Mr. Craft and I agreed to go together to Kentucky by the Ohio, preferring that way, although longer by a hundred and forty miles, to that by land, which is more expensive. However, as the season of the year being that when the waters are at the lowest, to gain time, and to avoid a considerable winding which the river makes on leaving Pittsburgh, we were advised to embark at Wheeling, a small town situated upon the Ohio, eighty miles lower down the river, but not so far by land.[30] On the 14th of July, in the evening, we set out on foot, and crossed the Monongahela at John’s Ferry, situated on the opposite bank, at the bottom of Coal-Hill, a very lofty mountain which borders the river to a vast {77} extent, insomuch that it conceals the view of all the houses at Pittsburgh built on the other side.

After having coasted along the borders of the Ohio about a mile and a half, we entered the wood, and went to sleep at an indifferent inn at Charter Creek, where there was but one bed destined for travellers: whenever it happens that several travellers meet together, the last that arrive sleep on the floor, wrapped in the rug which they always carry with them when they travel into the remote parts of the United States.

The following day we made upwards of twenty miles, and went to lodge with one Patterson. On this route the plantations are two or three miles distant from each other, and more numerous than in the interior of the country, which is a general observation of all travellers. The inhabitants of this part of Pennsylvania are precise in their behaviour, and very religious. We saw, in some places, churches isolated in the woods, and in others, pulpits placed beneath large oaks. Patterson holds a considerable and extensive farm, and a corn-mill built upon a small river. He sends his corn to New Orleans. The rivers and creeks are rather scarce in this part of Virginia, on which account they are obliged to {78} have recourse to mills which they turn by horses; but the flour that comes from them is consumed in the country, not being susceptible of entering into trade. Nobody has ever yet thought of constructing windmills, although there are on the top of several of the hills places sufficiently cleared, that offer favourable situations.

On the 16th of July we arrived at Wheeling, very much fatigued. We were on foot, and the heat was extreme. Our journey was rendered more difficult from the nature of the country, which is covered with hills very close together, to some of which we were almost half an hour before we could reach the summit. About six miles from Patterson’s we found the line of demarkation that separates Pennsylvania from Virginia, and cuts the road at right angles. This line is traced by the rubbish that is piled up on lofty eminences, consisting of all the large trees, in a breadth of forty feet. Twelve miles before our arrival at Wheeling we passed by Liberty Town, a small town consisting of about a hundred houses, built upon a hill.[31] The plantations are numerous in the environs, and the soil, although even, is extremely fertile. The produce of the lands vary: they produce from fifteen to twenty bushels of corn {79} per acre, when they are entirely cleared, and only twelve to fifteen when the clearing away is not complete, that is to say, when there are many stumps remaining; for in clearing they begin by cutting the trees within two feet of the ground, and after that dig up the stumps. It is proper to observe that the inhabitants give only one tillage, use no manure, and never let the soil lie idle. The value of this land is according to its quality. The best, in the proportion of twenty to twenty-five acres cleared, for a lot of two or three hundred, is not worth more than three or four piastres per acre. The taxes are from a half-penny to a penny per acre. The hands being very scarce, labour is dear, and by no means in proportion with the price of produce; the result of which is, that in all the middle and southern states, within fifty miles of the sea, each proprietor clears very little more than what he can cultivate with his family, or with the reciprocal aid of some of his neighbours. This is applied more particularly to the western country, where every individual may easily procure land, and is excited to labour by its incomparable fertility.

Within a mile and a half of West Liberty Town the road passes through a narrow valley about four miles long, the borders of which, elevated in {80} many places from twenty-five to thirty feet, present several beds of coal from five to six feet thick, growing horizontally. This substance is extremely common in all that part of Pennsylvania and Virginia; but as the country is nothing but one continued forest, and its population scarce, these mines are of no account. On the other hand, were they situated in the eastern states, where they burn, in the great towns, coals imported from England, their value would be great.

The trees that grow in this valley are very close together, and of large diameter, and their species more varied than in any country I had seen before.

Wheeling, situated on one of the lofty banks of the Ohio, has not been above twelve years in existence: it consists of about seventy houses, built of wood, which, as in all the new towns of the United States, are separated by an interval of several fathoms. This little town is bounded by a long hill, nearly two hundred fathoms high, the base of which is not more than two hundred fathoms from the river. In this space the houses are built, forming but one street, in the middle of which is the main road, which follows the windings of the river for a distance of more than two hundred miles. From fifteen to twenty large {81} shops, well stocked, supply the inhabitants twenty miles round with provisions. This little town also shares in the export trade that is carried on at Pittsburgh with the western country. Numbers of the merchants at Philadelphia prefer sending their goods there, although the journey is a day longer: but this trifling inconvenience is well compensated by the advantage gained in avoiding the long winding which the Ohio makes on leaving Pittsburgh, where the numerous shallows and the slow movement of the stream, in summer time, retard the navigation.

We passed the night at Wheeling with Captain Reymer, who keeps the sign of the Waggon, and takes in boarders at the rate of two piastres a-week. The accommodation, on the whole, is very comfortable, provisions in that part of the country being remarkably cheap. A dozen fowls could be bought for one piastre, and a hundred weight of flour was then only worth a piastre and a half.