Description of the Ohio.—Navigation of that river.—Mr. S. Craft.—The object of his travels.—Remarks upon the State of Vermont.
The Ohio, formed by the union of the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers, appears to be rather a continuance of the former than the latter, which only happens obliquely at the conflux. The Ohio may be, at Pittsburgh, two hundred fathoms broad. The current of this immense and magnificent river inclines at first north west for about twenty miles, then bends gradually west south west. It follows that direction for about the space of five hundred miles; turns thence south west a hundred and sixty miles; then west two hundred and seventy-five; at length runs into the Mississippi in a southwesterly direction, in the latitude of 36 deg. 46 min. about eleven hundred miles from Pittsburgh, and nearly {69} the same distance from Orleans. This river runs so extremely serpentine, that in going down it, you appear following a track directly opposite to the one you mean to take. Its breadth varies from two hundred to a thousand fathoms. The islands that are met with in its current are very numerous. We counted upward of fifty in the space of three hundred and eighty miles. Some contain but a few acres, and others more than a thousand in length. Their banks are very low, and must be subject to inundations. These islands are a great impediment to the navigation in the summer. The sands that the river drives up form, at the head of some of them, a number of little shoals; and in this season of the year the channel is so narrow from the want of water, that the few boats, even of a middling size, that venture to go down, are frequently run aground, and it is with great difficulty that they are got afloat; notwithstanding which there is at all times a sufficiency of water for a skiff or a canoe. As these little boats are very light when they strike upon the sands, it is very easy to push them off into a deeper part. In consequence of this, it is only in the spring and autumn that the Ohio is navigable, at least as far as Limestone, about a hundred and twenty {70} miles from Pittsburgh. During those two seasons the water rises to such a height, that vessels of three hundred tons, piloted by men who are acquainted with the river, may go down in the greatest safety. The spring season begins at the end of February, and lasts three months; the autumn begins in October, and only lasts till the first of December. In the mean time these two epochs fall sooner or later, as the winter is more or less rainy, or the rivers are a shorter or a longer time thawing. Again, it so happens, that in the course of the summer heavy and incessant rains fall in the Alheghany Mountains, which suddenly swell the Ohio: at that time persons may go down it with the greatest safety; but such circumstances are not always to be depended on.
The banks of the Ohio are high and solid; its current is free from a thousand obstacles that render the navigation of the Mississippi difficult, and often dangerous, when they have not skilful conductors. On the Ohio persons may travel all night without the smallest danger; instead of which, on the Mississippi prudence requires them to stop every evening, at least from the mouth of the Ohio to Naches, a space of nearly seven hundred and fifty miles.
{71} The rapidity of the Ohio’s current is extreme in spring; at the same time in this season there is no necessity for rowing. The excessive swiftness it would give, by that means, to the boat would be more dangerous than useful, by turning it out of the current, and running it upon some island or other, where it might get entangled among a heap of dead trees that are half under water, and from which it would be very difficult to extricate them; for which reason they generally go with the current, which is always strong enough to advance with great celerity, and is always more rapid in the middle of the stream. The amazing rapidity of the Ohio has an influence on the shape of the boats that navigate upon it, and that shape is not calculated to accelerate their progress, but to stem the current of the stream. All the boats or barges, whether those in the Kentucky or Mississippi trade, or those which convey the families that go into the eastern or western states, are built in the same manner. They are of a square form, some longer than others; their sides are raised four feet and a half above the water; their length is from fifteen to fifty feet; the two extremities are square, upon one of which is a kind of awning, under which the passengers shelter themselves {72} when it rains. I was alone upon the banks of the Monongahela, when I perceived, at a distance, five or six of these barges, which were going down the river. I could not conceive what these great square boxes were, which, left to the stream, presented alternately their ends, sides, and even their angles. As they advanced, I heard a confused noise, but without distinguishing any thing, on account of their sides being so very high. However, on ascending the banks of the river, I perceived in these barges several families, carrying with them their horses, cows, poultry, waggons, ploughs, harness, beds, instruments of agriculture, in fine, every thing necessary to cultivate the land, and also for domestic use. These people were abandoning themselves to the mercy of the stream, without knowing the place where they should stop, to exercise their industry, and enjoy peaceably the fruit of their labour under one of the best governments that exists in the world.
I sojourned ten days at Pittsburgh, during which I several times saw the Chevalier Dubac, formerly an officer in the French service, who, obliged, on account of the revolution, to emigrate from France, at first went to settle at Scioto, but very soon after {73} changed his residence, and went to Pittsburgh, where he is now in trade. He has very correct ideas concerning the western country; he is also perfectly acquainted with the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi, having several times travelled over New Orleans, and gives, with all possible complaisance, to the few of his fellow-countrymen who go into that country, instructions to facilitate their journey, and prevent the accidents that might happen to them.
During my stay at Pittsburgh I formed a most particular acquaintance with my fellow-traveller Mr. Samuel Craft, an inhabitant of the state of Vermont, whom I met, for the first time, at Greensburgh. I learnt of him, among other things, that in this state, and those contiguous to it, the expences occasioned by clearing the land are always covered by the produce of pearl-ashes, extracted from the ashes of trees which they burn; and that there are even persons who undertake to clear it on the sole condition of having the pearl-ashes. This kind of economy, however, does not exist in the other parts of North America; for in all the parts of the east, from New York westward, the trees are burnt at a certain loss. It is true that the inhabitants of New England, which, properly speaking, comprehends all the {74} states east of New York, are acknowledged to be the most enterprising and industrious of all the Americans, especially those who understand domestic economy the best.
Mr. Craft then imparted to me the intent of his journey, which was to be convinced that what he had seen published upon the extraordinary salubrity and fertility of the banks of the river Yazous was correct, and in that case to acquire for himself and a few friends several acres of land, and to go and settle there with two or three families in his neighbourhood who were rather embarrassed. The motive for his emigration to so remote a country was founded, in the first place, on the length of the winters, which in the state of Vermont are as severe as in Canada, and which shackle the activity of its inhabitants more than one third of the year; and in the next place, upon the cheapness of the country’s produce: instead of which, in those parts watered by the river Yazous,[29] the temperature of the climate and the fertility of the soil are favourable to the cultivation of cotton, indigo, and tobacco, {75} the produce of which is a great deal more lucrative than that of the northern part of the United States, and the sale of which is assured by their exportation to New Orleans, where they can go and come by the river in less than a fortnight.