Fish and shells of the Ohio—Inhabitants on the Banks of the river—Agriculture—American Emigrant—Commercial Intelligence relative to that part of the United States.
The banks of the Ohio, although elevated from twenty to sixty feet, scarcely afford any strong substances from Pittsburgh; and except large detached stones of a greyish colour and very soft, that we observed in an extent of ten or twelve miles below Wheeling, the remainder part seems vegetable earth. A few miles before we reached Limestone we began to observe a bank of a chalky nature, the thickness of which being very considerable, left no room to doubt but what it must be of a great extent.
Two kinds of flint, roundish and of a middling size, furnished the bed of the Ohio abundantly, especially as we approached the isles, where they are accumulated {107} by the strength of the current; some of a darkish hue, break easily; others smaller, and in less quantities, are three parts white, and scarcely transparent.
In the Ohio, as well as in the Alleghany, Monongahela, and other rivers in the west, they find in abundance a species of Mulette which is from five to six inches in length. They do not eat it, but the mother-o’-pearl which is very thick in it, is used in making buttons. I have seen some at Lexinton which were as beautiful as those they make in Europe. This new species which I brought over with me, has been described by Mr. Bosc, under the name of the Unio Ohiotensis.
The Ohio abounds in fish of different kinds; the most common is the cat-fish, or silurus felis, which is generally caught with a line, and weighs sometimes a hundred pounds. The first fold of the upper fins of this fish are strong and pointed, similar to those of a perch, which he makes use of to kill others of a lesser size. He swims several inches under the one he wishes to attack, then rising rapidly, he pierces him several times in the belly; this we had an opportunity of observing twice in the course {108} of our navigation. This fish is also taken with a kind of spear.
Till the years 1796 and 1797 the banks of the Ohio were so little populated that they scarcely consisted of thirty families in the space of four hundred miles; but since that epoch a great number of emigrants have come from the mountainous parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and settled there; in consequence of which the plantations now are so increased, that they are not farther than two or three miles distant from each other, and when on the river we always had a view of some of them.
The inhabitants on the borders of the Ohio, employ the greatest part of their time in stag and bear hunting, for the sake of the skins, which they dispose of. The taste that they have contracted for this kind of life is prejudicial to the culture of their lands; besides they have scarcely any time to meliorate their new possessions, that usually consist of two or three hundred acres, of which not more than eight or ten are cleared. Nevertheless, the produce that they derive from them, with the milk of their cows, is sufficient for themselves and families, which are always very numerous. The houses that they inhabit {109} are built upon the borders of the river, generally in a pleasant situation, whence they enjoy the most delightful prospects; still their mode of building does not correspond with the beauties of the spot, being nothing but miserable log houses, without windows, and so small that two beds occupy the greatest part of them. Notwithstanding two men may erect and finish, in less than three days, one of these habitations, which, by their diminutive size and sorry appearance, seem rather to belong to a country where timber is very scarce, instead of a place that abounds with forests. The inhabitants on the borders of the Ohio do not hesitate to receive travellers who claim their hospitality; they give them a lodging, that is to say, they permit them to sleep upon the floor wrapped up in their rugs. They are accommodated with bread, Indian corn, dried ham, milk and butter, but seldom any thing else; at the same time the price of provisions is very moderate in this part of the United States, and all through the western country.
No attention is paid by the inhabitants to any thing else but the culture of Indian corn; and although it is brought to no great perfection, the soil being so full of roots, the stems are from ten to twelve feet {110} high, and produce from twenty to thirty-five hundred weight of corn per acre. For the three first years after the ground is cleared, the corn springs up too strong, and scatters before it ears, so that they cannot sow in it for four or five years after, when the ground is cleared of the stumps and roots that were left in at first. The Americans in the interior cultivate corn rather through speculation to send the flour to the sea-ports, than for their own consumption; as nine tenths of them eat no other bread but that made from Indian corn; they make loaves of it from eight to ten pounds, which they bake in ovens, or small cakes baked on a board before the fire. This bread is generally eaten hot, and is not very palatable to those who are not used to it.
The peach is the only fruit tree that they have as yet cultivated, which thrives so rapidly that it produces fruit after the second year.
The price of the best land on the borders of the Ohio did not exceed three piastres per acre; at the same time it is not so dear on the left bank in the States of Virginia and Kentucky, where the settlements are not looked upon as quite so good.
The two banks of the Ohio, properly speaking, not having been inhabited above eight or nine years, {111} nor the borders of the rivers that run into it, the Americans who are settled there, share but very feebly in the commerce that is carried on through the channel of the Mississippi. This commerce consists at present in hams and salted pork, brandies distilled from corn and peaches, butter, hemp, skins and various sorts of flour. They send again cattle to the Atlantic States. Tradespeople who supply themselves at Pittsburgh and Wheeling, and go up and down the river in a canoe, convey them haberdashery goods, and more especially tea and coffee, taking some of their produce in return.
More than half of those who inhabit the borders of the Ohio, are again the first inhabitants, or as they are called in the United States, the first settlers, a kind of men who cannot settle upon the soil that they have cleared, and who under pretence of finding a better land, a more wholesome country, a greater abundance of game, push forward, incline perpetually towards the most distant points of the American population, and go and settle in the neighbourhood of the savage nations, whom they brave even in their own country. Their ungenerous mode of treating them stirs up frequent broils, that brings on bloody wars, in which they generally fall victims; {112} rather on account of their being so few in number, than through defect of courage.
Prior to our arrival at Marietta, we met one of these settlers, an inhabitant of the environs of Wheeling, who accompanied us down the Ohio, and with whom we travelled for two days. Alone in a canoe from eighteen to twenty feet long, and from twelve to fifteen inches broad, he was going to survey the borders of the Missouri[36] for a hundred and fifty miles beyond its embouchure. The excellent quality of the land that is reckoned to be more fertile there than that on the borders of the Ohio, and which the Spanish government at that time ordered to be distributed gratis, the quantity of beavers, elks, and more especially bisons, were the motives that induced him to emigrate into this remote part of the country, whence after having determined on a suitable spot to settle there with his family, he was returning to fetch them from the borders of the Ohio, which obliged him to take a journey of fourteen or fifteen hundred {113} miles, his costume, like that of all the American sportsmen, consisted of a waistcoat with sleeves, a pair of pantaloons, and a large red and yellow worsted sash. A carabine, a tomahawk or little axe, which the Indians make use of to cut wood and to terminate the existence of their enemies, two beaver-snares, and a large knife suspended at his side, constituted his sporting dress. A rug comprised the whole of his luggage. Every evening he encamped on the banks of the river, where, after having made a fire, he passed the night; and whenever he conceived the place favourable for the chace, he remained in the woods for several days together, and with the produce of his sport, he gained the means of subsistence, and new ammunition with the skins of the animals that he had killed.
Such were the first inhabitants of Kentucky and Tennessea, of whom there are now remaining but very few. It was they who began to clear those fertile countries, and wrested them from the savages who ferociously disputed their right; it was they, in short, who made themselves masters of the possessions, after five or six years’ bloody war: but the long habit of a wandering and idle life has prevented their enjoying the fruit of their labours, and profiting by {114} the very price to which these lands have risen in so short a time. They have emigrated to more remote parts of the country, and formed new settlements. It will be the same with most of those who inhabit the borders of the Ohio. The same inclination that led them there will induce them to emigrate from it. To the latter will succeed fresh emigrants, coming also from the Atlantic states, who will desert their possessions to go in quest of a milder climate and a more fertile soil. The money that they will get for them will suffice to pay for their new acquisitions, the peaceful delight of which is assured by a numerous population. The last comers instead of log-houses, with which the present inhabitants are contented, will build wooden ones, clear a greater quantity of the land, and be as industrious and persevering in the melioration of their new possessions as the former were indolent in every thing, being so fond of hunting. To the culture of Indian corn they will add that of other grain, hemp, and tobacco; rich pasturages will nourish innumerable flocks, and an advantageous sale of all the country’s produce will be assured them through the channel of the Ohio.
The happy situation of this river entitles it to be looked upon as the centre of commercial activity between {115} the eastern and western states. By it the latter receive the manufactured goods which Europe, India, and the Caribbees supply the former; and it is the only open communication with the ocean, for the exportation of provisions from the immense and fertile part of the United States comprised between the Alleghany Mountains, the lakes, and the left banks of the Mississippi.
All these advantages, blended with the salubrity of the climate and the beauty of the landscapes, enlivened in the spring by a group of boats which the current whirls along with an astonishing rapidity, and the uncommon number of sailing vessels that from the bosom of this vast continent go directly to the Caribbees; all these advantages, I say, make me think that the banks of the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Louisville inclusively, will, in the course of twenty years, be the most populous and commercial part of the United States, and where I should settle in preference to any other.