LETTER X

Cincinnati—Situation—Manufactures—Settlement and Progress—Weather—Credulity and Want of Education—Descend the Ohio—Islands—Jeffersonville—Louisville—Falls of the Ohio—Taverns and Accommodations—Expedition for Exploring the Missouri Country and Forming a Military Post there—Miscellaneous Observations interspersed.

Jeffersonville, (Indiana,)May 19, 1819.

I concluded my last letter, dated Cincinnati, 30th December last, without taking any notice of the town; I shall therefore begin the present one with some particulars respecting that place.

Cincinnati is no sooner seen than the importance of the town is perceived. A large steam grist mill, three large steam boats on the stocks, and two more on the Kentucky side of the river, and a large ferry boat, wrought by horses, were the first objects which attracted my attention. The {125} beach is lined with keel boats, large arks for carrying produce, family boats, and rafts of timber. On shore the utmost bustle prevails, with drays carrying imported goods, salt, iron, and timber, up to the town, and in bringing down pork, flour, &c. to be put aboard of boats for New Orleans.

The town is situated in north latitude 39° 5′ 54′′, and in west longitude 85° 44′, according to the determination of Mr. Ellicott.[71]The distance from Pittsburg is 305 miles by land, and 5131/4miles by the windings of the river. The streets are laid out in a rectangular form, and are enlivened by drays, waggons, and an active people. The houses are nearly all of brick and timber: about two hundred new ones have been built in the course of the year. Merchants’ shops are numerous, and well frequented. The noise of wheel carriages in the streets, and of the carpenter, the blacksmith, and the cooper, make a busy din. Such an active scene I never expected to see amongst the back woods of America.[72]

The manufactories of this new place are more diversified than extensive. An iron foundery, two breweries, several distilleries, a woollen manufactory, a cotton-mill, an oil-mill, a grist-mill, a nail-cutting machine, a tan-work, a glass-house, and a white-lead factory, seem to be the principal ones. But the more numerous part of the artizans are joiners, bricklayers, blacksmiths, plasterers, shoemakers, tailors, hatters, bakers, tobacconists, cabinet-makers, saddlers, &c. &c. Journeymen mechanics earn from one and three-fourths to two dollars per day. Their board costs about three dollars per week. Most of them dress well on the days they are not at work, and some of them keep horses.

In the end of December, 1788, or beginning of January, 1789, Cincinnati was first founded by about {126} twenty persons. For some time the place was occupied more inthe manner of a fort than of a town, the neighbouring country being in the possession of hostile Indians, who, on different occasions, killed several of the settlers. In 1790, a governor, and the judges of a supreme court, for the territory, arrived. In 1792, the first school and the first church were built. In 1799 the legislative authority of the governor was succeeded by that of an assembly. In 1803, the State government of Ohio was instituted. In 1806, the government was removed from Cincinnati to Chillicothe. In 1800, the town contained seven hundred and fifty people, and in 1805, only nine hundred and sixty. It was subsequently to the last date that Cincinnati showed indications of outgrowing a village and becoming a town. Within three-and-a-half years past, the population is supposed to have been doubled, and the amount is now believed to be nearly ten thousand.

January 1, 1819.To-day the boys of the town made a great noise by firing guns and pistols. They commenced last night about dusk. During the night I heard much noise of fighting and swearing amongst adult persons.

January 3. (Sunday.)Works of necessity form a numerous class here. To-day boats were loading pork, and drays carrying it down to the river.

January 8.To-day the river was almost covered with ice floating downward. Many large pieces adhering together form boards of one or two acres in extent. The pieces of hemlock tree intermixed make it plain that these masses of ice are from the Allegany river.

January 10. (Sunday.)Dealers in pork were (in one instance) busy cutting up and salting. I {127} saw some young men in a small boat examining the driftwood on the river; when pine logs came within their reach theydragged them ashore. Others were intercepting timber of every description, for fuel.

January 11.The weather frequently changes from frosty to humid. Yesterday at two P.M. the thermometer stood at 76° in sunshine. The hottest day since the ninth of December. To-day the temperature was 54° in the shade.

Jan. 13.At seven o’clock in the morning, the thermometer indicated 21°. By mid-day, the sun’s rays softened the mud in the streets. The people say that the winter has hitherto been milder than usual, and some infer that we will have no severe cold during the season. Last winter the thermometer was once observed to stand so low as 10° below zero. The greatest cold from 1787 to 1806 was minus 18°. The most intense frosts of this country have the effect of congealing the moisture in forest trees, and splitting them with a loud noise. Notwithstanding the moderation of the present season, the grasses and weeds on the ground are withered to whiteness. In the woods no evergreen plants are to be seen, except the tufts of mistletoe, which are perched on the branches of the tallest trees.

Examples of credulity are not rare. Yesterday a woman was deriving liberal emolument in town from fortune-telling, and from her supposed sagacity in knowing every thing respecting stolen goods. She also pretended to have the faculty of discovering springs of water and metallic ores, by means of the divining rod. Her speaking in the German language led me to suppose that she is descended from that part of Europe, whereRhabdomancy[73]{128} is prevalent. Almanack predictions ofthe weather are works of reference. I have seen several family registers of marriages, and the births of children, in which the sign of the zodiac in which the sun was, at the time of the particular events, is recorded. The positions are believed to have propitious or baneful influence on the fate of the individual. In some parts of the Union, what are called snake-stones are relied on as certain cures for the bite of the reptile, and of mad dogs, in opposition to the remonstrances of medical men. Such articles of belief having gained ground, a suspicion arises that the culture of the mind is much neglected, but unfortunately the position is established by more direct evidence. During my very short stay in this place, I have seen persons applying to others to read the addresses on packages of goods, or letters, and the sign-boards of merchants. A newspaper, in bewailing the want of schools, feelingly observed, that “the Ohian is in many cases growing up to manhood, with scarcely any other intelligence than that derived from the feeble light of nature.”[74]Books are scarce. I have seen a biography of General Washington; some notices of the military and naval characters of America; a history of the war; the Pittsburg Navigator; and some small almanacks more frequently than any others. The advertisements of booksellers indicate that they deal in romance. Many of the people are not in possession of a copy of theApocrypha; of course such Jewish stories as the Idol Bel, or Susanna and the elders, are not often made the topics of conversation.[75]

{129}January 14.To-day I met with one of the passengerswho came over with me in the ship Glenthorn. He has settled with his family about twenty-five miles from this place, having bought an hundred and seventy acres of land, fifty acres of which are cleared and fenced. There is a house, two barns, and a young orchard on the property. For the whole he paid seventeen hundred and twenty-five dollars, and can rent it out at twelve and a half per cent. on the price. He said that he meditates making another purchase, and that he does not regret having left his native country.

Since my arrival, I have seen an old acquaintance, who emigrated upwards of two years ago. He bought an excellent farm, which was well cultivated, in the State of Ohio, and paid two-thirds of the price in ready money. The money with which he ought to have paid the remaining part of the price, he imprudently lent to some neighbours, who never repaid him. The ultimate instalment was soon demanded, which, being unable to pay, he was obliged to sell the land. At this stage of the business, he found that he had originally agreed to pay for the farm twice its value, and was forced to leave it, after having lost nearly all his money.

Two large steam-boats from Pittsburg, put in here on their way for New Orleans.[76]One of them had been forty-eight hours, and the other forty-six hours and fiftyminutes, in descending the river. The distance, as formerly stated, is 5131/4miles.

The launching of a large steam-boat attracted a great assemblage of spectators. A careful observation of their countenances convinced me, that the complexion is more pale here than at Lexington. The difference is sufficiently striking to induce the belief, that there is a considerable disparity in the climate of the two places.

{130} Last week the weather was partly wet, and partly clear, the temperature was usually about 50°.

Jan. 28.This has been a warm day, the temperature 52°in the shade, the thermometer, exposed to sunshine, stood at 88°. The sky was clear, without a single cloud. I have never seen in this country figured icicles on the insides of windows during frosty weather. This is a clear proof of the dryness of the climate.

31.I have some pleasure in stating my conviction, that honesty, benevolence, and some other Christian virtues, are not singularities in this town. Several congregations that I have attended, behave with the attention and gravity which becomes the worship. It was easy to recognise many persons, who go to church three times on the same day. A preacher here of the Cameronian sect, is a man of talent and information. His diligence is no less conspicuous than his abilities. In addition to preaching three times on Sundays, he gives sermons in private houses on other evenings of the week.

February 4.This evening there were several heavy showers of rain, accompanied with more thunder than the residents have ever heard at the same season of the year. For a week past, we have had no bright sunshine; but westerly winds, and a temperature of 60° has been almost uniform.

With candour towards the American name, I must state, that much of the credulity recently hinted at, appears to be chargeable on people from Germany and Ireland, and their descendants. Methodists are also said to be true believers. It is at least certain, that the journal of their great apostle, Lorenzo Dow, is replete with paragraphs not dictated by the strictest accuracy.[77]

{131}February 7.To-day I left Cincinnati, on my way for Jeffersonville, at the falls of the Ohio. The boat in which I proceeded is a flat ark, loaded with flour and pork, for New Orleans. There are five such boats in company, all belonging to the same owner, who accompanies them. The wind has been south-westerly, and the thermometer, exposed to the sunshine, (which is but dim) stood at 60°. The warm weather, of late, has been uniformly attended by wind blowing up the river, importing, as it were, the air of a more southern latitude.

The flower buds of the water-maple, the elm, and the leaves of the weeping willow, are burst out, and the grass has become green. Dr. Drake, the describer of this western country, has stated the usual time of the flowering of the water-maple at a month later. It is to be feared that this early vegetation will be checked by subsequent frosts. Fruit trees, in that event, may be rendered unproductive for the ensuing season.

We put ashore, at night, twenty-three miles from Cincinnati. Gusts of wind, and a dark, clouded atmosphere,dissuaded us against sailing during the night. Much rain and loud thunder ensued.

8.The boatmen are not obliged to row in the present moderately high stage of the water. It is sufficient to make a few pulls occasionally to keep off the shore. Two boats are tied alongside of each other, and put about with the broadside to the stream. They float at the rate of nearly four miles per hour.

9.Last night at dusk, we passed the Swiss settlement Vevay, which lies on the Indiana side of the river.[78]These people are said to be industrious cultivators of the ground. Wine is their staple {132} product. It is procured from a round black grape, nearly the size of a musket ball. The liquor is often of an acid taste, and apt to undergo the acetous fermentation in keeping. We continued our course all night. The owner and I slept in the boat by a fire, where we had scarcely room enough to stretch ourselves. In all other respects this is a pleasant way of travelling. The river, in most parts which we have lately seen, appears to be from five hundred to six hundred yards broad, environed with rich bottoms, and beyond these high limestone ridges. From the tops of these to the water’s edge, the surface is covered with stupendous woods, with cleared farms at intervals. A few of the houses seem to be externally neat, but the majority of them are log cabins. The north side of the river is more thickly settled than the south side, where a negro population is to be seen along the banks.

In the afternoon we heard a remarkable sound issuing from a swamp near the river. I was told that it was the croaking of frogs. There must have been myriads ofthem in the place, as the noise was incessant, like that of wind amongst trees, or the fall of water over a distant cascade.

A contrary wind forced us to run ashore at a part where the limestone ridge is within thirty yards of the beach. The rock is of the siliceous kind, and the narrow bottom is strewed with large blocks that have tumbled from the steep. In the evening there was much rain and thunder, the wind continuing contrary and violent.

10.Early in the morning we heard the howling of wolves in the woods. Scarcely a single patch of cleared ground is to be seen for several miles.

Louisville is situated at the south-western extremity {133} of a stretch of the river that passes in a straight line for six miles, so that the town terminates a beautiful water prospect.[79]The river is here half a mile in breadth.

The towns passed on the Kentucky side of the river, are, Port-William, and West-Port. Those on the Indiana side, are, Laurenceburg, the Rising Sun, Vevay, and Madison, all places of recent erection and thriving.

The Pittsburg Navigator enumerates sixty islands in Ohio above the falls. They are so uniform in their character, that a description of one of them will give a general idea of all the rest. The upper end is broad, and intercepts part of the gravel that is moved downward during floods, forming a wide bar which acts as a partial dam that divides the stream into two parts, deflecting each of them toward the shores of the mainland, as represented by the figure.

The two currents are then deflected from the shorestoward the island, which is thereby curtailed in its lower parts, and at its extremity contracted almost to a point. The two currents unite below, and form a deep channel. At the head of the island the water is shallow. The largest and oldest timber stands on the lower end, and {134} younger plants of willow, sycamore, &c. on the upper end of the island. It is farther to be noticed, that the trees on islands, although of rapid growth, are by no means so large as those on the adjoining banks and bottom lands. The alluvial process deposits gravel at the head. Over this, sand is precipitated; and lastly, a superstratum of mud and driftwood is deposited, forming a rich soil for the growth of timber. These facts, taken in connection, show that additions are continually making at the head, and that the converging streams are simultaneously carrying off the lower end of the island.

In most instances, these are not the islands discovered by the first white men who explored the Ohio. Nor are they those that will be known by the same names, thirty, forty, or fifty years hence. Their being gradually exchanged for others farther upward, produces an effect similar to what would be occasioned by the same islands moving against the stream, in their progress forcing thecurrent against the shores, and thereby preserving a capacious bed for the river.

From Cincinnati downward, the ridges which bound the valley of the river on both sides are more broken, and divided into distinct hills, and are, of course, more diversified and pleasant than the unvaried ledges farther up. The traveller, notwithstanding, is apt to feel tired of the insipidity of the scenery. The same woods obstruct his view, or the same rude style of improvement meets his eye everywhere.

I landed at Jeffersonville, a small town on the Indiana side of the river.[80]It stands on a high bank, and has the most pleasant situation of any town that I have seen on the banks of the river.

{135}February 12.Visited Louisville, the town, next to Lexington, the largest in Kentucky. The population probably amounts to about 3000 persons. The falls immediately below the town being navigable for large craft only during times of high water, Louisville derives great advantage from the carrying trade.

13.Went over the rapids. The fall is said to be twenty-two feet and a half in less than two miles. Nearly the whole of the declivity is distributed into three shoots or rapids, where the stream is very swift, occasioning breakers amongst the rocks. Except in times of very high water, boats are conducted downward by pilots who are well acquainted with the falls. The temperature of this morning was 261/2°.

17.Last night a gentleman from Carolina lodged in the tavern here. After a hired man had given him slippers,and asked him for his boots to be blacked, he exclaimed, “As I wish to see my Maker, I would not live in a free state, where one white man cleans the boots of another.”

A small degree of aversion to frivolous detail does not prevent me from describing a back-woods tavern. Like its owner, it commonly makes a conspicuous figure in its neighbourhood. It is a log, a frame, or a brick house, frequently with a wooden piazza in front. From the top of a tall post, the sign-board is suspended. On it, a Washington, a Montgomery, a Wayne, a Pike, or a Jackson, is usually pourtrayed, in a style that might not be easily deciphered except for the name attached. On the top of the house is a small bell, which is twice rung before meals. Immediately after the second peal, travellers and boarders assemble around the table, where they commence eatingwithout preface. In such promiscuous {136} parties, the governor of a state, or a general of the militia, may be seen side by side with the waggoner. The larger towns having taverns of different qualities, and different rates of charges, a distinction of company is the natural consequence. We breakfast and sup on coffee or tea, accompanied with plenty of beef, bacon, chickens, and eggs. The hostess (or host if he is unmarried) takes her seat at the head of the table, and dispenses the tea. One or twohired people(or slaves, in slave-keeping parts of the country) wait at table. At dinner, wheaten and Indian corn breads, beef, pork, venison, wild turkey, geese, and poultry, are staple articles; with a profusion of vegetables, such as cucumbers, onions, cabbages, beans, and preserved fruits. Lodging in taverns has not generally all the convenience that could be wished for. It is common to see several beds in the same room, and theseare simple bedsteads without hangings. There are no bells in the bed-rooms, and other apartments; nor are menials accustomed to move at the signal of the stranger. Water is rarely to be met with in bed-rooms; washing is, of course, performed under a shed behind the house, or at the pump. A full house is always the apology for causing two strangers to sleep in the same bed; the propriety of the custom will always be admitted by the person who arrives latest. It has been my lot to sleep with a diversity of personages; I do believe, from the driver of the stage coach, to men of considerable name. The noted cutaneous disease is certainly not prevalent; if it was, the beds of taverns, which, like burying grounds, lay all on a level, would soon make the disease as prevalent in this country, as in some others in the old world.

{137} If Europeans and others, who indulge in censorious remarks on western taverns and tavern-keepers, would make reasonable allowances for the thinly-settled state of the country, the high price of labour, and the great numbers of travellers, their criticisms might be somewhat softened. The man who cannot enjoy a placid temper under privation of a part of the comforts of a more advanced state of society, is surely to be pitied for having business in the back woods of America.

A very inferior breed of cows and horses are to be seen almost every where by the river. This may be partly imputed to the want of proper fodder, and of shelter in the winter. Cattle are not housed in the season, when every plant is withered to whiteness. Grass is not sown to succeed the crops. A growth of tall weeds takes immediate possession of the soil. Hay, therefore, is a scarce article. Indian corn is resorted to as a substitute, but itappears to be too hard for mastication. Butter and cheese sell at 25 cents (131/2d. sterling) per pound.

February 17.This morning was clear and frosty. Temperature 32° in the morning. Snow fell to the thickness of an inch in the forenoon. In the afternoon it disappeared.

18.The morning was clear; temperature 20°. In the afternoon the ice melted.

19.Temperature 29° in the morning. In the forenoon, snow fell to the thickness of an inch and a half. In the evening it became liquid.

There is much wet ground in the vicinity of the falls. Intermittent fevers afflict the inhabitants toward the end of summer and in autumn. Last season an unusual degree of sickness was experienced.

New settlers continue to descend the river. Family boats are almost continually in sight. In a {138} boat lying ashore to-day, a man was busy in making shingles. He has brought with him pine timber from Allegany river. Shingles give a good price here, where pine trees do not grow, and they furnish him with employment at intervals. This is a good specimen of the provident habits and the industry of New Englanders, a people admirably adapted for taking possession of the woods.

March 1.To-day the people of Jeffersonville elected a Squire, (Justice of the Peace.) Two young men disagreed, and fought a furious battle. In justice to the election, it is admitted that the fight was in consequence of an old quarrel.

I have met with no less than eight Scotsmen to-day. We are said to be the most national of all Europeans in America, and the most loyal to old monarchy.

The weather is mild and clear, with the aspect of spring. Birds begin to chirp in the woods; their plumage is fine, but they are not songsters.

Jeffersonville contains about sixty-five houses, thirteen stores (shops,) and two taverns; the land office for a large district of Indiana, and a printing office that publishes a weekly newspaper, and where the American copy of the most celebrated of all reviews is sold. A steam-boat is on the stocks, measuring 180 feet long, and forty broad; estimated to carry 700 tons. There are now thirty-one steam-boats on the Mississippi and Ohio. Twenty-nine more are building, and in a forward state.

At present, a passage from New Orleans to the falls of Ohio costs 100 dollars, including provisions. Goods are carried at 61/4cents per pound weight. This high rate, with the danger of passing through a most unhealthy climate, in case of arriving after the beginning of July, {139} or before the end of October, gives Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New York, a decided preference to Europeans who would settle in the lower parts of the Ohio country, or on the Missouri. It is, indeed, conjectured, that the increase of steam-boats will soon occasion a competition, and a great fall in the freight; but, it is only after a great deduction taking place, that New Orleans need be compared with Baltimore, as the port for landing emigrants.

May 19.The steam-boat, Western Engineer and a number of keel-boats, descended the falls to-day, with a considerable body of troops, accompanied by a mineralogist, a botanist, a geographer, and a painter.[81]Theirobject is to explore the Missouri country, and to form a garrison at the mouth of Yellow Stone river, about 1800 miles up the Missouri river. Five other steam-boats, besides other craft, are expected to join the expedition. The Western Engineer has on the bow, a large sculpture of the head of a snake, through which the waste steam escapes; a device, independently of the general aspect of the equipment, that might be enough to strike terror amongst the savage tribes.

I shall conclude this, with mentioning two singular occurrences. The passage of a steam-boat from Pittsburg to Louisville, seven hundred miles in fifty hours; and the marriage of a girl in this place, at the age of eleven years and three months.

FOOTNOTES:[71]For a biographical sketch of Andrew Ellicott, see Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series, note 213.—Ed.[72]For the early history of Cincinnati, see Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series, note 166.—Ed.[73]i. e.Divination by the wand. This science may be fashionable, but unquestionably it must be a novelty, as the occult sciences, particularly that of divination, can only exist with the vulgar.—Flint.[74]Portsmouth Gazetteer, No. 4.—Flint.[75]These stories are found in the apocryphal chapters of the book of Daniel in the Old Testament; for Idol Bel, see chapter 14; for Susanna, see chapter 13.—Ed.[76]The “New Orleans,” built for Fulton and Livingston at Pittsburg in 1811, was the first steam-boat on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Having made a triumphant journey down to New Orleans, an object of wonder at every town on the way, she did not attempt to return, but ran between that city and Natchez until her destruction in 1814. The “Enterprise,” the fourth steam-boat on Western waters, after serving Jackson in his defense of New Orleans, made the first attempt to steam up the river, reaching Louisville in twenty-five days. But the water was high and she frequently found an easy course over inundated fields, so that it was reserved for the “Washington,” which made a like journey in 1817, to demonstrate the value of the steam-boat for Western commerce.—Ed.[77]Lorenzo Dow, a native of Coventry, Connecticut, began his work as a Methodist preacher in New York in 1779. He spent some years in Ireland, endeavoring to convert the Irish to Methodism; also in England, where he introduced camp-meetings, not without opposition from a large part of the English Methodists. Upon his return to America, he travelled from place to place, holding revivals. During his later life he was almost fanatical in his bitterness towards the Jesuits, and, as Flint implies, his zeal led him to make extravagant statements.—Ed.[78]For the Swiss settlement at Vevay, see Bradbury’sTravels, volume v of our series, note 164.—Ed.[79]For a brief account of Louisville, see Croghan’sJournals, volume i of our series, note 106.—Ed.[80]Jeffersonville, on the site of old Fort Steuben at the falls of the Ohio, was laid out in 1802 in accordance with a plan proposed by President Jefferson. It soon superseded the older neighboring town of Clarksville, upon the same tract of land.—Ed.[81]This was the expedition of Major Stephen H. Long. The object stated by Flint was abandoned, due to bad management of the military branch of the undertaking. While the party was wintering near the mouth of the Platte River, Long, returning to Washington, received new instructions from President Monroe, namely, to seek a pass through the Rocky Mountains south of the route of Lewis and Clark, and on the return journey to examine the source of Red River. Abandoning their steamer, “Western Engineer,” the party mounted horses, followed the south fork of the Platte to the base of the mountains, saw and named Long’s Peak, crossed over to the Arkansas, and ascended it to the Royal Gorge. There, despairing of success, they gave up the attempt and started home. The Union Pacific Railway now follows, in large measure, the route travelled by Long. In returning, he followed a stream which he supposed was the Red, but which proved to be a tributary of the Arkansas. For the journal of this expedition, see volumes xiv-xvii of our series.—Ed.

[71]For a biographical sketch of Andrew Ellicott, see Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series, note 213.—Ed.

[72]For the early history of Cincinnati, see Cuming’sTour, volume iv of our series, note 166.—Ed.

[73]i. e.Divination by the wand. This science may be fashionable, but unquestionably it must be a novelty, as the occult sciences, particularly that of divination, can only exist with the vulgar.—Flint.

[74]Portsmouth Gazetteer, No. 4.—Flint.

[75]These stories are found in the apocryphal chapters of the book of Daniel in the Old Testament; for Idol Bel, see chapter 14; for Susanna, see chapter 13.—Ed.

[76]The “New Orleans,” built for Fulton and Livingston at Pittsburg in 1811, was the first steam-boat on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Having made a triumphant journey down to New Orleans, an object of wonder at every town on the way, she did not attempt to return, but ran between that city and Natchez until her destruction in 1814. The “Enterprise,” the fourth steam-boat on Western waters, after serving Jackson in his defense of New Orleans, made the first attempt to steam up the river, reaching Louisville in twenty-five days. But the water was high and she frequently found an easy course over inundated fields, so that it was reserved for the “Washington,” which made a like journey in 1817, to demonstrate the value of the steam-boat for Western commerce.—Ed.

[77]Lorenzo Dow, a native of Coventry, Connecticut, began his work as a Methodist preacher in New York in 1779. He spent some years in Ireland, endeavoring to convert the Irish to Methodism; also in England, where he introduced camp-meetings, not without opposition from a large part of the English Methodists. Upon his return to America, he travelled from place to place, holding revivals. During his later life he was almost fanatical in his bitterness towards the Jesuits, and, as Flint implies, his zeal led him to make extravagant statements.—Ed.

[78]For the Swiss settlement at Vevay, see Bradbury’sTravels, volume v of our series, note 164.—Ed.

[79]For a brief account of Louisville, see Croghan’sJournals, volume i of our series, note 106.—Ed.

[80]Jeffersonville, on the site of old Fort Steuben at the falls of the Ohio, was laid out in 1802 in accordance with a plan proposed by President Jefferson. It soon superseded the older neighboring town of Clarksville, upon the same tract of land.—Ed.

[81]This was the expedition of Major Stephen H. Long. The object stated by Flint was abandoned, due to bad management of the military branch of the undertaking. While the party was wintering near the mouth of the Platte River, Long, returning to Washington, received new instructions from President Monroe, namely, to seek a pass through the Rocky Mountains south of the route of Lewis and Clark, and on the return journey to examine the source of Red River. Abandoning their steamer, “Western Engineer,” the party mounted horses, followed the south fork of the Platte to the base of the mountains, saw and named Long’s Peak, crossed over to the Arkansas, and ascended it to the Royal Gorge. There, despairing of success, they gave up the attempt and started home. The Union Pacific Railway now follows, in large measure, the route travelled by Long. In returning, he followed a stream which he supposed was the Red, but which proved to be a tributary of the Arkansas. For the journal of this expedition, see volumes xiv-xvii of our series.—Ed.

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