Fortescue Cuming

“ To find myself suddenly in a deep, dark, narrow stagnate piece of water, surrounded closely by a forest of tall willows, poplars, and other demi aquatick trees, and not a sound to be heard, except the monotonous croakings of frogs, interrupted occasionally by the bull like roaring of an alligator—the closeness of the woods excluding every current of air, and hosts of musquitoes attacking one in every {284} quarter. ”

“ Ellis’s heights and the chain of hills running from thence to the eastward of Natchez terminate the view to the northward, while Loftus’s heights do the same to the southward. Extensive prospects occur so rarely in this country of forests, that when a traveller happens to meet with one, he feels wonderfully cheered, although he sees nothing but a horizon of woods, which, particularly when without their leaf, in the winter season, have a very sombre and gloomy appearance, a little inequality of horizon where a hill happens to bound the view, being the only variety ”

“ Half a mile lower down, the foundation of the cliff, formed apparently of potter’s blue clay, assumes the appearance of the buttresses of an ancient fortification, projecting to support the huge impending yellowish red cliff above, the base of the whole next the water being a heap of ruins in fantastick and various forms, perpetually tumbling from the cliff, which is beautifully streaked with horizontal lines, separating the different strata of sand and clay of which it is composed. ”

“ The Indians north of the Ohio, under the name of the Five Nations, and their dependants, had been gradually, but rapidly, forced back more and more remote from the country of their ancestors, by the irresistible and overswelling tide of population of Europeans and their descendants. They at last abandoned all the continent of America east of the great chain of the Allegheny mountains, to the enlightened intruders, and besides that natural barrier, they added an immense wilderness of nearly five hundred miles in breadth, west of those mountains, to the space which divided them ”

“ Cuming was what one may call a good traveller—he endured the inconveniences, annoyances, and vicissitudes of the road, especially in a new and rough country, with equanimity and philosophic patience, deliberately making the best of each day’s happenings, thus proving himself an experienced and agreeable man of the world. ”

“ Every house in Port Gibson is either a store, a tavern, or the workshop of a mechanick. There is a very mean gaol, and an equally bad court-house, though both are much in use, particularly the latter, as, like the United States in general, the people are fond of litigation. Gambling is carried [Pg 350] to the greatest excess, particularly horse racing, cards and betting—a wager always deciding every difference of opinion. On the whole, Port Gibson and its neighbourhood is {321} perhaps the most dissolute as well as the most thriving part of the territory. ”

“ All the tract of country from Pinckneyville to near Thompson’s creek, being watered by Bayau Sarah, or some of its tributary streams, is most generally known by the name of the Bayau Sarah settlements, and is part in the United States and part in the Spanish territory. It is esteemed as the finest soil, the best cultivated, and inhabited by the most wealthy settlers, of any part of the Mississippi territory or West Florida, but the land appeared to be liable to have its soil washed away, so as to lose it entirely in a few years after clearing it, on all the declivities. ”

“ Perhaps there is not on the earth a naturally richer country than the area of sixteen hundred square miles of which Lexington is the centre, yet there is a something wanting to please the eye of taste—a variety, like the fertile plains of the Milanese, contrasted with the neighbouring Alpine scenery, and studded with the noble lakes, and streaked with the meandering rivers of that delightful region, which has given such inimitable taste and execution to the pencils of so many eminent painters. ”

“ The garden is not large, but seems to have had every delicacy of fruit, vegetable, and flower, which this fine climate and luxurious soil produces. In short, Blennerhasset’s island is a most charming retreat for any man of fortune fond of retirement, and it is a situation perhaps not exceeded for beauty in the western world. ”

“ I may here observe that the banks of the Mississippi form a natural dam, barrier or levée, more or less broad, from fifty paces to three or four miles, behind which the land slopes to nearly the level of the bed of the river, so that in every summer flood, there is a general back inundation, on the subsiding of which, so much stagnant water remains, as to cause annual attacks of fever and ague, which accounts for the sallow complexion of the inhabitants of the banks. ”

“ We then continued ten miles over a very broken hilly country, with rich valleys, crossing a high ridge called Chesnut hills, from whence the western country is spread out under the view, like an immense forest, appearing flat from the height we were at, though it is in fact, as we found it, very hilly. We crossed the river Sewickly, a fine mill stream, by a bridge, ten miles from M’Ginnis’s, and eight miles further we arrived at Greensburgh, the capital of Westmoreland county, which we had entered at the eastern foot of Laurel hill. ”

“ Our landlord’s name was John Allen, a young man, who had lived here since his infancy twenty years.—On a late journey to Richmond he had married a young woman there, who sat at supper with us, but who seemed to wish to appear rather above the doing the honours of a tavern table. He had lately been chosen one of the members of the legislature for Mason county, and seemed fond of discussing politicks, but apparently more for the sake of information, than for insisting dogmatically, according to the prevailing mode, on any opinion of his own. ”

“ Much labour might be saved by machinery wrought either by horses, or by the water of the neighbouring creek; but in so new a country one must not expect to find the arts in perfection.
The proprietors of each furnace pay a yearly rent of from three to five hundred bushels of salt to the proprietors of the soil.
The valley in which the springs are is small, and surrounded by broken and rather barren hills, but producing wood enough to supply the furnaces with fuel constantly, if properly managed. ”

“ The situation is on the slope of a very high hill, and the whole country for some miles round, particularly towards the Mississippi, is nothing but a continuation of steep and broken hills, covered with forest timber, and an impenetrable cane brake, except in a few places, where some adventurous settler has found a small spot, not too steep for the plough, or where narrow paths of communication have been cut through the canes. ”

“ The tongue of land between the two rivers, is only from six to twenty miles wide in that whole distance, is all flat, and great part of it liable to inundation in great floods. There is a chain of hills along the whole western bank of the St. Francois, and in this chain, are the lead mines of St. Genevieve, immediately behind that settlement, which supply all the states and territories washed by the Ohio and the Mississippi, and all their tributary streams, with that useful metal. The St. Francois rarely exceeds one hundred yards in breadth, its current is gentle, and its navigation unimpeded. ”

“ Here again, Cuming meets with an area of settlement begun under the British rule of West Florida, and continued under Spanish authority, until a few years before his voyage. In Mississippi, he portrays to us the beginnings of plantation life—the large estates, with gangs of negroes; the hospitality, cultivation, and charm of the upper classes, jostled by the rude waifs and strays that the river traffic wafted to their landings. ”

“ There is no house for three miles from Stukey’s tavern, and from that to within a mile of New Lancaster, there are but two other settlements.—Then, on descending a low hill, and emerging from the woods into an extensive natural meadow on the western bank of the Hockhocking, that town presents itself suddenly to view, well situated on a rising ground on the opposite side of the river, and making a better appearance at that distance than it has on entering it. ”

“ These two hills, though five leagues in shore, are plainly discoverable six leagues before you get opposite to them, and as they are due south of Havannah, we began to look out for the city, and with our glasses soon discovered its lofty towers and white buildings, of which there appeared to be a great number; the strong castle and battery which guard the city were also in view. From the Havannah we steered eastward, with a view to see another hill called the Pan of Matanzas, from which we were to steer north. ”

“ At about two miles from Blue Licks we passed a tavern, a double log gaol and a court-house in a very solitary situation, dignified with the name of Nicholasville, it being the seat of the county courts of Nicholas county. In one spot on the road were two crows, two doves, four red birds, and four partridges, assembled as if in council. They all took wing at our approach except the partridges, which in this country are wonderfully abundant, and very tame. They will walk quietly to the side of the road and look at the passing traveller with innocent confidence. ”

“ At 6 o’clock on Monday, 20th July, we proceeded on our voyage, and three miles below Brown’s passed a point or rather a peninsula on the left, formed by a remarkable turn in the river, which takes a direction due east for two miles; its general course from Big Beaver to Baker’s island having been west, and from thence south. On the peninsula is a well cleared and beautifully situated farm, and there is a remarkable heap of loose rocks on the opposite shore, where a small creek falls into the Ohio, with a neat stone cottage at its mouth. ”

“ A fine road, through a more level country than we had came through last evening, brought us in two hours, eleven miles, to the hill above Frankfort, which from thence was seen to advantage, with Kentucky river flowing past it, through a deep and narrow valley, confined by steep and rather stony hills, which afford a variety, after the fine plains, luxuriant forests and rich farms, within twenty miles in every direction of Lexington. ”

“ The eye still keeping its circuit, looks over a fine level of three thousand acres, once intended as the scite of a town to be called Allegheny, to be the capital of the county, but the situation of Pittsburgh being very properly judged more convenient, it has eventually become the seat of justice of the county, and the most flourishing inland town in the United States. A chain of irregular hills, not so steep, but nearly as high as Coal hill, bounds this level, and completes the Panorama. ”

“ Wentz assured me that she was seldom gratified with a dish of fish; for though there are many poor people in the town and neighbourhood, who might make a good living by fishing, she says they are too lazy to do any thing more than will procure them some whiskey, in addition to a miserable subsistence, which a very little labour will suffice for in a country where work is so well paid for, and where the necessaries of life are so abundant and cheap. ”

“ With respect to the productions of the territory, cotton is the staple, and since the disappearance of specie it serves in lieu of money. The river bottom lands generally yield from eighteen hundred to two thousand pounds to the acre, the uplands about a thousand. Maize or Indian corn is produced on new land in the ratio of seventy or eighty bushels per acre, well attended. Horses, horned cattle, hogs and poultry might be raised in any quantity, yet cotton so entirely engrosses the planters, that they are obliged to Kentucky for their principal supply of horses and pork and bacon. ”

“ Springfield is a long straggling village, on a fine flat, sheltered on the north by a small chain of low but abrupt hills, and bounded on the south by the beautiful river Muskingum. The road or street is of clean gravel, and the [Pg 225] cabins are distinguished from those I had hitherto seen by their chimneys of brick, instead of stone or logs. There are some good brick houses building, and some taverns and some stores, which give it a thriving appearance. There is also a fine grist and saw mill at the falls of the Muskingum at the upper end of the town. ”

“ The pain of my foot having been much alleviated, by an application of bran and vinegar all night, the next morning after my arrival in Bedford, I walked out into the town, and having occasion to call at some tradesmen’s shops, and at another excellent tavern where the stage from the eastward stops, as that from the westward does at Fleming’s, I was much gratified with the civility and desire to please, which I observed throughout, which impressed me much in favour of the place, and the impression was heightened by another circumstance that forenoon. ”

“ The plan of Pittsburgh by being designed to suit both the rivers, is in consequence irregular. The ground plot is a triangle. Some of the streets run parallel to each river, until they meet at the point, and they again are intersected by others at right angles, meeting at acute angles in the centre. At one of those acute angles at a corner of Wood street, is the Episcopal church, an octagonal building of brick not yet finished, and nearly opposite on the other side of the same street is a Presbyterian meeting-house of brick also, well built, neat, and roomy. ”

“ The houses for publick worship are a German Lutheran, a German Calvinist, a Presbyterian, an Episcopalian, a Moravian, a Quaker, and a Roman Catholick church, amongst which the German Lutheran is the most conspicuous from its size and handsome spire: it has also an organ.—There is a strong jail built with stone, and a brick market house. What in my opinion does most honour to the town is its poor house, which is delightfully situated near Conestoga creek about a mile from the town on the right of the turnpike road towards Philadelphia. ”

“ A load of forty bushels which costs only two dollars, will keep two fires in a house a month, and in consequence, there are few houses, even amongst the poorest of the inhabitants, where at least two fires are not used—one for cooking, and another for the family to sit at. This great consumption of a coal abounding in sulphur, and its smoke condensing into a vast quantity of lampblack, gives the outside of the houses a dirty and disagreeable appearance—even more so than in the most populous towns of Great Britain, where a proportionably great quantity of coal is used ”

“ It is astonishing that in so fine and so improving a country more attention is not paid to the roads. A turnpike is projected from Pittsburgh to Harrisburgh, which I am clearly of opinion, might be kept in repair by a reasonable toll;—and then wagons with goods may travel between the two places in a third less time than they do now, and without the present great risks of breaking down, and the mails may be delivered at the post-offices one half sooner. ”

“ After three miles on the last reach the river turns gradually with a bend, to its general southerly direction, the bend being encircled by a low bank covered with tall cypresses, which keep the traveller in constant dread of falling on his boat, which in spite of his utmost exertion is forced by an irresistible current close into the bend. ”

“ I stopped at Knox’s inn, where I asked for some beer, not daring to drink wine or spirits. They had none, so I walked out to a small house where I had observed on a sign Beer and Cakes. On entering {212} I found Musgrave making a hearty meal on a cent roll and a pint of beer. He appeared as glad to see me again as if we had been old acquaintances, and had been long parted, and was easily prevailed on to make a second libation with me to the prosperous termination of our journies, in that humble, but wholesome and refreshing beverage. I then returned to Knox’s, where I supped and slept. ”

“ While, with heartfelt satisfaction, the valetudinarian, in the waters of this fountain, laves himself, the diseases of the breast—the pains of the head—the distresses of the side—and deafness, which prevents the ear from drinking in the rich melodies of musick, all shrink from the healing efficacy of the healthful element. Let those drink whom the gout torments, and those whom the distressing cough annoys, diseases, which yield not to the art or care of the physician, however learned. In drinking, they certain aid shall find. ”

“ Maysville is the greatest shipping port on the Ohio, below Pittsburgh, but it is merely such, not being a place of much business itself, but only serving as the principal port for the north eastern part of the state {149} of Kentucky, as Louisville does for the south western. It has not increased any for several years, and contains only about sixty houses. It is closely hemmed in by the river hills, over which the most direct road from Philadelphia through Pittsburgh and Chilicothe leads to Lexington, and thence through the state of Tennessee to New Orleans. ”

“ Looking upwards, a reach of five or six miles presents itself, and turning the eye to the left, Jeffersonville, a neat village of thirty houses, in Indiana, about a mile distant, is next seen. The eye still turning a little more to the left, next rests upon a high point where general Clark first encamped his little army, about thirty years ago, when he descended the river to make a campaign against the Indians, at which time Louisville, and almost the whole of Kentucky was a wilderness covered with forests. ”