens were generally beaten. + +The introduction of steamboats (1814) soon effected a revolution. A +steamer could carry ten times as much as a barge, could go five times +as fast, and required fewer men; it traveled at night, quickly passing +from one port to another, pausing only to discharge or receive cargo; +its owners and officers were men of character and responsibility, with +much wealth in their charge, and insisted on discipline and correct +deportment. The flatboat and the keel-boat were soon laid up to rot on +the banks; and the boatmen either became respectable steamboat hands +and farmers, or went into the Far West, where wild life was still +possible. + +Shipment on the river, in the flatboat days, was only during the +spring and autumnal floods; although an occasional summer rise, such +as we are now getting, would cause a general activity. In the autumn +of 1818, Hall reports that three millions of dollars' worth of +merchandise were lying on the shores of the Monongahela, waiting for +a rise of water to float them to their destination. "The Western +merchants were lounging discontentedly about the streets of Pittsburg, +or moping idly in its taverns, like the victims of an ague." The +steamers did something to alleviate this condition of affairs; but +it was not until the coming of railways, to carry goods quickly +and cheaply across country to deep-water ports like Wheeling, that +permanent relief was felt. + +But what of the Maysville of to-day? It extends on both sides of +Limestone Creek for about two miles along the Kentucky shore, at no +point apparently over five squares wide, and for the most part but +two or three; for back of it forested hills rise sharply. There is a +variety of industries, the business quarter is substantially built, +and there are numerous comfortable homes with pretty lawns. + +On the opposite shore is Aberdeen, where Kentucky swains and lasses, +who for one reason or another fail to get a license at home, find +marriage made easy--a peaceful, pleasant, white village, with trees +a-plenty, and romantic hills shutting out the north wind. + +We are camped to-night on a picturesque sand-slope, at the foot of +a willow-edged bottom, and some seven feet above the river level. We +need to perch high, for the storm has been general through the basin, +and the Ohio is rising steadily. + +[Footnote A: See Shaler's _Kentucky_ (Amer. Commonwealth series), +Collins's _History of Kentucky_, and Hale's _Trans-Alleghany +Pioneers_. Shaler gives the date as 1756; but Hale, a specialist in +border annals, makes it 1755.] + +[Footnote B: See _ante_, p. 126.] + +[Footnote C: Palmer (1817) paid five dollars for his passage from +Pittsburg to Cincinnati (465 miles), without food, and fifty cents per +hundred pounds for freight to Marietta. Imlay (1792) says the rate +in his time from Pittsburg to Limestone was twenty-five cents per +hundred. In 1803, Harris paid four dollars-and-a-half per hundred for +freight, by wagon from Baltimore to Pittsburg.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Produce boats--A dead town--On the Great Bend--Grant's + birthplace--The Little Miami--The genesis of Cincinnati. + + +Point Pleasant, O., Wednesday, May 23rd.--The river rose three feet +during the night. Steamers go now at full speed, no longer fearing +the bars; and the swash upon shore was so violent that I was more than +once awakened, each time to find the water line creeping nearer +and nearer to the tent door. As we sweep onward to-day, upon an +accelerated current, the fringing willows, whose roots before the +rise were many feet up the slopes of sand and gravel, are gracefully +dipping their boughs in the rushing flood. With the rise, come the +sweepings of the beaches--bits of lumber, fallen trees, barrels, +boxes, 'longshore rubbish of every sort; sometimes it hangs in ragged +rafts, and we steer clear of such, for Pilgrim's progress is greater +than that of these unwelcome companions of the voyage, and we wish no +entangling alliances. + +Much tobacco is raised on the rounded, gently-sloping hills below +Maysville. Away up on the acclivities, in sheltered spots near the +fields in which they are to be transplanted, or in fence-corners +in the ever-broadening bottoms, we note white patches of thin cloth +pinned down over the young plants to protect them from untoward +frosts. There are many tobacco warehouses to be seen along the +banks--apparently farmers coöperate in maintaining such; and in +front of each, a roadway leads down to the water's edge, indicating +a steamboat landing. On the town wharves are often seen portly +barrels,--locally, "puncheons,"--filled with the weed, awaiting +shipment by boat; most of the product goes to Louisville, but there +are also large buyers in the smaller Kentucky towns. + +Occasionally, to-day, we have seen moored to some rustic landing a +great covered barge, quite of the fashion of the golden age of Ohio +boating. At one end, a room is partitioned off to serve as cabin, and +the sweeps are operated from the roof. These are produce-boats, which +are laden with coarse vegetables and sometimes live stock, and floated +down to Cincinnati or Louisville, and even to St. Louis and New +Orleans. In ante-bellum days, produce-boats were common enough, and +much money was made by speculative buyers who would dispose of their +cargo in the most favorable port, sell the barge, and then return by +rail or steamer; just as, in still earlier days, the keel or flatboat +owner would sell both freight and vessel on the Lower Mississippi,--or +abandon the craft if he could not sell it,--and "hoof it home," as a +contemporary chronicler puts it. + +Ripley, Levanna (417 miles), Higginsport (421 miles), Chilo (431 +miles), Neville (435 miles), and Point Pleasant (442 miles) are the +Ohio towns to-day; and Dover (417 miles), Augusta (424 miles), and +Foster (435 miles), their rivals on the Kentucky shore. Sawmills and +distilleries are the leading industries, and there are broad paved +wharves; but a listless air pervades them all, as if once they basked +in the light of better days. Foster is rather the shabbiest of the +lot. As I passed through to find the postoffice, at the upper edge of +town, where the hills come down to meet the bottom, I saw that half +of the store buildings still intact were closed, many dwellings and +warehouses were in ruins, and numerous open cellars were grown to +grass and weeds. Few people were in sight, and they loafing at the +corners. The postoffice occupied a vacated store, evidently not swept +these six months past. The youthful master, with chair tilted back +and his feet on an old washstand which did duty as office table, was +listlessly whittling a finger-ring from a peach-stone; but shoving +his feet along, he made room for me to write a postal card which I had +brought for the purpose. + +"What is the matter with this town?" I asked, as I scratched away. + +"Daid, I reck'n!" and he blew away the peach-stone dust which had +accumulated in the folds of his greasy vest. + +"Yes, I see it is dead. What killed it?" + +"Oh! just gone daid--sort o' nat'ral daith, I reck'n." + +We had a pretty view this morning, three or four miles below Augusta, +from the top of a tree-denuded Kentucky hill, some two hundred and +fifty feet high. Hauling Pilgrim into the willows, we set out over a +low, cultivated bottom, whose edges were being lapped by the rising +river, to the detriment of the springing corn; then scrambling up the +terrace on which the Chesapeake & Ohio railway runs, we crawled under +a barb-wire fence, and ascended through a pasture, our right of way +contested for a moment by a gigantic Berkshire boar, which was +not easily vanquished. When at last we gained the top, by dint of +clambering over rail-fences and up steep slopes bestrewn with mulleins +and boulders, and over patches of freshly-plowed hardscrabble, the +sight was well worth the rough climb. The broad Ohio bottom, opposite, +was thick-dotted with orchard clumps, from which rose the white houses +and barns of small tillers. On the generous slopes of the Kentucky +hills, all corrugated with wooded ravines, were scores of fertile +farmsteads, each with its ample tobacco shed--the better class of +farmers on the hilltops, their buildings often silhouetted against the +western sky, and the meaner sort down low on the river's bank. Through +this pastoral scene, the broad river winds with noble sweep, until, +both above and below, it loses itself in the purple mist of the +distant hills. + +We are now upon the Great Bend of the Ohio, beginning at Neville (435 +miles) and ending at Harris's Landing (519 miles), with North Bend +(482 miles) at the apex. The bend is itself a series of convolutions, +and our point of view is ever changing, so that we have kaleidoscopic +vistas,--and with each new setting, good-humoredly dispute with each +other, we at the oars, and the others in the stern-sheets, as to which +is the more beautiful, the unfolding or the dissolving view. + +Our camp to-night is beside a little hillside torrent on the lower +edge of Point Pleasant. We are well up on the rocky slope; an +abandoned stone-quarry lies back of us, up the hill a bit; and leading +into the village, half a mile away, is a picturesque country road, +overhung with sumacs and honey locusts--overtopped on one side by a +precipitous pasture, and on the other dropping suddenly to a beach +thick-grown to willows, maples, and scrub sycamores. + +The Boy and I made an expedition into the town, for milk and water, +but were obliged to climb one of the sharpest ascents hereabout, +before our search was rewarded. A pretty little farmstead it is, up +there on the lofty hill above us, with a wealth of chickens and an +ample dairy, and fat fields and woods gently sloping backward into +the interior. The good farm-wife was surprised that I was willing to +"pack" commodities, so plentiful with her, down so steep a path; but +canoeing pilgrims must not falter at trifles such as this. + +Point Pleasant is the birthplace of General Grant. Not every hamlet +has its hero, hereabout. Everyone we met this evening,--seeing we were +strangers, the Boy and I,--told us of this halo which crowns their +home. + + * * * * * + +Cincinnati, Thursday, May 24th.--During the night there were frequent +heavy downpours, during which the swollen torrent by our side roared +among its boulders right lustily; and occasionally a heavy farm-wagon +crossed the country bridge which spans the ravine just above us, its +rumblings echoing in the quarried glen for all the world like distant +thunder. Before turning in, each built a cairn upon the beach, at the +point which he thought the water might reach by morning. The Boy, more +venturesome than the rest, piled his cairn highest up the slope; and +when daylight revealed the fact that the river, in its four-feet rise, +had crept nearest his goal, there was much juvenile rejoicing. + +There is a gray sky, this morning. With a cold headwind on the +starboard quarter, we hug the lee of the Ohio shore. The river is well +up in the willows now. Crowding Pilgrim as closely as we may, within +the narrow belt of unruffled water, our oars are swept by their +bending boughs, which lightly tremble on the surface of the flood. The +numerous rock-cumbered ravines, coursing down the hills or through the +bottom lands, a few days since held but slender streams, or were, +the most of them, wholly dry; but now they are brimming with noisy +currents all flecked with foam--pretty pictures, these yawning +gullies, overhung with cottonwoods and sycamores, with thick +undergrowth of green-brier and wild columbine, and the yellow buds of +the celandine poppy. + +The hills are showing better cultivation, as we approach the great +city. The farm-houses are in better style, the market gardens larger, +prosperity more evident. Among the pleasing sights are frequent +farmsteads at the summits of the slopes, with orchards and vineyards, +and gardens and fields, stretching down almost to the river--quite, +indeed, on the Ohio side, but in Kentucky flanked at the base by +the railway terrace. Numerous ferries connect the Kentucky railway +stations with the eastern bank; one, which we saw just above New +Richmond, O. (446 miles), was run by horse power, a weary nag in a +tread-mill above each side-paddle. Although Kentucky has the railway, +there is just here apparent a greater degree of thrift in Ohio--the +towns more numerous, fields and truck-gardens more ample, on the whole +a better class of farm-houses, and frequently, along the country road +which closely skirts the shore, comfortable little broad-balconied +inns, dependent on the trade of fishing and outing parties. + +Just below the Newport waterworks are several coal-barge +harbors--mooring-grounds where barges lie in waiting, until hauled off +by tugs to the storage wharves. In the rear of one of these fleets, at +the base of a market garden, we found a sunny nook for lunch--for here +on the Kentucky side the cold wind has full sweep, and we are glad of +shelter when at rest. Across the river is a broad, low bottom given up +to market gardeners, who jealously cultivate down to the water's edge, +leaving the merest fringe of willows to protect their domain. At the +foot of this fertile plain, the Little Miami River (460 miles) pours +its muddy contribution into the Ohio; and beyond this rises the +amphitheater of hills on which Cincinnati (466 miles) is mainly built. +We see but the outskirts here, for two miles below us there is a sharp +bend in the river, and only a dark pall of smoke marks where the city +lies. But these outlying slopes are well dotted with gray and white +groups of settlement, separated by stretches of woodland over which +play changing lights, for cloud masses are sweeping the Ohio hills +while we are still basking in the sun. + +Above us, crowning the Kentucky ascents, or nestled on their wooded +shoulders, are many beautiful villas, evidently the homes of the +ultra-wealthy. Close at hand we have the pleasant chink-chink of +caulking hammers, for barges are built and repaired in this snug +harbor. Now and then a river tug comes, with noisy bluster of smoke +and steam, and amid much tightening and slackening of rope, and +wild profanity, takes captive a laden barge,--as a cowboy might a +refractory steer in the midst of a herd,--and hauls it off to be +disgorged down stream. And just as we conclude our lunch, German +women come with hoes to practice the gentle art of horticulture--a +characteristic conglomeration, in the heart of our busy West; the +millionaire on the hill-top, the tiller on the slope, shipwright on +the beach, and grimy Commerce master of the flood. + +Setting afloat on a boiling current, thick with driftwood, we soon +were coursing between city-lined shores--on the Kentucky side, Newport +and Covington, respectively above and below Licking River; and in an +hour were making our way through the labyrinth of steamers thickly +moored with their noses to land, and cautiously creeping around to a +quiet spot at the stern of a giant wharf-boat--no slight task this, +with the river "on the jump," and a false move liable to swamp us if +we strike an obstruction at full gait. No doubt we all breathed freer +when Pilgrim, too, was beached,--although it be only confessed in +the privacy of the log. With her and her cargo safely stored in +the wharf-boat, we sought a hotel, and, regaining our bag of +clothing,--shipped ahead of us from McKee's Rocks,--donned urban +attire for an inspection of the city. + +And a noble city it is, that has grown out of the two block-houses +which George Rogers Clark planted here in 1780, on his raid against +the Indians of Chillicothe. In 1788, John Cleves Symmes, the first +United States judge of the Northwest Territory, purchased from +Congress a million acres of land, lying on the Ohio between the two +Miami Rivers. Matthias Denman bought from him a square mile at the +eastern end of the grant, "on a most delightful high bank" opposite +the Licking, and--on a cash valuation for the land, of two hundred +dollars--took in with him as partners Robert Patterson and John +Filson. Filson was a schoolmaster, had written the first history of +Kentucky, and seems to have enjoyed much local distinction. To him was +entrusted the task of inventing a name for the settlement which the +company proposed to plant here. The outcome was "Losantiville," a +pedagogical hash of Greek, Latin, and French: _L_, for Licking; _os_, +mouth; _anti_, opposite; _ville_, city--Licking-opposite-City, or +City-opposite-Licking, whichever is preferred. This was in August. +The Fates work quickly, for in October poor Filson was scalped by the +Indians in the neighborhood of the Big Miami, before a settler had yet +been enticed to Losantiville. But the survivors knew how to "boom" a +town; lots were given away by lottery to intending actual settlers; +and in a few months Symmes was able to write that "It populates +considerably." + +A few weeks previous to the planting of Losantiville, a party of men +from Redstone had settled Columbia, at the mouth of the Little Miami, +about where the suburb of California now is; and, a few weeks later, a +third colony was started by Symmes himself at North Bend, near the +Big Miami, at the western extremity of his grant; and this, the judge +wished to make the capital of the new Northwest Territory. At first, +it was a race between these three colonies. A few miles below North +Bend, Fort Finney had been built in 1785-86, hence the Bend had at +first the start; but a high flood dampened its prospects, the troops +were withdrawn from this neighborhood to Louisville, and in the +winter of 1789-90 Fort Washington was built at Losantiville by General +Harmar. The neighborhood of the new fortress became, in the ensuing +Indian war, the center of the district. + +To Losantiville, with its fort, came Arthur St. Clair, the new +governor of the Northwest Territory (January, 1790); and, making his +headquarters here, laid violent hands on Filson's invention, at +once changing the name to Cincinnati, in honor of the Society of the +Cincinnati, of which the new official was a prominent member--"so +that," Symmes sorrowfully writes, "Losantiville will become extinct." +Five years of Indian campaigning followed, the features of which were +the crushing defeats of Harmar and St. Clair, and the final victory +of Mad Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers. It was not until the Treaty +of Greenville (1795), the result of Wayne's brilliant dash into the +wilderness, that the Revolutionary War may properly be said to have +ended in the West. + +Those were stirring times on the Ohio, both ashore and afloat; but, +amidst them all, Cincinnati grew apace. Ellicott, in 1796, speaks of +it as "a very respectable place," and in 1814, Flint found it the +only port that could be called a town, from Steubenville to Natchez, +a distance of fifteen hundred miles; in 1825 he reports it greatly +grown, and crowded with immigrants from Europe and from our own +Eastern states. The impetus thus early gained has never lessened, and +Cincinnati is to-day one of the best built and most substantial cities +in the Union. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + The story of North Bend--The "shakes"--Driftwood--Rabbit + Hash--A side-trip To Big Bone Lick. + + +Near Petersburg, Ky., Friday, May 25th.--This morning, an hour before +noon, as we looked upon the river from the top of the Cincinnati +wharf, a wild scene presented itself. The shore up and down, as far as +could be seen, was densely lined with packets and freighters; beyond +them, the great stream, here half a mile wide, was rushing past like a +mill-race, and black with all manner of drift, some of it formed into +great rafts from each of which sprawled a network of huge branches. +Had we been strangers to this offscouring of a thousand miles of +beach, swirling past us at a six-mile gait, we might well have doubted +the prudence of launching little Pilgrim upon such a sea. But for two +days past, we had been amidst something of the sort, and knew that to +cautious canoeists it was less dangerous than it appeared. + +A strong head wind, meeting this surging tide, is lashing it into +a white-capped fury. But lying to with paddle and oars, and dodging +ferries and towing-tugs as best we may, Pilgrim bears us swiftly past +the long line of steamers at the wharf, past Newport and Covington, +and the insignificant Licking,[A] and out under great railway +bridges which cobweb the sky. Soon Cincinnati, shrouded in smoke, +has disappeared around the bend, and we are in the fast-thinning +suburbs--homes of beer-gardens and excursion barges, havens for +freight-flats, and villas of low and high degree. + +When we are out here in the swim, the drift-strewn stream has a more +peaceful aspect than when looked at from the shore. Instead of rushing +past as if dooming to destruction everything else afloat, the debris +falls behind, when we row, for our progress is then the greater. +Dropping our oars, our gruesome companions on the river pass us +slowly, for they catch less wind than we; and then, so silent the +steady march of all, we seem to be drifting up-stream, until on +glancing at the shore the hills appear to be swiftly going down and +the willow fringes up,--until the sight makes us dizzy, and we are +content to be at quits with these optical delusions. + +We no longer have the beach of gravel or sand, or strip of clay +knee-deep in mud. The water, now twelve feet higher than before +the rise, has covered all; it is, indeed, swaying the branches of +sycamores and willows, and meeting the edges of the corn-fields of +venturesome farmers who have cultivated far down, taking the risk of +a "June fresh." Often could we, if we wished, row quite within the +bulwark of willows, where a week ago we would have ventured to camp. + +The Kentucky side, to-day, from Covington out, has been thoroughly +rustic, seldom broken by settlement; while Ohio has given us a +succession of suburban towns all the way out to North Bend (482 +miles), which is a small manufacturing place, lying on a narrow bottom +at the base of a convolution of gentle, wooded hills. One sees that +Cincinnati has a better and a broader base; North Bend was handicapped +by nature, in its early race. + +When Ohio came into the Union (1803), it was specified that the +boundary between her and Indiana should be a line running due north +from the mouth of the Big Miami. But the latter, an erratic stream, +frequently the victim of floods, comes wriggling down to the Ohio +through a broad bottom grown thick to willows, and in times of high +water its mouth is a changeable locality. The boundary monument is +planted on the meridian of what was the mouth, ninety-odd years ago; +but to-day the Miami breaks through an opening in the quivering line +of willow forest, a hundred yards eastward (487 miles). + +Garrison Creek is a modest Kentucky affluent, just above the Miami's +mouth. At the point, a group of rustics sat on a log at the bank-top, +watching us approach. Landing in search of milk and water, I was taken +by one of them in a lumbersome skiff a short distance up the creek, +and presented to his family. They are genuine "crackers," of the +coarsest type--tall, lean, sallow, fishy-eyed, with tow-colored hair, +an ungainly gait, barefooted, and in nondescript clothing all patches +and tatters. The tousle-headed woman, surrounded by her copies in +miniature, keeps the milk neatly, in an outer dairy, perhaps because +of market requirements; but in the crazy old log-house, pigs and +chickens are free comers, and the cistern from which they drink is +foul. Here in this damp, low pocket of a bottom, annually flooded to +the door-sill, in the midst of vegetation of the rankest order, and +quite unheedful of the simplest of sanitary laws, these yellow-skinned +"crackers" are cradled, wedded, and biered. And there are thousands +like unto them, for we are now in the heart of the "shake" country, +and shall hear enough of the plague through the remainder of our +pilgrimage. As for ourselves, we fear not, for it is not until autumn +that danger is imminent, and we are taking due precaution under the +Doctor's guidance. + +Two miles beyond, is the Indiana town of Lawrenceburg, with the +unkempt aspect so common to the small river places; and two miles +still farther, on a Kentucky bottom, Petersburg, whose chiefest +building, as viewed from the stream, is a huge distillery. On a high +sandy terrace, a mile or so below, we pitch our nightly camp. All +about are willows, rustling musically in the evening breeze, and, +soaring far aloft, the now familiar sycamores. Nearly opposite, in +Indiana, the little city of Aurora is sparkling with points of light, +strains of dance music reach us over the way, and occasional shouts +and gay laughter; while now and then, in the thickening dusk of the +long day, we hear skiffs go chucking by from Petersburg way, and the +gleeful voices of men and women doubtless being ferried to the ball. + + * * * * * + +Near Warsaw, Ky., Saturday, May 26th.--Our first mosquito appeared +last night, but he was easily slaughtered. It has been a comfort to +be free, thus far, from these pests of camp life. We had prepared +for them by laying in a bolt of black tarlatan at Wheeling,--greatly +superior this, to ordinary white mosquito bar,--but thus far it has +remained in the shopman's wrapper. + +The fog this morning was of the heaviest. At 4 o'clock we were +awakened by the sharp clanging of a pilot's signal bell, and there, +poking her nose in among our willows, a dozen feet from the tent, was +the "Big Sandy," one of the St. Louis & Cincinnati packet line. +She had evidently lost her bearings in the mist; but with a deal +of ringing, and a noisy churning of the water by the reversed +paddle-wheel, pulled out and disappeared into the gloom. + +The river, still rising, is sweeping down an ever-increasing body of +rubbish. Islands and beaches, away back to the Alleghanies on the main +stream, and on thousands of miles of affluents, are yielding up those +vast rafts of drift-wood and fallen timber, which have continually +impressed us on our way with a sense of the enormous wastage +everywhere in progress--necessary, of course, in view of the +prohibitive cost of transportation. Nevertheless, one thinks pitifully +of the tens of thousands who, in congested districts, each winter +suffer unto death for want of fuel; and here is this wealth of forest +debris, the useless plaything of the river. But not only wreckage of +this character is borne upon the flood. The thievish river has picked +up valuable saw-logs that have run astray, lumber of many sorts, +boxes, barrels--and now and then the body of a cow or horse that +has tumbled to its death from some treacherous clay-cliff or rocky +terrace. The beaches have been swept clean by the rushing flood, of +whatever lay upon them, be it good or bad, for the great scavenger +exercises no discretion. + +The bulk of the matter now follows the current in an almost solid +raft, as it caroms from shore to shore. Having swift water everywhere +at this stage, for the most part we avoid entangling Pilgrim in the +procession, but row upon the outskirts, interested in the curious +medley, and observant of the many birds which perch upon the branches +of the floating trees and sing blithely on their way. The current +bears hard upon the Aurora beach, and townsfolk by scores are out in +skiffs or are standing by the water's edge, engaged with boat-hooks in +spearing choice morsels from the debris rushing by their door--heaping +it upon the shore to dry, or gathering it in little rafts which they +moor to the bank. It is a busy scene; the wreckers, men, women, and +children alike, are so engaged in their grab-bag game that they +have no eyes for us; unobserved, we watch them at close range, and +speculate upon their respective chances. + +Rabbit Hash, Ky. (502 miles), is a crude hamlet of a hundred souls, +lying nestled in a green amphitheater. A horse-power ferry runs over +to the larger village of Rising Sun, its Indiana neighbor. There is +a small general store in Rabbit Hash, with postoffice and paint-shop +attachment, and near by a tobacco warehouse and a blacksmith shop, +with a few cottages scattered at intervals over the bottom. The +postmaster, who is also the storekeeper and painter, greeted me with +joy, as I deposited with him mail-matter bearing eighteen cents' worth +of stamps; for his is one of those offices where the salary is the +value of the stamps cancelled. It is not every day that so liberal a +patron comes along. + +"Jemimi! Bill! but guv'm'nt business 's look'n' up--there'll be some +o' th' rest o' us a-want'n this yere off'c', a ter nex' 'lection, I +reck'n'." + +It was the blacksmith, who is also the ferryman, who thus bantered the +delighted postmaster,--a broad-faced, big-chested, brown-armed man, +with his neck-muscles standing out like cords, and his mild blue eyes +dancing with fun, this rustic disciple of Tubal Cain. He sat just +without the door, leather apron on, and his red shirt-sleeves rolled +up, playing checkers on an upturned soap-box, with a jolly fat farmer +from the hill-country, whose broad straw hat was cocked on the back +of his bald head. The merry laughter of the two was infectious. The +half-dozen spectators, small farmers whose teams and saddle-horses +were hitched to the postoffice railing, were themselves hilarious +over the game; and a saffron-skinned, hollow-cheeked woman in a blue +sunbonnet, and with a market-basket over her arm, stopped for a moment +at the threshold to look on, and then passed within the store, her +eyes having caught the merriment, although her facial muscles had +apparently lost their power of smiling. + +Joining the little company, I found that the farmer was a blundering +player, but made up in fun what he lacked in science. I tried to +ascertain the origin of the name Rabbit Hash, as applied to the +hamlet. Every one had a different opinion, evidently invented on the +spur of the moment, but all "'lowed" that none but the tobacco +agent could tell, and he was off in the country for the day; as for +themselves, they had, they confessed, never thought of it before. It +always had been Rabbit Hash, and like enough would be to the end of +time. + +We are on the lookout for Big Bone Creek, wishing to make a side trip +to the famous Big Bone Lick, but among the many openings through the +willows of the Kentucky shore we may well miss it, hence make constant +inquiry as we proceed. There was a houseboat in the mouth of one +goodly affluent. As we hove in sight, a fat woman, whose gunny-sack +apron was her chief attire, hurried up the gang-plank and disappeared +within. + +"Hello, the boat!" one of us hailed. + +The woman's fuzzy head appeared at the window. + +"What creek is this?" + +"Gunpowder, I reck'n!"--in a deep, man-like voice. + +"How far below is Big Bone?" + +"Jist a piece!" + +"How many miles?" + +"Two, I reck'n." + +Big Bone Creek (512 miles), some fifty or sixty feet wide at the +mouth, opens through a willow patch, between pretty, sloping hills. A +houseboat lay just within--a favorite situation for them, these +creek mouths, for here they are undisturbed by steamer wakes, +and the fishing is usually good. The proprietor, a rather +distinguished-looking mulatto, despite his old clothes and plantation +straw-hat, was sitting in a chair at his cabin door, angling; his +white wife was leaning over him lovingly, as we shot into the scene, +but at once withdrew inside. This man, with his side-whiskers and fine +air, may have been a head-waiter or a dance-fiddler in better days; +but his soft, plaintive voice, and hacking cough, bespoke the invalid. +He told us what he knew about the creek, which was little enough, as +he had but recently come to these parts. + +At an ordinary stage in the Ohio, the Big Bone cannot be ascended in a +skiff for more than half a mile; now, upon the backset, we are able to +proceed for two miles, leaving but another two miles of walking to +the Lick itself. The creek curves gracefully around the bases of the +sugar-loaf hills of the interior. Under the swaying arch of willows, +and of ragged, sprawling sycamores, their bark all patched with green +and gray and buff and white, we have charming vistas--the quiet +water, thick grown with aquatic plants; the winding banks, bearing +green-dragons and many another flower loving damp shade; the +frequent rocky palisades, oozing with springs; and great blue herons, +stretching their long necks in wonder, and then setting off with +a stately flight which reminds one of the cranes on Japanese ware. +Through the dense fringe of vegetation, we have occasional glimpses of +the hillside farms--their sloping fields sprinkled with stones, their +often barren pastures, numerous abandoned tracts overgrown with weeds, +and blue-grass lush in the meadows. Along the edges of the Creek, and +in little pocket bottoms, the varied vegetation has a sub-tropical +luxuriance, and in this now close, warm air, there is a rank smell +suggestive of malaria. + +These bottoms are annually overflowed, so that the crude little +farmsteads are on the rising ground--whitewashed cabins, many of them +of logs, serve as houses; for stock, there are the veriest shanties, +affording practically no shelter; best of all, the rude tobacco-drying +sheds, in many of which some of last year's crop can still be seen, +hanging on the strips. We are out of the world, here; and barefooted +men and boys, who with listless air are fishing from the banks, gaze +at us in dull wonder as we thread our tortuous way. + +Finally, we learned that we could with profit go no higher. Before +us were two miles of what was described as the roughest sort of +hill road, and the afternoon sun was powerful; so W---- accepted the +invitation of a rustic fisherman to rest with his "women folks" in +a little cabin up the hill a bit. Seeing her safely housed with the +good-natured "cracker" farm-wife, the Doctor, the Boy, and I trudged +off toward Big Bone Lick. The waxy clay of the roadbed had recently +been wetted by a shower; the walking, consequently, was none of the +best. But we were repaid with charming views of hill and vale, a +softly-rolling scene dotted with little gray and brown fields, clumps +of woodland, rail-fenced pastures, and cabins of the crudest sort--for +in the autumn-tide, the curse of malaria haunts the basin of the +Big Bone, and none but he of fortune spurned would care here in this +beauty-spot to plant his vine and fig-tree. Now and then our path +leads us across the winding creek, which in these upper reaches +tumbles noisily over ledges of jagged rock, above which luxuriant +sycamores, and elms, and maples arch gracefully. At each picturesque +fording-place, with its inevitable watering-pool, are stepping-stones +for foot pilgrims; often a flock of geese are sailing in the pool, +with craned necks and flapping wings hissing defiance to disturbers of +their sylvan peace. + +The travelers we meet are on horseback--most of them the +yellow-skinned, hollow-cheeked folk, with lack-luster eyes, whom we +note in the cabin doors, or dawdling about their daily routine. +On nearing the Lick, two young horsewomen, out of the common, look +interestedly at us, and I stop to inquire the way, although the +village spire is peering above the tree-tops yonder. Pretty, buxom, +sweet-faced lassies, these, with soft, pleasant voices, each with her +market-basket over her arm, going homeward from shopping. It would +be interesting to know their story--what it is that brings these +daughters of a brighter world here into this valley of the living +death. + +Two hundred yards farther, where the road forks, and the one at the +right hand ascends to the small hamlet of Big Bone Lick, there is +an interesting picture beneath the way-post: a girl in a blue calico +gown, her face deep hidden in her red sunbonnet, sits upon a chestnut +mount, with a laden market-basket before her; while by her side, +astride a coal-black pony, which fretfully paws to be on his way, is a +roughly dressed youth, his face shaded by a broad slouched hat of the +cowboy order. They have evidently met there by appointment, and are +so earnestly conversing--she with her hand resting lovingly, perhaps +deprecatingly, upon his bridle-arm, and his free hand nervously +stroking her horse's mane, while his eyes are far afield--that they do +not observe us as we pass; and we are free to weave from the incident +any sort of cracker romance which fancy may dictate. + +The source of Big Bone Creek is a marshy basin some fifty acres in +extent, rimmed with gently-sloping hills, and freely pitted with +copious springs of a water strongly sulphurous in taste, with a +suggestion of salt. The odor is so powerful as to be all-pervading, +a quarter of a mile away, and to be readily detected at twice that +distance. This collection of springs constitutes Big Bone Lick, +probably the most famous of the many similar licks in Kentucky, +Indiana, and Illinois. + +The salt licks of the Ohio basin were from the earliest times resorted +to in great numbers by wild beasts, and were favorite camping-grounds +for Indians, and for white hunters and explorers. This one was first +visited by the French as early as 1729, and became famous because +of the great quantities of remains of animals which lay all over the +marsh, particularly noticeable being the gigantic bones of the extinct +mammoth--hence the name adopted by the earliest American hunters, "Big +Bone." These monsters had evidently been mired in the swamp, while +seeking to lick the salty mud, and died in their tracks. Pioneer +chronicles abound in references to the Lick, and we read frequently +of hunting-parties using the ribs of the mammoth for tent poles, and +sections of the vertebræ as camp stools and tables. But in our own +day, there are no surface evidences of this once rich treasure of +giant fossils; although occasionally a "find" is made by enterprising +excavators,--several bones having thus been unearthed only a week ago. +They are now on exhibition in the neighboring village, preparatory to +being shipped to an Eastern museum. + +As we hurried back over the rolling highway, thunder-clouds grandly +rose out of the west, and great drops of rain gave us moist warning +of the coming storm. W---- was watching us from the cabin door, as we +made the last turning in the road, and, accompanied by the farm-wife +and her two daughters, came tripping down to the landing. She had been +entertained in the one down-stairs room, as royally as these honest +cracker women-folk knew how; seated in the family rocking-chair, she +had heard in those two hours the social gossip of a wide neighborhood; +learned, too, that the cold, wet weather of the last fortnight had +killed turkey-chicks and goslings by the score; heard of the damage +being done to corn and tobacco, by the prevalent high water; was told +how Bess and Brindle fared, off in the rocky pasture which yields +little else than mulleins; and how far back Towser had to go, to claim +relationship to a collie. "And weren't we really show-people, going +down the river this way, in a skiff? or, if we weren't show-people, +had we an agency for something? or, were we only in trade?" It seems a +difficult task to make these people on the bottoms believe that we are +skiffing it for pleasure--it is a sort of pleasure so far removed from +their notions of the fitness of things; and so at last we have given +up trying, and let them think of our pilgrimage what they will. + +The entire family now assembled on the muddy bank, and bade us a +really affectionate farewell, as if we had been, in this isolated +corner of the world, most welcome guests who were going all too soon. +In a few strokes of the oars we were rounding the bend; and waving +our hands at the little knot of watchers, went forth from their lives, +doubtless forever. + +The storm soon burst upon us in full fury. Clad in rubber, we rested +under giant trees, or beneath projecting rock ledges, taking advantage +of occasional lulls to push on for a few rods to some new shelter. The +numerous little hillside runs which, in our journey up, were but dry +gullies choked with leaves and boulders, were now brimming with muddy +torrents, rushing all foam-flecked and with deafening roar into the +central stream. At last the cloud curtain rolled away, the sun gushed +out with fiery rays, the arch of foliage sparkled with splendor--in +meadow and on hillside, the face of Nature was cleanly beautiful. + +At the creek mouth, the distinguished mulatto still was fishing from +his chair, and standing by his side was his wife throwing a spoon. +They nodded to us pleasantly, as old friends returned. Gliding by +their boat, Pilgrim was soon once more in the full current of the +swift-flowing Ohio. + +We are high up to-night, on a little grass terrace in Kentucky, two +miles above Warsaw. The usual country road lies back of us, a rod or +two, and then a slender field surmounted by a woodland hill. Fortune +favors us, almost nightly, with beautiful abiding-places. In no place +could we sleep more comfortably than in our cotton home. + +[Footnote A: So called from the Big Buffalo Lick, upon its banks.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + New Switzerland--An old-time river pilot--Houseboat life, + on the lower reaches--A philosopher in rags--Wooded + solitudes--Arrival at Louisville. + + +Near Madison, Ind., Sunday, May 27th.--At supper last night, a +houseboat fisherman, going by in his skiff, parted the willows +fringing our beach, and offered to sell us some of his wares. We +bought from him a two-pound catfish, which he tethered to a bush +overhanging the water, until we were ready to dress it; giving +us warning, that meanwhile it would be best to have an eye on our +purchase, or the turtles would devour it. Hungry thieves, these +turtles, the fisherman said; you could leave nothing edible in water +or on land, unprotected, without constant fear of the reptiles--which +reminds me that yesterday the Doctor and the Boy found on the beach a +beautiful box tortoise. + +Our fish was swimming around finely, at the end of his cord, when the +executioner arrived, and when finally hung up in a tree was safe from +the marauders. This morning the fisherman was around again, hoping +to obtain another dime from the commissariat; but though we had +breakfasted creditably from the little "cat," we had no thought of +stocking our larder with his kind. So the grizzly man of nets took a +fresh chew of tobacco, and sat a while in his boat, "pass'n' th' time +o' day" with us, punctuating his remarks with frequent expectorations. + +The new Kentucky houseboat law taxes each craft of this sort +seven-and-a-half dollars, he said: five dollars going to the State, +and the remainder to the collector. There was to be a patrol boat, "to +see that th' fellers done step to th' cap'n's office an' settle." +But the houseboaters were going to combine and fight the law on +constitutional grounds, for they had been told that it was clearly +an interference with commerce on a national highway. As for the +houseboaters voting--well, some of them did, but the most of them +didn't. The Indiana registry law requires a six months' residence, and +in Kentucky it is a full year, so that a houseboat man who moves about +any, "jes' isn't in it, sir, thet's all." However, our visitor was not +much disturbed over the practical disfranchisement of his class--it +seemed, rather, to amuse him; he was much more concerned in the new +tax, which he thought an outrageous imposition. In bidding us a +cheery good-bye, he noticed my kodak. "Yees be one o' them photygraph +parties, hey?" and laughed knowingly, as though he had caught me in a +familiar trick. No child of nature so simple, in these days, as not to +recognize a kodak. + +Warsaw, Ky. (524 miles), just below, has some bankside evidences of +manufacturing, but on the whole is rather down at the heel. A contrast +this, to Vevay (533 miles), on the Indiana shore, which, though a +small town on a low-lying bottom, is neat and apparently prosperous. +Vevay was settled in 1803, by John James Dufour and several +associates, from the District of Vevay, in Switzerland, who purchased +from Congress four square miles hereabout, and, christening it New +Switzerland, sought to establish extensive vineyards in the heart of +this middle West. The Swiss prospered. The colony has had sufficient +vitality to preserve many of its original characteristics unto the +present day. Much of the land in the neighborhood is still owned by +the descendants of Dufour and his fellows, but the vineyards are not +much in evidence. In fact, the grape-growing industry on the banks of +the Ohio, although commenced at different points with great promise, +by French, Swiss, Germans, and Americans alike, has not realized +their expectations. The Ohio has proved to be unlike the Rhine in this +respect. In the long run, the vine in America appears to fare better +in a more northern latitude. + +Three miles above Vevay, near Plum Creek, I was interested in the +Indiana farm upon which Heathcoat Picket settled in 1795--some say in +1790. In his day, Picket was a notable flatboat pilot. He was credited +with having conducted more craft down the river to New Orleans, than +any other man of his time--going down on the boat, and returning on +foot. It is said that he made over twenty trips of this character, +which is certainly a marvelous record at a time when there were only +Indian trails through the more than a thousand miles of dense forest +between Vevay and New Orleans, and when a savage enemy might be +expected to lurk behind any tree, ready to slay the rash pale-face. +Picket's must have been a life of continuous adventure, as thrilling +as the career of Daniel Boone himself; yet he is now known to but +a local antiquarian or two, and one stumbles across him only in +foot-notes. The border annals of the West abound with incidents as +romantic as any which have been applauded by men. Daniel Boone is not +the only hero of the frontier; he is not even the chief hero,--he is +but a type, whom an accident of literature has made conspicuous. + +The Kentucky River (541 miles) enters at Carrollton, Ky.,--a +well-to-do town, with busy-looking wharves upon both streams,--through +a wide and rather uninteresting bottom. But, over beyond this, one +sees that it has come down through a deep-cut valley, rimmed with +dark, rolling hills, which speak eloquently of a diversified landscape +along its banks. The Indian Kentucky, a small stream but half-a-dozen +rods wide, enters from the north, five miles below--"Injun Kaintuck," +it was called by a jovial junk-boat man stationed at the mouth of the +tributary. There are, on the Ohio, several examples of this peculiar +nomenclature: a river enters from the south, and another affluent +coming in from the north, nearly opposite, will have the same name +with the prefix "Indian." The reason is obvious; the land north of the +Ohio remained Indian territory many years after Kentucky and +Virginia were recognized as white man's country, hence the convenient +distinction--the river coming in from the north, near the Kentucky, +for instance, became "Indian Kentucky," and so on through the list. + +Houseboats are less frequent, in these reaches of the river. The towns +are fewer and smaller than above; consequently there is less demand +for fish, or for desultory labor. Yet we seldom pass a day, in the +most rustic sections, without seeing from half-a-dozen to a dozen +of these craft. Sometimes they are a few rods up the mouths of +tributaries, half hidden by willows and overhanging sycamores; or, in +picturesque little openings of the willow fringe along the main shore; +or, boldly planted at the base of some rocky ledge. At the towns, they +are variously situated: in the water, up the beach a way, or high upon +the bottom, whither some great flood has carried them in years gone +by. Occasionally, when high and dry upon the land, they have a bit of +vegetable garden about them, rented for a time from the farmer; but, +even with the floaters, chickens are commonly kept, generally in a +coop on the roof, connected with the shore by a special gang-plank +for the fowls; and the other day, we saw a thrifty houseboater who had +several colonies of bees. + +There was a rise of only two feet, last night; evidently the flood is +nearly at its greatest. We are now twenty feet above the level of ten +days ago, and are frequently swirling along over what were then sharp, +stony slopes, and brushing the topmost boughs of the lower lines +of willows and scrub sycamores. Thus we have a better view of the +country; and, approaching closely to the banks, can from our seats at +any time pluck blue lupine by the armful. It thrives mightily on these +gravelled shores, and so do the bignonia vine, the poison ivy, and the +Virginia creeper. The hills are steeper, now, especially in Indiana; +many of them, although stony, worked-out, and almost worthless, are +still, in patches, cultivated to the very top; but for the most part +they are clothed in restful green. Overhead, in the summer haze, +turkey-buzzards wheel gracefully, occasionally chased by audacious +hawks; and in the woods, we hear the warble of song-birds. Shadowy, +idle scenes, these rustic reaches of the lower Ohio, through which man +may dream in Nature's lap, all regardless of the workaday world. + +It was early evening when we passed Madison, Ind. (553 miles), a +fairly-prosperous factory town of about twelve thousand souls. Scores +of the inhabitants were out in boats, collecting driftwood; and upon +the wharf was a great crowd of people, waiting for an excursion boat +which was to return them to Louisville, whence they had come for a +day's outing. It was a lifeless, melancholy party, as excursion folk +are apt to be at the close of a gala day, and they wearily stared at +us as we paddled past. + +Just below, on the Kentucky shore, on my usual search for milk and +water, I landed at a cluster of rude cottages set in pleasant market +gardens. While the others drifted by with Pilgrim, I had a goodly +walk before finding milk, for a cow is considered a luxury among these +small riverside cultivators; the man who owns one sells milk to his +poorer neighbors. Such a nabob was at last found. The animal was +called down from the rocky hills, by her barefooted owner, who, lank +and malaria-skinned, leaned wearily against the well-curb, while his +wife, also guiltless of hose and shoes, milked into my pail direct +from the lean and hungry brindle. + +By the time the crew were reunited, storm-clouds, thick and black, +were fast rising in the west. Scudding down shore for a mile, with +oars and paddle aiding the swift current, we failed to find a +proper camping-place on the muddy bank of the far-stretching bottom. +Rain-drops were now pattering on our rubber spreads, and it was +evident that a blow was coming; but despite this, we bent to the +work with renewed vigor, and shot across to the lee shore of +Indiana--finally landing in the midst of a heavy shower, and hurriedly +pitching tent on a rocky slope at the base of a vertical bank of clay. +Above us, a government beacon shines brightly through the persistent +storm, with the keeper's neat little house and garden a hundred yards +away. In the tree-tops, up a heavily-forested hill beyond, the wind +moans right dismally. In this sheltered nook, we shall be but lulled +to sleep with the ceaseless pelting of the rain. + + * * * * * + +Louisville, Monday, May 28th.--At midnight, the heavens cleared, with +a cold north wind; the early morning atmosphere was nipping, and we +were glad of the shelter of the tent during breakfast. The river fell +eight inches during the night, and on either bank is a muddy strip, +which will rapidly widen as the water goes down. + +Below us, twenty rods or so, moored to the boulder-strewn shore, was a +shanty-boat. In the bustle of landing, last night, we had not noticed +this neighbor, and it was pitch-dark before we had time to get our +bearings. I think it is the most dilapidated affair we have seen on +the river--the frame of the cabin is out of plumb, old clothes serve +for sides and flap loudly in the wind; while two little boys, who +peered at us through slits in the airy walls, looked fairly miserable +with cold. + +The proprietor of the craft came up to visit us, while breakfast was +being prepared, and remained until we were ready to depart--a tall, +slouchy fellow, clothed in shreds and patches; he was in the prime of +life, with a depressed nose set in a battered, though not unpleasant +countenance. None of our party had ever before seen such garments on a +human being--old bits of flannel, frayed strips of bagging-stuff, and +other curious odds and ends of fabrics, in all the primitive +colors, the whole roughly basted together with sack-thread. He was +a philosopher, was this rag-tag-and-bob-tail of a man, a philosopher +with some mother-wit about him. For an hour, he sat on his haunches, +crouching over our little stove, and following with cat-like care +W----'s every movement in the culinary art; she felt she was under the +eye of a critic who, though not voicing his opinions, looked as if he +knew a thing or two. + +As a conversationist, our visitor was fluent to a fault. It required +but slight urging to draw him out. His history, and that of his +fathers for three generations back, he recited in much detail. He +himself had, in his best days, been a sub-contractor in railway +construction; but fate had gone against him, and he had fallen to the +low estate of a shanty-boatman. His wife had "gone back on him," and +he was left with two little boys, whom he proposed to bring up as +gentlemen--"yaas, sir-r, gen'lem'n, yew hear me! ef I _is_ only a +shanty-boat feller!" + +"I thote I'd come to visit uv ye," he had said by way of introduction; +"ye're frum a city, ain't yer? Yaas, I jist thote hit. City folks is a +more 'com'dat'n' 'n country folks. Why? Waal, yew fellers jist go +back 'ere in th' hills away, 'n them thar country folks they'd hardly +answer ye, they're thet selfish-like. Give me city folks, I say, fer +get'n' long with!" + +And then, in a rambling monologue, while chewing a straw, he discussed +humanity in general, and the professions in particular. "I ain't got +no use fer lawyers--mighty hard show them fellers has, fer get'n' to +heaven. As fer doctors--waal, they'll hev hard sledd'n, too; but them +fellers has to do piles o' dis'gree'bl' work, they do; I'd jist +rather fish fer a liv'n', then be a doctor! Still, sir-r, give me an +eddicated man every time, says I. Waal, sir-r, 'n' ye hear me, one +o' th' richest fellers right here in Madison, wuz born 'n' riz on a +shanty-boat, 'n' no mistake. He jist done pick up his eddication from +folks pass'n' by, jes' as yew fellers is a passin', 'n' they might say +a few wuds o' information to him. He done git a fine eddication +jes' thet way, 'n' they ain't no flies on him, these days, when +money-gett'n' is 'roun'. Jes' noth'n' like it, sir-r! Eddication does +th' biz!" + +An observant man was this philosopher, and had studied human nature to +some purpose. He described the condition of the poor farmers along the +river, as being pitiful; they had no money to hire help, and were an +odd lot, anyway--the farther back in the hills you get, the worse they +are. + +He loved to talk about himself and his lowly condition, in contrast +with his former glory as a sub-contractor on the railway. When a man +was down, he said, he lost all his friends--and, to illustrate this +familiar phase of life, told two stories which he had often read in a +book that he owned. They were curious, old-fashioned tales of feudal +days, evidently written in a former century,--he did not know the +title of the volume,--and he related them in what evidently were the +actual words of the author: a curious recitation, in the pedantic +literary style of the ancient story-teller, but in the dialect of an +Ohio-river "cracker." His greatest ambition, he told us, was to own +a floating sawmill; although he carefully inquired about the laws +regulating peddlers in our State, and intimated that sometime he might +look us up in that capacity, in our Northern home. + +As we approach Louisville to-day, the settlements somewhat increase +in number, although none of the villages are of great size; and, +especially in Kentucky, they are from ten to twenty miles apart. +The fine hills continue close upon our path until a few miles above +Louisville, when they recede, leaving on the Kentucky side a broad, +flat plain several miles square, for the city's growth. For the most +part, these stony slopes are well wooded with elm, buckeye, maple, +ash, oak, locust, hickory, sycamore, cotton-wood, a few cedars, and +here and there a catalpa and a pawpaw giving a touch of tropical +luxuriance to the hillside forest; while blackberry bushes, bignonia +vines, and poison ivy, are everywhere abundant; otherwise, there is +little of interest to the botanist. Redbirds, catbirds, bluebirds, +blackbirds, and crows are chattering noisily in the trees, and +turkey-buzzards everywhere swirl and swoop in mid-air. + +The narrow little bottoms are sandy; and on lowland as well as +highland there is much poor, rock-bewitched soil. The little +whitewashed farmsteads look pretty enough in the morning haze, lying +half hid in forest clumps; but upon approach they invariably prove +unkempt and dirty, and swarming with shiftless, barefooted, unhealthy +folk, whom no imagination can invest with picturesque qualities. Their +ragged, unpainted tobacco-sheds are straggling about, over the +hills; and here and there a white patch in the corner of a gray field +indicates a nursery of tobacco plants, soon to be transplanted into +ampler soil. + +It is not uncommon to find upon a hillside a freshly-built log-cabin, +set in the midst of a clearing, with bristling stumps all around, +reminding one of the homes of new settlers on the far-away +logging-streams of Northern Wisconsin or Minnesota; the resemblance +is the closer, for such notches cut in the edge of the Indiana and +Kentucky wilderness are often found after a row of many miles through +a winding forest solitude apparently but little changed from primeval +conditions. Now and then we come across quarries, where stone is slid +down great chutes to barges which lie moored by the rocky bank; +and frequently is the stream lined with great boulders, which stand +knee-deep in the flood that eddies and gurgles around them. + +On the upper edge of the great Louisville plain, we pitched tent +in the middle of the afternoon; and, having brought our bag of +land-clothes with us in the skiff, from Cincinnati, took turns under +the canvas in effecting what transformation was desirable, preparatory +to a visit in the city. In the early twilight we were floating past +Towhead Island, with its almost solid flank of houseboats, threading +our way through a little fleet of pleasure yachts, and at last +shooting into the snug harbor of the Boat Club. The good-natured +captain of the U. S. Life Saving Station took Pilgrim and her cargo +in charge for the night, and by dusk we were bowling over metropolitan +pavements _en route_ to the house of our friend--strange contrast, +this lap of luxury, to the soldier-like simplicity of our canvas home. +We have been roughing it for so long,--less than a month, although +it seems a year,--that all these conveniences of civilization, these +social conventionalities, have to us a sort of foreign air. Thus +easily may man descend into the savage state. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Storied Louisville--Red Indians and white--A night on Sand + Island--New Albany--Riverside hermits--The river falling--A + deserted village--An ideal camp. + + +Sand Island, Tuesday, May 29th.--Our Louisville host is the best +living authority on the annals of his town. It was a delight and an +inspiration to go with him, to-day, the rounds of the historic places. +Much that was to me heretofore foggy in Louisville story was made +clear, upon becoming familiar with the setting. The contention is made +that La Salle was here at the Falls of the Ohio, during the closing +months of 1669; but it was over a century later, under British +domination, before a settlement was thought of. Dr. John Connolly +entertained a scheme for founding a town at the Falls, but Lord +Dunmore's War (1774), and the Revolution quickly following, combined +to put an end to it; so that when George Rogers Clark arrived on the +scene with his little band of Virginian volunteers (May, 1778), en +route to capture the Northwest for the State of Virginia, he found +naught but a savage-haunted wilderness. His log fort on Corn Island, +in the midst of the rapids, served as a base of military operations, +and was the nucleus of American settlement, although later the +inhabitants moved to the mainland, and founded Louisville. + +The falls at Louisville are the only considerable obstruction to +Ohio-River navigation. At an average stage, the descent is but +twenty-seven feet in two-and-a-half miles; in high flood, the rapids +degenerate into merely swift water, without danger to descending +craft. At ordinary height, it was the custom of pioneer boatmen, in +descending, to lighten their craft of at least a third of the +cargo, and thus pass them down to the foot of the north-side portage +(Clarksville, Ind.), which is three-quarters of a mile in length; +going up, lightened boats were towed against the stream. With the +advent of larger craft, a canal with locks became necessary--the +Louisville and Portland Canal of to-day, which is operated by the +general government. + +The action of the water, hastened by the destruction of trees whose +roots originally bound the loose soil, has greatly worn the islands +in the rapids. Little is now left of historic Corn Island, and that +little is, at low water, being blasted and ground into cement by a +mill hard by on the main shore. To-day, with a flood of nearly twenty +feet above the normal stage of the season, not much of the island +is visible,--clumps of willows and sycamores, swayed by the rushing +current, giving a general idea of the contour. Goose Island, although +much smaller than in Clark's day, is a considerable tract of wooded +land, with a rock foundation. Clark was once its owner, his home being +opposite on the Indiana shore, where he had a fine view of the river, +the rapids, and the several islands. As for Clarksville, somewhat +lower down, and back from the river a half mile, it is now but a +cluster of dwellings on the outskirts of New Albany, a manufacturing +town which is rapidly absorbing all the neighboring territory. + +Feeling obliged to make an early start, we concluded to pass the night +just below the canal on Sand Island, lying between New Albany and +Louisville's noisy manufacturing suburb, Portland. An historic spot is +this insular home of ours. At the treaty of Fort Charlotte, Cornstalk +told Lord Dunmore the legend familiar among Ohio River savages--that +here, in ages past, occurred the last great battle between the white +and the red Indians. It is one of the puzzles of the antiquarians, +this tradition that white Indians once lived in the land, but were +swept away by the reds; Cornstalk had used it to spur his followers +to mighty deeds, it was a precedent which Pontiac dwelt upon when +organizing his conspiracy, and King Philip is said to have been +inspired by it. But this is no place to discuss the genesis of the +tale. Suffice it, that on Sand Island have been discovered great +quantities of ancient remains. No doubt, in its day, it was an +over-filled burying-ground. + +Noises, far different from the clash of savage arms, are in the air +to-night. Far above our heads a great iron bridge crosses the +Ohio, some of its piers resting on the island,--a busy combination +thoroughfare for steam and electric railways, for pedestrians and for +vehicles, plying between New Albany and Portland. The whirr of the +trolley, the scream and rumble of locomotives, the rattle of wagons; +and just above the island head, the burly roar of steamboats signaling +the locks,--these are the sounds which are prevalent. Through all +this hubbub, electric lamps are flashing, and just now a steamer's +search-light swept our island shore, lingering for a moment upon the +little camp, doubtless while the pilot satisfied his curiosity. Let us +hope that savage warriors never o' nights walk the earth above their +graves; for such scenes as this might well cause those whose bones lie +here to doubt their senses. + + * * * * * + +Near Brandenburg, Ky., Wednesday, 30th.--We stopped at New Albany, +Ind. (603 miles), this morning, to stock the larder and to forward our +shore-clothes by express to Cairo. It is a neat and busy manufacturing +town, with an excellent public market. A gala aspect was prevalent, +for it is Memorial Day; the shops and principal buildings were gay +with bunting, and men in Grand Army uniforms stood in knots at the +street corners. + +The broad, fertile plain on both sides of the river, upon which +Louisville and New Albany are the principal towns, extends for eight +or nine miles below the rapids. The first hills to approach the stream +are those in Indiana. Salt River, some ten or twelve rods wide, +enters from the south twenty-one miles below New Albany, between +uninteresting high clay banks, with the lazy-looking little village +of West Point, Ky., occupying a small rise of ground just below +the mouth. The Kentucky hills come close to the bank, a mile or two +farther down, and then the familiar characteristics of the reaches +above Louisville are resumed--hills and bottoms, sparsely settled with +ragged farmsteads, regularly alternating. + +At five o'clock we put in at a rocky ledge on the Indiana side, a +mile-and-a-half above Brandenburg. Behind us rises a precipitous hill, +tree-clad to the summit. The Doctor found up there a new phlox and +a pretty pink stone-crop, to add to our herbarium, while here as +elsewhere the bignonia grows profusely in every crevice of the rock. +At dark, two ragged and ill-smelling young shanty-boat men, who are +moored hard by, came up to see us, and by our camp-fire to whittle +chips and drone about hard times. But at last we tired of their idle +gossip, which had in it no element of the picturesque, and got rid of +them by hinting our desire to turn in. + +The towns were few to-day, and small. Brandenburg, with eight hundred +souls, was the largest--a sleepy, ill-paved, shambling place, +with apparently nobody engaged in any serious calling; its chief +distinction is an architectural monstrosity, which we were told is +the court-house. The little white hamlet of New Amsterdam, Ind. +(650 miles), looked trim and bright in the midst of a green thicket. +Richardson's Landing, Ky., is a disheveled row of old deserted houses, +once used by lime-burners, with a great barge wrecked upon the beach. +At the small, characterless Indiana village of Leavenworth (658 +miles), I sought a traveling photographer, of whom I had been told at +Brandenburg. My quest was for a dark-room where I might recharge my +exhausted kodak; but the man of plates had packed up his tent and +moved on--I would no doubt find him in Alton, Ind., fifteen miles +lower down. + +We have had stately, eroded hills, and broad, fertile bottoms, hemming +us in all day, and marvelous ox-bows in the erratic stream. The +hillsides are heavily wooded, sometimes the slopes coming straight +down to the stony beach, without intervening terrace; where there are +such terraces, they are narrow and rocky, and the homes of shanty-men; +but upon the bottoms are whitewashed dwellings of frame or log, +tenanted by a better class, who sometimes have goodly orchards and +extensive corn-cribs. The villages are generally in the deep-cut +notches of the hills, where the interior can be conveniently reached +by a wagon-road--a country "rumpled like this," they say, for ten +or twelve miles back, and then stretching off into level plains of +fertility. Now and then, a deserted cabin on the terraces,--windowless +and gaunt,--tells the story of some "cracker" family that malaria had +killed off, or that has "pulled up stakes" and gone to seek a better +land. + +At Leavenworth, the river, which has been flowing northwest for thirty +miles, takes a sudden sweep to the southwest, and thenceforward we +have a rapid current. However, we need still to ply our blades, for +there is a stiff head-wind, with an eager nip in it, to escape which +we seek the lee as often as may be, and bask in the undisturbed +sunlight. Right glad we were, at luncheon-time, to find a sheltered +nook amidst a heap of boulders on the Kentucky shore, and to sit on +the sun-warmed sand and drink hot tea by the side of a camp-fire, +rejoicing in the kindness of Providence. + +There are few houseboats, since leaving Louisville; to-day we have +seen but three or four--one of them merrily going up stream, under +full sail. Islands, too, are few--the Upper and Lower Blue River, a +pretty pair, being the first we have met since Sunday. The water is +falling, it now being three or four feet below the stage of a few days +since, as can readily be seen from the broad dado of mud left on +the leaves of willows and sycamores; while the drift, recently +an ever-present feature of the current, is rapidly lodging in the +branches of the willows and piling up against the sand-spits; and +scrawling snags and bobbing sawyers are catching on the bars, and +being held for the next "fresh." + +There is little life along shore, in these lower waters. There are two +lines of ever-widening, willowed beach of rock and sand or mud; above +them, perpendicular walls of clay, which edge either rocky terraces +backed by grand sweeps of convoluted hills,--sometimes wooded to the +top, and sometimes eroded into palisades,--or wide-stretching bottoms +given over to small farms or maybe dense tangles of forest. + +In the midst of this world of shade, nestle the whitewashed cabins +of the small tillers; but though they swarm with children, it is not +often that the inhabitants appear by the riverside. We catch a glimpse +of them when landing on our petty errands, we now and then see a +houseboater at his nets, and in the villages a few lackadaisical folk +are lounging by the wharf; but as a rule, in these closing days of +our pilgrimage, we glide through what is almost a solitude. The +imagination has not to go far afield, to rehabilitate the river as it +appeared to the earliest voyagers. + +Late in the afternoon, as usual wishing water and milk, we put ashore +in Indiana, where a rustic landing indicated a settlement of some +sort, although our view was confined to a pretty, wooded bank, and an +unpainted warehouse at the top of the path. It was a fertile bottom, +a half-mile wide, and stretching a mile or two along the river. Three +neat houses, one of them of logs, constituted the village, and all +about were grain-fields rippled into waves by the northwest breeze. + +The first house, a quarter of a mile inland, I reached by a country +roadway; it proved to be the postoffice of Point Sandy. Chickens +clucked around me, a spaniel came fawning for attention, a tethered +cow mooed plaintively, but no human being was visible. At last I +discovered a penciled notice pinned to the horse-block, to the effect +that the postmaster had gone into Alton (five miles distant) for the +day; and should William Askins call in his absence, the said Askins +was to remember that he promised to call yesterday, but never came; +and now would he be kind enough to come without fail to-morrow before +sundown, or the postmaster would be obliged to write that letter they +had spoken about. It was quite evident that Askins had not called; for +he surely would not have left that mysterious notice sticking there, +for all Point Sandy to read and gossip over. It is to be hoped that +there will be no bloodshed over this affair; across the way, in +Kentucky, there would be no doubt as to the outcome. + +I looked at Boss, and wondered whether in Indiana it were felony to +milk another man's cow in his absence, with no ginger jar at hand, +into which to drop a compensatory dime. Then I saw that she was dry, +and concluded that to attempt it might be thought a violation of +ethics. The postmaster's well, too, proved to be a cistern,--pardon +the Hibernicism,--and so I went farther. + +The other frame house also turned out to be deserted, but evidently +only for the day, for the lilac bushes in the front yard were hung +with men's flannel shirts drying in the sun. A buck goat came bleating +toward me, with many a flourish of his horns, from which it was plain +to be seen why the family wash was not spread upon the grass. From +here I followed a narrow path through a wheat-field, the grain up to +my shoulders, toward the log dwelling. A mangy little cur disputed my +right to knock at the door; but, flourishing my two tin pails at him, +he flew yelping to take refuge in the hen-coop. To my summons at the +portal, there came no response, save the mewing of the cat within. It +was clear that the people of Point Sandy were not at home, to-day. + +I would have retreated to the boat, but, chancing to glance up at the +overhanging hills which edge in the bottom, saw two men sitting on a +boulder in front of a rude log hut on the brink of a cliff, +curiously watching my movements on the plain. Thankful, now, that the +postmaster's cow had gone dry, and that these observant mountaineers +had not had an opportunity to misinterpret my conduct, I at once +hurried toward the hill, hopeful that at the top some bovine might be +housed, whose product could lawfully be acquired. But after a long +and laborious climb, over shifting stones and ragged ledges, I was met +with the discouraging information that the only cow in these parts +was Hawkins' cow, and Hawkins was the postmaster,--"down yon, whar yew +were a-read'n' th' notices on th' hoss-block." Neither had they any +water, up there on the cliff-top--"don' use very much, stranger; 'n' +what we do, we done git at Smithfield's, in th' log-house down yon, +'n' I reck'n their cistern's done gone dry, anyhow!" + +"But what is the matter down there?" I asked of the old man,--they +were father and son, this lounging pair who thus loftily sat in +judgment on the little world at their feet; "why are all the folks +away from home?" + +He looked surprised, and took a fresh chew while cogitating on my +alarming ignorance of Point Sandy affairs: "Why, ain' ye heared? I +thote ev'ry feller on th' river knew thet yere--why, ol' Hawkins, his +wife's brother's buried in Alton to-day, 'n' th' neighbors done gwine +t' th' fun'ral. Whar your shanty-boat been beached, thet ye ain' +heared thet yere?" + +As the sun neared the horizon, we tried other places below, with no +better success; and two miles above Alton, Ind. (673 miles), struck +camp at sundown, without milk for our coffee--for water, being obliged +to settle and boil the roily element which bears us onward through the +lengthening days. Were there no hardships, this would be no pilgrimage +worthy of the name. We are out, philosophically to take the world as +it is; he who is not content to do so, had best not stir from home. + +But our camping-place, to-night, is ideal. We are upon a narrow, +grassy ledge; below us, the sloping beach astrewn with jagged rocks; +behind us rises steeply a grand hillside forest, in which lie, mantled +with moss and lichens, and deep buried in undergrowth, boulders as +large as a "cracker's" hut; romantic glens abound, and a little run +comes noisily down a ravine hard by,--it is a witching back-door, +filled with surprises at every turn. Beeches, elms, maples, lindens, +pawpaws, tulip trees, here attain a monster growth,--with grape-vines, +their fruit now set, hanging in great festoons from the branches; and +all about, are the flowers which thrive best in shady solitudes--wild +licorice, a small green-brier, and, although not yet in bloom, the +sessile trillium. We are thoroughly isolated; a half-mile above us, +faintly gleams a government beacon, and we noticed on landing that +three-quarters of a mile below is a small cabin flanking the +hill. Naught disturbs our quiet, save the calls of the birds at +roosting-time, and now and then the hoarse bellow of a passing packet, +with its legacy of boisterous wake. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Village life--A traveling photographer--On a country + road--Studies in color--Again among colliers--In sweet + content--A ferry romance. + + +Near Troy, Ind., Friday, June 1st.--Below Alton, the hills are not so +high as above. We have, however, the same thoroughly rustic landscape, +the same small farms on the bottoms and wretched cabins on the slopes, +the same frontier-like clearings thick with stumps, the same shabby +little villages, and frequent ox-bow windings of the generous stream, +with lovely vistas unfolding and dissolving with panoramic regularity. +It is not a region where houseboaters flourish--there is but one every +ten miles or so; as for steamboats, we see on an average one a day, +while two or three usually pass us in the night. + +A dry, unpainted little place is Alton, Ind., with three +down-at-the-heel shops, a tavern, a saloon, and a few dwellings; there +was no bread obtainable here, for love or money, and we were fain to +be content with a bag of crackers from the postoffice grocery. The +promised photographer, who appears to be a rapid traveler, was said to +have gone on to Concordia, eight miles below. + +Deep Water Landing, Ind. (676 miles), is a short row of new, +whitewashed houses, with a great board sign displaying the name of the +hamlet, doubtless to attract the attention of pilots. A rude little +show-case, nailed up beside the door of the house at the head of +the landing-path, contains tempting samples of crockery and tinware. +Apparently some enterprising soul is trying to grow a town here, on +this narrow ledge of clay, with his landing and his shop as a nucleus. +But it is an unlikely spot, and I doubt if his "boom" will develop to +the corner-lot stage. + +Rono, Ind., a mile below, with its limewashed buildings set in a bower +of trees, at the base of a bald bluff, is a rather pretty study +in gray and green and white. The most notable feature is a little +school-house-like Masonic hall set high on a stone foundation, with +a steep outer stairway--which gives one an impression that Rono is a +victim of floods, and that the brethren occasionally come in boats to +lodge-meetings. + +Concordia, Ky. (681 miles), rests on the summit of a steep clay bank, +from which men were loading a barge with bark. Great piles of blocks, +for staves, ornamented the crest of the rise--a considerable industry +for these parts, we were told. But the photographer, whom we were +chasing, had "taken" every Concordian who wished his services, and +moved on to Derby, another Kentucky village, which at last we found, +six miles father down the river. + +The principal occupation of the people of Derby is getting out timber +from the hillside forests, six to ten miles in the interior. Oak, elm, +and sycamore railway-ties are the specialty, these being worth twenty +cents each when landed upon the wharf. A few months ago, Derby was +completely destroyed by fire, but, although the timber business is on +the wane here, much of the place was rebuilt on the old foundations; +hence the fresh, unpainted buildings, with battlement fronts, which, +with the prevalence of open-door saloons and a woodsy swagger on the +part of the inhabitants, give the place a breezy, frontier aspect now +seldom to be met with this side of the Rockies. + +Here at last was the traveling photographer. His tent, flapping loudly +in the wind, occupied an empty lot in the heart of the village--a +saloon on either side, and a lumberman's boarding house across the +way, where the "artist" was at dinner, pending which I waited for him +at the door of his canvas gallery. He evidently seeks to magnify +his calling, does this raw youth of the camera, by affecting what he +conceives to be the traditional garb of the artistic Bohemian, but +which resembles more closely the costume of the minstrel stage--a +battered silk hat, surmounting flowing locks glistening with hair-oil; +a loose velveteen jacket, over a gay figured vest; and a great brass +watch-chain, from which dangle silver coins. As this grotesque dandy, +evidently not long from his native village, came mincing across the +road in patent-leather slippers, smoking a cigarette, with one thumb +in an arm-hole of his vest, and the other hand twirling an incipient +mustache, he was plainly conscious of creating something of a swell in +Derby. + +It was a crazy little dark-room to which I was shown--a portable +affair, much like a coffin-case, which I expected momentarily to +upset as I stood within, and be smothered in a cloud of ill-smelling +chemicals. However, with care I finally emerged without accident, and +sufficiently compensated the artist, who seemed not over-favorable +to amateur competition, although he chatted freely enough about his +business. It generally took him ten days, he said, to "finish" a +town of five or six hundred inhabitants, like Derby. He traveled on +steamers with his tenting outfit, but next season hoped to have money +enough to "do the thing in style," in a houseboat of his own, an +establishment which would cost say four hundred dollars; then, in the +winter, he could beach himself at some fair-sized town, and perhaps +make his board by running a local gallery, taking to the water again +on the earliest spring "fresh." "I could live like a fight'n' cock +then, cap'n, yew jist bet yer bottom dollar!" + +The temperature mounted with the progress of the day; and, the wind +dying down, the atmosphere was oppressive. By the time Stephensport, +Ky. (695 miles), was reached, in the middle of the afternoon, the sun +was beating fiercely upon the glassy flood, and our awning came again +into play, although it could not save us from the annoyance of the +reflection. The barren clay bank at the mouth of Sinking Creek, upon +which lies Stephensport, seemed fairly ablaze with heat, as I went up +into the straggling hamlet to seek for supplies. There were no eggs +to be had here; but, at last, milk was found in the farther end of the +village, at a modest little cottage quite embowered in roses, with +two century plants in tubs in the back-yard, and a trim fruit and +vegetable garden to the rear of that, enclosed in palings. I remained +a few minutes to chat with the little housewife, who knows her roses +well, and is versed in the gentle art of horticulture. But her horizon +is painfully narrow--first and dearest, the plants about her, which is +not so bad; in a larger way, Stephensport and its petty affairs; but +beyond that very little, and that little vague. + +It is ever thus, in such far-away, side-tracked villages as this--the +world lies in the basin of the hills which these people see from their +doors; if they have something to love and do for, as this good woman +has in her bushes, seeds, and bulbs, then may they dwell happily in +rustic obscurity; but where, as is more common, the small-beer of +neighborhood gossip is their meat and drink, there are no folk on the +footstool more wretched than the denizens of a dead little hamlet like +Stephensport. + +We are housed this night on the Kentucky side, a mile-and-a-half above +Cloverport, whose half-dozen lights are glimmering in the stream. In +the gloaming, while dinner was being prepared, a ragged but sturdy +wanderer came into camp. He was, he said, a mountaineer looking for +work on the bottom farms; heretofore he had, when he wanted it, always +found it; but this season no one appeared to have any money to expend +for labor, and it seemed likely he would be obliged to return home +without receiving an offer. We made the stranger no offer of a seat +at our humble board, having no desire that he pass the night in +our neighborhood; for darkness was coming on apace, and, if he long +tarried, the woodland road would be as black as a pocket before he +could reach Cloverport, his alleged destination. So starting him off +with a biscuit or two, he was soon on his way toward the village, +whistling a lively tune. + + * * * * * + +Crooked Creek, Ind., Saturday, 2d.--We had but fairly got to bed last +night, after our late dinner, when the heavens suddenly darkened, +fierce gusts of wind shook the tent violently, and then rain fell in +blinding sheets. For a time it was lively work for the Doctor and me, +tightening guy-ropes and ditching in the soft sand, for we were in +an exposed position, catching the full force of the storm. At last, +everything secured, we in serenity slept it out, awakening to find +a beautiful morning, the grape-perfumed air as clear as crystal, +the outlines of woods and hills and streams standing out with sharp +definition, and over all a hushed charm most soothing to the spirit. + +Cloverport (705 miles) is a typical Kentucky town, of somewhat less +than four thousand inhabitants. The wharf-boat, which runs up and down +an iron tramway, according to the height of the flood, was swarming +with negroes, watching with keen delight the departure of the "E. D. +Rogan," as she noisily backed out into the river and scattered the +crowd with great showers of spray from her gigantic stern-wheel. It +was a busy scene on board--negro roustabouts shipping the gang-plank, +and singing in a low pitch an old-time plantation melody; stokers, +stripped to the waist, shoveling coal into the gaping furnaces; +chambermaids hanging the ship's linen out to dry; passengers crowded +by the shore rail, on the main deck; the bustling mate shouting +orders, apparently for the benefit of landsmen, for no one on board +appeared to heed him; and high up, in front of the pilot-house, the +spruce captain, in gold-laced cap, and glass in hand, as immovable as +the Sphinx. + +At the head of the slope were a picturesque medley of colored folk, of +true Southern plantation types, so seldom seen north of Dixie. Two +wee picaninnies, drawn in an express cart by a half-dozen other sable +elfs, attracted our attention, as W---- and I went up-town for our +day's marketing. We stopped to take a snap-shot at them, to the +intense satisfaction of the little kink-haired mother of the twins, +who, barring her blue calico gown, looked as if she might have just +stepped out of a Zulu group. + +Cloverport has brick-works, gas wells, a flouring-mill, and other +industries. The streets are unkempt, as in most Kentucky towns, and +mules attached to crazy little carts are the chief beasts of burden; +but the shops are well-stocked; there were many farmers in town, on +horse and mule back, doing their Saturday shopping; and an air of +business confidence prevails. + +In this district, coal-mines again appear, with their riverside +tipples, and their offal defiling the banks. In general, these reaches +have many of the aspects of the Monongahela, although the hills are +lower, and mining is on a smaller scale. Cannelton, Ind. (717 miles), +is the headquarters of the American Cannel Coal Co.; there are, also, +woolen and cotton mills, sewer-pipe factories, and potteries. W---- +and I went up into the town, on an errand for supplies,--we distribute +our small patronage, for the sake of frequently going ashore,--and +were interested in noting the cheery tone of the business men, who +reported that the financial depression, noticeable elsewhere in the +Ohio Valley, has practically been unfelt here. Hawesville, Ky., just +across the river, has a similarly prosperous look, but we did not +row across to inspect it at close range. Tell City, Ind., three miles +below, is another flourishing factory town, whose wharf-boat was the +scene of much bustle. Four miles still lower down lies the sleepy +little Indiana village of Troy, which appears to have profited nothing +from having lively neighbors. + +From the neighborhood of Derby, the environing hills had, as +we proceeded, been lessening in height, although still ruggedly +beautiful. A mile or two below Troy, both ranges suddenly roll back +into the interior, leaving broad bottoms on either hand, occasionally +edged with high clay banks, through which the river has cut its +devious way. At other times, these bottoms slope gently to the beach +and everywhere are cultivated with such care that often no room is +left for the willow fringe, which heretofore has been an ever-present +feature of the landscape. Hereafter, to the mouth, we shall for the +most part row between parallel walls of clay, with here and there +a bankside ledge of rock and shale, and now and then a cragged spur +running out to meet the river. We have now entered the great corn and +tobacco belt of the Lower Ohio, the region of annual overflow, where +the towns seek the highlands, and the bottom farmers erect their few +crude buildings on posts, prepared in case of exceptional flood to +take to boats. + +The prevalent eagerness on the part of farmers to obtain the utmost +from their land made it difficult, this evening, to find a proper +camping-place. We finally found a narrow triangle of clay terrace, +in Indiana, at the mouth of Crooked Creek (727 miles), where not long +since had tarried a houseboater engaged in making rustic furniture. It +is a pretty little bit, in a group of big willows and sycamores, and +would be comfortable but for the sand-flies, which for the first time +give us annoyance. The creek itself, some four rods wide, and overhung +with stately trees, winds gracefully through the rich bottom; we have +found it a charming water to explore, being able to proceed for nearly +a mile through lovely little wide-spreads abounding in lilies and +sweet with the odor of grape-blossoms. + +Across the river, at Emmerick's Landing,--a little cluster of +unpainted cabins,--lies the white barge of a photographer, just such +a home as the Derby artist covets. The Ohio is here about half-a-mile +wide, but high-pitched voices of people on the opposite bank are +plainly heard across the smooth sounding-board; and in the quiet +evening air comes to us the "chuck-chuck" of oars nearly a mile away. +Following a torrid afternoon, with exasperating headwinds, this cool, +fresh atmosphere, in the long twilight, is inspiring. Overhead is the +slender streak of the moon's first quarter, its reflection shimmering +in the broad and placid stream rushing noiselessly by us to the sea. +In blissful content we sit upon the bank, and drink in the glories of +the night. The days of our pilgrimage are nearing their end, but our +enthusiasm for this _al fresco_ life is in no measure abating. That we +might ever thus dream and drift upon the river of life, far from the +labored strivings of the world, is our secret wish, to-night. + +We had long been sitting thus, having silent communion with our +thoughts, when the Boy, his little head resting on W----'s shoulder, +broke the spell by murmuring from the fullness of his heart, "Mother, +why cannot we keep on doing this, always?" + + * * * * * + +Yellowbank Island, Sunday, June 3d.--Pilgrim still attracts more +attention than her passengers. When we stop at the village wharfs, +or grate our keel upon some rustic landing, it is not long before +the Doctor, who now always remains with the boat, no matter who goes +ashore, is surrounded by an admiring group, who rap Pilgrim on the +ribs, try to lift her by the bow, and study her graceful lines with +the air of connoisseurs. Barefooted men fishing on the shores, in +broad straw hats, and blue jeans, invariably "pass the time o' day" +with us as we glide by, crying out as a parting salute, "Ye've a honey +skiff, thar!" or, "Right smart skiff, thet yere!" + +We have many long, dreary reaches to-day. Clay banks twelve to twenty +feet in height, and growing taller as the water recedes, rise sheer on +either side. Fringing the top of each is often a row of locusts, whose +roots in a feeble way hold the soil; but the river cuts in at the +base, wherever the changing current impinges on the shore, and at +low water great slices, with a gurgling splash, fall into the +stream, which now is of the color of dull gold, from the clay held in +solution. Often, ruins of buildings may be seen upon the brink, +that have collapsed from this undercut of the fickle flood; and many +others, still inhabited, are in dangerous proximity to the edge, only +biding their time. + +This morning, we passed the Indiana hamlets of Lewisport (731 miles) +and Grand View (736 miles), and by noon were at Rockport (741 miles), +a smart little city of three thousand souls, romantically perched upon +a great rock, which on the right bank rises abruptly from the wide +expanse of bottom. From the river, there is little to be seen of +Rockport save two wharves,--one above, the other below, the bold cliff +which springs sheer for a hundred feet above the stream,--two angling +roads leading up into the town, a house or two on the edge of the hill +and a huge water-tower crowning all. + +A few miles below, we ran through a narrow channel, a few rods +wide, separating an elongated island from the Indiana shore. It much +resembles the small tributary streams, with a lush undergrowth of +weeds down to the water's edge, and arched with monster sycamores, +elms, maples and persimmons. Frequently had we seen skiffs upon the +shore, arranged with stern paddle-wheels, turned by levers operated by +men standing or sitting in the boat. But we had seen none in operation +until, shooting down this side channel, we met such a craft coming up, +manned by two fellows, who seemed to be having a treadmill task of it; +they assured us, however, that when a man was used to manipulating the +levers he found it easier than rowing, especially in ascending stream. + +Yellowbank Island, our camp to-night, lies nearest the Indiana shore, +with Owensboro, Ky. (749 miles), just across the way. We have had +no more beautiful home on our long pilgrimage than this sandy islet, +heavily grown to stately willows. While the others were preparing +dinner, I pulled across the rapid current to an Indiana ferry-landing, +where there is a row of mean frame cabins, like the negro quarters of +a Southern farm, all elevated on posts some four feet above the level. +A half-dozen families live there, all of them small tenant farmers, +save the ferryman--a strapping, good-natured fellow, who appears to be +the nabob of the community. + +Several hollow sycamore stumps house sows and their litters; but the +only cow in the neighborhood is owned by a young man who, when I came +up, was watering some refractory mules at a pump-trough. He paused +long enough to summon Boss and milk a half-gallon into my pail, +accepting my dime with a degree of thankfulness which was quite +unnecessary, considering that it was _quid pro quo_. Tobacco is a +more important crop than corn hereabout, he said; farmers are rather +impatiently waiting for rain, to set out the young plants. His only +outbuilding is a monster corn-crib, set high on posts--the airy +basement, no better than an open shed, serving for a stable; during +the few weeks of severe winter weather, horses and cow are removed +to the main floor, and canvas nailed around the sides to keep out +the wind. Even this slight protection is not vouchsafed stock by all +planters; the majority of them appear to provide only rain shelters, +and even these can be of slight avail in a driving storm. + +Later, in the failing light, W---- and I pulled together over to the +"cracker" settlement, seeking drinking-water. A stout young man was +seated on the end of the ferry barge, talking earnestly with the +ferryman's daughter, a not unattractive girl, but pale and thin, as +these women are apt to be. Evidently they are lovers, and not ashamed +of it, for they gave us a friendly smile as we knotted our painter to +the barge-rail, and expressed great interest in Pilgrim, she being of +a pattern new to them. + +We are in a noisy corner of the world. Over on the Indiana bottom, +a squeaky fiddle is grinding out dance-tunes, hymns and ballads with +charming indifference. We thought we detected in a high-pitched "Annie +Laurie" the voice of the ferryman's daughter. There seems, too, to be +a deal of rowing on the river, evidently Owensboro folk getting back +to town from a day in the country, and country folk hieing home after +a day in the city. The ferryman is in much demand, judging from the +frequent ringing of his bell,--one on either bank, set between two +tall posts, with a rope dangling from the arm. At early dusk, the +cracked bell of the Owensboro Bethel resounded harshly in our ears, as +it advertised an evening service for the floating population; and +now the wheezy strains of a melodeon tell us that, although we stayed +away, doubtless others have been attracted thither. The sepulchral +roars of passing steamers echo along the wooded shore, the night wind +rustles the tree-tops, Owensboro dogs are much awake, and the electric +lamps of the city throw upon our canvas screen the fantastic shadows +of leaves and dancing boughs. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Fishermen's tales--Skiff nomenclature--Green + River--Evansville--Henderson--Audubon and Rafinesque--Floating + trade--The Wabash. + + +Green River Towhead, Monday, June 4th.--We were shopping in Owensboro, +this morning, soon after seven o'clock. The business quarter was just +stirring into life; and the negroes who were lounging about on every +hand were still drowsy, as if they had passed the night there, and +were reluctant to be up and doing. There is a pretty court-house in +a green park, the streets are well paved, and the shops clean and +bright, with their wares mostly under the awnings on the sidewalk, for +people appear to live much out of doors here--and well they may, +with the temperature 73° at this early hour, and every promise of a +scorching day. + +I wonder if a fisherman could, if he tried, be exact in his +statements. One of them, below Owensboro, who kept us company for a +mile or two down stream, declared that at this stage of the water +he made forty and fifty dollars a week, "'n' I reck'n I ote to be +contint." A few miles farther on, another complained that when the +river was falling, the water was so muddy the fish would not bite; and +even in the best of seasons, a fisherman had "a hard pull uv it; hit +ain't no business fer a decent man!" The other day, when the river was +rising, a Cincinnati follower of the apostle's calling averred that +there was no use fishing when the water was coming up. As the variable +Ohio is like the ocean tide, ever rising or falling, it would seem +that the thousands in this valley who make fishing their livelihood +must be playing a losing game. + +There are many beautiful islands on these lower reaches of the river. +We followed the narrow channel between Little Hurricane and the +Kentucky shore, a charming run of two or three miles, with both banks +a dense tangle of drift-wood, weeds and vines. Between Three-Mile +Island and Indiana, is another interesting cut-short, where the +shores are undisturbed by the work of the main stream, and trees and +undergrowth come down to the water's edge; the air is quivering with +the songs of birds, and resonant with sweet smells; while over +stumps, and dead and fallen trees, grape-vines luxuriantly festoon +and cluster. Near the pretty group of French Islands, two government +dredges, with their boarding barges, were moored to the Kentucky +shore--waiting for coal, we were told, before resuming operations in +the planting of a dike. I took a snap-shot at the fleet, and heard +one man shout to another, "Bill, did yer notice they've a photograph +gallery aboard?" They appear to be a jolly lot, these dredgers, and +inclined to take life easily, in accordance with the traditions of +government employ. + +We frequently see skiffs hauled upon the beach, or moored between two +protecting posts, to prevent their being swamped by steamer wakes. The +names they bear interest us, as betokening, perhaps, the proclivities +of their owners. "Little Joe," "Little Jim," "Little Maggie," and +like diminutives, are common here, as upon the towing-tugs and steam +ferries of broader waters--and now and then we have, by contrast, +"Xerxes," "Achilles," "Hercules." Sometimes the skiff is named after +its owner's wife or sweetheart, as "Maggie G.," "Polly H.," or from +the rustic goddesses, "Pomona," "Flora," "Ceres;" on the Kentucky +shore, we have noted "Stonewall Jackson," and "Robert E. Lee," and one +Ohio boat was labeled "Little Phil." Literature we found represented +to-day, by "Octave Thanet"--the only case on record, for the +Ohio-River "cracker" is not greatly given to books. Slang claims for +its own, many of these knockabout craft--"U. Bet," "Git Thair," "Go +it, Eli," "Whoa, Emma!" and nondescripts, like "Two Doves," "Poker +Chip," and "Game Chicken," are not infrequent. + +In these stately solitudes, towns are far between. Enterprise, Ind. +(755 miles), is an unpainted village with a dismal view--back of and +around it, wide bottom lands, with hills in the far distance; up and +down the river, precipitous banks of clay, with willow fringes on that +portion of the shore which is not being cut by the impinging current. +Scuffletown, Ky. (767 miles), is uninviting. Newburgh, on the edge of +a bluff, across the river in Indiana, is a ragged little place that +has seen better days; but the backward view of Newburgh, from below +Three-Mile Island, made a pretty picture, the whites and reds of the +town standing out in sharp relief against the dark background of the +hill. + +Green River (775 miles), a gentle, rustic stream, enters through +the wide bottoms of Kentucky. We had difficulty in finding it in the +wilderness of willows--might not have succeeded, indeed, had not the +red smokestack of a small steamer suddenly appeared above the +bushes. Soon, the puffing craft debouched upon the Ohio, and, quickly +overtaking us, passed down toward Evansville. + +Green River Towhead, two miles below, claimed us for the night. There +is a shanty, midway on the island, and at the lower end the landing +of a railway-transfer. We have our camp at the upper end, in a bed +of spotless white sand, thick grown to dwarf willows. Entangled +drift-wood lies about in monster heaps, lodged in depressions of the +land, or against stout tree-trunks; a low bar of gravel connects our +home with Green River Island, lying close against the Indiana bank; +sand-flies freely joined us at dinner, and I hear, as I write, the +drone of a solitary mosquito,--the first in many days; while upon the +bar, at sunset, a score of turkey-buzzards held silent council, some +of them occasionally rising and wheeling about in mid-air, then slowly +lighting and stretching their necks, and flapping their wings most +solemnly, before rejoining the conference. + + * * * * * + +Cypress Bend, Tuesday, 5th.--The temperature had materially fallen +during the night, and the morning opened gray and hazy. Evansville, +Ind. (783 miles), made a charming Turneresque study, as her steeples +and factory chimneys developed through the mist. It is a fine, +well-built town, of some fifty thousand inhabitants, with a beautiful +little postoffice in the Gothic style--a refutation, this, of the +well-worn assertion that there are no creditable government buildings +in our small American cities. A railway bridge here crosses the Ohio, +numerous sawmills line the bank; altogether, there is business bustle, +the like of which we have not seen since leaving Louisville. + +Henderson (795 miles) is a substantial Kentucky town of nine thousand +souls, with large tobacco interests, we are told, ranking next to +Louisville in this regard. Through the morning, the mist had been +thickening. While we were passing beneath the railway bridge at +Henderson, thunder sounded, and the western sky suddenly blackened. +Pulling rapidly in to the town shore, shelter was found beneath the +overhanging deck of a deserted wharf-boat. We had just completed +preparations with the rubber blankets and ponchos, when the deluge +came. But the sheltering deck was not water-tight; soon the rain came +pouring in upon us through the uncaulked cracks, and we were nearly as +badly off in our close-smelling quarters as in the open. However, we +were a merry party under there, with the Doctor giving us a touch of +"Br'er Rabbit," and the boy relating a fantastic dream he had had on +the Towhead last night; while I told them the story of Audubon, whose +name will ever be associated with Henderson. + +The great naturalist was in business at Louisville, early in the +century; but in 1812, he failed in this venture, and moved to +Henderson, where his neighbors thought him a trifle daft,--and +certainly he was a ne'er-do-well, wandering around the woods, with +hair hanging down on his shoulders, a far-away look in his eyes, and +communing with the birds. In 1818, the botanist Rafinesque, on the +first of his several tramps down the Ohio valley,--he had a +favorite saying, that the only way for a botanist to travel, was to +walk,--stopped over at Henderson to visit this crazy fellow of whom +he had heard. Rafinesque had a hope that Audubon might buy some of his +colored drawings; but when he saw the wonderful pictures which +Audubon had made, he acknowledged that his own were inferior--a sore +confession for Rafinesque, who was an egotist of the first water. +Audubon had but humble quarters, for it was hard work in those days +for him to keep the wolf from the door; nevertheless, he entertained +the distinguished traveler, whom he was himself destined to far +eclipse. One night, a bat flew into Rafinesque's bedroom, and in +driving it out he used his host's fine Cremona as a club, thus making +kindling-wood of it. Two years later, still steeped in poverty, +Audubon left Henderson. It was 1826 before he became known to the +world of science, when little of his life was left in which to enjoy +the fame at last awarded him. + +We had lunch on Henderson Island, three miles down, and for warmth +walked briskly about on the strand, among the willow clumps. It rained +again, after we had taken our seats in the boat, and the head-wind +which sprang up was not unwelcome, for it necessitated a right lively +pull to make headway. W---- and the Boy, in the stern-sheets, were +not uncomfortable when swathed to the chin in the blankets which +ordinarily serve us as cushions. + +Ten miles below Henderson, was a little fleet of houseboats, lying +in a thicket of willows along the Indiana beach. We stopped at one of +them, and bought a small catfish for dinner. The fishermen seemed +a happy company, in this isolated spot. The women were engaged in +household work, but the men were spending the afternoon collected in +the cabin of one of their number, who had recently arrived from +Green River. While waiting for the fish to be caught in a live-box, +I visited with the little band. It was a comfortable room, furnished +rather better than the average shore cabin, and the Green River man's +family of half-a-dozen were well-kept, pleasant-faced, and polite. +Altogether it was a much more respectable houseboat company than any +we have yet seen on the river. But the fish-stories which that Green +River man tells, with an honest-like, open-eyed sobriety, would do +credit to Munchausen. + +The rain, at first spasmodic, became at last persistent. Two miles +farther down, at Cypress Bend (806 miles), we ran into an Indiana +hill, where on a steep slope of yellow shale, all strewn with rocks, +our tent was hurriedly pitched. There was no driving of pegs into +this stony base, so we weighted down the canvas with round-heads, and +fastened our guys to bushes and boulders as best we might. Huddled +around the little stove, under the fly, the crew dined sumptuously +_en course_, from canned soup down to strawberries for dessert,--for +Evansville is a good market. It is not always, we pilgrims fare thus +high--the resources of Rome, Thebes, Bethlehem, Herculaneum, and the +other classic towns with which the Ohio's banks are dotted, being none +of the best. Some days, we are fortunate to have aught in our larder. + + * * * * * + +Brown's Island, Wednesday, 6th.--This morning's camp-fire was welcome +for its warmth. The sky has been clear, but a sharp, cold wind has +prevailed throughout the day, quite counteracting the sun's rays; +we noticed townsfolk going about in overcoats, their hands in their +pockets. In the ox-bow curves, the breeze came in turn from every +quarter, sometimes dead ahead and again pushing us swiftly on. In +seeking the lee shore, Pilgrim pursued a zigzag course, back and +forth between the States,--now under the brow of towering clay banks, +corrugated by the flood, and honeycombed by swallows, which in flocks +screamed and circled over our heads; again, closely brushing the +fringe of willows and sycamores and maples on low-lying shores. Thus +did we for the most part paddle in placid water, while above us the +wind whistled in the tree-tops, rustled the blooming elders and +the tall grasses of the plain, and, out in the open river, caused +white-caps to dance right merrily. + +We met at intervals to-day, several houseboats, the most of them +bearing the inscription prescribed by the new Kentucky license +law, which is now being enforced, the essential features of which +inscription are the home and name of the owner, and the date at which +the license expires. The standard of education among houseboaters is +evinced by the legend borne by a trader's craft which we boarded near +Slim Island: "Lisens exp.rs Maye the 24 1895." The young woman in +charge, a slender creature in a brilliant red calico gown, with blue +ribbons at the corsage, had been but recently married to her lord, +who was back in the country stirring up trade. She had few notions of +business, and allowed us to put our own prices on such articles as +we purchased. The stock was a curious medley--a few staple groceries, +bacon and dried beef, candies, crockery, hardware, tobacco, a small +line of patent medicines, in which blood-purifiers chiefly prevailed, +bitters, ginger beer, and a glass case in which were displayed two or +three women's straw hats, gaudily-trimmed. The woman said their custom +was, to tie up to some convenient shore and "buy a little stuff o' the +farmers, 'n' in that way trade springs up," and thus become known. Two +or three weeks would exhaust any neighborhood, whereupon they would +move on for a dozen miles or so. Late in the autumn, they select a +comfortable beach, and lie by for the winter. + +Mt. Vernon, Ind. (819 miles), is on a high, rolling plain, with a +rather pretty little court-house set in a park of grass, some good +business buildings, and huge flouring-mills, which appear to be the +leading industry. Another flouring-mill town, with the addition of the +characteristic Kentucky distillery, is Uniontown (833 miles), on +the southern shore--a bright, neat little city, backed by smooth, +picturesque green hills. + +The feature of the day was the entrance, through a dreary stretch of +clay banks, of the Wabash River (838 miles), which divides Indiana +from Illinois. Three hundred and sixty yards wide at the mouth, about +half the width of the Ohio, it is the most important of the latter's +northern affluents, and pours into the main stream a swift-rushing +body of clear, green water, which at first boldly pushes over to the +heavily-willowed Kentucky shore the roily mess of the Ohio, and for +several miles exerts a considerable influence in clarification. The +Lower Wabash, flowing through a soft clay bottom, runs an erratic +course, and its mouth is a variable location, so that the bounds of +Illinois and Indiana, hereabout, fluctuate east and west according to +the exigencies of the floods. The far-reaching bottom itself, however, +is apparently of slight value, giving evidence, in the dreary clumps +of dead timber, of being frequently inundated. + +An interesting stream is the Wabash, from an historical point of view. +La Salle knew of it in 1677, and was planning to prosecute his fur +trade over the Maumee and the Wabash; but the Iroquois held the +portage, and for nearly forty years thereafter forbade its use by +whites. Joliet thought the Wabash the headwaters of what we know as +the Lower Ohio, and in his map (1673) styled the latter the Wabash, +down to its mouth. Vincennes, an old Wabash town, was one of the +posts captured so heroically for the Americans by George Rogers Clark, +during the Revolutionary War. In 1814, there was established at New +Harmony, also on the Wabash, the communistic seat of the Harmonists, +who had moved thither from Pennsylvania, to which, dissatisfied with +the West, they returned ten years later. + +Numerous islands have to-day beautified the Ohio. Despite their +inartistic names, Diamond and Slim are tipped at head and foot with +charming banks and willowed sand, and each center is clothed in a +luxurious forest, rimmed by a gravelly beach piled high with drift +and gnarled roots: the whole, with startling clearness, inversely +reflected in the mirrored flood. Wabash Island, opposite the mouth of +the great tributary, is an insular woodland several miles in length. + +Among the prettiest of these jewels studding our silvery path, is the +upmost of the little group known as Brown's Islands, on which we are +passing the night. It was an easy landing on the hard sand, and a +comfortable carry to a level opening in the willows, where we have +a model camp with a great round sycamore block for a table; an +Evansville newspaper does duty as a tablecloth, and two logs rolled +alongside make seats. Four miles below, the smoke of Shawneetown (848 +miles) rises lazily above the dark level line of woods; while across +the river, in Kentucky, there is an unbroken forest fringe, without +sign of life as far as the eye can reach. A long glistening bar of +sand connects our little island home with the Illinois mainland; +upon it was being held, in the long twilight, that evening council +of turkey-buzzards, which we so often witness when in an island camp. +Sand-pipers went fearlessly about among them, bobbing their little +tails with nervous vehemence; redbirds trilled their good-nights in +the tree-tops; and, daintily wading in the sandy shallows, object +lessons in patience, were great blue herons, carefully peering for the +prey which never seems to be found. As night closed in upon us, owls +dismally hooted in the mainland woods, buzzards betook themselves to +inland roosts, herons winged their stately flight to I know not where, +and over on the Kentucky shore could faintly be heard the barking +of dogs at the little "cracker" farmsteads hid deep in the lowland +forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Shawneetown--Farm-houses on stilts--Cave-in-Rock--An island + night. + + +Half-Moon Bar, Thursday, June 7th.--A head-breeze prevailed all day, +strong enough to fan us into a sense of coolness, but leaving the +water as unruffled as a mill-pond; thus did we seem, in the vivid +reflections of the early morning, to be sailing between double lines +of shore, lovely in their groupings of luxuriant trees and tangled +heaps of vine-clad drift. It was a hazy, mirage-producing atmosphere, +the river appearing to melt away in space, and the ever-charming +island heads looming unsupported in mid-air. From the woods, the +piercing note of locusts filled the air as with the ceaseless rattle +of pebbles against innumerable window-panes. + +At a distance, Shawneetown appears as if built upon higher land than +the neighboring bottom; but this proves, on approach, to be an optical +illusion, for the town is walled in by a levee some thirty feet +in height, above the top of which loom its chimneys and spires. +Shawneetown, laid out in 1808, soon became an important post on the +Lower Ohio, and indeed ranked with Kaskaskia as one of the principal +Illinois towns, although in 1817 it still only contained from +thirty to forty log dwellings. During the reign of the Ohio-River +bargemen,[A] it was notorious as the headquarters of the roughest +elements in that boisterous class, and frequently the scene of most +barbarous outrages--"the odious receptacle," says a chronicler of the +time, "of filth and villany." + +In those lively days, which lasted with more or less vigor until +about 1830,--by which time, steamboats had finally overcome popular +prejudice and gained the upper hand in river transportation,--the +people of Shawneetown were largely dependent on the trade of the salt +works of the neighboring Saline Reserve. The salt-licks--at which +in early days the bones of the mammoth were found, as at Big Bone +Lick--commenced a few miles below the town, and embraced a district +of about ninety thousand acres. While Illinois was still a Territory, +these salines were rented by the United States to individuals, but +were granted to the new State (1818) in perpetuity. The trade, in +time, decreased with the decadence of river traffic; and Shawneetown +has since had but slow growth--it now being a dreary little place of +three thousand inhabitants, with unmistakable evidences of having long +since seen its best days. + +The farmers upon the wide bottoms of the lower reaches now invariably +have their dwellings, corn-cribs, and tobacco-sheds set upon posts, +varying from five to ten feet high, according to the surrounding +elevation above the normal river level. At present we are, as a rule, +hemmed in by banks full thirty or forty feet in height above the +present stage. After a hard climb up the steps which are frequently +found cut into the clay, to facilitate access to the river, it is with +something akin to awe that we look upon these buildings on stilts, for +they bespeak, in times of great flood, a rise in the river of between +fifty and sixty feet. + +Three miles above Saline River, I scrambled up to photograph a +farm-house of this character. In order to get the building within the +field of the camera, it was necessary to mount a cob-house of loose +rails, which did duty as a pig-pen. A young woman of eighteen or +twenty years, attired in a dazzling-red calico gown, came out on the +front balcony to see the operation; and, for a touch of life, I held +her in talk until the picture was taken. She was not at all averse to +thus posing, and chatted as familiarly as though we were old friends. +The water, my model said, came at least once a year to the main floor +of the house, some ten feet above the level of the land, and forty +feet above the normal river stage; "every few years" it rose to the +eaves of this story-and-a-half dwelling, when the family would embark +in boats, hieing off to the back-lying hills, a mile-and-a-half away. +An event of this sort seemed quite commonplace to the girl, and not +at all to be viewed as a calamity. As in other houses of the bottom +farmers of this district, there is no wall-paper, no plaster upon the +walls, and little or nothing else to be injured by water. Their few +household possessions can readily be packed into a scow, together with +the live-stock, and behold the family is ready, if need be, to float +away to the ends of the world. As a matter of fact, if they carry food +enough with them, and a rain-proof tent, their season on the hills +is but a prolonged picnic. When the waters sufficiently subside, they +float back again to their home; the river mud is scraped out of the +rooms, the kitchen-stove rubbed up a bit, and soon everything is again +at rights, with a fresh layer of alluvial deposit to fertilize the +fields. + +Few of these small farmers own the lands they till; from Pittsburg +down, the great majority of Ohio River planters are but tenants. The +old families that once owned the soil are living in the neighboring +towns, or in other parts of the country, and renting out their +acres to these cultivators. We were told that the rental fee around +Owensboro is usually in kind,--fourteen bushels of good, salable corn +being the rate per acre. In "Egypt," as Southern Illinois is called, +the average rent is four or five dollars in money, except in years +when the water remains long upon the ground, and thus shortens the +season; then the fee is correspondingly reduced. The girl on the +balcony averred, that in 1893 it amounted to one-third the value of +the average yield. + +The numerous huge stilted corn cribs we see are constructed so that +wagons can drive up into them, and, after unloading in bins on either +side, descend another incline at the far end. Sometimes a portion of +the crib is boarded up for a residence, with windows, and a little +balcony which does double duty as a porch and a landing-stage for +the boats in time of high water. Scattered about on the level are +loosely-built sheds of rails, for stock, which practically live _al +fresco_, so far as actual storm-shelter goes. + +Usually the flooded bottoms are denuded of trees, save perhaps a +narrow fringe along the bank, and a few dead trunks scattered here and +there; while back, a third or a half-mile from the river, lies a dense +line of forest, far beyond which rises the low rim of the basin. But +just below Saline River (857 miles), a lazy little stream of a few +rods' width, the hills, now perhaps eighty or a hundred feet in +height, again approach to the water's edge; and henceforth to the +mouth we are to have alternating semi-circular, wooded bottoms and +shaly, often palisaded uplands, grown to scrub and vines much in the +fashion of some of the middle reaches. A trading-boat was moored +just within the Saline, where we stopped for lunch under a clump of +sycamores. The owner obtains butter and eggs from the farmers, in +exchange for his varied wares, and sells them at a goodly profit to +passing steamers, which will always stop when flagged. + +Approaching Cave-in-Rock, Ill. (869 miles), the right bank is +for several miles an almost continuous palisade of lime-stone, +thick-studded with black and brown flints. In the breaking down of +this escarpment, popularly styled Battery Rocks, numerous caves have +been formed, the largest of which gave the place its name. It is a +rather low opening into the rock, perhaps two hundred feet deep, and +the floor some twenty feet above the present level of the river; +in times of flood, it is frequently so filled with water that boats +enter, and thousands of silly people have, in two or three generations +past, carved or painted their names upon the vaulted roof.[B] From +this large entrance hall, a chimney-like hole in the roof leads to +other chambers, said to be imposing and widely ramified--"not unlike +a Gothic cathedral," said Ashe, an early English traveler (1806), +who appears to have everywhere in these Western wilds sought the +marvellous, and found it. About 1801, a band of robbers made these +inner recesses their home, and frequently sallied thence to rob +passing boats, and incidentally to murder the crews. As for the little +hamlet of Cave-in-Rock, nestled in a break in the palisade, a few +hundred yards below, it was, between 1801 and 1805, the seat of +another species of brigandage--a land speculation, wherein schemers +waxed rich from the confusion engendered by conflicting claims of +settlers, the outgrowth of carelessly-phrased Indian treaties +and overlapping French and English patents. From 1804 to 1810, a +Congressional committee was engaged in straightening out this weary +tangle; and its decisions, ratified by Congress, are to-day the +foundation of many land-titles in Indiana and Illinois. + +We are in camp to-night upon the Illinois shore, opposite Half-Moon +Bar (872 miles), and a mile above Hurricane Island. Towering above us +are great sycamores, cypress, maples, and elms, and all about a dense +jungle of grasses, vines, and monster weeds--the rank horse-weed being +now some ten feet high, with a stem an inch in diameter; the dead +stalks of last year's growth, in the broad rolling fields to our rear, +indicate a possibility of sixteen feet, and an apparent desire to +out-rival the corn. Cane-brake, too, is prevalent hereabout, with +stalks two inches or more thick. The mulberries are reddening, +the Doctor reports on his return with the Boy from a botanizing +expedition, and black-caps are turning; while bergamot and vervain are +among the plants newly added to the herbarium. + + * * * * * + +Stewart's Island, Friday, 8th.--We arose this morning to find the tent +as wet from dew and fog as if there had been a shower, and the bushes +by the landing were sparkling with great beads of moisture. The bold, +black head of Hurricane Island stood out with startling distinctness, +framed in rolling fog; through a cloud-bank on the horizon, the sun +was bursting with the dull glow of burnished copper. By the time of +starting, the fog had lifted, and the sun swung clear in a steel-blue +sky; but there was still a soft haze on land and river, which dreamily +closed the ever-changing vistas, and we seemed to float through an +enchanted land. + +The approach to Elizabethtown, Ill. (877 miles), is picturesque; +but of the dry little town of seven hundred souls, with its rocky, +undulating streets set in a break in the line of palisades, very +little is to be seen from the river. Quarrying for paving-stones +appears to be the chief pursuit of the Elizabethans. At Rose Clare, +Ill., a string of shanties three miles below, are two idle plants of +the Argyle Lead and Fluor-Spar Mining Co. Carrsville, Ky., is another +arid, hillside hamlet, with striking escarpments stretching above and +below for several miles. Mammoth boulders, a dozen or more feet in +height, relics doubtless of once formidable cliffs, here line the +riverside. The palisaded hills reappear in Illinois, commencing at +Parkinson's Landing, a dreary little settlement on a waste of barren, +stony slope flanking the perpendicular wall. + +Just above Golconda Island (890 miles), on the Illinois side, we +were witness to a "meet" of farmers for a squirrel-hunt, a favorite +amusement in these parts. There were five men upon a side, all +carrying guns; as we passed, they were shaking hands, preparatory to +separating for the battue. Upon the bank above, in a grove of cypress, +pawpaw, and sycamore, their horses were standing, unhitched from the +poles of the wagons in which they had been driven, and, tied to trees, +feeding from boxes set upon the ground. It was pleasant to see that +these people, who must lead dreary lives upon the malaria-stricken +and flood-washed bottoms, occasionally take a holiday with a spice of +rational adventure in it; although there is the probability that this +squirrel-hunt may be followed to-night by a roystering at the village +tavern, the losing side paying the score. + +We reached Stewart's Island (901 miles) at five o'clock, and went into +camp upon the landing-beach of hard, white sand, facing Kentucky. The +island is two miles long, the owner living in Bird's Point Landing, +Ky., just below us--a rather shabby but picturesquely-situated little +village, at the base of pretty, wooded hills. A hundred and fifty +acres of the island are planted to corn, and the owner's laborers--a +white overseer and five blacks--are housed a half-mile above us, in a +rude cabin half-hidden in a generous maple grove. + +The white man soon came down to the strand, riding his mule, and both +drank freely from the muddy river. He was a fairly-intelligent young +fellow, and proud of his mount--no need of lines, he said, for "this +yer mule; ye on'y say 'gee!' and 'haw!' and he done git thar ev'ry +time, sir-r! 'Pears to me, he jist done think it out to hisself, like +a man would. Hit ain't no use try'n' boss that yere mule, he's thet +ugly when he's sot on 't--but jist pat him on th' naick and say, 'So +thar, Solomon!' and thar ain't no one knows how to act better 'n he." + +As we were at dinner, in the twilight, the five negroes also came +riding down the angling roadway, in picturesque single file, singing +snatches of camp-meeting songs in that weird minor key with which +we are so familiar in "jubilee" music. Across the river, a Kentucky +darky, riding a mule along the dusky woodland road at the base of +the hills, and evidently going home from his work in the fields, was +singing at the top of his bent, apparently as a stimulus to failing +courage. Our islanders shouted at him in derision. The shoreman's +replies, which lacked not for spice, came clear and sharp across the +half-mile of smooth water, and his tormentors quickly ceased chaffing. +Having all drunk copiously, men and mules resumed their line of march +up the bank, and disappeared as they came, still chanting the crude +melodies of their people. An hour later, we could hear them at the +cabin, singing "John Brown's Body" and other old friends--with the +moon, bright and clear in its first quarter, adding a touch of romance +to the scene. + +[Footnote A: See Chapter XIII.] + +[Footnote B: "Scrawled over by that class of aspiring travelers who +defile noble monuments with their worthless names."--Irving, in _The +Alhambra_.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + The Cumberland and the Tennessee--Stately Solitudes--Old Fort + Massac--Dead towns in Egypt--The last camp--Cairo. + + +Opposite Metropolis, Ill., Saturday, June 9th.--As we were dressing +this morning, at half-past five, the echoes were again awakened by the +vociferous negro on the Kentucky shore, who was going out to his work +again, as noisy as ever. One of our own black men walked down the +bank, ostensibly to light his pipe at the breakfast fire, but really +to satisfy a pardonable curiosity regarding us. The singing brother on +the mainland appeared to amuse him, and he paused to listen, saying, +"Dat yere nigger, he got too loud voice!" Then, when he had left our +camp and regained the top of the bank, he leaned upon his hoe and +yelled: "Say, niggah, ober dere! whar you git dat mule?" + +"Who you holl'rin' at, you brack island niggah?" was the quick reply. + +"You lan' niggah, you tink you smart!" + +"I'se so smart, I done want no liv'n' on island, wi' gang boss, 'n not +'lowed go 'way!" + +The tuneful darky had evidently here touched a tender spot, for our +man turned back into the field to his work; and the other, kicking the +mule into action, trotted off to the tune of "Dar's a meet'n' here, +to-night!" + +We went up into the field, to see the laborers cultivating corn. The +sun was blazing hot, without a breath of air stirring, but the great +black fellows seemed to mind it not, chattering away to themselves +like magpies, and keeping up their conversation by shouts, when +separated from each other at the ends of plow-rows. A natural levee, +eight and ten feet high, and studded with large tree-willows, rims +in the island farm like the edge of a basin. We were told that this +served as a barrier only against the June "fresh," for the regular +spring floods invariably swamp the place; but what is left within the +bowl, when the outer waters subside, soon leaches through the sandy +soil. + +After passing the pretty shores of Dog Island, not far below, the +bold, dark headland of Cumberland Island soon bursts upon our view. +We follow the narrow eastern channel, in order to greet the Cumberland +River (909 miles), which half-way down its island name-sake,--at the +woe-begone little village of Smithland, Ky.--empties a generous flood +into the Ohio. The Cumberland, perhaps a quarter-of-a-mile wide, +debouches through high clay banks, which might readily be melted in +the turbulent cross-currents produced by the mingling of the rivers; +but to avoid this, the government engineers have built a wing-dam +running out from the foot of the Cumberland, nearly half-way into the +main river. This quickly unites the two streams, and the reinforced +Ohio is thereafter perceptibly widened. + +Tramp steamers are numerous, on these lower reaches. We have seen +perhaps a dozen such to-day, stopping at the farm landings as well as +at the crude and infrequent hamlets,--mere notches of settlement in +the wooded lines of shore,--doing a small business in chance cargoes +and in passengers who flag them from the bank. A sultry atmosphere +has been with us through the day. The glassy surface of the river +has, when not lashed into foam by passing boats, dazzled the eyes most +painfully. The hills, from below Stewart's Island, have receded on +either side, generally leaving either low, broad, heavily-timbered +bottoms, or high clay banks which stretch back wide plains of yellow +and gray corn-land--frequently inundated, but highly productive. Now +and then the encroaching river has remained too long in some belt of +forest, and we have great clumps of dead trees, which spring aloft in +stately picturesqueness, thickly-clad to the limb-tips with Virginia +creeper. A bit of shaly hillside occasionally abuts upon the river, +though less frequently than above; and often such a spur has lying +at its feet a row of half-immersed boulders, delicately carpeted with +mosses and with clinging vines. + +The Tennessee River (918 miles), the largest of the Ohio's +tributaries, is, where it enters, about half the width of the latter. +Coming down through a broad, forested bottom, with several pretty +islands off its mouth, it presents a pleasing picture. Here again the +government has been obliged to put in costly works to stop the ravages +of the mingling torrents in the soft alluvial banks. The Ohio, with +the united waters of the Cumberland and the Tennessee, henceforth +flows majestically to the Mississippi, a full mile wide between her +shores. + +Paducah (13,000 inhabitants), next to Louisville Kentucky's most +important river port, lies on a high plain just below the Tennessee. +It is a stirring little city, with the usual large proportion of +negroes, and the out-door business life everywhere met with in the +South. Saw-mills, iron plants, and ship-yards line the bank; at +the wharf are large steamers doing a considerable business up the +Cumberland and Tennessee, and between Paducah and Cairo and St. Louis; +and there is a considerable ferry business to and from the Illinois +suburb of Brooklyn. + +Seven miles below the Tennessee, on the Illinois side, we sought +relief from the blazing sun within the mouth of Seven Mile Creek, +which is cut deep through sloping banks of mud, and overhung by great +sprawling sycamores. These always interest us from the generosity of +their height and girth, and from their great variety of color-tones, +induced by the patchy scaling of the bark--soft grays, buffs, greens, +and ivory whites prevailing. When sufficiently refreshed in this cool +bower, we ventured once more into the fierce light of the open river, +and two miles below shot into the broader and more inviting Massac +Creek (928 miles), just as, of old, George Rogers Clark did with his +little flotilla, when _en route_ to capture Kaskaskia. Clark, in his +Journal written long after the event, said that this creek is a mile +above Fort Massac; his memory failed him--as a matter of fact, the +steep, low hill of iron-stained gravel and clay, on which the old +stronghold was built, is but two hundred yards below.[A] + +The French commander who, in October, 1758, evacuated and burned Fort +Duquesne on the approach of the English army under General Forbes, +dropped down the Ohio for nearly a thousand miles, and built "a new +fort on a beautiful eminence on the north bank of the river." But +there was a fortified post on this hillock at a much earlier date +(about 1711), erected as a headquarters for missionaries, and to guard +French fur-traders from marauding Cherokees; and Pownall's map notes +one here in 1751. This fort of 1758 was but an enlarged edition of +the old. The new stronghold, with a garrison of a hundred men, was the +last built by the French upon the Ohio, and it was occupied by them +until they evacuated the country in 1763. England does not appear to +have made any attempt to repair and occupy the works then destroyed +by the French, although urged to do so by her military agents in +the West. Had they held Fort Massac, no doubt Clark's expedition to +capture the Northwest for the Americans might easily have been nipped +in the bud; as it was, the old fortress was a ruin when he "reposed" +on the banks of the creek at its feet. + +When, in 1793-1794, the French agent Genet was fomenting his scheme +for capturing Louisiana and Florida from Spain, by the aid of Western +filibusters, old Fort Massac was thought of as a rallying-point and +base of supplies; but St. Clair's proclamation of March 24, 1794, +ordering General Wayne to restore and garrison the place, for the +purpose of preventing the proposed expedition from passing down the +river, ended the conspiracy, and Genet left the country. A year later, +Spain, who had at intervals sought to detach the Westerners from +the Union, and ally them with her interests beyond the Mississippi, +renewed her attempts at corrupting the Kentuckians, and gained to +her cause no less a man than George Rogers Clark himself. Among other +designs, Fort Massac was to be captured by the adventurers, whom +Spain was to supply with the sinews of war. There was much mysterious +correspondence between the latter's corruption agent, Thomas Power, +and the American General Wilkinson, at Detroit; but finally Power, +in disguise, was sent out of the country under guard, by way of Fort +Massac, and his escape into Spanish territory practically ended this +interesting episode in Western history. The fort was occupied as a +military post by our government until the close of the War of 1812-15; +what we see to-day, are the ruins of the establishment then abandoned. + +No doubt the face of this rugged promontory of gravel has, within a +century, suffered much from floods; but the remains of the earthwork +on the crest of the cliff, some fifty feet above the present +river-stage, are still easily traceable throughout. The fort was +about forty yards square, with a bastion at each corner; there are the +remains of an unstoned well near the center; the ditch surrounding +the earthwork is still some two-and-a-half or three feet below the +surrounding level, and the breastwork about two feet above the inner +level; no doubt, palisades once surmounted the work, and were relied +upon as the chief protection from assault. The grounds, a pleasant +grassy grove several acres in extent, are now enclosed by a rail +fence, and neatly maintained as a public park by the little city of +Metropolis, which lies not far below. It was a commanding view of land +and river, which was enjoyed by the garrison of old Fort Massac. Up +stream, there is a straight stretch of eleven miles to the mouth +of the Tennessee; both up and down, the shore lines are under full +survey, until they melt away in the distance. No enemy could well +surprise the holders of this key to the Lower Ohio. + +Our camp is on the sandy beach opposite Metropolis, and two hundred +yards below the Kentucky end of the ferry. Behind us lies a deep +forest, with sycamores six and eight feet in diameter; a country road +curving off through the woods, to the sparse rustic settlement lying +some two miles in the interior--on higher ground than this wooded +bottom, which is annually overflowed. Now and then the blustering +little steam-ferry comes across to land Kentucky farm-folk and +their mules, going home from a Saturday's shopping in Metropolis. +Occasionally a fisherman passes, lagging on his oars to scan us and +our quarters; and from one of them, we purchased a fish. As the +still, cool night crept on, Metropolis was astir; across the mile of +intervening water, darted tremulous shafts of light; we heard voices +singing and laughing, a fiddle in its highest notes, the puffing of +a stationary engine, and the bay and yelp of countless dogs. Later, +a packet swooped down with smothered roar, and threw its electric +search-light on the city wharf, revealing a crowd of negroes gathered +there, like moths in the radiance of a candle; there were gay shouts, +and a mad scampering--we could see it all, as plainly as if in +ordinary light it had been but a third of the distance; and then the +roustabouts struck up a weird song as they ran out the gang-plank, +and, laden with boxes and bales, began swarming ashore, like a +procession of black ants carrying pupa cases. + + * * * * * + +Mound City Towhead, Sunday, 10th.--During the night, burglarious +pigs would have raided our larder, but the crash of a falling kettle +wakened us suddenly, as did geese the ancient Romans. The Doctor and I +sallied forth in our pajamas, with clods of clay in hand, to send the +enemy flying back into the forest, snorting and squealing with baffled +rage. + +We were afloat at half-past seven, under an unclouded sky, with the +sun sharply reflected from the smooth surface of the river, and the +temperature rapidly mounting. + +The Fort Massac ridge extends down stream as far as Mound City, +but soon degenerates into a ridge of clay varying in height from +twenty-five to fifty feet above the water level. Upon the low-lying +bottom of the Kentucky shore, is still an interminable dark line of +forest. The settlements are meager, and now wholly in Illinois: +For instance, Joppa (936 miles), a row of a half-dozen unpainted, +dilapidated buildings, chiefly stores and abandoned warehouses, +bespeaking a river traffic of the olden time, that has gone to decay; +a hot, dreary, baking spot, this Joppa, as it lies sprawling upon +the clay ridge, flanked by a low, wide gravel beach, on which gaunt, +bell-ringing cows are wandering, eating the leaves of fallen trees, +for lack of better pasturage. Our pilot map, of sixty years ago, +records the presence of Wilkinsonville (942 miles), on the site of +old Fort Wilkinson of the War of 1812-15, but no one along the banks +appears to have ever heard of it; however, after much searching, we +found the place for ourselves, on an eminence of fifty feet, with +two or three farm-houses as the sole relics of the old establishment. +Caledonia (Olmstead P.O.), nine miles down, consists of several large +buildings on a hill set well back from the river. Mound City (959 +miles),--the "America" of our time-worn map,--in whose outskirts we +are camped to-night, is a busy town with furniture factories, lumber +mills, ship-yards, and a railway transfer. Below that, stretches the +vast extent of swamp and low woodland on which Cairo (967 miles) has +with infinite pains been built--like "brave little Holland," holding +her own against the floods solely by virtue of her encircling dike. + +Houseboats have been few, to-day, and they of the shanty order and +generally stranded high upon the beach. One sees now and then, on the +Illinois ridge, the cheap log or frame house of a "cracker," the very +picture of desolate despair; but on the Kentucky shore are few signs +of life, for the bottom lies so low that it is frequently inundated, +and settlement ventures no nearer than two or three miles from the +riverside. A fisherman comes occasionally into view, upon this wide +expanse of wood and water and clay-banks; sometimes we hail him in +passing, always getting a respectful answer, but a stare of innocent +curiosity. + +Our last home upon the Ohio is facing the Kentucky shore, on the +cleanly sand-beach of Mound City Towhead, a small island which in +times of high water is but a bar. The tent is screened in a willow +clump; just below us, on higher ground, sycamores soar heavenward, +gayly festooned with vines, hiding from us Mound City and the Illinois +mainland. Across the river, a Kentucky negro is singing in the +gloaming; but it is over a mile away, and, while the tune is plain, +the words are lost. Children's voices, and the bay of hounds, come +wafted to us from the northern shore. A steamer's wake rolls along +our island strand, dangerously near the camp-fire; the river is still +falling, however, and we no longer fear the encroachments of the +flood. The Doctor and I found a secluded nook, where in the moonlight +we took our final plunge. + +It is sad, this bidding good-bye to the stream which has floated us so +merrily for a thousand miles, from the mountains down to the plain. We +elders linger long by the last camp-fire, to talk in fond reminiscence +of the six weeks afloat; while the Boy no doubt dreams peacefully +of houseboats and fishermen, of gigantic bridges and flashing +steel-plants, of coal-mines and oil-wells, of pioneers and Indians, +and all that--of six weeks of kaleidoscopic sensations, at an age when +the mind is keenly active, and the heart open to impressions which can +never be dimmed so long as his little life shall last. + + * * * * * + +Cairo, Monday, 11th.--At our island camp, last night, we were but nine +miles from the mouth of the Ohio, a distance which could easily have +been made before sundown; but we preferred to reach our destination in +the morning, the better to arrange for railway transportation, hence +our agreeable pause upon the Towhead. + +Before embarking for the last run, this morning, we made a neat heap +on the beach, of such of our stores, edible and wearable, as had been +requisite to the trip, but were not worth the cost of sending home. +Feeling confident that some passing fisherman would soon be tempted +ashore to inspect this curious landmark, and yet might be troubled +by nice scruples as to the policy of appropriating the find, we +conspicuously labeled it: "Abandoned by the owners! The finder is +welcome to the lot." + +Quickly passing Mound City, now bustling with life, Pilgrim closely +skirted the monotonous clay-banks of Illinois, swept rapidly under the +monster railway bridge which stalks high above the flood, and +loses itself over the tree-tops of the Kentucky bottom, and at +a quarter-past eight o'clock was pulled up at Cairo, with the +Mississippi in plain sight over there, through the opening in the +forest. In another hour or two, she will be housed in a box-car; +and we, her crew, having again donned the garb of landsmen, will be +speeding toward our northern home, this pilgrimage but a memory. + +Such a memory! As we dropped below the Towhead, the Boy, for once +silent, wistfully gazed astern. When at last Pilgrim had been hauled +upon the railway levee, and the Doctor and I had gone to summon a +shipping clerk, the lad looked pleadingly into W----'s face. In tones +half-choked with tears, he expressed the sentiment of all: "Mother, +is it really ended? Why can't we go back to Brownsville, and do it all +over again?" + +[Footnote A: "In the evening of the same day I ran my Boats into +a small Creek about one mile above the old Fort Missack; Reposed +ourselves for the night, and in the morning took a Rout to the +Northwest."--Clark's letter to Mason.] + + + + +APPENDIX A. + + Historical outline of Ohio Valley settlement. + + +Englishmen had no sooner set foot upon our continent, than they began +to penetrate inland with the hope of soon reaching the Western Ocean, +which the coast savages, almost as ignorant of the geography of the +interior as the Europeans themselves, declared lay just beyond +the mountains. In 1586, we find Ralph Lane, governor of Raleigh's +ill-fated colony, leading his men up the Roanoke River for a hundred +miles, only to turn back disheartened at the rapids and falls, which +necessitated frequent portages through the forest jungles. Twenty +years later (1606), Christopher Newport and the redoubtable John +Smith, of Jamestown, ascended the James as far as the falls--now +Richmond, Va.; and Newport himself, the following year, succeeded in +reaching a point forty miles beyond, but here again was appalled by +the difficulties and returned. + +There was, after this, a deal of brave talk about scaling the +mountains; but nothing further was done until 1650, when Edward Bland +and Edward Pennant again tried the Roanoke, though without penetrating +the wilderness far beyond Lane's turning point. It is recorded that, +in 1669, John Lederer, an adventurous German surgeon, commissioned as +an explorer by Governor Berkeley, ascended to the summit of the Blue +Ridge, in Madison County, Va.; but although he was once more on the +spot the following season, with a goodly company of horsemen and +Indians, and had a bird's-eye view of the over-mountain country, he +does not appear to have descended into the world of woodland which +lay stretched between him and the setting sun. It seems to be well +established that the very next year (1671), a party under Abraham +Wood, one of Governor Berkeley's major-generals, penetrated as far +as the Great Falls of the Great Kanawha, only eighty miles from the +Ohio--doubtless the first English exploration of waters flowing into +the latter river. The Great Kanawha was, by Wood himself, called New +River, but the geographers of the time styled it Wood's. The last +title was finally dropped; the stream above the mouth of the Gauley +is, however, still known as New. These several adventurers had now +demonstrated that while the waters beyond the mountains were not the +Western Ocean, they possibly led to such a sea; and it came to be +recognized, too, that the continent was not as narrow as had up to +this time been supposed. + +Meanwhile, the French of Canada were casting eager eyes toward the +Ohio, as a gateway to the continental interior. But the French-hating +Iroquois held fast the upper waters of the Mohawk, Delaware, and +Susquehanna, and the long but narrow watershed sloping northerly to +the Great Lakes, so that the westering Ohio was for many years sealed +to New France. An important factor in American history this, for it +left the great valley practically free from whites while the English +settlements were strengthening on the seaboard; when at last the +French were ready aggressively to enter upon the coveted field, they +had in the English colonists formidable and finally successful rivals. + +It is believed by many, and the theory is not unreasonable, that the +great French fur-trader and explorer, La Salle, was at the Falls of +the Ohio (site of Louisville) "in the autumn or early winter of 1669." +How he got there, is another question. Some antiquarians believe +that he reached the Alleghany by way of the Chautauqua portage, and +descended the Ohio to the Falls; others, that he ascended the Maumee +from Lake Erie, and, descending the Wabash, thus, discovered the Ohio. +It was reserved for the geographer Franquelin to give, in his map of +1688, the first fairly-accurate idea of the Ohio's path; and Father +Hennepin's large map of 1697 showed that much had meanwhile been +learned about the river. + +No doubt, by this time, the great waterway was well-known to many of +the most adventurous French and English fur-traders, possibly better +to the latter than to the former; unfortunately, these men left few +records behind them, by which to trace their discoveries. As early as +1684, we incidentally hear of the Ohio as a principal route for the +Iroquois, who brought peltries "from the direction of the Illinois" to +the English at Albany, and the French at Quebec. Two years after this, +ten English trading-canoes, loaded with goods, were seen on Lake Erie +by French agents, who in great alarm wrote home to Quebec about them. +Writes De Nonville to Seignelay, "I consider it a matter of importance +to preclude the English from this trade, as they doubtless would +entirely ruin ours--as well by the cheaper bargains they would give +the Indians, as by attracting to themselves the French of our colony +who are in the habit of resorting to the woods." + +Herein lay the gist of the whole matter: The legalized monopoly +granted to the great fur-trade companies of New France, with the +official corruption necessary to create and perpetuate that monopoly, +made the French trade an expensive business, consequently goods were +dear. On the other hand, the trade of the English was untrammeled, and +a lively competition lowered prices. The French cajoled the Indians, +and fraternized with them in their camps; whereas, the English +despised the savages, and made little attempt to disguise their +sentiments. The French, while claiming all the country west of the +Alleghanies, cared little for agricultural colonization; they would +keep the wilderness intact, for the fostering of wild animals, upon +the trade in whose furs depended the welfare of New France--and this, +too, was the policy of the savage. By English statesmen at home, our +continental interior was also chiefly prized for its forest trade, +which yielded rich returns for the merchant adventurers of London. The +policies of the English colonists and of their general government were +ever clashing. The latter looked upon the Indian trade as an entering +wedge; they thought of the West as a place for growth. Close upon +the heels of the path-breaking trader, went the cattle-raiser, and, +following him, the agricultural settler looking for cheap, fresh, and +broader lands. No edicts of the Board of Trade could repress these +backwoodsmen; savages could and did beat them back for a time, but +the annals of the border are lurid with the bloody struggle of the +borderers for a clearing in the Western forest. The greater part of +them were Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas--a +hardy race, who knew not defeat. Steadily they pushed back the rampart +of savagery, and won the Ohio valley for civilization. + +The Indian early recognized the land-grabbing temper of the English, +and felt that a struggle to the death was impending. The French +browbeat their savage allies, and, easily inflaming their passions, +kept the body of them almost continually at war with the English--the +Iroquois excepted, not because the latter were English-lovers, or +did not understand the aim of English colonization, but because the +earliest French had won their undying enmity. Amidst all this weary +strife, the Indian, a born trader who dearly loved a bargain, never +failed to recognize that the goods of his French friends were dear, +and that those of his enemies, the English, were cheap. We find +frequent evidences that for a hundred years the tribesmen of the Upper +Lakes carried on an illicit trade with the hated English, whenever the +usually-wary French were thought to be napping. + +It is certain that English forest traders were upon the Ohio in the +year 1700. In 1715,--the year before Governor Spotswood of Virginia, +"with much feasting and parade," made his famous expedition over the +Blue Ridge,--there was a complaint that traders from Carolina had +reached the villages on the Wabash, and were poaching on the French +preserves. French military officers built little log stockades along +that stream, and tried in vain to induce the Indians of the valley to +remove to St. Joseph's River, out of the sphere of English influence. +Everywhere did French traders meet English competitors, who were +not to be frightened by orders to move off the field. New France, +therefore, determined to connect Canada and Louisiana by a chain of +forts throughout the length of the Mississippi basin, which should +not only secure untrammeled communication between these far-separated +colonies, but aid in maintaining French supremacy throughout the +region. Yet in 1725 we still hear of "the English from Carolina" +busily trading with the Miamis under the very shadow of the guns of +Fort Ouiatanon (near Lafayette, Ind.), and the French still vainly +scolding thereat. What was going on upon the Wabash, was true +elsewhere in the Ohio basin, as far south as the Creek towns on the +sources of the Tennessee. + +About this time, Pennsylvania and Virginia began to exhibit interest +in their own overlapping claims to lands in the country northwest of +the Ohio. Those colonies were now settled close to the base of the +mountains, and there was heard a popular clamor for pastures new. +French ownership of the over-mountain region was denied, and in 1728 +Pennsylvania "viewed with alarm the encroachments of the French." The +issue was now joined; both sides claimed the field, but, as usual, the +contest was at first among the rival forest traders. In the Virginia +and Pennsylvania capitals, the transmontane country was still a misty +region. In 1729, Col. William Byrd, an authority on things Virginian, +was able to write that nothing was then known in that colony of the +sources of the Potomac, Roanoke, and Shenandoah. It was not until 1736 +that Col. William Mayo, in laying out the boundaries of Lord Fairfax's +generous estate, discovered in the Alleghanies the head-spring of the +Potomac, where ten years later was planted the famous "Fairfax Stone," +the southwest point of the boundary between Virginia and Maryland. +That very same year (1746), M. de Léry, chief engineer of New France, +went with a detachment of troops from Lake Erie to Chautauqua Lake, +and proceeded thence by Conewango Creek and Alleghany River to the +Ohio, which he carefully surveyed down to the mouth of the Great +Miami. + +Affairs moved slowly in those days. New France was corrupt and weak, +and the English colonists, unaided by the home government, were not +strong. For many years, nothing of importance came out of this rivalry +of French and English in the Ohio Valley, save the petty quarrels of +fur-traders, and the occasional adventure of some Englishman taken +prisoner by Indians in a border foray, and carried far into the +wilderness to meet with experiences the horror of which, as preserved +in their published narratives, to this day causes the blood of the +reader to curdle. + +Now and then, there were voluntary adventurers into these strange +lands. Such were John Howard, John Peter Salling, and two other +Virginians who, the story goes, went overland (1740 or 1741) under +commission of their inquisitive governor, to explore the country to +the Mississippi. They went down Coal and Wood's Rivers to the Ohio, +which in Salling's journal is called the "Alleghany." Finally, a party +of French, negroes, and Indians took them prisoners and carried them +to New Orleans, where on meager fare they were held in prison for +eighteen months. They escaped at last, and had many curious adventures +by land and sea, until they reached home, from which they had been +absent two years and three months. There are now few countries on the +globe where a party of travelers could meet with adventures such as +these. + +At last, the plot thickened; the tragedy was hastened to a close. +France now formally asserted her right to all countries drained by +streams emptying into the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the +Mississippi. This vast empire would have extended from the comb of +the Rockies on the west--discovered in 1743 by the brothers La +Vérendrye--to the crest of the Appalachians on the east, thus +including the western part of New York and New England. The narrow +strip of the Atlantic coast alone would have been left to the +domination of Great Britain. The demand made by France, if acceded to, +meant the death-blow to English colonization on the American +mainland; and yet it was made not without reason. French explorers, +missionaries, and fur-traders had, with great enterprise and +fortitude, swarmed over the entire region, carrying the flag, the +religion, and the commerce of France into the farthest forest wilds; +while the colonists of their rival, busy in solidly welding their +industrial commonwealths, had as yet scarcely peeped over the +Alleghany barrier. + +It was asserted on behalf of Great Britain, that the charters of her +coast colonies carried their bounds far into the West; further, that +as, by the treaty of Utrecht (1713), France had acknowledged the +suzerainty of the British king over the Iroquois confederacy, the +English were entitled to all lands "conquered" by those Indians, +whose war-paths had extended from the Ottawa River on the north to +the Carolinas on the south, and whose forays reached alike to the +Mississippi and to New England. In this view was made, in 1744, the +famous treaty at Lancaster, Pa., whereat the Iroquois, impelled by rum +and presents, pretended to give to the English entire control of the +Ohio Valley, under the claim that the former had in various encounters +conquered the Shawanese of that region and were therefore entitled +to it. It is obvious that a country occasionally raided by marauding +bands of savages, whose homes are far away, cannot properly be +considered theirs by conquest. + +Meanwhile, both sides were preparing to occupy and hold the contested +field. New France already had a weak chain of waterside forts +and commercial stations,--the rendezvous of fur-traders, priests, +travelers, and friendly Indians,--extending, with long intervening +stretches of savage-haunted wilderness, through the heart of the +continent, from Lower Canada to her outlying post of New Orleans. It +is not necessary here to enter into the details of the ensuing French +and Indian War, the story of which Parkman has told us so well. +Suffice it briefly to mention a few only of its features, so far as +they affect the Ohio itself. + +The Iroquois, although concluding with the English this treaty +of Lancaster, "on which, as a corner-stone, lay the claim of the +colonists to the West," were by this time, as the result of wily +French diplomacy, growing suspicious of their English protectors; at +the same time, having on several occasions been severely punished +by the French, they were less rancorous in their opposition to New +France. For this reason, just as the English were getting ready to +make good their claim to the Ohio by actual colonization, the Iroquois +began to let in the French at the back door. In 1749, Galissonière, +then governor of New France, dispatched to the great valley a party +of soldiers under Céloron de Bienville, with directions to conduct a +thorough exploration, to bury at the mouths of principal streams lead +plates graven with the French claim,--a custom of those days,--and to +drive out English traders, Céloron proceeded over the Lake Chautauqua +route, from Lake Erie to the Alleghany River, and thence down the +Ohio to the Miami, returning to Lake Erie over the old Maumee portage. +English traders, who could not be driven out, were found swarming into +the country, and his report was discouraging. The French realized +that they could not maintain connection between New Orleans and their +settlements on the St. Lawrence, if driven from the Ohio valley. The +governor sent home a plea for the shipment of ten thousand French +peasants to settle the region; but the government at Paris was just +then as indifferent to New France as was King George to his colonies, +and the settlers were not sent. + +Meanwhile, the English were not idle. The first settlement they made +west of the mountains, was on New River, a branch of the Kanawha +(1748); in the same season, several adventurous Virginians hunted and +made land-claims in Kentucky and Tennessee. Before the close of the +following year (1749), there had been formed, for fur-trading and +colonizing purposes, the Ohio Company, composed of wealthy Virginians, +among whom were two brothers of Washington. King George granted the +company five hundred thousand acres, south of and along the Ohio +River, on which they were to plant a hundred families and build +and maintain a fort. As a base of supplies, they built a fortified +trading-house at Will's Creek (now Cumberland, Md.), near the head of +the Potomac, and developed a trail ("Nemacolin's Path"), sixty miles +long, across the Laurel Hills to the mouth of Redstone Creek, on the +Monongahela, where was built another stockade (1752). + +Christopher Gist, a famous backwoodsman, was sent (1750), the year +after Céloron's expedition, to explore the country as far down as +the falls of the Ohio, and select lands for the new company. Gist's +favorable report greatly stimulated interest in the Western country. +In his travels, he met many Scotch-Irish fur-traders who had passed +into the West through the mountain valleys of Pennsylvania, Virginia, +and the Carolinas. His negotiations with the natives were of great +value to the English cause. + +It was early seen, by English and French alike, that an immense +advantage would accrue to the nation first in possession of what is +now the site of Pittsburg, the meeting-place of the Monongahela and +Alleghany rivers to form the Ohio--the "Forks of the Ohio," as it was +then called. In the spring of 1753, a French force occupied the new +fifteen-mile portage route between Presque Isle (Erie, Pa.) and French +Creek, a tributary of the Alleghany. On the banks of French Creek they +built Fort Le Boeuf, a stout log-stockade. It had been planned to +erect another fort at the Forks of the Ohio, one hundred and twenty +miles below; but disease in the camp prevented the completion of the +scheme. + +What followed is familiar to all who have taken any interest whatever +in Western history. In November, Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, sent +one of his major-generals, young George Washington, with Gist as a +companion, to remonstrate with the French at Le Boeuf for occupying +land "so notoriously known to be the property of the Crown of Great +Britain." The French politely turned the messengers back. In the +following April (1754), Washington set out with a small command, by +the way of Will's Creek, to forcibly occupy the Forks. His advance +party were building a fort there, when the French appeared and easily +drove them off. Then followed Washington's defeat at Great Meadows +(July 4). The French were now supreme at their new Fort Duquesne. +The following year, General Braddock set out from Virginia, also by +Nemacolin's Path; but, on that fateful ninth of July, fell in the +slaughter-pen which had been set for him at Turtle Creek by the +Indians of the Upper Lakes, under the leadership of a French +fur-trader from far-off Wisconsin. + +From the time of Braddock's defeat until the close of the war, French +traders, with savage allies, poured the vials of their wrath upon the +encroaching settlements of the English backwoodsmen. Nemacolin's Path, +now known as Braddock's Road, made for the Indians of the Ohio an +easy pathway to the English borders of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and +Maryland. In the parallel valleys of the Alleghanies was waged a +partisan warfare, which in bitterness has probably not had its equal +in all the long history of the efforts of expanding civilization +to beat down the encircling walls of barbarism. In 1758, Canada +was attacked by several English expeditions, the most of which were +successful. One of these was headed by General John Forbes, and +directed against Fort Duquesne. After a remarkable forest march, +overcoming mighty obstacles, Forbes arrived at his destination to find +that the French had blown up the fortifications, some of the troops +retreating to Lake Erie and others to rehabilitate Fort Massac on the +Lower Ohio. + +Thus England gained possession of the valley. New France had been cut +in twain. The English Fort Pitt commanded the Forks of the Ohio, +and French rule in America was now doomed. The fall of Quebec soon +followed (1759), then of Montreal (1760); and in 1763 was signed +the Treaty of Paris, by which England obtained possession of all +the territory east of the Mississippi River, except the city of New +Orleans and a small outlying district. In order to please the savages +of the interior, and to cultivate the fur-trade,--perhaps also, to +act as a check upon the westward growth of the too-ambitious coast +colonies,--King George III. took early occasion to command his "loving +subjects" in America not to purchase or settle lands beyond the +mountains, "without our especial leave and license." It is needless to +say that this injunction was not obeyed. The expansion of the English +colonies in America was irresistible; the Great West was theirs, and +they proceeded in due time to occupy it. + +Long before the close of the French and Indian War, English +colonists--whom we will now, for convenience, call Americans--had made +agricultural settlements in the Ohio basin. As early as 1752, we have +seen, the Redstone fort was built. In 1753, the French forces, +on retiring from Great Meadows, burned several log cabins on the +Monongahela. The interesting story of the colonizing of the Redstone +district, at the western end of Braddock's Road, has been outlined in +Chapter I. of the text; and it has been shown, in the course of the +narrative of the pilgrimage, how other districts were slowly settled +in the face of savage opposition. Although driven back in numerous +Indian wars, these American borderers had come to the Ohio valley to +stay. + +We have seen the early attempt of the Ohio Company to settle the +valley. Its agents blazed the way, but the French and Indian War, and +the Revolution soon following, tended to discourage the aspirations +of the adventurers, and the organization finally lapsed. Western land +speculators were as active in those days as now, and Washington was +chief among them. We find him first interested in the valley, through +broad acres acquired on land-grants issued for military services in +the French and Indian War; Revolutionary bounty claims made him a +still larger landholder on Western waters; and, to the close of the +century, he was actively interested in schemes to develop the region. +We are not in the habit of so regarding him, but both by frequent +personal presence in the Ohio valley, and extensive interests at stake +there, the Father of his Country was the most conspicuous of Western +pioneers. Dearly did Washington love the West, which he knew so well; +when the Revolutionary cause looked dark, and it seemed possible that +England might seize the coast settlements, he is said to have cried, +"We will retire beyond the mountains, and be free!" and in his +declining years he seemed to regret that he was too old to join his +former comrades of the camp, in their colony at Marietta. + +As early as 1754, Franklin, in his famous Albany Plan of Union for the +colonies, had a device for establishing new states in the West, upon +lands purchased from the Indians. In 1773, he displayed interest in +the Walpole plan for another colony,--variously called Pittsylvania, +Vandalia, and New Barataria--with its proposed capital at the mouth +of the Great Kanawha. There were, too, several other Western colonial +schemes,--among them the Henderson colony of Transylvania, between +the Cumberland and the Tennessee, the seat of which was Boonesborough. +Readers of Roosevelt well know its brief but brilliant career, +intimately connected with the development of Tennessee and Kentucky. +But the most of these hopeful enterprises came to grief with the +political secession of the colonies; and when the coast States ceded +their Western land-claims to the new general government, and the +Ordinance of 1787 provided for the organization of the Territory +Northwest of the River Ohio, there was no room for further enterprises +of this character.[A] + +The story of the Ohio is the story of the West. With the close of the +Revolution, came a rush of travel down the great river. It was more or +less checked by border warfare, which lasted until 1794; but in +that year, Anthony Wayne, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, broke the +backbone of savagery east of the Mississippi; the Tecumseh uprising +(1812-13) came too late seriously to affect the dwellers on the Ohio. + +There were two great over-mountain highways thither, one of them being +Braddock's Road, with Redstone (now Brownsville, Pa.) and Pittsburg as +its termini; the other was Boone's old trail, or Cumberland Gap. With +the latter, this sketch has naught to do. + +By the close of the Revolution, Pittsburg--in Gist's day, but a +squalid Indian village, and a fording-place--was still only "a distant +out-post, merely a foothold in the Far West." By 1785, there were +a thousand people there, chiefly engaged in the fur-trade and in +forwarding emigrants and goods to the rapidly-growing settlements on +the middle and lower reaches of the river. The population had doubled +by 1803. By 1812 there was to be seen here just the sort of bustling, +vicious frontier town, with battlement-fronts and ragged streets, +which Buffalo and then Detroit became in after years. Cincinnati and +Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City, had still later, each in turn, +their share of this experience; and, not many years ago, Bismarck, +Omaha, and Leadville. From Philadelphia and Baltimore and Richmond, +there were running to Pittsburg or Redstone regular lines of stages +for the better class of passengers; freight wagons laden with immense +bales of goods were to be seen in great caravans, which frequently +were "stalled" in the mud of the mountain roads; emigrants from all +parts of the Eastern States, and many countries of Europe, often +toiled painfully on foot over these execrable highways, with their +bundles on their backs, or following scrawny cattle harnessed to +makeshift vehicles; and now and then came a well-to-do equestrian with +his pack-horses,--generally an Englishman,--who was out to see the +country, and upon his return to write a book about it. + +At Pittsburg, and points on the Alleghany, Youghiogheny, and +Monongahela, were boat-building yards which turned out to order a +curious medley of craft--arks, flat- and keel-boats, barges, pirogues, +and schooners of every design conceivable to fertile brain. Upon +these, travelers took passage for the then Far West, down the +swift-rolling Ohio. There have descended to us a swarm of published +journals by English and Americans alike, giving pictures, more or +less graphic, of the men and manners of the frontier; none is without +interest, even if in its pages the priggish author but unconsciously +shows himself, and fails to hold the mirror up to the rest of nature. +With the introduction of steamboats,--the first was in 1811, but they +were slow to gain headway against popular prejudice,--the old river +life, with its picturesque but rowdy boatmen, its unwieldy flats and +keels and arks, began to pass away, and water traffic to approach the +prosaic stage; the crossing of the mountains by the railway did away +with the boisterous freighters, the stages, and the coaching-taverns; +and when, at last, the river became paralleled by the iron way, the +glory of the steamboat epoch itself faded, riverside towns adjusted +themselves to the new highways of commerce, new centers arose, and +"side-tracked" ports fell into decay. + +[Footnote A: See Turner's "Western State-Making in the Revolutionary +Era," in _Amer. Hist. Rev._, Vol. I.; also, Alden's "New Governments +West of the Alleghanies," _Bull. Univ. Wis._, Hist. Series, Vol. II.] + + + + +APPENDIX B. + + Selected list of Journals of previous travelers down the Ohio. + + +_Gist, Christopher._ Gist's Journals; with historical, geographical, +and ethnological notes, and biographies of his contemporaries, by +William M. Darlington. Pittsburg, 1893. + + Gist's trip down the valley, from October, 1750, to May, 1751, + was on horseback, as far as the site of Frankfort, Ky. On his + second trip into Kentucky, from November, 1751, to March 11, + 1752, he touched the river at few points. + +_Gordon, Harry._ Extracts from the Journal of Captain Harry Gordon, +chief engineer in the Western department in North America, who was +sent from Fort Pitt, on the River Ohio, down the said river, etc., to +Illinois, in 1766. + + Published in Pownall's "Topographical Description of North + America," Appendix, p. 2. + +_Washington, George._ Journal of a tour to the Ohio River. [Writings, +ed. by Ford, vol. II. New York, 1889.] + + The trip lasted from October 5 to December 1, 1770. The party + went in boats from Fort Pitt, as far down as the mouth of + the Great Kanawha. This journal is the best on the subject, + written in the eighteenth century. + +_Pownall, T._ A topographical description of such parts of North +America as are contained in the [annexed] map of the Middle British +Colonies, etc. London, 1776. + + Contains "Extracts from Capt. Harry Gordon's Journal," + "Extracts from Mr. Lewis Evans' Journal" of 1743, and + "Christopher Gist's Journal" of 1750-51. + +_Hutchins, Thomas._ Topographical description of Virginia, +Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina, comprehending the Rivers +Ohio, Kenhawa, Sioto, Cherokee, Wabash, Illinois, Mississippi, etc. +London, 1778. + +_St. John, M._ Lettres d'un cultivateur Americain. Paris, 1787, 3 +vols. + + Vol. 3 contains an account of the author's boat trip down the + river, in 1784. + +_De Vigni, Antoine F. S._ Relation of his voyage down the Ohio River +from Pittsburg to the Falls, in 1788. + + Graphic and animated account by a French physician who came + out with the Scioto Company's immigrants to Gallipolis. Given + in "Proc. Amer. Antiq. Soc.", Vol. XI., pp. 369-380. + +_May, John._ Journal and letters [to the Ohio country, 1788-89], +Cincinnati, 1873. + + One of the best, for economic views. May was a Boston + merchant. + +_Forman, Samuel S._ Narrative of a journey down the Ohio and +Mississippi in 1789-90. With a memoir and illustrative notes, by Lyman +C. Draper. Cincinnati, 1888. + + A lively and appreciative account. Touches social life at the + garrisons, _en route_. + +_Ellicott, Andrew._ Journal of the late commissioner on behalf of +the United States during part of the year 1796, the years 1797, 1798, +1799, and part of the year 1800: for determining the boundary between +the United States and Spain. Philadelphia, 1803. + + His trip down the river was in 1796. + +_Baily, Francis._ Journal of a tour in unsettled parts of North +America, in 1796 and 1797. London, 1856. + + The author's river voyage was in 1796. + +_Harris, Thaddeus Mason._ Journal of a tour into the territory +northwest of the Alleghany Mountains; made in the spring of the year +1803. Boston, 1805. + + A valuable work. The author traveled on a flatboat. + +_Michaux, F. A._ Travels to the west of the Alleghany Mountains. +London (2nd ed.), 1805. + + Excellent, for economic conditions. The expedition was made in + 1802. + +_Ashe, Thomas._ Travels in America, performed in 1806. London, 1808. + + Among the best of the early journals, although abounding in + exaggerations. + +_Cuming, F._ Sketches of a tour to the Western country, etc., +commenced in 1807 and concluded in 1809. Pittsburg, 1810. + +_Bradbury, John._ Travels [1809-11] in the interior of America. +Liverpool, 1817. + +_Melish, John._ Travels in the United States of America [1811]. +Philadelphia, 1812, 2 vols. + + Vol. 2 contains the journal of the author's voyage down the + river, in a skiff. The account of means of early navigation is + graphic. + +_Flint, Timothy._ Recollections of the last ten years. Boston, 1826. + + There is no better account of boats, and river life generally, + in 1814-15, the time of Flint's voyage. + +_Fearon, Henry Bradshaw._ Sketches of America [1817]. London, 1819. + +_Palmer, John._ Journal of travels in the United States of North +America [1817]. London, 1818. + +_Evans, Estwick._ A pedestrian tour [1818] of four thousand miles +through the Western states and territories. Concord, N. H., 1819. + +_Birkbeck, Morris._ Notes on a journey in America, from the coast of +Virginia to the Territory of Illinois. London, 1818. + + The author traveled, in 1817, by light wagon from Richmond to + Pittsburg; and from Pittsburg to Cincinnati by horseback. This + book, interesting for economic conditions, together with + the author's "Letters from Illinois," did much to inspire + emigration to Illinois from England. His English colony, at + English Prairie, Ill., was much visited by travelers of the + period. + +_Faux, W._ Journal of a tour to the United States [in 1819]. + + Excellent pictures of American life and agricultural methods, + by an English gentleman farmer. Attacks Birkbeck's roseate + views. + +_Ogden, George W._ Letters from the West, comprising a tour through +the Western country [1821], and a residence of two summers in the +States of Ohio and Kentucky. New Bedford, Mass., 1823. + +_Welby, Adlard._ A visit to North America and the English settlements +in Illinois. London, 1821. + + The author went by horseback, occasionally touching the river + towns. + +_Beltrami, J. C._ Pilgrimage in Europe and America. London, 1828, 2 +vols. + + In Vol. II the author describes a steamboat journey in 1823, + from Pittsburg to the mouth. + +_Hall, James._ Letters from the West. London, 1828. + + Valuable for scenery, manners, and customs, and anecdotes of + early Western settlement. + +_Anonymous._ The Americans as they are; described by a tour through +the valley of the Mississippi. London, 1828. + +_Trollope, Mrs._ [Frances M.]. Domestic manners of the Americans. +London and New York, 1832. + + A lively caricature, the precursor of Dickens' "American + Notes." Mrs. Trollope's voyages on the Ohio were in 1828 and + 1830. + +_Vigne, Godfrey T._ Six months in America. London, 1832, 2 vols. + +_Hamilton, T._ Men and manners in America. Philadelphia, 1833. + + Includes a steamboat journey from Pittsburg to New Orleans. + +_Alexander, Capt. J. E._ Transatlantic sketches. London, 1833, 2 vols. + + Vol. II. has an account of a trip up the river. + +_Stuart, James._ Three years in North America. New York, 1833, 2 vols. + + Vol. II. includes a voyage up the Ohio. The author takes + issue, throughout, with Mrs. Trollope. + +_Brackenridge, H. M._ Recollections of persons and places in the West. +Philadelphia, 1834. + + Describes river trips, during the first decade of the century. + +_Tudor, Henry._ Narrative of a tour [1831-32] in North America. +London, 1834, 2 vols. + + The Ohio trip is in Vol. II. + +_Arfwedson, C. D._ The United States and Canada, in 1832, 1833, and +1834. London, 1834, 2 vols. + + In Vol. II is a report of a steamboat trip up the river. + +_Latrobe, Charles Joseph._ The rambler in North America. New York, +1835, 2 vols. + + Vol. II has an account of a descending steamboat voyage. + +_Anonymous._ A winter in the West. By a New Yorker. New York (2nd +ed.), 1835, 2 vols. + + In Vol. I. is an entertaining account of a stage-coach ride in + 1833, from Pittsburg to Cleveland, touching all settlements on + the Upper Ohio down to Beaver River. + +_Nichols, Thomas L._ Forty years of American life. London, 1864, 2 +vols. + + In Vol. I. the author tells of a steamboat tour from Pittsburg + to New Orleans, in 1840. + +_Dickens, Charles._ American notes. New York, 1842. + + Dickens, in 1841, traveled in steamboats from Pittsburg to + St. Louis. His dyspeptic comments on life and manners in the + United States, at the time grated harshly on the ears of our + people; but afterward, they grew strong and wise enough to + smile at them. The book is to-day, like Mrs. Trollope's, + entertaining reading for an American. + +_Rubio_ (pseud.). Rambles in the United States and Canada, in 1845. +London, 1846. + + A typical English growler, who thinks America "the most + disagreeable of all disagreeable countries;" nevertheless, + he says of the Ohio, "a finer thousand miles of river scenery + could hardly be found in the wide world." + +_Mackay, Alex._ The Western world; or, travels in the United States in +1846-47. London, 1849. + + Good for its character sketches, glimpses of slavery, and + report of economic conditions. + +_Robertson, James._ A few months in America [winter of 1853-54]. +London, n. d. + + Chiefly statistical. + +_Murray, Charles Augustus._ Travels in North America. London, 1854, 2 +vols. + + Vol. I has the Ohio-river trip. The author is an appreciative + Englishman, and tells his story well. + +_Murray, Henry A._ Lands of the slave and the free. London, 1855, 2 +vols. + + In Vol. I is an account of an Ohio-river voyage. + +_Ferguson, William._ America by river and rail [in 1855]. London, +1856. + +_Lloyd, James T._ Steamboat directory, and disasters on the Western +waters. Cincinnati, 1856. + + Valuable for stories and records of the early days of river + transportation. + +_Anonymous._ A short American tramp in the fall of 1864. By the editor +of "Life in Normandy." Edinburgh, 1865. + + An English geologist's journal. Distorted and overdrawn, on + the travel side. He took steamer from St. Louis to Cincinnati. + +_Bishop, Nathaniel H._ Four months in a sneak-box. Boston, 1879. + + The author, in the winter of 1875-76, voyaged in an open boat + from Pittsburg to New Orleans, and along the Gulf coast to + Florida. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Aberdeen, Ky., 167. + + Albany, N.Y., 299, 316. + + Alden, George H., 316. + + Alexander, J. E., 325. + + Alexandria, O., 151. + + Alexandria, Va., 131. + + Allegheny City, Pa., 21. + + Alton, Ind., 224, 228, 231, 233, 234. + + America, Ill. _See_ Mound City, Ill. + + Antiquity, O., 115. + + Arfwedson, C. D., 326. + + Ashe, Thomas, 114, 273, 323. + + Ashland, Ky., 142, 143. + + Athalia, O., 136. + + Audubon, John James, 257, 258. + + Augusta, Ky., 170, 171. + + Aurora, Ind., 186, 187. + + + Baker's Bottom, W. Va., 36. + + Baily, Francis, 322. + + Baltimore, 162, 318. + + Barlow, Joel, 130, 131. + + Bearsville, O., 73, 74. + + Beaver, Pa., 27-30. + + Belpré, O., 100-102. + + Beltrami, J. C., 324. + + Berkeley, Sir William, 297. + + Bethlehem, Ind., 260. + + Big Bone Lick, 152, 153, 191, 195-198, 268. + + Big Grave Creek, 62-66. + + Bird's Point Landing, Ky., 277. + + Birkbeck, Morris, 323, 324. + + Bishop, Nathaniel H., 328. + + Bismarck, N. D., 318. + + Bland, Edward, 297. + + Blennerhassett, Harman, 95-98. + + Blennerhassett's Island, 95-98, 101. + + Blue Lick, 160. + + Boone, Daniel, 142, 206. + + Boonesborough, Ky., 316. + + Boone's Trail. _See_ Wilderness Road. + + Brackenridge, H. M., 325, 326. + + Bradbury, John, 323. + + Braddock, Gen. Edward, 4, 16, 17, 128, 312. + + Braddock, Pa., 17. + + Braddock's Road, 4, 12, 160, 312, 314, 317. + + Brandenburg, Ind., 223, 224. + + Bridgeport, O., 60. + + Broderickville, O., 137. + + Brooklyn, Ill., 284. + + Brown's Islands, 265, 266. + + Brownsville, Pa., 1-6, 8, 12, 15, 19, 30, 61, 129, 131, + 160, 162, 180, 295, 314, 317, 318. + + Buffalo, N. Y., 318. + + Burlington, O., 137. + + Burr, Aaron, 96, 97. + + Butler's Run, 67. + + Byrd, Col. William, 304. + + + Cairo, Ill., 7, 15, 222, 284, 291, 294, 295. + + California, O., 180. + + Caledonia, Ill. _See_ Olmstead, Ill. + + Cannelton, Ind., 242. + + Captina, O., 70, 71. + + Captina Creek, 67, 70-72. + + Captina Island, 69, 70. + + Carrollton, Ky., 206. + + Carrsville, Ky., 276. + + Catlettsburg, Ky., 137, 141. + + Cave-in-Rock, Ill., 273, 274. + + Céleron de Bienville, 90, 125, 309, 310. + + Ceredo, W. Va., 137, 141. + + Charleroi, Pa., 5, 8, 9. + + Charleston, W. Va., 115, 127. + + Chartier, Pa., 5, 8, 9. + + Chartier's Creek, 23. + + Cherokee Indians, 286. + + Cheshire, O., 119. + + Chesapeake & Ohio railway, 172. + + Chicago, 318. + + Chillicothe, O., 152, 179. + + Chilo, O., 170. + + Cincinnati, 88, 157, 159, 162, 170, 177-184, 217, 252, + 318, 324, 328. + + Circleville, O., 102. + + Clark, George Rogers, 4, 5, 70, 72, 73, 94, 159, 178, 179, + 218-220, 264, 285-287. + + Clarksville, Ind., 219, 220. + + Cloverport, Ky., 239-242. + + Coal Valley, Pa., 13. + + Collins, Richard H., 153. + + Columbia, O., 180. + + Concordia, Ky., 234, 235. + + Conewango Creek, 304. + + Connolly, Dr. John, 218. + + Conwell, Yates, 72. + + Corn Island, 219, 220. + + Cornstalk, Shawanee chief, 128, 129, 221. + + Covington, Ky., 178, 183, 184. + + Crawford, Col. William, 46. + + Creek Indians, 303. + + Cresap, Michael, 67. + + Cresap's Bottom, 72. + + Croghan, George, 91, 95, 114, 152. + + Crooked Creek, 130, 244. + + Cumberland, Md., 310. + + Cumberland Gap, 127, 160-162, 317. + + Cumberland Island, 282. + + Cumberland Pike. _See_ Braddock's Road. + + Cuming, F., 322, 323. + + Curran, Barney, 29. + + Cypress Bend, 260. + + + Darlington, William M., 320. + + Doddridge, Joseph, 115. + + Deep Water Landing, Ind., 234. + + De Léry, Gaspard Chaussegros, 304. + + Denman, Matthias, 179. + + De Nonville, Gov. Jacques René de Brisay, 300. + + Derby, Ky., 235-237, 243, 244. + + Detroit, Mich., 287, 318. + + De Vigni, Antoine F. S., 321. + + Diamond Island, 264. + + Dickens, Charles, 66, 325, 326. + + Dillon's Bottom, 66. + + Dinwiddie, Gov. Robert, 311. + + Dog Island, 281, 282. + + Dover, Ky., 170. + + Draper, Lyman C., 321. + + Dravosburg, Pa., 13. + + Dufour, John James, 204, 205. + + Dunkard Creek, 72. + + Dunlap Creek, 3. + + Dunmore, Lord, 23, 61, 102, 103, 125-129, 218, 221. + + + East Liverpool, O., 35. + + Economy, Pa., 26. + + Elizabeth, Pa., 12, 15. + + Elizabethtown, Ill., 275, 276. + + Ellicott, Andrew, 181, 322. + + Emmerick's Landing, Ky., 244. + + English Prairie, Ill., 324. + + Enterprise, Ind., 254. + + Erie, Pa., 311. + + Evans, Estwick, 323. + + Evans, Lewis, 321. + + Evansville, Ind., 255, 256, 260, 265. + + + Fairfax, Lord, 304. + + Fallen Timbers, 181, 317. + + Falls of Ohio. _See_ Louisville, Ky. + + Faux, W., 324. + + Fearon, Henry Bradshaw, 323. + + Ferguson, William, 327. + + Filson, John, 179-181. + + Fish Creek, 72, 73. + + Fishing Creek, 74. + + Flint, Timothy, 162, 163, 181, 323. + + Forbes, Gen. John, 285, 313. + + Forks of the Ohio. _See_ Pittsburg. + + Forman, Samuel S., 322. + + Foreman, Capt. William, 63. + + Fort Charlotte, 221. + Duquesne, 16, 17, 285, 312, 313. _See_ Pittsburg. + Fincastle, 61. + Finney, 180. + Gower, 102, 103, 129. + Harmar, 91. + Henry, 61. + Le Boeuf, 15, 26, 311, 312. + Massac, 285-288, 290, 313. + Necessity, 4. + Pitt, 127, 129, 160-162. _See_ Pittsburg. + Randolph, 129. + Washington, 180. + Wilkinson, 291. + + Foster, Ky., 170, 171. + + Frampton, O., 137. + + Frankfort, Ky., 320. + + Franklin, Benjamin, 316. + + Franquelin, Jean B. L., 299. + + Freeman, O., 40. + + French, in Ohio valley, 15, 17, 29, 30, 90, 125, 131, 132, 197, + 205, 285, 286, 298-313, 321. + + French Creek, 311. + + French Islands, 253. + + Fry, John, 141. + + + Galissonière, Count de, 308. + + Gallipolis, O., 130-133. + + Garrison Creek, 185. + + Genet, Edmund Charles, 286. + + George III., king, 309, 310, 313, 314. + + Georgetown, Pa., 34. + + Germans, in Ohio valley, 26, 132, 205. + + Girty, Simon, 71. + + Gist, Christopher, 15, 26, 29, 91, 151, 152, 310, 311, 317, + 320, 321. + + Glassport, Pa., 13. + + Glenwood, W. Va., 134. + + Gnadenhütten, 91. + + Golconda Island, 276. + + Goose Island, 220. + + Gordon, Harry, 115, 320, 321. + + Grand View, Ind., 246. + + Grant, Gen. Ulysses S., 174. + + Grape Island, 80. + + Grape-Vine Town. _See_ Captina, O. + + Grave Yard Run, 72. + + Great Meadows, 312, 314. + + Green River Island, 255. + + Green River Towhead, 255, 256. + + Greenup Court House, Ky., 147. + + Greenville. O., treaty of, 181. + + Gunpowder Creek, 192. + + Guyandotte, W. Va., 136. + + + Hale, John P., 153. + + Half King, 34. + + Half-Moon Bar, 274. + + Hall, James, 117, 128, 164, 325. + + Hamilton, T., 325. + + Harmar, Gen. Josiah, 180, 181. + + Harmonists, 264. + + Harris, Thaddeus Mason, 162, 322. + + Harris's Landing, 173. + + Hartford, W. Va., 119. + + Haskellville, O., 136. + + Hawesville, Ky., 242. + + Henderson, Ky., 256-259. + + Henderson, Richard, 316. + + Henderson Island, 258. + + Hennepin, Father Louis, 299. + + Henry, Patrick, 159. + + Herculaneum, Ind., 260. + + Higginsport, O., 170. + + Hockingport, O., 102-104. + + Homestead, Pa., 17, 18. + + Horse Head Bottom, 148. + + House-boat life, 50-57, 62, 134, 135, 203, 204, 207, 208. + + Howard, John, 305, 306. + + Hungarians, in Ohio valley, 44, 45, 69. + + Huntington, W. Va., 136-139. + + Hurricane Island, 274, 275. + + Hutchins, Thomas, 115, 321. + + + Imlay, Gilbert, 162. + + Inglis, Mrs. Mary, 152, 153. + + Ironton, O., 143-146, 157. + + Iroquois Indians, 264, 298, 299, 302, 307, 308. + + Irving, Washington, 273. + + Italians, in Ohio valley, 69. + + + Jamestown, Va., 296. + + Jefferson, Thomas, 97. + + Joliet, Louis, 264. + + Jones, Rev. David, 70, 71, 94. + + Joppa, Ill., 290, 291. + + + Kansas City, 318. + + Kaskaskia, Ill., 268, 285. + + King Philip, 221. + + Kingston, O., 40. + + Kneistly's Cluster Islands, 36-39. + + + La Fayette, Marquis de, 92. + + Lake Chautauqua, 299, 304, 309. + + Lake Erie, 299, 304, 309, 313. + + Lancaster, Pa., 307. + + Lane, Ralph, 296, 297. + + La Salle, Chevalier de, 218, 263, 264, 298, 299. + + Latrobe, Charles Joseph, 326. + + La Vérendrye Brothers, 306. + + Lawrenceburg, Ind., 186. + + Leadville, Colo., 318. + + Leavenworth, Ind., 224, 225. + + Lederer, John, 297. + + Letart's Falls, 113, 114, 117. + + Letart's Island, 112. + + Levanna, O., 170. + + Lewis, Gen. Andrew, 128, 129. + + Lewisport, Ind., 246. + + Lexington, Ky., 159. + + Limestone Creek, 158, 159, 162, 167. + + Little Beaver Creek, 34. + + Little Hurricane Island, 252. + + Little Meadows, 128. + + Lloyd. James T., 328. + + Logan, Mingo chief, 36, 37, 102, 103, 127, 128. + + Logstown, Pa., 26. + + Long Bottom, O., 109-111, 117. + + Long Reach, 79, 80. + + Losantiville. _See_ Cincinnati. + + Lostock, Pa., 13. + + Louisa, Ky., 141, 142. + + Louisville, Ky., 114, 169, 170, 180, 209, 214-223, 226, 256, 284, + 298, 299. + + Lower Blue River Island, 226. + + + Mackay, Alex., 327. + + McKee's Rocks, 23, 178. + + McKeesport, Pa., 13-16. + + Madison, Ind., 209-214. + + Madison County, Va., 297. + + Malott, Catherine, 71. + + Manchester, O., 157. + + Marietta, O., 83-85, 87, 90-93, 130, 131, 157, 159, 162, 315. + + Mason and Dixon line, 77. + + Mason City, W. Va., 119. + + Massac Creek, 285. + + May, John, 321. + + May, Col. William, 304. + + Maysville, Ky., 157, 159, 167, 169. + + Melish, John, 323. + + Mercer, George, 126. + + Metropolis, Ill., 288, 289. + + Miami Indians, 303. + + Michaux, F. A., 322. + + Middleport, O., 118. + + Millersport, O., 136. + + Milwood, W. Va., 112. + + Minersville, O., 118. + + Mingo Bottom, 127. + + Mingo Indians, 36, 37, 46, 127, 148. + + Mingo Junction, O., 44-50, 57, 58. + + Monongahela City, Pa., 8, 12. + + Montreal, 313. + + Moravian missionaries, 91. + + Morgantown, Pa., 3. + + Mound builders, 3, 4, 64-66. + + Mound City, Ill., 290-292, 294. + + Mound City Towhead, 292-295. + + Moundsville, W. Va., 64-66, 115. + + Mt. Vernon, Ind., 262. + + Murray, Charles Augustus, 327. + + Murray, Henry A., 327. + + Murraysville, W. Va., 111. + + + Natchez, Miss., 181. + + Nemacolin's Path, 160, 310, 312. _See_ Braddock's Road. + + Neville, O., 170, 173. + + Neville's Island, 25. + + New Albany, Ind., 220-223. + + New Amsterdam, Ind., 224. + + New Barataria, 316. + + Newburgh, Ind., 254, 255. + + New Cumberland, W. Va., 37, 40. + + New Harmony, Ind., 264. + + New Haven, W. Va., 119. + + New Martinsville, W. Va., 74-77. + + New Matamoras, W. Va., 82. + + New Orleans, 12, 96, 97, 170, 205, 305, 309, 313, 325, 328. + + Newport, Christopher, 296. + + Newport, Ky., 176, 178, 183. + + Newport, O., 82, 83. + + New Richmond, O., 176. + + Nichols, Thomas L., 326. + + Nicholson, interpreter, 70. + + Norfolk & Western Railway, 144. + + North Bend, O., 173, 180, 181, 184. + + Northwest Territory, 316. + + + Ogden, George W., 324. + + Ohio Company, 4, 90, 114, 125, 152, 310, 314, 315. + + Old Wyandot Town, 91. + + Olmstead, Ill., 291. + + Omaha, Nebr., 318. + + Owensboro, Ky., 248-251, 271. + + + Paducah, Ky., 284. + + Palmer, John, 114, 115, 162, 164, 323. + + Parkersburg, W. Va., 94, 95, 99, 100, 102, 157. + + Parkinson's Landing, Ill., 276. + + Parkman, Francis, 308. + + Patterson, Robert, 179. + + Pennant, Edward, 297. + + Petersburg, Ky., 186, 187. + + Philadelphia, 12, 161, 318. + + Pickaway Plains, 102, 103, 129. + + Picket, Heathcoat, 205, 206. + + Pine Creek, 148. + + Pipe Creek, 67. + + Pittsburg, 3, 5, 6, 8, 17-22, 24, 25, 27, 40, 59, 88, 129, 159, + 166, 271, 311-313, 316-318, 320, 321, 323, 324, 326, 328. + + Plum Creek, 205. + + Point Pleasant, W. Va., 125, 127-130, 157, 170, 173, 174. + + Point Sandy, Ind., 227-231. + + Pomeroy, O., 111, 118, 119, 157. + + Pomeroy Bend, 111, 119. + + Pontiac, Indian chief, 221. + + Pope, John, 5. + + Portland, Ky., 219-221 + + Portsmouth, O., 151-153, 157. + + Power, Thomas, 287. + + Powhattan Point, W. Va., 70. + + Pownall, T., 286, 320, 321. + + Presque Isle, 311. + + Proctor's Run, 77. + + Proctorville, O., 137. + + Putnam, Israel, Jr., 100, 101. + + Putnam, Israel, Sr., 100. + + Putnam, Gen. Rufus, 91, 102. + + + Quebec, 299, 313. + + + Rabbit Hash, Ky., 189-191. + + Racine, O., 117, 118. + + Rafinesque, Constantine S., 257, 258 + + Rapp, George, 26. + + Redstone Creek, 3-5, 72, 310. + + Redstone Old Fort. _See_ Brownsville, Pa. + + Richardson's Landing, Ky., 224. + + Richmond, Va., 296, 318, 324. + + Ripley, O., 170. + + Rising Sun, Ind., 189. + + River Alleghany, 20, 299, 304, 305, 309, 311, 318. + Beaver, 27-30. + Big Hockhocking, 102-104. + Big Miami, 179, 180, 185. + Big Sandy, 119, 137, 141. + Cherokee, 321. + Coal, 305. + Cumberland, 97, 282, 284, 316. + Delaware, 298. + Gauley, 298. + Great Kanawha, 70, 115, 125-130, 153, 161, 297, 309, 316, 321. + Great Miami, 304. + Green, 255, 259. + Illinois, 321. + Indian Kentucky, 206, 207. + James, 126, 127, 161, 296. + Kentucky, 206. + Licking, 179, 183. + Little Kanawha, 94, 95. + Little Miami, 152, 177, 179, 180. + Little Sandy, 147. + Little Scioto, 148. + Maumee, 264, 299, 309. + Miami, 309. + Mississippi, 284, 294, 303, 306, 307, 313, 321. + Mohawk, 298. + Monongahela, 1-20, 39, 162, 166, 310, 311, 318. + Muskingum, 90, 91, 127. + New, 297, 298, 309. + Ottawa, 307. + Potomac, 304, 310. + Roanoke, 296, 297, 304. + St. Joseph's, 303. + St. Lawrence, 306, 309. + Saline, 269, 272, 273. + Salt, 223. + Shenandoah, 304. + Scioto, 102, 103, 151-153, 321. + Susquehanna, 298. + Tennessee, 283, 284, 288, 303, 316. + Wabash, 127, 263, 264, 302, 321. + Wood, 305. _See_ New. + Youghiogheny, 13-16, 162, 318. + + Robertson, James, 327. + + Rochester, Pa., 27-30. + + Rockport, Ind., 246, 247. + + Rocky Mountains, discovery of, 306. + + Rome, O., 155-157, 260. + + Rono, Ind., 234, 235. + + Roosevelt, Theodore, 316. + + Rosebud, O., 133, 134, 156. + + Rose Clare, Ill., 276. + + Round Bottom, 66, 69. + + + St. Clair, Gen. Arthur, 180, 181, 286. + + St. John, M., 321. + + St. Louis, 170, 284, 318, 326, 328. + + St. Mary's, W. Va., 82. + + Salem, O., 91. + + Saline Reserve (Illinois), 268, 269. + + Salling, John Peter, 305, 306. + + Sand Island, 220-222. + + Sandusky, O., 46. + + Sarikonk. _See_ Beaver, Pa. + + Schönbrunn, 91. + + Scioto Company, 130-132, 321. + + Sciotoville, O., 148-150. + + Scotch-Irish, in Ohio valley, 60, 61, 301, 310. + + Scuffletown, Ky., 254. + + Seignelay, Marquis de, 300. + + Seneca Indians, 34. + + Seven Mile Creek, 284, 285. + + Shaler, Nathaniel S., 153. + + Shannoah Town, 151, 152. + + Shawanee Indians, 26, 67, 128-130, 151-153, 307. + + Shawneetown, Ill., 267-269. + + Sheffield, O., 118. + + Shingis Old Town. _See_ Beaver, Pa. + + Shippingsport, Pa., 31-34. + + Shousetown, Pa., 25. + + Sinking Creek, 238. + + Sistersville, W. Va., 78. + + Slavonians, in Ohio valley, 44, 45. + + Slim Island, 261, 264. + + Sloan's Station, O., 37. + + Smith, John, 296. + + Smithland, Ky., 282. + + Smith's Ferry, Pa., 34. + + Sohkon. _See_ Beaver, Pa. + + South Point, O., 137. + + Spaniards, Western conspiracy, of, 286, 287. + + Springville, Ky., 151, 152. + + Spotswood, Gov. Alexander, 302. + + Steamboats, first on Ohio, 165, 166. + + Stephens, Frank, 71. + + Stephensport, Ky., 237-239. + + Steubenville, O., 5, 43, 44, 157, 181. + + Stewart's Island, 277-281, 283. + + Stuart, James, 325. + + Swiss, in Ohio valley, 204, 205. + + Symmes, John Cleves, 179-181. + + Syracuse, O., 118. + + + Tecumseh, Indian chief, 317. + + Tell City, Ind., 242. + + Three Brothers Islands, 87. + + Three-Mile Island, 252, 254. + + Transylvania, 316. + + Treaty, of Lancaster, Pa., 307, 308; + of Paris, 313; + of Utrecht, 307. + + Trent, William, 95. + + Tudor, Henry, 326. + + Turner, Frederick J., 316. + + Turtle Creek, 17, 312. + + Trollope, Frances M., 325, 327. + + Troy, Ind., 243. + + + Uniontown, Ky., 262, 263. + + Upper Blue River Island, 226. + + + Vandalia, Province of, 126, 316. + + Vanceburgh, Ky., 154. + + Venango, 29. + + Vevay, Ind., 204, 205. + + Vigne, Godfrey T., 325. + + Vincennes, Ind., 264. + + + Wabash Island, 264. + + Walpole, Thomas, 316. + + Walton, Pa., 13. + + Warrior Branch, 72. + + Wars, French and Indian, 15, 17, 29, 30, 90, 91, 152, 153, 285, + 286, 308, 314, 315; + Pontiac's, 221; + Lord Dunmore's, 36, 37, 61, 67, 72, 73, 102, 103, 125-129, + 218, 221; + Revolution, 61, 63, 91, 92, 100, 126, 128, 130, 151-161, 181, + 182, 264, 315, 317; + of 1812-15, 287, 291. + + Warsaw, Ky., 200, 204. + + Washington, George, 4, 15, 23, 26, 29, 34, 46, 67, 69, 70, 72, + 92, 126-128, 141, 142, 161, 310-312, 315, 320, 321. + + Wayne, Anthony, 26, 181, 286, 317. + + Weiser, Conrad, 26. + + Welby, Adlard, 324. + + Wellsville, O., 35. + + West Point, Ky., 223. + + Wheeling, W. Va., 5, 41, 59-62, 155, 157, 167, 187. + + Wheeling Creek, 59-61. + + Wheeling Island, 60. + + Wilderness Road, 160-162, 317. + + Wilkinson, Gen. James, 287. + + Wilkinsonville, Ill., 291. + + Williamson's Island, 78. + + Wills Creek, 310, 312. + + Wilson, Pa., 13. + + Witten's Bottom, 78, 79. + + Wood, Abraham, 297. + + Wyandot Indians, 46, 91. + + + Yellowbank Island, 248-250. + + Yellow Creek, 35, 36. + + + Zane Brothers, 60, 61. + + + + + THIS BOOK HAS BEEN PRINTED + DURING OCTOBER, 1897, BY THE + BLAKELY PRINTING COMPANY. + CHICAGO, FOR WAY & WILLIAMS. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AFLOAT ON THE OHIO*** + + +******* This file should be named 29306-8.txt or 29306-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/3/0/29306 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Afloat on the Ohio</p> +<p> An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo</p> +<p>Author: Reuben Gold Thwaites</p> +<p>Release Date: July 4, 2009 [eBook #29306]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AFLOAT ON THE OHIO***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by David Garcia, Alison Hadwin,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net></a>)<br /> + from page images generously made available by<br /> + Kentuckiana Digital Library<br /> + (<a href="http://kdl.kyvl.org/">http://kdl.kyvl.org/</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Kentuckiana Digital Library. See + <a href="http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;view=toc;idno=b92-161-29919559"> + http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;view=toc;idno=b92-161-29919559</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> + <div class="trans-note"> + Transcriber's Note:<br /> + <br /> + Spellings and hyphenations are as + in the original document. Hyphenation was inconsistent, + with the following words appearing both with and without + hyphens: saw-mill, tread-mill, drift-wood, back-set, + cotton-wood, farm-house, semi-circular, search-light, + fire-brick, out-door, ship-yard(s), and house-boat(s). + The name "Céleron" is used interchangebly with "Céloron". + </div> +<p> </p> +<hr class="pg" /> +<p> </p> + +<h1>AFLOAT ON THE OHIO</h1> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<h1>Afloat on the Ohio</h1> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<h2>AN HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE,</h2> +<h2>OF A THOUSAND MILES IN A</h2> +<h2>SKIFF, FROM REDSTONE TO</h2> +<h2>CAIRO</h2> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<h2>BY</h2> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<h2>REUBEN GOLD THWAITES</h2> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Secretary of the State Historical Society of</i></p> +<p><i>Wisconsin, Editor of "The Jesuit Relations,"</i></p> +<p><i>Author of "The Colonies,</i></p> +<p><i>1492-1750," "Historic Waterways,"</i></p> +<p><i>"The Story of Wisconsin,"</i></p> +<p><i>"Our Cycling</i></p> +<p><i>Tour in England,"</i></p> +<p><i>etc., etc.</i></p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<h5>CHICAGO</h5> +<h5>WAY & WILLIAMS</h5> +<h5>1897</h5> + </div> </div> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">COPYRIGHT</span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">BY REUBEN GOLD THWAITES</span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">A.D., 1897</span></p> + </div> </div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagev" id="pagev"></a>[pg v]</span> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<h5><i>To</i></h5> +<h5>FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER, Ph. D.,</h5> +<p><i>Professor of American History in the University of</i></p> +<p><i>Wisconsin, who loves his native West</i></p> +<p><i>and with rare insight and gift of phrase</i></p> +<p><i>interprets her story,</i></p> +<p><i>this Log of the "Pilgrim" is cordially inscribed.</i></p> + </div> </div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagevi" id="pagevi"></a>[pg vi]</span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagevii" id="pagevii"></a>[pg vii]</span> + + + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10"> </p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Preface.</span> <a href="#pagexi">xi</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter I.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>On the Monongahela—The over-mountain path—Redstone +Old Fort—The Youghiogheny—Braddock's defeat. <a href="#page1">1</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter II.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>First day on the Ohio—At Logstown. <a href="#page22">22</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter III.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Shingis Old Town—The dynamiter—Yellow Creek. <a href="#page29">29</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter IV.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>An industrial region—Steubenville—Mingo Bottom—In +a steel mill—Indian character. <a href="#page39">39</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter V.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>House-boat life—Decadence of steamboat traffic—Wheeling, +and Wheeling Creek. <a href="#page50">50</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter VI.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>The Big Grave—Washington and Round Bottom—A +lazy man's paradise—Captina Creek—George Rogers +Clark at Fish Creek—Southern types. <a href="#page64">64</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter VII.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>In Dixie—Oil and natural gas, at Witten's Bottom—The +Long Reach—Photographing crackers—Visitors in camp. <a href="#page77">77</a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pageviii" id="pageviii"></a>[pg viii]</span> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Life ashore and afloat—Marietta, "the Plymouth Rock +of the West"—The Little Kanawha—The story of +Blennerhassett's Island. <a href="#page87">87</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter IX.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Poor whites—First library in the West—An hour at +Hockingport—A hermit fisher. <a href="#page99">99</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter X.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cliff-dwellers, on Long Bottom—Pomeroy Bend—Letart's +Island, and Rapids—Game, in the early day—Rainy +weather—In a "cracker" home. <a href="#page109">109</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter XI.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Battle of Point Pleasant—The story of Gallipolis—Rosebud—Huntington—The +genesis of a houseboater. <a href="#page125">125</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter XII.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>In a fog—The Big Sandy—Rainy weather—Operatic +gypsies—An ancient tavern. <a href="#page139">139</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter XIII.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>The Scioto, and the Shawanese—A night at Rome—Limestone—Keels, +flats, and boatmen of the olden time. <a href="#page150">150</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter XIV.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Produce-boats—A dead town—On the Great Bend—Grant's +birthplace—The Little Miami—The genesis of Cincinnati. <a href="#page168">168</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter XV.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>The story of North Bend—The "shakes"—Driftwood—Rabbit +hash—A side-trip to Big Bone Lick. <a href="#page182">182</a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pageix" id="pageix"></a>[pg ix]</span> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter XVI.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>New Switzerland—An old-time river pilot—Houseboat +life on the lower reaches—A philosopher in +rags—Wooded solitudes—Arrival at Louisville. <a href="#page202">202</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter XVII.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Storied Louisville—Red Indians and white—A night on +Sand Island—New Albany—Riverside hermits—The +river falling—A deserted village—An ideal camp. <a href="#page218">218</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter XVIII.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Village life—A traveling photographer—On a country +road—Studies in color—Again among colliers—In +sweet content—A ferry romance. <a href="#page233">233</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter XIX.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Fishermen's tales—Skiff nomenclature—Green River—Evansville—Henderson—Audubon +and Rafinesque—Floating shops—The Wabash. <a href="#page251">251</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter XX.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Shawneetown—Farm-houses on stilts—Cave-in-Rock—Island nights. <a href="#page267">267</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Chapter XXI.</span></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>The Cumberland and the Tennessee—Stately solitudes—Old +Fort Massac—Dead towns in Egypt—The +last camp—Cairo. <a href="#page280">280</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Appendix A.</i>—Historical outline of Ohio Valley settlement. <a href="#page296">296</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Appendix B.</i>—Selected list of Journals of previous travelers +down the Ohio. <a href="#page320">320</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Index.</span> <a href="#page329">329</a></p> + </div> </div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagex" id="pagex"></a>[pg x]</span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagexi" id="pagexi"></a>[pg xi]</span> + + + + +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>There were four of us pilgrims—my Wife, +our Boy of ten and a half years, the Doctor, +and I. My object in going—the others went +for the outing—was to gather "local color" +for work in Western history. The Ohio River +was an important factor in the development +of the West. I wished to know the great +waterway intimately in its various phases,—to +see with my own eyes what the borderers saw; +in imagination, to redress the pioneer stage, +and repeople it.</p> + +<p>A motley company have here performed +their parts: Savages of the mound-building +age, rearing upon these banks curious earthworks +for archæologists of the nineteenth century +to puzzle over; Iroquois war-parties, +silently swooping upon sleeping villages of the +Shawanese, and in noisy glee returning to the +New York lakes, laden with spoils and captives; +La Salle, prince of French explorers +and coureurs de bois, standing at the Falls of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagexii" id="pagexii"></a>[pg xii]</span> +the Ohio, and seeking to fathom the geographical +mysteries of the continent; French and +English fur-traders, in bitter contention for +the patronage of the red man; borderers of +the rival nations, shedding each other's blood +in protracted partisan wars; surveyors like +Washington and Boone and the McAfees, clad +in fringed hunting-shirts and leathern leggings, +mapping out future states; hardy frontiersmen, +fighting, hunting, or farming, as occasion +demanded; George Rogers Clark, descending +the river with his handful of heroic Virginians +to win for the United States the great Northwest, +and for himself the laurels of fame; +the Marietta pilgrims, beating Revolutionary +swords into Ohio plowshares; and all that +succeeding tide of immigrants from our own +Atlantic coast and every corner of Europe, +pouring down the great valley to plant powerful +commonwealths beyond the mountains. +A richly-varied panorama of life passes before +us as we contemplate the glowing story of +the Ohio.</p> + +<p>In making our historical pilgrimage we might +more easily have "steamboated" the river,—to +use a verb in local vogue; but, from the +deck of a steamer, scenes take on a different +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagexiii" id="pagexiii"></a>[pg xiii]</span> +aspect than when viewed from near the level +of the flood; for a passenger by such a craft, +the vistas of a winding stream change so rapidly +that he does not realize how it seemed to +the canoeist or flatboatman of old; and there +are too many modern distractions about such +a mode of progress. To our minds, the manner +of our going should as nearly as possible +be that of the pioneer himself—hence our skiff, +and our nightly camp in primitive fashion.</p> + +<p>The trip was successful, whatever the point +of view. Physically, those six weeks "Afloat +on the Ohio" were a model outing—at times +rough, to be sure, but exhilarating, health-giving, +brain-inspiring. The Log of the "Pilgrim" +seeks faintly to outline our experiences, +but no words can adequately describe the +wooded hill-slopes which day by day girt us +in; the romantic ravines which corrugate the +rim of the Ohio's basin; the beautiful islands +which stud the glistening tide; the great affluents +which, winding down for a thousand +miles, from the Blue Ridge, the Cumberland, +and the Great Smoky, pour their floods into +the central stream; the giant trees—sycamores, +pawpaws, cork elms, catalpas, walnuts, +and what not—which everywhere are in view +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagexiv" id="pagexiv"></a>[pg xiv]</span> +in this woodland world; the strange and lovely +flowers we saw; the curious people we met, +black and white, and the varieties of dialect +which caught our ear; the details of our +charming gypsy life, ashore and afloat, during +which we were conscious of the red blood +tingling through our veins, and, alert to the +whisperings of Nature, were careless of the +workaday world, so far away,—simply glad to +be alive.</p> + +<p>For the better understanding of the numerous +historical references in the Log, I have +thought it well to present in the Appendix +a brief sketch of the settlement of the Ohio +Valley. To this Appendix, as a preliminary +reading, I invite those who may care to follow +"Pilgrim" and her crew upon their long journey +from historic Redstone down to the Father +of Waters.</p> + +<p>A selected list of Journals of previous travelers +down the Ohio, has been added, for the +benefit of students of the social and economic +history of this important gateway to the continental +interior.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>R. G. T.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">Madison, Wis.</span>, October, 1897.</p> + </div> </div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page1" id="page1"></a>[pg 1]</span> + + + + +<h2>AFLOAT ON THE OHIO</h2> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + + +<h4>On the Monongahela—The over-mountain +path—Redstone Old Fort—The Youghiogheny—Braddock's +defeat.</h4> + + +<p><span class="smcap">In camp near Charleroi, Pa.</span>, Friday, +May 4.—Pilgrim, built for the glassy lakes +and smooth-flowing rivers of Wisconsin, had +suffered unwonted indignities in her rough +journey of a thousand miles in a box-car. But +beyond a leaky seam or two, which the Doctor +had righted with clouts and putty, and +some ugly scratches which were only paint-deep, +she was in fair trim as she gracefully lay +at the foot of the Brownsville shipyard this +morning and received her lading.</p> + +<p>There were spectators in abundance. +Brownsville, in the olden day, had seen many +an expedition set out from this spot for the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page2" id="page2"></a>[pg 2]</span> +grand tour of the Ohio, but not in the personal +recollection of any in this throng of +idlers, for the era of the flatboat and pirogue +now belongs to history. Our expedition is a +revival, and therein lies novelty. However, +the historic spirit was not evident among our +visitors—railway men, coal miners loafing +out the duration of a strike, shipyard hands +lying in wait for busier times, small boys +blessed with as much leisure as curiosity, and +that wonder of wonders, a bashful newspaper +reporter. Their chief concern centered in the +query, how Pilgrim could hold that goodly +heap of luggage and still have room to spare +for four passengers? It became evident that +her capacity is akin to that of the magician's +bag.</p> + +<p>"A dandy skiff, gents!" said the foreman +of the shipyard, as we settled into our seats—the +Doctor bow, I stroke, with W—— and the +Boy in the stern sheets. Having in silence +critically watched us for a half hour, seated on +a capstan, his red flannel shirt rolled up to his +elbows, and well-corded chest and throat bared +to wind and weather, this remark of the foreman +was evidently the studied judgment of an +expert. It was taken as such by the good-natured +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page3" id="page3"></a>[pg 3]</span> +crowd, which, as we pushed off into +the stream, lustily joined in a chorus of "Good-bye!" +and "Good luck to yees, an' ye don't +git th' missus drowndid 'fore ye git to Cairo!"</p> + +<p>The current is slight on these lower reaches +of the Monongahela. It comes down gayly +enough from the West Virginia hills, over +many a rapid, and through swirls and eddies +in plenty, until Morgantown is reached; and +then, settling into a more sedate course, is at +Brownsville finally converted into a mere mill-pond, +by the back-set of the four slack-water +dams between there and Pittsburg. This +means solid rowing for the first sixty miles of +our journey, with a current scarcely perceptible.</p> + +<p>The thought of it suggests lunch. At the +mouth of Redstone Creek, a mile below Dunlap +Creek, our port of departure, we turn in to +a shaly beach at the foot of a wooded slope, +in semi-rusticity, and fortify the inner man.</p> + +<p>A famous spot, this Redstone Creek. Between +its mouth and that of Dunlap's was +made, upon the site of extensive Indian fortification +mounds, the first English agricultural +settlement west of the Alleghanies. It is unsafe +to establish dates for first discoveries, or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page4" id="page4"></a>[pg 4]</span> +for first settlements. The wanderers who, +first of all white men, penetrated the fastnesses +of the wilderness were mostly of the +sort who left no documentary traces behind +them. It is probable, however, that the first +Redstone settlement was made as early as +1750, the year following the establishment of +the Ohio Company, which had been chartered +by the English crown and given a half-million +acres of land west of the mountains and south +of the Ohio River, provided it established +thereon a hundred families within seven years.</p> + +<p>"Redstone Old Fort"—the name had reference +to the aboriginal earthworks—played +a part in the Fort Necessity and Braddock +campaigns and in later frontier wars; and, +being the western terminus of the over-mountain +road known at various historic periods as +Nemacolin's Path, Braddock's Road, and +Cumberland Pike, was for many years the +chief point of departure for Virginia expeditions +down the Ohio River. Washington, who +had large landed interests on the Ohio, knew +Redstone well; and here George Rogers Clark +set out (1778) upon flatboats, with his rough-and-ready +Virginia volunteers, to capture the +country north of the Ohio for the American +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id="page5"></a>[pg 5]</span> +arms—one of the least known, but most momentous +conquests in history.</p> + +<p>Early in the nineteenth century, Redstone +became Brownsville. But, whether as Redstone +or Brownsville, it was, in its day, like +most "jumping off" places on the edge of +civilization, a veritable Sodom. Wrote good +old John Pope, in his Journal of 1790, and in +the same strain scores of other veracious chroniclers: +"At this Place we were detained about +a Week, experiencing every Disgust which +Rooks and Harpies could excite." Here thrived +extensive yards in which were built flatboats, +arks, keel boats, and all that miscellaneous +collection of water craft which, with their +roisterly crews, were the life of the Ohio before +the introduction of steam rendered vessels of +deeper draught essential; whereupon much of +the shipping business went down the river to +better stages of water, first to Pittsburg, thence +to Wheeling, and to Steubenville.</p> + +<p>All that is of the past. Brownsville is still +a busy corner of the world, though of a different +sort, with all its romance gone. To the +student of Western history, Brownsville will +always be a shrine—albeit a smoky, dusty +shrine, with the smell of lubricators and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page6" id="page6"></a>[pg 6]</span> +clang of hammers, and much talk thereabout +of the glories of Mammon.</p> + +<p>The Monongahela is a characteristic mountain +trough. From an altitude of four or five +hundred feet, the country falls in sharp steeps +to a narrow alluvial bench, and then a broad +beach of shale and pebble; the slopes are +broken, here and there, where deep, shadowy +ravines come winding down, bearing muddy +contributions to the greater flood. The higher +hills are crowned with forest trees, the lower +ofttimes checkered with brown fields, recently +planted, and rows of vines trimmed low to +stakes, as in the fashion of the Rhine. The +stream, though still majestic in its sweep, is +henceforth a commercial slack-water, lined +with noisy, grimy, matter-of-fact manufacturing +towns, for the most part literally abutting +one upon the other all of the way down to +Pittsburg, and fast defiling the once picturesque +banks with the gruesome offal of coal mines +and iron plants. Surprising is the density of +settlement along the river. Often, four or five +full-fledged cities are at once in view from our +boat, the air is thick with sooty smoke belched +from hundreds of stacks, the ear is almost +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7"></a>[pg 7]</span> +deafened with the whirr and roar and bang of +milling industries.</p> + +<p>Tipples of bituminous coal-shafts are ever +in sight—begrimed scaffolds of wood and iron, +arranged for dumping the product of the mines +into both barges and railway cars. Either +bank is lined with railways, in sight of which +we shall almost continually float, all the way +down to Cairo, nearly eleven hundred miles +away. At each tipple is a miners' hamlet; a +row of cottages or huts, cast in a common +mold, either unpainted, or bedaubed with that +cheap, ugly red with which one is familiar in +railway bridges and rural barns. Sometimes +these huts, though in the mass dreary enough, +are kept in neat repair; but often are they +sadly out of elbows—pigs and children promiscuously +at their doors, paneless sash stuffed +with rags, unsightly litter strewn around, +misery stamped on every feature of the homeless +tenements. Dreariest of all is a deserted +mining village, and there are many such—the +shaft having been worked out, or an unquenchable +subterranean fire left to smolder in neglect. +Here the tipple has fallen into creaking +decrepitude; the cabins are without windows +or doors—these having been taken to some +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8"></a>[pg 8]</span> +newer hamlet; ridge-poles are sunken, chimneys +tottering; soot covers the gaunt bones, +which for all the world are like a row of skeletons, +perched high, and grinning down at you +in their misery; while the black offal of the +pit, covering deep the original beauty of the +once green slope, is in its turn being veiled +with climbing weeds—such is Nature's haste, +when untrammeled, to heal the scars wrought +by man.</p> + +<p>A mile or two below Charleroi is Lock No. +4, the first of the quartet of obstructions between +Brownsville and Pittsburg. We are +encamped a mile below the dam, in a cozy +little willowed nook; a rod behind our ample +tent rises the face of an alluvial terrace, occupied +by a grain-field, running back for an hundred +yards to the hills, at the base of which is +a railway track. Across the river, here some +two hundred and fifty yards wide, the dark, +rocky bluffs, slashed with numerous ravines, +ascend sharply from the flood; at the quarried +base, a wagon road and the customary railway; +and upon the stony beach, two or three rough +shelter-tents, housing the Black Diamond +Brass Band, of Monongahela City, out on a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9"></a>[pg 9]</span> +week's picnic to while away the period of the +strike.</p> + +<p>It was seven o'clock when we struck camp, +and our frugal repast was finished by lantern-light. +The sun sets early in this narrow trough +through the foothills of the Laurel range.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">McKeesport, Pa.</span>, Saturday, May 5th.—Out +there on the beach, near Charleroi, with +the sail for an awning, Pilgrim had been converted +into a boudoir for the Doctor, who, +snuggled in his sleeping-bag, emitted an occasional +snore—echoes from the Land of Nod. +W—— and our Boy of ten summers, on their +canvas folding-cots, were peacefully oblivious +of the noises of the night, and needed the kiss +of dawn to rouse them. But for me, always +a light sleeper, and as yet unused to our airy +bedroom, the crickets chirruped through the +long watches.</p> + +<p>Two or three freighters passed in the night, +with monotonous swish-swish and swelling +wake. It arouses something akin to awe, this +passage of a steamer's wake upon the beach, +a dozen feet from the door of one's tent. +First, the water is sucked down, leaving for a +moment a wet streak of sand or gravel, a dozen +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id="page10"></a>[pg 10]</span> +feet in width; in quick succession come heavy, +booming waves, running at an acute angle with +the shore, breaking at once into angry foam, +and wasting themselves far up on the strand, +for a few moments making bedlam with any +driftwood which chances to have made lodgment +there. When suddenly awakened by +this boisterous turmoil, the first thought is +that a dam has broken and a flood is at hand; +but, by the time you rise upon your elbow, the +scurrying uproar lessens, and gradually dies +away along a more distant shore.</p> + +<p>We were slow in getting off this morning. +But the dense fog had been loath to lift; and +at first the stove smoked badly, until we discovered +and removed the source of trouble. +This stove is an ingenious contrivance of the +Doctor's—a box of sheet-iron, of slight weight, +so arranged as to be folded into an incredibly +small space; a vast improvement for cooking +purposes over an open camp-fire, which Pilgrim's +crew know, from long experience in far +distant fields, to be a vexation to eyes and soul.</p> + +<p>Coaling hamlets more or less deserted were +frequent this morning—unpainted, windowless, +ragged wrecks. At the inhabited mining +villages, either close to the strand or well up +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11"></a>[pg 11]</span> +on hillside ledges, idle men were everywhere +about. Women and boys and girls were stockingless +and shoeless, and often dirty to a degree. +But, when conversed with, we found +them independent, respectful, and self-respecting +folk. Occasionally I would, for the mere +sake of meeting these workaday brothers of +ours, with canteen slung on shoulder, climb the +steep flight of stairs cut in the clay bank, and +on reaching the terrace inquire for drinking +water, talking familiarly with the folk who +came to meet me at the well-curb.</p> + +<p>There are old-fashioned Dutch ovens in +nearly every yard, a few chickens, and often +a shed for the cow, that is off on her daily +climb over the neighboring hills. Through +the black pall of shale, a few vegetables struggle +feebly to the light; in the corners of the +palings, are hollyhocks and four-o'clocks; and, +on window-sills, rows of battered tin cans, +resplendent in blue and yellow labels, are the +homes of verbenas and geraniums, in sickly +bloom. Now and then, a back door in the +dreary block is distinguished by an arbored +trellis bearing a grape-vine, and furnishing for +the weary housewife a shady kitchen, <i>al fresco</i>. +As a rule, however, there is little attempt to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12"></a>[pg 12]</span> +better the homeless shelter furnished by the +corporation.</p> + +<p>We restocked with provisions at Monongahela +City, a smart, newish town, and at Elizabeth, +old and dingy. It was at Elizabeth, +then Elizabethtown, that travelers from the +Eastern States, over the old Philadelphia Road, +chiefly took boat for the Ohio—the Virginians +still clinging to Redstone, as the terminus of +the Braddock Road. Elizabethtown, in flatboat +days, was the seat of a considerable boat-building +industry, its yards in time turning out +steamboats for the New Orleans trade, and +even sea-going sailing craft; but, to-day, coal +barges are the principal output of her decaying +shipyards.</p> + +<p>By this time, the duties of our little ship's +company are well defined. W—— supervises +the cuisine, most important of all offices; the +Doctor is chief navigator, assistant cook, and +hewer of wood; it falls to my lot to purchase +supplies, to be carrier of water, to pitch tent +and make beds, and, while breakfast is being +cooked, to dismantle the camp and, so far as +may be, to repack Pilgrim; the Boy collects +driftwood, wipes dishes, and helps at what he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13"></a>[pg 13]</span> +can—while all hands row or paddle through the +livelong day, as whim or need dictates.</p> + +<p>Lock No. 3, at Walton, necessitated a portage +of the load, over the left bank. It is a +steep, rocky climb, and the descent on the +lower side, strewn with stone chips, destructive +to shoe-leather. The Doctor and I let Pilgrim +herself down with a long rope, over a shallow +spot in the apron of the dam.</p> + +<p>At six o'clock a camping-ground for the night +became desirable. We were fortunate, last +evening, to find a bit of rustic country in which +to pitch our tent; but all through this afternoon +both banks of the river were lined with +village after village, city after city, scarcely a +garden patch between them—Wilson, Coal +Valley, Lostock, Glassport, Dravosburg, and +a dozen others not recorded on our map, which +bears date of 1882. The sun was setting behind +the rim of the river basin, when we +reached the broad mouth of the Youghiogheny +(pr. Yock-i-o-gai'-ny), which is implanted +with a cluster of iron-mill towns, of which +McKeesport is the center. So far as we could +see down the Monongahela, the air was thick +with the smoke of glowing chimneys, and the +pulsating whang of steel-making plants and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14"></a>[pg 14]</span> +rolling-mills made the air tremble. The view +up the "Yough" was more inviting; so, with +oars and paddle firmly set, we turned off our +course and lustily pulled against the strong +current of the tributary. A score or two of +house-boats lay tied to the McKeesport shore or +were bolstered high upon the beach; a fleet of +Yough steamers had their noses to the wharf; +a half-dozen fishermen were setting nets; and, +high over all, with lofty spans of iron cobweb, +several railway and wagon bridges spanned +the gliding stream.</p> + +<p>It was a mile and a half up the Yough before +we reached the open country; and then only +the rapidly-gathering dusk drove us ashore, +for on near approach the prospect was not +pleasing. Finally settling into this damp, +shallow pocket in the shelving bank, we find +broad-girthed elms and maples screening us +from all save the river front, the high bank in +the rear fringed with blue violets which emit +a delicious odor, backed by a field of waving +corn stretching off toward heavily-wooded +hills. Our supper cooked and eaten by lantern-light, +we vote ourselves as, after all, +serenely content out here in the starlight—at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span> +peace with the world, and very close to Nature's +heart.</p> + +<p>There come to us, on the cool evening +breeze, faint echoes of the never-ceasing clang +of McKeesport iron mills, down on the Monongahela +shore. But it is not of these we +talk, lounging in the welcome warmth of the +camp-fire; it is of the age of romance, a hundred +and forty odd years ago, when Major +Washington and Christopher Gist, with famished +horses, floundered in the ice hereabout, +upon their famous midwinter trip to Fort Le +Bœuf; when the "Forks of the Yough" became +the extreme outpost of Western advance, +with all the accompanying horrors of frontier +war; and later, when McKeesport for a time +rivaled Redstone and Elizabethtown as a center +for boat-building and a point of departure +for the Ohio.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pittsburg</span>, Sunday, May 6th.—Many of +the trees are already in full leaf. The trillium +is fading. We are in the full tide of +early summer, up here in the mountains, and +our long journey of six weeks is southward and +toward the plain. The lower Ohio may soon +be a bake-oven, and the middle of June will +be upon us before far-away Cairo is reached. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span> +It behooves us to be up and doing. The river, +flowing by our door, is an ever-pressing invitation +to be onward; it stops not for Sunday, +nor ever stops—and why should we, mere +drift upon the passing tide?</p> + +<p>There was a smart thunder-shower during +breakfast, followed by a cool, cloudy morning. +At eleven o'clock Pilgrim was laden. A south-eastern +breeze ruffled the waters of the Yough, +and for the first time the Doctor ordered up +the sail, with W—— at the sheet. It was not +long before Pilgrim had the water "singing at +her prow." With a rush, we flew past the +factories, the house-boats, and the shabby +street-ends of McKeesport, out into the Monongahela, +where, luckily, the wind still held.</p> + +<p>At McKeesport, the hills on the right are of +a relatively low altitude, smooth and well +rounded. It was here that Braddock, in his +slow progress toward Fort Duquesne, first +crossed the Monongahela, to the wide, level +bottom on the left bank. He had found the +inner country to the right of the river and +below the Yough too rough and hilly for his +march, hence had turned back toward the +Monongahela, fording the river to take advantage +of the less difficult bottom. Some +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span> +four miles below this first crossing, hills reapproach +the left bank, till the bottom ceases; +the right thenceforth becomes the more favorable +side for marching. With great pomp, he +recrossed the Monongahela just below the +point where Turtle Creek enters from the east. +Within a hillside ravine, but a hundred yards +inland, the brilliant column fell into an ambuscade +of Indians and French half-breeds, +suffering that heart-sickening defeat which will +ever live as one of the most tragic events in +American history.</p> + +<p>The noisy iron-manufacturing town of Braddock +now occupies the site of Braddock's defeat. +Not far from the old ford stretches the +great dam of Lock No. 2, which we portaged, +with the usual difficulties of steep, stony banks. +Braddock is but eight miles across country +from Pittsburg, although twelve by river. We +have, all the way down, an almost constant +succession of iron and steel-making towns, +chief among them Homestead, on the left +bank, seven miles above Pittsburg. The great +strike of July, 1892, with its attendant horrors, +is a lurid chapter in the story of American industry. +With shuddering interest, we view the +famous great bank of ugly slag at the base of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span> +the steel mills, where the barges housing the +Pinkerton guards were burned by the mob.</p> + +<p>To-day, the Homesteaders are enjoying +their Sunday afternoon outing along the town +shore—nurses pushing baby carriages, self-absorbed +lovers holding hands upon riverside +benches, merry-makers rowing in skiffs or +crossing the river in crowded ferries; the electric +cars, following either side of the stream +as far down as Pittsburg, crowded to suffocation +with gayly-attired folk. They look little +like rioters; yet it seems but the other day +when Homestead men and women and children +were hysterically reveling in atrocities akin to +those of the Paris commune.</p> + +<p>Approaching Pittsburg, the high steeps are +everywhere crowded with houses—great masses +of smoke-color, dotted all over with white +shades and sparkling windows, which seem, in +the gray afternoon, to be ten thousand eyes +coldly staring down at Pilgrim and her crew +from all over the flanking hillsides.</p> + +<p>Lock No. 1, the last barrier between us and +the Ohio, is a mile or two up the Monongahela, +with warehouses and manufacturing +plants closely hemming it in on either side. +A portage, unaided, appears to be impossible +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> +here, and we resolve to lock through. But it +is Sunday, and the lock is closed. Above, a +dozen down-going steamboats are moored to +the shore, waiting for midnight and the resumption +of business; while below, a similar +line of ascending boats is awaiting the close +of the day of rest. Pilgrim, however, cannot +hang up at the levee with any comfort to her +crew; it is necessary, with evening at hand, +and a thunder-storm angrily rising over the +Pittsburg hills, to get out of this grimy pool, +flanked about with iron and coal yards, chimney +stacks, and a forest of shipping, and to +quickly seek the open country lower down on +the Ohio. The lock-keepers appreciated our +situation. Two or three sturdy, courteous +men helped us carry our cargo, by an intricate +official route, over coils of rope and chains, +over lines of shafting, and along dizzy walks +overhanging the yawning basin; while the +Doctor, directed to a certain chute in midstream, +took unladen Pilgrim over the great +dam, with a wild swoop which made our eyes +swim to witness from the lock.</p> + +<p>We had laboriously been rowing on slack-water, +all the way from Brownsville, with the +help of an hour's sail this morning; whereas, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span> +now that we were in the strong current below +the dam, we had but to gently paddle to glide +swiftly on our way. A hundred steamers, +more or less, lay closely packed with their +bows upon the right, or principal city wharf. +It was raining at last, and we donned our +storm wraps. No doubt yellow Pilgrim,—thought +hereabout to be a frail craft for these +waters,—her crew all poncho-clad, slipping +silently through the dark water swishing at their +sterns, was a novelty to the steamboat men, for +they leaned lazily over their railings, the officers +on the upper deck, engineers and roustabouts +on the lower, and watched us curiously.</p> + +<p>Our period of elation was brief. Black +storm-clouds, jagged and portentous, were +scurrying across the sky; and by the time we +had reached the forks, where the Monongahela, +in the heart of the city, joins forces with +the Alleghany, Pilgrim was being buffeted +about on a chop sea produced by cross currents +and a northwest gale. She can weather an +ordinary storm, but this experience was too +much for her. When a passing steamer threw +out long lines of frothy waves to add to the +disturbance, they broke over our gunwales; +and W—— with the coffee pot and the Boy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> +with a tin basin were hard pushed to keep the +water below the thwarts.</p> + +<p>Seeking the friendly shelter of a house-boat, +of which there were scores tied to the left +bank, we trusted our drenched luggage to the +care of its proprietor, placed Pilgrim in a snug +harbor hard by, and, hurrying up a steep flight +of steps leading from the levee to the terrace +above, found a suburban hotel just as its office +clock struck eight.</p> + +<p>Across the Ohio, through the blinding storm, +the dark outlines of Pittsburg and Allegheny +City are spangled with electric lamps which +throw toward us long, shimmering lances of +light, in which the mighty stream, gray, mysterious, +tempest-tossed, is seen to be surging +onward with majestic sweep. Upon its bosom +we are to be borne for a thousand miles. Our +introduction has been unpropitious; it is to be +hoped that on further acquaintance we may +be better pleased with La Belle Rivière.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22"></a>[pg 22]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h4>First day on the Ohio—At Logstown.</h4> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Beaver River</span>, Monday, May 7th.—We +have to-day rowed and paddled under a cloudless +sky, but in the teeth of frequent squalls, +with heavy waves freely dashing their spray +upon us. At such times a goodly current, +aided by numerous wing-dams, appears of +little avail; for, when we rested upon our oars, +Pilgrim would be unmercifully driven up +stream. Thus it has been an almost continual +fight to make progress, and our five-and-twenty +miles represent a hard day's work.</p> + +<p>We were overloaded, that was certain; so +we stopped at Chartier, three miles down the +river from Pittsburg, and sent on our portly +bag of conventional traveling clothes by express +to Cincinnati, where we intend stopping +for a day. This leaves us in our rough boating +costumes for all the smaller towns <i>en route</i>. +What we may lose in possible social embarrassments, +we gain in lightened cargo.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span> + +<p>Here at the mouth of Chartier's Creek was +"Chartier's Old Town" of a century and a +third ago; a straggling, unkempt Indian village +then, but at least the banks were lovely, and +the rolling distances clothed with majestic +trees. To-day, these creek banks, connected +with numerous iron bridges, are the dumping-ground +for cinders, slag, rubbish of every degree +of foulness; the bare hillsides are crowded +with the ugly dwellings of iron-workers; the +atmosphere is thick with smoke.</p> + +<p>Washington, one of the greatest land speculators +of his time, owned over 32,000 acres +along the Ohio. He held a patent from Lord +Dunmore, dated July 5, 1775, for nearly 3,000 +acres lying about the mouth of this stream. +In accordance with the free-and-easy habit of +trans-Alleghany pioneers, ten men squatted on +the tract, greatly to the indignation of the +Father of his Country, who in 1784 brought +against them a successful suit for ejectment. +Twelve years later, more familiar with this +than with most of his land grants, he sold it +to a friend for $12,000.</p> + +<p>Just below Chartier are the picturesque +McKee's Rocks, where is the first riffle in the +Ohio. We "take" it with a swoop, the white-capped +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24"></a>[pg 24]</span> +waves dancing about us in a miniature +rapid. Then we are in the open country, and +for the first time find what the great river is +like. The character of the banks, for some +distance below Pittsburg, differs from that of +the Monongahela. The hills are lower, less +precipitous, more graceful. There is a delightful +roundness of mass and shade. Beautiful +villas occupy commanding situations on +hillsides and hilltops; we catch glimpses of +spires and cupolas, singly or in groups, peeping +above the trees; and now and then a pretty +suburban railway station. The railways upon +either bank are built on neat terraces, and, far +from marring the scene, agreeably give life to +it; now and then, three such terraces are to +be traced, one above the other, against the +dark background of wood and field—the lower +and upper devoted to rival railway lines, the +central one to the common way. The mouths +of the beautiful tributary ravines are crossed +either by graceful iron spans, which frame +charming undercut glimpses of sparkling waterfalls +and deep tangles of moss and fern, or by +graceful stone arches draped with vines. There +are terraced vineyards, after the fashion of the +Rhineland, and the gentle arts of the florist +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span> +and the truck-gardener are much in evidence. +The winding river frequently sweeps at the +base of rocky escarpments, but upon one side +or the other there are now invariably bottom +lands—narrow on these upper reaches, but we +shall find them gradually widen and lengthen +as we descend. The reaches are from four to +seven miles in length, but these, too, are to +lengthen in the middle waters. Islands are +frequent, all day. The largest is Neville's, five +miles long and thickly strewn with villas and +market-gardens; still others are but long sandbars +grown to willows, and but temporarily in +sight, for the stage of water is low just now, +not over seven feet in the channel.</p> + +<p>Emerging from the immediate suburbs of +Pittsburg, the fields broaden, farmsteads are +occasionally to be seen nestled in the undulations +of the hills, woodlands become more +dense. There are, however, small rustic towns +in plenty; we are seldom out of sight of these. +Climbing a steep clay slope on the left bank, +we visited one of them—Shousetown, fourteen +miles below the city. A sad-eyed, shabby +place, with the pipe line for natural gas sprawling +hither and yon upon the surface of the +ground, except at the street crossings, where +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span> +a few inches of protecting earth have been laid +upon it. The tariff levied by the gas company +is ten cents per month for each light, and a +dollar and a half for a cook-stove.</p> + +<p>We passed, this afternoon, one of the most +interesting historic points upon the river—the +picturesque site of ancient Logstown, upon +the summit of a low, steep ridge on the right +bank, just below Economy, and eighteen miles +from Pittsburg. Logstown was a Shawanese +village as early as 1727-30, and already a +notable fur-trading post when Conrad Weiser +visited it in 1748. Washington and Gist +stopped at "Loggestown" for five days on +their visit to the French at Fort Le Bœuf, +and several famous Indian treaties were signed +there. A short distance below, Anthony +Wayne's Western army was encamped during +the winter of 1792-93, the place being then +styled Legionville. In 1824 George Rapp +founded in the neighborhood a German socialist +community, and this later settlement survives +to the present day in the thriving little +rustic town of Economy.</p> + +<p>At four o'clock we struck camp on a heavily-willowed +shore, at the apex of the great northern +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span> +bend of the Ohio (25 miles).<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href= + "#footnote1"><sup>A</sup></a> Across the +river, on a broad level bottom, are the manufacturing +towns of Rochester and Beaver, +divided by the Beaver River; in their rear, +well-rounded hills rise gracefully, checkered +with brown fields and woods in many shades +of green, in the midst of which the flowering +white dogwood rears its stately spray. Our +sloping willowed sand-beach, of a hundred feet +in width, is thick strewn with driftwood; back +of this a clay bank, eight feet sheer, and a +narrow bottom cut up with small fruit and +vegetable patches; the gardeners' neat frame +houses peeping from groves of apple, pear and +cherry, upon the flanking hillsides. A lofty +oil-well derrick surmounts the edge of the terrace +a hundred yards below our camp. The +bushes and the ground round about the well +are black and slimy with crude petroleum, that +has escaped during the boring process, and the +air is heavy with its odor. We are upon the +edge of the far-stretching oil and gas-well region, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28"></a>[pg 28]</span> +and shall soon become familiar enough +with such sights and smells in the neighborhood +of our nightly camps.</p> + +<p>No sooner had Pilgrim been turned up against +a tree to dry, and a smooth sandy open chosen +for the camp, than the proprietor of the soil +appeared—a middling-sized, lanky man, with +a red face and a sandy goatee surmounting a +collarless white shirt all bestained with tobacco +juice. He inquired rather sharply concerning +us, but when informed of our innocent errand, +and that we should stay with him but the +night, he promptly softened, explaining that +the presence of marauding fishermen and house-boat +folk was incompatible with gardening +for profit, and he would have none of them +touch upon his shore. As to us, we were welcome +to stop throughout our pleasure, an invitation +he reinforced by sitting upon a stump, +whittling vigorously meanwhile, and glibly +gossiping with the Doctor and me for a half-hour, +on crop conditions and the state of the +country—"bein' sociable like," he said, "an' +hav'n' nuth'n 'gin you folks, as knows what's +what, I kin see with half a eye!"</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote A:</b><a href="#footnotetag1"> (return) </a><p>Figures in parentheses, similarly placed throughout the +volume, indicate the meandered river mileage from Pittsburg, +according to the map of the Corps of Engineers, U.S.A., +published in 1881. The actual mileage of the channel is a +trifle greater.</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + + +<h4>Shingis Old Town—The dynamiter—Yellow +Creek.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Kneistley's Cluster, W. Va.</span>, Tuesday, +May 8th.—We were off at a quarter past seven, +and among the earliest shoppers in Rochester, +on the east bank of the Beaver, where supplies +were laid in for the day. This busy, prosperous-looking +place bears little resemblance to +the squalid Indian village which Gist found +here in November, 1750. It was then the +seat of Barney Curran, an Indian trader—the +same Curran whom Washington, three years +later, employed in the mission to Venango. +But the smaller sister town of Beaver, on the +lower side of the mouth,—or rather the western +outskirts of Beaver a mile below the mouth,—has +the most ancient history. On account +of a ford across the Beaver, about where is +now a slack-water dam, the neighborhood became +of early importance to the French as a +fur-trading center. With customary liberality +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30"></a>[pg 30]</span> +toward the Indians, whom they assiduously +cultivated, the French, in 1756, built for them, +on this site, a substantial town, which the +English indifferently called Sarikonk, Sohkon, +King Beaver's Town, or Shingis Old Town. +During the French and Indian War, the place +was prominent as a rendezvous for the enemies +of American borderers; numerous bloody forays +were planned here, and hither were brought to +be adopted into the tribes, or to be cruelly +tortured, according to savage whim, many of +the captives whose tales have made lurid the +history of the Ohio Valley.</p> + +<p>Passing Beaver River, the Ohio enters upon +its grand sweep to the southwest. The wide +uplands at once become more rustic, especially +those of the left bank, which no longer is +threaded by a railway, as heretofore all the +way from Brownsville. The two ranges of +undulating hills, some three hundred and fifty +feet high, forming the rim of the basin, are +about a half mile apart; while the river itself +is perhaps a third of a mile in width, leaving +narrow bottoms on alternate sides, as the +stream in gentle curves rebounds from the +rocky base of one hill to that of another. +When winding about such a base, there is at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31"></a>[pg 31]</span> +this stage of the water a sloping, stony beach, +some ten to twenty yards in width, from which +ascends the sharp steep, for the most part +heavily tree-clad—maples, birches, elms and +oaks of goodly girth, the latter as yet in but +half-leaf. On the "bottom side" of the river, +the alluvial terrace presents a sheer wall of +clay rising from eight to a dozen feet above the +beach, which is often thick-grown with willows, +whose roots hold the soil from becoming too +easy a prey to the encroaching current. Sycamores +now begin to appear in the bottoms, +although of less size than we shall meet below. +Sometimes the little towns we see occupy a +narrow and more or less rocky bench upon the +hill side of the stream, but settlement is chiefly +found upon the bottoms.</p> + +<p>Shippingsport (32 miles), on the left bank, +where we stopped this noon for eggs, butter, +and fresh water, is on a narrow hill bench—a +dry, woe-begone hamlet, side-tracked from +the path of the world's progress. While I was +on shore, negotiating with the sleepy storekeeper, +Pilgrim and her crew waited alongside +the flatboat which serves as the town ferry. +There they were visited by a breezy, red-faced +young man, in a blue flannel shirt and a black +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id="page32"></a>[pg 32]</span> +slouch hat, who was soon enough at his ease +to lie flat upon the ferry gunwale, his cheeks +supported by his hands, and talk to W—— and +the Doctor as if they were old friends. He +was a dealer in nitroglycerin cartridges, he +said, and pointed to a long, rakish-looking +skiff hard by, which bore a red flag at its prow. +"Ye see that? Thet there red flag? Well, +thet's the law on us glyser<i>een</i> fellers—over five +hundred poun's, two flags; un'er five hundred, +one flag. I've two hundred and fifty, I have. +I tell yer th' steamboats steer clear o' me, an' +don' yer fergit it, neither; they jist give me a +wide berth, they do, yew bet! 'n' th' railroads, +they don' carry no glyser<i>een</i> cartridge, they +don't—all uv it by skiff, like yer see me goin'."</p> + +<p>These cartridges, he explained, are dropped +into oil or gas wells whose owners are desirous +of accelerating the flow. The cartridge, in +exploding, enlarges the hole, and often the +output of the well is at once increased by several +hundred per cent. The young fellow had +the air of a self-confident rustic, with little experience +in the world. Indeed, it seemed +from his elated manner as if this might be his +first trip from home, and the blowing of oil +wells an incidental speculation. The Boy, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33"></a>[pg 33]</span> +quick at inventive nomenclature, and fresh +from a reading of Robert Louis Stevenson, +called our visitor "the Dynamiter," and by +that title I suppose we shall always remember +him.</p> + +<p>The Dynamiter confided to his listeners that +he was going down the river for "a clean +hundred miles, and that's right smart fur, ain't +it? How fur down be yees goin'?" The Doctor +replied that we were going nine hundred; +whereat the man of explosives gave vent to +his feelings in a prolonged whistle, then a horse +laugh, and "Oh come, now! Don' be givin' +us taffy! Say, hones' Injun, how fur down air +yew fellers goin', anyhow?" It was with some +difficulty that he could comprehend the fact. A +hundred miles on the river was a great outing +for this village lad; nine hundred was rather +beyond his comprehension, although he finally +compromised by "allowing" that we might +be going as far as Cincinnati. Wouldn't the +Doctor go into partnership with him? He had +no caps for his cartridges, and if the Doctor +would buy caps and "stan' in with him on the +cost of the glyser<i>een</i>," they would, regardless +of Ohio statutes, blow up the fish in unfrequented +portions of the river, and make two +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34"></a>[pg 34]</span> +hundred dollars apiece by carrying the spoils +in to Wheeling. The Doctor, as a law-abiding +citizen, good-naturedly declined; and upon my +return to the flat, the Dynamiter was handing +the Boy a huge stick of barber-pole candy, +saying, "Well, yew fellers, we'll part friends, +anyhow—but sorry yew won't go in on this +spec'; there's right smart money in 't, 'n' don' +yer fergit it!"</p> + +<p>By the middle of the afternoon we reached +the boundary line (40 miles) between Pennsylvania +on the east and Ohio and West Virginia +on the west. The last Pennsylvania settlements +are a half mile above the boundary—Smith's +Ferry (right), an old and somewhat +decayed village, on a broad, low bottom at the +mouth of the picturesque Little Beaver Creek;<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href= + "#footnote2"><sup>A</sup></a> +and Georgetown (left), a prosperous-looking, +sedate town, with tidy lawns running down to +the edge of the terrace, below which is a shelving +stone beach of generous width. Two high +iron towers supporting the cable of a current +ferry add dignity to the twin settlements. A +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span> +stone monument, six feet high, just observable +through the willows on the right shore, marks +the boundary; while upon the left bank, surmounting +a high, rock-strewn beach, is the +dilapidated frame house of a West Virginia +"cracker," through whose garden-patch the +line takes its way, unobserved and unthought +of by pigs, chickens and children, which in +hopeless promiscuity swarm the interstate +premises.</p> + +<p>For many days to come we are to have +Ohio on the right bank and West Virginia on +the left. There is no perceptible change, of +course, in the contour of the rugged hills which +hem us in; yet somehow it stirs the blood to +reflect that quite within the recollection of all +of us in Pilgrim's crew, save the Boy, that left +bank was the house of bondage, and that right +the land of freedom, and this river of ours the +highway between.</p> + +<p>East Liverpool (44 miles) and Wellsville +(48 miles) are long stretches of pottery and +tile-making works, both of them on the Ohio +shore. There is nothing there to lure us, however, +and we determined to camp on the banks +of Yellow Creek (51 miles), a peaceful little +Ohio stream some two rods in width, its mouth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36"></a>[pg 36]</span> +crossed by two great iron spans, for railway +and highway. But although Yellow Creek +winds most gracefully and is altogether a +charming bit of rustic water, deep-set amid +picturesque slopes of field and wood, we fail +to find upon its banks an appropriate camping-place. +Upon one side a country road closely +skirts the shore, and on the other a railway, +while for the mile or more we pushed along +small farmsteads almost abutted. Hence we +retrace our path to the great river, and, dropping +down-stream for two miles, find what we +seek upon the lower end of the chief of Kneistly's +Cluster—two islands on the West Virginia +side of the channel.</p> + +<p>It is storied ground, this neighborhood of +ours. Over there at the mouth of Yellow +Creek was, a hundred and twenty years ago, +the camp of Logan, the Mingo chief; opposite, +on the West Virginia shore, Baker's Bottom, +where occurred the treacherous massacre of +Logan's family. The tragedy is interwoven +with the history of the trans-Alleghany border; +and schoolboys have in many lands and tongues +recited the pathetic defense of the poor Mingo, +who, more sinned against than sinning, was +crushed in the inevitable struggle between +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37"></a>[pg 37]</span> +savagery and civilization. "Who is there to +mourn for Logan?"</p> + +<p>We are high and dry on our willowed island. +Above, just out of sight, are moored a brace +of steam pile-drivers engaged in strengthening +the dam which unites us with Baker's Bottom. +To the left lies a broad stretch of gravel strand, +beyond which is the narrow water fed by the +overflow of the dam; to the right, the broad +steamboat channel rolls between us and the +Ohio hills, while the far-reaching vista downstream +is a feast of shade and tint, by land and +water, with the lights and smoke of New Cumberland +and Sloan's Station faintly discernible +near the horizon. All about us lies a beautiful +world of woodland. The whistle of quails innumerable +broke upon us in the twilight, succeeding +to the calls of rose-breasted grosbeaks +and a goodly company of daylight followers; in +this darkening hour, the low, plaintive note of +the whip-poor-will is heard on every hand, +now and then interrupted by the hoarse bark +of owls. There is a gentle tinkling of cowbells +on the Ohio shore, and on both are human +voices confused by distance. All pervading is +the deep, sullen roar of a great wing-dam, a +half mile or so down-stream.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38"></a>[pg 38]</span> + +<p>The camp is gypsy-like. Our washing lies +spread on bushes, where it will catch the first +peep of morning sun. Perishable provisions +rest in notches of trees, where the cool evening +breeze will strike them. Seated upon the +"grub" box, I am writing up our log by aid of +the lantern hung from a branch overhead, +while W——, ever busy, sits by with her mending. +Lying in the moonlight, which through +the sprawling willows gayly checkers our sand +bank, the Doctor and the Boy are discussing +the doings of Br'er Rabbit—for we are in the +Southland now, and may any day meet good +Uncle Remus.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a><b>Footnote A: </b><a href="#footnotetag2"> (return) </a><p>On this creek was the hunting-cabin of the Seneca +(Mingo) chief, Half King, who sent a message of welcome to +Washington, when the latter was on his way to Great Meadows +(1754).</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + + +<h4>An industrial region—Steubenville—Mingo +Bottom—In a steel mill—Indian +character.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mingo Junction, Ohio</span>, Wednesday, May +9th.—We had a cold night upon our island. +Upon arising this morning, a heavy fog enveloped +us, at first completely veiling the sun; +soon it became faintly visible, a great ball of +burnished copper reflected in the dimpled flood +which poured between us and the Ohio shore. +Weeds and willows were sopping wet, as was +also our wash, and the breakfast fire was a +comfortable companion. But by the time we +were off, the cloud had lifted, and the sun +gushed out with promise of a warm day.</p> + +<p>Throughout the morning, Pilgrim glided +through a thickly settled district, reminding +us of the Monongahela. Sewer-pipe and vitrified-brick +works, and iron and steel plants, +abound on the narrow bottoms. The factories +and mills themselves generally wear a prosperous look; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40"></a>[pg 40]</span> +but the dependent towns vary in +appearance, from clusters of shabby, down-at-the-heel +cabins, to lines of neat and well-painted +houses and shops.</p> + +<p>We visited the vitrified-brick works at New +Cumberland, W. Va. (56 miles), where the +proprietor kindly explained his methods, and +talked freely of his business. It was the old +story, too close a competition for profit, +although the use of brick pavements is fast +spreading. Fire clay available for the purpose +is abundant on the banks of the Ohio all the +way from Pittsburg to Kingston (60 miles). +A few miles below New Cumberland, on the +Ohio shore, we inspected the tile works at +Freeman, and admired the dexterity which the +workmen had attained.</p> + +<p>But what interested us most of all was the +appalling havoc which these clay and iron industries +are making with the once beautiful +banks of the river. Each of them has a large +daily output of debris, which is dumped unmercifully +upon the water's edge in heaps from +fifty to a hundred feet high. Sometimes for +nearly a mile in length, the natural bank is +deep buried out of sight; and we have from +our canoe naught but a dismal wall of rubbish, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span> +crowding upon the river to the uttermost limit +of governmental allowance. Fifty years hence, +if these enterprises multiply at the present +ratio, and continue their present methods, the +Upper Ohio will roll between continuous banks +of clay and iron offal, down to Wheeling and +beyond.</p> + +<p>Before noon we had left behind us this industrial +region, and were again in rustic surroundings. +The wind had gone down, the +atmosphere was oppressively warm, the sun's +reflection from the glassy stream came with +almost scalding effect upon our faces. We +had rigged an awning over some willow hoops, +but it could not protect us from this reflection. +For an hour or two—one may as well be +honest—we fairly sweltered upon our pilgrimage, +until at last a light breeze ruffled the +water and brought blessed relief.</p> + +<p>The hills are not as high as hitherto, and +are more broken. Yet they have a certain +majestic sweep, and for the most part are +forest-mantled from base to summit. Between +them the river winds with noble grace, continually +giving us fresh vistas, often of surpassing +loveliness. The bottoms are broader now, +and frequently semicircular, with fine farms +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id="page42"></a>[pg 42]</span> +upon them, and prosperous villages nestled in +generous groves. Many of the houses betoken +age, or what passes for it in this relatively new +country, being of the colonial pattern, with +fan-shaped windows above the doors, Grecian +pillars flanking the front porch, and wearing +the air of comfortable respectability.</p> + +<p>Beautiful islands lend variety to the scene, +some of them mere willowed "tow-heads" +largely submerged in times of flood, while +others are of a permanent character, often +occupied by farms. We have with us a copy +of Cuming's <i>Western Pilot</i> (Cincinnati, 1834), +which is still a practicable guide for the Ohio, +as the river's shore lines are not subject to so +rapid changes as those of the Mississippi; +but many of the islands in Cuming's are not +now to be found, having been swept away in +floods, and we encounter few new ones. It +is clear that the islands are not so numerous +as sixty years ago. The present works of the +United States Corps of Engineers tend to permanency +in the <i>status quo</i>; doubtless the government +map of 1881 will remain an authoritative +chart for a half century or more to come.</p> + +<p>W——'s enthusiasm for botany frequently +takes us ashore. Landing at the foot of some +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span> +eroded steep which, with ragged charm, rises +sharply from the gravelly beach, we fasten +Pilgrim's painter to a stone, and go scrambling +over the hillside in search of flowers, bearing +in mind the Boy's constant plea, to "Get only +one of a kind," and leave the rest for seed; +for other travelers may come this way, and +'tis a sin indeed to exterminate a botanical +rarity. But we find no rarities to-day—only +solomon's seal, trillium, wild ginger, cranebill, +jack-in-the-pulpit, wild columbine. Poison +ivy is on every hand, in these tangled woods, +with ferns of many varieties—chiefly maidenhair, +walking leaf, and bladder. The view +from projecting rocks, in these lofty places, is +ever inspiring; the country spread out below +us, as in a relief map; the great glistening +river winding through its hilly trough; a +rumpled country for a few miles on either side, +gradually trending into broad plains, checkered +with fields on which farmsteads and rustic +villages are the chessmen.</p> + +<p>At one o'clock we were at Steubenville, +Ohio (67 miles), where the broad stoned wharf +leads sharply up to the smart, well-built, substantial +town of some sixteen thousand inhabitants. +W—— and I had some shopping to do +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44"></a>[pg 44]</span> +there, while the Doctor and the Boy remained +down at the inevitable wharf-boat, and gossiped +with the philosophical agent, who bemoaned +the decadence of steamboat traffic in +general, and the rapidly falling stage of water +in particular.</p> + +<p>Three miles below Steubenville is Mingo +Junction, where we are the guests of a friend +who is superintendent of the iron and steel +works here. The population of Mingo is +twenty-five hundred. From seven to twelve +hundred are employed in the works, according +to the exigencies of business. Ten per cent +of them are Hungarians and Slavonians—a +larger proportion would be dangerous, our host +avers, because of the tendency of these people +to "run the town" when sufficiently numerous +to make it possible. The Slavs in the iron +towns come to America for a few years, intent +solely on saving every dollar within reach. +They are willing to work for wages which from +the American standard seem low, but to them +almost fabulous; herd together in surprising +promiscuity; maintain a low scale of clothing +and diet, often to the ruin of health; and +eventually return to Eastern Europe, where +their savings constitute a little fortune upon +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span> +which they can end their days in ease. This +sort of competition is fast degrading legitimate +American labor. Its regulation ought not to +be thought impossible.</p> + +<p>A visit to a great steel-making plant, in full +operation, is an event in a man's life. Particularly +remarkable is the weird spectacle +presented at night, with the furnaces fiercely +gleaming, the fresh ingots smoking hot, the +Bessemer converter "blowing off," the great +cranes moving about like things of life, bearing +giant kettles of molten steel; and amidst it +all, human life held so cheaply. Nearer to +mediæval notions of hell comes this fiery scene +than anything imagined by Dante. The working +life of one of these men is not over ten +years, B—— says. A decade of this intense +heat, compared to which a breath of outdoor +air in the close mill-yard, with the midsummer +sun in the nineties, seems chilly, wears a man +out—"only fit for the boneyard then, sir," +was the laconic estimate of an intelligent boss +whom I questioned on the subject.</p> + +<p>Wages run from ninety cents to five dollars +a day, with far more at the former rate than +the latter. A ninety-cent man working in a +place so hot that were water from a hose turned +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span> +upon him it would at once be resolved into +scalding steam, deserves our sympathy. It is +pleasing to find in our friend, the superintendent, +a strong fellow-feeling for his men, and +a desire to do all in his power to alleviate their +condition. He has accomplished much in +improving the <i>morale</i> of the town; but deep-seated, +inexorable economic conditions, apparently +beyond present control, render nugatory +any attempts to better the financial +condition of the underpaid majority.</p> + +<p>Mingo Junction—"Mingo Bottom" of old—was +an interesting locality in frontier days. +On this fertile river beach was long one of the +strongest of the Mingo villages. During the +last week of May, 1782, Crawford's little army +rendezvoused here, en route to Sandusky, a +hundred and fifty miles distant, and intent on +the destruction of the Wyandot towns. But +the Indians had not been surprised, and the +army was driven back with slaughter, reaching +Mingo the middle of June, bereft of its commander. +Crawford, who was a warm friend +of Washington, suffered almost unprecedented +torture at the stake, his fate sending a thrill +of horror through all the Western settlements.</p> + +<p>Let us not be too harsh in our judgment of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47"></a>[pg 47]</span> +these red Indians. At first, the white colonists +from Europe were regarded by them as +of supernatural origin, and hospitality, veneration, +and confidence were displayed toward +the new-comers. But the mortality of the +Europeans was soon made painfully evident +to them. When the early Spaniards, and +afterward the English, kidnaped tribesmen +for sale into slavery, or for use as captive +guides, and even murdered them on slight +provocation, distrust and hatred naturally succeeded +to the sentiment of awe. Like many +savage races, like the earlier Romans, the Indian +looked upon the member of every tribe +with which he had not made a formal peace +as a public enemy; hence he felt justified in +wreaking his vengeance on the race, whenever +he failed to find individual offenders. He was +exceptionally cruel, his mode of warfare was +skulking, he could not easily be reached in the +forest fastnesses which he alone knew well, +and his strokes fell heaviest on women and +children; so that whites came to fear and unspeakably +to loathe the savage, and often +added greatly to the bitterness of the struggle +by retaliation in kind. The white borderers +themselves were frequently brutal, reckless, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span> +lawless; and under such conditions, clashing +was inevitable. But worse agents of discord +than the agricultural colonists were the itinerants +who traveled through the woods visiting +the tribes, exchanging goods for furs; these +often cheated and robbed the Indian, taught +him the use of intoxicants, bullied and browbeat +him, appropriated his women, and in +general introduced serious demoralization into +the native camps. The bulk of the whites +doubtless intended to treat the Indian honorably; +but the forest traders were beyond the +pale of law, and news of the details of +their transactions seldom reached the coast +settlements.</p> + +<p>As a neighbor, the Indian was difficult to +deal with, whether in the negotiation of treaties +of amity, or in the purchase of lands. Having +but a loose system of government, there was +no really responsible head, and no compact +was secure from the interference of malcontents, +who would not be bound by treaties +made by the chiefs. The English felt that the +red men were not putting the land to its full +use, that much of the territory was growing up +as a waste, that they were best entitled to it +who could make it the most productive. On +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span> +the other hand, the earlier cessions of land +were made under a total misconception; the +Indians supposed that the new-comers would, +after a few years of occupancy, pass on and +leave the tract again to the natives. There +was no compromise possible between races +with precisely opposite views of property in +land. The struggle was inevitable—civilization +against savagery. No sentimental notions +could prevent it. It was in the nature of +things that the weaker must give way. The +Indian was a formidable antagonist, and there +were times when the result of the struggle +seemed uncertain; but in the end he went to +the wall. In judging the vanquished enemy +of our civilization, let us not underestimate his +intellect, or the many good qualities which +were mingled with his savage vices, or fail to +credit him with sublime courage, and a tribal +patriotism which no disaster could cool.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50"></a>[pg 50]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + + +<h4>Houseboat life—Decadence of steamboat +traffic—Wheeling, and Wheeling +Creek.</h4> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Above Moundsville, W. Va.</span>, Thursday, +May 10th.—Our friends saw us off at the +gravelly beach just below the "works." There +was a slight breeze ahead, but the atmosphere +was agreeable, and Pilgrim bore a happy crew, +now as brown as gypsies; the first painful effects +of sunburn are over, and we are hardened in +skin and muscle to any vicissitudes which are +likely to be met upon our voyage. Rough +weather, river mud, and all the other exigencies +of a moving camp, are beginning to tell upon +clothing; we are becoming like gypsies in raiment, +as well as color. But what a soul-satisfying +life is this gypsying! We possess +the world, while afloat on the Ohio!</p> + +<p>There are, in the course of the summer, so +many sorts of people traveling by the river,—steamboat +passengers, campers, fishers, house-boat +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span> +folk, and what not,—that we attract little +attention of ourselves, but Pilgrim is indeed a +curiosity hereabout. What remarks we overhear +are about her,—"Honey skiff, that!" +"Right smart skiff!" "Good skiff for her +place, but no good for this yere river!" and +so on. She is a lap-streak, square-sterned +craft, of white cedar three-eighths of an inch +thick; fifteen feet in length and four of beam; +weighs just a hundred pounds; comfortably +holds us and our luggage, with plenty of +spare room to move about in; is easily propelled, +and as stanch as can be made. Upon +these waters, we meet nothing like her. Not +counting the curious floating boxes and +punts, which are knocked together out of +driftwood, by boys and poor whites, and are +numerous all along shore, the regulation +Ohio river skiff is built on graceful lines, +but of inch boards, heavily ribbed, and is a +sorry weight to handle. The contention is, +that to withstand the swash of steamboat +wakes breaking upon the shore, and the rush +of drift in times of flood, a heavy skiff is necessary; +there is a tendency to decry Pilgrim +as a plaything, unadapted to the great river. +A reasonable degree of care at all times, however, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52"></a>[pg 52]</span> +and keeping the boat drawn high on the +beach when not in use,—such care as we +are familiar with upon our Wisconsin inland +lakes,—would render the employment of such +as she quite practicable, and greatly lessen the +labor of rowing on this waterway.</p> + +<p>The houseboats, dozens of which we see +daily, interest us greatly. They are scows, or +"flats," greatly differing in size, with low-ceilinged +cabins built upon them—sometimes +of one room, sometimes of half a dozen, and +varying in character from a mere shanty to a +well-appointed cottage. Perhaps the greater +number of these craft are afloat in the river, +and moored to the bank, with a gang-plank +running to shore; others are "beached," having +found a comfortable nook in some higher +stage of water, and been fastened there, +propped level with timbers and driftwood. +Among the houseboat folk are young working +couples starting out in life, and hoping ultimately +to gain a foothold on land; unfortunate +people, who are making a fresh start; men +regularly employed in riverside factories and +mills; invalids, who, at small expense, are +trying the fresh-air cure; others, who drift up +and down the Ohio, seeking casual work; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span> +legitimate fishermen, who find it convenient to +be near their nets, and to move about according +to the needs of their calling. But a goodly +proportion of these boats are inhabited by the +lowest class of the population,—poor "crackers" +who have managed to scrape together +enough money to buy, or enough energy and +driftwood to build, such a craft; and, near or +at the towns, many are occupied by gamblers, +illicit liquor dealers, and others who, while +plying nefarious trades, make a pretense of +following the occupation of the Apostles.</p> + +<p>Houseboat people, whether beached or afloat, +pay no rent, and heretofore have paid no taxes. +Kentucky has recently passed, more as a police +regulation than as a means of revenue, an act +levying a State tax of twenty-five dollars upon +each craft of this character; and the other +commonwealths abutting upon the river are +considering the policy of doing likewise. The +houseboat men have, however, recently formed +a protective association, and propose to fight +the new laws on constitutional grounds, the +contention being that the Ohio is a national +highway, and that commerce upon it cannot +be hampered by State taxes. This view does +not, however, affect the taxability of "beached" +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span> +boats, which are clearly squatters on State +soil.</p> + +<p>Both in town and country, the riffraff of +the houseboat element are in disfavor. It is +not uncommon for them, beached or tied up, +to remain unmolested in one spot for years, +with their pigs, chickens, and little garden +patch about them, mayhap a swarm or two of +bees, and a cow enjoying free pasturage along +the weedy bank or on neighboring hills. Occasionally, +however, as the result of spasmodic +local agitation, they are by wholesale ordered +to betake themselves to some more hospitable +shore; and not a few farmers, like our friend +at Beaver River, are quick to pattern after the +city police, and order their visitors to move on +the moment they seek a mooring. For the +truth is, the majority of those who "live on +the river," as the phrase goes, have the reputation +of being pilferers; farmers tell sad tales +of despoiled chicken-roosts and vegetable gardens. +From fishing, shooting, collecting chance +driftwood, and leading a desultory life along +shore, like the wreckers of old they naturally +fall into this thieving habit. Having neither +rent nor taxes to pay, and for the most part +not voting, and having no share in the political +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span> +or social life of landsmen, they are in the +State, yet not of it,—a class unto themselves, +whose condition is well worthy the study of +economists.</p> + +<p>Interspersed with the houseboat folk, although +of different character, are those whose +business leads them to dwell as nomads upon +the river—merchant peddlers, who spend a +day or two at some rustic landing, while scouring +the neighborhood for oil-barrels and junk, +which they load in great heaps upon the flat +roofs of their cabins, giving therefor, at goodly +prices, groceries, crockery, and notions,—often +bartering their wares for eggs and dairy +products, to be disposed of to passing steamers, +whose clerks in turn "pack" them for the +largest market on their route; blacksmiths, +who moor their floating shops to country beach +or village levee, wherever business can be had; +floating theaters and opera companies, with +large barges built as play-houses, towed from +town to town by their gaudily-painted tugs, on +which may occasionally be perched the vociferous +"steam piano" of our circus days, +"whose soul-stirring music can be heard for +four miles;" traveling sawyers, with old steamboats +made over into sawmills, employed by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span> +farmers to "work up" into lumber such logs +as they can from time to time bring down to +the shore—the product being oftenest used in +the neighborhood, but occasionally rafted, and +floated to the nearest large town; and a miscellaneous +lot of traveling craftsmen who live +and work afloat,—chairmakers, upholsterers, +feather and mattress renovators, photographers,—who +land at the villages, scatter abroad +their advertising cards, and stay so long as the +ensuing patronage warrants.</p> + +<p>A motley assortment, these neighbors of ours, +an uncultivated field for the fiction writers. +We have struck up acquaintance with many +of them, and they are not bad fellows, as the +world goes. Philosophers all, and loquacious +to a degree. But they cannot, for the life of +them, fathom the mystery of our cruise. We +are not in trade? we are not fishing? we +are not canvassers? we are not show-people? +"What 'n 'tarnation air ye, anny way? Oh, +come now! No fellers is do'n' th' river fur +fun, that's sartin—ye're jist gov'm'nt agints! +That's my way o' think'n'. Well, 'f ye kin +find fun in 't, then done go ahead, I say! But +all same, we'll be friends, won't we? Yew bet +strangers! Ye're welcome t' all in this yere +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57"></a>[pg 57]</span> +shanty boat—ain't no bakky 'bout yer close, +yew fellers?" We meet with abundant courtesy +of this rude sort, and weaponless sleep +well o' nights, fearing naught from our comrades +for the nonce.</p> + +<p>We again have railways on either bank. +The iron horse has almost eclipsed the "fire +canoe," as the Indians picturesquely styled the +steamboat. We occasionally see boats tied +up to the wharves, evidently not in commission; +but, in actual operation, we seldom meet or +pass over one or two daily. To be sure, the +low stage of water,—from six to eight feet +thus far, and falling daily,—and the coal strike, +militate against navigation interests. But the +truth is, there is very little business now left +for steamboats, beyond the movement of coal, +stone, bricks, and other bulky material, some +way freight, and a light passenger traffic. The +railroads are quicker and surer, and of course +competition lowers the charges.</p> + +<p>The heavy manufacturing interests along the +river now depend little upon the steamers, +although originally established here because +of them. I asked our friend, the superintendent +at Mingo, what advantage was gained by +having his plant upon the river. He replied: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span> +"We can get all the water we want, and we +use a great deal of it; and it is convenient to +empty our slag upon the banks; but our chief +interest here is in the fact that Mingo is a railway +junction." By rail he gets his coal and +ore, and ships away his product. Were the +coal to come a considerable distance, the river +would be the cheaper road; but it is obtained +from neighboring hill mines that are practically +owned by the railways. This coal, by the +way, costs $1.10 at the shaft mouth, and +$1.75 landed at the Mingo works. As for the +sewer-pipe, brick, and pottery works, they are +along stream because of the great beds of clay +exposed by the erosion of the river.</p> + +<p>It is fortunate for the stability of these +towns, that the Ohio flows along the transcontinental +pathway westward, so that the +great railway lines may serve them without +deflection from their natural course. Had +the great stream flowed south instead of west, +the industries of the valley doubtless would +gradually have been removed to the transverse +highways of the new commerce, save where +these latter crossed the river, and thus have +left scores of once thriving communities mere +'longshore wrecks of their former selves. This +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span> +is not possible, now. The steamboat traffic +may still further waste, until the river is no +longer serviceable save as a continental drainage +ditch; but, chiefly because of its railways, +the Ohio Valley will continue to be the seat +of an industrial population which shall wax fat +upon the growth of the nation's needs.</p> + +<p>By the middle of the afternoon, we were at +Wheeling (91 miles). The town has fifty +thousand inhabitants, is substantially built, of +a distinctly Southern aspect; well stretched +out along the river, but narrow; with gaunt, +treeless, gully-washed hills of clay rising abruptly +behind, giving the place a most forbidding +appearance from the water. There are +several fine bridges spanning the Ohio; and +Wheeling Creek, which empties on the lower +edge of town, is crossed by a maze of steel +spans and stone arches; the well-paved wharf, +sloping upward from the Ohio, is nearly as +broad and imposing as that of Pittsburg;<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href= + "#footnote3"><sup>A</sup></a> +houseboats are here by the score, some of them +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span> +the haunts of fishing clubs, as we judge from +the names emblazoned on their sides—"Mystic +Crew," "South Side Club," and the like.</p> + +<p>For the first time upon our tour, negroes +are abundant upon the streets and lounging +along the river front. They vary in color from +yellow to inky blackness, and in raiment from +the "dude," smart in straw hat, collars and +cuffs, and white-frilled shirt with glass-diamond +pin, to the steamboat roustabout, all +slouch and rags, and evil-eyed.</p> + +<p>Wheeling Island (300 acres), up to thirty +years ago mentioned in travelers' journals as a +rare beauty-spot, is to-day thick-set with cottages +of factory hands and small villas, and +commonplace; while smoky Bridgeport, opposite +on the Ohio side, was from our vantage-point +a mere smudge upon the landscape.</p> + +<p>Wheeling Creek is famous in Western history. +The three Zane brothers, Ebenezer, +Jonathan and Silas,—typical, old-fashioned +names these, bespeaking the God-fearing, +Bible-loving, Scotch-Presbyterian stock from +which sprang so large a proportion of trans-Alleghany +pioneers,—explored this region as +early as 1769, built cabins, and made improvements—Silas +at the forks of the creek, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61"></a>[pg 61]</span> +Ebenezer and Jonathan at the mouth. During +three or four years, it was a hard fight +between them and the Indians; but, though +several times driven from the scene, the Zane +brothers stubbornly reappeared, and rebuilt +their burned habitations.</p> + +<p>Before the Revolutionary War broke out, +the fortified home of the Zanes, at the creek +mouth, was a favorite stopping stage in the +savage-haunted wilderness; and many a traveler +in those early days has left us in his journal +a thankful account of his tarrying here. The +Zane stockade developed into Fort Fincastle, +in Lord Dunmore's time; then, Fort Henry, +during the Revolution; and everyone who +knows his Western history at all has read of +the three famous sieges of Wheeling (1777, +1781, and 1782), and the daring deeds of its +men and women, which help illumine the +pages of border annals. Finally, by 1784, the +fort at Wheeling, that had never surrendered, +was demolished as no longer necessary, for the +wall of savage resistance was now pushed far +westward. Wheeling had become the western +end of a wagon road across the Panhandle, +from Redstone, and here were fitted out many +flatboat expeditions for the lower Ohio; later, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62"></a>[pg 62]</span> +in steamboat days, the shallow water of the +upper river caused Wheeling to be in midsummer +the highest port attainable; and to this +day it holds its ground as the upper terminus +of several steamboat lines.</p> + +<p>Below Wheeling are several miles of factory +towns nestled by the strand, and numerous +coal tipples, with their begrimed villages. +Fishermen have been frequent to-day, in +houseboats of high and low degree, and in +land camps composed of tents and board shanties, +with rows of seines and tarred pound-nets +stretched in the sun to dry; tow-headed children +abound, almost as nude as the pigs and +dogs and chickens amongst which they waddle +and roll; women-folk busy themselves with +the multifarious cares of home-keeping, while +their lords are in shady nooks mending nets, +or listlessly examining trout lines which appear +to yield but empty hooks; they tell us +that when the river is falling, fish bite not, and +yet they serenely angle on, dreaming their +lives away.</p> + +<p>A half mile above Big Grave Creek (101 +miles), we, too, hurry into camp on a shelving +bank of sand, deep-fringed with willows; for +over the western hills thunder-clouds are rising, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63"></a>[pg 63]</span> +with wind gusts. Level fields stretch back of +us for a quarter of a mile, to the hills which +bound the bottom; at our front door majestically +rolls the growing river, perhaps a third +of a mile in width, black with the reflection of +the sky, and wrinkled now and then with +squalls which scurry over its bubbling surface.<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href= + "#footnote4"><sup>B</sup></a></p> + +<p>The storm does not break, but the bending +tree-tops crone, and toads innumerable rend +the air with their screaming whistles. We +had great ado, during the cooking of dinner, +to prevent them from hopping into our little +stove, as it gleamed brightly in the early dusk; +and have adopted special precautions to keep +them from the tent, as they jump about in the +tall grass, appeasing their insectivorous appetites.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a><b>Footnote A:</b><a href="#footnotetag3"> (return) </a><p>Upon the Ohio and kindred rivers, the term "wharf" +applies to the river beach when graded and paved, ready for +the reception of steamers. Such a wharf must not be confounded +with a lake or seaside wharf, a staging projected into +the water.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a><b>Footnote B:</b><a href="#footnotetag4"> (return) </a><p>It was in this neighborhood, a mile or two above our +camp, where the bottom is narrower, that Capt. William +Foreman and twenty other Virginia militiamen were killed +in an Indian ambuscade, Sept. 27, 1777. An inscribed stone +monument was erected on the spot in 1835, but we could not +find it.</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64"></a>[pg 64]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + + +<h4>The Big Grave—Washington, and Round +Bottom—A lazy man's Paradise—Captina +Creek—George Rogers Clark at +Fish Creek—Southern types.</h4> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Near Fishing Creek</span>, Friday, May 11th.—There +had been rain during the night, with +fierce wind gusts, but during breakfast the +atmosphere quieted, and we had a genial, +semi-cloudy morning.</p> + +<p>Off at 8 o'clock, Pilgrim's crew were soon +exploring Moundsville. There are five thousand +people in this old, faded, countrified +town. They show you with pride the State +Penitentiary of West Virginia, a solemn-looking +pile of dark gray stone, with the feeble +battlements and towers common to American +prison architecture. But the chief feature of +the place is the great Indian mound—the "Big +Grave" of early chroniclers. This earthwork +is one of the largest now remaining in the +United States, being sixty-eight feet high and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65"></a>[pg 65]</span> +a hundred in diameter at the base, and has for +over a century attracted the attention of travelers +and archæologists.</p> + +<p>We found it at the end of a straggling street, +on the edge of the town, a quarter of a mile +back from the river. Around the mound has +been left a narrow plat of ground, utilized as +a cornfield; and the stout picket fence which +encloses it bears peremptory notice that admission +is forbidden. However, as the proprietor +was not easily accessible, we exercised +the privilege of historical pilgrims, and, letting +ourselves in through the gate, picked our way +through rows of corn, and ascended the great +cone. It is covered with a heavy growth of +white oaks, some of them three feet in diameter, +among which the path picturesquely +zigzags. The summit is fifty-five feet in diameter, +and the center somewhat depressed, like +a basin. From the middle of this basin a +shaft some twenty-five feet in diameter has +been sunk by explorers, for a distance of perhaps +fifty feet; at one time, a level tunnel +connected the bottom of this shaft with the +side of the cone, but it has been mostly obliterated. +A score of years ago, tunnel and shaft +were utilized as the leading attractions of a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span> +beer garden—to such base uses may a great +historical landmark descend!</p> + +<p>Dickens, who apparently wrote the greater +part of his <i>American Notes</i> while suffering +from dyspepsia, has a note of appreciation for +the Big Grave: "... the host of Indians who +lie buried in a great mound yonder—so old that +mighty oaks and other forest trees have struck +their roots into its earth; and so high that it +is a hill, even among the hills that Nature +planted around it. The very river, as though +it shared one's feelings of compassion for the +extinct tribes who lived so pleasantly here, in +their blessed ignorance of white existence, +hundreds of years ago, steals out of its way to +ripple near this mound; and there are few +places where the Ohio sparkles more brightly +than in the Big Grave Creek."</p> + +<p>There is a sharp bend in the river, just +below Moundsville, with Dillon's Bottom +stretching long and wide at the apex on the +Ohio shore—flat green fields, dotted with little +white farmsteads, each set low in its apple +grove, and a convoluted wall of dark hills +hemming them in along the northern horizon. +Then below this comes Round Bottom, its +counterpart on the West Virginia side, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span> +coursing through it a pretty meadow creek, +Butler's Run.</p> + +<p>Writes Washington, in 1781, to a correspondent +who is thinking of renting lands in +this region: "I have a small tract called the +round bottom containing about 600 Acres, +which would also let. It lyes on the Ohio, +opposite to pipe Creek, and a little above Capteening." +Across the half mile of river are +the little levels and great slopes of the Ohio +hills, through which breaks this same Pipe +Creek; and hereabout Cresap's band murdered +a number of inoffensive Shawanese, a tragedy +which was one of the inciting causes of Lord +Dunmore's War (1774).</p> + +<p>We crossed over into Ohio, and pulled up +on the gravelly spit at the mouth of Pipe. +While the others were botanizing high on the +mountain side, I went along a beach path +toward a group of whitewashed cabins, intent +on replenishing the canteen. Upon opening +the gate of one of them, two grizzly dogs came +bounding out, threatening to test the strength +of my corduroy trousers. The proprietor cautiously +peered from a window, and, much to +my relief, called off the animals. Satisfied, +apparently, that I was not the visitor he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68"></a>[pg 68]</span> +expected, the fellow lounged out and sat upon +the steps, where I joined him. He was a tall, +raw-boned, loose-jointed young man, with a +dirty, buttonless flannel shirt which revealed +a hairy breast; upon his trousers hung a variety +of patches, in many stages of grease and decrepitude; +a gray slouch hat shaded his little +fishy eyes and hollow, yellow cheeks; and the +snaky ends of his yellow mustache were stiff +with accumulations of dried tobacco juice. +His fat, waddling wife, in a greasy black gown, +followed with bare feet, and, arms akimbo, +listened in the open door.</p> + +<p>A coal company owns the rocky river front, +here and at many places below, and lets these +cabins to the poor-white element, so numerous +on the Ohio's banks. The renter is privileged +to cultivate whatever land he can clear on the +rocky, precipitous slopes, which is seldom +more than half an acre to the cabin; and he +may, if he can afford a cow, let her run wild +in the scrub. The coal vein, a few rods back +of the house, is only a few inches thick, and +poor in quality, but is freely resorted to by the +cotters. He worked whenever he could find +a job, my host said—in the coal mines and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span> +quarries, or on the bottom farms, or the railroad +which skirts the bank at his feet.</p> + +<p>"But I tell ye, sir, th' <i>I</i>talians and Hungarians +is spoil'n' this yere country fur white +men; 'n' I do'n' see no prospect for hits be'n' +better till they get shoved out uv 't!" Yet he +said that life wasn't so hard here as it was in +some parts he had heard tell of—the climate +was mild, that he "'lowed;" a fellow could go +out and get a free bucket of coal from the hillside +"back yon;" he might get all the "light +wood 'n' patchin' stuff" he wanted, from the +river drift; could, when he "hankered after +'em," catch fish off his own front-door yard; +and pick up a dollar now and then at odd jobs, +when the rent was to be paid, or the "ol' +woman" wanted a dress, or he a new coat.</p> + +<p>This is clearly the lazy man's Paradise. I +do not remember to have heard that the South +Sea Islanders, in the ante-missionary days, +had an easier time of it than this. What new +fortune will befall my friend when he gets the +Italians and Hungarians "shoved out," and +"things pick up a bit," I cannot conceive.</p> + +<p>A pleasing panorama he has from his doorway—across +the river, the fertile fields of +Round Bottom, once Washington's; Captina +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span> +Island, just below, long and thickly-willowed, +dreamily afloat in a glassy sea, reflecting every +change of light; the whole girt about with the +wide uplands of the winding valley, and overhead +the march of sunny clouds.</p> + +<p>Captina Creek (108 miles) is not far down +on the Ohio bank, and beside it the little +hamlet of Powhattan Point, with the West +Virginia hills thereabout exceptionally high +and steep, and wooded to the very top. Washington, +who knew the Ohio well, down to the +Great Kanawha, wrote of this creek in 1770: +"A pretty large creek on the west side, called +by Nicholson [his interpreter] Fox-Grape-Vine, +by others Captema creek, on which, eight miles +up, is the town called Grape-Vine Town." +Captina village is its white successor. But +there were also Indians at the mouth of the +creek; for when George Rogers Clark and his +missionary companion, Jones, two years later +camped opposite on the Virginia shore, they +went over to make a morning call on the natives, +who repaid it in the evening, doubtless +each time receiving freely from the white men's +bounty.</p> + +<p>The next day was Sunday, and the travelers +remained in camp, Jones recording in his journal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71"></a>[pg 71]</span> +that he "instructed what Indians came +over." In the course of his prayer, the missionary +was particularly impressed by the attitude +of the chief of Grape-Vine Town, named +Frank Stephens, who professed to believe in +the Christian God; and he naively writes, "I +was informed that, all the time, the Indians +looked very seriously at me." Jones appears +to have been impressed also with the hardness +of the beach, where they camped in the open, +doubtless to avoid surprises: "Instead of +feathers, my bed was gravel-stones, by the +river side ... which at first seemed not +to suit me, but afterward it became more +natural."</p> + +<p>In those days, traveling was beset with difficulties, +both ashore and afloat. Eight years +later (spring of 1780), three flatboats were +descending the Ohio, laden with families intending +to settle in Kentucky, when they suffered +a common fate, being attacked by Indians +off Captina Creek. Several men and a child +were killed, and twenty-one persons were carried +into captivity—among them, Catherine +Malott, a girl in her teens, who subsequently +became the wife of that most notorious of border +renegades, Simon Girty.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span> + +<p>On the West Virginia shore, not over a third +of a mile below Captina Creek, empties Grave +Yard Run, a modest rivulet. It would of itself +not be noticeable amid the crowd of minor +creeks and runs, coursing down to the great +river through rugged ravines which corrugate +the banks. But it has a history. Here, late +in October or early in November, 1772, young +George Rogers Clark made his first stake west +of the Alleghanies, rudely cultivating a few +acres of forest land on what is now called +Cresap's Bottom, surveying for the neighbors, +and in the evenings teaching their children in +the little log cabin of his friend, Yates Conwell, +at the mouth of Fish Creek, a few miles +below. Fish Creek was in itself famous as +one of the sections of the great Indian trail, +"The Warrior Branch," which, starting in +Tennessee, came northward through Kentucky +and Southern Ohio, and, proceeding by way +of this creek, crossed over to Dunkard Creek, +thence to the mouth of Redstone. Washington +stopped at Conwell's in March or April, +1774; but Clark was away from home at the +time, and the "Father of his Country" never +met the man who has been dubbed the "Washington +of the West." Lord Dunmore's War +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73"></a>[pg 73]</span> +was hatching, and a few months later the Fish +Creek surveyor and schoolmaster had entered +upon his life work as an Indian fighter.</p> + +<p>At Bearsville (126 miles) we first meet a +phenomenon common to the Ohio—the edges +of the alluvial bottom being higher than the +fields back of them, forming a natural levee, +above which curiously rise to our view the +spires and chimneys of the village. Harris' +<i>Journal</i> (1803) made early note of this, and +advanced an acceptable theory: "We frequently +remarked that the banks are higher at +the margin than at a little distance back. I +account for it in this manner: Large trees, +which are brought down the river by the inundations, +are lodged upon the borders of the +bank, but cannot be floated far upon the +champaign, because obstructed by the growth +of wood. Retaining their situation when the +waters subside, they obstruct and detain the +leaves and mud, which would else recoil into +the stream, and thus, in process of time, form +a bank higher than the interior flats."</p> + +<p>Tied up to Bearsville landing is a gayly +painted barge, the home of Price's Floating +Opera Company, and in front its towing-steamer, +"Troubadour." A steam calliope is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span> +part of the visible furniture of the establishment, +and its praises as a noise-maker are +sung in large type in the handbills which, with +numerous colored lithographs of the performers, +adorn the shop windows in the neighboring +river towns.</p> + +<p>Two miles farther down, on a high bank at +the mouth of Fishing Creek, lies New Martinsville, +West Va. (127 miles), a rather shabby +town of fifteen hundred souls. As W—— and +I passed up the main street, seeking for a +grocery, we noticed that the public hall was +being decorated for a dance to come off to-night; +and placards advertising the event were +everywhere rivaling the gaudy prints of the +floating opera.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, a talkative native was interviewing +the Doctor, down at the river side. +It required some good-natured fencing on the +part of our skipper to prevent the Virginian +from learning all about our respective families +away back to the third generation. He was +a short, chubby man, with a Dixie goatee, his +flannel shirt negligée, and a wide-brimmed +straw hat jauntily set on the back of his head. +He was sociable, and sat astride of our beached +prow, punctuating his remarks with squirts of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span> +tobacco juice, and a bit of lath with which he +meditatively tapped the gunwale, the meantime, +with some skill, casting pebbles into the +water with his bare toes. "Ax'n yer pardon, +ma'm!" he said, scrambling from his perch +upon W——'s appearance; and then, pushing us +off, he bowed with much Southern gallantry, +and hat in hand begged we would come again +to New Martinsville, and stay longer.</p> + +<p>The hills lining these reaches are lower than +above, yet graceful in their sweeping lines. +Conical mounds sometimes surmount them, +relics of the prehistoric time when our Indians +held to the curious fashion of building earthworks. +We no longer entertain the notion +that a separate and a prouder race of wild +men than we know erected these tumuli. +That pleasant fiction has departed from us; +but the works are none the less interesting, +now that more is known of their origin.</p> + +<p>Two miles below New Martinsville, on the +West Virginia shore, we pitch camp, just as +the light begins to sink over the Ohio hills. +The atmosphere is sweet with the odor of +wild grape blossoms, and the willow also is in +bloom. Poison ivy, to whose baneful touch +fortunately none of us appear susceptible, grows +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span> +everywhere about. From the farmhouse on +the narrow bottom to our rear comes the melodious +tinkle-tinkle of cow bells. The operatic +calliope is in full blast, at Bearsville, its +shrieks and snorts coming down to us through +four miles of space, all too plainly borne by +the northern breeze; and now and then we +hear the squeak of the New Martinsville fiddles. +There are no mosquitoes as yet, but burly May-chafers +come stupidly dashing against our tent, +and the toads are piping merrily.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + + +<h4>In Dixie—Oil and natural gas, at Witten's +Bottom—The Long Reach—Photographing +crackers—Visitors in camp.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Above Marietta</span>, Saturday, May 12th.—Since +the middle of yesterday afternoon we +have been in Dixie,—that is, when we are on +the West Virginia shore. The famous Mason +and Dixon Line (lat. 39° 43' 26") touches the +Ohio at the mouth of Proctor's Run (121½ +miles).</p> + +<p>There was a heavy fog this morning, on +land and river. But through shifting rifts +made by the morning breeze, we had kaleidoscopic, +cloud-framed pictures of the dark, jutting +headlands which hem us in; of little white +cabins clustered by the country road which on +either bank crawls along narrow terraces between +overtopping steeps and sprawling beach, +or winds through fertile bottoms, according to +whether the river approaches or recedes from +its inclosing bluffs; of hillside fields, tipped at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78"></a>[pg 78]</span> +various angles of ascent, sometimes green with +springing grain, but oftenest gray or brown or +yellow, freshly planted,—charming patches of +color, in this somber-hued world of sloping +woodland.</p> + +<p>At Williamson's Island (134 miles) the fog +lifted. The air was heavy with the odor of +petroleum. All about us were the ugly, towering +derricks of oil and natural gas wells—Witten's +Bottom on the right, with its abutting +hills; the West Virginia woods across the river, +and the maple-strewn island between, all covered +with scaffolds. The country looks like a +rumpled fox-and-geese board, with pegs stuck +all over it. A mile and a half below lies Sistersville, +W. Va., the emporium of this greasy +neighborhood—great red oil-tanks and smoky +refineries its chiefest glory; crude and raw, like +the product it handles. We landed at Witten's +Bottom,—W——, the Boy, and I,—while +the Doctor, philosophically preferring to take +the oily elephant for granted, piloted Pilgrim +to the rendezvous a mile below.</p> + +<p>Oil was "struck" here two or three years +ago, and now within a distance of a few miles +there are hundreds of wells—"two hun'rd in +this yere gravel alone, sir!" I was told by a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span> +red-headed man in a red shirt, who lived with +his numerous family in a twelve-foot-square +box at the rear of a pumping engine. An engine +serves several wells,—the tumbling-rods, +rudely boxed in, stretching off through the +fields and over the hills to wherever needed. +The operatives dwell in little shanties scattered +conveniently about; in front of each is a vertical +half-inch pipe, six or eight feet high, +bearing a half bushel of natural-gas flame +which burns and tosses night and day, winter +and summer, making the Bottom a warm corner +of the earth, when the unassisted temperature +is in the eighties. It is a bewildering +scene, with all these derricks thickly scattered +around, engines noisily puffing, walking-beams +forever rearing and plunging, the country cobwebbed +with tumbling-rods and pipe lines, the +shanties of the operatives with their rude lamp-posts, +and the face of Nature so besmeared +with the crude output of the wells that every +twig and leaf is thick with grease.</p> + +<p>Just above Witten's commences the Long +Reach of the Ohio—a charming panorama, for +sixteen and a half miles in a nearly straight +line to the southwest. Little towns line the +alternating bottoms, and farmsteads are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span> +numerous on the slopes. But they are rocky +and narrow, these gentle shoulders of the hills, +and a poor class of folk occupy them—half +fishers, half farmers, a cross between my +Round Bottom friend and the houseboat nomads.</p> + +<p>A picturesquely-dilapidated log house, with +whitewashed porch in front, and a vine arbor +at the rear, attracted our attention at the foot +of the reach, near Grape Island. I clambered +up, to photograph it. The ice was broken by +asking for a drink of water. A gaunt girl of +eighteen, the elder of two, with bare feet, her +snaky hair streaming unkempt about a smirking +face, went with a broken-nosed pitcher to +a run, which could be heard splashing over its +rocky bed near by. The meanwhile, I took a +seat in the customary arcade between the +living room and kitchen, and talked with her +fat, greasy, red-nosed father, who confided to +me that he was "a pi'neer from way back." +He occupied his own land—a rare circumstance +among these riverside "crackers;" had +a hundred and thirty acres, worth twenty dollars +the acre; "jist yon ways," back of the +house, in the cliff-side, there was a coal vein +two feet thick, as yet only "worked" for his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81"></a>[pg 81]</span> +own fuel; and lately, he had struck a bank of +firebrick clay which might some day be a +"good thing for th' gals."</p> + +<p>On leaving, I casually mentioned my desire +to photograph the family on the porch, where +the light was good. While I walked around +the house outside, they passed through the +front room, which seemed to be the common +dormitory as well as parlor. To my surprise +and chagrin, the girls and their dowdy mother +had, in those brief moments of transition, contrived +to arrange their hair and dress to a degree +which took from them all those picturesque +qualities with which they had been invested at +the time of my arrival. The father was being +reproved, as he emerged upon the porch, for +not "slick'n' his ha'r, and wash'n' and fix'n' +up, afore hay'n' his pictur' taken;" but the old +fellow was obdurate, and joined me in remonstrance +against this transformation to the commonplace, +on the part of his women-folk. +However, there was no profit in arguing with +them, and I took my snap-shot with a conviction +that the film was being wasted.</p> + +<p>We were in several small towns to-day, in +pursuance of the policy of distributing our +shopping, so as to see as much of the shore +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82"></a>[pg 82]</span> +life as practicable. Chief among them have +been New Matamoras (141 miles) and St. +Mary's (154 miles), in West Virginia, and +Newport, in Ohio (155 miles). Rather dingy +villages, these—each, after their kind, with a +stone wharf thick-grown with weeds; a flouring +mill at the head of the landing; a few +cheap-looking, battlemented stores; boys and +men lounging about with that air of comfortable +idling which impresses one as the main +characteristic of rustic hamlets, where nobody +seems ever to have anything to do; a ferry +running to the opposite shore—for cattle and +wagons, a heavy flat, with railings, made to +drift with the current; and for foot passengers, +a lumbering skiff, with oars chucking noisily +in their roomy locks.</p> + +<p>Every now and then we run across bunches +of oil and gas wells; and great signs, like those +advertising boards which greet railway travelers +approaching our large cities, are here and +there perched upon the banks, notifying steamboat +pilots, in letters a foot high, that a pipe +line here crosses the river, the vicinity being +consequently unsafe for mooring.</p> + +<p>Our camp, to-night, is on a bit of grassy +ledge at the summit of a rocky bank, ten miles +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span> +above Marietta, on the Ohio side. A rod or +so back of us is the country road, which winds +along at the foot of a precipitous steep. It is +narrow quarters here, and too near the highway +for comfort, but nothing better seemed to +offer at the time we needed it; and the outlook +is pleasant, through the fringing oaks and elms, +across the broad river into West Virginia.</p> + +<p>We had not yet pitched tent, and all hands +were still clambering over the rocks with Pilgrim's +cargo, rather glad that there was no +more of it, when our first camp-bore appeared—a +middling-sized man, florid as to +complexion, with a mustache and goatee, and +in a suit of seedy black, surmounted by a +crushed-in Derby hat; and, after the fashion +of the country, giving evidence, on his collarless +white shirt, of a free use of chewing tobacco. +I have seldom met a fellow with better +staying qualities. He was a strawberry grower, +he said, and having been into Newport, a half +dozen miles up river, was walking to his home, +which was a mile or two off in the hills. Would +we object if, for a few moments, he tarried +here by the roadside? and perhaps we could +accommodate him with a drink of water? Patiently +did he watch the preparation of dinner, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84"></a>[pg 84]</span> +and spice each dish with commendations of +W——'s skill at making the most of her few +utensils.</p> + +<p>Right glibly he chattered on; now about the +decadence of womankind; now about strawberry-growing +upon these Ohio hills—with the +crop just coming on, and berries selling at a +shilling to-day, in Marietta, when they ought +to be worth twenty cents; now on politics, and +of course he was a Populist; now on the hard +times, and did we believe in free silver? He +would take no bite with us, but sat and talked +and talked, despite plain hints, growing plainer +with the progress of time, that his family needed +him at nightfall. Dinner was eaten, and dishes +washed; the others left on a botanical round-up, +and I produced my writing materials, with +remarks upon the lateness of the hour. At +last our guest arose, shook the grass from his +clothes, with a shake of hands bade me good-night, +wishing me to convey his "good-bye" +to the rest of our party, and as politely as possible +expressed the great pleasure which the +visit had given him.</p> + +<p>Some farmer boys came down the hillside +to fish at the bank, and talked pleasantly of +their work and of the ever-changing phases of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id="page85"></a>[pg 85]</span> +the river. Other farmers passed our roadside +door, in wagons, on buckboards, by horseback, +and on foot; in neighborly tone, but with ill-disguised +curiosity in their eyes, wishing me +good evening. When the long twilight was +almost gone, and the moon an hour high over +the purple dusk of the West Virginia hills, the +botanists returned, aglow with their exercise, +and rich with trophies of blue and dwarf larkspur, +pink and white stone-crop, trailing arbutus, +and great laurel.</p> + +<p>And then, as we were preparing to retire, a +sleek and dapper fellow, though with clothes +rather the worse for wear, came trudging along +the road toward Marietta. Seeing our camp, +he asked for a drink. Being apparently disposed +to tarry, the Doctor, to get him started, +offered to walk a piece with him. Our comrade +staid out so long, that at last I went down +the road in search of him, and found the pair +sitting on a moonlit bank, as cozily as if they +had been always friends. The stranger had +revealed to the Doctor that he was a street +fakir, "by perfesh," and had "struck it rich" +in Chicago during the World's Fair, but somehow +had lost the greater part of his gains, and +was now associated with his brother, who had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86"></a>[pg 86]</span> +a junk-boat; the brother was "well heeled," +and staid and kept store at the boat, while +the fakir, as the walking partner, "rustled +'round 'mong th' grangers, to stir up trade." +The Doctor had, in their talk, let slip something +about certain Florida experiences, and +when I arrived on the scene was being skillfully +questioned by his companion as to the probabilities +of "a feller o' my perfesh ketch'n' on, +down thar?" The result of this pumping process +must have been satisfactory: for when we +parted with him, the fakir declared he was +"go'n' try't on thar, next winter, 'f I bust me +bottom dollar!"</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87"></a>[pg 87]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h4>Life ashore and afloat—Marietta, "the +Plymouth Rock of the West"—The +Little Kanawha—The story of Blennerhassett's +Island.</h4> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Blennerhassett's Island</span>, Sunday, May +13th.—The day broke without fog, at our +camp on the rocky steep above Marietta. The +eastern sky was veiled with summer clouds, all +gayly flushed by the rising sun, and in the +serene silence of the morning there hung the +scent of dew, and earth, and trees. In the +east, the distant edges of the West Virginia +hills were aglow with the mounting light before +it had yet peeped over into the river trough, +where a silvery haze lent peculiar charm to +flood and bank. Up river, one of the Three +Brothers isles, dark and heavily forested, +seemed in the middle ground to float on air. +A bewitching picture this, until at last the sun +sprang clear and strong above the fringing +hills, and the spell was broken.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88"></a>[pg 88]</span> + +<p>The steamboat traffic is improving as we +get lower down. Last evening, between landing +and bedtime, a half dozen passed us, up +and down, breathing heavily as dragons might, +and leaving behind them foamy wakes which +loudly broke upon the shore. Before morning, +I was at intervals awakened by as many +more. A striking spectacle, the passage of a +big river steamer in the night; you hear, fast +approaching, a labored pant; suddenly, around +the bend, or emerging from behind an island, +the long white monster glides into view, +lanterns gleaming on two lines of deck, her +electric searchlight uneasily flitting to and +fro, first on one landmark, then on another, +her engine bell sharply clanging, the measured +pant developing into a burly, all-pervading +roar, which gradually declines into a pant +again—and then she disappears as she came, +her swelling wake rudely ruffling the moonlit +stream.</p> + +<p>We caught up with a large lumber raft this +morning, descending from Pittsburg to Cincinnati. +The half-dozen men in charge were +housed midway in a rude little shanty, and +relieved each other at the sweeps—two at +bow, and two astern. It is an easy, lounging +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89"></a>[pg 89]</span> +life, most of the way, with some difficulties in +the shallows, and in passing beneath the great +bridges. They travel night and day, except +in the not infrequent wind-storms blowing up +stream; and it will take them another week to +cover the three hundred miles between this +and their destination. Far different fellows, +these commonplace raftsmen of to-day, from +the "lumber boys" of a half-century or more +ago, when the river towns were regularly +"painted red" by the men who followed the +Ohio by raft or flatboat. Life along shore +was then more picturesque than comfortable.</p> + +<p>Later, we stopped on the Ohio shore to chat +with a group of farmers having a Sunday talk, +their seat a drift log, in the shade of a willowed +bank. They proved to be market gardeners +and fruit-growers—well-to-do men of their +class, and intelligent in conversation; all of +them descendants of the sturdy New Englanders +who settled these parts.</p> + +<p>While the others were discussing small fruits +with these transplanted Yankees, who proved +quite as full of curiosity about us as we concerning +them, I went down shore a hundred +yards, struggling through the dense fringe of +willows, to photograph a junk-boat just putting +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90"></a>[pg 90]</span> +off into the stream. The two rough-bearded, +merry-eyed fellows at the sweeps were setting +their craft broadside to the stream—that "the +current might have more holt of her," the chief +explained. They were interested in the kodak, +and readily posed as I wished, but wanted to +see what had been taken, having the common +notion that it is like a tintype camera, with +results at once attainable. They offered our +party a ride for the rest of the day, if we +would row alongside and come aboard, but I +thanked them, saying their craft was too slow +for our needs; at which they laughed heartily, +and "'lowed" we might be traders, too, anxious +to get in ahead of them—"but there's +plenty o' room o' th' river, for yew an' we, +stranger! Well, good luck to yees! We'll see +yer down below, somewhar, I reckon!"</p> + +<p>Just before lunch, we were at Marietta, at +the mouth of the Muskingum (171 miles), a +fine stream, here two hundred and fifty yards +wide. A storied river, this Muskingum. We +first definitely hear of it in 1748, the year the +original Ohio Company was formed. Céloron +was here the year following, with his little +band of French soldiers and Indians, vainly +endeavoring to turn English traders out of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91"></a>[pg 91]</span> +Ohio Valley. Christopher Gist came, some +months later; then the trader Croghan, for +"Old Wyandot Town," the Indian village at +the mouth, was a noted center in Western forest +traffic. Moravian missionaries appeared in due +time, establishing on the banks of the Muskingum +the ill-fated convert villages of Schönbrunn, +Gnadenhütten, and Salem. In 1785, +Fort Harmar was reared on the site of Wyandot +Town. Lastly, in the early spring of 1788, +came, in Ohio river flatboats, that famous body +of New England veterans of the Revolution, +under Gen. Rufus Putnam, and planted Marietta—"the +Plymouth Rock of the West."</p> + +<p>We smile at these Ohio pilgrims, for dignifying +the hills which girt in the Marietta bottom, +with the names of the seven on which +Rome is said to be built—for having a Campus +Martius and a Sacra Via, and all that, out +here among the sycamore stumps and the wild +Indians. But a classical revival was just then +vigorously affecting American thought, and it +would have been strange if these sturdy New +Englanders had not felt its influence, fresh +as they were from out the shadows of Harvard +and Yale, and in the awesome presence of +crowds of huge monumental earthworks, whose +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id="page92"></a>[pg 92]</span> +age, in their day, was believed to far outdate +the foundations of the Eternal City itself. +They loved learning for learning's sake; and +here, in the log-cabins of Marietta, eight hundred +miles west of their beloved Boston, among +many another good thing they did for posterity, +they established the principle of public +education at public cost, as a national principle.</p> + +<p>They were soldier colonists. Washington, +out of a full heart, for he dearly loved the +West, said of them: "No colony in America +was ever settled under such favorable auspices +as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum. +Information, property, and strength +will be its characteristics. I know many of +the settlers personally, and there never were +men better calculated to promote the welfare +of such a community." And when, in 1825, +La Fayette had read to him the list of Marietta +pioneers,—nearly fifty military officers among +them,—he cried: "I know them all! I saw +them at Brandywine, Yorktown, and Rhode +Island. They were the bravest of the brave!"</p> + +<p>Yet, for a long time, Marietta met with +small measure of success. Miasma, Indian +ravages, and the conservative temperament of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93"></a>[pg 93]</span> +the people combined to render slow the +growth of this Western Plymouth. There +were, for a time, extensive ship-building yards +here; but that industry gradually declined, +with the growth of railway systems. In our +day, Marietta, with its ten thousand inhabitants, +prospers chiefly as a market town and +an educational center, with some manufacturing +interests. We were struck to-day, as we +tarried there for an hour or two, with the remarkable +resemblance it has in public and +private architecture, and in general tone, to a +typical New England town—say, for example, +Burlington, Vt. Omitting its river front, and +its Mound Cemetery, Marietta might be set +bodily down almost anywhere in Massachusetts, +or Vermont, or Connecticut, and the +chance traveler would see little in the place +to remind him of the West. I know of no +other town out of New England of which the +same might be said.</p> + +<p>Below Marietta, the river bottoms are, for +miles together, edged with broad stretches of +sloping beach, either deep with sand or naturally +paved with pebbles—sometimes treeless, +but often strewn with clumps of willow and +maple and scrub sycamore. The hills, now +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page94" id="page94"></a>[pg 94]</span> +rounder, less ambitious, and more widely separated, +are checkered with fields and forests, +and the bottom lands are of more generous +breadth. Pleasant islands stud the peaceful +stream. The sylvan foliage has by this time +attained very nearly its fullest size. The horse +chestnut, the pawpaw, the grape, and the +willow are in bloom. A gentle pastoral scene +is this through which we glide.</p> + +<p>It is evident that it would be a scalding day +but for the gentle breeze astern; setting sail, +we gladly drop our oars, and, with the water +rippling at our prow, sweep blithely down the +long southern reach to Parkersburg, W. Va., +at the mouth of the Little Kanawha (183 miles). +In the full glare of the scorching sun, Parkersburg +looks harsh and dry. But it is well built, +and, as seen from the river, apparently prosperous. +The Ohio is here crossed by the once +famous million-dollar bridge of the Baltimore +& Ohio railway. The wharf is at the junction +of the two streams, but chiefly on the shore of +the unattractive Little Kanawha, which is +spanned by several bridges, and abounds in +steamers and houseboats moored to the land. +Clark and Jones did not think well of Little +Kanawha lands, yet there were several families +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95"></a>[pg 95]</span> +on the river as early as 1763, and Trent, +Croghan, and other Fort Pitt fur-traders had +posts here. There were only half-a-dozen +houses in 1800, and Parkersburg itself was not +laid out until ten years later.</p> + +<p>Blennerhassett's Island lies two miles below—a +broad, dark mass of forest, at the head +joined by a dam to the West Virginia shore, +from which it is separated by a slender channel. +Blennerhassett's is some three and a half +miles long; of its five hundred acres, four hundred +are under cultivation in three separate +tenant farms. We landed at the upper end, +where Blennerhassett had his wharf, facing the +Ohio shore, and found that we were trespassing +upon "The Blennerhassett Pleasure +Grounds." A seedy-looking man, who represented +himself to be the proprietor, promptly +accosted us and levied a "landing fee" of ten +cents per head, which included the right to +remain over night. A little questioning developed +the fact that thirty acres at the head +of the island belong to this man, who rents +the ground to a market gardener,—together +with the comfortable farmhouse which occupies +the site of Blennerhassett's mansion,—but +reserves to himself the privilege of levying toll +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96"></a>[pg 96]</span> +on visitors. He declared to me that fifteen +thousand people came to the island each summer, +generally in large railway and steamboat +excursions, which gives him an easily-acquired +income sufficient for his needs. It is a pity +that so famous a place is not a public park.</p> + +<p>The touching story of the Blennerhassetts +is one of the best known in Western annals. +Rich in culture and worldly possessions, but +wildly impracticable, Harman Blennerhassett +and his beautiful wife came to America in +1798. Buying this lovely island in the Ohio, +six hundred miles west of tidewater, they built +a large mansion, which they furnished luxuriously, +adorning it with fine pictures and +statuary. Here, in the midst of beautiful +grounds, while Blennerhassett studied astronomy, +chemistry, and galvanism, his brilliant +spouse dispensed rare hospitality to their many +distinguished guests; for, in those days, it was +part of a rich young man's education to take a +journey down the Ohio, into "the Western +parts," and on returning home to write a book +about it.</p> + +<p>But there came a serpent to this Eden. +Aaron Burr was among their visitors (1805), +while upon his journey to New Orleans, where +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span> +he hoped to set on foot a scheme to seize +either Texas or Mexico, and set up a republic +with himself at the head. He interested the +susceptible Blennerhassetts in his plans, the +import of which they probably little understood; +but the fantastic Englishman had suffered +a considerable reduction of fortune, and +was anxious to recoup, and Burr's representations +were aglow with the promise of such +rewards in the golden southwest as Cortes and +Coronado sought. Blennerhassett's purse was +opened to the enterprise of Burr; large sums +were spent in boats and munitions, which were, +tradition says, for a time hid in the bayou +which, close by our camp, runs deep into the +island forest. It has been filled in by the +present proprietor, but its bold shore lines, all +hung with giant sycamores, are still in evidence.</p> + +<p>President Jefferson's proclamation (October, +1806) shattered the plot, and Blennerhassett +fled to join Burr at the mouth of the Cumberland. +Both were finally arrested (1807), and +tried for treason, but acquitted on technical +grounds. In the meantime, people from the +neighboring country sacked Blennerhassett's +house; then came creditors, and with great +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id="page98"></a>[pg 98]</span> +waste seized his property; the beautiful place +was still further pillaged by lawless ruffians, +and turned into ignoble uses; later, the mansion +itself was burned through the carelessness +of negroes—and now, all they can show us are +the old well and the noble trees which once +graced the lawn. As for the Blennerhassetts +themselves, they wandered far and wide, everywhere +the victims of misfortune. He died on +the Island of Guernsey (1831), a disappointed +office-seeker; she, returning to America to seek +redress from Congress for the spoliation of her +home, passed away in New York, before the +claim was allowed, and was buried by the Sisters +of Charity.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + + +<h4>Poor whites—First library in the West—An +hour at Hockingport—A hermit +fisher.</h4> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Long Bottom</span>, Monday, May 14th.—Pushing +up stream for two miles this morning, the +commissary department replenished the day's +stores at Parkersburg. Forepaugh's circus +was in town, and crowds of rustics were coming +in by wagon road, railway trains, and +steamers and ferries on both rivers. The +streets of the quaint, dingy Southern town +were teeming with humanity, mainly negroes +and poor whites. Among the latter, flat, +pallid faces, either flabby or too lean, were +under the swarms of blue, white, and yellow +sunbonnets—sad faces, with lack-luster eyes, +coarse hair of undecided hue, and coarser +speech. These Audreys of Dixie-land are the +product of centuries of ill-treatment on our +soil; indented white servants to the early coast +colonists were in the main their ancestors; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span> +with slave competition, the white laborer in the +South lost caste until even the negro despised +him; and ill-nurture has done the rest. Then, +too, in these bottoms, malaria has wrought its +work, especially among the underfed; you see +it in the yellow skin and nerveless tone of +these lanky rustics, who are in town to enjoy +the one bright holiday of their weary year.</p> + +<p>Across the river, in Ohio, is Belpré (short +for Belle Prairie, and now locally pronounced +Bel'pry), settled by Revolutionary soldiers, on +the Marietta grant, in 1789-90. I always +think well of Belpré, because here was established +the first circulating library in the +Northwest. Old Israel Putnam, he of the +wolf-den and Bunker Hill, amassed many +books. His son Israel, on moving to Belpré +in 1796, carried a considerable part of the +collection with him—no small undertaking +this, at a time when goods had to be carted +all the way from Connecticut, over rivers and +mountains to the Ohio, and then floated +down river by flatboat, with a high tariff for +every pound of freight. Young Israel was +public-spirited, and, having been at so great +cost and trouble to get this library out to the +wilderness, desired his fellow-colonists to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101"></a>[pg 101]</span> +enjoy it with him. It would have been unfair +not to distribute the expense, so a stock company +was formed, and shares were sold at ten +dollars each. Of the blessings wrought in +this rude frontier community by the books +which the elder Israel had collected for his +Connecticut fireside, there can be no more +eloquent testimony than that borne by an old +settler, who, in 1802, writes to an Eastern +friend: "In order to make the long winter +evenings pass more smoothly, by great exertion +I purchased a share in the Belpré library, +six miles distant. Many a night have I passed +(using pine knots instead of candles) reading +to my wife while she sat hatcheling, carding +or spinning." The association was dissolved +in 1815 or 1816, and the books distributed +among the shareholders; many of these volumes +are still extant in this vicinity, and several +are in the college museum at Marietta.</p> + +<p>There are few descendants hereabout of the +original New England settlers, and they live +miles apart on the Ohio shore. We went up +to visit one, living opposite Blennerhassett's +Island. Notice of our coming had preceded +us, and we were warmly welcomed at a substantial +farmhouse in the outskirts of Belpré, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102"></a>[pg 102]</span> +with every evidence about of abundant prosperity. +The maternal great-grandfather of +our host for an hour was Rufus Putnam, an +ancestor to be proud of. Five acres of gooseberries +are grown on the place, and other +small-fruits in proportion—all for the Parkersburg +market, whence much is shipped +north to Cleveland. Our host confessed to a +little malaria, even on this upper terrace—or +"second bottom," as they style it—but "the +land is good, though with many stones—natural +conditions, you know, for New Englanders." +It was pleasant for a New England +man, not long removed from his native soil, +to find these people, who are a century away +from home, still claiming kinship.</p> + +<p>At the Big Hockhocking River (197 miles), +on a high, semicircular bottom, is Hockingport, +a hamlet with a population of three +hundred. Here, on a still higher bench, a +quarter of a mile back from the river, Lord +Dunmore built Fort Gower, one of a chain of +posts along his march against the Northwest +Indians (1774). It was from here that he +marched to the Pickaway Plains, on the Scioto +(near Circleville, O.), and concluded that +treaty of peace to which Chief Logan refused +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103"></a>[pg 103]</span> +his consent. There are some remains yet left +of this palisaded earthwork of a century and +a quarter ago, but the greater part has been +obliterated by plowing, and a dwelling occupies +a portion of the site.</p> + +<p>It had been very warm, and we had needed +an awning as far down as Hockingport, where +we cooled off by lying on the grass in the +shade of the village blacksmith's shop, which +is, as well, the ferry-house, with the bell hung +between two tall posts at the top of the bank, +its rope dangling down for public use. The +smith-ferryman came out with his wife—a +burly, good-natured couple—and joined us in +our lounging, for it is not every day that +river travelers put in at this dreamy, far-away +port. The wife had camped with her +husband, when he was boss of a railway construction +gang, and both of them frankly envied +us our trip. So did a neighboring storekeeper, +a tall, lean, grave young man, clean-shaven, +coatless and vestless, with a blue-glass +stud on his collarless white shirt. Apparently +there was no danger of customers +walking away with his goods, for he left his +store-door open to all comers, not once glancing +thitherward in the half-hour he sat with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" id="page104"></a>[pg 104]</span> +us on a stick of timber, in which he pensively +carved his name.</p> + +<p>Life goes easily in Hockingport. Years +ago there was some business up the Big +Hocking (short for Big Hockhocking), a stream +of a half-dozen rods' width, but now no steamer +ventures up—the railroads do it all; as for the +Ohio—well, the steamers now and then put +off a box or bale for the four shop-keepers, +and once in a while a passenger patronizes +the landing. There is still a little country +traffic, and formerly a sawmill was in operation +here; you see its ruins down there below. +Hockingport is a type of several rustic hamlets +we have seen to-day; they are often in +pairs, one either side of the river, for companionship's +sake.</p> + +<p>We are idling, despite the knowledge that on +turning every big bend we are getting farther +and farther south, and mid-June on the Lower +Ohio is apt to be sub-tropical. But the sinking +sun gives us a shadowy right bank, and +that is most welcome. The current is only +spasmodically good. Every night the river +falls from three to six inches, and there are +long stretches of slack-water. The steamers +pick their way carefully; we do not give them +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span> +as wide a berth as formerly, for the wakes +they turn are no longer savage—but wakes, +even when sent out by stern-wheelers at full +speed, now give us little trouble; it did not +take long to learn the knack of "taking" +them. Whether you meet them at right angles, +or in the trough, there is the same delicious +sensation of rising and falling on the +long swells—there is no danger, so long as +you are outside the line of foaming breakers; +within those, you may ship water, which is +not desirable when there is a cargo. But the +boys at the towns sometimes put out in their +rude punts into the very vortex of disturbance, +being dashed about in the white roar +at the base of the ponderous paddle wheels, +like a Fiji Islander in his surf-boat. We heard, +the other day, of a boatload of daring youngsters +being caught by the wheel, their craft +smashed into kindling-wood, and they themselves +all drowned but one.</p> + +<p>The hills, to-day, sometimes break sharply +off, leaving an eroded, often vine-festooned palisade +some fifty feet in height, at the base of +which is a long, tree-clad slope of debris; +then, a narrow, level terrace from fifty to a +hundred yards in width, which drops suddenly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span> +to a rocky beach; this in turn is often lined +along the water's edge with irregularly-shaped +boulders, from the size of Pilgrim to fifteen +or twenty feet in height, and worn smooth +with the grinding action of the river. The +effect is highly picturesque. We shall have +much of this below.</p> + +<p>At the foot of one of these palisades lay a +shanty-boat, with nets sprawled over the roof +to dry, and a live-box anchored hard by. +"Hello, the boat!" brought to the window +the head of the lone fisherman, who dreamily +peered at us as we announced our wish to become +his customers. A sort of poor-white +Neptune, this tall, lean, lantern-jawed old +fellow, with great round, iron-rimmed spectacles +over his fishy eyes, his hair and beard +in long, snaky locks, and clothing in dirty tatters. +As he put out in his skiff to reach the +live-box, he continuously spewed tobacco juice +about him, and in an undertone growled garrulously, +as though used to soliloquize in his +hermitage, where he lay at outs with the +world. He had been in this spot for two +years, he said, and sold fish to the daily Parkersburg +steamer—when there were any fish. +But, for six months past, he "hadn't made +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span> +enough to keep him in grub," and had now +and then to go up to the city and earn something. +For forty years had he followed the +apostles' calling on "this yere Ohio," and the +fishing was never so poor as now—yes, sir! +hard times had struck his business, just like +other folks'. He thought the oil wells were +tainting the water, and the fish wouldn't +breed—and the iron slag, too, was spoiling +the river, and he knew it. He finally produced +for us, out of his box, a three-pound +fish,—white perch, calico bass, and catfish +formed his stock in trade,—but, before handing +it over, demanded the requisite fifteen +cents. Evidently he had had dealings with a +dishonest world, this hermit fisher, and had +learned a thing or two.</p> + +<p>Perfect camping places are not to be found +every day. There are so many things to +think of—a good landing place; good height +above the water level, in case of a sudden +rise; a dry, shady, level spot for the tent; +plenty of wood, and, if possible, a spring; and +not too close proximity to a house. Occasionally +we meet with what we want, when +we want it; but quite as often, ideal camping +places, while abundant half the day, are not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span> +to be found at five o'clock, our usual hour for +homeseeking. The Doctor is our agent for +this task, for, being bow oar, he can clamber +out most easily. This evening, he ranged both +shores for a considerable distance, with ill +success, so that we are settled on a narrow +Ohio sand-beach, in the midst of a sparse +willow copse, only two feet above the river. +Dinner was had at the very water's edge. +After a time, a wind-storm arose and flapped +the tent right vigorously, causing us to pin +down tightly and weight the sod-cloth; while, +amid distant thundering, every preparation +was made for a speedy embarkation in the +event of flood. The bellow of the frogs all +about us, the scream of toads, and the heavy +swash of passing steamers dangerously near +our door, will be a sufficient lullaby to-night.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109"></a>[pg 109]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + + +<h4>Cliff-dwellers on Long Bottom—Pomeroy +Bend—Letart's Island and Rapids—Game +in the early day—Rainy +weather—In a "cracker" home.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Letart's Island</span>, Tuesday, May 15th.—After +we had gone to bed last night,—we in +the tent, the Doctor and Pilgrim under the fly, +which serves as a porch roof,—the heavenly +floodgates lifted; the rain, coming in sheets, +beat a fierce tattoo on the tightly-stretched +canvas, and visions of a sudden rise in the +fickle river were uppermost in our dreams. +Everything about us was sopping at daybreak; +but the sun rose clear and warm from a bed +of eastern clouds, and the midnight gale had +softened to a gentle breeze.</p> + +<p>Palisades were frequent to-day. We stopped +just below camp, at an especially picturesque +Ohio hamlet,—Long Bottom (207 miles),—where +the dozen or so cottages are built close +against the bald rock. Clambering over great +water-worn boulders, at the river's brink, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110"></a>[pg 110]</span> +Doctor and I made our way up through a +dense tangle of willows and poison ivy and +grape-vines, emerging upon the country road +which passes at the foot of this row of modern +cliff-dwellings. For the most part, little gardens, +with neat palings, run down from the +cottages to the road. One sprawling log house, +fairly embowered in vines, and overtopped by +the palisade rising sheer for thirty feet above +its back door, looked in this setting for all the +world like an Alpine chalet, lacking only stones +on the roof to complete the picture. I took a +kodak shot at this, also at a group of tousle-headed +children at the door of a decrepit shanty +built entirely within a crevice of the rock—their +Hibernian mother, with one hand holding +an apron over her head, and the other shielding +her eyes, shrilly crying to a neighboring +cliff-dweller: "Miss McCarthy! Miss McCarthy! +There's a feller here, a photergraph'n' +all the people in the Bottom! Come, quick!" +Then they eagerly pressed around me, Germans +and Irish, big and little, women and +children mostly, asking for a view of the +picture, which I gave all in turn by letting +them peep into the ground-glass "finder"—a +pretty picture, they said it was, with the colors +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>[pg 111]</span> +all in, and "wonderfully like," though a wee +bit small.</p> + +<p>Speaking of color, we are daily struck with +the brilliant hues in the workaday dresses of +women and children seen along the river. Red +calico predominates, but blues and yellows, +and even greens, are seen, brightly splashing +the somber landscape.</p> + +<p>After Long Bottom, we enter upon the +south-sweeping Pomeroy Bend of the Ohio, +commencing at Murraysville (208 miles) and +ending at Pomeroy (247 miles). It is of itself +a series of smaller bends, and, as we twist +about upon our course, the wind strikes us +successively on all quarters; sometimes giving +the Doctor a chance to try his sail, which he +raises on the slightest provocation,—but at +all times agreeably ruffling the surface that +would otherwise reflect the glowing sun like a +mirror.</p> + +<p>The sloping margins of the rich bottoms are +now often cultivated almost to the very edge +of the stream, with a line of willow trees left +as a protecting fringe. Farmers doing this +take a gambling risk of a summer rise. Where +the margins have been left untouched by the +plow, there is a dense mass of vegetation—sycamores, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>[pg 112]</span> +big of girth and towering to a hundred +feet or more, abound on every hand; the +willows are phenomenally-rapid growers; and +in all available space is the rank, thick-standing +growth of an annual locally styled "horse-weed," +which rears a cane-like stalk full +eighteen or twenty feet high—it has now attained +but four or five feet, but the dry stalks +of last year's growth are everywhere about, +showing what a formidable barrier to landing +these giant weeds must be in midsummer.</p> + +<p>We chose for a camping place Letart's +Island (232 miles), on the West Virginia side, +not far below Milwood. From the head, where +our tent is pitched on a sandy knoll thick-grown +to willows, a long gravel spit runs far +over toward the Ohio shore. The West Virginia +channel is narrow, slow and shallow; +that between us and Ohio has been lessened +by the island to half its usual width, and the +current sweeps by at a six-mile gait, in which +the Doctor and I found it difficult to keep our +footing while having our customary evening +dip. Our island is two long, forested humps +of sand, connected by a stretch of gravel beach, +giving every evidence of being submerged in +times of flood; everywhere are chaotic heaps +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113"></a>[pg 113]</span> +of driftwood, many cords in extent; derelict +trees are lodged in the tops of the highest willows +and maples—ghostly giants sprawling in +the moonlight; there is an abandon of vegetable +debris, layer after layer laid down in sandy +coverlids. Wild grasses, which flourish on all +these flooded lands, here attain enormous size. +Dispensing with our cots for the nonce, we +have spread our blankets over heaps of dried +grass pulled from the monster tufts of last +year's growth. The Ohio is capable of raising +giant floods; it is still falling with us, but there +are signs at hand, beyond the slight sprinkle +which cooled the air for us at bedtime, of +rainy weather after the long drouth. When +the feeders in the Alleghanies begin to swell, +we shall perch high o' nights.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Near Cheshire, O.</span>, Wednesday, May +16th.—The fine current at the island gave us +a noble start this morning. The river soon +widens, but Letart's Falls, a mile or two below, +continue the movement, and we went +fairly spinning on our way. These so-called +falls, rapids rather, long possessed the imagination +of early travelers. Some of the chroniclers +have, while describing them, indulged in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114"></a>[pg 114]</span> +flights of fancy.<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href= + "#footnote5"><sup>A</sup></a> They are of slight consequence, +however, even at this low stage of +water, save to the careless canoeist who has +had no experience in rapid water, well-strewn +with sunken boulders. The scenery of the +locality is wild, and somewhat impressive. +The Ohio bank is steep and rugged, abounding +in narrow little terraces of red clay, deeply +gullied, and dotted with rough, mean shanties. +It all had a forbidding aspect, when viewed in +the blinding sun; but before we had passed, an +intervening cloud cast a deep shadow over the +scene, and, softening the effect, made the +picture more pleasing.</p> + +<p>Croghan was at Letart (1765), on one of +his land-viewing trips for the Ohio Company, +and tells us that he saw a "vast migrating +herd" of buffalo cross the river here. In the +beginning of colonization in this valley, buffalo +and elk were to be seen in herds of astonishing +size; traces of their well-beaten paths through +the hills, and toward the salt licks of Kentucky +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115"></a>[pg 115]</span> +and Illinois, were observable until within recent +years. Gordon, an early traveler down +the Ohio (1766), speaks of "great herds of +buffalo, we observed on the beaches of the +river and islands into which they come for air, +and coolness in the heat of the day;" he commenced +his raids on them a hundred miles +below Pittsburg. Hutchins (1778) says, "the +whole country abounds in Bears, Elks, Buffaloe, +Deer, Turkies, &c."<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href= + "#footnote6"><sup>B</sup></a> Bears, panthers, +wolves, eagles, and wild turkeys were indeed +very plenty at first, but soon became extinct. +The theory is advanced by Dr. Doddridge, in +his <i>Notes on Virginia</i>, that hunters' dogs introduced +hydrophobia among the wolves, and +this ridded the country of them sooner than +they would naturally have gone; but they were +still so numerous in 1817, that the traveler +Palmer heard them nightly, "barking on both +banks."</p> + +<p>Venomous serpents were also numerous in +pioneer days, and stayed longer. The story is +told of a tumulus up toward Moundsville, that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116"></a>[pg 116]</span> +abounded in snakes, particularly rattlers. The +settlers thought to dig them out, but they came +to such a mass of human bones that that plan +was abandoned. Then they instituted a blockade, +by erecting a tight-board fence around +the mound, and, thus entrapping the reptiles, +extirpated the colony in a few days.</p> + +<p>Paroquets were once abundant west of the +Alleghanies, up to the southern shore of the +Great Lakes, and great flocks haunted the +salt springs; but to-day they may be found +only in the middle Southern states. There +were, in a state of nature, no crows, blackbirds, +or song-birds in this valley; they followed +in the wake of the colonist. The honey +bee came with the white man,—or rather, just +preceded him. Rats followed the first settlers, +then opossums, and fox squirrels still later. +It is thought, too, that the sand-hill and whooping +cranes, and the great blue herons which +we daily see in their stately flight, are birds of +these later days, when the neighborhood of +man has frightened away the enemies which +once kept them from thriving in the valley. +Turkey buzzards appear to remain alone of +the ancient birds; the earliest travelers note +their presence in great flocks, and to-day there +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117"></a>[pg 117]</span> +are few vistas open to us, without from one to +dozens of them wheeling about in mid-air, +seeking what they may devour. Public opinion +in the valley is opposed to the wanton killing +of these scavengers, so useful in a climate as +warm as this.</p> + +<p>Three miles below Letart's Rapids, is the +motley settlement of Antiquity, O., a long row +of cabins and cottages nestled at the base of a +high, vine-clad palisade, similar to that which +yesterday we visited at Long Bottom. Some +of these cliff-dwellings are picturesque, some +exhibit the prosperity of their owners, but +many are squalid. At the water's edge is that +which has given its name to the locality, an +ancient rock, which once bore some curious +Indian carving. Hall (1820) found only one +figure remaining, "a man in a sitting posture, +making a pipe;" to-day, even thus much has +been largely obliterated by the elements. But +Antiquity itself is not quite dead. There is a +ship-yard here; and a sawmill in active operation, +besides the ruins of two others.</p> + +<p>We also passed Racine (240 miles), another +Ohio town—a considerable place, no doubt, +although only the tops of the buildings were, +from the river level, to be seen above the high +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118"></a>[pg 118]</span> +bank; these, and an enticing view up the +wharf-street. Of more immediate interest, +just then, were the heavens, now black and +threatening. Putting in hurriedly to the West +Virginia shore, we pitched tent on a shelving +clay beach, shielded by the ever-present willows, +and in five minutes had everything under +shelter. With a rumble and bang, and a great +flurry of wind, the thunder-storm broke upon +us in full fury. There had been no time to +run a ditch around the tent, so we spread our +cargo atop of the cots. The Boy engineered +riverward the streams of water which flowed +in beneath the canvas; W——, ever practical, +caught rain from the dripping fly, and did the +family washing, while the Doctor and I prepared +a rather pasty lunch.</p> + +<p>An hour later, we bailed out Pilgrim, and +once more ventured upon our way. It is a +busy district between Racine and Sheffield +(251 miles). For eleven miles, upon the Ohio +bank, there are few breaks between the +towns,—Racine, Syracuse, Minersville, Pomeroy, +Coalport, Middleport, and Sheffield. +Coal mines and salt works abound, with other +industries interspersed; and the neighborhood +appears highly prosperous. Its metropolis is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span> +Pomeroy, in shape a "shoe-string" town,—much +of it not over two blocks wide, and +stretching along for two miles, at the foot of +high palisades. West Virginia is not far behind, +in enterprise, with the salt-work towns +of New Haven, Hartford, and Mason City,—bespeaking, +in their names, a Connecticut +ancestry.</p> + +<p>The afternoon sun gushed out, and the face +of Nature was cleanly beautiful, as, leaving +the convolutions of the Pomeroy Bend, we +entered upon that long river-sweep to the +south-by-southwest, which extends from Pomeroy +to the Big Sandy, a distance of sixty-eight +miles. A mile or two below Cheshire, +O. (256 miles), we put in for the night on the +West Virginia shore. There is a natural pier +of rocky ledge, above that a sloping beach of +jagged stone, and then the little grassy terrace +which we have made our home.</p> + +<p>Searching for milk and eggs, I walked along +a railway track and then up through a cornfield, +to a little log farm-house, whose broad +porch was shingled with "shakes" and shaded +by a lusty grape-vine. Fences, house, and outbuildings +had been newly whitewashed, and +there was all about an uncommon air of neatness. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120"></a>[pg 120]</span> +A stout little girl of eleven or twelve, +met me at the narrow gate opening through +the garden palings. It may be because a gypsying +trip like this roughens one in many +ways,—for man, with long living near to Nature's +heart, becomes of the earth, earthy,—that +she at first regarded me with suspicious +eyes, and, with one hand resting gracefully on +her hip, parleyed over the gate, as to what +price I was paying in cash, for eggs and milk, +and where I hailed from.</p> + +<p>With her wealth of blond hair done up in a +saucy knot behind; her round, honest face; +her lips thick, and parted over pearly teeth; +her nose saucily <i>retrousse</i>; and her flashing, +outspoken blue eyes, this barefooted child of +Nature had a certain air of authority, a consciousness +of power, which made her womanly +beyond her years. She must have seen that I +admired her, this little "cracker" queen, in +her clean but tattered calico frock; for her +mood soon melted, and with much grace she +ushered me within the house. Calling Sam, +an eight-year-old, to "keep the gen'lem'n comp'ny," +she prettily excused herself, and scampered +off up the hillside in search of the cows.</p> + +<p>A barefooted, loose-jointed, gaunt, sandy-haired, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121"></a>[pg 121]</span> +freckled, open-eyed youngster is Sam. +He came lounging into the room, and, taking +my hat, hung it on a peg above the fireplace; +then, dropping into a big rocking-chair, with +his muddy legs hanging over an arm, at once, +with a curious, old-fashioned air, began "keeping +company" by telling me of the new litter +of pigs, with as little diffidence as though I +were an old neighbor who had dropped in on +the way to the cross-roads. "And thet thar +new Shanghai rooster, mister, ain't he a beauty? +He cost a dollar, he did—a dollar in silver, +sir!"</p> + +<p>There was no difficulty in drawing Sam +out. He is frankness itself. What was he +going to make of himself? Well, he "'lowed" +he wanted to be either a locomotive engineer +or a steamboat captain—hadn't made up his +mind which. "But whatever a boy wants +to be, he will be!" said Sam, with the decided +tone of a man of the world, who had seen +things. I asked Sam what the attractions +were in the life of an engine driver. He +"'lowed" they went so fast through the world, +and saw so many different people; and in +their lifetime served on different roads, maybe, +and surely they must meet with some excitement. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122"></a>[pg 122]</span> +And in that of a steamboat captain? +"Oh! now yew're talk'n', mister! A right +smart business, thet! A boss'n' o' people +'round, a seein' o' th' world, and noth'n' 't all +to do! Now, that's right smart, I take it!" +It was plain where his heart lay. He saw the +steamers pass the farm daily, and once he +had watched one unload at Point Pleasant—well, +that was the life for him! Sam will +have to be up and doing, if he is to be the +monarch of a stern-wheeler on the Ohio; but +many another "cracker" boy has attained +this exalted station, and Sam is of the sort to +win his way.</p> + +<p>Soon the kine came lowing into the yard, +and my piquant young friend who had met +me at the gate stood in the doorway talking +with us both, while their brother Charley, an +awkward, self-conscious lad of ten, took my +pail and milked into it the required two +quarts. It is a large, square room, where I +was so agreeably entertained. The well-chinked +logs are scrupulously whitewashed; +the parental bed, with gay pillow shams, +bought from a peddler, occupies one corner; +a huge brick fireplace opens black and yawning, +into the base of a great cobblestone +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123"></a>[pg 123]</span> +chimney reared against the house without, +after the fashion of the country; on pegs +about, hang the best clothes of the family; +while a sewing-machine, a deal table, a cheap +little mirror as big as my palm, a few unframed +chromos, and a gaudy "Family Record" +chart hung in an old looking-glass +frame,—with appropriate holes for tintypes of +father, mother and children,—complete the +furnishings of the apartment, which is parlor, +sitting-room, dining-room, and bedroom all in +one.</p> + +<p>My little queen was evidently proud of her +throne-room, and noted with satisfaction my +interest in the Family Record. When I had +paid her for butter and eggs, at retail rates, +she threw in an extra egg, and, despite my +protests, would have Charley take the pail out +to the cow, "for an extra squirt or two, for +good measure!"</p> + +<p>I was bidding them all good-bye, and the +queen was pressing me to come again in the +morning "fer more stuff, ef ye 'lowed yew +wanted any," when the mother of the little +brood appeared from over the fields, where +she had been to carry water to her lord. A +fair, intelligent, rather fine-looking woman, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124"></a>[pg 124]</span> +but barefooted like the rest; from her neck +behind, dangled a red sunbonnet, and a +sunny-haired child of five was in her arms—"sort +o' weak in her lungs, poor thing!" she +sadly said, as I snapped my fingers at the +smiling tot. I tarried a moment with the +good mother, as, sitting upon the porch, she +serenely smiled upon her children, whose eyes +were now lit with responsive love; and I +wondered if there were not some romance +hidden here, whereby a dash of gentler blood +had through this sweet-tempered woman been +infused into the coarse clay of the bottom.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a><b>Footnote A:</b><a href="#footnotetag5"> (return) </a><p>Notably, Ashe's <i>Travels</i>; but Palmer, while saying that +"they are the only obstruction to the navigation of the Ohio, +except the rapids at Louisville," declares them to be of slight +difficulty, and, referring to Ashe's account, says, "Like great +part of his book, it is all romance."</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a><b>Footnote B:</b><a href="#footnotetag6"> (return) </a><p>The last buffalo on record, in the Upper Ohio region, +was killed in the Great Kanawha Valley, a dozen miles from +Charleston, W. Va., in 1815. Five years later, in the same +vicinity, was killed probably the last elk seen east of the Ohio.</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125"></a>[pg 125]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + + +<h4>Battle of Point Pleasant—The story of +Gallipolis—Rosebud—Huntington—The +genesis of a house-boater.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Near Glenwood, W. Va.</span>, Thursday, May +17th.—By eight o'clock this morning we were +in Point Pleasant, W. Va., at the mouth of +the Great Kanawha River (263 miles). Céloron +was here, the eighteenth of August, 1749, +and on the east bank of the river, the site of +the present village, buried at the foot of an +elm one of his leaden plates asserting the claim +of France to the Ohio basin. Ninety-seven +years later, a boy unearthed this interesting +but futile proclamation, and it rests to-day in +the museum of the Virginia Historical Society.</p> + +<p>The Great Kanawha Valley long had a +romantic interest for Englishmen concerned +in Western lands. It was in the grant to +the old Ohio Company; but that corporation, +handicapped in many ways, was practically +dead by the time of Lord Dunmore's war. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126"></a>[pg 126]</span> +It had many rivals, more or less ephemeral, +among them the scheme of George Mercer +(1773) to have the territory between the Alleghanies +and the Ohio—the West Virginia of +to-day—erected into the "Province of Vandalia," +with himself as governor, and his capital +at the mouth of the Great Kanawha. +Washington owned a ten-thousand-acre tract +on both sides of the river, commencing a +short distance above the mouth, which he +surveyed in person, in October, 1770; and in +1773 we find him advertising to sell or lease +it; among the inducements he offered was, +"the scheme for establishing a new government +on the Ohio," and the contiguity of his +lands "to the seat of government, which, it is +more than probable, will be fixed at the +mouth of the Great Kanawha." Had not the +Revolution broken out, and nipped this and +many another budding plan for Western colonization, +there is little doubt that what we +call West Virginia would have been established +as a state, a century earlier than it +was.<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href= + "#footnote7"><sup>A</sup></a> +</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127"></a>[pg 127]</span> + +<p>A few days ago we were at Mingo Bottom, +where lived Chief Logan, whose family were +treacherously slaughtered by border ruffians +(1774). The Mingos, ablaze with the fire of +vengeance, carried the war-pipe through the +neighboring villages; runners were sent in +every direction to rouse the tribes; tomahawks +were unearthed, war-posts were planted; messages +of defiance sent to the Virginians; and +in a few days Lord Dunmore's war was in full +swing, from Cumberland Gap to Fort Pitt, +from the Alleghanies to the Wabash.</p> + +<p>His lordship, then governor of Virginia, was +full of energy, and proved himself a competent +military manager. The settlers were organized; +the rude log forts were garrisoned; +forays were made against the Indian villages +as far away as Muskingum, and an army of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128"></a>[pg 128]</span> +nearly three thousand backwoodsmen, armed +with smooth-bores and clad in fringed buckskin +hunting-shirts, was put in the field.</p> + +<p>One division of this army, eleven hundred +strong, under Gen. Andrew Lewis, descended +the Great Kanawha River, and on Point Pleasant +met Cornstalk, a famous Shawnee chief, +who, while at first peaceful, had by the +Logan tragedy been made a fierce enemy of +the whites, and was now the leader of a thousand +picked warriors, gathered from all parts +of the Northwest. On the 10th of October, +from dawn until dusk, was here waged in a +gloomy forest one of the most bloody and stubborn +hand-to-hand battles ever fought between +Indians and whites—especially notable, too, +because for the first time the rivals were about +equal in number. The combatants stood behind +trees, in Indian fashion, and it is hard to +say who displayed the best generalship, Cornstalk +or Lewis.<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href= + "#footnote8"><sup>B</sup></a> + When the pall of night +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129"></a>[pg 129]</span> +covered the hideous contest, the whites had lost +one-fifth of their number, while the savages +had sustained but half as many casualties. +Cornstalk's followers had had enough, however, +and withdrew before daylight, leaving +the field to the Americans.</p> + +<p>A few days later, General Lewis joined +Lord Dunmore—who headed the other wing +of the army, which had proceeded by the way +of Forts Pitt and Gower—on the Pickaway +plains, in Ohio; and there a treaty was made +with the Indians, who assented to every proposition +made them. They surrendered all +claim to lands south of the Ohio River, returned +their white prisoners and stolen horses, +and gave hostages for future good behavior.</p> + +<p>Here at Point Pleasant, a year later, Fort +Randolph was built, and garrisoned by a hundred +men; for, despite the treaty, the Indians +were still troublesome. For a long time, +Pittsburg, Redstone, and Randolph were the +only garrisoned forts on the frontier. The +Point Pleasant of to-day is a dull, sleepy town +of twenty-five hundred inhabitants, with that +unkempt air and preponderance of lounging +negroes, so common to small Southern communities. +The bottom is rolling, fringed with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" id="page130"></a>[pg 130]</span> +large hills, and on the Ohio side drops suddenly +for fifty feet to a shelving beach of gravel and +clay. Crooked Creek, in whose narrow, winding +valley some of the severest fighting was +had, empties into the Kanawha a half-mile up +the stream, at the back of the town. It was +painful to meet several men of intelligence, +who had long been engaged in trade here, to +whom the Battle of Point Pleasant was a +shadowy event, whose date they could not fix, +nor whose importance understand; it seemed +to be little more a part of their lives, than an +obscure contest between Matabeles and whites, +in far-off Africa. It is time that our Western +and Southern folk were awakened to an appreciation +of the fact that they have a history +at their doors, quite as significant in the annals +of civilization as that which induces pilgrimages +to Ticonderoga and Bunker Hill.</p> + +<p>Four miles below, Pilgrim was beached for +a time at Gallipolis, O. (267 miles), which has +a story all its own. The district belonged, a +century ago, to the Scioto Company, an offshoot +of the Marietta enterprise. Joel Barlow, +the "poet of the Revolution," was sent to +Paris (May, 1788) as agent for the sale of +lands. As the result of his personal popularity +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131"></a>[pg 131]</span> +there, and his flaming immigration circulars +and maps, he disposed of a hundred thousand +acres; to settle on which, six hundred French +emigrants sailed for America, in February, +1790. They were peculiarly unsuited for colonization, +even under the most favorable conditions—being +in the main physicians, jewelers +and other artisans, a few mechanics, and +noblemen's servants, while many were without +trade or profession.</p> + +<p>Upon arrival in Alexandria, Va., they found +that their deeds were valueless, the land never +having been paid for by the Scioto speculators; +moreover, the tract was filled with hostile Indians. +However, five hundred of them pushed +on to the region, by way of Redstone, and +reached here by flatboat, in a destitute condition. +The Marietta neighbors were as kind as +circumstances would allow, and cabins were +built for them on what is now the Public Square +of Gallipolis. But they were ignorant of the +first principles of forestry or gardening; the +initial winter was exceptionally severe, Indian +forays sapped the life of the colony, yellow +fever decimated the survivors; and, altogether, +the little settlement suffered a series of disasters +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132"></a>[pg 132]</span> +almost unparalleled in the story of American +colonization.</p> + +<p>Although finally reimbursed by Congress +with a special land grant, the emigrants gradually +died off, until now, so at least we were +assured, but three families of descendants of +the original Gauls are now living here. It was +the American element, aided by sturdy Germans, +who in time took hold of the decayed +French settlement, and built up the prosperous +little town of six thousand inhabitants which +we find to-day. It is a conservative town, +with little perceptible increase in population; +but there are many fine brick blocks, the stores +have large stocks attractively displayed, and +there is in general a comfortable tone about +the place, which pleases a stranger. The +Public Square, where the first Gauls had their +little forted town, appears to occupy the space +of three or four city blocks; there is the customary +band-stand in the center, and seats +plentifully provided along the graveled walks +which divide neat plots of grass. Over the +riverward entrance to the square, is an arch of +gas-pipe, perforated for illumination, and bearing +the dates, "1790-1890,"—a relic, this, of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133"></a>[pg 133]</span> +the centennial which Gallipolis celebrated in +the last-named year.</p> + +<p>It was with some difficulty that we found a +camping-place, this evening. For several +miles, the approaches were nearly knee-deep in +mud for a dozen feet back from the water's edge, +or else the banks were too steep, or the farmers +had cultivated so closely to the brink as to +leave us no room for the tent. In one gruesome +spot on the Ohio bank, where a projecting +log fortunately served as a pier, the Doctor +landed for a prospecting tour; while I ascended +a zigzag path, through steep and rugged land, +to a nest of squalid cabins perched by a shabby +hillside road. A vicious dog came down to +meet me half-way, and might have succeeded +in carrying off a portion of my clothing had +not his owner whistled him back.</p> + +<p>A queer, dingy, human wasp-nest, this dirty +little shanty hamlet of Rosebud. Pigs and +children wallowed in comradeship, and as every +cabin on the precipitous slope necessarily has +a basement, this is used as the common barn +for chickens, goats, pigs, and cow. It was +pleasant to find that there was no sweet milk +to be had in Rosebud, for it is kept in open +pans, in these fetid rooms, and soon sours—and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134"></a>[pg 134]</span> +the cows had not yet come down from the +hills. Water, too, was at a premium. There +was none to be had, save what had fallen from +the clouds, and been stored in a foul cistern, +which seemed common property. I drew a +pailful of it, not to displease the disheveled +group which surrounded me, full of questions; +but on the first turning in the lane, emptied +the vessel upon the back of a pig, which was +darting by with murderous squeal.</p> + +<p>The long twilight was well nigh spent, when, +on the Ohio side a mile or two above Glenwood, +W. Va. (287 miles), we came upon a +wide, level beach of gravel, below a sloping, +willowed terrace, above which sharply rose +the "second bottom." Ascending an angling +farm roadway, while the others pitched camp, +I walked over the undulating bottom to the +nearest of a group of small, neat farmhouses, +and applied for milk. While a buxom maid +went out and milked a Jersey, that had chanced +to come home ahead of her fellows, I sat on +the rear porch gossiping with the farm-wife—a +Pennsylvania-Dutch dame of ample proportions, +attired in light-blue calico, and with +huge spectacles over her broad, flat nose. +She and her "man" own a hundred and fifty +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id="page135"></a>[pg 135]</span> +acres on the bottom, with three cows and other +stock in proportion, and sell butter to those +neighbors who have no cows, and to houseboat +people. As for these latter, though they +were her customers, she had none too good an +opinion of them; they pretended to fish, but +in reality only picked up a living from the +farmers; nevertheless, she did know of some +"weakly, delicate people" who had taken to +boat life for economy's sake, and because an +invalid could at least fish, and his family help +him at it.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Near Huntington, W. Va.</span>, Friday, May +18th.—Backed by ravine-grooved hills, and +edged at the waterside with great picturesque +boulders, planed and polished by the ever-rushing +river, the little bottom farms along our +path to-day are pretty bits. But the houses +are the reverse of this, having much the aspect +of slave-cabins of the olden time—small, one-story, +log and frame shanties, roof and gables +shingled with "shakes," and little vegetable +gardens inclosed by palings. The majority of +these small farmers—whose tracts seldom exceed +a hundred acres—rent their land, rather +than own it. The plan seems to be half-and-half +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136"></a>[pg 136]</span> +as to crops, with a rental fee for house +and pasturage. One man, having a hundred-and-twenty +acres, told me he paid three dollars +a month for his house, and for pasturage a +dollar a month per head.</p> + +<p>We were in several of the small towns to-day. +At Millersport, O. (293 miles), while +W—— and the Doctor were up town, the Boy +and I remained at the wharf-boat to talk with +the owner. The wharf-boat is a conspicuous +object at every landing of importance, being a +covered barge used as a storehouse for coming +and going steamboat freight. It is a private +enterprise, for public convenience, with certain +monopolistic privileges at the incorporated +towns. This Millersport boat cost twelve hundred +dollars; the proprietor charges twenty per +cent of each freight-bill, for handling and storing +goods, a fee of twenty-five cents for each +steamer that lands, and certain special fees +for live stock. Athalia, Haskellville and +Guyandotte were other representative towns. +Stave-making appears to be the chief industry, +and, as timber is getting scarce, the communities +show signs of decay.</p> + +<p>We had been told, above, that Huntington, +W. Va. (306 miles), was "a right smart chunk +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137"></a>[pg 137]</span> +of a town." And it is. There are sixteen +thousand people here, in a finely-built city +spread over a broad, flat plain. Brick and +stone business buildings abound; the broad +streets are paved with brick, and an electric-car +line runs out along the bottom, through +the suburb of Ceredo, W. Va., to Catlettsburg, +Ky., nine miles away. Huntington +is the center of a large group of riverside towns +supported by iron-making and other industries—Guyandotte +and Ceredo, in West Virginia; +Catlettsburg, just over the border in +Kentucky; and Proctorville, Broderickville, +Frampton, Burlington, and South Point, on +the opposite shore.</p> + +<p>We are camping to-night in the dense willow +grove which lines the West Virginia beach +from Huntington to the Big Sandy. Above +us, on the wide terrace, are fields and orchards, +beyond which we occasionally hear the gong +of electric cars. A public path runs by the +tent, leading from the lower settlements into +Huntington. Among our visitors have been +two houseboat men, whose craft is moored a +quarter of a mile below. One of them is tall, +thick-set, forty, with a round, florid face, and +huge mustaches,—evidently a jolly fellow at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138"></a>[pg 138]</span> +his best, despite a certain dubious, piratical +air; a jaunty, narrow-brimmed straw hat is +perched over one ear, to add to the general +effect; and between his teeth a corn-cob pipe. +His younger companion is medium-sized, slim, +and loose-jointed, with a baggy gait, his cap +thrown over his head, with the visor in the +rear—a rustic clown, not yet outgrown his +freckles. But three weeks from the parental +farm in Putnam County, Ky., the world is as +yet a romance to him. The fellow is interesting, +because in him can be seen the genesis +of a considerable element of the houseboat +fraternity. I wonder how long it will be before +his partner has him broken in as a river-pirate +of the first water.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a><b>Footnote A:</b><a href="#footnotetag7"> (return) </a><p>Washington was much interested in a plan to connect, +by a canal, the James and Great Kanawha Rivers, separated +at their sources by a portage of but a few miles in length. +The distance from Point Pleasant to Richmond is 485 miles. +In 1785, Virginia incorporated the James River Company, +of which Washington was the first president. The project +hung fire, because of "party spirit and sectional jealousies," +until 1832, when a new company was incorporated, under +which the James was improved (1836-53), but the Kanawha +was untouched. In 1874, United States engineers presented +a plan calling for an expenditure of sixty millions, but there +the matter rests. The Kanawha is navigable by large +steamers for sixty miles, up to the falls at Charleston, and +beyond almost to its source, by light craft.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a><b>Footnote B:</b><a href="#footnotetag8"> (return) </a><p>Hall, in <i>Romance of Western History</i> (1820), says +that when Washington was tendered command of the Revolutionary +army, he replied that it should rather be given to +Gen. Andrew Lewis, of whose military abilities he had a +high opinion. Lewis was a captain in the Little Meadows +affair (1752), and a companion of Washington in Braddock's +defeat (1755).</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139"></a>[pg 139]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + + +<h4>In a fog—The Big Sandy—Rainy weather—Operatic +gypsies—An ancient tavern.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Ironton, O.</span>, Saturday, May 19th.—When +we turned in, last night, it was refreshingly +cool. Heavy clouds were scurrying across the +face of the moon. By midnight, a copious +rain was falling, wind-gusts were flapping our +roof, and a sudden drop in temperature rendered +sadly inadequate all the clothing we +could muster into service. We slept late, in +consequence, and, after rigging a wind-break +with the rubber blankets, during breakfast +huddled around the stove which had been +brought in to replace Pilgrim under the fly. +When, at half-past nine, we pushed off, our +houseboat neighbors thrust their heads from +the window and waved us farewell.</p> + +<p>A dense fog hung like a cloud over land and +river. There was a stiff north-east wind, +which we avoided by seeking the Ohio shore, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140"></a>[pg 140]</span> +where the high hills formed a break; there +too, the current was swift, and carried us +down right merrily. Shattered by the wind, +great banks of fog rolled up stream, sometimes +enveloping us so as to narrow our view to a +radius of a dozen rods,—again, through the +rifts, giving us momentary glimpses on the +right, of rich green hills, towering dark and +steep above us, iridescent with browns, and +grays, and many shades of green; of whitewashed +cabins, single or in groups, standing +out with startling distinctness from sombre +backgrounds; of houseboats, many-hued, +moored to willowed banks or bolstered high +upon shaly beaches; of the opposite bottom, +with its corrugated cliff of clay; and, now and +then, a slowly-puffing steamboat cautiously +feeling its way through the chilling gloom—a +monster to be avoided by little Pilgrim and her +crew, for the possibility of being run down in +a fog is not pleasant to contemplate. On +board one of these steamers was a sorry company—apparently +a Sunday-school excursion. +Children in gala dress huddled in swarms on +the lee of the great smoke-stacks, and in imagination +we heard their teeth chatter as they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141"></a>[pg 141]</span> +glided by us and in another moment were engulfed +in the mist.</p> + +<p>We catch sight for a moment, through a +cloud crevasse, of Ceredo, the last town in +West Virginia—a small saw-milling community +stuck upon the edge of the clay cliff, with +the broad level bottom stretching out behind +like a prairie. A giant railway bridge here +spans the Ohio—a weird, impressive thing, as +we sweep under it in the swirling current, and +crane our necks to see the great stone piers +lose themselves in the cloud. But the Big +Sandy River (315 miles), which divides West +Virginia and Kentucky, was wholly lost to +view. In an opening a few moments later, +however, we had a glimpse of the dark line of +her valley, below which the hills again descend +to the Ohio's bank.</p> + +<p>Catlettsburg, the first Kentucky town, is at +the junction, and extends along the foot of +the ridge for a mile or two, apparently not +over two blocks wide, with a few outlying +shanties on the shoulders of the uplands. +Washington was surveying here, on the Big +Sandy, in 1770, and entered for one John Fry +2,084 acres round the site of Louisa, a dozen +miles up the river; this was the first survey +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142"></a>[pg 142]</span> +made in Kentucky—but a few months later +than Boone's first advent as a hunter on the +"dark and bloody ground," and five years +before the first permanent settlement in the +State. Washington deserves to be remembered +as a Kentucky pioneer.</p> + +<p>We have not only steamers to avoid,—they +appear to be unusually numerous about here,—but +snags as well. With care, the whereabouts +of a steamer can be distinguished as it steals +upon us, from the superior whiteness of its column +of "exhaust," penetrating the bank of +dark gray fog; and occasionally the echoes +are awakened by the burly roar of its whistle, +which, in times like this, acts as a fog-horn. +But the snag is an insidious enemy, not revealing +itself until we are within a rod or two, +and then there is a quick cry of warning from +the stern sheets—"Hard a-port!" or "Starboard, +quick!" and only a strong side-pull, +aided by W——'s paddle, sends us free from the +jagged, branching mass which might readily +have swamped poor Pilgrim had she taken it +at full tilt.</p> + +<p>At Ashland, Ky. (320 miles), we stopped +for supplies. There are six thousand inhabitants +here, with some good buildings and a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143"></a>[pg 143]</span> +fine, broad, stone wharf, but it is rather a dingy +place. The steamer "Bonanza" had just +landed. On the double row of flaggings leading +up to the summit of the bank, were two +ant-like processions of Kentucky folk—one, +leisurely climbing townward with their bags +and bundles, the other hurrying down with +theirs to the boat, which was ringing its bell, +blowing off steam, and in other ways creating +an uproar which seemed to turn the heads of +the negro roustabouts and draymen, who +bustled around with a great chatter and much +false motion. The railway may be doing the +bulk of the business, but it does it unostentatiously; +the steamboat makes far more disturbance +in the world, and is a finer spectacle. +Dozens of boys are lounging at the wharf +foot, watching the lively scene with fascinated +eyes, probably every one of them stoutly possessed +of an ambition akin to that of my +young friend in the Cheshire Bottom.</p> + +<p>A rain-storm broke the fog—a cold, raw, +miserable rain. No clothing we could don +appeared to suffice against the chill; and so at +last we pitched camp upon the Ohio shore, +three miles above the Ironton wharf (325 +miles). It is a muddy, dreary nest up here, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144"></a>[pg 144]</span> +among the dripping willows. Just behind us +on the slope, is the inclined track of the Norfolk +& Western railway-transfer, down which +trains are slid to a huge slip, and thence ferried +over the river into Kentucky; above that, on a +narrow terrace, is an ordinary railway line; and +still higher, up a slippery clay bank, lies the +cottage-strewn bottom which stretches on into +Ironton (13,000 inhabitants).</p> + +<p>We were a sorry-looking party, at lunch this +noon, hovering over the smoking stove which +was set in the tent door, with a wind-screen +in front, and moist bedding hung all about in +the vain hope of drying it in the feeble heat. +And sorrier still, through the long afternoon, +as, each encased in a sleeping-bag, we sat upon +our cots circling around the stove, W—— reading +to us between chattering teeth from Barrie's +<i>When a Man's Single</i>. 'Tis good Scottish +weather we're having; but somehow our +thoughts could not rest on Thrums, and we +were, for the nonce, a wee bit miserable.</p> + +<p>Dinner degenerated into a smoky bite, and +then at dusk there was a council of war. The +air hangs thick with moisture, our possessions +are in various stages from damp to sopping +wet, and efforts at drying over the little stove +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page145" id="page145"></a>[pg 145]</span> +are futile under such conditions. It was demonstrated +that there was not bed-clothing +enough, in such an emergency as this; indeed, +an inspection of that which was merely damp, +revealed the fact that but one person could +be made comfortable to-night. Our bachelor +Doctor volunteered to be that one. So we +bade him God-speed, and with toilet bag in +hand I led my little family up a tortuous path, +so slippery in the rain that we were obliged in +our muddy climb to cling to grass-clumps and +bushes. And thus, wet and bedraggled, did +we sally forth upon the Ironton Bottom, seeking +shelter for the night.</p> + +<p>Fortunately we had not far to seek. A +kindly family took us in, despite our gruesome +aspect and our unlikely story—for what manner +of folk are we, that go trapesing about in +a skiff, in such weather as this, coming from +nobody knows where and camping o' nights in +the muddy river bottoms? Instead of sending +us on, in the drenching rain, to a hotel, three +miles down the road, or offering us a ticket on +the Associated Charities, these blessed people +open their hearts and their beds to us, without +question, and what more can weary pilgrims +pray for?</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page146" id="page146"></a>[pg 146]</span> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sciotoville, O.</span>, Sunday, May 20th.—After +breakfast, and settling our modest score, we +rejoined the Doctor, and at ten o'clock pulled +out again; being bidden good-bye at the landing, +by the children of our hostess, who had +sent us by them a bottle of fresh milk as a +parting gift.</p> + +<p>It had rained almost continuously, throughout +the night. To-day we have a dark gray +sky, with fickle winds. A charming color +study, all along our path; the reds and grays +and yellows of the high clay-banks which edge +the reciprocating bottoms, the browns and +yellows of hillside fields, the deep greens of +forest verdure, the vivid white of bankside +cabins, and, in the background of each new +vista, bold headlands veiled in blue. W—— +and the Boy are in the stern sheets, wrapped +in blankets, for there is a smart chill in the air, +and we at the oars pull lively for warmth. In +our twisting course, sometimes we have a +favoring breeze, and the Doctor rears the sail; +but it is a brief delight, for the next turn brings +the wind in our teeth, and we set to the blades +with renewed energy. In the main, we make +good time. The sugar-loaf hills, with their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page147" id="page147"></a>[pg 147]</span> +castellated escarpments, go marching by with +stately sweep.</p> + +<p>Greenup Court House (334 miles) is a bright +little Kentucky county-seat, well-built at the +feet of thickly-forested uplands. At the lower +end of the village, the Little Sandy enters +through a wooded dale, which near the mouth +opens into a broad meadow. Not many miles +below, is a high sloping beach, picturesquely +bestrewn with gigantic boulders which have in +ages past rolled down from the hill-tops above. +Here, among the rocks, we again set up a rude +screen from the still piercing wind; and, each +wrapped in a gay blanket, lunch as operatic +gypsies might, in a romantic glen, enjoying +mightily our steaming chocolate, and the +warmth of our friendly stove—for dessert, +taking a merry scamper for flowers, over the +ragged ascent from whence the boulders came. +Everywhere about is the trumpet creeper, but +not yet in bloom. The Indian turnip is in +blossom here, and so the smaller Solomon's +seal, yellow spikes of toad-flax, blue and pink +phlox, glossy May apple; high up on the hillside, +the fire pink and wintergreen; and, down +by the sandy shore, great beds of blue wild +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page148" id="page148"></a>[pg 148]</span> +lupin, and occasionally stately spikes of the +familiar moth mullein.</p> + +<p>With the temperature falling rapidly, and a +drizzling rain taking the starch out of our enthusiasm, +we early sought a camping ground. +For miles along here, springs ooze from the +base of the high clay bank walling in the wide +and rocky Ohio beach, and dry spots are few +and far between. We found one, however, a +half mile above Little Scioto River (346 +miles),<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href= + "#footnote9"><sup>A</sup></a> with drift-wood enough to furnish us +for years, and the beach thick-strewn with fossils +of a considerable variety of small bivalves, +which latter greatly delighted the Doctor and +the Boy, who have brought enough specimens +to the tent door to stock a college museum.</p> + +<p>Dinner over, the crew hauled Pilgrim under +cover, and within prepared for her sailing-master +a cosy bed, with the entire ship's stock +of sleeping-bags and blankets. W——, the Boy, +and I then started off to find quarters in Sciotoville +(1,000 inhabitants), which lies just +below the river's mouth, here a dozen rods +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page149" id="page149"></a>[pg 149]</span> +wide. Scrambling up the slimy bank, through +a maze of thorn trees, brambles, and sycamore +scrubs, we gained the fertile bottom above, all +luscious with tall grasses bespangled with wild +red roses and the showy pentstemon. The +country road leading into the village is some +distance inland, but at last we found it just +beyond a patch of Indian corn waist high, and +followed it, through a covered bridge, and +down to a little hotel at the lower end of town.</p> + +<p>A quaint, old-fashioned house, the Sciotoville +tavern, with an inner gallery looking out +into a small garden of peaches, apples, pears, +plums, and grapes—a famous grape country +this, by the way. In our room, opening from +the gallery, is an antique high-post bedstead; +everywhere about are similar relics of an early +day. In keeping with the air of serene old +age, which pervades the hostelry, is the white-haired +landlady herself. In well-starched +apron, white cap, and gold-rimmed glasses, +she benignly sits rocking by the office stove, +her feet on the fender, reading Wallace's +<i>Prince of India</i>; and looking, for all the world, +as if she had just stepped out of some old +portrait of—well, of a tavern-keeping Martha +Washington.</p> + + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a><b>Footnote A:</b><a href="#footnotetag9"> (return) </a><p>Two miles up the Little Scioto, Pine Creek enters. Perhaps +a mile and a half up this creek was, in 1771, a Mingo +town called Horse Head Bottom, which cuts some figure in +border history as a nest of Indian marauders.</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page150" id="page150"></a>[pg 150]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + + +<h4>The Scioto, and the Shawanese—A night +at Rome—Limestone—Keels, flats, and +boatmen of the olden time.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Rome, O.</span>, Monday, May 21st.—At intervals +through the night, rain fell, and the temperature +was but 46° at sunrise. However, +by the time we were afloat, the sun was fitfully +gleaming through masses of gray cloud, +for a time giving promise of a warmer day. +Dark shadows rested on the romantic ravines, +and on the deep hollows of the hills; but elsewhere +over this gentle landscape of wooded +amphitheatres, broad green meadows, rocky +escarpments, and many-colored fields, light +and shade gayly chased each other. Never +were the vistas of the widening river more +beautiful than to-day.</p> + +<p>There are saw-mill and fire-brick industries +in the little towns, which would be shabby +enough in the full glare of day. But they are +all glorified in this changing light, which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page151" id="page151"></a>[pg 151]</span> +brings out the rich yellows and reds in sharp +relief against the gloomy background of the +hills, and mellows into loveliness the soft +grays of unpainted wood.</p> + +<p>At the mouth of the Scioto (354 miles), is +Portsmouth, O. (15,000 inhabitants), a well-built, +substantial town, with good shops. It lies +on a hill-backed terrace some forty feet above +the level of the neighboring bottoms, which +give evidence of being victims of the high +floods periodically covering the low lands +about the junction of the rivers. Just across +the Scioto is Alexandria, and on the Kentucky +side of the Ohio can be seen the white hamlet +of Springville, at the feet of the dentated hills +which here closely approach the river.</p> + +<p>The country about the mouth of the Scioto +has long figured in Western annals. Being a +favorite rendezvous for the Shawanese, it naturally +became a resort for French and English +fur-traders. The principal part of the +first Shawanese village—Shannoah Town, in +the old journals—was below the Scioto's +mouth, on the site of Alexandria; it was the +chief town of this considerable tribe, and here +Gist was warned back, when in March, 1751, +he ventured thus far while inspecting lands for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page152" id="page152"></a>[pg 152]</span> +the Ohio Company. Two years later, there +was a great—perhaps an unprecedented—flood +in the Ohio, the water rising fifty feet above +the ordinary level, and destroying the larger +part of the Shawanese village. Some of the +Indians moved to the Little Miami, and others +up the Scioto, where they built, successively, +Old and New Chillicothe; but the majority +remained, and rebuilt their town on the higher +land north of the Scioto, where Portsmouth +now stands. An outlying band had had, from +before Gist's day, a small town across the +Ohio, the site of Springville; and it was here +that George Croghan had his stone trading +house, which was doubtless, after the manner +of the times, a frontier fortress. In the +French and Indian war (1758), the Shawanese, +tiring of continual conflict, withdrew from +their Ohio River settlements to Old (or Upper) +Chillicothe, and thus closed the once important +fur-trade at the mouth of the Scioto. +It was while the Indian town at Portsmouth +was still new (1755), that a party of Shawanese +brought here a Mrs. Mary Inglis, whom +they had captured while upon a scalping foray +into Southwestern Virginia. The story of the +remarkable escape of this woman, at Big +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" id="page153"></a>[pg 153]</span> +Bone Lick, of her long and terrible flight +through the wilderness along the southern +bank of the Ohio and up the Great Kanawha +Valley, and her final return to home and kindred, +who viewed her as one delivered from +the grave, is one of the most thrilling in Western +history.<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href= + "#footnote10"><sup>A</sup></a></p> + +<p>Although the Shawanese had removed from +their villages on the Ohio, they still lived in +new towns in the north, within easy striking +distance of the great river; and, until the +close of the eighteenth century, were a continual +source of alarm to those whose business +led them to follow this otherwise inviting +highway to the continental interior. Flatboats +bearing traders, immigrants, and travelers +were frequently waylaid by the savages, +who exhausted a fertile ingenuity in luring +their victims to an ambuscade ashore; and, +when not successful in this, would in narrow +channels, or when the current swept the craft +near land, subject the voyagers to a fierce fusilade +of bullets, against which even stout plank +barricades proved of small avail.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page154" id="page154"></a>[pg 154]</span> + +<p>Vanceburgh, Ky. (375 miles), is a little town +at the bottom of a pretty amphitheatre of +hills. There was a floating photographer +there, as we passed, with a gang-plank run +out to the shore, and framed specimens of his +work hung along the town side of his ample +barge. Men with teams were getting wagon-loads +of sand from the beach, for building +purposes. And, a mile or two down, a floating +saw and planing-mill—the "Clipper," +which we had seen before, up river—was +busied upon logs which were being rolled down +the beach from the bank above. There are +several such mills upon the river, all seemingly +occupied with "tramp work," for there +is a deal of logging carried on, in a small and +careful way, by farmers living on these wooded +hills.</p> + +<p>Vanceburgh was for the time bathed in +sunlight; but, as we continued on our way, a +heavy rain-cloud came creeping up over the +dark Ohio hills, and, descending, cut off our +view, at last lustily pelting us as we sat encased +in rubber. We had been in our ponchos +most of the day, as much for warmth as +for shelter; for there was an all-pervading +chill, which the fickle sun, breaking its early +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page155" id="page155"></a>[pg 155]</span> +promise, had failed to dissipate. Thus, amid +showers alternating with sunbeams, we proceeded +unto Rome (381 miles). An Ohio +village, this Rome, and so fallen from its once +proud estate that its postoffice no longer bears +the name—it is simply "Stout's," if, in these +degenerate days, you would send a letter +hither.</p> + +<p>It was smartly raining, when we put in on +the stony beach above Rome. The tent went +up in a hurry, and under it the cargo; but by +the time all was housed the sun gushed out +again, and, stretching a line, we soon had our +bedding hung to dry. It is a charming situation; +in this melting atmosphere, we have +perhaps the most striking effects of cloud, hill, +bottom, islands, and glancing river, which +have yet been vouchsafed us.</p> + +<p>The Romans, like most rural folk along the +river below Wheeling, chiefly drink cistern +water. Earlier in our pilgrimage, we stoutly +declined to patronize these rain-water reservoirs, +and I would daily go far afield in search +of a well; but lately, necessity has driven us +to accept the cistern, and often we find it +even preferable to the well, on those rare occasions +when the latter can be found at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page156" id="page156"></a>[pg 156]</span> +villages or farm-houses. But there are cisterns +and cisterns—foul holes like that at Rosebud, +others that are neatness itself, with all manner +of grades between. As for river water, +ever yellow with clay, and thick as to motes, +much of it is used in the country parts. This +morning, a bevy of negroes came down the +bank from a Kentucky field; and each in turn, +creeping out on a drift log,—for the ground is +usually muddy a few feet up from the water's +edge,—lay flat on his stomach and drank +greedily from the roily mess.</p> + +<p>At dusk, there was again a damp chill, and +for the third time we left the Doctor to keep +bachelor's hall upon the beach. It was raining +smartly by the time the tavern was reached, +nearly a mile down the bank. Our advent +caused a rare scurrying to and fro, for two +commercial "drummers," who were to depart +by the early morning boat, occupied the +"reg'lar spar' room," the landlady informed us, +and a bit of a cubby-hole off the back stairs +had to be arranged for us. Guests are rarities, +at the hostelry in Rome.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Near Ripley, O.</span>, Tuesday, May 22nd.—There +was an inch of snow last night, on the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" id="page157"></a>[pg 157]</span> +hills about, and a morning Cincinnati paper +records a heavy fall in the Pennsylvania +mountains. The storm is general, and the +river rose two feet over night. When we set +off, in mid-morning, it was raining heavily; +but in less than an hour the clouds broke, and +the rest of the day has been an alternation of +chilling showers and bursts of warm sunshine, +with the same succession, of alluring vistas, +over which play broad bands of changing light +and shade, and overhead the storm clouds torn +and tossed in the upper currents.</p> + +<p>Our landlord at Rome asserted at breakfast +that Kentucky was fifty years behind the Ohio +side, in improvements of every sort. Thus far, +we have not ourselves noticed differences of +that degree. Doubtless before the late civil +war,—all the ante-bellum travelers agree in +this,—when the blight of slavery was resting +on Virginia and Kentucky, the south shore of +the Ohio was as another country; but to-day, +so far as we can ascertain from a surface view, +the little villages on either side are equally +dingy and woe-begone, and large Southern +towns like Wheeling, Parkersburg, Point +Pleasant, and Maysville are very nearly an +offset to Steubenville, Marietta, Pomeroy, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page158" id="page158"></a>[pg 158]</span> +Ironton, and Portsmouth. North-shore towns +of wealth and prominence are more numerous +than on the Dixie bank, and are as a rule +larger and somewhat better kept, with the +negro element less conspicuous; but to say +that the difference is anywhere near as marked +as the landlord averred, or as my own previous +reading on the subject led me to expect, is +grossly to exaggerate.</p> + +<p>After leaving Manchester, O. (394 miles), +with a beautiful island at its door, there are +spasmodic evidences of the nearness of a +great city market. A large proportion of the +hills are completely denuded of their timber, +and patched with rectangular fields of green, +brown, and yellow; upon the bottoms there +are frequent truck farms; now and then are +stone quarries upon the banks, with capacious +barges moored in front; and upon one or two +rocky ledges were stone-crushers, getting out +material for concrete pavements. When we +ask the bargemen, in passing, whither their +loads are destined, the invariable reply is, +"The city"—meaning Cincinnati, still seventy +miles away.</p> + +<p>Limestone Creek (405 miles) occupies a large +space in Western story, for so insignificant +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page159" id="page159"></a>[pg 159]</span> +a stream. It is now not over a rod in width, +and at no season can it be over two or three. +One finds it with difficulty along the mill-strewn +shore of Maysville, Ky., the modern +outgrowth of the Limestone village of pioneer +days. Limestone, settled four years before +Marietta or Cincinnati, was long Kentucky's +chief port of entry on the Ohio; immigrants +to the new state, who came down the Ohio, +almost invariably booked for this point, thence +taking stage to Lexington, and travelers in the +early day seldom passed it by unvisited. But +years before there was any settlement here, +the valley of Limestone Creek, which comes +gently down from low-lying hills, was regarded +as a convenient doorway into Kentucky. +When (1776) George Rogers Clark was coming +down the river from Pittsburg, with powder +given by Patrick Henry, then governor of +Virginia, for the defence of Kentucky settlers +from British-incited savages, he was chased +by the latter, and, putting into this creek, +hastily buried the precious cargo on its banks. +From here it was cautiously taken overland +to the little forts, by relays of pioneers, through +a gauntlet of murderous fire.</p> + +<p>About twenty-five miles from Limestone, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page160" id="page160"></a>[pg 160]</span> +too, was another attraction of the early time,—the +great Blue Lick sulphur spring; here, in a +valley surrounded by wooded hills, formerly +congregated great herds of buffalo and deer, +which licked the salty earth, and hunters soon +learned that this was a royal ground for game. +The Battle of the Blue Lick (1782) will ever +be famous in the annals of Kentucky.</p> + +<p>The Ohio was a mighty waterway into the +continental interior, in the olden days of Limestone. +Its only compeer was the so-called +"Wilderness Road," overland through Cumberland +Gap—the successor of "Boone's trail," +just as Braddock's Road was the outgrowth of +"Nemacolin's path." Until several years after +the Revolutionary War, the country north of +the Ohio was still Indian land, and settlement +was restricted to the region south of the river; +so that practically all West-going roads from +the coast colonies centered either on Fort +Pitt or Redstone, or on Cumberland Gap. On +the out-going trip, the Wilderness Road was +the more toilsome of the two, but it was safer, +for the Ohio's banks were beset with thieving +and often murdering savages. In returning +east, many who had descended the river preferred +going overland through the Gap, to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" id="page161"></a>[pg 161]</span> +painfully pulling up stream through the shallows, +with the danger of Indians many times +greater than when gliding down the deep current. +The distance over the two routes from +Philadelphia, was nearly equal, when the windings +of the river were taken into account; but +the Carolinians and the Georgians found +Boone's Wilderness Road the shorter of the +two, in their migrations to the promised land +of "Ol' Kaintuck." And we should not overlook +the fact, that of much importance was +still a third route, up the James and down the +Great Kanawha; a route whose advantage to +Virginia, Washington early saw, and tried in +vain to have improved by a canal connecting +the two rivers.<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href= + "#footnote11"><sup>B</sup></a></p> + +<p>Even before the opening of the Revolution, +the Ohio was the path of a considerable emigration. +We have seen Washington going +down to the Great Kanawha with his surveying +party, in 1770, and finding that settlers +were hurrying into the country for a hundred +miles below Fort Pitt. By the close of the +Revolution, the Ohio was a familiar stream. +Pittsburg, from a small trading hamlet and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" id="page162"></a>[pg 162]</span> +fording-place, had grown by 1785 to have a +thousand inhabitants, chiefly supported by +boat-building and the Kentucky carrying trade; +and boat-yards were common up both the +Monongahela and the Youghiogheny, for a +distance of sixty miles. Nevertheless, it was +not until 1792 that there were regular conveniences +for carrying passengers and freight down +the Ohio; the emigrant or trader, on arrival +at Pittsburg or Redstone, had generally to +wait until he could either charter a boat or +have one built for him, although sometimes he +found a chance "passenger flat" going down.<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href= + "#footnote12"><sup>C</sup></a> +This difficulty in securing river transportation +was one of the reasons why the majority chose +the Wilderness Road.</p> + +<p>"The first thing that strikes a stranger from +the Atlantic," says Flint (1814), "is the singular, +whimsical, and amusing spectacle of the +varieties of water-craft, of all shapes and +structures." These, Flint, who knew the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page163" id="page163"></a>[pg 163]</span> +river well, separates into seven classes: (1) +"Stately barges," the size of an Atlantic +schooner, with "a raised and outlandish-looking +deck;" one of these required a crew of +twenty-five to work it up stream. (2) Keel-boats—long, +slender, and graceful in form, +carrying from fifteen to thirty tons, easily propelled +over the shallows, and much used in +low water, and in hunting trips to Missouri, +Arkansas, and the Red River country. (3) +Kentucky flats (or "broad-horns"), "a species +of ark, very nearly resembling a New England +pig-stye;" these were from forty to a hundred +feet in length, fifteen feet in beam, and carried +from twenty to seventy tons. Some of +these flats were not unlike the house-boats of +to-day. "It is no uncommon spectacle to see +a large family, old and young, servants, cattle, +hogs, horses, sheep, fowls, and animals of all +kinds," all embarked on one such bottom. (4) +Covered "sleds," ferry-flats, or Alleghany +skiffs, carrying from eight to twelve tons. (5) +Pirogues, of from two to four tons burthen, +"sometimes hollowed from one big tree, or +the trunks of two trees united, and a plank +rim fitted to the upper part." (6) Common +skiffs and dug-outs. (7) "Monstrous anomalies," +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page164" id="page164"></a>[pg 164]</span> +not classifiable, and often whimsical in +design. To these might be added the "floating +shops or stores, with a small flag out to indicate +their character," so frequently seen by +Palmer (1817), and thriftily surviving unto this +day, minus the flag. And Hall (1828) speaks of a +flat-bottomed row-boat, "twelve feet long, with +high sides and roof," carrying an aged couple +down the river, they cared not where, so long +as they could find a comfortable home in the +West, for their declining and now childless +years.</p> + +<p>The first four classes here enumerated, were +allowed to drift down stream with the current, +being steered by long sweeps hung on pivots. +The average speed was about three miles an +hour, but the distances made were considerable, +from the fact that in the earliest days +they were, from fear of Indians, usually kept +on the move through day and night,—the +crew taking turns at the sweeps, that the craft +might not be hung up on shore or entangled +in the numerous snags and sawyers. In going +up stream, the sweeps served as oars, and in +the shallows long pushing-poles were used.</p> + +<p>As for the boatmen who professionally propelled +the keels and flats of the Ohio, they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" id="page165"></a>[pg 165]</span> +were a class unto themselves—"half horse, +half alligator," a contemporary styled them. +Rough fellows, much given to fighting, and +drunkenness, and ribaldry, with a genius for +coarse drollery and stinging repartee. The +river towns suffered sadly at the hands of this +lawless, dissolute element. Each boat carried +from thirty to forty boatmen, and a number +of such boats frequently traveled in company. +After the Indian scare was over, they generally +stopped over night in the settlements, and the +arrival of a squadron was certain to be followed +by a disturbance akin to those so familiar +a few years ago in our Southwest, when the +cowboys would undertake to "paint a town +red." The boatmen were reckless of life, +limb, and reputation, and were often more +numerous than those of the villagers who cared +to enforce the laws; while there was always +present an element which abetted and throve +on the vice of the river-men. The result was +that mischief, debauchery, and outrage ran +riot, and in the inevitable fights the citizens +were generally beaten.</p> + +<p>The introduction of steamboats (1814) soon +effected a revolution. A steamer could carry +ten times as much as a barge, could go five +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page166" id="page166"></a>[pg 166]</span> +times as fast, and required fewer men; it traveled +at night, quickly passing from one port +to another, pausing only to discharge or receive +cargo; its owners and officers were men +of character and responsibility, with much +wealth in their charge, and insisted on discipline +and correct deportment. The flatboat +and the keel-boat were soon laid up to rot on +the banks; and the boatmen either became +respectable steamboat hands and farmers, or +went into the Far West, where wild life was +still possible.</p> + +<p>Shipment on the river, in the flatboat days, +was only during the spring and autumnal +floods; although an occasional summer rise, +such as we are now getting, would cause a +general activity. In the autumn of 1818, +Hall reports that three millions of dollars' +worth of merchandise were lying on the shores +of the Monongahela, waiting for a rise of water +to float them to their destination. "The +Western merchants were lounging discontentedly +about the streets of Pittsburg, or moping +idly in its taverns, like the victims of an ague." +The steamers did something to alleviate this +condition of affairs; but it was not until the +coming of railways, to carry goods quickly and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" id="page167"></a>[pg 167]</span> +cheaply across country to deep-water ports +like Wheeling, that permanent relief was felt.</p> + +<p>But what of the Maysville of to-day? It +extends on both sides of Limestone Creek for +about two miles along the Kentucky shore, at +no point apparently over five squares wide, +and for the most part but two or three; for +back of it forested hills rise sharply. There +is a variety of industries, the business quarter +is substantially built, and there are numerous +comfortable homes with pretty lawns.</p> + +<p>On the opposite shore is Aberdeen, where +Kentucky swains and lasses, who for one reason +or another fail to get a license at home, +find marriage made easy—a peaceful, pleasant, +white village, with trees a-plenty, and romantic +hills shutting out the north wind.</p> + +<p>We are camped to-night on a picturesque +sand-slope, at the foot of a willow-edged bottom, +and some seven feet above the river level. +We need to perch high, for the storm has been +general through the basin, and the Ohio is +rising steadily.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a><b>Footnote A:</b><a href="#footnotetag10"> (return) </a><p>See Shaler's <i>Kentucky</i> (Amer. Commonwealth series), +Collins's <i>History of Kentucky</i>, and Hale's <i>Trans-Alleghany +Pioneers</i>. Shaler gives the date as 1756; but Hale, +a specialist in border annals, makes it 1755.</p></blockquote> + + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11" name="footnote11"></a><b>Footnote B:</b><a href="#footnotetag11"> (return) </a><p>See <i>ante</i>, p. 126.</p></blockquote> + + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12" name="footnote12"></a><b>Footnote C:</b><a href="#footnotetag12"> (return) </a><p>Palmer (1817) paid five dollars for his passage from Pittsburg +to Cincinnati (465 miles), without food, and fifty cents +per hundred pounds for freight to Marietta. Imlay (1792) +says the rate in his time from Pittsburg to Limestone was +twenty-five cents per hundred. In 1803, Harris paid four +dollars-and-a-half per hundred for freight, by wagon from +Baltimore to Pittsburg.</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" id="page168"></a>[pg 168]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + + +<h4>Produce boats—A dead town—On the +Great Bend—Grant's birthplace—The +Little Miami—The genesis of Cincinnati.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Point Pleasant, O.</span>, Wednesday, May +23rd.—The river rose three feet during the +night. Steamers go now at full speed, no +longer fearing the bars; and the swash upon +shore was so violent that I was more than +once awakened, each time to find the water +line creeping nearer and nearer to the tent +door. As we sweep onward to-day, upon an +accelerated current, the fringing willows, +whose roots before the rise were many feet up +the slopes of sand and gravel, are gracefully +dipping their boughs in the rushing flood. +With the rise, come the sweepings of the +beaches—bits of lumber, fallen trees, barrels, +boxes, 'longshore rubbish of every sort; sometimes +it hangs in ragged rafts, and we steer +clear of such, for Pilgrim's progress is greater +than that of these unwelcome companions of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page169" id="page169"></a>[pg 169]</span> +the voyage, and we wish no entangling alliances.</p> + +<p>Much tobacco is raised on the rounded, +gently-sloping hills below Maysville. Away +up on the acclivities, in sheltered spots near +the fields in which they are to be transplanted, +or in fence-corners in the ever-broadening +bottoms, we note white patches of thin cloth +pinned down over the young plants to protect +them from untoward frosts. There are many +tobacco warehouses to be seen along the +banks—apparently farmers coöperate in maintaining +such; and in front of each, a roadway +leads down to the water's edge, indicating a +steamboat landing. On the town wharves are +often seen portly barrels,—locally, "puncheons,"—filled +with the weed, awaiting shipment +by boat; most of the product goes to +Louisville, but there are also large buyers in +the smaller Kentucky towns.</p> + +<p>Occasionally, to-day, we have seen moored +to some rustic landing a great covered barge, +quite of the fashion of the golden age of Ohio +boating. At one end, a room is partitioned +off to serve as cabin, and the sweeps are operated +from the roof. These are produce-boats, +which are laden with coarse vegetables +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page170" id="page170"></a>[pg 170]</span> +and sometimes live stock, and floated down +to Cincinnati or Louisville, and even to St. +Louis and New Orleans. In ante-bellum +days, produce-boats were common enough, +and much money was made by speculative +buyers who would dispose of their cargo in +the most favorable port, sell the barge, and +then return by rail or steamer; just as, in +still earlier days, the keel or flatboat owner +would sell both freight and vessel on the +Lower Mississippi,—or abandon the craft if +he could not sell it,—and "hoof it home," as +a contemporary chronicler puts it.</p> + +<p>Ripley, Levanna (417 miles), Higginsport +(421 miles), Chilo (431 miles), Neville (435 +miles), and Point Pleasant (442 miles) are the +Ohio towns to-day; and Dover (417 miles), +Augusta (424 miles), and Foster (435 miles), +their rivals on the Kentucky shore. Sawmills +and distilleries are the leading industries, +and there are broad paved wharves; but a +listless air pervades them all, as if once they +basked in the light of better days. Foster is +rather the shabbiest of the lot. As I passed +through to find the postoffice, at the upper +edge of town, where the hills come down +to meet the bottom, I saw that half of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" id="page171"></a>[pg 171]</span> +store buildings still intact were closed, many +dwellings and warehouses were in ruins, and +numerous open cellars were grown to grass +and weeds. Few people were in sight, and +they loafing at the corners. The postoffice +occupied a vacated store, evidently not swept +these six months past. The youthful master, +with chair tilted back and his feet on an old +washstand which did duty as office table, was +listlessly whittling a finger-ring from a peach-stone; +but shoving his feet along, he made +room for me to write a postal card which I +had brought for the purpose.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with this town?" I +asked, as I scratched away.</p> + +<p>"Daid, I reck'n!" and he blew away the +peach-stone dust which had accumulated in +the folds of his greasy vest.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I see it is dead. What killed it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! just gone daid—sort o' nat'ral daith, +I reck'n."</p> + +<p>We had a pretty view this morning, three +or four miles below Augusta, from the top of +a tree-denuded Kentucky hill, some two hundred +and fifty feet high. Hauling Pilgrim +into the willows, we set out over a low, cultivated +bottom, whose edges were being lapped +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page172" id="page172"></a>[pg 172]</span> +by the rising river, to the detriment of the +springing corn; then scrambling up the terrace +on which the Chesapeake & Ohio railway +runs, we crawled under a barb-wire fence, +and ascended through a pasture, our right of +way contested for a moment by a gigantic +Berkshire boar, which was not easily vanquished. +When at last we gained the top, by +dint of clambering over rail-fences and up +steep slopes bestrewn with mulleins and boulders, +and over patches of freshly-plowed +hardscrabble, the sight was well worth the +rough climb. The broad Ohio bottom, opposite, +was thick-dotted with orchard clumps, +from which rose the white houses and barns +of small tillers. On the generous slopes of +the Kentucky hills, all corrugated with wooded +ravines, were scores of fertile farmsteads, +each with its ample tobacco shed—the better +class of farmers on the hilltops, their +buildings often silhouetted against the western +sky, and the meaner sort down low on the +river's bank. Through this pastoral scene, +the broad river winds with noble sweep, until, +both above and below, it loses itself in the +purple mist of the distant hills.</p> + +<p>We are now upon the Great Bend of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page173" id="page173"></a>[pg 173]</span> +Ohio, beginning at Neville (435 miles) and +ending at Harris's Landing (519 miles), with +North Bend (482 miles) at the apex. The +bend is itself a series of convolutions, and our +point of view is ever changing, so that we +have kaleidoscopic vistas,—and with each new +setting, good-humoredly dispute with each +other, we at the oars, and the others in the +stern-sheets, as to which is the more beautiful, +the unfolding or the dissolving view.</p> + +<p>Our camp to-night is beside a little hillside +torrent on the lower edge of Point Pleasant. +We are well up on the rocky slope; an abandoned +stone-quarry lies back of us, up the hill +a bit; and leading into the village, half a mile +away, is a picturesque country road, overhung +with sumacs and honey locusts—overtopped +on one side by a precipitous pasture, and on +the other dropping suddenly to a beach thick-grown +to willows, maples, and scrub sycamores.</p> + +<p>The Boy and I made an expedition into the +town, for milk and water, but were obliged to +climb one of the sharpest ascents hereabout, +before our search was rewarded. A pretty +little farmstead it is, up there on the lofty hill +above us, with a wealth of chickens and an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page174" id="page174"></a>[pg 174]</span> +ample dairy, and fat fields and woods gently +sloping backward into the interior. The good +farm-wife was surprised that I was willing to +"pack" commodities, so plentiful with her, +down so steep a path; but canoeing pilgrims +must not falter at trifles such as this.</p> + +<p>Point Pleasant is the birthplace of General +Grant. Not every hamlet has its hero, hereabout. +Everyone we met this evening,—seeing +we were strangers, the Boy and I,—told +us of this halo which crowns their home.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cincinnati</span>, Thursday, May 24th.—During +the night there were frequent heavy downpours, +during which the swollen torrent by our side +roared among its boulders right lustily; and +occasionally a heavy farm-wagon crossed the +country bridge which spans the ravine just +above us, its rumblings echoing in the quarried +glen for all the world like distant thunder. +Before turning in, each built a cairn upon the +beach, at the point which he thought the +water might reach by morning. The Boy, +more venturesome than the rest, piled his +cairn highest up the slope; and when daylight +revealed the fact that the river, in its four-feet +rise, had crept nearest his goal, there was +much juvenile rejoicing.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page175" id="page175"></a>[pg 175]</span> + +<p>There is a gray sky, this morning. With a +cold headwind on the starboard quarter, we +hug the lee of the Ohio shore. The river is +well up in the willows now. Crowding Pilgrim +as closely as we may, within the narrow +belt of unruffled water, our oars are swept by +their bending boughs, which lightly tremble +on the surface of the flood. The numerous +rock-cumbered ravines, coursing down the +hills or through the bottom lands, a few days +since held but slender streams, or were, the +most of them, wholly dry; but now they are +brimming with noisy currents all flecked with +foam—pretty pictures, these yawning gullies, +overhung with cottonwoods and sycamores, +with thick undergrowth of green-brier and +wild columbine, and the yellow buds of the +celandine poppy.</p> + +<p>The hills are showing better cultivation, as +we approach the great city. The farm-houses +are in better style, the market gardens larger, +prosperity more evident. Among the pleasing +sights are frequent farmsteads at the summits +of the slopes, with orchards and vineyards, and +gardens and fields, stretching down almost to +the river—quite, indeed, on the Ohio side, but in +Kentucky flanked at the base by the railway +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page176" id="page176"></a>[pg 176]</span> +terrace. Numerous ferries connect the Kentucky +railway stations with the eastern bank; +one, which we saw just above New Richmond, +O. (446 miles), was run by horse power, a +weary nag in a tread-mill above each side-paddle. +Although Kentucky has the railway, +there is just here apparent a greater degree of +thrift in Ohio—the towns more numerous, +fields and truck-gardens more ample, on the +whole a better class of farm-houses, and frequently, +along the country road which closely +skirts the shore, comfortable little broad-balconied +inns, dependent on the trade of fishing +and outing parties.</p> + +<p>Just below the Newport waterworks are +several coal-barge harbors—mooring-grounds +where barges lie in waiting, until hauled off +by tugs to the storage wharves. In the rear +of one of these fleets, at the base of a market +garden, we found a sunny nook for lunch—for +here on the Kentucky side the cold wind has +full sweep, and we are glad of shelter when at +rest. Across the river is a broad, low bottom +given up to market gardeners, who jealously +cultivate down to the water's edge, leaving the +merest fringe of willows to protect their domain. +At the foot of this fertile plain, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>[pg 177]</span> +Little Miami River (460 miles) pours its muddy +contribution into the Ohio; and beyond this +rises the amphitheater of hills on which Cincinnati +(466 miles) is mainly built. We see +but the outskirts here, for two miles below us +there is a sharp bend in the river, and only a +dark pall of smoke marks where the city lies. +But these outlying slopes are well dotted with +gray and white groups of settlement, separated +by stretches of woodland over which play +changing lights, for cloud masses are sweeping +the Ohio hills while we are still basking in +the sun.</p> + +<p>Above us, crowning the Kentucky ascents, +or nestled on their wooded shoulders, are many +beautiful villas, evidently the homes of the +ultra-wealthy. Close at hand we have the +pleasant chink-chink of caulking hammers, for +barges are built and repaired in this snug harbor. +Now and then a river tug comes, with +noisy bluster of smoke and steam, and amid +much tightening and slackening of rope, and +wild profanity, takes captive a laden barge,—as +a cowboy might a refractory steer in the +midst of a herd,—and hauls it off to be disgorged +down stream. And just as we conclude +our lunch, German women come with hoes to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" id="page178"></a>[pg 178]</span> +practice the gentle art of horticulture—a characteristic +conglomeration, in the heart of our +busy West; the millionaire on the hill-top, the +tiller on the slope, shipwright on the beach, +and grimy Commerce master of the flood.</p> + +<p>Setting afloat on a boiling current, thick +with driftwood, we soon were coursing between +city-lined shores—on the Kentucky +side, Newport and Covington, respectively +above and below Licking River; and in an +hour were making our way through the labyrinth +of steamers thickly moored with their +noses to land, and cautiously creeping around +to a quiet spot at the stern of a giant wharf-boat—no +slight task this, with the river "on +the jump," and a false move liable to swamp +us if we strike an obstruction at full gait. No +doubt we all breathed freer when Pilgrim, too, +was beached,—although it be only confessed +in the privacy of the log. With her and her +cargo safely stored in the wharf-boat, we +sought a hotel, and, regaining our bag of +clothing,—shipped ahead of us from McKee's +Rocks,—donned urban attire for an inspection +of the city.</p> + +<p>And a noble city it is, that has grown out +of the two block-houses which George Rogers +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page179" id="page179"></a>[pg 179]</span> +Clark planted here in 1780, on his raid against +the Indians of Chillicothe. In 1788, John +Cleves Symmes, the first United States judge +of the Northwest Territory, purchased from +Congress a million acres of land, lying on the +Ohio between the two Miami Rivers. Matthias +Denman bought from him a square mile +at the eastern end of the grant, "on a most +delightful high bank" opposite the Licking, +and—on a cash valuation for the land, of two +hundred dollars—took in with him as partners +Robert Patterson and John Filson. Filson +was a schoolmaster, had written the first history +of Kentucky, and seems to have enjoyed +much local distinction. To him was entrusted +the task of inventing a name for the settlement +which the company proposed to plant +here. The outcome was "Losantiville," a +pedagogical hash of Greek, Latin, and French: +<i>L</i>, for Licking; <i>os</i>, mouth; <i>anti</i>, opposite; +<i>ville</i>, city—Licking-opposite-City, or City-opposite-Licking, +whichever is preferred. This +was in August. The Fates work quickly, for +in October poor Filson was scalped by the +Indians in the neighborhood of the Big Miami, +before a settler had yet been enticed to Losantiville. +But the survivors knew how to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" id="page180"></a>[pg 180]</span> +"boom" a town; lots were given away by +lottery to intending actual settlers; and in a +few months Symmes was able to write that +"It populates considerably."</p> + +<p>A few weeks previous to the planting of +Losantiville, a party of men from Redstone +had settled Columbia, at the mouth of the +Little Miami, about where the suburb of California +now is; and, a few weeks later, a third +colony was started by Symmes himself at +North Bend, near the Big Miami, at the western +extremity of his grant; and this, the +judge wished to make the capital of the new +Northwest Territory. At first, it was a race +between these three colonies. A few miles +below North Bend, Fort Finney had been +built in 1785-86, hence the Bend had at first +the start; but a high flood dampened its prospects, +the troops were withdrawn from this +neighborhood to Louisville, and in the winter +of 1789-90 Fort Washington was built at Losantiville +by General Harmar. The neighborhood +of the new fortress became, in the ensuing +Indian war, the center of the district.</p> + +<p>To Losantiville, with its fort, came Arthur +St. Clair, the new governor of the Northwest +Territory (January, 1790); and, making his +headquarters here, laid violent hands on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" id="page181"></a>[pg 181]</span> +Filson's invention, at once changing the name +to Cincinnati, in honor of the Society of the +Cincinnati, of which the new official was a +prominent member—"so that," Symmes sorrowfully +writes, "Losantiville will become +extinct." Five years of Indian campaigning +followed, the features of which were the crushing +defeats of Harmar and St. Clair, and the +final victory of Mad Anthony Wayne at Fallen +Timbers. It was not until the Treaty of +Greenville (1795), the result of Wayne's brilliant +dash into the wilderness, that the Revolutionary +War may properly be said to have +ended in the West.</p> + +<p>Those were stirring times on the Ohio, both +ashore and afloat; but, amidst them all, Cincinnati +grew apace. Ellicott, in 1796, speaks +of it as "a very respectable place," and in +1814, Flint found it the only port that could +be called a town, from Steubenville to Natchez, +a distance of fifteen hundred miles; in +1825 he reports it greatly grown, and crowded +with immigrants from Europe and from our +own Eastern states. The impetus thus early +gained has never lessened, and Cincinnati is +to-day one of the best built and most substantial +cities in the Union.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>[pg 182]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + + +<h4>The story of North Bend—The "shakes"—Driftwood—Rabbit +Hash—A side-trip +To Big Bone Lick.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Near Petersburg, Ky.</span>, Friday, May +25th.—This morning, an hour before noon, as +we looked upon the river from the top of the +Cincinnati wharf, a wild scene presented itself. +The shore up and down, as far as could be +seen, was densely lined with packets and +freighters; beyond them, the great stream, +here half a mile wide, was rushing past like a +mill-race, and black with all manner of drift, +some of it formed into great rafts from each of +which sprawled a network of huge branches. +Had we been strangers to this offscouring of a +thousand miles of beach, swirling past us at a +six-mile gait, we might well have doubted the +prudence of launching little Pilgrim upon such +a sea. But for two days past, we had been +amidst something of the sort, and knew that +to cautious canoeists it was less dangerous +than it appeared.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>[pg 183]</span> + +<p>A strong head wind, meeting this surging +tide, is lashing it into a white-capped fury. +But lying to with paddle and oars, and dodging +ferries and towing-tugs as best we may, Pilgrim +bears us swiftly past the long line of steamers +at the wharf, past Newport and Covington, +and the insignificant Licking,<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href= + "#footnote13"><sup>A</sup></a> and out under +great railway bridges which cobweb the sky. +Soon Cincinnati, shrouded in smoke, has disappeared +around the bend, and we are in the +fast-thinning suburbs—homes of beer-gardens +and excursion barges, havens for freight-flats, +and villas of low and high degree.</p> + +<p>When we are out here in the swim, the +drift-strewn stream has a more peaceful aspect +than when looked at from the shore. Instead +of rushing past as if dooming to destruction +everything else afloat, the debris falls behind, +when we row, for our progress is then the +greater. Dropping our oars, our gruesome +companions on the river pass us slowly, for +they catch less wind than we; and then, so +silent the steady march of all, we seem to be +drifting up-stream, until on glancing at the +shore the hills appear to be swiftly going down +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" id="page184"></a>[pg 184]</span> +and the willow fringes up,—until the sight +makes us dizzy, and we are content to be at +quits with these optical delusions.</p> + +<p>We no longer have the beach of gravel or +sand, or strip of clay knee-deep in mud. The +water, now twelve feet higher than before the +rise, has covered all; it is, indeed, swaying the +branches of sycamores and willows, and meeting +the edges of the corn-fields of venturesome +farmers who have cultivated far down, taking +the risk of a "June fresh." Often could we, +if we wished, row quite within the bulwark of +willows, where a week ago we would have +ventured to camp.</p> + +<p>The Kentucky side, to-day, from Covington +out, has been thoroughly rustic, seldom broken +by settlement; while Ohio has given us a succession +of suburban towns all the way out to +North Bend (482 miles), which is a small manufacturing +place, lying on a narrow bottom at +the base of a convolution of gentle, wooded +hills. One sees that Cincinnati has a better +and a broader base; North Bend was handicapped +by nature, in its early race.</p> + +<p>When Ohio came into the Union (1803), it +was specified that the boundary between her +and Indiana should be a line running due +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page185" id="page185"></a>[pg 185]</span> +north from the mouth of the Big Miami. But +the latter, an erratic stream, frequently the +victim of floods, comes wriggling down to the +Ohio through a broad bottom grown thick to +willows, and in times of high water its mouth +is a changeable locality. The boundary monument +is planted on the meridian of what was +the mouth, ninety-odd years ago; but to-day +the Miami breaks through an opening in the +quivering line of willow forest, a hundred yards +eastward (487 miles).</p> + +<p>Garrison Creek is a modest Kentucky affluent, +just above the Miami's mouth. At the +point, a group of rustics sat on a log at the +bank-top, watching us approach. Landing in +search of milk and water, I was taken by one +of them in a lumbersome skiff a short distance +up the creek, and presented to his family. +They are genuine "crackers," of the coarsest +type—tall, lean, sallow, fishy-eyed, with tow-colored +hair, an ungainly gait, barefooted, and +in nondescript clothing all patches and tatters. +The tousle-headed woman, surrounded by her +copies in miniature, keeps the milk neatly, in +an outer dairy, perhaps because of market +requirements; but in the crazy old log-house, +pigs and chickens are free comers, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page186" id="page186"></a>[pg 186]</span> +cistern from which they drink is foul. Here +in this damp, low pocket of a bottom, annually +flooded to the door-sill, in the midst of vegetation +of the rankest order, and quite unheedful +of the simplest of sanitary laws, these +yellow-skinned "crackers" are cradled, wedded, +and biered. And there are thousands +like unto them, for we are now in the heart of +the "shake" country, and shall hear enough +of the plague through the remainder of our +pilgrimage. As for ourselves, we fear not, for +it is not until autumn that danger is imminent, +and we are taking due precaution under the +Doctor's guidance.</p> + +<p>Two miles beyond, is the Indiana town of +Lawrenceburg, with the unkempt aspect so +common to the small river places; and two +miles still farther, on a Kentucky bottom, +Petersburg, whose chiefest building, as viewed +from the stream, is a huge distillery. On a +high sandy terrace, a mile or so below, we +pitch our nightly camp. All about are willows, +rustling musically in the evening breeze, +and, soaring far aloft, the now familiar sycamores. +Nearly opposite, in Indiana, the little +city of Aurora is sparkling with points of light, +strains of dance music reach us over the way, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" id="page187"></a>[pg 187]</span> +and occasional shouts and gay laughter; while +now and then, in the thickening dusk of the +long day, we hear skiffs go chucking by from +Petersburg way, and the gleeful voices of men +and women doubtless being ferried to the ball.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Near Warsaw, Ky.</span>, Saturday, May 26th.—Our +first mosquito appeared last night, but he +was easily slaughtered. It has been a comfort +to be free, thus far, from these pests of +camp life. We had prepared for them by +laying in a bolt of black tarlatan at Wheeling,—greatly +superior this, to ordinary white +mosquito bar,—but thus far it has remained +in the shopman's wrapper.</p> + +<p>The fog this morning was of the heaviest. +At 4 o'clock we were awakened by the sharp +clanging of a pilot's signal bell, and there, +poking her nose in among our willows, a dozen +feet from the tent, was the "Big Sandy," one +of the St. Louis & Cincinnati packet line. +She had evidently lost her bearings in the +mist; but with a deal of ringing, and a noisy +churning of the water by the reversed paddle-wheel, +pulled out and disappeared into the +gloom.</p> + +<p>The river, still rising, is sweeping down an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page188" id="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span> +ever-increasing body of rubbish. Islands and +beaches, away back to the Alleghanies on the +main stream, and on thousands of miles of +affluents, are yielding up those vast rafts of +drift-wood and fallen timber, which have continually +impressed us on our way with a +sense of the enormous wastage everywhere in +progress—necessary, of course, in view of the +prohibitive cost of transportation. Nevertheless, +one thinks pitifully of the tens of thousands +who, in congested districts, each winter +suffer unto death for want of fuel; and here is +this wealth of forest debris, the useless plaything +of the river. But not only wreckage of +this character is borne upon the flood. The +thievish river has picked up valuable saw-logs +that have run astray, lumber of many sorts, +boxes, barrels—and now and then the body of +a cow or horse that has tumbled to its death +from some treacherous clay-cliff or rocky terrace. +The beaches have been swept clean by +the rushing flood, of whatever lay upon them, +be it good or bad, for the great scavenger exercises +no discretion.</p> + +<p>The bulk of the matter now follows the +current in an almost solid raft, as it caroms +from shore to shore. Having swift water +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page189" id="page189"></a>[pg 189]</span> +everywhere at this stage, for the most part we +avoid entangling Pilgrim in the procession, +but row upon the outskirts, interested in the +curious medley, and observant of the many +birds which perch upon the branches of the +floating trees and sing blithely on their way. +The current bears hard upon the Aurora +beach, and townsfolk by scores are out in +skiffs or are standing by the water's edge, engaged +with boat-hooks in spearing choice +morsels from the debris rushing by their +door—heaping it upon the shore to dry, or +gathering it in little rafts which they moor +to the bank. It is a busy scene; the wreckers, +men, women, and children alike, are so engaged +in their grab-bag game that they have +no eyes for us; unobserved, we watch them +at close range, and speculate upon their respective +chances.</p> + +<p>Rabbit Hash, Ky. (502 miles), is a crude +hamlet of a hundred souls, lying nestled in a +green amphitheater. A horse-power ferry runs +over to the larger village of Rising Sun, its +Indiana neighbor. There is a small general +store in Rabbit Hash, with postoffice and +paint-shop attachment, and near by a tobacco +warehouse and a blacksmith shop, with a few +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page190" id="page190"></a>[pg 190]</span> +cottages scattered at intervals over the bottom. +The postmaster, who is also the storekeeper +and painter, greeted me with joy, as +I deposited with him mail-matter bearing +eighteen cents' worth of stamps; for his is one +of those offices where the salary is the value +of the stamps cancelled. It is not every day +that so liberal a patron comes along.</p> + +<p>"Jemimi! Bill! but guv'm'nt business 's +look'n' up—there'll be some o' th' rest o' us +a-want'n this yere off'c', a ter nex' 'lection, I +reck'n'."</p> + +<p>It was the blacksmith, who is also the ferryman, +who thus bantered the delighted postmaster,—a +broad-faced, big-chested, brown-armed +man, with his neck-muscles standing +out like cords, and his mild blue eyes dancing +with fun, this rustic disciple of Tubal Cain. +He sat just without the door, leather apron on, +and his red shirt-sleeves rolled up, playing +checkers on an upturned soap-box, with a jolly +fat farmer from the hill-country, whose broad +straw hat was cocked on the back of his bald +head. The merry laughter of the two was infectious. +The half-dozen spectators, small +farmers whose teams and saddle-horses were +hitched to the postoffice railing, were themselves +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page191" id="page191"></a>[pg 191]</span> +hilarious over the game; and a saffron-skinned, +hollow-cheeked woman in a blue sunbonnet, +and with a market-basket over her arm, +stopped for a moment at the threshold to look +on, and then passed within the store, her +eyes having caught the merriment, although +her facial muscles had apparently lost their +power of smiling.</p> + +<p>Joining the little company, I found that the +farmer was a blundering player, but made up +in fun what he lacked in science. I tried to +ascertain the origin of the name Rabbit Hash, +as applied to the hamlet. Every one had a +different opinion, evidently invented on the +spur of the moment, but all "'lowed" that +none but the tobacco agent could tell, and he +was off in the country for the day; as for themselves, +they had, they confessed, never thought +of it before. It always had been Rabbit Hash, +and like enough would be to the end of time.</p> + +<p>We are on the lookout for Big Bone Creek, +wishing to make a side trip to the famous Big +Bone Lick, but among the many openings +through the willows of the Kentucky shore we +may well miss it, hence make constant inquiry +as we proceed. There was a houseboat in +the mouth of one goodly affluent. As we hove +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page192" id="page192"></a>[pg 192]</span> +in sight, a fat woman, whose gunny-sack apron +was her chief attire, hurried up the gang-plank +and disappeared within.</p> + +<p>"Hello, the boat!" one of us hailed.</p> + +<p>The woman's fuzzy head appeared at the +window.</p> + +<p>"What creek is this?"</p> + +<p>"Gunpowder, I reck'n!"—in a deep, man-like +voice.</p> + +<p>"How far below is Big Bone?"</p> + +<p>"Jist a piece!"</p> + +<p>"How many miles?"</p> + +<p>"Two, I reck'n."</p> + +<p>Big Bone Creek (512 miles), some fifty or +sixty feet wide at the mouth, opens through a +willow patch, between pretty, sloping hills. +A houseboat lay just within—a favorite situation +for them, these creek mouths, for here +they are undisturbed by steamer wakes, and +the fishing is usually good. The proprietor, a +rather distinguished-looking mulatto, despite +his old clothes and plantation straw-hat, was +sitting in a chair at his cabin door, angling; +his white wife was leaning over him lovingly, +as we shot into the scene, but at once withdrew +inside. This man, with his side-whiskers +and fine air, may have been a head-waiter or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page193" id="page193"></a>[pg 193]</span> +a dance-fiddler in better days; but his soft, +plaintive voice, and hacking cough, bespoke +the invalid. He told us what he knew about +the creek, which was little enough, as he had +but recently come to these parts.</p> + +<p>At an ordinary stage in the Ohio, the Big +Bone cannot be ascended in a skiff for more +than half a mile; now, upon the backset, we +are able to proceed for two miles, leaving but +another two miles of walking to the Lick itself. +The creek curves gracefully around the bases +of the sugar-loaf hills of the interior. Under +the swaying arch of willows, and of ragged, +sprawling sycamores, their bark all patched +with green and gray and buff and white, we +have charming vistas—the quiet water, thick +grown with aquatic plants; the winding banks, +bearing green-dragons and many another flower +loving damp shade; the frequent rocky palisades, +oozing with springs; and great blue +herons, stretching their long necks in wonder, +and then setting off with a stately flight which +reminds one of the cranes on Japanese ware. +Through the dense fringe of vegetation, we +have occasional glimpses of the hillside farms—their +sloping fields sprinkled with stones, their +often barren pastures, numerous abandoned +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page194" id="page194"></a>[pg 194]</span> +tracts overgrown with weeds, and blue-grass +lush in the meadows. Along the edges of +the Creek, and in little pocket bottoms, the +varied vegetation has a sub-tropical luxuriance, +and in this now close, warm air, there is a rank +smell suggestive of malaria.</p> + +<p>These bottoms are annually overflowed, so +that the crude little farmsteads are on the +rising ground—whitewashed cabins, many of +them of logs, serve as houses; for stock, there +are the veriest shanties, affording practically +no shelter; best of all, the rude tobacco-drying +sheds, in many of which some of last year's +crop can still be seen, hanging on the strips. +We are out of the world, here; and barefooted +men and boys, who with listless air are fishing +from the banks, gaze at us in dull wonder as +we thread our tortuous way.</p> + +<p>Finally, we learned that we could with profit +go no higher. Before us were two miles of +what was described as the roughest sort of hill +road, and the afternoon sun was powerful; so +W—— accepted the invitation of a rustic fisherman +to rest with his "women folks" in a little +cabin up the hill a bit. Seeing her safely +housed with the good-natured "cracker" farm-wife, +the Doctor, the Boy, and I trudged off +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page195" id="page195"></a>[pg 195]</span> +toward Big Bone Lick. The waxy clay of the +roadbed had recently been wetted by a shower; +the walking, consequently, was none of the +best. But we were repaid with charming +views of hill and vale, a softly-rolling scene +dotted with little gray and brown fields, clumps +of woodland, rail-fenced pastures, and cabins +of the crudest sort—for in the autumn-tide, +the curse of malaria haunts the basin of the +Big Bone, and none but he of fortune spurned +would care here in this beauty-spot to plant +his vine and fig-tree. Now and then our path +leads us across the winding creek, which in +these upper reaches tumbles noisily over ledges +of jagged rock, above which luxuriant sycamores, +and elms, and maples arch gracefully. +At each picturesque fording-place, with its +inevitable watering-pool, are stepping-stones +for foot pilgrims; often a flock of geese are +sailing in the pool, with craned necks and +flapping wings hissing defiance to disturbers +of their sylvan peace.</p> + +<p>The travelers we meet are on horseback—most +of them the yellow-skinned, hollow-cheeked +folk, with lack-luster eyes, whom we +note in the cabin doors, or dawdling about +their daily routine. On nearing the Lick, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page196" id="page196"></a>[pg 196]</span> +two young horsewomen, out of the common, +look interestedly at us, and I stop to inquire +the way, although the village spire is peering +above the tree-tops yonder. Pretty, buxom, +sweet-faced lassies, these, with soft, pleasant +voices, each with her market-basket over her +arm, going homeward from shopping. It +would be interesting to know their story—what +it is that brings these daughters of a +brighter world here into this valley of the living +death.</p> + +<p>Two hundred yards farther, where the road +forks, and the one at the right hand ascends +to the small hamlet of Big Bone Lick, there is +an interesting picture beneath the way-post: a +girl in a blue calico gown, her face deep hidden +in her red sunbonnet, sits upon a chestnut +mount, with a laden market-basket before her; +while by her side, astride a coal-black pony, +which fretfully paws to be on his way, is a +roughly dressed youth, his face shaded by a +broad slouched hat of the cowboy order. +They have evidently met there by appointment, +and are so earnestly conversing—she +with her hand resting lovingly, perhaps deprecatingly, +upon his bridle-arm, and his free +hand nervously stroking her horse's mane, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page197" id="page197"></a>[pg 197]</span> +while his eyes are far afield—that they do not +observe us as we pass; and we are free to +weave from the incident any sort of cracker +romance which fancy may dictate.</p> + +<p>The source of Big Bone Creek is a marshy +basin some fifty acres in extent, rimmed with +gently-sloping hills, and freely pitted with +copious springs of a water strongly sulphurous +in taste, with a suggestion of salt. The odor +is so powerful as to be all-pervading, a quarter +of a mile away, and to be readily detected at +twice that distance. This collection of springs +constitutes Big Bone Lick, probably the most +famous of the many similar licks in Kentucky, +Indiana, and Illinois.</p> + +<p>The salt licks of the Ohio basin were from +the earliest times resorted to in great numbers +by wild beasts, and were favorite camping-grounds +for Indians, and for white hunters +and explorers. This one was first visited by +the French as early as 1729, and became +famous because of the great quantities of remains +of animals which lay all over the marsh, +particularly noticeable being the gigantic bones +of the extinct mammoth—hence the name +adopted by the earliest American hunters, +"Big Bone." These monsters had evidently +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page198" id="page198"></a>[pg 198]</span> +been mired in the swamp, while seeking to +lick the salty mud, and died in their tracks. +Pioneer chronicles abound in references to the +Lick, and we read frequently of hunting-parties +using the ribs of the mammoth for tent +poles, and sections of the vertebræ as camp +stools and tables. But in our own day, there +are no surface evidences of this once rich +treasure of giant fossils; although occasionally +a "find" is made by enterprising excavators,—several +bones having thus been unearthed only +a week ago. They are now on exhibition in +the neighboring village, preparatory to being +shipped to an Eastern museum.</p> + +<p>As we hurried back over the rolling highway, +thunder-clouds grandly rose out of the west, +and great drops of rain gave us moist warning +of the coming storm. W—— was watching us +from the cabin door, as we made the last +turning in the road, and, accompanied by the +farm-wife and her two daughters, came tripping +down to the landing. She had been +entertained in the one down-stairs room, as +royally as these honest cracker women-folk +knew how; seated in the family rocking-chair, +she had heard in those two hours the social +gossip of a wide neighborhood; learned, too, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page199" id="page199"></a>[pg 199]</span> +that the cold, wet weather of the last fortnight +had killed turkey-chicks and goslings by +the score; heard of the damage being done to +corn and tobacco, by the prevalent high water; +was told how Bess and Brindle fared, off in +the rocky pasture which yields little else than +mulleins; and how far back Towser had to go, +to claim relationship to a collie. "And +weren't we really show-people, going down +the river this way, in a skiff? or, if we weren't +show-people, had we an agency for something? +or, were we only in trade?" It seems a difficult +task to make these people on the bottoms +believe that we are skiffing it for pleasure—it +is a sort of pleasure so far removed from their +notions of the fitness of things; and so at last +we have given up trying, and let them think +of our pilgrimage what they will.</p> + +<p>The entire family now assembled on the +muddy bank, and bade us a really affectionate +farewell, as if we had been, in this isolated +corner of the world, most welcome guests who +were going all too soon. In a few strokes +of the oars we were rounding the bend; and +waving our hands at the little knot of watchers, +went forth from their lives, doubtless +forever.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page200" id="page200"></a>[pg 200]</span> + +<p>The storm soon burst upon us in full fury. +Clad in rubber, we rested under giant trees, or +beneath projecting rock ledges, taking advantage +of occasional lulls to push on for a few +rods to some new shelter. The numerous +little hillside runs which, in our journey up, +were but dry gullies choked with leaves and +boulders, were now brimming with muddy torrents, +rushing all foam-flecked and with deafening +roar into the central stream. At last +the cloud curtain rolled away, the sun gushed +out with fiery rays, the arch of foliage sparkled +with splendor—in meadow and on hillside, the +face of Nature was cleanly beautiful.</p> + +<p>At the creek mouth, the distinguished mulatto +still was fishing from his chair, and standing +by his side was his wife throwing a spoon. +They nodded to us pleasantly, as old friends +returned. Gliding by their boat, Pilgrim was +soon once more in the full current of the swift-flowing +Ohio.</p> + +<p>We are high up to-night, on a little grass +terrace in Kentucky, two miles above Warsaw. +The usual country road lies back of us, a rod +or two, and then a slender field surmounted +by a woodland hill. Fortune favors us, almost +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page201" id="page201"></a>[pg 201]</span> +nightly, with beautiful abiding-places. In no +place could we sleep more comfortably than +in our cotton home.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote13" name="footnote13"></a><b>Footnote A:</b><a href="#footnotetag13"> (return) </a><p>So called from the Big Buffalo Lick, upon its banks.</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page202" id="page202"></a>[pg 202]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + + +<h4>New Switzerland—An old-time river +pilot—Houseboat life, on the lower +reaches—A philosopher in rags—Wooded +solitudes—Arrival at Louisville.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Near Madison, Ind.</span>, Sunday, May 27th.—At +supper last night, a houseboat fisherman, +going by in his skiff, parted the willows fringing +our beach, and offered to sell us some of +his wares. We bought from him a two-pound +catfish, which he tethered to a bush overhanging +the water, until we were ready to dress it; +giving us warning, that meanwhile it would be +best to have an eye on our purchase, or the +turtles would devour it. Hungry thieves, these +turtles, the fisherman said; you could leave +nothing edible in water or on land, unprotected, +without constant fear of the reptiles—which +reminds me that yesterday the Doctor +and the Boy found on the beach a beautiful +box tortoise.</p> + +<p>Our fish was swimming around finely, at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page203" id="page203"></a>[pg 203]</span> +the end of his cord, when the executioner arrived, +and when finally hung up in a tree was +safe from the marauders. This morning the +fisherman was around again, hoping to obtain +another dime from the commissariat; but +though we had breakfasted creditably from +the little "cat," we had no thought of stocking +our larder with his kind. So the grizzly +man of nets took a fresh chew of tobacco, and +sat a while in his boat, "pass'n' th' time o' +day" with us, punctuating his remarks with +frequent expectorations.</p> + +<p>The new Kentucky houseboat law taxes each +craft of this sort seven-and-a-half dollars, he +said: five dollars going to the State, and the +remainder to the collector. There was to be +a patrol boat, "to see that th' fellers done +step to th' cap'n's office an' settle." But the +houseboaters were going to combine and fight +the law on constitutional grounds, for they had +been told that it was clearly an interference +with commerce on a national highway. As +for the houseboaters voting—well, some of +them did, but the most of them didn't. The +Indiana registry law requires a six months' +residence, and in Kentucky it is a full year, so +that a houseboat man who moves about any, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page204" id="page204"></a>[pg 204]</span> +"jes' isn't in it, sir, thet's all." However, our +visitor was not much disturbed over the practical +disfranchisement of his class—it seemed, +rather, to amuse him; he was much more concerned +in the new tax, which he thought an +outrageous imposition. In bidding us a cheery +good-bye, he noticed my kodak. "Yees be +one o' them photygraph parties, hey?" and +laughed knowingly, as though he had caught +me in a familiar trick. No child of nature so +simple, in these days, as not to recognize a +kodak.</p> + +<p>Warsaw, Ky. (524 miles), just below, has +some bankside evidences of manufacturing, but +on the whole is rather down at the heel. A +contrast this, to Vevay (533 miles), on the +Indiana shore, which, though a small town on +a low-lying bottom, is neat and apparently +prosperous. Vevay was settled in 1803, by +John James Dufour and several associates, +from the District of Vevay, in Switzerland, +who purchased from Congress four square +miles hereabout, and, christening it New Switzerland, +sought to establish extensive vineyards +in the heart of this middle West. The Swiss +prospered. The colony has had sufficient vitality +to preserve many of its original +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page205" id="page205"></a>[pg 205]</span> +characteristics unto the present day. Much of the +land in the neighborhood is still owned by the +descendants of Dufour and his fellows, but the +vineyards are not much in evidence. In fact, +the grape-growing industry on the banks of +the Ohio, although commenced at different +points with great promise, by French, Swiss, +Germans, and Americans alike, has not realized +their expectations. The Ohio has proved +to be unlike the Rhine in this respect. In the +long run, the vine in America appears to fare +better in a more northern latitude.</p> + +<p>Three miles above Vevay, near Plum Creek, +I was interested in the Indiana farm upon +which Heathcoat Picket settled in 1795—some +say in 1790. In his day, Picket was a notable +flatboat pilot. He was credited with having +conducted more craft down the river to New Orleans, +than any other man of his time—going +down on the boat, and returning on foot. It is +said that he made over twenty trips of this character, +which is certainly a marvelous record at a +time when there were only Indian trails through +the more than a thousand miles of dense forest +between Vevay and New Orleans, and when a +savage enemy might be expected to lurk behind +any tree, ready to slay the rash pale-face. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page206" id="page206"></a>[pg 206]</span> +Picket's must have been a life of continuous +adventure, as thrilling as the career of Daniel +Boone himself; yet he is now known to but a +local antiquarian or two, and one stumbles +across him only in foot-notes. The border +annals of the West abound with incidents as +romantic as any which have been applauded +by men. Daniel Boone is not the only hero +of the frontier; he is not even the chief hero,—he +is but a type, whom an accident of literature +has made conspicuous.</p> + +<p>The Kentucky River (541 miles) enters at +Carrollton, Ky.,—a well-to-do town, with +busy-looking wharves upon both streams,—through +a wide and rather uninteresting bottom. +But, over beyond this, one sees that it +has come down through a deep-cut valley, +rimmed with dark, rolling hills, which speak +eloquently of a diversified landscape along its +banks. The Indian Kentucky, a small stream +but half-a-dozen rods wide, enters from the +north, five miles below—"Injun Kaintuck," it +was called by a jovial junk-boat man stationed +at the mouth of the tributary. There are, on +the Ohio, several examples of this peculiar +nomenclature: a river enters from the south, +and another affluent coming in from the north, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page207" id="page207"></a>[pg 207]</span> +nearly opposite, will have the same name with +the prefix "Indian." The reason is obvious; +the land north of the Ohio remained Indian +territory many years after Kentucky and Virginia +were recognized as white man's country, +hence the convenient distinction—the river +coming in from the north, near the Kentucky, +for instance, became "Indian Kentucky," and +so on through the list.</p> + +<p>Houseboats are less frequent, in these +reaches of the river. The towns are fewer +and smaller than above; consequently there +is less demand for fish, or for desultory labor. +Yet we seldom pass a day, in the most rustic +sections, without seeing from half-a-dozen to +a dozen of these craft. Sometimes they are +a few rods up the mouths of tributaries, half +hidden by willows and overhanging sycamores; +or, in picturesque little openings of the willow +fringe along the main shore; or, boldly planted +at the base of some rocky ledge. At the +towns, they are variously situated: in the +water, up the beach a way, or high upon the +bottom, whither some great flood has carried +them in years gone by. Occasionally, when +high and dry upon the land, they have a bit +of vegetable garden about them, rented for a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page208" id="page208"></a>[pg 208]</span> +time from the farmer; but, even with the +floaters, chickens are commonly kept, generally +in a coop on the roof, connected with the +shore by a special gang-plank for the fowls; +and the other day, we saw a thrifty houseboater +who had several colonies of bees.</p> + +<p>There was a rise of only two feet, last night; +evidently the flood is nearly at its greatest. +We are now twenty feet above the level of ten +days ago, and are frequently swirling along +over what were then sharp, stony slopes, and +brushing the topmost boughs of the lower +lines of willows and scrub sycamores. Thus +we have a better view of the country; and, +approaching closely to the banks, can from +our seats at any time pluck blue lupine by the +armful. It thrives mightily on these gravelled +shores, and so do the bignonia vine, the +poison ivy, and the Virginia creeper. The +hills are steeper, now, especially in Indiana; +many of them, although stony, worked-out, +and almost worthless, are still, in patches, +cultivated to the very top; but for the most +part they are clothed in restful green. Overhead, +in the summer haze, turkey-buzzards +wheel gracefully, occasionally chased by audacious +hawks; and in the woods, we hear the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page209" id="page209"></a>[pg 209]</span> +warble of song-birds. Shadowy, idle scenes, +these rustic reaches of the lower Ohio, through +which man may dream in Nature's lap, all +regardless of the workaday world.</p> + +<p>It was early evening when we passed Madison, +Ind. (553 miles), a fairly-prosperous factory +town of about twelve thousand souls. +Scores of the inhabitants were out in boats, +collecting driftwood; and upon the wharf was +a great crowd of people, waiting for an excursion +boat which was to return them to Louisville, +whence they had come for a day's outing. +It was a lifeless, melancholy party, as excursion +folk are apt to be at the close of a gala +day, and they wearily stared at us as we paddled +past.</p> + +<p>Just below, on the Kentucky shore, on my +usual search for milk and water, I landed at a +cluster of rude cottages set in pleasant market +gardens. While the others drifted by with +Pilgrim, I had a goodly walk before finding +milk, for a cow is considered a luxury among +these small riverside cultivators; the man who +owns one sells milk to his poorer neighbors. +Such a nabob was at last found. The animal +was called down from the rocky hills, by her +barefooted owner, who, lank and malaria-skinned, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page210" id="page210"></a>[pg 210]</span> +leaned wearily against the well-curb, +while his wife, also guiltless of hose and shoes, +milked into my pail direct from the lean and +hungry brindle.</p> + +<p>By the time the crew were reunited, storm-clouds, +thick and black, were fast rising in the +west. Scudding down shore for a mile, with +oars and paddle aiding the swift current, we +failed to find a proper camping-place on the +muddy bank of the far-stretching bottom. +Rain-drops were now pattering on our rubber +spreads, and it was evident that a blow was +coming; but despite this, we bent to the work +with renewed vigor, and shot across to the lee +shore of Indiana—finally landing in the midst +of a heavy shower, and hurriedly pitching +tent on a rocky slope at the base of a vertical +bank of clay. Above us, a government beacon +shines brightly through the persistent +storm, with the keeper's neat little house and +garden a hundred yards away. In the tree-tops, +up a heavily-forested hill beyond, the +wind moans right dismally. In this sheltered +nook, we shall be but lulled to sleep with the +ceaseless pelting of the rain.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Louisville</span>, Monday, May 28th.—At +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page211" id="page211"></a>[pg 211]</span> +midnight, the heavens cleared, with a cold north +wind; the early morning atmosphere was +nipping, and we were glad of the shelter of +the tent during breakfast. The river fell eight +inches during the night, and on either bank is +a muddy strip, which will rapidly widen as +the water goes down.</p> + +<p>Below us, twenty rods or so, moored to the +boulder-strewn shore, was a shanty-boat. In +the bustle of landing, last night, we had not +noticed this neighbor, and it was pitch-dark +before we had time to get our bearings. I +think it is the most dilapidated affair we have +seen on the river—the frame of the cabin is +out of plumb, old clothes serve for sides and +flap loudly in the wind; while two little boys, +who peered at us through slits in the airy walls, +looked fairly miserable with cold.</p> + +<p>The proprietor of the craft came up to visit +us, while breakfast was being prepared, and remained +until we were ready to depart—a tall, +slouchy fellow, clothed in shreds and patches; +he was in the prime of life, with a depressed +nose set in a battered, though not unpleasant +countenance. None of our party had ever +before seen such garments on a human being—old +bits of flannel, frayed strips of bagging-stuff, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page212" id="page212"></a>[pg 212]</span> +and other curious odds and ends of fabrics, +in all the primitive colors, the whole +roughly basted together with sack-thread. He +was a philosopher, was this rag-tag-and-bob-tail +of a man, a philosopher with some mother-wit +about him. For an hour, he sat on his +haunches, crouching over our little stove, and +following with cat-like care W——'s every movement +in the culinary art; she felt she was under +the eye of a critic who, though not voicing his +opinions, looked as if he knew a thing or two.</p> + +<p>As a conversationist, our visitor was fluent +to a fault. It required but slight urging to +draw him out. His history, and that of his +fathers for three generations back, he recited +in much detail. He himself had, in his best +days, been a sub-contractor in railway construction; +but fate had gone against him, and +he had fallen to the low estate of a shanty-boatman. +His wife had "gone back on him," +and he was left with two little boys, whom he +proposed to bring up as gentlemen—"yaas, +sir-r, gen'lem'n, yew hear me! ef I <i>is</i> only a +shanty-boat feller!"</p> + +<p>"I thote I'd come to visit uv ye," he had +said by way of introduction; "ye're frum a +city, ain't yer? Yaas, I jist thote hit. City +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page213" id="page213"></a>[pg 213]</span> +folks is a more 'com'dat'n' 'n country folks. +Why? Waal, yew fellers jist go back 'ere in +th' hills away, 'n them thar country folks +they'd hardly answer ye, they're thet selfish-like. +Give me city folks, I say, fer get'n' long +with!"</p> + +<p>And then, in a rambling monologue, while +chewing a straw, he discussed humanity in +general, and the professions in particular. "I +ain't got no use fer lawyers—mighty hard show +them fellers has, fer get'n' to heaven. As fer +doctors—waal, they'll hev hard sledd'n, too; +but them fellers has to do piles o' dis'gree'bl' +work, they do; I'd jist rather fish fer a liv'n', +then be a doctor! Still, sir-r, give me an eddicated +man every time, says I. Waal, sir-r, +'n' ye hear me, one o' th' richest fellers right +here in Madison, wuz born 'n' riz on a shanty-boat, +'n' no mistake. He jist done pick up his +eddication from folks pass'n' by, jes' as yew +fellers is a passin', 'n' they might say a few +wuds o' information to him. He done git a +fine eddication jes' thet way, 'n' they ain't no +flies on him, these days, when money-gett'n' +is 'roun'. Jes' noth'n' like it, sir-r! Eddication +does th' biz!"</p> + +<p>An observant man was this philosopher, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page214" id="page214"></a>[pg 214]</span> +had studied human nature to some purpose. +He described the condition of the poor farmers +along the river, as being pitiful; they had no +money to hire help, and were an odd lot, anyway—the +farther back in the hills you get, the +worse they are.</p> + +<p>He loved to talk about himself and his lowly +condition, in contrast with his former glory as +a sub-contractor on the railway. When a +man was down, he said, he lost all his friends—and, +to illustrate this familiar phase of life, +told two stories which he had often read in a +book that he owned. They were curious, old-fashioned +tales of feudal days, evidently written +in a former century,—he did not know the +title of the volume,—and he related them in +what evidently were the actual words of the +author: a curious recitation, in the pedantic +literary style of the ancient story-teller, but in +the dialect of an Ohio-river "cracker." His +greatest ambition, he told us, was to own a +floating sawmill; although he carefully inquired +about the laws regulating peddlers in our State, +and intimated that sometime he might look +us up in that capacity, in our Northern home.</p> + +<p>As we approach Louisville to-day, the settlements +somewhat increase in number, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page215" id="page215"></a>[pg 215]</span> +although none of the villages are of great size; +and, especially in Kentucky, they are from +ten to twenty miles apart. The fine hills continue +close upon our path until a few miles +above Louisville, when they recede, leaving +on the Kentucky side a broad, flat plain several +miles square, for the city's growth. For +the most part, these stony slopes are well +wooded with elm, buckeye, maple, ash, oak, +locust, hickory, sycamore, cotton-wood, a few +cedars, and here and there a catalpa and a +pawpaw giving a touch of tropical luxuriance +to the hillside forest; while blackberry bushes, +bignonia vines, and poison ivy, are everywhere +abundant; otherwise, there is little of +interest to the botanist. Redbirds, catbirds, +bluebirds, blackbirds, and crows are chattering +noisily in the trees, and turkey-buzzards +everywhere swirl and swoop in mid-air.</p> + +<p>The narrow little bottoms are sandy; and +on lowland as well as highland there is much +poor, rock-bewitched soil. The little whitewashed +farmsteads look pretty enough in +the morning haze, lying half hid in forest +clumps; but upon approach they invariably +prove unkempt and dirty, and swarming with +shiftless, barefooted, unhealthy folk, whom +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page216" id="page216"></a>[pg 216]</span> +no imagination can invest with picturesque +qualities. Their ragged, unpainted tobacco-sheds +are straggling about, over the hills; and +here and there a white patch in the corner of +a gray field indicates a nursery of tobacco +plants, soon to be transplanted into ampler +soil.</p> + +<p>It is not uncommon to find upon a hillside +a freshly-built log-cabin, set in the midst of a +clearing, with bristling stumps all around, reminding +one of the homes of new settlers on +the far-away logging-streams of Northern +Wisconsin or Minnesota; the resemblance is +the closer, for such notches cut in the edge of +the Indiana and Kentucky wilderness are often +found after a row of many miles through a +winding forest solitude apparently but little +changed from primeval conditions. Now and +then we come across quarries, where stone is +slid down great chutes to barges which lie +moored by the rocky bank; and frequently is +the stream lined with great boulders, which +stand knee-deep in the flood that eddies and +gurgles around them.</p> + +<p>On the upper edge of the great Louisville +plain, we pitched tent in the middle of the +afternoon; and, having brought our bag of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page217" id="page217"></a>[pg 217]</span> +land-clothes with us in the skiff, from Cincinnati, +took turns under the canvas in effecting +what transformation was desirable, preparatory +to a visit in the city. In the early twilight +we were floating past Towhead Island, +with its almost solid flank of houseboats, +threading our way through a little fleet of +pleasure yachts, and at last shooting into the +snug harbor of the Boat Club. The good-natured +captain of the U. S. Life Saving Station +took Pilgrim and her cargo in charge for +the night, and by dusk we were bowling over +metropolitan pavements <i>en route</i> to the house +of our friend—strange contrast, this lap of +luxury, to the soldier-like simplicity of our +canvas home. We have been roughing it for +so long,—less than a month, although it seems +a year,—that all these conveniences of civilization, +these social conventionalities, have to +us a sort of foreign air. Thus easily may man +descend into the savage state.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page218" id="page218"></a>[pg 218]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + + +<h4>Storied Louisville—Red Indians and +white—A night on Sand Island—New +Albany—Riverside hermits—The river +falling—A deserted village—An ideal +camp.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Sand Island</span>, Tuesday, May 29th.—Our +Louisville host is the best living authority on +the annals of his town. It was a delight and +an inspiration to go with him, to-day, the +rounds of the historic places. Much that was +to me heretofore foggy in Louisville story was +made clear, upon becoming familiar with the +setting. The contention is made that La +Salle was here at the Falls of the Ohio, during +the closing months of 1669; but it was over a +century later, under British domination, before +a settlement was thought of. Dr. John +Connolly entertained a scheme for founding a +town at the Falls, but Lord Dunmore's War +(1774), and the Revolution quickly following, +combined to put an end to it; so that when +George Rogers Clark arrived on the scene with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page219" id="page219"></a>[pg 219]</span> +his little band of Virginian volunteers (May, +1778), en route to capture the Northwest for +the State of Virginia, he found naught but a +savage-haunted wilderness. His log fort on +Corn Island, in the midst of the rapids, served +as a base of military operations, and was the +nucleus of American settlement, although later +the inhabitants moved to the mainland, and +founded Louisville.</p> + +<p>The falls at Louisville are the only considerable +obstruction to Ohio-River navigation. +At an average stage, the descent is but twenty-seven +feet in two-and-a-half miles; in high +flood, the rapids degenerate into merely swift +water, without danger to descending craft. +At ordinary height, it was the custom of pioneer +boatmen, in descending, to lighten their +craft of at least a third of the cargo, and thus +pass them down to the foot of the north-side +portage (Clarksville, Ind.), which is three-quarters +of a mile in length; going up, lightened +boats were towed against the stream. With +the advent of larger craft, a canal with locks +became necessary—the Louisville and Portland +Canal of to-day, which is operated by the general +government.</p> + +<p>The action of the water, hastened by the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page220" id="page220"></a>[pg 220]</span> +destruction of trees whose roots originally +bound the loose soil, has greatly worn the +islands in the rapids. Little is now left of +historic Corn Island, and that little is, at low +water, being blasted and ground into cement +by a mill hard by on the main shore. To-day, +with a flood of nearly twenty feet above +the normal stage of the season, not much of +the island is visible,—clumps of willows and +sycamores, swayed by the rushing current, +giving a general idea of the contour. Goose +Island, although much smaller than in Clark's +day, is a considerable tract of wooded land, +with a rock foundation. Clark was once its +owner, his home being opposite on the Indiana +shore, where he had a fine view of the river, +the rapids, and the several islands. As for +Clarksville, somewhat lower down, and back +from the river a half mile, it is now but a +cluster of dwellings on the outskirts of New +Albany, a manufacturing town which is rapidly +absorbing all the neighboring territory.</p> + +<p>Feeling obliged to make an early start, we +concluded to pass the night just below the +canal on Sand Island, lying between New +Albany and Louisville's noisy manufacturing +suburb, Portland. An historic spot is this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page221" id="page221"></a>[pg 221]</span> +insular home of ours. At the treaty of Fort +Charlotte, Cornstalk told Lord Dunmore the +legend familiar among Ohio River savages—that +here, in ages past, occurred the last great +battle between the white and the red Indians. +It is one of the puzzles of the antiquarians, +this tradition that white Indians once lived in +the land, but were swept away by the reds; +Cornstalk had used it to spur his followers to +mighty deeds, it was a precedent which Pontiac +dwelt upon when organizing his conspiracy, +and King Philip is said to have been +inspired by it. But this is no place to discuss +the genesis of the tale. Suffice it, that on +Sand Island have been discovered great quantities +of ancient remains. No doubt, in its +day, it was an over-filled burying-ground.</p> + +<p>Noises, far different from the clash of savage +arms, are in the air to-night. Far above +our heads a great iron bridge crosses the Ohio, +some of its piers resting on the island,—a busy +combination thoroughfare for steam and electric +railways, for pedestrians and for vehicles, +plying between New Albany and Portland. +The whirr of the trolley, the scream and rumble +of locomotives, the rattle of wagons; and +just above the island head, the burly roar of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page222" id="page222"></a>[pg 222]</span> +steamboats signaling the locks,—these are the +sounds which are prevalent. Through all this +hubbub, electric lamps are flashing, and just +now a steamer's search-light swept our island +shore, lingering for a moment upon the little +camp, doubtless while the pilot satisfied his +curiosity. Let us hope that savage warriors +never o' nights walk the earth above their +graves; for such scenes as this might well +cause those whose bones lie here to doubt +their senses.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Near Brandenburg, Ky.</span>, Wednesday, +30th.—We stopped at New Albany, Ind. (603 +miles), this morning, to stock the larder and +to forward our shore-clothes by express to +Cairo. It is a neat and busy manufacturing +town, with an excellent public market. A gala +aspect was prevalent, for it is Memorial Day; +the shops and principal buildings were gay +with bunting, and men in Grand Army uniforms +stood in knots at the street corners.</p> + +<p>The broad, fertile plain on both sides of the +river, upon which Louisville and New Albany +are the principal towns, extends for eight or +nine miles below the rapids. The first hills +to approach the stream are those in Indiana. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page223" id="page223"></a>[pg 223]</span> +Salt River, some ten or twelve rods wide, enters +from the south twenty-one miles below +New Albany, between uninteresting high clay +banks, with the lazy-looking little village of +West Point, Ky., occupying a small rise of +ground just below the mouth. The Kentucky +hills come close to the bank, a mile or two +farther down, and then the familiar characteristics +of the reaches above Louisville are resumed—hills +and bottoms, sparsely settled +with ragged farmsteads, regularly alternating.</p> + +<p>At five o'clock we put in at a rocky ledge +on the Indiana side, a mile-and-a-half above +Brandenburg. Behind us rises a precipitous +hill, tree-clad to the summit. The Doctor +found up there a new phlox and a pretty pink +stone-crop, to add to our herbarium, while here +as elsewhere the bignonia grows profusely in +every crevice of the rock. At dark, two ragged +and ill-smelling young shanty-boat men, +who are moored hard by, came up to see us, +and by our camp-fire to whittle chips and +drone about hard times. But at last we tired +of their idle gossip, which had in it no element +of the picturesque, and got rid of them +by hinting our desire to turn in.</p> + +<p>The towns were few to-day, and small. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page224" id="page224"></a>[pg 224]</span> +Brandenburg, with eight hundred souls, was +the largest—a sleepy, ill-paved, shambling +place, with apparently nobody engaged in any +serious calling; its chief distinction is an architectural +monstrosity, which we were told is +the court-house. The little white hamlet of +New Amsterdam, Ind. (650 miles), looked +trim and bright in the midst of a green thicket. +Richardson's Landing, Ky., is a disheveled +row of old deserted houses, once used by lime-burners, +with a great barge wrecked upon the +beach. At the small, characterless Indiana +village of Leavenworth (658 miles), I sought +a traveling photographer, of whom I had been +told at Brandenburg. My quest was for a +dark-room where I might recharge my exhausted +kodak; but the man of plates had +packed up his tent and moved on—I would +no doubt find him in Alton, Ind., fifteen miles +lower down.</p> + +<p>We have had stately, eroded hills, and +broad, fertile bottoms, hemming us in all day, +and marvelous ox-bows in the erratic stream. +The hillsides are heavily wooded, sometimes +the slopes coming straight down to the stony +beach, without intervening terrace; where +there are such terraces, they are narrow and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page225" id="page225"></a>[pg 225]</span> +rocky, and the homes of shanty-men; but +upon the bottoms are whitewashed dwellings +of frame or log, tenanted by a better class, +who sometimes have goodly orchards and extensive +corn-cribs. The villages are generally +in the deep-cut notches of the hills, where the +interior can be conveniently reached by a +wagon-road—a country "rumpled like this," +they say, for ten or twelve miles back, and +then stretching off into level plains of fertility. +Now and then, a deserted cabin on the terraces,—windowless +and gaunt,—tells the story +of some "cracker" family that malaria had +killed off, or that has "pulled up stakes" +and gone to seek a better land.</p> + +<p>At Leavenworth, the river, which has been +flowing northwest for thirty miles, takes a +sudden sweep to the southwest, and thenceforward +we have a rapid current. However, we +need still to ply our blades, for there is a stiff +head-wind, with an eager nip in it, to escape +which we seek the lee as often as may be, +and bask in the undisturbed sunlight. Right +glad we were, at luncheon-time, to find a +sheltered nook amidst a heap of boulders on +the Kentucky shore, and to sit on the sun-warmed +sand and drink hot tea by the side of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page226" id="page226"></a>[pg 226]</span> +a camp-fire, rejoicing in the kindness of Providence.</p> + +<p>There are few houseboats, since leaving +Louisville; to-day we have seen but three or +four—one of them merrily going up stream, +under full sail. Islands, too, are few—the +Upper and Lower Blue River, a pretty pair, +being the first we have met since Sunday. +The water is falling, it now being three or +four feet below the stage of a few days since, +as can readily be seen from the broad dado of +mud left on the leaves of willows and sycamores; +while the drift, recently an ever-present +feature of the current, is rapidly lodging +in the branches of the willows and piling up +against the sand-spits; and scrawling snags +and bobbing sawyers are catching on the bars, +and being held for the next "fresh."</p> + +<p>There is little life along shore, in these lower +waters. There are two lines of ever-widening, +willowed beach of rock and sand or mud; +above them, perpendicular walls of clay, which +edge either rocky terraces backed by grand +sweeps of convoluted hills,—sometimes wooded +to the top, and sometimes eroded into palisades,—or +wide-stretching bottoms given over +to small farms or maybe dense tangles of forest.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page227" id="page227"></a>[pg 227]</span> + +<p>In the midst of this world of shade, nestle +the whitewashed cabins of the small tillers; +but though they swarm with children, it is not +often that the inhabitants appear by the riverside. +We catch a glimpse of them when +landing on our petty errands, we now and +then see a houseboater at his nets, and in the +villages a few lackadaisical folk are lounging +by the wharf; but as a rule, in these closing +days of our pilgrimage, we glide through what +is almost a solitude. The imagination has +not to go far afield, to rehabilitate the river +as it appeared to the earliest voyagers.</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon, as usual wishing +water and milk, we put ashore in Indiana, +where a rustic landing indicated a settlement +of some sort, although our view was confined +to a pretty, wooded bank, and an unpainted +warehouse at the top of the path. It was a +fertile bottom, a half-mile wide, and stretching +a mile or two along the river. Three +neat houses, one of them of logs, constituted +the village, and all about were grain-fields +rippled into waves by the northwest breeze.</p> + +<p>The first house, a quarter of a mile inland, +I reached by a country roadway; it proved to +be the postoffice of Point Sandy. Chickens +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page228" id="page228"></a>[pg 228]</span> +clucked around me, a spaniel came fawning +for attention, a tethered cow mooed plaintively, +but no human being was visible. At +last I discovered a penciled notice pinned to +the horse-block, to the effect that the postmaster +had gone into Alton (five miles distant) +for the day; and should William Askins call +in his absence, the said Askins was to remember +that he promised to call yesterday, but +never came; and now would he be kind enough +to come without fail to-morrow before sundown, +or the postmaster would be obliged to +write that letter they had spoken about. It +was quite evident that Askins had not called; +for he surely would not have left that mysterious +notice sticking there, for all Point Sandy +to read and gossip over. It is to be hoped +that there will be no bloodshed over this +affair; across the way, in Kentucky, there +would be no doubt as to the outcome.</p> + +<p>I looked at Boss, and wondered whether in +Indiana it were felony to milk another man's +cow in his absence, with no ginger jar at +hand, into which to drop a compensatory +dime. Then I saw that she was dry, and concluded +that to attempt it might be thought a +violation of ethics. The postmaster's well, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page229" id="page229"></a>[pg 229]</span> +too, proved to be a cistern,—pardon the Hibernicism,—and +so I went farther.</p> + +<p>The other frame house also turned out to +be deserted, but evidently only for the day, +for the lilac bushes in the front yard were +hung with men's flannel shirts drying in the +sun. A buck goat came bleating toward me, +with many a flourish of his horns, from which +it was plain to be seen why the family wash +was not spread upon the grass. From here I +followed a narrow path through a wheat-field, +the grain up to my shoulders, toward the log +dwelling. A mangy little cur disputed my +right to knock at the door; but, flourishing +my two tin pails at him, he flew yelping to +take refuge in the hen-coop. To my summons +at the portal, there came no response, +save the mewing of the cat within. It was +clear that the people of Point Sandy were not +at home, to-day.</p> + +<p>I would have retreated to the boat, but, +chancing to glance up at the overhanging hills +which edge in the bottom, saw two men sitting +on a boulder in front of a rude log hut on +the brink of a cliff, curiously watching my +movements on the plain. Thankful, now, +that the postmaster's cow had gone dry, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page230" id="page230"></a>[pg 230]</span> +that these observant mountaineers had not +had an opportunity to misinterpret my conduct, +I at once hurried toward the hill, hopeful +that at the top some bovine might be +housed, whose product could lawfully be acquired. +But after a long and laborious climb, +over shifting stones and ragged ledges, I was +met with the discouraging information that +the only cow in these parts was Hawkins' +cow, and Hawkins was the postmaster,—"down +yon, whar yew were a-read'n' th' notices +on th' hoss-block." Neither had they +any water, up there on the cliff-top—"don' use +very much, stranger; 'n' what we do, we done +git at Smithfield's, in th' log-house down yon, +'n' I reck'n their cistern's done gone dry, anyhow!"</p> + +<p>"But what is the matter down there?" I +asked of the old man,—they were father and +son, this lounging pair who thus loftily sat in +judgment on the little world at their feet; +"why are all the folks away from home?"</p> + +<p>He looked surprised, and took a fresh chew +while cogitating on my alarming ignorance of +Point Sandy affairs: "Why, ain' ye heared? +I thote ev'ry feller on th' river knew thet +yere—why, ol' Hawkins, his wife's brother's +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page231" id="page231"></a>[pg 231]</span> +buried in Alton to-day, 'n' th' neighbors done +gwine t' th' fun'ral. Whar your shanty-boat +been beached, thet ye ain' heared thet yere?"</p> + +<p>As the sun neared the horizon, we tried +other places below, with no better success; +and two miles above Alton, Ind. (673 miles), +struck camp at sundown, without milk for our +coffee—for water, being obliged to settle and +boil the roily element which bears us onward +through the lengthening days. Were there +no hardships, this would be no pilgrimage +worthy of the name. We are out, philosophically +to take the world as it is; he who is not +content to do so, had best not stir from home.</p> + +<p>But our camping-place, to-night, is ideal. +We are upon a narrow, grassy ledge; below +us, the sloping beach astrewn with jagged +rocks; behind us rises steeply a grand hillside +forest, in which lie, mantled with moss and +lichens, and deep buried in undergrowth, boulders +as large as a "cracker's" hut; romantic +glens abound, and a little run comes noisily +down a ravine hard by,—it is a witching back-door, +filled with surprises at every turn. +Beeches, elms, maples, lindens, pawpaws, +tulip trees, here attain a monster growth,—with +grape-vines, their fruit now set, hanging +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page232" id="page232"></a>[pg 232]</span> +in great festoons from the branches; and all +about, are the flowers which thrive best in +shady solitudes—wild licorice, a small green-brier, +and, although not yet in bloom, the +sessile trillium. We are thoroughly isolated; +a half-mile above us, faintly gleams a government +beacon, and we noticed on landing that +three-quarters of a mile below is a small cabin +flanking the hill. Naught disturbs our quiet, +save the calls of the birds at roosting-time, and +now and then the hoarse bellow of a passing +packet, with its legacy of boisterous wake.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page233" id="page233"></a>[pg 233]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h4>Village life—A traveling photographer—On +a country road—Studies in color—Again +among colliers—In sweet content—A +ferry romance.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Near Troy, Ind.</span>, Friday, June 1st.—Below +Alton, the hills are not so high as above. +We have, however, the same thoroughly rustic +landscape, the same small farms on the bottoms +and wretched cabins on the slopes, the +same frontier-like clearings thick with stumps, +the same shabby little villages, and frequent +ox-bow windings of the generous stream, with +lovely vistas unfolding and dissolving with panoramic +regularity. It is not a region where houseboaters +flourish—there is but one every ten +miles or so; as for steamboats, we see on an +average one a day, while two or three usually +pass us in the night.</p> + +<p>A dry, unpainted little place is Alton, Ind., +with three down-at-the-heel shops, a tavern, a +saloon, and a few dwellings; there was no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page234" id="page234"></a>[pg 234]</span> +bread obtainable here, for love or money, and +we were fain to be content with a bag of +crackers from the postoffice grocery. The +promised photographer, who appears to be a +rapid traveler, was said to have gone on to +Concordia, eight miles below.</p> + +<p>Deep Water Landing, Ind. (676 miles), is a +short row of new, whitewashed houses, with a +great board sign displaying the name of the +hamlet, doubtless to attract the attention of +pilots. A rude little show-case, nailed up +beside the door of the house at the head of the +landing-path, contains tempting samples of +crockery and tinware. Apparently some enterprising +soul is trying to grow a town here, +on this narrow ledge of clay, with his landing +and his shop as a nucleus. But it is an unlikely +spot, and I doubt if his "boom" will develop +to the corner-lot stage.</p> + +<p>Rono, Ind., a mile below, with its limewashed +buildings set in a bower of trees, at the base +of a bald bluff, is a rather pretty study in gray +and green and white. The most notable feature +is a little school-house-like Masonic hall +set high on a stone foundation, with a steep +outer stairway—which gives one an impression +that Rono is a victim of floods, and that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page235" id="page235"></a>[pg 235]</span> +brethren occasionally come in boats to lodge-meetings.</p> + +<p>Concordia, Ky. (681 miles), rests on the +summit of a steep clay bank, from which men +were loading a barge with bark. Great piles +of blocks, for staves, ornamented the crest of +the rise—a considerable industry for these +parts, we were told. But the photographer, +whom we were chasing, had "taken" every +Concordian who wished his services, and moved +on to Derby, another Kentucky village, which +at last we found, six miles father down the +river.</p> + +<p>The principal occupation of the people of +Derby is getting out timber from the hillside +forests, six to ten miles in the interior. Oak, +elm, and sycamore railway-ties are the specialty, +these being worth twenty cents each +when landed upon the wharf. A few months +ago, Derby was completely destroyed by fire, +but, although the timber business is on the +wane here, much of the place was rebuilt on +the old foundations; hence the fresh, unpainted +buildings, with battlement fronts, which, with +the prevalence of open-door saloons and a +woodsy swagger on the part of the inhabitants, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page236" id="page236"></a>[pg 236]</span> +give the place a breezy, frontier aspect now +seldom to be met with this side of the Rockies.</p> + +<p>Here at last was the traveling photographer. +His tent, flapping loudly in the wind, occupied +an empty lot in the heart of the village—a +saloon on either side, and a lumberman's +boarding house across the way, where the +"artist" was at dinner, pending which I waited +for him at the door of his canvas gallery. He +evidently seeks to magnify his calling, does +this raw youth of the camera, by affecting +what he conceives to be the traditional garb +of the artistic Bohemian, but which resembles +more closely the costume of the minstrel +stage—a battered silk hat, surmounting flowing +locks glistening with hair-oil; a loose velveteen +jacket, over a gay figured vest; and a +great brass watch-chain, from which dangle +silver coins. As this grotesque dandy, evidently +not long from his native village, came +mincing across the road in patent-leather slippers, +smoking a cigarette, with one thumb in +an arm-hole of his vest, and the other hand +twirling an incipient mustache, he was plainly +conscious of creating something of a swell in +Derby.</p> + +<p>It was a crazy little dark-room to which I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page237" id="page237"></a>[pg 237]</span> +was shown—a portable affair, much like a +coffin-case, which I expected momentarily to +upset as I stood within, and be smothered in a +cloud of ill-smelling chemicals. However, +with care I finally emerged without accident, +and sufficiently compensated the artist, who +seemed not over-favorable to amateur competition, +although he chatted freely enough about +his business. It generally took him ten days, +he said, to "finish" a town of five or six hundred +inhabitants, like Derby. He traveled on +steamers with his tenting outfit, but next season +hoped to have money enough to "do the +thing in style," in a houseboat of his own, an +establishment which would cost say four hundred +dollars; then, in the winter, he could +beach himself at some fair-sized town, and +perhaps make his board by running a local +gallery, taking to the water again on the earliest +spring "fresh." "I could live like a +fight'n' cock then, cap'n, yew jist bet yer bottom +dollar!"</p> + +<p>The temperature mounted with the progress +of the day; and, the wind dying down, +the atmosphere was oppressive. By the time +Stephensport, Ky. (695 miles), was reached, +in the middle of the afternoon, the sun was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page238" id="page238"></a>[pg 238]</span> +beating fiercely upon the glassy flood, and our +awning came again into play, although it +could not save us from the annoyance of the +reflection. The barren clay bank at the mouth +of Sinking Creek, upon which lies Stephensport, +seemed fairly ablaze with heat, as I went +up into the straggling hamlet to seek for supplies. +There were no eggs to be had here; +but, at last, milk was found in the farther end +of the village, at a modest little cottage quite +embowered in roses, with two century plants +in tubs in the back-yard, and a trim fruit and +vegetable garden to the rear of that, enclosed +in palings. I remained a few minutes to chat +with the little housewife, who knows her roses +well, and is versed in the gentle art of horticulture. +But her horizon is painfully narrow—first +and dearest, the plants about her, +which is not so bad; in a larger way, Stephensport +and its petty affairs; but beyond that +very little, and that little vague.</p> + +<p>It is ever thus, in such far-away, side-tracked +villages as this—the world lies in the basin of +the hills which these people see from their +doors; if they have something to love and do for, +as this good woman has in her bushes, seeds, +and bulbs, then may they dwell happily in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page239" id="page239"></a>[pg 239]</span> +rustic obscurity; but where, as is more common, +the small-beer of neighborhood gossip is +their meat and drink, there are no folk on the +footstool more wretched than the denizens of +a dead little hamlet like Stephensport.</p> + +<p>We are housed this night on the Kentucky +side, a mile-and-a-half above Cloverport, +whose half-dozen lights are glimmering in the +stream. In the gloaming, while dinner was +being prepared, a ragged but sturdy wanderer +came into camp. He was, he said, a mountaineer +looking for work on the bottom farms; +heretofore he had, when he wanted it, always +found it; but this season no one appeared to +have any money to expend for labor, and it +seemed likely he would be obliged to return +home without receiving an offer. We made +the stranger no offer of a seat at our humble +board, having no desire that he pass the night +in our neighborhood; for darkness was coming +on apace, and, if he long tarried, the +woodland road would be as black as a pocket +before he could reach Cloverport, his alleged +destination. So starting him off with a biscuit +or two, he was soon on his way toward +the village, whistling a lively tune.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page240" id="page240"></a>[pg 240]</span> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Crooked Creek, Ind.</span>, Saturday, 2d.—We +had but fairly got to bed last night, after our +late dinner, when the heavens suddenly darkened, +fierce gusts of wind shook the tent violently, +and then rain fell in blinding sheets. +For a time it was lively work for the Doctor +and me, tightening guy-ropes and ditching in +the soft sand, for we were in an exposed +position, catching the full force of the storm. +At last, everything secured, we in serenity +slept it out, awakening to find a beautiful +morning, the grape-perfumed air as clear as +crystal, the outlines of woods and hills and +streams standing out with sharp definition, +and over all a hushed charm most soothing to +the spirit.</p> + +<p>Cloverport (705 miles) is a typical Kentucky +town, of somewhat less than four thousand +inhabitants. The wharf-boat, which runs up +and down an iron tramway, according to the +height of the flood, was swarming with negroes, +watching with keen delight the departure of +the "E. D. Rogan," as she noisily backed out +into the river and scattered the crowd with +great showers of spray from her gigantic stern-wheel. +It was a busy scene on board—negro +roustabouts shipping the gang-plank, and singing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page241" id="page241"></a>[pg 241]</span> +in a low pitch an old-time plantation melody; +stokers, stripped to the waist, shoveling +coal into the gaping furnaces; chambermaids +hanging the ship's linen out to dry; passengers +crowded by the shore rail, on the main deck; +the bustling mate shouting orders, apparently +for the benefit of landsmen, for no one on +board appeared to heed him; and high up, in +front of the pilot-house, the spruce captain, +in gold-laced cap, and glass in hand, as immovable +as the Sphinx.</p> + +<p>At the head of the slope were a picturesque +medley of colored folk, of true Southern plantation +types, so seldom seen north of Dixie. +Two wee picaninnies, drawn in an express +cart by a half-dozen other sable elfs, attracted +our attention, as W—— and I went up-town +for our day's marketing. We stopped to take +a snap-shot at them, to the intense satisfaction +of the little kink-haired mother of the +twins, who, barring her blue calico gown, +looked as if she might have just stepped out +of a Zulu group.</p> + +<p>Cloverport has brick-works, gas wells, a +flouring-mill, and other industries. The streets +are unkempt, as in most Kentucky towns, and +mules attached to crazy little carts are the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page242" id="page242"></a>[pg 242]</span> +chief beasts of burden; but the shops are well-stocked; +there were many farmers in town, +on horse and mule back, doing their Saturday +shopping; and an air of business confidence +prevails.</p> + +<p>In this district, coal-mines again appear, +with their riverside tipples, and their offal defiling +the banks. In general, these reaches +have many of the aspects of the Monongahela, +although the hills are lower, and mining is on +a smaller scale. Cannelton, Ind. (717 miles), +is the headquarters of the American Cannel +Coal Co.; there are, also, woolen and cotton +mills, sewer-pipe factories, and potteries. +W—— and I went up into the town, on an errand +for supplies,—we distribute our small +patronage, for the sake of frequently going +ashore,—and were interested in noting the +cheery tone of the business men, who reported +that the financial depression, noticeable elsewhere +in the Ohio Valley, has practically been +unfelt here. Hawesville, Ky., just across the +river, has a similarly prosperous look, but we +did not row across to inspect it at close range. +Tell City, Ind., three miles below, is another +flourishing factory town, whose wharf-boat +was the scene of much bustle. Four miles +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page243" id="page243"></a>[pg 243]</span> +still lower down lies the sleepy little Indiana +village of Troy, which appears to have profited +nothing from having lively neighbors.</p> + +<p>From the neighborhood of Derby, the environing +hills had, as we proceeded, been lessening +in height, although still ruggedly beautiful. +A mile or two below Troy, both ranges suddenly +roll back into the interior, leaving broad +bottoms on either hand, occasionally edged with +high clay banks, through which the river has +cut its devious way. At other times, these +bottoms slope gently to the beach and everywhere +are cultivated with such care that often +no room is left for the willow fringe, which +heretofore has been an ever-present feature of +the landscape. Hereafter, to the mouth, we +shall for the most part row between parallel +walls of clay, with here and there a bankside +ledge of rock and shale, and now and then a +cragged spur running out to meet the river. +We have now entered the great corn and +tobacco belt of the Lower Ohio, the region of +annual overflow, where the towns seek the +highlands, and the bottom farmers erect their +few crude buildings on posts, prepared in case +of exceptional flood to take to boats.</p> + +<p>The prevalent eagerness on the part of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page244" id="page244"></a>[pg 244]</span> +farmers to obtain the utmost from their land +made it difficult, this evening, to find a proper +camping-place. We finally found a narrow +triangle of clay terrace, in Indiana, at the +mouth of Crooked Creek (727 miles), where +not long since had tarried a houseboater engaged +in making rustic furniture. It is a pretty +little bit, in a group of big willows and sycamores, +and would be comfortable but for the +sand-flies, which for the first time give us annoyance. +The creek itself, some four rods +wide, and overhung with stately trees, winds +gracefully through the rich bottom; we have +found it a charming water to explore, being +able to proceed for nearly a mile through +lovely little wide-spreads abounding in lilies +and sweet with the odor of grape-blossoms.</p> + +<p>Across the river, at Emmerick's Landing,—a +little cluster of unpainted cabins,—lies the +white barge of a photographer, just such a +home as the Derby artist covets. The Ohio +is here about half-a-mile wide, but high-pitched +voices of people on the opposite bank are plainly +heard across the smooth sounding-board; and +in the quiet evening air comes to us the "chuck-chuck" +of oars nearly a mile away. Following +a torrid afternoon, with exasperating headwinds, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page245" id="page245"></a>[pg 245]</span> +this cool, fresh atmosphere, in the long +twilight, is inspiring. Overhead is the slender +streak of the moon's first quarter, its reflection +shimmering in the broad and placid stream +rushing noiselessly by us to the sea. In blissful +content we sit upon the bank, and drink +in the glories of the night. The days of our +pilgrimage are nearing their end, but our enthusiasm +for this <i>al fresco</i> life is in no measure +abating. That we might ever thus dream and +drift upon the river of life, far from the labored +strivings of the world, is our secret wish, to-night.</p> + +<p>We had long been sitting thus, having +silent communion with our thoughts, when +the Boy, his little head resting on W——'s +shoulder, broke the spell by murmuring from +the fullness of his heart, "Mother, why cannot +we keep on doing this, always?"</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Yellowbank Island</span>, Sunday, June 3d.—Pilgrim +still attracts more attention than her +passengers. When we stop at the village +wharfs, or grate our keel upon some rustic +landing, it is not long before the Doctor, who +now always remains with the boat, no matter +who goes ashore, is surrounded by an admiring +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page246" id="page246"></a>[pg 246]</span> +group, who rap Pilgrim on the ribs, try to +lift her by the bow, and study her graceful +lines with the air of connoisseurs. Barefooted +men fishing on the shores, in broad straw +hats, and blue jeans, invariably "pass the +time o' day" with us as we glide by, crying +out as a parting salute, "Ye've a honey skiff, +thar!" or, "Right smart skiff, thet yere!"</p> + +<p>We have many long, dreary reaches to-day. +Clay banks twelve to twenty feet in height, +and growing taller as the water recedes, rise +sheer on either side. Fringing the top of +each is often a row of locusts, whose roots in +a feeble way hold the soil; but the river cuts +in at the base, wherever the changing current +impinges on the shore, and at low water great +slices, with a gurgling splash, fall into the +stream, which now is of the color of dull gold, +from the clay held in solution. Often, ruins +of buildings may be seen upon the brink, that +have collapsed from this undercut of the fickle +flood; and many others, still inhabited, are in +dangerous proximity to the edge, only biding +their time.</p> + +<p>This morning, we passed the Indiana hamlets +of Lewisport (731 miles) and Grand View +(736 miles), and by noon were at Rockport +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page247" id="page247"></a>[pg 247]</span> +(741 miles), a smart little city of three thousand +souls, romantically perched upon a great +rock, which on the right bank rises abruptly +from the wide expanse of bottom. From the +river, there is little to be seen of Rockport +save two wharves,—one above, the other below, +the bold cliff which springs sheer for a +hundred feet above the stream,—two angling +roads leading up into the town, a house or +two on the edge of the hill and a huge water-tower +crowning all.</p> + +<p>A few miles below, we ran through a narrow +channel, a few rods wide, separating an +elongated island from the Indiana shore. It +much resembles the small tributary streams, +with a lush undergrowth of weeds down to the +water's edge, and arched with monster sycamores, +elms, maples and persimmons. Frequently +had we seen skiffs upon the shore, +arranged with stern paddle-wheels, turned by +levers operated by men standing or sitting in +the boat. But we had seen none in operation +until, shooting down this side channel, we +met such a craft coming up, manned by two +fellows, who seemed to be having a treadmill +task of it; they assured us, however, that +when a man was used to manipulating the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page248" id="page248"></a>[pg 248]</span> +levers he found it easier than rowing, especially +in ascending stream.</p> + +<p>Yellowbank Island, our camp to-night, lies +nearest the Indiana shore, with Owensboro, +Ky. (749 miles), just across the way. We +have had no more beautiful home on our long +pilgrimage than this sandy islet, heavily grown +to stately willows. While the others were +preparing dinner, I pulled across the rapid +current to an Indiana ferry-landing, where +there is a row of mean frame cabins, like the +negro quarters of a Southern farm, all elevated +on posts some four feet above the level. A +half-dozen families live there, all of them +small tenant farmers, save the ferryman—a +strapping, good-natured fellow, who appears +to be the nabob of the community.</p> + +<p>Several hollow sycamore stumps house sows +and their litters; but the only cow in the +neighborhood is owned by a young man who, +when I came up, was watering some refractory +mules at a pump-trough. He paused +long enough to summon Boss and milk a +half-gallon into my pail, accepting my dime +with a degree of thankfulness which was quite +unnecessary, considering that it was <i>quid pro +quo</i>. Tobacco is a more important crop than +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page249" id="page249"></a>[pg 249]</span> +corn hereabout, he said; farmers are rather +impatiently waiting for rain, to set out the +young plants. His only outbuilding is a monster +corn-crib, set high on posts—the airy +basement, no better than an open shed, serving +for a stable; during the few weeks of +severe winter weather, horses and cow are +removed to the main floor, and canvas nailed +around the sides to keep out the wind. Even +this slight protection is not vouchsafed stock +by all planters; the majority of them appear +to provide only rain shelters, and even these +can be of slight avail in a driving storm.</p> + +<p>Later, in the failing light, W—— and I pulled +together over to the "cracker" settlement, +seeking drinking-water. A stout young man +was seated on the end of the ferry barge, +talking earnestly with the ferryman's daughter, +a not unattractive girl, but pale and thin, as +these women are apt to be. Evidently they +are lovers, and not ashamed of it, for they +gave us a friendly smile as we knotted our +painter to the barge-rail, and expressed great +interest in Pilgrim, she being of a pattern new +to them.</p> + +<p>We are in a noisy corner of the world. +Over on the Indiana bottom, a squeaky fiddle is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page250" id="page250"></a>[pg 250]</span> +grinding out dance-tunes, hymns and ballads +with charming indifference. We thought we +detected in a high-pitched "Annie Laurie" +the voice of the ferryman's daughter. There +seems, too, to be a deal of rowing on the +river, evidently Owensboro folk getting back +to town from a day in the country, and country +folk hieing home after a day in the city. +The ferryman is in much demand, judging +from the frequent ringing of his bell,—one on +either bank, set between two tall posts, with +a rope dangling from the arm. At early dusk, +the cracked bell of the Owensboro Bethel resounded +harshly in our ears, as it advertised +an evening service for the floating population; +and now the wheezy strains of a melodeon +tell us that, although we stayed away, doubtless +others have been attracted thither. The +sepulchral roars of passing steamers echo +along the wooded shore, the night wind rustles +the tree-tops, Owensboro dogs are much +awake, and the electric lamps of the city +throw upon our canvas screen the fantastic +shadows of leaves and dancing boughs.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page251" id="page251"></a>[pg 251]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + + +<h4>Fishermen's tales—Skiff nomenclature—Green +River—Evansville—Henderson—Audubon +and Rafinesque—Floating +trade—The Wabash.</h4> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Green River Towhead</span>, Monday, June +4th.—We were shopping in Owensboro, this +morning, soon after seven o'clock. The business +quarter was just stirring into life; and +the negroes who were lounging about on every +hand were still drowsy, as if they had passed +the night there, and were reluctant to be up +and doing. There is a pretty court-house in +a green park, the streets are well paved, and +the shops clean and bright, with their wares +mostly under the awnings on the sidewalk, for +people appear to live much out of doors here—and +well they may, with the temperature 73° +at this early hour, and every promise of a +scorching day.</p> + +<p>I wonder if a fisherman could, if he tried, +be exact in his statements. One of them, +below Owensboro, who kept us company for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page252" id="page252"></a>[pg 252]</span> +a mile or two down stream, declared that at +this stage of the water he made forty and fifty +dollars a week, "'n' I reck'n I ote to be contint." +A few miles farther on, another complained +that when the river was falling, the +water was so muddy the fish would not bite; +and even in the best of seasons, a fisherman +had "a hard pull uv it; hit ain't no business +fer a decent man!" The other day, when the +river was rising, a Cincinnati follower of the +apostle's calling averred that there was no use +fishing when the water was coming up. As +the variable Ohio is like the ocean tide, ever +rising or falling, it would seem that the thousands +in this valley who make fishing their +livelihood must be playing a losing game.</p> + +<p>There are many beautiful islands on these +lower reaches of the river. We followed the +narrow channel between Little Hurricane and +the Kentucky shore, a charming run of two or +three miles, with both banks a dense tangle +of drift-wood, weeds and vines. Between +Three-Mile Island and Indiana, is another interesting +cut-short, where the shores are undisturbed +by the work of the main stream, +and trees and undergrowth come down to the +water's edge; the air is quivering with the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page253" id="page253"></a>[pg 253]</span> +songs of birds, and resonant with sweet smells; +while over stumps, and dead and fallen trees, +grape-vines luxuriantly festoon and cluster. +Near the pretty group of French Islands, two +government dredges, with their boarding +barges, were moored to the Kentucky shore—waiting +for coal, we were told, before resuming +operations in the planting of a dike. I +took a snap-shot at the fleet, and heard one +man shout to another, "Bill, did yer notice +they've a photograph gallery aboard?" They +appear to be a jolly lot, these dredgers, and +inclined to take life easily, in accordance with +the traditions of government employ.</p> + +<p>We frequently see skiffs hauled upon the +beach, or moored between two protecting +posts, to prevent their being swamped by +steamer wakes. The names they bear interest +us, as betokening, perhaps, the proclivities of +their owners. "Little Joe," "Little Jim," +"Little Maggie," and like diminutives, are +common here, as upon the towing-tugs and +steam ferries of broader waters—and now and +then we have, by contrast, "Xerxes," "Achilles," +"Hercules." Sometimes the skiff is named +after its owner's wife or sweetheart, as +"Maggie G.," "Polly H.," or from the rustic +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page254" id="page254"></a>[pg 254]</span> +goddesses, "Pomona," "Flora," "Ceres;" on +the Kentucky shore, we have noted "Stonewall +Jackson," and "Robert E. Lee," and +one Ohio boat was labeled "Little Phil." +Literature we found represented to-day, by +"Octave Thanet"—the only case on record, +for the Ohio-River "cracker" is not greatly +given to books. Slang claims for its own, +many of these knockabout craft—"U. Bet," +"Git Thair," "Go it, Eli," "Whoa, Emma!" +and nondescripts, like "Two Doves," "Poker +Chip," and "Game Chicken," are not infrequent.</p> + +<p>In these stately solitudes, towns are far between. +Enterprise, Ind. (755 miles), is an +unpainted village with a dismal view—back +of and around it, wide bottom lands, with +hills in the far distance; up and down the +river, precipitous banks of clay, with willow +fringes on that portion of the shore which is +not being cut by the impinging current. Scuffletown, +Ky. (767 miles), is uninviting. Newburgh, +on the edge of a bluff, across the river +in Indiana, is a ragged little place that has +seen better days; but the backward view of +Newburgh, from below Three-Mile Island, +made a pretty picture, the whites and reds of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page255" id="page255"></a>[pg 255]</span> +the town standing out in sharp relief against +the dark background of the hill.</p> + +<p>Green River (775 miles), a gentle, rustic +stream, enters through the wide bottoms of +Kentucky. We had difficulty in finding it in +the wilderness of willows—might not have +succeeded, indeed, had not the red smokestack +of a small steamer suddenly appeared +above the bushes. Soon, the puffing craft debouched +upon the Ohio, and, quickly overtaking +us, passed down toward Evansville.</p> + +<p>Green River Towhead, two miles below, +claimed us for the night. There is a shanty, +midway on the island, and at the lower end +the landing of a railway-transfer. We have +our camp at the upper end, in a bed of spotless +white sand, thick grown to dwarf willows. +Entangled drift-wood lies about in monster +heaps, lodged in depressions of the land, or +against stout tree-trunks; a low bar of gravel +connects our home with Green River Island, +lying close against the Indiana bank; sand-flies +freely joined us at dinner, and I hear, as +I write, the drone of a solitary mosquito,—the +first in many days; while upon the bar, at sunset, +a score of turkey-buzzards held silent +council, some of them occasionally rising and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page256" id="page256"></a>[pg 256]</span> +wheeling about in mid-air, then slowly lighting +and stretching their necks, and flapping +their wings most solemnly, before rejoining +the conference.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cypress Bend</span>, Tuesday, 5th.—The temperature +had materially fallen during the night, +and the morning opened gray and hazy. +Evansville, Ind. (783 miles), made a charming +Turneresque study, as her steeples and factory +chimneys developed through the mist. It is +a fine, well-built town, of some fifty thousand +inhabitants, with a beautiful little postoffice +in the Gothic style—a refutation, this, of the +well-worn assertion that there are no creditable +government buildings in our small American +cities. A railway bridge here crosses the +Ohio, numerous sawmills line the bank; altogether, +there is business bustle, the like of +which we have not seen since leaving Louisville.</p> + +<p>Henderson (795 miles) is a substantial Kentucky +town of nine thousand souls, with large +tobacco interests, we are told, ranking next +to Louisville in this regard. Through the +morning, the mist had been thickening. +While we were passing beneath the railway +bridge at Henderson, thunder sounded, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page257" id="page257"></a>[pg 257]</span> +the western sky suddenly blackened. Pulling +rapidly in to the town shore, shelter was found +beneath the overhanging deck of a deserted +wharf-boat. We had just completed preparations +with the rubber blankets and ponchos, +when the deluge came. But the sheltering +deck was not water-tight; soon the rain came +pouring in upon us through the uncaulked +cracks, and we were nearly as badly off in our +close-smelling quarters as in the open. However, +we were a merry party under there, with +the Doctor giving us a touch of "Br'er Rabbit," +and the boy relating a fantastic dream +he had had on the Towhead last night; while +I told them the story of Audubon, whose name +will ever be associated with Henderson.</p> + +<p>The great naturalist was in business at +Louisville, early in the century; but in 1812, +he failed in this venture, and moved to Henderson, +where his neighbors thought him a +trifle daft,—and certainly he was a ne'er-do-well, +wandering around the woods, with hair +hanging down on his shoulders, a far-away +look in his eyes, and communing with the +birds. In 1818, the botanist Rafinesque, on +the first of his several tramps down the Ohio +valley,—he had a favorite saying, that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page258" id="page258"></a>[pg 258]</span> +only way for a botanist to travel, was to +walk,—stopped over at Henderson to visit this +crazy fellow of whom he had heard. Rafinesque +had a hope that Audubon might buy +some of his colored drawings; but when he +saw the wonderful pictures which Audubon +had made, he acknowledged that his own were +inferior—a sore confession for Rafinesque, who +was an egotist of the first water. Audubon +had but humble quarters, for it was hard work +in those days for him to keep the wolf from +the door; nevertheless, he entertained the distinguished +traveler, whom he was himself +destined to far eclipse. One night, a bat flew +into Rafinesque's bedroom, and in driving it +out he used his host's fine Cremona as a club, +thus making kindling-wood of it. Two years +later, still steeped in poverty, Audubon left +Henderson. It was 1826 before he became +known to the world of science, when little of +his life was left in which to enjoy the fame at +last awarded him.</p> + +<p>We had lunch on Henderson Island, three +miles down, and for warmth walked briskly +about on the strand, among the willow clumps. +It rained again, after we had taken our seats +in the boat, and the head-wind which sprang +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page259" id="page259"></a>[pg 259]</span> +up was not unwelcome, for it necessitated a +right lively pull to make headway. W—— and +the Boy, in the stern-sheets, were not uncomfortable +when swathed to the chin in the +blankets which ordinarily serve us as cushions.</p> + +<p>Ten miles below Henderson, was a little fleet +of houseboats, lying in a thicket of willows along +the Indiana beach. We stopped at one of +them, and bought a small catfish for dinner. +The fishermen seemed a happy company, in +this isolated spot. The women were engaged +in household work, but the men were spending +the afternoon collected in the cabin of one of +their number, who had recently arrived from +Green River. While waiting for the fish to +be caught in a live-box, I visited with the little +band. It was a comfortable room, furnished +rather better than the average shore cabin, +and the Green River man's family of half-a-dozen +were well-kept, pleasant-faced, and +polite. Altogether it was a much more respectable +houseboat company than any we +have yet seen on the river. But the fish-stories +which that Green River man tells, with +an honest-like, open-eyed sobriety, would do +credit to Munchausen.</p> + +<p>The rain, at first spasmodic, became at last +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page260" id="page260"></a>[pg 260]</span> +persistent. Two miles farther down, at Cypress +Bend (806 miles), we ran into an Indiana +hill, where on a steep slope of yellow +shale, all strewn with rocks, our tent was hurriedly +pitched. There was no driving of pegs +into this stony base, so we weighted down the +canvas with round-heads, and fastened our +guys to bushes and boulders as best we might. +Huddled around the little stove, under the fly, +the crew dined sumptuously <i>en course</i>, from +canned soup down to strawberries for dessert,—for +Evansville is a good market. It is not +always, we pilgrims fare thus high—the resources +of Rome, Thebes, Bethlehem, Herculaneum, +and the other classic towns with +which the Ohio's banks are dotted, being none +of the best. Some days, we are fortunate to +have aught in our larder.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brown's Island</span>, Wednesday, 6th.—This +morning's camp-fire was welcome for its +warmth. The sky has been clear, but a sharp, +cold wind has prevailed throughout the day, +quite counteracting the sun's rays; we noticed +townsfolk going about in overcoats, their hands +in their pockets. In the ox-bow curves, the +breeze came in turn from every quarter, sometimes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page261" id="page261"></a>[pg 261]</span> +dead ahead and again pushing us swiftly +on. In seeking the lee shore, Pilgrim pursued +a zigzag course, back and forth between the +States,—now under the brow of towering clay +banks, corrugated by the flood, and honeycombed +by swallows, which in flocks screamed +and circled over our heads; again, closely +brushing the fringe of willows and sycamores +and maples on low-lying shores. Thus did +we for the most part paddle in placid water, +while above us the wind whistled in the tree-tops, +rustled the blooming elders and the tall +grasses of the plain, and, out in the open river, +caused white-caps to dance right merrily.</p> + +<p>We met at intervals to-day, several houseboats, +the most of them bearing the inscription +prescribed by the new Kentucky license law, +which is now being enforced, the essential +features of which inscription are the home and +name of the owner, and the date at which +the license expires. The standard of education +among houseboaters is evinced by the +legend borne by a trader's craft which we +boarded near Slim Island: "Lisens exp.rs +Maye the 24 1895." The young woman in +charge, a slender creature in a brilliant red +calico gown, with blue ribbons at the corsage, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page262" id="page262"></a>[pg 262]</span> +had been but recently married to her lord, +who was back in the country stirring up trade. +She had few notions of business, and allowed +us to put our own prices on such articles as +we purchased. The stock was a curious medley—a +few staple groceries, bacon and dried +beef, candies, crockery, hardware, tobacco, +a small line of patent medicines, in which +blood-purifiers chiefly prevailed, bitters, ginger +beer, and a glass case in which were displayed +two or three women's straw hats, gaudily-trimmed. +The woman said their custom was, +to tie up to some convenient shore and "buy +a little stuff o' the farmers, 'n' in that way +trade springs up," and thus become known. +Two or three weeks would exhaust any neighborhood, +whereupon they would move on for +a dozen miles or so. Late in the autumn, +they select a comfortable beach, and lie by +for the winter.</p> + +<p>Mt. Vernon, Ind. (819 miles), is on a high, +rolling plain, with a rather pretty little court-house +set in a park of grass, some good business +buildings, and huge flouring-mills, which +appear to be the leading industry. Another +flouring-mill town, with the addition of the +characteristic Kentucky distillery, is Uniontown +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page263" id="page263"></a>[pg 263]</span> +(833 miles), on the southern shore—a +bright, neat little city, backed by smooth, +picturesque green hills.</p> + +<p>The feature of the day was the entrance, +through a dreary stretch of clay banks, of the +Wabash River (838 miles), which divides Indiana +from Illinois. Three hundred and sixty +yards wide at the mouth, about half the width +of the Ohio, it is the most important of the +latter's northern affluents, and pours into the +main stream a swift-rushing body of clear, +green water, which at first boldly pushes over +to the heavily-willowed Kentucky shore the +roily mess of the Ohio, and for several miles +exerts a considerable influence in clarification. +The Lower Wabash, flowing through a soft +clay bottom, runs an erratic course, and its +mouth is a variable location, so that the +bounds of Illinois and Indiana, hereabout, +fluctuate east and west according to the exigencies +of the floods. The far-reaching bottom +itself, however, is apparently of slight +value, giving evidence, in the dreary clumps +of dead timber, of being frequently inundated.</p> + +<p>An interesting stream is the Wabash, from +an historical point of view. La Salle knew +of it in 1677, and was planning to prosecute +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page264" id="page264"></a>[pg 264]</span> +his fur trade over the Maumee and the Wabash; +but the Iroquois held the portage, and +for nearly forty years thereafter forbade its +use by whites. Joliet thought the Wabash +the headwaters of what we know as the Lower +Ohio, and in his map (1673) styled the latter +the Wabash, down to its mouth. Vincennes, +an old Wabash town, was one of the posts +captured so heroically for the Americans by +George Rogers Clark, during the Revolutionary +War. In 1814, there was established at +New Harmony, also on the Wabash, the communistic +seat of the Harmonists, who had +moved thither from Pennsylvania, to which, +dissatisfied with the West, they returned ten +years later.</p> + +<p>Numerous islands have to-day beautified +the Ohio. Despite their inartistic names, +Diamond and Slim are tipped at head and +foot with charming banks and willowed sand, +and each center is clothed in a luxurious forest, +rimmed by a gravelly beach piled high +with drift and gnarled roots: the whole, with +startling clearness, inversely reflected in the +mirrored flood. Wabash Island, opposite the +mouth of the great tributary, is an insular +woodland several miles in length.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page265" id="page265"></a>[pg 265]</span> + +<p>Among the prettiest of these jewels studding +our silvery path, is the upmost of the +little group known as Brown's Islands, on +which we are passing the night. It was an +easy landing on the hard sand, and a comfortable +carry to a level opening in the willows, +where we have a model camp with a +great round sycamore block for a table; an +Evansville newspaper does duty as a tablecloth, +and two logs rolled alongside make +seats. Four miles below, the smoke of Shawneetown +(848 miles) rises lazily above the +dark level line of woods; while across the +river, in Kentucky, there is an unbroken forest +fringe, without sign of life as far as the +eye can reach. A long glistening bar of sand +connects our little island home with the Illinois +mainland; upon it was being held, in the +long twilight, that evening council of turkey-buzzards, +which we so often witness when in +an island camp. Sand-pipers went fearlessly +about among them, bobbing their little tails +with nervous vehemence; redbirds trilled their +good-nights in the tree-tops; and, daintily +wading in the sandy shallows, object lessons +in patience, were great blue herons, carefully +peering for the prey which never seems to be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page266" id="page266"></a>[pg 266]</span> +found. As night closed in upon us, owls dismally +hooted in the mainland woods, buzzards +betook themselves to inland roosts, herons +winged their stately flight to I know not +where, and over on the Kentucky shore could +faintly be heard the barking of dogs at the +little "cracker" farmsteads hid deep in the +lowland forest.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page267" id="page267"></a>[pg 267]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + + +<h4>Shawneetown—Farm-houses on stilts—Cave-in-Rock—An +island night.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Half-Moon Bar</span>, Thursday, June 7th.—A +head-breeze prevailed all day, strong enough +to fan us into a sense of coolness, but leaving +the water as unruffled as a mill-pond; thus did +we seem, in the vivid reflections of the early +morning, to be sailing between double lines of +shore, lovely in their groupings of luxuriant +trees and tangled heaps of vine-clad drift. It +was a hazy, mirage-producing atmosphere, the +river appearing to melt away in space, and +the ever-charming island heads looming unsupported +in mid-air. From the woods, the +piercing note of locusts filled the air as with +the ceaseless rattle of pebbles against innumerable +window-panes.</p> + +<p>At a distance, Shawneetown appears as if +built upon higher land than the neighboring +bottom; but this proves, on approach, to be +an optical illusion, for the town is walled in by a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page268" id="page268"></a>[pg 268]</span> +levee some thirty feet in height, above the top of +which loom its chimneys and spires. Shawneetown, +laid out in 1808, soon became an important +post on the Lower Ohio, and indeed +ranked with Kaskaskia as one of the principal +Illinois towns, although in 1817 it still only +contained from thirty to forty log dwellings. +During the reign of the Ohio-River bargemen,<a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href= + "#footnote14"><sup>A</sup></a> +it was notorious as the headquarters of the +roughest elements in that boisterous class, and +frequently the scene of most barbarous outrages—"the +odious receptacle," says a chronicler +of the time, "of filth and villany."</p> + +<p>In those lively days, which lasted with more +or less vigor until about 1830,—by which time, +steamboats had finally overcome popular prejudice +and gained the upper hand in river +transportation,—the people of Shawneetown +were largely dependent on the trade of the +salt works of the neighboring Saline Reserve. +The salt-licks—at which in early days the +bones of the mammoth were found, as at Big +Bone Lick—commenced a few miles below +the town, and embraced a district of about +ninety thousand acres. While Illinois was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page269" id="page269"></a>[pg 269]</span> +still a Territory, these salines were rented by +the United States to individuals, but were +granted to the new State (1818) in perpetuity. +The trade, in time, decreased with the decadence +of river traffic; and Shawneetown has +since had but slow growth—it now being a +dreary little place of three thousand inhabitants, +with unmistakable evidences of having +long since seen its best days.</p> + +<p>The farmers upon the wide bottoms of the +lower reaches now invariably have their dwellings, +corn-cribs, and tobacco-sheds set upon +posts, varying from five to ten feet high, according +to the surrounding elevation above +the normal river level. At present we are, as +a rule, hemmed in by banks full thirty or forty +feet in height above the present stage. After +a hard climb up the steps which are frequently +found cut into the clay, to facilitate access +to the river, it is with something akin to awe +that we look upon these buildings on stilts, +for they bespeak, in times of great flood, a +rise in the river of between fifty and sixty feet.</p> + +<p>Three miles above Saline River, I scrambled +up to photograph a farm-house of this character. +In order to get the building within the +field of the camera, it was necessary to mount +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page270" id="page270"></a>[pg 270]</span> +a cob-house of loose rails, which did duty as a +pig-pen. A young woman of eighteen or +twenty years, attired in a dazzling-red calico +gown, came out on the front balcony to see +the operation; and, for a touch of life, I held +her in talk until the picture was taken. She +was not at all averse to thus posing, and +chatted as familiarly as though we were old +friends. The water, my model said, came at +least once a year to the main floor of the house, +some ten feet above the level of the land, and +forty feet above the normal river stage; "every +few years" it rose to the eaves of this story-and-a-half +dwelling, when the family would +embark in boats, hieing off to the back-lying +hills, a mile-and-a-half away. An event of +this sort seemed quite commonplace to the +girl, and not at all to be viewed as a calamity. +As in other houses of the bottom farmers of +this district, there is no wall-paper, no plaster +upon the walls, and little or nothing else to be +injured by water. Their few household possessions +can readily be packed into a scow, +together with the live-stock, and behold the +family is ready, if need be, to float away to +the ends of the world. As a matter of fact, if +they carry food enough with them, and a rain-proof +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page271" id="page271"></a>[pg 271]</span> +tent, their season on the hills is but a +prolonged picnic. When the waters sufficiently +subside, they float back again to their +home; the river mud is scraped out of the +rooms, the kitchen-stove rubbed up a bit, and +soon everything is again at rights, with a fresh +layer of alluvial deposit to fertilize the fields.</p> + +<p>Few of these small farmers own the lands +they till; from Pittsburg down, the great majority +of Ohio River planters are but tenants. +The old families that once owned the soil are +living in the neighboring towns, or in other +parts of the country, and renting out their +acres to these cultivators. We were told that +the rental fee around Owensboro is usually in +kind,—fourteen bushels of good, salable corn +being the rate per acre. In "Egypt," as +Southern Illinois is called, the average rent is +four or five dollars in money, except in years +when the water remains long upon the ground, +and thus shortens the season; then the fee is +correspondingly reduced. The girl on the +balcony averred, that in 1893 it amounted to +one-third the value of the average yield.</p> + +<p>The numerous huge stilted corn cribs we +see are constructed so that wagons can drive +up into them, and, after unloading in bins on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page272" id="page272"></a>[pg 272]</span> +either side, descend another incline at the far +end. Sometimes a portion of the crib is +boarded up for a residence, with windows, +and a little balcony which does double duty +as a porch and a landing-stage for the boats +in time of high water. Scattered about on +the level are loosely-built sheds of rails, for +stock, which practically live <i>al fresco</i>, so far +as actual storm-shelter goes.</p> + +<p>Usually the flooded bottoms are denuded of +trees, save perhaps a narrow fringe along the +bank, and a few dead trunks scattered here and +there; while back, a third or a half-mile from +the river, lies a dense line of forest, far beyond +which rises the low rim of the basin. +But just below Saline River (857 miles), a +lazy little stream of a few rods' width, the +hills, now perhaps eighty or a hundred feet in +height, again approach to the water's edge; +and henceforth to the mouth we are to have +alternating semi-circular, wooded bottoms and +shaly, often palisaded uplands, grown to scrub +and vines much in the fashion of some of the +middle reaches. A trading-boat was moored +just within the Saline, where we stopped for +lunch under a clump of sycamores. The +owner obtains butter and eggs from the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page273" id="page273"></a>[pg 273]</span> +farmers, in exchange for his varied wares, and +sells them at a goodly profit to passing steamers, +which will always stop when flagged.</p> + +<p>Approaching Cave-in-Rock, Ill. (869 miles), +the right bank is for several miles an almost continuous +palisade of lime-stone, thick-studded +with black and brown flints. In the breaking +down of this escarpment, popularly styled +Battery Rocks, numerous caves have been +formed, the largest of which gave the place +its name. It is a rather low opening into the +rock, perhaps two hundred feet deep, and the +floor some twenty feet above the present level of +the river; in times of flood, it is frequently so +filled with water that boats enter, and thousands +of silly people have, in two or three generations +past, carved or painted their names upon the +vaulted roof.<a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href= + "#footnote15"><sup>B</sup></a> From this large entrance hall, +a chimney-like hole in the roof leads to other +chambers, said to be imposing and widely +ramified—"not unlike a Gothic cathedral," +said Ashe, an early English traveler (1806), +who appears to have everywhere in these +Western wilds sought the marvellous, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page274" id="page274"></a>[pg 274]</span> +found it. About 1801, a band of robbers made +these inner recesses their home, and frequently +sallied thence to rob passing boats, +and incidentally to murder the crews. As for +the little hamlet of Cave-in-Rock, nestled in +a break in the palisade, a few hundred yards +below, it was, between 1801 and 1805, the +seat of another species of brigandage—a land +speculation, wherein schemers waxed rich +from the confusion engendered by conflicting +claims of settlers, the outgrowth of carelessly-phrased +Indian treaties and overlapping French +and English patents. From 1804 to 1810, a +Congressional committee was engaged in +straightening out this weary tangle; and its +decisions, ratified by Congress, are to-day the +foundation of many land-titles in Indiana and +Illinois.</p> + +<p>We are in camp to-night upon the Illinois +shore, opposite Half-Moon Bar (872 miles), +and a mile above Hurricane Island. Towering +above us are great sycamores, cypress, +maples, and elms, and all about a dense jungle +of grasses, vines, and monster weeds—the +rank horse-weed being now some ten feet high, +with a stem an inch in diameter; the dead +stalks of last year's growth, in the broad rolling +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page275" id="page275"></a>[pg 275]</span> +fields to our rear, indicate a possibility of +sixteen feet, and an apparent desire to out-rival +the corn. Cane-brake, too, is prevalent +hereabout, with stalks two inches or more +thick. The mulberries are reddening, the +Doctor reports on his return with the Boy +from a botanizing expedition, and black-caps +are turning; while bergamot and vervain are +among the plants newly added to the herbarium.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stewart's Island</span>, Friday, 8th.—We arose +this morning to find the tent as wet from dew +and fog as if there had been a shower, and +the bushes by the landing were sparkling with +great beads of moisture. The bold, black +head of Hurricane Island stood out with startling +distinctness, framed in rolling fog; through +a cloud-bank on the horizon, the sun was +bursting with the dull glow of burnished copper. +By the time of starting, the fog had +lifted, and the sun swung clear in a steel-blue +sky; but there was still a soft haze on land +and river, which dreamily closed the ever-changing +vistas, and we seemed to float through +an enchanted land.</p> + +<p>The approach to Elizabethtown, Ill. (877 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page276" id="page276"></a>[pg 276]</span> +miles), is picturesque; but of the dry little +town of seven hundred souls, with its rocky, +undulating streets set in a break in the line of +palisades, very little is to be seen from the +river. Quarrying for paving-stones appears +to be the chief pursuit of the Elizabethans. +At Rose Clare, Ill., a string of shanties three +miles below, are two idle plants of the Argyle +Lead and Fluor-Spar Mining Co. Carrsville, +Ky., is another arid, hillside hamlet, with +striking escarpments stretching above and below +for several miles. Mammoth boulders, a +dozen or more feet in height, relics doubtless +of once formidable cliffs, here line the riverside. +The palisaded hills reappear in Illinois, +commencing at Parkinson's Landing, a dreary +little settlement on a waste of barren, stony +slope flanking the perpendicular wall.</p> + +<p>Just above Golconda Island (890 miles), on +the Illinois side, we were witness to a "meet" +of farmers for a squirrel-hunt, a favorite amusement +in these parts. There were five men +upon a side, all carrying guns; as we passed, +they were shaking hands, preparatory to separating +for the battue. Upon the bank above, +in a grove of cypress, pawpaw, and sycamore, +their horses were standing, unhitched from the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page277" id="page277"></a>[pg 277]</span> +poles of the wagons in which they had been +driven, and, tied to trees, feeding from boxes +set upon the ground. It was pleasant to see +that these people, who must lead dreary lives +upon the malaria-stricken and flood-washed +bottoms, occasionally take a holiday with a +spice of rational adventure in it; although +there is the probability that this squirrel-hunt +may be followed to-night by a roystering at +the village tavern, the losing side paying the +score.</p> + +<p>We reached Stewart's Island (901 miles) at +five o'clock, and went into camp upon the +landing-beach of hard, white sand, facing +Kentucky. The island is two miles long, the +owner living in Bird's Point Landing, Ky., +just below us—a rather shabby but picturesquely-situated +little village, at the base of +pretty, wooded hills. A hundred and fifty +acres of the island are planted to corn, and +the owner's laborers—a white overseer and +five blacks—are housed a half-mile above us, +in a rude cabin half-hidden in a generous maple +grove.</p> + +<p>The white man soon came down to the +strand, riding his mule, and both drank freely +from the muddy river. He was a fairly-intelligent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page278" id="page278"></a>[pg 278]</span> +young fellow, and proud of his mount—no +need of lines, he said, for "this yer mule; +ye on'y say 'gee!' and 'haw!' and he done git +thar ev'ry time, sir-r! 'Pears to me, he jist +done think it out to hisself, like a man would. +Hit ain't no use try'n' boss that yere mule, +he's thet ugly when he's sot on 't—but jist pat +him on th' naick and say, 'So thar, Solomon!' +and thar ain't no one knows how to act better +'n he."</p> + +<p>As we were at dinner, in the twilight, the +five negroes also came riding down the angling +roadway, in picturesque single file, singing +snatches of camp-meeting songs in that weird +minor key with which we are so familiar in "jubilee" +music. Across the river, a Kentucky +darky, riding a mule along the dusky woodland +road at the base of the hills, and evidently +going home from his work in the fields, was singing +at the top of his bent, apparently as a stimulus +to failing courage. Our islanders shouted +at him in derision. The shoreman's replies, +which lacked not for spice, came clear and +sharp across the half-mile of smooth water, +and his tormentors quickly ceased chaffing. +Having all drunk copiously, men and mules +resumed their line of march up the bank, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page279" id="page279"></a>[pg 279]</span> +disappeared as they came, still chanting the +crude melodies of their people. An hour later, +we could hear them at the cabin, singing +"John Brown's Body" and other old friends—with +the moon, bright and clear in its first +quarter, adding a touch of romance to the +scene.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote14" name="footnote14"></a><b>Footnote A:</b><a href="#footnotetag14"> (return) </a><p>See Chapter XIII.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote15" name="footnote15"></a><b>Footnote A:</b><a href="#footnotetag15"> (return) </a><p>"Scrawled over by that class of aspiring travelers who +defile noble monuments with their worthless names."—Irving, +in <i>The Alhambra</i>.</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page280" id="page280"></a>[pg 280]</span> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + + +<h4>The Cumberland and the Tennessee—Stately +Solitudes—Old Fort Massac—Dead +towns in Egypt—The last +camp—Cairo.</h4> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">Opposite Metropolis, Ill.</span>, Saturday, June +9th.—As we were dressing this morning, at +half-past five, the echoes were again awakened +by the vociferous negro on the Kentucky +shore, who was going out to his work again, +as noisy as ever. One of our own black men +walked down the bank, ostensibly to light his +pipe at the breakfast fire, but really to satisfy +a pardonable curiosity regarding us. The +singing brother on the mainland appeared to +amuse him, and he paused to listen, saying, +"Dat yere nigger, he got too loud voice!" +Then, when he had left our camp and regained +the top of the bank, he leaned upon his hoe +and yelled: "Say, niggah, ober dere! whar +you git dat mule?"</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page281" id="page281"></a>[pg 281]</span> + +<p>"Who you holl'rin' at, you brack island +niggah?" was the quick reply.</p> + +<p>"You lan' niggah, you tink you smart!"</p> + +<p>"I'se so smart, I done want no liv'n' on +island, wi' gang boss, 'n not 'lowed go 'way!"</p> + +<p>The tuneful darky had evidently here +touched a tender spot, for our man turned +back into the field to his work; and the other, +kicking the mule into action, trotted off to the +tune of "Dar's a meet'n' here, to-night!"</p> + +<p>We went up into the field, to see the laborers +cultivating corn. The sun was blazing +hot, without a breath of air stirring, but the +great black fellows seemed to mind it not, +chattering away to themselves like magpies, +and keeping up their conversation by shouts, +when separated from each other at the ends +of plow-rows. A natural levee, eight and ten +feet high, and studded with large tree-willows, +rims in the island farm like the edge of a basin. +We were told that this served as a barrier +only against the June "fresh," for the regular +spring floods invariably swamp the place; but +what is left within the bowl, when the outer +waters subside, soon leaches through the sandy +soil.</p> + +<p>After passing the pretty shores of Dog Island, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page282" id="page282"></a>[pg 282]</span> +not far below, the bold, dark headland +of Cumberland Island soon bursts upon our +view. We follow the narrow eastern channel, +in order to greet the Cumberland River (909 +miles), which half-way down its island name-sake,—at +the woe-begone little village of +Smithland, Ky.—empties a generous flood +into the Ohio. The Cumberland, perhaps +a quarter-of-a-mile wide, debouches through +high clay banks, which might readily be melted +in the turbulent cross-currents produced by +the mingling of the rivers; but to avoid this, +the government engineers have built a wing-dam +running out from the foot of the Cumberland, +nearly half-way into the main river. +This quickly unites the two streams, and +the reinforced Ohio is thereafter perceptibly +widened.</p> + +<p>Tramp steamers are numerous, on these +lower reaches. We have seen perhaps a dozen +such to-day, stopping at the farm landings as +well as at the crude and infrequent hamlets,—mere +notches of settlement in the +wooded lines of shore,—doing a small business +in chance cargoes and in passengers who +flag them from the bank. A sultry atmosphere +has been with us through the day. The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page283" id="page283"></a>[pg 283]</span> +glassy surface of the river has, when not lashed +into foam by passing boats, dazzled the eyes +most painfully. The hills, from below Stewart's +Island, have receded on either side, generally +leaving either low, broad, heavily-timbered +bottoms, or high clay banks which stretch +back wide plains of yellow and gray corn-land—frequently +inundated, but highly productive. +Now and then the encroaching river +has remained too long in some belt of forest, +and we have great clumps of dead trees, which +spring aloft in stately picturesqueness, thickly-clad +to the limb-tips with Virginia creeper. +A bit of shaly hillside occasionally abuts upon +the river, though less frequently than above; +and often such a spur has lying at its feet a +row of half-immersed boulders, delicately carpeted +with mosses and with clinging vines.</p> + +<p>The Tennessee River (918 miles), the largest +of the Ohio's tributaries, is, where it enters, +about half the width of the latter. Coming +down through a broad, forested bottom, with +several pretty islands off its mouth, it presents +a pleasing picture. Here again the government +has been obliged to put in costly works +to stop the ravages of the mingling torrents +in the soft alluvial banks. The Ohio, with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page284" id="page284"></a>[pg 284]</span> +the united waters of the Cumberland and the +Tennessee, henceforth flows majestically to +the Mississippi, a full mile wide between her +shores.</p> + +<p>Paducah (13,000 inhabitants), next to Louisville +Kentucky's most important river port, +lies on a high plain just below the Tennessee. +It is a stirring little city, with the usual large +proportion of negroes, and the out-door business +life everywhere met with in the South. +Saw-mills, iron plants, and ship-yards line the +bank; at the wharf are large steamers doing +a considerable business up the Cumberland +and Tennessee, and between Paducah and +Cairo and St. Louis; and there is a considerable +ferry business to and from the Illinois +suburb of Brooklyn.</p> + +<p>Seven miles below the Tennessee, on the +Illinois side, we sought relief from the blazing +sun within the mouth of Seven Mile Creek, +which is cut deep through sloping banks of +mud, and overhung by great sprawling sycamores. +These always interest us from the +generosity of their height and girth, and from +their great variety of color-tones, induced by +the patchy scaling of the bark—soft grays, +buffs, greens, and ivory whites prevailing. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page285" id="page285"></a>[pg 285]</span> +When sufficiently refreshed in this cool bower, +we ventured once more into the fierce light of +the open river, and two miles below shot into +the broader and more inviting Massac Creek +(928 miles), just as, of old, George Rogers +Clark did with his little flotilla, when <i>en route</i> +to capture Kaskaskia. Clark, in his Journal +written long after the event, said that this +creek is a mile above Fort Massac; his memory +failed him—as a matter of fact, the +steep, low hill of iron-stained gravel and clay, +on which the old stronghold was built, is but +two hundred yards below.<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href= + "#footnote16"><sup>A</sup></a></p> + +<p>The French commander who, in October, +1758, evacuated and burned Fort Duquesne +on the approach of the English army under +General Forbes, dropped down the Ohio for +nearly a thousand miles, and built "a new +fort on a beautiful eminence on the north bank +of the river." But there was a fortified post +on this hillock at a much earlier date (about +1711), erected as a headquarters for missionaries, +and to guard French fur-traders from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page286" id="page286"></a>[pg 286]</span> +marauding Cherokees; and Pownall's map notes +one here in 1751. This fort of 1758 was but +an enlarged edition of the old. The new +stronghold, with a garrison of a hundred men, +was the last built by the French upon the Ohio, +and it was occupied by them until they evacuated +the country in 1763. England does not +appear to have made any attempt to repair +and occupy the works then destroyed by the +French, although urged to do so by her military +agents in the West. Had they held Fort +Massac, no doubt Clark's expedition to capture +the Northwest for the Americans might easily +have been nipped in the bud; as it was, the +old fortress was a ruin when he "reposed" on +the banks of the creek at its feet.</p> + +<p>When, in 1793-1794, the French agent +Genet was fomenting his scheme for capturing +Louisiana and Florida from Spain, by the aid +of Western filibusters, old Fort Massac was +thought of as a rallying-point and base of supplies; +but St. Clair's proclamation of March +24, 1794, ordering General Wayne to restore +and garrison the place, for the purpose of preventing +the proposed expedition from passing +down the river, ended the conspiracy, and Genet +left the country. A year later, Spain, who had at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page287" id="page287"></a>[pg 287]</span> +intervals sought to detach the Westerners from +the Union, and ally them with her interests +beyond the Mississippi, renewed her attempts +at corrupting the Kentuckians, and gained to +her cause no less a man than George Rogers +Clark himself. Among other designs, Fort +Massac was to be captured by the adventurers, +whom Spain was to supply with the sinews of +war. There was much mysterious correspondence +between the latter's corruption agent, +Thomas Power, and the American General +Wilkinson, at Detroit; but finally Power, in +disguise, was sent out of the country under +guard, by way of Fort Massac, and his escape +into Spanish territory practically ended this +interesting episode in Western history. The +fort was occupied as a military post by our +government until the close of the War of +1812-15; what we see to-day, are the ruins of +the establishment then abandoned.</p> + +<p>No doubt the face of this rugged promontory +of gravel has, within a century, suffered +much from floods; but the remains of the +earthwork on the crest of the cliff, some fifty +feet above the present river-stage, are still +easily traceable throughout. The fort was +about forty yards square, with a bastion at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page288" id="page288"></a>[pg 288]</span> +each corner; there are the remains of an unstoned +well near the center; the ditch surrounding +the earthwork is still some two-and-a-half +or three feet below the surrounding +level, and the breastwork about two feet above +the inner level; no doubt, palisades once surmounted +the work, and were relied upon as the +chief protection from assault. The grounds, +a pleasant grassy grove several acres in extent, +are now enclosed by a rail fence, and neatly +maintained as a public park by the little city +of Metropolis, which lies not far below. It +was a commanding view of land and river, +which was enjoyed by the garrison of old Fort +Massac. Up stream, there is a straight stretch +of eleven miles to the mouth of the Tennessee; +both up and down, the shore lines are under +full survey, until they melt away in the distance. +No enemy could well surprise the +holders of this key to the Lower Ohio.</p> + +<p>Our camp is on the sandy beach opposite +Metropolis, and two hundred yards below the +Kentucky end of the ferry. Behind us lies a +deep forest, with sycamores six and eight feet +in diameter; a country road curving off through +the woods, to the sparse rustic settlement lying +some two miles in the interior—on higher +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page289" id="page289"></a>[pg 289]</span> +ground than this wooded bottom, which is annually +overflowed. Now and then the blustering +little steam-ferry comes across to land +Kentucky farm-folk and their mules, going +home from a Saturday's shopping in Metropolis. +Occasionally a fisherman passes, lagging +on his oars to scan us and our quarters; and +from one of them, we purchased a fish. As +the still, cool night crept on, Metropolis was +astir; across the mile of intervening water, +darted tremulous shafts of light; we heard +voices singing and laughing, a fiddle in its +highest notes, the puffing of a stationary engine, +and the bay and yelp of countless dogs. +Later, a packet swooped down with smothered +roar, and threw its electric search-light on the +city wharf, revealing a crowd of negroes gathered +there, like moths in the radiance of a +candle; there were gay shouts, and a mad +scampering—we could see it all, as plainly as +if in ordinary light it had been but a third of +the distance; and then the roustabouts struck +up a weird song as they ran out the gang-plank, +and, laden with boxes and bales, began +swarming ashore, like a procession of black +ants carrying pupa cases.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page290" id="page290"></a>[pg 290]</span> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mound City Towhead</span>, Sunday, 10th.—During +the night, burglarious pigs would have +raided our larder, but the crash of a falling +kettle wakened us suddenly, as did geese the +ancient Romans. The Doctor and I sallied +forth in our pajamas, with clods of clay in +hand, to send the enemy flying back into the +forest, snorting and squealing with baffled +rage.</p> + +<p>We were afloat at half-past seven, under an +unclouded sky, with the sun sharply reflected +from the smooth surface of the river, and the +temperature rapidly mounting.</p> + +<p>The Fort Massac ridge extends down stream +as far as Mound City, but soon degenerates +into a ridge of clay varying in height from +twenty-five to fifty feet above the water level. +Upon the low-lying bottom of the Kentucky +shore, is still an interminable dark line of +forest. The settlements are meager, and now +wholly in Illinois: For instance, Joppa (936 +miles), a row of a half-dozen unpainted, dilapidated +buildings, chiefly stores and abandoned +warehouses, bespeaking a river traffic of the +olden time, that has gone to decay; a hot, +dreary, baking spot, this Joppa, as it lies +sprawling upon the clay ridge, flanked by a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page291" id="page291"></a>[pg 291]</span> +low, wide gravel beach, on which gaunt, bell-ringing +cows are wandering, eating the leaves +of fallen trees, for lack of better pasturage. +Our pilot map, of sixty years ago, records the +presence of Wilkinsonville (942 miles), on the +site of old Fort Wilkinson of the War of 1812-15, +but no one along the banks appears to +have ever heard of it; however, after much +searching, we found the place for ourselves, +on an eminence of fifty feet, with two or three +farm-houses as the sole relics of the old establishment. +Caledonia (Olmstead P.O.), nine +miles down, consists of several large buildings +on a hill set well back from the river. Mound +City (959 miles),—the "America" of our time-worn +map,—in whose outskirts we are camped +to-night, is a busy town with furniture factories, +lumber mills, ship-yards, and a railway +transfer. Below that, stretches the vast extent +of swamp and low woodland on which +Cairo (967 miles) has with infinite pains been +built—like "brave little Holland," holding +her own against the floods solely by virtue of +her encircling dike.</p> + +<p>Houseboats have been few, to-day, and they +of the shanty order and generally stranded +high upon the beach. One sees now and then, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page292" id="page292"></a>[pg 292]</span> +on the Illinois ridge, the cheap log or frame +house of a "cracker," the very picture of desolate +despair; but on the Kentucky shore are +few signs of life, for the bottom lies so low +that it is frequently inundated, and settlement +ventures no nearer than two or three miles +from the riverside. A fisherman comes occasionally +into view, upon this wide expanse of +wood and water and clay-banks; sometimes +we hail him in passing, always getting a respectful +answer, but a stare of innocent curiosity.</p> + +<p>Our last home upon the Ohio is facing the +Kentucky shore, on the cleanly sand-beach of +Mound City Towhead, a small island which +in times of high water is but a bar. The tent +is screened in a willow clump; just below us, +on higher ground, sycamores soar heavenward, +gayly festooned with vines, hiding from +us Mound City and the Illinois mainland. +Across the river, a Kentucky negro is singing +in the gloaming; but it is over a mile away, +and, while the tune is plain, the words are +lost. Children's voices, and the bay of +hounds, come wafted to us from the northern +shore. A steamer's wake rolls along our island +strand, dangerously near the camp-fire; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page293" id="page293"></a>[pg 293]</span> +the river is still falling, however, and we no +longer fear the encroachments of the flood. +The Doctor and I found a secluded nook, +where in the moonlight we took our final +plunge.</p> + +<p>It is sad, this bidding good-bye to the stream +which has floated us so merrily for a thousand +miles, from the mountains down to the plain. +We elders linger long by the last camp-fire, +to talk in fond reminiscence of the six weeks +afloat; while the Boy no doubt dreams peacefully +of houseboats and fishermen, of gigantic +bridges and flashing steel-plants, of coal-mines +and oil-wells, of pioneers and Indians, and all +that—of six weeks of kaleidoscopic sensations, +at an age when the mind is keenly active, and +the heart open to impressions which can +never be dimmed so long as his little life shall +last.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Cairo</span>, Monday, 11th.—At our island camp, +last night, we were but nine miles from the +mouth of the Ohio, a distance which could +easily have been made before sundown; but +we preferred to reach our destination in the +morning, the better to arrange for railway +transportation, hence our agreeable pause upon +the Towhead.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page294" id="page294"></a>[pg 294]</span> + +<p>Before embarking for the last run, this +morning, we made a neat heap on the beach, +of such of our stores, edible and wearable, as +had been requisite to the trip, but were not +worth the cost of sending home. Feeling +confident that some passing fisherman would +soon be tempted ashore to inspect this curious +landmark, and yet might be troubled by +nice scruples as to the policy of appropriating +the find, we conspicuously labeled it: "Abandoned +by the owners! The finder is welcome +to the lot."</p> + +<p>Quickly passing Mound City, now bustling +with life, Pilgrim closely skirted the monotonous +clay-banks of Illinois, swept rapidly under +the monster railway bridge which stalks +high above the flood, and loses itself over the +tree-tops of the Kentucky bottom, and at a +quarter-past eight o'clock was pulled up at +Cairo, with the Mississippi in plain sight over +there, through the opening in the forest. In +another hour or two, she will be housed in a +box-car; and we, her crew, having again +donned the garb of landsmen, will be speeding +toward our northern home, this pilgrimage +but a memory.</p> + +<p>Such a memory! As we dropped below the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page295" id="page295"></a>[pg 295]</span> +Towhead, the Boy, for once silent, wistfully +gazed astern. When at last Pilgrim had been +hauled upon the railway levee, and the Doctor +and I had gone to summon a shipping clerk, +the lad looked pleadingly into W——'s face. +In tones half-choked with tears, he expressed +the sentiment of all: "Mother, is it really +ended? Why can't we go back to Brownsville, +and do it all over again?"</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote16" name="footnote16"></a><b>Footnote A:</b><a href="#footnotetag16"> (return) </a><p>"In the evening of the same day I ran my Boats into a +small Creek about one mile above the old Fort Missack; Reposed +ourselves for the night, and in the morning took a +Rout to the Northwest."—Clark's letter to Mason.</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page296" id="page296"></a>[pg 296]</span> + + + + +<h2>APPENDIX A.</h2> + + +<h4>Historical outline of Ohio Valley settlement.</h4> + + + +<p>Englishmen had no sooner set foot upon our +continent, than they began to penetrate inland +with the hope of soon reaching the Western +Ocean, which the coast savages, almost as +ignorant of the geography of the interior as +the Europeans themselves, declared lay just +beyond the mountains. In 1586, we find +Ralph Lane, governor of Raleigh's ill-fated +colony, leading his men up the Roanoke River +for a hundred miles, only to turn back disheartened +at the rapids and falls, which necessitated +frequent portages through the forest +jungles. Twenty years later (1606), Christopher +Newport and the redoubtable John Smith, +of Jamestown, ascended the James as far as +the falls—now Richmond, Va.; and Newport +himself, the following year, succeeded in reaching +a point forty miles beyond, but here again +was appalled by the difficulties and returned.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page297" id="page297"></a>[pg 297]</span> + +<p>There was, after this, a deal of brave talk +about scaling the mountains; but nothing +further was done until 1650, when Edward +Bland and Edward Pennant again tried the +Roanoke, though without penetrating the wilderness +far beyond Lane's turning point. It +is recorded that, in 1669, John Lederer, an +adventurous German surgeon, commissioned +as an explorer by Governor Berkeley, ascended +to the summit of the Blue Ridge, in +Madison County, Va.; but although he was +once more on the spot the following season, +with a goodly company of horsemen and Indians, +and had a bird's-eye view of the over-mountain +country, he does not appear to +have descended into the world of woodland +which lay stretched between him and the setting +sun. It seems to be well established that +the very next year (1671), a party under Abraham +Wood, one of Governor Berkeley's major-generals, +penetrated as far as the Great Falls +of the Great Kanawha, only eighty miles from +the Ohio—doubtless the first English exploration +of waters flowing into the latter river. +The Great Kanawha was, by Wood himself, +called New River, but the geographers of the +time styled it Wood's. The last title was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page298" id="page298"></a>[pg 298]</span> +finally dropped; the stream above the mouth +of the Gauley is, however, still known as New. +These several adventurers had now demonstrated +that while the waters beyond the +mountains were not the Western Ocean, they +possibly led to such a sea; and it came to be +recognized, too, that the continent was not as +narrow as had up to this time been supposed.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the French of Canada were +casting eager eyes toward the Ohio, as a gateway +to the continental interior. But the +French-hating Iroquois held fast the upper +waters of the Mohawk, Delaware, and Susquehanna, +and the long but narrow watershed +sloping northerly to the Great Lakes, so that +the westering Ohio was for many years sealed +to New France. An important factor in American +history this, for it left the great valley +practically free from whites while the English +settlements were strengthening on the seaboard; +when at last the French were ready +aggressively to enter upon the coveted field, +they had in the English colonists formidable +and finally successful rivals.</p> + +<p>It is believed by many, and the theory is +not unreasonable, that the great French fur-trader +and explorer, La Salle, was at the Falls +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page299" id="page299"></a>[pg 299]</span> +of the Ohio (site of Louisville) "in the autumn +or early winter of 1669." How he got there, +is another question. Some antiquarians believe +that he reached the Alleghany by way +of the Chautauqua portage, and descended the +Ohio to the Falls; others, that he ascended +the Maumee from Lake Erie, and, descending +the Wabash, thus, discovered the Ohio. It +was reserved for the geographer Franquelin to +give, in his map of 1688, the first fairly-accurate +idea of the Ohio's path; and Father Hennepin's +large map of 1697 showed that much +had meanwhile been learned about the river.</p> + +<p>No doubt, by this time, the great waterway +was well-known to many of the most adventurous +French and English fur-traders, possibly +better to the latter than to the former; unfortunately, +these men left few records behind +them, by which to trace their discoveries. As +early as 1684, we incidentally hear of the Ohio +as a principal route for the Iroquois, who +brought peltries "from the direction of the +Illinois" to the English at Albany, and the +French at Quebec. Two years after this, ten +English trading-canoes, loaded with goods, +were seen on Lake Erie by French agents, +who in great alarm wrote home to Quebec +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page300" id="page300"></a>[pg 300]</span> +about them. Writes De Nonville to Seignelay, +"I consider it a matter of importance to preclude +the English from this trade, as they +doubtless would entirely ruin ours—as well by +the cheaper bargains they would give the Indians, +as by attracting to themselves the French +of our colony who are in the habit of resorting +to the woods."</p> + +<p>Herein lay the gist of the whole matter: +The legalized monopoly granted to the great +fur-trade companies of New France, with the +official corruption necessary to create and perpetuate +that monopoly, made the French trade +an expensive business, consequently goods were +dear. On the other hand, the trade of the +English was untrammeled, and a lively competition +lowered prices. The French cajoled +the Indians, and fraternized with them in their +camps; whereas, the English despised the savages, +and made little attempt to disguise their +sentiments. The French, while claiming all +the country west of the Alleghanies, cared +little for agricultural colonization; they would +keep the wilderness intact, for the fostering of +wild animals, upon the trade in whose furs +depended the welfare of New France—and +this, too, was the policy of the savage. By +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page301" id="page301"></a>[pg 301]</span> +English statesmen at home, our continental +interior was also chiefly prized for its forest +trade, which yielded rich returns for the merchant +adventurers of London. The policies +of the English colonists and of their general +government were ever clashing. The latter +looked upon the Indian trade as an entering +wedge; they thought of the West as a place +for growth. Close upon the heels of the +path-breaking trader, went the cattle-raiser, +and, following him, the agricultural settler +looking for cheap, fresh, and broader lands. +No edicts of the Board of Trade could repress +these backwoodsmen; savages could and did +beat them back for a time, but the annals of +the border are lurid with the bloody struggle +of the borderers for a clearing in the Western +forest. The greater part of them were Scotch-Irish +from Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas—a +hardy race, who knew not defeat. +Steadily they pushed back the rampart of +savagery, and won the Ohio valley for civilization.</p> + +<p>The Indian early recognized the land-grabbing +temper of the English, and felt that a +struggle to the death was impending. The +French browbeat their savage allies, and, easily +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page302" id="page302"></a>[pg 302]</span> +inflaming their passions, kept the body of them +almost continually at war with the English—the +Iroquois excepted, not because the latter +were English-lovers, or did not understand +the aim of English colonization, but because +the earliest French had won their undying +enmity. Amidst all this weary strife, the Indian, +a born trader who dearly loved a bargain, +never failed to recognize that the goods +of his French friends were dear, and that those +of his enemies, the English, were cheap. We +find frequent evidences that for a hundred +years the tribesmen of the Upper Lakes carried +on an illicit trade with the hated English, +whenever the usually-wary French were +thought to be napping.</p> + +<p>It is certain that English forest traders were +upon the Ohio in the year 1700. In 1715,—the +year before Governor Spotswood of Virginia, +"with much feasting and parade," made +his famous expedition over the Blue Ridge,—there +was a complaint that traders from Carolina +had reached the villages on the Wabash, +and were poaching on the French preserves. +French military officers built little log stockades +along that stream, and tried in vain to +induce the Indians of the valley to remove to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page303" id="page303"></a>[pg 303]</span> +St. Joseph's River, out of the sphere of English +influence. Everywhere did French traders +meet English competitors, who were not to be +frightened by orders to move off the field. +New France, therefore, determined to connect +Canada and Louisiana by a chain of forts +throughout the length of the Mississippi basin, +which should not only secure untrammeled +communication between these far-separated +colonies, but aid in maintaining French supremacy +throughout the region. Yet in 1725 +we still hear of "the English from Carolina" +busily trading with the Miamis under the very +shadow of the guns of Fort Ouiatanon (near +Lafayette, Ind.), and the French still vainly +scolding thereat. What was going on upon +the Wabash, was true elsewhere in the Ohio +basin, as far south as the Creek towns on the +sources of the Tennessee.</p> + +<p>About this time, Pennsylvania and Virginia +began to exhibit interest in their own overlapping +claims to lands in the country northwest +of the Ohio. Those colonies were now +settled close to the base of the mountains, and +there was heard a popular clamor for pastures +new. French ownership of the over-mountain +region was denied, and in 1728 Pennsylvania +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page304" id="page304"></a>[pg 304]</span> +"viewed with alarm the encroachments +of the French." The issue was now joined; +both sides claimed the field, but, as usual, the +contest was at first among the rival forest +traders. In the Virginia and Pennsylvania +capitals, the transmontane country was still +a misty region. In 1729, Col. William Byrd, +an authority on things Virginian, was able to +write that nothing was then known in that +colony of the sources of the Potomac, Roanoke, +and Shenandoah. It was not until 1736 +that Col. William Mayo, in laying out the +boundaries of Lord Fairfax's generous estate, +discovered in the Alleghanies the head-spring +of the Potomac, where ten years later was +planted the famous "Fairfax Stone," the +southwest point of the boundary between Virginia +and Maryland. That very same year +(1746), M. de Léry, chief engineer of New +France, went with a detachment of troops +from Lake Erie to Chautauqua Lake, and proceeded +thence by Conewango Creek and Alleghany +River to the Ohio, which he carefully +surveyed down to the mouth of the Great +Miami.</p> + +<p>Affairs moved slowly in those days. New +France was corrupt and weak, and the English +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page305" id="page305"></a>[pg 305]</span> +colonists, unaided by the home government, +were not strong. For many years, +nothing of importance came out of this rivalry +of French and English in the Ohio Valley, +save the petty quarrels of fur-traders, and the +occasional adventure of some Englishman +taken prisoner by Indians in a border foray, +and carried far into the wilderness to meet +with experiences the horror of which, as +preserved in their published narratives, to +this day causes the blood of the reader to +curdle.</p> + +<p>Now and then, there were voluntary adventurers +into these strange lands. Such were +John Howard, John Peter Salling, and two +other Virginians who, the story goes, went +overland (1740 or 1741) under commission of +their inquisitive governor, to explore the country +to the Mississippi. They went down Coal +and Wood's Rivers to the Ohio, which in Salling's +journal is called the "Alleghany." Finally, +a party of French, negroes, and Indians +took them prisoners and carried them to New +Orleans, where on meager fare they were held +in prison for eighteen months. They escaped +at last, and had many curious adventures by +land and sea, until they reached home, from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page306" id="page306"></a>[pg 306]</span> +which they had been absent two years and +three months. There are now few countries +on the globe where a party of travelers could +meet with adventures such as these.</p> + +<p>At last, the plot thickened; the tragedy was +hastened to a close. France now formally +asserted her right to all countries drained by +streams emptying into the St. Lawrence, the +Great Lakes, and the Mississippi. This vast +empire would have extended from the comb +of the Rockies on the west—discovered in +1743 by the brothers La Vérendrye—to the +crest of the Appalachians on the east, thus +including the western part of New York and +New England. The narrow strip of the Atlantic +coast alone would have been left to the +domination of Great Britain. The demand +made by France, if acceded to, meant the +death-blow to English colonization on the +American mainland; and yet it was made not +without reason. French explorers, missionaries, +and fur-traders had, with great enterprise +and fortitude, swarmed over the entire +region, carrying the flag, the religion, and the +commerce of France into the farthest forest +wilds; while the colonists of their rival, busy in +solidly welding their industrial commonwealths, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page307" id="page307"></a>[pg 307]</span> +had as yet scarcely peeped over the +Alleghany barrier.</p> + +<p>It was asserted on behalf of Great Britain, +that the charters of her coast colonies carried +their bounds far into the West; further, that +as, by the treaty of Utrecht (1713), France +had acknowledged the suzerainty of the British +king over the Iroquois confederacy, the English +were entitled to all lands "conquered" by +those Indians, whose war-paths had extended +from the Ottawa River on the north to the +Carolinas on the south, and whose forays +reached alike to the Mississippi and to New +England. In this view was made, in 1744, the +famous treaty at Lancaster, Pa., whereat the +Iroquois, impelled by rum and presents, pretended +to give to the English entire control of +the Ohio Valley, under the claim that the former +had in various encounters conquered the +Shawanese of that region and were therefore +entitled to it. It is obvious that a country +occasionally raided by marauding bands of +savages, whose homes are far away, cannot +properly be considered theirs by conquest.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, both sides were preparing to +occupy and hold the contested field. New +France already had a weak chain of waterside +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page308" id="page308"></a>[pg 308]</span> +forts and commercial stations,—the rendezvous +of fur-traders, priests, travelers, and +friendly Indians,—extending, with long intervening +stretches of savage-haunted wilderness, +through the heart of the continent, from Lower +Canada to her outlying post of New Orleans. +It is not necessary here to enter into the details +of the ensuing French and Indian War, +the story of which Parkman has told us so +well. Suffice it briefly to mention a few only +of its features, so far as they affect the Ohio +itself.</p> + +<p>The Iroquois, although concluding with the +English this treaty of Lancaster, "on which, +as a corner-stone, lay the claim of the colonists +to the West," were by this time, as the result +of wily French diplomacy, growing suspicious +of their English protectors; at the same time, +having on several occasions been severely +punished by the French, they were less rancorous +in their opposition to New France. +For this reason, just as the English were getting +ready to make good their claim to the +Ohio by actual colonization, the Iroquois began +to let in the French at the back door. In +1749, Galissonière, then governor of New +France, dispatched to the great valley a party +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page309" id="page309"></a>[pg 309]</span> +of soldiers under Céloron de Bienville, with +directions to conduct a thorough exploration, +to bury at the mouths of principal streams +lead plates graven with the French claim,—a +custom of those days,—and to drive out English +traders, Céloron proceeded over the +Lake Chautauqua route, from Lake Erie to +the Alleghany River, and thence down the +Ohio to the Miami, returning to Lake Erie +over the old Maumee portage. English traders, +who could not be driven out, were found swarming +into the country, and his report was discouraging. +The French realized that they +could not maintain connection between New +Orleans and their settlements on the St. Lawrence, +if driven from the Ohio valley. The +governor sent home a plea for the shipment of +ten thousand French peasants to settle the +region; but the government at Paris was just +then as indifferent to New France as was King +George to his colonies, and the settlers were +not sent.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the English were not idle. The +first settlement they made west of the mountains, +was on New River, a branch of the +Kanawha (1748); in the same season, several +adventurous Virginians hunted and made land-claims +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page310" id="page310"></a>[pg 310]</span> +in Kentucky and Tennessee. Before +the close of the following year (1749), there +had been formed, for fur-trading and colonizing +purposes, the Ohio Company, composed of +wealthy Virginians, among whom were two +brothers of Washington. King George granted +the company five hundred thousand acres, +south of and along the Ohio River, on which +they were to plant a hundred families and +build and maintain a fort. As a base of supplies, +they built a fortified trading-house at +Will's Creek (now Cumberland, Md.), near +the head of the Potomac, and developed a +trail ("Nemacolin's Path"), sixty miles long, +across the Laurel Hills to the mouth of Redstone +Creek, on the Monongahela, where was +built another stockade (1752).</p> + +<p>Christopher Gist, a famous backwoodsman, +was sent (1750), the year after Céloron's expedition, +to explore the country as far down +as the falls of the Ohio, and select lands for +the new company. Gist's favorable report +greatly stimulated interest in the Western +country. In his travels, he met many Scotch-Irish +fur-traders who had passed into the West +through the mountain valleys of Pennsylvania, +Virginia, and the Carolinas. His negotiations +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page311" id="page311"></a>[pg 311]</span> +with the natives were of great value to the +English cause.</p> + +<p>It was early seen, by English and French +alike, that an immense advantage would accrue +to the nation first in possession of what is now +the site of Pittsburg, the meeting-place of the +Monongahela and Alleghany rivers to form the +Ohio—the "Forks of the Ohio," as it was +then called. In the spring of 1753, a French +force occupied the new fifteen-mile portage +route between Presque Isle (Erie, Pa.) and +French Creek, a tributary of the Alleghany. +On the banks of French Creek they built Fort +Le Bœuf, a stout log-stockade. It had been +planned to erect another fort at the Forks of +the Ohio, one hundred and twenty miles below; +but disease in the camp prevented the +completion of the scheme.</p> + +<p>What followed is familiar to all who have +taken any interest whatever in Western history. +In November, Governor Dinwiddie, of +Virginia, sent one of his major-generals, young +George Washington, with Gist as a companion, +to remonstrate with the French at Le Bœuf +for occupying land "so notoriously known to +be the property of the Crown of Great Britain." +The French politely turned the messengers +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page312" id="page312"></a>[pg 312]</span> +back. In the following April (1754), Washington +set out with a small command, by the +way of Will's Creek, to forcibly occupy the +Forks. His advance party were building a +fort there, when the French appeared and +easily drove them off. Then followed Washington's +defeat at Great Meadows (July 4). +The French were now supreme at their new +Fort Duquesne. The following year, General +Braddock set out from Virginia, also by Nemacolin's +Path; but, on that fateful ninth of +July, fell in the slaughter-pen which had been +set for him at Turtle Creek by the Indians of +the Upper Lakes, under the leadership of a +French fur-trader from far-off Wisconsin.</p> + +<p>From the time of Braddock's defeat until +the close of the war, French traders, with +savage allies, poured the vials of their wrath +upon the encroaching settlements of the English +backwoodsmen. Nemacolin's Path, now +known as Braddock's Road, made for the Indians +of the Ohio an easy pathway to the +English borders of Pennsylvania, Virginia, +and Maryland. In the parallel valleys of the +Alleghanies was waged a partisan warfare, +which in bitterness has probably not had its +equal in all the long history of the efforts of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page313" id="page313"></a>[pg 313]</span> +expanding civilization to beat down the encircling +walls of barbarism. In 1758, Canada +was attacked by several English expeditions, +the most of which were successful. One of +these was headed by General John Forbes, +and directed against Fort Duquesne. After a +remarkable forest march, overcoming mighty +obstacles, Forbes arrived at his destination to +find that the French had blown up the fortifications, +some of the troops retreating to Lake +Erie and others to rehabilitate Fort Massac on +the Lower Ohio.</p> + +<p>Thus England gained possession of the valley. +New France had been cut in twain. +The English Fort Pitt commanded the Forks +of the Ohio, and French rule in America was +now doomed. The fall of Quebec soon followed +(1759), then of Montreal (1760); and +in 1763 was signed the Treaty of Paris, by +which England obtained possession of all the +territory east of the Mississippi River, except +the city of New Orleans and a small outlying +district. In order to please the savages of the +interior, and to cultivate the fur-trade,—perhaps +also, to act as a check upon the westward +growth of the too-ambitious coast colonies,—King +George III. took early occasion to command +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page314" id="page314"></a>[pg 314]</span> +his "loving subjects" in America not to +purchase or settle lands beyond the mountains, +"without our especial leave and license." It +is needless to say that this injunction was not +obeyed. The expansion of the English colonies +in America was irresistible; the Great +West was theirs, and they proceeded in due +time to occupy it.</p> + +<p>Long before the close of the French and +Indian War, English colonists—whom we will +now, for convenience, call Americans—had +made agricultural settlements in the Ohio +basin. As early as 1752, we have seen, the +Redstone fort was built. In 1753, the French +forces, on retiring from Great Meadows, burned +several log cabins on the Monongahela. The +interesting story of the colonizing of the Redstone +district, at the western end of Braddock's +Road, has been outlined in Chapter I. +of the text; and it has been shown, in the +course of the narrative of the pilgrimage, how +other districts were slowly settled in the face +of savage opposition. Although driven back +in numerous Indian wars, these American borderers +had come to the Ohio valley to stay.</p> + +<p>We have seen the early attempt of the Ohio +Company to settle the valley. Its agents +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page315" id="page315"></a>[pg 315]</span> +blazed the way, but the French and Indian +War, and the Revolution soon following, +tended to discourage the aspirations of the +adventurers, and the organization finally +lapsed. Western land speculators were as +active in those days as now, and Washington +was chief among them. We find him first interested +in the valley, through broad acres +acquired on land-grants issued for military +services in the French and Indian War; Revolutionary +bounty claims made him a still +larger landholder on Western waters; and, to +the close of the century, he was actively interested +in schemes to develop the region. +We are not in the habit of so regarding him, +but both by frequent personal presence in the +Ohio valley, and extensive interests at stake +there, the Father of his Country was the most +conspicuous of Western pioneers. Dearly did +Washington love the West, which he knew so +well; when the Revolutionary cause looked +dark, and it seemed possible that England +might seize the coast settlements, he is said +to have cried, "We will retire beyond the +mountains, and be free!" and in his declining +years he seemed to regret that he was too old +to join his former comrades of the camp, in +their colony at Marietta.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page316" id="page316"></a>[pg 316]</span> + +<p>As early as 1754, Franklin, in his famous +Albany Plan of Union for the colonies, had a +device for establishing new states in the West, +upon lands purchased from the Indians. In +1773, he displayed interest in the Walpole +plan for another colony,—variously called +Pittsylvania, Vandalia, and New Barataria—with +its proposed capital at the mouth of the +Great Kanawha. There were, too, several +other Western colonial schemes,—among +them the Henderson colony of Transylvania, +between the Cumberland and the Tennessee, +the seat of which was Boonesborough. Readers +of Roosevelt well know its brief but brilliant +career, intimately connected with the +development of Tennessee and Kentucky. +But the most of these hopeful enterprises came +to grief with the political secession of the +colonies; and when the coast States ceded +their Western land-claims to the new general +government, and the Ordinance of 1787 provided +for the organization of the Territory +Northwest of the River Ohio, there was no +room for further enterprises of this character.<a id="footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href= + "#footnote17"><sup>A</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page317" id="page317"></a>[pg 317]</span> + +<p>The story of the Ohio is the story of the +West. With the close of the Revolution, +came a rush of travel down the great river. +It was more or less checked by border warfare, +which lasted until 1794; but in that year, +Anthony Wayne, at the Battle of Fallen +Timbers, broke the backbone of savagery +east of the Mississippi; the Tecumseh uprising +(1812-13) came too late seriously to affect +the dwellers on the Ohio.</p> + +<p>There were two great over-mountain highways +thither, one of them being Braddock's +Road, with Redstone (now Brownsville, Pa.) +and Pittsburg as its termini; the other was +Boone's old trail, or Cumberland Gap. With +the latter, this sketch has naught to do.</p> + +<p>By the close of the Revolution, Pittsburg—in +Gist's day, but a squalid Indian village, and +a fording-place—was still only "a distant out-post, +merely a foothold in the Far West." +By 1785, there were a thousand people there, +chiefly engaged in the fur-trade and in forwarding +emigrants and goods to the rapidly-growing +settlements on the middle and lower +reaches of the river. The population had +doubled by 1803. By 1812 there was to be +seen here just the sort of bustling, vicious +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page318" id="page318"></a>[pg 318]</span> +frontier town, with battlement-fronts and ragged +streets, which Buffalo and then Detroit +became in after years. Cincinnati and Chicago, +St. Louis and Kansas City, had still +later, each in turn, their share of this experience; +and, not many years ago, Bismarck, +Omaha, and Leadville. From Philadelphia +and Baltimore and Richmond, there were running +to Pittsburg or Redstone regular lines of +stages for the better class of passengers; freight +wagons laden with immense bales of goods +were to be seen in great caravans, which frequently +were "stalled" in the mud of the +mountain roads; emigrants from all parts of +the Eastern States, and many countries of +Europe, often toiled painfully on foot over +these execrable highways, with their bundles +on their backs, or following scrawny cattle +harnessed to makeshift vehicles; and now and +then came a well-to-do equestrian with his +pack-horses,—generally an Englishman,—who +was out to see the country, and upon his return +to write a book about it.</p> + +<p>At Pittsburg, and points on the Alleghany, +Youghiogheny, and Monongahela, were boat-building +yards which turned out to order a +curious medley of craft—arks, flat- and keel-boats, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page319" id="page319"></a>[pg 319]</span> +barges, pirogues, and schooners of +every design conceivable to fertile brain. +Upon these, travelers took passage for the then +Far West, down the swift-rolling Ohio. There +have descended to us a swarm of published +journals by English and Americans alike, giving +pictures, more or less graphic, of the men +and manners of the frontier; none is without +interest, even if in its pages the priggish author +but unconsciously shows himself, and +fails to hold the mirror up to the rest of nature. +With the introduction of steamboats,—the +first was in 1811, but they were slow to +gain headway against popular prejudice,—the +old river life, with its picturesque but rowdy +boatmen, its unwieldy flats and keels and +arks, began to pass away, and water traffic to +approach the prosaic stage; the crossing of +the mountains by the railway did away with +the boisterous freighters, the stages, and the +coaching-taverns; and when, at last, the river +became paralleled by the iron way, the glory +of the steamboat epoch itself faded, riverside +towns adjusted themselves to the new highways +of commerce, new centers arose, and "side-tracked" +ports fell into decay.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote17" name="footnote17"></a><b>Footnote A:</b><a href="#footnotetag17"> (return) </a><p>See Turner's "Western State-Making in the Revolutionary +Era," in <i>Amer. Hist. Rev.</i>, Vol. I.; also, Alden's "New +Governments West of the Alleghanies," <i>Bull. Univ. Wis.</i>, +Hist. Series, Vol. II.</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page320" id="page320"></a>[pg 320]</span> + + + + +<h2>APPENDIX B.</h2> + + +<h4>Selected list of Journals of previous +travelers down the Ohio.</h4> + + + +<p><i>Gist, Christopher.</i> Gist's Journals; with +historical, geographical, and ethnological +notes, and biographies of his contemporaries, +by William M. Darlington. Pittsburg, 1893.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Gist's trip down the valley, from October, 1750, to May, +1751, was on horseback, as far as the site of Frankfort, Ky. +On his second trip into Kentucky, from November, 1751, to +March 11, 1752, he touched the river at few points. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Gordon, Harry.</i> Extracts from the Journal +of Captain Harry Gordon, chief engineer in +the Western department in North America, +who was sent from Fort Pitt, on the River +Ohio, down the said river, etc., to Illinois, +in 1766.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Published in Pownall's "Topographical Description of +North America," Appendix, p. 2. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Washington, George.</i> Journal of a tour to +the Ohio River. [Writings, ed. by Ford, vol. +II. New York, 1889.]</p> + +<blockquote><p> +The trip lasted from October 5 to December 1, 1770. The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page321" id="page321"></a>[pg 321]</span> +party went in boats from Fort Pitt, as far down as the mouth +of the Great Kanawha. This journal is the best on the subject, +written in the eighteenth century. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Pownall, T.</i> A topographical description +of such parts of North America as are contained +in the [annexed] map of the Middle +British Colonies, etc. London, 1776.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Contains "Extracts from Capt. Harry Gordon's Journal," +"Extracts from Mr. Lewis Evans' Journal" of 1743, and +"Christopher Gist's Journal" of 1750-51. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Hutchins, Thomas.</i> Topographical description +of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and +North Carolina, comprehending the Rivers +Ohio, Kenhawa, Sioto, Cherokee, Wabash, +Illinois, Mississippi, etc. London, 1778.</p> + +<p><i>St. John, M.</i> Lettres d'un cultivateur +Americain. Paris, 1787, 3 vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Vol. 3 contains an account of the author's boat trip down +the river, in 1784. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>De Vigni, Antoine F. S.</i> Relation of his +voyage down the Ohio River from Pittsburg +to the Falls, in 1788.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Graphic and animated account by a French physician who +came out with the Scioto Company's immigrants to Gallipolis. +Given in "Proc. Amer. Antiq. Soc.", Vol. XI., pp. +369-380. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>May, John.</i> Journal and letters [to the +Ohio country, 1788-89], Cincinnati, 1873.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +One of the best, for economic views. May was a Boston +merchant. +</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page322" id="page322"></a>[pg 322]</span> + +<p><i>Forman, Samuel S.</i> Narrative of a journey +down the Ohio and Mississippi in 1789-90. +With a memoir and illustrative notes, by Lyman +C. Draper. Cincinnati, 1888.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +A lively and appreciative account. Touches social life at +the garrisons, <i>en route</i>. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Ellicott, Andrew.</i> Journal of the late commissioner +on behalf of the United States during +part of the year 1796, the years 1797, 1798, +1799, and part of the year 1800: for determining +the boundary between the United States +and Spain. Philadelphia, 1803.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +His trip down the river was in 1796. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Baily, Francis.</i> Journal of a tour in unsettled +parts of North America, in 1796 and +1797. London, 1856.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +The author's river voyage was in 1796. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Harris, Thaddeus Mason.</i> Journal of a tour +into the territory northwest of the Alleghany +Mountains; made in the spring of the year +1803. Boston, 1805.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +A valuable work. The author traveled on a flatboat. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Michaux, F. A.</i> Travels to the west of the +Alleghany Mountains. London (2nd ed.), +1805.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Excellent, for economic conditions. The expedition was +made in 1802. +</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page323" id="page323"></a>[pg 323]</span> + +<p><i>Ashe, Thomas.</i> Travels in America, performed +in 1806. London, 1808.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Among the best of the early journals, although abounding +in exaggerations. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Cuming, F.</i> Sketches of a tour to the +Western country, etc., commenced in 1807 +and concluded in 1809. Pittsburg, 1810.</p> + +<p><i>Bradbury, John.</i> Travels [1809-11] in the +interior of America. Liverpool, 1817.</p> + +<p><i>Melish, John.</i> Travels in the United States +of America [1811]. Philadelphia, 1812, 2 vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Vol. 2 contains the journal of the author's voyage down +the river, in a skiff. The account of means of early navigation +is graphic. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Flint, Timothy.</i> Recollections of the last +ten years. Boston, 1826.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +There is no better account of boats, and river life generally, +in 1814-15, the time of Flint's voyage. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Fearon, Henry Bradshaw.</i> Sketches of +America [1817]. London, 1819.</p> + +<p><i>Palmer, John.</i> Journal of travels in the +United States of North America [1817]. London, +1818.</p> + +<p><i>Evans, Estwick.</i> A pedestrian tour [1818] +of four thousand miles through the Western +states and territories. Concord, N. H., 1819.</p> + +<p><i>Birkbeck, Morris.</i> Notes on a journey in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page324" id="page324"></a>[pg 324]</span> +America, from the coast of Virginia to the +Territory of Illinois. London, 1818.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +The author traveled, in 1817, by light wagon from Richmond +to Pittsburg; and from Pittsburg to Cincinnati by +horseback. This book, interesting for economic conditions, +together with the author's "Letters from Illinois," did much +to inspire emigration to Illinois from England. His English +colony, at English Prairie, Ill., was much visited by travelers +of the period. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Faux, W.</i> Journal of a tour to the United +States [in 1819].</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Excellent pictures of American life and agricultural methods, +by an English gentleman farmer. Attacks Birkbeck's +roseate views. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Ogden, George W.</i> Letters from the West, +comprising a tour through the Western country +[1821], and a residence of two summers in +the States of Ohio and Kentucky. New Bedford, +Mass., 1823.</p> + +<p><i>Welby, Adlard.</i> A visit to North America +and the English settlements in Illinois. London, +1821.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +The author went by horseback, occasionally touching the +river towns. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Beltrami, J. C.</i> Pilgrimage in Europe and +America. London, 1828, 2 vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +In Vol. II the author describes a steamboat journey in +1823, from Pittsburg to the mouth. +</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page325" id="page325"></a>[pg 325]</span> + +<p><i>Hall, James.</i> Letters from the West. +London, 1828.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Valuable for scenery, manners, and customs, and anecdotes +of early Western settlement. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Anonymous.</i> The Americans as they are; +described by a tour through the valley of the +Mississippi. London, 1828.</p> + +<p><i>Trollope, Mrs.</i> [Frances M.]. Domestic +manners of the Americans. London and New +York, 1832.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +A lively caricature, the precursor of Dickens' "American +Notes." Mrs. Trollope's voyages on the Ohio were in 1828 +and 1830. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Vigne, Godfrey T.</i> Six months in America. +London, 1832, 2 vols.</p> + +<p><i>Hamilton, T.</i> Men and manners in America. +Philadelphia, 1833.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Includes a steamboat journey from Pittsburg to New +Orleans. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Alexander, Capt. J. E.</i> Transatlantic +sketches. London, 1833, 2 vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Vol. II. has an account of a trip up the river. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Stuart, James.</i> Three years in North America. +New York, 1833, 2 vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Vol. II. includes a voyage up the Ohio. The author takes +issue, throughout, with Mrs. Trollope. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Brackenridge, H. M.</i> Recollections of persons +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page326" id="page326"></a>[pg 326]</span> +and places in the West. Philadelphia, +1834.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Describes river trips, during the first decade of the century. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Tudor, Henry.</i> Narrative of a tour [1831-32] +in North America. London, 1834, 2 vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +The Ohio trip is in Vol. II. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Arfwedson, C. D.</i> The United States and +Canada, in 1832, 1833, and 1834. London, +1834, 2 vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +In Vol. II is a report of a steamboat trip up the river. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Latrobe, Charles Joseph.</i> The rambler in +North America. New York, 1835, 2 vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Vol. II has an account of a descending steamboat voyage. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Anonymous.</i> A winter in the West. By a +New Yorker. New York (2nd ed.), 1835, 2 +vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +In Vol. I. is an entertaining account of a stage-coach ride +in 1833, from Pittsburg to Cleveland, touching all settlements +on the Upper Ohio down to Beaver River. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Nichols, Thomas L.</i> Forty years of American +life. London, 1864, 2 vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +In Vol. I. the author tells of a steamboat tour from Pittsburg +to New Orleans, in 1840. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Dickens, Charles.</i> American notes. New +York, 1842.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page327" id="page327"></a>[pg 327]</span> + +<blockquote><p> +Dickens, in 1841, traveled in steamboats from Pittsburg to +St. Louis. His dyspeptic comments on life and manners in +the United States, at the time grated harshly on the ears of +our people; but afterward, they grew strong and wise +enough to smile at them. The book is to-day, like Mrs. +Trollope's, entertaining reading for an American. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Rubio</i> (pseud.). Rambles in the United +States and Canada, in 1845. London, 1846.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +A typical English growler, who thinks America "the +most disagreeable of all disagreeable countries;" nevertheless, +he says of the Ohio, "a finer thousand miles of river +scenery could hardly be found in the wide world." +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Mackay, Alex.</i> The Western world; or, +travels in the United States in 1846-47. London, +1849.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Good for its character sketches, glimpses of slavery, and +report of economic conditions. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Robertson, James.</i> A few months in America +[winter of 1853-54]. London, n. d.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Chiefly statistical. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Murray, Charles Augustus.</i> Travels in +North America. London, 1854, 2 vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Vol. I has the Ohio-river trip. The author is an appreciative +Englishman, and tells his story well. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Murray, Henry A.</i> Lands of the slave and +the free. London, 1855, 2 vols.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +In Vol. I is an account of an Ohio-river voyage. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Ferguson, William.</i> America by river and +rail [in 1855]. London, 1856.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page328" id="page328"></a>[pg 328]</span> + +<p><i>Lloyd, James T.</i> Steamboat directory, and +disasters on the Western waters. Cincinnati, +1856.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Valuable for stories and records of the early days of river +transportation. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Anonymous.</i> A short American tramp in +the fall of 1864. By the editor of "Life in +Normandy." Edinburgh, 1865.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +An English geologist's journal. Distorted and overdrawn, +on the travel side. He took steamer from St. Louis to Cincinnati. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><i>Bishop, Nathaniel H.</i> Four months in a +sneak-box. Boston, 1879.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +The author, in the winter of 1875-76, voyaged in an open +boat from Pittsburg to New Orleans, and along the Gulf +coast to Florida. +</p></blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page329" id="page329"></a>[pg 329]</span> + + + + +<h2>INDEX.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>Aberdeen, Ky., <a href="#page167">167</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Albany, N.Y., <a href="#page299">299</a>, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Alden, George H., <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Alexander, J. E., <a href="#page325">325</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Alexandria, O., <a href="#page151">151</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Alexandria, Va., <a href="#page131">131</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Allegheny City, Pa., <a href="#page21">21</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Alton, Ind., <a href="#page224">224</a>, <a href="#page228">228</a>, <a href="#page231">231</a>, <a href="#page233">233</a>, <a href="#page234">234</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>America, Ill. <i>See</i> <a href="#mound">Mound City, Ill.</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Antiquity, O., <a href="#page115">115</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Arfwedson, C. D., <a href="#page326">326</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Ashe, Thomas, <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page273">273</a>, <a href="#page323">323</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Ashland, Ky., <a href="#page142">142</a>, <a href="#page143">143</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Athalia, O., <a href="#page136">136</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Audubon, John James, <a href="#page257">257</a>, <a href="#page258">258</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Augusta, Ky., <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page171">171</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Aurora, Ind., <a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href="#page187">187</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> + <div class="stanza"> +<p>Baker's Bottom, W. Va., <a href="#page36">36</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Baily, Francis, <a href="#page322">322</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Baltimore, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Barlow, Joel, <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href="#page131">131</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Bearsville, O., <a href="#page73">73</a>, <a href="#page74">74</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Beaver, Pa.,<a name="Beaver" id="Beaver"></a> <a href="#page27">27-30</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Belpré, O., <a href="#page100">100-102</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Beltrami, J. C., <a href="#page324">324</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Berkeley, Sir William, <a href="#page297">297</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Bethlehem, Ind., <a href="#page260">260</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Big Bone Lick, <a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page153">153</a>, <a href="#page191">191</a>, <a href="#page195">195-198</a>, <a href="#page268">268</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Big Grave Creek, <a href="#page62">62-66</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Bird's Point Landing, Ky., <a href="#page277">277</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Birkbeck, Morris, <a href="#page323">323</a>, <a href="#page324">324</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Bishop, Nathaniel H., <a href="#page328">328</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Bismarck, N. D., <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Bland, Edward, <a href="#page297">297</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Blennerhassett, Harman, <a href="#page95">95-98</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Blennerhassett's Island, <a href="#page95">95-98</a>, <a href="#page101">101</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Blue Lick, <a href="#page160">160</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Boone, Daniel, <a href="#page142">142</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Boonesborough, Ky., <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Boone's Trail. <i>See</i> <a href="#wilderness">Wilderness Road</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Brackenridge, H. M., <a href="#page325">325</a>, <a href="#page326">326</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Bradbury, John, <a href="#page323">323</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Braddock, Gen. Edward, <a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href="#page128">128</a>, <a href="#page312">312</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Braddock, Pa., <a href="#page17">17</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Braddock's Road,<a name="Braddock" id="Braddock"></a> <a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href="#page12">12</a>, <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href="#page312">312</a>, <a href="#page314">314</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Brandenburg, Ind., <a href="#page223">223</a>, <a href="#page224">224</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Bridgeport, O., <a href="#page60">60</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Broderickville, O., <a href="#page137">137</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Brooklyn, Ill., <a href="#page284">284</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Brown's Islands, <a href="#page265">265</a>, <a href="#page266">266</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Brownsville, Pa.,<a name="Brownsville" id="Brownsville"></a> <a href="#page1">1-6</a>, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page12">12</a>, <a href="#page15">15</a>, <a href="#page19">19</a>, <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href="#page61">61</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>, <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href="#page295">295</a>, <a href="#page314">314</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Buffalo, N. Y., <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Burlington, O., <a href="#page137">137</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Burr, Aaron, <a href="#page96">96</a>, <a href="#page97">97</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Butler's Run, <a href="#page67">67</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Byrd, Col. William, <a href="#page304">304</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p> </p> +<p>Cairo, Ill., <a href="#page7">7</a>, <a href="#page15">15</a>, <a href="#page222">222</a>, <a href="#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page291">291</a>, <a href="#page294">294</a>, <a href="#page295">295</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>California, O., <a href="#page180">180</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Caledonia, Ill. <i>See</i> <a href="#Olmstead">Olmstead, Ill.</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cannelton, Ind., <a href="#page242">242</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Captina, O.,<a name="Captina" id="Captina"></a> <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page71">71</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Captina Creek, <a href="#page67">67</a>, <a href="#page70">70-72</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Captina Island, <a href="#page69">69</a>, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Carrollton, Ky., <a href="#page206">206</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Carrsville, Ky., <a href="#page276">276</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Catlettsburg, Ky., <a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href="#page141">141</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cave-in-Rock, Ill., <a href="#page273">273</a>, <a href="#page274">274</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Céleron de Bienville, <a href="#page90">90</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page309">309</a>, <a href="#page310">310</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Ceredo, W. Va., <a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href="#page141">141</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Charleroi, Pa., <a href="#page5">5</a>, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page9">9</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Charleston, W. Va., <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page127">127</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Chartier, Pa., <a href="#page5">5</a>, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page9">9</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Chartier's Creek, <a href="#page23">23</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cherokee Indians, <a href="#page286">286</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cheshire, O., <a href="#page119">119</a>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page330" id="page330"></a>[pg 330]</span> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Chesapeake & Ohio railway, <a href="#page172">172</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Chicago, <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Chillicothe, O., <a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page179">179</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Chilo, O., <a href="#page170">170</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cincinnati,<a name="Cincinnati" id="Cincinnati"></a> <a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>, <a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page177">177-184</a>, <a href="#page217">217</a>, <a href="#page252">252</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>, <a href="#page324">324</a>, <a href="#page328">328</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Circleville, O., <a href="#page102">102</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Clark, George Rogers, <a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href="#page5">5</a>, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page73">73</a>, <a href="#page94">94</a>, <a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page178">178</a>, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page218">218-220</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>, <a href="#page285">285-287</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Clarksville, Ind., <a href="#page219">219</a>, <a href="#page220">220</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cloverport, Ky., <a href="#page239">239-242</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Coal Valley, Pa., <a href="#page13">13</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Collins, Richard H., <a href="#page153">153</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Columbia, O., <a href="#page180">180</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Concordia, Ky., <a href="#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page235">235</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Conewango Creek, <a href="#page304">304</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Connolly, Dr. John, <a href="#page218">218</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Conwell, Yates, <a href="#page72">72</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Corn Island, <a href="#page219">219</a>, <a href="#page220">220</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cornstalk, Shawanee chief, <a href="#page128">128</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>, <a href="#page221">221</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Covington, Ky., <a href="#page178">178</a>, <a href="#page183">183</a>, <a href="#page184">184</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Crawford, Col. William, <a href="#page46">46</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Creek Indians, <a href="#page303">303</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cresap, Michael, <a href="#page67">67</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cresap's Bottom, <a href="#page72">72</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Croghan, George, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page95">95</a>, <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Crooked Creek, <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href="#page244">244</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cumberland, Md., <a href="#page310">310</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cumberland Gap, <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href="#page160">160-162</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cumberland Island, <a href="#page282">282</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cumberland Pike. <i>See</i> <a href="#Braddock">Braddock's Road</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cuming, F., <a href="#page322">322</a>, <a href="#page323">323</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Curran, Barney, <a href="#page29">29</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Cypress Bend, <a href="#page260">260</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Darlington, William M., <a href="#page320">320</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Doddridge, Joseph, <a href="#page115">115</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Deep Water Landing, Ind., <a href="#page234">234</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>De Léry, Gaspard Chaussegros, <a href="#page304">304</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Denman, Matthias, <a href="#page179">179</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>De Nonville, Gov. Jacques René de Brisay, <a href="#page300">300</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Derby, Ky., <a href="#page235">235-237</a>, <a href="#page243">243</a>, <a href="#page244">244</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Detroit, Mich., <a href="#page287">287</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>De Vigni, Antoine F. S., <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Diamond Island, <a href="#page264">264</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dickens, Charles, <a href="#page66">66</a>, <a href="#page325">325</a>, <a href="#page326">326</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dillon's Bottom, <a href="#page66">66</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dinwiddie, Gov. Robert, <a href="#page311">311</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dog Island, <a href="#page281">281</a>, <a href="#page282">282</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dover, Ky., <a href="#page170">170</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Draper, Lyman C., <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dravosburg, Pa., <a href="#page13">13</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dufour, John James, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dunkard Creek, <a href="#page72">72</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dunlap Creek, <a href="#page3">3</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Dunmore, Lord, <a href="#page23">23</a>, <a href="#page61">61</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page125">125-129</a>, <a href="#page218">218</a>, <a href="#page221">221</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>East Liverpool, O., <a href="#page35">35</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Economy, Pa., <a href="#page26">26</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Elizabeth, Pa., <a href="#page12">12</a>, <a href="#page15">15</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Elizabethtown, Ill., <a href="#page275">275</a>, <a href="#page276">276</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Ellicott, Andrew, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page322">322</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Emmerick's Landing, Ky., <a href="#page244">244</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>English Prairie, Ill., <a href="#page324">324</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Enterprise, Ind., <a href="#page254">254</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Erie, Pa., <a href="#page311">311</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Evans, Estwick, <a href="#page323">323</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Evans, Lewis, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Evansville, Ind., <a href="#page255">255</a>, <a href="#page256">256</a>, <a href="#page260">260</a>, <a href="#page265">265</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Fairfax, Lord, <a href="#page304">304</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Fallen Timbers, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Falls of Ohio. <i>See</i> <a href="#Louisville">Louisville, Ky.</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Faux, W., <a href="#page324">324</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Fearon, Henry Bradshaw, <a href="#page323">323</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Ferguson, William, <a href="#page327">327</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Filson, John, <a href="#page179">179-181</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Fish Creek, <a href="#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page73">73</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Fishing Creek, <a href="#page74">74</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Flint, Timothy, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page163">163</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page323">323</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Forbes, Gen. John, <a href="#page285">285</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Forks of the Ohio. <i>See</i> <a href="#Pittsburg">Pittsburg</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Forman, Samuel S., <a href="#page322">322</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Foreman, Capt. William, <a href="#page63">63</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Fort Charlotte, <a href="#page221">221</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Duquesne, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href="#page285">285</a>, <a href="#page312">312</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Pittsburg">Pittsburg</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Fincastle, <a href="#page61">61</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Finney, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Gower, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Harmar, <a href="#page91">91</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Henry, <a href="#page61">61</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Le Bœuf, <a href="#page15">15</a>, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href="#page311">311</a>, <a href="#page312">312</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Massac, <a href="#page285">285-288</a>, <a href="#page290">290</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Necessity, <a href="#page4">4</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Pitt, <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>, <a href="#page160">160-162</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Pittsburg">Pittsburg</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Randolph, <a href="#page129">129</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Washington, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Wilkinson, <a href="#page291">291</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Foster, Ky., <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page171">171</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Frampton, O., <a href="#page137">137</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Frankfort, Ky., <a href="#page320">320</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Franklin, Benjamin, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Franquelin, Jean B. L., <a href="#page299">299</a>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page331" id="page331"></a>[pg 331]</span> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Freeman, O., <a href="#page40">40</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>French, in Ohio valley, <a href="#page15">15</a>, <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href="#page90">90</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href="#page197">197</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page285">285</a>, <a href="#page286">286</a>, <a href="#page298">298-313</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>French Creek, <a href="#page311">311</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>French Islands, <a href="#page253">253</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Fry, John, <a href="#page141">141</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Galissonière, Count de, <a href="#page308">308</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Gallipolis, O., <a href="#page130">130-133</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Garrison Creek, <a href="#page185">185</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Genet, Edmund Charles, <a href="#page286">286</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>George III., king, <a href="#page309">309</a>, <a href="#page310">310</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>, <a href="#page314">314</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Georgetown, Pa., <a href="#page34">34</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Germans, in Ohio valley, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Girty, Simon, <a href="#page71">71</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Gist, Christopher, <a href="#page15">15</a>, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page151">151</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page310">310</a>, <a href="#page311">311</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>, <a href="#page320">320</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Glassport, Pa., <a href="#page13">13</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Glenwood, W. Va., <a href="#page134">134</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Gnadenhütten, <a href="#page91">91</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Golconda Island, <a href="#page276">276</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Goose Island, <a href="#page220">220</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Gordon, Harry, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page320">320</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Grand View, Ind., <a href="#page246">246</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Grant, Gen. Ulysses S., <a href="#page174">174</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Grape Island, <a href="#page80">80</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Grape-Vine Town. <i>See</i> <a href="#Captina">Captina, O.</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Grave Yard Run, <a href="#page72">72</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Great Meadows, <a href="#page312">312</a>, <a href="#page314">314</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Green River Island, <a href="#page255">255</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Green River Towhead, <a href="#page255">255</a>, <a href="#page256">256</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Greenup Court House, Ky., <a href="#page147">147</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Greenville. O., treaty of, <a href="#page181">181</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Gunpowder Creek, <a href="#page192">192</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Guyandotte, W. Va., <a href="#page136">136</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Hale, John P., <a href="#page153">153</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Half King, <a href="#page34">34</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Half-Moon Bar, <a href="#page274">274</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Hall, James, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page128">128</a>, <a href="#page164">164</a>, <a href="#page325">325</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Hamilton, T., <a href="#page325">325</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Harmar, Gen. Josiah, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Harmonists, <a href="#page264">264</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Harris, Thaddeus Mason, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page322">322</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Harris's Landing, <a href="#page173">173</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Hartford, W. Va., <a href="#page119">119</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Haskellville, O., <a href="#page136">136</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Hawesville, Ky., <a href="#page242">242</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Henderson, Ky., <a href="#page256">256-259</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Henderson, Richard, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Henderson Island, <a href="#page258">258</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Hennepin, Father Louis, <a href="#page299">299</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Henry, Patrick, <a href="#page159">159</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Herculaneum, Ind., <a href="#page260">260</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Higginsport, O., <a href="#page170">170</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Hockingport, O., <a href="#page102">102-104</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Homestead, Pa., <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href="#page18">18</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Horse Head Bottom, <a href="#page148">148</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>House-boat life, <a href="#page50">50-57</a>, <a href="#page62">62</a>, <a href="#page134">134</a>, <a href="#page135">135</a>, <a href="#page203">203</a>, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Howard, John, <a href="#page305">305</a>, <a href="#page306">306</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Hungarians, in Ohio valley, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page45">45</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Huntington, W. Va., <a href="#page136">136-139</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Hurricane Island, <a href="#page274">274</a>, <a href="#page275">275</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Hutchins, Thomas, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Imlay, Gilbert, <a href="#page162">162</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Inglis, Mrs. Mary, <a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page153">153</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Ironton, O., <a href="#page143">143-146</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Iroquois Indians, <a href="#page264">264</a>, <a href="#page298">298</a>, <a href="#page299">299</a>, <a href="#page302">302</a>, <a href="#page307">307</a>, <a href="#page308">308</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Irving, Washington, <a href="#page273">273</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Italians, in Ohio valley, <a href="#page69">69</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Jamestown, Va., <a href="#page296">296</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Jefferson, Thomas, <a href="#page97">97</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Joliet, Louis, <a href="#page264">264</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Jones, Rev. David, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page71">71</a>, <a href="#page94">94</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Joppa, Ill., <a href="#page290">290</a>, <a href="#page291">291</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Kansas City, <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Kaskaskia, Ill., <a href="#page268">268</a>, <a href="#page285">285</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>King Philip, <a href="#page221">221</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Kingston, O., <a href="#page40">40</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Kneistly's Cluster Islands, <a href="#page36">36-39</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>La Fayette, Marquis de, <a href="#page92">92</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lake Chautauqua, <a href="#page299">299</a>, <a href="#page304">304</a>, <a href="#page309">309</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lake Erie, <a href="#page299">299</a>, <a href="#page304">304</a>, <a href="#page309">309</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lancaster, Pa., <a href="#page307">307</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lane, Ralph, <a href="#page296">296</a>, <a href="#page297">297</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>La Salle, Chevalier de, <a href="#page218">218</a>, <a href="#page263">263</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>, <a href="#page298">298</a>, <a href="#page299">299</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Latrobe, Charles Joseph, <a href="#page326">326</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>La Vérendrye Brothers, <a href="#page306">306</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lawrenceburg, Ind., <a href="#page186">186</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Leadville, Colo., <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Leavenworth, Ind., <a href="#page224">224</a>, <a href="#page225">225</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lederer, John, <a href="#page297">297</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Letart's Falls, <a href="#page113">113</a>, <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Letart's Island, <a href="#page112">112</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Levanna, O., <a href="#page170">170</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lewis, Gen. Andrew, <a href="#page128">128</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lewisport, Ind., <a href="#page246">246</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lexington, Ky., <a href="#page159">159</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Limestone Creek, <a href="#page158">158</a>, <a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page167">167</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Little Beaver Creek, <a href="#page34">34</a>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page332" id="page332"></a>[pg 332]</span> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Little Hurricane Island, <a href="#page252">252</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Little Meadows, <a href="#page128">128</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lloyd. James T., <a href="#page328">328</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Logan, Mingo chief, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href="#page128">128</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Logstown, Pa., <a href="#page26">26</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Long Bottom, O., <a href="#page109">109-111</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Long Reach, <a href="#page79">79</a>, <a href="#page80">80</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Losantiville. <i>See</i> <a href="#Cincinnati">Cincinnati</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lostock, Pa., <a href="#page13">13</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Louisa, Ky., <a href="#page141">141</a>, <a href="#page142">142</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Louisville, Ky.,<a name="Louisville" id="Louisville"></a> <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page169">169</a>, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href="#page209">209</a>, <a href="#page214">214-223</a>, <a href="#page226">226</a>, <a href="#page256">256</a>, <a href="#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page298">298</a>, <a href="#page299">299</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Lower Blue River Island, <a href="#page226">226</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Mackay, Alex., <a href="#page327">327</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>McKee's Rocks, <a href="#page23">23</a>, <a href="#page178">178</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>McKeesport, Pa., <a href="#page13">13-16</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Madison, Ind., <a href="#page209">209-214</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Madison County, Va., <a href="#page297">297</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Malott, Catherine, <a href="#page71">71</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Manchester, O., <a href="#page157">157</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Marietta, O., <a href="#page83">83-85</a>, <a href="#page87">87</a>, <a href="#page90">90-93</a>, <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>, <a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page315">315</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Mason and Dixon line, <a href="#page77">77</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Mason City, W. Va., <a href="#page119">119</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Massac Creek, <a href="#page285">285</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>May, John, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>May, Col. William, <a href="#page304">304</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Maysville, Ky., <a href="#page157">157</a>, <a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href="#page169">169</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Melish, John, <a href="#page323">323</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Mercer, George, <a href="#page126">126</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Metropolis, Ill., <a href="#page288">288</a>, <a href="#page289">289</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Miami Indians, <a href="#page303">303</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Michaux, F. A., <a href="#page322">322</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Middleport, O., <a href="#page118">118</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Millersport, O., <a href="#page136">136</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Milwood, W. Va., <a href="#page112">112</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Minersville, O., <a href="#page118">118</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Mingo Bottom, <a href="#page127">127</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Mingo Indians, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page46">46</a>, <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href="#page148">148</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Mingo Junction, O., <a href="#page44">44-50</a>, <a href="#page57">57</a>, <a href="#page58">58</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Monongahela City, Pa., <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page12">12</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Montreal, <a href="#page313">313</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Moravian missionaries, <a href="#page91">91</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Morgantown, Pa., <a href="#page3">3</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Mound builders, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href="#page64">64-66</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><a name="mound" id="mound"></a>Mound City, Ill., <a href="#page290">290-292</a>, <a href="#page294">294</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Mound City Towhead, <a href="#page292">292-295</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Moundsville, W. Va., <a href="#page64">64-66</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Mt. Vernon, Ind., <a href="#page262">262</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Murray, Charles Augustus, <a href="#page327">327</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Murray, Henry A., <a href="#page327">327</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Murraysville, W. Va., <a href="#page111">111</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Natchez, Miss., <a href="#page181">181</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Nemacolin's Path, <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href="#page310">310</a>, <a href="#page312">312</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Braddock">Braddock's Road</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Neville, O., <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page173">173</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Neville's Island, <a href="#page25">25</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>New Albany, Ind., <a href="#page220">220-223</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>New Amsterdam, Ind., <a href="#page224">224</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>New Barataria, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Newburgh, Ind., <a href="#page254">254</a>, <a href="#page255">255</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>New Cumberland, W. Va., <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page40">40</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>New Harmony, Ind., <a href="#page264">264</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>New Haven, W. Va., <a href="#page119">119</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>New Martinsville, W. Va., <a href="#page74">74-77</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>New Matamoras, W. Va., <a href="#page82">82</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>New Orleans, <a href="#page12">12</a>, <a href="#page96">96</a>, <a href="#page97">97</a>, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page305">305</a>, <a href="#page309">309</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>, <a href="#page325">325</a>, <a href="#page328">328</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Newport, Christopher, <a href="#page296">296</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Newport, Ky., <a href="#page176">176</a>, <a href="#page178">178</a>, <a href="#page183">183</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Newport, O., <a href="#page82">82</a>, <a href="#page83">83</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>New Richmond, O., <a href="#page176">176</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Nichols, Thomas L., <a href="#page326">326</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Nicholson, interpreter, <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Norfolk & Western Railway, <a href="#page144">144</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>North Bend, O., <a href="#page173">173</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page184">184</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Northwest Territory, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Ogden, George W., <a href="#page324">324</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Ohio Company, <a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href="#page90">90</a>, <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page310">310</a>, <a href="#page314">314</a>, <a href="#page315">315</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Old Wyandot Town, <a href="#page91">91</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Olmstead, Ill.,<a name="Olmstead" id="Olmstead"></a> + <a href="#page291">291</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Omaha, Nebr., <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Owensboro, Ky., <a href="#page248">248-251</a>, <a href="#page271">271</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Paducah, Ky., <a href="#page284">284</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Palmer, John, <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page164">164</a>, <a href="#page323">323</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Parkersburg, W. Va., <a href="#page94">94</a>, <a href="#page95">95</a>, <a href="#page99">99</a>, <a href="#page100">100</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Parkinson's Landing, Ill., <a href="#page276">276</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Parkman, Francis, <a href="#page308">308</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Patterson, Robert, <a href="#page179">179</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Pennant, Edward, <a href="#page297">297</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Petersburg, Ky., <a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href="#page187">187</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Philadelphia, <a href="#page12">12</a>, <a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Pickaway Plains, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Picket, Heathcoat, <a href="#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Pine Creek, <a href="#page148">148</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Pipe Creek, <a href="#page67">67</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><a name="Pittsburg" id="Pittsburg"></a>Pittsburg, <a href="#page3">3</a>, <a href="#page5">5</a>, <a href="#page6">6</a>, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page17">17-22</a>, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href="#page25">25</a>, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page40">40</a>, <a href="#page59">59</a>, <a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>, <a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href="#page271">271</a>, <a href="#page311">311-313</a>, <a href="#page316">316-318</a>, <a href="#page320">320</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>, <a href="#page323">323</a>, <a href="#page324">324</a>, <a href="#page326">326</a>, <a href="#page328">328</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Plum Creek, <a href="#page205">205</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Point Pleasant, W. Va., <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page127">127-130</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page173">173</a>, <a href="#page174">174</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Point Sandy, Ind., <a href="#page227">227-231</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Pomeroy, O., <a href="#page111">111</a>, <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Pomeroy Bend, <a href="#page111">111</a>, <a href="#page119">119</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Pontiac, Indian chief, <a href="#page221">221</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Pope, John, <a href="#page5">5</a>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page333" id="page333"></a>[pg 333]</span> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Portland, Ky., <a href="#page219">219-221</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Portsmouth, O., <a href="#page151">151-153</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Power, Thomas, <a href="#page287">287</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Powhattan Point, W. Va., <a href="#page70">70</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Pownall, T., <a href="#page286">286</a>, <a href="#page320">320</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Presque Isle, <a href="#page311">311</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Proctor's Run, <a href="#page77">77</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Proctorville, O., <a href="#page137">137</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Putnam, Israel, Jr., <a href="#page100">100</a>, <a href="#page101">101</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Putnam, Israel, Sr., <a href="#page100">100</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Putnam, Gen. Rufus, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Quebec, <a href="#page299">299</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Rabbit Hash, Ky., <a href="#page189">189-191</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Racine, O., <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page118">118</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Rafinesque, Constantine S., <a href="#page257">257</a>, <a href="#page258">258</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Rapp, George, <a href="#page26">26</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Redstone Creek, <a href="#page3">3-5</a>, <a href="#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page310">310</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Redstone Old Fort. <i>See</i> <a href="#Brownsville">Brownsville, Pa.</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Richardson's Landing, Ky., <a href="#page224">224</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Richmond, Va., <a href="#page296">296</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>, <a href="#page324">324</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Ripley, O., <a href="#page170">170</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Rising Sun, Ind., <a href="#page189">189</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>River Alleghany, <a href="#page20">20</a>, <a href="#page299">299</a>, <a href="#page304">304</a>, <a href="#page305">305</a>, <a href="#page309">309</a>, <a href="#page311">311</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Beaver, <a href="#page27">27-30</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Big Hockhocking, <a href="#page102">102-104</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Big Miami, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href="#page185">185</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Big Sandy, <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href="#page141">141</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Cherokee, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Coal, <a href="#page305">305</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Cumberland, <a href="#page97">97</a>, <a href="#page282">282</a>, <a href="#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Delaware, <a href="#page298">298</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Gauley, <a href="#page298">298</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Great Kanawha, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page125">125-130</a>, <a href="#page153">153</a>, <a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href="#page297">297</a>, <a href="#page309">309</a>, <a href="#page316">316</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Great Miami, <a href="#page304">304</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Green, <a href="#page255">255</a>, <a href="#page259">259</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Illinois, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Indian Kentucky, <a href="#page206">206</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">James, <a href="#page126">126</a>, <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href="#page296">296</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Kentucky, <a href="#page206">206</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Licking, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page183">183</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Little Kanawha, <a href="#page94">94</a>, <a href="#page95">95</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Little Miami, <a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Little Sandy, <a href="#page147">147</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Little Scioto, <a href="#page148">148</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Maumee, <a href="#page264">264</a>, <a href="#page299">299</a>, <a href="#page309">309</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Miami, <a href="#page309">309</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Mississippi, <a href="#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page294">294</a>, <a href="#page303">303</a>, <a href="#page306">306</a>, <a href="#page307">307</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Mohawk, <a href="#page298">298</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Monongahela, <a href="#page1">1-20</a>, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href="#page310">310</a>, <a href="#page311">311</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Muskingum, <a href="#page90">90</a>, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page127">127</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">New,<a name="New" id="New"></a> <a href="#page297">297</a>, <a href="#page298">298</a>, <a href="#page309">309</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Ottawa, <a href="#page307">307</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Potomac, <a href="#page304">304</a>, <a href="#page310">310</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Roanoke, <a href="#page296">296</a>, <a href="#page297">297</a>, <a href="#page304">304</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">St. Joseph's, <a href="#page303">303</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">St. Lawrence, <a href="#page306">306</a>, <a href="#page309">309</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Saline, <a href="#page269">269</a>, <a href="#page272">272</a>, <a href="#page273">273</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Salt, <a href="#page223">223</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Shenandoah, <a href="#page304">304</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Scioto, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page151">151-153</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Susquehanna, <a href="#page298">298</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Tennessee, <a href="#page283">283</a>, <a href="#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page288">288</a>, <a href="#page303">303</a>, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Wabash, <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href="#page263">263</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>, <a href="#page302">302</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Wood, <a href="#page305">305</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#New">New</a>.</p> +<p class="i2">Youghiogheny, <a href="#page13">13-16</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Robertson, James, <a href="#page327">327</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Rochester, Pa., <a href="#page27">27-30</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Rockport, Ind., <a href="#page246">246</a>, <a href="#page247">247</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Rocky Mountains, discovery of, <a href="#page306">306</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Rome, O., <a href="#page155">155-157</a>, <a href="#page260">260</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Rono, Ind., <a href="#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page235">235</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Roosevelt, Theodore, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Rosebud, O., <a href="#page133">133</a>, <a href="#page134">134</a>, <a href="#page156">156</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Rose Clare, Ill., <a href="#page276">276</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Round Bottom, <a href="#page66">66</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>St. Clair, Gen. Arthur, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page286">286</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>St. John, M., <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>St. Louis, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>, <a href="#page326">326</a>, <a href="#page328">328</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>St. Mary's, W. Va., <a href="#page82">82</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Salem, O., <a href="#page91">91</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Saline Reserve (Illinois), <a href="#page268">268</a>, <a href="#page269">269</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Salling, John Peter, <a href="#page305">305</a>, <a href="#page306">306</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Sand Island, <a href="#page220">220-222</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Sandusky, O., <a href="#page46">46</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Sarikonk. <i>See</i> <a href="#Beaver">Beaver, Pa.</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Schönbrunn, <a href="#page91">91</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Scioto Company, <a href="#page130">130-132</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Sciotoville, O., <a href="#page148">148-150</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Scotch-Irish, in Ohio valley, <a href="#page60">60</a>, <a href="#page61">61</a>, <a href="#page301">301</a>, <a href="#page310">310</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Scuffletown, Ky., <a href="#page254">254</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Seignelay, Marquis de, <a href="#page300">300</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Seneca Indians, <a href="#page34">34</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Seven Mile Creek, <a href="#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page285">285</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Shaler, Nathaniel S., <a href="#page153">153</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Shannoah Town, <a href="#page151">151</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Shawanee Indians, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a>, <a href="#page128">128-130</a>, <a href="#page151">151-153</a>, <a href="#page307">307</a>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page334" id="page334"></a>[pg 334]</span> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Shawneetown, Ill., <a href="#page267">267-269</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Sheffield, O., <a href="#page118">118</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Shingis Old Town. <i>See</i> <a href="#Beaver">Beaver, Pa.</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Shippingsport, Pa., <a href="#page31">31-34</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Shousetown, Pa., <a href="#page25">25</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Sinking Creek, <a href="#page238">238</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Sistersville, W. Va., <a href="#page78">78</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Slavonians, in Ohio valley, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page45">45</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Slim Island, <a href="#page261">261</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Sloan's Station, O., <a href="#page37">37</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Smith, John, <a href="#page296">296</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Smithland, Ky., <a href="#page282">282</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Smith's Ferry, Pa., <a href="#page34">34</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Sohkon. <i>See</i> <a href="#Beaver">Beaver, Pa.</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>South Point, O., <a href="#page137">137</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Spaniards, Western conspiracy, of, <a href="#page286">286</a>, <a href="#page287">287</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Springville, Ky., <a href="#page151">151</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Spotswood, Gov. Alexander, <a href="#page302">302</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Steamboats, first on Ohio, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Stephens, Frank, <a href="#page71">71</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Stephensport, Ky., <a href="#page237">237-239</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Steubenville, O., <a href="#page5">5</a>, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Stewart's Island, <a href="#page277">277-281</a>, <a href="#page283">283</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Stuart, James, <a href="#page325">325</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Swiss, in Ohio valley, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Symmes, John Cleves, <a href="#page179">179-181</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Syracuse, O., <a href="#page118">118</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Tecumseh, Indian chief, <a href="#page317">317</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Tell City, Ind., <a href="#page242">242</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Three Brothers Islands, <a href="#page87">87</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Three-Mile Island, <a href="#page252">252</a>, <a href="#page254">254</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Transylvania, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Treaty, of Lancaster, Pa., <a href="#page307">307</a>, <a href="#page308">308</a>;</p> +<p class="i2">of Paris, <a href="#page313">313</a>;</p> +<p class="i2">of Utrecht, <a href="#page307">307</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Trent, William, <a href="#page95">95</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Tudor, Henry, <a href="#page326">326</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Turner, Frederick J., <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Turtle Creek, <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href="#page312">312</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Trollope, Frances M., <a href="#page325">325</a>, <a href="#page327">327</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Troy, Ind., <a href="#page243">243</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Uniontown, Ky., <a href="#page262">262</a>, <a href="#page263">263</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Upper Blue River Island, <a href="#page226">226</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Vandalia, Province of, <a href="#page126">126</a>, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Vanceburgh, Ky., <a href="#page154">154</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Venango, <a href="#page29">29</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Vevay, Ind., <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Vigne, Godfrey T., <a href="#page325">325</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Vincennes, Ind., <a href="#page264">264</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Wabash Island, <a href="#page264">264</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Walpole, Thomas, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Walton, Pa., <a href="#page13">13</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Warrior Branch, <a href="#page72">72</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wars, French and Indian, <a href="#page15">15</a>, <a href="#page17">17</a>, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href="#page90">90</a>, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page153">153</a>, <a href="#page285">285</a>, <a href="#page286">286</a>, <a href="#page308">308</a>, <a href="#page314">314</a>, <a href="#page315">315</a>;</p> +<p class="i2">Pontiac's, <a href="#page221">221</a>;</p> +<p class="i2">Lord Dunmore's, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page61">61</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a>, <a href="#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page73">73</a>, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page125">125-129</a>, <a href="#page218">218</a>, <a href="#page221">221</a>;</p> +<p class="i2">Revolution, <a href="#page61">61</a>, <a href="#page63">63</a>, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page100">100</a>, <a href="#page126">126</a>, <a href="#page128">128</a>, <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href="#page151">151-161</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page182">182</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>, <a href="#page315">315</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>;</p> +<p class="i2">of 1812-15, <a href="#page287">287</a>, <a href="#page291">291</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Warsaw, Ky., <a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page204">204</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Washington, George, <a href="#page4">4</a>, <a href="#page15">15</a>, <a href="#page23">23</a>, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page34">34</a>, <a href="#page46">46</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a>, <a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page92">92</a>, +<a href="#page126">126-128</a>, <a href="#page141">141</a>, <a href="#page142">142</a>, <a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href="#page310">310-312</a>, <a href="#page315">315</a>, <a href="#page320">320</a>, <a href="#page321">321</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wayne, Anthony, <a href="#page26">26</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page286">286</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Weiser, Conrad, <a href="#page26">26</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Welby, Adlard, <a href="#page324">324</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wellsville, O., <a href="#page35">35</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>West Point, Ky., <a href="#page223">223</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wheeling, W. Va., <a href="#page5">5</a>, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href="#page59">59-62</a>, <a href="#page155">155</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href="#page187">187</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wheeling Creek, <a href="#page59">59-61</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wheeling Island, <a href="#page60">60</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wilderness Road, <a name="wilderness" id="wilderness"></a><a href="#page160">160-162</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wilkinson, Gen. James, <a href="#page287">287</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wilkinsonville, Ill., <a href="#page291">291</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Williamson's Island, <a href="#page78">78</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wills Creek, <a href="#page310">310</a>, <a href="#page312">312</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wilson, Pa., <a href="#page13">13</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Witten's Bottom, <a href="#page78">78</a>, <a href="#page79">79</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wood, Abraham, <a href="#page297">297</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Wyandot Indians, <a href="#page46">46</a>, <a href="#page91">91</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Yellowbank Island, <a href="#page248">248-250</a>.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>Yellow Creek, <a href="#page35">35</a>, <a href="#page36">36</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Zane Brothers, <a href="#page60">60</a>, <a href="#page61">61</a>.</p> + </div> +<p> </p> +</div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page335" id="page335"></a>[pg 335]</span> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p><span class="smcap">THIS BOOK HAS BEEN PRINTED</span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">DURING OCTOBER, 1897, BY THE</span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">BLAKELY PRINTING COMPANY.</span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">CHICAGO, FOR WAY & WILLIAMS.</span></p> + </div> </div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="pg" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AFLOAT ON THE OHIO***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 29306-h.txt or 29306-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/3/0/29306">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/0/29306</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Afloat on the Ohio + An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo + + +Author: Reuben Gold Thwaites + + + +Release Date: July 4, 2009 [eBook #29306] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AFLOAT ON THE OHIO*** + + +E-text prepared by David Garcia, Alison Hadwin, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page +images generously made available by Kentuckiana Digital Library +(http://kdl.kyvl.org/) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Kentuckiana Digital Library. See + http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;view=toc;idno=b92-161-29919559 + + +Transcriber's note: + + Spellings and hyphenations are as in the original document. + Hyphenation was inconsistent, with the following words + appearing both with and without hyphens: saw-mill, tread-mill, + drift-wood, back-set, cotton-wood, farm-house, semi-circular, + search-light, fire-brick, out-door, ship-yard(s), and + house-boat(s). The name "Celeron" is used interchangebly with + "Celoron". + + + + + +AFLOAT ON THE OHIO + +An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, +from Redstone to Cairo + +by + +REUBEN GOLD THWAITES + +Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, +Editor of "The Jesuit Relations," +Author of "The Colonies, 1492-1750," "Historic Waterways," +"The Story of Wisconsin," "Our Cycling Tour in England," +etc., etc. + + + + + + + +Chicago +Way & Williams +1897 + +Copyright +by Reuben Gold Thwaites +A.D., 1897 + + + + + _To + FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER, Ph. D., + Professor of American History in the University of + Wisconsin, who loves his native West + and with rare insight and gift of phrase + interprets her story, + this Log of the "Pilgrim" is cordially inscribed._ + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + Preface. xi + + Chapter I. + + On the Monongahela--The over-mountain path--Redstone + Old Fort--The Youghiogheny--Braddock's defeat. 1 + + + Chapter II. + + First day on the Ohio--At Logstown. 22 + + Chapter III. + + Shingis Old Town--The dynamiter--Yellow Creek. 29 + + Chapter IV. + + An industrial region--Steubenville--Mingo Bottom--In + a steel mill--Indian character. 39 + + Chapter V. + + House-boat life--Decadence of steamboat traffic--Wheeling, + and Wheeling Creek. 50 + + Chapter VI. + + The Big Grave--Washington and Round Bottom--A + lazy man's paradise--Captina Creek--George Rogers + Clark at Fish Creek--Southern types. 64 + + Chapter VII. + + In Dixie--Oil and natural gas, at Witten's Bottom--The + Long Reach--Photographing crackers--Visitors in camp. 77 + + + Chapter VIII. + + Life ashore and afloat--Marietta, "the Plymouth Rock + of the West"--The Little Kanawha--The story of + Blennerhassett's Island. 87 + + Chapter IX. + + Poor whites--First library in the West--An hour at + Hockingport--A hermit fisher. 99 + + Chapter X. + + Cliff-dwellers, on Long Bottom--Pomeroy Bend--Letart's + Island, and Rapids--Game, in the early day--Rainy + weather--In a "cracker" home. 109 + + Chapter XI. + + Battle of Point Pleasant--The story of + Gallipolis--Rosebud--Huntington--The genesis of a + houseboater. 125 + + Chapter XII. + + In a fog--The Big Sandy--Rainy weather--Operatic + gypsies--An ancient tavern. 139 + + Chapter XIII. + + The Scioto, and the Shawanese--A night at + Rome--Limestone--Keels, flats, and boatmen of the + olden time. 150 + + Chapter XIV. + + Produce-boats--A dead town--On the Great Bend--Grant's + birthplace--The Little Miami--The genesis + of Cincinnati. 168 + + Chapter XV. + + The story of North Bend--The "shakes"--Driftwood--Rabbit + hash--A side-trip to Big Bone Lick. 182 + + Chapter XVI. + + New Switzerland--An old-time river pilot--Houseboat + life on the lower reaches--A philosopher in + rags--Wooded solitudes--Arrival at Louisville. 202 + + Chapter XVII. + + Storied Louisville--Red Indians and white--A night on + Sand Island--New Albany--Riverside hermits--The + river falling--A deserted village--An ideal camp. 218 + + Chapter XVIII. + + Village life--A traveling photographer--On a country + road--Studies in color--Again among colliers--In + sweet content--A ferry romance. 233 + + Chapter XIX. + + Fishermen's tales--Skiff nomenclature--Green + River--Evansville--Henderson--Audubon and + Rafinesque--Floating shops--The Wabash. 251 + + Chapter XX. + + Shawneetown--Farm-houses on stilts--Cave-in-Rock--Island + nights. 267 + + Chapter XXI. + + The Cumberland and the Tennessee--Stately solitudes--Old + Fort Massac--Dead towns in Egypt--The + last camp--Cairo. 280 + + _Appendix A._--Historical outline of Ohio Valley + settlement. 296 + + _Appendix B._--Selected list of Journals of previous + travelers down the Ohio. 320 + + Index. 329 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +There were four of us pilgrims--my Wife, our Boy of ten and a half +years, the Doctor, and I. My object in going--the others went for the +outing--was to gather "local color" for work in Western history. The +Ohio River was an important factor in the development of the West. +I wished to know the great waterway intimately in its various +phases,--to see with my own eyes what the borderers saw; in +imagination, to redress the pioneer stage, and repeople it. + +A motley company have here performed their parts: Savages of the +mound-building age, rearing upon these banks curious earthworks for +archaeologists of the nineteenth century to puzzle over; Iroquois +war-parties, silently swooping upon sleeping villages of the +Shawanese, and in noisy glee returning to the New York lakes, laden +with spoils and captives; La Salle, prince of French explorers and +coureurs de bois, standing at the Falls of the Ohio, and seeking to +fathom the geographical mysteries of the continent; French and English +fur-traders, in bitter contention for the patronage of the red +man; borderers of the rival nations, shedding each other's blood in +protracted partisan wars; surveyors like Washington and Boone and the +McAfees, clad in fringed hunting-shirts and leathern leggings, mapping +out future states; hardy frontiersmen, fighting, hunting, or farming, +as occasion demanded; George Rogers Clark, descending the river with +his handful of heroic Virginians to win for the United States the +great Northwest, and for himself the laurels of fame; the Marietta +pilgrims, beating Revolutionary swords into Ohio plowshares; and all +that succeeding tide of immigrants from our own Atlantic coast +and every corner of Europe, pouring down the great valley to plant +powerful commonwealths beyond the mountains. A richly-varied panorama +of life passes before us as we contemplate the glowing story of the +Ohio. + +In making our historical pilgrimage we might more easily have +"steamboated" the river,--to use a verb in local vogue; but, from the +deck of a steamer, scenes take on a different aspect than when viewed +from near the level of the flood; for a passenger by such a craft, the +vistas of a winding stream change so rapidly that he does not realize +how it seemed to the canoeist or flatboatman of old; and there are too +many modern distractions about such a mode of progress. To our minds, +the manner of our going should as nearly as possible be that of the +pioneer himself--hence our skiff, and our nightly camp in primitive +fashion. + +The trip was successful, whatever the point of view. Physically, those +six weeks "Afloat on the Ohio" were a model outing--at times rough, to +be sure, but exhilarating, health-giving, brain-inspiring. The Log of +the "Pilgrim" seeks faintly to outline our experiences, but no words +can adequately describe the wooded hill-slopes which day by day girt +us in; the romantic ravines which corrugate the rim of the Ohio's +basin; the beautiful islands which stud the glistening tide; the great +affluents which, winding down for a thousand miles, from the Blue +Ridge, the Cumberland, and the Great Smoky, pour their floods into +the central stream; the giant trees--sycamores, pawpaws, cork elms, +catalpas, walnuts, and what not--which everywhere are in view in this +woodland world; the strange and lovely flowers we saw; the curious +people we met, black and white, and the varieties of dialect which +caught our ear; the details of our charming gypsy life, ashore and +afloat, during which we were conscious of the red blood tingling +through our veins, and, alert to the whisperings of Nature, were +careless of the workaday world, so far away,--simply glad to be alive. + +For the better understanding of the numerous historical references +in the Log, I have thought it well to present in the Appendix a brief +sketch of the settlement of the Ohio Valley. To this Appendix, as a +preliminary reading, I invite those who may care to follow "Pilgrim" +and her crew upon their long journey from historic Redstone down to +the Father of Waters. + +A selected list of Journals of previous travelers down the Ohio, has +been added, for the benefit of students of the social and economic +history of this important gateway to the continental interior. + + R. G. T. + + Madison, Wis., October, 1897. + + + + +AFLOAT ON THE OHIO + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + On the Monongahela--The over-mountain path--Redstone Old + Fort--The Youghiogheny--Braddock's defeat. + + +In camp near Charleroi, Pa., Friday, May 4.--Pilgrim, built for the +glassy lakes and smooth-flowing rivers of Wisconsin, had suffered +unwonted indignities in her rough journey of a thousand miles in a +box-car. But beyond a leaky seam or two, which the Doctor had righted +with clouts and putty, and some ugly scratches which were only +paint-deep, she was in fair trim as she gracefully lay at the foot of +the Brownsville shipyard this morning and received her lading. + +There were spectators in abundance. Brownsville, in the olden day, had +seen many an expedition set out from this spot for the grand tour of +the Ohio, but not in the personal recollection of any in this throng +of idlers, for the era of the flatboat and pirogue now belongs +to history. Our expedition is a revival, and therein lies +novelty. However, the historic spirit was not evident among our +visitors--railway men, coal miners loafing out the duration of a +strike, shipyard hands lying in wait for busier times, small boys +blessed with as much leisure as curiosity, and that wonder of wonders, +a bashful newspaper reporter. Their chief concern centered in the +query, how Pilgrim could hold that goodly heap of luggage and still +have room to spare for four passengers? It became evident that her +capacity is akin to that of the magician's bag. + +"A dandy skiff, gents!" said the foreman of the shipyard, as we +settled into our seats--the Doctor bow, I stroke, with W---- and the +Boy in the stern sheets. Having in silence critically watched us for a +half hour, seated on a capstan, his red flannel shirt rolled up to his +elbows, and well-corded chest and throat bared to wind and weather, +this remark of the foreman was evidently the studied judgment of an +expert. It was taken as such by the good-natured crowd, which, as we +pushed off into the stream, lustily joined in a chorus of "Good-bye!" +and "Good luck to yees, an' ye don't git th' missus drowndid 'fore ye +git to Cairo!" + +The current is slight on these lower reaches of the Monongahela. It +comes down gayly enough from the West Virginia hills, over many a +rapid, and through swirls and eddies in plenty, until Morgantown +is reached; and then, settling into a more sedate course, is at +Brownsville finally converted into a mere mill-pond, by the back-set +of the four slack-water dams between there and Pittsburg. This means +solid rowing for the first sixty miles of our journey, with a current +scarcely perceptible. + +The thought of it suggests lunch. At the mouth of Redstone Creek, a +mile below Dunlap Creek, our port of departure, we turn in to a shaly +beach at the foot of a wooded slope, in semi-rusticity, and fortify +the inner man. + +A famous spot, this Redstone Creek. Between its mouth and that of +Dunlap's was made, upon the site of extensive Indian fortification +mounds, the first English agricultural settlement west of the +Alleghanies. It is unsafe to establish dates for first discoveries, +or for first settlements. The wanderers who, first of all white men, +penetrated the fastnesses of the wilderness were mostly of the sort +who left no documentary traces behind them. It is probable, however, +that the first Redstone settlement was made as early as 1750, the +year following the establishment of the Ohio Company, which had been +chartered by the English crown and given a half-million acres of +land west of the mountains and south of the Ohio River, provided it +established thereon a hundred families within seven years. + +"Redstone Old Fort"--the name had reference to the aboriginal +earthworks--played a part in the Fort Necessity and Braddock campaigns +and in later frontier wars; and, being the western terminus of the +over-mountain road known at various historic periods as Nemacolin's +Path, Braddock's Road, and Cumberland Pike, was for many years the +chief point of departure for Virginia expeditions down the Ohio River. +Washington, who had large landed interests on the Ohio, knew Redstone +well; and here George Rogers Clark set out (1778) upon flatboats, with +his rough-and-ready Virginia volunteers, to capture the country north +of the Ohio for the American arms--one of the least known, but most +momentous conquests in history. + +Early in the nineteenth century, Redstone became Brownsville. But, +whether as Redstone or Brownsville, it was, in its day, like most +"jumping off" places on the edge of civilization, a veritable Sodom. +Wrote good old John Pope, in his Journal of 1790, and in the same +strain scores of other veracious chroniclers: "At this Place we were +detained about a Week, experiencing every Disgust which Rooks and +Harpies could excite." Here thrived extensive yards in which were +built flatboats, arks, keel boats, and all that miscellaneous +collection of water craft which, with their roisterly crews, were the +life of the Ohio before the introduction of steam rendered vessels of +deeper draught essential; whereupon much of the shipping business went +down the river to better stages of water, first to Pittsburg, thence +to Wheeling, and to Steubenville. + +All that is of the past. Brownsville is still a busy corner of the +world, though of a different sort, with all its romance gone. To +the student of Western history, Brownsville will always be a +shrine--albeit a smoky, dusty shrine, with the smell of lubricators +and the clang of hammers, and much talk thereabout of the glories of +Mammon. + +The Monongahela is a characteristic mountain trough. From an altitude +of four or five hundred feet, the country falls in sharp steeps to a +narrow alluvial bench, and then a broad beach of shale and pebble; the +slopes are broken, here and there, where deep, shadowy ravines come +winding down, bearing muddy contributions to the greater flood. +The higher hills are crowned with forest trees, the lower ofttimes +checkered with brown fields, recently planted, and rows of vines +trimmed low to stakes, as in the fashion of the Rhine. The stream, +though still majestic in its sweep, is henceforth a commercial +slack-water, lined with noisy, grimy, matter-of-fact manufacturing +towns, for the most part literally abutting one upon the other all +of the way down to Pittsburg, and fast defiling the once picturesque +banks with the gruesome offal of coal mines and iron plants. +Surprising is the density of settlement along the river. Often, four +or five full-fledged cities are at once in view from our boat, the air +is thick with sooty smoke belched from hundreds of stacks, the ear +is almost deafened with the whirr and roar and bang of milling +industries. + +Tipples of bituminous coal-shafts are ever in sight--begrimed +scaffolds of wood and iron, arranged for dumping the product of the +mines into both barges and railway cars. Either bank is lined with +railways, in sight of which we shall almost continually float, all the +way down to Cairo, nearly eleven hundred miles away. At each tipple +is a miners' hamlet; a row of cottages or huts, cast in a common mold, +either unpainted, or bedaubed with that cheap, ugly red with which one +is familiar in railway bridges and rural barns. Sometimes these huts, +though in the mass dreary enough, are kept in neat repair; but often +are they sadly out of elbows--pigs and children promiscuously at +their doors, paneless sash stuffed with rags, unsightly litter strewn +around, misery stamped on every feature of the homeless tenements. +Dreariest of all is a deserted mining village, and there are +many such--the shaft having been worked out, or an unquenchable +subterranean fire left to smolder in neglect. Here the tipple has +fallen into creaking decrepitude; the cabins are without windows or +doors--these having been taken to some newer hamlet; ridge-poles are +sunken, chimneys tottering; soot covers the gaunt bones, which for all +the world are like a row of skeletons, perched high, and grinning down +at you in their misery; while the black offal of the pit, covering +deep the original beauty of the once green slope, is in its turn being +veiled with climbing weeds--such is Nature's haste, when untrammeled, +to heal the scars wrought by man. + +A mile or two below Charleroi is Lock No. 4, the first of the quartet +of obstructions between Brownsville and Pittsburg. We are encamped a +mile below the dam, in a cozy little willowed nook; a rod behind +our ample tent rises the face of an alluvial terrace, occupied by a +grain-field, running back for an hundred yards to the hills, at the +base of which is a railway track. Across the river, here some two +hundred and fifty yards wide, the dark, rocky bluffs, slashed with +numerous ravines, ascend sharply from the flood; at the quarried base, +a wagon road and the customary railway; and upon the stony beach, two +or three rough shelter-tents, housing the Black Diamond Brass Band, of +Monongahela City, out on a week's picnic to while away the period of +the strike. + +It was seven o'clock when we struck camp, and our frugal repast was +finished by lantern-light. The sun sets early in this narrow trough +through the foothills of the Laurel range. + + * * * * * + +McKeesport, Pa., Saturday, May 5th.--Out there on the beach, near +Charleroi, with the sail for an awning, Pilgrim had been converted +into a boudoir for the Doctor, who, snuggled in his sleeping-bag, +emitted an occasional snore--echoes from the Land of Nod. W---- and +our Boy of ten summers, on their canvas folding-cots, were peacefully +oblivious of the noises of the night, and needed the kiss of dawn to +rouse them. But for me, always a light sleeper, and as yet unused to +our airy bedroom, the crickets chirruped through the long watches. + +Two or three freighters passed in the night, with monotonous +swish-swish and swelling wake. It arouses something akin to awe, this +passage of a steamer's wake upon the beach, a dozen feet from the door +of one's tent. First, the water is sucked down, leaving for a moment +a wet streak of sand or gravel, a dozen feet in width; in quick +succession come heavy, booming waves, running at an acute angle with +the shore, breaking at once into angry foam, and wasting themselves +far up on the strand, for a few moments making bedlam with any +driftwood which chances to have made lodgment there. When suddenly +awakened by this boisterous turmoil, the first thought is that a dam +has broken and a flood is at hand; but, by the time you rise upon your +elbow, the scurrying uproar lessens, and gradually dies away along a +more distant shore. + +We were slow in getting off this morning. But the dense fog had +been loath to lift; and at first the stove smoked badly, until +we discovered and removed the source of trouble. This stove is an +ingenious contrivance of the Doctor's--a box of sheet-iron, of slight +weight, so arranged as to be folded into an incredibly small space; +a vast improvement for cooking purposes over an open camp-fire, which +Pilgrim's crew know, from long experience in far distant fields, to be +a vexation to eyes and soul. + +Coaling hamlets more or less deserted were frequent this +morning--unpainted, windowless, ragged wrecks. At the inhabited mining +villages, either close to the strand or well up on hillside ledges, +idle men were everywhere about. Women and boys and girls were +stockingless and shoeless, and often dirty to a degree. But, +when conversed with, we found them independent, respectful, and +self-respecting folk. Occasionally I would, for the mere sake of +meeting these workaday brothers of ours, with canteen slung on +shoulder, climb the steep flight of stairs cut in the clay bank, and +on reaching the terrace inquire for drinking water, talking familiarly +with the folk who came to meet me at the well-curb. + +There are old-fashioned Dutch ovens in nearly every yard, a few +chickens, and often a shed for the cow, that is off on her daily climb +over the neighboring hills. Through the black pall of shale, a +few vegetables struggle feebly to the light; in the corners of the +palings, are hollyhocks and four-o'clocks; and, on window-sills, rows +of battered tin cans, resplendent in blue and yellow labels, are the +homes of verbenas and geraniums, in sickly bloom. Now and then, a +back door in the dreary block is distinguished by an arbored trellis +bearing a grape-vine, and furnishing for the weary housewife a shady +kitchen, _al fresco_. As a rule, however, there is little attempt to +better the homeless shelter furnished by the corporation. + +We restocked with provisions at Monongahela City, a smart, newish +town, and at Elizabeth, old and dingy. It was at Elizabeth, then +Elizabethtown, that travelers from the Eastern States, over the old +Philadelphia Road, chiefly took boat for the Ohio--the Virginians +still clinging to Redstone, as the terminus of the Braddock Road. +Elizabethtown, in flatboat days, was the seat of a considerable +boat-building industry, its yards in time turning out steamboats for +the New Orleans trade, and even sea-going sailing craft; but, to-day, +coal barges are the principal output of her decaying shipyards. + +By this time, the duties of our little ship's company are well +defined. W---- supervises the cuisine, most important of all offices; +the Doctor is chief navigator, assistant cook, and hewer of wood; it +falls to my lot to purchase supplies, to be carrier of water, to pitch +tent and make beds, and, while breakfast is being cooked, to dismantle +the camp and, so far as may be, to repack Pilgrim; the Boy collects +driftwood, wipes dishes, and helps at what he can--while all hands row +or paddle through the livelong day, as whim or need dictates. + +Lock No. 3, at Walton, necessitated a portage of the load, over the +left bank. It is a steep, rocky climb, and the descent on the lower +side, strewn with stone chips, destructive to shoe-leather. The Doctor +and I let Pilgrim herself down with a long rope, over a shallow spot +in the apron of the dam. + +At six o'clock a camping-ground for the night became desirable. We +were fortunate, last evening, to find a bit of rustic country in which +to pitch our tent; but all through this afternoon both banks of the +river were lined with village after village, city after city, scarcely +a garden patch between them--Wilson, Coal Valley, Lostock, Glassport, +Dravosburg, and a dozen others not recorded on our map, which bears +date of 1882. The sun was setting behind the rim of the river +basin, when we reached the broad mouth of the Youghiogheny (pr. +Yock-i-o-gai'-ny), which is implanted with a cluster of iron-mill +towns, of which McKeesport is the center. So far as we could see down +the Monongahela, the air was thick with the smoke of glowing chimneys, +and the pulsating whang of steel-making plants and rolling-mills made +the air tremble. The view up the "Yough" was more inviting; so, with +oars and paddle firmly set, we turned off our course and lustily +pulled against the strong current of the tributary. A score or two of +house-boats lay tied to the McKeesport shore or were bolstered high +upon the beach; a fleet of Yough steamers had their noses to the +wharf; a half-dozen fishermen were setting nets; and, high over all, +with lofty spans of iron cobweb, several railway and wagon bridges +spanned the gliding stream. + +It was a mile and a half up the Yough before we reached the open +country; and then only the rapidly-gathering dusk drove us ashore, for +on near approach the prospect was not pleasing. Finally settling into +this damp, shallow pocket in the shelving bank, we find broad-girthed +elms and maples screening us from all save the river front, the high +bank in the rear fringed with blue violets which emit a delicious +odor, backed by a field of waving corn stretching off toward +heavily-wooded hills. Our supper cooked and eaten by lantern-light, +we vote ourselves as, after all, serenely content out here in the +starlight--at peace with the world, and very close to Nature's heart. + +There come to us, on the cool evening breeze, faint echoes of the +never-ceasing clang of McKeesport iron mills, down on the Monongahela +shore. But it is not of these we talk, lounging in the welcome warmth +of the camp-fire; it is of the age of romance, a hundred and forty odd +years ago, when Major Washington and Christopher Gist, with famished +horses, floundered in the ice hereabout, upon their famous midwinter +trip to Fort Le Boeuf; when the "Forks of the Yough" became the +extreme outpost of Western advance, with all the accompanying horrors +of frontier war; and later, when McKeesport for a time rivaled +Redstone and Elizabethtown as a center for boat-building and a point +of departure for the Ohio. + + * * * * * + +Pittsburg, Sunday, May 6th.--Many of the trees are already in full +leaf. The trillium is fading. We are in the full tide of early +summer, up here in the mountains, and our long journey of six weeks +is southward and toward the plain. The lower Ohio may soon be a +bake-oven, and the middle of June will be upon us before far-away +Cairo is reached. It behooves us to be up and doing. The river, +flowing by our door, is an ever-pressing invitation to be onward; it +stops not for Sunday, nor ever stops--and why should we, mere drift +upon the passing tide? + +There was a smart thunder-shower during breakfast, followed by a cool, +cloudy morning. At eleven o'clock Pilgrim was laden. A south-eastern +breeze ruffled the waters of the Yough, and for the first time the +Doctor ordered up the sail, with W---- at the sheet. It was not long +before Pilgrim had the water "singing at her prow." With a rush, we +flew past the factories, the house-boats, and the shabby street-ends +of McKeesport, out into the Monongahela, where, luckily, the wind +still held. + +At McKeesport, the hills on the right are of a relatively low +altitude, smooth and well rounded. It was here that Braddock, in his +slow progress toward Fort Duquesne, first crossed the Monongahela, +to the wide, level bottom on the left bank. He had found the inner +country to the right of the river and below the Yough too rough and +hilly for his march, hence had turned back toward the Monongahela, +fording the river to take advantage of the less difficult bottom. Some +four miles below this first crossing, hills reapproach the left +bank, till the bottom ceases; the right thenceforth becomes the +more favorable side for marching. With great pomp, he recrossed the +Monongahela just below the point where Turtle Creek enters from +the east. Within a hillside ravine, but a hundred yards inland, +the brilliant column fell into an ambuscade of Indians and French +half-breeds, suffering that heart-sickening defeat which will ever +live as one of the most tragic events in American history. + +The noisy iron-manufacturing town of Braddock now occupies the site of +Braddock's defeat. Not far from the old ford stretches the great +dam of Lock No. 2, which we portaged, with the usual difficulties of +steep, stony banks. Braddock is but eight miles across country from +Pittsburg, although twelve by river. We have, all the way down, an +almost constant succession of iron and steel-making towns, chief among +them Homestead, on the left bank, seven miles above Pittsburg. The +great strike of July, 1892, with its attendant horrors, is a lurid +chapter in the story of American industry. With shuddering interest, +we view the famous great bank of ugly slag at the base of the steel +mills, where the barges housing the Pinkerton guards were burned by +the mob. + +To-day, the Homesteaders are enjoying their Sunday afternoon outing +along the town shore--nurses pushing baby carriages, self-absorbed +lovers holding hands upon riverside benches, merry-makers rowing in +skiffs or crossing the river in crowded ferries; the electric cars, +following either side of the stream as far down as Pittsburg, crowded +to suffocation with gayly-attired folk. They look little like rioters; +yet it seems but the other day when Homestead men and women and +children were hysterically reveling in atrocities akin to those of the +Paris commune. + +Approaching Pittsburg, the high steeps are everywhere crowded with +houses--great masses of smoke-color, dotted all over with white shades +and sparkling windows, which seem, in the gray afternoon, to be ten +thousand eyes coldly staring down at Pilgrim and her crew from all +over the flanking hillsides. + +Lock No. 1, the last barrier between us and the Ohio, is a mile or two +up the Monongahela, with warehouses and manufacturing plants closely +hemming it in on either side. A portage, unaided, appears to be +impossible here, and we resolve to lock through. But it is Sunday, and +the lock is closed. Above, a dozen down-going steamboats are moored to +the shore, waiting for midnight and the resumption of business; while +below, a similar line of ascending boats is awaiting the close of the +day of rest. Pilgrim, however, cannot hang up at the levee with any +comfort to her crew; it is necessary, with evening at hand, and a +thunder-storm angrily rising over the Pittsburg hills, to get out +of this grimy pool, flanked about with iron and coal yards, chimney +stacks, and a forest of shipping, and to quickly seek the open country +lower down on the Ohio. The lock-keepers appreciated our situation. +Two or three sturdy, courteous men helped us carry our cargo, by an +intricate official route, over coils of rope and chains, over lines of +shafting, and along dizzy walks overhanging the yawning basin; while +the Doctor, directed to a certain chute in midstream, took unladen +Pilgrim over the great dam, with a wild swoop which made our eyes swim +to witness from the lock. + +We had laboriously been rowing on slack-water, all the way from +Brownsville, with the help of an hour's sail this morning; whereas, +now that we were in the strong current below the dam, we had but to +gently paddle to glide swiftly on our way. A hundred steamers, more or +less, lay closely packed with their bows upon the right, or principal +city wharf. It was raining at last, and we donned our storm wraps. No +doubt yellow Pilgrim,--thought hereabout to be a frail craft for these +waters,--her crew all poncho-clad, slipping silently through the dark +water swishing at their sterns, was a novelty to the steamboat men, +for they leaned lazily over their railings, the officers on the +upper deck, engineers and roustabouts on the lower, and watched us +curiously. + +Our period of elation was brief. Black storm-clouds, jagged and +portentous, were scurrying across the sky; and by the time we had +reached the forks, where the Monongahela, in the heart of the city, +joins forces with the Alleghany, Pilgrim was being buffeted about on +a chop sea produced by cross currents and a northwest gale. She can +weather an ordinary storm, but this experience was too much for her. +When a passing steamer threw out long lines of frothy waves to add +to the disturbance, they broke over our gunwales; and W---- with the +coffee pot and the Boy with a tin basin were hard pushed to keep the +water below the thwarts. + +Seeking the friendly shelter of a house-boat, of which there were +scores tied to the left bank, we trusted our drenched luggage to the +care of its proprietor, placed Pilgrim in a snug harbor hard by, and, +hurrying up a steep flight of steps leading from the levee to the +terrace above, found a suburban hotel just as its office clock struck +eight. + +Across the Ohio, through the blinding storm, the dark outlines of +Pittsburg and Allegheny City are spangled with electric lamps which +throw toward us long, shimmering lances of light, in which the mighty +stream, gray, mysterious, tempest-tossed, is seen to be surging onward +with majestic sweep. Upon its bosom we are to be borne for a thousand +miles. Our introduction has been unpropitious; it is to be hoped +that on further acquaintance we may be better pleased with La Belle +Riviere. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + First day on the Ohio--At Logstown. + + +Beaver River, Monday, May 7th.--We have to-day rowed and paddled under +a cloudless sky, but in the teeth of frequent squalls, with heavy +waves freely dashing their spray upon us. At such times a goodly +current, aided by numerous wing-dams, appears of little avail; for, +when we rested upon our oars, Pilgrim would be unmercifully driven up +stream. Thus it has been an almost continual fight to make progress, +and our five-and-twenty miles represent a hard day's work. + +We were overloaded, that was certain; so we stopped at Chartier, three +miles down the river from Pittsburg, and sent on our portly bag of +conventional traveling clothes by express to Cincinnati, where +we intend stopping for a day. This leaves us in our rough boating +costumes for all the smaller towns _en route_. What we may lose in +possible social embarrassments, we gain in lightened cargo. + +Here at the mouth of Chartier's Creek was "Chartier's Old Town" of a +century and a third ago; a straggling, unkempt Indian village then, +but at least the banks were lovely, and the rolling distances clothed +with majestic trees. To-day, these creek banks, connected with +numerous iron bridges, are the dumping-ground for cinders, slag, +rubbish of every degree of foulness; the bare hillsides are crowded +with the ugly dwellings of iron-workers; the atmosphere is thick with +smoke. + +Washington, one of the greatest land speculators of his time, owned +over 32,000 acres along the Ohio. He held a patent from Lord Dunmore, +dated July 5, 1775, for nearly 3,000 acres lying about the mouth +of this stream. In accordance with the free-and-easy habit of +trans-Alleghany pioneers, ten men squatted on the tract, greatly to +the indignation of the Father of his Country, who in 1784 brought +against them a successful suit for ejectment. Twelve years later, more +familiar with this than with most of his land grants, he sold it to a +friend for $12,000. + +Just below Chartier are the picturesque McKee's Rocks, where is the +first riffle in the Ohio. We "take" it with a swoop, the white-capped +waves dancing about us in a miniature rapid. Then we are in the open +country, and for the first time find what the great river is like. +The character of the banks, for some distance below Pittsburg, differs +from that of the Monongahela. The hills are lower, less precipitous, +more graceful. There is a delightful roundness of mass and shade. +Beautiful villas occupy commanding situations on hillsides and +hilltops; we catch glimpses of spires and cupolas, singly or in +groups, peeping above the trees; and now and then a pretty suburban +railway station. The railways upon either bank are built on neat +terraces, and, far from marring the scene, agreeably give life to +it; now and then, three such terraces are to be traced, one above the +other, against the dark background of wood and field--the lower and +upper devoted to rival railway lines, the central one to the common +way. The mouths of the beautiful tributary ravines are crossed either +by graceful iron spans, which frame charming undercut glimpses of +sparkling waterfalls and deep tangles of moss and fern, or by graceful +stone arches draped with vines. There are terraced vineyards, after +the fashion of the Rhineland, and the gentle arts of the florist and +the truck-gardener are much in evidence. The winding river frequently +sweeps at the base of rocky escarpments, but upon one side or the +other there are now invariably bottom lands--narrow on these upper +reaches, but we shall find them gradually widen and lengthen as we +descend. The reaches are from four to seven miles in length, but +these, too, are to lengthen in the middle waters. Islands are +frequent, all day. The largest is Neville's, five miles long and +thickly strewn with villas and market-gardens; still others are but +long sandbars grown to willows, and but temporarily in sight, for the +stage of water is low just now, not over seven feet in the channel. + +Emerging from the immediate suburbs of Pittsburg, the fields broaden, +farmsteads are occasionally to be seen nestled in the undulations +of the hills, woodlands become more dense. There are, however, small +rustic towns in plenty; we are seldom out of sight of these. +Climbing a steep clay slope on the left bank, we visited one of +them--Shousetown, fourteen miles below the city. A sad-eyed, shabby +place, with the pipe line for natural gas sprawling hither and yon +upon the surface of the ground, except at the street crossings, where +a few inches of protecting earth have been laid upon it. The tariff +levied by the gas company is ten cents per month for each light, and a +dollar and a half for a cook-stove. + +We passed, this afternoon, one of the most interesting historic points +upon the river--the picturesque site of ancient Logstown, upon the +summit of a low, steep ridge on the right bank, just below Economy, +and eighteen miles from Pittsburg. Logstown was a Shawanese village as +early as 1727-30, and already a notable fur-trading post when Conrad +Weiser visited it in 1748. Washington and Gist stopped at "Loggestown" +for five days on their visit to the French at Fort Le Boeuf, and +several famous Indian treaties were signed there. A short distance +below, Anthony Wayne's Western army was encamped during the winter of +1792-93, the place being then styled Legionville. In 1824 George Rapp +founded in the neighborhood a German socialist community, and this +later settlement survives to the present day in the thriving little +rustic town of Economy. + +At four o'clock we struck camp on a heavily-willowed shore, at the +apex of the great northern bend of the Ohio (25 miles).[A] Across +the river, on a broad level bottom, are the manufacturing towns of +Rochester and Beaver, divided by the Beaver River; in their rear, +well-rounded hills rise gracefully, checkered with brown fields and +woods in many shades of green, in the midst of which the flowering +white dogwood rears its stately spray. Our sloping willowed +sand-beach, of a hundred feet in width, is thick strewn with +driftwood; back of this a clay bank, eight feet sheer, and a narrow +bottom cut up with small fruit and vegetable patches; the gardeners' +neat frame houses peeping from groves of apple, pear and cherry, upon +the flanking hillsides. A lofty oil-well derrick surmounts the edge of +the terrace a hundred yards below our camp. The bushes and the ground +round about the well are black and slimy with crude petroleum, that +has escaped during the boring process, and the air is heavy with its +odor. We are upon the edge of the far-stretching oil and gas-well +region, and shall soon become familiar enough with such sights and +smells in the neighborhood of our nightly camps. + +No sooner had Pilgrim been turned up against a tree to dry, and a +smooth sandy open chosen for the camp, than the proprietor of the soil +appeared--a middling-sized, lanky man, with a red face and a sandy +goatee surmounting a collarless white shirt all bestained with tobacco +juice. He inquired rather sharply concerning us, but when informed of +our innocent errand, and that we should stay with him but the night, +he promptly softened, explaining that the presence of marauding +fishermen and house-boat folk was incompatible with gardening for +profit, and he would have none of them touch upon his shore. As to +us, we were welcome to stop throughout our pleasure, an invitation he +reinforced by sitting upon a stump, whittling vigorously meanwhile, +and glibly gossiping with the Doctor and me for a half-hour, on crop +conditions and the state of the country--"bein' sociable like," he +said, "an' hav'n' nuth'n 'gin you folks, as knows what's what, I kin +see with half a eye!" + +[Footnote A: Figures in parentheses, similarly placed throughout the +volume, indicate the meandered river mileage from Pittsburg, according +to the map of the Corps of Engineers, U.S.A., published in 1881. The +actual mileage of the channel is a trifle greater.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Shingis Old Town--The dynamiter--Yellow Creek. + + +Kneistley's Cluster, W. Va., Tuesday, May 8th.--We were off at a +quarter past seven, and among the earliest shoppers in Rochester, on +the east bank of the Beaver, where supplies were laid in for the day. +This busy, prosperous-looking place bears little resemblance to the +squalid Indian village which Gist found here in November, 1750. It was +then the seat of Barney Curran, an Indian trader--the same Curran whom +Washington, three years later, employed in the mission to Venango. But +the smaller sister town of Beaver, on the lower side of the mouth,--or +rather the western outskirts of Beaver a mile below the mouth,--has +the most ancient history. On account of a ford across the Beaver, +about where is now a slack-water dam, the neighborhood became of +early importance to the French as a fur-trading center. With customary +liberality toward the Indians, whom they assiduously cultivated, the +French, in 1756, built for them, on this site, a substantial town, +which the English indifferently called Sarikonk, Sohkon, King Beaver's +Town, or Shingis Old Town. During the French and Indian War, the place +was prominent as a rendezvous for the enemies of American borderers; +numerous bloody forays were planned here, and hither were brought to +be adopted into the tribes, or to be cruelly tortured, according to +savage whim, many of the captives whose tales have made lurid the +history of the Ohio Valley. + +Passing Beaver River, the Ohio enters upon its grand sweep to the +southwest. The wide uplands at once become more rustic, especially +those of the left bank, which no longer is threaded by a railway, as +heretofore all the way from Brownsville. The two ranges of undulating +hills, some three hundred and fifty feet high, forming the rim of the +basin, are about a half mile apart; while the river itself is perhaps +a third of a mile in width, leaving narrow bottoms on alternate sides, +as the stream in gentle curves rebounds from the rocky base of one +hill to that of another. When winding about such a base, there is at +this stage of the water a sloping, stony beach, some ten to twenty +yards in width, from which ascends the sharp steep, for the most part +heavily tree-clad--maples, birches, elms and oaks of goodly girth, the +latter as yet in but half-leaf. On the "bottom side" of the river, the +alluvial terrace presents a sheer wall of clay rising from eight to a +dozen feet above the beach, which is often thick-grown with willows, +whose roots hold the soil from becoming too easy a prey to the +encroaching current. Sycamores now begin to appear in the bottoms, +although of less size than we shall meet below. Sometimes the little +towns we see occupy a narrow and more or less rocky bench upon the +hill side of the stream, but settlement is chiefly found upon the +bottoms. + +Shippingsport (32 miles), on the left bank, where we stopped this noon +for eggs, butter, and fresh water, is on a narrow hill bench--a dry, +woe-begone hamlet, side-tracked from the path of the world's progress. +While I was on shore, negotiating with the sleepy storekeeper, Pilgrim +and her crew waited alongside the flatboat which serves as the town +ferry. There they were visited by a breezy, red-faced young man, in a +blue flannel shirt and a black slouch hat, who was soon enough at his +ease to lie flat upon the ferry gunwale, his cheeks supported by his +hands, and talk to W---- and the Doctor as if they were old friends. +He was a dealer in nitroglycerin cartridges, he said, and pointed to a +long, rakish-looking skiff hard by, which bore a red flag at its +prow. "Ye see that? Thet there red flag? Well, thet's the law on us +glyser_een_ fellers--over five hundred poun's, two flags; un'er five +hundred, one flag. I've two hundred and fifty, I have. I tell yer th' +steamboats steer clear o' me, an' don' yer fergit it, neither; they +jist give me a wide berth, they do, yew bet! 'n' th' railroads, they +don' carry no glyser_een_ cartridge, they don't--all uv it by skiff, +like yer see me goin'." + +These cartridges, he explained, are dropped into oil or gas wells +whose owners are desirous of accelerating the flow. The cartridge, in +exploding, enlarges the hole, and often the output of the well is at +once increased by several hundred per cent. The young fellow had the +air of a self-confident rustic, with little experience in the world. +Indeed, it seemed from his elated manner as if this might be his +first trip from home, and the blowing of oil wells an incidental +speculation. The Boy, quick at inventive nomenclature, and fresh +from a reading of Robert Louis Stevenson, called our visitor "the +Dynamiter," and by that title I suppose we shall always remember him. + +The Dynamiter confided to his listeners that he was going down the +river for "a clean hundred miles, and that's right smart fur, ain't +it? How fur down be yees goin'?" The Doctor replied that we were going +nine hundred; whereat the man of explosives gave vent to his feelings +in a prolonged whistle, then a horse laugh, and "Oh come, now! Don' +be givin' us taffy! Say, hones' Injun, how fur down air yew fellers +goin', anyhow?" It was with some difficulty that he could comprehend +the fact. A hundred miles on the river was a great outing for this +village lad; nine hundred was rather beyond his comprehension, +although he finally compromised by "allowing" that we might be going +as far as Cincinnati. Wouldn't the Doctor go into partnership with +him? He had no caps for his cartridges, and if the Doctor would buy +caps and "stan' in with him on the cost of the glyser_een_," they +would, regardless of Ohio statutes, blow up the fish in unfrequented +portions of the river, and make two hundred dollars apiece by carrying +the spoils in to Wheeling. The Doctor, as a law-abiding citizen, +good-naturedly declined; and upon my return to the flat, the Dynamiter +was handing the Boy a huge stick of barber-pole candy, saying, "Well, +yew fellers, we'll part friends, anyhow--but sorry yew won't go in on +this spec'; there's right smart money in 't, 'n' don' yer fergit it!" + +By the middle of the afternoon we reached the boundary line (40 miles) +between Pennsylvania on the east and Ohio and West Virginia on the +west. The last Pennsylvania settlements are a half mile above the +boundary--Smith's Ferry (right), an old and somewhat decayed village, +on a broad, low bottom at the mouth of the picturesque Little Beaver +Creek;[A] and Georgetown (left), a prosperous-looking, sedate town, +with tidy lawns running down to the edge of the terrace, below which +is a shelving stone beach of generous width. Two high iron towers +supporting the cable of a current ferry add dignity to the twin +settlements. A stone monument, six feet high, just observable through +the willows on the right shore, marks the boundary; while upon the +left bank, surmounting a high, rock-strewn beach, is the dilapidated +frame house of a West Virginia "cracker," through whose garden-patch +the line takes its way, unobserved and unthought of by pigs, chickens +and children, which in hopeless promiscuity swarm the interstate +premises. + +For many days to come we are to have Ohio on the right bank and West +Virginia on the left. There is no perceptible change, of course, in +the contour of the rugged hills which hem us in; yet somehow it stirs +the blood to reflect that quite within the recollection of all of +us in Pilgrim's crew, save the Boy, that left bank was the house of +bondage, and that right the land of freedom, and this river of ours +the highway between. + +East Liverpool (44 miles) and Wellsville (48 miles) are long stretches +of pottery and tile-making works, both of them on the Ohio shore. +There is nothing there to lure us, however, and we determined to camp +on the banks of Yellow Creek (51 miles), a peaceful little Ohio stream +some two rods in width, its mouth crossed by two great iron spans, for +railway and highway. But although Yellow Creek winds most gracefully +and is altogether a charming bit of rustic water, deep-set amid +picturesque slopes of field and wood, we fail to find upon its banks +an appropriate camping-place. Upon one side a country road closely +skirts the shore, and on the other a railway, while for the mile or +more we pushed along small farmsteads almost abutted. Hence we retrace +our path to the great river, and, dropping down-stream for two miles, +find what we seek upon the lower end of the chief of Kneistly's +Cluster--two islands on the West Virginia side of the channel. + +It is storied ground, this neighborhood of ours. Over there at the +mouth of Yellow Creek was, a hundred and twenty years ago, the camp of +Logan, the Mingo chief; opposite, on the West Virginia shore, Baker's +Bottom, where occurred the treacherous massacre of Logan's family. The +tragedy is interwoven with the history of the trans-Alleghany border; +and schoolboys have in many lands and tongues recited the pathetic +defense of the poor Mingo, who, more sinned against than sinning, was +crushed in the inevitable struggle between savagery and civilization. +"Who is there to mourn for Logan?" + +We are high and dry on our willowed island. Above, just out of sight, +are moored a brace of steam pile-drivers engaged in strengthening +the dam which unites us with Baker's Bottom. To the left lies a broad +stretch of gravel strand, beyond which is the narrow water fed by the +overflow of the dam; to the right, the broad steamboat channel rolls +between us and the Ohio hills, while the far-reaching vista downstream +is a feast of shade and tint, by land and water, with the lights and +smoke of New Cumberland and Sloan's Station faintly discernible near +the horizon. All about us lies a beautiful world of woodland. +The whistle of quails innumerable broke upon us in the twilight, +succeeding to the calls of rose-breasted grosbeaks and a goodly +company of daylight followers; in this darkening hour, the low, +plaintive note of the whip-poor-will is heard on every hand, now +and then interrupted by the hoarse bark of owls. There is a gentle +tinkling of cowbells on the Ohio shore, and on both are human voices +confused by distance. All pervading is the deep, sullen roar of a +great wing-dam, a half mile or so down-stream. + +The camp is gypsy-like. Our washing lies spread on bushes, where it +will catch the first peep of morning sun. Perishable provisions rest +in notches of trees, where the cool evening breeze will strike them. +Seated upon the "grub" box, I am writing up our log by aid of the +lantern hung from a branch overhead, while W----, ever busy, sits by +with her mending. Lying in the moonlight, which through the sprawling +willows gayly checkers our sand bank, the Doctor and the Boy are +discussing the doings of Br'er Rabbit--for we are in the Southland +now, and may any day meet good Uncle Remus. + +[Footnote A: On this creek was the hunting-cabin of the Seneca (Mingo) +chief, Half King, who sent a message of welcome to Washington, when +the latter was on his way to Great Meadows (1754).] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + An industrial region--Steubenville--Mingo Bottom--In a steel + mill--Indian character. + + +Mingo Junction, Ohio, Wednesday, May 9th.--We had a cold night upon +our island. Upon arising this morning, a heavy fog enveloped us, at +first completely veiling the sun; soon it became faintly visible, a +great ball of burnished copper reflected in the dimpled flood which +poured between us and the Ohio shore. Weeds and willows were sopping +wet, as was also our wash, and the breakfast fire was a comfortable +companion. But by the time we were off, the cloud had lifted, and the +sun gushed out with promise of a warm day. + +Throughout the morning, Pilgrim glided through a thickly settled +district, reminding us of the Monongahela. Sewer-pipe and +vitrified-brick works, and iron and steel plants, abound on the +narrow bottoms. The factories and mills themselves generally wear +a prosperous look; but the dependent towns vary in appearance, from +clusters of shabby, down-at-the-heel cabins, to lines of neat and +well-painted houses and shops. + +We visited the vitrified-brick works at New Cumberland, W. Va. (56 +miles), where the proprietor kindly explained his methods, and talked +freely of his business. It was the old story, too close a competition +for profit, although the use of brick pavements is fast spreading. +Fire clay available for the purpose is abundant on the banks of the +Ohio all the way from Pittsburg to Kingston (60 miles). A few miles +below New Cumberland, on the Ohio shore, we inspected the tile works +at Freeman, and admired the dexterity which the workmen had attained. + +But what interested us most of all was the appalling havoc which these +clay and iron industries are making with the once beautiful banks of +the river. Each of them has a large daily output of debris, which is +dumped unmercifully upon the water's edge in heaps from fifty to a +hundred feet high. Sometimes for nearly a mile in length, the natural +bank is deep buried out of sight; and we have from our canoe naught +but a dismal wall of rubbish, crowding upon the river to the +uttermost limit of governmental allowance. Fifty years hence, if these +enterprises multiply at the present ratio, and continue their present +methods, the Upper Ohio will roll between continuous banks of clay and +iron offal, down to Wheeling and beyond. + +Before noon we had left behind us this industrial region, and were +again in rustic surroundings. The wind had gone down, the atmosphere +was oppressively warm, the sun's reflection from the glassy stream +came with almost scalding effect upon our faces. We had rigged an +awning over some willow hoops, but it could not protect us from this +reflection. For an hour or two--one may as well be honest--we fairly +sweltered upon our pilgrimage, until at last a light breeze ruffled +the water and brought blessed relief. + +The hills are not as high as hitherto, and are more broken. Yet +they have a certain majestic sweep, and for the most part are +forest-mantled from base to summit. Between them the river winds with +noble grace, continually giving us fresh vistas, often of surpassing +loveliness. The bottoms are broader now, and frequently semicircular, +with fine farms upon them, and prosperous villages nestled in generous +groves. Many of the houses betoken age, or what passes for it in this +relatively new country, being of the colonial pattern, with fan-shaped +windows above the doors, Grecian pillars flanking the front porch, and +wearing the air of comfortable respectability. + +Beautiful islands lend variety to the scene, some of them mere +willowed "tow-heads" largely submerged in times of flood, while others +are of a permanent character, often occupied by farms. We have with us +a copy of Cuming's _Western Pilot_ (Cincinnati, 1834), which is still +a practicable guide for the Ohio, as the river's shore lines are not +subject to so rapid changes as those of the Mississippi; but many of +the islands in Cuming's are not now to be found, having been swept +away in floods, and we encounter few new ones. It is clear that the +islands are not so numerous as sixty years ago. The present works of +the United States Corps of Engineers tend to permanency in the +_status quo_; doubtless the government map of 1881 will remain an +authoritative chart for a half century or more to come. + +W----'s enthusiasm for botany frequently takes us ashore. Landing at +the foot of some eroded steep which, with ragged charm, rises sharply +from the gravelly beach, we fasten Pilgrim's painter to a stone, and +go scrambling over the hillside in search of flowers, bearing in mind +the Boy's constant plea, to "Get only one of a kind," and leave the +rest for seed; for other travelers may come this way, and 'tis a sin +indeed to exterminate a botanical rarity. But we find no rarities +to-day--only solomon's seal, trillium, wild ginger, cranebill, +jack-in-the-pulpit, wild columbine. Poison ivy is on every hand, in +these tangled woods, with ferns of many varieties--chiefly maidenhair, +walking leaf, and bladder. The view from projecting rocks, in these +lofty places, is ever inspiring; the country spread out below us, as +in a relief map; the great glistening river winding through its hilly +trough; a rumpled country for a few miles on either side, gradually +trending into broad plains, checkered with fields on which farmsteads +and rustic villages are the chessmen. + +At one o'clock we were at Steubenville, Ohio (67 miles), where +the broad stoned wharf leads sharply up to the smart, well-built, +substantial town of some sixteen thousand inhabitants. W---- and I had +some shopping to do there, while the Doctor and the Boy remained down +at the inevitable wharf-boat, and gossiped with the philosophical +agent, who bemoaned the decadence of steamboat traffic in general, and +the rapidly falling stage of water in particular. + +Three miles below Steubenville is Mingo Junction, where we are the +guests of a friend who is superintendent of the iron and steel works +here. The population of Mingo is twenty-five hundred. From seven to +twelve hundred are employed in the works, according to the exigencies +of business. Ten per cent of them are Hungarians and Slavonians--a +larger proportion would be dangerous, our host avers, because of the +tendency of these people to "run the town" when sufficiently numerous +to make it possible. The Slavs in the iron towns come to America for a +few years, intent solely on saving every dollar within reach. They are +willing to work for wages which from the American standard seem low, +but to them almost fabulous; herd together in surprising promiscuity; +maintain a low scale of clothing and diet, often to the ruin of +health; and eventually return to Eastern Europe, where their savings +constitute a little fortune upon which they can end their days in +ease. This sort of competition is fast degrading legitimate American +labor. Its regulation ought not to be thought impossible. + +A visit to a great steel-making plant, in full operation, is an +event in a man's life. Particularly remarkable is the weird spectacle +presented at night, with the furnaces fiercely gleaming, the fresh +ingots smoking hot, the Bessemer converter "blowing off," the great +cranes moving about like things of life, bearing giant kettles of +molten steel; and amidst it all, human life held so cheaply. Nearer to +mediaeval notions of hell comes this fiery scene than anything imagined +by Dante. The working life of one of these men is not over ten years, +B---- says. A decade of this intense heat, compared to which a breath +of outdoor air in the close mill-yard, with the midsummer sun in the +nineties, seems chilly, wears a man out--"only fit for the boneyard +then, sir," was the laconic estimate of an intelligent boss whom I +questioned on the subject. + +Wages run from ninety cents to five dollars a day, with far more at +the former rate than the latter. A ninety-cent man working in a place +so hot that were water from a hose turned upon him it would at once be +resolved into scalding steam, deserves our sympathy. It is pleasing +to find in our friend, the superintendent, a strong fellow-feeling +for his men, and a desire to do all in his power to alleviate their +condition. He has accomplished much in improving the _morale_ of the +town; but deep-seated, inexorable economic conditions, apparently +beyond present control, render nugatory any attempts to better the +financial condition of the underpaid majority. + +Mingo Junction--"Mingo Bottom" of old--was an interesting locality +in frontier days. On this fertile river beach was long one of the +strongest of the Mingo villages. During the last week of May, 1782, +Crawford's little army rendezvoused here, en route to Sandusky, a +hundred and fifty miles distant, and intent on the destruction of the +Wyandot towns. But the Indians had not been surprised, and the army +was driven back with slaughter, reaching Mingo the middle of +June, bereft of its commander. Crawford, who was a warm friend of +Washington, suffered almost unprecedented torture at the stake, his +fate sending a thrill of horror through all the Western settlements. + +Let us not be too harsh in our judgment of these red Indians. At +first, the white colonists from Europe were regarded by them as of +supernatural origin, and hospitality, veneration, and confidence were +displayed toward the new-comers. But the mortality of the Europeans +was soon made painfully evident to them. When the early Spaniards, and +afterward the English, kidnaped tribesmen for sale into slavery, +or for use as captive guides, and even murdered them on slight +provocation, distrust and hatred naturally succeeded to the sentiment +of awe. Like many savage races, like the earlier Romans, the Indian +looked upon the member of every tribe with which he had not made a +formal peace as a public enemy; hence he felt justified in wreaking +his vengeance on the race, whenever he failed to find individual +offenders. He was exceptionally cruel, his mode of warfare was +skulking, he could not easily be reached in the forest fastnesses +which he alone knew well, and his strokes fell heaviest on women and +children; so that whites came to fear and unspeakably to loathe the +savage, and often added greatly to the bitterness of the struggle by +retaliation in kind. The white borderers themselves were frequently +brutal, reckless, lawless; and under such conditions, clashing +was inevitable. But worse agents of discord than the agricultural +colonists were the itinerants who traveled through the woods visiting +the tribes, exchanging goods for furs; these often cheated and robbed +the Indian, taught him the use of intoxicants, bullied and browbeat +him, appropriated his women, and in general introduced serious +demoralization into the native camps. The bulk of the whites doubtless +intended to treat the Indian honorably; but the forest traders were +beyond the pale of law, and news of the details of their transactions +seldom reached the coast settlements. + +As a neighbor, the Indian was difficult to deal with, whether in the +negotiation of treaties of amity, or in the purchase of lands. Having +but a loose system of government, there was no really responsible +head, and no compact was secure from the interference of malcontents, +who would not be bound by treaties made by the chiefs. The English +felt that the red men were not putting the land to its full use, that +much of the territory was growing up as a waste, that they were best +entitled to it who could make it the most productive. On the +other hand, the earlier cessions of land were made under a total +misconception; the Indians supposed that the new-comers would, after +a few years of occupancy, pass on and leave the tract again to the +natives. There was no compromise possible between races with +precisely opposite views of property in land. The struggle was +inevitable--civilization against savagery. No sentimental notions +could prevent it. It was in the nature of things that the weaker must +give way. The Indian was a formidable antagonist, and there were times +when the result of the struggle seemed uncertain; but in the end he +went to the wall. In judging the vanquished enemy of our civilization, +let us not underestimate his intellect, or the many good qualities +which were mingled with his savage vices, or fail to credit him with +sublime courage, and a tribal patriotism which no disaster could cool. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Houseboat life--Decadence of steamboat traffic--Wheeling, and + Wheeling Creek. + + +Above Moundsville, W. Va., Thursday, May 10th.--Our friends saw us +off at the gravelly beach just below the "works." There was a slight +breeze ahead, but the atmosphere was agreeable, and Pilgrim bore a +happy crew, now as brown as gypsies; the first painful effects of +sunburn are over, and we are hardened in skin and muscle to any +vicissitudes which are likely to be met upon our voyage. Rough +weather, river mud, and all the other exigencies of a moving camp, +are beginning to tell upon clothing; we are becoming like gypsies in +raiment, as well as color. But what a soul-satisfying life is this +gypsying! We possess the world, while afloat on the Ohio! + +There are, in the course of the summer, so many sorts of people +traveling by the river,--steamboat passengers, campers, fishers, +house-boat folk, and what not,--that we attract little attention of +ourselves, but Pilgrim is indeed a curiosity hereabout. What remarks +we overhear are about her,--"Honey skiff, that!" "Right smart skiff!" +"Good skiff for her place, but no good for this yere river!" and +so on. She is a lap-streak, square-sterned craft, of white cedar +three-eighths of an inch thick; fifteen feet in length and four of +beam; weighs just a hundred pounds; comfortably holds us and our +luggage, with plenty of spare room to move about in; is easily +propelled, and as stanch as can be made. Upon these waters, we meet +nothing like her. Not counting the curious floating boxes and punts, +which are knocked together out of driftwood, by boys and poor whites, +and are numerous all along shore, the regulation Ohio river skiff is +built on graceful lines, but of inch boards, heavily ribbed, and is a +sorry weight to handle. The contention is, that to withstand the swash +of steamboat wakes breaking upon the shore, and the rush of drift in +times of flood, a heavy skiff is necessary; there is a tendency +to decry Pilgrim as a plaything, unadapted to the great river. A +reasonable degree of care at all times, however, and keeping the boat +drawn high on the beach when not in use,--such care as we are familiar +with upon our Wisconsin inland lakes,--would render the employment of +such as she quite practicable, and greatly lessen the labor of rowing +on this waterway. + +The houseboats, dozens of which we see daily, interest us greatly. +They are scows, or "flats," greatly differing in size, with +low-ceilinged cabins built upon them--sometimes of one room, sometimes +of half a dozen, and varying in character from a mere shanty to a +well-appointed cottage. Perhaps the greater number of these craft are +afloat in the river, and moored to the bank, with a gang-plank running +to shore; others are "beached," having found a comfortable nook in +some higher stage of water, and been fastened there, propped level +with timbers and driftwood. Among the houseboat folk are young working +couples starting out in life, and hoping ultimately to gain a foothold +on land; unfortunate people, who are making a fresh start; men +regularly employed in riverside factories and mills; invalids, who, at +small expense, are trying the fresh-air cure; others, who drift up and +down the Ohio, seeking casual work; and legitimate fishermen, who find +it convenient to be near their nets, and to move about according to +the needs of their calling. But a goodly proportion of these boats are +inhabited by the lowest class of the population,--poor "crackers" who +have managed to scrape together enough money to buy, or enough energy +and driftwood to build, such a craft; and, near or at the towns, many +are occupied by gamblers, illicit liquor dealers, and others who, +while plying nefarious trades, make a pretense of following the +occupation of the Apostles. + +Houseboat people, whether beached or afloat, pay no rent, and +heretofore have paid no taxes. Kentucky has recently passed, more as +a police regulation than as a means of revenue, an act levying a State +tax of twenty-five dollars upon each craft of this character; and the +other commonwealths abutting upon the river are considering the policy +of doing likewise. The houseboat men have, however, recently formed +a protective association, and propose to fight the new laws on +constitutional grounds, the contention being that the Ohio is a +national highway, and that commerce upon it cannot be hampered by +State taxes. This view does not, however, affect the taxability of +"beached" boats, which are clearly squatters on State soil. + +Both in town and country, the riffraff of the houseboat element are in +disfavor. It is not uncommon for them, beached or tied up, to remain +unmolested in one spot for years, with their pigs, chickens, and +little garden patch about them, mayhap a swarm or two of bees, and +a cow enjoying free pasturage along the weedy bank or on neighboring +hills. Occasionally, however, as the result of spasmodic local +agitation, they are by wholesale ordered to betake themselves to +some more hospitable shore; and not a few farmers, like our friend at +Beaver River, are quick to pattern after the city police, and order +their visitors to move on the moment they seek a mooring. For the +truth is, the majority of those who "live on the river," as the phrase +goes, have the reputation of being pilferers; farmers tell sad tales +of despoiled chicken-roosts and vegetable gardens. From fishing, +shooting, collecting chance driftwood, and leading a desultory life +along shore, like the wreckers of old they naturally fall into this +thieving habit. Having neither rent nor taxes to pay, and for the most +part not voting, and having no share in the political or social life +of landsmen, they are in the State, yet not of it,--a class unto +themselves, whose condition is well worthy the study of economists. + +Interspersed with the houseboat folk, although of different character, +are those whose business leads them to dwell as nomads upon the +river--merchant peddlers, who spend a day or two at some rustic +landing, while scouring the neighborhood for oil-barrels and junk, +which they load in great heaps upon the flat roofs of their +cabins, giving therefor, at goodly prices, groceries, crockery, and +notions,--often bartering their wares for eggs and dairy products, to +be disposed of to passing steamers, whose clerks in turn "pack" them +for the largest market on their route; blacksmiths, who moor their +floating shops to country beach or village levee, wherever business +can be had; floating theaters and opera companies, with large barges +built as play-houses, towed from town to town by their gaudily-painted +tugs, on which may occasionally be perched the vociferous "steam +piano" of our circus days, "whose soul-stirring music can be heard +for four miles;" traveling sawyers, with old steamboats made over into +sawmills, employed by farmers to "work up" into lumber such logs as +they can from time to time bring down to the shore--the product +being oftenest used in the neighborhood, but occasionally rafted, +and floated to the nearest large town; and a miscellaneous lot +of traveling craftsmen who live and work afloat,--chairmakers, +upholsterers, feather and mattress renovators, photographers,--who +land at the villages, scatter abroad their advertising cards, and stay +so long as the ensuing patronage warrants. + +A motley assortment, these neighbors of ours, an uncultivated field +for the fiction writers. We have struck up acquaintance with many of +them, and they are not bad fellows, as the world goes. Philosophers +all, and loquacious to a degree. But they cannot, for the life of +them, fathom the mystery of our cruise. We are not in trade? we are +not fishing? we are not canvassers? we are not show-people? "What 'n +'tarnation air ye, anny way? Oh, come now! No fellers is do'n' th' +river fur fun, that's sartin--ye're jist gov'm'nt agints! That's my +way o' think'n'. Well, 'f ye kin find fun in 't, then done go ahead, +I say! But all same, we'll be friends, won't we? Yew bet strangers! +Ye're welcome t' all in this yere shanty boat--ain't no bakky 'bout +yer close, yew fellers?" We meet with abundant courtesy of this rude +sort, and weaponless sleep well o' nights, fearing naught from our +comrades for the nonce. + +We again have railways on either bank. The iron horse has almost +eclipsed the "fire canoe," as the Indians picturesquely styled the +steamboat. We occasionally see boats tied up to the wharves, evidently +not in commission; but, in actual operation, we seldom meet or pass +over one or two daily. To be sure, the low stage of water,--from +six to eight feet thus far, and falling daily,--and the coal strike, +militate against navigation interests. But the truth is, there is very +little business now left for steamboats, beyond the movement of coal, +stone, bricks, and other bulky material, some way freight, and a light +passenger traffic. The railroads are quicker and surer, and of course +competition lowers the charges. + +The heavy manufacturing interests along the river now depend little +upon the steamers, although originally established here because of +them. I asked our friend, the superintendent at Mingo, what advantage +was gained by having his plant upon the river. He replied: "We can +get all the water we want, and we use a great deal of it; and it is +convenient to empty our slag upon the banks; but our chief interest +here is in the fact that Mingo is a railway junction." By rail he gets +his coal and ore, and ships away his product. Were the coal to come a +considerable distance, the river would be the cheaper road; but it is +obtained from neighboring hill mines that are practically owned by the +railways. This coal, by the way, costs $1.10 at the shaft mouth, and +$1.75 landed at the Mingo works. As for the sewer-pipe, brick, and +pottery works, they are along stream because of the great beds of clay +exposed by the erosion of the river. + +It is fortunate for the stability of these towns, that the Ohio flows +along the transcontinental pathway westward, so that the great railway +lines may serve them without deflection from their natural course. Had +the great stream flowed south instead of west, the industries of the +valley doubtless would gradually have been removed to the transverse +highways of the new commerce, save where these latter crossed the +river, and thus have left scores of once thriving communities mere +'longshore wrecks of their former selves. This is not possible, now. +The steamboat traffic may still further waste, until the river is no +longer serviceable save as a continental drainage ditch; but, chiefly +because of its railways, the Ohio Valley will continue to be the seat +of an industrial population which shall wax fat upon the growth of the +nation's needs. + +By the middle of the afternoon, we were at Wheeling (91 miles). The +town has fifty thousand inhabitants, is substantially built, of a +distinctly Southern aspect; well stretched out along the river, +but narrow; with gaunt, treeless, gully-washed hills of clay rising +abruptly behind, giving the place a most forbidding appearance from +the water. There are several fine bridges spanning the Ohio; and +Wheeling Creek, which empties on the lower edge of town, is crossed by +a maze of steel spans and stone arches; the well-paved wharf, sloping +upward from the Ohio, is nearly as broad and imposing as that of +Pittsburg;[A] houseboats are here by the score, some of them the +haunts of fishing clubs, as we judge from the names emblazoned on +their sides--"Mystic Crew," "South Side Club," and the like. + +For the first time upon our tour, negroes are abundant upon the +streets and lounging along the river front. They vary in color from +yellow to inky blackness, and in raiment from the "dude," smart +in straw hat, collars and cuffs, and white-frilled shirt with +glass-diamond pin, to the steamboat roustabout, all slouch and rags, +and evil-eyed. + +Wheeling Island (300 acres), up to thirty years ago mentioned in +travelers' journals as a rare beauty-spot, is to-day thick-set with +cottages of factory hands and small villas, and commonplace; +while smoky Bridgeport, opposite on the Ohio side, was from our +vantage-point a mere smudge upon the landscape. + +Wheeling Creek is famous in Western history. The three Zane brothers, +Ebenezer, Jonathan and Silas,--typical, old-fashioned names these, +bespeaking the God-fearing, Bible-loving, Scotch-Presbyterian +stock from which sprang so large a proportion of trans-Alleghany +pioneers,--explored this region as early as 1769, built cabins, and +made improvements--Silas at the forks of the creek, and Ebenezer and +Jonathan at the mouth. During three or four years, it was a hard fight +between them and the Indians; but, though several times driven from +the scene, the Zane brothers stubbornly reappeared, and rebuilt their +burned habitations. + +Before the Revolutionary War broke out, the fortified home of the +Zanes, at the creek mouth, was a favorite stopping stage in the +savage-haunted wilderness; and many a traveler in those early days has +left us in his journal a thankful account of his tarrying here. The +Zane stockade developed into Fort Fincastle, in Lord Dunmore's time; +then, Fort Henry, during the Revolution; and everyone who knows his +Western history at all has read of the three famous sieges of Wheeling +(1777, 1781, and 1782), and the daring deeds of its men and women, +which help illumine the pages of border annals. Finally, by 1784, the +fort at Wheeling, that had never surrendered, was demolished as no +longer necessary, for the wall of savage resistance was now pushed far +westward. Wheeling had become the western end of a wagon road across +the Panhandle, from Redstone, and here were fitted out many flatboat +expeditions for the lower Ohio; later, in steamboat days, the shallow +water of the upper river caused Wheeling to be in midsummer the +highest port attainable; and to this day it holds its ground as the +upper terminus of several steamboat lines. + +Below Wheeling are several miles of factory towns nestled by the +strand, and numerous coal tipples, with their begrimed villages. +Fishermen have been frequent to-day, in houseboats of high and low +degree, and in land camps composed of tents and board shanties, with +rows of seines and tarred pound-nets stretched in the sun to dry; +tow-headed children abound, almost as nude as the pigs and dogs +and chickens amongst which they waddle and roll; women-folk busy +themselves with the multifarious cares of home-keeping, while their +lords are in shady nooks mending nets, or listlessly examining trout +lines which appear to yield but empty hooks; they tell us that when +the river is falling, fish bite not, and yet they serenely angle on, +dreaming their lives away. + +A half mile above Big Grave Creek (101 miles), we, too, hurry into +camp on a shelving bank of sand, deep-fringed with willows; for over +the western hills thunder-clouds are rising, with wind gusts. Level +fields stretch back of us for a quarter of a mile, to the hills which +bound the bottom; at our front door majestically rolls the growing +river, perhaps a third of a mile in width, black with the reflection +of the sky, and wrinkled now and then with squalls which scurry over +its bubbling surface.[B] + +The storm does not break, but the bending tree-tops crone, and toads +innumerable rend the air with their screaming whistles. We had great +ado, during the cooking of dinner, to prevent them from hopping into +our little stove, as it gleamed brightly in the early dusk; and have +adopted special precautions to keep them from the tent, as they jump +about in the tall grass, appeasing their insectivorous appetites. + +[Footnote A: Upon the Ohio and kindred rivers, the term "wharf" +applies to the river beach when graded and paved, ready for the +reception of steamers. Such a wharf must not be confounded with a lake +or seaside wharf, a staging projected into the water.] + +[Footnote B: It was in this neighborhood, a mile or two above our +camp, where the bottom is narrower, that Capt. William Foreman and +twenty other Virginia militiamen were killed in an Indian ambuscade, +Sept. 27, 1777. An inscribed stone monument was erected on the spot in +1835, but we could not find it.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + The Big Grave--Washington, and Round Bottom--A lazy man's + Paradise--Captina Creek--George Rogers Clark at Fish + Creek--Southern types. + + +Near Fishing Creek, Friday, May 11th.--There had been rain during the +night, with fierce wind gusts, but during breakfast the atmosphere +quieted, and we had a genial, semi-cloudy morning. + +Off at 8 o'clock, Pilgrim's crew were soon exploring Moundsville. +There are five thousand people in this old, faded, countrified town. +They show you with pride the State Penitentiary of West Virginia, a +solemn-looking pile of dark gray stone, with the feeble battlements +and towers common to American prison architecture. But the chief +feature of the place is the great Indian mound--the "Big Grave" of +early chroniclers. This earthwork is one of the largest now remaining +in the United States, being sixty-eight feet high and a hundred +in diameter at the base, and has for over a century attracted the +attention of travelers and archaeologists. + +We found it at the end of a straggling street, on the edge of the +town, a quarter of a mile back from the river. Around the mound has +been left a narrow plat of ground, utilized as a cornfield; and the +stout picket fence which encloses it bears peremptory notice that +admission is forbidden. However, as the proprietor was not easily +accessible, we exercised the privilege of historical pilgrims, and, +letting ourselves in through the gate, picked our way through rows of +corn, and ascended the great cone. It is covered with a heavy growth +of white oaks, some of them three feet in diameter, among which the +path picturesquely zigzags. The summit is fifty-five feet in diameter, +and the center somewhat depressed, like a basin. From the middle of +this basin a shaft some twenty-five feet in diameter has been sunk by +explorers, for a distance of perhaps fifty feet; at one time, a level +tunnel connected the bottom of this shaft with the side of the cone, +but it has been mostly obliterated. A score of years ago, tunnel and +shaft were utilized as the leading attractions of a beer garden--to +such base uses may a great historical landmark descend! + +Dickens, who apparently wrote the greater part of his _American Notes_ +while suffering from dyspepsia, has a note of appreciation for the +Big Grave: "... the host of Indians who lie buried in a great mound +yonder--so old that mighty oaks and other forest trees have struck +their roots into its earth; and so high that it is a hill, even among +the hills that Nature planted around it. The very river, as though it +shared one's feelings of compassion for the extinct tribes who lived +so pleasantly here, in their blessed ignorance of white existence, +hundreds of years ago, steals out of its way to ripple near this +mound; and there are few places where the Ohio sparkles more brightly +than in the Big Grave Creek." + +There is a sharp bend in the river, just below Moundsville, with +Dillon's Bottom stretching long and wide at the apex on the Ohio +shore--flat green fields, dotted with little white farmsteads, each +set low in its apple grove, and a convoluted wall of dark hills +hemming them in along the northern horizon. Then below this comes +Round Bottom, its counterpart on the West Virginia side, and coursing +through it a pretty meadow creek, Butler's Run. + +Writes Washington, in 1781, to a correspondent who is thinking of +renting lands in this region: "I have a small tract called the round +bottom containing about 600 Acres, which would also let. It lyes on +the Ohio, opposite to pipe Creek, and a little above Capteening." +Across the half mile of river are the little levels and great slopes +of the Ohio hills, through which breaks this same Pipe Creek; and +hereabout Cresap's band murdered a number of inoffensive Shawanese, +a tragedy which was one of the inciting causes of Lord Dunmore's War +(1774). + +We crossed over into Ohio, and pulled up on the gravelly spit at the +mouth of Pipe. While the others were botanizing high on the mountain +side, I went along a beach path toward a group of whitewashed cabins, +intent on replenishing the canteen. Upon opening the gate of one of +them, two grizzly dogs came bounding out, threatening to test the +strength of my corduroy trousers. The proprietor cautiously peered +from a window, and, much to my relief, called off the animals. +Satisfied, apparently, that I was not the visitor he expected, the +fellow lounged out and sat upon the steps, where I joined him. He was +a tall, raw-boned, loose-jointed young man, with a dirty, buttonless +flannel shirt which revealed a hairy breast; upon his trousers hung a +variety of patches, in many stages of grease and decrepitude; a gray +slouch hat shaded his little fishy eyes and hollow, yellow cheeks; and +the snaky ends of his yellow mustache were stiff with accumulations of +dried tobacco juice. His fat, waddling wife, in a greasy black gown, +followed with bare feet, and, arms akimbo, listened in the open door. + +A coal company owns the rocky river front, here and at many places +below, and lets these cabins to the poor-white element, so numerous on +the Ohio's banks. The renter is privileged to cultivate whatever land +he can clear on the rocky, precipitous slopes, which is seldom more +than half an acre to the cabin; and he may, if he can afford a cow, +let her run wild in the scrub. The coal vein, a few rods back of the +house, is only a few inches thick, and poor in quality, but is freely +resorted to by the cotters. He worked whenever he could find a job, my +host said--in the coal mines and quarries, or on the bottom farms, or +the railroad which skirts the bank at his feet. + +"But I tell ye, sir, th' _I_talians and Hungarians is spoil'n' this +yere country fur white men; 'n' I do'n' see no prospect for hits be'n' +better till they get shoved out uv 't!" Yet he said that life wasn't +so hard here as it was in some parts he had heard tell of--the climate +was mild, that he "'lowed;" a fellow could go out and get a free +bucket of coal from the hillside "back yon;" he might get all the +"light wood 'n' patchin' stuff" he wanted, from the river drift; +could, when he "hankered after 'em," catch fish off his own front-door +yard; and pick up a dollar now and then at odd jobs, when the rent was +to be paid, or the "ol' woman" wanted a dress, or he a new coat. + +This is clearly the lazy man's Paradise. I do not remember to have +heard that the South Sea Islanders, in the ante-missionary days, had +an easier time of it than this. What new fortune will befall my friend +when he gets the Italians and Hungarians "shoved out," and "things +pick up a bit," I cannot conceive. + +A pleasing panorama he has from his doorway--across the river, the +fertile fields of Round Bottom, once Washington's; Captina Island, +just below, long and thickly-willowed, dreamily afloat in a glassy +sea, reflecting every change of light; the whole girt about with the +wide uplands of the winding valley, and overhead the march of sunny +clouds. + +Captina Creek (108 miles) is not far down on the Ohio bank, and beside +it the little hamlet of Powhattan Point, with the West Virginia hills +thereabout exceptionally high and steep, and wooded to the very top. +Washington, who knew the Ohio well, down to the Great Kanawha, wrote +of this creek in 1770: "A pretty large creek on the west side, called +by Nicholson [his interpreter] Fox-Grape-Vine, by others Captema +creek, on which, eight miles up, is the town called Grape-Vine Town." +Captina village is its white successor. But there were also Indians +at the mouth of the creek; for when George Rogers Clark and his +missionary companion, Jones, two years later camped opposite on the +Virginia shore, they went over to make a morning call on the natives, +who repaid it in the evening, doubtless each time receiving freely +from the white men's bounty. + +The next day was Sunday, and the travelers remained in camp, Jones +recording in his journal that he "instructed what Indians came over." +In the course of his prayer, the missionary was particularly impressed +by the attitude of the chief of Grape-Vine Town, named Frank Stephens, +who professed to believe in the Christian God; and he naively writes, +"I was informed that, all the time, the Indians looked very seriously +at me." Jones appears to have been impressed also with the hardness +of the beach, where they camped in the open, doubtless to avoid +surprises: "Instead of feathers, my bed was gravel-stones, by the +river side ... which at first seemed not to suit me, but afterward it +became more natural." + +In those days, traveling was beset with difficulties, both ashore +and afloat. Eight years later (spring of 1780), three flatboats +were descending the Ohio, laden with families intending to settle in +Kentucky, when they suffered a common fate, being attacked by Indians +off Captina Creek. Several men and a child were killed, and twenty-one +persons were carried into captivity--among them, Catherine Malott, +a girl in her teens, who subsequently became the wife of that most +notorious of border renegades, Simon Girty. + +On the West Virginia shore, not over a third of a mile below Captina +Creek, empties Grave Yard Run, a modest rivulet. It would of itself +not be noticeable amid the crowd of minor creeks and runs, coursing +down to the great river through rugged ravines which corrugate +the banks. But it has a history. Here, late in October or early in +November, 1772, young George Rogers Clark made his first stake west of +the Alleghanies, rudely cultivating a few acres of forest land on what +is now called Cresap's Bottom, surveying for the neighbors, and in +the evenings teaching their children in the little log cabin of his +friend, Yates Conwell, at the mouth of Fish Creek, a few miles below. +Fish Creek was in itself famous as one of the sections of the great +Indian trail, "The Warrior Branch," which, starting in Tennessee, came +northward through Kentucky and Southern Ohio, and, proceeding by way +of this creek, crossed over to Dunkard Creek, thence to the mouth of +Redstone. Washington stopped at Conwell's in March or April, 1774; but +Clark was away from home at the time, and the "Father of his Country" +never met the man who has been dubbed the "Washington of the West." +Lord Dunmore's War was hatching, and a few months later the Fish Creek +surveyor and schoolmaster had entered upon his life work as an Indian +fighter. + +At Bearsville (126 miles) we first meet a phenomenon common to the +Ohio--the edges of the alluvial bottom being higher than the fields +back of them, forming a natural levee, above which curiously rise to +our view the spires and chimneys of the village. Harris' _Journal_ +(1803) made early note of this, and advanced an acceptable theory: "We +frequently remarked that the banks are higher at the margin than at +a little distance back. I account for it in this manner: Large trees, +which are brought down the river by the inundations, are lodged upon +the borders of the bank, but cannot be floated far upon the champaign, +because obstructed by the growth of wood. Retaining their situation +when the waters subside, they obstruct and detain the leaves and mud, +which would else recoil into the stream, and thus, in process of time, +form a bank higher than the interior flats." + +Tied up to Bearsville landing is a gayly painted barge, the home +of Price's Floating Opera Company, and in front its towing-steamer, +"Troubadour." A steam calliope is part of the visible furniture of the +establishment, and its praises as a noise-maker are sung in large +type in the handbills which, with numerous colored lithographs of the +performers, adorn the shop windows in the neighboring river towns. + +Two miles farther down, on a high bank at the mouth of Fishing Creek, +lies New Martinsville, West Va. (127 miles), a rather shabby town +of fifteen hundred souls. As W---- and I passed up the main street, +seeking for a grocery, we noticed that the public hall was being +decorated for a dance to come off to-night; and placards advertising +the event were everywhere rivaling the gaudy prints of the floating +opera. + +Meanwhile, a talkative native was interviewing the Doctor, down at the +river side. It required some good-natured fencing on the part of +our skipper to prevent the Virginian from learning all about our +respective families away back to the third generation. He was a short, +chubby man, with a Dixie goatee, his flannel shirt negligee, and a +wide-brimmed straw hat jauntily set on the back of his head. He was +sociable, and sat astride of our beached prow, punctuating his +remarks with squirts of tobacco juice, and a bit of lath with which +he meditatively tapped the gunwale, the meantime, with some skill, +casting pebbles into the water with his bare toes. "Ax'n yer pardon, +ma'm!" he said, scrambling from his perch upon W----'s appearance; and +then, pushing us off, he bowed with much Southern gallantry, and +hat in hand begged we would come again to New Martinsville, and stay +longer. + +The hills lining these reaches are lower than above, yet graceful in +their sweeping lines. Conical mounds sometimes surmount them, relics +of the prehistoric time when our Indians held to the curious fashion +of building earthworks. We no longer entertain the notion that a +separate and a prouder race of wild men than we know erected these +tumuli. That pleasant fiction has departed from us; but the works are +none the less interesting, now that more is known of their origin. + +Two miles below New Martinsville, on the West Virginia shore, we +pitch camp, just as the light begins to sink over the Ohio hills. +The atmosphere is sweet with the odor of wild grape blossoms, and +the willow also is in bloom. Poison ivy, to whose baneful touch +fortunately none of us appear susceptible, grows everywhere about. +From the farmhouse on the narrow bottom to our rear comes the +melodious tinkle-tinkle of cow bells. The operatic calliope is in full +blast, at Bearsville, its shrieks and snorts coming down to us through +four miles of space, all too plainly borne by the northern breeze; and +now and then we hear the squeak of the New Martinsville fiddles. There +are no mosquitoes as yet, but burly May-chafers come stupidly dashing +against our tent, and the toads are piping merrily. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + In Dixie--Oil and natural gas, at Witten's Bottom--The Long + Reach--Photographing crackers--Visitors in camp. + + +Above Marietta, Saturday, May 12th.--Since the middle of yesterday +afternoon we have been in Dixie,--that is, when we are on the West +Virginia shore. The famous Mason and Dixon Line (lat. 39 deg. 43' 26") +touches the Ohio at the mouth of Proctor's Run (121-1/2 miles). + +There was a heavy fog this morning, on land and river. But through +shifting rifts made by the morning breeze, we had kaleidoscopic, +cloud-framed pictures of the dark, jutting headlands which hem us in; +of little white cabins clustered by the country road which on either +bank crawls along narrow terraces between overtopping steeps and +sprawling beach, or winds through fertile bottoms, according to +whether the river approaches or recedes from its inclosing bluffs; of +hillside fields, tipped at various angles of ascent, sometimes green +with springing grain, but oftenest gray or brown or yellow, freshly +planted,--charming patches of color, in this somber-hued world of +sloping woodland. + +At Williamson's Island (134 miles) the fog lifted. The air was heavy +with the odor of petroleum. All about us were the ugly, towering +derricks of oil and natural gas wells--Witten's Bottom on the right, +with its abutting hills; the West Virginia woods across the river, +and the maple-strewn island between, all covered with scaffolds. The +country looks like a rumpled fox-and-geese board, with pegs stuck +all over it. A mile and a half below lies Sistersville, W. Va., the +emporium of this greasy neighborhood--great red oil-tanks and smoky +refineries its chiefest glory; crude and raw, like the product it +handles. We landed at Witten's Bottom,--W----, the Boy, and I,--while +the Doctor, philosophically preferring to take the oily elephant for +granted, piloted Pilgrim to the rendezvous a mile below. + +Oil was "struck" here two or three years ago, and now within a +distance of a few miles there are hundreds of wells--"two hun'rd in +this yere gravel alone, sir!" I was told by a red-headed man in a red +shirt, who lived with his numerous family in a twelve-foot-square box +at the rear of a pumping engine. An engine serves several wells,--the +tumbling-rods, rudely boxed in, stretching off through the fields +and over the hills to wherever needed. The operatives dwell in little +shanties scattered conveniently about; in front of each is a vertical +half-inch pipe, six or eight feet high, bearing a half bushel of +natural-gas flame which burns and tosses night and day, winter +and summer, making the Bottom a warm corner of the earth, when the +unassisted temperature is in the eighties. It is a bewildering scene, +with all these derricks thickly scattered around, engines noisily +puffing, walking-beams forever rearing and plunging, the country +cobwebbed with tumbling-rods and pipe lines, the shanties of the +operatives with their rude lamp-posts, and the face of Nature so +besmeared with the crude output of the wells that every twig and leaf +is thick with grease. + +Just above Witten's commences the Long Reach of the Ohio--a charming +panorama, for sixteen and a half miles in a nearly straight line +to the southwest. Little towns line the alternating bottoms, and +farmsteads are numerous on the slopes. But they are rocky and narrow, +these gentle shoulders of the hills, and a poor class of folk occupy +them--half fishers, half farmers, a cross between my Round Bottom +friend and the houseboat nomads. + +A picturesquely-dilapidated log house, with whitewashed porch in +front, and a vine arbor at the rear, attracted our attention at the +foot of the reach, near Grape Island. I clambered up, to photograph +it. The ice was broken by asking for a drink of water. A gaunt girl of +eighteen, the elder of two, with bare feet, her snaky hair streaming +unkempt about a smirking face, went with a broken-nosed pitcher to a +run, which could be heard splashing over its rocky bed near by. The +meanwhile, I took a seat in the customary arcade between the living +room and kitchen, and talked with her fat, greasy, red-nosed father, +who confided to me that he was "a pi'neer from way back." He occupied +his own land--a rare circumstance among these riverside "crackers;" +had a hundred and thirty acres, worth twenty dollars the acre; "jist +yon ways," back of the house, in the cliff-side, there was a coal vein +two feet thick, as yet only "worked" for his own fuel; and lately, he +had struck a bank of firebrick clay which might some day be a "good +thing for th' gals." + +On leaving, I casually mentioned my desire to photograph the family on +the porch, where the light was good. While I walked around the house +outside, they passed through the front room, which seemed to be the +common dormitory as well as parlor. To my surprise and chagrin, +the girls and their dowdy mother had, in those brief moments of +transition, contrived to arrange their hair and dress to a degree +which took from them all those picturesque qualities with which they +had been invested at the time of my arrival. The father was being +reproved, as he emerged upon the porch, for not "slick'n' his ha'r, +and wash'n' and fix'n' up, afore hay'n' his pictur' taken;" but the +old fellow was obdurate, and joined me in remonstrance against this +transformation to the commonplace, on the part of his women-folk. +However, there was no profit in arguing with them, and I took my +snap-shot with a conviction that the film was being wasted. + +We were in several small towns to-day, in pursuance of the policy of +distributing our shopping, so as to see as much of the shore life as +practicable. Chief among them have been New Matamoras (141 miles) and +St. Mary's (154 miles), in West Virginia, and Newport, in Ohio (155 +miles). Rather dingy villages, these--each, after their kind, with a +stone wharf thick-grown with weeds; a flouring mill at the head of +the landing; a few cheap-looking, battlemented stores; boys and men +lounging about with that air of comfortable idling which impresses one +as the main characteristic of rustic hamlets, where nobody seems ever +to have anything to do; a ferry running to the opposite shore--for +cattle and wagons, a heavy flat, with railings, made to drift with +the current; and for foot passengers, a lumbering skiff, with oars +chucking noisily in their roomy locks. + +Every now and then we run across bunches of oil and gas wells; +and great signs, like those advertising boards which greet railway +travelers approaching our large cities, are here and there perched +upon the banks, notifying steamboat pilots, in letters a foot +high, that a pipe line here crosses the river, the vicinity being +consequently unsafe for mooring. + +Our camp, to-night, is on a bit of grassy ledge at the summit of a +rocky bank, ten miles above Marietta, on the Ohio side. A rod or so +back of us is the country road, which winds along at the foot of +a precipitous steep. It is narrow quarters here, and too near the +highway for comfort, but nothing better seemed to offer at the time we +needed it; and the outlook is pleasant, through the fringing oaks and +elms, across the broad river into West Virginia. + +We had not yet pitched tent, and all hands were still clambering over +the rocks with Pilgrim's cargo, rather glad that there was no more of +it, when our first camp-bore appeared--a middling-sized man, florid +as to complexion, with a mustache and goatee, and in a suit of seedy +black, surmounted by a crushed-in Derby hat; and, after the fashion of +the country, giving evidence, on his collarless white shirt, of a free +use of chewing tobacco. I have seldom met a fellow with better staying +qualities. He was a strawberry grower, he said, and having been into +Newport, a half dozen miles up river, was walking to his home, which +was a mile or two off in the hills. Would we object if, for a few +moments, he tarried here by the roadside? and perhaps we could +accommodate him with a drink of water? Patiently did he watch the +preparation of dinner, and spice each dish with commendations of +W----'s skill at making the most of her few utensils. + +Right glibly he chattered on; now about the decadence of womankind; +now about strawberry-growing upon these Ohio hills--with the crop just +coming on, and berries selling at a shilling to-day, in Marietta, when +they ought to be worth twenty cents; now on politics, and of course +he was a Populist; now on the hard times, and did we believe in free +silver? He would take no bite with us, but sat and talked and talked, +despite plain hints, growing plainer with the progress of time, that +his family needed him at nightfall. Dinner was eaten, and dishes +washed; the others left on a botanical round-up, and I produced my +writing materials, with remarks upon the lateness of the hour. At last +our guest arose, shook the grass from his clothes, with a shake of +hands bade me good-night, wishing me to convey his "good-bye" to the +rest of our party, and as politely as possible expressed the great +pleasure which the visit had given him. + +Some farmer boys came down the hillside to fish at the bank, and +talked pleasantly of their work and of the ever-changing phases of +the river. Other farmers passed our roadside door, in wagons, on +buckboards, by horseback, and on foot; in neighborly tone, but with +ill-disguised curiosity in their eyes, wishing me good evening. When +the long twilight was almost gone, and the moon an hour high over the +purple dusk of the West Virginia hills, the botanists returned, +aglow with their exercise, and rich with trophies of blue and dwarf +larkspur, pink and white stone-crop, trailing arbutus, and great +laurel. + +And then, as we were preparing to retire, a sleek and dapper fellow, +though with clothes rather the worse for wear, came trudging along +the road toward Marietta. Seeing our camp, he asked for a drink. Being +apparently disposed to tarry, the Doctor, to get him started, offered +to walk a piece with him. Our comrade staid out so long, that at last +I went down the road in search of him, and found the pair sitting on +a moonlit bank, as cozily as if they had been always friends. The +stranger had revealed to the Doctor that he was a street fakir, "by +perfesh," and had "struck it rich" in Chicago during the World's +Fair, but somehow had lost the greater part of his gains, and was +now associated with his brother, who had a junk-boat; the brother was +"well heeled," and staid and kept store at the boat, while the fakir, +as the walking partner, "rustled 'round 'mong th' grangers, to stir +up trade." The Doctor had, in their talk, let slip something about +certain Florida experiences, and when I arrived on the scene was being +skillfully questioned by his companion as to the probabilities of +"a feller o' my perfesh ketch'n' on, down thar?" The result of this +pumping process must have been satisfactory: for when we parted with +him, the fakir declared he was "go'n' try't on thar, next winter, 'f I +bust me bottom dollar!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Life ashore and afloat--Marietta, "the Plymouth Rock of the + West"--The Little Kanawha--The story of Blennerhassett's + Island. + + +Blennerhassett's Island, Sunday, May 13th.--The day broke without fog, +at our camp on the rocky steep above Marietta. The eastern sky was +veiled with summer clouds, all gayly flushed by the rising sun, and +in the serene silence of the morning there hung the scent of dew, and +earth, and trees. In the east, the distant edges of the West Virginia +hills were aglow with the mounting light before it had yet peeped over +into the river trough, where a silvery haze lent peculiar charm to +flood and bank. Up river, one of the Three Brothers isles, dark and +heavily forested, seemed in the middle ground to float on air. A +bewitching picture this, until at last the sun sprang clear and strong +above the fringing hills, and the spell was broken. + +The steamboat traffic is improving as we get lower down. Last evening, +between landing and bedtime, a half dozen passed us, up and down, +breathing heavily as dragons might, and leaving behind them foamy +wakes which loudly broke upon the shore. Before morning, I was at +intervals awakened by as many more. A striking spectacle, the passage +of a big river steamer in the night; you hear, fast approaching, a +labored pant; suddenly, around the bend, or emerging from behind an +island, the long white monster glides into view, lanterns gleaming on +two lines of deck, her electric searchlight uneasily flitting to and +fro, first on one landmark, then on another, her engine bell sharply +clanging, the measured pant developing into a burly, all-pervading +roar, which gradually declines into a pant again--and then she +disappears as she came, her swelling wake rudely ruffling the moonlit +stream. + +We caught up with a large lumber raft this morning, descending from +Pittsburg to Cincinnati. The half-dozen men in charge were housed +midway in a rude little shanty, and relieved each other at the +sweeps--two at bow, and two astern. It is an easy, lounging life, most +of the way, with some difficulties in the shallows, and in passing +beneath the great bridges. They travel night and day, except in the +not infrequent wind-storms blowing up stream; and it will take them +another week to cover the three hundred miles between this and their +destination. Far different fellows, these commonplace raftsmen of +to-day, from the "lumber boys" of a half-century or more ago, when the +river towns were regularly "painted red" by the men who followed the +Ohio by raft or flatboat. Life along shore was then more picturesque +than comfortable. + +Later, we stopped on the Ohio shore to chat with a group of farmers +having a Sunday talk, their seat a drift log, in the shade of +a willowed bank. They proved to be market gardeners and +fruit-growers--well-to-do men of their class, and intelligent in +conversation; all of them descendants of the sturdy New Englanders who +settled these parts. + +While the others were discussing small fruits with these transplanted +Yankees, who proved quite as full of curiosity about us as we +concerning them, I went down shore a hundred yards, struggling through +the dense fringe of willows, to photograph a junk-boat just putting +off into the stream. The two rough-bearded, merry-eyed fellows at the +sweeps were setting their craft broadside to the stream--that "the +current might have more holt of her," the chief explained. They were +interested in the kodak, and readily posed as I wished, but wanted to +see what had been taken, having the common notion that it is like +a tintype camera, with results at once attainable. They offered our +party a ride for the rest of the day, if we would row alongside and +come aboard, but I thanked them, saying their craft was too slow for +our needs; at which they laughed heartily, and "'lowed" we might be +traders, too, anxious to get in ahead of them--"but there's plenty o' +room o' th' river, for yew an' we, stranger! Well, good luck to yees! +We'll see yer down below, somewhar, I reckon!" + +Just before lunch, we were at Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum +(171 miles), a fine stream, here two hundred and fifty yards wide. A +storied river, this Muskingum. We first definitely hear of it in 1748, +the year the original Ohio Company was formed. Celoron was here the +year following, with his little band of French soldiers and Indians, +vainly endeavoring to turn English traders out of the Ohio Valley. +Christopher Gist came, some months later; then the trader Croghan, +for "Old Wyandot Town," the Indian village at the mouth, was a noted +center in Western forest traffic. Moravian missionaries appeared in +due time, establishing on the banks of the Muskingum the ill-fated +convert villages of Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhuetten, and Salem. In 1785, Fort +Harmar was reared on the site of Wyandot Town. Lastly, in the early +spring of 1788, came, in Ohio river flatboats, that famous body of +New England veterans of the Revolution, under Gen. Rufus Putnam, and +planted Marietta--"the Plymouth Rock of the West." + +We smile at these Ohio pilgrims, for dignifying the hills which girt +in the Marietta bottom, with the names of the seven on which Rome is +said to be built--for having a Campus Martius and a Sacra Via, and all +that, out here among the sycamore stumps and the wild Indians. But a +classical revival was just then vigorously affecting American thought, +and it would have been strange if these sturdy New Englanders had not +felt its influence, fresh as they were from out the shadows of Harvard +and Yale, and in the awesome presence of crowds of huge monumental +earthworks, whose age, in their day, was believed to far outdate +the foundations of the Eternal City itself. They loved learning +for learning's sake; and here, in the log-cabins of Marietta, eight +hundred miles west of their beloved Boston, among many another good +thing they did for posterity, they established the principle of public +education at public cost, as a national principle. + +They were soldier colonists. Washington, out of a full heart, for he +dearly loved the West, said of them: "No colony in America was ever +settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced +at the Muskingum. Information, property, and strength will be its +characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there +never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a +community." And when, in 1825, La Fayette had read to him the list +of Marietta pioneers,--nearly fifty military officers among them,--he +cried: "I know them all! I saw them at Brandywine, Yorktown, and Rhode +Island. They were the bravest of the brave!" + +Yet, for a long time, Marietta met with small measure of success. +Miasma, Indian ravages, and the conservative temperament of the people +combined to render slow the growth of this Western Plymouth. There +were, for a time, extensive ship-building yards here; but that +industry gradually declined, with the growth of railway systems. In +our day, Marietta, with its ten thousand inhabitants, prospers chiefly +as a market town and an educational center, with some manufacturing +interests. We were struck to-day, as we tarried there for an hour +or two, with the remarkable resemblance it has in public and private +architecture, and in general tone, to a typical New England town--say, +for example, Burlington, Vt. Omitting its river front, and its +Mound Cemetery, Marietta might be set bodily down almost anywhere in +Massachusetts, or Vermont, or Connecticut, and the chance traveler +would see little in the place to remind him of the West. I know of no +other town out of New England of which the same might be said. + +Below Marietta, the river bottoms are, for miles together, edged with +broad stretches of sloping beach, either deep with sand or naturally +paved with pebbles--sometimes treeless, but often strewn with clumps +of willow and maple and scrub sycamore. The hills, now rounder, less +ambitious, and more widely separated, are checkered with fields and +forests, and the bottom lands are of more generous breadth. Pleasant +islands stud the peaceful stream. The sylvan foliage has by this time +attained very nearly its fullest size. The horse chestnut, the pawpaw, +the grape, and the willow are in bloom. A gentle pastoral scene is +this through which we glide. + +It is evident that it would be a scalding day but for the gentle +breeze astern; setting sail, we gladly drop our oars, and, with the +water rippling at our prow, sweep blithely down the long southern +reach to Parkersburg, W. Va., at the mouth of the Little Kanawha (183 +miles). In the full glare of the scorching sun, Parkersburg looks +harsh and dry. But it is well built, and, as seen from the river, +apparently prosperous. The Ohio is here crossed by the once famous +million-dollar bridge of the Baltimore & Ohio railway. The wharf is +at the junction of the two streams, but chiefly on the shore of the +unattractive Little Kanawha, which is spanned by several bridges, and +abounds in steamers and houseboats moored to the land. Clark and Jones +did not think well of Little Kanawha lands, yet there were several +families on the river as early as 1763, and Trent, Croghan, and other +Fort Pitt fur-traders had posts here. There were only half-a-dozen +houses in 1800, and Parkersburg itself was not laid out until ten +years later. + +Blennerhassett's Island lies two miles below--a broad, dark mass of +forest, at the head joined by a dam to the West Virginia shore, from +which it is separated by a slender channel. Blennerhassett's is some +three and a half miles long; of its five hundred acres, four hundred +are under cultivation in three separate tenant farms. We landed at the +upper end, where Blennerhassett had his wharf, facing the Ohio shore, +and found that we were trespassing upon "The Blennerhassett Pleasure +Grounds." A seedy-looking man, who represented himself to be the +proprietor, promptly accosted us and levied a "landing fee" of ten +cents per head, which included the right to remain over night. A +little questioning developed the fact that thirty acres at the head +of the island belong to this man, who rents the ground to a market +gardener,--together with the comfortable farmhouse which occupies +the site of Blennerhassett's mansion,--but reserves to himself the +privilege of levying toll on visitors. He declared to me that fifteen +thousand people came to the island each summer, generally in large +railway and steamboat excursions, which gives him an easily-acquired +income sufficient for his needs. It is a pity that so famous a place +is not a public park. + +The touching story of the Blennerhassetts is one of the best known in +Western annals. Rich in culture and worldly possessions, but wildly +impracticable, Harman Blennerhassett and his beautiful wife came to +America in 1798. Buying this lovely island in the Ohio, six hundred +miles west of tidewater, they built a large mansion, which they +furnished luxuriously, adorning it with fine pictures and statuary. +Here, in the midst of beautiful grounds, while Blennerhassett studied +astronomy, chemistry, and galvanism, his brilliant spouse dispensed +rare hospitality to their many distinguished guests; for, in those +days, it was part of a rich young man's education to take a journey +down the Ohio, into "the Western parts," and on returning home to +write a book about it. + +But there came a serpent to this Eden. Aaron Burr was among their +visitors (1805), while upon his journey to New Orleans, where he hoped +to set on foot a scheme to seize either Texas or Mexico, and set up +a republic with himself at the head. He interested the susceptible +Blennerhassetts in his plans, the import of which they probably little +understood; but the fantastic Englishman had suffered a considerable +reduction of fortune, and was anxious to recoup, and Burr's +representations were aglow with the promise of such rewards in the +golden southwest as Cortes and Coronado sought. Blennerhassett's purse +was opened to the enterprise of Burr; large sums were spent in boats +and munitions, which were, tradition says, for a time hid in the bayou +which, close by our camp, runs deep into the island forest. It has +been filled in by the present proprietor, but its bold shore lines, +all hung with giant sycamores, are still in evidence. + +President Jefferson's proclamation (October, 1806) shattered the plot, +and Blennerhassett fled to join Burr at the mouth of the Cumberland. +Both were finally arrested (1807), and tried for treason, but +acquitted on technical grounds. In the meantime, people from +the neighboring country sacked Blennerhassett's house; then came +creditors, and with great waste seized his property; the beautiful +place was still further pillaged by lawless ruffians, and turned +into ignoble uses; later, the mansion itself was burned through the +carelessness of negroes--and now, all they can show us are the old +well and the noble trees which once graced the lawn. As for the +Blennerhassetts themselves, they wandered far and wide, everywhere +the victims of misfortune. He died on the Island of Guernsey (1831), a +disappointed office-seeker; she, returning to America to seek redress +from Congress for the spoliation of her home, passed away in New +York, before the claim was allowed, and was buried by the Sisters of +Charity. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Poor whites--First library in the West--An hour at + Hockingport--A hermit fisher. + + +Long Bottom, Monday, May 14th.--Pushing up stream for two miles this +morning, the commissary department replenished the day's stores at +Parkersburg. Forepaugh's circus was in town, and crowds of rustics +were coming in by wagon road, railway trains, and steamers and ferries +on both rivers. The streets of the quaint, dingy Southern town were +teeming with humanity, mainly negroes and poor whites. Among the +latter, flat, pallid faces, either flabby or too lean, were under +the swarms of blue, white, and yellow sunbonnets--sad faces, with +lack-luster eyes, coarse hair of undecided hue, and coarser +speech. These Audreys of Dixie-land are the product of centuries of +ill-treatment on our soil; indented white servants to the early coast +colonists were in the main their ancestors; with slave competition, +the white laborer in the South lost caste until even the negro +despised him; and ill-nurture has done the rest. Then, too, in these +bottoms, malaria has wrought its work, especially among the underfed; +you see it in the yellow skin and nerveless tone of these lanky +rustics, who are in town to enjoy the one bright holiday of their +weary year. + +Across the river, in Ohio, is Belpre (short for Belle Prairie, and now +locally pronounced Bel'pry), settled by Revolutionary soldiers, on +the Marietta grant, in 1789-90. I always think well of Belpre, because +here was established the first circulating library in the Northwest. +Old Israel Putnam, he of the wolf-den and Bunker Hill, amassed +many books. His son Israel, on moving to Belpre in 1796, carried a +considerable part of the collection with him--no small undertaking +this, at a time when goods had to be carted all the way from +Connecticut, over rivers and mountains to the Ohio, and then floated +down river by flatboat, with a high tariff for every pound of freight. +Young Israel was public-spirited, and, having been at so great cost +and trouble to get this library out to the wilderness, desired his +fellow-colonists to enjoy it with him. It would have been unfair not +to distribute the expense, so a stock company was formed, and shares +were sold at ten dollars each. Of the blessings wrought in this rude +frontier community by the books which the elder Israel had collected +for his Connecticut fireside, there can be no more eloquent testimony +than that borne by an old settler, who, in 1802, writes to an Eastern +friend: "In order to make the long winter evenings pass more smoothly, +by great exertion I purchased a share in the Belpre library, six +miles distant. Many a night have I passed (using pine knots instead +of candles) reading to my wife while she sat hatcheling, carding or +spinning." The association was dissolved in 1815 or 1816, and the +books distributed among the shareholders; many of these volumes are +still extant in this vicinity, and several are in the college museum +at Marietta. + +There are few descendants hereabout of the original New England +settlers, and they live miles apart on the Ohio shore. We went up +to visit one, living opposite Blennerhassett's Island. Notice of our +coming had preceded us, and we were warmly welcomed at a substantial +farmhouse in the outskirts of Belpre, with every evidence about of +abundant prosperity. The maternal great-grandfather of our host for +an hour was Rufus Putnam, an ancestor to be proud of. Five acres +of gooseberries are grown on the place, and other small-fruits in +proportion--all for the Parkersburg market, whence much is shipped +north to Cleveland. Our host confessed to a little malaria, even on +this upper terrace--or "second bottom," as they style it--but "the +land is good, though with many stones--natural conditions, you know, +for New Englanders." It was pleasant for a New England man, not long +removed from his native soil, to find these people, who are a century +away from home, still claiming kinship. + +At the Big Hockhocking River (197 miles), on a high, semicircular +bottom, is Hockingport, a hamlet with a population of three hundred. +Here, on a still higher bench, a quarter of a mile back from the +river, Lord Dunmore built Fort Gower, one of a chain of posts along +his march against the Northwest Indians (1774). It was from here that +he marched to the Pickaway Plains, on the Scioto (near Circleville, +O.), and concluded that treaty of peace to which Chief Logan refused +his consent. There are some remains yet left of this palisaded +earthwork of a century and a quarter ago, but the greater part has +been obliterated by plowing, and a dwelling occupies a portion of the +site. + +It had been very warm, and we had needed an awning as far down as +Hockingport, where we cooled off by lying on the grass in the shade +of the village blacksmith's shop, which is, as well, the ferry-house, +with the bell hung between two tall posts at the top of the bank, its +rope dangling down for public use. The smith-ferryman came out with +his wife--a burly, good-natured couple--and joined us in our lounging, +for it is not every day that river travelers put in at this dreamy, +far-away port. The wife had camped with her husband, when he was boss +of a railway construction gang, and both of them frankly envied us our +trip. So did a neighboring storekeeper, a tall, lean, grave young man, +clean-shaven, coatless and vestless, with a blue-glass stud on his +collarless white shirt. Apparently there was no danger of customers +walking away with his goods, for he left his store-door open to all +comers, not once glancing thitherward in the half-hour he sat with us +on a stick of timber, in which he pensively carved his name. + +Life goes easily in Hockingport. Years ago there was some business up +the Big Hocking (short for Big Hockhocking), a stream of a half-dozen +rods' width, but now no steamer ventures up--the railroads do it all; +as for the Ohio--well, the steamers now and then put off a box or bale +for the four shop-keepers, and once in a while a passenger patronizes +the landing. There is still a little country traffic, and formerly +a sawmill was in operation here; you see its ruins down there below. +Hockingport is a type of several rustic hamlets we have seen +to-day; they are often in pairs, one either side of the river, for +companionship's sake. + +We are idling, despite the knowledge that on turning every big bend we +are getting farther and farther south, and mid-June on the Lower Ohio +is apt to be sub-tropical. But the sinking sun gives us a +shadowy right bank, and that is most welcome. The current is only +spasmodically good. Every night the river falls from three to six +inches, and there are long stretches of slack-water. The steamers pick +their way carefully; we do not give them as wide a berth as formerly, +for the wakes they turn are no longer savage--but wakes, even when +sent out by stern-wheelers at full speed, now give us little trouble; +it did not take long to learn the knack of "taking" them. Whether +you meet them at right angles, or in the trough, there is the same +delicious sensation of rising and falling on the long swells--there +is no danger, so long as you are outside the line of foaming breakers; +within those, you may ship water, which is not desirable when there +is a cargo. But the boys at the towns sometimes put out in their rude +punts into the very vortex of disturbance, being dashed about in the +white roar at the base of the ponderous paddle wheels, like a Fiji +Islander in his surf-boat. We heard, the other day, of a boatload of +daring youngsters being caught by the wheel, their craft smashed into +kindling-wood, and they themselves all drowned but one. + +The hills, to-day, sometimes break sharply off, leaving an eroded, +often vine-festooned palisade some fifty feet in height, at the base +of which is a long, tree-clad slope of debris; then, a narrow, level +terrace from fifty to a hundred yards in width, which drops suddenly +to a rocky beach; this in turn is often lined along the water's edge +with irregularly-shaped boulders, from the size of Pilgrim to fifteen +or twenty feet in height, and worn smooth with the grinding action +of the river. The effect is highly picturesque. We shall have much of +this below. + +At the foot of one of these palisades lay a shanty-boat, with nets +sprawled over the roof to dry, and a live-box anchored hard by. +"Hello, the boat!" brought to the window the head of the lone +fisherman, who dreamily peered at us as we announced our wish to +become his customers. A sort of poor-white Neptune, this tall, lean, +lantern-jawed old fellow, with great round, iron-rimmed spectacles +over his fishy eyes, his hair and beard in long, snaky locks, and +clothing in dirty tatters. As he put out in his skiff to reach the +live-box, he continuously spewed tobacco juice about him, and in an +undertone growled garrulously, as though used to soliloquize in his +hermitage, where he lay at outs with the world. He had been in this +spot for two years, he said, and sold fish to the daily Parkersburg +steamer--when there were any fish. But, for six months past, he +"hadn't made enough to keep him in grub," and had now and then to go +up to the city and earn something. For forty years had he followed the +apostles' calling on "this yere Ohio," and the fishing was never so +poor as now--yes, sir! hard times had struck his business, just like +other folks'. He thought the oil wells were tainting the water, and +the fish wouldn't breed--and the iron slag, too, was spoiling the +river, and he knew it. He finally produced for us, out of his box, a +three-pound fish,--white perch, calico bass, and catfish formed his +stock in trade,--but, before handing it over, demanded the requisite +fifteen cents. Evidently he had had dealings with a dishonest world, +this hermit fisher, and had learned a thing or two. + +Perfect camping places are not to be found every day. There are so +many things to think of--a good landing place; good height above the +water level, in case of a sudden rise; a dry, shady, level spot for +the tent; plenty of wood, and, if possible, a spring; and not too +close proximity to a house. Occasionally we meet with what we want, +when we want it; but quite as often, ideal camping places, while +abundant half the day, are not to be found at five o'clock, our usual +hour for homeseeking. The Doctor is our agent for this task, for, +being bow oar, he can clamber out most easily. This evening, he ranged +both shores for a considerable distance, with ill success, so that +we are settled on a narrow Ohio sand-beach, in the midst of a sparse +willow copse, only two feet above the river. Dinner was had at the +very water's edge. After a time, a wind-storm arose and flapped the +tent right vigorously, causing us to pin down tightly and weight the +sod-cloth; while, amid distant thundering, every preparation was made +for a speedy embarkation in the event of flood. The bellow of the +frogs all about us, the scream of toads, and the heavy swash of +passing steamers dangerously near our door, will be a sufficient +lullaby to-night. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Cliff-dwellers on Long Bottom--Pomeroy Bend--Letart's Island + and Rapids--Game in the early day--Rainy weather--In a + "cracker" home. + + +Letart's Island, Tuesday, May 15th.--After we had gone to bed last +night,--we in the tent, the Doctor and Pilgrim under the fly, which +serves as a porch roof,--the heavenly floodgates lifted; the rain, +coming in sheets, beat a fierce tattoo on the tightly-stretched +canvas, and visions of a sudden rise in the fickle river were +uppermost in our dreams. Everything about us was sopping at daybreak; +but the sun rose clear and warm from a bed of eastern clouds, and the +midnight gale had softened to a gentle breeze. + +Palisades were frequent to-day. We stopped just below camp, at an +especially picturesque Ohio hamlet,--Long Bottom (207 miles),--where +the dozen or so cottages are built close against the bald rock. +Clambering over great water-worn boulders, at the river's brink, the +Doctor and I made our way up through a dense tangle of willows and +poison ivy and grape-vines, emerging upon the country road which +passes at the foot of this row of modern cliff-dwellings. For the most +part, little gardens, with neat palings, run down from the cottages +to the road. One sprawling log house, fairly embowered in vines, and +overtopped by the palisade rising sheer for thirty feet above its back +door, looked in this setting for all the world like an Alpine chalet, +lacking only stones on the roof to complete the picture. I took a +kodak shot at this, also at a group of tousle-headed children at +the door of a decrepit shanty built entirely within a crevice of the +rock--their Hibernian mother, with one hand holding an apron over +her head, and the other shielding her eyes, shrilly crying to a +neighboring cliff-dweller: "Miss McCarthy! Miss McCarthy! There's +a feller here, a photergraph'n' all the people in the Bottom! Come, +quick!" Then they eagerly pressed around me, Germans and Irish, +big and little, women and children mostly, asking for a view of +the picture, which I gave all in turn by letting them peep into the +ground-glass "finder"--a pretty picture, they said it was, with the +colors all in, and "wonderfully like," though a wee bit small. + +Speaking of color, we are daily struck with the brilliant hues in +the workaday dresses of women and children seen along the river. Red +calico predominates, but blues and yellows, and even greens, are seen, +brightly splashing the somber landscape. + +After Long Bottom, we enter upon the south-sweeping Pomeroy Bend of +the Ohio, commencing at Murraysville (208 miles) and ending at Pomeroy +(247 miles). It is of itself a series of smaller bends, and, as we +twist about upon our course, the wind strikes us successively on all +quarters; sometimes giving the Doctor a chance to try his sail, which +he raises on the slightest provocation,--but at all times agreeably +ruffling the surface that would otherwise reflect the glowing sun like +a mirror. + +The sloping margins of the rich bottoms are now often cultivated +almost to the very edge of the stream, with a line of willow trees +left as a protecting fringe. Farmers doing this take a gambling risk +of a summer rise. Where the margins have been left untouched by the +plow, there is a dense mass of vegetation--sycamores, big of girth and +towering to a hundred feet or more, abound on every hand; the willows +are phenomenally-rapid growers; and in all available space is the +rank, thick-standing growth of an annual locally styled "horse-weed," +which rears a cane-like stalk full eighteen or twenty feet high--it +has now attained but four or five feet, but the dry stalks of last +year's growth are everywhere about, showing what a formidable barrier +to landing these giant weeds must be in midsummer. + +We chose for a camping place Letart's Island (232 miles), on the West +Virginia side, not far below Milwood. From the head, where our tent +is pitched on a sandy knoll thick-grown to willows, a long gravel +spit runs far over toward the Ohio shore. The West Virginia channel is +narrow, slow and shallow; that between us and Ohio has been lessened +by the island to half its usual width, and the current sweeps by at +a six-mile gait, in which the Doctor and I found it difficult to keep +our footing while having our customary evening dip. Our island is two +long, forested humps of sand, connected by a stretch of gravel beach, +giving every evidence of being submerged in times of flood; everywhere +are chaotic heaps of driftwood, many cords in extent; derelict trees +are lodged in the tops of the highest willows and maples--ghostly +giants sprawling in the moonlight; there is an abandon of vegetable +debris, layer after layer laid down in sandy coverlids. Wild grasses, +which flourish on all these flooded lands, here attain enormous size. +Dispensing with our cots for the nonce, we have spread our blankets +over heaps of dried grass pulled from the monster tufts of last year's +growth. The Ohio is capable of raising giant floods; it is still +falling with us, but there are signs at hand, beyond the slight +sprinkle which cooled the air for us at bedtime, of rainy weather +after the long drouth. When the feeders in the Alleghanies begin to +swell, we shall perch high o' nights. + + * * * * * + +Near Cheshire, O., Wednesday, May 16th.--The fine current at the +island gave us a noble start this morning. The river soon widens, but +Letart's Falls, a mile or two below, continue the movement, and we +went fairly spinning on our way. These so-called falls, rapids +rather, long possessed the imagination of early travelers. Some of +the chroniclers have, while describing them, indulged in flights of +fancy.[A] They are of slight consequence, however, even at this +low stage of water, save to the careless canoeist who has had no +experience in rapid water, well-strewn with sunken boulders. The +scenery of the locality is wild, and somewhat impressive. The Ohio +bank is steep and rugged, abounding in narrow little terraces of red +clay, deeply gullied, and dotted with rough, mean shanties. It all had +a forbidding aspect, when viewed in the blinding sun; but before we +had passed, an intervening cloud cast a deep shadow over the scene, +and, softening the effect, made the picture more pleasing. + +Croghan was at Letart (1765), on one of his land-viewing trips for +the Ohio Company, and tells us that he saw a "vast migrating herd" of +buffalo cross the river here. In the beginning of colonization in this +valley, buffalo and elk were to be seen in herds of astonishing size; +traces of their well-beaten paths through the hills, and toward the +salt licks of Kentucky and Illinois, were observable until within +recent years. Gordon, an early traveler down the Ohio (1766), speaks +of "great herds of buffalo, we observed on the beaches of the river +and islands into which they come for air, and coolness in the heat +of the day;" he commenced his raids on them a hundred miles below +Pittsburg. Hutchins (1778) says, "the whole country abounds in Bears, +Elks, Buffaloe, Deer, Turkies, &c."[B] Bears, panthers, wolves, +eagles, and wild turkeys were indeed very plenty at first, but soon +became extinct. The theory is advanced by Dr. Doddridge, in his _Notes +on Virginia_, that hunters' dogs introduced hydrophobia among the +wolves, and this ridded the country of them sooner than they would +naturally have gone; but they were still so numerous in 1817, that the +traveler Palmer heard them nightly, "barking on both banks." + +Venomous serpents were also numerous in pioneer days, and stayed +longer. The story is told of a tumulus up toward Moundsville, that +abounded in snakes, particularly rattlers. The settlers thought to dig +them out, but they came to such a mass of human bones that that +plan was abandoned. Then they instituted a blockade, by erecting a +tight-board fence around the mound, and, thus entrapping the reptiles, +extirpated the colony in a few days. + +Paroquets were once abundant west of the Alleghanies, up to the +southern shore of the Great Lakes, and great flocks haunted the salt +springs; but to-day they may be found only in the middle Southern +states. There were, in a state of nature, no crows, blackbirds, or +song-birds in this valley; they followed in the wake of the colonist. +The honey bee came with the white man,--or rather, just preceded him. +Rats followed the first settlers, then opossums, and fox squirrels +still later. It is thought, too, that the sand-hill and whooping +cranes, and the great blue herons which we daily see in their stately +flight, are birds of these later days, when the neighborhood of man +has frightened away the enemies which once kept them from thriving +in the valley. Turkey buzzards appear to remain alone of the ancient +birds; the earliest travelers note their presence in great flocks, and +to-day there are few vistas open to us, without from one to dozens of +them wheeling about in mid-air, seeking what they may devour. Public +opinion in the valley is opposed to the wanton killing of these +scavengers, so useful in a climate as warm as this. + +Three miles below Letart's Rapids, is the motley settlement of +Antiquity, O., a long row of cabins and cottages nestled at the base +of a high, vine-clad palisade, similar to that which yesterday we +visited at Long Bottom. Some of these cliff-dwellings are picturesque, +some exhibit the prosperity of their owners, but many are squalid. At +the water's edge is that which has given its name to the locality, an +ancient rock, which once bore some curious Indian carving. Hall (1820) +found only one figure remaining, "a man in a sitting posture, making +a pipe;" to-day, even thus much has been largely obliterated by the +elements. But Antiquity itself is not quite dead. There is a ship-yard +here; and a sawmill in active operation, besides the ruins of two +others. + +We also passed Racine (240 miles), another Ohio town--a considerable +place, no doubt, although only the tops of the buildings were, +from the river level, to be seen above the high bank; these, and an +enticing view up the wharf-street. Of more immediate interest, +just then, were the heavens, now black and threatening. Putting in +hurriedly to the West Virginia shore, we pitched tent on a shelving +clay beach, shielded by the ever-present willows, and in five minutes +had everything under shelter. With a rumble and bang, and a great +flurry of wind, the thunder-storm broke upon us in full fury. There +had been no time to run a ditch around the tent, so we spread our +cargo atop of the cots. The Boy engineered riverward the streams +of water which flowed in beneath the canvas; W----, ever practical, +caught rain from the dripping fly, and did the family washing, while +the Doctor and I prepared a rather pasty lunch. + +An hour later, we bailed out Pilgrim, and once more ventured upon our +way. It is a busy district between Racine and Sheffield (251 miles). +For eleven miles, upon the Ohio bank, there are few breaks between the +towns,--Racine, Syracuse, Minersville, Pomeroy, Coalport, Middleport, +and Sheffield. Coal mines and salt works abound, with other industries +interspersed; and the neighborhood appears highly prosperous. Its +metropolis is Pomeroy, in shape a "shoe-string" town,--much of it not +over two blocks wide, and stretching along for two miles, at the foot +of high palisades. West Virginia is not far behind, in enterprise, +with the salt-work towns of New Haven, Hartford, and Mason +City,--bespeaking, in their names, a Connecticut ancestry. + +The afternoon sun gushed out, and the face of Nature was cleanly +beautiful, as, leaving the convolutions of the Pomeroy Bend, we +entered upon that long river-sweep to the south-by-southwest, which +extends from Pomeroy to the Big Sandy, a distance of sixty-eight +miles. A mile or two below Cheshire, O. (256 miles), we put in for +the night on the West Virginia shore. There is a natural pier of rocky +ledge, above that a sloping beach of jagged stone, and then the little +grassy terrace which we have made our home. + +Searching for milk and eggs, I walked along a railway track and then +up through a cornfield, to a little log farm-house, whose broad porch +was shingled with "shakes" and shaded by a lusty grape-vine. Fences, +house, and outbuildings had been newly whitewashed, and there was all +about an uncommon air of neatness. A stout little girl of eleven or +twelve, met me at the narrow gate opening through the garden palings. +It may be because a gypsying trip like this roughens one in many +ways,--for man, with long living near to Nature's heart, becomes of +the earth, earthy,--that she at first regarded me with suspicious +eyes, and, with one hand resting gracefully on her hip, parleyed over +the gate, as to what price I was paying in cash, for eggs and milk, +and where I hailed from. + +With her wealth of blond hair done up in a saucy knot behind; her +round, honest face; her lips thick, and parted over pearly teeth; her +nose saucily _retrousse_; and her flashing, outspoken blue eyes, +this barefooted child of Nature had a certain air of authority, a +consciousness of power, which made her womanly beyond her years. She +must have seen that I admired her, this little "cracker" queen, in her +clean but tattered calico frock; for her mood soon melted, and +with much grace she ushered me within the house. Calling Sam, an +eight-year-old, to "keep the gen'lem'n comp'ny," she prettily excused +herself, and scampered off up the hillside in search of the cows. + +A barefooted, loose-jointed, gaunt, sandy-haired, freckled, open-eyed +youngster is Sam. He came lounging into the room, and, taking my +hat, hung it on a peg above the fireplace; then, dropping into a big +rocking-chair, with his muddy legs hanging over an arm, at once, with +a curious, old-fashioned air, began "keeping company" by telling me of +the new litter of pigs, with as little diffidence as though I were an +old neighbor who had dropped in on the way to the cross-roads. "And +thet thar new Shanghai rooster, mister, ain't he a beauty? He cost a +dollar, he did--a dollar in silver, sir!" + +There was no difficulty in drawing Sam out. He is frankness itself. +What was he going to make of himself? Well, he "'lowed" he wanted to +be either a locomotive engineer or a steamboat captain--hadn't made +up his mind which. "But whatever a boy wants to be, he will be!" said +Sam, with the decided tone of a man of the world, who had seen things. +I asked Sam what the attractions were in the life of an engine driver. +He "'lowed" they went so fast through the world, and saw so many +different people; and in their lifetime served on different roads, +maybe, and surely they must meet with some excitement. And in that of +a steamboat captain? "Oh! now yew're talk'n', mister! A right smart +business, thet! A boss'n' o' people 'round, a seein' o' th' world, +and noth'n' 't all to do! Now, that's right smart, I take it!" It was +plain where his heart lay. He saw the steamers pass the farm daily, +and once he had watched one unload at Point Pleasant--well, that was +the life for him! Sam will have to be up and doing, if he is to be the +monarch of a stern-wheeler on the Ohio; but many another "cracker" boy +has attained this exalted station, and Sam is of the sort to win his +way. + +Soon the kine came lowing into the yard, and my piquant young friend +who had met me at the gate stood in the doorway talking with us both, +while their brother Charley, an awkward, self-conscious lad of ten, +took my pail and milked into it the required two quarts. It is +a large, square room, where I was so agreeably entertained. The +well-chinked logs are scrupulously whitewashed; the parental bed, with +gay pillow shams, bought from a peddler, occupies one corner; a huge +brick fireplace opens black and yawning, into the base of a great +cobblestone chimney reared against the house without, after the +fashion of the country; on pegs about, hang the best clothes of the +family; while a sewing-machine, a deal table, a cheap little mirror +as big as my palm, a few unframed chromos, and a gaudy "Family Record" +chart hung in an old looking-glass frame,--with appropriate holes for +tintypes of father, mother and children,--complete the furnishings of +the apartment, which is parlor, sitting-room, dining-room, and bedroom +all in one. + +My little queen was evidently proud of her throne-room, and noted with +satisfaction my interest in the Family Record. When I had paid her +for butter and eggs, at retail rates, she threw in an extra egg, and, +despite my protests, would have Charley take the pail out to the cow, +"for an extra squirt or two, for good measure!" + +I was bidding them all good-bye, and the queen was pressing me to come +again in the morning "fer more stuff, ef ye 'lowed yew wanted any," +when the mother of the little brood appeared from over the fields, +where she had been to carry water to her lord. A fair, intelligent, +rather fine-looking woman, but barefooted like the rest; from her neck +behind, dangled a red sunbonnet, and a sunny-haired child of five was +in her arms--"sort o' weak in her lungs, poor thing!" she sadly said, +as I snapped my fingers at the smiling tot. I tarried a moment with +the good mother, as, sitting upon the porch, she serenely smiled upon +her children, whose eyes were now lit with responsive love; and I +wondered if there were not some romance hidden here, whereby a dash of +gentler blood had through this sweet-tempered woman been infused into +the coarse clay of the bottom. + +[Footnote A: Notably, Ashe's _Travels_; but Palmer, while saying that +"they are the only obstruction to the navigation of the Ohio, except +the rapids at Louisville," declares them to be of slight difficulty, +and, referring to Ashe's account, says, "Like great part of his book, +it is all romance."] + +[Footnote B: The last buffalo on record, in the Upper Ohio region, was +killed in the Great Kanawha Valley, a dozen miles from Charleston, +W. Va., in 1815. Five years later, in the same vicinity, was killed +probably the last elk seen east of the Ohio.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Battle of Point Pleasant--The story of + Gallipolis--Rosebud--Huntington--The genesis of a + house-boater. + + +Near Glenwood, W. Va., Thursday, May 17th.--By eight o'clock this +morning we were in Point Pleasant, W. Va., at the mouth of the Great +Kanawha River (263 miles). Celoron was here, the eighteenth of August, +1749, and on the east bank of the river, the site of the present +village, buried at the foot of an elm one of his leaden plates +asserting the claim of France to the Ohio basin. Ninety-seven years +later, a boy unearthed this interesting but futile proclamation, and +it rests to-day in the museum of the Virginia Historical Society. + +The Great Kanawha Valley long had a romantic interest for Englishmen +concerned in Western lands. It was in the grant to the old Ohio +Company; but that corporation, handicapped in many ways, was +practically dead by the time of Lord Dunmore's war. It had many +rivals, more or less ephemeral, among them the scheme of George Mercer +(1773) to have the territory between the Alleghanies and the Ohio--the +West Virginia of to-day--erected into the "Province of Vandalia," +with himself as governor, and his capital at the mouth of the Great +Kanawha. Washington owned a ten-thousand-acre tract on both sides +of the river, commencing a short distance above the mouth, which +he surveyed in person, in October, 1770; and in 1773 we find him +advertising to sell or lease it; among the inducements he offered was, +"the scheme for establishing a new government on the Ohio," and the +contiguity of his lands "to the seat of government, which, it is more +than probable, will be fixed at the mouth of the Great Kanawha." +Had not the Revolution broken out, and nipped this and many another +budding plan for Western colonization, there is little doubt that +what we call West Virginia would have been established as a state, a +century earlier than it was.[A] + +A few days ago we were at Mingo Bottom, where lived Chief Logan, whose +family were treacherously slaughtered by border ruffians (1774). +The Mingos, ablaze with the fire of vengeance, carried the war-pipe +through the neighboring villages; runners were sent in every direction +to rouse the tribes; tomahawks were unearthed, war-posts were planted; +messages of defiance sent to the Virginians; and in a few days Lord +Dunmore's war was in full swing, from Cumberland Gap to Fort Pitt, +from the Alleghanies to the Wabash. + +His lordship, then governor of Virginia, was full of energy, and +proved himself a competent military manager. The settlers were +organized; the rude log forts were garrisoned; forays were made +against the Indian villages as far away as Muskingum, and an army of +nearly three thousand backwoodsmen, armed with smooth-bores and clad +in fringed buckskin hunting-shirts, was put in the field. + +One division of this army, eleven hundred strong, under Gen. Andrew +Lewis, descended the Great Kanawha River, and on Point Pleasant met +Cornstalk, a famous Shawnee chief, who, while at first peaceful, had +by the Logan tragedy been made a fierce enemy of the whites, and was +now the leader of a thousand picked warriors, gathered from all parts +of the Northwest. On the 10th of October, from dawn until dusk, was +here waged in a gloomy forest one of the most bloody and +stubborn hand-to-hand battles ever fought between Indians and +whites--especially notable, too, because for the first time the rivals +were about equal in number. The combatants stood behind trees, +in Indian fashion, and it is hard to say who displayed the best +generalship, Cornstalk or Lewis.[B] When the pall of night covered the +hideous contest, the whites had lost one-fifth of their number, while +the savages had sustained but half as many casualties. Cornstalk's +followers had had enough, however, and withdrew before daylight, +leaving the field to the Americans. + +A few days later, General Lewis joined Lord Dunmore--who headed the +other wing of the army, which had proceeded by the way of Forts Pitt +and Gower--on the Pickaway plains, in Ohio; and there a treaty was +made with the Indians, who assented to every proposition made them. +They surrendered all claim to lands south of the Ohio River, returned +their white prisoners and stolen horses, and gave hostages for future +good behavior. + +Here at Point Pleasant, a year later, Fort Randolph was built, and +garrisoned by a hundred men; for, despite the treaty, the Indians were +still troublesome. For a long time, Pittsburg, Redstone, and Randolph +were the only garrisoned forts on the frontier. The Point Pleasant of +to-day is a dull, sleepy town of twenty-five hundred inhabitants, with +that unkempt air and preponderance of lounging negroes, so common to +small Southern communities. The bottom is rolling, fringed with +large hills, and on the Ohio side drops suddenly for fifty feet to +a shelving beach of gravel and clay. Crooked Creek, in whose narrow, +winding valley some of the severest fighting was had, empties into +the Kanawha a half-mile up the stream, at the back of the town. It was +painful to meet several men of intelligence, who had long been engaged +in trade here, to whom the Battle of Point Pleasant was a shadowy +event, whose date they could not fix, nor whose importance understand; +it seemed to be little more a part of their lives, than an obscure +contest between Matabeles and whites, in far-off Africa. It is time +that our Western and Southern folk were awakened to an appreciation of +the fact that they have a history at their doors, quite as significant +in the annals of civilization as that which induces pilgrimages to +Ticonderoga and Bunker Hill. + +Four miles below, Pilgrim was beached for a time at Gallipolis, O. +(267 miles), which has a story all its own. The district belonged, +a century ago, to the Scioto Company, an offshoot of the Marietta +enterprise. Joel Barlow, the "poet of the Revolution," was sent to +Paris (May, 1788) as agent for the sale of lands. As the result of his +personal popularity there, and his flaming immigration circulars and +maps, he disposed of a hundred thousand acres; to settle on which, six +hundred French emigrants sailed for America, in February, 1790. +They were peculiarly unsuited for colonization, even under the most +favorable conditions--being in the main physicians, jewelers and other +artisans, a few mechanics, and noblemen's servants, while many were +without trade or profession. + +Upon arrival in Alexandria, Va., they found that their deeds +were valueless, the land never having been paid for by the Scioto +speculators; moreover, the tract was filled with hostile Indians. +However, five hundred of them pushed on to the region, by way of +Redstone, and reached here by flatboat, in a destitute condition. +The Marietta neighbors were as kind as circumstances would allow, +and cabins were built for them on what is now the Public Square of +Gallipolis. But they were ignorant of the first principles of forestry +or gardening; the initial winter was exceptionally severe, Indian +forays sapped the life of the colony, yellow fever decimated the +survivors; and, altogether, the little settlement suffered a series of +disasters almost unparalleled in the story of American colonization. + +Although finally reimbursed by Congress with a special land grant, the +emigrants gradually died off, until now, so at least we were assured, +but three families of descendants of the original Gauls are now living +here. It was the American element, aided by sturdy Germans, who in +time took hold of the decayed French settlement, and built up the +prosperous little town of six thousand inhabitants which we find +to-day. It is a conservative town, with little perceptible increase +in population; but there are many fine brick blocks, the stores +have large stocks attractively displayed, and there is in general a +comfortable tone about the place, which pleases a stranger. The Public +Square, where the first Gauls had their little forted town, appears to +occupy the space of three or four city blocks; there is the customary +band-stand in the center, and seats plentifully provided along the +graveled walks which divide neat plots of grass. Over the riverward +entrance to the square, is an arch of gas-pipe, perforated for +illumination, and bearing the dates, "1790-1890,"--a relic, this, of +the centennial which Gallipolis celebrated in the last-named year. + +It was with some difficulty that we found a camping-place, this +evening. For several miles, the approaches were nearly knee-deep in +mud for a dozen feet back from the water's edge, or else the banks +were too steep, or the farmers had cultivated so closely to the brink +as to leave us no room for the tent. In one gruesome spot on the Ohio +bank, where a projecting log fortunately served as a pier, the Doctor +landed for a prospecting tour; while I ascended a zigzag path, through +steep and rugged land, to a nest of squalid cabins perched by a shabby +hillside road. A vicious dog came down to meet me half-way, and might +have succeeded in carrying off a portion of my clothing had not his +owner whistled him back. + +A queer, dingy, human wasp-nest, this dirty little shanty hamlet of +Rosebud. Pigs and children wallowed in comradeship, and as every cabin +on the precipitous slope necessarily has a basement, this is used as +the common barn for chickens, goats, pigs, and cow. It was pleasant to +find that there was no sweet milk to be had in Rosebud, for it is kept +in open pans, in these fetid rooms, and soon sours--and the cows had +not yet come down from the hills. Water, too, was at a premium. There +was none to be had, save what had fallen from the clouds, and been +stored in a foul cistern, which seemed common property. I drew a +pailful of it, not to displease the disheveled group which surrounded +me, full of questions; but on the first turning in the lane, emptied +the vessel upon the back of a pig, which was darting by with murderous +squeal. + +The long twilight was well nigh spent, when, on the Ohio side a mile +or two above Glenwood, W. Va. (287 miles), we came upon a wide, +level beach of gravel, below a sloping, willowed terrace, above which +sharply rose the "second bottom." Ascending an angling farm roadway, +while the others pitched camp, I walked over the undulating bottom +to the nearest of a group of small, neat farmhouses, and applied +for milk. While a buxom maid went out and milked a Jersey, that had +chanced to come home ahead of her fellows, I sat on the rear porch +gossiping with the farm-wife--a Pennsylvania-Dutch dame of ample +proportions, attired in light-blue calico, and with huge spectacles +over her broad, flat nose. She and her "man" own a hundred and fifty +acres on the bottom, with three cows and other stock in proportion, +and sell butter to those neighbors who have no cows, and to houseboat +people. As for these latter, though they were her customers, she +had none too good an opinion of them; they pretended to fish, but in +reality only picked up a living from the farmers; nevertheless, she +did know of some "weakly, delicate people" who had taken to boat life +for economy's sake, and because an invalid could at least fish, and +his family help him at it. + + * * * * * + +Near Huntington, W. Va., Friday, May 18th.--Backed by ravine-grooved +hills, and edged at the waterside with great picturesque boulders, +planed and polished by the ever-rushing river, the little bottom farms +along our path to-day are pretty bits. But the houses are the +reverse of this, having much the aspect of slave-cabins of the olden +time--small, one-story, log and frame shanties, roof and gables +shingled with "shakes," and little vegetable gardens inclosed by +palings. The majority of these small farmers--whose tracts seldom +exceed a hundred acres--rent their land, rather than own it. The plan +seems to be half-and-half as to crops, with a rental fee for house and +pasturage. One man, having a hundred-and-twenty acres, told me he +paid three dollars a month for his house, and for pasturage a dollar a +month per head. + +We were in several of the small towns to-day. At Millersport, O. +(293 miles), while W---- and the Doctor were up town, the Boy and I +remained at the wharf-boat to talk with the owner. The wharf-boat is +a conspicuous object at every landing of importance, being a covered +barge used as a storehouse for coming and going steamboat freight. +It is a private enterprise, for public convenience, with certain +monopolistic privileges at the incorporated towns. This Millersport +boat cost twelve hundred dollars; the proprietor charges twenty per +cent of each freight-bill, for handling and storing goods, a fee of +twenty-five cents for each steamer that lands, and certain special +fees for live stock. Athalia, Haskellville and Guyandotte were other +representative towns. Stave-making appears to be the chief industry, +and, as timber is getting scarce, the communities show signs of decay. + +We had been told, above, that Huntington, W. Va. (306 miles), was "a +right smart chunk of a town." And it is. There are sixteen thousand +people here, in a finely-built city spread over a broad, flat plain. +Brick and stone business buildings abound; the broad streets are +paved with brick, and an electric-car line runs out along the bottom, +through the suburb of Ceredo, W. Va., to Catlettsburg, Ky., nine miles +away. Huntington is the center of a large group of riverside towns +supported by iron-making and other industries--Guyandotte and Ceredo, +in West Virginia; Catlettsburg, just over the border in Kentucky; and +Proctorville, Broderickville, Frampton, Burlington, and South Point, +on the opposite shore. + +We are camping to-night in the dense willow grove which lines the West +Virginia beach from Huntington to the Big Sandy. Above us, on the wide +terrace, are fields and orchards, beyond which we occasionally hear +the gong of electric cars. A public path runs by the tent, leading +from the lower settlements into Huntington. Among our visitors have +been two houseboat men, whose craft is moored a quarter of a mile +below. One of them is tall, thick-set, forty, with a round, florid +face, and huge mustaches,--evidently a jolly fellow at his best, +despite a certain dubious, piratical air; a jaunty, narrow-brimmed +straw hat is perched over one ear, to add to the general effect; +and between his teeth a corn-cob pipe. His younger companion is +medium-sized, slim, and loose-jointed, with a baggy gait, his cap +thrown over his head, with the visor in the rear--a rustic clown, not +yet outgrown his freckles. But three weeks from the parental farm in +Putnam County, Ky., the world is as yet a romance to him. The +fellow is interesting, because in him can be seen the genesis of a +considerable element of the houseboat fraternity. I wonder how long it +will be before his partner has him broken in as a river-pirate of the +first water. + +[Footnote A: Washington was much interested in a plan to connect, by a +canal, the James and Great Kanawha Rivers, separated at their sources +by a portage of but a few miles in length. The distance from Point +Pleasant to Richmond is 485 miles. In 1785, Virginia incorporated the +James River Company, of which Washington was the first president. The +project hung fire, because of "party spirit and sectional jealousies," +until 1832, when a new company was incorporated, under which the James +was improved (1836-53), but the Kanawha was untouched. In 1874, United +States engineers presented a plan calling for an expenditure of sixty +millions, but there the matter rests. The Kanawha is navigable by +large steamers for sixty miles, up to the falls at Charleston, and +beyond almost to its source, by light craft.] + +[Footnote B: Hall, in _Romance of Western History_ (1820), says that +when Washington was tendered command of the Revolutionary army, he +replied that it should rather be given to Gen. Andrew Lewis, of whose +military abilities he had a high opinion. Lewis was a captain in +the Little Meadows affair (1752), and a companion of Washington in +Braddock's defeat (1755).] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + In a fog--The Big Sandy--Rainy weather--Operatic gypsies--An + ancient tavern. + + +Ironton, O., Saturday, May 19th.--When we turned in, last night, it +was refreshingly cool. Heavy clouds were scurrying across the face +of the moon. By midnight, a copious rain was falling, wind-gusts were +flapping our roof, and a sudden drop in temperature rendered sadly +inadequate all the clothing we could muster into service. We slept +late, in consequence, and, after rigging a wind-break with the rubber +blankets, during breakfast huddled around the stove which had been +brought in to replace Pilgrim under the fly. When, at half-past nine, +we pushed off, our houseboat neighbors thrust their heads from the +window and waved us farewell. + +A dense fog hung like a cloud over land and river. There was a stiff +north-east wind, which we avoided by seeking the Ohio shore, where +the high hills formed a break; there too, the current was swift, and +carried us down right merrily. Shattered by the wind, great banks of +fog rolled up stream, sometimes enveloping us so as to narrow our +view to a radius of a dozen rods,--again, through the rifts, giving +us momentary glimpses on the right, of rich green hills, towering dark +and steep above us, iridescent with browns, and grays, and many shades +of green; of whitewashed cabins, single or in groups, standing out +with startling distinctness from sombre backgrounds; of houseboats, +many-hued, moored to willowed banks or bolstered high upon shaly +beaches; of the opposite bottom, with its corrugated cliff of clay; +and, now and then, a slowly-puffing steamboat cautiously feeling its +way through the chilling gloom--a monster to be avoided by little +Pilgrim and her crew, for the possibility of being run down in a fog +is not pleasant to contemplate. On board one of these steamers was a +sorry company--apparently a Sunday-school excursion. Children in gala +dress huddled in swarms on the lee of the great smoke-stacks, and in +imagination we heard their teeth chatter as they glided by us and in +another moment were engulfed in the mist. + +We catch sight for a moment, through a cloud crevasse, of Ceredo, the +last town in West Virginia--a small saw-milling community stuck upon +the edge of the clay cliff, with the broad level bottom stretching out +behind like a prairie. A giant railway bridge here spans the Ohio--a +weird, impressive thing, as we sweep under it in the swirling current, +and crane our necks to see the great stone piers lose themselves in +the cloud. But the Big Sandy River (315 miles), which divides West +Virginia and Kentucky, was wholly lost to view. In an opening a few +moments later, however, we had a glimpse of the dark line of her +valley, below which the hills again descend to the Ohio's bank. + +Catlettsburg, the first Kentucky town, is at the junction, and extends +along the foot of the ridge for a mile or two, apparently not over +two blocks wide, with a few outlying shanties on the shoulders of the +uplands. Washington was surveying here, on the Big Sandy, in 1770, and +entered for one John Fry 2,084 acres round the site of Louisa, a dozen +miles up the river; this was the first survey made in Kentucky--but +a few months later than Boone's first advent as a hunter on the +"dark and bloody ground," and five years before the first permanent +settlement in the State. Washington deserves to be remembered as a +Kentucky pioneer. + +We have not only steamers to avoid,--they appear to be unusually +numerous about here,--but snags as well. With care, the whereabouts of +a steamer can be distinguished as it steals upon us, from the superior +whiteness of its column of "exhaust," penetrating the bank of dark +gray fog; and occasionally the echoes are awakened by the burly roar +of its whistle, which, in times like this, acts as a fog-horn. But the +snag is an insidious enemy, not revealing itself until we are within +a rod or two, and then there is a quick cry of warning from the +stern sheets--"Hard a-port!" or "Starboard, quick!" and only a strong +side-pull, aided by W----'s paddle, sends us free from the jagged, +branching mass which might readily have swamped poor Pilgrim had she +taken it at full tilt. + +At Ashland, Ky. (320 miles), we stopped for supplies. There are six +thousand inhabitants here, with some good buildings and a fine, broad, +stone wharf, but it is rather a dingy place. The steamer "Bonanza" had +just landed. On the double row of flaggings leading up to the summit +of the bank, were two ant-like processions of Kentucky folk--one, +leisurely climbing townward with their bags and bundles, the other +hurrying down with theirs to the boat, which was ringing its bell, +blowing off steam, and in other ways creating an uproar which seemed +to turn the heads of the negro roustabouts and draymen, who bustled +around with a great chatter and much false motion. The railway may be +doing the bulk of the business, but it does it unostentatiously; the +steamboat makes far more disturbance in the world, and is a finer +spectacle. Dozens of boys are lounging at the wharf foot, watching the +lively scene with fascinated eyes, probably every one of them stoutly +possessed of an ambition akin to that of my young friend in the +Cheshire Bottom. + +A rain-storm broke the fog--a cold, raw, miserable rain. No clothing +we could don appeared to suffice against the chill; and so at last we +pitched camp upon the Ohio shore, three miles above the Ironton wharf +(325 miles). It is a muddy, dreary nest up here, among the dripping +willows. Just behind us on the slope, is the inclined track of the +Norfolk & Western railway-transfer, down which trains are slid to +a huge slip, and thence ferried over the river into Kentucky; above +that, on a narrow terrace, is an ordinary railway line; and still +higher, up a slippery clay bank, lies the cottage-strewn bottom which +stretches on into Ironton (13,000 inhabitants). + +We were a sorry-looking party, at lunch this noon, hovering over the +smoking stove which was set in the tent door, with a wind-screen in +front, and moist bedding hung all about in the vain hope of drying it +in the feeble heat. And sorrier still, through the long afternoon, as, +each encased in a sleeping-bag, we sat upon our cots circling around +the stove, W---- reading to us between chattering teeth from Barrie's +_When a Man's Single_. 'Tis good Scottish weather we're having; but +somehow our thoughts could not rest on Thrums, and we were, for the +nonce, a wee bit miserable. + +Dinner degenerated into a smoky bite, and then at dusk there was a +council of war. The air hangs thick with moisture, our possessions are +in various stages from damp to sopping wet, and efforts at drying over +the little stove are futile under such conditions. It was demonstrated +that there was not bed-clothing enough, in such an emergency as this; +indeed, an inspection of that which was merely damp, revealed the fact +that but one person could be made comfortable to-night. Our bachelor +Doctor volunteered to be that one. So we bade him God-speed, and +with toilet bag in hand I led my little family up a tortuous path, so +slippery in the rain that we were obliged in our muddy climb to cling +to grass-clumps and bushes. And thus, wet and bedraggled, did we sally +forth upon the Ironton Bottom, seeking shelter for the night. + +Fortunately we had not far to seek. A kindly family took us in, +despite our gruesome aspect and our unlikely story--for what manner +of folk are we, that go trapesing about in a skiff, in such weather +as this, coming from nobody knows where and camping o' nights in the +muddy river bottoms? Instead of sending us on, in the drenching rain, +to a hotel, three miles down the road, or offering us a ticket on the +Associated Charities, these blessed people open their hearts and their +beds to us, without question, and what more can weary pilgrims pray +for? + + * * * * * + +Sciotoville, O., Sunday, May 20th.--After breakfast, and settling our +modest score, we rejoined the Doctor, and at ten o'clock pulled out +again; being bidden good-bye at the landing, by the children of our +hostess, who had sent us by them a bottle of fresh milk as a parting +gift. + +It had rained almost continuously, throughout the night. To-day we +have a dark gray sky, with fickle winds. A charming color study, all +along our path; the reds and grays and yellows of the high clay-banks +which edge the reciprocating bottoms, the browns and yellows of +hillside fields, the deep greens of forest verdure, the vivid white +of bankside cabins, and, in the background of each new vista, bold +headlands veiled in blue. W---- and the Boy are in the stern sheets, +wrapped in blankets, for there is a smart chill in the air, and we at +the oars pull lively for warmth. In our twisting course, sometimes +we have a favoring breeze, and the Doctor rears the sail; but it is a +brief delight, for the next turn brings the wind in our teeth, and we +set to the blades with renewed energy. In the main, we make good time. +The sugar-loaf hills, with their castellated escarpments, go marching +by with stately sweep. + +Greenup Court House (334 miles) is a bright little Kentucky +county-seat, well-built at the feet of thickly-forested uplands. At +the lower end of the village, the Little Sandy enters through a wooded +dale, which near the mouth opens into a broad meadow. Not many miles +below, is a high sloping beach, picturesquely bestrewn with gigantic +boulders which have in ages past rolled down from the hill-tops above. +Here, among the rocks, we again set up a rude screen from the still +piercing wind; and, each wrapped in a gay blanket, lunch as operatic +gypsies might, in a romantic glen, enjoying mightily our steaming +chocolate, and the warmth of our friendly stove--for dessert, taking +a merry scamper for flowers, over the ragged ascent from whence the +boulders came. Everywhere about is the trumpet creeper, but not yet +in bloom. The Indian turnip is in blossom here, and so the smaller +Solomon's seal, yellow spikes of toad-flax, blue and pink phlox, +glossy May apple; high up on the hillside, the fire pink and +wintergreen; and, down by the sandy shore, great beds of blue wild +lupin, and occasionally stately spikes of the familiar moth mullein. + +With the temperature falling rapidly, and a drizzling rain taking the +starch out of our enthusiasm, we early sought a camping ground. For +miles along here, springs ooze from the base of the high clay bank +walling in the wide and rocky Ohio beach, and dry spots are few and +far between. We found one, however, a half mile above Little Scioto +River (346 miles),[A] with drift-wood enough to furnish us for years, +and the beach thick-strewn with fossils of a considerable variety of +small bivalves, which latter greatly delighted the Doctor and the Boy, +who have brought enough specimens to the tent door to stock a college +museum. + +Dinner over, the crew hauled Pilgrim under cover, and within prepared +for her sailing-master a cosy bed, with the entire ship's stock of +sleeping-bags and blankets. W----, the Boy, and I then started off +to find quarters in Sciotoville (1,000 inhabitants), which lies just +below the river's mouth, here a dozen rods wide. Scrambling up the +slimy bank, through a maze of thorn trees, brambles, and sycamore +scrubs, we gained the fertile bottom above, all luscious with tall +grasses bespangled with wild red roses and the showy pentstemon. The +country road leading into the village is some distance inland, but at +last we found it just beyond a patch of Indian corn waist high, and +followed it, through a covered bridge, and down to a little hotel at +the lower end of town. + +A quaint, old-fashioned house, the Sciotoville tavern, with an inner +gallery looking out into a small garden of peaches, apples, pears, +plums, and grapes--a famous grape country this, by the way. In our +room, opening from the gallery, is an antique high-post bedstead; +everywhere about are similar relics of an early day. In keeping +with the air of serene old age, which pervades the hostelry, is the +white-haired landlady herself. In well-starched apron, white cap, and +gold-rimmed glasses, she benignly sits rocking by the office stove, +her feet on the fender, reading Wallace's _Prince of India_; and +looking, for all the world, as if she had just stepped out of some old +portrait of--well, of a tavern-keeping Martha Washington. + + +[Footnote A: Two miles up the Little Scioto, Pine Creek enters. +Perhaps a mile and a half up this creek was, in 1771, a Mingo town +called Horse Head Bottom, which cuts some figure in border history as +a nest of Indian marauders.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + The Scioto, and the Shawanese--A night at + Rome--Limestone--Keels, flats, and boatmen of the olden time. + + +Rome, O., Monday, May 21st.--At intervals through the night, rain +fell, and the temperature was but 46 deg. at sunrise. However, by the +time we were afloat, the sun was fitfully gleaming through masses of +gray cloud, for a time giving promise of a warmer day. Dark shadows +rested on the romantic ravines, and on the deep hollows of the hills; +but elsewhere over this gentle landscape of wooded amphitheatres, +broad green meadows, rocky escarpments, and many-colored fields, +light and shade gayly chased each other. Never were the vistas of the +widening river more beautiful than to-day. + +There are saw-mill and fire-brick industries in the little towns, +which would be shabby enough in the full glare of day. But they +are all glorified in this changing light, which brings out the rich +yellows and reds in sharp relief against the gloomy background of the +hills, and mellows into loveliness the soft grays of unpainted wood. + +At the mouth of the Scioto (354 miles), is Portsmouth, O. (15,000 +inhabitants), a well-built, substantial town, with good shops. It +lies on a hill-backed terrace some forty feet above the level of the +neighboring bottoms, which give evidence of being victims of the high +floods periodically covering the low lands about the junction of the +rivers. Just across the Scioto is Alexandria, and on the Kentucky side +of the Ohio can be seen the white hamlet of Springville, at the feet +of the dentated hills which here closely approach the river. + +The country about the mouth of the Scioto has long figured in Western +annals. Being a favorite rendezvous for the Shawanese, it naturally +became a resort for French and English fur-traders. The principal +part of the first Shawanese village--Shannoah Town, in the old +journals--was below the Scioto's mouth, on the site of Alexandria; +it was the chief town of this considerable tribe, and here Gist +was warned back, when in March, 1751, he ventured thus far while +inspecting lands for the Ohio Company. Two years later, there was a +great--perhaps an unprecedented--flood in the Ohio, the water rising +fifty feet above the ordinary level, and destroying the larger part of +the Shawanese village. Some of the Indians moved to the Little Miami, +and others up the Scioto, where they built, successively, Old and New +Chillicothe; but the majority remained, and rebuilt their town on +the higher land north of the Scioto, where Portsmouth now stands. An +outlying band had had, from before Gist's day, a small town across the +Ohio, the site of Springville; and it was here that George Croghan had +his stone trading house, which was doubtless, after the manner of the +times, a frontier fortress. In the French and Indian war (1758), the +Shawanese, tiring of continual conflict, withdrew from their Ohio +River settlements to Old (or Upper) Chillicothe, and thus closed the +once important fur-trade at the mouth of the Scioto. It was while +the Indian town at Portsmouth was still new (1755), that a party of +Shawanese brought here a Mrs. Mary Inglis, whom they had captured +while upon a scalping foray into Southwestern Virginia. The story of +the remarkable escape of this woman, at Big Bone Lick, of her long and +terrible flight through the wilderness along the southern bank of the +Ohio and up the Great Kanawha Valley, and her final return to home and +kindred, who viewed her as one delivered from the grave, is one of the +most thrilling in Western history.[A] + +Although the Shawanese had removed from their villages on the Ohio, +they still lived in new towns in the north, within easy striking +distance of the great river; and, until the close of the eighteenth +century, were a continual source of alarm to those whose business +led them to follow this otherwise inviting highway to the continental +interior. Flatboats bearing traders, immigrants, and travelers were +frequently waylaid by the savages, who exhausted a fertile ingenuity +in luring their victims to an ambuscade ashore; and, when not +successful in this, would in narrow channels, or when the current +swept the craft near land, subject the voyagers to a fierce fusilade +of bullets, against which even stout plank barricades proved of small +avail. + +Vanceburgh, Ky. (375 miles), is a little town at the bottom of a +pretty amphitheatre of hills. There was a floating photographer there, +as we passed, with a gang-plank run out to the shore, and framed +specimens of his work hung along the town side of his ample barge. +Men with teams were getting wagon-loads of sand from the beach, +for building purposes. And, a mile or two down, a floating saw and +planing-mill--the "Clipper," which we had seen before, up river--was +busied upon logs which were being rolled down the beach from the bank +above. There are several such mills upon the river, all seemingly +occupied with "tramp work," for there is a deal of logging carried on, +in a small and careful way, by farmers living on these wooded hills. + +Vanceburgh was for the time bathed in sunlight; but, as we continued +on our way, a heavy rain-cloud came creeping up over the dark Ohio +hills, and, descending, cut off our view, at last lustily pelting us +as we sat encased in rubber. We had been in our ponchos most of the +day, as much for warmth as for shelter; for there was an all-pervading +chill, which the fickle sun, breaking its early promise, had failed to +dissipate. Thus, amid showers alternating with sunbeams, we proceeded +unto Rome (381 miles). An Ohio village, this Rome, and so fallen from +its once proud estate that its postoffice no longer bears the name--it +is simply "Stout's," if, in these degenerate days, you would send a +letter hither. + +It was smartly raining, when we put in on the stony beach above Rome. +The tent went up in a hurry, and under it the cargo; but by the time +all was housed the sun gushed out again, and, stretching a line, we +soon had our bedding hung to dry. It is a charming situation; in +this melting atmosphere, we have perhaps the most striking effects of +cloud, hill, bottom, islands, and glancing river, which have yet been +vouchsafed us. + +The Romans, like most rural folk along the river below Wheeling, +chiefly drink cistern water. Earlier in our pilgrimage, we stoutly +declined to patronize these rain-water reservoirs, and I would daily +go far afield in search of a well; but lately, necessity has driven +us to accept the cistern, and often we find it even preferable to the +well, on those rare occasions when the latter can be found at villages +or farm-houses. But there are cisterns and cisterns--foul holes like +that at Rosebud, others that are neatness itself, with all manner of +grades between. As for river water, ever yellow with clay, and thick +as to motes, much of it is used in the country parts. This morning, a +bevy of negroes came down the bank from a Kentucky field; and each in +turn, creeping out on a drift log,--for the ground is usually muddy a +few feet up from the water's edge,--lay flat on his stomach and drank +greedily from the roily mess. + +At dusk, there was again a damp chill, and for the third time we left +the Doctor to keep bachelor's hall upon the beach. It was raining +smartly by the time the tavern was reached, nearly a mile down +the bank. Our advent caused a rare scurrying to and fro, for two +commercial "drummers," who were to depart by the early morning boat, +occupied the "reg'lar spar' room," the landlady informed us, and a bit +of a cubby-hole off the back stairs had to be arranged for us. Guests +are rarities, at the hostelry in Rome. + + * * * * * + +Near Ripley, O., Tuesday, May 22nd.--There was an inch of snow last +night, on the hills about, and a morning Cincinnati paper records a +heavy fall in the Pennsylvania mountains. The storm is general, and +the river rose two feet over night. When we set off, in mid-morning, +it was raining heavily; but in less than an hour the clouds broke, and +the rest of the day has been an alternation of chilling showers and +bursts of warm sunshine, with the same succession, of alluring vistas, +over which play broad bands of changing light and shade, and overhead +the storm clouds torn and tossed in the upper currents. + +Our landlord at Rome asserted at breakfast that Kentucky was fifty +years behind the Ohio side, in improvements of every sort. Thus far, +we have not ourselves noticed differences of that degree. Doubtless +before the late civil war,--all the ante-bellum travelers agree +in this,--when the blight of slavery was resting on Virginia and +Kentucky, the south shore of the Ohio was as another country; but +to-day, so far as we can ascertain from a surface view, the little +villages on either side are equally dingy and woe-begone, and large +Southern towns like Wheeling, Parkersburg, Point Pleasant, and +Maysville are very nearly an offset to Steubenville, Marietta, +Pomeroy, Ironton, and Portsmouth. North-shore towns of wealth and +prominence are more numerous than on the Dixie bank, and are as a +rule larger and somewhat better kept, with the negro element less +conspicuous; but to say that the difference is anywhere near as marked +as the landlord averred, or as my own previous reading on the subject +led me to expect, is grossly to exaggerate. + +After leaving Manchester, O. (394 miles), with a beautiful island at +its door, there are spasmodic evidences of the nearness of a great +city market. A large proportion of the hills are completely denuded of +their timber, and patched with rectangular fields of green, brown, and +yellow; upon the bottoms there are frequent truck farms; now and then +are stone quarries upon the banks, with capacious barges moored in +front; and upon one or two rocky ledges were stone-crushers, getting +out material for concrete pavements. When we ask the bargemen, in +passing, whither their loads are destined, the invariable reply is, +"The city"--meaning Cincinnati, still seventy miles away. + +Limestone Creek (405 miles) occupies a large space in Western story, +for so insignificant a stream. It is now not over a rod in width, and +at no season can it be over two or three. One finds it with difficulty +along the mill-strewn shore of Maysville, Ky., the modern outgrowth of +the Limestone village of pioneer days. Limestone, settled four years +before Marietta or Cincinnati, was long Kentucky's chief port of entry +on the Ohio; immigrants to the new state, who came down the Ohio, +almost invariably booked for this point, thence taking stage to +Lexington, and travelers in the early day seldom passed it by +unvisited. But years before there was any settlement here, the valley +of Limestone Creek, which comes gently down from low-lying hills, was +regarded as a convenient doorway into Kentucky. When (1776) George +Rogers Clark was coming down the river from Pittsburg, with powder +given by Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, for the defence of +Kentucky settlers from British-incited savages, he was chased by the +latter, and, putting into this creek, hastily buried the precious +cargo on its banks. From here it was cautiously taken overland to the +little forts, by relays of pioneers, through a gauntlet of murderous +fire. + +About twenty-five miles from Limestone, too, was another attraction of +the early time,--the great Blue Lick sulphur spring; here, in a +valley surrounded by wooded hills, formerly congregated great herds +of buffalo and deer, which licked the salty earth, and hunters soon +learned that this was a royal ground for game. The Battle of the Blue +Lick (1782) will ever be famous in the annals of Kentucky. + +The Ohio was a mighty waterway into the continental interior, in +the olden days of Limestone. Its only compeer was the so-called +"Wilderness Road," overland through Cumberland Gap--the successor +of "Boone's trail," just as Braddock's Road was the outgrowth of +"Nemacolin's path." Until several years after the Revolutionary War, +the country north of the Ohio was still Indian land, and settlement +was restricted to the region south of the river; so that practically +all West-going roads from the coast colonies centered either on Fort +Pitt or Redstone, or on Cumberland Gap. On the out-going trip, the +Wilderness Road was the more toilsome of the two, but it was safer, +for the Ohio's banks were beset with thieving and often murdering +savages. In returning east, many who had descended the river preferred +going overland through the Gap, to painfully pulling up stream through +the shallows, with the danger of Indians many times greater than when +gliding down the deep current. The distance over the two routes from +Philadelphia, was nearly equal, when the windings of the river were +taken into account; but the Carolinians and the Georgians found +Boone's Wilderness Road the shorter of the two, in their migrations +to the promised land of "Ol' Kaintuck." And we should not overlook the +fact, that of much importance was still a third route, up the James +and down the Great Kanawha; a route whose advantage to Virginia, +Washington early saw, and tried in vain to have improved by a canal +connecting the two rivers.[B] + +Even before the opening of the Revolution, the Ohio was the path of +a considerable emigration. We have seen Washington going down to the +Great Kanawha with his surveying party, in 1770, and finding that +settlers were hurrying into the country for a hundred miles below Fort +Pitt. By the close of the Revolution, the Ohio was a familiar stream. +Pittsburg, from a small trading hamlet and fording-place, had grown +by 1785 to have a thousand inhabitants, chiefly supported by +boat-building and the Kentucky carrying trade; and boat-yards were +common up both the Monongahela and the Youghiogheny, for a distance +of sixty miles. Nevertheless, it was not until 1792 that there were +regular conveniences for carrying passengers and freight down the +Ohio; the emigrant or trader, on arrival at Pittsburg or Redstone, +had generally to wait until he could either charter a boat or have one +built for him, although sometimes he found a chance "passenger flat" +going down.[C] This difficulty in securing river transportation was +one of the reasons why the majority chose the Wilderness Road. + +"The first thing that strikes a stranger from the Atlantic," says +Flint (1814), "is the singular, whimsical, and amusing spectacle of +the varieties of water-craft, of all shapes and structures." These, +Flint, who knew the river well, separates into seven classes: (1) +"Stately barges," the size of an Atlantic schooner, with "a raised and +outlandish-looking deck;" one of these required a crew of twenty-five +to work it up stream. (2) Keel-boats--long, slender, and graceful in +form, carrying from fifteen to thirty tons, easily propelled over +the shallows, and much used in low water, and in hunting trips to +Missouri, Arkansas, and the Red River country. (3) Kentucky flats +(or "broad-horns"), "a species of ark, very nearly resembling a New +England pig-stye;" these were from forty to a hundred feet in length, +fifteen feet in beam, and carried from twenty to seventy tons. Some +of these flats were not unlike the house-boats of to-day. "It is no +uncommon spectacle to see a large family, old and young, servants, +cattle, hogs, horses, sheep, fowls, and animals of all kinds," all +embarked on one such bottom. (4) Covered "sleds," ferry-flats, or +Alleghany skiffs, carrying from eight to twelve tons. (5) Pirogues, of +from two to four tons burthen, "sometimes hollowed from one big tree, +or the trunks of two trees united, and a plank rim fitted to the upper +part." (6) Common skiffs and dug-outs. (7) "Monstrous anomalies," not +classifiable, and often whimsical in design. To these might be added +the "floating shops or stores, with a small flag out to indicate +their character," so frequently seen by Palmer (1817), and thriftily +surviving unto this day, minus the flag. And Hall (1828) speaks of a +flat-bottomed row-boat, "twelve feet long, with high sides and roof," +carrying an aged couple down the river, they cared not where, so long +as they could find a comfortable home in the West, for their declining +and now childless years. + +The first four classes here enumerated, were allowed to drift down +stream with the current, being steered by long sweeps hung on pivots. +The average speed was about three miles an hour, but the distances +made were considerable, from the fact that in the earliest days they +were, from fear of Indians, usually kept on the move through day and +night,--the crew taking turns at the sweeps, that the craft might not +be hung up on shore or entangled in the numerous snags and sawyers. In +going up stream, the sweeps served as oars, and in the shallows long +pushing-poles were used. + +As for the boatmen who professionally propelled the keels and flats +of the Ohio, they were a class unto themselves--"half horse, half +alligator," a contemporary styled them. Rough fellows, much given +to fighting, and drunkenness, and ribaldry, with a genius for coarse +drollery and stinging repartee. The river towns suffered sadly at +the hands of this lawless, dissolute element. Each boat carried +from thirty to forty boatmen, and a number of such boats frequently +traveled in company. After the Indian scare was over, they generally +stopped over night in the settlements, and the arrival of a squadron +was certain to be followed by a disturbance akin to those so familiar +a few years ago in our Southwest, when the cowboys would undertake +to "paint a town red." The boatmen were reckless of life, limb, and +reputation, and were often more numerous than those of the villagers +who cared to enforce the laws; while there was always present an +element which abetted and throve on the vice of the river-men. The +result was that mischief, debauchery, and outrage ran riot, and in the +inevitable fights the citizens were generally beaten. + +The introduction of steamboats (1814) soon effected a revolution. A +steamer could carry ten times as much as a barge, could go five times +as fast, and required fewer men; it traveled at night, quickly passing +from one port to another, pausing only to discharge or receive cargo; +its owners and officers were men of character and responsibility, with +much wealth in their charge, and insisted on discipline and correct +deportment. The flatboat and the keel-boat were soon laid up to rot on +the banks; and the boatmen either became respectable steamboat hands +and farmers, or went into the Far West, where wild life was still +possible. + +Shipment on the river, in the flatboat days, was only during the +spring and autumnal floods; although an occasional summer rise, such +as we are now getting, would cause a general activity. In the autumn +of 1818, Hall reports that three millions of dollars' worth of +merchandise were lying on the shores of the Monongahela, waiting for +a rise of water to float them to their destination. "The Western +merchants were lounging discontentedly about the streets of Pittsburg, +or moping idly in its taverns, like the victims of an ague." The +steamers did something to alleviate this condition of affairs; but +it was not until the coming of railways, to carry goods quickly +and cheaply across country to deep-water ports like Wheeling, that +permanent relief was felt. + +But what of the Maysville of to-day? It extends on both sides of +Limestone Creek for about two miles along the Kentucky shore, at no +point apparently over five squares wide, and for the most part but +two or three; for back of it forested hills rise sharply. There is a +variety of industries, the business quarter is substantially built, +and there are numerous comfortable homes with pretty lawns. + +On the opposite shore is Aberdeen, where Kentucky swains and lasses, +who for one reason or another fail to get a license at home, find +marriage made easy--a peaceful, pleasant, white village, with trees +a-plenty, and romantic hills shutting out the north wind. + +We are camped to-night on a picturesque sand-slope, at the foot of +a willow-edged bottom, and some seven feet above the river level. We +need to perch high, for the storm has been general through the basin, +and the Ohio is rising steadily. + +[Footnote A: See Shaler's _Kentucky_ (Amer. Commonwealth series), +Collins's _History of Kentucky_, and Hale's _Trans-Alleghany +Pioneers_. Shaler gives the date as 1756; but Hale, a specialist in +border annals, makes it 1755.] + +[Footnote B: See _ante_, p. 126.] + +[Footnote C: Palmer (1817) paid five dollars for his passage from +Pittsburg to Cincinnati (465 miles), without food, and fifty cents per +hundred pounds for freight to Marietta. Imlay (1792) says the rate +in his time from Pittsburg to Limestone was twenty-five cents per +hundred. In 1803, Harris paid four dollars-and-a-half per hundred for +freight, by wagon from Baltimore to Pittsburg.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Produce boats--A dead town--On the Great Bend--Grant's + birthplace--The Little Miami--The genesis of Cincinnati. + + +Point Pleasant, O., Wednesday, May 23rd.--The river rose three feet +during the night. Steamers go now at full speed, no longer fearing +the bars; and the swash upon shore was so violent that I was more than +once awakened, each time to find the water line creeping nearer +and nearer to the tent door. As we sweep onward to-day, upon an +accelerated current, the fringing willows, whose roots before the +rise were many feet up the slopes of sand and gravel, are gracefully +dipping their boughs in the rushing flood. With the rise, come the +sweepings of the beaches--bits of lumber, fallen trees, barrels, +boxes, 'longshore rubbish of every sort; sometimes it hangs in ragged +rafts, and we steer clear of such, for Pilgrim's progress is greater +than that of these unwelcome companions of the voyage, and we wish no +entangling alliances. + +Much tobacco is raised on the rounded, gently-sloping hills below +Maysville. Away up on the acclivities, in sheltered spots near the +fields in which they are to be transplanted, or in fence-corners +in the ever-broadening bottoms, we note white patches of thin cloth +pinned down over the young plants to protect them from untoward +frosts. There are many tobacco warehouses to be seen along the +banks--apparently farmers cooperate in maintaining such; and in +front of each, a roadway leads down to the water's edge, indicating +a steamboat landing. On the town wharves are often seen portly +barrels,--locally, "puncheons,"--filled with the weed, awaiting +shipment by boat; most of the product goes to Louisville, but there +are also large buyers in the smaller Kentucky towns. + +Occasionally, to-day, we have seen moored to some rustic landing a +great covered barge, quite of the fashion of the golden age of Ohio +boating. At one end, a room is partitioned off to serve as cabin, and +the sweeps are operated from the roof. These are produce-boats, which +are laden with coarse vegetables and sometimes live stock, and floated +down to Cincinnati or Louisville, and even to St. Louis and New +Orleans. In ante-bellum days, produce-boats were common enough, and +much money was made by speculative buyers who would dispose of their +cargo in the most favorable port, sell the barge, and then return by +rail or steamer; just as, in still earlier days, the keel or flatboat +owner would sell both freight and vessel on the Lower Mississippi,--or +abandon the craft if he could not sell it,--and "hoof it home," as a +contemporary chronicler puts it. + +Ripley, Levanna (417 miles), Higginsport (421 miles), Chilo (431 +miles), Neville (435 miles), and Point Pleasant (442 miles) are the +Ohio towns to-day; and Dover (417 miles), Augusta (424 miles), and +Foster (435 miles), their rivals on the Kentucky shore. Sawmills and +distilleries are the leading industries, and there are broad paved +wharves; but a listless air pervades them all, as if once they basked +in the light of better days. Foster is rather the shabbiest of the +lot. As I passed through to find the postoffice, at the upper edge of +town, where the hills come down to meet the bottom, I saw that half +of the store buildings still intact were closed, many dwellings and +warehouses were in ruins, and numerous open cellars were grown to +grass and weeds. Few people were in sight, and they loafing at the +corners. The postoffice occupied a vacated store, evidently not swept +these six months past. The youthful master, with chair tilted back +and his feet on an old washstand which did duty as office table, was +listlessly whittling a finger-ring from a peach-stone; but shoving +his feet along, he made room for me to write a postal card which I had +brought for the purpose. + +"What is the matter with this town?" I asked, as I scratched away. + +"Daid, I reck'n!" and he blew away the peach-stone dust which had +accumulated in the folds of his greasy vest. + +"Yes, I see it is dead. What killed it?" + +"Oh! just gone daid--sort o' nat'ral daith, I reck'n." + +We had a pretty view this morning, three or four miles below Augusta, +from the top of a tree-denuded Kentucky hill, some two hundred and +fifty feet high. Hauling Pilgrim into the willows, we set out over a +low, cultivated bottom, whose edges were being lapped by the rising +river, to the detriment of the springing corn; then scrambling up the +terrace on which the Chesapeake & Ohio railway runs, we crawled under +a barb-wire fence, and ascended through a pasture, our right of way +contested for a moment by a gigantic Berkshire boar, which was +not easily vanquished. When at last we gained the top, by dint of +clambering over rail-fences and up steep slopes bestrewn with mulleins +and boulders, and over patches of freshly-plowed hardscrabble, the +sight was well worth the rough climb. The broad Ohio bottom, opposite, +was thick-dotted with orchard clumps, from which rose the white houses +and barns of small tillers. On the generous slopes of the Kentucky +hills, all corrugated with wooded ravines, were scores of fertile +farmsteads, each with its ample tobacco shed--the better class of +farmers on the hilltops, their buildings often silhouetted against the +western sky, and the meaner sort down low on the river's bank. Through +this pastoral scene, the broad river winds with noble sweep, until, +both above and below, it loses itself in the purple mist of the +distant hills. + +We are now upon the Great Bend of the Ohio, beginning at Neville (435 +miles) and ending at Harris's Landing (519 miles), with North Bend +(482 miles) at the apex. The bend is itself a series of convolutions, +and our point of view is ever changing, so that we have kaleidoscopic +vistas,--and with each new setting, good-humoredly dispute with each +other, we at the oars, and the others in the stern-sheets, as to which +is the more beautiful, the unfolding or the dissolving view. + +Our camp to-night is beside a little hillside torrent on the lower +edge of Point Pleasant. We are well up on the rocky slope; an +abandoned stone-quarry lies back of us, up the hill a bit; and leading +into the village, half a mile away, is a picturesque country road, +overhung with sumacs and honey locusts--overtopped on one side by a +precipitous pasture, and on the other dropping suddenly to a beach +thick-grown to willows, maples, and scrub sycamores. + +The Boy and I made an expedition into the town, for milk and water, +but were obliged to climb one of the sharpest ascents hereabout, +before our search was rewarded. A pretty little farmstead it is, up +there on the lofty hill above us, with a wealth of chickens and an +ample dairy, and fat fields and woods gently sloping backward into +the interior. The good farm-wife was surprised that I was willing to +"pack" commodities, so plentiful with her, down so steep a path; but +canoeing pilgrims must not falter at trifles such as this. + +Point Pleasant is the birthplace of General Grant. Not every hamlet +has its hero, hereabout. Everyone we met this evening,--seeing we were +strangers, the Boy and I,--told us of this halo which crowns their +home. + + * * * * * + +Cincinnati, Thursday, May 24th.--During the night there were frequent +heavy downpours, during which the swollen torrent by our side roared +among its boulders right lustily; and occasionally a heavy farm-wagon +crossed the country bridge which spans the ravine just above us, its +rumblings echoing in the quarried glen for all the world like distant +thunder. Before turning in, each built a cairn upon the beach, at the +point which he thought the water might reach by morning. The Boy, more +venturesome than the rest, piled his cairn highest up the slope; and +when daylight revealed the fact that the river, in its four-feet rise, +had crept nearest his goal, there was much juvenile rejoicing. + +There is a gray sky, this morning. With a cold headwind on the +starboard quarter, we hug the lee of the Ohio shore. The river is well +up in the willows now. Crowding Pilgrim as closely as we may, within +the narrow belt of unruffled water, our oars are swept by their +bending boughs, which lightly tremble on the surface of the flood. The +numerous rock-cumbered ravines, coursing down the hills or through the +bottom lands, a few days since held but slender streams, or were, +the most of them, wholly dry; but now they are brimming with noisy +currents all flecked with foam--pretty pictures, these yawning +gullies, overhung with cottonwoods and sycamores, with thick +undergrowth of green-brier and wild columbine, and the yellow buds of +the celandine poppy. + +The hills are showing better cultivation, as we approach the great +city. The farm-houses are in better style, the market gardens larger, +prosperity more evident. Among the pleasing sights are frequent +farmsteads at the summits of the slopes, with orchards and vineyards, +and gardens and fields, stretching down almost to the river--quite, +indeed, on the Ohio side, but in Kentucky flanked at the base by +the railway terrace. Numerous ferries connect the Kentucky railway +stations with the eastern bank; one, which we saw just above New +Richmond, O. (446 miles), was run by horse power, a weary nag in a +tread-mill above each side-paddle. Although Kentucky has the railway, +there is just here apparent a greater degree of thrift in Ohio--the +towns more numerous, fields and truck-gardens more ample, on the whole +a better class of farm-houses, and frequently, along the country road +which closely skirts the shore, comfortable little broad-balconied +inns, dependent on the trade of fishing and outing parties. + +Just below the Newport waterworks are several coal-barge +harbors--mooring-grounds where barges lie in waiting, until hauled off +by tugs to the storage wharves. In the rear of one of these fleets, at +the base of a market garden, we found a sunny nook for lunch--for here +on the Kentucky side the cold wind has full sweep, and we are glad of +shelter when at rest. Across the river is a broad, low bottom given up +to market gardeners, who jealously cultivate down to the water's edge, +leaving the merest fringe of willows to protect their domain. At the +foot of this fertile plain, the Little Miami River (460 miles) pours +its muddy contribution into the Ohio; and beyond this rises the +amphitheater of hills on which Cincinnati (466 miles) is mainly built. +We see but the outskirts here, for two miles below us there is a sharp +bend in the river, and only a dark pall of smoke marks where the city +lies. But these outlying slopes are well dotted with gray and white +groups of settlement, separated by stretches of woodland over which +play changing lights, for cloud masses are sweeping the Ohio hills +while we are still basking in the sun. + +Above us, crowning the Kentucky ascents, or nestled on their wooded +shoulders, are many beautiful villas, evidently the homes of the +ultra-wealthy. Close at hand we have the pleasant chink-chink of +caulking hammers, for barges are built and repaired in this snug +harbor. Now and then a river tug comes, with noisy bluster of smoke +and steam, and amid much tightening and slackening of rope, and +wild profanity, takes captive a laden barge,--as a cowboy might a +refractory steer in the midst of a herd,--and hauls it off to be +disgorged down stream. And just as we conclude our lunch, German +women come with hoes to practice the gentle art of horticulture--a +characteristic conglomeration, in the heart of our busy West; the +millionaire on the hill-top, the tiller on the slope, shipwright on +the beach, and grimy Commerce master of the flood. + +Setting afloat on a boiling current, thick with driftwood, we soon +were coursing between city-lined shores--on the Kentucky side, Newport +and Covington, respectively above and below Licking River; and in an +hour were making our way through the labyrinth of steamers thickly +moored with their noses to land, and cautiously creeping around to a +quiet spot at the stern of a giant wharf-boat--no slight task this, +with the river "on the jump," and a false move liable to swamp us if +we strike an obstruction at full gait. No doubt we all breathed freer +when Pilgrim, too, was beached,--although it be only confessed in +the privacy of the log. With her and her cargo safely stored in +the wharf-boat, we sought a hotel, and, regaining our bag of +clothing,--shipped ahead of us from McKee's Rocks,--donned urban +attire for an inspection of the city. + +And a noble city it is, that has grown out of the two block-houses +which George Rogers Clark planted here in 1780, on his raid against +the Indians of Chillicothe. In 1788, John Cleves Symmes, the first +United States judge of the Northwest Territory, purchased from +Congress a million acres of land, lying on the Ohio between the two +Miami Rivers. Matthias Denman bought from him a square mile at the +eastern end of the grant, "on a most delightful high bank" opposite +the Licking, and--on a cash valuation for the land, of two hundred +dollars--took in with him as partners Robert Patterson and John +Filson. Filson was a schoolmaster, had written the first history of +Kentucky, and seems to have enjoyed much local distinction. To him was +entrusted the task of inventing a name for the settlement which the +company proposed to plant here. The outcome was "Losantiville," a +pedagogical hash of Greek, Latin, and French: _L_, for Licking; _os_, +mouth; _anti_, opposite; _ville_, city--Licking-opposite-City, or +City-opposite-Licking, whichever is preferred. This was in August. +The Fates work quickly, for in October poor Filson was scalped by the +Indians in the neighborhood of the Big Miami, before a settler had yet +been enticed to Losantiville. But the survivors knew how to "boom" a +town; lots were given away by lottery to intending actual settlers; +and in a few months Symmes was able to write that "It populates +considerably." + +A few weeks previous to the planting of Losantiville, a party of men +from Redstone had settled Columbia, at the mouth of the Little Miami, +about where the suburb of California now is; and, a few weeks later, a +third colony was started by Symmes himself at North Bend, near the +Big Miami, at the western extremity of his grant; and this, the judge +wished to make the capital of the new Northwest Territory. At first, +it was a race between these three colonies. A few miles below North +Bend, Fort Finney had been built in 1785-86, hence the Bend had at +first the start; but a high flood dampened its prospects, the troops +were withdrawn from this neighborhood to Louisville, and in the +winter of 1789-90 Fort Washington was built at Losantiville by General +Harmar. The neighborhood of the new fortress became, in the ensuing +Indian war, the center of the district. + +To Losantiville, with its fort, came Arthur St. Clair, the new +governor of the Northwest Territory (January, 1790); and, making his +headquarters here, laid violent hands on Filson's invention, at +once changing the name to Cincinnati, in honor of the Society of the +Cincinnati, of which the new official was a prominent member--"so +that," Symmes sorrowfully writes, "Losantiville will become extinct." +Five years of Indian campaigning followed, the features of which were +the crushing defeats of Harmar and St. Clair, and the final victory +of Mad Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers. It was not until the Treaty +of Greenville (1795), the result of Wayne's brilliant dash into the +wilderness, that the Revolutionary War may properly be said to have +ended in the West. + +Those were stirring times on the Ohio, both ashore and afloat; but, +amidst them all, Cincinnati grew apace. Ellicott, in 1796, speaks of +it as "a very respectable place," and in 1814, Flint found it the +only port that could be called a town, from Steubenville to Natchez, +a distance of fifteen hundred miles; in 1825 he reports it greatly +grown, and crowded with immigrants from Europe and from our own +Eastern states. The impetus thus early gained has never lessened, and +Cincinnati is to-day one of the best built and most substantial cities +in the Union. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + The story of North Bend--The "shakes"--Driftwood--Rabbit + Hash--A side-trip To Big Bone Lick. + + +Near Petersburg, Ky., Friday, May 25th.--This morning, an hour before +noon, as we looked upon the river from the top of the Cincinnati +wharf, a wild scene presented itself. The shore up and down, as far as +could be seen, was densely lined with packets and freighters; beyond +them, the great stream, here half a mile wide, was rushing past like a +mill-race, and black with all manner of drift, some of it formed into +great rafts from each of which sprawled a network of huge branches. +Had we been strangers to this offscouring of a thousand miles of +beach, swirling past us at a six-mile gait, we might well have doubted +the prudence of launching little Pilgrim upon such a sea. But for two +days past, we had been amidst something of the sort, and knew that to +cautious canoeists it was less dangerous than it appeared. + +A strong head wind, meeting this surging tide, is lashing it into +a white-capped fury. But lying to with paddle and oars, and dodging +ferries and towing-tugs as best we may, Pilgrim bears us swiftly past +the long line of steamers at the wharf, past Newport and Covington, +and the insignificant Licking,[A] and out under great railway +bridges which cobweb the sky. Soon Cincinnati, shrouded in smoke, +has disappeared around the bend, and we are in the fast-thinning +suburbs--homes of beer-gardens and excursion barges, havens for +freight-flats, and villas of low and high degree. + +When we are out here in the swim, the drift-strewn stream has a more +peaceful aspect than when looked at from the shore. Instead of rushing +past as if dooming to destruction everything else afloat, the debris +falls behind, when we row, for our progress is then the greater. +Dropping our oars, our gruesome companions on the river pass us +slowly, for they catch less wind than we; and then, so silent the +steady march of all, we seem to be drifting up-stream, until on +glancing at the shore the hills appear to be swiftly going down and +the willow fringes up,--until the sight makes us dizzy, and we are +content to be at quits with these optical delusions. + +We no longer have the beach of gravel or sand, or strip of clay +knee-deep in mud. The water, now twelve feet higher than before +the rise, has covered all; it is, indeed, swaying the branches of +sycamores and willows, and meeting the edges of the corn-fields of +venturesome farmers who have cultivated far down, taking the risk of +a "June fresh." Often could we, if we wished, row quite within the +bulwark of willows, where a week ago we would have ventured to camp. + +The Kentucky side, to-day, from Covington out, has been thoroughly +rustic, seldom broken by settlement; while Ohio has given us a +succession of suburban towns all the way out to North Bend (482 +miles), which is a small manufacturing place, lying on a narrow bottom +at the base of a convolution of gentle, wooded hills. One sees that +Cincinnati has a better and a broader base; North Bend was handicapped +by nature, in its early race. + +When Ohio came into the Union (1803), it was specified that the +boundary between her and Indiana should be a line running due north +from the mouth of the Big Miami. But the latter, an erratic stream, +frequently the victim of floods, comes wriggling down to the Ohio +through a broad bottom grown thick to willows, and in times of high +water its mouth is a changeable locality. The boundary monument is +planted on the meridian of what was the mouth, ninety-odd years ago; +but to-day the Miami breaks through an opening in the quivering line +of willow forest, a hundred yards eastward (487 miles). + +Garrison Creek is a modest Kentucky affluent, just above the Miami's +mouth. At the point, a group of rustics sat on a log at the bank-top, +watching us approach. Landing in search of milk and water, I was taken +by one of them in a lumbersome skiff a short distance up the creek, +and presented to his family. They are genuine "crackers," of the +coarsest type--tall, lean, sallow, fishy-eyed, with tow-colored hair, +an ungainly gait, barefooted, and in nondescript clothing all patches +and tatters. The tousle-headed woman, surrounded by her copies in +miniature, keeps the milk neatly, in an outer dairy, perhaps because +of market requirements; but in the crazy old log-house, pigs and +chickens are free comers, and the cistern from which they drink is +foul. Here in this damp, low pocket of a bottom, annually flooded to +the door-sill, in the midst of vegetation of the rankest order, and +quite unheedful of the simplest of sanitary laws, these yellow-skinned +"crackers" are cradled, wedded, and biered. And there are thousands +like unto them, for we are now in the heart of the "shake" country, +and shall hear enough of the plague through the remainder of our +pilgrimage. As for ourselves, we fear not, for it is not until autumn +that danger is imminent, and we are taking due precaution under the +Doctor's guidance. + +Two miles beyond, is the Indiana town of Lawrenceburg, with the +unkempt aspect so common to the small river places; and two miles +still farther, on a Kentucky bottom, Petersburg, whose chiefest +building, as viewed from the stream, is a huge distillery. On a high +sandy terrace, a mile or so below, we pitch our nightly camp. All +about are willows, rustling musically in the evening breeze, and, +soaring far aloft, the now familiar sycamores. Nearly opposite, in +Indiana, the little city of Aurora is sparkling with points of light, +strains of dance music reach us over the way, and occasional shouts +and gay laughter; while now and then, in the thickening dusk of the +long day, we hear skiffs go chucking by from Petersburg way, and the +gleeful voices of men and women doubtless being ferried to the ball. + + * * * * * + +Near Warsaw, Ky., Saturday, May 26th.--Our first mosquito appeared +last night, but he was easily slaughtered. It has been a comfort to +be free, thus far, from these pests of camp life. We had prepared +for them by laying in a bolt of black tarlatan at Wheeling,--greatly +superior this, to ordinary white mosquito bar,--but thus far it has +remained in the shopman's wrapper. + +The fog this morning was of the heaviest. At 4 o'clock we were +awakened by the sharp clanging of a pilot's signal bell, and there, +poking her nose in among our willows, a dozen feet from the tent, was +the "Big Sandy," one of the St. Louis & Cincinnati packet line. +She had evidently lost her bearings in the mist; but with a deal +of ringing, and a noisy churning of the water by the reversed +paddle-wheel, pulled out and disappeared into the gloom. + +The river, still rising, is sweeping down an ever-increasing body of +rubbish. Islands and beaches, away back to the Alleghanies on the main +stream, and on thousands of miles of affluents, are yielding up those +vast rafts of drift-wood and fallen timber, which have continually +impressed us on our way with a sense of the enormous wastage +everywhere in progress--necessary, of course, in view of the +prohibitive cost of transportation. Nevertheless, one thinks pitifully +of the tens of thousands who, in congested districts, each winter +suffer unto death for want of fuel; and here is this wealth of forest +debris, the useless plaything of the river. But not only wreckage of +this character is borne upon the flood. The thievish river has picked +up valuable saw-logs that have run astray, lumber of many sorts, +boxes, barrels--and now and then the body of a cow or horse that +has tumbled to its death from some treacherous clay-cliff or rocky +terrace. The beaches have been swept clean by the rushing flood, of +whatever lay upon them, be it good or bad, for the great scavenger +exercises no discretion. + +The bulk of the matter now follows the current in an almost solid +raft, as it caroms from shore to shore. Having swift water everywhere +at this stage, for the most part we avoid entangling Pilgrim in the +procession, but row upon the outskirts, interested in the curious +medley, and observant of the many birds which perch upon the branches +of the floating trees and sing blithely on their way. The current +bears hard upon the Aurora beach, and townsfolk by scores are out in +skiffs or are standing by the water's edge, engaged with boat-hooks in +spearing choice morsels from the debris rushing by their door--heaping +it upon the shore to dry, or gathering it in little rafts which they +moor to the bank. It is a busy scene; the wreckers, men, women, and +children alike, are so engaged in their grab-bag game that they +have no eyes for us; unobserved, we watch them at close range, and +speculate upon their respective chances. + +Rabbit Hash, Ky. (502 miles), is a crude hamlet of a hundred souls, +lying nestled in a green amphitheater. A horse-power ferry runs over +to the larger village of Rising Sun, its Indiana neighbor. There is +a small general store in Rabbit Hash, with postoffice and paint-shop +attachment, and near by a tobacco warehouse and a blacksmith shop, +with a few cottages scattered at intervals over the bottom. The +postmaster, who is also the storekeeper and painter, greeted me with +joy, as I deposited with him mail-matter bearing eighteen cents' worth +of stamps; for his is one of those offices where the salary is the +value of the stamps cancelled. It is not every day that so liberal a +patron comes along. + +"Jemimi! Bill! but guv'm'nt business 's look'n' up--there'll be some +o' th' rest o' us a-want'n this yere off'c', a ter nex' 'lection, I +reck'n'." + +It was the blacksmith, who is also the ferryman, who thus bantered the +delighted postmaster,--a broad-faced, big-chested, brown-armed man, +with his neck-muscles standing out like cords, and his mild blue eyes +dancing with fun, this rustic disciple of Tubal Cain. He sat just +without the door, leather apron on, and his red shirt-sleeves rolled +up, playing checkers on an upturned soap-box, with a jolly fat farmer +from the hill-country, whose broad straw hat was cocked on the back +of his bald head. The merry laughter of the two was infectious. The +half-dozen spectators, small farmers whose teams and saddle-horses +were hitched to the postoffice railing, were themselves hilarious +over the game; and a saffron-skinned, hollow-cheeked woman in a blue +sunbonnet, and with a market-basket over her arm, stopped for a moment +at the threshold to look on, and then passed within the store, her +eyes having caught the merriment, although her facial muscles had +apparently lost their power of smiling. + +Joining the little company, I found that the farmer was a blundering +player, but made up in fun what he lacked in science. I tried to +ascertain the origin of the name Rabbit Hash, as applied to the +hamlet. Every one had a different opinion, evidently invented on the +spur of the moment, but all "'lowed" that none but the tobacco +agent could tell, and he was off in the country for the day; as for +themselves, they had, they confessed, never thought of it before. It +always had been Rabbit Hash, and like enough would be to the end of +time. + +We are on the lookout for Big Bone Creek, wishing to make a side trip +to the famous Big Bone Lick, but among the many openings through the +willows of the Kentucky shore we may well miss it, hence make constant +inquiry as we proceed. There was a houseboat in the mouth of one +goodly affluent. As we hove in sight, a fat woman, whose gunny-sack +apron was her chief attire, hurried up the gang-plank and disappeared +within. + +"Hello, the boat!" one of us hailed. + +The woman's fuzzy head appeared at the window. + +"What creek is this?" + +"Gunpowder, I reck'n!"--in a deep, man-like voice. + +"How far below is Big Bone?" + +"Jist a piece!" + +"How many miles?" + +"Two, I reck'n." + +Big Bone Creek (512 miles), some fifty or sixty feet wide at the +mouth, opens through a willow patch, between pretty, sloping hills. A +houseboat lay just within--a favorite situation for them, these +creek mouths, for here they are undisturbed by steamer wakes, +and the fishing is usually good. The proprietor, a rather +distinguished-looking mulatto, despite his old clothes and plantation +straw-hat, was sitting in a chair at his cabin door, angling; his +white wife was leaning over him lovingly, as we shot into the scene, +but at once withdrew inside. This man, with his side-whiskers and fine +air, may have been a head-waiter or a dance-fiddler in better days; +but his soft, plaintive voice, and hacking cough, bespoke the invalid. +He told us what he knew about the creek, which was little enough, as +he had but recently come to these parts. + +At an ordinary stage in the Ohio, the Big Bone cannot be ascended in a +skiff for more than half a mile; now, upon the backset, we are able to +proceed for two miles, leaving but another two miles of walking to +the Lick itself. The creek curves gracefully around the bases of the +sugar-loaf hills of the interior. Under the swaying arch of willows, +and of ragged, sprawling sycamores, their bark all patched with green +and gray and buff and white, we have charming vistas--the quiet +water, thick grown with aquatic plants; the winding banks, bearing +green-dragons and many another flower loving damp shade; the +frequent rocky palisades, oozing with springs; and great blue herons, +stretching their long necks in wonder, and then setting off with +a stately flight which reminds one of the cranes on Japanese ware. +Through the dense fringe of vegetation, we have occasional glimpses of +the hillside farms--their sloping fields sprinkled with stones, their +often barren pastures, numerous abandoned tracts overgrown with weeds, +and blue-grass lush in the meadows. Along the edges of the Creek, and +in little pocket bottoms, the varied vegetation has a sub-tropical +luxuriance, and in this now close, warm air, there is a rank smell +suggestive of malaria. + +These bottoms are annually overflowed, so that the crude little +farmsteads are on the rising ground--whitewashed cabins, many of them +of logs, serve as houses; for stock, there are the veriest shanties, +affording practically no shelter; best of all, the rude tobacco-drying +sheds, in many of which some of last year's crop can still be seen, +hanging on the strips. We are out of the world, here; and barefooted +men and boys, who with listless air are fishing from the banks, gaze +at us in dull wonder as we thread our tortuous way. + +Finally, we learned that we could with profit go no higher. Before +us were two miles of what was described as the roughest sort of +hill road, and the afternoon sun was powerful; so W---- accepted the +invitation of a rustic fisherman to rest with his "women folks" in +a little cabin up the hill a bit. Seeing her safely housed with the +good-natured "cracker" farm-wife, the Doctor, the Boy, and I trudged +off toward Big Bone Lick. The waxy clay of the roadbed had recently +been wetted by a shower; the walking, consequently, was none of the +best. But we were repaid with charming views of hill and vale, a +softly-rolling scene dotted with little gray and brown fields, clumps +of woodland, rail-fenced pastures, and cabins of the crudest sort--for +in the autumn-tide, the curse of malaria haunts the basin of the +Big Bone, and none but he of fortune spurned would care here in this +beauty-spot to plant his vine and fig-tree. Now and then our path +leads us across the winding creek, which in these upper reaches +tumbles noisily over ledges of jagged rock, above which luxuriant +sycamores, and elms, and maples arch gracefully. At each picturesque +fording-place, with its inevitable watering-pool, are stepping-stones +for foot pilgrims; often a flock of geese are sailing in the pool, +with craned necks and flapping wings hissing defiance to disturbers of +their sylvan peace. + +The travelers we meet are on horseback--most of them the +yellow-skinned, hollow-cheeked folk, with lack-luster eyes, whom we +note in the cabin doors, or dawdling about their daily routine. +On nearing the Lick, two young horsewomen, out of the common, look +interestedly at us, and I stop to inquire the way, although the +village spire is peering above the tree-tops yonder. Pretty, buxom, +sweet-faced lassies, these, with soft, pleasant voices, each with her +market-basket over her arm, going homeward from shopping. It would +be interesting to know their story--what it is that brings these +daughters of a brighter world here into this valley of the living +death. + +Two hundred yards farther, where the road forks, and the one at the +right hand ascends to the small hamlet of Big Bone Lick, there is +an interesting picture beneath the way-post: a girl in a blue calico +gown, her face deep hidden in her red sunbonnet, sits upon a chestnut +mount, with a laden market-basket before her; while by her side, +astride a coal-black pony, which fretfully paws to be on his way, is a +roughly dressed youth, his face shaded by a broad slouched hat of the +cowboy order. They have evidently met there by appointment, and are +so earnestly conversing--she with her hand resting lovingly, perhaps +deprecatingly, upon his bridle-arm, and his free hand nervously +stroking her horse's mane, while his eyes are far afield--that they do +not observe us as we pass; and we are free to weave from the incident +any sort of cracker romance which fancy may dictate. + +The source of Big Bone Creek is a marshy basin some fifty acres in +extent, rimmed with gently-sloping hills, and freely pitted with +copious springs of a water strongly sulphurous in taste, with a +suggestion of salt. The odor is so powerful as to be all-pervading, +a quarter of a mile away, and to be readily detected at twice that +distance. This collection of springs constitutes Big Bone Lick, +probably the most famous of the many similar licks in Kentucky, +Indiana, and Illinois. + +The salt licks of the Ohio basin were from the earliest times resorted +to in great numbers by wild beasts, and were favorite camping-grounds +for Indians, and for white hunters and explorers. This one was first +visited by the French as early as 1729, and became famous because +of the great quantities of remains of animals which lay all over the +marsh, particularly noticeable being the gigantic bones of the extinct +mammoth--hence the name adopted by the earliest American hunters, "Big +Bone." These monsters had evidently been mired in the swamp, while +seeking to lick the salty mud, and died in their tracks. Pioneer +chronicles abound in references to the Lick, and we read frequently +of hunting-parties using the ribs of the mammoth for tent poles, and +sections of the vertebrae as camp stools and tables. But in our own +day, there are no surface evidences of this once rich treasure of +giant fossils; although occasionally a "find" is made by enterprising +excavators,--several bones having thus been unearthed only a week ago. +They are now on exhibition in the neighboring village, preparatory to +being shipped to an Eastern museum. + +As we hurried back over the rolling highway, thunder-clouds grandly +rose out of the west, and great drops of rain gave us moist warning +of the coming storm. W---- was watching us from the cabin door, as we +made the last turning in the road, and, accompanied by the farm-wife +and her two daughters, came tripping down to the landing. She had been +entertained in the one down-stairs room, as royally as these honest +cracker women-folk knew how; seated in the family rocking-chair, she +had heard in those two hours the social gossip of a wide neighborhood; +learned, too, that the cold, wet weather of the last fortnight had +killed turkey-chicks and goslings by the score; heard of the damage +being done to corn and tobacco, by the prevalent high water; was told +how Bess and Brindle fared, off in the rocky pasture which yields +little else than mulleins; and how far back Towser had to go, to claim +relationship to a collie. "And weren't we really show-people, going +down the river this way, in a skiff? or, if we weren't show-people, +had we an agency for something? or, were we only in trade?" It seems a +difficult task to make these people on the bottoms believe that we are +skiffing it for pleasure--it is a sort of pleasure so far removed from +their notions of the fitness of things; and so at last we have given +up trying, and let them think of our pilgrimage what they will. + +The entire family now assembled on the muddy bank, and bade us a +really affectionate farewell, as if we had been, in this isolated +corner of the world, most welcome guests who were going all too soon. +In a few strokes of the oars we were rounding the bend; and waving +our hands at the little knot of watchers, went forth from their lives, +doubtless forever. + +The storm soon burst upon us in full fury. Clad in rubber, we rested +under giant trees, or beneath projecting rock ledges, taking advantage +of occasional lulls to push on for a few rods to some new shelter. The +numerous little hillside runs which, in our journey up, were but dry +gullies choked with leaves and boulders, were now brimming with muddy +torrents, rushing all foam-flecked and with deafening roar into the +central stream. At last the cloud curtain rolled away, the sun gushed +out with fiery rays, the arch of foliage sparkled with splendor--in +meadow and on hillside, the face of Nature was cleanly beautiful. + +At the creek mouth, the distinguished mulatto still was fishing from +his chair, and standing by his side was his wife throwing a spoon. +They nodded to us pleasantly, as old friends returned. Gliding by +their boat, Pilgrim was soon once more in the full current of the +swift-flowing Ohio. + +We are high up to-night, on a little grass terrace in Kentucky, two +miles above Warsaw. The usual country road lies back of us, a rod or +two, and then a slender field surmounted by a woodland hill. Fortune +favors us, almost nightly, with beautiful abiding-places. In no place +could we sleep more comfortably than in our cotton home. + +[Footnote A: So called from the Big Buffalo Lick, upon its banks.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + New Switzerland--An old-time river pilot--Houseboat life, + on the lower reaches--A philosopher in rags--Wooded + solitudes--Arrival at Louisville. + + +Near Madison, Ind., Sunday, May 27th.--At supper last night, a +houseboat fisherman, going by in his skiff, parted the willows +fringing our beach, and offered to sell us some of his wares. We +bought from him a two-pound catfish, which he tethered to a bush +overhanging the water, until we were ready to dress it; giving +us warning, that meanwhile it would be best to have an eye on our +purchase, or the turtles would devour it. Hungry thieves, these +turtles, the fisherman said; you could leave nothing edible in water +or on land, unprotected, without constant fear of the reptiles--which +reminds me that yesterday the Doctor and the Boy found on the beach a +beautiful box tortoise. + +Our fish was swimming around finely, at the end of his cord, when the +executioner arrived, and when finally hung up in a tree was safe from +the marauders. This morning the fisherman was around again, hoping +to obtain another dime from the commissariat; but though we had +breakfasted creditably from the little "cat," we had no thought of +stocking our larder with his kind. So the grizzly man of nets took a +fresh chew of tobacco, and sat a while in his boat, "pass'n' th' time +o' day" with us, punctuating his remarks with frequent expectorations. + +The new Kentucky houseboat law taxes each craft of this sort +seven-and-a-half dollars, he said: five dollars going to the State, +and the remainder to the collector. There was to be a patrol boat, "to +see that th' fellers done step to th' cap'n's office an' settle." +But the houseboaters were going to combine and fight the law on +constitutional grounds, for they had been told that it was clearly +an interference with commerce on a national highway. As for the +houseboaters voting--well, some of them did, but the most of them +didn't. The Indiana registry law requires a six months' residence, and +in Kentucky it is a full year, so that a houseboat man who moves about +any, "jes' isn't in it, sir, thet's all." However, our visitor was not +much disturbed over the practical disfranchisement of his class--it +seemed, rather, to amuse him; he was much more concerned in the new +tax, which he thought an outrageous imposition. In bidding us a +cheery good-bye, he noticed my kodak. "Yees be one o' them photygraph +parties, hey?" and laughed knowingly, as though he had caught me in a +familiar trick. No child of nature so simple, in these days, as not to +recognize a kodak. + +Warsaw, Ky. (524 miles), just below, has some bankside evidences of +manufacturing, but on the whole is rather down at the heel. A contrast +this, to Vevay (533 miles), on the Indiana shore, which, though a +small town on a low-lying bottom, is neat and apparently prosperous. +Vevay was settled in 1803, by John James Dufour and several +associates, from the District of Vevay, in Switzerland, who purchased +from Congress four square miles hereabout, and, christening it New +Switzerland, sought to establish extensive vineyards in the heart of +this middle West. The Swiss prospered. The colony has had sufficient +vitality to preserve many of its original characteristics unto the +present day. Much of the land in the neighborhood is still owned by +the descendants of Dufour and his fellows, but the vineyards are not +much in evidence. In fact, the grape-growing industry on the banks of +the Ohio, although commenced at different points with great promise, +by French, Swiss, Germans, and Americans alike, has not realized +their expectations. The Ohio has proved to be unlike the Rhine in this +respect. In the long run, the vine in America appears to fare better +in a more northern latitude. + +Three miles above Vevay, near Plum Creek, I was interested in the +Indiana farm upon which Heathcoat Picket settled in 1795--some say in +1790. In his day, Picket was a notable flatboat pilot. He was credited +with having conducted more craft down the river to New Orleans, than +any other man of his time--going down on the boat, and returning on +foot. It is said that he made over twenty trips of this character, +which is certainly a marvelous record at a time when there were only +Indian trails through the more than a thousand miles of dense forest +between Vevay and New Orleans, and when a savage enemy might be +expected to lurk behind any tree, ready to slay the rash pale-face. +Picket's must have been a life of continuous adventure, as thrilling +as the career of Daniel Boone himself; yet he is now known to but +a local antiquarian or two, and one stumbles across him only in +foot-notes. The border annals of the West abound with incidents as +romantic as any which have been applauded by men. Daniel Boone is not +the only hero of the frontier; he is not even the chief hero,--he is +but a type, whom an accident of literature has made conspicuous. + +The Kentucky River (541 miles) enters at Carrollton, Ky.,--a +well-to-do town, with busy-looking wharves upon both streams,--through +a wide and rather uninteresting bottom. But, over beyond this, one +sees that it has come down through a deep-cut valley, rimmed with +dark, rolling hills, which speak eloquently of a diversified landscape +along its banks. The Indian Kentucky, a small stream but half-a-dozen +rods wide, enters from the north, five miles below--"Injun Kaintuck," +it was called by a jovial junk-boat man stationed at the mouth of the +tributary. There are, on the Ohio, several examples of this peculiar +nomenclature: a river enters from the south, and another affluent +coming in from the north, nearly opposite, will have the same name +with the prefix "Indian." The reason is obvious; the land north of the +Ohio remained Indian territory many years after Kentucky and +Virginia were recognized as white man's country, hence the convenient +distinction--the river coming in from the north, near the Kentucky, +for instance, became "Indian Kentucky," and so on through the list. + +Houseboats are less frequent, in these reaches of the river. The towns +are fewer and smaller than above; consequently there is less demand +for fish, or for desultory labor. Yet we seldom pass a day, in the +most rustic sections, without seeing from half-a-dozen to a dozen +of these craft. Sometimes they are a few rods up the mouths of +tributaries, half hidden by willows and overhanging sycamores; or, in +picturesque little openings of the willow fringe along the main shore; +or, boldly planted at the base of some rocky ledge. At the towns, they +are variously situated: in the water, up the beach a way, or high upon +the bottom, whither some great flood has carried them in years gone +by. Occasionally, when high and dry upon the land, they have a bit of +vegetable garden about them, rented for a time from the farmer; but, +even with the floaters, chickens are commonly kept, generally in a +coop on the roof, connected with the shore by a special gang-plank +for the fowls; and the other day, we saw a thrifty houseboater who had +several colonies of bees. + +There was a rise of only two feet, last night; evidently the flood is +nearly at its greatest. We are now twenty feet above the level of ten +days ago, and are frequently swirling along over what were then sharp, +stony slopes, and brushing the topmost boughs of the lower lines +of willows and scrub sycamores. Thus we have a better view of the +country; and, approaching closely to the banks, can from our seats at +any time pluck blue lupine by the armful. It thrives mightily on these +gravelled shores, and so do the bignonia vine, the poison ivy, and the +Virginia creeper. The hills are steeper, now, especially in Indiana; +many of them, although stony, worked-out, and almost worthless, are +still, in patches, cultivated to the very top; but for the most part +they are clothed in restful green. Overhead, in the summer haze, +turkey-buzzards wheel gracefully, occasionally chased by audacious +hawks; and in the woods, we hear the warble of song-birds. Shadowy, +idle scenes, these rustic reaches of the lower Ohio, through which man +may dream in Nature's lap, all regardless of the workaday world. + +It was early evening when we passed Madison, Ind. (553 miles), a +fairly-prosperous factory town of about twelve thousand souls. Scores +of the inhabitants were out in boats, collecting driftwood; and upon +the wharf was a great crowd of people, waiting for an excursion boat +which was to return them to Louisville, whence they had come for a +day's outing. It was a lifeless, melancholy party, as excursion folk +are apt to be at the close of a gala day, and they wearily stared at +us as we paddled past. + +Just below, on the Kentucky shore, on my usual search for milk and +water, I landed at a cluster of rude cottages set in pleasant market +gardens. While the others drifted by with Pilgrim, I had a goodly +walk before finding milk, for a cow is considered a luxury among these +small riverside cultivators; the man who owns one sells milk to his +poorer neighbors. Such a nabob was at last found. The animal was +called down from the rocky hills, by her barefooted owner, who, lank +and malaria-skinned, leaned wearily against the well-curb, while his +wife, also guiltless of hose and shoes, milked into my pail direct +from the lean and hungry brindle. + +By the time the crew were reunited, storm-clouds, thick and black, +were fast rising in the west. Scudding down shore for a mile, with +oars and paddle aiding the swift current, we failed to find a +proper camping-place on the muddy bank of the far-stretching bottom. +Rain-drops were now pattering on our rubber spreads, and it was +evident that a blow was coming; but despite this, we bent to the +work with renewed vigor, and shot across to the lee shore of +Indiana--finally landing in the midst of a heavy shower, and hurriedly +pitching tent on a rocky slope at the base of a vertical bank of clay. +Above us, a government beacon shines brightly through the persistent +storm, with the keeper's neat little house and garden a hundred yards +away. In the tree-tops, up a heavily-forested hill beyond, the wind +moans right dismally. In this sheltered nook, we shall be but lulled +to sleep with the ceaseless pelting of the rain. + + * * * * * + +Louisville, Monday, May 28th.--At midnight, the heavens cleared, with +a cold north wind; the early morning atmosphere was nipping, and we +were glad of the shelter of the tent during breakfast. The river fell +eight inches during the night, and on either bank is a muddy strip, +which will rapidly widen as the water goes down. + +Below us, twenty rods or so, moored to the boulder-strewn shore, was a +shanty-boat. In the bustle of landing, last night, we had not noticed +this neighbor, and it was pitch-dark before we had time to get our +bearings. I think it is the most dilapidated affair we have seen on +the river--the frame of the cabin is out of plumb, old clothes serve +for sides and flap loudly in the wind; while two little boys, who +peered at us through slits in the airy walls, looked fairly miserable +with cold. + +The proprietor of the craft came up to visit us, while breakfast was +being prepared, and remained until we were ready to depart--a tall, +slouchy fellow, clothed in shreds and patches; he was in the prime of +life, with a depressed nose set in a battered, though not unpleasant +countenance. None of our party had ever before seen such garments on a +human being--old bits of flannel, frayed strips of bagging-stuff, and +other curious odds and ends of fabrics, in all the primitive +colors, the whole roughly basted together with sack-thread. He was +a philosopher, was this rag-tag-and-bob-tail of a man, a philosopher +with some mother-wit about him. For an hour, he sat on his haunches, +crouching over our little stove, and following with cat-like care +W----'s every movement in the culinary art; she felt she was under the +eye of a critic who, though not voicing his opinions, looked as if he +knew a thing or two. + +As a conversationist, our visitor was fluent to a fault. It required +but slight urging to draw him out. His history, and that of his +fathers for three generations back, he recited in much detail. He +himself had, in his best days, been a sub-contractor in railway +construction; but fate had gone against him, and he had fallen to the +low estate of a shanty-boatman. His wife had "gone back on him," and +he was left with two little boys, whom he proposed to bring up as +gentlemen--"yaas, sir-r, gen'lem'n, yew hear me! ef I _is_ only a +shanty-boat feller!" + +"I thote I'd come to visit uv ye," he had said by way of introduction; +"ye're frum a city, ain't yer? Yaas, I jist thote hit. City folks is a +more 'com'dat'n' 'n country folks. Why? Waal, yew fellers jist go +back 'ere in th' hills away, 'n them thar country folks they'd hardly +answer ye, they're thet selfish-like. Give me city folks, I say, fer +get'n' long with!" + +And then, in a rambling monologue, while chewing a straw, he discussed +humanity in general, and the professions in particular. "I ain't got +no use fer lawyers--mighty hard show them fellers has, fer get'n' to +heaven. As fer doctors--waal, they'll hev hard sledd'n, too; but them +fellers has to do piles o' dis'gree'bl' work, they do; I'd jist +rather fish fer a liv'n', then be a doctor! Still, sir-r, give me an +eddicated man every time, says I. Waal, sir-r, 'n' ye hear me, one +o' th' richest fellers right here in Madison, wuz born 'n' riz on a +shanty-boat, 'n' no mistake. He jist done pick up his eddication from +folks pass'n' by, jes' as yew fellers is a passin', 'n' they might say +a few wuds o' information to him. He done git a fine eddication +jes' thet way, 'n' they ain't no flies on him, these days, when +money-gett'n' is 'roun'. Jes' noth'n' like it, sir-r! Eddication does +th' biz!" + +An observant man was this philosopher, and had studied human nature to +some purpose. He described the condition of the poor farmers along the +river, as being pitiful; they had no money to hire help, and were an +odd lot, anyway--the farther back in the hills you get, the worse they +are. + +He loved to talk about himself and his lowly condition, in contrast +with his former glory as a sub-contractor on the railway. When a man +was down, he said, he lost all his friends--and, to illustrate this +familiar phase of life, told two stories which he had often read in a +book that he owned. They were curious, old-fashioned tales of feudal +days, evidently written in a former century,--he did not know the +title of the volume,--and he related them in what evidently were the +actual words of the author: a curious recitation, in the pedantic +literary style of the ancient story-teller, but in the dialect of an +Ohio-river "cracker." His greatest ambition, he told us, was to own +a floating sawmill; although he carefully inquired about the laws +regulating peddlers in our State, and intimated that sometime he might +look us up in that capacity, in our Northern home. + +As we approach Louisville to-day, the settlements somewhat increase +in number, although none of the villages are of great size; and, +especially in Kentucky, they are from ten to twenty miles apart. +The fine hills continue close upon our path until a few miles above +Louisville, when they recede, leaving on the Kentucky side a broad, +flat plain several miles square, for the city's growth. For the most +part, these stony slopes are well wooded with elm, buckeye, maple, +ash, oak, locust, hickory, sycamore, cotton-wood, a few cedars, and +here and there a catalpa and a pawpaw giving a touch of tropical +luxuriance to the hillside forest; while blackberry bushes, bignonia +vines, and poison ivy, are everywhere abundant; otherwise, there is +little of interest to the botanist. Redbirds, catbirds, bluebirds, +blackbirds, and crows are chattering noisily in the trees, and +turkey-buzzards everywhere swirl and swoop in mid-air. + +The narrow little bottoms are sandy; and on lowland as well as +highland there is much poor, rock-bewitched soil. The little +whitewashed farmsteads look pretty enough in the morning haze, lying +half hid in forest clumps; but upon approach they invariably prove +unkempt and dirty, and swarming with shiftless, barefooted, unhealthy +folk, whom no imagination can invest with picturesque qualities. Their +ragged, unpainted tobacco-sheds are straggling about, over the +hills; and here and there a white patch in the corner of a gray field +indicates a nursery of tobacco plants, soon to be transplanted into +ampler soil. + +It is not uncommon to find upon a hillside a freshly-built log-cabin, +set in the midst of a clearing, with bristling stumps all around, +reminding one of the homes of new settlers on the far-away +logging-streams of Northern Wisconsin or Minnesota; the resemblance +is the closer, for such notches cut in the edge of the Indiana and +Kentucky wilderness are often found after a row of many miles through +a winding forest solitude apparently but little changed from primeval +conditions. Now and then we come across quarries, where stone is slid +down great chutes to barges which lie moored by the rocky bank; +and frequently is the stream lined with great boulders, which stand +knee-deep in the flood that eddies and gurgles around them. + +On the upper edge of the great Louisville plain, we pitched tent +in the middle of the afternoon; and, having brought our bag of +land-clothes with us in the skiff, from Cincinnati, took turns under +the canvas in effecting what transformation was desirable, preparatory +to a visit in the city. In the early twilight we were floating past +Towhead Island, with its almost solid flank of houseboats, threading +our way through a little fleet of pleasure yachts, and at last +shooting into the snug harbor of the Boat Club. The good-natured +captain of the U. S. Life Saving Station took Pilgrim and her cargo +in charge for the night, and by dusk we were bowling over metropolitan +pavements _en route_ to the house of our friend--strange contrast, +this lap of luxury, to the soldier-like simplicity of our canvas home. +We have been roughing it for so long,--less than a month, although +it seems a year,--that all these conveniences of civilization, these +social conventionalities, have to us a sort of foreign air. Thus +easily may man descend into the savage state. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Storied Louisville--Red Indians and white--A night on Sand + Island--New Albany--Riverside hermits--The river falling--A + deserted village--An ideal camp. + + +Sand Island, Tuesday, May 29th.--Our Louisville host is the best +living authority on the annals of his town. It was a delight and an +inspiration to go with him, to-day, the rounds of the historic places. +Much that was to me heretofore foggy in Louisville story was made +clear, upon becoming familiar with the setting. The contention is made +that La Salle was here at the Falls of the Ohio, during the closing +months of 1669; but it was over a century later, under British +domination, before a settlement was thought of. Dr. John Connolly +entertained a scheme for founding a town at the Falls, but Lord +Dunmore's War (1774), and the Revolution quickly following, combined +to put an end to it; so that when George Rogers Clark arrived on the +scene with his little band of Virginian volunteers (May, 1778), en +route to capture the Northwest for the State of Virginia, he found +naught but a savage-haunted wilderness. His log fort on Corn Island, +in the midst of the rapids, served as a base of military operations, +and was the nucleus of American settlement, although later the +inhabitants moved to the mainland, and founded Louisville. + +The falls at Louisville are the only considerable obstruction to +Ohio-River navigation. At an average stage, the descent is but +twenty-seven feet in two-and-a-half miles; in high flood, the rapids +degenerate into merely swift water, without danger to descending +craft. At ordinary height, it was the custom of pioneer boatmen, in +descending, to lighten their craft of at least a third of the +cargo, and thus pass them down to the foot of the north-side portage +(Clarksville, Ind.), which is three-quarters of a mile in length; +going up, lightened boats were towed against the stream. With the +advent of larger craft, a canal with locks became necessary--the +Louisville and Portland Canal of to-day, which is operated by the +general government. + +The action of the water, hastened by the destruction of trees whose +roots originally bound the loose soil, has greatly worn the islands +in the rapids. Little is now left of historic Corn Island, and that +little is, at low water, being blasted and ground into cement by a +mill hard by on the main shore. To-day, with a flood of nearly twenty +feet above the normal stage of the season, not much of the island +is visible,--clumps of willows and sycamores, swayed by the rushing +current, giving a general idea of the contour. Goose Island, although +much smaller than in Clark's day, is a considerable tract of wooded +land, with a rock foundation. Clark was once its owner, his home being +opposite on the Indiana shore, where he had a fine view of the river, +the rapids, and the several islands. As for Clarksville, somewhat +lower down, and back from the river a half mile, it is now but a +cluster of dwellings on the outskirts of New Albany, a manufacturing +town which is rapidly absorbing all the neighboring territory. + +Feeling obliged to make an early start, we concluded to pass the night +just below the canal on Sand Island, lying between New Albany and +Louisville's noisy manufacturing suburb, Portland. An historic spot is +this insular home of ours. At the treaty of Fort Charlotte, Cornstalk +told Lord Dunmore the legend familiar among Ohio River savages--that +here, in ages past, occurred the last great battle between the white +and the red Indians. It is one of the puzzles of the antiquarians, +this tradition that white Indians once lived in the land, but were +swept away by the reds; Cornstalk had used it to spur his followers +to mighty deeds, it was a precedent which Pontiac dwelt upon when +organizing his conspiracy, and King Philip is said to have been +inspired by it. But this is no place to discuss the genesis of the +tale. Suffice it, that on Sand Island have been discovered great +quantities of ancient remains. No doubt, in its day, it was an +over-filled burying-ground. + +Noises, far different from the clash of savage arms, are in the air +to-night. Far above our heads a great iron bridge crosses the +Ohio, some of its piers resting on the island,--a busy combination +thoroughfare for steam and electric railways, for pedestrians and for +vehicles, plying between New Albany and Portland. The whirr of the +trolley, the scream and rumble of locomotives, the rattle of wagons; +and just above the island head, the burly roar of steamboats signaling +the locks,--these are the sounds which are prevalent. Through all +this hubbub, electric lamps are flashing, and just now a steamer's +search-light swept our island shore, lingering for a moment upon the +little camp, doubtless while the pilot satisfied his curiosity. Let us +hope that savage warriors never o' nights walk the earth above their +graves; for such scenes as this might well cause those whose bones lie +here to doubt their senses. + + * * * * * + +Near Brandenburg, Ky., Wednesday, 30th.--We stopped at New Albany, +Ind. (603 miles), this morning, to stock the larder and to forward our +shore-clothes by express to Cairo. It is a neat and busy manufacturing +town, with an excellent public market. A gala aspect was prevalent, +for it is Memorial Day; the shops and principal buildings were gay +with bunting, and men in Grand Army uniforms stood in knots at the +street corners. + +The broad, fertile plain on both sides of the river, upon which +Louisville and New Albany are the principal towns, extends for eight +or nine miles below the rapids. The first hills to approach the stream +are those in Indiana. Salt River, some ten or twelve rods wide, +enters from the south twenty-one miles below New Albany, between +uninteresting high clay banks, with the lazy-looking little village +of West Point, Ky., occupying a small rise of ground just below +the mouth. The Kentucky hills come close to the bank, a mile or two +farther down, and then the familiar characteristics of the reaches +above Louisville are resumed--hills and bottoms, sparsely settled with +ragged farmsteads, regularly alternating. + +At five o'clock we put in at a rocky ledge on the Indiana side, a +mile-and-a-half above Brandenburg. Behind us rises a precipitous hill, +tree-clad to the summit. The Doctor found up there a new phlox and +a pretty pink stone-crop, to add to our herbarium, while here as +elsewhere the bignonia grows profusely in every crevice of the rock. +At dark, two ragged and ill-smelling young shanty-boat men, who are +moored hard by, came up to see us, and by our camp-fire to whittle +chips and drone about hard times. But at last we tired of their idle +gossip, which had in it no element of the picturesque, and got rid of +them by hinting our desire to turn in. + +The towns were few to-day, and small. Brandenburg, with eight hundred +souls, was the largest--a sleepy, ill-paved, shambling place, +with apparently nobody engaged in any serious calling; its chief +distinction is an architectural monstrosity, which we were told is +the court-house. The little white hamlet of New Amsterdam, Ind. +(650 miles), looked trim and bright in the midst of a green thicket. +Richardson's Landing, Ky., is a disheveled row of old deserted houses, +once used by lime-burners, with a great barge wrecked upon the beach. +At the small, characterless Indiana village of Leavenworth (658 +miles), I sought a traveling photographer, of whom I had been told at +Brandenburg. My quest was for a dark-room where I might recharge my +exhausted kodak; but the man of plates had packed up his tent and +moved on--I would no doubt find him in Alton, Ind., fifteen miles +lower down. + +We have had stately, eroded hills, and broad, fertile bottoms, hemming +us in all day, and marvelous ox-bows in the erratic stream. The +hillsides are heavily wooded, sometimes the slopes coming straight +down to the stony beach, without intervening terrace; where there are +such terraces, they are narrow and rocky, and the homes of shanty-men; +but upon the bottoms are whitewashed dwellings of frame or log, +tenanted by a better class, who sometimes have goodly orchards and +extensive corn-cribs. The villages are generally in the deep-cut +notches of the hills, where the interior can be conveniently reached +by a wagon-road--a country "rumpled like this," they say, for ten +or twelve miles back, and then stretching off into level plains of +fertility. Now and then, a deserted cabin on the terraces,--windowless +and gaunt,--tells the story of some "cracker" family that malaria had +killed off, or that has "pulled up stakes" and gone to seek a better +land. + +At Leavenworth, the river, which has been flowing northwest for thirty +miles, takes a sudden sweep to the southwest, and thenceforward we +have a rapid current. However, we need still to ply our blades, for +there is a stiff head-wind, with an eager nip in it, to escape which +we seek the lee as often as may be, and bask in the undisturbed +sunlight. Right glad we were, at luncheon-time, to find a sheltered +nook amidst a heap of boulders on the Kentucky shore, and to sit on +the sun-warmed sand and drink hot tea by the side of a camp-fire, +rejoicing in the kindness of Providence. + +There are few houseboats, since leaving Louisville; to-day we have +seen but three or four--one of them merrily going up stream, under +full sail. Islands, too, are few--the Upper and Lower Blue River, a +pretty pair, being the first we have met since Sunday. The water is +falling, it now being three or four feet below the stage of a few days +since, as can readily be seen from the broad dado of mud left on +the leaves of willows and sycamores; while the drift, recently +an ever-present feature of the current, is rapidly lodging in the +branches of the willows and piling up against the sand-spits; and +scrawling snags and bobbing sawyers are catching on the bars, and +being held for the next "fresh." + +There is little life along shore, in these lower waters. There are two +lines of ever-widening, willowed beach of rock and sand or mud; above +them, perpendicular walls of clay, which edge either rocky terraces +backed by grand sweeps of convoluted hills,--sometimes wooded to the +top, and sometimes eroded into palisades,--or wide-stretching bottoms +given over to small farms or maybe dense tangles of forest. + +In the midst of this world of shade, nestle the whitewashed cabins +of the small tillers; but though they swarm with children, it is not +often that the inhabitants appear by the riverside. We catch a glimpse +of them when landing on our petty errands, we now and then see a +houseboater at his nets, and in the villages a few lackadaisical folk +are lounging by the wharf; but as a rule, in these closing days of +our pilgrimage, we glide through what is almost a solitude. The +imagination has not to go far afield, to rehabilitate the river as it +appeared to the earliest voyagers. + +Late in the afternoon, as usual wishing water and milk, we put ashore +in Indiana, where a rustic landing indicated a settlement of some +sort, although our view was confined to a pretty, wooded bank, and an +unpainted warehouse at the top of the path. It was a fertile bottom, +a half-mile wide, and stretching a mile or two along the river. Three +neat houses, one of them of logs, constituted the village, and all +about were grain-fields rippled into waves by the northwest breeze. + +The first house, a quarter of a mile inland, I reached by a country +roadway; it proved to be the postoffice of Point Sandy. Chickens +clucked around me, a spaniel came fawning for attention, a tethered +cow mooed plaintively, but no human being was visible. At last I +discovered a penciled notice pinned to the horse-block, to the effect +that the postmaster had gone into Alton (five miles distant) for the +day; and should William Askins call in his absence, the said Askins +was to remember that he promised to call yesterday, but never came; +and now would he be kind enough to come without fail to-morrow before +sundown, or the postmaster would be obliged to write that letter they +had spoken about. It was quite evident that Askins had not called; for +he surely would not have left that mysterious notice sticking there, +for all Point Sandy to read and gossip over. It is to be hoped that +there will be no bloodshed over this affair; across the way, in +Kentucky, there would be no doubt as to the outcome. + +I looked at Boss, and wondered whether in Indiana it were felony to +milk another man's cow in his absence, with no ginger jar at hand, +into which to drop a compensatory dime. Then I saw that she was dry, +and concluded that to attempt it might be thought a violation of +ethics. The postmaster's well, too, proved to be a cistern,--pardon +the Hibernicism,--and so I went farther. + +The other frame house also turned out to be deserted, but evidently +only for the day, for the lilac bushes in the front yard were hung +with men's flannel shirts drying in the sun. A buck goat came bleating +toward me, with many a flourish of his horns, from which it was plain +to be seen why the family wash was not spread upon the grass. From +here I followed a narrow path through a wheat-field, the grain up to +my shoulders, toward the log dwelling. A mangy little cur disputed my +right to knock at the door; but, flourishing my two tin pails at him, +he flew yelping to take refuge in the hen-coop. To my summons at the +portal, there came no response, save the mewing of the cat within. It +was clear that the people of Point Sandy were not at home, to-day. + +I would have retreated to the boat, but, chancing to glance up at the +overhanging hills which edge in the bottom, saw two men sitting on a +boulder in front of a rude log hut on the brink of a cliff, +curiously watching my movements on the plain. Thankful, now, that the +postmaster's cow had gone dry, and that these observant mountaineers +had not had an opportunity to misinterpret my conduct, I at once +hurried toward the hill, hopeful that at the top some bovine might be +housed, whose product could lawfully be acquired. But after a long +and laborious climb, over shifting stones and ragged ledges, I was met +with the discouraging information that the only cow in these parts +was Hawkins' cow, and Hawkins was the postmaster,--"down yon, whar yew +were a-read'n' th' notices on th' hoss-block." Neither had they any +water, up there on the cliff-top--"don' use very much, stranger; 'n' +what we do, we done git at Smithfield's, in th' log-house down yon, +'n' I reck'n their cistern's done gone dry, anyhow!" + +"But what is the matter down there?" I asked of the old man,--they +were father and son, this lounging pair who thus loftily sat in +judgment on the little world at their feet; "why are all the folks +away from home?" + +He looked surprised, and took a fresh chew while cogitating on my +alarming ignorance of Point Sandy affairs: "Why, ain' ye heared? I +thote ev'ry feller on th' river knew thet yere--why, ol' Hawkins, his +wife's brother's buried in Alton to-day, 'n' th' neighbors done gwine +t' th' fun'ral. Whar your shanty-boat been beached, thet ye ain' +heared thet yere?" + +As the sun neared the horizon, we tried other places below, with no +better success; and two miles above Alton, Ind. (673 miles), struck +camp at sundown, without milk for our coffee--for water, being obliged +to settle and boil the roily element which bears us onward through the +lengthening days. Were there no hardships, this would be no pilgrimage +worthy of the name. We are out, philosophically to take the world as +it is; he who is not content to do so, had best not stir from home. + +But our camping-place, to-night, is ideal. We are upon a narrow, +grassy ledge; below us, the sloping beach astrewn with jagged rocks; +behind us rises steeply a grand hillside forest, in which lie, mantled +with moss and lichens, and deep buried in undergrowth, boulders as +large as a "cracker's" hut; romantic glens abound, and a little run +comes noisily down a ravine hard by,--it is a witching back-door, +filled with surprises at every turn. Beeches, elms, maples, lindens, +pawpaws, tulip trees, here attain a monster growth,--with grape-vines, +their fruit now set, hanging in great festoons from the branches; and +all about, are the flowers which thrive best in shady solitudes--wild +licorice, a small green-brier, and, although not yet in bloom, the +sessile trillium. We are thoroughly isolated; a half-mile above us, +faintly gleams a government beacon, and we noticed on landing that +three-quarters of a mile below is a small cabin flanking the +hill. Naught disturbs our quiet, save the calls of the birds at +roosting-time, and now and then the hoarse bellow of a passing packet, +with its legacy of boisterous wake. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Village life--A traveling photographer--On a country + road--Studies in color--Again among colliers--In sweet + content--A ferry romance. + + +Near Troy, Ind., Friday, June 1st.--Below Alton, the hills are not so +high as above. We have, however, the same thoroughly rustic landscape, +the same small farms on the bottoms and wretched cabins on the slopes, +the same frontier-like clearings thick with stumps, the same shabby +little villages, and frequent ox-bow windings of the generous stream, +with lovely vistas unfolding and dissolving with panoramic regularity. +It is not a region where houseboaters flourish--there is but one every +ten miles or so; as for steamboats, we see on an average one a day, +while two or three usually pass us in the night. + +A dry, unpainted little place is Alton, Ind., with three +down-at-the-heel shops, a tavern, a saloon, and a few dwellings; there +was no bread obtainable here, for love or money, and we were fain to +be content with a bag of crackers from the postoffice grocery. The +promised photographer, who appears to be a rapid traveler, was said to +have gone on to Concordia, eight miles below. + +Deep Water Landing, Ind. (676 miles), is a short row of new, +whitewashed houses, with a great board sign displaying the name of the +hamlet, doubtless to attract the attention of pilots. A rude little +show-case, nailed up beside the door of the house at the head of +the landing-path, contains tempting samples of crockery and tinware. +Apparently some enterprising soul is trying to grow a town here, on +this narrow ledge of clay, with his landing and his shop as a nucleus. +But it is an unlikely spot, and I doubt if his "boom" will develop to +the corner-lot stage. + +Rono, Ind., a mile below, with its limewashed buildings set in a bower +of trees, at the base of a bald bluff, is a rather pretty study +in gray and green and white. The most notable feature is a little +school-house-like Masonic hall set high on a stone foundation, with +a steep outer stairway--which gives one an impression that Rono is a +victim of floods, and that the brethren occasionally come in boats to +lodge-meetings. + +Concordia, Ky. (681 miles), rests on the summit of a steep clay bank, +from which men were loading a barge with bark. Great piles of blocks, +for staves, ornamented the crest of the rise--a considerable industry +for these parts, we were told. But the photographer, whom we were +chasing, had "taken" every Concordian who wished his services, and +moved on to Derby, another Kentucky village, which at last we found, +six miles father down the river. + +The principal occupation of the people of Derby is getting out timber +from the hillside forests, six to ten miles in the interior. Oak, elm, +and sycamore railway-ties are the specialty, these being worth twenty +cents each when landed upon the wharf. A few months ago, Derby was +completely destroyed by fire, but, although the timber business is on +the wane here, much of the place was rebuilt on the old foundations; +hence the fresh, unpainted buildings, with battlement fronts, which, +with the prevalence of open-door saloons and a woodsy swagger on the +part of the inhabitants, give the place a breezy, frontier aspect now +seldom to be met with this side of the Rockies. + +Here at last was the traveling photographer. His tent, flapping loudly +in the wind, occupied an empty lot in the heart of the village--a +saloon on either side, and a lumberman's boarding house across the +way, where the "artist" was at dinner, pending which I waited for him +at the door of his canvas gallery. He evidently seeks to magnify +his calling, does this raw youth of the camera, by affecting what he +conceives to be the traditional garb of the artistic Bohemian, but +which resembles more closely the costume of the minstrel stage--a +battered silk hat, surmounting flowing locks glistening with hair-oil; +a loose velveteen jacket, over a gay figured vest; and a great brass +watch-chain, from which dangle silver coins. As this grotesque dandy, +evidently not long from his native village, came mincing across the +road in patent-leather slippers, smoking a cigarette, with one thumb +in an arm-hole of his vest, and the other hand twirling an incipient +mustache, he was plainly conscious of creating something of a swell in +Derby. + +It was a crazy little dark-room to which I was shown--a portable +affair, much like a coffin-case, which I expected momentarily to +upset as I stood within, and be smothered in a cloud of ill-smelling +chemicals. However, with care I finally emerged without accident, and +sufficiently compensated the artist, who seemed not over-favorable +to amateur competition, although he chatted freely enough about his +business. It generally took him ten days, he said, to "finish" a +town of five or six hundred inhabitants, like Derby. He traveled on +steamers with his tenting outfit, but next season hoped to have money +enough to "do the thing in style," in a houseboat of his own, an +establishment which would cost say four hundred dollars; then, in the +winter, he could beach himself at some fair-sized town, and perhaps +make his board by running a local gallery, taking to the water again +on the earliest spring "fresh." "I could live like a fight'n' cock +then, cap'n, yew jist bet yer bottom dollar!" + +The temperature mounted with the progress of the day; and, the wind +dying down, the atmosphere was oppressive. By the time Stephensport, +Ky. (695 miles), was reached, in the middle of the afternoon, the sun +was beating fiercely upon the glassy flood, and our awning came again +into play, although it could not save us from the annoyance of the +reflection. The barren clay bank at the mouth of Sinking Creek, upon +which lies Stephensport, seemed fairly ablaze with heat, as I went up +into the straggling hamlet to seek for supplies. There were no eggs +to be had here; but, at last, milk was found in the farther end of the +village, at a modest little cottage quite embowered in roses, with +two century plants in tubs in the back-yard, and a trim fruit and +vegetable garden to the rear of that, enclosed in palings. I remained +a few minutes to chat with the little housewife, who knows her roses +well, and is versed in the gentle art of horticulture. But her horizon +is painfully narrow--first and dearest, the plants about her, which is +not so bad; in a larger way, Stephensport and its petty affairs; but +beyond that very little, and that little vague. + +It is ever thus, in such far-away, side-tracked villages as this--the +world lies in the basin of the hills which these people see from their +doors; if they have something to love and do for, as this good woman +has in her bushes, seeds, and bulbs, then may they dwell happily in +rustic obscurity; but where, as is more common, the small-beer of +neighborhood gossip is their meat and drink, there are no folk on the +footstool more wretched than the denizens of a dead little hamlet like +Stephensport. + +We are housed this night on the Kentucky side, a mile-and-a-half above +Cloverport, whose half-dozen lights are glimmering in the stream. In +the gloaming, while dinner was being prepared, a ragged but sturdy +wanderer came into camp. He was, he said, a mountaineer looking for +work on the bottom farms; heretofore he had, when he wanted it, always +found it; but this season no one appeared to have any money to expend +for labor, and it seemed likely he would be obliged to return home +without receiving an offer. We made the stranger no offer of a seat +at our humble board, having no desire that he pass the night in +our neighborhood; for darkness was coming on apace, and, if he long +tarried, the woodland road would be as black as a pocket before he +could reach Cloverport, his alleged destination. So starting him off +with a biscuit or two, he was soon on his way toward the village, +whistling a lively tune. + + * * * * * + +Crooked Creek, Ind., Saturday, 2d.--We had but fairly got to bed last +night, after our late dinner, when the heavens suddenly darkened, +fierce gusts of wind shook the tent violently, and then rain fell in +blinding sheets. For a time it was lively work for the Doctor and me, +tightening guy-ropes and ditching in the soft sand, for we were in +an exposed position, catching the full force of the storm. At last, +everything secured, we in serenity slept it out, awakening to find +a beautiful morning, the grape-perfumed air as clear as crystal, +the outlines of woods and hills and streams standing out with sharp +definition, and over all a hushed charm most soothing to the spirit. + +Cloverport (705 miles) is a typical Kentucky town, of somewhat less +than four thousand inhabitants. The wharf-boat, which runs up and down +an iron tramway, according to the height of the flood, was swarming +with negroes, watching with keen delight the departure of the "E. D. +Rogan," as she noisily backed out into the river and scattered the +crowd with great showers of spray from her gigantic stern-wheel. It +was a busy scene on board--negro roustabouts shipping the gang-plank, +and singing in a low pitch an old-time plantation melody; stokers, +stripped to the waist, shoveling coal into the gaping furnaces; +chambermaids hanging the ship's linen out to dry; passengers crowded +by the shore rail, on the main deck; the bustling mate shouting +orders, apparently for the benefit of landsmen, for no one on board +appeared to heed him; and high up, in front of the pilot-house, the +spruce captain, in gold-laced cap, and glass in hand, as immovable as +the Sphinx. + +At the head of the slope were a picturesque medley of colored folk, of +true Southern plantation types, so seldom seen north of Dixie. Two +wee picaninnies, drawn in an express cart by a half-dozen other sable +elfs, attracted our attention, as W---- and I went up-town for our +day's marketing. We stopped to take a snap-shot at them, to the +intense satisfaction of the little kink-haired mother of the twins, +who, barring her blue calico gown, looked as if she might have just +stepped out of a Zulu group. + +Cloverport has brick-works, gas wells, a flouring-mill, and other +industries. The streets are unkempt, as in most Kentucky towns, and +mules attached to crazy little carts are the chief beasts of burden; +but the shops are well-stocked; there were many farmers in town, on +horse and mule back, doing their Saturday shopping; and an air of +business confidence prevails. + +In this district, coal-mines again appear, with their riverside +tipples, and their offal defiling the banks. In general, these reaches +have many of the aspects of the Monongahela, although the hills are +lower, and mining is on a smaller scale. Cannelton, Ind. (717 miles), +is the headquarters of the American Cannel Coal Co.; there are, also, +woolen and cotton mills, sewer-pipe factories, and potteries. W---- +and I went up into the town, on an errand for supplies,--we distribute +our small patronage, for the sake of frequently going ashore,--and +were interested in noting the cheery tone of the business men, who +reported that the financial depression, noticeable elsewhere in the +Ohio Valley, has practically been unfelt here. Hawesville, Ky., just +across the river, has a similarly prosperous look, but we did not +row across to inspect it at close range. Tell City, Ind., three miles +below, is another flourishing factory town, whose wharf-boat was the +scene of much bustle. Four miles still lower down lies the sleepy +little Indiana village of Troy, which appears to have profited nothing +from having lively neighbors. + +From the neighborhood of Derby, the environing hills had, as +we proceeded, been lessening in height, although still ruggedly +beautiful. A mile or two below Troy, both ranges suddenly roll back +into the interior, leaving broad bottoms on either hand, occasionally +edged with high clay banks, through which the river has cut its +devious way. At other times, these bottoms slope gently to the beach +and everywhere are cultivated with such care that often no room is +left for the willow fringe, which heretofore has been an ever-present +feature of the landscape. Hereafter, to the mouth, we shall for the +most part row between parallel walls of clay, with here and there +a bankside ledge of rock and shale, and now and then a cragged spur +running out to meet the river. We have now entered the great corn and +tobacco belt of the Lower Ohio, the region of annual overflow, where +the towns seek the highlands, and the bottom farmers erect their few +crude buildings on posts, prepared in case of exceptional flood to +take to boats. + +The prevalent eagerness on the part of farmers to obtain the utmost +from their land made it difficult, this evening, to find a proper +camping-place. We finally found a narrow triangle of clay terrace, +in Indiana, at the mouth of Crooked Creek (727 miles), where not long +since had tarried a houseboater engaged in making rustic furniture. It +is a pretty little bit, in a group of big willows and sycamores, and +would be comfortable but for the sand-flies, which for the first time +give us annoyance. The creek itself, some four rods wide, and overhung +with stately trees, winds gracefully through the rich bottom; we have +found it a charming water to explore, being able to proceed for nearly +a mile through lovely little wide-spreads abounding in lilies and +sweet with the odor of grape-blossoms. + +Across the river, at Emmerick's Landing,--a little cluster of +unpainted cabins,--lies the white barge of a photographer, just such +a home as the Derby artist covets. The Ohio is here about half-a-mile +wide, but high-pitched voices of people on the opposite bank are +plainly heard across the smooth sounding-board; and in the quiet +evening air comes to us the "chuck-chuck" of oars nearly a mile away. +Following a torrid afternoon, with exasperating headwinds, this cool, +fresh atmosphere, in the long twilight, is inspiring. Overhead is the +slender streak of the moon's first quarter, its reflection shimmering +in the broad and placid stream rushing noiselessly by us to the sea. +In blissful content we sit upon the bank, and drink in the glories of +the night. The days of our pilgrimage are nearing their end, but our +enthusiasm for this _al fresco_ life is in no measure abating. That we +might ever thus dream and drift upon the river of life, far from the +labored strivings of the world, is our secret wish, to-night. + +We had long been sitting thus, having silent communion with our +thoughts, when the Boy, his little head resting on W----'s shoulder, +broke the spell by murmuring from the fullness of his heart, "Mother, +why cannot we keep on doing this, always?" + + * * * * * + +Yellowbank Island, Sunday, June 3d.--Pilgrim still attracts more +attention than her passengers. When we stop at the village wharfs, +or grate our keel upon some rustic landing, it is not long before +the Doctor, who now always remains with the boat, no matter who goes +ashore, is surrounded by an admiring group, who rap Pilgrim on the +ribs, try to lift her by the bow, and study her graceful lines with +the air of connoisseurs. Barefooted men fishing on the shores, in +broad straw hats, and blue jeans, invariably "pass the time o' day" +with us as we glide by, crying out as a parting salute, "Ye've a honey +skiff, thar!" or, "Right smart skiff, thet yere!" + +We have many long, dreary reaches to-day. Clay banks twelve to twenty +feet in height, and growing taller as the water recedes, rise sheer on +either side. Fringing the top of each is often a row of locusts, whose +roots in a feeble way hold the soil; but the river cuts in at the +base, wherever the changing current impinges on the shore, and at +low water great slices, with a gurgling splash, fall into the +stream, which now is of the color of dull gold, from the clay held in +solution. Often, ruins of buildings may be seen upon the brink, +that have collapsed from this undercut of the fickle flood; and many +others, still inhabited, are in dangerous proximity to the edge, only +biding their time. + +This morning, we passed the Indiana hamlets of Lewisport (731 miles) +and Grand View (736 miles), and by noon were at Rockport (741 miles), +a smart little city of three thousand souls, romantically perched upon +a great rock, which on the right bank rises abruptly from the wide +expanse of bottom. From the river, there is little to be seen of +Rockport save two wharves,--one above, the other below, the bold cliff +which springs sheer for a hundred feet above the stream,--two angling +roads leading up into the town, a house or two on the edge of the hill +and a huge water-tower crowning all. + +A few miles below, we ran through a narrow channel, a few rods +wide, separating an elongated island from the Indiana shore. It much +resembles the small tributary streams, with a lush undergrowth of +weeds down to the water's edge, and arched with monster sycamores, +elms, maples and persimmons. Frequently had we seen skiffs upon the +shore, arranged with stern paddle-wheels, turned by levers operated by +men standing or sitting in the boat. But we had seen none in operation +until, shooting down this side channel, we met such a craft coming up, +manned by two fellows, who seemed to be having a treadmill task of it; +they assured us, however, that when a man was used to manipulating the +levers he found it easier than rowing, especially in ascending stream. + +Yellowbank Island, our camp to-night, lies nearest the Indiana shore, +with Owensboro, Ky. (749 miles), just across the way. We have had +no more beautiful home on our long pilgrimage than this sandy islet, +heavily grown to stately willows. While the others were preparing +dinner, I pulled across the rapid current to an Indiana ferry-landing, +where there is a row of mean frame cabins, like the negro quarters of +a Southern farm, all elevated on posts some four feet above the level. +A half-dozen families live there, all of them small tenant farmers, +save the ferryman--a strapping, good-natured fellow, who appears to be +the nabob of the community. + +Several hollow sycamore stumps house sows and their litters; but the +only cow in the neighborhood is owned by a young man who, when I came +up, was watering some refractory mules at a pump-trough. He paused +long enough to summon Boss and milk a half-gallon into my pail, +accepting my dime with a degree of thankfulness which was quite +unnecessary, considering that it was _quid pro quo_. Tobacco is a +more important crop than corn hereabout, he said; farmers are rather +impatiently waiting for rain, to set out the young plants. His only +outbuilding is a monster corn-crib, set high on posts--the airy +basement, no better than an open shed, serving for a stable; during +the few weeks of severe winter weather, horses and cow are removed +to the main floor, and canvas nailed around the sides to keep out +the wind. Even this slight protection is not vouchsafed stock by all +planters; the majority of them appear to provide only rain shelters, +and even these can be of slight avail in a driving storm. + +Later, in the failing light, W---- and I pulled together over to the +"cracker" settlement, seeking drinking-water. A stout young man was +seated on the end of the ferry barge, talking earnestly with the +ferryman's daughter, a not unattractive girl, but pale and thin, as +these women are apt to be. Evidently they are lovers, and not ashamed +of it, for they gave us a friendly smile as we knotted our painter to +the barge-rail, and expressed great interest in Pilgrim, she being of +a pattern new to them. + +We are in a noisy corner of the world. Over on the Indiana bottom, +a squeaky fiddle is grinding out dance-tunes, hymns and ballads with +charming indifference. We thought we detected in a high-pitched "Annie +Laurie" the voice of the ferryman's daughter. There seems, too, to be +a deal of rowing on the river, evidently Owensboro folk getting back +to town from a day in the country, and country folk hieing home after +a day in the city. The ferryman is in much demand, judging from the +frequent ringing of his bell,--one on either bank, set between two +tall posts, with a rope dangling from the arm. At early dusk, the +cracked bell of the Owensboro Bethel resounded harshly in our ears, as +it advertised an evening service for the floating population; and +now the wheezy strains of a melodeon tell us that, although we stayed +away, doubtless others have been attracted thither. The sepulchral +roars of passing steamers echo along the wooded shore, the night wind +rustles the tree-tops, Owensboro dogs are much awake, and the electric +lamps of the city throw upon our canvas screen the fantastic shadows +of leaves and dancing boughs. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Fishermen's tales--Skiff nomenclature--Green + River--Evansville--Henderson--Audubon and Rafinesque--Floating + trade--The Wabash. + + +Green River Towhead, Monday, June 4th.--We were shopping in Owensboro, +this morning, soon after seven o'clock. The business quarter was just +stirring into life; and the negroes who were lounging about on every +hand were still drowsy, as if they had passed the night there, and +were reluctant to be up and doing. There is a pretty court-house in +a green park, the streets are well paved, and the shops clean and +bright, with their wares mostly under the awnings on the sidewalk, for +people appear to live much out of doors here--and well they may, +with the temperature 73 deg. at this early hour, and every promise of +a scorching day. + +I wonder if a fisherman could, if he tried, be exact in his +statements. One of them, below Owensboro, who kept us company for a +mile or two down stream, declared that at this stage of the water +he made forty and fifty dollars a week, "'n' I reck'n I ote to be +contint." A few miles farther on, another complained that when the +river was falling, the water was so muddy the fish would not bite; and +even in the best of seasons, a fisherman had "a hard pull uv it; hit +ain't no business fer a decent man!" The other day, when the river was +rising, a Cincinnati follower of the apostle's calling averred that +there was no use fishing when the water was coming up. As the variable +Ohio is like the ocean tide, ever rising or falling, it would seem +that the thousands in this valley who make fishing their livelihood +must be playing a losing game. + +There are many beautiful islands on these lower reaches of the river. +We followed the narrow channel between Little Hurricane and the +Kentucky shore, a charming run of two or three miles, with both banks +a dense tangle of drift-wood, weeds and vines. Between Three-Mile +Island and Indiana, is another interesting cut-short, where the +shores are undisturbed by the work of the main stream, and trees and +undergrowth come down to the water's edge; the air is quivering with +the songs of birds, and resonant with sweet smells; while over +stumps, and dead and fallen trees, grape-vines luxuriantly festoon +and cluster. Near the pretty group of French Islands, two government +dredges, with their boarding barges, were moored to the Kentucky +shore--waiting for coal, we were told, before resuming operations in +the planting of a dike. I took a snap-shot at the fleet, and heard +one man shout to another, "Bill, did yer notice they've a photograph +gallery aboard?" They appear to be a jolly lot, these dredgers, and +inclined to take life easily, in accordance with the traditions of +government employ. + +We frequently see skiffs hauled upon the beach, or moored between two +protecting posts, to prevent their being swamped by steamer wakes. The +names they bear interest us, as betokening, perhaps, the proclivities +of their owners. "Little Joe," "Little Jim," "Little Maggie," and +like diminutives, are common here, as upon the towing-tugs and steam +ferries of broader waters--and now and then we have, by contrast, +"Xerxes," "Achilles," "Hercules." Sometimes the skiff is named after +its owner's wife or sweetheart, as "Maggie G.," "Polly H.," or from +the rustic goddesses, "Pomona," "Flora," "Ceres;" on the Kentucky +shore, we have noted "Stonewall Jackson," and "Robert E. Lee," and one +Ohio boat was labeled "Little Phil." Literature we found represented +to-day, by "Octave Thanet"--the only case on record, for the +Ohio-River "cracker" is not greatly given to books. Slang claims for +its own, many of these knockabout craft--"U. Bet," "Git Thair," "Go +it, Eli," "Whoa, Emma!" and nondescripts, like "Two Doves," "Poker +Chip," and "Game Chicken," are not infrequent. + +In these stately solitudes, towns are far between. Enterprise, Ind. +(755 miles), is an unpainted village with a dismal view--back of and +around it, wide bottom lands, with hills in the far distance; up and +down the river, precipitous banks of clay, with willow fringes on that +portion of the shore which is not being cut by the impinging current. +Scuffletown, Ky. (767 miles), is uninviting. Newburgh, on the edge of +a bluff, across the river in Indiana, is a ragged little place that +has seen better days; but the backward view of Newburgh, from below +Three-Mile Island, made a pretty picture, the whites and reds of the +town standing out in sharp relief against the dark background of the +hill. + +Green River (775 miles), a gentle, rustic stream, enters through +the wide bottoms of Kentucky. We had difficulty in finding it in the +wilderness of willows--might not have succeeded, indeed, had not the +red smokestack of a small steamer suddenly appeared above the +bushes. Soon, the puffing craft debouched upon the Ohio, and, quickly +overtaking us, passed down toward Evansville. + +Green River Towhead, two miles below, claimed us for the night. There +is a shanty, midway on the island, and at the lower end the landing +of a railway-transfer. We have our camp at the upper end, in a bed +of spotless white sand, thick grown to dwarf willows. Entangled +drift-wood lies about in monster heaps, lodged in depressions of the +land, or against stout tree-trunks; a low bar of gravel connects our +home with Green River Island, lying close against the Indiana bank; +sand-flies freely joined us at dinner, and I hear, as I write, the +drone of a solitary mosquito,--the first in many days; while upon the +bar, at sunset, a score of turkey-buzzards held silent council, some +of them occasionally rising and wheeling about in mid-air, then slowly +lighting and stretching their necks, and flapping their wings most +solemnly, before rejoining the conference. + + * * * * * + +Cypress Bend, Tuesday, 5th.--The temperature had materially fallen +during the night, and the morning opened gray and hazy. Evansville, +Ind. (783 miles), made a charming Turneresque study, as her steeples +and factory chimneys developed through the mist. It is a fine, +well-built town, of some fifty thousand inhabitants, with a beautiful +little postoffice in the Gothic style--a refutation, this, of the +well-worn assertion that there are no creditable government buildings +in our small American cities. A railway bridge here crosses the Ohio, +numerous sawmills line the bank; altogether, there is business bustle, +the like of which we have not seen since leaving Louisville. + +Henderson (795 miles) is a substantial Kentucky town of nine thousand +souls, with large tobacco interests, we are told, ranking next to +Louisville in this regard. Through the morning, the mist had been +thickening. While we were passing beneath the railway bridge at +Henderson, thunder sounded, and the western sky suddenly blackened. +Pulling rapidly in to the town shore, shelter was found beneath the +overhanging deck of a deserted wharf-boat. We had just completed +preparations with the rubber blankets and ponchos, when the deluge +came. But the sheltering deck was not water-tight; soon the rain came +pouring in upon us through the uncaulked cracks, and we were nearly as +badly off in our close-smelling quarters as in the open. However, we +were a merry party under there, with the Doctor giving us a touch of +"Br'er Rabbit," and the boy relating a fantastic dream he had had on +the Towhead last night; while I told them the story of Audubon, whose +name will ever be associated with Henderson. + +The great naturalist was in business at Louisville, early in the +century; but in 1812, he failed in this venture, and moved to +Henderson, where his neighbors thought him a trifle daft,--and +certainly he was a ne'er-do-well, wandering around the woods, with +hair hanging down on his shoulders, a far-away look in his eyes, and +communing with the birds. In 1818, the botanist Rafinesque, on the +first of his several tramps down the Ohio valley,--he had a +favorite saying, that the only way for a botanist to travel, was to +walk,--stopped over at Henderson to visit this crazy fellow of whom +he had heard. Rafinesque had a hope that Audubon might buy some of his +colored drawings; but when he saw the wonderful pictures which +Audubon had made, he acknowledged that his own were inferior--a sore +confession for Rafinesque, who was an egotist of the first water. +Audubon had but humble quarters, for it was hard work in those days +for him to keep the wolf from the door; nevertheless, he entertained +the distinguished traveler, whom he was himself destined to far +eclipse. One night, a bat flew into Rafinesque's bedroom, and in +driving it out he used his host's fine Cremona as a club, thus making +kindling-wood of it. Two years later, still steeped in poverty, +Audubon left Henderson. It was 1826 before he became known to the +world of science, when little of his life was left in which to enjoy +the fame at last awarded him. + +We had lunch on Henderson Island, three miles down, and for warmth +walked briskly about on the strand, among the willow clumps. It rained +again, after we had taken our seats in the boat, and the head-wind +which sprang up was not unwelcome, for it necessitated a right lively +pull to make headway. W---- and the Boy, in the stern-sheets, were +not uncomfortable when swathed to the chin in the blankets which +ordinarily serve us as cushions. + +Ten miles below Henderson, was a little fleet of houseboats, lying +in a thicket of willows along the Indiana beach. We stopped at one of +them, and bought a small catfish for dinner. The fishermen seemed +a happy company, in this isolated spot. The women were engaged in +household work, but the men were spending the afternoon collected in +the cabin of one of their number, who had recently arrived from +Green River. While waiting for the fish to be caught in a live-box, +I visited with the little band. It was a comfortable room, furnished +rather better than the average shore cabin, and the Green River man's +family of half-a-dozen were well-kept, pleasant-faced, and polite. +Altogether it was a much more respectable houseboat company than any +we have yet seen on the river. But the fish-stories which that Green +River man tells, with an honest-like, open-eyed sobriety, would do +credit to Munchausen. + +The rain, at first spasmodic, became at last persistent. Two miles +farther down, at Cypress Bend (806 miles), we ran into an Indiana +hill, where on a steep slope of yellow shale, all strewn with rocks, +our tent was hurriedly pitched. There was no driving of pegs into +this stony base, so we weighted down the canvas with round-heads, and +fastened our guys to bushes and boulders as best we might. Huddled +around the little stove, under the fly, the crew dined sumptuously +_en course_, from canned soup down to strawberries for dessert,--for +Evansville is a good market. It is not always, we pilgrims fare thus +high--the resources of Rome, Thebes, Bethlehem, Herculaneum, and the +other classic towns with which the Ohio's banks are dotted, being none +of the best. Some days, we are fortunate to have aught in our larder. + + * * * * * + +Brown's Island, Wednesday, 6th.--This morning's camp-fire was welcome +for its warmth. The sky has been clear, but a sharp, cold wind has +prevailed throughout the day, quite counteracting the sun's rays; +we noticed townsfolk going about in overcoats, their hands in their +pockets. In the ox-bow curves, the breeze came in turn from every +quarter, sometimes dead ahead and again pushing us swiftly on. In +seeking the lee shore, Pilgrim pursued a zigzag course, back and +forth between the States,--now under the brow of towering clay banks, +corrugated by the flood, and honeycombed by swallows, which in flocks +screamed and circled over our heads; again, closely brushing the +fringe of willows and sycamores and maples on low-lying shores. Thus +did we for the most part paddle in placid water, while above us the +wind whistled in the tree-tops, rustled the blooming elders and +the tall grasses of the plain, and, out in the open river, caused +white-caps to dance right merrily. + +We met at intervals to-day, several houseboats, the most of them +bearing the inscription prescribed by the new Kentucky license +law, which is now being enforced, the essential features of which +inscription are the home and name of the owner, and the date at which +the license expires. The standard of education among houseboaters is +evinced by the legend borne by a trader's craft which we boarded near +Slim Island: "Lisens exp.rs Maye the 24 1895." The young woman in +charge, a slender creature in a brilliant red calico gown, with blue +ribbons at the corsage, had been but recently married to her lord, +who was back in the country stirring up trade. She had few notions of +business, and allowed us to put our own prices on such articles as +we purchased. The stock was a curious medley--a few staple groceries, +bacon and dried beef, candies, crockery, hardware, tobacco, a small +line of patent medicines, in which blood-purifiers chiefly prevailed, +bitters, ginger beer, and a glass case in which were displayed two or +three women's straw hats, gaudily-trimmed. The woman said their custom +was, to tie up to some convenient shore and "buy a little stuff o' the +farmers, 'n' in that way trade springs up," and thus become known. Two +or three weeks would exhaust any neighborhood, whereupon they would +move on for a dozen miles or so. Late in the autumn, they select a +comfortable beach, and lie by for the winter. + +Mt. Vernon, Ind. (819 miles), is on a high, rolling plain, with a +rather pretty little court-house set in a park of grass, some good +business buildings, and huge flouring-mills, which appear to be the +leading industry. Another flouring-mill town, with the addition of the +characteristic Kentucky distillery, is Uniontown (833 miles), on +the southern shore--a bright, neat little city, backed by smooth, +picturesque green hills. + +The feature of the day was the entrance, through a dreary stretch of +clay banks, of the Wabash River (838 miles), which divides Indiana +from Illinois. Three hundred and sixty yards wide at the mouth, about +half the width of the Ohio, it is the most important of the latter's +northern affluents, and pours into the main stream a swift-rushing +body of clear, green water, which at first boldly pushes over to the +heavily-willowed Kentucky shore the roily mess of the Ohio, and for +several miles exerts a considerable influence in clarification. The +Lower Wabash, flowing through a soft clay bottom, runs an erratic +course, and its mouth is a variable location, so that the bounds of +Illinois and Indiana, hereabout, fluctuate east and west according to +the exigencies of the floods. The far-reaching bottom itself, however, +is apparently of slight value, giving evidence, in the dreary clumps +of dead timber, of being frequently inundated. + +An interesting stream is the Wabash, from an historical point of view. +La Salle knew of it in 1677, and was planning to prosecute his fur +trade over the Maumee and the Wabash; but the Iroquois held the +portage, and for nearly forty years thereafter forbade its use by +whites. Joliet thought the Wabash the headwaters of what we know as +the Lower Ohio, and in his map (1673) styled the latter the Wabash, +down to its mouth. Vincennes, an old Wabash town, was one of the +posts captured so heroically for the Americans by George Rogers Clark, +during the Revolutionary War. In 1814, there was established at New +Harmony, also on the Wabash, the communistic seat of the Harmonists, +who had moved thither from Pennsylvania, to which, dissatisfied with +the West, they returned ten years later. + +Numerous islands have to-day beautified the Ohio. Despite their +inartistic names, Diamond and Slim are tipped at head and foot with +charming banks and willowed sand, and each center is clothed in a +luxurious forest, rimmed by a gravelly beach piled high with drift +and gnarled roots: the whole, with startling clearness, inversely +reflected in the mirrored flood. Wabash Island, opposite the mouth of +the great tributary, is an insular woodland several miles in length. + +Among the prettiest of these jewels studding our silvery path, is the +upmost of the little group known as Brown's Islands, on which we are +passing the night. It was an easy landing on the hard sand, and a +comfortable carry to a level opening in the willows, where we have +a model camp with a great round sycamore block for a table; an +Evansville newspaper does duty as a tablecloth, and two logs rolled +alongside make seats. Four miles below, the smoke of Shawneetown (848 +miles) rises lazily above the dark level line of woods; while across +the river, in Kentucky, there is an unbroken forest fringe, without +sign of life as far as the eye can reach. A long glistening bar of +sand connects our little island home with the Illinois mainland; +upon it was being held, in the long twilight, that evening council +of turkey-buzzards, which we so often witness when in an island camp. +Sand-pipers went fearlessly about among them, bobbing their little +tails with nervous vehemence; redbirds trilled their good-nights in +the tree-tops; and, daintily wading in the sandy shallows, object +lessons in patience, were great blue herons, carefully peering for the +prey which never seems to be found. As night closed in upon us, owls +dismally hooted in the mainland woods, buzzards betook themselves to +inland roosts, herons winged their stately flight to I know not where, +and over on the Kentucky shore could faintly be heard the barking +of dogs at the little "cracker" farmsteads hid deep in the lowland +forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Shawneetown--Farm-houses on stilts--Cave-in-Rock--An island + night. + + +Half-Moon Bar, Thursday, June 7th.--A head-breeze prevailed all day, +strong enough to fan us into a sense of coolness, but leaving the +water as unruffled as a mill-pond; thus did we seem, in the vivid +reflections of the early morning, to be sailing between double lines +of shore, lovely in their groupings of luxuriant trees and tangled +heaps of vine-clad drift. It was a hazy, mirage-producing atmosphere, +the river appearing to melt away in space, and the ever-charming +island heads looming unsupported in mid-air. From the woods, the +piercing note of locusts filled the air as with the ceaseless rattle +of pebbles against innumerable window-panes. + +At a distance, Shawneetown appears as if built upon higher land than +the neighboring bottom; but this proves, on approach, to be an optical +illusion, for the town is walled in by a levee some thirty feet +in height, above the top of which loom its chimneys and spires. +Shawneetown, laid out in 1808, soon became an important post on the +Lower Ohio, and indeed ranked with Kaskaskia as one of the principal +Illinois towns, although in 1817 it still only contained from +thirty to forty log dwellings. During the reign of the Ohio-River +bargemen,[A] it was notorious as the headquarters of the roughest +elements in that boisterous class, and frequently the scene of most +barbarous outrages--"the odious receptacle," says a chronicler of the +time, "of filth and villany." + +In those lively days, which lasted with more or less vigor until +about 1830,--by which time, steamboats had finally overcome popular +prejudice and gained the upper hand in river transportation,--the +people of Shawneetown were largely dependent on the trade of the salt +works of the neighboring Saline Reserve. The salt-licks--at which +in early days the bones of the mammoth were found, as at Big Bone +Lick--commenced a few miles below the town, and embraced a district +of about ninety thousand acres. While Illinois was still a Territory, +these salines were rented by the United States to individuals, but +were granted to the new State (1818) in perpetuity. The trade, in +time, decreased with the decadence of river traffic; and Shawneetown +has since had but slow growth--it now being a dreary little place of +three thousand inhabitants, with unmistakable evidences of having long +since seen its best days. + +The farmers upon the wide bottoms of the lower reaches now invariably +have their dwellings, corn-cribs, and tobacco-sheds set upon posts, +varying from five to ten feet high, according to the surrounding +elevation above the normal river level. At present we are, as a rule, +hemmed in by banks full thirty or forty feet in height above the +present stage. After a hard climb up the steps which are frequently +found cut into the clay, to facilitate access to the river, it is with +something akin to awe that we look upon these buildings on stilts, for +they bespeak, in times of great flood, a rise in the river of between +fifty and sixty feet. + +Three miles above Saline River, I scrambled up to photograph a +farm-house of this character. In order to get the building within the +field of the camera, it was necessary to mount a cob-house of loose +rails, which did duty as a pig-pen. A young woman of eighteen or +twenty years, attired in a dazzling-red calico gown, came out on the +front balcony to see the operation; and, for a touch of life, I held +her in talk until the picture was taken. She was not at all averse to +thus posing, and chatted as familiarly as though we were old friends. +The water, my model said, came at least once a year to the main floor +of the house, some ten feet above the level of the land, and forty +feet above the normal river stage; "every few years" it rose to the +eaves of this story-and-a-half dwelling, when the family would embark +in boats, hieing off to the back-lying hills, a mile-and-a-half away. +An event of this sort seemed quite commonplace to the girl, and not +at all to be viewed as a calamity. As in other houses of the bottom +farmers of this district, there is no wall-paper, no plaster upon the +walls, and little or nothing else to be injured by water. Their few +household possessions can readily be packed into a scow, together with +the live-stock, and behold the family is ready, if need be, to float +away to the ends of the world. As a matter of fact, if they carry food +enough with them, and a rain-proof tent, their season on the hills +is but a prolonged picnic. When the waters sufficiently subside, they +float back again to their home; the river mud is scraped out of the +rooms, the kitchen-stove rubbed up a bit, and soon everything is again +at rights, with a fresh layer of alluvial deposit to fertilize the +fields. + +Few of these small farmers own the lands they till; from Pittsburg +down, the great majority of Ohio River planters are but tenants. The +old families that once owned the soil are living in the neighboring +towns, or in other parts of the country, and renting out their +acres to these cultivators. We were told that the rental fee around +Owensboro is usually in kind,--fourteen bushels of good, salable corn +being the rate per acre. In "Egypt," as Southern Illinois is called, +the average rent is four or five dollars in money, except in years +when the water remains long upon the ground, and thus shortens the +season; then the fee is correspondingly reduced. The girl on the +balcony averred, that in 1893 it amounted to one-third the value of +the average yield. + +The numerous huge stilted corn cribs we see are constructed so that +wagons can drive up into them, and, after unloading in bins on either +side, descend another incline at the far end. Sometimes a portion of +the crib is boarded up for a residence, with windows, and a little +balcony which does double duty as a porch and a landing-stage for +the boats in time of high water. Scattered about on the level are +loosely-built sheds of rails, for stock, which practically live _al +fresco_, so far as actual storm-shelter goes. + +Usually the flooded bottoms are denuded of trees, save perhaps a +narrow fringe along the bank, and a few dead trunks scattered here and +there; while back, a third or a half-mile from the river, lies a dense +line of forest, far beyond which rises the low rim of the basin. But +just below Saline River (857 miles), a lazy little stream of a few +rods' width, the hills, now perhaps eighty or a hundred feet in +height, again approach to the water's edge; and henceforth to the +mouth we are to have alternating semi-circular, wooded bottoms and +shaly, often palisaded uplands, grown to scrub and vines much in the +fashion of some of the middle reaches. A trading-boat was moored +just within the Saline, where we stopped for lunch under a clump of +sycamores. The owner obtains butter and eggs from the farmers, in +exchange for his varied wares, and sells them at a goodly profit to +passing steamers, which will always stop when flagged. + +Approaching Cave-in-Rock, Ill. (869 miles), the right bank is +for several miles an almost continuous palisade of lime-stone, +thick-studded with black and brown flints. In the breaking down of +this escarpment, popularly styled Battery Rocks, numerous caves have +been formed, the largest of which gave the place its name. It is a +rather low opening into the rock, perhaps two hundred feet deep, and +the floor some twenty feet above the present level of the river; +in times of flood, it is frequently so filled with water that boats +enter, and thousands of silly people have, in two or three generations +past, carved or painted their names upon the vaulted roof.[B] From +this large entrance hall, a chimney-like hole in the roof leads to +other chambers, said to be imposing and widely ramified--"not unlike +a Gothic cathedral," said Ashe, an early English traveler (1806), +who appears to have everywhere in these Western wilds sought the +marvellous, and found it. About 1801, a band of robbers made these +inner recesses their home, and frequently sallied thence to rob +passing boats, and incidentally to murder the crews. As for the little +hamlet of Cave-in-Rock, nestled in a break in the palisade, a few +hundred yards below, it was, between 1801 and 1805, the seat of +another species of brigandage--a land speculation, wherein schemers +waxed rich from the confusion engendered by conflicting claims of +settlers, the outgrowth of carelessly-phrased Indian treaties +and overlapping French and English patents. From 1804 to 1810, a +Congressional committee was engaged in straightening out this weary +tangle; and its decisions, ratified by Congress, are to-day the +foundation of many land-titles in Indiana and Illinois. + +We are in camp to-night upon the Illinois shore, opposite Half-Moon +Bar (872 miles), and a mile above Hurricane Island. Towering above us +are great sycamores, cypress, maples, and elms, and all about a dense +jungle of grasses, vines, and monster weeds--the rank horse-weed being +now some ten feet high, with a stem an inch in diameter; the dead +stalks of last year's growth, in the broad rolling fields to our rear, +indicate a possibility of sixteen feet, and an apparent desire to +out-rival the corn. Cane-brake, too, is prevalent hereabout, with +stalks two inches or more thick. The mulberries are reddening, +the Doctor reports on his return with the Boy from a botanizing +expedition, and black-caps are turning; while bergamot and vervain are +among the plants newly added to the herbarium. + + * * * * * + +Stewart's Island, Friday, 8th.--We arose this morning to find the tent +as wet from dew and fog as if there had been a shower, and the bushes +by the landing were sparkling with great beads of moisture. The bold, +black head of Hurricane Island stood out with startling distinctness, +framed in rolling fog; through a cloud-bank on the horizon, the sun +was bursting with the dull glow of burnished copper. By the time of +starting, the fog had lifted, and the sun swung clear in a steel-blue +sky; but there was still a soft haze on land and river, which dreamily +closed the ever-changing vistas, and we seemed to float through an +enchanted land. + +The approach to Elizabethtown, Ill. (877 miles), is picturesque; +but of the dry little town of seven hundred souls, with its rocky, +undulating streets set in a break in the line of palisades, very +little is to be seen from the river. Quarrying for paving-stones +appears to be the chief pursuit of the Elizabethans. At Rose Clare, +Ill., a string of shanties three miles below, are two idle plants of +the Argyle Lead and Fluor-Spar Mining Co. Carrsville, Ky., is another +arid, hillside hamlet, with striking escarpments stretching above and +below for several miles. Mammoth boulders, a dozen or more feet in +height, relics doubtless of once formidable cliffs, here line the +riverside. The palisaded hills reappear in Illinois, commencing at +Parkinson's Landing, a dreary little settlement on a waste of barren, +stony slope flanking the perpendicular wall. + +Just above Golconda Island (890 miles), on the Illinois side, we +were witness to a "meet" of farmers for a squirrel-hunt, a favorite +amusement in these parts. There were five men upon a side, all +carrying guns; as we passed, they were shaking hands, preparatory to +separating for the battue. Upon the bank above, in a grove of cypress, +pawpaw, and sycamore, their horses were standing, unhitched from the +poles of the wagons in which they had been driven, and, tied to trees, +feeding from boxes set upon the ground. It was pleasant to see that +these people, who must lead dreary lives upon the malaria-stricken +and flood-washed bottoms, occasionally take a holiday with a spice of +rational adventure in it; although there is the probability that this +squirrel-hunt may be followed to-night by a roystering at the village +tavern, the losing side paying the score. + +We reached Stewart's Island (901 miles) at five o'clock, and went into +camp upon the landing-beach of hard, white sand, facing Kentucky. The +island is two miles long, the owner living in Bird's Point Landing, +Ky., just below us--a rather shabby but picturesquely-situated little +village, at the base of pretty, wooded hills. A hundred and fifty +acres of the island are planted to corn, and the owner's laborers--a +white overseer and five blacks--are housed a half-mile above us, in a +rude cabin half-hidden in a generous maple grove. + +The white man soon came down to the strand, riding his mule, and both +drank freely from the muddy river. He was a fairly-intelligent young +fellow, and proud of his mount--no need of lines, he said, for "this +yer mule; ye on'y say 'gee!' and 'haw!' and he done git thar ev'ry +time, sir-r! 'Pears to me, he jist done think it out to hisself, like +a man would. Hit ain't no use try'n' boss that yere mule, he's thet +ugly when he's sot on 't--but jist pat him on th' naick and say, 'So +thar, Solomon!' and thar ain't no one knows how to act better 'n he." + +As we were at dinner, in the twilight, the five negroes also came +riding down the angling roadway, in picturesque single file, singing +snatches of camp-meeting songs in that weird minor key with which +we are so familiar in "jubilee" music. Across the river, a Kentucky +darky, riding a mule along the dusky woodland road at the base of +the hills, and evidently going home from his work in the fields, was +singing at the top of his bent, apparently as a stimulus to failing +courage. Our islanders shouted at him in derision. The shoreman's +replies, which lacked not for spice, came clear and sharp across the +half-mile of smooth water, and his tormentors quickly ceased chaffing. +Having all drunk copiously, men and mules resumed their line of march +up the bank, and disappeared as they came, still chanting the crude +melodies of their people. An hour later, we could hear them at the +cabin, singing "John Brown's Body" and other old friends--with the +moon, bright and clear in its first quarter, adding a touch of romance +to the scene. + +[Footnote A: See Chapter XIII.] + +[Footnote B: "Scrawled over by that class of aspiring travelers who +defile noble monuments with their worthless names."--Irving, in _The +Alhambra_.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + The Cumberland and the Tennessee--Stately Solitudes--Old Fort + Massac--Dead towns in Egypt--The last camp--Cairo. + + +Opposite Metropolis, Ill., Saturday, June 9th.--As we were dressing +this morning, at half-past five, the echoes were again awakened by the +vociferous negro on the Kentucky shore, who was going out to his work +again, as noisy as ever. One of our own black men walked down the +bank, ostensibly to light his pipe at the breakfast fire, but really +to satisfy a pardonable curiosity regarding us. The singing brother on +the mainland appeared to amuse him, and he paused to listen, saying, +"Dat yere nigger, he got too loud voice!" Then, when he had left our +camp and regained the top of the bank, he leaned upon his hoe and +yelled: "Say, niggah, ober dere! whar you git dat mule?" + +"Who you holl'rin' at, you brack island niggah?" was the quick reply. + +"You lan' niggah, you tink you smart!" + +"I'se so smart, I done want no liv'n' on island, wi' gang boss, 'n not +'lowed go 'way!" + +The tuneful darky had evidently here touched a tender spot, for our +man turned back into the field to his work; and the other, kicking the +mule into action, trotted off to the tune of "Dar's a meet'n' here, +to-night!" + +We went up into the field, to see the laborers cultivating corn. The +sun was blazing hot, without a breath of air stirring, but the great +black fellows seemed to mind it not, chattering away to themselves +like magpies, and keeping up their conversation by shouts, when +separated from each other at the ends of plow-rows. A natural levee, +eight and ten feet high, and studded with large tree-willows, rims +in the island farm like the edge of a basin. We were told that this +served as a barrier only against the June "fresh," for the regular +spring floods invariably swamp the place; but what is left within the +bowl, when the outer waters subside, soon leaches through the sandy +soil. + +After passing the pretty shores of Dog Island, not far below, the +bold, dark headland of Cumberland Island soon bursts upon our view. +We follow the narrow eastern channel, in order to greet the Cumberland +River (909 miles), which half-way down its island name-sake,--at the +woe-begone little village of Smithland, Ky.--empties a generous flood +into the Ohio. The Cumberland, perhaps a quarter-of-a-mile wide, +debouches through high clay banks, which might readily be melted in +the turbulent cross-currents produced by the mingling of the rivers; +but to avoid this, the government engineers have built a wing-dam +running out from the foot of the Cumberland, nearly half-way into the +main river. This quickly unites the two streams, and the reinforced +Ohio is thereafter perceptibly widened. + +Tramp steamers are numerous, on these lower reaches. We have seen +perhaps a dozen such to-day, stopping at the farm landings as well as +at the crude and infrequent hamlets,--mere notches of settlement in +the wooded lines of shore,--doing a small business in chance cargoes +and in passengers who flag them from the bank. A sultry atmosphere +has been with us through the day. The glassy surface of the river +has, when not lashed into foam by passing boats, dazzled the eyes most +painfully. The hills, from below Stewart's Island, have receded on +either side, generally leaving either low, broad, heavily-timbered +bottoms, or high clay banks which stretch back wide plains of yellow +and gray corn-land--frequently inundated, but highly productive. Now +and then the encroaching river has remained too long in some belt of +forest, and we have great clumps of dead trees, which spring aloft in +stately picturesqueness, thickly-clad to the limb-tips with Virginia +creeper. A bit of shaly hillside occasionally abuts upon the river, +though less frequently than above; and often such a spur has lying +at its feet a row of half-immersed boulders, delicately carpeted with +mosses and with clinging vines. + +The Tennessee River (918 miles), the largest of the Ohio's +tributaries, is, where it enters, about half the width of the latter. +Coming down through a broad, forested bottom, with several pretty +islands off its mouth, it presents a pleasing picture. Here again the +government has been obliged to put in costly works to stop the ravages +of the mingling torrents in the soft alluvial banks. The Ohio, with +the united waters of the Cumberland and the Tennessee, henceforth +flows majestically to the Mississippi, a full mile wide between her +shores. + +Paducah (13,000 inhabitants), next to Louisville Kentucky's most +important river port, lies on a high plain just below the Tennessee. +It is a stirring little city, with the usual large proportion of +negroes, and the out-door business life everywhere met with in the +South. Saw-mills, iron plants, and ship-yards line the bank; at +the wharf are large steamers doing a considerable business up the +Cumberland and Tennessee, and between Paducah and Cairo and St. Louis; +and there is a considerable ferry business to and from the Illinois +suburb of Brooklyn. + +Seven miles below the Tennessee, on the Illinois side, we sought +relief from the blazing sun within the mouth of Seven Mile Creek, +which is cut deep through sloping banks of mud, and overhung by great +sprawling sycamores. These always interest us from the generosity of +their height and girth, and from their great variety of color-tones, +induced by the patchy scaling of the bark--soft grays, buffs, greens, +and ivory whites prevailing. When sufficiently refreshed in this cool +bower, we ventured once more into the fierce light of the open river, +and two miles below shot into the broader and more inviting Massac +Creek (928 miles), just as, of old, George Rogers Clark did with his +little flotilla, when _en route_ to capture Kaskaskia. Clark, in his +Journal written long after the event, said that this creek is a mile +above Fort Massac; his memory failed him--as a matter of fact, the +steep, low hill of iron-stained gravel and clay, on which the old +stronghold was built, is but two hundred yards below.[A] + +The French commander who, in October, 1758, evacuated and burned Fort +Duquesne on the approach of the English army under General Forbes, +dropped down the Ohio for nearly a thousand miles, and built "a new +fort on a beautiful eminence on the north bank of the river." But +there was a fortified post on this hillock at a much earlier date +(about 1711), erected as a headquarters for missionaries, and to guard +French fur-traders from marauding Cherokees; and Pownall's map notes +one here in 1751. This fort of 1758 was but an enlarged edition of +the old. The new stronghold, with a garrison of a hundred men, was the +last built by the French upon the Ohio, and it was occupied by them +until they evacuated the country in 1763. England does not appear to +have made any attempt to repair and occupy the works then destroyed +by the French, although urged to do so by her military agents in +the West. Had they held Fort Massac, no doubt Clark's expedition to +capture the Northwest for the Americans might easily have been nipped +in the bud; as it was, the old fortress was a ruin when he "reposed" +on the banks of the creek at its feet. + +When, in 1793-1794, the French agent Genet was fomenting his scheme +for capturing Louisiana and Florida from Spain, by the aid of Western +filibusters, old Fort Massac was thought of as a rallying-point and +base of supplies; but St. Clair's proclamation of March 24, 1794, +ordering General Wayne to restore and garrison the place, for the +purpose of preventing the proposed expedition from passing down the +river, ended the conspiracy, and Genet left the country. A year later, +Spain, who had at intervals sought to detach the Westerners from +the Union, and ally them with her interests beyond the Mississippi, +renewed her attempts at corrupting the Kentuckians, and gained to +her cause no less a man than George Rogers Clark himself. Among other +designs, Fort Massac was to be captured by the adventurers, whom +Spain was to supply with the sinews of war. There was much mysterious +correspondence between the latter's corruption agent, Thomas Power, +and the American General Wilkinson, at Detroit; but finally Power, +in disguise, was sent out of the country under guard, by way of Fort +Massac, and his escape into Spanish territory practically ended this +interesting episode in Western history. The fort was occupied as a +military post by our government until the close of the War of 1812-15; +what we see to-day, are the ruins of the establishment then abandoned. + +No doubt the face of this rugged promontory of gravel has, within a +century, suffered much from floods; but the remains of the earthwork +on the crest of the cliff, some fifty feet above the present +river-stage, are still easily traceable throughout. The fort was +about forty yards square, with a bastion at each corner; there are the +remains of an unstoned well near the center; the ditch surrounding +the earthwork is still some two-and-a-half or three feet below the +surrounding level, and the breastwork about two feet above the inner +level; no doubt, palisades once surmounted the work, and were relied +upon as the chief protection from assault. The grounds, a pleasant +grassy grove several acres in extent, are now enclosed by a rail +fence, and neatly maintained as a public park by the little city of +Metropolis, which lies not far below. It was a commanding view of land +and river, which was enjoyed by the garrison of old Fort Massac. Up +stream, there is a straight stretch of eleven miles to the mouth +of the Tennessee; both up and down, the shore lines are under full +survey, until they melt away in the distance. No enemy could well +surprise the holders of this key to the Lower Ohio. + +Our camp is on the sandy beach opposite Metropolis, and two hundred +yards below the Kentucky end of the ferry. Behind us lies a deep +forest, with sycamores six and eight feet in diameter; a country road +curving off through the woods, to the sparse rustic settlement lying +some two miles in the interior--on higher ground than this wooded +bottom, which is annually overflowed. Now and then the blustering +little steam-ferry comes across to land Kentucky farm-folk and +their mules, going home from a Saturday's shopping in Metropolis. +Occasionally a fisherman passes, lagging on his oars to scan us and +our quarters; and from one of them, we purchased a fish. As the +still, cool night crept on, Metropolis was astir; across the mile of +intervening water, darted tremulous shafts of light; we heard voices +singing and laughing, a fiddle in its highest notes, the puffing of +a stationary engine, and the bay and yelp of countless dogs. Later, +a packet swooped down with smothered roar, and threw its electric +search-light on the city wharf, revealing a crowd of negroes gathered +there, like moths in the radiance of a candle; there were gay shouts, +and a mad scampering--we could see it all, as plainly as if in +ordinary light it had been but a third of the distance; and then the +roustabouts struck up a weird song as they ran out the gang-plank, +and, laden with boxes and bales, began swarming ashore, like a +procession of black ants carrying pupa cases. + + * * * * * + +Mound City Towhead, Sunday, 10th.--During the night, burglarious +pigs would have raided our larder, but the crash of a falling kettle +wakened us suddenly, as did geese the ancient Romans. The Doctor and I +sallied forth in our pajamas, with clods of clay in hand, to send the +enemy flying back into the forest, snorting and squealing with baffled +rage. + +We were afloat at half-past seven, under an unclouded sky, with the +sun sharply reflected from the smooth surface of the river, and the +temperature rapidly mounting. + +The Fort Massac ridge extends down stream as far as Mound City, +but soon degenerates into a ridge of clay varying in height from +twenty-five to fifty feet above the water level. Upon the low-lying +bottom of the Kentucky shore, is still an interminable dark line of +forest. The settlements are meager, and now wholly in Illinois: +For instance, Joppa (936 miles), a row of a half-dozen unpainted, +dilapidated buildings, chiefly stores and abandoned warehouses, +bespeaking a river traffic of the olden time, that has gone to decay; +a hot, dreary, baking spot, this Joppa, as it lies sprawling upon +the clay ridge, flanked by a low, wide gravel beach, on which gaunt, +bell-ringing cows are wandering, eating the leaves of fallen trees, +for lack of better pasturage. Our pilot map, of sixty years ago, +records the presence of Wilkinsonville (942 miles), on the site of +old Fort Wilkinson of the War of 1812-15, but no one along the banks +appears to have ever heard of it; however, after much searching, we +found the place for ourselves, on an eminence of fifty feet, with +two or three farm-houses as the sole relics of the old establishment. +Caledonia (Olmstead P.O.), nine miles down, consists of several large +buildings on a hill set well back from the river. Mound City (959 +miles),--the "America" of our time-worn map,--in whose outskirts we +are camped to-night, is a busy town with furniture factories, lumber +mills, ship-yards, and a railway transfer. Below that, stretches the +vast extent of swamp and low woodland on which Cairo (967 miles) has +with infinite pains been built--like "brave little Holland," holding +her own against the floods solely by virtue of her encircling dike. + +Houseboats have been few, to-day, and they of the shanty order and +generally stranded high upon the beach. One sees now and then, on the +Illinois ridge, the cheap log or frame house of a "cracker," the very +picture of desolate despair; but on the Kentucky shore are few signs +of life, for the bottom lies so low that it is frequently inundated, +and settlement ventures no nearer than two or three miles from the +riverside. A fisherman comes occasionally into view, upon this wide +expanse of wood and water and clay-banks; sometimes we hail him in +passing, always getting a respectful answer, but a stare of innocent +curiosity. + +Our last home upon the Ohio is facing the Kentucky shore, on the +cleanly sand-beach of Mound City Towhead, a small island which in +times of high water is but a bar. The tent is screened in a willow +clump; just below us, on higher ground, sycamores soar heavenward, +gayly festooned with vines, hiding from us Mound City and the Illinois +mainland. Across the river, a Kentucky negro is singing in the +gloaming; but it is over a mile away, and, while the tune is plain, +the words are lost. Children's voices, and the bay of hounds, come +wafted to us from the northern shore. A steamer's wake rolls along +our island strand, dangerously near the camp-fire; the river is still +falling, however, and we no longer fear the encroachments of the +flood. The Doctor and I found a secluded nook, where in the moonlight +we took our final plunge. + +It is sad, this bidding good-bye to the stream which has floated us so +merrily for a thousand miles, from the mountains down to the plain. We +elders linger long by the last camp-fire, to talk in fond reminiscence +of the six weeks afloat; while the Boy no doubt dreams peacefully +of houseboats and fishermen, of gigantic bridges and flashing +steel-plants, of coal-mines and oil-wells, of pioneers and Indians, +and all that--of six weeks of kaleidoscopic sensations, at an age when +the mind is keenly active, and the heart open to impressions which can +never be dimmed so long as his little life shall last. + + * * * * * + +Cairo, Monday, 11th.--At our island camp, last night, we were but nine +miles from the mouth of the Ohio, a distance which could easily have +been made before sundown; but we preferred to reach our destination in +the morning, the better to arrange for railway transportation, hence +our agreeable pause upon the Towhead. + +Before embarking for the last run, this morning, we made a neat heap +on the beach, of such of our stores, edible and wearable, as had been +requisite to the trip, but were not worth the cost of sending home. +Feeling confident that some passing fisherman would soon be tempted +ashore to inspect this curious landmark, and yet might be troubled +by nice scruples as to the policy of appropriating the find, we +conspicuously labeled it: "Abandoned by the owners! The finder is +welcome to the lot." + +Quickly passing Mound City, now bustling with life, Pilgrim closely +skirted the monotonous clay-banks of Illinois, swept rapidly under the +monster railway bridge which stalks high above the flood, and +loses itself over the tree-tops of the Kentucky bottom, and at +a quarter-past eight o'clock was pulled up at Cairo, with the +Mississippi in plain sight over there, through the opening in the +forest. In another hour or two, she will be housed in a box-car; +and we, her crew, having again donned the garb of landsmen, will be +speeding toward our northern home, this pilgrimage but a memory. + +Such a memory! As we dropped below the Towhead, the Boy, for once +silent, wistfully gazed astern. When at last Pilgrim had been hauled +upon the railway levee, and the Doctor and I had gone to summon a +shipping clerk, the lad looked pleadingly into W----'s face. In tones +half-choked with tears, he expressed the sentiment of all: "Mother, +is it really ended? Why can't we go back to Brownsville, and do it all +over again?" + +[Footnote A: "In the evening of the same day I ran my Boats into +a small Creek about one mile above the old Fort Missack; Reposed +ourselves for the night, and in the morning took a Rout to the +Northwest."--Clark's letter to Mason.] + + + + +APPENDIX A. + + Historical outline of Ohio Valley settlement. + + +Englishmen had no sooner set foot upon our continent, than they began +to penetrate inland with the hope of soon reaching the Western Ocean, +which the coast savages, almost as ignorant of the geography of the +interior as the Europeans themselves, declared lay just beyond +the mountains. In 1586, we find Ralph Lane, governor of Raleigh's +ill-fated colony, leading his men up the Roanoke River for a hundred +miles, only to turn back disheartened at the rapids and falls, which +necessitated frequent portages through the forest jungles. Twenty +years later (1606), Christopher Newport and the redoubtable John +Smith, of Jamestown, ascended the James as far as the falls--now +Richmond, Va.; and Newport himself, the following year, succeeded in +reaching a point forty miles beyond, but here again was appalled by +the difficulties and returned. + +There was, after this, a deal of brave talk about scaling the +mountains; but nothing further was done until 1650, when Edward Bland +and Edward Pennant again tried the Roanoke, though without penetrating +the wilderness far beyond Lane's turning point. It is recorded that, +in 1669, John Lederer, an adventurous German surgeon, commissioned as +an explorer by Governor Berkeley, ascended to the summit of the Blue +Ridge, in Madison County, Va.; but although he was once more on the +spot the following season, with a goodly company of horsemen and +Indians, and had a bird's-eye view of the over-mountain country, he +does not appear to have descended into the world of woodland which +lay stretched between him and the setting sun. It seems to be well +established that the very next year (1671), a party under Abraham +Wood, one of Governor Berkeley's major-generals, penetrated as far +as the Great Falls of the Great Kanawha, only eighty miles from the +Ohio--doubtless the first English exploration of waters flowing into +the latter river. The Great Kanawha was, by Wood himself, called New +River, but the geographers of the time styled it Wood's. The last +title was finally dropped; the stream above the mouth of the Gauley +is, however, still known as New. These several adventurers had now +demonstrated that while the waters beyond the mountains were not the +Western Ocean, they possibly led to such a sea; and it came to be +recognized, too, that the continent was not as narrow as had up to +this time been supposed. + +Meanwhile, the French of Canada were casting eager eyes toward the +Ohio, as a gateway to the continental interior. But the French-hating +Iroquois held fast the upper waters of the Mohawk, Delaware, and +Susquehanna, and the long but narrow watershed sloping northerly to +the Great Lakes, so that the westering Ohio was for many years sealed +to New France. An important factor in American history this, for it +left the great valley practically free from whites while the English +settlements were strengthening on the seaboard; when at last the +French were ready aggressively to enter upon the coveted field, they +had in the English colonists formidable and finally successful rivals. + +It is believed by many, and the theory is not unreasonable, that the +great French fur-trader and explorer, La Salle, was at the Falls of +the Ohio (site of Louisville) "in the autumn or early winter of 1669." +How he got there, is another question. Some antiquarians believe +that he reached the Alleghany by way of the Chautauqua portage, and +descended the Ohio to the Falls; others, that he ascended the Maumee +from Lake Erie, and, descending the Wabash, thus, discovered the Ohio. +It was reserved for the geographer Franquelin to give, in his map of +1688, the first fairly-accurate idea of the Ohio's path; and Father +Hennepin's large map of 1697 showed that much had meanwhile been +learned about the river. + +No doubt, by this time, the great waterway was well-known to many of +the most adventurous French and English fur-traders, possibly better +to the latter than to the former; unfortunately, these men left few +records behind them, by which to trace their discoveries. As early as +1684, we incidentally hear of the Ohio as a principal route for the +Iroquois, who brought peltries "from the direction of the Illinois" to +the English at Albany, and the French at Quebec. Two years after this, +ten English trading-canoes, loaded with goods, were seen on Lake Erie +by French agents, who in great alarm wrote home to Quebec about them. +Writes De Nonville to Seignelay, "I consider it a matter of importance +to preclude the English from this trade, as they doubtless would +entirely ruin ours--as well by the cheaper bargains they would give +the Indians, as by attracting to themselves the French of our colony +who are in the habit of resorting to the woods." + +Herein lay the gist of the whole matter: The legalized monopoly +granted to the great fur-trade companies of New France, with the +official corruption necessary to create and perpetuate that monopoly, +made the French trade an expensive business, consequently goods were +dear. On the other hand, the trade of the English was untrammeled, and +a lively competition lowered prices. The French cajoled the Indians, +and fraternized with them in their camps; whereas, the English +despised the savages, and made little attempt to disguise their +sentiments. The French, while claiming all the country west of the +Alleghanies, cared little for agricultural colonization; they would +keep the wilderness intact, for the fostering of wild animals, upon +the trade in whose furs depended the welfare of New France--and this, +too, was the policy of the savage. By English statesmen at home, our +continental interior was also chiefly prized for its forest trade, +which yielded rich returns for the merchant adventurers of London. The +policies of the English colonists and of their general government were +ever clashing. The latter looked upon the Indian trade as an entering +wedge; they thought of the West as a place for growth. Close upon +the heels of the path-breaking trader, went the cattle-raiser, and, +following him, the agricultural settler looking for cheap, fresh, and +broader lands. No edicts of the Board of Trade could repress these +backwoodsmen; savages could and did beat them back for a time, but +the annals of the border are lurid with the bloody struggle of the +borderers for a clearing in the Western forest. The greater part of +them were Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas--a +hardy race, who knew not defeat. Steadily they pushed back the rampart +of savagery, and won the Ohio valley for civilization. + +The Indian early recognized the land-grabbing temper of the English, +and felt that a struggle to the death was impending. The French +browbeat their savage allies, and, easily inflaming their passions, +kept the body of them almost continually at war with the English--the +Iroquois excepted, not because the latter were English-lovers, or +did not understand the aim of English colonization, but because the +earliest French had won their undying enmity. Amidst all this weary +strife, the Indian, a born trader who dearly loved a bargain, never +failed to recognize that the goods of his French friends were dear, +and that those of his enemies, the English, were cheap. We find +frequent evidences that for a hundred years the tribesmen of the Upper +Lakes carried on an illicit trade with the hated English, whenever the +usually-wary French were thought to be napping. + +It is certain that English forest traders were upon the Ohio in the +year 1700. In 1715,--the year before Governor Spotswood of Virginia, +"with much feasting and parade," made his famous expedition over the +Blue Ridge,--there was a complaint that traders from Carolina had +reached the villages on the Wabash, and were poaching on the French +preserves. French military officers built little log stockades along +that stream, and tried in vain to induce the Indians of the valley to +remove to St. Joseph's River, out of the sphere of English influence. +Everywhere did French traders meet English competitors, who were +not to be frightened by orders to move off the field. New France, +therefore, determined to connect Canada and Louisiana by a chain of +forts throughout the length of the Mississippi basin, which should +not only secure untrammeled communication between these far-separated +colonies, but aid in maintaining French supremacy throughout the +region. Yet in 1725 we still hear of "the English from Carolina" +busily trading with the Miamis under the very shadow of the guns of +Fort Ouiatanon (near Lafayette, Ind.), and the French still vainly +scolding thereat. What was going on upon the Wabash, was true +elsewhere in the Ohio basin, as far south as the Creek towns on the +sources of the Tennessee. + +About this time, Pennsylvania and Virginia began to exhibit interest +in their own overlapping claims to lands in the country northwest of +the Ohio. Those colonies were now settled close to the base of the +mountains, and there was heard a popular clamor for pastures new. +French ownership of the over-mountain region was denied, and in 1728 +Pennsylvania "viewed with alarm the encroachments of the French." The +issue was now joined; both sides claimed the field, but, as usual, the +contest was at first among the rival forest traders. In the Virginia +and Pennsylvania capitals, the transmontane country was still a misty +region. In 1729, Col. William Byrd, an authority on things Virginian, +was able to write that nothing was then known in that colony of the +sources of the Potomac, Roanoke, and Shenandoah. It was not until 1736 +that Col. William Mayo, in laying out the boundaries of Lord Fairfax's +generous estate, discovered in the Alleghanies the head-spring of the +Potomac, where ten years later was planted the famous "Fairfax Stone," +the southwest point of the boundary between Virginia and Maryland. +That very same year (1746), M. de Lery, chief engineer of New France, +went with a detachment of troops from Lake Erie to Chautauqua Lake, +and proceeded thence by Conewango Creek and Alleghany River to the +Ohio, which he carefully surveyed down to the mouth of the Great +Miami. + +Affairs moved slowly in those days. New France was corrupt and weak, +and the English colonists, unaided by the home government, were not +strong. For many years, nothing of importance came out of this rivalry +of French and English in the Ohio Valley, save the petty quarrels of +fur-traders, and the occasional adventure of some Englishman taken +prisoner by Indians in a border foray, and carried far into the +wilderness to meet with experiences the horror of which, as preserved +in their published narratives, to this day causes the blood of the +reader to curdle. + +Now and then, there were voluntary adventurers into these strange +lands. Such were John Howard, John Peter Salling, and two other +Virginians who, the story goes, went overland (1740 or 1741) under +commission of their inquisitive governor, to explore the country to +the Mississippi. They went down Coal and Wood's Rivers to the Ohio, +which in Salling's journal is called the "Alleghany." Finally, a party +of French, negroes, and Indians took them prisoners and carried them +to New Orleans, where on meager fare they were held in prison for +eighteen months. They escaped at last, and had many curious adventures +by land and sea, until they reached home, from which they had been +absent two years and three months. There are now few countries on the +globe where a party of travelers could meet with adventures such as +these. + +At last, the plot thickened; the tragedy was hastened to a close. +France now formally asserted her right to all countries drained by +streams emptying into the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the +Mississippi. This vast empire would have extended from the comb of +the Rockies on the west--discovered in 1743 by the brothers La +Verendrye--to the crest of the Appalachians on the east, thus +including the western part of New York and New England. The narrow +strip of the Atlantic coast alone would have been left to the +domination of Great Britain. The demand made by France, if acceded to, +meant the death-blow to English colonization on the American +mainland; and yet it was made not without reason. French explorers, +missionaries, and fur-traders had, with great enterprise and +fortitude, swarmed over the entire region, carrying the flag, the +religion, and the commerce of France into the farthest forest wilds; +while the colonists of their rival, busy in solidly welding their +industrial commonwealths, had as yet scarcely peeped over the +Alleghany barrier. + +It was asserted on behalf of Great Britain, that the charters of her +coast colonies carried their bounds far into the West; further, that +as, by the treaty of Utrecht (1713), France had acknowledged the +suzerainty of the British king over the Iroquois confederacy, the +English were entitled to all lands "conquered" by those Indians, +whose war-paths had extended from the Ottawa River on the north to +the Carolinas on the south, and whose forays reached alike to the +Mississippi and to New England. In this view was made, in 1744, the +famous treaty at Lancaster, Pa., whereat the Iroquois, impelled by rum +and presents, pretended to give to the English entire control of the +Ohio Valley, under the claim that the former had in various encounters +conquered the Shawanese of that region and were therefore entitled +to it. It is obvious that a country occasionally raided by marauding +bands of savages, whose homes are far away, cannot properly be +considered theirs by conquest. + +Meanwhile, both sides were preparing to occupy and hold the contested +field. New France already had a weak chain of waterside forts +and commercial stations,--the rendezvous of fur-traders, priests, +travelers, and friendly Indians,--extending, with long intervening +stretches of savage-haunted wilderness, through the heart of the +continent, from Lower Canada to her outlying post of New Orleans. It +is not necessary here to enter into the details of the ensuing French +and Indian War, the story of which Parkman has told us so well. +Suffice it briefly to mention a few only of its features, so far as +they affect the Ohio itself. + +The Iroquois, although concluding with the English this treaty +of Lancaster, "on which, as a corner-stone, lay the claim of the +colonists to the West," were by this time, as the result of wily +French diplomacy, growing suspicious of their English protectors; at +the same time, having on several occasions been severely punished +by the French, they were less rancorous in their opposition to New +France. For this reason, just as the English were getting ready to +make good their claim to the Ohio by actual colonization, the Iroquois +began to let in the French at the back door. In 1749, Galissoniere, +then governor of New France, dispatched to the great valley a party +of soldiers under Celoron de Bienville, with directions to conduct a +thorough exploration, to bury at the mouths of principal streams lead +plates graven with the French claim,--a custom of those days,--and to +drive out English traders, Celoron proceeded over the Lake Chautauqua +route, from Lake Erie to the Alleghany River, and thence down the +Ohio to the Miami, returning to Lake Erie over the old Maumee portage. +English traders, who could not be driven out, were found swarming into +the country, and his report was discouraging. The French realized +that they could not maintain connection between New Orleans and their +settlements on the St. Lawrence, if driven from the Ohio valley. The +governor sent home a plea for the shipment of ten thousand French +peasants to settle the region; but the government at Paris was just +then as indifferent to New France as was King George to his colonies, +and the settlers were not sent. + +Meanwhile, the English were not idle. The first settlement they made +west of the mountains, was on New River, a branch of the Kanawha +(1748); in the same season, several adventurous Virginians hunted and +made land-claims in Kentucky and Tennessee. Before the close of the +following year (1749), there had been formed, for fur-trading and +colonizing purposes, the Ohio Company, composed of wealthy Virginians, +among whom were two brothers of Washington. King George granted the +company five hundred thousand acres, south of and along the Ohio +River, on which they were to plant a hundred families and build +and maintain a fort. As a base of supplies, they built a fortified +trading-house at Will's Creek (now Cumberland, Md.), near the head of +the Potomac, and developed a trail ("Nemacolin's Path"), sixty miles +long, across the Laurel Hills to the mouth of Redstone Creek, on the +Monongahela, where was built another stockade (1752). + +Christopher Gist, a famous backwoodsman, was sent (1750), the year +after Celoron's expedition, to explore the country as far down as +the falls of the Ohio, and select lands for the new company. Gist's +favorable report greatly stimulated interest in the Western country. +In his travels, he met many Scotch-Irish fur-traders who had passed +into the West through the mountain valleys of Pennsylvania, Virginia, +and the Carolinas. His negotiations with the natives were of great +value to the English cause. + +It was early seen, by English and French alike, that an immense +advantage would accrue to the nation first in possession of what is +now the site of Pittsburg, the meeting-place of the Monongahela and +Alleghany rivers to form the Ohio--the "Forks of the Ohio," as it was +then called. In the spring of 1753, a French force occupied the new +fifteen-mile portage route between Presque Isle (Erie, Pa.) and French +Creek, a tributary of the Alleghany. On the banks of French Creek they +built Fort Le Boeuf, a stout log-stockade. It had been planned to +erect another fort at the Forks of the Ohio, one hundred and twenty +miles below; but disease in the camp prevented the completion of the +scheme. + +What followed is familiar to all who have taken any interest whatever +in Western history. In November, Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, sent +one of his major-generals, young George Washington, with Gist as a +companion, to remonstrate with the French at Le Boeuf for occupying +land "so notoriously known to be the property of the Crown of Great +Britain." The French politely turned the messengers back. In the +following April (1754), Washington set out with a small command, by +the way of Will's Creek, to forcibly occupy the Forks. His advance +party were building a fort there, when the French appeared and easily +drove them off. Then followed Washington's defeat at Great Meadows +(July 4). The French were now supreme at their new Fort Duquesne. +The following year, General Braddock set out from Virginia, also by +Nemacolin's Path; but, on that fateful ninth of July, fell in the +slaughter-pen which had been set for him at Turtle Creek by the +Indians of the Upper Lakes, under the leadership of a French +fur-trader from far-off Wisconsin. + +From the time of Braddock's defeat until the close of the war, French +traders, with savage allies, poured the vials of their wrath upon the +encroaching settlements of the English backwoodsmen. Nemacolin's Path, +now known as Braddock's Road, made for the Indians of the Ohio an +easy pathway to the English borders of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and +Maryland. In the parallel valleys of the Alleghanies was waged a +partisan warfare, which in bitterness has probably not had its equal +in all the long history of the efforts of expanding civilization +to beat down the encircling walls of barbarism. In 1758, Canada +was attacked by several English expeditions, the most of which were +successful. One of these was headed by General John Forbes, and +directed against Fort Duquesne. After a remarkable forest march, +overcoming mighty obstacles, Forbes arrived at his destination to find +that the French had blown up the fortifications, some of the troops +retreating to Lake Erie and others to rehabilitate Fort Massac on the +Lower Ohio. + +Thus England gained possession of the valley. New France had been cut +in twain. The English Fort Pitt commanded the Forks of the Ohio, +and French rule in America was now doomed. The fall of Quebec soon +followed (1759), then of Montreal (1760); and in 1763 was signed +the Treaty of Paris, by which England obtained possession of all +the territory east of the Mississippi River, except the city of New +Orleans and a small outlying district. In order to please the savages +of the interior, and to cultivate the fur-trade,--perhaps also, to +act as a check upon the westward growth of the too-ambitious coast +colonies,--King George III. took early occasion to command his "loving +subjects" in America not to purchase or settle lands beyond the +mountains, "without our especial leave and license." It is needless to +say that this injunction was not obeyed. The expansion of the English +colonies in America was irresistible; the Great West was theirs, and +they proceeded in due time to occupy it. + +Long before the close of the French and Indian War, English +colonists--whom we will now, for convenience, call Americans--had made +agricultural settlements in the Ohio basin. As early as 1752, we have +seen, the Redstone fort was built. In 1753, the French forces, +on retiring from Great Meadows, burned several log cabins on the +Monongahela. The interesting story of the colonizing of the Redstone +district, at the western end of Braddock's Road, has been outlined in +Chapter I. of the text; and it has been shown, in the course of the +narrative of the pilgrimage, how other districts were slowly settled +in the face of savage opposition. Although driven back in numerous +Indian wars, these American borderers had come to the Ohio valley to +stay. + +We have seen the early attempt of the Ohio Company to settle the +valley. Its agents blazed the way, but the French and Indian War, and +the Revolution soon following, tended to discourage the aspirations +of the adventurers, and the organization finally lapsed. Western land +speculators were as active in those days as now, and Washington was +chief among them. We find him first interested in the valley, through +broad acres acquired on land-grants issued for military services in +the French and Indian War; Revolutionary bounty claims made him a +still larger landholder on Western waters; and, to the close of the +century, he was actively interested in schemes to develop the region. +We are not in the habit of so regarding him, but both by frequent +personal presence in the Ohio valley, and extensive interests at stake +there, the Father of his Country was the most conspicuous of Western +pioneers. Dearly did Washington love the West, which he knew so well; +when the Revolutionary cause looked dark, and it seemed possible that +England might seize the coast settlements, he is said to have cried, +"We will retire beyond the mountains, and be free!" and in his +declining years he seemed to regret that he was too old to join his +former comrades of the camp, in their colony at Marietta. + +As early as 1754, Franklin, in his famous Albany Plan of Union for the +colonies, had a device for establishing new states in the West, upon +lands purchased from the Indians. In 1773, he displayed interest in +the Walpole plan for another colony,--variously called Pittsylvania, +Vandalia, and New Barataria--with its proposed capital at the mouth +of the Great Kanawha. There were, too, several other Western colonial +schemes,--among them the Henderson colony of Transylvania, between +the Cumberland and the Tennessee, the seat of which was Boonesborough. +Readers of Roosevelt well know its brief but brilliant career, +intimately connected with the development of Tennessee and Kentucky. +But the most of these hopeful enterprises came to grief with the +political secession of the colonies; and when the coast States ceded +their Western land-claims to the new general government, and the +Ordinance of 1787 provided for the organization of the Territory +Northwest of the River Ohio, there was no room for further enterprises +of this character.[A] + +The story of the Ohio is the story of the West. With the close of the +Revolution, came a rush of travel down the great river. It was more or +less checked by border warfare, which lasted until 1794; but in +that year, Anthony Wayne, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, broke the +backbone of savagery east of the Mississippi; the Tecumseh uprising +(1812-13) came too late seriously to affect the dwellers on the Ohio. + +There were two great over-mountain highways thither, one of them being +Braddock's Road, with Redstone (now Brownsville, Pa.) and Pittsburg as +its termini; the other was Boone's old trail, or Cumberland Gap. With +the latter, this sketch has naught to do. + +By the close of the Revolution, Pittsburg--in Gist's day, but a +squalid Indian village, and a fording-place--was still only "a distant +out-post, merely a foothold in the Far West." By 1785, there were +a thousand people there, chiefly engaged in the fur-trade and in +forwarding emigrants and goods to the rapidly-growing settlements on +the middle and lower reaches of the river. The population had doubled +by 1803. By 1812 there was to be seen here just the sort of bustling, +vicious frontier town, with battlement-fronts and ragged streets, +which Buffalo and then Detroit became in after years. Cincinnati and +Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City, had still later, each in turn, +their share of this experience; and, not many years ago, Bismarck, +Omaha, and Leadville. From Philadelphia and Baltimore and Richmond, +there were running to Pittsburg or Redstone regular lines of stages +for the better class of passengers; freight wagons laden with immense +bales of goods were to be seen in great caravans, which frequently +were "stalled" in the mud of the mountain roads; emigrants from all +parts of the Eastern States, and many countries of Europe, often +toiled painfully on foot over these execrable highways, with their +bundles on their backs, or following scrawny cattle harnessed to +makeshift vehicles; and now and then came a well-to-do equestrian with +his pack-horses,--generally an Englishman,--who was out to see the +country, and upon his return to write a book about it. + +At Pittsburg, and points on the Alleghany, Youghiogheny, and +Monongahela, were boat-building yards which turned out to order a +curious medley of craft--arks, flat- and keel-boats, barges, pirogues, +and schooners of every design conceivable to fertile brain. Upon +these, travelers took passage for the then Far West, down the +swift-rolling Ohio. There have descended to us a swarm of published +journals by English and Americans alike, giving pictures, more or +less graphic, of the men and manners of the frontier; none is without +interest, even if in its pages the priggish author but unconsciously +shows himself, and fails to hold the mirror up to the rest of nature. +With the introduction of steamboats,--the first was in 1811, but they +were slow to gain headway against popular prejudice,--the old river +life, with its picturesque but rowdy boatmen, its unwieldy flats and +keels and arks, began to pass away, and water traffic to approach the +prosaic stage; the crossing of the mountains by the railway did away +with the boisterous freighters, the stages, and the coaching-taverns; +and when, at last, the river became paralleled by the iron way, the +glory of the steamboat epoch itself faded, riverside towns adjusted +themselves to the new highways of commerce, new centers arose, and +"side-tracked" ports fell into decay. + +[Footnote A: See Turner's "Western State-Making in the Revolutionary +Era," in _Amer. Hist. Rev._, Vol. I.; also, Alden's "New Governments +West of the Alleghanies," _Bull. Univ. Wis._, Hist. Series, Vol. II.] + + + + +APPENDIX B. + + Selected list of Journals of previous travelers down the Ohio. + + +_Gist, Christopher._ Gist's Journals; with historical, geographical, +and ethnological notes, and biographies of his contemporaries, by +William M. Darlington. Pittsburg, 1893. + + Gist's trip down the valley, from October, 1750, to May, 1751, + was on horseback, as far as the site of Frankfort, Ky. On his + second trip into Kentucky, from November, 1751, to March 11, + 1752, he touched the river at few points. + +_Gordon, Harry._ Extracts from the Journal of Captain Harry Gordon, +chief engineer in the Western department in North America, who was +sent from Fort Pitt, on the River Ohio, down the said river, etc., to +Illinois, in 1766. + + Published in Pownall's "Topographical Description of North + America," Appendix, p. 2. + +_Washington, George._ Journal of a tour to the Ohio River. [Writings, +ed. by Ford, vol. II. New York, 1889.] + + The trip lasted from October 5 to December 1, 1770. The party + went in boats from Fort Pitt, as far down as the mouth of + the Great Kanawha. This journal is the best on the subject, + written in the eighteenth century. + +_Pownall, T._ A topographical description of such parts of North +America as are contained in the [annexed] map of the Middle British +Colonies, etc. London, 1776. + + Contains "Extracts from Capt. Harry Gordon's Journal," + "Extracts from Mr. Lewis Evans' Journal" of 1743, and + "Christopher Gist's Journal" of 1750-51. + +_Hutchins, Thomas._ Topographical description of Virginia, +Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina, comprehending the Rivers +Ohio, Kenhawa, Sioto, Cherokee, Wabash, Illinois, Mississippi, etc. +London, 1778. + +_St. John, M._ Lettres d'un cultivateur Americain. Paris, 1787, 3 +vols. + + Vol. 3 contains an account of the author's boat trip down the + river, in 1784. + +_De Vigni, Antoine F. S._ Relation of his voyage down the Ohio River +from Pittsburg to the Falls, in 1788. + + Graphic and animated account by a French physician who came + out with the Scioto Company's immigrants to Gallipolis. Given + in "Proc. Amer. Antiq. Soc.", Vol. XI., pp. 369-380. + +_May, John._ Journal and letters [to the Ohio country, 1788-89], +Cincinnati, 1873. + + One of the best, for economic views. May was a Boston + merchant. + +_Forman, Samuel S._ Narrative of a journey down the Ohio and +Mississippi in 1789-90. With a memoir and illustrative notes, by Lyman +C. Draper. Cincinnati, 1888. + + A lively and appreciative account. Touches social life at the + garrisons, _en route_. + +_Ellicott, Andrew._ Journal of the late commissioner on behalf of +the United States during part of the year 1796, the years 1797, 1798, +1799, and part of the year 1800: for determining the boundary between +the United States and Spain. Philadelphia, 1803. + + His trip down the river was in 1796. + +_Baily, Francis._ Journal of a tour in unsettled parts of North +America, in 1796 and 1797. London, 1856. + + The author's river voyage was in 1796. + +_Harris, Thaddeus Mason._ Journal of a tour into the territory +northwest of the Alleghany Mountains; made in the spring of the year +1803. Boston, 1805. + + A valuable work. The author traveled on a flatboat. + +_Michaux, F. A._ Travels to the west of the Alleghany Mountains. +London (2nd ed.), 1805. + + Excellent, for economic conditions. The expedition was made in + 1802. + +_Ashe, Thomas._ Travels in America, performed in 1806. London, 1808. + + Among the best of the early journals, although abounding in + exaggerations. + +_Cuming, F._ Sketches of a tour to the Western country, etc., +commenced in 1807 and concluded in 1809. Pittsburg, 1810. + +_Bradbury, John._ Travels [1809-11] in the interior of America. +Liverpool, 1817. + +_Melish, John._ Travels in the United States of America [1811]. +Philadelphia, 1812, 2 vols. + + Vol. 2 contains the journal of the author's voyage down the + river, in a skiff. The account of means of early navigation is + graphic. + +_Flint, Timothy._ Recollections of the last ten years. Boston, 1826. + + There is no better account of boats, and river life generally, + in 1814-15, the time of Flint's voyage. + +_Fearon, Henry Bradshaw._ Sketches of America [1817]. London, 1819. + +_Palmer, John._ Journal of travels in the United States of North +America [1817]. London, 1818. + +_Evans, Estwick._ A pedestrian tour [1818] of four thousand miles +through the Western states and territories. Concord, N. H., 1819. + +_Birkbeck, Morris._ Notes on a journey in America, from the coast of +Virginia to the Territory of Illinois. London, 1818. + + The author traveled, in 1817, by light wagon from Richmond to + Pittsburg; and from Pittsburg to Cincinnati by horseback. This + book, interesting for economic conditions, together with + the author's "Letters from Illinois," did much to inspire + emigration to Illinois from England. His English colony, at + English Prairie, Ill., was much visited by travelers of the + period. + +_Faux, W._ Journal of a tour to the United States [in 1819]. + + Excellent pictures of American life and agricultural methods, + by an English gentleman farmer. Attacks Birkbeck's roseate + views. + +_Ogden, George W._ Letters from the West, comprising a tour through +the Western country [1821], and a residence of two summers in the +States of Ohio and Kentucky. New Bedford, Mass., 1823. + +_Welby, Adlard._ A visit to North America and the English settlements +in Illinois. London, 1821. + + The author went by horseback, occasionally touching the river + towns. + +_Beltrami, J. C._ Pilgrimage in Europe and America. London, 1828, 2 +vols. + + In Vol. II the author describes a steamboat journey in 1823, + from Pittsburg to the mouth. + +_Hall, James._ Letters from the West. London, 1828. + + Valuable for scenery, manners, and customs, and anecdotes of + early Western settlement. + +_Anonymous._ The Americans as they are; described by a tour through +the valley of the Mississippi. London, 1828. + +_Trollope, Mrs._ [Frances M.]. Domestic manners of the Americans. +London and New York, 1832. + + A lively caricature, the precursor of Dickens' "American + Notes." Mrs. Trollope's voyages on the Ohio were in 1828 and + 1830. + +_Vigne, Godfrey T._ Six months in America. London, 1832, 2 vols. + +_Hamilton, T._ Men and manners in America. Philadelphia, 1833. + + Includes a steamboat journey from Pittsburg to New Orleans. + +_Alexander, Capt. J. E._ Transatlantic sketches. London, 1833, 2 vols. + + Vol. II. has an account of a trip up the river. + +_Stuart, James._ Three years in North America. New York, 1833, 2 vols. + + Vol. II. includes a voyage up the Ohio. The author takes + issue, throughout, with Mrs. Trollope. + +_Brackenridge, H. M._ Recollections of persons and places in the West. +Philadelphia, 1834. + + Describes river trips, during the first decade of the century. + +_Tudor, Henry._ Narrative of a tour [1831-32] in North America. +London, 1834, 2 vols. + + The Ohio trip is in Vol. II. + +_Arfwedson, C. D._ The United States and Canada, in 1832, 1833, and +1834. London, 1834, 2 vols. + + In Vol. II is a report of a steamboat trip up the river. + +_Latrobe, Charles Joseph._ The rambler in North America. New York, +1835, 2 vols. + + Vol. II has an account of a descending steamboat voyage. + +_Anonymous._ A winter in the West. By a New Yorker. New York (2nd +ed.), 1835, 2 vols. + + In Vol. I. is an entertaining account of a stage-coach ride in + 1833, from Pittsburg to Cleveland, touching all settlements on + the Upper Ohio down to Beaver River. + +_Nichols, Thomas L._ Forty years of American life. London, 1864, 2 +vols. + + In Vol. I. the author tells of a steamboat tour from Pittsburg + to New Orleans, in 1840. + +_Dickens, Charles._ American notes. New York, 1842. + + Dickens, in 1841, traveled in steamboats from Pittsburg to + St. Louis. His dyspeptic comments on life and manners in the + United States, at the time grated harshly on the ears of our + people; but afterward, they grew strong and wise enough to + smile at them. The book is to-day, like Mrs. Trollope's, + entertaining reading for an American. + +_Rubio_ (pseud.). Rambles in the United States and Canada, in 1845. +London, 1846. + + A typical English growler, who thinks America "the most + disagreeable of all disagreeable countries;" nevertheless, + he says of the Ohio, "a finer thousand miles of river scenery + could hardly be found in the wide world." + +_Mackay, Alex._ The Western world; or, travels in the United States in +1846-47. London, 1849. + + Good for its character sketches, glimpses of slavery, and + report of economic conditions. + +_Robertson, James._ A few months in America [winter of 1853-54]. +London, n. d. + + Chiefly statistical. + +_Murray, Charles Augustus._ Travels in North America. London, 1854, 2 +vols. + + Vol. I has the Ohio-river trip. The author is an appreciative + Englishman, and tells his story well. + +_Murray, Henry A._ Lands of the slave and the free. London, 1855, 2 +vols. + + In Vol. I is an account of an Ohio-river voyage. + +_Ferguson, William._ America by river and rail [in 1855]. London, +1856. + +_Lloyd, James T._ Steamboat directory, and disasters on the Western +waters. Cincinnati, 1856. + + Valuable for stories and records of the early days of river + transportation. + +_Anonymous._ A short American tramp in the fall of 1864. By the editor +of "Life in Normandy." Edinburgh, 1865. + + An English geologist's journal. Distorted and overdrawn, on + the travel side. He took steamer from St. Louis to Cincinnati. + +_Bishop, Nathaniel H._ Four months in a sneak-box. Boston, 1879. + + The author, in the winter of 1875-76, voyaged in an open boat + from Pittsburg to New Orleans, and along the Gulf coast to + Florida. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Aberdeen, Ky., 167. + + Albany, N.Y., 299, 316. + + Alden, George H., 316. + + Alexander, J. E., 325. + + Alexandria, O., 151. + + Alexandria, Va., 131. + + Allegheny City, Pa., 21. + + Alton, Ind., 224, 228, 231, 233, 234. + + America, Ill. _See_ Mound City, Ill. + + Antiquity, O., 115. + + Arfwedson, C. D., 326. + + Ashe, Thomas, 114, 273, 323. + + Ashland, Ky., 142, 143. + + Athalia, O., 136. + + Audubon, John James, 257, 258. + + Augusta, Ky., 170, 171. + + Aurora, Ind., 186, 187. + + + Baker's Bottom, W. Va., 36. + + Baily, Francis, 322. + + Baltimore, 162, 318. + + Barlow, Joel, 130, 131. + + Bearsville, O., 73, 74. + + Beaver, Pa., 27-30. + + Belpre, O., 100-102. + + Beltrami, J. C., 324. + + Berkeley, Sir William, 297. + + Bethlehem, Ind., 260. + + Big Bone Lick, 152, 153, 191, 195-198, 268. + + Big Grave Creek, 62-66. + + Bird's Point Landing, Ky., 277. + + Birkbeck, Morris, 323, 324. + + Bishop, Nathaniel H., 328. + + Bismarck, N. D., 318. + + Bland, Edward, 297. + + Blennerhassett, Harman, 95-98. + + Blennerhassett's Island, 95-98, 101. + + Blue Lick, 160. + + Boone, Daniel, 142, 206. + + Boonesborough, Ky., 316. + + Boone's Trail. _See_ Wilderness Road. + + Brackenridge, H. M., 325, 326. + + Bradbury, John, 323. + + Braddock, Gen. Edward, 4, 16, 17, 128, 312. + + Braddock, Pa., 17. + + Braddock's Road, 4, 12, 160, 312, 314, 317. + + Brandenburg, Ind., 223, 224. + + Bridgeport, O., 60. + + Broderickville, O., 137. + + Brooklyn, Ill., 284. + + Brown's Islands, 265, 266. + + Brownsville, Pa., 1-6, 8, 12, 15, 19, 30, 61, 129, 131, + 160, 162, 180, 295, 314, 317, 318. + + Buffalo, N. Y., 318. + + Burlington, O., 137. + + Burr, Aaron, 96, 97. + + Butler's Run, 67. + + Byrd, Col. William, 304. + + + Cairo, Ill., 7, 15, 222, 284, 291, 294, 295. + + California, O., 180. + + Caledonia, Ill. _See_ Olmstead, Ill. + + Cannelton, Ind., 242. + + Captina, O., 70, 71. + + Captina Creek, 67, 70-72. + + Captina Island, 69, 70. + + Carrollton, Ky., 206. + + Carrsville, Ky., 276. + + Catlettsburg, Ky., 137, 141. + + Cave-in-Rock, Ill., 273, 274. + + Celeron de Bienville, 90, 125, 309, 310. + + Ceredo, W. Va., 137, 141. + + Charleroi, Pa., 5, 8, 9. + + Charleston, W. Va., 115, 127. + + Chartier, Pa., 5, 8, 9. + + Chartier's Creek, 23. + + Cherokee Indians, 286. + + Cheshire, O., 119. + + Chesapeake & Ohio railway, 172. + + Chicago, 318. + + Chillicothe, O., 152, 179. + + Chilo, O., 170. + + Cincinnati, 88, 157, 159, 162, 170, 177-184, 217, 252, + 318, 324, 328. + + Circleville, O., 102. + + Clark, George Rogers, 4, 5, 70, 72, 73, 94, 159, 178, 179, + 218-220, 264, 285-287. + + Clarksville, Ind., 219, 220. + + Cloverport, Ky., 239-242. + + Coal Valley, Pa., 13. + + Collins, Richard H., 153. + + Columbia, O., 180. + + Concordia, Ky., 234, 235. + + Conewango Creek, 304. + + Connolly, Dr. John, 218. + + Conwell, Yates, 72. + + Corn Island, 219, 220. + + Cornstalk, Shawanee chief, 128, 129, 221. + + Covington, Ky., 178, 183, 184. + + Crawford, Col. William, 46. + + Creek Indians, 303. + + Cresap, Michael, 67. + + Cresap's Bottom, 72. + + Croghan, George, 91, 95, 114, 152. + + Crooked Creek, 130, 244. + + Cumberland, Md., 310. + + Cumberland Gap, 127, 160-162, 317. + + Cumberland Island, 282. + + Cumberland Pike. _See_ Braddock's Road. + + Cuming, F., 322, 323. + + Curran, Barney, 29. + + Cypress Bend, 260. + + + Darlington, William M., 320. + + Doddridge, Joseph, 115. + + Deep Water Landing, Ind., 234. + + De Lery, Gaspard Chaussegros, 304. + + Denman, Matthias, 179. + + De Nonville, Gov. Jacques Rene de Brisay, 300. + + Derby, Ky., 235-237, 243, 244. + + Detroit, Mich., 287, 318. + + De Vigni, Antoine F. S., 321. + + Diamond Island, 264. + + Dickens, Charles, 66, 325, 326. + + Dillon's Bottom, 66. + + Dinwiddie, Gov. Robert, 311. + + Dog Island, 281, 282. + + Dover, Ky., 170. + + Draper, Lyman C., 321. + + Dravosburg, Pa., 13. + + Dufour, John James, 204, 205. + + Dunkard Creek, 72. + + Dunlap Creek, 3. + + Dunmore, Lord, 23, 61, 102, 103, 125-129, 218, 221. + + + East Liverpool, O., 35. + + Economy, Pa., 26. + + Elizabeth, Pa., 12, 15. + + Elizabethtown, Ill., 275, 276. + + Ellicott, Andrew, 181, 322. + + Emmerick's Landing, Ky., 244. + + English Prairie, Ill., 324. + + Enterprise, Ind., 254. + + Erie, Pa., 311. + + Evans, Estwick, 323. + + Evans, Lewis, 321. + + Evansville, Ind., 255, 256, 260, 265. + + + Fairfax, Lord, 304. + + Fallen Timbers, 181, 317. + + Falls of Ohio. _See_ Louisville, Ky. + + Faux, W., 324. + + Fearon, Henry Bradshaw, 323. + + Ferguson, William, 327. + + Filson, John, 179-181. + + Fish Creek, 72, 73. + + Fishing Creek, 74. + + Flint, Timothy, 162, 163, 181, 323. + + Forbes, Gen. John, 285, 313. + + Forks of the Ohio. _See_ Pittsburg. + + Forman, Samuel S., 322. + + Foreman, Capt. William, 63. + + Fort Charlotte, 221. + Duquesne, 16, 17, 285, 312, 313. _See_ Pittsburg. + Fincastle, 61. + Finney, 180. + Gower, 102, 103, 129. + Harmar, 91. + Henry, 61. + Le Boeuf, 15, 26, 311, 312. + Massac, 285-288, 290, 313. + Necessity, 4. + Pitt, 127, 129, 160-162. _See_ Pittsburg. + Randolph, 129. + Washington, 180. + Wilkinson, 291. + + Foster, Ky., 170, 171. + + Frampton, O., 137. + + Frankfort, Ky., 320. + + Franklin, Benjamin, 316. + + Franquelin, Jean B. L., 299. + + Freeman, O., 40. + + French, in Ohio valley, 15, 17, 29, 30, 90, 125, 131, 132, 197, + 205, 285, 286, 298-313, 321. + + French Creek, 311. + + French Islands, 253. + + Fry, John, 141. + + + Galissoniere, Count de, 308. + + Gallipolis, O., 130-133. + + Garrison Creek, 185. + + Genet, Edmund Charles, 286. + + George III., king, 309, 310, 313, 314. + + Georgetown, Pa., 34. + + Germans, in Ohio valley, 26, 132, 205. + + Girty, Simon, 71. + + Gist, Christopher, 15, 26, 29, 91, 151, 152, 310, 311, 317, + 320, 321. + + Glassport, Pa., 13. + + Glenwood, W. Va., 134. + + Gnadenhuetten, 91. + + Golconda Island, 276. + + Goose Island, 220. + + Gordon, Harry, 115, 320, 321. + + Grand View, Ind., 246. + + Grant, Gen. Ulysses S., 174. + + Grape Island, 80. + + Grape-Vine Town. _See_ Captina, O. + + Grave Yard Run, 72. + + Great Meadows, 312, 314. + + Green River Island, 255. + + Green River Towhead, 255, 256. + + Greenup Court House, Ky., 147. + + Greenville. O., treaty of, 181. + + Gunpowder Creek, 192. + + Guyandotte, W. Va., 136. + + + Hale, John P., 153. + + Half King, 34. + + Half-Moon Bar, 274. + + Hall, James, 117, 128, 164, 325. + + Hamilton, T., 325. + + Harmar, Gen. Josiah, 180, 181. + + Harmonists, 264. + + Harris, Thaddeus Mason, 162, 322. + + Harris's Landing, 173. + + Hartford, W. Va., 119. + + Haskellville, O., 136. + + Hawesville, Ky., 242. + + Henderson, Ky., 256-259. + + Henderson, Richard, 316. + + Henderson Island, 258. + + Hennepin, Father Louis, 299. + + Henry, Patrick, 159. + + Herculaneum, Ind., 260. + + Higginsport, O., 170. + + Hockingport, O., 102-104. + + Homestead, Pa., 17, 18. + + Horse Head Bottom, 148. + + House-boat life, 50-57, 62, 134, 135, 203, 204, 207, 208. + + Howard, John, 305, 306. + + Hungarians, in Ohio valley, 44, 45, 69. + + Huntington, W. Va., 136-139. + + Hurricane Island, 274, 275. + + Hutchins, Thomas, 115, 321. + + + Imlay, Gilbert, 162. + + Inglis, Mrs. Mary, 152, 153. + + Ironton, O., 143-146, 157. + + Iroquois Indians, 264, 298, 299, 302, 307, 308. + + Irving, Washington, 273. + + Italians, in Ohio valley, 69. + + + Jamestown, Va., 296. + + Jefferson, Thomas, 97. + + Joliet, Louis, 264. + + Jones, Rev. David, 70, 71, 94. + + Joppa, Ill., 290, 291. + + + Kansas City, 318. + + Kaskaskia, Ill., 268, 285. + + King Philip, 221. + + Kingston, O., 40. + + Kneistly's Cluster Islands, 36-39. + + + La Fayette, Marquis de, 92. + + Lake Chautauqua, 299, 304, 309. + + Lake Erie, 299, 304, 309, 313. + + Lancaster, Pa., 307. + + Lane, Ralph, 296, 297. + + La Salle, Chevalier de, 218, 263, 264, 298, 299. + + Latrobe, Charles Joseph, 326. + + La Verendrye Brothers, 306. + + Lawrenceburg, Ind., 186. + + Leadville, Colo., 318. + + Leavenworth, Ind., 224, 225. + + Lederer, John, 297. + + Letart's Falls, 113, 114, 117. + + Letart's Island, 112. + + Levanna, O., 170. + + Lewis, Gen. Andrew, 128, 129. + + Lewisport, Ind., 246. + + Lexington, Ky., 159. + + Limestone Creek, 158, 159, 162, 167. + + Little Beaver Creek, 34. + + Little Hurricane Island, 252. + + Little Meadows, 128. + + Lloyd. James T., 328. + + Logan, Mingo chief, 36, 37, 102, 103, 127, 128. + + Logstown, Pa., 26. + + Long Bottom, O., 109-111, 117. + + Long Reach, 79, 80. + + Losantiville. _See_ Cincinnati. + + Lostock, Pa., 13. + + Louisa, Ky., 141, 142. + + Louisville, Ky., 114, 169, 170, 180, 209, 214-223, 226, 256, 284, + 298, 299. + + Lower Blue River Island, 226. + + + Mackay, Alex., 327. + + McKee's Rocks, 23, 178. + + McKeesport, Pa., 13-16. + + Madison, Ind., 209-214. + + Madison County, Va., 297. + + Malott, Catherine, 71. + + Manchester, O., 157. + + Marietta, O., 83-85, 87, 90-93, 130, 131, 157, 159, 162, 315. + + Mason and Dixon line, 77. + + Mason City, W. Va., 119. + + Massac Creek, 285. + + May, John, 321. + + May, Col. William, 304. + + Maysville, Ky., 157, 159, 167, 169. + + Melish, John, 323. + + Mercer, George, 126. + + Metropolis, Ill., 288, 289. + + Miami Indians, 303. + + Michaux, F. A., 322. + + Middleport, O., 118. + + Millersport, O., 136. + + Milwood, W. Va., 112. + + Minersville, O., 118. + + Mingo Bottom, 127. + + Mingo Indians, 36, 37, 46, 127, 148. + + Mingo Junction, O., 44-50, 57, 58. + + Monongahela City, Pa., 8, 12. + + Montreal, 313. + + Moravian missionaries, 91. + + Morgantown, Pa., 3. + + Mound builders, 3, 4, 64-66. + + Mound City, Ill., 290-292, 294. + + Mound City Towhead, 292-295. + + Moundsville, W. Va., 64-66, 115. + + Mt. Vernon, Ind., 262. + + Murray, Charles Augustus, 327. + + Murray, Henry A., 327. + + Murraysville, W. Va., 111. + + + Natchez, Miss., 181. + + Nemacolin's Path, 160, 310, 312. _See_ Braddock's Road. + + Neville, O., 170, 173. + + Neville's Island, 25. + + New Albany, Ind., 220-223. + + New Amsterdam, Ind., 224. + + New Barataria, 316. + + Newburgh, Ind., 254, 255. + + New Cumberland, W. Va., 37, 40. + + New Harmony, Ind., 264. + + New Haven, W. Va., 119. + + New Martinsville, W. Va., 74-77. + + New Matamoras, W. Va., 82. + + New Orleans, 12, 96, 97, 170, 205, 305, 309, 313, 325, 328. + + Newport, Christopher, 296. + + Newport, Ky., 176, 178, 183. + + Newport, O., 82, 83. + + New Richmond, O., 176. + + Nichols, Thomas L., 326. + + Nicholson, interpreter, 70. + + Norfolk & Western Railway, 144. + + North Bend, O., 173, 180, 181, 184. + + Northwest Territory, 316. + + + Ogden, George W., 324. + + Ohio Company, 4, 90, 114, 125, 152, 310, 314, 315. + + Old Wyandot Town, 91. + + Olmstead, Ill., 291. + + Omaha, Nebr., 318. + + Owensboro, Ky., 248-251, 271. + + + Paducah, Ky., 284. + + Palmer, John, 114, 115, 162, 164, 323. + + Parkersburg, W. Va., 94, 95, 99, 100, 102, 157. + + Parkinson's Landing, Ill., 276. + + Parkman, Francis, 308. + + Patterson, Robert, 179. + + Pennant, Edward, 297. + + Petersburg, Ky., 186, 187. + + Philadelphia, 12, 161, 318. + + Pickaway Plains, 102, 103, 129. + + Picket, Heathcoat, 205, 206. + + Pine Creek, 148. + + Pipe Creek, 67. + + Pittsburg, 3, 5, 6, 8, 17-22, 24, 25, 27, 40, 59, 88, 129, 159, + 166, 271, 311-313, 316-318, 320, 321, 323, 324, 326, 328. + + Plum Creek, 205. + + Point Pleasant, W. Va., 125, 127-130, 157, 170, 173, 174. + + Point Sandy, Ind., 227-231. + + Pomeroy, O., 111, 118, 119, 157. + + Pomeroy Bend, 111, 119. + + Pontiac, Indian chief, 221. + + Pope, John, 5. + + Portland, Ky., 219-221 + + Portsmouth, O., 151-153, 157. + + Power, Thomas, 287. + + Powhattan Point, W. Va., 70. + + Pownall, T., 286, 320, 321. + + Presque Isle, 311. + + Proctor's Run, 77. + + Proctorville, O., 137. + + Putnam, Israel, Jr., 100, 101. + + Putnam, Israel, Sr., 100. + + Putnam, Gen. Rufus, 91, 102. + + + Quebec, 299, 313. + + + Rabbit Hash, Ky., 189-191. + + Racine, O., 117, 118. + + Rafinesque, Constantine S., 257, 258 + + Rapp, George, 26. + + Redstone Creek, 3-5, 72, 310. + + Redstone Old Fort. _See_ Brownsville, Pa. + + Richardson's Landing, Ky., 224. + + Richmond, Va., 296, 318, 324. + + Ripley, O., 170. + + Rising Sun, Ind., 189. + + River Alleghany, 20, 299, 304, 305, 309, 311, 318. + Beaver, 27-30. + Big Hockhocking, 102-104. + Big Miami, 179, 180, 185. + Big Sandy, 119, 137, 141. + Cherokee, 321. + Coal, 305. + Cumberland, 97, 282, 284, 316. + Delaware, 298. + Gauley, 298. + Great Kanawha, 70, 115, 125-130, 153, 161, 297, 309, 316, 321. + Great Miami, 304. + Green, 255, 259. + Illinois, 321. + Indian Kentucky, 206, 207. + James, 126, 127, 161, 296. + Kentucky, 206. + Licking, 179, 183. + Little Kanawha, 94, 95. + Little Miami, 152, 177, 179, 180. + Little Sandy, 147. + Little Scioto, 148. + Maumee, 264, 299, 309. + Miami, 309. + Mississippi, 284, 294, 303, 306, 307, 313, 321. + Mohawk, 298. + Monongahela, 1-20, 39, 162, 166, 310, 311, 318. + Muskingum, 90, 91, 127. + New, 297, 298, 309. + Ottawa, 307. + Potomac, 304, 310. + Roanoke, 296, 297, 304. + St. Joseph's, 303. + St. Lawrence, 306, 309. + Saline, 269, 272, 273. + Salt, 223. + Shenandoah, 304. + Scioto, 102, 103, 151-153, 321. + Susquehanna, 298. + Tennessee, 283, 284, 288, 303, 316. + Wabash, 127, 263, 264, 302, 321. + Wood, 305. _See_ New. + Youghiogheny, 13-16, 162, 318. + + Robertson, James, 327. + + Rochester, Pa., 27-30. + + Rockport, Ind., 246, 247. + + Rocky Mountains, discovery of, 306. + + Rome, O., 155-157, 260. + + Rono, Ind., 234, 235. + + Roosevelt, Theodore, 316. + + Rosebud, O., 133, 134, 156. + + Rose Clare, Ill., 276. + + Round Bottom, 66, 69. + + + St. Clair, Gen. Arthur, 180, 181, 286. + + St. John, M., 321. + + St. Louis, 170, 284, 318, 326, 328. + + St. Mary's, W. Va., 82. + + Salem, O., 91. + + Saline Reserve (Illinois), 268, 269. + + Salling, John Peter, 305, 306. + + Sand Island, 220-222. + + Sandusky, O., 46. + + Sarikonk. _See_ Beaver, Pa. + + Schoenbrunn, 91. + + Scioto Company, 130-132, 321. + + Sciotoville, O., 148-150. + + Scotch-Irish, in Ohio valley, 60, 61, 301, 310. + + Scuffletown, Ky., 254. + + Seignelay, Marquis de, 300. + + Seneca Indians, 34. + + Seven Mile Creek, 284, 285. + + Shaler, Nathaniel S., 153. + + Shannoah Town, 151, 152. + + Shawanee Indians, 26, 67, 128-130, 151-153, 307. + + Shawneetown, Ill., 267-269. + + Sheffield, O., 118. + + Shingis Old Town. _See_ Beaver, Pa. + + Shippingsport, Pa., 31-34. + + Shousetown, Pa., 25. + + Sinking Creek, 238. + + Sistersville, W. Va., 78. + + Slavonians, in Ohio valley, 44, 45. + + Slim Island, 261, 264. + + Sloan's Station, O., 37. + + Smith, John, 296. + + Smithland, Ky., 282. + + Smith's Ferry, Pa., 34. + + Sohkon. _See_ Beaver, Pa. + + South Point, O., 137. + + Spaniards, Western conspiracy, of, 286, 287. + + Springville, Ky., 151, 152. + + Spotswood, Gov. Alexander, 302. + + Steamboats, first on Ohio, 165, 166. + + Stephens, Frank, 71. + + Stephensport, Ky., 237-239. + + Steubenville, O., 5, 43, 44, 157, 181. + + Stewart's Island, 277-281, 283. + + Stuart, James, 325. + + Swiss, in Ohio valley, 204, 205. + + Symmes, John Cleves, 179-181. + + Syracuse, O., 118. + + + Tecumseh, Indian chief, 317. + + Tell City, Ind., 242. + + Three Brothers Islands, 87. + + Three-Mile Island, 252, 254. + + Transylvania, 316. + + Treaty, of Lancaster, Pa., 307, 308; + of Paris, 313; + of Utrecht, 307. + + Trent, William, 95. + + Tudor, Henry, 326. + + Turner, Frederick J., 316. + + Turtle Creek, 17, 312. + + Trollope, Frances M., 325, 327. + + Troy, Ind., 243. + + + Uniontown, Ky., 262, 263. + + Upper Blue River Island, 226. + + + Vandalia, Province of, 126, 316. + + Vanceburgh, Ky., 154. + + Venango, 29. + + Vevay, Ind., 204, 205. + + Vigne, Godfrey T., 325. + + Vincennes, Ind., 264. + + + Wabash Island, 264. + + Walpole, Thomas, 316. + + Walton, Pa., 13. + + Warrior Branch, 72. + + Wars, French and Indian, 15, 17, 29, 30, 90, 91, 152, 153, 285, + 286, 308, 314, 315; + Pontiac's, 221; + Lord Dunmore's, 36, 37, 61, 67, 72, 73, 102, 103, 125-129, + 218, 221; + Revolution, 61, 63, 91, 92, 100, 126, 128, 130, 151-161, 181, + 182, 264, 315, 317; + of 1812-15, 287, 291. + + Warsaw, Ky., 200, 204. + + Washington, George, 4, 15, 23, 26, 29, 34, 46, 67, 69, 70, 72, + 92, 126-128, 141, 142, 161, 310-312, 315, 320, 321. + + Wayne, Anthony, 26, 181, 286, 317. + + Weiser, Conrad, 26. + + Welby, Adlard, 324. + + Wellsville, O., 35. + + West Point, Ky., 223. + + Wheeling, W. Va., 5, 41, 59-62, 155, 157, 167, 187. + + Wheeling Creek, 59-61. + + Wheeling Island, 60. + + Wilderness Road, 160-162, 317. + + Wilkinson, Gen. James, 287. + + Wilkinsonville, Ill., 291. + + Williamson's Island, 78. + + Wills Creek, 310, 312. + + Wilson, Pa., 13. + + Witten's Bottom, 78, 79. + + Wood, Abraham, 297. + + Wyandot Indians, 46, 91. + + + Yellowbank Island, 248-250. + + Yellow Creek, 35, 36. + + + Zane Brothers, 60, 61. + + + + + THIS BOOK HAS BEEN PRINTED + DURING OCTOBER, 1897, BY THE + BLAKELY PRINTING COMPANY. + CHICAGO, FOR WAY & WILLIAMS. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AFLOAT ON THE OHIO*** + + +******* This file should be named 29306.txt or 29306.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/3/0/29306 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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