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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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