BOONE'S FIRST VIEW OF KENTUCKY. "Here from the top of an eminence, Boone and his companions first beheld a distant view of the beautiful lands of Kentucky. The plains and forests abounded with wild beasts of every kind; deer and elk were common; the buffalo were seen in herds, and the plains covered with the richest verdure." "Fair was the scene that lay Before the little band, Field, stream and valley spread, With summer's beauty o'er them shed, Flowers of the fairest dyes, Trees clothed in richest green; Such was Kentucky then, With wild luxuriance blest; Where no invading hand had been, induced, by hope of a large reward, to go as his assistants. A day was appointed for starting. The young and old, from far and near, from love to Father Smiley, and their deep interest in the object of his mission, gathered together, and with their minister came down from the church, fifteen miles away to the bank of the river, to bid the old man farewell. Then a prayer was offered by their pastor. A parting hymn was sung. Then said the old man: "Untie the cable, and let us see what the Lord will do for us." This was done, and the boat floated slowly away. More than nine months passed, and no word came back from Father Smiley. Many a prayer had been breathed for him, but what had been his fate was unknown. Another Sabbath came. The people came together for worship, and there on his rude bench before the preacher sat Father Smiley. After the services, the people were requested to meet early in the week to hear the report. All came again. After thanks had been rendered to God for his safe return, Father Smiley arose and told his story. That the Lord had prospered his mission; that he had sold his flour for twenty-seven dollars per barrel, and then got safely back. He then drew a large purse, and poured upon the table a larger pile of gold than most of the spectators had ever seen before. Thus their debts were paid, their pastor relieved, and while life lasted, he broke for them the bread of life. The bones of both pastor and clder have long reposed in the same church-yard, but a grateful posterity still tell this pleasing story of the past. STRANGE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL PHENOMENA. ABOUT the commencement of the present century, the religious meetings of the West were attended by singular mental and physical phenomena, resembling somewhat, in some of their phases, the mesmeric phenomena of our day. They were not exclusively confined to any one denomination, or those who have been considered the most excitable and enthusiastic; for even the phlegmatic New England Presbyterians of the Reserve came under their influence. They, however, exhibited themselves with greater power at the earlier forest gatherings of the Methodists. On those occasions, the feelings and mental exercises were contagious, and often spread like an epidemic through a congregation, hundreds being involuntarily smitten down. They could not be accounted for by any known laws of our mental organization, and therefore were ascribed to a supernatural agency. A clerical writer classifies their different manifestations respectively as "the Falling," "the Jerking," "the Rolling," "the Dancing," and "the Barking" Exercises, together with "Visions and Trances." The last named was the most common affection. In this the subject was thrown into a state of ecstasy or mental revery, attended with the loss of all muscular power, and consciousness of external relations or objects, similar to a protracted catalepsy. Yet the mind appeared wholly absorbed in delightful contemplations, which often lighted up the countenance with a rapturous, angelic expression. This condition continued from a few hours to two days, during which there was an entire suspension of all the animal and voluntary functions. The most singular and alarming of those affections was "the Jerking Exercise," which, although common to both sexes, was more frequent in vigorous, athletic men. The first recorded instance of its occurrence was at a sacrament in East Tennessee, when several hundred of both sexes were seized with this strange and involuntary contortion. The subject was instantaneously seized with spasms or convulsions in every muscle, nerve and tendon. His head was thrown or jerked from side to side with such rapidity, that it was impossible to distinguish his visage, and the most lively fears were awakened lest he should dislocate his neck, or dash out his brains. His body partook of the same impulse, and was hurried on by like jerks over every obstacle-fallen trunks of trees, or, in a church, over pews and benches, apparently to the most imminent danger of being bruised and mangled. It was useless to attempt to hold or restrain him, and the paroxysm was permitted gradually to exhaust itself. An additional motive for leaving him to himself, was the superstitious notion that all attempt at restraint was resisting the spirit of God. The first form in which these spasmodic contortions made their appearance, was that of a simple jerking of the arms from the elbows downward. The jerk was very quick and sudden, and followed with short intervals. This was the simplest and most common form, but the convulsive motion was not confined to the arms; it extended in many instances to other parts of the body. When the joint of the neck was affected, the head was thrown backward and forward with a celerity frightful to behold, and which was impossible to be imitated by persons who were not under the same stimulus. The bosom heaved, the countenance was disgustingly distorted, and the spectators were alarmed lest the neck should be broken. When the hair was long, it was shaken with such quickness, backward and forward, as to crack and snap like the lash of a whip, so as to be frequently heard twenty feet. Sometimes the muscles of the back were affected, and the patient was thrown down on the ground, when his contortions for some time resembled those of a live fish cast from its native element on the land. From the universal testimony of those who have described these spasms, they appear to have been wholly involuntary. This remark is applicable also to all the other bodily exercises. What demonstrates satisfactorily their involuntary nature, is not only that, as above stated, the twitches prevailed in spite of resistance, and even more for attempts to suppress them, but that wicked men would be seized with them while sedulously guarding against an attack, and cursing every jerk when made. Travelers on their journey, and laborers at their daily work, were also liable to them. LIFE AMONG THE EARLY SETTLERS OF THE WEST. MORE than three centuries since (in 1541) the Spanish cavalier, De Soto, on a wild, romantic expedition in search of gems and precious metals, discovered the Mississippi-the mighty artery of the West. In the next century the adventurous French Jesuits founded missions on the great lakes of the North. One of their number, Father Marquette, in 1673, leaving their westernmost stations far behind, crossed the country through unknown nations and became the first white man whose eyes had ever rested upon the upper portion of the "great stream." Just one hundred and forty-one years after its discovery, A. D. 1682, the chivalric La Salle explored it to the sea, and with great pomp took possession of the country in the name of the French monarch. For three-quarters of a century thereafter, the Great West was claimed as part of the dominions of France: French fur traders penetrated to its remote regions, and French settlements and missions here and there arose in the western forests as points of civilization among savage wilds. The borderers of Virginia and the Carolinas, about the year 1756, first crossed the Alleghanies into what is now Southwestern Virginia and Tennessee. The smoke from the cabins of AngloSaxons then, for the first time, curled up in the western valleys. Their stay was brief. The impulsive Cherokees drove back the intruders, and the Anglo-Saxon remained on the eastern side of the mountains until the peace of 1763 removed all danger of French instigation. Then the same borderers, with others of Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania, again crossed the Alleghanies. In their respective routes they observed the general law of emigrants of the present day, of advancing westward on the same parallel of latitude with that of their nativity. Thus Tennessee was mainly settled by Carolinians; Kentucky by Virginians, Southern Pennsylvanians, and Marylanders; the central and southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois from the Middle States; while those from colder regions, found appropriate homes in the northern parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Each sought to secure a climate similar to that in which they had been bred-one adapted to the cultivation of those productions to which they had been accustomed. Thus the Tennesseean raises cotton, the staple of the mother State, Carolina; the Kentuckian grows the Virginian weed; and away in the far north |